Lucky7 Blog Post Archive

March 2024
- Mar 28, 2024 The Future is Here, and Its Data Will Now Be Evenly Distributed
January 2024
- Jan 1, 2024 2023 New Year's Eve Letter
November 2023
- Nov 24, 2023 In the wake of Hamas’ gruesome slaughter, the banality of evil lurks in one simple word — “but”
April 2023
- Apr 2, 2023 Back to The Future of a Higher-Minded Austin With a New University Devoted to That Idea
January 2023
- Jan 7, 2023 Elon Musk is Not a Bad Man or Entrepreneur, He’s Merely a Bad Wizard
- Jan 1, 2023 2022 New Year’s Eve Letter
May 2022
- May 29, 2022 On Amazon Prime: The second, expanded edition of "The Entrepreneur's Essentials"
May 2021
- May 23, 2021 Four big learnings on health (Part Four: Exercise and X3)
January 2021
- Jan 10, 2021 An open letter to tech CEOs and leaders on the importance of diversity
- Jan 9, 2021 Five phases of leadership during the pandemic
December 2020
- Dec 8, 2020 Good or bad parenting?
November 2020
- Nov 28, 2020 A note of gratitude for Tony Hsieh
- Nov 14, 2020 Three big reasons you should have faith in a Biden and Harris Administration
April 2020
- Apr 21, 2020 Netflix vs. Blockbuster and bad profits (reflections from my Bazaarvoice days)
- Apr 19, 2020 The wisdom of Vedanta (now available online)
- Apr 12, 2020 TED Connect rises in the era of COVID-19, and Ray Dalio offers much wisdom
February 2020
- Feb 23, 2020 How to build up to a 10-minute plank
- Feb 23, 2020 Four big learnings on health (Part Three)
November 2019
- Nov 30, 2019 Four big learnings on health (Part Two)
- Nov 20, 2019 Four big learnings on health (Part One)
September 2019
- Sep 1, 2019 "The Entrepreneur's Essentials" is finally complete
April 2019
- Apr 28, 2019 Facebook's defining moment
- Apr 13, 2019 Revisiting Wikileaks, or "When you don't want to be right"
- Apr 1, 2019 Thinking of my father, Brian Douglas Hurt, today
February 2019
- Feb 24, 2019 "The Entrepreneur's Essentials", my free ebook, is over halfway done
- Feb 3, 2019 Seven critical lessons learned in angel investing
October 2018
- Oct 6, 2018 "The Entrepreneur's Essentials", my free ebook, is in progress
September 2018
- Sep 2, 2018 What I've learned about eating animals - and what the future holds (Part Three)
August 2018
- Aug 25, 2018 The Paralyzing Fear of Getting Started
July 2018
- Jul 29, 2018 Kara Swisher is the new Lesley Stahl and the power of podcasts
- Jul 22, 2018 Two incredible years at data.world
May 2018
- May 2, 2018 The Taxi Driver's Plight and Internet-Enabled Disruption
April 2018
- Apr 29, 2018 An unusual, but beautiful, method of forming your company's values
January 2018
- Jan 30, 2018 On community and courage: The story of Nachshon ben Aminadav
- Jan 15, 2018 The collaborating executive
- Jan 7, 2018 The importance of an Always Be Learning life
July 2017
- Jul 18, 2017 The Incredible Challenge and Joy of Building the data.world Community
February 2016
- Feb 1, 2016 Back in the arena: the beginning of data.world
May 2015
- May 25, 2015 My commencement speech for the 2015 MSTC graduates at U.T. Austin
February 2015
- Feb 14, 2015 Was 42 the answer to my life, universe, and everything?
- Feb 14, 2015 Why big life transitions are so hard and why it is so worth it to keep at it
- Feb 14, 2015 What I love about angel investing
January 2015
- Jan 31, 2015 Facebook made the most epic tech company pivot of this decade, and on pivots in general
- Jan 15, 2015 Investing in natural network effects in SaaS
- Jan 10, 2015 Why B2C is so hard to get funded in Austin
- Jan 9, 2015 Observations on the Austin startup scene with Jason Seats, Managing Director of Techstars Austin
- Jan 4, 2015 What I learned from my top three Lucky7 posts in 2014
December 2014
- Dec 10, 2014 How to select the right gift for someone you appreciate (in business)
October 2014
- Oct 26, 2014 What I've learned about eating animals - and what the future holds (Part Two)
- Oct 8, 2014 How I define the soul of entrepreneurs: you change the world (part 3 of 3)
- Oct 6, 2014 Dear Bazaarvoice, the love of a founder never dies
September 2014
- Sep 18, 2014 Three need-to-meet startups at Shop.org to see the future of digital retail, plus the latest from Bazaarvoice
- Sep 11, 2014 What I've learned about eating animals - and what the future holds (Part One)
August 2014
- Aug 10, 2014 The founding of the UT Discovery Fund
June 2014
- Jun 28, 2014 'Is it too late for me to start my own business?', and other sheepish questions (part 1 of 3)
- Jun 23, 2014 A quick review of 'The Second Machine Age'
- Jun 17, 2014 The impact that just one teacher can have on you
- Jun 12, 2014 Who this new generation of aspiring entrepreneurs are and the new Golden Age of tech (part 2 of 3)
May 2014
- May 19, 2014 Learnings from four entrepreneurs I interviewed this past semester - Michael Dell, Rod Canion, Matt Chasen, and Dan Graham
February 2014
- Feb 1, 2014 A call to action for CEOs: You must sell
January 2014
- Jan 1, 2014 Learnings from three entrepreneurs and one VC I interviewed this past semester
December 2013
- Dec 31, 2013 What I learned from my top three Lucky7 posts in 2013 … and my biggest busts
- Dec 7, 2013 At age 46, he started his first company and it failed miserably… but then, on his second…!
