drstarcat - Latest Comments

Re: How to Beat Google at Search for $50,000 in 10 Easy Steps

Kchase77 — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:31:03 -0000

I'd like to find someone to partner with for a Product Search engine. Write me at kchase77@gmail.com if you are a technical wizard.

Re: The Physics of Air Conditioners–Preventing bloodshed in the office

Reelsplice — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:04:10 -0000

Thanks for the very informative article!

Re: The Physics of Air Conditioners–Preventing bloodshed in the office

air conditioning duct — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 23:27:59 -0000

This article is actually kinda funny. I never thought these air conditioners were so complicated. Haha. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve had one. At my mom’s house, I used to just set the temperature of the house and the AC would kick in if it got too hot.

Re: The Physics of Air Conditioners–Preventing bloodshed in the office

Michelle Juran — Fri, 14 May 2010 23:59:56 -0000

I dont know why earth are getting hot and hotter every day. From the beginning of the year till now, the temperature are getting few degrees hotter. I cant sleep and cant do any activities without air conditioner.

To maintain my air conditioner performance i've tried what people used in tricking the car air conditioner with my room air conditioner. They use pipe wrap to wrap the air conditioner piping and improve the air conditioner performance overall. This will also reduce the electricity bill at the end of the month.

I think this article here: http://www.unique-stuff.co.cc/... will help you better understand what i've tried and applied with my air conditioners at home.

Re: The Claim Broker (IP Explosion, pt 3)

Liquor Dispenser — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 09:04:08 -0000

Thanks for additional information. Great!

Re: How to Train a 6 Year-Old to Hate Brands

free dating sites — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:24:33 -0000

Perhaps you hold ingrained unconscious patterns of behaviour that might have otherwise prevented a connection to be made, and the problem lies within you to correct rather than solely placing the blame on the other party, which some people might misconstrue as one of the core messages of the book when it isn’t.

Re: The Physics of Air Conditioners–Preventing bloodshed in the office

8000 btu airconditioner — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:11:16 -0000

This article brings me a lot of new knowledge. I usually turned the fan in minimum speed with low temperature ( around 25 c) expected that the conditioner would give maixmum potential of pruducing cold air. But it was wrong!

Re: The New TV Stack: How to Watch Internet TV on your TV Set

drstarcat — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:53:34 -0000

I'm making a road trip to the VCs up there in May, so I'll ping you then!

Re: The New TV Stack: How to Watch Internet TV on your TV Set

Chris Pollara — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:49:50 -0000

Keep me in the loop on your progress as I run a digital media agency and am really interested in the evolution of Social TV. I'll tweet this blog post to our peeps.

We're still small as I was deeply involved in a mobile startup before starting my latest venture Convertiv. However, I think we are going to play in the interactive/social TV realm once we get our name out there with some of the more rudimentary themes, so stay close. I'm up in Boston so keep it in mind if you're ever up in our neck of the woods.

Re: The New TV Stack: How to Watch Internet TV on your TV Set

drstarcat — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:43:44 -0000

I love the browser plugin idea too. I've got it on our development list.
Now if I could only raise Boxee-style money to implement it (and the 100
other things we need to do!)

Re: The New TV Stack: How to Watch Internet TV on your TV Set

Chris Pollara — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:35:25 -0000

Great piece Ryan - I've been following Social TV closely and been blogging about it myself. It seems the Boxee Box and their open platform is turning into an inexpensive alternative to hooking up your TV to the internet. One of the best features is the new plug-in for your browser. You can acquire content all day, then while your cranking at night you can toss on the clips you accumulated on your TV.
Keep me posted on your progress!
Cheers

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

davidkpark — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:14:38 -0000

Was told by a seed VC that a new media (consumer) startup needs 50K monthly repeats before they would even consider having a meeting, let alone investing.

