Rajiv Parikh - Take the Plunge

Facebook Marketing and Hurricane Irene

2011-08-26T13:10:00.000-07:00

As Hurricane Irene sweeps up the East Coast, the only thing you think of all the losses and damage it would cause. There are friends, relatives and business that will be affected by this once in a lifetime natural disaster. Well... not everyone is thinking that way...

Check out these 2 businesses, they've seized the moment using Facebook:

With CJ Construction, you can get a pre-Hurricane damage assessment and prepare your home. Afterwards, you would be first in line for a repair.

Rick Tucker Construction will take care of your post Irene demolition needs.

Who says that construction is behind the times in social media?

Of all the businesses, CVS is doing this most tastefully, by discussing how people should get their pharmacy refills and how they are stocking up the best they can. They acknowledge that many of the stores will be closed because of evacuation procedures.

In the comments to the post, there is a very favorable response from people appreciating the notice or discussing how CVS steps up in the community during these situations. You would think there might be some backlash given the press releases about how CVS is ready, but by engaging with their users, people are responding positively. On the other hand, competitor Rite Aid has normal promotions, but no acknowledgement of Irene that matches its press releases.

Even in a natural disaster like Hurricane Irene, companies can be opportunistic in Facebook marketing just like the construction companies. At least they are making themselves available. In the case of CVS, they are leveraging their brand to create greater levels of engagement.

Position2 Brand Monitor was used to cull through the displayed Facebook posts.

Hey Congress! Stop Messing Around!

2011-07-27T14:29:00.001-07:00

As I watch the Dow drop another 200 points today, I've gone from amused to very concerned. In the last few days that's 400 points. Every day, there's more back and forth - Boehner this, Cantor that, Obama Grand Bargain, etc. It's one thing to discuss a long term solution to a financial deficit issues, but it's quite another to renege on America's financial obligations.

For a while it was sport watching the House get up into a lather over a crisis they created. Most House Republicans voted on extending the debt ceiling every year as they cut taxes while spending more on wars, the prescription drug benefit and general discretionary spending on their districts. Democrats have been spending as well, but they are not creating a crisis over the debt ceiling. They are willing to approve the increase straight up.

People seem to think that not increasing the debt ceiling will stop "excess" spending. They have been misinformed. The President cannot unilaterally impose cuts in spending. Nor can Congress. That "excess" is our defense and our grandparents Social Security check. It all stops when the government loses the ability to finances its obligations.

This is an artificial crisis that is impacting people perceptions of US creditworthiness and ability of politicians to solve problems. The budget has already been voted on by both sides. In fact, they committed to a payroll tax cut, Bush tax extensions, and unemployment extensions that increased the deficit by over $600 billion/year. Where were those deficit complaints at that time? If the US cannot pay what it has committed to pay, why would you put your money here? It's like taking a loan out on your car, then saying that you are not going to pay for it afterwards and expecting to get a new loan on your house in the future. You will have to pay next time - just a lot more because you've increased risk of default to the creditor.

Already, this is having an impact as long term bond rates are going up and the insurance on American debt has risen. This is a tax on all of us as mortgages, credit card rates and car loan rates have the Treasury bond rate as it's basis. All business decisions use have risk hurdle rates based on the risk free rate - US Treasury bonds. If rates rise or changes from AAA to AA+, that's a huge issue.

Do we want another day where the Dow drops 700 points like we had in 2008? This would hurt all of our portfolios and pensions. It takes money out of our pockets. It increases the tendency to put money into cash or gold rather than invest in stocks or start-ups. I'm wondering whether I should just go to cash because the acrimony is disconcerting.

Businesses thrive when there's certainty and consistency. When the rules of the game are not clear, people are more reluctant to invest. The budget crisis, backsliding on financial and environment rules, and the artificial debt crisis doing their damage. The risk premium is increasing. While that may reduce Obama's chances of winning re-election, it helps no one. It may boomerang.

Everyone who looks at spending and tax revenue knows that spending increases and entitlement growth will have to slow and taxes will have to go up for everyone. There's no free ride here. I'd love to see both sides release their versions of a balanced budget by 2020. It's doable if our legislators have courage (go Coburn!). Work on it for the next budget cycle. But don't screw up the economy today.

TiEcon 2011: Touching the Entrepreneurial Sun

2011-05-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

Every year, The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE) throws the largest entrepreneurial conference of the world, TiEcon. Though the membership is primarily of Indian descent, the event is open to all. It brings great entrepreneurs, VCs, inspiring keynote speakers and aspiring entrepreneurs together to learn and network with each other. I like to go every year because it's my chance to touch the entrepreneurial sun and remember why I've spent so much of my career in starting and building companies.

Sometimes, you get down on yourself because the process is always a lot longer and harder than you originally thought. The process of creating a new company, a new product, a new brand and a strong culture is always is always easier on paper than reality. The world is skeptical of what you are building because invariably you are going against the existing order. You have to be able to handle far more no's than yes' while keeping your confidence at an unshakable level.

Today helped me reconnect with that energy and spirit. I really enjoyed the keynotes. Steve Case was great not only because of his amazing and well-known AOL experience, but more because of what he is doing to further entrepreneurship through StartUp America. The organization is trying to replicate the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial infrastructure and ecosystem all around the country. New companies that have created all the new jobs in the US over the last 20 years. Large companies have been static or declining, so it's important to harness American creativity to build the next Google, Facebook or Genentech.

Dr. David Ferrucci of IBM presented a detailed account of the Watson project where they built a computer system to beat Jeopardy Master Champions. I liked how they structured the problem and measured success. They knew this would come in iterations, however each iteration had to be designed in a modular fashion that had sufficient headroom to improve with experience. Given our efforts to improve sentiment analysis with Position2 Brand Monitor, I could appreciate the difficulties that the IBM team had in trying to parse wide-ranging yet unstructured Jeopardy answers and quickly come up with the right answer. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a hard problem to solve especially with analogies and allusions. Given the brevity of Jeopardy answers, it's like reading a tweet and understanding that "bad" sometimes is actually positive. Given the long tail of subjects, building a recognition engine that understands language and responds quickly not only is cool, but has a wide range of applications from medicine to education to... yes... call centers.

The capstone keynote was Vinod Khosla, the entrepreneurial maven who not only got Sun off the ground but built so many successful firms at Kleiner Perkins and now his own fund. He discussed his research on the energy transformation. The experts are wrong, as Vinod offered years of expert forecasts that were completely wrong - as much as 5x for the price of oil. The world has a situation where 5.5 billion people want to live and consume like 500 million. China's oil consumption is expected to grow gradually, but if it follows Japan's or S. Korea's growth curve, oil consumption will be 3-4x today within a couple of decades. However, Khosla believes that oil prices will drop dramatically. He also believe as will electricity use will drop steeply as well. This will be done in a way that is not government support dependent. His thesis is based on the black swan theory where discontinuities are the norm rather than what typical probabilities represent. Linear thinking doesn't work for him - it's about exponents and discontinuities cause by new technologies and steep cuts in price. I took some notes on interesting energy companies in his deck:

Kior - renewable, biofuel based oil that is less expensive than fossil oil
Ecomotor - an engine platform that double gas mileage
Ciris - driving methane from coal mines done with mining
Calera - converting CO2 emissions from power plants into mineral products
Soraa - 80% more efficient light that pays for itself in year 1
Lightsail - using compressed air storage to triple electric grid capacity

Then there was some company that would make sugar from pine chips reducing the vast amount of corn production used primarily for high fructose corn syrup and animal feed.

Khosla's belief is that technology innovation would rise to the challenge of energy, food and natural resource demand. After listening to him, some of the concern about $150 oil diminishes, because people will find a way to develop cheap energy. These technologies need to win in an unsubsidized market which can do to energy like Carnegie did to steel (cut the cost by 80%).

As exciting as Khosla was, I enjoyed seeing some of the TiE50 winners in social media and mobile. Each firm had a different story, but they all had really unique ways of looking at the world. They had an intensity and energy that was contagious. Even the VC panel on social media indicated to me that we were on the right track of mining social media data to create actionable insights and engagement for brands. The key was to listen to people, learn from their ideas, but remember that you need to follow the beat of your own drum.

I came away this Friday at TiEcon 2011 energized about the great things that entrepreneurs can do. It was fun to reconnect with many of the volunteers that put together this special event that highlights how people can go outside themselves and change the world in a positive way that also builds wealth. It's not a zero sum game. I'm sure my team is ready for the many new ideas I will hit them with on how to leverage our social media technology for growing brands, especially ones on reducing friction.

Onwards to tomorrow, where I'm taking Arjun to expose him to this special Silicon Valley world.

Dan the Tow Truck Man

2011-01-02T21:59:00.000-08:00

There I was in town called American Canyon with my broken down Bimmer. The 10 year old 328i served me well but broke a belt and overheated about 70 miles from home. God knows how much this was going to cost - $500, $1,000, who knows with these cars. I was coming back from our Position2 Holiday party that Noelle so thoughtfully arranged up in Napa. After panicking about how I'd get my car fixed so far away from home, I got some help from AAA in the form of an extended towing upgrade. I just had to sit in a tow truck for a couple of hours, but at least I'd get it done with the mechanic I know.

That's how I met Dan. He was an old man, probably in his 50's, though he looked in his 60's after years of hard work. One of those salt of the earth kind of guys, he had a mustache on his white weathered face and some spots on the sides of his jaws - either missing teeth or gaps. I thought I'd be spending some time with a classic blue collar guy. I brought some business magazine in case I'd get bored. When he started with, "You know, I never thought I'd drive a tow truck for 15 years," I thought I'd be listening to a tale of woe of someone who has been screwed over for this reason or by that person.

It would be the little guy against the world deal. After touring the Chandon sparkling winery and eating a sumptuous meal Mustard's in Yountville, I guess I deserved some balance. Little did I know, I'd come away absolutely inspired.

Dan started in with telling me that he was a tow truck mechanic before driving trucks. He had made a lot of mistakes in his life, before he settled on this job. The tow business is 24 hours on call. The pay is not particularly great, but it's consistent. Cars always broke down for one reason or another. With the right company, work would be steady. One thing Dan always did was take advice from his father, a man who started and owned his steel fabrication business. He told Dan to never spend more than you take in. It's better to be able to pay for a car that was functional over one where you had to overextend yourself. The same thing for your house. Get a 30 year fixed loan and do not take equity out like the neighbors. Because of those decisions, Dan worked hard but could provide for his 3 kids.

So that's an easy opening. 3 kids? I have 4, so we had something to talk about. Little did I know that I'd have more fun listening to the story about his 3. So I asked, "How old?"

"3 boys - 2 that are 18 and one that's 15," said Dan.

"Oh, so you had twins."

Not really, 1 of his 2 were adopted. I asked when he adopted him. Dan told me when he was 15. Apparently, his oldest son and the boy were best friends. His father was a rapper who decided with his wife to start touring locally. They apparently got caught up in the fast life and forgot about their son. The boy called Dan's son from a hotel room where he was left all alone and asked if he could stay with Dan's family. Most might take him in for a little while, but Dan really cared for the kid. Dan decided to not only take him in, but let the boy's family know that they would have to give him custody. Dan would adopt him. He knew how important it was for a boy to have a strong father figure and didn't want this boy messed up.

It turns out that his new son loves to read, gets good grades and is looking at various colleges for scholarship opportunities. His oldest son is a top AAU basketball player and is being recruited by various colleges. Dan is pushing him to go to the best academic one. In my conversation, Dad never once differentiated the boys - they were all his sons.

So here's a guy who single-handedly raised 3 boys. They are all college bound - full of hope for the future. Later I found out he has a daughter from another marriage who has 7 grandkids. It turns out she has a good guy she's married to and Dan brings the whole group together to play basketball together.

Dan may have made some mistakes, but he's done something amazing. He not only provided for his family without taking anything but advice from his successful father, but he also took another kid in. He didn't just think about himself. He felt for others. Dan doesn't make a lot by any standard, but he not only lived within his means, he made a little extra and still brought up a whole family. He wasn't resentful. He was optimistic. Dan liked how he could work at night, so he could spend his days with the boys.

After Dan dropped me off on Alma in Palo Alto, we shook hands and he said goodbye with a smile. He offered to drive me home, but I was meeting my wife at the Medical Center because my youngest was in urgent care over a tough fever. While my car might cost a few hundred dollars, I came away thankful for the experience - the inspiration of spending a couple of hours with Dan the Tow Truck Man.

Clinton & Wonder Inspire at Dreamforce '10

2010-12-08T22:26:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days, you are thankful that work comes together with inspiration. As a last minute decision, I decided to go up to the Dreamforce '10 event in San Francisco. I scheduled some client meetings and intended to walk the tradeshow flow before going to hear the scheduled President Clinton speech. Because of rain delays for the former President's flight, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff brought in an unexpected treat - Stevie Wonder. He talked about many stories from his life from how he decided to perform again mother's death to his early experiences in school, but I think the one thing I'll remember is how he deals with adversity. He is an optimistic person who believes that his passion for people and music transcends and particular issue. Benioff is right when he says that everything happens for a reason.

Then President Clinton walked on the floor with an impromptu introduction by Stevie. Clinton made his opening comment about how as an amateur musician, this was the first time when a pro was the opening act. I've always admired Clinton's leadership skills and his desire to do good in the world. I've heard many speeches on TV, but nothing is like seeing him in person. He can go from the high level trends of interdependence to the detail of new discoveries in stem cells and disease recovery. After a successful Presidency where he left the country with 4 years of surplus, then making incredible money on the lecture circuit, he then chases big problems through the Clinton Global Initiative.

He is a master of making complex problems simple. In his mind, the central characteristic of nations is interdependence. What happens in halfway across the world is known instantly everywhere. Ideas, capital, and goods flow everywhere presenting all sorts of opportunities. However it creates 3 large issues: inequality, instability and unsustainability.

Inequality is increasing concentration of wealth to a few whether it's in the US or around the world. This concentration impedes broad based wealth creation because consumers will not be able to afford the new products or act in the creation of new innovation.
Instability is caused by this free flow of capital where a bubble in the US can impact the whole world. Similarly, terrorists or a rogue nation can significantly destabilize the world order.
Unsustainability speaks to the environment and energy. We are emitting more than the world can handle. The US is the only country in the world that has recently elected officials that believe the overwhelming science on man-made climate change is wrong. Luckily, the US is the only industrialized nation that has this uncertainly. The key is what will happen if the ice on Greenland melts and Europe goes into a new Ice Age.

So Clinton thinks about how his organization can address these issues in an economically advantageous way. As great as it is for the wealthy to give to NGO's, those firm should look for ways to serve while building the systems and institutions to put themselves out of business. People need to become self-reliant for help to be worthwhile.

On the mid-term elections, Clinton believes Democrats erred by not advertising their accomplishments on tax cuts (16 for small business), health care or in financial reform where there is a process to prevent future bailouts of large financial institution. The ad budget was there, but they decided to make elections local when the sentiment was national.

I love his thoughts about the history of society and how they fail by spending too much time in protecting the present. It goes to the notion of living beyond our means for this moment while not building for the future. For example, Germany and China have decided to dedicate significant resources to green energy whereas the US is potentially not renewing credits for green energy development. It is about not investing in education as US students fall behind the rest of the world in high school and college graduation rates. However, there is inspiration for the hi tech crowd. Unlike any of time in history, we can do work related to our interest, rather than needing to work to survive. There are great advances in hi tech, green energy and biotech that are making a new future. As long as we drive towards broad-based economic success, there is tremendous hope. The fact that we are in a place where becoming an entrepreneur is easier than ever before, means there is opportunity for disruptive innovation - the kind that creates new potential.

I came away encouraged because it took me out of the day to day drive to serve clients, acquire new customers and run the business. At Position2, we have been driving the leading edge for some time where there's uncertainty and great potential. Listening to great people like Pres Clinton, Stevie Wonder, and Marc Benioff helps you understand that we are fortunate to be in a place where we have an opportunity to create change. Wealth, political and living conditions are unequal, but intelligence is more evenly distributed. We should be thankful that our condition gives us an opportunity to express our full potential.

Thanks to the people Salesforce.com for providing inspiration with an excellent event!

Tesla Unleashes Great Hope... and Doubt

2010-06-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

June 29th was a momentous day for Tesla and the future of the electric automotive industry. The IPO was priced way above initial expectations of $14-16 a share at $17. After some fluctuation, the stock was up 40% to $23.89/share. The market value was over $2 billion driving up founder Elon Musk's portfolio value tremendously. This on a day where the Dow fell 268. As an entrepreneur, this was a day that filled me with hope, because here was an entrepreneur that put his heart, soul and money into a company and won. However, the press was having nothing of it. The day before many of the news articles were fairly negative. Most of them went something like this Wall Street Journal article, "Tesla Motors: IPO Fueled by Glamor":

"So far the company has accumulated $290 million in total losses, on $148 million in sales. It expects net losses at least until 2012. Anyone betting on Tesla stock is gambling on the success of the forthcoming Model S. But Tesla itself warns that car "is at an early stage of development" and will not be in production until 2012. It adds that it has yet to finalize the design, or complete the engineering, manufacturing or component supply processes for the new car."

Many articles and comments said the same thing:

-Tesla proof Wall Street still believes in fairy tales - Oakland Tribune
-Tesla IPO: False promises for clean tech - Fortune

However, the investor community had a different response. The positive energy was palpable. The Position2 Brand Monitor graph on Tesla shows the massive spike and positive sentiment differential.

The number of posts (tweets, news articles and blog posts) on the company exploded to over 2,700 today from an average of 25-30/day. There was a 4:1 difference in positive vs. negative sentiment. While much of it positivity in the sentiment algorithm related to the increase in share price, there were tweets and posts like this:

- The Future of Luxury - Tesla Model S http://tinyurl.com/2flua9l beautiful design, 0 emissions, nearly affordable - @ThomasOhhh
- Something else that helped Tesla was having major strategic investments from Daimler Chrysler and a commitment from Toyota - WSJ Blog

An Entrepreneur's Take...
As an entrepreneur and technology geek, I find the IPO to be heartening. Elon Musk, successful PayPal founder, is a longtime entrepreneur who bet it all to bring Tesla to market. Previously, electric cars were considered doudy - for the granola set. They suffered from high costs, poor driving performance, long charge times and short driving range. The conventional thinking was that a car would have to be available for the masses first, so companies tried to shoehorn a high cost vehicle into a mass market or weird platform (GM EV1). Tesla, by contrast, utilized the typical technology lifecycle model. Original founders, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning understood that expensive technology needs to be sold to a premium market to move down the learning curve of product development and manufacturing efficiencies. So they built a sexy sports car on the Lotus platform that took advantage of the high torque range of electric motors, the low cost of electric car operation, strong lightweight materials like carbon fiber and a unique powertrain that gave a first-of-its-kind 200+ mile range.

While there are many sides of the Elon Musk story, he focused on building a great car. He focused on high quality materials, production quality and service. He did not compromise in creating a great brand experience from vehicle to showroom to post-purchase service. At the previous TiEcon, I remember my when Musk drove into the room with the Tesla Roadster. The car was stunning. Even more inspiring to me was that Musk was willing to bet it all to make Tesla and SpaceX successful.

The Model S has the potential to reach a wider market than the Roadster. With federal stimulus loan money for the factory and powertrain facility, Silicon Valley now has a new technology development and manufacturing opportunity.

There is more to the car than the actual vehicle. There is the technology behind it. There's an electric powertrain that has the interest of Daimler-Benz and Toyota. There's all the experience that Tesla has gone through to build the vehicle. All of these technologies have value beyond the economics of building a vehicle. Like Amazon's Z shops, the licensing of electric motor, battery and powertrain technology can provide a tremendous margin boost to the company.

It's my hope that the desolate winter of new IPOs is ending. Up until recently, the only way to get an exit event was to be acquired. This reduced valuations for entrepreneurs and made start-up investment more difficult because of the increased uncertainty. While risk adjusted rewards are still not entrepreneur-friedly, IPOs like Tesla, OpenTable and ReachLocal move the needle in the right direction.

So let's celebrate Tesla, Musk and his team. Let's hope the stock rises in value so that VantagePoint Partners and other investors can see a significant return. We want them to cycle their money into new innovative start-ups. We should want them to be the next Google. If Silicon Valley and America wants to lead the way in new job-creating, game-changing innovation, we want companies like Tesla to succeed.

Position2 Wins Lenovo Most Valued Partner Award

2010-02-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

I just learned today that Lenovo granted our team their coveted "Most Valued Partner Globe" for our creativity and quality in supporting their online advertising campaigns. One of our top creatives received a special honor as well.

Take a look at the trophy. Our team is especially gratified by this honor. We look forward to a continued partnership and success between our firms. Great job!

Is Health Care Reform Over?

2010-01-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

The Scott Brown win over Coakley in Massachusetts portends the end of the health care reform. The Senate is unlikely to play the game of delaying certification (though Republicans would with a straight face). Election year politics would make further delay difficult. Using the reconciliation process would mean another long perilous set of activities where the bill would have to be re-cut. Democrats are unlikely to end the filibuster rule. From a healthcare executive who has met with members of the House, there is significant opposition to the Senate bill.

That means more acrimony and indecision leading to a likely end of the move to fix an out of control system. The Democrats method of self-flagellation and delay hurts their ability to push things through. Republicans simply see blood and are playing the role of the opposition, regardless of logic.

Watch any of the Sunday news shows and what do you see? Republicans criticizing the President. That's become their job in this highly partisan environment. It's almost understandable. The Democrats are the surprising ones. They attack the bill for not doing enough here or there. They call it a flawed bill that's "better than nothing." They find a hundred holes rather than understanding that no one cares about their little nit or nat. It's hardly confidence building. People do not want a "passable" bill that reorders a huge system that brings a level of certainty for 80+% of Americans. They want to know they are getting huge significant value.

The battle over the public option was a play towards single payer - something that people were not ready for. Obama had very little time to push through the change agenda. The mandarins in Senate allowed delay to upend their ability to get things done.

Meanwhile, costs will keep exploding. My company saw 2 years of 40% quote increases even though we went the high deductible, HSA route. This was the consumer-driven healthcare initiative that leading experts were recommending. If I had a whole bunch of blue collar workers, it would have destroyed our cost structure. Health reform should be a Republican issues as well as a Democratic one. It is about American competitive and greater certainty for our population.

Meanwhile, the hidden secret is that there is universal healthcare in pockets of America. In San Francisco, for example, SF Health Plans integrates federal, state, local, and small business funds to provide universal healthcare to children and low income adults in a high quality, cost-effective way. They contract with local providers on a capitation or per person basis. The incentive is to provide quality care without upselling unnecessary tests or care. The more people are covered, the greater that can be treated in a preventative manner, and the fewer people going for emergency care. This reduces the need for health providers to drive up costs for commercial insurance.

The Senate healthcare bill would enable plans like San Francisco's to grow and make American competitive. The real question is whether Obama and Democrats will accede to Republican demands on a do-over or will they try to push this bill through the House. Already, Republicans have delayed or taken illogical positions over the bill. For example, last year the Grassley and Snowe group delayed negotiations. McCain started railing against cutting Medicare a year after he discussed "Medicare reform."

There's a great section in Winik's book, The Great Upheaval, about the French revolution. During that time King Louis XVI introduced a whole set of reforms that gave property rights and freedom of speech and representation to the Third Estate. He tried hard to compromise between what was an absolute monarchy and the growing movement towards representative democracy. Many times, decisions took a long time, exacerbating mistrust and tension between the haves and have-nots. Instead of being hailed as a great king, it was seen as a sign of weakness. Times were tough with bread shortages and repression of the populace. Revenue collection was problematic at a time when France was up to its eyeballs in debt over funding the American Revolution.

While no one is saying that there will be riots in the streets, there is palpable anger on the far right and left. With partisanship during tough economic times, the type of rapid change that Obama would like to make is difficult. While a number of Republicans would have voted for with a few Democrats voting against the Senate package, compromise in this environment is seen as weakness. Obama has already indicated that they need to start over. This means the status quo will remain.

