Published January 31st, 2007
in Entrepreneurship, Technology and Thoughts.
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I know a lot of entrepreneurs. I’d even say 90% of the people I associate with are entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs. But most of the good ideas and inspiration I receive are from people who have no interest in the “internet business.”
There is a stark difference between tech entrepreneurs and blue collar entrepreneurs. Tech entrepreneurs generally want to make cool websites and blue collar entrepreneurs want to make money. My first question these days when I hear a new business idea is “How does it make money?” and I’m frightened when I hear things that depend on a critical mass of users. Esther Dyson told me simply, “sometimes those 50K users never show up.” And she is right. If your idea can’t make money with 100 users, you are in trouble.
SmugMug has 100K paying customers. No, they don’t have 1M+ users like flickr did before Yahoo! bought them, but have something just as valuble. Money. And lots of it.
“I want to open a bakery. And I’m going to give the food away until we’ve had about 50K customers, then I’m going to create a premium cupcake. That I’ll sell for $3″
My definition of a web 2.0 company is one that has a pretty website and no cash. Then there are the normal businesses. The ones that try to make money first and pretty websites second. I like those.
Published January 31st, 2007
in Technology, American Voices and Thoughts.
In 2004 I made a call for a national blogging platform for educators in my post Blog.EDU and Re:Blog.EDU. Rebecca has a interesting post on using blogs as an education tool.
Now that I’m on the board of MOUSE the use of technology in schools is back on my radar.
Published January 26th, 2007
in Family and Thoughts.
Yes, I have no idea when I was born. Tomorrow is actually my birthday as my grandmother politely reminded me. I’ve been working too much.
Published January 26th, 2007
in Thoughts.
Today is my birthday. I woke up and decided to give myself a mission to get as much free stuff as possible. My current list includes hitting up:
APPLEBEES - free dessert
BASKIN ROBBINS - free ice cream treat
CHILI’S - free song
HARD ROCK CAFÉ - free dessert
IHOP- free meal
RED LOBSTER - free slice of cake + song
HANA JAPAN - free meal
I’m tired of seeing people get birthday songs and thinking “geez, when its my birthday I’m going to get that too” and never actually getting it. I don’t plan on buying anything at these places. So I fully expect them to give me my free birthday song without me buying food.
Any other suggestions?
Update: After having breakfast I’ve decided that the last thing I want to do is go around NYC on the coldest day of the winter looking for free stuff. I did get a handshake and a free coffee from my waiter this morning. He refused to sing. It will have to do for now.
Published January 23rd, 2007
in American Voices and Books.
First, if you are writing a paper about my life or about my work I am truly honored! Especially if you are doing it for Black History Month. Thank you! You’re awesome! I really want to help you. The easiest way to get a response from me is to compile your questions into a single query and send them via the contact form. I know some of you are under deadlines, so I will answer all of the questions ASAP. Just be sure to compile them into a single query.
Again, thanks!
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