Ignoring the Naysayers

Not being from the Bay area, I’ve never had the experience of being in the thick of Silicon Valley, but from what I’ve heard, it’s an amazing breeding ground for new tech companies because everyone around you is extremely supportive of even the craziest ideas. The vast majority of them don’t succeed, but if even 1% of a million ideas are successful, you get Twitter, YouTube, Google, etc. Not only that, but there is a level of respect for entrepreneurs simply for having the guts to go out and do their thing.

Unfortunately, this isn’t so much the case outside of Silicon Valley. I’ve had more than one naysayer tell me they don’t think I can turn Babe Vs Babe from a one-man hobby (which is how they see it) to profitable venture.

This post by Clay Shirky at Many2Many sums up my observation: “When I see students or startups thinking up something crazy, and I want to explain why that won�t work, couldn�t possibly work… I have to remind myself to shut up for a minute and just watch, because it may be me who will be surprised when I see what color comes out of the bag next.” Unfortunately, even some of the most successful people I know don’t share Mr. Shirky’s insight.

Industry | Posted on May 25th, 2007 by AKL
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The Cycle of the Tech Bubble

It’s interesting to hear someone in the thick of the industry (Michael Arrington of TechCrunch) grousing on how there’s too much VC money flowing through Silicon Valley, causing people to lose sight of the products and the technology. And he’s right, when the big money investors (who may or may not necessarily be interested and knowledgable about the technology) swoop in, suddenly it becomes all about money and not the products and the good clean fun of entrepreneurship.

I’m not saying big money is always bad, but there are startup ideas that require big money, and ones that don’t. I would guess that most tech startups don’t need the millions of dollars that are thrown their way. My buddy Jeff’s Eqo mobile VOIP startup, which could completely change the telecommunications game? Sure, they need the millions. But a site like Digg, who’ve received, at my last count, $11M in funding — do they really need $11M to do what they do?

It’s pretty clear to me that we’re seeing another tech bubble — though not as severe as the last one, which was littered with countless IPOs and affected a lot of small investors outside of the industry. We’re a lot more cautious this time around. But we’re still seeing a lot of private investment money thrown around irrationally, and when the bubble bursts, VC money will dry up again and lavish launch parties will once again be a thing of the past. That is, until the next bubble forms and the cycle begins anew.

Industry | Posted on May 24th, 2007 by AKL
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Flickr meets HotOrNot

I’ve just added several new social networking-type features to Babe Vs Babe — I like to think of it as a mash-up of Flickr and HotOrNot. Granted, I have a ways to go before Babe Vs Babe can match all of Flickr’s amazing features, but we’ll get there….

In the meantime, check out the new features by clicking on the caption of the photo, or the “Enlarge Photo” link at the bottom of each picture…. Yes, you can view larger versions of the photos now, which for some of you may be the most woody-inducing feature. Not only that, but you can now see who submitted the photo and view other photos that they’ve submitted, as well as check out their personal details, who they’ve added as contacts, who their “fans” are, and other photos that they’ve marked as favorites. Oh yeah, there’s now public and private messaging, too, so you can tell your favorite hotties just how hot they are. I love feedback, so let me know what you think of the new features and what you’d like to see in the future!

Flickr, HotOrNot, Site changes, Social Networking | Posted on May 17th, 2007 by AKL
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BabeVsBabe T-shirts?

Saw this great post over at Mashable today. What do you all think, would you want to wear a t-shirt with your BabeRank to tell the world how hot you are?

BabeVsBabe | Posted on May 17th, 2007 by AKL
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