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buySAFE on YouTube in Football video

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On July 10, 2008

In buySAFE

I just came across this video on YouTube about buySAFE, and I wanted to share with you.  I believe it was produced by a new employee on our team, and to be honest, I am pretty impressed with his creativity.  Clearly, it is an amateur video, but again, you have to love it when young folks take the initiative to use their skills in a creative manner.  Nice work.

Your commentary on the video are welcomed so feel free to provide comments!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2yvp9eZXsM&w=425&h=344]

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.

Post Funding Advice for VC-backed Entrepreneurs

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On April 30, 2008

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

If you have ever raised venture capital, you know how important the post-funding relationship is with your venture capital investors.  Your pre-money valuation and financing terms are all important needless to say, but to be candid, the post-funding relationship you have (or are likely to have based on a VC’s previous track record) is probably the most important issue for you to consider as an entrepreneur.

An experienced entrepreneur posted a great article on the subject on TheFunded.com, and here is an excerpt of the article…

There are a lot of postings here about getting the initial term sheet and getting the VC on board. However, just like marriages, many of these courting periods can be quite different from the month to month evolving operations and business that we face a year or two down the road. Remember that often these VCs will sit on your board, and direct your business in different ways and depending on your dilution can dictate how operational decisions should be made. Thus, it is important to get an early feel from your VC dialogue, especially how they would respond if the actual business is less than the wonderful picture we sometimes paint in our pitches.

If I can give you piece of advice that you need to follow religiously in your quest for venture capital, it is that you MUST speak to the entrepreneurs and CEOs that have previously taken money from and worked with the VC firm and the VC partner that you are considering.  Do not limit your discussions to the entrepreneurs and CEOs of the successful deals, but rather, you should talk to the entrepreneurs and CEOs of the unsuccessful deals as well.  In my experience, the VCs play a critical role in both outcomes, and you need to make sure you get the full, unedited scoop before you take money from a VC.  This is absolutely critical to your success or failure as a startup.

Speaking of which, I am always happy to share my insights on this subject with folks that are interested, so don’t hesitate to email me with your questions.

You can read more of the original article here >> TheFunded.com: The post funding experience

buySAFE on TechNow

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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 2008-04-08

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On April 8, 2008

In Bookmarks, eCommerce, Entrepreneurship, Google, Online Fraud, Trust and Safety, Venture Capital, Web/Tech

  • Just What We Needed, Google on Speed – Google Everflux
    Is it just me or has Google gone into overdrive? As a professional full-time online marketer I have to keep my mind firmly placed on what Google is doing. As much as I try not to because Google has probably driven more people around the bend than Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz put together. Like any professional marketer, I monitor my numerous keywords on a daily basis – especially my major targeted keyword phrases that bring in the most sales and subscribers. For years now, I have had top rankings in Google for my chosen phrases; they move up and down, but mostly they don’t leave the first page.

  • Beam it up: Tiny projectors to magnify cell-phone cinema – Technology Review
    Recognizing that it is not much fun to watch movies on a tiny cell phone, a number of companies are racing to develop gadgets that project what’s playing on the small screen onto walls, table cloths and other handy surfaces. ”Pico projectors” that are small enough to carry around in a shirt pocket are expected on the market later this year. Eventually, the technology will be tiny enough to be built into phones and portable media players, the companies say.

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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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So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?

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On March 25, 2008

In Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Web/Tech

I have discovered the hard way that blogging is not an easy endeavor, and this is especially true for folks that have real jobs during the day.  At a minimum, it takes time, dedication, and creativity.  I have often wondered how to others do such a great job with their blogs while still maintaining excellence in their day jobs.  To that point, I thought this article was very interesting, and it included a number of practical tips for all of us aspiring bloggers.  I hope you find this useful as well.

MARK CUBAN, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has a full plate. Besides his basketball team, the busy billionaire also owns part of a media company, and serves as chairman of the TV channel HDNet. He recently competed for five weeks on “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC. How on earth does he find time to blog?

Yet his site, blogmaverick.com, is one of the top 1,000 Weblogs, according to the search engine Technorati. Thousands read Mr. Cuban’s posts every single day. If he can do it, why can’t you?

