Venture Capital bloggers have a uniquely targeted audience of entrepreneurs interested in what they have to say. These Venture Capitalists write about technology, entrepreneurship, investing, the computer industry, and their random exploits.
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Venture Capital in Emerging Markets Conference, 15 - 16 April 2008, Istanbul, Turkey [Golden Horn Ventures]
Golden Horn ventures is organizing a conference in Istanbul, Venture Capital in Emerging Markets. The goal is to bring together fund investors, venture capitalists from all over the world and entrepreneurs and discuss investment strategies, the right and wrong practices of venture capital in emerging markets.
Golden Horn ventures is organizing a conference in Istanbul, Venture Capital in Emerging Markets. The goal is to bring together fund investors, venture capitalists from all over the world and entrepreneurs and discuss investment strategies, the right and wrong practices...
Dear LiveLeak, The Problem With Beliefs [Venture Chronicles]
read moreCompaniesFitnaLiveleakJeffSat, 29 Mar 2008 00:11:36 -0500
Having them isn’t hard, standing up for them is.First it was Network Solutions and now LiveLeak, who really must be naive if they think Islamic extremists give a shit about “freedom of speech on the net” or “accepting one another’s culture”. It’s too bad Mr. Wilders’ government basically threw him under the bus rather than stand up for what is a universal human right, free speech. Despite LiveLeak’s pretty language about many opinions, the fact remains that when it counted they chose to censor one opinion out of fear of another, and this won’t foster a “discussion that could benefit and educate us all”, rather it will only serve to embolden one group of extremists.
Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else. We would like to thank the thousands of people, from all backgrounds and religions, who gave us their support. They realised LiveLeak.com is a vehicle for many opinions and not just for the support of one.Perhaps there is still hope that this situation may produce a discussion that could benefit and educate all of us as to how we can accept one anothers culture.We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high.
[From LiveLeak.com - Redefining the Media]
Having them isn’t hard, standing up for them is. First it was Network Solutions and now LiveLeak, who really must be naive if they think Islamic extremists give a shit about “freedom of speech on the net” or “accepting one another’s culture”. It’s too bad Mr. Wilders’ government basically threw him under the bus rather [...]
Why is it so hard for people (including both entrepreneurs and VCs) to say these three words?
This past week I had two distinctly different meetings with entrepreneurs. They both were successful serial entrepreneurs. Both were exceptionally smart. Both had good ideas.
The first entrepreneur, however, thought that they were expected to know the answer to every question. There wasn't a question I asked that he didn't have a definitive answer to. He knew what their pricing model would be. He knew why Google would never compete with them. He knew what their consumer churn would be three years out (despite the fact that they hadn't launched yet). Whenever I tried to discuss the different risks in the business, he told me why they didn't exist.
The second entrepreneur, had a different approach. He definitively stated answers when he had them, but when he didn't know he said so. When asked about his pricing model, he said "well, we're considering a few different options depending on the outcome of some tests we're running..." When asked about cost of customer acquisition, he said "well we don't know what our numbers will be...but here's our model based on other comparable companies." When asked about risks, he identified several -- and then we discussed how to reduce/eliminate them.
I've come to believe that a key investment criteria is founder credibility. And, I think the second entrepreneur was far more credible. No one expects a pre-launch company to have all the answers. (In fact, we get scared if you think you have them). As I've previously discussed, rather than have an entrepreneur sell me on why they are 100% correct, I'd much rather understand how they are attacking the different risks facing the business.
And, by the way, the same applies for venture capitalists. I often feel that during company pitches -- and board of directors meetings -- we're expected to have an immediate opinion. Should we double our marketing budget? Should I hire this person? Will this strategy work? While it's OK to offer opinions and thoughts, I think it is also appropriate to acknowledge uncertainty.
Why do people feel pressure to have an answer for every answer?
I don't know...
I don't know. Why is it so hard for people (including both entrepreneurs and VCs) to say these three words? This past week I had two distinctly different meetings with entrepreneurs. They both were successful serial entrepreneurs. Both were exceptionally...
Learning From Failure [Feld Thoughts]
read moreFailurebrad@feld.comFri, 28 Mar 2008 18:40:10 -0500
I haven't written much in the Failure series lately, but I've got a doozy or two coming soon. In the mean time, Chip Griffin has a good post up titled Don't Fear Failure, Learn from It. Definitely worth a click through to hear about his three different kinds of failure (Spectacular Collapse, Death of a Thousand Cuts, and The Land of Lost Opportunity) as well as some lessons from his failures.
Google News Delivers [Venture Chronicles]
read moreUncategorizedJeffFri, 28 Mar 2008 18:11:26 -0500
Sometimes you have to wonder if someone from Google News is deliberately placing headlines for maximum irony. Check out the “10 reasons to fly through Heathrow’s new terminal” article sandwiched between the Heathrow in chaos stories. In all fairness the Forbes piece does acknowledge the chaos but then goes on to list the Tiffany boutique, spa services, and fancy first class lounge as reasons to fly through the new terminal… maybe they should write a piece on how keeping your core business in order is more strategic than accessorizing failure.
