Michael Carney
- 210 comments
- 134 likes given
- 64 likes received
Los Angeles-based reporter with PandoDaily.
Mcarney is a moderator of:
@neoganda Crunchbase data visualization is free – it's a public demo. Large enterprises, such as the ones listed above, pay them to help analyze customer purchase data, social data, marketing performance data, etc.
@DouglasCrets I would say Foursquare would be competitors to Facebook in the loyalty / rewards / gifting category. But I don't see them building their own payments architecture any time soon. More likely, they would have to partner with someone like Stripe / Braintree / Square to build a custom implementation.
@seyitaylor Thanks, we're aware of the issue which appears to be a WP glitch. The post should be under my byline, although Adam was extremely helpful, as always.
@MichaelGiovinco I completely agree with you at this stage, but I'd wager that each of the above limitations are due to be removed as part of a long-term product roadmap at Amazon HQ.
@ventureman Stewart, apologies for the misspelling, it has been corrected.
As for the rest of your comment, this is not a judgement about your decision making as investors. There's no arguing that you guys did far better than anyone else in the category thus far. But given what we've seen from Vine (even acknowledging Twitter's obvious competitive advantages), I don't think that social video is a category that has run its course.
Also, with a ~$100M fund, your objective is obviously to return $400M+ over its lifetime (not that I'm telling you anything new). The way to do this with big wins on a gross return basis. A 10X on a Seed check just doesn't move the needle. I don't see how you can argue otherwise.
Given the way the category evolved, it was a fine exit. But considering what the expectations had to be around April 2012, how is this anything but an underwhelming outcome.
@dshaw_ @mcarney @Adam Kennedy Come on, really? It's suggestive at best as it's barely visible behind a semi-transparent layer. Let's not be too prude here.
@Adam Kennedy Haha, good eye. Not everyone notices that, but from what the founders tell me, when they do the response is overwhelmingly positive.
@neoganda Right now it's mostly ad-based and your numbers are order of magnitude correct. The thinking is that YT CPMs will climb over time as advertisers get more comfortable with premium content on the platform. Also, YT released pay-per-view and content subscription tools recently. Lastly, as you mentioned, successful content can be repurposed for distribution on Hulu, Netflix, traditional cable TV, feature films, merchandise, etc. But in summary, the monetization hasn't quite caught up with the content quality and the audience numbers, yet.
@marksoper Agreed. That was a bit tongue and cheek. In reality, it's meant to be a solution for both moms and dads who are looking to keep kids engaged in healthy ways.
@dpfishman What reason do you have to call moonfrye a mess or to compare it to ecomom? They are completely different businesses, run by completely different teams, solving completely different problems. Their only similarity is the target customer.
It's not about it not being worth writing - write away. It's that the writer cannot be paid to write it.
@lanceschaubert Templates are optional. You can begin with a blank canvas.
@hatercopter Not sure of overall market stats, but Lulu generated $1.37B in revenue and $270M in net income last year, and has a $8B market cap (with an aggressive 38 P/E ratio).
@PatrickSF Feel better now?
@carljones I'd say it's as much of a startup as any game developer or content publisher selling content through the iOS app store.
@Anon67 I hear ya and have raised a number of similar concerns:
Like I said, the model isn't for everyone. Seems like you made the right choice in your case.
@UEKKAN Prolific isn't a measure of quality or effectiveness, it's a measure of volume. By graduating four classes of 10-15 startups in 2012, they are in fact the MOST prolific in LA. They are more 500 Startups than anything else.
And I think it's unfair to call them a joke. Howard has built a good program that fills a different niche than other programs in town. He typically takes younger companies with less experienced founders and looks to helps them find success. This is one reason for their more aggressive funding terms. Whether that model proves wise is up for debate. As YC has shown, it only takes 1 or 2 big hits.
@Karthik Manimaran I can see it adding more value to later stage teams like yours than in the idea stage. What they're proposing far predates "distribution." It's more like "ideation as a service."