Found+READ: Comments on stories by Om Malik

Vera Bass — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:16:30 GMT

Awesome idea. I’ve always had the hardest time finding great blogs by entrepreneurs, probably because most of them are too busy to breathe, let alone blog. :)

Christina Wodtke — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:32:22 GMT

try posting in the “Participate” section!
http://www.foundread.com/idea

Unknown Founder — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:01:26 GMT

Since I haven’t seen any post I’ll just let you all know what I’m doing now. In the vein of Guy Kawasaki’s Truemers experiment, I’m trying to create a new start-up with as little cash outlay as possible. Thirty days into the experiment I’ve got whopping $59.99 worth of expenses. To cover these massive expenses, instead of taking out yet another credit card, I’m selling some of the items that have been sitting in my attic for years, starting with my comic book collection… so my geeky, acne ridden self as a boy will be my first Angel investor, to the tune of a few hundred bucks worth of X-Men comics. If I win the $100 buck Amazon gift certificate, I will use it toward storage costs on Amazon’s S3 and CPU time on EC2. If you are at all interested in watching my struggles trying to get this company off the ground, I’m writing about my experiences at http://unknownfounder.blogspot.com

Unknown Founder — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:21:33 GMT

What’s the process of submiting stories? Though the comment system or should we email them in, and if so what address?

Dipti Sapatnekar — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:01:22 GMT

I so wish I had some “crazy” funding idea to share!!!
I ‘stumbled’ on to this website by ‘chance’ and what I do have to say is this is a very very interesting topic and an extremely engaging website too!! Keep up the good work!

PS: Define “Crazy” ?!

Adam Benayoun — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:59:19 GMT

nice idea! some fun(d) article!

DG Gudinin — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 14:03:25 GMT

I know I’m a bit late to the party, but… better later than never:). Congratulations, Om! That’s a really good job! I keep on reading here… and now I am finally registered.

Indeed, the process of starting up a business inevitably raises lot of questions. I am preparing to launch a business soon, and being first time on this path, I lack answers to some of those questions. Therefore one of the reasons I started my blog recently was to establish a communication channel that will help me and potentially others to find these answers.

Your unique digital salon is very promising in this respect, especially given the wide audience you can reach, and I am really glad the timing of your plans turned out so coincidental. I’ll surely be a frequent visitor here, both asking questions and contributing as much as I can.

Much success in this undertaking!!!

Andy Scott — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:48:58 GMT

I agree somewhat, and disagree somewhat :)

In aligning any business with a potential “big-brother” you do limit your acquisition options such that the value of your company declines because your big-brother investor already has a “hand in your piece of the pie” and therefore it expected that if they acquire you – it will be for a reduced valuation. This is particularly important if you have allowed them to dilute your stock such that they have a controlling interest.

Conversely, I would also think it could be a good thing. If your startup takes off, you have some serious firepower behind your startup and also have the chance to interact with industry professionals and increased your team valuation. A lot of people dont want to walk into start ups until there is a “major reduction of risk, and high probability of return”.

Teaming up with big brother substantially disperses the risk and therefore you will have a lot more people willing to leave “secure jobs” to help you with the startup.

It really depends on the concept, and the team implementing it. :)

Christina Wodtke — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:48:44 GMT

“Never” seems a bit strong to me—it’s like never take Venture Capital! But there are definitely perils… .

I’d love to see this developed out into a longer article. Strategic partnerships are so important, since they lend a name-brand to your fund raising effort, and usually bring in money as well. They can be seductively comforting, especially when you are tired of going from door to door, begging for money. Suddenly someone is offering you a chance to get paid to build something, with the comforting certainty of … gasp!... a job!

But they can be distracting from your company’s vision, as the company’s vision slowly muscles in, and as the service mindset takes hold.

How can you evaluate a strategic partnership? How do you set up the relationship to avoid trouble? What to look for/what do avoid? When to play and when to punt?

Will L — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 05:27:35 GMT

It depends how long the others have been in business. (1 quarter?!!) -You shouldn’t expect to take over the world in 1 day like Pinky from “Pinky and the Brain”.

Google and Microsoft are both Me-Too companies. -Was Search finished with Yahoo, Inktomi, etc? Was Search Marketing locked-up after Overture?

Cnet is basically irrelevant now after Gizmodo, Versiontracker, MacUpdate, TomsHardware, Anandtech, and ArsTechnica. -all of whom are Me-Toos after Cnet.

I agree that Kenny Rogers has many lessons to teach us with his song, “The Gambler”, but it may not be irrational to expect your time to prominence may have to be equal to your competitors’ time in business, if not multiplied by some factor (esp. marketing $$$). -Attack them where they are weak. Ex: Giz is great where Cnet sucks.

Part of this reminds me of a History Channel show around the DaVinci code blitz. -Supposedly, one of the rules DaVinci swore to live by was not to avoid or give up trying a project just because someone had tried something similar before.

(all this being said, if it’s Killing you time/$$-wise and you need a quicker success, maybe moving on IS it…)