WillBraunstein(.com)

- La Mer by Julio Iglesias. Great song to listen to while...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:45:37 -0500

- La Mer by Julio Iglesias. Great song to listen to while planning a beach vacation!

"Reid Hoffman on Networking: In the next day: Look at your calendar for the past six months and..."

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:29:26 -0500

“

Reid Hoffman on Networking:

In the next day: Look at your calendar for the past six months and identify the five people you spend the most time with — are you happy with their influence on you?

In the next week: Introduce two people who do not know each other but ought to. Then think about a challenge you face and ask for an introduction to a connection in your network who could help.

In the next month: Identify a weaker tie with whom you’d like to build an alliance. Help him by giving him a small gift — forward an article or job posting.

”

- http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/24/reid-hoffman-linkedin-startup-you/

"1) If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big and needs to be broken up. We can’t risk another..."

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:43:39 -0400

“

1) If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big and needs to be broken up. We can’t risk another trillion-dollar bailout.

2) If your bank’s deposits are federally insured by U.S. taxpayers, you can’t do any proprietary trading with those deposits — period.

3) Derivatives have to be traded on transparent exchanges where we can see if another A.I.G. is building up enormous risk.

4) Finally, an idea from the blogosphere: U.S. congressmen should have to dress like Nascar drivers and wear the logos of all the banks, investment banks, insurance companies and real estate firms that they’re taking money from.

”

- Tom Friedman’s ideas on how to fix banking system:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/sunday/friedman-did-you-hear-the-one-about-the-bankers.html?

Tweets per second over the Super Bowl- Usher created the most...

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 22:38:11 -0500

Tweets per second over the Super Bowl- Usher created the most tweet activity next only to the actual moment the Packers became champions…

Paulo Coelho and Sean Parker at the Digital - Life - Design...

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:57:17 -0500

Paulo Coelho and Sean Parker at the Digital - Life - Design Conference, 2011.

"Like his firm, Horowitz believes every company should have a great story, too, because it motivates..."

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:50:06 -0500

“Like his firm, Horowitz believes every company should have a great story, too, because it motivates employees and helps explain the company to the outside world. “In a company, hundreds of decisions get made, but objectives and goals are thin,” he says. “I emphasize to CEOs, you have to have a story in the minds of the employees. It’s hard to memorize objectives, but it’s easy to remember a story.””

- Why Andreessen Horowitz Models Itself After A Hollywood Talent Agency - Venture Capital Dispatch - WSJ (via caterpillarcowboy)

Great article. With the Spotlight on Andreessen and Horowitz, it was interesting to learn about the firm’s ‘army’ of 20 partners and associates sourcing talent for their portfolio companies, just like VC A&R’s - a term borrowed from Saul Klein of Index Ventures, who got video-interviewed at Midem in Cannes yesterday.

(via david-noel)

"Nike. BMW. Starbucks. France Telecom. Target. Morgan Stanley. News Corp."

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:13:59 -0500

“Nike. BMW. Starbucks. France Telecom. Target. Morgan Stanley. News Corp.”

- (a few of the companies with a market cap less than Facebook’s recent $50 billion valuation, via Thinking About Thinking)

"Apple will be the number one platform for a long time from a developer perspective, they have gotten..."

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 11:29:25 -0500

“Apple will be the number one platform for a long time from a developer perspective, they have gotten so many things right. And they know what they are doing and they call the shots. Android is growing, but it’s also growing complexity at the same time. Device fragmentation not the issue, but rather the fragmentation of the ecosystem. So many different shops, so many different models. The carriers messing with the experience again. Open but not really open, a very Google centric ecosystem. And paid content just doesn’t work on Android…. Nobody else will be able to build what Apple has built, there just isn’t that kind of market power out there.That doesn’t mean that model is superior, it’s just important to understand that Apple is Apple and Google is Google. Different.”

- Peter Vesterbacka, Creator of Angry Birds

My take aways from this quote:

Apple provides a platform and leadership that developers may not like, or even agree with, but respect. And, respect enough to confidently base their businesses around, If you’re deciding between starting on the iPhone or Android I would follow his advice and pick the iPhone.

What Apple has built could have only come from Apple. Its in their DNA. Its who they are at the molecular level. Copy cats will fail.

In its current instantiation, Android is trying to copy Apple, and the cracks are already beginning to appear in the foundations of the ecosystem. I think we’re going to see Android take some major shifts in direction over the coming months. One that I will be paying particular attention to is the inevitable collision of Android and Chrome OS.

Android needs clear leadership to succeed. Not just a corporate front man or developer relations managers, it needs a real leader. Someone who has a clear voice and direction for where the project is headed and can rally support for it without major concessions.

