Ode to a Man, Obsessed

Daryl HattonHumor, Personal, Poetry

First Performed for my best friend Dave Mason In Front of Friends and Family On Robbie Burns Day January 25, 2003 We know not quite when this affliction first started, Our poor auld man Davie, his senses departed. At first it was hidden, that much must be true, For he married a lassie much like Nancy Drew. She watched and she tested, checked each little thing, Of the man she would marry (though she picked her own ring) Somehow he passed muster, each one of us fooled, Not then did we know, for Scotch how he drooled. It weighed on …

Letting go of expectations

Daryl HattonEntrepreneurship

It is bloody amazing what can happen when I just let go of expectations and trust it will all work out. We were told on Wednesday, November 21st we had to be out of our office at 321 Water Street by the end of December. Short notice rescinding a previous promise to let us stay until June on a month to month. Grrr… Starting looking – hit despair quickly – most available properties were crap. We really want to stay in Gastown in a place similar to what we have now: brick, glass, wood beams, view… The “feel” of our …

American Politics, Family Politics and my Philosophy

Daryl HattonPersonal, Politics

I had an interesting online debate on Facebook with my niece tonight. It is just 48 hours before the US 2012 election will be decided and we ‘got into it’ about the issue of race and the Republican party. I made a claim about the racial composition of the crowds behind Romney in his speeches not reflecting the demographic mix of the US because of the Republican Party’s heavy bias to ‘white American’. My niece took offense. She challenged me that bringing race into the issue was ‘cheap and weakminded’. She claimed it was not about race. She is so …

Notes to a Startup

Daryl HattonEntrepreneurship

Here are a few pieces of advice I offered to a new start-up company in Vancouver in response to some questions they had about taking on outside investment. I thought it was worth sharing… 1)      Regardless of whether we went with a debt (based on future earnings) model or an equity model, would we need to create an official board of directors, or can we just have an advisory board? We’d prefer the latter, so we can avoid all the governance issues.  As a private incorporated company, you are required to have a Board. Not having one doesn’t avoid governance …

To Those of You Born 1930 – 1979

Daryl HattonHumor

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn’t get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads. As infants & children, we would ride …

We picked a good time to start a business

Daryl HattonConnectionPoint, Entrepreneurship

Rob Lewis recently wrote a TechVibes article on the dismal state of venture capital investment in Canada. It seems that the VC investment model is under severe pressure and many tech businesses can no longer enjoy the benefits of VCs doling out easy money to their startup. We don’t see this as a huge threat and, in fact, believe it is an opportunity. Frankly, VCs made some stupid, follow-the-leader investments in the late 1990s. If one invested in a certain type of Internet application, a bunch of others jumped right in with similar (but not visionary) companies in the hopes …