June 2011
86 posts
60 to Sexy: Announcing Season 5! →
Stoked.
Bill Simmons on Ryan Reynolds, Will Smith, and the... →
Little-known fact: I will read everything Bill Simmons writes. Have done for years, and will for years. *
* As long as it’s free, of course. Maybe I’ll read his book one day.
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I haven’t played around with Google+ much, and might never use it extensively, but I have to say this: Circles is what Google+ gets right.
The asymmetric follow is the key characteristics of Twitter, and the symmetric follow + group-based distribution (distribution = privacy) is the defining characteristic of Facebook. Google+ combines the asymmetric follow with the group-based...
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Can OpenPhoto unbundle the photo industry?
Have you heard about OpenPhoto? Originally posted to the newsletter on June 21.
Edges, Ogunquit, Maine, June 2011
Yesterday (June 20) I heard about OpenPhoto, a project to build an open-source photo storage and sharing service currently looking for funding on Kickstarter.
Love for a couple of reasons:
The unbundled photo industry I’ve had a vision for an unbundled photography industry for...
Material — Do great work. (p.s. We're hiring!) →
This is a full-time job in San Francisco, CA. It starts as soon as we find you.
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“City ideas have to do with a particular moment in time, a scene, a movement,...”
– Jonathan Harris . World Building in a Crazy World . Ideas
“It seems in some avenues of life, being top quartile is positively nondescript....”
– Is Being Top Quartile Any Good?
This whole post made me laugh, but here’s the best line.
(via thegongshow)
“How can you think and hit at the same time?”
– Yogi Berra, of course. In For Derek Jeter, on His 37th Birthday - NYTimes.com
“And while it’s natural to think about who might be interested in buying Hulu,...”
– What Content Licenses Are Hulu Owners Selling? - Peter Kafka - News - AllThingsD
The answer: content licenses. And that’s the problem.
“I know prices are higher than the norm right now. I am confident they will be...”
– On Bubbles … And Why it Will All be Fine
+1. Now going back to work.
“Valencell, an innovator in mobile health and fitness technology, announced today...”
– peHUB » Valencell Inks $5.5M Series B
Interesting. 1) Love all healthtech, and 2) didn’t know Best Buy had a VC arm.
A Tech Entrepreneur's Plan for Grilled-Cheese... →
parislemon:
At first, The Melt popped up on my radar when it was unveiled and people immediately began calling it yet another sign of “the bubble” (sign 3,576 for those keeping score at home).
This is the first real story I’ve read about it. I dunno, it sounds like one of the least “bubbly” ideas ever. A store which will work in sync with mobile apps and make money from day one? Sign me up.
If...
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Why you should try @Trunkclub.
Men, have you tried Trunkclub yet? Need new clothes? Highly recommended.
Great customer experiences deserve to be shared. I found out about Trunkclub from Darren, and since I needed new clothes with the kind of style I wouldn’t find on my own without a lot of time dedicated to trying new stores, I decided to try Trunkclub myself, especially after reading more about them on Techcrunch and other...
texturism:
if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. - sir ken robinson
This is what I told myself when I started writing about business strategy years ago. This is what I tell myself when I put those same ideas to use today.
Evan's Blog. Meh.: Announcing brand new social... →
fitocracy:
We’re happy to announce that we just released a couple more social features over the weekend. If you connect your Facebook or Twitter accounts to Fitocracy, you can now:
Share your workouts on FB or Twitter right after you log them
Find which of your Facebook friends or Twitter…
“We’ve spent the past 40 years putting technology inside the enterprise and...”
– Bill Gurley Explains How Twitter Will Rule The World And Why Groupon Won’t
DePodesta refuses to be typecast in 'Moneyball' -... →
Old news, but still interesting.
“Groupon’s S-1 argued that their approach [“Adjusted CSOI”] is...”
– ComScore: Groupon-Living Social Battle Brewing In The New Wild West | Fast Company
Senators Want To Put People In Jail For Embedding... →
spytap:
So yeah. If you embed a YouTube video that turns out to be infringing, and more than 10 people view it because of your link… you could be facing five years in jail. This is, of course, ridiculous, and suggests (yet again) politicians who are regulating a technology they simply do not understand. Should it really be a criminal act to embed a YouTube video, even if you don’t know it was...
“Groupon will not be able to continue at this pace if it can’t help merchants...”
– The local race part 2: acquisition vs retention | Evan Bartlett ‘s blog
Exactly. And there is a lot of business to be built (by Groupon or others) and $ to earn in improving retention.
It’s normal, btw, for businesses to focus on acquisition first, retention second.
“If I personally was to start a company tomorrow, I’d probably create the next...”
– The 87.5% Category According to Luma – Lots of Acquisitions | Darren Herman
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What's the point of the accredited investor rule? →
From letter #44:
What’s the point of the accredited investor rule? And why isn’t changing it getting more attention?
The SEC announced earlier this week that they will be reviewing the 1964 Securities Acts Amendments which held companies with at least $1 MM in assets and 500 shareholders to the same mandatory disclosure rules as the 1934 Securities Act imposes on companies trading on...
“Pandora should also be able to target ads very precisely, locally, nationally,...”
– So, What’s Pandora Actually Worth?
But read the rest for the real valuation analysis.
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“Pandora was always focused on profitability no matter how unreasonable a goal...”
– TedR * Tumblr — When I First Met Pandora and Tom Conrad I Was HIGHLY Dubious. Then we became good friends
“It seems clear that the success of Twitter’s Promoted Accounts offering is going...”
– Hershberg.org, What Twitter Can Learn From Google (and Groupon)
Comparing the maturation seen in search marketing to the necessary maturation in Twitter marketing.
“But Mr. Lee said that as his firm began to collaborate with Mr. Kutcher’s and...”
– Ashton Kutcher Knows His Start-Ups - NYTimes.com
Distribution can be a powerful value-add from an angel investor.
“Between 2002 and 2007, 65 percent of all income growth in the U.S. went to the...”
– The 14 Biggest Ideas of the Year - Magazine - The Atlantic
“I saw this in the papers in Sweden. It’s the national debt,” insisted Ann...”
– In Union Square, 15 Numbers Add Up, Once Again, to Time - NYTimes.com
Yes. But that’s not what the numbers mean. Finally I know!
“Poole has also talked about wanting to keep the community away from the darkest,...”
– Canvas Scores a $3 M. Round led by Union Square Ventures | Betabeat — News, gossip and intel from Silicon Alley 2.0.
“[Attribution modeling is] going to become a standard, cost of doing business,...”
– Darren Herman | Marketing, Media, and Technology Conversations
Talking about ad operations.
Disclosure: I work with Darren at kbs+p Ventures, an active investor in adtech.
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Take the 2010 Photographer Social Media Survey →
The details:
This survey is being co-run with Miki Johnson and is a follow-up survey to the 2009 Photographer Social Media Survey. The goal of this survey is to evaluate and share developing trends of how photographers used social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and others in 2010 as compared to 2009. The 2009 Survey was an incredible success thanks to your participation and word of mouth...
“This, combined with the efforts of a few brave souls to create secondary markets...”
– A VC: The Valuation Blues (aka How FAS157 Is Tortuous)
Fred from January 2009. Would be interesting to dig into FAS157 -> Shares Post and Second Market.