VELOCITY EVOLUTION – PART TWO Its been a couple of months since Jon Miller departed Velocity for News Corp, and we’ve spent that time working hard to keep distractions to a minimum and momentum going forward. We have some great companies in the portfolio and lots of interesting new opportunities in front of us. One such opportunity we announced late tonight. Velocity will be teaming with Best Buy to launch a new digital media fund. The fund will seek investment in and around areas of media, technology and communications that could benefit from a global leader like Best Buy, with more than 3800 stores worldwide and touchpoints to consumers in music, movies, games, hardware, software, appliances and much much more. The deal allows us to work closely with Best Buy to help them grow their digital presence. This deal will help in many ways, including providing fresh capital to deploy. It will also help us launch a new initiative called Strategic Equity Management, where we’ll be advising companies in these incredibly transformative times. We’ll help companies devise strategies, invest capital, buy companies and navigate the ever changing digital landscape. This is an incredibly great time to work with global corporations like Best Buy and we feel like Velcoity is well positioned to help. We’ll also be changing our name, from Velocity Interactive Group, to Fuse Capital. We felt like it better fit what our firm is focused on – Fusing old and new media, media, technology and communications and helping companies transform. So, we evolve
May 23, 2009
TWINE IS HOT
Following is a great article on one of our portfolio companies Twine, which Tech Crunch wrote about today. Thrilled for them !! Thanks TC !!
It turns out that people are following more than just their friends online. Look at the comScore chart above comparing unique visitors in the U.S. to FriendFeed
versus Twine. Yeah, I was shocked to see that Twine has more than three times as many unique monthly visitors as FriendFeed (714,000 vs. 188,000). On a worldwide basis, comScore shows FriendFeed still slightly ahead of Twine. ComScore doesn’t always do a great job with small sites, so I checked Compete, which shows Twine with 2.25 million monthly visitors in April versus 998,000 for FriendFeed (see embed below). Different numbers, same story.
Rest of story here: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/22/twine-is-taking-off-now-bigger-than-friendfeed/
April 27, 2009
Clean Sweep
My friend Jon Miller brought a big broom with him to News Corp and has used it decisively and swiftly. Today’s announcement of Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn joining incoming CEO Owen Van Natta at MySpace is a strong and powerful move, and one that was much needed. This dream team of executives join some very good people at Fox Interactive including Adam Bain who now runs the Fox Audience Network and Courtney Holt (MySpace Music), among others to form a nucleus of bright, aggressive digital minds. This is a team that can make things happen, with none of the political nonsense that has existed for too long at FIM.
Owen, Mike and in particular Jason are friends and I have great admiration for their talents and skill. Moving founders aside is never easy for many reasons, but the time had clearly come for Chris DeWolfe, Tom Anderson and others to go. Owen, Mike and Jason will make this easier. MySpace’s decline has been personally painful to watch. When we acquired the company in 2005, it was full of hope, promise and creativity. A year later, when we did the Google deal, we thought we had put a financial foundation and technical partnership in place to accelerate the business. This, coupled with an executive team including future CEO’s like Mark Jung (IGN, Vudu), Jim Heckman (Scout, Zazzle), Michael Barrett (Geocities, AOL and AdMeld), Bain (FAN) and countless others with massive amounts of internet experience, set us up to win. This all came crashing down in December of 2006, and since, MySpace under the personal stewardship of DeWolfe and Anderson has floundered while Facebook has flourished. Growth has stagnated, product development pailed against Facebook, Twitter, and others, the platform continues to have massive deficiencies and even loyalists to DeWolfe and Anderson have exited. Peter Levinsohn did an admirable job stepping in under really tough circumstances to build and grow the business and wage a battle that was tough to win for many reasons, and should be given a medal (or at least a nice bonus) for his tour of duty.
