Something Ventured

Real Is Mandatory

Real Is Mandatory “Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’.”  — Bob Dylan The venture markets are a-changin’ with investors and public markets demanding rational business models, visibility to profitable growth... Read more →

The 15 Year Tech Cycle: Boom in the Night Now?

"If you can see it, it isn't the revolution." -- Steve Jurvetson I wrote the following post in Nov, 2008. It demonstrated two things. 1) Tech and the stock market have a little dance they do...tech has roughly a 15... Read more →

The Key Israeli Story: StartUp Nation

Larger Post coming...without appreciating the context (yesterday's post), it is hard to fully grasp the origin nor significance of the tech renaissance that is taking place in Israel. One has to see it to fully appreciate it. Much like Boston... Read more →

Up Close & Personal with Middle East Conflict

Today was one of the most memorable days of my life. Things in the Middle East got very real today. We spent the entire day on copters flying South to Gaza with the Israeli Defense Force and then North to... Read more →

Stunning Day in Jerusalem...Day 1

Quite the first day…cultural day in Jerusalem (minus our guide saying “all schools have cancelled trips to Jerusalem given events this week…”). Landed at 8:30am and off to the races. We visited the Old City where we walked through the... Read more →

To Change the World, Start by Making Your Bed

As many of you may know, I am a commencement speach junkie. One of the stars of this year's batch is Admiral McRaven's talk at UoT. He is a navy seal, Commander of the United States Special Operations Command &... Read more →

Flow, Secret to Happiness

Those who know me well, know that I am a big fan of Mihaly (formerly UoC) and his work on Flow (TED Talk: Flow, Secret to Happiness). He has been on the forefront of work around positive psychology, researching "experts",... Read more →

Bitcoins: Full of Sound and Fury...

...signifying nothing. I published this about 7 weeks ago when pricing was around $1,000. With the Mt. Gox implosion, there has been a strong pull back in the market. Eventually, there will be a more defined need/place in the ecosystem... Read more →

From the Seeds of Despair Come Greatness

"I'm sorry, there's nothing more we can do." I was always envious and impressed with one of my former entrepreneurs, David Linn. After HBS, he managed to arrange to play professional soccer during the summer (Chicago Fire) and work at... Read more →

Millennials: Rightly Up-ending the Apple Cart

“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore While the Boomer's bemoan (wrongly) Millennial's lack of work ethic, narcissism... Read more →