• InterviewUp Aims to Help You Prep For Job Interviews
  Another point solution that will most likely be a feature of Path 101.
  (tags: path101 careers)

Mario Cuomo is such a likable guy...  He's giving a great intro for Bloomberg.

Ok, Mario, a little over the top intro for Brokaw...   

Brokaw starts off pointing out his change of parties and changing baseball team affiliations.... obviously, this isn't word for word.

Should Lee Bolinger have allowed the President of Iran to speak of Columbia?  Bloomberg gives a supportive free speech answer.   

Should President Bush speak with the President Iran?  We shouldn't be talking to him directly at a high level, but should be talking to every country on the face of the earth at some level.  Inappropriate and incendiary to allow him to leave a wreath at Ground Zero.

Are we safer now than we were in '02 or '03?

Is Rudy Giuliani exploiting his role in 9/11, particularly during the last anniversary ceremonies?
He was invited, as were lots of other political figures.  He was the Mayor at the time and the face of New York at the time... important to have him there.

How are the Democrats shaping up for '08?

I find both parties...  rather... blame ourselves for instant, soundbite answers, allowing candidates to duck tough questions, because the public doesn't demand answers to tough questions.  For both parties, we don't really grill the parties enough.  The press should help us look at qualifications, information.  This country is in big trouble... we've lost relationships.  We've got trade issues.  We're hurting our environment.  We have very few friends in this world.  We have a lot to be proud of and shouldn't be ashamed about what we bring to the party, but we have an arrogance and a go in alone approach.  I don't know what the solution is for Iraq any more than anyone else does, but none of the choices are good... but the real problem is rebuilding relationships around the world and not go in alone.  Why we tried before isn't important, but we can't do it anymore.

We have domestic problems, like healthcare.  Western Europe spends less money than we do and has a higher life expectancy.   What are we getting for our money?  Current plans offered by candidates aren't realistic.  At least they're trying.  Mitt Romney at least instituted a plan.  Socialized medicine doesn't seem to be working so bad in Europe.  If I was a candidate, which I'm not, but you can keep a secret, right...    well, because of the partisanship, there are things that you can't address and if you're running... if you're a democrat you just can't demand troops out fast enough, if you're a Republican, you can't say you want to raise taxes... the result is that we as voters don't get straight answers during the primaries.

Would you order a pullout of troops by April 15, 2008?
If you pull them out quickly, you lead to a massacre and destabilization...  Look we want them out as soon as possible, but picking a date... there are no easy answers here.  We need to find a way to get these people to live together, all the various groups... Jordan is a lynchpin in that region as well.

Does the President have a Plan B for Iraq?
You have to ask the President.  You have to be willing to ask people, try things, but have courage to stick to your instinct.  I wasn't party to the intelligence.  I don't want to talk about how we got there.  I don't know what I would have done.  Congress certainly voted to go to war.   Most congresspeople voted to go to war in the first place. 

Has the President failed to ask this country enough?
One of the worst things we've ever done is treat returning soldiers the way we did in Vietnam.    We have an all volunteer army and they still show up even though they know what they're going to face.  You're right that the rest of us don't really feel the pain of this war, other than the families of those troops.    Bush should find better ways to talk to the public about why we're there, not a partisan thing the way it is now.  We don't trust the military leadership anymore.  In many cases, we're not even supplying our troops with the right weapons systems because even creation of arms is a political activity.   Back in Lexington many years ago, we're now like the British were there...fighting an insurgency... a trained military.

Shift gears...  NYC has the most improved public school system in the country...
Don't thank me... thank the taxpayers, teachers, principals... the public has invested... teachers have gotten a 43% raise.  We have a long ways to go.  For decades, people said black and latino kids can't learn, so we created a two class education system.  I'm very proud of the fact that the gap, even though its intolerable that it exists, is closing.  Its easy to blame the unions for everything.  Generally, the teachers are hardworking, flexible, honest.... I'm glad we have them.  Generally, they're interested in improving the lot of their members.  Truth of the matter is that Randi Weingarten has been able to deliver a lot.  Joel Klein has been able to deliver a lot.  It's been a good balance.  It's an example of the fundamental thing you need to do is having accountability.  We're a lot closer to having accountability than we've ever had.  We're going to deliver report cards on the schools to the parents and sure people are going to scream, but we need to be able to talk honestly about the problems.  Teachers want to work here.  People want to work with an organization that is successful.  We're even giving incentives for the really good people.  Our teachers are working very hard and you can see the results.  The results are there.  Its a big school system. 

