Disqus - Friends of gordonmattey

Re: Getting A Piece Of My Action

DaveGoulden — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:26:39 -0000

I've been thinking about doing a start-up as a Consumer Co-op (think REI). This mechanism allows small investments from "members", who also vote on a Board of Directors. This is not a path to IPO and doesn't allow for perks like stock options, but an aggressive profit sharing plan can help make up for that. And as Fred says, IPOs may be gone anyway.

Re: Boxee Survey Results

DaveGoulden — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:10:45 -0000

I would love to try Boxee. Thanks.

Re: Trading Analog Dollars For Digital Pennies

DaveGoulden — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:07:51 -0000

"The new model should spend money on creating something people actually want and engaging with the audience, deeply."

Good article yesterday about just that. http://adage.com/digitalnex...

Re: The Founder's Footprints

DaveGoulden — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:00:39 -0000

The Truth of the environment we operate in as a country is quite a bit different from that of Jefferson's time. I agree with Fred that Obama has the characteristics of a leader like Jefferson and I believe he sees the Truth of today's World better than all the other candidates did, including Ron Paul. We are interconnected socially and economically in ways that couldn't have been conceived by the Founders.

Re: Inaugurapalooza

DaveGoulden — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:34:16 -0000

There was way more to this inauguration than fancy balls. We were in DC from Sunday through the ceremony. It was one of the most incredible experiences to be around millions of people who were all super positive and uplifted.

On Sunday, there was a free concert attended by 500k people. Sure, there were celebrities there, but the spirit of the event was awesome. Here's my post on what it was like to be there. http://oneslowfamily.com/20...

On Monday, there were over 200 service projects around DC heavily promoted by the Inauguration Committee. We participated in two of them. At one event alone, 12,000 volunteers prepared 85,000 care packages for the Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And, of course, the main event was unbelievable with close to two million people sharing the experience. Here's a few pictures of what it was like to be there. http://www.flickr.com/photo...

Re: Latitude

DaveGoulden — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:18:16 -0000

Google Maps is THE killer app for me on my Windows Mobile phone. I use the search feature a ton, great way to find nearby businesses or landmarks. I can't wait to try Latitude. Hope it's available for my handset.

As for the privacy arguments in this discussion, I could see google adding an icognito mode like in Chrome. Although maybe that won't work, "Honey, why were you incognito last night when you said you were going to a client dinner?"

I guess if you've got something to hide, don't use this app.

Re: So What Do We Think Of Geithner's Toxic Asset Plan?

DaveGoulden — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:12:27 -0000

As someone who has spent his most of my career working in technology start-ups, one of the most important traits to build into a company is the ability to face reality and deal with it. Companies that can’t figure this out don’t get to critical mass. I’ll bet Fred counsels his portfolio companies about some aspect of dealing with reality every day.

My problem with this plan and the others we’ve seen over the past 6 months is that none of them deal with the reality that we have a broken system that needs to be put to death before we can rebuild something sustainable. We, as a society, have leveraged ourselves to the hilt to buy boatloads of crap from factories in China. Our financial services industry has grown “too big to fail” as it’s reeled in massive fees financing our binge. Yes, this is a mortgage crisis, but most people I know, including myself, have used the equity in their homes as collateral to buy more crap.

Worse, these plans are set-up to perpetuate the status quo, as soon as the “toxic assets” are flushed through the system. As has been said many times in this community, we need to unleash the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to change our system. We need to get back to being a society that is creating sustainable value for the entire world, not just growing through our own unsustainable consumption. That clearly requires that we shift our spending and incentives to spend to activities that invest in our capacity to deliver what the world needs.

Given this framework, let’s get creative about how to deal with the real issue of “toxic assets”. I have little confidence that a very small group of large private equity and hedge funds can effectively unwind this mess. I have even less confidence that a government agency can do it, but I believe that only government can mandate a system for dealing with it.

