Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Month: January 2022

Program Associate – Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator

by Jennifer Zemel

Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA) is seeking a Program Associate to join our team in supporting our accelerator’s operations and building ERA’s community platform. This position is located in New York, NY.

About ERA:
ERA (http://eranyc.com) is an early-stage investment fund and technology accelerator in NYC. Since 2011, ERA has invested in 265+ companies (including three “unicorns”) through its accelerator platform. Its portfolio companies are currently playing leading roles in the evolution of virtually every major global industry.

About the Role:
We’re looking for a Program Associate to play a key role in supporting the day-to-day operations of ERA. Your job will include working on all aspects of our accelerator programs and supporting the needs of our portfolio companies and mentor network. You are also responsible for managing the community and resources for our portfolio companies.
Your focus is on delivering the best possible experience for our founders and ensuring successful execution of the program. Day-to-day responsibilities will include program administrative duties, program & mentor scheduling, and helping our portfolio companies connect with the benefits of ERA’s 1000+ strong community of mentors and founders.

Who You Are:
You should be an organized and detail-oriented self-starter with experience in operations and a demonstrated interest in technology, startups, and entrepreneurship. Operations can be complex, and the speed at which the program runs is extraordinarily fast, so the ability to multi-task and hit deadlines is critical to your success. You also have a strong desire to learn and a comfort tackling new (Read more...)

Population size

by Joseph

This is Joseph.

In preparation for discussing climate change:


There are currently 7.8 billion people on earth. In 1950 there 2.5 billion. At current rates, demographers project the population will stop growing in 2100 at 11 billion or so. It would then take something like seven generations at US population rates to get back to 2.5 billion. That is at least a century, maybe longer with delayed childbirth. I am not sure that we'd be in any way short of people at 2.5 billion, a number seen in the lifetime of still living people and not in any way a dystopia of underpopulation. 

Note that one way to reduce the pace of climate change to be generating electricity for fewer people and needing fewer cars. Now let me be clear -- this does not mean I have any patience for coercion in these areas. That way lies madness. But I am not sure that a modest drop in population is the least bit concerning and that we can have a rich and full civilization for the foreseeable future on these trajectories. 

And once we move beyond a couple of hundred years, any likely predictions are useless anyway. Imagine trying to imagine 2020 in 1814? Like the whole context of the issues facing world powers and the human race would be sharply and dramatically different. 

Blitzscale or Die: A How to Guide For Startups & Founders with Chris Yeh of Blitzscaling Ventures

by MPD
This post is by MPD from @MPD - Medium

Chris Yeh is the General Partner of Blitzscaling Ventures and author of the book Blitzscaling.

Chris co-wrote the book with his good friend Ried Hoffman (who — as many of you probably know — is the founder of LinkedIn). The book explains when and how to focus on scaling rapidly to beat the competition in a winner-take-all market. The nuance is the concept of prioritizing speed over efficiency in an environment of uncertainty.

Blitzscaling is certainly a popular strategy in today’s startup world where everything is moving a million miles a minute, but — as you’ll hear us discuss — it’s not necessarily the right move for everyone. Chris and I talked about some exceptions, including a few companies I’ve personally seen play the long game of organic growth and outlast their competition.

In addition to the book, we chatted about the VC fund Chris started called Blizcaling Ventures — where he leverages the blitzscaling concept to inform his investment strategy.

Chris also shared some awesome life hacks, a hilarious story from the early days of the internet and a pretty awesome personal story about the time he competed on — and won — a game show. Enjoy and thanks for listening.

Listen/watch via your preferred platform here.

Blitzscale or Die: A How to Guide For Startups & Founders with Chris Yeh of (Read more...)

318. Founding the 1st VC Index Fund, Rethinking the Future of Capital Deployment, and Advice for Emerging Managers (Marcelino Pantoja)

by Nick Moran

Marcelino Pantoja of Measurement joins Nick to discuss Founding the 1st VC Index Fund, Rethinking the Future of Capital Deployment, and Advice for Emerging Managers.

Missed a recent episode? Go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

On schedule

by Seth Godin
This post is by Seth Godin from Seth's Blog

We get a huge benefit from making a simple commitment:

Don’t miss deadlines.

The benefit is that once we agree to the deadline, we don’t have to worry about it anymore. We don’t have to negotiate, come up with excuses or even stress about it.

It won’t ship when it’s perfect.

It will ship because we said it would.

Once this is clear, the quality of what we ship goes way up. Instead of spending time and energy looking for reasons, excuses or deniability, we simply do the work.

And over time, we get better at figuring out which deadlines to promise. Because if we promise, we ship.

Is Tech Dead?

by Howard Lindzon
This post is by Howard Lindzon from Howard Lindzon

My mom was calling me all week (she lives in Toronto).

I was not returning her calls because I figured like everyone else she was calling for my opinion about the wreckage in software and cloud stocks.

For my mom’s 8oth birthday we got her an iPad and my niece Jordie subscribed her to my blog.

I did call her back yesterday and she said she just wanted to check if I was alive…you know because I could have been abducted by the Chinese because of my tweets, but to trick my mom they left a doppelganger behind to keep my blog going so as to not create any suspicion.

Anyhoo….mom …thanks for not asking about stocks and congrats for making the blog.

So…are tech stocks dead?

I checked in on Tomasz’s great software blog for some data:

The public software sector is weathering the second deepest multiple contraction in the last decade. Only the 2016 reduction of 57% surpasses it. Public market investors are rotating out of high growth technology companies as the Fed’s policies of quantitative easing, asset purchases, and low rates abate.

That is pretty bad.

Let’s go to some charts which might give you perspective. Below I have shared the 1 year, 5 year, 10 year and 20 year charts of The Dow, The Russell, The S&P, The Nasdq 1090 ($QQQ), Gold and Energy ($XLE) (thanks KOYFIN which is FREE).

Once you have clicked on them you will see what everyone else in the business (Read more...)