[Updated with the new video link/embed] You may not have realized this, but Niel Robertson is not only building a unique SEM marketplace, but he’s also a passionate knitter. The video below shows off both of these passions and is well worth watching. On a more serious note, I’m a big fan of companies producing these sorts of fun but informative videos. People respond so much better to highly visual, straightforward media such as this.
Archives / April, 2010
Stealth mode is back. Long live stealth mode!
Recently Dan Frommer over at the Silicon Alley Insider wrote about the reemergence of “stealth mode”. While I’d argue that it never really went away in the first place, it seems that more people are seeing the virtues of staying under the radar as they build the basics of their business (despite TechCrunch’s declaration that stealth was stupid…). After some hazing from my Foundry partners about several of the companies that I work with remaining silent about their operations (and in some cases off of our website so as not to attract attention to the fact that they’ve been funded) I wrote a post on the topic here. With one of our portfolio companies, Trada, recently emerging from 18 months…
Are you “under-promising and over-delivering”?
Someone at a meeting I was in a few weeks ago made a statement to the effect that he valued management (sales management in particular) following this mantra. I couldn’t disagree more. While it makes for a great VC cliché it seems to me that it’s not a good plan to set an expectation with companies that you work with that you want them to essentially lie to you about the results they expect. Following this down the management line – from board to CEO to VP of Sales to Sales Manager to Salespeople – and you’ll completely cloud your view of what’s really happening in a business (where at every step of the way each person tries to set…
Medialets Announces Universal Mobile Ad SDK
Earlier this week, Medialets made a significant announcement: the launch of their universal mobile ad SDK. This is an initiative that the company has been working on for months and is truly groundbreaking in the industry. The Medialets universal ad SDK allows app developers to have complete flexibility in how they manage the ad inventory available through their applications. Publishers can serve Medialets rich media ads, ads from other mobile ad networks as well as ads from their own first party ad server – all from one SDK. The Medialets SDK is already up and running with major publishers (Washington Post, NPR, Variety, Fandango, etc.). This represents not just an achievement for Medialets, but a step forward in the evolution…