Starting up a company, and random thoughts

Let's give it another try...

2007-06-14T17:48:00.000-04:00

Hi there, just hung up with my friend Frangieeeeeeeesco (ok, he prefers Franz, or Gast), and it was a nice good chat among friends, and among many, many other things he told me also about his blog.

So he reminded me that once upon a time I had started a blog, one of the millions out there (57 million is the last "sourced" figure I have, for the geeks out there).

So, I thought, why not give it another try? Here I am then, ready for posting again.

Welcome back, and since I'm lazy, and I have already worked hard to update my username and passwords (forgotten of course), changed blog layout and all that jazz, I think I will write a new post "tomorrow". In the meantime, take a look at Franz' blog here, it makes an interesting reading.

Ciao
Elius

3GSM

2006-02-23T14:43:00.000-05:00

Hi there,

here very busy...starting up a company :)
Long time without writing...I'll make a new effort in the coming weeks.

I just came back from 3GSM, in my beloved Barcelona. I came back quite energized regarding the status of the convergent wireless/telecom/media industry. So much, that I want to offer here a summary view of some of the mega-trends in the Telco (mostly wireless, but that’s where most of the stuff is happening) industry. Of course this is not a comprehensive view, but overall, the topics below have been consistently discussed in meetings, presentations, and discussions in the last few weeks/months. If you are interested in any of these, we can discuss them further (contact me: elio . narciso @ gmail . com).

Of course, this is freebie, but my consulting time is not ;)

Five trends that I see in the industry:

Content
Overall, in this area, there is a lot of excitement. Main topics and trends:
• At $5bn worldwide, this is still a small industry, which offers a lot of potential in the coming years. The name of the game will be expanding the pie, not quite yet how is divided.
• A lot of video content starts to go around, together with lot of hype around Mobile TV. However, views in the industry differ: some people/companies (e.g. MobiTV) are betting that TV streaming on the phone will be the key to future content, some other (e.g. MTV) believe that Video content on phones is better served in snapshots, “snacks” of content that users download and watch on their screen
• Music is of course going the way of full track downloads. Nokia recently introduced the N91 terminal with 4GB of capacity (around 3,000 songs) that is basically a wireless iPod. Here the name of the game will be who will be the “iTunes” of mobile
• Finally, there is a lot of talking about social networking, for various reasons. The acquisition of MySpace for about $500M in the US has been pretty impressive to many. The ability to create social communities is considered a key strength, especially if they can be evolved with richer content (audio, video, images, etc.). An example is chats: here the objective is to continue to expand and improve the model to include richer media and content, and creating “interest” groups on dating, music, sports,…

Marketing
The big excitement in this area is about:
• Search: Who will create the Google mobile? In the US, Google has launched a free SMS service: Google Local. You send an SMS to 46645 (GOOGL) with for example “Chinese Restaurant 10024 (zip code)” and obtain a list of places in the area. So, of course, Google is a strong candidate to develop the mobile search industry as well, but since the money-making application is still not there, there are a lot of companies trying to develop this space
• Advertisement: how to deliver effective mobile marketing and advertising? Still no company has emerged with a clear business model, but lots of investors and VCs would love to see viable models in this space
• Communities: Another area with a lot of interest here is, again, social networking and mobile communities. As per MySpace example, the ability to attract and continually engage people and users around a community space, is extremely attractive to deliver marketing messages, content, etc.

Devices
In 2005 China Mobile added 42 Million new subscribers to its network, for a total now of 243Million. In the last months, they are adding about 4 Million new subscribers per month. This draws attention of course for many reasons, (content, marketing, etc.) but especially in the area of devices, many companies and investors think that to satisfy the growing demand of developing countries (from Turkey to China, from Africa to South America), new innovative cheap/low end devices will be needed. A “below $100” handset seems to be the answer to this and there are few companies trying to reach that goal.

In the area of the devices, another relevant point is: there is a growing sense of urgency towards software and systems that will allow for a higher homogenization in handset management. There are many handsets and many content providers, and many carriers. The integration of all this elements is not trivial and it will be key in the coming months/years. In this sense, Microsoft, at least in the business segment, is trying to push really hard for their platform (Windows Mobile) to be the standard solution that integrates different content and applications.

Communication
The sale of Skype raised the level of interest for all VoIP applications. The industry is obviously waiting to see what happens with the first successful “mobile” VoIP. No leader emerges here, but lots of interests and companies are converging on this space.

