What?

I was shocked. I can't think of a single non-ecommerce startup that can boast $100k in monthly revenues within 6-12 months of launch AND were creating a new market. Not Google. Not Facebook. Not Twitter. Not Yahoo. Maybe Apple? Microsoft?

As Steve Blank so eloquently says, when you are creating a new market, you have no idea how long the flat part of the hockey stick really is. That's because you are creating a new product that people don't even know they want, because they've never seen anything like it before. And you are creating something based on a mountain of assumptions, because you don't know what people will want once they know they want something. 

This is all to say, choose your investors wisely. 

(NB — This partner, by the way, has never started their own company or worked at a startup.)

What?

I was shocked. I can't think of a single non-ecommerce startup that can boast $100k in monthly revenues within 6-12 months of launch AND were creating a new market. Not Google. Not Facebook. Not Twitter. Not Yahoo. Maybe Apple? Microsoft?

As Steve Blank so eloquently says, when you are creating a new market, you have no idea how long the flat part of the hockey stick really is. That's because you are creating a new product that people don't even know they want, because they've never seen anything like it before. And you are creating something based on a mountain of assumptions, because you don't know what people will want once they know they want something. 

This is all to say, choose your investors wisely. 

(NB — This partner, by the way, has never started their own company or worked at a startup.)

Being an entrepreneur means sacrifice. I gave up my $3000/month beautiful Brooklyn loft for splitting a 2 bedroom with 3 people in Bayonne, NJ for $300/month. I was without health insurance for 15 months. And I can't tell you just how much I appreciate J for putting up with living in Bayonne when I know she misses NYC and hates the commute.

Being an entrepreneur means being comfortable living on the edge. Last March, when I was still in Brooklyn, I had a $3000 rent check due in 2 weeks, and I didn't have the money to pay it. And yet, you find a way. I was able to secure an investor and pay my rent on time.

Being an entrepreneur means riding a rollercoaster. One day in December, we're celebrating because an angel investor told us he wanted to put in $200,000. Over the following weeks, we agree to a price and terms, and then he pulls out. From what Chris Dixon writes, this is more common than it should be. In the end, though, I think it was the best thing that could have happened to us.

Being an entrepreneur means compromise. Having no money means you can't buy what you want, go out to eat whenever you want, travel wherever you want. But in return, you get to create something meaningful, be your own boss, and love what you do.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Click the link above to sign up for my office hours. I usually hold them Friday afternoons. My way to give back to the community.

I've already had 5 or 6 conversations with some really great people, and another one set up for this Friday. Email / IM / Phone / In person all work. Hope to hear from you.

One thought I had last night was, aren't brands overinvesting in Twitter? If you think about it, the most valuable tweets fall into two categories: breaking news and links to interesting content. And the former is only valuable right now — 2 week old breaking news isn't very "breaking" anymore. So the real value comes from giving people on Twitter content worth sharing: it's word-of-mouth and it's free! Furthermore, if you look at dollars spent as a result of search versus Twitter, search is larger by orders of magnitude, so shouldn't brands be focused on creating content (including blog posts) that gets indexed by search engines and passed around on Twitter / IM / email / Facebook?

I asked this question of the people on the panel, who represented StockTwits, HootSuite, Shorty Awards, Trendrr, and Collecta, a very Twitter focused bunch (other than Collecta). I didn't get a very clear answer from any of them, but generally it seemed like they agreed with me, which is ironic considering how Twitter-centric they are. 

When brands get back to questions of ROI and metrics when investing time and resources into social media, I think we will see a resurgence in blogging and multimedia, because at the end of the day, people need something to tweet about and share. Better to be talked about, than simply talk.

One thought I had last night was, aren't brands overinvesting in Twitter? If you think about it, the most valuable tweets fall into two categories: breaking news and links to interesting content. And the former is only valuable right now — 2 week old breaking news isn't very "breaking" anymore. So the real value comes from giving people on Twitter content worth sharing: it's word-of-mouth and it's free! Furthermore, if you look at dollars spent as a result of search versus Twitter, search is larger by orders of magnitude, so shouldn't brands be focused on creating content (including blog posts) that gets indexed by search engines and passed around on Twitter / IM / email / Facebook?

I asked this question of the people on the panel, who represented StockTwits, HootSuite, Shorty Awards, Trendrr, and Collecta, a very Twitter focused bunch (other than Collecta). I didn't get a very clear answer from any of them, but generally it seemed like they agreed with me, which is ironic considering how Twitter-centric they are. 

When brands get back to questions of ROI and metrics when investing time and resources into social media, I think we will see a resurgence in blogging and multimedia, because at the end of the day, people need "something" to tweet about and share. Better to be talked about, than simply talk.

Tumblr recently redesigned their dashboard and added a spot that showcases one post from the Tumblr Radar, which is Tumblr's editorial selection of the most interesting / popular posts on Tumblr right now.

I suspect they are using the spot to collect data on how engaged Tumblr users are with the spot in order to entice advertisers. Let's say that on average, posts in that spot get 1 million unique views per day and 700 million impressions. Furthermore, you could say that posts in that spot get thousands of likes and reblogs and followers.

That would be a pretty compelling reason to convince a business to become a paying Tumblr user. Sure, you get the free blog (and Tumblr will help you design it all pretty), but you also get the super sekret analytics that will tell you how many people are reading your posts via the Tumblr dashboard. And, you'll get the opportunity to PAY to have your posts be featured in that spot. (Only genuine, value-added posts will be approved of course. You don't want to obviously be an ad. The Newsweek Tumblr is a positive example.)

I love it. I think it's a great idea, and I expect Tumblr will make a nice amount of money off of it. I don't know if they'll make enough millions though… but it might be enough to get them acquired by AOL or News Corp.

What do you think?

C'mon, you know you want to.

My friend Kelly, who I worked with at Etsy and is my co-founder Chris’ girlfriend, has built the prototype of a social shopping site focusing on stylish items (unlike existing sites that focus on consumer electronics). It’s a pretty neat site and I like the idea. She’s pretty good on both the PHP hacking end and on the product end, but has realized that she is unable to do both well simultaneously.

So, she is looking for a co-founder. Either a product / UX person or a coder… whichever you are will allow her to do the other. If you are interested, email me at david.lifson@gmail.com and I’ll pass you along.

If you are interested, send email to dave@postling.com with your resume and a link to your blog / twitter / LinkedIn or some other social media page that will let me learn more about you. You'll be working out of our office in Union Square, NYC, so local applicants only, please. Thanks!