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| Bill and Melinda Gates during their visit to the Oslo Opera House in June 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The impending Age Of Abundance was prophecied in the scriptures thousands of years ago.
Showing posts with label david karp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label david karp. Show all posts
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Tech Entrepreneurship: Public Service By Other Means
Monday, May 20, 2013
Tumblr Monetization: Sell To Yahoo
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| Image by Matthew Buchanan / Flickr via CrunchBase |
Marissa Mayer failed to buy FourSquare as a Google executive, but she has managed to buy Tumblr as the Yahoo Chief. Both are companies that have helped put New York City on the tech map.
Last I met David Karp was during Social Media Week. This validation is well deserved. Now Karp and team get to nurture the local tech ecosystem some. I am assuming the Tumblr team will stay put in the city. I don't think it wants to wear "f----g Dropbox T-shirts!"
Karp, I have a clean energy idea that I need some seed money for. Are you in? :)
The billion Yahoo paid it will get back in the stock market reward to the Yahoo stock from the cool factor from Tumblr to the Yahoo brand. So basically this web property has been had for free. It is win win. This is also a strong signal to young and happening tech entrepreneurs that Yahoo is a brand that can be trusted with sexy acquisitions. That is worth at least another billion.
Fred Wilson must be very happy. You couldn't get near that guy without him gushing about David Karp at least once. Now you have concrete proof what it was all about.
David Karp showing up at Yahoo is like Arianna Huffington showing up at AOL, only I don't think Karp will outshine Mayer. She is a hotshot herself, very much so.
Yahoo buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion, vows not to screw it up
The deal is expected to increase Yahoo's audience by 50 percent. ..... Shares of Yahoo rose in early trading on Monday but quickly gave up those gains and were little changed at $26.54. Through Friday's close, they had risen 70 percent since Mayer became CEO. ..... David Karp, 26, who founded Tumblr in 2007 and will remain CEO. ...... Karp, a self-taught programmer who left high school in favor of home schooling ..... his take in the billion-dollar sale would top $200 million. .... "There are a lot of rich people in the world. There are very few people who have the privilege of getting to invent things that billions of people use," he said.Update: I think Karp will buy a plane.
Monday, August 27, 2012
The First Hour
How to spend the first hour after waking up? Not everyone has the luxury to ask. What if you have no choice but to spend that hour on your commute?
Should your time in the restroom be minimal? Should you work out some other time of the day? Should emails and phone calls be saved for the afternoon hours?
For some people the magic happens late at night, not first thing in the morning. But still.
Light meditation and prayers are also good ideas. A little yoga never hurt anyone.
What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day
Should your time in the restroom be minimal? Should you work out some other time of the day? Should emails and phone calls be saved for the afternoon hours?
For some people the magic happens late at night, not first thing in the morning. But still.
Light meditation and prayers are also good ideas. A little yoga never hurt anyone.
What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day
Don’t Check Your Email for the First Hour. Seriously. Stop That. ..... David Karp will “try hard” not to check his email until 9:30 or 10 a.m. .... “Hour of Power,” “30 Minutes to Thrive,” or at least “Fifteen Minutes to Fulfillment.” Part of it involves light exercise, part of it involves motivational incantations, but the most accessible piece involves 10 minutes of thinking of everything you’re grateful for: in yourself, among your family and friends, in your career, and the like. After that, visualize “everything you want in your life as if you had it today.” .... if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, you’ve got it behind you for the rest of the day, and nothing else looks so bad ..... tackling that terrible, weighty thing you don’t want to do first thing in the morning ..... If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" ..... Newmark says customers service “anchors me to reality.”
Friday, November 25, 2011
Happy Holidays
Image via WikipediaSean Parker. You have not replied to my email yet. Or was it a tweet? I forgive you. There's still time. Brad Feld. You have been hogging the mountains. I forgive you.
Albert Wenger. I remember asking you to come alone. I forgive you.
Rachel Sterne. I think I spotted you in Zuccotti Park. I forgive you.
David Karp, next time comb your hair. I forgive you.
And I forgive the Chinese. Let them come.
