Silicon Bowery

newspeedwayboogie: After 46 Years of Business, Bleecker Bob’s...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 20:27:42 -0400

After 46 Years of Business, Bleecker Bob’s Finally Closed This Weekend

RIP old New York, Loves Goes to Buildings On Fire era

Really sad…

brewcitysafari: A Clean River is a Fun River

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:21:29 -0400

brewcitysafari:

A Clean River is a Fun River

Internet Natives Will Rule The Workplace

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:17:46 -0400

Thursday of last week we debuted Bowery Capital to the world. I was excited to finally put the past 6 months behind us and get back to work. One of the biggest things we talked about when raising the $33M was our thesis and how it will play out over the next 10-20 years. Above is a slide from our fundraising deck which I think most clearly articulates a big part of that thesis.

Since around 2011, we started to notice a sizable shift in the types of folks we were meeting and their seniority within corporations. Given our focus they were generally marketers and technologists and had started their careers in a junior position or maybe got to a bigger company via M&A. While we had known them for a bit, by 2011 we noticed these same contacts had started to manage people and control budgets. Not huge budgets or entire divisions like the CMO or the CTO would control, but enough dollars to be dangerous. What were they doing to warrant quick promotions and high-level placements? In a nutshell, not thinking about technology tools like their bosses of the prior generation.

These are CTO types like Randy Meech, who founded Patch while at Google, was acquired by AOL and three years later found himself running the Local / Maps division of AOL as their SVP of Engineering. When building Mapquest 2.0 Randy was highly influential in AOLs shift to new tools like Open Street Maps, Mongo/10 Gen, Mapnik, Open Layers and Nominatim.

These are also CMO types like Katherine Bahamonde who came to C Wonder after stints as an eCommerce marketer at Juicy Couture, Lululemon, Sears and Nike (she now serves as their CMO). Like Randy, she has also been highly influential to her company in re-shaping the role of eCommerce within the corporation and swapping older-generation products for new solutions like DemandWare, Magento, Acquity and others.

To summarize, we believe we are in the beginnings of a long shift in corporate hiring best practices in which marketing and IT decision-makers replace “risk and safety” with “growth and leverage” as it relates to spend. It’s this effort that is making the way for the rise of the digitally native CMO and CTO, a phenomenon to be fully realized over the next 10-20 years.

fred-wilson: beautiful art exhibit in madison square park right...

Thu, 02 May 2013 06:19:17 -0400

fred-wilson:

beautiful art exhibit in madison square park right now

nycgov:

Today Mayor Bloomberg joined Madison Square Park Conservancy at the opening of Orly Genger’s Red, Yellow and Blue. The large scale art installation includes more than 1.4 million feet for painted, hand-knotted rope. It will be on view through September 8th.

Photo Credit: James Ewing/Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Very cool

On Howard Marks

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:36:00 -0400

I was drawn to Fred’s post yesterday on returns and ridicule and have been a huge fan of this logic for some time. Fred mentions Bill Gurley and his interview with Om where Bill paraphrases the great Howard Marks and his quote from a 1993 investor letter: “Being ‘right’ doesn’t lead to superior performance if the consensus forecast is also right.”

For those that don’t know Howard, he is an absolute legend in the investment business going back to founding Oaktree Capital in 1995. Here are some other great ones from him throughout the years that have stuck with me:

“A hugely profitable investment that doesn’t begin with discomfort is usually an oxymoron.”

“Inefficiencies – mispricings, misperceptions, mistakes that other people make – provide potential opportunities for superior performance. Exploiting them is, in fact, the only road to consistent outperformance. To distinguish yourself from the others, you need to be on the right side of those mistakes.”

“The thing I find most interesting about investing is how paradoxical it is: how often the things that seem most obvious – on which everyone agrees – turn out not to be true.”

[On why some money managers are not successful] “Unconventionality – Along similar lines, there’s the risk of being different. Stewards of other people’s money can be more comfortable turning in average performance, regardless of where it stands in absolute terms, than with the possibility that unconventional actions will prove unsuccessful and get them fired… Concern over this risk keeps many people from superior results, but it also creates opportunities in unorthodox investments for those who dare to be different.”

“In dealing with the future, we must think about two things: a) What might happen and b) The probability that it will happen.”

“There are two primary elements in superior investing: a) Seeing some quality that others don’t see or appreciate (and that isn’t reflected in the price), and b) Having it turn out to be true (or at least accepted by the market).”

