nextNY Softball - Friday, August 24th - 6:15PM!
Can you handle a glove as well as you can handle code?
What's more lightweight? Your Web 2.0 app or your bat?
Show up at Central Park (RSVP here, please) and play softball with the folks from nextNY.
Details:
What: nextNY Exhibition Softball (6-12ft soft toss, co-ed)
Two teams of 15.
10 in the field, 15 in the lineup subbing in defensively each inning.
When: Friday, August 24, 2007 @ 6:15PM (First pitch: 6:30PM)
Where: Hecksher Field #2, Central Park (by W63rd, use this to locate: http://urltea.com/16l5
I have two Product Management/Strategy jobs in NYC
I've recently been asked to seek out two people for two really interesting jobs.
One is a very interesting position with a company developing mobile apps that already has a solid base of users... they're looking for someone to be a thought leader for developing and detailing new ideas for what kind of applications they should be developing. I call it a Mashup Manager, because you'll need to be able to read a lot of APIs and figure out what interesting data sources you can tie into, how to work with what the carriers give you, etc. A couple of years experience in a product related position (not necessarily mobile) and a good perspective on the youth market would be helpful.
The other job is an interactive strategy position for a company in the cable space... helping dumb pipes get smart, create value for customers using new technology. The great thing about this position is what whatever you implement/recommend could find its way into millions of homes! Let's call this position Cable 2.0.
If you want to send over a resume and various links to your digital spaces, send them to my gmail account. charlie (dot) odonnell (at) gmail (dot) com
2000 Readers... W00t! Take my reader survey and I'll give you an oatmeal cookie
Ok, so I'm lying about the oatmeal cookie. However, oatmeal cookies are good, aren't they? I think I like them more now than I ever have.
You know what else has grown on me? Icky Thump by the White Stripes.
Still, 2000 readers, that's a lot. Who are all you people?
Ok, here's my reader survey.... RSS readers, please click through and contribute 3 minutes of your time in the name of data mining. Thank you!
Path 101 Feedback
Thanks to all of the folks who have given early feedback on Path101.
Here's what people are saying so far:
First off, no one has bashed the name yet. Personally, I don't like it at all, but I'll admit, it's not awful. It seems like that's what a name has to be these days: not awful and at a dot com. Then, you can focus on having the product create the brand image, not the nomenclature.
The response most often given was, "Why limit this to just college students?" People pointed out the huge opportunity for career changers, moms reentering the workforce, and adults later in life. I absolutely agree that such a platform has more legs than just in the college market. I just think it's good to start somewhere and the college market certainly isn't a small one by far. Plus, that's the market I know. I don't know what it's like to get laid off at 50 or reenter the workforce after having kids, but certainly that's an opportunity for growth.
Others said that I was building something for students just like me, and that most students didnt know what they wanted to do even when they graduated. Because I agree with the second point is exactly why the first isn't true at all. Particularly because most students don't know where to start and haven't done much career prep is exactly why this platform is valuable. Just because they're not doing the work now doesn't mean they don't want to get into an exciting career. Most students don't realize that they can take their passions and make a greate career out of them. Take my friend Christina. She must send out a party evite every week and most of them aren't even for her-she's the consummate organizer and she's been stuck working with kids in a job she's not a big fan of for the past three years. Finally, she came to me the other day and told me she was switching careers and becoming an event planner. DUH! In college, she probably never realized how huge the conference and event planning sector was. That's the opportunity...to take her pre-existing interest in organizing people socially and give her an opportunity to connect with the people, content, groups and events necessarily to fuel and focus that interest. If you do it socially, you don't even need to be particullarly introspective. Your friends will tell you something on the order of, "You're so great at party planning...you should do THAT for a living."
The big knock on students in their first two years of college is that they're not thinking about this stuff. That's not true at all--they're thinking about it all the time and scared stiff by it. Their parents and families keep them thinking about it, and they definitely think about it when it comes down to deciding what you're going to do with your summer. Most students would love to pursue interest over the summer, but they just don't know where to start. It's not like there are a lot of job ads out there for "freshmen with no experience."
