Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
PayCheckr: Not Dead Yet
On the PayCheckr team I have felt like Ben Affleck in Armageddon. These dudes, some of them, can talk like they are past retirement age. One member of the team actually died last year. PayCheckr itself has died a few deaths. And it came back from the dead today, not for the first time. A few different times I have moved PayCheckr to the past section of my LinkedIn page. And I have had to bring it right back to the current section. Something tells me this time it might be for real.
Square: Jack Dorsey's Second Act?
(Article first published as Square: Jack Dorsey's Second Act? on Technorati.)
As I was watching Jack Dorsey call cash registers "ugly" the other day at TechCrunch Disrupt, I found myself thinking, is Square Jack Dorsey's second act? Is he getting to do with Square what he was not allowed to do with Twitter?
I think so. The Founder CEO is a rare animal, but it is my favorite animal. All the trailblazing companies I know have had Founder CEOs. Twitter stands in stark contrast to Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg has relentlessly pivoted, he has relentlessly added features. What used to be The Wall became The Stream. We now have a like button to press. There are Facebook Comments at blogs. Twitter, by comparison, stagnated. There has only been scaling and a little bit of monetization.
As I was watching Jack Dorsey call cash registers "ugly" the other day at TechCrunch Disrupt, I found myself thinking, is Square Jack Dorsey's second act? Is he getting to do with Square what he was not allowed to do with Twitter?
I think so. The Founder CEO is a rare animal, but it is my favorite animal. All the trailblazing companies I know have had Founder CEOs. Twitter stands in stark contrast to Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg has relentlessly pivoted, he has relentlessly added features. What used to be The Wall became The Stream. We now have a like button to press. There are Facebook Comments at blogs. Twitter, by comparison, stagnated. There has only been scaling and a little bit of monetization.
Mark Pincus Is Really Something
(Article first published as Mark Pincus is Really Something on Technorati.)
Image by Joi via FlickrMark Pincus stands out. He really does. He does not fit the stereotype. The guy is responsible for one of the fastest growing companies in history, but his past is littered with all sorts of entrepreneurial failures. To the seasoned eye, those failures were the stepping stones to his grand success, but only in December 2009 he was being pilloried by some small name journalist to whom Pincus pleaded on the air: "We go way back."
He did not drop out of college. He was not 19 or 23 when he started Zynga. He is not 20s young. He is not the most photogenic entrepreneur out there. His public appearances tend to be littered with all sorts of horror stories of him having had to deal with venture capitalists and other creatures of the tech ocean. John Doerr's firm rejected him several times, and Zynga has been better for John Doerr than Google has. Now why would John Doerr do that? I think there is a cultural bias against people who are not the most photogenic.
Image by Joi via FlickrMark Pincus stands out. He really does. He does not fit the stereotype. The guy is responsible for one of the fastest growing companies in history, but his past is littered with all sorts of entrepreneurial failures. To the seasoned eye, those failures were the stepping stones to his grand success, but only in December 2009 he was being pilloried by some small name journalist to whom Pincus pleaded on the air: "We go way back."
He did not drop out of college. He was not 19 or 23 when he started Zynga. He is not 20s young. He is not the most photogenic entrepreneur out there. His public appearances tend to be littered with all sorts of horror stories of him having had to deal with venture capitalists and other creatures of the tech ocean. John Doerr's firm rejected him several times, and Zynga has been better for John Doerr than Google has. Now why would John Doerr do that? I think there is a cultural bias against people who are not the most photogenic.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Dong Rule
Presenting At The Dot Com Hatchery
This was a time in my life when I did not have the option to accept investment money.
My Non Personhood Of 2009, 2010
But I ended up with five minutes at the Hatchery. After I was through the Hatchery came up with a new rule called The Dong Rule. That rule would now on allow the organizers to ask a presenter to get off the stage even if their alloted time was not up yet.
This was a time in my life when I did not have the option to accept investment money.
My Non Personhood Of 2009, 2010
But I ended up with five minutes at the Hatchery. After I was through the Hatchery came up with a new rule called The Dong Rule. That rule would now on allow the organizers to ask a presenter to get off the stage even if their alloted time was not up yet.
Microsoft's Alliances And Acquisitions
Image via CrunchBase
Bing - But It's Not Google - used to be an industry joke as well. Search was best left to Google.
Windows and Office looked passe. Chrome was coming. Google Apps were all over the place. The smart crowd was into Google Apps.
Forbes: Nokia’s Smartphone Chief On Microsoft Alliance, Future Windows Devices: the Finnish giant’s transition from its homegrown Symbian platform to Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system ....... The future of Nokia and, to a certain extent, of Microsoft’s mobile ambitions largely hinges on the success of the two companies’ alliance. ..... several Nokia devices were already running Mango, the latest version of Windows Phone software. ...... the first batch of Nokia Windows Phones will be a “small portfolio” of multiple devices. ...... Nokia was an early advocate for NFC, which enables phones to wirelessly exchange data such as payment information, mobile tickets, business card contacts and website links. ...... Early Nokia Windows Phones may also include a China-specific device.Microsoft allied with Nokia, the number one name in mobile phone hardware. Nokia was struggling under the onslaught of smartphones and it looked like Android was about to take over the world. And Microsoft was largely missing in action. The Windows phone was widely considered a joke.
Bing - But It's Not Google - used to be an industry joke as well. Search was best left to Google.
Windows and Office looked passe. Chrome was coming. Google Apps were all over the place. The smart crowd was into Google Apps.
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