Month: May 2011

Yesterday, I received a few emails linking to this post on Pingdom that describes the growth of WordPress and the faster growth of Tumblr (disclosure: I’m a board member and investor in Tumblr).

But comparing Tumblr to WordPress is like comparing apples and oranges. They are completely different things. 

WordPress is a publishing platform. You can host it yourself or WordPress it will host it for you. And yes, some people use Tumblr in this use case. 

But the vast majority of the Tumblr engagement (traffic, page views, liking, reblogs, follows, etc), is on the Tumblr Dashboard which is their unique & native version of a social newsfeed. The Tumblr Dashboard is where you follow other Tumblr users and traffic inside the Tumblr Dashboard far exceeds (understatement) traffic to the aggregate page views to Tumblr powered sites.  

I think this is a misunderstood thing with people that dont use Tumblr or haven’t started following enough people. It’s not a tool.

Tumblr is a social network and the best place for creative self expression. 

I regret that it’s been awhile since i made it to OpenCoffee Cambridge. I will set up Open Hours and post a link/dates shortly. 

Update: ok, i’ve got a date set up now. Open Hours on June 3rd. Details here. 

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(this question came via Tumblr Ask)

I like @ev’s rules – especially rule #6 and #11. 

I would also make sure you take a bit of time off in between startups to catch your breath and find perspective. Shutting down a company is an intense process. 

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(this question came via Tumblr Ask)

The People’s Key by Bright Eyes. Saw them play it live this year and the recorded version is awesome too. 

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(this question came via Tumblr Ask)

A few months ago I discovered Hipstamatic. For those that aren’t yet familiar, Hipstamatic allows you to add cool filters to your iPhone camera

Once you do that, you can do all sorts of things with that photo like share on twitter, Flickr.

But then a few weeks back I started using Instagram. And I’m completely smitten.

The thing about Instagram that I love is that it’s a mobile social network and community for photo sharing. And it’s built explicitly for mobile. It’s actually one of the best mobile apps I’ve ever used. Going thru my Instagram newsfeed is a pleasure.

I also love how Instagram gives the user full control and provides an easy way to publish to Tumblr and Twitter. I do that with my favorite pics.

It’s interesting to see how I use twitter, Tumblr, FourSquare and Instagram. They all interact with each other at some level but they all satisfy a very different and valuable use case.

Here are a few things I’d love to see in future versions of the product:

-when I publish an Instagram photo to Tumblr or Twitter I’d love a simple link to my Instagram profile along with a way to see people I follow or that follow me.

-sometimes I want to tap a photo in my Instagram newsfeed so I can copy it or share it. Perhaps every photo should be a permalink ?

-the “like” feature is well done. I’d love to see all the photos I’ve “liked”

-it would be sweet if the location data was passed thru as a link when I publish to tumblr.

Give Instagram a try. You can follow me on the service – my username is bijan.

Now i gotta run and make some beautiful photos!

(wrote this post in my iPhone so I’ll update this later with links)

There are times where I wish I could bring the CEO of one startup to another startup’s board meeting.

It would be interesting to get their reaction and input to shared pain when it comes to hiring challenges, scaling challenges, lost deals, product delays or revenue misses. Also, they could see the joy when a team is crushing it and a company healthy and in a groove. And they would know that they aren’t the alone. 

Because this idea of cross fertilization isn’t possible at scale, VCs and independent board members play this role. Our firm has made 50 investments since we started Spark in 2005 and we’ve seen the great and the not so great. Other board members I work with have made more investments. Other more junior directors can bring a fresh perspective which is also great. All of it helps if everyone is working together.

The best directors use their experience to get founders the time and help to figure it out. But VCs are human. Sometimes, after seeing similar mistakes across portfolio companies, “pattern recognition” kicks in and hasty judgements can be made. Those are extremely regretful. 

In a few weeks, we are gathering all of our founders and CEOs together in New York City for a Founder Summit. We’ll have a few guest speakers from some amazing people. But most importantly,  I’m hoping it’s a place where founders help founders and my partners and I can watch, listen and learn.