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Who Makes the List of the Top 20 VC Bloggers

September 22, 2009 By

Larry Cheng, a partner of Fidelity Ventures, has been keeping tabs on the top 100 VC bloggers since May, according to TechCrunch writer Erick Schonfeld. Cheng’s methogology is based on how many subscribers each VC has on Google Reader. You can see the entire top 100 VC’s here on Cheng’s blog, Thinking about Thinking. Note–Cheng’s own blog comes in at number 71.

Guy Kawasaki SXSWi 2008
Creative Commons License photo credit: deneyterrio

The top 20 VC blogs follow.

  1. Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures, How To Change The World (24,356)
  2. Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, A VC (21,881)
  3. Paul Graham, YCombinator, Paul Graham: Essays (16,721)
  4. Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital, Above The Crowd (8,897)
  5. David Hornik, August Capital, VentureBlog (8,037)
  6. Brad Feld, Foundry Group, Feld Thoughts (7,543)
  7. Marc Andreesen, TBD, Blog.pmarca.com (5,727)
  8. Ed Sim, Dawntreader Ventures, Beyond VC (4,162)
  9. Josh Kopelman, First Round Capital, Redeye VC (4,071)
  10. Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Ventures Partners, LSVP (3,512)
  11. Seth Levine, Foundry Group, VC Adventure (1,569)
  12. David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners, Who Has Time For This? (1,526)
  13. Christopher Allen, Alacrity Ventures, Life With Alacrity (1,419)
  14. Dave McClure, Founders Fund, Master of 500 Hats (1,417)
  15. Multiple Authors, Union Square Ventures, Union Square Ventures Blog (1,365)
  16. Peter Rip, Crosslink Capital, EarlyStageVC (1,107)
  17. Rick Segal, JLA Ventures, The Post Money Value (1,043)
  18. Mike Hirshland, Polaris Venture Partners, VC Mike’s Blog (1,038)
  19. Jeff Bussgang, Flybridge Capital Partners, Seeing Both Sides (1,018)
  20. Mendelson/Feld, Foundry Group, Ask The VC (1,017)
Filed Under: best blogs, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

What Ben Bernanke Knows About Communication

September 21, 2009 By

Federal Reserve
Creative Commons License photo credit: skpy

What does Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke know about communicating that others don’t? In a recent article for Harvard Business, leadership consultant John Baldoni writes that it is Bernanke’s willingness “to speak last”. In Baldoni’s article “How to Communicate Like Ben Bernake” the author notes:

Bernanke, who established his academic credentials by researching and writing about the Great Depression, is first and foremost, as E.J. Dionne noted in the same interview, a straightforward speaker — people understand him. Bernanke, according to Brooks, also worked hard during the financial crisis to keep discussions going, even calling people back after a meeting to follow up. In this way, Bernanke seems more a legislator, one who works with peers, than an executive, one who dictates.

Baldoni recommends the following tips to keep conversation flowing:

Open up. If you want to keep discussion going, you should keep talking. If the topic is critical to the future of the company, throw out your calendar. Meet with your colleagues, even those who don’t agree with you, until you come to consensus, even if it’s only an agreement to keep talking. (Mediators employ this technique to help resolve disputes between adversaries.)

Give (a little) up. The secret to good conversation is give and take. Those who feel the need to impose their will gain little by talking. Those who want to reach consensus learn how to make concessions over small things to gain agreement over major issues. Dialogue is essential to facilitating that process.

Follow up. Important matters are seldom resolved with a single conversation or a single meeting. You will need to meet multiple times. Keep the dialogue going by following up with participants between meetings. The act of simple conversation can lead to greater understanding off issues and people.

You can read Baldoni’s entire article here.

Filed Under: How to, public relations, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Idealab is Back

September 8, 2009 By

13 year old Pasadena based incubator Idealab is back with a vengeance but its new focus might be a surprise to those that remember its’ earlier successes –GoTo.com, Internet Brands Inc., and Cooking.com. The business incubator is now turning its attention to the green technology sector.

Eclipsed? Not totally.
Creative Commons License photo credit: James Jordan

According to Alana Semuels article, “Idealab rebounds with recent focus on clean technology” for the Los Angeles Times, Idealab:

In the last three years, it has created RayTracker Inc., a solar tracking solution for photovoltaic systems; Distributed World Power, which designs solar systems for developing countries; Aptera Motors, which designs fuel-efficient cars; and eSolar.

