Yesterday I wrote about the need for new forms of startup financing and what one interesting fund called Founders Co-op is doing about it. There’s a lot to like about both Founders Co-op and its much more established counterpart Y Combinator, but neither is perfect. Which got me to thinking: from an entrepreneur’s […]

Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, recently wrote about how the traditional venture capital model is broken, at least when it comes to Internet startups. Eight to ten years ago, it often tok millions of dollars to launch an Internet company. Now that same company can often be launched for just hundreds of […]

Yesterday TechCrunch reported that FatDoor, originally envisioned as a social network for neighbors, was abandoning its business model. FatDoor is another in an increasingly long line of well funded Internet startups focused on the local market that have gone out of business or changed their focus over the last few years. Why is […]

YourStreet, the startup I run, has been fortunate to get a good amount of press coverage since we launched last November. TechCrunch, PBS, PC World, Mashable, MIT Technology Review, Presstime magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and even the Kim Komando radio show have all written about YourStreet. I am regularly asked how other […]

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Google’s launch of its Google Apps Engine web hosting service on Monday puts it in direct competition with Amazon’s web services offerings. But Google’s step goes beyond hosting web applications for startups - the company is now directly vying with Amazon to become the foundation upon which to build new Internet companies.
Here […]

Yesterday I reviewed the three best Internet acquisitions of last year. Today, an easier list to compile: the worst Internet acquisitions of 2007. Some of these acquisitions were too expensive, some were not a good strategic fit, and some were just plain dumb.
eBay acquires StumbleUpon for $45M. This is a case of […]

Now that a few months have passed since the start of the year, it’s time to look back and assess the best and worst acquisitions in the Internet space for 2007. Sure, you can say it’s way too early to make any definitive judgments about such recent deals, but I’m going to do it […]

With the acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft looking ever more likely, it’s time for the future combined entity (yes, that’s right - MicroHoo) to face reality. If the purpose of the merger is to beat Google at search, then it will fail. Google has won the search wars - get over it. […]

The wily Michael Arrington caused quite the fuss a few days ago by criticizing blog networks that take venture capital and suggesting that TechCrunch and other leading technology blogs instead band together to create a “dream team” blog network that would, in Arrington’s words, “kill CNET.” Henry Blodget, founder of the Silicon Valley Insider […]

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When NBC and News Corp announced two years ago that they were creating a new online destination to compete with YouTube, the web elites scoffed at the idea. Google reportedly privately referred to the new venture as “ClownCo.” Now that Hulu has officially opened to the public, it looks like the clowns […]