Will this lead to the end of Obama's ability to make great change? After one year, is his ability to govern over? I'd love to hear what you think.

Wall St Keeps Paying Out

2009-11-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

In previous blog posts, I discussed my disappointment at how banks and Wall Street were continuing to pay themselves excessively. Bonuses keep getting paid at super high levels - there are articles in Time, The NY Times, Newsweek and BusinessWeek. All of this because of the need to retain talent. I'm sorry, I went to school with a lot of these folks. They are good, but not worth millions more than execs in companies large and small who have cut salaries across the board to prevent layoffs.

It is clear that the taxpayers saved the hide of these folks. Currently cheap money is keeping these companies profitable. Yes, there is taxpayer self interest because we want to be paid back, but large bonuses take away from paying us back.

George Will had it right when he said that no financial institution with taxpayer support should make more than the equivalent government position - about $150k. And yes, that includes firms like Goldman Sachs that have a Federal Reserve backstop. So if they can't police themselves, it is time for the people to step in. I hate to say this, but it is time for a massive tax increase on the wealthy. This kind of stupidity creates massive inequality - the kind of stuff that starts revolutions.

Anyone making above $1 million in salary should have to pay a total of 50% in income taxes with no deductions. It comes right off the top with no income tax refund or return. Capital gains are excluded with the exception of anyone who profits off of carried interest (like hedge funds). On top of this, we should have a transaction tax on all financial transaction. This should go into a G20 global financial stability fund to prevent further excesses from bringing down the system.

I understand that many may call this liberal, but that's a silly label. Entrepreneurs and legitimate businesspeople are taking real risks, while these financial folks are not showing the kind of restraint and forbearance that they should after almost destroying our financial system. Many of these folks are fighting tooth and nail against regulatory reform which harmonizes rules in a way that benefits consumers and create a level playing field It's time to rebalance the system of risk and reward. A privileged few not be allowed to control our system to their sole benefit.

So fix yourselves or the people will fix you.

Healthcare: Where's the Obama Marketing Machine?

2009-08-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

The news reports discuss boisterous town halls and death panels. "Government is taking over healthcare," say those who peddle fear. There's the 35 year old middle class woman who worries about fairness for the insurance company. Healthcare, an issue that Obama and Clinton ran on, has gotten away from him.

As much as the disinformation campaign has wore on, Obama's campaign machine has not shown much luster. Sure, he's doing well on his Facebook and Twitter page, but his folks are not reaching out. Obama acts like he has a coherent message. He is one of the best communicators ever, but his answers are long and complex. Rarely does he break it down as well as he did with his campaign about Change and Hope. The Yes We Can slogan on every bumper in California.

Here's a response from the Smerconish interview on August 2oth on the whether Secretary Sebelius misspoke on the public option. First, Obama addressed her statement. Then, he began to discuss his plan:

"We have consistently talked about the need for health care reform because family premiums are going up three times faster than inflation and wages. The costs of Medicare and Medicaid will bankrupt this country if we don't reduce the cost inflation of health care. You've got families who can't get health care because of preexisting conditions or they bump up against some lifetime cap if a family member gets really ill.

So what we've said is there are a number of components of health care. One is that for people who already have health insurance, they can keep their health insurance, but we're going to have some consumer protections to regulate how insurers operate. For example, they can't prohibit people from getting it, health insurance, because of a preexisting condition. They can't have lifetime caps or yearly caps that prevent people from getting the care that they need.

We're also going -- for people who don't have health insurance -- to set up a system similar to what Congress has, where you can buy into a bigger pool, get better rates, have better protections around you. You would be buying that insurance from private insurers."

Wow, that's a mouthful, and I'm just quoting a section of the response. President Obama clearly knows what he's talking about, but there are far too many messages. There are far too many words. There are no human interest stories. Too few questions and answers. Then there's no repetition of a few key slogans.

There's just no marketing.

Imagine if Obama broke down his American Healthcare Security Program into 3 components: Access for All, Lower Costs, High Quality. He could deliver a message that is appealing to the needs of each group and then overall to everyone:

Access for All: Everyone gets healthcare. No one is left out in the cold, forced to fend for themselves when emergencies strike or when diseases take their toll. Tell a story about the underemployed family at risk of losing healthcare for their sick kid. The breadwinner is working his out, but is scared of layoffs and not having enough money to pay for his family. If every advanced country in the world can get healthcare, so can we.
Lower Costs: Americans aren't getting raises because rising costs are forcing businesses to put your raising into exploding healthcare costs. That's money out of your pocket. If everyone has it, then we can get care at a lower cost. Right now, Americans with healthcare are subsidizing those without care. Those who don't have care go to the emergency room for smaller problems that could have been taken care of with a doctor's visit - like a fever or back pain. Or they have an expensive heart surgery when they could have been treated earlier with cholesterol medication and a change in diet. Imagine putting $2,500 in every families pocket because everyone is covered.
High Quality: America has the best medical technology in the world. We have the best trained doctors and nurses. We have the best information technology. People all around the world come here. Then how come people around the world are living longer than us? Some of you have choices. Most of you don't. You have to take one of a few plans offered by your employer. Many times, you can't go outside your designated provider network. This plan delivers high quality by opening up choice for plans. You can choose one that makes sense for you.

Then you can get into details like greater choices through healthcare exchanges, a public option backstop, keeping your current plan, electronic records, saving Medicare, etc. But keep using the benefits over and over. Keep talking about healthcare security and the need for change.

Use real people, not policy wonks. Americans were captivated by "Joe the Plumber." Find people who represent real stories and bring them with you. Use their stories and videos to create an emotional connection to the need for reform. Create novellas on each problem and how they would be solved by the 3 features of the Healthcare Security Plan.

Right now on Whitehouse.gov, Obama has a cool Reality Check section. However, the problem is that the answers are by policy wonks in the White House staff. Why not have Obama Ambassadors who look like the people asking the questions, answering questions via video? Go a step further, and have a 24 hour chat response line. I'm sure many of the questions would be repetitious, but imagine the how comforted people would feel by getting their individual questions answered.

Then, there would be button to press to inform your Senator or Representative of your support. They would be overwhelmed.

President Obama, this is a game you could win. Just go back to those marketing principles you mastered during your successful campaign. And go back to the 3 features and benefits. And pound it until you drown out the din.

California Budget Crisis

2009-07-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

Every day I find myself captivated over the California Budget Crisis. It is an incredible showdown. 3 parties going at each other - the governor, the Democrats and the Republicans. They are tied in a knot over this with no compromise or reform in sight. $26 billion and growing caused by a $20 bil+ drop in income and sales tax revenues. When you rely on stock wealth to drive a majority of finances, there's a price to pay. When the rich lose money on the stock market and have their salaries cut, the state suffers. It is supposed to be about progressivity, but instead it creates boom and bust cycles. People say Proposition 13 is the culprit with the essential freeze on property taxes: the need for a 2/3rds vote in 2 house for a budget to make it's way to a government, and the same 2/3rd vote required for tax increase. The idea was to limit fast growing government. Instead it has caused paralysis. Critical reforms never get made. Proposition 13 had great wisdom at the time. It needs to be changed, but it's not the only reason the California budget is a mess.

There are gerrymandered districts that ensure the most liberal Democrats and most conservative Republicans get elected. There are term limits that essentially prevent legislators from getting experience in government. Special interests get stronger.

Voters then throw in propositions to carve out more and more of the budget. They throw in one to force the state to carve out a % for education. Of course, we love that cause. Then there's one for after school programs to get underprivileged kids off the street. We love that, too. Well then there's tougher sentencing. We got to be safe, so let's build more prisons. Then transportation related fees can only go for transportation projects. That makes sense, doesn't it? Then there's bonds for affordable housing, water projects, hospitals, roads, community colleges, universities and more. All of them are advertised as not requiring more taxes.

At some point, we need to make choices. When the rich aren't making as much. When people are losing their jobs and not spending as much, it affects people. Schwarzenegger has made choices - education, cut welfare, child healthcare, elderly homecare and, of course, our parks. He and the legislature did throw those propositions out there to pay for the budget deal - the one with the $15 bil deficit - but no one could understand them, so we voted no.

Democrats have tried to put a budget together which cuts $11 billion, raises some taxes, and uses some accounting gimmicks to balance the budget.

Republicans refuse to raise taxes saying, well, get $26 billion from the budget. That's a 25% decrease over last year's budget. There may be waste, but is there that much? It's hardly responsible.

Now California is issuing IOU's so it doesn't run out of money. In a recession, this is going to hurt more and result in higher interest on future bonds. We end up paying for 0 benefit.

The Federal government, acting all cocky and responsible, says it will not help. "Get your act together," they say as they create a $1.7 trillion deficit. So much for the stimulus. What the Feds giveth, the state taketh away.

This sounds like a mess with everyone playing a high stakes game of chicken. Someone's going to blink, just not me. They discuss having a Constitutional Convention, but what will they decide on then. Where will the courage come? If it's not here, then where will it come.

Well, in my own budget game on the LA Times site, I got to balance with $14 bil in cuts and $12 bil in tax increases. I spared much of the poor for more than sympathy - a desperate person can cause harm to himself and others. But there are real cuts across the board. They will hurt. I'm against taxes solely on the wealthy. If people think something is worth paying for, everyone should pay even if the wealthiest ones pay more. With climate change and the need for more efficient cars, we should be taxing gas a lot more. If people want better education, they should let property taxes rise to pay for it. If we want to get out of the constant LA gridlock, we should pay for usage and build mass transit. However, most people run away when they learn there's a cost for what they want.

In tough times, governments are supposed to live off their reserve budgets. Operating deficits enable those who are having tough times from going desperate. They keep schools operating and highways humming. However, that's not reality. In flush times, people spend more or offer tax cuts. They don't use the extra revenue to pay down debt or build a savings.

The state is ungovernable with all the issues described. It is too diverse. Northern California is far more liberal than the rest of the state. Inland Empire is very conservative. The LA and Orange county area is a mix. Central Valley is a different region altogether. The reason for all these crazy paralyzing rules is because no one trusts each other. In Palo Alto, we can get parcel money for schools and a bond passed for the library. It's because we see the impact. County-wide transportation taxes have passed, because we drive these roads. However, people don't see the personal and collective impact of a lifting of Prop 13, something that would bring greater financial stability.

So the showdown continues. Schwarzenneger has until 2010. While there probably are more skillful legislative executive, we chose him. He's decided to push for reform with this crisis. Here are some of my thoughts:

This Year's Budget
- Go for balancing the budget with no gimmicks or clever accounting tricks
- Cut half of the $13 billion across programs, sparing the poor and elderly
- Increase taxes to make up the difference: especially gas taxes and auto fees, whatever taxes are raised should be across the Board with progressivity towards the wealthy

Future Reforms
- Benchmark against other states: California should have economies of scale that others do not have. We should not have the 6th larget tax burden in the country.
- End Prop 13, let money raised go directly to school districts. Let locals their own show. Drop the crazy 2/3rds vote. There are 2 houses and an executive veto for a reason.
- Every proposition must be paid for through taxes or cutting something. Even better would be to eliminate mandated carve outs for programs regardless of how much we love them
- Enact tolls throughout the highway system to pay for mass transit infrastructure. I love my car but I'd love to get around with better transit.
- Create a $1 gas tax with 25 cents phased in every year over a 4 year period. Have it improve infrastructure. Long term this drives new business to the state
- Push for a better balance of Fed money vs. today's outflow. There's always the threat to break the state into pieces to get more Senate pull. A break up would enable more responsive government.

It's unlikely that compromise will be reached. More likely are IOU's, potential bond default, and a Constitutional Convention. It would not be beyond the pale for California to break into multiple states to enable more responsive government. This may be the best solution of all...

Position2 - New Logo, New Site, New Solutions

2009-06-14T01:12:00.001-07:00

On Monday June 15, we will be releasing the new Position2 logo, site and solution set. We've been working hard on our technology development and will release a new suite of products based on our Surround and Intent Marketing methodology. These offerings grouped as Online Brand Solutions, Customer Acquisition Solutions and Technology Solutions.

Thanks to our current clients who helped us get to this point. Thanks to the Position2 team for burning the midnight oil to put all this together while taking good care of our clients.

From Brand Defender to Performance Leads to our Autobid Engine, our suite of products will encompass everything a marketer needs to enable continuous growth in a flat economy. Our offerings are data driven and encompass best-in-class technology developed through real life customer experience. Social Media Marketing, SEO, PPC, media planning & buying, creative and technology are all ingredients to these customer focused solutions. They are baked in together rather than separate activities.

So this Monday, feel free to let us know what you think.

Best,

Rajiv

Preview - Lyris Social Media Marketing Webinar: CPR for Email Marketing

2009-06-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday, June 17th, I will be speaking at a Lyris sponsored webinar: Social Media Marketing: CPR for Email Marketers in a Challenging Economy. For all those interested in viewing the webinar, I thought I'd give you a preview of the talk. We will focus on the integration of Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing (SMM) in a flat economy. Email marketing is a powerful tool to drive customer acquisition, however there's been a significant impact by increased mailbox sizes, spam filters and the explosion of messaging. We will go beyond the typical examples of how Twitter or a Facebook app can drive people to your site. Rather, the discussion will center around the phenomena of social networks, the rapidly expanding usage, and how email and social media can work together. No, social media will not replace email. With all the different types of messaging, email usage keeps increasing. And it works... how many newsletters do you subscribe to?

There will be specific steps, guidance and case examples of this integration in 4 areas: brand building, customer acquisition, customer retention and product launches. The idea is to demonstrate how business of all sizes can achieve continuous growth using both as a means of building and enhancing customer relationships. As customers delay decision cycles, it enhances the brand to surround them with your messaging wherever they goWe will not just discuss the big brands, rather how any business can use this cost effectively to get ahead of their competition. At Position2, we enjoy sharing some of the techniques we've seen and integrated into our solutions.

Erick Mott of Lyris will discuss how the Lyris uses social media to enhance their email marketing efforts. He gives an excellent behind-the-scenes look on how Lyris got this webinar to have the largest registration size ever. Let's just say in the thousands. Any company would be happy with that result.

Karen McNaughton of In-Touch Survey Systems will describe how her company uses the Lyris platform to manage her email and social media efforts. It's pretty interesting on how it comes together.

We'll take questions as well, so feel free to ask away. As long as you don't ask about how Twitter and Facebook will monetize their efforts, we are happy to answer :). Our objective is to show you how your company can deal with challenging times and dramatically improve their email marketing with SMM to achieve continuous growth. So sign up - the hour will be well worth it.

2009 Running The Relay for Literacy in India

2009-05-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

This was my second year in running The Relay, a 200 relay marathon from Calistoga to Santa Cruz. I ran it on May 2-3 to raise money for the India Literacy Project, an organization that funds literacy and social development programs in India. Given my current job, I did not have the time to raise money like last year, but my friends and family came through in the last minute. We beat my goal. They were incredibly generous. Thanks to them before the run and some after (yes, you still can donate), it made the whole weekend even more fulfilling.

18 miles may feel like a lot to most people. For a person who considers that a marathon training run, it doesn't seem all that hard. The difference is the hills. There are lots of them, some fairly steep. Then there's the element of time. You want to run it quickly. You want to pass people. You want to help your team win. You may may say, how can you win at 192nd place. Well, we were in a friendly competition with the other ILP teams. And if we were ahead on time, then we wanted to actually pass them at the finish (they had earlier starts). There's very little sleep over the 33 hour period and there's lot of time spent supporting your team and driving from place to place.

We were in Van #2 of Literally Running, so we did not have to drive up Friday night. We got together at 7am at Rina's house. She was our team organizer. Luckily for us, she is uber organized. We didn't have to worry about anything - van, food, water, sleeping arrangement, pain relievers - Rina had it all set up. Plus, she brought her laptop with projected finish times for all of us. Interestingly enough, we were within 15 minutes of her 33 hour projection.

Kumar and I knew each other. Other than Rina from last year, I never met the other guys - Raj, Hari and Vinay. It turned out that everyone got along well. It didn't hurt that we had plenty of space in a 15 person van. We were all into the fun of the run and camaraderie of the cause. In 30 short hours, we would get to know each other really well.

We got to the First Baptist Church in Napa where we would make the exchange with our Van #1 group. We learned that they were running ahead of schedule. We were as well. We got there at 10 for a 1 pm exchange. That left us with lots of time to hang out, eat cookie and have a spaghetti lunch. I even took a short 15 minute nap on the floor mats.

Here's a shot of some of us inside the church with all those delicious donated cookies in the background:

It was fun to get going, but I was running leg 12. That means I would get to finish the race, but it also meant a long wait. It was raining all morning and into the day, so I was hoping for a light rain. Luckily the time passed quickly as we would stop and root for our team members. It kept it interesting - stopping every couple of miles, taking pictures and handing off drinks.

I got lucky in running leg 12 in Petaluma. It was around sunset, so I got the rolling vineyards of Napa Valley just as the rain cleared. Since I was concerned about the wind and relative chilliness, I went with the long sleeve shirt. This leg was considered hard. Not as hard as leg 10 for Hari - very hard, but it had climbs up to 500 feet over the 5 mile leg. I enjoy hills. I love the burn as you grind up a hill. For some reason, there's a sense of fulfillment when you can power up without walking or stopping. I'm more torque than speed - not the fastest in the flats, but give me a good hill any day, and I'm game.

Here are a few shots of my first leg - leg 12:

After the handoff at the Marin French Cheese Company, we got out of there quickly to grab dinner at San Francisco. We had a few hours until 12:30 am to get the hand off from Van #1 on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge for our am run. Here's a picture of our team with the Van #2 team of the 3 R's team at the Pasta Pomodoro in SF:

We then went to the Golden Gate bridge to run our next leg. For some reason, I couldn't sleep, so I ended up doing some driving and a lot of support for my teammates. Here's a shot of a handoff between Vinay and Raj at Ocean Beach in SF:

I got to make my run right around sunrise. I couldn't see any sun as it was a fogged in, cloudy, misty morning. But I was fired up to run the 6 miles of leg 24. This was a moderate course that ran along Crystal Lake around the San Mateo area. Even though the wind was blowing, I was fairly warm and just ready to go. I really enjoyed the rolling hills of this one to Canada College. There a great team of women who rooted for me every mile. They were following one of their runners and went to town for me. It's one thing for your team to pull for you. It's another when its just a random group doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that run. I'm sure some of the guys were taking naps. The support was still great. As usual, I got to sprint the finish and hand off to Smita from Van #1.

After that, we were close enough to home to eat and sleep at Kumar's house. I got to take my first shower in 24 hours and 2 runs. Then, I took a nap for an hour before we left to the next handoff point up by Skyline for the run through the Santa Cruz mountains.

At this point, we were ahead of all the other teams in time, but not in terms of finish. Due to Vinay's amazing run down the hill, we actually had a shot of passing Chai Latte. That would mean beating them by 30 minutes. That became the challenge. To a group that liked having something to shoot for, we now had our goal. As Rina was running, Kumar and I decided we could catch them. Given that Hari was fast, he would set it up. Kumar had leg 35, a hard course through the hills, while I had leg 36 a mostly downhill chase to the finish. Since I enjoy running up hills and have run with Ajit (my friendly competitor at Chai Latte), I felt I could come close. We figured he would run all the way through the first 4 miles, then walk up the last couple where the hills were steep. Then Kumar could close the deal.

I did as much as I could. I did well on the first hill. After that, I was surprised at how steep down it went. I passed a number of folks, but I became uncomfortable. I don't usually like to go that fast because I don't want to burn out too early. It's all about conserving energy. Still I let gravity guide me. Maybe it was the rain or some other glitch, but my running meter was off. This time on the low side. I had no idea how much longer I would go down or what my real speed was. I use this typically to slow myself down and prepare for the hills. These sorts of things play with your head, but I tried my best to put it out of my mind. I finally hit the hills, and it was even harder than I thought. I tried to run all the way up, but had to walk. It was simply too steep. My team was very supportive all the way through. They told me everyone was walking up. In the past, I would still want to run up, but this time, I just said to myself to do what I could do and conserve energy. Don't get overly obsessed. There was a ways to go and it was more important to enjoy the ride rather than beat some silly time. So I walked as long as it made sense and took in the amazing scene. It was like walking the misty woods in New Hampshire - only with redwoods instead of pine. Then I ran after I caught my breath. And I was able to make my normal sprint to the finish to hand off to Kumar. Here are some shots.

After the handoff to Kumar, we made our way to the finish. The excitement of the race overtook him. As a fellow overachiever, Kumar ran way too hard on the downhill, and fought his way to the finish. Hari and I ran with him for the last half mile to cross the finish line.

After 33 hours, we finished. It was an amazing adventure. It was full of all kinds of challenges. We met all sorts of folks and enjoyed ourselves. Doing something like this is always fun with a dedicated group of people. You train harder and get to know interesting people. Most of all, you get to help a great cause.

Here are some finish line pics of Van #2 and the whole Literally Running Team. Someone else got the whole group.

If anyone wants to join us next year, let us know. And yes, you can still donate.

Sponsor Rajiv's Run for Literacy

2009-04-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

This is my second year running the The Relay, a 199 mile, 12 member team run from Calistoga to Santa Cruz. My cause is literacy, specifically the India Literacy Project. I had such an amazing time last year running 18 miles that I just had to do it again - along with 59 of my running friends. Please help me make a difference.

Why am I doing this?
Beyond being a glutton for punishment, I am volunteering for the India Literacy Project (ILP), an organization that promotes literacy in India. My goal is to raise more than we did last year because the need is greater and impact is tremendous.

Literacy is a powerful tool of personal and community development. If you can take one child and teach them to read and write, you can change their world. That child does not have to live a life of hard labor or be blind to all the amazing books that he or she can read. She can learn on her own, teach her kids and make her life better than her parents. She may even be the next great scientist or entrepreneur.

Look at this ILP sponsored project. ILP is funding a mass scale literacy project touching thousands of children in 225 villages. This will be done for $40k or $200 per village! How often can you have so much leverage to make a big difference? It truly shows how every contribution helps - large or small.

The literacy rate in India is less than 60%. Projects supported by ILP include: educating kids forced into child labor, providing vocational training to unskilled youth and building functional skills for illiterate adults. Over the last eighteen years, ILP has distributed over $1.5 million benefiting 100,000 women & children.

Make a difference
Please join me in helping the India Literacy Project. So drop in that credit card and pour your heart out. When you do, I'll even go out of my way to thank you publicly :).

Click here to sponsor. Scroll down when you reach the page.

And yes, your donation is 100% tax deductible.

Thank you!

Taking the Plunge

2009-04-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

In honor of the title of my blog, I've decided to quote every article that has "take the plunge" or a close derivative. Think of this like a drinking game. If you find an article, send it to me and take a shot of Petrone.

First, the definition from thefreedictionary.com:

take the plunge Informal

To begin an unfamiliar venture, especially after hesitating: After a three-year engagement, they're finally taking the plunge.

Now the articles:
* The Governor's Mr. Fix-It - NY Times editorial - July 9, 2009
"We don’t know yet whether it was legal, but Gov. David Paterson of New York was right to take the plunge and name a lieutenant governor in an effort to break the increasingly damaging stalemate in Albany."

* Take the plunge at amusement parks - Detroit Free-Press - May 17, 2009
"Beware the Diamondback, the new steel roller coaster at Kings Island that plunges at 80 miles per hour into the Lagoon of Doom." Almost literal.

* Astronomers take virtual plunge into black hole - CNN.com - April 27, 2009
New word - "spaghettification." That's what happens if you fall in one, seriously.

* Obama sees signs of better Cuba and Venezuela ties - April 19, 2009
"Obama took a plunge into Latin America ... We created a new way of viewing each other and of overcoming our differences by debating them," Lula (Brazilian President) told reporters."

* Despite Challenges, Doctors Take Digital Plunge - npr.org - March 25, 2009
Despite these concerns, she (Dr. Fishman) and her partners have decided to take the plunge. "As of May," she says, "we will no longer have paper. If anything is on paper, it will go on computer."

