Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Early Second Life Investor Preso
Geez, I have no idea where this guy found our circa ~2001 investor preso from Linden Lab but he's got some awesome screenshots. We did the demo/presentation to potential investors from in-world. Further freaking them out :-)
"Second Life was just unfundable"
Good interview up from Inc. magazine with Philip Rosedale on history of Second Life. Here are some choice quotations:
In mid-1999, I came back to San Francisco and I started the office in Hayes Valley, on Linden Alley
>> HW: We were at 333 Linden St between a corset/fetish wear store and a semi-legal auto mechanic. The building had no heat and no air conditioning. It was perpetually uncomfortable. We did have a conveyor belt though. After we left, 333 Linden briefly became a male sex club. I didn't think this boded well for our company's legacy - I'm fairly certain the HP Garage never housed anonymous gay love.
Second Life was just unfundable. It was just the dumbest idea ever. Mitch Kapor [the founder of Lotus Development] was the only person who got it. Mitch invested in 2001 after I had invested about a million dollars of my own money. I think some of the early angel investors were largely investing in me
>> HW: We did pitches/conversations with most of the major VCs but all passed. At various points two firms had one partner who believed in us but couldn't win over the rest of their team. (side note: one of these partners actually left the firm shortly after, partially because he was so distraught that he couldn't fund Second Life). Philip had been an EIR at Accel, where Mitch also was a venture partner for a short while. And Accel still passed. People just didn't get what we were doing. But we knew it was something interesting, if only we could make it happen.
A nice piece - highly recommended for Second Life fans and just plain old entrepreneurs who have a dream.
In mid-1999, I came back to San Francisco and I started the office in Hayes Valley, on Linden Alley
>> HW: We were at 333 Linden St between a corset/fetish wear store and a semi-legal auto mechanic. The building had no heat and no air conditioning. It was perpetually uncomfortable. We did have a conveyor belt though. After we left, 333 Linden briefly became a male sex club. I didn't think this boded well for our company's legacy - I'm fairly certain the HP Garage never housed anonymous gay love.
Second Life was just unfundable. It was just the dumbest idea ever. Mitch Kapor [the founder of Lotus Development] was the only person who got it. Mitch invested in 2001 after I had invested about a million dollars of my own money. I think some of the early angel investors were largely investing in me
>> HW: We did pitches/conversations with most of the major VCs but all passed. At various points two firms had one partner who believed in us but couldn't win over the rest of their team. (side note: one of these partners actually left the firm shortly after, partially because he was so distraught that he couldn't fund Second Life). Philip had been an EIR at Accel, where Mitch also was a venture partner for a short while. And Accel still passed. People just didn't get what we were doing. But we knew it was something interesting, if only we could make it happen.
A nice piece - highly recommended for Second Life fans and just plain old entrepreneurs who have a dream.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
League of Okay Gentlemen
My periodic descent back into illustrated fiction continued this weekend with the HC collection Scarlet Traces. The premise is a fun one - it's Victorian England 10 years after War of the Worlds and the English have been able to harness Martian technology for advancement of society. But when bodies of young women start turning up drained of blood, all is not good in Her Majesty's realm.
Definitely some similarities to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the terrible movie but great comic also taking place in this era.
My verdict here? Nice art and a compelling premise but some cliche storytelling. Entertaining brief escapism but not enough to pull me back into the medium. Ends with a cliffhanger so we'll need to see if there's a sequel.
Definitely some similarities to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the terrible movie but great comic also taking place in this era.
My verdict here? Nice art and a compelling premise but some cliche storytelling. Entertaining brief escapism but not enough to pull me back into the medium. Ends with a cliffhanger so we'll need to see if there's a sequel.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
The Billion Dollar Prerequisite
Now that every VC firm is blogging, even those who don't hang out regularly on Sand Hill can get a pretty good idea of the mentality at top tier firms and the VC model. Lightspeed posted today on the four key items to emphasize when pitching your company. Smack dab first was:
1. Demonstrate you are addressing a Billion dollar plus market. This is the most important thing. If you can’t convince the VC you’re solving a problem in a huge market, you’re dead in the water. Big markets make big companies. Big markets can also hide mistakes. Do the bottoms up analysis. Talk to your assumptions.