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

drstarcat — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:21:17 -0000

I like the metaphor. The fulcrum essentially seems like your "idea". That
problem that you have unique insight into. For a new media company, it had
better be very tall because you're going to need to generate a lot of
leverage.

The funnel is your execution. It's the tactical things you do to get people
to do what you need them to in order to make money.

Of course, the fact remains that building and adequate funnel for a fulcrum
big enough to pay-off in the new media space is extremely hard and resource
(i.e time and money) intensive. You probably get 1 shot every four years,
so you BETTER make sure the market is right and that you execute perfectly!

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

Nate Westheimer — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:04:29 -0000

Ryan,

I think the key here is to always bet on a fulcrum and a funnel, not a mere "idea."

Here's the hypothesis:

The fulcrum is the value of your company. Its your unfair advantage. Maybe its insight into a mass of customers, or foresight into the future of your competition, but the fulcrum is the value you create and the value you leverage off of.

The funnel is how you get people to push a lever (on the Web, it's a button) and realize the company's value. In the funnel is an Experience -- Usability, Findability, Likeability, Ability, etc -- which leads people to you and to press the lever which outputs the value.

That, is what a startup is about -- and it's the use-case for VC investment -- and if the economics of your fulcrum and funnel aren't good enough, you haven't addressed a large enough market problem or solved it in a compelling enough way.

Thoughts?

Re: SetJam is a tool, Clicker is a portal

drstarcat — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:32:15 -0000

Thanks for the feedback Lewis, and I couldn't agree more with you. You've
touched upon two key features that we've wanted to integrate from the
beginning, but haven't yet had the time: Tracking what you've watched, and
notifications for new episodes.

We're working as hard as we can to deliver both of these! Regardless, the
key for us will always be to keep it simple.

Re: SetJam is a tool, Clicker is a portal

lewisbriggs — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:26:16 -0000

I like the simplicity setjam offers compared to clicker and casting it as a tool rather than portal does help you differentiate your brand and clarify your business model. However, the key question to me is what does the growing population of online video viewers, and eventually, over the top video viewers need/want when they migrate their viewing of premium content away from the pay tv providers? They need a way to keep current with episodes and eliminate already watched episodes. Also, a smooth way to jump into show (i.e. catch up) would be great.

This will become difficult as more free content is hosted all over the place and with different viewing windows. A simple season pass (like Tivo) combined with notification features to warn you when your chance to watch an episode for free will be lost...that is what's needed. Clicker's playlist feature is unnecessarily complicated. I think people just want a way to watch this premium content efficiently and smartly, with no hassles...setjam could be that product/tool on multiple viewing platforms.

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

drstarcat — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:02:28 -0000

Thanks for the real numbers on someone doing this well. Just build cool
stuff and hope the money comes, it is tempting isn't it? Maybe we should
just give up the business pretense and call ourselves "digital artists"
instead!

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

Paul Orlando — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:34:57 -0000

Nice back of the envelope assessment. Such simple calculations and yet lots of startups don't think through this. I came across the fallacy of a pure Ad or Freemium model when studying this a few years ago for a client.
A thought on your Freemium numbers. I've seen the purchase % move up, for example in Evernote, which has raised that % over time. The latest number I saw for them was about 1.5%, though that is still not enough to cover their costs.
The thing about these models is, they are just so tempting. Imagine, you can build something without having to worry about the hard stuff like how to make money.

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

drstarcat — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:09:37 -0000

Just so I can understand this, I think you're saying two things: Monthly
Revenue/Daily Active is a cleaner metric and the revenue won't be generated
by what is essentially advertising.

If I understand #1 correctly, Monthly Revenue/Daily Active would be how much
money a site would make in a month off of a user who comes to the site every
day (even if that "user" isn't really the same individual).

If that's the case, that person on my model would generate about 30 visits,
90 pageviews (3 pageviews/ visit), and 270 ad impressions (3 ads/page), and
at a $4 CPM would generate about $1/month, which is exactly the number you
say FB makes.

