This Is Just Great
This is a hot dog stand in Jerusalem. It’s probably a 40 minute walk from the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. Just makes it that much better.
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Apr
5
Mar
16
Lunch with Roman Abramovich
This is the guy who owns Chelsea FC. My g-d does he have a lot of disposable cash.
Mar
3
Topeka, Kansas now Google, Kansas
I can’t decide just how dumb this is. In an attempt to make his town more internet friendly, Topeka mayor, in a formal proclamation, has unofficially renamed the town Google for the month. He should have renamed it Mustache, Kansas and he would have had all the men grow mustaches for the month and made millions for prostate and testicular cancer research. Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time the town has done this. Dumb anyway, but for the internet craze, way too late. Should have been done back when Google was only worth in the millions.
here is the full article
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/02/google.kansas.topeka/index.html?hpt=C1
Sep
10
Annoying Advertisement of the Month
Has anyone seen those annoying TGIF commercials with this “average joe” shnook “Woody”? First off, I know that those two “friends” at the table with him are hired actors. I recognize one of them from like a million other commercials. Also, I hate “average guys on a night out” commercials like this - Woody, shut your fucking face!!!!!!!
Aug
21
Success & Motivation: What Entrepreneurs Should NOT Do
This post is from Mark Cuban’s blog from Aug 19th 2009 10:11PM:
I get deal pitches daily. I want all of you to understand the code words that IMHO are sure fire signs that the entrepreneur has no idea what they are doing and is destined to fail. This is from an email today, redacted of course to protect the guilty. My interpretation of the letter is in bold.
My name is John Doe, CEO and Founder of John Doe Unlimited Innovations and Technology, LLC. JDUIT is an innovation conglomerate, designed for many different industries and is dedicated to improve the quality of life for individuals throughout the world, one step at a time.
The first thing I do at this point is look at the senders email address. Is it an email with the company name in the URL ? If it isnt.. ding, ding, ding. They sender has come up with a name, but doesn’t have the focus or confidence to put up a website. This person was using a gmail account. Next my #FailDar was ringing louder than Larry Kudlow talking nonsense on CNBC about green shoots when I read the “designed for different industries and is dedicated to improve the quality of life of individuals throughout the world, one step at a time” Im sorry, but could anyone possibly invent and write anything that is more full of shit than this person ? That has to go down in business letter history as one of the all time worse lines. If you want to get someone interested in your company, DO NOT tell them you are going to save the world. You are not. No one will believe you will. Save that nonsense for your grandma when you are trying to make her proud of you.
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Aug
2
Google Starts New Advertising Campaign
The campaign, called “Going Google” has a very clear target: Microsoft Office. A series of advertisements will begin touting how and why some 3,000 organizations are signing up to use Google apps each day. But the crown jewels of this campaign will be billboards on four major U.S. highways that will give a new message about Google apps everyday for a month.
The billboards will be placed on the 101 in San Francisco, the West Side Hwy in New York, the Ike in Chicago, and Mass Pike in Boston. Google says that the vinyl being used to create these new messages each day will be recycled or reused into either computer bags or shopping bags.
Jul
21
Reinventing the Incubator
For all of my entrepreneur friends:
Tech Crunch had an article yesterday about venture capital dollars. I’ve copied the article below, click read more.
Read more »
Jun
30
Jun
29
Madoff Gets 150 Years in Prison
The 71-year-old financier said Monday at his sentencing that he “will live with this pain, this torment, for the rest of my life.” As far as I am concerned it wasn’t enough. Moreover, his kids need to be strung up next to him. I don’t believe for a second that they didn’t know what was going on. And to think that the instant he told them, they turned him in. Not buying it. Can’t believe they’re trying to sell it.
Jun
29
Jun
24
Goldman Sachs To Make Largest Bonus Payouts Yet
Goldman Sachs is on track to make the biggest bonus payouts in the company’s 140-year history — according to a report in the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’. Goldman staff in London were reportedly told that they could expect record bonuses if the company — as predicted — has its most profitable year ever.The investment bank’s earnings are up for several reasons — including a lack of competition, along with increased revenue from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed income products.
Just last week Goldman Sachs repaid the government the $10 billion in TARP money it had received — which would leave it free to do whatever it wants. Yet the company is denying these reports about record bonuses, calling them “pure speculation.” They say they won’t know what bonuses will be until the end of December.
But the company’s CEO told lawmakers recently that the firm is obligated to “ensure that compensation reflects the true performance of the firm and motivates proper behavior.”
Critics say the culture of excessive risk and excessive bonuses is what brought down the financial system in the first place. Also, in light of the ongoing recession, record unemployment, foreclosures and a whole range of economic woes… some might wonder if this would be the best time for Goldman to pay out record bonuses.
It’s believed the firm paid $1 million or more to nearly 1,000 bankers last year.
[via Crooks and Liars via the Cafferty File]
Jun
18
Oaksterdam
If you are like me, curious about Medical Marijuana, than this article might interest you. It is from the Atlantic Monthly. Author Joshua Green talks about his experience at the Oakland based Oaksterdam Vocational School.
