Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Does anyone write the blog for you?
No. It’s not easy to come up with this stuff.  The blog is written by me and me alone.  There is no ghostwriting.

Does the blog represent the official view of the companies you work with?
No.  And you know what they say about opinions. Those expressed are plentiful, mine, and either not necessarily or simply not those of the companies with whom I am working or have worked.  When I choose to work with a given company, you should expect a de facto pro-company viewpoint.  And let’s get the logic correct:  I don’t like company X because I’m working with them; I’m working with company X because I like them.

Do you work with and/or invest in companies that might influence your views?
Yes, in five categories:

• As an EIR at Balderton Capital, I receive compensation from Balderton, have invested in Balderton funds, and work in an advisory capacity with numerous Balderton portfolio companies.
• By virtue of board, advisory, past employment, and angel investing work, I own equity in companies including Alation, Bluecore, Cacheflow, Cube, Cuein, Cyberguru, Cyral, DataGrail, dbt Labs, Entytle, Faros, FloQast, Growblocks, Hex, Influx Data, MongoDB, NetSpring, Pigment, Planful, Revsure, Salesforce, Sarus, Scoro, Skyflow, and Unaric.
• By virtue of consulting, advisory, and board work, I receive cash compensation from various startups, though I don’t publish a list of these clients.
• I am an investor in numerous venture capital and private equity funds and thus indirectly own shares in many other companies.
• I am usually invested in the stock market and may directly or indirectly own long and/or short positions in technology and other companies.

Why do you write Kellblog?
It started long ago as an attempt to walk in my media customers’ footsteps at MarkLogic, and I quickly found myself enjoying blogging as a medium.  I take pleasure in sharing the things I’ve learned, particularly those that I wish someone had shared with me — so I didn’t have to learn them the hard way.  I also use writing as a forcing function to learn about and/or clarify my thoughts on a topic. 

Do you monetize the site?
No.  Not directly at least.  There is no advertising.  There are no subscription fees.  Of course, the blog does build my brand and that can sometimes lead to angel, advisory, or board opportunities.

What is your business model and how do you prioritize opportunities?
I work with a broad range of companies on a broad range of terms.  In general, I work on what you might call an AaaS (advice as a service) business model.  My goal is to work with a smaller set of companies on a longer-term basis, and not do strings of short-term consulting gigs.  Thus, I usually prioritize business opportunities in the following order:

• Independent director roles at VC- or PE-backed startups.
• Advisory roles.  Effectively CEO technical support, where I offer ad hoc or scheduled meetings to discuss issues of the day.  Often this includes periodically working with the CRO, CMO, or CFO.
• Consulting projects, such as strategy, go-to-market, messaging, and due diligence.  I’m typically most interested in these when they are for existing advisory clients or they have the potential to develop into something ongoing.

I’m typically compensated in a mix of cash and equity.  In general, the more you want to give me cash, the more I want equity.  And conversely.

What gets you excited about working with a company?
Four things, in this order:

• The people.  I need to feel chemistry with the founder, CEO, key executives, and/or directors with whom I’d be working.
• The space.  I need to be excited about the space.  Fortunately, I have a broad range of interests (e.g., data, analytics, search, content services, business applications).
• The fit.  I need to feel a good fit between what the company needs and what I can bring.  Sometimes, I may refer you to another advisor or consultant.
• The financial opportunity.  See the prior point about the mix of cash and equity in compensation.

French companies get extra points, particularly if the role involves periodic business-class travel to France with bacchanalian dinners at Parisian brasseries.

How do you manage potential conflicts across clients?
I have my fingers in a lot of pies and that is one way I add value — e.g., I work with numerous companies in data & analytics and that familiarity is part of my value proposition.  While I never view investments as potentially in conflict (e.g., I have owned Salesforce and Zendesk at the same time and that just means I’m bullish on the space), I do seek to avoid simultaneously advising companies that directly compete with each other.  I do not attempt to avoid indirect or eventual (e.g., roadmap or vision) conflicts because many startups dream of world domination and thus will eventually compete with everyone.  My approach is to be transparent with my clients about potential conflicts and flag it when I think eventual conflict transforms into the near term.

How does the blog fit into your overall social media strategy?
Here is how I use social media:

• Kellblog is about work, featuring content on topics that interest me (e.g., management, strategy, and metrics).  It’s for anyone who wants to read it.
• LinkedIn is for colleagues.  If we’ve worked together as coworkers, partners, suppliers, or vendors, this is where to connect with me.
• My Twitter feed is a curated subset of what I read that includes an eclectic mix of topics including Silicon Valley, VC, economics, astronomy, humor, the Grateful Dead, and France. Reluctantly — and only then out of a sense of obligation to speak up — I willl tweet about current affairs. 

I’m a one-shot blocker on social channels — I do not have time to try and determine someone’s intent and if they are a reasonable person, a troll, or a bot.  If you don’t want to be treated like a bot, please don’t sound like one.

