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What Sequoia Capital Should Look For in Startups

Posted on November 16, 2006 ·

Being the lazy guy I am, I enjoy when others serve up what to write about, I just have to connect the dots.  Well, it doesn’t get any better than today, reading these two posts 3 minutes apart.

First there’s Valleywag’s story on how Sequoia’s investment in RockYou (service by NetPickle) turns more into a F***You (pardon my Frenchsmile_embaressed):

“Two months before Sequoia Capital, and a couple other investors, funded a Web 2.0 startup called NetPickle, the founders were accused of intellectual property theft by their former employer. They operate a photo slideshow service called RockYou; Iconix said the idea was developed while the founders were employed there; and a U.S. district court judge yesterday ruled against the Sequoia portfolio company.”

Next I’m reading VC Ratings via Paul Kedrosky on What Sequoia Capital Looks for in Startups:

 

Perhaps it’s time for Sequoia to add the 11th element: Clean IP Ownership. smile_sarcastic

Update (11/17): Good chronology at GigaOM.

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Startups, Technology ·
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IdeaWins: Microsoft Contest for Innovative Small Business Idea

Posted on November 16, 2006 ·

I still don’t know if Microsoft’s Software by Parachute initiative was real or just a prank, but here’s another one:  IdeaWins: The Ultimate Challenge – a contest for Innovative Small Businesses.

Software and techie types don’t get your juices flowing just yet: apparently “innovation” is limited to retail businesses, and the award is not only $100K but a year’s rent of a Manhattan storefront, too.

It appears MS released the site in a rush and not all components are ready, as for now submissions are by emailing a downloadable form, but starting November 27th there will be an “innovative” interactive way to enter.

Four Finalists will be selected who can submit a video and the winner will be picked by a public online vote. (digg it? smile_wink)

This contest is basically a PR campaign to promote MS Office Accounting 2007 which is quite evident if you arrive to the IdeaWins Home Page: the FAQ is actually all about the Accounting package, and the contest terms are somewhat hard to find.  If you follow my link from the pic above, you get right into the contest page, where there is a seconds set of FAQ, this time about the contest.  Oh, and of course you’ll be prompted to download MS Accounting a few times along the way…smile_omg

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Filed Under: Business, Marketing / PR, SMB / SME, Software, Startups ·
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Web Security: How to buy a 65” Plasma for $.99

Posted on November 14, 2006 ·

I have no clue if this is real:  Edgeblog describes a way to change the price on certain shopping sites using the CartIt.cgi shopping app before the item is submitted to the server.

He than goes on:

Doing a simple Google search for cartit.cgi+plasma, I found a web site that sells plasma TVs (Which shall remain nameless to prevent being sued). The website thinks it is selling TVs for $7,599, but we can pay whatever we want by intercepting the POST and changing the price. If you think the company would catch this error, think again. Many companies outsource the fulfillment of orders, and never check the prices being charged. Note: I do not endorse e-shoplifting, so I did not complete the above transaction, but I know for a fact that the site will accept the order for $.99. Now, $.99 is extreme enough to *maybe* raise a flag. A simpler approach is to just move the decimal over 1 or 2 places. This way, if the company does notice, they will assume it was a processing error on their side. So maybe this article should be titled: “How to buy a 65″ plasma for $75.99.”

Wow.

 

Filed Under: Business, Misc, Technology ·
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Valleywag an Eyesore

Posted on November 13, 2006 ·

Valleywag’s Nick Douglas is leaving. Nick *was* Valleywag. Not much to add here, it’s the top item on Techmeme:

Good Morning Silicon Valley, Mathew Ingram, Master of 500 Hats, Thomas Hawk’s Digital …, Things That, WebProBlog, Federated Media …

 

But WTF is this new design?

Frankly, it makes me want to puke… except that it looks like someone has already puked on it smile_omg

 

Filed Under: Bay Area, Blogging, Business, Misc ·
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18 Months to Develop, 4 Seconds Long, But You Can Kill It

Posted on November 13, 2006 ·

AP, Seattle: “Some musicians spend 18 months working on a whole album. At Microsoft Corp., that’s how long it took to perfect just four seconds of sound.” 
That’s the Vista Startup Sound. Microsoft hired famous guitarist Robert Fripp for the job. 

Originally, in a perfect demonstration of product-focused thinking ignoring users, Microsoft planned to make this sound mandatory (impossible to modify or even shut off), but when Robert Scoble leaked the news, there was a huge backlash eventually Microsoft gave in, making the sound optional.

So in the end, 18 months of effort went into 4 seconds that you will turn off anyway. smile_party  Much ado about nothing… in the end, this is all that matters:

 Ready for Windows Vista?

