Adventure Capitalists | Blog | A stage agnostic punk band from Brooklyn, NY.http://localhost/blog/2024-03-19T01:21:47ZAdcap Demo Day - Brooklyn's Rock Shop 15 Dec 2015http://localhost/blog/adcap-demo-day-brooklyns-rock-shop-15-dec-2015/<p>While the rest of you wantrepreneurs are begging for ink on the last up round you are going to get before the long winter comes, your favorite fairweather financiers at Adventure Capitalists have been deep in our stealth accelerator this fall preparing something special. Continuing in our bold tradition of disrupting your paradigm until it hurts, we're proud to lock in the date for our first demo day.</p><p>15 December 2015 - 7:30pm</p><p>The Rock Shop</p><p><a href="https://goo.gl/maps/hqwDdDq5zim">249 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215</a></p><p>Doors are open for accredited investors at 7pm with the party starting for the rest of the plebians at 7:30pm.</p><p>Expect not five, but possibly seven different songs.<br/>Expect not one, but two special guests.<br/>Expect mayhem.<br/>Expect carnage.<br/>Expect us.</p><p>We'll be announcing more in the weeks leading up to the big day.</p><p>Mark you calendar New York - you've never seen a demo day like this one.</p>Sometimes A Relationship Can Feel A Lot Like An OpenSSL Vulnerabilityhttp://localhost/blog/sometimes-relationship-can-feel-lot-openssl-vulnerability/<p>At last, the long wait is over. This week we post the final track from our digitally recorded, thoughtfully afforded debut <a href="http://adcap.biz/music/"><em>MVP</em>.</a> We've had a whole lot of fun over the past six weeks - thank you so much for being a part of our startup shenanigans as we aim to shake up an industry that hasn't rocked for far too long. </p><p>This week we drop the final track that we send out to every hacker that has found themselves on the wrong side of an exploited relationship. When you put your heart into production, you're at constant risk of getting pwn3t - this one goes out to all of you who have found yourselves in a relationship that feels a lot like an OpenSSL vulnerability.</p><p>This one's called "Heartbleed."</p><p></p><embed embedtype="media" url="https://soundcloud.com/adventurecapitalists/heartbleed"/><br/><p></p><h3>LISTEN ON YOUR FAVORITE SERVICE</h3><ul><li><a href="https://itun.es/us/TXlv9?i=1028963515">iTunes</a></li><li><a href="https://play.google.com/store/music/artist/Adventure_Capitalists?id=Avq2k2iknitgw6urxyp7xoml36y&hl=en">Google Play</a></li><li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Heartbleed/dp/B014QCVEIE/ref=sr_1_7?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1442416968&sr=1-7&keywords=Adventure+Capitalists">Amazon</a></li><li><a href="http://www.rdio.com/artist/Adventure_Capitalists/album/Heartbleed/">Rdio</a></li><li>Spotify</li><li><a href="https://soundcloud.com/adventurecapitalists/heartbleed">SoundCloud</a></li></ul><p>You can <a href="http://genius.com/Adventure-capitalists-heartbleed-lyrics">find the lyrics up on Genius</a>.</p>5 Ways Your Startup Can Be More Like Applehttp://localhost/blog/5-ways-your-startup-can-be-more-apple/<p>On the limo ride home from Burning Man, I was talking to a set of fresh entrepreneurs on the problems they were facing. In between updating my <a href="https://mattermark.com/?utm_source=adcap&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=hi-danielle!">Mattermark</a> dashboard and updating my DraftKings lineup, I listened to some of their problems. Classic issues every startup founder has to face.</p><p>Competing for top shelf talent. Finding product/market fit. Landing the marquee reference customers.</p><p>After letting them yammer a bit, I slammed shut my Air and stared at them for a long moment.</p><p>"Guys," I said, "you know the firm's position on this."</p><p>One of the ones bogarting the Pelligrino in the back sighed and replied snarkily, "Let me guess Rob. Be more like Apple?"</p><p>"Yes," I declared. "You need to be more like Apple."</p><p>"But Rob!" one cried, "I don't see how constant comparisons to a $650 billion consumer electronics company is supposed to help my 5-person SaaS play find the traction we need to survive."</p><p>"Well, not with <em>that</em> attitude!" I snapped back.