Should there be a mix of charter schools and vouchers?
Competition in the public school system is good... even the UFT runs a charter school.  Charter schools are places where you can innovate.  There are things that have worked elsewhere that we're trying... we're trying things, not with public money, where we don't know if they are going to work...  its worth trying.  You take a 2000 person school and break it up into 4 and you get double, triple the graduation rates.  With vouchers, there are just some fights you just can't win.  Plus, I'm not really sure that vouchers really work. 

Why wouldn't you run for President of the United States?
There are lots of candidates out there.  There are other ways to make a contribution.  I've been very lucky and modestly successful in business.  I'd like to able to say that this administration really advanced the ball.  My next career will probably be in philanthropy.  I've got the best job... its a job where you have to deliver results.  If I were to say that I want fifth avenue to run northbound tomorrow, you'd see signs changed and a cop on every corner, it might be a dumb idea, but you'd say it.

Just don't try it on the West Side, please...
Well, you know, we can be a model for everyone else here in this city.  There are only 14 cities in this country with populations of more than 100k that are safer and you've probably never heard of most of them.  We're going to drop the crime rate by a large amount... a record amount.

After Super Tuesday, if you're not happy the choices, are you absolutely ruling it out?
My first priority is a Subway Series...   I'm not a candidate for President.  The right question is what are the qualifications.  We took great pains to have a scorecard of things that I promised... and its never a big story.  People just focus on the things you haven't done.  The public focuses on what does work.  If you want to have a smile on your face, walk out with the belief that things are better than you think and things can get better.  People are coming here and staying here.  Even when countries hate us, people still come here.  Its American freedoms, American science, but people still vote with their feet and they come here.  One year, I closed six firehouses, raised property taxes and put a smoking ban in and if you can do that you can do anything.

• Advice for Computer Science College Students - Joel on Software
  (tags: careers advice path101 computerscience)
• I just made my own Facebook app in 5 minutes using Widgetbox
  (tags: facebook widgetbox web2.0 cool)

Widgetbox has just made public their new "roll your own Facebook app" app called Application Accelerator...   I took my blog and made an app out of it in 5 minutes.

It doesn't do much of anything, but it's pretty friggin' cool that I was able to make an application that anyone can download right now.  Go ahead... let's see how many users the "This is going to be BIG" app can get.

So now I guess I'm a Facebook developer, too. 

Go here and create your own Facebook app...

SAI says that the deal is worth $65-80 million.  In the wide open web, Vault has struggled to keep up with its paid subscription service and offline job guide sales.

Either way, the valuation certainly bodes well for Indeed...

Cosmo: Posit: People think a bank might be financially shaky.
Martin Bishop: Consequence: People start to withdraw their money.
Cosmo: Result: Pretty soon it is financially shaky.
Martin Bishop: Conclusion: You can make banks fail.
Cosmo: Bzzt. I've already done that. Maybe you've heard about a few? Think bigger.
Martin Bishop: Stock market?
Cosmo: Yes.
Martin Bishop: Currency market?
Cosmo: Yes.
Martin Bishop: Commodities market?
Cosmo: Yes.
Martin Bishop: Small countries?
Cosmo:  I might even be able to crash the whole damn system.

- Sneakers

Fred wrote a little while ago about the tough times that are ahead for the web.   Even my partner has a habit of saying that he worked for some startups during the "first bubble", which, to me, presumes a second.

Fred gives a number of macro factors that could effect the cycle and says, "none of those factors directly affects web/tech and the venture markets. But it does directly affect the psychology of the investors who fund the market and to a lesser extent the entrepreneurs who drive it".

Well, if that's the case... and it's about psychology, should we be feeding that psychology with all sorts of talk about a looming crisis?  We shouldn't be naive, of course, but every investment has risk and dumb money will always lose money.  There will always be startups that go under, but that doesn't mean that when the first big one does, we should yell "fire".   That's going to make it worse, because then you'll clear the strategics and the public money out of the room, and you'll wind up choking your own portfolio and your own company.

