Recently in VentureCast Category
Today TechCrunch posted a list of the "Top VC Blogs (According to Google Reader)." I was very pleased to find out that I came in at number three, sandwiched between Fred Wilson and Brad Feld. But I have to admit, the ranking makes me feel a little guilty. Not because I don't think there's good content on VentureBlog (after six years of blogging, there must be some good stuff in there somewhere). But because I really don't blog enough. Every couple of weeks or so, something jumps out at me that demands a blog post. In stark contrast, Fred and Brad post all the time. I have huge respect for them for that. And not just because of the quantity, but because they post great quality stuff day in and day out. So my hat is off Fred and Brad, who are the rightful owners of the top two VC blog spots without any questions.
The challenges posed by trying to maintain an active blog are only further exacerbated by the incredible proliferation of "media channels" these days. I don't mean professional media channels. I mean user-controlled media channels. Blogs. Podcasts. Twitter updates. Facebook and LinkedIn status messages. YouTube channels. Etc. The list is daunting. Yet anyone who takes seriously the idea of communicating directly with his or her "customers" really can't ignore the opportunities posed by each and every one of these channels.
What's more, each of these media channels serves a different purpose. Podcasting can not replace blogging, which can not replace tweeting. A jogger isn't going to read my blog while taking a morning run, but may well listen to VentureCast. An entrepreneur trying to quickly get up to speed on the state of Venture Capital is not likely to listen through 30 hours of VentureCast, but could easily browse through VentureBlog for relevant content. And anyone foolish enough to care what I'm doing on a day to day basis will not likely find that out on VentureBlog or VentureCast, but could certainly subscribe to my Twitter feed and get the latest and "greatest."
The more I think about the relevance of each of these media channels, the more I realize that it is important for me to engage on each and every one of them. To that end, I have recently revived VentureCast -- now with my partner Howard Hartenbaum. We intend to record a new show about twice a month. The first two we've recorded are already available on iTunes, so check it out. It also means that I need to share more thoughts on entrepreneurship and Venture Capital on Twitter, which I will surely continue to do. And, of course, it means that I need to blog about the world of Venture Capital more frequently. If nothing else, this post is a good start.
Hello VentureBlog readers. Are there still any of you out there? My hat is off to folks like Fred Wilson who blog religiously on a daily basis. While I post a thing or two daily to my personal Vox blog, that's usually a picture, a quote, a video. Fully formed sentences are a bonus on my Vox blog. But what it lacks in structure and depth, it makes up in cute pictures and video of my kids. Sure, my mom is willing to read VentureBlog and pretend she gives a crap about liquidation preference because I'm her son, but when it comes to cute pictures of her grandchildren, she'll check that blog with OCD consistency. My mom's desire for more info on her grandchildren, however, is no excuse for neglecting VentureBlog. And so I return to the hallowed pages of VentureBlog (I hope it is more hallowed than hollow).
Do you ever read a newspaper column and get annoyed when it is just a bunch of little snippets without any overriding theme or structure. Lazy, lazy, lazy. Well, for the sake of easing back into VentureBlog, this post is going to smack of those lazy columns. Sorry about that. I'll try to do better next time.
First things first, welcome to the New and Improved VentureBlog. Do not be confused by its near identical appearance to the old and not yet improved VentureBlog (particularly if you are reading this via my RSS feed :)). VentureBlog is now running on MT4. There's been a ton said out there about MT4 -- lots and lots of praise for its depth, simplicity and beautiful new UI. I second all of that (and not just because I'm an investor). It is a pleasure to use and the MT team deserves a pile of credit for continuing to raise the bar for blogging software.
Not surprising to most of you, I'm sure, I spent the beginning part of this week at the TechCrunch40 conference. While folks like Walt Mossberg, Kara Swisher, Chris Anderson, John Battelle, make it look easy, the conference business is anything but. It takes a pile of planning, a huge amount of leg work, some real personality and a fair bit of luck to make a new conference work. But Mike, Jason and Heather pulled it off in a big way. The TechCrunch40 had the necessary mix of startup energy, investors trolling the halls, journalists chasing down stories, and ice cream bars. So congratulations to them for a great conference. If you couldn't make it to the TechCrunch40 and want to get a feel for the energy in the halls, Craig and I recorded a VentureCast show there that I am sure Craig will be posting shortly.
