RIP Silicon Valley

RIP the place that was Silicon Valley. Talent is fleeing the Bay Area at warp speed. Capital will flee too, but more...

Now is the Time to be Afraid

You probably saw the Sequioa memo. Today, I want to give you a more urgent message: BE VERY AFRAID. Your current level of alarm is not high enough.

Truth Decay

The truth is the first thing to go When you go from being powerless To powerful...

Abundance mindset

You don't need money or a rich family to become an entrepreneur. Taking the leap to start a company requires, more...

The Challenge of Rolling Solo

Being a solo founder is hard. It's almost trite to say, but I'm in it and it's real. I'm not sure if it's just the...

Thanksgiving Letter to My Portfolio CEOs

Most people don’t get to work with people they admire so deeply. Most people don’t get to be as real with the people they work with. Most people do not get to be part of work that is so important.

Rape & Justice in America

In college, I was in a serious, loving relationship with a woman who had been drugged, bound and violently raped by a...

Poor. Hungry. Driven.

In hiring and investing, we are all biased. My bias? I bias toward and pattern match on PHDs: Poor. Hungry. Driven.  I...

To the Dreamers: a Thank You

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of...

The Greece Situation

Here's what I would do if I was running Greece right now... I would vote "no" vote in the recent Greek referendum. I...

Getting Unstuck

"The only difference between Elite Entrepreneurs and those just getting started is the amount of time we stay stuck."...

Letter to a Fired Founder

A friend of mine just got fired from his startup. As a founder, he was classy, loyal and relentless. He behaved like a...

Ask for the Money

I have a technique for asking investors for money. At the end of the pitch meeting, I ask: "So... are you in?"  It's...

No One Is Self-Made

Fatherhood has changed me. In my pre-fatherhood twenties, I thought of myself as a self-made man. I viewed the world...

A Christmas Gift for My Dad

How I created the perfect computer setup for my nearly blind, 85 year old dad. Hint: We turned a 52″ flat screen TV into a computer monitor.

Be Kind. It Pays.

The best investors are the most focused on building long-term relationships with people. The worst investors are the most transactional, the most focused on the deal, on the what you can do for me right now.

Morality is a Luxury Good

War is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.  -Carl Von Clausewitz Morality is a...

Farewell to All That

"Each time you crest the rise in front of you, it just makes it clear the size of the even larger hill that looms...

Knowing When to Flip.

Magazines take your photo. Venture Capitalists offer to invest over email.  Billionaires smoke weed in your living...

Humility the Hard Way

So much of the best advice is impossible to hear when you are first starting out. Success feels within our grasp, just...

A Letter to My Son

Luca's school asked me to write him a letter for mail day. I asked if I could send an email instead. They said 'yes.'...

Valediction, Memorial Day

Thanks to all the military veterans out there. You put your ass on the line, be it for freedom or some politician's...

A Good Startup CEO

A good startup CEO sets the direction, the mission and the unit of measure, then empowers his team to figure out the...

Naked in the Mirror

“You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” -Steve Jobs It's easy to forget that lesson...

How Are You Going to Win?

"How are you going to win?  It’s not going to come from blog posts or angel money – it’s going to come from having a...

Co-Founders

Tomorrow is one of my old co-founder's birthday. My phone reminded me. Unfortunately, we no longer speak. The end of...

The Minimum Viable Startup

I am the founder of a beer & booze delivery service called Swig! We partner with licensed brick & mortar...

Blogging Again

I've decided to start blogging again after a year-long hiatus. I used to blog at The Metamorphosis,  decided to act on...

Becoming a Father

On March 7, 2012, I became a father. I think often of what this means. I look at my son in awe. I was once him. My...

Destroying Value

Sarah Lacy is the best writer in tech. Hands down. And 3 days ago, TechCrunch/AOL lost her. What a goddamn shame.

Facebook & the Future

Facebook is not a "social networking" company; Facebook is an identity company. Your data is their castle; your friend...

Becoming a CEO. Yeah, I Suck.

There’s a lot I suck at. I’m bad at financial calculations. My Excel proficiency is amateur, at best. I don’t know...

My Old Town

I've watched New York grow up from afar. In May of 2010, I moved out of my apartment in Harlem. I was broke. My...

Be My Assistant

I'm hiring an assistant. If you're interested in the role, first email me your resume, then create a slide...

Asking the Right Questions

I came home from work grinning with pride. Fridays are now "Code Review" days at SpeakerText. Each Code Review, a...

The “Outsider” Strategy

In college, I studied spent a lot of time studying warfighting strategies in the context of international security and...

Mémoires of My Early Twenties

I ran across Chateaupia this week. It's a documentary about Le Chateau, a place I lived as a UC Berkeley student in...

Technology Hucksters

"I had a false idea about what Silicon Valley was. The myth of Silicon Valley is about technical competence, but the...

Chip On My Shoulder

UPDATE: Investors are still giving me shit for this and it's pissing me off. Look people, I asked a legit question...

Why I Love Hip Hop, America

I grew up in Orange County. I was corn fed on punk rock. When I was 17, I saw Rage Against the Machine at Irvine...

Hustlers Wanted

SpeakerText needs help. Seriously. The amount of non-technical work and stuff we need to do to make SpeakerText...

