THE DREAM IN ACTION

There is a new trend on the web and both startups and investors are taking note. Fred Wilson has called this trend, “taking the web offline”. Others call it the challenge of “local”. Companies like Loopt and Foursquare are taking this problem head on. As the only web nerd amongst my group of friends I love applications that are appealing to the non-techies (makes me feel normal). I really like the notion of using the web as a tool to improve life, not just keeping eyeballs and activity on the web, and I do think there’s serious lifestyle change and revenue potential in it. The key that makes this all possible is that the web is now mobile.

With the combination of smart phones with decent web browsers and the ability for developers to make applications on these machines, people can “check in”, connect with each other, and find reviews on the fly. I love seeing the Yelp stickers in bar windows because it tells me that the owners care what customers think and if that’s important to them than my experience at that venue is sure to be better. The web is moving away from just the office or home pc and moving into the actual establishment, into the venue, via our pockets. Because we now have the web in our pockets we can interact with a business via the web in real time.

Consider this: Prior to walking into my local pub, I “check in”, pub tender is monitoring Twitter or Foursquare, she see’s that I’m coming, she pours my drink without me even ordering it yet, it’s ready upon my arrival… yea I’d pay an extra couple bucks for that. Extreme example I know, but the information that venues can now access is awesome and will continue to increase. IMHO, they’ll definitely pay for it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how and when this transformation will really pick up speed and I’m going to write about it a bit over the next week or so. I think that local is already big and going to increase in importance. Companies like Everyblock who was recently acquired by MSNBC bring you hyper local news, and other services make exploring your city and meeting people close to you easier than ever before.

What location based applications are you using? Everytime your iPhone or BB asks, can we use your location, how often do you say yes?

What I’d like to see more of in Chicago is…

1) VC’s and Angels who blog – so that they communicate what is interesting to them and so that they are more accessible or even appear more accessible to the areas entrepreneurs.

2) An increase in the understanding that failure won’t kill you – in the Valley, as well as in NYC, people understand that successful businesses often come from trial and error. Here in Chicago, with the strong industrial goods trading culture, failure is BAD. We need to get over that.

3) Midwest cities need to stop fighting for control – none of you are as big as the hubs (SF & NYC) so work together so that you can pull resources to create a single, strong, job pool and start to create really solid companies.

Next week I’m speaking in Milwaukee about a startup that I started and how/why it failed. That’s my first step.

The reason why I’d like to see more of these 3 things is because from what I’ve seen through the people that I’ve talked to here in Chicago, there is absolutely no reason that Chicago shouldn’t have as strong of a startup culture as any other ecosystem outside the Valley (like NYC or Boulder). People always ask the question, “can you start a successful tech company or web company outside of Silicon Valley?”

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Fred Wilson recently posted about the value of sharing on the web, which he called extroversion. Fred, and I, are both fairly open with our identities on the web and by doing that we’re taking a bet that the value of sharing is larger than the small chance that some web stalker will do something stupid. Personally speaking, this bet has definitely paid off.

In the comments I expressed an interest in identifying some sort of non-cash currency that could help measure the value that we receive from sharing on the web. Whether it’s specifically via knowledge sharing or something more tangible I’ll have to work that out, but it is an idea that I’d like to continue to develop.

Then shortly after that conversation, Blagica recently asked a similar question on her posterous blog:

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A few days ago I read a post about document storage from Fred Wilson. His post talked about how his personal document saving practices have saved him on numerous occasions. This along with a few other horror stories I’ve heard recently cause me to purchase an external drive. He went on to talk about how although he’s been advised against saving everything from a legal protection stand point, he’s been helped more times than hurt by “over saving” documents.

Fred also goes on to say…

Here’s my thinking. If you are a bad person who does bad things to people, then by all means destroy the evidence before someone can get at it. But if you try to be a good person and do the right thing, then you should be saving the evidence so when someone tries to paint you as a bad person, you can pull out the email or document and wave it in their face and remind them who did what to whom.

Fred Wilson saves documents because he believes his good actions will help him in the future from bad attacks. The internet and more generally, digital history are increasing the ability and occurrence of ones history being brought into the limelight (for good or bad). Similarly, it is critical for a person to control or at least contribute what is out there about you, thus the importance of a blog and a controlled online presence. If you’re blogging about entrepreneurship for example, and your name is tagged on much of what you write, that picture that someone posted of you hammered a year ago might get buried in the search engines (not that it’s happened to me or anything), This is a perfect example of how contributing to what can be found about you is in a way controlling what can be found about you.

Individuals are beginning to realized during job searches or just Googling themselves that almost everyone has a digital history and something is going to be found out about you. Recently, my fiance had a creepy comment on her blog. I jumped on Google, searched on the guys username, and now I know where he lives, what he does, and could assess his threat level…I’m not worried, but it’s good to know right?