So, on a positive note, here are five reasons why I don't think we're going to see "Bubble 2.0".  The macro economy is definitely a shakey, but I think you're going to see the tech sector show some resilience this time around.  Here's why:

1. Burn is significantly lower.  In the late 90's, companies raised hordes and hordes of cash because they were spending a lot more than you're average Web 2.0 company.  There were a lot of high burn networking equiptment companies and the dot com's were advertising on television.  Now, you're seeing companies like Mozy get sold to EMC for $75 million after only raising less than two.  Even a company building boxes like SlingMedia only raised about $55 million, making their $380 million acquisition probably a nice win for all involved.  How much would they have raised if this was '99?  $200 million? 
2. VC's aren't tossing around cash like they used to.  In the late 90's a lot of VC funds were up in the $750 million range, and this was for EARLY stage investing.  They were actively competing with the public markets for deals, causing ridiculous valuations and overfunding.  They blew through those '99 funds, often times, in just a year.  This time, you're seeing VC's complain that they just can't get that much into their companies because they just don't need them and you're not seeing too many companies take more than they need, mostly because they don't want all that preferred money sitting on top of them.
3. Incest is low.  In other words, back in the late 90's, there was a lot ponzi action going on.  You had lots of startups selling equipment and services to other startups.
4. No Year 2000 bug.  Millions, probably billions of dollars were spent on internet consultants to fix the Year 200

"The New York attorney general’s office says it has been investigating Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif., for the last month. Investigators posing as under-age members of the service said they could gain access to a wide range of pornographic images and videos and were “repeatedly solicited by adult sexual predators on Facebook.”

Have you seen the "pornographic images and videos" application in Facebook?  I must have missed that one.

Here's a question... if someone e-mails you porn through Hotmail, is Microsoft responsible?  What's the difference between that and private communication through Facebook?  Perhaps they ought to look int arresting the sexual predators instead of trying to hold a social network witchhunt.

Do you know who it is?

I'll give you a hint... he doesn't live in Gracie Mansion.

But... it is, in fact, our Mayor.

Cooper is holding an event that I think is worth pouring into the streets for, because the tix are free if you get there on time.  This line is going to make the line for Shakespere in the park look like a walk in the... um... park.

Yeah, so anyway... here are the details...  See you there!

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and journalist Tom Brokaw at The Cooper Union Dialogue Series, Tuesday, September 25th at 6 p.m.
The event is free but seating is limited. The latest in The Cooper Union Dialogue Series, this event features a conversation between Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and journalist and former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw on issues of national importance. Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis the day of the event, September 25, 2007 starting at 4:00 p.m. in front of Cooper Union's Foundation Building: 7 E 7th Street, between 3rd and 4th Avenues. The free event begins promptly at 6 p.m. in The Great Hall. The doors will close at 5:45 p.m. Cooper Union's President George Campbell Jr., the host of the event, and former New York State Governor Mario Cuomo will make opening remarks introducing the speakers.

• 7 reasons I switched back to PHP after 2 years on Rails - O'Reilly Ruby
  (tags: ruby php)
• MyWorkster
  Interesting.... competitor in the profiling area...
  (tags: path101)
• FREE Logo Maker - FREE Logo Creator - FREE Online Logo Design
  (tags: cool design logos path101)

I missed this over the summer:

"Nevada based YouDeparted provides an encrypted electronic safe deposit box with up to 5GB of space that can be accessed by loved ones in the event of a members death."

The funny thing is, I blogged about a form of this idea months before the service came out:

"...Sometimes, I think about what might happen to my digital presence when I'm gone. ...people's blogs and MySpace pages become comment section shrines, only because that's the only thing the public has access to.

In my case, at some point, my Typepad subscription and domain registration would expire, and my blog might disappear.

Now, lucky for me, I know a couple of folks over at 6A and so if news of my unfortunate demise reverberated throughout the blogosphere, I hope they might be nice enough to make my blog a freebie.

