Gawker
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geocities
The Billion-Dollar Blackhole of Social Media
Will anyone miss GeoCities, the antiquated homepage service Yahoo bought for $3.5 billion in 1999, and then left to rot? Venture capitalist Fred Wilson will — he hasn't seen that kind of payday in ages. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by johnnypotatoes: Owen, I may be overreacting to what is just a personal peeve, but I'm also right, and you do this... 10 Responses | Other threads
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forecasts
At Twitter, Tomorrow Never Dies
Twitter CEO Ev Williams is teasing his followers: "Tomorrow just became a very big day." Just? At Twitter, tomorrow is always a very big day. More »
4,054
By Owen ThomasComment by Armand Der-hacobian: Twitter is the best technology platform out there, period. It is constantly evolving which is the true mark of a... 2 Responses | Other threads
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schemes
Everyone's Making Money on Twitter Except Twitter
There's gold in them thar tweets! Twitter gives away its broadcast service for free, but it has attracted all kinds of moneymaking schemes. Now the startup wants in on the action. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Lizstless: But Owen, the answer's sitting right in front of you. Why does the search engine have to be free? They... more » | Other threads
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exits
Ev Williams didn't Twitter that he fired his CEO
The good news: Jack Dorsey, the handsome programmer ousted as Twitter's CEO yesterday, can put his nose ring back in and stop seeing that CEO coach he hired. The bad news: His cofounder, Ev Williams, who's replacing him as CEO, is sugarcoating Dorsey's exit. Dorsey is not going to be working in Twitter's office, and his coworkers are saying their tearful goodbyes; he's effectively out of the company, though he retains the title of chairman and what is presumably a large stake in the messaging startup. So why did Dorsey get fired? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by meowmeow: That's just good business sense -- Twitter, with its impeccable uptime, would have been a great tool for reliability-critical ambulances. more » | Other threads
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quotable
There is no VC conspiracy, says VC Fred Wilson
"This is not some coordinated cynical attempt by VCs to talk down valuations or put entrepreneurs on the defensive. We are not spreading the contagion of gloom and doom. It's all about acting responsibly and making sure we all survive to fight another day. Because in the end, survival is what darwinian capitalism is all about." — Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson, on Sequoia Capital's conveniently timed warning of bad times ahead.
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By Owen ThomasComment by TheRealTruth: So the sad reality is that these VC that are telling their portfolio companies to conserve cash, should have been... 4 Responses | Other threads
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fred wilson
New York Times discovers a venture capitalist
Fred Wilson's venture-capital firm, the paper of record tells us, "has built its portfolio making small bets on young companies." That is an excellent definition of early-stage venture capital. But is Wilson, of Union Square Ventures, to be congratulated with a glowing New York Times profile merely for doing his job? Apparently so. The real thing that distinguishes Wilson from his peers are not his practices or his profits; it is his prolixity. Wilson writes a blog read by some 25,000 people a month. Newspaper reporters can relate to him as a wordsmith rather than a financier. Also, he is in New York, which makes him geographically convenient for the media capital. The news event which prompted this profile? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by FarfallaGebian: Man, I was going to call out @TRTeller for being useless but THE fredwilson did it for me. USV has... more » | Other threads
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spy photos
Venture capitalists, they're just like us
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures carrying his own lunch order from Shake Shack in Manhattan's Madison Square to a group of tables where he was entertaining wantrepreneurs in New York for the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo. Not pictured: Lane Becker, president of online customer-service startup Get Satisfaction, who kept his distance from the assembled nerds, pacing around a tree and chatting on his cell phone.
