Google Plus Is Google's Bing

Image via CrunchBaseTechCrunch: How The IPO Ruined Google

I never thought Google Plus was going to one up Facebook. Facebook is the social king. And that will stay. Just like Google is the search king and that will stay. Facebook tried to one up FourSquare, and failed. It gave up. But Facebook can not ignore the location space, and Google can not ignore social.

But I do think Google Plus is an arrival of sorts. Google wanted a player in the social space, and now they got it. They needed an also ran, and they have it now. Google badly needed a social layer to its services, and now they got it.

Related articles

• How the IPO Ruined Google
• Search Not Dead - At Least Not For Google And Bing
• How "Facebook Search" Might Help Google Escape The Antitrust Noose
• Should We Be Talking About Google vs. Facebook Instead of Google vs. Bing?
• Facebook Promotes Bing Search Even More

• Australian Marketing Students Create "Bing Automatic" Concept To Beat Google [Video] (thetechnologycafe.com)
• Set Bing Images as your Desktop Wallpaper (labnol.org)
• Want to be found on Bing by your Facebook friends? Here's how (news.cnet.com)
• Facebook - the real coming of social search? (connect.icrossing.co.uk)
• What Google+ Should Have Been: Bing's Linked Pages (readwriteweb.com)

Tom Houge

The evening of April 3, Tuesday, I had a Skype chat with Tom that lasted 2 hours, 45 minutes. We were not done, it is just that two of my friends had been waiting in the wings for half an hour already for a prescheduled chat, and I had to take leave. Tom's video was on.

This was the longest Skype chat I had ever had with anyone. We met at an event two days later, his uncle Adam accompanying. Adam and I discovered we are both water not beer kinda people.

Fipeo Takes On Sean Parker
Excited About A New Space

Guest Blog Post: Fipeo Takes On Sean Parker

Fipeo Takes On Sean Parker (Guest Blog Post)

Excited About A New Space

“They sailed. They saw. They innovated.” The lead heard ‘round the world.

An idea on its own quickly evaporates like a warm breath on a winter day. It is the
people that entrain to an idea with a common purpose and passion that make an
idea powerful.

When Tom Houge and Jeff Lucas set out to circumnavigate the world on University
of Virginia’s Semester at Sea, they did not expect to spark the world’s next global
social networking revolution.

The spark that is Fipeo lit with Tom in room 3055 of the MV Explorer and caught
fire with Jeff in The Main Dining Hall on Deck 5.

Fipeo, led by Houge & Lucas, has squared off against Airtime, led by Sean Parker and
Shawn Fanning. For those who don’t already know, the Sean/Shawn duo is known
for their time creating Napster and Parker is also known for his time at Facebook (as
featured in The Social Network) as well as his role at Spotify.

Airtime recently posted pictures of their lavish San Francisco digs, complete with
a throne, online. More evidence of the hubris that was demonstrated when Sean
Parker, a multi-billionaire called the Picasso of business by Forbes, discussed his
shenanigans at Le Web in France.

Parker told the audience how he held up a 6 foot long novelty check made out from
Sean Parker to Airtime for $15,000,000 at the end of each investment meeting and
arrogantly said, “By the way guys… If you don’t invest, I will.”

Airtime has received millions in funding from Founders Fund, Accel Partners,
Andreessen Horowitz, Yuri Milner, Ron Conway, Marissa Mayer, Ashton Kutcher,
will.i.am, Scott Braun, and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.

Parker and Fanning first crossed paths working for a company that would be
fraught with legal issues. Houge and Lucas, 21 and 22 respectively (same ages of
Sergey Brin and Larry Page at meeting), met while circumnavigating the globe on
Semester at Sea.

There is a saying that goes, “Never be afraid to try something new. Remember,
amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”

I hope that the amateurs at Fipeo will build something worthy of the MV Explorer,
the ship that gave birth to Fipeo.

Join the movement at Fipeo.com

Lead: http://www.modernghana.com/news/380093/1/fipeo-the-voyage-of-discovery.html
Airtime Investors: http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/06/fanning-parker-airtime/
Airtime Office: http://www.facebook.com/airtime
Novelty Check: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxNhc64b_po (skip ahead to 37:00)
Picasso of Business: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppiLJeFP4n0

Adam Danielson: Fipeo: Next Biggest Thing?



Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Angel List

Modern Ghana: Fipeo: The Voyage of Discovery
The Portland Press Herald: Talking face-to-face? It just might work
Dan Marion: Changing the World: Fipeo.
The Post And Courier: Student's brainchild going live

FacedYou from Fipeo on Vimeo.

Fipeo from Fipeo on Vimeo.

Video Like Photos Are, Text Used To Be

We have seen an entire generation of photo based tech startups. Facebook might be the biggest among them, Instagram reigns in the mobile domain. Pinterest might be the newest entrant.

Before that things were more text based. Yahoo chat room were text based, and a lot of social activity happened there. AOL's instant messenger was also text based.

I think we are about to see a new generation of companies for whom video will be the starting point. This is primarily a function of larger bandwidths available in the mainstream, but it is more than that.

AirTime's First Big Mistake

AirTime is not out yet, so I have not seen what it is like. But early word is Sean Parker is building AirTime to rest on the Facebook platform. I believe that is a fundamental mistake. Facebook mapped the social graph of people you know. The random connections space, by definition, is a different animal.

Sean Parker has been so close to Facebook for so long it seems he is incapable of escaping Facebook's gravitational pull. Every startup he has been associated with post Facebook has clinged to Facebook. Causes and Spotify come to mind.

I get the impression AirTime is going to be born with a handicap.

Excited About A New Space

Excited About A New Space

I am looking to get involved: Life In A Day.

Tom Houge
Fipeo Takes On Sean Parker
Video Like Photos Are, Text Used To Be
AirTime's First Big Mistake
AirTime Time
My Take On AirTime (4)
My Take On AirTime (3)
My Take On AirTime (2)
My Take On AirTime
Sean Parker's AirTime Could Net Him Tens Of Billions
Sean Parker's AirTime Is Exciting
Chatroulette Is For Real
Penises For Sale: The Russian Mafia Is On It

Life In A Day

Via Thomas Houge

SpotlessCity Stole The Show At NYTM

At the last New York Tech MeetUp - the go to tech event in town every month - one presentation stood out more than most. That was SpotlessCity. They do one thing, and they do it well. That is the hallmark of a great startup. You can order food online. That did not seem to be true for dry cleaning services. And so the founders got to work.

After their wonderful presentation was over, I was worried for them. So at the after party I cornered the team. The people who come to pick up the clothes and deliver them later, who employs them? You? They said no. The dry cleaners have those people. That answer brought me relief. Because if they employed those people, I was seeing scaling nightmares.

The real time service delivery space is seeing a lot of action. It can feel like crowdsourcing your chores. The world population hit seven billion not long back. I am sure I can find people who will take your clothes to the cleaners.

Tiny Capital

Tiny Capital from Eirik Evjen on Vimeo.

Jim Gilliam, Ben Horowitz

Honored to have met @jgilliam who just got featured by @bhorowitz at his blog bit.ly/Hbr4GG

— Paramendra Bhagat (@paramendra) April 2, 2012

U2 Live At Glastonbury 2011

U2: Electrical Storm

Naval Ravikant Of AngelList

Paywall For This Blog

People should have to pay.

I put soooo much effort to put out blog posts at this blog. And people get to read it for free! It took me almost a week of not blogging at all to come to the realization. And I put myself to work.

At midnight tonight the paywall will be unfurled. You are paying now on.

Readers coming directly from a Google search result, or from a Facebook update or a tweet or from other social media destinations will still be able to read for free. The rest are paying. Those of you who come directly to the blog's web address, you know who you are. You are the hard core readers, and you are paying now.

Got you addicted over the years, didn't I? Now it is pay time. Don't worry, it is a tiny amount. This blog knows its worth, but it also knows its limitations.

Kathleen Edwards: Change The Sheets

Via BuzzBands

Jay Z

Via Gary Sharma

Al Gore, Sean Parker, SXSW

Biking In NYC

NYC Ave. from Shawn Brown on Vimeo.

Via Charlie O'Donnell

AirTime Time

Sean Parker (Photo credit: Wikipedia)TechCrunch: Sean Parker And Shawn Fanning's New Social Video Startup Airtime Staffs Up For Launch

Finally. This could be big.

My Take On AirTime (4)
AirTime

“Facebook is about identity, the people you already know,” Parker said back in October. “It has little to do with people you don’t know.”

