Andrew Baisley

Is Craig's List Killing Innovation?

2008-06-12T10:42:00.004-04:00

I was having a conversation over e-mail with a friend about the local startup eegloo. I don't know much about the company, so I won't take any liberties to elaborate; you can read their executive summary [PDF link] yourself.

What I do know is that they, and many, many others, are trying to improve the Internet classifieds market that Craig's List currently dominates. Craig's List holds their market share for a lot of good reasons. It's clean, simple, free and most importantly it has massive scale.

I don't have exact quotes, but Craig's List has made it clear that they aren't looking to innovate any further, improve usability or make significant changes to the site. That's not to say they aren't doing things like combating spam and fraud (to a limited extent), but they aren't looking to change the way their website works.

This poses a huge problem for innovation in online classifieds. How can you compete with the massive scale of Craig's List?

Newspapers are certainty failing at it, but we haven't seen them use innovation to try and upset Craig's List's lead. Newspapers are generally relying, wrongly, on their own reach and ability to go to market. In this example users have a choice: go to Craig's List and see a ton of listings, a ton good and a ton that are crap or go to your local paper and see a limited selection and still a ton of crap. At least there are more choices with the former.

So you have startups like eegloo that think they've found a better way. Maybe they have, but challenging the scale of Craig's List isn't even an uphill climb - it's upmountain.

My theory is that there are much better classifieds solutions out there, but Craig's List is killing them. They've basically frozen the market for the foreseeable future and I, just like everyone else it seems, haven't quite figured out how to break them.

I plan on doing it by skipping the destination site and creating highly scalable software that others can use to power their own idea of an innovative marketplace.

Connecting Data Seamlessly

2008-06-12T09:15:00.003-04:00

Everyday we work to connect data types. We do it by searching on Google.

I think of something I want see, I ask Google for it, it searches it's vast database and makes suggestions. In theory, it's a simple transaction:

What's happening here, while very complex, is not entirely complicated. Google is compiling information and deciding, based on your query, what to show you. The idea is that the results are relevant. In this particular transaction, you're required to make a query.

Google compiles all the information it can get it's hands on. This is a good strategy for them and works well, but when you start to silo off that information and group it together, you get communities. These communities can be very broad, Facebook, for example, or very niche, NextNY, for example.

The information that these communities draw upon is usually called your 'profile.' This isn't to mean that all profiles are filled out by the user. It can be based on information you provide, your behavior, the data and media you create, the friends you keep, etc. These silos, by themselves, don't mean very much.

When you start connecting these silos, in intelligent ways, it starts to get interesting. This is most often done at the user's request. I know what I'm interested in, so I seek out and join communities that share my interest. It's intelligent because it's human.

Sites with existing large communities, again Facebook is a good example, are starting to find ways to suggest intelligent connections. Here are people you might know, based on them being friends with your friends. Here are topics you might be interested in, based on what you've been interested in in the past.

Suddenly unexpected, but intelligent, communities are being formed.

So what does this mean to you? Well, the great part is, you don't really have to do anything. Unlike submitting a query into Google for information, there are solutions being developed that anticipate what information you're looking for.

Most of the innovation in this particular space takes place around advertising. Send an e-mail in Gmail to a friend about your apartment search and you're bound to see ads for real estate sites. But what if, instead of seeing advertisements for various marketplaces, you were connected directly with the market?

I'm working on something that connects people who can help each other. If I have an apartment that's a good fit for what you're looking for then we belong, whether we know it or not, to the same niche community. I want us to connect. Seamlessly.

I'm Alive

2008-06-11T11:43:00.003-04:00

I'm still here, just had my mind on other things recently. I've decided to make the switch from ROO (now known as KIT digital) to The FeedRoom, which I think was a great decision for myself. I had several reasons - most of which I won't cover here - but the biggest plus is that The FeedRoom is a much better cultural fit for me.

I quit smoking, which feels great. I moved, which also feels great. I'm still just as involved as ever with technology, so I'll begin posting my thoughts on that again soon.

Starting A Company Without Raising Money Pt. 2

2008-04-24T10:30:00.002-04:00

I got some good feedback on my question posted yesterday.

