Jason Calacanis recently penned a post titled "Startup Handbook: How to identify and deal with the slow masses, knowledgeable skeptics, and savvy dreamers." In the post, Calacanis explains that the reason no one understands Mahalo, his human-written Web directory, is because it's just that good of an idea. In his words:
Instead of computers, Jason Calacanis's Mahalo Web directory depends on entirely on humans to make sure its listings are accurate. Calacanis contends that humans are cheaper than servers and more accurate, too. Good theory, but here's the problem: computers only rise up against you in science fiction. Humans? Yeah, they ask for more all the time. One such fleshy Web crawler says Mahalo hasn't paid him enough for the work he's done. As a result, he plans to sue.
When YouTube came out, you had to know YouPorn and PornTube were just around the corner. But perhaps you didn't see the porn version of Twitter, er, coming? I didn't. But there it is: Boobik. Which is somehow not named Titter. Here's a promise: When Calacanis starts Boobiking, we'll make sure you're the first to know.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin collectively own 57,806,476 shares of Google stock. One month ago, Google's stock was trading at $710.84 — putting Larry and Sergey's combined holdings at $41.1 billion. That'll buy you a few party planes, right? Not so fast. In the past month, Google's stock has fallen almost every day, with the biggest drop coming today. The one-day loss for Larry and Sergey? Almost $2.5 billion, bringing their total losses to $10 billion in just under a month. I guess I won't complain about the $120 I lost at the poker tables with Jason Calacanis last month. (Photo by AP/Ben Margot)
If you hadn't noticed, I got married and went on a honeymoon. Did you miss me? Apparently so. Gizmodo gets banned from CES. Golson asks Calacanis for a job. Our very special correspondent pickets against the new pay system. Where was Denton with the "too insidery" warnings? Oh that's right, blogging for Gawker. Here's what really happened during the first two weeks of 2008, according to a speed-read of my feeds. On my next honeymoon, I'm bringing a laptop.
What a week! On my first trip to Vegas and the Consumer Electronics Show, I survived harassment by bulldog aficionado Jason Calacanis, discovered that HP adman Jay-Z uses a Mac, and laughed at Richard Blakeley's TV-B-Gone prank. Now we hear that he's been banned from the show. It could be worse. He could be behind bars...
Commenter beng asked the question about CES's two-tier journalist passes that I wondered, too: "What is the difference between the blogger badge and the press badge, and does that mean that even Engadget and Gizmodo get blogger badges?" Gizmodo editor Brian Lam is toting a Press badge, just like Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis. Our own Jordan Golson has been tagged a "Blogger." Hey Jordan: Besides a separate lounge with espresso and cookies, what other perks does a Press pass get you that a Blogger badge doesn't? Just login and let Calacanis answer again, that was hilarious.
With the stock market in a tailspin, blog blowhard Jason Calacanis dismisses any impact a possible recession would have on his own startup, Mahalo: "No, no layoffs. That's why I raised 5 years of funding. Mahalo is recession proof ... will execute on plan based on goals not market." By recession-proof, Calacanis must mean his startup, dependent on advertising and prone to overspending on trivial tasks, will lose money for years, recession or not. [Twitter]
It's not every day that a Silicon Valley titan is cast into 5.375" of plastic. Marketing guru Seth Godin unearthed the real secret to self-evangelist success: Get yourself turned into an action figure. There's no better way to promote your name than to sell yourself for a mere $8.95 to every wannabe entrepreneur looking for a false idol to consult. Oddball toy store Archie McPhee has recreated Godin's baldpated goodness, complete with mismatched socks and a Little Book of Marketing Secrets. If only it carried the full line of self-promotional cultmongers, we'd finally be able to pit Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Jason Calacanis, and Robert Scoble against one another in a battle for biggest ego — right before Megatron decapitates them.
Jason Calacanis's Mahalo has a problem: its business model is a Catch-22. Mahalo differentiates itself from Web search engines by using the paid services of humans, which Calacanis argues is a cheaper strategy than buying servers. And yet Mahalo seems to have trouble paying the rates it set for its human laborers. A blogger who works for Mahalo as a "mentor" — a fancy title for someone who basically works as a QA tester, reviewing pages of search results created by others, is complaining that Mahalo is refusing to pay the full amount he is owed.
You know that old story about how the English and German soldiers sang carols to each other from the trenches on Christmas Eve? Then the next day they went back to killing each other? The Valleywag staff dipped into the eggnog and got all feel-nicey about five people we've picked on all year. Each of them, we decided weepily, taught us something about humanity. And that was before the drinking started. Quick, read it before we wake up with a hell-hangover and delete the whole thing.
