Bambi Francisco's channel on VatorNews

Murdoch doesn't think CNBC talent is good

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:37:00 -0700

Rupert Murdoch on business media, Twitter and buying the the New York Times

As the leading media figure in the world, Rupert Murdoch is one to listen to when it comes to views about old and new media. TheStreet.com landed an interview with the king of media. Here are some highlights:On buying The New York Times: "That's nonsense... But I would imagine that it would be legally and politically almost impossible, so I'm ... [Read more]

Is semantic technology helping ads? Hardly

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:45:00 -0700

Former president of IAB, Greg Stuart, says semantic technology isn't close to improving targeting

"The promise of semantics is to bring a level of intelligence [to advertising]," said former Interactive Advertising Bureau President Greg Stuart. "It’s not quite there... advertising based on semantic technology isn't even close to improving targeting."I ran into Stuart at the 2009 Semantic Technology conference. Stuart was on a couple panels discussing semantics as it applies to advertising and publishing. ... [Read more]

M&A for VC-backed deals lowest since 1999

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:09:00 -0700

Venture capitalists and companies they fund aren't out of the woods yet

The venture capital industry isn't out of the woods yet. The second quarter was one of the worst three-month periods for venture investing since early 2003, according to a just-released report by Dow Jones VentureSource. Venture-backed liquidity fell 57% to from $6.48 billion to $2.8 billion, the lowest level since 1999. Driving that number lower was both the number of ... [Read more]

Siri CTO Tom Gruber: Design for buildability

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:20:00 -0700

Serial entrepreneur learns that startups need to build based on the team and avoid shiny objects

In this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviewed Tom Gruber, co-founder and CTO of Siri.BF: You have had a lot of experience as an entrepreneur.This is your third company that you've co-founded so talk about how you are bringing those experiences to your current position.TG: One of the biggest things I've learned this year is despite the shiny objects, ... [Read more]

Yahoo shutters video ad network service

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:03:00 -0700

CEO Carol Bartz on a roll to ditch properties

(Updated: 12 PST to incorporate comment from Yahoo)Just 17 months after buying video ad network for $160 million, Maven Networks, Yahoo plans to wind down its publisher relationships it had with Maven Networks. Maven Networks provided hosting, content management and advertising for large media properties. But that business is no longer a priority to Yahoo. While Yahoo's current video player ... [Read more]

Pandora banks on advertising over music sales

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:17:00 -0700

CEO Joe Kennedy on monetization of the personalized Internet radio station

Just this month, the Senate passed a bill extending the time for Internet radio stations and music owners to agree on royalty payments. It's now up to President Obama to sign this bill. At stake is millions of dollars that can make or break the leading Internet radio station, Pandora. While Pandora expects to rake in $40 million in sales ... [Read more]

Can Scoopler be the real-time search king?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:36:00 -0700

But what is the real-time search beyond Twitter?

With the effluence of Tweets over Michael Jackson's death and the Iranian presidential election, Twitter was once again vaulted to the spotlight as the communications medium unmatched by no other. Its search engine has spawned a number of real-time search engine copycats, trying to solve the problem of how to find what's happening about you and your interests now! Scoopler, ... [Read more]

Aunt Heidi joins board of Tivo

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:37:00 -0700

Tivo gets seasoned Silicon Valley executive and venture capitalist on the team

Aunt Heidi just got on the board of Tivo. Tivo, the pioneer in digital video recorders, on Thursday announced that Heidi Roizen will join its board, making her the 10th member. Heidi, who was a Managing Director at Mobius Venture Capital, is the founder and CEO of Skinny Little Things, which she launched in 2008. Full disclosure, she also happens ... [Read more]

VC Vinod Khosla: Vision is 'bumbling' around

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:21:00 -0700

There is no such thing as vision. Just keep failing enough, never giving up, and eventually...

"Vision is great, especially when you can do it with 20/20 hindsight," said entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who last night received a Visionary Award, an honor bestowed annually to industry leaders who've pioneered innovation. The award was given by the SDForum, a leading Silicon Valley non-profit organization. Khosla, whom I met while he was a partner at blue-chip venture firm ... [Read more]

Yahoo vs. WolframAlpha vs. Bing?

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:00:00 -0700

Andrew Tomkins, Chief Scientist of Yahoo Search on how semantic technology has improved search

Bambi Francisco was recently at the 2009 Semantic Technology Conference where she interviewed Andrew Tomkins, Chief Scientist of Yahoo Search. Among the questions asked was how is Yahoo's search positioned against the newcomers WolframAlpha and Bing?Here's the interview, partially edited. BF: At the end of the day, the purpose of semantic technology within Yahoo Search is to really improve search ... [Read more]

News of Michael Jackson drives Tweets

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:01:00 -0700

Twitter for breaking rumors, CNN for confirmation

Minutes after TMZ broke the news that Michael Jackson died, I turned to... Twitter, of course.I didn't turn to Twitter for confirmation, but just to see how many people were Twittering about it. Within a few seconds, more than 5,000 Tweets had streamed in. Within five minutes, 27,000 Tweets were made. Most Tweets were useless noise, as one can imagine. ... [Read more]

Why being greedy gets you nowhere

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:56:00 -0700

Visuvi CEO Chris Boone on how an investment flopped due to avarice

In this segment of Lessons Learned for entrepreneurs, Bambi Francisco interviewed Chris Boone, founder and CEO of Visuvi, a an image based search engine with patent pending technology in “content based image recognition.”BF: You have been an investment banker since your professional career and you moved over to become a CEO of a startup company about one years old. So, ... [Read more]

Why Siri - a virtual assistant - is possible

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:30:00 -0700

Siri co-founder and CTO Tom Gruber on turning your iPhone into a personal concierge

We're a long way from Ask Jeeves, the butler assistant that helped you search and find stuff on the Web. Siri, which recently came out of stealth mode, is a virtual assitant on the iPhone. Sure, it's not super sophisticated to be able to organize your child's birthday party. But it's the closest thing to a real assistant that you ... [Read more]

Entrepreneurs don't have to hit homeruns

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:08:00 -0700

Vook founder Brad Inman's advice and how a journalist can become a CEO

In this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviewed former journalist and serial entrepreneur Brad Inman. He started Inman News and sold it to Classified Ad Ventures, and in 2005 he founded TurnHere. Most recently, he founded Vook which is an enhanced digital book. BF: You started off as a journalist and there are many skill sets journalists have that ... [Read more]

Raptr's Fong: Prove yourself in a big way

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:00:00 -0700

Speed is everything; Killer teams will be the ones to execute; Don't be afraid to fail

In this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviews Dennis Fong, founder of Raptr, a social platform where people can play games. Fong founded four companies, after launching his entrepreneurial career at 18 years old. Notably, Fong founded gaming company Xfire.com, which was sold to Viacom for $102 million in 2006. Raptr is an extension of Xfire, according to Fong. ... [Read more]

With Iran on razor's edge, Fark takes sides

Bambi Francisco — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:15:00 -0700

CEO Drew Curtis on the rationale behind the green band

It's not surprising to see bloggers take sides on the alleged vote-rigging in the Iranian elections. But media outlets typically try to remain objective. Not in the case of Fark, the not-news site. A couple days ago, the Fark founder and CEO Drew Curtis decided to put a green band around the letter "K" in Fark. The green band shows ... [Read more]

OpenCalais makes content discoverable

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:42:00 -0700

How Thomson Reuters OpenCalais is helping Huffington Post and CNet repurpose content

At the Semantic Technology Conference, which drew about 1,200 people, one of the big questions that came to mind is: Can everyone agree to some standards about the understanding and definition of human knowledge? One company trying to bring about a standard is Thomson Reuters, through OpenCalais, a free automated tagging and organization service for publishers. Just this week, the ... [Read more]

Twitter takes .001% search market share

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:33:00 -0700

It's far from Google, but the real-time search engine is getting noticed

How meaningful is Twitter as a search engine? It may not have the market share of Google (65%) or Yahoo (20%), but it's starting to get noticed.For the first time ever, Twitter was ranked by comScore's search rankings, accounting for .001% U.S. search market share.Search volume on Twitter was 30.1 million, with 4.2 million searchers and 39.4 million result pages, ... [Read more]

What's the IQ of semantic technology?

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 07:15:00 -0700

We're a long way from Ask Jeeves but really, really far from the computer assistant in Iron Man

I just spent two days at the Semantic Technology Conference in San Jose, Calif. About 1,200 people attended over the course of the event, up from some 300 about five years ago, when it first launched. What became pretty clear was that semantic technology has a long way to go before having any transformative impact on our lives, at least ... [Read more]

Smule's big iPhone OS 3.0 plans

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:09:00 -0700

CEO and co-founder, Jeff Smith, on expanding Smule's business model

In the fourth month after launching its first product, Smule, a maker of popular iPhone apps, was only supposed to make $30,000 in revenue. Or so, CEO and co-founder Jeff Smith thought. Instead, the company brought in $300,000. The estimated goal for 2009 revenue was $1.4 million, and already Smith is confident Smule will easily beat that expectation. That's especially ... [Read more]

Smule iPhone apps close in on 1.5 mln users

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:35:00 -0700

CEO and co-founder Jeff Smith on how Smule is iterating on its apps and the audience it's attracting

When the iPhone first launched, few saw the vision of turning it into a musical instrument. Today, Smule, the startup that's turned the iPhone into a flute, is approaching 1.5 million customers downloading its applications to express themselves in music.In this segment, Jeff Smith, co-founder and CEO of Smule, talks about how he and co-founder Ge Wong got Smule off ... [Read more]

Heyzap faces a couple challenges

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:07:00 -0700

Obstacles the 'YouTube of flash games' may need to think about

Heyzap is an emerging startup, recently funded with between $500,000 and $1 million in a round, led by Union Square Ventures. It's also a graduate of the popular Y Combinator program. Heyzap wants to be the YouTube of flash games. What are the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for this startup? We brought in Jeff Smith, co-founder of Smule, ... [Read more]

How SearchMe morphed into visual search

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:06:00 -0700

Randy Adams on how startups are like small children that need nurturing

In this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviewed Randy Adams, CEO of SearchMe, a site that turns browsing the Web into the same experience as flipping through a magazine. Adams, who raised $43 million in funding for SearchMe, founded six companies. Adams founded Emerald City Software, which was sold to Adobe, Appsoft (NeXT software), which was shut down, Internet ... [Read more]

Sneak peek at Vook - the digital book future

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:21:00 -0700

Founder Brad Inman shows how he's marrying filmmakers and authors with his new startup

Whats the future of a digital book? Will the written word give way to video and dialogue? Possibly. Vook, which combines books, video and dialogue, is expected to be launched this September. In this segment, Bambi Francisco interviewed Brad Inman, CEO and founder of Vook, a startup that brings life to books in a new way. Inman also gives Bambi ... [Read more]

Former Facebook CTO on his $25,000 award

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:30:00 -0700

... and Palm engineer Michael Abbott on how they plan to win their TechFellow award money

Nearly two dozen individuals, many of whom had experience starting companies, were awarded a TechFellow Award last week. The Founders Fund is behind the program, which gives $25,000 to selected individuals to either invest in their own company or to invest in another startup.I caught up with two of the TechFellows - Adam D'Angelo and Michael Abbott - at the ... [Read more]

Founders Fund seeks to put $7 mln to work

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:02:00 -0700

Founders Fund managing partner Sean Parker at the TechFellow Awards

"We'd hope to deploy somewhere between $6 million and $7 million in the eventual companies that come out of the process," said Sean Parker, Managing Partner, at Founders Fund, at the recent TechFellow Awards held at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.Parker was referring to a new annual investment program, called the TechFellows Awards, backed by Founders Fund. ... [Read more]

SGN launches FAST jet dogfighter iPhone game

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:02:00 -0700

Founder and CEO Shervin Pishevar gives a demo of the 3D air combat game

This is not your father's war games. In fact, it's not your child's typical air battle game on a console. Social Gaming Network on Monday released FAST, a multi-player air combat game, on the iPhone for $10. The new game brings 3D graphics on the iPhone to the next level.SGN CEO and founder Shervin Pishevar game me a sneak peek ... [Read more]

Visuvi launches developer platform

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:30:00 -0700

Visual search engine CEO Chris Boone on taking visual search to medical and e-commerce industries

In this segment, Bambi Francisco interviewed Chris Boone, CEO of Visuvi, an image-based search engine with patent pending technology in “content-based-image recognition.”BF: Today, you're launching a developer platform at the Java One conference to essentially broaden the adoption and functionality of Visuvi. But before we get into what you expect from the developers, talk a little bit about Visuvi. It's ... [Read more]

SearchMe's plan to break even, raise $30 mln

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:00:00 -0700

CEO Randy Adams on SearchMe's distribution plans and AdView adoption

This is the second segment of a two-part interview with Bambi Francisco and Randy Adams, CEO of SearchMe, a site that turns browsing the Web into the same experience as flipping through a magazine. In the first part of this interview, Adams said it would take at least a million searches a day for SearchMe to break even. In this ... [Read more]

Facebook dominates but Twitter is rocking

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:03:28 -0700

It wasn't long ago that MySpace was king

We love you. We love you not. Social network users are a fickle bunch. Long long ago on Internet time - which is last year - MySpace was king of social networks. Nearly 75% of the time spent on social networks was on MySpace back in April 2008. Today, the honor of being the top social network goes to Facebook.The ... [Read more]

Michelob Twitter account under the spotlight

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:17:00 -0700

Keep kids away from online conversations about beer? As a parent, that's the least of my worries

(Updated at 1:30 pm PST)I just became a follower of Anheuser-Busch's Michelob account on Twitter. A few hours after I became a follower, I received an email from A-B, asking me if I was of over 21 years old. Is a virtual bouncer asking for an ID enough for this brewer to stay in check with industry guidelines? It's a ... [Read more]

Newspaper ad sales tank 28% in Q1

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:35:00 -0700

Beleaguered industry on track to see worst year since 1987

The newspaper industry continues to get hit hard by the advertising recession. Advertising sales fell by 28%, or $2.6 billion, in the first three months of this year, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Print classifieds took a nose-dive drop of 42% to $1.5 billion, driving overall print advertising down 29% to $5.9 billion.The newspaper industry is on track ... [Read more]

How Pandora hit reset and became a success

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:30:00 -0700

Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy: It's uncommon that the founding idea is right on the money

In this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviewed Joe Kennedy, CEO of Pandora, a personalized radio station that creates music stations based on personal preferences. BF: You started Pandora when it was Savage Beast Technologies and there were 12 people there at the time. You were actually undergoing a restart. Many people are nervous about starting a company and having ... [Read more]

Rupert Murdoch on the future of newspapers

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:03:00 -0700

Media kingpin says people will pay for newspapers online and on mobile

Rupert Murdoch appeared on Fox News Business Channel, discussing the future of newspapers. The bottom line is that Murdoch believes consumers will pay subscriptions to read online newspapers. Richard Greenfield, analyst at Pali Research, who alerted me to this video, said this in response to Murdoch's view that people will pay for newspapers. "We completely agree that people need news and ... [Read more]

AOL to be sput out; worth $3 bln to $4 bln?

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:26:00 -0700

More importantly, will the spin-out mean more M&A?

It's a go. AOL will officially be spun out as a separately-traded public company later this year, giving CEO Tim Armstrong flexibility to grow the business and make massive changes. "We believe AOL will then have a better opportunity to achieve its full potential as a leading independent Internet company," according to a press release from Time Warner Thursday.It's not ... [Read more]

Reid Hoffman: Pursue as a learning cycle

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:30:00 -0700

LinkedIn founder and CEO shares his lessons and advice to entrepreneurs

At TiEcon held in Santa Clara, Calif. earlier this month, I didn't stand when LinkedIn founder and CEO Reid Hoffman's interviewer asked for those in the audience born outside the United States to stand, even though I was born in the Philippines. Given the vast majority of the audience stood up, I figured the point was made. That is that ... [Read more]

SearchMe launches on Nokia Ovi store

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:31:00 -0700

CEO Randy Adams on expanding visual search and why SearchMe works well for product searches

In this segment, Bambi Francisco interviewed Randy Adams, CEO and founder of SearchMe, a site that turns browsing the Web into the same experience as flipping through a magazine. In the first part of this two-part interview, Adams talks about the SearchMe product on the mobile device and why many of the three million monthly unique visitors on the SeachMe site ... [Read more]

Pandora sees revenue up 80% this quarter

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 26 May 2009 08:11:00 -0700

CEO Joe Kennedy on monetization of personalized radio on the Web

Even though Pandora recently introduced a $36 annual subscription service called Pandora One to augment its advertising revenue, the Emeryville, Calif.-based company expects sales to rocket in the current quarter and double this year, thanks in part to its popularity on the iPhone app. In this three-part interview segment, I talk to Joe Kennedy, CEO of Pandora, a personalized radio ... [Read more]

The end of venture capital as we know it

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:00:00 -0700

Highland Capital founder Paul Maeder points to: a broken model; the end of an innovation cycle

If you hang around enough technology conferences with bankers, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, you'll hear a lot of grumbling about the state of the venture capital industry and how it's broken. After all, the venture capital narrative recently is generally one of over-investment and a deadend exit environment. While there are positive signs that public investors may embrace startups once ... [Read more]

Intel's consumer Internet investment outlook

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:30:00 -0700

'We're very active' said Intel Capital's Lucy McQuilken

Intel seems to be a pretty optimistic company. And, it's not because Intel CEO Paul Otellini recently said he saw quarterly sales at the chip giant return to "normal" levels. While many venture capitalists have been hunkering down since last October, Intel's venture capital unit has been actively looking at deals, albeit unsuccessfully. "It was a little slow, but not because we weren't ... [Read more]

Tough M&A climate for Microsoft

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:00:00 -0700

Don Dodge of emerging tech team at Microsoft says buyers and sellers are far apart

For a company that's pretty acquisitive, making one acquisition this year is indicative of how difficult the M&A environment is. Microsoft has only made one acquisition this year, after 15 in 2008 and a typical M&A run of 20 annually, according to Don Dodge, of the emerging technology team at Microsoft. (Check out Don's Vator profile to see Ashton Kutcher ... [Read more]

Ron Conway: I'm not on Twitter or Facebook

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 22 May 2009 04:11:00 -0700

...and Conway's thoughts on mobile investing, Apple, Digg, AdMob, IPOs and M&A

Mobile advertising is as one Advertising Age writer put it: This great white whale that is forever on the horizon but perpetually out of reach. But thanks to the proliferation of the iPhone, and other smart phones, and a surge in social networking usage on a mobile device, the promise of mobile marketing may be closer than we think. Recent ... [Read more]

David Sifry's lessons from Technorati

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:20:00 -0700

Why CEOs and founders need to be salesmen and learn how to sell, sell, sell

In this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco sit downs with serial entrepreneur David Sifry, founder and CEO of Offbeat Guides. Sifry also founded four other startups, including Technorati, which he was at the helm of for five years. BF: David, you've started five companies, and in 17 years, you've raised $110 million in venture financing. What are your three ... [Read more]

Shout out to appssavvy

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 20 May 2009 08:27:51 -0700

Now here's a CEO who knows how to have fun

We know many CEOs have a sense of humor. But this is one video in which this particular CEO - Chris Cunningham of appssavvy - shined. In this video, Cunningham roams the streets to provide assistance (as all good CEOs do) and engage with the average person. But as you'll see, the average person doesn't really understand the words "utility, ... [Read more]

Social fan sites? We look at Watercooler

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:52:00 -0700

Charlene Li helps us evaluate Watercooler, a site for sports and TV fans

This week, we take a look at Watercooler, which brings fans of popular shows, such as 24, 30 Rock and Seinfeld, and sports teams, such as the LA Lakers and Oakland A's, together across major social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and hi5. Joining us to analyze the popular social media company is Charlene Li, a social media guru ... [Read more]

Entrepreneurs should accept failure

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:23:00 -0700

Yoav Leitersdorf of YL Ventures says keep expectations low, and accept failure

European entrepreneurs have a tough time accepting failure. That's what I learned while attending the Innovate!Europe conference, held in Zaragoza, Spain recently. One dominant and recurring theme was the idea that failure was OK as an entrepreneur and that European entrepreneurs should realize that it's a positive trait on the road to one day being successful. "Entrepreneurs who've failed in ... [Read more]

Reid Hoffman on the business of LinkedIn

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 18 May 2009 06:00:00 -0700

LinkedIn Groups, CNBC, revenue and a future IPO

I had a chance to sit down with Reid Hoffman, CEO and LinkedIn at the TiE Conference this weekend, where Hoffman was a keynote interview. The professional network is one of the early pioneers of social networks, even though LinkedIn has always been a “business” or professional network, and not a place to throw sheep. It’s been around since launching ... [Read more]

Ron Conway: Twitter may outmonetize Facebook

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:24:00 -0700

Angel investor Conway says Twitter doesn't need a business model this year

On Thursday, I spoke with Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway, who's invested in about 500 startups over the past 15 years, including some high-profile ones like Twitter, Facebook, Google and Digg, to name a few.I conducted a one-on-one interview with Conway on stage at the EconSM event, hosted by contextNext. Here's the first part of our interview, in which Conway ... [Read more]

Raptr - the social plumbling of gaming?

