The latest from TechCrunch
- Gillmor Gang 4.30.11 (TCTV)
- How DIY Health Reform Can Help You Win The Talent Wars
- Game Over for Incentivized App Downloads
- An Update To My Ethics Policy
- How Many Mulligans Does Color Get?
- Nancy Conrad On Education Innovation: Turning Geeks Into Rock Stars Is A Game Changer
| Gillmor Gang 4.30.11 (TCTV) | Top |
| The Gillmor Gang — Kevin Marks, Danny Sullivan, JP Rangaswami, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor — christened the new Gang studio with a surprise welcome to Kevin Marks. It turns out he’s joining salesforce.com on Monday, following JP (six months), JT (7 years), and me, who is celebrating my one year anniversary. Kevin has been a forceful champion of open standards at Apple, Technorati, Google, BT (Ribbit), the Gillmor Gang, and now salesforce.com. Before, and once the festivities were out of the way, we got back to Gang business, namely the continued aftermath of the phone location recording crisis. With free lunch debunked, we tackled the Amazon outage and its impact on the Cloud. You can decide for yourselves, but the consensus is that such challenges will be remembered fondly as a validation of the moment, as with the Gmail outage of several years ago, when the Cloud passed from inflection point to basic services. The velocity of business in the iPad age, where CEOs can see deeply into their companies in realtime, demands a level of interactive services and an iterative feedback loop not possible with the previous generation of software. And that lead to a debate about iPhone video calls and what Danny is looking for in a flying car. CrunchBase Information Steve Gillmor JP Rangaswami John Taschek Danny Sullivan Kevin Marks Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| How DIY Health Reform Can Help You Win The Talent Wars | Top |
| Editor’s note : Guest author Dave Chase spent the 90′s working at Microsoft in various senior marketing and general management roles, including founding Microsoft’s global healthcare unit that has grown to be Microsoft’s most significant vertical market. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was a senior consultant with Accenture's Healthcare Practice working with a wide array of healthcare providers and systems. Dave has also been a successful investor and adviser to several early-stage companies. He can be found on Twitter as @ chasedave or on LinkedIn . The talent wars that were common back in the late 90′s appear to have returned whether it's using LOLCats or cheeseburgers to recruit talent. While I love the creativity, when it comes down to making a decision to join a new company, the lumbering tech giants (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Zynga, Facebook) which startups compete against for talent have one giant ace up their sleeve — great healthcare benefits. When I left Microsoft 8 years ago, my wife expressed only one concern — losing health benefits. At the time, I told her that it's just a matter of paying those costs directly. The reality has been that it's been a significant hassle and cost that we'd rather not deal with. The excitement of working with startups has outweighed that hassle, but even to this day it remains a burr in the saddle. Periodically, I will get an offer to join some company and her first question is "how are their health benefits?" Startups have repeatedly shown an ability to outmaneuver the behemoths we compete with but this is one area where the behemoths still have an edge. It's time to turn the tables with what I call Do-it-Yourself (DIY) Healthcare Reform. While the behemoths stick to the old health payment model, which is a Gordian Knot designed by Rube Goldberg , there’s a better way. The big companies can stick with a model that has led to health costs increasing 274x in my lifetime (compared to 8x for all other consumer goods and services). What’s better is that startups are beginning to offer key parts of the solution. There’s a Seattle startup called Qliance that is backed by Nick Hanauer (aQuantive founder, Second Avenue Partners), Rich Barton (Expedia/Zillow founder), Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell. (I am not an investor). In the Bay Area, there’s a similar model – One Medical Group – that has been written up in the NY Times Qliance and medical approaches like it recognize the budget-crushing impact of burdening the health equivalent of a car tune-up with insurance bureaucracy and profits. There’s a 40% “tax” that makes healthcare insurance unnecessarily expensive. Instead, in Qliance-like models, the health insurer gets disintermediated from day to day healthcare. It keeps insurance for what it does best—covering you for catastrophic items you hope never happen (major medical issues, house fire, car accident). The Solution There are steps an individual or companies can take today that can save a massive amount of money. I will explain three items that may be new to you but are important to understand and take advantage of depending on the scope of coverage you want for yourself or your employees. Direct Primary Care (DPC) : A relatively new concept that is a derivation of Concierge Medicine but targeted at the mass market. They typically cover everything from day to day items (physicals, flu, etc.) to urgent care. Sometimes there are added charges for items such as an X-ray (Qliance now includes this in their pricing) or lab tests where they pass along direct costs. Because it's completely outside of the insurance model (you pay a monthly retainer not unlike a health club that you can use as much or as little as you'd like), doctors are