Venture Capital in China: David Chao of DCM (Part 5)

SM: India has remained the IT back office. The best product company out of India is Zoho, which did $60 million last year as a fully bootstrapped company. That seems to be the best India has done in terms of product and innovation.

DC: We were the seed and first investors in Sling Media, which has three founders, one of whom is Bhupen Shah. We had our entire R&D center in India. Sling sold $40 million in the first year and we sold it to EchoStar in the second year. >>>

Win Free E-Book Copy of “Entrepreneur Journeys”

We have four remaining free coupons for an e-book copy of “Entrepreneur Journeys, Volume Two: Bootstrapping: Weapon of Mass Reconstruction”. The first four people who write a review of “Entrepreneur Journeys: Volume One” on Amazon AND send a tweet to @sfrocks (you can tweet @sfrocks by changing your status on Twitter to “@sfrocks Amazon review link”) with a link to the review by midnight Pacific time on August 8 will get a free e-copy. In order to receive the coupon, you must check your Twitter mentions/replies.

Catching Up On Readings: Can Social Gaming Save The Media Industry?

Something’s gotta give — perhaps social gaming is the answer. Click on the full article for this and all of the posts from this past week, in case you missed them. >>>

Selling in a Non-objective Environment (Part 4): The Fatal Attractionist

By Guest Author Jim Healy

“I won’t be ignored, Dan!” said Alex Forrest in “Fatal Attraction.” And neither will Kim Jong Il.

In this fourth article in the series, we cover the fatal attractionist. The concept of a fatal attraction in sales means a relationship that was thought to be wonderful but finally results in a lost sale. The “Fatal Attractionist” (FA) usually has a goal, quite possibly theirs alone, which they will attempt to achieve at any cost. Their real objective is often hidden or unknown to them. The goal may initially seem to be directly related to purchasing the product or service you are trying to sell to them, but this is usually not the case. In fact, most often the FA has no specific objective other than disrupting the sales process so that they can maintain control. >>>

Venture Capital in China: David Chao of DCM (Part 4)

SM: I am intrigued that I have not heard you speak about bootstrapped entrepreneurship in China. It has been a very strong outsourcing destination for the manufacturing industry for several decades. There must have been a solid bootstrapped entrepreneurship ecosystem during that period, right?

DC: In China there is a whole other world of traditional businesses. These are bicycle factories, solar panel factories, and other manufacturing facilities. >>>

The Apps Store Wars

By Guest Author Saad Fazil

Apple’s iPhone has triggered “apps store” wars (with the iPhone as the clear leader so far), with almost every major mobile platform vendor now launching its version of an apps store. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to even remember their names: Google’s “apps store” is called Android Marketplace, RIM’s is called BlackBerry App World, Palm’s is called Palm Pre App Catalog, and so on. For the purpose of this article, we will refer to all of them simply as “apps stores”. >>>

Venture Capital in China: David Chao of DCM (Part 3)

SM: What percentage of your deals are China or Asia deals?

DC: Today it’s 40% to 45%. >>>

Can Social Gaming Save The Media Industry?

Media companies are in for an expected bad run. Advertising spending is down as much as 11% in the US alone, and is not expected to recover to pre-recession levels when the economy improves. Additionally, the market for content services and DVDs continues to be depressed, with consumer spending falling 4% during the quarter. I believe it is time more media players focused their energies on one segment that is booming – social gaming. >>>