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glennon's comments

glennon | 5 years ago | on: Mathematicians should stop naming things after each other

Tangential--I used to work with a lot of caves as a hydrogeologist:

Seven favorite cave names: Abisso "Queen Mama", Big Cave with Bats, Cave of the Swords, Eisriesenwelt (world of the ice giants), Hell Below, Lemon Drop, Mad As A Wet Hen Pit

Nice caves, but seven names that could use some help: Carroll Cave, Ellison's Cave, Fitton Cave, Kartchner Caverns, Lehman Cave, Lilburn Cave, Russell Cave

glennon | 6 years ago | on: Peak map: Visualize the elevation of any area using a ridgeline chart

This is a water gap, a feature which is commonly formed from a river older than the mountain range. In combination with that older river, in this case, the specific location was caused by "subrosion (a general expression applied to karst processes influencing the course of a river) and..meltwater channels at low altitudes" (Rohde 1994, Martini et al 2002-page 285).

-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_gap

-- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/97814443042...

-- Rohde P, 1994. Weser und Leine am Berglandrand zur Ober- und Mittelterrassen-Zeit E&G Quaternary Science Journal 44(1): 106–133, DOI 10.3285/eg.44.1.10.

glennon | 6 years ago | on: Ask HN: Advice for someone seeking to raise his first round?

A quick answer. I will expand later if I have time.

(1) Finding VCs: Research online. Nowadays most VCs want to be known, and they have websites and blogs and Twitter accounts. Find the appropriate VCs and send them a short email with a link to your deck. Join founder communities such as YC's https://startupschool.org or https://openland.com.

(2) What to prepare: A pitch deck. https://blog.ycombinator.com/intro-to-the-yc-seed-deck/

(3) What to avoid: Inexperienced startup investors. Also, in the United States, unaccredited investors. Before taking money from an investor, you might talk to a founder of one of their other portfolio companies. Also avoid complex financial agreements: learn about SAFEs and convertible notes beforehand. Overall, you should just review all of YC's latest Startup School materials. https://www.startupschool.org/latest If that's not the way you like to learn, get a copy of Feld and Mendelson's Venture Deals book -- they also run a free online course twice a year.

(4) Common mistakes: Contacting VCs who were not appropriate for the business, location, and stage.

(5) The number one way to increase your chances for getting a VC investment is to not need the VC's money in the first place. A business that is growing exponentially creates its own gravity. Barring that, each investor will have their own priorities. For me, it is the speed of the founder's iterations and progress. That often means I meet the founders long before any serious consideration of investing (e.g., https://bothsidesofthetable.com/invest-in-lines-not-dots-611... )

glennon | 6 years ago | on: Yellowstone National Park’s Sound and Video Libraries

For visiting Yellowstone in the "off season", the main consideration is road closures.

Most Yellowstone park roads are closed from November 4 through December 14. During that time, almost all park facilities are closed. The road from the north entrance to the Mammoth Hot Springs Visitor Center remains open all year.

From mid-December through February park travel is only possible via snowmobile and snowcoach (again, except for the north entrance / Mammoth area). Then all roads close again in March.

Roads open to normal cars again starting at the end of April and into May. Snow accumulation and animal activity can keep some roads and trails closed into June.

More info from the Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/parkroads.htm

--- --- ---

When to visit:

Best wildlife watching: spring. Fewer people and lots of wildlife out with their young.

Best geyser watching: the hottest, cloud-free day of summer. Hot water makes lots of steam, so eruptions are more difficult to see in cold weather. Similarly, geyser eruption plumes have low color contrast with respect to clouds. Also, see: https://geysertimes.org/

On balance, best time to visit: September and October. Fewer people. Roads and trails usually open. Days can possibly be warm. Plenty of wildlife.

glennon | 7 years ago | on: Where Have All the Angels Gone?

Of the 500 or so pitches I have heard in the last six months in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, about ten proposed a no cap note--a few of these with a discount and a few with no discount. These were almost entirely Stanford students at a single Stanford event, so I think that was more about targeting rich alums who might wish to help new entrepreneurs at the Alma mater.

glennon | 7 years ago | on: Where Have All the Angels Gone?

I went to a YC angel investing workshop in March 2018. The lectures are all on YouTube. My takeaway was to try to independently consider deals, and not worry about herd mentality. Of course, there was a lot of material, ranging from YC partners, external angels, and VCs. There was conflicting information and advice about the decisionmaking process -- which is good, I think: the process is different for everyone.

Lectures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aiJlRS2i_w&list=PLQ-uHSnFig...

My evaluation template for the recent YC batch: https://alanglennon.com/2019/03/15/yc-w19-template/

glennon | 7 years ago | on: Where Have All the Angels Gone?

My loose coalition of angel friends did a blind survey among ourselves. Sixty responses received from 700 angels, conducted in March 2018. The median check size was $25K. I do not remember the exact distribution, but check sizes of less than $10K were rare, as were checks over $50K.

glennon | 7 years ago | on: Launch HN: Balto (YC W19) – Fantasy Sports People Bet On

YC states their lead ethical underpinning in the first line of their Founding Principles: "Startups are on balance a good thing." They go further in describing their goal to support and advise founders; and include phrasing about their philosophy of being "benevolent" to founders. Their Principles also describe prioritizing mission-driven endeavors over money. You or I may not share their ethics, but they have theirs.

glennon | 7 years ago | on: Serum concentrations of PFASs and exposure-related behaviors in women

All good. Of course my descriptive headline was intended to emphasize the findings of the study. The journal article title simply offers that research has taken place -- and thus, is not nearly as useful. It would have been possible to link to a news article that interpreted the study (and had a 'catchy' title), but I thought HN readers would prefer a primary source. Regards!

example catchy title: 'Oral-B Glide floss tied to potentially toxic PFAS chemicals, study suggests' https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/01/09/oral-b...

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