7 Steps to Wealth While Killing Startups

2009-04-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

I know this entrepreneur who has made himself wealthy while his companies have never caught fire. In fact most have or will die - not necessarily because the idea is bad, but because this entrepreneur unconsciously kills the company. People live their lives in patterns and this person is no different. So for my friend who asked me to send this as an email, I will instead put it into a post:

7 Steps:

1. Ideation: come up with an idea that matches some current or emerging trend. Talk it up with the network. Get a bunch of people excited.
2. Pre-funding: get angels in or put some of your money in. This is critical for the next step.
3. Funding: get friends and angels to push a fund to put significant money in. Critical to this transaction is to take "some" of your money off the table to "allow" the fund to buy in.
4. Buildup: hire management, build up the product or service. In fact, keep hiring "better" because it keeps existing people literally on their toes.
5. Slash back: as soon as the concept is ready in beta form, slash back - cut people and spending. The buildup was excessive, the released product is not ready or the pricing needs to be slashed - pick one or multiple - even use the "economy." Then, put in significant constraints on whoever is left in the company. Definitely do not invest in any significant marketing.
6. New Ideation: the previous idea did not take hold, not enough people are using it, the trend has passed. Kill it while talking up the new new idea.
7. Rinse and repeat, but do it fast enough so people don't wonder what happened to your previous concepts. Each time you are making money, so judging success or is difficult.

Do you know anyone like this? This person is always into the new thing. His or her superbright mind is always churning. They are uber salespeople and networkers, but not necessarily ones that can create successes. Since we all tend to stay within existing patterns, I'm sure there are many. Please share your story.

G20 Adopts Obama Marketing

2009-04-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed the signs Obama administration talks? When Treasury Secretary Geithner presents anything there's the blue banners with words like "Reform," "Recovery," "Stability." Check out the recent G20 meeting. Not only do they want you to know about the subject of the meeting, but they also want you to know that they are about "Stability," "Growth," and "Jobs."

You have to love how good our President is in marketing himself when the world adopts his methods. You have to love a marketing oriented president.

I think I'm going to have a placard when I speak at events - Rajiv Parikh, CEO - Amazing, Sharp, Buy.

VC Saga: A New Beginning

2009-03-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

In an entrepreneur's life every day is truly a new day. Yesterday may have been a disaster, but today can bring a new high. Well, for my friendly entrepreneur, yesterday was a fabulous day (see article one and two of this saga). Though rejected when the groom did not show at the altar, this entrepreneur kept right on pitching. She was rewarded with a new term sheet - a new lease on life! It was a time to celebrate anew, especially in a tight credit market where investors are scared to touch anything new (we're celebrating tonight).

It is a credit to my friend and her team that they found a way to draw inside themselves to keep moving on. The engineers and scientists did whatever they could, working in garages and donated laboratories to move the technology along. She had done this before. There was a whole group of folks that weren't going to give up because one VC acted like an idiot. If virtual paper pitch was not good enough, at least they could show technical progress. The more progress, the more likely things would work out. Not only did they make progress, some of the new discoveries are brand new to science. Yeah, it's that cool. It will solve a significant medical testing issue that can impact every budding family.

It's a new VC this time. This one is truly early stage that is associated with a much larger one. They have a strong, supportive track record. Given that the entrepreneur shamed the previous VC to pay legal costs for not coming through (a first), there's even a little upside in the process.

Now, this is not over yet. A term sheet does not mean money in the bank, and lightning can strike. However, if you truly believe and make the right connections, eventually you're company will get off the ground. It won't be the fairy tale that the press likes to dream up (like the silly pez dispenser stuff), but you'll get there. Even in a down economy!

Optimism and the Economy

2009-03-09T22:42:00.000-07:00

For those who are looking for some good news, this is a great little opinion piece on the bright side of the economy by Justin Fox of Time Magazine. It's called "Call Me Mr. Sunshine." Since the magazine has sliced up the article to force you to look at 6 pages of ads, here's a little summary below (with some of my thoughts)

1. The stock market is no longer overpriced.
Justin says that because stocks are way down, they have essentially priced in the ugliest economic scenario. Stocks are fairly priced or "downright cheap." He's right there are stocks like Cisco with a P/E ratio of 10 or GE at 4.8. They may fall, but the prospect for a turnaround is great now than ever. Having the falling knives dulled? You might want to play with modest amounts priced in over time, or wait. I like the idea of wedging in.

2. The government is on the case.
"Don't laugh." Compared to the Great Depression or Japan's Lost Decade, the US authorities are taking action. Depending on how you look at it, there's over $2 trillion on stimulus from the US alone. That does not include lower gas prices and the diplomacy dividend from being friendly to rogue governments.

3. Consumers are adjusting to the new economic reality - and fast.
Americans are adjusting quickly. Savings rates have gone from negative to 5% in January. Eventually, people will buy things. When you go from buying 16 million cars a year to 10 million, eventually your car will break and you'll have to buy a new one. The bottom line is when a contraction is rapid, there's a greater chance of a bounceback. Having a savings rate is actually a good thing in the long term as is staying within your means. Now, I've heard many arguments about how because of the credit and foreclosure crises, that somehow this one is different. I also remember hearing in 2000 how the internet was the end of the business cycle.

4. Reinvention and change are what the US is all about.
This is a distinctly American strength - the flexibility of people and the economy. Americans are willing to be retrained, to relocate, to try something new. We have moved from manufacturing to services. While real estate and financial services were prominent before, it does not mean success comes only through those fields. Something new always springs forth. Fox points out that the unfair advantage of the US is the strength of the dollar as a reserve currency.

5. OK, so I couldn't think of a fifth reason. Maybe you have one to spare?
Fox doesn't have a fifth, other than to say he was a pessimist in 2007 and 2008. I would say there are some other encouraging signs - the reemergence of commercial paper, GE's ability to issue bonds, WalMart same store sales going up, and the support of the new administration. For the latter, it shows that Americans are optimistic about their new leader. The value of one party in power is that the rules tend to be known. From a policy and regulatory standpoint, there is less of the normal back-and-forth. When there's certainty, businesses will find a way to make money.

And optimism is what gets money flowing again....

Creating a Culture of Responsibility

2009-02-26T03:43:00.000-08:00

After listening to years of happy talk, it is great to see that Pres. Obama is confronting America's problems in a straightforward way with honest solutions to address them. I especially appreciate his 10 year budget which includes costs for wars, health care and bailout money. He includes the sunset of tax cuts for those families over $250k and additional increases. The Bush administration loved to have it both ways - have a tax cut with all sorts of "unanticipated" expenses like the continual supplementary authorizations for the war in Iraq or spending on hurricane relief while lowering the overall perceived deficit even though they wanted the tax cuts to go on forever. It was a mirage designed to fool Wall Street and Main Street.

At the same time, there is still a ways to go. Social Security tax surpluses are still included in the budget "reducing" the perceived deficit by over $100 billion. This trick was put in during the Johnson administration and needs to be removed. We also need to account for all the risks taken on with things like the Medicare, bank, pension and farm insurance. If we expect companies to account for future liabilities today, we should be honest with ourselves of the cost of them and account for them appropriately. If we plan to put execs in jail for deceptive accounting, our government officials should be accountable as well.

Americans want universal health care, infrastructure spending, and carbon caps to reduce greenhouse gases. We want the best military in the world with presence all over the world to promote our agenda. We want the best educational system as well as investments in cutting edge R&D. We want to get out from foreign oil dependence and we want to build new transmission lines to remotely sourced renewable energy.

At the same time we want to reduce taxes on working Americans while taxing wealthy Americans and corporations. This may make sense as a balancing act, but it still produces massive deficits. We need to bring in a new culture of responsibility. There's no such thing as something for nothing.

If we want to spend on infrastructure while improving efficiency, we need to increase taxes on oil. CAFE limits are interesting but they are really a dodge. Nothing works better than higher gas prices to push people to buy more fuel efficient cars or use mass transit.

If we want renewable energy, we need to tax carbon emissions and push for renewable energy minimums. That will cost more for users of energy now to build solar and wind farms as well as the transmission capacity. However, it will incent us for energy efficiency now, net future reduction in foreign oil imports and slow the impact of climate change.

If you want universal health care and be more competitive as a nation, saddling businesses with the cost of health care only pushes companies to go to lower cost countries. And yes, that includes Canada where businesses do not have to worry about that burden. Americans pay for healthcare one way or another - in the form of lower wages, higher product costs and higher taxes to cover those who use "free" emergency care. The money has to come from somewhere. If we increased our personal taxes and eliminated this cost to companies, more companies would set up operations in the US. They may pay workers more. With health insurance costing $8k per family, if a worker makes $40k per year, that's 20% on top of at least 10% in Social Security, Medicare and other benefits. Simply because it is "hidden" to the worker does not mean it is not there. All businesses factor that into decision-making on personnel compensation cost and in terms of where to locate. We know we need more preventative care to reduce overall costs and the only way to get there is to make it universal. It will cost more now, but will pay off in the future. We just need to make it more transparent because there is no such thing as free care. Not only that, the current system confers advantages to large companies over small ones because their health care cost per worker is lower. It is nothing to do with product or service innovation. If we want to encourage entrepreneurship because it is the greatest source of new jobs, we need to equalize some of the advantages of scale.

If you want free universal preschools, lower class sizes, better teachers, then we all should pay for it. We want college for all those who can afford it. We know that in the long term we all win by having a more educated and innovative workforce, so we should be willing to pay. This would also encourage knowledge intensive companies to locate here because they want to access clusters of well-educated workers. And we should be open to giving visas to immigrants who get higher education degrees here. They help to raise the bar for all of us.

We are spending over $500 billion on base defense costs in 2009. This does not include another $140 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. We spend far more on defense than the world combined. Our troops and ships are in over 100 countries and in every sea. This an invaluable contribution to world peace and commerce. But isn't it time for other countries to pay their fair share. We should be the best in technology and ability to fight, but do we really need to be buying F22 fighter jets at $350 mil a piece? Especially since they require so much maintenance that they are only available 60% of the time.

Obama has been offering Americans straight talk, but we need to pay for the things we want. A $8 reduction in weekly tax per worker reduced taxes by $250 billion. $8 a week is not a lot of money. Maybe, it buys a couple unhealthy meals at McDonalds. Do we really change our spending behavior based on this? Wouldn't we be better off in increasing our taxes by the $8, so we can pay for all of these initiatives. Aren't these investments going to net us great benefits for the future?

As I travel the world, I see other countries ahead of the US in infrastructure and education. In Europe, mass transit is a dream - it's clean and efficient, no need for a car. In Singapore and Thailand, you should see the roads and buildings in big cities. The airports in China, Japan and Korea are awe-inspiring. In India, there are gleaming corporate centers filled with super smart hard working people willing to work all day and night.

If we want to continue as a prosperous nation, we need to get out of the something for nothing mentality and start realistically investing in our future. Obama has taken an amazing first step. He has the gift of speaking in a way that is realistic while inspiring hope. Now, I hope he will now take us all the way.

Time to Bring Financial Wizards Back to Earth

2009-01-31T20:41:00.000-08:00

When you read today's Wall Street Journal about the outrage over Wall Street bonuses, there's a telling quote at the end:

"From 2002 to 2008, the five biggest Wall Street securities firms paid an estimated $190 billion in bonuses. Those companies churned out $76 billion in combined profits during the same period. Last year, the companies had a combined net loss of $25.3 billion, yet paid bonuses of roughly $26 billion."

That means securities firms would have broken even had they done what most responsible firms would do - rein in controllable expenses. When you are burning investor cash, you need to find a way to make a profit, not overpay people who are losing money for you. However, Wall Street doesn't work that way, they think they actually deserve multi-million dollar bonuses for their work. They say they work a tremendous amount of work and have specialized knowledge. Well, given the unbelievable damage they have caused the world economy, that specialized knowledge was not so valuable after all.

I know I'm going to get in trouble here as a number of my friends have made fortunes on Wall Street. I have a lot of respect for those in the investment banking and financial field, but it's about time the field gets called out for its abuses.

In one of his famous letters to shareholders, Warren Buffett discussed how financial executives were not creating value with derivatives and hedge funds as much as they were simply moving money around and taking more for themselves. First came the financial advisor, then the mutual fund manager, then the hedge fund manager. At at stage, the financial manager, would move around the same investments, continually taking more for himself. Derivatives were extreme forms of this practice as they were highly leveraged to supercharged returns with little clarity of the underlying risk.

I will acknowledge that efficiency reduces interest rates by providing greater transparency and assessment of risk. However, as an electrical engineer who used to take electives like multidimensional calculus of imaginary number for fun, even I had a hard time understanding the models. I have a feeling that these folks used complex spreadsheets that spit a decision without knowing what they were doing.

There was so much money to be made that instead of going into electrical engineering, our top minds went into financial engineering. When I heard that 1st year Harvard MBA's were going paid $350k to go into hedge funds, you knew there was a problem. Real engineers create new products and technologies that transform our lives. Financial engineers move money around - valuable - but its not like creating the next generation solar array or the Dreamliner. For a while there, people thought that becoming the financial and retail center of the world was the way to go. The last year has shown us how dangerous that is.

Financial supermarkets like Citibank and Bank of America have been widely discredited. Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Bear Stern has shown the disaster of overleverage. AIG - that's $150 billion of taxpayer money - and still going.

Obama labelled executive bonuses as, "Outrageous!" It is my hope that this is the beginning of a new era. We will reconsider our devotion to these financial gods who create exotic ways of manufacturing money out of whole cloth.

My message to you: No, you do not deserve extraordinary compensation when you need a taxpayer bailout. You failed and must be held accountable. Saying that, "Nobody saw this coming," is a lame excuse. For years, you've been claiming millions of dollars in wealth for working for brand names while shifting money around. You've demanded accountability from the companies you invest in. It's time to take some of your own message. You too, Robert Rubin. I love your service for the Clinton administration, but you sat by at Citibank allowing the firm to use diversification to create even greater risk.

I love Sen McCaskill's new bill limiting bailout executive compensation to beneath Pres Obama's pay. That's no more than $400k in overall comp. As mentioned in my previous blog, it should be lower - like $200k. These corporations are riskless. They have the US government as a backstop. It's hard to argue that the CEO of Bank of America is worth more than the Defense Secretary. Robert Gates is responsible for America's security. Kenneth Lewis runs one of many big banks. It's a bank that needs to be broken up. One bad decision and we all pay. Maybe we should use the bailout money to seed fund the start-up of new banks. Maybe they will actually lend with reasonable underwriting standards.

John Thain is a true fraud. Earlier, he saved the NYSE, but decided to cash in at Merrill. He attempted to ensure traders and execs got bonuses while Merrill lost $15 bil in a quarter. Let's not even talk about the $1 million in furnishing his office. And who is backstopping these losses - not Bank of America - it's the United States of America.

Since Obama did not take money from corporations and PACs, he can truly lead a change of culture. Move away from crony capitalism where the richer can lobby and pay their way to get richer. Move to a culture where real innovation is rewarded and excessive pay is diminished. Rather than putting limit on compensation, bring back high marginal tax rates. For income over $1 mil/year bring back the 50% marginal tax rate. You made that money because the US system gave you an advantage. There are soldiers around the world protecting your ability to make wealth. Your access to government officials enable you to get special tax and business breaks. You have a legal framework to ensure that contracts are actually enforced. It's your responsibility to pay for the system that provides you that benefit. I'm not talking about capital gains on a startup - those investors and management create real value without government officials bailing them out. I'm talking about the proponents of the supposed death tax.

The free ride is over - it's time to change.

Update to the Position2 Team

2009-01-27T16:00:00.001-08:00

In the spirit of openness, I wanted to share an email I sent to the Position2 team. It's been edited a little to protect confidentiality and add context. Given the market uncertainty, I wanted my team to understand my thoughts. We have realigned our focus and have made cuts. And the same time we are adding business and people. Sound confusing? Well, read on.

Position2 Team,
Many of you heard from your manager about the recent changes at Position2. I wanted to update you on what is occurring in the company, especially in terms of what we see in the market.

The Market Storm
Everywhere you read, everywhere you look, the news is ugly. Banks in trouble, companies laying off or slashing payrolls, consumers not buying, foreclosures up, venerable auto and retail firms at risk of bankruptcy or liquidation. It does not matter if it’s in the US, Europe, India, Russia or the Bahamas – it’s everywhere. The global economy has not diversified risks. It has only magnified them. It used to be fun every morning to read the Wall Street Journal. Now, I read a book about something else as every news article is a rehash the same thing. We discussed this when I was in Bangalore. It has definitely impacted Silicon Valley. Companies are not getting funded. Many are just being cut off by their backers. You can go to my blog to read about a personal saga of an entrepreneur I know well. There are storms and there are storms. This one is one of those once every century ones.

Impact on Us
Our market is impacted. Online ad spend has been projected to slow its growth, however the reality has been quite different. Even those who have successful campaigns have cut back (with some notable exceptions). The constant stream of bad news has caused businesses to pause and cut back in one of the easiest (though not smartest) places – marketing and vendors. We have been in various talks with firms looking to break their arrangement with us. Luckily, our agreements were well written enough and performance strong enough to provide a strong defense and favorable resolution. Many of the deals we were going after either slowed or stopped decision-making altogether. We are not out of the woods completely, but it is stabilizing. We do have a strong client base that is mixed across a variety of industries, because of our performance, there are growth opportunities with them especially as the market stabilizes.

Aligning our Cost Base
In this market with limited funding opportunities and uncertainties in the market, we needed to be solidly in cash flow positive. To get there we have instituted an x% pay cut with a new bonus program. In this program, for every cash flow positive quarter our team will receive y% of the net positive cash flow in a proportionate manner. This will be paid on a quarterly basis and replaces all other bonus programs. While many companies have simply cut at greater levels, we believe that this will allow us the ability to work together to not only earn back our pay, but exceed it.

We have also realigned our sales and marketing effort. The team is a little leaner, but more effective. Our team has identified and are pursuing a number of significant opportunities.

These moves keep us solidly in cash flow positive territory. This is a shift from our previous focus on faster growth through direct clients. That does not mean will not hire or spend money – we definitely will. We need certain hires to support client or company development initiatives. We need to improve our infrastructure to increase productivity and communications internally and externally. It simply means we all need to be careful about how we spend our money and aligns all of our collective interests.

Future Outlook – We Will Flourish
Because of our cost base and our diversification, we have excellent prospects for the future. With a strong investor in Accel, we are getting excellent leads. We continue to market across our network. Given our search and social media marketing experience and company infrastructure, we are focusing more strongly towards agencies. In the past, many of the agencies we worked with too small and unsophisticated about this space. Now, we are reaching larger players who know this space, have hiring freezes and margin pressure. Recently we closed major internet brand for search marketing services. We also closed on a major project with a significant search marketing agency. We are also engaged with other large agency players. Online advertising and marketing services is a relationship-based sale. You cannot simply advertise reputation, features and prices as in traditional marketing, people need to know you. It’s our job to enhance that through programs that help people understand who we are and how we think. That’s where Position2 marketing comes in – we all need to be engaged in it: blogging, social networking, speaking at conferences, participating in industry forums, etc. One person can’t do it all, we all have to help.

The best news now is the US has a President who has broad support the world. The best thing Obama can do is instill confidence in the future, so that decisions can finally be made. There are some signs of a turn in a stabilizing stock market, increases in home sales and a large worldwide stimulus package. I personally have raised money during the 2000 tech bust and have seen recessions where US unemployment, interest rates and inflation were at double digits - even worse than today. Just as oil prices could not go up linearly forever, nor will people and businesses continue to withhold purchasing and stop innovation. Great companies were started in previous downturns – GE, Cisco, Microsoft, HP and Disney. There's no reason to believe that this recession will be different

We certainly can flourish – and we will.

Go Position2!

-Rajiv

VC Saga - Part 2

2008-12-11T23:51:00.000-08:00

The other day, I wrote about the entrepreneur that had the funding pulled after final docs were done. The saga continues. She called the partner on the deal and requested legal expense reimbursement. The VC kept talking about "trust" and their long list of satisfied entrepreneurs. The least they could do is pay for legal expenses incurred for deal negotiation and IP diligence. Since every VC attorney needs to run up fees on a "standard" deal negotiating all kinds of "critical items," this entrepreneur had a $75k bill. She had to either had to pay, shut the company down/restart, or negotiate to have the next funder pay for it (ha-ha).

The VC responded with a whole bunch of excuses like this was against their "corporate" policy and that the next VC could move through the deal faster. However, this entrepreneur had been around the block a few times and called him out on it. Every VC's counsel has all sorts of issues in every supposedly standard document. And IP diligence is completely custom. People embarrassed themselves by quitting then coming back to their jobs because they were assured that diligence was completed and the wire was ready.

At this point the entrepreneur was waiting for a further discussion with the senior partner...

Till next time....

Here's some other related items I will blog about:

- My friend who just did an inside round that washed out founders and previous investors.
- My view on the big business vs entrepreneurial risk
- Why these Preferred terms need to be eliminated
- Some positive outcomes of this recession

"Trust Me" said the VC

2008-12-07T21:27:00.000-08:00

Someone very close to me was very excited to close funding of a new concept company. The technology her team was creating was going to revolutionize health care for a significant segment of the population and had many follow-on applications. She had a term sheet from top quality VC's. She had a high powered team with amazing researchers from all over the country. The market was a concern, but apparently these investors were well-financed. They repeated consistently that they had money in the bank for tranche 1, tranche 2 and wanted flexibility in the terms, because they felt more money was required in tranche 2. They had daily conversations with the CEO which were described as open, honest and helpful. Some issues did come up, but they always do. The VC asked if the CEO "trusted" them when typical founding team protections were requested. Their reputations were so solid, the VC said, that this was nothing to worry about. They only invest in 1 deal a year, so they back their teams to the hilt.

Everything was moving quickly, final papers were in the CEO's mailbox, the money was about to be wired, then Friday at 4 PM....

...the bottom fell out. Apparently "market conditions" was affecting the bigger brand name of the 2 venture firms. They were going to have a meeting on Monday, but they would not be going forward. It was nothing the team did, it was just "market conditions." This was not a term sheet falling apart in diligence. Everything form of diligence was done - management, technology, market, IP, and on and on. This was final paperwork. The deal was going to close on Friday, but the opposing counsel was not available for a couple of days, so Tuesday was the date. Well, at least the CEO thought it was.

Later we find out, the firm has been under incredible disarray for months. It's clear "the denominator effect" was impacting them. That, and the inability of limited partners to cycle funds through hedge funds. This was one of the most powerful and well known funds on Sand Hill Road. A friend of mine who runs a late stage fund told me, "Rajiv, don't believe anything a VC tells you today. When there's no money for the next couple of years, you'll see all kinds of strange behavior. It's going to be ugly."

Luckily, the CEO-to-be and her team are able to get their jobs back. Though they have to deal with the fact that everyone knew they were leaving, but they are needed.

So a fundamental innovation that would improve healthcare and reduce cost is delayed. The uncertain financial market has created even more victims.

Of course, what this VC has done is unforgivable. This will definitely be called out in the TheFunded.com. It's one thing to pull out during term sheet diligence, it's another to bail at the close. Frankly, there should be a financial penalties for bailing out. Trust goes both ways - the more protection you want, the more you should be willing to give. There's no free ride, my friends.

Note: I decided not to name names to prevent unintended consequences - at least for now.

UAW Pitches In

2008-12-03T23:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I blogged about GM's marketing failure. Today was some great news in how UAW workers decided to help automakers overcome their cost disadvantage over Toyota, Honda and other US transplants. Nothing motivates folks like a crisis and the specter of complete industry disaster. If the Big Three went down, we would still buy cars from Toyota and others. The biggest problem would be that they employee nonunion labor. While these firms work with unions in Japan, the UAW has been recalcitrant in work rules, job classifications and benefit costs. When you fight against workers taking on multiple functions, defection and productivity enhancements, you run against the notion that everyone is a partner in the success of the firm.

