Sawickipedia http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog one geek's opinions on the online world, marketing and media Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:52:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en Travel Hack: One way to get free wifi http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/411665428/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/10/04/travel-hack-one-way-to-get-free-wifi/#comments Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:52:32 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/10/04/travel-hack-one-way-to-get-free-wifi/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Travel Hack: One way to get free wifi", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/10/04/travel-hack-one-way-to-get-free-wifi/" });]]> Recently I was in London for Seedcamp and ad-tech on behalf of Lookery.  One of the challenges of traveling to Europe in this Crackberry/iPhone day and age are the INSANE data roaming charges that mobile co’s like ATT Wireless like to charge.  The standard rate is 2c per KB or $20/MB.  Egads!  For perspective, my mobile twitter home page (http://m.twitter.com/sawickipedia) is 7k so 14 cents everytime I wanted to check. Mobile Wall St. Journal home page - 10k or 20c.  Definitely cheaper to buy the dead tree version at those rates.  300 emails a day (Lookery’s a virtual company and I’m in marketing and biz dev) @ 1kb each = $6/ day.   The moral of the story is it adds up quickly.  Now ATT Wireless offers a bulk purchase plan - great $25 for 20 MB’s (a 60% discount off of rate but still not a lot of data if you’re a mobile data power user).  Great except it requires a 12 month contract (seriously in this day and age I can’t believe we as consumers put up with that customer service B.S.).

So as a frugal, penny-pinching startup guy, I decided that I was going to rely on free wifi as my only means of accessing my email and mobile web needs.  I’m not sure whether or not iPhone’s automagically connect to open WAP’s, but Blackberries don’t.  They require you to manually search available WAP’s and then select the one you want to connect to.  So my first night in London, I arrive at my friends house (another frugal startup tip - don’t stay in hotels in NY and London - stay with friends) and connect to his open WAP still using the default SSID.  So the next day, I’m wondering around London and I notice my phone buzzing.  It’s connected to an open WAP and then it happened again later that day in a different part of the city.  That got me thinking - I should enter all the most popular default SSID’s for WAPs which all just happen to typically be the name of the WAP manufacturer.  And so I did.  Let me tell you, I was astounded at all the free wifi I was able to grab having pre-registered those WAPs on my wifi-enabled Blackberry Curve.  And even back at home in Seattle, I am still finding lots of free wifi as a result.  So I figured I should share the tip.

Here are the SSID’s I’ve entered so far: Netgear, dlink, Linksys, Belkin54g, Buffalo.  And if you wanted to enter more a quick web search would find many more default SSIDs.

Happy Travels.

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]]> http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/10/04/travel-hack-one-way-to-get-free-wifi/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/10/04/travel-hack-one-way-to-get-free-wifi/ One Former Physicist’s Thoughts on the Large Hadron Collider (or Will the World End?) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/390056558/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/09/11/one-former-physicists-thoughts-on-the-large-hadron-collider-or-will-the-world-end/#comments Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:04:30 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/09/11/one-former-physicists-thoughts-on-the-large-hadron-collider-or-will-the-world-end/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "One Former Physicist’s Thoughts on the Large Hadron Collider (or Will the World End?)", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/09/11/one-former-physicists-thoughts-on-the-large-hadron-collider-or-will-the-world-end/" });]]> I have a college buddy from Duke - David Hardtke, who is retired physicist who worked at LBNL and CERN (the guys who built LHC) and now Chief Scientist at SurfCanyon a search startup, who sent us his thoughts on what’s going to happen with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as its now online (though not yet attempting the things the world is worried about).  As a geek at heart - I am fascinated by stuff like this.

So when asked whether the LHC would create black holes that would destroy the world - here’s what Dave said:

Today the $10 billion dollar Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva
Switzerland took its first baby step towards operation.  The LHC is the
highest energy particle accelerator ever built.  I will now make
predictions about the outcome of these experiments — unlike other
predictions on this list I allegedly know what I am talking about on
this subject.

1)  The main goal of the LHC is to find the last piece of the so-called
standard model.  The standard model is a theory that encompasses all
known particles and their interactions.  There are two types of
particles: leptons (including electrons, neutrinos, and their cousins)
and fermions (quarks) that interact via gauge bosons (photons, gluons,
and the W and Z).  The missing piece is something called the Higgs which
is supposed to give all of these other particles their mass (without the
Higgs, they are all massless).

PREDICTION:  Higgs is found, probably around 2010-2011.  Peter Higgs
dies one month before discovery and is thus denied Nobel Prize.

2)  Most physicists think there is a whole zoo of fundamental particles
more massive than any we have observed.  The reason they speculate of
the existence of these particles is that the standard model is ugly –
it has a bunch of “free” parameters that are arbitrarily tuned to crazy
values (you can reconcile God and physics by positing that only a God
could fine tune such a mess).  The favorite new theory is super-symmetry
which speculates that particles we have observed have a corresponding
superpartner such that there is a super-lepton for each fermion and a
super-fermion for each lepton.

PREDICTION:  Supersymmetry (and all related theories including string
theory) are B.S. (I am in the minority of physicists on this point, but
my paycheck no longer requires that I believe it).