So, a big broom was needed to start the cleansing process. There is undoubtedly more to come, as the company needs to aggressively woo back advertisers, solidify its technical infrastructure, and most importantly, change the culture and trends of its employees. There are hundreds of really talented people left at MySpace/FIM who thirst for a new beginning. IGN, Fox Sports, Photobucket and other businesses will need the same type of focus and support to re-energize their bases. Miller’s decisive action bodes well for all of FIM.
Van Natta, Jones and Hirschhorn will all bring the most important resource possible to the job — talent. They are all accomplished in their past lives, as is Miller, and have seen challenges before and conquered them in different ways. They’ll need this experience to help turn around a wounded ship. They’ll also bring amazing connectivity with top tier talent to further infuse the culture, product and business, which is a critical thing. Once again, Rupert Murdoch has shown a deft ability to turn on a dime, hire good, smart people and act quickly and decisively. This is more than half the battle.
Jon has gotten off to a great start. Now the fun begins.
March 28, 2009
THUNDERCLAP
Evolution
Jon Miller, my partner at Velocity, has been offered one of only a small handful of jobs in Digital Media that touches every corner of the globe, within News Corp. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to shape a vast and powerful digital domain and the opportunity may be too good to pass up.
Jon has been both a friend for many years and a business partner since we both exited our jobs at AOL and Fox in late 2006. We’ve had a fascinating ride since then, traveling the world, learning things about the investing world we couldn’t have learned in big corporate jobs or start-ups. We both share the desire to learn, and learn we did. While a decision to move on from Velocity would end our formal partnership together, it wouldn’t end our work together or our friendship. Our experiences will last us a lifetime, and our work over the past two years goes on.
While Jon would get to travel the world helping News Corp grow its digital businesses globally (hopefully on the corporate jet!), Velocity will continue. Along with our partners Keyur Patel, Roland Van der Meer and David Britts, we’ve made some really exciting investments, hired some very talented people and believe that the thesis, by which we have invested over the past 16 months since forming Velocity, will hold true.
Allow me to crow a bit about our time together. We’ve seen two exits from our investments, in CNET and Fabrik. Some other highlights:
• Twine, the semantic web leader/bookmarking site is seeing massive growth. This year Twine’s unique visitors are growing at 55% month-over-month on average, page views have tripled, and registered users are growing at 70% on average per month
• Generate, the production and management company headed by former WB CEO Jordan Levin has added more than 100 clients in the last year, and saw two of its shows get picked up as series last year on cable.
• Next New Networks generated more than 300 million video views last year and in the last six months has seen 20 new advertisers sign on including big brands like Amex, Frito Lay, Unilever, Verizon, Lions Gate, Warner Brothers and Intel.
• Broadband Enterprises is profitable and continues to lead in the online video advertising space reaching more than 100 million unique users every month.
• Publish 2 is rapidly reshaping the news gathering business, has nearly 5000 professional journalists on its platform and since market launch in the fall of 2008, and in many ways has built the world’s largest newsroom
• In India, NDTV continues to have record TV and Internet ratings in multiple categories, and recently received a $150m investment from NBC, and India TV is now the #1 Hindi news channel. Fuse + Media, a next generation content studio has launched both online and offline product across all platforms, including having its first movie, starring Kate Bosworth picked up for distribution by a major US Studio!
• Others like True/Slant and Crowd Fusion are emerging as unique differentiators in the publishing space and Fat Tail recently launched Page Gage, a sales optimization software solution for online publishers, with many beta partners and received the AlwaysOn OnMedia Top 100 Award for it.
• Quantia Communications has a unique vision of digital communications and has built a platform integrating interactive rich media, social networks, mobile and the web. They have focused exclusively in healthcare and have built a successful, thriving community for physicians.
• And, Mixercast has become a leader in providing social marketing and social applications solutions, serving top tier media such as MTV Networks, CBS, NBC, ABC, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, etc and advertisers such as McDonald’s. Nike, Levi’s, etc. The company’s flagship platform – the MCast suite, providers technology to quickly build, syndicate, optimize and track campaigns and content across all facets of the web including social networks and blogs
As for Jon, if he decides to take the big chair, I’ll miss my friend and the day to day dreaming we did about the future of the media business. News Corp would benefit from Jon’s vision, skills and integrity. It would be a new beginning for him and Velocity too. We’re in the midst of some exciting moves and deals that will lead to more interesting adventures for all of us.
