Disqus - Latest Comments for chrisndodge

Re: Local Media's Hidden Asset: Their Salesforces

chrisndodge — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:36:28 -0000

I'm glad you brought this up, the yellow pages have a huge salesforce specifically designed to sell services to small local business. While their primary service is regarding a print product, that "sell" will eventually migrate to online marketing services as well.

While "local" seems like the "next big thing" for the Internet, no one should underestimate the complexity and expense of building out local sales teams. It's very hard to scale those types operations.

There will ultimately have to be "sales-team aggregators" which resell multiple online services, such as Google keywords, Yelp services, etc.

Re: Urban Architects

chrisndodge — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:42:37 -0000

I don't know if you are familiar with William Mitchell. He was the former Dean of Architecture at MIT and now he's director of the MIT Design Lab. He's been writing on Technology & Urban Planning/Experience for a long time now. I remember going to lectures of his in the mid-90's that had these elements that you are discussing.

Here's a link to his bio: http://www.media.mit.edu/people/wjm

Enjoy.

Re: The Best Deal In Startup Land

chrisndodge — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:23:14 -0000

Ag, always late to a thread that really interests me.

I've been watching the "next-wave" incubators like YC and TS for some time now. I'm a big fan of the model.

What I've been seeing are more and more incubator-like models with VC parentage, Polaris just announced one the other day. However, like any investing approach, either at this seed-stage or later Series X stages, the amount of "quality" really is the limiting factor. I've spoken with many people in this sector and they all say how hard it is to identify quality seed-stage companies that is appealing at even such a low funding level.

With ever more numbers of incubators coming online, this competition for quality deals (just as it always has been) will increase. I wonder if that may in turn cause a shift in the financial offerings to attract the best deals.

Re: The NY Startup Scene

chrisndodge — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:52:48 -0000

Being a ex-NYC'er in Boston for the past 10 years, do you have a quick comparative analysis between NYC and Boston with respect to the start-up scene and tech talent pool?

My vague hunch is that we may be loosing some ground up here lately, but I can't exactly put my finger on the how or why. Perhaps it's in the strong emergence of Social Media applications that can tap into NYC's rich history in Advertising and other creative pools of talent?

Re: What We Can Learn From Mess

chrisndodge — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:02:56 -0000

I love Craigslist's approach and I'm glad you are sticking up for them.

Especially it's lo-tech look-and-feel. As an architect type, I really appreciate how they must be squeezing every drop of capabilities from their server ops. No need to bog down the pipes with fancy graphic designs - raw HTML serves the application well - although I can understand that such an approach may not fly if it had started in the past few years.

Also, it's still the purest example out there of Kopelman's "shrinking-a-market". But, I did comment on Brad's earlier post about how shrinking markets and unlocking efficiencies through disintermediation may be at fundamental odds with a broader economic initiatives for "full employment".

Re: Chris and Malcolm are both wrong

chrisndodge — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:48:09 -0000

Brad -

Enjoyable post. I think an implicit statement here is that in this Craigslist-and-Josh-Kopelman ("shrinking existing markets") era, this will be reflected in employment difficulties for a long time.

As Internet-style approaches and solutions continue to work laterally across huge markets (Healthcare, Eduction, etc), there will be continued displacement of the workforce.

I'm not arguing one way or another, but I have trouble seeing what "full employment" will look like - in terms of what remains to be manual, human-driven value-producing tasks and the requisite skills sets. Also, as you point out, we don't know the tax-base implications of a displaced workforce as billion dollar (and trillion dollar if we look at healthcare) are shrunk.

Re: CV.IM - A New Kind Of Investment Management Account

chrisndodge — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:33:20 -0000

This could be an interesting idea: similar to Covestor's synchronized aggregated trading offering (that's what it is, triggering group actions based on user-defined trust relationships), couldn't the same approach be done in equity investments in startups. I guess the big difference is the illiquity of startup equity compared to public equities. Still...

Given the recent navel-gazing of the VC industry and the role that it plays in the ecosystem, something to think about.

Re: The Internet Is Alive And Well (As An Investment)

chrisndodge — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:38:52 -0000

Hi Fred,

Actually, I worked on a "digital receipt" seed-startup early this year, as Lead Technologist to produce a prototype for the founder. I believe the founder is currently starting fundraising.

I can't give much more info due to confidentiality, but I'd happy arrange an introduction/conversation.

Re: Streaming Kills Piracy

chrisndodge — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:46:34 -0000

What's your opinion on Pandora's royalty fee agreement last week? I haven't been able to track down the details yet, but I was happy to hear some progress on the business-side front nevertheless. That's one of the critical pieces to be put in place for this "streaming everywhere" vision - until the costs structures are understood, it'll be hard to evaluate whether the revenue side will cover the costs of operations.

Re: What VCs Are Worrying About

chrisndodge — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:44:57 -0000

I'm a little out of my element here when I participate in financing discussions.

