BLOG STARTUPS, VENTURE AND THE TECH BUSINESS
Author Archive
January 27 2012
by Scott Johnson
2012: Smartphones are now a social necessity
My last post, outlined five things to be excited about as we enter 2012. Number one on this list was smartphone ubiquity. I am not sure on what day last year this occurred, but the smart phone went from luxury to social necessity. Has the smart phone eclipsed the television in our hierarchy of needs? ...
January 26 2012
by Scott Johnson
No Better Time, Ever, To Be An Entrepreneur
I am often asked “what is new and exciting” by pretty much anyone that knows what I do for a living. And it is a great question that I relish answering – usually. Of late, however, I have been responding in a way that needs polish. I will say “smartphones” or “Health IT” or “the ...
December 6 2011
by Scott Johnson
iMessage Goodbye SMS?
I love anything that takes undeserved and absurd profit away from telecom companies. This is because of the “WTF Gap”. In case this gap is new to you, which it probably is since I just invented the name, the WTF gap is the large difference between what your telco advertised you were going to pay ...
September 26 2011
by Scott Johnson
My 5 Laws of Consumer Behavior
We are pitched with consumer business ideas all the time. Many of them are asking consumers to change behavior, which requires time and learning, which requires effort, which all consumers abhor. Only absurdly great value propositions can overcome this trait. The business ideas I like best recognize the following laws of adult consumer behavior: 1) ...
September 19 2011
by Scott Johnson
Direct Marketing 3.0 – The Social Era
One place where there is growth aplenty thesedays is good old direct marketing, which search reinvented last decade. This decade, social media is reinventing it once again. Picture this: You’re playing a social game like Mafia Wars on Facebook and you want more “credits.” So you type “Drink Dr. Pepper” into a box, and then buy a ...
July 5 2011
by Scott Johnson
Execution is Everything
The most common mistake entrepreneurs make is overestimating their ability to execute. This is so common that I am surprised it is so rarely written about. Sometimes perfect market timing (aka luck) can mask less than stellar execution. But 99% of the time, great execution is everything. Execution is the really hard work it takes ...
May 31 2011
by Scott Johnson
Way Too Early – On Market Timing
Market timing is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for venture success. Obvious, right? The problem is that timing is obvious only in retrospect. Predicting how markets will evolve is an art, and probably is the single most important job of a venture firm. Boiled down to its essence, our role is to help companies ...
May 2 2011
by Scott Johnson
Waste = Opportunity
Waste is something I abhor. Waste of time, waste of resource, I love funding businesses that help others be more efficient and stop waste. Time wasters are fertile ground for new business ideas. If anyone is wasting your time, think about how that happened and create a solution for it. Resource wasters are also ...
April 28 2011
by Scott Johnson
Yahoo! – Come to Boston!
Dear Yahoo! You are completely unappreciated in your home town. You are compared unfavorably to Google and FaceBook and Twitter; and are kicked around by the local press as a washed-up has-been. Because of this bashing, your executives are embarrassed to admit to their neighbors that they work for you. It is clear to me ...
April 27 2011
by Scott Johnson
Color, Valuations, and the Winner’s Curse
My friend Kevin Lewis is a professor at Duke Business school and he sends out a feed of interesting abstracts describing recent research that I sift through every day or so. Today I found this one: The Bidder’s Curse Ulrike Malmendier & Young Han Lee, American Economic Review, April 2011, Pages 749-787 Abstract: We employ ...
