Not sure if there is another service that will post a pic from my cell directly to my networks and still look this good in FriendFeed :)
- Rahsheen ™, Coach of FF
haha awesome -- ironic too because the pc techs were just joking about a microsoft problem they were having in which network connectivity was completely failing and windows prompted them to "consult microsoft's online help"
- Nicholas Kreidberg
can I send you $25 via PayPal and consider that a down payment on the $25k? :-)
- Louis Gray
excellent, good luck with the funding. will you be announcing the final investment numbers?
- Rob Diana
Louis: would you gladly pay him Tuesday for a cheeseburger... I mean angel investment deal... today?
- Mark Trapp
Rob: We've raised just under $600k to-date. Washington Post, as well as personal investments from Goldberg and angel investors such as Allen Morgan (Mayfield Fund), Reed Hundt (Former Chairman, FCC), Gordon Crovitz (Former Publisher, WSJ), Julius Genachowski (founder, LaunchBox Digital) and Johnny Taylor (CEO of IAC's Rushmore Drive). Raising additional $300-$500k now, from angels only.
- Jason Goldberg
Louis: will you be completing a qualified investor form for your $25?
- Jason Goldberg
VC Microfinance..... hmmmm.... Why not? Lets do it. Lets build a company together right here on FriendFeed. Now there's a social networking story... ;)
- Brad Nickel
Microfinance is a real good concept tho - Especially since I've a coupla projects stalling due to lack of Microfinance :)
- Yuvi
Me too. Lets build it with our companies as the frist funding examples.
- Brad Nickel
Hmm... well, I'll test it for you, 'cause I need some financing for a project as well ;)
- Jason Carreira
Jason - congrats; I would also like some microfinancing for my company... i love the idea
- andy brudtkuhl
the challenge with VC via microfinance is that technically one must qualify via a fairly rigorous standard to invest in early stage companies. That said, I'm willing to bet that something could be worked up/around there, and that FF or LinkedIn or the such could be an interesting micro-financing pool for early stage companies.
- Jason Goldberg
So would that mean that anyone who creates a product and posts it on the internet for free can call a PayPal Donation button a "VC investment acceptance system"? :)
- Nathaniel Payne
Yea it would be hard to distribute "shares" at that micro level. If someone can pull this off - it would be HUGE.
- andy brudtkuhl
Indeed an experiment. I wonder if the SEC considers Tweets to be public solicitation for investment in unregistered securities. Keep us posted ;)
- Aviv
I wonder if you can take the lessons from Politics about financing: maybe get VC "bundlers" who take all the micropayments and combine them into one large payment. They take care of all the paperwork, as well.
- Mark Trapp
yeah but Jason had contacted TC and if TC Blogged about it , then it would be ok ?? Its like a two faced act.. remember HIS post about FM seeking more FUNDS ?? I wish people will remember these facts . TC blog is so full of BS
- Peter Dawson
see the comments in the techcrunch string. I deleted the tweet. wasn't worth the headache. I'll say that I "probably" made a mistake on this one but frankly isn't worth the headaches to argue whether it was a mistake or not, or debate the legalities, etc. It sure has made for a good FF string though!
- Jason Goldberg
why give up so early?! should be cleared if asking for interested investors = selling stocks?
- Cem Dalgic
If it wasn't for the SEC we'd have seen a tipjoy.com-like service for micro-investments a long time ago.
- Aviv
I am thinking along the lines of an Angel Network and a ShareBuilder micro share model with social commentary and voting on the investments merged with a flat investment for a flat percentage on every company model. Kind of like YCombinator meets Sharebuilder meets Prosper. This is not a public offering, but I am going to write an initial doc on this and create a mockup. Anyone interested in helping, participating, etc. contact me at brad at clickbrain dot com. I can see the community deciding together...
- Brad Nickel
Good luck Jason! keep us posted on how things develop!
