Top 10 interviews on VatorNews in 2011

Thanks to sites like Twitter, customers are more powerful than ever. As their opinions can spread like wild fire across the Web. To tap into these disparate conversations across the Web on social platforms, corporations are hiring servies, like Lithium Technologies. In this third part of my four-part series with Lyle Fong, CEO and founder of Lithium Technologies, we talk the economics of his business. In this interview, Lyle talks about how Cisco Systems saved $20 million by leveraging social media tools to tap into its customer base to act as support centers.

Lyle also talks about competitiors in the space. Lithium has raised some $45 million in venture financing to help corporations tap into social media. But other companies are starting to raise a war chest too. Last fall, Get Satisfaction raised $6 million, for a total of nearly $11 million in financing. Read more

Evernote driving $1 million a month in sales

In the old days, I used to organize my address book. But when search in email came along (years ago), I didn’t bother since I could easily just search for someone’s name in my inbox, and find their information. Now, I’m doing the same thing with more than just addresses.

The other day, I became one of the 26,000 people who sign up to Evernote daily. I took a photo of a menu at Hog Island Oyster Bar in San Francisco. I sent it to Evernote. I didn’t even have to tag it. Because Evernote can read the menu in the photo, I can type in “oyster” and Evernote will serve up this photo. Now that’s convenient. It’s no wonder that in under three years, Evernote, which turns three years old this June 24, has attracted 8.2 million registered users, of which 300,000 are paying subscribers. Read more

How e-commerce evolved from search to feeds

The other day, I received Square’s pocket-sized credit card reader that attaches to my iPhone. The slick gadget is one of the newer, and more sophisticated and elegant innovations I’ve seen around commerce in the past 15 years that I’ve been covering Internet trends. 

But throughout those years, many changes and developments took place for us to get to where we are. After all, consider: In 1995, cell phone (let alone smart phone) penetration was 13%; the few of us who had computers were on dial-up; the number of people using e-commerce was under a million, according to the US Department of Commerce; Amazon was just a year old; Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of Google) just met at a computer orientation at Stanford; and Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) was just 11 years old. Read more

Bullpen Capital launches fund to bridge deals

Many startups go through a phase that tests the mettle of a founding team. I see it all the time as someone who runs a community for entrepreneurs. They raise a decent amount of initial funds, and see a little bit of early success or media attention. Then they fail to really take off for inumerable reasons. That doesn’t mean, however, they’re not worth investing in any longer. Often gems are found in this group. If only they had another round of funding that’s not too small ($1 million), not too large ($5 million), but just enough – about $2 million.

One emerging venture fund focused solely on these startups is Bullpen Capital, named after the baseball term to indicate its place where startups can “warm” up before they get back out into the field fully refreshed. Bullpen officially launched Wednesday morning. Read more 

 Kevin Ryan on Gilt Groupe’s hockey-stick growth

I recently caught up with Kevin Ryan, CEO and founder of Gilt Groupe, one of the fastest growing startups, as measured by revenue. Gilt Groupe, founded at the end of 2007, generated $500 million in revenue in its fiscal year that just ended in July. And, its full-priced businesses, now offered in its travel (Jetsetter), gourmet food (Gilt Taste) and mens’ verticals (Park & Bond), are estimated to generate $100 million sales over the company’s next fiscal next year, according to Kevin. Kevin also expects four or five business segments to generate close to or more than $100 million in that time period. Women’s and home categories have and will continue to be the biggest revenue drivers.

But it’s the overall full-price segment that appears to be the reason for the big bump in revenue growth. Consider that full-priced travel offers launched in January and now account for 25% of total travel sales. 

Has Gilt moved away from its outlet roots? Indeed. No longer should Gilt be considered a “flash sales site” or a “daily deals site for luxury goods.” Gilt is a lifestyle retailer offering full price to discounted items. Read more

Danny Shader outlines PayNearMe’s demographic

Danny Shader’s newest project, PayNearMe, has an ambitious demographic: the quarter of the U.S. population without bank accounts or credit cards. His new cash-payment solution allows users to make remote transactions (for an Amazon purchase or Facebook credits, for example) by starting the transaction online and then taking a printed receipt to a nearby 7-11 to complete the exchange by paying in cash. The 7-11 cashier essentially acts as an ATM-like point-of-connection between the consumer and the business, and the whole exchange is handled in cash. Approximately 25% of the U.S. population is unbanked, meaning they do not have a bank account or credit card, and the payment solution is being used for everything from purchasing virtual goods and physical items to making loan repayments. Read more

Airbnb growing 30% to 50% monthly

Airbnb is quickly becoming “the” startup darling to watch, thanks to recent press coverage about its efforts to raise $100 million at a $1 billion valuation. I recently caught up with Brian Chesky, the San Francisco-based startup’s confidant founder and CEO. In this interview, we talk mainly about Airbnb’s business model, which has been the same since day one. Airbnb takes a 6% to 12% broker fee (on aveage 10%) on the rental charges. The more a person spends, the lower the fee. Brian says the average rental is between $70 to $200. The average reservation is a little under a week, said Brian. Already, the company has booked 1.5 million nights of reservations. Read more