How about forcing the issue down to the local communities where the toxic assets are actually physically located? Investors and real estate developers in my community have a much better chance of placing a proper value on the local properties that are at risk than a few quants sitting on Wall Street. How about the Treasury Department forcing the holders of these toxic assets to report on where they are located. The banks will whine that because of securitization, they can’t figure this out, but shoot, if Google can index the entire web daily, then someone can certainly figure out where several million mortgages originated. Based on this information, let’s create regional auctions for the properties.

The real problem here is that the reality is more bleak than anyone wants to admit. Just like a start-up staring at a down round, someone is going to get crammed down. It’s going to take time to deal with these assets in a real way. In the meantime, as we are seeing, bad loans aren’t getting made anymore, individual savings is surging, and marginal companies are laying off or shutting their doors. To me that sounds like a recipe for an exceptional entrepreneurial environment.

Obama needs to step up and speak the truth about what we are really looking at and make sure that we the taxpayers aren’t the ones getting the cram down.

Re: So What Do We Think Of Geithner's Toxic Asset Plan?

DaveGoulden — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:08:14 -0000

We at least need to simplify to the point where the people underwriting
these investments can make sense of what they are dealing with, which
clearly hasn't been the case for a while.
Or maybe they did, and took the fees anyway knowing that the government
would backstop it.

Re: You Can't Take The Paper Out Of The Newstand

DaveGoulden — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:51:50 -0000

From my time in the search business, I guarantee you that GOOG is not making a whole lot of money on the search terms that drive traffic to Rupert's news properties.

The guys who should be complaining are the Travel, Dating, and Finance companies because that's where the bulk of the search revenue comes from. But they are too busy counting the dollars from the traffic that GOOG sends them to worry about it.

Online newspapers suffer most from not having targetable content to monetize. What ads are relevant to a story about Obama giving a speech in Germany? And as Fred points out, they also suffer from losing traffic to formidable competition in the form of user generated sources.

Re: Does Anyone Use Chrome?

DaveGoulden — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:33:32 -0000

I've been using Chrome since shortly after it launched. It was shit for a couple of months but it is amazing how much it has improved. Anyone using Gmail should give it a try since it absolutely screams for this app and with Gears you can do email offline.

I also love the dedicated browser instances for Gmail, Calendar, etc.

Extensions ecosystem is non-existent, but you can port over your Firefox profile (logins, bookmarks).

It's probably worth using it just for Gmail (w/ dedicated instance) and then use FF for browsing if you need the extensions.

Re: Does Anyone Use Chrome?

DaveGoulden — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:09:14 -0000

I think you are right on.
As an early practitioner of behavioral marketing, I've been watching Google
play a similar game in advertising. They have amassed an amazing amount of
data about users, more than most of the other players (like more former
company) that got hammered for collecting and using behavioral data. Now
Google has fully unleashed "interest based" advertising after years of
saying "wink wink" that they were not looking at entering the "behavioral"
space. They took the long view and positioned themselves well (a la
millions of Toolbars collecting full clickstream, DoubleClick asset, etc.)
to fully leverage this data.

The browser/OS are missing pieces to this data game (and will allow them to
give away the software while MSFT tries to go after their core search
franchise). As you say they will be in the middle of it all.

Re: Spying On Myself (continued)

DaveGoulden — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:08:43 -0000

Back in the spyware days that Fred mentioned (or AdWare Days as we liked to call them at Gator/Claria) we learned a lot about the value of the attention data.

We mostly used it to target ads (many getting 20-30% CTR), but also in the later days of the company how to use the stream to recommend content.

We built a product called PersonalWeb (think of it as iGoogle, but automated by mining the user's click-stream data through the use of a browser plugin). One surprising finding was that content modules recommended by the system got a 3-5X lift in interaction versus content modules manually added to the page by the user.

At first, we didn't believe the stats but when we dug into it, it really made sense. People add content to their home pages or apps to FB for all kinds of reasons, curiosity, heard it was cool from a friend, but their interests shift over time and they end up with things that are no longer relevant. Most people are too lazy to manage all this stuff, but the click stream data does a great job of showing what's relevant at this moment (therefore driving higher interaction).

