Namita Bhasin

In session 2 of TC50 day 2. So far I like Popego, wish I had seen MixTT, don’t get imindi. Apparently the judges don’t either, because they shat all over it (pardon my French).

We’re listening to the finance presentations, which are definitely above my head but look like potentially useful products. More in a few minutes.
ExchangeP: playing stock market, basically. Neat idea in a crowded market, no business model explicitly mentioned. If they do make critical mass, they might help people out for real. I remember this one study about predictive markets being more accurate than real ones for stuff like elections.

Me-trics: now this looks interesting. I think I will give it a shot. Knowing me, of course, it’s not certain how often I would use it after the initial try. But it’s info that’s good to know anyway. Main issues: manual data entry (especially for the useful metrics) and the fact that correlation does not mean causation.
iCharts: cooler than I expected. Simple product with a definite existing need. I agree with Mark Cuban in that I don’t think they will be huge, but solid.

VC panel: is innovation dying in Silicon valley? Personally I feel that innovation of the Web 2.0 sort is. Something new needs to - and will - emerge soon enough. I hope it’s stuff of a more substantial nature.

Pitch problems: entrepreneurs need to be more succint (who hasn’t heard that one before?). They need to focus on reality - recognize and fix mistakes ASAP. The best ideas are not always the best pitches. The best entrepreneurs are good listeners. Storytelling and other credibility-building activities are vital. To VCs: when you find a company you like, try to cause less friction and release money faster (haha, right). The debate arises again as to the success rate of repeat entrepreneurs. The oft-repeated marriage analogy is discussed. VCs explain why they’re so (sometimes overly) cautious - they manage other people’s money.

I like Raj Kapoor. He seems like a fair guy who actually has founders’ interests at heart, or at least in mind.

Most important factors of startups: Engineers who can build and people with vision and people who can execute on vision. Those who take money for non-calendar milestones. People with passion. People who can see and understand what works and not; people who can adapt.

How quick is too quick to say no? It never is; a quick no is showing respect. How do VCs prevent information leaking? They don’t, really. And Arrington doesn’t think they should

Lunch talk, hosted by Navin Chaddha (my neighbor, incidentally): first things first, that entrepreneurs should die of indigestion, not starvation.

Rather than focusing on viral things to acquire users, work on the core product to attract them organically. Theoretically that works, and I’ve done a few things in the past to that effect, but I still don’t think purely organic explosive growth is a realistic expectation. Especially not right now with the sheer volume of stuff on the Internet and the pressure to build and grow faster and faster.

All these guys are really pressing the point of hiring the right people. Right doesn’t mean best, it means most driven and passionate for the company. This means that the perfect resume and experience can not necessarily matter. I really hope this is true. I suppose I shall find out this year. I would love to find a company that makes me feel that way (and reciprocates).

Mobile session: first up is mytopia. They run multiplayer applications natively on many different mobile OSs. This was done quick and cheap with one devloper and one designer. The rest is rather technical but I think the gist of it is solving the problem of cross-platform programming. Write it once, run it on everything.
One of the judges is asking why anyone would be interested in multi-platform capability. I think that’s a slightly unintelligent question. Not everyone in the world has a jesusphone or a crackberry.

BEST DEMO OF TODAY: tonchidot’s sekaicamera. HILARIOUS. YouTube it, I’m sure it was up the second it ended. I hope someone put up the whole presentation. I have no words for this.

Fitbit: first company I’ve seen with hardware. It’s a super-creepy-advanced wifi pedometer. Tracks everything pretty much. Only $99. I would definitely buy this. I think this is going to be the winner.

Language and platform tools: alfabetic is a real-time translation engine/ad network to reach the 70% of Internet users that do not speak English. Judges bring up World Lexicon. Must look into that. I just wish more of these companies would diversify revenue streams. I really don’t think any ad-based model, no matter how good or innovative, is entirely dependable. The world of advertising is generally slow on the whole internet thing. By the time they catch up, users may have eliminated the effectiveness of ads altogether.

I haven’t been to the demopit all day and I’m dying to head out there but this section looks to be a good one. Then I can’t miss tonight’s keynote either (Calacanis and Cuban) so I guess I’ll see who’s still around after 6.

Postbox: desktop email client. I think I would appreciate this greatly - not all my related messages have any common text, and i can’t search for all messages with images. It’s kind of filtering into folders but more customizable and much cooler. What I want to know is how compatible it is with webmail. Does the organization hold? Is there really value to web search within email?

Okay, another wow. Swype, from the creators of T9. Solid team with deep mobile background. It was hyped up before their presentation and definitely did not disappoint. Fitbit may be displaced by a new winner. This is going to be awesome beyond any cell phone screen. Here comes the new way to input text!

Last company today (sorry for the really long post), dropbox. Sync across machines. Nice implementation of obvious usage of the cloud. Unfortunately, their demo didn’t work right off. I will be signing up for the free premium account shortly

Damn. They ran out. Oh well.

Watching Jason Calacanis and Mark Cuban. He’s done a lot more than I had any idea about. And he’s hot, especially for a guy his age. He did everything he did out of stubbornness and contrariness. That’s created the sort of cockiness that’s definitely allowed but still sort of crass. I guess he’s one of the few that can get away with it.

Okay, I think I’m done for today. If you slogged through this whole thing, thanks haha - especially since I typed the whole thing on my iPhone. Will repeat tomorrow!