Marcoullier.com

I know a lot of smart people who refuse to fly Southwest Airlines because they believe the “cattle call” slows down boarding.  Odd, since Southwest has the fastest turnaround of any air carrier in the US, and I’m guessing the best track record for on-time departures.

So I was surprised this week to see that they’ve added a more granular boarding order to their classic “A / B / C” process.  It seemed like boarding took longer.
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Trent Reznor told his record company off last year. Six weeks later, he released a collaboration with Saul Williams online, allowing people to download it for free and asking them to pay $5 if they liked it. He was disappointed with the results. Yet today the new NIN album is online, available for free, along with a variety of other options.

One wonders if we online entrepreneurs suffer a lack of hubris (sure we’ll fail, but whatever) or an excess (I’ll ultimately get it right). Either way, I’m excited to see the experiments that Trent and others roll out next.

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In June 2007, comScore announced they were tracking widgets. Because only flash units were counted, MyBlogLog (with ~65M unique viewers that month, theoretically 3rd on the list) was excluded.

Today, I was shocked to see the Alexa and Compete graphs for MyBlogLog’s post-acquisition traffic. We were constantly growing during my tenure and Todd laid out some pretty explicit (and impressive) numbers on the official blog recently.

It seems that traditional metrics services still haven’t wrapped their minds around a data-portable world. Information wants to be free, but I wouldn’t mind for it to be audited properly along the way

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Paul Graham posted the excellent Six Principles for Making New Things; it’s a must-read for any entrepreneur.

Anyone I advise will tell you that my two basic sentiments are “rip it out — it’s not vital” and “who cares — launch and let the users tell you the answer”. If I wasn’t so belligerent about things, I’m sure these teams would worry that I don’t care about their companies.

You’re going to guess wrong. A LOT. Launching simple apps means you can fix them quickly before adding the next boneheaded feature

See the principles on the permalink.

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In Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi writes that you should send a follow-up email the same day you meet someone. Not within 24 hours… the same day. His reasons are varied, but mine is singular: if I don’t send the emails before I go to bed, it’s unlikely that I’ll ever get them done.

For example, Monday though Wednesday I emailed every person I met at GDC. Thursday I didn’t have the juice in my tank and didn’t follow up with anyone at the Alpha / Bessemer dinner. And I still haven’t.

Tap the energy reserves and get it done.

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I’m currently engaged in a conversation with Dopplr about why they should offer opt-in public profiles. I’ve suggested several reasons, but really, there’s only one that matters. In the graph below, that massive spike represents the exact moment that LinkedIn a) enabled public profiles and b) stood a chance of becoming a publicly traded company.

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Auren Hoffman wrote recently that “determining a great software engineer is much easier than determining a great salesperson” With the right questions you can ascertain an engineer’s tech and communication chops.

Good salespeople are outgoing, gregarious, usually Type A. Good salespeople are exciting. It’s easy to fall under their spell during an interview.

Great salespeople close deals. Closing can take months and few people have the DNA required to make maintain contact, build trust and make the sale.

Here’s a tip: ask about deals that took forever to close. If the stories come pouring out, they’re a closer.

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“Imagine a circus act in which two enormous, clumsy, awkward elephants that don’t really like each other are supposed to mate while riding on skateboards. Now imagine that it is your job, you lucky bastard, to be one of the little circus clowns standing alongside trying to make this extremely unnatural and unholy act take place. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people will have their lives completely ruined and flipped upside down for the next two years because of this deal.”

Can’t… Get image… out of head!

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Don’t let the trappings fool you, both companies are in the ad sales business. Both originally thought that it was cheaper to pay others to make content (Yahoo’s index / Google’s search) but along the way, Yahoo decided it was more cost-effective to make their own content. That’s why they’re a media company.

Which begs the question: Why does Microsoft want to own a media company?

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During my brief tenure at Yahoo!, people frequently lamented “I wish Microsoft would just buy us already.” Microsoft finally forced the issue this morning.

I have no idea whether a marriage could work, but if a buyout ultimately occurs, I have no doubt everyone will put on a brave face and talk about how great it will be. Which pretty much describes the last eight quarters at Yahoo!.

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