Steve Woda's blog

Thank you buySAFE!

Today, I am starting a new chapter in my entrepreneurial story. It is with both a bit of sadness and a lot of excitement that I share with you the news that I have left buySAFE to pursue other start-up and entrepreneurial interests. In addition, I have joined buySAFE’s Board of Advisors so that I can continue to assist the company in whatever fashion is necessary.  Click here to see buySAFE's announcement on the buySAFE blog.

After almost nine years of building buySAFE, I am leaving the Company in very capable hands, with fresh funding, and the brightest future that the Company has ever had. It has been a deeply satisfying experience to create something valuable, and I want to sincerely thank our customers, our partners, my colleagues and the many investors who made buySAFE possible. I am obviously looking forward to my next adventure, but I am also very much looking forward to buySAFE’s continued success over the coming months and years.

I founded buySAFE after getting burned in an online transaction on eBay. As a student, I didn’t have any extra money to lose to ecommerce fraudsters, and so I decided that there had to be a better way to buy and sell products online. buySAFE was born!

This adventure started for me while I was earning my MBA at Wharton in 2000, and as with all start-ups, there have been huge successes and great challenges. For me, both have proven to be invaluable learning experiences.

Developing buySAFE’s early business/technology plan, acquiring our major financial institution and strategic partners (including two major strategic partners to be announced in the coming months), and raising our $30 million in venture capital financing were all challenges that I ultimately found to be great learning experiences. Over time, I was able to lead almost every aspect of buySAFE’s business operations, and all of these experiences were amazing for me personally and professionally. I plan to share with you many of the lessons I learned at buySAFE over the coming months.

Perhaps the thing I am most proud of at buySAFE is our team. Early on, I recruited Jeff Grass, Tim Woda, and Hans Dreyer to buySAFE. Today, Jeff is buySAFE’s CEO, Tim is the VP - Sales, and Hans is the VP - Operations. They are the core of our team even to this day. The rest of our team is amazing as well, and it has been a pleasure working with each and every one of them.

I never intended to spend almost a decade working on my Wharton class project, but along the way, buySAFE provided me with an amazing opportunity to make great friends, to learn important new skills, and to see that anything is possible with persistence and creativity. It also taught me that you can’t build a company by yourself.

Although I could never hope to name all of the folks that deserve my thanks, I wish I could. A few folks in particular - my wife, my brother, and buySAFE’s employees, customers, investors, and advisors - have all obviously been invaluable to both me and buySAFE. To all of you, thank you! I sincerely appreciate your investments in time, capital, expertise, and support. There would be no buySAFE without you.

As far as the next chapter in my entrepreneurial story, I am not ready to share the details quite yet, but please stay tuned. I will share my adventures with you here on my blog, so if you are interested, please make sure to subscribe using the form below.

Thank you buySAFE!

Related posts:

"Steve Woda, Founder and Chairman of buySAFE, Pursues New Entrepreneurial Ventures" on the buySAFE blog

"Founder of buySAFE, Steve Woda, Steps Down" on AuctionBytes.com

Zenoss Closes 2008 with 100 New Enterprise Customers & $15M in Financing

Zenoss Inc., the leading provider of commercial open source systems and network monitoring, today announced tremendous momentum through the end of 2008. In addition to astounding growth in commercial enterprise sales throughout the year, the company raised an additional $15 million of financing, was recognized with many awards including being named a finalist for a Jolt Award in the Enterprise Tools category and secured twice as many downloads as its nearest competitor in commercial open source IT management for 2008.

Zenoss added 110 new enterprise customers during the year, including Carlson Travel, Tyco Electronics, Cap Gemini, Formica and iStockphoto. Others, such as UTStarcom, Medifast, OpSource, OmniPresence, Broadcom, Johns Hopkins and Rackspace, renewed their annual subscriptions. Zenoss has gained the most traction in financial services, federal government, and among leading managed service providers where Zenoss management solutions are now routinely replacing traditional products from the "Big 4" systems management vendors (IBM, HP, BMC and CA).

As a result of this significant growth, Zenoss secured an additional $4 million in new financing from Silicon Valley Bank in December bringing the total raised to $15 million for the year and over $20 million cumulative. Other funding partners include top-tier venture capital firms Grotech Ventures, Intersouth Partners and Boulder Ventures.

Read more >> Zenoss Closes 2008 with Over 100 New Enterprise Customers, $15M in New Financing, and Numerous Industry Honors

 

Technorati Tags: Zenoss,Grotech Capital,Venture Capital

Shopping Advisor approved by Mozilla for Firefox

After two months of testing in Mozilla's developmental sandbox, Mozilla approved the buySAFE Shopping Advisor for public distribution via the Firefox Add-on site starting this week.

If you aren't already using Shopping Advisor with your Firefox browser, you should install it as an add-on today.  You can check it out on the official Mozilla Firefox Add-on site here... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9009

I am obviously excited about this big milestone, and as always, I hope you will continue to provide us with your feedback, insights and ideas on Shopping Advisor over the coming weeks and months.

Have fun, and happy new year!

Steve

JackBe Fueled to Extend Market Leadership; Adds $5 million in Funding

JackBe, the leading provider of enterprise mashup software, today announced that it has closed a $5 million round of funding and appointed software industry veteran Wayne Jackson as its new Chairman of the Board. The funding and appointment confirm JackBe's industry leadership and ready the company for continued growth and success through 2009 and beyond.

The $5 million funding was secured from existing investors including Harbert Venture Partners, Core Capital Partners, Blue Chip Venture Company, Intel Capital, and Darby Technology Ventures. The investment will be used by JackBe to expand sales, marketing, and partner activities worldwide.

Learn more >> JackBe Fueled to Extend Market Leadership; Adds $5 million in Funding and 25-year Industry Veteran as Chairman of the Board - MarketWatch

JackBe Lands $5 Million, Names Wayne Jackson as Chairman - Silicon Valley Wire

JackBe jacks another round with $5 million - Startup Meme Technology Blog

Technorati Tags: Core Capital,Venture Capital,Pascal Luck,JackBe

Dancing with First Round Capital

First Round Capital's 2008 Holiday Card (video) proves once again why every early-stage entrepreneur wants to find a way to meet with this terrific investor group.  Check it out! 

These guys are creative; they have been in the trenches themselves (multiple times!); they have been successful (multiple times!); and most of all, they like working with entrepreneurs because they are entrepreneurs.

I have had the pleasure of working with and knowing lots of technology investors, and along the way, I have learned a thing or two about who you want to try and work with (and what you want to avoid).  These guys are good.  Period.  In addition, their holiday video is brilliant, low-cost, and fun, and it highlights their strengths in an intangible, yet powerful manner.