Do you compete with the companies you analyze?
Yes, but not always.  Often the reason I know a lot about a company is that I have worked with a company that competes with them.  So while there are times when I’m in macro analysis mode, at other times I may well be writing about vendors and markets that are closer to home.  Do not assume any attempt at neutrality:  what hopefully makes the blog interesting is that I write about things from a strong point-of-view.

Do you have any driving philosophies behind what you post?
Yes. I try to pick issues where I have a strong opinion.  That opinion may prove incorrect and/or may change over time.  I view the ability to change one’s mind in response to new information as a strength.  Healthy debate, and interesting editorial, starts not with fence-sitting but with taking a position and arguing for it.  As they used to say at Gartner back when they used to assign probabilities to research notes:  if you’re going to assign a probability of 0.5, then don’t bother to write the note.

Will the blog always be factually correct?
The blog is a mix of opinion and my recollection of historical facts. Like my wife, I assume my opinions are not always correct and that my recollection of facts is imperfect. So feel free to disagree with my opinions and let me know when you think I’ve gotten something wrong. While I do not commit to any updates, revisions, or corrections, I do try to make them when I’m convinced that I’ve made an error and have time to fix it.

Do you aim to make this blog a safe space?
Yes, for thinking critically about software startups.  Readers are forewarned that I have a direct style and I try to “keep it light” by writing in an entertaining manner. I love to teach, and I can’t do that if the audience is sleeping. I make use of satire, sarcasm, shock value, parody, gallows humor, slapstick humor, dark humor, inappropriate humor, self-deprecating humor, good humor (not the ice cream), lame attempts at humor (see prior phrase), wordplay, military analogies (e.g., flanking strategy), and colorful business jargon (e.g., throwing someone under the bus) that may offend some people.  If you find this approach not only inoffensive but refreshing, then welcome aboard. If you want to read something more classically corporate, it’s perhaps best to catch another train.

Is the blog subject to copyright and other conditions / protections?
Yes. This blog is copyright (c) Dave Kellogg from 2005 to date, and is protected via a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license agreement.  See the blog footer for the notice.  Here is a link to a summary of the agreement, which in turns includes a link to the full agreement.

What’s your comment policy?
I reserve the right to disallow, moderate, edit, and delete comments. While I will try to be selective about invoking that right, I may delete or hide comments that I deem undesirable for any reason (e.g., flames, competitors seeking publicity, ad hominem attacks). The more your comment is logical and on-topic the more likely it will stand.  Anonymous and semi-anonymous comments are unlikely to stand.

Do you revise and/or delete posts?
Yes. From time to time, I revise posts and/or delete them. Typically, I do this in response to comments, to correct errors, to focus my writing, or simply to change tone. Often, I’ll revise a post numerous times in its first hour of life to correct errors and tighten the writing. Sometimes, I remove posts because I’ve changed my mind about an issue, I think the post is dated and no longer relevant, or simply because I no longer want the post on the blog.  Feed and/or email subscribers should take note:  if you want to see the current official version of any post, you should come back to the blog and find it. Sometimes, but not always, I will note revisions at the top or bottom of the post.

Sometimes you talk about company financials; are you a financial analyst?
No. I am not a financial analyst. I am an executive analyzing the market and while I consider myself a pretty good finance guy, I am most certainly not a financial analyst. I include financial analysis when I think it’s relevant to understanding a company or a market. I do not make buy and sell recommendations on stocks, people should not buy or sell stocks based on my analysis, and — as noted above — I may directly or indirectly hold positions in the companies I discuss.

Suppose I try one of your ideas and wreck my company?
First, if that happens, sorry.  But that sorry is the extent of my liability. The blog is provided for informational purposes only and while it will hopefully stimulate your thinking, you run your company — not me.  The blog is not professional services, business consulting, or financial advice.  I disclaim liability as per the license agreement.

Given your French ties, is the fact that Kellblog is a homophone for quel blog deliberate or accidental?
Accidental, though a French reader pointed it out to me many years ago.  Quel blog in French means “what a blog!” and no, I can’t say that I was clever enough to come up with that.  In fact, the name Kellblog was suggested to me by none other than Mike Moritz of Sequoia Capital, back when the blog was still called the MarkLogic CEO Blog.

Do you have a feed?
Yes, not that anyone uses them much anymore.  To think, at one point we all believed social-media-curated feeds would be better than RSS.  It’s here.

How do I subscribe via email?
I haven’t figured out how to put a link directly here, but if you look in the right column you’ll see a block entitled “Follow Blog Via Email” where you can enter your email address to subscribe.

Can I contact you over email if I have a question or comment?
Yes. Please contact me at davekellogg at mail-dot-com.  (Note, that’s mail-dot-com, not gmail-dot-com.)