But then what of my email buddies, Twitter friends, and friends across various social networks? How would many of them even know I was gone? That's prob a big issue. Many of my digital friends, like all those dozens of prospective Match dates waiting in my inbox, wouldn't even know I was dead.

Enter Digital Plot. Digital Plot would enable you to carry out a very specific set of intructions to be carried out for your digital world when you pass.

Sure, its a little different, and more about the digerati, but still, the concept of leaving digital instructions for the Big Day is the same.

The main difference?

These guys went out and did it!

Execution is everything.  The idea is nothing.

What I would do if I was them is to device an upsell mechanism for all of these digital places... domain registry, blog services, hosting companies, etc.   Allow them to offer YouDeparted members a small payment on the side up front that allows them to insure their blog or page will live in perpetuity.  Would I pay Typepad an extra $15 up front to ensure that my blog lives after I die?  Sure.  Does it cost them much to host a blog that no one posts to anymore...  not really.... especially since the liklihood that my page gets any traffic years after I die is pretty slim.

The service is a good idea, but I think if you really want to get word of mouth going, you need to offer something to the geeks.

I got two comments on my previous post about some creative ways to get some elements of my startup done (some quick and dirty ways to get a logo) that I'd like to address.

First, Nate's comments...

"Don't settle on a logo early and don't let someone outside the company do it. Yes, you need a better one -- and fairly soon ;-) but don't lock yourself in and don't lock your eventual full-time designer out of the process."

I like this angle.  It makes sense to me that a designer, especially one that we'd like to hire full time, might not want to get handed a logo that may or may not square with their vision for the look and feel.  That's an excellent point.

Now, Rachel's comments.  I don't know who Rachel is, but she seems to be (or believe herself to be, given her tone) an expert in something...

"Corporate identity (logo design/graphic look and feel) is brand expression, which is the derivative of brand essence, which you haven't done any strategic work on..."

Personally, I don't believe that seed stage startups should do "strategic work" on corporate identity.  They should build a useful product, period.  So many times, web services do fancy redesigns to make things look good when they flat out fail on improving the usability of the product.  "Brand essence" = good product.  You think people use Apple because they like the logo?  No, it's because their products are functional and easy to use.  All the brand positioning in the world won't save a product if it doesn't just flat out provide utility.  Do you think Craigslist does strategic work on its brand essence?  Having met Craig, I'd say I highly doubt it.  I mean, hell, they don't even have a logo.

Actually, they do.  Here it is:

Craigslist

Snarky?  Yeah, because I'm just snarking back to her comment about my presentation:

"It's a mess from a sheer presentation standpoint. Clean it up, format it, get those headlines right, just get some look of discipline in there and the VCs might overlook your age and inexperience"

It may be a graphical mess... I don't pertain to be any kind of expert, but it is also on Google Docs, so things got bumped around a little.  In fact, that's the very "essence" of the company... open, out there, direct...   but figuring as we're having little trouble attracting interested folks, perhaps other VC/angel pitches aren't messy enough.

But the real kicker is this:  "get some look of discipline in there and the VCs might overlook your age and inexperience".   

Rachel, how old do you think the average internet entrepreneur is that gets funded by VCs these days?  Certainly not a lot older than 28. 

And my inexperience?

So tell me, how many people are out there who have been a product manager during the launch of a new product, evaluated early stage startups for a top tier VC firm, taught both undergraduates and graduates in classes that they developed from scratch, ran a mentoring program for both a professional society and a school's alumni organization and also created a professional organization that currently has over 1,000 members?

Perhaps I haven't run an enterprise software product and taken revenues from zero to fifty million, or led three startups in completely unrelated spaces, but I dunno, from my vantage point, I couldn't imagine being any more fortunate that I have been to get the exact kind of insight and experience  needed to make Path 101 a success--plus not to mention the absolutely fantastic network of people I've built up to help me.

So, instead of trying to "grab the conversation by the emotional cojones" which is, trust me, what a lot of entrepreneurs try to do ("We're going to change the world, you'll see!") I'm more interested in solving a real problem with a useful product.  A lot of marketing "experts" think that it's all about "sexing up" the pitch.  I've been on the other side of the table (have you?) and trust me... sex doesn't sell in a good VC firm, nor does it sell a sophisticated angel investor.  A good idea backed by the appropriate passionate entrepreneur in a market ripe for disruption is what we're selling here and I'm quite confident we'll do just fine.