The other piece of feedback I got, before I added the biz model page to the deck, was on how college students won't pay for this, and that's right, they won't. That's why we're going after the deepest pockets in the ecosphere on this one... the recruiters, companies, advertisers, etc. We will not charge colleges or students to use the service, unless of course that a college wants to advertise themselves... like for grad or continuing education programs.
Keep it rolling it... I'm off to setup our (my) Basecamp account.
Six months ago today...
I just got this note from Mere...
6 months ago today that you sent this email... to my spam folder, of course, but I got it within a few days. I remember it well; I was sitting in the library, prepping for our afternoon negotiation class, and definitely smiled in amusement at the total randomness of it. :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Charlie O'Donnell [mailto:codonnell@oddcast.com]
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 8:37 AM
Subject: [POSSIBLE SPAM] Shrimatch.com
Hi Meredith,
Shri tells me that you're planning on coming to New York and that I should look you up. She's proven to be a wise resource when to comes to career matters for me...this is her first attempt to diversify into the social vertical. I have to admit, I'm a bit curious to see if her expertise carries over. :)
I don't know how much she has told you about me, but basically, I'm a born and bred New Yorker that has wound up in a product manager role by way of finance and venture capital. I also teach an undergrad class on how techology is changing business.
Drop me a line anytime... Hopefully, we can make schedules mesh when you're here.
Charlie
Colorful Day at the Boathouse Today
I had a really great day at Pier 40 today... volunteered from 9 until 3:30. There were just all sorts of little things going on that I as able to snap timely pics of, which made for an interesting photoset.
The dock has become a breeding ground for little minnows (we think, we're not sure). There are thousands of these suckers in the water.
Rock, paper, scissors to figure out who goes on the last remaining single and who has to wait.
Kevin bringing me a sandwich from the free food being given out at the end of the pier by the high school kids' photography club.
These have seen better days.
Robert Sexton of Star Positions is a Spammer and I'm filing a complaint with the LA Better Business Bureau
I just received an unsolicited e-mail from Robert Sexton of Star Positions.
I've posted the text of the e-mail below.
Basically, Mr. Sexton and his company are offering search engine optimization. Of course, the problem is that he's offering his services unsolicited by spamming e-mail addresses, bulletin boards, and forums, and what's worse, threatening anyone who attempts to out him.
Want proof? Google ""star position" "robert sexton" spam". You'll get this link which contains a really interesting thread.
"You know,
I also received this email from a Robert Saxton""Robert Sexton and his Star Position company are notorious spammmers. He tries to play high and mighty but a few of our company email alias are bombed with UCE from him on a regular basis."
"This outfit sends from comprimised open-relays such as the current one 66.174.76.167
I was once getting over 10 spams from this guy everyday until firewalling the blocking all the sending IP's"
Other people have gotten similar spam from Star Positions, like this woman.
Apparently, Mr. Sexton doesn't know about the CAN SPAM Act, which has the following requirement:
It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal address.
Yeah, um, Bob, I don't see a valid physical postal address with this e-mail.
I wonder what the penalty for that is.
"Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000."
Hmm... that's going to cost them a pretty penny.
Now about that valid posital address?
Google says it is:
Just in case anyone wanted to know. :)
The law that Mr. Sexton IS however familiar with is the one he uses to threaten people who try to out him. Using Google's index cache, I found a site that is no longer up that posted an e-mail from our spammy friend:
Seems that Star Position employees make these kinds of "errors" all the time. Good thing there is absolutely no reason why this company would have any reason to fear their safety if I posted the same phone number that they not only e-mail out to thousands of people, but is also available on Google.One of my people emailed you in error. You've seen fit to put her phone number on it. In case it has not dawned on you, you are actually by doing this in violation of certain Penal Codes for the State of California -> look up 'cyberterrorism' 'cyberstalking' specifically California Penal Code 646.9 'actions which would be designed to put an individual in fear for their safety'
I'm going to look at your site again in 24 hours. You are going to be a good chap and remove any phone numbers from any postings relating to my company, Star Position. And before you blow this off, or do something truly even more stupid than what you have done, I suggest you do a google search for California Penal Code 646.9 and related topics. We are based in California.
