Darrell Silver!

New York City Demands More New Work City!

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 06:10:54 -0400

Tony, Peter and some of New York’s most dedicated freelancers, startups and small teams are building a thriving community, and it’s time to expand. Literally. New Work City started 18 months ago as a shared office for entrepreneurs, and has grown alongside New York’s tech scene ever since. Today they’re announcing an upgrade and new home in Tribeca. Personally, I’m ecstatic because I’ve been given the opportunity to personally contribute and help Perpetually at the same time.

New Work City 2.0 is already looking great. It’s a 5,000 square foot office space at 412 Broadway designed from the ground up for co-working. The lease has been signed and construction has begun. I’ve seen the raw space, I’ve seen the brick walls, I’ve seen the bay windows, I’ve seen the conference rooms. It’s awesome. Tony and Co. are putting their years of experience and connections to good use.

From Perpetually’s perspective, the deal is a great way to help the community that’s helped us grow, while also saving money. In exchange for a large percentage of the cash necessary to open the new space, I’ll own a few memberships until NWC has enough paying members to buy them back. Basically, Team Perpetually will pay $0 for rent — in Manhattan — for about a year.

New York City needs New Work City. While its success and growth prove the demand, NWC has only become a reality because of the vision and persistence of Tony, Peter and a cast of characters I love calling friends.

Demoing in front of 850 of our closest friends at NYTM was a...

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:47:00 -0400

Demoing in front of 850 of our closest friends at NYTM was a great time, and the response has been amazing! Thanks, everyone!

Awesome.

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:29:00 -0400

Awesome.

Traffic

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:09:57 -0400

Seth Godin’s Flipping The Funnel argues that your company shouldn’t be spending vast sums on advertising, but instead should “Turn your customers into salespeople.” Yeah, well — tell me more, obviously!

He writes,

Here’s a quick example. The chart at right compares Web traffic at Ford.com (which is supported by more than a hundred million dollars’ worth of advertising every year) with Squidoo.com, a brand new community-driven site. Squidoo is in blue.

It took a bit of research, but I found another way to look at this example. Squidoo is in blue:

Look Back (just this once)

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:01:00 -0400

I love talking with Kevin Prentiss — He spends as much time thinking about sales as I do thinking about software. I basically want to steal his brain and graft it onto my own.

ANYWAY, we both want to grow our companies more quickly, and we both sometimes think we haven’t achieved most anything just yet. But Kevin pointed out how myopic that perspective can be. While I grabbed a pen he quickly rattled off some startup milestones I’m all too quick to forget:

Had an Idea
Someone Cares
Built Team
Built Prototype
Built Product
Product Works!
Someone is Interested in Product
Someone is Using Your Product
Someone has Paid For Your Product
Team Can Sell Your Product
Multiple People Have Paid For Your Product
~~Predictable Sales~~

Oh, man, it’s been six months and boy do we have a long way to go (we’re nowhere near having predictable sales). I’m afraid to list out steps we have yet to reach: I’d never get back to work!

Prashant’s daughter made me the loveliest present ever!

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:48:00 -0500

Prashant’s daughter made me the loveliest present ever!

Stephen, Owen and twelve of our closest friends are just back...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:33:00 -0500

Stephen, Owen and twelve of our closest friends are just back from Les Arcs! As a side note, it was interesting how productive I was with Perpetually because of France’s lack of good internet access.

Me & family on the men’s downhill course in Whistler...

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Me & family on the men’s downhill course in Whistler over Christmas. Happy opening games!

Photo

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:21:50 -0500

Mapping a new feature for Perpetually.

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:14:00 -0500

Mapping a new feature for Perpetually.

Funding is Friction

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:13:00 -0500

David Rose occasionally shows up in my inbox by way of Columbia’s BVC mailing list. This week he hit a nerve:

The bottom line is that raising money from anyone, including both angels and VCs, is really, really tough. Since only the top 2% of companies looking for angel funding succeed in getting it, that means you have to be one of the top two deals out of a hundred who are looking for the same money…and many of the others have companies that are much further down the path than you are.

He’s looking at fund raising like it’s some sort of goal. Fund raising is a friction to your success. A necessary one, sometimes, but a friction nonetheless. Most technology startups can choose early on to spend time looking for seed money or build a prototype instead. Assuming you could achieve either, in one scenerio you’d end up with no business and some money, while in the other you’d have a tangible product and a hungry market vying to invest in its success.