It helped tremendously that executives cut inordinate bonuses, perks and reduced salaries. It was smart and gutsy for Wagoner and Mullaly to take $1 salaries from their previous millions. That made it easier to swallow getting rid of the senseless job bank, delaying paying into the health trust, and helping in the transition to lower cost workers. Unions should mean protection from potential labor abuse, but it should also mean being an active partner in the success of the firm. Automakers didn't help either - paying large bonuses and option grants while slashing the work force and producing poor vehicles. It was not hard to see why unions would take an antagonistic stance.

I still believe they should do a prepackaged bankruptcy with government financing, as it will allow automakers to truly cleanse their liabilities and start afresh. With the unions and management pitching in maybe this crisis can actually turn out positively.

The GM Mess - A Marketing Perspective

2008-12-02T22:39:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite pastimes was to read about the automotive business. While other kids were playing videogames or watching TV, when I was young my favorite reading was about cars and business. Fortune articles were some of my favorites. Reading the latest GM article in Fortune, "Death of an American Dream," recounted the 20+ years of trials and tribulations ending with how it has fallen to less than 2% of Toyota's market value. As a marketing guy, one thing struck me the most in how far GM strayed from some of the basics of branding. Durant and subsequently Sloan make GM a great company because they personalized the car from Ford's Model T. They may have shared components and management techniques, but each vehicle brand had a unique design and feel with differential pricing and features to distinguish it from other companies. The company rose to have over 50% market share of the US market, becoming the envy of the world.

How did things go so wrong? The list is long but I will do my best to focus on marketing. In terms of product, GM started taking each model platform and basically changed the grill slightly and then priced based on the brand. The Chevy Cavalier was the same as the Cadillac Cimarron - and it showed - based on the economy J car platform. In fact, GM would advertise the development of its platforms - J, X, A - over its brands. You would think they would hide the underlying platform owner so a Cadillac or Buick owner didn't feel like they were being ripped off with an overpriced Chevy, but GM's market dominance made it arrogant. They had strange justifications like they were simply graduating buyers as they made money. Sometimes the cars were so good like the Corvette that it would succeed in spite of Chevy's family-oriented and economy-priced positioning. But the homogenization continued. I still remember going with my parents to shop for an Oldsmobile Cutlass Wagon. The salesperson offered us a whole list of engines sourced from different GM brands and plants.

Over time, model differentiation improved, but brand communication still fell under the GM umbrella. Note the latest green advertising for E85 compatibility where GM headlines the ad with all 8 subbrand logo fall below. Then there's the bunch of hybrids under different brands and the someday to be released Chevy Volt all advertised under the GM brand. It's unclear why a Saab owner would want to know why their cool Euro sporty car is made by the maker of Pontiac. Or knowing that your import equivalent Saturn is a made by the leading domestic player. One of the reasons I bought a BMW 328i was because even though the Audi A4 was cool, it shared components with its VW equivalent - just look under the hood. I've owned VW Rabbits. Solid cars, but its not a sports luxury car like an Audi.

With its capital and rich heritage combined with the creativity of top ad agencies, it's surprising that GM took this marketing approach. When someone is spending a significant percentage of their take home pay, they are going to do some research. In the Internet age, its easy. Undifferentiated product, false tiers, uniform messaging across disparate brands - a recipe for failure. Reading Taylor's GM article, it makes sense.

Oh, Now It's Officially a Recession

2008-12-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

In one of the silliest headlines ever, news sites are reporting that the recession started in December 2007. Apparently, till now, it was unclear. Most news articles were saying up until now that we were probably in a recession, or that we will be in a recession soon and that it will last for a while. Of course, to a person who lost a job, it's been a depression for some time. Nevertheless, it takes us a whole year to officially decide. Then promptly on this news, the Dow drops 680 points. What? Didn't they know already? Weren't previous results and future expectations already priced into equities? So much for the stock market being a predictor of where things are going. If you go back to Dec 2007, the Dow was around 13,000 up a few percentage points from the year earlier. It actually reached 14,000 in October, about the time it should have been predicting this whole thing.

Many of us in business have felt it throughout the year even though the press kept discussing endlessly rising markets. Everything seemed fine from all that you read, except for concern about the housing market. People were concerned about rising fuel prices, but airplanes & hotels were full, people were buying more flat screens, and India & China were growing at unbelievable rates. Then things got ugly with banks failing, foreclosures, bailouts and state revenue deficits. Now, market volatility is at an all time high. Check out the VIX, it's double where it normally is. That means people don't really know what is occurring.

Every article about the economy is now negative. Any positive result is couched with concern, reduced expectations or sometimes disbelief. For example when HP announced positive results, it was almost as if the writer did not believe it because it did not fit into the narrative. There was a great Lexus ad recently in the back page of the Wall Street Journal where they crossed out every negative word in a faux front page leaving... well, very few words.

The whole thing smacks of revisionist history. Yeah, there were foreclosures and a credit crunch, but that was before recession. A long and deep recession was coming. Now, everything must be reassessed because those weren't actually good times. We weren't really making money, working at a decent job or having fun the other day. We were actually in a... er... recession.

Tomorrow, I'll write about what my company, Position2, is doing about the recession.

Mumbai Will Come Back

2008-11-29T20:49:00.001-08:00

Here's an email I sent to our team on Wed, Nov 26th - many of whom either live or have family or friends in Mumbai...

I was sad to learn today about the coordinated attacks on Mumbai today. After just being there a few days ago, I can only hope that none of our team, friends or family were affected. Please let us know if someone we know has been impacted.

Since a number of people were killed or injured, we will look into how we can help our fellow brothers and sisters. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

India has taken a number of hits over the last year. What amazes me is that no matter what happens, India is unbelievably resilient. The beat may skip for a short time, but then it resumes back on schedule. I remember the previous Mumbai rail bombings. In less than a day the rail system was back up and running. People kept on with their lives. When I went there 2 days later, the streets were teeming with people and Mumbai's normal restless energy. The country kept going without the violence of retribution. We hope the same occurs this time.

In the US, we will celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, a day in which friends and families get together to feast and give thanks for all of life's gifts. In the spirit of this day, we will take extra time to remember that with all the challenges and difficulties we encounter, there is more to life. We have each other.

Bailouts and Meltdowns - Accountability for Leaders

2008-11-26T06:28:00.000-08:00

$700 billion this, $800 billion that, $200 billion here, hey throw me $25 billion. The final leg of 8 years of crony capitalism and personal irresponsibility rear their ugly head. During the last 8 years the rich got richer, the stupid get bailed out and if you are too big to fail, you and your company get a free ride from the taxpayers.

Take Citigroup, they have already received $20 billion from taxpayers, now they need another $25 billion. How about AIG, they get $125 billion because the side bets, oh I'm sorry the collateralized debt obligations or CDO, were not truly collateralized by their counterparties. These folks wanted no regulation, got it, but because their system is collapsing, we need to bail them out. Remember, 15 years ago, there was no CDO market, now there are trillons of dollars at risk. That's no mistake my friends, trillions.

People who played conservatively and by the rules have to pay, while overpaid executives take a small hit on their excessive option plans. As an entrepreneur, I've never understood why a Fortune 500 executive gets paid $10, $20, or $100 million a year. These large companies have highly paid staff, brands, customer momentum and during the last 8 years, benefits galore from a bought and paid for government. Anyone that has the luxury to spend millions to hire top firms like McKinsey or Bain to study their company is not really taking personal risk. Oh and if they get fired, there are massive severence packages. The worst of the lot are the Big 3 automakers. They come hat in hand to the taxpayer when they have spent years fighting against fuel economy, safety standards, and legitimate competition. Remember it was not long ago when domestic automakers were able to benefit from voluntary restraints from the Japanese from taking too much market share (remember the 80's). Make crappy cars, get really big, overpay your execs, then come crying to get bailed out.

Unfortunately, these banks and automakers have become too big to fail. It is the government's fault for not breaking them up or regulating them. And the government is made up of the people, so it's all of our fault for allowing our leaders to be corrupted by these companies. It is one thing to let one institution fail, but the whole system collapsing could cause all sorts of unintended consequences.

So if you are going to take government money, then there have to be strings. First, the taxpayers now get to own a piece of the upside. Second, if you are now a piece of the government, then execs should not get more then their government equivalent. Let me repeat this again, if you are part of government, you should not make any more than members of the government. On March 6, 2008 GM CEO Rick Wagoner received a 33% boost in pay to $2.2 million. Given that a US President makes $400,000 and a major Cabinet secretary makes $191,000, the most Rick should make is $200k. I mean running GM is more important, than say, the Department of Defense. Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, gets $2 mil/year. While it's not culpable for years of Ford mismanagement, don't be coming down to Washington unless you cut salary under the President's. AIG's Martin Sullivan received $44 million with a severance of $15 mil. and bonus of $4 mil after writing down $20 bil of losses. Lately, Martin got press for declining severance, but that does leave $20 mil. At least the current AIG CEO, Liddy, is taking $1, but I'd like to see how valuable the equity grants truly are.

There was a time when a business that became too big would go under antitrust review. High incremental tax rates limited excessive salaries. The bottom line is if risk is low, then reward should be low. And getting fired is not a real risk deserving of a high salary (a typical CEO line). If you want a guarantee, go work for the government. And get government pay.

One More Day

2008-11-02T22:58:00.000-08:00

One more day of campaigning before this Presidential election is over. News junkie stations like CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc. are already showing retrospectives of the 2 year long period. The Sunday news shows have already made their prediction of an Obama landslide.

As a news junkie, it will be quite a respite to have this over with. It's captivating to see the race unfold - watching McCain try to pierce Obama's steadiness. The race has gone from the daily attack/response game to more of a rolling narrative. McCain has thrown all they can, but the economy has made it almost impossible to have impact. Like Bush in 2004, Obama has had a steady message of Change while positioning McCain as a 3rd term of Bush. While it may not have worked in the beginning with a maverick like McCain, over time message consistency + money make all the difference. In 2004, Bush labeled Kerry as a member of the waffling elite. It didn't work at first, but over time it catches on.

Obama has elicited an incredible level of energy and enthusiasm. Turnout is estimated at over 60% of the registered electorate with a massive level of new registrations. With early voting, last minute surprises are diminished. It will be hard to have last minute breaks, so polls are likely to be more accurate vs. previous periods.

Howard Dean is going to be seen as a hero for the Democrats. As the DNC head, he was originally criticized heavily for building an organizational footprint in all 50 states. Augmenting this was the Democratic proportional apportionment system forcing Obama and Clinton to run in all 50 states. Turnout is always higher when you are engaged during the primary.

Now I will be up during the night to see how those 14 odd California propositions fared. I wish we did not have so many of them, but hope most of them are shut down. We need to let our elected officials do their job.

On Wed, November 5th, I'll have no excuses. The race will be over, and I'll have to find something new to obsess over... well at least until 2010.

WebGuild Social Media Strategies Conference

2008-10-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

On Wed, 10/29 I will be moderating the panel on Thinking Vertically Across Social Media at the Social Media Conference sponsored by WebGuild. Panelists include Darius Miranda of Wells Fargo and Chris Carfi of Cerado. Darius runs the social media for Wells Fargo commercial banking operations. He will discuss a real life perspective on how Wells Fargo customers are gaining value by interacting the bank's community site. Chris is the Founder of Cerado, a firm that offers software and professional services for firms involved in community building. Chris will give a wide examples of best practices with firms in various social media verticals.

I will talk about some of the experiences we have seen at Position2 as well. Having talked to both of them already, I can assure you, it will be a great panel.

2008 US and California Election and Proposition Vote

2008-10-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

Here's Rajiv's Voter Guide. My job in the house is to vote for the 2 of us. This year required a significant amount of research because of California's initiative process. It is fun because you get to wrestle with some of the issues that our elected officials get to deal with. At the same time, people do not have time to research these in any depth, so many decent sounding initiatives may be poorly written or divert resources from other higher priority programs. It would be better if a lot of these were vetted through the legislature where our representatives are supposed to do their job. Most everyone wants to spend money without an offsetting cut or tax. Now you know why California's budget is such a mess.

Some of these were tough, but here goes:

President/Vice President: Obama/Biden
This one was easy especially when McCain picked Palin. I loved him in 2000, but he's a different man in 2008. His desperation has been unnerving.

US Rep, State Rep, other offices: These were fairly obvious as most were performing incumbents against unheard of challengers. I wish our own Rep. Eshoo performed more notably given how she represents the land of incredible innovation. She does have this job locked up for a long time.

So let's start with the Propositions...

Prop 1A - High Speed Rail: Yes. This is one of the most exciting initiatives on the ballot that could radically transform California and hopefully the nation. We are the only major populous industrialized nation without real high speed rail. It is sad that a nation so technologically advanced would be building a system that has been existence for over 20 years in Japan and Europe. Nevertheless, connecting SF to LA with 220 mph rail would be a major competitive advantage for the state. It would reduce greenhouse gases, reduce the need for freeway and airport expansion, and improve the flow of people and goods throughout the state. This would almost literally run through my backyard, so I'm hoping for tunneling the line through the Peninsula. Regardless, it would build grade separations for Caltrain, improving connections and reducing noise. Yes, the projections may be optimistic, but look at the Big Dig in Boston. This is one of those things you just do. Fuel is not going to get cheaper and there's just no room to expand freeways.

Prop 2 - Standards for Confining Farm Animals: Yes. None of the major newspapers are for this, because of the concern for unintended consequences. If California hens get more space, then CA eggs cost more and other states or Mexico will gain share. I hate to say it, but my kids swayed me on this. They want their dinner to come from healthy hens. I love their enthusiasm on this issue. Sometimes taking a leadership position will force others to do the same.

Prop 3 - Children's Hospital Bond Act: Yes. It is a follow-up to a previous bond measure (Prop 61 from 2004) that has not been fully dispersed. However, because of exploding construction costs, more is required. I was swayed the arguments in the SJ Mercury and LA Times. The fact that children are denied care because of the lack of hospital beds is deeply distressing. We should be world class here.

Prop 4 - Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy: NO. This restriction on abortion is absolutely the wrong way to go. I wonder where these supposedly well-meaning initiative petitioners grew up - in a cave? We all know the realities of this age. Kids get into trouble. Making them jump through hoops for this painful and difficult decision would create even greater problems. People should take care of their own family before exerting their values on others.

Prop 5 - Nonviolent Drug Offences: No. This one was difficult to analyze. It was well meaning, but the notion of spending $460 mil/year in this time just did not make sense without having broad consensus from the Legislature, public safety officials or any of the major papers.

Prop 6 - Police and Law Enforcement Funding: No. This one does have support from police chiefs and district attorneys, but the notion of guaranteeing $1 billion with no offsets puts this in the Prop 5 category. In addition both SJ Mercury and LA Times were against. If this was so important, then I'd rather have the Legislature put this through as a bill.

Prop 7 - Renewable Energy Generation: No. After reading Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded, I really wanted to vote for this. However, this was another one that everyone was against - Democrats, Republicans, utilities and environmentalists. That means something is wrong. California is already biased towards renewable energy, so I'd rather have our elected officials figure this out. There's already some momentum with California's renewable energy requirements, upcoming fuel economy standards and Million Solar Roofs Initiative.

Prop 8 - Eliminate Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry: No. This is one of those meant to turn out the conservative base. Times have changed from even 4 years ago. C'mon, this is California.

Prop 9 - Criminal Justice System Victims' Rights: No. Everyone wants victims to have rights. No one wants criminals to get out early on parole or for overcrowding. This one is another that should go through the normal legislative process. Another one that major papers are against because it is not completely thought through.

Prop 10 - Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy Bonds: No. Another alternative energy deal that I'd love to vote for. However, it's not clear why bonds are required for non-infrastructure related expenses. It's well meaning, but another one that does not have widespread support. Let's allow the legislature do its job first.

Prop 11 - Redistricting: Yes. This is Schwarzenegger's second shot at trying to create a less partisan legislature. In California partisanship a special problem because it takes 2/3rd of a vote to pass a budget. If we are going to have reasonable government, we need to stop the gerrymandering silliness. This one has widespread support, except for those who benefit in safe districts.

Here's the local Santa Clara County & Palo Alto stuff:

Measure A - Hospital Seismic Safety and Medical Facilities: Yes. This one is a "no choice" one. Seismic standards will force the closing of half of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center's beds and it's trama and burn center. Without this, people will have to go a long way to get critical services.

Measure B - VTA BART 1/8% Sales Tax: Yes. There are many in Palo Alto against this because of a parochial concern of County allocations, but having BART connect SF to San Jose and Santa Clara via the East Bay is the right thing to do. There's a cost, but mass transit takes cars off the road, reduces the need to build freeways and reduces greenhouse gases. There's the ability for people from wider regions to get to jobs. More importantly, it reduces imported oil. This area is going to grow and having more transit is better than less.

Measure C & D - VTA Advisory stuff: Yes. This one is more procedural. Hopefully, Measure D will take future advisory ballets off cutting the cost for non-essential voter approval.

Measure N - Palo Alto Library Bond: Yes. Years ago, there was a $50 mil. bond to the do the same thing, but it didn't make it by a very small margin. Now the cost is $79 mil due to higher construction costs. Yet, the libaries are as packed and dilapidated as ever. Time to put in facilities that match this world-class city. While Kindles and Sony Readers will have some impact, the space will be put to good use for a long time. It's good for our kids and our community. One side benefit - this one also helps improve our home values.

Check out the following sources for more info:
San Jose Mercury News
LA Times
Balletopedia.org
Palo Alto Online
Arnold Schwarzenegger site on Prop 11

Funny SNL Biden/Palin Debate Sketch

2008-10-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

This is one of the funniest sketches I've seen in a while. It's uncanny how well Fey plays Palin. Whoever plays Biden is hilarious as well. Laugh away!

I tried to put this in as an embed, but it didn't work. So click here.

Americans Expect Companies to Have Social-Media Presence

2008-10-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent article from MarketingCharts.com. The implication for companies is that having a website is not enough. People expect to be communicated to wherever they are - whether it is on a social networking site, a forum, discussion group, or even via blogs. In talking with clients, I've always advocated never letting a charge go unanswered. The Cone and Business Study now shows this as a trend because younger generations are even more involved in social media.

Americans Expect Companies to Have Social-Media Presence

An overwhelming majority (93%) of online Americans say companies should have a social-media presence, and 85% believe these companies also should be interacting with consumers through social media, according to research from Cone.

The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study also reveals the depth and breadth of social media interaction with companies. Some 60% of Americans interact with companies using social media, one in four interact more than once per week, and 56% feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they interact via social media.

Asked about specific types of interactions, respondents said:

Companies should use social networks to solve their problems (43%).
Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%) via social media.
Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%) through social media.
Companies should market to consumers (25%) using social media.

“The news here is that Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media,” said Mike Hollywood, director of new media for Cone. “It isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.”

Other findings:

Men are twice as likely than women interact frequently (one or more times per week) with companies via social media (33% vs. 17%).
One-third of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (age 18-34) believe that companies should actively market to them via social networks.
The wealthiest households (household income of $75K+) also believe that companies should seek to reach them via social media.
Two-thirds of the wealthiest households and the largest households ( those with three or more members) feel stronger connections to brands they interact with online.

“All of this is great news for marketers,” Hollywood said. “Men and younger consumers are traditionally the most challenging to reach, while the highest-income households are typically very desirable; here they are saying ‘come market to us and interact with us online.’ This is really a license to put more energy and resources into this medium and do it effectively.”

About the study: The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study was conducted online, September 11-12, 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation. It surveyed 1,092 adults comprising 525 men and 567 women 18 and older.

Bailout and Deleveraging

2008-09-28T22:20:00.001-07:00

Unless you live in a cave, you have heard a ton about the $700 billion bailout of so-called "toxic" mortgages that Wall Street firms hold. Poor risk controls, lack of regulation and easy credit are all mentioned as reasons for this. They all have their elements in this, but essentially the US has been living on credit. The government has been borrowing to the tune of $500 billion this year alone. Wall Street, insurance companies and banks have used derivatives to lever themselves up to deliver on ever greater profit expectations. Families used inflated equity and easy credit to renovate and expand their homes and buy all sorts of goods. Americans were told to spend post-9/11, not sacrifice to pursue a war on terror. Don't worry, we'll just issue more debt and everything will work out. Our trading partners bought US debt supplying the capital necessary to keep up with ever increasing budget and trade deficits.

The music has stopped and everyone is looking to grab their chair. Unlike when a stock moves, when real estate drops, no one is betting on the other side. Credit movement has halted, causing intense fear in the financial community.

We are now in a very difficult period of deleveraging. It will be painful. Credit access will not be easy. People will not be able to tack on to growing home equity lines to buy whatever they want. Mortgages will have equity requirements. Companies will need strong fundamentals to get access to debt capital. It will not be as easy to hit profitability targets by levering up. Foreign governments are starting to shift away from pumping money in the US (Has anyone noticed that financial plans are completed before the opening of Asian markets?). Confidence has diminished.

The question is will the $700 billion in cost to buy mortgages + the $5 trillion in Fannie/Freddie debt + $120 billion debt in AIG & Bear Sterns + $9 trillion in existing US debt serve as a tipping point?

Or will this begin a period of stabilization?

It is not sustainable to run $500 billion fiscal deficits + $700 billion trade deficits year after year without having an impact. Forget the fact that the fiscal deficit is much higher if you include Medicare and Social Security obligations.

The process of deleveraging is akin to a drug addict quitting cold turkey. It is visceral. It is physical. In the end, it is the best thing that could ever happen.

Atom.com Sign Effinfunny's Sandeep Parikh to Groundbreaking Internet Content Deal

2008-09-25T23:36:00.000-07:00

At Position2 we are happy to see Sandeep a groundbreaking first look internet content deal with Comedy Central's Atom.com site. Our team has had a hand in building and marketing Effinfunny.com, Legendofneil.com and related social media applications. Congrats Sandeep on being an Internet video pioneer!

This article was published in CNN & International Business Times:

Atom.com Signs First Look Deal With Content Creator Sandeep Parikh

September 25, 2008: 04:10 PM EST

NEW YORK, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Viacom (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTVN Entertainment Group’s Atom.com, a digital comedy network and COMEDY CENTRAL’s exclusive partner and anchor brand for original digital comedy content, announced today that it has signed writer-director Sandeep Parikh to an exclusive first look production commitment. The deal follows the success of Parikh’s "Legend of Neil" series (www.legendofneil.atom.com), which has generated 700,000 plays since debuting on Atom.com in August and reached over 400,000 more viewers when it made its television debut on "Atom TV" on COMEDY CENTRAL on September 15.

The production deal gives Atom the first option on new digital content ideas from Parikh and it has committed in advance to developing two of them to pilot stage. In addition, Atom and Parikh are in discussions on future seasons of "Legend of Neil," building on the adventures of a guy who gets sucked into "The Legend of Zelda" after a night of heavy drinking and game playing and must fight his way out or risk perishing in the magical world. The series was a hit among gamers, who also know Parikh from his work as an actor in Felicia Day’s "The Guild," a popular web series set in the world of massively multiplayer online games.

"Working with Megan and the Atom.com team has been an absolute blast," said Parikh. "I couldn’t be more excited about the success of ’The Legend of Neil’ and the new deal we’ve struck."

"Sandeep’s funny and inventive first season of 'Legend of Neil' has resonated with the Atom audience online, on Atom TV and on all of our platforms," said Atom’s VP of Development and Acquisitions, Megan O’Neill. "He really understands the Web and we are thrilled to be creating more content with him."

The Atom.com digital comedy network extends far beyond the Web site, reaching almost every screen that plays video. Elsewhere on the Internet, Atom channels are featured on iTunes (which is currently selling the complete first season of "Legend of Neil"), AOL, AT&T, Bebo, Dailymotion, Veoh, xBox Live, and Parikh’s own Effinfunny.com site. On television, the weekly "Atom TV" series (TV-MA) features original Atom comedy videos and top user videos on COMEDY CENTRAL every Monday night at 2:00 a.m. On mobile phones, Atom has prominent channels on Verizon Wireless’ V CAST as well as AT&T’s CV and AllTel.

