The iPhone

I got to play with the iPhone last night for the first time. I don't know what to say. I'm speechless. It's awesome. Awesome. I was all set to purchase the blackberry curve because I was concerned about version 1.0 of any consumer product. But after playing with the device for 5 minutes I started to fall in love with it. 
I think every great consumer product has at least one wow factor in it. For the blackberry it's always been the ease of email. For my prius, it's the keyless ignition (I love that feature more than the hybrid nature). I got the sense that there were many of those features with the iPhone. I'm going to continue to watch the activation issues with AT&T but as far as a device is concerned....I'm sold on the iPhone even if it's a 1.0 release!

Seattle Start Up Shout Out: Zoodango.com

James Sun, recent runner up on the Apprentice, founded Zoodango.com just before meeting Mr. Trump.  He built Zoodango to help business people and aspiring entrepreneurs meet.  He wants them to meet in person.  9000 Starbucks locations are even integrated in the site to facilitate the interactions.  Zoodango’s essentially local business networking.  Think LinkedIn meets Facebook. 

The tough part for zoodango is the lack of differentiation from LinkedIn, the obvious market leader. LinkedIn facilitates interactions between business people’s existing associates, and helps them meet people within a degree of separation.  Zoodango’s meant to be more about people you don’t know, about fostering relationships that can help you or your business out.  As any web entrepreneur knows, building a community where one doesn’t currently exist is a tough thing to do. 

Where Zoodango may have a play is as the bridge between networks.  A whole lot of students will be graduating out of Facebook and MySpace soon, going from 300 social network friends to about five on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn doesn’t offer much to the un-networked twenty something.  If Zoodango can be first stop upon graduation, and help young business people build the network to eventually make LinkedIn work for them, it MAY have a market....but I'm not that optimistic.  The question is, how many business people are eager to meet at Starbucks with twenty-somethings?

Note:  Zoodango’s ratings multiplied ten fold the day Sun announced the site in Trump’s office....check it out here While the plug may have cost him the apprentice job, it certainly has to be the first social network to launch on national television!

Waiting for the iphone

The iPhone is coming out. Everyone is excited. I'm not. I'm sure that it's a great phone. I have no doubt about that....but it's still version 1.0 and when it comes to these significant technology shifts I've found it always better to wait till version 2.0.

I waited 5 years to buy the Toyota Prius. I waited years to buy the Sony Walkman when it came out. I need a new phone but think I'm going to buy the Blackberry curve and wait 3 or 4 years for the iphone to evolve. That's just me....kind of funny from someone who's obsessed with technology start ups

Naming your company

Increasingly it's hard to come up with a name for your company. Fortunately, there are experts out there who are good about these sorts of things. If you need some help you might want to check out this blog: the name inspector. Also, if you're interested in reading about how noonhat got it's name -- read this post on the process. It's fun and interesting.

Seattle Start Up Shout Outs: NoonHat for lunch

I attended the Seattle Open Coffee this morning which continues to go strong as an informal networking event for entrepreneurs. Attendees are mostly high tech start up folks -- mostly 1 to 10 person pre-funding  companies. It's a good bastion of ideas, networking, and support for the next generation of web and software start ups. I decided that I was going to start to give shout outs to some of these small companies.
Today's shout out is for Noonhat. It's a start up or project run by Brian Dorsey .  The idea is relatively simple: log on, put in your location, and have lunch with people you don't know. It might sound weird -- but I think it's kind of cool. It's not a dating site like Just Lunch though I think it may end up being one. It's about meeting new people and having interesting conversations (period). Not really a business -- more of a cool project....and that's what Brian intends. Check it out and give Brian feedback. I'm going to go have a lunch and I'll let you know what happens. Should be fun....or at least worth blogging about.

Michael Moore's movie Sicko looks great

I have grown to love Michael Moore. I know he's a bit controversial and biased ....but I love him. I read this and couldn't help but chuckle to myself. If you want to read the whole article it's here on ABC news.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department is investigating Moore for what became the movie's showpiece: Moore took ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers to Cuba to dramatize the notion that Cubans and even U.S. prisoners at Guantanamo get better health care than these Americans. In doing so, the government said he may have violated restrictions on travel to Cuba.

Check this company out

I've decided to periodically point you to cool companies I come across. 43 things is one of those cool companies. In a recent blog post, Josh Petersen the CEO talks about passing the 1 million registered user mark and going platinum. This company is not exactly undiscovered....but they're really a study in new net organizations: 7 people rumored to be doing about 400K per month in revenue!