The time and distraction of the fund raising process must be worth the benefits, right now, to your business. Outside investment is not an achievement or a prerequisite to success. It’s just one of several strategies that can help you out along the way.

Stephen got his green card approved!

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:15:00 -0500

Action Oriented Startups

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:35:00 -0500

Via Fred Wilson,

I believe that in startups, like venture investing, the cost of making a bad decision is not nearly as great as the benefit of making a good one. So I like action oriented leaders. …

If you are “action oriented” in your hiring, you’ll make more hires and more of them will not work out.

This feels exactly right for startups, and it’s one of the key advantages a company like ours has versus someone much larger. Every person we’ve hired for Perpetually jumped first into a small project that could be completed in about 10 hours. Most often it’s the tip of the iceberg for a much larger idea the candidate will focus on if they’re hired. Joining our team should be a smooth transition with few if any surprises. If the candidate is excited and curious, that’s a very good sign. If they can’t communicate or deliver, it gives us an opportunity to improve early on.

Hiring is a two-way street, and this quick-fail approach has proven to be an excellent way for candidates to learn about how we work and if they want to stay. We’ve definitely found great people, in less time, because of it. It’s exactly how I hope to find talented a front-end person as we start a new search this week.

Halloween Meme: Candy for Strangers The Mission: Give candy to...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:34:00 -0400

James!

Times Square

Peter!

Uptown 1 Train

42nd & 9th ave

Mark!

Stephen!

Halloween Meme: Candy for Strangers

The Mission: Give candy to strangers in exchange for a photo!

Via The WSJ: Andrew Toth has been working on his replica of a...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:25:00 -0400

Via The WSJ:

Andrew Toth has been working on his replica of a first-class Pan Am cabin for 20 years. He has a huge stockpile of original straws, cutlery and cups and reseals peanuts to match the original.

He sounds like an obsessed camp nutcase! I’m totally inspired!

A dollar bill signed by Michael Moore, from just after he...

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:30:00 -0400

A dollar bill signed by Michael Moore, from just after he interviewed a few of us over dinner a few months ago for his new movie, which just came out today. I was supposed to be paid $1 for the interview asked him to sign one of mine instead.

Almost forgot! I absolutely love this photo, and had to wait...

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:21:00 -0400

Almost forgot! I absolutely love this photo, and had to wait until his movie came out to put it up. I also got a dollar bill with Moore’s autograph.

I haven’t seen the movie, but the dinner was fun. Moore’s heart is typically in the right place, so I can’t wait to see what he’s come up with.

Perpetually Hiring!

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:23:00 -0400

We’ve got some awesome projects in the queue at Perpetually. If you’re into innovative uses for the browser, using the full DNS database for something altogether different, and know (or want to learn) Python, please contact me somehow!

Thanks!

We Won!

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:41:54 -0400

TechCrunch has labeled this year’s TechCrunch50 as, basically, the triumph of the dull. As one of the companies on stage, let me respond by saying, Thanks! It wasn’t clear we could do it, but we did! And your praise means everything.

Sarah Lacy writes,

I want to see huge audacious failures and huge gaudy wins.

This follows Arrington’s argument a couple weeks back that Twitter shouldn’t “turn on revenue” because it might prove bad for business.

We started Perpetually.com to be a real business. We have some serious challenges, and approximately none of them come from a lack of funding, competitive edge or market position. We’re going to make a lot of mistakes (hint: we’re making some right now), and we’re going to fix and learn from all of them. We’re going to innovate in increments and we’re going to stumble into huge blue oceans. But we’re never going to “swing for a fences” when rock-solid improvement will serve our customers and business best.

Jason & TechCrunch were nice enough to provide invites to all TC50 companies (“alumni”) from previous years. You know what *I* kept hearing backstage?

Where are they now?

Turnout was like twenty percent at best. Where did everyone go? After the headlines have gone, where does all that swinging for the fences leave you?

We’re running Perpetually.com as a long-term business exactly because we want to change the world. Our opportunities are so big that we’d be idiots to go for broke with every idea. Only someone with no options swings for the fences.

A few folks insisted I put up our presentation from...

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:44:00 -0400

A few folks insisted I put up our presentation from TechCrunch50. I remember getting up on stage in front of 1500 strangers, but somehow I’m now shy about posting this… not that shy, I guess.