3)  Some predict that LHC will create mini-black holes that may eat up
the earth.  This is definitely not going to happen since it requires
string theory to be true and string theory is BS (see previous
prediction).

PREDICTION: Earth survives

4)  96% of of the gravitational mass of the universe is unaccounted for.
There is something called dark matter that accounts for about 20%.  Many
predict that the LHC will find the Dark Matter.  This requires
super-symmetry or something similar to be true.

PREDICTION:  No dark matter found at LHC.

5)  The LHC is supposed to be a discovery machine that opens up a whole
new zoo of particles.  The next accelerator (the International Linear
Collider) will cost $40 billion and is designed to clean up the mess.

PREDICTION:  LHC is last large atom smasher ever built.

REQUIRED BEER COMMENT:  If you’re ever in Geneva, the CERN cafeteria
serves the cheapest beer in all of Switzerland.

UPDATE: Slight edits to Dave’s background

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]]> http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/09/11/one-former-physicists-thoughts-on-the-large-hadron-collider-or-will-the-world-end/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/09/11/one-former-physicists-thoughts-on-the-large-hadron-collider-or-will-the-world-end/ The Fallacy & Conundrum of User Influenced Ad Models http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/383445015/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/09/04/the-fallacy-conundrum-of-user-influenced-ad-models/#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:58:00 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/09/04/the-fallacy-conundrum-of-user-influenced-ad-models/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The Fallacy & Conundrum of User Influenced Ad Models", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/09/04/the-fallacy-conundrum-of-user-influenced-ad-models/" });]]> As the online display ad business continues to focus more and more on the idea of user targeting (the idea of targeting the user instead of targeting the site or the context of the page), there is a growing interest and some potential concern around how we’re going to target users.  With some of the more extreme ad models now scaring the bejeebus out of users (see Phorm and Nebuads) and growing concerns about the hegemony of companies like Google and the data it’s collecting about users (see the lack of privacy built into Google’s new browser), some companies are going creating ad networks and systems based on the ideas of users themselves giving explicit feedback about ads they like and don’t like.  Let’s just say I think that any ad model that relies on users giving feedback is a disaster and doomed from the start.

Filed Under - Doomed to Epic Fail

On paper, the idea of allowing users to give direct affirmative consent and feedback about ads they like, things they want, their interests sounds very democratic and utopian.  Power to the People! and all that.  The problem is that any model that relies on users doing anything other then what they really want to do flies in the face of what people actually do online.   Despite the web being about interaction and participation, almost 99% of what people do online is read, not participate.  At any UGC website - only a small portion of the audience actually ever uploads anything.  At YouTube for instance, I’ve heard reports that despite the 100 million users it sees everymonth less then 600,000 users ever upload and share anything publicly.  600,000 might sound like a lot but it’s less then 1% of their user base.  At FoggyGames.com, the casual games website I own, the percent of users who’ve ever rated a game - which only requires a nano second of effort to click on the classic rating star - is less then 1% as well.  Again and again you see participation rates in that range.  So now these new ad models expect the vast majority of users to actually rate each and every ad - even when they have shown again and again they won’t even participate in sites and actions where they actually want to participate - I don’t think so.

Sampling Don’t Work

OK then what about the idea that you don’t need every user to participate that just getting that sample to tell you about what ads they like or don’t like.  Unfortunately the idea of a sample defeats the whole principle of user targeting.  The basis of user targeting is targeting a specific’s user definite demographics, intents or interests.  And again and again - we’ve seen that sampling doesn’t work since it is the way that most site level targeting works today.  Sites sell ads based on samples of their user base - their user base is 60/40 Female/Male and thus they sell a disportionate number of ads targeting females (it’s largely what Glam Media does across multiple websites - not very sophisticated technically speaking).  Thus lots and lots of men get poorly targeted ads just because they go certains websites in this example.  The whole idea of user targeting is to solve that problem - show ads to men with ads for men in that scenario instead of generic ads based on a sample.  So without finite, user level data no user targeting scheme can work.  So in a web where you’ll likely get more then 1% of users to participate, models that requires something much greater then 10% and more like 25% of users to participate seems like a folly even at the start.

Conundrums and Contradictions

The conundrum and contradiction with user targeting is that users say they don’t like being tracked.  Yet what they won’t do is explicitly tell the advertiser or advertising provider what they want.  And yet, again and again users say they want ads targeting to them individually as way to increase the quality and relevancy of ads.  I’ve done enough research to know users like relevant ads - they actually stop them ads and start calling them information (ads are pejorative term meaning noisy, irrelevant, uninteresing, annoying marketing messages).  Tying a user’s information and interests from where users express them willingly (communities, social networks, etc.) to where they get exposed to ads is a way to solve that.  Doing so in a conscientious and respectful manner is critical for all players in the market (trust me I speak from experience - one bad actor can sink a market) if we want to solve the user targeting and participation problem.  And the folly is we’ll be able to avoid that get by getting the all the users online to vote on each and every ad - I’ll hopefully save everyone some time and investors money ‘cuz it ain’t going to work.

