jetmissile » startups

Whither Twitter?

James — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:55:53 +0000

The Twitter Gold Mine & Beating Google to the Semantic Web:

There’s always been jabs at Twitter for not having a viable business model and the chatter has increased in the current economic climate. In a recent interview Evan Williams, Twitter CEO, said ‘We had planned to focus on revenue in 2010 but that’s no longer the case, so we changed the plan quite a bit… We’ve moved revenue higher on our list of priorities…’.

I believe Twitter, potentially, has an incredible business model.

(Via O’Reilly Radar.)

Who To Hire?

James — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:32:20 +0000

People who get this:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
— Reinhold Niebuhr

(Via 37Signals)

VC Significance Rapidly Waning?

James — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:40:25 +0000

It’s cheap to startup a web company. Making it profitable still takes inspiration and perspiration, but the cost has dropped enormously, and Paul Graham argues that that may not bode well for VC as an industry.

One additional factor that may be pushing VC to the fringes for most web startups not mentioned in Paul’s article is the growing easy access to angel funding that now exists.

When startups came back into fashion, around 2005, investors were starting to write checks again. And while founders may not have needed VC money the way they used to, they were willing to take it if offered—partly because there was a tradition of startups taking VC money, and partly because startups, like dogs, tend to eat when given the opportunity.