While I was at the TC40 event, I bumped into Michael Copeland. Michael is a great guy and an equally great journalist. It saddened me to see "Fortune" on his name tag. I don't have any problem with Fortune. I like the magazine and I'm thrilled that Michael is writing for them now. But it was just a reminder of the terrible decision by Time Inc. to shut down Business 2.0. The crew at Business 2.0 worked hard to understand and articulate the underlying trends that continue to power this round of Internet innovation. They weren't content to simply write about the fads after they had been outed by the blogosphere. They dug in. I was lucky enough to attend a couple of the Business 2.0 gatherings of their "Next Net" companies. They were lively debates orchestrated by Erick Schonfeld and the rest of the Business 2.0 editorial team. It is a shame that there won't be any more of those gatherings. Maybe Michael can carry the tradition over to Fortune. [I wrote this post on a plane this morning and then read this evening that Erick Schonfeld has joined TechCrunch as Co-Editor with Arrington. That is fantastic news for TechCrunch -- Congratulations to Erick, Mike and Heather.]
As is par for the course, I didn't actually spend much time in the conference hall during the TechCrunch40. But during one interesting session in which Marc Andreessen and Dave Filo were explaining to Chad Hurley how they invented the Internet, I peaked in and saw Eric Savitz in the front row blogging away madly. Have I ever mentioned on VentureBlog how incredibly great Eric Savitz is? He really is. Unfortunately, because he writes for Barrons he blogs mostly about the public markets. Somehow he managed to even make posts about earnings calls entertaining. And when he is blogging at things like TechCrunch40, his stuff is just awesome. If you haven't read Eric's blog, go check it out now. It has been really impressive how quickly his blog has become one of the standard bearing tech blogs.
As a bookend to Shameless Self Promotion Month, I should mention that over the summer I funded a great company called Jaxtr. Jaxtr is what I like to think of as "social telephony." You can put a Jaxtr widget on your blog, social network, eBay listing, etc. and enable click to call. Jaxtr then establishes a virtual phone number for you that is local for the person calling -- if someone is calling you from India, they get a local India number, same in Europe or China or Iowa. And because the number is virtual and lives on top of a voip platform, you can then control the destination of those incoming calls. It can come to your cell phone, your home phone, Jaxtr voicemail, whatever you prefer. Better yet, you can determine the path of the call by individual. These features are just the beginning for Jaxtr, which will increasingly take advantage of voip and the social graph (oh crap, I swore I wouldn't use that term) to create more control, leverage, cost efficiency and fun for users. I'm thrilled to be involved with the company (along side many of the earliest Skype investors). Incidentally, I did get a fair number of comments and emails telling me that Shameless Self Promotion Month sucked and that I should cut it out. Fair enough. We now return to our ordinarily scheduled program of pontification and sarcasm.
I guess that's enough for now. Sorry for the rambling. It is good to be back.
There are a lot of networking events in the Bay Area every day of the week. If you wanted to be a professional networker, this is undoubtedly the place to do it. But not all networking events are created equal. The massive gathering at a local bar may result in you rubbing shoulders with lots of like minded individuals but it will be loud and crowded and not particularly conducive to building real relationships. The nighttime panel on the startup topic of your choice is equally dubious when it comes to growing your professional network. While the conversation afterwards will require less shouting, it will probably be with other startup neophytes -- it is hard to attract seasoned professionals to take part in such events. The monthly trade organization gathering may well get you chatting with a number of similarly situated professionals, but it will do little to expand the breadth of contacts you have.
What is the solution to these networking woes? Dodgeball. After contemplating the profound networking opportunities on the dodgeball court, YouTube's Hunter Walk, Mint's Noah Kagan and I went about organizing the "First Annual Labor vs. Capital Dodgeball Tournament." And it was a big success. Lots of smart, fun entrepreneurs and venture capitalist came together to throw balls at each other's heads. And in between games of riotous ball-chucking fun, there were lots of opportunities to get to know each other. When folks headed back to work (or home) on Friday afternoon, there were lots of requests for the next Labor vs. Capital event on the circuit. We are still in planning mode but are contemplating Labor vs. Capital miniature golf, or Labor vs. Capital Paint Ball. Whatever it is that we choose, I think the result will be a pile of fun and some good clean networking on the side.
For those of you who didn't make it to the First Annual Labor vs. Capital Dodgeball Tournament, check out the latest installment of VentureCast. Craig and I recorded it at the dodgeball courts. You can even get the play by play of the finals of the tournament. It may well be our best remote VentureCast yet. And if audio from the dodgeball court isn't scintillating enough, check out the great video the folks at the Mercury News made.
It really was a pile of fun. I look forward to the next in the "Labor vs. Capital" series of networking events. Perhaps Labor vs. Capital curling.
In a typical breakfast with my friend Hunter Walk, we spent half the time talking about business (online video, startup finance, the advertising ecosystem, etc.) and half the time talking about nutty ideas that would be fun. One such idea is coming to fruition. We decided that it would be a great idea to have a VC vs. Entrepreneur dodgeball game. Hunter dubbed it Labor vs. Capital Dodgeball, enlisted the help of his friend Noah Kagan of OkDork fame, and we were off and running.
