Disqus - Latest Comments for paulsweeney

Re: Bittersweet mint.

paulsweeney — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:51:22 -0000

Mint was also on my radar for a long time (picked them up at the Finovate conference in NY). I have to agree with you that this was a billion dollar business sold too soon. I think experienced, and perhaps more personally wealthy founders, would have pushed the boat out on this one. Just FYI, the cost of developing this proposition versus the cost of developing EGG, or Halifax Personal Finance shows how the cost of entry has dropped. On the downside, Mint never tested their Data-API to 3rd parties as a revenue stream, so maybe this was more about the potential upside of data driven services than cross selling.

Re: Taking it to the next level

paulsweeney — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:46:46 -0000

Yeah, let me add to the chorus. The very epitome of good business sense here. No doubt this is onwards and upwards. Hope to catch up with you at one of the eComm's or Telco 2's hopefully :)

Re: Apple’s rejection of Google Voice on the iPhone doesn’t bode well for them

paulsweeney — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:41:01 -0000

Perhaps short term profit will kill apple as platform. Probably client versus web as well.

Re: The Cartoon That Predicted Google Chrome OS

paulsweeney — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:09:37 -0000

That is just brilliant. Genius in fact.

Re: Yahoo! closes a business it acquired for $160m last year

paulsweeney — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:32:20 -0000

Perhaps the M&A Malaise is just indicative of the deterioration in the core model. Google has killed a few acquisitions as well, but the cynical among us called those "M&A the New HR", in that it was more about talent acquisition. On that note, how seriously do you think they are penetrating enterprise accounts with their App offering, and do you think they stand any chance against Amazon for application environment (I don't).

Re: Enterprise 2.0 Software: Commoditization before Monetization

Sameer — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:58:04 -0000

Good point to consider, for sure, Paul. Thanks for your comment.
WRT "If everything looks the same, and acts the same, its pretty hard to extract value."

To me the larger point is how many have planned to survive and thrive if "everything looks and acts the same" or even if thats just the market perception. I'm afraid the latter has already started.
Commoditization of course doesn't mean the market size shrinks. Salt, Pork Belly and Steel are still huge businesses. It does require a completely different execution model.

Re: Enterprise 2.0 Software: Commoditization before Monetization

paulsweeney — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:29:33 -0000

Hi Guys. Great conversation and agree with nearly everything you are saying. There might be other "inflections" to the discussion such as How exactly does open source effect the SaaS model of the likes of Salesforce.com? and "where is the pain" (Integration from legacy?), and "where are the current and future friction points in adoption" (old fashioned barriers to entry and exit). If everything looks the same, and acts the same, its pretty hard to extract value.

Re: Social Networks to be Used for Asthma Alerts

paulsweeney — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:02:19 -0000

It is a good idea, especially if it "nudges" everyone to keep the inhaler and medication close on risky days. I am just wondering if there are any particular 'social factors' that are / could be useful here? Lets face it, a simple SMS with high, medium, low, or actual pollen count number could be nearly 100% distribution, passive, and not annoying. Serious sufferers will have their own "strong plans" in place in terms of communications.

Re: Social Networks to be Used for Asthma Alerts

paulsweeney — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:49:04 -0000

Re: How To Connect Google Voice to Skype

paulsweeney — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:40:40 -0000

That was an excellent hacking/ integration tip there.

Re: It is phenomenal how fast the world is changing

paulsweeney — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:19:24 -0000

Excellent comments so far. The one that struck me first was yes, (to all the internet-information-science stuff), but wouldn't it be interesting to see one that took the same approach to "% of population with access to clean water", "No. of people that die of cancer", etc. etc. i.e. the "information consumption piece is pretty meaningless other than as "infotainment". Having us all connected in a social network, may ultimately, be pretty pointless, unless it can be used to harness action, point decisions, and "get things done".

Re: Thank you Google! Thank you! Thank you!

Siminoff — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:02:10 -0000

You might be right and it is never smart to underestimate someone as large as Google but I just do not believe that the one number system will work from anyone other than a carrier that can control the switch and the caller ID. If they can get the carrier deals to pulse out their one number than they might have a chance.

Re: Thank you Google! Thank you! Thank you!

paulsweeney — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:02:06 -0000

Great, great posting. I also think that GV will not find favor with the larger scale enterprises. It will be interesting to track the uptake of Google Apps in that regard. A caveat I might add is that Google may (just may) teach people new habits (because they are incentivised by free), with regards handling the "close the loop" numbering regime.

Re: Facebook goes realtime to take on Twitter

brisbourne — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:42:06 -0000

Thanks Paul

Re: Facebook goes realtime to take on Twitter

paulsweeney — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:35:21 -0000

Oh by the way, love the look and feel of the blog re-design...

Re: Facebook goes realtime to take on Twitter

paulsweeney — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:33:48 -0000

Agreed. One of the things I had missed is they way they "crowdsourced" internationalisation and translation. Real-time is going to be big. The way linkedin is handling my groups and conversations is like a box of drawers ten foot hight, with all my underwear hanging out :)

Re: Andy Abramson, Thank You!

Siminoff — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:27:26 -0000

Sadly many people in business too often do get married to the wrong person. So as a former "spouse" of Andy I can say that if you need to get married to a firm, marry Andy's:)

Re: Andy Abramson, Thank You!

paulsweeney — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:58:40 -0000

Well that's just great to hear. And hey James, better not to have "married the wrong person" right?

Re: New study showing that for entreprenneurs past success is the best indicator of future success

paulsweeney — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:43:52 -0000

Excellent piece. I think you really should follow up on this line of research. I have heard that in Ireland, some VC's will only invest if (1) the team are all ex-MNC's, (Multi National Corporation); (2) Working in a related area (3) Have done this before.

I also suspect that some countries do not support either new market types, or retail based propositions (i.e. Ireland tends not to).

Re: Track your friends on mobile with Google Maps

paulsweeney — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:54:43 -0000

Nic, imagine if you could get your customer to download/share an instance through an email link? (i.e. I send you "this link" as part of a delivery confirmation process, or a meeting confirmation process?). I now, for the duration of this interaction, KNOW where you are, and probably how likely we are in any point in time, to complete said process successfully.

Re: Predictions for 2009

paulsweeney — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:46:35 -0000

Well, it will be worth keeping an eye on that's for sure. Might be interesting to see you do some "social picks" on these and then watch you work :) Looking forward to hearing what you are getting stuck into 6th paradigm wise.

Re: Google Launches Vocito, a Desktop UI for GrandCentral

filosnet — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:58:15 -0000

Me too, but fortunately Craig Walker, GranCentral's CEO, got one for me at the early beginning of GC's life, a US number that I still have working on my VoIP desktop phone.

Re: Google Launches Vocito, a Desktop UI for GrandCentral

paulsweeney — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:37:41 -0000

Good catch. I really liked the GC idea but as I was in Ireland, could never get the international numbering set up (USA Only). My one true hope for this, is that when Google releases it, it will have truly global reach. Google, being Google, probably won't release a straight forward calling service though.

Re: I joined Nokia today! - RussellBeattie.com

paulsweeney — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:29:40 -0000

Yes, just adding the voice to the chorus. Might be interesting to hear if your blogging, or blog following, was in any way important in the review process for Nokia.

Re: Coming up for air.

paulsweeney — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:37:34 -0000

Lovely redesign. Very clean. Some nice touches, like the date tab on the side. Like Disqus for comments....