</p><p>It occured to me on that ride that the problem with this whiny bunch of No people was that maybe they didn't know <em>how</em> to be like Apple.</p><p>Well, here's how.</p><h2>1) BE IN BUSINESS FOR THIRTY YEARS SELLING SOMETHING ELSE</h2><p>You want the resources and talent to build something as revolutionary as the iPhone? Well have you tried building a long-standing successful business making something completely different for three decades? I can't tell you how many founders tell me they want to have the brand equity and revenue line of Apple but haven't even gone public, staffed a legion of thousands of engineers or opened their own line of popular retail stores.</p><p>How about instead of complaining about your limited funding and small staff you do something about it and spend three decades creating a real business?</p><p>Jeez.</p><h2>2) HAVE BOTH ASHTON KUTCHER AND MICHAEL FASSBENDER PLAY YOU IN A MOVIE</h2><p>I can't tell you how many young founders waltz into my office, prop their Tom's shoes on my desk and then confidently declare that I'm looking at the next Steve Jobs. Before I send them packing back to take their mom's Camry to the next Sand Hill meeting their old man set up for them, I look them right in the eye and ask, "Who played you in the latest overwrought Aaron Sorkin screenplay loosely based on the hastily scribed biography published months after your untimely passing from pancreatic cancer?"</p><p>Because if that answer isn't the name of not one, but two, household-name celebrities searching for a fast track Academy Award, I don't know what to tell you. Great companies need gravitational founders and nothing says "I have the charimsa to alter the orbit of a planet" like an eight-figure budget Hollywood think piece.</p><p>If you haven't done this yet, don't even ask me to validate your parking.</p><h2>3) SHIP MILLIONS OF DEVICES THAT PROFIT FROM THE SELF-IMMOLATION OF AN ENTIRE CONTENT INDUSTRY</h2><p>Why make a product that can ride on technology trends like social, cloud or sharing economy when you can ship a consumer electronics device that makes it easy to play the wealth of pirated premium content circulating on the Internet. Quick question for you, Ivy league MBA hot shot: is it faster to operate on top of an adoption curve creeping north or leverage the demise of the entire global recording industry?</p><p>Selling pickaxes at the gold rush doesn't have near the margins of selling shovels at the mass grave of a barely competent industry fitting each other in funeral finery.</p><h2>4) BECOME THE ANCHOR MANUFACTURING CUSTOMER FOR THE FIFTH LARGEST CITY IN CHINA</h2><p>You want to know when you've built something people love? When the outsourcing contracts for your product indirectly employ every able body between the ages of 14 and 24 in a city you've never even visited. If Shenzhen purchasing managers aren't selling PDF scans of bills of lading to a tech blog for the equivalent of an entire month of their salary to Forbes editor, you haven't built shit.</p><p>Before you fire up another Optimizely test on your email subscription call to action, maybe you should think about what you've been doing with your entire life.</p><h2>5) IGNORE YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY</h2><p>Think about the biography Walter Isaacson is going to write about you when you die. Are more printed lines going to be devoted to your spouse and/or children than the Pulitzer prize winning novelist you dated while she was in undergrad? If so, maybe you're not cut out to be the next Steve Jobs.</p><p>Being more like Apple means leaving a wake of abandonment complexes in the people you love so strong your way-more-technical co-founder can surf on them. </p><p>Being more like Apple isn't easy, but it is obviously the only way your startup is ever going to succeed. I hope these tips help you find the critical path to making the next great company.</p><p>You can leave your gratitude with my assistant - I'll probably be too busy to take the call.</p>No Spoilers Allowed: A Love Song to the NSAhttp://localhost/blog/no-spoilers-allowed-love-song-nsa/<p>The penultimate track from our debut record <em><a href="http://adcap.biz/music/">MVP</a> </em>comes straight from our hearts and sent over a tapped wire to our good friends in the American intelligence community. Folks who may have heard our prototypical escapades a while back might remember the demo tape that started Adventure Capitalists with a love ballad called "No Spoilers Allowed." Our minimum viable record would not have been complete without revisiting the track and giving it a full band workup, complete with blistering honky-tonk solo.