Digg SimpleTicket
January 31, 2006
Do Kevin a favor and Digg his project:
Weblogs Work on the Map!
January 31, 2006
Fourio created the Web 2.0 Innovation Map and I was happy to see one of our own companies (Weblogs Work) made it. WTG Brian! You are on the map!
SimpleTicket Stats.
January 30, 2006
Kevin released SimpleTicket (Architel’s Ruby on Rails based trouble ticket system) on January 28th. Here are the stats from SourceForge:
Project Rank Downloads
Saturday 56,824 7
Sunday 4,294 48
Monday 3,185 56
Two days after launch 111 people have downloaded our open source trouble ticket system. It would be interesting to see how many people start using it.
Too close for comfort . . .
January 30, 2006
This was a view from an onlooker in east London…
Mash Pit project: event in a box mashup
January 30, 2006
One of the projects that the Mash Pit team worked on yesterday was an ‘event in a box’ mashup. Their idea is to allow attendees (virtual and physical) to see (record) what is going from three perspectives 1) Visual (camera), 2) Dialogue (IRC chat), and 3) Informational (wiki). Here is the design idea:
BarCamps ARE exploding the conference business!
January 29, 2006
Jeff Jarvis is blogging about "Exploding the conference business" and Chris Messina is already doing it with his BarCamp un-conference series. We just finished holding our own BarCamp here in Dallas (check out the flickr stream here).
Why give your treasure and mindshare to IDG? (They hold more than 170 conferences like the upcoming Open Source Business Conference) The communities interested in a conference can simple self-organize without incurring all of the cost and ‘low-risk’ speakers that Jeff is railing against. DIY - just like Chris did with BarCamp and now Mash Pit. (We organized Mash Pit 2 at BarCampDallas the day before)
New VC Model?
January 29, 2006
Mark Evans posted ‘A New VC Model?‘ this morning on his blog. The concept is simple, the Web 2.0 landscape has helped many of us realize that, "the best services will market themselves virally" and that "development and distribution costs are modest" for most new startups. How can VCs participate in this new reality? He suggests that perhaps by investing in more deals, using less money and more resources (networking, recruiting, technical and marketing).
This sounds a lot like what we have been trying to do. When we first started m|ventures we positioned ourselves as a boutique venture capital firm. Our limited partnership was created and we raised a small fund from a handful of very close friends and relatives. We then shifted our positioning from a boutique VC to more of a holding company. Now we just plain don’t know how we want to position ourselves. We don’t look or act like any venture capital firm I have ever met with. What are we doing? Simple, we are working with a number of early stage companies (see list here) that need less money and more resources (i.e. like Rick Segal and Mark are talking about). In many cases we are working with people who need a shot in the arm - i.e. someone to instigate that first spark of an idea. Need less money? Need more resources? Tag us: mvenidea
Mash Pit 2.0 Starts NOW!
January 29, 2006
It has been a busy weekend (BarCampDallas just wrapped up). Chris Messina is hosting the second Mash Pit at the Architel offices (the first with guys like Matt, Niall, Chris and Josh was held on January 18th) this morning at 10AM. Kevin (of soon to be SimpleTicket fame) will be representing Architel, Brian will be there to represent Weblogs Work - but alas I have painters in my house (hopefully to be someone elses home soon) and lunch with out-of-town relatives. I might be on the IRC chat: irc.freenode.net/#mashpit!
What is MashPit? The idea is simple: a single day of hacking by a small group (10-15) of people. The morning is used to discuss what human problems they want to solve and the afternoon and evening to actually build something. The idea is not to build something completely from scratch, but to ‘mash-up’ various Internet applications to build something new.
I think Scott is right, BarCampDallas left me with the thought that there can be a technology community right here in Dallas (you don’t have to move to San Francisco). I think Mash Pit might take the feeling and turn it into a real tool. Dallas 2.0? I know, too cheesy…
Flock is getting better…
January 28, 2006
Chris from Flock gave a great presentation on the product this evening at BarCampDallas. I was there for the Web 2.0 launch, it was rough - trainwreck comes to mind. They should fire their PR agency - keep it real - keep it expectations down. Keep Chris out showing off the product - it will sell itself.
Give them another year and I will become a user. For now I will be using it to get ideas. Chris’ team is doing great innovative work.
BarCampDallas!
January 28, 2006
We are hosting BarCampDallas today. Check out my flickr stream here. Check out the wiki here. Check out the live video feed here.
So you are going to ignore my advice and raise money. . .
January 27, 2006
What next? How do you start the fund raising process? Fred Wilson has an interesting post in which he states, “the best way to raise money is to ask for advice and the best way to get advice is to ask for money.”
The advice is sound and the post is enlightening. His thought process is fairly straight forward: “It’s human nature to want what you can’t have and to not want what you can have.” He concludes, “Make sure you ask for advice from a VC before you want their money. Don’t ask for money first.”
In the bad old days when I was raising money for LayerOne we had decided to cap the Series A at $10MM and a group of investors who we had talked to, but who had not decided to invest wired $2MM into our account after we had already hit our $10MM mark. Ultimately they agreed to cut their investment in half and we agreed to increase the round to $11MM to let them in. (note to self: always take more money than you think you need if you are raising money - never reverse a million dollar wire transfer)
Newsflash! Arson banned in Dallas!
January 26, 2006
Each time I see this sign (in Dallas, TX) I chuckle. For some reason TXDOT has a message that reminds motorists that there is an arson/burn ban in effect. If you were considering an arson, you will have to wait until we get more rainfall. It is simply to dry to burn down your business.
Help wanted - someone to clean our house!
January 26, 2006
Recently our maid took a full-time job and we no longer have anyone to clean our home. If you know of someone please pass my number (214.550.2003) or email address along. Here is the ad I posted on Craigslist:
Family of three seeks a domestic worker to clean our three bedroom house one or two days per week (1.5 days per week is likely enough). Duties include:
- Laundry (6 loads)
- Ironing (1 of the loads)
- Dusting
- Vacuuming
- Moping
Once per month we need a deep cleaning including window cleaning, dusting top of cabinets, dusting of ceiling fans, and cleaning inside refrigerator.
We pay via direct deposit (1st and 15th of each month), withhold federal taxes/FICA, and can provide health insurance after 60 days (United Healthcare PPO).
Please provide one or more current reference from existing clients. We are looking for someone who is dependable.
Dallas Startup Watch: Ad Giants
January 26, 2006
Backed by Texas oil legend, Boone Pickens, Dallas based Ad Giants is lead by Dan Farmer (advertising industry vet who worked on accounts such as Coca-Cola, AMEX, Budweiser, Exxon, IBM, KFC and Motorola).
Ad Giants provides process-management system for marketers and advertisers. Dan’s team has applied traditional asset management to help creative agencies, corporations and franchisees communicate advertising messages with efficiency and consistency.
Media powerhouse takes over Dallas CEO Magazine!
January 25, 2006
This just in, Adam McGill is launching a new ‘long-tail’ (i.e. niche) magazine called Dallas CEO. The picture to the left was captured by Brian at Green Papaya. Hopefully I will get a subscription…
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