Commentary Power Words Template

Commentary Power Words When creating or curating content it's always important to give your reader context to what is going on. You may have heard this before but it's the who, the what, the where, the when, and the how that make up almost all good stories and pieces of content. We put together a list of power words that can be used to describe “what” is going on in any story or situation. What makes this list different is how well these words can set the stage for the rest of your commentary; you can see a live example for each Power Word below. You will want to save this list for later so make sure to print this page for your swipe files so you can pull it out at a moment’s notice when writing your commentary.

1. Admits 2. Analyzes 3. Announces 4. Argues 5. Asks 6. Believes 7. Calls 8. Calls Out 9. Categorizes 10. Compares 11. Concludes 12. Contemplates 13. Covers 14. Declares 15. Defines 16. Describes 17. Describes in detail 18. Detail 19. Details 20. Discovers 21. Discusses 22. Dissects

23. Educates 24. Encourages 25. Evaluates 26. Expands 27. Explains 28. Explores 29. Features 30. Finds out/that/it 31. Focuses 32. Gives 33. Gives You 34. Guides 35. Highlights 36. Lays Out 37. Looks to 38. Mentions 39. Notes 40. Notes That 41. Opens Up 42. Outlines 43. People/Companies 44. Praises

45. Proposes 46. Provides 47. Recaps 48. Recommends 49. Reflects 50. Reveals 51. Review 52. Says 53. Shares 54. Sheds Light 55. Showcases 56. Summarizes 57. Talks or Talks about 58. Tells 59. Thinks 60. Uses 61. Visualizes 62. Warns 63. Who Shares

HOW TO PUT THIS INTO ACTION

[ SOURCE ] + POWER WORD + EXPLANATION Let’s say you want to write commentary about this document you have in your hands right now. Here’s how you might do that with a few power word examples:

SOURCE

POWER WORD

EXPLANATION

Curation Suite gives you 63 power words to start your commentary off right.

Simple, right? Here’s an example with with a longer source and a longer explanation: SOURCE

POWER WORD

EXPLANATION

The team behind the top curation platform Curation Suite reveal power words that will have you writing commentary before you know it.

It’s that simple.

CurationSuite.com – 612-460-0177 – [email protected]

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POWER WORD EXAMPLES ADMITS Rob Spiro of Good Eggs admits that growing too quickly was his biggest mistake and announces company layoffs and shutting down operations in multiple cities in “Good Eggs 2.0 - A Plan for Our Future” ANALYZES Scott Maxwell of OpenView Venture Partners analyzes public market dynamics and finds key similarities between public stock prices and private valuations in “What Apple, Amazon & Google Can Teach Startup Founders about Valuation” ANALYZES AND SHARES Chris McCann of Greylock Partners analyzes and shares the universe of drone startups and expands on his key observations in “Drone Market Ecosystem Map” ANNOUNCES John Fazzolari of Revivn announces the new location of the Revivn headquarters and their consolidation of a warehouse and corporate office in “Revivn Moves to Brooklyn” ARGUES Cankut Durgun of Aslanoba Capital argues why investors having to face losses with ‘media darlings’ will help normalize private market valuations in “Company Fundamentals and What the Media Portrays” ASKS PEOPLE/COMPANIES Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures asks people to find their purpose and shares his own personal purpose for the work he does in “What’s Your Purpose?” BELIEVES Adam Quinton of Lucas Point Ventures believes investors should treat founders with commensurate respect and details his due diligence philosophy in “Investors: A Philosophy for Early-Stage Startup Due Diligence” Patrick Mathieson of Toba Capital believes ‘traditional VC look more and more like full-stack professional firms’, VCs will see decreased returns on early-stage deals, and more in “How Will the Venture Capital Model or Approach Likely Change in the Next Twenty Years?” Dan Putt of Reboot believes optimizing workplaces for happiness is to ignore all the other parts of being human, and thus feels fake and insincere in “Wholeness, Not Happiness” Jason Heltzer of Origin Ventures believes that ‘the use of convertible notes has drifted away from the original purpose’ and highlights why this could be a bad thing in “A Note on Notes: Hidden Costs of Convertible Notes”