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:58:00 -0700

Zynga's Mark Pincus helps us evaluate online gaming company Raptr

We took Vator Box on the road and visited Mark Pincus, CEO and founder of Zynga, the leading social gaming company with 45 million unique monthly visitors. Lyla, Zynga's mascot also joined us. Pincus was our guest host, joining me and Ezra Roizen to analyze Raptr, an online gaming company that raised $12 million in funding from Accel Partners and ... [Read more]

Twitter's mountain of ambient noise

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:49:19 -0700

Micro-blog demonstrates insatiable appetite for circulated reality asynchronous posts - aka CRAP

Now this is a growth curve to be in awe of. After Oprah Winfrey joined Twitter in April and Ashton Kucther hit 1 million followers (he's already at 1.7 million today!), Twitter's traffic has gone through the roof.The popular site's unique visitors surged to 17 million in April, according to just-released figures from comScore. Its visits jumped 83% from March, ... [Read more]

The Stockdale Paradox for entrepreneurs

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:00:00 -0700

Former MySQL CEO Marten Mikos on faith over optimism

Marten Mickos was brought into MySQL when the open-source icon had 12 people in 2001. He grew the company to over 400 people and eventually sold the company to Sun Microsystems for $1 billion in January 2008.In this segment, Mickos advises entrepreneurs to seek wisdom in the words of Admiral Jim Stockdale, the highest-ranking American prisoner in the Hanoi prisoner ... [Read more]

Offbeat Guides lands Singapore Airlines

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:08:00 -0700

Personalized travel guide will be offered as part of online ticket purchase

In this segment, which takes place in Zaragoza, Spain, I caught up with San Francisco-based David Sifry, a five-time entrepreneur and founder of Technorati, a blog-search-engine-turned-advertising network. There's nothing like going halfway around the world to meet up with a fellow Bay Area entrepreneur. But it seemed appropriate to do an interview, given that Sifry's latest startup - Offbeat Guides ... [Read more]

YL Ventures bets small, seeks smaller exits

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:27:00 -0700

Traditional venture capital investing is broken; the new model is to bet on $20-$80 mln exits

Most everyone following the venture capital industry knows the traditional VC model -- raising several hundred million dollar funds and swinging for the fences with each investment -- has become a challenging approach to venture investing, particularly during the worst liquidity drought in years. The problem with this model is that it doesn't take much to build a company, particularly an ... [Read more]

Vator opens up micro-blogging to public beta

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:23:00 -0700

Create awareness through Vator and attract a following

We've come a long way from just being a place to upload videos to pitch an idea for funding. To be exact, Vator was never just a venue for pitching videos. It was always a place where startups could present themselves in their own words. This week, Vator made the ability to communicate what's happening at your company even easier.I'm ... [Read more]

How brands can engage with their audience

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 04 May 2009 06:29:00 -0700

Charlene Li helps us evaluate Wetpaint, a Wiki service for over one million sites

In this week's Vator Box, Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group and social networking guru, helps to analyze the opportunities for Wetpaint, a site that powers about 1.3 million free wiki Web sites, and has nearly 800 followers on Vator. The Seattle-based startup, which raised $40 million in venture funding, was founded by Ben Elowitz Li joined Ezra Roizen (Vator Box ... [Read more]

Social gaming owes a lot to Facebook

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 01 May 2009 04:00:00 -0700

Zynga's Mark Pincus on the evolution of social gaming, and why Lightspeed's Jeremy Liew is wrong

If you want to get Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga, hot under the collar, just ask him if he thinks Lightspeed Venture Partner's Jeremy Liew is right when he says social gaming is a marketing channel not a category. (See Liew's post)"I cannot say how wrong Jeremy is," said Pincus, in this first part of our interview on ... [Read more]

In economic downtimes, it's about survival

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0700

Speed is everything; Most ideas are a dime a dozen; If you're not failing, you're not taking risks

In this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviews Dennis Fong, founder of Raptr, a social platform where people can play games. Fong also started gaming company Xfire, which was sold to Viacom for $102 million in 2006. BF: You've been an entrepreneur since you were 18 years old. You've started four companies that are venture backed and three out ... [Read more]

Alternative startup financing

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:30:00 -0700

Saints Capital buys 'aged' startups from VCs, limited partners and founders who need liquidity

These days venture capital firms are struggling to find an exit as the venture industry endures the worst liquidity drought in years. Today's tough economic climate has given direct secondary market companies, like Saints Capital, an opportunity to buy portfolios at discounted prices. In this segment, Bambi Francisco interviews Ken Sawyer, founder of Saints Capital, a direct secondary company. BF: ... [Read more]

How mainstream can iPhone app Smule become?

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:28:00 -0700

Zynga's Mark Pincus joins the Box as our guest host to analyze the popular app maker

Last month, Apple’s iTunes App Store saw more than one billion apps downloaded. One of the top-paid apps is the Ocarina, whose creator is Smule. The Ocarina turns the iPhone into a flute. This week, we take a look at Smule by watching co-founder Jeff Smith’s pitch. Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga, was our guest host, joining me, ... [Read more]

Mark Pincus' lessons from Tribe - fail fast

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:12:00 -0700

Founder of social gaming powerhouse Zynga talks about his first foray into social networking

This is a continuation of my "Lessons Learned" interview with Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga, the largest social gaming company and publisher of the popular Texas Hold'Empoker game on social networks. Prior to Zynga, Pincus founded Tribe, a social network, back in 2003. Its technology was sold to Cisco Systems in 2007.In this interview, Pincus talks about why he considers ... [Read more]

TiE50 Vator competition launches

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:40:00 -0700

TiE unveils the 150 finalists to be voted upon to become one of the TiE50

I'm excited to announce that we've partnered with TiE -- a global, non-profit, focused on fostering innovation -- for its 16th annual TiEcon conference, held May 16 and May 17, in Santa Clara, Calif. Vator is hosting the TiE50 Vator competition where the 150 finalists chosen across five verticals - Internet infrastructure, consumer Web, wireless, clean tech and software - ... [Read more]

Over communicate to your stakeholders

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:18:00 -0700

Venture Capitalist Ken Sawyer says communicate, play offense, and be a salesman

In this segment of Lessons Learned for entrepreneurs, Bambi Francisco asks Ken Sawyer to share three pieces of advice for entrepreneurs who are struggling with building their business during the economic downturn. KS: The first thing I would say is over communicate. I think in this period of time, we have to recognize that customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, and venture ... [Read more]

Find stuff to do with kids on Famplosion

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:21:00 -0700

Social media guru Charlene Li helps us evaluate a new site for families

A Yelp meets Ticketmaster meets Facebook for families? That's what Famplosion is positioning itself to be. In this week's Vator Box, Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group and social networking guru, helps us analzye the opportunities for this young San Francisco-based startup, founded by David Gehring. Li joined Ezra Roizen (Vator Box regular and digital media investment banker) and me. Here ... [Read more]

WPP sues Spot Runner for pumping & dumping

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:30:00 -0700

WPP Group files lawsuit against Spot Runner founder Bob Pittman and fellow VC investors

If you're a founder and you think you can get away with selling your founder shares at the expense of a major shareholder, think again. They will come after you with a lawsuit. The most-likely candidates for such lawsuits are those involved in active secondary market securities, wild swings in valuations, and a complex cap table that looks like a ... [Read more]

Zynga's Mark Pincus' lessons to entrepreneurs

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:30:00 -0700

Play your startup like a poker hand; fold often; but when you have a great hand, go all in

As the daughter of a poker player, this advice to entrepreneurs definitely hits home. In this segment of Lessons Learned, Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga, the largest social gaming company and publisher of the popular Texas Hold'Em poker game on social networks, shares his advice to entrepreneurs. Pincus has raised $39 million in funding for Zynga to date. In the ... [Read more]

We won't need Facebook to be social

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:01:00 -0700

Charlene Li on social media's effect on society, and why the meaning of 'friend' needs to change

Several years from now, we won't need Facebook to be social or connected, predicted Charlene Li, founder of digital strategies consulting firm Altimeter, and host of VatorNews' show Socialize This. That's a pretty strong statement about the world's biggest social network, with over 200 million members.In this interview, Li talks to me about the evolution of social media. BF: How is ... [Read more]

Facebook snags Yahoo sales exec

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:22:01 -0700

While hundreds of Yahooligans are expected to lose their jobs

Amid more layoffs at Yahoo, a top revenue-focused executive has found a new home at Facebook. Dan Foehner, a top Yahoo sales executive is starting a new job at Facebook on Monday, VatorNews has confirmed. He will work in the direct sales organization under Mike Murphy, who heads up that division. The departure from Yahoo comes as troubled search engine ... [Read more]

Serve higher-quality video at lower costs

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:51:00 -0700

Nokeena opens its doors to video publishers and content delivery networks

If you're a video publisher or are part of the infrastructure to deliver video, Nokeena has a solution for you.Nokeena, a startup that launched last year and raised $8.7 million in venture capital from Clearstone Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, officially opened its doors on Tuesday.The Santa Clara, Calif-based startup has developed a software appliance that helps deliver Internet video ... [Read more]

Saints Capital flourishes during a downturn

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:52:00 -0700

The VC liquidity drought drives venture capitalists to consider direct secondary markets

There are few to no exits for venture-backed deals and limited partners are having a tough time making capital calls. All this is good news for direct secondary market players, like Saints Capital and Ken Sawyer, the founder of Saints Capital. BF: U.S. venture industry is suffering its worst liquidity drought. Has this made VCs more open to doing deals ... [Read more]

Can Digger attract search users from Google?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0700

Chris Shipley helps us evaluate Digger, which launches a destination site in Q4

The more publishers can categorize their content, the easier it is to distribute to partners and make it accessible for viewers to find. Digger is a semantic search company that can automate the categorization of content so humans don't have to. Digger also plans to take its semantic search capabilities and create a destination site. The launch of that site ... [Read more]

Raptr founder on the evolution of gaming

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:00:00 -0700

Dennis Fong wants to bridge the World of Warcraft world with social games on Facebook

In this segment, Bambi Francisco interviews Dennis Fong, CEO and founder of Raptr. BF: We've come a long way from Atari which was 25 years ago and you have been in the gaming industry for quite some time. You started Xfire back in 2003. Six years ago, it was a completely different world. What was the video gaming market like ... [Read more]

YouTube improving its ad sales

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:16:01 -0700

But it's still not enough for Google to realize any revenue benefit from its investment

It's not easy selling video inventory on YouTube. But apparently, Google's success rate of getting ads on that inventory is mproving. YouTube is selling advertisements against 9% of its video views in the U.S., up from 6% a year ago, according to Ad Age. And, despite the low percentage, it's still a lot of video inventory to cover. YouTube generated ... [Read more]

The best pitches are done under seven minutes

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:30:00 -0700

Charlene Li's advice: Keep it short and don't try to boil the ocean

The best pitches are typically done within five to seven minutes, according to Charlene Li, founder of digital strategies consulting firm Altimeter, and host of VatorNews' show Socialize This. As a former analyst at Forrester and a sought-after consultant in the social media space, Li gets pitched all the time by entrepreneurs seeking advice or coverage.In this segment, Li offers ... [Read more]

Is Diddit too broad, or should it focus?

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:41:00 -0700

Chris Shipley helps us analyze Diddit - the review site for all activities

Chris Shipley, co-founder of startup research and consulting firm, Guidewire Group, has spent more than a decade advising and mentoring startups. She's responsible for bringing about 1,500 startups to DEMO (a leading conference for emerging tech startups) stage. On Vator Box, our version of Siskel & Ebert meets American Idol for startups, we try to find people or experts in ... [Read more]

Unconventional wisdom about social media

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:36:00 -0700

If Aristotle and other great thinkers had an angel fund, would they bet on social media startups?

If Aristotle and other great thinkers (or wannabe greats) were discussing whether to invest in social media startups, based on how good social media is for society as a whole, the conversation would evolve into an exploration of truth, reality, self and social norms.Here's how the conversation might go if the great thinkers were the GPs (general partners) and LPs ... [Read more]

And, the Wine 2.0/Vator winner is...

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:42:00 -0700

Curiosk Marketing wins over community and judges

It's time to announce the winner of the Wine 2.0/Vator.tv competition, seeking the top-notch tech innovator in the wine industry. The winner wins a beautiful glass sculpture made by Jack Storms, and the opportunity to have a one hour meeting with each of the judges. The judges include Heidi Roizen, founder of Skinny Songs, former partner at Mobius Venture Capital; ... [Read more]

Forget Twitter, try Flutter

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:02:08 -0700

New nano-blogging service by Slate for flapping rather than tweeting

Twitter is the darling of the blogosphere, as we all know. Last week, it was even speculated that Google was in late-stage discussions to buy the micro-blogging service. But Twitter may just be yesterday's news. After all, reading a tweet is starting to become time consuming in today's real-time world. So, now, there's Flutter. A new service for those who ... [Read more]

Bankruptcy would be good for car makers

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:07:00 -0700

'The reality is that 43,000 dealerships is not a reality,' says Zag founder Scott Painter

The once vaunted car industry has been brought to its knees, partly because of the economy, and mainly because of self-inflicted bad management and lack of innovation. Now, the heads of the iconic auto institutions are being dethroned - well, at least at General Motors. While there's a bunch of talk about the government's double standards toward how it's treating ... [Read more]

The wine flows at Wine 2.0 at Crushpad

Bambi Francisco — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 11:34:00 -0700

Wine 2.0's Smoke Wallin gives me the background on the methodology behind the competition

This week, we wrapped up the Wine 2.0/Vator competition, which sought the top wine startup, incorporating new technologies. We're announcing the winners this Monday. On Thursday night, I met up with J. Smoke Wallin at the Wine 2.0 party held at Crushpad this Thursday, to get an idea of the competition standings, and to showcase the methodology behind the rankings. As ... [Read more]

Digger helps categorize and tag content

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:03:00 -0700

Tim Musgrove talks about Digger's new product for pubishers

If you're a publisher or an aggregator of content, check out Digger as a way to organize and categorize your content. In this segment, Bambi Francisco continues her discussion with Tim Musgrove, CEO of TextDigger.BF: You are launching a new product for publishers to help them automate the tagging and categorizing, which is a real pain for publishers. So let's ... [Read more]

Are NY Times newsroom layoffs inevitable?