The sooner people accept that involuntary digital publicity is happening and take action toward embracing a public brand the sooner you’ll be able to control what is seen. That’s not to say that you can start a blog and not worry about your “cob webs” but it sure can’t hurt to put your best foot forward. A secondary result and probably more powerful than anything else is the realization that the internet and the ease of exposure will work as accountability for many.

Because you could snap that shot, post it to Facebook, and show the world, I’m not going to do it.

This realization will not happen over night but it will happen, and I truly believe as the level of accountability increases because of the internet and the ease of exposure increases the number of “bad deeds” will decrease. It’s very similar to how crime will drop in an area where the police force increases. Better chance of getting caught = less criminal behavior. The internet is the new sheriff in town.

Great interview with Fred Wilson by Nicole Simon for the pre LeWeb podcasts series.

Click here for the interview.

Image by Cia de Foto via FlickrWhen I worked at my consulting job in Chicago about 2 years ago I had a conversation with my boss about how Gen Y will affect the workforce and how our attitudes towards career will affect growing businesses. I’ve had my opinion about it for quite sometime but it is tough for a successful business owner to hear from a 20 something that they need to change their hiring strategy. The right thing to do is to ask “us” how we feel about certain issues, but the hard thing to do is listen.

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures was interviewed for BigThink a few months back and recently posted the interview on his blog. A topic that came up in the middle of the interview stuck out to me because Fred shared the exact advice I gave to that boss a couple years back.

Fred said:

“This generation is going to be a different kind of workforce than the ones businesses have known in the past.”
“This generation will be a lot less loyal. They will be interested in maximizing the value of their career vs. the value of stock of the company they work for, unless they own or control that stock.”

“This is a mercenary workforce.”

“This transition is already happening in tech industry. Software engineers are being poached similar to the way a film star would be offered a better contract to work for someone new.”

“That mindset about talent is what this generation is all about. They are going to be building their own personal brand, own personal career, and portfolio of what they can do, then they will put themselves out to the market to the highest bidder.”

If you aren’t in the Gen Y category you’re probably thinking, “Those spoiled brats with their entitlement issues!”, and you may be right… However, whether we are right or wrong in our thinking this is definitely the sentiment among us. The reason this is so important is because YOU HAVE TO ADAPT! It is absolutely critical for any company whether you are GE, Google, TechCrunch, or startup XYZ to know where the workforce is going and what your employees will want from you. Without them you will not have a business so the fact is, they are more important than even your customers.

Today was awesome. I had a productive day at work, I started early (about 6:50am), got to work on some video editing which was fun, got news about a potential stint in Paris, and left a hair before 5 (always nice). Then when I came home I realized that it was an awesome “social media day”. That may sound a little “douchy” but I’ll tell you, it was awesome.

For a blogger, at least for me, its all about quality and quantity. I want tons of people to come to my site, and I want big names to come to my site. Often times big names can mean tons of people, if they share. Plus, they’re big names for a reason…they’re awesome! Two of my favorite blogs are…

• Fred Wilson AVC.com
• Gary Vaynerchuk garyvaynerchuk.com

… and both of those bloggers came to my site today!

Fred Wilson’s blog is probably top of my must read list so having him read my stuff is quite an honor…he’s got a style that is second to none. He has over 150k readers of AVC.com and has grown that by simplifying the mysterious world of venture capital for the everyday entrepreneur and investor. He respects his readers and he understands community (he replies to almost every comment I make).

Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV is one of the largest personalities on the web. At the very least he’s the most energetic! He hosts a 20 min wine show 5 days a week and is the icon of personal branding. ActionsTalk will be having Gary V on next week so don’t miss it!

The list doesn’t stop there…

Blake Samic - co-founder of ActionsTalk and all around bro

Joe Budde – my college roommate from sophomore year that I haven’t talked to since (sorry Jbud1)

Dave Cohn – an ActionsTalk contributor and good friend who runs Spot.Us

Soren MacBeth – founder of StockTwits.com

Frank Gruber – founder of TECH Cocktail (I’m going Nov 6th in Chi) also SomewhatFrank

Gregory Ng – a social web brethren – check out Gregs new frozen food site FreezerBurns.com

So, in growing a blog its all about the community and the content. Celebrating the small victories like this one are important. They are what keep you writing and excited about you blog…so really those victories are what keep your blog awesome. Thanks to all the readers…without you I’d quit!

As I watched my Feedjit widget and keep a close eye on those who show up in MyBlogLog, I saw an significant increase in readers from outside the US. Which is awesome! I love when I got to the blog of someone who’s avatar shows up in MyBlogLog and their blog is in a different language. How cool is it that people are reading my blog in English even though it is their second language, answer = very!