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CALLS Jason Fried of Basecamp calls valuations a distraction to the real business numbers in “How Much Are We Worth? I Don’t Know and I Don’t Care.” CALLS OUT Ben Erez of Life360 calls out the ‘filthy amount of money’ in tech recruiting, overused buzzwords, things he finds interesting, and much more in “30 Observations About Tech and Silicon Valley” CATEGORIZES Chris McCann of Greylock Partners categorizes the Internet of Things market to visualize how the different players fit together in “Internet of Things (IoT) Market Ecosystem Map” COMPARES Sophia Dominguez of AllThingsVR compares newer social Virtual Reality companies (AltspaceVR, JanusVR and VRChat) and how they are shaping this early market in "The Fight for the Metaverse, Part II" CONCLUDES Francesco Paolini of TransferWise concludes that calculating the valuation of a company ‘all depends on assumptions’ and offers a common valuation framework in “Valuation of a Start-up: How Deep Do We Choose to See Into the Future?” CONTEMPLATES Ezra Galston of Chicago Ventures contemplates the ‘recent carnage’ of consumer startups shutting down and explores a few possible theories in “Is It the End of the World As We Know It?” COVERS Eric Jorgenson of Evergreen covers how company size and industry structure determine a company’s scale strategy in "Scale as Competitive Advantage: When Scale is Your Ultimate Weapon, and How to Use It" Matthew Bradley of Forward Partners covers the economics of surge pricing and how startups can incorporate dynamic pricing models into their business to help solve some growing pains in “Surge Pricing for the Win” DECLARES Mark Goldstein of Bad Ass Advisors declares that the value a startup receives from an Advisor is a critical factor in determining compensation in "How Many Stock Options Should I Give an Advisor?"


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Erik Rannala of Mucker Capital declares, ‘VCs are hardly on the demise’ and provides four reasons why in “Venture Capital Is Dead. Long Live Venture Capital.” DEFINES Angel Tran-Kingyens of Version One Ventures defines indirect and direct network effects and how network effects are different from virality in “Network Effects in Marketplace, Communities, and Social Platforms” DESCRIBES Adam Besvinick of Deep Fork Capital describes what he calls a ‘creative network’, how it compares to a social network, and names a few startups he’s watching in “Creative Networks, Social Networks, and Which One is Next?” Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures describes the characteristics, management skills, and ideal values of a ‘masterful’ Board leader in “Board Leadership” Jimi Wen of Trigger describes how the designer, developer and product person ‘nearly always debate about their product around Maslow’s pyramid’ in “The Software Jigsaw Into Maslow’s Pyramid” DESCRIBES – IN DETAIL Mark Leslie of Veritas Software describes – in detail – the trajectory of an early startup to large company and key decisions to ‘ensure long-term success’ in “The Arc of Company Life – and How to Prolong It” DETAIL Danny Minutillo and Gabe Marcial of Tradecraft detail how Ryan Graves landed at Uber and what founders can learn from his story in “Uber’s Secret Weapon” DETAILS William Mougayar of Startup Management details the role of marketing at three phases of startup growth and the elements of a brand strategy in “Why a Strong Brand Means Higher Growth and Better Valuation for you Startup” Zac Townsend of Standard Treasury details why Silicon Valley Bank acquired Standard Treasury in “Standard Treasury Joins Silicon Valley Bank” DISCOVERS Zaw Thet of Signia Venture Partners discovers that a lack of capital and strict focus helped drive Brightroll’s success in “Meet the Operators: Q&A with Tod Sacerdoti, CEO/ Founder of Brightroll (acq. by Yahoo!)” (audio)