Ed Costello:

This is just my opinion and has no factual support whatsoever, consult an attorney, do not read while operating nuclear machinery, etc., but:

You won't have a sense of the value of your company until after you're up and running and potentially earning revenue. It's possible to have value without revenue if you're developing some sort of unique intellectual property which would have value separate from your company.
You own the company, you and your co-founder can decide how much equity you're willing to give to advisors in return for their advice and support, create your pool of shares from there.
If your advisors are holding out for a specific dollar amount or percentage of equity, I suggest you look for other advisors.
Keep it simple enough to bring advisors onboard without wasting too much time. The more complex you make it, the more billable hours you'll pay for.
Reward your advisors, but don't give away the store. They're offering advice, answering questions from experience, but they're not running the company, they're not risking their own investments nor representing other investors. Reward them for their help (if they've made a meaningful contribution) but don't think of it as paying for their services or support or advice, it's a gratuity.

Lindsay Watt:

Here are two thoughts for you:

1) Find some companies that have had a public Series A/Angel Investment that you know of and compare yourself to them

-You can likely find some companies that are similar to yours (try going to PEHub.com and trolling their archives)

-You can assume that most angels/VCs will likely take 25-50% of the company. Therefore if a company received $500K, the total valuation was likely $1-2M

2) Valuing illiquid companies is a black art

-I'm guessing you have no/minimal/negative cash flow but huge (yet uncertain) growth prospects. There's no way you can value your company using any of the traditional tools like free cash flow, etc. so you're just going to have to accept that if you want to offer equity the price is going to be very subjective (and to a certain extent it will be pulled out of your ass). Try getting some data in part A and then you'll have more ammunition to support whatever price you eventually come up with.

I like the idea at looking at the valuation of similar companies and assigning a similar valuation based on that. PEHub.com has been helpful.

It also makes sense to keep this very simple. My advisers are just that, advisers, not employees and I'm super excited to start talking to a few people about how they can help us.

Starting A Company Without Raising Money

2008-04-23T09:17:00.003-04:00

I put this question out to the NextNY e-mail list and will follow this post up with any answers I come up with. In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment if you have something to add. This question, of course, applies to something I'm working on, but I'm not quite ready to get into specifics.

Hi All,

Maybe this is a silly question, but I'm looking for a little direction...

On the finance and legal side of things, there are a ton of great
resources out there for entrepreneurs, including this e-mail list, but
I'm finding information hard to come by for companies that haven't
raised money and don't plan to in the near future (or ever). So my
question is fairly simple...

We have 2 founders and we're self funded, but I would like to bring on
an advisory board and offer equity, as discussed recently here. How do
we do that if we haven't been valuated by a Series A or angel
investment?

Besides the advisory board there are other many other reason we would
like to have a pool of shares to leverage. Without outside investment
how do we determine the number of shares, their value and what does it
all mean? I don't want to just pull it out of my ass - it has to mean
something.

Thanks in advance,

Andrew

Leaving QR Codes in The Dust

2008-04-22T08:59:00.003-04:00

I had a very interesting meeting yesterday with Sam Kleinman of Craze. Craze is the leading digital urban record label. But I'm more interested in what they are doing on the technology side.

Sam is working on a product, already launched in the UK, that kicks QR Code's ass - even with Google's backing. The concept is the same, you take a picture of something with your mobile phone and information is returned back to you.

With QR Codes your phone has to have special software, but more important, the manufacturer of the product has to be on board and actually print the code. With Craze's idea, they are digitizing what a product looks like, in this case the fronts of CDs in the UK. The idea is, you take a picture with any camera phone, send it off and within a minute you have more information, the option to download the tracks digitally and more.

The product implementations are endless. Think about taking a picture of your kid's favorite toy and getting recall information sent back to you. Or take a picture of your TV and get a list of detailed replacement parts. Or, even, take a snap shot of me and get back links to this blog and my LinkedIn profile.

This can even be driven by the users. Take a picture it doesn't recognize and you get prompted to fill in the details. There's no software installed, but so much more importantly, there's no reason at all to get manufacturers/printers/advertisers on board.

I didn't tell Sam that I was going to blog about this, and hopefully he doesn't mind, but he's looking for a partner or company to take this full scale in the US. If you're interested let me know.

I first wrote about QR Codes back in January.

Just Trying To Keep Up

2008-04-17T16:06:00.003-04:00

Keeping up is hard.

I'm trying to keep up with a more than hectic work schedule which includes travel, meetings, calls and the hardest part... dodging bullets.

