Matt Mickiewicz

• 2nd Timers Omakase at Morimoto, NYC
• Del Posto, NYC
• Australian Wagyu at FIRE in Seminyank, Bali (W Hotel)
• Zuma, Miami
• L’atalier Joel Robuchon in Vegas

• 2nd Timers Omakase at Morimoto, NYC
• Bazaar at SLS Miami
• FIRE in Seminyak, Bali
• Del Posto, NYC

Watch video: 

http://www.businessweek.com/videos/2013-03-22/what-is-the-developer-auction-advantage

From idea to reality in less than 12 months.

Bloomberg - How Donuts Gave Rise to Site Where Employers Can Bid on Engineers

Fortune - Software developers put themselves up for auction

Fortune - Venture capital deals (also included in their eNewsletter)

Forbes - DeveloperAuction Raises $2.7M For Tech Hiring Service

Dow Jones - DeveloperAuction Brings In $2.7M to Replace Recruiters

VentureBeat - DeveloperAuction raises $2.7M for exactly what you’d think

AllThingsD - DeveloperAuction Raises $2.7M for Novel Talent Marketplace

TheNextWeb - DeveloperAuction closes $2.7M round led by NEA and Sierra, to help companies find top technical talent

TechCrunch - DeveloperAuction Raises $2.7M From NEA, Google Ventures To Change The Way Technical Talent Is Hired

Silicon Valley Business Journal - DeveloperAuction raises $2.7M funding

Vator News - DeveloperAuction raises $2.7M to make hiring easier

7 trips to San Francisco, 4 trips to Vegas, 3 trips to New York.

Plus: Chicago (TechWeek), Miami (SOBE Fest), Napa Valley, Indianapolis (Superbowl), Park City (Sundance), Montreal, Belize, Hawaii, Dublin (F.ounders), Rome, Capri, Ravello, Positano, Florence, Tuscany, Portofino, Lake Como and Venice. 

According to TripIt I’ve done 189,450km in 2012.

The Age of Excellence by Jason Calacanis

Programming Your Culture by Ben Horowitz

How A16Z Evaluates CEOs

How to Get Startup Ideas by Paul Graham. Choice quote: “When you have an idea for a startup, ask yourself: who wants this right now? Who wants this so much that they’ll use it even when it’s a crappy version one made by a two-person startup they’ve never heard of? If you can’t answer that, the idea is probably bad.” 

I’ve been sending Paul’s article to a lot of people recently who have been asking me for advice… too many people are building something that’s only 10% or 20% better than the status quo. That’s not good enough. See Peter Diamandis’s “10X Cheaper, 10X Faster, 1000X Better”.

And I assume everyone has read “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs”.

I just got this email on my DeveloperAuction.com email account… 

• Unsolicited, “blind” resume with the engineer’s contact details removed, typical example of resumes getting shopped around
• For a person with skills that we don’t require (we don’t have any advertised job openings)
• Sent to someone (me) with a huge database of tech talent who is trying to put clueless recruiters like these out of business

Hi Matt-

 My name is Audrey Panzeri and I am a recruiter for high tech startups. I wanted to reach out and see if you have an interest in a candidate I’m working with out of Apple.  He is a PM/PMM looking for a earlier stage company where he can make a larger impact.  He has experience working on cross platform (OS10, iOS, and iCloud) applications and on both consumer and enterprise products.  He also has a great education out of Princeton.
I’m not sure where you are with your hiring needs or if he’s a fit but I would love the chance to chat.  Thanks and I look forward to your feedback. 

Audrey Panzeri

Quest Groups

Executive Recruiter

Ph: 650.328.4100X119

Cell: 650.438.0781

@PanzeriQG

Audrey@questgroups.com

Attachments: Candidate 365815 (Blind #240820).DOC
File #5E687E1F0C2C227D54

Huge thanks to Keith Wellman and the entire Simpleology.com team for donating $5000  to Doctors Without Borders for a 1-hour interview with me.

I’ll update this post once my interview is posted.

How to read these blog posts for maximum impact & results:

• Do not try to read them all in one day, you’ll get overwhelmed, won’t apply what you learned
• Print them out when practical. Read these blog posts on paper, not on the screen
• As you’re reading, ask yourself “how can I apply this?” and jot down notes in a notebook
• Apply what you learned over the course over the week
• Move onto the next blog post

http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22405055017/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-9-notes-essay

http://steveblank.com/2010/02/25/customer-development-for-web-startups/

http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/04/in-the-pursuit-of-traction-have-you-considered-all-verticals.html

http://www.slideshare.net/seanellis/slides-from-lean-startup-circle-la

http://www.slideshare.net/Startonomics/creating-implementing-a-web-20-marketing-plan-presentation

http://ppcblog.com/adwords-for-startups/

http://www.slideshare.net/randfish/inbound-marketing-for-startups-in-2011

or watch the video here: http://hackersandfounders.tv/RDmt/rand-fishkin-inbound-marketing-for-startups/

http://blog.asmartbear.com/authentic-dead.html

http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/cro-tips/

http://andrewchen.co/2012/04/27/how-to-be-a-growth-hacker-an-airbnbcraigslist-case-study/

http://blog.asmartbear.com/startup-marketing-ideas.html

http://www.quora.com/growth-hacks (not a blog post, but full of great info from people who have done it)

If you can’t fail then it doesn’t count as action.

