Disqus - Friends of gubatron

Re: The Berkshire Hathaway 2008 Annual Letter

LIAD — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:13:07 -0000

My favourite quote from the report "In God we trust, everyone else pays cash"

Re: Legacy Technology Dies Hard

LIAD — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:25:43 -0000

Thinking about your post in terms of disruptive innovation and barriers to consumption.

Pay phones are actually quite disruptive and overcome 2 of the 4 main reasons for non-consumption (wealth and context/access).

These are both exacerbated in settings such as airports where network service is frequently poor thus providing increased non-consumption of cellphones for context/access reasons, coupled with these locations having a higher than average proportion of travellers/foreigners where usage of native cell phones are prohibitively expensive thus compounding non-consumption of cell phones due to wealth reasons.

It makes sense for legacy technologies like pay-phones to make “good money” in these settings.

Is there a cycle to disruptive innovations where the disruptor becomes the disrupted?

Re: What We Can Learn From Mess

LIAD — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:27:12 -0000

The truly successful online businesses both in terms of revenue/engagement concentrate on function over form.

Craigslist may perhaps be the most obvious example but there are many many others.

Twitter only recently with $55m funding/44m monthly uniques - decided to re-design its homepage to something which could have been coded by a 12 year old.

Facebook had 100m members before it gave its homepage a brand identity.

ebay/amazon - all the giants - shitty form (initially at least) - but great function.

Its disruptive innovation/blue ocean strategy through and through - reduce elements which are secondary to requirements (form) whilst over compensating on others (function).

Those of us who are entrepreneurs need to remember that whilst we want to build great things which have both form and function, utility and beauty. We need to get the utility nailed down before going after the beauty side of things.

Its hard work, we hate to release products which we know can be drastically improved in regards form - but we must must concentrate on function.

There are tens of thousands of the most beautiful portfolio/design agency sites out there, glistening design, intricate styling - but bubkis business/revenue.

All our businesses can grow by taking a leaf out of craigslists book - the only question is whether our design-sense can stomach it.

Re: The Foursquare "Crush"

LIAD — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:46:32 -0000

The main consequences of you "coming out" about your liking of foursquare prior to concluding the investment were:

1. You once again showed that you and USV are at the forefront of consumer web investments and are bleeding-edge when it comes to your industry knowlege and having your finger on the pulse.

2. You may have ended up paying a tad more for the equity you purchased due to the "added heat" your public interest in the company bought about in terms of other potential investors

----------
Long term - consequence 1 hugely outweighs consequence 2

Re: Founder Liquidity

LIAD — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:27:29 -0000

subject it being done at a sensible quantum - allowing founders a little liquidity doesn't necessarily result in them getting rich but should result in them obtaining a little financial cushion which results in them being able to wholeheartedly concentrate on growing their business and not having to worry constantly about personal cash flow issues. (specially for young/1st time entrepreneurs)

if the investors goal is to help bring about the optimum environment for its investments to succeed, ensuring the founders can concentrate fully on the task at hand must be of major importance.

i read somewhere lately, i cant remember where but may have been on your blog, in regards where to peg founders salaries and the opinion was that founders pay should be set at a level which allowed them to live comfortably based on their circumstances/family/kids needs etc (i.e. pay their bills and not have to stress too much about day to day living expenses) but not be enough to allow them to save a single penny. That way once again allowing them to concentrate on building the business without unnecessary hindrances.

Providing them a little share liquidity follows the same lines.

(entrepreneurs who already have personal wealth and have a financial cushion - shouldn't really be given liquidity as it would serve only as an added distraction - just the opposite of what the liquidity event should accomplish)

Re: What I Learned from Techcrunch50

LIAD — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:39:15 -0000

nice post.
so true regarding Mixergy

Re: Venture capital is best used to accelerate success

LIAD — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:48:46 -0000

I'm not sure why VC's feel duty-bound to explain the value they bring to start-ups.
VC's are financial investors, their goal is to provide returns to their stakeholders.
Good VC's obviously bring more than just money to the table, but I'm not sure that innovation is or needs to be one of those things
It's a nice added bonus - but not something which should be expected and thus not something that the VC industry should need to apologise for.

Re: Venture capital is best used to accelerate success

LIAD — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:08:02 -0000

These value-added options obviously act as differentiators from an
entrepreneurs perspective but I dont feel that of all the things an
entrepreneur hopes a VC will bring to the table apart from Cash, innovation
itself is overly important

2009/9/21 Disqus <>

Re: Angel Investing Playbook….That's Absurd!

LIAD — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:59:38 -0000

Self deprecation and humility are great things.

We're all Putzes - its just that some people dont have the balls to admit it.

Investors haven't made a dime yet out of either Twitter or Zynga - and however unlikely it might seem now, they may never do so.

Whats the opposite of not counting your chickens before they hatch?

Re: You Can Make Everything You Want Come True – With Maria Sipka

LIAD — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:35:11 -0000

Maria is super charismatic - a great interview

All these stories end of the same though.

