It was a grand plan. I was going to learn all sorts of new things: Pentaho, R, Processing. All sorts of new things. In the end, I got caught up in getting something done and learned none of those things. Again. Using trusty old Python with the beautiful NetworkX module and the shockingly fast–if a […]
OPM
I think Chris Dixon is one of the smartest investors around. I co-invested in him when he was an angel and I’ve co-invested with his early stage fund, Founder’s Collective. But while I generally agree with his recent post on venture investing segmentation, I need to call bull on this: What we are witnessing now […]
It’s not about the founders, it’s not about the money. It’s about what you’re building.
I spent my Summer thinking about how I could continue to be useful as an angel investor. Then this Angelgate thing happened and I can’t seem to write the post I meant to write about it. So I’m writing this instead, hoping to get some thoughts out of my head and move on. I don’t […]
Online Ad Tech Curriculum: Links
[I am going to make additions/changes to the list by editing the post itself. I think that’s better than cluttering everyones’ feed.] A VC friend asked what he should read to better understand the online advertising market. At the time I thought I could offer some decent advice. But as I started to think about […]
The future of free media
Monday’s Wall Street Journal article on cookie tracking was a bit underwhelming. So although (a) we’ve been having the same conversation over and over again since 1996 without getting anywhere1, (b) the article was a bit misleading and maddeningly vague, and (c) industry rumor has it that the church/state divide at the Journal does not […]
Startup R&D has replaced corporate R&D
I have a problem with Yves Smith’s and Rob Parenteau’s op-ed in the Times: Over the past decade and a half, corporations have been saving more and investing less in their own businesses… Since 2002, American corporations on average ran a net financial surplus of 1.7 percent of the gross domestic product—a drastic change from […]
The last days of the ad exchange
Darren Herman wants a conflict-free ad exchange. So do I. We assume there could be one because we look at the much bigger and more efficient financial markets and see they are run on exchanges. But, in reality, the financial world has moved on from exchanges, and so will the ad world. An article of […]
Fiddling while Rome burns
I read Curt Hecht’s AdExchanger interview this morning with puzzlement and, eventually, horror. Vivaki is drawing the precisely wrong conclusions from their evaluation of the situation. [re Invite Media] Google realizes it’s for the DFA stack, away from media, and they appreciate that it works just like search bid management or serving ads. It’s a […]
Google/Invite acquisition
I know plenty of people who know the facts, but none of them will talk*. So I’ll just tell you the rumors. Invite Media was acquired by Google last week. The initial guesses at the purchase price were in the $60 to $70 million range. Peter Kafka now says it was $81 million in cash. […]
Is it worth trying to ‘improve’ advertising?
I wrote something for AdExchanger today. John asked me whether media and data should be bundled. I said, at the end of a bit of a rant, [We] need a bit more idealism. We need to be trying to make the world a better place. We need to move beyond our defensive posture of being […]