Silicon Bubble

My Boss is a Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:48:00 +0000

Some people worry about working for the Devil, but in my case I work for the Dragon. I have known Sean O'Sullivan for more years than I am willing to admit - beginning with his first high technology startup, MapInfo, right out of college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

It was obvious Sean was a brilliant visionary (Entrepreneur of the Year, coining "Cloud Computing"), a shrewd investor (e.g. Apple upon the return of Steve Jobs, Netflix, Guitar Hero), but what has most impressed me over the years has been his work as a humanitarian (see JumpStart). As a true American rags to riches story, Sean has always impressed upon me how important for one to be passionate and engage with your ventures.

Should I worry now that my Avego boss has become a Dragon! Not a real one, but rather the Dragon's Den is an Irish reality TV series similar to the US "Shark Tank" equivalent whereby would be entrepreneurs pitch their concepts to a panel of professional VCs ready to put their money on the table. Check out his interview on the Irish Late Late Show.

go520 Seattle - Real-time Carpool

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:04:00 +0000

Working at Avego is a lot of fun and the kick off this last week of our latest project in Seattle just adds to the excitement of working at a start-up.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining what go520 is and instead invite you to check out the press we got.

Wired Autopia Blog

The Seattle Times

Tech Crunch

New York Times Green Blog

Things must be getting better

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:23:00 +0000

In 1998 and 1999 everyone had an idea for a start-up. That meant a lot of friends had ideas for start-ups, every lunch, coffee and dinner was a hashing out of their idea. Last week seemed to be a blast from the past with a weird twist. Either the get together was listening to a new company idea or the person was out of work looking for a new job. I wonder in retrospect if the start-up ideas were more about trying to get a job then about starting a start-up. People are starved for work and at some point looking for a job just doesn't seem possible any more so starting a company and getting funding "must" be easier.

What so many people who have never started a start-up or gone out for funding don't realize is getting money is a lot harder then getting a job. It may somehow look easier when you are desperate for a paycheck but unless you have a rocket science idea you are just spinning your wheels. Investors don't fund so you can get a paycheck. They fund ideas, passion and ROI.

Of course we all have to try at least once and who knows....the idea I think doesn't have a chance in hell could be the next Netscape. (I was the one who told my buddy the Internet wasn't going anywhere!)

If you think you have a rocket science idea here are a few resources.

13 Seed Funding Options For Entrepreneurs

The Top 10 Mistakes People Make When Starting A Business

101 Useful Resources for Online Entrepreneurs

What is this Vencorps? I got an email Friday saying they have re-launched?

Another social media site

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:47:00 +0000

The question I ask myself is this, "do we really need another social media site?" I ran across an article last week "Social Media Marketing: Facebook + Twitter Aren't Enough"

Maybe the question is better asked as, "do I need another social media site to work in my schedule?" I already use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. No, I don't use them as often as a social media expert might encourage me to but I do stay on top of my LinkedIn.

Then I read this article and couldn't help but feel a small sense of of we've just gone too far. Sort of like reality t.v. But, I digress. So I spent some time checking out the sites in this article I've never heard of Care2, Slideshare, Scribd, DeviantArt, Posterous, StackExchange, Namesake, Quora, Hunch, Forrst and Dribbble.

Care2 is a bit north of Silicon Valley for folks who care about things like saving puppies and educating kids.

Slideshare based in San Francisco and invested in by Venrock & Mark Cuban amongst others. A place for you PowerPoint geeks to share your 50 page presentations.

Scribd in San Francisco is for people who like to read and do research. I'm not sure how this is different from Googles efforts to digitize books, manuscripts, etc.

DeviantArt - A place for artists to network. Based in Hollywood, CA

Posterous backed by Redpoint and other Silicon Valley investors based in San Francisco. Another site like Tumblr. Blogging and social media entangled.

StackExchange - Q&A site geared towards techies based in Mt. View/Sunnyvale

Namesake - A prettier version of LinkedIn focusing on specific industries, writers, artists, musicians

Quora is a bunch of ex-Facebook folks here in Silicon Valley and so far not much info outside of the tech industry. Interestingly enough last week there was a thread on how to get introduced to Ron Conway.

Hunch in NYC is the next generation of StumbleUpon. Or is it really a smarter search then Google?

Forrst - See StackExchange but with a park ranger

Dribbble - See Slideshare but for artists and creative types to share works in progress

As you can see from my descriptions of the above sites I grew less and less patient with each one. What's happening here? Everyone is chasing a small % of Facebook. All you need to be successful is to dominate a niche in a market that could be work 50 billion or more. So it stands to reason if you can even get a 1% market share of 50 billion you have a pretty good business.

In the meantime the rest of us are left to navigate social media and find our niche. I'll be glad for the next "BIG" thing. Maybe it'll be easier....as I harken back to the days of Netscape, eBay and Amazon.

Moving past "GO"

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 06:04:00 +0000

Writing a blog is not an easy thing. Most of you already probably know this.

It is a new year and I have to move past "GO" to be more diligent in writing this blog. To start I want to share this video with you that I ran across a couple of weeks ago. An inspiring video and relevance to the work Avego is doing in the transportation industry.

Rachel Botsman: The case for collaborative consumption

Misdirected Intentions

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:37:00 +0000

The recent big transit news in the USA is how Ray LaHood, United States Secretary of Transportation, has rescinded a Bush-era rule on how transportation projects will be evaluated and approved by the US DOT (link http://tinyurl.com/yz2hx4b).

This ruling both downgrades "cost-effectiveness" and elevates "environmental and economic benefits" criteria used to determine whether a local transit project can receive federal funds. Now if the DOT can pass a federal transportation bill, then we might see increased investment dollars to relieve congestion, reduce emissions, increase our energy independence, and promote more livable communities across the country.

These changes are a good step in the right direction, but we need to take bolder steps change driving behaviors and spur economic recovery. Have we not learned our lessons from the 1970's oil crises and the recent recession? European countries approach transportation completely differently than here in the USA. With heavy gas taxes, they can fund transportation projects while discouraging people from driving single occupancy vehicles and using public transportation.

The stimulus was supposed to slow the recession and jump start our economy. In the world of transportation, this has led to 100% Federally funded (aka your tax dollars) projects such as new hybrid bus and transit facilities. USA fare-box recover continues to drop below 20% and lags terribly behind western Europe and Asia ridership levels. Yes we created jobs for 6-9 months for a few American owned bus manufacturing companies and construction workers, but at the same time agencies across the country are cutting back on service and increasing fares. This is exactly the wrong time to be taking these action because lower wage earners depend upon public transportation to get to those jobs we are trying to create.

Instead of funding Capital Expense projects while bus occupancy levels hover at 20%, we should be helping local transit agencies with Operating Expenses so they can expand service and lower fares - thus encouraging (carrot approach) more riders to use public transportation. Further, we should consider an overhaul of our gas tax to better fund transportation projects and discourage the consumption of oil.

Friends don't let friends drive alone

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Transportation accounts for 34% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the USA, and two thirds is caused by single occupancy cars and trucks. These same vehicles are the primary cause of congestion on our roads and highways including reductions in employee productivity caused by sitting in traffic. These problems are not going away with UN projections of close to 1% annual global population growth or 2.9 million people added to the globe each month. Recent initiatives to spur the growth of alternative fuels and battery operated cars are all positive steps towards tacking the emission problem, but they will do absolutely nothing to solve our congestion problems which are growing at a rate of 15% each year.

We need strategies which we can implement quickly to help with both problems... and the answer is carpooling. Carpooling does not require any new fuel to be invented, it does not require you to purchase a new vehicle, and it can be implemented in a matter of minutes instead of years. Simply by sharing a ride with a friend, family member or co-worker... we can make an immediate and significant impact on two major challenges we face.

The Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk campaign was created by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Ad Council back in 2005. Now is the time to leverage the awareness of this campaign to get people out of their single occupancy vehicles. Let's roll out a new campaign called "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Alone" and together we can save the world... one seat at a time.

