This Week in Startups #44 with Howard Morgan

Jason’s guest this week was Howard Morgan, Co-Founder of First Round Capital and a 30 year veteran of the technology industry. Highlights of the show this week include: biggest passes that did great, incubator programs and what they offer and who are the greatest tech. entrepreneurs of the 80s, 90s, 00s.

Announcements: next week’s show will be live from SXSW with Tony Hsieh of Zappos on Saturday the 13th at 2pm (Pacific), 5pm (Eastern), 10pm (London), March 14th 9am (Sydney)

Ask Jason

00:11 Pablo Fernandez of Hear a Blog calls in to ask, when pitching to investors do I pitch the necessary intermediate stage of the idea or the big vision idea?

00:27 Stephen Young calls in to ask, what salary range should founders be in when taking an angel investment and follows up with how do you raise your salary once you have investment?

00:35 Shark Tank

Andrew Watson calls in to pitch Othernum a virtual phone system for small businesses.

Interview with Howard Morgan

00:47 Topics:
Biggest company Howard passed on that was great
Investing in competitive companies
Location based companies
Franklin Electronic Publishers business cycle
Mint.com and how being a part of their founders network help them scale their infastructure
How First Capital supports their companies
Idealabs, why it’s successful
Greatest Entrepreneurs of the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s

01:38 News with Lon Harris

Call of Duty Lawsuit

Bing Ad on Framville

01:48:28: Microsoft gains 400,000 users by advertising on farmville.
lon’s Question: is this a way to get users or just click
Jason: Good Idea, social games are massive

01:51:28 Social game advertising is going to be a massive advertising portal, mini cooper being launched through the movie italian job.

01:51:55 Tyler gets scolded

01:52:33 Companies advertising to free samples in magazine.

01:54:00 A large percent of facebook revenue coming from social games, zynga worth more then facebook?

Microsoft’s Project Pink Phones

01:54:35 Microsoft’s Pink Phone
lon’s question: What’s the strategy for Microsoft for releasing these phones?

01:56:00 Jason: Microsoft has a legacy and needs to start from scratch and create a long lasting mobile os.

01:58:00 xbox gets complemented

Sony’s PSP Phone

01:59:21 sony to launch a playstation themed phone, maybe a competitor to ipad.
Question: will this hit a mass audience and what will they need to hit a mass audience.

02:00:00 Sony should use the google OS
02:01:00 Sony has lost it’s relevance

iPad Release Date

02:02:50 Ipad will release late april
Question: are you planning to buy an ipad?

02:03:40 Jason: yes – the ipad without the 3g may not sell as well. Maybe ipad is too expensive for a recession.
02:05:40 ipad needs a USB
02:05:50 Howard Morgan: Overpriced Kindle

02:08:00 Steve Job too controlling

02:08:15 What will happen to apple after steve jobs?
02:09:00 Howard Morgan talks about meeting steve in person.

Fiverr

02:10:51 fiverr job board for jobs worth $5

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