NEW VENTURE: City's Deals - The Best of Your City's Deals!

It's been awhile since I've last blogged, but I have some news!

Not too long ago, I wrote about my thoughts on Groupon, Their Valuation, and Social Buying sites as a whole. In the post, I explained how I don't feel the "one deal a day" model is viable in the long run.

Not long after that, I started thinking about how I could possibly change this. It wasn't long before I came up with the idea of City's Deals. City's Deals is going to solve the issue of digging through your inbox to find daily deals from social buying sites that you actually care about.

For example, many people hate waiting and repeatedly checking their inbox, especially when it's for daily deals, since most deals only last 24 hours or so. The alternative is to sign up for one email, that has all the best daily deals in it. You check the email daily when it arrives, and be done with it- either way, you will find a deal you are interested in or not. Time is valuable and reality is nobody wants to waste it, a simple solution to a complex issue.

I encourage you to sign up to be notified when we launch. This is surely going to make your social buying experience much simpler.

And yes- we'll be including deals from all the major social buying sites, with some that you may not even have heard of!

The Downfall of Facebook

Facebook has grown to 400 sum odd million users to this date. This is a huge number, no doubt; but a lot of people say that this is the beginning of the end of the golden days for the company. Sure it may stick around like it's 'competitor' MySpace.com, but then the sweetness of the company really goes away in times like that. Facebook is pulling a lot of "privacy oops" which is causing a rage over its users. Outspoken entrepreneur, Jason Calacanis, thinks that Facebook is just a last resort type service, for users, until something better comes along and steals the thunder.

I would totally agree with Jason on this point. The days when MySpace was at its peak, they probably thought they would only grow from there, but Facebook came along with a better service with the users interests' in mind, and stole their happiness.

Now Facebook is the new MySpace, in my opinion, with alleged IMs leaked from the early days Mark Zuckerberg had, among other sticky privacy issues along the way, it looks to me like the downfall of Facebook has started.

There's a lot of money out there VCs want to invest, and I'm sure that some are investing in social networking products, which will 1 up Facebook. The will probably find themselves in MySpace's shoes within the next 5 years.

So as an entrepreneur, always remember, as a company grows, keeping the users' interests' in mind while innovating is important. If an entrepreneur does not do this, their success might go down the toilet!

My Thoughts on Groupon, Their Valuation & Social Buying Sites

As many of you may have heard by now, Groupon closed $135 million in funding, based upon a $1+ Billion valuation. This story has got a lot of people talking about social buying sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, and Gilt Group. It's seems like it's the next generation type shopping experience.

My biggest question: Can social buying sites really reach critical masses, who actually purchase enough from the sites in order for these sites to stick around and continue running real businesses. Only time will tell.

The biggest advantage: There's no doubt this is a huge opportunity for small businesses to market, with very little risk. For example, from my understanding, Groupon doesn't charge merchants to list the deal for a city in a day, but they take a cut once people actually buy the deal. So if the deal is such that the merchants are making money after paying the buying sites, then they can't possibly lose, right?

The one deal a day concept- This might be a starting point for sites of such nature. One deal a day may not be enough for generating enough revenue. Surely these sites have a gameplan, which probably consists of offering multiple deals or deals specific to users interest, even if they stick to one deal a day.

For example: Say a guy who never goes to the spa, and never would go gets a coupon for a spa day. Chances are he won't buy it. But if they can target consumers based upon interests, there's a higher chance that same guy would buy more deals. So maybe the next step is for these types of sites to offer multiple deals, on a daily basis, but only sending targeted deals to individuals.

In addition, if social buying sites can conduct surveys of their users, asking which restaurants or retailers they shop at, and get deals from those specific companies, chances of people buying deals also increase.

In my opinion, this would probably be a better business model for social buying sites.

It's quite interesting, however, that such sites are getting a lot of attention from the press. Maybe this is the way people will look forward to saving money in the future, instead of looking at the Sunday paper for savings.

Hiatus

Hi All,

I've been away from this blog for quite awhile and I'm planning to start writing again. I've just been extremely busy between my latest startup and other projects that I've really had no time to write about my business insights.

That said, if anyone from the audience would like to share some thoughts of their own, please contact us through the contact form about what you would like to write about and perhaps the editor can set up a guest post.

Now that I've made a brief statement about my hiatus, you all know I don't make senseless posts, so lets talk about something productive:

Many of you are curious to know how TVDeck (my startup) is doing, so I will breakdown some information for you.

-We've seen great growth in search traffic -60% of traffic now comes from search.
-We're covering local news, tracking more than 100 major U.S. cities, in a simple fashion.
-We've spent exactly $0.00 on SEO (search engine optimization).
-The statup's not profitable, yet. It's been a couple months since launch.


So what are you working on?

Tweet me and let me know.

There's A Problem...

The internet has a handful of problems, of which the biggest one is that there is a lot of good information on the web, that is not being noticed, while the spam-formation is getting too much attention. Now, this might be obvious, but it can be really irritating to a person trying to find something specific, and either not yielding any results or having to sit in front of their computer searching for 15 minutes before they find something relevant.

