Mark Pincus Blog

My angel investment focus

A reader and friend recently said I should be more public and explicit about what types of investments I'm making and looking for. My interest is pretty broad from consumer media to software infastructure and from cashflowing to raw new ideas. Here's all the major investments I can name right now.

* napster - gone

* egroups - bought by yhoo

* technorati - leading blog search

* socialtext - first player and leading wiki sw co

* friendster - first player and leading social network

* facebook - u know them.

* ireit - one of the leaders in domain name business with high cashflow.

* nanosolar - leading solar tech co

* jason calcanis's new podcasting/vlogging company

* merlin - a fast growing new prime brokerage firm

* naseeb - leading muslim social network

* ezboard - leading community site for hosted message boards

* advent solar - solar player

* xoom - intl payments I am always interested in seeing more oppts. Keep them coming.

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Do you need cool office space in sf?

I'm considering buying a building in soma/potrero hill and wondering if any sf readers need office space. The idea would be to house lots of startups (and other companies) with flexible lease monthly terms and shared services like internet and kitchen and lounge space.

The buildign is bare bones but cool and cheaper than most alternatives.
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Roadtrip day 2: Flying over denver

Wanted to post pix from the air but can't get my mobile blogging to work on typepad.

I'm on day two of my cross country flying trek. This is my first time. Fun. Like the first roadtrip.

Stopped in aspen yesterday. Nobody there. Great.

Stopping in chgo for family and a tennis match and then ny tomorrow.

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Zinga should have won this!

this is a picture of budha, or something, the dog that won the most beautiful bulldog contest. lucky for him zinga didnt enter that contest!

Spending may and june in ny

Ill be living and working in ny for the next two months. Look forward to connecting with everyone out there. Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from T-Mobile.

What learned at Dialog

Spent the past few days in new orleans at auren hoffman's conf. What's different about dialog is that its all about the people interacting as opposed to most conferences where that happens in between sessions.

Anyway, I learned from the cato institute that I'm not actually a libertarian, according to their definition.

I am in favor of gun control. I'm all for the federal govt intervening in my personal second amendment rights, so that the rest of society can be more safe. I don't believe that the rights of a small number of nuts to have handguns and oozies are worth protecting when we see the cost in lives all the time.

Besides that, this is the most obvious way for a terrorist to attack. Send an army in through mexico amongst the millions. Take advantage of america's insanely lax system of selling and policing guns, and launch simultaneous attacks in mass public places.

The other brilliant point from matt cohler of facebook was that if 57 pct of the country have libertarian views but only 2 pct are in the party, its just bad marketing to use that name. Why not start a new movement within the dem or republican parties that goes after these mainstream ideals.

At this point it seems pretty obvious the urban educated mainstream wants fiscal conservatism and social liberalism. We get hijacked by both parties. Dems into high taxes for big socialist govt. Republicans for wacko social stuff like anti-abortion or school prayer.

Both parties remain firmly rooted in ideals going back to the beginning of the last century. The new deal isn't new or such a deal after 100 yrs! Hellooo! Stopping gay marriage or right to serve in the military? Are you kidding? Does anyone else ever read headlines or hear bush and wonder if they're living in a time capsule?

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Enroute to dialog in new orleans

Going to auren hoffman's event for next few days. Ready to connect with other people and brainstorm on how to create a web based revolution to take back the govt. Just hoping someone else attending shares this agenda:) Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from T-Mobile.

Yhoo trade

I'm not usually such a short term investor but do want to point out for readers of this blog that if you followed my advice on yhoo you would have gotten in at 27 and then 24 and out at 32 which I believe is the highest price yhoo will see this year.

I still like yhoo long term as a content and community company. I believe once they give up competing with google and focus their resources on being number one in content they will be a valuable 100B company.

I will look to rebuild position down below 25.
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adam lashinsky is mean to yahoo:)

adam lashinsky makes good points which i agree with here. (glad i sold at $32!). i think yhoo owns amazing real estate and once they accept that's their real business and not competing with google.

