I just bought a Vitamin Water in Grand Central. What are the chances that I'm ever going to need to return this, or prove that I was in Grand Central at 7:45AM today?

I also got one when I used my credit card to pay for my Metro North Ticket. Some people check their credit card receipts against their bill at the end of every month. I don't know a lot about ticket kiosks but I'm pretty sure that whatever transaction processing system they have, it's always going to print the same number it on the receipt that it charged on my card. Plus, if I ever really needed to prove a transaction, that record is on my card...in the cloud somewhere.

Either way, if your time is worth anything whatsover, I'm betting that extensive physical receipt tracking has a negative ROI attached to it.

Plus, how many millions of pounds of paper and ink are we throwing away every year in receipts we don't need? That's what I always think about when I get receipts. I've never in my life used a receipt for anything. I charge most of what I buy on my credit card and pay it off right away (or at least used to before I started a company) and so I have a record in the cloud of my purchases. Could I have been mischarged here and there? Probably, but it might have also been in my favor, so I doubt it amounts to much. I've got better things to worry about.

With all the green things we're supposed to be worried about, who's solving this wasted receipt problem? How about a first step that says that no one gives you a receipt unless you specifically ask for it? Weren't they supposed to be doing that at restaurants with water to conserve? Let's conserve paper and ink and do away with this relic of our analog past.

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You have a good point and I believe that this is part of a much bigger problem. Silicon Valley is like a big light bulb, and it attracts a lot of startups who come here to live the dream just to get burned in the end. Starting a business is not about meeting with VCs or belonging to a TechCrunch or Demo club, it is about getting customers to pay you for the value you bring to them. I see a lot of CEOs here in the Silicon Valley who don't seem to realize this. They want to play the competitive game of getting funded, telling the right story to an investor and getting a check from them is validation. But who's to say that the investor really knows better? Or the Techcrunch or Demo selection team for that matter?
Nothing beats market validation, and paying customers as a proof...

Is it me or does the west coast technology scene resemble something of a car accident?

Who's in?  Who's out?  Who gets an unfair look at coverage?  Who charges for what?

Among all that catfighting and negativity, how is anyone supposed to get their startup taken seriously? 

A VC asked me the other day if I was thinking about participating in TechCrunch 50 and I nearly laughed out loud.

I respect Jason Calacanis and Mike Arrington for their ability to self-promote, but remember, its self promotion that's their specialty, not the promotion of others.  Once again, the big news coming out of TechCrunch 50 isn't the companies--we don't even know who they are yet--it's the promoters. 

Let's get it straight.  No company has ever been made or broken on TechCrunch, and the idea that Mike has been called a "kingmaker" is laughable.  If he was a kingmaker, he would have taken the $5 million he had to build Edgio, and made himself a startup king. 

Instead, he found out that there's no substitute for a great product and great marketing.  That's what makes or breaks companies.  If you've built something really great, you need to systematically find your target audience and get them using it, and build in the product features that make it easy to spread.  For most startups, the crowd at TechCrunch50 and Demo isn't anything close to the userbase most of these companies are looking to get.

In fact, if you're participating in anything that has an embargo attached to it, you're wasting valuable opportunities to get in front of reporters when there aren't dozens of other companies all trying to launch at the same time.  You can say that TechCrunch 50 has no cost, unlike Demo, but there's a real cost to it.   Time is money to entrepreneurs, and if you're not allowed to talk to reporters, and each day you burn more of your own or your angels money, participating in this conference is costing you real money. 

That's another reason why I'm happy to be building my company here on the east coast, where we don't let all this startup stuff get to our heads, because our egos are kept in check by the enormity of other industries around us.   When you're big in tech in the Valley, you're huge.  When you're big in tech in NYC, you've still got a ways to go, and for a hungry entrepreneur, that's a much healthier place to be. 

"I believe I can help to grow our community, evolve the purpose of the organization, strengthen our partnerships with related organizations, and evangelize our vision to the greater population. I bring a fresh perspective and want to challenge some of the preconceived notions about what’s possible in this community. We’re at the tipping point of going mainstream and need to prepare for the influx of new professionals to come. I want to help make it happen."

- Whitney Hess

Whitney is super-committed to building community and I'm a big fan of her professional approach.  If you are an IAI member, please consider giving her your vote.

It's almost as if they were writing for Obama in a message to the Republicans:

"I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."   - Neo, The Matrix

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Don't they have awards for this stuff?  It should get one.  It's part of the Unplug your friends campaign.

The other day, someone asked on the nextNY list who my "must read" blogs where.

I went to my feedreader and noticed something interesting.  By almost a 2:1 margin, the people whose blogs I read are people I know.  By and large, they were either blogs of friends, or blogs of professional contacts I had interacted with extensively either online or offline.

So my blog list is really just a list of people I know.  I read very few people just because I feel like I have to read them, and those that used to be in that category I've since tried to meet, if nothing more than just saying hi at a conference and e-mailing.

To me, that makes a lot more sense, because blogs, at their heart, are really made out of people.  They're a social technology, and if you're not socializing as part of your blog reading, as the lolcats say, "ur doin it wrong."   When you read a blog and never comment, never e-mail the author on the side, don't show up to the same meetups and conferences, you're basically treating blogs a passive, non-interactive mainstream media--and really missing out on a lot of potential. 

If you're reading this blog and not commenting, I can't see how you're really getting that much value, to be honest.  You could read about social media and tech stuff anywhere--but you can't get ME anywhere, and I'm just a comment, e-mail, or Plugoo message away.  (Can't say enough about that widget... my mom messages me almost everyday through it.)

