Disqus - Latest Comments for dshields

Re: Want to raise VC? Stand out in a hot market! LSS #26: Alvenda

Derrick Shields — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:21:02 -0000

Very interesting interview. While I don't know any of the management team personally, Alvenda is a company I keep an eye on because I'm very interested in the space.

I wish Wade would have talked a bit more about product traction. Launching the Delta facebook app is great, but it's nearly impossible to find and doesn't appear to have a real user base. Not to mention that having to add the "application" inconvenient to say the least. And flash for commerce? Ick.

I did install the app and it worked fine. It's not as bad as the reviews indicate, but searching for 5 minutes to find the page, add the app, allow it to access my personal information, and then navigate this tiny-flash window and commit to spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a page that's not behind an SSL-secured connection just doesn't seem like the future of commerce to me.

Personally I'm rooting for Alvenda, but they need to innovate faster, drop flash, and incorporate a check-out process integrated with PayPal/Google Checkout/etc or they will continue be lapped by Payvment and other startups that have open API frameworks.

Re: Entelligence: Will carriers destroy the Android vision?

Derrick Shields — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 20:26:33 -0000

If you think Sony's $50.00 fee to remove bloatware is ridiculous, Best Buy is now pushing hard on this Geek Squad "optimization service" to all new PC purchases - what a joke. I wonder when this will start happening with mobile phones?

Anyway, the reason the carriers can get away with what they do is because ultimately, they hold the cards; if Google wants the carriers to sell their phones and utilize their service, they play by the carriers rules, period. MG Seigler has written about this extensively over the past week.

And frankly, Google is less concerned with providing a flawless Apple-esq experience and more concerned with flooding the market with as many android phones as possible because, unlike Apple who's primarily business is both a computer hardware & software company, Google is neither. Google is a an advertising & marketing company first, and a platform-agnostic service provider second. To Google, it doesn't matter who's logo is on the back of the phone, what carrier it's on, what software is pre-installed, or what shell is running on top of android.

The only thing that matters is more distribution and eyeballs to serve advertisements (and I'm not saying that's a bad thing either).

Re: My Chat with Dan Primack of PEHub

Derrick Shields — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:53:54 -0000

Awesome, I'm looking forward to it. Even my 3.5yr old gets into it: "dad, is it time for the thuster podcast?" The poor kid is gonna go to kindergarten talking about deals, valuations and liquidation preferences.

Keep up the great work on TWiVC.

Re: My Chat with Dan Primack of PEHub

Derrick Shields — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 01:46:00 -0000

Perhaps we're seeing more early-stage companies that prefer to take Angel money over VC's that do seed funds. In other words, could it be that Entrepreneurs' preference to work with Angel's may be perpetuating the bubble, as opposed to Angel bullishness?

Re: My Chat with Dan Primack of PEHub

Derrick Shields — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 01:42:11 -0000

This was a great episode - you should have Dan back in the future, I really like his style.

BTW, I've dubbed a little ritual I call "S4".

S4 = Sunday, Sunshine, Suster & Scotch (or Soda alternatively).

Basically, I take an hour out of the day to kick back with a beverage and relax in the sun to catch up on the latest TWiVC - it's a great way to get fired up and inspired for Monday.

Re: A Guide to Using Authority & Social Proof in Fund Raising

Derrick Shields — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 03:02:41 -0000

I agree with you 110% here, and I can personally attest that angel social proof is immensely powerful. In mid-Feb we were talking to a single angel investor for a modest amount. In March, due to "social evangelism" we had a few angels on board, with great terms for us. By April, we were turning down angel money, mostly because we didn't want to give so much of the company away right out of the gates.

The problem I've found is that Angels often don't understand the business in its entirety, and don't necessarily have strategic relationships in place to (help) move the company forward and facilitate big partnerships & opportunities. That said,I'm probably looking at traditional VC for our first formal round, not because we can't raise (Angel) money elsewhere, but because we want a partner who truly gets what we do, and can serve as a resource to promote our value.