Lost Remote: New social video startup ‘Airtime’ draws big names
Business Insider: Airtime, The Chatroulette Of Facebook, Is Hiring A Bunch Of New Engineers

Hello From Flushing

Steve Jobs

I ordered the book. That was months ago. If you know what I mean. And waited, and waited, and waited. Finally I went online to Amazon.com and filed a complaint. I never received the book, I said. I was immediately refunded. I used that money to immediately reorder. This time I was closely tracking the delivery. One notice said, delivery attempted. Two days later the notice said, delivered. Delivered? I never received the book. I went to the post office. They gave me a print out. See? Delivered. They said. I talked to pretty much everyone in the building, including the landlord. No book, nowhere to be found. I figured either the post office lied to me, not very likely, or there is a Steve Jobs fan in the building. Or the delivery man himself is a Steve Jobs fan. I went online to Amazon. This time there was no refund. The book was delivered, they said. I did not get the book, I said.

Oh well, I thought.

Today I bought the book from this sidewalk bookseller. The cover price said 35 dollars. I haggled. I looked interested, then I walked away. The guy came after me. He said 30. I said 25. He said okay. I don't have the cash, I said. I need to get money from the bank. How long, he asked. Five minutes, I said. Then I reached into my pocket. I had 21 dollars. This is all I have, I said. You can have this right away and I will take the book. He thought for a split second. He looked at me. He took the money, and gave me the book. I could not believe it. I had just brought the price down by 14 dollars. When will you be back, he asked. When will you be back with the four dollars? Five minutes, I said. And I walked over to the ATM at the bank on the same block. On my way back I bought a mango lassi for two dollars. So I had a 10 dollar bill, a five dollar bill and three one dollar bills. 20 minus two is 18. I gave him three dollars. I was trying to get one dollar ahead. He took it. Then he grabbed my mango lassi. Can I have it, he asked. Sure, I said. He made it look like he gave me the book for 24 dollars when we had already brought the price down to 25 from 35. Mango lassi does not count for payment, it counts as hospitality.

I don't know if he got one dollar ahead, or I did. But I finally have the book now. This sidewalk bookseller just beat Amazon in delivery - instant - price - really low - and there is no way Amazon can match the experience.

Tip: try haggling.

"Where you from?" I asked as I walked away.

"Bangladesh!"

Steve Jobs And NeXT
Steve Jobs — 1955-2011
Steve Jobs Stayed A Pirate
My Disagreements With Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs: 1997
Rest In Peace, Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs' Departure
An Ode To Steve jobs
Steve Jobs: iPad 2 Announcement
Steve Jobs At A City Council Meeting
How Steve Jobs Gets Things Done
Steve Jobs Should Never Have Been Fired
Steve Jobs: Android Rant
Sculley: Scum

Yahoo Has Patents?

Who knew?

Fred Wilson On Blogging

The top VC blogger talks about his craft here, worth a listen.

Source: AVC: A Talk I Gave On Blogging

60 Milli Seconds

Bathymetric/topographic map of the Arctic Ocean and the surrounding islands (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The ocean route might make sense for inter-continental destinations, but I think air is still the best option for dense cities.

ExtremeTech: $1.5 billion: The cost of cutting London-Toyko latency by 60ms

the first ever trans-Arctic Ocean submarine fiber optic cables ...... a smattering of branches that will provide high-speed internet access to a handful of Arctic Circle communities ....... All three cables are being laid for the same reasons: Redundancy and speed. As it stands, it takes roughly 230 milliseconds for a packet to go from London to Tokyo; the new cables will reduce this by 30% to 170ms. This speed-up will be gained by virtue of a much shorter run: Currently, packets from the UK to Japan either have to traverse Europe, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean, or the Atlantic, US, and Pacific, both routes racking up around 15,000 miles in the process. It’s only 10,000 miles (16,000km) across the Arctic Ocean, and you don’t have to mess around with any land crossings, either. ...... The massive drop in latency is expected to supercharge algorithmic stock market trading, where a difference of a few milliseconds can gain (or lose) millions of dollars. It is for this reason that a new cable is currently being laid between the UK and US — it will cost $300 million and shave “just” six milliseconds off the fastest link currently available. The lower latency will also be a boon to other technologies that hinge heavily on the internet, such as telemedicine (and teleconferencing) and education. Telephone calls and live news coverage would also enjoy the significantly lower latency. Each of the fiber optic cables will have a capacity in the terabits-per-second range ..... Currently, almost every cable that lands in Asia goes through a choke point in the Middle East or the Luzon Strait between the Philippine and South China seas. If a ship were to drag an anchor across the wrong patch of seabed, billions of people could wake up to find themselves either completely disconnected from the internet or surfing with dial-up-like speeds. The three new cables will all come down from the north of Japan, through the relatively-empty Bering Sea — and the Arctic Ocean, where each of the cables will run for more than 5,000 miles, is one of the least-trafficked parts of the world. That said, the cables will still have to be laid hundreds of meters below the surface to avoid the tails of roving icebergs

