Startup Whisperer Blog
Product Launches Both Big and Small
Last week we had a couple of large announcements at the Web 2.0 conference in the games group. First, we introduced GameHouse Fusion which is the first universal social gaming platform that provides the solution to a currently fragmented, disconnected consumer gameplay experience. We also introduced our newest social application — GameHouse on Facebook which…
Great Presentation On Advertising Value Chain
I have posted about the different players in the ad stack before but Terence Kawaja of investment banking firm Savvian does an amazing job walking thru all of the various players in the advertising value chain. Check out his recent IAB keynote here. Its not only informative but its hilarious. Of the $2.4 billion invested…
Is SEO Dead?
I can't help and see the slew of announcements from Facebook recently at their F8 conference and not think to myself of the common adage from the behemoths of the 90's like Microsoft — "embrace and extend." I find it ironic that much of what Facebook is executing on is eerily similar to Microsoft'sfailed Hailstrom…
How Would Tony Stark Prepare For A Pitch?
In honor of the upcoming Iron Man 2 movie coming out on May 7th, I will author all of my posts as an homage to the Marvel comic Shellhead. I The image below of Jon Favreau (who plays Tony Stark's bodyguard in the film) the director of IM, reminded me of a post that I…
How Much Is Your Brand Worth?
I was talking to a friend of mine recently who runs a major national brand. We were talking about the perils of running brand ads online. His concern was that he didn’t have the ability to really understand where his ads were being placed or whether they were being seen by the right audience. The…
Why Doesn’t Amazon Build A Huge Ad Play?
Amazon is just a fascinating company. I have never worked there and their performance over the years has been amazing to watch. In particular, it hasn’t always been obvious that their heavy R&D expenditure over the years was justified compared to their low operating margins. Look at the companies in recent years from cloud services…
Chase Waterfalls
One of the things that I find that its useful is to use waterfall charts. Whether you are trying to show how your company is going to hit a budget target, how M&A activities can hit EBITDA targets, or whatever, its a great way to how an initial value is increased (or decreased) by a…
Facebook Is Our Online Third Place
If you ever wondered if Facebook is a formidable platform then check out these stats from Nielsen. 7 hours a month a growing per month!
The Best VCs Always Knock Twice
I am often reminded what separates great VCs from the good ones — its formulating long-term relationships so that they can help to identity (and subsequently invest in) world-class teams. I was reminded of this recently after a recent conversation with a top-notch VC. He was looking for a CEO "before" he invested in the…
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
I did a recent blog post about 90-day planning. One of the things that I didn't mentioned was the importance of communication. Once you have your plan don't forget to communicate. Communicate the hell out of it. Build a communication plan around it. Rather, a PR plan around your plan internally.Simplify your key metrics, hold…
Sprint To The Starting Line: 90-day Planning Tips
A useful exercise especially when starting a new venture or new job is to have a written plan for your first 90 days. Obama was very proscriptive about his first 90 days. In fact, in order to send the right tone for your leadership administration – the first 90 days are critical. I fundamentally believe…
Platforms Getting Ready To Tax Developers
I touched on the Web 2.0 players starting to charge for their platforms in my 2010 Technology Predictions. A recent post shows that they are getting much more serious about rolling out their much lauded payment and credits platform. A good post on this is at Inside Facebook.
