If you are interested in buying any of Sampa's service assets, send an email to me at marcelo@sampa.com and I'll send you a PDF with more information. I'll not send you the doc if you are "just curious" or if it doesn't seem you'd be a qualified [...]
Mark on your calendar: Saturday, September 26, 2009 between 10am and 5pm == StartupDay 2009, a conference for pre-entrepreneurs and those who want to learn about startups.
I'm one of the organizers of the conference and we are very excited to have startup rockstars like' [...]
I think I published my email address a dozen times. This time I'll publish as an image to avoid email-scrappers from finding it and sending me tons of emails, but here it is...
' [...]
The week we were announcing Sampa closing I wrote and published a blog post telling the story from a personal point of view, meaning, how it affected my life. One thing to keep in mind when reading my blog posts, is that I write to keep it to [...]
First of all, the original Sampa was meant to be a website builder solution primarily for small business. I even considered being a white-label solution for hosting companies. I think the small business solution for website is still somewhat broken. When people say they will build their website on top [...]
There are lots of good things I’ll miss at Sampa. Even my own family website which we used intensively for 3+ years (Site id 15, where the first 12 sites didn’t exist, 13 was Sampa’s blog, 14 was my personal blog). But running a startup is very stressful at many [...]
It’s the story stupid! If I had just four words to describe about a strategy or vision for a family website, “It’s the story stupid” is how I would characterize it. First and foremost, people create a family or baby website to tell others about their kids life. Everything else [...]
[If you don't have time for the long version read the short version]
Sampa was first conceived on my mind around 2001. The story is one of those “personal pains” kind of story. I’ve been building websites for family and friends since 1996. Every time I built a new website' [...]
It’s pretty hard to distinguish a founder from his startup. Oh, wait. Let me take that back. It’s not hard at all. It’s hard for the founders to detach themselves from their startup. It’s the “baby syndrome”. The way they see it, their startup defines them. It *is* them. I’m [...]
In case you missed it over the weekend, there was a fire at the Fisher Plaza building in Seattle between Thursday and Friday. That building is he house of a few Datacenters, like Internap and AdHost.
I can't say I'm an expert on Datacenters, redudancy, systems operations, etc., but [...]
One of the highlights of the inaugural Seattle 2.0 Awards was Glenn Kelman opening speech. He was very good and inspiring. To many entrepreneurs, investors and startupers, this was exactly what they need on tough times like this.
Check it out Glenn Kelman's speech.
' [...]
We are moving to a new space and we are looking for a tenant to replace on our current lease.
Total square footage: 1,900 (1,400 of office and 500 of warehouse, a.k.a. the fun-room). It can comfortably accommodate 6-10 people. Rent: $14.70 / sq ft / year [...]
First of all, MG Siegler has joined TechCrunch a few weeks ago and he’s by far the best writer TC has ever had. He actually brought back my interest on reading TC after so many bad writers were ruin it (more on that on a future blog post). But [...]
Dear Facebook, I don't mind so much the new redesign (I actually like it), but I'd like you to collapse all the updates from individuals into some kind of thread. The problem is that 2-3 of my 'friends' make 15 updates at a time and the ruin the [...]
This commercial about a person trying to buy a laptop for less than $1,000 and going for an HP w/ Windows instead of Mac just show how technology companies (big and small alike) don’t get it: it’s not the technology.
Pretty much all technology companies are founded [...]
After TechFlash broke the news of entrepreneur-turned-VC Rob Monster closing his venture capital “branch” to focus on his startups, there was a flurry of ill-informed or just plain nasty comments on the blog post. That triggered this question on my head: Can successful entrepreneurs become successful VCs? That [...]
I have many addictions, including a very common kind of addiction amongst entrepreneurs: data-analyctites.
We do a lot of AB Tests at Sampa and last Friday we just wrapped up test number 902 and are ready to start 903 (903 stands for March 2009, not nine-hundred [...]
I have many addictions, including a very common kind of addiction amongst entrepreneurs: data-analyctites.
We do a lot of AB Tests at Sampa and last Friday we just wrapped up test number 902 and are ready to start 903 (903 stands for March 2009, not nine-hundred [...]
One thing that I really like about this time of the year is the number of events for startups and entrepreneus. There are events all year around, but the Spring and Fall events are usually better than the Summer and Winter ones.
Next week I'll be' [...]
One thing that I really like about this time of the year is the number of events for startups and entrepreneus. There are events all year around, but the Spring and Fall events are usually better than the Summer and Winter ones.
Next week I'll be' [...]
One thing that I really like about this time of the year is the number of events for startups and entrepreneus. There are events all year around, but the Spring and Fall events are usually better than the Summer and Winter ones.
