Is Technology Dehumanizing Society?

In my recent trend piece, From Second Silicon Valley Gold Rush to Angel Investment Bubble, These Are the Tech Trends to Watch, I concluded with the following thought:

The Dehumanization of Society: Technology has created tremendous opportunities for the world to shrink through communication, collaboration, and cloud-based productivity tools. But it has created immense opportunities for wasting time. On Facebook. On Twitter. On stupid games. Human beings are losing their ability to communicate in person. To smile at each other. To converse. To enjoy a meal together without looking at their smartphones. To look into each other’s eyes. To touch. To honor food that someone else has cooked with love and care. To be present in the moment without interruption. This is a tremendous loss that cannot be quantified.

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When Should You Move To Silicon Valley?

The question continues to come up often in our work with global entrepreneurs, so further to my earlier Harvard Business Review piece, I will add more color to it. First, here’s a recap from the HBR piece:

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Develop a Point of View, Write Regularly

Last year, I wrote If I Were 22: I Was Fired From My Own Company. If you haven’t read that piece, I suggest you do.

For this year’s graduating class, I have a suggestion.
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Looking Forward to the Real Silicon Valley

I am one of those people who doesn’t like bubbles. Right now, we’re experiencing a bubble in Silicon Valley with funny money driving weird, unproductive behavior.

Some people want this party to go on.

I don’t.

Francisco Dao has written a poorly analyzed post on VentureBeat titled What will happen to Silicon Valley when demographics strangle the global economy:

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The Funny Money Unicorn Business

For those who follow my writings on Billion Dollar Unicorns, you know that I am not a fan of ‘Valuation Without Revenue‘ Unicorns. The mindless inflow of capital into companies with dubious monetization ability irritates me. This week, some important coverage has emerged on the games VCs are playing to achieve Unicorn status for their portfolio companies. The most important, must-read piece on the subject is from Heidi Roizen, Operating Partner at DFJ: How to Build a Unicorn From Scratch – and Walk Away with Nothing.

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How To Dramatically Slash The Cost Of College Education

The exorbitant cost of higher education is a recurrent topic of conversation, concern, and discontent these days. Against that backdrop, an announcement from edX and Arizona State University caught my attention last week. ASU and edX announced a program called Global Freshman Academy:

The Global Freshman Academy (GFA) will give learners anywhere in the world the opportunity to earn freshman-level university credit after successfully completing a series of digital immersion courses hosted on edX, designed and taught by leading scholars from ASU. By allowing students to learn, explore and complete courses before applying or paying for credit, the Global Freshman Academy reimagines the freshman year and reduces academic and monetary stress while opening a new path to a college degree for many students.

The program differs from other digital immersion undergraduate programs in the following ways:

• Course Credit for Open Online Courses – By completing the full series of eight Global Freshman Academy courses, students earn full college credit for freshman year; students will also be able to opt for taking individual courses for credit if they prefer
• Cost Effective – Freshman year credit earned through GFA is a fraction of the cost students typically pay
• Learning Before Payment – Students may decide to take a course for credit at the beginning or after coursework has been completed – reducing financial risk while opening a pathway for exploration and preparation for qualified students who may not otherwise seek a degree.
• Unlimited Reach – Because of the open course format, learning takes place while scaling completely – there are no limits to how many learners can take the courses online
• Innovative Admissions Option – GFA’s approach is different from the traditional admissions process of other credit-bearing courses, eliminating such barriers to entry as standardized tests and transcripts that are part of the traditional application process.
• Track Record of Success – This partnership brings together a globally recognized online educational platform founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a university whose innovative online degree programs boast an 89 percent retention rate.

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My Blogging Strategy Was Supposedly All Wrong

In the spring of 2005, I started blogging.

During those days, blogs were not as commonplace as they are today. Om Malik, at the time a close friend, and a pioneer in the tech blogging scene, introduced me to the concept. “You are so opinionated, you must blog!” Om declared. Then, he went on to have his own web guy set up my blog.

I started writing.

I wasn’t a journalist, so my writings were largely opinion and analysis pieces. People seemed to like to read them, so I found it encouraging, and started taking it seriously.
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The Commoditization of Venture Capital

The venture capital market is getting more and more irrational every day. VentureBeat just reported this week that VCs are ‘collecting logos’ of unicorn companies.

According to Pitchbook, more than 60 percent of all VC-invested capital went to rounds of more than $25 million in 2014, the highest percentage since the dotcom boom. There were 414 rounds of $25+ million last year, 50 percent more than the 276 rounds in 2013. VC capital invested jumped $20 billion from 2013 to 2014, while the number of financings fell by 16 percent.

Historically, private company valuations have largely been tied to valuations in the public market. But there is now growing concern that VC valuations have exceeded reasonable public valuations — a dangerous sign. Facebook’s $22 billion acquisition of WhatsApp has inflated valuation expectations. Meanwhile, potential tech buyers such as Google, Yahoo, Alibaba, Apple, and Microsoft have tens of billions of dollars in cash holdings. Series D+ valuations saw a 50 percent jump from 2013 to 2014. Valuations now exceed some of the closely watched historical exit parameters. We’ve also seen a significant increase in median Series B valuations. Capital invested in late-stage rounds was up to $11.5 billion in Q2 and $10.6 billion in Q4, representing the only two $10+ billion quarters since the dotcom boom. Seed rounds declined to 221 in Q4 versus 564 in Q1 2013.

I discussed the danger of overvalued private unicorns in Why Not All Private Unicorns Will Become Public Unicorns earlier.

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