If all of the above is correct (and I'm really asking), then it still seems
like we're playing the same game (with you using a cleaner metric that
bundles some of the assumptions).

My question, I guess, would be, how does this change the enormous burden of
user acquisition? And if the revenue isn't coming from CPM, or Affiliate,
or Freemium (all of which produce roughly the same numbers), is there
something else that will generate BETTER numbers?

I know you cite Zynga, but do you really believe it's all going to come from
virtual goods and that virtual goods will beat lead gen for real goods on a
rev/visit or rev/MAU long-term? If not that, then what?

The final point is indisputable--your product has to be SMOKING hot, which
goes back to my original point: as an entrepreneur you'll have to take
something like a $100k personal risk to even hope to produce something
incredible enough to show those numbers and justify an investment (which
will then hopefully take you to the $10 million point).

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

Dan — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:54:10 -0000

Amen. In many verticals (social), a $3 CPM in hard to achieve (how many sites get anywhere near a 100% sell-through on branded or high-value DR)? Particularly since with 3 Ad units on a page in your model, at least one is below the fold.

The good news is that you don't need $10M in revenues to justify a a $10M sale if there's a good growth rate. I've sold a company making (significantly) less for more. But the tech behind it was good...

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

fredwilson — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:38:41 -0000

i don't think CPM, CPA, CPC, or anything of that ilk is going to be the long term monetization model in social media. i like to think of monthly revenue per daily active. Facebook is probably about $1. Zynga is probably a multiple of that. so if you need to get to $10mm per year or $833k per month, you'd need hundreds of thousands of daily active users. many of our companies don't spend a dime on marketing and have achieved that level of daily actives. sometimes on a few million of investment. it's not as hard as you think. but you have to have a killer product/service

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

djtonyz — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:32:20 -0000

After looking at your model again, I guess I can see where if you just put all of your eggs in that basket, that could be expected revenue. If you look at LinkedIn, they charge 24.95 a month for 3 InMails and they get rev from recruiters and job postings. So, they step it up a notch. I think you have to mix the minimal with a few other things to grab a larger slice of the pie.

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

djtonyz — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:15:59 -0000

I can point to Beatport.com as a successful niche startup in the music space with revenues of $40 Million from 10% of all traffic to the site. After employee costs and marketing, they are still generating a pretty decent profit. I argue that you may have some generic numbers that fit a certain mold, but when it comes to niche sites, even you have invested $100K in something that's not proven. I hear your point, but I'm a little confused by laying it all out, then saying you're throwing caution to the wind too? It seems like you're telling people, "hey...if you start your thing, expect these numbers to be the lowest numbers possible, that's if you follow the new media models I've laid out." In my niche, I may have some offline revenue combined with online revenue, but you haven't factored that in at all. I just don't agree you need 200,000,000 million visitors a year to make money. I think that's a bit of a stretch. There are many companies out there who do far less traffic and are profitable.

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

drstarcat — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:08:27 -0000

I don't think any of the New Media models work in a niche very well. If you
go niche, you can compete, but then you don't have the numbers to scale
where you need to. This only applies if you're looking to go big. If
you're going solo, there are lots of people who make a rather meager, but
livable income from their blogs. As you said, if you're going that route,
just keep your costs low!

Re: New Media Hoop Dreams: The Smart Kids’ NBA

djtonyz — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:03:05 -0000

I definitely appreciate your point of view. However, I argue that in a niche with a decent amount of traffic, you can convert at a higher CPM or CPC should you get some stickiness. I'm about to embark on reinventing my Netmix.com brand as an online music service in a niche. I have no intention of competing on a mass scale against the Real Rhapsody's, Napster's and iTunes of the world. In my market, freemium might be a bit more than $10 a month. I guess it all depends on the niche and your costs. The goal is to keep costs as low as possible, while increasing users, and you'll somehow get to that holy grail of profit over expense.