Aaron Patzer, Mint CEO, Talks Startups

If you are a startup founder, you’ll want to bookmark this and refer back to it. It’s absolute gold.
-Michael Arrington

Introducing Newspaper 2.0…

It’s no secret that the death of the newspaper is imminent. We have seen how LCD and touchpad screens have replaced paper and ink. Printing, distribution, and material costs have virtually been eliminated by the recent technological advances. It’s just a matter of time before we shut down the presses for good. But the question remains: “What’s next?”

Out With the Old, In With the New: Get Ready for the New Business Era

Along with the rest of the world, the current economic downturn has gripped my full attention.  Despite many grim outlooks and predictions, I remain completely optimistic.  In many ways, I view the severe dip as the beginning of a completely new era.  Quite frankly, I find comfort in this notion…and so should you!
It is all [...]

Viral or Commercial? — How Consumers are Captivated

Do me a favor and think about your favorite products and/or services and ask yourself this simple question:

How did you hear about them?

Does the answer to this question remain consistent or inconsistent throughout the years?  Do you find your preference for a particular product or service to be a reflection upon your upbringing? (i.e. our [...]

The Game is Changing in ‘Waves’

The web world has always been quick to call something a “game changer” or a “killer app” at a moment’s notice.  These sorts of declarations come largely from the early adopter crowd; a group of individuals who play a critical role in the advancement of technology.  Often times, making these sorts of statements are either: [...]

140 Characters Soon Forgotten?

How simple is too simple?  Does simplicity facilitate usability?  Do we sacrifice effectiveness for usability?  I start to ask myself these questions as I log on to twitter.com with far less frequency as once before.  Will this 140-character revolution continue on its meteoric rise, or will it become a nostalgic web property of the past?
I [...]

How Facebook May Become More Like MySpace

It almost pains me to use MySpace in the title, seeing how much I dislike the service.  In any event, there is something to be said about Facebook’s new “direction”, and how they may be moving towards a product offering similar to that of the mighty content clusterf–k, otherwise known as MySpace.  I’m talking more [...]

Will the “New Digg” Breathe New Life Into the Service?

During Michael Arrington’s interview with Kevin Rose, the Digg-founder states, “I believe that it’s time for Digg to get a little bit more real-time in nature. And we need to be a living and breathing site.”  He goes on to say that he expects Digg to see these changes somewhere in the next six months.
There’s [...]

Solving Problems vs. Creating Solutions

So you have your business idea.  How do you know if it’s a viable one?  According to most venture capitalists (VCs), there is an initial set of guidelines or preliminary questions in which your idea must fulfill or answer.  You can bet that on the top of that list, the following question will appear:

“Do you [...]

Pirates of Silicon Valley [Part 2.0]

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
-Charles Caleb Colton (1780 – 1832)
There is an obvious trend that exists within today’s internet-based businesses.  Companies are “stealing” other companies’ ideas, concepts, and functionality.  Well, stealing may not be the most accurate description.  I believe the term borrowing may better sum up what is actually happening.  In any [...]