For me this requirement/suggestion provokes two strong responses:
1. This is why many of my friends are self/angel funding despite access to venture backing -- they intentionally don't want to aim at a billion dollar market. There's an incredible amount of energy these days to put together smaller companies meant to own niche markets or carve a minor portion out of a large market. I'm increasingly seeing project ideas which are by design modeled to settle at high leverage ratios of employees:revenue -- the 15 person company with $42m in sales. There might be a $10 bill on the coffee table across the room but there's $8 of quarters in the couch cushions you're sitting on.
2. This is why you should be careful when taking venture funding. Well understood that the venture market is about home runs and leverage. The venture partner can only manage so many deals so given normal success rates, at any time one of these portfolio company needs to be really swinging for the fences. So they need to bet big. And you need to convince them you're betting big.
In some cases VCs will push entrepreneurs faster and further than they'd like in order to take this shot. You take venture money, you get told to deliver the hockey stick. And there's a limited amount of time to figure out if you're hockey stick-eligible, otherwise there's opportunity cost to spending time with the portfolio company. End result? In some cases incentives are misaligned. The entrepreneur doesn't have the investment risk spread like their VC. And in most cases, isn't as well-off personally either.
When I read about Moritz thinking that YouTube should have held on, and Draper ruing the Skype sale, incentive misalignment definitely raises its head.
1. Demonstrate you are addressing a Billion dollar plus market. This is the most important thing. If you can’t convince the VC you’re solving a problem in a huge market, you’re dead in the water. Big markets make big companies. Big markets can also hide mistakes. Do the bottoms up analysis. Talk to your assumptions.
For me this requirement/suggestion provokes two strong responses:
1. This is why many of my friends are self/angel funding despite access to venture backing -- they intentionally don't want to aim at a billion dollar market. There's an incredible amount of energy these days to put together smaller companies meant to own niche markets or carve a minor portion out of a large market. I'm increasingly seeing project ideas which are by design modeled to settle at high leverage ratios of employees:revenue -- the 15 person company with $42m in sales. There might be a $10 bill on the coffee table across the room but there's $8 of quarters in the couch cushions you're sitting on.
2. This is why you should be careful when taking venture funding. Well understood that the venture market is about home runs and leverage. The venture partner can only manage so many deals so given normal success rates, at any time one of these portfolio company needs to be really swinging for the fences. So they need to bet big. And you need to convince them you're betting big.
In some cases VCs will push entrepreneurs faster and further than they'd like in order to take this shot. You take venture money, you get told to deliver the hockey stick. And there's a limited amount of time to figure out if you're hockey stick-eligible, otherwise there's opportunity cost to spending time with the portfolio company. End result? In some cases incentives are misaligned. The entrepreneur doesn't have the investment risk spread like their VC. And in most cases, isn't as well-off personally either.
When I read about Moritz thinking that YouTube should have held on, and Draper ruing the Skype sale, incentive misalignment definitely raises its head.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Google Gear: Farewell Charlie
My wife teases me frequently about the amount of Google clothing I've accumulated. I defend these shirts, hats, fleeces, etc with the plea "But each has a story."Story 1: "Charlie Has Left the Building"
This shirt was from spring 2005 when original Google chef Charlie Ayers departed to start his own restaurant. Charlie was an awesome spirit who ran our cafe with care and some quirks. Some unofficial rules we lived by:
1. Don't take two desserts - Charlie will find you.
2. Don't waste food - Charlie is watching.
3. If you don't bus your tray Charlie will take them away from all of us.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Graphic novelty
My holiday lunch with the Marvel comics EIC perked my interest in seeing what was going on in his world. I'd been keeping a list of comic trade paperbacks recommended by Entertainment Weekly and with a $25 credit from my Amazon Visa card, picked out a few from the last 5+ years.
Yesterday it was the first five issues of 100 Bullets. Apparently noir became hot and this one is supposedly leading the genre since its debut in 1999. A mysterious man offers you a suitcase w/ a gun, 100 untraceable bullets and evidence re: someone who has wronged you. Do you extract revenge or not?
While the fundamental premise is good if not a little adolescent empowerment wet dream, the story falls way short. The writing is cliche and without much feeling. And the art doesn't grab you. Not a solid re-introduction to the world of more sophisticated and edgy comics.
