Daily Archives: January 9, 2006

Top ten lies of entreprenuers

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guykawasaki3.jpgAuthor, Apple Mac evangelist, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki has an interesting blog in which he follows up this clever post on the “Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists” with this hilarious post on the “Top Ten Lies of Entreprenuers,” which include the following (see Kawasaki’s post for his explanation of each lie):

1. ìOur projections are conservative.î
2. ìGartner says our market will be $50 billion in 2010.î
3. ìBoeing is going to sign our purchase order next week.î
4. ìKey employees are set to join us as soon as we get funded.î
5. ìNo one is doing what we’re doing.î
6. ìNo one can do what we’re doing.î
7. ìHurry because several other venture capital firms are interested.î
8. ìOracle is too big/dumb/slow to be a threat.î
9. ìWe have a proven management team.î
10. ìPatents make our product defensible.î
Bonus lie: ìAll we have to do is get 1% of the market.î

My contribution: “If you can help us solve this initial cash flow issue, we’ll be just fine.”

Peter Lattman on the Calpine chapter 11 case

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Calpine Steam Guy Logo2.JPGAfter only a week, Peter Lattman’s new WSJ Law Blog is proving well worth reading, as reflected by his posts here and here on the politics involved in the initial meetings to select the creditors’ committee and its counsel in the Calpine Corp. chapter 11 case, which include the following observations:

Youíd think that a get-together of people owed money by Calpine would be a solemn affair, but it felt more Kiwanis Club than Creditors Club. Thatís because most of the people in the room werenít creditors; they were the lawyers, bankers, and consultants who make their livings off the carcasses of bankrupt companies like Calpine.
And this is one tight-knit group. After . . . 10 minutes of bland introductory remarks, they adjourned the meeting for two hours to select a committee. At that point a party broke out. The various advisors lingered, glad-handing and networking their way through the room. We even ran into a few hedge fund managers working the crowd, trying to handicap their investments.

National Championship redux

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vinceyoung3.jpgFollowing a weekend in which University of Texas alums continue to bask in the glow of their university’s first National Championship football team in a generation, I pass along the following items of interest:

The flat-out cleverest piece on the UT-USC National Championship game is this hilarious Bill Simmons/ESPN Page 2 column entitled “Welcome Back, Coach Fredo.” Don’t worry, Longhorn fans. Simmons is talking about USC coach Pete Carroll with that “Coach Fredo” tag. Hat tip to Kevin Whited for the link.

As expected, the star of UT’s National Championship team — QB Vince Young of Houston’s Madison High School —
announced on Sunday that he is ending his UT career and declaring himself eligible for the NFL Draft later this year. A collective sigh of relief could be heard from the eleven Big 12 coaches other than Longhorn coach Mack Brown.

Speaking of the NFL Draft, corporate legal expert Stephen Bainbridge provides a forum for discussing who the Texans should select as the first pick in the upcoming draft. One commenter posted the following football/corporate law question regarding the recent Texans-49’ers “Reggie Bush Bowl“:

Just a thought on the football game between the 49ers and the Texans. If the team was a corporation, would the Texans have a duty to lose the game in order to secure the number one pick? Winning the game is really not a benefit to the organization itself. Curious about your thoughts.

Another favored former Longhorn QB — Major Applewhite — may be the last offensive coordinator of the Rice University football program before the university downgrades its football program from NCAA Division I-A. New Rice head coach Todd Graham is employing young assistant coaches to help him attempt to revive the program — the average age of the assistants who he has hired to date is just under 33 years old.

The star-crossed football career of former Texas Tech running back Bam Morris — fresh off a prolonged stint in Leavenworth Federal Prison — took another interesting turn as the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League hired Morris to play running back for the team. Morris was the top running back in college football during the 1993 season.

Finally, although football is a dangerous activity, it’s nothing compared to this one.