Link: Many-to-Many: Social Software: Stuff that gets you laid....

Keeping your eyes on the prize...

That was the quote from a temp that came in this morning to replace Kerri while she was out at a vendor training.  I told her, "I had come to terms with it, but thanks for opening up that wound again."

This is my new desk and yes, its out here in the open, but I wouldn't say its in "Reception".  We're all kind of out in Reception, because you can see everyone's office as soon as you walk in the door.  Key items on the desk include a picture of my nieces and a sunset picture I took at Fordham.  I also have a little Fordham banner and a mug full of pens.

In all seriousness, I like being out here.  We have a small office here, but I already did the office thing at GM and I really didn't like it.  I'm right here in the thick of things and nothing happens that I don't see.  In fact, I tried to get into the "bullpen" at GM, but no one wanted to switch with me, so I got "stuck" in an office.  (sob, sob... I know)

First new digs offline, now a new site.  I think its interesting from a square footage perspective how much of the front page they've dedicated to Typepad versus the other services.  LiveJournal is a little box under the fold, and the main LiveJournal.com hasn't changed at all.  Its not as "menu"y as I would have expected and LJ doesn't really appear as a tier in the structure.  Nonetheless, its yet another thing to follow in this company's interesting story.  The site is much more professional overall.  They're really putting together quite a bench there. 

The big question for me now is whether to shamelessly submit my blog as a featured site.  Perhaps after I get a Blogmoxie redesign.   Speaking of which...  I need to ping them again to see if they have an opening for me.

Question:   Am I a sellout for putting the strip of Google ads at the top of the page on my personal site?

To be perfectly honest, I debated this for a while.  I've had ads up on the Success Blogging site since the beginning, and the site has basically paid for itself in the first month.  However, that, while still not entirely a business, is more of a pseudo commercial venture, so ads seemed not entirely inappropriate there.  But this is my page.  Am I crossing the line by pawning the space at the top?

I don't think so, and here's why:

1) The ads don't cost you anything, not even in terms of the annoyance cost.  They don't drop cookies, pop up, make sounds, or drop spyware on your PC.  They just sit there, white on black with a little grey, seemlessly blending into the color scheme of the page.  (PS... I've decided the format needs an upgrade...  that's like Project #7 on the list... too much to do.)   

2) They may actually provide a service for you.  Perhaps they link you to something useful. 

3) A good deal of the traffic on my site isn't necessarily from friends and people I know.  I get a lot of random traffic passing through.  I know that because I can see where people are coming from.  I think 10% of my traffic comes from people Googling "Gmail Notifier" or "Stanford MBA".   I think of my ads like a commuter tax for those people.  You don't live here, but you use the content.  Why shouldn't you contribute? 

One thing is bothering me, though.  There's an ad at the top that directly competes with Success Blogging.  In fact, the website has a very similar name.  Of course, there's plenty of room for consultants and speakers talking about how blogging can make you successful, so I'm not that worried, but still, if I had the choice, I'd rather not be advertising for a competitor on my site.  Or, perhaps his success will help my own and vice versa.  Anyway... I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Remind me again....  Is it the third, or the fourth sign of the Apocalypse when two mobloggers capture the same exact moment?  In this case, its the Six Apart folks (not surprisingly):  Ben and Barak.  Where was Andrew when all this was going on?  Clearly, he dropped the ball on the moblog trifecta.

From Steve Rubel...  Great quote...Link: Micro Persuasion: How Not to Pitch a Blogger.

Back in my early career my mentors used to tell me never put anything in email to a journalist that you wouldn't want on the front page of The New York Times. Well, nowadays you need to think bigger. I say, never put anything in an email to a blogger that you wouldn't want to stick on your own forehead for life!

