Let’s facebook it… small bang
May 18th, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - SEPTEMBER 22: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a keynote address during the Facebook f8 conference on September 22, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the conference introducing a Timeline feature to the popular social network. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Facebook shares have stumbled, managing a gain of less than one per cent in the first day of trade, dampening optimism over the much-anticipated debut for the world’s biggest social network.
With all the buzz, the media fell into the frenzy. Yes, it might be a large IPO – (Initial Public Offering, when companies are allowed to go to the shares’ supermarket called the stock exchange), but after all noone can escape the rules of the market: the value is set by the balance between supply and demand… and the client is always right.
Why on Earth did Facebook go public? because it gives a certain freedom to the owners of the pieces of the company, it is ONE of the many ways to get rewarded for the work put into place. Buyers are willing to make an offer to get pieces of the company so they can profit in terms of dividends and higher future sales prices (as rent and resale value on a house).
I think the stock market is one of the least understood and miss utilized investment options. I prefer to invest in companies directly as an angel or venture capitalist because I have an impact… and I’m active, but for other types of investors, the intelligence lies is ‘selecting’ the right shares.
For many entrepreneurs and investors IPO is the goal… it also allows employees to be part of the windfall. Anybody remember the story of the guy who painted graffiti in the walls and was paid in stock? yes, that kind of thing.
I like it becomes it brings dynamism to the markets… Compared to google which soared the first weeks, this is a small bang to Facebook, but it is nevertheless a bang…
so thubms up facebook, despite the small bang.
Related articles
- Is Facebook the IPO of a Generation? (mint.com)
- Facebook stumbles onto public markets (theglobeandmail.com)
- GM Will Remove $10 Million Worth Of Ads From Facebook [Gm] (jalopnik.com)
- Facebook’s IPO is a jackpot for some, despite dark shadow of mobile (betanews.com)
Instagr.am! Is it worth its value?
April 15th, 2012
Instagram - 8 (Photo credit: BrentOzar)
Don’t you love bubbles? a company it worth a billion dollars in a couple of years. Now, that would be, let’s see, it is not even a .com company.. it is a dot.am … what the (%*&#(%& is a .am? Let’s see, Grams are types of bacterias; Ram files are used for videos or audios but for images? no way.. Am is the country code for Armenia. Yes, where Noa’s Arch is supposed to have landed.
But going back to Instagram… the question is…. Is it worth 1 billion dollars…. $1,000,000,000 dollars… without much to worry about inventory, green gases, severance payments, the elections, financial global crisis, or age related illnesses. And did I forget to mention without any revenues?
In this day and age, a company’s value is back to the financial valuation basis: the company’s capacity to generate future revenues. It is all about perception.
How do business create value? well, they can’t… Business don’t to anything. People do.
Some people would work towards creating value by doing some of these activities:
1. Designing something unique, that is difficult to imitate, collectable, distinctive… Something that would make other people feel special for having access to it.
2. Creating a production system, so it is easy to replicate, or rather cost-effective.
3. Organizing a delivery platform so it is easy to distribute, or rather cost-effective.
4. Building a team to work in the activities that need to be done to do number 1,2, and 3.
5. Finding the funds to pay for points 1,2,3, and 4.
What made Instagram a success? the recognition of that value by others….
What I like about Silicon Valley is the fact that:
1. Technology is current, and spreads like Superman’s super fast flights.
2. Tons of people are in start ups, giving and trying crazy ideas, but with a clear intent: it is fun and it is useful.
3. Pivoting is part of the game, we change… never a boring time… and nobody expects predictability. Failure is learning, we fall, we get up, people nobody cares about failing.
4. Money matters, and talks. It doesn’t shout, it just talks… In the long term, we are all dead… and in the short term, we have to pay the bills. So, keep the bills low, and use money as the icing, not the cake. We are the cake.
5. Be in the place… If Instagram had no businesses in Silicon Valley, I doubt it would have been bought at all. Speaking at over 40 countries, there is no place like Silicon Valley, simply because there is the capacity to create something new with the current technology, with fun people to work with, cool companies to try and explore, capacity to change rapidly, and access to capital.
So, you can focus the design of new technology, the production, the delivery, the team.. and even the funds, but we’ll get stuck in the capital… Why? because it gets recycled and reused… If you make $400 million in two years, you will use some of that to feed back into the system.
For those who are not in Silicon Valley, there is always the option to get an office there, in the mean time… Internet continues to provide endless opportunities to create, explore, and have fun…
Related articles
- Does $1 Billion Instagram Purchase Prove Social Media Bubble? (bigthink.com)
- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: Everyone’s connected in Silicon Valley (venturebeat.com)
- 30 Things Worth Less Than Instagram (thecontentlab.icrossing.com)
- That Crazy Instagram Valuation (justinsb.com)
- We live in interesting times (kevin.lexblog.com)
Tags: Armenia, Bravo, Business, Entrepreneur, facebook, Instagram, Silicon Valley, Superman | 
No Comments »
Gracias, Grazie, Thank you, Merci, Danke, Mange Tak, Tack, Kamsahamnida,
March 29th, 2012
Thank you!
The day of birth is OVER and today is the first day of a whole new year, days to fill with goals and dreams come true. That’s the spirit, for the next day, the next hour or the next minute. Make it yours!
Thank you all for your warm wishes and I hope I see you IN PERSON when I trot around the world…
Jennifer Runner has created a wonderful list of how to say Thank you in many languages:
http://users.elite.net/runner/jennifers/thankyou.htm
The decline of the Empire and the venture capitalists
March 20th, 2012
Sounds exciting right? a bit of drama is always welcome, the salt and the spices that add a j’ne se quois to life.