Let me share one quick story that illustrates why I like these guys so much.  Although they won't likely remember it, both Howard Morgan and Josh Kopelman provided me with a helping hand while I was trying to get buySAFE launched back in 2001.  I was introduced to Howard via a mutual friend, John Tedesco, and Howard offered to meet with me in NYC and provide me with feedback on my business plan.  At the time, the venture was called BondMyAuction.  I was not ready for primetime, and yet, Howard spent two hours listening to me and coaching me on how I could improve my plan.  Howard also introduced me to Josh Kopelman.  At the time, Josh was an executive at eBay because he had recently sold his business, Half.com, to the ecommerce giant.  For no reason other than to be helpful to me, Josh also spent almost two hours on the phone giving me feedback and advice on how to proceed. 

I will be forever grateful for their assistance since I was no more than an aspiring entrepreneur with a paper napkin business plan.  Their help was both gracious and inspiring.  In many ways, they (along with a few others like them) gave me the extra motivation and confidence that I needed to stick it out through the inevitable challenges of getting a business launched.  Since then, I have tried to return the favor with other aspiring entrepreneurs because of their good example (although I am quite sure that I could never be as helpful as they were for me).

Again, check out First Round Capital's holiday video, and I think you will agree with me.  These guys are authentic, and entrepreneurs clearly have good reason to want to work with them.

Nice job Howard and Josh!  For everyone else, enjoy!  http://holiday.firstround.com/

Roundbox Raises $20 Million for Mobile Broadcast Software

RoundBox, a provider of mobile broadcast software, announced on Monday that it has raised over $20 million in its third round of venture capital funding, led by Montagu Newhall Associates. Itochu Techno-Solutions Corporation, and previous backers Core Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners and RRE Ventures also participated in the round, which will be used to invest in product development and customer delivery.

Learn more >> Roundbox Raises $20 Million for Mobile Broadcast Software - Digital Media Wire

Roundbox Secures Over $20 Million in Series C Financing

Technorati Tags: Core Capital,Roundbox,Venture Capital

Infinite Power Solutions, a thin micro-cell firm, raises $13 million

Infinite Power Solutions Inc. (IPS), a developer of solid-state, rechargeable thin-film batteries, has said it has completed its Series B round of financing, raising $13 million to fund the ramp to volume production of its Thinergy micro-energy cell product family.

Existing financial investors D. E. Shaw Ventures and Polaris Venture Partners led the Series B round, and were joined by the company's other existing investors Core Capital Partners, Applied Ventures LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials and In-Q-Tel, along with a unnamed strategic investor.

Learn more >> Thin micro-cell firm raises $13 million - EETimes.com

Technorati Tags: Core Capital,Venture Capital,Infinite Power Solutions

How Do You Win a Business Plan Competition?

The short answer is that you need to be very, very good.  There are a lot of terrific, aspiring entrepreneurs out there, and so a bit of luck is useful too.  Having said that, winning isn't everything. 

buySAFE is actually a product of the 2002 Wharton Business Plan Competition, but the plan was not the winning plan.  PayMyBills.com has a similar story.  The founders and my good friends, Jeff Grass and John Tedesco, were finalists, but not winners, in the 1999 Wharton Business Plan Competition.  However, they went on to raise tens of millions in venture capital and they built a really nice business in the process. 

Simply going through the business planning and critique process is the real benefit of these competitions in my opinion.  Business plans are funny things.  Business planning is a fairly simple exercise, but if you haven't previously developed a plan, the effort can seem very daunting.  Business plan competitions typically provide basic advice to the entrepreneurs on how to get started.  The competitions also have multiple stages with each stage presenting an opportunity to receive valuable feedback from the experienced entrepreneurs and investors that are judging and/or mentoring in the competition.

The following Business Week video does a nice job of covering the basics regarding what you need to know before submitting your business plan.

Winning a Business Plan Competition | The Businessweek Video Library

In the video, the University of Oregon's Randy Swangard talks about how to win that business plan competition -- what to keep in mind before you apply, and why it's sometimes better to come in second.

The Wharton Club of New York is running a business plan competition now, and here is all the information you need to enter as a participant.  I highly encourage you to participate if you can.

Also, you might find the following NY Times article interesting.  "Beyond Grades: Business Students Put Their Start-up Ideas to the Test" does a nice job of covering the ins and outs of business school business plan competitions.

Have fun, and good luck!

Core Capital leads venture round for RollStream

Core Capital Partners led a $6 million round of funding for RollStream Inc., a developer of supply-chain software. Fairfax-based RollStream said the latest round of funding from the D.C.-based venture capital firm will be used to bolster its portfolio of enterprise community software services.

RollStream's Web-based platform helps manage partner relationships, letting businesses cut the costs and time required partners, communicate operational changes, and unveil sales and marketing initiatives.

Learn more >> Core Capital leads venture round for RollStream - Washington Business Journal:

Technorati Tags: Core Capital,Venture Capital,RollStream,Will Dunbar

Core Capital Partners Invests in $14.5 Million Round for Trust Digital

Core Capital Partners, a leading venture capital firm that invests in high-growth technology companies, announced today it is participating in a $14.5 million funding round for McLean, Va.-based Trust Digital, a leading enterprise mobility management (EMM) provider.

The funding will be used to extend Trust Digitals platform to include Research in Motions BlackBerry devices, the Apple iPhone and Google Android. The funds will also go toward expanding direct sales and channel partner support.

Learn more >> Core Capital Partners Invests in $14.5 Million Round for Trust Digital

Technorati Tags: Core Capital,Pascal Luck,Venture Capital,Trust Digital

V.i. Labs Secures $4 Million in Additional Funding

V.i. Labs, a provider of software protection solutions, received $4 million in additional funding to accelerate its product development efforts and expand platform support for its CodeArmor software protection and intelligence solutions. Existing investors, Core Capital and Ascent Ventures, participated in the expansion round.

Learn more >> V.i. Labs Secures $4 Million in Additional Funding

Technorati Tags: Core Capital,Venture Capital,V.i. Labs

Obama is More Famous, But Paris Has a Better Energy Policy

Okay.  I couldn't resist digressing a bit today.

Paris might not be as famous as Obama, but she seems to have a better energy policy than he does.  She makes fun of the "white haired dude" as well.  This spoof is a classic. 

Nicely done Paris.  You're "so hot!"  :)

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Also, while I have you here, please check out buySAFE's new safe shopping tool, Shopping Advisor.  This revolutionary application is something that my team has been working on for more than a year, and the industry reviews have been tremendous thus far.  Of course, I would love to get your comments and feedback as well.

