What company is offering:
EasySponsorship is the easiest and only way for you collect sponsorship money online. If you've ever collected sponsorship money before then you'll know how messy and confusing it can get. EasySponsorship removes the mess and confusion and in a few clicks you can have a dedicated web page online and ready to collect money from anyone and everyone.
How it Works:
All of your content and donations are stored in your personal password-protected account where you can create sponsorship pages, review your donations and post updates on your pages for your friends and family to follow; as well as the ability to send them emails telling them about it all!
All you need is a browser and the internet. One of the great advantages of EasySponsorship is that it is entirely web-based, meaning that all you need is a web browser and an internet to use it. No downloads, no spyware, no time consuming configuring - just register and get going.
More at:http://www.easysponsorship.com/
Monday, October 29, 2007
Prisb is a one-stop online marketplace where customers can purchase products & services from various merchants
What Company is Offering:
Prisb is a one-stop online marketplace where customers can purchase products & services from various merchants. They have undertaken extensive research to understand your shopping behavior and needs and thus have come up with a concept like an online mall where you will come across an exclusively wide range of merchandise in various categories.
How It Works:
Prisb aims to drive the digital age into people's lives, influencing the way they live, work, transact and respond to changing times, providing a platform on which there will be no comparison or compromise on promised pre- & post-sales services for our customers.Prisb is loaded with user friendly features for a great online shopping experience.
Why is it Different:
Prisb differentiates itself from other India-based shopping portals through its powerful intelligence engines designed specifically to personalize each user’s online buying experience. These engines continuously analyze the online activity of all users, past and present, to suggest individually tailored buying alternatives for each product under consideration. “These dynamic recommendations, detailed feature comparisons and other rich user interface elements combine to form the complete guided purchasing experience found on Prisb,” said Chip Aprile, SVP Products and Technologies.
More at:http://www.prisb.com/
Prisb is a one-stop online marketplace where customers can purchase products & services from various merchants. They have undertaken extensive research to understand your shopping behavior and needs and thus have come up with a concept like an online mall where you will come across an exclusively wide range of merchandise in various categories.
How It Works:
Prisb aims to drive the digital age into people's lives, influencing the way they live, work, transact and respond to changing times, providing a platform on which there will be no comparison or compromise on promised pre- & post-sales services for our customers.Prisb is loaded with user friendly features for a great online shopping experience.
Why is it Different:
Prisb differentiates itself from other India-based shopping portals through its powerful intelligence engines designed specifically to personalize each user’s online buying experience. These engines continuously analyze the online activity of all users, past and present, to suggest individually tailored buying alternatives for each product under consideration. “These dynamic recommendations, detailed feature comparisons and other rich user interface elements combine to form the complete guided purchasing experience found on Prisb,” said Chip Aprile, SVP Products and Technologies.
More at:http://www.prisb.com/
Indyarocks.com aims to provide a complete social experience by bringing various social and professional events online
What company is Offering:
Indyarocks.com, a premier mobile and online social networking portal .Indyarocks.com aims to provide a complete social experience by bringing various social and professional events online, thereby allowing enhanced networking between people with similar interests.
Why is it in News:
Indyarocks and K Capital, a reputed Business forum organizer, today announced their partnership.
How It Works And What Were Purpose Of Partnership:
“Indyarocks is revolutionizing the way people interact and share knowledge, particularly with its seamlessly integrated mobile and online services,” said Raghoo Potinii, CEO at K Capital.
This partnership provides K Capital access to Indyarocks’ Integrated media platform to extend the value of its Business Forums beyond the day of the event. Indyarocks in turn will be able to host reputed business workshops and knowledge forums online and provide business value to its members.
How is it progressing:
“This year we already have become the online hosts for major events such as Hyderabad 10k Marathon, TiE-ISB Connect and VLSI International Conference.” said Kalyan Manyam, Founder, Indyarocks. “Through the partnership with Knowledge capital, we now will be able to provide our members with an exclusive online access to reputed international knowledge speakers like Verne Harnish and Harry Beckwith.”
“We’re excited that this partnership enables us to extend the overall value of our knowledge workshops by allowing our speakers to be in touch with their audience pre and post the event. This is a great way for us to share the immense knowledge that gets created in our workshops”
Who Is Backing Them:
About PhoneLinx Communications
PhoneLinx Communications is a new age Mobile Lifestyle solutions company based out of San Jose, California and Hyderabad, India. PhoneLinx will be introducing its various interactive mobile applications and offerings through its unified social networking platform Indyarocks.com. PhoneLinx vision is to redefine life on the move.
K Capital
K Capital is committed to providing an extraordinary perspective for educating the next generation of business leaders in India. Its business workshops /programs present a global perspective in a variety of formats - with each program designed to leave a lasting impact on you and your organization. We bring together the best faculty, their research and business leaders to help you to address your business challenges and dramatically improve your business performance.
More at:http://indyarocks.com/
Indyarocks.com, a premier mobile and online social networking portal .Indyarocks.com aims to provide a complete social experience by bringing various social and professional events online, thereby allowing enhanced networking between people with similar interests.
Why is it in News:
Indyarocks and K Capital, a reputed Business forum organizer, today announced their partnership.