About Atom.com

Atom.com, a division of Viacom Inc.’s (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) MTV Networks, is a digital comedy network for young men that reaches millions of consumers each month on the Atom.com Web site and millions more through multiplatform distribution on television, mobile phones, and the Internet. Drawing on a strategic partnership with COMEDY CENTRAL and its own 10-year history of online video innovation and leadership (formerly as AtomFilms), Atom.com delivers Web comedy like nobody else.

SOURCE MTVN Entertainment Group

Position2 on Yahoo Digital Advisory Council

2008-09-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

At Position2 we are pleased to be members of the Yahoo Digital Advisory Council. Some time ago we were asked to join. We were interviewed in detail by Yahoo management on their upcoming platforms and services and were delighted to have input.

There's a large and fast growing marketing for online advertising. This is a step in the right direction for competitiveness in this sector.

Woo Hoo! Red Sox Go to the Playoffs

2008-09-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

A very exciting day today. Just saw Papelbon pitch 2 strikeouts and a popout. It's a thrill to watch Boston teams do so well. This was a much tougher year than last with so many injuries and the Manny meltdown. The team really stepped up and clinched.

No matter what happens from here on out, this is fun!

Using Twitter for Business

2008-09-22T01:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a case study on using Twitter for business as posted in the Webguild.com site. In this example, Coverity has worked with Position2 to interact with people interested in static source code analysis and solutions. It's a niche field, but it enables critical software to function effectively.

Twitter is a powerful tool for staying connected and interacting in a more personal manner. Coverity is one of many clients who are taking using social media to interact with their prospects and customers.

New device may change asthma treatments

2008-09-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a great piece from ABC (KGO-7) on Apieron's revolutionary asthma management device. You will notice Bhairavi explaining the technology behind the device. Click here to see the video. Below is the accompanying article. I can't think of a better way of helping people understand the impact than that little 8 year old girl...

By Carolyn Johnson

MENLO PARK, CA (KGO) -- A new device that's just received FDA clearance could make the treatment of asthma much more effective, especially in young children. It's technology that was developed in the Bay Area.

Hud Staffield had brutally crippling asthma.

"Felt like I had an anvil on my chest," said Staffield.

Eight-year-old Gillian Coan's symptoms were harder to spot, according to her mom.

"We noticed she was slowing down in daily activities," said Gillian Coan's mom.

But both were diagnosed with a new technology that allowed doctors to give them the precise dosage of steroids to control their attacks.

The machine, developed by a Menlo Park company called Apieron, measures minute particles of gas in the patients breath, known as eNO -- or exhaled nitric oxide.

"It gives us a window into the bronchial tubes without having to stick a bronchoscope into the lungs," said Asthma specialist Dr. James Wolfe.

Dr. Wolfe says nitric oxide passes from the blood supply into the bronchial tubes, when the tissue is inflamed. And being able to measure its concentration gives doctors a far more accurate reading on the severity of the inflammation than older methods that simply calculated the volume of a patient's breath.

"It's a marker of how many cells and how much inflammation is in the lungs" said Dr. Wolfe. "This test tells us about the degree of inflammation. It tells us does the patient have asthma, if they have asthma is controlled, do they more medication, less medication, more steroid more steroids."

The technology was the brainchild of Bhairavi Parikh, who came up with the concept as a graduate student at UMass Medical and whose husband and son have both suffered from asthma.

She says the key is a small cartridge, embedded with protein molecules that change color when they come in contact with the gas.

"You can't see it by the eye, but our machine actually measures the color change and correlates it to a concentration of nitric oxide," said Parikh.

From there, there is the severity of inflammation. In the case of Hud Staffield, the more precise readings allowed doctors to trim back the dosage of the powerful steroids that were giving him nausea.

But for Gillian, it told doctors that while her symptoms were mild, the problem wasn't.

"Measure the eNO levels and they're sky high. And even though she has minimally reduced symptoms she has tremendous inflammation in the airways, so we treated her fairly aggressively," said Dr. Wolfe.

And with the early intervention, Gillian and her family say her symptoms are now completely under control.

"I feel a lot better," said Gillian Coan.

Nitric oxide technology may also have an application as an early warning device. Dr. Wolfe says eNO levels often rise in the days preceding a bad asthma attack. Eventually, patients may be able to monitor their own levels at home, and adjust their medications accordingly.

If You Are Going to Run A Panel...

2008-08-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

...speak with energy and enthusiasm. Holy smokes! I'm sitting here at Search Engine Strategies at a vendor sponsored event. I won't name names, but c'mon! Show some energy!

If you are going to spend the time and effort to prepare for and speak at an event, you have to show some life. Be passionate about your topic. Tell a funny story. Most of us have heard this stuff before and are sitting on our laptops or Blackberries working. We are looking for something special, something interesting. If you are as bored as we are, do you really think we are going to listen.

Sorry to rant, but I consider it a privilege to sit in front of a crowd and present to them. Even if they are high school kids, I want them to learn something. I want them to remember my talk. I want them to say, "Hey, I learned something." So I'll give them stories, personal experiences, interesting data. I'll vary my voice and solicit their comments.

A lot of these panelists for companies and see this as part of their humdrum job. They go home, have no impact and still get their paycheck.

C'mon, my friend, you can do better!

Russia's Oil Punch

2008-08-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

Just as oil starts it fall from a high of $147/barrel, all the sudden Russia wields its power against Georgia. This is a successful democracy on its doorstep that wants to align itself to the West. Georgia wants to be in the EU and NATO. It is a country that has a pipeline that does not start at Russia. It gives Russian citizen in a territory that apparently would rather be in Russia than a democrat and economically successful. Of course, these folks need to be protected, so of course they need peacekeepers.

Back to our story. Oil has quickly fallen from $147 to $115. Traders and pension funds that bought oil to hedge and speculate are dumping their positions. In the face of massive subsidies, demand is actually dropping. US drivers cut miles driven for the first time in 20 years. Each country is investing in alternatives and efficiency.

But Russia has no other exports. It's massive foreign exchange surplus is based completely on oil. Not enough people are buying its vodka to make much of a difference. Now, they do have arms to sell.

So show some naked power. Take on your troublesome neighbor. Tell other neighbors that either align or feel the pain. As the largest oil producer, make sure you raise the price to keep the funds flowing. While showing this power, nationalize oil company and joint ventures. Make sure your pockets are filled because the time to cash in is now. The population is declining, industrialized countries are investing in alternatives, people are using less. I could see the Prime Minister pointing his finger at his general with a stern voice, "Attack now! Get those prices up!"

Oil prices should be dropping to $80/barrel. It's still amazing given it was just $20 a short time ago, however a huge drop from $140. When the cash flows in, the eyes light up. So many things to spend on, so many luxuries to buy. When it drops the whole game changes. You deserved that money, now the market is walking away from you.

So you will see more of these blow-ups and disruptions. It will come from those that like the status quo - those that benefit from high oil. Market spikes eventually turn. This one will if we let it happen. It won't if we decide to get into a tit for tat battle and respond excessively to this provocation. The forces of change are in our favor if we push for energy independence.

Brother, Can You Spare A Plug?

2008-08-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting at a hi tech conference with my laptop connected to one of the scarce outlets. There are hundreds of people and precious few electrical outlets. We're all ADD. We need to work while listening to a bland panel of hi tech marketers.

Most people with laptops walk around looking for a plug. This guy with a laptop walks toward 2 of us that own our plugs. What is he doing? You can't kick us off.

He pulls out a 3 to 1 extension and asks if he can hook in. Of course, we say yes.

What a clever way to make friends.

38? 41? Congrats to New Old Olympic Champs

2008-08-16T23:57:00.000-07:00

When you get up the morning and are stiffer than you've ever been. When it takes another 10 minutes just to stretch. When you get those strange new aches and pains, nothing heartens the soul more than you see athletes crash the age barrier. While my kids wondered why anyone would want to watch someone run for 2 hours, I enjoyed watching Constantina Tomescu Dita from Romania win the Olympic Woman's Marathon. She's an amazing 38 years old!

Then there's 41 year old American Dana Torres who won 3 silver medals in the 50 meter freestyle and 400 meter relay. Talk about being in incredible shape. Getting a silver by 0.01 seconds is simply incredible.

As much fun it is to watch Michael Phelps win his 8th gold or Usain Bolt blow out the 100 meter race, knowing that age truly doesn't mater is truly inspiring.

WebGuild Analytics and Social Media Event

2008-08-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

I recently spoke at a WebGuild event titled "Web Analytics: Measure Social Media Engagement." Great panelists including Carla Bourque, VP Media & Entertainment, Nielsen Online, Eddie Smith, VP Marketing and Business Development, Socialmedia.com, Giovanni Rodriguez, Managing Partner, Conversation Group. The moderator was Andreas Weigand, former Amazon Chief Scientist.

We discussed a variety of topics. My focus was to discuss real-life examples of how companies advantage of Social Media whether it be blogs, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. At Position2 we work with clients to drive user engagement and leads with Social Media. There are technology companies like Coverity that connect with their community with Twitter in addition to media sites like Effinfunny that create special micro-sites and Facebook Pages to drive conversations.

Everyone is looking for a silver bullet for which new metric that should look towards. The panel recommended metrics like email forwards, sharing rates, recommendations in addition to click through, lead form fill, webinar sign-up, or time on site vs. bounce rate. Unfortunately, there is no single metric. It all depends on the business or the goal. A B2B firm selling software is going to have different goals than a consumer media site. One thing that is important is the need to dedicate resources to this fast-growing medium. Another is to give time to optimize as there are many ways to make things work. It is a game of applying best practices in a customized and iterative manner.

Thank you Daya at WebGuild for inviting me to speak. Also, thank you to the attendees for your engaging questions and comments.

Sports Videos: Clever Advertising + more

2008-08-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

These videos come courtesy of my son, Arjun. He's now the writer of the famous Oakland A's prospect blog. Have some fun and check these out...

- Here's a clever banned Pepsi commercial with Ronaldo using Far East customs against his opponents. Apparently, it was too sensitive to show (I don't understand why), but it's hilarious. It is a great way to associate a long running brand like Pepsi with youth, international and hip.

- Next, there's a banned sumo wrestling on that's worth checking out. What's clever is that even if the ad isn't shown on TV, it gets additional mileage on the web. Then again, maybe they were never meant for TV.

- Then, there's this ridiculous flop. As we know certain soccer players are notorious actors. No advertising angle, just funny.

- Most of the time when you are a basketball game, the trampoline dunkers are a side show. Well, this is better than the game.

Enjoy! Laugh!

Then go to Effinfunny and watch the Legend of Neil :)

Synchronized Diving?

2008-08-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

I think I've heard them all. Baseball and softball are out of the Olympics after this year, but synchronized diving is a real event. On NBC, they actually show it on prime time. Is this to attract the female audience?

This Monday, there's swimming, tennis, badminton, judo, water polo, even archery, but we are being shown a sport that you could never see in any high school, college or TV. Yet NBC in its infinite wisdom believes synchronized swimming is a prime time event. We know the Chinese focused its athletes on sports that are not as competitive to drive up the medal count. Does it mean that NBC would feature it.

I've got young kids from 5 to 12 - and no - none of them said, "Oh, I'd like to do that." And yes, I have girls, too.

By the way, wasn't the 100 freestyle relay amazing? Just saw it on the DVR.

Haas Marketing Class

2008-08-08T00:34:00.000-07:00

Today I had the opportunity to speak at a Marketing class at the Haas School at UC Berkeley. It was a great class with my friend and now professor, Charles Rashall giving the class million dollar insights on critical aspects of marketing. Today was all about Place and how it is a critical component of establishing your brand. And yes, I did learn a few things.

Later in the session, I presented Online Marketing: the purchase process, advertising trends, various forms of online marketing like search, email and social media marketing and measurement methods,. We also discussed some real life case examples.

I really enjoyed how engaged the students were and the thoughtfulness of their analysis.

There is definitely hope in the next generation...

Big Computer Firm Signs with Position2

2008-08-05T11:04:00.001-07:00

We learned today that a Top 5 global computer firm has decided to go with us as their interactive agency for search and banner media advertising. Kudos to the team for landing this large client. I originally met them during one of our Search Marketing events, so its a thrill to see them come over.

We'll announce more when we are allowed to go official...

Big Sky Vacation

2008-07-30T21:38:00.001-07:00

This year's summer vacation is in Yellowstone park. It is day 3 and we are having a great time. Except for today, every day we've been hiking in various parts of Yellowstone. As usual, Bhairavi has picked a beautiful house about 30 minutes outside the park. Here's the view outside the back. This pic does not do the view justice.

In addition to our hikes through the geysers and falls, I've been running every morning. Today, I did about 8 miles up and back. The second pic is the direction of the run (pic taken from our house).

The further I went, the more I added to the run. Houses are so far apart and its just interesting to see why one person picked one view over another. After about 4 miles up, I turned around. I was running low on water (the air is thin here) and every time I'd go up another hill, there would be more roads and houses. Also, I did not want the family to think I got lost.

The runs are picturesque. You can see so far into the distance - plateaus, farms, mountains, Yellowstone River. It is remarkably detailed and rich. People live so far apart from each other. I remember this kind of thing in Dunbarton, NH, but you don't see the kind of physical separation you see here.

I can see why T Boone Pickens considers this as part of the "Saudi Arabia of wind." The winds blew so hard that it knocked down the support pole at the house entrance. We had to shut our windows as they were bending on the hinges. Many times, I'd have to take my hat off while running.

We are 30 miles away from the nearest town in either direction. 60 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart - yes they are huge out here. Could you imagine driving 3 miles to get onto the main road, then at least another 30 to get somewhere? The summer season is essentially July and August. It's been over 70 degrees (F) every day and sunny, but we are getting to see the wonderful summertime experience. Out in Montana, they sometimes get snow all the way into June. I still wonder who plows all these gravel roads to houses deep in the mountains.

For us, this is a blast. We are in a beautiful home way up on a hill with incredible views out of every window. Everything is big - the bales of hay, the field, the trucks and the scenery. Just walking down to another house is about a quarter mile minimum. In a short walk to the end of our side road was half a mile. The kids love it. They have not even complained about shutting off the TV for the week. It's actually turned my oldest son into an entrepreneur - more on that later.

Tomorrow we are off to Grand Teton early in the morning....

US Advertising, Marketing Spend to Reach $412.4B in ‘08

2008-07-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

Outsell, a market research firm released the article below. From what I've seen the media spend number make sense. It shows that there is a continuing shift to online media:

Spending on total US advertising and marketing will grow 3.9% in 2008 to reach $412.4 billion, with the advertising portion reaching $249.1 billion, according to the third annual ad spending report by Outsell, Inc., which said growth has declined from 2007’s 5.8%.

The report covers five key media types: online, print, events, TV/radio and others. Outsell surveyed 1,088 US advertisers on their spending plans for the year.

Among the significant findings:

Companies are spending 61.8% of their online ad/marketing budgets - $65.1 billion - on their own sites, siphoning dollars away from other options. As a result, publishers are beginning to offer their own advertising/marketing services to recapture lost revenue.
The fastest-growing of all ad types is online, which is expected to grow 12.3% in 2008 to $105.3 billion (or $40.2 billion excluding advertisers’ spending on their own sites). As a result, online spending now exceeds TV/radio/movies for the first time ($98.5 billion).
Advertisers’ spending on traditional media remains significant - with print capturing 35.5% of spending ($147.0 billion) and events at 12.5% of the total ($51.7 billion). 54% of advertisers spread budgets across three or more media types.
Out of 26 methods measured for effectiveness, advertisers rate their websites as the best for lead generation (75% effective), followed by exhibitions (66%), custom print publications (65%), direct mail marketing (64%), and trade magazines (64%).
Asked what metrics they would track if they could track only three, advertisers point most frequently to cost per sale (46%), cost per lead (37%), and cost per click (32%).

Iran's Oil Push

2008-07-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

With Iran dependent on oil to run massive subsidies to its economy, it should be pretty clear why they are rattling sabers at Israel and the US. It's all about oil. Analysts estimate that without the threat of war, oil would be priced at $80 per barrel. That's 40% lower than the current price. With 30% of world's oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a war with Iran could blast prices past $200/barrel, maybe even higher.

US and Iranian animosity goes back to the 1980. The desire to get back at Iran has always been there amongst US leaders following the hostage crisis. Iran funds Hezbollah and Hamas as their defense mechanism. Therefore, Iran and Israel are natural enemies. So this creates the never ending cycle. The US funds a massive military presence in the Middle East. Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia buy American weaponry. Oil prices rise enabling Middle East nations to make more and more while increasing costs and inflation for basics like food and fuel.

So why not keep up with the uranium enrichment game, missile tests, military exercises and massive military build-up? Poor countries lose and industrialized nations pay more & while oil economies create dependency between the populace and government subsidies. The same folks run government and bribe their citizens to keep quiet with artificial subsidies like 25 cent/gallon gas.

The US plays a partner to this by continually ratcheting up the pressure to defend its allies and interests. A small, relatively weak country like Iran takes on the dimensions of the old Evil Empire. The cycle continues circle in accelerating bands impacting greater and greater numbers. The world keeps paying more - food prices, iron ore, steel, basic chemicals - while a few countries feed instability in hopes that the fear is felt without having to follow through with their threats.

Why don anything for your people when you can keep growing your income from oil?

Guns in Atlanta Airport

2008-07-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting article from the fallout of the recent 5-4 Supreme Court gun decision. They said that a locality cannot deny the right to bear arms. Apparently, the language of the well-regulated militia did not count.

So in Atlanta, there's a challenge to the airport ban on carrying a concealed weapon. See the NY Times article.

In San Francisco, there's an NRA challenge to the ban on loaded weapons in public housing.

Of course, there's the overturning of the Washington DC law and the challenge in Chicago handgun rules. Notice that the big cities are trying to restrict gun - gee, I wonder why?

I'm sure there are some interesting arguments in the decision about how a handgun is an arm that everyone has the right to have, but a machine gun, howitzer and tank is not.

Well hell, if you can have a concealed weapon in an airport, why not in an airplane or college or a government office. Maybe Congressman should also have the right to have a handgun as should any visitor. As soon as you restrict it, you are restricting a right.

Maybe this is a good thing. If the NRA gets to push these silly argument, maybe there will be a new constitutional amendment that modifies the Second Amendment.

At minimum, everyone should be allowed to carry a handgun at Supreme Court hearings.

Meanwhile read this article on how Tasers are more effective than guns for self-defense.

Position2 Cool Creative

2008-06-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

We are proud to see Position2's Coverity banner displayed in afaqs! Creative Showcase. afaqs! is a top marketing communications site. Congrats to the Position2 Creative Team for making highly technical software appeal to the wider audience!

Why $200 Oil is a Good Thing

2008-06-28T00:21:00.001-07:00

As I was watching the pump go up over $75 to fill my tank, I wondered about that Goldman Sachs analyst projection of $200 per barrel oil. That would take the price per gallon to $7. That will certainly create a worldwide recession and undeniable changes to our behavior.

Then, I put my optimist hat on about super expensive oil. As you know, I'm an entrepreneur and preternaturally positive. The US is a dynamic economy. It's flexibility has accommodated incredible shocks and changes over time whether it be oil shocks in the 70's, the S&L crisis of the 80's, the emerging economy debt shocks of the 90's or the tech crunch of 2000-2002. So here are some thoughts:

- Silicon Valley gets rich: For years VCs have been studying energy markets looking to fund wide varieties of alternative energy projects from solar to biofuels to efficiency software to CO2 eating algae. For example, ompanies like Nanosolar are into commercial production of thin film solar cells with far greater utility and half the cost of alternatives. For all the promise, those businesses need oil to be well over $60/barrel over the long term. Even more than technology, shifts in energy produce wealth over a long period. Remember the Ewings on Dallas - even the kids win.

- Oil nations lose: By allowing oil prices to explode, they create cultures of dependency with their people. Why take any initiative when money is flowing out of pure luck of location? While beautiful cities will be built, super wealthy inheritors have no need to work hard or think out of the box. Governments feed this dependency because they can provide all kinds of benefits in return for a docile population. This breeds corruption and eventually hard times when alternative energy ends the gravy train. Look at Venezuela, Iran and Russia. Right now, things are wonderful, but every time oil prices go up, spending increases. Once you get used to all kinds of subsidies and free stuff, it's hard to let go.

- Manufacturing comes back to the US: Disparate supply chains only work when transportation costs are dirt cheap. With high shipping costs, it does not make sense to make heavy goods far from the end consumer.

- Farmers come back strong: It's just not corn, it's every crop because the return has to be as good as corn to ethanol. Moreover, there are new varieties of biofuels, coming from jatropha, switchgrass and trees. There are bioplastics from genetically engineers crops. With prices for food rising, farmers can go from subsistance to export.

- US automakers get a chance to come back: Most of the time American automakers have shrunk from truly attacking the market with innovation. Instead they used protectionism or hid behind poorly negotiated labor agreements. This is a time of great change - GM is seriously talking about releasing the innovative Chevy Volt, a mass produced plug-in hybrid. Both Ford and GM are releasing a hybrids across their product lines and have access to diesels from their European lines. They could use this time of crisis to fundamentally reset their businesses towards highly fuel efficient product lines and more flexible labor agreements.

- Electric cars every where. Tesla estimates that driving its all electric car cost 2 cents/mile. Large utility plants are far more efficient than millions of gasoline engines. With the possibility of greater renewables powering these plants American can more to energy self-sufficiency. That means fewer troops around the world having to establish energy supply lines for world.

- End of suburban sprawl: It's already occurred in the SF Bay Area in Stockton and Tracy. It just costs too much to drive in from far away. People will be compelled to move closer to where they work. It is likely that cities will be where companies locate as mass transit makes more sense for commuters. It is far more efficient than America's current level of dispersion. Check out this NY Time article on the subject.

- Obesity will drop: I know this sounds like a stretch, but the McD Dollar menu has done more damage to America and the industrialized than any catastrophe in the last 20 years. Look around and you will see people are heavier than ever. Because food prices are half what they were as a proportion of income over the last 30 years, portion sizes are greater and processed food costs less than it ever did. So what do people do? Eat more. Obesity amongst children is at epic proportions. Maybe rather than super-large everything, restaurants will cut back. We can eat less and maybe prevent all those future health problems caused by excessive weight.

OK, so I'd still like to go back to $1.50/gallon gas, but the scarcity of oil can be a great call to action for the world's most entrepreneurial and dynamic economy. If we were self-sufficent with energy, there would be no trade deficit and potentially no fiscal deficit. America would still be a free trading nation, but with greater power than before because $200/barrel means tech-driven energy rather than just drilling under the sand. This can only be good for us in the long term.

MTV Networks Atom.com Announces Effinfunny's Legend of Neil Announced by Atom.com

2008-06-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

Today MTV Networks announced the relaunch of Atom Films as Atom.com. One of the featured series will be the Legend of Neil, a Legend of Zelda spoof created by Effinfunny's Sandeep Parikh.

Atom.com is allied with Comedy Central and will distribute content across a multi-platform network including the Internet, handheld, gaming platforms, mobile phones and television. With over 1.9 million unique visitors in May there is even more distribution than Funny or Die, Super Deluxe, or The Onion combined.

In separate news, Wyatt Cenac, one of Effinfunny's early comics, is a correspondent on the Daily Show with John Stewart.

Facebook App for Lenovo

2008-06-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

We learned today that Position2 was selected to develop a Facebook app for Lenovo to improve visibility and engagement with their target audience. While I can't tell you what we are developing, it's going to be very cool.

Congrats to the creative, development and social media team!

This adds to a big win to be the online media agency of record for Lyris.

Effinfunny Ranked in Top 40

2008-06-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Today Tubemogul.com released their Top 40 of most viewed videos using their service. Effinfunny was ranked #29 ahead of folks like Fox, Sony and Warner Bros and the the company of HBO, National Lampoon and Billboard.com.

NewTeeVee, a new media blog, also mentioned Effinfunny in how new media players are in the company of tradional media.

Kudos to Effinfunny and the Position2 team that supports them!

