Spotify Vision Specialist: A No Go

My pitch two days ago (over email) with Spotify has ended up being a no go, and that's okay. One has to be Vision Specialist to one's own startup. For me that is microfinance. I am thinking six months. Max six.

Spotify Now Advertising On Netizen

+ 20-25 hours a week, rare week 30, 6 months
+ $100 per hour plus an equivalent in equity, 5K sign up bonus
+ 20 hours of face time with the CEO, 1-2 hours at a time, spread over
the final 4 months
+ 10 hours each with the top 10 people in the company - face time (not
phone, not Skype)
+ A few trips to Sweden in Spring/Summer
+ Interacting with as many employees as possible mostly in party settings

Vision Specialist
Spotify right now is headed to becoming a mid-tier company.
Noone thinks of it as a future Google/Amazon/Facebook.
My job would be to create that vision and inject it into the company.
I think Spotify could end up a truly big tech company.

Hardware (IBM) -------> Software (Microsoft) --------> One Site
(Google/Facebook) -----> Content/Mindfood (music/movies/books)

I hope to launch my own microfinance startup later this year.
http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2011/02/googlefacebook-of-microfinance.html
That is why I never thought in terms of going full time with you guys.
Otherwise it would have made tremendous sense to do so. You guys are
pre-IPO.

SmartWatch

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Twitter ---> Instagram ---> FoodSpotting
Seven Screens

When you move from the level of Instagram to the level of FoodSpotting there are 100 possibilities. It is the same when you move from the smartphone to the smartwatch. The smartphone is Instagram. The smartwatch is FoodSpotting and 100 other services like it. You are looking at Tens Of Billions Of Devices.

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Via Wiktor Macura

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Instagram Does Not Know What It Has On Its Hands

Image via CrunchBase

"The only thing that will make other platforms happen is natural growth of the team. I think we didn't expect how quickly we'd grow a year ago when we were like ‘oh let's work on Android next.' Everything became a priority, and because everything became a priority we had to focus on what was most important which was to keep the site going and make users really happy. A person is a person is a person no matter what phone you own. I'm excited to be on Android someday. Are you kidding me? Our growth is going to double." - Kevin Systrom

This is an insane thing to be saying.

Instagram is one of those lucky companies that does not have to worry about money. It can raise money. And it is not true there are only 10 good engineers on the planet. So if it not lack of resources or talent, what holds them back?

I think the Instagram guys might have hit the jackpot but they don't really fathom the full implications of what they have in their hands.

They should raise 50 million and grow to 50 engineers. Right away.

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The Empire Strikes Back, Finally

Seattle Times: Motorola wants patent royalties from Xbox, Windows 7 a court in Germany seems inclined to side with Motorola in the company's patent fight with Microsoft in which Motorola would like Microsoft to pay it royalties of 2.25 percent in sales of Windows 7 and Xbox 360, among other products. ...... Microsoft Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9, the Windows Media Player and the Xbox 360 infringe on those two patents. ..... have to do with video compression and decompression technology, covering methods for reducing the amount of bandwidth needed for video that is streamed online..... At stake are millions of dollars in royalties, along with strategic competitive advantages. ..... Microsoft itself has a number of patent agreements in place in which manufacturing companies pay royalties to the software giant. Microsoft has not disclosed how much it gets in royalties, but Microsoft attorney Brad Smith has suggested in the past that about $5 per mobile device "seems like a fair price."

Granted the Google Motorola integration has not happened yet, the purchase has not gone through, but don't tell me the people at Motorola do not feel the need to get on the right side of their future boss, Larry Page. They know exactly why he bought Motorola.

World War III Time: Let's Go To War
Android Has To Be Kept Free

Or if these legal steps have been a long time coming, just goes on to show how software patents need fundamental reform, for everyone lives in glass houses.

But until that reform happens, the Android people have to simply fight back. Owning Motorola patents helps.