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Month: June 2012

6/26/12

6/26/12

Good morning, All, The next SOS event is July 9th, and it also happens to be my birthday! We are hosting in conjunction with DoItInPerson, so hope you can join us for an evening of drinks and networking with business owners and entrepreneurs. Thank you, DoItInPerson, for making it happen. To RSVP: http://bit.ly/LnJuAT And hope to see you there to help us celebrate! Microsoft is back in the news. Never count out a sleeping giant - and Microsoft is a company that always sleeps with one eye open. Remember a few years back when they invested in FB? (Microsoft invests $240 million in Facebook: http://on.msnbc.com/KVcRiW. From BI: Microsoft's Investment In Facebook At A "Ridiculous" Valuation Was BRILLIANT: http://bit.ly/Mtbsvi). Now, with MS/FB – aka, the new Bing search, it might just have gotten even more brilliant, while G+ slowly fades. We remember when Microsoft was the Evil Empire: the tech bully who would buy or destroy competitors because they could (look up Stacker – Microsoft made overtures to Stacker to license their code, and when Stacker wouldn’t play, MSFT apparently wrote their own version using the knowledge they had obtained. You’ve never heard of Stacker. You’re no doubt familiar with defrag). This week, MSFT announced the release of Surface, its iPad wannabe/gonnabe (Video: Microsoft Surface And Apple iPad Announcements Compared Side By Side: http://bit.ly/OeTD8U) – and it’s not completely a clone (5 ways Microsoft's Surface may be better than an iPad: http://bit.ly/PVErL4). Tomato, tomahto: let’s not forget that it was MSFT who bailed out – and may well have saved – Apple a few years back (Microsoft to invest $150 million in Apple: http://cnet.co/QIk19). That was ’97, when an older and wiser Bill Gates was still at the helm, and MSFT was on the eve of being usurped as the Evil Empire by a company that would go magnitudes beyond whatever evil MSFT had contrived in its day. Yes, Google. Now with Apple about to eliminate GOOG maps from its devices (Google Is Now Recognizing The Threat To Its Mapping Dominance: http://read.bi/PVM7wX), Android sales still not as strong as the iPhone, and Google dropping prices on both its mapping API and its cloud storage, well, no one stays on top forever, and cautionary tale ahead: Google lost sight of a key ingredient to success, whether your service is free or not: the end user. We personally studiously avoid Google products, whenever possible. We mentioned a while back that while researching Type 2 diabetes – a disease we do not have, but were doing research for personal reasons - and found ourselves slammed with subject related spam. Which we began keeping in a separate folder on weekend, to see how out of control GOOG was. Roughly, spam count about 2200 pieces between Friday evening and Sunday evening. When the number his 2700, we abandoned GOOG search completely. That was December, and we’ve been keeping track ever since. Spam count this past weekend: 37 pieces. And thanks for all the fish. Google has been secretly tracking users on mobile, on the web – and no doubt everywhere it has embedded itself, and behavioral targeted searches are not always helpful. Au contraire. Google is still the top search engine, but considering the ground its losing in other areas, it’s neither all-powerful nor bullet-proof. MSFT was smart to sleep with one eye open. Google would be wise to lose the ego and do the same – if only to watch its own back. Onward and forward. Deadlines: The 2012 New York Venture Summit is June 28th, and it's the premier venue connecting emerging growth companies with active Venture capitalists, Angel investors, Corporate VCs and Investment Firms. Presented by youngStartup Ventures, The 2012 New York Venture Summit provides an unparalleled opportunity for startups to meet, network and showcase their innovative investment opportunities to a leading group of investors. If you're thinking of attending, we have an additional SOS discount for you: Your SOS discount code is sos150 – which is $150 off the current registration rate. Is it worth it? This just in: They’ve added a Fireside Chat with Ram Shriram, Managing Partner of Sherpalo Ventures and Founding Board member of Google (and their first investor) moderated by Steve Davis of Goodwin Procter LLP. Long answer: absolutely. Ram is a seminal SV investor and doesn’t often do speaking engagements on the East Coast, as far as we’ve noticed. For more information and to register: http://bit.ly/JTGiuI NEW Dell Launches $100M Innovators Credit Fund. Qualified start-ups can get extra funding and technological resources from the computer giant. The catch is, you must have already received some angel funding or venture capital before you can apply. Start-ups can get up to 10% of its current funding or up to $150,000 with limited credit terms. Article is here: http://bit.ly/NsJpQK For more information: http://eir.dell.com/ NEW Chinaccelerator, deadline June 30th. This is the first mentorship-driven seed funding program in China, providing extensive support for startups including seed funding, mentorship, and free office space. 