Swacle has closed down and this blog does not get updated anymore. The main post that remains of interest is the one in which we described not getting into a TechCrunch competition back in August 2009, it seems people continue to read it often enough. We’re keeping this blog online to make sure that post remains a resource for other entrepreneurs.
Fee Fie Foe Fum
We’re suspending Swacle’s commercial launch for a while. The site is done and will operate in a closed Beta environment, but we can’t launch commercially yet due to financial difficulties.
In the meantime this blog will continue to cover barter industry developments on a regular basis. I’ve been following the barter sector for the past year now and over the next couple of months will publish three industry overviews about online barter activity, sharing some of what we’ve learned.
My first post in this series will be about the current state of B2B barter, meaning the big ‘business to business’ trade exchanges. The second will be about the first wave of online consumer barter, which started around 2005 and consisted of companies like Lala, Peerflix and Zunafish. The third and final post in this series will be about the current trend of online consumer barter activity.
To put it all in perspective, I like to think back and remember that once upon a time… Jack traded a cow in exchange for five magic beans…
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Story of Stuff
This video is lots of fun. A bit long and harsh on our consumer-driven culture, but definitely worth it. The video uses a great quote from economist Victor LeBeau:
“Our enormously productive economy… demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satifaction, our ego satisfaction in consumption.”
If you’re curious but don’t want to spend 20 minutes on it, watch the video on The Story of Stuff Project website, where it’s interactive and you can skip between sections.
The Rise of the Real Mom
A fascinating new white paper recently published by AdAge and JWT focuses on today’s moms ages 18-44, clearly stating “women with children still handle the bulk of the household and child-care responsibilities”. It’s just amazing to see how much more women still do in the home:
The high concentration of yellow dots on the upper right of this matrix is annoying… In any case, the paper’s writers Marissa Miley and Ann Mack focus on how marketers should communicate with today’s women: “…the second half of this decade has brought a backlash against the mythical Supermom—that hyperactive Type-A personality who whips up perfect cookies and perfect children—and an embrace of the likable, more relatable real mom, who doesn’t obsess over the little things. Spilled milk? No problem.”
They talk about economizing, quoting one of their interview subjects as saying “cheap is chic.” And they examine women using the internet to shop: ” Not surprisingly, they are turning to the internet to make purchases. In the free moments after they put the kids to bed, for example, they’ll hop online and visit highly targeted female and/or social-networking websites to check out the latest trends or deals.”
We thank AdAge for allowing us to post this. Click here to read the entire document, it’s an excellent read.
Wonder Woman vs. Captain America
By Daniella Alpher
I’ve dedicated much of the past nine months to observing business activity in secondary markets, past and present. I now find myself absolutely fascinated by the eBay vs. Craigslist trial which started last week. EBay acquired 28% of Craigslist in 2004 but claims that in 2007 Craigslist improperly diluted eBay’s interest to 24% – essentially throwing out eBay’s member from Craigslist’s board, as that required a minimum stake of 25%. Craigslist in tern counter-sued claiming eBay used its investment in Craigslist to help Kijiji.
Numerous interesting interactions are playing out in court as a result of these disagreements because the leaders of these two companies are publicly testifying. These are all people I have been admiring from afar: I read books about them, articles about them, their blogs, their Tweets, watch video clips… anything I can get a hold of to learn about their work. So it’s terribly disconcerting to see them all fighting amongst themselves. I look at Meg Whitman, Pierre Omidyar, Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster all taking the stand but what I see is Wonder Woman, Superman, Spiderman and Captain America. I imagined them as being the good guys, together defending that beautiful flea market in the sky… They’re my heroes, they’re not supposed to be arguing with each other.
Anyway. In terms of interesting specifics, as far as I can tell following from my laptop in Tel Aviv (while emitting personal attacks aimed at Wonder Woman):
- Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster revealed last week that Yahoo, Salon, Bertelsmann, Google, Warburg Pincus and Kleiner Perkins all spoke to him back in 2004 either about acquiring a share of Craigslist, or all of it.
- After attending just his first two Craigslist board meetings, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar asked to be replaced. Omidyar testified that he was disappointed to see Craigslist’s management wasn’t looking for ways the two companies can work together. Which probably says it all.
Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist’s CEO, posted this on Craigslist’s official blog before the trial started and his blog post contains a useful link to Craigslist’s pre-trial brief. The only noteworthy Tweet I can find from one of my superheros is Pierre Omidyar’s, who posted this complaint the night before he testified: “One of the things I am most annoyed by is finding out in the evening that I have to wake up earlier than I thought the next day.” Turns out Superman’s not a morning person.
Brooks-Keret
We haven’t been blogging details about raising funds, mostly because of a fear of jinxing it. It’s one thing to mention an open event – a competition or a conference – but detailing people’s specific interaction with us is another. Isabelle and I set up meetings all the time with angel investors, industry executives and various facilitators. They graciously agree to meet with us, voice their opinions and introduce us to others. It wouldn’t be right to write about them without asking for permission, which simply isn’t a priority right now.
However we’d like to make an exception in the case of Brooks-Keret, as it’s looking for people to know about its activities and we can definitely recommend.
Brooks-Keret is an Israeli firm which provides financial management solutions. Lots of companies and startups outsource their entire financial activities to BK, which handles everything from financial planning to monthly paychecks. It’s managed by Gil Keret and Oren Brooks. I was introduced to Gil by my friend Samantha Talpir.
One of the great facilitations Brooks-Keret has started organizing is a monthly angels’ panel. The panel consists of 3-5 angel investors and we had the good fortune of presenting to it earlier this month. To be honest I don’t remember much because it flew past me so quickly… We had 20 minutes but they felt more like 2… It took place at their offices in a big meeting room; I have a faint memory of about 15 people seated around their conference table, all very intimidating except for the reassuring smile of Carmit Oron, BK’s Marketing Manager who is also a saint. I hooked Isabelle in via Skype and opened our slides. We presented, they asked questions and gave us feedback. Then Carmit whisked me out to give way to the next scheduled entrepreneur.
Our presentation went well and it’s a great initiative. Beyond that we don’t want to say anything else so as not to jinx it…
A Swacle Survey For Parents
We have a new survey available online. It won’t take more than five minutes. Please help us if you are a parent, or about to be one, by filling it out.
Click here to take the Swacle survey.
Thank you!
