Disqus - Latest Comments for Liako

Re: Goodbye, Palo Alto: TechCrunch Moves To San Francisco

Elias Bizannes — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:36:01 -0000

Welcome to the hood! You won't regret it.

Re: Don%26%238217%3Bt+Sell+Out%2C+Foursquare.+Not+Now.+Not+To%26nbsp%3BYahoo.

Elias Bizannes — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:12:41 -0000

You are spot on Mike.

1) The fact everyone is talking location AND game mechanics just shows what an impact Foursquare has had on the industry. Few companies achieve that: if you are bootstrapping a trend (let along two), then you have the potential to become a big business.

2) We need more startup's to go the IPO route. The old guard of tech companies are ridden by legacy. And the new ones led by Google, are dominating too much that it's not healthy.

I think Dennis knows what he's doing. The only real reason I would support him selling is if he is doing something unsustainable ie, something not legitimate to support the business like scrapping data illegally. Or, if he's done the numbers once the hype ends and realised there isn't money in being a directory service or whatever.

But there is no hack in foursquare like I've seen in other businesses and the monetisation opportunity is ridiculous that the board would have to be just stupid to not understand it. Location based advertising in the new adsense and foursquare is leading the pack.

Growing a big business is hard work. The real issue is if Dennis really has the patience to do that? And if he doesn't, he joins the rest of the industry's undisciplined entrepreneurs who sell out too early.

Or he could be smarter than we're giving him credit for: he's playing a game of perceptions to boost his perceived valuation, ready for his next fund-raising round. Game mechanics, anyone? :)

Re: The StartupBus: The True Story Of 12 Strangers Building Three Startups, Getting Real

Elias Bizannes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:15:35 -0000

(response to Bob's other comment because I can't reply directly for some reason).

Bob - he nailed it, by the fact Glenn understands, that the design of this program is at maximise the experience, not at building the next runaway startup.

The whole point of the auction, which is done based on Australian startup camp experiences, is to force an event. Otherwise, it creates IP issues. By forcing the team to put it up, they can exit or buy the stake of their co-founders. It's a clean way to help people move on.

48 hours + 2 weeks of executing is some value. To expect people can build real businesses in a situation like this, is pretty naive. This is a "startup" bus, not a "growth" bus.

Re: The StartupBus: The True Story Of 12 Strangers Building Three Startups, Getting Real

Elias Bizannes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:14:37 -0000

Glenn, you nailed it. That's exactly the point.

Re: The StartupBus: The True Story Of 12 Strangers Building Three Startups, Getting Real

Elias Bizannes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:05:53 -0000

Good feedback. Although I would argue more graphical designers. The product for web services is the experience, and nothing can do that better than a good visual design.

Re: The StartupBus: The True Story Of 12 Strangers Building Three Startups, Getting Real

Elias Bizannes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:32:01 -0000

Thanks for writing about this Leena.

I've given a bit more background on what this is on my personal blog: http://eliasbizannes.com/bl...

Re: A Little Perspective (Digg, Twitter, Facebook)

Elias Bizannes — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:33:57 -0000

I've was talking to a friend just yesterday who has been at Digg from the early days, and he was saying the same thing but with a different conclusion.

There's a lot less hype about them now which he says they note, but they actually are kicking arse and growing like crazy....with the forbidden fruit of revenue.

I'm sick of reading that user growth is what determines success for business. Trying to convert users into revenue is damn hard. It may be what the echo chamber thinks is success, but the reality is, it's those businesses focusing on revenue growth (which may mean a slow down or drop in user growth due to segmentation) that really are the winners in the long term.

Re: Twitter+And+Y+Combinator+Team+Up+For+Startup+Stream%26nbsp%3BAccess

Elias Bizannes — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:59:10 -0000

Twitter being called a protocol just scared the shit out of me.

Re: Let's Kill The CPM

Elias Bizannes — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:03:25 -0000

At my employer http://vast.com we deal with cost per thousand (CPM), cost per click, cost per lead, cost per sale, cost per action, cost per booking, and cost per membership. We collect this money from advertisers and pay our publishers like an ad network (or search engine, depending on which angle you view us).

