Sixteen Years Ago

Comments (Archived):

1. Your hair ^1000 😉

   1. when my hair gets long and its humid out, anything is possible

      1. now you know why your daughter chemically straightens :p

2. relationships are the currency of life.

   1. you can skip currency there.

3. GREAT Photo – 1,000 wordsYoung, lively, high on anticipation….the whole worlds and life in front of you.It had to be a great night and a great time in your life!Side note – Interesting comment from JLM last night …..something to the effect of trading his life experience for the youth of some in the room.

   1. so cool to meet JLM last night, and to see the impact with which he writes is even more powerful when he speaks

      1. he didn’t say much last night but what he said stuck with me more than anything else said last night

         1. Agreeing that Jeff was quite for most of the night taking it in, while formulating his thoughtsI wish there was an audio recording of last night – I was trying to recall his bits of wisdom,5 best friends in life,Playing a round of Golf w/ someone to size them upSitting around the camp fireMaybe he can comment along the way – repeating his comments/thoughts

   2. .When one dies — many, many long years in the future — there will be hundreds of folks at your funeral and every one of them will say — “Sammy was a friend of mine” and then some of them may well tell an anecdote about Sammy’s life and some may cite a particular characteristic.Funny thing — They will come to celebrate your life when you are dead. You have a hell of a lot more “friends” than you ever knew and you only have to die to prove it.When I speak of “friends” I am speaking of those who celebrate your lives — both of you — when you are still alive. Those who will invest energy and love weaving an unbreakable living connective tissue between your lives.People who will not weigh and measure the flow of favors and kindnesses but who act naturally at all times.I think in your life you will be well blessed if you make 5 such friendships. Hopefully one is your mate — your soul mate.Family are the people who will take you into their arms regardless of what happens — but you beat the same blood in your veins as they do. No surprise.I am talking about the people whose connection is so magical, non-judgmental, unequivocal that you do not command their attention, it is given without even being asked. And is it naturally and instinctively reciprocated.I have been blessed to have such friends. I have been such a friend.Once a great friend of mine was in a pickle. It was a pickle of his own making. He was going to lose his house. It was humiliating.I went to see him and inquired as to the magnitude of his financial problem. He told me. I had a check delivered to him to solve the problem. He asked me — why? I said because you are my friend. That explanation was more than enough because, in fact, we were that kind of friends. He knew it and accepted it for what it was.Another acquaintance of mine upon hearing of this arrangement gave me hell — saying that it was folly to “loan” him that much money and worse still to know that I had done it without even a handshake let alone a promissory note.I looked at him and said — that is what you do not understand, it was not a “loan”, it was a gift. If I were to receive the money back, that would be all the better.The guy was dumbfounded and told me I was a fool and he had never known me to be foolish. What he did not really want to say was that he knew I would never, ever have done that same thing for him, as we were not that kind of friends.The story ended as it should. I got my money back and that friend repaid me several times over by steering very profitable business in my direction on countless occasions.I felt good about myself.If you want to have such friends, you will have to be such a friend..

      1. Merci, I am sorry that I asked you 2X for this, I wasn’t sure if you would get through all of the comments.You are a very wise man, and you have a great gift w/ your writing skills – Thoughts> Words – so brilliantly and gracefully done

      2. “If you want to have such friends, you will have to be such a friend.” I can relate to that. Life quote.

      3. Yes. Yes. and YES.If you want something… you be that first.And also i agree that you cannot have more than 5-true friends… i will put it like “Naked friends” … you can be as naked as you want and still they are there for you… no masks … no politeness … no ego … no nothing … just yourself….that yes not more than 5 … i am not sure whether we can get more than 5 … if someone got it … we should consider them GOD’s gifted….Yes there are hello friends, good friends, nice friends, and NAKED FRIENDS.

