Steve Woda's blog

links for 2009-05-31

• E-Germany
  The progress of e-commerce in Germany—home to Europe’s largest Internet population—was relatively slow, retarded by many of the same issues seen earlier in other countries, such as the UK and the US. Heightened security concerns and adherence to traditional payment habits on the part of many Germans hindered the development of online selling. But the situation has changed. By the end of 2008, the GfK Group reported that retail e-commerce sales—excluding event tickets, financial products and travel—reached €13.6 billion ($20 billion), up €2.2 billion ($3.2 billion) from 2007.
  (tags: ecommerce germany)
• Virtual Apps Drift into the Cloud
  Cloud computing lets companies move data and applications from their own servers to those managed by someone else. The dream is to forget all about managing infrastructure, but in reality, applications are still deeply tied to surrounding software, such as a specific operating system or database, so it's not so easy to move them. A company based in Raleigh, NC, called rPath is winning admirers among IT experts by selling technology that addresses this problem. The company won top honors last week in the "cloud and infrastructure" category at a competition held at the 2009 Venture Summit East conference in Boston.
  (tags: Cloud)

links for 2009-05-30

• Downsize Your To-Do List in 5 Easy Steps
  You know you have way to many things on your to-do list. Here are some ways to down-size that list, and turn it into a powerful income generating tool at the same time. Step One Acknowledge that it is impossible to do it all. Decide right now that you are going to choose the Highest Leveraged Actions in the important areas of your life, and focus on doing those every day. Step Two Do a mind dump. Unfinished business weighs on your mind and drains your energy. Take 10 minutes and make a list everything that’s in your mind that needs to be done, in every area of your life, personal and professional. Just keep writing until without ordering or prioritizing until you can’t think of anything else. This is not a to-do list. This is a cleansing list. I do them periodically; just to be sure I’ve captured everything.
  (tags: productivity)

links for 2009-05-29

• YOU are the problem: the reason why so many startups don't get venture funding
  When I was a venture capitalist there were lots of reasons why we did not make investments in particular startups. My goal was to try to provide some honest feedback/guidance as to the reason for passing on the opportunity. Given the deep deal flow at my fund, this was not always possible, but if I had used up more than a few minutes of the executives’ time learning about their company I tried to give a little bit of the color behind the rejection. This ranged from “the end market is too small” or “you need more user traction” or “it is too competitive of a market” or “we are not comfortable with this particular technology.” But the fact of the matter was, sometimes there were not great reasons for passing on a company. Many times these were just excuses hiding the real reason:
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship)
• AOL to Separate From Time Warner
  The Time Warner board has approved the spinoff of AOL as an independent, publicly traded company, undoing the disastrous merger between the two in 2001, which came to be a symbol of failed synergy between content and web distribution. It also positions Time Warner for a return to its roots: as a dedicated content company. The spinoff is targeted for the end of the year, after Time Warner buys back the 5% stake in AOL it doesn't own from Google, which it says it will do in the third quarter of 2009. The deal follows Time Warner's spinoff of Time Warner Cable earlier this year.
  (tags: aol)

links for 2009-05-28

• Global Carbon Market Doubled in 2008, But CO2 Emissions Cuts Actually Fell
  The global market for carbon emissions trading doubled in value last year, but actual realized emissions cuts fell as the global economic slowdown dented clean energy financing, according to the World Bank.
  (tags: Politics environment)

