Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Social Networking (Page 1 of 5)

Ten New Year’s Resolutions… and I Intend to Break Them All

champagne toast

Have you been doing a lot of thinking about making changes in 2020? Yeah, me too. Well, I did for a little while, anyway. And I actually came up with a few things I could resolve to do. But I quickly came to my senses. Nah! — why would I do these things? Here my list of discarded resolutions:

1) I will not tweet so much about $AAPL.

Okay, I admit it. What I do on Twitter, week in and week out, is over the top — all my cheering for the best company, and stock, in the world. But no chance I will stop. Sorry — I’ve been an investor in $AAPL since 1990. And it’s just too much fun trolling the Apple haters. (It’s hell to be right.)

2) I will go to SXSW again in March.

Don’t think so. Got the t-shirt. Don’t even wear that. No CES either — and no Times Square New Year’s Eve (like I ever did or would). You get the idea.

3) I will have coffee with every single person who wants to “pick my brain.”

Are you kidding me? Just seeing if you were paying attention. (And, yes, that awful phrase is actually still being used by some people.)

4) I will stop telling startup founders their pitch decks are… lacking.

I can’t — that would be impossible. Because 90% of them are pretty bad in my long experience. (And the other 10% can use a boost.) Haven’t seen one yet that can’t be improved. And don’t get me started about Executive Summaries. But I try my damndest to help folks with both.

5) I will quit Facebook.

No, I do still post to it once a month or so. Yeah, that’s about it. So, it’s still worth a teeny bit to me. Still ticked that they stopped allowing all my tweets to go automatically to my Facebook feed. That made my Facebook friends think I was amazing — posting multiples times per day. Little did they know I rarely ever went there… muahahaha!

6) I will sign up for a paid account on LinkedIn.

Thought about that for a microsecond. Are you kidding? What a rip! Who’s in charge of pricing at that place? Don’t they know that a large percentage of the population doesn’t care about the traditional, corporate work world anymore? They don’t care about a site for job hunting and job hopping and touting all one’s multiple advanced degrees. Soon, 40% of the workforce will be freelance or contract workers. And a recent survey found 51% of those folks would never take a traditional job, no matter how much it paid. Sure, LinkedIn’s an okay networking site. So I’ll keep using it for free. Thanks, Microsoft!

7) I will stop ignoring LinkedIn connection requests from people I don’t know or from countries I never intend to visit.

Haha! Just checking again to see if you were paying attention. And is LinkedIn (and Microsoft) really proud of having created a channel where so many jerks are trying to sell crap all day long?

8) I will spend more time at WeWork.

I didn’t spend much time when I got a free account for a year (which will end soon), so why the hell would I pay for it?

9) I will be more discerning about what clients I take on.

No, I will be extremely more discerning.

10) I will work really hard to get more followers on Instagram, and will open an account on TikTok.

Yeah, when Hell freezes over.

That’s it. Ten things to start my 2020 right! Now, off to work out and lose a few pounds… 🙂

DEMO Kicks Off Today – Here’s the Presenter List! #demo12 #democon

DEMOlogo-tightcrop-250wThe DEMO 2012 conference kicks off this morning in Santa Clara, California. If you're a regular reader, you know I've covered this event more than a dozen times — in fact, every single twice-annual DEMO conference in the U.S. since the spring of 2006!  But I couldn't be there this time. (At each of the last two DEMO events, a Minnesota startup pitched… but, sadly, none this time.)

However, I still wanted to blog the list of presenting companies, which are all named below and each one linked to a profile page. There are some 80 companies this time. For more than 22 years, DEMO has built an unmatched track record of selecting, coaching, promoting, and making successful some of the most game-changing products the world has ever seen.

This year, there appears to be no live video stream. But you can follow along at VentureBeat, which co-produces the event, as its writers post over the next two days. Here's their kickoff post with more info.

UPDATE: Turns out there is a live stream! … and it's here. VentureBeat says it will update this page throughout Wednesday and Thursday "with the most exciting companies at DEMO."  Obviously, you'll only see live video during the actual hours of the general session, but several text posts about specific presenting companies will also continue to appear here.

DEMO Spring 2012 Presenting Companies

Clicking on each link below takes you to a profile page containing details about the company, its market segment, competitors, and what DEMO felt was unique about the product being launched. As DEMO says, "View the profile information, access company contact information, review the latest press, add your comments on the company's prospects and watch the company's six-minute launch on the DEMO stage." (A video of each company's on-stage pitch is posted on the DEMO.com site within hours after each conference session is completed.)

Cloud Technologies
Archability
Bluega
Cinsay, Inc.
CollateBox Inc.
DocSync.Net
Finovera, Inc.
Fusion-io
Hazelcast
Hoiio Inc
Knoema
Looqiloo
MyBillRegistry
NotesCloud
Project Footage, LLC
RingCentral
rollApp Inc.
Tabillo
VisApp, LLC
ZigMail.com

Consumer Technologies
BodyMedia
BryteWerks
DealAngel
Evature
Fantasy Politics
FriendsLearn
Georama
Intuitive Motion
My Coupon Doc
NeedToEat
penveu
Slikk Inc.
TheSquareFoot
Tosigram
Tucoola
Whiteman Technology
Yogurt AS

Enterprise Technologies
8digits
AGILIRON
BizSlate Inc.
Bynow Inc.
Careerimp, Inc.
Dozuki
HD Trade Services
Paperhater
StorNetworks
Taptera, Inc.
Voxeet
zImperium

Mobile Technologies
Arqball
Daemonic Labs
Edamam
Fribi AS
iGenApps
MyGeoTrex
Toopher
TourWrist
TrustGo Mobile Inc.
Unshared.TV
UppSite
XEOPlay, Inc.

Social and Media Technologies
Blade Games World
CrowdFanatic
Ecobe
HashTip
Iconicast
Jock Talk
LiveAll
Max My Play, LLC
Network Clean Inc.
PositiveTalk, LLC
Rawporter
SCHEDit Technologies
Tablen
Ticlr, Inc.
Tradesparq
Verifeyed

Let me know what you think of any of these companies that you have a chance to check out!

 

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