      4. i’ve got the soul mate. and i think i’ve got at least five others

4. man that picture was probably taken on an old school camera. like you had to buy a roll of film, put it in a camera, have the camera on you, take pictures, develop the roll, then stuff the photo in some awful looking album, never to be seen again. it’s a miracle anyone who wasn’t a pro photographer ever took a photo in the first place. terrible.

   1. that’s why I loved the polaroid camera, it’s not the quality though, it’s the memories that it evokes.Recently I digitised some old photos of my dad, going back 80 years, the quality is irrelevant really.

      1. You are so right @Richardf (and @kidmercury ). Richard – what did you do with the memories once you scanned them? Like Kid mentions, decades of analogue photos (memories) are tucked away in boxes/ albums collecting dust or digitized with good intentions but tucked away on CDs or hard drives at risk of bit rot, etc. and buried in digital folders.I’ve attempted to build something to liberate and rediscover and share these moments before we have the unfortunate reality of inheriting parents and grandparents memories of their lives and likely our own childhood – which is in fact the entire photographic history of most families. Today, we have the opposite challenge as we’re taking too many photos from multiple devices spread across fragmented products, services and the social web and this will only get worse in the evolution of each product and device over our lives and beyond – but we will still capture these moments and memories. There will be friction in doing this for the born-analogue crowd, but fun friction as the comments from the photo above indicate and once you’re done you’re done and all your photos can live in harmony and at your fingertips to enjoy – as they were meant to be.

         1. This is where google and android have been my friend.I use Picasa because I love the face recognition technology, it automatically tags people once you have set it up, which makes accessing photos filtered by people really easy. Also my photos are automatically synced across devices and my android tablet is perfect for viewing photos.We also have a couple of digital frames that pick up photos from Picasa online so that’s a great way of displaying photos too.

      2. “the quality is irrelevant really”I think about that some times when I hear a song that I really like that isn’t being played through the best speakers and still evokes emotion.

   2. It wasn’t. 400 speed film tends to do well under most conditions, and a lot of color films could be developed really quickly ( but not always well).The first time you develop a picture on your own you realize you are holding a precious object of a piece of time. It is an amazing feeling getting back a roll (actually, even cooler is developing and printing your first roll) because of the relative ease and physicalness. Then you would write these notes on the back, all sorts of details. I have yet to see an analog in digital, replicating that physicalness of handling a picture.Makes me want to repair my film SLR and go back to studying the art side of photography.

   3. I did photography and had a darkroom and even rolled the film onto cartridges using a Watson film loader. It was fun and the skills I acquired (and the money since I managed to shoot in high school and college) gave me the funds to start my first business. I can’t even begin to mention all the good that came out of doing that type of photography.” it’s a miracle anyone who wasn’t a pro photographer ever took a photo in the first place”Actually it’s quite satisfying.

5. Classic “Relationships are the currency of business” – well said, I encourage all the entrepreneurs I work with to build strong relationships with everyone and as diverse, international and intergenerational as they get. Life is too short to think otherwise. With Startup Iceland done! we provided an opportunity for a bunch of entrepreneurs from the US, South Africa, Singapore and Iceland to connect and build relationships. Most of these entrepreneurs were Under 30. I wish I had done this when I was in my 20s. Next year for Startup Iceland our goal is to reach out to many more countries… like E20 (Entrepreneurs 20)

   1. i really loved seeing Brad^2 doing the Iceland thing last week

      1. Actually the crowd suggested that they do a road show with the title “The Brads Show!” I thought it has a ring to it

6. Flatiron / Chase I once worked with a guy that was great friends w/ Jeff Walker frm Chase Capital Partners …..I recall some earnings announcements from Chase at the time…..that mentioned Chase Capital as being the big contributors to their qtrly earnings.Recently, I was talking w/ another person that worked at the same company who also knew Jeff….and some how when talking about Chase Capital this person simply mentioned Flatiron as the high flier within the Chase Portfolio.I never had the opportunity to meet Jeff.