Charlie O'Donnell At His Inspiring Best
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Meeting David Karp
Paramendra Bhagat@davidkarp It was good to meet you in the 1 train on the Upper West Side a few hours ago. I am glad you liked my hat. :-)
FavoriteRetweet
David Karp "90% of the mail I get is positive and encouraging, and only 10% is death threats." - Jimmy Justice on... http://t.co/3wqGeNRv
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David Karp "I know Nick Gray!" - If I had a dollar… http://t.co/c2nXvsAQ
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David Karp "I don’t want to hang out with other programmers. I want to hang out with Jay Z. I want people to be..." http://t.co/kDSBRhax
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David Karp: Tumblr Or Hipstr
Tumblr: Ease Of Use?
The Music Tag On Tumblr
Meeting Kevin Slavin: Tumblr's Brilliance
My Tumblr Just Got An Upgrade
So Proud Of My New Tumblr Theme
Tumblr Explore
Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn
Why Raissa Nebie Loves Tumblr
My Tumblr Style
Tumblr Down, Tumblr Up
How To Monetize Tumblr?
Tumblr: Casey, Nina, David, Fred
I was wearing my hat which is not the fanciest hat around.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Tumblr: Ease Of Use?
Image via CrunchBaseTumblr has been in the news for having surpassed Wordpress. Tumblr surpassed both Blogger and Wordpress in page hits months back. Looks like it has now surpassed Wordpress on some other metric that shall remain unnamed by me. What is it? There is the itch to explain. The pundits are pouring in.
I have a feeling analyzing might not work. Unless you use Tumblr, you will not get it. I myself was late to the party, but now I show up every day, most every day. Tumblr completes me.
And Tumblr still is not my primary blogging platform. I am still stuck on Blogger. I do long form blogging. I pontificate. And Blogger allows me to play with a little bit of code. On Tumblr, I mostly reblog, I almost totally reblog. And yet Tumblr completes me like Blogger does not.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
The Music Tag On Tumblr
Image by Matthew Buchanan / Flickr via CrunchBaseTumblr sucked me in somewhere along the way. I am on Tumblr pretty much every day, often times more than once a day. When I need to take time off work, I often end up on Tumblr.A recent addition to my Tumblr experience has been the music tag. Suddenly it feels like I am reaching out to humanity. Music is the most obvious of tags. Often times I come across some music clip that I most certainly have never heard of, I might not even hear a second time, I might never have come across on my own. And I reblog. And often times I am the first person to reblog a clip by someone. And it feels like I am saying hello to strangers who could perhaps use a hello.
Music has fast become my favorite tag on Tumblr. There is always something to listen to. And I dig the randomness of the whole experience.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
My Tumblr Just Got An Upgrade
I signed up for Tumblr as soon as it came out. Because I read about it in the news. Then I forgot about it. During Social Media Week last year (Social Media Week: The Best NY Tech MeetUp Ever) I attended a panel at JP Morgan, and I put a question to a panelist: Casey Culture. I said I was already on all sorts of social media platforms. Do I still need to be on Tumblr? She reasoned yes. So I became active on Tumblr. But it was a slow start. Then I came across a list by David Noel months later. He had listed the top tech entrepreneurs and VCs on Tumblr. I ended up following the entire list. Then it started making sense to visit Tumblr often.
My Tumblog
I mostly just reblog on Tumblr, and do I! My Blogger blogs are where my primary blogging happens. Pretty much everything I can do on Tumblr, I can do on Blogger as well. I like the idea of playing with some basic code. On Tumblr the editor in me comes out. You follow me and that is as good as following everyone I follow. That is the proposition.
I visit Tumblr near daily. And I spend a good chunk of time each visit, at least 30 minutes.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
David Karp: Tumblr Or Hipstr
Some people in the media have been calling David Karp a hipster. I don't know about that. I know him to be a Tumblr. Or, rather, The Tumblr. But I don't know about hipster. I just don't know the guy. Never met him. None of that good stuff.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Just Found Out Mike Hudack Is Also A High School Dropout
Dropping out of high school is obviously not enough. You also have to go ahead and create a Blip.TV or, in David Karp's case, a Tumblr. But I just now found out Mike Hudack is a high school dropout. Wow.
