If you ask the world’s best ophthalmologist to predict your sex by examining your retina, her odds of getting it right are no better than a coin toss – 50/50. Give that same task to an AI and it will almost certainly nail it every time, with a 0.99 AUROC score. No human doctor, scientist…More
Category Archives: Frameworks
Allocating your most valuable resources: product & engineering
Product & engineering are the core of a tech company. For many startups I work with, it is the biggest areas of investment – in terms of both dollars and people. But prioritizing product and engineering initiatives and measuring the ROI of those efforts can be challenging. When a startup is in its early days,…More
Realistic Optimists
I am not sure who to credit for this saying, but I love it: “pessimists sound smart, optimists make money.” Venture capital is an industry for optimists. It is about betting on the potential, on underdogs, on progress. We consider what a company can become, not simply what it is today. That requires a belief…More
Payback’s a gift
My framework for assessing CAC payback Payback is a _________ Each year, we meet hundreds of internet businesses that run the gamut from industry or vertical to product and business model — and just about everything in between. On the surface, these businesses might not have much in common; internally, we’ve converged around one single metric that’s…More
How Startups Disrupt Industries
Below is a great quote from Bryce Roberts’ blog that highlights one of the reasons I love startups — their innovative way of envisioning a new reality. “Startups don’t compete with airlines by purchasing a bunch of planes, hiring a bunch of pilots and locking up a bunch of terminals at airports. Startups compete with…More
Keeping it simple
As technology becomes increasingly complex, simplicity is becoming increasingly valuable. While people turn to technology to simplify their lives, the ability to take the complex, evolving, and limitless power of technology and shave it down to a simple action, function, or use is a true achievement. Ironically, it is the most user friendly, simplest technology…More
Talia Goldberg 