We had an interesting discussion yesterday about blogging.  In particular, we talked about my blogging in relation to my employment at Union Square Ventures.  Blogging is a very powerful medium, and you never know who is reading.  While its very easy to put up a "My opinions aren't that of my company" note, that doesn't mean that there won't still be some entrepreneur who reads my blog and decides that USV isn't the kind of firm they want to work with.  Of course, my penchant for flip commentary and shooting from the lip doesn't help that.  Now, of course, flip commentary about baseball or kayaking is unlikely to have that kind of effect, but opinionated commentary about companies and technology might. 

In addition to my potential for saying something out of line that isn't reflective of my firm, I'm more concerned about putting myself out there as more of an expert on something than I am.  Its so easy for blog content to proliferate around the net, and perhaps I'll post some kind of groundbreaking insights that everyone will want to trackback to.  (It could happen!)  All of the sudden, I've put myself out there as someone who knows something more than they really do, and, at this point, that's not something I'm particularly comfortable with.

Therefore, I've decided to institute some new policies around here, in the form of a policy statement:

- I am employed by Union Square Ventures as an analyst, not a partner.  The opinions expressed on this site are not necessarily reflective of the opinions of other employees of the firm, nor of the official positions of the firm (if there are such things) and should not be construed as such.
- I have decided not to post my opinions, for the foreseeable future, on technology and venture capital related topics in terms of their viability or potential success as a business.  From time to time, I reserve highlight what technologies I find useful from a technology consumer standpoint or point out what features I would like to see added to existing products as a consumer. 
- I will not be posting any discussion about companies that Union Square Ventures is looking at for a potential investment or is currently invested in.  However, I may actually use or link to some of their publicly available services on my blog as a user.  Obviously, if we like a company enough, its not unlikely that we would use their services. 
- I will not be posting any internal business and technology related discussions, whether it be with Brad and Fred or with any companies I might speak to.  Fred can post on such discussions if he so chooses on his own blog, and Brad, well, I'm sure Brad will cave eventually on the blogging. 
- Please send any business plans you might have to Union Square Ventures through our website, and not directly to me.  This is my personal site and while Charlie as a person is an analyst for a venture capital fund, this site is not about that fund and mention of its activities are incidental to descriptions of my life.

So, my first day went well.... thank you to everyone who asked.  :)

Of course, it was a bit awkward.  I mean, you work for eight years in one place and all of the sudden you're thrust into a little world that existed before you got here.  Its really about the little things.  What's my best route to work? How loud to I have to be so Brad and Fred can hear me in their offices, which are about 12 feet away from me and glassed in?   How loud should I be?  Where's the bathroom?  What time do people go to lunch?  Where can I get lunch?  Should I be talking more or less to Kerri than I did to Jeff when he sat behind me?

And the answers?

I haven't figured that out yet, but this morning I just took the 4 train all the way to Union Square and walked back up b/c it was so nice out.  It seems to be too crowded at Grand Central to switch--that might be different when I'm back on my gym schedule.   I don't need to be too loud.  I can probably be loud enough to do it, too, without getting up.  I have a vague idea where the bathroom is, but in all honesty, it hasn't come up yet.  Maybe I should be drinking more water.  Brad gets soup for lunch, which would fill me for, ooooh, about two hours, so that's not an option.  Fred went at about 1, and he took me out minutes before I passed out.  Hench, I brought my lunch in today so I could eat at my normal noon feeding.  As for Kerri, I still haven't figured that out yet.  She hasn't had a coworker in such close proximity for years, so she's very focused on her work pretty much all day.  Since Jeff and I chatted endlessly all day, I'd bet that I'll be less chatty in general. 

So, I apoligize to anyone expecting to hear from me.  It will probably take me a good week to get fully back up to normal.  Cleaning out all of the office and car junk from my apartment would be a good start.  When my apartment is a mess, it definately affects me in the outside world... similar to the way I was in a funk when all my Ikea furniture hadn't been assembled yet when I first moved in.  I'll get there, though... don't worry about me.

I've been terribly out of sorts over the past four days, which is why I haven't posted.  In fact, this is the longest I've gone without posting for some time, but now I'm back.  Let's catch up.  Last Friday was the the last day of my employment at GM, after more than eight years.  It was very emotional, to be honest, and I found myself needing to stop saying goodbye to too many people in a row over a short period, because it was a bit much to take.

