Charlie O'Donnell 6/14/05 Charlie O'Donnell 6/14/05

Looking for 20-something Associate/Analyst Level VC Bloggers

I've been talking to a counterpart up in Boston and we're throwing around the idea of collaborating on a "Venture Blog, Jr." blog... Lots of people ask me how to break into the VC world, so we thought it would be interesting to publish our thoughts about life in the bottom rung of a really interesting ladder is like. We were thinking that we could have representatives from NYC, Boston, the Valley, and perhaps an out of the way spot less known for venture. If anyone is interested, please let me know. We're looking for analysts in their 20's who haven't founded multimillion dollar companies quite yet. Pre-MBA's preferred.

Charlie O'Donnell 6/14/05 Charlie O'Donnell 6/14/05

something to say

"A Fred divided against himself cannot stand!!"

So people are complaining about having to trudge through all of Fred's posts about his family, his travel, and his music to get to his posts about venture capital. Its affecting how he posts and really has him troubled. Frankly, I think some of his readers are being obnoxious, and I'd be offended if I were him. Fred's a nicer guy than I am.

Didn't we all agree that blogs are a conversation? Blogs are about people... whole people. Even if you only post about one particular subject, if its a post from the heart its about more than just politics, technology, marketing or law. The smallest atomic element of blog isn't a post or a category. Its me. I am the smallest atomic element on my blog. To really know me through this blog is to pay attention to all of it. Sure, you can highlight a post or sort categories to find something in particular, but to break off part of it and disregard other parts to suit your liking or, even worse, suit an argument, is taking something out of what is a lot of surrounding context.

This whole professional vs. personal conversation matter reminds me of our mixers for the SEMI mentoring program at NYSSA. I remember this one hot-shot quant Stern student coming up to me and asking me if I knew/dealt with synthetic derivatives while I was at GM. I told him that I knew what they were, but since this was an after work function, surely there could be more interesting things to talk about. I mean, we were supposed to be assessing whether you wanted to get matched up for a whole summer with someone. I didn't choose to mentor that student.

My blog has even less posts about VC and tech than Fred's does, mostly because I'm still learning and don't feel I have a lot to add to the already great conversations that are going on. If someone asked me to cut down on my kayaking and softball posts, I'd tell them to take a hike. You wouldn't put up with that in person. Why should you put up with that on a blog? Imagine if an entrepreneur came to meet with Fred, and Fred opened the meeting by saying, "You caught me at a good time, because my daughter just won her basketball game." What do you think his reaction would be if the entrepreneur responded by saying, "Yeah, I'm really not too interested in your family. I'd like to talk about the video blogging space and hear your thoughts on that."

I think that's just plain rude and it doesn't seem like that's the kind of person we'd like to do business with. I say that because that's not the kind of person Brad and Fred seem to enjoy working with. I'm pretty sure "investing in rude, self-centered people who aren't interested in others and can't empathize with the people they work with" isn't in our investment thesis. It takes minimal effort to listen to someone's 2 minute family shpeel and almost no effort to skip through posts with titles like "Fordham loses another softball game" if you're reading on an RSS reader. (At least its really easy on Feed Demon, anyway.) Someone who can't listen isn't going to make a very good entrepreneur (and I'm not saying that b/c I know about venture capital... people who don't listen don't make very good anythings...) because they think they have all the answers and, well, no one does. I don't. My co-workers don't. That's why listening and paying attention to the bigger picture is so important.

Not only that, if you have any networking skills whatsoever, you won't glaze over Brad's piloting story, but you'll listen intently and note it on the back of the business card you collect from him. "Pilots plane." Charlie: "Kayaks on the Hudson." Joshua: "Doesn't like rollercoasters." Inevitably, you're going to need something else to talk about sometime... a way to make a sincere connection. Otherwise, you just have your business, and then what if we pass on it? How will you keep up the connection? Plus, what if some major life event gets blogged about and you're just subscribed to just the VC tag? If I knew someone was reading my posts about technology and they totally skipped over the fact that I lost my family pet, I'd think they were pretty insensitive. When I was at GM, every single placement agent and investor relations person worth their salaries knew about Larry Rusoff's three girls. Did they really care about how the little ones were doing? Maybe... maybe not, but it was worth mentioning, because it would bring the best out in him.

No, this is who we are. Get to know the people of Union Square Ventures. Fred's a family guy who loves music. I'm into team sports and outdoor activities. Brad's a pilot (the things you don't know about non-bloggers...) and a sailor... and he has twins. We don't talk about business 100% of the time, and if you want to get to know us, you need to get to know us sincerely--meaning accepting the whole us.

