Danny Robinson › Comments

"I use photobooth on the mac or my iPhone to record videos of myself. But on the desktop, I find the videos come out much more natural after i drag another window overtop of the video so I can't see myself. For regular video conferencing, I use skype. it just works." - Danny Robinson

"copied from my comment on Felipe Coimbra's (@twtfelipe) Blog post in response to his tweet: http://twitter.com/twtfeli... http://www.felipecoimbra.com/2009...... You're the perfect example of someone we could only *hope* would want to move to Canada. I understand why you didn't offer up that you intended to start a company to the immigration officer. Starting a company is risky, and they want to make sure you wouldn't be a strain on the social system, ie health care, welfare, unemployment, etc. But really, if you come here, start a company, and employ other locals, I would think that is the best anyone could ever hope for. What if the local investors or VCs could sponsor these entrepreneurs under a Startup Visa? I understand the a) most web companies don't need any investment so why make that a requirement, or b) the fear that the VC would be able to hold the threat of exporting the founders if they didn't perform to their standards. I get that, but think..." - Danny Robinson

"You're the perfect example of someone we could only *hope* would want to move to Canada. I understand why you didn't offer up that you intended to start a company, to the immigration officer. Starting a company is risky, and they want to make sure you wouldn't be a strain on the social system, ie health care, welfare, unemployment, etc. But really, if you come here, start a company, and employ other locals, I would think that is the best anyone could ever hope for. What if the local investors or VCs could sponsor these entrepreneurs under a Startup Visa? I understand the a) most web companies don't need any investment so why make that a requirement, or b) the fear that the VC would be able to hold the threat of exporting the founders if they didn't perform to their standards. I get that, but think we can find a way around both of those concerns. the reality is the VCs (at least Bootup Labs) don't want to hold that over their head at all. But we do need founders to be able to move to..." - Danny Robinson

"Sounds likey my story." - Danny Robinson

"Hi Brendon. I always love our debates. The 'problem' is clearly stated in the blog post. Bootup Labs wants to invest in, and move foreign teams to Canada to start companies, and the problem is that I can't (very easily). We pick the best teams that apply, period. This time around, we found that some (not all) of those teams happen to be from outside the country. We'll probably use the NAFTA program for our US teams, but we also have a team from Europe, we'd like to bring in. And, as part of the NAFTA program, they have to fully intend to move back, which is a little backwards, to say the least. That term is in the NAFTA program to avoid giving up local jobs to immigrants. But founders starting their companies in Canada, are actually CREATING jobs for locals that otherwise wouldn't be here. Why would we ever want them to leave??? Lastly, your argument for a more targeted approach to getting expats to move back, seems to compromise our simple requirement of picking the best teams we can..." - Danny Robinson

"Moving back to Windows? Tod replies: Never!! :-)" - Danny Robinson

"ouch. Microsoft is Old." - Danny Robinson

"Great job David. I hear a common theme from most (not all) development shops that i have talked to. They all struggle to find enough time to do what they really want, which is to work on their own projects. Some do a better job at this than others (Invoke and Nitobi are great examples here in Vancouver) But of the majority, if they didn't have to work on client work, they could be out there building products that they own and turn into real businesses. Unfortunately it's not black or white. Both outside funded teams and "organically" funded teams are able to create great startups. As soon as we removed VC as a dependency to get a company off the ground, all sorts of viable models opened up. It's a great time to be alive." - Danny Robinson

"Great stuff Basil. Keep spreading the gospel." - Danny Robinson

"You've defined the art of M -- Buy them early enough where they still have enough uncertainty that the price is low, but they've proven their business. Not surprisingly, The BOD's appetite for being acquired is inversely proportional to how well the company is doing (revenue or user growth), which is proportional to the amount of interested acquirers. This forces prices up a very fast rate. I call that the "updraft." As entrepreneurs, we like to get caught in the updraft." - Danny Robinson

"Awesome way to describe twitter. I'm going to have to borrow that the next time I see my parents." - Danny Robinson

"I agree whole-heartily that the presenter needs to be passionate, and practice practice practice, but there is no excuse for anyone (angel or consultant) to comment on the presentation style, or what was not in the slides. The question is "DO YOU LIKE THE BUSINESS?" Even if they did a shitty job presenting it, you will at least understand the industry, and will have some good questions after the pitch (preferably in private). It's not anyone's "job" to give them pitch advice. The investor is there to decide if they're going to invest - and that's all." - Danny Robinson

"Funny you say that it's an accepted reality. I just received an email from someone about the post (By the fact that responded by email tells they prefer to remain nameless, which I will respect.) This person feels that it's all cyclical and the bubbles are not reality. Steady state is 5-7 years to invest, build and exit a company, and that the model works fine. People are just not happy with the fact they're not getting bubble returns anymore. (I'm paraphrasing here) My take: VC is should be sector specific in the short term, but sector agnostic in the long term. In other words, and what I tried to say in the post, is that traditional VC is broken for Digital Media. So, it's time for VCs to "Jump the Shark", and focus on sectors that work for their model. Clean Tech for example. No one has lived through an environment that we have now: Where it costs so little to get a company up and running, profitably, and have exits for those companies so high at the same time. For us, there is..." - Danny Robinson

"Had this two days ago and I can't stop thinking about it. Better than BBQ I've had in Austin and Boulder" - Danny Robinson

Ewwwwww the big announcement!!!!!!!!!! - sofarsoShawn

Oh, and thanks sofarsoshawn for your help about paypal, but I've been coding eShops integrating paypal since many years ago :) - directeur