Category: Uncategorized

Given the nature of my new business, I slowed down a bit on the elliptical this morning when NPR launched into a report on the impact Bear Stearns is having on venture capital in Silicon Valley.

Toward the end, the reporter asks if the downturn will stifle innovation in Silicon Valley:

“Entrepreneurs who are inside large companies but their personality is more entrepreneurial and they see their company slowing down, that can spur them to say, ‘It’s time for me to go out and start something on my own, cause I’m bored,'” responded venture capitalist David Epstein.

Hmm.

(BTW: Just noticed NPR is using “preroll ads pimping their sponsors in the audio player on their site … not sure if this is new or just new to me, but I found it interesting.)

When I told people I was leaving Scripps, I fielded a lot of questions about what Maroon Ventures is. No, it’s not a cult based in the mountains of Colorado. Here’s the press release we issued today announcing that Wes Jackson, former head of Belo Interative, and I are joining Chris Tippie and Charity Huff in MV. This is going to be a blast …

News Release

Maroon Ventures Announces Addition of New Partners from Across the
Local Media Industry

Crested Butte, Colorado – Maroon Ventures, a professional services firm that is playing a key role in helping 21 newspaper companies leverage their relationship with Yahoo! and HotJobs, announced Wednesday the addition of new partners with diverse local media backgrounds.

Wesley A. Jackson and Robert Benz will join existing partners Christopher W. Tippie and Charity J. Huff in Maroon Ventures. The new partners each will be responsible for strategic ventures focused on identifying and building new technology and businesses.

Jackson joins Maroon Ventures after having served as corporate senior vice president for Belo Corp. and president/general manager of Belo Interactive Media. He was responsible for P&L, operations, strategy, national sales and product development for more than 30 Web sites. In addition, Jackson has represented Belo in the newspaper consortium

mardigras_elvis.jpg

Originally uploaded by Suffering the Benz

This is what happens when Memphis and Mardi Gras collide. Elvis ends up handing out beads at the Memphis Grizzlies game. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised … it was a surreal night from the start.

When I arrived at my hotel on Tuesday (I stayed at a Hampton cause I hate those damned ducks at the Peabody — quacking bastards) the TV was scrolling lists of school closings. I couldn’t figure out why they’d be doing that.

Then I saw the weather.

Radar showed an angry swarm of storms heading our way and everyone was battening down the hatches. When I stepped out of the hotel to go to the Grizzlies game, Memphis was in a state of blitzkrieg. Sirens were wailing and warm, random winds peppered with rain were whipping around. Way too warm for February. The kind of warm that carries a faint smell of tornado on it.

The FedEx Forum was almost empty. Partially because the Grizzlies suck, but mostly because sane people decided to stay home and hunker down. We enjoyed the game anyway. I managed to snag some beads without doing anything embarrassing. But after the game, we found out how bad the storms really were. Reports were already trickling in on storms that left dozens dead in Tennessee. Fortunately, Memphis dodged a direct blow. But it was one of those nights that made you glad the King was in the Building and protecting us from Ill Winds.