Management Newsfeed Update

I’ve been on the board of the Bard Center at CU Denver for several years now. One of the things I enjoy the most about my work with the organization is our annual business plan competition (in fact it was through judging this competition that I first connected with the Bard Center).  Each year six finalists are selected to present to a panel of judges and $25k is awarded among the 6 finalists (in addition to prizes for 1st-6th place there are also cash awards for the top plans in specific categories (bio-science, non-profit, etc.).  The event will take place on June 11th at the Hyatt in downtown Denver (finalist presentations from 8:30 - 12:00 and the awards lunch from 12:00 - 1:30).

In addition to the usual fun, this year my partner Brad is the keynote speaker at the award luncheon. I’d encourage you to come if you are in Denver that day. In fact I have  a couple of extra seats left at my table, so email me directly if you’re interested.

The riskiest part of the spectrum has to date proved the most rewarding, and the greatest capital gains have been earned in companies which were started from scratch. Doriot, in a 1960 talk to the Chicago Society of Security Analysts,…

All of my personal iPhone iBrick experiences have been sad.  Denied credit, couldn’t get activated, couldn’t sync with Exchange, had to cut my fingernails.

I’m reconsidering my position as a result of Vista Perfection 2.0.

I’ve been bouncing around the world of video conferencing for a while.  The guys at Raindance - a company I was on the board of from 1997 - 2002 - knew this stuff cold (and what worked / didn’t work) as they were previously the founders of LinkVTC (one of the first video conferencing bridge service companies.)  One of the applications of the stuff Oblong (one of our new investments) is doing applies to video conferencing, and the little cameras on top of my computers occasionally get used.

While video conferencing is "ok" (and definitely 10x better today and at least 100x cheaper than it was a decade ago) it still sucks.  My reaction to the demo of Cisco’s On-State TelePresence Holographic Video Conferencing system was "bitching."  It’s pretty amazing to see it, even via online video. There are definitely some hacky aspects to it (as my partner Ryan points out, there is some sort of transparent screen being used), but it’s still incredible.

Another reason for airlines to be scared.

J.R. Simplot, the billionaire potato baron and the oldest American on the Forbes list, died this week at 99.

Mr. Simplot wasn?t a household name. But at a time when so much wealth is the product of financial engineering, his scrappy rise from the Idaho dirt is a tale to remember. He was known as ?Mr. [...]

Never go into venture capital if you want a peaceful life. Keep on financing concrete that doesn’t move, that doesn’t call you at 2am in the morning Of course this is true about entrepreneurship, even more so than venture capital….

The other day Hank Williams called for: all comment systems to provide a mechanism to clearly indicate to users what rights they have and what rights they are giving out when they write a comment So the Disqus team stepped…

A recent commenter suggested that I blog about the post-MBA experience I had when I got into the venture capital business. This is my version of the story and I’ll make it as brief as I can. There are several…

A few weeks ago, my friend Alan Shimel connected me with Jennifer Leggio.  Jennifer is the Director of Strategic Communications at Fortinet and an active blogger in - among other things - security and communication.  Alan suggested to Jennifer that she might be interested in the work we have been doing at the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

I remember the conversation fondly because I was sitting on the floor upstairs at Oblong’s office in LA while a bunch of people ran around downstairs looking at some cool stuff that Oblong was presenting to one of their customers.  Oblong had recently moved in to their new office and there was a noticeable lack of comfortable surfaces or devices to sit on (or in) upstairs.  The floor had to make do.  It was actually pretty clean and comfortable.

Jennifer asked a bunch of hard questions.  We had a great conversation.  I connected her with Lucy Sanders, the CEO of NCWIT, and they talked.  Jennifer got her mind around how to engage in the problem NCWIT is addressing and Women in IT - Be A Change Agent (Part One) is the post she wrote kicking off her thoughts and actions.

I appear to have said at least one memorable thing during our conversation:

“The most impactful people tend to be the doers in the organization. We can’t rely solely on entrepreneurs, who may have very little time, to make change happen. Anyone with a strong voice can be a role model. It’s easier to get started when you’re a leader but real change happens when you build momentum across a much broader spectrum.”

Jennifer riffed nicely on this and came up with a number of actionable things for doers to do which she enumerated in Women in IT - Be A Change Agent (Part One).

Jennifer - great stuff on many levels.

Advantage Capital said Thursday that it recently partnered with Pulaski Bank on an $18 million investment that enabled the construction and operation of the Hilton Garden Inn at NorthPark.