What does control at a startup like Square really mean? Rotary Gallop has written an answer to that question, linked below. We’ve also got a contrary view on serial entrepreneurship that’s guaranteed to get you thinking about how you want to approach your businesses for the long-term. Add in that Peter Thiel’s 20 Under 20 program saw its first successful exit and it’s been an interesting week.
Got news of your own? We want to hear how your projects are doing, so hit reply and send us an update.
- Thursday
Apply now: Unreasonable at Sea to embark on 100 day journey in 2013 to change the world
The Semester at Sea program has long offered college students a unique opportunity to get away from campus — but what happens when the ship is loaded down with startup founders and mentors, as well as students? Unreasonable at Sea is going to find out, starting in 2013.
Failure: The f-word Silicon Valley loves and hates
Silicon Valley is full of failure — for every successful startup, there’s a list that didn’t make it. This article brings together a view of failure from big names in the startup world, including Paul Graham.
A portrait of today’s tablet user
Warning — PDF! This summary of the research into tablet users from the Online Publishers Association will give any app developer a clear view of who your audience really is. It’s very in-depth, so you may need to set aside some time to go through all of it.
Why Silicon Valley is full of one-hit wonders
Is serial entrepreneurship a bad thing — or flat out impossible? This article from Maeghan Oulmet argues that the first success will always be the biggest.
Ownership and control at Square
Who really makes the decisions at Square? This article breaks down how often decisions go the way of particular shareholders, particularly Jack Dorsey. You’ll see that percentage of ownership has little relation to the decision making process.
When does high growth not imply product/market fit?
Andrew Chen answered a question on Quora about products that grow quickly but actually retain users and then elaborated about the question on his blog. He’s got some interesting thoughts about how a ‘hot’ app might not actually keep users.
A first exit for one of Thiel’s 20 under 20: GigLocator sells to Brooklyn Bowl’s Peter Shapiro
Peter Thiel has gotten a lot of press for investing in startups with founders under the age of 20. The first of those startups exited this week with a sale.
Retro link of the week:
The dirty truth about web passwords
Back in 2010, Gawker Media’s servers were compromised — including users’ passwords. Jeff Atwood used the situation as an opportunity to explain how to handle passwords correctly. It’s a post worth revisiting whenever you’re thinking about how to handle passwords for your users.