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]]> http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/09/04/the-fallacy-conundrum-of-user-influenced-ad-models/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/09/04/the-fallacy-conundrum-of-user-influenced-ad-models/ A Little Love for TeachStreet http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/355070998/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/08/03/a-little-love-for-teachstreet/#comments Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:58:05 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/08/03/a-little-love-for-teachstreet/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "A Little Love for TeachStreet", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/08/03/a-little-love-for-teachstreet/" });]]> I’ve been meaning to write about my friend Dave Schappell’s startup TeachStreet since it launched back in April.  With TeachStreet’s launch into it’s second market - Portland today - now seems like the perfect time.

First a little background - I met Dave last year at Seattle Ignite summer 2007.  I was introduced by now TeachStreet board member Dave McClure, once again proving in the Web 2.0 space if you don’t know McClure you might not exist (sort of like a tree falling and no one around to hear it).  In fact, a little TeachStreet history occured in my dinning room as Schappell wrapped up his immigration issues with his co-founder and CTO for TeachStreet.  Glad I could play my small role.

Getting to know Dave over the last year has shown me that Dave is a rock star and why I expect the same from TeachStreet.  TeachStreet’s real genius is much like the genius beyond super successful startups like Yelp.  Yelp’s success is that it owns SEO for restaurants especially on the West Coast.  TeachStreet not only has the opportunity to own SEO for personal instruction, but also the directory and potentially web presense for a sector of the personal services industry that without TeachStreet would ever exist.  Startups that figure out how to own SEO and the web presence for a economic sector have the real potential to do very well for their users, customers (the businesses they help market) and themselves.

So if you’re looking for a tutor, instructor or a personal enrichment class - TeachStreet is the site to try.  If you’re looking for a startup doing something that is very real and has some very interesting potential in a sector that I expect to see a lot of cool things (ie. call it SEO 2.0 startups for lack of a better cliche) then pay attention to Dave Schappell and TeachStreet.

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]]> http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/08/03/a-little-love-for-teachstreet/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/08/03/a-little-love-for-teachstreet/ Good history of Lookery http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/331176697/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/good-history-of-my-current-startup-lookery/#comments Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:31:04 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/good-history-of-my-current-startup-lookery/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Good history of Lookery", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/good-history-of-my-current-startup-lookery/" });]]> Check it out - written by our publisher relations guru Rex Dixon.

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]]> http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/good-history-of-my-current-startup-lookery/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/good-history-of-my-current-startup-lookery/ Calling BS on Wall Street’s YouTube Revenue Estimates http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/330980224/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/calling-bs-on-wall-streets-youtube-revenue-estimates/#comments Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:59:16 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/calling-bs-on-wall-streets-youtube-revenue-estimates/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Calling BS on Wall Street’s YouTube Revenue Estimates", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/calling-bs-on-wall-streets-youtube-revenue-estimates/" });]]> The recent WSJ article on Google’s difficulties monetizing YouTube has caught a lot of attention with the stat that Google can only sell ads around 4% of the videos on the site (due to copyright concerns).  With roughly a billion videos viewed a day that leaves a lot of unmonetized traffic.

At the same time as noted by SAI and Venturebeat, a bunch of silly and seemingly crack-smoking inspired revenue estimates were published by Wall Street analysts estimating YouTube’s 2008 revenue at around $200 million for 2008 and $350 to $400 million for next year.

As I noted in a recent post - the video ad market has a long way to go to be anything of significance.  Given Wall Street’s ability to hype hallucinogenic estimates I am not surprised to see those crazy numbers thrown out there.  But someone has to take a closer look and expose the crack smoking for what it is.

Let’s take a look - 4% of YouTube’s content is monetizable.  Let’s assume for a moment that 4% represents 10% of YouTube’s traffic - given the 1 billion videos viewed per day - that’s 100 million views.  YouTube is selling a new format - the video overlay with some estimates as high as a $20 cpm.  Now being in the ad business - I doubt very much that Google is actually getting anywhere close to $20 - real 30 second video ads are getting $20 CPM for essentially the equivalent of a 5-10 second banner-sized pop-up ad.

Let’s say Google sales force is good and they are getting a $10 cpm on what they can sell and let’s assume they are achieving a typical premium sell through of 30% of their inventory.  That means that they aren’t selling 100 million overlay ads per day that means they are selling 30 million.  At a $10 CPM that’s $300k per day, $9 million a month and just under a $100 million per year.  And given the amount of inventory - I highly doubt YouTube is seeing a 30% fill rate and a $10 eCPM a much more likely scenario is half that fill rate at half that CPM or $25 million a year.  Also as more inventory opens up to Google, the eCPM’s are likely to fall as the social networks have shown having a ton of inventory puts a lot of downward pressure on CPM’s.

Now a $25 to $100 million dollar a year business is nice especially for a business that’s not even 4 years old but I doubt that even covers YouTube’s bandwidth costs even at the high end of the estimate.

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]]> http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/calling-bs-on-wall-streets-youtube-revenue-estimates/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/calling-bs-on-wall-streets-youtube-revenue-estimates/ Reminder: You can find me on Twitter http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/330959716/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/reminder-you-can-find-me-on-twitter/#comments Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:32:35 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/reminder-you-can-find-me-on-twitter/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Reminder: You can find me on Twitter", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/reminder-you-can-find-me-on-twitter/" });]]> Like a lot of folks I am spending less time blogging, more time working.  But I’m still offering up pithy thoughts throughout the day on twitter.  I can found at http://www.twitter.com/sawickipedia.

