You’ll be coming up with the taglines, building the marketing metrics, devising pricing strategies as well as making CES happen end-to-end and helping out on customer service phone calls.

For a video demo of the product, see: http://sifteo.com/

Siftables are gesture-sensitive video tiles that form a smart, distributed system for games and education. The technology has been spun out of the MIT Media Lab and has been featured on the Science and Discovery channels, presented at the TED conference, and has been written up by Engadget, Gizmodo, New Scientist and Wired.

The following is what they are looking for in an ideal candidate:

- 5+ years of professional experience in marketing consumer electronics and/or interactive games (this isn’t your first rodeo)
- organized: you are thoughtful and meticulous in all you do
- agile: you are willing to dig into (and adapt) our target customer profile as we learn more about product/market fit
- creative: you love to execute low-cost, grassroots outreach events
- writing skills: you can dash out tight copy with your eyes closed
- communication skills: you love talking to engineers and designers (maybe you are or were one), understanding their ideas, and working with them to deliver a great product
- resourceful: you can win big results on tight budgets
- decisive: you can pare away good ideas from the great ones and focus on measurable plans
Please send resumes to jobs@sifteo.com with subject "Marketing Lead"

Seth’s piece is a must read in this debate that is only gaining more participants, including a nice follow up from Mark Suster about his thoughts.  I can’t do justice to either Mark’s or Seth’s pieces trying to summarize them, so I strongly encourage you to read them.

I’m going to go out on a limb and break out my old law bar card and bring up one issue that I don’t think is getting enough focus in the debate:  the use of debt fundamentally changes the fiduciary duties of managers and board member of the company.

If a company raises cash via equity, it has a positive balance sheet.  It is solvent (assets are greater than obligations) and the board and executives have fiduciary duties to the shareholders in the efforts to maximize company value.  The shareholders are all the usual suspects – the employees and venture capitalists.  Life is good and normal. 

However, if a company is insolvent, the board and company now owe fiduciary duties to the creditors of the company.  By definition, if you raise a convertible debt round, your company is insolvent.  You have cash, but your debt obligations are greater than your assets.  Your creditors include your landlord, anyone you owe money to and folks that you might owe money to you, like former disgruntled employees and founders who have lawyers. 

How does this change the paradigm?  To be fair, I have had no personal war stories here, but it’s not hard to construct some weird and scary situations.

Let’s look at the hypothetical:

Assume the company is not a success and fails.  In the case of raising equity, the officers and directors only own a duty to the creditors (landlord, etc.) at such time that cash isn’t large enough to pay their liabilities.  If the company manages it correctly, even on the downside scenario creditors are paid off cleanly.  But sometimes it doesn’t happen this way and there are lawsuits.  When the lawyers get involved, they’ll look to try to establish the time in which the company went insolvent and then try to show that the actions of the board were “bad” during that time.  If the time range is short, it’s hard to make a case against the company.

However, if you raise debt, the insolvency time is forever!  Not just when cash got below the ability to pay liabilities like the equity situation, because the company has never been solvent. 

What does this mean?  It means that if your company ends up failing and you can’t pay your creditors, landlords, etc. that their ability for a plaintiff lawyer to judge your actions has increased dramatically.  And don’t forget, if you have any outstanding employment litigation, etc., all of these folks count as creditors as well.   

The best part of all of this is that many states impose personal liability on directors for screwing up things while a company was insolvent.  Read this to be:  “some states will allow creditors to sue directors personally for not getting all of their money they are owed.” 

Now I don’t want to get too crazy here.  We are talking about early-stage / seed companies and hopefully the situation is clean enough that my doomsday predictions won’t happen, but my bet is that few folks participating in convertible debt rounds are actually thinking about these issues.  And no, I don’t know of any actual cases out there, now.  But I’ve been around this business long enough to know that there is constant “innovation” in the plaintiff’s bar as well. 

This looks totally official. And it’s priced so high, it’s actually somewhat believable that it’s real. But it’s not. They are charging $1000+ to put your Trademark on the Internet. I also love the Washington DC address to give a further air of credibility.

