welcome back to segment 3 of episode 18
we’re going to hit the lightning round
so ash I’m seeing more and more of
what’s called paid distribution you know
people promoting other people’s content
in line with their own as a content
creator how do you feel about promoting
someone else’s content in with your own
content personally I don’t mind I’ve
always had contents not a zero-sum game
a few years ago current TV another video
content producer advertised on watchmojo
didn’t object i thought it was even good
validation and that was like a direct
deal it wasn’t even through one of these
you know aggregation intermediary
outbrain kind of you know solutions to
at my old company askmen we had maxim
that wanted to run ads on our side we
have to play boy that wanted to run ads
on our side in those cases we actually
passed but for a very different reason
because we felt that those companies
should just acquire ask man so there was
more of a strategic strategic decision
now where I think I also want to point
out is this has always happened in my
opinion where Springs go to overture
google text links not always promoting
ecommerce sometimes text links promote
content so it’s different it’s the same
in that sense what it’s different is
that yeah you have this widget at the
bottom that let’s say on New York Times
might link to like I’m sure if New York
Times would add this would they allow
Huffington Post to advertise probably
not because they hate one another but
would they really really care if the
wall street journal for example that
also probably they would care but would
they care if the New Yorker would they
care if you know the Miami you know x or
something that’s it I’m just saying its
case by case but if there’s not a
background strategic friction reason
competitive reason I don’t think that
many content providers care because
content providers ultimately even in the
editorial link out sometimes to other
content providers so in this case
somebody wants to advertise you might
not really object I think I think a text
link is is a lot has much less of an
impact in an actual you know thumbnail
and mix it in with your related content
but yeah for the most part I agree with
you next question
what’s to deal with Facebook mammalogy
okay so Facebook recently put out they
do this every year they give a rundown
of everything that was trending on
facebook by country and blow bubble
below what I really think this is is one
it’s an answer to answer to Google
zeitgeist and what’s the point of google
zeitgeist every year is to remind the
business world that we have all this
data and we can help you market things
better so in that case I think it’s kind
of a b2b PR move and all of your data
belong to us you know look at something
like that and yeah you know especially
as they get closer to going public and
they start developing new ad models they
just want to send out another reminder
that we have all this data and we can
help you target people better but for
the most part marketing buzz all right
next question okay why did Will Ferrell
do these old milwaukee ads well I’m not
psychic I don’t actually know oh I know
you know I have my theory I think it’s
kind of two things one he he probably
wants a little bit more back into the
spotlight like it’s been a while since
he’s done anything like Talladega Nights
he’s more involved now with like just
doing weird small spots or small cameos
Funny or Die stuff so I think he wants
to make a splash and remind the world
that he’s still out there but to I
actually think it’s kind of like an
artistic creative move it’s like so far
he’s never you know he’s done some funny
stuff but he’s never didn’t done
anything that was really weird and
awkward and I kind of see him
experimenting here never done anything
that’s weird enough okay well aside from
taking off his shirt in every SNL skit
hello running naked anyway just I mean
outside of actually being alone coming
out of between a woman’s thighs
pretending to be a baby okay okay I’m
sorry but it’s nothing that he’s going
to go down in history for a I see this
almost as an Andy Warhol kind of move
okay i have my own theory and this is
where i’m actually gonna wear the
cynical hat i think this was stemmed
from funnyordie that they said the same
way that the Old Spice really had the
funny thing but that was of someone of
an unknown they’re like if we could show
that we could take a stale brand and
bring it into the forefront then we
could start to go up and charge
gazillions of dollars to charge brands
to promote them and bring them into the
limelight and they just said let’s just
do something with a brand
old milwaukee that is still well known
but perceive maybe in a negative light
now that’s very cynical maybe he doesn’t
care about that we didn’t charge but I
actually think this was like you know
the Funny or Die they’re sitting in a
boardroom and they’re like you know we
keep putting in these big deals to do
these quirky things for Brand X brand a
brand see whatever and we never get it
and Will’s like screw it this is what
we’re going to do not that he’s sitting
there with the sales guys but more or