“Certain common threads run through the best investments I’ve witnessed. They’re usually contrarian, challenging and uncomfortable – although the experienced contrarian takes comfort from his or her position outside the herd. Whenever the debt market collapses, for example, most people say, ‘We’re not going to try to catch a falling knife; it’s too dangerous.’ They usually add, ‘We’re going to wait until the dust settles and the uncertainty is resolved.’ What they mean, of course, is that they’re frightened and unsure of what to do. The one thing I’m sure of is that by the time the knife has stopped falling, the dust has settled and the uncertainty has been resolved, there’ll be no great bargains left. When buying something has become comfortable again, it’s price will no longer be so low that it’s a great bargain. Thus a hugely profitable investment that doesn’t begin with discomfort is usually an oxymoron. It is our job as contrarians to catch falling knives, hopefully with care and skill. That’s why the concept of intrinsic value is so important. If we hold a view of value that enables us to buy when everyone else is selling – and if our view turns out to be right – that’s the route to the greatest rewards earned with the least risk.”

A forest year.

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:13:42 -0400

A forest year.

Imperfect Information: Whither The Small Enterprise IPO?

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:01:45 -0500

Imperfect Information: Whither The Small Enterprise IPO?:

nicpoulos:

On the first business day of 2013, the bankers at WR Hambrecht+Co. submitted a memo to the SEC arguing for more streamlined methods of going public for smaller companies. Their motivations as deal advisors are clear but their opening point is valid: pre-tech bubble companies tended to raise money…

Probably not a good idea @timberlinelodge

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 18:36:47 -0500

Probably not a good idea @timberlinelodge

Who knew that Charles Wright’s nephew was EAZY-E?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:25:00 -0500

Who knew that Charles Wright’s nephew was EAZY-E?

iheartmyart: National Geographic Photo Contest 2012, Part II -...

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 07:26:41 -0500

iheartmyart:

National Geographic Photo Contest 2012, Part II - In Focus - The Atlantic

Catching Fish: Fishermen use fire to draw fish close to the boat and then catch them. (© Chang Ming Chih/National Geographic Photo Contest)

(via charzblue)

feedwell: m0iety: Green Pedestrian Crossing created by Jody...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:57:07 -0500

feedwell:

m0iety:

Green Pedestrian Crossing created by Jody Xiong

The China Environmental Protection Foundation developed an outdoor campaign, displayed on the street, to creatively promote this message. They decided to leverage a busy pedestrian crossing; a place where both pedestrians and drivers meet.

The campaign involved laying a canvas 12.6 metres long by 7 metres wide on the ground, thus covering the pedestrian crossing with a large leafless tree. On either side of the road, beneath the traffic lights, were placed sponge cushions soaked in green, environmentally friendly, washable paint. As pedestrians walked towards the crossing, they stepped on the green sponge, thus leaving green foot imprints on the canvas of the tree. Each ‘green’ footprint on the canvas looked like leaves growing on a bare tree, which made people feel that by walking they could create a greener environment.

The ‘Green Pedestrian Crossing’ was carried out across 7 thoroughfares in Shanghai. The campaign was then extended to 132 roads across 15 cities in China, with a participation exceeding 3,920,000 people.

Watch their video below:

Just phenomenal - would you do it?

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:06:05 -0500

Just phenomenal - would you do it?

naveen: last night, as mari and i were biking back home across...

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 13:12:00 -0400

naveen:

last night, as mari and i were biking back home across the brooklyn bridge, we saw a manhattan bridge that was half lit, half dark. (the williamsburg was like this as well.) it makes you wonder if this was part of some decades-old agreement: “this bridge is as much brooklyn as it is manhattan.” hence, the perfect 50/50 split of power.

and then you think: wait, we use this word “power”; what does it mean? we use it a lot to mean ‘electricity’ nowadays, but ‘power’ in the old days, in the grander sense, before the widespread use of electricity (and other luxuries) meant something more: the haves versus have-nots.

today, with this frankenstein of a city, where downtown and the riversides are without basics, the word “power” takes on a new meaning. the old-school ‘haves versus have-nots’ don’t mean anything in this post-storm world. nature (not coned) determines who rules.

noahkalina: the day after yesterday

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:38:28 -0400

noahkalina:

the day after yesterday

Been following Matthew Shlian and his work lately and am...

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:32:30 -0400

Been following Matthew Shlian and his work lately and am absolutely mesmerized by his abilities - if you don’t own it get it before he’s too famous.

Ken Block: Gymkhana SF. Nuts.

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:20:56 -0400

Ken Block: Gymkhana SF. Nuts.

Nickelodeon Time Capsule from 1992

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:00:17 -0400

Nickelodeon Time Capsule from 1992

This kid is a pro. I can’t stop laughing…

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 23:38:00 -0400

This kid is a pro. I can’t stop laughing…

Reggie Watts covers Van Halen

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 12:26:00 -0400

Reggie Watts covers Van Halen

RIP Maurice Sendak

Tue, 08 May 2012 18:38:41 -0400

RIP Maurice Sendak