New Scientist: Fibre optics to connect Japan to the UK – via the Arctic

In mid-August, construction should start on the first submarine fibre-optic cables to cross the Arctic Ocean ....... The longest of these links will become the world's longest single stretch of optical fibre. ....... the biggest threats to cables in warmer waters: fishing trawlers and ships' anchors ........ Reduced transmission time will be a boon for high-frequency traders who will gain crucial milliseconds on each automated trade. Optical amplifiers will boost signal strength every 50 to 100 kilometres. The firm also plans to drill a tunnel 40 metres deep to take a shortcut through the Boothia isthmus in the Canadian Arctic ....... Isolated Arctic communities will also be connected by extra sections of cable that branch off from the main one. ........ "choke points" such as the Luzon strait near Taiwan, the strait of Malacca between Indonesia and Malaysia, and the crowded and politically unsettled Middle East. ....... Ships must be built to withstand the pounding of ice as well as waves. ...... Icebergs can plough more than a metre into the ocean floor, endangering cables. Greenland's icebergs extend to depths as great as 170 metres below the sea surface, so Arctic Fibre will lay cable at least 600 metres deep in the Davis strait, where icebergs are most likely. The underside of sea ice also has ridges, or "bummocks", that reach depths of 18 metres, so Arctic Fibre aims to stay at least 50 metres down.

Ars Technica: Europe moving 60 ms closer to Japan with new undersea cables

The climate change-induced retreat of Arctic ice has had one positive effect. The Arctic Ocean is now sufficiently navigable that cable-laying ships will be able to plant undersea cables directly linking London with Tokyo. ...... 6 pairs of fibers with a 1.6 Tbit/s capacity per pair will be laid, and minimum latency between London and Tokyo will be 76.58 milliseconds.

Venmo In Flight

It feels like yesterday that Venmo was taking its baby steps.

Venmo Could Make Moves
Could 2011 Be Venmo's Year?
Venmo And Frictionless Payments
Venmo Me For My Charm
2010: Location, Random Connections, The Inbox, Frictionless Payments

Look at them now, processing 250 million dollars a year.

VentureBeat: Venmo, now processing $10M a month, comes out of beta, offers me the world’s smallest bribe

Related articles

• Re: is Venmo a huge roadblock to Bitcoin?
• Venmo History is Social
• On Venmo and Payments
• Don't Have Paypal? No Problem!
• The Regretsy PayPal Debacle and Online Payment Alternatives

• Will Mobile Devices Kill the Credit Card? (bigthink.com)

Human Bird

Source: TechCrunch

Wi-Fi, Tablets And Smartphones

iPad 3G and iPad Wi-Fi (Photo credit: Yutaka Tsutano)The Next Web: New Wi-Fi roaming initiative could soon allow your smart device to connect to hotspots automatically

... could see billions of smartphone and tablet owners effortlessly switch between mobile and Wi-Fi networks, without the hassle of locating hotspot hosts and keying in passwords....... a technical and commercial framework for Wi-Fi roaming, which will use a device’s SIM card to authenticate a device on a Wi-Fi hotspot without any input from the user ...... the initiative could offload mobile data to a residential or business-owned wireless network

And while you are at it, why not also extend this to laptops? Smartphones make sense, tablets make sense. But if you keep the laptop out, the iPad will have even more of a field day.

Related articles

• GSMA and WBA Partner to Simplify Wi-Fi Roaming
• Roaming: the missing piece to the smartphone-Wi-Fi puzzle
• Mobile-To-WiFi Roaming: A Dream For Carriers, A Nightmare For Users
• New Wi-Fi roaming initiative could soon allow your smart device to connect to hotspots automatically
• Roaming: The Missing Piece To The Smartphone-WiFi Puzzle

• GSMA initiative to simplify wi-fi access (mobile-ent.biz)
• Cell-to-Wi-Fi roaming on the way -- but may come with a price (infoworld.com)
• Cell-to-Wi-Fi Roaming Is on the Way, but May Come With a Price (pcworld.com)
• The GSMA wants to make sure you're using a WiFi hotspot whenever you're near one (intomobile.com)
• Mobile biz bigwigs crack heads over Wi-Fi roaming charges (go.theregister.com)

20 Startups From The London Web Summit

TechCrunch: 20 Startups Demo And Launch At London Web Summit

Reading through this list and descriptions makes you feel like tech startup possibilities are as fertile as ever. It is amazing what some of these companies are attempting.