I've still got Scarlet Traces and Batman: Dark Victory to try.
Yesterday it was the first five issues of 100 Bullets. Apparently noir became hot and this one is supposedly leading the genre since its debut in 1999. A mysterious man offers you a suitcase w/ a gun, 100 untraceable bullets and evidence re: someone who has wronged you. Do you extract revenge or not?
While the fundamental premise is good if not a little adolescent empowerment wet dream, the story falls way short. The writing is cliche and without much feeling. And the art doesn't grab you. Not a solid re-introduction to the world of more sophisticated and edgy comics.
I've still got Scarlet Traces and Batman: Dark Victory to try.
Friday, January 19, 2007
AOL gets a Second Life
AOL recently announced plans to open a Second Life presence. Interesting culmination of their interest - a dude from their corp dev group was one of the first people to approach us after our debut at DEMO in 2002. Just an exploratory conversation - we were heads down on building Second Life and they, like lots of folks, probably thought we were crazy.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Jessica Hagy you rock!I
Indexed is a site where Jessica Hagy shares little gantt charts, graphs and other subversive smiles.
For example:
For example:
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Bi-polar eligible for car pool lane?
Driving today we saw a jeep w/ a literary quote on its rear tire cover. Don't recall the exact passage but it was from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and dealt with the fact that w/in each man there's a light side and a dark side fighting for control.
That's great - can you imagine there's someone for whom this idea is so powerful that he wants to put it on his car for all to see? Exactly the type of guy you want to encounter in a road rage incident, eh?
And i thought the Calvin praying to Jesus stickers weirded me out....
That's great - can you imagine there's someone for whom this idea is so powerful that he wants to put it on his car for all to see? Exactly the type of guy you want to encounter in a road rage incident, eh?
And i thought the Calvin praying to Jesus stickers weirded me out....
Saturday, January 13, 2007
CE-yes
There's one rule for traveling to Las Vegas - stay less than 48 hrs. Beyond that threshold you catch a cold, lose your money and end up with nothing very good. Keeping that in mind I traveled to Sin City for CES earlier this week but made sure to keep the trip short.
Highlight of the visit was Les Moonves' keynote where both Chad Hurley and Philip Rosedale joined the CBS CEO on stage to talk about their work with YouTube and Second Life. Love it when my worlds run together. There was much standard corporate speak in the keynote but give Les some credit - he featured two YouTube videos poking fun at the crown jewels - CSI and his wife the Chenbot.
After the keynote Google hosted a small cocktail affair where I was able to bring together some of my favorite people for a little chatter. Gibu Thomas from Sharpcast (who had a booth!) and Michael Quigley from Turner represented our class from Stanford. David Hornik jumped around for a bit before taking his overscheduled self to an event where he apparently met Jennifer Beals. Philip Rosedale stopped by and was quickly swarmed by various friends and flacks. Jesse Marmon, fellower Googler and fiancee to a good friend of mine, graced us too.
Done being social, the Google and YouTube crowd retired to the Social House for some good natured mingling. Highlight of the trip for me was spending time w/ my fantastic new colleagues from YouTube.
That and the Technology Emmy's (where I sit on the Advanced Technology Committee of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences).
Highlight of the visit was Les Moonves' keynote where both Chad Hurley and Philip Rosedale joined the CBS CEO on stage to talk about their work with YouTube and Second Life. Love it when my worlds run together. There was much standard corporate speak in the keynote but give Les some credit - he featured two YouTube videos poking fun at the crown jewels - CSI and his wife the Chenbot.
After the keynote Google hosted a small cocktail affair where I was able to bring together some of my favorite people for a little chatter. Gibu Thomas from Sharpcast (who had a booth!) and Michael Quigley from Turner represented our class from Stanford. David Hornik jumped around for a bit before taking his overscheduled self to an event where he apparently met Jennifer Beals. Philip Rosedale stopped by and was quickly swarmed by various friends and flacks. Jesse Marmon, fellower Googler and fiancee to a good friend of mine, graced us too.
Done being social, the Google and YouTube crowd retired to the Social House for some good natured mingling. Highlight of the trip for me was spending time w/ my fantastic new colleagues from YouTube.