So, in an effort to grow the global reach of Ryan A Graves.com (currently over 3k/month) I’ve added another widget to blog. I’m going to use the Google Translate widget to allow readers from all over the world read this blog. Currently, there is not a way to translate comments but I know Fred Wilson has made that feature request to the Disqus team. I would just like to thank anyone who has been reading this blog with English as a second language. I hope that the translate feature will help you enjoy even more. If you are one of those people I would love for you to leave a comment so that I can get in touch with you.

I love when new tools like this become popular and even the standard on the web. It just re-affirms that the time and effort we are all putting in to grow the web and help people develop a presence on it is not in vain. Obviously this is a great Google tool but these opportunities are out there for startups! Go out there and make a valuable tool!

This is the keynote at the Web2.0 Expo in New York this week given by Fred Wilson. It is extremely cumulative and shows super potential for NYC going forward. Fred – great work on this presentation and Jeremy great work on the slides!

This is a letter from A VC on TheFunded.com. TheFunded.com is traditionally a place that does not welcome VC’s, it is a sight for entrepreneurs to anonymously rank, comment, and bash (if necessary) VC’s and Angels.

This letter was written humbly and very well toward entrepreneurs just asking for good o’l fashion feedback on the “pitching” process. The letter was accepted very well and 3 entrepreneurs got back to the VC with great feedback. I think that many entrepreneurs just want to be respected before funded. They know that VC’s have money (something they need) but they also have the ability to hurt or encourage a startup founder.

Kudos to the VC’s like this one who know how to treat the starving entrepreneur well.I dont’ know exactly who the VC is that wrote this letter but by the writing style and ton I wouldn’t be suprised if THE VC was AVC (Fred Wilson @ AVC.com). Was it you Fred?



This entrepreneur gave some great feedback and really hits home my point that entrepreneurs was respect first, then funding.



This next comment explains the frustration of not getting a “look over” just because the contact was made cold vs. warm. I don’t have a real answer or suggestion for this other than good work for eventually getting a warm contact and this is just the nature of the beast.



This comment to the VC is awesome in that it is spoken from the heart and clearly portrays the frustration of a VC wasting an entrepreneurs time. “If you don’t know my idea, say so.” She also shows that if an idea has legs, the money will come after it. Get the right idea, have the passion, share the passion with people who have the same passion, and the funding will come.



All of these perspectives are super educational as it relates to VC. I have a great deal of respect for the VC who posted the original letter and whether it is Fred Wilson or not, more VC’s should take this humble approach. Entrepreneurs who want to be treated well will seek you out and it will no doubt increase your profit potential. Check out TheFunded.com for more.

Recently I’ve become some what of an evangelist for “most” thing tech. I find value in the technologies that I use (that’s why I use them) and I try and share that value with the people around me.

Blogs for example: My Dad was a journalism major and is a phenomenal writer and I’ve encouraged him to start writing more, possibly using a blog format. My Mother studies a ton and prepares a talk each week for the Bible study that she teaches, and that would be a great content to post/share on the web. My sister is, so far, the only non-techie that I’ve been able to convince to start a blog. She works for a PR firm in San Diego and finally started a blog. Although her blog currently has only one post, it is a very solid post and will benefit her in her professional and her personal development. My next project is to convince my girlfriend, who is an inner city kindergarten teacher, to set up a “class blog” where she can ‘feature’ :) the work of the kids in her class and write about some of her experiences. This could also be a great communication tool between her and the class parents! Not everyone needs a blog, I get it, but many people have a voice, and in today’s world why not share that voice?

The blog that inspired the name of this post is Gotham Gal. She is the wife of VC Fred Wilson of AVC.com and I stumbled upon her blog via his (I think it’s awesome that he links to hers!). This blog is the most normal blog I’ve ever seen! and that’s a compliment. It’s contents consist of 1 thing and 1 thing only, her thoughts, which actually covers almost everything. Gotham Gal discusses her vacations, her children, often times her cooking or a good recipe. Her most recent post was about how her family is a bunch of political junkies, but a post last week was the recipe to a cherished Feta Salad (it was good by the way), and before that, about why her family loves technology. Great work Gotham Gal!

People struggle with the idea of putting their lives on the web and being very public. Remember, you control what goes up. Write about what you feel comfortable sharing, nothing more, nothing less. Use a pseudo-name if that makes you more comfortable, their is nothing wrong with that at all! In the end I just hope that my efforts to evangelize cool technologies (in this case, blogs) is taken for what it is meant to be, helping. I get a ton out of regularly writing this blog and I think others can benefit from the practice as well. Let me know if you consider yourself a non-tech person and you have a blog. Or, if you consider yourself a tech evangelist to non-techies. I’d love to share and learn your “tech”niques.

