Zatz Not Funny! says YouTube on TiVo Launches. I know how crappy YouTube videos look on my iPhone. How bad do you think they’ll look on your big screen TV, especially HDTV? I could see people using this a few times and then dumping it. I say no big deal.
Archive for the ‘partnerships’ Category
YouTube on TiVo Launches, Does This Really Matter?
Thursday, July 17th, 2008Yahoo Licenses Urban Mapping Data
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008My friend Ian runs Urban Mapping. It’s a great little company that provides neighborhood and public transit data to be overlaid on top of maps and to better refine local search queries. We used his data while I was at SuperPages.com. Ian just completed a deal to provide Yahoo with neighborhood data. I think that’s great. It will definitely improve the results you get back on local searches in urban areas.
The deal was announced on Search Engine Watch.
Good Layman’s Explanation of a Licensing Agreement
Monday, June 2nd, 2008Jay Parkhill on GigaOM wrote a nice explanation of licensing agreement. It explains nicely all the obscure legalese that marketing people like to avoid. It’s worth a read.
Looks Like Fairness Counts
Sunday, May 18th, 2008Slow Leadership discusses research out of Wharton about how treating partners fairly matters. No kidding. Any good business development person can tell you this. Yet many executives don’t get it. So here’s how it works: if your partner feels like you screwed them, then they won’t put any effort into the relationship and both parties end up losing. So the lesson for today is DON’T SCREW YOUR PARTNERS!
The Art of Distribution – Business Development from Guy Kawasaki
Friday, September 22nd, 2006Guy Kawasaki posted How to Change the World: The Art of Distribution. It’s an interesting Biz Dev lesson for startups.
The underlying and important assumption in modern day distribution is the asymmetry of the arrangement. For most entrepreneurs distribution involves piggybacking on another organization with much greater momentum.
One of the tips he gives is to “Look for adjacency.” He uses eBay/PayPal, Linkedin/Simply Hired, and FeedBurner/TypePad as examples. Note that these are formal relationships, not where one party is simply sucking off of the other party using open APIs. Most important, he reminds startups to “focus on revenue.” This is the what’s in it for them advice that I always start with. “If your partner will make money, then the deal will probably happen.” He also points out:
Look out for the other guy. The right perspective for distribution partners is: Let’s both make money. For sure, it’s not: How can I ensure that we make a ton of money and stick it to our partner? I have never seen a case where only partner makes money. Either everyone makes money or no one does.
Well put Guy. Get that formalized deal that works for both parties. Again, partnerships really haven’t changed much in the Web 2.0 world.