Here is the scoop... The buySAFE Shopping Advisor is a free browser plug-in that enables consumers to shop online safely and securely. The Shopping Advisor provides objective ratings on eCommerce websites (almost 400,000 as of this morning) so consumers have the information they need to make safe and informed online shopping decisions.  More importantly, Shopping Advisor provides exclusive access to a unique safe shopping channel where every purchase is guaranteed with a bond up to $25,000 and identity theft protected – at no cost.

Have fun, and buy safe!

A Little Challenge to the Private Sector

Today's post is provided by Joan Herbig.  Joan is the Chief Executive Officer for ControlScan, a leading provider of security and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance solutions designed exclusively for small- to medium-sized e-commerce businesses.

******************************************

I recently sent some employees to a seminar to get an industry-recommended security certificate. The seminar is aimed at providing education on the newest and hottest cyber threats.

With all the news of mega breaches out there, including one I just wrote about on www.esecuritydiva.com, it would seem as if an information-packed seminar such as this one would be packed with IT people, right? Actually, it was. But with public sector IT people. Private sector attendees were few and far between.

What’s going on here? This little piece of news could be a telltale:

Does Your VC's Fund Have the Capacity to Do Follow-on Rounds of Financing?

Another great post on TheFunded.com....

When considering a term sheet from a prospective VC, it is key to understand whether they have have the means to fund follow-on rounds. Most VCs will not do cross over funding and often startups find themselves in trouble when their VCs can not provide subsequent financing. So, it is key to determine...

If your VC's fund is having problems (financial, political, hiring or retention, etc..) or if your VC's fund is at the end of its lifecycle, you may ultimately experience artificial, unnecessary problems that you will have to navigate in the future while running your business.  For entrepreneurs, this is a very serious issue to consider before you allow an investment, not after an investment has already taken place.

Read the rest of this article at TheFunded.com: Fund Diligence Item in order to learn the three critical questions you should ask your prospective investors before taking their venture capital dollars.

Technorati Tags: Venture Capital,VC Due Diligence,Follow-on Financing,Grotech,Core Capital,The Hartford Ventures,buySAFE,Steve Woda

Post Funding Advice for VC-backed Entrepreneurs

If you have ever raised venture capital, you know how important the post-funding relationship is with your venture capital investors.  Your pre-money valuation and financing terms are all important needless to say, but to be candid, the post-funding relationship you have (or are likely to have based on a VC's previous track record) is probably the most important issue for you to consider as an entrepreneur.

An experienced entrepreneur posted a great article on the subject on TheFunded.com, and here is an excerpt of the article...

There are a lot of postings here about getting the initial term sheet and getting the VC on board. However, just like marriages, many of these courting periods can be quite different from the month to month evolving operations and business that we face a year or two down the road. Remember that often these VCs will sit on your board, and direct your business in different ways and depending on your dilution can dictate how operational decisions should be made. Thus, it is important to get an early feel from your VC dialogue, especially how they would respond if the actual business is less than the wonderful picture we sometimes paint in our pitches.

If I can give you piece of advice that you need to follow religiously in your quest for venture capital, it is that you MUST speak to the entrepreneurs and CEOs that have previously taken money from and worked with the VC firm and the VC partner that you are considering.  Do not limit your discussions to the entrepreneurs and CEOs of the successful deals, but rather, you should talk to the entrepreneurs and CEOs of the unsuccessful deals as well.  In my experience, the VCs play a critical role in both outcomes, and you need to make sure you get the full, unedited scoop before you take money from a VC.  This is absolutely critical to your success or failure as a startup.

Speaking of which, I am always happy to share my insights on this subject with folks that are interested, so don't hesitate to email me with your questions.

You can read more of the original article here >> TheFunded.com: The post funding experience

Technorati Tags: Venture Capital,Post Funding Advice,Grotech,Core Capital,The Hartford Ventures,buySAFE,Steve Woda

Grotech Ventures Leads a $6.6 Million Series B Round of Funding for Collective Intellect

TechCrunch reported last week that Grotech Ventures has led another round of financing for Collective Intellect.  The following is an excerpt from TechCrunch.

Collective Intellect, a service that can be used to track what people are saying around the net about certain topics, has raised an additional $6.6M in a Series B round led by Grotech Capital Group with participation by Appian Ventures, Croghan Investments, and Crawley Hatfield Capital.

You can read more about the financing here >> More Money for Collective Intellect to Keep Fingers on Pulse of Internet

Technorati Tags: Grotech,Collective Intellect,Venture Capital,Appian Ventures,Croghan Investments,Crawley Hatfield

From Messes To Successes

One of my favorite VC bloggers is Fred Wilson, and he wrote another great post this past week.  "From Messes to Successes" is an interesting article about his experiences with "problem" portfolio companies.  As you would hope would be the case with any good venture capitalist, he and his team have helped turn many of these "problems" into fabulous outcomes.

Here is an excerpt from his article...

When I look back at my 20+ year history of venture investing, it's certainly true that the biggest successes have been big messes at some point in their life. My most successful venture investment at Euclid, Multex, almost went bankrupt before the Internet came along and provided a cheap way to get it's service to its customers. Geocities, which was our most successful investment at Flatiron, was a total mess in mid/late 1997, about a year after we first invested. And our most successful investment to date at Union Square Ventures, TACODA, was a mess multiple times including when the first build of its software totally failed on them. Delicious also had plenty of messy moments in its brief period in our portfolio.

The core point of Fred's article is that startups are often messy due to the hyper-focus on the product and the market.  He goes on to argue that this may be what ultimately makes them companies great companies once they finally get their act together on process and operations.

I agree.  Building a great product is a pre-requisite for success.  When you get the product right, you can build a company around it.  Without a great product, you will end up throwing a lot of money at something that won't ultimately succeed.

Start with the product.  Make it great.  Build the team the processes and operations around that great product.  That is how you build a great, successful business.

You can read more of Fred's article here >> A VC: From Messes To Successes

Technorati Tags: Fred Wilson,A VC,Venture Capital,Union Square Ventures,Messes to Successes

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-21

• Report: Paid Search Top Acquisition Tool for Retailers - Adotas
  In a year of dismal retail sales projections, a recent report says Americans will continue to snap up clothes, computers and cars online. A Shop.org conducted by Forrester Research found that online retail sales should climb 17% this year to $204 billion.


• TheFind powers commerce in Elle's content community - Comparison Shopping Engine Strategies
  It's been said that content, community and commerce is the holy grail to Internet success, and that's just what TheFind is now doing. The partnership effectively creates a destination shopping site on Elle.com, leveraging TheFind's competency in lifestyle goods, piping in products from merchants that match ELLE's audience.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-17

• Targeting, Ad Network Spending Increase - eMarketer
  More than nine out of 10 US advertising agencies and advertisers buying online media plan to work with ad networks in 2008, according to Collective Media's "Ad Network Study 2008."  Nearly three-quarters of respondents said that they planned to spend more with ad networks in 2008 than they did in 2007.


