This week on our “Hallway Chat” podcast Bijan and I talk about the 30th anniversary of the Mac, Facebook Paper, Android, and Tivo.  We also had a lively discussion about the tension in growing a venture firm, but unfortunately due to audio issues I had to cut it out. Hopefully we will revisit the topic next time. Click to play, or you can always subscribe to Hallway Chat via iTunes here as Apple still hasn’t kicked us off.  ..read more

I’m in the process of closing a new investment right now and getting to know this CEO has been a particular joy. There is a long road ahead, but it’s a great sign when we can start off just being honest with each other. As an entrepreneur I got terrible advice on how to relate to investors from fellow founders. One CEO described his “attachment method” of overly communicating to create the sense of ownership that would make a VC keep giving them money. Then another would tell me to never give the slightest detail of the business because it just gave them the ammo to think they can control you ..read more

I have been fortunate enough to spend my entire career in startups, from an engineer and designer to a Founder and CEO. I’m now a General Partner at Spark Capital, an early stage venture firm that does things a little different, and has invested in some great companies. I currently serve on the board of (alphabetical order):- Capella Space (SAR and a World of Information)- Cruise (On Cruise) - Discord - North (Fka Thalmic Labs) (It takes time) - Postmates (Building a three-sided marketplace) - Proletariat  - Smash.gg- Sonder (Re-inventing the hotel)  - Zum Other: - Hallway Chat podcast w/my p ..read more

This blog has been retired, as I’m mostly getting my thoughts out on other platforms. The three most commonly used platforms for me now are:1) Twitter is probably my most frequented spot: I’m nabeel2) I will occasionally post longer pieces on Medium (potentially)3) Hallway chat podcasts are available via Soundcloud and iTunes I am also on Snapchat as nabeel where I post daily right now. And lastly, I post photography of entrepreneurs, landscapes, and my family on Instagram as nabeelo And, as always, experimenting with what’s new ..read more

bijan: Nabeel and I recorded episode 20th of our podcast, Hallway Chat yesterday. Stuff we talked about (not necessarily in this order): -hardware startups -Apple Watch, iPad Pro -Are we overdue for a hot new mobile app, Peach, Snapchat -VC blogs, why we haven’t been writing more and new years resolutions -our tech habits while traveling on vacation -As our firm grows, we chat a bit about internal changes and evolution Please let us know if you have feedback, topic suggestions or questions that we should address in future shows. We would love to hear from you. Leave us your thoughts in the ..read more

At the age of 13 I was a geeky outsider, and online life (BBSes in that pre-Internet age) allowed me to find the first tribe of people that I really related to. It was that little band of outsiders that got me into coding, hacking, design, and startups. In my first experiences with the online world no one knew your race, age, gender, or really anything except for your ability to make words, code, or art. Silicon Valley thrives and survives because it is a meritocracy, perhaps the most inclusive place in the world. Years ago Paul Graham wrote a piece on “Cities and Ambition” that still resonat ..read more

Charles Eames is a hero of mine, as you may have noticed the quote on the top of this blog is from him. He and his wife Ray were amazing designers, but they were also hugely influential in how everyone from a graphic design student to startups to Apple thinks about the process of designing today. It’s his birthday today, so I wanted to share notes from a 1949 talk he gave at UCLA called “Advice to Students.” It’s masterful, and I think of the last line often.Make a list of books Develop a curiosity Look at things as though for the first time Think of things in relation to each other Alwa ..read more

Introducing our new partner, Kevin Thau: So happy to have Kevin join the family!bijan: Today we are announcing Kevin Thau is joining us as a General Partner based in our new office in San Francisco. My partners and I have known Kevin for nearly 10 years, having served on a board of directors at one of Kevin’s companies for pretty much the entire time we have been in business at Spark. In many ways we grew up together in this business. We know each other, work well together and have the highest regard for his character ..read more

Yesterday bijan and I took live video for a test drive with Periscope, and since they are still in private beta we recorded it for posterity. Here’s a dropbox link to the video or you can listen to it in podcast form above. We talked about Periscope & Meerkat, the Apple Watch, and the state of seed and late stage valuations in startups ..read more

Today Postmates announced a long term exclusive partnership with Starbucks. It’s a big milestone on its own, but it also represents another major step in the transition of Postmates from restaurant delivery service to on-demand logistics network. The very first meeting I had with Bastian, the Co-Founder and CEO of Postmates, was in their old dingy office in the Mission. It was a multi-hour deep dive into the business, on everything from pricing models, to courier earnings, to user experience. But the moment that has stuck out the most since then was when I asked why Postmates was focused on fo ..read more