Jumping The Shark

Alex says that that I jumped the shark this morning with my VC Cliche of the Week post and that "the uniqueness and freshness has worn off".

I think his criticism of my cliche of the week post this morning is well deserved. It was a lackluster job on a topic that deserved better. But it really wasn't a desperate stunt to encourage readers to come back (shark jumping). It was just a rushed job in the early morning so I could get it out and go on a bike ride with a friend and then get to work.

The latter comment that the uniqueness and freshness has worn off stings a bit more and I hope it's not universally shared.

When blogging moves from a hobby to something more it's a challenge. The "something more" is the networking platform that this blog provides for me and my and relationships. It's a place where ideas, people, and technologies come together. And it's value is largely dependent on a constant stream of posts, hopefully much better than the one this morning.

I don't sweat losing a reader. That happens mutliple times a day. But I do sweat the challenge of making AVC as unique and fresh as it has always been. So please don't be shy. I appreciate Alex' candor and hope everyone is willing to share their thoughts as publicly as he did.

Comments

[simon]

I remember when this site from day one .. when it was just a hobby and thats a problem i have with my blog ... ive been sitting in that transitional period in-between just a hobby and something more for quite sometime now ... and although you certainly monetize your site extremely well i dont think i know a busier personal blogger .... sometimes you could class your site as hourly content rather then daily .... thats just nuts for a one man show to keep up

when something’s not fun anymore, or when joys start turning to tasks - why do it ?

.... its that old adage quality over quantity.

[cfw]

My take - nothing wrong with the post, which has good information, properly considered. The concept of "cliche of the week" might be best set aside or modified to "cliche of the month." Just the post is fine.

"We did it five or six times in less than three years with Geocities, Sina.com, Starmedia, IXL, ITXC, possibly Multex (I don't recall it's high water mark)."

Good point, and new for me.

"Only Geocities ultimately cashed out north of a billion dollars. Sina.com trades at a market cap of $1.4bn. The rest were sold for hundreds of millions or even went bust."

Again, good and helpful history.

"Some would argue that Vonage (which trades at just over a billion dollar market cap) is not a solid business. I am not entirely sure where I come out on that, but I do think there has been significant value creation in Vonage which was not true of some of the billion dollar public companies in the late 90s/2000."

Good comparison,

"Getting sold for a billion dollars (what Facebook wants right now) has been easier to get done. Skype did it last year. If you are very strategic and have built a business of some scale, the billion dollar exit is possible."

Also true and good to note.

[Mike]

For what it's worth, you're still in my RSS reader and I still find your content fresh. I sense that you're still having fun with this and it's really hard to fake that.

[Brian Clark]

You're not even close to jumping the shark.

In fact, you haven't yet even met Pinky Tuscadero.

How much did I just date myself? :)

[Ted]

Fred:

A VC remains at the top of my blog roll and is the only blog I read daily without fail. I am not a VC at all as you know, however the tidbits of technology, music, business and other observations makes your site both educational and entertaining- a delicate balance that you've pulled off well.

If I want to read about the minutia of the VC field I can read your company's blog(s) and other sites that are expressly devoted to the subject. Your banner states it succinctly: musings of a VC in NYC. What is great is that you have introduced this field to people who are on the periphery or just plain curious.

I wish there were more bloggers that were this good on "autopilot." At any rate, I, for one, appreciate your efforts.

[Rich]

I found this blog because I was looking for a music blog. My taste in music is similar, but I read nearly all of the technology and personal posts as well. I am a 32-year old lawyer and have scratched my head several times and thought that being a VC/entrepreneur would be much more fun and I should return to business school to make a career u-turn due, in part, to your posts. (problem: even though i deal with numbers very well, i'm not super tech savvy) I've even strayed over to your firm's website to read about Union Square Ventures. very interesting stuff. The personal posts also give me hope that marriage and kids (not yet, but someday) won't make me dull and i will be able to still go to shows and be FUN. Anyway, the bottom line is that you do a great job with this blog. keep it up.
P.S. No Stones tonight? i was hoping for an AM post about the show. I'll have to call an NYC/NJ friend to hear about it. I'm trying to decide whether to make the effort to see them in Oakland. Thanks for your effort.

[Ken Berger]

Alex-

It's a BLOG.

It's not a syndicated network-produced TV show w/ a staff of editors and Nielsen watchers.

It's not even a real published work, in a book publishing sense. People often lose that distinction as blogs become more powerful and trustworthy.

It IS just the voice of one guy. This particular guy happens to somehow knock off posts like, every hour, every day.