   1. Jeff is a wonderful caring person. he’s doing what he loves now. non-profits, teaching, giving back. Jerry is super close to him.

7. Love the hair. The smiles, too.What never fails to surprise me about relationships is that you’re rarely if ever ‘done’. Meaning, the world changes a lot, people change, and new people constantly emerging.Last night JLM mentioned we maybe have 5 true friends in life.You’re a lucky man, Fred!

   1. what…you mean the 600 people I have on Facebook are not my true friends!

      1. … 601 🙂

      2. Good God Richard and to imagine I’m not even one of them.

         1. I’m kidding, I barely have a fb presence. We use a family and friends blog. That way we own the content.But I do think promiscuous friending can be quite a clever strategy.

            1. why is promiscuous friending a good idea?

            2. because it’s a good way to create a network albeit perhaps a loose one and a rolodex.

            3. Promiscuousness on FB indeed has been getting useful for business. Big change on that for me in last year. For family, @NateQuigley is up to something *very* interesting…..

   2. Rockin’ the fuchsia polo too!

      1. totes.

      2. I think it is fug. Fred – you look better in blue!

         1. what?! outrageous. my 1996 self highly approves of such clobber.

      3. Notice MY clothing is hidden. Did I ever tell ya about these pants Fred used to wear…;)

         1. go on… ;)(Btw, you’re in my default position for all group photographs. In the words of the Southern Sage: Well played!)

         2. jordan levy has a great story about the pants i was wearing the day he met me

            1. Well it’s damn hard for me to throw stones. I think I was wearing a ripped t-shirt and Yankees cap when we met.

   3. i don’t agree with JLM on that. i think you can have more than five.

      1. I agree with you, there is research that says your friend group completely changes every 7 years or so on average.I do think periods of change tend to take out a lot of your friendships and add new ones as you change. Very few friends of mine survived many transitions I’ve been through….

      2. 10, 100?I have many close friends that I don’t regularly keep in touch with, but when we do get together we’re still close.

         1. I imagine everyone who will debate this will come from different capacities – mental capacities that is, the depth and type of connection they require, and even their ability to store all of that information and keeping it relevant.

      3. I’m not sure I agree with JLM on 5 either. I’ve heard 12 true friends and the few times I counted to 12 it made sense to me.

         1. 12 might be closer to the truth

      4. New great friendships are still ahead of us.I believe the social web and communities like this one are a large part of making that happen.

         1. Agreed. I would have never been able to find, meet people and learn from people like you otherwise.

   4. Great to see you again last night Tereza. Next time Charlie is in the city, let’s certainly get together.

   5. One of the things I’ve learned is that different people have different definitions of the word “friend.”I have a pretty expansive definition. I’d agree with JLM that you probably can’t have more than five or six people in your inner circle at a given moment.But my life is rich because I have a couple of hundred true friends. And I continue to get proof of that every day.

      1. Yes. There are hello friends, friends, true friends and the truest friend (wife)….Consider yourself lucky to have 100s of them and you are also gifted with a big heart to hold all of them.

         1. I am incredibly lucky that my best friend is my wife. We’re different in a lot of ways, but I couldn’t ask for a better partner to do life with. I married way, way up.

            1. same here @aaronklein:disqus I am really happy that my life partner is a lot different from me. She is very organized, plan for near-future … i totally dis-organized live in the past and distant future.But what i found as the word friendship goes is … the school and high-school time friends are more close than the later friends. We can talk to the school buddies as naked as we want … but with friends from later age … 25 or 30+ we start wearing a little mask.

      2. I think that’s so true, Aaron.And I think that how large and what kind of family you have significantly impacts your attitudes and need for friends. My family had been very close but when I lost them my needs vis-a-vis friends changed radically — as in, I needed them a ton more, for much of the stuff I relied on with my family. Not everyone understands that or is in a place in their life where they can accept that or are willing to be that. The “social contract” changes. (Through this journey, I have lost some friends. And I have gained a bunch too.) Not easy.So — perhaps it’s JLM’s perspective of the years which lands on 5-6 friends who weather decades of us changing a lot. And still being there. Then again, maybe. 🙂

         1. Yep. And there is something very special about the friends who are friends through every chapter. That might indeed come down to 5.