4-8% equity taken for 10,000 CNY per founder (for 3 founders at max).For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/Ltj1qk NEW StartupBootcamp Berlin, deadline June 30th. This accelerator program focuses on exposing and connecting startups to our expanding community of mentors and advisors that provide expertise from a multitude of industries. Startups in the programs get seed funding, free co-working space with other startups, services from sponsors and get a dedicated mentorship plan that will excel you from wherever you are in the development cycle to the next. 8% equity stake taken for 15,000 Euros and over $75K Euro in benefits.For more information and to apply:http://bit.ly/GCAVPh Chase and LivingSocial want to help fuel that drive by awarding up to 12 individual grants of $250,000 to 12 small businesses. Submit your Mission: Small Business℠ application today! Program ends June 30, 2012. For more information and to apply: https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/ Call to international entrepreneurs: LaunchHouse Accelerator Program Takes Off, deadline July 1st. Over the past three years, LaunchHouse has succeeded in seeding, mentoring, and helping 30 companies to obtain follow-on funding. It plans to enhance those efforts with a new group of software and web-based tech entrepreneurs participating in the progra The LH Accelerator kicks off September 3. The application deadline is July 1. LaunchHouse will invest a total of $25,000 in each of 10 entrepreneurial teams (consisting of two or more co-founders) in software and web-based technology. Based in NE Ohio, but you can enter from anywhere in the world: http://bit.ly/Jy3D5o DreamIt Ventures Fall 2012 Philly program, deadline July 6th, 2012, and heads up, minority-led startups: We will select up to fifteen companies, including five minority-led startups, to participate in the three-month accelerator program. The deadline for applications is July 6th and the program will kickoff on September 7th. More information on the program can be found on our website at www.dreamitventures.com/apply. If you have questions, please contact Noelle McHugh at info@dreamitventures.com DEMO Fall now accepting applications, scholarship consideration deadline July 6th. Standard deadline: August 17th. We just wrapped up one of the biggest DEMO events in our 22+ year history! Over 70 companies launched new products to a packed room of press, VC's, angel investors and IT executives. If you didn't make it to DEMO, check out some of the cool products that launched from the DEMO stage. Now, we're gearing up for DEMO Fall 2012, Oct. 1-3 in Santa Clara. We are accepting applications for companies to launch or pitch their product. If you have a new product or now of a company right for a DEMO launch, visit, http://www.demo.com/launch. .Or, if you already have a product in the market, or know of a company who does, a Showcase sponsorship opportunity in the DEMO pavilion may be something to consider. For more information, visit, http://www.demo.com/showcase It’s that time again - Startup Chile, deadline July 10th. For more information and to apply: http://startupchile.org/about/apply/ NEW Global Entrepreneurship Summer School, Berlin. Earlybird deadline June 30th. Final deadline: July 15th. This year we will accept 35 outstanding students from around the world. All applications will go through a very strict, but fair selection process. For more information and to apply: http://www.globalsummerschool.org/ NEW Oxygen Accelerator, Birmingham, England, deadline July 31st. A 13-week intensive mentor led bootcamp, followed by 13-weeks of incubation that culminates with a series of investor days where we will help you pitch to a large, carefully selected group of Angel investors, VCs and Private Equity groups for next stage funding. Up to €40,000 per team in exchange for 8%-10% equity, and much more, including relocation allowance: http://www.oxygenaccelerator.com/ Women 2.0 PITCH comes to NYC, deadline August 31st. We are now accepting applications for PITCH NYC from early-stage ventures around the world with at least one female founder to apply to the startup competition. PITCH NYC 2012 will provide entrepreneurs with a chance for fame and fortune: finalists present onstage at the conference, and prizes include $25k cash from L’Oreal, $24k worth of free hosting from Rackspace and a finalist interview with TechStars! Stay tuned for more awesome prizes to be announced. Early-stage ventures with under a million in funding and a product in the market (prototype OK) are invited to apply. We are looking to identify, recognize and reward the most disruptive women-led ventures globally – and invite them to pitch onstage for the PITCH NYC conference in November for top prize. Got a startup idea but no team, or got an idea but don’t know how to build it? You have at least THREE MONTHS starting today to emblazen the deadline of August 31 into your head and make it happen. For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/K56mbS Battle of the Apps: become the Kick Apps Champion by creating software that helps small businesses. Contest now opened, deadline: December 31st. Infusionsoft is offering$20,000 in cash and prizes for the best apps to help small business customers. Use the Infusionsoft API to create an app, integration, or plug-in that helps Infusionsoft customers grow their business! 1st through 4th place winners will receive ongoing marketing, plus stage time at InfusionCon 2013. 10 runners-up will receive InfusionCon boothspace and 2 tickets to the conference. Register to enter.

