Posts by Robin Blakely

Fifteen years ago, as Silicon Valley was recovering from the dot-com bust, David Hornik, a long-time VC at August Capital, started seeing a recurring theme in pitches from startup founders: overt references to a new term called “the long tail.” A typical pitch deck included a slide showing a stylized sales graph taken straight from a 2004 Wired magazine article by that name,…

At the start of the COVID-19 lockdown in California this past spring—with work projects on hold, travel plans canceled, and the house suddenly full—I upped my walking, clocking 60 to 90 minutes most days. Never had my suburban neighborhood’s streets seemed so inviting. Whether I was taking a leisurely stroll by myself or a brisk…