Friday started out exactly how you wouldn't want you last day to start out.  I completely overslept, forgetting to turn the alarm clock on.  I woke up at 8:58 AM.  I had the car on my block, but it was on the wrong side, which started at 9AM.  I was turning it in that day, and I still needed to empty it.  The last thing I needed was a ticket, in addition to the fact that now I wouldn't have anywhere to put it as I was emptying it.  So I threw on clothes, and ran like hell down the stairs... only to find that cars were parked on both sides of the street.  I stood there dumbfounded for a few moments.and went back upstairs.  It was almost 9, no?  I checked the internet...  turned out it was Lincoln's birthday!   No alternate side.  So I didn't get into work too late anyway.  Still, it was a shame to have to turn in the car.  I have no doubt that I'll be getting a car by the summer.  I just got so used to having one and I loved driving.  I took a picture of the final mileage as I was turning it in.  Sigh.

I have to say, I did get a very nice sendoff in my final days.  The team had a pizza party for me.  Marcy and I went out for sushi last Tuesday, and Larry and I have scheduling dinner with Dorean and Leslie to schedule.  I even got a Tiffany clock, which they promptly took back from me in order to engrave it.  If it wasn't a Tiffany clock, I'd probably dread what they could possibly write on it, but I don't think Reals would leave a joke message on a brand name item. 

I finally made it out at about 6:30 Friday night.  Everyone else was pretty much gone.  It was all so... well... final.  It really felt final.  Closing the lights in my bare office and heading out was surreal.  In fact, I was playing Closing Time by Semisonic on my iPod when I left. 

"...Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..."

On Monday, I will join Brad Burnham and Fred Wilson as an analyst at Union Square Ventures.  This is the story of how it happened...

Last September, Marcy popped her head in my office and asked me to come with her to a fundraising meeting with a new group. Being a large and well known program that has been in the asset class 25 years, we tend to see A LOT of groups passing through. And it isn’t just because we’re big… the new funds we see don’t even need that much money... at least not necessarily in the size that we have the capability of putting out. They know we’re sticky money if you meet our bar, which is pretty high. We are committed to the asset class and while its tough to get us to give you money, when we do, we’re in it for the long term.

Anyway, I was pretty busy that day, and almost didn't go, but I know how important it is to have a colleague with you when you see a new group.  Sometimes, you need to bounce ideas off of each other and get feedback to really get a good assessment.  So I went, and that was the first time I met Brad and Fred--when they were fundraising for Union Square Ventures.  Well, actually, it was the first time I met Fred in person.  It turns out I had been reading his blog for a while, but, to be honest, I'm reallly bad at associating people with the blogs they write.  Had he introduced himself as "A VC" I would have realized it.  I'm just as bad with AIM screenames.  I kept thinking, "How do I know this guy?"  I thought maybe it was just because he looked like Gary Sinese.  Only after the meeting when I went back to my Feed Demon did I put two and two together.

There are a lot of "me, too" emerging funds out there.  Just as there were too many funds popping up in '99 and '00, there are way too many people out there raising money, and to be honest, all their stories sound the same.  If I had a dime for every fund with a few guys with short track records and one or two hits that weren't even really their deals, and portfolios sitting at cost, which makes them top quartile for the vintage...  well, you know how it goes. 

Brad and Fred were different.  They had track records going back over ten years.  They had a story--one that made a lot of sense to me.  They weren't going to do "chips and routers"... they're were enough people doing that out there.  They were going to do applications of interesting technologies--in New York of all places.  I remember at the time I was noodling all the blogging going on about the "web as a platform" and I was already convinced that the real money was going to be made building on top of all the infrastructure that had already been laid out.  I had also been working on due diligence for Ignition.  They, too, were extolling the virtues of consumer services and the new layer of opportunities being created, and I really respect their knowledge and insight.  Plus, it all just sounded very reasonable, and I am, if nothing else, a reasonable guy.  I like buying into ideas that make sense to someone like me who might not have a degree in electrical engineering.

