News Roundtable with Liz Gannes, Aarron Walter and Lon Harris on This Week in Startups #141

TWiST Episode #141 with Liz Gannes, Aarron Walter and Lon Harris on the Roundtable Panel

Jason’s roundtable panel this week included Liz Gannes, senior editor at All Things D, and Aarron Walter, lead UX designer for MailChimp as well as regulars Tyler Crowley of Skweal and Lon Harris of Ranker.com. The discussion kicked off with Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype (which Jason analyzed in a LAUNCH newsletter) and covered Google’s launch of Chromebooks, Facebook’s PR attempt to make Google look smarmy, Facebook’s operations in China, Y Combinator’s 60-strong summer 2011 class, interactive TV and Jason pounding his head over Lady Gaga’s Zynga deal.

To see the full list of news stories covered and up for debate, visit http://bit.ly/TWiSTNews141.

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0:00 – 0:15 Intro
1:15 -1:30 Twistlist.co promotion
1:30 – 1:45 Mailchimp ad.
1:45 – 4:15 Intro to the Panel – Aarron Walter, Liz Gannes, Lon Harris, Tyler Crowley
4:15 – 5:00 Microsoft acquisition of Skype.
5:00 – 5:45 Why did the Skype valuation go up so much since it left eBay?
5:45 – 6:30 Aarron critiques the new Skype interface.
6:30 – 7:00 Network problems with Skype – no wifi.
7:00 – 7:45 How does Skype integrate into Microsoft?
7:45 – 9:00 Microsoft has the underpinnings for a social network
9:00 – 9:30 Microsoft had extra cash since it was acquired outside the U.S.
9:30 – 10:15 Ballmer did a better job in this negotiation than Yahoo.
10:15 – 10:45 Why did eBay not do better with Skype?
10:45 – 11:45 How many ways is Marc Andreessen involved in this deal? (Watch the clip)
11:45 – 13:15 Chromebooks.
13:15 – 14:00 Running only in the cloud a problem?
14:00 – 14:30 Aarron: perfect for support teams.
14:30 – 15:00 Aarron: excellent for schools as well, but an iPad is better for consumers.
15:00 – 16:00 Liz: lack of offline ability will be inhibiting to many.
16:00 – 16:45 The panel talks about how much they love Evernote.
16:45 – 17:36 Tyler: Laptop giveaways in Tokyo.
17:36 – 18:20 Get a free laptop when you sign up for telecommunications provider.
18:20 – 18:45 New producers sign up during the show.
18:45 – 20:00 What are you hearing about the FTC and Google?
20:00 – 21:30 Google is open when it wants to be, when it suits them.
21:30 – 22:30 Facebook hires PR firm to put negative stories about Google in the press.
22:30 – 23:15 Liz: Is Google scraping what they shouldn’t be?
23:15 – 24:00 So unnecessary to hire a firm to do anything to hurt Google.
24:00 – 25:00 Is it common to get PR firms spreading negative news to the press?
25:00 – 26:00 Why would a PR firm take this assignment?
26:00 – 26:45 Aarron: Facebook just does stupid stuff like this. It’s inside baseball, and general users won’t really care.
26:45 – 28:30 Can Facebook operate in China, and give away information that leads to human rights violations.
28:30 – 29:15 Facebook screwing up in China is something that would really dim Facebook’s image with the rest of its users (outside of the Valley).
29:15 – 30:15 The naughty behavior of youth is now much worse behavior of an adult behind a major corporation.
30:15 – 30:45 It’s the same as turning over people to the Nazis.
30:45 -31:45 Liz: Zuckerberg sees Facebook as a means to democracy, doesn’t see the huge downsides.
31:45 – 32:30 If one person gets caught on Facebook, you also catch their entire network.
32:30 – 33:45 Aarron: if it gets to a scale, it won’t happen.  A government can’t eliminate a person’s 50K followers.
33:45 – 34:00 Access to a social network is a right. (Watch the clip)
34:00 – 35:00 Should there be an agreement between all of the social networks when they go to business in China.
35:00 – 36:40 Trada ad.
36:40 – 38:00 Y Combinator accepted 60 companies for the next session.  Is it getting too big?
38:00 – 39:00 YC funding is unsustainable, too many companies to pay any attention to as an investor.
39:00 – 40:30 Liz: YC is taking companies who are further along instead of the dorm room and ramen type.
40:30 – 41:15 Having the YC stamp is worth it to be able to raise money later.
41:15 – 43:00 YC has changed so much over the past few years.
43:00 – 43:15 Companies going through YC still speak very highly of it.
43:15 – 44:00 Brilliant marketing move for DST.
44:00 – 45:00 What happens when you have 120 companies?
45:00 – 45:15 Google music, not important, says Jason. Next story.
45:15 – 46:00 New Facebook credit program.
46:00 – 47:15 Will people do things for virtual currency?
47:15 – 48:00 Liz is ethically conflicted.
48:00 – 48:30 Arrington will throw anyone under the bus (see TC article that mentions Liz).
48:30 – 49:00 Aarron: this is the last place I would put my money as an advertiser.
49:00 – 50:00 Polishing a Turd. Insights from Aarron.
50:00 – 50:15 Partnership with SCVNGR and Visa.
50:15 – 51:00 Amex is the underdog, and is leading the pack for social media.
51:00 – 52:30 Amex is partnering with Ventiprivee, coming to the U.S.
52:30 – 53:30 Credit card was the original check in.  Why don’t they build on this?
53:30 – 54:30 New Google TV interface.
54:30 – 56:00 Google TV was super expensive.
56:00 – 59:00 Getting YouTube on the remote for everything.
59:00 – 1:01:00 Use Bing for a week. See how you like it.
1:01:00 – 1:02:00 Google TV at IO was one of the most well attended.
1:02:00 – 1:03:30 Lady Gaga and Farmville. (Watch the clip)
1:03:30 – 1:04:00 Paris Hilton White Label Twitter.
1:04:00 – 1:05:00 Thank yous.

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Tyler: @steepdecline
Aarron: @aarron
Liz: @lizgannes
Lon: @lons