   6. I believe the only 5 true friends in life thing.

8. I don’t think it’s an accident that all of you continue to make an impact.The intent and integrity you brought to the business was extraordinary. In 1997, I met with every VC on the East Coast (or at least it felt that way) and you and Jerry were head and shoulders above everyone. Not just the smartest, but the cutest, too.

   1. i showed this photo to a colleague of yours last night seth. she got a big kick out of it. i also showed her two handwritten notes from you that sit on the bookshelf in my office. two of my most prized possessions.

   2. Seth, you were one of the reasons Fred and I knew we’d be good partners. We’d both met you and both knew that you were someone special, someone we wanted to not only back, but to be part of lives. That shared realization became the basis of not only the way we worked but the way we thought about things together, as partners.I loved seeing that photo as well. I remember that night well. We’re all still those same people. Maybe even a little more deeply ourselves but essentially the same.

      1. i love hearing this history between you, @fredwilson:disqus @bfeld:disqus and Seth… so interesting…

      2. I like this; An upvote didn’t fill the need of expression; Sorry upvote, no hard feelings.

   3. Seth – you might not know this, but the day that Fred and I met for the first time was in your Yoyodyne office in some office park near Boston. That was the very first thing meeting I took for Softbank and I remember that day very well.

      1. That’s some awesome history connection. Damn time flies. I had just started my career as an engineer out of college in ’96.

         1. I was in elementary school…I think this was the period when my parents had a tape drive to read data tapes that was taller than me….Though I vaguely remember having an internet connection back then….

      2. had they painted the walls purple and yellow yet?my path to working with the yoyos at yoyodyne’s ny office started with a ***classified ad*** in the nytimes. (newspapers so totally could have done what craigslist did, except they didn’t.)

         1. No – it was well before that.

            1. #becauseawesomei was a yoyo for a while before i made the boston trip.why would a brand new startup have a boston office and a ny one? because that’s where the founders lived.

   4. The cutest? How so?

      1. You did not see the photograph in post?

         1. I did, but I think baby pictures of fred would be way cuter :p

      2. Clearly he’s talking about @fredwilson:disqus’s hair

   5. Like to infinity

9. I love that picture of you! What a “slice of life” moment you managed to capture there. Some people think it’s corny to be nostalgic but, who the hell cares if it is? I love folks who look back at things fondly. It means you’re emotionally-connected to what you’re doing and it means you love the life you’re living. Memories are part of what make us human. They provide perspective.And yes…1996 ROCKED for me too. What an amazing and magical time. In fact, from 1994 to 2000, I felt just about invincible. 1996 was a particular sweet spot. All of us changing the world and the money just seemed to appear when and as needed. It felt almost like we could do no wrong. The last few years have been somewhat resurgent but 2001-2006 were a rough five year period that I still can’t believe I survived it.Fred, question for you… Do you think there is another “1996” yet ahead for us in our collective future? To be totally honest, sometimes I think that can never be again (only one age of innocence) and other times I think we’ve barely scratched the surface and the future will be even better (older/wiser, more grateful). What do you think, Fred? Are our best days yet ahead?Thanks for honoring us with the walk down memory lane. Treasuring that. 🙂

   1. i don’t think i will have another 1996. but i sure hope my children have theirs at some point in their life. i think having it at age 35 was just about perfect for me.

      1. Oh dear – that makes us around the same age – I guess the best just peak late 🙂 – or never !!!

         1. My inspiration is my father-in-law … he started as entrepreneur at 52 and made a empire ( not really but enough to build a fort) and was working until died at 81.So you are actually 2-years earlier :-)… i feel i am 7 years earlier at 45.

