I've been involved with a number of early-stage businesses, most recently as CTO of WinePicks. I've been sharing my thoughts on business, law and technology here for almost 8 years. Want to know more?
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting
it." -Aristotle
Recent Articles
Of Tragedies and Anniversaries 5 months agoI've always had a weird and complicated relationship with 9/11. On the ten year anniversary of the attacks, I reflect on the significance of the events and other anniversaries. [more]
Rethinking My Blog 1 year and 7 months agoI've been writing here for over seven and a half years, during which I've written almost 1,100 posts. I've made a few changes recently to my site based on trends I've noticed, and thought this might be worth discussing in more depth. [more]
One Year after a Cancer Diagnosis about 2 years agoOn the one year anniversary of the day I was told my cancer had spread, I spent the day at the very same hospital on regular follow-up testing. This odd coincidence made my reflection on what was a crazy year particularly surreal. [more]
Why Paying to Pitch is Necessarily a Scam 2 years and 3 months ago
There's been a bit of a backlash recently - spawned primarily by Jason Calacanis' post - against angel groups that charge entrepreneurs relatively significant sums to pitch their ideas. As Jason puts it, this is an “injustice” and an “abuse of power” – that the poor, desperate entrepreneurs shouldn't be footing the bill for any expenses for the rich angels they are seeking money from. In principle, I think we can all agree with this.
Much of the focus here has been on exposing the bad behavior of these investors, but I think the problem is deeper than that. In other words: By paying to pitch, entrepreneurs are actually hurting their already slim chances of raising money.
[more]
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Most Popular Articles
Having trouble connecting to games on Xbox Live through a router? about 5 years ago
If you're having connection issues with certain games on Xbox Live, it's most likely a configuration issue with your router. In this post, I explain how to set up your Xbox so that you'll have an open NAT. [more]
Outlook unable to connect to Exchange 2003 with 0x8004011D error? 6 years and 2 months ago
The Dark Side of Drag-Along/Tag-Along Rights about 5 years ago
Drag-along and tag-along clauses are pretty standard terms in a stock agreement - and while they serve a very real purpose, they can also be used in less than ethical ways. [more]
Dell DJ vs. iPOD: Comparing the 3G iPod, iPod Mini, and Dell Pocket DJ 7 years and 7 months ago
Rethinking My Blog 1 year and 7 months ago
I've been writing here for over seven and a half years, during which I've written almost 1,100 posts. I've made a few changes recently to my site based on trends I've noticed, and thought this might be worth discussing in more depth. [more]
My Projects
I am the founding member of
Nextburgh, a community for entrepreneurs and
innovators in Pittsburgh.
I am the founder and CTO of
Shopvisory which helps consumers tap into experts
in their social graph and make better purchase decisions.
I was co-founder and CTO of
Notches, a distributed platform for reviews. We
worked with e-commerce partners to aggregate, syndicate, summarize and normalize
reviews.
I started
Dynasty Dashboard to help myself and other dynasty fantasy football
owners manage their leagues better.