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]]> http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/reminder-you-can-find-me-on-twitter/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/07/09/reminder-you-can-find-me-on-twitter/ sad day for justice - landis loses CAS appeal http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/323423062/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/06/30/sad-day-for-justice-landis-loses-cas-appeal/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:11:36 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/06/30/sad-day-for-justice-landis-loses-cas-appeal/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "sad day for justice - landis loses CAS appeal", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/06/30/sad-day-for-justice-landis-loses-cas-appeal/" });]]> I totally expected Floyd Landis to lose his anti-doping appeal to the Court for the Arbitration of Sport, but not for the reasons most of you would likely expect.  I am biased to think Landis didn’t use testosterone but from a legal jurispudence perspective that’s irrelevant.  What should matter is that one’s guilt and innocence can be proven with fairness and beyond reasonable reproach.  And for anyone who has bothered to pay attention to the evidence and facts of Landis’s appeal knows, neither was found here.  For full details, source documents, commentary and amazingly detailed analysis I refer all to Trust But Verify - an amazing resource.

I used to think all accussed “dopers” were guilty SOB’s, but after reading the literature and background - I am convinced that most anti-doping exercises are witch hunts led by sloppy labs with questionable motives and purposes.  If I were a professional athlete that had their livlihood at the hands and mercy of the French lab that produced the “positive” result in Floyd Landis’s case, then I would shudder with fear every day I gave a sample that today I would be branded a cheat - rightly or wrongly.  With a guilty until proven innocent appeals process with no credence given to outside independent experts there is little hope of overturning “guilty” rulings.  With no checks on procedural errors, omissions, and independence, one’s livlihood is in the hands of a group of people who make McCarthy’s anti-communist hearings look reasonable.

My only hope is that there is a legal path for Landis to pursue this in federal courts where he can contest his lack of justice and expose the anti-doping corrupt jihad for what it is.

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]]> http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/06/30/sad-day-for-justice-landis-loses-cas-appeal/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/06/30/sad-day-for-justice-landis-loses-cas-appeal/ Online Video - Not Here Yet - How a Big Number isn’t really That Big http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/289250570/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/05/12/online-video-not-here-yet-how-a-big-number-isnt-really-that-big/#comments Tue, 13 May 2008 07:20:59 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/05/12/online-video-not-here-yet-how-a-big-number-isnt-really-that-big/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Online Video - Not Here Yet - How a Big Number isn’t really That Big", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/05/12/online-video-not-here-yet-how-a-big-number-isnt-really-that-big/" });]]> Comscore (via Allen Stern at CenterNetwork) reports that 11.5 billion videos were watched online in March in the U.S.  11.5 billion sounds like an awfully big number.  But it’s not.  At least not in terms of web scale.  Comscore itself estimates that total page views online are estimated in the trillions per month.  Heck even my company, Lookery, a demographic-based ad network that’s less then a year old delivered almost 3 billion ads in April. It’s estimated that MySpace and Facebook combined do more then 100 billion page views a month.

And Comscore which likely undercounts pages views by a factor of 2 to 3x is OVERstating videos.  In their stats, they estimate the AVERAGE online user watches 83 videos a month!  Seriously.  Personally I can’t believe that stat.  I’m as addicted to the Internet as the next guy and I watch maybe 30 videos a month.  Maybe.

So even if you take Comscore’s numbers at face value, 11.5 billion isn’t that big of a number when you look at the economic size of the video market.  Assuming a range of $1 to $5 cpm and 1 ad per video (any format, method, size, style doesn’t really matter), you’re looking at a TOTAL market size of just $11.5 million to $57.5 million for all online video.  That’s out of a total online ad market of about $2 billion a month.

My point isn’t to say online video won’t be or isn’t important.  It’s more a comment about the incredibly large scale required to build a large media business or market.  The media business is about a little off a whole heck of a lot.  That’s why ads are priced in cost per thousands.  And the need to have immense scale also explains why the media business gravitates towards consolidation but that’s a post for another day.  When videos viewed starts approaching trillions then we’ll be somewhere.

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]]> http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/05/12/online-video-not-here-yet-how-a-big-number-isnt-really-that-big/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/05/12/online-video-not-here-yet-how-a-big-number-isnt-really-that-big/ Cool Link: The Genographic Project - An Atlas of the Human Journey http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/286987534/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/05/09/cool-link-the-genographic-project-an-atlas-of-the-human-journey/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 17:49:09 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/05/09/cool-link-the-genographic-project-an-atlas-of-the-human-journey/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Cool Link: The Genographic Project - An Atlas of the Human Journey", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/05/09/cool-link-the-genographic-project-an-atlas-of-the-human-journey/" });]]> I heard about the Genographic Project while watching a documentary on some 4,000 year old European mummies found in Eastern China.  The Genographic Project is tracing the lineage and migration of humanity using mitochondrial DNA.  To a geek like me this is some very cool stuff.  They have a cool website that is well worth checking out (link).

