Category Archives: Strategy
Open Graph is Facebook’s Beacon Pivot
Facebook Beacon was the company’s much-maligned initiative that captured and broadcast off-Facebook browsing activities to one’s Facebook friends. Signing up for a service, purchasing a product, adding an item to a wish list – all of these actions were automatically shared. The way it worked was that the affiliate would call a JavaScript snippet from [...]
Also posted in Startups 5 Comments
Thoughts on Hiring a VP Sales and Why Rolodexes are Usually BS
Hiring a VP of Sales at a startup is challenging. While others have written eloquently about when to hire a VP Sales, I will focus on what type of person to hire. Having run a sales team, worked under a VP Sales and Business Development, hired a VP Sales, and served as an adviser to [...]
Will Apple Bet the Farm on Quattro Wireless?
Apple‘s recent purchase of mobile ad network Quattro Wireless may signify a much more significant shift in Apple’s business model than it would otherwise seem. So, why did Apple buy Quattro (Apple earlier sought to buy market-leader AdMob, but ceded the purchase to Google once the price became too rich)? Apple has always focused on [...]
Also posted in Technology Tagged admob, advertising, Apple, Google, iphone, Mobile, quattro wireless 1 Comment
How Square is Building a Two-Market Platform One Market at a Time
The innovation in mobile is really getting exciting, especially as it relates to advertising and payments. My last post touched on this but I wanted to dig a little deeper. The experience of paying for things now, particularly face-to-face transactions, leaves a lot to be desired. When I frequent a local business, I’d like them [...]
Also posted in Technology 3 Comments
How Blippy Can Help Foursquare Monetize Check-Ins
Foursquare‘s great for a number of reasons. Like a lot of people, I use it to keep track of my friends when I’m going out, but it’s also a fun way to discover new restaurants and other spots based on friends’ check-ins. Since I go to great lengths to find awesome Chinese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, [...]
Also posted in Technology Tagged Application programming interface, Facebook, Foursquare, Mobile, Social network, Yelp Leave a comment
Boxee Payments: Good for Content Owners, Competition for MSO’s and iTunes
Content owners aren’t the ones who need to be worried about Boxee Payments, it’s the MSO (cable), satellite, and fiber networks and online distribution platforms such as iTunes, XBox Live, and Netflix (to the extent that Netflix sees itself as a platform). The reason for this is scarcity – plain old supply and demand (most [...]
Also posted in Economics Tagged Apple, Boxee, Comcast, iTunes, NBC Universal, Netflix, WiMax, Zach Klein Leave a comment
Coke’s API and the Outsourcing of Innovation