September 2010
1 post
August 2010
17 posts
“We’ve shifted into a new zone in the world of software patent stupidity.”
– word
Feld Thoughts
(via fred-wilson)
Wow Analysts that Analyze
Wall Street analysts have always annoyed me. I am sure there are some exceptions but overall they sit in their vertically stacked caves (offices) in NYC and make assumptions as to where things are going.
But then I saw this article via Josh’s twitter. Analysts are now using sattelite to count cars in the parking lots of Walmart’s to figure out what the next quarter will look...
“INTEGRITY, Have this in every thing you do. Remember that integrity is one of...”
– Bill Glavin, Former President of Babson College (where I went)
The last quote that I re-blogged from Fred reminded me of the above. This was part of the commencement speech for my graduation and it is something that I have never forgotten.
“it’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to...”
– Clayton Christensen
How Will You Measure Your Life? - Harvard Business Review
(via fred-wilson)
This would be a Kick Ass Real Estate Website
Last night a friend of mine came over who is a realtor. I was asking him about a house that is for sale down the street. He grabbed my computer and logged into his MLS account. For those that don’t know MLS is THE company for real estate data. Some of it is available for public browsing but most of the data is behind a pay wall and only available to realtors.
Anyway while we were...
“In Sun’s early history, we didn’t think much of patents. While there’s a kernel...”
– via James Gosling - Quite the firestorm : On a New Road
* * *
The idea behind patents has lost its way and this story only reinforces my opinion that patents are like nukes for the enterprise. As a startup company your only defense to infringing on someone’s patents is prayer. If...
“Another important task is to make sure the companies don’t get too big too...”
– Richard Branson - Richard’s Blog - The art of delegation - Virgin (via mikehudack)
I say go even further and push management down to everyone on the team. It is amazing how people can shine when they are given responsibility and opportunity.
Interesting Choice...
A few years ago we bare boat chartered (I was the captain, no crew) a boat in the British Virgin Islands form a company called The Moorings. It was really a awesome experience.
Every month or so I get a marketing email from them, today’s email had this video:
I find it weird that a company that is in the business of creating demand for people to charter boats and explore the...
1 tag
8 Tips for a Succesful TradeShow
I have probably exhibited in 30+ tradeshows over the years, in fact just got back from one in NYC yesterday. I like what tradeshows can do for your business/product but they are stressful, tiring and sometimes demeaning.
Here are a few tips, some funny, some sad and some just true:
1. Conferences are like Herpes- This is a important metaphor to remember. If you decide you want to make a...
Reason to Not Not Do a Startup: The Idea
Good post on why ideas are really the commodity. Execution is all that matters, it is long, hard and not as sexy but that is where the meat of a startups success is.
viacaterpillarcowboy: via thegongshow:
Sometimes I ask people I know in my life who I believe would be good entrepreneurs, “have you thought about doing a startup?” I common response to this question is, “Yes, but I don’t feel...
“At DePaul University, the tip-off to one student’s copying was the purple shade...”
– From Today’s New York Times Article Plagirism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age by TRIP GABRIEL
July 2010
23 posts
Swipen with the Swipely
I started using a new social sharing service called Swipely a few weeks ago. The service takes charges on your credit cards and allows you to expose them to a sort of Facebook like news feed. Now before you freak out about privacy, they give you enough control on what you want to post and strip out private information so basically people can just see where you were and when you were there.
It...
“You have to do what it takes to have your company succeed. A great tip would be...”
– Joseph Sunga Biz Dev Manager at TeachStreet
This quote comes from his larger post, 5 Lessons Learned While At Teachstreet.com. It is a awesome post and worth a read of the entire thing. This quote really stuck out for me though. Typically the biggest excuse in getting anything out in a start up...
A Really Great Movie
Last night I went to the screening of Erin’s newest movie Ramona and Beezus based on a series of books written by Beverly Cleary. I am definitely not the target audience but it was really fun and the movie had a great flow to it.
Erin worked really hard on this movie, it was a project that was many years in the making. In Variety (a prominent industry magazine) they said,...
The Lottery of Startups
Last week on a hike with friends I was explaining to someone how my view towards startups is that I am never going to win the lottery. What I meant by this is that I am never expecting some crazy break away success to happen to me. So I always build with a rational model that will work with low investment to test the idea and even get to break even before too much investment is incinerated.
