They set off on “a grand tour of the nuclear-power world, from dust-blown uranium mines to the depths of a pilot facility for Uncle Sam’s waste deposit at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.” And they come back raving — in favor of nuclear power. The review’s author, Spencer Reiss, sums things up nicely here:

It’s hard not to read Ms. Cravens’s book as a 400-page indictment of the nuclear power industry’s tragicomic inability to tell its own story. Going all the way back to Three Mile Island (1979) and Chernobyl (1986) — disasters that look a lot less disastrous in retrospect, as Ms. Cravens discovers — the industry has swapped missionary zeal for a hair shirt and a defensive crouch.

In other words, even if you end up pro-nuke, you can still find something to blame on nuclear industry. (I have always found this argument shaky, especially when put forth by journalists: that the nuclear industry didn’t tell its own story well. When a besieged industry does “tell its own story well,” it is said to be manipulating the media; and when it doesn’t, it’s not the media that’s at fault, but the industry itself.)

Do Not Read This If You Are Anti-Nuclear Energy - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

American lives, F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, don’t have a second act. As the New York Times’ Gary Rivlin reported in his profile of PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Silicon Valley hasn’t noticed. More companies than ever are being started by serial entrepreneurs. The second coming of the Internet bubble, Web 2.0, has in some ways been the love-child of Entrepreneur 2.0 — wealthy from his 1990’s success, restless from his time off. Venture capitalists have lined up with funding.

While second-timers’ experience may lower the likelihood of failure, from 82% to 70% according to one study, no one has noticed that it also seems to limit the magnitude of success. Every Silicon Valley colossus — Amazon, Apple, Dell, Ebay, Google, Microsoft, Oracle and Yahoo! — was started by a first-timer 30 or under. Facebook was founded by teenagers.

Yet we still insist on believing in the serial entrepreneur with the Midas Touch. We make celebrities of our entrepreneurs because we’d rather believe in talent than luck. And we tend to overlook reasons why second-time entrepreneurs are actually worse, not better, for their experience.

Entrepreneur 2.0

Here is a super-simplified timeline / decision hierarchy:

1. Investors decide if they should convert their preferred shares to common.
2. Common stock holders decide if they should exercise their options.
3. The proceeds are first distributed to the preferred shareholders up to their liquidation preferences. For example, if they invested $5M with a 2x liquidation preference, the preferred shareholders would receive the first $10M of any liquidation if they chose not to convert to common stock.
4. The remaining proceeds are then distributed ratably to the common shareholders (unless the preferred stock is ‘participating preferred’. In this case, the preferred share holders are treated ratably like the common shareholders).

Simplified, investors typically get their money first and common shareholders (you) get paid based on what’s left.

There are several questions that you’ll need to address to help guide your decision:

* What % of the company do my options represent? If you don’t already know the number of authorized shares, find out. Your percentage of ownership is determined by dividing your options by the number of authorized shares (Keep in mind that ‘authorized’ is substantially different from ‘issued’ or ‘outstanding’ shares).
* What do the investor preferences look like? If your company has taken multiple rounds of financing, this can be very hard to answer. Management should be able/willing to tell you two numbers:
o The exit value where common stockholders get nothing, and
o The exit value that would trigger the preferred shareholders to convert their preferred stock to common stock.
* Can I expect further dilution? (Will the company need to raise more money). If the company will need to raise more capital, dilution will be forthcoming. If the company has lost momentum (or did a very expensive prior round), and needs to raise more capital, expect lots of dilution.

Gauging Future Dilution is hard. Whenever a company raises money, the capitalization table can be entirely renegotiated. This rarely happens at a company with strong momentum that is raising money had a higher valuation than the prior round.

If a company is struggling, the capitalization table can be completely changed. The new investors have tremendous leverage (presumably because others don’t want to invest) and may value the company at a very low amount, effectively washing out prior shareholders. They’ll want to make sure current employees are appropriately incentivized, but former employees are at the bottom of their priority list.

I find it useful to generate several scenarios to see what my financial outcome would look like if the company had an exit. You’ll have to make some assessment of the likelihood of those scenarios and hopefully you’ll at least have enough data to figure out if it makes sense to exercise your options.

A lot of people get excited about their options without doing this analysis or having any of the relevant facts. And they never get a dime for their options, that they paid for.

Startup Stock Options: Should you Exercise your Options? - Dave Naffziger’s Blog

“We will focus on startups at the very early stage, because that’s the hardest money for an entrepreneur to find,” explained Stephen Fleming, Georgia Tech’s chief commercialization officer and manager of the new fund. “Once companies have customers, a product and some traction in the marketplace, they can interest larger investors.”

“There is certainly a perception that there’s not enough early-stage capital in Atlanta,” he said. “The Georgia Tech Edison Fund will not by itself be a silver bullet that solves this problem, but I think it will help by putting new energy into and a new focus on early-stage financing.”

Fleming plans to make the requirement for a Georgia Tech connection as broad as possible. For example, the Fund will invest in companies that may be founded by Georgia Tech faculty, students and graduates; licensing technology from Georgia Tech; sponsoring research at Georgia Tech; or even hiring a large number of Georgia Tech alumni.

“The Georgia Tech Edison Fund is for the whole community,” Fleming added. “There are a lot of Georgia Tech threads running through the entrepreneur community in Atlanta and Georgia. This really won’t limit our capability very much because a lot of deals we are going to want to make are well connected to Georgia Tech.”

