Tag: startups
Celebrate or Vilify Social Parasites
The relationships between organisms are categorized as symbiotic when species cooperate, and parasitic when one organism feeds off the energy, labor and life-force of another. Nature is not inclined to morally judge the tactics of life, the only law is survival and procreation. Over time ecosystem and environmental instabilities shift even the most successful life forms and relationships into chaos, rewarding only the most fit and fortunate with another sunrise. Parasitic organisms have survived for hundreds of millions of years, and there is little doubt that their presence plays a vital role in maintaining healthy ecosystems.
Sparking Community Growth with Algorithms
Today’s post is inspired by an entrepreneur’s request for relevance signals, metrics, and algorithms for an under served market his team is targeting. I’ll generalize the suggestions I sent by email in the hopes that they’ll improve from critical review and serve a broader audience.
What it’s Not is just as important as what it Is
Reputation is more valuable than Gold
Early this morning I shared a short conversation with talented hacker Laurent Eschenauer* about the recent announcement of Color going live and receiving $41 million dollars of investment.
$41m raised for a geo-fenced picture sharing iPhone application ? Hellooo ?? Why ?? I don't get it. http://j.mp/gLIQpB #colorblind
@eschnou
Laurent Eschenauer
@eschnou it makes sense, VCs like to pay a premium on options for experienced teams. Color has a successful group with a track record. #rep
@VictusFate
Mark Essel
The conversation continued… (more…)
Minimum Viable Market
Anyone have a TARDIS I can borrow
Planning a daytrip
A talented web slinging friend of mine (not Spiderman) is developing a slick social interest filtering platform. I met with founder Kevin Marshall a couple of weeks back to get the inside scoop on KnowAbout.it, a young project he and Will Cole have been working tirelessly on refining into a must have social utility. After an hour of walking and freezing, we finally found a spot in a bookstore in lower Manhattan.
Startup Strategies that Survive, Prosper, and Win
Cross Platform App Strategies Elevate Beyond Cannibalistic Platforms
A significant portion of new media and tech companies are founded on platform access to both people and their data. Early on in the startup’s existence developers are encouraged to build on top of an API by minimizing barriers to entry and granting a broad range of access. Over time the walls go up and access is reigned in. Ecosystem contributors scout out high value services within a particular platform’s broader market, and as is often the case in immature markets, the platform devours its most promising offspring. I compared two simple categories of business trajectories in March last year. (more…)
Best of Day News Filtering
In the quest for relevant knowledge we spend hours each week (or day) sifting through mountains of data in order to discover information critical to our success. Dozens of services specialize and survive by delivering relevant content.* There’s a thin line between brilliant success and obsolescent oblivion.
