Disqus - Latest Comments for WayneMulligan

Re: Schvitz Etiquette…We Have Chaos!

WayneMulligan — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 02:44:44 -0000

That's bad, but I can do you one better.

At the Korean version of the schvitz, in addition to steam rooms they also have HUGE hot tubs (can fit 20+ people comfortably). Proper etiquette is to go into the hot tub, take a seat, keep that same seat while you're in there and then get out.

So I'm in the hot tub one day with maybe 4 other people (no clothes, for the record). All of a sudden this guy at the other end busts out a pair of goggles! So I give him the benefit of the doubt -- maybe he's worried a contact will fall out due to the steam or something - but then he goes and does the unthinkable...

He dives under the hot tub water and swims to the other end!

Forget the fact that elevator eyes in the schvitz should be strictly prohibited, think about all the "man junk" that resides at the bottom of a hot tub and now this guy had it all over his grill.

That certainly tops steam room yoga!

Re: Legacy and the Web

WayneMulligan — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 01:50:23 -0000

Oh, I figured that was obvious. It was more of a question of how we could add extra capacity to make room in the legacy cloud for other people. :)

Re: I live for this: The challenge of entrepreneurship

WayneMulligan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:16:23 -0000

Amen to that -- knock 'em dead today!

Re: The Gripp - The Good Old Days

WayneMulligan — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:08:59 -0000

Forget TheGripp...more to be made by selling (and curing) the clap.

Now that's old school!

Re: How to follow the markets: TickerHound

WayneMulligan — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 12:20:17 -0000

Thanks for the great review, Ryan. I'm glad you're enjoying the service. Any suggestions for improvement would be much appreciated.

Re: Surrounding yourself with inspiring people

WayneMulligan — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:49:39 -0000

Great points! I think that's why I attend a lot of Jonah Keegan's feedback forums (shameless plug). It's been a great way to get exposed to new ideas and openly discuss them with other folks for a couple of hours. It's only once a month but it's a great way to get those hard to reach mental muscles working.

Re: Third Party Comment Systems Go Mainstream

WayneMulligan — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:15:37 -0000

This is definitely going to be a blow to Disqus in some way shape or form, but that's the inherent risk in an "add-in" model. I wrote my first commercial software application for AOL and AOL Instant Messenger several years ago that was one of the first to created a consolidated, tabbed IM window.

It did well for a bit but then fast forward a few years and AOL added that feature themselves.

If WordPress is going to add some Disqus-like features by default, what happens when the other blogging platforms follow?

Re: Being Contrarian

WayneMulligan — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:37:07 -0000

"Margin of Safety" -- words to live by in markets like these. My boy Ben Graham, still a contrarian in most circles, nailed this principle almost 90 years ago.

Re: Can You Build An Enterprise Only Web App?

WayneMulligan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:11:18 -0000

The only thing Yammer has working in its favor relative to the Enterprise-IM solutions is that Twitter hasn't really hit mainstream corporate America yet. Yes, I know there are certain companies that are actively using it but relatively speaking, IM was much more ubiquitous by the time the enterprise tried to cash in on the game. Everyone was using it as a regular form of communication and then when the corporation tried to put the shackles on, there was mass resistance.

Yammer may not find such resistance among the rank and file at most companies -- especially in the financial space.

I thought it was a "neat" idea and would require some serious proof of concept before being taken seriously. I liked some of the other companies at TC50 much better -- Me-trics and iCharts being two of my fav's.

Re: Forced Selling…Puking Money…Amateur Hour - Welcome To America and Now Canada

WayneMulligan — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:48:57 -0000

Ah, the "market sucking balls", I believe that's only taught at Harvard Business School in advanced financial modeling classes.

Re: The "Feedization" Of The Web (continued)

WayneMulligan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:02:29 -0000

Maybe I misunderstood but I guess I thought you were talking about my original post regarding search advertising. In no way was my discussion related to regular site ads vs. feed ads. So I'm a little confused by the site ads vs. feed ads discussion -- but if that's what we're talking about then I don't think I could make a compelling argument one way or the other.

Re: The "Feedization" Of The Web (continued)

WayneMulligan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:32:40 -0000

I wasn't making assumptions about Google's costs, I'm talking more about inventory.

It's the inability to effectively monetize that has left Yahoo!'s revenue growth far behind Google's when it comes to search ads. Google's more effective at conversions and ad monetization.

Cost structure aside, if Google can make $100 serving ad 100 impressions, and we take your example of a site that is 100x less effective at converting, than that would mean that site would only make $1 per 100 impressions. What do you think that would do the company's overall revenue and profitability (assuming identical traffic across both sites)?

This is a great discussion by the way, feel free to email me direct if you'd like to talk about it further: wayne at tickerhound dot com.

Re: The "Feedization" Of The Web (continued)

WayneMulligan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:09:25 -0000

Fred, in your opinion would a feed-based ad model be more for brand marketers or direct marketers?

Re: The "Feedization" Of The Web (continued)

WayneMulligan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:59:30 -0000

Andy, I think the problem with our little back & forth is that we're ignoring the other end of this equation -- the publishers.

If Google's conversion rates were 100% less effective, would it matter to the advertiser if they were getting the same ROI? Obviously not.

But would it matter to Google? Of course it would.

That's why search is effective from a consumer, advertiser and publisher end. I can't see feeds doing the same.