How It Works And What Were Purpose Of Partnership:
“Indyarocks is revolutionizing the way people interact and share knowledge, particularly with its seamlessly integrated mobile and online services,” said Raghoo Potinii, CEO at K Capital.
This partnership provides K Capital access to Indyarocks’ Integrated media platform to extend the value of its Business Forums beyond the day of the event. Indyarocks in turn will be able to host reputed business workshops and knowledge forums online and provide business value to its members.
How is it progressing:
“This year we already have become the online hosts for major events such as Hyderabad 10k Marathon, TiE-ISB Connect and VLSI International Conference.” said Kalyan Manyam, Founder, Indyarocks. “Through the partnership with Knowledge capital, we now will be able to provide our members with an exclusive online access to reputed international knowledge speakers like Verne Harnish and Harry Beckwith.”
“We’re excited that this partnership enables us to extend the overall value of our knowledge workshops by allowing our speakers to be in touch with their audience pre and post the event. This is a great way for us to share the immense knowledge that gets created in our workshops”
Who Is Backing Them:
About PhoneLinx Communications
PhoneLinx Communications is a new age Mobile Lifestyle solutions company based out of San Jose, California and Hyderabad, India. PhoneLinx will be introducing its various interactive mobile applications and offerings through its unified social networking platform Indyarocks.com. PhoneLinx vision is to redefine life on the move.
K Capital
K Capital is committed to providing an extraordinary perspective for educating the next generation of business leaders in India. Its business workshops /programs present a global perspective in a variety of formats - with each program designed to leave a lasting impact on you and your organization. We bring together the best faculty, their research and business leaders to help you to address your business challenges and dramatically improve your business performance.
More at:http://indyarocks.com/
Pinger lets You Trade Voice With Any MobilePhone-Free
What Company is Offering:
Pinger, the voice messaging tool that aims to be an IM-like tool for voice, is jumping on the political bandwagon with its new Pingercasts messaging tools. This is a promotional tool for the candidates, or anyone else, to enable voice message “blasts” to all of their followers.
How It Works:
Pinger is instant voice messaging for your mobile phone. With Pinger you send voice messages directly to someone instantly--no ringing, no greetings, no lengthy prompts. Pinger is fast and efficient like email, but with your voice. It's mobile like text messaging, but with more personality. It's a new communication tool for your crazy life.
I think we’ll find that Pingercasts will be used in conjunction with several other promotional tools, across platforms and devices, and they’ll become equally as effective as email blasts as time goes on.
More at:http://www.pinger.com/
Pinger, the voice messaging tool that aims to be an IM-like tool for voice, is jumping on the political bandwagon with its new Pingercasts messaging tools. This is a promotional tool for the candidates, or anyone else, to enable voice message “blasts” to all of their followers.
How It Works:
Pinger is instant voice messaging for your mobile phone. With Pinger you send voice messages directly to someone instantly--no ringing, no greetings, no lengthy prompts. Pinger is fast and efficient like email, but with your voice. It's mobile like text messaging, but with more personality. It's a new communication tool for your crazy life.
I think we’ll find that Pingercasts will be used in conjunction with several other promotional tools, across platforms and devices, and they’ll become equally as effective as email blasts as time goes on.
More at:http://www.pinger.com/
ReelTV is the premier website for students and independent creatives to showcase their demo reels online
What Company is Offering:
ReelTV is the premier website for students and independent creatives to showcase their demo reels online to prospective clients and industry professionals worldwide.
How It Works:
ReelTV.com covers many art and entertainment categories, such as; sports, sound, acting, modeling, digital animation, sound, graphic design, photography, motion graphics and more. You can take a look at other artists’ reels by browsing through these categories. In order to post your own reel you must before a member. Then you can create a profile and post a demo real that can feature examples of your work from music samples to clips of productions you have been in. You can even list more than one track of music. Your profile includes basic information; such as a description of your reel, tags, education, what inspires you, and you can also attach your resume so that potential employers or clients can get a better idea of your past experience. ReelTV.com features a podcast and a section where you can take a look at posted jobs in the industry.
More at:http://www.reeltv.com/
ReelTV is the premier website for students and independent creatives to showcase their demo reels online to prospective clients and industry professionals worldwide.
How It Works:
ReelTV.com covers many art and entertainment categories, such as; sports, sound, acting, modeling, digital animation, sound, graphic design, photography, motion graphics and more. You can take a look at other artists’ reels by browsing through these categories. In order to post your own reel you must before a member. Then you can create a profile and post a demo real that can feature examples of your work from music samples to clips of productions you have been in. You can even list more than one track of music. Your profile includes basic information; such as a description of your reel, tags, education, what inspires you, and you can also attach your resume so that potential employers or clients can get a better idea of your past experience. ReelTV.com features a podcast and a section where you can take a look at posted jobs in the industry.
More at:http://www.reeltv.com/
EveryScape to create video tours of various cities
What Company is offering:
The startup that’s out to create video tours of various cities.
How it works:
You can set the tours to auto-guide, or control where the tour goes for yourself. Similar to Google Street Views, EveryScape is recorded in a similar manner, with sets of photographs being taken from atop a moving vehicle driving through the city. Unlike Google Street Views, however, EveryScape offers a more comprehensive look at what city you’re touring, with a natural flow that works better with people’s existing intuitions.