            1. Kasi – Credit to you and respect for honouring the memory.My comment was slightly tongue in cheek – I am hungrier, readier and more excited than ever before – The work I do is what I am here for ( and my wife and family are 100% behind me despite the tough times) – So you young whipper-snapper lets race each other to the top !

      2. Very well said. I’m going to let that sink in. Hope you’ll share some more memories with us again sometime when the mood moves you.

   2. 1996: analog cellphones were still pervasive and cost $0.50-$3.00 per minute depending on where you were. People talked less than 100 minutes; but that was average with the median more like 30-50. Penetration was 8% of the population. There were 40 million pager addresses. Then a little GSM carrier thought like Rockefeller and priced to marginal cost at 10 cents/minute (their marginal cost was about 2 cents, all in). The rest is history. We are sitting on a similar precipice for broadband pricing, so another 1996 is definitely out there. Hopefully it comes soon.

10. Wow. Great history. It’s all about relationships. It being life, both personal and professional.

11. while i knew you, Jerry, Brad and Rich went way back, i had no idea how farwhen i saw this picture, it really sunk in just how much those long-term relationships mean, and that is one of the biggest takeaways i’ve gotten from AVC since i started reading it years ago. thanks for that, Fredstartups are fast paced and they come and go, but we all believe in entrepreneurship, in making the world better, and we want the ecosystem to survive healthily for a long timeso as my cofounder @spinosa and i build our team, we look for the people who are going to be in this game with us for a long time, whether it’s seeing our current company through to the end, or being there for the start of the next one

    1. take some great pictures of the shelby team and post them sixteen years from now

       1. Physical or digital – physical photos have a quality of permanence and memory about them that I find hard to replicate with digital

    2. That last sentence makes a lot of sense.

12. The blast from the past…. really good.It brought a real smile on my face when i read …” And Feld is Feld”…. that says a lot.

    1. he’s a special guy. i have never met anyone quite like him.

       1. Yes. Precisely that is what i read and I smiled….that says how close and warm you feel about him.

13. I bet you have 100 stories like that where some past event or turning point has a lasting lesson for the future. It is the accumulation of these that makes up one’s experiences in life & business.Why don’t you consider doing a series called Circa & tell us about something that happened way back then an link it tobthe derived life lesson from it. I’d like to hear one from 15 years ago, 17 years ago, etc.

    1. This is a great idea. Circa is a great name for it as well.

    2. circa sundays?

       1. It sounds good & it’s better than Sunday blues.

          1. reminds me of a Sunday Sermon…….

14. Whoa they had Instagram 16 years ago?????

    1. yup. we used the humidity filter for that one.

       1. Haha! I’m convinced that 16 years from now when I go back to find “the moment it started”, I’ll give up after sifting through 10,000 pictures of former acquaintances’ desserts.

          1. I loved your tweet on that this morning. A good reminder to use this technology we have for the important things.

          2. there is already a solution, no need to fear!

          3. It’ll be an amazing archive of cultural micro-changes. Seeing the rest of the world develop and evolve through the internet, and being able to see the efforts and engagement, and who specifically put the efforts in to making the world better — it will just be simply amazing.

          4. If that picture doesn’t involve Pappy I will be sorely disappointed.

       2. i showed my digital native sprout a photo of a kodak instamatic, like the one i had in grade school:http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…http://lauriekalmanson.blog…– she did not perceive it as a photo of a camera. she perceived it as a screenshot of an app– she thought it had too many buttons– she had a description / mental model for each of the things — logo, nameplate — she perceived as a button– she had no mental model for a device with a tiny shutter button on the front, an eject button for the flashbulb and a crank/film winder on the back

          1. wow

             1. yeah, it blew my mind. she uses the ipad, iphone, macbook and littl devices with ease; but every blocky object on the “interface” of the photo instamatic camera — logo, nameplate — she perceived as a button.digital native.that said, moveable type has been around for 600 years and not everyone can read

    2. best instagram snark eva!