Next week I'll be' [...]
One thing that I really like about this time of the year is the number of events for startups and entrepreneus. There are events all year around, but the Spring and Fall events are usually better than the Summer and Winter ones.
Next week I'll be' [...]
There is a wide range of social network connections policies at an individual level. This is, how I consider who I invite and who I accept on social networks might be different from what you. But most people that I know use two different standards: One for Facebook and [...]
There is a wide range of social network connections policies at an individual level. This is, how I consider who I invite and who I accept on social networks might be different from what you. But most people that I know use two different standards: One for Facebook and [...]
After months preparing for this, I'm happy to announce the Seattle 2.0 Awards. An Award to recognize the top of the top from the Seattle startup scene. This is the first award of its kind in Seattle.
Not only the Seattle 2.0' [...]
After months preparing for this, I'm happy to announce the Seattle 2.0 Awards. An Award to recognize the top of the top from the Seattle startup scene. This is the first award of its kind in Seattle.
Not only the Seattle 2.0' [...]
I have written on how Google is becoming Microsoft, even having trouble with the federal government over its (near) monopoly of search advertising.
Yesterday I realized that Facebook is the new Apple.
You probably read my rant about Josh Lowensohn shallow headline about a Facebook press [...]
I have written on how Google is becoming Microsoft, even having trouble with the federal government over its (near) monopoly of search advertising.
Yesterday I realized that Facebook is the new Apple.
You probably read my rant about Josh Lowensohn shallow headline about a Facebook press [...]
For the longest time (maybe 10 years or so) people have been proclaiming the death of newspaper and mostly the newspaper industry has just shrugged that idea as if it wouldn't happen any time soon, and so it seemed. But then all started to crash on the last' [...]
For the longest time (maybe 10 years or so) people have been proclaiming the death of newspaper and mostly the newspaper industry has just shrugged that idea as if it wouldn't happen any time soon, and so it seemed. But then all started to crash on the last' [...]
This just come over on my RSS feeds from Josh Lowensohn (Webware):
Facebook live blog: New features on the way
Which made me go: REEEEAAAALYYYY? NO!! I thought they stopped developing new features when they reached 120 million profiles.
</end-of-rant>
This just come over on my RSS feeds from Josh Lowensohn (Webware):
Facebook live blog: New features on the way
Which made me go: REEEEAAAALYYYY? NO!! I thought they stopped developing new features when they reached 120 million profiles.
</end-of-rant>
[...]
Recently, SEOmoz sent an email offering the Super Duper Premium service for just a $1 for the first month. Why would they offer it for $1 instead of offering for zero?
First of all, let me say they are very smart in the way they did [...]
Recently, SEOmoz sent an email offering the Super Duper Premium service for just a $1 for the first month. Why would they offer it for $1 instead of offering for zero?
First of all, let me say they are very smart in the way they did [...]
A few weeks ago I saw a talk about one of those success stories after a lot of business near-death experience. For the n-th time I heard they just kept going and believing on their business, survived the downturn and became a multi-million dollar corporation with hundreds of [...]
A few weeks ago I saw a talk about one of those success stories after a lot of business near-death experience. For the n-th time I heard they just kept going and believing on their business, survived the downturn and became a multi-million dollar corporation with hundreds of [...]
If you come to a technical background, you are more likely to think that customer only value things that you did that are very complex. For example, if you create a calculator application, people might not value as much as a spreadsheet. After all, a calculator will have [...]
If you come to a technical background, you are more likely to think that customer only value things that you did that are very complex. For example, if you create a calculator application, people might not value as much as a spreadsheet. After all, a calculator will have [...]
I hate wasting time. Most people do. Email is one of the most time consuming activities you’ll do day-in day-out. And inside of the world of email distinguishing between important and non-important emails requires quite a bit of work. Mostly because you don’t know something is important before you [...]
I hate wasting time. Most people do. Email is one of the most time consuming activities you’ll do day-in day-out. And inside of the world of email distinguishing between important and non-important emails requires quite a bit of work. Mostly because you don’t know something is important before you [...]
People with years of corporate executive experience or an MBA might find it trivial to distinguish between a "Sale" and a "Business Development".
This Tweet from Jordan Mitchell got me thinking:
"Shooting for two signed bizdev deals by end of day. One signature away."
People with years of corporate executive experience or an MBA might find it trivial to distinguish between a "Sale" and a "Business Development".
This Tweet from Jordan Mitchell got me thinking:
"Shooting for two signed bizdev deals by end of day. One signature away."
The W3C is almost ready to declare HTML 5 official, which includes a lot of new and interesting ways to create web pages, but it took too long and it won't matter anymore.