New Features:
EveryScape’s new Real World Online, having added several features to its initial service, further developed its video tours, and added Boston and New York to its list, with Miami and Aspen having been moved into the second stages of development, which includes more details and virtual exploration options for end users.
more at:http://www.everyscape.com/
The startup that’s out to create video tours of various cities.
How it works:
You can set the tours to auto-guide, or control where the tour goes for yourself. Similar to Google Street Views, EveryScape is recorded in a similar manner, with sets of photographs being taken from atop a moving vehicle driving through the city. Unlike Google Street Views, however, EveryScape offers a more comprehensive look at what city you’re touring, with a natural flow that works better with people’s existing intuitions.
New Features:
EveryScape’s new Real World Online, having added several features to its initial service, further developed its video tours, and added Boston and New York to its list, with Miami and Aspen having been moved into the second stages of development, which includes more details and virtual exploration options for end users.
more at:http://www.everyscape.com/
V-Lane Traffic for Earn While increasing Alexa Traffic
What company is offering:
MrsVIP / V-Lane Traffic is a full service media and advertising agency, specializing in the professional analyses and planning of highly successful, customized on line and off line marketing strategies, tailored to its clients individual needs.
How it works:
A unique opportunity where individuals and/or corporations alike can massively increase web traffic & Alexa rankings, while at the same time earn a passive daily income.
Savvy business owners worldwide, who utilizes online advertising in addition to traditional advertising campaigns are, or should be, well aware of is the fact, that their online marketing success rises and falls depending on the Alexa ranking of their business web site," states Chad Hershey, independent marketing executive with MrsVIP, "Exposure is the key and that is what V-Lane traffic is all about."
More at:http://www.CashPaidToView.com
MrsVIP / V-Lane Traffic is a full service media and advertising agency, specializing in the professional analyses and planning of highly successful, customized on line and off line marketing strategies, tailored to its clients individual needs.
How it works:
A unique opportunity where individuals and/or corporations alike can massively increase web traffic & Alexa rankings, while at the same time earn a passive daily income.
Savvy business owners worldwide, who utilizes online advertising in addition to traditional advertising campaigns are, or should be, well aware of is the fact, that their online marketing success rises and falls depending on the Alexa ranking of their business web site," states Chad Hershey, independent marketing executive with MrsVIP, "Exposure is the key and that is what V-Lane traffic is all about."
More at:http://www.CashPaidToView.com
10 greatest entrepreneurs
History’s 10 greatest entrepreneurs.
1. King Croesus. A pick by our veterans committee, Croesus, who ruled the Asia Minor kingdom of Lydia in the sixth century B.C., is owed a huge debt of gratitude for minting the world’s first coinage, thereby creating in a single stroke the lifeblood of every business: liquidity and cash flow. Moreover, his opulent lifestyle has given entrepreneurs throughout history something to shoot for. Is there a greater distinction for the commercially inclined than to be deemed “as rich as Croesus”?
2. Pope Sixtus IV. Sixtus gets the nod for realizing that the “wages of sin” meant more than unpleasant repercussions. There was money to be made in damnation, and Sixtus mined it by opening up a new market -- the dead -- for the indulgences the church had been selling for years. Relatives of the deceased quickly filled the Vatican’s coffers with payments intended to lessen the time their loved ones spent in purgatory. In 1478 Sixtus “grew his market” by authorizing the Spanish Inquisition, which swelled purgatory’s ranks by 100,000 souls in 15 years. He also was the first pope to license brothels.
3. Benjamin Franklin. In a real sense, Franklin was America’s first entrepreneur. Unlike other of the Founding Fathers -- the hypermoral Washington, the prodigiously intellectual Jefferson -- whose virtues and attainments are seen today as anachronisms, Franklin truly was a model of what many of us would become. Beneath the statesman’s mantle resided a popular author, a printer, an inventor (the lightning rod, bifocals) and a very savvy businessman who knew how to commercialize the fruits of his fertile mind.
4. P.T. Barnum. Americans have always loved a good scam and Phineas Taylor Barnum took the art to new heights. He played on our fascination with the bizarre and freakish with sideshow acts ranging from the midget Tom Thumb to Jumbo the giant elephant. In between was a host of more dubious curiosities. He created the Barnum and Bailey Circus as a showcase for all this wonderment, and dubbed it “the Greatest Show on Earth.” Along the way he invented modern advertising and became rich. For the record, he never said “There’s a sucker born every five minutes,” but he left behind plenty of other bon mots. Among them: “Every crowd has a silver lining.”
5. Thomas Edison. What do you say about the man who gave the world the electric light, the phonograph, talking motion pictures and more than 1,300 other patented inventions? That he was the world’s greatest inventor, certainly. But he was also able to exploit the profit potential in his creations, an entrepreneurial bent that asserted itself when Edison was a teen-ager, printing a newspaper in the baggage car of a rolling train and then selling copies to passengers. His impact on the way people live was and is pervasive. As a combination of inventive genius and entrepreneurial flair, he stands alone.