Jun
1
Red-light Union Holding Out For More More More….
Eva, a 25-year-old prostitute in Amsterdam’s red-light district, gestures angrily in the direction of a rival who has slashed her rates as the economic crisis emboldens sex tourists to haggle.
“People like her make it very difficult for the rest of us,” scowled the tall, blonde Estonian in skimpy black-and-white lingerie as she dragged on a cigarette while posing for men passing the window in which she offers herself.
“Some of the girls are now doing it for 30 euros ($70). My price is still 50 euros, but the men are playing us off against each other. Some want to pay only 20 euros,” she said.
Eva is not the only one complaining.
Jun
1
May
25
Kozmo.com
This is a perfect example about how even with a bad idea, timing, motivation, and opprotunity are so important.
This is the Wikipedia article on Kozmo.com:
Kozmo.com was a venture-capital-driven online company that promised free one-hour delivery of anything from DVD rentals to Starbucks coffee in the United States. It was founded by young investment bankers Joseph Park and Yong Kang in March 1998 in New York City. The company is often referred to as an example of the dot-com excess. The documentary film e-Dreams (2001) portrays the fate of the company.
Kozmo had a business model that promised to deliver small goods free of charge, typically by using bicycle messengers. The model was criticized by some business analysts, who pointed out that one-hour point-to-point delivery of small objects is extremely expensive and were skeptical that Kozmo could make a profit as long as it refused to charge delivery fees. The company countered in part that, in their target markets, savings due to not needing to rent space for retail stores would exceed the costs of delivery.
Its headquarters were located in New York City. The company raised about $250 million, including $60 million from Amazon.com and $28 million from a group of investors which included Flatiron Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Chase Capital Partners. It entered a five-year co-marketing agreement with Starbucks in February 2000, in which it agreed to pay Starbucks $150 million to promote its services inside the company’s coffee shops. Kozmo.com ended its deal in March 2001 after paying out $15 million. In July 2000, at the height of its business, the company operated in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., San Diego and Los Angeles.
While popular with college students and young professionals, the company failed soon after the collapse of the dot-com bubble, laying off its staff of 1,100 employees and shutting down in April 2001. 18 locations nationwide and their Memphis distribution center were liquidated by a veteran entertainment wholesaler from Florida. Kozmo had filed an IPO with Credit Suisse First Boston before the layoffs, but it never went public. According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in 1999 the company had revenue of $3.5 million, with a resulting net loss of $26.3 million.
The company was the subject of an investigative probe by msnbc.com reporters Brock Meeks and Elliot Zaret. The msnbc.com piece, which relied on interviews, publicly-available documents, and computer-assisted reporting techniques, suggested that Kozmo was redlining sections of the cities it served that were populated primarily by African Americans. Kozmo denied that race played any part in its decision on what zip codes to deliver to, claiming they choose market areas based primarily on Internet penetration rates. However, Meeks and Zaret noted in their article:
Kozmo’s critics point out an obvious irony: since Kozmo has a centralized delivery strategy, even if the company were to extend service to an area where the Internet penetration was so low that no one ordered anything, the company wouldn’t be out any money for merely offering service there. And if people did order things, Kozmo would profit.
Kozmo’s defenders responded that Kozmo’s approach allowed the struggling young company to target profitable delivery routes and serve multiple customers on a single run, rather than losing money sending deliveries to single customers in areas where Internet penetration was low. Based on the msnbc.com investigation the company was the subject of lawsuit brought by the Equal Rights Center, a Washington, DC-based civil rights group.
In April 2005, former CTO Chris Siragusa launched a similar service in downtown Manhattan specializing in the delivery of food, wine, DVDs and essentials called MaxDelivery. MaxDelivery is still in business with expansion plans in 2007.
Joseph Park went on to co-found Askville, which is now part of Amazon.com. Yong Kang returned to Wall Street, and as of May 2008 listed his occupation as investment banking at Lehman Brothers.
May
14
Hookers No Longer Welcome On Craigslist
This was taken from Tech Crunch:
After coming under increasing scrutiny from various state attorneys general for the open prostitution listings in its “erotic services” category, Craigslist is now folding in the face of criminal charges. The company said in a blog post that it will replace the erotic services category with a new “Adult services” category where each ad will be individually reviewed before posting.
Existing ads in the erotic services category will remain for seven days, but already new ads are not being accepted in that category. People trying to place an ad in the adult category are reminded: “Ads suggesting or implying an exchange of sexual favors for money are strictly prohibited” and “Ads including pornographic images, or images suggestive of an offer of sexual favors are strictly prohibited.”
A quick glance at the erotic services section for New York City shows a lot of flesh with ads promising “IT’S NOTHING LIKE THE FIRST TIME!!” and “ASIAN HOTTIE . . . TO FULFUILL YOUR DREAM . . . WILLING AND READY.” Meanwhile, the adult services section for NYC is slightly less explicit. It has a lot more listings for “massages” and “sensual bodyrubs.” The first screenshot below is from an adult services ad, the second is the erotic services page. So much for truth in marketing.
