Are Q&A startups a threat to Google?

My tech op-ed article posted this morning at Venturebeat, "Are Q&A startups a threat to Google?", and was reposted at the NYTimes site here. [Update] Also Techmeme-ed here, which is cool since it's my favorite news aggregator.

Most of my interview transcript with Ro Choy, CEO of Peerpong, and Charlie Cheever, Co-founder of Quora, was edited out, so below are some of their additional insights:

When did the light bulb for Quora go off for you?

Charlie Cheever: Over the last few years, there have been a bunch of services that have let people put more and more content onto the Internet -- Facebook and Flickr for photos, Twitter for link sharing, status updates, etc. -- but we didn't see any great way for people to share the knowledge that they accumulate over their lives, so we wanted to make a place for that. There were other things as well. For example, I like blogging but I didn't always know what people wanted me to write about. One thing we've tried to build Quora to provide is a good set of prompts from other people that you can respond to.

When you looked at this opportunity, what were the comparables? Yahoo! Answers, Google, or others?

Charlie Cheever: We thought about all those things but we’ve mostly been focused on making a product to fill a need we saw in the world. I do think there are a lot of things that people want to know that you can't find easily with a search engine because the information either isn't on the web yet, or isn't there in a form that you can easily consume. This is especially true with long tail content.

Ro Choy: Our focus and good corollary is Google. Google can effectively find content through use of pagerank. Can we do that for people? If you believe the vast amount of knowledge doesn’t exist online yet, then if you could ultimately categorize an index of content, publish it, and make it searchable…. If you could do this for 50 million, 100 million people, or half a billion people -- that was the Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

Far East Movement Kicks Ass! Props!

Props to Far East Movement for being the first Asian-American artists to make the top 10 of the Billboard charts, and for sitting at the #1 spot for a few weeks now. Very cool. Some press about them...

"The Far East Movement go platinum, discuss alternative pop and G6's" LA Times

"'Far East Movement' blazes trail for Asians" ABC News




FM's TV debut

GatherGreen Launches! The Green Groupon!

GatherGreen, which is a startup I advise, launched today. The nickname for it is the "green Groupon" but their description is much more informative and eloquent:

GatherGreen harnesses consumers' collective purchasing power to create a healthy and sustainable planet. Get irresistible offers from local green businesses.

This Los Angeles-based startup takes the craze of daily deal sites to an entirely new level, or what they call "a higher level". This "Groupon with a social conscience" gets you 50-90% off local merchants operating in green and sustainable ways, but also provides simple related actions to inspire you to take the initiative and be the change you want to see in the world. Anyone up for free organic and bio-dynamic wine tasting in Santa Monica? Go here and sign up!

A clip from their official press release:

It is no accident then that Los Angeles web company, GatherGreen.com, launches this week by featuring three Santa Monica businesses (Pourtal – wine tasting bar, Healthy Spot – green retail and services for dogs, and The Green Life – green retail with all sorts of wonderful green products for humans and pets alike). “Santa Monica is really ground zero as far as the environmental movement in LA – and even all of California – is concerned,” says Steve Sedlic, co-founder, “And we want not only to recognize Santa Monica for its contributions, but hold it up to the rest of the nation as an example of what can be accomplished by local forces who organize for the best interest of the community.”

For the next three weeks, GatherGreen.com’s entire homepage and related content will be devoted to showcasing businesses certified by the City of Santa Monica’s Green Business Certification Program. “These are truly inspiring local businesses, doing the right thing, sourcing from conscious suppliers, running their business to minimize environmental impact, and giving back to the community” pointed out Sedlic. “In form and function these businesses are things of beauty, they are model citizens, and they deserve to be recognized, celebrated, and receive the patronage of Santa Monica’s residents.”

Everyone who signs up (it’s free) to GatherGreen.com will receive regular email updates alerting them to the latest local green business featured on the site. Readers not only get to learn about what makes the business green and environmentally sustainable but will be exposed to simple actions they can take (whether sending a letter to a Congressional Representative or participating in a beach clean-up) in hopes of inspiring them to take the initiative and be the change they want to see in the world. GatherGreen.com’s approach and editorial style is full of wit and humor – adding levity to often weighty environmental issues and concerns in the style of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report or The Daily Show.

News & Links List

"Microsoft puts PC game downloads in the browser" CNET

"Creator of the fierce Doom and Quake games tries his hand at a cute Facebook app" VentureBeat

"Silicon Valley and the Talent Crunch" GigaOm

"25 Best Startup Failure Post-Mortems of All Time" ChubbyBrain

"You Think It's Hard To Raise Money For A Company? Try Raising It For A VC Firm" BusinessInsider
Great post and reflection of not just a VC's fundraising path, but most entrepreneurs.

"The New Funding Landscape" by Paul Graham

"30 Under 30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs" Inc.

"Bringing Together Content And Commerce In Men’s Fashion: JackThreads Founder Jason Ross (Part 1)" Sramana Mitra

"The Chevrolet Volt Isn’t a True EV" WIRED

"GM Defends Volt While Critics Say It's Not a Real Electric Car" Bloomberg

"Chinese dissident wins Nobel Peace Prize" CNN

"Sun Co-Founder Uses Capitalism to Help Poor" NYTimes

"Should Juan Williams' remarks have cost him his job?" CNN

"Williams Fires Back at NPR Over Firing" ABC News

"America's Poor: Where Poverty Is Rising In America (CHART)" The Huffington Post

"The NAACP's Unhealthy Tea Party Obsession" WSJ

"Hybrid Model for Nonprofits Hits Snags" NYTimes

World hunger - A Billion for a Billion

"Hunger: every 6 seconds a child dies from hunger. If you're reading this, you can make a difference. Take action: https://www.wfp.org/donate/1billion"