One approach I've been curious about is whether VC's could change from an equity-appreciation play to a cashflow play. If exit markets are thought to be gone with respect to the salad-days of 1999-era, then perhaps there's an opportunity (albeit smaller) to structure investment deals on a dividends-from-cashflow standpoint.

Has anyone taken such an approach? Seems like it could be a potential fit for Y-Combinator type small-seed investment funds. But, it'd probably be hard to "move-the-needle" in terms of getting enough cash into play for it to make sense for many large funds.

Re: Boxee App Dev Challenge Winners

chrisndodge — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:54:20 -0000

Actualy, Boxee originally started out with a custom hardware platform. They've put that aside for the last two years or so, but perhaps they are reconsidering it.

Personally, I'd like to see Boxee running *inside* the TV. In the end, TV's are simply going to become simply computers that are optimized for large display. There's really no need for set-top boxes, just put it all inside the TV itself.

Re: Building Successful Long Term Relationships

chrisndodge — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:01:59 -0000

Late comment, but I'd be curious to ask about how you build and maintain the other side of your business, namely your Limited Partners. Do similar criteria apply when you decide to accept investments - particularly regarding the values and dreams components that are important to you? Are there differences whether the LPs are Institutional or private investors?

Thanks and happy belated Father's Day.

Re: Mafia Wars On The iPhone

chrisndodge — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:02:38 -0000

Interesting to read your updated reply. Has the reviews/interest in the Palm Pre resparked your interest on this topic?

One other big of interesting news that has been pretty much "under-the-radar": Google has finally announced (way late, it seems) the Second Android Developer's Challenge, with some good prize money. I've actually thinking of throwing my hat into the ring myself - it'd be a good way to bootstrap an idea that I've been kicking around for a year or so.

Re: A Boxee App I'd Love To See Built

chrisndodge — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:44:26 -0000

Glad to hear that. In my reply to Avner in the comment thread, I do think there is an interesting opportunity in tie-ins between TV\Movie launches and pre-released "apps" on iPhone - and as an extension - perhaps Boxee and other set-top-box devices.

But perhaps again I'm just too stuck in OOP development models ala C++,C#,Objective-C, or Java.

Re: A Boxee App I'd Love To See Built

chrisndodge — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:41:12 -0000

Hi Avner,

Thanks for the feedback. Congrats on all the Boxee success! It's been fun watching the evolution of the product since 2006 or so.

I'm just a pretty "old-school" architect/developer and - as such - I'm kinda stuck with traditional OOP style programming, although I say that with clear understanding that I might of be a dying breed these days.

If I might expand a bit on my earlier fragmented thoughts, there is an interesting opportunity between "apps" (Boxee or iPhone) and pre-launch show marketing. In expanding that out a bit to consider what dev platforms that require, it's really back in the C-like sphere (C++, C#, Objective-C) with some 3D support like Open-GL. It's hard for me to picture those type of applications in Phython or XML-based scripting languages.

All the best in your continued success!

Re: A Boxee App I'd Love To See Built

chrisndodge — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:11:05 -0000

There might be an interesting synergy (sorry - I normally hate that word) emerging between TV/Movies and iPhone Apps (also as an extention Boxee?!?) games as a marketing platform prior to film/show releases.

I could imagine a TV show launch release a Boxee app to ultimate build up a viewership before the show starts to air.

I know I'm going to draw some ire for this question, but any chance that Boxee could support a more "typical" development environment, e.g. C++, C#, Java. I've never touched Python and I probably wouldn't pick it up just to develop for Boxee plugins.

Re: My Google Talk On Disruption

chrisndodge — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:47:26 -0000

I'm not sure I can make a convincing counter-argument here, but - to my mind - that human element in the "not end-to-end digital" is an indication of massive inefficiencies that are (or will be soon) ripe for the picking.

If you think of any industry or process that is ready for disruption, it is along that Josh Kopelman mantra whereby markets are shrunk exactly because they had been artificially inflated for too long. It is precisely that automation step - removing the inefficient manual steps - which unlocks tremendous value.

Simple case: Think Craigslist. Classifieds was a horridly inefficient manualy process where a "database" (printed listings in a newspaper) was manually sold/edited.

To me, this is the same as healthcare. There are several components of Healthcare/Wellness spectrum that are really just about conveyance of information, assesment of status and wellness, establishment of a plan of action, and evaluation of adherence to the prescribed plan. Much of this does not have to involve high-margin costs of direct physician care. Hence, my interest in several trends towards Physician Assistants as well as these retail-clinics at Walmart. That is "market-shrinking" activity in my eyes.

Ultimately, one component of Healthcare is purely physical and therefore must be a manual, relationship based (i.e. Doctor/patient) interaction. However, there are too many inefficiencies in the mix that will ultimately (hopefully) innovated out of existence.