Search and Social Media - Making Sense for SaaS

2008-06-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

By Rajiv Parikh, CEO of Position2

It seems that every day there's a new way to market to your prospects online. "Use Facebook," one person says. "Try Twitter," says another. But then your CEO is asking, "Why aren't we at the top of Google?"

How do you make sense of it all? Where do you focus your efforts?

As the founder of a search and social media marketing firm with SaaS clients, let me share some experience.

Why Search?
In a typical B2B purchase, as many as 22 people are involved¹. One of the most important players is the technical buyer who evaluates different products vs. user pain points. Influencing the technical buyer is critical to success.

Buyers research using search and social media. A recent study indicated that 80% of the time decision makers found the vendor rather than the other way around². Technical buyers identify search engines among their top 3 most powerful influencers, along with word of mouth and the vendor's website. Information gained from search now is more influential than trade shows, trade publications, and even advice from paid consultants.³ 98% of technical buyers use Google search as a major part of their purchase process.⁴

Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts enhance the ability for search engines to find and rank your website. While researching, prospects use search to identify appropriate solutions and leading vendors. Having your website appear in top positions can be a crucial vote of legitimacy. You must identify top keywords that your prospects would use to find you and then add content to your site in an SEO-compatible format to support them. For example, let's imagine a SaaS firm that offers collaborative help-desk capabilities - HelpDeskSaaS.com. Web copy and html tags should emphasize words like "customer support software" and "collaborative customer service, etc."

Google recently integrated videos, blogs & news into search results. This provides an excellent opportunity for nimble companies to jump ahead of their competitors in search ranking.

Pay Per Click
Realizing results from SEO is typically a twelve-month process; paid search (PPC) efforts bring more immediate results. With PPC, your offering is featured only when a user searches for keywords that you have selected. The keyword research process in PPC is much more extensive than in SEO. One must cast a wide net and advertise on thousands of keywords. The beauty of PPC is that it allows one to continually iterate and optimize throughout the duration of the campaign. For our HelpDeskSaaS.com example, we would recommend abbreviations ("cust support sw"), misspellings ("sport softwar") and benefits ("low-cost customer support software"). You can even target competitor keywords. Note that PPC is not "set and forget." PPC requires a systematic approach: thorough and ongoing keyword research, ad creative, focused landing pages, pipeline management, bid management, and analytics.

Social Media Marketing
The emergence of Web 2.0, user-generated content, and online social networks opens avenues to micro-target like never before. This results in a tremendous opportunity to identify members of self-selected communities.

Social Media Sites - Social networks provide the backbone of peer influenced "soft-sell". When you see that your colleague is attending an event, you are significantly more likely to attend. Position2 clients often see success using Facebook and LinkedIn to generate leads for webinars.
Blogs - An industry-focused blog is a great way to establish your expertise and maintain a dialog with your prospects and customers. Promoting your blog has the additional SEO benefits of creating a network of links with highly relevant sites.
Forums - This is an invaluable resource for reputation monitoring. While you cannot edit other posts, you can respond to negative posts quickly.
Social Bookmarking - Technical buyers (71%) identify whitepapers as a critical facet of their research efforts⁵. Services such as digg and del.ic.ious can be utilized to promote them to your targets.

At a Glance: Using Search and Social Media

	Use For	HelpDeskSaaS.com Case Example	Helpful Hint
SEO	Brand Visibility	Select highly-targeted keywords "Customer Support Software" "Collaborative Customer Service"	Develop content aligned with your keywords. Only link to and from relevant, quality sites.
PPC	Direct Marketing	Thousands of long tail keywords: Abbreviations: "cust support sw" Misspellings: "sport softwar" Benefits: "low cost customer support system" Competitor names	Make sure ads go to customized landing pages - keep testing
SMM	Brand Visibility & Direct Marketing	Social Media - set up a customer service group page Blogs - discuss upcoming versions Forums - promote webinars Social Bookmarking - use digg to promote webinars	Respond quickly to any negative post

Conclusion
Business buyers rely heavily upon search and social media for researching products and services. They often have in-depth information about potential vendors and have short-listed them well before the vendors have found them.

It is therefore critical that you not only have relevant and detailed content on your site, but you must be showing up where they are looking for you. To do so you must undertake an integrated and comprehensive search and social media marketing effort.

Rajiv Parikh is the CEO of Position2, a leading search and social media marketing firm. Rajiv has over 20 years of management experience at AltaVista, Sun Microsystems, NCR and AT&T.

¹ MarketingSherpa, B2B Marketing Research, June 2007
² MarketingSherpa, Business Technology Buyers Survey, March 2007
³ Enquiro, Business to Business Survey 2007
⁴ MarketingSherpa, Business Technology Marketing 2007-08
⁵ MarketingSherpa, Connecting Through Content Series, 2007

Search Marketing Roundtable - May 30

2008-05-28T23:20:00.000-07:00

On May 30 in Santa Clara, the Position2 team will be presenting a Search Marketing Roundtable sponsored by OpSource, a leading SaaS infrasture firm. This presentation will be different from our normal presentation as we will discuss key concepts and case studies in SaaS, software and B2B firms. Given that the buying cycles are longer and more complex, it presents more complex issues in setting up and running a search campaign. The conversion goals and metrics are different and involve multiple modes of marketing through the buying cycle.

If your firm is attending, look forward to seeing you!

Selflessness Gone Mad

2008-05-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

This is driving me nuts. I don't know how many times great Celtics players like Rondo and Garnett get open shots, but then pass it away. Everyone loves a selfless player, but when you get an open shot 3 feet away from the basket, you take it. When you are on the fast break 1 on 1 and the defender is just standing there, you drive to the hoop. I may not be a basketball genius, but I've been watching the game since 1979.

We have a Big Three, but they are way too unselfish especially at the end of games. When you are a player like Garnett or Pierce, you have to take control. Early in the game, they were going for it, now they are passing it to the covered player. Nothing gets me more than when a tall player does not take a shot within 4 feet of the basket.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very appreciative of getting to watch the Celtics in the playoffs. We've won so many championships that we take things for granted. I remember watching the Bird Celtics winning by 30 one day, then getting blown out the next. No one questioned Bird, McHale, Parish, Ainge, DJ, Tiny or Walton like they do now.

Yeah, it's the 4th quarter and the Celts will probably win, but I want to see "the man" take control.

But hey, play the fundamentals. Take the high percentage shots - you win most of the time.

Had a Bad Day

2008-05-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

Had a bad day? Well, check out this video of soccer's best...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PGe_ZAxTWs&feature=email

SF Chronicle Profile on Ken Foster - "The Art Presenter"

2008-05-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Just a week after Bhairavi was profiled, Ken Foster, a member of our family (Nayan's partner) was profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine. Ken is the Executive Director of San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. A quote about "the least well-known important person in the Bay Area arts scene:"

"...for Kenneth Foster, the center's 57-year-old executive director, big-picture thinking is precisely what has distinguished his four-year tenure at an institution that has variously enticed, angered, entertained, frustrated, enlightened and baffled the Bay Area community in its 15 years of shape-shifting existence."

Ken, we're really proud of you. Here it is:

The Art Presenter

Ken Foster and his Big Ideas forge a new identity for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Steven Winn

Sunday, May 25, 2008

More...

In a recent six-day stretch, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts offered programs running the gamut from the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players to a "women in hip-hop" summit, Smuin Ballet's "Dancin' With Gershwin" to an evening of performance art that featured multimedia wrestling and work by an artist known as Devil Bunny in Bondage. A pink-walled installation festooned with photographs of nude men in "The Way We Rhyme: Women, Art & Politics" had visitors buzzing in the gallery. Sergei Parajanov's classic 1964 film, "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors," unspooled in the screening room.

Trying to find some pattern in that fairly typical week at San Francisco's capital of multidisciplinary art might be a fool's errand. But for Kenneth Foster, the center's 57-year-old executive director, big-picture thinking is precisely what has distinguished his four-year tenure at an institution that has variously enticed, angered, entertained, frustrated, enlightened and baffled the Bay Area community in its 15 years of shape-shifting existence.

Foster's widely heralded success in creating a vivid new identity for YBCA springs from his conviction that even the most daringly experimental or politically charged art can speak directly to a wide audience.

"I don't think contemporary art should be available only to this thin slice of the educated elite," he said in one of several long conversations at his office in the center's sleek South of Market facility. "I do think it can be confounding. People say, 'I don't go to a contemporary art museum or dance performance because I don't understand it.' Our job is to help them get past that. I do think people are innately curious. The challenge is to pose the right questions and ideas that help open the door."

Foster's approach is especially clear when it comes to dance, a keen area of interest for him. "There's an audience for whatever you want there to be an audience for," he said. "A lot of presenters say, 'Oh, we have no dance audience.' If you don't have a dance audience in your town it's because you haven't worked at it, you haven't cultivated it, you haven't brought in the right companies and developed it over time."

That could serve as Foster's defining mantra. Not surprisingly, for someone who has thought as carefully as he has about his field, he's written a book on the subject: "Performing Arts Presenting: From Theory to Practice," published in 2006. In it he describes the arts presenter's role as a fusion of mapmaker, educator, storyteller, essayist, explorer and provocateur.

Soft-spoken and self-effacing by temperament, Foster is anything but reticent on the job. In his methodical, quietly purposeful way, he has done one thing after another to find new points of entry for the public into YBCA's programs, without pandering or dumbing down. And he's done it while remaining a largely under-noticed, under-the-radar figure in an arts community with a full complement of thriving egos. Foster may be the least well-known important person in the Bay Area arts scene.

Since taking the center's top job in 2003, Foster has presented an impressive range of performing artists from across the world spectrum, a number with African provenance or roots, who had rarely or never been seen here. The 2007-08 season has featured the Bay Area premieres of works by Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula, Vietnamese choreographer and performer Ea Sola, the Dutch theater company KASSYS, the Ilkhom Theatre of Uzbekistan and a fervent collaboration by the Brooklyn-based Urban Bush Women and Compagnie Jant-Bi of Senegal. Many of the shows have sold well.

A key innovation of Foster's leadership are his "Big Ideas" - broad themes laid out in the center's program books and other publications that invite the public to make connections between the various performances, exhibitions, films and other programs. Foster has also funded and helped facilitate important collaborations between local and international artists. One of them linked a San Francisco dance troupe with a company from Kolkata, India. The resulting production, Margaret Jenkins' embracingly heartfelt "A Slipping Glimpse" (2006), is one of the signal achievements of Foster's regime.

The YBCA director has earned high marks across a broad spectrum in the arts world. "As far as I can see, Ken is succeeding at this better than anyone else before," said Daniel Levenstein, director of Chamber Music San Francisco. "He's presenting very interesting and unified work. Even if he didn't verbalize it, he's conveying a message." Deborah Cullinan, executive director of Intersection for the Arts, called Foster "an extraordinary presenter, one of the best in the country."

Jennifer Bilfield, artistic and executive director of Stanford Lively Arts, described Foster's cross-cultural work is as "a model of programming in the urban environment." Olga Viso, director of Minneapolis' noted Walker Art Center, praised her colleague's determination to escape the "silos" that confine art and artists in their disciplines.

Detractors tend to question Foster's administrative policies, point to his lack of experience in visual art - a charge he freely acknowledges - or belittle the "Big Ideas" as marketing tricked out in pompous art-speak. What they don't doubt, for the most part, is his judgment as a presenter and his ability to connect to artists.

For spoken-word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Foster is "one of those rare presenters - and I've dealt with tons of them all over - who has a feel not just for where we are but for where we're headed." Circo Zero director Keith Hennessy singled out the "excellent work from Africa" that "responds to the contemporary global movement of bodies, culture and capital."

Unlikely career trajectory

A career arts administrator who had spent most of his working life booking performing arts series on college campuses before coming to San Francisco, Foster may be singularly well suited to the protean nature of his job. Blending ideological certainty with a gift for empathic listening and a bedrock faith in art's transformative power, he seems at once keenly attentive to the demands of leading a complex organization with a $8.2 million annual budget and serenely comfortable in his professional skin.

His personal story of self-exploration and revelation is strikingly congruent with his career path. Raised in a Denver suburb, he hewed close to home for a decade after graduating from college. He married his high school sweetheart at 19, fathered two sons and taught drama at the high school he had attended. But there were buried forces at work beneath that conventional crust.

In 1995, while vacationing with his wife of 25 years, Foster came out to her as a gay man. He remained in the house with his family for three more "turbulent" years (they lived in Tucson, at the time). "We'd had a wonderful marriage," Foster said. "I was not having this other secret life on the side. I'd been able to compartmentalize those feelings for a long time. But what was going on inside was, well, it was pulling me apart."

In 1998 Foster moved out and began making a life with the man who has been his partner for the past 10 years. Nayan Shah, 42, teaches history at UC San Diego. It's hard not to view Foster's fascination with multiple narratives and his work in what he calls the "blurring, bending and breaking" of walls between artistic disciplines as subjects deeply grounded in his own experience.

Foster's trajectory was not preordained by precocious beginnings. Born in Connecticut to a pipefitter father and a mother who worked first as a housewife and later became a nursing home activities director, Foster grew up in Littleton, Colo., in a family with five siblings. What he calls a "sheltered suburban life" left him unprepared for Macalester College. He withdrew after his freshman year. Foster graduated from Denver's Metropolitan College in 1972 and took the teaching job back at his high school.

Eventually moved by the "deeply political example" of his father's union activism and his mother's courage in starting her nursing home career in midlife, Foster decided to go back to school. "I didn't want to become the people I was surrounded with," he said of his immovable fellow high school faculty members.

Foster took out some hefty loans and applied to a master's degree program in educational theater offered by New York University. He spent two summers in England and a third in New York, discovering, to his surprise, that "I could hold my own with people I thought would eat me alive." When he heard that Littleton was planning to convert its old town hall into an arts center, he applied and got the job.

"That was the best and worst experience of my life," he recalled. Foster raised money to finish construction, directed shows, warred with the board over programming and finances - and decided after two years that he had to move on. He and his family went first to Decatur, Il., where Foster spent two years as managing director of the fine arts center at Millikin College, and then to State College, Pa., where he had a much larger job of the same kind at Pennsylvania State University. Foster's choices there transformed a staid performing arts program into something more adventurous. Companies such as Alvin Ailey, Urban Bush Women and the Bill T. Jones/Arne Zane troupe made their first appearances at Penn State.

James Moeser, who hired Foster for the Pennsylvania job and is currently chancellor at the University of North Carolina, said in an e-mail that Foster "used the arts to create conversation about difficult issues - AIDS, sexual orientation and identity. He refused to accept NEA grants during the period when conservatives in Washington were attempting to censor controversial projects. He literally put Penn State on the map as a cultural center."

Further challenges and more convulsive changes, both professional and personal, awaited at the next stop - the University of Arizona in Tucson. Once again Foster rebranded a conventional program by bringing in plays such as "Angels in America" and "The Life and Times of Malcolm X." Once again he was a flashpoint of controversy. "Ken raised the bar here in a way that hasn't been met since," said Kathleen Allen, arts editor of the Arizona Star. "He made some very gutsy choices." That was at work. At home, he made the "wrenching but inevitable" decision to come out and leave his wife.

The San Francisco story

The Yerba Buena center was 10 years old when Foster was hired in late 2003. An interim director was in place at the time, following John Killacky's resignation from YBCA's top post earlier that year. Most of the storms over identity politics, multiculturalism and access to local arts groups that dominated the center's early years had died down. What Foster faced, instead, was a financial crisis. Despite a healthy annual subsidy from the city's Redevelopment Agency (now fixed at $3.5 million), the loss of important grants and a post-dot-com economy had the center in a bind. "It was a mess," said Foster. He cut nine staff positions, increased usage fees and made other adjustments to balance the budget.

The new executive also faced the delicate task of reconceiving a popular predecessor's concept of the center as a process-oriented "idea house," brimming with residencies and workshops for many artists. Killacky and Foster are respectful of each other and remain friendly, but their differences are clear. "I chose to build and invest more broadly," said Killacky, a video artist himself who is now program officer for arts and culture at the San Francisco Foundation.

"If Yerba Buena was going to have the impact it should nationally and internationally," Foster argued, "it needed to have a curatorial direction, put a stake in the ground and stand for something."

Foster proceeded cautiously at first, but certain changes alarmed some local artists, who thought he was turning his back on them in favor of those from outside the region. When Foster canceled a modest subsidy program for local performing arts groups, as part of the financial reorganization, one artistic director sent a blistering letter to every member of the YBCA board. Foster is philosophical about the episode. "We'll never be friends," he said of the director. "But we can work together as colleagues." Meanwhile, Foster's record of supporting and commissioning local dance troupes - Joe Goode Performance Group, Robert Moses' Kin, the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company - speaks for itself.

The Big Ideas remain a centerpiece of Foster's leadership. Some find the concept of ideological linkages between programs instructive and expansive. Others think it burdens art with an agenda or dismiss it as mere rhetoric.

Adam Frey, executive director of the Contemporary Music Players, recalled a conversation with Foster about whether YBCA might want to "curate" (or present) one of the group's programs. (Some companies are presented and publicized by the center; others, such as Smuin Ballet, rent the facility.) "It was suggested that if we'd had a piece by a Chinese composer, and the piece was subtly a criticism of the Chinese government, it might have worked," said Frey. "I thought that was so unlikely. There is this divergence of values between being aesthetically motivated and socially motivated. I feel a little left out of the loop."

Anyone who controls access to some of the city's most coveted stage space is bound to come in for his share of knocks. By all appearances Foster handles himself with equanimity and poise in the face of it. Several staff members confirm his measured, unruffled management style. Better as a strategist than a showman himself, he is not the visible, dynamic presence that Killacky was. And yet the center continues to have an arty, place-to-be-seen allure.

At January's opening of a video and documentary exhibition devoted to the revered Bay Area choreographer Anna Halprin, a large crowd roamed through the galleries, watched the slow-motion gyrations of dancers in an interior courtyard aswarm with falling leaves and listened, beers in hand, to live music in the lobby. "This is fantastic," said Teresa O'Rourke, 54, of Los Angeles, who was there with her sons, ages 17 and 12. "It has such a human scale. There's nothing like this in LA."

On "What's the Big Idea Day" in February, the architecturally cool center had the feel of a super-hip urban county fair. In one room, visitors were feeding cell phone photos and text into a multimedia installation called "Making Peace." A long line of people waiting to get into the Bang on a Can marathon of sometimes daunting new music snaked across the lobby. Upstairs, a group of four participants slowly pinwheeled their arms in an interactive performance and movement workshop. "No experience necessary," a sign outside the door promised.

Witnessing Foster in action, whether in preshow remarks to an audience or in a meeting with his young curatorial staff that turns woolly with critical catchphases ("urban inventiveness," "nude activism," "club culture tribalism"), there's a sustained sincerity and lightness of touch. "I don't know," he repeatedly says to staff members 20 and 25 years his junior. "What do you think?" Even those who have crossed swords or parted company with him express admiration for his even-handedness.

Renny Pritikin, the former YBCA visual arts curator, who was laid off by Foster in 2004 and now heads the Richard Nelson Gallery and Fine Arts Collection at UC Davis, was stung by his former boss' moves to curtail an artist-in-residence program and cut the number of gallery shows from four to three a year.

"I know Ken is more invested in being a straight-ahead performing arts presenter," noted Pritikin. "That said, I give him a lot of credit for keeping it going on for four years in tough times."

Pritikin's successor, René de Guzman, left YBCA for the Oakland Museum last year and has not been replaced. Foster, who concedes that he had virtually no visual arts experience when he took the job here, said he's "very close" to naming a new visual arts curator.

Recently, after a Saturday Indian brunch on Valencia Street, Foster and his affable partner, Shah, invited a visitor back to Foster's sun-filled apartment on a quiet corner in the Mission District. Paintings, prints, photographs, fabric wall hangings and other mementos trace the couple's travels to India, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Taiwan and elsewhere. A presumably ironic place of honor goes to a photograph of Foster and Shah at a 49ers game. "For some reason we were invited to sit in the owner's box," said Foster with one of his warm, shrugging smiles. "When else were we going to do that?"

Near the front door, a wall of family photographs features shots of Foster's ex-wife as well as his two sons at their respective weddings. Aaron, 32, works as a waiter; Brandon, 28, is a sous chef. Both live in Denver. Foster's first grandchild, Amelia, was born in July of last year.

Apparently content in both his job and his private life, Foster is growing more publicly assertive as an arts leader. Earlier this year, in the YBCA program book and an impassioned opinion piece in The Chronicle, Foster announced that the center would no longer post warning signs about the potentially disturbing content (nudity, obscenity, violence) of its productions and exhibits. "We think art's purpose is to challenge us," he wrote. "Controversy, like beauty, will be left to the eye of the beholder."

With his attention focused on the search for new visual arts curator, Foster has been asking himself other questions about the YBCA gallery experience of late. Is there a better way to make use of the cavernous main space? What are some new ways of thinking about wall text? How should audio tours support or supplement the art?

"Why do we have security guards standing around who can't actually do anything if someone pulls out a gun or starts ripping stuff off the wall?" he mused. "All they can do is call the police." Foster put his hands together for a moment and glanced at the ceiling. "Wouldn't it be better to have people here who know something about the art and are engaged in it?"

Foster wasn't posing the questions in the hope of clear answers. He was posing them because, in an arts presenter's job, there aren't any clear answers, only better ways of asking questions.

Yerba Buena in their words

First introduced by Executive Director Ken Foster in 2004, Big Ideas at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts connect the performances, exhibitions and film-video programs thematically. "We believe we have a chance, right now, to look carefully and rigorously at the world," writes Foster in YBCA's "Big Idea Book" for 2007-08, "to embrace it in all its contradictions and build, over time, a beautifully rendered, profoundly moving, thoughtfully articulated route to a more enlightened place."

This season's Big Ideas are Reality Check, Making Peace and Identity Shifts. Foster asked staff members to express them in the "Big Idea Book." Here are quotes from the book:

-- Reality Check - "So while quantum physics continues to scientifically prove the multidimensionality of time and space, and biogenetic engineers conjure Frankenstein chasing Gattaca-like visions of the future, art has the potential to serve as the medium of choice through which we can collectively perceive and experience the global impact of these issues." Cicely J. Sweed, Center for Community Life manager.

-- Making Peace - "In some ways, these projects provide a respite or refuge from the pain, suffering and conflict that has seemed to dominate the work of artists in the past few years." Angela Mattox, assistant performing arts curator.

-- Identity Shifts - "For women, a segment of the population that has traditionally been categorized into the narrow dichotomy of either being the Madonna or the whore (of either being the caregiver or the sex object), it is important to try on a plurality of expressions to arrive at a greater multiplicity of choices." Berlin Golonu, associate visual arts curator.

E-mail Steven Winn at swinn@sfchronicle.com.

Mercury News interview: Company aims to ease treatment of asthma

2008-05-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a cool article on Apieron & Bhairavi in the San Jose Mercury News. In addition to the article, there's a profile and "5 things you want to know about Bhairavi Parikh". She's such a star!

Company aims to ease treatment of asthma

by Stephen Johnson, Mercury News

In just seven years, Bhairavi Parikh helped raise venture capital, start a biomedical company, develop a beneficial new device for asthmatics and win federal approval in March to begin selling the product.

Oh, and by the way, she did it all while raising four children.

The 37-year-old and her husband, Rajiv Parikh, founded Apieron of Menlo Park in 2001 to help minimize the symptoms of asthma, a condition affecting 20 million people in this country.

Building on her biomedical engineering doctorate, Bhairavi Parikh worked with others at the company, which has about 70 employees, to develop a gadget called the Insight eNO system.

The device lets doctors measure nitric oxide molecules in a patient's breath. That's important, she said, because the air-passage inflammation that causes asthma has been linked to how much nitric oxide is in a person's body. By monitoring nitric oxide, doctors can determine the amount, type and frequency of medicines asthmatics need to take to avoid breathing difficulties.