Follow us on twitter powered by Movable Ink For you edification this week: Facebook's Lame Attempt To Force Its Email Service On You. Yes, like it or not, if you’re on FB, you now have a FB email address. In fact, FB has taken the liberty of making your Facebook email your default contact address, like it or not: http://onforb.es/ML0oMs Happily, there’s an easy way to reverse it: Lifehacker: Facebook Changed Everyone’s Email to @Facebook.com: Here’s How to Fix Yours: http://bit.ly/NDEuvh And yes, we know that Microsoft Agrees to Acquire Yammer for $1.2 Billion in Cash. “They’ve been behind in terms of social, and this puts them in a really strong position, perhaps even the lead,” said Rob Koplowitz, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc: http://buswk.co/LZFACH A 5-point checklist to create lucrative opportunities with disruptive technologies. Disruption is part of the business game. Entire empires can be crippled in the blink of an eye. Just look at the postal service. Once an untouchable giant it was brought to its knees by email: http://bit.ly/KFa6AO The 11 risks VCs evaluate. Here are the major risks that I typically review when a startup pitches: http://bit.ly/MvQWdR Always Swim Downstream. Some of us have this weird need to ignore the things we’re already good at and focus too much time and energy on being better at things we’re not good at. Yeah, that’ll work: http://bit.ly/KUpqq3 New York: Techie Magnet. We’re not about to let this devolve into a pissing match with SV, but New York certainly has its upside – like, not everyone here works in technology. Whew! http://on.wsj.com/NKj4hc Tweet anonymously: There are times, we suppose, when it’s just gotta be done. Haven’t tried it, but for the curious – or gossipmongers: http://anontwttr.fox21.at/ Apple Wants to Protect Your Identity – by Cloning You. One of the properties Apple won in a February acquisition of patents from Novell, the technology allows the company to fight would-be Little Brothers by cloning users’ digital identities. It’s digital pollution, with a purpose and, as the patent text notes, its purpose is to “make any data collection about a principal less valuable and less reliable.” So much for behavioral targeting: http://on.mash.to/LmXoIj If You Think The Soda Ban Is Bad, Check Out All The Things That Are Illegal In Singapore. All true, BusinessInsider, but let's not forget that you’re now comparing us to a fascist regime. http://read.bi/MJiR8m And according to the Heritage Foundation’s 2012 Index of Economic Freedom, Singapore ranks 2nd. The US is now #10 – and falling: http://bit.ly/A9o2Gi That's it from us this week and hope to see you on my birthday! Given that next week is the big US Independence Day weekend, chances are we won't send a newsletter next week, but we will be back soon enough! And now, as always, help is on the way…

