I expected a book in the line of Freakonomics or The Undercover Economist and the first chapter brilliantly set the stage for such a book. Unfortunately, Tyler Cowen seemed more interested in preaching how to live your life rather than discovering your inner economist. I could feel his disapproving gaze for not appreciating art or food the way he does. Skip it and read The Undercover Economist instead.

Congrats to Josh Hug and the gang at Shelfari for joining the Amazon.com family.  I was an early angel investor in Shelfari and have been a long time avid user of the service.  Amazon was an investor in the first round and the two companies fit naturally together.

I invested in three vertical social networks in 2006 - Shelfari (books), Dogster (dogs and cats), and Enthusiast Group (sports).  So far I have one win (Shelfari) and o...

There is a phenomenon I like to call Entrepreneurial Attention Deficit Disorder (EADD).

EADD afflicts many entrepreneurs, but is a particular problem for primarily first-timers.

What happens is this -- once the entrepreneur starts to understand all of the opportunities that are exist in the marketplace, they become easily distracted from the purpose of their intended start-up venture.

I tell entrepreneurs that EADD is the main reason I have t...

I may be playing with a lit stick of dynamite here, but I'd like to know what you think of using online communities (whether of interest or practice) for lead generation? Does that amount to little more than prostitution?

Having come from the "purist" days of business blogging, I really don't want to use online communities for such "prurient" motives as driving marketing and sales agendas. Yet, I can't help but believe there can be a healthy...