Good Morning, Vietnam

Yeah - that was one of my favorite movies of my youth - I've always loved Mork.  I guess that's part of the reason I moved to Boulder.  The title of this post is nonsensical - I just wrote what came to mind because this is going to be another of my "here's what I found interesting on the web this morning" posts.  I've got six for you today instead of five.  Going forward, these will be categorized as "Daily Reading" although of course you can search for magic words that you remember via my Lijit Search Wijit on the sidebar.

- Starting a High-Technology Startup : While it's not a terribly exciting title, it's a great article by Ben Casnocha for eJournal USA about starting a company.  I adore Ben and think he's an extraordinary young man.  It's an article.

- Angel Financing : Todd Vernon, the CEO of Lijit, nails how an angel financing works.  I get asked questions about angel financings all the time.  Todd's post is going to now be one of my standard "go read this" things.  If you are raising an angel financing, thinking about it, or just want one entrepreneurs very thorough view about it, here it is.

- Doing Business with the Semi-Permeable Corporation : Greg Cohn of Yahoo has a comprehensive post on his view of the challenges "of doing external relationship development in the current tech environment from inside the walls of a public company."  I've known Greg for a while, have great respect for him, and think he accomplishes this really well.  It's also a good counter article to all the snark going around the system about Yahoo right now.

- The Art Market's Stealth Correction : If you collect art like Amy and I do, you know that there has been massive value appreciation (inflation?) in a wide range of art, especially post-impressionism stuff.  Well - what goes up can go down and the Art Market might be more tightly linked to the Housing Market - just more quietly.  Pop?

- Publisher Spotlight: Go2Web2.0 : I am a shameless pimp promoter of my portfolio companies.  Lijit is one of my favorites (although I love all my children equally).  Lijit regularly profiles some of its publishers (taking a page from FeedBurner's playbook).  Orli Yakuel - who writes Go2Web2.0 has a good overview of why she likes (and uses) Lijit .  Yeah - I know - I snuck this one in - but hey - if you have a blog and don't yet use Lijit you can't get one of their cool stickers yet.  Try it.

- WallStrip: 5-7-08 Yahoo and Microsoft... the Postmortem : Apparently when you wander around the streets of NY, everyone you run into is an expert on tech M&A.  I like Julie Alexandria, but I sure miss Lindsey and Howard's walks around NY.

Good morning.

Yahoo! 404

Some great images are coming in already in response to my Request For Images For A Presentation post.  I couldn't resist putting this one up on the heals of the Microsoft / Yahoo! drama.

If you don't get it - well - I can't help you.  (Thanks Ray)

Request For Images For A Presentation

I'm giving a presentation at my MIT Sloan 20th Reunion on June 7th.  I'm part of the "Back to the Classroom" series and am giving a presentation titled Software Innovation - Do You Think The Last 20 Years Were Exciting?  The Next 20 Years Will Blow Your Mind .

The rest of the program includes several great MIT professors talking about the following:

• Prof. Roberto Rigobon The United States and the World's Recession
• Prof. Anjali Sastry Projects for change: Bringing management tools and ideas, collaboration, and learning-by-doing to the challenge of global health delivery for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDs, and other diseases in resource-poor settings
• Prof. JoAnne Yates , CrackBerrys: Exploring the Social Implications of Wireless Email Devices
• Prof. Drazen Prelec , Neuroeconomics

It should be a stimulating day.  As a result, I've started working on my presentation, a full month before I have to give it. 

For the opening, I'm going to do a rapid fire year by year walk through of software from 1988 to 2008.  I'm then going to roll forward to 2028. 

Thanks in advance for any help y'all can provide.  I'll put the presentation up on the web after I've given it.

Foundry Group Joins the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado

Today we announced that Foundry Group has joined the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado .  We've contributed 1% of our carried interest (the functional equivalent of 1% of our equity) to the Community Trust Endowed Fund of the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County .

When I co-founded the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO), we explained what we were trying to accomplish in the post titled Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado Encourages Early Stage Giving .  Fifteen months later, with the addition of Foundry Group, we now have 19 member companies .

To everyone that has supported and/or participated in EFCO, thank you!  If you are a founder or an employee of a Colorado-based company (or venture capital firm) that is interested in participating in EFCO, just drop me an email

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