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Tech Tuesday: Build It And They Will Come?
Albert Wenger – Sep 17, 2013
One of the lasting legacies of YCombinator will be that it empowered engineers as company founders without the need for someone with a business background. At USV we have backed several all engineering teams out of YC and otherwise. These [...] Read more
Defending Barrett Brown, Linking and Transparency
Albert Wenger – Sep 16, 2013
When I wrote that we need protest and change rather than more crypto many people accused me of being naive and/or not proposing concrete enough alternatives. Well here is one thing you can do immediately: donate money to Barrett Brown’s [...] Read more
Adding Value: The Big Picture (Advice from VCs)
Albert Wenger – Sep 12, 2013
Vinod Khosla said yesterday at Techcrunch Disrupt that one of the hardest things for entrepreneurs is to figure out whose advice to trust on what topic. That is spot on because as an entrepreneur you will get advice from just [...] Read more
Homeschool Wednesday: 9/11
Albert Wenger – Sep 11, 2013
One of the advantages of homeschooling is that it is easy to change the schedule to accommodate special events. On Monday morning we did just that. Jack Hidary, whose campaign for mayor of New York we have been supporting, was [...] Read more
Tech Tuesday: Cloud and Reliability
Albert Wenger – Sep 10, 2013
I have often said that Amazon has done more for startups than all of us early stage VCs combined. I really don’t see a startup anymore these days that is not getting going on either Amazon or sometimes Rackspace’s cloud [...] Read more
Protest Instead of More Crypto (Follow Up)
Albert Wenger – Sep 9, 2013
This is a short follow up to my Friday post which argued for protest over more crypto and received a lot of critical comments. Based on these here are my replies to the key questions / objections: 1. The most [...] Read more
Disagreeing with Bruce Schneier: More Crypto is Not the Answer
Albert Wenger – Sep 6, 2013
I am a big fan of what Bruce Schneier has written over the years including a recent piece on our Newfound Fear of Risk. But I disagree fundamentally with him on the implications of the latest disclosures around the NSA’s [...] Read more
Are Smartwatches Smart?
Albert Wenger – Sep 5, 2013
I don’t know yet what to make of Smartwatches. I have friends with a Pebble and when I ask them none of them give me a fully enthusiastic endorsement. That could just be the Pebble and the next set including [...] Read more
Homeschool Wednesday: Character
Albert Wenger – Sep 4, 2013
Earlier this year someone suggested that I read “How Children Succeed” by the aptly named Paul Tough. It is an excellent book that deals with the question of how to help influence the character of children and how in turn [...] Read more