For the last three years, I've frequently been asked why I don't blog. Here was my typical reply:
- I'm afraid that people would realize that I'm not that smart.
Put
me in a one-hour meeting, and I have can typically impress people. I
can hold my own for an hour -- giving a good performance -- sounding
informed, knowledgeable, funny and generally make a good first
impression. But with the pressure to post frequently -- and sound
really smart on an ongoing basis -- I'm afraid that the world will
learn what I already know...that I'm not really that smart. Just lucky.
- If I did have a unique thought/perspective, why share it?
I
really believe in the power of an elegant, simple idea. Combine the
best of eBay and Amazon and create a marketplace to let people sell
their old books, CDs and movies (half.com). Create an anti-spam router
(Turntide). Sometimes the most "obvious" (after the fact) ideas are
the most powerful. And since it's so rare for me to have a truly
original idea (see item #1 above), I've often wondered why I'd share it.
- You can't say what you really want to say.
Most VC
bloggers can't/won't say what they really want to say -- or what you
really want to read. I've seen some bad pitches, awful term sheets,
and bad behavior by startups and VC's alike -- but I'd never blog about
them. Instead, I'd end up posting yet another "how to give a good VC
pitch" or "how to run a good board meeting post"...when deep down I'd
really want to post about the unbelievably naive entrepreneur who wants
to build a "tropical fish vertical search engine."
- I don't have the time.
There are currently 364 unanswered
emails in my inbox. I have 14 phone calls to return. Six meetings a
day. I'm currently sitting on the redeye flying back from SFO to PHL.
I have a wife. Two kids. If I had an extra hour a day, I'd rather
spend it sleeping.
So why start blogging now? Candidly, I'm not sure. Maybe, it's
because I hope it will provide me with a way to maintain an ongoing
dialog regardless of which coast I'm currently on. Hopefully I'll
conclude that the benefits of a public dialog/discussion outweigh the
invested time. Perhaps, I'll realize that I do have something
interesting to say. Perhaps not. Maybe this will end up a "New Years
Resolution Blog" -- starting out
with the best of intentions, but getting abandoned after a few months.
Or, perhaps this blog will end up being a hype-blog for our growing
portfolio companies (although I hope not). For now, call it an
experiment.
espite being coastally challenged (currently living in Philadelphia), Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization. In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – an Internet information company. In 1996, Infonautics went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