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:14:00 -0700

If union members don't accept a pay cut, 70 newsroom jobs are at risk

The New York Times' biggest union met this week to discuss the paper's proposal of 5% pay cuts or the risk of losing 80 jobs, which include 70 in The Times newsroom. Last week, The Times said it would eliminate 100 non-union jobs and reduce pay by 2.5% to 5% from April through December. Some employees will see pay cuts ... [Read more]

Swoopo raises $10 mln from August Capital

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 07:15:00 -0700

Online auction site allows consumers to get products at deep discounts

Swoopo, an online auction marketplace that helps consumers buy products at deep discounts, on Thursday announced it's raised a $10 million round of financing from August Capital, joining Wellington Partners, which invested in late 2006. The idea behind Swoopo, which takes inventory of the goods it sells, is to start the bidding price very low. For each bid, a person ... [Read more]

Venture industry endures liquidity drought

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:12:00 -0700

Liquidity event values via M&A drops 65% in first quarter 2009

In the second quarter, two IPOs are expected to debut. Language software provider Rosetta Stone and Changyou, an online video developer. This is twice as many IPOs as the one deal - Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN) - priced in the first three months of this year.With the IPO market still, for all intents and purposes, shut down, venture capitalists have ... [Read more]

April Fools' roundup

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:29:00 -0700

Guardian gets Twitterized; Fark launches social network; Google masters AI

Here's a few April Fools' gags from around the Web. Vator launched Air Vator, in retaliation to Richard Branson's Pitch TV.My favorite is the Guardian's move toward brevity. It's going to deliver its news 140 characters at a time. Google introduces CADIE: An artificial intelligence tasked-array system. Here's the homepage. More Web sites are getting "socialized."Fark launched its own social ... [Read more]

Fark launches The New Fark Experience

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:38:00 -0700

Curtis shows he cares as much about his users as Zuckerberg

Fark, the news aggregation site with humorous headlines, on April 1st launched "The New Fark Experience." The new experience is about bringing the concept of a social graph, as well as collaborative filtering, and other snazzy Web 2.0 implementations to Fark users. "With the advent of Social Networking and the growing market for 360 degree user-to-service interaction, we’ve realized that there ... [Read more]

Announcement: Launching Air Vator

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:57:00 -0700

Richard Branson launches Pitch TV for video pitches so Vator is launching an airline

In retaliation to Virgin Airways encroaching into our core market of online video pitches, Vator has decided to launch Air Vator, which will operate both domestic and international routes, that include hot meals, free liquor and amenity kits (eyeshades, toothbrushes, fuzzy socks, etc.) for everyone. As part of Vator's Easter special, Vator will launch on April 1st a 50% discount ... [Read more]

Wine 2.0 competition heats up

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:26:00 -0700

Curiosk Marketing Solutions leads the popular vote with 100-plus votes

If you're a wine startup seeking to get in front of some high-profile people with connections and capital, better take note of the Wine 2.0 Business Plan competition. It's coming to an end tonight at midnight. Last year's winner - Crushpad - went on to raise $9 million in funding. The winner will get a one-hour session with each of ... [Read more]

Angel investing dn 26% to $19.2 bln

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:28:00 -0700

Dollar value of deal sizes plunge as number of deals decline modestly

As financial markets crumbled in 2008, angel investors tightened their purse strings. Angel investments plunged 26% to $19.2 billion last year, according to the Center for Venture Research and the University of New Hampshire.A total of 55,480 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding last year, down a relatively modest 2.9% from the year earlier. The significant drop in invested capital coupled ... [Read more]

Concern over the state of online journalism

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:39:00 -0700

Report finds journalists are worried about lack of accuracy and loosening standards online

As traditional newspaper struggle to stay alive, online journalists are finding themselves in a more optimistic state about their future over those in traditional media. According to a report by Online News Association produced by the Association and the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, online news people are more confident than pessimistic that online news site will ... [Read more]

Is Filtrbox the way to filter out Web noise?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:52:00 -0700

Chris Shipley helps us evaluate the media-monitoring service

This week, we look at Filrtbox, a startup that lets you monitor media sources and filter out what's most important to you. In this segment, Chris Shipley, who's mentored thousands of startups as co-founder of Guidewire and DEMO executive producer for 13 years, is our guest host. Shipley joined Ezra Roizen (digital media investment banker and Vator Box regular) and ... [Read more]

Facebook seeking $100 million in funds

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 07:13:00 -0700

How far does the land-grab strategy go in the face of the global economy downturn?

This is the result of having to support 275 million users worldwide and and their photos of their family, friends, pets and vacations: a huge bill. Faced with mounting expenses to support its fast-growing membership base and network, Facebook is seeking to raise some more money. The social network, which has already raised $500 million in funding, is seeking $100 ... [Read more]

Death of magazines - Bye bye Blender

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:02:25 -0700

Another magazine shutters amid advertising recession

Tough times for print publications continue. Alpha Media Group shuttered its entertainment magazine, Blender, on Thursday. It's one of the many magazines that have folded this year amidst the advertising recession. Others include Conde Nast's Domino, which was four years old, and Country Home from Meredith. This follows a number of magazines that closed down last year, such as Conde ... [Read more]

Wine 2.0 competition drawing to a close

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:30:25 -0700

It's just over one more week before the judges choose the winner!

If you're a wine startup seeking to get in front of some high-profile people with connections and capital, better take note of the Wine 2.0 Business Plan competition. It's coming to an end in just over a week. At midnight, April 2nd, the organizers of the event will stop accepting participants. And, you don't want to miss out on the ... [Read more]

Spark Capital starts seed-stage investing

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:13:00 -0700

Fund seeks Manhattan and Boston-based startups focused on media, tech and entertainment

Good news for startups based in Boston or Manhattan and seeking capital. Manhattan-based Spark Capital, based in Manhattan, which has invested in Twitter, Tumblr, Adap.tv, Boxee, to Veoh, to name a few, is starting to place money at the earliest stages through a new program called Start@Spark.Spark Capital said it's starting this program because a lot of early-stage forms of ... [Read more]

Know when optimism turns into fantasy

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:07:00 -0700

... and beware of going after shiny objects, says Chris Shipley, co-founder of Guidewire

Chris Shipley, co-founder of Guidewire and executive producer of DEMO, has mentored thousands of startups in her 13 years running the tech conference. In this interview, Shipley shares her advice to entrepreneurs, based on the many mistakes she's observed. As an entrepreneur herself, Shipley admits that often she's better working with entrepreneurs than being one. As she describe it: "It's ... [Read more]

NYTimes.com leads with user-gen content

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:06:00 -0700

During tough times, the paper leverages reader base to produce content

As a journalist for about 15 years, I've seen the evolution of news aggregation, production and consumption from both incumbents to startups. Sometimes the changes are surprising, and worthy of ridicule. I remember when Google first launched Google News and had press releases as its top story. I remember when comments were relegated to the secret confines of email, or ... [Read more]

Dan Rosensweig to head up Guitar Hero

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:27:00 -0700

Activision snags former Yahoo COO and Quadrangle partner

Activision's Guitar Hero franchise has a new boss. Dan Rosensweig, former Yahoo COO and current Quadrangle Group partner, will take on the role as CEO and president. While Rosensweig has no gaming experience, he is close to Activitions Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick, who served on Yahoo's board for years while Rosensweig was an executive there. It's an interesting move ... [Read more]

Free music site SpiralFrog shuts down

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:51:00 -0700

It wasn't so much the ad recession as much as the site just wasn't a hit

If you were skeptical about whether a startup could make money by selling free music, you were right to be so. SpiralFrog, which made a big splash in 2006 by offering free music, has shuttered its doors, according to CNet.It's the second-ad supported free music site to go down this year, after Ruckus. SpiralFrog issued secure notes in order to ... [Read more]

Innovate!Europe $30,000 competition on Vator

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:13:00 -0700

Guidewire partners with Vator to be the online platform for European competition

Vator has hosted about two dozen competitions in the past 1-1/2 years, since inception. Those competitions have mainly been focused on startups in the U.S. But this competition is something I'm really excited about because it's designed to identify top companies in Europe.Vator has partnered with Guidewire Group, to be the online platform for Innovate!Europe, a competition that will bring ... [Read more]

Y Combinator set to fund more startups

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:34:00 -0700

Seed-stage investment fund is going to Party like it's 2009

Y Combinator, a seed-stage investment fund, announced this week that it raised $2 million from Sequoia Capital, and angel investors. The fund, which has invested in 40 startups per year, plans to accelerate its investment pace by 50% and get investments up to 60 this year. The fund typically invests between $5,000 plus $5,000n (where n is the number of ... [Read more]

Will News Corp's MySpace start slashing jobs?

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:06:00 -0700

Greenfield: The party ends as Google won't overpay for social searching

MySpace has 15 months left until its partnership with Google ends, and it doesn't look like Google will re-up for the business and pay MySpace substantial search fees. To this end, MySpace, which is part of News Corp's Fox Interactive Media, will have some serious cost-cutting decisions to make, according to Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield. "Fox Interactive Media's problem ... [Read more]

Apture raises $4.1 million

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:00:00 -0700

Clearstone funds tool to help publishers enrich their stories and keep the audience on their site

No matter how hard you tap a newspaper, it doesn’t take you to another newspaper, or to Wikipedia, or to the Library of Congress, or to a dictionary. Newspapers are the ultimate WYSIWYG. And, that’s it. You get what the publisher gives you, plus some ink on your fingers.Not so with an online article. What you get is a lot more ... [Read more]

Hearst on the M&A hunt for digital media?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:42:00 -0700

New boss George Kliavkoff joins Hearst to expand portfolio

If you're a digital media property, it might be a good time to talk to the folks at Hearst. Apparently, the company is thinking about "buying" vs. "building" its way toward a larger Web portfolio.George Kliavkoff, formerly NBC Universal's chief digital officer, joined Hearst to head up its digital empire, according to Media Memo. His mandate will be to turn ... [Read more]

The business of project planning

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:04:00 -0700

Would Emergence Capital's Jason Green invest in LiquidPlanner, a project-management software?

This week, we look at LiquidPlanner, an online project management software tool that helps companies work more efficiently on projects. The software as a service (SaaS) includes shared work spaces, Twitter-like short-messaging functionality (or what Liquid Planner calls workplace chatter, and the ability to manage multiple projects. To analyze this project management tool, we brought in Jason Green, a venture capitalist ... [Read more]

Facebook adds location and language targeting

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:55:00 -0700

But you can triangulate all you want, if a user doesn't care, it doesn't matter

Facebook continues to improve its ad-targeting capabilities. But is advertising the right business model for the world's biggest social network to pursue? After all, the fundamental problem with advertising in social networks isn't that the marketer doesn't have enough information. The problem is that in a social-networking environments, it doesn't matter if a marketer knows a person's age, gender, preferences, ... [Read more]

Facebook founder drops off of Forbes list

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:19:00 -0700

Bill Gates regains No. 1 title; 38 new billionaires added

The financial downturn has taken a toll on the world's billionaires. And, those who made the Forbes' billionaire list - at least on paper - last year, like Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have been bumped off. Last year, Zuckerberg's net worth, as noted by Forbes, was $1.5 billion. He lost at least $600 million. Now Zuckerberg, who was the ... [Read more]

Google keeps itself attractive to employees

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:08:06 -0700

Search engine reprices 7.64 million stock options

Even though these tough times make it difficult for anyone to leave their job, a stock option that's well out of the money will surely get some people considering other opportunities. After all, one of the allures of working at public companies is the opportunity to cash in on stock options. But if you've started working for Google for the past ... [Read more]

Personalized news site Meehive launches

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:01:00 -0700

Kosmix unveils a new news aggregator with a personalized and social touch

Meehive isn't your father's newspaper. In fact, no two newspapers are alike with this service. Meehive is a newspaper publisher that allows anyone to have their own news formatted and delivered in a way that's more personal and social. Kosmix, a discovery engine and guide to the Web, is set to launch the personalized news site Meehive on Wednesday. For ... [Read more]

OneRiot launches video 'social' search

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:58:00 -0700

A site for finding the 'pulse' of the Web

Social search engines haven't exactly taken off. But that's not stopping OneRiot to apply this concept to video search.OneRiot, a social search engine launched in November 2008, plans to launch Tuesday a video "social" search engine.The video social search engine is designed to deliver the most talked about and viewed videos in real-time. It’s attempting to provide a “real-time index ... [Read more]

What's more popular than email?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:49:00 -0700

About 2/3rds of people globally are on social networks

We've come a long way from Friendster, the social network that burst onto the scenes in 2002. Back then, the word "social network" always required some definition as to what exactly it was. The term was unclear and considered Net jargon.Today, for the first time ever on a global basis, social networks are more popular than email.With 2/3rds of the ... [Read more]

More job losses at newspapers

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:18:07 -0700

McClatchy slashes workforce by 15%

McClatchy Co., a publisher of 30 daily newspapers and 50 non-dailies, including The Miami Herald, Charlotte's Observer and the Sacramento Bee, announced Monday that it's slashing 15% of its workforce, or 1600 jobs, as it deals with an advertising recession and outstanding debt.Additionally, Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chairman and chief executive will see his base salary reduced by 15%."The effects of ... [Read more]

Google vs discovery engines, Kosmix

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:59:00 -0700

Chris Shipley of Guidewire helps us review a magazine approach to searching topics

Chris Shipley, co-founder of startup research and consulting firm, Guidewire, has spent more than a decade advising and mentoring startups. She's responsible for bringing about 1,500 startups to the DEMO (a leading conference for emerging tech startups) stage. On Vator Box, our version of Siskel & Ebert meets American Idol for startups, we try to find people or experts in ... [Read more]

Web M&A activity expected to rise in 2009

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:02:00 -0800

JPM's Imran Khan expects cash-rich Internet companies to take advantage of the weak M&A market

In 2008, about 45 companies were acquired, about half the value of companies snapped up in 2007. But depressed valuations for potential targets have created an opportunity for cash-rich Internet companies to start making some bets through acquisitions.That means Google, which made some 18 acquisitions in '07 (see table) and only four last year, according to JP Morgan, might just ... [Read more]

Who's God: Facebook or Google?

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:46:00 -0800

Social network takes notes from Twitter and FriendFeed to become global news feed

Which omnipotent, omnipresent, digital deity will reign supreme? Google has all of your private data (searches, email) and Facebook has your public data (your profile, your friends.) With the upcoming launch of its new homepage, and its ambition to connect the world with the "continuous stream of information," Facebook is sure sounding a lot like Google, whose mission is to ... [Read more]

Top brands, celebrities, shows on Twitter

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:23:00 -0800

She doesn't even Tweet, yet she's the top celebrity on the micro-blog site

What do Zappos, Ana Marie Cox, CNN, and Britney Spears have in common? They're the most popular brands, celebrities, media personalities and television shows, as tracked by Tracking Twitter, a real-time listing of top feeds being tracked on Twitter. The rankings are based on the number of followers.As you can see from the rankings below, Zappos has more than 179,000 ... [Read more]

Kindle now available on iPhone

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:22:00 -0800

Amazon banks on selling e-books vs. devices

Recently, I've felt a tad jealous watching my husband reading books off his new 10 ounce Kindle 2, especially on trips, during which I'm typically a pack rat when it comes to reading material. Now, that'll change, a bit. Amazon on Wednesday made available a Kindle version for the iPhone. In other words, it's now allowing consumers to read electronic ... [Read more]

U.S. mobile advertising to reach $2.3 bln

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:47:00 -0800

Mobile search revenue to hit just under $1 billion in 2012; Google leads in mobile reach

Mobile advertising revenue in the U.S. is estimated to grow at a compounded rate of 94% to $2.3 billion in three years, from $160 million last year, according to a new report released by Sanford Bernstein analyst Jeff Lindsay. Global mobile advertising is estimated to reach $7.2 billion, up 79% compounded annually from $.7 billion last year. Search revenue on a ... [Read more]

SF Chronicle may charge for online content

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:06:00 -0800

But who's going to pay unless there's valuable and original content?

Drastic times call for drastic measures. Or in the case of The San Francisco Chronicle - just practical ones.The Hearst Corp, which last week said it would slash costs and possibly try to sell the San Francisco Chronicle, says it's going to start charging for some content.It's moving to what I consider to be the dark side of online publishing ... [Read more]

Will group dating appeal to those over 30?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:01:00 -0800

Ignighter is in the hot seat with Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra as our Vator Box guest host

In this Vator Box segment, we take a look at group dating site, Ignighter. Since the service is completely free, unlike many dating sites out there, we asked Richard Jalichandra to be our guest host once again. Jalichandra is CEO of Technorati, an advertising network. So, he clearly has a good idea of what’s happening with advertising rates and budgets.With ... [Read more]

Obama administration dumps Google's YouTube

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:35:00 -0800

It's the second time Google's probably feeling slighted

In President Obama's latest weekly video update, you'll notice one thing about its relations with Google. They're not as chummy as one would have expected, given that Google CEO Eric Schmidt campaigned for Mr. Obama, and is working with the administration on everything from the economic stimulus package to how the government handles public information.This weekend, the White House quietly ... [Read more]

Top 9 newspapers in trouble

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:52:00 -0800

NY Daily News, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald are on the watch list

I don't want newspapers to go away, but with inefficient print cost structures and gadgets like the Kindle making it convenient to access newspapers and books, it does look like there will be a lot fewer of them around. I've heard some years ago that newspapers will be extinct in 40 years. Given the current trends, it looks like that ... [Read more]

Making video discoverable via search

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:32:00 -0800

EveryZing launches MediaCloud - a Web-based service to tag, transcribe and title video

EveryZing is set to announce Monday a new Web service to help media companies transcribe, tag, title and categorize their video to create hundreds of metadata around the content, thereby making it discoverable on the Web. EveryZing's new product is called MediaCloud, which is already being used by Reuters and Factiva.With MediaCloud, media companies can post live or archived feeds ... [Read more]

Chris Shipley on the merits of DEMO

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:42:00 -0800

Executive director of DEMO talks about the value of the longstanding conference for startups

Next week, Chris Shipley, co-founder and Chairman of Guidewire Group and executive producer of DEMO, will share the stage with Matt Marshall, founder of VentureBeat, and incoming director of DEMO. The conference, which will be held in Palm Springs, Calif., will showcase 40 "hot" startups, as considered by Shipley and others who've sat in the selection committees to choose the ... [Read more]

DEMO 2009 list of startups

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:13:00 -0800

Watch for these newcomers next week

DEMO will kick off its spring conference next week in Palm Springs, Calif. The conference is one of the leading gatherings of cutting-edge startups. Next week, Matt Marshall, founder of VentureBeat, will be sharing the stage with Chris Shipley, DEMO's long-time executive director. Marshall will be taking over the tech conference at the end of this year. Here's a list ... [Read more]

Marketers still experimenting with social ads

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:54:00 -0800

Wetpaint CEO Ben Elowitz says advertisers aren't cutting budgets to target users in social networks

Marketers may be cutting their ad budgets online and offline, but not across social media sites, according to Ben Elowitz, CEO and founder of Wetpaint, a social media publishing service. This may seem hard to believe in today's economic environment, where advertisers are less likely to experiment with their ad dollars, favoring the more prudent response-driven marketing that search engines ... [Read more]

Yahoo CFO Jorgensen out of a job

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:41:00 -0800

Only six weeks into the job, and new CEO Carol Bartz isn't wasting any time

Yahoo's new CEO Carol Bartz has started to shake things up at the online media giant. The company disclosed in an SEC filing, that it's letting go of CFO, Blake Jorgensen. He'll remain until the company finds his replacement.Since Jorgensen joined the company less than two years ago, Citibank analyst Mark Mahaney doesn't see this event as material. But it ... [Read more]

Academy Awards ad revenue drops 11%

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:03:00 -0800

Number of commercials rise, but ad units plunge 18%

During this year's Academy Awards, ABC rang up about $72 million in advertising for the 26 minutes of ad spots it sold. It was the most commercials sold since 2004, according to TNS Media Intelligence.But because the ad unit price dropped to $1.4 million for a 30 second spot, down 18% from $1.7 million last year, the actual amount brought ... [Read more]

Traffic at job sites soar

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:35:00 -0800

And, older people are going to career sites to stay employed

President Barack Obama inspired many Americans to take their future into their own hands. "The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and our universities, in our fields and our factories, in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest working people on earth," he said, during his State of ... [Read more]

Amazon's Kindle 2 akin to Apple's iTunes

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:19:00 -0800

Half a million Kindles are expected to be sold this year, JP Morgan estimates

Amazon's Kindle 2 started shipping this week and expectations are high. Amazon should sell about 500,000 this year, of which $45 goes to the online retailer, resulting in $63 million in sales in 2009, according to Imran Khan, Internet analyst at JP Morgan. But, said the analyst, "based on current trends, we think there could be upside to this estimate."The ... [Read more]

Watching Obama - with the peanut gallery

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:21:00 -0800

With Facebook and Twitter, you'll never be alone watching the Presidential State of the Nation

I've watched many Presidential State of the Nation addresses. But never have I watched one with so much interactivity and voices from the peanut gallery (or as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey would refer to it - the many voices that make up the ambient noise).Tonight, I'm watching the speech at my desk on my computer on CNN.com LIVE & Facebook' ... [Read more]

San Francisco Chronicle coming to an end?