happy to be available by email and phone. In a typical insurance/fee-for-service model, they wouldn't get compensated unless they see you in person so it's understandable why they are reluctant to be available for their patients in this manner. Health Savings Accounts (HSA) : These allow pre-tax dollars to be put into an account that rolls over if they aren't used. Funds in the account can be used to pay for qualified healthcare expenses. As pre-tax money, you are essentially getting a 20-30% discount depending on your tax bracket. The funds contributed to the account are not subject to federal income tax at the time of deposit. Unlike a flexible spending account (FSA), funds roll over and accumulate year to year if not spent. HSA funds may currently be used to pay for qualified medical expenses at any time without federal tax liability or penalty. More on them can be found at the federal government's Web site and on Wikipedia . Health Discount Card : Think of this as a Costco Card for health & wellness services. It's NOT insurance. Your Costco Card doesn't allow you to take Cheerios off their shelf and not pay for them. Rather, they have aggregated the buying power of individuals and small business to save their members money when they purchase something. With the card, you can access items often not covered by insurance from Dental to Vision to Alternative Care to Prescriptions at a significant pre-negotiated discount. The following are examples of the range of coverage you can provide to your team. I would always recommend at least having a very high deductible insurance plan. Bare bones : At least offer a Health Discount Card even if you can't cover the employee's High Deductible Insurance Plan. Just be sure to communicate that it is not insurance as many will think it is. The Costco analogy helps people understand (i.e., you can't walk out without paying for what's in your cart, it just costs less). Good : Couple a High Deductible Plan with a Health Discount Card Better : Combine the "Good" with a HSA that you fund with pre-tax dollars. Employers such as Whole Foods have taken this approach and found their employees getting much savvier on spending "their" dollars. See the Wall Street Journal's piece by Whole Foods CEO on how they do this. Even if you don’t fund the HSA, it’s great to offer one as a way for employees to extend their dollars. Best : Combine the "Better" with a Direct Primary Care membership. Prices vary widely but Qliance charges $69/month for a 40-49 year old, for example. Many find that combining these can actually cost less than conventional insurance. Some are going a step further and offering corporate wellness programs such as those offered by startups such as Lime-Ade . My experience initially working as a management consultant to nearly 30 hospitals followed by founding Microsoft's healthcare business has led me to the conclusion that it is virtually impossible to reform a fundamentally flawed model (i.e., the payment side of the equation). I outlined this in more detail in my Huffington Post piece entitled Health Insurance's Bunker Buster . But taking giving employees new healthcare choices is one way startups can compete with larger companies in the talent wars. CrunchBase Information Dave Chase Qliance Medical Management Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Game Over for Incentivized App Downloads | Top |
| Editor’s note : Guest author Gurbaksh Chahal has founded three startups and is currently CEO and founder of RadiumOne, an online ad network that aims to combine social and intent data to serve ads. The business model of incentivized app downloads was recently dealt a death sentence by Apple. Apple said incentivized app downloads were driving inaccurate rankings in the App Store , almost certainly because essentially paying consumers to download apps was a way of gaming a ranking system that used downloads as a key metric. To be fair, there were many quality apps taking advantage of the loophole in the ranking system, but that era has ended. And so have the days of companies making money hand over fist in the incentivized downloads business, better known in the industry as Cost Per Install or CPI. So how exactly did it work ? Say you're playing a game that offers you virtual currency; the game might ask you to download an advertised application in exchange for virtual credits within that game. You install the app and get your in-game currency. The app gets a new install and pays for that. This quickly generates bursts of installs, immediately boosting an app's ranking in the app store. My feeling about this change in the App Store ranking—"Hooray!" I'm glad that Apple put a stake in the heart of this "quick buck" scheme. It's going to force everyone in the mobile space to get back to making money the old school way—with real and targeted advertising. The companies in the CPI business ( TapJoy , Flurry , mdotm , w3i ) were slowing this transition and this focus. And they all knew that CPI was a house of cards revenue stream that was not sustainable and wouldn't be ignored by Apple indefinitely. Furthermore, CPI is a business model with constrained inventory. You can only monetize to the number of apps in the network. That's always going to be a finite number and a small number when most app developers aren't big enough to even afford CPI. So what replaces CPI? In my opinion—and granted I’m biased because I've founded three companies that serve online display advertising—mobile display ad solutions are the way of the future. Display offers a much greater growth potential than CPI because of near limitless