Very quickly, USV was down to its last $15 million (they were raising 125) and about to close.  Marcy and I really liked them and so we fanagled our way back into a window to check out the fund.  At the same time, we were going through a strategy review on our philosophy and approach to emerging funds. 

I've been joking around that we didn't come through with a commitment, so Brad and Fred spitefully took an analyst instead.  The truth is, we liked USV, and want to keep track of them over time, but we don't usually do first time funds for a variety of reasons.  I personally never really bought into the "first time fund" idea for people with extensive track records like they had, but there is an added element of risk when you have two people working day in and day out together for the first time.  That isn't to say that veteran teams don't tire of each other and break up as well.  Partnership dynamics are a tough thing to diligence and probably impossible to predict, so you thoughtfully decide where you want to play and you hope it all works out.

At the same time, as you well know, I was thinking about grad school.  I was looking at the future and trying to figure out what was going to be the best route for me going forward.  GM was a fantastic experience for me--all eight years of it, but when you're 25, and you're working with one of the best teams of experienced partner level people in the business, there is a limit to how fast and how far you can move up in responsibility. 

After meeting with Brad and Fred and doing due diligence, I had continued talking to them about the space.  One day, as I was thinking about potential career paths,  I dropped Fred a question over e-mail:

"Out of curiousity, what is the profile of the type of candidate a smaller VC firm  would look for in an analyst/associate role?  What would role would they play in the firm?  I'm filling out all these grad school essays and its just making me think about career options from this point forward in general."

Fred's response:

Would you consider a one/two year stint as an analyst at Union Square before
going to B School?

If you are interested, let me know

Admittedly, I wasn't really prepared for that.  You have to understand what a mainstay GM had been in my life, and while I was still having a great experience there, it was the third time in a couple of months that I had been face to face with the prospect of actually leaving.  First was grad school, and second was the possibility of applying for Liz's position at Fordham's career office.  I took this one the most seriously, though.  Life was trying to tell me something and, once again, I fell into a fantastic opportunity.  I have a great track record with random chance.  :) 

So, Brad, Fred, and I got together and started talking.  I think it was beneficial for them to have almost a year of my blogging to help in their initial due diligence.  (That's what helped clue me in to the idea that blogging could act as a career tool, as well.)  My first interview was like a fourth interview and we went straight into pretty substantive discussion.  They were direct, and honest, and I appreciated that.

So we kept talking as they finished their fundraising and, after the holidays, it became obvious that this was all coming to a head.  I have to say, they were very thorough in their due diligence.  We met again right before they started going through my reference list and that's what sparked this post. 

Perhaps Fred will blog more about what they thought they were getting when they hired me, but I doubt it, because I have yet to directly appear on his blog.  I did get referred to once, though.   That was special...  seriously!  (He's like a blogging rock star!)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this new experience.  I've been at GM eight years now, four interning in various groups and four fulltime in private equity.  When I first started, it came out of a high school internship.  We worked for a free lunch, and then, in the summer, I asked to be brought on as a paid intern.  I remember getting my offer--a fixed rate per day--and then calculating whether or not that offer was better than my hourly rate in the mailroom of Waterhouse, where I had worked the two previous summers.  I was 17, and I was more concerned with money in my pocket than the upside potential of working for the largest corporate pension fund in the country versus the mailroom of a brokerage firm that was being bought out by a Canadian bank.  Good thing my offer at GM was better.  I might still be in the mailroom.  :)  Point is, I could have never conceived that all this would lead to where it has brought me up to this point.

That's part of what is exciting about joining Union Square.  I have no idea where it will lead me.  Perhaps I'll move on to grad school afterwards and come back on a GP track somewhere.  Maybe I'll wind up joining a startup, or doing my own.  To some extent, my success so far has afforded me a certain amount of predictability and stability in my career relative to a lot of people my age... and I'm very lucky for that.  But now, I think its the right time for a shakeup.  I thought Stanford was going to be that shakeup, but life has an interesting way of playing bait and switch at key moments.

