Disqus - Latest Comments for gregboutin

Re: The Future of the Social Web: Social Graphs Vs. Interest Graphs

gregboutin — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 07:34:50 -0000

An excellent analysis, thank you David. I think we'll see the integration of both social and interest graphs with the emergence of dynamic "Purpose graphs" or "Task-based graphs" (you are free to use those terms with attribution) that mix interests, connections, and resources (e.g. products and services) together towards the completion of specific activities such as staying informed, finding a job (linkedin is already a great example of that through Groups), doing something together, researching a topic etc.
The more potent our computer technologies become at understanding unstructured information, the more powerful and precise those Purpose Graphs will become.

Re: CEO of MaRS got 22% raise (one month before Ontario wage freeze?), made $533K in 2010

gregboutin — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:44:12 -0000

Very interesting. I wonder who the initial backers were. In any case, $12M in private funds for a real estate operation is hardly "unprecedented", and yes, it looks like the initial vision has been supplanted by people seeking self-enrichment on the back of the Ontario taxpayer.

Re: CEO of MaRS got 22% raise (one month before Ontario wage freeze?), made $533K in 2010

gregboutin — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:03:16 -0000

One small question. You mentioned MaRS was "then launched with significant private sector cash support". According to the reported numbers I saw and discussed here, it looks like very little private support has actually been given to MaRS. Do you have more information on that? And do you know who provided support, how (donation, loans?) and for what in return? Of course my working hypothesis is banks and law offices providing support to get prime access to MaRS tenants and the grant money administered by the institution. Would be good to know...

Re: CEO of MaRS got 22% raise (one month before Ontario wage freeze?), made $533K in 2010

gregboutin — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:57:44 -0000

Thanks a lot Luc. Much, much appreciated. All the more since you are one of the very few out there who doesn't shy from putting down his real name next to his words. My turn to commend you for it.

Re: Confessions of a Former Entrepreneur

gregboutin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:24:14 -0000

Congrats Sam! Great candid article. I can't wait to see your next startup.

Re: CEO of MaRS got 22% raise (one month before Ontario wage freeze?), made $533K in 2010

gregboutin — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:29:15 -0000

Michael, I am glad to see you had no dealings with MaRS and OCRI. Turning the argument on its head, that's probably why you still think MaRS CEO deserves her salary.

Regarding benchmarks, let me try to please you by using your variables: the head of the CBC makes about half what the CEO of MaRS makes, while managing about 5,000 people and assets many times what MaRS manages. And most of other heads of public bodies also make much less, while managing more people and more assets. Just take a look at the Sunrise report - it doesn't seem you have.

What would really be off would be comparing the salary of MaRS CEO to that, say, of a CEO of a food retailer or a partner a major law firm. Oh, wait, that's what you did. Now I'll have to understand how that works, because generally speaking those people get decades of experience and success before moving into those roles, and respond to actual customers, not the taxpayers. Now in MaRS's case, the CEO comes from a failed VC fund and basically has no entrepreneurial success behind her. She's married to the head of UofT who incidentally was also the chair of the medicine department at UofT when MaRS was created (with extensive help from, guess who... UofT!). In fact, applying MaRS's own recruiting criteria, she would not have been hired.

Additionally, she does get paid by us, not any customers, and her salary has no relationship to her performance. In those situations, one sets the salary at the lowest point possible to get the right person in the job. Ask around and you'll see that you could easily find someone like that for less than $250-300K. You'll need to explain to me how setting it at half a million instead helps MaRS as an institution, let alone the taxpayer.

Your suggestion about following the democratic process is interesting and certainly does not preclude spreading the word. You'll be happy to know that, along with others, I already wrote to my MPP, as well as relevant ministries, and the matter was of no interest to them as they do not concern enough people and there is no process to manage salaries at crown corporations and publicly-funded nonprofits. Which brings us back to MaRS being an unknown brand locally. So now I am trying to make sure it gets known.

Re: CEO of MaRS got 22% raise (one month before Ontario wage freeze?), made $533K in 2010

gregboutin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:30:11 -0000

Michael, I see you consult through Sophic Technologies Inc and co-founded Canadian Health Systems. Can you please clarify if you consult on behalf of MaRS, OCRI, or any of the other public hubs? Or collected any grant / incentive from them?

For the rest, it's your opinion against my facts. MaRS CEO's salary is twice the PM and MP's average salaries - and one of the highest public sector salaries in Ontario. She manages 51 people. Please show me some benchmarks about your claim that it is not excessive. I have provided my benchmarks showing the salary is grotesque.

MaRS delivers services the private sector would deliver better (at a lower cost, and without favouring onsite tenants). I believe I have proved it a number of times to a number of companies. Of course, that excludes providing grants to my clients, which MaRS advisors are much better at doing than me... although in my experience that helps very few of them to survive in the end. But we don't know, there is no reporting.

