Archives for March 2006

SVASE VC Breakfast Club with Sigma Partners

Posted on March 8, 2006 ·

Another SVASE VC Breakfast Club session is coming up on Thursday, March 9th in San Jose. It’s an informal round-table where up to 10 entrepreneurs get to deliver a pitch, then answer questions and get critiqued by a VC Partner. We’ve had VC’s from Draper Fisher, Hummer Winblad, Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield, Mohr Davidow, Emergence Capital …etc.

Thursday’s featured VC is Gregory C. Gretsch, Managing Director, Sigma Partners. The Zvents post has all the info and a map , but please remember to click through to register either from zvents or directly here.

These sessions are an incredible opportunity for Entrepreneurs, most of whom would probably have a hard time getting through the door to a VC Partners. Since I’ve been through quite a few of these sessions, both as Entrepreneur and Moderator, let me share a few thoughts:

It’s a pressure-free environment, with no Powerpoint presentations, Business Plans…etc, just casual conversation, but it does not mean you should come unprepared!
Bring an Executive Summary, some VC’s like it, others don’t.
Follow a structure, don’t just talk freely about what you would like to do, or even worse, spend all your time describing the problem, without addressing what your solution is.
Don’t forget “small things” like the Team, Product, Market..etc.
It would not hurt to mention how much you are looking for, and how you would use the funds…
Write down and practice your pitch, be ready to deliver a compelling story in 5 minutes. You will have more time, but believe me, whatever your practice time was, when you are on the spot, you will likely take twice as long to deliver your story.
Last, but not least, please be on time! I am not kidding… some of you know why I have to even bring this up.

See you on Thursday!

Tags: Venture Capital, VC Breakfast, Funding, VC Funding, Startups, Entrepreneurship, SVASE

Filed Under: Bay Area, Business, Social Networking, Startups ·

Google Calendar and the TechCrunch Babel

Posted on March 8, 2006 ·

(Updated)

Here’s proof on how International TechCrunch’s readership is. This morning Mike leaked some information about Google’s long awaited calendar, which apparently won’t be called GCalendar, but CL2 (is that a chemical formula or what? ).

Before we lazy Californians woke up, he already had 89 comments, close to half non-English. By the time I finished writing this, comments are up to 103.. see samples below. (Update: the number is likely over 103 now, but my blogging platform is

down, who knows when I’ll be able to post it .. and in the meantime

TechCrunch appears to be down, too .. what a day!)

Btw., where is Chandler?

Pingback by pixelschrubber » Blog Archive » CL2 — March 8, 2006 @ 12:59 am
[…] Schalalalala…er wir entwickelt: Der CL2, also known as Google Calendar. Mehr darüber hier: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/08/exclusive-screenshots-google-calendar/ […]
Pingback by AboutDigital.ru » CL2 — March 8, 2006 @ 1:01 am
[…] Не буду переводить и комментировать эту стью в TechCrunch. Лучше посмотрите сами и оцените! Впечатляет! Тяжелые времена будут у других календарных сервисов… Google рулит! […]
Trackback by techmonster — March 8, 2006 @ 1:04 am
Google Kalender CL2…

Schon lange wurde darüber geschrieben und es gingen auch einige Bilder durchs Netz – jetzt tauchen erneut Bilder des bald erwarteten Google Kalender CL2 im Netz auf. Michael Arrington schreibt in seinem Blog das er nun neue Bilder hat….
Trackback by Julien Carnelos Blog — March 8, 2006 @ 1:20 am
Le Google Calendar arrive……

Vu sur TechCrunch,
le calendrier google pointe le bout de son nez….
Pingback by Luca Mondini » Blog Archive » — March 8, 2006 @ 1:30 am

[…] Sono disponibili in anteprima su TechCrunch, i primi screenshot di Google Calendar, applicazione di cui era previsto il lancio qualche mese fa. CL2, questo il nome del progetto, è invece ancora in beta e lo sarà, almeno secondo quello che riporta l’autore del post, Michael Arrington. La fuga di notizie, grazie ad uno dei 200 beta tester coinvolti, ci lascia intuire che CL2 sarà assolutamente integrato con GMail e permetterà la creazione, la ricerca e la condivisione di eventi. E’ probabile inoltre che l’aggregazione di eventi, in stile Eventful, sia implementata. Ai fan della grande G o delle applicazioni Web 2.0 non resta che aspettare, io continuerò ad utilizzare nel frattempo il mio D*I*Y Planner… […]