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By Jackson WestComment by kimbjo: Where is this ass kissing coming from VW? Try as they might, we all know VC's are the rubber neck... more » | Other threads
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layoffs
Laid-off Wall Street techs offered work at Silicon Alley startups
Buy low, sell high, as they say on Wall Street. And right now, there's a flow tide of technical talent from shuttered financial firms flooding the New York Area available at rock-bottom prices. Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures says why not take a pay cut and work longer hours at a Web startup? The "quant jocks" Wilson describes could also bank their savings and some unemployment checks and spend six months pitching a business plan — I bet they could convince Wilson to throw some money your way. The entrepreneurial route worked for former finance techie Jeff Bezos, an early adopter who worked at a hedge fund before hedge funds were cool. First Round Capital has a list of jobs in and around New York for those who would rather continue collecting a paycheck. Though the fund did sneak in email startup Xobni, which is on the left coast. "[H]ey, why not consider a move. The weather is better and winter is coming!!!" That said, so is Julia Allison. (Photo by AP/Mary Altaffer) -
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zemanta
Fred Wilson amplifies tech's echo chamber
Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson has given European startup Zemanta another $750,000, raising the young company's total to $2.25 million in early funding. What does Zemanta do? They've created a set of browser and blogging software plugins that automagically suggest and quickly adds "relevant" links to your blog posts, which Wilson has described as like "AdWords for content creators." My prediction? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by posna: I tried this service a few weeks ago... It seems to be pretty simple in terms of functionality. Kind of like... more » | Other threads
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fred wilson
Assume Twitter has four or five plans to make money
New York venture capitalist Fred Wilson is sick of answering questions about how his firm's most notable investment, Twitter, will ever make money. "The No. 1 question I get about Twitter is, how do you monetize it?" Wilson told the Deal's Alain Sherter. He continued: More »
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Comment by Lawrence: enough bickering about how to monetize Twitter and slap a Google Adsense bar there already, or something - just in... 4 Responses | Other threads
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fred wilson
VC Fred Wilson doesn't think you're cheap, just an asset
Doing nothing to turn the tide back in favor of all those kooky startup incubator kids, Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson offers this on why funding young wantrepreneurs is just good sense to him: More » -
pranks
Tech's most awkward prank: the singing telegram
Why do so many people in tech deliver singing telegrams? Because they're so painful. My colleague Jackson West ventured this explanation: "Tech people are uncomfortable enough in the real world — raising the discomfort level and then blogging it for laffs provides a tail-eating narcissistic kick." Plus, it's a passive-aggressive sadism that can be documented in video and posted online. In the clips below, watch singing telegrams get delivered to prominent New York VC Fred Wilson, Yahoo ad exec Mike Walrath, and NextNewNetworks cofounder Timothy Shea. Watch and feel the heat rising on the back of your neck. More »
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Comment by raincoaster: I can top that: a friend of mine was out at a restaurant when a bachelorette party there got a... more » | Other threads
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social networks
Calacanis, Scoble, Arrington pawns in FriendFeed's smart marketing campaign
Egobloggers Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble as well as startup PR clearinghouse Michael Arrington all want to know: How amazing is it that after two years of using Twitter, they've each already got nearly half as many "followers" on FriendFeed after just a few months? Asking the question, each offer hypothetical answers involving the social-network aggregator's ease of use — "The comment systems is so fast and easy that it's perfect," says Calacanis — or Twitter's frequent outages — "Twitter downtime plays a big part," writes Arrington. But here's the real answer to the amazing growth these bloggers have seen on FriendFeed: More »
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Comment by Mr. Gunn: giania: So, some people have different groups of friends on different sites, and FF provides a way to follow all... more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Will Flickr cofounders make a run for the border, or head for the Big Apple?
Now that Caterina Fake has left Yahoo and Stewart Butterfield has tendered his abstract resignation letter, what will the widely beloved Flickr cofounders do? And where will they go? Brendon Wilson, who worked in the Valley himself before returning to his native Canada, pointed us to an effort by a group of geeks to convince Fake and Butterfield to come back to Vancouver, British Columbia, where Flickr was launched. The welcome wagon even turned out a video slideshow of Flickr photos to remind the couple just how beautiful the city can be. Look, a rainbow! And it may just be working — last night, Butterfield added himself to the Bring Stewart and Caterina Home! group on Facebook. Fake may have other plans, though. More » -
