Old Media is dying. Grab your popcorn, you can now watch. Looking to strike while the iron's hot, the current king of aggregation Gabe Rivera has now launched a wider media site called mediagazer.com. It's still finding it's legs so I'm not sure if it's just for social media or whatever the printed is pushing. I do think this is the perfect time for this. With old media biting their nails, someone from the blogosphere should stand up and assure the ancient giants how much we still care about them. This is a destination site that’s ripe for a syndication model. I can't imagine Gabe not doing this as a business model, so maybe some dinosaur media publisher will give him an offer down the line.

I think that there are better products, impossible products, and unthinkable products. Better products follow an established trajectory in an industry. They are “15 minutes ahead” and the easiest to sell…for a while. Examples include: Faster computers with larger memory Cars with better gas mileage Impossible products find a way to relax one or two constraints that designers of better products have taken as fixed. They are harder to sell, not so much because they are hard to understand but difficult to believe, prospects will ask you “What’s the catch?” Examples include: ATM Machines replacing human tellers to dispense cash Ethernet over twisted pair Unthinkable products are typically developed by someone f

Facebook, Twitter, Zynga are hot companies and one day they will make hot IPOs. But what's their value? It's often difficult to put a value on private companies because their financial data is private. But you can get some sense of their value by tracking the buying and selling of private company shares, and that's whatSharesPost does. The company announced its first value index today comprised of seven leading venture backed private companies. The private market is where VC and other rich individuals can trade shares in venture-backed companies. You could call it the "smart money." But you might be in for a surprise as to what the smart money values. - Zynga, the maker of the Facebook game Farmville, has a $2.61 billion val

Jonathan Boutelle and Rashmi Sinha, founders of the presentation-sharing site SlideShare, describe the entrepreneurial process as a series of pivots. Boutelle explains it's not just a jump, but an evolving growth of stages that leads to an idea that can start a business. From there, Sinha says that focused execution keeps the vision moving forward. By continually measuring the activity, they both believe that entrepreneurs can better recognize the growth stages of their company. Here is the audio from eCorner Stanford Technology Venture Program (STVP) that SiliconAngle contributor Tina Seelig runs with Tom Byers. Full link http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2338 The lessons on doing a startup can be learned

Sometimes the 'golden handcuffs' tarnish the other hands in the company... Thirteen years ago I worked at a small technology consulting firm, headquartered out of Columbia South Carolina, named The Computer Group.  TCG was acquired by IKON Office Solutions, the copier company. IKON then went on a spending spree over the next year acquiring many technology companies, largely small to mid-size systems integrators in a fairly classic channel roll-up strategy to build footprint.  This was quite smart given the complexity of digital copier and printing systems coming to market in the mid 1990's as well as the upside and opportunity to move into adjacent markets aside from their core paper distribution and copier sales and service divisi

I was living in Europe in 2000 when the first WAP phones (Wireless Access Protocol) were introduced.  These phones were so over hyped.  They were going to bring the Internet to your mobile phones ushering in the era of “m-commerce.”  Gag. I had just returned from living in Japan where I witnessed the hugely successful launch of i-mode by NTT DoCoMo so I knew the potential that the mobile web would ultimately bring, but I saw so many flaws in the launch of WAP.  But like lemmings, every company in the market rushed to proclaim they were launching WAP versions of their products. I was attending a major industry conference in Barcelona at the height of the WAP excitement.  I was on stage in front of several hund

In 1986, as I prepared for life beyond graduate school, I read an article in the newspaper about plans for the San Jose Technology Museum. It sounded like a fascinating place to work and, after endless calls, I managed to get an interview. I arrived for the lunch meeting, sat down and opened my menu. But, before we’d even ordered, my prospective boss said, “I want to tell you in advance that you’re not a good match for this organization. You’re just too pushy.” She was obviously referring to all the unanswered messages I had left in an attempt to reach her. I was so disappointed, and felt tears welling up in my eyes. I had to think fast to pull out of this tailspin… I sat back, took a deep breath, and apologized. I also told he

The headlines in the media are filled with that latest stats.  Stats sell.  The stats are often quoted from the latest reports.  People then parrot them around like they’re fact when most of them are complete bullsh*t.  People throw them around at cocktail parties.  Often when they do I throw out my favorite statistic:  73.6% of  all statistics are made up.  I say it deadpanned.  Often I’ll get some people look at me like, “really?”  ”It’s true. Nielsen just released the number last month.” No.  It’s irony. Or as Mark Twain popularized the quote most attributed to the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Benjamin Disraeli, “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies

The announcement by Google that it would delve into the Broadband ISP arena in select markets is quite interesting in the fact that it looks to be marrying a public advocacy with a public initiative, and where it counts the most, in broadband infrastructure. To me it seems more of a logical move, putting your money into a venture which supports your core competency, Internet openness, proliferation, adoption, and access. In addition, Google seems to be promoting its core legislative agenda of having a free and open internet along with proposed high speeds that would be 100 times faster than most other ISPs. Does it matter that the initiative will not access every home in the United States, not particularly? The point remains tha

When I worked in London there were a ton of Aussies.  I love working with Aussies because their outlook on life seems very similar to what I grew up with in California.  Pretty laid back and non-hierarchic.  I also loved learning all of their sayings. My favorite was when a guy told me to beware of Crocodile Salesmen. What’s that?  ”You know, big mouth and no ears.” That’s always stuck with me.  Crocodile Salesmen are people who are always talking.  They’re pitching to you.  They don’t take the time to realize what your true motivations are because they’re too busy telling you what they THINK you want to hear. Trust me – your chances of selling are much lower if you’re talking rather