• ISPs meddled with their customers' Web traffic by Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
  In a paper, set to be delivered Wednesday, the researchers document some troubling practices. In July and August they tested data sent to about 50,000 computers and discovered that a small number of ISPs were injecting ads into Web pages on their networks. They also found that some Web browsing and ad-blocking software was actually making Web surfing more dangerous by introducing security vulnerabilities into pages.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-16

• Does Your Company Need a Chief Blogger? - Advertising Age
  It's a question marketers are still grappling with years after the first waves of corporate blogging flooded the web. But for better or worse, it seems corporate blogging -- and the title of chief blogger -- is beginning to hit its stride. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Marriott and Kodak all have recently recruited chief bloggers, with or without the actual title, to tell their stories and engage consumers.


• Brands Partner With Consumers Online - eMarketer
  These days, online consumers and companies are collaborating on a range of activities, including R&D, marketing and after-sales support.  Here are a few examples of how brands and consumers are working together online.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-14

• Is Yahoo Right to Resist Microsoft?
  Yahoo's resistance to a takeover by Microsoft looks foolhardy to some investors and Wall Street analysts. But the push-back may prove effective in the end—at least by forcing the suitor to cough up a few more bucks a share.  Executives from Yahoo (YHOO) on Apr. 7 reiterated the reasons for their opposition. The $31-a-share offer, made public Feb. 1, "substantially undervalues" Yahoo, and its stock component is even less attractive in light of Microsoft's (MSFT) slumping share price. "We have continued to launch new products and to take actions which leverage our scale, technology, people, and platforms as we execute on the strategy we publicly articulated," Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock wrote.


• Yahoo Gets a Deadline
  Microsoft (MSFT) just dropped the bomb on Yahoo (YHOO). Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Apr. 5 sent a letter giving Yahoo's board three weeks before it initiates a proxy fight, including nomination of a new slate of directors likely to approve the deal.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-10

• Eyeing Prices as Search Keeps Growing - eMarketer
  Even as some marketers rein in spending to hedge against further economic problems, search engine marketing (SEM) is in great shape—at least for the moment.  Search engine advertisers and agencies surveyed for the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)-sponsored "2007 State of the Market" survey listed multiple reasons for the SEM spending growth, including advertiser demand, rising keyword and pay-per-click campaign costs, small-to-midsized business SEM use and increased behavioral and demographic targeting.  The study was conducted by Radar Research online using an IntelliSurvey panel.


• Your Former Boss Can Kill Your Job Offer: Vault Job Search Career Information
  Many job seekers are blithely unaware that their former employers all too often say things that can damage or halt their career prospects. Most of this is due to the erroneous belief that it's somehow illegal to ask about things other than title and dates of employment during a reference check.  This is simply not true.  Today's courts have literally invented a whole new body of law called "Employment Law." Bundled in this tangle of law is employment pre-screening, otherwise known as reference checking.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-08

• Just What We Needed, Google on Speed - Google Everflux
  Is it just me or has Google gone into overdrive? As a professional full-time online marketer I have to keep my mind firmly placed on what Google is doing. As much as I try not to because Google has probably driven more people around the bend than Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz put together. Like any professional marketer, I monitor my numerous keywords on a daily basis - especially my major targeted keyword phrases that bring in the most sales and subscribers. For years now, I have had top rankings in Google for my chosen phrases; they move up and down, but mostly they don't leave the first page.


• Beam it up: Tiny projectors to magnify cell-phone cinema - Technology Review
  Recognizing that it is not much fun to watch movies on a tiny cell phone, a number of companies are racing to develop gadgets that project what's playing on the small screen onto walls, table cloths and other handy surfaces. ''Pico projectors'' that are small enough to carry around in a shirt pocket are expected on the market later this year. Eventually, the technology will be tiny enough to be built into phones and portable media players, the companies say.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-07

• Busting a Rogue Blogger
  Of the many blogs born last May, Patent Troll Tracker seemed as innocuous as any. Its focus: the obscure but controversial subject of "patent trolls," a derogatory term used to describe businesses that make money by purchasing patents and then suing big companies for infringement. The author was clearly no fan of the practice, but his or her identity was a mystery. The "about me" section of the blog noted that the writer was simply "a patent lawyer trying to gather and organize information about patent litigation."  Through regular, copious posts, Troll Tracker quickly drew a devoted following in patent law circles, even among those who disagreed with its point of view. What readers didn't know, however, was that the blogger was Rick Frenkel, in-house patent counsel at Cisco Systems (CSCO), the Internet infrastructure giant.


• Ad Spending Grows on News Sites, But... - eMarketer
  Ad spending on newspaper Web sites increased to $3.2 billion in 2007, up 18.8% over 2006, according to preliminary estimates released by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) in late March.  The trade group said that online ad spending accounted for 7.5% of all newspaper ad spending in 2007, up from 5.7% in 2006.

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-04

• Google's Gamble
  Can fewer clicks on its search ads lead to more revenue for Google? That is the question investors, analysts, and the company itself are trying to answer. The debate was launched after a Mar. 26 report from researcher comScore (SCOR) showed a decline in the number of clicks from the prior month on Google's search-related ads. According to the research firm, clicks on ads declined 3% in February from the prior month and were up just 3% compared to last year. Some analysts cautioned investors against buying additional Google (GOOG) shares; Google's stock declined 3% on Mar. 27, to $444.


• Mashup Security - Technology Review
  Mashups--online applications that combine data and tools from different websites--are becoming increasingly useful. Although they started out as simple consumer programs, such as a tool that placed housing listings from Craigslist onto Google Maps, mashups have grown in complexity and are becoming popular with corporations, too. As a growing number of tools are released to help people easily build mashups, experts are also taking a look at how to head off the security risks.

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Improve Your Web Site

At buySAFE, our web site is one of our greatest assets.  It is the main avenue by which we communicate with prospective buyer and merchant customers, partners, the media, and investors.  It is the main tool we have for defining buySAFE for the rest of the world.  It is the vehicle we use for creating action with respect to our unique eCommerce trust and safety and advertising services. 

I spend a fair amount of my time thinking about how to better leverage this asset, and then working with my team to improve upon its utility.

Therefore, when I ran across this article, "101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site" by Inside CRM Editors, I thought you would enjoy it too.  Here are their first 10 web site improvement tips, and if you are interested in learning more, you should definitely click through to read their other 91 tips as well.

