Product Greatness Not Category Determines Customer Sensitivity to Price The car industry has been rife with discounting for years. We consumers have been conditioned to expect discounts on cars. Whole businesses have developed to exploit this conditioning behavior. But… Toyota posts amazing sales growth in April 2012 without any discount programs. How is this possible? Circumstances […]
Continue Reading...Category: musings
Is Your Word Your Bond?
I was surprised to see the following tweet from Fred Wilson “Replace the words “job offer” with “term sheet” in @spolsky’s post and the advice is still spot on http://t.co/2MNZUIKZ” Out of curiosity, I took a look at the Spolsky post and I was surprised by the advice he gave regarding exploding offers. For those […]
Continue Reading...Weiner Episode — Forward to the Past
Many have suggested that the Rep Weiner scandal points to the famous Lord Acton saying — “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” — Lord Acton. But there is another lesson to be drawn from his embarrassments. Technology has brought the Town Square back in a virtual, but very real way. In the days of […]
Continue Reading...Technology Sabbaths
There is an interesting piece in the Times today (http://nyti.ms/h8mNVf) regarding personal decoupling from the digital world. Its pretty well understood that too much of any one thing can be bad for you or your relationships, etc., and the immersive and all-consuming influence of technology in our lives is no different. Not to sound religious, […]
Continue Reading...Market the Vision, Build the Product
The recent notice that Metaplace.com is going to shut their doors and refocus the company is an all-too-often refrain where very big visions are not realized in their first or even second incarnation. I expect we will see the same from another big vision play, Trion, in pretty short order. The phrase is a takeoff […]
Continue Reading...Does Waltham Matter?
Scott Kirsner has written a very provocative piece in Innovation Economy which questions the value of the many VC’s in the Waltham 128 beltway especially compared to VC’s in Boston. Here is my response to his post…. Scott, Its great that you are shaking things up, much like taking a baseball bat to hit a […]
Continue Reading...The Limits of Vertical Integration — Microsoft Clip Art vs Google Images –
Microsoft created a vertically integrated product when they released Clip Art as an image repository for Powerpoint. For years, this integration worked beautifully, if for no other reason than there was no alternative or incompatible technologies. But again, like in so many other areas of Microsoft land, their idea of vertical integration is badly outdated. […]
Continue Reading...There is no place like New York City
I have had a love hate relationship with NYC, having lived there for 20 years from 1983-2003, through some of the best and worst times NYC had to offer. But there are moments like the one I experienced yesterday, which cover more than a multitude of problems. I walked into the Barnes and Noble on […]
Continue Reading...Blockbuster will be sold for piece parts in less than 2 years
I know this sounds either naive or obvious, but my forecast is not based on the advent of netflix and nextflix streaming or some other obvious disintermediator. Its part competition, but its also part bad service on their part. While one or the other could take a long time to bring Blockbuster down, the combination […]
Continue Reading...Twitter This
So it seems that we have again found a tool that is 2 parts showmanship, 1 part value. The concept is simple and thereby elegant — a micro-blog that others can follow. Clearly, most of the info you read or post on Twitter is absolutely useless. Its not just a microblog, its like a minute […]
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