6. Henry Ford. Ford also fundamentally changed human lifestyles by making available a vehicle, the Model T, that vastly extended people’s range of movement. The automobile would allow America’s masses to fulfill their Manifest Destiny to populate every corner of the continent. But his more profound impact was on industry. The moving assembly line he designed to build his cars was the signal breakthrough of the Industrial Age. Appropriately, Ford earned the seed capital for his enterprise by working as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit.
7. Benjamin Siegel. Known as “Bugsy” to his friends, Siegel was a notorious mobster with a touch of the visionary. Legend has it that he single-handedly invented Las Vegas, and that’s a stretch. But he was the first to see what the town could become: a lush oasis of pleasure where gambling was just one of the attractions. He also proved adept at attracting other people’s money to build his iconic resort, The Flamingo. Trouble was, some of those other people belonged to an outfit called Murder Inc., and Siegel was gunned down in 1947 amid rumors he had stolen from his partners. But give the devil his due: Before there was the Bellagio, there was Bugsy.
8. Ray Kroc. Nothing says entrepreneur like persistence, and nothings says persistence like Ray Kroc, the kitchen wares salesman who in 1954, at age 52 and in poor health, had his imagination hijacked by a family-run restaurant in the desert outside Los Angeles. Once he had bought out the McDonald brothers, Kroc proceeded to take their concept of a limited menu, fast service and low prices and expand it nationally, in the process creating the fast-food industry and dramatically affecting America’s lifestyle and, sadly, collective health.
9. H. Ross Perot. Within every entrepreneur lurks a touch of the cowboy, and there’s no better example of the strain than Perot, the diminutive Texan who has become best known in recent years as a political gadfly. Before that, though, he was all business, using a $1,000 loan from his wife in 1962 to launch Electronic Data Systems. Perot’s winning idea was that large corporations and organizations needed data-processing help if they were to take full advantage of computer technology. When in the mid-’60s he won contracts with two new federal health-care programs -- Medicare and Medicaid -- EDS was off and running and Perot was on his way to being one of America’s richest citizens.
10. Jobs & Wozniak. Apple Computer’s two Steves weren’t the first Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to launch a billion-dollar business from a Palo Alto garage -- Hewlett and Packard were there before them -- but they were the first to democratize computing by creating a machine whose use was so wonderfully intuitive that even technophobes embraced it. Combine the elegance of Wozniak’s operating system design with Jobs’ marketing savvy (remember Apple’s “1984” ad?) and the result was a true phenomenon. Yes, the Apple was eclipsed by the PC, but only after Microsoft (behind the vision of two other notable entrepreneurs, Bill Gates and Paul Allen) developed Windows to ape its rival’s ease of use.
via-MSNBC
1. King Croesus. A pick by our veterans committee, Croesus, who ruled the Asia Minor kingdom of Lydia in the sixth century B.C., is owed a huge debt of gratitude for minting the world’s first coinage, thereby creating in a single stroke the lifeblood of every business: liquidity and cash flow. Moreover, his opulent lifestyle has given entrepreneurs throughout history something to shoot for. Is there a greater distinction for the commercially inclined than to be deemed “as rich as Croesus”?
2. Pope Sixtus IV. Sixtus gets the nod for realizing that the “wages of sin” meant more than unpleasant repercussions. There was money to be made in damnation, and Sixtus mined it by opening up a new market -- the dead -- for the indulgences the church had been selling for years. Relatives of the deceased quickly filled the Vatican’s coffers with payments intended to lessen the time their loved ones spent in purgatory. In 1478 Sixtus “grew his market” by authorizing the Spanish Inquisition, which swelled purgatory’s ranks by 100,000 souls in 15 years. He also was the first pope to license brothels.
3. Benjamin Franklin. In a real sense, Franklin was America’s first entrepreneur. Unlike other of the Founding Fathers -- the hypermoral Washington, the prodigiously intellectual Jefferson -- whose virtues and attainments are seen today as anachronisms, Franklin truly was a model of what many of us would become. Beneath the statesman’s mantle resided a popular author, a printer, an inventor (the lightning rod, bifocals) and a very savvy businessman who knew how to commercialize the fruits of his fertile mind.
4. P.T. Barnum. Americans have always loved a good scam and Phineas Taylor Barnum took the art to new heights. He played on our fascination with the bizarre and freakish with sideshow acts ranging from the midget Tom Thumb to Jumbo the giant elephant. In between was a host of more dubious curiosities. He created the Barnum and Bailey Circus as a showcase for all this wonderment, and dubbed it “the Greatest Show on Earth.” Along the way he invented modern advertising and became rich. For the record, he never said “There’s a sucker born every five minutes,” but he left behind plenty of other bon mots. Among them: “Every crowd has a silver lining.”
5. Thomas Edison. What do you say about the man who gave the world the electric light, the phonograph, talking motion pictures and more than 1,300 other patented inventions? That he was the world’s greatest inventor, certainly. But he was also able to exploit the profit potential in his creations, an entrepreneurial bent that asserted itself when Edison was a teen-ager, printing a newspaper in the baggage car of a rolling train and then selling copies to passengers. His impact on the way people live was and is pervasive. As a combination of inventive genius and entrepreneurial flair, he stands alone.