Update (11/13): I’ve only discovered after writing this post that you can actually listen to the startup sound by clicking Play under the photo in the AP article. Wow… is that it?  The heavenly experience? smile_sad

18  months…. LOL.  Several years and latops ago I had my new mail notification sound set to a 3-4 second harp piece from Franz Liszt‘s Les Preludes.  It took me a good 30 minutes to cut/edit  it. smile_tongue

 

Filed Under: Business, Humor, Software, Technology ·
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Drug Attack on the Euro

Posted on November 11, 2006 ·

I know drugs kill .. bankrupt.. but apparently they also eat money, quite literally:

“BERLIN, Nov 11 (Reuters) – A mystery substance that caused some euro banknotes in Germany to fall to pieces may be linked to the party drug crystal speed, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday, quoting regional police. Users of crystal speed inhale it through the nose using rolled-up banknotes and chemists think impurities such as sulphates, mingled with sweat, could have created an acid that ate away at the notes, the magazine quoted police as saying.

Around 1,500 banknotes worth between 5 euros and 100 euros ($6.44-$129) crumbled shortly after being withdrawn from cash machines, the Bundesbank said earlier this month.”

Filed Under: Business, Misc ·
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Art of the Start / Launch Silicon Valley with Guy Kawasaki – Last Minute Discount

Posted on November 7, 2006 ·

This is a reprint of a previous post, because with 250 registrations I can now offer the few remaining tickets at a huge discount ($49 vs $199) at this special link.

Mark November 8th, Wednesday on

your calendar for a full-day entrepreneurial

super-event (actually two) at the Microsoft Conference

Center in Mountain View.

At 8am SVASE

will present The Art of the

Start, a conference all about helping

entrepreneurs succeed, offering time-tested, battle-hardened business

strategies and the opportunity to meet experienced entrepreneurs and

investors.

The drought of the past few years is over

and venture capital is flowing again. But starting a high tech business

is no less challenging and demanding than it’s ever been, even in an

environment of venture capital overhang.

Pure

talent and winning ideas are never enough. Whether you’re an

entrepreneur in a garage, dorm room, lab or inside a big company, there

are fundamental business insights and skills you need

to succeed.

  Start-up authority and

popular business author Guy

Kawasaki and experts from Garage, along with Silicon Valley

leaders and mavericks, venture capitalists, and successful start-up

CEOs explore the art of starting up.

The conference

includes breakfast and lunch, including a Fireside Chat with

Guy Kawasaki and

Mike Arrington of  TechCrunch.  

Check out the agenda

here, then rush to register. 

Rush, as Early Bird registration ends tomorrow, November 3rd. (Yes, I

know, posting this late, sorry…)

 

The conference ends

at 3:30, and an hour later a related event, Launch: Silicon

Valley starts at the same venue.

Launch: Silicon Valley is an

opportunity for the next generation of emerging technology companies

will to tell their stories to the world – literally, as the event will

be videotaped and broadcast later.   Over 150 startup

submissions from all over the country, several European countries and

as far as New Zealand have been reviewed by an Advisory Board of

investors and executives. The 30 most interesting companies have been

invited to participate in the “Launch: Silicon Valley”

showcase, and 15 of these companies have

also been invited to deliver product

presentation to an audience of Silicon

Valley’s leading movers and shakers.

Product presentations will take place in three

categories, 5 companies each:

  • Information Technology, Communications & related

    technologies

  • Life Science, Material Science,

    CleanTech

  • Consumer &

    Other

Please check out the complete

agenda, and again, rush to register,

as Early Bird pricing ends tomorrow, November 3rd for this

event, too.  The Registration site allows you to book both

events together, or any of them selectively.

Now,

for the surprise: Silicon Valley Auto

Group will be displaying Aston Martin, Bentley, and

Lamborghini cars at both events, and I’m hearing they’ll schedule

test-drives.  I’m sure half the participants – the cream of

the Valley VC community – can actually afford these cars… as for the

other half, the Entrepreneurs, how is this for an incentive? 

smile_wink

Filed Under: Bay Area, Business, Social Networking, Startups ·
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24SevenOffice is More than Just Office – Watch Demo

Posted on November 7, 2006 ·

24SevenOffice is an innovative software company offering SaaS for the SMB / SME market that should really be called 24SevenBusiness smile_wink

Their system is modular but integrated with a breath of functionality I simply haven’t seen elsewhere: Accounting, CRM (Contacts, Lead Mgt, SFA), ERP (Supply Chain, Orders, Products, Inventory), Communication, Group Scheduling, HR, Project Management, Publishing, Intranet. Essentially a NetSuite+Communication and Collaboration.

They are innovators in many ways … had an AJAX system long before it was called AJAX and recently they created a “World’s First” by teaming up with a bank that becomes the SaaS provider offering its customers single sign-on Web solutions for banking and all other business software needs.

