2011 August Archive - The May Report

Archive for August, 2011

The May Report: 8/31/2011: Bulletin: Brad Williams, the spokesperson for Groupon resigned yesterday over disagreements w/ Andrew Mason w/ respect to Andrew’s memo to staff telling them to ignore press reports about the firm; Hey, at long last and with some of the worst publicity Sam Yagan is capable of — remember Sam what you told me in Sept. 2010 about the lousy marketing for this? — it’s Demo Day for the 2011 class of Excelerate Labs and this yr’s class has already raised capital at least w/ Babbaco, but I must say the mentor list is a hoot w/ Terry Howerton on it and my buddy Bob Geras (who has just about another 116 days in the TMR stockade) not on it at all and Geras has done more mentoring and investing in his pinky finger than Howerton has ever done in his whole body; They have 9 grads, did 1 firm drop out?; Has Dan Malven been demoted at Analyte Media & has Jason Jacobsohn changed jobs once again?; Meanwhile my write-up of the MoMo mt. Mon. at Bin 36 restaurant generously sponsored by Nokia; Phil Garofalo says he “caught a whiff of desperation” there; Gennady Shenker says he’s “Smoking, drinking, never thinking of tomorrow”; Nicholas Modoku (?) on Walgreen’s and W.W. Grainger mobile UX; Dave Bost on MS apps and Nokia needs developers at what was Novarra; and the report is so long, it will have to split into four or even five reports

The May Report August 31st, 2011

The May Report: 8/31/2011: Bulletin: Brad Williams, the spokesperson for Groupon resigned yesterday over disagreements w/ Andrew Mason w/ respect to Andrew’s memo to staff telling them to ignore press reports about the firm; Hey, at long last and with some of the worst publicity Sam Yagan is capable of — remember Sam what you…

The May Report: 8/29/2011: This is a very short report since the much longer one including SMCC, Kevin Willer and much much more will have to wait until the morning when more emails are added to the system; One reader writes about Chris Tomes: “if it were not for your reporting, that we finally discovered, of his past, myself nor my partners would have never started suspecting irregularities without knowledge from your articles of what to look for as a far as his activities mirroring some of your reports”

The May Report August 29th, 2011

The May Report: 8/29/2011: This is a very short report since the much longer one including SMCC, Kevin Willer and much much more will have to wait until the morning when more emails are added to the system; One reader writes about Chris Tomes: “if it were not for your reporting, that we finally discovered,…

The May Report: 8/23/2011: Neil Kane, you get the day off from being lambasted since I have a real crook to talk about: Chris Tomes; Bob “Bubba” Geras hits the big 7-4 on August 22nd and he had his latest parasite surgically removed — just in time — Neil “tumor” Kane; Paul May to join Neil in the TMR stockade since he is the genius who suggested that I use Comcast for cable, internet, and phone and that storm on Saturday knocked out my phone and internet; What’s all this talk about Groupon owning a piece of Chicago’s inner sanctum on Michigan Avenue with the Wrigley building?

The May Report August 23rd, 2011

The May Report: 8/23/2011: Neil Kane, you get the day off from being lambasted since I have a real crook to talk about: Chris Tomes; Bob “Bubba” Geras hits the big 7-4 on August 22nd and he had his latest parasite surgically removed — just in time — Neil “tumor” Kane; Paul May to join…

The May Report: 8/18/2011: Two parties tonight, one at Next Door and one at the new offices of Doejo just over Wilde on Broadway, and that is the kickoff for Homelesscop.com. I’m going to both so I had better get going; David Alen’s musings and the GOOG-MOTO break-up fee, and other things

The May Report August 18th, 2011

The May Report: 8/18/2011: Two parties tonight, one at Next Door and one at the new offices of Doejo just over Wilde on Broadway, and that is the kickoff for Homelesscop.com. I’m going to both so I had better get going; David Alen’s musings and the GOOG-MOTO break-up fee, and other things Editor and publisher:…

The May Report: 8/17/2011: Note bene: Some items in the following report are fictional and the names have not been changed to protect the guilty: Again, some items are intended to be humorous and are entirely made up; MotoGoo, Motoogle, or Googola — a big deal any way you slice it; How to fail in business while really trying: hire Neil Kane; Natalia Cantemir, Uki Lucas, Walt Sloan, Peggy Smedley, Jeff Carter, Diane Hickey, Bob Geras responds but he’s not out of the soup yet and no smokem peace pipe yet; Bob’s post turtle story on his Facebook page is really about him and Neil Kane; on the other side of the ledger Dawn Geras is really having success with the extension of the Safe Haven laws; Phil Tadros: Photographer and he has even coined a word for the Urban Dictionary about people taking pictures of other people taking pictures; Andy Shaw interviews Rahm in a half hour at 12:15pm today

The May Report August 17th, 2011

The May Report: 8/15/2011: Google agrees to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5B!; Kevin Willer, you may have to re-think your remark on Friday about how we should forget companies like Motorola and Tellabs in talking about the Chicago tech renaissance and Matt McCall, that goes for you too since I recall that years ago you told me I spent too much time reporting on Motorola (I’m sure that is in the TMR archives), but now maybe Motorola will be integrated into the start-up culture that is growing here. Certainly, Motorola has great people, but the culture could be more entrepreneurial and under Google that may be just what happens; Thanks Ed Longanecker for alerting me to this big news!; Bob Geras, I loved your note, and of course I’ll run it, but we have about two weeks more of material on you and Neil Kane — some of it even funny — that we’ve been working on over the weekend so let’s not kiss and make up just yet

