One of the favorite parts of modern video games, for many people, is designing their avatars. I’ve been thinking about this because I’m looking for AI to create an area I call “synthetic social media.” But so far I haven’t seen any companies in this space. Since it doesn’t exist, I don’t know exactly what shape […]
Author Archives: robmay
Does Customer Development Really Matter For Startups?
I was chatting with someone the other day about customer development and I asked a simple question. Now that customer development has become so common among venture backed tech startups, has it moved the needle at all on outcomes? I don’t have any hard data but, it seems to me that just as many startups […]
The Coming Rise of Synthetic Data in AI
More and more often, I am hearing startups talk about “synthetic data.” I’ve seen my existing startup investments start to use it, and I have seen entire companies formed around it. So, what is it? Put simply, it is data created by a machine. Now, why would we do that? Imagine that you want to […]
What Ethan Zuckerman Could Teach Googlers About Debate Culture
When I read recently about Google’s attempts to corral internal debates, I thought the way Ethan Zuckerman handled his leaving the MIT Media Lab was a very good model for how to handle debate in general. I’ve met Ethan twice while sitting on panels together and have always been impressed with how he handled himself. […]
Hiring, Reputations, and Why Backupify Was Really Successful
I remember doing reference calls on the very first executive I tried to hire at Backupify. I was 31 years old, a first time CEO, and had never hired a senior executive before. I had a candidate, and I mined LinkedIn for 3 people that had worked with him before to do reference checks. The […]
What Horses, Watches, And Bookstores Can Teach Us About Why Automation Won’t Kill Jobs
A few months ago I spoke on a panel, and I was asked a question that I am always asked about AI and automation – will it kill jobs? And if so, what do we do? The answer I gave surprised many people who said they had never heard an answer like this before so […]
The Half Court Ventures Story: What I’ve Learned From 4 Years of Angel Investing
Backupify was acquired in December of 2014. In June of 2015 I made my first angel investment. Along the way, I started a fund with my friend Todd Earwood, and learned a lot about investing. This post chronicles that path. Deciding To Angel Invest The first thing I did post exit was talk to lots […]
Welcome To Coconut Headsets
I’ve been blogging since 2003, when I wrote the Businesspundit blog, which I sold in 2008. Then I moved to coconutheadsets.com, but in 2014 moved to Medium, feeling like it provided better distribution for my thoughts. I don’t really like it anymore so I’m moving back here as my primary source of writings. I’m also […]