less nuts and that’s my theory all right
next question all right um so guala
founders they’ve sold the facebook i
don’t know if it’s allegedly or it’s
official but yeah basically I thought it
was official it is official um
apparently they cut us or they’re
rumored to cut a side deal with them
with the Facebook guys and cutting out
their own investors what do you think of
like you know this is what happens
sometimes more and more when you have an
acquirer which is like you’re acquiring
the talent basically you don’t care
about the assets and literally here just
to name the parts Facebook goes up to
the gowalla guys and says so you guys
are getting your ass kicked by four
square you have no real traction you’ve
pivoted 14 times so we don’t really want
to buy gowalla for gowalla we want to
buy go allah just to get you and your
team or you and your founder or whatever
eight of your employees and we want them
to we want you to kill gowalla we don’t
care about any of the assets we just
want you to come and work on facebook
places let’s say for example Facebook
advanced or Facebook Places whatever
product that they want to you know both
fight against foursquare so it’s easier
for them to say we’re going to buy
gowalla for like ten cents on the dollar
thus your investors lose pretty much all
their money but then as an incentive
we’re going to give you a crazy-ass
stock deal that if you stick around for
a year or two years or three years
you’ll make a shitload of money because
that is part of like an employment
agreement technically that is a side
deal and that cuts out the investors
there are two schools of thought Michael
Arrington former TechCrunch founder
angel vc nao was an investor in gowalla
and he basically wrote an article on
uncrushed saying yeah i don’t think this
is very cool we’ve seen this in the past
it’s actually pretty shady but there are
other investors like super angel Ron
Conway
who says what’s the point this company
was a dead man walking zombie company
anyway it was going to go down to zero
if the employees get something let them
get something now my take is this these
are the VCS who are supposed to be risk
takers and we got balls the size of you
know whatever is be improved whatever
and these are the guys who came up like
with the cram down what is a cram down
it’s when the VC comes and goes these
are the terms of the deal we’re going to
cram it down your throat these are the
freaking people we’re talking about so
if they are going to get basically
screwed here and there when they
basically mastered the art of schooling
so be it you know you can’t talk a big
game about being risk takers gunslingers
Cowboys I’m going on let me deal with
exact consequences of this so for me
it’s like if you’re going to go invest
in the 15th geolocation crap link
shortening stupidity well understand
that there’s nothing really that
defensive about it and if you’re not
going to be number one and four square
is going to kick your ass you’re going
to end up walking you know as if you got
punched in the nutsack if you can’t live
with that don’t be a VC don’t call
yourself an angel go work for a bank or
the government so my problem again is
this notion that were rigged these big
risk takers and we try for risk when
they’re actually sometimes you know what
okay email do we email a week Helen from
Austin ass do you think we’ll see more
or less web IPOs over the next year over
the next year you’ll see less but you’ll
see the biggest one of them all facebook
i mean this year you saw linkedin demand
media group on pandora and Zynga it was
the return of the web IPO i think by and
large to be fair there were successful I
POS but to also be fair all of those
four are trading for less linkedin 84
274 demand media 22 27 group on 26 to 21
pandora 17 to 11 zinga zinga at least a
sort of taking a lesson and going to
price itself lower than what a lot of
people thought but at the other day this
was a successful year it brought back
liquidity via IPOs I think next year
you’re going to see like i said less I
POS but a huge one via Facebook
livingsocial just raised a ton of money
all the companies are raising a lot of
money you know I think this year you saw
a lot more I POS than ma
I think next year you might see a lot of
ma / IPOs but Facebook is definitely
going to set the stage now the only
thing was Facebook that’s interesting is
it’s going to be the biggest IPO since
Google Google had six billion in
revenues and it went IPO at 25 billion
dollar valuation facebook also has six
billion in revenue but it’s going to go
out at a hundred billion dollar
valuation so obviously that means
investors are very bullish both on
facebook and the x is that going is that
a sign of the future that Facebook is
going to rise in value or is that a sign
of the future that Facebook is also
going to mimic these four companies and
trade downwards we shall see well we’ll
see how well they can absorb the gowalla
talent and how effective mammalogy is
it’s all about the gowalla talents I’m
sure yeah all right now it’s so is sewed
18 next week no plaid will coordinate a
bit better and hopefully your eyes
aren’t hurting too much