The desire to consume and publish content to and from a small group of closely connected people is something tech types always underestimate.  Web 2.0 fanboys often know very little about the dynamics of places like LiveJournal, where an intensely loyal and close-knit community often shared with just 3 or 4 people on average--and there are a lot more LJers than there are Scobles of the world.  I've said it before, but most people don't want to broadcast to the world and be the most popular, nor do they want more content from people they don't know--they want relevance, and a sense of authentic community, which tends to be smaller.   That's also why Tumblr is taking off.  If you think it's just another blogging tool, you're not seeing the people connections in between. 

At the end of the day, I just don't have the time to hear about everything in the world...   but I need to make time to hear about what's going on in my friends' lives, and also to use them as a filter for content.  They are a filter not because we like the same stuff, but because their content meets the most important criteria of them all:

"Stuff someone I care about is likely to talk to me about soon..."

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What are they making a big deal of this for?  I mean, it's not like she'll be a 72 year old cancer survivor's heartbeat away from the presidency...

"...the questions swirling around Ms. Palin... brought anxiety to Republicans who worried that Democrats would use the selection of Ms. Palin to question Mr. McCains judgment and his ability to make crucial decisions."

Disclosures on Palin Raise Questions on Vetting Process - NYTimes.com

This scares me, too.  Kids are too into Paris Hilton and not into science.  We prevent people with technical skills from coming into this country b/c our immigration policy is FAIL. 

"Ms. Estrins book is the latest call to action during the last several years by scientists, technologists and political leaders worried about the countrys future competitiveness in technology. In 2005, the National Academies published Rising Above the Gathering Storm, a report requested by Congress, which found that federal financing of research in the physical sciences was 45 percent less in 2004 than in 1976 and that 93 percent of students in grades five through eight learn science from teachers who do not hold degrees or certifications in the topics. In 2007, the book Innovation Nation by John Kao, a business consultant, revived the debate."

Another Voice Warns of an Innovation Slowdown - NYTimes.com

Let me make this clear:  There's no shortage of money in NYC. 

A lot of deals get funded by random groups of angels, hedge fund managers, and other out of the way pockets of cash. 

There is, however, a shortage of experienced, local venture capital firms actively putting money to work here.  I'm sure people will disagree about the value that a VC can bring to a deal, but in my mind, they bring significant value to the community.

I was talking with a banker today about it, and there's definitely something to the "Silicon Valley VC mafia" phenomenon--that they all know each other and do deals together.  What they also do, which is incredibly valuable, is work with local universities, tech counsels, entrepreneur groups, etc., and actively participate in the community.  Their deals get huge press at funding time.  Their reputation of success is the community's reputation. 

By being consistantly active, they draw startups closer to them geographically.  That doesn't happen when a random hedge fund guy and his buddies put two million in a startup here in New York, because only that startup knows them.  That money builds a company, not a community.  Sure, money is nice, but VC's provide glue for the community in terms of the networks formed among deals they've invested in and support of the local community. 

Unfortuately, we don't have much of that in NYC.  If you're an early stage technology company, you're going to Union Square Ventures, Greycroft, Venrock, DFJGotham, SAVP, RRE, Softbank...and...  and who else?  These are good firms, but they don't represent enough of a critical mass--a mafia, if you will--to attract companies and talent here from the outside the way VC firms in the Valley do.  To be honest, USV and Greycroft haven't even been around for that long, even though their partners have.  RRE, which is a good firm with a successful record, says they generally invest between $5-10 million on their site, although they did less than that in drop.io.  I do hear they're looking to go earlier and smaller, so that's good.  Plus, I suppose Bessemer is in Larchmont and Canaan is in Connecticut.  These are clearly top tier firms, but if you can't go to the Shake Shack for lunch on a regular basis, are you really in the middle of this community? 

Comparatively, I'm going out to the Valley for VC meetings in mid-September, and I've got meetings with a dozen firms in three days--basically within blocks of each other in SF and then two days in similar proximity down in the Valley.  I know there are just a ton more firms out there, but it shouldn't be that there's such a difference in experience for an entrepreneur.

One major difference is community presence.  A lot of NYC-area entrepreneurs can't name more than a handful of NYC area funds and have never met a VC in person at a startup event.  I think a lot of NYC-area VCs could stand to be a lot more visable--attracting more deal flow by participation the way Union Square Ventures does.  Two or three NYC firms blogging and being transparent they way they are would count like 8 more firms doing deals here.

In terms of other firms, there's one firm not listed here that you might not realize that has done 10 technology deals right here in NYC since October of 2005. 

Take a guess.

Figured it out yet?

It's Spark Capital.  Ten out of their twenty-two deals have been done right here in the Big Apple--the most they've done in any city.   Spark has invested in 10 New York companies: 5min, AdMeld, Bug Labs, Covester, iminlikewithyou, Inform, KickApps, Next New Networks, Tumblr, and Clear.  Perhaps Spark should open an office here.  I, for one, would welcome another firm with a presense right here in the city.   Frankly, it surprises me that there aren't more, given the number of deals that get done here.  Even if you didn't plan on making all your investments in NYC, it's pretty centrally located on the east coast to do deals in DC, Boston, even Toronto. 

And it's not like deals aren't getting done here--but by out of town firms.  Redpoint did Right Media.  Accel put a bunch of cash into Etsy.  Emergence Capital just invested in Lotame.  Again, this helps the individual companies, but doesn't really help the community at large as would more early stage players doing similar kinds of tech deals with each other.

So who here is actually doing deals here in the New York Metro area?   I went into Thompson's VentureXpert database and ran some numbers on which firms have done "Early Stage", "Information Technology" deals in the last 5 years.  I'm sure some of the numbers are off (like Spark's number, which would seem to make it the 2nd most prolific NYC investor), but here's a list below of all the firms that had done two or more deals.  I don't have much more to say about the topic... hopefully you guys have some interesting takes on the situation...

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