In the area of wireless networks, many wireless carriers are giving a big push to HSDPA, the new “4G” standard. Vodafone has closed a deal with Dell computer to have installed a “Vodafone Inside” HSDPA chip in all new Dell laptops, and many others are betting on this new technology to transfer information with broadband speed. It’s mostly for businesses now, but clearly there are opportunities also on the consumer space, once you have computers wirelessly connected to the web.

In the broader Telco (non-wireless) networks, it seems that the broadband providers are trying to compete on a “triple-play” basis: Internet + TV + Phone.

Security
A fifth and final area of interest is all things related to security: of transactions (e.g. information exchanged wirelessly); of payments; of scanning, etc.
This is more medium term, but with the increasing complexity of information and transactions operated through cell phones, many are betting that, as for computers, this will become a big industry by itself.

Ciao
Elio

010101010101 Music and Content - Part II

2005-05-30T17:12:00.000-04:00

By Invitation: TecnoMan reply

Ok, so what is the great thing about p2p music?

Well, let's forget for a moment that it is free. Obviously, that is
a great fact and clearly boosting p2p music transfer, but at
the same time this is an unsustainable model for the industry,
any industry. We will come back to the monetary discussion
later; that is for sure.

What are my needs as a consumer?

I want music and I want it now. Why wait to go to the store if
I can get it fast from my pc with an adsl connection? Digital
music is the future, no doubt about this.

Secondly, I want all the music. This is, current portals are only
serving certain music records music. Where is my music one-
stop-shopping? Some back-up for this assert follows:

excerpts from
http://mp3.about.com/od/buymp3music/gr/emusic_review.htm

emusic.com : “Half a million titles. Unfortunately, the major
music labels don't like this, so eMusic carries only independent
labels. While the selection of music is very large and the site is
easy to use, you won't find many popular tunes here.”

Itunes.com : “Over a million songs from all five major labels”

Weblisten.com : “site features over 250,000 MP3 and WMA
titles from top artists”

Realplayer.com : “The makers of the RealPlayer offer over
500,000 songs”

There are many more: walmart.com, napster.com, msn
entertainment,

This means you still need to have accounts in many portals in
order to get any music. Well, this is normal if you think that this
is also the case in brick-and-mortar music stores, where music
records do not distribute to all stores.

In the third place, I also want to listen to the music before I
buy it; this is possible already as many portals give you the
opportunity to listen 30 seconds of each track. As this is
normally done through streaming audio and not downloadable
files, some performance problems can spoil our user experience.

Now how does p2p compare to commercial portals in the
aspects mentioned below?

In p2p, current quality is very diverse, both in terms of
connection speed as well as availability of music. These
disadvantages are compensated by the fact that the user need
not pay for the music.

The “best sellers”, if such expression could be used, in p2p
music networks are in many cases large files compiling the
whole discography of a musician/group, which I find good if you
want to get to know new music. Clearly this does not exist in
the normal stores because it would be too expensive and thus a
niche market product.

The issue that Elius mentions is that there is no control over
ownership and therefore people decide not to pay – apart from
your morals, it is always faster not to pay ;) -. The only thing I
can say in favor of downloading music before paying is the right
to know, that is that the user can listen to the music before he
buys it. As I said earlier many portals allow this 30 sec test of
each track. Is this enough? Can we find ways to allow the user
to listen to the whole track and then decide? How can we
protect the music rights and give a good service at the same
time?

Let’s make a pause now and think about these issues.
Comments replies to what I’ve said so far are welcome.
Anyway, I promise more is about to come…

TecnoMan

(Soul?) Searching

2005-05-18T16:43:00.000-04:00

Hi

have you tried Google desktop search (http://desktop.google.com/entpromo.html)?
I installed it last week.

It's scaringly effective. Superfast. Cached everything, I mean EVERYTHING in my computer. Which is very useful, as I was getting crazy since I could not find emails anymore. But is a little scary too. I think in the future, as we continue to be more and more online, it'll be the end of privacy. That's it...your life, open source.

Adios
Elius

010101010101 Music and Content - Part I

2005-05-17T13:54:00.000-04:00

Hi...

last week I had a great debate with my superfriend "TechnoMan", around digital music and content. I want to open and summarize the discussion here. Since it's a pretty big subject, this is the first of a series of three postings (we could do also a prequel/sequel, like Star Wars, if you find it interesting...;)

The Debate - as it happened - in Brief
Over a nice dinner, "TechnoMan" started to talk about how he now has a huge library of digital songs. Since he's using Emule, Azureus, etc. music is just one click away and...free. He can use his music on his iPod, laptop etc. anywhere he wants, and use, share, manage the music as he wishes.