So, on Monday, I'll start working with Brad and Fred, two people whose accumulated experience I plan to download as much as they'll let me for at least the next two years.  Am I nervous?  No, not really.  I think when you know you're making the right decision, your clarity of vision calms you.  Anxious?  VERY.  I know there will be a ton of things I want to dive into--one of the great things about a small group with a wide open mandate.  A group of LPs has given these two professionals (with a hopefully helpful contribution of support from yours truly) a mandate to go forth and make money in the second generation of the web and media convergence.  Plus, I'm anxious to prove myself, too.  I know they could have had almost anyone and I really want to make them glad they chose me--everyday that I'm there.  If this isn't a chance to do something utterly fascinating with my time, then I don't know what is.

How's this for odd?

"Dear Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have purchased Audio CDs by Leon Russell also purchased the work of Joe Cocker. For this reason, you might like to know that Joe Cocker's Heart & Soul is now available. You can order your copy at a savings of 14% by following the link below."

Greeeat.  Now, if only I either a) knew who Leon Russell was or b) purchased any CD in the past five years, then maybe I'd find this helpful.  This is a case of a dog chasing its own "long tail."

You can now invite up to 50 other people to join Gmail....   Google is now letting the dogs out.

I hope the judge finds Citigroup and the traders 100 BILLION DOLLARS and then sticks his pinky up to his mouth...

Link: WSJ.com - Bond Strategy Haunts Citigroup.

I attended this "webinar" in December...   its a very professional discussion on the more serious side of blogging.  Very informative for beginners who might be looking to do something a little more serious than writing online diaries.  When you're done, perhaps Success Blogging will make more sense to you.

I went to the first meeting of the Fordham Young Alumni Executive Leadership series tonight.  Father McShane talked a lot about responsibility--that it was Fordham's responsibility to become the preeminent Catholic University in the country.  Along those lines I told Samara that it was our responsibility as Fordham bloggers to blog about what happened tonight and about all the enthusiasm and potential surrounding it. 

Rick Mina, the CEO of Foot Locker, was the keynote speaker.  He spoke about loving what you do and working your way to success "inch by inch."  Rick, to me, characterized the Fordham success story.  This was not necessarily a charismatic man of "vision."  He was a determined man of hard work.  He worked his way in from the ground floor.  His greatness seemed to be a result rather than a desire, as opposed to someone like a Steve Case who clearly wanted to do something great from the beginning and was less than focused on the actual work that went in to getting the result.  One of the alumni in our little business/finance breakout group brought up an issue about how many people coming out of Fordham achieve the level of success that Rick has.  So many people from Fordham seem to end up in solid, but not spectacular... good, but not great careers.  Of course, this is anecdotal, but the issue, by the admittance of the alumni mentors, seemed to have come up before.  Why is this?  What is it about the education at Fordham that seems to give people enough fuel for getting high up the ladder, but rarely to the top?

I think, to some extent, its confidence, which is just simply a perception of what you can handle.  One of the alumni said, "Maybe we're just not telling the students, 'Hey, get out there and knock 'em dead.'"  I actually think that, to a large extent, that's true.  I don't think there is any difference in the willingness to work hard of Fordham students.  In fact, I think they're willing to work harder than most, because they don't have the expectation of being handed anything for free, as opposed to an Ivy grad, perhaps.  Certainly the quality of the education is there...  I'd put a Jesuit education up against any other learning philosophy out there. 

No, to some extent, its a matter of believing in yourself enough to take hold of one of those "dare to be great" situations.  Its not about thinking that you yourself are great, but its holding out for a great opportunity or taking a risk on something with great potential.  When Father McShane talks openly about Fordham becoming the preeminent Catholic university in the country, he is trying to get people to recognize that Fordham itself is a "dare to be great" situation.  Unless you get people thinking like that you're never going to get there.  We should think and act like a great school because there's no reason why we can't be. 