</p><p>Share with every spook you know and let them know how much you appreciate their vigilant recording in the name of our freedom.</p><p></p><embed embedtype="media" url="https://soundcloud.com/adventurecapitalists/no-spoilers-allowed"/><br/><p></p><p>Tasty links to consume what the government doesn't want you to hear:</p><ul><li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/no-spoilers-allowed-single/id1037912406">iTunes</a></li><li><a href="https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Adventure_Capitalists_No_Spoilers_Allowed?id=Bnzc76jii5xqoaoe5zfx3y3cclm&hl=en">Google Play</a></li><li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0bwWdKJwVW3wqjqUMG2e7D">Spotify</a></li><li><a href="http://www.rdio.com/artist/Adventure_Capitalists/album/No_Spoilers_Allowed/track/No_Spoilers_Allowed/">Rdio</a></li><li><a href="https://soundcloud.com/adventurecapitalists/no-spoilers-allowed">SoundCloud</a></li></ul><p>Caught up on your TV watching and feeling bold? Scope the lyrics <a href="http://genius.com/Adventure-capitalists-no-spoilers-allowed-lyrics">right here on Genius</a>.</p>On the Disruptive Might of the Blockchainhttp://localhost/blog/disruptive-might-blockchain/<p>During our annual firm retreat to Burning Man, we've had a lot of conversations about Bitcoin and the future of wealth distribution on the Internet. Clearly, we're on the precipice of a once-in-a-generation shift in the mechanics of moving money and it is obvious to us at AdCap the blockchain figures centrally in this trend. The macroecon implications of Byzantine consensus is...</p><p>Wait.</p><p>Fuck.</p><p>FUCK.</p><p>Guys. Guys, not cool. Okay - everybody put down your mimosas. Who scratched my Maybach?</p><p>FUCK. FUCK! WHO FUCKING DID IT?</p><p>Goddammit - this is not fucking funny people. Oh shit. Oh fuck - you can see it from three feet away. Look at it. Just look at it! That gash is wider than the spread on my goddamn natural gas futures. Are fucking blind? It's <em>right there</em>.</p><p>No, Steve, I can't just "buff it out." I just got it fucking armored last month. That fender is single piece carbon fiber rated for a .30 cal at close range. I got to get the whole fucking thing replaced now. You have any idea what that costs, Steve?</p><p>No, of course you don't, because you took some fucking lot-bought M5 to brunch today. That fender costs more than your sports package, asshat.</p><p><em>[repeated deep breaths]</em></p><p>Okay.</p><p>It's cool. I'm zen.</p><p>No - NO! We don't need the check, we're good. We're still having a good time. It's only money, right?</p><p><em>[pause]</em></p><p>Did anyone, like, see someone sit on the Maybach?</p><p>No, it's cool - I've let it go. Just maybe one of you were looking that way while we were sitting here and saw someone taking a load off? </p><p>Janet - I'm not going to do anything. I just want to let them know to be careful next time. You never know if the car just got some ballistic work done, you know? A lot of people don't know how expensive modern armor can be.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>FUCK! FUCK!</p><p><em>[pounds table]</em></p><p>I'm out of here guys. Way uncool, way uncool. I just want to know which one of you didn't. That would make me feel a lot better when I'm on the phone tomorrow with the <em>fucking. ARMOR. PEOPLE</em>. explaining how my friends fucking up my half-mil ballistic job.</p><p>Fuck this. I'm out.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Yeah, yeah. I'll see you at soccer on Thursday.</p>Someone On The Internet (Is Wrong)http://localhost/blog/someone-internet-wrong/<p>Another week, another release from AdCap's debut <em><a href="http://adcap.biz/music/">MVP</a> </em>and this go round we got a ditty resonant with anyone who has the misfortune of using this Internet. A Jekyll and Hyde story about the horrible person we all become at one time or another surfing the information superhighway, "Someone on the Internet (Is Wrong)" is now available for you to troll your way to the Labor Day weekend.