6. Henry Ford. Ford also fundamentally changed human lifestyles by making available a vehicle, the Model T, that vastly extended people’s range of movement. The automobile would allow America’s masses to fulfill their Manifest Destiny to populate every corner of the continent. But his more profound impact was on industry. The moving assembly line he designed to build his cars was the signal breakthrough of the Industrial Age. Appropriately, Ford earned the seed capital for his enterprise by working as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit.
7. Benjamin Siegel. Known as “Bugsy” to his friends, Siegel was a notorious mobster with a touch of the visionary. Legend has it that he single-handedly invented Las Vegas, and that’s a stretch. But he was the first to see what the town could become: a lush oasis of pleasure where gambling was just one of the attractions. He also proved adept at attracting other people’s money to build his iconic resort, The Flamingo. Trouble was, some of those other people belonged to an outfit called Murder Inc., and Siegel was gunned down in 1947 amid rumors he had stolen from his partners. But give the devil his due: Before there was the Bellagio, there was Bugsy.
8. Ray Kroc. Nothing says entrepreneur like persistence, and nothings says persistence like Ray Kroc, the kitchen wares salesman who in 1954, at age 52 and in poor health, had his imagination hijacked by a family-run restaurant in the desert outside Los Angeles. Once he had bought out the McDonald brothers, Kroc proceeded to take their concept of a limited menu, fast service and low prices and expand it nationally, in the process creating the fast-food industry and dramatically affecting America’s lifestyle and, sadly, collective health.
9. H. Ross Perot. Within every entrepreneur lurks a touch of the cowboy, and there’s no better example of the strain than Perot, the diminutive Texan who has become best known in recent years as a political gadfly. Before that, though, he was all business, using a $1,000 loan from his wife in 1962 to launch Electronic Data Systems. Perot’s winning idea was that large corporations and organizations needed data-processing help if they were to take full advantage of computer technology. When in the mid-’60s he won contracts with two new federal health-care programs -- Medicare and Medicaid -- EDS was off and running and Perot was on his way to being one of America’s richest citizens.
10. Jobs & Wozniak. Apple Computer’s two Steves weren’t the first Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to launch a billion-dollar business from a Palo Alto garage -- Hewlett and Packard were there before them -- but they were the first to democratize computing by creating a machine whose use was so wonderfully intuitive that even technophobes embraced it. Combine the elegance of Wozniak’s operating system design with Jobs’ marketing savvy (remember Apple’s “1984” ad?) and the result was a true phenomenon. Yes, the Apple was eclipsed by the PC, but only after Microsoft (behind the vision of two other notable entrepreneurs, Bill Gates and Paul Allen) developed Windows to ape its rival’s ease of use.
via-MSNBC
Submit New Business Idea And Get $10,000
Advanta Bank’s Ideablob.com invites visitors to submit their business ideas for feedback and enter a monthly contest to win $10,000.
Prepacked lunch boxes is one of the most popular recent ideas.
Two others: a real estate Web site “that finally rids the world of real estate brokers” and a Web site to search for available wedding or
More at:http://ideablob.com/
Prepacked lunch boxes is one of the most popular recent ideas.
Two others: a real estate Web site “that finally rids the world of real estate brokers” and a Web site to search for available wedding or
More at:http://ideablob.com/
Start Up King......
Some people can’t stop thinking about food. Bill Gross can’t stop thinking about new businesses. One of the world’s great serial entrepreneurs, he’s launched more than 50 startups through Idealab, his incubator in Pasadena, Calif. His track record includes both winners (CitySearch, Cooking.com, NetZero/United Online) and losers (eToys, Eve.com, Free-PC). But he’s best known for inventing the pay-per-click advertising model behind Overture Services (formerly GoTo.com), the pioneering search engine he sold to Yahoo! in 2003 for $1.6 billion.
Now, after more than a decade of launching dotcoms, Gross has rediscovered the pleasures - and profitability - of the physical world. Idealab’s current lineup is crowded with companies that make actual products: robots, 3-D printers, electric cars, rooftop solar collectors. As Gross puts it, he’s much more interested today in “atoms businesses” than “bits businesses.”
“Well, one of the things we learned is that you definitely want to have first-mover advantage. It’s always great to be first when you have a new idea that is a potential game-changer. But you also want to have the “last mover living” benefit - meaning that if you just go first, if you’re way too early, you’re not going to make it until the market catches up to you.
So I think the biggest lesson we’ve learned is that you need to find a way to raise enough money and spend it slowly enough that you can stick around until everybody catches on to your idea. The race is not to run out of your money first - it’s to be there at the finish line,” Gross says.
Q. What do you look for when you start a company?
We like to challenge the status quo, to take on something that other people wouldn't do to solve a big problem. So when we look for a disruptive opportunity, we're really looking for a big problem and a way to solve it that no one else was willing to try.
Q. Do you go after industry incumbents, or are you looking for white space where customers aren't being served?
I would say we're going much more after white space. There are opportunities in both areas, and looking for a big industry gives you a lot of confidence that there will be customers there. But we prefer to look for a big itch that isn't being scratched.
Q. What are the drawbacks to going straight after a big industry incumbent?
The main drawback is that they are actually quite powerful. I think people underestimate big companies when they think of them as dinosaurs, as if they didn't have the power to fight back. For me, personally, if a customer is already being served, but just a little bit less efficiently, that's not as exciting as a customer with a problem that no one is trying to solve.
