The Founders’ Pie Calculator
I’m always on the lookout for good tools for entrepreneurs. Frank Demmler from Carnegie Mellon has developed a simple model for allocating equity in a start-up company called the Founders’ Pie Calculator.
Frank’s concept is on the right track. It attempts to allocate equity based on the individual contributions from participants. It does not account for financial inputs, intellectual property, relationships, resources, etc. Also, founders have to plan different phases in advance, which seems kind of subjective.
Since I first came across this model in 2009 I’ve developed my own model which is much easier to implement. It’s called Slicing Pie. Click the book below for more information.
Google Sidewiki- Aaaaaargh!
Several years ago I came up with an idea to allow anyone to add comments to any site (I was pretty proud of myself). It would be a sidebar plugin that users could annoymously post comments to when they were on a particular site. When others, who had the plugin, looked at the same page the comments would appear.
I joined forces with a programmer named Marc Van Houwelingen (also wrote www.Calculatem.com) to develop the site. It’s called BlipNut.com and it’s cool.
Today I noticed that Google has come out with the same concept. It’s called Google Sidewiki and it does the same thing as BlipNut.com. The interface is a cooler, but it’s the same general idea. Too bad Google didn’t give us one of those big Google checks that they hand out to innovative companies to buy their technology. It would have been nice to be another Craigslist.com or YouTube.com. I guess I got in the wrong line.
Anywhoo. I can at least claim that one of my ideas was good enough for Google before Google even knew it!
AllerTees.com
My sister, Robin Chung, came up with the idea to make cool t-shirts for kids with allergies (like my son, Anson, and her son, Ty). She thought of the name “Allertees.com” and wanted me to draw the pictures. So I did. You can visit Allertees.com and buy the shirts. It’s a Cafe Press site.
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WordPress Theme- Thesis
I splurged and spent about $90 on the Thesis Theme from DIYThemes. So far so good. It has a lot more flexibility than the free version on WordPress.
How to Make Colleges Want You in Libraries
My book has been picked up by quite a few libraries. Here is a listing on WorldCat.com.
The Asus EeePC- Nice
I bought my wife an Asus EeePC on Woot.com. I must say its pretty impressive. I paid $149 for it, which I think is pretty cheap for a laptop. I’m using it to write this post. I’m also listening to Pandora.com Radio.
The key to liking this thing is to understand it’s limitations. It is perfect for what my wife needs. Checking email, looking at the Internet and that’s about it. The EeePC is a tad slow compared to a full-size laptop, but it’s hardly noticeable. Also, the keyboard is small and takes getting used to, again, not a real biggie.
It comes preloaded with Open Office, but Anne is going to try using Google Docs.
Anyway, nice little product.
Landing Page Software
I’ve been looking for landing page software. I had a demo of Ion Interactive’s LiveBall today. It’s awesome, just what I’ve always wanted. Alas, it’s over $15K per year. Same with Marketo, it is even more comprehensive that Ion, but also more expensive. It’s about $2500 per month at the low end or $1500 per month for a scaled back version of their program. They appear to be a little more comprehensive offering lead scoring and some follow-up tools that seem pretty slick.
I also looked at Knotice.com. It is sort of confusing, but less expensive. It’s $6,000 a year plus a $1,500 set-up.
I also checked out Valtira.com. Very basic, but very cheap- $1,200 a year. This could be a good way to give it a try.
Let me know if you know of another alternative. I’ll keep looking.
Mike’s Birthday!
Today is my birthday. It’s also my grandfather’s birthday and Barack Obama’s birthday.
Woot : One Day, One Deal SM
Woot.com is an interesting site. Everyday it has a different item for sale, usually at a pretty reasonable price. I’ve bought quite a few things from them over the years including a couple of those toy remote-control helicopters for my son for $9.99.
I recently bought a Netbook for my wife. We’ll see how it goes. She only uses email and the internet so it should be okay for a 2nd computer.