This has to be an April Fool’s Joke, but it got a chuckle nonetheless. It seems two of the companies I’m on the board of (PayPerPost & CallMiner) have a secret joint venture with the CIA to identify and undermine radical, dissident bloggers. Hey, I know some of those. Why didn’t my entrepreneurs tell me [...]
Florida Venture Blog
by Dan Rua…just a VC, living vicariously thru entrepreneurs…
Monthly Archives: March 2008
Mar 31
Connect the Dots for Your VCs and Board
I’ve been lucky in my venture career to typically lead deals as the local VC. This has allowed me to be very close and active with the entrepreneurs I back — some may even suggest ‘too active’. There are many benefits from such a relationship, but one I particular appreciate is the opportunity to see [...]
Mar 21
Jedi Entrepreneur Mind Trick: TheFunded and VC Persuasion
According to Wikipedia: “the Jedi mind trick is a Force power. Jedi who know the power can, by using the Force, influence the actions of other ‘weak-minded’ sentient beings.” Now, replace “the Force” with “TheFunded”, “Jedi” with “Jedi Entrepreneur” and “other ‘weak-minded’ sentient beings” with “VCs” and you have: “the Jedi Entrepreneur mind trick is [...]
Mar 18
Sched.org: Order from Chaos at SXSW
Congrats to local AJAX cage-fighters Taylor McKnight and Chirag Mehta — for mashing together the hot site of SXSW 2008: Sched.org. Last year’s SXSW love child was Twitter, this year was Sched. Sched’s simplicity and on-the-fly find/group scheduling picked up a couple thousand members during the conference — and coverage by Wired, TechCrunch, and Silicon [...]
Mar 14
Best Video for Wii Internet Channel?
What is the best HD video option for the Wii Internet Channel? The Wii is a great way to watch video on our HD flat-screen, but it feels like the category could be much better served by a Wii-optimized site. Right now we’re surfing YouTube and Stumble’s Wii-specific video channel — but surfing remains clunky [...]
Mar 14
Beatbox, SXSW Style
Most of the SXSW wrap-up posts have trickled in by now, but I noticed this when I was checking IZEA‘s latest video antics. It’s a beatbox mashup from the SXSW Bloghaus, including beats from Guy Kawasaki (How to Change the World), Darren Rouse (Problogger), Stephanie Agresta (Internet Geek Girl), Wendy Piersall (eMom) and many others…plus [...]
Mar 12
History of Blogging
The human atom splitter, Steve Spalding, invited me to participate in his latest social media experiment: HistoryOfBlogging.com. Given the various ideas we’ve kicked around in the past, I wasn’t sure how serious he was. Low and behold, he took action and has pulled together a diverse network of quality bloggers with common threads of technology [...]
Mar 06
Five Bulbs, One Pad: Real Magic from WiPower
Real magic — wireless power. Staying on my video post trend of late, here’s a quick demo of WiPower‘s technology. I’ve met founder Ryan Tseng a few times and I come away more impressed each time. Is it just me, or was that 6th bulb there just to tease us? Let’s get to know each [...]
Mar 05
Two Million Minutes, One VC’s Wakeup Call
Regardless of nationality, as soon as a student completes the 8th grade, the clock starts ticking. From that very moment the child has approximately – …Two Million Minutes until high school graduation…Two Million Minutes to build their intellectual foundation…Two Million Minutes to prepare for college and ultimately career…Two Million Minutes to go from a teenager [...]
Mar 03
Florida Venture Capital and Entrepreneur Interviews
Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media caught me at the Florida Venture Capital Conference and we sat down to discuss the state of Florida entrepreneurship and venture capital. While at the same conference, Phil also sat down with David Bayer, co-founder of Inflexion portfolio company Databanq Media. I’ve included both videos below. I’ve been following [...]
