Tag: critical value

The wiggle in world economies plays a critical role in value estimation

Harsh economic conditions instruct our sense of value

After reading Mark Suster’s guest post on TechCrunch (here’s the same post on his blog), I was reminded about the necessity for economic fluctuations. If economic activity only went one way (grew or contracted smoothly) there would be no secondary effects to observe. In other words, we would never know if values (or valuations for companies) were relatively or absolutely reasonable. The variation of economic conditions plays a critical role in the estimator that continual informs our sense of value.

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In the Age of Apps Embrace Digital Refunds

The concept of a refund goes far back in the history of bartering. The concept is simple enough, make a trade you’re not satisfied with and you can count on a full or partial refund. Untested or novel products experience greater liquidity when packaged with a reliable refund. There are variations on the refund such as try before you buy, but they offer the same promise.

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Commuting Costs

This one’s free:

x+y = y+x

This one’s not:

  1. wake up a couple of hours earlier
  2. skip morning exercise
  3. race from car, to train or plane
  4. arrive at a hopefully fantastic company, doing work you love
  5. work late at said epic job
  6. long trip home, dequeueing planes, trains and automobiles
  7. say hi to spouse, wave at unconscious kids before passing out
  8. go to 1

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Joel’s Split, Early Equity Distribution

Joel Spolsky gives a strong case in favor of fairness for early startup equity distribution. Thanks to Fred Wilson for pointing out Joel’s answer. I pickup plenty of great startup advice from the AVC community, and on this particular post more than usual. I’ve extracted a few key points from Joel’s post below, but if you’re interested in startups I suggest you read his entire answer.

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