She likes cupcakes…

If you’re bar crawling tonight, please don’t slip and chip a tooth.

Comparing activities to golf is feeling like a lazy angle. If I ever write about something being the new golf, please submit Plan Resonate refund form #5 for complete satisfaction. That’s an honest-to-god-money-back-guarantee friends.

Here’s an interesting business idea via Andrea James at Seattlepi.com:

Employees at Seattle law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro recently got a big incentive to take up the sport. Management promised bicycles worth $3,500 to any employee who pledges to bike to work three months out of the year.

Firm managing partner and cyclist Steve Berman said he wanted to find a way to reduce the firm’s carbon footprint and encourage fitness.

Berman said he gets the bikes at cost from Ridley Bicycles for about $1,800.

So far, 35 of the firm’s 100 employees have signed up. Berman expects to hand out the bikes by May, and it will cost the firm $63,000.

Cool idea and good storytelling by Berman.

FWIW, riding a bike isn’t the same as cycling, and neither are the exclusive domain of type A fashionable at 4AM workaholics. Spandex, faux sponsorships, and $3,500 geometrically insane racing bikes are entirely optional.

Excerpt from Adam Bellow’s “In Praise of Nepotism” (2003, Anchor Books):

Far from being embarrassed by their nepotistic practices, most family-owned companies call attention to them as a guarantee of stability and quality. According to Yale business professor Ivan Lansberg, family-run companies take a longer strategic view, are more humane employers, and display a strong work ethic; they also “worry a helluva lot more about quality because the bosses name is on the product.”

Excellent book for those of you who care about the topic. He starts with history - natural, social, political, and economic history of nepotism. Spends over half the book discussing specific examples of nepotism’s impact on American history and cultural development.

Matt Richtel at NY Times Bits summarizes a survey from the National Venture Capital Association.

The survey results show that VC’s had a successful 2007 in terms of creating markets in new regions. The Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Berkeley area is the undisputed national leader in total deal flow. Meanwhile, other regions are growing at a faster rate. Richtel writes:

“A number of factors propelled growth elsewhere. Among them, some not-very-startling developments: increasingly capable telecommunications and accessible travel has made it possible for venture capitalists to live in financial centers but to oversee investments in distant areas. But there have also been specific efforts by regions outside of Silicon Valley to attract capital, and those efforts are paying off, said the National Venture Capital Association.”

From my limited perspective, telecommunications technology seems to be the main enabling force here - email and web based communication especially. Vendors and clients are learning to work together in new ways, especially remotely. As a result, individuals with highly specific expertise (VC financiers as an example) are available to a much broader economic region.

It’s not a 2007 thing… the NVCA analysis supports ideas that people have been talking about since Gilder’s Telecosm and Malone’s Future of Work.

According to NVCA President Mark Heesen:

“Venture capital growth is extremely organic. Once a critical mass of companies is funded in a certain region, a new ecosystem will develop,” Heesen says. “It is very magnetic in the sense that start-ups breed innovative thinkers and entrepreneurs who, in turn, attract venture capitalists. For regions that don’t have a large, indigenous venture investor base, it is important to give outsideVCs a reason to visit.

Good stuff!

[tags]indigenous wisdom, venture investor base, co-creating progressive management jargon[/tags]

Loosely edited notes from SanFran MusicTech Summit 2008.

Panel: Corey Denis is from Rumblefish (moderator), Maureen Herman from Fuzz, Brian Dear from Eventful, Irv Remedios from Mozes, Ariel Hyatt from Cyber PR, John Luini from Virtual Venues.

Ms. Hyatt’s biggest obstacle in changing from traditional publicity to digital publicity has been educating the bands on what digital outlets are and how to best work with them. She stresses that publicity does not lead to sales, and that digital is not necessarily better than traditional publicity, just different.

Online promotion is good if it leads people to come out to the show. There are so many channels, and so the challenge is to figure out where your audience spends time. Go there. Read the rest of this entry »

Digital Audio Insider provides some context for Jill Sobule’s success in raising over $80K from 552 different fans.

Digital Media Wire announces Slicethepie.com taking in $2M in their third round of venture funding. Slicethepie is another site where fans prepay artists as a means to get closer to the person and/or creative process. Meanwhile, Mr. Van Buskirk looks at Slicethepie’s first album (The Alps’ Something I Might Regret) released under the new model.

Ms. Sobule didn’t sell shares in the record. She gave away premiums, pledge drive style. Slicethepie actually distributes ownership in the product.

Loosely edited notes from SanFran MusicTech Summit 2008.

Panelists are Sandy Pearlman, Marc Canter, Rob Kaye, Mike Godwin, and moderator Mike McGuire.

Mr. Pearlman believes the market should accept that we’re quickly approaching a time when personal storage devices enable anyone to possess a collection of all music and literature ever digitized. He’s making a political point against DRM, against the current copyright system, and perhaps can be interpreted in favor of net neutrality. He refers to anti-piracy efforts as “tracking” and “interdiction”; thinks they’ll be impossible.

Demonetized serial copying will be the norm with all intellectual property. Read the rest of this entry »

Loosely edited notes from SanFran MusicTech Summit 2008.

Kurt Hansen is the host. He publishes a daily newsletter called RAIN and is generally active in the streaming radio space. Panel includes founder of popular Bagel Radio, Ted Leibowitz. Also Tom Conrad from Pandora, and KFOG program director Dave Benson.

First, Mr. Hansen’s presentation. The overall decline of the radio industry has been misreported. Traditional home and work listener numbers have fallen in recent years but the trend is offset by increases in newer areas, notably satellite, and streaming. In-car listenership has been stable.

Mr. Hansen states that new distribution channels are successfully redefining markets. He compares them to Starbuck’s success in changing peoples’ taste in coffee. Radio programmers are succeeding by offering depth, niche marketing, and allowing listeners to tweak the program to suit their exact taste.

Plus, successful new radio businesses understand online branding (user interface especially) and have good design sense.

Read the rest of this entry »

Loosely edited notes from SanFran MusicTech Summit 2008.

Claudio Prado is an inspiring public figure. He represents Brazil’s Department of Digital Culture. A good starting point for learning about Mr. Prado’s work is in this video interview.

Mr. Prado’s presentation at the SanFran MusicTech Summit was generally an introduction to his work and an invitation to collaborate. The ideas that follow are his…

Advances in networked digital technology and communications can only be understood from a cultural perspective. These changes are redefining who we are and what we do.

He’s in favor of reinventing the rights of authors. Copyright is obsolete.

Read the rest of this entry »