February 24, 2009
Peter Chernin’s Oscar
Peter Chernin left News Corp today. It was inevitable, but, until it happened, it just seems so far away. He almost certainly isn’t going to disappear, but one of the great runs ended today. 20 years from the opening bell, Chernin answered the final round last night with a win to cap his title reign, by watching as the Studio he ran, won the Best Picture Oscar. His Oscar. It struck me, as I watch the telecast, and watched Chernin break out into a giant smile on worldwide television, that it might have been the final bell. You could almost see the relief and joy on his face and he slapped one of his charges on the back for a job well done.
There will be countless tributes to the man, and even more war gaming about what he’ll “really” do next and who will take his spot on the fifth floor of the Fox Executive Building – a place he called the “mausoleum”. What’s clear is that, while he will be replaced eventually by someone or a group of someones, you don’t really ever replace Peter Chernin.
No matter what you think of him, and most universally praise him, his time and perhaps the era where an executive like him could prosper, is almost certainly over. Not only has playing field has changed, it has moved to an address to be named later.
As Chernin spent the finals moments he needed to make his decision whether to stay or go, one could imagine him searching for what could be fun about the next year or two ahead. The businesses he runs and are all under searing pressure. The stock price is down. The worlds he so deftly controlled from his perch are eroding before his eyes.
His ability to manage big personalities and bigger problems with the cool and calm of seasoned politician masked his true genius. He always seemed one or two steps ahead of everyone else and that always made others raise their games around him. His secrets were that he actually worked harder than others, although it never looked that way. He listened when others talked. He was (and still is) perhaps the greatest networker the business has ever seen.
I was fortunate to have worked for Peter for a few years and had a lot of access for someone in my position. The time I spent with him was mostly good, sometimes rough, but I never stopped learning, sometimes just by watching. In countless meetings I would watch as he’d write short notes on pieces of paper called buckslips, and then fold them up and put them in his jacket. I always wondered what he did with them. One day, shortly before I left Fox, I asked him. As he sat behind his big desk in his big office that only he could make seem small and personal, he let out a chuckle. “I throw them out when I get back here” he said. Stunned, I said, “come on – how do you remember everything, across all your divisions and all your meetings?” I asked. “I just do,” he replied. And he did.
So, let the war games begin. Fox will certainly look different in six months. It may be better, it may be worse, but it won’t be the same. You don’t replace people like Peter Chernin. You retire his number and hang it from the rafters. Peter will move on and write the next chapter. His work for Malaria No More is a testament to his desire to help the world. He will almost certainly come back for another title run, and unlike most heavyweights whose careers are never quiet the same after they step out and then back into the ring, he will win a new kind of title as only he can. Effortlessly.
February 12, 2009
OutRAGE
Today was almost surreal. Watching the criminals from the 8 biggest banks, and the devils from Peanut Butter plant in Georgia, makes you want scream. As Bruce Springsteen sang — “come on rise up,” it’s time for Americans to band together and not take it anymore. The greed and pomposity of the the band of 8, who take taxpayers money and then laugh in our faces, is outRAGEous. The stupidity, driven by greed of the Peanut Butter rednecks is criminal. Both groups should pay, literally with money, and figuratively in some way.
The smugness of Citigroup’s Pandit, the chutzpah of Merrill’s John Thain (who wasn’t there but should be called on the carpet solo by Congress) who paid himself and his top 15 employees more than $100 million in bonuses while bankrupting his company should not go unpunished. If American’s don’t stand up and scream about this, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. Call or email your congressman NOW.
The Peanut Butter disaster, where 8 have already died from a bad brew, while the execs knew, but wanted profits, must be dealt with. And swiftly.
If you aren’t pissed off about these two things, check your pulse.