Related articles

• London Web Summit Startup Winner Will Get A £50,000 Convertible Loan (techcrunch.com)
• Live Stream From The London Web Summit 2012 (alexwivell.wordpress.com)
• Live Stream From The London Web Summit 2012 (techcrunch.com)
• Seedrs Wins London Web Summit, As Europeans Rock Their Ecosystem (techcrunch.com)
• Niklas Zennstrom To Speak At The London Web Summit (techcrunch.com)
• Tradeshift for London Web Summit (tradeshift.com)
• London Web SummitDavid Scanlon (bestconnected.enterprise-ireland.com)
• SxSW Interactive Wrap-Up and Why Most Startups are DOA (entrepremusings.com)
• Who wants to meet up at the upcoming, inaugural London Web Summit? (thenextweb.com)
• Why Entrepreneurs Fail And Most Startups Are DOA (promcoblog.wordpress.com)

England, Get Out Of Ireland

I think England should get out of Ireland.

Photos

Nexus Tablet

Nexus One (Photo credit: pittaya)I am a Google fanboy. How about that! What I don't understand is as to why a good Android phone costs the same as the iPhone. I don't understand why the Nexus phone is not on a Republic Wireless like wi-fi only infrastructure run by Google.

Android and Me: Rumor: Nexus tablet is a “done deal”, to retail for as low as $149

A $150 tablet begs for a $50 smartphone. I don't care if you run ads and have to go below the cost price.

CNET: Google Nexus tablet a ‘done deal,’ claims report
MG Siegler: The Sub-$200 Nexus Tablet
Business Insider: RUMOR: Google Is Getting Ready To Release A $150 Answer To The Kindle Fire

Britannica's Next Step: Go Free

Britannica just went all digital. But that is not enough. They need to go all free as well. The way to do that is to, well, go free. Add the embed feature. So if I want to embed a paragraph from the Britannica at my blog, I should be able to do it. And when I do it, Britannica gets a link from me. Make it easy to share.

Collect data on users. Run smart ads. Offer high school versions of articles.

Going digital is no longer enough. Go free. There is tremendous money in going free.

Well, they are. For a week. They should extend that to a month, then a year, then decade.

Go digital. Go free. Go mobile. Go social. Do the Spotify thing. I want to know what my friends are reading on Britannica.

Britannica Blog: Change: It’s Okay. Really.
ReadWriteWeb: My Adieu to Britannica Print

In my adult years as I moved about from one place to another the 100-plus pounds of books traveled with me, virtually never opened for casual browsing. I guess I just wanted them nearby. The set crossed the country twice as I moved to Los Angeles, then to New York. Finally, after 20 years I realized that I had to give up this totem of my past and thought that I could sell the set to a library or a collector. Alas, they were worthless, even back in the pre-Wikipedia, pre-Web era, and they went off to be recycled...... Normally, access to the online Britannica.com costs $70 the first year. Finding pricing information on their website isn't easy. .... Perhaps it is fitting that we write about this news today, the birth date of Einstein (you can look it up).

Happy Holi

Photo Album
Phagwah/Holi In Richmond Hill: March 11

Holi 2012
Rang Barse: Happy Holi

TechMeme Beats South By

Image via CrunchBaseSocial Media Week was a fulfilling experience for me. I did the LiveStream plus Twitter thing. I ended up going to only two events overall, I think. But I was otherwise immersed.

I had no desire to become the top global influencer of SXSW, but I did want the LiveStream experience. And I was going to tweet sum, populate the SXSW hashtag.

The first day was disappointing. SXSW does not seem to allow LiveStream. That is so short sighted. The thinking obviously is you pay close to a thousand bucks to show up for the panels and events and parties. You can't watch for free online. That is cable TV thinking, and we all know where cable TVs are headed.

I already knew from before the Kumbha Mela of tech started that hyperlocal connecting was going to be the winning theme. And as for celebrities, Robert Scoble goes everywhere, why only SXSW?

