September 2007

The Archives

09.14.07

I’ve Got a Clush on Entourage
Entrepreneurship
I finally managed to get caught up on Entourage the other day. The most recent episode was hysterical as per usual, but it also got me thinking of all the entrepreneurial undertones of the show. For example, the boys recently struck out on their own to produce the high-risk independent film, Medellin. Eric is now his own agent, balancing friendships, learning to trust his gut, and trying to sell clients (Anna Faris). Even Ari has his own firm. I think it's great that an exceedingly popular television show is really, at its core, about best friends making their own way ...
09.13.07

Facebook Saves the Day at Middlebury College
Social Networking
When Middlebury College decided to create a new logo, little did they know what lay in store. Apparently the administration decided that the school's seal was antiquated and by developing a new school icon they could rally both school pride and support for a major fundraising effort. However, instead of bringing the campus together, the logo had quite the opposite effect. Sparing no expense, the school hired the well known firm Chermayeff and Geismar, the creators of logos for NBC, Mobile and Brown University. Actually, the firm is apparently 'famous' and not simply 'well known' :) The famous firm's design is ...
09.09.07

Personal MiniFeeds vs. Lifestreams
Social Media
FW has a post called, Rolling Your Own Mini Feed. Two questions come to mind: How is a 'mini feed' different from a 'life stream?' Since I am on trendy buzzword overload, maybe someone can clarify the difference for me... What benefit is there to the setup Eric Marcouiller has using separate silos for each feed (Twitter, Del.icio.us, Facebook, etc). Why not one stream that can be filtered and sorted based on the silo, but retains single stream elegance?
09.09.07

The Real Difference Between Facebook and Google
Social Media
Facebook: These guys know everything you are okay with telling your closest friends. Google: These guys know your dirtiest secrets.
09.06.07

Hiring a Designer
My Experiences
Here is my problem with most good designers: they are selling a product, you are buying a service. What do I mean? Most good designers are very confident people and believe what they design is the best. Their design is right. The problem is that when you hire a designer you hire someone to provide a service. Generally you hire someone whose 'design style' jives with you, but you ARE NOT asking them for a direct copycat of something, or to create something without your input. Allowing someone free reign is nuts. Also anyone who says good design intuitively leads ...
09.06.07

NameStorming a Business or Blog When Domain Options are Few
Brands and Marketing
If you're someone currently on a quest to name a business or blog, you are well aware of how time consuming, difficult and frustrating this process is. This difficulty is a direct result of modern society's self-imposed obstacle: domain names ending in .com. Sure you can be creative, settle for a .net or a hyphen, but facts are facts: the naming landscape sucks. With a rise of new naming conventions (think web 2.0 names) we must take into account differences such as generations and demographics. For example, "Nu" in French is nude and is popular among French porn-site SEO. Also ...
09.04.07

Justice. D.A.N.C.E. So Cool.
Pop Culture
My friend pointed me to this killer video by Justice called D.A.N.C.E. [youtube]fo_QVq2lGMs[/youtube] This video is up for 'video of the year' on MTV. Justice is an extreme underdog - gotta love it. The interactive was created by So Me, a French graphic designer. So Me explains the art in the video..."Some of the animations are, like, references to T-shirts that were made in the past, and some are dedications to friends, like a way to say hello to someone and they're the only one who knows it." V. cool.
09.04.07

Universities, Startups and Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship
Student entrepreneurship and university-led incubating of startups are subjects I have covered before. Recently though I have jumped on several email lists for organizations dedicated to promoting university-level technology innovation and I hope to get more actively involved. Here are some very cool stats I came across: The 20-year returns for Early/Seed VCs is 20.6%, compared with 13.8% for Later Stage VCs and 8.2% for the S&P 500 8% of all university startups go public, in comparison to a "going public rate" of only 0.07% for other U.S. enterprises - a 114x difference Over ...
09.03.07

Counterculture 2.0
Great Thinkers, Social Media
There are some very interesting posts going around that are starting to touch on something that became very apparent to me yesterday ’“ history is repeating itself. Normally I consider my parents a lost-cause when it comes to social media and web 2.0, but this weekend my father blew me away with some off-hand comments about what I had thought were the latest in innovative '2.0 thinking' and architecture. When my father was younger he was a hippie -- one of many. My dad was so swayed by the ideas of the then 'counterculture' that he packed up his bags ...
09.03.07

Why Writing a 10-page Business Plan is Probably Not a Good Idea (For you)
Entrepreneurship
The Messengers front man Stowe Boyd has a new post called, "Writing Tight: Why Tiny Business Plans are Best." While I tend to agree with Stowe that a short and sweet 10-page plan is the ideal approach, I think that barring ideal circumstances, a 10-page plan is the exception, not the rule. Few can actually get away with it. The ideal circumstances include three factors: 1) there is solid underlying business model capable of generating revenue, 2) the team has worked together before and 3) the team faces few hurdles (time and money). If all three of these factors are ...

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