The Genographic Project recently had a press release that traces back our genetic adam and eve to about 60 to 70 thousand years ago in East Africa.  What’s interesting about that is they have also determined that the first modern humans date to about 200,000 years ago.  Apparently from 200,000 years ago to about 70,000 years ago - humans migrated and populated most of Africa and then seemingly due to climate change (possibly linked to a massive volcanic eruption in Sumatra 73,000 years ago that was 3,000 (!!!) times stronger then the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980) the population collapsed to what they estimate of only 2,000 people in East Africa.  And from that small population and from one man and one woman within it - every modern human today can be traced too!  Note - when they say genetic adam and eve that ’s the woman and man whose dna we can trace ourselves too - it means any prior genetic diversity doesn’t exist in the gene pool of modern humanity.

And from that time - the project traces via genetic variation the migration of humanity across the globe and how quickly it expanded, overlapped and crossed paths.  Great stuff.

Here’s a picture of the map of human migration (an interactive one exists on the site):

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]]> http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/05/09/cool-link-the-genographic-project-an-atlas-of-the-human-journey/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/05/09/cool-link-the-genographic-project-an-atlas-of-the-human-journey/ Twitter Updates for 2008-04-02 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/263181888/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/04/02/twitter-updates-for-2008-04-02/#comments Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:59:59 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/04/02/twitter-updates-for-2008-04-02/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Twitter Updates for 2008-04-02", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/04/02/twitter-updates-for-2008-04-02/" });]]>
  • @dcancel did you dump your curve for the iphone? #
  • @fredwilson possible but unlikely - obviously take 280 #

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/04/02/twitter-updates-for-2008-04-02/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/04/02/twitter-updates-for-2008-04-02/     Twitter Updates for 2008-04-01 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/262504201/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/04/01/twitter-updates-for-2008-04-01/#comments Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:59:59 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/04/01/twitter-updates-for-2008-04-01/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Twitter Updates for 2008-04-01", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/04/01/twitter-updates-for-2008-04-01/" });]]>
  • @daveman692 surprised your laptop isn’t at sfo left my keys on a flt to sfo last month and amazingly ended up at sfo lost and found #
  • good chat this afternoon with @kickstand about CTR’s and banner blindness and how to build ad businesses in a world where CTR’s = .1% #
  • @bpm140 you are an addict #
  • @scobleizer unfortunately the law is 21+ on the premise that’s it - lose liquor license let in your kid - easy choice for most places #
  • @scobleizer here in WA it is if you have a pub/bar - restaurants yep - perhaps different in CA - but up here two types of licenses #
  • @scobleizer i am sympathetic fwiw i tried to bring my baby into a sit down pub and wasn’t allowed dumbest thing ever #
  • @davemc500hats are you officially an ego blogger now? ie. obsessing over techmeme rank ;) #
  • @scobleizer i hear ya - let’s see you can join military, vote, buy cigs and porn but heaven forbid if you have a drink at 18 #
  • @davemc500hats the same rule applies to startups too (ie. if you work that hard, then it better be a home run) #
  • @jspepper and i’m the republican of the group - drunk driving though isn’t a drinking age thing to me it’s a social issue (pre-MADD) #
  • @davemc500hats what was the service you used to design GSP logo? (can’t recall) #
  • @bpm140 a little nippy but all in all a nice seattle spring day #
  • @heuge did you land a new gig? #
  • @tedr good hanging with you last weekend - see you and steven in a couple weeks #
  • off to the airport to pick up wife and kids from a week in NC with her parents #

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/04/01/twitter-updates-for-2008-04-01/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/04/01/twitter-updates-for-2008-04-01/     Twitter Updates for 2008-03-31 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/261807019/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/31/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-31/#comments Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:59:59 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/31/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-31/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Twitter Updates for 2008-03-31", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/31/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-31/" });]]>
  • back in seattle - the cats are happy to see me #
  • @kickstand probably also too much time staring at computer screen #

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/31/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-31/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/31/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-31/     Twitter Updates for 2008-03-30 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/261134352/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/30/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-30/#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:59:59 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/30/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-30/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Twitter Updates for 2008-03-30", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/30/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-30/" });]]>
  • @rafer forgot to mention it this morning - congrats to you and chasse on hitting year 1 - may you 2 have many, many more! #
  • need to fine more seattle tech folks to follow on twitter #
  • @samidh i sat next to the prod mgr at youtube responsible for the overlays at dinner on friday - it’s really their best idea right now #
  • @kickstand more proof that for whatever reason the seattle tech/startup scene is not nearly as connected as bay area and no clue why not #
  • @dcancel @rafer and I sure looked like awfully smart on Sat. given we’re been making that prediction for a while #
  • Personal EVDO shootout - Sprint kicks Verizon’s butt - better, faster AND cheaper. After 30 days with both keeping Sprint #
  • good article by alan blinder (former vice chairman of the fed) on way out of subprime mess http://snurl.com/22zoi #

