Ben Horowitz And Fred Wilson Debate Fat Versus Lean Startups At TC Disrupt

Last Updated on Monday, 12 April 2010 04:28 Written by Daisy Harley Monday, 12 April 2010 04:28

Most entrepreneurs take it for granted these days that the best way to run a startup is lean and mean. It is a badge of honor to be able to take a startup as far as you can with as little capital as possible. But is that always the best strategy? At our upcoming Disrupt conference in New York City (May-24-26, buy tickets here), VCs Ben Horowitz and Fred Wilson will debate both sides of the coin. Actually, they will be continuing onstage what they’ve already started on their blogs.

Horowitz sparked the debate when he wrote The Case For The Fat Startup. Reflecting on his experience as CEO of Loudcloud/Opsware (which he founded with Marc Andreessen and sold to HP for $1.6 billion, but only after raising $346 million and ditching its first business), Horowitz argues:

There are only two priorities for a start-up: Winning the market and not running out of cash. Running lean is not an end.

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures responded with his own post, Being Fat Is Not Healthy. Wilson cautioned that in his experience investing in more than 100 startups (including recently Twitter, Zynga, Etsy, and Foursquare) it is better to build the product first, and get the boatloads of cash later (if you need it). He responds:

I have never, not once, been successful with an investment in a company that raised a boatload of money before it found traction and product market fit with its primary product

Horowitz, of course, offered a rebuttal. It was getting heated, so we invited them to work it out at Disrupt. Actually, Om Malik gave me the idea for the debate (thanks, Om). He will also be joining us as a speaker, along with Steve Case, Ron Conway, Jack Dorsey, and Charlie Rose. And of course, there will also be a startup competition. (Find out how to become a sponsor or exhibitor).

Fred Wilson photo by Randy Stewart.

Article source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/12/horowitz-wilson-debate-disrupt/

Rick Horowitz: Shouting, Never Doubting: Your GOP

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 March 2010 04:30 Written by Daisy Harley Tuesday, 23 March 2010 04:30

(In a post-game cloakroom…)

“We did it!”

“We showed ‘em!”

“Nobody pushes us around!!”

“Kill the Bill! Kill the Bill! Kill — “

“Hey, guys, I just — “

” — the Bill!! Kill the Bill!!”

“Hey, listen up, guys! I just want to tell you how — “

“Stop It Now!! Stop It Now!! Stop It — “

“Now! Got it. ‘Stop it Now.’ Now listen up — I just want to tell you, before we go our separate ways tonight, how proud how I am of every last one of you! What you did tonight, and in the weeks and weeks and months and months that led up to tonight — that’s something that nobody’ll ever be able to take away from us.”

“Kill the Bill! Kill the Bill!”

“Now, the numbers — “

“Booooo!!! Booooo!!”

“The numbers on that scoreboard out there may say one thing. But you and I know who was victorious tonight. And that — “

“G-O-P!! G-O-P!!”

“That’s right! We’re the winners tonight! They may have gotten a few more votes than we did with their arm twisting and their sleazy backroom socialist-utopian deals, but we won where it counted: with the American people!”

“Yay!!”

“The real American people! The ones who don’t want government czars and IRS agents sticking their noses into our business!”

“No! No! No!”

“The ones who don’t want Washington forcing them to insure their families!”

“No Czars! Kill the IRS!! No Czars! Kill the IRS!!”

“Well, we gave all those Americans a real victory tonight! And you know what? We’re gonna give ‘em an even bigger victory when this thing goes over to the Senate, because Mitch McConnell and his boys know just what to do over there!”

“Kill the Bill!! Kill the Bill!!”

“Now — I know you won’t believe this — but I’ve heard some people say, ‘All y’all fought the good fight — but it’s time to move on.’”

“No!!! No!!!”

“I told you you wouldn’t believe it, didn’t I? They’re telling us — we’ve been at this for more than a year now, you understand, nonstop for more than a year — they’re telling us maybe it’s time to ‘move on’! Like this Republican Party — “

“No!!! No!!!”

“Like your Republican Party ever ‘moves on!’”

“No!!!”