They're not all gonna win the Pulitzer, with that kind of volume. I'd love to meet this phantom editor who forces him to publish a Cliche, etc just to make quota.

Granted, I too wanted the $Billion post to be good and was also left short (I also attended the Blueprint to a Billion preso mentioned in a previous comment), but I certainly received net positive from other posts here this week, including a concert reminder I cared about.

ok, that's enough Fred boosting for someone not on his payroll.

[Ken Berger]

P.S.: Fred- the one criticism I do have is that you're belittling yourself and the spirit of blogs in general by bothering with an excuse like the one herein. We know you have a life-- it's richly detailed thru this blog. A simple shrug would do.

[Nathan Dintenfass]

I think it was Doc Searls who introduced me (through his blog) to the concept of "first draft thinking" in relation to how blogs were so different than his experience as a professional writer/journalist. The very nature of blogging is that it's about first-hand experience and tends to be much more casual than other formats. And that's a good thing -- through a good blog readers get to know the writer as a person (very different, for instance, than reading the Op-Ed in a newspaper where you get to know writers through their 'voice' but never personally).

That said, if you find yourself writing just because you think it's important to have lots of posts than take a deep breath and walk away from the keyboard -- dealing with information overload is one of the key struggles of, I suspect, the majority of your readers, so don't write just to write.

[John Dodds]

My only quibble with the cliche post was with a slightly self-aggrandising tone that I picked up, but as Ken Berger rightly says, it's a blog! As such, it's difficult to maintain a quality threshold over an extended period given that blogging seems to demand of us that we provide quantity AND quality.

This leads to a healthy but, I think, unusuaI degree of self-criticism. Indeed, I have not failed to notice that I've received no comments on my own blogposts for the past week, but as long as one enjoys doing it and does so honestly there is no alternative but to keep going (while paying attention to Nathan's apposite comment).

I will and have offered criticisms when I've disagreed with your substantive point in a post, but while we should always pay attention to readers' reactions because they keep our feet on the ground, they are only opinions and if your only sin is a rushed post, then you're doing good.

[Grant]

Methinks Alex doth protest in a way intended to generate traffic.

a.) I read the cliche in question and felt like I got my money's worth... or at least my attention's.

b.) I went to Alex's site and nothing interesting was really said (yes, I get it, new things get old--WOAH! You is rocking my paradigm!). Didn't even thing about subscribing. Point being, at least you've been out on the lake, Fred.

c.) I personally read because you mix up a number of things that are of interest to me. So I don't really think you need to be the most cutting edge on any particular narrow subject--I like that your posts are sort of a well-rounded melange of things I care about. Although I really could use some help with my fantasy football team and offshoring management. :)

d.) I just messed with Texas. That Just Happened.

[steve]

As the saying goes, if everyone loves you, you know you're doing something wrong.

Take risks, fail sometimes, its worth it!

[Tony Alva]

I found the Billion Dollar Company post as informative as all the rest. Some will like, some won't. Kepp on keepin' on.

[Charlie]

Can't win 'em all.

Perhaps the office is lacking colorful Brooklynese... Perhaps you should do something like "new cliches" the same way that classic rock stations do "new classics". This way, you could include things like, "sketchball"

[Lloyd Fassett]

AHHHHHH! AVC is going the same route as Positively 10th Street! Say it ain't so, Joe.

I suspect you're boxing yourself into self-made deadlines because that's what guys do. It's great when it works, but sometimes people do things just to meet the deadline. Honestly, I thought yesterdays Billion Dollar post was too long for a pretty simple, old and odd idea. Like Frost said of Keroac 'That's not writing. That's typing', was my thought. It was also an outlier though because I've never not enjoyed the Cliche of the Week. It's usually an interesting anthopomorphic look back over your career as a VC and the industry. Words are interesting and cliche's are focal points.

I'd suggest taking advantage of this new medium by asking for more input or stories from your readers if your personal network isn't making you feel inspired. You will be able to find more about what you don't know through this group. You could also take a strategic break because that's better than burning out.

But, don't quit. This is the one blog I read every day because the posts are digestible, high quality, and relevant to my interests in building value through new technologies and business models. It's been a great gateway for me to other places around the net too.

It's also really made me see where USV is differentiated from most VC's.

[Brooks Jordan]

This blog is as high value for me today as it was when I started reading it a year ago. And the pacing, and diversity of content, is more than admirable. A great blog - a great anything - doesn't always mean full-out 100%. The dips and the crests are one and the same.