Another great list of Web2.0 productivity applications. Well worth a look. I also liked Giffy and Mayomi.

Maurice Saatchi has a piece in today’s FT titled “The strange death of modern advertising“. He observes that “At the age of only 50, advertising was cut down in its prime. Advertising holding companies used to boast about their share of the advertising market. Now they are proud of how much of their business is not in advertising. How did this happen?”

One of the reasons he cites is message clutter. This is something so many start-ups suffer from. And they are the very enterprises who can afford it least.

Each brand can only own one word. Each word can only be owned by one brand. Take great care before you pick your word. It is going to be the god of your brand.

Try this simple test on your own company’s products or services.

Pick a brand. Any brand.

Maurice offers a pragmatic solution – “one word equity”. I couldn’t agree more. “In this new business model, companies seek to build one word equity – to define the one characteristic they most want instantly associated with their brand around the world, and then own it. That is one-word equity.”

This act of distillation and focus should be a priority for every start-up. It will ultimately focus your efforts and marketing while building value for your shareholders.

Technorati : No8 Ventures, Venture Capital

One of the many advantages of sitting in Silicon Valley as a NZ VC is the networking opportunities. It is no exaggeration that every day affords you some opportunity to sit with potential customers and partners. This week it was breakfast with Rich Breunich, head of the Enterprise and Emerging Technology Group within Citigroup’s IT organization. There must have been about 50 start-ups at the event.

Rich was very clear than start-ups and smaller companies have a real opportunity to sell to Citigroup. He went on to say that they feel that most of the innovation will come from emerging companies. Saying that, don’t expect them to carve out a little corner for you to test in – you’ll have to operate at the level as all enterprise vendors.

Citigroup’s Emerging Technology Group is specifically designed to facilitate the adoption of new technologies. The message was clear – size doesn’t matter. Citigroup are one of the world’s largest software companies – they have more data under management than Google – almost three times more. So, breakthrough technologies matter, where they come from matters less. Look forward to chatting more about this at Morgo.

Technorati : No 8 Ventures

Long Tail economics are spawning a new generation of start-ups looking to monetize, well, the Long Tail. The New York Times today has a terrific example of it in action at NetFlix. NetFlix is an online movie rental store with a twist. You pay a flat monthly subscription – say $15 – you keep the movies for as long or as little as you want and then post them back. Within a day or so you get new movies from the list. (My wife and I have a running battle regarding whose movies move up or down the list).

To illustrate The Long Tail – “Out of the 60,000 titles in Netflix’s inventory, I ask, how many do you think are rented at least once on a typical day? The most common answers have been around 1,000, which sounds reasonable enough. Americans tend to flock to the same small group of movies, just as they flock to the same candy bars and cars, right? Well, the actual answer is 35,000 to 40,000. That’s right: every day, almost two of every three movies ever put onto DVD are rented by a Netflix customer.”

NZ has spawned its own imitators – Fatso being one. It will be interesting to see the Long Tail works in a similar way in NZ.

Technorati : No 8 Ventures

When it’s a mash-up. Here is a definition and background on a word you will be hearing lots more about… this is all about the growth in applications which mix – or ‘mash-up’ – the functionality of various online services to provide a new one. Richard has been covering this space well.

I’m often surprised how many NZ companies aren’t distributing press releases in the US market. It’s one of the simplest ways to get the message out. The objection is often “but we don’t have a PR agency”. Or, “Press releases are old school…”

A study flagged by InformationWeek flags the real value of the press release – communicating directly with your audiences.

“Press Releases Are More Popular Than Reported News, Says Study – Also, knowledge workers fail to find what they’re looking for in Internet searches 30% of the time.

The utility of the press release coupled with effective distribution vehicles is pushing them into all the major news portals and throughout the blogosphere. Then, you’ve got waning trust in traditional media… So, get your message out. MarketWire, BusinessWire and PRNewsWire are the main services.

The other thing this survey points to is the need for better search engine optimization. SEO as it is known – and paid search are now accounting for a serious chunk of most start-ups marketing budget. If people can’t find you on the Web, you aren’t going to be found at all.

Technorati : No 8 Ventures, VC

Welcome to the N0 8 Ventures’ blog. This, our first foray into the blogosphere, is about two things.

First, sharing thoughts, content, links and more. We come across a wealth of information as we go about evaluating investments and assisting the companies in our portfolio. This is the perfect vehicle with sharing that information more broadly. If you’ve got ideas for a business and want to share them, drop us an email.

Second, and more importantly, it is about igniting a(nother) conversation on entrepreneuring and venture capital in

New Zealand . Together these become the most potent forces for generating wealth and economic success.

We also updated the N0 8 Ventures home on the Web. Take a look and give us your thoughts on what you would like to see more of. Thanks to the team (esp. Jon) at Marker (the new Outfit) for their work on the blog and site.

– Jenny, Mark & Andy

Technorati : N0 8 Ventures, VC

Welcome to the N0 8 Ventures Blog.

The N0 8 Ventures blog is all about creating value in young companies through entrepreneurship, investing and venture capital. These are our views and do not necessarily represent those of our investors or portfolio companies.

We like Charlene Li’s blogger code of ethics and have adapted them.

1. We will disagree with other opinions respectfully – we hope you will do the same.

2. We will tell the truth. We will acknowledge and correct any mistakes promptly.

3. We will not delete comments unless they are spam, off-topic, or defamatory.

4. We will reply to comments when appropriate as promptly as possible.

5. We will link to online references and original source materials directly – if we forget to do so, or do so incorrectly, let us know and we will get it fixed

One last thing, this is not the forum to submit a business plan – use the link at the top of the page to do that.

Technorati : No 8 Ventures, VC, venture capital

BW has a good primer on Web2.0 including a VCs view. Included is this little gem which highlights the importance of developing a compelling position – improving a larger company’s position isn’t that compelling:

Q: So many of these Web 2.0 companies are startups. How are they all going to survive?

A: They’re not. I can name only 300 of the 5,000 software companies out there that have a chance to change the world. At the other end, you’ve got large category leaders like Oracle, SAP (SAP), Microsoft (MSFT), Symantec (SYMC), and others, that basically are protected because they’re pouring money into tons of R&D to incrementally move their products ahead. The 70% of startups out there that are trying to do what the big companies do, only better, faster, and cheaper — it’s a fool’s errand. The customers would like to buy that from a large company, so they’re going to lose out.

Q: Does that mean that ultimately big companies, such as existing software companies, will get most of this business?

A: Not necessarily. I see a lot of software companies today saying, “We’re going to change our business from a product company to a service company and put our software online.” But there are problems with that. No. 1, the software company typically does not have the DNA to be a service company. It is a software company because the smartest guys in the company are developing new code, and that’s what they want to do, as opposed to what is the boring task of serving a customer. Salesforce.com does that. They’re not a perfect company, but they were developed with an intent from the start to be a service company. Also, product management is different. The sales force is different. Every function of the company needs to be changed if you’re serious about being a service company. It’s a two- or three-year transition at minimum. It’s not a flip of the switch.

Technorati : N8 Ventures

For more on Morgo, visit Morgo.co.nz.