1. Tell readers why they should perform a task. If your site is full of passive suggestions, toughen it up. People are trained to follow a request, as long as you give them a good reason to do it. 
2. Make the most highly trafficked pages easier to scan. If your current site consists of large blocks of text, break it up so that it's easier for the average Internet user to read. 
3. Convey a sense of trust. If you're experiencing skepticism, offer social proof like testimonials or risk-mitigating offers like a free trial. 
4. Stress benefits. Ensure that your copy always shows users exactly how your site will benefit them. 
5. Make headlines meaningful. Be sure to change any vague or cutesy headlines to something more up-front and meaningful. 
6. Repeat yourself. Check over your copy to make sure that you're really driving the point home by making it in a number of ways. 
7. Tell visitors what to do. Revise your site to ensure that people know exactly what the next step is. If you want a visitor to click a link, tell them 
8. Keep the reader engaged. Make sure that your current content gives visitors a reason to keep reading throughout the entire piece; otherwise, you need to spice things up a bit. 
9. Stay consistent. Check your copy for consistency, or else your site may be seen as unstable or flighty. 
10. Stay simple. Simplify your message simply to avoid confusing visitors, while at the same time improving conversion rates.

Read the other 91 web site improvement tips at "101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site" - Inside CRM >>>

Technorati Tags: Website Tips,Inside CRM

So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?

I have discovered the hard way that blogging is not an easy endeavor, and this is especially true for folks that have real jobs during the day.  At a minimum, it takes time, dedication, and creativity.  I have often wondered how to others do such a great job with their blogs while still maintaining excellence in their day jobs.  To that point, I thought this article was very interesting, and it included a number of practical tips for all of us aspiring bloggers.  I hope you find this useful as well.

MARK CUBAN, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has a full plate. Besides his basketball team, the busy billionaire also owns part of a media company, and serves as chairman of the TV channel HDNet. He recently competed for five weeks on “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC. How on earth does he find time to blog?

Yet his site, blogmaverick.com, is one of the top 1,000 Weblogs, according to the search engine Technorati. Thousands read Mr. Cuban’s posts every single day. If he can do it, why can’t you?

Read more of "So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?" - New York Times >>>

 

Technorati Tags: Blogging,Mark Cuban,Blogmaverick.com,Technorati,Ted Dziuba,Uncov.com,Xeni Jardin,BoingBoing.net

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-25

• Region's Venture Capital Rank Slips - washingtonpost.com
  Regions of the West Coast and Midwest moved ahead of Washington as top destinations for venture capital in recent years, as the local venture economy grew more slowly than the national average, a Washington Post analysis shows. In 2001, the year the technology bubble popped, Washington ranked sixth among top destinations for venture capital, after Silicon Valley, New England, the New York metro area, Texas and the Southeast. Last year, it was ranked 10th, overtaken by the Northwest, San Diego, the Midwest and Los Angeles/Orange County.


• Hammering out Wikipedia's financial future, argument by argument - Technology Review
  Scroll the list of the 10 most popular Web sites in the U.S., and you'll encounter the Internet's richest corporate players -- names like Yahoo, Amazon.com, News Corp., Microsoft and Google. Except for No. 7: Wikipedia. And there lies a delicate situation. With 2 million articles in English alone, the Internet encyclopedia ''anyone can edit'' stormed the Web's top ranks through the work of unpaid volunteers and the assistance of donors. But that gives Wikipedia far less financial clout than its Web peers, and doing almost anything to improve that situation invites scrutiny from the same community that proudly generates the content.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-21

• Report ranks Washington and Baltimore hotbed for investors - Washington Business Journal:
  The Washington and Baltimore region was the nation's fifth fastest-growing area for venture capital funding in the last decade, according to a report released Tuesday. In 2007, 180 Washington and Baltimore companies received nearly $1.3 billion in venture capital backing, the MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association said. That number is up 130 percent from $558.24 million put into 105 companies in 1997.  The report lists Timonium, Md.-based Grotech Capital Group and Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates as the most active investors in the region. The top industries for investments around the region were software, life sciences and telecommunications.


• Affluent Hobnob on Social Networks - eMarketer
  The rate of affluent US Internet user participation in online social networks increased dramatically to 60% in January 2008, from 27% in January 2007, according to The Luxury Institute's latest WealthSurvey "The Wealthy and Web 2.0."  "While some in the luxury industry are still debating e-commerce, search and banner ads, the majority of their customers have leaped into the online dialogue," said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. "Luxury needs to catch up quickly."

The Technology That Toppled Eliot Spitzer - Technology Review

If there is a lesson from former New York governor Eliot Spitzer's scandal-driven fall (aside from the most obvious one), it is this: banks are paying attention to even the smallest of your transactions.

For this we can thank modern software, and post-9/11 U.S. government pressure to find evidence of money laundering and terrorist financing. Experts say that all major banks, and even most small ones, are running so-called anti-money-laundering software, which combs through as many as 50 million transactions a day looking for anything out of the ordinary.

In Spitzer's case, according to newspaper reports, it was three wire transfers amounting to just $5,000 apiece that set alarm bells ringing.

Read more of "The Technology That Toppled Eliot Spitzer" - Technology Review >>>

 

Technorati Tags: Bank Fraud Software,Eliot Spitzer

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-19

• Woman to record industry: Stop spying
  A woman who claims the recording industry's anti-music piracy campaign threatens and intimidates innocent people has filed a new complaint accusing record companies of racketeering, fraud and illegal spying.


• Startup RatePoint bets that people want user reviews refereed - Technology Review
  One of the great things about the Internet is the way people post reviews on just about anything you are considering trying, whether it is a movie, a new restaurant or the local florist.  This also introduces one of the worst things about the Internet: trying to figure out which reviews to trust. Was that effusive praise written surreptitiously by the merchant? Was that anonymous online slam posted by a devious competitor?  The dilemma might be unavoidable in this age of abundant user-generated content, when we have to be smarter about separating signals from noise. But a startup called RatePoint Inc. begs to differ. It wants to play referee, giving consumers more clarity into a business' reputation and protecting the business from unwarranted blights on its credibility.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-13

• Direct Marketers Bullish on Online Ads - eMarketer
  US direct marketers may reduce their media budgets this year, judging by Target Marketing's "Media Usage Forecast" report. Nearly one-quarter of respondents surveyed in January 2008 said they would reduce their media budgets compared with last year. The n


• Yahoo activates smart mobile bookmarks - Reuters
  Yahoo Inc, still fending off a $41 billion takeover bid by Microsoft Corp, unveiled a cell phone tool on Tuesday that lets users keep up with their favorite topics using dynamic bookmarks. OnePlace, to be launched in the second quarter, allows users to ma

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-08

• Jeremy Siegel on Politicians, Prices and a Potential 'Buying Opportunity of the Decade' - Knowledge@Wharton
  The U.S. Presidential race has reached a critical juncture. The Republicans have a confirmed nominee in John McCain; as for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton has bounced back, while Barack Obama retains a marginal lead in terms of delegates. How the presidential race evolves will be shaped in part by the increasingly worrisome state of the U.S. economy. Consumer prices are rising, oil has crossed $103 a barrel and gold is nudging $1,000 an ounce -- suggesting that the economy could be entering a phase of 1970s-style stagflation. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, however, told Congress last week that he doesn't anticipate stagflation, and he continues to indicate his willingness to keep cutting interest rates. What lies ahead for the U.S. and world economies? Knowledge@Wharton discussed these questions and more with finance professor Jeremy Siegel, author of The Future for Investors.