I knew the name for a while. And I had followed him on Tumblr a while. I had seen him in a video online, he was on some kind of a panel. He came across as a man to watch. There is this raw intensity an entrepreneur throws out like a halo. This guy definitely had it.
Monday, July 12, 2010
My Tumblr Style
Image via CrunchBaseIt is amazing to me as to how popular Tumblr is among the members of the tech community. If you wish to meet the members of the Hall of Fame in Tech, go to Tumblr, they are all there. The simplicity is appealing even to the sophisticated.
Early on I decided I was going to use Tumblr primarily to listen. So I consume a lot of content on Tumblr, and I reblog a lot. My Blogger blog feeds into my Tumblr stream, so I am all set. Following me on Tumblr is like following 90 people I follow, on days I visit Tumblr that is. I don't visit every day, but I have started to visit on more days than I used to.
My Tumblr experience went up one notch the day I discovered a list put together by David Noel based out of Germany. The list was populated with tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. I had been on a lookout for something of that sort. And after I started following people on that list, Tumblr became more fun, although I think I would like to weed out some of the people from that list by now. I don't know them, and they don't interest me much.
I end up liking many music recommendations from Fred Wilson, and I end up liking many photos that Nina shares. Those two stand out in the non text department. And the founder of Tumblr, David Karp, himself has one of the best tumblogs out there.
Blogger works just fine for me for sharing text, links, photos and videos. I think I like having to play with some code while I prepare a post at Blogger. I get a kick out of it. I think Blogger's big, blank canvass speaks to my creative instincts. Tumblr is more like, let's turn the TV on.
My Tumblr Page
Tumblr: Casey, Nina, David, Fred
Thursday, June 17, 2010
How To Monetize Tumblr?
Image via CrunchBaseA few months back - and if it has been less than that sorry, I have been on internet time, time moves faster online - when Tumblr raised its newest round of money, there was some talk from various quarters on the topic. I meant to read up on those thoughts and share my own thoughts in a blog post, and I just never got around to, I am doing now. But I have not had the chance to read those thoughts. That probably is a good thing for this blog post.
Google could not have done what Yahoo was doing really well: banner ads. Google came up with its own ad platform that spoke to the Google Search experience, and Google hit the jackpot with it. Similarly Facebook could not have done what Google did. (Facebook's Ad Space Is Different) Ads on Facebook needed to be able to climb the maze of people's social graphs. Social gaming needed a newer ad platform.
The Highlight Of My Internet Week
Anu Shukla Has Found The New Frontier In Advertising
Look at how Twitter is rolling out its monetization efforts. They have introduced the concept of resonance.
The lesson from all these examples is that the monetization of Tumblr has to be unique to the Tumblr experience. And the Tumblr experience is different from the Twitter experience, it is different from the Facebook experience, it is different from the Wordpress/Blogger experience.
So what exactly is the Tumblr experience. Define. Then monetize.
An obvious thing would be to allow businesses to set up tumblogs: paid Tumblr accounts. They can run campaigns on their own outside of Tumblr to get people to show up on their tumblogs and to follow them on their own. It would be like people doling out their Twitter handles on non Twitter platforms. But if people are spending money on the Google platform to get people to their tumblogs, that is money that should have been Tumblr's. So.
You should be able to create a paid account for your business on Tumblr. And Tumblr should landgrab a small box on the top right of all tumblogs. Paid accounts would have the option to get their specific tumblogs or Tumblr posts listed there for money.
So I just put out a post about smartphones at my tumblog, maybe I will see an ad for smartphones.
And for a higher price tumblog posts that are clearly labeled Sponsored should be allowed to enter streams. This could get controversial. But there is the Twitter option where you only enter the steam when people actively search for certain terms.
Just like an ad on Twitter has to take the form of a tweet, an ad on Tumblr has to look like a tumblog post. And those posts have to compete. If you are not getting clicked upon, you are not being liked and reblogged, you lose your place in the stream, money could not get you back in. What's that word again? Resonance?
Advertising on Tumblr has to be in tune with the Tumblr experience.