If MaRS is a public service, then let's make it a formal government agency, and deliver only public functions like attracting local investments, administering fair incentive programs (with actual oversight, e.g. what's the outlay-to-administration ratio?), organizing public forums (all those functions were already carried out by other agencies with more oversight though...) We'll avoid a future scandal a la eHealth, Ontario Lottery, and Toronto Housing Corp.

Note the Sun now reported on it too, now. The reason that doesn't make it as a headline is simply because no one knows about MaRS, so papers would have some education to do first. The other reason is that indeed, it is quite small compared to some other government issues. Does not mean it does not matter.

As for the assertion that taxpayers should simply trust the government is spending the money wisely... please. Non-recipients of the money, like many of my friends starting companies (or startups closing, e.g. Sprouter), are as important as handpicked recipients agreeing to play into that circus. I don't believe in an enlightened aristocracy guiding us through the night.

Re: CEO of MaRS got 22% raise (one month before Ontario wage freeze?), made $533K in 2010

gregboutin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:50:20 -0000

Edifying that the most decent reporting on this has to be done by the Sun. http://www.torontosun.com/2...
I love how all the justification is "we got new funding from the government for more buildings, so of course we are successful". As for the number of clients going up, that is evidently a function of the definition of "client": have one meeting with an advisor at MaRS and you're a client. Note, as usual, no performance metrics. It's all about inputs.
C'mon Ontarians please don't let them prove you're that cynic about public spending! That's why they can get away with it.

Re: CEO of MaRS got 22% raise (one month before Ontario wage freeze?), made $533K in 2010

gregboutin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:02:49 -0000

And of course I'd welcome your justification for the salary level of MaRS CEO, over twice that of the prime minister and MPs, when she's managing 51 people. As well as the sources of private financing for that shiny new building to be set up in Toronto.

Re: CEO of MaRS got 22% raise (one month before Ontario wage freeze?), made $533K in 2010

gregboutin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:49:58 -0000

Hi Bob, you're entitled to your opinion, which incidentally, defends your source of revenue. My claims, on the other hand, negatively impact my revenue.

While my main issue here is with the indecent level of compensation of MaRS CEO, let's talk again about advisors (and see my post last year for full analysis).

I don't doubt that entrepreneurs can benefit from the advice and introductions of advisors like you (keep in mind I worked with MaRS and RIC advisors for close to a year), but the only good measure is ROI. Given that MaRS does not publish any data on ROI, beside the incidental "such MaRS client raised money", which may have nothing to do with MaRS, or "we helped X entrepreneurs and had Y meetings", the only part we have public data about is cost. And I have commented on that.

To shine some more light on the cost side still, I would invite you to share the actual amounts of your "below market rates", so I can comment. I also advise plenty of entrepreneurs both here in Canada and through the Stanford alumni network and I do that gratis - not for any "below market rate". In those Internet days, advice is worth very little anyway, and introductions can be obtained relatively easily.

What entrepreneurs pay me for is generally getting stuff done. If they don't like what they get, they don't hire me. There is no distortion, it's not tied to grants, and I don't get clients referred by public-sector colleagues to my private practice. So far I have had a steady stream, with contracts renewed in over 75% of cases. So I must assume they see the value. That, Bob, is a much more direct measure of ROI at the end of the day.

As for conspiracy theories, I invite you to check the definition. They are based on unverifiable claims. Unlike mine.

Re: http://www.torontosun.com/2011/08/03/mars-salaries-are-outta-this-world-opposition-says

gregboutin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:05:45 -0000

just pointed to source of the information the Sun got, which is my blog Growth Times, so people can see actual salaries. $533K for MaRS CEO in 2010.

Re: http://www.torontosun.com/2011/08/03/mars-salaries-are-outta-this-world-opposition-says

gregboutin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:04:40 -0000

nope didn't.

Re: http://www.torontosun.com/2011/08/03/mars-salaries-are-outta-this-world-opposition-says

gregboutin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:16:46 -0000

Why is the Sun not approving my comment?

Re: Suggestions for public support to entrepreneurs (troubling facts about MaRS Discovery District – Part 4 of 4)

gregboutin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:23:03 -0000

Please note a number of comments disappeared in the move to a new site (non of them supporting MaRS!). I am working to re-establish them. Thanks.

Re: Troubling facts about MaRS Discovery District (Part 3.5 of 4)

gregboutin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:22:51 -0000

Please note a number of comments disappeared in the move to a new site (non of them supporting MaRS!). I am working to re-establish them. Thanks.