links for 2009-05-27

• Ask The VC: Start-up Cost Projections For First Time Entrepreneurs
  Q: At a pub in Los Gatos, CA a casual conversation with some young, first time entrepreneurs lead to an interesting comment: "...the business plan outlines our estimated (operational) expenses but how do I know an investor is not going to look at these numbers and say...'are you f'ing kidding me' and right then and there we can loose this guy (his interest)..."How can an entrepreneur build these projections most accurately and in a way that will maintain credibility with potential investors? What could be defined as the "best practice" for entrepreneurs dealing with this subject? A: (Brad) As I’ve said in the past, I’ve never met a financial plan for an early stage company where the revenue side was correct. However, I’ve met plenty where the cost side was correct (or – at least – appropriate). The key here is simple – you want to have a cost structure that makes sense, covers all the bases, but doesn’t assume a big revenue ramp to be supportable.
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship)
• What VCs Are Investing In
  Financial conditions for technology startups have been cool, to say the least, since the economic crisis began. But now, buoyed by two recent public offerings, venture capitalists are showing a renewed interest in fledgling technology firms. The fourth quarter of 2007 saw 17 venture-backed technology companies go public, one of the biggest spikes in stock offerings in a single quarter since the height of the dot-com boom in mid-2000. In contrast, the last quarter of 2008 and the first of 2009 saw no venture-backed public offerings in any industry, according to the National Venture Capital Association. Mergers and acquisitions have also slowed, and the number of venture funds raising money at the beginning of the year was smaller than at any time since 2003.
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship)

links for 2009-05-25

• Tim Draper Wants An Exchange For Startups To Go (Kinda) Public
  Noted venture capitalist Tim Draper is teaming up with investors to fund a private exchange for institutional investors to trade shares of start-up companies, calling it a "springboard" to an IPO. Despite signs of life in the frozen public market, with Open Table making a robust public debut on Thursday, venture capitalists have struggled to take companies public as the recession killed investor appetite for new stocks. Speaking at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York, Draper said the exchange would be a venue for entrepreneurs to raise dollars, while providing venture capitalists a way to recover their investments.
  (tags: vc)

links for 2009-05-23

• Ready to TwitPay?
  Is this the future of e-commerce? Twitter commerce company Twitpay just announced its Retweet Commerce Suite, a service that aims to simplify commercials transactions on Twitter. RT2Buy (short for "Retweet To Buy") is the first service that is offered as part of the Retweet Commerce Suite. Starting today, anyone can easily distribute and sell their digital content through Twitter using the RT2Buy service. "We believe that feed-based communication is the future of the Internet, and that commerce will play a tremendous role in that future," said Michael D. Ivey, CEO of Twitpay. "This suite is one part of making it as easy to participate in commerce as it is to use Twitter, and we're really excited to see what it will be used for."
  (tags: ecommerce Twitter)
• AIG’s Liddy Will Step Down
  Not a big surprise given the rude, thankless treatment Congress gave him for his gracious, courageous work to save AIG and the U.S. economy. AIG chairman and chief executive officer Edward M. Liddy has informed the company's board of directors that he intends to step down after the board concludes a search for replacements, according to an AIG source. Liddy has recommended to the board that the chairman and CEO roles be separated. Liddy recommended that once a reconfiguration of AIG's board is completed — a process that will conclude with voting on new director nominees at AIG's June 30 annual shareholder meeting — the company should also initiate a process to install a more permanent leadership team and structure, according to AIG. The board concurs with Liddy's recommendation that the roles of chairman and CEO be separate and intends to conduct a search to fill each position.
  (tags: aig Politics Economics)

links for 2009-05-20

• How Not to Manage Innovation
  Welcome to the zombieconomy — where things happen backwards. Case in point: today's best example of how not to manage innovation comes from those who should be masters of radical innovation: venture investors.

  The venture industry is in crisis because of an ongoing inability to grow and nurture meaningful innovation. I've come across many examples recently — a tweet from an investor asking "where is Twitter's ROI?", or sessions I've run where investors have focused on business models, while failing to build a fuller strategic understanding.

  Let's use Jeremy Liew's recent analysis — a fun read — of Apple's iPhone Apps Store to outline how not to manage innovation.