Re: The Toxic Nature of Email

Derrick Shields — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:14:31 -0000

I've got a pretty good system down, although I don't get 200 emails per day so I can't effectively say it scales. I'll email it you! JK.

Re: The Toxic Nature of Email

Derrick Shields — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:03:35 -0000

Ben Franklin once famous said that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". Perhaps you need to change your email usage and organization habits. Having a single 'storage' folder is hardly adequate for your needs.

I'll assume that you're talking about your GRP email which is probably on Exchange / Blackberry server. Is there any way that you can filter your email for your official GRP "work" email so that you can assume everything that comes to this address is high priority, i.e. your partners, CEO's, wive, etc., and create a secondary 'non-essential' email address for everything else?

I ask this because I would suggest moving everything that's not high-priority over to a gmail or 'powered by' google apps email address. Google has come up with some amazingly intuitive ways to sort, organize and prioritize emails. I recommend checking out the following Google Labs gmail add-ons:

- Multiple Inboxes
- Nested Labels
- Superstars
- Undo Send
- Hide Read Labels
- Send & Archive

The descriptions for each addon are pretty self-explanatory. You can decide to organize your inbox however you want. I'm telling you, it will simplify your life and change the way you use email.

Re: Job Hoppers Redux: An Employee’s Perspective

Derrick Shields — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:33:55 -0000

Speaking of how to treat employees that leave, what are your thoughts on the email exchange between Evan and Jason on Evans resignation from mahalo? Would be interesting if you questioned Jason on next weeks TWiVC...

Re: Twitter’s Acquisition, Chirp & Managing Developer Relationships

Derrick Shields — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 11:11:57 -0000

Twitter could have partnered with a company like Ad.ly to serve in-stream ads regardless of the client application, and they probably still should regardless of what happens with Tweetie.

There are ways Twitter can achieve most of their objectives through developer API agreements. The acquisition was more about pre-existing users and eyeballs than technology. Just because twitter owns the client now doesn't mean it will be the best, and I expect that we'll see better clients pop up in the near future, so Twitter should be thinking about ways to achieve their objectives (monetization, analytics, etc) through their API.

Re: Public and Open Debate is the Highest Form of Democracy (and Blogging)

Derrick Shields — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:21:30 -0000

Nice meeting you Mark at LeadsCon a few weeks ago. Thanks again for letting your ADD get the best of you in an attempt to salvage the investors panel. That was great.

I agreed whole heartedly with your previous post, and have defended this side of the argument in recent debates. Of course it is important to be mindful of running a capital-efficient startup - "lean" is good - but I also think being overly lean is why many startups fail. Rarely do young companies emerge from start-up stage to successful, revenue-generating operations without having switched courses at least a few times.

Keep writing controversial posts. Leverage your (ever growing) audience to host healthy public debate. I'd be interested in seeing more discussion on how politics relate to venture capital or entrepreneurship. Most entrepreneurs I meet fit into a very similar tend to fit very closely as you've described yourself, being very socially liberal, however fiscally moderate to conservative (myself included).

I'm wondering if it's simply a coincidence, or perhaps there are certain assumptions we can make about ones ability to build and lead a successful organization based on their political beliefs.

Re: Altius Education

Derrick Shields — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:52:33 -0000

It seems like there are potentially a few problems with Altius's business model, which they may have already worked through, however your post doesn't address these issues.

I'm obviously not a tax or business attorney, but the concept of non-profit educational institutions owning for-profit subsidiary isn't going to bode well with the IRS. Legally, a non-profit entity can own a for-profit business however how those profits are used and/or distributed is going to raise some flags. These organizations do not want to risk losing their tax-exempt status.

Also, I could be wrong but something tells me that the commoditization of education is not a business that traditional non-profit institutions would want to engage with simply because of the damage it could due to their brand.

Obviously, Altius has thought through these issues, so it would be interesting to get their perspective.

Re: Facebook Flyers vs. LinkedIn Direct Ads

Derrick Shields — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:20:19 -0000

How many different ad variations did you try within the two networks?

Perhaps test some ads written for an audience that may never have heard of LeadsCon, or emphasizing the free admission opportunity in the ad title to garner more clicks.