Convergence 2007

Some NYC funding news this Monday evening. Yodle has picked up $12 million and Drop.io picked up $1.2 million.

Yodle

Yodle has raised a second round of financing to the tune of $12 million led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, with existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners also participating in the round. Yodle helps small businesses purchase online ads. They will use the funding for a national rollout. Yodle helps connect customers with small businesses by taking out the pain of handling campaigns on their own.

From their release, "Today, 63 percent of consumers primarily search for local businesses online; Yodle is tapping this enormous advertising market to drive customers to businesses in a way that has never been done before.  With Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s financing, we will be able to complete our national rollout and offer our services to small businesses across the country,” said Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle."

Drop.io

Drop.io has raised a Series A round of financing to the tune of $1.25 million led by RRE Ventures. Mashable has the details which include two new board announcements: Managing Partner Stuart Ellman of RRE Ventures and Andrew Weinreich, CEO of MeetMoi.

Check out our launch review of Drop.io from earlier this month.

There's been a lot of discussion about being anti-stealth. A stealth startup is one that isn't telling anyone what they're building and being very protective about the idea. Anti-stealth is the polar opposite - broadcasting everything, from your long-term vision, project status, and even financials. Anti-stealth is, in its purest form, about complete transparency in the business.

Being "stealth mode" was in part about protecting the idea, but also gives the impression that the idea itself is revolutionary. In a sense, it's At one point this might have worked, but we realized more and more that many of these companies in "stealth mode" had average ideas at best.

Being "anti-stealth" has its own pros and cons. The real value in broadcasting your message is that you'll get feedback and opportunities that would otherwise go undiscovered, as Charlie discovered. There are many benefits I can see being completely transparent. Of course, you actually have to execute better because your idea - and your vision and strategy and status - is out there.

I think Charlie has been successful with his anti-stealth because, if you know him, you'll know that it's a natural style for him, but also because no one else was doing it. In a world where everyone was being over-protective, Charlie got a lot of attention for Path101 in part because he was doing something completely different in the execution of the business.

Of course, neither strategy really makes or breaks a company. We all know "it's not the idea, it's the execution", but as Hank Williams astutely observed on the nextNY list there's a lot more nuance than we're admitting here. You have to consider the nature of the business you're building, the competitive landscape, your place in that landscape, whether you're the market leader or trying to be the disruptive player. Like most things in life, there's really a lot of gray area. Strategy is not, and should not be, prescriptive. A strategy that works for one company and one personality may or may not work for someone else.

The "Anti-Stealth" movement has been extremely positive because, among other things, it has shown that the strategy of openness can be good. On the other hand, Apple has done pretty well by being "stealthy" about its product releases and strategy. 

Corey and I are both bloggers, and we certainly understand the value in being open. I think it's fair to say that, generally speaking, we're both going to tend towards being more open than closed. That said, we haven't gotten on the bandwagon because don't think it quite makes sense for us to be "anti-stealth" with Notches yet. Now, we're not a "stealth mode" company by any means - we're more than willing to talk to anyone about what we're doing and where we're going - we just don't think there's value in broadcasting it yet.

We first started talking about our vision nearly 2 years ago. As you might expect, the strategy and vision is probably the furthest along. Because we're building a platform, we've focused most of our development time to this point on designing a back-end system that is scalable and flexible. Unfortunately, our implementation on the "visible" portions of the project is not up to par with the strategy and backend yet.

We want to be in a position to actually have people use the platform and actually act on the feedback. Since launching in this state only captures a small part of the vision, much of the actual feedback is going to lag behind where we want to be anyway. We don't want to get feedback about things we have planned already, we want people to help us drive the platform forward. This is the real value for us in being transparent.

Hank also outlines a few other reasons for not being completely free and open with the idea, which I think apply in different degrees to Notches.

Do you have what you need to do the idea? Is the idea more easily copyable than you would like and yet not in the market so that by telling others before you get your idea out there you are jeopardizing an early lead potential? Also, there are times when you have a good idea in an established company's market. If they were to hear about it too early, they might start copying, eliminating them as a potential acquirer. Also, if you have a patentable idea, going public before filing at least a provisional patent application means that you *cannot* file for any international patents.

In our case, we're dealing with existing market leaders that might be in a better position to implement certain portions of the idea today, or at least destroy the "novelty" of those elements. It's one thing if they come up with what see as being obvious on their own, but we're struggling with putting this out there entirely and tipping them off. The cost / benefit just doesn't seem to make sense for us right now.

Furthermore, there's the issue of attention fatigue. We don't want to get people excited about a vision before we're in a position to quickly follow up on the vision and deliver on the feedback. We don't want to be vaporware.

Cross-posted to the Notches blog

AT&T has announced this morning that they have boosted the 3G coverage in, and around, NYC. With the addition of 200 third-generation (3G) cell sites, AT&T has expanded its mobile broadband network in Bay Ridge, Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Flatbush, Flushing, College Point, Bayside, Throggs Neck, Tremont, Fordham, City Island and Baychester. In New Jersey, the 3G network is also now available in Edgewater, Weehawken, Hoboken, Jersey City and Bayonne.

Of course iPhone owners need not worry! You get nothing. Deal with Edge - it's the best AT&T could do.  

"We are staying ahead of the growing demand for fast, dependable wireless broadband access to feature-rich Internet content, such as streaming video," said Tom DeVito, vice president and general manager for AT&T's wireless unit in New York and New Jersey. He went on to say, "Imagine the thrill of using your wireless phone to show grandparents in Florida their granddaughter taking her first steps in Bayridge or Bayonne." Yep, that's it, that's the plan.

Side note - anyone else had enough of the absolutely pathetic AT&T wireless commercials running now? Must be made by the same team who created the gem, "xyz killed the algo".