The system is really comprehensive so it may not be that easy to figure out all features, therefore they released a cool flash demo that walks through the major business processes. (hat tip: Espen Antonsen)

What I really like about 24SevenOffice is that they are proof to my favorite theme, i.e. that small businesses can now have “enterprise” system functionality. My only complaint is that so far they onu cover several European countries; I wish they were faster entering the US market. smile_tongue But I’m hearing that may not be too far now …

Update (11/12): check out Dennis Howlett’s post on Interprise Suite, another integrated system for the SMB market.

Filed Under: Business, Collaboration, Enterprise Software, ERP / CRM, SaaS, SMB / SME, Software, Technology · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Web 2.x Conferences at Your Price

Posted on November 4, 2006 ·

The Big Week is coming… and you get to pick how much you’re willing to pay for being “there”.   If you got invited and coughed up $3,500, you can be at the Web 2.0 Conference which is actually no longer a conference but a Summit.  If you didn’t make it there, don’t worry, thanks to Chris Pirillo, here’s the summary:

 Truthiness

 

Of course if you want to get ahead of the crowd, you can upgrade… all the way to  Web 2.2

The 2.2 upgrade is considerably less expensive, registration is only $32.95.  Of course it’s all so relative, the original Web 2.1 which I had a chance to sponsor was a mere $2.80 – yes, that’s not a mistake, $2.80.   Now, if we do a little trendspotting, we can figure out what one of the talk topics will be about: at Web 2.3 and Beyond, What’s Really Next? they will have to decide whether to increase next year’s price to $329.50. smile_speedy

(OK, just kidding, $32.95 is still affordable)

Happy (Un)Conferencing next week.  Oh, and if you’re not attending any of these events, meet Guy Kawasaki, dozens of VC’s and 30 or so startups here. (The Lamborghini is not included in registrationsmile_wink)

 

 

Filed Under: Bay Area, Blogging, Business, Social Networking, Startups ·
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Mega-Event: Art of the Start / Launch Silicon Valley with Guy Kawasaki by Garage / SVASE (and the Lamborghini is a Surprise…)

Posted on November 2, 2006 ·

(Updated)
Mark November 8th, Wednesday on your calendar for a full-day entrepreneurial super-event (actually two) at the Microsoft Conference Center in Mountain View.

At 8am SVASE will present The Art of the Start, a conference all about helping entrepreneurs succeed, offering time-tested, battle-hardened business strategies and the opportunity to meet experienced entrepreneurs and investors.

The drought of the past few years is over and venture capital is flowing again. But starting a high tech business is no less challenging and demanding than it’s ever been, even in an environment of venture capital overhang.

Pure talent and winning ideas are never enough. Whether you’re an entrepreneur in a garage, dorm room, lab or inside a big company, there are fundamental business insights and skills you need to succeed.

Start-up authority and popular business author Guy Kawasaki and experts from Garage, along with Silicon Valley leaders and mavericks, venture capitalists, and successful start-up CEOs explore the art of starting up.

The conference includes breakfast and lunch, including a Fireside Chat with Guy Kawasaki and Mike Arrington of TechCrunch. Check out the agenda here, then rush to register. Rush, as Early Bird registration ends tomorrow, November 3rd. (Yes, I know, posting this late, sorry…)

The conference ends at 3:30, and an hour later a related event, Launch: Silicon Valley starts at the same venue.

Launch: Silicon Valley is an opportunity for the next generation of emerging technology companies will to tell their stories to the world – literally, as the event will be videotaped and broadcast later. Over 150 startup submissions from all over the country, several European countries and as far as New Zealand have been reviewed by an Advisory Board of investors and executives. The 30 most interesting companies have been invited to participate in the “Launch: Silicon Valley” showcase, and 15 of these companies have also been invited to deliver product presentation to an audience of Silicon Valley’s leading movers and shakers.

Product presentations will take place in three categories, 5 companies each:

  • Information Technology, Communications & related technologies
  • Life Science, Material Science, CleanTech
  • Consumer & Other

Please check out the complete agenda, and again, rush to register, as Early Bird pricing ends tomorrow, November 3rd for this event, too. The Registration site allows you to book both events together, or any of them selectively.

Now, for the surprise: Silicon Valley Auto Group will be displaying Aston Martin, Bentley, and Lamborghini cars at both events, and I’m hearing they’ll schedule test-drives. I’m sure half the participants – the cream of the Valley VC community – can actually afford these cars… as for the other half, the Entrepreneurs, how is this for an incentive? smile_wink

Update (11/4): I can now give away a few hugely discounted tickets ( $49 vs. $199).

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Filed Under: Bay Area, Startups ·
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