Disqus - Latest Comments for Daniel Gibbons

Re: Is money the root of our problems?

Daniel Gibbons — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 15:17:05 -0000

While the complaint is always that there aren't enough smart investors and funds in Canada, I think us entrepreneurs have to take some of the blame for not getting their businesses into a fundable state. There are plenty of high net worth individuals in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, everywhere, who make angel investments and would readily make more; they just don't see the deal flow they need to create a thriving funding climate for Canadian start-ups.

I also can't understand Mark's comment that entrepreneurs will quit their regular jobs once investors buy in to their big idea. It just doesn't work that way; the entrepreneurs have to take the first step and spade fund the idea with sweat and / or money. If they're not fully committed to it in practice not just in principle, no investor will be either.

I regularly attend DemoCamp in Vancouver, and it's great. Good community, fun interaction, etc. But frankly the businesses that present are generally far too early for outside funding. In addition, the discussion and questions are always far too soft and uncritical, with the audience reluctant to ask tough questions about the viability of the business model.

Finally, the Founders Fund is a popular topic, but let's not forget that many of their investments directly involve the fund's partners, or other members of the PayPal mafia. For example, Slide.com is Max Lechvin's deal, and Sean Parker was instrumental in the early stages of running Facebook. That profile of fund is simply not going to invest in 'interesting ideas' that are at the purely conceptual phase and don't have full-time founders.

Re: Facebook: Why Microsoft’s buy makes sense

Daniel Gibbons — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:06:59 -0000

Microsoft may very well get to serve ads to those devoted users, but the ads themselves are some of the worst performing, cheapest inventory out there. Lots of people have made this point before, but Google mints cash because people are searching for things when they see ads. On Facebook the ads simply interrupt the personal interactions that are the reason people are there in the first place.

I don't think that means there's no hope for advertising on Facebook; rather that attempting CPC and CPA models may actually not be as effective as more traditional brand advertising and sponsorship.

Re: QuickBooks founder launches NetBooks, raises $9M

Daniel Gibbons — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:15:39 -0000

I've always thought that there was a vast chasm where there ought to be dozens of usable SaaS accounting packages for small business. However the notion of a 'suite' of applications, while attractive, is always a tough sell.

My primary experience here is with NetSuite, which seems to be a direct competitor to NetBooks, and while they've got thousands of customers now their application really struggles to be anything but mediocre in any of the functional areas it supports.

Re: 2007/10/11/gtalk-facebook-app/

Daniel Gibbons — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:34:29 -0000

Just posted on our blog an example of how this new app can be used in conjunction with Lypp to create instant calls and group calls within Facebook:

http://blog.lypp.com/2007/10/great_new_facebook...

Re: Free long distance calls within Canada on your BlackBerry

Daniel Gibbons — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:07:12 -0000

Hi Simon,
Thanks for writing about Lypp's plans. Yes we are indeed offering our service free until the end of October. After that point we will be charging but offering much lower rates than the carriers.

We'll be making the site and registration process a little friendlier, too. The bottom line is simple: Lypp uses the Instant Messaging service on your BlackBerry to send a request to our private network. We initiate an outbound call to you from our toll free number and connect you to the other party.

As I'm sure you are aware there are lots of unlimited incoming calls packages available in Canada, which means you won't even use up local minutes in your plan. Looking forward to your feedback.
Best,
Daniel Gibbons
Lypp Co-Founder

Re: Free long distance calls within Canada on your BlackBerry

Daniel Gibbons — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:49:47 -0000

Hi Mathieu,
If you send more details to feedback@lypp.com we'll get you up and running. Did you follow all of the registration steps before adding the Lypp buddy?
Dan

Re: Free long distance calls within Canada on your BlackBerry

Daniel Gibbons — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:05:10 -0000

Thanks for all the feedback guys. We've had a couple of glitches with the Google Talk Bot but we expect these will be fully resolved this week. Pricing information will be available in October, but the bottom line is the savings will be large...

We are creating a Lypp Evangelist program for the first users of the service. This program will provide members with early access to additional features, preferential pricing when we roll out our paid packages and essentially a way of making sure your voice is heard when it comes to shaping our service.

If any of you would like to be included in this program, please let me know at dan@lypp.com.

Re: Free long distance calls within Canada on your BlackBerry

Daniel Gibbons — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 11:37:35 -0000

rc: the service will work on your desktop or any device with IM capabilities but we have chosen to position it to blackberry users simply because they tend to be heavy cellphone users. Feel free to sign up and try the service - as long as you have aim, MSN, gtalk / jabber or yahoo.