we’re going to hit the lightning round
so ash I’m seeing more and more of
what’s called paid distribution you know
people promoting other people’s content
in line with their own as a content
creator how do you feel about promoting
someone else’s content in with your own
content personally I don’t mind I’ve
always had contents not a zero-sum game
a few years ago current TV another video
content producer advertised on watchmojo
didn’t object i thought it was even good
validation and that was like a direct
deal it wasn’t even through one of these
you know aggregation intermediary
outbrain kind of you know solutions to
at my old company askmen we had maxim
that wanted to run ads on our side we
have to play boy that wanted to run ads
on our side in those cases we actually
passed but for a very different reason
because we felt that those companies
should just acquire ask man so there was
more of a strategic strategic decision
now where I think I also want to point
out is this has always happened in my
opinion where Springs go to overture
google text links not always promoting
ecommerce sometimes text links promote
content so it’s different it’s the same
in that sense what it’s different is
that yeah you have this widget at the
bottom that let’s say on New York Times
might link to like I’m sure if New York
Times would add this would they allow
Huffington Post to advertise probably
not because they hate one another but
would they really really care if the
wall street journal for example that
also probably they would care but would
they care if the New Yorker would they
care if you know the Miami you know x or
something that’s it I’m just saying its
case by case but if there’s not a
background strategic friction reason
competitive reason I don’t think that
many content providers care because
content providers ultimately even in the
editorial link out sometimes to other
content providers so in this case
somebody wants to advertise you might
not really object I think I think a text
link is is a lot has much less of an
impact in an actual you know thumbnail
and mix it in with your related content
but yeah for the most part I agree with
you next question
what’s to deal with Facebook mammalogy
okay so Facebook recently put out they
do this every year they give a rundown
of everything that was trending on
facebook by country and blow bubble
below what I really think this is is one
it’s an answer to answer to Google
zeitgeist and what’s the point of google
zeitgeist every year is to remind the
business world that we have all this
data and we can help you market things
better so in that case I think it’s kind
of a b2b PR move and all of your data
belong to us you know look at something
like that and yeah you know especially
as they get closer to going public and
they start developing new ad models they
just want to send out another reminder
that we have all this data and we can
help you target people better but for
the most part marketing buzz all right
next question okay why did Will Ferrell
do these old milwaukee ads well I’m not
psychic I don’t actually know oh I know
you know I have my theory I think it’s
kind of two things one he he probably
wants a little bit more back into the
spotlight like it’s been a while since
he’s done anything like Talladega Nights
he’s more involved now with like just
doing weird small spots or small cameos
Funny or Die stuff so I think he wants
to make a splash and remind the world
that he’s still out there but to I
actually think it’s kind of like an
artistic creative move it’s like so far
he’s never you know he’s done some funny
stuff but he’s never didn’t done
anything that was really weird and
awkward and I kind of see him
experimenting here never done anything
that’s weird enough okay well aside from
taking off his shirt in every SNL skit
hello running naked anyway just I mean
outside of actually being alone coming
out of between a woman’s thighs
pretending to be a baby okay okay I’m
sorry but it’s nothing that he’s going
to go down in history for a I see this
almost as an Andy Warhol kind of move
okay i have my own theory and this is
where i’m actually gonna wear the
cynical hat i think this was stemmed
from funnyordie that they said the same
way that the Old Spice really had the
funny thing but that was of someone of
an unknown they’re like if we could show
that we could take a stale brand and
bring it into the forefront then we
could start to go up and charge
gazillions of dollars to charge brands
to promote them and bring them into the
limelight and they just said let’s just
do something with a brand
old milwaukee that is still well known
but perceive maybe in a negative light
now that’s very cynical maybe he doesn’t
care about that we didn’t charge but I
actually think this was like you know
the Funny or Die they’re sitting in a
boardroom and they’re like you know we
keep putting in these big deals to do
these quirky things for Brand X brand a
brand see whatever and we never get it
and Will’s like screw it this is what
we’re going to do not that he’s sitting
there with the sales guys but more or
less nuts and that’s my theory all right
