Restarting a StartUp

I have been at my new company for 4 months and that’s a good time to reflect on what’s happened and what we might be able to learn about startups from this experience.   We’ve pruned the team, secured new capital, improved our board, hired new blood, and changed the company name from Poptok to [...]

Bring InfoArbitrage Back

Roger Ehrenberg wrote a revealing post yesterday about his waning interest in blogging.  He listed a myriad of reasons — from his inablity to be heard in Washington to the amount of time it takes to teach two sons to pitch.  While I understand (I coached baseball and am stepping up to Pop Warner Football [...]

The Hangover, AnyClip and the Clip Window

I laughed my face off last night.

Several times a  year  a high-quality comdedy cuts through the media fragmentation and captures enough momentum through word-of mouth to create a big audience at the boxoffice. You know what I’m talking about:  Last year it was Superbad,  The Hangover is that movie right now.  [...]

Welcoming Nate Westheimer

I’m excited to announce that Nate has joined our new company AnyClip as the VP of Product.  He has posted a great account of how he and I have come to work together and you should definitely read it here.  Nate is one of the NY tech scene’s favorite people, but I’m making a big [...]

Stunning Anecdotal Data from NYU Class

I had a great conversation at NYU today with 50 Media Studies undergrads.  Here are things we found out:
1.  Not one of them had been on Myspace in 2009.  Not one.  When I reminded them about Myspace Music a few hands went up
2.  All of them used Facebook in the same period
3.  Only 20%ish had [...]

Getting Ahead in Digital Media

Like most new CEOs at the beginning of a new assignment, I spend significant time evaluating my current team  and looking for ways to improve it.   At this particular moment in the economic cycle, I have been innundated with requests for informational interviews, resumes, and LinkedIn invitations.  Several years ago, people would demand a signing [...]

Speaking at TechAviv

Hey thanks for all the warm wishes on PopTok.  I appreciate it.  If you want to know what my first two weeks have been like and here me evolve my thinking in front of a pull no punches  New York/Israeli see if you can attend Yaron Samid’s TechAviv meetup tonight.

My epic last month

During the past 30 days,  I spent three weeks abroad in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Stockholm, and London. Many people are wondering why and now I can tell you.
I turned 41 last year and realized that my Internet career was getting stale. I was a little bored.  This shocked me. For most of [...]

Umair Crushes Gurley

Wow.  Umair  Haque really called out a TechMemed piece by Bill Gurley.  Both pieces were well worth reading.  One of the reasons, I love reading Umair is that I had a different take on Gurley’s article.  I’ve been fascinated by digital goods for some time, but Umair hits home it up when he says.
We can’t [...]

The Ways of Washington

As I write this, I’m listening to the President’s weekly address. He says we will get new teachers in math and science,  modernize  healthcare systems, construct a new electronic grid,  rebuild our crumbling roads.  All of this creates 3mm new jobs,  He also outlined his commitment to transparency with this incredibly engaging idea of recovery.gov.  [...]