The Equity Kicker

Taptu’s new iPad app

Our portfolio company Taptu has recently pivoted from a mobile search proposition to the social magazine space. They have had iPhone and Android apps out for a few months now but I have been waiting on their iPad app which came out a few days ago.

Reading news on my iPad is part [...]

I’m starting to think network operators should be allowed to charge content owners for carriage

Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner responsible for the ‘digital agenda’ which includes broadband targets is considering allowing network operators to charge content owners to transmit content over their networks. This would be an abandonment of the principles of net neutrality that have served us all well over the last 15-20 years, but I am [...]

If you read one book about negotiating…

I just finished reading The Secrets of Power Negotiating by Roger Dawson and as Tim Ferriss says in Four Hour Working Week “if you only read one book about negotiating, make it this one”.

The first reason I like this book is Roger’s solution driven approach to negotiations. Most deals are complicated and [...]

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-24

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-17 http://goo.gl/fb/xZYbP # Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-17 http://goo.gl/fb/4IXeD # BuddyMedia report on effective Facebook marketing http://goo.gl/fb/Uedsh # Interesting research on Twitter influencers – most cost effective marketing may target those of average influence http://bit.ly/gSIA45 # Microsoft Office 365, their small co cloud package to cost $18 per year [...]

Nearly all jobs created in the most successful startups

I’ve written before about how the UK government has worked out that the majority of jobs created in the UK are created by startups and that as a result they are working hard to make life easier for entrepreneurs. Perhaps the most visible parts of that policy are tax incentives, support for venture capital [...]

50 Questions: How does a VC evaluate management teams?

Eighteenth in a series of weekly posts by myself and Nicholas Lovell of Gamesbrief which answer the fifty questions you should ask before raising venture capital. We expect the series to run for a year after which we will collate the posts into a book. You can find the rationale behind the series here, [...]

Augmenting our bodies with technology

Check out this video for a sign of things to come. It shows a man who lost his hand 25 years ago getting fitted with an amazingly sophisticated prosthetic hand. You can see the sensitivity of the control when he picks up a plastic cup without dropping it. The most incredible piece though was [...]

BuddyMedia report on effective Facebook marketing

Facebook marketing business Buddy Media today released their latest research: Strategies for Effective Facebook Wall Posts: A Statistical Review.

It caught my attention firstly because it is a good example of leveraging data from your business as a sales and marketing tool. Doing this effectively has a number of advantages:

It positions your company [...]

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-17

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-10 http://goo.gl/fb/QR2fO # Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-10 http://goo.gl/fb/2eWrb # “@wadhwa: For every Zuckerberg, there are thousands that dropped out and wrecked their careers. No substitute for education.” too true # Good entrepreneurs should be respected, not liked http://t.co/0dpgFRZ # Capital flowing into VC funds in the US, but [...]