"chasing tails"
"what have I done with my life?"
"not feeling fulfilled"
"what the real point"

It's great that she stopped, took stock early on and made big changes

Re: VentureBeat’s policy on embargoes: We’ll take ‘em

LIAD — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:50:03 -0000

I am neither a journalist nor a PR so have no real knowledge of the intracacies or dirty tricks associated with embargoes

Nonetheless - I enjoyed the sincerity of the post.

Taking the morale high ground at the expense of a few page views is a dignified strategy which will no doubt bear fruit in the long-run

Re: Yahoo should invest in products, not advertising

LIAD — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:25:02 -0000

Yahoo is stale - pure and simple.
Its a behemoth of times gone and is experiencing death by a thousand cuts.

No amount of marketing/re-branding will save them - I doubt a product drive or ingenious innovation will either.

Re: Yahoo should invest in products, not advertising

LIAD — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:37:27 -0000

Excluding the time and investment spent on the technology, MSFT stated they were spending $100m on launching BING.

In its first few months it seems to be gaining traction and actually becoming relevant in the world of search. How things pan-out in the medium/long-term is a different matter, but it does show that product innovation and a $100m to shout about it with can bear fruit even if the parent organisation itself is fighting for ongoing relevancy.

Having said that.... I still think Yahoo is stale and will need more than a couple of singles and doubles and an expensive PR re-brand to attain anything near its former glory

Re: You’re not on Twitter’s suggested user list but you are in good company:

LIAD — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:23:59 -0000

The fact that the SUL is based on purely arbitrary factors to which we the users are not privy is just the way it is.
I'm sure twitter just launched it as a way of getting newbies into the swing of things and to help them look cool by showcasing their celebritiy users

The average user not only gets no value from the SUL but probably couldnt care less about it.

It seems a little sour grapes to me that you made such a big deal about it - your tweets a few days ago come across a tad bitter and resentful. - Dont sweat it dude - like you said HALF FULL.

At the end of the day we know the value YOU bring to the table - dont stress that the infantile SUL doesn't

Re: Comment Length

LIAD — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:39:19 -0000

Setting min/max comment lengths seems a bit worthy to me.

Comments should encourage/stimulate and provide a forum for conversation/discussion - making commenters jump through hoops stymies that.

Short succint points are best - allowing readers to zip through and absorb opinions quickly and efficiently.

If someone wants to write a thesis long comment, they are doing it because they have something to say and believe they are adding value/contributing to the discussion - Good luck to them.

Reality though is that with attention scarcity as it is their comment length might have "priced them out the market"

Re: Comment Length

LIAD — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:44:58 -0000

Announcing the launch of DisqTwit - decentralised blog commenting platform.

If you cant make your point in 140 characters its obviously not worth making

Re: Trendspotting: Look to the horizon, not around you

LIAD — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:50:45 -0000

great stuff chris - just a shame its only 1 minute long.

more of the same please - much more.....

Re: Mark Zuckerberg: The evolution of a remarkable CEO

LIAD — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:33:20 -0000

great article matt - really nicely written.

Re: Business Model Jujutsu

LIAD — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:11:52 -0000

i know im in the presence of giants on this blog so i'm probably missing something but i dont really get the jujitsu part of this post.

in the examples it just appears that both companies have gone from trying to capture value with their API's to trying to create value. As such, is it really that surprising that they've seen positive effects?

Re: Paying To Pitch

LIAD — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:18:49 -0000

The Angel groups in the UK are getting to wise to the coming backlash and have now began to re-lable their Pitch Fees, as Pitch Training Fees. (doing the 'training' is obviously made mandatory).

On the pro-side at least new entrepreneurs can use the pitching fees as a quick litmus test to see whether the angel group is bona-fide and worth the effort of pitching. - If they have any kind of upfront fees - dont even bother.

Re: A story of “launch” disaster….fast-food style

LIAD — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:40:20 -0000

great story

Re: Blog Stars

LIAD — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:34:49 -0000

blog-star orientated communities often revolve directly around the blog-star themself over and above the actual content. This blog for instance is a complete pick-and-mix, we the reader have no idea what we are going to get each day. If we were to map out the topics on this blog over the last 6 months, I'm sure the majority would not be directly related to tech/web/vc stuff (the topics perhaps which we initially joined the community for)-the only constant in this blog is Fred himself.

He posts something on his mind and we chime in as we feel appropriate. (kind of cultish actually).

The only issue is these things cant really scale - average post 200+ comments? the blog star actively replies to 50%+? - it wont be long before they have to give up their day job.

Re: 50 Essential Strategies For Creating A Successful Web 2.0 Product [Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Blog]

LIAD — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:51:06 -0000

i've read and re-read this post many times over the past 10 months - each time it provides me more value

Re: Just Try It Out

LIAD — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:45:59 -0000

You said you got a good feel for the service, but didnt say if you liked it or not...

Do you subscribe to the "only backing one horse in a race" theory which I've heard other VC's talk a lot about or would/have you invested in companies which are similar/competing with existing ones in your portfolio?

Re: Pay for your own dog food

LIAD — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:32:26 -0000

completely agree.

i do the same for my products and whilst initially it seems bizarre - it does in-fact really put you in your customers shoes and forces you to make the same value decision that you are asking them to.