The media industry fascinates me more each day.

The changes taking pace are accelerating (or maybe it's because I'm now entrenched in it working for Lingospot). Every time I go to the "old media" companies like Gannett, Time, Forbes, etc I see changes. Mostly I see that the human side is shifting, people are being shuffled around and new ones being brought in. I think the door is now wide open for a lot of new things to happen. Exciting things line new revenue models, new content distribution models, and new types of leaders. Even in content the shift is dramatic. My hunch is that blogging, twitter, facebook (the social) were just the beginning. The truth is that the door to the adjacent possible is now open. New companies will be able to build on top of what has been solidifying in the past 10 years. Come to think about it, 10 years ago YouTube would have been impossible because on-line video was...Real Media streaming :). Now anyone can post content anywhere and distribute it. Why don't they? Because big media still has the brand and in some way the eyeballs. Which brings me to the question, will big/old media keep it's lead or will it be toppled by some outlier?

There is certainly a LOT of opportunity out there. One thing is for sure the media business / pie is only bound to grow. Distribution is bound to change. And monetization is definitely going to shift - the CPM based business model is going to not apply anymore when it comes to content. If CPM is the way, then the crazed up person out there that creates the most viral video will win with the most hits :). Ok, I'm exaggerating, but something tells me that the content optimization will emerge from ad optimization and people will pay for what they consume the same way the went from pirated music (or CD's for those who paid...) and now hit the "buy now" iTunes button every other second to get the 99 cent song they just retrieved using SoundHound... i've done the same with movies and recently (with my iPad) with many other video sources. The NYT is certainly trying it's luck with paywalls... we will see. A guess, there will be paid high quality content, and there will be free cheap (Demand Media anyone?) traffic driven content. I'm betting the high-quality paid content is where the battle is going to be raging for the foreseeable future and where opportunity abounds...

The emotional investor

Here is a pretty good piece of advice by Ben Horowitz.

I used this new cool technology that allows me to place keypoints in the video where you can jump to right away.

The statement he makes is that investors are super emotional. I unfortunately found out about this the hard way in 2008 when the market tanked and things went south with KlickSports. Interestingly I also had found out that investors are emotional in their decisions when it came to raising money. In the end this is not good or bad, it's just the way it is. Like Ben, I too thought that investors were rational and super focused. Like he says "with their suits and smart talk" I too thought they are only looking at facts and don't let intangible things affect them. Recently i've been doing some reading - specifically Steve Blank's blog and anything I can get my browser on regarding business models - and I figured this "emotionality" seems to be a norm.

I hope you like the video tags. The company is apparently very new and I just happened to look into it because of some work we had done at KlickSports in the area of video interactivity. I'm not so hot on the "video tagging" stuff - seems more like a feature than a product, etc. But it's a nice to have when posting something on a long video that only happens at minute 34...

Startup Hangover

Yes - I will write more about this as I do research. But in the dawn of 2010 I just wanted to say - I have a major case of Startup Hangover (I never heard this term before but will be writing about this soon).
Let's just say this is on my mind ...and many others I will be linking to on my next post...

Simulacra

So much these days is not what it is. Let me explain. So much today is just valued on the face of what it seems it might be but isn't. We've seen this happen in the financial markets and we see it happen in many other things in life. In the world of startups (need link to definition here) this is also true. I see so many companies get funded on their face value it's gut wrenching. But that's not the reason for my post.

Recently I had to go through this process of interviewing - long story short - I had to qualify for something on the basis of my track record, personality, skills, etc - in general the usual stuff one would need for a job of any kind. When the jury came out I was perplexed with the feedback. I am not a guy who dwells too much on rejection or denial. I really have made a whole life out of plummeting through rejection and persevering, etc. But this one was too much. In short I had been rejected not because I did not have a great background, not because I was not a great guy (that "could even go out for a drink with"), not because I was not smart - so much that whatever I did not know I could figure out. There was just one problem - I was not the right guy for the part. In so much that I did not look "corporate" or "bureaucratic" enough (these are exact words used when giving me feedback). That expression came to mind immediately: it's note enough to be Cesar's wife, one must look like Cesar's wife (paraphrasing). And it prompted me to revisit a French philosopher that I hadn't thought much about for a while - don't know why because Jean Baudrillard has pretty much explained modern society's core value structure with artfulness. Yes, i was being "rejected" because of perception. I did not play the part. This was actually expressed to me.

So much these days is based on the Simulacra (as defined by braudillard). That amazing ability to just look like you are and be valued for what you look like you could be but are not. This is in a way Paris Hilton and so many such people. They never did a thing, they are even unfit for their job, but they fit the part - they look like they are. And today, oh-today so much is about looking rather than being. The essence has been entirely obliterated and all that's left is appearance...

Next blog I will let out how I managed to raise 1.2M on this concept alone...or better, that I only managed to raise a round of 1.2M Angel money when I realized that what you look like is more important to investors than what you really are... even if you are good, their idea of good is a different story. It's like running for president (someone told me). More about that later...

Gogo Inflight Internet - Handheld Device Matrix

Gogo Inflight Internet - Handheld Device Matrix

This is a really interesting concept which seems to defy a lot of assumptions about internet in planes...