- Caleb Elston
IMHO, TC is a douche bag.. :he love taking the juice outa of another person fun. If he had got the 'scoop' he would then write pretty words.. I still stand by what I said earlier
- Peter Dawson
or separately on each deal. Commentary on the business plan and the technology, etc. May need a membership model for privacy, etc. Anyway, this is just a big brain dump by me, but seems to me it could make a lot of sense and it ties in perfectly with my current business model. The idea of a community investment model and input sounds good to me, but will take a special kind of entrepreneur.
- Brad Nickel
I agree....why can't we just have a micro-investment company that owns all the shares and pays out to members upon liquidity events. Basically a VC company for micro early stage investments. Any lawyers or VCs out there want to comment on the legality or structure?
- Julie Kentwood
I'm glad this has spurred this sort of discussion. Oh, and these people keep emailing me about their interest in investing in this company that i didn't solicit them to invest in. ;)
- Jason Goldberg
I love it Jason. Let us know the outcome. My expectation is you won't ever have to worry about this and it will be worth it.
- Brad Nickel
Brad, you might want to look into what pvcse.com was doing. Look it up on archive.org.
- Aviv
Oh there's no worry. Mike hit me on the chin cause he could. I sorta asked for it to. No blood no foul; play on. Did someone say mashable posted something on this?
- Jason Goldberg
@sprague no worries. our focus is product, product, product. if the product is good that will speak loudest. i screwed up today by focusing on something other than product. another lesson learned.
- Jason Goldberg
Sprague: An email could be friendlier but it is no publicity. And in this manner Jason received tons of coverage for his intention to raise further investment. Very clever!
- Svetlana Gladkova
Don't want to be a mood spoiler or anything but potentially getting in serious legal trouble isn't worth the publicity IMO. Mess with the SEC rules and end up fined or worse. I hope for your sake, Jason, since you deleted the tweet that the SEC sees this as unintentional and/or not worth their time to pursue.
- TDavid
@TDavid: What I actually see here is that we often view the entire web 2.0 business as somewhat laidback - thus the mistakes.
- Svetlana Gladkova
from twhirl
The intent was in no way to be clever. We've had several of our users previously ask us if they could invest in socialmedian. The tweet was intended to let those people know that we are now considering investments from qualified investors. My mistake was in the wording of the tweet. The intent was good and fine.
- Jason Goldberg
Oh and arrington's story was the #1 most popular story on socialmedian this morning, meaning it hit the in-box of thousands of socialmedian users and followers this morning ... and in good social media form and transparency, we did nothing to stop that.
- Jason Goldberg
@Jason: Actually I'd prefer it to be a calculated move on your part to get publicity and investment as a results. But even if not, it was still an interesting even to witness for many of us anyway so keep going.
- Svetlana Gladkova
from twhirl
50000? I have 100 and worry that I have something worth tweeting.
- Justin Whitaker
Wonder how many are spam.. Granted i dont have lots of followers, but when i let it get more than it is at the moment, i get more spammers adding me. Went through a couple days ago and blocked a load, now its slowed down on more adding me again.
- Simon Wicks
and i just realised, i'm not even following you on there...care to make it 50,139...hmmm? do ya?
- Zee.
@lonelycoo where's the incentive for a twitter spammer to follow someone who doesn't follow back?
- Wil
and you follow only 93!!?!? Ok, that's not on at all. Go on, i dare you - add me. as 94. I double dare you. Don't worry, i'm no spammer - but come on you've gotta share a little back to the non-web-celebs and I'll be that share. Will you nibble at the worm...?
- Zee.
I mean, why would you bother blocking a follower even if it's a spammer?
- Wil
(i must sound like i'm off my head here...)
- Zee.
@zee I don't think Kevin is even remotely considered an active FriendFeed user so I'm sure your comment will go unnoticed.
- Wil
Please be nice to Leo now that you've dethroned him ;)
- Jonathon
Poor Leo Laporte. However, I wonder how many people are following Leo Laporte on FF compared to Kevin Rose. It could be a new battle.
- James Mowery
from twhirl
"provide good tweet?" Screw the 50k, that comment is worth gold right there! :D Rock on.
- Enrico C.
Let's get you to 100K. what would you give away if you hit 100K?
- Pokai