I was going to post a link to a story that ran about Scale Computing in the New York Times, but that will wait for another post to follow:  In the mean time, please take 10 minutes and read through the following rather lengthy article.  Whether you are interested in entrepreneurship because you are starting a company, or just find the subject interesting in general, this article will get you thinking: City Journal - What Ever Happened to Work Ethic?   Read Full Story

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve talked to people who were “planning” on starting a company, or “staring to work on it in the evenings”, maybe even with “a group of people who all have other jobs right now.” Some of these folks have asked questions I’ve responded to here at McStartup, others are just casual conversations. Both here on the site and in these conversations, I’m happy to try and provide some advice, but... Read Full Story

John writes: What's your take on "pay for present" Angel Groups? We've been asked to present on Friday to an Orange County group who wants a $50 application fee and a $1500 presentation fee. I keep thinking of Hollywood agents that can make me a star for the same figure. I would welcome a differing opinion, but my take is the same as your take.  Certainly there is not going to be much wrong with a completely nominal fee (say, the $50) just to get the folks that aren't really trying to ... Read Full Story

Toby wrote: I have been offered the role (with a euphemistic ring!) of CEO of a new startup - I will also be the sole employee to begin with...I have not yet developed a clear business model, but there is one complexity I am unclear on.I have been offered an immediate salary $70k (~50% of my current salary as a professional) and a 5% equity stake. We're still talking in loose terms, but I was guaranteed that this would be 5% AFTER two rounds of capital raising (small seed, and then second ro... Read Full Story

In today's Network World magazine, Scale was named one of 9 storage companies to watch -- as well we should be!  For those of you in the dark, Scale is the reason updates to McStartup have been few and far between lately.     Read Full Story

Gayle writes: I've read your articles but first time I've been out to you site. Good Stuff!Question: I am raising $35,000 capital for a start-up company (seed money/pre-start-up). I have an investor willing to invest $10,000 but wants 10% of the company (1% equity for every thousand). Is this typical with private/angel investors?Also, will probably need some consulting down the road - have never taken a start-up through this. What are your rates?Any and all info appreciated! Thanks! The pro... Read Full Story

Thomas wrote: Four of us just graduated college, and have started a video game company together. One guy's dad is putting in up to $50k to help us get our first title out there. Who knows if we'll make revenue from it, but it should be enough to get us to publisher financing or potentially other investors next.BTW, we are an S-Corp, I believe we have 10,000 shares setup, and the dad financing would be for 20% in shares or a convertible note (still don't know enough to decide).Everyone on the... Read Full Story

My "real" work at my latest startup venture has really been sucking away all the time I would have spent at McStartup - but I'm hoping to catch up on a few questions that have been lingering in the queue for awhile.  A few of you have received email replies directly from me, when it looked like you had a pressing issue and I knew I wouldn't have time to make a blog post.  In any case, I'll try to get them all posted up here over the next weeks. Meanwhile, be sure to stop by Scale Co... Read Full Story

It has been quite some time since I've been motivated to make any blog posts, since I'm, you know, busy doing actual stuff that matters.Nevertheless, my favorite topic of stupidity is all over the news again, as Congress is preparing to vote on legislation that would regulate the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as a way to combat global warming.I need not go into all the detail, because you can read all my posts debunking global warming here. Still, this is so dumb that I have... Read Full Story

Been way too busy to update the blog for some time, but in reading some investment/market related news from the weekend, a few thoughts came up I thought I would share. The talk of the world is, of course, the North Korean nuke test -- which was successful and estimated to be the size of the atomic bombs used in WW2 against Japan. So, the question is: If China were to invade North Korea so as to "secure the peace" -- and in doing so setup a puppet government, or just outright ann... Read Full Story