next question all right um so guala
founders they’ve sold the facebook i
don’t know if it’s allegedly or it’s
official but yeah basically I thought it
was official it is official um
apparently they cut us or they’re
rumored to cut a side deal with them
with the Facebook guys and cutting out
their own investors what do you think of
like you know this is what happens
sometimes more and more when you have an
acquirer which is like you’re acquiring
the talent basically you don’t care
about the assets and literally here just
to name the parts Facebook goes up to
the gowalla guys and says so you guys
are getting your ass kicked by four
square you have no real traction you’ve
pivoted 14 times so we don’t really want
to buy gowalla for gowalla we want to
buy go allah just to get you and your
team or you and your founder or whatever
eight of your employees and we want them
to we want you to kill gowalla we don’t
care about any of the assets we just
want you to come and work on facebook
places let’s say for example Facebook
advanced or Facebook Places whatever
product that they want to you know both
fight against foursquare so it’s easier
for them to say we’re going to buy
gowalla for like ten cents on the dollar
thus your investors lose pretty much all
their money but then as an incentive
we’re going to give you a crazy-ass
stock deal that if you stick around for
a year or two years or three years
you’ll make a shitload of money because
that is part of like an employment
agreement technically that is a side
deal and that cuts out the investors
there are two schools of thought Michael
Arrington former TechCrunch founder
angel vc nao was an investor in gowalla
and he basically wrote an article on
uncrushed saying yeah i don’t think this
is very cool we’ve seen this in the past
it’s actually pretty shady but there are
other investors like super angel Ron
Conway
who says what’s the point this company
was a dead man walking zombie company
anyway it was going to go down to zero
if the employees get something let them
get something now my take is this these
are the VCS who are supposed to be risk
takers and we got balls the size of you
know whatever is be improved whatever
and these are the guys who came up like
with the cram down what is a cram down
it’s when the VC comes and goes these
are the terms of the deal we’re going to
cram it down your throat these are the
freaking people we’re talking about so
if they are going to get basically
screwed here and there when they
basically mastered the art of schooling
so be it you know you can’t talk a big
game about being risk takers gunslingers
Cowboys I’m going on let me deal with
exact consequences of this so for me
it’s like if you’re going to go invest
in the 15th geolocation crap link
shortening stupidity well understand
that there’s nothing really that
defensive about it and if you’re not
going to be number one and four square
is going to kick your ass you’re going
to end up walking you know as if you got
punched in the nutsack if you can’t live
with that don’t be a VC don’t call
yourself an angel go work for a bank or
the government so my problem again is
this notion that were rigged these big
risk takers and we try for risk when
they’re actually sometimes you know what
okay email do we email a week Helen from
Austin ass do you think we’ll see more
or less web IPOs over the next year over
the next year you’ll see less but you’ll
see the biggest one of them all facebook
i mean this year you saw linkedin demand
media group on pandora and Zynga it was
the return of the web IPO i think by and
large to be fair there were successful I
POS but to also be fair all of those
four are trading for less linkedin 84
274 demand media 22 27 group on 26 to 21
pandora 17 to 11 zinga zinga at least a
sort of taking a lesson and going to
price itself lower than what a lot of
people thought but at the other day this
was a successful year it brought back
liquidity via IPOs I think next year
you’re going to see like i said less I
POS but a huge one via Facebook
livingsocial just raised a ton of money
all the companies are raising a lot of
money you know I think this year you saw
a lot more I POS than ma
I think next year you might see a lot of
ma / IPOs but Facebook is definitely
going to set the stage now the only
thing was Facebook that’s interesting is
it’s going to be the biggest IPO since
Google Google had six billion in
revenues and it went IPO at 25 billion
dollar valuation facebook also has six
billion in revenue but it’s going to go
out at a hundred billion dollar
valuation so obviously that means
investors are very bullish both on
facebook and the x is that going is that
a sign of the future that Facebook is
going to rise in value or is that a sign
of the future that Facebook is also
going to mimic these four companies and
trade downwards we shall see well we’ll
see how well they can absorb the gowalla
talent and how effective mammalogy is
it’s all about the gowalla talents I’m
sure yeah all right now it’s so is sewed
18 next week no plaid will coordinate a
bit better and hopefully your eyes
aren’t hurting too much
Please follow and like us: