Are applications confidential?
223 karma · joined May 27, 2008
In the words of Clay Davis from The Wire: "You think I have time to ask a man, 'why he givin' me money?' Or 'where he gets his money from?' I'll take any motherfucker's money if they givin' it away."
Many VC's encouraged startups to raise as much money as they could while the getting was good. That is a good move for the VC's (raises the value of their shares) and the entrepreneurs (they get more money). But everyone should have known that interest rates were going to rise in the future, and that's the one trigger that will truly change the capital market.
Venture capitalists are in the business of growing the value of their companies.
In this case, Fred did a great job of re-introducing me to one of his companies. I didn't understand why Brewster was important, but via his thoughtful post in which he shares personal experience, he's highlighted a pain point that I also share. I'll probably try the service now, and it may even make my life easier.
Most importantly, if Fred Wilson (or Mark Suster, or any other VC) only blogged about how great his companies are, nobody would read his blog. Instead, he built a loyal readership by writing on provocative topics, having an opinion, and starting conversations. His writing-to-promotion ratio is skewed very heavily in favor of writing.
As a consumer, I want to access that content in an efficient, functional manner. My tax dollars are paying for it. So, I bought an antenna. It couldn't pick up any stations in my apartment, and this is a very common problem in NYC. Even if it picked up stations, I'd have to buy a separate device to record shows so that I can watch them on my schedule.
With Aereo, I was renting an antenna. The company built capital-intensive, power-sucking data warehouses in every city in which it operated and filled them with antennae for every customer. Aereo provided me with a cloud-based antenna, no different than buying one from Best Buy or Amazon.
Only:
(a) the signal was clear and reliable, not fuzzy. My friend has a long coaxial cable connected to his television and he tapes a 12" x 12" antenna to his window. Kind of ridiculous.
(b) they included a cloud-based DVR that allowed me to watch what I want, when I want. They improved the relationship that I had with broadcast content.
Aereo was very clear about the fact that they built a solution that adhered to the law because everyone had an individual antenna. This solution was very expensive, but it worked and though it was described as a Rube Goldberg machine, it made sense.
And here's the ultimate rub for content companies: now I don't watch your content at all. I don't see your ads. I have someone else's cable password, and I watch things sporadically, but I don't discover new shows like you want me to.
As an Aereo user, let me tell you what you missed out on: one of the most amazing products I've ever used.
Aereo "worked." It worked like magic.
First, it lived up to its claim. You could stream live, broadcast television to your phone or computer, and you could AirPlay it to your television. Everything was in HD. It worked incredibly well. So many video products fail to deliver on the user experience, or the video is choppy, or it crashes all the time. Aereo's software had its struggles, but it worked far more often than not. I could have people over and stream the Super Bowl and never worry that Aereo would crap out.
Aereo also worked remarkably well during Hurricane Sandy. I live in Brooklyn, and Aereo's Brooklyn HQ was less than a mile from my apartment, but we streamed Aereo until we went to sleep that night. Considering reports that their antennae sucked a ton of power, that's incredible on a night when power was out all across the city.
I also interviewed with the company in 2013 for a business development role. Everyone that I met was really great. They treated me well during the process while clearly balancing a million things, including their legal concerns. I really, really wanted to work there, but it wasn't a fit for a lot of reasons, their uncertain future being one of them.
When my girlfriend told me that they were filing for bankruptcy, I was sad. This is innovative technology that worked for consumers, squashed by antiquated government regulation and a highly litigious, innovation-resistant, influential media industry.
Progress, halted.
A winning product that could have delighted millions, squashed.
CMS is an interesting case, though. There are 4-5 companies trying to take on WordPress. I could go with the incumbent, but I'd love -- LOVE -- some real dev reviews of that stuff.
Like, where's the fucking unboxing video for developer software?
Recently, I tried to research some of the new CMS/API platforms that have been released in the last year. There was no information. I'm sure these API's have been used thousands of times, but developer has written a review. So I'm left making decisions off marketing pages and PR-driven blog entries. Implementation takes hours that I don't have, I just want a trusted review.
It's really dry territory. You can do well here.
I highly doubt they think the same way.
I'd also caution against employing such a cavalier attitude toward your users if you're building something that isn't 100% for the tech crowd.
Specific to this case, I consider Dan Primack to be an informed technology/finance writer whose opinions are well-researched and who is highly plugged-in to the tech sector (which is a sign that others trust his judgment).
Open source entrepreneurship would be creating a capitalistic enterprise in which anyone can freely participate, and whose participants can modify its practices for his/her own use, with an end goal of monetary profit. Something like:
-- a pool of capital from which anyone can borrow for entrepreneurial purposes and pay back with zero or minimal interest.
-- an enterprise with a stated function or goal that anyone can join and from which anyone can profit.
This is just a collection of links with a sexy header.
An interesting question would be: can you open-source entrepreneurship and retain the core principles of both?
- acquisition price
- Redbeacon's # of employees
- Redbeacon's revenue
- reports from members of either team on how the integration is going? (this would be the most interesting)
If you're interested, visit http://www.typecaster.net or email info@typecaster.net and we'll be in touch.
In effect, Google is now impeding my access to great information. That's counter to their mission, isn't it? And it's risky to do this to a very loyal user group. Google Reader users are passionate about this product.