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Category: money

It’s Never about the Technology

It’s always about the uptake. Interesting to see that Mint, after it’s big win at TC40 and other publicity was signing up a new user every 5 seconds. Mint isn’t that different from the aggregators who launched the idea in 1998. But the idea was too early back then. Now it’s easier to aggregate, and easier to create an interface better than a financial institution. But getting people to try Mint is much harder than providing ongoing value. You can build anything, but getting people to use it and keep using it— that’s a different matter.

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There’s Money, and then there’s Money

dollars

Of course, it’s cheaper to start a web app company these days. But certain kinds of companies still require serious start up money. Mark Andreessen makes the point nicely when he calls for all companies after his should no longer receive funding because we’re in a bubble and no one needs money to do a start up anyway. But from what I hear, working under a VC in a start up environment still kinda sucks. Kinda like owing money to the mob.

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Amazon’s MP3 Store Rocks

I’m an iPod and iTunes user. While I know how to drag files to a player and manually manage them. I find it easier to let iTunes do the work. The great part about Amazon’s MP3 store is that it integrates seamlessly with iTunes. It does require the download and installation of an application, and for some people that will be a bridge too far. But for those able to overcome that hurdle, if you’re already an Amazon customer, that’s about it.

Find a song or album and download it. It shows up in iTunes. Make a playlist and sync it with your iPhone or just sync it to your iPod. Nice. It’s the beginning of competition in the digital download market. It’s the first serious competition because it works well with Apples products. Some think this is a big problem for Apple, personally I think it’s exactly what Apple needs. They’ve had no competition. Competition will be good for both Amazon and Apple. Perhaps they can show the rest of the industry what the user experience needs to look like.

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Getting Paid

I’ve been looking at various online payment systems. None of them are really made for the Web. And PayPal is a nightmare from which I’m trying to awake. To some extent we need a company to start from scratch with the Web in mind. Is Revolution Money the solution?

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