Norwest Partners’ Tim Chang introduced ngmoco’s CEO and Founder Neil Young to the VatorSplash stage Thursday night in San Francisco. ngmoco is a creator and publisher of games exclusively for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. He talked to the audience about their successes, failures, the value of having the right team on board, including your advisory team and board members.
Of course, the part of his talk people will remember most is his amusing anecdotes and incredible Scottish accent, which had the crowd in stitches. He too, like Pandora’s Tim Westergren’s talk, emphasized the value of having the right team in place. He also reinforced the notion that this is what investors look for ultimately when choosing whether to invest or not.
As for what makes the right team?, ask yourself three questions: does the founder/entrepreneurs involved have a huge vision and can they execute against it, do they have a relentless nose for talent and are they learning animals? Below is a two part video clip of his talk (roughly 30 minutes in length including Q&A).
This week, Text100 hosted a panel on online video during Social Media Week San Francisco. Most companies understand the power of video and want to create genuinely viral content. The panel discussed ways you can not only create compelling videos for your website, Facebook Page and a blog but also how to stand out in crowded channels such as YouTube, DailyMotion and Vimeo.
They covered:
• The pros and cons of using a single branded video owned media destination versus placing content across a variety of channels
• How to optimize video for SEO as well as tips and tricks for adapting video for both your brand’s properties and for external use – content, length, production, etc.
• Examples of brands that are successfully leveraging video and other ways online video can benefit your brand
Liz Gannes moderated the panel that included:
• Scott Brown, Director, Marketing, Cisco Media Solutions Group
• Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3
• Melissa Chanslor, Sr. Account Manager & Social Media Lead, Text 100
• Jordan Hoffner, President of Digital Media, Electus
Video from the event is below. (note: it covers about 75% of the talk):
Listen to an amusing and authentic discussion between angels and venture capitalists on a panel at VatorSplash last week in San Francisco. On the panel included: moderator Duncan Davidson from Bullpen, Shasta’s Tod Francis, John O’Farrell from Andreessen Horowitz, David Hornik from August Capital and Rob Hayes from First Round Capital.
Pandora’s founder Tim Westergren kicks off the VatorSplash event this past week in San Francisco. Whether you succeed or not, Tim subscribes, depends on how great your team is….and how quickly they can change course and embrace that change smoothly when necessary. He also adds, “People are really stingy with equity. I’m a big believer in having a smaller piece of a bigger pie.” Below is his talk in a two-part video.
I was at Zappos earlier this week and not only did I chat with the blogging team in their official blog bus, but I also had an opportunity to connect with the Senior Manager of the Customer Loyalty Team (aka, the Call Center), Rob Siefker. I found Rob Siefker sitting smack in the middle of the Learning Center, an example of how informal the corporate culture is at Zappos.
Below is a video I shot inside Zappos earlier this week. I'm talking to Senior Blog Video Editor Patrick Warren, Melissa Lacitignola who is charge of their Twitter and Facebook pages among other things, and Graham Kahr who is their Blog Copywriter. It's inspiring to talk to Zappos employees who are so inspired to work there, that you can't help but leave and think, "Hey, I'd love to work here for awhile. Have a listen.
Jonathan Marks has an excellent video talking about LeWeb as a center point in Europe for attracting the best of the best for all things “web 2.0 and beyond,” and includes an extensive interview with the Pearltrees team on-site. It includes a demo so you can learn how easy it is to embed pearltrees (visual representation of web links you curate from the web) into your blog, Facebook or elsewhere. They have a new “team” feature out too which allows people to collaborate. Have a listen.
Celloist Moses Sedler and hang player Matt Venuti created magic together Christmas week in San Francisco. It was the first time they have ever jammed together and in this beautiful collaboration, a musical creation was born. Have a listen.
Seasons Greetings and a hooray for an incredible year, one which will be over within hours. It’s time to reflect on everything we’ve learned and experienced over the past year as well as give gratitude to the amazing people we’ve encountered along our annual journey. It’s now time to move into a new decade, but before we do, below are a few highlights from 2010 as seen through my eyes across a few continents. Enjoy! And, Happy New Year! to you and yours. See you on the other side.
