March 2009
22 posts
Q&A day
I received an email today and thought that it was so indicative of many peoples situation that I would post the question and answer here as well.
Entrepreneur: I have a small startup I want to launch. I can do all the back end programming and database design for the website myself but I know that I'm no designer. In order to make anything that looks halfway polished I'll look to have an outside company do the initial layout and hire a freelancer to do the logo and small amount of graphic design. I'll then wire it all up and finish out the programming on my own. However, that layout and graphic design costs money. What avenues would you suggest are out there for micro-vc? I estimate that I would need between $6-10k if I operate on a shoe-string budget to get launched. Do you have any suggestions for either small loans or VC firms that specialize in small investments?
Jamie's Answer: Based on my experience and the limited facts below I would recommend one two things. 1. Just hack up the design yourself. Look at Craigslist and Google, the sites have basically zero graphic design and are two of the most popular sites on the web. In fact I have seen programmers do better sites for the businesses they are working on then graphic designers. Just remember for most businesses functionality trumps beauty. 2. Find a great graphic designer and offer to swap them stock for the work. This not only saves you from having to raise the money but also makes sure that they are tied to success. I think that you are pre-investor stage right now. The work that you are going to have to do to get the $6k+ is probably not worth it. Also if you can bootstrap a prototype that works you might be able to get enough cash flow to grow the business without any VC/investors and that is by far the best way to go if you can.
If you have question for me please feel free to email me, jsiminoff@phonetag.com
“direction is more important than speed”
– -Bryce Roberts
1 tag
Looking back at 2009, what a great year...
Sometime in 2011-2013 I think that we will all look back at 2009 and realize that we did not know how good we had it.* Here are the reasons why:
1. It has never been easier to hire great loyal employees. Without a job market existing not only can you hire people at a lower cost but you do not have the old worry that they will just leave when they get a better offer.
2. Most big companies...
3 tags
It's a Great Time to Start a (Disruptive) Bank
Image via Wikipedia
Albert from Union Square Ventures beat me to this post. In fact I was just telling Josh on Monday that if i had more time one of the things I would start is a bank.
Albert’s reasons why it is a great time to start a bank are all correct (included below) but very different from mine. My bank would make money off of mortgages… yes, Mortgages.
From what I...
“I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and...”
– -Douglas Bowman, former Visual Design Lead at Google and why he left.
Has Google become too smart for its own good?
4 tags
Thank you Google! Thank you! Thank you!
Image via CrunchBase
Almost two years ago I was pitching SimulScribe to a tier 1 VC on the east coast. That morning Google had announced an offering that was in direct competition to one of their portfolio companies that they had put over $10 million in. The VC’s were visibly shaken by the mornings news and during the meeting continued to ask us “…but what happens if Google...
“Y: So people should not be afraid of stocks now?
S: Not only should they not...”
– Davied Swensen in Yale Alumni Magazine (via fred-wilson)
This is such a great quote. It is incredible that human nature is to feel better about buying things when they are high then when they are low…
WatchImage by Getty Images via Daylife
An interesting critique of interview of Jim Cramer on the Daily Show last night. It was done by Aaron Task the guy from the clips that Jon Stewart showed of Cramer talking about running his hedge fund.
As I watched the interview I could not stop thinking about the irony of seeing the “Comedy Central” logo in the bottom right corner of the screen...
“If you are such a pussy that the idea of Google entering [your company’s space]...”
– -James Siminoff
Great quote in regards to Google launching a voicemail transcription which competes with PhoneTag.
(via daryn)
The best part about this interview is that I did it from the eye doctor’s office with Oliver (my 7 month old) and Erin (wife) :)
Google’s transcription is “total crap” says... →
I woke up to a slew of emails, twitter chatter, etc., about PhoneTag’s viability. For all of those that asked the questions, this interview has my answer.
A clarification on the qoute, I said that it was crap compared to our technology.
I have made it!
As disturbing as it is, I feel that I have finally made my impact on the web. There is a fake blog which is posting articles it shows are written by me, www.themillionaireuniversity.com. Not sure why they chose me to be their fake writer, I think it has to do with the post I did on Tim Ferriss blog…
Anyway it has made me feel like Steve Jobs today (remember the fake Steve Jobs blog).
Apple update
I have now been using my MacBook Air for about 5 motnhs. As I had stated in previous posts I have become too addicted to the Microsoft Office suite of services (mainly Outlook and Excel) so I loaded VMWare on my MacBook to run them as Windows apps. The problem with the Apple version of MS Office is that they have a lot of features stripped out that I use constantly.
Up until about a month ago...
Great Comment on Mayer's NYT Qoute
i completely agree. one semester, i got an A+, a B, a C, a D, and an F. the A+ was in programming, and i took the final stoned (on purpose) and passed with flying colors. the F was in a class i didn’t care about, and i slept thru one of the major exams. for me it was more about motivation & interest than effort & focus. perhaps that makes me a bad or dumb student, but i’d...
“One candidate got a C in macroeconomics. “That’s troubling to me,” Ms. Mayer...”
– -Marissa Mayer, VP and employee 20 at google in today’s NYT
When I saw this comment in the mornings New York Times I almost puked. I hate this comment and all of the ideas that form it. Marissa, just remember how many “good students” ran the investment banks…