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Lessons Learned: HotOrNot's James Hong says, "Eat the ramen"

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 12, 2008 | Comments

	Be scrappy; have fun; know your market HotOrNot, a dating site that generated $5 million in earnings and $7 million in sales at its peak and recently sold for a reported $20 million, is an example of how a hobby can become a successful venture. James Hong and Jim Young started the popular site eight years ago as a way for people to submit their pictures for ...
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Lessons Learned: Google's IPO architect shares advice on exits

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 12, 2008 | Comments

Former investment banker, venture capitalist and analyst, Lise Buyer, is no stranger to controversial IPOs. About five years ago, she was a key architect of Google's unconventional, auction-styled initial offering. It was a formative time for her and the experience helped shape her new role as a consultant to companies that need guidance through the IPO process. I caught up with Lise at the Citibank media conference in Arizona recently. She gave me her video pitch for her new consulting ...

Vator Box: Conde.net's Kourosh Karimkhany helps us rate new-media pitches

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 10, 2008 | Comments

Welcome to the second episode of our new show, the Vator Box, in which we subject original pitches on our site to the opinions of the Vator.tv staff, plus a weekly special guest. With us for this episode is Kourosh Karimkhany, the head of corporate development for Conde.net.Karimkhany, a former journalism colleague of Vator.tv managing editor John Shinal, lent his expertise in rating several new media startups targeting different aspects of that emerging business: original content, production and distribution. First up ...

Thumbplay and mobileStorm win the AlwaysOn OnMedia competition

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 1, 2008 | Comments

Congratulations to both Thumbplay and mobileStorm. Both companies won the AlwaysOn/Vator OnMedia "game-changers" competition. Recall that the competition sought the best new companies changing the marketing and advertising landscape. Interestingly enough, both Thumbplay and mobileStorm are not only changing the advertising landscape, but they're both in the mobile industry, suggesting that AlwaysOn judges and the Vator community believe the growth in marketing and advertising is going to come from the mobile platform. As the winner of the AO competition, as ...

The Vator Box, Episode 1, Part 2: we rate Collage Wikies

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, January 27, 2008 | Comments (1)

In this, the second part of the first episode of our new series, we rate pitches from two startups that are using the Web to do two very different things. As in our inaugural show last week, Vator.tv staffers Bambi Francisco and John Shinal are joined by guests Ezra Roizen and Pete Cashmore to rate and debate the video pitches. First up, College Wikis, a site founded by two Stanford students designed to help students get answers to mundane but ...

Bambi's blog: Break and make news on Vator

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, January 21, 2008 | Comments (2)

Since launching Vator in June 2007, I've had a challenging time writing on a consistent basis and running the company. I have to say, I admire those running companies and posting on a daily basis. Those blogger-CEO types who come to mind are Jason Calcanis, Mark Andreessen and Mark Cuban. So, I think it's time I began writing more, with a particular emphasis on articulating Vator's vision and how it fits with the social media trends I'm spotting across Vator. ...

Welcome to the "No-Name" show...

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, January 21, 2008 | Comments (3)

Think of it as a modified version of the original Siskel & Ebert, only for startup pitches and with four contributors opining about video pitches submitted to Vator. Those four contributors include myself, John Shinal (Vator's managing editor), Ezra Roizen (Digital media banker and AlwaysOn columnist, and Pete Cashmore (Mashable founder/blogger). For those who've followed our Vator Reports shows, you'll notice this significant change in format. Notably, we're now filming in our San Francisco studio and really focusing on highlighting ...

Vator Reports: The New Sources of Financing for Entrepreneurs

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, January 6, 2008 | Comments

Today, private companies have more sources of funding available than ever before. Angel groups invest more money into startups, VCs are investing at an earlier stage than before and hedge funds are also investing into private companies. In this show, Bambi and John highlight the new sources of funding available to entrepreneurs. In his innovation minute, John talks about the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London and the new Section 144 market currently being built by large investment banks and NASDAQ. This ...

Lessons Learned: Thom's 'Pablo by the Numbers'

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, January 4, 2008 | Comments (1)

When one sees a book titled “Pablo by the Numbers,” one might expect to open up to pages of cubist artwork. Guess again. In this book, there won’t be paintings and sculptures of abstract, geometric forms that reject perspective in favor of ambiguous space. It’s not because there aren’t a lot of fragmented elements, analyzed, reduced and then reassembled into a new reality. Rather, it’s because the soon-to-be-released novel is about a man, whose life is laid out and relived ...

Vator Reports: Our Christmas special

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, December 24, 2007 | Comments (2)

Since Vator.tv launched on June 7, 2007, our site, our team, and our flagship show – Vator Reports – have certainly evolved. As we celebrate our six-month anniversary, and the Christmas holidays, we thought it would be a good time to highlight how far we’ve come, or at the least, how much the show and the site have changed. While the show’s intent remains the same – covering specific topics around innovation, such as social networking and new media, and ...

Ron Conway says don't panic about a recession

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, December 20, 2007 | Comments

For most people in Silicon Valley, the first high-profile angel investor who comes to mind is Ron Conway. Ron has invested in 40 startups this year, about 140 in the last two years and more than 500 in the last 15. (Watch a separate "lessons and advice" video on his Vator profile). His notable investments include Google (worth $215 bln), Ask Jeeves (now Ask and acquired by IAC for nearly $2 bln), PayPal (sold to eBay for $1.5 bln), Good ...

Vator/AO game-changers competition in the final stretch

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, December 19, 2007 | Comments (1)

AlwaysOn and Vator.tv's competition to find hot companies changing the advertising and marketing playing field is nearing an end. Check out the video of AlwaysOn founder Tony Perkins, in which he talks about what the AO judges are looking for, and how to win. As in all our competitions, the ones with the most votes and most positive comments tend to be the ones the final judges embrace. As it draws to a close, we'd like to highlight some of ...

Vator Reports: Online privacy in the age of behavioral-targeted ads

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, December 17, 2007 | Comments

The findings of a new report on consumers' attitudes toward online privacy are at odds with the recent uproar over how social-networking sites like Facebook share user data with advertisers and other Web sites. If those attitudes stick, the Facebook ad tempest may ultimately end up fitting in a teapot. Under pressure from privacy advocates, bloggers and the political advocacy group MoveOn.org, Facebook on Dec. 5 reversed course and made its social-ad platform, called Beacon, an opt-in program, rather than ...

Vator Reports: The social Web

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, December 9, 2007 | Comments (2)

In this episode of the Vator Reports, Bambi and John talk about how the social web is changing the way content is produced. After a quick update on the Demand Media/Vator.tv challenge John dedicates his innovation minute to the question of whether content or distribution will be more instrumental for creating value in the future. Bambi and John then talk about the value of social networks for advertisers, Google's open social platform, and about monetizing social media and social networks. ...

MC Hammer and Geoffrey Arone on Dancejam.com, Part 2

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, December 4, 2007 | Comments

In this second part of the interview with Dancejam.com co-founders MC Hammer and Geoffrey Arone, the company founders talk to Bambi Francisco about the business model of the site, the competitive advantage, partnership opportunities with big media companies, promoting the DanceJam brand at offline events, various ecommerce opportunities around different dance genres, and the funding situation of the company. To see the first part of this interview, click here.

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