Some Bad Dream – Darling
Last year I fell hard for the Avett Brothers. Darling is the solo work of Seth Avett. Enjoy.
Month: January 2010
Hello Brooklyn – Jay-Z & Marvin Gaye (feat. Lil Wayne)
Love this. Thx to the hype machine’s 2009 Music Blog Zeitgeist.
Can a startup build the next great CE device?
Much has been written about capital efficient startups. Needless to say, I’m a big fan.
Typically, capital efficient startups come in two different flavors:
1 – One type are those that burn little/modest capital in the first stage (generally 0-2 years) while at the same time learning a lot and creating signficant value. At that point, they can raise follow on rounds (for growth, ad sales, staffing, scale, whatever) at a higher price which is good for all inside shareholders and also reduces the risk for the new investors.
2 – The other type are capital efficient companies that reach profitablity with little invested capital and then can grow from profits.
I’ve seen startups come in both configurations and it’s a beautiful thing. We have a number of them in our portfolio and I am confident we will continue to invest in capital efficient startups.
But over the break, i’ve been thinking about companies that require signficant capital upfront – before they prove anything or reach any meaningful milestone.
Specifically, I’ve been thinking about consumer electronics. In our world of capital efficiency, is it possible for a startup to build our next generation phone, television, tablet, ereader or game console? Or do we all have to wait for Google, Microsoft and Apple to make these things? Are big co’s the only ones that can innovate and bring these products to market?
I believe that startups can build these things. Just look at Tesla for inspiration.
It’s going to take a special combination of entrepreneurs, operating excellence, capital and audacity. But it can happen.
And I hope we can invest in some of them – in addition to our capital efficient tech startups.
Thinking about the alleged Apple Tablet
Despite all of the rumors, no one really knows when or if Apple is going to ship an Apple tablet.
But playing “guess the mystery product” when it comes to Apple is a sport that many like to play including me. Why? Because it’s harmless fun to think about ways the folks in Cupertino might blow us away.
One thing to remember, for all of the many years of rumors leading up to the iPhone we imagined all sorts of things but no one predicted the touch/swipe/tap gesture experience.
I like the way John Gruber puts it
If you’re thinking The Tablet is just a big iPhone, or just Apple’s take on the e-reader, or just a media player, or just anything, I say you’re thinking too small — the equivalent of thinking that the iPhone was going to be just a click wheel iPod that made phone calls. I think The Tablet is nothing short of Apple’s reconception of personal computing.
So, if Apple does ship an iSlate or tablet, I’m guessing they do the same thing and give us something we didn’t expect or thought we needed.
Anyway, back to the game at hand :)
Here’s what I want:
-10" display
-iSight
-10hour or more battery life
-book reader that also gives me 2 way capabilities (let me tag, share, email, tweet, blog thing I read)
-browser that supports flash
-same magsafe power adapter as the MacBook Air.
-wireless sync music, videos and photos with my Mac
-open app store (I remain an optimist that Apple will fix this one)
-hdmi output
The most interesting thing about the alleged tablet is where it will fit in our lives. I have an iPhone and a MacBook Air. Is this a 3rd device or a replacement for the MacBook Air?
So who knows if this thing is real or just fiction for 2010 or beyond. But it’s fun thinking about the possibilities.
Joining The Dots – Arctic Monkeys
New song, live and acoustic.
I can’t wait.
James’ favorite. car. ever. (via bsabet)
Anything that is useful to both dissidents in Iran and Martha Stewart has a lot going for it; Twitter has more raw capability for users than anything since e-mail
The trouble with TV advertising
There is much discussion about the future of television these days. The current negotiation between Fox and Time Warner Cable is just another sign of the times.
But the future of television has a lot to do with the economics of advertising as well. Jeff Jarvis suggests that Fox’s attempt to get more fees from cable shows they are counting on less revenue from ads. Jeff writes:
Again and again lately, the company is surrendering the advertising battle. In newspapers, it is saying that advertising won’t support its high costs and so it will sacrifice traffic and advertising the hopes of building build pay walls. In MySpace, the company handed over its advertising fate to Google and then couldn’t produce. Now in TV — which is where Murdoch fils says the future of the company lies — they’re trying to eek fees from cable operators.
There are so many problems with the current tv advertising model.
1. First, DVR usage is higher than ever and those users don’t watch ads.
If online users have banner blindness then tv users 30 second skip reflex. Our DVR remotes have a 30 second skip built in, or we’ve hacked them or we’ve figured out how to fast forward past the ads precisely to the start of the show.Thats why tens of millions of people have DVRs in the first place.
2. The other issue is Netflix. It’s a wonderful service and I’m using it more and more these days to watch regular television programming and not just movies. No ads.
3. Advertisers seem to prefer tv for branded campaigns but they don’t get any real feedback on those ads. Imagine if those advertisers bought online media that way.
4. The rate card doesn’t seem to make sense to me. Why am I worth more to an advertiser when I watch one show vs another show. It’s still just me. I’m the same guy with the same intent regardless of what show I’m watching.
5. TV torrent sites are growing faster than ever. They are more comprehensive and easier to use than ever before. TV content owners need to figure out how to get ahead of this.
I know studios believe they are being aggressive to avoid the problems that the music industry is facing. Frankly, I dont’ think it’s enough. Imagine if everytime you went to iTunes or Rhapsody different albums appeared and disappeared at different times. It would be quite odd. That’s how video is playing out.
Here’s an example: Check out the 30Rock page on Hulu today and you will see exactly two episodes available at the moment. That’s it. Then the user gets this message.
Sigh.
Making it this hard only pushes people to Netflix or illegal tv torrent sites. And that isn’t good for anyone (users, content owners, advertisers or cable).
TV needs to evolve with the times along with a new business model.