Y-Combinator introduced its latest class fo start-ups today at their Demo Day. This “semester” they had 43 grads, although the article doesn’t include them all because some are super top secret. The ones I see with the biggest potential (from a user and advertising base are below). Which do you see the most potential in as a consumer and/or as a communications planner?
1. Like.fm http://like.fm - ”Like.fm takes all of your music and makes it social. We track everything you listen to and make it extremely easy to share with and discover from people.” They’ve actually been around for a few months. There are so few quality music sharing sites – love to see this improved and explored (try: thesixtyone.com, blip.fm, grooveshark.com).
2. Five Stars http://www.fivestarscard.com – “A universal loyalty card for retail businesses. The card is the first link between cash registers, customers’ email and Facebook accounts.” I see huge potential in this, FB has a ton of user data and being able to tie it to your offline spending would be a magical and beautiful thing for CPGs and retailers. Lots of privacy issues and concerns to overcome, but love this.
3. MinoMonsters http://minomonsters.com/ – “MinoMonsters is a social game where you collect and battle pet monsters on Facebook, the Web and the iPhone. We are Pokemon for 2011.” Ok, so this idea is probably crap, I just love them because they refer to themselves as Pokemon for 2011.
4.Lanyrd http://lanyrd.com – “IMDB of conferences.” If they can build and sell to LinkedIn, they’ll make oodles of money. As an independent or bought out, huge advertsing potential for the BtoB space and would be incredibly helpful for finding quality conferences.
5. Taskforce http://taskforceapp.com – “Makes your inbox work as the to-do list you’re using it for.”
If you don’t know who/what Y-Combinator is, read about them here http://ycombinator.com/about.html. Check out an official list of graduates and you’ll see http://yclist.com/ at least a few you’ll recognize like our blog platform posterous.
Common misconception about media planners/buyers is that were are the dull uncreative type who love crunching numbers more than anything else. While it is true that most of us love numbers, statistics and research, creativity in media planning is an absolute must to successful and effective media buys. We do more than just pick and choose items off a rate card and collect swag from our media reps.
As a media buyer I get inspired for new ideas from a variety of sources. Here are some of my most recent inspirations.
Super cool, simple and unique music video. Reminds me that simple is really all it takes to be effective.
A website full of a ton of unique visuals, ads, art and whatnot. Innovative takes on common ideas and objects on Inspire Me Now.
And this blog by John the architect, Everything you ever needed to know (shoutout to @allisonyochim). His post on how building materials are meant for certain tasks through his in depth look at a brick is beautiful.
“…Because we know brick has feelings and needs, we should feel bad for brick, not too bad however, because in time, the faux wall will fail and brick will show it was meant for something else.”
My office hosted Office Olympics two Fridays ago. A spirited day of Olympic games (and some work) with each employee representing a country of their choice. We had 8 events from racing around the building with a full coffee cup to who could print something the fastest (it is OFFICE Olympics after all).
I represented Iceland, an amazing country I spent 2 weeks visiting last summer. It’s a gorgeous and intriguing place – if you ever get the chance or just have some time do not pass up the opportunity to go. To represent my country I spent the day wrapped up in my winter coat, a scarf, winter hat, mittens and was dialing the AC down whenever I had a chance.
Amazingly, I ended up with 3 silver medals and placed fourth in the overall Olympic medals.
In the end of the real Olympics this Sunday, the Icelandic Handball Team took silver losing to France in the gold medal game. It was only the 4th Olympic medal the small country has ever claimed (they previously had 1 silver and 2 bronze). YAY Iceland!
I’ll be drinking some Black Death this weekend in celebration
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