Great news for Georgia Techies.

Academic VC: GT Edison Fund is official!

The SEVC will showcase the southeast's most promising companies from all technology sectors. Presenting companies are high growth, innovative companies with talented management teams, proprietary technology, and headquartered in one of the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, or Washington DC.

Presenting companies will range from early stage firms seeking their first institutional round to later stage pre-IPO firms seeking expansion capital.

The deadline for presenting company applications is November 9, 2007. Companies are encouraged to apply prior to the deadline for best consideration.

To be considered as a potential presenter, please submit a 2-3 page executive summary to present@seventure.org. Summaries should highlight at a minimum: the management team, IP, investment sought/raised, competitive differentiation and top line revenue. Initial presenters will be notified no later than December 7, 2007.

Submissions will be reviewed in confidence by the SEVC's selection committee, consisting of nationally respected venture capitalists specializing in a variety of technology industries.

Questions about the presenting process can be directed to Eric Gregg at eric@seventure.org.

The list of 2007 presenting companies can be found here.

Southeast Venture Conference 2008

Without drawing any kind of moral equivalency, let's just say that December 1, 2007, is a date that will live in business-travel infamy. That's when one of the Big Six will complete a sneak attack that will destroy the frequent-flier programs as we have known them.

If you're a player in Delta SkyMiles, I suggest you cash out by November 30 because your miles will essentially be worthless the next day. Playing in other frequent-flier plans? Start considering your options because, if Delta succeeds, your carrier of choice is sure to do the same thing.

Delta is devaluating its SkyMiles program. Sky Saver awards are increasingly impossible to find, and now Sky Choice awards are going to become scarce too.

What good are the miles if you can't redeem them?

The end of frequent-flier programs - USATODAY.com

Orbitz $150 for 5 night and $75 for 3 night package coupon
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Book a qualifying hotel or flight hotel package to an eligible destination between October 1, 2007, and November 12, 2007, for 3 or more nights for travel between October 1, 2007, and March 31, 2008, via Orbitz and instantly receive $150 off your purchase through the use of the promotion code. Eligible destinations for this promotion code are: Mexico, Caribbean, Hawaii, Florida, and California, Alyeska, AK; Aspen, CO; Attitash, NH; Banff, Canada; Big Bear, CA; Big Sky, MT; Bolton Valley, VT; Breckenridge, CO; Keystone, CO; Copper, CO; Crested Butte, CO; Durango, CO; Grand Targhee, ID; Jackson Hole, WY; Killington, VT; Lake Tahoe, CA & NV; Mammoth, CA; Mount Snow, VT; Okemo, VT; Park City, UT; Deer Valley, UT; The Canyons, UT; Red Lodge, MT; Salt Lake City, UT; Steamboat, CO; Stowe, VT; Stratton, VT; Sugarbush, VT, Sugarloaf, ME; Sun Valley, ID; Sunday River, ME; Taos, NM; Angel Fire, NM; Red River, NM; Telluride, CO; Vail, CO; Beaver Creek, CO; Waterville Valley, NH; Whistler, Canada; Wildcat Mountain, NH; and Winter Park, CO.. To display qualifying hotels or packages, click “I have a promotion code.” and enter the promotion code, then look for hotels or packages marked with the icon “COUPON.” Limit one discount per hotel room and one promotion code per purchase. Discounts are not redeemable for cash for any reason. Any attempt at fraud will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Void where prohibited, taxed or restricted. Orbitz reserves the right to change or limit the promotion in its sole discretion.

I just booked 3 tickets to Hawaii for $322 a piece, all taxes/fees included. And I'll be using this bad boy to book the hotel.

I need to call Clark Howard and get some praise.

Orbitz $150 for 5 night and $75 for 3 night package coupon - FlyerTalk Forums

Greenspan: I was telling my colleagues the other day...I’d been dealing with these big mathematical models for forecasting the economy, and I’m looking at what’s going on the last few weeks and I say, “Y’know, if I could figure out a way to determine whether or not people are more fearful, or changing to euphoric... I don’t need any of this other stuff. I could forecast the economy better than any way I know. The trouble is, we can’t figure that out. I’ve been in the forecasting business for 50 years, and I’m no better than I ever was, and nobody else is either.”

Stewart: (Leans back in chair)...You just bummed the sh*t outta me!

The Big Picture | Alan Greenspan on The Daily Show

PARIS, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Air France KLM (AIRF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Delta Air Lines (DAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday signalled an imminent joint-venture deal on transatlantic flights by calling a joint news conference by the two airlines' chief executives in Paris on Oct. 17.

Air France KLM declined further comment on the invitation, but it has said it is close to finalising a deal with Skyteam partner Delta that would create better cost-sharing and integration on the transatlantic routes.

A source close to the matter said a deal would be signed at or around the Oct. 17 event.

The deal follows an Open Skies agreement to free up competition between Europe and the United States from April.

Air France KLM and Delta signal j-v deal | Reuters

Fortunately, if startups get cheaper to start, there's another way to convince investors. Instead of going to venture capitalists with a business plan and trying to convince them to fund it, you can get a product launched on a few tens of thousands of dollars of seed money from us or your uncle, and approach them with a working company instead of a plan for one. Then instead of having to seem smooth and confident, you can just point them to Alexa.

This way of convincing investors is better suited to hackers, who often went into technology in part because they felt uncomfortable with the amount of fakeness required in other fields.

The Future of Web Startups