November 2007

The Archives

11.13.07

The Facebook Pages Land Grab
Brands and Marketing, Social Networking
Facebook has gone and done something interesting: they are allowing anyone to register a Page on Facebook Pages. Pages are profiles for brands, businesses and celebrities. Could pages be big? It’s free marketing and as Stowe Boyd suggests, Pages could replace corporate blogs. Some companies, such as Union Square Ventures and Facebook itself have set up their own pages. They are the early adopters. However, ANYONE can sign up a Page for brand or company if that name is not already claimed. This is exactly what I have been doing. So far I have registered Harvard University, 24 and the ...
11.12.07

Why Strong Brands Matter: SBUX
Brands and Marketing
Starbucks (SBUX) is near all-time lows. ~50% off its all time high. What’s up? With Wall Street freaking out over a looming recession, the ‘smart’ people think that the first thing impacted is discretionary spending, i.e. items like expensive coffee. This may be true, but something else more significant is going on. McDonalds is launching a new line of premium coffees that beat Strabucks' in taste tests -- and McD's is starting to offer FREE wifi. This matters because the analysts worry that if McDonalds has “as good” coffee and offers free wifi, then people will opt for ...
11.08.07

There Are Other Early Stage VCs in New York?
Venture Capital
I was at an event tonight where an interesting topic came up. Someone in the audience asked a panel of New York City based, early stage-ish venture capital partners “why they didn’t invest in web 2.0 companies?” The gentleman asking the question specifically cited Union Square Ventures, who was not represented on the panel. USV came up several more time in other questions, making it clear that was the firm the audience knew. The unanimous response among the VCs (clearly annoyed) was that they “did invest in such companies, but we that we didn’t know about it because they prefer ...
11.08.07

Started A Facebook Group for Startups in NYC
Entrepreneurship
Join us
11.07.07

Hilarious: Facebook News Network
Social Networking
11.07.07

Hey VC’s - Stop Hating on the System and Step It Up
Venture Capital
Matt Winn has been writing some great posts recently. Today he posed the question of whether or not venture capital (i.e. early stage investments) was likely to see the see the massive growth that has characterized private equity in recent years. In his post, Matt draws attention to the recent debate over startups as "commodities." Matt considers whether, with the barriers to entry falling, opportunities for VCs will diminish. If it does, it's the VCs fault. Here’s why. A good VC knows an AMAZING idea when they hear it. Amazing ideas are distinguished from GOOD ideas, and there are infinite amounts ...
11.07.07

How Would You Influence?
Brands and Marketing
What do you think is a stronger influencer: writing, or a visual work of art? If you could only choose one medium to impact society would you write, or would you create something? Do you have a stronger reaction to reading about an issue, or seeing that same issue represented visually? Keeping this in mind, does your same mentality carry over to the web? Are the websites you value the most, the ones with the best content, or the ones most visually appealing? Is user-experience only about design, or does it have something to do with the written content as ...
11.06.07

Why People Join Online Social Networks
Social Networking
I looked around to find a list of reasons for why people join social networks. Since I could find none, I started making my own. Can anyone help out and add more? To be social online For specific technological functionality (photo sharing or other niche) To use a common communications platform with friends/colleagues To make online connections for insight (business leads, connections, info, etc) Make online connections that ultimately become offline relationships Stay organized or collaborate using a more efficient medium Gain insider information, e.g. events, advance notice, etc Feelings of self-worth or egotism (part of exclusive group) Loyalty to former affiliation (Alumni, etc) For material gain (incentives offered) Mandated. Ex: ...
11.04.07

The Original Internet: Still a Great Place to Visit
My Experiences, Tech'nomics
As happens many a Sunday, today I spent the afternoon with some friends getting brunch and then browsing an independent bookstore on Court Street in Brooklyn. I spend an unhealthy amount of time browsing blogs and websites. Fewer and fewer of these sites (and their content) are inspiring me. Yes, there is a lot of interesting stuff going on with Facebook, OpenSocial and the like, but everyone writes about the same stuff. It’s really a Catch 22: to be well-read you need to write about what everyone else writes about (think Techmeme). However, to be an upper echelon blog, you ...
11.04.07

The Art of Entrepreneurship: Noah Charney
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs are an innovative breed, but it takes someone special to innovate within an industry that has existed for centuries. One of these people is my good friend, Noah Charney, whose debut novel, The Art Thief, is now available in a bookstore near you. Despite the wild success of the Da Vinci Code and its allusions to art theft which captured the minds of millions of readers and film goers, surprisingly, no formal academic efforts had ever been contributed to the field…that is, until Noah. Noah is a graduate of Colby College and Oxford, where he invented his own degree ...

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