pflint

Every few months a new group of companies come to build their businesses inside Dogpatch Labs.  The good news is that the rotation of  of companies in and out of all three Dogpatch Labs locations  injects new people, companies and energy into Dogpatch.  The bad news is that we have to say goodbye to people who have become friends all if …

At some point in the life cycle of a company it would be surprising if an executive recruiter was not needed to help fill a position on the management team.  While most of us who sit on Boards work with our management teams to leverage our networks to hire that perfect executive…it does not always work.  And candidly there are …

One of the most exciting things about working with early stage companies is having the conversation about iterating on the product and/or pivoting on the business model.  In the Polaris Venture Partners portfolio we have had a number of companies successfully go through this process. Notably was JibJib which started out as a “portal” for humor and as mentioned in a …

Dogpatch Labs NY opened in January 2010 and has been the home to a number of great companies and entrepreneurs.  Now that we are six months old some of the original members are moving on to more permanent offices.   Just recently we were sad to say goodbye to Scoopst but we hear their new digs are really nice.
But as …

This week one of our portfolio companies JibJab announced that in honor of the 30th anniversary of the release of The Empire Strikes Back, the site has secured the rights to re-create the original Star Wars Trilogy.  Except instead of the familiar faces of Han, Luke, and Leia, you’ll be watching your friends take on the Empire.   This is just one more …

This past weekend I was fortunate to be invited to attend and speak at the Kairos Global Summit.   My guess is that very few people have heard of the Kairos Society and candidly it would not have been on my radar had it not been for my son Tyler Flint who is the Kairos Chapter President at Emory University.
Kairos …

One challenge that all businesses face is how they are perceived by their customers.  There are some companies that go out of their way to always place the customer first.  For me the one that comes to mind is Nordstrom.   They have great customer service, great product selection and will do whatever it takes to increase customer loyalty and …

Since joining Polaris Venture Partners over six years ago we have seen multiple business plans for companies that aspire to be the next generation monster.com or hotjobs.  There were promises of innovative technology and algorithms and unique business models.  But it was not until we met Joe Essenfeld founder of JIBE that we finally saw a product vision and business …

In February it was announced that the NYC Seed Start Summer 2010 Program was being created and would soon be accepting applications.   As this is the inaugural year the founders of the program were cautiously optimistic about the number of applications that would be received.   I am pleased to let you know that 202 applications were submitted for our review.  This far exceeded …

Every once in while you enter the perfect storm: great founders and a great idea.  When Billy Chasen and Seth Goldstein the founders of stickybits presented the concept to me and my partners Mike Hirshland, Jon Flint, Ryan Spoon and Jon Steinberg we immediately knew that this was a business that could take off.   Stickybits has launched a new …