Complexity is never a word you want associated with a consumer product. And, the android experience is still complex. I’ve played around with Android devices on and off since they first hit the market. I want to love them. I want to see a real rival to the iOS. But after test driving the device for 10 to 15 min, I’m thrilled to hand it back to the owner. From a user perspective, Android reminds me of the worst Christmas present I ever got. As a 10 year old, I hounded my parent for months leading up to Christmas for a specific BMX bike- a Diamond Back. I clipped out pictures, I called shops so they would know which had the bike in stock and I clearly spelled out the specific bike I wanted on my Christmas list that year. I woke that Christmas morning and rushed to the tree to see my new wheels. There was just one problem. In the spot my brand new Diamond Back was supposed to be placed, there sat a cheap ‘ole Huffy with a chocolate bar seat. Sure, technically it was a BMX bike but it was a huge disappointing step down from the bike I had wanted. Android is the Huffy to the iOS Diamond Back.

Battling over who is more open is a losing strategy. In the end, openness is only as important as the user experience it enables.

Regardless of who wins this battle, consumers will win the war. One clear result of all this will be the transformation of every handset in every pocket to a modern, smart handset. We’re already starting to see a massive shift as entrepreneurs focus on these handsets first and traditional computing experiences second. I think that’s an exciting shift and we’re very interested in looking at services tuned to these modern mobile environments.

(via brycedotvc)

Very creative use of the new profile page on Facebook

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:09:01 -0500

Very creative use of the new profile page on Facebook

Countdown

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:35:05 -0400

Countdown:

My lack of activity this past week is due to a site I was building- site link is below,but first some background…

On Halloween, the band Phish plays a cover album, where they play an entire album by a different band. In the past they’ve played the Beatles “White Album,” the Who “Quadrophenia,” Talking Heads “Remain in the Light,” Rolling Stones “Exile in Main Street,” etc.

Phish fans try to guess the album that will be played, so we created a site where people can listen to songs and even vote for the album they think will be played during Phish’s Atlantic City Halloween show.

Even if you’re not a Phish fan, the site provides some fun songs to listen to by Van Halen, Genesis, David Bowie- Hope you enjoy!

http://www.countdowntoac.com

Housing Costs and Mortgage Refinancing

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 15:05:18 -0400

A common view of budgeting and finance is that housing costs should make up no more than 30% of a household’s pre-tax income. Unfortunately, according to the US Census (via the WSJ), there are currently 41.7 million households (36.7% of the total) above this threshold.

Most of the stress is falling on households with lower incomes- households that most need to refinance, but cannot given their low incomes and banks’ tightening of lending standards. Households that are paying higher mortgage rates are at a greater risk of default and then foreclosure and are less likely to spend money in the economy.

Glen Hubbard (Dean of the Columbia Business School) and Chris Mayer (Vice-Dean) argue in the New York Times that the solution is to refinance Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages at current rates. Their argument:

Consider a family that bought a home in 2006 for $225,000, taking out a $200,000 fixed-rate mortgage at the prevailing 6 percent interest rate with monthly payments of about $1,200. That home is now worth about $175,000. The family still owes $189,000 and thus cannot refinance because they are underwater.

But under our proposal, the family would be offered a new mortgage at today’s prevailing rate of 4.3 percent. The family would see a 15 percent decline in their monthly mortgage payment, saving more than $2,000 per year. This would not only help homeowners through the current crisis, but would be the equivalent of a 26-year tax cut of more than 4 percent of income, assuming the family spends around 30 percent of income on housing.

There are about 37 million outstanding mortgages now guaranteed by the federal government. Analysts at Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase have crunched the numbers on programs like ours, and have estimated that it would save homeowners, most of them middle class, about $50 billion a year in mortgage payments.

Seems like a win-win situation that will decrease foreclosures and help the economy. Would be great to see it enacted.

Google Instant's effect on Organic Traffic

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:08:17 -0400

A few weeks ago Google rolled out a new feature called Google Instant which shows Google results as you type. Google Instant will change how people search since someone can alter their search and see what comes up to hone in on exactly what they were searching for.

I own about 30 sites that generate organic traffic from Google, so was very curious how Google Instant would affect traffic. Here’s a chart from Google Analytics tracking organic traffic on one of my sites:

Though this is just one site, the traffic patterns are similar across all of our sites; no significant change in traffic. I would like to see more data on Google Instant’s effect on site traffic- but as a consumer who uses Google, I’m a big fan.

I do want to look into what’s causing that big jump in traffic that started a few days ago- but am not complaining!

Strong vs. Weak Currency

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 18:38:01 -0400

(or how I learned to stop worrying and love the Yuan)

There’s been a lot of chatter in the news about currencies and currency malipulation. This came to a head yesterday when the House of Representatives passed a bill 348-79 which would “allow the U.S. to seek trade sanctions against China and other nations for manipulating their currency to gain trade advantages.” (Washington Post)

China keeps their currency artificially weak which makes exports from China cheaper for US Consumers. China’s government keeps their currency weak against the dollar by selling Yuan and buying Treasury Bills, since the exchange rate of the Yuan is tied to the Dollar.