Alex and I threw an idea out there that might be ridiculous, or it might be pretty good.

As we're starting up this business, we'll be accumulating all sorts of little expenses here and there out of our own pockets until we raise this angel round.

For example, we need a logo.  I'm sure it will cost us a few hundred bucks at the end of the day.  I also want to make a trip up to Toronto because I have a connection to a big group of schools up there.  Same with Providence, RI.  Trips, obviously, cost money, but they're really valuable to drum up school support, get feedback, and get market knowledge about who else is out there.

Well, what if we could get someone to sponsor these expenses?  Would it be worth a law firm, professional services firm, IT consultant, or some collaborative software's money to slap their logo on some aspect of our process?  Maybe we'll decorate our company blogs with logos of other companies and say "Logo provided by generous sponsorship by Scion"  or something like that?

Is that ridiculous, or just a smart way to monetize the high profile we're fortunate enough to have with this startup?

Anyone want to sponsor our logo design, or contribute a logo design?

I think if someone wanted to do a logo for us, I'd do a video interview with them to put on our blog about the process of doing a logo for us and link to their portfolio.

Maybe we can get a lawyer cheap that way, too.  Interview all these professional services folks about how they want to work with us and advertise their services for payment in kind.  Hmm...

I will pull us out of everywhere and address the world in a live telecast....

"Do whatever the fuck you want, we're out of here."

Then, I'll divert all military spending to spending on alternative energy and big seawalls, for when the global warming floods come.

And on the outside of the seawall, I'll write in big letters:

"Don't let the massive seawall dissuade you from coming, our borders are now open.  We don't like half the people who are already here, so what difference does it make?  Just make sure you pay taxes and don't litter.  No nose picking or loud radios after 10PM either.  People need to wake up early, you know... and we shouldn't need to tell you about the nose picking."

After that, we'll start a government secrets blog.  First post: All about the aliens.  In fact, that's part of why I want to be President in the first place.  Tell me that's not a cool meeting:

"Ok, so give it to me.  What's the deal with the aliens?  Can I see the bodies?  Does the spaceship still work, like in Independence Day?  Oh, and JFK, too.  What happened there?"

Oh, and I'd promote a la carte, month to month pricing for everything.  Anyone can get any heathcare plan, not just the ones your company picks for you.  Cable, too.  You don't watch that channel, you don't have to pay for it.  Cell phones?  No two year contracts.  No penalties for quitting.  If you get bad service, feel free to leave.

And that stupid "winner of the All-Star game determines the home field advantage in the World Serious"... that goes, too.  Seriously, what the f is that?  If you win 120 games, your team should get home field.

What else?  Oh, yeah... basic parenting classes.  If you need a license to fish, you should need a license to unleash offspring onto the world.  We could make the test pretty easy, but at least just cover the bare minimum stuff.  Kind of like driving.  If you can't identify a stop sign, then you shouldn't be allowed to drive.  Same with kids.  If you don't know that feeding your kid McDonalds each day isn't healthy, sorry but you're going to have to retake this test until you pass.

Speaking of food...   Government mandated portion sizes, particularly for beverages.  Until you learn not to drink yourselves into diabetes with Super Big Gulps of Diet Coke, you just can't have that much.  It's no good for you.

And we'll fix that ridiculous electoral vote process, too.  Person who gets the most votes wins. 

We'll also be taking state by state votes on gay marriage.  To any state that doesn't allow gay marriage, we're going to make them put that big Arnold Diaz "Shame on you" finger on their "Welcome to..." road signs.  We'll also institute a prejudice tax on those states to pay for extra copies of wedding albums from the gay weddings being held in other states.  Albums will be airlifted and dropped on the homophobe  states and should any 'phobes get clonked on the head with an album, well, that's the price of creativity.   That's about as far as I think I can go without making marriage a federally regulated institution, like communications.   Just look at our damn cable and cell phone bills and service.... yeah.. just not a good idea.

Oh, and wiffleball on the South Lawn...everyday.