I will never separate my RSS feeds into categories. Read all of me or read none of me. Skim what you're not as interested in, that's fine, but don't expect me to cut my thoughts/persona into little chunks to be divided out by my audience segments.

Charlie O'Donnell 6/14/05 Charlie O'Donnell 6/14/05

Entrepreneurs... Come out come out wherever you are!!

In our regular Monday meeting, we were talking about what being a firm doing thesis driven investing meant for getting deal flow. "Deal flow investing" may be dead, but you still actually need a flow of deals. We're well on pace for getting enough deals in the fund, but our main concern was making sure we see all of the deals related to our investment thesis...

Charlie O'Donnell 6/12/05 Charlie O'Donnell 6/12/05

SWSX

SWSX, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

After a long day at the boathouse, nothing like an iced tea and a wrap at sunset. SWSX is at the North Cove.

Charlie O'Donnell 6/10/05 Charlie O'Donnell 6/10/05

Why security will never be an overinvested sector or "People are morons"

Link: Thwarting Identity Thieves.

Since 1995, over $954 trillion has been invested in the creation of over 543,000 venture backed security companies. Yet, no one has solved the two fundamental problems with computer security:

1) People are morons.

2) People are in charge of information security.

I cannot believe that, in 2005, Citigroup is sending computer tapes with the personal information of 3.9 million customers, including Social Security numbers, via UPS. Fuckin' UPS!! I mean, I know those brown trucks look pretty official and all, but... Isn't there a way to send this over... hmm... what's that thing called... oh yeah, the INTERNET.

The thing you gotta wonder is whether or not they figured out that the package was gone because an admin was tracking it via their tracking number. I'd love to see that screenshot:

4:43PM: Package picked up at Citigroup.

6:53PM: Package arrives at JFK.

7:02PM: Package x-rayed and subsequently opened with a box cutter by underpaid airport loading guy.

7:28PM: Empty cardboard box loaded onto plane.

Status: Fucked.

Charlie O'Donnell 6/10/05 Charlie O'Donnell 6/10/05

CNN.com - Actress Anne Bancroft dies - Jun 8, 2005

Link: CNN.com - Actress Anne Bancroft dies - Jun 8, 2005.

This makes me sad, because The Graduate is one of my favorite movies, and on top of that, Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks just seem like such a great couple... call me a hopeless romantic.

Whenever an older celebrity dies, it makes me wonder what its going to be like when the celebrities of our generation die. One day, we'll see the headlines:

Material Girl Madonna dies at 81.
Former Pop Idol Britney Spears dies at 72.

And, just because I know he'll stick around as long as irratatingly possible...

Pauly Shore dies at 98.

Charlie O'Donnell 6/10/05 Charlie O'Donnell 6/10/05

Fordham Wins! Foooooordham Wins!

If anyone would have told manager Charlie O'Donnell that the anemic Fordham offense would only muster three runs against Megahurtz--a team that had not lost yet and had a record of 4-0-1, he probably would have thought yesterday's game was going to be a rerun of the team's previous efforts.

And boy, would he have been wrong, because everyone knows that pitching and defense win games.

Patti Dickerson tossed 7 innings of one run ball, striking out four along the way, to get Fordham its first real win, 3-1. She was backed up by errorless, yes errorless, as in, perfect, as in, every time the ball was hit to someone, they caught it, defense. The play in the field was led by Jason Giannitti, who also drove in the go ahead runs for Fordham in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run single that scored Ron Zapata and Samara Finn. Giannitti vacuumed up flyout after flyout in leftfield. The left side of the defense was also bolstered by the cleatless Kevin Rodricks, who, despite the lack of traction, managed a few circus catches for ESPN's Slowpitch Softball Tonight.

The win, combined with ABA's forfeit last week, gives Fordham a 2-4 record. There is also a suspended game that Fordham leads 7-5 with two innings to go that needs to be completed later in the season. If Fordham can pull that game out, they're actually not out of contention should this win spark any kind of streak. One thing's for sure, they'll have to find a way to get the offense sparked, because three runs a game is going to be very little gas for a long road up the standings.

After the game, the team signed the game ball and gave it to Patti Dickerson for her efforts in the franchise's first actual win on the field.

Charlie O'Donnell 6/10/05 Charlie O'Donnell 6/10/05

Ugh....rain