If you still read magazines… you might have seen GotoMeeting’s “Do the Math” ad, comparing the cost of their service to that of a business trip. Brilliant.
Companies too have noticed and, in virtually every sector, they are leveraging ubiquitous electronic connectivity to chomp the cost of sales and improve lead generation and conversion rates. (more…)
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In the October of the Semantic Web Gang podcast, Tom Tague of OpenCalais, Benjamin Nowack of Semsol, and yours truly discuss RDF and its controversial relationship with the broader concept of the Semantic Web. We tackle adoption and marketing issues facing the semantic web, and what could be done to overcome them.
A great question that applies to start-ups both in the semantic web and beyond, from Tom Tague’s closing comments: are you selling solutions or technology?
I greatly enjoyed the chat and hope you will too.
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Josh Kopelman, Managing Director of First Round Capital, wrote a great post today building on Fred Wilson‘s VC math problem, and call Why VC Performance Has Fallen Off A Cliff.
I argued in a recent post that in parallel to the “moonshot” approach Josh rightly describes as the norm for VCs, there must be a model that focuses on extracting revenues from a portfolio of tech companies with lesser risk.
Overall, it’s pretty clear to me that what we call VC companies should cover the entire risk-return frontier for any early-stage tech company, because that would allow large investors to place their bet as they like in this category. I’m not suggesting VCs turn into bankers or private equity investors, but there is a clear case for filling the early-stage funding gap towards tech ventures that hold less risk and more proven revenue models than moonshots. (more…)
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To any current or would-be entrepreneur, I highly recommend the following video of a presentation this month by Aaron Patzer, CEO of Mint, which was recently sold to Intuit for $170 million.
At first I thought it was a bit long, at 22 minutes, and so I figured I’d only watch the first few minutes. 23 minutes later, I am writing this blog post. Aaron goes over the start-up creation and growth process in practical details, even presenting slides from his own original pitch. (more…)