February 3, 2009
Monday Madness
A fun filled weekend spawned some big news to blog about. 
- The Steelers and Cards put on a heck of a show last night. There really were no losers, and lots of winners, including the NFL. Two years in a row of stellar games and magical moments. Some quick reflections;
** Larry Fitzgerald is like a heavyweight puncher. You can avoid him for 10 rounds but he can always catch you with a knockout punch. He is the class of the NFL
** Not sure i’ve seen a linebacker/manchild ast big as James Harrison run as fast and far since, well….never
** Bruce Springsteen is a rock star. Period. Best halftime of all time.
** The Cards are a real team. Young, hungry and talented. QB will determine their future. I don’t think Matt Leinart is Kurt Warner.
** Commercials were boring. Laughed a bit at the Doritos spot. Bud was too sappy.
On to other events.
- Speaking of Springsteen. Tickets for a bunch of his shows went on sale today. LA sold out in 3 minutes. Ticketmaster screwed many who tried to buy tickets opening mulitiple browser — like me. It locked me out of every window telling me that you can only have one window open at a time. Nice. Another reason to scalp.
- Carol Bartz, the new Yahoo Czar is making her case to star in the sequal of Valkyrie. See, she had this bright idea to offer cash rewards to employees who turn in other employees who leak to the press. Someone needs to tell her this is a free country, not Nazi Germany. Welcome to the internet Ms. Bartz. Nice reporting by Kara Swisher, who once again finds the kernal of gold in a haystack.
- Numbers out today that Facebook has passed MySpace in time spent on site last month by a wide margin, for the first time ever. In auto racing they call this getting lapped.
- I love reading PaidContent.org, but for some bizarre reason their site loads slower than any blog on earth.
And finally, the whole Michael Phelps bong-gate thing….He’s 23, has one enough gold to have a section of Fort Knox, is world famous and rich — he should only be doing two things — getting stoned and getting laid.
February 1, 2009
Shooting From the Hip
A few things to ponder and discuss as the week end and a new one begins.
- Springsteen at the Super Bowl makes me want to watch. The game itself may suprise some and be closer than expected. Don’t really care about the commercials this year, nor the game. But Bruce — i mean, come on — i’m from Jersey. The Boss is The Boss.
- And just for the record — Springsteen selling records exclusively through Wal-Mart is like Wrigley Field only selling Heineken Beer — just doesn’t feel right.
- I like NBC giving Hulu a spot on the Super Bowl. Great products deserve great promotion. Just wondering who is getting fired at NBC for not selling all the spots.
- Talk about Freudian Slips — Google malfunction categorized the entire internet as “harmful” last night when searches were done. The “Do No Evil” guys are starting to creep me out.
- Scott Moore returning to Microsoft is a great trade for the guys in Redmond. Yahoo loses a great exec and maybe MSN will let him do what he does best.
- The little spat between Carol Bartz and Chris DeWolfe playing out on TechCrunch reminds me of two fighters past their prime trying to drum up publicity to hype ticket sales.
- The LA Times cut 300 jobs yesterday, 70 in the newsroom. I felt bad, until i read that they have 600 in the newroom. I got the paper for 8 years and couldn’t tell you what 600 people could possibly be doing. Here’s an idea — get people to write daily, and pay them $25 a story.
- On Thursday, the New York Times’ Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote about how President Obama had brought “a more informal culture” to the White House, noting that he had already abandoned “an ironclad rule of the George W. Bush administration” that required a “coat and tie in the Oval Office at all times.” Later that day, former Bush White House chief of staff Andrew Card told conservative talker Michael Medved that he felt the new dress code showed a lack of “respect” for the Office of the Presidency:
CARD: I found that Ronald Reagan and both President Bushes treated the Oval Office with tremendous respect. They treated the Office of the Presidency with tremendous respect. And some of that respect was reflected in how they expected people to behave, how they expected them to dress when they walked into the symbol of freedom for the world, the Oval Office. And yes, I’m disappointed to see the casual, laissez faire, short sleeves, no shirt and tie, no jacket, kind of locker room experience that seems to be taking place in this White House and the Oval Office.
