buzz

From a post titled “Why You Need to be in Silicon Valley”.

In general I hate posts like this. I don’t live in SIlicon Valley, but I do spend quite a bit of time there. I want to believe that twitter streams and blog comments allow anyone, anywhere to follow and make connections with the most plugged in silicon valley digerati. This ought to allow them to spot emerging trends from anywhere they chose to live without being sucked into the Silicon Valley echo chamber.

Is this wishful thinking or does being in Silicon Valley still give you an insurmountable edge?

(via brycedotvc)

I think this is just another case of how people assume their success is directly related to every choice they made and can recommend no other course.  In my experience, if you ask anyone where you need to be to start a company, the chief indicator of what their response will be is where they live. If you ask if you should go to business school, the chief indicator is if they went.  If you ask how to raise money, what investors, or just where to get your paper supplies, they go back to what they did.

Perfectly understandable but it completely overlooks all of the things particular to the person asking.  Where should you start your company?  Well, where is YOUR personal network the richest?  Where can YOU find the best talent?  Where are YOUR customers and investors?

Me? Thanks, but I’m going to ride this whole Brooklyn thing out.  Viva la Hot Potato!

Went to see Fuerza Bruta at the Daryl Roth Theatre in Union Square tonight. Good stuff.

mattlehrer:

Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after two days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize that it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of the many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.

hotpotatohq:

Great news - the Hot Potato app is live. Thanks very much to Apple for the approval.

You can download it here or can search for hotpotato in iTunes.

Lots more detail coming on this over the weekend, and we haven’t forgotten those who have signed up for an email. We’re working on on the web that will make things easier to use and understand for all of our new users.

Thanks again for all of your support!

comment by JLM on the The Herd Instinct (via fred-wilson)

joevc:

Twitter’s explosive growth and the iPhone app store have spawned a fresh batch of real-time data services. Many brilliant minds are searching for sustainable business models in the segment. Last night I tested out one of the most promising new players, Hot Potato.

The startup enables real-time, curated chats around live events. Users can create a discussion thread, either public or private, focused on a game, concert, conference, etc. Users can announce their participation to friends via Twitter and Facebook, then post text, photos, and videos, comment on individual posts or “like” them, view other participants’ profiles, and track “hot” posts.

I accessed Hot Potato via my laptop, as Apple has the iPhone app in review purgatory.  I joined a discussion around the Patriots-Saints game. Per the image above, the Pats forced me to abandon the chat for the first ever Hot Potato Gossip Girl discussion, launched by Jon Steinberg, in what was no doubt an historic moment for the series.

The service was raw but has significant potential for both users and advertisers. Real-time user generated content faces multiple challenges, from information overload, to lack of editorial control, to accessibility.  The confluence of Hot Potato’s capabilities addressing these issues could make it a winner.

Curation is the key to addressing both information overload and editorial control.  There is an abundance of chat-based options around live events, but they’re typically overrun with blowhards like myself that will make insane claims about Brady Quinn’s ability to throw deep, or Shaq’s athleticism. This idiocy is half the fun, but the ability to mute the idiots when appropriate makes the experience more engaging.  Hot Potato will allow you to focus on posts contributed by your friends or from strangers that are generating the most interest amongst participants.

Accessibility is addressed via smartphone apps, which allow users at the live event to share near-time, personal thoughts and visuals with viewers watching from home, bringing them closer to the real experience.

As an aside, I must say that despite all the complaints about the iPhone app store, it was the first, quasi-open platform with a critical mass of distributed handsets. Before its deployment, app developers had to break through with carriers, which is a Herculean task for any startup.  Luckily the success of the iPhone is leading to more initiatives like the Blackberry app store and Joint Innovation Lab, an open mobile services platform launched by SoftBank Corp (disclosure: SoftBank Capital is an affiliate), China Mobile, Verizon, and Vodafone, which will address their 1 Billion aggregate customers.

Getting back to Hot Potato, I think the site has significant commercial potential for highly targeted, sponsored chats, if it can provide moderation tools such as filtering of foul language (which I was guilty of during the Pats performance last night) and offensive imagery.  The inevitable deluge of spam will also need to be controlled, but users should be able to help police spam in real-time.

I look forward to tracking the progress of Hot Potato and other emerging players in the world of real-time data.  Hot Potato’s iPhone app, which reportedly has superior functionality to the desktop version, is expecting an imminent release.  You can be the first to know by signing up at their homepage.

Dharmesh Shah’s talk at Startup Bootcamp on inbound marketing.  If you haven’t given this any thought, the time it takes to watch this is the best possible use of your next 30 minutes.

patrickmoberg:

Lessons from a Dog - My family never had a dog when I was younger, so I don’t know a whole lot about them, but recently there’s been a couple running around the office I work out of.  Here’s a couple things I’ve picked up on.

Patrick is truly one of my favorite people and this is just one more example.  Great talent and what’s more, he gets stuff done.  He is always creating something.

i never knew what Neoteny meant. Now I do. It’s an excellent word and I agree with Joi about the increasing importance of it. I’m going to see him today a few times and will tell him so myself.

The Meaning of Neoteny - Joi Ito’s Web

(via fred-wilson)

The timing of these two showing up in my twitter stream was great.

Don’t worry, boys.  The Hot Potato is coming.