Trackback by Abundando — March 8, 2006 @ 1:44 am
Más pantallazos de Google Calendar…

Podéis encontrarlos en un post de Techcrunch: Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar….
Pingback by Details und Screenshots zu Google Calendar at RAINonline — March 8, 2006 @ 1:46 am
[…] Auf TechCrunch und GigaOM findet ihr die ersten Details und Screenshot zu “CL2&Prime – oder Google Calendar. […]

Pingback by Textw�ste » Blog Archive » Google Calendar — March 8, 2006 @ 2:27 am
[…] Im Moment wehen einige Ger�chte �ber ein neues Google Produkt durch das Internet: den “Google Calendar”. TechCrunch hat jetzt Screenshots ver�ffentlicht und gibt auch sonst ein wenig Einblick. […]

Trackback by meneame.net — March 8, 2006 @ 2:41 am
Imagenes exclusivas del nuevo google calendar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…

Primeras imagenes oficiales del proximo lanzamiento de google…
Pingback by 还没想好 » 真正的Google CL2 — March 8, 2006 @ 2:44 am
[…] 更多图片 […]

Pingback by Las capturas de Google Calendar — Proletarium — March 8, 2006 @ 2:48 am
[…] TEch Crunch es como el New York Times de internet, tiene acceso a cosas que nadie tiene, hoy han publicado las primeras capturas dignas de Google Calendar (¡por fin!): […]
Pingback by BlueAce » Google’s Office komt dichterbij dankzij CL2 — March 8, 2006 @ 2:51 am
[…] TechCrunch heeft de scoop met nieuwe screenshots van een nog te releasen kalender dienst van Google: CL2. CL2 makes it easy — even effortless — to keep track of all the events in your life and compare them to what your friends and family have going on in theirs. […]

Trackback by meneame.net — March 8, 2006 @ 2:54 am
Anlise do Google Calendar…

Ainda no abriu mas esta revista j fez a anlise. Parece interessante….

Pingback by google calendar at quintal do xanato — March 8, 2006 @ 3:01 am
[…] jah ha algum tempo que os rumores comecaram a aparecer mas desta parece que eh mesmo a serio. podem ver com o que se vai parecer o cl2 (eh o nome da coisa e ainda bem porque nohs jah temos um cl), e sempre ajuda a passar o tempo ateh estar disponivel. […]
Trackback by Error500 — March 8, 2006 @ 3:04 am
Imágenes de Google Calendar ¿o CL2?…

Primeras imágenes de lo que será el Google Calendar, aunque al parecer el nombre oficial será CL2. Las tienen en …

Pingback by Desinformados » Primeras im�genes de Google Calendar — March 8, 2006 @ 3:42 am
[…] La gente de TechCrunch (c�mo no) se ha hecho con las primeras im�genes de Google Calendar CL2, lo cual est� creando un buzz impresionante. Al contrario que los anteriores fakes, Michael Arrington afirma que estos screenshots fueron filtrados por trabajadores de Google, e incluye todas las im�genes con que se ha hecho y una buena descripci�n del servicio. Puedes verlo en este enlace. […]

Pingback by MTYBlogs » CL2 — March 8, 2006 @ 4:07 am
[…] Al parecer este será el nombre del Google Calendar que ya arrojó sus primeras imágenes que pueden ser vistas en Techcrunch y una explicación mas detallada la puede ver en Error 500. […]
Pingback by .. — March 8, 2006 @ 4:17 am
[…] 然後文章中列出一些cl2的功能，看起來相當不錯，真令人期待 Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar […]
Trackback by kbglob — March 8, 2006 @ 4:26 am
Google Calender…

Ya estan empezando a aparecer algunos datos adicionales y screenshots del Google Calender.
Tiene la misma interfaz que Gmail, y la simpleza de todas las aplicaciones de Google.