6/19/12

6/19/12

Good morning, All, The next SOS event is July 9th, and it also happens to be my birthday! We are hosting in conjunction with DoItInPerson, so hope you can join us for an evening of drinks and networking with business owners and entrepreneurs. Thank you, DoItInPerson, for making it happen. To RSVP for the early bird rate: http://bit.ly/LnJuAT And we thank you for the birthday wishes you've been sending - and still hope to see you there to help celebrate! Indulge us this week: we're including a bit of a personal story/life lesson. Fedex came about when someone saw the need that some packages needed to be delivered absolutely, positively overnight.But they were absolutely, positively not an overnight success. Google built a better search engine – although it took years for anyone to notice. It took Amazon six years to become profitable, and Jeff Bezos was the laughingstock of the industry when he started out (and note: Ebook Sales Surpass Hardcover for First Time in US.: http://on.mash.to/L7fSfN). We personally have been involved in tech since 1994, but when a potentially life-threatening illness (type 2 diabetes) struck someone near and dear, we shifted gears and made restoring his health top priority. It’s hard to change someone’s eating habits overnight, so I changed the ingredients in his favorite foods – which resulted in his being taken off medication in 2 months (the doctor said it would take at least a year) – and bonniefoods (http://bit.ly/M3cXD5) was born. When I wasn’t looking. This past weekend, we were invited to exhibit at The Seed – the vegan festival – and it was our public launch of bonniefoods. It was an eye opener. We were extremely well received – we have unique products that address health and dietary issues - and a number of food allergies – yet which taste like their traditional counterparts. And we know it’s still a long road to success – if/when we get there. Lessons learned: it’s interesting having a retail product, where success comes one dollar at a time. Literally. We walked the room: we talked to other vendors – all of whom happily answered our questions: we are on terra incognita in the food space, but we’re also on a mission: to share what we learned about this disease, and to get our products out there. Kids were my beta tasters (sic). Tough room - but they know cookies and candy! And they're honest. Everyone wants to be a tech star overnight and make the BI 100 or the list of 25 People You Have to Meet (really?). What struck us at The Seed was that not everyone there was vegan – many had health problems or food allergies or loved ones with health problems. And Type 2 diabetes is a big one – and it’s difficult to find real information that can help. So noted. He’s fine and still off the meds today – nearly 4 years later. Still, our work with bonniefoods is just beginning, but I’m on a mission and that’s what separates the entrepreneurs from the wantrepreneurs: the fire in the belly. Here is an absolute must-read for any entrepreneur: The Start-Up Gap (http://bit.ly/MIgbZl) - what you really have to go through to succeed, and you still may not get there. You can’t just talk the talk – you also have to walk the room. Have your story - and tell your story, from the heart. That's what people want to know - what drives you. You absolutely, positively will not get there overnight. It’s more like one dollar/one subscriber at a time. But slow and steady often wins the race, and if anyone out there knows any food investors or has contacts in the food industry, you know how to find me. Onward and forward. Deadlines: New York Venture Summit Call for Top Innovators. If you are a Startup seeking capital and/or partnerships submit your plan for the opportunity to present at The 2012 New York Venture Summit, June 28th, the premier venue connecting emerging growth companies with active Venture capitalists, Angel investors, Corporate VCs and Investment Firms. Presented by youngStartup Ventures, The 2012 New York Venture Summit provides an unparalleled opportunity for startups to meet, network and showcase their innovative investment opportunities to a leading group of investors. To apply to present please e-mail iwant2present@youngstartup.com for an application. If you're thinking of attending, we have an additional SOS discount for you: Your SOS discount code is sos150 – which is $150 off the current registration rate. Is it worth it? This just in: They’ve added a Fireside Chat with Ram Shriram, Managing Partner of Sherpalo Ventures and Founding Board member of Google (and their first investor) moderated by Steve Davis of Goodwin Procter LLP. Long answer: absolutely. Ram is a seminal SV investor and doesn’t often do speaking engagements on the East Coast, as far as we’ve noticed. HackLolla: create cool festival apps for music fans, deadline June 25th. Lollapalooza is offering over $6,000 worth of prizes and tons of promotional exposure for the best festival apps created using the Lolla API. Plus 2 Sold Out VIP Passes to