    3. Instagram is really going to confuse future generations. The generation being born now won’t be able to tell the difference between 1980 and 2010.

15. It was all brand new then, was it more exciting, fun, intriguing?Like being on the frontier.

16. This photo epitomizes CHANGE. Just how Fred is always stressing how internet browsers, photo-sharing apps, and vcs/angels/entrepreneurs are always dynamic and changing. This shows you a group of forward-thinking guys who stuck together and made a significant change not only in tech, but in other fields like health, media, and hardware technology.This is very cool 100%. Fred you are priceless. Thanks for sharing this.

17. #priceless

18. Thanks for sharing Fred – there is pure joy in the picture and I love that your connections run long and deep. It reminds me to nurture those kinds of relationships that I take for granted sometimes. And yes – that hair is just awesome in a 90’s kinda way!

19. Of note that year as well; The Telecom Act of 1996. A well-intentioned farce. 2004 equal access died; and with it the spirit of Bill McGowan. 2007 marks the second coming of equal access; Steve Jobs RIP. All in 16 years…

20. Hit precisely at the right time.Silicon Sally: “The 15-year period between 1995 and 2010 was one of strong economic growth and of a global boom in digitisation.”http://www.economist.com/no…

    1. yup. http://www.avc.com/a_vc/200…

21. Wonderful picture. Wonderful year 🙂 It’s like looking at the Beatles in Hamburg!I have a feeling that year changed a lot of lives. It certainly changed mine.I hired Mark Pincus to build my first business in 2000. He had a small dev firm for a short time called Goat Hill. I’m still friends with some former Freeloaders, all good people.

22. Fred, did you know in 1996 that you had something special happening? Did you know that you would continue to work with these friends 15+ years later?

    1. well i knew we were onto something and i thought the internet was going to be big. beyond that, i had no clue.

23. It’s so clear to me that certain “jobs,” certain partnerships, certain co-created endeavors define you, define your values, and bring out the best in you. Those years were great not because it was the beginning of a bubble but because of the core friendships that were forged. Here’s to my precious friends.

    1. Beautiful comment. Wonderful post. And Harvard Square newsstand forever.

    2. Cheers

    3. clearest in hindsight

       1. Feh. We knew. Not precisely but we knew. I remember driving back from that meeting in Boston and the epic conversation we’d had in the car.

          1. Remind why we drove back

             1. You and airplanes didn’t exactly get along in those days.

             2. still don’t!

             3. And that, ladies and gents, is the real reason Fred wanted to build a NY tech scene.

             4. shhhhhhhh

24. how long did it take you to recognize that that was a turning point? did you know right then or it did it become clear later on?

    1. Followup: is it possible to know until afterwards?

       1. My theoretical answer to your theoretical question is implied in my question 🙂

    2. i knew it by 1998/99, but i didn’t realize the extent of it until a decade later.

25. 1996 was a pivotal year in my life as well as Amy and I moved to Boulder in November 1995. I turned 30 in December and 1996 was the beginning of my “30’s” which was an amazing, complicated, intense, and defining decade for me on this planet.You were a very important part of it. I’m glad the universe conspired to put us near each other.

    1. ’96 was a big one for me too. Turned 20, moved to Seattle, met my now-wife, and chose to follow my fascination for the internet into a career!I got my first web job the following spring, armed with a portfolio consisting of some static html pages, an “online calculator”, and a futuresplash animation of my bouncing head 🙂

    2. I hope I can have sparks starting to fly by 30; That’s at the end of this upcoming April.

    3. I turned 30 in December and 1996 was the beginning of my “30’s” which was an amazing, complicated, intense, and defining decade for me on this planet.The “on this planet” qualification makes me wonder if there’s something you’re not telling us. Have you spent time elsewhere?

    4. 1996 – was a milestone year for me. had our first kid, quit my job and started my first startup.

