Fred Wilson

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Earlier this week Twitter announced that they plan to amend their standard employee innovations assignment agreement to keep “control in the hands of engineers and designers” as part of Twitter’s commitment to its employees “that patents can only be used for defensive purposes … and that [Twitter] will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission.”  This proposed amendment is being called the “Innovator’s Patent Agreement” (or IPA), a copy of which can be found here.

Others have said that adoption of the IPA…
Continue Reading Understanding both sides to the ‘Twitter Patent Hack’ (aka the Innovator’s Patent Agreement)

Megan Muir.jpgCONTRIBUTED BY
Megan Muir

Venture capitalist Fred Wilson recently published a guest post on his blog from Giant Robot Dinosaur about “Minimal Viable Personality”, what Fred refers to as “voice“.  Giant Robot Dinosaur, a/k/a “The Grimster”, explains why personality is a critical aspect of a successful product.  This is true for products of venture-backed companies or those funded in other ways.  I am including it here because I think it is particularly important for startups – as they usually get just one chance to succeed with an initial product – and because I love the drawing of bread versus bacon.

As The Grimster explains in his typical succinct BUT ALL CAPS manner:

  • MOST IMPORTANT STEP FOR BUILD PRODUCT IS BUILD PRODUCT.
  • SECOND MOST IMPORTANT IS BUILD PERSONALITY FOR PRODUCT.
  • NO HAVE PERSONALITY? PRODUCT BORING, NO ONE WANT.

As illustrated by this simple yet solid pictorial advice:

Bacon not Toast.bmp

Continue Reading Products Need Personality: BE BACON NOT BREAD

Megan Muir.jpgCONTRIBUTED BY
Megan Muir

NY venture capitalist Fred Wilson has an interesting blog post about various approaches to employee equity being considered by some of his fund’s portfolio companies. For now, he comes out in favor of granting stock options instead of restricted stock or other forms of equity. The last few lines reveal some of his investing approach:Continue Reading Employee Equity Comp – A VC Says be Generous