  
  
  (tags: Innovation)
  
  

links for 2009-05-19

• Microsoft Not Worried About Android
  Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) recently said they are not worried about the recent success of Android on the G1 handset and that Windows Mobile has felt little impact from its release. Is Microsoft just talking smack, or are they really not worried about it? Mobile News shares some comments from David Weeks, a Windows Mobile product manager. We’re not worried about Android - Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and BlackBerry are probably more badly hit by it. We're on forecast. 100,000 sales is very low considering the amount of marketing T-Mobile put into the advertisement of the G1. A high-end feature phone like the G1 would usually sell 500,000 units for the money they invested. Now, keep in mind this is the UK market. Overall, the G1 has sold over 1 million devices since launch, but according to Weeks, moving only 100,000 in the UK market in a few months is a poor showing for a device like this.
  (tags: Android mobile Windows)
• Sexting: 'Parents Don't Have a Clue,' John Walsh Says
  Do parents really know the deal when it comes to their kids and sexting? John Walsh, host of "Americas Most Wanted" said they don't have a clue. That’s why it’s incredibly important to sit down with your child and talk about the dangers of this growing problem, Walsh told FOX and Friends Thursday morning. “I talk to my 14-year-old son — but the bad news is that 1 in 4 teens say ‘hey, hey hey… parents don’t know what the heck they’re talking about… and every teenager thinks they’re bullet proof,” Walsh said. “But when that picture shows up in cyberspace, and that college admissions director sees that looking at the Myspace page or the Facebook page — or they hear about it, or the kid gets arrested for distributing a sexy picture — you know — then it’s going to come back to haunt that kid.”
  (tags: Security kidsafe)

links for 2009-05-17

• What Do the Rich Look Like Online? - eMarketer
  In a down economy, it is a wise strategy to find potential customers who actually have money. According to comScore, they are still out there—and they are online. Over 50 million unique affluent Internet users—those with annual household incomes of at least $100,000—visited Websites in March, making up over one-quarter of the entire Internet population for the month.
  (tags: marketing)
• Nine Ways to Identify Natural Leaders
  The need to empower natural leaders isn’t an HR pipedream, it’s a competitive imperative. But before you can empower them, you have to find them. In most companies, the formal hierarchy is a matter of public record—it’s easy to discover who’s in charge of what. By contrast, natural leaders don’t appear on any organization chart. To hunt them down, you need to know . . .
  - Whose advice is sought most often on any particular topic?
  - Who responds most promptly to requests from peers?
  - Whose responses are judged most helpful?
  - Who is most likely to reach across organizational boundaries to aid a colleague?
  - Whose opinions are most valued, internally and externally?
  - Who gets the most kudos from customers?
  - Who’s the most densely connected to other employees?
  - Who’s generating the most buzz outside the company?
  - Who consistently demonstrates real thought leadership?
  - Who seems truly critical to key decisions?
  (tags: Leadership)

links for 2009-05-16

• C-Level Execs on Marketing Success
  According to Heidrick & Struggles, the No. 1 focus for C-level executives in 2009 is the customer—acquiring new ones, increasing retention and improving their lifetime value, in that order.
  (tags: Leadership)

links for 2009-05-15

• Unfortunately this is true... "Idiot CEOs" by Georges van Hoegaerden
  That's how one of the many CEOs that contact me recently described his colleagues who submit to Venture Capital (VC). This alternatively funded CEO describes other CEO’s that seek VC funding as idiots – with a 1 in a 1000 shot at a lousy valuation (52% Round A, 25% Round B and 15% Round C). He continues that many of the serial entrepreneurs trumpeted by VC’s have no money themselves despite “successful” previous exits. He is not alone about the ineffectiveness of Venture Capital, I frequently hear from other successful entrepreneurs about it. And the situation may get worse before it gets better. The economy is offering VCs even more excuses to turn the screws, and control of companies is gained in more ways than a simple equity stake.
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship)
• Lesson From Google: Corp Accounts May Not Be Twitter's Golden Egg
  Often when an online start-up's revenue model is unclear to some or most people, the immediate assumption is that the answer must be corporate licenses or professional accounts. This has been the discussion around Twitter for some time and now I've been reading the same speculation about Bit.ly in a bunch of places speculation about Bit.ly as well.
  (tags: google Twitter)

