I just got around to reading Paul Graham’s post on the VC industry’s reluctance to change its investment approach, despite evidence that its model might be broken. It’s hard to argue with the point that it costs less than it used to to create many kinds of technology-based businesses, and by extension that a valid [...]
Gradual Change
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And now for something completely different
It really is so lame to start a blog and then promptly abandon it two months in. In my defence, I’ve been working on something new.
In ways both good and bad, I usually act on gut instinct rather than methodical research. About five days after meeting Carrie McCarthy and Danielle LaPorte I rather presumptuously suggested [...]
Success Factors
Investors and entrepreneurs often pitch business models by describing them as a fresh or niche-focused take on a high profile success story. Angel investor Jeff Clavier allegedly described parenting social network, Maya’s Mom, as “Dogster for moms”, but this unfortunate example aside the point is simple: apply a business model that worked elsewhere to a [...]
Big Brand Free
Funny, I was looking through the kitchen cupboards today and realized that, except for some razor blades, I haven’t bought any mainstream consumer packaged goods for a long time. I’m sure I can’t be alone. Even though profits remain healthy at the big CPG companies, it’s developing markets that are primarily driving growth.
Actually, there were [...]
Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
Large, slow-moving and bureaucratic companies are an easy target for critics, but so what, it’s often fun and illuminating to pick on easy targets. Particularly when they descend to the pettiest behavior for the sake of cents today that will cost them dollars in customer loyalty tomorrow.
I returned a DVD to my local Rogers Video [...]
Mobile Advertising’s Unknown Unknowns
A friend in the investment banking industry once cautioned me about working for a public company traded on a junior exchange. In his words, “the value never catches up with the promote.” By which he meant that a story that’s been sold simply to drive up the share price isn’t sustainable in the real world, [...]
When Marketing Isn’t Enough
I went to my local drugstore today to pick up razor blades. I wasn’t shocked by the price so much as I was by the realization that it’s taken me this long to be shocked by the price. $32 (taxes in) for eight blades, or $4 per blade. I poked around the web and found [...]
What Does the Scanner See?
Google’s latest move in the offline advertising world is the tagging of print ads with barcodes that can be scanned with cellphones. Mathew Ingram thinks this one’s a bad idea, and he’s not alone.
I agree with the criticism that the act of scanning ads is awkward and vaguely ridiculous, but I’m also interested in what’s [...]
Someone Else
I’m a car guy, although sadly one without the resources to fill his driveway with exotics. In fact just to get my one and only vehicle into my tiny garage I have to perform an intricate backing up maneuver, with the odds of knocking off a wing mirror or two standing at about 50/50. But [...]
Cautiously Pessimistic
The Economist hedged its bets today, predicting that advertising spending might soften in 2008, or 2009, or it might not. I actually prefer this caution to bombastically certain predictions, but further down in the story there are a couple of interesting observations. The second is paraphrased from Trevor Kaufman, CEO of WPP-owned Schematic.
Search advertising, the [...]