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Mentor Manifesto 18/18 - Have Empathy. Remember that startups are hard.

on Thu, 02/07/2019 - 02:14

This is the final post (18) of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto. As with item 17, Brad Feld let me complete the list with my own submission for this final item.

During one of the Techstars Boston cohorts where I’ve been Mentor-in-Residence, I worked with a 20-something CEO founder (code named Mary) who, shortly after raising a seed round of several million dollars, hired a high-powered exec, granting a significant equity option.

Mentor Manifesto 17/18 - Be Challenging/Robust but Never Destructive

on Wed, 02/06/2019 - 14:29

Brad Feld wrote 16 posts detailing each item of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto. However, there are 18 items in the manifesto and he never got around to writing the final two.

I prodded him several times; but after a year without the posts appearing from him, I volunteered to write them; and he has graciously accepted them for the final two installments.

This is item #17 of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto.


This item on the list might sound very similar to #4, “Be Direct. Tell the Truth, However Hard.” But, it’s different. This item (#17) has to do with you, not the companies.

You have been

The sunrise of digital media forgery, and the sunset of trust

on Fri, 06/08/2018 - 17:59

2018 - 2020 are going to be years that will be seen in history as the dawn of an era when the only way you can trust what you are hearing / seeing someone say is to see it in-person.  It will be the sunest of the era when you can trust that what you are hearing from a person speaking who is captured and rebroadcast digitally is actually what they said.

This is because the application of machine learning and other artificial intelligence techniques is advancing into areas we (society) have historically taken for granted. Three things combined over the last several days to give me pause.

Angel Invest Boston podcast, with me and Saleh Daher

on Mon, 05/08/2017 - 18:31

I was recently invited by Sal Daher to be interviewed for his Angel Invest Boston podcast series. Sal's series invites various tech angel investors from around the city and asks them a variety of questions about their own background, how their background influences their investment, and about things they commonly see in, and suggest to startup founders.

I am pleased the resulting podcast turned out well. Listen here, or on Sal's website. The entire series is also available on iTunes and Google Play (though it doesn't launch on those services until 10 May.)

I hope you'll listen, and enjoy.