Author Archives: foliovision

Fred Destin

Inside500 Startups: the fund as API



My partner AJ Shanley and I dropped by the 500 Pirates’ Den the other week, more officially known as the 500 Startups accelerator in Mountain View.  For those who don’t spend too much time inside the world of high velocity startups, …


5 Comments
Fred Destin

Should Angels break free from angel groups ?



I hear a lot of commentary in the Boston area about how VC’s have needed to replace angels in seed rounds.  In an area with some much technology wealth created over the years I always found this puzzling. Angel groups …


7 Comments
Fred Destin

Dustin Dolginow for President !



He’s young, he’s hungry, he’s lean.  Here is the all new 2012 model of the Atlas Venture tech principal: Dustin “Double D” Doooolginow. Dustin joined us almost two years ago.  It’s not that we care much about titles, but when …


2 Comments
Fred Destin

#OWS 2: Hubris in the face of risk and a culture of entitlement



Insider view on the investment banking mayhem, take two.  My friend Sean Park (read Park Paradigm) dropped this excellent comment / beautiful rant on my previous “how banking lost its way” post.  Another guy who lived inside the belly of …


Comments Off on #OWS 2: Hubris in the face of risk and a culture of entitlement
Fred Destin

The f.ounders conference: Paddy Cosgrave's spectacularly successful connective tissue engine



In the last few days if you’re a a twitter user you’ve probably been saturated with raving comments about this conference called f.ounders.  Whilst as a hashtag it does not exactly work, man, what a success it was. Whether it’s …


3 Comments
Fred Destin

#OWS: one insider's view on how banking lost its way (and what to do next)



I spent the first years of my career in derivatives.  I made it Executive Director at Goldman Sachs before I decided to pack it in.  The year I left the City for a bubble incubator called Speed Ventures, I divided …


7 Comments
Fred Destin

Lean is hard and (generally) good for you



I see so much crap being written for and against Lean Startups that I thought it was worth setting my simple thoughts down on what lean means to me.  Concepts to be valid need to be used with some form …


11 Comments
Fred Destin

CrunchFund ?



The Uncrunching of Techcrunch.  It's been one of the most entertaining saga's on the web recently, in a reality TV kind of way.   But in the process, a discourse has emerged that seems to say "nothing matters except Influence". …


12 Comments
Fred Destin

EURO: how short-term politicking is threatening our continent



The excellent Roger Ehrenberger is angry (“Geting Real“); so am I.  I am angry at the continued bickering that paralyses Europe in the face of is sternest test yet. Note: This is not a post about the impact on startups …


6 Comments
Fred Destin

FutureM: Advertisers and Agencies engaging with startups



“My name is Boris and I’m from Russia”.  This is how the CampusLive founder opens his pitch for the FutureM audience.  He’s one of eight startups presenting to an assorted crowd of people interested in advertising.  “When you run a …


5 Comments