Top all-time · #1613
Dan Shapiro
Personal blog · danshapiro.com/blog · on HN as danshapirostartupsbusinesswriting
Dan Shapiro's personal blog at danshapiro.com covers startups, business and writing. Since 2010, 44 different Hacker News readers have linked it 87 times, most often “How to read a patent in 60 seconds (2010)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-28, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 10 of 32 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Dan Shapiro's posts on VC economics, how to read patents, startup equity and company culture. Commenters call them a good post and a favorite, and use them to explain these topics.
- Recommended for · 10 comments
- Called a good post and a favorite; praised for explaining patent reading, VC economics and startup equity well, a solid overview, and a decent take on culture.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 32 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Dan Shapiro blog
Most-linked posts?
- How to read a patent in 60 seconds (2010)11 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2010-09-06
- VC Insanity, Explained10 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2010-08-12
- How much startup stock options are worth3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2010-11-23
- The Five Levels: From Spicy Autocomplete to the Software Factory3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-01-23
- Your company culture is a meaningless platitude2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-06-10
- Why I Sold My Startup to Google2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-07-14
- I made the Xkcd impossible app without any words2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-12-16
- Two special startup types: the Twitter and the Hoverboard2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-07-22
- Robot Turtles midmortem at $250k2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-09-17
What Hacker News says?
> Again, once you have doubled your money and gotten it back, you can invest it anywhere you like, including the same companies you may have before. But now you have twice as much money. Again, that's exactly wrong. As far as the fund is concerned, that money's gone. Let me help you understand with this link: http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics... Pay special attention to the section entitle…
Comment linking /blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics/
on “Facebook acquires Instagram”Submitted Startup dudes: Cut the sexist crap as a story · 424 points
HN discussionhttp://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics...
Comment linking /blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics/
on “Facebook acquires Instagram”Submitted Saving a Life is Easy, But I Didn't as a story · 390 points
HN discussionHi there...thanks for the clarifying! Language is incredibly loaded and we're all guilty. I absolutely intended that the presenter was not attuned to the impact of his speech. Here's more on that thread. http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2012/02/startup-dudes-cut-sex...
Comment linking /blog/2012/02/startup-dudes-cut-sexist-crap/
on “Startup dudes: Cut the sexist crap”Submitted Tacocopter Basics as a story · 194 points
HN discussionShe gave her thoughts in a comment: http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2012/02/startup-dudes-cut-sex...
Comment linking /blog/2012/02/startup-dudes-cut-sexist-crap/
on “Startup dudes: Cut the sexist crap”Submitted Why I Sold My Startup to Google as a story · 165 points
HN discussionRemember the advice of "How to read a patent in 60 seconds" [0]. In this case there are two very short independent claims (1 and 3), all the way at the last page. They both seem to just be talking of some specifics on cache coherency. [0] https://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent...
Comment linking /blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent-in-60-second/
on “AMD Zen microarchitecture and Intel's Ocean Cove patent”Submitted How much startup stock options are worth as a story · 143 points
HN discussionThe abstract doesn't really have all that much bearing on the actual contents of the patent. Remember the lessons of "How to read a patent in 60 seconds" [0]. Skip the title, skip the abstract, skip the dependent claims. Read just the independent claims. [0] http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent-...
Comment linking /blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent-in-60-second/
on “DeepMind: First major AI patent filings revealed”Submitted Why I’m not backing you on Kickstarter as a story · 136 points
HN discussionDan Shapiro has written a good post on this: http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent-... To summarize, he says: 1. Skip the title 2. Skip the drawings 3. Skip the abstract 4. Skip the specification 5. Find the independent claims, and read them 6. Back to skipping – toss the dependent claims (any claim that starts with “The _____ of claim _____” is essentially a refinement or detail of the parent…
Comment linking /blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent-in-60-second/
on “Patent US8296192 – Method for making money on the internet”Submitted Your company culture is a meaningless platitude as a story · 119 points
HN discussionA slightly more humorous take on the same thing: http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent-...
Comment linking /blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent-in-60-second/
on “How to Read a Patent”Submitted An open letter to Mike Arrington: Please stop investing in startups as a story · 117 points
HN discussionThat's not always an option. Check out this Article (also on the HN front page) http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics...
Comment linking /blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics/
on “Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash”Submitted VC Insanity, Explained as a story · 109 points
HN discussionGrowing Virally (where virality coefficient and cycle are really important[1]) is different than growing with Paying Users (where Lifetime Value (LTV) and Cost to aqcuire customers (CAC) is really important[2]) that its different than growing through very high retention rates[3]. You can achieve P/M fit with any of them. You can argue that you don't need growth. Which investors won't particularly like (in particula…
Comment linking /blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics/
on “Everpix, Snapchat, and the Startup Lie”Submitted Robot Turtles Kickstarter midmortem at $250k as a story · 102 points
HN discussionHere's a bit more about perverse incentives that make VCs' decisions less rational: http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics... The differences between Pinterest and GitHub are that: GitHub is more unique (it's not strictly social media and there's more homework to do); it's bootstrapped and negociates from a stronger position; VCs want to give start-ups more money than they need because that's h…
Comment linking /blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics/
on “Bootstrapped GitHub Now Raising a Round from Andreessen Horowitz”Submitted VC Insanity: How the economics of venture funds explain the crazy things VCs do as a story · 99 points
HN discussionHow to read patents: http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent-...
Comment linking /blog/2010/09/how-to-read-a-patent-in-60-second/
on “Samsung's exFAT Linux driver officially released as GPL”Submitted Paul Graham may be right, but Chris Zacharias is righter as a story · 91 points
HN discussion(OP here) I tried to explain this in my post here: http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics... although rfrey's explanation is excellent and succinct.
Comment linking /blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics/
on “Why I Sold My Startup to Google”Submitted How to read a patent in 60 seconds (2010) as a story · 90 points
HN discussionThe part about exit values is a bit misleading. You don't include anything about liquidity preference or anything else that would be taken off the top before common shares are bought out. And if shares are diluted or liquidity preference is added later after some fundraising, do you always go back and share all of the specifics of all of that with all employees? Kudos if you do, but if not it kinda renders the initi…
Comment linking /blog/2010/11/how-much-are-startup-options-worth/
on “A better offer letter”Submitted How to read a patent in 60 seconds as a story · 89 points
HN discussionAlso, Dan Shapiro did some of the math on his "VC Insanity, explained"[1]. On a side note, Fred Wilson has responded to this thread below[2,3,4,5]. [1] http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics... [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4828933 [3] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4828936 [4] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4828943 [5] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4829128
Comment linking /blog/2010/08/vc-insanity-economics/
on “What Has Changed”Submitted Of course this company is for sale as a story · 77 points
HN discussion