And if you check out the website, you’ll be further humored to find that it’s a Liechtenstein-based company which if you have a dispute, you consent to travel to their home turf to fight it. I hear that Liechtenstein is beautiful this time of year…

Anyways,we kept moving rooms, filling out forms, being segregated into different piles of humanity and I thought “couldn’t this be simpler?” and made some snide comment under my breath about the efficiency of government.

While I was sitting there being frustrated, I realized that over complicated things, maybe more than anything, really ruin my day.  Then I realized that I was an arrogant ass, because I’m not sure my ecosystem is all that more simple or efficient most of the time, either. 

I could write tomes on all of the efficiencies that I see every day – the same ones that I’m sure you don’t like either.  I think all this artificial complexity probably plays back into our lives in that we start to overcomplicate things that don’t need the added brain damage.  This includes both professional and personal contexts and the sad thing is that we have so little control on most of these situations.

But we should rethink about how we do things when we do have control. 

Thinking back over my career – and specifically even if I just think deeply about the last few  weeks of meetings that I’ve had -I think the number one piece of advice that I’ve given is “keep it simple.” Whether it’s a business model, financing plan, product user interface, or a plan to deal with human conflict, simple is best the vast majority of the time. 

And likewise, when I think back to those seminal moments of mentorship that I’ve been fortunate to receive, there has usually been a component to simply what I was trying to accomplish.

So, there’s my fortune cookie advice for the day: “keep it simple.”  Likely you and those around you will be happier for it. 

Chief Information Officer and SVP, IT – Boulder

The CIO / SVP of IT will be responsible for defining, implementing and maintaining the vision and strategic direction of Webroot’s business-critical enterprise-wide IT infrastructure and applications. Working collaboratively across the organization, the CIO will partner with R&D, Data Center Operations, Sales, Professional Services, and other teams to support the IT needs of these respective business groups. The successful candidate will have proven expertise with Enterprise Applications, including selection, implementation, and integration. We seek a seasoned technology leader who has a proven track record of delivering highly visible, customer-facing projects on time and within budget.

Responsibilities

· Provide executive-level guidance and counsel to senior management on Information Technology matters.

· Provide the technology roadmap for future growth.

· Analyze the Corporation’s needs with regard to information access, storage & control, and the appropriate-to-the-business use of the latest computer and telecommunications technologies.

· Develop, communicate, and implement an overall integrated IT strategy, framework and philosophy that includes a uniform Systems Development Methodology that is responsive to the needs of the company’s growth and evolving objectives.

· Proactively work with the Webroot user communities to ensure timely identification and correction of application system deficiencies

· Oversee the design, development, and implementation of new enterprise applications as well as changes to existing computer systems and software packages.

· Develop and establish relevant IT-specific operating policies, programs and procedures.

· Ensure that all projects are implemented on time and within budget and that they provide the appropriate solution to the user’s needs.

· Identify and assess emerging information technologies to be assimilated, integrated, and introduced determining their potential value for the company.

Requirements

· An innovative, results-driven technologist with 15+years of leadership experience in a senior- level IT executive role with a demonstrated track record of implementing and managing information technologies in a growth business.

· Proven ability to motivate teams with experience providing quality deliverables within tight timelines, simultaneously managing multiple projects.

· Experience in strategic planning, contracting, negotiating and change management.

· Knowledge of information technology life cycle, including budget and resource allocation; experience with implementation of information technology application integrations in a large division/company.

· Must be analytical with strong business acumen and problem solving skills.

· Demonstrated ability to identify, establish and track key performance metrics and key indicators providing reports and analysis for executive management review and action. .

· Prior experience in a fast-paced, growth environment highly desirable.

· An undergraduate degree in a technical or business-oriented discipline with an MBA from a top tier business school highly desired.

If you would like an opportunity to work with this widely recognized worldwide leader in technology security, send your resume to rcirulli@webroot.com for consideration.

I was particularly upset in that I believe the author was intentionally distorting the facts of the survey for his own benefit.  Given how important patent policy is to this country’s innovation economy, I was amazed how a professor at a major University could be so cavalier with the facts of his own survey.  It was also disappointing that the first and best analytical study of its kind was being degraded by false interpretations.  If you feel like seeing the back and forth, feel free to check out his article and our collective comments). 

