Category: Apprentice VC

Amazon Redshift Spectrum – Run SQL queries directly against exabytes of data in Amazonn S3.

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

This is pretty amazing.

If you look at old tech decks of mine I always tell startups to start their data collection journey on day 1 or as soon as possible. I tell them to collect and shove it in S3 and keep it for later. The idea was a data person could extract and get it into a queryable format at some point but if you don’t collect the data you are missing out on your own history.

Meaning you may not know how to derive insights but best to keep the data.

Now look what AWS has done – you can literally just query S3.

Impressive.

Amazon Redshift Spectrum – Run SQL queries directly against exabytes of data in Amazonn S3.

Risk / Reward

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I love reading The Prof – his latest newsletter about being an employee versus becoming and entrepreneur is so good.

The world is so focused on “startup theatre” that we sometimes pretend that the only way is the startup way.

Yesterday we spent some time with the CEO of http://www.racer.com.sg/, will write more on this later, and it was amazing to hear about a good old fashioned engineering/production company. The tales of how he pulled it off prior to VC in Singapore and the current startup mania are a good lesson for all of us today.

You can’t just wake up and pull off being a founder – you have to really want it and in some sense you have to be the person that can’t do anything else. Such as being an employee for example.

The skills and attributes necessary to be an entrepreneur are celebrated in the media every day — vision, risk taking, grit. But few mention the skills needed to be a good employee. I possess almost none of them. People assume, because I’m an entrepreneur, I have extraordinary talents too big for a company. The truth, about 90+% of entrepreneurs, is we start companies, not because we’re so skilled, but because we don’t have the skills to be an effective employee. On a risk-adjusted basis, being an employee for a good/great firm is more rewarding than being an entrepreneur. Again, something not discussed in a media obsessed with “innovators.”

I also think that starting off as an employee on your way to crafting your own thing is a healthy exercise since you need to learn how to manage employees and have empathy for their situation.

The whole newsletter is worth a read :: http://info.l2inc.com/webmail/151121/104996388/7a0a33819a491918de32bf47da7bc199e8b95ac3e60ee053e4e332cd22074607

Board files to dissolve Singapore blockchain startup Otonomos amid lawsuits, public spat

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I missed this one :: https://medium.com/@Otonomos/update-dymon-asia-ventures-and-fenbushi-capital-let-singapore-company-collapse-by-denying-salary-dc4f41ea1843

Wondering where this will end …

—————-

Biggest drama in the Singapore startup scene for sure.

One thing I find fascinating is how crypto just isn’t prepared for the business world. How one person, right or wrong, can commandeer a crypto account is crazy to me. If one had a proper business banking account this wouldn’t happen as easily.

What’s also amazing is how ultimately the company and the employees suffer the most in these situations.

Board files to dissolve Singapore blockchain startup Otonomos amid lawsuits, public spat

Seed stage

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

There is always lots of ways to raise funds and lots of places one can raise from but I also think it’s important to choose wisely when you are at the start of growth and have a need for capital.

That being said – I love this Fred Wilson post :: http://avc.com/2018/01/a-low-volume-high-conviction-high-support-investor/

Low volume, high conviction, and high support.

Work goals…

I love how they describe themselves as “a low-volume, high-conviction, high-support investor.” That is who you want at your side when you are starting a business. There are a number of those types of firms out there, USV is one, Bonfire is another, and there are plenty more. But there are also plenty of the other variety; high volume, low conviction, can’t get them on the phone when you need them investors. So finding a high conviction investor to lead your seed or Srs A round is ideal and we have one more VC firm like that now.

Thinking about tools

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I take stock now and then on all the tools I use across phone and laptop to get work done. I should have done a better job of this over the years to see the evolution.

Laptop

  • MSFT Office (It will never go away)
  • Slack (years)
  • Google Docs/Drive
  • Safari, FF, Chrome
  • Mars Edit (new one to me but love it)
  • WordPress (years)
  • PasteBot (new to me)
  • Evernote (years)
  • Fantastical
  • Dropbox
  • Airtable (custom stuff for work)

Phone

  • MSFT Office
  • Slack
  • Google Docs/Drive
  • Safari – every once in a while I use Chrome
  • WordPress – wish there was Mars Edit for iOS
  • Evernote
  • Fantastical
  • Dropbox
  • Expensify (must have)
  • Airtable

I think that is all the core stuff.

Nice thing about all of these tools is they run from the cloud mostly so setting up on a new machine or phone is pretty simple and can work from anywhere.