James Siminoff

"What’s the right approach to new products? Pick three key attributes or features, get those things..."

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:10:13 -0500

“What’s the right approach to new products? Pick three key attributes or features, get those things very, very right, and then forget about everything else.”

- Paul Buchheit: If your product is Great, it doesn’t need to be Good

I hate watching great services become good services as they water themselves down with extraneous features. People will always ask for more crap and options but they do not always know what is best for them.

(via hiten)

Karma

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:43:32 -0500

I recently had someone contact me for advice based on a post I did on buying domain names on Tim Ferriss‘ Four Hour Work Week blog.

Their question involved a .com domain name that they had purchased a few years ago. It turns out that before they got the domain someone had filed for a trademark for the same name and has since been issued the mark, they have the .net.

The person with the mark offered to buy out the .com person for a decent number. The name is very long and in my opinion worth much less then the amount offered. So my advice was to just take it and live happily ever after.

Well the owner of the name wanted more, feeling that because the .com was a better extension for the business that they deserved more. Oh and by the way both people do the same exact thing which means that the .com person is stomping all over the trademark.

I first tried to give some broad advice around trademarks, if someone has the mark and you are doing the same business you are basically cooked unless there are millions at stake and then it might be worth a fight. But that advice did not seem to matter and they kept asking me how do they get more.

So I told them how I make many of my decisions in situations where you could go both ways, Karma. If you feel that the decision is good Karma then things always seem to work out correctly, when you go against Karma, at least for me, you always get screwed.

I get asked for advice based on my experiences frequently. Since I myself do not have all of the answers I try and steer people to the right answer by giving them examples of similar things that have happened to me. Usually I find working with people for things like this to be very fulfilling.

This was probably the first time that I have felt my time was really wasted. Today I received an email that the .com person was going to ask for more money, very bad karma. My bet is that now instead of getting a few dollars, they are going to lose their domain by force and have nothing. And if that happens Karma will win again.

iSearch

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:14:30 -0500

I was thinking today about the competition going on between Apple/Google/Microsoft. The fight is taking place on the mobile phone, PC, cloud and elsewhere.

With Apple’s incredible market share of devices that people access the internet from I think it is only a matter of time before Apple launches their own search. While search is a difficult problem to solve I do believe that with where technology has come since Google built its first algorithms it would not be out of the question for Apple with over $30 billion cash in the bank to make a big bet in search.

Regardless of if they do search or not the fight between these 3 titans is going to be interesting to watch over the next few years.

Entrepreneurs to the rescue

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:27:46 -0500

One of my favorite blogs, AZSpot, had a post about how Arizona has voted to lease state parks to private businesses. Government budgets are under extreme pressures and as a result a lot of public parks are being closed down to save money.

The picture above is of a long abandoned motel just outside of Los Angeles across the street from the ocean. The site is incredible but on national park property. People have tried to re-open it over the years but without any success, because it is just too hard to get the parks department to agree to anything.

Done properly allowing the private sector to take things like the above Motel and build something great, revenue producing and respectful of the park property is a win for everyone.

Must be Morse Code

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:00:00 -0500

I am really bad at looking at the details on bills but for some reason I looked through the details of the bill for my Verizon Mifi. What struck me as odd on the bill was that I had received 3 text messages on the devices and was charged $0.60 for it.

When I called customer support, the very nice (really she was nice) agent explained to me that if I wanted she could turn off text messaging. I asked her how a device that has only one button and no screen could possibly be used for text messaging and without skipping a beat she told me that the device is enabled for text but would not answer how you could see them or how you could possibly send them. I asked her if I had to tap the button to send a text like morse code, but I do not think she got the joke.

If you have a Mifi I suggest you call in and have them block text messaging as I did today.

Also I talked to a carrier exec who swears that they are not doing this for the extra revenue, the problem is in provisioning things like this they end up not doing the work for custom provisioning which causes issues like this.

"By most accounts Mint.com’s rapid rise to prominence and ultimate acquisition is the quintessential..."

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:07:00 -0500

“By most accounts Mint.com’s rapid rise to prominence and ultimate acquisition is the quintessential Silicon Valley success story. Yet, the Mint.com acquisition brought to light an interesting phenomenon, one I’ve coined the “Patzer Problem.” Prior to submitting offers to invest, three separate VCs wanted to confirm that we had no intention of “Pulling a Patzer,” modern-day Sand Hill Road parlance for selling too early… investors are becoming increasingly desperate for that single homerun investment that returns $1B or greater.”

- Tod Sacerdoti CEO BrightRoll in TechCrunch

To me it is not making sure you do not “pull a patzer” it is that you make sure that you stay away from some bloated out of date VC that can no longer live in the real world. Why let their out of date and mathematically incorrect business model get in the way of your own personal wealth creation.

Miami Food and Wine Festival, mmmmm

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:33:33 -0500

Miami Food and Wine Festival, mmmmm

A friend at Wharton, Matt Newberg, did this rap video of...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:51:00 -0500

A friend at Wharton, Matt Newberg, did this rap video of Foursquare with his buddies. A much better use of his time, IMHO, then studying as this will get them a better job then A’s will.

Nice job on the video Matt, now get to work and do another one on Phonetag:)

fred-wilson:

“Badges Like Us”

good thing these guys are in business school because they are not the next Lil Wayne, but the rap itself is fun and gave me a chuckle

Speaking today at CAA in LA on te future of technology alongside...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:47:06 -0500

Speaking today at CAA in LA on te future of technology alongside Rafi from Blip.tv. This conference room is probably the most amazing I have ever seen.