“Instead of fighting on!”

“Yay!!!”

“Instead of battling on!!”

“Yay!!!”

“Until we win!!!”

“Yay!!!”

“Until we win!!!!”

“Repeal It!!! Repeal It!!!”

“I can’t hear you!!”

“REPEAL IT!!! REPEAL IT!!!”

“So everyone can hear you!!”

“REPEAL IT!!! REPEAL IT!!!”

“In Harry Reid’s office!!”

“KILL THE BILL!!! REPEAL IT!!!”

“And all the way up to the White House!!!”

“KILL THE BILL!!! REPEAL IT!!!”

“Let ‘em really hear you!!”

“KILL THE BILL!!! KILL THE BILL!!! KILL IT!!! KILL IT!!!”

“And now for our closing prayer…”

# # #

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist. You can write to him at rickhoro@execpc.com.

More on Barack Obama

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-horowitz/shouting-never-doubting-y_b_509528.html

Rick Horowitz: Dems, Running Scared

Last Updated on Thursday, 18 March 2010 05:30 Written by Daisy Harley Thursday, 18 March 2010 05:30

Quimbley D. Democrat is looking over his shoulder. This makes doing his job rather more difficult than it ought to be. (This makes walking down the street rather more difficult than it ought to be.) But life, Quimbley D. Democrat knows, is about trade-offs.

Quimbley D. Democrat’s job is governing — he’s a 93-percent-loyal member of his party’s caucus in the United States House of Representatives. But Quimbley D. Democrat’s goal is keeping his job.

Which is why he’s looking over his shoulder. He’s on the lookout for the Republican attack machine.

They’re out there. Quimbley knows they’re out there. He sees them hiding behind that clump of trees off to his right — or at least he thinks he does. He sees them ducking behind that building, or heading into that broadcast studio. Unless it was only a passing shadow. A mirage.

They’re coming after me, Quimbley is thinking to himself. Have to be careful. Can’t leave any footprints.

Which is why Quimbley D. Democrat is in full pretzel mode at the moment. The last thing he wants is to hand the Republican attack machine something they can use against him. His vote on this health-care bill, for instance.

He wants this health-care bill to pass. It’s not a great bill, he admits, but it’s a much better bill than no bill at all.

So he wants it to pass. He just doesn’t want anybody to know he’s voting for it.

This makes things complicated.

In fact, this has sent Quimbley D. Democrat off in search of the latest fancy-dancy procedural loop-de-loops — anything to escape the box the Republicans are building for him. He can hear them building the box, hammers pounding, saws screaming in the middle of the night. (Or is that just another mirage?)

Can’t give them anything to use against me, Quimbley is thinking to himself. It’s the same thought he’s had so many times before. The same thought his father had when his father served in Congress. And his father’s father, too. For as far back as he can remember, actually — generations of Democrats, each of them looking over his shoulder, scared to death of giving the Republican attack machine something they might use against him.

If it wasn’t the nefarious Karl Rove at the controls, it was Lee Atwater, or Jim Baker, or Murray Chotiner, or —

All of them masters at mixing up that toxic political stew of truth and half-truth, of subtle innuendo and outright distortion. It barely mattered what the facts were, or the context. All that mattered was that something — a tank ride, a surfboard, an incautious phrase, a complex vote — be reducible to a soundbite. To a 30-second TV spot.

They were so deep inside Quimbley’s head — Quimbley’s head and his ancestors’, too — that not one of them was capable of saying anything, or doing anything, without first thinking: What can they do with this?

Without always thinking: What can they do with this?

Except that it almost doesn’t matter. The pretzeling and the loop-de-loops and the all the rest — they won’t spare Quimbley D. Democrat the robust attentions of the Republican attack machine. If he doesn’t give them something they can use against him, they’ll find something they can use against him. If they can’t find something, they’ll invent something; they’re very resourceful.

But Quimbley D. Democrat can’t see it that way. He’s running scared.

Which is why he’ll keep looking over his shoulder.

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist. You can write to him at rickhoro@execpc.com.

More on Health Care

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-horowitz/dems-running-scared_b_503942.html