For decades I’ve supported entrepreneurship, simply because it gives individuals choices… and there is nothing more refreshing than knowing that we don’t HAVE to do anything, but that we CHOSE to.
In this day and age, despite having enormous opportunities, we are told to believe that capital is still in charge, when in reality, capital is at the service of others: our clients, our employees, our investors, and our politicians… and yes, the 4th sector: the religious, cultural, civic, non-profit, altruistic sector. Why the 4th?
- well, did you remember the 1st sector? of course not, its been so long … but the 1st sector is the one that keeps us alive: the food production and mineral extraction.
- then came the 2nd sector, getting there? it is the one that keeps us company: the manufacturing sector… look around, you get it.
- and the third sector, natürlich… the one that keeps us cozy: the service sector, from telephones to banks to webs (wordpress, microsoft, energy, water, google, medicine, education)…
and why do we talk about the sectors? just to recognize how intertwined we all are… that last T-shirt you wore was probably made in China, with American design, Korean machines, Indian cotton, transported in a Danish container carried by a Greek fleet that uses a Singaporean download software, and equipment from all over the world… thousands of hands have intervene, and those thousands of hands have left a mark and benefited from it.
Failing to recognize those relationships weakens our economies – all of them! and more than ever, the ones that feel in a weak position are the ones putting pressure on the system. I bring a couple of videos to give a human side of the side that, at least in the case of Venture Capital, seem to be in a strong position.
I like the comment of Moritz about the most challenging premise of the coming years, if we all think that we lived in our own empire and had to take the measures to keep our empires healthy… think about all we could do… WE, yes WE.
Watch Michael Moritz here
and then of course, I could not keep this funny video to myself… showing the quirky side of another VC group…
HAHAHA
Reflect and smile… that’s the spirit!
and let’s turn our the decline, 4 sectors at once, all together.
Related articles
- Government As Venture Capitalist? It Works for Massachusetts (Full Series) (bostinno.com)
- Venture Capital Is the Essence of Everything Good in Capitalism (xconomy.com)
- Michael Moritz: The best advice I ever got (money.cnn.com)
- A Bed Time Story Venture Capitalists Tell Their Children (smallbiztrends.com)
Would the Kony 2012 campaign work?
March 8th, 2012
Image via Wikipedia
Related articles
- [video] KONY 2012 (streetknowledge.wordpress.com)
- Kony 2012: Viral Campaign Aims to Take Down War Criminal [Video] (inquisitr.com)
- read & watch: INVISIBLE CHILDREN (KONY12) (kingmelesha.wordpress.com)
- In Response to Anti-Kony 2012 and “The White Man’s Burden” (cheratomo.wordpress.com)
SOPA and PIPA, nothing to do with Soup or the British Royal Family
January 19th, 2012
Can you imagine a world without access to information on internet? I remember the day when I brought home our first computer. We had exchanged it for 4 cows! Yes… at that time we bought and sold cattle and, living in a flat, there was really no room for the cows that were given to us as payment, gift or gratitude. Whilst trying to find a place for them, a friend had bought a computer –an Abacus- and had no idea what to do with it, and we made a deal. That abacus sat on our lounge for days, before we can get it to do something more than a pale green C:/ on a black screen.
Fast forward, anytime I need to find information I turn to the internet. As an international traveller, I’ve found that some countries do screen content. I couldn’t access my Spanish web site from Saudi Arabia for few days, until, after submission, the authorities would accept that a site to foster entrepreneurship in Spanish wouldn’t do much harm. Mind you the name: Ventures Latinas, didn’t help much… and yes, 3 % of our traffic came from ‘adventures latinas’ (Latinas is female for Latins, or Hispanics, we just tend to assign genders to common words, and as a result businesses are female).
Need a flight? A recipe? A background check? A picture? A song? A video? Need Dramas? Laughter? Pain? Joy? Scattered all over the world, we have a common access: internet.
See more, learn more, like more… not only we FIND information, and SHARE it, we also CREATE it.
That is why I am supporting the questioning of the SOPA and the PIPA, and once again… I’m turning to my great pals at Wikipedia to find out more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more
Yes, I do get upset when someone steals my hard worked information… perhaps a bit more upset when the cover is tossed and a new author suddenly appear…. And a bit more so when a colleague professor uses my work. But that is a minority and rules as the ones proposed MIGHT eliminate that, but will also eliminate the thousands of people who genuinely share, create and disseminate information. It is like pretending to breath in a sterile air… Let’s find other ways to take care of the bugs, or let the bugs be there…
Happy and Fresh 2012!
January 12th, 2012
One of my best blogs was last years’ start-up, grow-up, and let go. You can check it here: http://www.aliciacastilloholley.com/2011/09/start-up-grow-up-let-go/
This year I want to take EXACTLY the opposite view, driven in part by my friend Marilena Beuses who sent us a wonderful note on the joys of emptiness.
Let’s create the 2012 we want…
The new professional. Part III. Self-determination
December 27th, 2011
… (continued from last two posts) … why we do need to add more ‘action’ learning to our ‘thinking’ learning and form new professionals that will be able to manage their three largest professional changes: the role of the professional in society, the sense of self, and self-determination.
The third change relates to self-determination: we shift our focus to our attitude instead of our circumstances. A student can learn to think about building the necessary tools and skills on an ongoing basis. We build better futures when our professionals understand that their attitudes, not their circumstances, make a difference. We are full of explanations of why we cannot do things. We need more professionals to focus on solutions, not problems, to create the future they want, to think and take action. Not taking actions is a choice, but the worst of all, because then we lose the opportunity to succeed or to make changes if needed. We need professionals who choose to be actors instead of spectators of their lives, whether they work as entrepreneurs, politicians, artists, executives or housewives.
