October 2008 Archive

We Has Winnrs!

Sarah mentioned a last week that with worldwide financial markets cratering and a key election heading into the home stretch, it seems a tad tactless to blog about more lighthearted fare. I agree, and there are some days where I'd just like to lay in bed and pull the covers over my head- but my bedfellows are early risers. And by "bedfellows" I mean Sarah's cats, Mr. Vinnie and Ms. Winnie. Before they start howling for food at 6 am, they are the ultimate snugglers- which makes me the ultimate creepy cat lady I suppose. But, c'mon, who doesn't love cats? Or, better yet, LOLcats? We asked for your best Valley LOLcats submissions in exchange for the new I Can Has Cheezburger book, and it was an epic WIN. See the winners after the jump....

Flight to, er, No Returns?

When I took the job at TechTicker, I had no idea a massive credit and banking crisis would become the dominant story of the markets. As I wrote before, it makes me feel a tad irrelevant as someone who focuses on tech companies and startup culture. But the plus is it's forced me to stay very engaged in the news flow of this crisis, and re-engage with my finance reporter roots.

Fun fact: I actually started my career covering finance. The reason I don't have a Southern accent? I used to get mocked when I called Wall Street and said things like, "What do y'all think about this market?" Good times.

Anyway, during the last downturn I talked to experts over and over again who talked about a flight to quality-- ie focusing tech holdings on the big, safe tech names-- as the way to survive the turbulence. Similarly, I have CNBC on in the green room all day and all I hear is that same advice. OK, so let's see how you did if you took it: According to this chart you would have lost money on nearly every name.

Now, I KNOW, people will say ten years isn't long-term enough. Tell that to someone who was ten years away from retirement in 1999, first of all. Also, that should be considered long-term in technology, shouldn't it? It reminds me of something Peter Thiel once told me that flicks to the cultural difference between Silicon Valley and Wall Street: A bet on, say, Microsoft isn't actually a technology play. Because Microsoft wants things to stay the same. It's actually a vote against innovation.

What if instead of keeping the bet on Yahoo ten years ago as the experts told you to, you bought Google at the IPO? Or instead of SAP, you went with Salesforce? Young risky companies, yes. But, per Peter's point, it seems that's a wiser bet if you're a believer in the fundamentals of tech, because the fundamentals of tech involve change and disruption. Very few companies can stay on top of multiple market and technological shifts. Investors should think long and hard about that conventional wisdom this time around.

More Fun with Paul Kedrosky

You too can be like Buffett!

...and a bad time for peer-to-peer lending

As a side note, I really like my pirate-y shirt/vest ensemble today! It was actually the result of Twitter. Diane Von Furstenberg Twittered a link to the site with a big sale on shoes and - duh- I clicked. I didn't buy shoes but did buy this shirt and vest and a few other things. Later tonight, when Mr. Lacy looks at me exasperated and says, "Where did THAT shirt come from??" I plan on blaming Twitter. Hot outfit AND an alibi? Don't tell me there's not a business model in there somewhere...

Enterprise 2.0: Have Fun RIP'ing with B2B

I've been meaning to note this for a few days, but no surprise so-called "Enterprise 2.0" companies are already having a hard time getting companies to pay (or keep paying in a few cases) for their tools. This report is focusing on bigger companies having trouble, so just think what that means for Enterprise 2.0 startups. I'm betting this will be the first decimated group of fire sales and walking dead.

Am I missing it or is there anyone out there that looks like they could whether the storm and become a big company? In a few months, you'll be able to buy a while-label social networking company for the change in your pocket. (To be clear: I put Ning in a different category, and I'm still very bullish on their prospects. I also don't think of SixApart as Enterprise 2.0, since it's not purely selling blog software to enterprises.)

Sorry for the attitude here, but I've been hard on Enterprise 2.0 as a group for a while, generally deleting any press release or pitch that has it in the subject line. 99% of them I get are bandwagon, me-too products looking for a market, or there are just already decent free alternatives. It smacks of the "B2B" movement that swept tech just before Web 1.0 collapsed. Well, it's reminiscent in terms of hype and pitches anyway. I don't think many Enterprise 2.0 companies raised huge amounts of cash, and clearly none of them have gone public, so if I'm right the fall out is, thankfully, minimal.