Read more of "So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?" – New York Times >>>

 

Daily Roundup for 2008-03-19

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On March 19, 2008

In Bookmarks, Core Capital, eBay, eCommerce, Entrepreneurship, Grotech Capital, Online Fraud, Venture Capital, Web/Tech

  • Woman to record industry: Stop spying
    A woman who claims the recording industry’s anti-music piracy campaign threatens and intimidates innocent people has filed a new complaint accusing record companies of racketeering, fraud and illegal spying.

  • Startup RatePoint bets that people want user reviews refereed – Technology Review
    One of the great things about the Internet is the way people post reviews on just about anything you are considering trying, whether it is a movie, a new restaurant or the local florist.  This also introduces one of the worst things about the Internet: trying to figure out which reviews to trust. Was that effusive praise written surreptitiously by the merchant? Was that anonymous online slam posted by a devious competitor?  The dilemma might be unavoidable in this age of abundant user-generated content, when we have to be smarter about separating signals from noise. But a startup called RatePoint Inc. begs to differ. It wants to play referee, giving consumers more clarity into a business’ reputation and protecting the business from unwarranted blights on its credibility.

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Daily Roundup for 2008-03-08

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On March 8, 2008

In Bookmarks, eCommerce, Entrepreneurship, Google, Grotech Capital, Marketing, PayPal, Trust and Safety, Venture Capital, Web/Tech

  • Jeremy Siegel on Politicians, Prices and a Potential ‘Buying Opportunity of the Decade’ – Knowledge@Wharton
    The U.S. Presidential race has reached a critical juncture. The Republicans have a confirmed nominee in John McCain; as for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton has bounced back, while Barack Obama retains a marginal lead in terms of delegates. How the presidential race evolves will be shaped in part by the increasingly worrisome state of the U.S. economy. Consumer prices are rising, oil has crossed $103 a barrel and gold is nudging $1,000 an ounce — suggesting that the economy could be entering a phase of 1970s-style stagflation. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, however, told Congress last week that he doesn’t anticipate stagflation, and he continues to indicate his willingness to keep cutting interest rates. What lies ahead for the U.S. and world economies? Knowledge@Wharton discussed these questions and more with finance professor Jeremy Siegel, author of The Future for Investors.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeDUeIBomzM&rel=1&border=0]

  • Ecommerce Blogging: Who, What And When: Well-written blogs create credibility, interest
    Last month I talked about blogging platforms and the value blogging can bring to ecommerce sites. When a website makes the decision to begin a blog and decides upon a blogging platform, it will then have to decide who will blog and how often. Time allotted to blogging is also a relative issue, as is subject matter. So why bother at all?  Relative to static ecommerce sites, search engines consider blogs more real and trusted because blogs tend to have fresh content and there is a less financial, more informational link between a blog and its readers. An ecommerce site should take advantage of this tendency by adding a blog to augment the overall site.

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Daily Roundup for 2008-03-07

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On March 7, 2008

In Bookmarks, eCommerce, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Marketing, Online Fraud, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

  • Sites With Anti-Fraud Sign Still Flawed – The Associated Press
    When a small padlock appears in the corner of your Web browser’s address bar or the entire bar turns green, it seems like a powerful signal you’re safe to proceed.  But experts say the SSL certificates those green lights signify — digital stamps of approval that Web sites buy to prove they’re running a legitimate business and can send and receive encrypted data safely — don’t provide the safety they seem to.  "They instill some sense of security, but that could be a dangerously false sense of security," said Paul Mutton, a researcher with UK-based security firm Netcraft Ltd.  The site itself could still be riddled with security holes for hackers to exploit. And the certificate could simply be bogus: Criminals have been forging them to get the padlock icon and dress up fraudulent sites.

  • Web 2.0’s Long Road to IPOs
    During the Web’s heyday, a profitable Internet company nearing $100 million in annual sales while luring a million new customers a month would have found itself on the IPO fast track. But that’s hardly the case for LinkedIn, a professional networking site that has cleared those hurdles and then some.  Instead, LinkedIn is hewing closely to the Web economy’s new motto on initial public offerings: Easy does it. Founded in 2003, LinkedIn may not sell shares until some time next year. Likewise, social networking site Facebook, worth $15 billion on paper, may not go public until 2010,

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