I’ve been thinking about LinkedIn quite a bit lately. I think LinkedIn is really interesting because in many ways I think it is one of the most durable and hard to disrupt companies that sit at the intersection of SaaS and social networking. I’ve also been meeting a ton of companies that I think are looking to compete with LinkedIn by attacking them on a feature-by-feature basis as opposed to a full frontal assault. There are some interesting and emerging things I’m seeing on this front and I wanted to write down some of my thoughts on the subject.
Category: web20
Google Glass and B2B Applications
I’ve been using my Google Glass for awhile now and it has been a really interesting experience. I think enough other smart people have written great articles talking about the future of Google Glass, what the experience is like, and whether it’s a mainstream product. A quick Google search will give you lots of good […]
On Startups Competing with Core Mobile OS Apps
One thing that’s been on my mind lately is how (and whether) startups can compete with the stock applications that ship with Android and iOS devices. I’ve included a screenshot of my current homescreen – it changes fairly often, but this reflects the apps that I use fairly often today. As the image of m […]
3 Reasons It’s Hard to Get Mobile Group Photo Albums Right
I’ve been fascinated by many of the early attempts I’ve seen to create group photo albums. With the continued proliferation of smartphones, it seems like someone should have solved the problem of creating unified photo albums with photos taken from distributed devices. I had hopes that the original version of Color would fulfill that promise […]
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Thoughts on the Latest Version of Highlight – Greater Emphasis on Sharing Out to Facebook
I’ve been enjoying the latest update to Highlight (version 1.2 which issue described on their blog here). For my previous thoughts on Highlight, I’d encourage you to read this post. As a fairly active Highlight user, a few things have really jumped out at me about the newest release. Overall, it feels like this update was […]
Keeping Track of People You Meet – The Unified Evergreen Address Book
I’ve had a few blog posts in the past about managing contact information and the various tools I’ve tried (you can read them here and here. I continue to look for a unified contact management system to keep track of the many people I meet. I’m looking for a unified system that can perform two […]
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Thoughts on the Samsung Chromebook – No Laptop Replacement but Still Really Useful for Cloud Workers
I received a free Samsung Chromebook after attending Google I/O this year and I’ve been trying to use it as my primary weekend computer for the past few weeks. I have a handful of observations about my experience. I’ll sum my thoughts up in a simple sentence: The Samsung Chromebook is not a reasonable substitute […]
Real-Time Deals Need Daily Use Applications – foursquare and real-time offers
Disclosure: Through my work at SoftTech VC we have a small position in Groupon, I have friends involved with LivingSocial, and friends at foursquare (and I am an active user). This post is based on my views alone and doesn’t include anything other than idle speculation or reasoning on my part. Like a lot of […]
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My Experience Getting Over the Trusted Stranger Issue with TaskRabbit
I’ve been really curious about TaskRabbit ever since I heard about the service. While it has always sounded interesting in practice, I’ve struggled to find a good personal use case for the service. Like a lot of people, I’m busy and have a lot to do. But the idea of trusting tasks I need to […]
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How Amazon Can Become a Force in Freemium Android Games
There is a strong case to be made for why Amazon will become a force in the wold of freemium games. Amazon has the three key ingredients – a database of customers who have credit cards, a hardware strategy that will promote customer adoption, and skills as a merchandiser.