Oh Wait, I Didn't Mean to Say We'd Totally Buy Yahoo on the Cheap and Laugh Maniacally While Doing It...

Much ado about this Steve Ballmer "slip up" at the Gartner conference today that sent Yahoo's shares way up in anticipation that Microsoft may come back to the table. Here's a segment Paul Kedrosky-- better known around the TT studio by his rap name "P-Ked"-- and I did on TechTicker this morning. Speaking of TechTicker, a word on the degree to which we're kicking ass and taking names as Wall Street burns all around us: (from the USA Today)

"Yahoo Finance, the largest finance site on the Internet, has experienced its biggest weeks for viewership in the second half of September. Activity is up 40% on Yahoo Finance message boards. Its video news program, Tech Ticker, drew a record 2.5 million streams on Sept. 15. "People are asking what is going on, how it affects them and where it may be headed," says Yahoo Finance general manager Mark Interrante."

That's more than three-times the audience of CNBC for our not-even-one-year-old scrappy show. Boo-ya, Jim.

October Is "Sarah Is a Sucky Blogger Month"

OK, here's the thing. I have about five or six things per day I want to blog about. I have never, ever sat down and thought, "I really want to blog, but what about?" I keep a running list of posts I want to write everyday. So why don't I write six posts a day? Little things called time, husband, sleep, Yahoo and BusinessWeek.

Lately, I've even gotten a few emails from readers asking me to blog about certain topics. That hurts about as much as when I came back from the September leg of my book tour and my poor cat, Mr. Vinnie (pictured here), greeted me with a bald spot on his back. (He'd started to rip out his fur from loneliness. It's grown back since, with much petting and about a bag of Greenies.)

I hate to tell you, but October isn't going to be much better. Last week, I felt like anything I had to say just paled in comparison to the urgency of the election and the crisis of the stock market. It all felt so trivial. This week--and going forward--I have a better excuse. I am writing again. For reals. None of this quippy blog post, video script writing. Chapter writing, bitches!

Once You're Lucy, Twice You're Good is not only debuting in the UK in November under the far more commercial-- and yet equally long-- title, The Stories of Facebook, YouTube and MySpace: The People, the Hype and the Deals Behind the Giants of Web 2.0. (Londoners: Come party with me and buy a signed copy!) But the paperback of the good old U.S. version hits in March 2009. That means a new chapter. A new chapter due, ahem, October 31.

Now, normally I am very deadline-oriented. I'm one of those few dorky authors who actually turned her book in early. But that was when all I was doing was the book. This time, I'm having to squeeze in intensive reporting and writing around an already crammed schedule. Yesterday, that meant a work day that spanned 5 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. and another 5 a.m. wake up today. Since I can't actually mint more hours in the day, this means I won't be able to blog as much as I'd like for the next few weeks.

But here's the good news: I really, really love book writing. I've always described the year I wrote OYLYG as the best year of my life, but really forgot the rush that came along with it until yesterday. Spending hours in deep, substantive conversation with entrepreneurs, seeing the chronology and scenes arrange themselves in my head as they spoke, witnessing the common threads and themes leap out in front of me, and of course, the sleepless night of sentences and paragraphs and structure working itself out in my half-awake dreams like some sort of alternate personality that won't shut up. As I told my husband, I've enjoyed sleeping over the past year, but the intensity? Well, I didn't realize how much I missed that until yesterday.

So even though I'm not quite sure how I'm going to find time to get this chapter done, (on the plane to Kona or on the beach at the Lobby might be necessary options!) I'm thrilled to be writing it and I think conceptually it completes the book in a very profound way. This is what I'm good at. Everything else, I'm just pretending.

(BTW: Yes, book two is in the works. More news when I have it. Meantime, wish me luck...)

Bookmark this Page if You Want to Pitch Me (Or Any Reporter)

I don't hate PR people. Really. When I say some of them are my best friends, I actually mean that. (Shout out to Miss Hammerling! Holla!) I just don't understand why 90% of them lack total common sense. It's as if there's some George Costanza do-the-opposite-of-every-instinct school of mass PR indoctrination. When I call a CEO to ask him to take time from his busy-- and more important-- schedule of running a company to grant me an interview, I take the time to, oh, say, get his name right.

