2011 October Archive - The May Report

Archive for October, 2011

The May Report: 10/29/2011: I don’t ask you, the readers, to do something very often, but today I have to ask you to watch a six minute and one second video of Vivek Wadhwa, director of research at Duke University’s Center for Entrepreneurship being interviewed on Bloomberg: Vivek says that the market valuation of Groupon should be in the $2B to $3B range, far from the $10B or $11B they are planning, and that with proper nurturing, Groupon could be worth $5B in a couple of years, He outright calls it a” scam,” citing the unusually small float which jacks up the price and the games that will be played with the secondary market; One thing he points out that I had not really considered is that the investment houses are experts at this kind of slight of hand which leaves the average investor holding the bag — so the price may not cave on day one or two, but just wait three months and it will be down 30-40%; I am very serious about writing that book — I should have written one on divine interVentures and marchFIRST and of course Efoora, but on Groupon, I will carpe diem; I’ll still keep an eye on pishers like Chris Tomes, Len Bland, Al Wasserberger, Terry Howerton, etc., and we’ll even swat flies like Neil Kane, Jeff Willinger, Nancy Sullivan — you know the drill — but mostly I need to bear down on the research for the book

The May Report October 29th, 2011

The May Report: 10/29/2011: I don’t ask you, the readers, to do something very often, but today I have to ask you to watch a six minute and one second video of Vivek Wadhwa, director of research at Duke University’s Center for Entrepreneurship being interviewed on Bloomberg: Vivek says that the market valuation of Groupon…

The May Report: 10/28/2011: At long last, I’ll write a book [the header is a book, so you'll just have to open the report]….

The May Report October 28th, 2011

The May Report: 10/19/2011: I’ve been stonewalled for the better part of a year now, and have talked to or tried to talk to 25 people, so we’ll try some humor, satire, and stand up comedy to get the story out: Hi, I’m Nancy Sullivan… as Miguel de Cervantes said, “The road is always better than the Inn” or, in the case of TMR, the ads can be better than the regular report :-)

The May Report October 19th, 2011

The May Report: 10/19/2011: I’ve been stonewalled for the better part of a year now, and have talked to or tried to talk to 25 people, so we’ll try some humor, satire, and stand up comedy to get the story out: Hi, I’m Nancy Sullivan… as Miguel de Cervantes said, “The road is always better…

The May Report: 10/19/2011: Bulletin: Hyde Park Angels has its first exit as Textura buys GradeBeam.com

The May Report October 19th, 2011

The May Report: 10/19/2011: Bulletin: Hyde Park Angels has its first exit as Textura buys GradeBeam.com Editor and publisher: Ron May, ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com , 773-525-3944. If you missed an article, go here: www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter Louis Brandeis: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best…

The May Report: 10/18/2011: The risk of the triple play: I wes sans internet connection, phone, and cable for about 24 hours; & the other lesson is rely on the pros, not on your brilliant brother or the building engineer; Konstantin Kostov told me at the 9/26 Clean Energy networking event that Heartland is close to another deal; Many things to come: Dave Tolmie was a key person in the search that lead to hiring Kevin Willer; the deputy mayor of Chicago told the CEC dinner that Rahm has created 7k jobs w/o incentives; from MIT-EF on 9/26, IBM’s Watson was developed by having people spread widely all over the world — yes, a fairly small group but not clustered in one spot as they were in Boca Raton in 1981; while many workers prefer working outside the office, if the error rate is too high, they’re required to go back to working inside the four walls; Jeff @Jwillie Willinger tweets himself into possible permanent disqualification from current and future Chicago Marathons by putting his social network activities over the safety of other runners, according to race officials who are investigating his behavior during the race; If you;ve been to The Bagel on Broadway in the last 21 years, you may have been waited on by Brenda Shore (their most popular waitress), but she quit two mos. ago — I just found out two days ago

The May Report October 18th, 2011

The May Report: 10/18/2011: The risk of the triple play: I wes sans internet connection, phone, and cable for about 24 hours; & the other lesson is rely on the pros, not on your brilliant brother or the building engineer; Konstantin Kostov told me at the 9/26 Clean Energy networking event that Heartland is close…

The May Report: 10/17/2011: That Smart Grid conference down at IIT on Tues and Wednesday sounds pretty interesting; Jason Goodrich’s (and his wife’s) firm is now cfalled GetShortList and seeks $750K; Andrew Nieman’s firm Scene Tap raised $1.7MM from two commodities traders and F&F — what got them going was the desire to pick up women in bars :-); Dan Hess, formerly of comScore, has raised $1.5MM from IL Ventures and some angels for a deal aggregator called Local Offer Network; George Nicholson’s Trainingu247.com has annual revenues of $2MM and they are entirely bootstrapped based on customer sales revenue and tuition fees; Grub Hub– no surprise here — beat out IfByPhone and Viewpoints for the Merrick Award but Michael Ferro was not there; My sources tell me that Rahm has dismantled the Mayor’s Council of Technology Advisors and is replacing it with an expanded World Business Chicago group which gives the Mayor more flexibility and the ability to hit up the cos. for checks!; Don’t forget that Rahm just got Accenture to hire 500 more people here — or is at least taking credit for it :-); Julie Roth, remember her?, is now at Vibes; the former CEO of the Trib. Randy Michael (?) arrested for DUI; Lightbank is talking to BellyFlop.com founded by Logan LaHive — and my five days of depression are OVER! — Willinger and Nancy Sullivan, you’re next