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:07:00 -0800

Hearst says if cost-cutting measures don't work, it may be forced to sell or shut down the paper

In a way, the staffers at the Chronicle had to have known this was coming. The Hearst Corp delivered some harsh words to the staff at its San Francisco Chronicle paper, which has been around since 1865. First the media company said it planned on significant reductions in the number of the Chronicle employees. Then it said if savings could ... [Read more]

Online ads won't save you

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:31:37 -0800

Companies relying on CPL and ad-agency-like services will survive

If you're relying on online brand advertising to come back soon to save your media business, think again. At the IAB conference, a gathering of online publishers, many believed that a lot of media companies are going out of business this year and that like 2001, many will be fighting for their lives. From Ad Age: And at least one ... [Read more]

Newspapers are fine; owners aren't

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:01:00 -0800

Someone can probably make money in the newspaper biz, just not the current players

Over the weekend, I watched Marc Andreessen interviewed by Charlie Rose. The Internet pioneer was emphatic about what newspapers should do: Shut down. "You have to kill it... the game is up," he said. I'm torn on this topic. On one hand, I still get The New York Times and Wall Street Journal delivered to my doorstep. I enjoy the ... [Read more]

Defamer folding into Gawker

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:13:00 -0800

Media publisher Nick Denton says the 'dream of micro-publishing is dead'

In December 2008, media publisher Nick Denton had a bid for Defamer, a Hollywood gossip site. But apparently that didn't work out. In another sign that the media business is a tough gig, this weekend, Defamer folded into Gawker, the company's flagship gossip title. Four-year-old Defamer will become an entertainment column managed under Gawker.The lesson learned? "Scale matters -- both ... [Read more]

What young males want online

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:47:00 -0800

We evaluate Cavallere, an advice site for young men

In this Vator Box segment, we take a look at a content site for young males. Richard Jalichandra was our guest host, once again. While at IGN, Jalichandra was integral in the acquisition of AskMen. So, we thought Cavallere, a site offering tutorials and advice for young males, would be a great site for Jalichandra to evaluate. With me as always ... [Read more]

Marc Andreessen on Charlie Rose

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 09:47:00 -0800

A look at innovation through an Internet pioneer

If you missed Marc Andreessen on Charlie Rose last week, here it is. Andreessen is one of those guys who speaks a mile a minute and has a lot of opinions on everything innovation. As a board member of Facebook, he has a lot to say on that topic too. Watch the one-hour interivew. It's certainly worth it.But here are ... [Read more]

Raise cash ahead of when you need it

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:03:00 -0800

...and raise more than you need, says online sports veteran Mike Levy

Mike Levy has been around the block as one a pioneering online sports entrepreneur. He started SportsLine, one of the leading online sports sites, which was sold to CBS. I wrote about SportsLine's rise and subsequent sale at my prior job at Dow Jones MarketWatch. At the time I was there, MarketWatch was partly owned by CBS, so SportsLine felt ... [Read more]

The New York Times drops quarterly dividend

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:48:00 -0800

Sulzerberg Jr. says the paper still needs to reduce spending

Back in November of last year, the New York Times decided to cut its quarterly dividend to 6 cents (its lowest level since the 80's) from 23 cents a share. But that wasn't enough. Clearly, The New York Times hasn't done enough to alleviate its cash needs. The venerable paper this week said it's "suspending" its quarterly dividend. Arthur Sulzberger ... [Read more]

Facebook - a worthy sacrifice during Lent

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:18:00 -0800

Addiction to social networks and status updates make Facebook an option to give up during Lent

I've given up red wine and bacon for Lent. I've even promised to not look at text messages during church service. Many give up cookies and sweets. Now, among addictions to consider giving up: Social networks and status updates. One father is actually considering giving up Facebook. While this sounds absurd, the reality is that social networks are addictive. According to ... [Read more]

Two-year-old Bud.tv goes flat

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:06:00 -0800

Beer companies should stick to what they know - making people drunk

Anheuser-Busch this week shut down its two-year-old content site Bud.tv, after pouring $15 million trying to make it a destination for beer lovers, who like to laugh, watch sports and original content. What was the problem? Plain and simple: Beer companies are not media companies. "If the networks can't continuously produce that [volume of content], how can a beer company?" ... [Read more]

Online video ad provider raises $18 million

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:05:00 -0800

Meritech leads round to invest in Tremor Media

In a sign that online video is the future of media, Tremor Media announced that it raised $18 million in Series C financing, for a total of $37.6 million in funding.Leading the round was Meritech Capital Partners, with participation from Tremor Media's existing investors, such as Canaan Parnters, Masthead Venture Partners, and European Founders Fund.The round follows the company's third ... [Read more]

Vayyoo draws you in with video

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:14:00 -0800

Sharing your story via multiple videos on your Vator profile can be effective marketing

When companies release products or features, it's often the case that video helps to share the story. On Vator, thousands of companies in our directory add videos frequently, with updates about their company or product launches. Some, like Vayyoo, do it more so than others. That's why I want to highlight Vayyoo, which has done a great job sharing its ... [Read more]

Here are my Twittersheep - baaah

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:13:00 -0800

Based on this neat tool, I must attract entrepreneurs

While I was checking out Wetpaint's new features released today - check them out here - I stumbled upon a neat little Twitter tool, called TwitterSheep. Here's a look at my followers on Twitter.

Comic relief - Facebook's emergency meeting

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:23:00 -0800

A comedic take on Facebook's terms of use blunder

This lovely comic strip is brought to you by GeekCulture.

Google's Street View - get used to no privacy

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:56:00 -0800

Search engine's picture-snapping of home on 'private road' wins in court

The other day, I heard someone was taking photos of my home. At first blush, it raised concerns about the rationale behind the picture taking. It also occurred to me that it might be someone providing photos for Google Street View. Don't ask me why I thought of that. Nonetheless, in my opinion, taking photos for Street View is OK ... [Read more]

Digital media M&A/fundraising dn 62% in '08

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:43:00 -0800

Suffice it to say, it was a lousy year for exits and raises last year

It's not surprising that 2008 was a pretty dismal year for media companies. In particular, digital media companies were hard hit, when it comes to M&A exits and funds raised. A report by Peach Tree Media Advisors, which was just sent to my inbox, says there was $16.9 billion worth of merger, acquisitions and capital-raise transaction in the online sector of ... [Read more]

Will Google be broken up?

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:39:00 -0800

President Obama's antitrust pick likens Google to Microsoft

Christine Varney, nominated by President Obama to be the next U.S. antitrust chief, may be out to break up Google. Or at the least, she seems to be letting it known that she'll be keeping a close eye on it. Varney has described Google as a "monopoly" that will be as powerful in the computing world as Microsoft was in ... [Read more]

Facebook does an about face

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 06:37:00 -0800

The 175 mln users, not the Web site, own the data

If Facebook were a country - and it could be with 175 million users, making it the sixth most populated country in the world - it wouldn't be a dictatorship, even though CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to be the all-powerful master of the online universe these days.Responding to a raft of protests by the people and a potential federal complaint, ... [Read more]

DevHub launches; Publish and make money

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:08:00 -0800

New Web site platform to blog and monetize beyond Google's AdSense

Seattle-based DevHub, a Web site development platform, with monetization tools included, on Tuesday made its site public. This after more than a year in development.With DevHub, a user gets free Web site hosting, drag-and-drop interfaces to build the site, content editing, RSS feeds, videos, external widgets and monetization modules. DevHub has raised a little of over $1 million in late ... [Read more]

Silicon Valley employment drops

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:49:00 -0800

Region hasn't hit bottom yet... Yikes!

All was well in Silicon Valley for most of 2008, until November. That's when the region's growth halted, and has been declining ever since, according to an annual report from Joint Venture Silicon Valley and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and reported by the Wall Street Journal.The report quoted Russel Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, saying: There was ... [Read more]

Startup CEOs = head cook and bottle washer

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:12:00 -0800

VoloMedia CEO Brian Steel offers up 3 P's - potential, people, priorities

It comes down to potential, people and priorities.Those are the lessons from Brian Steel, CEO and President of Volomedia, a provider of advertising and reporting solutions for downloadable video and audio, such as podcasts. Let's start with potential. For Steel, the business has to be big enough to be worthwhile. The business has to be in a market with significant potential ... [Read more]

Why Richard Branson makes billions

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:16:00 -0800

Billionaire can get down on his knees and polish shoes

In Moscow, Richard Branson woos Guy Kawasaki into fly Virgin. Now, this is the way to get a new client. As Kawasaki said in his post: "Can it get any better than this?"

Social apps as ads? We look at Buddy Media

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:08:00 -0800

Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra is our guest host evaluating social applications as ads

In this segment, we brought in Richard Jalichandra, CEO of Technorati, an advertising network for mid-tail sites. This week, we looked at Buddy Media, a provider of advertising and marketing applications across social networks. Manhattan-based Buddy Media raised $8.3 million from high-profile investors, such as Greycroft, Softbank, Bay Partners and European Founders Fund. The startup provides a new economic model ... [Read more]

FTC backs self-regulation for Web ads

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:45:00 -0800

Internet companies applaud, but they have a lot to do to step up and comply

If you're a targeted user on the Web - which means everybody - don't expect the government to protect you from deceptive targeting and capturing of data by annoying advertisers and marketers. The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday supported self-regulation as a way to protect consumer privacy amid an increase in targeted online advertisements. The FTC released a report that ... [Read more]

Google drops radio-ad business

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:52:00 -0800

Radio ambitions go to the wayside as Google focuses on its knitting - online advertising

Despite all the ballyhoo prior to entering the radio business back in 2006, Google has decided to drop it. The search giant said it's abandoning its efforts to sell ads on radio broadcasts, because the effort did not have "the impact we hoped for," according to a Google blog post, written by Susan Wojcicki, vice president of product management at ... [Read more]

Inside the weight room of the NBA All Stars

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:12:00 -0800

Cisco promotes connectivity between fans and players

At a time when media brands and sports franchises are creating ways to build up and maintain a fan base online via sites like Facebook, the NBA is going one step further - live interaction with players while they're in the weight room. This weekend, visitors to Phoenix will get a glimpse of behind-the-scenes activities at the NBA All-Star game ... [Read more]

Forget email lists, try cost-per-lead (CPL)

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:47:00 -0800

Pontiflex helps publishers/sites monetize their co-registration process with cost-per-lead solutions

During these recessionary times, publishers and online commerce sites need to consider all options when it comes to monetizing their sites.One way to monetize a site is to sell users as leads at the time of registration. For example, when you're checking out at Orbitz, you may see a list of ads for some service. If you accept to receive ... [Read more]

The virtues of humility and saying 'No'

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:08:00 -0800

Trinity Ventures EIR Mehdi Maghsoodnia's lessons for entrepreneurs

Humility is something everyone has to re-learn time and again. Successful entrepreneurs, particularly young ones, typically learn this lesson, after they go through a period of overweening pride and hubris. That's the case with Mehdi Maghsoodnia, who's left the startup world - for now - to be Executive in Residence at Trinity Ventures. Prior to his role at the Silicon ... [Read more]

Upside to Shorty Awards: short speeches

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:55:00 -0800

Twitter has its own Oscars honoring those who can Tweet... and get votes

(Updated to reflect that Pawluxury came in No. 1 in Business) As a journalist for more than a dozen years, I've always appreciated a good headline. In fact, it's an art form. Few people have the talent to take content and create "context" with a clever headline. But when it's done correctly, it can draw readers in by the millions. ... [Read more]

Entrepreneur expands Vator video presence

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:58:00 -0800

Validating that global Silicon Valley is the cutting edge of entrepreneurship

We're excited to share the news that VatorNews videos are now a bigger part of Entrepreneur. When we launched with Entrepreneur in early January, I had said that you'd see more integration across Entrepreneur. This expansion is just one of many steps toward a greater Vator presence there. This is great news for VatorNews contributors creating video content for us, ... [Read more]

Inktomi co-founder launches Diddit

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:59:00 -0800

Review and community site for life experiences opens its doors

Diddit, a site where people can discover new experiences, launched late Wednesday. After being in private beta for about six months, the site is opening up with 10,000 registered users who've shared their life experiences on a broad range of activities from skiing in Vail, to dining at McDonalds, to idioms they've expressed, such as "knock on wood." The San ... [Read more]

Shout out to Iotum

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:57:20 -0800

Here's how you share your narrative - in video

Quite a few companies have been sharing their narrative on Vator.tv. Many of our beta customers are sharing their story through micro blogs. But one company - Iotum - is doing so in video. To that end, I wanted to highlight Iotum for a great job in conveying its story in such a visual medium.Embedded is Iotum's latest video on ... [Read more]

It's never too early to focus on revenue

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:51:00 -0800

Watercooler CEO Kevin Chou on the virtues of team, taking baby steps and revenue

Few companies gain enough momentum and traction - Twitter comes to mind - that revenue can be an afterthought. The reality is that most companies achieve modest traction, making revenue generation a must have. "You can never start focusing on revenue too early," said Watercooler CEO and co-founder Kevin Chou, during his recent visit to the Vator studio in San Francisco. ... [Read more]

SportsLine founder starts new UGC sports site

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:50:00 -0800

Mike Levy eyes big media to back OPEN Sports, which goes out of beta this fall

It's a nice surprise to bump into a veteran Internet entrepreneur who's back in the arena again to innovate in a field he's already had success in.Mike Levy started CBS SportsLine back in 1994. Since I began covering Internet companies at my former employer MarketWatch back in 1999, I followed his rise and exit. Here's an interview about the convoluted ... [Read more]

Crispy Gamer and online gaming reviewed

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:52:00 -0800

Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra is our guest host evaluating online gaming

Sponsored by: The online gaming industry is a booming business, with PC gamers playing on average three hours per day, and new upstarts, like online game app maker Zynga, already generating millions of dollars annually.Another startup hoping to capitalize on the online gaming boom, and hoping to be a leading provider of news, information and community site for serious video ... [Read more]

Buddy Media nearing $1 mln monthly revenue

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:46:00 -0800

CEO Michael Lazerow on why Fox News, and others are paying up for fans on social networks

Over the weekend, I had a discussion about online advertising with friends. The point I made - which I will likely write at length about in the future - is that no matter what any advertiser/marketer tries, the conversion rates will never get much higher than where they are today and have been. Nonetheless, there is a constant inflow of ... [Read more]

Raising $90 million without VCs

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:26:00 -0800

Ensequence CEO Dalen Harrison on going it alone

(Updated to reflect additional info from Harrison) I've been around the startup fundraising process long enough to know that raising $90 million requires either a big strategic investor or venture capitalists.Surprisingly, there are startups out there that can do without Sand Hill Road, or other hot spots across the world of startup financing. Ensequence, which started in 2000, is one ... [Read more]

WidgetBucks expands to 26,000 publishers

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:33:00 -0800

Creator of interactive shopping apps is also on the prowl to buy companies

This week, at the AlwaysOn OnMedia conference in New York, I couldn't help but bump into some entrepreneur attempting to make today's banner ads more dynamic and interactive. It was a conference on game-changers in online marketing, after all. So, it's not a surprise that it attracted startups trying to improve upon today's current advertising options. One company trying to ... [Read more]

Carry water and chop wood, always

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:58:00 -0800

WidgetBucks CEO Matt Hulett on what it takes to run a startup

What does carrying water and chopping wood have to do with startups? A mindset that keeps one focused, according to Matt Hulett, who's had a long career building up Internet companies from AtomFilms to the corporate division of online travel pioneer Expedia. I won't get into his bio here, you can read it on his profile page. Suffice it to ... [Read more]

Mixpo raises $4 mln to kill the banner ad

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:53:00 -0800

Startups focuses on bringing video advertising to local market

If there was one resounding theme at the AlwaysOn OnMedia conference this week, it was how static banner ads were increasingly ineffective, outdated dinosaurs. Seattle-based Mixpo is one of the companies trying to innovate around those ads with video. Just this week, Mixpo, which offers a software as a service to allow local publishers to exchange their static banner ads ... [Read more]

The business model behind social apps

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:14:00 -0800

Buddy Media's Lazerow on why $1 per app subscriber is the new model on social networks

It seems difficult to believe, but it hasn't been a decade since the establishment of auctioned-based, CPC (cost per click) pricing for search results pages. Prior to this new model, many search companies, including Google tried different forms of monetization, including licensing out search listings. Today, the search to make money with social applications is underway as half a billion ... [Read more]

WidgetBucks and Mpire reviewed on the Box

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:12:00 -0800

EBay's Erik Stuart evaluates comparison shopping and shopping widgets

Sponsored by:As online advertising rates decline, publishers are seeking other ways to make more money from their pages. That's why startups like WidgetBucks are becoming an intriguing alternative to Google's AdSense or other forms of monetization. WidgetBucks, which launched in October 2007 as a spin-out of shopping site Mpire, aggregates products from a number of shopping sites, including Shopping.com and ... [Read more]

Twitter's take on the Super Bowl

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:06:00 -0800

No need to watch it alone when there's Twitter

Who needs a Super Bowl party or a bar to watch the Super Bowl? All you have to do is log onto Twitter. This Sunday, as I watched one of the greatest Super Bowls ever (that I've watched) from a hotel room in NYC, I could feel the emotion. It wasn't because I was at the hotel bar. It was ... [Read more]

Super Bowl buzz on Facebook

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:53:00 -0800

Watercooler brings fans together ahead of the big game this Sunday

Long ago, pre-Internet, the office pool for the Super Bowl was probably one of the few times a year that die-hard football fans could get fellow colleagues to show some game-time spirit. These days, there's no reason to keep your rabid excitement to yourself. Through app maker Watercooler, you can join a growing fan base on most social networks. On the ... [Read more]

Online video ad spending to be up 45% in '09

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:07:00 -0800

Online video ad spending to jump to $850 million this year while TV spending falls

With millions of Americans getting news and information from the Web and essentially living out virtual lives online, TV time has increasingly been compromised. In 2009, television will feel the pinch in the amount of ad dollars it can attract. According to eMarketer, U.S. television ad spending will fall 4.2% in 2009.The only commercial spots that appear to be maintaining ... [Read more]

Plentyoffish seeking to buy dating sites

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:12:00 -0800

Founder Frind wants to send members to his 'own' paid dating site, but first he needs to find one

Back in 2003, Markus Frind had about 40 members to his then tiny dating site, Plenty of Fish. Today, the free dating site draws over 1.5 billion pageviews monthly. An article in Inc. gave an in-depth account of how Frind created a dating behemoth, solely through advertising. His strategy? Sell big sponsorship placements to competitive dating sites that charged. Now, ... [Read more]

Social networks trump adult sites

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:56:00 -0800

Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long

Years ago, I said that social networks would beat online dating sites at its own game. Social networks are, after all, a place to meet new friends, or err, find dates. It's true that social networks are replacing dating sites for some, but not for all. Just look at Facebook, with 1 out of every 5 people in the world, ... [Read more]

2009 to be a painful year for ad-based media

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:37:00 -0800

JP Morgan analysts give their forecasts for digital and old-line media

We're all expecting this year to be pretty sobering when it comes to advertising sales. But apparently it's going to be so bad that JPMorgan analysts anticipate that the CEOs of companies they follow will stay pretty mum about this year's prospects.How bad will it be? JPMorgan analysts held a call this week to discuss their view on the media ... [Read more]

ChannelAdvisor reviewed by eBay's Erik Stuart

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:57:00 -0800

What does eBay think of this valuable driver of sales to its marketplace?

