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A couple of months ago I offended Microsoft's Man About Town, Dr. Mark Drapeau when I snarkily (imagine that) made a reference to me playing Danny DeVito to his Austin Powers. This week, taking a lesson from President Obama and the Beer Summit, Dr. Drapeau and I had the opportunity... Read More
I get to see and coach a lot of companies pitching for capital. Very few of them are lightning in a bottle. I’d place the companies I see in four categories: 1.Ignore - Often there are the plain old stinkers ... the pure turds. Those companies are simple to deal with. Hold... Read More
In DC there is an online forum where accomplished experienced entrepreneurs, angel investors venture capitalists, senior startup analysts and many young folks entering the ecosystem discuss the region, startup concepts and strategy. It’s a place where people can discuss, debate and learn. It’s a forum for folks to get better,... Read More
My son, a High School senior, had a homework assignment over the weekend. Write what you believe…. write an “I Believe,” like the one’s found on thisibelieve.org. It was touching, well written and inspirational. Inspiring me to write my own . In Song: I agree with Stevie Wonder’s, I believe when I... Read More
Featured on Speakerbox Sounding Board We like to turn the camera around, so to speak, from time to time and conduct our own interviews with the movers, shakers and influencers in our community. This Ask the Influencers interview is with Glen Hellman, a notable force in the DC community as well as on a... Read More
This company is amazing, that company is doing amazing things, that guy is amazing. The superlative amazing is just so abused. It’s overused on the DCTech Facebook Group page, it just might be used more often in InTheCapital articles than punctuation marks. Here there and everywhere you see amazingly abusive... Read More
It’s happening again. DC Tech natives are restless. The Jungle Drums are pounding.The mindshare listserv is abuzz. Why do DC Investors Suck! Why aren’t DC Angels more like Silicon Valley Angels. Why can’t I get money? Why doesn’t anyone love me. Why, Why Why? Waa, Waa, Waa! ... Read More
The other day I received the following comment in response to my blog post, “The 5 Love Languages of Employee Retention.” It is in a very rare instance when common words in the English language can be protected. Company names and tag lines can be protected. A person can protect the... Read More
Twas a big week for the corporate walking dead of tech. Two of Tech's notable Zombie companies made major announcements. Yahoo This morning Yahoo’s new CEO announced he’s reducing staff. According to Reuters: Yahoo Inc will lay off 2,000 people, or 14 percent of its workforce, in its deepest round of job cuts... Read More
Mr Cranky hereby swears on a stack of bibles that the following story is absolutely true, not embellished! Filed in the strange but true section of our blog. In 1981 I sold special secure computer equipment to Marine Corp Intelligence Headquarters located in the Navy Annex on a hill behind the... Read More
How to reduce your LinkedIn NetworkYet another reason to be judicious when accepting LinkedIn invites. Some guy I don’t know who I use to be linked to until about 30 seconds ago just sent Mr. Cranky this laughable spam email.From: Person I Use To Be Linked ToDate: 3/23/2012Subject: check out... Read More
If you haven’t attended or presented at an Ignite you need to put it on your bucket list. The Concept? If you had five minutes on stage, what would you say to Washington, DC? What if you only had 20 slides and they rotated automatically every 15 seconds?As an added... Read More
There are too many events in too many Venues across Austin for any SXSW attendee to see it all. Here’s my list of stuff I’m sorry I missed as well as stuff I’m glad I missed.Jay-Z Concert – Hosted by American Express to promote its new sync service. I’m only... Read More
SXSW is officially about 3 things: Interactive from 3/9 – 3/13 Film from 3/9 – 3/17 Music from 3/13 – 3/18Now if you have a Platinum Pass good for Interactive, Film and Music you get access to all events. And if you want to get into the hot Film or Music Events, you... Read More
You know the difference between a movie and film right? If you walk out of the theatre thinking that was just awesome and your heart is pounding from the constant motion and tension….. you just saw a movie.When you walk out of the theatre saying WTF did I just see?... Read More
“Have you been to the Mashable Party?”“Have you been to the Google Houses?”“Have you been to the Bing Lot?”“Pay for food? Why did you do that?”“The Driskil Bar is the place to be after Midnight.”“I was at this great party with Leonardo DiCaprio, Toby McGuire, great high-end sushi and JP... Read More