Communicating a Vision

I remember seeing this interview with Carol Bartz at TC Disrupt: NYC (above). Arrington: What is Yahoo? Bartz: What is...

Team Magic

We've been living together for almost 5 months now. I am fairly organized when it comes to work, but I'm not what...

R.I.P. SpeakerCar

When you have no money and you need a car, you get SpeakerCar. M2 sold her last week for $350––less than the price of...

The SpeakerCave Genesis

On June 1, 2010, I moved into the SpeakerCave. This wasn't the plan A, mind you––more like plan C––but at least it was...

Duty & Failure

I ran across this "shutting down" letter from a YC startup called NewsLabs. Here's the crux:As I'm...

Here's an example of SpeakerText in action. The that's great thing about it. Look at what we're doing...I...

Patent Absurdity

Video: Patent Absurdity - Dokumentarfilm (28:54) Hat tip to Fred Wilson

Why Founders MUST Blog

Want to Break into Startups or VC? Apr 27, 2010 at 2:52pm Quick post for people reading this blog who are interested...

The To Do List for Founders

Venture Hacks had this GREAT To Do List for founders. I saw it and just had to share... 1) Move to Silicon Valley. 2)...

Founder Bloggers Wanted

Vin Turk wrote a comment on my last post on creating a more Founder-Centric Narrative: After reading the post,...

What NYC Needs: A New Narrative

Roger Ehrenberg of Information Arbitrage Capital recently wrote a great post entitled: For the Good of the NYC Venture...

People > Money

I am not a rich man. I'd like to be (one day), but I am not now. When I am, I will have more shit and travel more...

The peHUB Interview

SpeakerText Founder Matt Mireles on Becoming Famous Overnight, Fundraising, and Why He’s Soon Ditching New York for...

How I Judge Investors

Pitching your startup to investors is a deeply personal matter.  More often than not, they––politely or...

Headlines

Funny thing happened last week.The post I wrote, NYC vs Silicon Valley, kinda blew up and set off wave of dicussion in...

Comfortable with Uncertainty

Comfortable with Uncertainty Posted on: Friday, February 26th, 2010 When do you know? I mean, really know? Slumped...

NYC vs Silicon Valley

There's been a lot written lately about the NYC startup scene. It's exploding. It's hot. Etc. And all that...

Mike Maples is the Shiznit

I wanna pitch this guy. Just, umm, yeah. My kind of dude.(Wish Vimeo's API could play nice with SpeakerText....

Mental Toughness

Back in 2004, before I lived in New York City or attended Columbia or even dreamed of starting a company, I fought...

A Rigged Game

I wrote this post as a comment in response to Jordan Cooper's original post, entitled: Full of Potential =...

Wanted: NYC Startup Job Fair

UPDATE: My prayers have been answered! There is now an official NYC Startup Job Fair happening on Friday, April 9th at...

Reflections on a Decade

Ten Years Ago today I just had just turned nineteen. With a single semester at UC Berkeley under my belt, I was...

User Happiness

When customers are faced with a challenge — a gap in their knowledge, a website that’s not intuitive to navigate, a...

Company Math vs VC Math

It is the same "VC math" which drives a VC to seek to deploy a larger amount of capital into a...

The Need for Achievement

I had a great conversation with Brad Feld today in the comments on his blog post: An Honorable Run and American Power....

Openness, Evil and Google

Chris Dixon has a great post today on Google's hypocrisy regarding openness. I think the title says it all: Google...

Seizing Opportunity

Mark Suster has been killing it lately over at Both Sides of the Table. This gem is from a post entitled...

The Startup Founder Visa

I sent this email to my congressman today. I urge you all to learn about and support the Startup Founder Visa...

CHARLIE ROSE: Tell me about “Mafia Wars.” MARK PINCUS: Sure, so “Mafia Wars’” is a game where you form a mafia with...

The Entrepreneurial Mindset

I heard something today that made me think about the problems facing the newspaper business specifically and the media...

The YouTube Revolution

The revolution may not be televised, but it is being broadcast. And that itself is revolutionary. I saw Neda die for...

America, a Banana Republic?

Welcome to America, the World's Scariest Emerging MarketFrom Desmond Lachman, former Deputy Director of the...

Matt Mireles, Crime Fighter?

Ok, so this has absolutely nothing to do with journalism, economics or technology, but i thought I'd share...

Newspaper Death Map

From NYT's Richard Perez-Peña:  But now, some economists and newspaper executives say it is only a matter of...

Planned Obsolescence

Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, published a story about a conversation he had with "a big music label...

Stimulus for Startups

Today, Reid Hoffman, Founder of LinkedIn, offered a creative, entrepreneurially -focused stimulus plan for...

The Propeller Head’s Dilemna

Image via WikipediaSorry to focus so much attention on the Times, but NYT had a great conversation piece yesterday...

Ayn Rand Making a Comeback?

My man Dave Brooks at NYT wrote a prescient if satirical piece about the dangers of nationalization and the growth of...

NYT and the Printed News

Under the headline, "Printing The NYT Costs Twice As Much As Sending Every Subscriber A Free Kindle," Nick...

First Principles

My name is Matt Mireles. I am a entrepreneur. I started this blog because a) I care about ideas and b) because it...