blist At DEMO 2008

Mathew G Johnson At DEMO

DEMO 2008 was very good to blist, I'll write more about that later. Turns out, there is at least some photographic evidence that I was there on Flickr, thanks to Brian Solis.

Kevin Merritt - blist - DEMO2008 - Video

Nice Pre DEMO2008 Posts

blist got a couple of nice Pre-DEMO2008 mentions - so far we're the company capsule on the front page of the business section in the Seattle Times (photo credit to Mathew Gustav Johnson), and we're right there in the Techcrunch DEMO2008 roundup with just a few of the presenting companies.

Just got back from a quick 5K loop down here in the desert, it's pretty close to my favorite place in the world to run - something about the dry air and sunshine.

Always A Proxy War

Why is it that U.S. military strategy/foreign policy always deteriorates into fueling proxy wars? The downside risk is about 100% on that plan. A few examples currently in the front of people's minds: Charlie Wilson's War, Arming Somali clan warlords against Islamists, and Sunni militias in Iraq. This never ends well.

Hello Brand Party - New York - Feb 1

Hello is expanding from Copenhagen and opening a New York office - mostly in the form of Thomas Petersen, who is a great guy.

There is a party on February 1st in New York in honor of this beach head. Morten Lund has a link to the time-consuming Flash invitation - Kasper is in it, too.

If you don't want to watch the whole thing you can just rsvp to hello at hellobrand dot com.

I'd totally be there if it weren't also my brother's 17th birthday on the same day, so I'm staying in Seattle.

Nasdaq - Timing The Bottom

I like trading the Nasdaq index - like Amazon stock - the Nasdaq always seems predictably irrational and cyclical to me. Under 2,300 today, when should I buy back in?

Skydiving: Every Now And Again

On Saturday, I went for my second sky dive, five years after the first. Skydiving is great for gaining life perspective &c. &c. This time around I went with Skydivesf in Northern California - I strongly recommend them.

Headline Non Sequiturs

From The Seattle Times

In my opinion this is a crummy conversion funnel, because it doesn't make me curious enough to click through.

Slide: Theres Smart Money, And Then Theres . . .

$50M on a $500M post for Slide.

For sure, not so smart money - unless you can find someone even less smart in turn - but I think this coverage from the NYT may not be much more enlightened:

"It’s yet another startup valuation that takes one’s breath away. Investors are being sold on the idea of social networks as the new operating system and apps-makers like Slide as the next Intuit."

Really, Intuit, really?

LOLCATZ - Seattle Stealth Startup

Not many people know that Icanhascheezburger is right here on lower Queen Anne - but they sure are.

Tifinagh - My New Favorite Alphabet

Tifinagh

blist uber alles

Pretty sure those other three might have logos, too ;)

Via John Cook

David Hornik Is Back

If you've let David Hornik of August Capital's excellent Ventureblog slip off your subscriptions list for inactivity, well he's back with 1,500 words on venture investing in China. Definitely worth the read:

"For the last several years there has been a lot of talk on Sand Hill Road about investing in China. To a certain degree there has been a lot of talk about all the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China. But the most excitement is clearly around China. (Interestingly, while India is a relatively close second, I have yet to hear of a single Bay Area VC exploring investment in either Brazil or Russia). Drawn by huge markets and a rapidly expanding economy, American VC's are heading to China to stake their claims. Go East young VC's. Go East."

Cuban Killin It Over Xmas

I don't generally make a point to read much BlogMaverick, but Mark Cuban was really killin' it over the holidays with some great war stories from the old (pre-Broadcast.com) old MicroSolutions days:

On Effort

Sweat Equity

Keep up the good work, Mark, I know my opinion is important to you :)

Ad Of The Day: Gmail - I'm Eclectic

This could be a party game: Try to weave these three ads together into one coherent paragraph - I'll tell you one thing, the email text didn't have a thing to do with any of them.

Best Press Release Writer Via SFJ

Status: I am currently marveling at just how much I appreciate Sasha Frere-Jones's sense of humor. Not a bad music critic either :)

"Not only do I want this guy to write all the press releases in the world, I want him to edit and proofread all the newspapers in the world."

You must click through on the 'this guy' link. Certainly a Great Resource for press release writing.

***UPDATE***
I keep re-reading the 'press release' and laughing out loud, again and again.

Seattle Stealth Startup: Positronic

One of my friends has been working at Positronic for a little while, a stealthy new startup in Seattle with a flair for writing great website copy:

"Are you inspired by Isaac Asimov’s vision of thinking machines? Ever pondered how and when the breakthrough will come to make them possible?"

I love it! From a business perspective "machine learning and data mining" basically means ad targeting, at least eventually . . .

Tamarac Raises VC

John Cook is reporting Tamarac's new financing this afternoon, so now I know it's okay to congratulate not one but two of my very best friends who work there: Well done C&B, exciting stuff!

Tamarac is a great little technology company that has a very low profile in Seattle startup circles when compared to the record of success that they've put together over the last few years.

Newspaper Trends: Rich Get Richer

Declining profit margins and newsroom staff cutting is old news, but people still want to read high quality coverage from around the globe and journalism has probably never been more important, and valued. The New York Times is one of the few organizations to be able to afford to continue to produce broad and proprietary news coverage, and there is an growing revenue stream from smaller papers that cannot - the Seattle Times is just the latest.