Category Archives: Ramblings

It’s All Fun Until You Become an OS Feature

Posted on August 14, 2011 by payne

Catching up on my reading, I liked what Fred Wilson recently wrote about the cloud storage space: It’s not a space I like very much because I don’t think we’ll be using files in the cloud. Now Dropbox is a brilliant company … Continue reading →

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Update on Search Query Hijacking

Posted on August 4, 2011 by payne

Earlier this year, I wrote about Frontier Communications hijacking Google searches (and documented the technical details).  I wrote Maggie Wilderotter, Frontier’s CEO.  I immediately heard back from her, and by May, her team asserted to me that they were no longer … Continue reading →

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The Entrepreneurial Lottery

Posted on July 29, 2011 by payne

A recent Financial Times article about Facebook’s stunning growth struck a chord with me: … I am concerned that he [Zuckerberg] sets an example of meteoric success that virtually no one else will ever be able to repeat. But wannabes … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Ramblings | 2 Comments

Google+ is the New Bar in the Neighborhood

Posted on July 14, 2011 by payne

The more time I spend with Google+, the more I’m convinced XKCD got it exactly right:  it’s Facebook that’s not Facebook. Many Google+ reviewers focus on “Circles” and “Hangouts”, which are great features.  I also think they’re relatively easy to … Continue reading →

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Video Chat is Now a Feature, Not a Product

Posted on July 6, 2011 by payne

I tried out the new Facebook Video chat.  It worked great — there was a small download/install, but after that, it was click-and-go. I’m really wondering what Skype gets out of this.  Facebook’s chat is not integrated with Skype at … Continue reading →

Posted in Ramblings, Software | 1 Comment

How Will Demand Media Make This Work?

Posted on April 26, 2011 by payne

As I often tell my friends, it’s more fun to run other people’s businesses.  In that spirit, SEC filings are a great source of entrepreneurial case studies, and recently I’ve been reading about Demand Media. Demand Media has a mix of businesses, including … Continue reading →

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Massachusetts Sales Tax “Fairness”

Posted on April 11, 2011 by payne

In case you missed it, H.1731 and S.1554 are winding their way through the Massachusetts legislature.  These bills attempt to make large vendors like Amazon subject to state tax, by arguing that MA-based affiliates create an in-state presence. I’ll concede that … Continue reading →

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Which Way is Your Idea Pointed?

Posted on April 5, 2011 by payne

Occasionally, I meet an entrepreneur that’s got an interesting idea, but is oriented in the totally wrong direction for the market. For example, consider ideas around DVDs:  they’re still very popular, but their future seems clear.  With bandwidth and storage … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Ramblings | 2 Comments

The CEO Job Sucks, Mostly

Posted on April 4, 2011 by payne

How can you tell if someone’s never been CEO?  They say something like, “I really want to be CEO”  I never seem to see former CEOs saying that. A few days ago, Ben Horowitz wrote one of the best blog … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Ramblings | 2 Comments

How Are You Acquiring Customers?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by payne

I know that “how are you acquiring customers?” is now part of a VC joke, but the question is no joke. Across the companies I work with, there’s a very strong correlation between those that found a new twist on acquiring customers … Continue reading →

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Ramblings, Software | 7 Comments