SXSW has not hit me so far. Granted I am holed up in NYC. But something tells me I am going to be in Austin for the first time next year, and, well, we will see.

If the idea is to get the pulse of the tech industry, TechMeme does a better job on a daily basis.

SXSW Live
GroupOn Did Not Launch At South By South West
South By South West
This South By South West Thing
SXSW: Not Going

TechMeme

Super Fast TouchScreens

Source: TechCrunch

Holi 2012

Phagwah/Holi In Richmond Hill: March 11
Rang Barse: Happy Holi
Happy Holi

The Blogosphere Blooms

Image via WikipediaFacebook is like the McDonald's chain. The blogosphere is like the endless number of Chinese restaurants. Collectively the blogosphere is bigger. And that's the way it should be. I am an avid blogger. I am a glad, avid blogger.

Nielsen Wire: Buzz in the Blogosphere: Millions More Bloggers and Blog Readers

.... consumer interest in blogs keeps growing ..... over 181 million blogs around the world, up from 36 million only five years earlier in 2006. ...... 6.7 million people publish blogs on blogging websites, and another 12 million write blogs using their social networks. ...... 7 out of 10 bloggers have gone to college .... Women make up the majority of bloggers ..... Bloggers are active across social media: they’re twice as likely to post/comment on consumer-generated video sites like YouTube, and nearly three times more likely to post in Message Boards/Forums within the last month ...... Three out of the top 10 social networking sites in the U.S. – Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr – are for consumer-generated blogs. Blogger is the largest of these sites with more than 46 million unique U.S. visitors during October 2011, making it second only to Facebook in the social networking category, and Tumblr was the fastest-growing social networking or blog site on the top 10, more than doubling its audience since last year from home and work computers to 14 million unique visitors. Overall, these three blogging websites combined for 80 million unique visitors, reaching more than 1 in 4 active online users in the U.S. during October 2011. ..... 92 percent of Pinterest’s audience also visited Mass Merchandiser sites during the same month.

Rang Barse: Happy Holi

Phagwah/Holi In Richmond Hill: March 11
Happy Holi

TicketMonkey: Many Logos Before The Winning Logo

Welcome to The Jungle!





TicketMonkey: When Manick Met Matt
TicketMonkey: Manick And Matt: M&M
Mayor Of TicketMonkey
Manick Bhan: The BhanMan Of TicketMonkey
TicketMonkey "Monk-A-Thon"

More To The Naveen Story

Naveen Leaving FourSquare

You don't want to believe everything you read in the media, but obviously there is more to the Naveen story than first emerged. My only sources of information are what are publicly available.

Business Insider: Co-Founder Naveen Selvadurai 'Tried To Fight' His Departure From Foursquare

A source who spoke with Selvadurai during his final discussions with Foursquare says Selvadurai feels pushed out – pushed out by his cofounder Dennis Crowley and the Foursquare board of directors....... Selvadurai told the source he was financially "screwed" when he was forced out too. ........ It's unclear how Selvadurai was financially damaged. When an employee leaves a startup, their salary stops and stock options stop vesting....... The severance was complicated enough that Selvadurai had to bring in a lawyer to help...... "[Selvadurai] tried to fight it," says this source. "It was a contentious thing. He was pretty f---ing upset." A second source familiar with the situation tells us Selvadurai's departure wasn't a simple firing or a resignation: "These things can be very gray." ...... one source tells us Selvadurai and Crowley "hadn't been getting along" for some time now. ...... Another source close to Selvadurai tells us he has, for a while now, felt lost at Foursquare and he has been frustrated about his role....... "Foursquare has a CEO; that job is taken" says a source briefed on Foursquare's founder divorce. "Might Naveen be happy about that or not, I don't know. I can see that as being hard." ...... Selvadurai worked hard to make Foursquare what it is today. But Foursquare has always been Crowley's dream. Crowley has been working on this company in some form for years, even before iPhones or his first startup Dodgeball existed. ...... Selvadurai, Foursquare PR, and Crowley declined to comment....... Jack Dorsey, who some have called the next Steve Jobs, was pushed out of Twitter. The board didn't feel he was ready to be CEO....... The exception may be Google's Sergey Brin, who heads "special projects" while his cofounder, Larry Page, runs the company as CEO. ....... When cofounders do stick around, it's often in non-operating, lower-profile roles. Yahoo's David Filo still works in a cubicle, even though he's a billionaire. Apple's Steve Wozniak never wanted a say in running that company. ...... A source close to Selvadurai can't imagine him being happy with a role like Filo's....... "Naveen is a proud guy and a real entrepreneur -- someone who probably wouldn't want to remain in a situation that wasn't fulfilling for him," says a source.

