Today I went to Whole Foods to shop for dinner. I love Whole Foods, so much so that I am a proud shareholder (and a not-so-proud investor, who bought the stock at $65). I was pushing a heavy cart of groceries through the store, my son perched in the child seat, and as I came to an intersection between aisles, a Whole Food employee was coming at me in the other direction – there was only room for one of us to make it by. Without missing a … Continue reading →

I had an interesting call with a potential client last month. The company was selling a new consumer technology and the CEO wanted to know whether I thought there was an opportunity market their product on PPC. I started to explain how consumer electronics are marketed through AdWords when the CMO joined the call. The CMO, it turned out, was an old-school brand marketer. The conversation went something like this: David: If you have a ‘new mousetrap’ type of product, you need to think about advertising on the … Continue reading →

What’s the value of Twitter? As I see it, there are a few use cases: 1. It’s a real-time search engine. News spreads quickly as people retweet stories, and you can ask a question in Twitter and often get rapid-fire responses. 2. It’s a marketing vehicle. Businesses can tweet a promotion and see it virally re-tweeted across thousands or millions of tweeters. 3. It’s a way to keep up with friends. You get snippets of info from friends and colleagues that require little to no effort to read … Continue reading →

For those of you not in Silicon Valley, to understand this column, you have to understand the terminology of venture capital investing. Broadly speaking, there are three types of venture-based investments in start-ups: Angel investing: typically made by individuals or small firms, angels invest in companies based on an idea, a team, or a demo. The risk is very high but the return (when there is one, is astronomical). The amount an angel invests ranges from as ‘little’ as $25,000 and up to $1 million or slightly more; … Continue reading →