HTML 4 is about 10 years old and the current standard. Every browser' [...]
The W3C is almost ready to declare HTML 5 official, which includes a lot of new and interesting ways to create web pages, but it took too long and it won't matter anymore.
HTML 4 is about 10 years old and the current standard. Every browser' [...]
In case you have not heard. Like pretty much any other startup in the country, we have to be a bit more aggressive at our monetizations effort. The "eyeballs count" is not as significant in times like this.
So, we have increased our Advertising inventory on [...]
In case you have not heard. Like pretty much any other startup in the country, we have to be a bit more aggressive at our monetizations effort. The "eyeballs count" is not as significant in times like this.
So, we have increased our Advertising inventory on [...]
One kind of blog post that I really don't like is when people try to write well above their pay-grade in terms of business and entrepreneurship. It's when people try to create the "laws of business" based on their limited view of the world and it usually has [...]
One kind of blog post that I really don't like is when people try to write well above their pay-grade in terms of business and entrepreneurship. It's when people try to create the "laws of business" based on their limited view of the world and it usually has [...]
That's it. I can't take it no more. I can't be an outsider. I will not be the last person that I know of to switch to an iPhone. Even with my wife working at Windows Mobile, we need an iPhone at our house for competitive research. :)
' [...]
That's it. I can't take it no more. I can't be an outsider. I will not be the last person that I know of to switch to an iPhone. Even with my wife working at Windows Mobile, we need an iPhone at our house for competitive research. :)
[...]
There was a time, where you could build significant advantage over your competitor (or on the marketplace if you were a first comer) based on careful studies, planning, strategy and pitch-perfect execution. I won't say these times are over, but very close to done.
With the' [...]
If you have a Visa to work on the US, you are probably on a tough spot. Davis Bae, at the Bae Law Group is offering a free presentations at their office in Seattle as to what are your options.
Please, foward this to any of [...]
About 4 years ago I wrote a blog post asking why every new blogger had to write a blog post about blogging. I guess Twitter's time has come. Every new Twitter (or old Twitter) has to write about how to use Twitter, how to gather more followers, what' [...]
Ok, the title is a bit misleading, but the point does relate to it.
I have a great friend that sends some emails that are a bit large and sprinkled with questions or points for you to give input. Do you think people answer his [...]
I just came back from the Microsoft Entrepreneur Advisory Council, a group of local entrepreneurs put up by Microsoft Emerging Business Team to talk about what startups need. I felt humbled by the presence of such great entrepreneurs on the table, me probably being the worst of the bunch.
[...]
I woke up this morning and saw some unusual events on my inbox. Sampa servers have lots of self-monitoring and self-healing, but when things are not well I get notified. This morning, our server friendly named SADCWS01 was not responding.
This was our first server. The very first [...]
I love to understand the nuances of human nature. Why people pick what they eat at restaurants? Why people make impulse buys of electronics? Why people click on an ad? The difference between clicking on ad and not clicking on ad might be extremely "small". Would a different font [...]
We love to brag how we are good at multi-tasking, but in reality we are never doing two (concious) tasks at the same time. We keep switching back-and-forth between the many tasks we do. You'll hear people saying how they can do email, make phone calls, write code,' [...]
The hardest hurdle an entrepreneur has to overcome is her/himself. It comes from the fact that opportunities, solutions and approaches are all open-ended. There are an unlimited number of problems, each with an unlimited number of solutions each with an unlimited number of ways to execute.
Maybe is the age, or my mood recently, but I'm getting really tired of TVs, newspapers, news sites and other publications calling everything a "Breaking News" or a person a "Hero".
Right now on MSNBC there is a big red banner with the phrase "BREAKING'" [...]
My wife got me an Amazon Kindle for my birthday a few months ago. I love the Kindle. I was using mostly to read the New York Times and Newsweek and now I'm starting to buy some books on it.
The other day, I saw a' [...]
Sorry to break it to you, but the iPhone App that you are working on and expect to make a tens of thousands of dollars won't do it. At best you'll make $350.
This is very similar to what happened when Facebook launched their API to [...]
I understand the need to cold call, cold email, cold stop by, cold mail by service providers to find new clients, so I don't get as offended as some people I know get when they get bugged.
But just to be clear, I'm not looking for:
[...]
The same way I knew Matt Hulett blog was going to be great after just a couple of blog posts I know for sure that Andy Liu's blog will rock.
Andy is a very experienced and successful entrepreneur building BuddyTV. He's also an investor and a [...]
I wish all the readers of this blog an awesome and fullfiling 2009!
I hope all those that are planning on leaving their corporate jobs to start a company, to do so this year. I hope all that have a startup in progress to achieve the [...]