Sponsored by: ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants determine where to sell their wares across marketplaces, search engines and shopping sites, is the largest providers of seller tools to eBay's biggest sellers. Some 20% to 30% of the largest merchants using its service. It's a SaaS (software as a service) startup that's raised some $80 million since it began earlier this decade. ... [Read more]

Lessons about launching too soon

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:32:00 -0800

Crispy Gamer founder talks about why rushing leads to double the work down the road

Christoper Heldman is a first-time entrepreneur. But it appears he's off to a great start with his company, Crispy Gamer, one of the largest independent game media companies providing news for serious gamers.Here's Heldman's advice:"Don't be in a hurry," he said. "Build your business over time."Heldman said he learned this entrepreneurial virtue because he didn't have patience. "We rushed our ... [Read more]

Will eBay sell Skype?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:01:00 -0800

Speculation is mounting that the online phone service may be on the block soon

When eBay purchased Skype for a whopping $4.1 billion, in stock, cash and earnouts, it was a very controversial move. Critics believe the online marketplace giant overspent on an asset that wasn't a good fit, and proponents thought it was a good bet to lower customer-acquisition costs. It turns out Skype may be a wash, if it sells for roughly $2.6 ... [Read more]

Dare to dream; go against conventional wisdom

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:08:00 -0800

Kosmix co-founder Harinarayan on why being an entrepreneur means being misunderstood

Venky Harinarayan has had a big win as an entrepreneur. Back in the '90s, Harinarayan started one of the first, if not the first, e-commerce search engine, Junglee. It was sold to Amazon in 1998 for $250 million. In 2005, Harinarayan and his business partner Anand Rajaraman, co-founded Kosmix, an alternative search engine, or Web guide. Rajaraman was also a ... [Read more]

Google search close to 'recession resistant'

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:54:00 -0800

Paid clicks rise despite weak economy

While investors still see tough times ahead for the search Giant, Google still showed better-than-expected fourth-quarter results led by its search business. Google rose 4% in Friday trading, after disclosing late Thursday that net revenue (excluding what it pays to distribution partners) rose 24.5% to $4.22 billion. Lower payments to partners resulted in higher earnings per share of $5.10. Bernstein analyst ... [Read more]

Yammer plans to target large corporations

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:19:00 -0800

CEO David Sacks on Yammer's strategy and his plans as CEO of both Yammer and Geni

Just this week, corporate collaboration site, Yammer, raised $5 million from The Founders Fund and Charles River Ventures. Yammer launched in September 2008 as a spin-off of genealogy site Geni. I caught up with CEO David Sacks this week to ask him about where he plans on taking Yammer and how long he plans on staying at the helm of ... [Read more]

The Rubicon Project tops AO OnMedia 100 list

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:25:41 -0800

Advertising network management startup named overall winner

This year, The Rubicon Project was named overall winner of the 2009 AlwaysOn OnMedia 100 list, and recognized as the most innovative up-and-coming advertising game-changer by the AO editorial committee. Congratulations to Rubicon and Frank Addante, the very charismatic CEO. According to the judges, The Rubicon Project "is the right solution at the right time for the current market environment. ... [Read more]

Microsoft to cut 5000 jobs

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:13:00 -0800

Ballmer sends out memo about reductions

More people will be walking around unemployed as the harsh economic environment hits Microsoft. The software giant on Thursday announced it would eliminate 1400 jobs today and up to 5000 over the next 18 months. The initiatives will save the company $1.5 billion a year.The news came at the same time the software giant reported disappointing second-quarter results. The job ... [Read more]

Kosmix to introduce sponsored widgets

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:16:00 -0800

Co-founder talks about how the Web guide plans to make money, and its profit goals by 2010

You've heard of sponsored listings, but have you heard of widget listings?Probably not. That's because it's a new concept being introduced by Kosmix, an alternative search engine seeking to help users browse the Web. In this interview, Kosmix co-founder Venky Harinarayan talks about how Kosmix plans to monetize its service through sponsored widgets. Every module on Kosmix's site is a ... [Read more]

NYTimes cautions against Twitter and Facebook

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:53:00 -0800

Journalistic policies on how to use Web 2.0 services

While I was a former journalist at Dow Jones MarketWatch, I had no restrictions on keeping a personal blog in which I could post political and religous views, while at the same time post snippets of my "Net Sense" columns.I was covering the Internet, so my job was to be a student of what was happening across the Web, even ... [Read more]

Obama inauguration - No. 5 most watched event

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:36:00 -0800

College basketball playoffs and U.S. losing to Ghana in World Cup are more popular

President Barack Obama may be popular, but his inauguration speech seems to have attracted less of an audience or pageviews and streams combined than college basketball playoffs and the time when the U.S. lost to Ghana in the World Cup. Obama's inauguration attracted 5.4 million visitors per minutes, according to early figures released by Akamai. This makes the inauguration the ... [Read more]

Rick Warren controversial figure on Twitter

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:33:00 -0800

Once again micro-blog site finds hot button issues among Americans

Over a weekend dinner party, I struck up a conversation about Rick Warren, and how I thought his prayer at President Barack Obama's inauguration should or shouldn't go. (See my post on Obama's historic coverage and inauguration) Rick Warren is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch. He's also famous for his book A Purpose Driven ... [Read more]

CNN and Facebook coverage rocked it

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:20:00 -0800

The most novel approach to the inauguration coverage

Of all the coverage, the CNN.com coverage with the added Facebook commentary was the most novel. Joost ran CBSNews while Hulu ran FoxNews. But those productions felt like I was watching television (though at slower frames per second) alone. On CNN, it was like watching it there (without having to deal with the cold), or watching it at a bar. ... [Read more]

ThisNext reviewed by Erik Stuart of eBay

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:35:00 -0800

Will eBay incorporate social shopping into its fold?

Sponsored by: Startups have been creating social shopping experiences for several years. Some have had successful exits, such as Kaboodle, which sold to Hearst for $30 million in 2007. But have any really hit the ball out of the park? Erik Stuart, director of corporate strategy at eBay, scours the startup landscape as part of his job to find the ... [Read more]

Obama's historic inauguration and coverage

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:27:00 -0800

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube to deliver Barack Obama 2009 presidential inauguration

How times have changed. Move over ABC, CBS and NBC, there are new ways to follow the news these days - Twittter, Facebook and YouTube.On Tuesday, the world will be watching an historic event - the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. But the event isn't only historic because of who is being inaugurated, ... [Read more]

Mexican billionaire saves NYTimes

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Publisher gets $250 mln in a loan that could make Carlos Slim the largest stakeholder

(Updated to reflect the deal)The cash-strapped New York Times Company inked a deal with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu.As previously reported, Slim will loan $250 million to The New York Times Company. The publisher has been exploring options to help its struggling operations amid declining advertising sales. Clearly it managed to strike a deal that potentially leaves its lender with the ... [Read more]

Yammer and Geni raise $5 million

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:00:00 -0800

Micro-blogging and genealogy sites get funds from Founders Fund and Charles River

(Updated to incorporate David Sacks' comments)Former PayPal COO David Sacks has been busy securing deals for both his startups, Yammer and Geni. Yammer, a newly-minted startup that was a spin-off of genealogy site Geni, just raised $5 million from the The Founders Fund and Charles River Ventures, according to Sacks. Geni, meanwhile, has also raised the same amount from ... [Read more]

Twitter trends on Martin Luther King day

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:26:00 -0800

Micro-blogging site captures thoughts on Martin Luther King holiday

Happy Martin Luther King day! For many, it's a day off. Others continue to work. And, for others, well, one way to find out what they're up to is to go onto Twitter. Here's what people from around the world are saying about the holiday.

Venture investments slip 8% in 2008

Bambi Francisco — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:51:00 -0800

Web-centric startups are still attracting dollars, but it's slowing down

Entrepreneurs seeking to raise capital are probably glad the end of 2008 is over as the tough economic environment caused everyone to tighten their purse strings.In 2008, venture capitalists poured $28.8 billion in funds into 2,550 deals, down 8% from $31.4 billion invested in 2,823 deals a year earlier, according to DowJones VentureSource. The drop came mostly from a sluggish ... [Read more]

Circuit City to be fully liquidated

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:06:00 -0800

About 34,000 employees will be let go

No one is spared from this financial crisis. Banks, publishers, carmakers, and retailers!Electronics retailer Circuit City saif Friday that it's asked for court approval to shut down its 567 remaining U.S. stores. It will let go 34,000 employees, CNN reported. The retailer's site and call center will stop operations after Jan. 18. And, employees will receive 60 days notice of ... [Read more]

10 lessons, superheroes can teach startups

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:43:00 -0800

From getting the job done, to being crystal clear of their purpose

There's a saying that goes: "All I really need to know I learned kindergarten." A variant of that is: "All I need to know about startups, I learned from reading my comic books." And, you thought reading comic books was a waste of time.Here's a fun slide show to help us stay on track as an entrepreneur. Superheroes never give ... [Read more]

On social networks, adults umm... socialize

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:01:00 -0800

Findings show 35% of adults are on social networks, most on MySpace

My mother and father have yet to be on a social network. But I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they realize the only way they're going to get family photos is electronically, and specifically on some social network.Apparently, most adults are starting to get with it. And, guess what? Adults are on "social" networks to... socialize! Who'd ... [Read more]

Apple's Steve Jobs steps down due to health

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:07:00 -0800

Shareholders show their concern by selling shares

Apple may not be looking so green over the next six months. The stock fell 6% in after-hours trading, on news that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave of absence until the end of June. Apple COO Tim Cook will be responsible for Apple's day-to-day operations. Here's an Apple release:I am sure all of you saw my ... [Read more]

Online ad rates drop sharply in Q4

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:45:00 -0800

Pubmatic's new AdPrice Index shows e-CPMs down to 26 cents on average

As expected, fourth quarter online advertising was dismal. Pubmatic's latest advertising index shows that all Web sites - small, medium, and large - saw sharp drops in ad dollars. Small and large sites saw a more than 50% drop while medium-sized sites saw a 23% decline.Pubmatic is an advertising-network management company that releases an AdPrice Index every quarter. The AdPrice ... [Read more]

Yahoo needs 'Freakin breathing room'

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:47:00 -0800

New 'hard ass' CEO Carol Bartz implies there won't be any big decisions anytime soon

She may be old, but she's tough. Investors are warming up to Yahoo's new CEO Carol Bartz.Shares of Yahoo rose about 3% in mid-day trading, after starting the day weak, and after a decline of 1% on Tuesday. This on news that Yahoo has formally hired 60-year-old Bartz, a former CEO of software company Autodesk. Yahoo also said that Sue ... [Read more]

Twitter hires business development 'guru'

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:18:00 -0800

Micro-blogging site takes its first step toward making money

It looks like Twitter is going to attempt to monetize partnerships, securing one way to finally make some sought-after revenue. The company just hired Kevin Thau as its Director of Mobile Business Development late last month. Thau has 691 followers on Twitter. But more importantly, Thau has had extensive experience in developing mobile business strategies, a sign Twitter's first order of ... [Read more]

Bambi's blog: Vator on Entrepreneur

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:20:00 -0800

VatorNews videos now distributed on longstanding resource for small business

I have often picked up Entrepreneur magazine to read on flights. Over the last year, the flights were more frequent, and the time reading Entrepreneur taken up a notch. Thank goodness for those layovers. During that time, it became increasingly clear that Vator and Entrepreneur complement one another.We share a similar audience and mission. Entrepreneur is a resource and a ... [Read more]

Yahoo's new CEO - safe but uninspiring

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:58:00 -0800

Bernstein analyst: We question the logic of the pick

Shares of Yahoo initially spiked, then ended the day down nearly 1% to $12.10, after news came out that Yahoo chose former Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz to become Chief Executiv of the struggling Internet giant. Clearly, the market isn't that excited by the 60-year-old software executive. One analyst - Jeff Lindsay at Bernstein - wrote out his concerns:"While we think ... [Read more]

Kosmix browse vs Google search

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:30:00 -0800

Web guide focuses on organization over relevance to serve up experiences around topics

When searching for something specific, like "Pizza San Francisco" or "Piano instructors, Manhattan," using Google like the Yellow Pages is commonplace. But when searching for unknown or hard-to-put-your-finger-on information, it's more an act of browsing. When browsing for a topic, say "Calvin & Hobbes," Google or other search engines aren't very useful in providing a 360 degree view of what's ... [Read more]

Financial Times to fire 80 employees

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:14:00 -0800

Newspapers continue to shrink

A few years ago, I read that newspapers could be extinct in 40 years. With daily news stories about layoffs, the right number is more like 25.The latest publisher to shed jobs is the Financial Times. According to the Guardian, "The Financial Times group is planning to make up to 80 staff redundant across its global operations, telling journalists today ... [Read more]

Wigix - reviewed by Erik Stuart of eBay

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:29:00 -0800

Is this eBay alternative something that's caught the eye of eBay's director of strategy?

Sponsored by: How do you get into the door at eBay? One way to do so is through Erik Stuart, director of corporate strategy at eBay, whose job is to vet startups and propose which ones should be ideal candidates for mergers and acquisitions or business development deals. He initiated and championed eBay's acquisition of StumbleUpon. Who better then to ... [Read more]

Fark mainstream on Jeopardy

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:46:00 -0800

Founder Drew Curtis says Fark is the 'Twitterization' of news

Recently, Fark, the popular aggregator of news, was a category on Jeopardy, marking the second time the 10-year-old provider of hilarious headlines appeared on the popular game show. Here's a brief interview I had with Drew Curtis, founder of Fark.BF: Jeopardy chose Fark as a category because it was a type of news. Do you think Fark's headlines are a ... [Read more]

Tapulous investor letter - leaked

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:12:10 -0800

$1 mln raised, breakeven achieved, and lessons learned

Tapulous, the popular maker of iPhone apps, such as Tap Tap Revenge, sent out an update to investors this week. The letter, which revealed a lot of optimism about the new year, was leaked to TechCrunch. In the letter, Tapulous co-founders Bart Decrem and Andrew Lacy outline the startups achievements, including a $1 million financing round in December. (Embedded is ... [Read more]

Zynga's making big bucks, but not $50 mln

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:32:00 -0800

There is money to be made on social networks as poker addicts buy chips

When you sit around playing Texas Hold 'Em for hours on Zynga, you can start to see how the addictive nature of the popular game can compel you to spend big bucks buying chips. After all, you need a lot of chips to socialize with your fellow poker players by sending virtual drinks, chickens or dancing dwarfs. Zynga's "Texas Hold ... [Read more]

iGoogle to add chat and become more social

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:05:00 -0800

Google's Marissa Mayer on the future of socializing Google's platform

When it comes to social networking, Google hasn't exactly taken the lead in innovation. Sure, it has Orkut, which is huge in Brazil. But in the U.S., and around the world, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and hi5 dominate. For the most part, Google's products and services are based on algorithms that help you find content easily. There is little explicit social ... [Read more]

Yahoo buyout rumor - a desperate gambit

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:32:00 -0800

Prediction - More rumors of consortia and bids will ensue

A rumor that an unnamed group of Silicon Valley executives are seeking to borrow money from Microsoft to buy Yahoo at $15 (20% premium over Tuesday's closing price), and sell the search business to Microsoft is being dismissed as "idiotic" to being a "desperate" gambit. "We think this is simply the next in a series of increasingly desperate gambits and ... [Read more]

Be the Muhammad Ali of innovation

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:59:00 -0800

Stay nimble on your feet and dance around to see what's around you, both punches and opportunities

Harald Neidhardt, CMO and co-Founder of Smaato, has had two decades of experience in the marketing industry. With his mobile advertising startup, Neidhardt is looking to put his online marketing know-how to work. Here are his lessons learned about marketing and how he's applying it to the mobile world. BF: What are the lessons you've learned? HN: Well, I think first of all ... [Read more]

Is there scale to an Appssavvy?