Best Regards,
Robert Sexton
Director of Business Development, Star Position US and Star Position UK
That number again? 949.215.0022
I did find a really useful posting to a thread related to Star Positions:
But what about the actual service? Is this a legit business just using illegitimate marketing techniques?"This loser SPAMs everyone. Forward his crap to spam@uce.gov (the FTC). If enough people do it, they'll finally investigate his a**"
From the same forum above...
So the full text of that note?"Star Position does not deliver.
I know because I paid for their service almost a year ago.
I received at most, 200 visitors.
Many of the visitors were from outside of the US,
Many of the visitors were the same person repeatedy.
(I know because I dropped cookies on them)"
Check it out below, while I go file a complaint with the LA Better Business Bureau.
"Without being seen
first on the major search engines, your website can be little
more than a glorified business card." "If your site is seen
first on the search engines, chances are you're the one people will tend to contact. It's
that simple." What do a Realtor, a major bank, an
attorney, and a natural health clinic have in common? They are
among the over 13,000 companies who have discovered a better way to
be seen first on YAHOO, MSN, GOOGLE and thirteen other
search engines. A way in which their sites are always seen first, 100% of
the time, across the major search engines, even above the sponsored
links, but WITHOUT having to pay the sometimes exorbitant charges
associated with the 'pay per click' sponsored links. This is possible due to search
toolbar technology, with over 26 million downloads, which are predominantly US-based. This
allows us to place you first 100% of the time across the major search
engines,
exclusively, across our whole Network! For everyone who has the
toolbar installed on their PCs, you are about to
see what they see on the major search engines! This is the placement we do
for Chase Bank. What you see above
even
the names of the search engines is
Chase Bank's actual website! The search term 'BANKING' always points to
their site on the Network, across
the top sixteen search engines,
including GOOGLE, YAHOO and
MSN!
This is the placement we do for a Los Angeles Realtor, Kathryn Bishop.
What you see above even the names of the search engines is her actual
website! The search terms 'LOS ANGELES REAL ESTATE' and several others
always points to her site on the Network, across the top sixteen search
engines, including GOOGLE, YAHOO and MSN!
And lastly, this is the placement we do for Stone Canyon Mortgage, What you
see above the names of the search engines is Stone Canyon's actual website!
Stone Canyon has the generic search term 'MORTGAGE' pointing to their
website on our Network, across the top sixteen search engines, including
GOOGLE, YAHOO and MSN! What we've done for Stone Canyon on a nationwide
level, we can do for other mortgage companies on a more localized level.
You too can have this guaranteed type of exposure. Our normal run on the
Network goes for one year, but for those who register with us, by the end
of this week , you will only pay for the first six months. As for the cost, you'll
probably spend more over the next year for your morning coffee than you
would spend for this.
We do make specific guarantees,
including a money back guarantee. Call for details.
I can be reached at my office, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific time.
Please feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Robert Sexton
Director of Business Development, Star Position
Phone: 800.481.2979, ext 2001
Direct Line: 949.215.0022
links for 2007-08-10
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Pretty ridiculous...
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Here's what I'm working on now... Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Path 101: Saving deer from headlights at graduation time through online career discovery and preparation
So here's what I'm up to...
First off, I've decided to be uber anti-stealth with this project. Since I'm only at the idea stage, could someone completely rip this off and go off and do it?
Sure.
Could they do it better than I could? I wouldn't bet against me, because I highly doubt anyone interested in innovating around this space is as passionate about this as I am.
Even when I was in college, I was running a non-credit seminar introducing freshmen to business concepts--mostly because I was trying to train new writers for the business newspaper I had started. When I graduated, I worked for two years to help get Fordham's Young Alumni mentoring program off the ground, and it is now their most successful career education program. Each year, the program matches students in their first two years with recent alumni who can give them some much needed insight into various career paths, but also sensible advice about how finding your passion is a journey that takes time, patience, and much preparation.
I ran NYSSA's SEMI Mentoring program for NYC-area Finance undergraduates for two years and mentored students in the program for five years. I also ran the internship program at the GM pension fund for two summers, even though I was younger than half of our interns.