News & Links List

"Twitter Founders: Gladwell Got It Wrong" GigaOm

"Small Change
Why the revolution will not be tweeted." The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell

"Lord of the Rings Online doubles its revenue after going free-to-play" VentureBeat

"Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic" NYTimes

"News Outlets Circle Samsung's Tablet
Newspapers, Magazines Plan Apps for the Samsung Galaxy, Hedging on iPad" WSJ

"A Force Of Nature
Arianna Huffington has created a media upstart valued at $100 million. What's it really worth?" Forbes

"Windows Phone 7 Shows Why RIM, Nokia Need a Fresh Start" GigaOm

"The Android IM app that brought T-Mobile's network to its knees" FierceWireless

"The Truth About Ditching The iPhone For Android" Yahoo! Tech Ticker

"Why Twitter Is Massively Undervalued Compared To Facebook" TechCrunch

"Facebook in Privacy Breach" WSJ

"Has Facebook lost control of the Platform?" CNET

"Why Groupon Is No Ebay" TechCrunch

"John Sculley On Steve Jobs, The Full Interview Transcript" Cult of Mac

"Column: Science and religion aren't friends" USAToday

"Obama Clings Again! Blames "Scared" Voters." Newsweek's Klausfiles

"Could a rusty coin re-write Chinese-African history?" BBC News

Valley Girl Interview with Ted Turner

The Workplace of the Future: Where Does Your Personal Brand Fit?

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

"The workplace of the future is being shaped by people of influence and social media technologies. One of the fundamental issues that every person has to deal with is identifying how they are wired and where their personal brand should exist. Is it within a corporate structure, as an entrepreneur, brand ambassador or somewhere in between?
Companies want to MINE the talent you have but don’t know to extract or attract it. Most people have talent but don’t know how to harness it. In this workshop you will learn . . .

* How to establish an internal culture for your personal brand
* How to make your personal brand portable and social
* How your personal brand is wired: corporate or entrepreneurial
* How to become a disruptive talent that companies and brands want to MINE"

The Workplace of the Future: Where does your Personal Brand Fit?

View more presentations from Hajj Flemings.

LINK: The Hiding Tour

"This fall, LiNK will send 4 teams of Nomads across North America to premiere our new documentary called "Hiding." This film exposes the struggle North Korean refugees must go through in China to find freedom. Through this documentary, you will be introduced to those still in hiding and learn about ways you can help bring them to safety.

The "hiding tour" will not only raise awareness about the plight of North Korean refugees but it will also take part in raising the funds necessary to help rescue more North Korean refugees currently in hiding.

The tour will stop at colleges, high schools and places of worship. If you belong to one of these institutions and would like more information, please download the screening packet here."

Hiding Teaser I from LiNK Global on Vimeo.

Dick Costolo's Lessons Learned

I definitely enjoyed listening to Dick Costolo's talk at Vator Splash. Dick is the recently appointed CEO of TWitter and co-founder and former CEO of Feedburner.

"Twitter CEO Dick Costolo's lessons learned
Costolo, the first keynote speaker at Vator Splash September, shares a few lessons for entrepreneurs"

The complete review is in the link above, but here are the points I appreciated the most:

1. Have a voice

Costolo’s first lesson, which he seemed the most eager to impart, is to create a personality for your company. For example, even though deal-of-the-day sites are the easiest kind to copy and paste, Woot stood out from the rest by having the most funny and raunchiest descriptions of its daily deals. (Costolo recommends reading the Woot CEO’s post after Amazon acquired his company.)...

4. Think long-term

Not thinking about exits, however, doesn’t mean forgetting about the long-term. Relating an example from one of his earliest ventures, Costolo described how his company veered from their six-month business plan because one customer asked for one specific feature and backed up the request with the promise of good money. Though the business managed to make quick profits by pleasing this one customer, they shut out a large group of other potential customers by delaying their original plan three months. The company had traded in their vision for sub-optimal results by thinking in the short-term.

5. Launch late to launch often

Twisting the adage to “launch early and launch often,” Costolo advised that companies be patient with their product, even if that means launching late. Once a solid product is released, then the business can focus on launching updates often.

At the same time, Costolo warned against waiting to dump every single new feature on users, an experience that can be overwhelming. Even worse, waiting for absolute perfection before launching could be disastrous because perfection might never come; receiving feedback is key.

News & Links List

"Android Invasion
How a tiny piece of software created by a few Google engineers is ushering in the mobile revolution and reshaping the fortunes of the world's biggest tech companies." Newsweek
(Yes, my wife works on the Android team)

"Dick Costolo Takes Twitter CEO Role So Evan Williams Can Focus On Product" TechCrunch

"I, Cringe" Parislemon
Amusing post by MG Siegler

"Samsung demoes WiMAX 2 in Japan, goes up to 330Mbps" Samsung Hub

"The Top 25 Modern PC Games" IGN

"Report: Google Plans to Introduce JPEG Alternative to Speed up the Web" ReadWriteWeb

"How the New Goo.gl Compares to Other URL Shorteners" ReadWriteWeb

"The Digital 100: The World’s Most Valuable Startups" Wall St. Cheat Sheet

"The Erosion of Online Anonymity (and How to Restore It)" Summation

"Japanese augmented reality gaming company Tonchidot lands $12M" VentureBeat

"Ex-Amazon executive Jeff Holden joins board of Become.com" TechFlash

"Google Acquires Impressive Touchscreen Keyboard Startup BlindType" TechCrunch

"Sci-fi wars? Pilots say UFOs knocked out nukes" CNET

"Progressives: Obama remarks are ‘condescending’" MSNBC

"Study: Praying for Partner Helps Stop Cheating" AOLNews