links for 2009-05-13

• Analysts clash over android growth figures
  ANDROID SMARTPHONE shipments will purportedly grow a whopping 900 per cent according to some highly optimistic figures from excitable market research outfit, Strategy Analytics (SA). SA also blurted out it believed Apple's Iphone operating system will be the next fastest-growing smartphone OS in 2009, citing a predicted 79 per cent growth rate. Despite being a bit of a late bloomer, Google's open source Android platform seems to be gaining momentum amidst buffed up support from telco operators, developers and retailers alike, with SA noting the platform's presence is finally seeping through Europe and Asia.
  (tags: google Android)
• HiveLive Wins General Mills
  Boulder, Colorado-based social software publisher HiveLive has signed on consumer products giant General Mills, the firm disclosed this week. According to John Kembel, the firm's CEO, Generla Mills is using the firm's communities for market research and consumer insights. Financial terms of the win were not disclosed. Kembel said in a blog post that General Mills has so far launched HiveLive powered sites for four brands, including Nature Valley and Yoplait. HiveLive is backed by Aeneas Ventures and Grotech Capital Group.
  (tags: grotech vc)

links for 2009-05-11

• Start Your Online Business for Less Than $5,000
  Many in today's market are turning to internet businesses as a way to make money without the overhead of a brick-and-mortar store. After all, an internet-based business grows our market place to a global one--the internet has a global presence and our customers can come from all over the world. Regardless of the economic climate, the more customers the better. And you can get started for less than $5,000. What can you do with less than $5,000 to make a great web-based business? First, don't skimp on design. Work with a great designer who understands user experience. You should interview several web designers who are local to you so you can sit down and explain your vision to them. Logos are less important than usability-- how usable customers find your web site.
  (tags: Entrepreneurship)

links for 2009-05-09

• HammerTap Founder Takes Sole Ownership of Company
  HammerTap, which provides market research services to eBay sellers, announced that its president Greg Cole has recently acquired sole ownership of HammerTap and its associated companies. Previous owners Brian Clark, Todd Baum and Joe Rowberry along with former CEO Ty Hawkins are stepping down. "Over the past year, our companies have transitioned focus from offering a wide array of services, including personal business mentoring, to a more focused effort toward developing innovative online business software products," Cole stated in a press release. "Changes in ownership and leadership within the company are a natural and progressive step in this process."
  (tags: eBay)
• Can Startups Survive Recession Without VC Money?
  Little known fact: Apple and Microsoft were both started without venture capital and both started in a recession. So what's your fledgling company need to do to navigate the current economic climate? I got a pitch the other day from some fine fellows over at BDO Seidman, an accounting and consulting firm that participated in 73 public and private offerings, producing proceeds in excess of $10 billion over the past two years. Partners Bob Strasser and Bob Pearlman have a suggestion for startups: You can be wildly successful without VC investments in a down market.
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship)

links for 2009-05-08

• Obama's tax plans raises high-tech hackles - washingtonpost.com
  President Barack Obama's plan to impose U.S. taxes on corporate America's overseas profits threatens to open a big crater in the financial statements of technology companies. While additional taxes are rarely popular, Obama's decision to go after corporate earnings outside the United States is a particularly prickly subject for technology executives because the industry has been steadily boosting its overseas sales amid rising demand for its gadgetry and services.
  (tags: Politics)
• Online Sales Slip - eMarketer
  Only a few days ago, eMarketer ran an article (Online Sales Up) based on a study that showed US online retail sales on average were up 11% in Q1 2009. Looking forward, however, the projection for online sales in 2009 does not appear so rosy. After years of unbroken growth, eMarketer forecasts that continued recessionary pressure will cause online sales to actually contract in 2009—by 0.4%.
  (tags: ecommerce)

links for 2009-05-06

• Want To Position Your Start-Up To Be Acquired? Follow These Tips
  Last August, Hewlett-Packard Co. signed a letter of intent to pay $360 million cash for LeftHand Networks Inc., a venture-backed provider of storage systems. A few weeks later, Wall Street’s collapse sent the economy in a tailspin and threatened to knock the screws out of the deal. But after a two-week pause the two sides got back together and in November closed the acquisition on the same terms. Asked how LeftHand was able to command the same price despite the uncertainty created from the financial markets, an investor in the company said, “Maybe it’s because every Sunday I went to church and lit candles. Faith and religion are very important in the sale process.”
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship)
• Shopster Launches PowerMerchant
  E-Commerce merchant and affiliate network Shopster announced the launch of a new online retailing solution in PowerMerchant. A popular online drop-shipping solution, Shopster previously focused on helping affiliates aggregate products from wholesalers and sell those products as they chose. At last count there were more than one million products from 130 suppliers. PowerMerchant widens the scope of potential customers for Shopster by enabling more traditional merchants to list and sell their own products - not just tap into databases of Shopster partners and suppliers.
  (tags: ecommerce shopster)