……
Pingback by .:: www.marlonguerios.com ::. » Google Calendar em vista — March 8, 2006 @ 4:27 am
[…] Para saber mais: Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar […]

Pingback by Effair | Billet | Google Calendar — March 8, 2006 @ 4:29 am
[…] Des screenshots de CL2, le nouveau logiciel de calendrier de Google. […]
Pingback by savek blog » Archiwum bloga » Screenshots: Google Calendar — March 8, 2006 @ 6:25 am
[…] Screeny z nowego narzędzia Google: Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar. […]
Pingback by Macsira.com » Capturas de Google Calendar — March 8, 2006 @ 6:28 am
[…] Aquí podeis ver el resto « Instalar Linux en un iPod 5G […]

Pingback by Blog de Dr. Max Glaser » Blog Archive » Mas informaciones sobre Google Calender — March 8, 2006 @ 6:40 am
[…] Hoy dia, en el blog de techcrunch han aparecido una serie de screenshots de Google Calendar. […]

Pingback by ENGRENAGEM – Media e Tecnologia: blog sobre jornalismo, citizen journalism, blogosfera e novas tecnologias — March 8, 2006 @ 6:55 am
[…] Uma fuga fez chegar � Web screenshots do Google Calendar. […]

Update (3/8): Related posts:

Tags: TechCrunch, Google, Calendar, Google Calendar, Gcalendar, CL2, Babel,

Filed Under: Bay Area, Blogging, Marketing / PR, Software, Startups, Technology ·

Google & Brondle, Toilet Matters

Posted on March 7, 2006 ·

Quite a co-incidence to see these two post in my reader this morning…

1.) Huge Net Capex: One-Time or Permanent?

The WSJ describes a key issue facing the big net companies, especially Google: massive (and increasing) capital spending. Last week, for example, Google stated that 2006 CAPEX would “significantly exceed” 2005’s mind-boggling $800 million, prompting analysts to toss out 2006 estimates in the $1.25 to $1.5 billion range. Yahoo! spent $400 million last year, up from $250 million the year before. Amazon’s cranking up spending… (full article at the Internet Outsider)

2.) Cuban invests in San Francisco toilet-seat maker

Mark Cuban, the wealthy Texan who sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999, has reached out to Silicon Valley and invested in Brondell, a manufacturer of Japanese-style toilets that wash your derriere with all kinds of delicate sprays (see video here)… (full article at SiliconBeat)

Tags: Google, Brondle, Humor

Filed Under: Humor ·

My Travel Map

Posted on March 6, 2006 ·

Inspired by Ben’s post I’ve plotted the map of countries and US states I’ve been to. Of course it’s not to scale, and the most obvious distortion is in Russia, where I’ve only been to 3 cities, and get this huge red block.

(Create your own maps here.)

Most of it was yeeeears ago. Ben, time is on your side, you’ll paint this map red before I do.

Filed Under: Misc ·

The Solution to your GDS Problem is CDS

Posted on March 6, 2006 ·

I can’t believe it: Google Desktop Search cannot track changes when you move files from a directory to another. That means the more you use your computer, the more your index will be out of sync. Perhaps that’s why they did not name it Desktop Find, because it only searches, does not find!

The recommended solution: uninstall GDS, then install it again…then wait a few hours for the complete reindex. WTF? The whole idea of an indexing program that I should not even know about it .. .it should do its thing in the background, as if it wasn’t there at all.

I have a better solution: get Copernic Desktop Search. It does not steal your data, does not come with a bunch of additional bloatware, it only does one thing, but does it really well: find and serve up your data. The screenshot below shows the powerful update options.

Tags: Google, Google Desktop Search, Copernic Desktop Search, GDS, CDS, Desktop Search

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, Software, Technology ·

SaaS vs. Open Source for SMB’s? A No-Brainer.

Posted on March 5, 2006 ·

(Update)
I have to take issue with Paul Gillin’s approach as he discusses whether SMB’s are better off with SaaS or Open Source Applications. If we equate Open Source to downloadable, on-premise installed software, I have no doubt, and have stated it before that the only good answer is SaaS. But, hold on, a few minutes later we’ll see these two options may not be mutually exclusive for long.

Paul analyzes several criteria:

cost
speed of deployment
customization
reliability
data ownership
vendor viability

These are all issues well-discussed on the web, and although Paul does not explicitly say, my reading is that he also leans towards the SaaS conclusion. The problem is that this criteria-by-criteria approach works well with a typical (mid-size) company where some level of IT expertise is present. Small Business America is very different from the web-savy geeky software startups; the majority are more traditional businesses with no CIO, IT department, in fact often without any IT support whatsoever. While the two main obstacles SMB’s face with any on-premise implementation are cost and (lack of) IT expertise, you can’t just translate the latter into cost – i.e. the cost of hiring full-time IT support. The opportunity cost of Management venturing into IT hiring and project decisions instead of focusing on their primary business makes this an impractical approach, leaving us with only one choice: SaaS.