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:30:00 -0800

Google's Marissa Mayer helps us evaluate the social media business of Appssavvy

Sponsored by: With the popularity of applications and widgets made by companies, such as RockYou and Slide, we're seeing the emergence of startups solely focused on creating advertising solutions for app makers. Is there a big business in creating advertising and marketing solutions for widget and app providers? Or are widgets and apps advertisements in and of themselves? We explored that ... [Read more]

Facebook sues Power.com

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:01:00 -0800

Apparently, Power wasn't in compliance with other social networks

Recently, I interviewed Steve Vachani, CEO and founder of Power.com, a one-stop-shop social network where users can access their profiles from Facebook, hi5, Orkut and MySpace. I kept asking Vachani if Power.com was in compliance with the other social networks since his service allows for access and mashups of the services. Vachani insisted that he was in compliance.Apparently, Facebook didn't ... [Read more]

2008 was an ugly year for venture capitalists

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:14:00 -0800

Exits hit $24.1 billion down 58% from 2007

Venture capitalists are probably glad 2008 is over as liquidity events were hard to come by during the toughest economic times in recent history.Overall, U.S. venture-backed companies generated $24.1 billion in liquidity through IPOs and M&As in 2008, down 58% from the $57.6 billion in liquidity produced in 2007, resulting in the worst year since the post-tech-bust doldrums of 2003, ... [Read more]

Halsey Minor's 8020 mag shutters its doors

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:01:00 -0800

Fresh signs of turmoil hitting Internet sites in 2009

User-generated magazine publisher and Internet site, 8020 Media was a promising venture backed by Halsey Minor, founder of CNet Networks. Launched in 2006, it had a seemingly good community-generated business model that leveraged the Web. It was comprised of sourcing photographs from the community and allowing users to select winning photos that would be would be published in a magazine. ... [Read more]

Lessons learned highlights 2008

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:41:00 -0800

Surviving the downturn; making tough decisions; how to be great

We’ve built a great library of “lessons learned and advice’ for entrepreneurs from top VCs to successful entrepreneurs. Not surprisingly, this year we had many lessons on surviving the cash crunch…We hope you enjoy this compilation of some of the words of wisdom regarding how to survive the downturn.We start with Brian Ascher, partner at Venrock Capital. One of the ... [Read more]

Ooyala founders: Sprint in the same direction

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:02:00 -0800

Lepe brothers and Sean Knapp share team hug and advice to entrepreneurs

What happens when you bring together two brothers and a dorm mate, who are fiercely competitive runners and former Googlers and Stanford students? You get a pretty good founding team. “We went through numerous business models in the first few months," said Sean Knapp, one of the founders of Ooyala, a two-year-old video advertising and delivery platform. "But the important ... [Read more]

VatorNews interview highlights in 2008

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:25:00 -0800

Founders of Slide, FriendFeed, Twitter, hi5, RockYou and more sit down with VatorNews

In 2008, VatorNews was fortunate to interview some of the hottest entrepreneurs and movers and shakers in Silicon Valley. From Slide founder and CEO Max Levchin to FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit to Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. VatorNews tries to give you the voices of those who're making a big, big, big difference, to those helping to innovate. ... [Read more]

Interview with Power.com CEO Steve Vachani

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:27:00 -0800

CEO and founder talks about why his site is social network central

Five years ago, I was a writer explaining tirelessly what a social network was to my audience, who at the time barely understood MySpace and had yet to learn about Facebook. Today, thousands of social networks have bloomed, resulting in a need, it seems, for one social network to manage them all. Power.com is what I'd call that uber social ... [Read more]

Vator Box highlights in 2008

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:30:00 -0800

Esther Dyson, Google's Marissa Mayer, Venrock Brian Ascher, Guy Kawasaki, and more

In 2008, we launched a show called Vator Box, our poor version of Siskel & Ebert meets American Idol. It's the show where we invite guest hosts to evaluate startups based on their Vator video pitch and company profile. We've provided analysis for over 50 companies since the start of this year. At times, we even got the analysis just ... [Read more]

Google's Homer gift - the Android phone

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:58:00 -0800

It's not a bad bonus; it's just not cash

Google, whose share price has been slashed by more than half this year - along with most other stocks, has decided to go lean on the Christmas bonuses. This Christmas, Googlers will receive a $179.99 T-Mobile phone, running on the Android operating system. Now, that may sound like a nice gift, if you worked at a small startup. But some ... [Read more]

Sumner Redstone - Biggest media loser 2008

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:56:00 -0800

Silicon Alley Insider puts Viacom's Sumner Redstone on top of loser list

From layoffs, to a bankruptcy filing to share prices cut in half, it's been a tough year for big media companies.So, who's the biggest loser of all the titans of media in 2008? The Tribune newspaper, with $13 billion in debt, filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. With that big implosion, you'd think that real estate mogul Sam Zell, who ... [Read more]

Viewdle reviewed by Google's Marissa Mayer

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:33:00 -0800

Search expert joins Vator Box team to evaluate the facial-recognition technology startup

Viewdle, which recently won the Le Web pitch competition in early December, was in the spotlight for this week's Vator Box. Viewdle is a facial-recognition technology startup that was founded in 2006. Who better to evaluate technology to help us find things across the Web in an automated fashion than Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of search experience. Overall, Mayer, Ezra ... [Read more]

Socialmedian sells to Xing for $7.5 million

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:16:00 -0800

Personalized news aggregator gets snapped up in successful exit

How do you take under $1 million and turn it into $4 million in a year? Ask Jason Goldberg, founder of socialmedian. European social network, Xing, is buying socialmedian, a personalized news aggregation site, for $7.5 million, about $4 million cash upfront and $3.5 million in an earn out. Liquid Scenarios, our sponsor for Vator Box, predicted the acquisition amount ... [Read more]

Ooyala founders share their grand vision

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:19:00 -0800

Video delivery and advertising platform wants to serve soup-to-nuts to the head-to-tail

Back in 2006, I wrote about Brightcove, a rising star in the video platform business. Two years later, online behavior has changed, technology has improved dramatically, business models have iterated, and, of course, newcomers are trying to redefine what former newcomers tried to do not so long ago. Today, Ooyala is that seemingly rising star in the video delivery and ... [Read more]

First Round adds joy to the holidays

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:22:00 -0800

Despite gloom and doom, startups are still dancing

No one can say that First Round Capital and its portfolio companies don't have a sense of humor. It's nice to know that even when times are tough, we can still all enjoy the holidays and wish everyone well.Here's their holiday card that I just received in my inbox.Watch out for ours! It's coming soon.

Foodzie raises $1 million in seed funding

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:54:46 -0800

Marketplace to connect food lovers with small food artisans

Foodzie, an online marketplace where consumers can discover and buy food directly from small, artisan producers, said it's received $1 million in seed funding from angel investor Jeff Clavier, First Round Capital, and other angel investors. Foodzie was one of this year's startups incubated at TechStars. Read TechStars founder David Cohen's post on the funding round. I'd go into what ... [Read more]

Twitter serious about finding revenue

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:05:00 -0800

Micro-blogging site seeks product manager focused on revenue generation

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site that's been in search of a business model, looks like it's getting serious about finding one. In a job posting on JobScore, Twitter wrote this:About this Job As Twitter's first product manager focused on revenue generation, you will play a defining role in the formulation of Twitter's business. Your job will be to lead the ... [Read more]

Esther Dyson: Twitter and spreading genes

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:37:00 -0800

The drive to micro-blog and be ubiquitous is the same desire to mate

How has the Internet changed the way we behave? In many ways, it's emulating our instinct to mate. If you ask this question long enough, someone, like Esther Dyson, is sure to come up with an observation that's not often raised."What really fascinates me is the evolution, sex, genetics... life produces itself and spreads genes," Dyson expounded, in one of our ... [Read more]

Bambi's blog: Vator launches Company updates

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:00:00 -0800

Vator makes it easier for startups to share their story and connect, by adding Company Updates

Vator has always been a place for entrepreneurs to share their story, starting with a video pitch. But since we've launched in June 2007, we've continually enhanced the ability for entrepreneurs to communicate their narrative in multiple ways, be it video, documents, company blog feeds, and now short messaging. Vator on Tuesday is opening up to Beta users a new ... [Read more]

Google vs visual search, Searchme

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:31:00 -0800

Google's Marissa Mayer is our guest host evaluating a new experience and model applied to search

This episode is brought to you by Liquid Scenarios. We're in the early innings of search, and there's much innovation to be done. At 10 years old, Google has defined the way people find information. Type in a keyword and receive a list of results. It's in those results that they try to convey as much information as they can, ... [Read more]

The rationale behind placing money today

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:11:00 -0800

Venrock's Brian Ascher talks about recent investments in Awarepoint, Shopflick, and Martini Media

Recently, Awarepoint raised $13.3 million, of which $5.9 million came from Venrock. Clearly, despite the downturn, investors are putting money to work. In this interview, Venrock partner Brian Ascher, who also sits on the board of Awarepoint, talks about the rationale behind that investment. "It's a real ROI story," he said. Awarepoint makes small battery-powered tags that can be placed ... [Read more]

Content is a monetization engine

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:20:00 -0800

Rustic Canyon partner says content publishers with new production models are of interest

Content isn't always king. These days, aggregation seems to be. Yet, at a time when aggregation of data, news or Web sites seem all the rage, the question does become: Do we need more people creating the original content that's being aggregated? Yes. There's always need for original content. In fact, there is an opportunity for content creators, according to one ... [Read more]

Yahoo layoffs, live on Twitter

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 07:33:00 -0800

Will Yahoo resumes be sent to Redmond?

It's a tough decision to have layoffs during the holidays. But employees at Yahoo can't say they didn't expect it, after having been given a heads up in October. Although, of the roughly 15,000 global workforce, it's been unclear as to who exactly would receive a pink slip.Today, is the day that we'll know. Yahoo, which has been in a ... [Read more]

What NBC Universal typically invests in

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:02:00 -0800

Chris Grosso, NBC Universal SVP, says technology platforms are ideal

NBC Universal has content, a promotion engine, brands and advertising relationships, so its primary investment focus is technology platforms, said Chris Grosso, SVP of Emerging Digital Businesses, NBC Universal Digital Media, who spoke at the AlwaysOn Venture Summit recently.In this video, he responded to a question about what NBC Universal invests in. "Where we’ve done a lot of strategic investing ... [Read more]

Google's Marissa Mayer on Woome

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:46:00 -0800

Search expert joins Vator Box team to evaluate the online dating/introductory site

Brought to you by: Google's Marissa Mayer, VP of search experience and products, was on hand to be our guest host for four Vator Box segments. In this one, we look a Woome, a speed-dating, online introductory platform.Here are some points, Mayer and Ezra Roizen (Vator Box regular and digital media investment banker) made:- Stephen Stokols is a smart guy, and ... [Read more]

Yahoo CEO short list, gets shorter

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:40:00 -0800

The search for a bold, new leader and turn-around artist continues...

It's been 2-1/2 weeks since Jerry Yang stepped down from his CEO post at Yahoo. Since then, the blogosphere has been busy reporting, evaluating, predicting and basically throwing in their 2 cents as to whom should be at the helm of this beleaguered Internet pioneer. Apparently, Yahoo board Chairman Roy Bostock is getting impatient. (I don't blame him). He wants ... [Read more]

There's no such thing as a 'B' round

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:51:00 -0800

Nat Goldhaber from Claremont Creek Ventures says the A round needs to take startups to profitability

"There is no such thing as a B round." That's quite an emphatic, and almost frightening, statement made by Nat Goldhaber, managing director at Claremont Creek Ventures, who is currently on the boards of Adura Technologies, cFares, and TargetCast Networks. "There are only A rounds and C rounds," he added. Goldhaber was speaking on a panel titled "How to Beat ... [Read more]

More layoffs at traditional media

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:48:00 -0800

CNBC expected to cut 80 staffers; Viacom to cut 7% of workforce; freeze salaries

It continues to get ugly out there for those who work at traditional media outlets.CNBC, part of General Electric's NBC's Universal division, is reportedly going to slash its workforce by 80 staffers. The cuts are expected to be across the board, but will not affect the on-air faces who are most familiar to the audience, according to the New York Post. ... [Read more]

Fark CEO Curtis on surviving the downturn

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:48:00 -0800

Drew Curtis lasted through the 2000 bubble burst, and came out stronger

In February of 2009, Fark - an aggregator of strange and humorous stories, and the granddaddy of news aggregators – turns 10 years old. That means that Drew Curtis, Fark’s founder, who runs the popular site out of his home in Lexington, Kentucky, with essentially 16 virtual part-time moderators, has survived the last downturn. With 70-plus million monthly pageviews today, ... [Read more]

The 'other' deal that won't die

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:18:00 -0800

Yahoo is 'merger-ready' for AOL; tapping insider for CEO may help the deal along

If there's a deal that Yahoo would love to do today, besides selling to Microsoft at $42 billion, it's to merge with AOL. Both companies have been in on-again-off-again talks for all of 2008. Yet, wasn't this the "deal" that was supposed to happen a year ago?In December 2007, Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen sent a note to her ... [Read more]

Bridge (to nowhere) financing is dead

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:51:00 -0800

Howard Hartenbaum says fewer debt deals bodes well for early-stage funds and VCs

Sarah Palin is quoted as saying, "Thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere." Howard Hartenbaum, who was an early investor in Skype in 2002 and who joined August Capital this fall, would agree - in the context of investments."Many people think the economic problem is all related to debt, and I tend to agree with that," he said. ... [Read more]

Yollege: A promising college review site

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:08:00 -0800

Venrock's Brian Ascher is our guest host, evaluating Yollege

We've seen a number of college-related sites listed in our Vator.tv directory of startups and private companies from College Blog Network, CollegeWikis, College Mogul to NuResume. One company, Yollege, was particularly notable, given the founder's pitch. According to Brian Ascher, venture capitalist of Venrock, who was our guest host (yet again!), Yollege CEO and founder Mike Kim deserves an A-+ ... [Read more]

Yahoo search biz, worth more like $2 bln

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:48:00 -0800

Analyst dismisses $20 bln price tag for portal's search unit

In recent days, it's been reported that Microsoft is considering buying Yahoo's search business for as much as $20 billion in a couple years. The price tag seems a bit high for Yahoo's search unit, when the entire company is worth $15 billion. In fact, Yahoo's search business is worth more like $2 billion, as estimated by Sanford Bernstein analyst ... [Read more]

Emerging sectors Ron Conway would bet on

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:42:00 -0800

Crowd-sourcing search, Cloud computing, and How-to sites

Ron Conway, one of the most well-known and prolific angels in Silicon Valley, hasn't stopped investing. In fact, today is probably a good time to get some of the best deals. According to Conway, valuations are down 20% to 25% for the investments he's looking at. Plus, liquidation preferences - which determine how the pie is distributed in the event ... [Read more]

Jon Miller - ideal CEO candidate for Yahoo

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:48:00 -0800

If he doesn't buy the portal for $30 bln, he'd still be good at leading it

Ex-AOL Chief Jonathan Miller is considering buying some or all of Yahoo in a deal that could value the company at twice its value today. Miller runs a private equity firm, Velocity Interactive Group, with Ross Levinsohn, former head of Fox Interactive Media. According to the Wall Street Journal: Mr. Miller has been talking to private equity investors and sovereign ... [Read more]

MyPod and boomsticks

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:24:00 -0800

The Simpsons, Apple and Hulu

If you missed the Simpsons' episode on their trip to the Apple Store, here it is, embedded from Hulu - a joint venture between General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal and News Corp. You'll have to tolerate the 3-minute advertisement in the beginning though.

Trafffic up at e-tailers, but spending...?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:30:00 -0800

EBay, Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target were top destinations online on Black Friday

Black Friday saw traffic at online retailers jump 10%. Nearly 32 million unique visitors went to shopping sites on the day after Thanksgiving, up from nearly 29 million, a year ago, according to Nielsen Online. Black Friday was given the name "Black" Friday because it was the day that brought retailers to profitability. The top site was eBay, which drew ... [Read more]

Holiday e-sales to be down high single digits

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:59:00 -0800

But Amazon, eBay, Wal-Mart.com as shoppers turn to the Web for discounts

With 25% to 40% of most retailers' sales conducted during the holiday shopping season, 2008 may turn out to be a pretty grim year. More than a third of shoppers said they've completed their holiday shopping, according to the National Retail Federation. And, online retail spending declined 4% in the first 28 days of November, according to comScore. JP Morgan ... [Read more]

How tough is it to get VC financing?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:09:00 -0800

Venrock partner Brian Ascher says his firm is still placing money; but the bar is raised

It's definitely a buyer's market today, whether the asset class is a house, a stock, or a startup. "Right now, folks are a bit paralyzed, taking a wait-and-see attitude to how it shakes out" said Brian Ascher, venture capitalist at Silicon Valley venture firm Venrock. Ascher doesn't see entire firms shutting down, much like what happened during the 2000/2001 bubble ... [Read more]

Buzznet: Celeb site gets worked over

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:01:00 -0800

Venrock's Brian Ascher offers frank advice as our guest host

Now that the presidential elections are over, sites typically devoted to politics, such as Huffington Post, are focusing on accelerating the growth of their celebrity and entertainment news. HuffPost will be yet another contender in the battle for eyeballs interested in celebrity and gossip. It's a very crowded field. There's popular online sites, such as Perezhilton, Yahoo's OMG, and TMZ, ... [Read more]

NYTimes, WSJ - increasingly commoditized

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:23:00 -0800

What happened to exclusivity and proprietary information, photos, etc.?

