Saturday, August 1, 2009 at 05:49PM Jason's guest on this week's episode was Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix.com. This week's episode was also particularly special as it was our first live, remote show - broadcasting from LA's premiere tech event - Twiistup. We had live 'Ask Jason' questions, the deadpool, news and a very special 'acquisition' announcement from Jason. This is definitely an episode that you do not want to miss!
Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 01:02PM We were back on the air this afternoon with Loren Bendel, CEO of Savings.com. Jason introduced Loren as someone he has a lot to learn from as Loren knows an array of things about his vertical that have made him so successful. Loren gave some great insight into what it's like to run a coupons and promotions company under a recession and also talked about the value of using social media practices to advance the company. There was an eclectic set of callers this week too. The first caller, Nathan Stobezki, wanted to know if Jason had any thoughts about how to raise capital for his company. Pete Jimison, the second caller, skyped in from Switzerland with a question about the company he started with his brother. Finally, there was a great question from Gabrielle Pascoe, an old acquaintance of Jason's from the Silicon Alley days, about how to choose the proper salary for the CEO of a new venture. As usual, each was offered a ticket to the TechCrunch50 conference in September. Send in your "Ask Jason" questions to contact@thisweekinstartups.com and maybe you too will be as lucky! This weeks news included a discussion about the Twitter document leak on techcrunch.com and the importance of using discretion when storing company documents on the interweb. There was also a brief talk about youtube's future business model followed with the sending off of failed company "The Printed Blog" to the "Deadpool." Finally, Jason made a PSA to the "stupid people of the world" near the end. If you want to know what he had to say then or at any other point on the show, watch it for yourself and find out! The next show will be two weeks from now on Friday, July 31st 2009. Because they ran out of time, you have another two weeks to do the homework (if you haven't already) and read "How the Mighty Fall," by Jim Collins.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 06:40PM Sorry we missed you for the last couple weeks, but we're back on the air this Friday, July 17th! Our guest is Loren Bendele, CEO of Savings.com, and if you haven't done it already, the homework for Friday is to read the book "How the Mighty Fall," by Jim Collins. There's that and much more so make sure tune in @ 1:30 p.m PDT right here on ThisWeekinStartups.com and check it out. About Loren: Loren Bendele has been the CEO of Savings.com since January 2007. Founded in 2004, Savings.com is an online database of deals and coupons that uses its community in a Digg-like fashion to feature the best promotions. The site's users, which amounted to 1 million in June 2009, drive up to $4 million in sales per month for some stores. Savings.com was originally funded by prominent angel investors in Southern California, and went on to raise $4 million in its second round from the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, U.S Venture Partners. Before starting at Savings.com, Loren was a strategy and business development consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in Dallas, Texas. He then went on to run the Partner Marketing business at Teleflora, an online clearinghouse for florist shops worldwide.
Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 03:50PM This weeks guest was Atif Rafiq, head of Yahoo! Local for North America and previous founder/CEO of Covinga. He and Jason talked about the role of community building in creating a network of local business listings and also discussed Yahoo!'s overall strategy to leverage its various "horizontals." Atif talked about a number of the ventures he's involved in, including the upcoming Local Search Summit on July 17th. There were three callers on "Ask Jason" this week. The first, Jonathan Johnson, wanted to know if Jason had any creative ideas for how to raise capital for his lifestyle business. Mike Stone, Jason's second caller, wanted advice on how to effectively evaluate a competitive space and how to decide whether it was worth entering. Finally, the third caller, Greg Gerber, was looking for ways to attend entrepreneurial events/conferences without simply buying a ticket. Jason gave some great responses to these questions so make sure to watch the show and find out what he said! On "The News with Lon Harris", Jason gave his thoughts on the future of breaking news when discussing how quickly Michael Jackson's passing was reported on Twitter vs. CNN. He also talked about Tesla Motors' government loan, a lawsuit against Microsoft's Bing, and sent security company Clear to the "Deadpool." Next week's homework assignment is to read the book "How the Mighty Fall," by Jim Collins. Maybe you can be Jason's star student on the air and earn your ticket to the TechCrunch50.
Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 11:09AM Jason's guest this week will be Atif Rafiq, Head of Y! Local for North America. Atif has over twelve years experience in the web, new media and software in a variety of general management, strategy and business development roles. He currently manages the local and maps business lines at Yahoo!, which are part of the search division. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Atif was founder and CEO of Covigna, a venture-backed provider of content management software. Atif began his career in the web in 1996 as a key member of the business development and strategy team at AOL. He has also spent time at Audible (acquired by Amazon) and Goldman Sachs. Atif will also be one of the speakers at the Local Search Summit on July 17th, so make sure you check it out. See you Friday @ 1pm PDT!