Another way - perhaps a better way - would be to get the users of Tumblr to strive to earn badges and have each such badge sponsored by a major brand name. So if you can get 100 people to follow you on Tumblr, you earn the T100 badge sponsored by Ben & Jerry. Both the badge and the sponsor's logo get shown on your tumblog. The logo links to the sponsor's tumblog.
A third way would be to allow Tumblr users to buy virtual money at Tumblr with which they can buy each other gifts. You pay real money for fake money with which you buy gifts. Tumblr is the one you pay. Tumblr makes money. Get it?
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Meeting Fred Wilson In Person
Image via WikipediaI did 1,000 crunches before I showed up, and here was Fred Wilson trying to impress me and a few Indians with yoga talk. There is a Bruce Lee school of thought. Your tummy muscles are the most important. If you want to feel the strength, do your crunches.
I did my 1,000 crunches, had my lunch. I was sweating like Mark Zuckerberg by the time I headed towards the train station. Zuck has proven beyond doubt genius is 99% perspiration. (The Hoodie)
I thought I was running a little late. The place was downstairs, in the basement. It was dark. When Fred showed up half an hour later, he was like, "Ugh, this place is so dark, I needed to be here at 2 AM instead."
It took you about five minutes to get your eyes adjusted to the light. I caught both Fred Wilson and Scott Heiferman during their first minutes. I had the advantage of well adjusted to the dark eyes.
"Are you coming Tuesday"? Scott asked me.
"Of course I am coming. Absolutely," I said.
Internet Week: Going To Three Events So Far
I briefly talked about Reshma 2010: Reshma 2010, Square, And Pro.Act.Ly.
"The Scotts in the Bay Area are behind her," I said: Jack Dorsey, Randi Zuckerberg. "We need to get behind her here too."
Scott is one of the earliest people I got to know after I moved to New York City. Every time we meet, we meet like old friends, but I have never been able to get him to reply to my emails, most of which have been FYI emails anyways. I have long made peace with that as a productivity issue for him. The circle he maintains email communication with must be tied to his work. And I am glad. Look at the distance MeetUp.com has covered in five years. Scott in many ways is the original tech entrepreneur in town. The NY Tech MeetUp he launched has been a major platform. If no longer saying hello to me will mean MeetUp.com goes to ever newer heights, I will happily swallow that pill too. Scott is one of those people who can make it sound like "change the world" is not a cliche phrase.
This was a few years back. A friend told me Scott was number five on the list of the top people in tech in New York City, as put together by the Silicon Alley Insider. I was like, no way. But I know the guy!
Today I told Scott I had applied for a MeetUp.com job, but Greg told me it was an entry level position.
"It does not have to be," Scott said. "Good luck."
That is Scottspeak for MeetUp.com has a department that handles the hiring decisions, I hope they like your application. I liked the spirit in which it was said.
"Honored to be meeting you for the first time," I said to Fred. "I watched your debate online. You won easy. But you did have a hometown advantage."
disrupt on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free
He was as gracious as possible before, during and after the debate. He has been the exact opposite of Mike Tyson after a victorious championship fight. He maintained that mode in his response.
"It was not much of a debate," he said. Talking to a group of Republicans about tax cuts is not hard, he has insisted.
He got hold of his name card as if anyone there needed to know what his name was or what he looked like, then he went to the bar to grab a soda, walked back to me and said, "Who put this together? Who organized this?"
He sounded puzzled as much as curious. I could have burst out laughing right there. I did not know. I took a guess and pointed at two important looking guys. Maybe them? Then I spotted Shana. I motioned her and asked her. She took him to the guy who had organized the MeetUp.
People got together in small groups. People moved around. Fred moved from group to group. I mostly wanted to listen to what he had to say. He was relaxed, and he was making insightful comments about some of his portfolio companies, and some of their founders.
The Gotham Gal did not show up because she was busy cooking for a party they are throwing Tuesday evening, Fred said. I have not visited her blog nearly as often as I have visited Fred's whose blog I visit almost daily, but when I have visited her blog I have learned a lot, perhaps more than from Fred's blog because she touches upon topics I know very little about, stuff like the local non profit scene, for example.
At one point I found myself with these three other Indians, two business partners, the leader of the team was married to this young woman who had made it to the interview phase of the two job openings at Fred's VC firm.