As delivered via emails:

Your Non-stop flight #620  YVR - ORD on Jun 24 has been cancelled because the flight crew didn’t show up. [So much for my 2:30PM arrival]

At 3:36 PM 24JUN.
United Airlines flight 511 YVR-DEN on 24JUN delayed.
Departure time now 3:45 PM from gate 78.
Arrival time now 7:36 PM.

At 4:01 PM 24JUN.
United Airlines flight 511 YVR-DEN on 24JUN delayed.
Departure time now 4:10 PM from gate 78.
Arrival time now 8:01 PM.

As a free bonus, we landed in Cayenne, Colorado rather than Denver to refuel before taking off again to Denver. 

At 7:24 PM 24JUN.
United Airlines flight 1705 DEN-ORD on 24JUN delayed.
Departure time now 10:20 PM from gate B16.
Arrival time now 1:36 AM.

At 8:38 PM 24JUN.
United Airlines flight 1705 DEN-ORD on 24JUN delayed.
Departure time now 10:35 PM from gate B16.
Arrival time now 1:51 AM.

At 10:18 PM 24JUN.
United Airlines flight 1705 DEN-ORD on 24JUN delayed.
Departure time now 10:57 PM from gate B26.
Arrival time now 2:13 AM.

At 11:28 PM 24JUN.
United Airlines flight 1705 DEN-ORD on 24JUN delayed.
Departure time now 11:40 PM from gate B26.
Arrival time now 2:56 AM.

At 11:52 PM 24JUN.
United Airlines flight 1705 DEN-ORD on 24JUN delayed.
Departure time now 11:55 PM from gate B26.
Arrival time now 3:11 AM.

4AM - Hotel - Sleep. 

• The US has increased national debt by $5.6 trillion in the last three and a half years. It took from 1789 until 2000, two hundred and eleven years, to accumulate the first $5.6 trillion of debt.
• Average annual deficit from 2000 through 2008 was $190 billion. Average annual deficits since 2008 have been $1.3 trillion. US deficits never exceeded 4% of GDP prior to 2008, but now they exceed 9%.
• The national debt will reach $20 trillion by 2015, and if interest rates normalized to the same level they were in 2007 (5%), annual interest expense would be $1 trillion, or 45% of current tax revenue. 
• The unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security exceed $100 trillion and cannot possibly be honored, leaving future generations to fend for themselves.

Source: James Quinn

Seattle-based Double Down Interactive, had the 4th most popular game on Facebook. Exit for $500 million. The company was generating $140,000 a day in revenue when it was sold. The company was bootstrapped.

Wonga. Online payday loans, approved in 60 seconds. They’ve issued over 2.5 million loans in the UK and are expanding internationally. This is a billion+ company.

Best podcast: 60 minutes

Best concert: Watch The Throne

Best Hotel: Singita Faru Faru & Chateau St. Martin (tie)

Cool Bucket List Item: Attending Berkshire Hathaway Meeting in Omaha, NE

Countries Visited: 9

Most Memorable Meal: Le St. Martin (@ Chateau St. Martin in Vence)

Best Party City: Miami

Most Overpriced City: St. Tropez

Best Conference: Summit at Sea & F.ounders (tie)

Airline of The Year: British Airways

Cool/Unexpected Moment: Feeding Giraffes in Nairobi

Noteworthy Wine Acquisition: First bottle of Sin Que Non

Interviews Conducted: 50+

Weird Moment: Being offered a reality TV show (the answer was no)

Best TV Show: Top Gear & Entourage

Dead Horse Theory

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.”

However, in government more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

1. Buying a stronger whip.

2. Changing riders.

3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.

4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.

5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.

6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.

7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.

8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.

9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance.

10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance.

11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.

12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.

And, of course…

13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

** No idea who wrote this, let me know and I’ll provide credit.

Actual investor pitches:

• WikiTrip - 99designs for travellers
• Quillu - 99designs for photography
• Coder.ly - 99designs for code
• LawPivot - 99designs for legal
• Designplanr - 99designs for Interior design
• GrabCAD - 99designs for CAD

… and then….

• 110designs (ahem)
• 99dresses
• 99launches
• 99apps
• 99tests

Flippa.com, our marketplace for buying & selling websites, ranked #2 in Deloitte’s Rising Star list. Congrats to Dave Slutzkin (our GM) & the rest of the team for making it happen. Over $60 million in websites sold, with a fantastic 60%+ sell through rate - keep it going!