    5. i think we have gary, ron, and charley to thank for that. i did some DDG’ing on Gary yesterday to find a good link to use for him. he’s aged pretty well considering what a wild man he is.

       1. yo…me? wild man? i guess some things haven’t changed. ;-)when are you going to visit us in Shanghai?we have all been incredibly lucky – i have now lived through the forming of the IT industry, the Internet, and now the Chinese VC community. Exhilarating (and exhausting!!)

          1. not sure when i am coming to china Gary but i will let you know when i do come

26. You seem happy looking back, that lots of good things have happened. I hope more good things happen in the future.

27. Now that’s what I’m talking about. Priceless. Look atcha now. Love it.

28. Other thing to think about – you’re making me rethink my fear/dislike of taking photos….

29. Right people @ the right time @ the right place … can that be explained better than this?Now i understand why Fred always recommends ‘young team’ and ‘a wise man’ combination.

    1. http://vimeo.com/43116911

30. Interesting story, I wonder if Mr.Wilson ( Fred) also has pictures with the people Flatiron or USV has invested over the last 16 years. If he has, would anyone standout and how many of those would be multiples i.e. invested in the same group of people, besides Mark Pincus.

    1. yes i do and i will post them over timeand thanks for the (fred). it made my day.

31. So glad to see you writing about history Fred. We have so much to mine from people who have witnessed and participated during the past 2 decades. Netscape went public in August of 95, but I arbitrarily use Mosaic’s release in Februrary of 93 (some would say Fall of 92) to teach my class. No matter how you slice it, a lot has happened in a very short period of time. Historians and scholars have much to record and interpret.

32. “Relationships are the currency of business” that’s so true and a keeper quote to use again – and I’ll give credit where credit is due!

33. well then that explains a lot of where your voice sits in today’s tech/web/social industries.Softbank is a bleeding edge company. They try things well before Japan does, and they are based in Japan. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with their CTO back in 2007. The way he spoke about what they were trying to do/change/participate in was so thought provoking. Well ahead of things.Cool story, great background on where your thinking stems from. Sure there is more… 🙂

34. this is a very cool post, and very timely for me, because I am exactly 35 and after working in finance for the past 5 years I’m moving to a small analytics startup. I have a ton to learn and am super excited! 35 is a good age, I think.

    1. .I will trade you my life’s wisdom for your age.Deal?The next 15 years will be your most productive years. Enjoy them.Every day go to work prepared to bite the ass off a bear.You will prosper..

       1. Thank you, for you have been a major instrument thus far, whether I have let you know that or not. I am 37, and while I know there is much to be done, I am starting to feel a bit more comfortable doing it. It helps that I love what I do. I really do.

       2. JLM, thanks for this.

35. 96 was such a high energy almost revolutionary year for me. Everything just seemed to be so in sync and promising. I kinda miss the squak of the modems.

36. Fred – wasn’t Ron Fisher at Softbank at that time?

    1. yes, he was the person who made this happen. he should have been in the photo.

37. More about 90’s hairstyles:http://www.90s411.com/90s-h…

38. terrific and inspiring post. Building relationship and network especially in a new emerging startup centre is difficult but so rewarding when things start clicking. I am currently in the process of building similar networks in a new emerging city so this post was especially inspiring to me!!

39. You’re an overnight success!Just as a company cements its culture in the early days, and keeps it forever, a community creates its culture when it’s forming.Many people today probably don’t realize how long and how diligently you’ve been blogging. Back in the days when your posts were only getting 3 or 5 comments, you just kept plugging away, day after day. I couldn’t believe at the time (http://web.archive.org/web/… ) and to some degree, I still can’t believe how much great stuff you, we, all of us now put on the web for free.The care with which you’ve educated a few generations of entrepreneurs in New York is inspiring. Thanks, Fred!

    1. i was a failure for at least a dozen years before i had my first success in VC.

