Composition Shop and the Revitalization of Downtown Longmont
Over the past decade, my wife, Greeley, has been restoring buildings along Main Street (and a few adjacent streets) in Longmont, helping lead a transformation in our local downtown. I’m really proud of the work she’s doing and the vision she has for how these projects can lift up downtown Longmont. If that weren’t enough, she also recently opened a bookstore in one of the buildings she remodeled. Composition Shop is truly special. It’s beautiful, warm, and welcoming. In addition to a great selection of books, the shop also sells chocolates (really, really good ones) and stationery. As an added bonus, our dog Timber is the store greeter. …
May 20, 2025· 3 min read
Startup Boards Second Edition
Effectively building and working with a board is a critical part of building any successful business. But there is a lot of nuance in doing both of these things effectively. Enter the second edition of Startup Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors by a trio of authors including my partner, Brad Feld; CEO of Foundry portfolio company Bolster, Matt Blumberg; and co-author of the original edition of Startup Boards, Mehendra Ramsinghani. …
June 15, 2022· 2 min read
The Power of Giving Away Power
I don’t often write book reviews here on VC Adventure, but occasionally I read a book that I feel so strongly about that I feel compelled to write about it. The Power of Giving Away Power is exactly that kind of book – it’s exceptional. I’m fortunate enough to be friends with the author, Matthew Barzun, who has a fascinating and varied background. He was an internet entrepreneur, the US Ambassador to the U.K. and Sweden under President Obama, and was the National Finance Chair for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. More importantly, he is an incredibly thoughtful and compelling person. He puts all of these qualities and more into his new book, The Power of Giving Away Power, where he debunks some of the myths of classic management theory and hierarchical thinking in eloquent, humorous, and compelling ways. The book resonated with me deeply. As I thought about various leaders that I’ve known over my career, I realized that many shared the leadership traits that Matthew talks about in the book. I would strongly recommend picking up a copy. Whether you are managing just yourself or thousands of people, everyone will find useful lessons in this breakthrough book.
June 7, 2021· 1 min read
You Need More Nietzsche in Your Life
Nietzsche has so many famous quotes it’s sometimes hard to choose just one (most have heard that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger although I suppose few realize that it was the German philosopher who first penned it). My favorite, perhaps, is: t__here are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth. I like it in particular because in many ways it describes Nietzsche himself. His writing is often beautiful, but with a depth that sometimes takes time to fully recognize. …
May 25, 2021· 2 min read
Startup Communities | Rural Entrepreneurship
I’ve always loved Brad’s Startup Communities – it’s long been my favorite of his books, built upon ideas that are clearly stating the test of time. In it, he talks about the key ingredients to building a startup community and talks about our experience in Boulder – one of the first startup communities to really thrive outside of the traditional tech hotbeds of the coast (but certainly not the last). He’s recently come out with a new version of the book, as well as a companion book called The Startup Community Way. They are outstanding. …
January 26, 2021· 4 min read
Spring Break Reading
I hit a critical point on the vacation curve and last week took off to Mexico with my family for a respite. This one was a real break – no phone, no e-mail, no business contact of any kind. Along with relaxing on the beach and building sand castles with my daughter (mostly for the purpose of knocking them down right away), I was able to get quite a bit of reading time in. With that in mind I wanted to pass along two of these titles in case you’re looking to add to your reading list. The first is Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty. Sachs is an economist who has advised a number of developing nations on macroeconomic policy. He’s now the director of theEarth Institute at Columbia and a special advisor to the UN (advising on the UN’s Millennium Project). The book is extremely accessible – written for non-academics. For me, it challenged some of the notions I hold of Africa as a ‘lost continent’ and laid out Sachs’ version of how to Africa may be lifted out of poverty. I love macroeconomics (my college major) and in particular issues related to the relationships between economies. This book is very interesting reading. One word of warning – the last 1/5th of the book is essentially an advertisement for Sachs’ version of how to achieve the Millennium Development goals and got a bit tedious. The first 80% of the book was outstanding. The other recommendation is Captain Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone around the World. The book is, as you might guess, about Slocum’s journey around the world. He was the first to accomplish this feat solo – leaving Boston in 1895 in a 30’ wooden sloop and returning to Rhode Island more than 3 years later in mid-1898. The book is great – starting with the title (you can imagine that if this book was titled today it would be called “A historic voyage” or “Voyage of a lifetime” or something cheesy like that). Slocom’s style of prose is also reflected in the title – he’s to the point and comically matter-of-fact. …
March 28, 2006· 2 min read
One more reason to like Freakonomics
I forgot to mention this in my post on Freakonomics a couple of day ago. Hold on while I climb onto my soap box [clump] [clump] As if I needed another reason to really like this book, I was happy to note that the authors – Steven Levitt and Steven Dubner – correctly use the word data (as a plural, rather than singular noun). It’s used all over the book and their correct use of the word truly enhanced my reading enjoyment. …
May 1, 2005· 1 min read
Freakonomics
I picked up a copy of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything last night before jumping on a plane. I pretty much devoured it on my flight. While I don’t often write here about books (in fact this may be my first entry on the subject), if you liked Blink or The Tipping Point or are just curious about how the world works, I’d strongly suggest you check this one out. The basic idea of Freakonomics is to use statistical analysis to explore relationships and answer some pretty interestin questions about our world (are swimming pools more dangerous than guns; why do drug dealers live with their mothers; how can we tell if sumo wrestlers cheat; etc). I eat this stuff up (for me its in part the mix of my two college majors – economics and psychology). And, while you may not find every topic explored in the book riveting, I think the broader premise is an important one – by thinking about problems a little differently one can come up with interesting ways of testing theories that would otherwise seem untestable. Perhaps by turning problems slightly askew you can gain a perspective into something that you didn’t think was possible.
April 29, 2005· 1 min read