January 2012
1 post
December 2010
2 posts
“December 2, 2010
AMAZON.COM INVESTS $175 MILLION INTO LIVINGSOCIAL.COM...”
– Reuters
“March 21, 2000
AMAZON.COM INVESTS $60 MILLION IN KOZMO.COM
Amazon.com, the...”
– The New York Times
November 2010
1 post
March 2010
3 posts
“Startups invent, and then they disclose. They produce product, and then they...”
Stickybits Press Release
stickybits launches first social object network- connects physical & digital worlds
Company closes on $300,000 in financing from Mitch Kapor and Polaris Ventures
March 9, 2010 – stickybits has launched a new platform for connecting the physical and digital worlds. stickybits are unique codes that can be attached to physical objects. Using the stickybits mobile app, codes can be written to...
A Thumb's History of Pervasive Computing
Ten years ago I joined Fred Wilson at Flatiron Partners as its Entrepreneur in Residence and helped launch a program in Pervasive Computing:
Companies focused on pervasive computing develop hardware, software and services for post-pc gadgets. Flatiron is betting that as people become more connected to the Internet, they will want increased access to online services. According to Flatiron,...
February 2010
6 posts
5 tags
On Twitter Advertising & the Briefcase Theory
Last November, Dick Costolo COO of Twitter said that they were working on a new ad product and that their ads would be great:
DC: We will have an advertising strategy. You will see that from us in the future. It will be fascinating, non-traditional, and people will love it.
MA: What’s new about it?
DC: We want to do something that’s organic, like the way it happened with Google. It will work...
“I am interested in pointing to an important new transition in the evolution of...”
6 tags
On Entrepreneurship and Parenthood
Have been thinking lately about expectations. What do investors expect of their entrepreneurs? What do kids expect of their parents? I am not sure if these two sets of expectations are aligned.
In my experience, investors want the following from their entrepreneurs:
speed
hustle
competitiveness
aggressiveness
hunger
Also, in my experience, kids want the following from their parents:
...
“iDroid- developing for iPhone and Android platforms simultaneously, as in...”
December 2009
11 posts
“The use of one’s social identity as a fulcrum for content creation is...”
“The radio listener is almost always a solitary individual; and even if you were...”
– Walter Benjamin, Frankfurter Zeitung, 1934
“The internet, as we are coming to understand, is no longer about pages. It is...”
“Foursquare Rival Gowalla Raising Big Round From Greylock
We’ve heard...”
– December 3 2009, Nicolas Carlson, Silicon Alley Insider
“Bloomberg to Buy BusinessWeek After McGraw-Hill Tires of Losses
McGraw-Hill...”
– OCTOBER 13, 2009, SHIRA OVIDE AND RUSSELL ADAMS, WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Quest for Something Better →
Dave Gentzel’s prophetic post from more than a year ago about standard social ad units.
“The great categories which determine not only the shape of the systems, but also...”
– Walter Benjamin, Origin of German Tragic Drama, 1928
November 2009
7 posts
The Three Gestures of Social Media: Status...
Twitter is a broadcast model, one to many. A few people tweet a lot, and a lot of people follow them. It’s like RSS and Blogging before it, not surprising given the roles of @dickc (Feedburner) and @ev (Blogger) running the company. Twitter gives organic rise to celebs on its platform. The assymetric nature of the follower relationship leads to media hierarchies. How many followers you...
We are the Scams We Decry
From May 2005:
Want an iPod? Get one free at freeiPods.com
I hate sounding like a crass web promoter but FREE remains the best single response mechanism on the Internet. We are happy to provide our full attention in exchange for free stuff: iPods, Razrs, Flatscreens, PSP, and more. And it really works, as people actually do end up with iPods which are free in terms of money but expensive in...
Social Advertising on Steroids
Alex Rodriguez started the baseball season in ignomy as he admitted to having taken steroids. He ended the season a hero, helping propel the (dreaded) Yankees to World Series victory. After the stonewalling of McGwire and Sosa, and the angry denials of Bonds and Clemens, we now have a key transition character in A-Rod. He showed the path from an artificially enhanced performance to one that...
5 Key Questions of Social Media Monetization
Does Facebook Connect represent an existential crisis for Google’s AdSense?
Will Facebook enable 3rd party advertising innovation on its platform?
Can the Twitter API become the identity linchpin for a non-FB social ad network?
What can we learn about consumer behavior from the current breed of online scams that we can apply to more sustainable forms of marketing?
If the native formats of...
The Bull's Case on Facebook being Dominant
This story begins with Facebook, and it likely ends with Facebook. Facebook is social media. And social media is Facebook. We are all role players in their drama. Their social graph will become our digital operating system for the next decade. As Microsoft Windows and Google Search have been previously. Facebook has no competition, it has no partners. It has data about the way that we...
July 2009
67 posts
Great conversation emerging in social advertising between punishing the bad http://bit.ly/x6MBy and rewarding the good http://bit.ly/bq81r
i started online concierge service 1998 called root whose orig. rep is now a movie star http://bit.ly/qRzAz. Deja vu now www.prialto.com
clarifying vision for tomw bod mtg… “social ads connect you with real people whose opinions you care about and who care about yours”
p $1 @tinasharkey for being awesome
Join us! SocialMedia.com & ThinkSocial are hosting drinks tonight at Pier 38, SF from 6:30pm. RSVP here: http://bit.ly/Ss7zx
6 miles riding uphill, almost got eaten by a ginormous hawk.
downloading some bassnectar and animalcollective to listen to before hitting the mountain for early eve climbs
I’m at The Girl & the Fig (110 W Spain St, 1st St W, Sonoma). http://bit.ly/825Z9
hooray for my @tinasharkey!!!! Currently Reading http://bit.ly/BvJLR
the physics of social media has microchunked my elaborate blog ideas into bitesized hashtagged verbal transactions #decimalizationoftheweb
Serial entrepreneurs need a vision statement that cuts across the companies they have been involved with. Working on mine. What’s yours?
good for fb to address social ad practices. bad actors always abuse marketing inventions but we cant let them win. http://bit.ly/bpQXY
tried to check-in to 4square when i got home and it tweetsported me to be in menlo park. nope, still happy here in marin. will visit soon.
Tony is Bezos 2.0, now its MSFT’s turn to buy FB so Zuck can become Gates 2.0.
I’m at Home (475 ravenswood ave, Menlo park). http://bit.ly/5xbTj
Love working at Pier 38… Sitting in on @vcmike ‘s #leanstartup panel in our common area while dining on indian food for lunch.
As good as the pizza at picco in larkspur is their ice cream topped with caramel, cocoa nibs and sea salt http://yfrog.com/e1zisj
with so many ad impressions and so many salespeople selling them, its a shame that the creative in 99.9% of web ads still sucks.
talking social ads with @thejames at pier 38