The Insight eNO product approved in March for doctors' offices costs about $7,500. But Bhairavi Parikh and her team are working to develop one that asthmatics could afford to buy and use at home. She hopes to get that approved for sale in three years.

Here are edited excerpts from a Mercury News interview with her:

Q Aside from Rajiv having asthma growing up, why did you make the Insight system?

A The vision for this company is that we make the lives of asthma patients better, so they're not taking too much medicine and they're not taking too little, and they don't have symptoms and they're not afraid to go over to their friend's house because they have a dog and they don't land in the emergency room. It seems altruistic. But it's what the company is founded on and it's the hopes and dreams that actually keep this place moving forward.

Q What do you think about the scarcity of women biomedical executives?

A I do think it's rare. It's even rarer that females found companies. I'm hopeful that in the future it will become more of a commonality as opposed to something that is construed to be not normal. There is always a pull in a woman when she chooses between family and career, and you can't always have it all. It's a very difficult thing to get to the point where you can successfully manage a family and manage having an executive-level position.

Q How do you do it?

A My mother. My nanny. My sister-in-law. My father. We're raising a family by community, you know. I maintain a fairly flexible schedule. I make sure that I spend time with my kids every single day. And I work at nights when they go to bed to make up the time that I'm not in the office. If you build a good working relationship with your peers and with your team members, it can work.

Q What are the pluses and minuses of founding a company with a spouse?

A It was probably the best experience of my life. I mean, I've been married for 17 years, we dated for quite a while before that. We have a very good solid working relationship and there's this mutual respect between the two of us. So conversations are always open, always honest. You don't have to worry about stepping on each other's toes. You don't have to worry about saying the wrong thing and having to deal with the repercussions. The bad thing about it is that the venture community doesn't encourage it.

Q What was their problem with it?

A "You don't want to have two people in a company that have stronger loyalties to each other than they do to the well-being of the business." I would strongly disagree with that statement, because we had a positive experience. But it's not an uncommon point of view.

Q How was it raising venture capital?

A It was extremely difficult. We were young, just finishing graduate education, having young children at home. So I think that made it more difficult to raise money. And my husband came from high tech, he didn't have medical device, pharma or biotech background. His expertise was not in the area that we were looking to raise money in. You have to find the venture capital that believes in you and believes in the story, and the story was that we're going to go change the lives of asthma patients.

Q What is the hardest thing about running a company?

A From a personal perspective, the thing I work hardest at is to make sure that you have a happy organization and it's what takes the most amount of time. Irrespective of meeting your goals and making sure that everybody is trying to get to a common place, the best thing and the hardest thing is to build relationships and to have people become loyal to the cause and to you.

Q You said when you were younger you studied dance and even performed with an Indian classical dance troupe. Why did you get involved in science?

A The whole concept of problem solving keeps my juices flowing constantly and it's actually what I do best. I love to dance. It keeps you whole. But science keeps your mind going. There's always a new problem to solve, there's always something new to invent.

Five things to know about Bhairavi Parikh

Mercury News

Article Launched: 05/18/2008 01:38:40 AM PDT

1. She started dancing when she was 3 and considered pursuing dance professionally. "Now I live vicariously through my daughter (Shivani), who dances incessantly."

2. She said she drives a minivan because "the love of my life is my family," and she needs it to carry her four children.

3. She listens to extremely loud music when she's alone and loves to "escape into the arts."

4. She cites as life-changing events trying to raise venture capital while pregnant with her fourth child and feeling helpless when her son, Anand, was hospitalized with an infection.

5. Her mother is a biologist and her father is a chemist.

Bhairavi Parikh

Mercury News reporting

Article Launched: 05/18/2008 07:46:31 AM PDT

• Birthdate: Aug. 15, 1970

• Birthplace: Waterbury, Conn.

• Position: Co-founder and chief technology officer at Apieron

• Previous jobs: Senior sensor engineer at Natus Medical in San Carlos

• Education: Bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire; master's degree in biological engineering from the University of Connecticut; doctorate in biomedical engineering from a joint program with the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and University of Massachusetts Medical Center

• Family: She and her husband, Rajiv, have four children: Arjun, 12, Shivani, 10, Anjali, 8, and Anand, 5.

• Residence: Palo Alto

Senator Harrasses Patriots

2008-05-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

The power of Senators to waste people's time and energy is incredible. As reported in the Boston Globe, Sen. Arlen Specter today spent 3 hours with Matt Walsh to learn - surprise! - that the Patriots taped signals from opposing teams. Already heavily penalized for taping aspects of a videotaped game, apparently the good Senator needed more blood. Commissioner Goodall says there is no new information beyond what is known. Apparently, the recession, energy crisis and trade deficits are not important enough for this elected official. This idiot Senator is wasting government time and resources chasing the football team that beat his state's team.

Luckily, the US system of government was designed to diffuse the power of a single lawmaker to affect change. It is difficult to get a law past committees and 2 houses before getting to the President. Unfortunately, a single Senator can compel people to testify in hearings, even something as dumb as the way a sports league disciplines its teams.

Ridiculous!

Star TV!

2008-05-08T15:55:00.000-07:00

Star TV, a division of News Corp, signed up with Position2 for search engine marketing and SEO services. Star is Asia's leading media and entertainment company, serving more than 300 million viewers across 53 Asian countries with over 60 television services in nine languages. Every 100 million viewers watch Star.

Congrats to the team to putting this together! Now it's up to the Delivery team to show how well we can do.

Yahoo: Glad I Sold at $30

2008-05-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

Tech acquisitions are difficult to do. Microsoft was hoping it could compel Yahoo to sell when it's stock fell to an incredible low of $18.58 a share. Offering $31 a share, Microsoft hoped that Yahoo management would agree to an acquisition. They threatened to go hostile by taking it to a shareholder vote, but as announced on Friday, they will not prevail.

After hearing about the acquisition, I immediately put in a sell order at $30. I figured the stock would not go to $31 unless Yahoo took the offer. If not, maybe Microsoft would raise, but there really not other bidders in a recessionary environment. Then we got lucky.... On one of the days, it a rumor came out that News Corp may counter. My sell order went through for the high of the day. Since then, the stock has remained in the $26-29 range.

Clearly, Yahoo's management and key shareholders did not want to sell. They felt the firm was undervalued. They have significant assets around the world and are #1 for traffic with a use base of Mail users. Yahoo's time on site numbers are amazingly high. Once a highflier, Yahoo is valued low because of Google's success in search. This is true, however, Yahoo's management was discounting the value of its other assets.

Technology acquisitions are notoriously difficult to pull off. Differing cultures cause all sorts of problems. The best people look to leave before the inevitable period of consolidation and rationalization. While integration is occurring, people take their eye off the ball, giving the competition an advantage. Meanwhile pursuing a hostile takeover is distracting to the acquirer. Microsoft's management realized this. They may have some properties, but nothing close to Yahoo's. Imagine the Pyrrhic victory of winning a hostile takeover while your new assets declines in value.

So now Yahoo's stock is in line for a difficult fall. No one wants to buy it and it's going to be a long time before all of Jerry Yang's strategy takes roots. They may tie up with Google for advertising, so that may raise revenue in the short term, but they need a way to fire people's imagination. Right now, social networks are hot. However, the internet and media market goes through all sorts of waves. Can Yahoo lead the next one?

So I'll buy again after the fall...

exchange4media: Position2 demystifies SEM at its Search Marketing Roundtable

2008-05-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

As you all know our effort is around the world in developed and developing countries. We are pleased to have the operational infrastructure to work with clients around the world. Thanks to Tuhina for writing an insightful and accurate article...

Position2 demystifies SEM at its Search Marketing Roundtable

Author: Tuhina Anand

May 01, 2008

Position2 held its Search Marketing Roundtable at Bangalore, where the speakers discussed and shared key tips and techniques on Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) and Social Media Marketing (SMM). The session covered a gamut of issues on search engine marketing (SEM), including how to gain maximum from search marketing, misconceptions and myths of SEM and SMM, among others.

Rajiv Parikh, CEO, Position2 began by giving an overview of the online advertising industry and key SEM aspects. Parikh, during his session, spoke on pay per click advertising. He also emphasised on the fact that search engine should be made part of a company’s marketing budget. He said, “When SEM works, it is like black gold, but don’t expect results to happen right away. It’s a detail-oriented process.”

He also spoke about the importance of determining SEM goals, be it in terms of branding, traffic, lead generation or sales. He added, “The power of SEM is such that some small players can appear much bigger than central players on the Net as they might show up above them. Also, sometimes bigger players don’t pay for brand visibility on the Net, which is a mistake in today’s times.”

Tushar Prabhu, Manager-SEO, Position2, began with the basic of how a search engine worked. He said, “We must think of what the end-user is looking for, read the minds of the user to gain maximum from search marketing.”

Echoing Parikh, Prabhu too said that it was necessary to be visible to the customers. He offered a few tips to gain from searches, stating, search today was not just text but video and rich media as well, the inclusion of which pushed up the ranking of the search result.

“Build the site for users and make the content persuasive and compelling to the readers. Use analytics to track user behaviour and then tweak your site to offer better user experience. Keep file names simple and don’t include alphanumeric, the search doesn’t recognise those. Avoid duplication, organise content thematically, update content, make long-term commitment and, most importantly, avoid black hats (or using illegal ways to enhance search result),” Prabhu advised.

The Roundtable also saw a discussion on Social Media Marketing, which in today’s time, every marketer and media planner is trying to find ways to leverage on. Rajesh Sule, Director Business Development, Position2, said, “Social Media Marketing is a great platform to express, exchange and interact, but the challenge is to grab the attention of users as their attention span is limited.”

He further said, “One needs to find a homogenous set among the heterogeneous sets and then use mass customisation to reach out on the web. Another point is to engage the target group on various touchpoints to be able to influence them.”

Position2 Invited to Google AdWords Advisory Council

2008-04-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce that Position2 has been invited to join the Google AdWords Advisory Council. Our top PPC specialists have been working with the Google AdWords optimization staff on beta testing new techniques, so we appreciate the opportunity to work further.

The reason our name is Position2 is because we focus on client ROI vs. the highest position. This is not ROI on clicks or lead, but in many cases on actual sales closes. This recognition is a validation of our approach.

200 Mile Relay - Sponsor Me for India Literacy

2008-04-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends & Family,

On April 18-20, I plan on running The Relay (http://therelay.com), a 200 mile marathon relay to raise money for the India Literacy Project. This run goes from Calistoga to Santa Cruz. It crosses 36 cities including the Golden Gate Bridge at midnight. Like a marathon, I plan on running about 24 miles for my team of 12 (we plan for people to have "issues"), however this one occurs over 30 hour period over real hills at all hours of the day.

I'll get the running done. I need your help with the fundraising part. The India Literacy Project (http://ilp.net) is committed to putting children in school and out of manual labor. That means there are millions of children that are locked in a cycle of exploitation & poverty. Many have no choice but to work to support their families. The ILP takes a regional approach to establishing/strengthening schools, child care centers and libraries to get children out of the workforce and into schools. An important part of this is working closely with the community to build a culture of education. The results are impressive. A project in Ajmer, Rajesthan took 1000 children in 22 villages and got them out of the labor force and into school. This one program cost a modest $5,500 in 2007. ILP is incredibly efficient with admin costs less than 5%.

Please help make my run the difference maker. There are 2 ways to give. One is to write a check out to the India Literacy Project and send it to me (3910 Duncan Place, Palo Alto CA). The other is to make a donation online (see below). Either way, please let me know (need trash talk fodder for the van ride).

Thank you so much for your support!

-Rajiv

Here are the instructions for an online donation:

1. Visit http://www.ilpnet.org/donatenow.html

2. Click on "Donate Now" button

3. Enter Amount to Donate

4. Under "Designation (Optional)" Form Field, Type "ILP Relay Team"

5. Under "Dedication (Optional)" Form Field, Enter "Rajiv Parikh" (for tracking)

6. Enter email address and login

7. Once logged in, provide required credit card information to complete the donation

WebGuild Blog about Google Sale Performics

2008-04-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

It was great to hear that Google decided to sell Performics, an SEM agency. Check out my quote. If ever there was a violation of the "Do not evil" mantra of Google, it would have been maintaining ownership of the firm. Google would have had a hard time telling people that no one has a special advantage in winning on organic and paid search rankings while owning an SEM firm.

On top of that, it would have disrupted relationships with firms that help grow advertiser search engine ad spend. It would have been like an automaker owning a large dealer group - not good.

Smart move Google!

PPC: When Position Matters

2008-03-31T15:29:00.001-07:00

In PPC, you are typically looking for the lowest cost of conversion or CPL (cost per lead). Then you apply the sales conversion rate and voila!, you have optimized for cost of acquisition. Position only matter to the extent that you get the appropriate volume.

What if you have a premium product? What if it's an emotional purchase?

Then top position will matter.

We have a client that sells a consumer emergency service. It's an emotional purchase where the buyer can go one of 2 ways: buy right away with a "high quality" service or price compare to get the basic set of functionality.

The focus was on getting the appropriate lead volume at the right cost given the sales close rate. However, given that the price of the product was higher, the sales close rate was low. If the client's ad appeared as position 5 in a list of similar competitors, they would lose out as those purchasers are making decisions based on price.

So we ran an experiment. Take the most relevant keywords, bid high to gain top position and see what happened.

The result: Close rates went up 150%, CPLs went up over 30%, cost of acquisition fell by greater than 50%.

The upshot: Customers perceived high quality by high position. Though the cost of the client solution was 100% higher than the competition, they increased sales to the right target customer.

Fanenomics

2008-03-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

My 12 year old son has just set up his own blog, Fanenomics. He comments on his assessments of major league players and sports. Arjun is the kind of kid who considers Bill James and Billy Beane cool. In ProTrade, a sports trading site, he's making huge profits. He actually prefer general manager mode in all sports video games and is running a number of sports sim league - scary, I know. Arjun's a real fan, combining opinion with data. So, if you are a sports stat junkie, check out Fanenomics.

The Guild Wins YouTube Best Video Series Award

2008-03-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

YouTube announced that The Guild won for YouTube Best Video 2007 Series Award! They also won the Yahoo 2007 Best Web Series Award! Our very own Effinfunny creator, Sandeep Parikh, co-stars with Guild creator Felicia Day. Sandeep plays the hyper-compulsive lovestruck Zaboo in the "real life" multi-player series game obsessed Codex (Felicia).

Even for non-gamers, the series becomes addictive. I love how Sandeep improvs a lot of his lines. Please see my favorite episide at Effinfunny.com, "Cheesybeards."

Check out all the news on this amazing series.

Congrats to Felicia and The Guild writers, cast and crew!

Social Media Presentation at Web 2.0 Conference

2008-03-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

I recently spoke on a Social Media panel at the Web 2.0 Conference. During this session we discussed how Social Media and Advertising techniques can be used to gain visibility and increase traffic.

I discussed case studies of how social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and others can be used to increase traffic for 2 B2C firms: Effinfunny and ResponseLINK. As an online comedy video site, Effinfunny could directly target interested groups with engaging videos. They monetize via advertising, so what matters to them is traffic and time on site. For ResponseLINK, they monetize using a monthly subscription service for their medical alarm systems for home-based seniors.

Effinfunny was able to see a 200% increase in traffic over a 2 month period last year. That increase has been durable and growing since them. In their case, they use tools like TubeMogul to periodically place videos at a number of video sharing sites. They also have a group in Facebook and MySpace. Efforts like these are optimized to focus on time on site, bounceback rates and registrations. In their case, it's important to get in front of the passionate audience of stand-up comedy fanatics. A side benefit of this has been excellent search rank in Google for the keywords that matter.

ResponseLINK saw a 200% increase in non-PPC traffic by engaging with discussion sites, forums, and yes, even social media sites. People are very passionate about taking care of their parents. Because ResponseLINK offers a high quality approach, they need to engage with their audience to alert them on the things they should care about when using these types of products. This includes a self-monitoring system (for uptime), medication reminders, and when something happens, a well-trained agent who will stay on the line with the senior until help arrives. There's a great set of ResponseLINK videos that discuss why adult children bought the system as an aid for their previously strong and independent parents. This video actually ranks higher than others that employ a fear based approach.

Thanks to Daya from WebGuild for inviting us to speak. Barbara Coll of WebMama did an excellent job of moderating with Cam Blazer and Kent Lindstrom and myself as panelist. She has a nice writeup on her blog about the session.

If you want a copy of my presentation - please let me know.

AAAAI Apieron Booth Picture

2008-03-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture taken by Bryan Flaherty, Apieron VP of R&D on Sunday morning (3/16/2008). You can see some of our top players, Sal (sales) and Vivek (Marketing, previously Engineering). Of course, there's the Apieron Insight and the main heading: Now FDA Cleared!

Breakthrough Asthma Management Device

2008-03-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Apieron, Inc. Announces FDA Clearance of the Insight™ eNO System to Assist Physicians with Patient Asthma Management

Physician’s office system for measuring airway inflammation poised to transform asthma management for improved control.

MENLO PARK, CA, MARCH 17, 2008, Apieron, Inc. Apieron, Inc. (www.apieron.com) announced today that the Insight eNO system has received clearance to market by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Insight eNO system measures exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) which is a well established indicator of airway inflammation and asthma control. The Insight system is a highly accurate device, expressly designed for the physician’s office. It is non-invasive, safe, easy to use, and provides results in less than a minute. Apieron’s unique biosensor detects trace amounts of nitric oxide molecules in a single human breath utilizing a proprietary technology. Current methods and techniques used to diagnose, monitor and treat asthma are costly, time-consuming and cumbersome. Physician office measurement of eNO is a much awaited breakthrough in medical technology that provides physicians with a reliable tool to measure their patient’s respiratory inflammation better than ever before. Measurement of eNO has also been shown to optimize medication therapy and improve compliance among patients with asthma.

William Berger, MD, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, University of California, Irvine, and Mission Viejo Medical Center, Mission Viejo, California, stated, “In clinical studies with the Apieron Insight eNO monitor, I found the ability to easily and accurately measure eNO in the physician’s office to be a major advancement in my care for patients with persistent asthma.”

It is estimated that more than 20 million people in the U.S. suffer from asthma, making it one of the most common and costly of all diseases. In fact, every day in America 40,000 people miss school or work due to asthma and 5,000 people go to the emergency room due to an asthma attack. One-quarter of all emergency room visits are asthma related and asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease.

“We are pleased to offer physicians and their patients a reliable, accurate and affordable asthma measurement and management device,” said Rich Lotti, President and CEO of Apieron, Inc., “We believe this product will improve the standard of care for patients with asthma enabling physicians to optimize medical therapy for each patient.

"The availability of simple to use, accurate, and economically feasible eNO measurement devices now enables physicians to intelligently assess and manage the key pathologic feature of asthma, airway inflammation", said Peter B. Boggs, M.D., Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, LSU School of Medicine, Shreveport, Louisiana. "Prior to the availability to measure eNO, assessing and managing airway inflammation was, for all practical purposes, little more than a guess! The ability to measure eNO in the physician's office is "one giant step" in the care of adults and children with asthma."

The Insight eNO system includes a small desktop monitor with an easy-to-read display, trend analysis capabilities and a user-friendly interface. The system uses disposable, single-use sensors to measure nitric oxide accurately and non-invasively in less than a minute. Disposable, single-use breath tubes make it hygienic and convenient for the user to exhale into the device. Patient data can be stored and maintained in unique patient cards for trend analysis or downloaded to a printer for insurers’ and patients’ files.

About Apieron Inc.
Apieron Inc. is a private, venture-backed medical device company based in Menlo Park, CA that was formed in early 2001 to develop a simple-to-use, non-invasive monitor for the measurement of exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) for the management of asthma. The Apieron biosensor technology platform utilizes a patented platform technology that allows for the highly sensitive detection of selected analytes like eNO. Apieron is committed to collaborating with physicians and patients to develop innovative medical solutions to improve quality of life and standards of care.

Refer Questions to:
Holly McGarraugh Apieron, Inc.
650-454-8101 (ph)
650-454-8190 (fax)

Apieron Receives FDA Approval

2008-03-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

Today Apieron received notification of FDA approval for the new Apieron Insight eNO System. This was the result of a long journey for Bhairavi and myself. We were absolutely thrilled to hear the official word the day before AAAI in Philadephia. That means we can take orders for this product. We first started this quest in 2001 and are thrilled to get to this point. Finally, physicians can truly understand and manage asthma for the millions of people in the US and around the world that suffer from this disease.

We thank all those at Apieron who worked so hard to develop and commercialize the technology. You believed in us and put your heart into your work, spending countless hours in every phase of process: R&D, product & process development, clinical, regulatory, marketing, legal, reimbursement, finance, and manufacturing. So many partners worked with us on every phase - some for little more than the promise of a great dream. Our initial and current investors helped not only with money, but with time, commitment and expertise. We appreciate all your help and are excited about getting this in the hands of allergists, pulmonologists, pediatrians, GPs, nurses and technicians can make a huge difference for the 20 million asthma sufferers in the US.

Imagine the opportunity to create a brand new market with a revolutionary product. The Apieron Insight is the first step in turning the art of asthma management into a science.

So many people supported us that it will take 3 days of calls to thank everyone. This an amazing point because it removes the one risk that we could not control.

Now it's execution time - hit the the pedal to the metal!

Interesting Recession Chart

2008-03-07T20:48:00.000-08:00

The stock market keeps dropping. This is a leading, though in this case belated sign of recession. This has been coming for some time as commodity prices and demand became overheated. Keeping interest rates so low for so long created a tremendous housing bubble that is affecting many. Overseas, globalization has resulted in rising wages, especially for skilled labor.

Check out this graph published in NYT's Freakonomics blog:

The graph indicates growth or decline in non-farm payroll. Down is bad, up is generally good. The gray bars are recession periods as defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research. I'm hoping that this does not last long, but we are crossing 0.1%.

What to do if you are in search marketing? As stated in a previous blog, I believe that those who are in the game will spend more here, because the results can be tracked at every stage. Most businesses need to invest in new customer acquisition, regardless of the economy. We have the people, process and technology to get them there.

Luckily for us, we have clients that help those in heavy debt like Bills.com or those concerned about foreclosure like Home Assure. We are also expanding in Southeast Asia, an area that is absolutely booming, and Europe, where the euro and pound are super strong. We also have some really cool ideas under wraps for tools and business concepts.

Security Gone Silly

2008-03-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting one. Yesterday, I went to check out Effinfunny and could not view some of the videos. After checking with a friend, it turned out that he (Sam) could run them just fine. However, Sam was outside my office. He said to check Revver.com and then MySpace. I got this error:

This site is blocked by the SonicWall Content Filter Service.

URL: http://www.myspace.com/

Reason for restriction: Forbidden Category "Adult/Mature Content"

Turns out that the guys at SonicWALL way overdid their firewall software. It's one thing if I was checking some bondage site - "research" in the Internet Marketing business - but c'mon. This is way over the top.

It's one thing to get searched three times while walking between terminals at Frankfurt or Heathrow and having to discombobulate yourself for all sorts of random fears. But this restricts hurts legimate businesses. Someone creates a site about Internet Marketing, posts videos in Revver and uses them as they video player, but finds out that many of his target audience can't see the video. Now people can always complain to IT, they aren't necessarily going to call their network admins and tell them to enable MySpace traffic.

So we've sent this to the SonicWALL folks. Hope they fix this. Hope other firms don't go security-silly.

Marketing During a Recession

2008-03-03T22:47:00.000-08:00

John Quelch, Marketing Professor at Harvard Business School discussed how to market during a recession in his HBS Working Knowledge blog. He generally takes the point of view that this is a time to strengthen your advantage rather than cut back as it pays tremendous dividends in market share, customer and employee loyalty when the market turns around.

Amongst his points, the following reasonated with me:

Research your customer: since customers will be redefining their value equation, you need to learn more about which features are considered must-haves and the price elasticity curve.

Maintain marketing spending: this is a time where an advertiser can greater value for their marketing dollar. Customers are looking for reassurance during this time and the company that markets will appear even more solid before. In industries where brand value is high, this is a time to increase durable market share. If marketing spend must be cut, substitute less expensive forms of marketing - radio vs. TV, direct marketing over pure branding.