• Ecommerce Blogging: Who, What And When: Well-written blogs create credibility, interest
  Last month I talked about blogging platforms and the value blogging can bring to ecommerce sites. When a website makes the decision to begin a blog and decides upon a blogging platform, it will then have to decide who will blog and how often. Time allotted to blogging is also a relative issue, as is subject matter. So why bother at all?  Relative to static ecommerce sites, search engines consider blogs more real and trusted because blogs tend to have fresh content and there is a less financial, more informational link between a blog and its readers. An ecommerce site should take advantage of this tendency by adding a blog to augment the overall site.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-07

• Sites With Anti-Fraud Sign Still Flawed - The Associated Press
  When a small padlock appears in the corner of your Web browser's address bar or the entire bar turns green, it seems like a powerful signal you're safe to proceed.  But experts say the SSL certificates those green lights signify — digital stamps of approval that Web sites buy to prove they're running a legitimate business and can send and receive encrypted data safely — don't provide the safety they seem to.  "They instill some sense of security, but that could be a dangerously false sense of security," said Paul Mutton, a researcher with UK-based security firm Netcraft Ltd.  The site itself could still be riddled with security holes for hackers to exploit. And the certificate could simply be bogus: Criminals have been forging them to get the padlock icon and dress up fraudulent sites.


• Web 2.0's Long Road to IPOs
  During the Web's heyday, a profitable Internet company nearing $100 million in annual sales while luring a million new customers a month would have found itself on the IPO fast track. But that's hardly the case for LinkedIn, a professional networking site that has cleared those hurdles and then some.  Instead, LinkedIn is hewing closely to the Web economy's new motto on initial public offerings: Easy does it. Founded in 2003, LinkedIn may not sell shares until some time next year. Likewise, social networking site Facebook, worth $15 billion on paper, may not go public until 2010,

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-06

• The Tipping Point—Web Logo Style
  The other day, a friend who runs a small business lamented that his Web site wasn't worth the trickle of business it brought in. Something told me he's not alone. In fact, some estimates have found the majority of small-business Web sites fail to generate revenue.  Which is too bad, because I think that entrepreneurs like my friend make a mistake by blaming the site itself, or even the medium of the Web. The problem, in my view, is not the site—it's the lack of trust in the company behind the site. Trust is an elusive concept, of course; the sort of term bandied about freely in Marketing 101 but rarely defined adequately since any of us found ourselves in that class. Building trust is important. Building trust via your Web site is essential. Now here comes the biggie: How?


• A VC: Thoughts On Choosing Board Members
  I am a professional board member. I've been sitting on boards for almost 20 years and I've seen a lot. I've seen some of the best board members in action and have tried to copy them. I've seen some of the worst board members in action and have tried hard to forget them.  Here are some thoughts on choosing board members. This advice is for everyone, but it's of particular use when you are a bigger company, maybe public, and need to fill your board with good people.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-02

• The Psychology Of Buying - Behavioral Insider
  The recently launched 7 Billion People is an intriguing application to e-commerce of the real-world psychology behind buying behaviors. As CEO Mark Nagaitis tells us, his new Web analytics system tries to discern in a site's audience different "buying personalities" that marketers can talk with in very different ways.


• InternetNews Realtime IT News – Americans' e-Commerce Conundrum
  A new study from the Pew Internet Project casts light on the love-hate relationship many Americans have with e-commerce. In response to the survey, 78 percent of U.S. Internet users said that online shopping is convenient, and 68 percent said it saves time. Yet, 75 percent said they don't like giving out personal information like a credit card number over the Internet.  The security risks, real or perceived, are hampering the growth of the Internet economy, said John Horrigan, associate director of the Pew Internet Project and author of the report.

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-01

• Google Muscles Further Into Business Software - Forbes.com
  Google is launching Web-based collaboration software that aims to make it easy for groups to share and edit materials such as documents, photos, video and spreadsheets on a single site. Easy enough, Google hopes, to make selling software applications to enterprises a bit harder for the likes of IBM and Microsoft.


• Use of Google for Data Triggers Fears
  It's called "Google hacking" - a slick data-mining technique used by the Internet's cops and crooks alike to unearth sensitive material mistakenly posted to public Web sites.  And it's just gotten easier, thanks to a program that automates what has typically been painstaking manual labor. The program's authors say they hope it will "screw a large Internet search engine and make the Web a safer place."

Daily Roundup for 2008-02-29

• New York Comes to Silicon Valley
  The relationship between the venture capitalists of Sand Hill Road and the securities firms and power investors of Wall Street has long been a cozy one. VCs hoping for a return on their investments will need banks eventually, while Wall Street needs VCs to nurture the most promising startups until they're ready to go public.  Or do they?  Lately, some of New York's biggest players have been cherry-picking the best pre-IPO investments for themselves.


• Yelp Critiques Heard and Heeded in D.C. - washingtonpost.com
  Although the tiny, family-run Joy's Spa and Nail Salon in Adams Morgan may never get a critique in a newspaper, it's received 42 reviews on Yelp.com.  Reggie Tull, the owner's son and a massage therapist, said he noticed an increase in traffic with every new review posted on the recommendation site. He's also surprised by the time writers invest in each posting.

The eMarket for Lemons at The Wharton School

I had the opportunity to speak at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania last week about an article that Dr. Eric Clemons recently authored for the Journal of Management Information Systems, "An Empirical Investigation of Third-Party Seller Rating Systems in E-Commerce: The Case of buySAFE".  My presentation was focused on marketplace economics and specifically about information asymmetry, signaling, the "Market for Lemons" concept, and buySAFE.  In addition, I was able to share a few thoughts about my entrepreneurial experience with buySAFE.

As always, I had a great time as the guest of Dr. Eric Clemons, and I enjoyed hearing the passionate questions, insights and feedback from the students.  One of the students posted an article about my visit on his blog, The Un-Wharton. 

Should Entrepreneurs Worry About the Loyalties of Their Lawyers?

Should entrepreneurs worry about the loyalties of their lawyers?  That is the question posed in a recent article on TheFunded.com, and to be honest, it is a fair question.