With regards to the "path", I don't exactly know either at this point in time. But - along with the Education market - I sense big opportunity, but it will have to be hard fought.

Re: My Google Talk On Disruption

chrisndodge — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:34:45 -0000

I'm with you on the grand opportunity that awaits in the disruption of the Healthcare ecosystem. Recently, I've migrated my career from Digital Media to Healthcare IT since I believe there is terrific room for innovation here and it's just getting started (evn putting the EMR initiatives aside).

I'm very excited with the trends of pushing early-stage health assessments/consultations away from Hostpitals/Private Practice offices and out towards "the leaf nodes" so to speak. At-home Healthcare and Wellness is a huge trend that will be cresting in the next 5-10 years.

Also, this is exciting and a good "re-imaging" of retail space: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/business/12cl...

Although I don't like to see market crushing companies like Wal-Mart continue to acquire more muscle, but from a "topographic" standpoint (I always like to see things as System's Architecture viewpoint) it's the right idea.

However, I do seem to recal that you feel that Healthcare is an impenetrable mess from an investor's standpoint, with too many vested interests on behalf of the healthcare providers and payers to compete against. Do you still feel that way?

At 17% of GDP, Heatlhcare represents $2.4T of spending a year. Any minute improvements in efficencies would yield trendous value. This brings to mind Josh Kopelman's Law of wanting to shrink markets via disruptive value creation: "We love investing in technologies and business models that are able to shrink existing markets. If your company can take $5 of revenue from a competitor for every $1 you earn – let's talk!" (http://redeye.firstround.com/2006/04/shrink_a_m...)

Re: Use The Public Channel For Better Customer Service

chrisndodge — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:17:05 -0000

From an Architectural standpoint, it's interesting to consider how these "notification platforms" (which Twitter is ultimately) could be used from an efficiency standpoint. It'd be terrific if these notifications would be routed to people already in the field. Plus with geo-tagging on the submitted photo, it would go a long way to make municipalities run better.

This is really the dawn of Mobile Apps. It's been mostly consumer focused so far but the next big opportunities are in Enterprise (particularly Logistics and Business Intelligence) and these "civics" type projects are very interesting as well from a cost saving opportunity point of view.

Re: The American Express Blues

chrisndodge — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:20:35 -0000

I've never been sure what the appeal of an AmEx card is in the age of the Debit Card. Mine is MasterCard debit against my nicely appealing local credit union bank: Direct Federal in MA.

I think consumer credit debt is the next big black hole (albeit a lot smaller than mortgages). Not surprising to hear of AmEx tighenting the screws in terms of identifying additional fee opportunities.

Best of luck wading through the quagmire.

Re: A Second Market Is Emerging

chrisndodge — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:44:27 -0000

What's your thinking on insider disclosure when trading over this private market? Should founders be required to disclose when selling their shares in such a market?

Re: A Deeper Dive Into The First Quarter VC Investment Numbers

chrisndodge — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:28:58 -0000

Yea, that's an interesting case study - even if the allegations are proven incorrect - with respect to some of the dialog we've all had on avc.com regarding private secondary markets for insider sales of private companies. I suppose the question becomes at what point in a startup is it appropriate for founders to liquidate a sizeable chunk of their equity outside of a more formal exit (M&A or IPO).

Re: A Deeper Dive Into The First Quarter VC Investment Numbers

chrisndodge — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:45:49 -0000

Interesting to see that investments into Metro NY might soon surpass New England, which confirms an impression that I've been forming recently (myself being in Boston).

Any thinking that can account for this regional shift of interest? Has talent accumulating in the NYC area which are leading to more opportunities to surface? Or is it somewhat of a numbers game with the relative population being much larger?

If - say - the Boston area tech emphasizes on Bio/Medical, Healthcare, and Education [as i've heard summarized elsewhere], if you had to characterize the Metro NY area, what are your top-level impressions?

Re: Reading Mr Market's Mind

chrisndodge — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:39:37 -0000

Goldman Sachs and TARP really makes my blood boil. They got paid out 100-cent on the dollar for their AIG bets through a backdoor deal without any taxpayer disclosure, representation, or upside participation.

All the while complaining about being under the government's thumb via their original TARP funding.

What nerve!

Re: Mafia Wars On The iPhone

chrisndodge — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:39:13 -0000

Congrats on the release. I'll look forward to playing it.

I recall us having a short convo in AVC comment thread about you being bullish on Android a few months back. With all of the current news (iPhone OS 3.0, Rich Miner leaving Android team to head up Google VC, continued lack of a market accepted implementation of Android) do you still feel that way?

I think the decision to formally support 3rd party hardware accessories on the iPhone via OS 3.0 is HUGE and will create a wonderful diversity of cottage industries using the iPhone/iPod Touch truly as a portable computing environment.

Makes me want to say: "game, set, match".