Wellfleet, MA.
A very special place.
(question via Tumblr Ask)
Month: April 2010
Favorite Clash song?
that’s a tough one Peter.
Probably Clampdown or Death Or Glory. But you just inspired me to post a Clash song tomorrow!
(question via Tumblr Ask)
what’s the best way to pitch you :) ?
lots of ways:
1. thru a mutual friend
2. at an event (i often tweet or blog about events i attend)
3. send me an email and tell me what you are building (bsabet at gmail dot com)
4. interact with me on this blog
(question via Tumblr Ask)
Have you tried Formspring? What are your thoughts on it vs. Tumblr questions?
I haven’t tried Formspring but I like having questions show up in my Tumblr Dashboard so I’m going to stay with Tumblr Ask :)
and with disqus, I have comments enabled with each question & answer too!
(question via Tumblr Ask)
I know concrete, existing models get attention, not “ideas”. But what about the truly brilliant, potentially world-changing ideas trapped in people who are not in (or about to be in) the usual ‘pipeline’? Every consider an “open” model to vet those ideas? Thank you.
Tell me more – not sure I know what you mean about “usual pipeline” or “open” model. But I’m intrigued.
fwiw, I don’t think existing models are the only ones that get attention. often times startups are born creating new ideas not just fitting into an existing mold.
(question via Tumblr Ask)
Bijan, How do you get most of your news/information? RSS? Twitter? What tools help you filter everything down and keep the amount of time you spend consuming information to a minimum so you can focus on higher priorities like being productive and spending time with family?
I get all my news from twitter and twitter search. some of those tweets come from RSS but I don’t use a RSS reader anymore.
when it comes to family time, it’s about turning things off instead of tools & filters.
(question from Tumblr Ask)
via hypem: via jenrobinson:
Blur – Fool’s Day
This new track from Blur was recorded especially for Record Store Day and pressed on limited edition 7” vinyl. It sold out across the UK, but the band has made it available for FREE download. Give ‘em your email address and get an uncompressed digital version of your own.
This is the first new song from Blur since 2003’s Think Tank. If, by any remote chance, you don’t have Think Tank in your collection, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Get it right now.
Download Fool’s Day here: http://www.blur.co.uk/
Love this.
Some thoughts about the marathon, startups & venture life
Today is Patriots Day which is a holiday here in Massachusetts and many offices including our office at Spark are closed.
The Boston marathon also takes place this morning which is the oldest annual marathon according to Wikipedia.
We love watching the runners in the marathon and we pretty much go every year. Young, old, wheel chair or elite. They are all incredible. And the amount of training and dedication is awesome. I’m looking forward to heading down to our favorite spot later this morning to look out for some of our friends and cheer them on.
Often we hear in venture and startup life to remember that “it’s a marathon, not a sprint”.
According to wikipedia, the marathon was inspired by the story of Pheidippides.
The traditional story relates that Pheidippides (530 BC–490 BC), an Athenian herald, was sent to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed at Marathon, Greece.
He ran 240 km (150 miles) in two days. He then ran the 40 km (25 miles) from the battlefield near the town of Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the word “Νενικήκαμεν” (Nenikékamen, ‘We have won’) and collapsed and died on the spot because of exhaustion.
(It is an inspiring story for sure but Pheidippides dies after running so the ending is a bit of a buzz kill.)
I think that saying “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” is important to remember and there are some important lessons in that line.
Yet startup & vc life rarely feels like a marathon.
To me it feels like a series of intense sprints, one after another with breaks (vacation or weekend) in between to mix things up a bit and provide some much needed rest & fuel. There is a sense of urgency that exists where we need to get a tremendous amount done and at our very best.
But I think it’s important to keep the bigger picture in mind as we race along from sprint to sprint. Enjoy your vacations. Make them your own. It’s something I struggle with all the time but I’m getting better (a benefit of getting older?). Recently I’ve been trying out no-email-saturdays. It’s got a nice ring to it.
Okay, that’s enough rambling for one post. Good luck to all the runners today – in the boston marathon and in startup life too :)
M. Ward – Today’s Undertaking
Grab a cup of tea and enjoy.
Freemium backlash?
It’s easy to kick someone when they are having trouble I guess. Ning announced a significant layoff and the critics pounced.
I guess I wasn’t surprised at this point. But the thing that surprised me was the negativity about freemium.
Just because some companies struggle with freemium doesn’t mean the model doesn’t work. In my mind that would be like writing off the entire search space because pre-google it wasn’t a big business or writing off ecommerce because a bunch of startups aren’t successful in the category or writing off any category frankly.
There are plenty of reasons companies in every category struggle or fail. Their decision to go with freemium may not have been a natural fit for their products or services. Or maybe the product struggled regardless of business model. Too many variables to blame freemium.
I believe this with all of my heart. There are just too many large companies (google, craigslist, etc) and young companies (xobni, dropbox, zynga, pandora, etc) that are nailing the freemium model along with amazing products.
Of course I’m biased here to be sure. I am thrilled that our portfolio companies are thinking through creative ideas on revenue. Tumblr has launched unique revenue products and so has Twitter.
But let’s not be too hasty to judge an entire category when some companies struggle. This is the startup business. Many companies won’t work out – we know that up front.
But a number will create figure it out. They will build something so special and incredibly important. Thankfully.