After some planning and a lot of effort designing the t-shirts, we are ready to rumble. We have a fantastic group of entrepreneurs and VCs signed up so far. But we still have a few slots left for the game. So if you are a Bay Area VC (or a VC visiting from out of town) who used to be a professional athlete or are an entrepreneur who used to a Dungeon Master, here's the scoop:
Labor vs. Capital Dodgeball
Friday, June 8th
Noon to 2 pm
Sky High Sports in Santa Clara
Not only will there be some serious dodgeball playing and pizza eating, but Craig and I will also be podcast from the gathering, thus making it a major media event. And best of all, the pizza, t-shirts and dodgeball are courtesy of August Capital, ComVentures, Greylock Partners, and Mohr Davidow (many thanks to Baris Karadogan, David Sze, and David Feinleib for lending a helping Amex).
I'll be training hard over the weekend with my kids. See you all on the battle field.
Craig and I spent a good chunk of last week at the DEMO Conference talking with all sort of folks about technology, startups, finance, you name it. One of the challenges of DEMO is that all the startups there are in pitch mode -- the have had their media training and are on message to a fault. But we did manage to have some fun conversations with folks that didn't only involve them pitching their companies. The DEMO version of VentureCast should be available soon.
And speaking of VentureCast, a number of people have asked us about an MP3 version of the show because they aren't iPod users (did you know that there were actually people out there who didn't use iPods?). Courtesy of GruntMedia (aka Craig), we now have AAC and MP3, or you can listen to the latest show on our very own VentureCast page. So much VentureCast. So little time. Happy listening.
Happy New Year! I am really excited to be jumping into 2007. I have a feeling that 2007 is going to be a watershed year in the technology world in many respects. And I am certainly looking forward to poking and prodding the market along from my seat here at August Capital.
As I go into my fourth year of blogging on VentureBlog, I hope that I can continue to be a resource to the entrepreneurial community. When Andrew Anker and I started VentureBlog, it was in hopes of providing a window into what was then a very closed community. That continues to be my goal, although the black box of venture capital is somewhat more illuminated these days than it was a few short years ago. Nonetheless, if there are topics that you would find it valuable for me to explore, please do drop me a note (hornik_at_augustcap). In karaoke and on VentureBlog, I am happy to take requests.
One thing that I am very excited about in the new year is the opportunity to continue working with Craig Syverson on VentureCast. If you've listened to the last couple of shows we recorded before the new year, you'll see that, for better or for worse, we have landed on a format that is conversational, relaxed and at times pretty goofy. We ramble all over the place, but we talk about all sorts of relevant topics along the way. I won't pretend that it is the most direct source of information you will find on the Web. On the other hand, if you have the 45 minutes to spare, we'll try hard to make it entertaining and occasionally informative.
Thanks for continuing to read VentureBlog and listen to VentureCast. I really do appreciate it. I'm looking forward to a great new year.
It struck me this weekend that if you weren't a subscriber to VentureCast either through feedburner or iTunes, you never got word of the latest episodes of the podcast. Craig and I are trying to be more systematic about the podcast and get new episodes up at least every other week. So far so good. There are two new episodes up since last I wrote about VentureCast.
In our VentureCast #9, Craig and I talk about a bunch of fun stuff including Ask a Ninja, Ask a VC, and the Economics of Abundance.
VentureCast #10 is particularly fun. I picked up Craig at the Starbucks on Sand Hill Road and we drove up to the Web 2.0 Conference. Harking back to VentureCasts of yore, we started our conversation on our drive up Highway 280. But the fun really got started when we spent a couple of hours chatting with folks like Steve Gillmor, Jason Calacanis, Mark Stevens, Ariel Poler, Munjal Shah, Stan Chudnovsky, Mark Pincus, June Cohen and Chris Fralic while wandering around the lobby of the conference and hanging out in the First Round Pavilion. This VentureCast is over an hour long, so I hope you're going on a long run when you start this one.
If you want to subscribe to VentureCast, here's the place to do it. As we told Calacanis at Web 2.0, Craig and I are going to make every effort to make this a bi-weekly thing.
It is no secret that I'm a big fan of conferences. I use them as both a great source of information and a great source of new conversations. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to speak at a bunch of events and to be an advisor to others. In light of that, I've decided to be a little more systematic about sharing conference info on VentureBlog. I'm going to try to share info about the conferences at which I'll be speaking, as well as the ones I think will be interesting and that I plan on attending. I hope it proves interesting and helpful to those of you reading.
Under the Radar: Mobility!
While the idea of mobility has evolved rapidly in recent years, there is no denying that mobile networks, platforms and devices are going to be a major mover of tech economies for the foreseeable future. I would personally sooner give up television than my Treo. For folks interested in getting a great overview of the cutting edge startups in the mobility space, you should definitely check out IBDNetwork's Under the Radar: Mobility!. This one-day conference is being held at the Microsoft Mountain View Campus on November 16th and will run from 8am to 6pm. Companies like 4Info, EQO, MostionDSP, Plusmo and Sharpcast will be presenting. It should be a fantastic mobility primer.