Meanwhile, the government of Japan is taking the exact opposite tact of the US- they sold $25 billion worth of Yen (2.12 trillion Yen) as an “attempt to weaken its currency,” Business Week.

So the US wants a stronger currency, Japan wants a weaker one. What is going on?

There are advantages to a weak and a strong currency: A country that relies heavily on imports (like the US) would like a stronger relative currency since it makes it less expensive to purchase imported goods.

However increasing imports will hurt domestic manufacturing, leading to a loss of jobs. The US’s manufacturing industry is likely going to see a continued deterioration over the long run; there are several reasons for this, but essentially this is because China has a lower standard of living, which allows them to pay lower wages to workers.

The argument is that if the US had a weaker currency against the Yuan, US-made goods are more affordable to Chinese consumers, which could help reduce America’s large trade deficits. This is a fallacious argument and here’s why:

Since the Chinese are not buying an equivalent amount of American goods and services, they are using the dollars to finance the US government spending- they are buying Treasury Bills, loans to the US Government.

As such the Chinese are the largest foreign holders of Treasury Bills, holding $846.7 BILLION as of July, 2010, out of the $2.7 trillion held by foreigners.

If the Yuan strengthens and the trade balance shrinks, China will buy fewer Treasury Bills, making it more expensive for the US to borrow money. But be careful what you wish for: the US has a $1.27 trillion projected deficit in 2011, and that money needs to come from somewhere!

ilovecharts: All’s well in Norway today. Where do you hail...

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:34:19 -0400

ilovecharts:

All’s well in Norway today.

Where do you hail from?

Interesting way to look at the US!

succeedblog: The Situation Shirt Succeed

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:25:09 -0400

succeedblog:

The Situation Shirt Succeed

The Debt-Deflation Conundrum

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 17:00:29 -0400

With asset values dropping, consumers who felt stable financially a few years ago are now facing a new reality. The unemployment rate is almost 10%, the underemployment rate around 18%- job insecurity is the new current norm. With a fall in the value of assets and less job security, consumers are realizing that too much debt is not a good thing- and are working on getting out of debt.

The most valuable asset for many consumers is their home, and many consumers feel like they can no longer afford to keep their current home and are downsizing. While it’s a good idea to tighten the belt buckle, what happens when everyone does this at the same time? Prices decline even faster.

Imagine a community with 100 homes, each that sold for $250,000. A homeowner in the community decides to put their home on the market, and is the only home for sale in the community. A buyer who wants to live in the community will pay the lowest price that the seller will accept. However, if there are two homes in the development for sale, then buyers have more options and can negotiate the prices of each further down. What if there are 20 homes for sale? This will precipitate a much larger drop in prices.

Consumers are trying to get out of debt. This is a responsible way of thinking, but not if everyone does this at once. From the New York Times on 9/25/2010:

“We see deleveraging of the consumer,” said Jerry Dubrowski, a spokesman for Bank of America, adding that a frugal consumer, decreasing demand for credit and declining balances were also factors. “As they work the balances down, they are not replenishing that with new debt,” he added.

However, as we saw from the above housing example, everyone trying to get out of debt at once causes bad things for the economy. Here’s an example of what could happen:

Distress selling as consumers try to sell assets for whatever price they can get for them. This lowers the prices of assets even further which leads to:
A general lowering of prices
Still greater fall in net worth of companies leading to bankruptcies.
Which leads to a fall in consumer confidence
Which leads to more unemployment and more consumers needing to deleverage.
And back to Step 1, until we are in a deflationary cycle.

Sound scary? The above cycle is based on Irving Fisher’s Theory of Debt Deflation. Irving Fisher was an economist during the Great Depression who then studied the causes of the Depression. He found that consumer de-leveraging was a major cause (as the above cycle explains)

The way we get out of this cycle is through Quantitative easing: increasing the supply of money. This can be done through lowering short term interest rates, but at 0-.25% the fed has lowered short term interest rates as much as they can. The fed can also lower long term interest rates by buying 30 year government treasuries, which they have said they will do if economic growth continues to disappoint.

Even if we avoid deflation, if we have years of high inflation, the recovery will likely be prolonged, and painful.

“In December , drinking horchata.” Vampire Weekend...

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 21:06:05 -0400

“In December , drinking horchata.” Vampire Weekend at Radio Ctiy

Heard this melody on the Exit Through the Gift Shop...

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:38:57 -0400

Heard this melody on the Exit Through the Gift Shop trailer… Very catchy beat.

Testing out Google’s new instant search. ”This...

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:55:37 -0400

Testing out Google’s new instant search. ”This is…”

minimalmac: Steve Jobs Oldie but Goodie (via Kottke) “We...

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:50:14 -0400

minimalmac:

Steve Jobs Oldie but Goodie (via Kottke)

“We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. That’s what we believe.”