Take a trip to Dublin

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:03:00 +0000

Dublin is the home of Leprechauns and Guinness Beer.... which happens to be across the street from the Avego offices (my employer). If you get the chance, then I highly recommend a trip to Ireland if you are heading across the pond to visit London, Amsterdam or any other nearby city.

Below are a few tips from the locals:

Transportation from Airport: Aircoach (about €15 return, www.aircoach.ie, runs every 15 minutes) or a taxi. A taxi shouldn't cost you any more €25 into the city centre. Beware of taxi drivers with fast fingers who puts lots of "extras" on the meter. The ONLY extra they are entitled to charge you for is €1 per additional passenger after the first passenger. So you're basically just paying the fare on the meter.

Bus Tours: Hop-on, hop-off bus tour: http://www.dublinsightseeing.ie/cityTour, €15 per head; it's well worth it - but some drivers are much better and more informative than others. If you get a good driver with a bit of character, stay on the bus for a while...conversely just jump off if the driver's having a bad day. They run every 15 minutes. Tickets are good for 24 hours.

Walking Tours: Grafton St is worth a stroll from top to bottom and Trinity College does good walking tours.

Pubs: They whole city is full of them of course. The Stag's head, on Dame Lane (just off Dame St...any good local will give you directions) is a great old Irish pub. The Palace Bar on Fleet St is also worth a visit. Toners on Baggot St is about a 5 minute walk from your hotel and serves a great pint of Guinness. More upmarket are the Shelbourne Hotel (Stephen's Green) or the Clarence Hotel (owned by U2, just beside Capel St Bridge).

Restaurants: Eden (Temple Bar) serves good contemporary food, as does the Winding Stair (Ormond Quay, which has an Irish theme through its menu). Both would probably need to be booked.

Art: National Gallery. It also has a good cafe for lunch just inside the main entrance, and also a good coffee shop. If you are into art, then the hop-on, hop-off bus goes past the Museum of Modern Art.

Coffee shops: Starbucks isn't as good as Insomnia or Butlers. If you wanted some Irish scones and breads, try Avoca on Suffolk St. It's good. Or Bewley's on Grafton St, which is also good and full of Dublin tradition.

If you get to Dublin, be sure to stop by the Avego offices and invite them for a drink atop the Guinness factory - excellent views of the entire city... on a clear day ;-)

My Top 10 Travel "Pet Peeves"

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:33:00 +0000

#10: Airlines that charge to check your bags... they are going to pay the baggage handlers regardless. If you really want to check it, then just take it to the gate and they will check it there for free

#9: Empty HOV lanes during rush hour... and people that want to pay to drive in the HOV lanes. Single Occupancy Vehicles are the #2 contributor to global warming... only behind industry emissions

#8: Room service charges... 15-20% gratituity PLUS a delivery charge of $2-$4. I ordered desert the other day... food $6 + $5.20 in delivery fees (*#$&*#

#7: Hotel and Airline pricing models... you could be paying double or more than the person sitting next to you for the same flight. Prices should either be consistent or get cheaper as occupancy increases - once they hit a certain level it's all profit

#6: Cloth seats in a bus or subway car... have you ever seen how disgustingly dirty they are? Next time the designer should stick with plastic seats that can be hosed off.... but you do meet the most interesting people on a bus ;-)

#5: Airlines that charge for snacks. Come on now... $5-10 for a bite of cheese, 2 crackers, 6 grapes and a cookie?

#4: Airports without WiFi... even the kind you have to pay for. Wake up Cleveland and join the 21st century!

#3: Expensive hotels that charge extra for internet access. All the less expensive hotels offer it for free

#2: Airlines economy seats that are soooo close together. If the person in front of you reclines, then your computer closes 45 degrees... if I am going to be uncomfortable - at least let me work

#1: People who don't know the rules about going through the security... some of these rookies just sit there without pushing their luggage onto the scanner belt. What are they thinking... maybe the baggage handler is going to come and help them push it in or something?

