April 2012
7 posts
3 tags
Instagram = 1% of Facebook
I’d have to say I think this report from the WSJ this morning validates my assumption that Instagram’s purchase price was based on an assumed percentage of Facebook’s market cap:
“Now, however, Mr. [Instagram CEO Kevin] Systrom found himself in Mr. Zuckerberg’s house asking $2 billion for Instagram. Mr. Zuckerberg suggested looking at the value of Instagram as a percentage...
2 tags
3 tags
Instagram vs. Hipstamatic
I don’t know the folks at Synthetic Corp, the makers of the very popular Hipstamatic retro iPhone photo filter app, but I’ll tell you this—they came damn close. I want to analyze their situation for a moment.
Hipstamatic did almost everything right. They were first to market, launching in December 2009. Their product functioned perfectly. Hipstamatic had fantastic design from...
3 tags
Project Glass IRL
“OMFG I just spilled hot coffee all over my hand.”
2 tags
Stock Option Naïveté
Every startup executive has to operate under the assumption that incoming employees have *no* working knowledge of what an employee stock option is or how it operates. Failing to abide by this simple rule can result in miscommunication, misaligned expectations and at worst executives taking advantage of employees.
I’ve known more instances than I can count when a friend has applied for a...
March 2012
2 posts
4 tags
RIM Wreck: The Power of Perspective
Founders, especially first-time founders, can be prone to viewing the very concept of a Board of Directors as a necessary evil. However, a good Board can be a powerful and important tool for ensuring a company doesn’t lose touch with the rest of the world.
The heart of the RIM debacle contains an important lesson for startups—the power of perspective. When you love your baby and...
Square, the Apple of Payments?
When my colleague Jim Robinson III bought First Data Corp while he was at American Express in 1980 for about $80 million it was probably pretty hard to imagine the company growing to become a $30 billion enterprise even if you were Jim.
As it turns out, payments can be a pretty big business. The question I hear today is just how big can Square become? Is Square, the next $50+ billion tech...
February 2012
4 posts
iPhone is Cheaper Than Android
According to this post on Priceonomics, when you factor in resale value and compare—an iPhone will set you back $13.20/month after 18 months and Android will cost 40% more. (Of course what model you choose and your particular carrier and cell phone plan affect the total bottom line.) Amazing how making a great product—even when making it with higher initial COGS—can actually...
Eric Wiesen's Ideas: How to Make an Introduction →
wiesen:
It wouldn’t have occurred to me to write about how to make introductions, but I’m surprised at how many people get it wrong. The most common error is making a connection between two people when at least one of them doesn’t actually want to be connected.
VC’s tend to receive a lot of…
Business Insider Nails it: Facebook + Payments →
3 tags
January 2012
1 post
December 2011
3 posts
“Social networks have reached critical mass. Inexpensive tools for creating and...”
– http://www.rre.com/blog/37-the-age-of-the-meme (via controlaltadam)
1975 IBM Slideshow (link) →
I think I should get one of these blown up and framed for my office.
Remember ESPN MVP the MVNO?
I just did something quite ordinary…checked some football scores on my ESPN app on my iPhone. Just a normal day here in 2011. Then briefly my mind flashed back to 2006 and ESPN MVP, which if you don’t remember was ESPN’s failed MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator - business that leases network access from someone such as Sprint who owns it).
Laptop Magazine called ESPN MVP...
November 2011
7 posts
2 tags
4 tags
Raise Cache and the New New York
I was at the “Raise Cache” fashion show to benefit HackNY last night at the armory on Lexington. A few things occurred to me:
This event could not have happened or even been contemplated five years ago in NYC
The crowd was almost exclusively 21-35 year olds
There were very few if any poseurs there. Much of the crowd were legitimate entrepreneurs running and/or managing established...
1 tag
Startup Logos and First Impressions
When I see a startup’s logo I size it up. It often makes the first impression. Hokey? Terrible? Awesome? Do these guys get it? Do they understand how important design and customer-centric thinking has become today? Are they the sort of entrepreneurs I will get along with, that I will want to sit across the table from?
I spend more of my time meeting with enterprise, SMB and financial...
2 tags
Defining your TAM, Total Addressable Market
TAM or Total Addressable Market is something VCs care a lot about. Too small and VCs get scared off. Too big and you might be trying to boil the ocean and haven’t picked out a specific customer.
But what I want to talk about is what TAM actually means. I see a lot of presentations that conflate TAM with TM and unfortunately that “A” in there is really critical. For instance,...
Why You Shouldn't Underprice
The topic of pricing, or underpricing more specifically, has come up a number of times in the past week in my conversations with both portfolio companies and perspective investments. This has made me realize that many entrepreneurs start with the assumption that all startup products should be priced lower than the competition. But this thinking is flat out wrong. The conversations typically go...
2 tags
On Surviving Cancer & Startups
As a cancer survivor and former startup guy, it occurred to me today there are a few similarities in surviving the two. They’re both emotional roller coaster rides with unparalleled highs and lows. Believe me, when you’re diagnosed and being treated for cancer those can be some of the hardest days of your life. But when you get positive news on your health, especially right after the...
What is Traction for a Startup?
A couple of the most common questions entrepreneurs face are “how much traction is enough before approaching VCs?” and “how do you define traction—what are the right metrics?”
The answer to how much traction you should have before approaching VC is a fairly simple one: as much as possible. You want to maximize your bargaining power and to the extent that you have...
October 2011
5 posts
3 tags
Applied Sciences NYC
Back in August, the NY Times ran an awesome discussion piece regarding Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to have an engineering and applied sciences university powerhouse open a campus in New York City—most likely going to either Stanford or Cornell. Some fantastic tech influencers weighed in including Craig Mod of Flipboard, Caterina Fake of Flickr & Hunch, Fred Wilson of USV, David Tisch of...
2 tags
Is the VC Old Boys Network Dying?
The VC “old boys network” is not dead yet but it just might be stone dead in a moment. This business is no longer just about relationships—strategy and tactics are now critical too. Why is VC changing? Competition. The world at-large and VCs alike are prone to think of financial services providers (such as venture capital firms, private equity firms and hedge funds) as a...
4 tags
Google Wallet
I am a hands on guy. I’ve always believed that one of the best ways to understand technology is to actually use it. So with that in mind, I recently went out and bought the Nexus S 4G on Sprint which is the first mobile phone to support Google Wallet. I’m keenly interested in next-generation mobile financial services so I needed to try it for myself. Here’s what I learned.
I...
Starting Fresh
I’ve decided to shake my digital Etch-a-Sketch and refresh tomloverro.com in my new role as a venture investor and Principal at RRE Ventures. From now on “Up and to the Right” will simply be “Up & Right” but will still reside at tomloverro.com.
I am preserving and archiving my previous blog entries at:
http://tomloverro.posterous.com
I hope you enjoy v2.0....