SocialStartups.com

Help me define a product here…

The problem: I’m reading blogs in Google Reader and come across an interesting post, one where I feel like I have something to say and contribute. How can I respond in a way that a) is discoverable by the blog post author, b) is discoverable by my audience on my social media platforms that I use (Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, RSS followers of my blog), and c) allows a conversation to emerge amongst multiple parties.

If everyone used Tumblr, this would be easy, but that’s obviously not reality. Traditional blogs (WordPress, TypePad, Blogger) are one-way platforms with commenting tacked on. Twitter is only good for sharing a link that points back somewhere.

I think the solution is a tool that allows you to craft your response, inject your response (or a link to your response) as a comment on the blog post, and also simultaneously publish your response to your blog and your tumblr, then allow you to update your twitter and facebook with a link to your response.

Is there a better solution?

Curious what you all think about this…

In a few years, the current crop of VC funds will be winding down. I suspect a bunch of them won’t even break even, let alone turn a profit. These VC firms will shut down, as they will most likely have trouble raising their next round (I mean, who wants to invest in a loser?)

So where does the money go? To the winners, of course. And here’s where things get interesting. 

VC’s get paid via their management fee, which is usually 2% of the size of the fund they raise. So there is a very direct incentive for them to raise a huge fund. The flip side of this is that huge funds need to return even larger (speaking in absolute terms) profits, which puts incredible pressure on the portfolio companies to have huge exits. Internet startups, as we all know, as already very cheap to run and getting cheaper. 

So you’ve got excess money in supply, VCs who have direct incentives to take on more money, but fewer companies who actually need the money. This leads to more firms who fail to produce returns their investors expect. Which leads to the failure of these “losing” VC firms… and the cycle repeats. 

A few VC firms, like First Round Capital, have been very smart and limited the size of their fund, despite the availability of additional capital. But how many can turn down more money? I guess we’ll find out.

This post will publish to my WordPress blog and my Tumblr at the same time.

Then, I’ll post a bit.ly link to Twitter and Facebook.

So if you see anything… you’ll know why.

Postling is the newest product from Chris, Haim, and me (officially, waffl.com, inc.) 

Private beta now… we’ll do a public launch in a couple weeks. Let me know if you want to use it…