Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption

Entering the Video Arena: A Demo of CustomScoop

Regular readers know that I have an increasing fascination with the future of media in general and online video in particular.  So I have decided to dip my toe in the water and begin some video blogging, where appropriate.  Of course, I turned to one of my own companies, CustomScoop, to be the guinea pig in this effort.  Surprisingly, my first attempt out of the gate wasn't bad, so I'm sharing it here.  I'd still like to improve on things a bit, but for a first effort at shooting an interview/demo video, I'm pretty pleased.

 

I also need to work on the video editing side a bit to do better titles, captions, etc. but, hey, I'm still a newbie!

Technorati tags: Steve Bracy, CustomScoop, product demo

Interview: Social Networks for Pet Owners

I had an interesting conversation a few days ago with Mark Roberge, the founder and CEO of PawSpot, a social networking site for pet owners.  I met Mark a few months ago and we've had some good offline conversations since then.  At first blush, the notion of social networks for pets seems absurd, but then I'm not a pet owner.  PawSpot and others like Dogster are trying to make inroads into this area, so perhaps there is something to it.

[FULL INTERVIEW: MP3 | transcript below]

In fact, I've heard recently from colleagues about their personal stories about what are essentially offline social networks for pet owners.  Often, these may be centered on specific dog breeds or geographic interests.  I even know of someone who attended a dog birthday party (the owners merely chaperone the dogs, I guess).

In any event, Mark explained how he got the idea (he "stumbled across a number of dog owners that were venting to [him] about their problems and pet ownership; and there were tremendous synergies between those problems and the premise of social networking").  That's why PawSpot initially seeks to solve the challenge of pet sitting, rather than merely be a general purpose site for pet networking.

Mark also makes a good point about social networking generally.  Today, it is focused mostly on the teen sector.  But as that population ages and as an older demographic becomes more comfortable with the concept, there may be other opportunities to be had in the space:

I think you are going to see a bigger trend toward a more mature demographic; and I think, as you move in that direction, you are going to see less of the expectation that the audience spends four to six hours on the computer, like the teens do, and more focus on actual utility, actual tangible value, whether it is saving time, saving money, or whether it bridges the online and the offline worlds.

PawSpot will monetize itself through advertising, sponsorships, and e-commerce.

As for Mark himself, he says he enjoys entrepreneurship and compares it to the pioneers who explored the American west.  By starting a company, he feels he is "pushing the frontier forward." 

Interview: VC Life Outside Silicon Valley

I had the opportunity to interview Matt Rightmire of Borealis Ventures, an early stage VC firm based in New Hampshire.  Matt left the entrepreneurial community in Silicon Valley to join a venture firm in NH's Upper Valley -- a move some might not expect from a veteran of Yahoo (he joined them in 1995) and other startups.  He's a smart guy with a lot of interesting things to say.  Highlights are below, along with a link the MP3 of his interview.  The complete transcript appears at the end of this post.

Why did he do it? "At a certain point in life, there's more to what you're doing than work."  He explains that he and his wife wanted their kids to go to school somewhere other than Northern California.

What does he think of Silicon Valley?  First, Matt notes that the culture of Silicon Valley attracts lots of smart people and capital.  But, he says, "I think people have to recognize ... that there are elements of that culture that ... balance out those positives."  He adds, "I think people's priorities are a little skewed, and I think somtimes that impacts some of the business decisions that are made" in Northern California.

What's the difference between East Coast and West Coast VC's?  "I think it's much harder to find capital available, back here in the east, just because of the numbers."  Matt also says there's a difference in the types of people who become VC's on each coast.  In California, "A lot of them have played the role of early stage start-up founder" while in the Northeast, "More so, they come from financial industry backgrounds. They haven't worn the entrepreneurial hat."

Where should budding entrepreneurs start their companies? Not surprisingly, Matt says "If I liked the idea, I'd say, 'you can start it right here in my office.'"  Otherwise, each entrepreneur has to judge the individual circumstances for their company and idea.