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DISCUSSES Sam DeBrule of Mattermark discusses alternative methods for building a personal network in "5 Tactics to Build a Strong Network in Tech: Finding an Alternative to Startup Events" DISSECTS Connie Chan of Andreessen Horowitz dissects WeChat’s ‘app-within-an-app’ model and its impact on the future of messaging apps and mobile commerce in “When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China” EDUCATES Nat Disston of EquityZen educates startup employees on the complexities of equity compensation they should have figured out before leaving a startup in “So You’re Leaving Your Startup Job…” ENCOURAGES Ina Herlihy of Zumper encourages people to take the time to blog, reach out to people whose ideas resonate, and to be open to opportunities in “How Medium Changed My Life” Joseph Walla of HelloSign encourages founders to think of their customers as investors in “Worried There’s a Bubble? Grow Revenue.” Ben Kosinski of Kosinski Ventures encourages founders to focus on what they want to build where they see the company going - vs. building to win over an investor in “Build for Your Vision, Not for Investors” EVALUATES Sam Lessin of The Information evaluates the impact and complications of a company that pivots vs. starting over in “The Hidden Costs of Pivoting” EXPANDS Karen Roter Davis of Urban Engines expands on five points that she believes will influence consumption models in the auto industry and others in "Five Factors Influencing the Car-as-aService Evolution" A.J. Watson of Fundify expands on survey results that indicate more time spent on due diligence means less losses and more wins in “One Factor That Improves Angel Investment Returns by 7x” Semil Shah of Haystack Fund expands on five changes he thinks founders and current investors can expect in the on-demand sector in “Aftershocks from the On-Demand Fault Lines” Julie Zhuo of Facebook expands on why the best of Silicon Valley is summed up with ‘of course’ and its worst is ‘I expect...’ in “The Best and Worst of Silicon Valley”


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EXPLAINS Aaron Harris of Y Combinator explains why looking at the decisions a competitor makes from the ‘presumption of intelligence’ can benefit your company in “Presumption of Stupidity” Guy Turner of Hyde Park Venture Partners explains what HPVP looks for in seed investments and what seed stage founders might look for in VCs in “Anatomy of a VC Seed Program (and you)” Angel Investor Joe Beninato explains how startups can adjust certain aspects of incentive stock compensation to be more favorable to employees and the company in “Startup Stock Option Changes” Hunter Walk of Homebrew explains why he thinks there is more cooperation than competition among the 200 ‘micro VCs’ with funds under $100M in “Seed Stage VCs Compete With One Another But Not How You Imagine” EXPLORES Jitha Thathachari of Rouse Digital explores why it can ‘take too long to build an MVP’ and outlines 8 examples to learn from in “Your Minimum Viable Product can be more ‘minimum’ than you think” FEATURES Angel Investor Joanne Wilson features Lizzy Klein’s path to entrepreneurship and how she launched her startup, SuperDuper in “Lizzy Klein, Super Duper, Woman Entrepreneur” FINDS OUT/THAT/IT Jessica Lin of Work-Bench finds out how Alex Polvi of CoreOS built his team, what it takes to win, and what being an armored car driver has to do with any of it in “Nextgenterprise - The Winning Ingredients” Karen Roter Davis of Urban Engines finds that a great ‘product will understand why the fortune resonated’ and create a larger vision for the customer in “Is Your Product a Fortune Cookie?” Tim Devane of NextView Ventures finds it disturbing that many new startup employees do not understand how equity options work, so he educates them in “Explain Equity” FOCUSES Blake Irving of GoDaddy focuses on ‘Applied AI’ and how it is more attainable and relevant to today’s software than ‘Strong AI’ in “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work” GIVES Marcelo Calbucci of EveryMove gives an overview of three types of advisors he’s encountered as a founder and their specific characteristics in “The Three Types of Startup Advisors You’ll Find: The Dad-type, the Mom-type, and the Grandpa-type”