That and the Technology Emmy's (where I sit on the Advanced Technology Committee of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences).
Thursday, January 11, 2007
My first $1000
Like a cold virus, blog memes seem to be all the rage these days. Auren Hoffman just tagged me with his "My First $1000" question. Auren used smarts to get his -- I used my looks.
Steady income in my teenage years came first from babysitting and then from working in a kid's bookstore. The babysitting was particularly easy - there aren't that many guys in that line of work, so you're in demand for every parent with boys. Basically I cleared some good dollars for doing nothing more than playing video games and ensuring they scampered off to bed when the car pulled into the driveway.
But my first $1,000 payday came from a less traditional source, a neighbor who was a part-time filmmaker, part-time funnel cake maker (you know at those country fairs). My tale revolves around not fried dough but a mischievous looking face.
He was filming a training video for an insurance company. It involved a flashback where two different insurance salesmen remembered their childhood. One made real lemonade and charged a fair price. The other used powdered mix, lied that it was fresh and undercut the price of the other kid. I'm assuming the insurance company was telling their salespeople to be like the noble child. But I played the scoundrel. And got paid something like $1200 for the two days of work. No SAG card though.
Steady income in my teenage years came first from babysitting and then from working in a kid's bookstore. The babysitting was particularly easy - there aren't that many guys in that line of work, so you're in demand for every parent with boys. Basically I cleared some good dollars for doing nothing more than playing video games and ensuring they scampered off to bed when the car pulled into the driveway.
But my first $1,000 payday came from a less traditional source, a neighbor who was a part-time filmmaker, part-time funnel cake maker (you know at those country fairs). My tale revolves around not fried dough but a mischievous looking face.
He was filming a training video for an insurance company. It involved a flashback where two different insurance salesmen remembered their childhood. One made real lemonade and charged a fair price. The other used powdered mix, lied that it was fresh and undercut the price of the other kid. I'm assuming the insurance company was telling their salespeople to be like the noble child. But I played the scoundrel. And got paid something like $1200 for the two days of work. No SAG card though.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
On TV this Sunday
I'm expecting to be featured somewhere in the background and bumpers of a local Bay Area show called Get the Real Deal (Sunday, SF CBS affiliate, 5pm). They did a feature on money-saving entertaining/food prep tips and we were the guests for a dinner party interview they did with our friends at SF Culinary Adventures.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Eddie Van Halen, Inventor
The magic of Google Patent Search -- did you know the Eddie Van Halen patented a guitar peghead? I heard he used to perform with his back to the audience so rival musicians couldn't study his finger motions.
(hat tip Waxy.org)
(hat tip Waxy.org)
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Princess, Saint, Soulman, President, Dictator
One of the more morose parlor games I've played involves trying to decide who the two most famous people were to die within a week of each other. (These sorts of things stem from my mgmt consulting days when you had to amuse yourself during airplane delays, drives to the client site, etc).
Up until this past week it was clearly:
Princess Diana (Aug 31, 1997)
Mother Teresa (Sept 5, 1997)
But this past week has some new contenders -- in your opinion do any of these two beat a princess and a saint?
James Brown (Dec 25, 2006)
Gerald Ford (Dec 26, 2006)
Saddam Hussein (Dec 30, 2006)
Up until this past week it was clearly:
Princess Diana (Aug 31, 1997)
Mother Teresa (Sept 5, 1997)
But this past week has some new contenders -- in your opinion do any of these two beat a princess and a saint?
James Brown (Dec 25, 2006)
Gerald Ford (Dec 26, 2006)
Saddam Hussein (Dec 30, 2006)
Monday, January 01, 2007
Chevy Chase is an Asshole
In response to being asked whether President Ford "made" Chevy's career:
"The man who 'made my career' did not do 'Fletch,' did not do 'Caddyshack,' did not write for the Smothers Brothers before he wrote for 'Saturday Night Live,' did not write for 12 years before that and win Writers Guild awards," he said.
"The man who 'made my career' did not do 'Fletch,' did not do 'Caddyshack,' did not write for the Smothers Brothers before he wrote for 'Saturday Night Live,' did not write for 12 years before that and win Writers Guild awards," he said.