Another issue not discussed in the article is integration. Open Source or SaaS, getting several packages work together requires IT and business process expertise, which typically means hiring expensive consultants. Therefore, I would go one step further: not only SaaS is the best choice for most SMB’s but they should seek to minimize the number of providers, i.e. the best choice is to use integrated All-In-One solutions.

The current undisputed leader in this field is NetSuite, but as they follow Salesforce.com’s footsteps and move upstream chasing midsize businesses, they leave an opening for up-and-coming challenger 24SevenOffice, which focuses solely on SMB’s, and covers a wider range of business functionality than the incumbent.

This is the situation today. Now, let’s revisit the original question: SaaS or Open Source? A tiny startup named SQLFusion is working on making that question obsolete. The dilemma with Open Source: a lot of good applications are available, but they are written by geeks for geeks… you really have to be quite knowledgeable to download and implement them. Example: at one of the startups I am advising I use SugarCRM over the internet. Starting to use it was a no-brainer, but when I looked at the prerequisites and the process of installing it myself, my head started spinning. No way, this is not for me! Open Source Fusion, which I hear is within days of opening for a limited beta will bridge the gap between availability and usability of Open Source Programs, by offering such apps to be used over the Internet. In true On-Demand fashion, maintenance, upgrades all happen in the background, one can start using the programs without implementing them. So it will no longer be SaaS or Open Source, but SaaS and Open Source.

The first incarnation of Open Source Fusion will provide access to individual applications, still leaving the integration dilemma for SMB’s, but the technology under the hood enables the company to later offer an integration layer between the key applications it serves up.

So the future is Open Source Software as a Service. Hm, here’s an ugly acronym: OSSaaS (?)

Update (3/6). Releated posts:

Update (5/23): Stefan over at The Small Business Blog discusses the issue; his company, WinWeb is expected to offer Open Source apps as a service soon.

Filed Under: Enterprise Software, ERP / CRM, Open Source, SaaS, SMB / SME, Software, Startups · Tagged: 24sevenoffice, all-in-one, Consulting, Integration, netsuite, On-Demand, Open Source, Open Source Fusion, OSSaaS, SaaS, smb, sme, SQLFusion, SugarCRM

Blogs To Replace Personal Websites

Posted on March 5, 2006 ·

(Updated)

I don’t think this is a radically new idea: personal websites are so 20th century – Blogs bring them to life, and they are easier to set up. As Don Dodge says, “Blogs are two way, in fact many way, communication where the readers create a conversation by leaving comments, trackbacks, and links. Web sites don’t lend themselves to leaving comments and starting a conversation.”

I think for most individuals a blog offers more power, flexibility, ability for self-expression and dialogue, than a static website. There are a few tricks, however, if you feel the need to have a permanent front-page. Several blog-platforms allow for “sticky posts”. Create only one sticky post, this will always stay at the top, i.e it can become your “static” home page. Smart use of titles, icons, graphics with URL’s in the sticky post, surrounded by categories, lists in the sidebars can turn the “sticky” into the point of entry for several parts of your blog – a’la traditional websites.

Some blog-platforms (e.g. Blogware by Blogharbor, the one I use) also cater for creating classic, static Web pages, allow you to FTP content up to your site, have photo albums ..etc. The static pages don’t automatically become part of your blog categories or your main page, giving you the freedom of freely mix and match with the blog. You could use the static page as your homepage (like the sticky described above) ,or you could call it from a link in a blog post – making sure that’s the only way to access it, someone cannot stumble upon the standalone page without reading the post.

The static page, the sticky post, or badges on your sidebar could also become the launching pad to a personal wiki (SocialText and JotSpot both offer free personal versions) , to your documents in Writely, or to any number of Web 2.0 app’s. It doesn’t matter that all these services are hosted on different servers by different companies, you can bring them all together on your launchpad page.

I recently wrote about using wiki’s to create an Instant Intranet for companies – if you have any projects that require collaboration with others, you can do the same, making it part of your static page.

With all these tools available, who needs a traditional web-page?