I'm about to move which comes with an entirely new set of challenges. I've been in my current place for over 3 years - the longest I've lived in one place. Ever. Now I'm off to Bushwick from Bay Ridge to live with Rachel. You can buy us a housewarming gift here.

And then, of course, there's the social graph that we all love to hate and hate to love. RSS feeds. Twitter. Status updates. Startups launching, funding and failing. And this blog. That's the most difficult, because I actually do care and now I realize that I need to prioritize what this is all about.

I won't even get into trying to keep up with friends and family.

But, it's nothing new, right? We all face the same challenges every day. I'm just now learning that I can be happy and not have to do it all. It's about balance and I'm slowly getting there.

Quoted on RWW

2008-03-26T17:09:00.001-04:00

I was quoted on ReadWriteWeb. Just noticed it.

I've already asked this question on Twitter itself and am getting some great responses (my Twitter id is rww). Several people have suggested that their family members may use a Twitter-like messaging system embedded in a social network. On this point, Andrew Baisley noted that "the barrier to entry must be much lower". However, said Andrew, if family members "could update Twitter from their Facebook status" then yes it might be used.

Click here for the full post.

SXSW Wrap-up

2008-03-18T10:08:00.003-04:00

Keeping this short... SXSW was okay, Austin is a great city, we had fun.

Here's the loft we stayed in. It was in one of those new condos, the Amli, on 2nd Street.

Here's the view from the balcony:

We spent a lot of time on the pool deck of the building at a three day and night Jelly NYC party. Three stages, lots of Brooklyn bands, two open bars, guitar hero, shuffle board and video games on the roof of the parking garage. Not bad.

Hipsters would have loved the bar-b-q we ate at Rudy's. They proclaim themselves as "The Worst Bar-b-q in Texas" which is ironic because anyone from Austin knows that just isn't true.

We rented bikes and rode all along the greenbelt and Barton Springs, checked out the view from Mt Bonnell and sampled the local brews at The Gingerman.

There were a few hiccups along the way, but overall, it was a good vacation.

Heading Off to SXSW

2008-03-07T17:23:00.002-05:00

I'm heading out to SXSW tomorrow (if my flight makes it through the rain). I'll touch base back here, hopefully with pictures, when I get back.

Hiring a Sales Assistant / Designer

2008-03-06T11:58:00.002-05:00

I'll be heading to an NYU job fair later this afternoon in search of a sales assistant / designer. If you're interested in applying, or know someone that might be, please let me know.

I can send a full description to interested parties, but in short this is an entry level position supporting the sales and business development teams at ROO with day to day operations. You'll also be responsible for putting together compelling, exciting, and totally awesome mockups and presentations - this is where the /designer aspect comes in.

Besides, who wouldn't want to work with me? ;)

Finding an Apartment in New York City

2008-03-05T10:11:00.003-05:00

Finding an apartment in New York is no fun. Your best source of listings is Craig's List, but that's full of spam and, frankly, brokers that flat out lie. I realize why they do it - competition is tough, but isn't there a better way? A 8'x8' room in a 6th floor walk-up is not something that I would call, "Cozy."

Can't we apply the Match.com method to apartment hunting? Broker fills out a profile for each apartment, I fill out a profile outlining what my requirements and nice-to-haves are and I get back some kind of compatibility match. Brokers can be rated on their honestly, their ability to actually show up at a viewing and on how easy it is to work with them.

Are you an old lady, reading this blog, sitting in a fantastic, rent-controlled apartment in the East Village ready to keel over and give me your apartment? You are?! Well here's what I'm looking for:

Requirements:

If in Brooklyn, must be close to the L train. No, not the J, M, Z - it's not the same.
Must allow dogs (don't worry, it'll be a small, hipster-type French Bulldog)
Must be in the $1,300 per month range - hey, I don't want to spend all my money on rent

Nice-to-haves:

If in Manhattan, near the 4, 5 or 6 trains
I'd much prefer a converted factory loft over a traditional apartment
Outdoor space would be great. Balcony, small yard, whatever.
Big windows are a plus
Elevators are nice, but I can take the stairs if I have to

That's it! Shouldn't be so difficult. I've seen a few places I like, but I'm taking the time to find something perfect - I'm not stuck in a lease, so I can go anytime.