S0, let me get this straight — Bush tramples Human Rights, Lies to the American people, commits thousands of soilders to death by sending them to a war he created, essentially bankrupts the country and puts us on the edge of a depression — but at least he wore a jacket and tie to work? Andrew Card and his cronies need a reality check.
- Final Score — Pittsburgh 38, Arizona 14
February 1, 2009
Reality Check – Twitter
Those of us in the internet business tend to live in bubbles. Sometimes they burst, and sometimes they balloon. In 2005 when i was working at News Corp and helped buy MySpace, I and others around me, came under intense fire and scrutiny for spending some much money on a site with no revenue, and that frankly, most didn’t understand. Social Networking was foreign then, and when someone doesn’t understand something they tend to reject it out of hand. Luckily for us, it turned out ok for all parties concerned. What i knew then was part instinct, part research and part reality. I watched, and listened and worked to understand what social networking was. And, even though MySpace wasn’t built to satisfy a 41 year old media exec, it was built to appeal to a generation. And boy did it. I learned on a day in January 2005 from a 22 year old what social networking was, why it mattered to her and why she, and many like her used it.
This week, Velocity Interactive Group, the firm i am a partner in, held its first portfolio summit in Los Angeles. Twelve of the companies we made investments in during 2008 gathered to share ideas, brainstorm and, bowl. (that’s a story for another time). Perhaps the most interesting moment of the two days was a panel we presented featuring 13 high school and college students. Prior to the panel, we polled the 30 or some attendees, and asked them two questions;
1) What Sites Can’t You Live Without?
2) What Sites Can’t You Believe Made it?
More than half of the crowd answered Twitter for both. Now i have to admit, that i have tried Twitter on numerous occasions, and just don’t get the emotional reaction many do. I see how it can appeal to some. I see how it can provide instant information to many, and be used as a marketing tool. I won’t even touch the concept of how they make money. It has certainly captured the imagination of many in the press. I hear daily about its merits and value. Some VC’s ponied up nearly $20 million dollars this week apparently valuing the pre-revenue company at more than $250 million dollars. Time will validate or kill these decisions. My opinion is just one, and i’ve been wrong as much as i’ve been right.
The kids however are a different story. We live in a bubble. They live in reality. So when i asked the 13 girls and boys about Twitter, the answer i got surprised me, and the room full of entreprenuers. Stunned was an expression I would use to describe the room. Of the 13 kids we asked — do you use Twitter? — not a single hand went up. Then, we asked if they had heard of Twitter — only 1 hand sheepishly went up. Stunned silence. I then asked Brian Alvey, CEO of Crowd Fusion, and a Twitter power user to describe the service to the kids. After an eloquent explaination, we asked — Would You use it ? Some hands went up — about 3 or 4.
What does all this prove? For me, it proved that we sometimes need to temper our enthusiasm about what the blogs blather about. That it may be most important to stay connected to your audience. It may mean that Twitter is more for the 30-40 crowd, then the teens and 20-somethings. It may mean nothing at all, except that some kids living in the biggest city in America aren’t that in touch what’s hot in Silicon Alley and Valley.
What it once again showed me was that it’s as important to listen as it is to talk.
October 7, 2008
Quick Hit: Tonight’s Debate
Let's Get Ready To Rumble
Countdown to kickoff. Looking forward to tonights slugfest. Markets down a ghastly 500+. Let me be clear in my hopes and wishes for tonight. I want straight answers and no bullshit. Any chance we get that? Zero i believe. We’ll have McCain trashing Obama about his alleged ties and Obama pointing out how McCain was in Keatings pocket two decades ago. What we should be talking about is how regular “joe sixpacks” are going to pay the heating bill, or the food bill or why we are bailing out banks and not people. If they don’t stick to the real issues, i’m starting a movement to allow Bill Clinton to have a third term. Anyone want to sign on?
