Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Shane Snow's Contently


I first met Shane Snow last year at the FourSquare Day party. He asked me a few questions. Next thing you know I find myself quoted in Fast Company.

4/16: I Found Myself A Party: Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night
I Have Been Quoted In Fast Company

I saw him on and off here and there. We exchanged a few tweets along the way.

I saw him in a big way again at the end of the year at Charlie O'Donnell organized big snowball party in Madison Square Park. It was a blast.

Go Easy On Charlie Now
General Assembly: Singing Praises

Weeks later I met him again at a General Assembly party.

"What have you been up to lately?" I asked.

He mentioned the startup that looks like today stole the show at the TechStars Demo Day.
AdAge: Four Startups Marketers Need to Know: Contently ..... This is a writer marketplace for marketers looking to produce branded content. It's like LinkedIn for unemployed journalists looking to use their skills and expensive masters degrees to lure some of the dollars marketers are dedicating to produce their own content. Journos get free profile pages to show their stuff and, on the brand side, Contently is a tool to manage workflow, payments and all the other joys of editorial production. ..... "Ninety-thousand journalists lost their jobs in last decade," said Contently co-founder Shane Snow. "Great writers are out there, but there's no great way to find them." ...... What we love is that this is the exact opposite of so-called content farms such as Demand Media, which pays anyone on the internet pennies for posts on search-friendly topics. Contently is about linking real, trained journalists with brands who need professionally produced content. After launching in beta in January, the company amassed a network of 2,000 journalists and works with publishers such as LinkedIn, Best Buy, Comcast and Mint. Mr. Snow today announced a pilot program with American Express's small-business site, Open Forum. The site takes a cut of all transactions on its site and is on track to clear $1 million in sales this year. Contently closed $335,000 round of funding this summer and is raising $3 million in additional funding.
Good job, Shane Snow.

Fred Wilson: A DJ

Behind every success there is a team. Good job team.

Baratunde Thurston At The Web 2.0 Summit

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Baratunde Is Funny
Baratunde Thurston: The Brain Behind The Onion

Elena Silenok At The Web 2.0 Summit

Event At Hunch: Gender Talk (4)

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Dennis Crowley At The Web 2.0 Summit

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FoodSpotting's Tech Has Been Stagnant

Ecuadorian ceviche, made of shrimp, lemon and ...Image via WikipediaYesterday as I spotted this exotic Ecuadorian dish I realized I had not blogged about FoodSpotting in a while. I guess the service had some good news at the last Facebook conference (I have not yet seen the video). (The HTML5 Whimper At F8)

Is it just me or FoodSpotting has looked the same since its inception?

I feel like I am done spotting the Desi dishes and now I want to venture out and spot global dishes. My next dish to spot might be Afghan.

What I feel is lacking is when you spot a dish you should have the option to show up for an eatup that is in direct relation.

A Small, Historic EatUp

The critical mass might not be there yet. But it will get there. An eatup self-organized around a particular food type or restaurant. You meet people who are passionate or curious about a particular food type.
Image representing Foodspotting as depicted in...Image via CrunchBase
FoodSpotting should become social and become an excuse to meet people, strangers. It should become a little bit like Chatroulette. Only there is no video camera involved. And it is offline, it is real. It is local.

My FoodSpotting Photos Are Being Viewed
FoodSpotting API
Twitter ---> Instagram ---> FoodSpotting
FoodSpotting's Dish As Starting Point

Or maybe even take it online. You get to video chat with people who are passionate about similar kinds of food, passionate or curious. I was not passionate about Ecuadorian food, but I was curious. That was a nice dinner.

Sean Parker's AirTime Could Net Him Tens Of Billions