EveryBlock is Ruining My Appetite

2008-03-03T11:23:00.002-05:00

EveryBlock's restaurant inspections are ruining my appetite. Here's a recent inspection from my favorite neighborhood Korean BBQ place. The quick rundown:

Not vermin-proof
Improper use of utensil
Food contact surface not washed
Food not protected from contamination
Personal cleanliness inadequate
Flying insects
Mice
Cold food held above 41 degrees F

The "Personal cleanliness inadequate" one scares me the most.

Inspection reports have long been available online through the city's website. But you had to specifically seek it out. Now, with EveryBlock, I've entered the specific location that's important to me, subscribed to an RSS feed and I'm in the know every time my neighborhood deli has a rat problem or my neighbor applies for a permit to attach a parking garage.

That's a good thing, but man am I disappointed about Kimchee Korean Restaurant.

All Points West

2008-02-29T16:02:00.002-05:00

I just bought my tickets to All Points West. I'll be going on Saturday to see Radiohead, Metric, Animal Collective and The Roots among others. Here is the line up for each day.

Hope to see you there.

The Dangers of Success

2008-02-25T10:04:00.004-05:00

Maybe I should title this post: The Dangers of Middle Management, Relative Success and Laziness, but that wouldn't fit in my narrow layout here.

I'm looking back over several years of my career and realizing that I've worked very hard to get where I am today. I'm young and, relatively speaking, I've gone a very long way. This is a good thing, because it means that I'm not only ahead of the curve, but I have much further to go.

This has its benefits. From the satisfaction of belong to, and making an impact on, the shape of new media to the ability to buy a nice seafood dinner when you feel like it without breaking the bank. These are two very different things - I'm proud that I've been able to accomplish them together but, somewhere along the line, this has a make or break point.

It could be argued that if I focused much more of my time on participating in our humble community, volunteering myself to decision-making boards and committees and building the next generation of applications and events with the aim of educating others to do the same that my impact would be greater felt and, in turn, my satisfaction more rewarding.

But then where would I make my money? I like those seafood dinners; if I ate beef I'd probably want to make it a steak. So, the other side of the equation: sell out.

I went to art school where I studied communication and journalism. I have fond memories of wandering campus and seeing painters by the fountain, dancers under the big banyan tree and musicians and actors out by the lake. Today I work in business development and if you ask any current student at my alma mater, they'd likely say that I've sold out.

I'm okay with that, like I said before, I like those seafood dinners.

Now, I'm faced with a dilemma. I don't fundamentally believe that by making yourself an industry expert, or "important" person, that opportunity will follow. I do think it's important to be an industry expert, if you're to be successful, but if your driving reason is business, well then, business is your primary objective.

One needs to make a personal decision on which path to take.

That's where Relative Success and Laziness come in. I'd like to run my own company again and, this time, I'd like to do it successfully. But, in order for that to work, I'm going to have to bust my ass making it reality. Why do that when I can bring home a decent, reliable check each week? Because I have to.

The problem with Relative Success is that it's easy to accept. I suppose that every entrepreneur is faced with this at some point. Taking that leap is a hard thing to do. So my question is, how do you prepare for that?

What Happend to Joost?

2008-02-20T18:42:00.002-05:00

Remember Joost? What happened? They were media darlings for ages... now, I rarely hear anything save maybe a content partnership reported in Cynopsis. My theory: who really wants to download an application when so much video is available online?

I use Hulu all the time at Rachel's house. She doesn't have cable, so it's a great way for us to catch up on the latest NBC/Fox shows. However, as much as I watch Hulu while I'm there, I've never thought of downloading Joost.

Ah well. I'd love to see usage numbers since launch.

Remember: you can get to this blog by visiting http://www.ilovejoost.com.

Quick Thoughts

2008-02-20T11:50:00.003-05:00

I'm back from Milan and completely swamped trying to catch up with everything, so I've decided to provide some quick thoughts:

HD video online has a long way to go. Especially in Europe.
Sales and business development are so much easier when people are calling you. That starts with great product development.
Silly, public spats between members of the NextNY and/or Newtech e-mail lists are a waste of everyone's time.
Spending too much time reading RSS feeds isn't good. It's okay to hit 'mark all as read.' You'll find out about this or that news eventually.
There's no way you can or should participate in every single beta launch out there.
There is huge market opportunity in Western Europe for providing easy access to online services.
Don't try to be everything to everyone, you'll end up being useless to all involved; including yourself.
Networking events are a waste of time unless you have something productive to add.