HELP SAVE A VANISHING SPECIES

By ted pincus

Shaken or stirred, with olive or twist, it's the dickens.   There it once stood, unchallenged in its pristine purity. Glistening in its funny, funnel-shaped glass perched on a delicate stem. It had always been a shimmering silver lake of limpid, languid solace, the ultimate civilized sunset companion. The essence of grace. To legions of us, it had been the messenger of quiet bliss, providing a wet gossamer curtain that descends over the cares of the day, washes them deftly away, and draping our entire psyche in the glow of euphoric serenity. But today, it�s a vanishing species. A great icon is disappearing from the American cocktail scene. At the same time, we traditionalists are a dying breed, shunned and sneered upon by the hordes of thirsty, trendy philistines who insist on change, idolizing the next new thing. They�ve provided a ready market to be eagerly exploited by those who�ve been grandly bastardizing this hallowed beverage with blatant forgeries � the nation�s greedy, mischievous bartenders,restaurant menu-writers and ad copy chiefs.It�s the proliferation of the Fauxtini.   Just look anywhere. Go to Gibsons where crafty bartender George Cozzi will try to foist upon you an Apple Puckertini made with vodka,garnished with apple slice; or to Restaurant Nine where Ryan Gartner features the Ghostini (vodka, green melon Midori and sour mix); or elsewhere find an outrageous roster of infinite hybrids from the milk chocolatini to the orange-grenadini, crantini,melontini,mangotini , the Dirtytini swimming in olive juice,or The Peninsula bar�s Cosmolini brewed with citron vodka,champagne,triple sec,lime and white peach puree.   It�s a free country. Anyone should be able to concoct and advocate any beverage recipe they wish. People should be able to stretch their imagination and taste buds to conjure up the most hideous, disgusting combinations of booze, mixers and garni that could ever trickle down the human gullet. As I�m sure the ACLU would concur, folks should be permitted to experiment, fantasize and reach for new horizons of inebriation. Never let it be said that our modern society should stifle the creative urges of aspiring pioneers, courageously risking reputation �and happy hour clientele�by exploring the uncharted waters of alcoholic chemistry.   But is there no veneration of history? Is there no reverence for the elixir invented by 17th Century Dutch physician Franciscus de la Boe in , who first distilled alcohol from the juice of juniper berries and blended it with a spirit base of malted barley,wheat and botanicals? Is there no respect for his highness William of Orange who dethroned �s JamesII, imposed high tarifffs on imported grain spirits from the continent and spurred mass local production of what came to be known as London Dry Gin? Is there no tribute to be paid to that anonymous bartender at �s Knickerbocker Hotel in 1910 who first added dry white French vermouth and a pimiento olive?  (never ever to be contaminated in good conscience with blue cheese stuffing).  As fate would have it, the ice was broken �so to speak�when some rascal  fiendishly substituted a tiny onion for the olive. At least he had the decency to call it a Gibson.   I ask you, what�s the true test of an enlightened civilization? Is it not to continually enhance its quality of life while sustaining the heritage that made it great, preserving the traditional values that formed its rock solid foundation?   Thus it is with extreme revulsion that we witness one of society�s most hallowed symbols disguised in outlandish fashion �yet still fraudulently called by its original name. It�s allowed to masquerade as an �improved� version of the real McCoy when it�s really an impostor � an insidiously emasculated shadow of its former self, totally unworthy of the title.   Let them freely call it a Girardelli Splash or a Peach Panache or Rasputin�s Raspberry Razzamatazz. Let them drown it in crushed ice, drench it with pomegranate juice, infuse it with huckleberry essence , shake it with eucalyptus crystals,doll it with strawberry sipping straw, top it off with sea urchin foam and perfumed peacock plumage, and ignite it with lighter fluid. Let them worship it, fan it, can it, bottle it in Baccarat crystal.   But please, whatever you do, don�t let them ever, ever try to take a fluid composition that is not four heavenly ounces of genuine Beefeater,Boodles,Bombay or Tanqueray and seven measured drops of imported dry vermouth, all stirred gently with 10 ice cubes in a freezing cold stainless steel shaker�and have the temerity to call it: a martini.   Help fight for the preservation of  purity. You�ll be the salvation of someone�s soul. Maybe mine.   Isn�t that a sobering thought?