What You need to know - 9/30/11

'Egos need not apply' says HomeAway CEO; 'Sizzling' at CBS Interactive;FrontDoor wins Splash SF

Speaking Thursday night, at Vator Splash, held at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco,the newly public HomeAway CEO, Brian Sharples, spelled out the key to success in entrepreneurship.

 "Be humble and be flexible," he told a full-room attending the Vator Splash event. "I don't like entrepreneurs with big egos because they get stuck in their ways." The same applies for job seekers wishing to join the HomeAway team. 

And what of profit? Sharples wisely advised, "You're never going to be a success if you don't consider how the business is going to make money and be profitable."

 Jim Lanzone, President of CBS Interactive and former CEO of Clicker, recently acquired by CBS, opened Vator Splash with inspirational anecdotes and great humor. What did he have to share with young entrepreneurs looking to succeed? "Build the exact product that you want." 

And the winner is... FrontDoorSoftware took home the gold late Thursday night during Round No. 3 at Vator Splash SF.

Why were they chosen as the winner? Carrie Hafeman, Founder and CEO, presented for her team, and did an outstanding job fielding questions from the VC judges Mark Goines of Morgenthaler, Andy Ross of Grant Thornton, Adam Smith of AOL Ventures, Bill Tai of Charles River Ventures and Rob Theis of Scale Venture Partners.

And FDS solution seems quite attractive. Once a computer is stolen, an owner can actually control the computer to shout out: "Hey you stole my laptop!" 

Twitvid,the video-sharing service, prepares to beef up infrastructure with the $6.5 million in a Series B round of funding,led by Azure Partners and Draper FIsher Jurvetson. The San Francisco-based Azure Partners’ interest in the company, general partner Cameron Lester is also joining Twitvid's board of directors.

Facebook gets a poke from the FTC. Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Tex.) have written a letter to the Federal Trade Commission urging that the regulatory organization investigate Facebook. The social giant is accused of 'unfair and deceptive acts or practices'.

The letter states "tracking its [Facebook's] users even after they log out falls with the FTC's mandate" to protect consumers from "unfair and deceptive acts or practices."

Björk promos her upcoming album to be released in October. Björk’s newest “album” Biophilia is a multimedia project that combines technology,with images and sounds, as unique as the singer herself.  The stunning YouTube video is directed by long-time collaborator Michel Gondry. 

Media company need to move quickly and engage. 

While media companies are starting to realize that they must continue to build their relationship with their customers in order to survive, new data from Citicorp suggests they better do so quickly and with the right partners.

Remember those sexy, leggy Reebok EasyTone commercials and YouTube videos that promise you a firm tush and toned legs just by wearing the shoes? The American Council on Exercise and the FTC, says that it's all a lie and that Reebok must pay for its deception.  After conducting a research, Reebox has to shell out $25 million to customers in order to settle charges made by the Federal Trade Commission for its deceptive ads.

 photo credit: main image Digitlife .