Back to work.

I Forgot My 1099-R

2008-02-07T09:32:00.000-05:00

I did my taxes last night using TaxAct online. Overall, a painless process. But, I came into my office today and realized that I forgot to submit information from a 1099-R form. That's a distribution from a 401K plan that I held shortly while I was at The NewsMarket. It's not a lot of money (we're talking just a few hundred bucks), but I forgot to include it... and already submitted my taxes.

What can I do? I'm choosing to ignore it. If the IRS notices it, I'll man up and do what I have to do. But, here's to hoping that my refund is posted to my account with no questions asked.

By the way, unrelated, but I'm heading to Milan next week for business. What should I see while I'm there?

Can You Claim Yourself As a Dependent?

2008-02-01T09:57:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share a funny dialog over IM with a friend of mine.

Friend: so if you're single
Friend: can you claim yourself as a dependent? like 1 instead of 0?
Me: you can't claim yourself as a dependent.
Friend: that just seems unfair. I totally depend on myself

I think he had a point. What about my poor-ass girlfriend? She totally depends on me.

Google to Launch Another Cuecat

2008-01-29T13:44:00.001-05:00

I was at Google's NYC HQ last night for an interesting Meetup with The Advertising Club of New York. Google's speakers included Tim Castelli, New York Sales Director; Long Ellis, Head of Sales, Television; Joseph Anastasi, Team Manager, Audio East; Sarah Carberry, Team Manager, Consumer Packaged Goods; Patrick Grandinetti, Senior Agency Lead, East Region; and Tiffany Shen Miller, Account Executive, Print Ads.

Anyway, the talked-about news of the night happened when Tiffany alluded to Google placing 'bar codes' of a sort in print ads in hopes that people would take a picture of them with their software enabled cell phones and be redirected to a website. The idea is that these bar codes would make it easier for consumers to get more information and easier for marketers to track the effectiveness of their print ads.

All I could think about was the CueCat. I had one of these things plugged into my computer for ages. I had the PS/2 version, not even USB. Anyway, at first I thought it was pretty cool that I could scan barcodes in my latest issue of Wired, but it quickly wore off. Google's taking a little bit of a different approach, using cell phones, but man, they have a long, long way to go with this one.

Good luck Tiffany.

I Wish I Were Moving Today

2008-01-29T13:31:00.000-05:00

Man, I wish I were moving today, not this summer. I just found a place on Craig's List that I love. I'm a big fan of these converted factories, especially because they usually let you build out the space. There's so much room to build the apartment of your dreams.

I like this area too. It's right along the L train, which, lately, can do no wrong. There are a lot of great stores and restaurants here too, along Knickerbocker.

Damn... I wish I were moving today. I would snatch this up.

View Larger Map

Just Saying

2008-01-24T09:50:00.000-05:00

I've been extremely busy this week, but I just wanted to quickly point out that I couldn't care less about Bono, Gore or Robert F-ing Scoble.

Cheers.

iPhone Acupuncture

2008-01-18T14:43:00.000-05:00

I've always had extremely low volume from my iPhone's speaker. My roommate's iPhone, much louder than mine. My girlfriend's iPhone, much louder than mine. I've had speaker envy.

Today I read about a trick on Engadget that involved poking holes in the speaker housing with a needle. Sounds scary, but what the hell, can't get any worse, right?

Right. In fact, it worked great. My phone is significantly louder. I couldn't believe how much louder. The is by far the best mod I've ever seen.

iPhone Update for my Jail Broken iPhone

2008-01-17T09:29:00.000-05:00

I have an iPhone running software version 1.1.1. It's jail broken and full of great applications. I'd like to update to 1.1.3, which was announced at MacWorld. Does anyone have instructions on how to roll back my jail break, update to 1.1.3 and then re- jail break?

Would be very helpful... Thanks.

My Facebook Account Was Hacked

2008-01-14T14:34:00.000-05:00

Someone broke into my Facebook account and posted messages on all of my friend's profiles about an amazing new site for free ringtones. Yay.

Why the Facebook system let my account post 100 wall postings within about 30 seconds is beyond me. I got a system message from Facebook saying that they reset my password.... about 4 hours after several of my friends told me about the problem and I had already reset the password on my own.

Oh well.

In spite, I am now @Zuckerberg on Twitter.