Disqus - Latest Comments for itsdono

Re: Unemployment and Structural Change

albert — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:44:55 -0000

Thanks - will check it out

Re: Unemployment and Structural Change

itsdono — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:37:34 -0000

You might find the following article interesting regarding historical consumer behavior when exiting recessions and what is happening so far in this recession.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-dea...

Re: Thematic vs Thesis Driven Investing

fredwilson — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:30:04 -0000

Absolutely

Re: Thematic vs Thesis Driven Investing

itsdono — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:05:03 -0000

I imagine in your thesis driven approach that it would be valuable to revisit that thesis on a periodic basis with a critical eye to see if the environment has changed in a way that would impact your thesis, especially with the speeding up of change in the Internet.

Re: "Audio Preview" Is A Bad User Experience

itsdono — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:01:04 -0000

Nope - takes too much time. if I'm potentially interested in purchasing an album, I'll sample a few songs and a 30 sec preview works just fine for that.

Re: More (Too Much?) Free from Google: Turn-By-Turn

albert — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:51:24 -0000

Dumping generally refers to selling in the international market at less than the domestic market (for the same good) and in particular selling internationally at less than cost. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_%28pricing...

When it comes to complementary products, the situation is a lot more complicated. Your cell phone carrier is giving you the phone below cost because you also sign a service contract. That is a clear analogous example of cross subsidization. The impact of cross subsidization on the effectiveness of markets is less obvious than dumping.

Re: "Audio Preview" Is A Bad User Experience

fredwilson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:45:44 -0000

I gather there are quite a few people out there who are like you based on the comments

But wouldn't a full song be even better?

Re: More (Too Much?) Free from Google: Turn-By-Turn

itsdono — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:50:42 -0000

In the physical world, what Google does is analogous to "dumping": using profits in one area in order to subsidize getting market share in another.

I don't think that national or even international (WTO) regulatory bodies have really caught on to what is happening.

Re: Start-up studies: A pop quiz

itsdono — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:22:40 -0000

I would short the dollar in the forex markets.

Re: "Audio Preview" Is A Bad User Experience

itsdono — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:37:09 -0000

I like the 30 second preview and use it frequently.

Re: 85,000 reasons why Apple’s iPhone isn’t going to be disrupted

twitter-2712751 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:05:17 -0000

Wow, not only have you made a substantially misinformed comment, but you've completely discredited VentureDeal (you really should take that out of your name if you want to protect your business). In 2007, there were a lot of early adopters. By summer 2008, iPhone was already becoming mainstream (more mainstream than any smartphone in the US at least, where most smartphone users USED TO BE business users. The iPhone has turned that on its nose. These days, I go out with friends, and half of them are using iPhones (the tech savvy and their spouses, and now in some cases, their children). Maybe it caught you by surprise, because certainly the rise of the iPhone has been meteoric compared to PCs, or Windows.

Today, you still see most of the early adopters on iPhones and those willing to make a few sacrafices (primarily in ap availability) using Android or WebOS--In fact, I am a major early adopter, but no way would I trade my main device for one of the others, because I rely on a variety of aps (and they do change--because...there's ALWAYS "ANOTHER ap for that".

Credibility ruined buddy.

Interesting article, Robert. Still want to read more about the Prius gadgetry.

Re: 85,000 reasons why Apple’s iPhone isn’t going to be disrupted

Darwin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:14:57 -0000

Thats a really uninformed statement. How you come up with that given the number that have sold around the world and the ecosystem that has developed around it is beyond me.

Re: 85,000 reasons why Apple’s iPhone isn’t going to be disrupted

tremolux — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:54:51 -0000

While there is certainly an overall market maturity curve, it seems to me there's also a maturity curve for each platform/device. Although smart phones as a group may be headed for the middle of their bell curve, the iPhone is much further along its platform-specific curve than is Android (and closer to being in sync with the smart phone market curve). At this point, Android adoption would have to reach warp speed to catch and pass the iPhone. My best guess is that Android will, not surprisingly, be the "Linux of smart phones": admired and adopted by a loyal user community, but also a small community; I don't think anyone is going to get rich on Android, maybe not even Google.

Re: 85,000 reasons why Apple’s iPhone isn’t going to be disrupted

JamesKatt — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:34:51 -0000

The iPhone and iPod Touch form a platform with over 50 million early adopters.

With China and Korea added to the fold, by next year, there will be close to 100 million early adopters for the platform.

By 2012, the iPhone and iPod Touch platform will overtake the Nintendo DS and Sony Playstation Portable together with 150 million early adopters. By then, there will be 200,000 apps.

We will have to wait a long time for the competition to catch up.

Re: 85,000 reasons why Apple’s iPhone isn’t going to be disrupted

pxlated — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:02:19 -0000

Only by early adopter? Then there are one hell of a lot of early adopters.
Most of the people I know with iPhones would never be described as early adopters.

Re: 85,000 reasons why Apple’s iPhone isn’t going to be disrupted

itsdono — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:52:40 -0000

The iPhone Platform has been adopted only by the early adopters, the middle of the bell curve is not locked in yet. If Android can get enough critical mass of applications soon enough, they will be able to compete for the middle of the bell curve, and Apple will have merely performed the pioneering work...

Re: Only 17 venture capital firms raise money in Q3 — fewest in 15 years

itsdono — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:32:30 -0000

This is the inevitable overshoot to the downside. Worldwide equity and bond markets have been rising since March 9 and I expect that the endowments and pension funds will begin to step back into alternative investments in greater force as their portfolios rise in value.

Re: Paying To Pitch

itsdono — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:01:19 -0000

Totally agree with this. One potential good side effect of this is that it will cause Angel groups to increase their member dues, thus weeding out the wannabe investors and/or service providers from the real investors.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg: The evolution of a remarkable CEO

itsdono — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:26:10 -0000

I sure hope Facebook does something better with its business pages. To me, it is the orphan now, especially after the site wide redesign.

Re: Is the tech boom over for entrepreneurs?

itsdono — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:41:25 -0000

Siebel's comment reminds me of the US patent officer's comment in the late 1800s that he didn't think there was a need to have a patent office anymore, since everything that could have been invented of any substance already was...

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

egoboss — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:13:47 -0000

As ever, simple is good. Well said.

A percentage means nothing. Value means everything.

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

fredwilson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:32:14 -0000

Word

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

SteveKane — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:52:13 -0000

here's the data. probably not complete but not bad

http://j.mp/aK33K

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

SteveKane — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:51:19 -0000

ok, but thats like saying its better to live to be 100 than die at 60

there's just not enough data yet about YC companies to make any kind of judgement, and suggesting otherwise is a little cruel to young entrepreneurs, i fear. no matter what, founders need to understand how financing works over time, no?

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

itsdono — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:47:45 -0000

Better to have a lower percentage of a very valuable company, then a high percentage of a dead company...