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/30/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-30/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/30/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-30/     Glam - Proof Once Again that What Sounds to Good to be True Usually Is http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/260836637/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/30/glam-proof-once-again-that-what-sounds-to-good-to-be-true-usually-is/#comments Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:30:36 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/30/glam-proof-once-again-that-what-sounds-to-good-to-be-true-usually-is/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Glam - Proof Once Again that What Sounds to Good to be True Usually Is", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/30/glam-proof-once-again-that-what-sounds-to-good-to-be-true-usually-is/" });]]> Glam sent out notice on Friday that it would stop paying their guaranteed flat rate for unsold inventory.  For online ad industry insiders, Glam has always been looked at with an of eye of befuddlement.  Glam’s business model which was basically to buy up remnant inventory from a network of publishers who overindexed women (meaning a higher percentage of women visited those sites vs. the average).   Buying up remnant inventory has long been the play for ad networks, but what made Glam unique was that were essentially signing up to guaranteed contracts where they would pay essentially premium non-remnant rates for remnant inventory - essentially paying $2-4 CPM’s for inventory that most publishers would have been happy to sell for $.25 to $.50 CPM’s.   It wouldn’t have been so bad except Glam was buying up all the remnant traffic at higher then market rates.  To a publisher seeing their remnant value go from $.25 to $3 was something that sounded almost too to be true.

    No one was really questioning Glam’s desire to brand their remnant ad network as the premium online channel/category for reaching women online offering access to important demo with the reach only networks can provide.  What everyone was wondering was when the house of cards would collapse - you just can’t pay $3 for what everyone else was buying for $.25.  Publishers (and I know a half dozen personally) were all waiting for the house to fall and Friday it did.

    It’s hard to turn something that the market values at $.25 into something someone wants at $3.  Glam has been trying and seems to have hit the same wall that publishers hit when selling direct - for whatever reason high quality sites with a decent brand and strong community often can sell 30% of their inventory at premium (essentially retail) rates and leaving the rest as remnant (wholesale rates).   Glam’s publishers had it good for awhile, but as they say if it sounds to good to be true in the end it often is.

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/30/glam-proof-once-again-that-what-sounds-to-good-to-be-true-usually-is/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/30/glam-proof-once-again-that-what-sounds-to-good-to-be-true-usually-is/     Twitter Updates for 2008-03-29 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/260615771/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/29/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-29/#comments Sun, 30 Mar 2008 07:59:59 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/29/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-29/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Twitter Updates for 2008-03-29", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/29/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-29/" });]]>
  • @scobleizer really is a twiiter addict - just saw him tweaking on twitter at community next #
  • hmmm big brother casting call next to community next should we all audition? #

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/29/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-29/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/29/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-29/     Twitter Updates for 2008-03-28 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/260112164/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/28/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-28/#comments Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:59:59 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/28/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-28/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Twitter Updates for 2008-03-28", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/28/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-28/" });]]>
  • @techcrunch with a handle like sawickipedia plus being a seattle startup guy who doesn’t envy the valley #
  • good chat w/ @rafer and @orenmichels on accidental vs guided history last night #
  • getting some work done over lunch at IHOP (that’s right breakfast anytime of the day rules) while in Hollywood #

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/28/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-28/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/28/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-28/     Twitter Updates for 2008-03-27 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/259498078/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/27/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-27/#comments Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:59:59 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/27/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-27/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Twitter Updates for 2008-03-27", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/27/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-27/" });]]>
  • lookery hits wired http://snurl.com/22q6k #
  • of course cool folks like gregg from jibjab and @davemc500hats hit seattle while I’m on the road #
  • does spot runner seem like they are executing bubble 1.0 style (crazy valuations, "big" name exec hires with crazy titles, too early)? #
  • now in LA with @rafer #

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/27/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-27/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/27/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-27/     Twitter Updates for 2008-03-26 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/258889485/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/26/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-26/#comments Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:59:59 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/26/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-26/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Twitter Updates for 2008-03-26", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/26/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-26/" });]]>
  • finished the snap summit day in SF - great comment from jeremy liew: patience - this whole social media app phenomenom is only 9 months old #
  • @bpm140 @toddsampson so true - blogging is hard to find time for when you’re doing cool things #
  • firefox marketshare always overstated - its not how many installs it’s how much it’s used - IE still 80-90% of use http://snurl.com/22mpa #
  • @techcrunch - that’s a big of a tease as can be (and at the same time hopefully something that never gets said about a startup of mine) #
  • Insanity: $1M-3M to build a website? what is it 1999? $50-250k builds you an automated platform for all 800 domains http://snurl.com/22ot4 #
  • @bpm140 welcome back to SF #

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/26/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-26/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/26/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-26/     dinner with surf canyon and the realities of getting software & toolbar installs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/258802616/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/26/dinner-with-surf-canyon-and-the-realities-of-getting-software-toolbar-installs/#comments Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:03:25 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/26/dinner-with-surf-canyon-and-the-realities-of-getting-software-toolbar-installs/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "dinner with surf canyon and the realities of getting software & toolbar installs", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/26/dinner-with-surf-canyon-and-the-realities-of-getting-software-toolbar-installs/" });]]> Surf Canyon is a startup focused on improving search results that a college friend of mine, Dave Hardtke, is chief scientist (despite my prior stated views on inflated startup titles I bit my tongue and didn’t but Dave’s chops).  We had dinner tonite in SF in order to catch up socially and talk shop.  This is Dave’s first startup so I’ve been more then open about sharing whatever experience and lessons I can.  As Lee Lorenzen noted on a panel at this week’s Snap Summit conference and Dave’s coming to learn,  startups represent a lifestyle as much as a career.  It’s certainly a nutty way to make a living, but one where I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.  Welcome aboard the start-up train Dave - I hope you enjoy it as much as I have and do.