Lollapalooza.The Grand Prize winner will be designated The Official Fan App for Lollapalooza 2012! With the Lolla API, developers can access data on artists, events, stages/venues and updates for Lollapalooza 2012. Prizes will be awarded for apps that help fans get the most from their Lollapalooza experience before, during and after the Festival. Winners will be promoted on the official Lollapalooza website and to fans via the Official E-list (~400K), Facebook (~300K), Twitter (100K), and the jumbotron screens at the Festival (80K per day)._ Lollapalooza’s official line-up for 2012 includes more than 100 of the most notable and buzzworthy bands from across the globe, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Keys, Black Sabbath, Jack White, and many others. The Festival is August 3-5 in Grant Park, Chicago._ To enter, Get a Lollapalooza API key from DoStuff Media by clicking here. Chase and LivingSocial want to help fuel that drive by awarding up to 12 individual grants of $250,000 to 12 small businesses. Submit your Mission: Small Business℠ application today! Program ends June 30, 2012. For more information and to apply: https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/ Call to international entrepreneurs: LaunchHouse Accelerator Program Takes Off, deadline July 1st. Over the past three years, LaunchHouse has succeeded in seeding, mentoring, and helping 30 companies to obtain follow-on funding. It plans to enhance those efforts with a new group of software and web-based tech entrepreneurs participating in the progra The LH Accelerator kicks off September 3. The application deadline is July 1. LaunchHouse will invest a total of $25,000 in each of 10 entrepreneurial teams (consisting of two or more co-founders) in software and web-based technology. Based in NE Ohio, but you can enter from anywhere in the world: http://bit.ly/Jy3D5o NEW DreamIt Ventures Fall 2012 Philly program, deadline July 6th, 2012, and heads up, minority-led startups: We will select up to fifteen companies, including five minority-led startups, to participate in the three-month accelerator program. The deadline for applications is July 6th and the program will kickoff on September 7th. More information on the program can be found on our website at www.dreamitventures.com/apply. If you have questions, please contact Noelle McHugh at info@dreamitventures.com DEMO Fall now accepting applications, scholarship consideration deadline July 6th. Standard deadline: August 17th. We just wrapped up one of the biggest DEMO events in our 22+ year history! Over 70 companies launched new products to a packed room of press, VC's, angel investors and IT executives. If you didn't make it to DEMO, check out some of the cool products that launched from the DEMO stage. Now, we're gearing up for DEMO Fall 2012, Oct. 1-3 in Santa Clara. We are accepting applications for companies to launch or pitch their product. If you have a new product or now of a company right for a DEMO launch, visit, http://www.demo.com/launch. .Or, if you already have a product in the market, or know of a company who does, a Showcase sponsorship opportunity in the DEMO pavilion may be something to consider. For more information, visit, http://www.demo.com/showcase NEW It’s that time again - Startup Chile, deadline July 10th. For more information and to apply: http://startupchile.org/about/apply/ Women 2.0 PITCH comes to NYC, deadline August 31st. We are now accepting applications for PITCH NYC from early-stage ventures around the world with at least one female founder to apply to the startup competition. PITCH NYC 2012 will provide entrepreneurs with a chance for fame and fortune: finalists present onstage at the conference, and prizes include $25k cash from L’Oreal, $24k worth of free hosting from Rackspace and a finalist interview with TechStars! Stay tuned for more awesome prizes to be announced. Early-stage ventures with under a million in funding and a product in the market (prototype OK) are invited to apply. We are looking to identify, recognize and reward the most disruptive women-led ventures globally – and invite them to pitch onstage for the PITCH NYC conference in November for top prize. Got a startup idea but no team, or got an idea but don’t know how to build it? You have at least THREE MONTHS starting today to emblazen the deadline of August 31 into your head and make it happen. For more information and to apply: http://bit.ly/K56mbS Battle of the Apps: become the Kick Apps Champion by creating software that helps small businesses. Contest now opened, deadline: December 31st. Infusionsoft is offering$20,000 in cash and prizes for the best apps to help small business customers. Use the Infusionsoft API to create an app, integration, or plug-in that helps Infusionsoft customers grow their business! 1st through 4th place winners will receive ongoing marketing, plus stage time at InfusionCon 2013. 10 runners-up will receive InfusionCon boothspace and 2 tickets to the conference. Register to enter.

