Economy Beat And My First Interview

I made it to the Economy Beat talk today put on by Venture Beat and a few others. I'm glad I went for a few reasons. First of all, it was good to see some optimism in the valley since Sequoia's apocalyptic talk which got all the news last week.

The highlights:

John Doerr. This guy is a genius. If you haven't seen him speak or listened to any of his words of wisdom, look into it. At the end of the VC panel, he outlined 10 things an entrepreneur/CEO can do during this downturn (see list here).

Ron Conway. Another really bright investor. His words of wisdom for the current economy - renegotiate everything. Even your rent.

While the VC's were optimistic and claimed they still are investing in things - the seasoned entrepreneurs added some reality to the matter. They claimed that the VC's aren't investing like they used to. That they're only investing in their companies that show progress. VC's will always tell you what paints them in a good light. Take it with a grain of salt.

What I really liked about the entrepreneur panel, was seeing Max Levchin speak. Now if Doerr is a genius from VC, Max is an entrepreneurial genius. I didn't know much about him before this, besides that he co-founded PayPal and founded Slide. But he was engaging and incredibly inspiring. He moved to the US when he was 16, from Russia, to start companies. That in itself is pretty amazing.

Some words of wisdom from Max:
1) Hire employees that think challenges are interesting
2) Don't listen to anybody - be a contrarian
3) Be quiet publicly
4) It sucks to be the only founder

Words from Nirav Tolia (ePinions.com)
1) Running a lean company should be a mindset

Jason Calacanis (Mahalo)
1) Focus on product

Some additional words of wisdom that I can't attribute to anyone, because honestly, I can't remember who said it. Prepare yourself for refreshing your employee IQ. Basically, hire and pay people who bring high intellect to your company. Do what you can to make sure your star employees are happy and contributing. You'll have to constantly work to make sure this happens.

The biggest highlight though, was my first interview. Fast forward to the end of that video embedded above....and enjoy. Yea, it's not perfect, but cut me some slack, it was my first time on camera.

While I spoke a while back about doing less and spending more time on product, these high value talks have proven they're worth their weight in gold.

EconomyBeat: "How to manage your start-up in a downturn"

I think I owe you all a Vyoo post sometime soon. But first, here's an event I'll most likely be attending on Wednesday: EconomyBeat: "How to manage your start-up in a downturn". It looks promising, with a great lineup of speakers. John Doerr, Max Levchin, Ram Shriram, Ron Conway, and Matt Cohler, among others (here).

If you know me and you're interested in attending, send me a private email. There are a few tickets available for entrepreneurs at a discounted rate through BASES - The Business Association of Stanford (http://bases.stanford.edu/). Yes, I'm a Cal grad, but we're all entrepreneurs anyway. Also, you guys should join the BASES group on YouNoodle to stay up to date on worthwhile events - http://younoodle.com/groups/bases.

About the event, from BASES:
Start-ups will not be spared the effects of a recession, but what this means for entrepreneurs is an open question.

That's why VentureBeat has invited some of the most experienced and respected business leaders in Silicon Valley to debate the fallout and provide advice to start-up founders and executives about how to manage the mess we're in.

The event will take place at the Stanford Park Hotel between 8am-12pm on October 29th.

The format will be two roundtables, one for investors and one for entrepreneurs.

Speakers include

* John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins
* Ram Shriram, early investor in and founding board member at Google
* Max Levchin, Slide founder and PayPal co-founder
* Nirav Tolia, Epinions co-founder
* Matt Cohler, Benchmark Capital
* Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo
* Kittu Kolluri, New Enterprise Associates

Google Emoticons... Finally Here

You guys have probably already noticed this, but GMail finally unveiled their own emoticons recently. They're available by clicking the little face right above the space where you compose your messages. The same place where you change your font or bold whatever you're writing. I wondered when this would happen.

Yea, I'm 32, but I still like to use emoticons sometimes. Like when I'm acting like my usual sarcastic self - but not sure the other person is going to catch on. You know what I'm talking about...right?

I'd like to also say not to ever use these for business. The minute I get a resume or an inquiry and there's an emoticon in it, it's going in the trash can.

The Recession Special

I was out with some friends on Friday night, having a few drinks. Those few drinks turned into a few more when we came up with the idea that we needed a drink special during these tough economic times. It was to be called "The Recession Special".

We ordered it up from the bartender, not knowing what to expect. She came through with flying colors when she offered us up some well Bourbon shots. It was fitting. Bourbon reminds me of old times... and it's an all American whiskey. It makes me think about guys down in Kentucky and Tennessee, crushing grain into mash to make Bourbon during Prohibition. Along with moonshine of course. And those were the years leading up to the Great Depression. It all made perfect sense as we head down that same road.