It is jumping into the environmental market as venture capital is flowing more into clean-tech companies. Investment in such firms shot up 73% in the second quarter from the previous quarter, according to Ernst & Young, and is expected to continue growing.

In the Los Angeles Times article, Semuels quotes Idealab founder Bill Gross that energy “is probably the biggest opportunity of the century. The world’s energy needs and the demand to make that clean energy is going to be a challenge and an opportunity for entrepreneurs.”

In 2000 Gross turned his attention to solar energy, which eventually led Idealab to eSolar. Semuels writes:

The concept for ESolar came about as Idealab engineers started thinking about ways to provide cost-efficient solar energy for utilities and realized that most solar panels in commercial use were too big to be cost-efficient.

“We tried to figure out the angle we could exploit where we can zig where other people zag,” Gross said.

They came up with what Gross calls an unorthodox plan: “Go small.” Rather than make giant solar panels, they sized them at one square meter. That made the panels easier to install, putting them together like Legos rather than erecting a giant solar facility.

The solar energy company built its plant in Lancaster in just 18 months and has already raised more than $130 million in investments. You can read the entire article here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Fighting Breast Cancer One Tweet at a Time

September 7, 2009 By

Last month Health.com took a look at whether Twitter and Facebook could help in the fight against breast cancer in an article by Sally Chew and Heather Mayer. Chew and Mayer reported in the beginning of their article, “Twitter and other social media sites are often perceived as the ultimate navel-gazing tools. Seemingly a narcissist’s dream, many think that Facebook status updates and the 140-character Twitter messages (known as “tweets”) are really just boring play-by-plays of daily life—I had granola for breakfast! I’m stuck in traffic!”

The reporters described how Laurie Brosius, 31, a business analyst in Dallas, raised $6000 through Twitter for a walk for breast cancer to honor her husband’s deceased mother. Brosius raised 50 percent of the money through strangers that found her original tweet through the power of re tweets, people sending out her original tweet requests to their followers.

Ocala Relay For Life 2008
Creative Commons License photo credit: Steve Beger Photography (Beger.com Productions)

In their article “Can Twitter and Facebook Help Fight Breast Cancer?” Chew and Mayer write:

In a busy world, Twitter posts are succinct and to the point, and that’s one of the main reasons they’re so successful in charity promotion, says Adam Hirsch, the chief operations officer of Mashable.com, a social media blog. Navigating websites can be time-consuming, notes Hirsch. Twitter, however, states a user’s case in no more than 140 characters. “It’s a message you know people will read because, face it, it’s only 140 characters,” he says.

With Twitter, users can interact one-on-one, but they can also broadcast a message to many followers. Even if an individual doesn’t have a lot of followers (say, just family and friends), those people can re-tweet that message in outgoing concentric circles of social contacts—potentially reaching thousands.

In the article, Chew and Mayer  also write about breast cancer survivor Sharon Adams who took on Facebook after the social media company took down photos Adams had posted “of her ropy red mastectomy scars” in the hope of shocking her friends in England into “checking their own breasts for cancer.”

What ensued was an avalanche of media attention and a 3,000 Facebook member protest. Facebook eventually relented and allowed her pictures to be posted. Adams saw the whole controversy over her photos as a benefit. More people became aware of her story and the need to do breast exams than would have if Facebook had not removed her pictures.

You can read the entire article here.

Have you used any social media sites to raise awareness for a cause that you believe in?

Filed Under: FaceBook, public relations, social media, twitter, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Check out these 10 Free Social Applications for Macs

August 28, 2009 By

Have a Mac? If so, check out Barb Dybwad’s article “10 Fabulous Free Social Apps for Mac” on Mashable.  Barb writes, “In this post we’ll take a look at 10 gratis programs for connecting to your social world via OS X. From file sharing to instant messaging, from Twitter (Twitter) to social television, there is very likely something on this list for you.”

Apple Retail Store, NYC (#28896)
Creative Commons License photo credit: mark sebastian

Here’s an abbreviated breakdown of the top 10 applications from Barb’s article:

  1. Dropbox. “Looking for a dead easy way to share even large files with people quickly? Check out Dropbox (Dropbox), a great utility app for the Mac (it actually runs on Windows and Linux (linux) as well) that essentially gives you 2 free GB of unrestricted cloud file storage.”
  2. Skitch. “We really can’t rave enough about Skitch (Skitch ) (we recently profiled it in our fun image generators list). Part screen capture tool, part easy doodling app, Skitch is also a dead simple way to quickly share screencaps, images and illustrations with others.”
  3. Tweetdeck. In an informal survey I conducted on LinkedIn back in March, Tweetdeck won hands down as the favorite Twitter client. Enough said.
  4. Gruml. “Gruml is a desktop application that synchronizes with Google Reader (Google Reader) for feed reading and brings many of the social features of gReader along with it.” Gotta check this one out.
  5. NewNewsWire. “If you don’t already use Google Reader and are looking for a good desktop RSS and Atom client for the Mac, check out NetNewsWire.”
  6. Flock. Flock is a social web browser that Mashable recently reviewed here.
  7. Adium. “If you use more than one instant messaging service regularly, you’re going to want a chat client that can support multiple protocols and accounts seamlessly. Not only does Adium (Adium) deliver that, but its default sound when your contacts log in or out or send you a message is a quacking duck.”
  8. Boxee. This one sounds great, “Boxee is basically a socially-enabled media center for your Mac, allowing you to browse both your personal media collection as well as your favorite online video services in one convenient and easy to use interface. It’s designed to give you a great experience for internet content on your television screen, and works with the Apple Remote control that ships with a number of Mac models (and is available for purchase separately).”
  9. Hulu desktop. “If you’re a television and/or movie buff with a penchant for streaming content, the desktop app offers a nice fullscreen viewing experience as well as support for operation via the standard Apple Remote.”
  10. Skype. “Skype (Skype) is one of the leading voice over IP (VoIP) services on the web, and you can use it to make free voice calls between any two computers running the software. For an astonishingly small amount of money you can do a lot of other cool things with Skype too, like send text messages from your computer, get low-cost international calling to landlines around the world, forward calls to your cellphone, get a “Skype In” number your friends can use to make a local call to you from regular phones, get voicemail services and more.”

What other free social applications for Mac do you like? What’s missing from this list?

Filed Under: How to, social media, social web, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Should Your CEO Have a Blog?

August 12, 2009 By

One of the central questions to ask when developing a social media strategy is whether the CEO of your company should have a blog. In Klaus Kneale’s article “CEOs Say: how to Be An Executive Blogger” on Forbes.com, Kneale takes a look at the art of CEO blogging and what it takes to get blogging right. The sub heading of Kneale’s article, “The Blogosphere can be a Minefield for Unprepared CEOs”, strikes at the heart of whether your CEO should be blogging.

Ushahidi in Forbes Magazine
Creative Commons License photo credit: whiteafrican

Kneale writes about Donato Montaro JR., chief executive officer of TradeKing, an online discount brokerage. Monato was an early adopter of blogging and has taken some steps to make sure he is getting his corporate blogging right. One of the steps he has taken was hiring a director of online content whose job is to ensure that “everything on the TradeKing Web site is clean, accurate and consistent with the company’s values. Including her boss’s online persona.”

Kneale reports:

But you’ve got to do it right or you shouldn’t be doing it at all. How do you do it right? It’s an open secret of corporate communications that many e-mails from CEOs aren’t actually written by CEOs. As social media take off in the corporate world, that’s not true only of e-mails. Blogs, too. Montanaro is ahead of the game in this. He has Jude Stewart draft blog posts for him (not all of them), based on meetings they have. Montanaro edits the drafts to make sure they sound like him and to add details Stewart didn’t have.

He’s careful about what he posts, too. His blog contains bits about spearfishing in the Bahamas, but it also is kept in line with the company’s marketing and customer service strategy and any legal regulations. CEOs always have to keep such things in mind when blogging.

If your CEO decides he is interested in starting a blog, there are other items he also needs to consider. Legal for one. The company needs to decide what role legal counsel will play. Will the CEO run all his posts through legal before publishing? Will the CEO coordinate with marketing and public relations about the message? How many hands will actually be involved? How will the company coordinate the publishing of each blog with its overall social media strategy? Will your CEO have an editorial calendar in place that can keep him on track?

Finally, Kneale writes that once everyone is on the same page –what becomes most crucial to the success of your CEOs blog are the headlines. “The best way to get your blog posts spreading to Facebook, Twitter, Digg and e-mail, and ultimately getting read, is by having good headlines.”

Is your CEO blogging?

Filed Under: best blogs, FaceBook, marketing, public relations, social media, twitter, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Last Minute Tips for College Students to Save Hundreds on Textbooks

August 8, 2009 By

Disclaimer: Best Book Buys is a client.

