In the last year or so, I've seen two "self-help" reality TV shows become "hot" - The Dog Whisperer, which i learned about because my dog attacks strangers (and me if i try to stop him), and The Pick Up Artist, which my housemate convinced me to watch to prove that learning "game" is not trash. Essentially, the show teaches the average guy "the method" of attracting and seducing the opposite sex. 

It's amazing to see how reality TV has evolved from talk shows (pre-reality TV) to MTV-style house arrest (ie, strangers living together) to exceptionally theme centric. I believe we're seeing the exploration of the web's long tail also taking place in networked TV. While I imagine the tail won't be quite as long as it can be on the web due to production costs and quality constraints (although they are apparently lower for reality TV shows, according to this Salon.com article), the concept of niche markets seems to be taking hold (if it has not already).

My question is, what are the driving factors that have enabled niche market reality TV shows to thrive in terms of revenue/cost (Dog Whisperer is probably the more relevant example here)? Are these really mass market needs that were not identifed before?

While I'm not a big TV watcher, I highly suggest you take a look at the first episode of the pick up artist (trailer here)- It's surprisingly educational contrary to remarks that reality TV "... is not just bad television in the sense that it's mediocre, pointless, puerile even. It's bad because it's damaging."  As my roommate said to me, I think this show has the power to improve the personal lives for lots of people.

 

The t-shirt for the Web 2.0 Expo has a blank box where you can write your definition of what "web 2.0 is." Although I have a strong bias toward disintermediation, at Trulia's offsite this year we were doing some brainstorms and it became very clear that the things i do online are not about people in general, it's all about me - what is relevant to my needs not the general population. I don't really care what joe-blow feels or likes unless joe-blow is like me or has needs like me. And i don't care how long it takes to bike to work in San Francisco, in general, i care how long it takes to get there from where i am departing. And so, in my blank box: Web 2.0 is "me-centric".

I suppose I'm old fashion in thinking that when a company launches with a big bang (well, big for startup land that is) they would at least do it with some class. Legalforce ip, which lets people trade patents online, had the smarts to do a press release on VentureBeat  covering their launch yet went live with a site that is, literally, a copy and paste of prosper.com's design. It's almost like a guy showing up to black tie event late and naked - what where you thinking??

 

LegalForce
Prosper.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have greatly disliked the word Web 2.0 since it started to be used. It sounded like a bubble waiting to happen since its birth. Today I ran across the very first definition of Web 2.0 that i can relate to and very much subscribe to:

"If you want to see what Web 2.0 really means check out Zopa in the UK or Prosper in the US. These are social lending sites. Both make use of Ajax and pretty colors and both have plenty of collaboration but those things are not the reason I choose these sites to represent the epitome of what I consider Web 2.0. The major revolution with Web 2.0 is what isn't there, and that's middle men.

In the case of Digg what's missing is a formalized news agency. In the case of Flickr it's an editor. The same holds true with Wikipedia. Podcasts bypass radio conglomerates. As for Prosper the missing element is the bank. This extends to the open source community as well. Most open source at least starts out with the same goal so eloquently outlined in The Gettysburg Address:  "...of the people, by the people, for the people..."

 

A few days ago I turned 24... if you've followed a traditional career path you've probably been employed ⁺/_- 2 years now. This year was the first I was employed by a company I didn't start. If you asked me at 19 whether i would start my own business, I would have told you all about my big plans:

1. I was going to use my returns from investing in the stock market to buy up commerical real estate.
2. And then make big bucks flipping it.
3. Using the profits, I would acquire ad agency and shift it's focus to empowering women through images (think nike ads).

[ It's funny how just a few years shows you what a doofball you used to be. Surely, it made much more sense to grab my digital camera, fire up photoshop and go at it. Go find the doofball in you! ]

If you went on to ask if I could be successful in this venture, I would have told you no. Not because the strategy had flaws but because I did. I graduated with a 3.82 GPA from a great university. Good or bad, I graduated conviced i was stupid.

When i started my first company, I was awaiting for the moment my co-founder realized it. But that moment never came, and his compliments increased. I tried to figure out what postures i made stimulated these statements - if i could only figure that out i would be set for life!

My cofounder encouraged me to challenging the limits and not accept things as they are said to be. He taught me to embrace my youthful bursts of excitement, and dive into the things that leave me curious. To be smart, I only had to follow my thoughts. For this, I am forever grateful to him.

Becoming an entrepreneur is a bruital life, whether you're starting someone elses business or your own. And I'm so happy i became an entreprneur. If i had gone a different path, the seeds that have enabled me to blossim, embrace failure and pick up the stones to keep moving foward, would never have been set.

As lame as it might be, I've learned to use household cleaning chemicals to kill ants. They're always around and I know the instructions. Recently I moved and, being that everything is scattered around, the only deadly substance I could dig up when I arrived to an ant fest in my kitchen this morning was a bottle of hair spray. Spray I did, but to my great frustration it didn't work. Not only did ants continue to find their way out of the hole I had drenched with the sticky/stinky spray, but they began poring out of a new hole near by. Fed up with returning to the kitchen every 30 minutes to control the invasion, an idea hit me...

One plastic bag from Whole Foods and a roll of scotch tape solved my problems :) If you can't keep them out, lock'em in!

A conversation about starting up between three drunk associates who work at a VC fund in Palo Alto. All I can say is I'm happy I started young:
The debate: How to start a company leveraging the relationships of the venture partners at the fund they work for.

The sector:

• Person A: Software.
• Person B: I don't know anyone in software. Lets go to China.
  
• Person A: What about Biotechnology?
• Person B: I think the hot places are: energy and china
• Person C: Would you guys do Leslie?
• Person B: We need to have high operating margins, & a market size of a billion, at least.
• Person A: Yeah
  
• Person C: Leslie is the gatekeeper.  She's smart. She makes 1-2% of the fund. Seriously guys, would you do Leslie?