Posted by Tom Blue on December 30, 2008 under Companies, Marketing, Technology | 
Who else is burned out on Facebook? For me it has just become an extra thing to have to monitor. Who has the time for this? The only benefit I get out of it is that I like to check in every once in a while to see what my friends are doing and to see their pictures. That is it.
I expect Facebook popularity to wane. I believe that it will hit a peak and come back down after the majority of online users go through their initial “facebook is fun” phase. In addition, I wouldn’t count on a younger generation to fill the drop off. Tweens/teens rarely find something that adults use as cool.
Posted by Tom Blue on December 22, 2008 under Companies, Funding, Investing, Marketing, Technology |
I am considering changing this blog’s focus. Right now it is a hodge podge of business/economic opinions and news. The new idea is to profile growing companies/startups that have not been funded by vc firms. There are a number of reasons why I want to do this.
1. I am personally interested.
I want to know about companies that are growing quickly without any financial assistance because I can learn so much from their founders/leaders. I can’t learn much from a startup ceo that has gotten $30M in funding becuase it is so simple to make a company grow when you have that capital. No offense, but I question how good these so called proven leaders really are at these venture funded startups. Most have access to this capital and have benefited from the past 25 years economic boom.
2. These stories are not currently covered.
Blogs tracking Silicon Valley startups are a dime a dozen. Everyone is trying to be the next Michael Arrington. Tell me about companies that aren’t on the radar of every tech blogger. That is what I want to know about. Who is doing well that I haven’t heard of? Everyone knows about Twitter. Tell me about the Average Joe’s startup that is making $300K in monthly revenue.
3. Great Markets
It is great to know about self-funded companies because they tell you which markets are growing. A venture funded company can’t tell you the real state of the market because they are most likely not profitable. People want to know about where things are headed…
Posted by Tom Blue on December 19, 2008 under Marketing |
I just had a conversation with a friend of mine who is a financial advisor… you know, a stockbroker? He was telling me how his customers have been calling in asking for his 1-3 year outlook. He is currently responding an honest “I don’t know.” His thought process (which I believe to be the correct one) is this could be the bottom or we could be in the middle of slide downward so he obviously does not know. I think most people would say that is absurd. He is a financial “advisor.” Isn’t he supposed to give advice?
Well, I guess, but it seems to me the whole world has gotten addicted to unswerving opinions and pseudo-facts regardless if they have any merit. It’s as if, they would rather be wrong then have any doubt in their minds. The media just makes it worse. Journalists are so caught up with trying to have a complete story/opinion, they don’t bother to get to the truth. In addition, so called experts that are interviewed on news programs are so happy to get the publicity they are willing to act like an authority even when they probably aren’t. Don’t believe me, see this.
My thought is, what is wrong with saying “I don’t know.” It has to be said more often. If my broker said that to me I would appreciate it and would be much more likely to work with him again in the future. Alternatively, the more opinionated one is and the more he/she is trying to prove, the less aware I feel they are. Their overconfidence backfires.
Posted by Tom Blue on December 18, 2008 under Companies, Marketing, Technology |
Venturebeat just alerted the web world of the first iPhone Application being sold. FutureTap acquired the Where To application from TapTapTap. All the posts from TapTapTap’s blog have been unbelievably informative. I have recently been begging sites like TechCrunch and Venturebeat to discuss the monetization of iPhone applications. I wanted to know more details about how much revenue/profit these apps were making. Most entrepreneurs are very guarded about this information, but TapTapTap has been extremely open. They created blog posts about all of their financials along with the risks and upside of purchasing the application. Apparently the app had received $200K in revenues over a 3 month period and did about $80K in profit during this time. This does not include the cost of TapTapTap’s time… we do not know what that is. The app was sold for $70,000 which on the surface seems like a good deal to me.
Posted by Tom Blue on December 17, 2008 under Companies, General, Investing, Technology |
1. Level Playing Field for Startups
Now is actually a fine time to create a bootstrapped startup. Competition is going to be severely diminished. I started Lead411 in 2001 in which very few startups were getting funded and I believe it was the best time. We weren’t overloaded with competitors and we were able to know if we were a legitimate business right from the start. We had to be profitable immediately.
2. The End of Arrogance(even if temporary)
I don’t know about you, but I was getting fed up with wall street, real estate brokers, and tech entrepreneurs thinking they were infallible. These people were praised by the media (and themselves) as if they were, in fact, geniuses. You aren’t a genius, you have just been given an unbelievable opportunity that was built upon incorrect valuations. 26 year olds making $700K+ a year is obsurd and should have made these geniuses stop for some introspection.
3. Confidence Boost For Others
I believe that while there are many arrogant people, others are too hard on themselves. They might doubt themselves or feel like others know more. Well, the one thing I have learned over the past few years is that no one knows anything. We had no idea what we were getting into with Iraq and we didn’t believe our stock market could crumble like it did. I mean, Bernanke is supposed to be the premier expert on the Great Depression and he didn’t even see this coming. That being said, believe in yourself because you probably know just as much as anyone else.
4. Maybe next year I will be able to afford a house… 