    Dinner tonite was actually the birthday dinner for Surf Canyon’s CEO - Mark Cramer (I was Dave’s rather poor second choice to his lovely wife who couldn’t make it).   Mark’s friends were all in attendance and since Mark has been on the startup ride for a while was a chance to meet a bunch of other startup folks.  I got a chance to meet an entirely new circle of startup folks.

    One of the interesting points of the conversation when talking shop about Surf Canyon was talking about how they could get more downloads of their search plugin and toolbar.  I spent a number of years in the toolbar space and have been surprised by how many questions I have been getting recently about my toolbar years especially from folks in the social networking space.  So here’s my general take - in an increasingly web and browser dominated world - getting any user to install software is an increasingly difficult.  Users have become wary of hidden risks and potentially harmful software coming from seemingly innocuous software.  The adoption/conversion rates from web-based applications vs. downloads can be a factor of 3x difference if not more.  Also web-based applications have the potential to be tied into social network platforms which can be very effective channels for incredibly cheap user acquisition.

    At the same time, the toolbar market from a user perspective is highly saturated.  Google is the dominant toolbar today and it’s hard to find virgin users who either don’t have a toolbar or are willing to replace what they already have.  And the competition to reach those users is fierce and being fought be folks who are making a lot of money.  Ask.com’s Smiley Central toolbar group pays $1.50 to $3 per install in part because of their Google ad syndication deal they can make $5 to 6 per install (at least that and likely even higher).  So for new anyone looking to offer a toolbar as their primary business model - I usually offer a strong word of caution.  Even if you have a better mouse trap, if you can’t pay for shelf space, then you might want to consider a different model.  And case in point, the only “viral” toolbar from the last few years that was reasonably and widely successful has been Stumbleupon.  Every else - even Google - can bring their war chests and buy up the market.

    Now Surf Canyon has a real cool browser plug-in and a great product is a great place to start.  I just hope that the competitive and financial realities of the toolbar market don’t prevent them from being a big success.

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/26/dinner-with-surf-canyon-and-the-realities-of-getting-software-toolbar-installs/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/26/dinner-with-surf-canyon-and-the-realities-of-getting-software-toolbar-installs/     Congrats TeachStreet on the Series A http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/249720075/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/11/congrats-teachstreet-on-the-series-a/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:40:27 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/11/congrats-teachstreet-on-the-series-a/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Congrats TeachStreet on the Series A", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/11/congrats-teachstreet-on-the-series-a/" });]]> John Cook breaks the news that my friend Dave Schappell has closed the series A for his startup - TeachStreet.  TeachStreet is building a directory of teachers and classes for instruction from lessons, classes to private tutors.  Dave is a total rockstar and I can’t imagine him not being successful so I am glad I publicly congratulate he and the rest of the TeachStreet team on the round.  I expect great things out of them and front what I’ve seen visiting their office semi-regularly I don’t think I’ll be disappointed.

    It’s been a good year so far for my friends with this being the second VC series A (blist earlier closed their series A) to close.  And to follow on a previous post - both Dave and Kevin (of blist) fit the in-demand experienced entrepreneur profile - nice to see my generation doing well.

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/11/congrats-teachstreet-on-the-series-a/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/11/congrats-teachstreet-on-the-series-a/     Hanging at Graphing Social Patterns in SD http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/245128834/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/03/hanging-at-graphing-social-patterns-in-sd/#comments Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:42:09 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/03/hanging-at-graphing-social-patterns-in-sd/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Hanging at Graphing Social Patterns in SD", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/03/hanging-at-graphing-social-patterns-in-sd/" });]]> I’ll be in SD today and tomorrow hanging with the rest of the social net ecosystem at Graphing Social Patterns run by pal Dave McClure.  Check out my twitter feed (in sidebar) or follow me at http://twitter.com/sawickipedia for more up to the minute updates.

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/03/hanging-at-graphing-social-patterns-in-sd/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/03/03/hanging-at-graphing-social-patterns-in-sd/     Oh yeah some money changed hands (Opera switches from Yahoo to Google for Search) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/242387096/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/27/oh-yeah-some-money-changed-hands-opera-switches-from-yahoo-to-google-for-search/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:33:38 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/27/oh-yeah-some-money-changed-hands-opera-switches-from-yahoo-to-google-for-search/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Oh yeah some money changed hands (Opera switches from Yahoo to Google for Search)", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/27/oh-yeah-some-money-changed-hands-opera-switches-from-yahoo-to-google-for-search/" });]]> Presumably with a straight face Marshall Kirkpartrick over at Read/Write Web writes about Opera switching it’s default search provider from Yahoo! to Google saying “Presumably there’s some money changing hands.”

