Matt Straz
What Will Yahoo’s Acquisition of Tumblr Actually Mean?
Today Yahoo announced that the company intends to acquire microblogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion. This is an important event for the two companies, their users, marketers and the New York startup ecosystem. Here are some of the good things that will likely happen from this: Success. New York City has not had a fully… Continue reading »
The Three Stages of Funding a Startup
Without an outside source of funding most media and technology startups will perish. The cost of hiring engineers and salespeople is usually just too high to self-fund a business until it is profitable. There are usually three stages of fundraising that a startup must go through to create a sustainable business: Stage 1: Angel Round.… Continue reading »
Six Steps for Creating Great Startup Employees
Last week at the Lerer Ventures CEO Summit, executives from New York media and technology startups discussed the challenges with building a company from scratch—particularly as it relates to people. Given that startups are highly dependent on the talents of the first few dozen people who join up, it’s essential to get the most out… Continue reading »
Why Do We Like Bullies?
Last week Rutgers University fired their men’s basketball coach for his abusive behavior toward his players. His acts, caught on video, included a range of behavior typical of a schoolyard bully: name calling, pushing and kicking his players. The coach, who was supposed to be the leader his team, was allowed to inflict his abuse… Continue reading »
Don’t Listen to People Like Me — Get Your MBA!
“Matt, will you write a recommendation so that I can go business school? I want to get my MBA,” my colleague Katie Bronnenkant asked me a few years ago. “Why do you need an MBA? You work in media,” I said dismissively. At the time Katie and I both worked at MEC, the global media… Continue reading »
The Power of Distributed Teams
Like many companies today, our startup operates as a series of distributed teams. Our product team is in Brooklyn while our sales and marketing team operates in Manhattan. We have found that if we let engineers and product designers work in Brooklyn not only are they more likely to accept our offer employment, the current… Continue reading »
How to Get a Startup Acquired
While building the next Facebook or Google may be a worthy goal, the best possible outcome for many venture-backed startups is to be acquired by a larger company. In a sense, the entire startup ecosystem—founders, venture capitalists, lawyers and other service providers—forms a kind of ad hoc research and development lab for bigger companies. Given… Continue reading »
Help Wanted: What to Look for in a New Employee
Like many media and technology companies, we are planning to staff up as we prepare for our next stage of growth. Many of the qualities we’re looking for from prospective employees could be useful to your company as well. True believers. You have to be ambitious to build an enterprise technology company in a place like… Continue reading »
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