Article
There are some tremendous resources available to follow articles of interest for entrepreneurs.
I recommend Geoff’s gems on the Garage.com site.
I strongly recommend a site called RUNuts.com. A Slashdot for the entrepreneurial community
>I strongly recommend a newsletter called Venturewire. It provides a summary of recent venture capital and angel investments along with other private company news. Go here
I will focus on one article each week that is particularly relevant to the entrepreneur looking to start a new company, raise capital, or develop strategic partnerships. In the future, I'll be providing a more detailed analysis of the article.
This week's article
Wednesday, June 14, 2000
VC P.S.: Ten myths and realities of VC - Red Herring
I have being receiving a lot of questions lately about venture capital. From these questions, it is becoming clear that people are pretty confused about what exactly venture capital is. This article in Red Herring does an excellent job in debunking some of the myths behind VC and provides a great simplification - VCs are buyers.
posted 6/14/2000 11:26:05 PM
Monday, May 8, 2000
Zaplet: Let's See Your Email Do This - USA Today
In my last post, I promised I was going to post an article that might provide a little insight into the next big thing. As you can see from the posting date,
it has taken me a little time to find an appropriate article.
I recently heard a quoted figure that 95% of Internet users use email. Billions upon billions of emails are sent each year. However, for the most part, email messages are static and bland. While email is hailed as an incredible one-to-one marketing tool, very little has been done to "jazz up" emails to make them stand out in an inbox. Email has existed since the very earliest college and military networks were established, yet this "killer app" of the Internet has changed very little.
Firedrop has developed a new application called Zaplets. In essence, the company's technology brings the power of the Web into your inbox. I recommend visiting the company's website to see this application in action. The company is backed by Kleiner Perkins, who know a little about recognizing big trends. I am excited to watch Firedrop and other companies who will provide increased functionality to electronic mail.
posted 5/8/2000 12:51:21 AM
Friday, April 7, 2000
Now We're All B-to-Bs - The Industry Standard
I attended the Paine Webber Internet Conference last March in New York. The first day of the conference, at 1:45 PM, the VP of Operations of eBay gave a speech about his company. The room was packed. At the same time, the President of Digital River (an ecommerce software company) spoke to a crowded room. I attended the third session, which was lead by David Perry, Founder and CEO of Chemdex (now Ventro), a B2B company for the life science research equipment and materials industry. The room was empty and the majority of investors' questions were, "I don't get it. How are you going to make money?" or "Why would companies use your services?" Chemdex was perhaps the first true B2B company to go public and is now a $7.3 billion company with sales growth last year of over 30,700%.
The B2B craze is less than a year old. It follows on the heals of the auction craze, the e-commerce craze, and the Internet portal craze. If you have already started a B2B company, I wish you the best of luck. However, if you are considering starting a B2B company for the sake of starting a B2B company, I would caution you to think twice. By the time you go to raise money, someone will have already raised money for a company just like yours. If you want to follow a fad, do a little research and find the next big thing. Next week, I'll find an article that might give a little insight into the next craze.
posted 4/7/2000 5:25:34 PM
Friday, March 31, 2000
My Dot Com Business Mags Have Fallen on Me and I Can't Get Up - Salon
I started reading Wired Magazine about two years ago. I started reading Red Herring about a year and a half ago. I subscribed to Fast Company a year ago. I get Forbes Magazine at my house. I have subscriptions to The NY Times and the Wall Street Journal. I read Business 2.0 when I can, Industry Standard when I can find it, and Upside on the Web. There is simply too much information out there about our digital economy!
The trick for us as students of the digital economy will be to find efficient ways to track all of this information. One way will be to utilize personal web agents which can collect information on topics of interest. Visit Spyonit for an example of this kind of tool. Another way is to read weblogs which focus on topics of interest. Perhaps the best known weblog is Slashdot. This Article of the Week section is being published with a tool called blogger. Thousands of people are publishing their own personal news sites with tools like blogger.
Check the left hand column of this page for my recommendations on how to keep up with the digital economy.
posted 3/31/2000 4:02:23 PM
Thursday, March 23, 2000
How did you get your money? - The Industry Standard
A refreshing look at the more creative ways that entrepreneurs have raised money for their dotcom startups. I think it is important to remember that venture capital is only one of several options to finance a new company. Credit cards, loans from friends, angel investments, strategic corporate partnerships, and even revenues can be used to finance a business. Venture capital has become a capital source, by and large, for companies that have already raised a first round of investment.
posted 3/23/2000 10:55:58 PM
Tuesday, March 14, 2000
The Smart Way to Start an Internet Company - Business 2.0
Tips from entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, lawyers, marketing consultants, and other professionals about pursuing your dotcom dreams. It's worth a look.
posted 3/14/2000 11:13:04 PM
