Monthly Archives: June 2011

What I learned today: Take a break

Written by: Nick Gavronsky

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Nick Gavronsky| 4 Comments

Im starting a new series of short, daily posts as part of my contribution to VentureBent.  Therefore, starting today I will be posting about what I learn while living and breathing the NYC tech scene.

Lesson #1: Take a break and step away. I recently took a mini vacation to Florida and really disconnected from everything. I still checked twitter and read the occasional blog here and there, but it was really refreshing being away from the startup scene, the meetups, and the hustle for a few days.

We all know it’s important to hustle, market yourself, network like crazy, and attend as many different meetups and events as possible. I have been doing this for the past 6 months straight and I have started to get really burnt out and exhausted. I have met amazing people and learned so many things, yet it was great removing myself from the city and the startup world for a few days. I have come back more energized and looking forward to the next six months.

Many of us, especially aspiring entrepreneurs or those working on a startup, think it’s all about working 24/7, all nighters, and red bull fueled brainstorm sessions. However, the farther I get down my path to becoming an entrepreneur I am learning that it is critical to take a break and refresh yourself mentally and physically. If not you’ll end up burning out, losing focus, and your productivity will plummet. One thing that has helped me a lot is sticking to a strict workout schedule. Its a 1-1.5 hr slot everyday where I can take a break from everything around me.

So my biggest piece of advice today is to find something that allows you to remove yourself for a short period of time from whatever you’re passion is. It really helps and you’ll feel great when you get back into the swing of things.

 

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Google+…More Like Google-

Written by: Adam Besvinick

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Adam Besvinick| 1 Comment

Yesterday Google unveiled its super-stealth social project, Google+, to a variety of reactions – from amazing to embarrassing. On the aforementioned spectrum, my reaction probably falls somewhere closer to embarrassing, but the best word to describe how I feel is underwhelmed. There is nothing in Google+ that blew me away. Each of the features seems like a slight derivative or virtual clone of something that is already out there.

Circles prides itself on being a more efficient way of sharing things, but sharing with different groups of people is why I use Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I like how I have 3 distinct places to go to for 3 very distinct groups of people with whom I interact. Sure, some people overlap between the 3, but I’d rather not have to manually create these groups using Circle, especially when I’ve already done it (i.e. switching cost). Sparks reminds me of Twitter lists – I can already create a list of people that tweet about a particular interest I have. Hangouts is Skype group chat. Huddles is GroupMe. The whole site, in its current state, feels like a “nice to have” but not a “must have.” It is certainly not a Facebook or Twitter killer. It is hardly a complement right now. And, despite what some people have suggested on Twitter, I certainly don’t think that these services will ever replace enterprise social networks or WebEx (or Go To Meeting). Gmail hasn’t replaced Outlook (or Lotus if you’re stuck using that still), so why would companies switch to Google+?

The way Google went about selecting features seems like they took all the social features that Facebook hadn’t done yet. For a while now, I’ve bemoaned to friends that nothing about Facebook is original: the basic idea is MySpace, pictures is Flickr (or another photo sharing site), video is YouTube, status is Twitter, Places is Foursquare, Deals is Groupon (or another daily deals site), chat is IM, the list goes on. I give Zuckerberg 2 pieces of credit: seamlessly integrating all these ideas fromother people and not selling. This seems to be exactly what Vic Gundotra is doing with Google+ – let’s take a bunch of features that other social sites are doing and mash them together into one service. It’s as if they said to themselves, “Well it worked for Zuck with Facebook, so it should work for us too!”

However, perhaps the biggest thing working against Google+ right now is that it’s Google. Google used to be synonymous with creativity, innovation, and things that were just plain awesome. But when you hear Google and social in the same sentence, you think of words like Buzz and Wave. There is a stigma attached to Google+ already, and people who try the service will be doing so with a heaping pile of salt. They decided to call the service Google+, but for now, in my mind, it’s Google-.

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NYC Tech’s New Home

Written by: Adam Besvinick

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Adam Besvinick| 2 Comments

Welcome to Venturebent! Whether you realize it or not, you have stumbled upon a bastion of NYC tech, startups, and VC started by Nick Gavronsky, Alex Topiler, Scott Britton and I (Adam Besvinick). This concept was envisioned by four friends working at various financial institutions and early-stage companies, whose real passions lie in the world of startups, both as aspiring entrepreneurs and investors. Previously, on my personal blog I wrote about how Bill Simmons had teamed up with a number of top writers and thinkers to create Grantland, an online hub for sports and pop culture. Today, I’m proud to announce a partnership that the four of us have formed. While we each have a blog of our own that we’ll maintain separately, we’ve decided to join forces to showcase our very best content along with links to other resources, guest posts from respected names in the industry, and coverage of up-and-coming NYC startups. Additionally, you can also follow @Venturebent on Twitter for updates to the site as well as general observations by us writers. Our goal is for Venturebent to be the definitive hub for NYC tech, and we are hoping that it will be a must-visit site for those interested in startups, tech, and VC. We will likely have an East Coast and NYC bias for obvious reasons, but we hope to encourage a friendly rivalry with our counterparts in the Valley, as we accumulate more and more content (and traffic!). So, on that note, I highly encourage you to check out our debut posts on what we expect to become the go-to site for NYC tech talk.

