Startup Addict Musings

One thing is already certain in 2008, social media and user data is migrating from disparate sources and networks to more centralized schemas. Imagine how much time you have invested registering for 4 different social networks (Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, Orkut) and 2 different social blog communities (Mybloglog, BlogCatalog) and 3 different social book marking tools like (delicious, stumbleupon and digg). That is a tremendous amount of personal data, usernames, passwords and profiles that need updating and tracking. This is where companies like Zoolit, Spokeo, meeCard and SocialThing come into play. SocialThing just received 300K in funding and has emerged from techstars with high hopes as the “killer app” of 2008.

SocialThing among other startups allow the storage of profile information in a consolidated format from multiple social networks. This information will update across your social networking profiles from there. One killer feature is being able to stay updated with friends across multiple networks and being able to transport friends from one network to the next. For instance, if I have 300 friends in Myspace I can take them into StartupAddict and fill my StartupAddict Rolodex avoiding repeating friend requests all over again. The trend is gaining tremendous momentum and there is room for more players. The right startup will do for social networking what Meebo did for instant messaging.

The portability of data in 2008 is moving at lighting speed and many bellwethers(Google, Verisign, IBM even Yahoo is reported) are porting to OpenID. Reason 103 from my choice in Drupal for SA 2.0. Drupal 6.0 will have OpenID support and has been in the works for most of 2007.OpenID and DataPortability.org to gain major support.

Quick 2008 trend Recap:

(1.) Startup social network aggregators (like SocialThing) will fight for the #1 spot as the goto “destination” or “portal” for all of your social profiles.

(2.) Opensource is big business in 2008 from Facebook to Google open is in and cool and opensource code will allow rapid development by thousands of developers.

(3.) OpenID will become a ubiquitous gateway for individual users, allowing us to traverse multiple social media properties as easy as browsing a basic webpage.

Tags: Data Portability by Startup Addict

Xobni is a cool plug-in for Outlook that keeps contacts organized and user-friendly (why didn’t Microsoft think of that?). Over the years I have acquired more add-ons, hacks and modifications for Outlook then any normal human should. Alas, the pain will subside and I can xobnize Outlook and realize the following benefits:

Automatic organization of my email and contacts.

Faster Search Functions…superior to native Outlook

Xobni creates a profile of all interactions with your contacts.

Xobni automatically extracts phone and email contacts from email messages.

If you are an avid Outlook user for communication but desire a higher high, then 20 lucky Startup Addict readers can download the program by entering the special invite code , ‘startupaddict’. The 20 lucky readers will in turn be able to invite 5 of their friends. Remember the product is still in beta so cracks may be visible under heavy fire.

Xobni is a fine addition to any entrepreneur’s toolbox in the mandatory world of clean, fast and intuitive communication. Now go grab those special beta invites, because like Ricky Bobby says in Taladaga Nights “If your not first, your last.”

Xobni was a TechCrunch40 Startup and full details on features and usability can be found over at Arrington’s pad.

Tags: Uncategorized by Startup Addict

Scott Shane from Case Western Reserve University just published– The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: “The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By.”

He contacted me recently regarding a quiz on entrepreneurship associated with his book. Startup Addict Musings is the 3rd startup blog to take the quize following Guy Kawasaki and Jeremy Hanks both scoring 40% and 45% respectively.

I wish I could say I did better then my colleagues, but my 40% score is right inline. If you think you can do better feel free to give the entrepreneurial quiz a whirl.

I did find the quiz to reference some seemly impossible historical facts (for a pop quiz) about entrepreneurship in this country, but I’m sure it’s one of Shane’s tactics to deflate our egos.

The book is probably worth a spin and it’s nice to see a contrarian view on the startup subject, you can check the book out at Amazon here

Tags: Startups by Startup Addict

You know an industry is over or at least nearing an end when everything is for sale (real estate sound familiar?). We’ve gone from a flurry of “startup acquisition” headlines to a flurry of startup “for sale” headlines.

Spark Networks is looking to unload its’ JDate online dating property to the tune of $185 Million. This time last year, it would have been acquired for that amount not “for sale” for that amount. Spark Networks much like Affinity labs (Monster.com just acquired) and like StartupAddict.com’s holding company HyperActive Media all have multiple web properties that focus on niche verticals. Apparently some properties are getting mature in terms of valuation and need unloading before the web 2.0 craze is completely over.

Tags: Web 2.0 and Beyond by Startup Addict

For the thousands of dedicated beta users of Startup Addict 1.0, I give a humbling thank you for using and testing the social platform. The wait for version 2.0 is almost over and with Drupal as the core open source code the future looks very bright for version 2.x and beyond. Drupal was a decision that makes sense right now and a whole lot of sense in the future.

“Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations have used Drupal to power scores of different web sites, including”:

* Community web portals
* Discussion sites
* Corporate web sites
* Intranet applications
* Personal web sites or blogs
* Aficionado sites
* E-commerce applications
* Resource directories
* Social Networking sites

Drupal includes features to enable content management systems, blogs, collaborative authoring environments, forums, newsletters, picture galleries, file uploads and download, and much more. Drupal is open source software licensed under the GPL and is maintained and developed by a community of thousands of users and developers. Drupal is free to download and use.”

The Startup Addict choice mixes well with recent comments from Matt Asay:

In other words, open source lets enterprises focus on delivering customer value, rather than on the “overhead” of software (licenses, contract negotiations, closed APIs, etc.). “Old school” enterprises get this. “New school” web properties do, too. In fact, just about everyone is getting on board…except 20th-century software companies.

Web 2.0 is officially over (not really, we’ve just moved on from the name). Open-source is being supported by multiple enterprises and very large organizations like Google. Rapid development, third-party plug-ins and easy road maps for software expansion will continue to drive choices for startups and make open source an obvious choice over proprietary.

Wordpress won the Content Management System (CMS) of 2007, but I think you’ll find Drupal the winner of 2008. Let’s hope Startup Addict 2.0, can get Drupal the exposure it deserves.

Tags: Web 2.0 and Beyond by Startup Addict

Monster has plunged into social networking like fellow bellwether Cisco (Tribe.net and Five Across social acquisitions). Affinity labs was purchased for $61 million cash and has a number of specialized social sites. The vertical social networking trend seems to continue, however the fate of these vertical social networks it still unknown and traffic opinions vary widely from a low of 500K uniques a month to over a million.

Let’s hope the trend (and advertising dollars) continue as StartupAddict 2.0 gets ready for final launch.

Om has the full scoop.

Tags: Social Networking by Startup Addict