Master of 500 Hats

The 2009 TechFellow Awards: The Envelope, Please...

2009 TechFellow Awards
Photos by davemc500hats

Thanks to everyone who helped us pull together the first inaugural TechFellow Awards (2009)... according to a few who remembered the evening, it was a raging success :)

I'd like to congratulate all of our 22 TechFellow winners, as well as thank our nominating committee, and TechCrunch and many many others for helping us produce the event.

If you'd like to see more, you can find my photos of the 2009 TechFellow Awards (photos) and also the 2009 TechFellow Awards (uStream webcast).

(one other note: we are all saddened by the recent passing of Rajeev Motwani, and our condolences to his wife Asha and family... thanks to Ron Conway for providing a thoughtful tribute to his dear friend at the beginning of the award presentations)

DMC Metamorphosis :)

I feel like i've hit a turning point in my life.  Something has happened in the past 6 months, in the past 3 years since leaving Simply Hired & PayPal.  I'm not sure when it all clicked, but i've been fortunate to have a lot of wonderful things come my way lately.

Those things include but are not limited to:

• working with / investing in great startups like Mint (thx Aaron), SlideShare (thx Rashmi & Jon), TeachStreet (thx Dave), and many others
• running conferences like Startonomics SF (thx Debbie), Graphing Social Patterns (thx Gina & Tim), and Web 2.0 Expo SF (thx Brady & Jen)
• creating the now-infamous Stanford Facebook class (thx BJ, Yee, Jia, many others & our students!)
• coming up with Startup Metrics for Pirates AARRR! (thx Hiten, Andrew, Eric, *SO* many others) 
• getting Startup2Startup rolling last year (thx Leonard, Brian, Kat, Saar, & MANY friends/sponsors)
• joining FoundersFund this year (thx Sean Parker for giving me a shot)
• launching FF Angel LLC and investing in some great startups (thx FF, also Jeff Clavier & many other angels & VCs for great advice)
• retooling fbFund & creating the fbFund REV incubator program (thx Cat & folks at FB, Accel & FF, many others)
• kicking off GeeksOnaPlane Asia trip (thx Christine, George, lots others)
• putting Finance4Founders together & ready to rollout (thx Dan & others)

while this may seem like a laundry list, the one common thread in all of the above projects has been the amazing help of my friends & colleagues.  there is no way i could have accomplished any of these efforts without the patience, tolerance, brilliance, and sheer hard work of my home boys & girls.  you folks really do rock.  (and i know how much of a pain in the butt i am to work with!)

seriously: how lucky am i, to be blessed with so many incredible people in my life, who have given me so much, created such tremendous opportunities... while i remain the lazy, ADD, easily-distracted, crazy sonuvabitch i've always been, who barely manages to make rent each month. i mean, it's nothing short of a miracle that i can find my ass with both hands in the morning, and yet somehow after so many years in the valley i have found a nice little groove. how cool is that.

these days i actually wake up early & excited to do the work i'm doing, happy as a newborn puppy to spend time working on projects with people i like, and i keep pinching myself to make sure this shit doesn't disappear tomorrow.  well even if it did, i would treasure the moments thus far...

lastly, i must acknowledge the folks at home who help me find purpose and reason amidst all this insanity... thank you to my wife and our two beautiful kids.  you are the light of my life, and your smiles & laughter are precious beyond the treasure and measure of mortal men.  

truly, i am a very lucky person.  thank you to everyone :)

15 Minutes of Twitter Fame on Press:Here TV

well, actually less than half that... really only 7 minutes on the new Press:Here TV with Scott McGrew, Sarah Lacy, and Jon Swartz (also segments by Guy Kawasaki & Joshua-Michele Ross).  

hardly my best performance, but hey i'm doing my best to stay on top of the Silicon Valley D-List.

My quote & segment on Twitter from Press-Here TV:

"Twitter is the perfect tool for connecting thousands of shameless attention-starved exhibitionists with millions of shy introverts & curious voyeurs... it's the social network for people who wish their lives were more exciting, and for those who desperately need to share."

Guy Kawasaki:

Joshua-Michele Ross:

Jon Swartz, Sarah Lacy, Scott McGrew:

Startup Metrics for Pirates: FOWA/Miami (Feb 2009)

so i'm just re-arranging deck chairs here, i know... but there's at least 1 or 2 new slides. and a lot more funky colors, for those of you who enjoy my kidnapper-ransomnote fonts & unique style of raping the viewer's attention.  Also moved the embed of the original Startup Metrics for Pirates video (from Ignite Seattle / Summer 2007) after slide 23.