This morning, as I began my morning ritual of reading the print edition of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, I noticed something glaringly odd. Both papers, which are already increasingly resembling one another after Rupert Murdoch bought Dow Jones, had the same photo leading their main story about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.To have two ... [Read more]

Apple's Black Friday sale - lame

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:10:00 -0800

Don't expect to get any decent discounts; and iPhone or MacBook Air are off limits

As expected, retailers are offering Black Friday sales to jumpstart their holiday sales. But at Apple, prices of MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iPods, Apple TVs, and some accessories are being offered at mere modest discounts. You can hardly call this a sale. For instance, you can get about a 13-inch MacBook (2.4 GHz) for $1498, a 6% discount. You can ... [Read more]

Twitter - World's biggest 24-hour newsroom

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:57:00 -0800

Micro-blogging site takes news feeds to a new level

After the Mumbai bombing, it's clear that Twitter is becoming a 24/7, round-the-clock, breaking news phenomena, and a compelling alternative to the world's most deep-pocketed, sophisticated and expansive news organizations.It's a big leap forward from the seemingly simple but innovative news feeds started by Facebook nearly three years ago. When Facebook released its news feed back in 2006, there was ... [Read more]

Eye-witness Twitter - on Mumbai bomb blast

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:14:00 -0800

Citizen journalism provides up-to-the-minute reporting of terrorist attack

The realization of the power and value of citizen journalism seemed to become evident today, following the brutal terrorist bomb attack in Mumbai, India. According to Bloomberg, "as many as 80 people were killed and 240 injured in the Indian city of Mumbai in grenade and gun attacks late yesterday, with five-star hotels among the sites targeted." This report was the ... [Read more]

Google's Marissa Mayer on search evolution

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:32:00 -0800

Google executive on search iterations, such as Twitter, Cuil, human-powered search

In the future, the way we search today - typing into a keyboard, retrieving a list of results - will seem pretty primitive. That's why new search engines keep sprouting up each day. Even though Google continues to squash them all, and grab market share, there is still room for significant innovation. Search is at its infancy, said Marissa Mayer, ... [Read more]

SEC calls for Prosper to shut down

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:50:00 -0800

During worst economic crisis in history, violins heard as Titanic sinks

Updated 2:30 pm: Prosper's spokesperson Tiffany Fox tells VatorNews that Prosper's lender agreements are in full effect. Servicing continues as usual and lenders are free to transfer money off the platform. Borrowers have to continue paying out their loans. Additionally, the SEC decided that it was not necessary for there to be any financial remedy, such as fines. The order ... [Read more]

Google increases market share in October

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:15:00 -0800

Yahoo share inches up, MSN flat, AOL and Ask lose share

Google continues to dominate in the search engine wars. In the month of October, the search giant increased its domestic market share to 63.1% from 62.9% in September. Yahoo's domestic share increased slightly to 20.5% while MSN was flat and AOL and Ask.com declined. Here's the breakdown from Imran Khan, an analyst at JP Morgan. Google domestic core search market ... [Read more]

KickApps raised $14 million in new funds

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:42:00 -0800

White-label social network raises a total of $31 million

KickApps, a popular of white-label social networking solutions, raised more than $13 million in a Series C round of funding. The round was led by North Atlantic Capital, with participation from existing investors Softbank, Spark Capital, Prism Ventures and Jarl Mohn, former CEO of Liberty Digital, Inc. KickApps raised a total of $31 million since 2006. In the spring of ... [Read more]

HuffPo valued at $110 million?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:00:15 -0800

Online entrepreneur Arianna Huffington raises money to stay relevant

In an effort to leverage its booming traffic built on covering political news, Huffington Post - started in 2005 by the ubiquitous and indefatigable Arianna Huffington - is raising significant expansion capital. Huffington Post - the top political news blogging site - is seeking to close $20 million, at a post-money valuation of $110 million, according to PaidContent. The lead ... [Read more]

Twitter rejects Facebook $500 mln stock offer

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:05:00 -0800

Fast-growing social network plus fast-growing micro-blogging site in talks?

Will the fastest-growing social network buy the fastest-growing micro-blogging site? It would seem to be a killer combination. But the two sides can't agree on such a deal, just yet.Twitter turned down an acquisition offer from Facebook of $500 million in stock, at the inflated $15 billion valuation it once pulled off. If Facebook offered cash it would certainly be ... [Read more]

Plan virality around your ability to execute

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:26:00 -0800

Mobivox CEO and venture capitalist Peter Diedrich advice to mobile startups

Peter Diedrich had a $200 million fund as a venture capitalist. He became the CEO of Mobivox, a company he originally invested in. In this "Lessons learned" segment, Diedrich talks about his three pieces of advice to mobile startups.- Virality can work both ways. A lot of services are based on virality, he said. "If it's great, it should lead ... [Read more]

Glam Media: An ad network too big to swallow

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:09:00 -0800

Venrock's Brian Ascher is our guest host, evaluating Glam Media

This Vator Box is brought to you by Liquid Scenarios. Recently, Glam Media, an advertising network focused on female and male-oriented sites, launched Glam App Network. Essentially, it's a widget that any publisher can embed onto their site to enrich their site with content, and revenue. Glam Media is one of the most innovative and leading ad networks. Who better ... [Read more]

Venrock's Ascher: Don't ramp up too soon

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:56:00 -0800

Venrock Venture capitalist Brian Ascher says have a brutal sense of reality

One of the biggest mistakes startups make is ramping up too fast, resulting in spending too much time and resources on managing, and less time on building a product. Another mistake is staffing up before knowing if a product really has demand. This is one of the lessons Brian Ascher learned after working with a number of portfolio companies as ... [Read more]

Online advertising hits a wall

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:36:00 -0800

Economic headwinds keep spending flat

As you can see from the chart below, online advertising has flattened out. Online advertising grew to $5.9 billion in the third quarter, up 2% from the second quarter, and up 11% from the same period a year ago, according to the just-released report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). The upside is that online advertising ... [Read more]

Blyk raises $50.7 million

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:35:00 -0800

Who said we're in the dumps?

Despite the fact that the economy is crumbling, mobile advertising is deteriorating and venture capitalists are investing less, some deals are getting done. And, they're getting done in a big way. Blyk, a Finland-based mobile network targeting the 16-to-24 year-old demographic with an advertising-supported model, raised $40 million Euros, or $50.7 million, in funding. The news was announced on the company's ... [Read more]

PC Magazine print edition is shuttered

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:03:00 -0800

Time Inc. also shuts down Cottage Living

PC Magazine, which started in 1982, is yet another casualty in the economic downturn.The last issue of the computer magazine, which at one point grew to more than 800 pages, will be January 2009. (Meanwhile, Cottage Living, a Time Inc. magazine, is being shut down as well.) PC Magazine publisher Ziff Davis, which recently exited from bankruptcy, will let go ... [Read more]

Socialmedian releases Obama widget

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:01:00 -0800

Keep up on the President-elect's transition to the White House on Socialmedian

Now that the presidential elections are over, what's the next thing to cover? President-elect Barack Obama's transition to the White House. Hoping to capitalize on the interest of the incoming president and his family, news aggregation site Socialmedian released a news widget that provides the latest news about Obama's transition to the White House. Check it out. var SM_NOS_OWHT =6;var ... [Read more]

Guy Kawasaki on how to be Web famous

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:57:00 -0800

Follow your followers; be a prolific Twitter-er; answer all emails; be around for 25 yrs

Being famous is relative. These days, you can be famous on MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. Or, you can use those platforms to launch yourself into Internet stardom. Who better to talk about how to become famous online but the ubiquitous Guy Kawasaki, whose Twitter following is fast approaching 30,000.In this part III interview with Guy, the venture capitalist, author of ... [Read more]

Hold those thoughts -Twitter down

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:30:00 -0800

Site down for maintenance, probably upsetting those who want to share their breakfast menu

It's a fact of life - downtime. This morning, Twitter was down for maintenance. Hold those thoughts, including what you're having for breakfast, who you're going to meet for drinks, what you're watching, and whether or not you're going to clean up your closet today. (Update: Twitter was back up by 9:30 pacific)

Who's going to reinvent Yahoo?

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:30:00 -0800

The characteristics, and the short list

Yahoo is in need of a great CEO who can re-brand the beleaguered company. No longer should the words "peanut butter" come to mind when people refer to this Internet pioneer. Rather, the new CEO needs to unify Yahoo's disparate parts and present a consistent message. Yahoo needs someone like a Louis Gerstner, the man who reshaped and rescued IBM, ... [Read more]

Yahoo shares jump, after Yang resigns

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:11:00 -0800

Shareholders vote their shares

As expected, shares of Yahoo jumped in Tuesday trading, upon news that co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down from his CEO post. They were up nearly 12% at 10 am. Here's what Imran Khan, Internet analyst at JP Morgan, had to say.We think investors will welcome the announcement in anticipation that the new CEO will likely restart the business partnership/consolidation discussion with ... [Read more]

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang resigns

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:07:00 -0800

Troubled online portal in search for new leader

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang has stepped down. He's probably relieved about this decision. But probably more relieved are the shareholders, who will likely bid Yahoo shares up during Tuesday trading. Here's the release:Yahoo! Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. ... [Read more]

I'm going to start calling Google 'Stickers'

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:16:54 -0800

Google begins putting ads on Google Finance property

If you've watched the movie "Cars," the animated Pixar film, you may recall Lightning McQueen, the red race car whose nickname is "Stickers" because of all the sponsorship stickers plastered on him. These days, with monetization a critical component to survival and sustainability, I've noticed a number of sites opting to be race cars, including Google. Google has started putting ... [Read more]

Display ad spending down sharply

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:40:42 -0800

Glut of inventory pressures premium display ads

While online advertising continues to reach new heights, a glut of inventory is keeping them at lower altitudes.Spending for display advertising in October has dropped dramatically from September, reported Citigroup Internet and media analyst Mark Mahaney, who just returned from the AdRevenue 08 conference.Here are some of his takeaways, after speaking with Federated Media, Meebo, Six Apart, ContextWeb, AdECN, PubMatic, ... [Read more]

A potential music-related acquisition target

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:32:00 -0800

Venrock's Brian Ascher is our guest host, evaluating LyricFind

Sponsored by: When I was growing up, it was commonplace to get lyrics as part of an album or CD. Without those lyrics, how could I possibly sing along to the songs? Today, I rarely buy albums. Rather, I buy singles on iTunes or download singles from Napster. If I really care, I Google the lyrics. There is a ... [Read more]

Cut out stuff that's not strategic

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:00:00 -0800

Smule's Smith offers harsh advice to entrepreneurs living through tough times

Jeff Smith, founder of popular iPhone app Smule, has been through the bursting of the Internet bubble and 9/11. He's an experienced entrepreneur - having founded and taken public Tumbleweed - who knows when to make the tough decisions. I hear often that first-time entrepreneurs are far more apprehensive to make the real hard calls. According to Jeff, it's not ... [Read more]

Why working with carriers is a waste of time

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:29:00 -0800

Apple's iTune App Store made it possible for the little guy

For content and service providers seeking to reach a customer, don't bother working with carriers. "It's a collosal waste of time to go with a new idea and new product that you can't show some kind of demand," said Alec Saunders, Founder and CEO of Iotum, which just this week launched a conference application for the iPhone. "You're in for ... [Read more]

Tila Tequila ushers in reality TV on Woome

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:40:00 -0800

Speed-dating site turns 'dating intros' into new form of entertainment

There may be new stars in the making at Woome. The speed-dating site recently launched Woome TV as a way to display the 100,000 to 150,000 video introductions across various sessions - like Nature lovers in San Francisco - conducted on the site daily. After a month of launching it, Woome TV now has 40,000 video introductions to watch publicly, ... [Read more]

Web conferencing launched on iPhone

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:53:00 -0800

Iotum's Calliflower on-the-go is free until January

At the Under the Radar conference this week, Iotum announced its Calliflower app for the iPhone. Essentially, the app is an extension of the Calliflower desktop conferencing service, which is similar to DimDim, GoToMeeting and WebEx. With the app, you can share documents, moderate multiple parties on the call, invite guests, chat, and post images, among other things. Founder and ... [Read more]

Playing the iPhone like a flute catches on

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:30:00 -0800

Smule's Jeff Smith shares update, and plays a tune

Oh, how far we've come. It wasn't long ago that phones were just used for talking. Now people can blow into their Apple iPhones and actually play Amazing Grace. They can do so by playing the Ocarina, one of the hottest iPhone apps to come out recently, despite the fact that it costs $1.Launched last week, the Ocarina has already ... [Read more]

Transpera raises $8.25 million

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:04:46 -0800

Mobile video advertising startup gets funding

Let's face it, even though marketers aren't fully embracing video advertising, let alone mobile video advertising - wireless is the future.Transpera, a platform to monetize mobile video, on Thursday announced that it raised $8.25 million in debt and equity. Existing investor Flybridge Capital Partners and new investor Labrador Ventures led the round, while existing shareholders Intel Capital and First Round ... [Read more]

Billing Revolution wins at Under the Radar

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:12:00 -0800

Mobile one-click payment service startup wins 'Judge's Choice' award

If you missed the Under the Radar conference Wednesday, here's the winner of the "Judge's Choice" award. I didn't get to interview the CEO Andy Kleitsch. But you can get the gist of the company by watching his pitch. Essentially, Billing Revolution allows people to use their mobile phones to make payments. The Seattle, Wash.-based startup charges 3.5% plus 50 ... [Read more]

Mobivox seeks to help monetize audiences

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:44:00 -0800

Low-cost carrier shifts from B2C model to B2B

Rather than compete with low-cost phone service providers, Montreal-based Mobivox, which allows people to make free or cheap phone calls, is increasingly partnering with them. In an effort to help service providers or communities generate more revenue, Mobivox is white-labeling its platform of services, such as voice-enabling calls and an online hosted address book. I caught up with Peter Diedrich, President ... [Read more]

Facebook needs your votes to find top app

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:24:00 -0800

The fbFund is paying out $225,000 to most popular

Facebook this week launched a voting application so that members can vote for their favorite application. This is one of the last stages of the fbFund's competition to find the top five companies that will receive $225,000 each. According to Facebook, the top 25 were narrowed down from a 600 teams of developers and entrepreneurs. Facebook made the first-round selections, but ... [Read more]

Digital dealmaker and others out at Wired

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:52:00 -0800

It probably won't end anytime soon

Just when you think it's over... Well, actually, no one thinks layoffs at media companies are over. But letting people go is better than shuttering a whole operation, just as we saw recently with Oprah's O at Home, quarterly magazine.This time, we're seeing more layoffs at Conde Nast. Kourosh Karimkhany, who headed up merger and acquisitions at CondeNet, has left, ... [Read more]

Esther Dyson: Feign smarts by listening more

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:59:00 -0800

High-tech thought leader shares advice to entrepreneurs and lessons as an investor

Esther Dyson, who came in recently to share her story to me about possibly rocketing to space, is widely regarded as an Internet/high-tech luminary, thought leader, and respectable investor, having put money in some of the hottest startups, such as Flickr and del.icio.us (both part of Yahoo), and more recently 23andMe, which is backed by Google. In this "Lessons learned" ... [Read more]

WooMe cuts cost to extend life

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:32:00 -0800

CEO Stokols of online introductory site says he's slowing it down a bit to wait for a recovery

It remains a pretty crappy economic environment out there. More than 400 companies of the S&P 500 Index have reported results for the third quarter. All told, earnings per share are on track to fall close to 14% from last year, making this the five straight quarter of declines. To this end, startups remain prudent.Stephen Stokols, CEO of WooMe, is ... [Read more]

Mobile language learning and travel miles

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:19:00 -0800

Guy Kawasaki helps us evaluate UrbanPlanetMobile and Travelfli

Sponsored by:This Vator Box is brought to you by Liquid Scenarios.During times of economic crisis, a system that squeezes out free airline flights from unmanaged frequent flier miles may be worth a few bucks. In this segment, we look at such a new service. We also dive into the self-study market by looking at a startup that's creating a self-study ... [Read more]

Yang: Why I'm CEO of Yahoo at this time

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:04:00 -0800

Jerry Yang concedes: "It's not the most fun thing to go through..."

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has had a brutal week, and a rough year. It started when on Monday, Google announced that it was terminating its search partnership with Yahoo, amid antitrust regulatory concerns. Then there were rumors swirling about that Yang was quitting. Then the idea that Microsoft and Yahoo might get back to the table to discuss an acquisition ... [Read more]

Death of magazines - even Oprah's shutters

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:48:39 -0800

O at Home gets folded back into O is latest casualty in the depressed magazine publishing industry

If you were thinking of launching a magazine anytime soon. Don't. Even Oprah's latest "O at Home," a quarterly magazine that's a spinoff of the popular O Magazine, is being shuttered. The magazine had a circulation of more than 1.4 million, up from 600,000 when it launched in 2004. But in an industry where advertising budgets are evaporating, it doesn't matter.Magazine ... [Read more]

Obama owes win to the Internet

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:27:00 -0800

Arianna Huffington: The Internet dispels lies and chokes off disillusional fearmongering

Arianna Huffington is not one to mince words. “Let’s be very blunt here," she said. "Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be president. Were it not for the Internet, Barack Obama would not be a democratic nominee."Huffington was on a panel at the final day of the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. She was joined ... [Read more]

Gavin Newsom: I'm obsessed with Facebook

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:32:00 -0800

Yet San Francisco Mayor fears being always accessible and watched

At his re-election campaign last year, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom found himself amid an audience of strangers, not the "usual suspects," he said. Upon asking who the new faces were, someone replied that they were his Facebook friends. His response: "What's Facebook?" That was 12 months ago. Today, Newsom has embraced it. “I'm proud to say that I have ... [Read more]

Demand's Rosenblatt: Preserve cash

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:45:00 -0800

Richard's experienced bankruptcy, and there's a way to avoid that - preserve cash

We've heard it time and again, and well, you're going to hear it again. This time from Demand Media co-founder and CEO Richard Rosenblatt, who's been an entrepreneur many times over, has succeeded and failed, and lived through downturns. "Get your costs as low as you can," he said, while we were both at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco ... [Read more]

Ballmer to Yang: We moved on

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:03:00 -0800

Both Microsoft and Yahoo seem willing to do a search deal

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer embraced Yahoo at $33, but is spurning it at $12. After months of on-again-off-again talks, It doesn't look like Ballmer is willing to sit down with Yahoo's Jerry Yang to talk about a full-blown partnership. "We made an offer, and it was clear that Yahoo didn't want to sell the business to us and we moved on," ... [Read more]

Demand Media, profitable and still buying

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:03:00 -0800

But CEO Richard Rosenblatt braces for an ad downturn

A reliance on clicks and not display ads has helped Demand Media hold up so far during this downturn. "The good news is that the ad market has not affected our properties very much yet, and that's because we never really had a strong focus on branded ad sales," said Richard Rosenblatt, co-founder and CEO of Demand Media. "We've mostly ... [Read more]

Coming soon to YouTube - Feature films

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:34:16 -0800

YouTube morphing to compete with Hulu, Veoh; but can it make money?

