Tom Tunguz

MARCH 14, 2013

During the life of a startup, the question of outsourcing can arise frequently whether for PR, marketing, product design, sales or engineering. Outsourcing can be very attractive: consultants bring new points of view, relevant experience and (potentially) immediate results. Of course, consultants charge high fees and after their contract expires they leave with their knowledge and insights in tow.

Outsourcing Services 100

Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Development Team Review Technical Review 100

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 13, 2013

In a world of socially curated news, there is no place for RSS. I wrote last year: Social streams solve the problem most RSS readers faced: the inbox with 1000+ items to read and no way to sift through them. Socially curated news syndicated through social networks (Facebook, Twitter) and content networks (LinkedIn, Quibb, HackerNews) solves the relevance problem that RSS never could address.

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100

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 12, 2013

How much is the most valuable brand in the world, Coca-Cola worth? $77.8B. That’s 45% of the company’s market cap. Often times, winners create advantages in a market through brands. These brands evoke emotions within consumers: feelings of trust (Visa), of aspiration (Nike), of adventure (RedBull). And if the brand is strong enough, it replaces the generic term: tissues/Kleenex, internet search/Google, glass cleaner/Windex.

Branding 100

Branding Startup Cloud Technology 100

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 11, 2013

I believe machine learning will drive the next big wave of innovation in consumer web services. The very same technologies that power Google’s search and Netflix video recommendation engine will become far more common and useful, perhaps even predominant in the consumer web. Every great consumer product has a little bit of magic. Apple employs static software and hardware design to anticipate user needs - to create that magic.

Machine Learning 100

Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Travel Technology 100

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Tom Tunguz

MARCH 10, 2013

Among my friends in college, a frequent response to the question, “How’s it going?” was “Strikes and gutters.” In other words, really well and really poorly - at the same time. Five years into the venture business, I think that expression is much better suited to the day-to-day swings a startup experiences than the life of a college student. It’s hard to imagine these two diametric feelings at the same time, but for entrepreneurs it’s a daily occurrence.

Startup 100

Startup Business 100