My first systematic exposure to the venture world was in a class back in my college days at Stanford. I vivdly remembered the very first thing Professor Kosnik said on the first day of class was dont let your startup become the “LIVING DEAD.” Your time is your most valuable commodity. Dont let your startup drain the the most productive time of your career. Succeed or fail decidedly. Move on, get up, do it again if you have to. Just dont let it linger. You only live so long and have so many shots at changing the world.
Today, Fred Wilson in his popular “VC Cliche of the Week” series talks of non-exits from the VC perspective which is almost as painful. (Opportunity cost is lower for VC’s since they can invest/particiapte in 5-10 companies at a time)
In the simplest case, the patient dies. That’s usually good for everyone involved. The company didn’t get customers, revenues, and build a business.
But it’s rarely that simple. Some companies get customers, revenues, create value, but don’t get cash flow positive. They end up on life support and nobody wants to pull the plug for good reason. This is by far the most common cause of deal fatigue.
So whats does this have to do with blogs? Well… later on in the day I read two more posts reference through threadwatch about the future of blogs . . . both decidedly negative. . .
Future of RSS is Not Blogs by Sharon Housley
When will blogging peak? by Jeremy Z
With that, I have to say based on my tiny sample size, many of the blogs I used to love to read are now part of the “Living Dead” While certainly popular once upon a time or atleast launched with some fanfare - today they are dying slowly with infrequent updates losing subscribers.
So I say this to these bloggers, treat your blog like a startup - dont let your labor of love become labor of lame. Update more frequently or shut it down completely. Other options include join something like AlwaysOn where you can contribute to a community instead or opening up your blogs to more contributors to keep it fresh. In the end, no one likes the living dead.
On a controversial note here are my dead blog walking candidates. . .
VentureBlog - Got so famous it was on NYT (or is it WSJ), the first blogs on the venture industry. . . now updated once a month. . . I used to love reading it once or twice a week.. . . now its like losing touch with a close friend. . . very sad
Ray Ozzie - wow last post 2004. Ozzie’s got a lot of street cred, please dont be so selfish and share some wisdom with us. Dont be a part of the bandwagon and disappear after a half hearted effort.
NW Venture Voice - one post a month. . . hard to get the “voice” of the firm this way
Bnoopy -JotSpot must be taking a lot time .. . although for every post still get a lot of comments. . . Joe Kraus must have lots of friends
VCBall - again another VC with a once a month blog. . . cant help but think these guys are just trying to gain some blog-cred but not putting real effort into it
The New Normal - started with a bang, now its ….. dead? maybe not? is it a blog for PR purposes when Roger launched Elevation or for his new book?
Seeing Both Sides - this is just a warning 
dont give up yet. . . losing a little bit of momentum
BUT in the end, like Dave Cowan says, Who Has Time for This. . . we all got to feed our kids somehow. I aint got an extra hour or two a day. . . maybe I’ll end up like these guys eventually. . . a living dead blog. . . so feel free to flame me then too