It's A Small World

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:35:00 +0000

I am the type of person that will strike up a conversation with just about anyone. I find it interesting to learn where people are from, what they do for a living and what's most important in their lives. It's very common for me to meet people from other countries during my travels - my so-called seat partners. These days, airline travel makes the far corners of the globe only a few hours away, and Silicon Valley is the west coast melting pot of the USA. But during my past week of travels I experienced something for the very first time.... every single person I met sitting next to me was born in a different country. I would expect that flying in and out of San Francisco or New York - but also during every one of my flights from Aspen, Denver, Phoenix and Seattle? It was very interesting to me that our world has become so small that in a single week with 6 flights I would only sit next to people from other countries including; India, Columbia (2), Mexico, Germany, UK, Spain and China. My trip reminded me of the ride at Disney World - It's A Small World. Enjoy!

Road Warrior iPhone Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:31:00 +0000

I'm back in the saddle after few years of limited travel. I will be in 20 cities in the month of September and even more in October. Tools for road warriors like myself have changed over the past 5-10 years, and as a new iPhone convert I can now get all my tools in the palm of my hand. So here is my list of most valuable iPhone travel tools that keep flying the friendly skies:

Tripit - Just forward all your travel confirmations and it automatically organized your details and sends you travel alerts. Best of all, you can share your details with family and friends so they know where and how to find you.
Kayak - Excellent tool to quickly find your flight options and compare prices across multiple sites. Easy to use with simple filtering tools by departure/arrival time, stops, airlines, etc
Travelocity & Orbitz - my preferred sites for booking discounted flights.
Priceline - I usually don't have the time flexibility to use them for flights which could occur anytime during your chosen day, but for bidding on hotels at 1/2 price they cannot be beat.
Carrentals - seems to have better car rental rates than priceline, and does it really matter what car company one uses?
Google Maps - No need to invest in a Tom Tom or a monthly plan for turn by turn. Just enter an address and follow your little blue dot.
Free WiFi - OK call me cheap, but I hate how expensive hotels charge for WiFi when the discount ones give it away. Just check for the nearest free hot spot, grab a coffee and get some work done.
Daylight Touch - This one won't apply to you unless you utilize Daylight (MAC only) for CRM, but their iPhone version is better than what you can find for Salesforce.
Skype - When it's time to call home... my daughter can now see Daddy when he is far far away.
Taxi Magic - In New York you can just hold out your hand, but in many cities it takes 10-15 minutes for a taxi to just pass by on the road... so book your taxi and stop hanging out on the curb.
Tweetie - Best way to Tweet on the road and keep and keep up with those you follow.
Jet Expense - Track your expenses as you spend, then take a photo of the receipt. A single click and your expense report is on it's way to your boss for approval.
Yelp - When in an unfamiliar city, this is an excellent tool to find good eats.

If you have a favorite iPhone travel tool, then send me a note - I am always looking for ways to make my time on the road more productive.

Sales Rule #1: Put the customer first

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Sun, 17 May 2009 04:31:00 +0000

I had an urgent package of equipment that needed to be delivered to a customer recently. I dropped off the package at a FedEx location on a Friday and paid for overnight delivery. A phone call from my customer on Monday morning informed me the package never arrived. I called FedEx and was told how they have a 99% delivery rate, but no one could locate my package for another 8 hours. Eventually I demanded FedEx search their local facility after I learned the box never got scanned at the FedEx Memphis distribution center.

Voila, the box had been found - it was never shipped from the local FedEx facility. But now it was too late to ship in time for Tuesday arrival?! They offered to reimburse me if I shipped by air cargo, so I starting driving to pickup the box from FedEx and drop it off at the United Airlines Small Package Freight desk. By this time it was almost midnight, so I called my disappointed customer and awoke him and promised it would be there first thing next morning.

Upon arriving at the airport, the freight desk refused my package on the grounds my
company was not an approved shipper? I learned that after 9/11, shippers must complete a background check before they can send freight greater than 1 pound. Now what would you do in this situation? FedEx could not deliver until Wednesday. I could not ship via Air Freight since my company was not approved. The customer project was on hold and already a critical day behind schedule. It was now past midnight for my customer and I had already promised the box would be there in the

morning. Hmmm....