The performance revenue types are dominating in our business whereas the CPM's are almost now a rounding error.

My point? No need for a movement because it will just die its natural death, in the face of better models. And in fact, it's a mistake to force the closure of a measurement system - CPM still can add value...just not from the advertiser's point of view any more.

Re: Memo to Start-ups: You’re Supposed to Be Changing the World, Remember?

Elias Bizannes — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:24:28 -0000

Really?

Just because it's not shiny, is loss making, and rides off the back off some buzz word invented by the tech blogs to maintain their readership - doesn't invalidate them as innovative businesses.

I don't want to be the guy that invented the wheel - I want to be the guy that innovated by adding another three wheels and a board.

And if you don't realise that, you are mistaking entrepreneurs with developers that love hacking.

Profitability on simple ideas might not be cool, but it's what creates sustainable innovation in the long run.

Re: About the bottom of your emails

Elias Bizannes — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:31:33 -0000

Added it - going to try it for a week :)

Re: On Data Portability

Elias Bizannes — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:24:07 -0000

Nice work

How about: "data can be useful for both humans and machines". Slight difference, but goes straight to the point of why.

Not sure about the others, but it's got me thinking.

By the way, you should check out the DataPortability Project's official vision and mission. We never formally defined the term for a reason, but it will help you on this topic nevertheless.

Re: Following the crowd on Twitter

Elias Bizannes — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:43:39 -0000

Great post mate.

Personally, I'm really split between whether I grow my following of people or cutting it to make it more usable. I'm leaning on the former because
- you can't track everyone and you don't need to. Think more about it being a conversation then and there, not anything else. If you happened to miss the river of conversation, no problem - it's a river and you can't catch every current. The water will still be there though.
- the technology will get better. Through grouping for example which is planned to be released and is already supported through various third-party apps now, I can follow people but in a more targeted way.

I think your summize search tactic is a brilliant approach. It's certainly a good technique to keep up with this exploding new form of communication.

Re: Latest+Facebook+Scam%3A+Phishers+Hit+Up+%26quot%3BFriends%26quot%3B+for%26nbsp%3BCash

Elias Bizannes — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:48:14 -0000

This happened to me the other day and the Australian media outlets have been contacting me for comment.

Have a read of the transcript (there is a pattern) and follow my advice if this ever happens to you

http://liako.biz/2009/01/ph...

I agree the only way to combat this is through awareness. It's not Facebooks fault, although my friend who had her account compromised tells me how frustrating Facebook was in settling the situation.

Re: I%26%23039%3Bm+Sorry+Robert%2C+But+It%26%23039%3Bs+Time+For+A+Friendfeed%26nbsp%3BIntervention

Elias Bizannes — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 05:47:55 -0000

Agreed. This post (through the comments, not the actual post) has made me remember what I like about Arrington. Funny man.

Re: On Joining Cuil

Elias Bizannes — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:35:35 -0000

And here I thought I was going to just see a new theme (which rocks by the way, been looking for a more elegant one like this).

Awesome awesome awesome on you joining Cuil - that's massive! I'm trying to head to the States for a month in March, we should catch up.

Re: On Joining Cuil

Elias Bizannes — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:35:35 -0000

And here I thought I was going to just see a new theme (which rocks by the way, been looking for a more elegant one like this).

Awesome awesome awesome on you joining Cuil - that's massive! I'm trying to head to the States for a month in March, we should catch up.

Re: TechMeme Gives Up On Fully Automated News

Elias Bizannes — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:50:40 -0000

The mass media does something great: it filters and aggregates.

So people thought a computer could fulfil the function. And to date, every startup I know that has attempted some form of this has failed. I don't wish to bring up any names because I am good friends with a half dozen of these companies, but if you sit down and think about it, it's pretty clear.

That is, computers still can't replace humans (and the closest we will ever get to that is when the semantic web comes to life in a few decades). I think the announcement with Gabe is consistent with what I think is reality.

