VatorNews - Vator contributor stories

Guitar Hero, an overnight success

by Don Dodge, October 4, 2009 | Comments

	... it just tooks 10 years to get there Guitar Hero recently released a new version of its smash hit video game that has sold over $1 Billion. To the casual observer Guitar Hero seems like an overnight success, a stroke of luck and genius. But this is a story of tenacity, strong-willed entrepreneurs, and patient, supportive investors. I first wrote this story several years ago when I met ...
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Y Combinator launches 26 startups

by Don Dodge, August 20, 2009 | Comments

Some favorites include FlightCaster, DailyBooth, HighlightCam, Bump Technologies, FanChatter

Y Combinator provides seed stage capital and a 10 week startup boot camp for budding entrepreneurs. At the end of the 10 week session Y Combinator invites VCs and Angels to an investor day/demo day. Today YC unveiled 26 new startups to about 80 Silicon Valley elite VCs and investors.Each startup has four minutes to pitch their company, including a ...

MTV on the future of Web video

by Don Dodge, July 9, 2009 | Comments (1)

	Average video durations are rising every year MTV has a vision for video, eight-minute scenes on the Internet, three of them stitched together for a half hour TV show, and a feature length movie based on the TV series. The New York Times has a story The Rise of Web Video, describing the move beyond two-minute clips. David Gale, creator of MTV Films, and EVP of MTV ...
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Pageviews required for $1 mln in ad revenue

by Don Dodge, July 3, 2009 | Comments (2)

It will probably take a new revenue approach to make many social network sites profitable

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Beebo, Plaxo, Orkut, and MSN Spaces are the biggest well known social network spaces. But what about the 800 other sites scrambling for audiences in the social network space? Can they generate $1M in advertising revenue per month, or even per year? Will they ever be profitable? USA Today says "Social Network Sites Work To Turn Users ...

Why fast followers beat first movers

by Don Dodge, June 29, 2009 | Comments

Better business model, better marketing, better timing, better management

Innovation drives our industry, attracts the best talent, attracts VC money, and wins fame for its leaders. Innovation leaders burst onto the scene, win early market leadership, but sometimes can't sustain the pace. Why do "fast followers" often jump in later and make fortunes? Is management responsible for the success or failure? Or, are these innovation leaders acquired by larger ...

How to get funding from VCs and angels

by Don Dodge, June 12, 2009 | Comments

From don't diss the competition to sending a PPT that's 10 slides long

Last week, I talked with a young first time entrepreneur looking for funding. He didn’t know where to start. I pointed him to Microsoft StartupZone where there is LOTS of great information from Guy Kawasaki, Brad Feld, Paul Graham, Ann Winblad, Ron Conway, and others about how to get funded. There are over 50 fact filled articles covering topics like; ...

Bing: The right information to make decisions

by Don Dodge, June 4, 2009 | Comments

Bing - the decision engine - shines in four main areas: Travel, shopping, health and local business

Bing is Microsoft’s new decision engine that gives you the right information to make the right decisions. Bing TV ads (hat tip to Peter Kafka) hit the air today, the first of many. The ad is really good, upbeat, like the PC Hunter ads. But, Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple, provides the best ad ever, and it wasn’t even an ...

How to use Twitter effectively

by Don Dodge, May 28, 2009 | Comments (1)

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Guy Kawasaki calls it the most powerful marketing tool invented since TV

Can you communicate anything useful in 140 characters? I admit, I didn’t get Twitter at first. I am a blogger and enjoy long-form writing, analysis, charts, links to related content, etc. Twitter seemed trivial to me, and many of the messages I saw on Twitter in the early days were useless. But, one day, sitting in a conference it became ...

Newspapers lose $9.6 bln in ads

by Don Dodge, May 26, 2009 | Comments

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... but they gain $3.1 bln in online ads

Newspapers have been hit by a perfect storm; classified ads devastated by Monster.com and craigslist, and an economic recession that has reduced all forms of advertising. Cnet reports on a report from the Pew Internet Research Center that says newspaper classified advertising reached a peak of $19.6B in 2000, but has dropped to just under $10B in 2008, a decline ...

Why VCs say NO 99% of the time

by Don Dodge, August 6, 2008 | Comments (4)

	And why we do too (Note: Republished to highlight due to popularity)Venture Capital investing is a very tough game...and very lucrative if you are good at it. Part of my job at Microsoft is working with VCs, so I have learned a lot about the way they think...and why they say No to 99% of the deals they see. Fred Wilson has another great post ...
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Venture capital economics

by Don Dodge, August 3, 2008 | Comments (1)

	Why VCs look for 10X returns VCs want to invest at least $5M in startups that have potential 10X returns. That is because it takes as much time to manage a $1M investment as it does to manage $5M. Secondly, every startup looks like a winner when they write the check, but Fred Wilson suggests that 33% will fail, 33% will break even, and 33% will ...
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Success is a terrible teacher

by Don Dodge, July 19, 2008 | Comments (5)

The 7 deadly sins and 10 lessons of a failed startup

Failure is part of the maturing process in the startup world. If you haven't failed, you aren't trying hard enough, or you aren't "pushing the envelope" far enough. I have always said "Success is a terrible teacher. Success masks over flaws that may hurt you later." Roger Ehrenberg - the co-founder of Monitor 110, wrote a story on the lessons ...

Newspapers take notice - Blogs are the future

by Don Dodge, July 17, 2008 | Comments (1)

Opinion and commentary are replacing "just the facts" reporting

Blogs are going professional and replacing newspapers for insightful, fast breaking, news and analysis. The same thing happened to network TV news years ago. Chris Mathews, Tim Russert, Bill O'Reilly, and others replaced the "just report the facts" news casts with more personal, insightful, opinionated commentary. TechMeme has several blog articles over the past week that made me think about ...

Web innovators in Boston

by Don Dodge, July 16, 2008 | Comments

	It's not just Silicon Valley WebInno, founded by David Beisel of Venrock, is a Boston based Web Innovators Group where startups can demo their stuff to the tech community. Last night, there were three startups that presented on stage (Main Dish) and eight other startups that showed their stuff at tables (Side Dish) around the perimeter of the room. There were hundreds of people, my ...
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Can social Net apps get $1M in ad revenue?

by Don Dodge, July 8, 2008 | Comments (1)

Social networks need a new revenue approach beyond advertising

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Beebo, Plaxo, Orkut, and MSN Spaces are the biggest well known social network spaces. But what about the 800 other sites scrambling for audiences in the social network space? Can they generate $1M in advertising revenue per month? Will they ever be profitable? USA Today says "Social Network Sites Work To Turn Users Into Profits" and summarizes ...

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Don Dodge Director, Business Development, Microsoft

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