Intrepid moves, originally uploaded by semarr.

I saw a story on CNN about how the Intrepid was finally sprung free from the mud it was sitting in for 20 years. Turns out the damn thing actually still floats. I went straight to Flickr to find a picture and boom... 1/2 hour old.... camera phone pics of the Intrepid getting tugged down the Hudson.

No, I'm not talking about babies born too early...  (I was born ten days late, in case you were curious...)  I'm talking pre-MBA's.   More and more VC firms and startups are finding that having some more "net native" up and comers around can be pretty valuable, and they're getting more expanded roles than just dialing for dollars. 

One great example who is now blogging is Sarah Tavel from Bessemer Venture Partners.  She recently joined us at a nextNY event and rumor has it shoots a mean stick at the pool table.  Hopefully, she encourages more women to participate in nextNY and the NYC area technology community at large.

IMG_0412, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Perhaps I'm beating these sunset and cloud photos to death. I really just can't get enough of the sky, though...

If blogging really is a cocktail party, then I should really be listening and contributing to other people's conversations just as much as I'm expecting people to listen to mine.   I mean, who would really want to engage in a conversation with someone who just talks about their own stuff all the time?   

So, starting today, I'm going to make a valient attempt to comment as much as I post (not including my daily link posts).   

You can track how well I'm doing with my new coComment widget on the sidebar.  I took the Incircles chat thing off, b/c I didn't have a way to see if anyone was using it and the couple of times I popped in there, no one was.  I guess I should finally give up on the idea of embedded chat.  I've used coComment before, but never the widget...  this is take two.

There's even an RSS feed for it.  If and when I figure out how to get that feed spliced into my Feedburner feed, I'll do that.

So, from now on, I'll be trying to write as much on other people's blogs as much as I write here.

• Adactio: Journal - Streaming my life away
  (tags: trymelater)

IMG_0408, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

My friend from Footlocker got me a 40% discount coupon, so I did a little e-shopping. Those of you who have met me in person know that I've been in serious need of a new backpack. Problem solved. I've also solved a two-sneaker problem. I wear sneakers around the office, but I wear gray sneakers at the gym. This is a little too casual for me... Why I think black sneakers are more dressy than gray sneakers I have no idea, but that's the way I feel about it. However, my Sketchers aren't really made for crosstraining, so I needed a pair of black shoes. Now I can just use the same sneakers the whole day at work. Wooo! I love how the bags are almost identical. At least the sneakers have some highlights. What can I say? I'm a creature of habit.

"Sooner or later, most online communities reach this crisis point because the ideals of the founders are replaced by regulations demanded by the different types of people who interact in them. We shouldn't be surprised; what we do when we interact online is replicate the social practices we are familiar with offline."

Source: Real life crashes into Second Life's digital idyll | Technology | Guardian Unlimited Technology

• Second Life residents get free cellphones » Coolest Gadgets
  Neat product placement idea...
  (tags: mobile secondlife cellphones)
• Giugiaro’s Mustang: A True Italian Stallion - New York Times
  Vroom
  (tags: mustang)

So Guy Kawasaki, who is "by no means “proven” as a venture capitalist" (by his own admission) has put together a quiz about what it takes to be a VC. 

Guy thinks that , "When you’re young, you should work eighty hours a week to create a product or service that changes the world. You should not sit in board meetings listening to an entrepreneur explaining why she missed her numbers while you read email on a Blackberry and intermittently spew forth gems like, “You should partner with MySpace; I can also introduce you to a few of the losers in our portfolio.”

Furthermore, entrepreneurs should view any young person who opted for venture capital over “real world” experience with contempt."

Well, Guy, I started out on the financing side, first at an insitutional LP where I listened to a lot of VCs and then on the VC side where I listened to a lot of entreprenuers and the VCs I got to work with.  It took me a while at each place before I started contributing my own two cents, and I tried to do it where I felt I had some relevent insight.  Listening, in my opinion, is a skill in short demand and I feel like I learned a lot.  Now I'm taking what I learned to the "real world" on the operational side, but I don't think that any of the entrepreneurs I met looked at me with contempt before I joined Oddcast.  I'm glad they didn't.   

Here's my advice to young people trying to get into the field.  Don't let anyone tell you how to get to Mecca.  There are many ways, and one thing I remembered at my time at GM was that the VCs I met came from lots of different backgrounds.   Some were former entreprenuers. Others were technologists.  A few came from journalism and media... others... sales.   

And, to debunk Guy's quiz, I'll give the example of Mike Moritz.  Moritz is a partner at Sequoia.  You may know the startups he's funded:  Google, Yahoo!, PayPal, eGroups, Agile...   Most people consider him to be somewhat good at his job.

If Mike were to take Guy's quiz, here's what he would score:

Part I: Work Background

What is your background?

• Engineering (add 5 points) 
• Sales (add 5 points)
• Management consulting (subtract 5 points)
• Investment banking (subtract 5 points)
• Accounting (subtract 5 points)
• MBA (subtract 5 points)

Mike would get -5 points here, because he joined Sequoia after reporting for Time Magazine and starting a newsletter and conference business. In other words, he was a media guy.  Then, he made the mistake of getting an MBA.

"The ideal venture capitalist has an engineering or a sales background."  Sorry, Mike.

Part II: First-Hand Experiences

You may have been in the right places, but you also need the right experiences in those places. Specifically, have you gone through these? 

• Been kicked in the groin by a major, long-lasting economic downturn, so that you know how powerless you are. (add 1 point)

Hmm...  since Mike has been part of a successful firm for 20 years, and he invested in Google during the bubble, I'd say this is a no.  His track record seems to have left his groin intact.  No points.

• Worked at a successful startup, so that you can speak first-hand about the ecstasy of entrepreneurship. (add 1 point)

Nope.  No points.

• Worked at a failed startup, so that you understand three things: first, how hard it is to achieve success; second, that the world doesn’t owe you a thing; and third, what it’s like to be fired or laid off. (add 3 points)

No failures, no points.

• Worked at a public company, so that you know what the end goal looks like, warts and all. (add 1 point)

Reporter for Time.  Time was public.  Um....  1 point I guess.

• Held a CEO position, so that you have this fantasy experience out of your system and will not try to run the startup from a board position. (add 2 points)

Was he the CEO of the conference company he co-founded?  Maybe... 2 points.

• Been an angel investor with your own money, so that you understand the fiduciary responsibility of investing other people’s money. (add 2 points)

I don't think he can angel invest while working at a VC, so I'd say no.  No points.

Part III: Necessary Knowledge

Finally, can you answer these questions for entrepreneurs? Because this is the kind of advice that entrepreneurs need. (Don’t worry: many current venture capitalists would fail this part.)

• How do I introduce a product with no budget? (add 2 points)

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt on most of these, b/c he seems pretty smart... never met him (would like to, of course), but I'll assume.  2 points

• How do I determine whether there’s really a market demand for my product? (add 1 point)

1 point.  (Seems like this should get more weight, but ok..whatever...)

• What do I do if customers hate our first product? (add 1 point)

1 point...  [shrugs]

• How do I get Walt Mossberg to return my call? (add 2 points)

This is one of those, "The way to be a successful VC is to be a successful VC before" things...  I imagine Walt would answer Mike's call.  2 pts.

• How do I get to the folks who run Demo? (add 1 point)

See above.  1 point.

• How do I get a plug in TechCrunch? (add 1 point)

I have an issue with this one.  I don't think TechCrunch has made or broken any companies (the products may have broken themselves...  Arrington just calls 'em as he sees 'em).   Plus, I don't really think a VC making a call to Arrington would really influence him... maybe a VC who blogs or anyone who blogs, but otherwise I really think its just create something worthwhile and submit.  0 points.

• How do I get the folks at Fox Interactive to return my call? (add 1 point)

Hmm... if you're investing in a B2B company, I'm not sure how this is relevent.... but, I imagine they'd return Mike's call.  A point, I guess.

• How do I dominate a segment when there are five other companies doing essentially the same thing? (add 2 points)

2 Points... see Google.

• How much time, energy, and money should I spend on patent protection? (add 1 point)

1 Point...  a patent lawyer would know this, too.

• We bet on the wrong architecture for our product; what do I do now? (add 2 points)

Since MM isn't a technical guy, but he probably has connections to lots of great CTO's, I'm going to give him 1 point here.

• What kind of people should I hire: young, old, unproven, proven, cheap, expensive, local, remote? (add 1 point)

As if there was a right answer to this... whatever... 1 point.

• How do I get them to leave their current jobs without throwing a lot of money at them? (add 2 points)

Benefit of the doubt... 2 points.

• How do I tell my best friend that he can’t be chief technical officer just because he was a cofounder? (add 2 points)

2 points.

• How do I get to the buyer at BestBuy to return my call? (add 1 point)

1 point... b/c anyone with a clue will say, "Make a product people demand at the store."

• How do I handle a customer who wants to send back his purchase for a full refund? (add 1 point)

1 point.

• How do I fire people? (add 2 points)

2 points.

• How do I lay people off? (add 2 points)

2 points.

So, on experience, I gave him most of the points, assuming that anyone with a 20 year career in VC should know this stuff.

So, that makes his total...21.

According to the results chart:

24 points or less: Work until you can score higher and keep flying on Southwest Airlines.

:)

So Guy Kawasaki, who is "by no means “proven” as a venture capitalist" (by his own admission) has put together a quiz about what it takes to be a VC. 

Guy thinks that , "When you’re young, you should work eighty hours a week to create a product or service that changes the world. You should not sit in board meetings listening to an entrepreneur explaining why she missed her numbers while you read email on a Blackberry and intermittently spew forth gems like, “You should partner with MySpace; I can also introduce you to a few of the losers in our portfolio.”

Furthermore, entrepreneurs should view any young person who opted for venture capital over “real world” experience with contempt."

Well Guy started out on the financing side, first at an insitutional LP where I listened to a lot of VCs and then on the VC side where I listened to a lot of entreprenuers and the VCs I got to work with.  It took me a while at each place before I started contributing my own two cents, and I tried to do it where I felt I had some relevent insight.  Listening, in my opinion, is a skill in short demand and I feel like I learned a lot.  Now I'm taking what I learned to the "real world" on the operational side, but I don't think that any of the entrepreneurs I met looked at me with contempt before I joined Oddcast.  I'm glad they didn't. 

Here's my advice to young people trying to get into the field.  Don't let anyone tell you how to get to Mecca.  There are many ways, and one thing I remembered at my time at GM was that the VCs I met came from lots of different backgrounds.   Some were former entreprenuers. Others were technologists.  A few came from journalism and media... others... sales. 

And, to debunk Guy's quiz, I'll give the example of Mike Moritz.  Moritz is a partner at Sequoia.  You may know the startups he's funded:  Google, Yahoo!, PayPal, eGroups, Agile...   Most people consider him to be somewhat good at his job.

If Mike were to take Guy's quiz, here's what he would score:

Part I: Work Background

What is your background?

• Engineering (add 5 points)
• Sales (add 5 points)
• Management consulting (subtract 5 points)
• Investment banking (subtract 5 points)
• Accounting (subtract 5 points)
• MBA (subtract 5 points)

Mike would get -5 points here, because he joined Sequoia after reporting for Time Magazine and starting a newsletter and conference business. In other words, he was a media guy.  Then, he made the mistake of getting an MBA.

"The ideal venture capitalist has an engineering or a sales background."  Sorry, Mike.

Part II: First-Hand Experiences

You may have been in the right places, but you also need the right experiences in those places. Specifically, have you gone through these?

• Been kicked in the groin by a major, long-lasting economic downturn, so that you know how powerless you are. (add 1 point)

Hmm...  since Mike has been part of a successful firm for 20 years, and he invested in Google during the bubble, I'd say this is a no.  His track record seems to have left his groin intact.  No points.

• Worked at a successful startup, so that you can speak first-hand about the ecstasy of entrepreneurship. (add 1 point)

Nope.  No points.

• Worked at a failed startup, so that you understand three things: first, how hard it is to achieve success; second, that the world doesn’t owe you a thing; and third, what it’s like to be fired or laid off. (add 3 points)

No failures, no points.

• Worked at a public company, so that you know what the end goal looks like, warts and all. (add 1 point)

Reporter for Time.  Time was public.  Um....  1 point I guess.

• Held a CEO position, so that you have this fantasy experience out of your system and will not try to run the startup from a board position. (add 2 points)

Was he the CEO of the conference company he co-founded?  Maybe... 2 points.

• Been an angel investor with your own money, so that you understand the fiduciary responsibility of investing other people’s money. (add 2 points)

I don't think he can angel invest while working at a VC, so I'd say no.  No points.

Part III: Necessary Knowledge

Finally, can you answer these questions for entrepreneurs? Because this is the kind of advice that entrepreneurs need. (Don’t worry: many current venture capitalists would fail this part.)

• How do I introduce a product with no budget? (add 2 points)

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt on most of these, b/c he seems pretty smart... never met him (would like to, of course), but I'll assume.  2 points

• How do I determine whether there’s really a market demand for my product? (add 1 point)

1 point.  (Seems like this should get more weight, but ok..whatever...)

• What do I do if customers hate our first product? (add 1 point)

1 point...  [shrugs]

• How do I get Walt Mossberg to return my call? (add 2 points)

This is one of those, "The way to be a successful VC is to be a successful VC before" things...  I imagine Walt would answer Mike's call.  2 pts.

• How do I get to the folks who run Demo? (add 1 point)

See above.  1 point.

• How do I get a plug in TechCrunch? (add 1 point)

I have an issue with this one.  I don't think TechCrunch has made or broken any companies (the products may have broken themselves...  Arrington just calls 'em as he sees 'em).   Plus, I don't really think a VC making a call to Arrington would really influence him... maybe a VC who blogs or anyone who blogs, but otherwise I really think its just create something worthwhile and submit.  0 points.

• How do I get the folks at Fox Interactive to return my call? (add 1 point)

Hmm... if you're investing in a B2B company, I'm not sure how this is relevent.... but, I imagine they'd return Mike's call.  A point, I guess.

• How do I dominate a segment when there are five other companies doing essentially the same thing? (add 2 points)

2 Points... see Google.

• How much time, energy, and money should I spend on patent protection? (add 1 point)

1 Point...  a patent lawyer would know this, too.

• We bet on the wrong architecture for our product; what do I do now? (add 2 points)

Since MM isn't a technical guy, but he probably has connections to lots of great CTO's, I'm going to give him 1 point here.

• What kind of people should I hire: young, old, unproven, proven, cheap, expensive, local, remote? (add 1 point)

As if there was a right answer to this... whatever... 1 point.

• How do I get them to leave their current jobs without throwing a lot of money at them? (add 2 points)

Benefit of the doubt... 2 points.

• How do I tell my best friend that he can’t be chief technical officer just because he was a cofounder? (add 2 points)

2 points.

• How do I get to the buyer at BestBuy to return my call? (add 1 point)

1 point... b/c anyone with a clue will say, "Make a product people demand at the store."

• How do I handle a customer who wants to send back his purchase for a full refund? (add 1 point)

1 point.

• How do I fire people? (add 2 points)

2 points.

• How do I lay people off? (add 2 points)

2 points.

So, on experience, I gave him most of the points, assuming that anyone with a 20 year career in VC should know this stuff.

So, that makes his total...21.

According to the results chart:

24 points or less: Work until you can score higher and keep flying on Southwest Airlines.

:)

• This is going to be BIG! - 5 Funny things I know now, but didn't know then...
  (tags: funny)
• Go GenX - Trendy Urban Clothing Store
  (tags: myoddcast clothing)
• Design View / Andy Rutledge - Anti-Social Media
  I don't agree, but it's always good to hear the arguments of the other side
  (tags: socialmedia social media community news wemedia mevertising marketing business wisdomofthecrowds)
• Manifest Destiny Part I
  (tags: wireless cellphones carriers mobile)

Does anyone use anything better than ActiveSync... like... I dunno... something that works?   ActiveSync is being really difficult.  I'm trying to sync a PocketPC-6700 using Windows Mobile 5 to Win XP.... everything is in Outlook...   actually... it's just calendar and contacts.  

If no one ever tells you about something, you're likely not going to find out about it until after you probably should know better.  It happens.  You'll get what I mean when you read this...   Please feel free to add your own!

1. When I used to hear marathon times when I was younger, I'd always thing, "Wow...  4 hours.. that's way longer than I could ever run."  But, I knew that logic dictated that if you ran faster, it would take less time.  Time being the bottleneck there, I imagined that if you just ran the marathon really really fast... like as fast as you could, it would be a lot easier to finish, because it would take so much less time.  Why was everyone just jogging?  How come no one has ever tried this??
2. One time my mom noticed my hands at dinner when I was like eight.  She said, "Wow, you have really slender fingers!  You should be a pianist!"   If you say pianist too quickly to an eight year old boy who had never heard the word, they think it has something to do with their little boy parts.   I was so embarrassed...   What could my mom be thinking of at the dinner table that slender fingers could be an advantage for?   "A what!?!"   Oh...  pi-an-ist.
3. There are no male cows.   There are no female bulls.  I thought that cows and bulls were seperate animals until my senior year of high schoool.  Male and female cows.  Male and female bulls.  Makes perfect sense to a city kid.
4. My first grade teacher, Sister Ann, told us that you couldn't digest gum and fingernails, so you shouldn't swallow either.  Wow... couldn't digest it at all?  Jeez.  I imagined that if you didn't know better, eventually, they'd have to surgically remove this big gum and fingernail ball from your stomach, and that the gum and fingernail ball was the most disgusting object I could ever conceive of.
5. When I was like 10 or 11 and dating and liking girls started to become a topic of conversation, I was really confused about something.  In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, people used to call making out "going with."   No, not like the 50's version of dating or seeing each other as in "they're going with each other"...  I mean, literally the act of making out was "going with".   A boy and a girl would take a walk around the block and we'd be all dying to know if they "went with each other."   The problem was that I didn't really know what exactly we were referring to.  I mean, I knew about a kiss and I had some loose conception of what sex was... but anything that fell anywhere in between... no clue.   Where the hell were all these people going?  Where they having sex?  The funniest thing was that, in the seventh grade, the first time I ever really went with someone (which turned out to just be some open mouth and a bit of tongue) I told my friend about it and he goes, "And you guys were naked!?"    Apparently I wasn't the only one that didn't know what the deal was either.

If no one ever tells you about something, you're likely not going to find out about it until after you probably should know better.  It happens.  You'll get what I mean when you read this...   Please feel free to add your own!

1. When I used to hear marathon times when I was younger, I'd always thing, "Wow...  4 hours.. that's way longer than I could ever run."  But, I knew that logic dictated that if you ran faster, it would take less time.  Time being the bottleneck there, I imagined that if you just ran the marathon really really fast... like as fast as you could, it would be a lot easier to finish, because it would take so much less time.  Why was everyone just jogging?  How come no one has ever tried this??
2. One time my mom noticed my hands at dinner when I was like eight.  She said, "Wow, you have really slender fingers!  You should be a pianist!"   If you say pianist too quickly to an eight year old boy who had never heard the word, they think it has something to do with their little boy parts.   I was so embarrassed...   What could my mom be thinking of at the dinner table that slender fingers could be an advantage for?   "A what!?!"   Oh...  pi-an-ist.
3. There are no male cows.   There are no female bulls.  I thought that cows and bulls were seperate animals until my senior year of high schoool.  Male and female cows.  Male and female bulls.  Makes perfect sense to a city kid.
4. My first grade teacher, Sister Ann, told us that you couldn't digest gum and fingernails, so you shouldn't swallow either.  Wow... couldn't digest it at all?  Jeez.  I imagined that if you didn't know better, eventually, they'd have to surgically remove this big gum and fingernail ball from your stomach, and that the gum and fingernail ball was the most disgusting object I could ever conceive of.
5. When I was like 10 or 11 and dating and liking girls started to become a topic of conversation, I was really confused about something.  In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, people used to call making out "going with."   No, not like the 50's version of dating or seeing each other as in "they're going with each other"...  I mean, literally the act of making out was "going with".   A boy and a girl would take a walk around the block and we'd be all dying to know if they "went with each other."   The problem was that I didn't really know what exactly we were referring to.  I mean, I knew about a kiss and I had some loose conception of what sex was... but anything that fell anywhere in between... no clue.   Where the hell were all these people going?  Where they having sex?  The funniest thing was that, in the seventh grade, the first time I ever really went with someone (which turned out to just be some open mouth and a bit of tongue) I told my friend about it and he goes, "And you guys were naked!?"    Apparently I wasn't the only one that didn't know what the deal was either.