Most venture financings have closing legal expenses in the mid-five figures, and I know of Series B deals where the closing expenses have approached a quarter million dollars (yes, you heard me right... $250,000).  At the end of the day, these expenses are ultimately paid for by investors.  In addition, within local venture ecosystems, the venture lawyers obviously do many deals with the venture capitalists in their area over the course of time.  These factors certainly create the potential for major conflicts of interest, and according to many entrepreneurs, the conflicts of interest are real.

My team has always had the benefit of terrific legal counsel, and we haven't personally struggled with this issue.  However, if you honestly assess the dynamics of the venture relationships as well as the economics of where and how corporate lawyers get paid, you will have to agree that entrepreneurs probably should be keeping a close eye on your lawyers.

As I mentioned, there was a terrific post on this subject at TheFunded.com - Venture Legal: A Conflict of Interest and a Complicated Mess.  The author of this post hit the issue right on the nail.

The eMarket for Lemons and The University of Maryland

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak to a few hundred business school students at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.  Michael Beveridge, buySAFE's VP of Business Intelligence, joined me in speaking at the invitation of Professors Guodong (Gordon) Gao, Peter Weiss, and Mingfeng Lin.  The students had previously read "buySAFE - Creating and Profiting From the Bonded Seller Advantage", a case study on buySAFE authored by Wharton professor, Dr. Eric Clemons.  Here is the presentation that Michael and I shared with the students... "eMarket for Lemons - The Economics of an Evolving eCommerce Marketplace".

As always, it was a terrific experience for me.  The students were extremely prepared, and they had definitely done their homework on buySAFE, information asymmetry, and the ecommerce marketplace in general.  If you ever want to get an excellent sense of how well your marketing efforts are working or how well you are educating the market about your solution, I highly recommend inviting a couple hundred college students to study your product or service and let them give you feedback.  I loved it!

Read more about Dr. Guodong (Gordon) Gao >>

A Few Interesting, Recent eCommerce and Entrepreneurship Articles

Good morning everyone!  If you know me well, you know that I am a voracious reader of anything and everything that I believe is interesting or useful either personally or professionally.  My colleagues will attest to the fact that their Inbox usually has at least one article that I have recent found that might be useful for them or buySAFE. :)

Today, I have been catching-up on my reading list, and I thought I would share with you a few articles that I found interesting.  Hopefully, you will some of the info interesting as well.

Steve

Google is an advertising cheapskate!

What is the most valuable brand in the world?  Google is the number one brand in the world with an estimated value of $66 billion according consulting firm Millward Brown Optimor. 
This got me thinking... How did Google become the most valuable brand in the world in just a short nine years?  As the Founder of a consumer-focused internet company, I find this question very interesting.  Conventional wisdom would suggest that Google must spend billions of dollars in advertising every year to accomplish such an impressive feat.

Well after a bit of research, one thing becomes clear... Google is an advertising cheapskate!

Build Buyer Trust to Drive Holiday Revenue

How can you drive up your holiday revenue?  Build trust with your buyers!  That's right.  By simply spending a bit of time and energy thinking about how your consumers do their searching, shopping, and decision-making, you can increase your holiday revenues in a material fashion.

On Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 11:00-12:00 PM MDT, I will be giving an educational webinar sponsored by Infopia and buySAFE on the subject of building trust with your buyers to drive up your revenues and profits.

If you can spare an hour of your time, I promise you that you will learn something new and interesting.  If you are serious about building your online business, this will be time well spent.

Space is limited, so please register for the webinar as soon as you get a moment.  You can register at https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/890705170.

Related articles:
"Infopia Integrates with buySAFE" - Infopia Blog

buySAFE and ScanAlert (HACKER SAFE) Announce a Major Trust, Safety and Security Partnership

This week, buySAFE and ScanAlert, the provider of the Hacker Safe service, announced a huge partnership, and in my opinion, this is a great development for e-commerce.

Under the terms of the deal, ScanAlert will provide buySAFE's Certified Merchant solution for free to its merchants during the HACKER SAFE account activation process and from within the account management console.  In addition, buySAFE will make ScanAlert's PCI validation services available to its merchants for free as well.  This is truly a terrific combination for merchants and buyers.

Obviously, buyers want to find the right product at the right price.  Once that has been accomplished, buyers basically care about two things when considering whether or not to make a purchase online...

1. Am I going to get what I pay for?
2. Is my private information going to be safe?

buySAFE is the best in the world at making sure buyers will get what they paid for.  buySAFE does this by rigorously inspecting its merchants' sales experience, online reputation, identity, and financial stability.  Then, buySAFE monitors the merchant's transactional history, in real time, for any sign of transactional or business default.  Finally and perhaps most importantly, buySAFE puts its money where its mouth is bonding the transactions of buySAFE merchants up to $25,000 per transaction if requested.

Hacker Safe is amongst the best in the world at ensuring that buyers' private information is going to be safe.  They accomplish this goal by performing daily vulnerability scanning of their merchants' websites.  This helps to make sure that the merchants' websites are secure and difficult for bad guys to breach. 

Both companies are industry leaders in the online trust, safety and security world, and both have thousands of merchant customers using their services.

Again, it important for merchants to understand that their shoppers are concerned with two things...  and Will I get what I paid for, and is my private information going to be safe?   Optimal web site conversion metrics can only be achieved by answering both of these questions credibly.  Together, buySAFE and ScanAlert are a powerful combination that will benefit merchants, buyers, and the entire e-commerce industry.

Related articles:
"buySAFE & HACKER SAFE in a Ground Breaking Announcement - Enabling Risk-Free eCommerce" on the buySAFE blog
"BuySafe Partners with ScanAlert/Hackersafe and CRE Loaded" on AuctionBytes.com

Chicago Will Host eBay Live 2008

If you are an eBay fan (as I am), and you live in the Midwest, you will be very happy to learn that eBay Live 2008 will be held in Chicago.  eBay has not yet announced the decision, but Ina Steiner, a very authoritative source on all things eBay, has broken the story in her "eBay Live 2008 to Be Hosted in Chicago" blog post.

There are a number of major companies in the e-commerce ecosystem, both merchants and third-party service providers, that have decided to skip eBay Live 2007 in Boston in the interest of attending other prominent e-commerce conferences (buySAFE is one prominent example).  All of of us who own equity in eBay are rooting for them to regain their shine, and so perhaps Chicago and 2008 can be a resurgence opportunity for eBay and their ecosystem.

Scam of the Month - Judge Judy Punishes an Idiotic eBay Fraudster!

In this "scam of the month", Judge Judy takes on an eBay fraudster and ultimately hands out the maximum punishment.  In spite of the fact that this scam seems audaciously ridiculous, it is actually quite common online.  Bottom-line, there are a lot of folks out there that lack any semblance of a moral compass.

