Gestural

Interesting gestural interface ... am contemplating ordering ...
http://www.leapmotion.com/

Just chewed my way through this omnibus article  that offers a number of related and coincident points around start ups.


Energizing to me in particular were the references to the fact that  " The real root of the problem is when startups fail to hit their key performance metrics, largely because one or multiple of the categories the Startup Genome team identifies are out of sync, "


That's the core of our approach at Grenville Ventures.

Deer Resistance

I live in a neighborhood that backs onto woods and a wildlife preserve.


The deer that inhabit those locations descend on our garden and eat almost everything in sight.


Today I had a moment's joy when seeing three plants that so far have eluded their grasp.

Counterpoint

Not very flattering analysis of the VC industry by the Kauffman Foundation.


http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/vc-enemy-is-us-report.pdf


Save for the top 10 or 20 VC's, they view the rest as having merely  "seductive narratives" and vey poor returns.


The triumph of hope over experience.


What's your view?

Matching Funds

Yesterday the government announced its Startup America Partnership where smaller venture funds can apply for up to $20MM in government funding to supplement investments. The Small Business Administration has allocated $200MM to get things going.

Its very similar to the system they have had in the UK for several years now called the UK government Enterprise Capital Fund (ECF) Funding program  but with a difference that the total funds committed by the UK government are 1B GBP.

Second Market's view

Second Market just published its Q1 2012 Private company report -- lots of interesting data presented in easy to consume info-graphics;

https://www.secondmarket.com/discover/reports/q1-2012-private-company-report?utm_source=SecondMarket+List&utm_campaign=f59bc712be-Q1_2012_Private_Company_Report5_3_2012&utm_medium=email

Here's one I particularly like:

7 Artists 5 minutes

Yesterday whilst heading to a meeting just east of Soho I came upon the 7 pieces of art below in less than 5 minutes.

Thought it merited noting.