inventory. The IAB recently estimated that last year alone, advertisers spent more than $550 million on mobile advertising. That pace is outstripping the growth of online display and CPI is no match. Mobile advertising is a rapidly iterating field. In many ways this CPI ruckus is reminiscent of the early days of online display. Remember the days before IAB standards, when click fraud was rampant and there was a virtual cornucopia of monetization schemes offered by now defunct companies that were "gaming" the system? The next chapter in mobile advertising, for the companies able to keep up with the pace of change, will be better ad solutions for app developers, advertisers and consumers. Just consider this: Over 25% of current mobile landing pages go to the App Store. Display can drive App Store rankings. Think about what the seer of Internet advertising, Kleiner Perkins' Mary Meeker noted in her Top Mobile Internet Trends report : Mobile display is hitting a critical mass faster than the desktop Internet did Powerful shift to ad and virtual good monetization from initial pay per download models About 60% of time spent on smartphones is new activity for mobile users – activities such as games, social networking, maps, utilities. So let's say farewell and good riddance to mobile CPI and find better advertising models that actually give consumers something they want. | |
| An Update To My Ethics Policy | Top |
| I’ve been in Las Vegas for most of the month and so have been out of the loop on some of the major stories rocking the world of technology and media. Stories like the startling news that, having made a sack-load of money from the sale of TechCrunch to AOL, Mike is going to begin investing in start-ups again . Like most jealous little fucks with a WordPress login uncompromising guardians of media impartiality , I was shocked – shocked – at the news, but unlike most of those guardians, I was reassured by the honesty of his disclosure. I also laughed at HuffPost’s official statement that – well – Mike is special and that everyone should stop whining. “Michael Arrington operates from a unique position. He was an investor in technology companies and start-ups before he started TechCrunch, and his extensive knowledge of, and involvement with Silicon Valley is one of the very things that has made TechCrunch a must-read site. TechCrunch is committed to transparency.” Indeed we are. And so, prompted by Mike’s ethical pivot, I’ve decided it’s time to update my own code of conduct, the previous version of which can be found here . After all, in the two years since I last updated the document, I’ve quit drinking , received another book advance and – yeah – made some cash from my own TechCrunch shares. The drinking thing alone has left me with more spare cash that I know what to do with. Here then, for the record, are the relevant changes to my core ethics now that I am sickeningly rich… “Principle One: I am a whore.” In the previous version of my ethics statement, I explained that the quality of my work is directly related to how much I’m paid…. “Look at the cover of my book . See the word Whore? It's in red. That's because I am a whore; a hussy; a slut-for-hire; a man of scarlet letters. I write newspaper columns because people pay me to do so. I write books for the same reason. The more I get paid, the better I write…” …Now that I am dripping with wealth, that is no longer the case. Henceforth, the quality of my work will be related only to whether I can be bothered to get out of bed in the morning. (Today was a sleepy day) “Principle Four: What are friends for?” Previously, I made clear that I would generally write mean things about my enemies and nice things about my friends… “If you're my friend I will write nice things about you; if you're not I probably won't.” …Now that I have more money than I know what to do with, however, I no longer feel any loyalty towards my friends; I can always buy new ones. As for my enemies – I don’t need to write about them to get revenge; I can simply pay to have them killed. In terms of my day-to-day interactions with PR professionals, I previously adopted a non-discrimination policy…. “When trying to hook up with your PR girl at your party, how attractive she is will play almost no part in my decision making. That would smack of discrimination.” …That policy is no longer in operation. “Bribery: If you buy me a Happy Meal as a bribe, I will refuse to accept the free toy. See also, Kinder Surprise eggs.” A couple of simple text changes to the above. For “Kinder Surprise eggs”, now read “Fabergé Eggs”. For “Happy Meal”, read “Happy Ending”. And finally, an all important note on stocks. In the previous iteration of my ethics statement, I made clear that I try to avoid owning stocks as all of my investments very quickly turn to shit. This is still the case, except now I deliberately invest my vast wealth in things specifically in the hope that my involvement will lead to their downfall. Recent investments include $5,000 for 60% of ZDNet’s Tom Foremski’s sense of proportion and a little over $3.50 for a controlling stake in the editorial integrity Forbes.com. Both investments are performing nicely. | |
| How Many Mulligans Does Color Get? | Top |
