Here are some things I used to believe: The power of the free market comes from competition If you are nice to someone, you will be rewarded commensurately A penny saved is a penny earned The more scarce something is the more valuable it is I no longer believe these statements to be true.  To understand...

Startups add an average of 3 million jobs in their first year, while older companies lose 1 million jobs annually. (ref) Without startups, job growth in the US would be negative 1.2 percent. (ref) Angel investments created 370,000 U.S. jobs in 2010, nearly half of the private sector jobs created that year....

[NOTE: I updated this post with more detailed examples] Background: part 3, part 2 and part 1. In the interview with Jon Gunn in Part 3, I mention that I’ve been thinking of what “version 2″ of the Personal Investment Contract might look like.  Here’s the model: Investment Amount...

For the background to this post, start with part 2 and part 1.  The follow up is part 4. I get a lot of questions from folks who are interested in learning more about Personal Investment Contracts and so I felt it was time to synthesize some of the most common ones and give you some answers. Who is the...

When I was in Silicon Valley in the 90′s the joke was that you couldn’t go on a first date without having your love-interest sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement; after all, they might be working on a competitive venture. These days when I’m hit with the “I’d love to talk to you...

For the background to this post, start with part 1.  The follow up is here: part 3, part 4. In a subsequent post, I’ll talk about some lessons we’ve learned.  In the mean time, what questions would you have, either as a prospective investor or investee in the above...

What in the world do I mean by that?  Of course I think the dollar and euro are broken, but what’s the alternative?  Gold?  Maybe, but it won’t last.  Tyler Cowen partially touches on information classification in his book, but does he make the link to currencies in their traditional...

Today, Rafe and I launched new angel fund aimed at for-profit social entrepreneurs. It’s called Presumed Abundance and it’s going to make people think about what it really means to invest in people. Have a look. Let us know what you...

I meet a lot of social entrepreneurs who are just starting out and have the following dilemma.  They are full of energy and creativity, but they don’t have a single tangible project or venture yet that they feel they can commit to.  What they need is the time and freedom to explore the possibilities,...

Inspired by the X Prize, Y Combinator’s “Startup Ideas We’d Like to Fund” and Kickstarter, I am offering a $100K prize in three parts: $10K for Crowdsourced X Prizes Platform Allows anyone to offer a cash prize for achieving a goal they want achieved Allows anyone to pledge...

This is the first in a four part series.  The other are here:  part 2, part 3, part 4. Imagine you are in your early twenties, out of college several years and your best friend, who recently came into an inheritance of $300K cash told you they could think of no better way to invest the money than to...