November 2013
- Nov 25, 2013 (Mostly) Unplug this Thanksgiving for your family's sake
- Nov 25, 2013 On valuations - Snapchat at $3 billion, and more
- Nov 13, 2013 The critical importance of checking references
- Nov 8, 2013 What you can learn from Blockbuster's failure
October 2013
- Oct 27, 2013 A rant on derogatory language in business
- Oct 17, 2013 Listening to your soul
September 2013
- Sep 10, 2013 What Hurt+Harbach learned at Lola Savannah, and our next three events
August 2013
- Aug 22, 2013 Announcing Hurt+Harbach
- Aug 13, 2013 My keynote to the U.T. Austin McCombs MBA class at their Orientation
July 2013
- Jul 25, 2013 The tale of Bazaarvoice, as told through the shirts on our backs (2009-2011) - part three
- Jul 8, 2013 Coffee with Melissa Lombard and her five-year project - an interview
June 2013
- Jun 12, 2013 Two great posts on entrepreneurship and risk
May 2013
- May 30, 2013 The best of Andy Sernovitz's Damn I Wish I'd Thought of That!
- May 24, 2013 Capital efficiency on the way to IPO revisited, and a PandoDaily memo to YC's class
- May 23, 2013 Lola Savannah is the Buck's of Woodside in Austin
- May 21, 2013 Compare Metrics raises Series A, and I've joined as Chairman of the Board
- May 17, 2013 Middle-aged entrepreneurs - this is your five-step program to freedom
- May 16, 2013 TechStars launches in Austin and applications are open now
- May 11, 2013 The Tesla Model S, the iPhone, and 'The Innovator's Dilemma'
- May 10, 2013 The President and the CTO of the United States visit Austin and Capital Factory
- May 7, 2013 It is all about the journey, so take (many) photos along the way
- May 2, 2013 The tale of Bazaarvoice, as told through the shirts on our backs (2007-2009) - part two
April 2013
- Apr 21, 2013 How to leverage advisors and investors as your extended team
- Apr 18, 2013 Steve Jobs on asking for help, and the DNA of 1776 and Israel
- Apr 17, 2013 The Director's cut of "Does Austin’s ‘entrepreneurial energy’ need more direction?"
- Apr 4, 2013 The state of tech entrepreneurship in Austin
March 2013
- Mar 23, 2013 A 'proper' vegan breakfast - updated
- Mar 19, 2013 My return to The Wharton School as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence
- Mar 18, 2013 Recruiting parallels to venture capital investing
- Mar 18, 2013 Time is money, money is time, or something different?
February 2013
- Feb 15, 2013 7 lessons learned on the journey from founder to CEO
- Feb 11, 2013 The death - and rebirth - of retail
- Feb 7, 2013 The tale of Bazaarvoice, as told through the shirts on our backs (2005-2007)
- Feb 2, 2013 50% of startup exits in 2012 exited for less than $50 million in 2012, and the founder mindset
January 2013
- Jan 31, 2013 How to be efficient in your communication to get things done quickly
- Jan 24, 2013 Things I've Learned (Austin Monthly)
- Jan 23, 2013 Your first clients - how to win over the 'cool kids'
- Jan 16, 2013 Your first clients - start with who, and win over the 'cool kids'
- Jan 7, 2013 The most important thing you can do to build a great startup culture
- Jan 3, 2013 A 'proper' vegan breakfast
- Jan 2, 2013 The Most Important Book I read in 2012
December 2012
- Dec 22, 2012 The five critical ingredients to build a big company
- Dec 20, 2012 A quick (restaurant) review of Sway
- Dec 19, 2012 What I learned from my dad's first commercial invention
- Dec 16, 2012 To be stealthy or not?
- Dec 14, 2012 What's in a name?
- Dec 11, 2012 Why Lucky7
- Dec 11, 2012 My first blog post (Feb. 3, 2006)
- Dec 9, 2012 Mary Meeker's Internet Trends
- Dec 7, 2012 Capital for your business = fuel for job growth
- Dec 7, 2012 Capital efficiency on the way to IPO
- Dec 7, 2012 A very bad trend for Microsoft
- Dec 5, 2012 Bootstrap or VC?