Follow us on twitter powered by Movable Ink For you edification this week: Who’s In Charge? Every entrepreneur who has ever raised money has been on the receiving end of lots of wisdom, advice and guidance from their investors. Most of the time this is a great thing. But what do you do when an investor starts taking charge? You can ask Mark Zuckerberg, who never wanted to take FB public but the investors insisted. Or you can read on: http://bit.ly/M0Es1a How Much Money Can You Make Working in Digital (Chart). Interesting, and remember, these salaries do not necessarily apply in early stage startups – who will often offer an upside to compensate: http://on.mash.to/Mm1Lgf How we Found Customers to Start Developing. Very important to know your audience – and to find them. They’re ultimately the ones who will define your company: http://bit.ly/M0G3UA On following directions. It’s important to know how to color inside of the lines. The ones who don’t stand out – and sometimes in a good way: http://bit.ly/M0J0o2 How Microsoft and Yahoo Are Selling Politicians Access to You. It's that kind of year and Microsoft and Yahoo are selling political campaigns the ability to target voters online with tailored ads using names, Zip codes and other registration information that users provide when they sign up for free email and other services. The Web giants provide users no notification that their information is being used for political targeting. Microsoft's privacy policy makes no mention of matching people's names and Zip codes against voter lists. In space, no one hears you scream. On line, no one tells you you’re been sold: http://bit.ly/Khv7kS That's it from us this week and hope to see you on my birthday! And now, as always, help is on the way…

6/12/12

6/12/12

Good morning, All,

First, on the lighter side, the next SOS event is July 9th, and it also happens to be my birthday! We are hosting in conjunction with DoItInPerson, so hope you can join us for an evening of drinks and networking with business owners and entrepreneurs. Thank you, DoItInPerson, for making it happen. To RSVP for the early bird rate: http://bit.ly/LnJuAT Gifts not necessary. Donations always happily accepted (see donation button above).

Last week was a bad one for online security: LinkedIn, eHarmony, last.fm and Amazon all reported password breaches. Forest through the trees: we also learned that linkedin’s smartphone app sucks up all of your calendar information – and sends it back in the clear, without the benefit of encryption, although the company denies that. Yes, the service is opt-in (buried in fine print), and while we all readily surrender a lot of information in our linkedin profiles, how much more do they need and what business does the company really have in our calendar app? Marc Andreesen wrote a piece not too long ago about why software is eating the world (http://on.wsj.com/rqCmOn). It may be time for a follow up about how software is also eating our privacy. In case you missed it this past weekend, Apple and Google use spy planes with military grade cameras that are so powerful they could potentially see into homes right through skylights and windows (Beware the spy in the sky: After those Street View snoopers, Google and Apple use planes that can film you sunbathing in your back garden: http://bit.ly/MnaJO4). You know, the kind of tech intelligence agencies used to identify terrorist targets in Aghanistan. The U.S. technology giants are racing to produce aerial maps so detailed they can show objects just four inches wide. With video cameras on every street corner, we already live in a surveillance society. This takes us another leap forwards toward that and do we really need that much of a street view? We’ve heard it before: information just wants to be free. But at what cost to personal freedom, privacy and security? Onward and forward. Read More...