"I’m the Forrest Gump of the Internet."

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:07:54 -0500

“I’m the Forrest Gump of the Internet.”

- Craig Newmark via christmasgorilla

It is so true, he really is Forest Gump. From the same article I also saw this today, “Craigslist gets more traffic than either eBay or Amazon.com. eBay has more than 16,000 employees. Amazon has more than 20,000. Craigslist has 30”

via Mike Hudack

If it was only one thing...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:00:00 -0500

Success is typically mix of a few things done right and some good old fashioned luck. When you read about market leading companies in books like Good to Great you see this. When it comes to the great managers and entrepreneurs there are major debates about what skill sets make for winners.

The controversy over the gold medal in the figure skating event in the Olympics is a good example of this. A Russian skater, Evgeni Plushenko won the silver medal, beat out by a American skater Evan Lysasek.

Evgeni has been crying to the press that since he was able to land a quad jump and Evan only did a triple then he deserves the medal. Even though the event is for 4 and 1/2 minutes.

Just like in building a business there is not one single piece that guarantees a win. It is the combination of things executed correctly that create success. If it was only one thing it would be easy, then every skater would just practice the quad jump and whoever could land it would win the gold.

Smith and Wollensky created a really funny website called Steak...

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:00:00 -0500

Smith and Wollensky created a really funny website called Steak for Stock. At the bottom of the site is a calculator that you can put any ticker symbol in to see what a share of stock will get you.

Looks like we, Ditech (nasdaq: DITC) need to do better because parsley does not fill my stomach…

I use iTunes and On Demand for all my movies, which is the best...

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 07:00:00 -0500

I use iTunes and On Demand for all my movies, which is the best experience, no friction.

However when DVD’s mattered (and for me they do not anymore) the above was very true and something that Hollywood overlooked. Pirates do not take content just to save money they also do it because originally for music and movie’s the experience was better.

via hiten via i.imgur.com

My first business was building out telecom networks in 3rd world...

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:20:09 -0500

My first business was building out telecom networks in 3rd world countries which I ended up merging with Nobel. One of my largest projects was in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the city of Kinshasa. During the time I was there 2000-2001 poverty and starvation were out of control, the country was fully at war, World War Africa.

However one thing always struck me as incredible, there were three products basically unaffected by these extreme conditions, make-up, cell phones and beer. All three are wants and not needs.

In some ways it is sad to see a person who is obviously malnourished talking on a cell phone at $0.30 a minute vs. buying some food. From a business side these things are important to understand as they do effect markets, a interesting book around some of these principals would be Predictably Irrational.

via hiten via One Trick Pony

bryc3: Dream Crushers

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:22:50 -0500

bryc3:

Dream Crushers

I need this for my home office… more about it here

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:00:00 -0500

I need this for my home office… more about it here

Omaha is a great city and great people, just will have to...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:55:35 -0500

Omaha is a great city and great people, just will have to remember to come in the summer next time

PoketyPoke Succeed

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:00:00 -0500

We launched a new service called PoketyPoke in early January. For those who don’t know what it is, PoketyPoke is a personal conference manager (full explanation here).

Yesterday was the first time I was on a real conference call with a 3rd party where every participant used PoketyPoke. There were 5 people on the call and everyone came in at the same time. For those who do conference calls, you know that with 5 people this never happens.

Most conference calls I do start about 5-7 minutes late, I do approximately 3 conference calls per day so that means I am wasting over 60 hours a year waiting for people on conference calls.

Success can be measured in a variety of ways, most people quickly equate money to success. Money is a decent point system but for me it is nothing compared to the feeling you get when you see a innovation you were involved in working and fixing real world issues.

If you want to try PoketyPoke, just go to www.PoketyPoke.com, for now it is free.

Blackberry is Windows Phone

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:00:00 -0500

Yesterday Microsoft announced its next dud-to-be operating system on the mobile, Windows Phone. I am negative on the platform because you already have too many big platforms out there getting developer attention and I just do not beleive that Microsoft can come in this late to the game with something attractive enough to developers/end users to make a difference.

Also in reality the Windows Phone operating system already exists, it is just not owned by Microsoft, the Blackberry.

Blackberries are tightly integrated into the windows and MS office world. They are already there and have real entrenchment in the IT departments, just ask Apple, Google and Nokia how hard it is to break Blackberries strangle hold in the enterprise.

So Microsoft it is time to pony up and buy Blackberry. At the current valuation of around $40 billion it would be a stretch but you could probably handle it, in fact you could use that money that you earmarked to by Yahoo a few years ago for it.

This deal would guarantee Microsoft a seat at the big boys table in mobile and help them in defending against Google.

Time Scheduling Services

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:00:00 -0500

Before I describe the service I have to talk about the name. I am not one to throw stones about bad names, I did have a company called SimulScribe. A few days ago someone asked me if I used Tungle, my first reaction was what I do in my private life is private… when I realized that it was a scheduling service I loosened up a bit.

Anyway I have tried a lot of these online scheduling services in the past like, TimeBridge, jiffle, Scheduly, Doodle, MeetingMade for putting together conference calls and meetings. So far I have hated almost all of them. I typically find them to be a pain to use and that it would have just been easier to chat directly with the people to make a time to chat.

Tungle.me is the first one that really has me excited about the time scheduling space. The site is simple, clean and easy, exactly what you need for something like this. Try it the next time you have a few people to schedule a call with and see how you like it.

This space is a interesting one to follow as I believe there will always be a need for a third party aggregation system to take in all of the calendar feeds and other info like Tungle is trying to do.