Remember Sales Rule No# 1 - Put the customer first!

So I purchased a round trip ticket and personally delivered the package myself. It took me 24 hours in travel time, and just under $600 (FedEx only offered $100 credit on future shipments)... but my spouse was supportive, my boss was impressed, and most important... the customer was happy.

My new slogan for myself... When it absolutely, positively has to be there today - call Paul.

Where to start when you don't know much...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:29:00 +0000

A past employee contacted me recently for some professional guidance. She took a new job selling for an industry where she had no previous domain knowledge. The company had been selling their products entirely via the web, and had recently hired two sales persons including my friend. Both sales people were struggling, and she was feeling insecure due to her lack of domain expertise.

I reminded my protégé of her excellent sales skills, and to focus on how she could gain the necessary domain knowledge in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, she could not ask for guidance from the top sales person since she was the first one they hired. However, the best source of information was contacting her company on a daily basis... their customers. That's right - the very same customers that were buying the product over the web (with zero human interaction) were her best source of knowledge and could help her absorb the necessary product knowledge. I could hear the light bulb turn on, and she was on her way.

I believe that a sales person with above average sales skills and intelligence will usually out perform the one with excellent domain knowledge but only average sales skills.

Flying in the clouds

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:55:00 +0000

I have decided to "put my money where my mouth is" so to speak! I am a strong proponent of the "cloud" and believe it will eventually consume the SMB space plus the edges of many Enterprise customers. I also believe that during the early stages of a start-up, you must determine if potential customers will consume your products or services. Investors like to say... "will the dogs eat the dogfood"?

I made a personal commitment in February to move my life entirely into the cloud... data, applications, the works! Can it be done? The answer is Yes! Below is a list of the key tools I am using to manage both by personal and professional life.

Avego
Google Gmail (personal & business via POP access)
iPhone & any browser
Facebook
Google Docs
LinkedIn
Microsoft Exchange (web based)
Priceline
Quickn
QuickOffice
Salesforce
Skype
Soonr
Travelocity
Webex
Zoho

I believe the lower cost of ownership and flexibility to use a phone or any browser is simply too compelling for most small business owners to resist. There will always be specialized applications that require more power and some Enterprise applications that may never move outside the firewall... but cloud computing is real, and it's here to stay.

Dancing with Silicon Valley stars

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 06:02:00 +0000

Steve Wozniak is from "old school" Silicon Valley fame... back in the hay days of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Philippe Kahn and Mitch Kapor. These days a new generation of geeks and average Americans are fans of "doughboy" Woz on the ABC TV show Dancing with the Stars.

We have seen this phenomena before on American Idol, when a huge public support campagn is launched to retain the "funky" or "dreamy eyed" contestant - against the urging of the judges. This makes for great TV... as long as they don't win the ulitmate contest and deminish the franchise.

What is different is that Steve's fans are primarily hometown geeks that are leveraging technology as never before (websites and twitter feeds) to pump up his popularity and keep him on the show. This is a perfect example of how Silicon Valley is unique, and again shows how nerds continue to beat the odds (Revenge of the Nerds).

Where are the Glengarry Glen Ross leads?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:34:00 +0000

I was recently asked... What do you think are the most cost effective sources of sales leads? That's a very broad question that may have different answers if you are selling a $2.99 iPhone application or a multi-million dollar enterprise solution. Below is a summary of how I answered...

Cold Calling is a dying art. Blindly calling phone numbers off a purchased list these days would be an exercise in futility. I think the term should be Warm Calling since I think most sales professionals these days at least performed some basic web research to identify key employees.

Web Leads (PPC, cross links) have a proven ROI When targeting consumers and small business. This is by far the most effective way to educate potential prospects about your product/service, then getting them to "take action" by downloading a free trail or requesting a followup contact. Look at the huge success of SaaS and Open Source vendors using this model.

Conference Networking is good for building your professional network, but rarely leads directly to sales results. Attending industry seminars and conferences is an excellent way to keep up with the latest trends and to socialize with like minded executives. These are not selling events.