Blip.tv Co-Founder and COO Dina Kaplan discusses the growing relationship between advertising and Internet TV series from the viewpoint of an online TV network.

• Creators can choose the type of advertising on their shows
  
• Revenue from advetising is split 50/50 betweeen blip.tv and creators
• Top 35 shows receive direct sponsorship such as Goodnight Burbank, Break a Leg and Rocketboom

Charlie went and poked the bear, so I’m going to have to add some fire to this furnace and poke back.

Charlie says he’s tired of the self-promoters packing the Silicon Alley 100: People’s Choice ballot box with votes. He singles out Richie Hecker and Hilary Rowland because, well, they’re on top.

But let’s list everyone else (in order of current rank on the list) who’s promoted themselves on their blog, Twitter, email list, etc, etc:

• Darren Herman (on his blog)
• Bill Sobel (on the NY:MEIG blog)
• Brett Petersel (on the Web 2.0 Meetup Facebook Group)
• Greg Verdino (on his blog and Twitter)
• Gary Vaynerchuck (on Twitter, but can’t find link)
• Allen Stern (on his blog — given it was in the review of BricaBox itself)
• the list goes on…

So first of all, I think Charlie is unfair to single out two people, in a sea of others. Richie and Hilary we just more effective than the other people listed above.

BUT THERE’S A SECOND ISSUE HERE…

Of course you should promote yourself. This is the People’s Choice list!

Henry and his team at SAI will announce their list and it will most surely include Fred and Scott — and my guess is it will also include Charlie. And the fact that the three of them have come up so far on our list, without any self promotion, speaks volumes to their influence in the community.

But Henry and Co aren’t perfect. Do you really think they know exactly who the top 100 most influential people in NYC are? How could they? So that’s why we have the People’s Choice list. So “we” can tell “them” who they may be missing.

For instance, I never knew about Hilary. And you know what? I’m impressed. Seriously. Just because she doesn’t put together a Meetup or have every startup East of the Mississippi hanging on her every word, it doesn’t mean she hasn’t been influential. Sure she’s a self-promoter, and that’s not my style (ironically, she’s the only single person I’ve asked to vote for me), but that’s her style, and it’s gotten her far. Heck, maybe she’s not as influential today as she was — this is Charlie’s suggestion — but she wasn’t even on my radar until she pounded the list with votes.

The point is, Silicon Alley isn’t just made up of USV or DFJ people, alumni, portfolio companies, etc. Similarly, loud people like me

So yes, go vote for Scott and Fred and Charlie and Clay and Henry and Barry and all the other non-self-promoters out there.

But also, you should go promote yourself! Or at least promote those around you.

Next week, nextNY and For Your Imagination are hosting the first MatchupCamp.

MatchupCamp – matchmaking for startups – is all about startup networking, creating a place for ideas and talent to meet. There are many events matching professional services to startups – this one will focus on those looking to get their hands dirty and build something new. MatchupCamp has the sole objective of bringing together people looking to start, expend, or join a startup in New York (and the tri-state area).

Corey and I will be there and we'd love to chat about Notches with any interested developers or designers. Either way, if you're feeling the itch to work at a startup, come by next Wed and see what others in the NYC area are up to.

Event Details:
When: Wed, Nov 28, 2007, 7-9pm
Where: For Your Imagination, 22 West 27th Street, 6th Floor

NY-based Kaltura, the online video collaboration site, is announcing a new partnership with the New York Public Library. Over 600,000 digital images can now be incorporated easily into Kaltura’s group video projects.

"We strive to provide users with the most comprehensive, enjoyable and user-friendly experience possible when creating their collaborative Kalturas in a fun, safe, and legal environment; The New York Public Library database is a huge addition to resources that we offer, both in terms of its size and the great value that it brings,” said Ron Yekutiel, Chairman and CEO of Kaltura.

This gets Kaltura a large new base of images for users to utilize when creating their collaborative videos. Not sure how many people will want to use these types of images versus say Flickr, but any additional items for use is a good thing.

In IE7 (not sure about FF), I find a huge lag with Kaltura with all of their overlay windows when creating a video/Kaltura - many times I have already moved off the window and it forces me back to the beginning. No idea why they need all of the overlay windows for creation but it sure is a usability issue from my standpoint.

Adding an image from the Library collection is as easy as from Flickr and the other image sites they support. Here is an image I grabbed:

Brooklyn-based Kaltura has just announced a partnership with The New York Public Library. The deal provide users of the group video editing service access to the library’s database of over 600 thousand historical images.

Kaltura’s CTO Shay David is one of the six presenters at tonight’s Web2NewYork networking party at Gallery Bar.

A lot of people are moving into the buildings arising from the soaring pace of residential construction throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. But most of them will know nothing about their neighbors as they move into the giant high rises that have been criticized as “vertical suburbs.” It was here that Matthew Goldstein realized there was a role that needed to be filled.

“People have a tendency to feel very uprooted and are afraid to go to people’s doors” when they move, he said. So, in attempt to foster a sense of community within large buildings, Goldstein created the social networking site LifeAt.

LifeAt offers the residents of hundreds of buildings around the city a password protected site where they can create personal profiles, talk with neighbors, post classifieds, and discover and discuss local services.

At 866 Eastern Parkway, a mixed use building with 57 condo units in a Hasidic enclave of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 35 residents have created profiles and use the network. They have publicly used the site to try and organize halloween parties, set up an art class, discuss concerns about where dog owners bring their pets to do their deeds, and engage in light flirting. (It also seems that quite a few residents have an addiction to the Nintendo Wii game console.) The building’s management uses the site to post news about the building.

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