silicon valley users guide
How not to become a VC
Union Square Ventures backs growing startups like Twitter, Tumblr and Etsy and can claim successful exits from Del.icio.us, FeedBurner and Tacoda. All that success could make partner Fred Wilson's career a model for any aspiring VC. It shouldn't. At least, not according to Wilson. "I did it all wrong and got lucky," Wilson writes in post explaining how he got into the business. Wilson landed his first VC gig as an associate out of Wharton. By his reckoning, "for the next 10 years I kind of stumbled around the venture capital business." He couldn't find a sector to call his own until "I got lucky. The Internet came along. I didn't know anything about the business of the Internet. But then nobody else did either." More »
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Comment by Blackjack: Why shouldn't people try to be lucky like him, and look for a niche the Freds of the world aren't... more » | Other threads
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twitter
Despite reports, Twitter funding not done
GigaOm reports: that Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams "reached an agreement with investors today to raise $15 million in funding at around $80 million pre-money valuation. "It's not true," a VC involved in the deal tells us. "Nothing is done." Silicon Alley Insider's sources concur. -
twitter
Why VCs love Twitter's downtime problems
Last we heard about microblogging service Twitter's latest funding round, Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger told us — and, via Twitter, the world — that he was taking a lunch meeting at Twitter HQ. That was April 25. Despite rumors of an imminent deal, there's been no announcement. So why can't Wenger and his USV partner Fred Wilson close the deal? One theory: an unexpected bidding war over a service that grows more mainstream every day. A source familiar with this type of funding situation explains: "You know that thing about failure is an orphan, success has a million dads? VCs want to buy the right to say Twitter was theirs." And for this crowd, Twitter's downtime problems are a bonus. More »
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Comment by Nicholas Carlson: @ThatKid: Om jumped the gun: [valleywag.com] more » | Other threads
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venture capital
10 VC predictions from the Churchill Club
Yahoo, CNET, and Plaxo are old news, according to VC blogger Fred Wilson. He writes: "I suggest you ignore all of that and focus on what went on last night in San Jose at the annual Churchill Club Dinner," where venture capitalists Roger McNamee, Steve Jurvetson, Josh Kopelman and others predicted ten upcoming trends. VentureBeat took copious notes. We've trimmed them down to suit a VC's attention span: More »
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Comment by j-c: now can we get finally get more mobile news and less web2 on this site? more » | Other threads
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venture capital
Sequoia's Michael Moritz: VCs need to stop with the "hot air and arrogance"
After reading our take on VC blogger Fred Wilson's advice that entrepreneurs need to learn how to "ask for the order," Persai cofounder Ted Dziuba commented: "Methinks Fred Wilson doth blog too much." We disagree, if only because Wilson is such a fruitful source. But at a venture capital conference in San Francisco last week, Sequoia Capital's Michael Moritz seemed to second the notion. "There's a lot of hot air and arrogance in the business that we all would be better off without," Moritz told the conference crowd. Moritz said he disapproved of "useless pontificating in front of entrepreneurs working harder than we are." Kleiner Perkins VC John Doerr concurred: "At Kleiner, we're trying to watch our language." This from the guy who said the Internet was underhyped — and then invested in Friendster. (Photo by b_d_solis)
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Comment by SandHillSnobbery: Great and convenient! Mortiz can start right down the hall by telling his boys at Sequoia to stop acting like... more » | Other threads
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silicon valley users guide
VC advice: The best way to ask for money is to actually ask for money
After reading a long email from a wantrepreneur who never gets around to asking for funding, VC blogger Fred Wilson relays the following advice from a friend on how to close a deal:The best advice my old man gave, and the advice he drilled most emphatically and repeatedly was, ASK FOR THE ORDER. You'd be amazed how many people talk to customers forever and never actually say ask for the order.
Fellow VC blogger and Half.com founder Josh Kopelman, advises, however, that "the way you ask is just as important as asking." Kopelman's anecdotal advice in 100 words: More »
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Comment by raincoaster: @Peteski: Hipsters can't punctuate: when you realize it's actually, "Don't forget to tip fuckers" it becomes much more ignorable. more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Viacom offers $10 million to buy music blog aggregator Hype Machine?
