Serial Entrepreneur: Peng Ong (Part 2)

Previously, we discussed Peng Ong and his background. Today we begin to explore his first true entrepreneurial venture, Electric Classifieds, which spawned the creation of Match.com, the worlds largest online dating service. SM: How long was match.com? PO: I spent probably a total of less than a year totally active there. SM: So you were

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Serial Entrepreneur: Peng Ong (Part 1)

Here is an interview with Peng Ong, the first in a new Serial Entrepreneurial series. This series will highlight those entrepreneurs who have repeatedly been able to come up with innovative ideas for new ventures, been successful in their endeavors, and also failed, but most importantly, have taken in their stride a certain way of

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Powerpoint Financing

Here’s an article from today’s New York Times on how entrepreneurs are shunning venture capital, and choosing to bootstrap their companies. While that is a very good strategy for web 2.0 plays where very little money is needed, and a 12-18 month exit is in the cards, is it necessarily the right strategy for all

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Neocase: A SME-SaaS Case Study (Part 2)

SM: Under what circumstances did the company get started? HP: Neocase Software was established 15 years ago in what can be considered one of the more challenging environment for providing quality customer service: a technical call center. Jean-Michael Cambot, a software guru who later went on to become the CTO with Business Objects, “cracked the

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Neocase: A SME-SaaS Case Study (Part 1)

Here’s an interview with Hervé Pluche, President and CEO of Neocase Software. In this dicussion, we focus on the challenges of building a SaaS business, especially one that has a major SME focus. We go into a lot of details of precise segmentation, solution selling methodology, and other strategic marketing issues, which I hope, you

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Proposition 87

I just received an email from Vinod Khosla, trying to explain Proposition 87. If you are about to vote in California, and care about cleantech, the looming energy crisis, etc. it would be a good idea to read this.

Quickstart: CRV’s Seed Strategy

Charles River Venture’s announcement yesterday of offering $250k micro-loans to entrepreneurs, generated a lot of discussion: Techcrunch Don Dodge Paul Kedrosky Stowe Boyd Fractals of Change Fred Wilson … The list goes on. I had a few conversations with friends in the venture business, and asked them whether they were going to start a similar

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Microcap: Shvoong

Google acquires Jotspot, Wired (CondeNast) acquires Reddit. These are companies that have achieved exit with little investment. [Jotspot raised one round of funding in 2004 for $5.2 million from Redpoint Ventures and Mayfield Funds. Joe Krause frequently points out that it cost only $100,000 to get Jotspot to market.] Reddit, it appears, did it for

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