Mark Essel

"There are SBIRs (small business innovative research) loans but they are mostly tagged towards existing consultants/small businesses in various areas. There are a variety of such programs (NAIH grants for biotech), but I don't know of a widely accepted and praised venture funding system. Maybe our new gov 2.0 will change that, crowd sourced national investment in entrepreneurs would be fun. Let the taxpayers decide who to fund and how much (within a range)? Too weird? Various models are already springing up in the market." - Mark Essel

"I learned a little from your chat, thanks patricia and Elie." - Mark Essel

"Ah, a fellow data miner, splendid. Have your predictions every made you so confident, and then the tables turned so fast that you didn't know what hit you? I've had that experience a few times when looking at correlations that "had to be true" but ended up not being so (fooled by my own assumptions, or seeing what wasn't there). One example was a target within a field of clutter. I was so sure I had an algorithm that detected the target, I was devastated when I realized I was just picking up the highest density clutter. Numerical data doesn't lie, but it can certainly be misinterpreted. My continued study of web information flow has dazzled me with the strength of diverse views. Your 360 degree view analogy was awesome (how about 4*pi steradians ;). If we don't have access to the raw data for whatever reason (resources, time, restriction), it can be tricky to fill out the image of truth." - Mark Essel

"Its been done before-> check this out: Steve Blanks Secret history of silicon valley "By 1968 over 600 SBIC funds provided 75% of all venture funding in the U.S." But the venture capitalists opted for Limited Partnerships to remove the government strings." - Mark Essel

"I suspect true impartial journalism *could* be reported by powerful automated systems in the coming years. Factual and statistics based information systems, devoid of compassion or color. We'll hate them. Give us our biased news back ;)" - Mark Essel

"Whatya think of cheap government grants/loans. Like SBIRs for startups? What team of two wouldn't kill for 70k off the bat." - Mark Essel

"Great feedback Mike. As I'm new to web development much of my "instincts" are a transition from 14 years of desktop c++ coding algorithms and simulations. Basic functional elements transfer over, but where the user was me and 3-4 other engineers before, now the potential user base has become unlimited. From the nuances of web software (so many languages, tools, and such a different environment), to the practicalities of implementing concepts in a scalable way (data, memory, where apps run either client or server), I find that I much to learn each day I work in this space. Now to find where our project is kept on the server (my first time getting down and dirty since it was hanging up, and the tech lead is sleeping)." - Mark Essel

"Dumb pipes are akin to my preferred form of tech. The best kinds are the ones you don't even know are there, they're ubiquitous and invisible. They don't cost you cycles figuring out how you're going to work within their incomprehensible regulations, they just work. The pipes only constrain the maximum information of the signal. Why should the container determine what goes through it? The more plentiful, and less controlling the dumb pipes are, the greater our future innovative potential is uncapped. If the government wants to step in at all, they can subsidize research for inexpensive FAT bandwidth. They'll more than make it back by taxing any business structures that arise from the new information sharing capacity." - Mark Essel

"That's a huge +. Films and startups share some of the same characteristics. The good thing in film, HUGE incumbent films don't politically try to crush your chances of providing superior value/entertainment (the production houses/studios are another story). Who knows how widely films will be accepted or how powerful they'll be at grabbing attention. And unlike startups, you can't know just from intermediate products how healthy a film is. You can see if your budget is on or off schedule, but weaving all the elements together is an unparalleled art form. I'm always impressed with low budget films, that rock my imagination." - Mark Essel

"We have to fight to protect capitalism and the forces that drive change. Glad to see your views evolve in this space Jeff. The sooner more see the changes as a need being expressed in market pressures, the greater they can leverage their genuine value towards satisfying this need. I've got an image of incredible business variety and choices throughout all our markets. But in order to facilatate that, I'm looking towards less friction between business. Like the Internet built in layers, future micro businesses will dominate by providing the best value in their area of expertise. The current business forces that benefit horizontal growth could be balanced by a more fluid market where constant change benefits smaller entities. We have seen evidence where monopolies negatively effect competition. What about when cross business subsidies from highly profitable sectors reduce a market to a single viable player? I'm thinking about Google's grab of the nav market. The economy of our future..." - Mark Essel

We're very excited to have Gary (follow him on Twitter) host Startups.com and Introduce his book Crush It! He'll be answering questions tagged "crush-it", and out of those questions, we'll pick the one with more votes and give whoever asked it a signed copy of Crush It! Gary will also be asking a question, and whoever he picks as his best response, will also get a copy of his book. Gary will be hosting Startups.com on Monday, November 23rd. - Mark Essel

We're very excited to have Gary host Startups.com and Introduce his book Crush It! He'll be answering questions tagged "crush-it", and out of those questions, we'll pick the one with more votes and give whoever asked it a signed copy of Crush It! Gary will also be asking a question, and whoever he picks as his best response, will also get a copy of his book. Gary will be hosting Startups.com on Monday, November 23rd. - Mark Essel