I asked Gary to be on Wallstrip well before Cramer globbed on (linked to Gary’s site many moons ago) and have no idea why that never happened, but kudos to Cramer for getting it and getting a great interview.
Gary is just doing it and I can only stand back and admire it. Of course Gary uses TubeMogul to help build his brand. Viddler too. Why noDisqus though dude?
Eric and I met last month and we chatted about CNBC, Fox and mainly, why??????
Obviously it’s good for your brand if that’s what you want to build. Eric has managed to keep his message simple and the few times I caught him on Fast Money you could just tell he was more effective than the others with his simple market tactics and message.
His experience backs it up. You cut losses. In a bad market, you do less.
That’s pretty much it. In great markets you make your money by doing the above in all markets.
By the way Eric…as per your last email to me….yes…smoking!
Alan has a great track record and I have become friends with Ian Sigalow who works as an associate at Greycroft. Alley Insider has him at Number 4 in their Alley Insider 100.
4. Alan Patricof
Founder and Managing Director, Greycroft Partners
What do you do when you’ve already built a dominant global private equity firm? If you’re mogul Alan Patricof, you get bored, get out, and start all over again.
Having already developed the wildly successful Apax Partners into a global powerhouse, the supremely connected Patricof recently refocused on the start-up scene with New York-based VC firm Greycroft Partners. The firm has invested in at least 15 start-ups over the past year, including Doppelganger, K2 Network, Azureus, Ladies Who Launch, Takkle, paidContent.org, and the Huffington Post.
The genteel Patricof is still reportedly a slave-driver: He and his associates (Dana Settle from VSP Capital, Drew Lipsher, former head of M&A at IGA Records, and Ian Sigalow, once of Boston Millennia Partners) review 30-50 business plans a week. Greycroft also just had its first “exit” event, selling its stake music exchange Pump Audio and booking a 7x return in less than a year.
Patricof won’t be Twittering anytime soon (he still uses a Dictaphone), but his Outlook contact database holds 4,500 names. His portfolio company executives rave about this and almost everything else about him–an aura they sum up, simply, as “The Alan Factor.” At SAI, we just refer to him as “God.”
We have Fred Wilson, Number 3, as a regular Wallstrip guest, so we just need Barry Diller and Bloomberg and we will have gotten them all. Go to work Julie!
When you are knee deep in the day to day you sometimes forget the collection being built over time. Lindsay and I have written thousands of interview questions. I wish the interviews were longer, but web video is web video.
Apple is no longer a place where employees call the printer – resume writer. Indeed Bijan .
Always sell when 50 limousines are lined up outside Janus Headquarters. Good advice Alan .
If an Arab fund offers you $500 million for your fund, don’t do what Andy did. Take it and leverage it in solar stocks .
Don’t trust whitey, or corporate boards.
When I dreamed up Long/Short I had no idea this would be the favorite part for interviewees. I prefer Porn Star or Hedge Fund manager which few interviewees get 50 percent right. That said, Rikki is way short the French and large funds which is spot on.
He’s a big dude . He has big opinions. He thinks constantly about the Big Picture . He has some big new plans in stock research software. He waves his hands in a big way. He’s big into cigars, movies (huge snob), music, dancing, blogging, linking and of course…porn.
O.K. scratch that…he hates dancing .
I enjoy my extremely fast paced chats with Barry. We both talk over each other and have no idea what the other guy said. We are like two hamsters on wheels running in different directions.
I am way more small picture, but appreciate the importance of checking in on “The Big Picture” all the time. You should too. Do remember to be nice in the comments though. He’s a sensitive lug.
Barry really describes what it is and what makes it so addicting:
What makes DonorsChoose so compelling is the personalized nature of the process, as compared to the traditional method of donating to organizations. In the typical model, you send a donation to an organization. In return, you receive a generic thank you note, which primarily serves as documentation for tax purposes. Periodically, perhaps once each quarter, you’ll get a general newsletter updating you on some of the 762 projects the organization is working on. Of course, you don’t get any sense of whether your $250 donation went towards a specific project or, perhaps, was used towards the purchase of a high-speed printer used for direct mail. All in all, not a very personal nor satisfying process.
With DonorsChoose, you get an email sent by the teacher, sharing the specific impact of your donation on his or her classroom. The notes I’ve received are heartfelt, personal and seem to indicate surprise that someone actually acted on their request.
The latest proposal that I selected was to purchase a rug for a Chicago-based kindergarten class which had none. While a rug doesn’t seem that exciting, anyone with young children knows that the rug is the heart of the kindergarten classroom, where the students are brought together for various activities. The fact that our schools are so poorly funded that they require four and five year-olds to sit on a cold tile floor is abominable, but that’s a topic for discussion elsewhere. At McCutcheon Elementary, the school which submitted the request, 10% of the students are homeless; 100% of them qualify for school lunch and breakfast programs.
Here’s the response I received from Mrs. Lee, the McCutcheon teacher who had submitted the request:
Dear Mr. Graubart,
Even though I’m a teacher and hardly ever speechless, that’s exactly how I feel right now. I am blown away by your generosity and cannot contain my excitement about this amazing gift you have given to our class. I can’t wait to get to school tomorrow and share this wonderful news with my class! Thank you very much!!!
So, if you want to feel good about yourself, visit DonorsChoose, review a few proposals and make a donation to the project of your choice. The nearly instant gratification is sure to make your day. But be warned – you can easily make a regular habit of it.
This is just a win for EVERYBODY and the web in general. Try it out today.
It was fun having my buddies Eric and Cole on for a quick Wallstrip chat . They have been busting their asses for a long time putting together a tight trend following program for stocks. Being stuck in Arizona is probably not best for a hedge fund this good, but the ‘World is Flat’ no?
They are good.
They actually explain…’When to Sell ‘ in their whitepaper which you can link to from their site or my blogroll.
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