...
Is .Com Dead?
This weekend while on TechCrunch I saw this ad from GoDaddy about the new domain extension .co:
There is an ever increasing amount of Generic Top Level Domains (GTLD), as of right now there are over 20, these include extensions like .info, .jobs and .biz. In addition to the generics each country has a domain, for example bit.ly uses Libya’s extension .ly and VC blogger Mark Suster uses...
A New Form of Real Estate for NYC
If you have ever had a car in New York City, then you know it can be a miserable experience. Even for the people living in the city, very few buildings due to their age have parking so many people have their cars in lots that are a few blocks away. This is especially true on the upper west side where I used to live.
When I was in the South of France a few weeks ago and saw these interesting...
“I don’t think it’s worth the cost. Anything more than free is too...”
– Cal Lacasse, an aerospace industry sales executive from Flower Mound, Texas, from the USA Today article on internet on planes.
I wish I knew what aerospace shit this guy sells, so I could call him up and tell him to send me a some of his stuff for free. Wifi on the plane is awesome and has changed...
3 tags
Stalker Ads
Online advertising relies heavily on the concept of relevance. The better a company can figure out the relevance of a ad to you, the higher percentage they will convert.
I am heading to Monterey, CA for a weekend trip so yesterday I was looking for rooms on Expedia. Afterwards I went to TechCrunch and clicked on a blog post. This is what I saw:
Notice the Expedia ad in the bottom right...
TOUT: Behold The Taga Bike →
Saw this on my friend Leah’s blog, Tout.
What a great solution for people living in cities with kids. I love seeing well designed products like this that are a real solution to a problem. If we lived in a less hilly place I would buy one of these in a second.
“A healthy and competitive market brings investment, customers and ad dollars to...”
– Evan’s Blog. Meh.: James Siminoff: Crossing the Line
Evan did a better job explaining my crossing the line post. He is so right, “speaking poorly of your competition when you are attacking from below means you have nothing good to say about yourself”
(via david-noel, david-noel)...
Crossing the Line
Successful startups and markets usually draw competitors. Competitors in turn fight it out for market share. This is both normal and OK.
However not everyone knows how to fight. A good metaphor for this would be rattlesnakes. The only rattlesnake that will kill you on the spot is a baby. The younger the snake the less control it has in regulating its venom so it basically shoots too much...
Microsoft Contacts Next of Kin
I realize that big companies are a bit crazy and therefore sometimes make decisions that look really stupid to the outside world but in reality are good decsions for the company. Todays decision by Microsoft I am sorry to say just looks like a bad one.
Microsoft launched their “social phone” called Kin about 2 months ago. Today they announced that they are killing the entire...
June 2010
19 posts
Verizon Wireless Said to Start Offering IPhone in... →
This makes my post yesterday looks pretty smart. I full believe that the iPhone 4 will be on Verizon in January. Also my gut tells me that the phone will be both GSM and CDMA allowing it to roam for traveling.
I would like to get the new iPhone but the ATT service has been so bad for me that I am going to wait till January and see what happens.
mikehudack:
soupsoup:
I’ve heard the Verizon...
3+ Million Years
Apple announced that in the first 3 days of iPhone 4 that they sold 1.7 million phones. A even more incredible number is that those phones translate into well around 3.4 million years of contract phone service (40+ million months) for ATT, sold in just 3 days.
My gut tells me that ATT’s generous relaxing of the upgrade rules while at the same time increasing the cost to break the...
“The worst mistake I made, probably, was not being strong enough with investors....”
– Best And Worst Decisions – Paul Graham « Mark Fletcher’s Blog (via fred-wilson)
This should go in the how to be a entrepreneur handbook.
“Apple now boasts 150 million accounts and credit cards making one of, if not the...”
– Apple Introduces iPhone 4 and iOS 4 – First Take « GartenBlog
And to me this is the real power of the Apple platform, micro-transactions. While Android might have a growing number of Phones, Apple gives the developer the quick ability to monetize without the friction of a credit card. The...
The iPhone Jailbroken Market
I posted a interview of Jay Freeman today on the Voyces blog. Jay basically runs the “official” app store of jailbroken iPhones. What I found most incredible when I met with him is the size of the market for cracked phones, currently estimated at around 8 million. To put that in perspective that is around the same size as the number of Palm phones out there.
Anyway Jay is a...