Social Networking has become a very important tool early in the sales process. When a salesperson uses an on-line networking site (LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo), they can identify potential employees within a target company.

Customer Referrals are in my opinion the most valuable lead into the enterprise. My experience is that my largest sales have happened when one customer heard good things about us from another customer (online, in the news or at a networking event). If you make your customer successful, then you will get the most valuable leads for Free.

Spring Time... new companies beginning to blossom

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:20:00 +0000

The huge popularity of the iPhone is both an endorsement of the Apple Engineering team, and Apple's strategic leverage of a new generation of mobile application developers. In the early days of the MAC and PC, it took much larger companies with bigger staffs and deeper budgets to develop the early winners of these new platforms.

This new breed of developers are creative yet small teams of passionate engineers rolling out hit after hit for this new platform - companies like Smule and Fullpower. Disclaimer - I met Smule founders Jeff Smith and Dr. Ge Wang at Under the Radar last fall, and Fullpower was founded by my former boss Philippe Kahn.

As the platform improves and new ones like Android take hold, I think we will see many new companies that will be in the news for years to come. Mobile computing is finally becoming mainstream.

Stanford's Leaders of Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:27:00 +0000

I want to thank Executive Director Tina Seelig and her staff for another successful eWeek event here at Stanford University.

The keynote closing session included several of the regular circuit of Silicon Valley VCs in a session called "Next Big Thing" including; Tony Perkins, CEO of AlwaysOn; Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Director of Draper, Fisher Jurvetson; and Michael Moe, Founding Partner of ThinkEquity.

For me, the most interesting sessions included;

Pitchfest: Venture Capital Speed Dating - this is the main reason I like to attend this event... an opportunity to hear from the leaders of tomorrow. Somewhere in this room is the next Google.
"Startup 101" Job Fair - the sky is not completely black as several Bay Area companies were looking for next year's graduates to join the ranks.
The nightly Entrepreneurship Mixers - no liquor served at Stanford, just another opportunity to network with the young minds of Standford and learn what gets this motivated. I have been hearing lots of health care and bio tech ideas this week.
James Bond Casino Caper - an entrepreneurial creativity workshop led by guest professor Allistair Fee of Acorn International. Stanford students must solve an international crisis through simulation.

You can see all the Pod Casts here.

Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Today was the kick-off of the annual Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford University. The keynote was an inspirational talk about innovation from Stanford President, Dr. John Hennessy. John joined Stanford’s faculty in 1977 as an assistant professor of electrical engineering and quickly rose through the ranks to become Dean of the School of Engineering and eventually the 10th President of Stanford University. You may also recognize his name as one of the inventors of RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), and as co-founder of MIPS Computer Systems.

He focused his presentation on the role of universities to foster innovation - something that is difficult once a company achieves dominance in a particular industry. He highlighted his point with relevant high-technology examples such as IBM's loss of dominance as we shifted from mainframe/mini-computers into the PC age. The same difficulties faced by Microsoft with the move to the Internet as Google is now the dominate player. I agree with his premise that large companies find it difficult to focus on emerging technologies if they do not immediately contribute to the top line of revenues. Even Google has struggled to leverage their investments in YouTube and Postini as these groups try to compete for internal attention and focus compared to their core business of Search.

His insights were based on his prior experiences as a successful entrepreneur, and his current role as a board member for several high-technology ventures, including Google and Cisco Systems. His presentation style was straight forward and filled with enthusiasm - a perfect way to inspire the inventors and leaders of tomorrow. Stay tuned for more updates from Stanford.
- To Be Continued -

Stimulus Sale - 50% OFF

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:18:00 +0000

Charming Sam is doing our part to stimulate the economy with an incredible sale on ALL necklaces, earrings and bracelets. Don't miss this opportunity for fabulous savings on all jewelry in the store... help kick-start the economy and shake off the winter blues. This is your last chance to save 50% on signature designs from Charming Sam as seen in O-Magazine, InStyle and Marie Claire. Treat yourself, or the one you love, to something special at incredible prices. The "stimulus" savings code will automatically be applied to your shopping cart. Hurry... the sale ends at midnight Friday, February 20,2009. Start Shopping

Disclaimer: Charming Sam is owned by my wife Amy Steinberg. When I am not working my day job, I help my wife create email campaigns for her Art & Jewelry business.