Adjust pricing tactics: rather than cutting list prices which create a new threshold that is difficult to raise during an upturn have more temporary price promotions, reduce thresholds for quantity discounts, extend credit to long-standing customers, and price smaller pack sizes more aggressively.

Emphasize core values: rather than cutting back on employees or services, this is a time to focus more energy on existing customers and retaining the best employees. This buys incredible loyalty for when the economy turns around.

Quelch also discussed finding ways to add the distribution channel, adjusting product portfolios and focusing on market shares. Most of these are strategies when you have a strong cash balances and favorable profit margins. It would be interesting to hear what he would cut if it was necessary, but I suspect it has a lot of do with researching the products value proposition and adjusting accordingly.

Idol Projection: David Archuleta Wins

2008-02-28T21:39:00.000-08:00

Since I'm nearing 40, I can admit that I watch American Idol with the kids. I gotta tell you the winner is going to be.... David Archuleta. He's simply the best of a very good field of men - a group for the first time that is stronger than the women. The way he did the Lennon song, "Imagine" could have been a disaster because it is heartfelt and powerful in its simplicity. It does not, however, stretch a person vocally. David did it all. He has that connection with the audience. It was unbelievable. He's gotta win.

Reflections from India and Singapore

2008-02-24T22:06:00.001-08:00

I just returned to the US after a whirlwind 1 week trip in India and Singapore. This time we accomplished quite a bit - reviews of progress with the Client Management, Delivery, Tech and Administrative Team along with some focused business development activity. Rather than recounting each aspect of the trip, here are some random observations...

- Singapore Airlines great, Euro/US airlines so-so to suck. I fly coach, it's shareholder money y'know, but nothing beats the service of Singapore. You are treated like a real person as opposed to cattle. Friendly stewardesses that get you whatever you want whenever you want. I'm not saying that because they choose so well or dress attractively. It's all the other stuff too: a menu with drinks to order and well-presented meals (silverware, no plastic) with ice cream desert, a 10 inch personal screen with a massive on-demand selection, little care packet and just a generally good attitude. Everything they give you is just a little better than other airlines. They don't make you feel bad that you went coach vs. business class. The price was similar to Lufthansa and United, but the aircraft was newer and fresher. Rather than previewing the latest chick flicks for my wife on old burned out cathode ray screens, I took advantage of 6 movies, 3 TV shows, 4 book summaries and 1 Hindi course in the 40 hours of travel.

- Mumbai airport super fast and low on hassle, Bangalore needs lots of help. Bangalore can't get a new international airport soon enough. I don't know how many deals have not happened as a result of a terrible airport experience. Bangalore, now the mouthful Bangaluru, is overcrowded to get your bags. It's like warfare as people create gridlock with baggage carts and pushy people trying to box out for their spot. Then you are accosted by taxi guys as you walk out. It's hard to find to the driver sent for you while these guys are in your face. Finally, there's a mess of a drive off spot where the accosting behavior continue. Normally, people from Bangalore are fairly shy and very service-oriented. This stuff just puts prospective deal makers off. In Mumbai this is not the case. People wait behind the line and you can sign up for a prepaid taxi before you leave the quieter confines of the airport. To get in, you don't have to endure long lines to get security-checked in. Or watch as self-important Europeans pay off baggage handlers to get them in front of the line. None of them actually carry bags, they just remind Indians of that Raj mentality - just needs to end. As you can tell, it burns me because I see the potential of a great country.

- Prices rising everywhere. It's not just gas prices in the US, it's salaries in India and costs in Singapore. The age of globalization has brought on an age of demand for skills and products - across the board. The cost of a movie ticket is about $5 in Mumbai - hey that's not far off. Though the seats were sold out, they were not filled. A lot of people can afford to blow off the movies. In Singapore, a lunch entree at a mid-level restaurant cost $10-15. It still costs less in India, though our night of drinks and snacks (no entree) at the posh Pause in Mumbai cost $300. Shots of Jagermeister costs just as much as the US.

- Salaries will meet the US slowdown...er recession. There are young adults in Bangalore that have known nothing but 20-100% salary increases year after year. With companies laying off 1000s in India due to a slowdown in growth and a rising rupee, harsh reality will set in. If you want to do better, do better work. Employers will not consider 4 months in the job as anything resembling real experience.

- Quality is rising. The level of foreign investment in India and Asia has raised quality expectations. In Japan, this took time before cars went from poor quality in the 60's to high quality in the 80's. In India, I've seen people respond very quickly. People are so eager to do well, I've seen turnarounds in as little as 2 months. As the quality expectation gets built in, competitiveness will need to rise in developed counties.

- US retail still the most efficient. I thought that prices for electronics in Singapore would be low due to its proximity to China. I thought that brand name clothing would be cheaper in India due to lower salaries. Same thing for hotel prices. A room at the Intercontinental in Mumbai goes for $500/night (and there's no pool), Dockers in Bangalore costs $40, a Canon HD video camcorder goes for $1200 vs. $660 on Amazon.com in Singapore. Except for groceries and souveniers, US retail is king.

- Cranes everywhere. I saw at least 20 cranes in the Mumbai skyline and at least a dozen in Singapore. I hope they've figured how to get people to all those places. I'm sure Singapore has - it's the model of hyperefficiency.

- Pollution...argh. It's a big deal in India. People really need to get involved and do something about it. Even with the price advantage of CNG and LPG, not enough people have converted. There are still too many rickshaws, scooters, cars, buses and trucks spewing all kinds of toxic stuff out of those tailpipes. I've stopped running in India - walking is enough indoors. I feel for all those kids. It took the US 30 years to turn it around. I hope India finds a way to do it as well. It's an amazing country that has progressed in so many ways. The people just have to want it.

- Singapore... an expat heaven. There are a lot US expats in Singapore. It's understandable why. Everything is first class - the dining, shopping, clubs, infrastructure. Singapore has an unbelievable airport with direct connections to everywhere in Asia. It's a super clean city where as long as you play by the rules you can do anything you want. There's are even government sanctioned brothels, something that the cab drivers are happy to tell you about. Take that, Thailand! I've seen the super-efficient business side. I hope in my next trip I see some of the soul.

- Happy to be home. My family let me sleep this weekend. Ready to hit the ground running.

Microsoft: Why is Quality So Hard?

2008-02-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

You would think that with Microsoft bidding for Yahoo, I would be writing about my opinion of it (it's good if they can execute extremely well). Instead, I want to reflect on how we deal with such lower quality expectations with Microsoft dominated products. Today, at the San Jose Tech Museum, a number of exhibits were down due to application freezes, execution errors, or just the blue screen of death. This combines with my daily battle with Outlook - every time I don't clean out my Inbox, my whole computer freezes. Applications endlessly need to be restarted.

Why is this so difficult? You would think that a company that has been in business for 23 years would have found a way to make it's product bulletproof. If you talk to people in the company, there is a preponderance of brilliant people. Yet, after multiple iterations of the OS and Office application set, there are continuous quality and performance issues. Microsoft could tell the hardware folks exactly what they want. They could tell the peripheral and component makers exactly how they want products to interface with the OS. Yet, for whatever reason they don't do it well. Here's one example: my son has an XBox which we recently threw away because it crashed and will not start up again. Microsoft controls every aspect of that box. Yet his old (and new) Playstation keep motoring on.

Even upgrades confuse people. Our CFO is an Excel expert yet he has lost functionality with Excel 2007. On Outlook 2007, I still can't find the Picture toolbar to crop images. You'd think an upgrade would give you more multimedia functionality.

Now as an SEM agency, we love Microsoft because they provide an alternative network for search and advertising content, even though we suffer highly functional, low reliability interface (everyone in SEM knows what I'm talking about). However, I'd ask the good smart folks at Microsoft to spend their energy on 2 things - reliability and performance. That would be good for all of us and truly cement their hold on computing.

Search Spend Way Up Though Economy Flat

2008-01-31T23:06:00.000-08:00

In a previous post, I discussed how SEM would actually do well in a recession. Well see this NY Time article. Key quotes:

"Google said it has seen no effect from a slowing economy on its advertising business, as it reported a 17 percent jump in profit and a 51 percent growth in revenue in the fourth quarter...

Remember, the US economy grew an anemic 0.6% in the 4th quarter.

“We have not seen any impact as of now,” said Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, in an interview Thursday afternoon after the financial report was announced.

"Mr. Schmidt said he had yet to see weakness in any advertising category.

Bottom line: business has to advertise. Search is more results-oriented and therefore harder to cut in lean times.

Web 2.0 Conference - Social Media

2008-01-28T23:22:00.000-08:00

See me speak during the WebGuild Web 2.0 conference. I will be on the Social Advertising and Social Media panel discussion at 1 PM. My focus with be on practical examples of how to use Web Outreach and Social Networks to grow awareness for entrepreneurial & growing companies. This will include Effinfunny and ResponseLINK.

Stop by and ask a question or 2.

Ted Kennedy Again

2008-01-28T23:07:00.000-08:00

I was there when Ted Kennedy ran in 1980. My father loved JFK and felt tremendous affection for all things Kennedy. When he lost the NH primary and walked into the Manchester, NH office, he electrified the crowd. It was exciting to be 12 and feel the energy in the room, except...

In 1980, he upended the incumbent, Pres. Jimmy Carter, in a show of ultimate party disloyalty. Carter was dealing with a difficult economy, high interest rates, high inflation, and the Iran hostage crisis. I remember how he had all that momentum behind him until that article came out in Reader's Digest about Chappaquiddick incident. I'm sure that Kennedy did not make it easy for Carter's run when he fought it all the way to the convention.

Now he's considered a great senior Senator. No one doubts his dedication or his desire to help the working man, but to jump in over a tough campaign seems irrational. That's what primaries are all about. Get the tough stuff out there, so that people are battle ready for the general election. He has the right to advocate for whoever he wants, but to do it because of a hard fought primary?

The $150 Billion Waste of Money

2008-01-27T18:17:00.000-08:00

Many are concerned about growing signs of a recession. The same administration that went on for years on a tax cutting and spending binge is now working with Congress to do a cash giveaway to get people to spend more money. Fuel prices are up. Biofuel demand is pushing up fuel prices up. The savings rate is negative. Inflation and unemployment are up. Would giving people a relatively small slug of cash spare us a recession? Does this make sense?

The real answer is no. $150 billion is small change in a $10 trillion economy. It is unlikely to move much of anything. People will buy some things and maybe that will help some folks, but it is not a consistent behavior over time. Consistently more money in people's pockets will lead to more spending, however is this the behavior we want? We've actually had a stimulus for some time. It the Iraq and Afghan war - to the tune of $1 trillion since 9/11. This money has flowed largely into the US economy to pay for military equipment and personnel.

What we are really doing is adding more debt to the economy. This spend-heavy generation has burdened our children to the tune of $29,000 of debt for every man, woman and child. We can't really just grow our way through it as the US is a mature economy with a long term growth rate of about 3%. We have underfunded Medicare and Social Security to such an extent that the real deficit is even greater if we used corporate accounting.

How did it happen?

Interest rates held down too low for too long + subprime fueled easy money and massive spending. People levered up on debt to go on a spending spree. They didn't read the fine print on their adjustable rate offers. This was exacerbated by tax cuts. They kept buying more expensive homes, some got into McMansions. Oil prices are 5x higher than just 3 years ago. To reduce oil consumption, the US is pushing ethanol, so that is impacting food prices. US spending on imports have led to massive growth in China, and to a lesser extent, in India. Salaries are rising. As Greenspan says, the price depressing weight of globalization is diminishing as overheated demand in fast growing developing economies raise import prices.

Now the bubble has popped. Homebuilding is way down with a massive amount of unsold inventory. Foreclosures are way way up. Inflation is finally recognized as rising in official reports. Worse, the subprime crisis has dramatically tightened lending. If this continue, people will not be able to refinance to lower rates. If the value of your house is down, no bank will lend you money even if you are carrying the load at a higher rate.

The US needs to move away from debt. We need to realize that we are a fully developed economy. Trying to grow out of debt just loads up obligations on future generations. The growth is just not fast enough to make sense. The US needs to be strong. Capital should not be used to prop up the US government, rather it should flow to private sources, lowering the cost of capital for all.

Moreover, savings should be encouraged, not spending. People who save can take risks, can start their own business or deal with an emergency without going to the government for a bailout.

So it's one thing if the Fed drops interest rates to spur growth. That's a significant macro effort as it impact everything from mortgage interest rate to corporate borrowing rates. A $150 billion giveaway leading to a slug of one time debt is not the answer.

It's time to get our house under control.

2008 Olympics Will Expose the Price of Growth

2008-01-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

A recent NY Times about the Beijing smog discussed the concern of athletes about the impact of pollution on their ability to complete. The US team physiologist, Randy Wilber, is recommending that athletes where a mask to particulate filter as the Beijing air has pollutant 5x greater than WHO levels for safety. The marathon world-record holder Haile Gebrselassie has allergies, and the world’s No. 1 women’s tennis player Justine Henin has asthma.

I ran the Mumbai Marathon in 2007. I thought it would be exotic and kind of cool to run in the country where so much of our business was. The heat was one thing. The pollution was another. Even though Mumbai has oceanfront and the marathon was on a Sunday, it definitely had an impact on me as much time was 30 minutes slower than previous marathons. In addition my shoes had a clay like tint even though the streets were thoroughly clean.

The IOC should really think about where it stages the Olympics. Developing countries are great, especially since they provide hope and inspiration for the country's citizens. However, rapidly developing countries like China and India are willing to sacrifice the environment and their citizens' health for growth and prosperity. Remember the US clean-ups began in earnest as little as 40 years ago. Yet, that is no reason to sacrifice the health of athletes. As exciting as it is to have the Olympics in China, will it be worth watching great competitors ruin their health?

Advantages of Using a Marketing Agency

2008-01-15T23:37:00.000-08:00

Market researchers like Forrester and iMarketer are estimating 20+% growth per year over the next 5 years. The field is changing rapidly with Google and Yahoo changing algorithms for natural and paid search. Social networking is creating rapid change in how companies can reach and retain potential customers.

With so much growth and change, should you go in-house or hire an agency? Depending on the size of the company and the ad budget, there is a mix of answers. If you are going to invest any decent level - at least $10,000/month, then having an agency in the mix is essential.

Here's why:

- Expertise: Search agencies have multiple clients frequently from a wide variety of industry. This creates strong bonds with search engines as well as a push to know as much as possible about the industry. We have clients in medical services, consumer products and software as a service. Due to our business volume, search engines beta test PPC algorithmic changes with us. Our own clients inform us of things they learn. New firms like blog rating and aggregation firms are contacting us. In addition, we are attending and presenting at the top industry forums.

- Technology investment: To ensure clients reach maximum potential, search firms invest in technology - either on their own tools or from tools firms. Due to experience with a variety of clients, agency teams can apply best practices from one industry to another and then embed that in technology. Clients could purchase the technology themselves, but unless they are very large will not know the underpinnings of it in detail. Imagine letting a black box manage your money without understanding how it works. I'd rather have a skilled operator who knows what the underlying algorithm are and how to modify them.

- Operational processes: The best firms have operationalized their processes and are continuously innovating. This allows the agency to provide top notch services along the wide range of services that make us search marketing. The range of competencies include online strategy, ad creative, media planning & buying, bid management, web technology & development, analytics and project management. There is serious complexity in getting the best people and getting them to work together efficiently and robustly. Each client has a different strategy or industry, therefore the process has to be robust enough to deliver results in a customized manner. We measure every step in detail to learn and improve.

- People and Turnover: Top marketing, technology and operational people are attracted to agencies because of the variety and the ability to be on the leading edge. They enjoy the training and the learning experience. In addition, there's the opportunity to try new things. Imagine getting paid to play on Facebook? Or developing cool algorithms to model bid pricing behavior? Or writing copy for rock band texting one day or source code optimization software another? Agencies can hire people across niche competencies and create a symphony through robust processes. Unless a company is large, hiring the variety of talents is impossible. Even then, how would you get the experience you get from variety. This is why almost every firm hires outside counsel. In addition if you hire in house, you are subject to turnover. While there is turnover in agencies, our processes are designed to retain client knowledge through multiple levels from executive to client manager to deliver manager. We know there will be turnover, so we build systems to retain knowledge.

- Value and cost: The best search agencies have operationalized their processes to provide value from top notch people, processes and technology. Well designed processes should provide a cost advantage vs. going in house. A copywriter will cost at least $50k/year. An SEO specialist starts at over $60k. With our worldwide infrastructure, we go a step further. We can provide a whole staff for the cost of a full-time equivalent knowledge worker. For many firms, our client manager is equivalent to VP of Online Marketing and reports to the President. On top of that there's a whole staff behind them that executes.

Are there reasons to go in-house? Yes, but not completely. Many times in larger companies it makes sense, especially if there are large groups to coordinate or multiple products. I would not recommend completely going in-house because of the loss of leverage from industry knowledge.

So these are the main advantages of a search marketing agency vs. going in-house: expertise, technology, process, people, value and cost. With so much change in this new exciting media form, you cannot afford not to use a top, results oriented agency.

The Position2 WebEx Makeover

2008-01-15T10:58:00.000-08:00

Bill Ross, our Director of US Sales, was interviewed about how we used WebEx to improve our cost of acquisition and volume. They are doing this one day at a time. Here's our first day:

Recession and Search Marketing

2008-01-13T23:40:00.000-08:00

There are growing signs of a recession in the US. The subprime crisis has caused banks to cut bank on lending while they revalue their assets and seek liquidity. As a result foreclosures are up and today the NY Times reports that spending has slowed significantly. The national savings rate is low to negative because people relied on increases in home equity to spend. It looks like the American spending machine is going to take a breather. High nergy prices have cascaded throughout the economy. Even food costs more as rising ethanol production is increasing the price for food throughout.

What does that mean for those in the search marketing space? Typically marketing budgets are the easy places to cut when sales drop. It tends to be a discretionary activity to slice back on to help hold the line on costs. For search marketing, this actually should not happen. Unlike other forms of marketing, it is search marketing is the most measurable method of marketing. You can study each step of the process from click to lead to close. You know the numbers at each stage of the process whether is click price, cost per lead or cost per sale.

Rather than spend on a significant TV campaign where returns are distant and difficult to measure or highway billboards, crank up your search marketing budget. Run more campaigns because you know what you are getting for your marketing dollar.

I'd love to get some feedback on this...

The $2500 People's Car

2008-01-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

Today was a momentous day - the introduction of the Tata Nano - a car priced at $2500-3000 that will open up the auto market for the masses. This could be the 21st century Model T. I couldn't help but be excited by the fact that it took an Indian company to create this kind of fundamental innovation.

Here's a link to the article: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/tata-nano-the-worlds-cheapest-car/

Here's my comment to much of the unusual criticism:

This is a huge milestone. I’m impressed that this came from an Indian company rather than a Chinese one. It demonstrates out-of-the-box thinking in opening up personal car travel for a whole new market.

As a person who frequently travels to India, this may not have all the terrible consequences that people imagine - much of which is hypocritical.

Rather than that family of four on a little scooter, this would be a heck of a lot safer. A lot of those scooters and rickshaws emit some ugly stuff. This would actually burn cleaner with a lot less soot. Maybe a lot of those rickshaw drivers would buy these vehicles instead allowing for safer, faster and cleaner travel (really hope they have a natural gas option). Vehicles may actually stay to their lane with fewer scooters and rickshaws. It’s a bit freaky when you see scooters, motorcycles, rickshaws and cars cram into every available inch of space.

People may now expect a better travel experience than before. There might be more demand for newer, cleaner burning buses and mass transit. There might be demand for better infrastructure and more effective traffic management.

120,000 rupees is a little over $3,000 dollars. It’s still expensive for many, but they have made vehicles affordable for a wide range of people. This would allow greater mobility and greater participation in the workforce. Right now, it is hard for a woman to work evening hours because the transport options are limited - understandably, scooters are not a great option at night. Hell, maybe we’ll buy a few so that our folks who work late can go home without a problem.

Congratulations to Tata!

Position2 Scores with Large Clients

2008-01-09T17:26:00.001-08:00

Every firm wants to have a set of large brand names with multiple billions in revenues. It gives everyone a sense that the firm is solid and produces quality services. Well imagine waking up in the morning after running your business for 2 years and knowing that you had the following big names:

Johnson & Johnson
Northwestern Mutual
EBay
MIT
Reliance
Convergys
Cox & Kings

If you are from the US, you've definitely heard of the first 4. Reliance is a multi-billion dollar world wide conglomerate, Convergys, a multi-billion dollar IT services firm and Cox & Kings, a large UK-based India travel operator.

We also have a strong client base of fast growing companies with more added every month.

Hitting the Next Stage

2008-01-08T22:35:00.000-08:00

I was sitting there with a group of CEOs discussing how to manage growth. How do you get to the next level? There are only so many hours in the day and people demand your time. This is such a fundamental issue. Many businesses hit a brick wall when they hit a particular size. They basically stop growing. This owner/founder is not able to hire a management team. He feels he's the only one who really cares about the other business. Everyone else is in it for the money, not the passion. He's tried to hire people in the past, but they just didn't work out.

The owner should look in the mirror. He is not acting as a CEO. He's afraid of ceding control. He's afraid that someone will take advantage of him and potentially lose his money. He's not willing to take the time to train his team, however qualified. It is first hard to hire a strong team. It is harder to work with them on making sure they understand their role. The hardest is letting go of decisions.

An interesting point was about deadlines. Some entrepreneurs don't typically like deadlines. They are working very hard to create something new. They can only work as hard as they can. They don't know what it's like to waste time. Many times they succeed because they are dedicated, however this is not scalable.

If you want to create a management team, you need dates. You need drivers who enjoy the motivation of deadlines. To make them stick, you need to hit them as well. You need to have incentives and consequences.

Imagine doing something one way for years, then changing by hiring sharp folks, ceding control and then changing the way you works.

This is why so few actually make it. It's hard to change, but the best know they need to mold themselves to each stage. Go from operational to strategic. Go from doer to the manager to the leader. Shift from becoming the operator to the teacher.

That's what it takes and you can do it.

A Great Day for America

2008-01-08T22:09:00.001-08:00

This has been an exciting week for America. On January 3rd, Iowans voted for an African American - Sen. Barack Obama. On January 8th, New Hampshire voted for a woman - Sen. Hillary Clinton. This is the first time a woman and a minority have won a major primary or caucus in American history.

One day this will be commonplace. My daughter might have the realistic opportunity to run for President. She will not have to grow up with a glass ceiling. Can you imagine, not too long ago neither group had the right to vote. No matter what you believe, this is a historic day - one day of a historic year.

Bad Math Hits CNN

2008-01-08T21:58:00.000-08:00

Americans need to learn better math. It's sad that kids are afraid of the stuff. It's scary when CNN allows bad math to get on TV. Roland Martin stated his analysis of the polling. There was a 9 point lead in the polls yesterday, however 15% was undecided. They broke towards Clinton's emotional appeal and swung the vote. See, no problem with the polling, it was the last minute undecideds.

Oh really, now how does that work? Clinton won by 2 points over Obama. She was down 9 points the day before. So 11 out of 15 or over 70% of the undecideds went for Clinton. Hmm... she won 39% of the vote overall.

That is just bad math. Anyone who understands statistics knows that the numbers don't work that way. It's clear that either the polls were wrong or Clinton's base was much stronger than projected.

C'mon, CNN stats guys, hit Martin over the head.

NH Presidential Debates

2008-01-05T21:00:00.000-08:00

As a political junkie, I'm starting to spend even more time watching the process unfold - even more time than I normally would. I think it's cool that both sides are debating on the same night at the same place. The format is pretty open would candidates taking questions and pushing each other. This is a great way to see the democratic process unfold.

It's even cooler that the debate is being held at St. Anselm College. It is less than half a mile from where I lived in Goffstown, NH. I used to run by there all the time.

Now to watch, wish I could be in the room...