Written on 3rd July 2009
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Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
Although I just recently returned from Internet Week New York, I’m about to set foot on another exciting, new adventure. From July 5 to July 10, I’ll be traveling around London together with my Geeky friends. aka The Traveling Geeks. The TG’s are a small informal group of technology bloggers and influencers who like to travel to various regions around the world, collaborate with technology innovators and leaders on interesting projects and then share everything with the rest of the world via blogs, videos, podcasts and social networks.
On this trip, we’ll be on the hunt for innovative uses of new technologies in Great Britain, especially by lesser-known companies, and spotlight how those innovations may improve people’s lives. We’ll also compare the thought (more…)
Written on 14th May 2008
1 COMMENT
Steven Carrol, Next Web WebTipr France
I have thought long and hard about luck and following all this hype around the concept Sarah Lacy is promoting ‘Once Your Lucky, Twice You’re Good’. Well, I disagree with her assertion!
Back in my ‘naive days’ I would have argued vigorously that one doesn’t need luck at all, instead innovation, logic, elegance, brutal hard work and a twist of magic were the ingredients essential for success. This would have been while I was building my first empire. During that experience I didn’t get very rich (financially) but I did learn more about life / business / creation / ideas / people / magic and luck than I could have ever imagined. My little baby organically grew from a 20K overdraft to a turnover of 2 million GBP annually (6 years after launch) and garnered a cult following.
Its been a long time now since riding those early waves and I have had long enough to analyze the experience and realize the arrogance of belittling lady luck. She sure as hell taught me a few hard lessons as a result. Needless to say I have rather more respect for her charm now and in an effort to make peace I am dedicating this article to her.
One of my favorite online destinations is Hacker News, a forum where hackers / startups discuss the issues of the day. A theme that has been popping up there recently is controversy over the value of ideas, with many arguing that ideas are worthless and execution is everything. Again I totally disagree. Ideas and luck are two of the most rare but essential and non quantitative elements necessary for success, followed sometime later by the usual host of other elements that ultimately determine the fate of such a journey.
To illustrate my points, first I need narrow down the criteria of what is considered to be ‘a win’. With Internet startups I’m going to classify ‘a win’ as ultimately financial success, followed secondly by user participation and adoption. Yet I want to strongly stress these are not my personal criteria as to what constitutes as ‘a win’, but only what appears to be the de-facto standard by which many are currently judging.
Given that financial success is the ultimate milestone I will use the Google as the standard by which I make my case. Google is without doubt the current online financial super star, they are making more money than anyone else and they have available to them every single advantage that money can buy. And while they have leveraged their resources in every way imaginable, they essentially still only have Adwords / Adsense as their core cash cow, while every other arm is either loosing money or financially insignificant. Why is this? Luck!
You cannot make a compelling argument that they are not good, why that is their company manifestation after all. No it is not because Google are bad, but good luck is like lightening, it rarely strikes in the same place twice and if it does you will be bloody lucky, evidently so.
Coupled with the power of ideas, really good ideas share the same traits as luck, in as much as they are just as rare but ultimately make all the difference in the direction you choose, where you will then need lady luck to give you the kiss of life in order to achieve ’success’.
Written on 18th March 2008
1 COMMENT
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
Nick O’Neill from The Unofficial Facebook Blog has recently interviewed Mark Zuckerberg (in a slightly different manner than Sarah Lacy). Here’s what Mark had to say:
1) He believes the reaction to his interview with Sarah Lacy was overblown.
2) Mark claims that the 5,000 friend limit on Facebook is more of a technical limitation than anything else and even though users have been complaining about this, it is not something they plan on changing any time soon. However Nick adds:
“I received a different response from one Facebook employee later that night who claimed that it would only be a few lines of code to change. I’m sure there is more to it than that but it definitely is not a high priority at Facebook currently.”
3) Mark claims that Facebook does not want to compete with other application developers. However, this still didn’t stop them from sending out a message to thousands (if not millions) of college students recently telling them to install the March Madness application. Over the last few years, CBS and Facebook had worked together in creating and promoting this application. The fact that Facebook is not allowing other developers the same promotional capability for their applications is angering many developers and justly so. When asked about this controversial issue, Mark mentioned that this year they had actually messaged less users than in previous years.
(more…)
Written on 11th December 2007
3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
In an on-the-couch-interview with author Sarah Lacy, Rose gave some advices for entrepreneurs. A small selection, collected by your Le Web 3 correspondent:
- Don’t start raising funds too early. Make your concept perfect, then approach those angel funds and VC’s.
- Pick partners that understand the business.
- You don’t have to be a coder to start a project which you’re passionate about.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