The May Report October 17th, 2011

The May Report: 10/17/2011: That Smart Grid conference down at IIT on Tues and Wednesday sounds pretty interesting; Jason Goodrich’s (and his wife’s) firm is now cfalled GetShortList and seeks $750K; Andrew Nieman’s firm Scene Tap raised $1.7MM from two commodities traders and F&F — what got them going was the desire to pick up…

The May Report: 10/12/2011: Former CEO of Motorola Robert Galvin has died — I saw him speak and he was a very impressive guy; I don’t know what to say except tell the truth: I’ve been major league depressed for 3 days since Sunday night: on Monday an unmasked visitor appeared about 4pm and left at 11:30pm; meanwhile, I have a new computer (wi-fi laptop Toshiba that I think comes from Julian Pretto’s operation) that I cannot figure out how to use! and that visitor, thinking that he’s doing me a favor which he probably is but I can’t see it that way right now, has tried to ween me off of AOL — after 16 years! — but I, like many people, am a creature of habit and this has thrown me for a huge loop, plus I can barely see the screen; rather than going back to sleep which I’ve been mostly doing for two days now, I’ll try to stay up and get a few reports out; The Momentum Awards dinner was very well attended with 918 people — 400 more than last time; they raised over $1MM and that total included more than $80K in texted contributions that were flashed on the big screen; News: Scott Issen is leaving the CEC to run a 501(c)(3) non-profit that is focused on Future Founders and it will be backed by Brad Keywell, all this as Kevin Willer continues to belt tighten and sharpen the focus of the CEC; I hardly met most of the folks there but one thing did come through to me: Lightbank is not the only game in town when it comes to when it comes to early stage funding: Fusion Ventures out of San Diego invested in S. A. Ignite and two commodities brokers plus F&F put $1.7MM into a firm that tracks bar traffic in real time using cameras, w/ 56 bars so far; Jason Goodrich and his team are looking for $750K and much more, so it may be that Lightbank just has a better PR machine, but I don’t know enough yet to draw any conclusions… Plus a Mike Rhodes sighting…

The May Report October 12th, 2011

The May Report: 10/12/2011: Former CEO of Motorola Robert Galvin has died — I saw him speak and he was a very impressive guy; I don’t know what to say except tell the truth: I’ve been major league depressed for 3 days since Sunday night: on Monday an unmasked visitor appeared about 4pm and left…

The May Report: 10/06/2011: The True Story of Sports Publishing Versus Eric Lefkofsky

The May Report October 6th, 2011

The May Report: 10/06/2011: The True Story of Sports Publishing Versus Eric Lefkofsky Editor and publisher: Ron May, ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com , 773-525-3944. If you missed an article, go here: www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter Louis Brandeis: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” ______________________________…

The May Report: 10/06/2011: Lightbank now has $200MM in its fund, 25 investments and has just now added Cloudbot and Palo Alto based E la Carte to its portfolio; HPA goes in on Cloudbot; Series A funding for Big Time Software now at $2.7MM; Quinn Launches $78 Million Initiative to Support Small and Start-Up Businesses; Indianapolis based Pamlico Capital and the management team of T2 Systems announced today that Pamlico has made a $28 million equity investment in T2 Systems, Inc., and more… BTW, a dynamite report coming this afternoon, since here at TMR, timing is everything :-)..

The May Report October 6th, 2011

The May Report: 10/06/2011: Lightbank now has $200MM in its fund, 25 investments and has just now added Cloudbot and Palo Alto based E la Carte to its portfolio; HPA goes in on Cloudbot; Series A funding for Big Time Software now at $2.7MM; Quinn Launches $78 Million Initiative to Support Small and Start-Up Businesses;…

The May Report: 10/03/2011: Rahm, Rahm, don’t let them suck you into this — Mr. Mayor, I don’t know if you remember me — I’m the fat guy from the 6th floor at 730 N. Franklin circa 1990-93, who used to chat with you sometimes — but Rahm, you are being played here in several ways and don’t let it happen (btw, whatever happened to that really cute brunette who worked for you? — what was her name, Colleen?), anyway, since those days 20 yrs ago, I’ve been a Kochlöffel: 1st, that World Business Chicago committee — as though we need yet another committee — with the same crowd as always, is a farce. There’s a firm here called MelonCard that is moving to California since they got funding from 500 Startups, but that committee will not do didly and other firms here like Attorney Fee and Spot Hero are out in the Valley right now seeking funding, so Rahm you need to zero in on that issue which is why our start-ups leave here; 2nd, that incubator proposed by the Pritzker, Moog, Henikoff, Willer gang is fine if they can do it on their own, but Rahm, don’t let them suck you into a TIF here which I suspect is what they’re planning– you know very well that TIFs are a cesspool and don’t do what they promise, but Rahm, all these guys are polishing up the handle of the big front door, polishing up that handle so carefullee that they’ll all be the Rulers of the Queen’s Navee! (a little HMS Pinafore this morning); Rahm, don’t go the way of showboating and grandstanding, we need real results, don’t end up as all hat, no cattle; btw, Shana Tova

The May Report October 3rd, 2011

The May Report: 10/03/2011: Rahm, Rahm, don’t let them suck you into this — Mr. Mayor, I don’t know if you remember me — I’m the fat guy from the 6th floor at 730 N. Franklin circa 1990-93, who used to chat with you sometimes — but Rahm, you are being played here in several…

Archive for October, 2011

The May Report: 10/28/2011: At long last, I’ll write a book [the header is a book, so you'll just have to open the report]….

The May Report: 10/19/2011: Bulletin: Hyde Park Angels has its first exit as Textura buys GradeBeam.com

The May Report: 10/06/2011: The True Story of Sports Publishing Versus Eric Lefkofsky

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