Teten family invests in infant startup, “NewBo” or “Peanut”

New York, NY — The Teten Family is proud to announce that we just finalized our investment in a seed-stage startup, temporarily operating under the name “NewBo” or “Peanut”.  We are now looking for a dot-com domain name for our corporate website.  We plan to announce the official name for the company at a brit...

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Recent books: paleo, angel investing, mediation, and career acceleration

I read a few books over the last year that I thought were worth highlighting/recommending: The book that has had the most practical impact on my life was The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health, by John Durant.  This is a thoughtful analysis and explication of the “paleo” or “ancestral health” school of thought.  The...

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The tiger mom vs. serious research on how to be a good parent

Like a lot of our peers, my wife and I read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Professor Amy Chua’s explanation of her aggressive “Tiger Mom” “Chinese” approach to parenting.  She makes a strong argument for being a ‘tiger mother’, though her argument is based 100% on anecdote, not data.  Surprisingly, for a book written...

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The real reasons adults love to give kids sugar

The world rains sugar on my children. The bus driver offers my child bubble gum. The teachers offer a cupcake for every birthday party. The school vending machine is full of junk food; so is the one at the Y. At camp, the counselors offer candy and a freeze pop at the end of the...

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Surprise gift for your spouse or partner

  As part of joining ff, I’ve moved as much of my personal technology stack over to our portfolio companies as possible.  I switched from Phonetag.com to Phone.com for managing my personal telephony. One of the useful features of Phone.com is that I can customize an unlimited number of voicemail messages for each person who...

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An Investor’s Guide to Getting Married This Year

  HBO is now producing TV shows about sleazy VC dating habits, and the New York Times, clearly responding to the internet’s desire for quality journalism, just ran a piece on Silicon Valley’s most eligible bachelors (although 3 are already paired up, according to Betabeat). Given how the tech ecosystem is becoming the new Hollywood,...

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