While I was away recently, Pamela Samuelson, (who was also one of the authors of the survey) gave her interpretation of the survey.  Her article is entitled Why Software Startups Decide to Patent …. Or Not.  I realize that I’m  a bit biased from view of software patents in general, but Pam’s analysis is much more neutral and balanced and therefore much more instructive in its teachings.  I will also point out that many of my comments of the prior article are supported by Pam’s analysis.

My partner Brad wrote an excellent summary of Pam’s analysis and is a must read for anyone who is interested in the subject.

Well done, Pam.  I really look forward to your future work based off the survey. 

As part of the discussion, there was a focus on the Startup Visa effort that has been introduced in both the Senate and House of Representatives (including by Jared Polis in the House).

I think Jared says it best:

"As a former entrepreneur, I know first-hand what it takes to build a company — and I know what opportunities a successful company can create for its workers, its suppliers, and its community.  If an entrepreneur has an idea for a company that will attract investors and hire workers, we should be welcoming and encouraging that entrepreneur to start their company in the U.S.,"

Furthered Mary Dent General Counsel of SVB when speaking about the impetus of the event:

"There is a great deal of evidence showing the profoundly positive effect that venture-backed companies have on our economy — creating jobs, creating entire new industries, and promoting U.S. competitiveness around the world," said Mary Dent, SVB’s general counsel. "Congress hears a lot from companies that have already made it.  We want to make sure they also hear from the growing companies that will shape our economy in the future.

Kudos to SVB for organizing such a worthwhile event and the New Dems for supporting their efforts.  Among all the issues that are important to our continued leadership role in technology and entrepreneurship, the value of initiatives like Startup Visa can not be overstated. 

Why is Jared important to you, if you aren’t from his district?

Simple.  He’s absolutely one of the most intelligent and thoughtful elected officials in our country when it comes to issues regarding startups, innovation, education, immigration and jobs.  (And probably a lot of other subjects, too, but these are just the ones that I engage him on). 

Jared was previously a serial entrepreneur (Proflowers.com, Blue Mountain Arts) and has been a thought leader on many issues that affect our industry.  He has stood strong in the face of political pressure to change his views.  In fact, I’m am most impressed with Jared’s resolve to do the right thing for our country as a whole, although he represents one district in one state.

Jared has been a steadfast partner with the NVCA on issues such as job creation, innovation, immigration, education reform and tax policy.

Today, Jared and the invited guests talked about everything from future policy decisions to mechanics of how things really get done in Washington.  It was a great learning experience.

I’m also happy to report that the NVCA PAC contributed to Jared, as well as several of the attendees personally, including yours truly.  I’d highly recommend folks contributing to Jared, no matter how small of a donation as every bit counts.  We need more people in Congress who really understand what drives this country’s success. 

Contribute here.  (Picture, L to R.  Me, Jared, Paul Schanitter and Mark Heesen, President of the NVCA)

The story surrounds Winery Peak, a fictitious winery in Napa that unfortunately finds several of its migrant workers taking sick from toxins found in a nearby creek.  What happens from there is a story of intrigue, as the corporate parent of Winery Peak tries to pin the blame on a fall guy, Peter Dickinson who is a world-renown wine maker and head of winery.  Junior associate Richard Magnus takes the case of Peter to protect both his honor and his liberties without his client really understanding that he’s never taken a case to trial before.  And behind all of this is a shadowy corporate parent organization that pulls at the strings of all the different characters.

I really liked the novel and found the courtroom aspects really interesting.  I learned some things about litigation that I’ve never known, but you don’t need to be a lawyer to appreciate it.  It’s just a good ole fashioned mystery.

Frankly, I was somewhat surprised of the quality of the novel, not anything against Chris, but I know that he is an extremely busy attorney.  This isn’t a case of a guy having a slow practice and having a lot of time on his hands.  On the contrary, one of my  favorite litigation experiences of all time (if there can be such a thing) was a case where not only did Chris get us out of the case under summary judgment, but got the court to award 100% of our legal fees.  It was a really complicated case, too. 

Congratulations Chris on a fine first outing.  I’d encourage folks to buy the novel and support this burgeoning artist.