This is a guest post by Gary Whitehill who was kind enough to allow Founders Block to repost his article, originally published on March 26th, 2010.
Almost everyday someone asks me “where can I go to find XYZ.” I figured it would be easier if I wrote down a decent portion of the organizations I normally recommend to folks. Here in New York there are a plethora of events day in and day out. They include conferences, forums, meetups and workshops.
The frequency, quality, size and scale of events in New York …

This is a guest post by Gary Whitehill who was kind enough to allow Founders Block to repost his article, originally published on August 11th, 2010. In case you missed Part 1.
Seed Fund Opinions Numero Uno – The Nay Sayers
In a recent blog post, Paul Kredowsky voiced his disapproval of the seed funding phenomenon. However, his post is less about the entrepreneur, than the seed funding companies themselves.
His argument boils down to the fact that he believes many of the seed investors out there are running on very tight budgets themselves. …

This is a guest post by Gary Whitehill who was kind enough to allow Founders Block to repost his article, originally published on August 11th, 2010.
The entrepreneur community is more closely knit than you’d believe, and when someone picks up on a notable event or trend, the blogosphere literally lights up with posts.
As far as entrepreneur blogs go, the flavor of the month appears to be the debate about whether the seed funding phenomenon is a bubble waiting to burst, or whether it’s a viable means of funding pre-revenue/start-up businesses. …

Taking a look is the newest segment of Bob’s Founder’s Block posts.  Each month, I will take a look at a web company.  If you want to be considered for a future post, please email bob@foundersblock.com.

Lostlettermen.com is the largest “where are they now” online sports database.  With a player database of over 150,000 former college basketball and college football players, lostlettermen.com is where you find what former stars have been doing since their playing days ended.

You may be surprised to find that less than two years ago, Lostlettermen.com only …

I had a great opportunity to listen to Peter Shankman, founder of Help a Reporter Out (HARO), talk about “self-promotion”. The following is a recap of his presentation.
There are good and bad ways to practice self-promotion. Here’s an analogy demonstrating the difference: As a guy, if I went up to a random girl at a bar and told her “I’m rich and I’m awesome. Let’s go back to my place”, I’m most likely going to have a drink thrown in my face. However, if I had a mutual female friend go …

This is a guest post by Steve Blank who has graciously allowed Founders Block to repost his article, originally published on August 5th, 2010.
Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s.  I think you can blame Customer and Agile Development for a small part of it.
Here’s why.
Electron-based Venture Capital

When I first came to Silicon Valley the world of Venture Capital looked pretty simple. VC’s invested in things that ran on electrons: hardware, software and …

At a recent networking event aimed to help entrepreneurs find co-founders, a VC and an angel investor were on panel discussing why they usually avoid single founder companies. One common argument they brought up is that the burdens of building a startup are more easily shared between people. Venture Hacks famously proposes that startups with “the power of two” founders, preferably a “builder” and a “seller”, have the best shot at success. Another concern is that if you’re a single founder, it may be because you weren’t able to convince …

If there’s something that startup people love to do, it’s to converse, and I’m no exception.  Whether the topic revolves around industry news, a controversial blog post, or brainstorming for ideas, I love a good exchange.  One of my favorite types of discussions involves analyzing a particular company and attempting to explain what it’s doing right and what it’s doing wrong.  These sorts of conversations can be interesting exercises and inspire new ways of thinking.  However, a dangerous pitfall exists for aspiring founders.  While evaluating potential competitors in the ideation …