The Pragmatic Strategist

Wendy Laments for the Lost Boys

This week has been a bit of a melancholy week: my former team at Massive (acquired by Microsoft in 2006) has found themselves almost all the victims of radically changing economic conditions. As part of Microsoft’s plan to reduce several thousand jobs in 2009, their Massive division has been almost entirely cannibalized. Aside from the [...]

Continue reading...

To VC or Not to VC, That is the Question

Last night I was reading a very interesting Harvard Business Review article by Umair Haque called Five Problems Venture Capitalists Should Have Solved (But Didn’t). Admittedly, I know very little about the world of venture capital (hence the reading), but this made me think of a panel I attended at SXSWi and he raised a [...]

Continue reading...

The Three Not-So-Dead Cliches I Was Shocked to Discover in NYC

The San Francisco Bay Area is a unique place. And like all unique places, it will leave its finger print on its natives — often so strongly that other natives will recognize the signs, even on the other side of the planet. What is always a bit unexpected, however, is when you venture away from [...]

Continue reading...

Networking in a New Town

There is something amusingly ironic about tech industry networking events: a group of people who are part of a subculture that is notorious for challenged people skills all in a room guzzling alcohol and trying to make small talk. I’ve been to too many to count — in the Bay Area, in New York, and [...]

Continue reading...

Ruminations by a Witness of the Post-Party Hangovers

Watching all of my co-workers drag themselves into work this morning (green, exhausted and in pain), after a late night of partying (to say good-bye to two employees who left this week for other opportunities), has got me thinking again… Since arriving at my current job, I have found myself in a new and rather [...]

Continue reading...