Our basketball team should be going to the NCAA like St. John's has in recent memory.  Our website should be cutting edge, not in its look, but in its functionality, truly connecting the university community in new and exciting ways.  Little things, like our alumni softball team should have cool jerseys, not just t-shirts, because we're proud to be at Fordham and we're willing to invest in the brand.  Oh, and we need a blog, too.  I'd like to get the accumulated wisdom of every last one of the 100 President's Council members, the eager young alumni, and the excited students up on the web to get distributed in a stream to the world via RSS.  We need to shout to the world on every medium possible how great we are.

I saw tonight a contagious enthusiasm for Fordham's potential and I think it needs to be harnessed and brought back to the student body in a more deliberate manner.  I told Charles Spinelli, a Fordham alum in my breakout group, that he needed to go back to campus to pass on the same inspiring words he shared in our group with the students.  I misspoke.  Fordham needs him to go back and share those words with the students.  Fordham students need to burst out of this school like gangbusters ready to affect the world around them in a deeply profound way.  That doesn't necessarily mean trampling the guy next to you, but it does mean finding a situation that positions you to lead by example, to reach the top in a positive and productive way.  Ask not how you can be great, Fordham students, alumni, faculty, and administrators, but ask what is the great situation with the great potential that you are going to throw yourselves into without fear of failure, or even worse, fear of success.

The Daily News has a listing of 100 places to eat for under $10.  I haven't been to a single one of these places, but now that I know where they are, I'll be sure to check them out.

Ben from Church of the Customer, an early member of the Industry Blog Index at my Success Blogging site, has written an open letter to movie theatre owners in an attempt to stop them from forcing us to watch commercials.  Its a nice thought, but its not going to happen unless we walk with our feet.  How about a comprimise?  Why not but real commercials before the movie starts, instead of those silly movie quizes and actor name jumbles.  For the most part, we all get into our seats at least 10 minutes before the movie starts anyway.  At least then we don't feel ripped off because we know we're there early, so we don't feel like we're paying to watch commercials.  In fact, you could sell 15 minutes straight of commericals, with each slot getting more expensive as it gets closer to the movie.  In Manhatten, for example, people are in their seats by at least a 1/2 hour before big movies and we just sit there watching the same "Who said that?" ad four times.  I don't blame movie theaters for trying to increase revenues... but they're missing out on one revenue opportunity and annoying us with another.  How about switching?

So yesterday I went to lunch with Suzie.  I was starving, and I generally eat a lot of sushi when I go out, but the relative difference in what we ordered was hilarious, so I took a picture of it.

______________________________________________________________________

Mena (Mee-na?  Meh-na?) posted about great customer service and I agree that excellence should be rewarded.  (And perhaps I'll write a Time Warner Broadband bashing post at some point as well, too.)  My best customer service experience, by far, has been with Factset.  Factset is an online financial data provider used by many large institutions to get stock prices, income statistics, etc.  Sure, we do pay a lot for the service, but there are a lot of services that we pay heavily for that don't have the kind of support that Factset does.  Many times, I've relied on representatives from Factset to follow up on problems, and while they can't always answer a question right away, they'll always get back to me that day with a status update.  The most impressive work came from another service rep there who was guiding me through a process to build some customized groups of companies.  The work was very tedious and after he showed me how to do one group, he offered to actually do the work for me!  I must have had 21 customized groups of 10-15 companies each... easily would have taken me about 2-3 hours to do and he had it done by the end of the day.  I'm sure he was able to do it faster, but still.  Once I e-mailed him an Excel file of how I wanted the groups set up, he did all of the necessary work on Factset.  I nearly fell off my chair when he offered.  I've got to believe that with service like that, their retention rate is extremely high.

You can now register for my class at the Learning Annex!  I'm not thrilled about the "And fatten your wallet" tagline and its not how I'd like to portray the class.  Its really for serious minded professionals interested in career development, not people looking for get rich quick schemes.  Alas, they're trying to bring people in and sell the program hard, so I can't knock them too hard.  :)