So, hit your local watering hole and order up the Recession Special. If they don't know what it is, just tell 'em.

Brands 2.0

One of the interesting people I met last night was Jeffrey Tannenbaum, CEO of Brands 2.0. He's a veteran entrepreneur, having started several other companies already, along with some healthy exits. His new product is straightforward - image overlay advertising for your website. It's subtle, but potentially effective, both for content providers and marketers.

They provide an additional point of sale for websites, either big or small - just like AdSense. I'm in the process of adding this to my blog - to get a feel for it. I have a few hesitations about the service, but what the hell, it's worth a try.

So what are my questions/concerns? The issue over whether you have control over the types of advertisements show up in your photos? If you don't, it may seem like you're endorsing a product that you don't want to endorse. What if Starbuck's coffee show's up on an image and I'm a Peet's fan. Will I care? Maybe. It's probably more likely if I'm passionate about a product.

Or how about from an advertiser's perspective? What if your brand is being advertised on a website that doesn't necessarily support your point of view? When ads are shown in banners or along the side of a site, users understand that they're there as ads. When they are actually embedded within personal photos, as I mentioned above, it may seem like an endorsement.

Another issue is that it may inhibit the user experience. Having a website inundated with banner ads is bad enough, but now additional real estate is starting to be taken. When is the whitespace in your webpage going to be used for advertising? I'm sure people are working on that.

I'm also curious to learn about the CPM and CPC model they have - and how it relates to the rates AdSense provides for example. I'd think they should be higher since they're much more visible.

Now if this product's technology can handle those issues - then they may be onto something. For example, this could be a perfect solution to Facebook's monetization issue.

TheFunded's Event Connect at Tesla Motors

I attended TheFunded.com's Event Connect last night at Tesla Motors. It was an event for Bay Area CEO's to meet, greet, eat, drink, and test drive Tesla cars. The quality of CEO's was great - so the networking was actually of value.

Unfortunately I didn't get to test drive the Tesla. There were too many people waiting in line and I had a bit too much to drink as the night wore on.

TheFunded, whom I've written about before, is a website for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. It's our take on VC's. Our experiences and most importantly, our opinions. It's an anonymous site that really lets you bring it to those VC's that make you feel like shit when you pitch. And man, we all know that stepping outside some of those meetings, all you want to do is vent. Well, you can.

It's a bit of a challenge to get membership. You need to be a legit CEO which they do a background check on. So you need a website and your bio up there. And no VC's allowed - which let's us be much more honest.

There were a few products that I learned about last night that I thought I'd pass along. But I'll give them the decency of their own post.

Get It In Writing! A Handshake Isn't What It Used to Be

This post is more of a lead-in to a post about selfishness that I've been thinking about for a few weeks now. I've just had a hard time putting it into a post - because I have so many thoughts on the matter.

What prompts this post? Well, I've recently received an expensive lesson in time and energy. Why? Because I didn't have the details of the relationship worked out, in writing, in advance. I've always operated under the assumption that honesty begets honesty. A cyclical process. As I've moved forward with Vyoo, I was told many times to get everything in writing. But, naively, I operated under the guise of trusting other good intentioned people. Bad idea! Always get things in writing!

I've been helping a company with their sales here in the States. A company that I've developed a great relationship with over the past year. I like the founders. Great people. I've met with them quite a bit and discussed how they could operate here in the States. We had initially talked about putting me on retainer along with sales commissions for any work I sent their way in addition to meeting with potential clients. Yes, this detracted from my work at Vyoo - but something has to pay the bills. And bartending, GMAT tutoring, and selling cars (which has all but ended) just weren't cutting it.

Fast forward. I pushed a project through recently. And we hadn't discussed referral fees up to that point. Several weeks after the project started - I brought this up. My contact pushed this out because they were busy. Pushed it out for several months, which I thought was a bit strange to say the least. The project was recently finished and the customer intends to initiate another few projects. Still no deal on the fee structure.

We had a chat last week - and the details were finally sent to me in the last couple of days. They want to future date all fees. Future date? The project is done. There may not be any future projects? The economy is in tatters here.

It seemed strange. I'm in the process of a discussion about this so things may resolve themselves. But I'm not optimistic. At this point, it's really become more a matter of principal and not about the money. I have to say, I'm really surprised by their actions - or really, their inactions.

The real lesson - No matter how great people are, how trusting your relationship is with someone, or how you think people will act or respond. Think again. Everyone, in business, is in it for themselves.