A tipster tells us Hype Machine founder Anthony Volodkin has a "$10 million Viacom offer floating around." Hype Machine, a website which aggregates music uploaded to blogs, has grown 125 percent in the last year, with 127,000 monthly visitors, according to Compete.com. Another source familiar with Volodkin's plans for Hype Machine can't confirm Viacom's offer, but said an acquisition would be the next logical step. Volodkin has been very careful to avoid taking venture capital, "despite VCs going hard after him," this second source tells us. Update: A third source says Hype Machine has been sold, but not for $10 million and not to Viacom. Whoever the buyer is, the sale rumor, if true, captures a frustrating state of affairs for technology's financiers. More » -
freemium
How hipster trustafarians will pay Tumblr's bills
If scenesters from Brooklyn to San Francisco's Mission District want to have Tumblr cool-kid bragging rights, they'll have to pay, founder David Karp has decided. Why has Karp finally set his unflinching blue eyes on Tumblr's bottom line? His hosting bills must be starting to pinch. He'll begin peddling paid Tumblr Pro accounts later this year. Flickr, which just added video for its pro members only, charges $25 a year for extra storage, but Karp tell us he hasn't figure out how much to charge his users just yet. What will Tumblr "Pros" get for their money? Karp says he's got "more than 10 features in the queue" including a tool that allows readers to submit content, more customizable themes and special page layouts. Check out screenshots of the new features below, and then wonder with us: Are they enough for ego-tumbling millennials to agree to pay Karp's fee? More » -
acquisitions
Report: Microsoft acquires Outlook plugin maker Xobni
Microsoft has acquired Xobni, likely for more than its original $20 million offer to buy the company, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington reports. Xobni — "inbox" spelled backward — adds features to Outlook, Microsoft's desktop email application. As VC blogger Fred Wilson notes, the acquisition is "sort of proof that Microsoft doesn't know how to improve its own software. So they buy those that do." If Arrington's report proves more accurate than previous rumors of a sale, Xobni CEO Jeff Bonforte would join Microsoft well before his former colleagues at Yahoo, where Bonforte worked just long enough to be paid to leave.
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Comment by Chad Jamian Williams: Through GTD I found Outlook Track-It, which sends followup email reminders. It's a plugin that I've used for business. Personal... more » | Other threads
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venture capital
Fred Wilson breaks up Yahoo
While Yahoo's board dithers over whom to sell the company's soul to, VC blogger Fred Wilson has a different plan in mind. "Yahoo should reject the offer and what they should do instead is break up the company into a series of smaller companies," he told TechTicker in the interview excerpted here. Yahoo's entertainment sites could be one spinoff; its HotJobs website another, he says. Left unsaid: A broken-up Yahoo would mean more buyers for the small startups Wilson backs.
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Comment by sggrf: Neither site, flickr or delicious have a revenue model. someone's in dreamland more » | Other threads
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venture capital
Fred Wilson: Time to stop spending money
Venture capitalist and blogger Fred Wilson reports that "there is no IPO market right now for venture backed companies to speak of. M&A buyers are wary and while deals are getting done, a lot of deals are blowing up too." Deepak Kamra, a partner at Canaan Partners, suggests the freeze means "Companies that are built on having lots of users but no real revenues won't last." Wilson disagrees. More »
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Comment by categorically: Shit, these things are suppose to make money, not spend it? Why did you tell us this now after... more » | Other threads
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silicon valley users guide
How to work during vacation — the 100-word version
Vacations are for Middle America. But for some reason, VC blogger Fred Wilson's family still expects him to take them away from time to time. Here's how he copes, in a version you can read while packing your suitcase. More » -
social networks
MySpace platform less annoying, less effective than Facebook's
Looking after his investment in online gamemaker Zynga, VC blogger Fred Wilson reports that applications on MySpace's platform "are not taking off in quite the same velocity that Facebook apps did." He blames MySpace's lack of "viral channels" — code for spamming tools.You can't invite via MySpace.You can't notify via MySpace. So these apps are spreading by less effective means than the Facebook apps did.
WIlson's screenshots of the top 10 apps and their stats in MySpace versus Facebook, below. More »
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Comment by Fidel on the Roof: @tokenfemale: Don't forget the built-in vw bias on that comparison. more » | Other threads
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venture capital
How to fill board seats with more than just warm bodies
Here are VC blogger and self-described "professional board member" Fred Wilson's "Thoughts On Choosing Board Members." But take his advice with a shaker of Morton's, founders. VC-selected board members will put you on the street. More » -
nerdfight
Fred Wilson vs. Michael Arrington, the 140-character version
Venture capitalist Fred Wilson has lashed out at TechCrunch over its coverage of some startup you've never heard of. TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington responded by accusing Wilson of being biased. I'd summarize the whole spat for you, but Wilson's and Arrington's Twitters have done the job already.
