By random polling of friends at South by Southwest Interactive, one of this year's best sessions was a Saturday afternoon talk delivered by Frank Abagnale, the former confidence trickster, check forger, impostor and escape artist who inspired the film "Catch Me If You Can." Though his presentation isn't what you'd expect to find at an event celebrating the web, Abagnale's 30-minute re-telling … read more

As we're in the middle of March Madness, this week's Sunday Video features one of the greatest pre-game speeches of all-time, Bo Schembechler's "The Team." Though it was delivered in preparation for a football game and neither for basketball nor business, Schembechler's pep talk stresses the importance of a team better than any CEO or best-selling author could … read more

Today's Sunday video comes to us via Brad Feld on the Ask the VC blog. In it, Foundry Group partner Ryan McIntyre discusses the beginning and early days at Excite.com, one of the first internet search engines. These stories from the early days of the internet are really interesting to me, as it's amazing how far things have progressed in a very short … read more

Peter Kageyama, a community and economic development consultant and author of "For the Love of Cities," thinks that we need to find more lovers for our cities. "Ultimately, the element that makes for the most lovable cities are the people themselves who are in love with the city, the ones who are those living embodiments of a love note," Kageyama said in a presentation at TEDxIowaCity in November. A love note, as he defines it, is a … read more

At the Build conference in November, accomplished designer Wilson Miner, currently head of design for Rdio, opened his presentation by disclosing his sometimes shared cynicism of his career of designing for the web. "I have often said in moments of frustration, it's just a website," Miner says, "it's not going change the world, just get over it. But I do think … this is a uniquely exciting time … read more

Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur turned professor, offers a succinct and excellent answer to the commonly asked question, "What's a startup?" Presented as a part of Sprikle Labs's "Now I Know" series, Blank frames his answer around his parent's entrepreneurial story of opening a grocery story and how a small business differs from a startup, or what he specifically calls a "scalable startup." … read more

Brad Feld, an early stage investor and entrepreneur, shared a series of personal stories to a group of Standford University students in October, in part illustrating how his fulfilling life as an entrepreneur has come with challenges, too. As a follow up to Willis Jackson's post on Saturday, "Why our community needs Startup Spouses," I wanted to share the video below in which Feld reflects … read more

"Sh*t Girls Say," a meme that began on Twitter in the mold of "Sh*t My Dad Says," has inspired a wave of videos poking fun at the culture of the tech industry. But unlike the "Sh*t Girls Say" that was, according to Know Your Meme, released by two men in December, the three videos published last week came from individuals either poking fun at themselves or their … read more

Though the two heavily debated pieces of legislation that dominated tech blog headlines these past few weeks have been put on hold, the Stop Online Piracy Act ("SOPA") and the Protect IP Act ("PIPA"), it's clear lawmakers will continue to work to pass bills with the intent to combat online piracy. With that in mind, today's Sunday Video revisits the … read more

The latest news on the two bills that could "destroy the internet as we know it," the Stop Online Piracy Act ("SOPA") and the Protect IP Act ("PIPA"), shows the White House is now voicing its concerns. In a response penned by three staffers, including U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra, it said that the White House would "not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases … read more