AllThingsD: Checking In With the Foursquare Founder Parting: More “Tense” (Of Course)

In a terse note, Sevaldurai wrote that he would remain on the company’s board and as an adviser, as well as the “single most vocal user” of the popular check-in service. ...... according to numerous sources inside and outside the company — the impetus for Selvadurai’s departure was a lot more complex and fraught than he or the company indicated. ...... Twitter went through the mother of all contentious partings — twice, in fact — in an ongoing battle among its founders. ...... Selvadurai and Crowley, who had together become New York’s highest profile entrepreneurs in recent years ...... they had come to the conclusion over a series of talks over the last several months that there was no place for Selvadurai any longer at the fast-growing start-up. ...... “This company grew very quickly and a lot of senior management has been added,” said one person with knowledge of the situation. “It got to the point where Naveen was not in charge of much.” ....... since Foursquare began adding execs — I have a list below — he had become ever more sidelined, ending up with a small team focused on platform efforts and supporting APIs. ...... “Naveen was no longer heading any meaningful area of functional responsibility, so things got tense” ....... the departure was not ugly or closely related to either a recent stock sale by employees or its most recent funding in June that valued Foursquare at $600 million. ...... “Dennis and he don’t hate each other — things just changed” ....... “When you look at all the external stuff, Naveen’s leaving was really not tied to anything in particular. The business was really starting to mature … and there is eventually a line in the sand between building a product and building a company.” ...... Foursquare now has 111 employees ...... the discussions about roles at the company became more pronounced. ..... Naveen and Dennis agreed that there was not a place for him day to day ...... Crowley’s public goodbye on Twitter was short and, yes, sweet

After 3 yrs, my @foursquare co-founder is moving onto new projects & big ideas. Can't wait to see what's next @naveen! naveenium.com/stream/next

— Dennis Crowley (@dens) March 5, 2012

Phagwah/Holi In Richmond Hill: March 11

Phagwah Parade in Richmond Hill

The 24th Annual Phagwah Parade in Richmond Hill, New York:

When - Sunday, March 11, 2012
When - noon
Where - Liberty Avenue and 133rd Street, Richmond Hill, NY 11419
Route: Liberty Avenue and 133rd Street > west on Liberty > north on 125th Street > to Smokey Oval Park at 125th Street.





Gothamist: Holi/Phagwah Celebrated in Queens
MeetUp

Naveen Leaving FourSquare

Image via CrunchBaseI just read the headlines. I have not read the full length articles yet. But I must say I am very, very surprised. This was so unexpected, to me it was. Unless the split between the two cofounders was quite tilted, or if by now after having raised several rounds of money Naveen's percentage ownership in the company had become really low, or the guy has come up with the next big thing, I mean. I have thought of FourSquare as a company that could end up with an IPO.

Now let me go read. The guy himself has a blog post on the topic, I think. Let's hear straight from the horse's mouth. If I were him I'd have left my equity still in the company. Because that money is growing. I wonder what he did.

GigaOm: Naveen Selvadurai, Foursquare co-founder is leaving
Business Insider: The Co-Founder Of One Of New York's Hottest Startups Is Checking Out
Pulse2: Foursquare Co-Founder Naveen Selvadurai Stepping Down
TheNextWeb: Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai announces he is leaving the company to work on new projects
AllThingsD: Foursquare Co-Founder Naveen Selvadurai Leaving
Naveen: Next
VentureBeat: Cue violins: Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai leaving the company
CNet: Foursquare co-founder Selvadurai to leave company
TechCrunch: SV Angel Also Buying Up Foursquare Stock. Dennis Crowley Emerges As Big-Company CEO

Okay, so the guy sits on the FourSquare Board.

Looks like the guy sold his stock to Spark Capital, one hopes only some of it.

Okay, so the guy feels like he has done all he can and he needs to move on.

It is possible some of the VCs in the picture have been gently working towards this end.

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Robert Scoble favorited my tweet. That is news in my world. I am surprised I am on the guy's radar. I am an admirer of Robert Scoble. I don't know anyone else who does social media quite like Scoble. Kudos.

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