| WARNING: mixed sports metaphors ahead. How many do-overs does a startup get before users give up on it for good? As far as I can remember, the answer is zero. I can’t think of an example where a startup launched into the wild, flailed badly, and recovered (without completely abandoning the first product). There are lots of examples of flailing and relaunching (see Cuil, see Joost), but I can’t think of anyone that managed to pull out a win. By my count Color , the $41 million startup that promises to “transform the way people communicate with each other,” has already struck out. The first strike was a launch that left users confused, sharing photos with themselves and trying to figure out a user interface that seemed purposely designed to frustrate. We gave them another chance . Strike two: pulling the Android version of the app from the market. And strike three: engaging in a big PR partnership with The Telegraph in the UK to get people all over the UK to post pictures during the royal wedding. Just 500 photos were posted , which isn’t much more than MG Siegler and friends managed to post during a bachelor party/iPhone fest in Mexico a few weeks ago. And The Telegraph promised that the best photos would be published. Here are those “best” photos. This third strike was particularly egregious. The color team knows that people are confused about what the app is supposed to do. It’s not supposed to be just another photo sharing app. It’s about the future of social networks. I’m fully on board with the social network stuff, and have been waiting for it since 2008 . So why in the world would Color, with a hamstrung app and a confused marketplace, pull a major PR stunt that’s all about showing off Color as exactly what the company doesn’t want Color to be thought of (another photo sharing app)? You got me. If anyone gets it, let me know. I want Color to succeed. I don’t hold their funding against them in any way. I love that they’re trying to solve a really big problem. And I like that the team is successful but still hungry. But Color shouldn’t have launched when they did. They knew the app was seriously flawed, and they should have known that they probably wouldn’t get another chance at a first impression. And with all the negativity, the last thing they should have done was push the app as is to tens of millions of people in the UK. Those masses have far less patience for the quirks of unfinished software than people like us do. The team here at TechCrunch will give Color all the mulligans it wants to get things right. They can swing and miss all day and we’ll still be here in the stands, rooting them on. But eventually the crowds, tired of boo’ing, will go home. And the stadium lights will go out. And then, even if Color hits one out of the park, we’re not sure there’ll be anyone around to see it. I say to Color, “SWING for the fences!” Just don’t keep swinging with your eyes squeezed shut. CrunchBase Information Color Labs Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Nancy Conrad On Education Innovation: Turning Geeks Into Rock Stars Is A Game Changer | Top |
| Last week President Obama spoke at Facebook , emphasizing during the townhall that the US needs to be bullish on Science and Math education if we are to pull out of the recession, “We want to start making Science cool. I want people to feel about the next big energy breakthrough and the next big Internet breakthrough the same way they felt about the moonwalk," he said. Taking off on that idea, Nancy Conrad, the wife of late astronaut Pete Conrad , has founded the Conrad Foundation in the memory of her husband. Peter was expelled from one school in the 11th grade because he had dyslexia and then went on to graduate from Princeton and walk on the moon because he was taken under the wing of another educator who saw promise in the young man. Nancy Conrad wants to give other kids with a penchant for entrepreneurship their “moon shots,” or the opportunity to get funding and actualize their ideas; Because of this the Conrad Foundation puts on the Spirit of Innovation Awards and Innovation Summit annually, attempting to foster a love of innovation in kids between the ages of 13 and 18. To attend the Innovation Summit , high schoolers across the country are invited to enter the three year old competition, which ends up flying in 27 finalists to NASA Ames to pitch their startups to judges in one of three categories: Aerospace Exploration, Clean Energy and Cyber Security. The winning team in each category receives a 5K grant to fund their project. While building the “innovative workforce of the 21st century” is an ambitious goal, after attending the extremely professional finalist presentations today it’s obvious that spotlighting kids who have a passion for innovation and technology is a fundamental step in turning our education system around. “There’s so many problems, we’re not running out of problems,” Conrad said emphasizing that you need to get kids excited about Science, Math and Technology in order build a viable workforce. “When you’ve got juiced kids who really want to do something, they don’t know there’s a box. And then all they do is think outside the box. This is where geeks turn into rockstars, and that’s the game changer. That’s where you can change the culture of students.” Hmm … So maybe Intel was right ? | |
CREATE MORE ALERTS:
Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted
Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope
Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more
News - Only the news you want, delivered!
Stocks - Stay connected to the market with price quotes and more
Weather - Get today's weather conditions
| You received this email because you subscribed to Yahoo! Alerts. Use this link to unsubscribe from this alert. To change your communications preferences for other Yahoo! business lines, please visit your Marketing Preferences. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089. |
No comments:
Post a Comment