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gordonbowman

153 karma · joined April 10, 2010

Blog - http://gordonbowman.com

Twitter - http://twitter.com/gordonbowman

LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonbowman

Mobile monetization @ Pandora (pandora.com), focused on mobile app developers.

Startup junkie. Interested in early stage Internet/Tech.

submissionscomments
gordonbowman··on Twitter likely to kill its music app
Not too surprised by this. #Music is a really hard business to crack. Only a few have been able to do it successfully.
gordonbowman··on A Passive Income Hacker's View on Wealth
Counter point:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelellsberg/2011/06/24/the-t...

gordonbowman··on Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
I think this is a great acquisition by Priceline. They are going for market share here to get ahead of Expedia et al.

A big part of their growing business is in Europe via Booking.com, so with Kayak they beef up their market share here in the U.S. in a big way.

gordonbowman··on App.net is crowdfunding their realtime feed platform
What will happen to the current App.net product suite for app developers? Will you continue innovating on those tools?
gordonbowman··on Fed: Americans' wealth dropped 40 percent
At least credit card debt has fallen across the board.

"The survey also confirmed that Americans are shifting the kinds of debts that they carry. The share of families with credit card debt declined by 6.7 percentage points to 39.4 percent, and the median balance of that debt fell 16.1 percent to $2,600."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/family-net-worth-drops-level-1...

gordonbowman··on App Academy: Free nine week iOS course
Hi Ned - would you all consider offering a free scholarship for the Fall course as well? I think for those who are already employed, the July 23rd start date is a very quick turnaround to quit or take a leave of absence. It would be much better to have more time to prepare.
gordonbowman··on SlideShare acquired by LinkedIn
Keep in mind the upside of LNKD stock. Still probably not enough to retire for most but the upside is substantial.
gordonbowman··on SlideShare acquired by LinkedIn
A big pay day for Venrock. They were the only institutional investor on the deal. Roughly 15x return on their $2.7mm in.
gordonbowman··on Show HN: Charts for Hacker News Polls
This is great. I think it would be helpful to add the percentages here too. Perhaps in the key so as not to clutter?
gordonbowman··on Triangle Startup Factory Re-Launches Accelerator; Promises $50K To Each Startup
Agreed. Absolutely great for the Triangle.

The surprise part was the promise of an additional $20-$150k in convertible notes. That's going to be huge for startups just starting out after the program.

gordonbowman··on Trigger Raises $1M From SV, Paul Graham etc For Cross-Platform Mobile Dev
Congrats on the launch Trigger team!
gordonbowman··on Ask HN: What are you most looking forward to in tech this year?
Raspberry pi does look very interesting. Hopefully it inspires more kids to get involved at an earlier age. When is it supposed to be released?
gordonbowman··on How To Choose A Board Member
Great post on an important topic. I also like Fred Wilson's advice:

"Above all else, look for great judgment and ethics."

http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2008/02/thoughts-on-cho.html

gordonbowman··on NASA Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone of Sun-like Star
This is why I love Hacker News.
gordonbowman··on Winter is coming
+1 just for the title
gordonbowman··on The benefits of working underground in Durham, NC
I grew up in Durham, NC so it's great to see startups like Adzerk doing well. It's clear that the startup scene in the Triangle (with all the tech talent, access to universities, etc.) is blowing up. Keep it up!
gordonbowman··on How LinkedIn Just Got Screwed Out Of $130 Million
Yes, it will likely stabilize in the mid-eighties over the next few weeks. However Blodget's main argument here is that the underwriters left a lot of money on the table. Assuming a more proper price for the stock of around $60 (instead of the $45) means that LinkedIn left about $130 million on the table.
gordonbowman··on Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation
agreed, that point stood out to me too.

also his note about not needing every iOS-device owner. And his footnote illustrates just how huge the iOS market is:

"If “only” 1% of current iOS-device owners bought Instapaper, I’d make about $5 million. I’d love to have 1% of the market"

gordonbowman··on Dropbox Attempts To Kill Open Source Project
Well laid out. The worst crime here is taking up the invaluable time of Dropbox developers who could and should be focused elsewhere.
gordonbowman··on Barnes & Noble treats Nook Color to Froyo; unveils Nook Apps
this is great to see. pandora while you read anyone?
gordonbowman··on Instapaper 3.0 is here
Absolutely love Instapaper. Glad to see these native sharing features.
gordonbowman··on Sleep is more important than food
Here are a few more suggestions from a comment in the post:

1) Wake up at the same time every morning. 2) Eat light in the evening, but have a small, low carb/sugar snack before bed. 3) Eat breakfast every day. 4) Drink caffeine before short (less than 25 minute) naps. 5) Ensure your bedroom is as dark as possible at night, and as light as possible when you wake up. 6) Sleep in the cold. 7) Stay away from bright light sources before bed (TVs, computers, bright house lights).

source: http://disq.us/1dlnu0

gordonbowman··on Sleep is more important than food
True. It's similar to the advice I've heard to read fiction right before bed instead of non-fiction to ease your mind into rest.
gordonbowman··on Sleep is more important than food
I was hoping to see some sleep hacks in the comments here. The author cites a few in the article:

1) Naps 2) Go to bed earlier 3) Start winding down at least 45 minutes before 4) Write down what's on your mind

Does anyone here have any other sleep hacks to share?

gordonbowman··on Ask HN: What kind of personal financial investment do you do?
I prefer to invest in individual stocks and not a fund. Funds do give you some protection, but they will also limit your upside. I prefer the risk/reward trade-off of investing in individual stocks and options.

I am still relatively young so my risk profile is more on the risk seeking side right now. I'll seek out more of the funds when I'm 35+, married with children, and have more to lose.

gordonbowman··on VCs Are Not Your Friends
True. You could easily say this about all professional relationships:

"Don’t confuse being friendly with your ___’s with ___’s as your friend"

gordonbowman··on Why Twitter just raised $200m.
Great points. These funds will surely be used to turn on the money faucet.

Also interesting is the fact that they brought David Rosenblatt on to the board.

As peHUB notes,

"Also joining Twitter’s board is David Rosenblatt, who was long the CEO of DoubleClick, then chief of Google’s display ad sales for roughly a year after it acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in 2008. (He left Google in April of last year.)

Certainly, though, for a company that looks to supercharge its revenues, bringing on the longtime CEO of one of the world’s biggest ad serving networks looks very smart."

http://www.pehub.com/90776/kleiner-muscles-its-way-into-twit...

gordonbowman··on How to build discipline and brainwash yourself
I would agree. It begins to make one think of the "how" behind it.
gordonbowman··on How to build discipline and brainwash yourself
Great post Ryan. Curious, do you think it would be more helpful to repeat statements like these or questions that make you think?

In other words, which of these repeated daily would have more of an effect on self discipline:

“Today, I will multiply my value a hundredfold." vs. "What am I doing today to multiply my value by a hundredfold?"