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GIVES YOU Jon Gillon of Roost gives you behind the scenes access as he expands Roost beyond San Francisco in “How to Scale a Marketplace Startup (or not)” GUIDES Brad Van Vugt of SendWithUs guides potential startup employees through writing ‘an ideal job application’ and what he looks for from candidates in “Applying to Startup Jobs” HIGHLIGHTS Adam Pisoni of Yammer highlights insights from General Stanley McChrystal and Chris Fussell’s book Team of Teams about how McChrystal led hundreds of thousands of people in “What Startups Can Learn from general McChrystal about Combining Strategy and Execution” LAYS OUT Elizabeth Kraus of MergeLane lays out the ideal startup pitch deck format she believes founders should use in “A Slide by Slide Guide to a Killer Investor Pitch” LOOKS TO Sam Altman of Y Combinator looks to dismiss any signaling issues by now maintaining pro rata for every YC company in every round with a post-money valuation of $250 million or less in “Pro Rata” MENTIONS Brad Feld of Foundry Group mentions an ‘inevitable downturn’ in the current economic cycle, yet the beginning of a ‘dramatic shift in how our species deals with existence’ in “The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning” NOTES Scott Maxwell of OpenView Venture Partners notes that later-stage VCs can outsource some of the early-stage investment risk to angels and micro-VCs, which may lead early cos to be less disciplined in “How the Proliferation of Angels & Micro-VCs Impacts the Tech Ecosystem” Bruce Booth of Atlas Venture notes, ‘the last five quarters are amongst the largest recordsetting quarters in ten years’ and describes four things the current market is not in “The Venture Funding Boom in Biotech: A Few Things It’s Not” NOTES THAT Sophia Dominquez of AllThingsVR notes that VR headsets and experiences have a perception problem and breaks down how they can improve their marketing in “How to Market Virtual Reality”


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OPENS UP Andrei Soroker of Kato opens up about the decline of Kato (a team collaboration tool), product hurdles, and the impact of Slack in “Kato Sunset Conference” (video) OUTLINES Charlie O’Donnell of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures outlines a pointed list of ways founders can successfully fail at building a startup in “10 Surefire Ways to Increase Your Chance of Startup Failure” Nicholas Chirls of Notation Capital outlines his lessons learned and key differences between building a portfolio of investments and building a long-term VC firm in “Building a Firm v. Investing Money” Imran Parvez of BitChemy Ventures outlines the status quo of multiple design tactics, reviews a ‘well-known’ design process, and the role of paper clips in “Journey of Design in Tech” Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures outlines how to be less anxious as an investor, in response to Fred Wilson’s post for founders in “Anxious Investors (the Investor Side)” PRAISES Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital praises products that feature native advertising, as he believes this form of monetization is a sign of love and respect for the product and users in “Native Advertising and User Respect” PROPOSES Max Wessel of Sapphire VC proposes people start articulating bold and counterintuitive positions about the future vs. a constant fear of being wrong in “The Possibility for Outrageous Failure” PROVIDES Om Malik of True Ventures provides his take on Google’s announcementand believes its new structure may reveal ‘substantial and interesting bets without regulatory scrutiny’ in “The Big AlphaBet” Geoff McQueen of AffinityLive provides three analogies to explain why raising more venture capital may not be good for the company or the entrepreneur in “Bigger Isn’t Always Better: How A Big Round Can Hurt Your Startup” RECAPS Mahesh Vellanki of Redpoint Ventures recaps the history of global GDP growth and finds that after 1500 A.D., business began ‘to grow the pie for everyone’ in “What Does It Mean for Startups to Create Value?”


