Silicon Valley, Startups, and Labor Pricing
4 min read
Looking back over the past twenty years here in Silicon Valley there have been some remarkable transformations in how knowledge worker labor has been priced....
Continue reading2016
Startups & Macro Markets
3 min read
I’ve had a number of folks ask me about the macro markets and if that should change their stance on angel investing or their startup. TL;DR: nope....
Continue reading2015
Why The Internet in Sub-Saharan Africa Sucks
3 min read
Mildly technical post about Internet performance in emerging markets....
Continue reading#HackGenY Keynote
14 min read
Keynote speech given to kick off Hack Generation Y on January 24, 2015...
Continue readingThe Things I Like
12 min read
One of the benefits of aging is that we get to discover the products that we really like; we’ve had the chance to try out lots of different things and so we can be sure of our preferences. Life brings lots of petty satisfactions from sleeping on your...
Continue reading2014
Android Makes Me Sad
10 min read
A few months ago I installed iOS8 on my iPhone 5. I was pretty unimpressed. The new OS, admittedly a beta build, was sluggish, crashed often, and didn’t have any really revolutionary new features that made using an iPhone better. I think one is allow...
Continue readingDear Foursquare: A Breakup Letter
3 min read
Oh, Foursquare. We’re breaking up. It’s not me. It’s you. I know this may come as something as a surprise; after all I’ve known you longer than I’ve known my wife and been with you more places. I’ve paid extravagant international data plans simply fo...
Continue readingDear Foursquare
3 min read
Oh, Foursquare....
Continue readingFour Typical Post-Product Mistakes
6 min read
> You’ve built a great product. You’ve got a couple customers okay, most of them are friends and/or free, a small but passionate team, and a product that demos well. Now you just need to turn it into a company!...
Continue readingHDMI 2.0, 4K@60fps, and UHD Content
3 min read
Current display technology, using HDMI 1.4, can only do 4K at 30fps. This has rather limited the adoption of 4K screens since there has been no way to get high frame rate content all the way to the display &8211; and of course there's no way to...
Continue reading2013
Life@FB: Last Day of Bootcamp
2 min read
9am, Facebook Headquarters: Cafe 18. My laptop is open next to a plate of kiwi and mango. It's Friday and my last day of "bootcamp" at Facebook. Every person in the engineering organization &8211; VP to fresh-outta-college &8211; has t...
Continue readingScience and Religion
6 min read
How do people come to believe a thing? They can believe a thing because of reason, or take something on faith....
Continue readingHow To Handle Recruiter Calls
6 min read
Unsolicited calls from a tech recruiter are one of the banes of existence of a technologist with a LinkedIn and/or GitHub profile that has been anything close to meaningfully filled out. Or a startup founder. Both sides get hammered with calls. And e...
Continue reading2012
An Overview of the Web
22 min read
Written as a Thanksgiving present for Kate Compton...
Continue readingOha.na Begins
1 min read
One month ago1, we started working on our newest idea, connecting extended families through sharing. We’re now proud to announce the name for our endeavor: Oha.na2....
Continue readingThird Time’s The Charm!
4 min read
As posted on the Gaston Labs Tumblr1:...
Continue readingFour Archetypes Startups Need To Succeed
8 min read
Much1 has2 been3 said4 about the classic "Hacker + Hustler" dynamic, but I think a lot of the discussion misses the subtly of what both bring to the table and some of the other critical archetypes that need to be filled in a successful star...
Continue reading21st Century Manufacturing
4 min read
Here's a bold bet for the century: manufacturing will return to the U.S....
Continue readingHacking a Business: From Project to Company (VIDEO)
1 min read
In this talk for StartupMonthly1&8216;s Demo Day I outline the analogies between hacking together software not the malicious sort! and hacking/founding companies....
Continue readingTerm Sheet Basics (VIDEO)
1 min read
In this video, I walk folks at Blackbox1 through my Guide to Stock & Options2 and the ins and outs of founder stock, options, term sheets, and more....
Continue readingGetting My Feet Wet Again…
2 min read
A funny thing happens to technical founders: as the company you built takes off and a proper Engineering Team develops, you find yourself doing less and less code. You need to spend your time managing the business, recruiting new talent, setting dire...
Continue reading2011
Build Your Product With Empathy For The User (VIDEO)
2 min read
This recorded talk comes courtesy The Founder Institute1, where I am a mentor....
Continue readingTEDxValenciaSt: Go Write Some Science Fiction! (VIDEO)
1 min read
A talk I gave at TEDxValenciaSt1 in 2011 on the importance of imagining the ideal freed from the constraints of knowing how you're going to build something!...
Continue reading6dot: Interview With Karina Pikhart & Peter Cantisani
1 min read
My interview with Karina Pikhart and Peter Cantisani about Karina's startup 6dot, which is making a new portable Braille labelling system....
Continue readingInterview with Dr. Jade Wang of NASA Ames
1 min read
Dr. Jade Wang of NASA Ames talks about The Game, her long, fascinating voyage to America from China as a child and her time here in Silicon Valley....
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