</p><p></p><embed embedtype="media" url="https://soundcloud.com/adventurecapitalists/someone-on-the-internet-is-wrong"/><br/><p></p><p>In addition to <a href="http://adcap.biz/music/">our myriad free download options</a>, this track is available on the go wherever fine waveforms are streamed:</p><ul><li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/someone-on-internet-is-wrong/id1028948819?i=1028948821">iTunes</a></li><li><a href="https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=Bl735i4hbt6hf77yfz3eq6qsy54&tid=song-Ttvxvtf7lals3r2jsfkwibyg7xu">Google Play</a></li><li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Someone-Internet-Wrong-Adventure-Capitalists/dp/B014QD8H4C/ref=sr_1_4?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1441116660&sr=1-4&keywords=Adventure+Capitalists">Amazon</a></li><li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0vAl5krmx66Xa0jCzKb2y9">Spotify</a></li><li><a href="http://www.rdio.com/artist/Adventure_Capitalists/album/Someone_on_the_Internet_(Is_Wrong)/">Rdio</a></li></ul><p>Lyrics are also up on <a href="http://genius.com/Adventure-capitalists-someone-on-the-internet-is-wrong-lyrics">Genius</a>.</p>Only In America Can You Steal Something Freehttp://localhost/blog/only-america-can-you-steal-something-free/<p>We're coming up to the halfway point in the release of <em><a href="http://adcap.biz/music/">MVP</a>, </em>our first record, and James and I have to tell you it's been a whole lot of fun. We're deeply grateful for all of you sharing some laughs at this line of work we've chosen and hope AdCap can bring a little levity to the desperate business of startup tech.</p><p>If we can break character for one tune in this release, we'd like to send one out to a hacker in Brooklyn that was taken from us far too soon. Like many people who write software for a living, James and I were crestfallen when<a href="http://www.wired.com/2011/07/mit-webcam-swartz/">we got the news of the arrest of Aaron Swartz</a> and heartbroken when <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/technology/aaron-swartz-internet-activist-dies-at-26.html?_r=0">we got word of his passing</a>. Neither of us knew him well, but like every engineer working on the Internet, we used his work every day and benefited from his constant advocacy for a freer, better Internet.</p><p>I was in San Francisco shortly after he passed and was one of hundreds of hackers who shuffled sullenly into the Internet Archive for a West Coast memorial in the weeks after the loss. Most of the eulogies were sad memories. A few were admonishments of the overzealous District Attorney whose insane application of the letter of the law led to the mournful gathering in the first place. But one call to action from Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman kept ringing in my head months after we left and the world, as it always does, moved on.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxIivvHE1Do">"Aaron's death should radicalize us."</a></p><p>Taren's challenge to that audience through the uniquely bitter tears of losing one's love was Aaron's passing marked a moment where we should all evaluate what we think about ideas and property. What we think about the application of law on the Internet. How we react when we lose someone this kind, this early.</p><p>If you're a hacker in the 21st century, how you look at what you love was forever changed by Aaron Swartz.</p><p>This one goes out to him.</p><p></p><embed embedtype="media" url="https://soundcloud.com/adventurecapitalists/prosecuted"/><br/><p></p><p><a href="http://genius.com/7692849/Adventure-capitalists-prosecuted/Take-one-more-step-this-is-all-by-design">Lyrics for this track are here</a>.<br/></p>New Track From MVP: I'm Not Sickhttp://localhost/blog/new-track-mvp-im-not-sick/<p>Before we get to this week's release from our first record <em><a href="http://adcap.biz/music/">MVP</a></em>, the firm feels it needs to clear the air given <a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/08/happened-hackers-posted-stolen-ashley-madison-data/">today's news</a>.</p><ol><li>Rob Spectre never knowingly signed up for Ashley Madison.</li><li>All adcap.biz emails found in the recent dump represent due diligence for a passed investment.