Q. Of all the companies you've started, which one was the most disruptive?
Probably GoTo. That company was designed to scratch an itch that wasn't being met. We had a whole bunch of small companies in the building that were all trying to buy advertising, but small advertisers were not being well served online. We thought the small advertiser needed some voice, some way to do business on a more cost-effective basis than cutting big deals with AOL. We had no idea that cost-per-click would have such a big impact - that it would change the economics of the Web. It was a disruptive thing that went beyond what we were hoping for.
Q. Didn't it become the basis for paid search, the economic driver for Google and Yahoo?
Yes, paid search has had an impact for Google (Charts, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (Charts, Fortune 500). But it's had an impact as well on many small publishers. Just as eBay (Charts, Fortune 500) empowers people to make a business online, so many publishers use AdSense and the price-per-click model to earn money online.
Q. How are you bringing search into the next phase?
Cost-per-click judges how many visitors you get, but it doesn't measure how effective those visitors are. Do they actually complete a transaction at the end? Do they become a customer of your Web site? We started Snap with the explicit purpose of introducing cost-per-action into search. An action could be anything the Web site cares about: a visitor signing up for a subscription or buying a book or deciding to become one of your customers. Since we introduced Snap, other search engines are starting to blend measurable actions into their final results.
Q. Is it frustrating that everyone copies you?
Well, we start these new companies for multiple reasons. Of course we're looking for economic gain; we have shareholders. But we are also looking to have an impact - and that's what makes us most proud.
More at:http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/25/news/companies/Startupking.biz2/?postversion=2007092605
Now, after more than a decade of launching dotcoms, Gross has rediscovered the pleasures - and profitability - of the physical world. Idealab’s current lineup is crowded with companies that make actual products: robots, 3-D printers, electric cars, rooftop solar collectors. As Gross puts it, he’s much more interested today in “atoms businesses” than “bits businesses.”
“Well, one of the things we learned is that you definitely want to have first-mover advantage. It’s always great to be first when you have a new idea that is a potential game-changer. But you also want to have the “last mover living” benefit - meaning that if you just go first, if you’re way too early, you’re not going to make it until the market catches up to you.
So I think the biggest lesson we’ve learned is that you need to find a way to raise enough money and spend it slowly enough that you can stick around until everybody catches on to your idea. The race is not to run out of your money first - it’s to be there at the finish line,” Gross says.
Q. What do you look for when you start a company?
We like to challenge the status quo, to take on something that other people wouldn't do to solve a big problem. So when we look for a disruptive opportunity, we're really looking for a big problem and a way to solve it that no one else was willing to try.
Q. Do you go after industry incumbents, or are you looking for white space where customers aren't being served?
I would say we're going much more after white space. There are opportunities in both areas, and looking for a big industry gives you a lot of confidence that there will be customers there. But we prefer to look for a big itch that isn't being scratched.
Q. What are the drawbacks to going straight after a big industry incumbent?
The main drawback is that they are actually quite powerful. I think people underestimate big companies when they think of them as dinosaurs, as if they didn't have the power to fight back. For me, personally, if a customer is already being served, but just a little bit less efficiently, that's not as exciting as a customer with a problem that no one is trying to solve.
Q. Of all the companies you've started, which one was the most disruptive?
Probably GoTo. That company was designed to scratch an itch that wasn't being met. We had a whole bunch of small companies in the building that were all trying to buy advertising, but small advertisers were not being well served online. We thought the small advertiser needed some voice, some way to do business on a more cost-effective basis than cutting big deals with AOL. We had no idea that cost-per-click would have such a big impact - that it would change the economics of the Web. It was a disruptive thing that went beyond what we were hoping for.
Q. Didn't it become the basis for paid search, the economic driver for Google and Yahoo?
Yes, paid search has had an impact for Google (Charts, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (Charts, Fortune 500). But it's had an impact as well on many small publishers. Just as eBay (Charts, Fortune 500) empowers people to make a business online, so many publishers use AdSense and the price-per-click model to earn money online.
Q. How are you bringing search into the next phase?
Cost-per-click judges how many visitors you get, but it doesn't measure how effective those visitors are. Do they actually complete a transaction at the end? Do they become a customer of your Web site? We started Snap with the explicit purpose of introducing cost-per-action into search. An action could be anything the Web site cares about: a visitor signing up for a subscription or buying a book or deciding to become one of your customers. Since we introduced Snap, other search engines are starting to blend measurable actions into their final results.
Q. Is it frustrating that everyone copies you?
Well, we start these new companies for multiple reasons. Of course we're looking for economic gain; we have shareholders. But we are also looking to have an impact - and that's what makes us most proud.
More at:http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/25/news/companies/Startupking.biz2/?postversion=2007092605
How To Monetize Social Networks
Give Rupert Murdoch his due. When the News Corp. (NWS ) chairman approved a $580 million deal to acquire MySpace in the summer of 2005, he was way ahead of the pack. Today, hundreds of millions of people around the globe have embraced these digital water coolers, using them as a means of self-expression or as a way to keep in touch with friends. But now the pressure is building for MySpace to prove it can be the cash cow that Murdoch and others are betting on. MySpace, still by far the largest social network, has lost some of its mojo lately as competing networks spring up like dandelions after a rain shower, crimping its growth.
