Because I thought I wanted to go into video

Posted by Otis Kimzey on Mar 12, 2008 in Random | 1 comment

Money Saving tips turn into…have a life and get fired.

Posted by Otis Kimzey on Mar 7, 2008 in Tech | 1 comment

Recently I have been seeing alot of talk about the work life balance in the startup community. On a Seattle Startup mailing list talking about the 4 day work week and then today Jason Calacanis and Tech Crunch have been posting back and forth about their ideas for a work life balance at a startup.

Calacanis posted a great post about money saving tips for a startup. His ideas include

• Buying lunch for the team and having meetings over lunch- Save time and not have other meetings.
• Buy Mac’s- more expensive up front, but save money on IT.
• Buy second monitors- makes people more productive and happy.
• Don’t buy a phone system- Most people can use cell phones, only buy phones for the people on them all the time.
• Buy the hardest working people computers from home so that they can work at home and on their own time.
• Get an expensive automatic espresso machine and keep it fully stocked with milks, nice beans, and syrups.
• Don’t waste money on PR or recruiters.

and the one that has created all of the publicity around the web…

Kleiner Perkins creates a $100M iFund

Posted by Otis Kimzey on Mar 6, 2008 in Tech | Comments Off

Kliener Perkins along with Apple has created a $100M fund, called the iFund, which will be used to help create a development community for the iPhone. Today Apple announced quite a few new things for the iPhone, including Microsoft Server Exchange support and the the Software Developers Kit which will allow any developer to create their own applications for the iPhone. It looks like it will be a great platform, with alot of cool functions and features, but does it really need a $100M fund?

Since the iPhone is less than a year old and already has gained a large market share it seems like a hot product with alot of room for growth, both on its platform and in the consumers hands (on their ears?). Apple has announced that they will be controlling ALL application sales through their iPhone Apps Store. This will allow them to make that all apps have been approved by Apple and that they are malicious, or porn, or anything like that. It will also make sure that Apple gets a cut of each application that is sold (30%). They have however, allowed each developer the freedom to charge whatever they want for the applications they have developed, even if it is free. This store, the platform, and what appears to be the ease of development for these applications seems to be reason enough to build an application, but Apple seems to think it needs more.

So the iFund will help developers get up and going and get their ideas funded to develop iPhone applications. I just don’t understand what the exit strategy for these companies will be though. Other than Apple acquiring them I just don’t see another exit strategy. Seems like a great deal for Apple, but not a great deal for Kleiner Perkins or the developers who take funding. Although Kleiner Perkins is generaly viewed as one of the top VC firms in the industry, so maybe I’m just young and don’t understand the business well enough yet.

Tech Crunch wrapup

Is Steve Ballmer Seattle’s new Paul Allen?

Posted by Otis Kimzey on Mar 6, 2008 in Seattle, Sports | Comments Off

Today, I received an email from Steve Ballmer. Yes, it was actually from him and in its entirety it read, “Thanks.” I had a few thoughts about Ballmer when I received the email back. First, I wonder what phone he sent that from? It wouldn’t be a Blackberry or an iPhone, even though Apple is now licensing Microsoft technology for business email on the iPhone. Second off, I was surprised that he lives up to his word of saying he responds personally to all emails. Third, I started to think that he may be the new Paul Allen.