Comments on: Casual writing, the new age of media. Good or bad?

By: Ryan Graves

Ryan Graves — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:32:56 +0000

@min viable – would love if you'd use a real name so that we could engage
offline (phone). I appreciate your insightful comments and conversation.

By: min viable

min viable — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:27:40 +0000

Absolutely–the personal might not even be entirely distinguishable from the professional, particularly at the earliest stages of a venture, when the entrepreneur embodies his endeavor–

(Thanks also for the blog's inaugural comment–provided impetus to double-check/re-integrate Disqus!)

By: Ryan Graves

Ryan Graves — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:32:56 +0000

@min viable – would love if you'd use a real name so that we could engage
offline (phone). I appreciate your insightful comments and conversation.

By: min viable

min viable — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:27:40 +0000

Absolutely–the personal might not even be entirely distinguishable from the professional, particularly at the earliest stages of a venture, when the entrepreneur embodies his endeavor–

(Thanks also for the blog's inaugural comment–provided impetus to double-check/re-do integration of Disqus!)

By: Ryan Graves

Ryan Graves — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:02:58 +0000

Not poor taste at all. I'm happy to read the post. This is a very
interesting topic. I think it all depends on the intention of the blog. If a
successful startup founder launched a blog to write haiku's is that going to
speak to his entrepreneurial style? Maybe not.

It is an interesting idea however, and I'll read both posts.
Cheers,
Ryan

By: min viable

min viable — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 02:22:53 +0000

Yesterday Venture Hacks asked--"True or False: The quality of a founder's writing is a leading indicator of the quality of his startup" [ http://twitter.com/venturehacks/status/6485394550 ]--that called to mind this post and these comments.

A follow-up question: What characteristics might distinguish the blogging of the type of founder likely to lead a quality startup?

I would propose simple/spare/authentic/short+sweet, per http://sharingwhenuncool.blogspot.com/2009/12/e... (I hope linking to my own blog post is not in poor taste; will readily remove!)

By: Steffan Antonas

Steffan Antonas — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:27:34 +0000

…that's why we blog. ;-)

By: Ryan Graves

Ryan Graves — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:21:40 +0000

If nothing else, I love this blog for the people that it brings me in
contact with…

By: Steffan Antonas

Steffan Antonas — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:57:33 +0000

I'm with you, Penelope and the rest on this: writing well on the web is about communicating with your own personal, authentic voice, and blogging teaches you to communicate well. The fact that people are getting good at it is definitely a good thing. That said, formal writing has its place and value – it's just a different skill and it doesn't add much value in the social sphere. You're approaching blogging the right way. If you start getting syndicated to the NYTimes tomorrow, then you should probably go a little more formal. Until then, carry on.

By: Ryan Graves

Ryan Graves — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:24:56 +0000

@evreeland - awesome point.

"They are worried that their ideas will be dismissed because they weren't written in a professional manner."
I love this because it couldn't be further from the truth. By keeping your writing simple you're probably going to be heard/read by more people and in turn they're going to want to read more in the future because they actually learned something. Fred Wilson is a phenom example of this on his blog AVC.com. He discusses complex topics of Venture Capital but does it in a fascinating and simple way.

Thanks for the comment man!