I’ve got ADD and SXSW is like a Dog’s Breakfast for anyone with the slightest proclivity for distraction. Have to hear old What’s-His-Name, oh wait, squirrel… woof woof, chase the squirrel, oh shiny object…. must get shiny object.There’s so much going on at SXSW that you have to have a... Read More
It’s finally here. SXSW 2012. Austin here we come. Wake up 6AM on a Saturday morning to the alarm clock warning for the 8:30 plane to Austin City. It’s just like Monday through Friday. No sleeping, no lazy lounging, no breakfast at 11 on this Saturday... but it’s worth it…..right? …..... Read More
Just a list of things I've been thinking about for a while and couldn’t find a relevant post in which to insert them. To that end I’ve collected them for a regularly scheduled steam blowing rant. By way of explanation a Buy means I’m a strong believer. A... Read More
Hi! I’m a recovering nice guy. I’m like on the 3rd step of my 12 step program to get more direct and less nice. Thankfully, as an angel investor, I have lots of people helping me.Let’s start at the beginning. I have a full time job, and I donate much... Read More
…if there were like 5 Goliaths, and David was a very cranky old man, whose primary weapon was whining instead of a slingshot and the battle took place over a binary digital battlefield instead of the valley of Ellah. Otherwise, it’s just like David & Goliath 2000 years later.The Startup... Read More
In the world, there are certain immutable physical laws. We all know them. You know, you’ve got your Newton’s Law of Gravity, your Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Moore’s Law…and now there’s Mr Cranky's Theorem of Agita and Angst. Newton – What goes up will come down Einstein – E = mc2 Moore – Computing performance will double every 2... Read More
I'm hearing more than a few entrepreneurs whine that Venture Capitalists just don't get it. Lately, i'm hearing more startup founders complain that Angel Investors are not acting like Angel Investors should and I'm left wondering how should they act? So here are some of my thoughts on that: Angel's invest in... Read More
So I've really been working hard thinking about my next startup and I have a few great ideas I'd like to run past my readers to help me focus on the one that is most likely to bear fruit. Please let me knew which one of these super awesome concepts... Read More
Another local DC-area company has successfully raised capital from venture capital and angel investors. Only this time, despite the efforts of out-of-region investors in New England and the Research Triangle to lure Seva Search away, the founders have planted their flag in Potomac, Maryland, bucking the trend to pack up and say goodbye to... Read More
There’s a right reason and a wrong reason for everything. For instance, watching Jersey Shore because you can’t afford to go to finishing school is not the right reason – unless you hold the show up as a lesson in what not to be, wear, say, or do.Some people decide... Read More
Avis use to sell against #1 rental car firm Hertz by bragging that they were #2 and because of that they tried harder. If that’s the case RIM, the maker of the former Crackberry-turned-Elderberry, BlackBerry has to make herculean efforts to please because they're lucky if they're # 4.Yet according... Read More
Product Key A - HP Pavilion dv7 - OS Windows 7 B - Motorola Droid - OS Android 2 C- Motorola Xoom - OS Android D - Sony Viao J - OS Windows 7I'm grumpy old guy, a curmudgeon and yet I'm also a tech guy. While I'm imbued with the heart of an innovator, said heart has been... Read More
After I wrote “The West Coast Deal” I started getting thank you notes and congratulations from entrepreneurs. Many of them founders of companies who have been futilely seeking funding in DC. And that’s when I realized I had done the startup world a major disservice. That’s when Mr. Cranky kicked in... Read More
(As Seen On Tech Cocktail) Quick! Name the 5 items on the right and describe how they are used. Bad news for those who got all 5 answers correct. You’re an old dog! Archeologists and sociologists mourn the loss of culture, artwork, forgotten science, and dead languages, so they were excited when the Rosetta Stone was discovered. ... Read More
If you were a tech start-up entrepreneur or VC in 1995 and you didn't have a Palm Pilot, than you weren't a tech entrepreneur or a VC, you were just pretending to be one. If you were raising money on Sand Hill road and you handed a VC a business... Read More
You know it’s coming. They fire a warning shot over your bow. Here it comes. Wince, wait, and take it like a man. “With all due respect.” With all due respect my butt. When someone says "with all due respect", they are about to dis you to the max. “With... Read More
SEO, SEO, SEO, SEO, that's all I hear these days. For you other old farts like me that's Search Engine Optimization. What that means according to Wikipedia's Search Optimized SEO Definitions listing is:Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page... Read More
