Graeme Thickins on Tech

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

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ReadWriteWeb Gets Into Startup Database Game

July 9, 2008 / / 3 Comments

It’s about time somebody else started doing this — providing a way for tech startups to get themselves listed on a database. RWW just launched ReadWriteWeb Companies (tricky name), and did it the smart way: by using a platform already available (TradeVibes), instead of trying to code their own.

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TechCrunch has really been alone at the top as the only decent resource designed for this purpose, with its CrunchBase service — which now lists some 6500 startups, 13,000 people, and more than 2700 funding rounds. It was only logical they would start such a database, seems like at least two years ago now, with their close ties to the VC and startup communities in the Valley. They do a decent job, as I can attest, having listed a startup there a few months ago. They provide very good, responsive service. (Note that it’s not an automated, unattended service — a real human monitors and approves what you try to list there.) One drawback? You’ll get sales calls like mad once your listing goes live, from outfits such as outsourcing companies in India, etc.

Another service, KillerStartups, which of course does not have nearly the reach and buzz of TechCrunch, offers both a free and a paid service ($50, as I recall). Having learned the CrunchBase lesson, we were more than happy to pay their fee, which means you won’t get hammered with offers from service providers who have so many things to try to sell to startups, it boggles the mind! If you’re too strapped to pay the $50, get ready for the barrage.

Another service launched last year is StartupSearch, a sideline project of Niall Kennedy, whom I can attest is one smart, plugged-in dude. He runs the Widget Summit conference, which I blogged extensively about last fall, and the service appears to be an offshoot of that endeavor — which required an extensive database all by itself. The site says it tracks "facts and figures" about Web 2.0 startups, including traffic to their sites (though it doesn’t say how it does that). However, StartupSearch only lists 81 companies to date. That may now grow with the attention it’s getting on ReadWriteWeb’s post today, which links to it. But it seems Niall, who’s a busy guy, may not be devoting much attention to the site anymore — yikes, his last "Weekly Web Wrap up" was September 10, 2007! (Just before things got really busy for him with the Widget Summit.) But, after all, it is a dot-org.

ReadWriteWeb did a smart thing to launch its service — there is definitely room for another decent offering in this space, and I wish Richard luck. He took his time and did it right. And, now, whenever you read a RWW post about a given company, if there’s a database entry for it on RWW Companies, you’ll see a little widget you can click on to take you to their listing. Cool — I’m gonna test it out.

P.S. Oh, the startup I’m talking about above?  You’ll know more on July 11.

UPDATE 7/30/08:  The startup is DoApp Inc., at www.doapps.com.  Or check us out at the iTunes App Store.

 

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Jack Johnson Made Me Do a Post About Surfing

July 1, 2008 / / 8 Comments

Well, not Jack directly, but my local buddy (and San Diego transplant) Jim Perry, a fellow Surfrider Foundation member. He was lucky enough to catch Jack’s concert on June 22 at River’s Edge over in Wisconsin, and said it was awesome. Sigh, I was too busy. But his email inspired me to post something…at least surf-related. The photo here is from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s review of the event, Surf-Rocker Riding the Green Wave. Jackjohnsonconcert
And, no we’re not talkin’ about "spending some time in the green room" here (surf lingo for locked in a tube) — we’re talking eco stuff. Jack is huge into it, and is working closely with The Surfrider Foundation to promote its cause, and they in turn attend and help promote his latest tour events. [They even traveled from CA to set up a booth at the River’s Edge. And we didn’t even have any waves for ’em, just a river and water slides… 🙂 ]

Okay, maybe this post is more about music than surfing, but I’m throwin’ in a shot of Jack surfing at one his favorite spots in Hawaii (where he’s from), just for the hell of it.  Call it a gratuitous attempt to assuage some of my guilt in not posting about surfing in a while. Jackjohnsonsurfing
Haven’t been to my place in California for way too long, and (darn) I missed a return to the Cold Water Surf Fest up in Duluth this year, too, back in early June. But, for that matter, I really haven’t been posting here at all much lately, I’m sorry to say.

