Sunday, April 08, 2012

VC Albert Wenger



Via Fred Wilson

Ben Silbermann Of Pinterest

Google Plus Is Google's Bing

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...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.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Saturday, April 07, 2012

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.

Friday, April 06, 2012

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