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By Owen ThomasComment by michaellamb: It baffles me why Arrington continuously sticks the middle finger at the silicon valley community. I can't figure out if... more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
Yahoo's 5 dead-end escape routes
VC blogger Fred Wilson argues that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger will be bad for users and for the Internet as a whole. "If you think about the Internet, it's a huge distributed network of loosely connected services owned and operated by literally millions. We don't need or want consolidation of services on the Internet," Wilson writes. But you know who the Microsoft-Yahoo deal is even worse news for? The incompetent executives who landed Yahoo in this pickle in the first place. They're ferociously spinning gullible reporters with rescue fantasies. Here are the five most widespread rumors — and why they're unlikely to happen. More » -
yahoo
How Jerry Yang can escape Ballmer's sweaty embrace
Union Square Ventures VC and blogger Fred Wilson doesn't think Yahoo would survive a Microsoft acquisition. "I suspect that many of Yahoo!'s best services will languish under Microsoft's ownership and that users will leave," Wilson writes on his blog. "It's happening already under Yahoo's ownership to services like Flickr and Del.icio.us and MyBlogLog. It will be worse under Microsoft's ownership." Here's how he thinks Yang and Yahoo can wriggle out of Big Daddy Ballmer's bear hug. More »
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Comment by john riccardi: @alaska miller: Google was an infant in those days. It might not have grown up into what it is... more » | Other threads
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quotable
"Thinking about Jerry taking that call from Ballmer. I think I would have puked." — Union Square Ventures VC and blogger Fred Wilson on Microsoft's bid for Yahoo. [A VC] -
quotable
"There has been a real 'de-risking' of the market, which will certainly affect the I.P.O. market. That will impact the late-stage venture market, because the IPO market drives the late-stage venture market. And that will slowly impact the early-stage venture market. Valuations will come down. There will be less exuberance about venture capital investments. What will probably take place is a flight to quality. Venture capitalists will want to invest more in the companies that look like they're going to be successful and be a little less willing to take fliers on things that are hard to really handicap. If the financing environment changes, we'll try to take advantage of that and invest in companies at lower valuations than we would otherwise be paying." — Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson, on the broader market's effect on the VC world. [Portfolio.com] -
rumormonger
Twitter CEO "looking forward to a big week"
Why is Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, "looking forward to a big week"? It could be that Twitter investor Fred Wilson is in town. Always exciting to have a board member around. But more likely, Dorsey is anticipating tomorrow's keynote, where Apple is expected to announce a built-in Twitter app for the iPhone. -
mysteries
Fred Wilson praises Loic Le Meur's startup — but will he invest?
Why is entrepreneur Loic Le Meur grinning from ear to ear? VC Fred Wilson declares that he's getting addicted to the "video Twittering" provided by Seesmic, Le Meur's new startup. But it's not clear that Wilson's going to put his money where his mouth is. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by ashkan: I'm no expert, but Fred's not dumb. He knows a lot of folks in the VC space are riding... more » | Other threads
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lists
The Web's top 10 top 10 lists
Why all the lists heading into 2008? Well, laziness. That, and the urge to reflect on the year gone by. No, mostly laziness. And in that spirit, we present you Valleywag's top 10 list of top 10 lists. Oh yeah — our lazy, it's meta. More » -
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Comment by Figaro: From what I've read, they have over 700 employees! Their burn is totally insane. They think they're Google. They'll get a wakeup... more » | Other threads
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100-word version
Fred Wilson to TheFunded's Adeo Ressi: We're not that great
VC blogger Fred Wilson isn't pleased with his firm's position on VC ratings site TheFunded.com. Specifically, Wilson doesn't think Union Square Ventures should be ranked so high. "I am flattered by it to some degree," Wilson writes on his blog. "But it bothers me." Here's 100-word version of how Wilson would fix TheFunded. More »
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Comment by UncleSalty: Subtle way for Fred Wilson to beat his chest and point out to everyone that he was listed as number... more » | Other threads
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venture capital
Fred Wilson doesn't just ride his founders hard
Silicon Alley Insider posted this shot, taken at Curbed's holiday party last night in New York. Sure, Wilson puts a kind, fatherly face on his blog. But as it would be with any VC worth his limited partners' salt, we're sure more than a few of Wilson's fundees have felt like that bull from time to time. Yeehaw!
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Comment by Owen Thomas: @fredwilson: In retrospect, all bull rides are kind of pathetic, aren't they? more » | Other threads
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venture capital
Ventureblogger Fred Wilson is selling his iPhone because he can't unlock it. It is "driving [him] crazy sitting in the box it came in." He started the bidding at $250, but it is up to $375 for a straight purchase or $500 (half for charity) for one enterprising Dutch guy who wants Fred to read his pitch. [A VC]
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Fri Jul 10
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