A Coronita in my hand, I reply that I think what is saying is an euphemism for stealing music, and I tell him that I don't think it's really so cool to steal music from the artists that make it. The difference between stealing a CD in a store and "downloading" music for free over the internet is that in a store there are anti-theft systems, guards and so on, plus they will have a physical proof that you actually took something without paying.

"TechnoMan" reply is twofold: first, the world of content is changing, and we are moving from a phisical world to a digital world. The music industry better provides an alternative to paying €20 for a CD, and does this quickly, if it wants to survive. Second, the intention of people who use Emule etc. is not to undermine the artists who produce the music, by to cut the "middle-man" out of the process. Most of the €20 paid for a CD goes to distributors, marketing the artist, Sony etc. The portion that goes to the artist is minimal.

I replied by saying that, although I agree with the fact that €20 is an excessive price for a CD, I also believe that it's not only money that goes to evil marketing and advertising, but is money that goes out to fill the "transactional costs" implicit in the fact that on one side we have a huge demand for music and content, and on the other we have a big, fragmented offer (the artists) and somehow the two have to meet. This is what the role of music distribution is about and is not so evil after all. They are companies, and they have to make a profit.

"TechnoMan" quickly said that the Internet was doing exactly that funtion: in a very democratic way, people and artists are able to meet in a virtual space. Unknown artists with a good product can meet wide audiences, and are actually happy if their music is discovered and spread to many people. Plus, he said he would not mind paying a small price for the music, provided it would go directly to the artists.

My reaction to that was to think about the meaning of "democracy", and I believe that very few people actually can say they have an iPod, a fast internet connection a cool computer and so and so forth. Most people are either struggling with old PCs and narrowband connectivity, or worse, for some the entry barrier of internet and computing is too high. Secondly, even if there is one person buying digital music, there are 100s or 1000s that download music illegally.

This is my version of what happened during the debate. I welcome comments (specially from "TechnoMan", to ensure that the representation of what was said is fair).

In the next two postings I would like to address the many topics and ideas deriving from the debate, which also directly relate to the subject of this blog, since my company develops and sells digital content for wireless phones. Examples of topics/issues:

What should the music and content industry do?
Is it possible to imagine a business models that satisfies all parties?
How to pay the artists?
How to prevent theft?
How to reward innovation?
What is moral and what is not in downloading and using digital music and content?
...

Let me know what you think...

Ciao
Elius

To write or not to write

2005-05-02T19:35:00.000-04:00

Hi there,
ok, i'll write...

First,
it's interesting to me that although I haven't checked in for a long time, Google has put a 4/10 ranking (PageRank) on my blog. Google really loves blogs...and more and more they are becoming a way to share and publish information. (Here's a definition of blog, Quimet:" A short form for weblog, a personal journal published on the Web. Blogs frequently include philosophical reflections, opinions on the Internet and social issues, and provide a "log" of the author's favorite web links. Blogs are usually presented in journal style with a new entry each day.")

Second (related) consider this title:
Newspaper Circulation Declines 1.9%
By JOSEPH T. HALLINAN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNALMay 3, 2005
Daily U.S. newspaper circulation took its biggest tumble in nearly a decade, falling 1.9% in the six-month period ended March 31, according to figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111505806081322343,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

The domination of the Internet is becoming ever more apparent. This year it's possible that the combined ad revenues of Google and Yahoo! will be superior to the combined ad revenues of the major TV networks in US. Amazing. There is actually a big confusion in the advertising market because they haven't figured out what their business is going to look like in the future: people don't watch TV anymore!!!! Tremendous opportunities in this area

Third (related?)
When are US consumers going to fall in love with their mobile phones? As you may know, I am an entrepreneur in the wireless space: we have launched our first product (a mobile community, for dating: www.clubm8.tv) few weeks back. Results so far are very good (we have got thousands of users already), but still not amazing as in other countries. Which is, of course, good and bad. Bad, because I have to manage my cash flows (and wireless carriers pay you on average 90 days after they collect the money from their customers - incredible). Good, because I'm here, and hopefully we will benefit from an early entry in the market. I will keep you posted on this

For now, thanks for listening/reading
Ciao
Elio

A always B be C closing

2004-11-02T16:23:00.000-05:00

Hi there,

I saw this great movie the other night...I'm sure many of you know it. It's called Glengarry Glen Ross (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104348/). Great cast, great story and superb additional features.

It's about a real estate agency and its group of salesmen...the ABC rule, although tough, is of great importance in any business....

Elius
PS: I've closed my first deal last week....uff!