    Ya think?  Search distribution is a big money game.  Google pays $10 per box to Dell for pre-installing the Google Toolbar and pays Mozilla just under $100 million a year. Market rates for toolbar or embedded search box (ie. built in search box in Opera or Mozilla) distribution are steep - Google pays anywhere from $1.50 to $10 per new user from what I understand with most top tier deals in the $3-6 per user range.  I’ve seen estimates that Google makes $12 per user per year per toolbar or embedded search box installation.

    What’s interesting is how Google’s dominance becomes self-reinforcing.  Because Google makes more money per search then Yahoo! it can always outbid Yahoo! for distribution deals (on a rational economic basis that is Yahoo! could always overpay).  So no one should be surprised when Google beats Yahoo! on a financial deal based on search economics.  Yahoo! should lose everyone of them.  Now this once again leads us down the Google paid search monopoly path where Google buys market share at a rate no one else can pay.  Just not in the bullying fashion that MSFT was accussed of back in the day.

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/27/oh-yeah-some-money-changed-hands-opera-switches-from-yahoo-to-google-for-search/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/27/oh-yeah-some-money-changed-hands-opera-switches-from-yahoo-to-google-for-search/     Seattle Venture Scene: Madrona on Fire & Seattle VC Scene waking up? http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/241786096/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/26/seattle-venture-scene-madrona-on-fire-seattle-vc-scene-waking-up/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:52:46 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/26/seattle-venture-scene-madrona-on-fire-seattle-vc-scene-waking-up/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Seattle Venture Scene: Madrona on Fire & Seattle VC Scene waking up?", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/26/seattle-venture-scene-madrona-on-fire-seattle-vc-scene-waking-up/" });]]> One of the interesting challenges to being a startup guy in Seattle vs. the Bay Area is that there are a lot more VC’s down there versus here.  As a result there is more competition amongst VC’s for good deals and they seem to be relatively hungry compared to Seattle.  VC’s are out and about, working events, building a pipeline and making sure they get the best deals.  Since plugging myself into the Bay Area scene this past year and a half I’ve met more Bay Area VC’s then I’ve met in Seattle in the past 10 years!  Yes, Seattle VC’s do deals, but it always seemed to me that you had to seek them out whereas down south - a hot deal seemed to draw the VC’s out.

    Madrona has recently brought on board 3 principals recently - Scott Jacobson, Tim Porter and Suja Vaidyanathan, and from what I can tell - those 3 are working deals like bats out of hell.  I am looking forward to meeting the new Madrona folks but from what I can tell if you’re a Seattle startup looking to raise money - Madrona should clearly be on your list.  It’s nice to see and hear about what those 3 are up to.

    Madrona is not alone - Ignition Partners this year hired their first associate - Chris Howard - who I have gotten to meet recently and nicely has a lot in common with my background.  Chris is making an effort to work the street as well.

    Great to see the new blood and hopefully it speaks well to the future of the Seattle Startup/VC scene.

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    ]]>     http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/26/seattle-venture-scene-madrona-on-fire-seattle-vc-scene-waking-up/feed/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/26/seattle-venture-scene-madrona-on-fire-seattle-vc-scene-waking-up/     Startup Prime http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Sawickipedia/~3/239130576/ http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/21/startup-prime/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:21:58 +0000 todd http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/21/startup-prime/ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Startup Prime", url: "http://www.sawickipedia.com/blog/2008/02/21/startup-prime/" });]]> Over the past year I have had the chance to advise, consult, and work at a number of early stage companies. And as I sit here on a flight to Silicon Valley this morning, I have a few seconds to reflect and come to the conclusion that I sure feel like I am in the prime of my startup-oriented career.

    That might seem counter-intuitive to the meme that bounced around in various discussions that 20-something founders were kings and anyone over-30 need not apply. And the analogy is likely not that different to professional sports - sometimes the next hot thing is a rookie draft pick ala Lebron James and other times its a free agent veteran pickup like the Mets picking up Johann Santana.

    But the sense I get in talking with other entreprenuers, vc’s, investors, startup execs is that experience and startup experience matter more then ever - the free agent market is hot so to speak. Maybe it’s because we’re entering a down-economic cycle where ideas matter less then execution. Maybe it’s because the dreamy euphoria of the web 2.0 boom is transitioning to a state of what’s real. Maybe it’s because investors are realizing that it’s sometimes best to diversify their portfolios to include some bets on horses with track records. And perhaps it’s a lot of being in the right place at the right time. Maybe us 35 year olds are finally coming up with the better ideas.

    As I think about the mistakes and lessons I have learned since jumping headfirst into co-founding my first startup in 1997 and leaving the corporate world behind for good, I will say this: I am adding a lot more value in a lot more ways because of those learnings then I was when I first got started. And I imagine other folks in my shoes are feeling the exact same thing as we all seem to be hearing the same thing from VC’s and hiring startups - experience now required.

    So if you’re the equivalent of a 20 games winner with a 3 ERA you’re in luck and demand.

    Caveat: Proven experience at a large company does not always apply. Sort of like playing basketball in Europe or baseball in Japan. Success in one sphere doesn’t always apply to others especially when transitioning from the corporate world to the startup world.

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