Archives for 2007

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Zoho Office on Facebook

Posted on July 2, 2007 ·

Zoho Office on iPhone is yesterday’s news: today they are on Facebook, becoming the first Web-based Office Suite available on the new “platform”. You can browse, display and edit your Zoho Writer, Sheet and Show documents, or create new ones.

Quite frankly I’m still not sure what I am doing on Facebook. I’ve long considered LinkedIn my “home base” and resisted joining other networks, but since Facebook opened up to the world, and more importantly since publishing their API’s and becoming Platform Central, I’ve received so many invitations from my business contacts, I could no longer resist. Sounds familiar? smile_wink I still don’t know where this will lead – just read Fred Wilson’s post on Facebook’s Age Distribution. It’s still predominantly a college-age network.

Nevertheless, it’s a huge distribution channel for Zoho: discount or not, college students are not exactly known to shell out dollars for software, including MS Office, they live in a wired environment and tend to be online and collaborate a lot. Whether Facebook becomes a “businessy” network or not, just for the student market alone this was a smart move on Zoho’s part.

Related posts: Mashable, Wired, Between the Lines, Download Squad, All Facebook, Webware, Accman, Insider Chatter, TechCrunch, Venture Chronicles, Rev2.org, Techscape

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Filed Under: Collaboration, Personal Productivity ·
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Zoho Office on Your iPhone

Posted on June 28, 2007 ·

Are you already in line to get the iPhone?   Well, if your lucky (?) enough to walk away with one, you now have an online Office Suite to work with: Zoho released an updated, lightweight version of their Writer, Sheet, Show apps at iZoho.  You can create and edit documents, only view spreadsheets and presentations for now. Zoho will continue to improve these products.

It’s nice to have the ability to access your documents, but for longer work I will still prefer a large screen with a keyboard.  There may be a role for the cell phone though- see an earlier discussion with Sridhar on this. My interpretation of his “computing Nirvana”:

– the mobile phone brings the connectivity, browser and some personalization
– the actual work devices are the cheap displays, keyboards easily found anywhere.
– the apps and data are on the Net

Until then, enjoy iZoho.

 

Update (7/2):  Zoho Office is now available on Facebook, too.

 

Related posts: ZDNet,  WebWare, ReadWriteWeb, Wired, Deal Architect, Mashable,

 

Filed Under: Software, Technology ·
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G-Combinator :-)

Posted on June 28, 2007 ·

Google offers funding to gadget developers:

  1. Grants of $5,000 to those who’ve built gadgets they’d like to see developed further.
  2. Seed investments of $100,000 to developers who’d like to build a business around the Google gadgets platform.

(hat tip: TechCrunch)

Update (6/28): This is now on top of TechMeme: Web Strategy, Googling Google, paidContent.org, Niall Kennedy’s Weblog, Online Marketing Blog, ReadWriteWeb, mathewingram.com/work, Search Engine Land

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Filed Under: Software, Startups, Technology ·
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SVASE VC Breakfast with Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

Posted on June 28, 2007 ·

After a long break I’ll be hosting another SVASE VC Breakfast Club meeting tomorrow, June 28th in San Francisco.  As usual, it’s an informal round-table where 10 entrepreneurs get to deliver a pitch, then answer questions and get critiqued by a VC Partner. We’ve had VC’s from Draper Fisher,  Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield, Mohr Davidow, Emergence Capital …etc.  Tomorrow we”ll have the honor of welcoming Ann Winblad, Partner, co-Founder of the first exclusively software-focused venture firm, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.

These breakfast meetings are a valuable opportunity for Entrepreneurs, most of whom would probably have a hard time getting through the door to VC Partners. Since I’ve been through quite a few of these sessions, both as Entrepreneur and Moderator, let me share a few thoughts:

  • It’s a pressure-free environment, with no Powerpoint presentations, Business Plans…etc, just casual conversation; but it does not mean you should come unprepared!
  • Follow a structure, don’t just roam about what you would like to do, or even worse, spend all your time describing the problem, without addressing what your solution is.
  • Don’t forget “small things” like the Team, Product, Market..etc.
  • It would not hurt to mention how much you are looking for, and how you would use the funds…
  • Write down and practice your pitch, and prepare to deliver a compelling story in 3 minutes. You will have about 10 minutes, the first half of which is your pitch,  but believe me, whatever your practice time was, when you are on the spot, you will likely take twice as long to deliver your story. The second half of your time-slot is Q&A with the VC.
  • Bring an Executive Summary; some VC’s like it, others don’t.
  • Last, but not least, please be on time! I am not kidding… some of you know why I even have to bring this up. (Arriving an hour late to a one-and-a-half-hour meeting is NOT acceptable.)

Here’s the event info page, but unfortunately this one is sold out. 

See you in San Francisco!

 

Filed Under: Bay Area, Software, Startups ·
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Google vs. Microsoft: I Find Myself on the "Wrong" Side

Posted on June 26, 2007 ·

I’m not exactly known as a Microsoft-fan (see earlier posts at the bottom), yet I can’t help but side with MS in the current Google vs Microsoft kerfuffle.  Apparently Google is not satisfied with the changes to Vista MS agreed to, and still claims that “Microsoft’s hardwiring of its own desktop search product into Windows Vista violates the final judgment in this case.”

