2 Levels Above LLC

I just got back from Y Combinator Demo Day, Summer 2008.  For a startup
fanatic like me, it’s hard to imagine a more fun use of a few hours.  I got to
watch 20 back-to-back, rapid-fire startup demos. 

Here are some of my initial reactions and thoughts on the newest cohort of YC
startups.  Note: Like most OnStartups articles, [...]

I have been tracking Y Combinator (a
new kind of venture firm for early, early stage startups) for several years. 
They have a distinctive approach to the early-stage funding process and have
funded some interesting companies.  YC is in the news again because of Google’s
recent acquisition of Omnisio, a YC investment. 

Thinking back on several years of YC history, [...]

You remember 1999, right?  It was the day of the sock puppet and crazy, CRAZY
marketing strategies.  By the way, before going too much further, I will confess
that I actually bought pets.com shares back in the hey day.  Why?  Because
everyone was doing it, and my wife and I thought the commercials was creative
and funny.  Granted, my [...]

Warning:  I’m about to go on a bit of a rant.  I usually only reserve these
kinds of articles for when things really irritate me, and this is one of
those times.  I’m generally a patient, considerate person, really I am.

Here’s the source of the most irritation I’ve felt from a technology article
in a long time (and this from [...]

Today’s big news
from TechCrunch is is that Google is in the final stages of acquiring digg
for about $200 million.  Makes sense to me.  Particularly given some of Google’s
recent experiments having social voting in their search results pages.

I’d been thinking about startup acquisitions earlier this year (and started
keeping a side list of deals I thought should get [...]

If you read this blog, there’s a pretty good chance you’re somehow involved
in the business of software.  By that, I mean you are trying to (gasp!)
make money in the software business.  If that’s the case, I can’t think of any
better place to be this September than the Business of Software Conference
being held in Boston on [...]

For those that are nauseated or otherwise troubled by gushing praise of tech
blogs, please click away now.  I will not be offended.

I’m an avid reader of the TechCrunch
blog.  In their own words, it’s a blog “dedicated to obsessively profiling and
reviewing new Internet products and companies.”  If you’re in the startup world,
and aren’t reading it, you [...]