VC in DC

Good blog post related to Start up CEO comp

This is good post on cash and equity compensation for start up CEO positions.

http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/66/Startup-Founder-Compensation-Useful-Results-From-A-Recent-Survey.aspx

Social Media changes the online advertising context

I had the opportunity recently to discuss online advertising progression recently with Ed Barrera of ADOTAS.   We covered a number of points but foremost among them was the state of internet display advertising.

The death of internet display advertising as been much exaggerated within the industry.   My thinking is twofold, first we're seeing the ongoing the destruction of unreasonably high expectations for this limited form advertising medium.  It is one dimensional and one way as compared to so much else on the internet.

With that in mind, I also think that the display advertisement has new potential in Social Media.  The Social Media user is in an active state.  The typical browsing (read skimming) user is not fully engaged on any page per se'.  The user who is interacting with the Social Media context is by definition communicating in an active, alert fashion.  Here the display advertisement is presented in a superior context for action.

That superior context isn't the only environment variable that is positive for display advertisers.  Social Media also delivers the predictable context that advertisers would receive from TV display advertising, i.e. - the advertisers knows the network standards, time, TV show appeal and audience demographics, and all other external factors which deliver a safe place for the brand.   Prior to Social Media, the internet presented very little of the safety components for a prominent brand that TV delivers everyday.   With the closed nature of a social network, advertisers can present display advertising within a whole, new, predictable context.

See article here:

  

http://www.adotas.com/2009/04/social-media-throws-a-lifeline-to-display-advertising/

Fox Business Network: The Pitch on 4.25.09

The Pitch segment on "Your Questions, Your Money" features a small business pitching an idea to a venture capitalist. In this case, me.