I got to meet the Columbus, Ohio, woman who is now in the Analyst position. Fred said one of the new hires is going to be bi-coastal, maintaining apartments in both the Bay Area and in New York.
So Fred walks over. He says he just wanted some water. I pass on the message. I get a glass of water in my hand, I pass it on to him. He sits down. A small crowd forms around him, about 10 people.
There is this discussion about the entrepreneurship scene in India. There is some frank talk. Some of the Indians volunteer to say things can get rough. The bureaucracy can be a nightmare sometimes. Society is more hierarchical. The culture is more sexist. The venture capital industry is not there yet. It can prove hard to pay your electric bill. They don't want your money. And if you don't pay, they cut off your electricity. But there are rewards to being able to navigate the culture. Labor is cheap and top quality. I said a high school friend of mine tried it in the US, that did not work, now he works his dot com based out of Kathmandu, and it has been working wonders, making him a lot of money. The guy gets on national television there, I said. That would be Kathmandu.
He talked at length about Twitter and David Karp of Tumblr. Twitter is set to do $100 million in revenue, but could they do a billion, he asked. He said Karp had that personality type that is the entrepreneur personality type. Every conversation he has with you he is trying to sell you something, either he wants you to invest in him, or he wants you to partner with him, or he wants to sell some idea.
He also pointed out New York is not there yet when it comes to the tech startup culture that the Bay Area has. Culture is really the word.
Fred said he was making an effort to get more software engineer graduates from the top schools to end up in New York City. That is another thing I really like about Fred. He loves this city. Look at the names of his current and former venture capital firms.
Then he walked over to the next group of people before he walked away. With that final group, there was a spirited discussion about "gold." I was feeling a little lost. Da what? Ends up Fred's blog post for the day that I had not yet read was about gold.
Fred Wilson: Gold Vs Real Assets
These were people who were fond of Fred Wilson. Fond is the word. It was a nice gathering. The gathering was proof a blog is a very real, social entity. It can bring together people. But if Fred had showed up at the San Francisco AVC MeetUp instead, the 100 plus RSVPs would not have been in New York, they would have been in San Francisco.
Fred has his standing in the tech community for work he has done, companies he has invested in. A few years back Geocities had been the best deal he ever did. By now it is between Twitter and Zynga, although the Twitter story is more compelling, and FourSquare could be doing really well in a few years. A Twitter IPO will get the Twitter story into the mainstream. Jack Dorsey talks about Fred Wilson every chance he gets.
I have a feeling after a Twitter IPO he and his firm might reach new heights.
Meeting Fred in person was not dramatic, as in, now I know what he looks like, what he sounds like. After months of reading his blog, I have a fairly good idea of his thought processes. I have watched hours of Fred Wilson videos on YouTube. So I had a fairly good idea of what he looks like, what he sounds like. But there is something about meeting in person. It feels real. Not that he ever felt unreal to me. He is down to earth, normal, pleasant, curious about things, passionate about his work. It is just that his accomplishments are outsize.
During the event I felt a certain tension. I can't be a full fledged tech startup guy right now. That is a year or two away for me. But I advise one startup - PayCheckr - and am in talks to become a full timer with another: TeaSpiller. I am itching to get into the scene.
Larry Ellison's 1995 Network Computer Vision
Lady Liberty Whispers
After the event, around 5:30, I walked over to the Apple store on 14th and 9th. The iPad felt a little heavy in my hand. The virtual keyboard sucks. The thing had to heat up if held long enough. I think the world of Steve Jobs but I don't seem to relate to his products. It is as if he is a great president of a country on a planet I don't live on, or at least a country on a continent very, very far away. I found myself gravitating to a large screen Apple computer with a regular keyboard. I just wanted a browser, a big screen, and a physical keyboard. My fear is they might make the Chrome OS netbooks too small. Got to keep the screen big enough.
From there I walked over to the Chelsea Piers to take in the Hudson. There is something about that smell of water that can collapse time. That water can smell like some of the water from a long time ago.
I walked back to Union Square and went into the McDonald's there. I eat healthy for the most part. But I think it is important to eat one bad meal once in a while.
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