Most important, social networks have yet to figure out a business model. Advertisers, for instance, aren't sure that social networks can become a great platform for their pitches. "Social-network advertising is still a work in progress," says Debra Aho Williamson, a senior analyst with research firm eMarketer.
Murdoch's challenge is to transform the Web phenom into a digital media powerhouse capable of richly monetizing eyeballs without driving off the very users who made it popular. Even MySpace executives concede they're winging it. "I don't think our monetization strategy will be a prize-winning Harvard Business School study," says Jeff Berman, general manager of a new MySpace TV unit.
The race to wring money out of MySpace's giant audience is all the more urgent because Facebook, the fast-gaining No. 2 network, is expected on Nov. 6 to unveil its own advertising strategy. On Oct. 24, Microsoft said it would invest $240 million in Facebook, reportedly beating out Google and giving the site a staggering $15 billion valuation.
Besides the big social networks like Facebook, hi5.com, and Bebo, new niche efforts are emerging. These outfits, with names like Geni and Dogster, are less about keeping in touch with friends than connecting with family or communing over mutual interests. Venture capitalists this year alone have poured about $250 million into 34 different social networks. And all kinds of places, from USA Today to Dwell magazine, are integrating social-networking techniques into their sites.
STOP BY, STAY A WHILE
That surge in new networks is one reason Bear Stearns analyst Spencer Wang sliced his first-quarter earnings estimates for News Corp. on Oct. 18. Wang noted that in the third quarter, MySpace's U.S. audience showed its first-ever quarterly decline, after peaking at 70.5 million in June. "We are not fully convinced that MySpace can maintain its lead," says Wang. Moreover, MySpace users are not lollygagging on the site the way they used to--a key metric for advertisers. MySpace users spent an average of 3 hours and 13 minutes a month on the site in the third quarter, down 26% from a year earlier. Meanwhile, users spent 3 hours and 33 minutes on Facebook, up 23% for the year.
Social networks have put most of their faith in advertising. But people don't go to MySpace to find products or information. Users are so engrossed with talking to friends and posting party pictures that they pay little or no attention to the ads. So ad rates on social networks are much lower than prices for search keywords or traditional ads--$1.86 per thousand views for MySpace, Merrill Lynch says. That compares with as much as $30 per thousand for prime-time TV. "Standard display ads--and I don't care how much targeting you do--it's not working well," says Ian Schafer, president of online ad firm Deep Focus.
Media giants such as Warner Bros. and NBC have set up sites on MySpace to promote their content. But ad providers say some big consumer brands are leery of running ads beside material created by users. "Almost every single client we have says, 'Do not run my ad on a social network," says Tim Vanderhook, CEO of ad network Specific Media.
MySpace is working to change that perception. It is rolling out a new system with computer algorithms that glean data about its users. That should produce ads that are more closely targeted to users' interests and make advertisers more eager to spend money on the site. "We're very excited about the prospects of this," says Peter Levinsohn, president of MySpace parent Fox Interactive Media. That project is crucial if Fox Interactive is to generate a third of News Corp.'s earnings growth in the current fiscal year, ending next June. Merrill analyst Jessica Reif Cohen expects Fox Interactive--of which MySpace is the largest part--to earn $239 million on operations, up from $33 million last year.
Loading up on ads can backfire, though. MySpace already turns off some members by putting as many as nine ads on a page. "I really hate it," says Vinh Pham, a 24-year-old Web developer who now spends more time on Facebook than MySpace because of the ad deluge. "You have to see, like, 100 ads just to do anything on MySpace."
GOING HOLLYWOOD
Meanwhile, MySpace co-founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson are spending big money to turn MySpace into a digital media juggernaut. In late October, MySpace announced the creation of a gaming site, as well as a deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment to share revenues generated from Sony content displayed on MySpace's music pages. The most prominent effort came in June when it launched MySpace TV, which has gained traction by adding professionally produced video. MySpace also has plans to create a version of the video site for cell phones. "In some senses, we're becoming Hollywood's digital playground," says Berman.
But many analysts and technologists question how many users want this type of content and how much money MySpace can make from its investment. Yahoo! recently retreated from its strategy to produce more original programming. "The Hollywood playbook has not adapted well to the Web," says Reid Hoffman, CEO of professional network LinkedIn and an investor in Facebook.
For now, MySpace's biggest revenue source is a three-year, $900 million deal signed last summer that makes Google the site's exclusive ad provider. MySpace has to deliver a minimum amount of traffic.
Via-http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_45/b4057047.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology
Most important, social networks have yet to figure out a business model. Advertisers, for instance, aren't sure that social networks can become a great platform for their pitches. "Social-network advertising is still a work in progress," says Debra Aho Williamson, a senior analyst with research firm eMarketer.
Murdoch's challenge is to transform the Web phenom into a digital media powerhouse capable of richly monetizing eyeballs without driving off the very users who made it popular. Even MySpace executives concede they're winging it. "I don't think our monetization strategy will be a prize-winning Harvard Business School study," says Jeff Berman, general manager of a new MySpace TV unit.