Leading the Computing Industry and Signing NDAs

2004-10-22T10:30:00.000-04:00

Hi

I found this BusinessWeek article about a great story of the early developments of the computing history.

It's a great story about software pioneer Gary Kildall, who missed out on the opportunity to supply IBM with the operating system for its first PC - essentially handing the chance of a lifetime, and control of tech's future, to rival Bill Gates and Microsoft Corp.

There is everything you can imagine, small things that occur daily in business life (signing NDA, attending or not a meeting, decide about the pricing of a product, deciding when to go on holiday, respecting a deadline) that may seem irrelevant when they happen, but then, in a broader perspective, they can define a business.

Found the article at http://in.us.biz.yahoo.com/bizwk/041015/b3905109mz063_1.html

Enjoy
Elius

Closing a sale

2004-10-16T11:50:00.000-04:00

Tough week, this one that just ended...why? because I experience first hand how tough is to CLOSE A SALE!

Maybe you have read the comment posted by a friend of mine (grande Nacho!) who drew a parallelism between starting up a company and "picking up" a nice woman (ok, or man, if you are woman, it's just that it seems easier for women to pick up men...). You need to have a plan; you certainly need to generate leads; follow up and maintain your contacts; be sure that you have something interesting to offer and that can be different from other competitors; prepare to present what you have in a good manner; generate a sense of urgency in that a "deal" needs to go through; and.... then it comes a moment, the last moment, when you think your chances are high, you think you have done everything right, and still..."te quedas a dos velas" (literally "you are left with two candles") it seems that the opportunity evaporates just before your eyes.

Why? Well I guess that nobody really knows what happens, but closing a deal has an "immaterial" touch, which few people can really grasp. There is no standard way to do it I guess, but there are things that I believe you should NOT do. For example: look desperate (but still, you want to push a little bit). Another example could be bring it to a point where the answer is only yes or no (so, it's not "do you want to go home with me?", but "shall we go home or you prefer to take a walk, or shall we go and have something to eat?").

Do you have other examples of things not to do (or to do) to close a sale (or conquer somebody)?

Let me know. In the meanwhile, two blogs that I think could be interesting for you:

http://www.iltrafficante.blogspot.com if you are interested in Italy, speak Italian and like to know more about what's going on there
http://merodeando.com/ great title (Merodeando por la enredadera), if you speak spanish and are a supertechie, as Julio....

Ciao
Elio

My business: wireless content (www.zero9.tv)

2004-10-11T15:11:00.000-04:00

Hi - happy Columbus Day.

I thought that to start, I should give you a quick description of my business. The company name is Zero9 (www.zero9group.com) and what we do is to sell content for wireless phones to consumer. Pretty hot business in Europe (I am from Italy), still nascent here in US. We do everything from ringtones, trutones, logos, java games, to mobile marketing, to SMS chat community. Very interesting industry, where telecom, media and entertainment converge to form a market that is still difficult to decipher, but that offers great opportunities.

The company was founded almost 3 years ago by a friend of mine, and what we are trying to do now is to expand it internationally. That is why we have just launched a new site, www.zero9.tv which will be the platform to launch content in English-speaking countries. So far we have opened UK and Australia (in parallel to the already existing business in South Africa) and soon we will launch also the US. Check my websites if you have some time...feedback appreciated, as well as business opportunities (of course).

Ciao
Elius

Maybe you are interested

2004-10-09T19:03:00.000-04:00

Today, Saturday, I had a good relaxing day. I cannot quite manage not to touch my laptop or not to think about work, but at least I didn't work! This is one of the first things you notice when you have your own company...you always think about it!!!

Tonight I went to see this movie:
http://www.goingupriver.com/

Ok, he's one of the presidential candidates, but suppose he is a man that after 20 year in the Senate decided to go back to his private life...and this is his story...it's a pretty remarkable one, I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed "Platoon" or "Apocalypse Now". If you like movies, like me, go watch it.

See you

Welcome

2004-10-08T13:04:00.000-04:00

Hi everybody, welcome to my blog.

After few years in corporate business, I decided to make a big change and starting up my own company.

Since it has been already few months since I started this, and having being through ups and downs of all kind, I think it's a very interesting experience, with impact in all aspects of a person's life. Thoughts, experiences, learning is what I want to share with those of u who are maybe involved in a similar adventure of creating a new business, or are just interested in the subject, and perhaps want to exchange views on it.

Don't forget to check my business website www.zero9.tv and I hope you will find this blog interesting enough to keep coming. In any other case, thank you for stopping by...

Ciao
Elius