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Foursquare’s Big Round: A Sign of Things to Come for NYC

Written by: Adam Besvinick

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Adam Besvinick| Leave a comment
A little over a month ago, I wrote about how NYC was poised to make a run at Silicon Valley and how ultimately, the Big Apple would win out. Last Friday, Foursquare pulled a Neil Armstrong – one small step for them, one giant leap for NYC startups. After raising $50 million at a whopping $600 million valuation, they came that much closer to becoming the first $1 billion social media startup in NYC. And once we get one, I think the momentum will increase exponentially. Later that day, Bryce Roberts perfectly encapsulated the feeling I previously wrote about when he tweeted: “cool that NYC founders see the @foursquare funding as a win for the whole city. THAT is why NYC is such a special place for startups.” I described the physical and emotional closeness of the startups in NYC, the ease of communication, the confluence of creative industries. But I forgot one key point – we hate to lose and love to win.
New Yorkers are some of the most competitive people on Earth (and I’m proud to say I’m one of them in that regard), but when it comes to the startup community, we want NYC to win. (Quick side note: This also goes back to the notion of lessening the importance of individual accomplishments, which is why Millennials are the next great generation). Every entrepreneur will poor his/her blood, sweat, and tears into their startup to make sure it succeeds because at the end of the day, it’s for the betterment of the City’s place in the startup world. Foursquare eventually reaching a $1 billion valuation or Tumblr raising another ridiculous round is a proof of concept for the NYC startup. Not only can you come and build a great company here, but it can be a massive, game-changing one, which gives tremendous hope and confidence for all entrepreneurs in the City from the ones bootstrapping in the outer boroughs to the ones pitching at TechStars Demo Day at Webster Hall. Last Friday was an historic day in the NYC startup world, and we at Venturebent are proud to be part of an ecosystem that lauds this accomplishment but knows it’s just a sign that we’re moving towards bigger and better things.

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The TechCrunch Machine

Written by: Adam Besvinick

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Adam Besvinick| Leave a comment

Last week, the frequently polarizing Michael Arrington wrote a post about how TechCrunch often “blindsides companies” by writing breaking news about them without reaching out to the entrepreneur or company itself first. Of course, at the center of attention this time, is Caterina Fake and her most recent startup. Despite Arrington’s reaching out to her to ask about a round of financing she supposedly raised, Fake decided to break the news herself on her own blog. While Arrington has done a lot of great things for startups, it’s nice to finally hear of someone “standing up to him” (even if that wasn’t Fake’s intention).

When TechCrunch first launched, not only was it a fantastic resource for readers but also entrepreneurs. Readers, particularly outsiders to the startup world, could gain “insider access” and learn about the happenings in the Valley. Entrepreneurs were able to get exposure for their startup. However, over time, the mission of TechCrunch has been lost, in my opinion.

Yes, it still is a fairly good resource for people to learn about tech and startups (but there are numerous other blogs which do this comparably well). However, I feel as though the site has become “too commercial.” There’s a reason the “What’s Hot” bar at the top of the page includes: Android, Apple, Facebook, Google, Groupon, Microsoft, Twitter, Zynga. The little entrepreneur has been pushed aside for the most part. An appearance on TechCrunch has become more about marketing than anything else, and the up-and-coming startup has become an afterthought. However, startups are very much afraid to “bite the hand that feeds them” because they don’t want to become the next Fake in the eyes of Arrington.

The other main flaw with TechCrunch is more a symptom of our society now than anything else. However, it featured prominently in Arrington’s most recent post, so I feel it’s worth addressing. That is, the idea of “breaking news.” In our 24/7 news cycle Twitter world, everyone becomes a journalist who can scoop any story. Not only is TechCrunch competing against every other tech blog and the entrepreneurs themselves, but they’re also competing against you and me. If we at Venturebent hear of an amazing new startup in NYC or a crazy development at a startup here, we could potentially break the news before Arrington. And frankly, that scares the shit out of him because his competitive advantage has long been that he has the most connections. Granted our audience is microscopic compared to TechCrunch’s (for now), but losing out on a scoop damages one’s credibility, especially if that’s what you hang your hat on. Consequently, Arrington’s trigger finger has become quicker and quicker over time to the point that he’s almost adopted the phrase, “ready, fire, aim.”

Despite all the TechCrunch / Arrington bashing, I still continue to follow both on Twitter and check the site on a daily basis. I just wish they’d go back to their roots, rather than continuing to evolve into this TechCrunch Machine with Arrington at the helm.

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