Anyone who knows me knows that I've been really passionate about helping people find the same kind of career fulfillment that I've had the good fortune to find and now, I believe I've figured out how to tie together all the necessary ingredients--self assessment, professional insight, consistent networking skills, and early preparation--at scale.
Path 101 will be the place where you can send a student who hasn't the slightest clue about where they want to be when they finish school, but knows that wherever it is, they want it to be challenging and exciting as well. It will help them make a habit out of keeping up with industries, building and learning from their network, and perhaps even publishing what they're learning on a regular basis. It will be the digital extension of the career office that is available at 3AM when a student gets a sudden urge to be ambitious.
Right before I left for my trip, two people asked me in consecutive meetings what I really wanted to do. The answer that kept bubbling up was working with students on helping them find a career, but it was something that only recently I thought about being able to do at scale.
Path 101 is the shot I need to take at this--the culmination of a lot of experience with students over the last six or seven years. I'm incredibly excited about it and want to get started on finding the right technical partner who can help me see this through to fruition. That's my next step--connecting with someone who can do significant development and who sees enough value in this to want to be a significant equity partner.
I have two versions of a 5 minute presentation I put together using Jing. The first is just the presentation itself. The second is narrated using Jing's microphone integration. Frankly, I'd go with the mute one, because I have so much to say about this concept, I found it incredibly difficult to run through the same presentation with comments in the same amount of time. Either way, thanks for the five minutes of your time.
On Niche Celeb Status and Being Uber Anti-Stealth...
Last night I twittered that I'd sent out my startup overview presentation (saved it on Jing, which is awesome, btw... posting soon) to anyone who was interested.
It got picked up by Henry Blodget's Silicon Alley Insider. It was the second time this week I got mentioned... Tuesday night he wrote about how I was noticeably absent from Tuesday's Tech Meetup, because I went to the Mets-Braves game with Fred.
The last two and a half years have been an amazing ride for me... bursting out of obscurity to local digital "celeb" status--all while having accomplished relatively little compared to some of the other folks in this space, in my opinion.
Frankly, I shy away from it. I don't ever want to be known as a self-promoter or someone whose reputation and prominence in the spotlight is ill-deserved. I'm not the guru of anything. I'm just "an ordinary guy with nothing to lose."
I wrote this note to Henry just now and thought I'd share it. The bottom line is that it is great that we've finally got a post-Calcanis voice covering NYC and we need more... but that voice needs to talk about people we don't know about. I'm the last guy anyone needs to hear about twice in a week on SAI... and so is Fred...
Henry,
I appreciate the links and all, but with all due respect, I really shy away from "celeb" status.
I don't run nextNY and compared to lots of other great area entrepreneurs, I really haven't accomplished anything yet.
I have no partner, no code, no nothing but a presentation at this point...
There are so many people don't really interesting and great things around here that are so much more worthy of coverage. I don't want to become known as the Guy Kawasaki of the East Coast... a great self-promoter who people know, even though he really hasn't actually accomplished anything of substance.
The NYC tech scene is so much more than "USV and friends" and I'd encourage anyone covering the scene to do their best to reflect that.
And no, I have not approached anyone for funding. The folks at USV are great friends because I worked with them. If anything, I'm less likely to approach them because I'd never want this to appear like any kind of an "insider" deal. I need to make my own way on this. I'm proud of the fact that, for example, my subscribers have grown much more after I left USV than when I joined and during the time I was there... so that I know I don't have a Fred-fed blog...
I'm glad you're covering the space, because more people need to, but if you could point the camera at all of the other really great things going on here and maybe wait until I actually accomplish something useful, I think that's the right away to go.
I'm being anti-stealth on this not to start up the hype machine, but because its really how I want to build this business... to get as much feedback from everyone who cares about the space... to be a lightning rod for anyone thinking about this... to get the word out to colleges and a potential partner.
I hope this makes sense and I def don't want to come across as snarky and unappreciative because I appreciate every link and every mention... I just want it to be deserved.