Venture capital is all about finding the right combination of profit potential in a business and the correct individuals to take that business down the right road. There have been businesses out there with incredible profit potential and a phenomenal idea but the people in place either weren’t the right people or didn’t make the right decisions at the right time. You need both.

The way I see it, quality venture capital investments are made up of good financial analysis and great judgment of the people at the wheel. There are loads of people who can analyze the profit forecasts of a start-ups pitch. Loads of people can evaluate a current market and see the differentiating factors that a start-up holds onto so tightly during their “funding pitch”. Almost any experienced VC knows the right questions to ask in order to poke holes in a funding pitch and find out where the weak links of a start-ups team may be. But, we all know that profit forecasts on a start-ups funding pitch will probably not be accurate. It is possible that the forecasts will be hit but many times that $1 billion dollar potential market turns out to be $250 million or maybe just $50 million and there goes all those pretty numbers. Now it’s time to react. The critical, but often overlooked piece of the venture capital pie is the ability to evaluate the person or team giving that pitch. Many times the right entrepreneur can take a bad situation and turn it to gold. It is well known that a start-ups first idea will often evolve into a more sustainable/profitable venture and the success of that transition is completely dependent on the founders.

Today Fred Wilson wrote a post on the human aspects of venture capital. He discussed the ages of many of the most recent web start-ups and how in the end it really just comes down to having the correct skills to help a start-up grow up but not blow up. With start-up incubators like Y-Combinator or TechStars becoming more and more popular we will continue to see great innovative start-ups run by younger and younger entrepreneurs. Right now these are the people using these tools most and it makes sense for them (young people) to be the lead innovators in this space. Hopefully as these young people grow up we will find that the innovative spirit follows them. Then there will be a really powerful group of people who have the innovativeness ingrained into their personalities with plenty of experience to help them threw the challenges of starting, growing, and sustaining a business.

A few of the examples given in Union Square Ventures portfolio of young start-up founders/CEO’s are:

Tumblr’s founder/CEO David Karp is 21.

Disqus’ founder/CEO Daniel Ha is 22.

Etsy’s founder/CEO Rob Kalin is 28 and he recently turned over the reigns of the company to new CEO Maria Thomas.

Greg Yardley, the founder/CEO of Pinch Media is 29.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO and the initial creator of the service, is 31.

Return Path’s CEO, Matt Blumberg, is 37, but he’s been running the company since 1999, when he was 28 years old.

This is a quite impressive list of founders, especially given their age. If you’re a VC and age is a factor that is stopping you from investing in a certain start-up, open your eyes because great investment opportunities full of ‘profit potential’ and the ‘right people’ are passing you by.

This is my first of many blog post about venture capital and topics there within that my thoughts stumble upon. I hope that my journey of learning VC will be as exciting for you as I anticipate it will be for me.

The first resource that really attracted me on this journey was the blog of New York based VC, Fred Wilson. Fred is the managing partner of Union Square Ventures and a phenomenal blogger and VC.  His blog, like no other that I read in my week of researching VC blogs and other resources was simple enough to understand as a newbie, but detailed and informative enough for me to feel challenged.  The first three really informative posts were a series on Venture Fund Economics, titled: Venture Fund Economics, Gross and Net Returns, & When One Deal Returns the Fund. I highly recommend this series of posts to anyone.

What is really amazing and what I think caused this blog to stand out to me is Fred’s willingness to be very transparent with his fund. He discusses in detail the game plan and the assumptions that his plan took in getting Union Square Ventures started.

Although the fund raised $125M, the plan was $100M and all of the assumptions and expectations are clearly laid out here. This is a great start for anyone studying VC to see what the make up of a venture fund looks like. Everything from the term of the fund (length of investment for LP), the management fee percentages (the VCs take), avg. investment per venture/start-up, expectation of success of all investments, # of investments (how diverse the is the fund), rounds per investment based on success category, avg. return multiple, and avg. hold period (how long before an ‘exit’ or ‘liquidation event’).  These are some of the basics that venture capitalists consider in setting up a fund and evaluating what kinds of investments their funds can make.

What is not normal in the industry is to disclose this type of information as it relates to the VC’s personal fund. In this case Fred is willing to open up how they started and how they first laid out their game plan. I’m fairly certain that disclosing return #’s will still be a bit much but the more that VC bloggers are able and willing to open up to their communities the more knowledgeable and better off we will be as readers. Also, Fred’s willingness to respond to his readers puts him ahead of the rest. I commented 3 or 4 different times on these posts and I believe I got a response on almost every comment. His intense focus on his community makes being a reader of the blog an even more enjoyable experience.

Keep up the great work Fred (AVC.com). Also, I am learning, so if I miss spoke anywhere in this blog post please feel free to use the comments to make me aware of my mistake.