My inspiration for starting buySAFE was a similar scam that I fell victim to on eBay during the summer of 2000.  The only major differences that I can point to are that I purchased a $400 PDA, and instead of taking the scammer to court with Judge Judy, I decided to instead start a company dedicated to making every online transaction trusted, reliable and risk-free... buySAFE!

Next time, I hope these two innocent victims limit their purchases to buySAFE merchants.  It will save them a whole lot of anguish and effort!

Watch this video.  It is quite enlightening.

Related articles:
"Judge Judy Episode on eBay Trust & Safety" on Psychohistory blog

The Wharton School and Entrepreneurship

The Wharton Business Plan Competition took place earlier this month, and NP Solutions was the big winner for 2007. The new venture took home the $20,000 grand prize for a business that provides a polymer based injectable hydrogel treatment for back pain.  Obviously, I wish these folks a bunch of luck with their new business.

As you may already know, I am a big fan of these collegiate competitions.  buySAFE (formerly known as BondMyAuction) is a product of the Wharton Business Plan Competition, and so I can speak from experience when I say that these events can be very useful in getting entrepreneurial ventures launched.  I actually entered the business plan competition in 2000 and 2001 with different ventures as a student.

Then after graduation, I teamed up with Peter Niessen, a 2002 MBA grad, to enter BondMyAuction in the 2002 Wharton Business Plan Competition (You need at least one current student on your team to participate, but the rest of the team can be alums, etc...).  Peter was a terrific teammate, and he and I were able to make it to the Finals of the competition.  Again, it was a great experience, and you can read about it in this recent article by the New York Times - "Beyond Grades: Business Students Put Their Start-Up Ideas to the Test"

One last interesting note for you...

Jeff Grass, buySAFE's CEO, was also a finalist in the Wharton Business Plan competition in 1999 along with his business partner, John Tedesco (John is currently the CEO & President of Guardian Mobile Monitoring Systems).  Jeff and John launched PayMyBills.com shortly after graduation, and they ultimately sold the company to PayTrust in 2000.  Today, the company's service is owned by Intuit, and it powers the bill payment and management solutions for some of the country's largest financial institutions.

Needless to say, collegiate business plan competitions can provide aspiring entrepreneurs with a generous leg up on the formidable challenges of starting up a company out of school.  For me, the Wharton Business Plan Competition experience was invaluable.

The Three Qualities of Great Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is one of the most exciting things that you can choose to do as a profession.  It is also tough to be an entrepreneur.  Entrepreneurship is definitely not for the faint of heart.  I ran across this quote recently, and I thought it perfectly describes the attributes of successful entrepreneurs.

"Top people, especially entrepreneurs, seem to have these three qualities: First, they learn more things. Second, they try more things. Third, they persist longer than anyone else."

I can't source this quote unfortunately because I did not write it down at the time I originally heard it.  However, I did find it mentioned on the NVTC website with a quick Google search. The quote is right on point.  I could not have said it better myself. 

Great entrepreneurs are extremely curious people.  They are constantly seeking to learn about new stuff.  That is how they innovate and develop new ideas.  That is also how they successfully manage their ventures. 

Great entrepreneurs know that although the goal is always success, failure is to be expected as well.  If you try twice as many things as your competitors, you are twice as likely to hit on the right formula.  This requires creativity, speed and action.  It also requires a confidence to weather those pesky failures.  Again, great entrepreneurs continue working the problem until they find a solution.

Most of all, great entrepreneurs never quit.  They keep at it much longer than most folks.  They fail, but they get right back up and try again.  In my opinion, persistence is by far and away the most important quality that great entrepreneurs possess.

These also happen to be the qualities that I most admire in the folks that I hire to work in my organizations.  In start-up ventures, entrepreneurship cannot solely be the role of the founders.  Every employee needs to be entrepreneurial.  In my opinion, I would take an entrepreneurial employee over others almost any day. 

The entrepreneurs thrive in startups.  They plow new ground, and take ventures to a place they could not have been imagined before.  The "big" resume folks typically do the same things that worked in their last organization.  Unfortunately for them, most great startup ventures are doing something completely new.  That requires entrepreneurship. 

You show me a team of talented entrepreneurs working well together as a team, and you will probably also be showing me an organization that has a great chance at success.

While I am on the subject, let me also recommend a book for you to read that illustrates my last point.  "Entrepreneurial Marketing: Lessons From Wharton's Pioneering MBA Course" by Len Lodish, Wharton professor and marketing guru, is one of my favorite books.  For marketers, I believe Entrepreneurial Marketing is required reading.  The following article will give you a brief overview of the book as well as an introduction to Len and his philosophies on teaching marketing to the MBA students at Wharton: Cheaper-Better-Faster.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Important eCommerce Trust and Safety Statistics

At the PESA Summit this past week, there was a lot of talk about how to improve e-commerce conversion rates. I believe there are three critical drivers for conversion: product selection, price, and trust. Each of these issues would provide substantial content for an article, but I thought I would dedicate today's post to a number of very important trust-related statistics.

If you have any doubt about the role of trust and buyer confidence in your e-commerce business success, please take a quick look at these stats.

• 55% of online shoppers say trustworthiness of the merchant is most important (vs. price, convenience, pleasure, other)
  (Source: Online Shopper Research Report, 959 respondents, August 2006)
  

• 65% of online shoppers buy only from sites they know and trust
  (Source: VeriSign Secured Seal Research Review 08/06)
  

• 72% of online shoppers are becoming more cautious when buying online
  (Source: Gartner Research, 5000 respondents, May 2005 survey)
  

• 73% of online shoppers are concerned about the item being misrepresented (inaccurately described, counterfeit)
  (Source: Online Shopper Research Report, 959 respondents, 08/06)
  

• 76% of online shoppers are worried about never getting their purchase
  (Source: Online Shopper Research Report, 959 respondents, 08/06)
  

• 81% of online shoppers are concerned about merchant return/refund policies not being honored
  (Source: Online Shopper Research Report, 959 respondents, 08/06)
  

• 84% of online shoppers are concerned about merchants not treating them fairly
  (Source: Online Shopper Research Report, 959 respondents, 08/06)
  

• 85% of online shoppers are concerned about identity theft
  (Source: TNS Research, 08/06) 
  

• And, amazingly, over 50% of all U.S. internet users still don’t buy online (even from Amazon.com!).
  (Source: Bear Stearns, September 2006)
  

With respect to this last statistic, "trust" issues are the primary driver of e-commerce non-participation. Amazingly, more than 50% of your potential customers will not buy online because they are nervous! Are you kidding me? That is a huge number, and obviously, the time has come for the e-commerce industry to take this issue seriously.