Did MySQL fly to close to the Sun?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:47:00 +0000

Sun purchased opensource database company MySQL last January for $1 billion. This week we learned that former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos is the third senior executive to depart. Following co-founders Michael Widenius and David Axmark out the door highlights the risk a large corporation takes when acquiring an independent startup. A successful acquisition depends upon may factors, and only time will tell if the loss of key personnel will ultimately hurt innovation and growth of this revolutionary product.

Sales of MySQL have increased in recent quarters as discussed in a recent San Jose Mercury News report. This growth is benefiting from Sun's corporate reputation and extensive field sales organization. But long term success will depend upon Sun's ability to upgrade the product and support offerings for their largest enterprise customers. I hope Sun continues to grow the development of MySQL that was started by these great Nordic innovators.

The iPhone upset the Telco's AppleCart

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:58:00 +0000

The iPhone has been a huge success by any standard. Although it still controls a small fraction of the installed smartphone market... the iPhone has been growing at a faster rate than any other. The most obvious reasons include the safari browser and innovative and stylish design. However, the most compelling barrier for exit for iPhone adopters will be the plethora of applications available in the AppStore.

I think Jobs learned a lesson from the early days of the PC - Mac wars. Ultimately, the Mac struggled for success due the large installed base of incompatible PC applications. Business users simply were not willing to switch since they could not find the same breath of software titles available on the Mac. By opening up the development of applications to anyone capable of building a web application, and offering those applications directly to iPhone consumers... Apple is not only building a barrier to exit, but they have single handily broken through the walled garden carriers have maintained for years.

No longer will carriers such as AT&T, Rogers, Vodafone and T-Mobile be able to dictate what applications a phone vendor can deploy on their network. For the consumer it provides freedom of choice. For Apple it provides a significant barrier to exit. And for the carriers - Job's is the boy that upset the Apple cart.

Michael hasn't changed... the industry has

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:36:00 +0000

Michael Arrington has decided to step away from TechCrunch for the month of February to reflect upon blogging career after a recent incident outside a conference in Germany. In his blog post to readers, he mentions the hate mail, death threats and blog sphere attacks he receives as part of his job.

Ultimately he claims "The problem is that I love what I do when I’m not hiding from some crazy f*%#@r who wants to kill me or being spat on by some unhappy European entrepreneur we didn’t write about." One might ask how has Michael changed since the success of TechCrunch? I'm not sure Michael has changed, but the industry he covers has certainly matured. As with Hollywood celebrities, once a persona becomes a mainstream "rock star" - they must deal with paparazzi and over zealous fans and critics. Let us not forget the shoe thrown at President Bush, or the pie in the face of Bill Gates during a conference in Brussels?

Cisco Going Consumer

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:16:00 +0000

John Chambers keynote at CES this past week outlined Cisco's plans to focus on the connected homes including network management and multimedia storage and distribution. The strategy includes acquisitions of companies such as Linksys, Pure Networks, Tribes.net, and Utah Street Networks. The consumer strategy for Cisco will be led by Ned Hooper.

Chambers gave a demonstration of the new Linksys Media Hub, which enables information to be managed in one place and devices to be connected to one platform. I was fortunate enough to work with some of the great teams of engineers and testers involved in the launch of this product. I am biased, but I feel this is a compelling new entry into the home entertainment market.

Macworld marks the end of an era...

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Allen Steinberg) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:58:00 +0000

I am not referring to the death of Macworld or the absence of Steve Jobs. Instead, I speak about the beginning of the end of DRM on music content. The record industry had been fighting this for years, but the Apple Announcement to offer DRM-free versions of all 10 million songs in the iTunes catalog is the nail in the coffin. Now we can legally purchase digital music and play it on any device. The consumers of the world say "thank you".