Tag Archives: startups

Weekly output: “free WiFi” (x2), 1776, Facebook Graph Search, Facebook and Twitter apps

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My former employer collided with my current work this week, courtesy of the Post’s front-page story Monday heralding the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to open some broadband-friendly frequencies to unlicensed use. My former cubicle-mate Cecilia Kang’s piece phrased things much more expansively than that, especially before the jump, and then things got out of control as people spun the story as “free WiFi for everyone!”

(If you want to hate tech journalism, there’s your reason: Competing sites couldn’t spend 10 minutes reading the FCC filings to understand the story for themselves and instead rushed to post their own breathless interpretations of Kang’s piece. Worse yet, most of them haven’t bothered to correct the errant results of this game of telephone.)

2/4/2013: FCC Plan to Provide Free Wireless a Long “Complicated” Process, Voice of Russia American Edition

This AM station in D.C. (a friend works as a producer there) had me on Monday to talk about the Post’s story; I did what I could to explain that there is no actual FCC plan for free WiFi, just a framework that could, maybe, make it easier for some companies to offer no-charge wireless access in certain locations.

DisCo FCC no-free WiFi post2/5/2013: Free As In Unlicensed: Why The FCC Isn’t Giving Away Wireless Service To Anybody, Disruptive Competition Project

After spending much of Monday on the phone and in e-mail with various tech-policy types to make sure I hadn’t missed some fundamental shift in the FCC’s positions, I explained what the FCC actually is proposing and how it ties into a larger problem in telecom: the lack of competition in residential broadband.

2/8/2013: Older City ISO Hot Young Tech Startups, Disruptive Competition Project

On Wednesday, I attended an open-house event for a startup incubator, 1776, that’s scheduled to open its doors next month with backing from the District government. Under that clickbait headline (my fault!), I put this in the context of how other cities and regions have tried to make themselves into startup hubs but have neglected to follow California’s practice of making almost all noncompete clauses unenforceable. Ending an employer’s veto power over an employee’s next job makes it vastly easier for talent to chase interesting problems, and I’d like to see other states follow that example.

2/10/2013: Tip: Control Facebook exposure by friending folks you know, USA Today

I held off writing much about Facebook’s Graph Search until I sat down with Facebook’s product manager in the social network’s D.C. office to learn what this tool does and does not index–and how people’s selective disclosure can further skew its results. (Appropriately enough, this discussion about unsent signals happened on the one day I forgot to put on my wedding ring before leaving the house.) The column wraps up with a reminder to clean out old and unused Facebook and Twitter apps.

On Sulia, my week included a recap of my experience attending a screening at the Motion Picture Association of America’s offices, two gripes about dumb car-stereo design trends seen at the Washington Auto Show, a report about Facebook asking if I knew new friends offline, and a reader’s assessment of the Mohu and WallTenna TV antennas at a less reception-friendly location.

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Questions I ask (or should ask) of startups

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I spent two hours and change on Saturday taking the testimony of D.C.-area tech startups in three-minute increments. The experience–part of an all-day networking event put on by the D.C.-area tech-community site Foster.ly–was a lot more interesting than that sentence makes it sound.

(The Washington City Paper’s Lydia DePillis, another Foster.ly media attendee, wrote about eight of the more promising startups she talked to.)

Then on Tuesday, I saw another batch of local startups offer their pitches at a Northern Virginia Technology Council event. I’ve done the same thing at multiple gatherings around D.C. and in the Bay Area. As a small businessman myself, I find the whole routine getting more interesting–despite my general allergy to business-plan PowerPoints.

One customary formula for coverage of a startup starts with who invested in it and for how much. I find that boring. There’s so much money sloshing around–sometimes dumped on particular startups in absurd allocations–that I don’t think this provides enough insight on the virtues of a new tech company. Instead, here are the questions I’d rather ask:

What’s the problem you’re trying to solve? What’s the inefficiency, informational asymmetry  or overall inelegance you want to smooth out?

Most people have this answer memorized, but you have to start with it anyway. (In case anybody’s curious, the problem I’m trying to solve with my own work is the surplus of hasty tech journalism reported without benefit of historical insight or simple skepticism and then written with an excessive attention to specifications, momentum or buzz.)

Who else has that goal? Who else–in particular, which large, incumbent firms–might decide they need to join in the fun?

You have to be able to find the competitor and the possible competitor.

How do you make money?

So rude to ask, I know. Bonus points if a company has multiple revenue possibilities in mind. But if you have enough investors lined up to pave your runway a few years into the future, I will cut some slack on this. (A figure-it-out-later strategy seems to have worked fine for Instagram.)

What things beyond your control need to happen before you can make money? Who has a finger on a kill switch for your company?

If your idea depends on massive network effects, you’ve got a steep hill to ascend. I hope your business proposition also works with a small amount of customers… and that it isn’t dependent on a blessing by the App Store, Hollywood, giant telecom firms or corporate IT departments.

Then there’s the question I often forget about, even after being reminded of its importance at a SXSW panel discussion this spring:

If you go bust, what happens to your users’ data?

What questions would you ask?

Your vote on five review possibilities

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When I started up this blog almost a year ago, one of my intended uses for it was collecting your input on the stories I should cover. But I’m sorry to say that I’ve neglected that possibility for far too long–even though it’s always dumb for a journalist to neglect the collective intelligence of his or her readers.

So here’s your overdue chance to play assignment editor: Read these summaries of PR pitches I’ve recently received and let me know which of the following products seem worth a review.

cassetr: Apps like Instagram, which makes photos taken with the iPhone’s 5-megapixel sensor look like the output of a Kodak Disc Camera, proved there’s a market for low-fi media. This upcoming iOS app does the same thing for music, adding realistic tape hiss to your 256 kbps iTunes Store downloads. In-app purchases will let you layer on other effects, including Dolby B, C or S noise reduction and the dreaded warble of a tape about to unspool.

Drive.DJ: This networked entertainment system ends in-car isolation by allowing drivers to pick music and video for passengers to enjoy on seat-mounted iPads. The vehicle’s built-in LTE receiver allows for enjoying streaming media from apps like Netflix and Pandora, posting Twitter and Facebook updates on the road and even placing Skype calls to other cars equipped with this system.

ATM Machine: If you’re tired of walking up to a cash machine and being annoyed at its low-resolution interface–or, worse yet, discovering that it’s out of money–this Android app may be change you can believe in. It combines a sophisticated geographic database and automated detection of the tell-tale beeps of an ATM keypad to check you in at each transaction and invite you to grade the experience–with results instantly posted online. (Its developers note that you can opt out of the auto-check-in feature by sending a letter via certified mail to their Cayman Islands offices.)

RTGtoGo: Smartphone battery life isn’t getting any better, external battery packs need frequent recharging too, and solar-cell modules require sunlight. This new power pack, developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, uses the same radioisotope thermoelectric generator technology that powers the Voyager space probes to provide constant electricity anywhere you go. Revolutionary carbon-fiber shielding makes the RTGtoGo compact and light enough to take in a carry-on (pending approval by the TSA, FAA, ICAO and IAEA).

GrocerWe: Finally, an end to the poignant “what do I get?” uncertainty that’s stopped many of us in the supermarket. This free, crowd-sourced grocery-list app–for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7–lets Facebook friends and nearby GrocerWe users fill out your shopping list for you anytime you’re within 1/4 mile of a grocery. Its developers are also exploring monetization strategies that would let merchants push suggestions to users in their stores.

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