links for 2009-05-05

• Moving Data around the Clouds
  In recent years, companies led by Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have helped usher in the era of cloud computing, in which businesses and individuals lease access to computing on demand, paying only for as much processing power as they need. And as often happens when a new industry emerges, there's been a flurry of startup activity in the cloud-computing industry over the past year or so. One startup, called Cloudkick, hopes to provide a simpler way to manage data stored across several different cloud-computing services. Cloudkick provides a unified, Web-based interface for monitoring data regardless of the cloud provider hosting it. Another feature launched recently by Cloudkick, called Cloudshift, lets customers transfer data between different cloud-computing providers with just a few clicks.
  (tags: Cloud)
• LogRhythm Named Colorado Company to Watch for 2009
  LogRhythm, the company that makes log data useful, today announced that it has been named a Colorado Company to Watch for 2009 by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade and a consortium of private and public organizations dedicated to supporting second-stage businesses in Colorado. The inaugural 50 Colorado Companies to Watch Awards recognize firms that demonstrate significant employee or sales growth, exceptional entrepreneurial leadership, and sustainable competitive advantage. Winners will be honored at a special award ceremony in Denver on Thursday, June 25, 2009. More than 250 companies were nominated for the Colorado Companies to Watch, a unique awards program that recognizes and celebrates the contribution, innovation and energy of diverse second-stage companies in the nation. These companies work behind-the-scenes generating the bulk of new jobs and are a powerful economic force underpinning the high quality of life most Americans enjoy.
  (tags: grotech vc)

links for 2009-05-02

• Does Anyone Trust the Media? - eMarketer
  People around the world do trust the media, but to varying degrees. According to TNS, the good news, for Internet content producers, is that people now trust the information they get from online news—roughly to the same degree as news from television and information from friends. Globally, the most trusted information source was friends, with 42% of those surveyed saying that they trusted word-of-mouth recommendations. About an equal number trusted TV news (41%), online news (40%) and newspapers (39%).
  (tags: media)

links for 2009-05-01

• 10 lessons from a failed startup » VentureBeat
  A year and a half ago, my co-founder Dev Nag and I started an internet TV network for games called PlayCafe. Our ambitious plan was to run highly interactive game shows in which everyone was a contestant. Players could watch our hosts, answer questions, win prizes, form teams, call our studio, live chat, and run their own games. It was a huge undertaking, but despite great engagement — users watched for 87 minutes per session and 40 percent returned within a week — we didn’t reach enough users. We may revive it in the future, but for now, we’ve placed the site in hibernation and returned remaining funds to our investors. What follows is a post-mortem of what we did right and wrong and how we will improve next time. I feel too many entrepreneurs are afraid to discuss their failures, locking up important lessons. I hope you find some of this useful.
  (tags: Entrepreneurship)
• Acquirers Back In The Game, But VCs Advised To Tread Carefully
  While venture capitalists search for a way to jumpstart the market for initial public offerings, corporate acquirers appear to be coming back on their own and giving investors a way to reap returns - if they can survive the negotiations, according to an investment banker. The M&A market has slowed down considerably since last September when the financial markets tumbled in the wake of Wall Street’s collapse. The fourth quarter saw just 65 M&A deals involving venture-backed companies, the lowest on record for a quarter, while the first quarter didn’t fare much better at 68 deals, according to industry tracker VentureSource. But there are some signs that large corporate buyers are getting back into the game. Dan Williams, a managing director in the technology practice of investment bank Montgomery & Co., said his firm is today seeing a very different mood than it did just 30 days ago.
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship finance)