I don't celebrate birthdays for the same reason... not dying is not a thing to celebrate... until you're like 85... then its an accomplishment. :)
Charlie
Bay Ridge Tornado was six blocks from my apartment
It's been confirmed: A tornado touched down in Bay Ridge on 68th Street between 3rd and 4th avenues.
Not only is this six blocks from my house, but that's the block I always park my car on when there's Thursday/Friday alternate side parking in effect on my street, because that's a Monday/Tuesday block.
The storm was so strong that it woke me up out of bed (I'm a very heavy sleeper) at about 5:45AM. That's when I sent this twit:
"Crackle crackle KA-BOOM... Wow, that one was close...and loud. Now that's some thunder and lightning! Woke me up."
Little did I know that a goddamn tornado would touch down about a half hour later just a few blocks away.
One doesn't usually expect this kind of behavior from the sky in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
A Little Top 50 Facebook App Analysis
Facebook analysis:
I grouped the Top 50 apps into various categories, and recorded the total combined users of those applications, as well as how many of those types of apps showed up in the top 50.
| Type | Reach | Top 50 | Avg. |
| Friend Display | 17,453,819 | 5 | 3,490,764 |
| Things I like | 16,832,162 | 7 | 2,404,595 |
| Walls | 16,327,688 | 5 | 3,265,538 |
| Quizzing | 16,243,945 | 6 | 2,707,324 |
| Poking | 15,001,896 | 5 | 3,000,379 |
| Of the day | 11,716,182 | 5 | 2,343,236 |
| Gifting | 9,279,042 | 3 | 3,093,014 |
| Videos | 5,965,382 | 1 | 5,965,382 |
| Viral Stupidity | 5,629,616 | 4 | 1,407,404 |
| Status | 4,985,725 | 2 | 2,492,863 |
| Pets | 2,217,398 | 1 | 1,108,699 |
| Mobile | 2,046,160 | 1 | 2,046,160 |
| Photo/Video | 1,456,734 | 1 | 1,456,734 |
| Dating | 1,326,272 | 1 | 1,326,272 |
| Games | 782,021 | 1 | 782,021 |
| Other | 734,156 | 1 | 734,156 |
Friend display apps allow you to categorize friends in various ways. Thinks I like allow you to maintain lists, like music you like or places you've visted, and compare with others. Wall apps improve functionality of the Facebook wall. Quizzes... self explanatory. Poking improves upon the poking functionality on Facebook, allowing you to throw sheep or do other short form actions. "Of the day" is basically a piece of media bling that shows others quotes, scenes, etc. from your favorite shows, books, authors, etc. Gifting is all about giving virtual items to others. Videos is the Facebook Video app. Viral stupidity is where I put Zombies and such. I really hate those apps. Status is a display of your current emotion or some other element of the moment. Pets can be anything from actual pets to gardens to virtual things you keep. And so on and so forth.
What can be learned from this?
Well, for one, much of the reach in the top 50 is related to what I call, "Facebook Infrastructure" ... walls, pokes, friends. How many more apps like this are there going to be. How many ways can you ______ your friends or leave them a bulletin board post? Or rather, how many various bulletin boards are people going to want?
I think you'll start to see a shift... now that we've advanced the poke and the wall to the umpteenth iteration, we should start seeing apps further up the stack. Communication tools, like Marc Pincus' SocialChat, are sure to move up in popularity. I think the key is building on top of some of what's already there, which is what players like SocialMedia and RockYou are hoping for. They're trying to create networks or platforms out of their apps.
Another interesting phenomenon is that hardly any of the top apps come from pre-existing web applications. Possible reasons?
- Popular off-Facebook apps have yet to make a big push into Facebook. (see eBay, AIM, Skype)
- Popular off-Facebook apps have no clue how to make a big push into Facebook.
- Popular off-Facebook apps have such crappy APIs that you're better off using them outside of Facebook.
- There are no popular off-Facebook apps... because you're nobody until you're a Facebook app.
Remember back when we used to talk about MySpace? Oh, those were the days...
Mr. Devitt Goes to Washington: What Congress Needs to Hear
Jason gives it to the man in DC... worth a watch if you're into the mobile space or if you have a cellphone.