Disqus - Friends of blondishnet

Re: Hungry? Starving? Full? Whats the Difference?

Micah Baldwin — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:06:56 -0000

I hate the non-flavor of water. But its a good idea. I have been drinking coffee, which seems to work for awhile, until I fall asleep in the afternoon.

Re: 299: At Least Im Under 300 For Three Weeks…

Micah Baldwin — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:07:45 -0000

I am using weightwatchers.com. They have some great tools. Thanks for the wish of good luck!

Re: Hungry? Starving? Full? Whats the Difference?

Micah Baldwin — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:51:16 -0000

they dont taste nasty?

Re: StartupWeekend: 70 Founders Create Company In One Weekend

Micah Baldwin — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 04:13:05 -0000

Sometimes its just the process. Sometimes its the baking, not the selling of the cake. Sometimes, its ok to just do something.

To understand it, experience it. Go do a startupweekend. Its free, can be done with any amount of people, and the end goal can be anything. There is no barrier to entry. There is no reason to not do it in your neck of the woods. Get out from behind your keyboards and blogs, and go do it.

At the end of the day, its an experience. Which, by definition, is always great for some, mediocre for some, and sucks for others. And will always be critiqued, positively and negatively, by outsiders.

Plus, everyone who was not there, but wanted to share in the experience in some way shape or form, was given the opportunity through the live feed and blogs. And, all feedback was read and evaluated. In the spirit of startupweekend, if you are wanting to have one in your town, Im sure the participants would be happy to discuss what they thought went well and what could have been done better.

Talk from experience about experience. At the end of the day, if you feel like you missed out, then go do it your way. We did it our way, and not one person walked out disappointed in the experience. Its 2am Monday morning, I have to get up in 4 hours for work, and I am still thinking about the people I met (not the company we built) in last 3 days. How many times in one's life is that true?

Re: 293.4: Nice Comeback

Micah Baldwin — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 19:05:01 -0000

Thanks Kath. No undo pressure! :) Please let me know your progress as well, I need some return inspiration! I have slipped a bit in the last week or so, will post on Monday where I am now...

Re: Setting the record straight

Micah Baldwin — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 04:32:51 -0000

My lesson on phone interviews continues to "follow" me around. In 2003, I had a 45min phone interview with a Fast Company reporter, who misquoted me. That quote, which was nowhere near what I really felt, was indexed in Google for my name, which when building a search agency was searched enough, making the quote a bit embarrassing.
It would be hard to imagine that you would have your level of involvement in the local tech community if you didnt think programs like TechStars had intrinsic value.
When reading each article/post, the message I got was that YC/TS should be viewed as no more than what they are a "hyper kick-start," not a guarentee of success.

Re: What Was Your First Computer?

Micah Baldwin — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:02:01 -0000

Trash-80 with no floppy drive. Then my dad got an Osbourne (later upgraded to a 286), an original mac (still at my parents house, thinking about making an aquarium out of it), and a couple other home brewed machines. When I went to college, I had an amber screen that was etched to reduce glare, and I got yelled at every time I touched it (for fear of leaving oily prints). To this day, I dont touch my computer monitors.

First language I learned to program in was LOGO...

Re: Thoughts on Startup Weekend and Boulder

Micah Baldwin — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:34:51 -0000

I think its the state of the true entrepeneur, where the ultimate belief is in his ability to achieve, regardless of current roadblocks. That the next thing is the right thing, and figuring it out is the best thing. Lets call it a state of "confident optimism." One just has to realize that state must be ephemeral. Sometimes its the doing thats the challenge, not the thinking.

Nice work! When you can create an event that fundementally changes 4 peoples lives for the better, you have created something positive.

Re: 20 Reasons I’m Happy with the iPhone

Micah Baldwin — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 09:20:51 -0000

Mostly, it just damn easy and enjoyable to use. I find myself surfing the web and looking at my photos just because...

Of course #8 is the killer app of the phone for me.

Re: First TechStars Company Launches: MadKast

Micah Baldwin — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 11:38:04 -0000

@TechDumpster

One, I certainly agree to the usefulness of the application. But I also think your revenue modeling is a bit shortsighted. As the product stands now, the easiest route to revenue is through contextual advertising.

But, there are clearly other revenue opportunities:

1) they have stated a desire to launch an analytics suite;
2) I would imagine a pro version;
3) and I imagine a couple other product based revenue streams,

But what your assumptions dont take into account is the power of the data that madkast is collecting: 1) what posts are shared; 2) who is sharing those posts; and 3) the ability to understand either in aggregate or specifically the blogs I read, and the posts I think are interesting.

In these cases, it seems that a integration of madkast into weblogsinc, blogads, or any of the other blog ad systems, will cause CPM rates to shoot up, and create value both for the advertiser and the publisher.

FWIW, I always enjoy reading the posts associated with a newly launched company because there are always critics that look to poke holes in anything new.

When its done with thought and lack of malice; when the purpose of the critique is to provide a path to improvement, the critique becomes welcome, but if the analysis lacks vision or even the willingness to think about how a company could be successful, the critic's voice gets lost in the babel of lack of thought.