</li><li>We will not comment on any of the 47 transactions listed in the dump.</li><li>If you'd avoid using our company card, you'd be doing us a solid. Our Netflix subscriptions are due this month and we'd be way bummed if we couldn't finish Wet Hot American Summer.</li></ol><p>And now, serious business.</p><p>"I'm Not Sick" is now available for your digital consumption. A rocker track for everyone that has had to explain the bags under their eyes after another 90 hour week, you can find our latest for download on every service on the Good Lord's Internet or right here:</p><p></p><embed embedtype="media" url="https://soundcloud.com/adventurecapitalists/im-not-sick"/><br/><p></p><h2>DOWNLOADS</h2><ul><li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/im-not-sick-single/id1028941121">iTunes</a></li><li><a href="https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=Bv6xc4pq2o7l3c7kf726vcsgcsy&tid=song-Tcvy2sz64pfwqub5kv2olsqojhy&hl=en">Google Play</a></li><li><a href="http://adcap.biz/music/">Ogg, Flac, Wav or Mp3</a></li></ul><h2>STREAMING</h2><ul><li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0422gNzqf5OaktsRXkkJlj">Spotify</a></li><li><a href="http://www.rdio.com/artist/Adventure_Capitalists/album/I%27m_Not_Sick/">Rdio</a></li><li><a href="https://soundcloud.com/adventurecapitalists/im-not-sick">SoundCloud</a></li></ul><p><a href="http://genius.com/Adventure-capitalists-im-not-sick-lyrics">Lyrics are available on Genius</a>. As always, we welcome your feedback below.</p>Just Be Awesomehttp://localhost/blog/just-be-awesome/<p>This morning I had one of <em>those</em> coffees with one of the founders in the AdCap portfolio. His latest round just isn't closing as quickly as the company needs and our back-of-the-napkin calculation of runway didn't suggest they were going to make it in time. His co-founders are talking about turning in the towel, he's lost a couple key engineers to Facebook, and his CAC and LTV are more upside down than the mortgage on my SoMa loft. He clearly hadn't slept in a while and his hands were shaking, clearly not from the double-shot espresso he barely touched during the meeting. He counted three pay periods left for the couple dozen folks whose livelihoods were his charge. The leads on his next round have stopped returning his calls.</p><p>He was looking at the end of the road, the final stop sign on the company he'd been working on for three years.</p><p>So I looked across the table at this man on the edge, staring him dead in the eye. "Alan," I said, "Have you just tried being awesome instead?"</p><p>He blinked a couple times. "What?"</p><p>"I'm not hearing a lot of awesome coming from your side of the table," I continued. "Maybe if you just stopped with the crying about the death of your life's dream and started being awesome instead things would start going your way?"</p><p>He was quiet for a long moment. He sniffed back his sob, took the shot, and declared in a low voice, eyes to the table.</p><p>"No Rob," he uttered. "In between worrying about the success of our important mission, the trust placed in me by my shareholders and the lives of the 26 souls I've asked to join me on this venture, I never once thought about 'being awesome.' Apparently that's what we've been doing wrong this whole time."</p><p>"Thanks for your time," he murmured and hopped up from the table.</p><p>Of course, I picked up the bill. As I finished my egg-white frittata I thought to myself, "This is why founders come to AdCap."</p><p>Can't wait to ring the bell on NASDAQ with this founder I set back on the right path.</p>Lyrics: WFHhttp://localhost/blog/lyrics-wfh/<p>Rob rolled up his sleeves and got one of our associates (<em>all of them have Harvard BS degrees</em>) to tap out the term sheet for our latest investment, WFH. He wasn't allowed to hit the vape when we signed it either, so he probably remembers whatever the terms were best.</p><p>Anyway, we love open communities and sharing. It's one of those core value things here at a19s. </p><p>We couldn't be happier to announce that we've posted our term sheet for WFH on Genius, fully annotated by Mr. Rob Spectre himself.</p><p><a href="http://genius.com/Adventure-capitalists-wfh-lyrics">http://genius.com/Adventure-capitalists-wfh-lyrics</a></p>