Update: in a blog post about to go up entitled “Striking a Balance,” which Craigslist just sent us, the company states:
As of today for all US sites, postings to the “erotic services” category will no longer be accepted, and in 7 days the category will be removed.
Also effective today for all US sites, a new category entitled “adult services” will be opened for postings by legal adult service providers.
Each posting to this new category will be manually reviewed before appearing on the site, to ensure compliance with craigslist posting guidelines and terms of use. New postings will cost $10, but once approved, will be eligible for reposting at $5.
It also points out that its moderation system is “the most successful system ever conceived for eliminating inappropriate activity from a massive internet community,” whereas inappropriate listings in print classifieds can’t even be removed. Of course, there are also many more listings on Craigslist than in any single paper and up until now there has been no pre-posting review whatsoever, so I am not sure that is something to brag about.
May
6
The Quiet Coup
I realize we make a lot of joke and pop culture posts, but I do believe we have a very sophisticated audience. This article was taken from the Atlantic Monthly. I’ve typed out the introduction and the rest of the article I scanned and attached as a PDF.
“The crash has laid bare many of the unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured the government - a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak more freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.”
Apr
30
What’s in a Name?
The domain Ad.com sold for $1.4 million yesterday at domain name registration company Moniker’s TRAFFIC conference in Silicon Valley. The winning bidder was Divyank Turakhia of Directi.com and CEO of Skenzo, a domain parking company.
Moniker made more than $2 million in domain names at the TRAFFIC auction, with Ad.com taking the highest bid. Bottledwater.com took the no. 2 spot at $45,000 and Athletic.com received the third highest amount, selling for $40,000.
$1.4 million may sound like a lot to spend on a domain, especially given the current state of the economy. But Ad.com is a two-letter domain that is easily pronouncable and actually means something, so it’s definitely valuable in the domain market. And a recession doesn’t seem to be stopping companies from spending the big bucks for desirable domain names so Turakhia may be able to flip Ad.com for a profit. Travelzoo bought Fly.com for $1.8 million in January. Vibrators.com was sold for $1 million a back in November and A&T’s YellowPages.com paid $3.85 million for YP.com in December.
Apr
23
Founder Institute
I know many of my friends are entrepreneurial so I thought they might find this interesting.
Adeo Ressi’s Founder Institute, a seed stage incubator and mentoring program that we first covered last month, is set to release a set of legal documents this afternoon that promise to protect startup founders from, as he eloquently puts it, the “atrocities of investors.”
The new documents, created by Wilson Sonsini attorney Yoichiro Taku, are posted publicly on the website. They have a variety of novel rights and privileges:
- Creation of a Class F Founders stock that has 2:1 board votes per founder and 10:1 voting power over normal common stock. These shares vest monthly without a cliff and have single trigger acceleration. Class F holders get acceleration on change in control and approval rights on new investments, liquidity events, Board size, and dividends.
- A clause that requires the payment of $100,000 to the Founders Institute in the event a founder leaves the board of directors to give a disincentive to firing founders down the road.
- Grant of a warrant to the Founders Institute to buy 3.5% of the fully diluted stock of the company in the form of the equity sold in the first round of financing, which is pooled for participating founders and mentors.
The stock grants and any penalty fees paid are put into an exchange fund that all participating founders have ownership in. Therefore, all companies participating in each class have some stock in all the other companies - a great way to reduce overall risk. One big winner in each class means everyone gets a little bit rich. 60% of the warrant stock goes to the founders, the institute keeps the other 40%.
There’s a risk that these extremely favorable founder terms could create problems when the companies try to raise outside funding. Ressi says they won’t let a financing die from these terms and will likely waive rights if forced to. His reputation will require that - if these agreements protect founders he’ll be a hero, but if they kill financing deals the program will collapse.
Applications for the first startup class are open until May 10.
Apr
13
Time Warner Monthly Data Caps Spread Beyond Texas
This was taken from Gizmodo:
Texas may be great, but it could not contain Time Warner’s HD video-killing monthly broadband data caps, which have now spread beyond its borders.
Austin, San Antonio, Rochester, NY, and Greensboro, North Carolina are the next cities to suffer Time Warner’s comparatively draconian 40GB caps at the high-end—Comcast’s is 250GB, AT&T’s is 150GB, and all of them suck.
Every gig you overshoot your cap costs a dollar, meaning an HD movie download from iTunes could end up costing another $5 on top the $20 you’re paying for the movie. Just four HD movies (assuming a conservative 5GB per flick) would swallow half of your allowed data for the month. You might wanna lay off the high def YouTube and Hulu too. Oh yes, the squeeze on high def video that doesn’t come direct from your cable box is here. Actually, can I just say the internet is dead? OK. The internet is dead.