The May Report August 15th, 2011

The May Report: 8/15/2011: Google agrees to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5B!; Kevin Willer, you may have to re-think your remark on Friday about how we should forget companies like Motorola and Tellabs in talking about the Chicago tech renaissance and Matt McCall, that goes for you too since I recall that years ago you…

The May Report: 8/12/2011: Let the games commence: A tale of two attitudes and cities: Geras lets his pet toad Neil Kane back out into the wild: Bob and Neil to spend exactly 138 days in The May Report stockade, the same length of time they withheld from this reporter the fact that Mr. Kane had “resigned,”or more likely, gotten canned; No wonder the dynamic duo has been so secretive and absolutely silent about Kane’s departure: $750K in revenue with 20-30 employees after 7 yrs is nothing to write home about; On the other side of the ledger, with a positive upbeat attitude, little secrecy and no paranoia, Kevin Willer: Loyola Academy and Boston College grad (just as Jack Philbin of Vibes and Genevieve Thiers of Opera Moda and SitterCity are — btw, she’s pregnant with twins); employee #185 at Google and the first person to occupy the Chicago office with 2 desks, 2 computers and 2 phones — & he worked at a dude ranch in Wyoming, plus he’s changing the philosophy of the CEC and business model from “you come hither and we sit on the mountain top” under the leadership of you-know-who to “we’ll come to you, visit your office and see you where you work” — a refreshing change indeed and Willer says that “If we are talking about Groupon a year from now, we have not done our job.” You know exactly what he means: this is a rare and “must take advantage of the moment” opportunity so we better not muff it; in praise of Lon, J. B., and Matt

The May Report August 12th, 2011

The May Report: 8/12/2011: Let the games commence: A tale of two attitudes and cities: Geras lets his pet toad Neil Kane back out into the wild: Bob and Neil to spend exactly 138 days in The May Report stockade, the same length of time they withheld from this reporter the fact that Mr. Kane…

The May Report: 8/10/2011: I saw Neil Kane at TechWeek — I teased him about how he wasn’t in the TechWeek 100; & I saw Bob Geras at the SAB poker charity June 18th and Bob did say that there would be big news on ADT in two weeks which turned out to be the $5.2MM in VC funding and my headline was that the Russians are coming; both Bob & Neil were at Built in Chicago June 23rd, as usual leaving together; I didn’t expect, although for yrs we’ve waited for the axe to drop on Neil, not because he’s a bad guy — this isn’t an Al Wasserberger situation — but because that’s the normal evolution of start-ups esp. when real venture money comes in; unfortunately, at 2:08am — I just saw the release less than an hr ago — my chief headline writer Steve Lundin is getting his ‘beauty’ sleep so sadly I have to think for myself: We do have a two-fer here, — both Geras & Kane get it: So, what’s it gonna be? ‘Brown-noser in chief Neil Kane canned at ADT’, or better yet, ‘Brown-noser in chief Neil Kane gets his nose cut off’; or ‘Dawn Geras, tired of waiting for hubby Bob to lose weight at 248 lbs., tells him to go on a diet and Bob decides to get rid of the main thing that keeps him up at night — he cans Neil Kane’; you know, I’m lousy at this, but here’s the real headline: “Neil Kane polished up that handle so carefullee, That now he’s not the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!”

The May Report August 10th, 2011

The May Report: 8/10/2011: I saw Neil Kane at TechWeek — I teased him about how he wasn’t in the TechWeek 100; & I saw Bob Geras at the SAB poker charity June 18th and Bob did say that there would be big news on ADT in two weeks which turned out to be the…

The May Report: 8/8/2011: Peter Balbus says he’s run the numbers and “Groupon should have reported a $456.3 million loss for last year using GAAP instead of the $60.6 million profit they claimed to have made”; Is IfByPhone’s outbound sales operation a failed experiment?; What is wrong with the technology folks Craig Nelson, Yves Fredette, Jeremy and Mandy Lane and of course Brian Connolly who all live at 111 E. Chestnut?; Yet another tech manager leaves Nancy Sullivan’s operation; Remember the unsinkable Molly Brown? — well, do we have the unsinkable Phil Tadros?; He’s a partner with State Farm Insurance in a new coffee shop / community center on west Diversey called Next Door — of course, I have no idea whether State Farm did due diligence on its new partner :-); Operation Shady rat-Unprecedented Cyber-espionage Campaign and Intellectual-Property Bonanza

The May Report August 8th, 2011

The May Report: 8/8/2011: Bulletin: BigTime Software’s $2 Million Series A Financing Oversubscribed and I’m still looking for a copy of the amended S-1 for Groupon, but can’t find it — nonetheless Erik Sherman says that the accounting probably makes the IPO a no-go with the SEC; Ellen Depodesta on the Saturday, July 23rd talks at TechWeek; Bank of America does so poorly today that they have to cut Richard Cross and Nural Eusufzai — too bad, since Richard can explain Basel II, Basel III, and Basel IV to me (I’m just kidding here)

The May Report August 8th, 2011

The May Report: 8/8/2011: Bulletin: BigTime Software’s $2 Million Series A Financing Oversubscribed and I’m still looking for a copy of the amended S-1 for Groupon, but can’t find it — nonetheless Erik Sherman says that the accounting probably makes the IPO a no-go with the SEC; Ellen Depodesta on the Saturday, July 23rd talks…

Archive for August, 2011

The May Report: 8/18/2011: Two parties tonight, one at Next Door and one at the new offices of Doejo just over Wilde on Broadway, and that is the kickoff for Homelesscop.com. I’m going to both so I had better get going; David Alen’s musings and the GOOG-MOTO break-up fee, and other things

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