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Datawocky

On Teasing Patterns from Data, with Applications to Search, Social Media, and Advertising

Creating a Culture of Innovation: Why 20% Time is not EnoughApril 15 2009

Google has garnered a lot of attention and some success with its "20% time" idea, which enables every engineer to spend one day a week working on projects that don't fit in their job description. In my observation, just announcing that every engineer is expected to spend a certain fraction of their time on innovative ideas won't magically lead to innovation. Plus, it's very hard to implement the 20% time model at a startup: most startups just don't have the luxury of 20% excess engineering capacity.

At my (startup) company Kosmix, we take a somewhat different approach to create a culture of innovation, which I described to Taylor Buley of Forbes in a recent video interview. I think the video is terrific, and encourage you to watch it (it's also embedded at the bottom of this post), but there's only so much that can be said in a 90-second video. So I collected together some of my thoughts into this blog post.

At Kosmix, we don't specify a set fraction of time for people to spend on new ideas. Instead, we have focused on creating a culture that engenders new ideas and rewards innovators, encouraging them to tackle new projects above and beyond their 100% contribution to mainline company exec

Reboot: How to Reinvent a Technology StartupFebruary 24 2009

Three years ago, Odeo was a struggling startup on a path to nowhere. Odeo's core offering--a set of tools for users to create, record and share podcasts--was facing serious competition from Apple and other heavyweights. The management team made a radical decision to "reboot" the company, and Twitter was born.

As I read the Twitter story, narrated eloquently by Dom Sagolla, I can't help but look back over the many startups that I've been associated with over the past twelve years.  In my various roles as a founder, an investor, a board member, and an advisor to startups in Silicon Valley, I'm constantly fascinated by the mechanics of reinvention. Which approaches to reinvention succeed and which ones fail?

Startups flounder for countless reasons. Perhaps the market opportunity is not as big as imagined, or perhaps there is a mismatch between the technology and the market. Maybe the world changed in some significant way, invalidating the key assumptions on which the startup was based. For example, an established company such as Google or Microsoft might enter the market. Or perhaps the deepest recession in recent history dried up demand for the original product or service. In these cases, the founders and management team have to ask themselves the question: should we push ahead, assuming superior exe

Oscar Halo: Academy Awards and the Matthew EffectFebruary 21 2009

Slumdog Millionaire is one my favorite movies of all time. And I have followed the career of A.R. Rahman, who composed the movie's music, for several years ever since his debut in 1992. So I was quite thrilled when Slumdog was nominated for 10 academy awards -- and Rahman in two categories, Original Score and Original Song. Thrilled, and a little surprised: while I like Rahman's work in Slumdog, I don't think it's his best work. There is of course nothing wrong with that, as long as Rahman's work is better than that of his competitors this year.

But it got me to thinking: if Rahman had composed the same music for an obscure film this year, rather than for Slumdog Millionaire, would he have been nominated? And even if he had been nominated, what are his chances of winning? In other words, is there a Matthew Effect in Oscar nominations -- to them that have, more shall be given? And, once nominated, is there a halo surrounding movies with many nominations that improves the odds of winning across many award categories? I thought it might be fun to run the numbers based on past years' nominees and winners to see if I could find answers to these questions; it turned out to be somewhat instructive as well, since it required an

Kosmix Adds Rocketfuel to Power Voyage of ExplorationDecember 8 2008

 

Today I'm delighted to share some fantastic news. My company Kosmix has raised $20 million in new financing to power our growth. Even more than the amount of financing, I'm especially proud that the lead investor in this round is Time Warner, the world's largest media company. Our existing investors Lightspeed, Accel, and DAG participated in the round as well. The Kosmix team also is greatly strengthened by the addition of Ed Zander as investor and strategic advisor. In an amazing career that spans Sun Microsystems and Motorola, Ed has repeatedly demonstrated leadership that grew good ideas into great products and businesses. His counsel will be invaluable as we take Kosmix to the next level as a business.

In these perilous economic times, the funding is a big vote of confidence in Kosmix's product and business. Kosmix web sites attract 11 million visits every month, and we have a proven revenue model with significant revenues and robust growth. RightHealth, the proof-of-concept we launched in 2007, grew with astonishing rapidity to become the #2 health web site in th

For Startups, Survival is not a StrategyNovember 21 2008

Note: As I was working on this post, I ran into Om Malik and showed him a draft. He liked it and asked to post it simultaneously on GigaOM. If you've read it on GigaOM, you can skip reading it here.

In these perilous economic times, the layoff memos often follow a familiar refrain: We have cut costs by 20%. That gives us an additional year's runway. Or two. Yes, startups can cut costs and thereby survive for longer. But just because they can, does not mean they should.

Let me state at the very outset that this article applies only to venture-backed startups, which are a small minority of businesses in the economy. The sole purpose of most businesses is to create a steady income stream for their owners and operators. Venture-backed startups, on the other hand, are created with the sole purpose of leading to a meaningful exit for founders, investors, and employees. Such an exit might be either an IPO or an acquisition.

The raison d' etre for such startups is therefore a successful exit, not mere survival. And the lifeblood of any startup is growth. Growth along some dimension: customers, usage, revenues, or profits. Under most economic conditions, an IPO is impossible without revenue and profit growth  -- and we are unlikely to see a return soon of the times when it was. From an acquisition point of view, stagn