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A Little Challenge to the Private Sector

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On July 30, 2008

In ControlScan, eCommerce, Miscellaneous, Online Fraud, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

Today’s post is provided by Joan Herbig.  Joan is the Chief Executive Officer for ControlScan, a leading provider of security and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance solutions designed exclusively for small- to medium-sized e-commerce businesses.

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I recently sent some employees to a seminar to get an industry-recommended security certificate. The seminar is aimed at providing education on the newest and hottest cyber threats.

With all the news of mega breaches out there, including one I just wrote about on www.esecuritydiva.com, it would seem as if an information-packed seminar such as this one would be packed with IT people, right? Actually, it was. But with public sector IT people. Private sector attendees were few and far between.

What’s going on here? This little piece of news could be a telltale:

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Does Your VC’s Fund Have the Capacity to Do Follow-on Rounds of Financing?

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On May 1, 2008

In Core Capital, Entrepreneurship, Grotech Capital, Venture Capital, Web/Tech

Another great post on TheFunded.com….

When considering a term sheet from a prospective VC, it is key to understand whether they have have the means to fund follow-on rounds. Most VCs will not do cross over funding and often startups find themselves in trouble when their VCs can not provide subsequent financing. So, it is key to determine…

If your VC’s fund is having problems (financial, political, hiring or retention, etc..) or if your VC’s fund is at the end of its lifecycle, you may ultimately experience artificial, unnecessary problems that you will have to navigate in the future while running your business.  For entrepreneurs, this is a very serious issue to consider before you allow an investment, not after an investment has already taken place.

Read the rest of this article at TheFunded.com: Fund Diligence Item in order to learn the three critical questions you should ask your prospective investors before taking their venture capital dollars.

Grotech Ventures Leads a $6.6 Million Series B Round of Funding for Collective Intellect

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On April 29, 2008

In Grotech Capital, Social Networking, Venture Capital, Web/Tech

TechCrunch reported last week that Grotech Ventures has led another round of financing for Collective Intellect.  The following is an excerpt from TechCrunch.

Collective Intellect, a service that can be used to track what people are saying around the net about certain topics, has raised an additional $6.6M in a Series B round led by Grotech Capital Group with participation by Appian Ventures, Croghan Investments, and Crawley Hatfield Capital.

You can read more about the financing here >> More Money for Collective Intellect to Keep Fingers on Pulse of Internet

From Messes To Successes

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On April 27, 2008

In Venture Capital, Web/Tech

One of my favorite VC bloggers is Fred Wilson, and he wrote another great post this past week.  "From Messes to Successes" is an interesting article about his experiences with "problem" portfolio companies.  As you would hope would be the case with any good venture capitalist, he and his team have helped turn many of these "problems" into fabulous outcomes.

Here is an excerpt from his article…

When I look back at my 20+ year history of venture investing, it’s certainly true that the biggest successes have been big messes at some point in their life. My most successful venture investment at Euclid, Multex, almost went bankrupt before the Internet came along and provided a cheap way to get it’s service to its customers. Geocities, which was our most successful investment at Flatiron, was a total mess in mid/late 1997, about a year after we first invested. And our most successful investment to date at Union Square Ventures, TACODA, was a mess multiple times including when the first build of its software totally failed on them. Delicious also had plenty of messy moments in its brief period in our portfolio.

The core point of Fred’s article is that startups are often messy due to the hyper-focus on the product and the market.  He goes on to argue that this may be what ultimately makes them companies great companies once they finally get their act together on process and operations.

I agree.  Building a great product is a pre-requisite for success.  When you get the product right, you can build a company around it.  Without a great product, you will end up throwing a lot of money at something that won’t ultimately succeed.

Start with the product.  Make it great.  Build the team the processes and operations around that great product.  That is how you build a great, successful business.

You can read more of Fred’s article here >> A VC: From Messes To Successes

buySAFE on TechNow

By

On April 21, 2008

In buySAFE

Here is a quick news story on buySAFE featuring both Jeff Grass, buySAFE’s CEO, and Travis Brown, buySAFE’s GC.  Nice work guys!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkLyxOlHXx0&w=425&h=344]

Daily Roundup for 2008-04-16

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On April 16, 2008

In Bookmarks, eBay, eCommerce, Facebook, Marketing, Microsoft, Online Advertising, Online Fraud, Social Networking, Venture Capital, Web/Tech, Yahoo!

  • Does Your Company Need a Chief Blogger? – Advertising Age
    It’s a question marketers are still grappling with years after the first waves of corporate blogging flooded the web. But for better or worse, it seems corporate blogging — and the title of chief blogger — is beginning to hit its stride. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Marriott and Kodak all have recently recruited chief bloggers, with or without the actual title, to tell their stories and engage consumers.

  • Brands Partner With Consumers Online – eMarketer
    These days, online consumers and companies are collaborating on a range of activities, including R&D, marketing and after-sales support.  Here are a few examples of how brands and consumers are working together online.

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Daily Roundup for 2008-04-10

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On April 10, 2008

In Bookmarks, Marketing, Microsoft, Miscellaneous, Online Advertising, Web/Tech, Yahoo!

