Busy Little Valley Bee

SO. After a whirlwind 2008 where I met entrepreneurs in about 25 cities or more, I am finally back in San Francisco for a while.

I feel very torn. It's been an amazing year, and I've met so many amazing people. My entire concept of entrepreneurship has been forever changed, and I am, of course, so grateful for the outpouring of support for the book. It's been one of the toughest book-buying markets in publishers' memories and it was no small feat to keep copies moving!

On the plus side of being home, I've barely gotten to live in the house that's continually draining my bank account lately, and it's always nice to see my husband. I also feel like meeting so many entrepreneurs around the world has come at the cost of not staying in better touch with entrepreneurs in the Valley. So it'll be nice to stay put for a bit and reconnect. And what better time than a month with a zillion Holiday parties? Headed to the Zynga party tonight, and of course, there's the sarahlacy.com happy hour at the Beauty Bar in one week! RSVP, y'all!

Here are Olivia and I after the spectacular Get Satisfaction party last Friday, inhaling some Arinell's pizza. (Just a few blocks from my house-- another win to being home!) [photo credit: Geoffrey Ellis]

Of course, another *huge* plus in being home is that I can focus more on my actual job: reporting. I forgot to mention it, but I re-upped my columnist contract with BusinessWeek in November. I was incredibly flattered to even get it renewed given the macro state of the economy and how hard hit media has been already. (And how flaky I've been on deadlines. Doh.)

I wrote two columns that detailed *why* things are going to be far worse for Venture Capitalists in this downturn, even as the Valley will have an easier time than in 2001-ish. You can read them here and here. Then, this week, I wrote about everything that's wrong with eCommerce and why I think we're about to see an explosion of innovation. (And why I can't wait!) I've got a lot of great ideas for the next few months, but as always hit me up if there's a topic you want me to tackle!

I've also been pretty busy at TechTicker. A few recent videos I liked on the jump!

A whole slew of other changes are in store for my various jobs and include a few new projects that I can't wait to tell you guys about. But more details on all that later... Bottom line is I'm mostly out of promotion mode (FINALLY!) and solidly back in reporter mode so more great content coming your way this month and in 2009.

And now, to some videos...

First up, Om and I on Netflix. I would *love* to have Reed Hastings on TechTicker. I was super bearish on Netflix when they went public, thinking it wasn't a defensible model. I think they're still challenged. That said, I give them total props for continuing to innovate when so many first gen web companies haven't (see ecommerce column above!).

Here's a piece I did with Paul Kedrosky on the weird gasoline market that seems utterly unbound by supply and demand and why-- AGAIN!-- we need a floor on fuel prices if we ever want to get serious about cleantech.

I know my audience here isn't as finance-oriented as the TechTicker crowd but this one has our audience and even my co-host Aaron Task in a tizzy:

I started the week talking about Cisco's John Chambers with Ellen McGirt of Fast Company. Her cover on Chambers is on newsstands now, and it's one of the most insightful stories I've read about him in a while. (Newsstands? Where did that come from? Find it online here.)

Way more with Om, Paul and Ellen on TechTicker.