Sometimes you have to wonder if someone from Google News is deliberately placing headlines for maximum irony. Check out the “10 reasons to fly through Heathrow’s new terminal” article sandwiched between the Heathrow in chaos stories. In all fairness the Forbes piece does acknowledge the chaos but then goes on to list the Tiffany boutique, [...]
Quarterlife: Not A Hit On Bravo, Either [Silicon Alley Insider]
read moreMichael LearmonthFri, 28 Mar 2008 18:09:00 -0500
NBC U's experiment with "Quarterlife" ended with a whimper. After the show bombed on NBC prime time, it was booted to Bravo, which tried to kill it off by running it as a six-hour marathon on Sunday March 9 -- starting at 8 am.
It worked! "Quarterlife" averaged about 169,000 vierwers per hour during its run -- about 38% less than Bravo normally gets on a Sunday between 8 am and 2 pm.
Despite "Quarterlife," Bravo actually did pretty well in Q1. Just ask them. The network was up 38% in adults 18-49 behind shows like "Top Chef," "Project Runway" and "Make Me A Supermodel."
Newspapers' 2007: Worst Ad Drop In 50 Years [Silicon Alley Insider]
read moreMichael LearmonthFri, 28 Mar 2008 17:06:00 -0500
Newspaper print ad revenues dropped 9.4% in 2007 to $42 billion, the worst one-year drop in more than 50 years. That's according to the Newspaper Association of America, which started keeping track in 1950.
This is usually the point in one of these items where we insert a silver lining, in the form of rising online revenues. Unfortunately, that's slowing for newspapers, too. Online ad revenue grew 18.8% in 2007 to $3.2 billion. That's down from 31% growth in the each of the prior two years.
Total revenue in 2007--including online revenue--dropped 7.9% to $45.3 billion. Not helping: classified ad revenue dropped 16.5% to $14.1 billion. Thanks, Craig!
Context is Everything [Go Big or Go Home]
read morerobschultzFri, 28 Mar 2008 16:56:00 -0500
Understanding context is one of the the big chasms that we have been trying to cross in internet applications over the last five or so years. Its right up there with understanding natural language. Search would be smarter if it knew the context in which you were thinking; online advertising would be more effective with context' music recommendations would be smarter with context and so on and so forth.
Many, many start-up have tried to to bring context to web applications. None have done an outstanding job so far. An early technology out of Northwestern University called Watson, attempted to watch what you were writing in a Word document and offer web links to research that might be useful. They are now called Media River and have changed their model. Personify attempts to classify web pages. Surf Canyon has developed a browser plug-in that refines google searches to make them more context sensitive. It watches what links in the search list you click on and re-orders the results accordingly. It attempts to solve the "Jaguar" search problem - am I looking for the animal, car or operating system?
Zemanta is one of the latest context tools that attempts to recommend contextually related content and pictures to bloggers. They have a implemented their solution very elegantly using Firefox extensions. All you have to do is install the plugin, go your supported blog platform and the tool magically appears. As you can see from the suggestions below, the technology has a way to go. It seems to be only using key words, not context. The nice implementation helps overcome the questionable recommendation.
Source: Wikipedia Understanding context is one of the the big chasms that we have been trying to cross in internet applications over the last five or so years. Its right up there with understanding natural language. Search would be smarter...
Brokers and Pigeons [Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed]
Delaware Court Rules For Diller In Liberty Fight: IAC Breakup Back On [Silicon Alley Insider]
read moreIACIPeter KafkaFri, 28 Mar 2008 16:46:00 -0500
Barry Diller has won the courtroom battle against Liberty Media and John Malone: " The court concludes that Liberty has failed to demonstrate that Diller has breached or threatened to breach any contractual duty he owes to Liberty." Translation: Barry can go back to his plans to bust up IAC (IACI) into five pieces.
The 79-page ruling from Delaware Chancery Court is below. As expected, it's pretty effective Ambien, though we did like these two bits:
John Malone doesn't love Greg Maffei so much : "It appears from the evidence that at least some people at Liberty subsequently formed the view that... Liberty could remove Diller as CEO and reassert control over its IAC shares. According to the evidence presented at trial, [Liberty CEO Greg] Maffei was the primary advocate of this position; Malone, in both his deposition and at trial, described the theory as 'a stupid thing to litigate,' the result of 'brain damage,' and '[in]consistent with what I'd been saying to the world for ten years.'Neither does Barry Diller: Maffei arranged for an October 8, 2007 meeting between Malone and a Wall Street Journal reporter. Maffei and the reporter flew on a company plane from New York to Liberty's headquarters in Denver for the interview. Although the parties dispute what Maffei and Malone told the reporter, the end result is indisputable-the October 27 issue of the Journal carried a story announcing Diller and Malone's 'divorce.' Malone was quoted as saying that, while once there had been a market premium attributable to Diller's management, now there was a 'Barry discount.' The article ended with references to Maffei's position that Liberty might be able to revoke Diller's proxy, and Maffei's comment that the status of the proxy much depended on whether ' a bus gets' Mr. Diller.'