I’ve been a little busy here, and posting elsewhere, here and there …when I can grab a little time on evenings and weekends. And, of course, Twittering. Micro-blogging is just so much easier and faster — seconds or a minute per tweet, versus an hour or more to research and write a good blog post (often much more). There’s a reason I’ve done more than a thousand tweets in maybe seven months, versus maybe 400 blog posts in three years.

But you know my heart will always be with surfing and surfers everywhere, and anything I can do to protect our oceans, waves, and beaches.  And hat tip to my buddy Jim Moriarty out in San Clemente for a his great blog of that name. I read it religiously; he does great work. Aloha, bro, and to all in the global tribe of surfing…. And, oh, say hi and thanks to your buddy Jack, too… 😉

UPDATE 7/2/08: As long as we’re on the topic, let me get all the surf outta me that I can. Another thing I learned this week (actually from my surfer/skateboarder son) is a cool new site that sells surf clothing & gear cheap, one item at a time until it’s sold out — similar to woot.com, except for surf stuff, not electronics. It’s WhiskeyMilitia.com — a hilarious site, funny just to read the copy. One day earlier this week, it was a full Ripcurl wetsuit for $125, another day board shorts for $15, the day before t-shirts for $7. Hey, I’m all over it, already gettin’ daily alerts… 🙂

The Best Advice I’ve Seen Lately On Using Startup Advisors

June 8, 2008 / / 3 Comments

Seth Levine is a VC in Boulder, CO, a partner with Foundry Group. I kinda know Seth, through his connections to the Twin Cities (he’s a graduate of Macalester in St. Paul), though we’ve never actually met.  We’ve emailed quite a bit about goings-on here in Minnesota, after having just missed each other at the Defrag conference in Denver last November.  Seth and his fellow partners are quite the bloggers. One of his sidekicks, Brad Feld (whom I did meet at Defrag), has a very popular blog called Feld Thoughts. And they also run another blog that has high readership in the entrepreneurial community called Ask the VC.

Seth’s blog is called Seth Levine’s VC Adventure. And, recently, he began a series of posts on startup advisors, a topic near and dear to my heart. Advicedefinition
In a departure for Seth, the posts are actually written by a guest poster, Gerald Joseph.  Part I was good, but Part II is even better: The role of company advisors (Part II).

Here’s how Seth explained how these posts came about:

“One of the things I enjoy the most about writing this blog is the discussion I engage in with readers – both through blog comments and in direct emails.  Over the past month I’ve had a particularly enjoyable exchange with Gerald Joseph.  One of the topics we’ve discussed is the role of advisors in the life of a start-up.  I generally think of advisors as non-paid ‘friends of the company’ and as you’d probably guess, advocate a pretty deliberate organization and use of advisors.  Gerald’s view is a little more expansive as he thinks of ‘advisors’ as the larger ecosystem that surrounds (or should surround) a start up company – one that includes people you pay (attorneys, CPAs, etc) and the people who pay you (your angel investors) in addition to the business and industry experts that are the typical ‘advisors’ to young companies.  I like this line of thinking and offered Gerald the chance to put his thoughts into a post.  He took me up on that idea and came up with a four part series on the topic that I’ll put up over the next few weeks.  After the final post I’ll summarize some of my thoughts as well as comments from readers.”

For entrepreneurs at any stage, I think these posts are excellent. I encourage anyone who could use some…uh…advice on how to use advisors to read them all, including Parts III and IV yet to come.

