by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC & Social Media Consultant For decades, professional procrastinators relied on communal hydration technologies (i.e. water coolers) to support their best practices. Unfortunately, that particular tool maxed out bladder capacities, and even the dullest middle managers quickly learned that employees chatting while holding little paper cups weren’t [...]
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC & Dotcom-Bust Survivor “If you buy a share of Facebook and flip your shares in a few years, you could make millions. Oh, but wait: You can’t. Facebook isn’t a public company. The only people who can invest in it already are millionaires. The hot IPO [...]
Tags:dotcoms·finance·investing·IPO·pre-IPO·Silicon Valley·startups
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango & Entrepreneurial Advisor Too many entrepreneurs treat their start-ups like Hollywood relationships: the affair begins with a lot of passion, is great for headlines, and might even lead to deals, but as soon as things get a little rocky — or something better comes along — the [...]
Tags:business·business plan·Deadpool·dotcoms·entrepreneurs·entrepreneurship·exit strategy·Google·Inc·IPO·Jack Stack·Silicon Valley·SRC Holdings·start ups·TechCrunch·Twitter·Wall Street·Web 2.0·YouTube
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC Over my fifteen years of working in website development, I’ve encountered some bizarre and fascinating characters rivaled only by the people who gravitate to show business. Here are just a few I’ve met — perhaps you recognize some of them?…
Tags:dotcoms·Flash·satire·Silicon Valley·spoof·Twitter·Web 2.0·web design·web development
The late Senator Ted Stevens was roundly mocked for his comment that the Internet was a “series of tubes.” Now, there were many reasons to ridicule venal Ted, but his analogy wasn’t that off the mark. Yes, it was technically wrong, but many Web 2.0 companies share the same purpose as public utilities: they exist [...]
Tags:business·Facebook·Mark Zuckerberg·marketing·Napa Valley·Silicon Valley·Ted Stevens·utilities·Web 2.0
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC & Survivor of Multiple Dotcoms So I’m walking through my neighborhood counting the foreclosure signs when I develop this mighty thirst. Fortunately, I find a lemonade stand run by an enterprising six-year-old named Zucky. Just as I’m about to pay $4 for a cup (obviously, Zucky [...]
Tags:business·dot-com·dotcoms·humor·new media·satire·Silicon Valley·social media·social networking·UGC·user generated content·VC·Web 2.0
Video site Stage6 got the deep-six and called it quits. This comes on the heels of the fire sale at Revver, which ultimately sold for $5 million — less than half of the original investment that was pumped into it. But these weren’t the first signs of an industry decimation…
Tags:advertising·branding·bust·differentiation·dotcom·entrepreneurship·marketing·online video·recession·Silicon Valley·Stage6·start ups·technology marketing·VC·venture capital·Veoh·Web 2.0·YouTube
Just thought I’d dash off a quick note to put a few recent media-business items in perspective. The first one you’ve heard about extensively; you might find these others somewhat amusing… Microsoft’s offer for Yahoo!: $44.6 billion Oil company Exxon’s profit for just the 4th quarter of 2007: $11.7 billion State of California’s budget deficit: [...]
“I’m so full of action, my name should be a verb.” – Big Daddy Kane I meet far too many dotcom execs and entrepreneurs who claim marketing isn’t necessary. “Just look at Google,” they tell me with smug grins. True, Google never spent a dollar on advertising their world-dominating search engine, but they did perpetrate [...]
Tags:branding·business·Chrome·Google·marketing·mission statement·naming·search·search engines·Silicon Valley·technology marketing
"Common sense is the little man in a gray suit who never makes a mistake at addition, but it's always someone else's money he's adding up."
- Raymond Chandler
Let's hear it for uncommon sense: that inner itch that inspires you to stray from the herd, ditch the training wheels and leap into the fast lane. As we all know, it's the risk takers who get their faces on the cover of Wired magazine and their words on National Public Radio. No one ever remembers who won "honorable mention"...
Cool Rules Pronto celebrates uncommon sense in marketing and media. It's written by Freddy J. Nager, the Founder of the L.A.-based creative strategy agency Atomic Tango LLC, and marketing instructor at UCLA Extension and Robert Kennedy College of Zurich, Switzerland.
