Fred raised my attention to Mark Suster’s recent post Funding in a frothy market. Both posts are well worth the read, and make sure to go through Mark’s slides embedded below.
Tag: finance
Why folks get paid by the hour instead of by the job
A year back I had a good time reviewing the financial food chain and how it may affect one’s value system. In that riff I covered a broad range of income levels from minimum wage all the way up to Warren Buffet+ money. This morning I’ll explore why hourly pay dominates the job market, and review perceived limitations which shape today’s earnings structures.
What are the expected returns of venture fund X?
Estimation Theory’s relation to knowledge of Statistical Distributions
This story begins with a comment from sigmaalgebra, an anonymous mathematician and avc regular. I appreciated Sigma’s explanation of theory enough to reproduce it here, because the discussion gets to the heart of estimation theory and it’s relationship with knowledge about statistical distributions.
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.
What’s broken in our economy and how we may repair it
Early this morning I read a series of articles1 which expanded on my uneasy expectations of where the US economy is headed, and inspired me to consider what may be done to remedy the situation. The major themes of the posts can be broken down into a few significant areas. (more…)
You can’t have guns, butter, and tax cuts
“…the numbers just don’t add up”
David M. Walker, Comptroller of the US 1998-2008
US Federal Government Shutdown
Does wealth exist in a vacuum?
Minimum Viable Market
Speculating operating budgets for large museums, case study the MET
Reeling from the Recession Social Security is Down but not Out
My brother Ron and wife Michelle joined me for a delightful soup and sandwich at Panera bread. Social security was the topic my brother and I briefly debated over dinner. The social security system was devised to tax the active work force and provide minimal income to retired and disabled Americans. Ron mentioned that the funds are expected to last at least 35 years. I was under the impression that benefits would be strained much sooner, and decided to go directly to the source when we got home. A quick web search revealed the official 2010 trustee report to the public on the status of social security funds. The following is an excerpt which captures the immediacy of social security reform (stress mine) while painting a long duration outlook. (more…)