Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Geoff Ralston, Silicon Valley (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What is your criterion for market size? Geoff: There are exceptions to this, but I tend to only want to invest in startups that have significant or large upsides. I try to avoid putting fixed numbers on that other than I have it in my mind.

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Geoff Ralston, Silicon Valley (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: From all your sources, how many pitches do you receive a month, approximately? Geoff: It’s kind of hard to say because I’ve only just cranked this thing up again. For a while, I was very involved with Y Combinator, so it was kind of dominating [my

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Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Geoff Ralston, Silicon Valley (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold This is the twenty-second interview in our series on financing for entrepreneurs. I am talking to Geoff Ralston, a Silicon Valley angel investor and serial entrepreneur who started and ran a number of companies and held senior positions at Yahoo! after one of his companies, RocketMail, was

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Innovation: Off the Beaten Path

By Guest Author Jordan Cole Innovation is the intersection of invention and insight, leading to the creation of economic value. The university has long been regarded as the most efficient innovation engine but, as this essay will argue, this is a misguided and even false impression.

Forbes Column 08: An S.O.S. To Silicon Valley

Zero-in on this week’s Forbes issues An S.O.S. To Silicon Valley. Readers: Do me a favor, and email this article to everyone you know in Silicon Valley. Who knows where the next Brian Jacobs, Marc Andreesen, Jeff Bezos and the rest are hiding? We need to find them.

Forbes Column 08: Bootstrapping, Montana Style

We have just started publishing The Montana Mogul, an interview with RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte, who has bootstrapped an over $100-million-a-year public company headquartered in Bozeman, Montana.

Paul Graham: Cities and Ambitions

Interesting essay by Paul Graham, Cities and Ambitions. What always strikes me when I am in New York is that the city is based on “financial engineering,” while the essence of Silicon Valley is still “value creation.” The latter has more power to feed the soul, the former, after a while, feels dry.

Obama’s Economic Policy

I am frustrated with Obama for not addressing the questions about what he plans to do to turn around the economy. I am also frustrated with his anti-business, anti-globalization, and anti-free-trade rhetoric. It has led me to ponder the question, what should US economic policy focus on to get some vitality back into the system?

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