Good read- "Why I Stopped Angel Investing (And You Should Never Start)"

I'm not (currently) an angel investor, but this article Why I Stopped Angel Investing (And You Should Never Start) by Tucker Max is an interesting insight into mind of one.

Great Deck: "Wave Theory of Startups"

I read a lot of articles, posts and presentations.

This one caught my eye.

 "Wave Theory of Startups"


 

Wave Theory of Startups: Braving the funding, sales and hype cycles from Guy Turner

Which Types of Brand Communications Most Influence Purchase Decisions?

Marketing Charts Link: Which Types of Brand Communications Most Influence Purchase Decisions?

15 Types of Content That Will Drive You More Traffic

Need more traffic? Who doesn't, right?

Leaving aside the issue of targeting your key audiences, this article is a very good breakdown of all the different content types you should be evaluating...

15 Types of Content That Will Drive You More Traffic

Content type #1: Infographics
Content type #2: Meme
Content type #3: Videos
Content type #4: Guides
Content type #5: Book reviews
Content type #6: Opinion post (a.k.a. “Rant”)
Content type #7: Product reviews
Content type #8: How-to
Content type #9: Lists
Content type #10: Link pages
Content type #11: Ebook
Content type #12: Case Study
Content type #13: Podcast
Content type #14: Interview
Content type #15: Research and original data

Read the whole article for everything you need to know (almost!)

Startup City: The Urban Shift in Venture Capital and High Technology

This report seems to align with what I'm seeing here in DC.

Startup City: The Urban Shift in Venture Capital and High Technology - Martin Prosperity Institute

The key findings are as follows. 

Bay Area still on top: As a whole the San Francisco Bay Area — which includes greater San Francisco and Silicon Valley — accounted for more than 4 in 10 of all venture capital dollars invested across the entire United States. 

The city of San Francisco leads the way: San Francisco proper now attracts a larger volume of venture capital investment than Silicon Valley. East Coast Acela Corridor ranks 2nd: The Boston-New York-Washington corridor on the East Coast has emerged as the second major center for venture capital investment. 

New York City is a rising startup hub: Metro New York is now the nation’s third largest center for venture capital. Nearly 80 percent of the metro’s venture investment was invested in the city itself. 

College towns attracting venture capital too: College town tech hubs like Austin and Raleigh-Cary in the North Carolina Research Triangle have long been magnets for venture capital, but Boulder, Ann Arbor, and Lawrence, Kansas attract considerable venture capital on a per capita basis as well.  

Talent matters: Venture investment tracks the geography of talent, especially the percentage of adults who are college grads and the creative class. Eds and meds don’t matter for tech: While many states and cities have pinned their hopes on education and medical centers, our research finds little to no significant statistical associations between eds and meds employment and venture capital. 

Tolerance does matter: We find venture capital investment to be associated with several markers of the diversity of metros, including their shares of immigrants and gays.

Is DC becoming more of a technology and startup center?

Is DC becoming more of a technology and startup center? Seems to me that there is a a lot more activity than there used to be.

Washington area pops onto tech radar as alternative to Silicon Valley - Washington Post

“Silicon Valley is the hub of the tech industry. I would say you ignore it at your peril,” said Joe Payne, who sold Eloqua, his Tysons Corner-based software company, to Oracle last year.

But the Washington region is creating a selling point in stability and predictability. Take Tim Sullivan, who in 2004 was seeking West Coast investors for cybersecurity company Fidelis Security Systems. Venture capitalists in California insisted that he move there, but he declined and found East Coast investors for the company, which has since been sold to contracting giant General Dynamics.

Sullivan, who now heads a cybersecurity company with a Chantilly office, said he’s never had trouble finding qualified engineers in the Washington area, and he thought turnover would drive his costs higher on the West Coast. “If people feel like the venture’s not working out, they may not stick it out and they may look to the next hotter venture,” he said.

Here Are The Hottest Companies In Tech Right Now, According To Goldman Sachs

Here Are The Hottest Companies In Tech Right Now, According To Goldman Sachs - TechCrunch

I think we’ve established by now that what happens in Vegas actually never stays in Vegas. And, as you can see by the agenda obtained by TechCrunch that’s embedded below this post, the Goldman Sachs Private Internet Company Conference scheduled to take place in Sin City over the next two days is no exception.

The Goldman Sachs conference for private web firms is one of the most high-end and hush-hush events in the tech world. It’s essentially like the Hackers Conference or dinners at Sheryl Sandberg’s house or Fight Club, except for tech executives who are likely to soon go through an IPO or big M&A deal. If you’re on the invite list, you’re in pretty good company — and the first rule is that you don’t talk about it to others.

Harvard creates brain-to-brain interface, allows humans to control other animals with thoughts alone

In the exciting, but scary tech news category goes this little tid-bit...


Harvard creates brain-to-brain interface, allows humans to control other animals with thoughts alone

Researchers at Harvard University have created the first noninvasive brain-to-brain interface (BBI) between a human… and a rat. Simply by thinking the appropriate thought, the BBI allows the human to control the rat’s tail. This is one of the most important steps towards BBIs that allow for telepathic links between two or more humans — which is a good thing in the case of friends and family, but terrifying if you stop to think about the nefarious possibilities of a fascist dictatorship with mind control tech.

The One Article You Have to Read Today

OK, there may be more than one, but for my money this is it.


Content Plays Critical Role Throughout Tech-Buying Cycle, MarketingProfs

From the article:

When making a major technology or security solution purchase, information technology decision-makers (ITDMs) download an average of nine content assets throughout the buying cycle, according to a report by IDG.
ITDMs rely on various types of content as they advance through the buying cycle:

• Early in the purchase process, when determining business need and technical requirements, ITDMs rank content such as feature articles, technology news stories, how-to articles, and whitepapers as most important.

• Midway through the process, when ITDMs are evaluating products and selecting vendors, content such as reviews/recommendations and third-party research (e.g., IDC, Gartner) plays a more important role.

• In the latter part of the buying cycle, when ITDMs are focusing on getting internal buy-in and final approval, content such as assessment tools (e.g., ROI calculators), product demos, and demo literature becomes more important.