Re: What is the DataPortability group going to deliver? - Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

Elias Bizannes — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:47:49 -0000

"best practice guidelines which organisations can sign up to."
- we tried that, got shot down, regrouped and evolving to a similar goal that is through advocacy rather than arrogantly asserting ourselves

A lot of work is the policy side which can be only evidence through conversation with those that do the work and research. Determining things like what constitutes user rights, or the 'right' guidelines, is a time consuming thing which we are making incremental progress.

We've currently got in prototype an open standards grid that effectively allows you to determine what standards and implementations companies support.

Several other things have been achieved internally, and we have other work in the pipeline - but with all of us having full time jobs, this is a hobby and the progress is slower than we all want :)

Re: Where are all the web entrepreneurs?

Elias Bizannes — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:24:32 -0000

Maybe the problem is so many online applications are just that - not true businesses. With my reckoning, there are only 5 Australian online companies I would call successful businesses.

But personally, I didn't even know the awards had opened, and hadn't seen anyone mention it on twitter (until now, right after you sent an e-mail broadcast).

Re: Exclusive Peek At Nrme: Location-Based Twitter, Without The Noise

Elias Bizannes — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:28:13 -0000

Twinkle is a popular iPhone app which allows you to look for tweeps within a user-defined radius in miles. Regular twitter + location scan + ability to take photos and tweet.

But on the above, looks interesting. A evolution of the concept of Twitter on society. I've always thought Twitter is more interesting because of the impact it has on communications rather than the particular technology implementation. The buzz of a decentralised twitter is missing the point - but the review above is an interesting development.

Re: Modeling+The+Real+Market+Value+Of+Social%26nbsp%3BNetworks

Elias Bizannes — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:19:44 -0000

Excellent analysis Michael. This is something I personally think about a lot, so I commend you for your analysis because it's brilliant.

And this is a comment from one of the authors of the PwC Entertainment and Media Outlook :)

Re: LiveBlog: What’s Wrong with the White Label Social Networking Industry?

Elias Bizannes — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:52:27 -0000

Recognise that data, by definition, is meaningless. It's an object. Further down the value chain of information[1], you get higher order "data" which is unique to the application that generated it.

By recognising a value chain for information, companies compete on different aspects in the chain which currently in the web economy are lumped as one - the generation of what a consumers interests are, where that data is stored, the application of those interests to a catalog of products - are all different functions that different companies provide.

So it's not so much about stealing unique information for a restaurant, as it is having access to it. That restaurant with the recipe doesn't lose anything by sharing your preferences, because it makes its money on the quality of the service - a different stage in the chain.

[1] http://liako.biz/2008/05/th...

Re: User Generated eCommerce / eCommerce 2.0 / We-Commerce

Elias Bizannes — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:54:18 -0000

I agree there will still need to be a centralised respository of your data. It could be Facebook, eBay, or your own blog. Whatever the case, once the standards are in place we should expect to be able to use our personal data like our cash. And just like how you can store your cash under your mattress, you are going to prefer to store it at a data bank where you can access it wherever you are like EFTPOS. Store it at a secure place you trust, and use it when you need to.

However recognise that whilst you may want to store it in the one place, you could store it in multiple banks ie, your purchases with eBay, your friends list and address book with Facebook, etc.

The point isn't so much on who stores it - but who can access it. DataPortability is about application interoperability. For a consumer to get the economic benefits over their data, they just need to be able to access it in another context.

Re: How to do data portability (Scripting News)

Elias Bizannes — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:05:49 -0000

With all due respect Dave, that's very much a developer attitude. Half of the people involved in the DataPortability Project have the exact same mindset. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I've had this discussion before and it goes in circles. Having said that though, I yearn for easy things as well because it gives us small wins and a sense of acomplishment, rather than our boil the ocean approach. Perhaps this is where you can take a leadership role in the industry on this issue?

FYI - whilst we are working on the 'this-hurts-my-brain' kind of stuff, Phil Wolff has attempted to start a DIY club with the 'hack of the month'. The first one was getting bloggers to incorporate the rel=me attribute on their blog rolls. Is this what you mean as the easy stuff? Because I honestly can't think of what else we can do that's easy.