Re: 292.6: Up But In An Okay Way

Micah Baldwin — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 15:13:34 -0000

Thanks. Im looking forward to climbing that 14teener!

Re: So You Wanna be a Startup…

Micah Baldwin — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:56:59 -0000

@Eric

you should contact Andrew Hyde at www.startupweekend.com and get a weekend launched in Minnesota. You might be surprised to see how strong the community is...

@Tara

As for lunch, Mike is a funny dude. It will be quite interesting to see him and Todd interact...

Re: Intense Debate Soups Up Your Blog Comments | TechCrunch

Micah Baldwin — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:08:09 -0000

I am pretty new to the blogging world, and one of the things that I keep reading about is how blogs are supposed to be conversations. In truth, most blogs are reminiscent of standing on a cliff and yelling your thoughts into the coming wind.

Comments are what create the conversation. What I like about Intense Debate is that they encourage conversation since it is almost like Twitter/IM in that you can reply to a specific comment or post in a threaded format. For a site like TechCrunch or any content driven publisher, so often the conversation continues long after the blog post itself has gone stale.

Add that to the ability to track specific people, I really see ID becoming a way to help drive traffic to my blog. People want to know where the top bloggers are commenting, etc.

The data that can be collected about what type of people are reading/interacting with your blog can be invaluable for marketers (yes, I am a dirty marketer).

And, for now at least, its not bad that they are in startup mode, so when I needed help get ID running correctly on my blog, the ID team was there at 1am to help me out. Focusing on customer service prior to a public beta is pretty impressive.

Also, to be fair, there are a LOT of kinks left to be ironed out. But it works in alpha, and what they have accomplished so far rocks. I am excited to have it installed and running on my blog.

Re: So You Wanna be a Startup…

Micah Baldwin — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:58:38 -0000

@ Niles Thanks, my friend. You are a great example of what Boulder has to offer. You arent working at a startup; arent a coder, but came up with great ideas at Startup Weekend and made the whole experience so much better.

@ Gwen - stop pondering.

Re: Boulder Building New Orleans

Micah Baldwin — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:01:53 -0000

Did you see the fellow (Carlos Reid) on American Inventor that was creating a new way to build housing out of plastics? It was quite inspiring. It would be interesting to know more about the construction of the home.

This is a great cause having seen friends displaced, animals displaced, and the damage to their emotional state, anything I can help out with is wonderful.

Are you going to update how close you are to the goals over time?

Re: Toronto

Micah Baldwin — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:01:29 -0000

It seems that in any group there needs to be boundaries, understandings, and clear goals/direction. And a bat. I really think that one of the reasons Boulder went so well was because we all had the attitude that we were part of something larger. Sounds like the organizers in Toronto wanted to be the party and let everyone else just participate.

Plus, now you know that neither model ended with a launched project at the end of 56+ hours...

Re: Houston Up Next

Micah Baldwin — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:13:35 -0000

Git 'er done! Looking forward to reading / seeing the progress of the weekend, warts and all.

Big question: beard or no beard? Cant wait to find out!

Re: I Support ??? Dennis Kucinich?

Micah Baldwin — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:04:19 -0000

I was blown away that a very liberal, democratic socialist from california matched with Rudy Giuliani. Makes we want to delve deeper into the math...(Biden #2, Hillary and Obama tied for #3).

Re: DC Startup Community

Micah Baldwin — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:17:25 -0000

I am so glad my old stomping grounds represented well.

Re: Taylor Checks Out the Neighborhood

Micah Baldwin — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:30:04 -0000

yeah, she stays up there for a couple of minutes before falling. She clears 5ft pretty easily, and 4ft like its not there. So my main requirement for a place in Boulder is 6ft fences!

Re: Maybe the Weird Science Boys Had It Right

Micah Baldwin — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:05:53 -0000

I feel the same about you, buddy, and given your comments about your wife, it probably makes sense. I cant wait to meet her!

Re: Maybe the Weird Science Boys Had It Right

Micah Baldwin — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:07:14 -0000

Is it really out of the ordinary honest? I guess it good that I dont realize that I am being different...and its interesting that it made you feel young again (although, I would argue its hard to feel young again if you arent old, Ms. O'Grady.)

Re: Maybe the Weird Science Boys Had It Right

Micah Baldwin — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:09:37 -0000

Thank you. Its been months in the thinking, a morning in the writing. Ive been learning that if you dont ask, you wont get, so hopefully, we will see where this takes me... ;)

Re: And The Winner Is .....

Micah Baldwin — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:16:05 -0000

In all my years of raising philanthropic dollars, I was always inspired by the people who realized that their gift of time or money could be a catalyst for real change. The whole pay it forward concept is when true philanthropy flourishes. I look forward to the day that I read about the kid Steli gives the lunch to helping out someone else.

Congrats to you Fred, and you Steli, but mostly to the person that Steli's chosen kid helps out one day.

Re: What an Honor?

Micah Baldwin — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:50:58 -0000

at least she stayed awake..