Just last week, I had a discussion with Jordan Hoffner, YouTube director of content partnerships, about long-form and short-form content online and monetizing both. Hoffner hinted that YouTube would be delivering a lot more long-form video in the future. But I argued that monetizing full-length or hour-long shows would be difficult to monetize, unless perhaps if delivered in chunks. Otherwise ... [Read more]

Yahoo's Yang defends Yahoo's search biz

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:35:00 -0800

After Google-Yahoo search marriage falls apart, Yahoo's CEO says he's 'disappointed'

Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang said emphatically that despite the termination of the Google search partnership, Yahoo's search business isn't failing."There’s a perception that because we didn’t have the Google deal, we’re not doing well in search," said Yang, who was interviewed by Federated Media CEO John Battelle, at Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco Wednesday, the same day ... [Read more]

Yahoo's Yang: Microsoft should buy us

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:41:00 -0800

CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang says he's been 'ready to negotiate'

Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang was one of the headline fireside chats at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. John Battelle, founder of Federated Media, interviewed Yang on stage this evening, probing him about the Microsoft deal, suggesting that it was Jerry's ego that got in the way of a deal happening between Yahoo and Microsoft."People who know me ... [Read more]

Glam slows payments to be profitable

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:45:00 -0800

CEO talks about the ad downturn and its affect on the business and industry

"I think overall, there is definitely a slowdown in the marketplace," said Samir Arora, Glam Media's CEO. "The public markets are in turmoil, that creates a cascading effect. Glam and Brash are definitely going to be affected." Glam Media and Brash are vertical content networks, focusing on the female and male audience, respectively.It's no wonder that Glam Media, which used ... [Read more]

Google ends search deal with Yahoo

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:04:00 -0800

That $47.5 billion deal sounds pretty good, right about now

Google has ended its ad partnership with Yahoo, a deal that would have given Yahoo $800 million in annual revenue. This after the companies failed to get support from the U.S. government. "It's clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement. Pressing ahead risked not only a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships ... [Read more]

Barack Obama, CEO of a new startup: America

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:53:00 -0800

This is a startup I'm excited to invest in

The numbers have been off, customer service is the pits and the strategy is unclear, so the board has decided to replace the CEO. No, it's not Twitter, it's America!However, I was on setfive Consulting's site, which monitored who the Twitter users were voting for. I watched as one state went from light blue to dark blue. In fact, overall, ... [Read more]

Tweets leaning toward blue on election day

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:27:00 -0800

Based on Twitter feeds, Obama is in the lead

First polls, then prediction markets, now Tweets. By the looks of this aggregation of Twitter feeds, it's pretty clear who the Twitter audience is voting for. At midnight, setfive Consulting launched its algorithms that parse the posts to Twitter to determine which were supporting Barack Obama or John McCain. As the states get darker red or blue, you can see ... [Read more]

How the U.S. election is playing out online

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:23:00 -0800

Polls and prediction markets show Barack Obama a clear winner

(This post will be updated periodically throughout the voting day. So be sure to check back. Last update: 4 pm)From FiveThirtyEight.com to Hubdub, it looks like the polls and prediction markets are forecasting the same thing: Come January 2009, we'll be referring to Barack Obama as Mr. President.On November 4, Americans (well, besides the ones who already voted from home) ... [Read more]

Is the sky falling on online advertising?

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:24:00 -0800

JP Morgan cuts online ad forecasts, Rubicon and Pubmatic Q3 reports show declines

When I opened my inbox this morning, one of the first emails I saw was the one from Imran Khan, Internet and media analyst at JP Morgan.Not surprisingly, it wasn't about the sky clearing. It was more like the sky was falling. Khan's headline: Further Economic Deterioration Drives Our Second Estimate Reduction in Two Months. Khan said in his piece: ... [Read more]

Guy Kawasaki on why Twitter is key to Alltop

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:45:00 -0800

Internet celeb, VC talks about his blog directory, the 'flywheel'

When you have 21,000 followers on Twitter, you've got a marketing engine that's pretty unique. It's no wonder Guy Kawasaki leverages Twitter to feed his new company Alltop, a news aggregator of 250-and-growing topics, from venture capital to mixed martial arts."It's the flywheel effect" with Twitter, said the indefatigable entrepreneur, investor and now author of a newly-published book, Reality Check. ... [Read more]

RockYou toasts to $17 mln amid gloom

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:12:00 -0800

Social app company raises money from Softbank Japan and SK Telecom

RockYou celebrated a new round of funding on the same day that Sequoia Capital, one of its backers, met with portfolio companies to advise them to batten down the hatches. You could imagine Lance Tokuda, co-founder and CEO of RockYou, saying something like this on that day in the Sequoia offices. "Hold on, let me put down this stogie. It ... [Read more]

What's Facebook's killer-app revenue model?

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:04:00 -0700

It'll need a proven, predictable business to secure more cash at its last valuation

If Facebook does go back to the well, it better have a killer-app revenue model if it wants to come close to maintaining half of its $15 billion valuation. Alternatively, finding petrodollars may work too. There's a lot of chatter today that Facebook has to raise additional funds, despite the fact that the popular social network raised half a billion ... [Read more]

In downturn, don't build, hoping they'll come

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:09:00 -0700

Glam Media CEO and former VC, Samir Arora, on fundraising during a downturn

Nearly one out of five mortgage borrowers in the U.S. owe more to lenders than their homes are worth, according to a recent report. That's probably the case with venture capitalists' portfolios. A good portion are worth a lot less than their original value.Given today's tough economic environment, I asked Glam Media CEO Samir Arora, who's an entrepreneur four times ... [Read more]

Demand Media is largest provider to YouTube

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:06:00 -0700

Steven Kydd, EVP of Demand Studios, talks about why YouTube partnership is key

Last night I had dinner with a few folks in San Francisco, including Steven Kydd, EVP of Demand Studios, the content crowd-sourcing arm of Demand Media.Demand Studios, which launched 9 months ago inside Demand, is a network of freelancers - from videographers to writers - that work a few hours a day to produce content. It's essentially the engine that ... [Read more]

Former MTV celeb Adam Curry on the new Mevio

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:02:00 -0700

Curry talks about new media programming and whether the ad downturn is affecting his company

I caught up with Adam Curry, former MTV celebrity, president and co-founder of Mevio (formerly PodShow), a new media entertainment network, which raised a total of $38 million and is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Sherpalo Ventures, DAG Ventures and Crosslink Capital. Adam and I were both at the Digital Hollywood conference in Santa Monica this ... [Read more]

The most shameless iPod and Mac knockoffs

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:16:00 -0700

Apple's innovative products attract copycats

The Most Shameless Apple Knockoffs - Get more Docstoc Buzz Thanks to Jason Nazar at Docstoc, I always get tipped off on the most interesting documents uploaded to the document-sharing site. Here's one about Apple knockoffs. The description is this: "Apple has been a mainstay in the tech industry for years, bucking the PC majority and offering inovative products. It's ... [Read more]

Celeb news going strong despite downturn

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:26:00 -0700

Buzznet CEO says user-gen site saw its best quarter yet

It must be that during a downturn, people turn to celeb news to live vicariously through stars. And, there's nothing like soaking up busted weddings, wardrobe malfunctions and sex tapes, when the world just doesn't feel right. Buzznet, a user-generated and edited site about musicians, and its Celebuzz property, a site that houses a number of bloggers, such as The ... [Read more]

Go faster on an uphill

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:58:00 -0700

Gain from adversity; Running lessons that can be applied to the startup marathon

"When you’re coming to a hill, most everyone slows down," said Jim Kollegger, NY-based venture capitalist at Genesys Partners. "Don’t slow down, maintain your pace. In fact, speed up. When you get to the top of the hill, you will have left them in the dust and you’ll have a big chance of beating your competitors." For anyone who's a ... [Read more]

Next-gen photo and content organizers

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:50:00 -0700

Guy Kawasaki is our guest host, evaluating TechStar's Occipital, Union Square Venture's Zemanta

This Vator Box is brought to you by Liquid Scenarios and Nearsoft. At some point, moving images - like the ones you see in the newspapers in Harry Potter movies - will be a reality. OK, maybe not in my lifetime. But artifical intelligence is already being applied to not only organize your photos in seconds, but to reconstruct 3D ... [Read more]

What's new media? NYTimes down, LinkedIn up

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:22:00 -0700

LinkedIn beefs up cash war chest, NYTimes running on fumes

Maybe it's the sign of the times, or a sign of the future. Classifieds, long a staple revenue for newspapers, continue to shift to the online players. For the New York Times, the gray of the Gray Lady is really showing. The New York Times on Thursday said it had weak classified advertising in September. Silicon Alley Insider suggested that ... [Read more]

Glam Media's CEO on why men now

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:35:00 -0700

Samir Arora on why a male demographic is good to go after, even in this economic slump

Now that Glam Media is widening its demographic net to include males, it may have to change its dominant fuchsia color scheme in its NY office. “We are just about to have the blue iris Brash purple/blue color added in places in the office,” said Samir Arora, CEO and first investor in the growing ad network. Samir, who said he’s ... [Read more]

Cash is king

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:04:00 -0700

Guy Kawasaki warns of VC's half-glass-full sentiment, and why FilmLoop failed while Slide succeeded

In the month of October, we've seen startups such as Zivity, Seesmic, Adbrite, Zillow, and hi5 reduce their headcount to stretch out their dollars. Meanwhile, venture capitalists have been quick to dish out gloom and doom. Venture capitalist Bill Gurley of Benchmark, and angel investor Ron Conway, and partners at Sequoia Capital (whose PPT is embedded below) have told their ... [Read more]

Twitter - I'm followed, therefore I am

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:15:00 -0700

CEO Jack Dorsey, who says Twitter captures the 'status of everything,' talks about monetization

(Note: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down in October. Many have said that Twitter needs to find a business model, hence the need for Jack to make room. I just spoke with John Borthwick, who is an investor in Twitter, through Twitter's acquisition of Summize. John thought it would be worth re-publishing and sharing this interview since in it, Jack ... [Read more]

Why a focus on profits is critical

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:15:00 -0700

Hi5 CEO Ramu Yalamanchi made money with seed round

(Note: hi5, a popular social network, is laying off 10% to 15% of its staff, according to reports. Here's an interview I did with Ramu this summer. It was first published on Jun 5, 2008. It's very appropriate given that hi5 has always been focused on the bottom line.) Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO of the social network hi5, executed on his ... [Read more]

VC investing falls for 2nd straight quarter

Bambi Francisco — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 12:05:00 -0700

Private investments fall 7% from last year, with sharp pullback in Web 2.0 startups

Just as investors have lost faith in public market investments, venture capitalists lack confidence in putting money to work at startups. In the third quarter, VCs invested $7.37 billion into 583 deals, down 7% from a year ago, when nearly $8 billion went into 673 deals, according to the Quarterly U.S. Venture Capital Report from Dow Jones VentureSource. The annual ... [Read more]

Zivity - You know it, when you see it

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:00:00 -0700

Zivity is Playboy meets MySpace meets American Idol

(Note: Zivity, the adult content site on Friday, Oct. 17, said it was cutting a third of its staff. Here's an interview I did with Cyan back on May 12.)Capturing the female body in an artistic form can be tricky. The subtlest of adjustments can move a piece from inspirational to offensive. The former attracts a female audience, the latter ... [Read more]

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey steps down

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:53:00 -0700

Evan Williams takes the helm of the popular micro-blogging site

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has stepped down from his role, to make room for Evan Williams. Twitter announced the news on its blog. Here's what Evan Williams said in his post:"Three years ago during my time as CEO of Odeo, I was lucky to be working with a software engineer Jack Dorsey who wasn't afraid to bring up an idea ... [Read more]

The Google/Web 2.0 value chain

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:48:26 -0700

Live by the Google, die by the Google

It's nasty times out there, we know. Investors lost $1.1 trillion in U.S. stock market value on Wednesday, the second day in history they lost more than $1 trillion. We are living through the worst financial crisis of our lifetime. From cratering stock-market wealth to tightening credit to people running into caves. It's not a pretty picture. But there's nothing ... [Read more]

The promise of mobile advertising

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:48:00 -0700

As Google is set to launch G1, Smaato's Harald Niedhardt talks about trends in ads on the go

Despite eBay's disappointing quarterly report, which was worse than expected due to economic conditions, the company's mobile traffic is skyrocketing. In August, eBay had 3.3 million unique visitors on mobile phones, up 65% from the prior year, according to Nielsen Mobile. On October 22, Google and T-Mobile are set to release G1, a handheld computer using Google's Android operating system ... [Read more]

TechStartup RIPs

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:53:00 -0700

Where you can find a running list of casualties

I've been through the dot-com bust and criticized a number of companies that went under. Now that I'm a CEO of a startup, I can say that it's a lot easier to criticize than it is to run a company. One of my favorite quotes is from Teddy Roosevelt, who said: "It's not the critic who counts, not the man who ... [Read more]

Brickfish turning users into brand marketers

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:15:00 -0700

CEO Brian Dunn says average engagement time better than 10 minutes

Brickfish is giving marketers the chance to promote their products early on in their life cycle, in some cases before those products are created, by letting their customers do it for them.CEO Brian Dunn used a recent campaign the startup did for leather and accessory maker Coach as an example of how it can serve corporate clients. Coach ran a ... [Read more]

Tatango launches voice blasts

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:24:57 -0700

Group messaging via voice

Tatango, the group messaging service that allows people to send blast text messages, announced that it will enable that same capability with voice. This means, anyone can use their mobile phone to record one message and send that message to a group. For anyone on group family and friend email lists, this is a nice service. For one, at times, ... [Read more]

News aggregators and music jamming sites

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:28:00 -0700

Esther Dyson helps us evaluate Socialmedian and Indaba

We've come a long way from getting the news dropped off at our doorsteps. Even though I still read the paper version of the Wall Street Journal, most of the news is coming from emerging aggregators, such as Alltop, Socialmedian and even Fark. These days, news is created by everyone and anyone with an online connection. It's not a surprise ... [Read more]

Despite ad downturn, Rubicon seeks to acquire

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:59:00 -0700

Frank Addante's ad company is 'potentially rolling up companies'

So far in October, several advertising firms, including Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest, WPP Group's Landor, Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day announced layoffs. The advertising industry typically gets hit hard during economic downturns. Yet despite downsizing at large ad agencies, one emerging startup advertising technology company is seeking to bring more people in through acquisitions. "We think there’s an opportunity to go and create ... [Read more]

Brad Feld: Don't make me say 'No' twice

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:28:00 -0700

When maybe means no, and no means absolutely not!

What's worse than getting rejected? It's being rejected by the same investor, over and over and over again. So, don't make them have to say no more than once. "Most entrepreneurs, when they hear that [rejection], they try to press on... and keep coming back for more," said Brad Feld, an early stage investor and co-founder of Foundry Group and ... [Read more]

What's appssavvy's value ad?

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:38:00 -0700

Appssavvy raises $3.1 million to fund new agency biz around apps

Appssavvy just raised $3.1 million to fund its social media agency business. Founder and CEO Chris Cunningham swung by the Vator.tv office to tell us about his service. Appssavvy has over 100 application companies signed on, with each company developing at least five applications, said Chris. Appssavvy isn't an advertising network, like Social Media and Lookery, he said. Appssavvy is ... [Read more]

Nurture the first few fans you have

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:15:00 -0700

Build your business by listening to your customers, rather than the VCs

Everyone's got an opinion. So, learning who to listen to and who to shut out is an ongoing challenge. But if you're going to listen to someone when it comes to your business, for goodness sake - listen to your customer. This is the lesson that Dan Beltramo learned at his startup Vizu. "When we first started our company, we ... [Read more]

TheKnot for diseases and a travel concierge

Bambi Francisco — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:35:00 -0700

Esther Dyson helps us evaluate Careflash and Yapta

In this episode, we look at health care and travel startups. Who better to look at startups in these industries than Esther Dyson, an angel investor in a number of startups in these areas. This week, we look at Careflash, which has a post-money valuation of $2.9 million, and Yapta, which is estimated by Liquid Scenarios to have a pre-money ... [Read more]

Esther Dyson bets $3 million on the moon

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:59:00 -0700

Tech luminary puts the 'space' in cyberspace

On October 20, Airship Ventures' zeppelin will arrive in Moffett Field. It's exciting news for everyone in the Bay Area, including Esther Dyson, an investor in Airship Ventures. Yet gliding in an airship is hardly an adventure when compared to rocketing into the stars and putting one foot on the moon. For $3 million, Esther is crossing her fingers that ... [Read more]

Twitter - America's political conscience

Bambi Francisco — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:26:00 -0700

Tweets provide the pulse of the elections

I started watching the debate at a bar in Oakland airport, as I waited for my flight to Las Vegas. Prior to the debate, it seemed many of the patrons expected a stunning gaffe out of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. “This is going to be a joke,” I heard one beer-drinking customer say to another. Turns out, she performed just ... [Read more]

Technorati on Google's blog search, Twitter

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:49:00 -0700

CEO Richard Jalichandra talks about improving blog search and making money

As Technorati - the pioneer in blog search - expands to focus on being an advertising network, Google is focusing on improving its blog search. Google this week launched a new blog home page so people can "browse and discover the most interesting stories in the blogosphere... Grouping them in clusters lets you see the best posts on a story ... [Read more]

BlogTV seeks to raise more funds

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:15:00 -0700

User-generated site's founder says adoption is surging

Oren Levy, founder and CTO of BlogTV, says that the company's site is focused exclusively on letting users broadcast their own video content live on the Web. The long tail may see fewer viewers of each video, but can make up for it by the sheer volume of content, according to Levy.Growth has picked up, Levy says, with 60,000 of ... [Read more]

Advertising in virtual worlds and video

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:37:00 -0700

Seasoned ad entrepreneur Frank Addante helps us evaluate Vivaty and Adap.tv

With the markets in a tizzy, consumers may very well want to spend more time in some virtual world to escape the madness. Or, they may forgo going to the movies and spend more time watching free online videos. In this Vator Box, we look at one virtual world provider, Vivaty, which is banking on branded advertising for some of ... [Read more]

Kyte's Mobile Producer now broadly available

Bambi Francisco — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:59:00 -0700

Video distribution and production platform is growing nicely

Kyte, which is trying to be a dominant video distributor and production platform, announced Tuesday that its Mobile Producer for Nokia S60 mobile phones is widely available to all publishers. The Mobile Producer had been in beta with some 900 users, from artists, independent bloggers to large branded news sites and entertainers, such as Huffington Post, 50 Cent, SPIN Magazine, ... [Read more]

Scott McNealy on breaking the rules

Bambi Francisco — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:36:00 -0700

Sun Microsystem co-founder and chairman shares his life and business lessons

Back in the 80's, Scott McNealy and Vinod Khosla founded a company called The Data Dump, which Scott told me was a "huge disaster." But as one idea failed, another took off. That other was Sun Microsystems. Together with Vinod, Andy Bechtolsheim, and Bil Joy, the foursome raised about $200,000 to start Sun Microsystems. Scott served as CEO from 1984 ... [Read more]

Ex-Googlers on angel investing

Bambi Francisco — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:53:00 -0700

What are these guys looking for as an investment?

David Lee and Pietro Dova are ex-Googlers who were fortunate to be at the search giant in the "early" days, when Google was worth well below its current market value of $140 billion. Today, they're part of a growing number of millionaires and full-time angels seeking to parlay their riches and expertise by investing in and advising startups. So far, ... [Read more]

Focusing on competition can lead you astray

Bambi Francisco — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:04:00 -0700

Rubicon Project's Addante on focus, selling aspirin and leading with your gut

If you've been successful raising a lot of money, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be a success running or building a company. That said, 31-year-old Frank Addante, founder and CEO of Rubicon Project, seems to have been pretty fortunate doing both. Since starting his first company - Starting Point, a search engine portal that became the 7th most popular Internet ... [Read more]