IMG_8429-2
Creative Commons License photo credit: brainchildvn

LA CANADA, CA, August 10, 2009 –Over the next month more than 19 million college students will head back to college during the deepest recession of their families’ lifetimes. But, according to Steve Loyola, president and founder of Best Book Buys (http://www.bestbookbuys.com/), a leading online comparison shopping service for books and a service of Best Web Buys, students can save hundreds of dollars on their textbooks.

“Although times are certainly tough, today’s college students have so many choices for acquiring their college textbooks,” said Loyola.  “By venturing outside their college bookstore, and going online, students can save hundreds of dollars on their textbooks.”

Loyola offers the following tips to save money on textbooks:

  • Start now and order early. If you have your fall schedule and are away from campus, you can check to see if your professor has a syllabus online or can simply email your professors requesting the book lists.  The lowest priced and highest quality used textbooks are most often found when supplies are at their highest.
  • See if your school has a book swapping site.  Just google the name of your school and book swap (e.g., “UCLA book swap”). Also, use Facebook to see if any of your friends have the book you need.
  • Check to see if the college library has your textbook available. If so, you might be able to read it at the library instead of purchasing it.
  • Use comparison shopping sites like BestBookBuys.com which search the Internet for your textbooks across thousands of sellers. BestBookBuys compares the cost of more than 6 million book titles and also enables consumers to compare the costs of books via their cell phones at http://m.bestbookbuys.com/ .
  • Compare the costs of buying used, new and international textbooks against the price of renting textbooks or electronic textbooks.  When you compare costs, also factor in the amount of money you might get to sell your textbook at the end of the semester. If you rent, you will not recoup any of your purchase. In addition, renting a book requires returning the book in good condition or you will be required to purchase it at the end of your rental term. Also realize that semester, quarter, and summer rental periods usually refer to a certain number of days (e.g., 125, 85, 60). Even if you are on a semester schedule, if you only need a book for part of the semester, save money by choosing the quarter or summer rental if that’s long enough for your needs.
  • Consider buying an international edition. An international edition may have a paperback cover instead of a hardcover and may have different text or graphics than the U.S. version. Before purchasing any alternate edition, check the seller’s website to confirm that the book has the same content as the U.S. edition.
  • Check availability and shipping time before ordering.  Buying from the least expensive seller is probably not a good deal if the book isn’t immediately available.
  • Check for store coupons and free shipping offers.  Google the store name and coupon (e.g., “Amazon coupon”).
  • Before ordering, check out the store’s reputation and return policy. You want to make sure the store will accept returns and that the store provides ample time to return your books in the event you change classes.
  • Don’t forget to sell books back when the semester is over.  Best Book Buys has links to participating online bookstores that buy textbooks at http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/buyback.html
Filed Under: How to, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

25 Media People to Follow

August 5, 2009 By

One of the first things I tell people who are interested in learning more about Twitter and how to use it, is to find people on Twitter they already know of who they admire or are at the top of their industry and to start following them. I also believe you can learn a lot from the media people that are shaping the social media landscape. In that spirit, Ad Age Magazine has compiled a list of the top 25 media people to follow on twitter and they are definitely worth following.

newsstand
Creative Commons License photo credit: loop_oh

Here’s a partial listing of Ad Age’s top 25 media people:

Nieman Lab (@NiemanLab) The Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard — “Trying to figure out the future of news.”

Jennifer Preston (@NYT_JenPreston) just named the first social-media editor at The New York Times

Sree Sreenivasan (@sreenet) Columbia Journalism School professor and

Mark Cuban (@mcuban) – Owner of HDNet (and the Dallas Mavericks)

John Battelle (@johnbattelle) – Founder and Chairman of Federated Media

Chris Anderson (@chr1sa)- Wired Magazine editor

Jeff Lanctot (@lanctot) – Chief Strategy Officer at Razorfish

David Carr (@carr2n) – New York Times media columnist

David Berkowitz (@dberkowitz) – Emerging Media Director at 360i

Brian Lam (@blam) – Editorial Director at Gizmodo

Pete Cashmore (@mashable) – Founder/CEO of Mashable, the social-media blog

Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) – Managing Partner of Union Square Ventures

Who do you recommend that is not on the list?

Filed Under: social media, twitter, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

How to be a Citizen Journalist Courtesy of YouTube ‘Reporters’ Center’

August 4, 2009 By

Do you have a story you would like to report on? Are you ready to join the ranks of the citizen journalists? If so, you might be interested in the YouTube Reporters’ Center.

According to the YouTube Reporters Center:

The YouTube Reporters’ Center is a new resource to help you learn more about how to report the news. It features some of the nation’s top journalists and news organizations sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting.

