Agreed on Dalton's speech. It was also really good to hear from someone whose company had failed, and to see how he dealt with it afterwards. I'm glad to see that he's so upbeat about it now, and that he still seems to think it was worth it. As a serial entrepreneur, I know that I will eventually be in his position, and I hope I will handle it so gracefully.
I also caught a great one-liner from Reid (something to the effect of): "The big danger is not Google or Microsoft building your exact product -- they probably won't. The big danger is 1000 other startups building slightly similar, and you getting lost in the noise." (Except he said it better than I am restating it.) For me, that took a lot of things that I had understood but never really examined and crystallized them into an 'aha!' moment.
I liked Paul's entire talk quite a lot -- his thoughts on funding were typically well-stated and articulate, and it didn't hurt that they painted a hopeful picture for us as entrepreneurs. Hopefully the ripples of the changing investment structures in the Valley will spread to affect the general economy in a few years.
I also caught a great one-liner from Reid (something to the effect of): "The big danger is not Google or Microsoft building your exact product -- they probably won't. The big danger is 1000 other startups building slightly similar, and you getting lost in the noise." (Except he said it better than I am restating it.) For me, that took a lot of things that I had understood but never really examined and crystallized them into an 'aha!' moment.
I liked Paul's entire talk quite a lot -- his thoughts on funding were typically well-stated and articulate, and it didn't hurt that they painted a hopeful picture for us as entrepreneurs. Hopefully the ripples of the changing investment structures in the Valley will spread to affect the general economy in a few years.