BenPadnos.com

John Battelle’s Predictions 2008 Recap

I enjoyed John Batelle’s 2008 predictions re-cap. It’s worth checking out.

Stay tuned for his predictions for the year to come!

Where does Audioo fit in?

Just read about Voicetag on TechCrunch and it reminded me that we should be thinking about opportunities in 2009 to get more traction with Audioo. I welcome everyone’s input on where my “YouTube for audio files” service fits in, whether it’s related to FaceBook, iPhone, VoIP and/or other platforms.

The End of Newspapers?

Christmas wisdom from Ben: No matter what they say, as long as people will be sitting down on toilets, there will be a need for newspapers!

Worth reading from around the Internet…

Thomas Friedman’s “Time to Reboot America” column in the 12/23 NY Times really sums up a lot about what I’ve been thinking and why I was so excited about Obama’s campaign. “John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard,” Friedman writes.  “…we don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover. That is why the next few months are among the most important in U.S. history.”

Meanwhile, the Onion, which never disappoints, writes “Area Woman Becomes Republican Vice Presidential Candidate”, a very funny piece that satires the preposterousness of John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his VP running-mate.

Finally, Forbes has an interesting article, “Venture Capital’s Coming Collapse”, that says “the venture capital industry is staring at the most vicious shakeout in its history.” Essentially, the VC system is structured based on a smaller number of “home runs” (like Google, YouTube, Skype, etc.) rather than a series of singles and doubles. And with the capital markets in their current states, exists are few and far between — the IPO market is closed and M&A activity is negligible.

First Madoff-related death

French money manager Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, who lost an estimated $1.4 Billion of investments with Bernie Madoff, died of an apparent suicide. I doubt this is the last one we hear about — and I won’t be surprised if someone chases down Madoff directly!

This has to make you smile!

Loved the 2009 holiday card from Josh Kopelman and the team @ First Round Capital. I tried to get them to look at Audioo back in the day, because I think they’re the kind of VCs who really add value.

Their holiday card was inspired by Where the Hell is Matt?, who seems like the kind of guy I’d really enjoy meeting!

TechCrunch: Fear Kills Businesses, Dead

Very relevant post by Brian Solis on TC. I couldn’t agree more that the doom-and-gloomers are getting more than their fair share of airtime, and while it’s smart to be prudent, getting irrationally fearful can cloud your judgment. That’s why I’m LOOKING at potential “distress” situations now — there are opportunities to acquire either operating businesses or valuable assets at very low prices! By infusing a little capital and competent management — so many businesses are run so incredibly poorly — I see this time as a special opportunity!