VentureBlog readers can get a $70 discount when they REGISTER HERE.
Business Blogging Seminar in San Francisco
In an effort to help businesses large and small alike better understand and utilize blogging as part of their business strategies, Six Apart has started running half-day blogging seminars throughout the country. You can see the latest dates and locations at the Business Blogging Seminars home page. Anil Dash and crowd from Six Apart do a great job of helping Marketing, PR and Product Management folks better understand the blogging landscape and put blogging to work for their businesses. The next Seminar is in San Francisco on Monday, November 13th at Le Meridien. You can REGISTER HERE. I don't know if I'll be talking at this one but I'm sure to speak at some of these in the future (count me in for the Honolulu seminar). When you talk with folks who are doing a good job of using blogging as part of their business, you can appreciate the power of the medium. Great stuff.
Web 2.0
OK, this is really a tease I suppose because it is no longer possible to register for the upcoming Web 2.0 conference. It is sold out. And for good reason. I was looking at the latest schedule for the event and was blown away by the lineup. Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle have really pulled together an amazing set of speakers for this year's Web 2.0 Conference. I have no doubt that people will be blogging this event like crazy next week (it runs Tuesday through Thursday). I'll be there for sure. And Craig Syverson and I will be podcasting from the conference one Wednesday. Keep your ears pealed for our VentureCast from Web 2.0.
If you missed your chance to go to the Web 2.0 conference because you registered too late, you should definitely keep your eyes on the Web 2.0 Expo home page. The Web 2.0 Expo is a new conference and tradeshow being launched by O'Reilly Media and CMP Technology this coming spring in San Francisco. The event will take place from April 15th through 18th in the Moscone Center. I will be giving a talk about communicable diseases (no lie), which is worth the price of the ticket alone. It should be another great event from O'Reilly and crew. I'll be sure to let you all know when registration opens.
I guess that is it for my first VentureBlog Conference Roundup. I hope it is useful. Track me down if you're at any of these events.
I'm very pleased to announce the return of VentureCast. As some of you may recall, for a short while there I would carry around a digital audio recorder in my pocket and take the opportunity on occasion to record a truly stream of consciousness podcast as I drove up and down the Bay Area hightways. There were about a half dozen podcasts in total before my audio recorder ran out of batteries or got replaced by some other gadget in my pocket. And, as these things go, VentureCast was put on hold until the next bit of inspiration or a smack on the head.
I got that smack on the head a short while ago from a friend named Craig Syverson. Craig has a fantastic video podcast called VideoGrunt that is well worth checking out. He and I were chatting and he asked me what ever happened to VentureCast. I claimed laryngitis or some such thing, but he wasn't buying it. By the time we were done chatting, we decided to reboot VentureCast as a conversation between the two of us. We're planning on getting together every other week to talk about the world of technology, entrepreneurship and venture capital (and I'm sure we'll chat about a whole bunch of other extraneous crap as well).
The first episode of the New VentureCast (dare I say VentureCast 2.0?) is now available for download. Here's the link (or you can go the VentureCast FeedBurner page). Better yet, not only is it now available for subscription on iTunes, but it is also one of today's Featured Podcast on iTunes (according to the AskANinja guys, they got their first big boost of viewership as a result of being the featured podcasts on iTunes -- I'm not expecting quite the same impact). Check it out and let us know what you think. We'd love to get your feedback on things you'd like to hear us talk about, things you liked, things you didn't, etc.
And speaking of feedback, here's your first chance to have an impact. When I first started VentureCast, I discovered that someone had already bought the VentureCast domain. Given that I had been blogging at VentureBlog for going on three years at the time, it really annoyed me but I didn't do anything to force the issue. Now not only are there a couple of podcasts using the VentureCast name in some form or other but a separate company is using VentureCast for its services. So here is the question? Should I continue to call the podcast VentureCast? Or should I change the name to something new. How do you like VCcast? Or VentureRant? I'd love your feedback.
Craig and I will be recording the next episode of VentureCast tomorrow. It will be great to do it on a regular basis and I want to give a huge thanks to Craig for motivating me to do it.
In my last VentureCast, I started out by claiming that I was going to talk about two things: conferences and my Deal or No Deal blog post on VentureBlog. Well, it turned out that I rambled on for over a half hour talking about conferences, so I decided that my discussion of Deal or No Deal could wait. But that long wait has ended. In this episode of VentureCast, I go into a bit more detail on how I think about acquisition offers and startups in the context of what has become an acquisition economy (by virtue of the very limited number of IPOs that have been launched in the last handful of years). If you're interested in hearing more about Deal or No Deal, this VentureCast is for you!
