Danielle Morrill

Yep, the emphasis is on "may". Of note that Marko is very technical himself.

After almost 10 years in tech marketing, here is what I see, especially on the early side of things:

1. A lot of marketers are afraid of tech (yes, even if they've worked in tech for years). Or, they won't take the time to learn it, even at the most fundamental level. It doesn't help that in their always stressful first months there is zero room for this. Everyone wants results, but how do you actually learn the thing you are marketing = at a more fundamental level than "positioning".

It doesn't help that marketing leaders are not focused on this, even when their teams tell them loud and clear that they need a better understanding of the product.

2) Technical cofounders expect marketers to learn--I don't know-- by osmosis ?

IMHO, there should be a product/landscape training geared at the marketer for every new marketer joining. In the early stages, that means the technical cofounder spending a lot of time with their marketing cofounder, and the marketing cofounder taking the time to learn and absorb.

3. Technical cofounders put marketing on the back burner. They want results, but are not willing to put in the time. And of course, they have zero time with all other priorities. But this is the #1 priority!! You should forever be a core marketing team member, and the face of your company. Establish that trust and open the door for your marketers to come to you for hands-on help. Write (content is…

Exactly. That's an application of the Pareto Principle where 80%+ of the returns are realized by 20% or fewer of the participants. Without those high-performance outliers, this whole category of investment asset class would simply no longer exist. Once those high-performance outliers regress to the mean (if they do end up doing so), the VC asset class is sunk. If the outliers remain as outliers, then either the asset class will shrink (on that note, read this interesting article on Zombie VCs: [1]) as the outliers will become the mean (the marginal and underperformers will be culled out of the market), or whatever edge they have over the mean will no longer exist. I have a feeling VC will never disappear as an asset class, which implies the former more than the latter.

[1] http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2013/04/zombie-vcs/

and... more recently "New data suggests the decline has been more severe than previously thought, finding fewer than 100 active U.S. VC firms in the technology sector.":

[2] http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2013/04/zombie-vc-shakeout-continues/

I wonder if HN user thinkcomp had anything to do with this. It says that it was done based on information from an informant, and he's been harassing everyone touching money without a license. This has to be the first thread about money transmission that he hasn't posted in.

https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=thinkcomp

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5398074

Edit: He also just filed his lawsuit against virtually every VC and payment startup, including Dwolla.

http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2013/05/lawsuit-names-slew-of-venture-capitalists-payments-startups/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/139975904/Aaron-Greenspan-lawsuit

The timing, and the previous comments made by him directly referencing this issue and Mt. Gox is very suspicious.