Here’s the problem: there really should not be a product named Desktop Search. Only desktop find – and it’s not a product.  Being able to retrieve whatever I myself placed on my hard disk should be a fundamental feature of the computer – and that means the Operating System.  The fact is, for two decades Microsoft has failed to deliver this capability miserably and that opened up an opportunity for others, be it Google, Yahoo, or my personal favorite, Copernic.  I don’t have a Vista machine, and I don’t plan to buy one, so I really can’t compare how good the built-in MS search find is, and it doesn’t matter anyway.

The point is: now that Vista is (supposedly) capable to find stuff it placed on the computer, let’s not complain about the operating system finally doing what it should have been doing in the first place. Those who still do, might want to read this satirical (?) piece.

Related posts: ReadWriteWeb, Insider Chatter, Digital Daily, paidContent.org, Internet Marketing Monitor

My earlier posts re. Microsoft:

 

Filed Under: Business, Software, Technology ·
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Overzealous British Airways – Or Do they Need a Web Designer?

Posted on June 23, 2007 ·

Be one step ahead, register today – asks British Airways, and they sure try to be ahead of everyone, guessing every possible title BA travelers may wish to use.   I’m wondering how many:

  • Air Vice Marshals
  • Crown Princes
  • His Holinesses
  • Sultans …etc.

they really expect will register?  (hint: use the “Title” drop down menu above ‘First Name”).

(hat tip: reddit)

 

Filed Under: Humor, Misc ·
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Startup CEO’s Don’t Do List

Posted on June 23, 2007 ·
  • Do not call your company VaporTech. In fact do not call it Vapor-anything.
  • Do not lease a Ferrari and a Mercedes at the same time
  • Do not hire a former prosecutor as a corporate officer.

Vaportech CEO gets 30 months in jail.

 

Filed Under: Business ·
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Trust Gmail Mail Fetcher? Think Twice.

Posted on June 23, 2007 ·

Today I was surprised to see too many emails in a normally “slow” Gmail label.  Then I got the real surprise finding some of them were over a week old – yet they just arrived. smile_sad.  This label only has email fetched from another Gmail account.  OK, let’s check history:

Ouch. Mail Fetcher hasn’t bothered to check the source account for 10 days….

Gmail’s Mail Fetcher is a very useful feature. Other than the typical email consolidation, it can be used to merge several accounts, or the final and crucial step of your migration from the desktop to Gmail.  It’s more than useful: it’s crucial.

Just don’t trust it too much.Beta Software

 

Update: Other Google services also ailing today… 

Filed Under: Software, Technology ·
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Spinach Powered House

Posted on June 22, 2007 ·

I knew spinach was healthy, but this much?

“The house is powered by solar energy. To do this however, their design called for a house to be cladded with a solid-state photosynthetic solar cell based skin, whose main component for generating electricity from the sun is a protein called Photosystem I, which is derived from spinach. The system, still in its infancy, was developed by MIT researchers and has proven to be a solid avenue of pursuit in the search for more efficient solar cells.”

(hat tip: BL Ochman)

Filed Under: Misc ·
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Pmarca – Is the New Star Blog Losing Focus?

Posted on June 21, 2007 ·

(I wonder if this becomes my suicide-post, as criticizing Marc Andreessen is a fairly risky move …  )

Marc’s  new blog has been a smash hit: day by day he’s been pumping out amazingly good content:

Seriously good thinking; great posts one-by-one.  VC/Blogger Fred Wilson says:

“I know this blog is dangerously close to a Marc Andreessen linkblog. But he’s just killing it right now”

He can’t help but link to him again and again.  The guy is good.  Fred’s partner, VC and fellow Enterprise Irregular Brad Feld says: Awesome Blogging From Marc Andreessen.  The ultimate compliment comes from startup Founder and blogger Dharmesh Shah:

“If you are a busy startup founder and don’t have much time to read, you should probably read Marc’s stuff instead of mine.”

But something happened yesterday.  Marc ventured onto new waters, handing out his turnaround plan in 9 easy steps for large companies.

Ouch!  This one hurts.    His wonder plan is highly simplistic fluff.  The kind of cookie-cutter plan you’d expect a freshly minted MBA pull out of his folder, drop off the CEO’s desk and walk away thinking he just saved the business.

Actually, I wonder if he really means what he says here – or is this post a parody?   Step 2 could be the giveaway:

But first, throw your predecessor completely under the bus.

As for Step 9:  You don’t exactly “re-launch” a major corporation from scratch. 

The more I read it the more I think Marc is just testing us, this is a satirical post.  Either way, I really hope he’ll return to technology, startups, entrepreneurship – something he is great in doing and writing about, and has the credibility for.

 

Update: ZDNet’s Larry Dignan finds the list comical, too.

 

Filed Under: Blogging, Business ·
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