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VC Adventure

Seth Levine's VC Adventure

off-gridDecember 3

I just returned from a full weeks vacation "off-grid", by which I mean that I neither checked voicemail or email, took any work related calls, etc. I was reachable, but made it pretty clear that this was for emergencies only. No nightly checks of my email, no popping upstairs for a quick conference call, no calling into the office "just to check in".  Having zero willpower when it comes to this sort of thing I aided my quest to be off-line by leaving the laptop at home and turning off the data feed to my cell phone (I couldn't imagine resisting the temptation of taking a peek at the hundreds of emails that were piling up if I saw them sitting in my phone cue). Without these interruptions I let my mind run where it wanted to, quickly forgot about the 50 "urgent" things waiting for me upon my return and focused on relaxing and having fun with my family.

I don't know why I don't do this more often - it had been about 18 months since I spent any amount of time off-grid.  And while before the vacation I probably would have told you that I really didn't need to go to this extreme and that the time I had taken off earlier this year (but where I checked in daily, took probably 2 hours of calls per day and had one full day of meetings in the middle of my trip) was sufficient. With hindsight I realize that I was deluding myself. I needed the time away to clear my head and I was stupid to run so long without doing so.

I look around me at colleagues and friends and s

ManagementNovember 11

It's a VC cliche that great management trumps a great idea.  In this case there's a lot of truth to the cliche. Over the course of my venture career I've been exposed to all combinations of teams and ideas and am constantly reminded of not only the power of great teams, but also of the pitfalls of poor ones.  We've thought about this a lot at Foundry and have pushed each other hard on investing only in people we're ecstatic about as entrepreneurs (and resisting the temptation to "fix" management teams that are not A+ or fool ourselves into believing that an outstanding idea is more important than the people who implement it).  This last point is often missed on our industry - I think there's an incorrect belief that a mediocre team can push their way through a great idea. While certainly there are cases where a company manages to a great outcome with a sub-par team, my own experience has been unequivocal.  While I've had a handful of cases where - with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight - the idea we were pursuing was only fair but where a fantastic management team has managed to guide a company to a good outcome, I've had almost no cases where we've placed a company in the hands of sub-par managers and reached a happy ending (as I mention above there are some edge cases where mediocre teams manage to a happy place, but to me these are just lucky exceptions). 

It's tempting at times as a VC to get behind an idea you're really excited about with a team that you ta

Killer UINovember 11

One of the companies I work with is in need of some first class UI help. Ideally we'd like someone who has a great design aesthetic and who also can code that design in Ruby or PHP.  However for the moment we can use someone with the former talent (who can wire frame up their work which we can then get coded) since we're looking to get our basic prototype up and running. The company is based on Boulder, but the designer doesn't necessarily have to be local.  Email me directly if you're interested (or know someone who is).

GenerationsNovember 5

For me the greatest impact of Barak Obama's historic victory yesterday is the generational shift that it enables. I'm not talking about his generation, although there's clearly a passing of the baton from the 60's generation (people born in the 40's) to the 80's generation (people born in the 60's).

I'm talking about his kids (and your kids and my kids) generation.  About the millions of children who woke up this morning with real possibility - with the realization that there are truly no limitations on their ambitions. 

I'm talking about the son of my best friend - about as aryan looking as one can be - who now likes to wear white shirts because he thinks they make his skin look darker and who laments that his blond, straight hair isn't black and curly "like Barak's". Or my own daughter whose eyes light up when she talks about she and Barak Obama having the same skin color.

Barak Obama ran a campaign of hope and change.  But really it was a campaign of possibility.  For us. For our kids. For the world. Whatever your politics, I hope you'll stop to think about the amazing impact the events of the last 24 hours will have on generations of Americans who will follow us.

Sonos keeps getting betterNovember 2

If you've read this blog for a while you'll know that Sonos is one of my favorite all time inventions.  For those of you living in a closet, Sonos is a system that allows for wireless streaming of music throughout your home with the ability to separately control dozens of music "zones".  You can easily stream music from various online sources (or your own music library) and their controller makes it easy to create play-lists, cue up music and play different tunes in different parts of your house.  If you have ears, you should own one of these.

Last week Sonos announced a bunch of new features - free integration with Pandora (I was already paying for this - it my be the single best feature of the entire system), more internet radio options, integration with Last.fm and ... the ability to turn your iPhone into a Sonos controller (seriously cool).

Awesome!