The race to wring money out of MySpace's giant audience is all the more urgent because Facebook, the fast-gaining No. 2 network, is expected on Nov. 6 to unveil its own advertising strategy. On Oct. 24, Microsoft said it would invest $240 million in Facebook, reportedly beating out Google and giving the site a staggering $15 billion valuation.
Besides the big social networks like Facebook, hi5.com, and Bebo, new niche efforts are emerging. These outfits, with names like Geni and Dogster, are less about keeping in touch with friends than connecting with family or communing over mutual interests. Venture capitalists this year alone have poured about $250 million into 34 different social networks. And all kinds of places, from USA Today to Dwell magazine, are integrating social-networking techniques into their sites.
STOP BY, STAY A WHILE
That surge in new networks is one reason Bear Stearns analyst Spencer Wang sliced his first-quarter earnings estimates for News Corp. on Oct. 18. Wang noted that in the third quarter, MySpace's U.S. audience showed its first-ever quarterly decline, after peaking at 70.5 million in June. "We are not fully convinced that MySpace can maintain its lead," says Wang. Moreover, MySpace users are not lollygagging on the site the way they used to--a key metric for advertisers. MySpace users spent an average of 3 hours and 13 minutes a month on the site in the third quarter, down 26% from a year earlier. Meanwhile, users spent 3 hours and 33 minutes on Facebook, up 23% for the year.
Social networks have put most of their faith in advertising. But people don't go to MySpace to find products or information. Users are so engrossed with talking to friends and posting party pictures that they pay little or no attention to the ads. So ad rates on social networks are much lower than prices for search keywords or traditional ads--$1.86 per thousand views for MySpace, Merrill Lynch says. That compares with as much as $30 per thousand for prime-time TV. "Standard display ads--and I don't care how much targeting you do--it's not working well," says Ian Schafer, president of online ad firm Deep Focus.
Media giants such as Warner Bros. and NBC have set up sites on MySpace to promote their content. But ad providers say some big consumer brands are leery of running ads beside material created by users. "Almost every single client we have says, 'Do not run my ad on a social network," says Tim Vanderhook, CEO of ad network Specific Media.
MySpace is working to change that perception. It is rolling out a new system with computer algorithms that glean data about its users. That should produce ads that are more closely targeted to users' interests and make advertisers more eager to spend money on the site. "We're very excited about the prospects of this," says Peter Levinsohn, president of MySpace parent Fox Interactive Media. That project is crucial if Fox Interactive is to generate a third of News Corp.'s earnings growth in the current fiscal year, ending next June. Merrill analyst Jessica Reif Cohen expects Fox Interactive--of which MySpace is the largest part--to earn $239 million on operations, up from $33 million last year.
Loading up on ads can backfire, though. MySpace already turns off some members by putting as many as nine ads on a page. "I really hate it," says Vinh Pham, a 24-year-old Web developer who now spends more time on Facebook than MySpace because of the ad deluge. "You have to see, like, 100 ads just to do anything on MySpace."
GOING HOLLYWOOD
Meanwhile, MySpace co-founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson are spending big money to turn MySpace into a digital media juggernaut. In late October, MySpace announced the creation of a gaming site, as well as a deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment to share revenues generated from Sony content displayed on MySpace's music pages. The most prominent effort came in June when it launched MySpace TV, which has gained traction by adding professionally produced video. MySpace also has plans to create a version of the video site for cell phones. "In some senses, we're becoming Hollywood's digital playground," says Berman.
But many analysts and technologists question how many users want this type of content and how much money MySpace can make from its investment. Yahoo! recently retreated from its strategy to produce more original programming. "The Hollywood playbook has not adapted well to the Web," says Reid Hoffman, CEO of professional network LinkedIn and an investor in Facebook.
For now, MySpace's biggest revenue source is a three-year, $900 million deal signed last summer that makes Google the site's exclusive ad provider. MySpace has to deliver a minimum amount of traffic.
Via-http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_45/b4057047.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_technology
VoiceThread
What Company is offering:
VoiceThread is a new service that enables users to capture and add their voices to photos, presentations and embed them in a blog or a website.
How It works:
VoiceThread have ability to almost all types of image and doc files for e.g. JPG,GIF, BMP, PNG, DOC, PDF and PPT etc. So this effectively means you can double the value of your cool looking presentations by adding your own voice to support the content. Voice integration is an interesting way to gauge your target audience in conversations by sharing your thoughts.Apart from assisting professionals in creating collaborative presentations VoiceThread also acts a top quality service for family members who want to annotate their photos or videos.
More at:http://voicethread.com/
VoiceThread is a new service that enables users to capture and add their voices to photos, presentations and embed them in a blog or a website.
How It works:
VoiceThread have ability to almost all types of image and doc files for e.g. JPG,GIF, BMP, PNG, DOC, PDF and PPT etc. So this effectively means you can double the value of your cool looking presentations by adding your own voice to support the content. Voice integration is an interesting way to gauge your target audience in conversations by sharing your thoughts.Apart from assisting professionals in creating collaborative presentations VoiceThread also acts a top quality service for family members who want to annotate their photos or videos.
More at:http://voicethread.com/
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