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Chris Savage of Wistia recaps his story of taking a chance on closing a major client, even if that meant revealing a scrappy team and product in “How We Nearly Missed the Flight that Changed Our Business” RECOMMENDS Josh Elman of Greylock Partners recommends founders interview new ‘bounceback users’ every six months to learn about improving adoption and activation in “Four Questions Towards Understanding User Adoption of Your Product” Brad Feld of FoundryGroup recommends founders practice filtering out opportunities that ‘don’t feel good/right’ and to focus on building their business in “Unicorns Without the Magic” REFLECTS Leo Widrich of Buffer reflects on Buffer’s flat company structure experiment and the differences of ‘actualized hierarchy vs. traditional hierarchy’ in “What We Got Wrong About SelfManagement: Embracing Natural Hierarchy at Work” Bo Bergstrom of Uvize reflects on how inspiration, purpose, and the value of mentorship led him to organize this year’s Patriot Boot Camp and found Uvize in “Business Bootcamp, Quick & Dirty” Rob Leathern of Optimal reflects on the trouble he went through in securing an add-on round from his seed investors and the two lessons he learned in “When an Investment Disappears” REVEALS Alex Turnbull of Groove reveals the tools his remote team uses every day in “19 Tools Our Remote Team Uses to Stay Connected, Productive and Sane” Michael Cardamone of Acceleprise reveals the eight enterprise technology companies in Acceleprise San Francisco’s newest cohort in “Announcing Cohort 3 in San Francisco” REVIEWS Attorney Patrick Wyrick reviews a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that makes it less likely for State regulators to ‘throw up hurdles to your disruptive technology’ in “The Supreme Court Decision That Every Startup Should Know About” SAYS Paul Graham of Y Combinator says startups without a .com name signals weakness and is a mistake that should be fixed in “Change Your Name” SHARES Ron Pragides of Bigcommerce shares his personal observations of building a successful and consistent acquisition strategy in “The Strategy of Mergers & Acquisitions”


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Eric Jorgenson of Evergreen shares a collection of insights, strategies, and resources about the challenges of scaling a company in “How to Manage Scale, and Operate in Scaling Organizations” Jim Scheinman of Maven Ventures shares three of his tips to battling customer churn and achieving product/market fit in “Reason #4 Why Your Consumer Startup Will Succeed: Product/Market Fit” SHEDS LIGHT Ron Renaud of RaNA Therapeutics sheds light on the ‘the grind that is involved in raising private capital’ and the challenges he faced in “The Other Side of the Fence” SHOWCASES Li Jiang of GSV Asset Management showcases various 'high impact' business models and the successful companies that utilize them in “Different Strokes” SUMMARIZES David Teten of ff Venture Capital summarizes the steps to make a financial model easier for people to read, understand, and invest in your business in “18 Ways to Make Your Financial Model Stand Out to Investors” TALKS OR TALKS ABOUT Elizabeth Tobey of Tumblr talks about her experiences as a woman in a leadership role and looks to ‘break down the notion that people are infallible’ in “How Do I Woman Properly?” TELLS Gregory Mazurek of Gilt tells the history of the whiteboard and his thoughts on the impact of whiteboards on the interview process in “Stop Whiteboarding” THINKS Joe Coleman of Contently thinks the ability to fall in love with your company again and again is the real trait that keeps founders going through thick and thin in “Startup Status: It’s Complicated” Patrick Woods of Archer Malmo thinks Paul Graham’s post misleads founders away from relevant names that support their brand story and explains why in “Change Your Name, But Don’t Sweat the .com” Mahesh Vellanki of Redpoint Ventures thinks the concept of the ‘milkman’ may be coming back, as he dissects the innovations and potential value of some emerging grocery services in “Are We Seeing a Return of the Milkman?”


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USES Alida Miranda-Wolff of Hyde Park Angels uses examples to demonstrate the formulas/math needed to calculate everything from price per share to percent ownership in “How to Measure Valuation” VISUALIZES Benedict Evans of Andreessen Horowitz visualizes the ‘total funding picture’ of US tech companies since 1980 and makes three key observations in “35 Years of US Tech Funding” WARNS Justin Hall of Golden Gate Ventures warns founders that ‘bad money will sink your startup’ and describes ‘predatory angels’ in “When the First Cheque Can Kill You” Geoff McQueen of AffinityLive warns SaaS founders about the fundraising ‘Death Zone’ for SaaS startups between $50K - $200K in MRR in “The SaaS Fundraising Death Zone” WHO SHARES First Round Review features Tido Carriero of Dropbox who shares the power of a hybrid product development process and how to navigate it well in “How Dropbox Sources, Scales and Ships Its Best Product Ideas”


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Commentary Power Words Template

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