IWNY

I attended Internet Week New York last week here in the city and it was an interesting array of seminars and forums.  Wanted to mention it because IWNY just posted videos of all the content...some great stuff in there.

SaaS Entrepreneur Lessons Learned

Great post by Dharmesh Shah over at OnStartups.com about the lessons he has learned through his recent $32 million VC funding by some top dogs, including Salesforce, Sequoia, and Google Ventures.  Great analysis of the SaaS world and how to focus on the development of a business in the space.

What Makes Startups Successful?

Everyone knows that most startups fail.  And yet some, like Color, raise $41 million and then get blown away by competition such as the new startup, Sonar, launched at this year's TechCrunch Disrupt.  So how do you determine if your idea is going to make it?

Thanks to Startup Genome for this research study.

Tech Bubble

A lot of discussion has been taking place on the current tech investment landscape and whether a bubble is forming.  I've seen a lot of arguments for and a lot of arguments against.

However, my answer is more moderate.  While I do agree that valuations are getting ridiculous for startups with little or no long-term market prospects or viability (go back and read that Color article), I also believe that there is significant opportunity in the market for great solutions to big problems and that there remain substantial businesses amid the startup fodder.

I believe that the key is sustainability and a strong value proposition.  Mark Suster discusses (brilliantly, I might add) the need to capture share of mind and find a sustainable value proposition.  Those that create more than a short-term virality (for a definition, see the presentation by Jonah Peretti of Buzzfeed) will be able to grow and survive.

Above all, I think the focus must be on reality and not hysteria.

Founder's Workbench

Goodwin Procter, a great law firm (through my experience as an investment banker), provides one of the greatest resources I've found on the web for startups.  Check out their Founder's Workbench to get advice, pertinent articles, legal documents, and checklists.

WriteMinds in Startup Competition!

So my buddy Will (I call him Bill; for some reason when he entered adulthood he felt Will was better) has posted several times on our project, WriteMinds.  It is basically a new cloud application that makes the process of writing on your computer better.  We launch beta in several weeks, then will seek to improve the product and add social networking, tracking and metrics, self-publishing, and other functionality to turn it into the premiere writing application on the web.  Cool stuff.

Anyway, we are entered into the MassChallenge competition to win recognition, money, and incubation.  We can use your help!  Go to this link to vote for WriteMinds LLC and read more about the application and what exactly it is that we are trying to accomplish.  Hope you like it!