Holiday notes: Comic Relief
I don't watch Heroes but I am a geek for the comics industry. Although now it's just the occasional trade paperback collection, there was a time when I was way into superheroes. It looked something like this:
Age 6 - 13: Comics Rock! I was a DC guy, mostly into Batman for the brooding vigilante stuff. Especially liked older comics which back then could be had quite cheaply so long as they weren't in great condition.
Age 14 - 18: Girls Rock! I didn't really know what to do with them but I knew they smelled better than Batman.
Age 19 - 22: Joseph Campbell Rocks! My freshman year mythology lit class teaches me that comics are just another version of the monomythic hero's journey. Except I'm reading Matt Wagner's version of Grendel instead of the original.
Age 22+: Less time for comics - brief love affair with Astro City, comic art - especially Alex Ross, the purchase of a fancy Green Goblin statue, bunch of superhero kitsch off of eBay.
Dec 2006: Lunch with Joe Quesada, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief, and a visit with Caroline to the Jewish Museum for their Superhero exhibit (like Kavalier and Clay comes to life).
Joe Q is a really interesting guy - some of the things we talked about:
Age 6 - 13: Comics Rock! I was a DC guy, mostly into Batman for the brooding vigilante stuff. Especially liked older comics which back then could be had quite cheaply so long as they weren't in great condition.
Age 14 - 18: Girls Rock! I didn't really know what to do with them but I knew they smelled better than Batman.
Age 19 - 22: Joseph Campbell Rocks! My freshman year mythology lit class teaches me that comics are just another version of the monomythic hero's journey. Except I'm reading Matt Wagner's version of Grendel instead of the original.
Age 22+: Less time for comics - brief love affair with Astro City, comic art - especially Alex Ross, the purchase of a fancy Green Goblin statue, bunch of superhero kitsch off of eBay.
Dec 2006: Lunch with Joe Quesada, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief, and a visit with Caroline to the Jewish Museum for their Superhero exhibit (like Kavalier and Clay comes to life).
Joe Q is a really interesting guy - some of the things we talked about:
- longterm impact of technology on comics and Marvel.com
- why trade paperbacks have become an important part of industry economics
- whether popularity of comics is linked to macro social or geopolitical reality
- if he listens more to fans, sales figures or his intuition
- what Marvel has on tap for 2007
Holiday notes: Evil Dead the Musical
Broadway? B'ah humbug. I don't think the Tony awards has room for a singing demon slayer w/ a chainsaw for a right hand. That's right, I saw Evil Dead the Musical where the first two rows are the "splatter zone." Somewhat like a Gwar concert, the audience seated upfront gets doused with fake blood. I came away generally sure that every Broadway production would be better with a splatter zone - Lion King, Jersey Boys, Avenue Q (so we can answer the question 'do puppets bleed?').
Other notables differences between Evil Dead the Musical and most shows? The sign near the bar which said "Drinks ARE allowed in theater." But it did come with a Playbill so it's somewhat respectable I guess.
Verdict? Definitely some good campy fun -- check it out if you're a fan of the movie. Purists will note that it's really Evil Dead 2 + some lines from Army of Darkness.
And it makes me really want to dress up as Ash for Halloween.
Other notables differences between Evil Dead the Musical and most shows? The sign near the bar which said "Drinks ARE allowed in theater." But it did come with a Playbill so it's somewhat respectable I guess.
Verdict? Definitely some good campy fun -- check it out if you're a fan of the movie. Purists will note that it's really Evil Dead 2 + some lines from Army of Darkness.
And it makes me really want to dress up as Ash for Halloween.
Holiday notes: Wife beats Freakonomics in Rock-Paper-Scissor
Caroline displayed another hidden talent on Friday night when she bested Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner in a game of Rock-Paper-Scissor during dinner (first one to five). Especially notable because:
1) Stephen beat Phil Gordon, poker champ, last summer
2) I don't think Aureole sees many games of RPS
1) Stephen beat Phil Gordon, poker champ, last summer
2) I don't think Aureole sees many games of RPS
Someone who sorta sounds familiar on Line 1
What would you pay for Dennis Haskins (aka Principal Belding on Saved by the Bell) to give you a wake up call? For a limited time it's only $19.95 at Hollywood is Calling, a service which has lined up a host of sorta-celebrities to dial for dollars.
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