I find marketing a fascinating subject, and there is nothing more fascinating on TV, print and online than the spins from the energy and oil industry. Look at the Shell, BP, Exxon commercials and you think those are the most awesome companies in the world, doing the right thing [...]
Although I worked on MSN Search for 4.5 years, I was just marginally involved with the core search technology, meaning, I never implemented any of the key elements that make up a search engine backend. My whole thing was the networking, aggregation of content, rendering, etc. (call it [...]
As time passes, you forget to celebrate certain special dates, mostly because they lose meaning, but 4 years and 3 days ago (December 1st, 2004) was my last day at Microsoft. I said good-bye to all my friends and colleagues during the week and previous week. I went [...]
Until recently I had about 170 followers on Twitter. I knew the vast majority of them in person and except by a handful, the rest of them I knew by name or had exchanged email. I also only followed people that I know.
Then a popular blog [...]
I just made up my mind about my New Year Resolution for the coming year. Instead of having a resolution that I would have to fight for an entire year, my resolution only applies to January 1st, 2009.
My resolution is to have zero emails on [...]
About 7 months ago I wrote about a website dedicated to get people to stop using IE 6 called SaveTheDevelopers.org.
Over the weekend one of the readers of my blog (thanks Renan), asked what happened to the website. Without much context I didn't know,' [...]
Michael Arrington just made a mistake in claiming that Outlook 2007 is the most popular feed reader of subscribers of TechCrunch.
FeedBurner has very limited ways to measure subscribers and most of those are significantly flawed. On this case in particular I'll only pick on' [...]
I looks like is the perfect time to trim the fat and to get rid of the unwanted from your company since you can always blame the economy. I don't mean to pick on CarDomain exclusively (I should pick on more startups), but the real reason of' [...]
I’ll spare you the long story of my life and how I’ve got to be above average when detecting BS on projections and assumptions (financial or not). But there are a few rules of thumbs that you can use to quickly validate some assumptions on your own projections or on [...]
I'm a big believer that we need more blogs in Seattle. There is too much knowledge living in the underwords of coffee shops, forums and distribution lists and not enough being surfaced. Because of that, Carolynn Duncan, Ian Lurie, Scot Herrick and I wrote a 4-piece blog spot,' [...]
Maybe is the sign of times, maybe not, but yesterday's Entrepreneur University was smaller than 2007. They claimed to have 250 people attending the event, so, how many paid for it?
Let's see...
There was 22 speakers. None of them paid, of course. The EU [...]
Yesterday I spent the whole day on NWEN's Entrepreneur University. I learned many things, but the day started on the wrong foot when I got there at 7AM and it actually started at 7:30AM. Yes, I do want 30 more minutes of sleep.
The opening keynote' [...]
First and foremost, I'm just guessing that focus is important because I still don't have a successful startup, either by a successful exit or by a tremendous cash-flow positive (aka profitable) business. But since I keep hearing about it from successful serial entrepreneurs, from successful investors and from [...]
Something is very strange on Alexa since the mid of October. The graphic below indicates they probably change the way they compute Reach for Widget companies.
[...]
I continue to try to keep political posts to a minimum, but it's just too hard not to say something during major elections.
This year I became an American citizen, so I'll take the time to vote. I don't know much about elections in the rest [...]
On August 1st of this year, the domain sampasite.com had 128,000 indexed pages on Google (if you use the "site:sampasite.com" query). by October 3rd, we've grown to 349,000 pages. Seven days later (last week) it dropped to 74,500!
I wonder if anyone is keeping track of [...]
Seattle 2.0 was created about 18 months ago and at the time I knew it would be a resources for entrepreneur, because I couldn't find resources for myself like that on the web. I guessed there would be more people like me.
On its first [...]
I've started Sampa in February of 2005. Like on people's life, startup's life is also marked by a few big milestones. The first employee, the first investor, the first customer, the beta launch, etc.
Today, I'm very excited to announce a tremendous milestone for Sampa...
[...]
Like many other entrepreneurs, I was resistant at working with recruiters on two basis: First, the most obvious one being their high price tag. Second, I thought that whatever the recruiter does we can do better.
Well, turns out that I had a change of heart. [...]
Last week I saw an interview on TV that triggered my brain to question, why I Democratic candidates resonate better with me than Republican candidates?
First of all, I don't hate republicans, like many democrats do.
To be honest, a lot of Republican principles [...]
Last week I saw an interview on TV that triggered my brain to question, why I Democratic candidates resonate better with me than Republican candidates?
First of all, I don't hate republicans, like many democrats do.
To be honest, a lot of Republican principles [...]