Update (3/22): Apparently not just personal sites: Steve Rubel reports Another Company Goes Blog Only

Tags: blogs, blogging, website, homepage, static website, blog as website, intranet, wiki, collaboration, web 2.0, jotspot, socialtext, writely, blogware, blogharbor

Filed Under: Blogging, Collaboration, Personal Productivity ·

Are we Men or Children? But Sometimes the Children are Men :-)

Posted on March 4, 2006 ·

This is one of those cases where I had the urge to quickly comment on a post by Ken; then all of a sudden I realized it has it’s own place on my blog.

Ken laments on how “little blogospats that are popping up all over the Blogosphere sound more like my kids fighting over a Polly Pocket than anything resembling reasoned conversation.”
He refers to “Roy Schestowitz, all worked up because Scoble can’t build a computer out of wood and pine sap” Roy goes a step further though: “Scoble cannot tell his ass from his face” Hm, I have to agree with Ken, “the second you stop talking about the issue and start attacking your opponent, you have lost. Game over.”
Random Bytes comes to Scoble’s defense: “I’ve chatted with him and he definitely left me with the impression that he didn’t wear his pants on his shoulders … There are all types of geeks out here. Some of us, I guess, are just ass-faces. Others, like Robert’s reader, seem to be just mainly asses.” On the pants, issue, let’s refer to the expert, who knows Robert doesn’t wear his pants on his shoulders. He wears no pants at all, everyone knows he goes Naked.:-)

On a more serious note, I have news for Roy (and others): Technology’s primary role is to advance the lives of all of us, and guess what, that means mostly for non-technologists. We need the ‘hardcore’ technologists who create it, the non-techie users (the rest of the world, which happens to be the majority), and the in-betweeners, who explain it, help us select and use it.

Ken, on a brighter note, to your “Are we men or are we children”: well sometimes the children are men. Here’s a blog worth reading. Ben Casnocha was definitely a child when he started his first business (see USA Today Article). His not some kind of business-whiz-kid only. He eats books for lunch, reviewing a hundred or so per year. He is Captain of his high-schools basketball team. He turned 18 a few days ago, but as a new subscriber to his blog, I think I’ve uncovered a big trick: he really is 28. At least intellectually.

Tags: blogs, blogging, debate, technologist, non-techie, scobleizer, Naked Conversations, youth, smart kids, intellectual, entrepreneurship, young entrepreneur

Filed Under: Bay Area, Blogging, Humor, Startups ·

Wikis are the Instant Intranet

Posted on March 4, 2006 ·

(Updated)

Since I received a few questions after my post: 43 Wiki Prank and the Whiteboard Test, I though I should add a bit of clarification. The underlying thought in that article was to pick the right tool for the right situation, and the whiteboard-test is just one trick to differentiate when Wiki’s are helpful vs. Forum, Blog ..etc software. It’s by far not the only situation when a wiki is invaluable.

Another example is setting up a living, breathing Intranet, one that people can actually use. Anybody who works in large corporations probably thinks of the IntraNet as a one-way communication channel for Management to talk (down) to employees. Getting your own content in? Forget it! Even when I was VP in a mid-sized organization and did not have wait for approval, I still had to talk to the IT Director, wait for him to fit it in his team’s schedule, then tell him what was wrong when my content finally showed up.

It does not have to be this way! Companies “own” (well, at least part of the day) the intellectual capacity of their employees, so why not put it to work? Even in the large corporate environment a wiki can be a lively collaborative addition to the Intranet (see the wiki effect by Ross), but for smaller, nimble, less hierarchical business a wiki is The Intranet.

At a much smaller organization I wanted to introduce a wiki for collaboration, for all the reasons explained in the video below. The company was a bit more old-fashioned, not exactly the early-adopter type. I expected some resistance against something with a geeky-funny name like wiki… so I simply announced we’ll be creating an editable Intranet. People started to use it from day 1, and few cared that the thingie behind is called a wiki.

David Terrar describes a somewhat similar story here.

Finally, the excellent video by JotSpot Founder Joe Kraus.

Archives for March 2006

Google Calendar and the TechCrunch Babel

Google & Brondle, Toilet Matters

My Travel Map

The Solution to your GDS Problem is CDS

SaaS vs. Open Source for SMB’s? A No-Brainer.

Blogs To Replace Personal Websites

Are we Men or Children? But Sometimes the Children are Men :-)

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