Startup Whisperer Blog
Your Brand Has Been Kidnapped
Brands need to issue an "amber alert" on their brand campaigns. Your brand has been kidnapped and you need to get control back. There is a fascinating study that Mpire issued recently that shows that run-of-network ad exchange buys have have more than 50 percent impressions fraud and 95 percent click fraud. In full disclosure,…
Startup Presentation For Raising VC Capital
My Grandmother needs me on the same day as the StartupDay Conference. I am very bummed that I can't do my talk on how to raise money from angel investors and VCs. I was very excited that Marcelo asked me to do the presentation but when your family needs you — you gotta make your…
TweepML is really cool
I love to use friend's OPML files as a way to pre-populate different RSS readers like NetVibes. It is a lazy way for me to build a great dashboard of content without having to do all of the work. Marcelo Calbucci's new Twitter service, TweepML, is a similar concept. I like the fact that I…
iLike Didn’t Own Their Own Dirt
I just started a new job and I haven't been able to jump on some very interesting news this week. In particular, the detail around the acquisition of iLike by Myspace was fascinating for me. Especially, since my new employer RealNetworks has its own music division (Rhasody). TechFlash did a solid job of reporting on…
Ideas Are Like Assholes, Everyone Has One
This is one of my favorite quips from Rob Solomon who is on the Board of Mpire and who's a successful business leader in his own right. It is easy to have lots of ideas, lots of data, and lots of tactical make-work but I think its actually harder to be specific about focusing on…
New Entrepreneurs Should Attend StartupDay
My friend Marcelo Calbucci is putting on another fantastic event called StartupDay on Sept 26th 2009. This will be a fantastic event for anyone that is thinking about starting a company. Marcelo has linedup a world-class line-up of speakers. Unfortunately, I am one of the speakers so the general quality average will be dragged down…
Does Local Search Suck Less?
Last August I did a post called "Local Search Still Sucks." Since then we've seen newer services like local Seattle startup HelpHive launch and we've seen some local guys being bought like UrbanSpoon to IAC. HelpHive (founded by former RealNetworks execs Dave Richards and Karim Meghi) stopped by the Mpire offices recently and explained that…
New Executive Chairman Role
I announced today that I am stepping down as CEO of Mpire and I am taking an Executive Chairman role. My first role at Mpire was as a Board member. I was asked to take on the CEO role to help restart the company. My goal was to turn an eBay seller tool business around…
ContextWeb Throws A Great Event
Fellow Draper Fisher Jurveston-backed ad startup, ContextWeb, threw a great event in New York City this week. AdExchanger does a nice job covering the event in this post. Obviously, I am very biased about the use of ad optimization technology to better provide transparency for exchanges and networks (more on that in this interview and…
$300 Million Marc Andreessen Fund Is Old School Cool
I talked to journalist extraordinaire Renay San Miguel this morning concerning the new Marc Andreessen fund. They just announced that they closed a $300 million fund. Renay did a great piece for the Ecommerce Times. When I talked to Renay, I had just read an interview with Andreessen on PEHub. Some things that I found…
Focus On Your Competitor’s Tail Lights
Having a crisp and clear business objective is a great way to motivate your team. Making the objective simple so that everyone can understand your revenue, market share, or profitabilitygoal is extremely transformative for your business if you can master an easy way to communicate your key goal. In particular, making the goal tangible and…
Get Off Google Crack
One of the issues that bothers many consumer facing Internet companies is the reliance on third party distribution. The issue of business model interdependence is an important one. In fact, every big company or startup wrestles with this issue and is actively wrestling with it. The issue usually boils down to a company that is…