With no further ado, my talk from the Future of Web Apps (Miami, Feb 2009):

Startup Metrics for Pirates (FOWA/Miami, Feb 2009)

View more presentations from Dave McClure. (tags: revenue referral)

Best of DMC / Master of 500 Hats: The "Greatest Hats" Album

Finally got around to organizing some of my older / favorite blog posts... here you go:

Best of DMC / Master of 500 Hats blog: The "Greatest Hats" posts

(see http://500hats.typepad.com/greatest_hats/)

Some new & old startup blogs & presos i'm in love with

in no particular order, here are links to a few new books, blogs, & presentations i'm falling in love with lately (plus a few not-so-new-but-awesome old ones too).

• Startup Lessons Learned (blog, Eric Ries)
• Customer Development Methodology (preso, Steve Blank)
• Four Steps to the Epiphany (book, Steve Blank)
• LaserLike (blog, Mike Speiser)
• Revenue Metrics (preso, Andrew Chen)
• Futuristic Play (blog, Andrew Chen)
• Startup-Marketing (blog, Sean Ellis)
• Sit, Stay, Click!  Making Users Beg for More (preso, Ted Rheingold)
• Zappo's: Customer Service & Company Culture (video, Tony Hsieh)
• Designing & Optimizing the DNA of a Killer App (preso+sound, Dan Olsen)
• Putting the Fun in Functional (preso, Amy Jo Kim)
• Copywriting Tips for Online Marketing Success (blog, Brian Clark aka CopyBlogger)
• ProBlogger (blog, Darren Rowse)
• Reality Check (book, Guy Kawasaki)
• Groundswell (book, Charlene Li)
• The Altimeter (blog, Charlene Li)
• Almost as Good as Chocolate (Shripriya Mahesh)
• KISSmetrics (blog, KISSmetrics.com)
• Startup Founder Evolution (blog, Tony Wright)

apologies to all the amazing folks i'm forgetting about... i'm sure you are many and wonderful, and i'll remember just as soon as hit publish.  will try to add some more if i can.

Hawaii Here We Come.

Now this is what i call work.

Me & Saya & the kids are headed to Hawaii in the morning. We're arriving at Kona on the Big Island, spending a few days at the Fairmont Orchid to relax & schmooze w/ hoi-polloi @ The Lobby. 

Saya's parents & grandma are also flying in from Tokyo to meet us there & see the grandkids.  should be lots O' fun :)

RIP Good Times my ass... let's get this party started.

Got SchadenFreude? Profit from Other's Despair -- Enter the SlideShare "Credit Crisis in 30 Slides Contest" (Judges: Cuban, Varian, Kedrosky, Wilson)

Can you explain why High Finance is/isn't Going to Hell in a Handbasket in 30 slides or less?  Terrific. 

Enter the SlideShare Credit Crisis Contest (C^3) and you might win an iTouch, Nano, or Shuffle.  (yeah we know the prizes are cheap, but listen up mofo we're trying to preserve cash)

The Credit Crisis in 30 slides contest

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Credit Crisis Contest judges include:

• Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavericks owner / Entrepreneur)
• Hal Varian (Google Chief Economist)
• Paul Kedrosky (Finance Guru & Blogger)
• Fred Wilson (Venture Capitalist Pauper)

Mark Cuban	Hal Varian	Paul Kedrosky	Fred Wilson

just remember folks: the Startup you Save might be your Own.

Startonomics SF 2008: Yeah, We Rocked Your Face.

Summary of Startonomics SF 2008:

We Came, We Measured, We Conquered. 

  [mike drop to tha floor...]

all presentations & videos available via SlideShare and UStream, also on the Startonomics Blog.  additional coverage on CNet / Webware and Mashable, and other smart blogs. presos below via new SlideShare presentation pack widget:

| Get your Presentation Pack

look for us to hit the LA area sometime in January; other locations in 2009.  to hear about future Startonomics events, follow the Startonomics twitter acct @ STNX. much props to our speakers, sponsors, & supporters... and especially to Debbie Landa & the team at Dealmaker Media for kicking so much hiney.

Facebook Inbox 666: Number of The Zuck

Facebook Inbox 666: Number of The Zuck
Originally uploaded by davemc500hats

uh-oh... either Damien or Mark Zuckerberg has Possessed my Inbox.

pretty sure Merlin Mann has something to say about this.