Ideation on social media, venture capital and startups 
Leveraging Ideas
July 2008
The Archives
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07.29.08WrapMail: Making Email More Viral
Brands and Marketing CommentsI don’t often review companies anymore. However WrapMail is a company worth talking about, especially in light of my recent focus on effective methods for marketing early-stage companies. I initially encountered WrapMail in the latest section of Techcrunch’s new section Elevator Pitches. After writing a post calling into question the marketing copy used by WrapMail, the founder Rolv exchanged a few comments with me on this blog and then offered to walk me through a product demonstration (Incidentally, this is also a great example of a CEO going the extra mile to win some businesses). Concept: WrapMail allows emails to be ...
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07.28.08Are Libraries Dying or Thriving?
My Experiences CommentsOne of the towns I used to live in is apparently raising two million dollars for renovations to its library. I told my mother (an active supporter and board member of her public library) that I thought this was a waste of money as the role that libraries play in society has been/will be diminished. I suggested the town is better served spending its money on a public space like a park or garden. My mother was disgusted. She informed me that that public libraries are being used as much, or more than ever before. She said that while people don't ...
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07.24.08HyperLocality Meets Long Tail Distribution
Brands and Marketing CommentsLast week the New York Times featured a great story about two friends who have been creating t-shirts targeted at residents of St. Louis. In contrast to most cities where t-shirt sales are targeted at tourists, the St. Louis duo are targeting sales at locals using inside jokes and geographicly-specific phrases. I really love what's at work here: it's the long tail for hyperlocal products. Until recently, selling into the long tail has been outside the realm of possibility for most businesses -- the cost of distributing niche products were too high relative to the return. However the web as ...
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07.22.08Premium Means You Should Envy Them
Brands and Marketing CommentsMy last post talked about Rene Girard and the concept of mimetic desire. I want to continue with some additional thoughts… Premium products are often marketed via some aesthetic base, often using visual cues (logos, design, premium materials, etc) to make others consumers ‘envious’ to the point that they feel they must have it too. The value is obvious to all who see it. It seems most web services forget that making other users ‘envious’ of the premium features they could have is a necessary step to monetization. For example, the reason that car models change design ever year or two is ...
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07.21.08Teaching Dad About the Internet Circa 1994
My Experiences CommentsI swear - I am not a dork :) I was home this weekend and grabbed a book off my father’s bookshelf. It was a title I had not seen in ages – The Whole Internet Users Guide. Protruding from the top was a sheet of paper that looked like a letter. It was! The following is a letter I must have written and given to my father along with this old-school O’Reilly Media book back in 1994. I would have been 14 years old: Dad, I am glad you are interested in the world wide web (part of the internet) but as ...
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07.16.08The Turning Girl IQ Test
Campus Chatter CommentsThis is pretty amazing! [from readnrock blog] -- Which way is she turning in the image above? If you see this lady turning clockwise you are using your right brain. If you see her turning anti-clockwise, you are using your left brain. Some people can see her turning both ways, but most people see her only one way. See if you can make her go one way and then the other by shifting the brain’s current. If you can switch between seeing her turn either way at will without shifting your gaze, your IQ is above 160 … which is almost at genius level! This was ...
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07.16.08The Long Tail and Mimetic Desire
Brands and Marketing CommentsI’m a big fan of both Chris Anderson and Peter Thiel. Recently I have been reading a number of reports and articles contradicting the thesis behind the Long Tail, a concept coined by Anderson in 2004. The Long Tail describes a niche strategy of businesses that sell a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities -- primarily using the internet as the platform for sales. Examples are Amazon.com and Netflix. However, new research from the Harvard Business Review demonstrates that the revolution in Long Tail sales described in Anderson’s book has not happened and the article begins to ...
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07.14.08The Price Is Right but the Process is Wrong
Social Media CommentsI have been thinking a lot about the role of price points in web 2.0. Much of the ‘bubble’ we hear about stems from the reluctance of those utilizing products to pay for them. It’s not even that there is a reluctance to pay something – there is a reluctance to pay anything at all. Wired Magazine recently featured a cover story anointing this the free economy. However I believe that the reluctance of consumers to pay for online applications points to much deeper concerns than simply price alone. Intuitively it makes no sense to me that someone wouldn’t pay ...
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07.11.08Can You Afford Not to Be Funny?
Brands and Marketing CommentsIn the past when Heights Media Group launched products for ourselves or on behalf of clients, a common debate was whether or not we should use humor as a marketing component. Generally when a client is launching a “serious product” there is misnomer (IMO) that the product or company will not be taken seriously if humor is used. It’s a misnomer because most clients assume that humor-based marketing is an all or nothing affair. It’s my belief that in today’s market, video is a necessary component for any campaign: it’s low cost, viral, engaging and trackable. Because video is necessary, so ...
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07.09.08Techcrunch Forums Hit DeadPool
Social Media CommentsAlthough largely unnoticed by the blogosphere, Techcrunch has killed CrunchForums. The initial idea according to Michael was “[to provide] a good place to pitch your new startup or product if it hasn’t been featured yet on TechCrunch (or even if it has), share tips with the community, spread rumors, or endlessly debate the definition (or existence) of Web 2.0.” Unfortunately, two mistakes were made: Pitching of startups was unregulated The chosen forum software did not allow for community policing In conjunction with pulling down the old forum system, TechCrunch has offered a new and more regulated approach to pitching of startups: “elevator pitches.” While the ...
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