I agree with Fred that user control over the data is key. That's a big part of where the AdWare space went wrong.

Google has a pretty good click stream tracker. Just install the Google Toolbar and turn on "Web History". They build a page with your history that is easy to search and is stored in the cloud. It's saved me a few times trying to get back to something I needed.

Re: Multi-Function Printer Follow-up

DaveGoulden — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:52:32 -0000

Perfect timing. Just bought it direct from Epson since it they had free shipping and it wasn't an Amazon Prime item.

I was about to go through a research process myself as our 10 year old super cheap Dell all in one is on its last legs and full of cat hair--I'm thinking of putting a spiky mat on this one to keep the cat from napping on it. Any recommendations ;)

Thanks!

Re: Mobile First Web Second (continued)

DaveGoulden — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 02:40:29 -0000

U used to love reading the NYTimes on the web, but now that I have the mobile app, I can't stand using the website. Simple clean and better filtered are a much better user experience. I even prefer reading from the app on an iPhone small screen vs the web site on a full size monitor.

Re: Why do we do this?

DaveGoulden — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:50:33 -0000

That was a great talk at Web 2.0. Thanks for your generosity in sharing your personal "failures", it's a tough thing to do, but helps all of us tremendously. Looking forward to the book.

Re: Once Again, RSS Is Dead. But ONLY YOU Can Save It!

DaveGoulden — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:18:39 -0000

Google Reader is alive and well for me.

Re: Americans Elect

DaveGoulden — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:19:27 -0000

I signed up for this a few months back. The most attractive thing for me is that it's really not a party, it's a direct online selection process.

It will most likely not get full traction this time around, but if enough of us participate, it opens the door for this process down the road.

Re: The Far Center Party

DaveGoulden — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:47:41 -0000

I was surprised to hear that Obamacare scared you. Is it the exchange concept? The individual mandate? Because the insurance reform section (can't deny pre-existing, can't dump after getting sick) is critical. I hope you never have to go through getting "individual" insurance for yourself or a loved one who has a pre-existing illness. It is a disgrace, and we shouldn't allow it in this great country.

Re: The Far Center Party

DaveGoulden — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 21:30:11 -0000

Got it. That's a great topic for another post. What innovations/disruptions do we need to align incentives across the system for focusing on health and wellness, instead of on treatment?

Re: Fun Friday: Quotes

DaveGoulden — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 14:13:39 -0000

"It's not how much you see that matters. What's important is the elevation you see from." --Silas Chou

Re: Fun Friday: Photos

DaveGoulden — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 13:28:05 -0000

"Bad Moon Rising" Heading home from work a couple of weeks ago.

Re: Student Loans and the Education Bubble

DaveGoulden — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:43:56 -0000

Agree. There have been arguments that Government subsidies (of debt) are increasing the costs of tuition, but in California we have the opposite problem.

A reduction in government subsidies for the operating expenses at the UC and State systems are forcing tuition up to make up the difference. I would bet that other states are going through the same issues.

Of course, pensions and benefits need to be reigned in, but as a society we need to prioritize education as a collective endeavor.

Re: Guest Post From Shana Carp: Communities Make Business Sense

DaveGoulden — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:29:03 -0000

Shana's conclusion totally fits my avc.com usage. I use Google Reader to keep track of posts. For some posts, I'm very interested in seeing what the community has to say, so I look at the number of comments to see how much discussion and click through to read the thread. I would never actually visit the site if it weren't for the comments.

Re: Guest Post From Shana Carp: Communities Make Business Sense

DaveGoulden — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:36:26 -0000

This makes total sense. As a West Coast guys who doesn't get up at 3am, i find that by the time I get to the thread, it's pretty much done which makes me much less likely to comment.

Re: Status Update

DaveGoulden — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:37:03 -0000

How about you give us something to do while you are in repair mode and set-up an fundraiser for all the folks you mention who are not in as good a shape.

No doubt there will be local groups focusing on this issue to give the money to and I'm sure you'll get lots of support from this community.