As India Builds (Part 1)

In 1989, I left India with two dream-stuffed suitcases for college in Western Massachusetts. This was long before the wave of Information Technology swept the country, dotting business parks across once ox-plowed fields. My Swiss Air flight roared above Bombay, above the rickshaw traffic and stray cows. Despite the 6000 miles, the 23 hour plane ride, I have always kept in close touch with my family in Calcutta and the now booming Indian business world which I left behind. >>>

Wize up on what to buy (Part 4)

Wize is a relatively new entrant to the product research field, and unlike its competitor Become, does not offer an integrated search experience whereby you can do your product research as well as comparison shopping for price within the same environement.

I gave this feedback to Tom, and he agrees, that the fragmented user experience that his site currently offers will be a limitation in competing with Become and others.

Become, incidentally, is the second venture of mySimon founder Michael Yang, and has been around since 2004. In February 2000, mySimon was acquired by CNET for $700M, just before the market crashed with a thud in April of that year.

I would say, Michael was a lucky guy, but he is also doing it the second time round, so the experience certainly helps. In comparison, Tom Peterson is a first time CEO. In Tom’s favor: I am sure he is a lot hungrier! >>>

Wize up on what to buy (Part 3)

[Part 1] [Part 2]

I asked Tom for a TAM analysis, as I ask all entrepreneurs. The analysis is not as crisp as what Shiva presented, and I suggest you tighten it up, Tom. I think, the segmentation also needs finetuning. Nonetheless, here it is.

SM: How big is the market for what you have to offer? (TAM analysis is essentially what I am looking for here… )

TP: According to Pew Research, product research is the fifth most popular
activity on the web (and growing). Pew Research also reported that more than
78% of all online and offline purchases in the U.S. start with product
research online. A recent Forrester Research report determined that 50% of
online shoppers use customer reviews before purchasing. >>>

Wize up on what to buy (Part 2)

In Part 1, I introduced you to Wize, a 6-month old product research engine. Product Research has been around on the web since the ancient days of Web 1.0. epinions, for example, made a gallant attempt to become the place where the entire web’s products were reviewed. Today, the site has significant momentum with millions of page views a month. Yelp, an experience / service review site, has also gathered huge momentum in a much shorter time.

SM: What is the competition for Wize, and how do you differentiate? >>>

Wize up on what to buy (Part 1)

Following my conversation with TheFind, a lifestyle shopping service, here, we explore Wize, a product research engine. In this discussion, I am speaking with Tom Patterson, CEO.

SM: Please describe your business value proposition and your product.

TP: Wize is focused on helping people decide what to buy. We do this in several ways.

First, we use all the user and expert reviews we can find on the web to give each product a 1 – 100 score, or Wize Rank. Wize Rank is the quickest, easiest way we know to figure out which products are best, and to filter out the ones that aren’t worth considering. Since it’s based on an algorithm, Wize Ranks are completely impartial and can’t be manipulated.

The next thing we do is collect other information related to product
research – specifications, stores, prices, and “buzz” (akin to popularity)
and present them to customers as simply and clearly as possible. >>>

Serial Entrepreneur: Taher Elgamal (Part 5)

Taher has a great background with many security and cryptography companies. Here we track his invovlement in RSA.

SM: What year does that bring us to? TE: 1991. The piece of InfoChip I was responsible for got sold to Cyrex, which is a chip company down in Texas. I ended up leaving, and after calling around to various people, I found a company called RSA. Funny enough they were developing the RSA cryptology which was the competing cryptology to my technology. I talked to Jim Bidzos who was the CEO of the company at the time and who is still a friend. I interviewed over there and he was looking for someone to head up engineering, so it was a great fit. The company was very small. We had six people writing some software. We had just closed some business deals. We had a big contract with Apple, and that ended up becoming Verisign. The initial Verisign product was developed by RSA and Apple. It was a project that I developed way back when. >>>

Global Warming and Phase Changes

By Frank Levinson, Guest Author

There are so many articles today about global warming. Its potential impact, our responses, the threat to our future and all of them fail to give us a simple statement of what is going on. Al Gore tried in his recent Oscar-winning film … now it is my turn.

In spite of all the press, there remain very active groups and articulate individuals who believe it is all a hoax, or that it is based on bad science, or that it will not be harmful. It is possible that the President of the US is even one of these people. Beyond those who simply think it false, there is a larger group who are confused about the arguments and reasoning that supports the conclusions today of nearly every scientist. >>>

Axe The CEO!

By Gerry Langeler, Guest Author

Here is a sure-fire bet: Gather a bunch of entrepreneurs to talk about venture capitalists, and before long the conversation will turn to the issue of control. “If we take VC money, the next thing you know, they’ll be in control, and we’ll be out on our collective ears.”

Now, try the reverse. Gather a bunch of VCs and before long you’ll hear something like this. “If we invest in them and we don’t have the ability to take control, these young hot shots may run right over the edge of the cliff, and take all our money with them.”

The problem, of course, stems from the following: Entrepreneurs often have mixed goals in starting a business. They want to deliver on a product vision, want to grow a major enterprise and make money, and also want to be the boss. Venture capitalists have only one goal, they want to make money for their investors and themselves. Sometimes, if the company gets off track or is headed there, and management doesn’t seem able to fix it quickly, VC’s feel they need to be able to bring in people who they believe can.

So, if you are the entrepreneur-CEO, how do you avoid this potential conflict point? First and foremost – perform! The last thing a VC wants to do is change management. It is messy, risky, and often leads to a wash out of the previous round of investment. And no VC in their right mind wants to take the reins themselves. We know how hard you work!

Fail to perform, and no set of terms and conditions or ownership position can save you.

Perform, and you have all the control you’ll ever need.

In that spirit, here is a checklist that I’ve found useful over the years in serving as a Board member in a number of firms, both public and private. >>>