Filed Under: How to, social web, Uncategorized, YouTube Tagged With: , , , ,

Eight Tips for College Students to Save Thousands of Dollars on College Costs

July 27, 2009 By

Disclaimer-Client news release

LA CANADA, CA, July 27, 2009— Over the next month nearly 19 million students are set to return to college campuses across the country during the worst economic crisis in more than 70 years. Making matters worse, over the last 25 years, tuition and fees have risen four times faster than the rate of inflation. But according to Steve Loyola, president and founder of Best Book Buys (http://www.bestbookbuys.com), a leading online comparison shopping service for textbooks and books, students can save thousands of dollars off their 2009/2010 college costs

“These are very challenging times for students and their families,” said Loyola. “But, with a little planning, research and good bookkeeping, students and their families can save thousands of dollars off expenses including textbooks, room and board, taxes, car expenses, health insurance and cashing in on AP credits. You just need to get started now and not delay.”

Loyola recommends the following tips:

  • Buy textbooks online. According to the College Board’s Annual Survey of Colleges, students spend more than $1000 per year on books and supplies. By comparing the cost of buying textbooks at an online comparison shopping site like BestBookBuys.com, students can save up to 76 percent off the list price of their textbooks. BestBookBuys.com compares the cost of renting or buying used, new, and international textbooks across thousands of online sellers and online stores including eBay, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Abebooks, Powells, Textbooks.com, Chegg, half, Overstock and many others. BestBookBuys compares the cost of more than 6 million book titles and also enables consumers to compare the costs of books via their cell phones at http://m.bestbookbuys.com
  • Compare the cost of meal plans. Meal plans vary widely in price and the number of meals allowed.  For example, at Occidental College meal plans range from $1,790 to $2,615 per semester and at Vassar College meal plans range from $2,140-2,742.50 per semester. By selecting a mid range plan, students can save hundreds of dollars annually.
  • Consider making a financial aid appeal. If your family’s finances have taken a detour in 2009 compared with 2008, do consider filing an appeal with your financial aid office. Check your college’s website for instructions. If you can’t find instructions, call your college’s financial aid office. If one of your parents lost their job or the family income was reduced, explain in detail. If you haven’t applied for financial aid, do so by filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
  • Don’t forget to claim the new higher education tax credits made available by the stimulus plan signed in February. Under the credit, taxpayers can get a reduction in their 2009 tax bill of up to $2500 per student provided the tax filers have an adjusted gross incomes of less than $80,000 a year (if single) or $160,000 (if they file jointly). An eligible family with two kids in college could get a tax credit of $5,000. In order to get the credit, you will need to fill out IRS form 8863.
  • Check your health insurance. Many colleges charge a built-in fee for health insurance through the college. If you are already insured on your parent’s policy, appeal this amount. At the University of California Irvine, for example, you could save $671 per year if covered under a separate health insurance policy.
  • Leave your car at home. By leaving your car at home you will not only save on the amount you pay in car insurance but also on parking permits ($711 annually at UCLA and $568 annually at the University of Arizona), gas, oil and other upkeep. Check out instead if your college town offers free public transportation to students, many do.
  • Make sure to claim your Advanced Placement (AP) credits. By now, incoming freshmen have received their AP scores. Check out www.collegeboard.com/ap/creditpolicy to see if your score may have earned you college credit. In addition, if students received scores of 3 or higher on at least three or more AP Exams, they should check with their college to see if they have sophomore standing. If you have sophomore standing and attend a public university you may have saved yourself at least $6,585, the average tuition and fees at a four year public university according to 2008 Trends in College Pricing from the College Board.
  • Consider going to summer school. By attending summer school at a junior college, students can potentially save hundreds if not thousands off their college expenses. Just make sure to take the description of the course(s) you are considering to your college advisor to make sure they will accept the credits.

Best Web Buys first made a name for itself twelve years ago with the launch of one of the first online price comparison sites- Best Book BuysÒ. Best Book Buys has been helping college students from more than 1500 colleges across the nation find the best prices for their new and used textbooks since 1997. Best Web Buys’ five product specific sites — Best Book Buys, Best Music Buys, Best Video Buys, Best Bike Buys and Best Electronic Buys — compare prices, shipping and availability of more than six million titles and items at hundreds of online stores and thousands of Alibris, eBay, half.com and Amazon marketplace sellers. Steve Loyola, a former Jet Propulsion Laboratory computer scientist, founded the company.

Filed Under: books, How to, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,
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