  • Eyeing Prices as Search Keeps Growing – eMarketer
    Even as some marketers rein in spending to hedge against further economic problems, search engine marketing (SEM) is in great shape—at least for the moment.  Search engine advertisers and agencies surveyed for the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)-sponsored "2007 State of the Market" survey listed multiple reasons for the SEM spending growth, including advertiser demand, rising keyword and pay-per-click campaign costs, small-to-midsized business SEM use and increased behavioral and demographic targeting.  The study was conducted by Radar Research online using an IntelliSurvey panel.

  • Your Former Boss Can Kill Your Job Offer: Vault Job Search Career Information
    Many job seekers are blithely unaware that their former employers all too often say things that can damage or halt their career prospects. Most of this is due to the erroneous belief that it’s somehow illegal to ask about things other than title and dates of employment during a reference check.  This is simply not true.  Today’s courts have literally invented a whole new body of law called "Employment Law." Bundled in this tangle of law is employment pre-screening, otherwise known as reference checking.

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Daily Roundup for 2008-04-07

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On April 7, 2008

In Bookmarks, eCommerce, Google, Online Advertising, Web/Tech, Yahoo!

  • Busting a Rogue Blogger
    Of the many blogs born last May, Patent Troll Tracker seemed as innocuous as any. Its focus: the obscure but controversial subject of "patent trolls," a derogatory term used to describe businesses that make money by purchasing patents and then suing big companies for infringement. The author was clearly no fan of the practice, but his or her identity was a mystery. The "about me" section of the blog noted that the writer was simply "a patent lawyer trying to gather and organize information about patent litigation."  Through regular, copious posts, Troll Tracker quickly drew a devoted following in patent law circles, even among those who disagreed with its point of view. What readers didn’t know, however, was that the blogger was Rick Frenkel, in-house patent counsel at Cisco Systems (CSCO), the Internet infrastructure giant.

  • Ad Spending Grows on News Sites, But… – eMarketer
    Ad spending on newspaper Web sites increased to $3.2 billion in 2007, up 18.8% over 2006, according to preliminary estimates released by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) in late March.  The trade group said that online ad spending accounted for 7.5% of all newspaper ad spending in 2007, up from 5.7% in 2006.

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Google TiSP – A FREE in-home wireless broadband service!

By

On April 1, 2008

In Google

Google launches new services with astonishing speed, and today’s announcement is no exception.  The latest Google invention is designed to help budget in these challenging economic times.

Starting today (4/1/08), you can sign up for Google TiSP. With Google TiSP, you’ll get a speedy broadband connection for free! You can also pay extra for a faster connection.

Of course, there are a few fine print details to Google’s TiSP service. For example, you’ll need to install TiSP yourself. So read the details carefully. Obviously, you will want to understand what rights you’re giving away when you use the TiSP service.

Google’s TiSP only works with Windows. But Google promises that support for the Mac is coming soon.

Learn more about the Google TiSP (BETA), a FREE in-home wireless broadband service>>

101 Five-Minute Fixes to Improve Your Web Site

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On March 26, 2008

In buySAFE, Marketing, Web/Tech

At buySAFE, our web site is one of our greatest assets.  It is the main avenue by which we communicate with prospective buyer and merchant customers, partners, the media, and investors.  It is the main tool we have for defining buySAFE for the rest of the world.  It is the vehicle we use for creating action with respect to our unique eCommerce trust and safety and advertising services. 

I spend a fair amount of my time thinking about how to better leverage this asset, and then working with my team to improve upon its utility.

Therefore, when I ran across this article, "101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site" by Inside CRM Editors, I thought you would enjoy it too.  Here are their first 10 web site improvement tips, and if you are interested in learning more, you should definitely click through to read their other 91 tips as well.

  1. Tell readers why they should perform a task. If your site is full of passive suggestions, toughen it up. People are trained to follow a request, as long as you give them a good reason to do it. 
  2. Make the most highly trafficked pages easier to scan. If your current site consists of large blocks of text, break it up so that it’s easier for the average Internet user to read. 
  3. Convey a sense of trust. If you’re experiencing skepticism, offer social proof like testimonials or risk-mitigating offers like a free trial. 
  4. Stress benefits. Ensure that your copy always shows users exactly how your site will benefit them. 
  5. Make headlines meaningful. Be sure to change any vague or cutesy headlines to something more up-front and meaningful. 
  6. Repeat yourself. Check over your copy to make sure that you’re really driving the point home by making it in a number of ways. 
  7. Tell visitors what to do. Revise your site to ensure that people know exactly what the next step is. If you want a visitor to click a link, tell them 
  8. Keep the reader engaged. Make sure that your current content gives visitors a reason to keep reading throughout the entire piece; otherwise, you need to spice things up a bit. 
  9. Stay consistent. Check your copy for consistency, or else your site may be seen as unstable or flighty. 
  10. Stay simple. Simplify your message simply to avoid confusing visitors, while at the same time improving conversion rates.

Read the other 91 web site improvement tips at "101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Web Site" – Inside CRM >>>

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