6/5/12

6/5/12

Good morning, All,

First, yes we are planning another SOS event – July 9th, to be exact, and it’s special because it also happens to be my birthday! So hope you can join us for a night of drinks and networking with business owners and entrepreneurs. Details are here and thank you, DoItInPerson, for making it happen. To RSVP for the early bird rate: http://bit.ly/LnJuAT Gifts not necessary. Donations always happily accepted.

Every now and again, that question rears its head in some industry publication or other: are we in a bubble? We’re not going to comment yea or nay on the techonomy, but there is a definite bubble out there, and not to cast aspersions at millenials at large – there are many Gen Ms with their feet planted firmly on the ground - and maybe it’s because we reside in a tech hub – NYC – that we encounter so many of what we call the bubble boys. Not sure that there are hard and fast rules on how to spot them, but you’ll know them when you see them: 1. They may or may not have a stable place to live. Reasoning: the industry and the world at large, should support an entrepreneur because, well, they’re entrepreneurs and that’s the rule. End of discussion. 2. They don’t need jobs – many have never had or at least held one for very long, because they’re Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurs have to keep their eyes on their visions and not be distracted with such mundane considerations as how to support themselves, or how a business runs. Eye on the prize and as soon as they get to their MVP stage, they will be millionaires in quick shrift. 3. It may seem oxymoronic that they don’t care about money but intend to be millionaires, if not billionaires. It’s not: their eyes are on the forest, not the trees. 4. They don’t need a resume, an investor deck - that's sooo '90s, and they are, after all, the ones who move the industry forward.* 5. *Yes, we know this needs further explanation: from their point of view, their crew are the early adopters and once you have them - and of course they will - game over. Think FB v MySpace. Monetization model? More investors. The industry will support them. It's the Too Big to Fail paradigm. 6. They believe that having a dot com qualifies them as being a CEO of a company. Seriously. 7. They don’t listen. They seem to be listening, but they're not: what they're doing is devising arguments against anything you're saying. They are of singular mind, and nothing penetrates the bubble. 8. The rules of economics have been revised to suit them, and they will reinvent history – tech history – to fit their arguments. Never mind that it’s a glaring separate reality that bears no resemblance to the world as we know it. And if you try to argue with them and try to teach them something about actual history, well, won’t work. See #6. 9. They Zuck themselves, meaning, they subscribe chapter and verse to the Mark Zuckerberg playbook: Start a dot com, go viral, drop out of school, become a billionaire. No experience or adult supervision necessary. 10. They are connectors. They are supremely confident and will go out and meet everyone - and anyone who is anyone. And they’re always happy to make an introduction. We admire their confidence and there’s a lesson for you: their confidence opens doors – many of them - and moves them forever forward. And they're happy to help you, too. Yes, there's always an upside We all know them. We’ve all encountered them, or if you go to enough networking events, you will. They’re actually throwbacks to the days of web 1.0, where the rule was: the industry should support a startup, whether they had a roadmap to profitability/what they were doing made any sense at all or not. Then, as now, there were many an investor listening to them, somehow believing that the web 1.0 bubble boys knew something about tech and the New Economy that the rest of us just weren’t/aren’t seeing. Which is what led to the first tech bubble. These bubble boys weren’t in the industry then so whatever happened then does not apply to them (See #6, and the ancillary Any History that Predates them Doesn’t Count). Which doesn’t change the fact that what man cannot remember he is doomed to repeat, so let’s be careful out there. One final note: they do come on like a house on fire, and that can be seductive. But remember: a slow burn trumps a flame out. Always. Onward and forward. Read More...