       1. Not to be presumptuous, but I doubt you were a failure.

40. I’d love to know more about what your parents and Gotham Gal thought about your career choices back then.

    1. they were very supportive, thankfully

41. Fred, thanks for sharing and for being an integral part of the tech community here. Can’t believe so many years have passed since that first wave in NYC. In this busy time, a nice reminder to enjoy how far we’ve all come and appreciate the relationships we’ve built along the way…

42. Pure awesomeness.

43. I have always thought to start something related to internet and have partners like you have but i think it is far away dream for me.

44. Thats great, I hope to one day look back on my career and the friends I’ve made along the way with such fond memories

45. Congrats Fred. It a pleasure to have you on the team here at WorkMarket!

46. “Relationships are the currency of business. I cherish my relationship with all of the folks”So true. And this is why you need to be somewhere where you can foster all those relationships. You’re so lucky you were able to be in NYC.

47. 2012 is really similar to 1996. Obama is about to come in for a 2nd term (or not) just like Clinton did after a Bush. But economically have we recovered as much from Bush II in 2012 as we did from Bush I in 1996?

48. This is a great post, love the reflection.

49. Oh, my….I run late on the one day of a post that I could have let my humor run wild….See Fred, there is a God and you should be thankful! :)I will say that you need to be thankful that your wife was able to see past that haircut of yours….

    1. #NiceHairCut

    2. she made me get it

       1. I am having trouble seeing the “revolution” in this bunch…..Actually, I would think that you all were standing in line to audition for parts in St. Elmo’s Fire! 🙂

          1. Hands-done favorite movie, ever.

             1. My favorite movie of all time is All That Jazz…Don’t ask me why as I have only seen it once but I still remember that movie…

50. fred… that haircut!this post put a huge smile on my face. here’s to the pics the rest of us will take today that we’ll look back on in 16 years. 😀

51. If there is a picture that calls for a reunion image, this it. Gather you all together, put you in the same locations next to some newsstand in downtown NY…

    1. good suggestion. we need to do that the next time gary comes to the states

52. I like the idea of a 1996 year.You are lucky to have had it – I think most people do not.

53. .This picture is what I call the “Wisdom of the Campfire” because it embodies the relationships and triumphs of those who have worked together and whose lives have become indelibly marked and intertwined by the weight of challenges met and overcome.There is a lack of healthy ritual — at the edge of the campfire — in our lives today. Not the kind of ritual that one associates with religion or family but the kind of ritual that celebrates life and its connective tissues.The kind of ritual which is the difference between tribal affiliation and national sovereignty. This is a huge issue in life today because as an example, we misunderstand the differences among Pakistanis, Afghans and Pashtuns.We may think that the nation of Pakistan is our ally — me, not so much — but we will never be admitted to the Pashtun tribe and we will therefore never really be allies.Tribal loyalties run deeper than any geographical accident of birth or artificial alliance of convenience or necessity.The fellows in this picture by its then current status and what they have done since then are members of a tribe and that is what is being celebrated.That is why this picture is so special to the fellows in it. They are celebrating their tribal ritual..

    1. Tribes FTW

    2. Trust you made it back home safely (it was a real pleasure to meet you in person)If Fred writes about Blog World…I hope you use that for a que to write the thoughts that you shared w/ the Disqus round table.5 best friends,Sizing up someone over playing a round a golf w/ them,Camp fire etc.As I commented earlier in the day, I wish your words were recorded

    3. Beautiful J. I find it most inspiring when neighbouring tribes join together to meet a challenge. Some of the deepest bonds you’ll ever experience…with the spirit of respect enduring as they go their seperate ways back to their lands.

    4. well-said.

    5. bingo

54. an idea for fun friday – commenters post an old picture w/ friends that they treasure like this one.

55. Thank you for sharing, Fred.

56. Rich Levandov is the nicest VC I’ve met. He has been a great friend and supporter to startup people like myself. If you have a chance to work with him, do it!