Startup One Stop

Good morning, All,

That was for Stargate SG-1 fans. Short week, so we’re keeping it short.

For anyone who has ever cooked a turkey, and the full Thanksgiving meal, you know that it takes time. It’s part of the ritual, in fact. The bird goes into the oven (we are not into that deep-fried thing: it’s just wrong) and stuffed or unstuffed, it takes hours. And needs basting and attention every now and again. And then there are the vaious and assorteds to prepare, and from start to finish, it takes days. Read More...

Good morning, All,

Snapchat just turned down a $3B offer from Facebook. The company, headed by a 23-year-old (sound familiar) has no revenue, but it does have a very loyal and growing – and extremely sticky – user base (sound familiar?).

When FB turned down the big buyout from Yahoo in 2006, it was considered insanity, if not tech suicide. What was young Zuckerberg thinking? Facebook had no particularly propriety technology or patents in its arsenal (sound familiar?). When Twitter turned down the big buyout offer, again, insanity. When Andrew Mason headed up Groupon and turned down…wait, yes, that was insanity. Read More...

Good morning, All,

Unless you’ve opted out and there’s still time, your name and face can be used in Google ads, starting today. Not everyone who uses Google products is a sophisticated web user, and how long before there’s a hue and cry – not to mention a lawsuit? (We’re personally looking forward to the SNL parody, which should be a wake up call to those who don’t read the fine print or follow the tech press.) But whatever happened to the days when the customer was always right? Has the faceless world of online changed that? Careful there.

We are personally not fan of walled gardens: they tend to put too much power in the hands of the few, and what subsequently tends to happen is that people react with their feet. Google recently changed the comments section on YouTube in an attempt to drive people to Google+. Oops, we mean to prevent pedophiles and the likes from commenting. This ditty pretty much sums up users’ reactions: “F*ck You, Google+”, An Adorable Song About YouTube’s New Comments. Remember Beacon? It was a FB program that announced your purchases/song or movie selections to your friends. You had 10 seconds to opt out – not a long time, if you could find the damned opt-out button at all. There was a class action lawsuit (Supreme Court notes ‘disconcerting’ Facebook settlement, will eye future charity deals). Yes, FB did remove Beacon, and in lieu of offering remuneration to those harmed, the company gave to a charity – and gave the charity a board member from FB as well. Consumers were cut out of the settlement. The lawyers were paid. Read More...

Good morning, All,

Ok, we’re mixing metaphors today, thanks to a tweet by @davemcclure: driving entrepreneur education, building community, making bets *b4* traction are more reliable+sustainable foundations 2 finding unicorns.

We know the usual VC drill: Invest in successful serial entrepreneurs (which, for the record, not only doesn’t always work out, but in such cases, they tend to invest more money than necessary and well, we know what that end result it. And yet, lemming-like, many a VC holds hard and fast to that rule); invest in the team, which usually means the co-founding team, like Tumblr’s David Karp and, wait, no co-founder there; and putting money on Ivy-educated entrepreneurs is always a better bet, like Steve Jobs (oops, no, he dropped out of every non-Ivy League school he ever attended. Oh, David Karp. Nope, again, non-Ivy, nor is Jack Dorsey, who, like Jobs, never finished college). As for the mixed parables: the blind men are all standing at different parts of the elephant, and each has a theory of what’s before him. Of course, none is right, as each experiences only part of the animal. And an elephant in the living room is something that’s so big that despite the fact that it’s standing right before you, you can’t see it: you miss the obvious. Read More...