But there's a bigger problem inside this problem. Some information isn't properly indexed by search engines, specifically videos. Even Google's video search hasn't mastered the concept of showing very good results for a video search query.

So what's the deal?

Most, if not all of you reading this right now, know that I've been working on a new project called TVDeck. A lot of you have been eager to find out what it is all about. Today's the day you will find out what it's all about.

TVDeck cannot be defined as one simple thing. It could be classified as a video search engine, a feed reader, or a relationship-saver.

First, lets look at the aspect of video search. I started TVDeck because it was absolutely a pain whenever I was looking for relevant and recent videos on a certain topic. Sure, there's YouTube, but I couldn't always find what I was looking for, even if it was on there. And many times I came across either worthless videos or spam videos, promoting garbage. One of the goals that I have for TVDeck is to create a centralized video search engine that presents all relevant video sources and of course; spam-free- in a timely manner for the user.

One of the other uses for the site, is that it doubles as a feed reader. A lot of people are consuming varieties of internet television shows, but they need a channel guide for it. This is what TVDeck does. You can pick and choose what you want to watch or even add your own shows that might not be available on the site and have everything in one stop. When a show has a new episode up, all you do is check your MyTVDeck, and it will show you there's a new episode. Saves time.

And now, the Relationship-Saver

A lot of relationships go through road bumps, then there is the time where two people make up, but it is always tough to decide how to break the ice after a disagreement. Now, I'm not giving guarantees, but food.tvdeck.com can really amaze your significant other, even if you can't cook Mac and Cheese. You're partner can't say you never did anything sweet for them (guys) if you cook them a fancy dinner, now can they? There are a lot of great sources at food.tvdeck even if you don't know where to start.

TVDeck is a business, but it is a business that is making sense of a problem.

The web is changing. The way we consume media is changing. Remember when your grandfather used to read the paper every morning? Then your father used to. But then you started reading blogs? The future genertaion won't even read blogs. They will watch them.

Everything is becoming video based (vlogs). Personally I am starting to read less and less and watching more and more. Why? Because it's easy. Reading takes time, watching - I can do while I'm doing something else or even just listen.

I envision the future will need to make sense of web video and I'm trying to contribute to that cause- starting now.

Sign-up and get internet television, on demand.

So...You Have An Idea?

Before I start I just want to say there are two types of entrepreneurs... "REAL" and "FAKE"...

Alright, This is a much needed/overdue post. Most of you know, I've been working on a new project lately called, TVDeck. But that is besides the point. As I've been working on the project...I've came across more "fake entrepreneurs". I get a ton of emails about "new venture partnerships"...whatever that means, of which I ignore almost all, if not all of. It's not because I'm ignorant or anything, it just doesn't make sense. Why? Here's why...

1) I would never partner up with a person I have "met" through Twitter. This doesn't mean I wouldn't ever do business with a person I met throught Twitter, but not until I at least meet the person face to face. It surprises me how people constantly try to pitch to me their thoughts, starting an email with- "I found you on Twitter"...I mean...really?

2) Why would I invest in someone's idea, when they are not an engineer (coder) or designer?

3) Business people really add no value to a startup...and that is not just my opinion, it's the opinion of many. Watch this presentation if you have not already, it has a wealth of info for startup entrepreneurs.

4) Besides my own involvement in someone else's "startup" or startup idea, often times I hear entrepreneurs say they don't want to put a dime up and invest anything, especially when they are not an engineer (coder) themselves!! -- Where in the world can you find (buy) or start a business without investing a nickel? Let me know as soon as you find out! And...why would an engineer work with you when you are bringing them an idea without compensating them? Business people (again) don't bring a lot to the table. I know A LOT of engineers who can present better than business people, among other things.

5) I'm not interested in hearing talk about some half baked idea. Seriously. I get way too many of these kinds of emails as well. "Hi- I'm _____ and I have a pitch for you!" No thanks. I'm not going to let you waste my money on your "lame" idea.

I could be more negative and add a ton of more points to what this whole "I'm an MBA with an idea for an internet company" theory, but that is unnecessary.

Regardless of being a business person, an engineer, or just a regular person, if an entrepreneur is serious about starting a company, don't talk. In my opinion, they should just act. And that means being serious too.

So what do you think? I know I kind of jumped across the board on this post...but please, tell me your thoughts!

And there is a saying I have:

"EITHER BRING CAPITAL OR SKILL TO THE TABLE, DON'T COME WITHOUT ONE OR THE OTHER!"

Where To Start A Startup?

I've met so many people to this date with 'ideas' to create the next big thing on the internet, but most of them lack the knowledge to take the first step and start...well a startup. I think this presentation by Aaron Patzer is a gold mine for any entrepreneur who is taking on the startup scene.

If you don't know who Aaron Patzer is, he just sold Mint.com to Intuit for about $170 Million. So check out the video below and let me know what you think!

Mint CEO Aaron Patzer on Startups from Techcrunch on Vimeo.