Is Twitter Affecting Blog Frequency? An Excellent Discussion…

May 26, 2008 / / 2 Comments

A question keeps popping up for me: is "micro" blogging (as in Twittering) affecting "macro" blogging (as in what you’re looking at here)? I say it definitely is slowing down the frequency of regular blogging, because people are just spending so much time on Twitter — well, the rabid early adopters, anyway. But many of these happen to be long-time bloggers, too. So, Twitter’s bound to have an effect on how often they blog.  I also touched on this in a post a few weeks ago: Blogging Less, Twittering More.
But then I saw a discussion on FriendFeed a few days ago, which you see here in the graphic. [Okay, it took me a few days to post it because I was Twittering….and FriendFeeding.]  Twitteringcutsblogging_2

The comments to this post certainly tell the tale, confirming my own suspicions. By the way, I don’t know any of these people, including the poster, Veronica — but, yes, through the magic of Web 2.0, they’re all my "friends" now… 🙂

The original blog post that Veronica dugg on Digg was this one from Ryan Block, the editor-in-chief of Engadget: Does Twittering Mean You Blog Less?

By the way, if you want to keep up with me on Twitter, just go here and follow me: www.twitter.com/graemethickins.  And to subscribe to my FriendFeed, go here: http://friendfeed.com/graemethickins. There quite a discussion now going on amongst the digerati as to whether FriendFeed will overtake Twitter, with all the downtime and scaling problems the latter is having.  I even questioned in a recent tweet whether FriendFeed might be bought by Google (which would be interesting, since it was founded by ex-Googlers).

What do you think? Do you like one over the other? Have you even tried either one? Does any of this matter, or it is all just about the kool kids trying to find the next fad?

Zen and the Art of Startup Maintenance: The Story of One Helluva Serial Entrepreneur

May 17, 2008 / / 1 Comment

I’ve known Steve Larsen for a long time — ten years at least — and, wow, it seems a lot longer in Internet time. Steve is one of those people you feel you’ve always known. He’s one of the guys I respect most in the entire technology industry — a smart marketer, brilliant strategist, and just a top-notch people person and leader. Even though he left the Twin Cities five or six years ago for the fast-lane of the Valley, we still manage to run into each other a few times a year. Graemewstevelarsen
One of those times was at a conference several months ago, where we got to talking [okay, it was over several adult beverages] about how long we’d known each other, and I started recounting the amazing ride this guy has been on since I first worked with him when he was SVP of Marketing at Net Perceptions here in Minneapolis, back in the day. And we decided I should write about him [Steve has this way of making me feel like I’m a really good writer] — that is, track the story of what I thought was just an extremely interesting and unusual background for one guy to have in this crazy startup world, stretching over at least a decade. 

So, that’s what I set out to do: a full-blown feature on the life of a serial entrepreneur who just can’t stop, going from one cool gig to another — much like his other life of testing new motorcycles and touring all over the world. You see, Steve likes speed, in more manifestations than one, and is just always on the go. [I remember when he took me for a ride in some hot, new red sports car he’d just bought, taking it up to like 80 mph in about a two-block distance(!), on a lonely stretch of frontage road near the Sofitel. My life flashed before me.]  It seemed an interesting mix to me — motorcycles, speed, and the entrepreneurial CEO — that people could relate to. So, I proceeded to put together the basics of an article soon after we met, then continued to tweak it here and there in my extra time on weekends, adding updates along the way.  Soon, with some help from one of Steve’s very fine PR folks at PageOne PR, we set out to pitch it to some mags. Well, we didn’t get far till Chief Executive Magazine grabbed onto it, and, to our delight, decided to publish it last week as one of the first articles in its "Entrepreneurial CEO" section. Perfect. If Steve doesn’t fit that label, nobody does. Here it is: Zen and the Art of Startup Maintenance, by yours truly.

Chiefexeclarsenarticle

I’m delighted that the readers of this fine, long-standing publication are now getting to learn about this very talented guy. I think they’ll learn a lot. And, Steve, my hat’s off again to you!  It was a pleasure being about to tell just a part of your amazing story….one that’s really still being written, as the readers of this article will learn. Continued best of luck with Krugle, a company I am convinced will rock the world of code search!

Krugleappliance

You can bet I’ll be following along, and I certainly look forward to being able to relate the next chapter in this very interesting guy’s life. [Okay, Steve, you now owe me another adult beverage at our next conference! Maybe DEMOfall in September? And Defrag, too, in November  🙂 …and…and…]

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