FriendFeed as a business enabler to strengthen product branding
Image via CrunchBase
The hardest thing to do is associate a brand name with product, one way of approaching this is to use FriendFeed as a way to help you associate the brand name you are building with the products you are delivering. You can see examples of this littered throughout FriendFeed, and here are some [...]
Bootstrapped Company managing rejection
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When you are bootstrapping your company, sometimes you get a lot of rejection from the bank, and for my startup bookstore, rejection from the bank comes two weeks before the consummation of a deal that would throw us into a higher orbit in terms of business. There is much angst on this one, [...]
FTC to monitor blogs for conflicts of interest
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After the major blowout on the Gillmor Gang about reporting a conflict of interest, and the issues that have arisen over Social Spark, Payperpost and Izea, the FTP according to the AP is planning on going after bloggers if they do not say that they are taking compensation for a blog entry or [...]
Amazon adds charge when ship
Image via CrunchBase
Something to get Amazon third party sellers all in a tizzy this morning is a new “feature” or mandatory process called charge when ship. If you are selling on Amazon this morning you are going to see a number of new changes to your screen, its mandatory, and no all the whining the [...]
Rebranding my Startup
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Noticed on the Seattle 2.0 list they have a book store in their startup listing, taking a look through the competitor’s web site, I decided that if I wanted to get on the Seattle 2.0 startup list, then it might be a good idea to refocus what the startup should be about, and [...]
Boot Strap startup funding too much of a good thing
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Sometimes too many opportunities can hit too fast, causing a severe drain on the resources that a bootstrapped company can manage. What to do when there are too many good things happening, and you can only afford to do what you need to do.
Sometimes good things happen far too quickly for a [...]
Bet the company decisions
Image by arimoore via Flickr
Managing, no matter what you manage or how you manage it, eventually you will come upon a “bet the company” decision. Over the last week I have been in a “bet the company decision” about our startup, it involves money, credit lines, advisors on both sides and two CEO’s who know [...]
I know there is a recession on but I still want to talk to a sales person
Image by libraryman via Flickr
When you have money, and you have the authorization to spend it, and you know what you want, there are few things more frustrating than not being able to actually spend the money you want because you can not get hold of a sales person.
I am out looking for a [...]
So why did Microsoft do a Bond Sale
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Microsoft recently completed a bond sale for 3.8 billion dollars, which is a first for the software company. Once debt free, Microsoft will now be servicing the bonds for the duration that they exist. Of course this has generated all sorts of speculation, but also shows that for the right kind of risk, [...]
Lunch 2 0 for Seattle
Seattle has its own Lunch 2.0 and a Happy Hour 2.0 to go along with it. The Lunch 2.0 program here in Seattle is run by Joshua Maher, who is using an idea that was originally launched in Silicon Valley. The idea behind the lunch is to meet and mingle, in a small group, over [...]
Seattle 2 0 awards a wild fun night
Last night the inaugural Seattle 2.0 awards last night and it ended up being a great night for everyone who attended. The event sold out, and there were easily 300 people there (all the tickets that they had), meaning it was a huge success for Marcello and Danielle, with a big round of thanks for [...]
Rewarding linking blogs and systems
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Sometimes people are slow on the uptake, but how do you pay back the folks that link back to you. While link love is always good, sometimes you might want to just go back and do something special for all those folks that link to you.
Hence there is a new techwag policy [...]
I think I failed others are telling me not so fast
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Had an interesting conversation with a group of people yesterday, and I think I failed because they were unwilling to commit to a social networking service. While I am not a sales person, I do think that social networking is one way of helping customers and companies connect. Connection, the 1 to 1 [...]
Corporate Social Networking Forum
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I got a note yesterday about a new forum for corporate social networking that is worth checking out, and attending. There are three events this year, one in London, Asia and in the US the 9th and 10th of November in the Santa Clara Convention Center. With all the focus on Corporate [...]
Wrangling with the H1B Visa Issue
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Nathan over at NPost published a thought provoking article on the H1B visa program and how to fix it (if this is possible). The problem is that the H1B visa program is enormously unpopular right now with people living through the highest unemployment rates since 1982, and companies cutting back on everything that [...]
