Category Archives: business


Personal Financial Management Options

I have been actively managing my finances (i.e. budgeting, investing, etc.) for the past 4 or 5 years and have noticed that the process is substantially easier through the deployment of a personal financial management solution.
For the past 2.5 years I have been using the Utah-based start-up mVelopes for my financial management needs. I have [...]

Understanding SteepAndCheap Advertising

I am an active watcher and customer of SteepAndCheap (and the parent company Backcountry.com along with its sibling site Dogfunk.com), repeatedly checking the site for quite a few years. I think their implementation of the “woot” model to sell old inventory is superb, especially now (actually integrated about two years ago) that they have [...]

Opportunity vs ‘Capturability’

With the recent name change of my employing firm I figured I would re-visit many of the basics of my job, one of which being my approach to due diligence.
Last year I posted about the due diligence process and a business plan breakdown, but over time my viewpoints on analysis have slightly shifted. It seems [...]

VCWear.com - Hilarious!

I had seen the VCWear website and their pitchbook prior to going to the SXSW conference, but had the chance to chat briefly with the founder Andrew Hyde at SXSW. The site is funny, but the pitchbook is seriously hilarious! I personally want a women’s tank top with the saying “don’t pitch me, [...]

SXSW 03/07/08

My new friend Shawn did a day by day recap of SXSW. Great idea! Since these are late writeups (I am actually now home from SXSW), some of the details might have already been forgotten, especially because the whole SXSW experience is one big blur.
Friday was the first day of SXSW so the lineup [...]

Identifying Your Weaknesses

Today’s AlwaysOn included the post “Know What You Suck At” written by Brad Feld. I like the writings of Brad Feld, but this was especially good. He had created a list of things (over a wide range of spectrums) that he was lousy at and therefore, if important, outsourced to other individuals.
I loved [...]

The Generations Network Acquired by Spectrum Equity

Spectrum Equity purchased a majority stake in Wasatch Venture Fund’s portfolio company The Generations Network (previously known as MyFamily.com) for an investment of $300m. The Utah-based Generations Network is comprised of Ancestry.com, Rootsweb, and MyFamily.com that, according to Hitwise, rank as the second, third and fourth largest U.S. “family lifestyle” sites. The Generation [...]

Mozy Acquired by EMC

Wasatch Venture Fund portfolio company Berkeley Data Systems was acquired by EMC, the world leader in information infrastructure solutions. Berkeley Data Systems is the provider of Mozy, an online data backup subscription service. Wasatch invested in Mozy in 2005 alongside Novell co-founder Drew Major and venture capitalist Tim Draper.

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Stock Photo Site Free Range

The Lifehacker blog recently wrote a post concerning the stock photography website Free Range as the site provides free stock photography for commercial and noncommercial use.
Free Range has in-house photographers and access to photo archives, but also accepts photo submissions. The company operates through an ad revenue generated model that is split with 80% [...]

Tom’s Shoes: Shoes for Tomorrow

I stumbled upon the great site of Tom’s Shoes due to a post on the Lifehacker blog. Tom’s Shoes, a company founded by Blake Mycoskie, focuses on addressing poverty and health issues by donating a pair of shoes to a child in need for each pair of shoes purchased.
The concept was conceived as Blake [...]