What is different about the Borealis approach?  Matt and his partners like to say they are different from other VC firms, and from what I've seen (at least from a distance) they are.  Their philosophy is to get actively involved with early stage companies and try to take them to the next level, not just with capital, but with brainpower and elbow grease.  Matt explains: "Both of those things, though I think that they were the foundations on which venture capital was created in the late '60s and early '70s, as traditional funds have gotten bigger and bigger in terms of capital and their management and in terms of number of people involved, people involved in those firms have become less willing and less able, either to get involved early, or to roll up their sleeves and be very active with the companies in which they invest."

Finally, is there (or will there be) a Bubble 2.0?  "I like to think that everybody -- everybody -- is a little bit smarter this time around."

Download rightmire.mp3

or read the transcript below

State of the Political Blogosphere: A View from the Center

The political blogosphere continues to get a lot of traditional media attention and I believe is worth watching even for those who may not be inclined to join the political fray directly.  Along those lines, I am endeavoring to bring readers a range of perspectives on the state of the political blogosphere, and in order to offend fewer people (or everyone, depending on how you want to look at it), I decided to start with someone in the middle.

Marshall Wittmann takes fire from the right and left, as he is currently at the Democratic Leadership Council and previously worked for Senator John McCain.  So he is able to offer what I believe is a unique perspective on political blogging.  Marshall has been blogging as "The Bull Moose" off and on for five years now. 

Marshall sums up his overall view of blogs this way:

I think there's a dangerous tendency to place too much significance on blogging because, at the end of the day, bloggers are unedited folks who are merely speaking their minds, which is not insignificant, but there are reasons there are editors and much of the blogosphere is unsubstantiated and it doesn't have the rigors of journalism. So it certainly has its limitations, but I don't disparage it because it is an innovative way that millions of people can be part of the political debate that was not open to them but for a few years ago.

And Marshall pulls no punches when he says, "Kos is sort of the kingpin keyboarder and he has had a particularly pernicious effect on the Democratic Party, again, because he's driving it to the left."  He also says that much of the political center is absent from the blogosphere: " the readership is very highly ideological. That's true on the right and left."

As for what the future holds, Marshall believes that blogs will be around for a long time and will continue to have influence.  But he says, "I think there'll be a shakeout. There are so many blogs to pick and choose from, there will be certain ones that are thought to be more respectable and more authoritative and more reliable."

This is a 17 minute podcast interview.  It is available in MP3 format or as a transcript below.  The interview was conducted on July 31, 2006.  And in the interests of disclosure, Marshall was a colleague of mine more than a decade ago.  We may not agree on many issues, but I certainly respect his knowledge of many things, including the political blogosphere.

Listen to the MP3 here.

Interview with Townhall.com's Jon Garthwaite

Today, I'm introducing a new feature at TechJots: podcast interviews. 

My first guest is Jon Garthwaite, the Editor in Chief of Townhall.com, a conservative Internet portal recently acquired by Salem Communications for $5 million, a large broadcasting company that owns 34 radio stations across the county.  Jon talked about what the acquisition means and previewed some major changes to the site that are coming next week.

Listen to the MP3 here.

Read the full transcript here.

The new Townhall.com will provide a higher level of interactivity for users and will especially focus on empowering their conservative audience to generate and edit content.  Jon said, "we're going to give people the first opportunity to create their own blog and to blog side-by-side with Hugh Hewitt." 

Jon also told me that they will be creating a new feature that in some ways combines elements of Digg.com and the New Netscape to enable conservatives to nominate interesting content for fellow readers.

Perhaps most importantly, Jon helps to explain how the new partnership with the radio stations and talk show hosts in the Salem Communications network will create considerable synergy between the talk radio world and the Internet.  In other words, how do you take Townhall.com's 1.2 million readers and Salem's 6 million listeners and create something more powerful (and the hope is more profitable, also).

Disclosure: I headed up townhall.com in the mid to late 90's and was Jon's boss at the time.