So YouTube is going mobile on Verizon phones.  You'll be able to subscribe to videos from YouTube for an extra $15 a month on top of your existing data plans.

So... wait...  Let me see if I have this straight.  Carriers want to resell me what I get on the web for free over and above what I already pay extra to get the web in the first place?  On top of that it's on a smaller screen and bound to be slower.

As it is, most people are already paying $50-100 a month for their phone plans.  Where does that break?  $150?  $200? 

At the point where my phonebill becomes more expensive than insurance on the 'Stang, I will run my phone over with the car and take a video of it.  I will then upload it to YouTube so you can all have it Vcasted to your Verizon phones.

When do the phones break wide open and we have enough WiFi or Wimax or whatever to just walk around with an unlocked VOIP phone and just download freely from the web?

Carriers are making my phone experience about as good as my online experience was with Prodigy...     in 1992.

I just installed an Incircles widget that enables live group chat on my blog.   I found it on TechCrunch and I think it's pretty cool for an alpha.   

Here's what's great about it:

• Easiest install of any widget I've ever used.   I think I picked a color, told it where it was going... then boom, I was done.
• It's built in flash and the embed code is flash, which means it will pretty much work anywhere.
• Slick interface.  It's very easy to message other users and join in.
• Links to popular pages.  I can easily check out other pages where people are chatting with InCircle widgets.

Here's what needs some work:

• Notification and popping out of the page.  I don't want to keep my blog open all day, but I wouldn't mind an extra window that blinks when new people join or new messages are played.  I'd probably even download a little notifier for this.   An html link that opens a new popped out window of the chat I'm on would be great.
• Chat isn't visable until you start chatting yourself.   Outsiders can't see what's going on in the chat or that it's even live until you jump in.  This makes them look dead at first.
• Archiving and user reports.  Not registering made it easy to get started, but that also means I have no backend interface for getting reports, seeing what was discussed, etc. 
  I also can't block certain words or users.  The user thing is hard b/c no one registers to join a chat, so it's hard to ban people, but you could do it with a cookie at least temporarily.
• I'm not cookied with the same identity.   Once I create a screename, it should be mine... so maybe I do want to register...  or make registration optional, but what I get for registering is the ability to own my screename... b/c I don't want anyone else being ceonyc.  That would allow me to be ceonyc in any chat I walked into.
• Feedflare...   Allow me to put something in my RSS feed that says "X number of people chatted on this page in the last hour) that encourages clickthroughs.

All in all, nice work...   I wonder how much traffic a blog needs to have for this to reach a critical mass.

I hear the Sox are going to give JD Drew $15 million a year.

That makes Carlos Beltran's $13 look like a steal, considering Beltran has more power, more speed, plays better defense at a more important position, and, oh yeah, is good for more than 130 games a season.  Out of Drew's 8 full seasons, he's only played more than 130 games 4 times.

Then again, if Gary Matthews, Jr. can get $10 million a year for five years at 32, after only playing fulltime the last two seasons...    The guy's never hit more than 19 homers, never driven in more than 79 and he's a career .263 hitter. 

Put it this way...  Jay Payton is two years older than Matthews, but his career stats per 162 are .284-17-70 with a .439 slugging.  Matthews?  .263-14-58 and a .419.  

I think Jay needs a new agent, because he's only making $4 million.

Looks like the Mets just lost Chad Bradford to the Orioles.   That really stinks.  Bradford was a double play waiting to happen every time he came out of the bullpen.  I loved watching him pitch, since I throw a little bit of sidearm myself.  In fact, my one and only career pitching win in little league (the only game that I really ever found the plate) was a complete game throwing sidearm.  It's also how I pitch in wiffleball.

Wiffleball...      sigh.   Boy, do I miss wiffleball.

Anyway, this is a big loss, since Mota will miss the first 50 games of the season due to his roid suspension.  They also traded away Henry Owens.  I guess the return of Duaner Sanchez made a righty in the pen expendable, but it was nice to have someone who keeps the ball in the park.

• The Quoter :: Mitch Hedberg Random Quote Generator
  (tags: cool funny quotes mitchhedberg)
• nextNY Holiday Gathering! December 13th
  Feel free to join us!
  (tags: events nextNY)

"I feel like I... have nothing to conclude, despite having tons to say..." - K.S.