Re: The "Feedization" Of The Web (continued)

WayneMulligan — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:33:15 -0000

Advertisers will pay to be wherever they can get the highest return on their investment. I'd argue that they'd get higher returns on their advertising dollars by going to mediums that best capture a customer's intent. It's all about conversion rates.

Re: The "Feedization" Of The Web (continued)

WayneMulligan — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:48:59 -0000

I agree, but will advertisers pay to be an afterthought?

That's my main point.

Re: The "Feedization" Of The Web (continued)

WayneMulligan — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:34:33 -0000

I'm not sure if I buy the "because feeds are becoming a great way to drive traffic, people will eventually figure out how to monetize them" logic. Text/banner ads might eventually become a method of monetizing feeds, but I don't think they'll be nearly as effective as search advertising.

The beautiful thing about search and what Overture/Google did, was they basically said "Searching" is a proactive display of intent to immediately consume. Whether that consumption be in the form of content or product, users were proactively seeking out information that was important to them at that very moment.

I use my feeds as a way to passively keep up to speed on people/topics that interest me all the time, not just when I'm seeking a specific piece of content (or a product). So feeds don't really capture my immediate intentions.

I'm sure there are arguments to the contrary but at the end of the day, when I'm typing "great places for brunch in New York" into a search engine this morning, versus seeing a post about a great brunch spot at midnight on wednesday, I'll be more likely to click an ad in the search results as opposed to the ads that appear in a news feed.

Re: Web Services That Cater To Both The Publisher And The Reader

WayneMulligan — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:34:56 -0000

I couldn't agree more.

I think the "catering to the publisher" mentality also eliminates one of the inherent risks in creating a "social" or community powered web app. The problem with many of these sites is the whole chicken & the egg issue -- how was Digg valuable before it had traffic, how did it get traffic before publishers deemed it valuable? That's tough nut to crack for an entrepreneur.

What many sites do is try to create a "utility" first - for example, Delicious was valuable even for that very first user. If nobody else was on Delicious I'd still use it for book marking stuff I found on the web and didn't want to lose on my hard drive or when I switched PC's. The service became even more valuable when more people got on it, but it was a utility first and social application second. The same with YouTube. That site could've done nothing else at the beginning but give me a place to upload and store my own videos and I would've found it to be useful.

So I think if more web services come at the 'chicken & the egg' problem from the perspective of, "How can I make my service valuable for one single users and nobody else", they'll dramatically increase their chances of success and mitigate a lot of the risk that comes from building community applications on the web.

Re: The China Adventures...Finally!

WayneMulligan — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:31:05 -0000

Thanks Michael! The soup dumplings were some of the best I've ever had...I really dig UpDown as well, I've been following the site for a while.

Re: Axes To Grind

WayneMulligan — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:26:00 -0000

You're right, it definitely seems like whoever fed that story to the Journal had an axe to grind.

I was mainly wondering how a VC is supposed to deal with situations like that in general. I guess there's two sides to the argument:

1. What's appropriate for a VC as an individual might not necessarily fit the investment criteria of the fund (e.g. I'm more likely to risk my own money investing in a friend's early stage company, but I might not necessarily feel comfortable putting an LP's money into it).

2. As a fund manager I'd have a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of my limited partners, and therefore give them priority access to any deals I'm investing in.

It's a tough call, but for me I think #1 makes the most sense from an ethical perspective. If you look at the flip side of the Insight/PhotoBucket deal and assume PhotoBucket was a risky investment that could've just as easily crashed and burned, then what would that have done to the fund's performance and the GP/LP relationship?

As for how to handle "axe grinders" -- I think you're handling it well. At the end of the day, I think what's made your blog so successful is that it's about "Fred" as person. As much as you write about the VC/start-up industry in general, you always personally have a place in the story. You talk about your music, your family, your frustration/close call with adjustable rate securities (very timely), etc. -- so as long as you continue to listen, ask the right questions and write about the stories (axe grinding or not) that affect you personally then I think you'll do just fine.

Re: When You Wake Up Feeling Old

WayneMulligan — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:45:35 -0000

Happy birthday Fred -- and don't worry, you're only as old as the last CEO you invested in. So just stay away from CEOs that are already collecting social security and you'll be fine :)

Re: Ping Pong…LindzonPalooza East Coast - Game ON!

WayneMulligan — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:05:57 -0000

Count me in. wayne at tickerhound dot com

Re: Are Ad Spend And Commerce Spend Correlated?

WayneMulligan — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:28:17 -0000

Good question. I'd also be interested in the causality. Is it purely cultural, is it based on how quickly (or not) the web is being adopted in certain regions, internet penetration rates, population densities, etc.?

Re: Are Ad Spend And Commerce Spend Correlated?

WayneMulligan — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:09:13 -0000

I wonder if brand ad buys are more prevalent in countries with smaller populations (or where the majority of the population is centered around a specific region). The brands might get more traction doing CPM buys due to offline purchasing activity (versus the CPC/CPA campaigns that are looking for strictly online activity).

Thoughts?

-Wayne

Re: Love and Startups

WayneMulligan — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:38:00 -0000

Start-ups are easier than relationships...not because dealing with the start-up is easier, but it's the fact that the start-up doesn't have to deal with us! My start-up would break up with me if it knew how poorly I sang in the shower in the morning or how many times I "cheated" on it by thinking of other companies to start :) Significant others aren't so forgiving or understanding.