Wanted:  Bucket of baseballs.   Willing to trade:  Guillermo Mota.

Here's a question... where would the Mets be if instead of Pelfrey starting the season as the 5th starter, it was Brian Bannister, and instead of Schowenweis, Mota, and Aaron Sele, it was Chad Bradford, Heath Bell, and Darren Oliver?

Pelfrey 3-7, 5.24
Bannister 12-9, 3.61 (For the Royals!)

Schowenweis 0-2, 5.27
Bradford 3-7, 3.38

Mota 2-2, 5.91
Bell  6-2, 2.22

Sele 3-2, 5.29
Oliver 3-0, 3.36

The Mets let go of four pitchers from last year that could have had major impacts on this season.  So, if the Mets don't see this thing through, don't blame Willie... blame Omar.

• Path 101: Helping college students figure out jobs, careers, internships... and life, if we have time.: What we're thinking: Part I - Professional Spaces and the Need for The Third Place for Career Discovery
  (tags: facebook careers linkedin path101 socialnetworking)
• The Blogging Scholarship
  (tags: blogging students scholarships)
• Path 101: Helping college students figure out jobs, careers, internships... and life, if we have time.: Path 101 Overview Presentation on Google Docs
  Well, here it is... its a lot better than what we started with, I think.
  (tags: path101 careers startup pitch entrepreneurship)

Path 101 is looking for a designer...  Alex and I need someone to help with evil laughs and cackles as we take our ideas and create mockups, clickware, and eventually, the site itself, as we yell, "It's alive!"

Is it me or wasn't there a school there?, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Ave P and 75th St....that's new

I had a very interesting experience this morning...  I got turned down by a VC for the Path 101 angel round.

Of course, we're very early and I didn't really expect to get any VC interest to begin with at this stage, but it was just a weird feeling because I'm not used to being on this side of the table.

It was a little bit like that Simpsons episode where Nelson walks by a mirror and does his "Ha ha!" laugh and then realizes, "Oh, that hurts."  (One of my favorite Simpsons moments ever.)

I've turned down tons of companies on behalf of USV even before they got to a funding meeting, but when it's your company, I'll tell you, it really smarts.  I totally get it.

Even more so, I understand the animosity that entrepreneurs seem to have for VCs because of the impression that they only want to take a risk on you after you've already executed.  I'm not saying that's the case, or that VCs aren't well founded to ask to see more traction, but I have to say that's what it honestly feels like.

But, rather than just sit here and complain about it, I'm thinking about what is to be learned from these experiences.  Here's what I have so far:

1. First, if nothing else, practicing your pitch and seeing what resonates with people is enormously helpful.  This is partly why I'm such a big believer in anti-stealth.  You should get in the habit of telling as many as possible about your startup.  Whittle your way down to the elevator pitch.  Alex and I have come a long way with our presentation even just in the last two weeks and these meetings have proven invaluable for that very reason, if nothing else.
2. Product feedback: Instead of thinking that someone else just "doesn't see the vision" or that there's some missing piece of info that you could get someone to make them understand, you have to consider that your product vision sucks, or more likely, its jumbled with a lot of extra crap it doesn't need right now.  In fact, your first response should be to look at what you're not getting, not what they're not getting.   Being pushed on our product thinking will have the long term effect of making Path 101 that much better in the future.
3. Don't burn bridges...hang around the rim.  Go out and get your angels or cobble together what ever you can and just keep everyone posted.  You can't get rebounds if you don't hang around the rim.  Maybe the investor has too many things going on right now or maybe they just took some meetings that scared them off to your space.  If you got in the door once and you weren't laughed out the door, don't waste any social capital you may have gained even by getting turned down.  Sometimes investors come around again and you don't want to lose touch.
4. There's always risk.  Just because someone asks for more traction doesn't mean that you will have taken all the risk off the table by the time you see someone later on, after you've accomplished more.  Companies still go under even after they've generated lots of revenue.  To think that, "Oh, they just want all the risk off the table first", isn't really accurate. 
5. Most of all... it's not personal.  Everyone in this space is trying to run a business.  Shake it off and move forward.  You'll get 'em next time.

Alex and I are looking to grab some empty desks in NYC... got any?  Details here.