Re: Private: Troubling facts about MaRS Discovery District (Part 1 of 4)

gregboutin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:22:29 -0000

Please note a number of comments disappeared in the move to a new site (non of them supporting MaRS!). I am working to re-establish them. Thanks.

Re: Canada is THE Best Place to do a Startup

gregboutin — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:10:57 -0000

Can you name X, Y and Z so we can assess the claim?

Re: How to Raise Investment Capital - According to VC Jeff Clavier

gregboutin — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:32:48 -0000

Great article, Marshall. Totally seconds my experience fundraising for startups and I'll make it suggested reading for all entrepreneurs I work with. Special thanks to Clavier for bringing us the 3-ass rule. Would I be a jackass if I re-use it (with attribution)? :)

Re: The 7 signs of failure for internet startups

gregboutin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 06:51:57 -0000

This should be forced reading for every entrepreneur. Although it's based on surveys, a methodology that's not always accurate, it seconds my experience and observation in every way. I'm surprised there aren't more comments, while everyone's busy talking about the linkedin ipo!

Re: Evri acquires Twine for a semantic search team-up

gregboutin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:05:10 -0000

This is your anonymous opinion against my signed comments (I imagine this is from the usual suspect, Idehen), and certainly the readers will be the judge of who makes a compelling case and who relies on character-based attacks and anger-based generalization.

Re: Evri Acquires Radar Networks In Semantic Search Consolidation

gregboutin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:44:11 -0000

Whoever this anonymous user is, I'd suggest you stick to facts related to the case rather than libel someone's character. That's what I did when bringing up my arguments: they are all backed by facts that can be verified on independent websites like quantcast.com, compete.com, and by respected authors such as those at readwriteweb.

I am not hiding behind a false identity to bring them up.

As for being fired from another semantic web company, you are correct and I have never hidden that fact, nor the explanation. It's mentioned on my blog, where you probably learnt it. The company had missed 3 product release deadlines, and as the marketing director, I expressed my rightful concerns. To this day, no successful product has been released by the company. My predecessor there was fired, as well as 2 of my successors, as well as many other people. The bad terms are related to that.

So I understand that you may be angry about my comments because they don't match your opinion, but I feel very much warranted to tell you your approach is unethical.

Also as far as I know I am still a member of Twine - for what it's worth.

Re: Evri Acquires Radar Networks In Semantic Search Consolidation

gregboutin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:05:14 -0000

Spivack's detailed story of Twine contains some interesting bits (see the end of the challenges of scaling RDF triple store) but the man spins it once again out of control...: the reason traffic fell drastically in the summer of last year has not to do with the recession but with Google shutting them down, as I reported at the time (news that was confirmed by the company itself...) http://www.semanticsincorpo....

The story is a fabrication and such unethical behavior should not go unchecked. I am really tired of seeing entrepreneurs rewarded for dishonest actions and some much more honest ones struggling to raise money - investors should know better.

The reason they could not raise money has also little to do with the recession: the pseudo "T2" plan was an attempt at spinning their Google failure. As many of us noted, it couldn't work, because they are seeking to automate semantics for the web and the only realistic way to do that for the time being is to either specialize vertically or to remain too shallow horizontally. Spivack, of course, hyped it and announced they'd do it all. What a clown. There is no silver bullet and I am glad no one (but Vulcan) was fooled into this new spin.

This last attempt at spinning things and saving face is ridiculous. The reason the terms were not disclosed is most likely because Twine was given away for free. I don't for one second believe Spivack's claim that large companies tried to buy them - at least not for more than the cost of their herman miller chairs.

Very sad.

Re: Delivering Linked Data quickly

gregboutin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:47:00 -0000

Both comments from both of you.

Bill, I agree we should focus on Linked Data's strength, but there are 2 problems with that:
- what are those strengths, in terms of benefits it delivers? I think it hasn't made the case that it's useful. The benefits of Linked Data have been very slow at materializing and the real-world applications are limited. As Andraz Tori and I highlighted in comments to my blog post (plug: here), adoption has been slow and this seems to reflect some inherent design problems.
- the expectations created by many technologists in the Linked Data community have been to turn the web into a giant database. This is repeated over and over again, to this day. This is what Linked Data was created for is supposed to achieve. If there isn't a clear line of sight to the realization of this vision, and worse, if there is a line of sight to its non-realization through the current LD design, then we ought to change the direction of our efforts. There is a lot of money going into Linked Data R&D today, and to speak in business terms I think we see increasingly that this money may yield a better ROI elsewhere.

Re: Delivering Linked Data quickly

gregboutin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:47:00 -0000

Meant to say "Good comments from both of you" (first line)!

Re: delivering-linked-data-quickly

gregboutin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:47:00 -0000

Both comments from both of you.