To review, here are some basic rules if you want me to consider what you are saying -- you know the pitch your client is actually paying you hundreds of dollars per hour to make on its behalf? Especially considering the deck is stacked against you from the beginning, since most reporters get hundreds of pitches a day and almost never write a story that comes from a pitch.

1. GET MY NAME RIGHT. It is Sarah Lacy. Not Stacy Lacy. Not Lucy Stacy. Nor is it Lucy Lacy.

2. Know what I do for a living. I am not a beat writer for BusinessWeek. I am a columnist for BusinessWeek, a blogger here, and co-host for TechTicker on Yahoo Finance. (Which is actually not called "TechTickler") I know it's confusing, but really, it's not that confusing.

3. Know where I live. 60% of the pitches I get start out "MEET WITH (REDACTED) WHILE HE'S IN NEW YORK FOR A DAY?" What part of "She lives in San Francisco" at the bottom of every thing I write and in every bio sounds like I live in New York? And, if that wasn't a tip-off, how about the fact that my column is called Valley Girl?

4. If I don't know you or your client and you find yourself about to invite me to a dinner party less than 24 hours before it starts, just stop. First off, I am almost never free during weeknights and when I am, I like to actually see my husband for once. Plus, it reads like you have a seat because someone more important canceled. In social situations, most people would consider that rude. So I wasn't going to come and now the only association I have with your client is negative. Job well done, genius!

(Sorry, people with brains reading this. No sleep + dumb emails + no coffee this AM = rant.)

"Ommmmm..."

That kept getting chanted around TechTicker headquarters yesterday morning. No, we weren't particularly into meditation, although you'd think looking at Yahoo's stock lately, Mr. Yang would offer some new zen program for all those stock-laden employees. (Bonus Prize: One-thousand of you may be also getting pink slips soon!)

Rather, Om Malik was our guest. Remember when the early GigaOm tagline had something to do with "...just close your eyes and say 'Ommmmm'"? That was, of course, back in the day when blogging was Om's sideline job, not his empire in the making.

He's so busy that yesterday was Om's TechTicker debut, and even though he was late to the nice SF studio we booked him so he could avoid a 50 minute drive to Sunnyvale, he was a lovely guest. I look forward to having him back soon! One reason I like Om? He has strong opinions and doesn't mince words. He gets slightly more rabid as these clips go on too. Enjoy!

Om and I on Gartner's strangely rosy IT spending projections:

Om and I on why newspapers are now losing money ONLINE too:

Om and I on Jeff Bezos, aka the new Steve Jobs/Bill Gates (I gotta say, Om is right here and WTF Seattle gets ANOTHER one? Step it up, Valley!)

Om and I on, well, GigaOm and all that funding amid an ad crisis [UPDATE: THERE'S AN EMBED CODE PROBLEM HERE THAT'S PULLING THE WRONG CLIP. WILL POST THE RIGHT ONE ONCE IT'S SORTED. SHAME BECAUSE IT WAS MY FAVORITE OF THE FOUR!]:

Do I Know the Digg Guys or What?

Some of us (Read: those who don't plan/have a book to promote in November) choose to go to London at a different time than everyone else in Silicon Valley. So since I'm the only person in the Valley not at FOWA in London right now, I didn't hear Kevin Rose's keynote. But apparently I didn't have to. It nicely echoes what I wrote here: That Digg has picked a fork in the road and is ready to grow up and prove it can be more than a fan boy site filled with Microsoft ads. (Convenient timing for me too, since I'm updating "Once You're Lucky" for paperback.) As someone who has spent a lot of time giving Digg tough love, but also defending what Kevin and Jay have done well, I'm rooting for them.

(Sorry for the crowing, but I'm getting a lot of kudos on my latest Valley Girl column and am enjoying feeling like an actual reporter again today, less obnoxious self-promotional media persona. Well, except this somewhat self-promotional post and my upcoming interview on KQED's Forum in an hour...)

U Can Haz LAME!

Ok, here's the deal. I am fully aware of how smart, funny and awesome my readers are. I am fully aware of how many of you READ my post for an LOLcats give away. Yet why do I have so few submissions? Sure I could award five books. But only a few *deserve* it -- like made me literally laugh out loud-- and I think you can do better.

You have 48 hours.

For help go to these Flickr feeds.
Brian Solis
Laughing Squid

Don't let me down :( I've had a rough day and need a laugh!