Don's comments

Entrepreneurs need to have thick skin and not let rejection bother them. Rejection by VCs hurts sometimes. But, we should put it in context. That is why I used our own stock / mutual fund selection process as an example. We rejst lots of good opportunities too.
on Why VCs say NO 99% of the time

Startup success is a balancing act. As both David and Ezra point out it is a balance between confidence and arrogance,strength and stubborness, vision vs listening, and a hundred other things. The founder is like a great chef. Two chefs can use all the same ingredients to bake a cake, but one is moist and tasty and the other is dry and different. Why? The balance of ingredients was different, the cooking time may have been different, the cooking tempurature may have been different. All the same ingredients...but a different outcome. That is what makes building a successful startup so difficult.
on Success is a terrible teacher

Bambi, Thanks for your comment and insight. You are doing a great job with VatorNews. I like the way you link to "related companies and entrepreneurs" like Jeremy and Fred above. The "Related news" story of Richard Rosenblatt is also a perfect compliment to this post. Well done! It is clear that you have learned many lessons from reporting on startups over the years. It is always less painful when you can learn from others mistakes.
on Success is a terrible teacher

Matthias, One of my favorite expressions is "The next big thing will be the old thing done in a new way". I think that is what you are saying here. Google did many things well, but the two really important things were 1)making search results more relevant, and 2) making text advertisements relevant to the search query. It was teh ad relevancy that made them all the money. Yet, Google hasn't been able to figure out how to monetize YouTube. It is just too random. Then of course there is the copyright problem...
on Does Web 2.0 = Bubble 2.0?

Bambi, I agree on the niche site point. If the site is focused on a valuable niche audience the advertisers will pay much higher CPMs. Too many sites are random collections of user generated content that is very difficult to monetize. A couple hundred thousand page views from a valuable niche audience can make a lot of money. The key is to find the advertisers who value the niche audience.
on Does Web 2.0 = Bubble 2.0?

Relevant ads are useful, interesting, and work well for both the advertiser and the reader. The problem is relevancy. Search engine ads are easy because we have a search term to work with, and because teh user is in "search" mode looking for information. CPM display ads are much more difficult. The reader is in "passive" mode...not search mode. Second, it is really hard to match relevant ads with the content. When we get to the point where we can match ads to teh specific user..not the content they are looking at, then CPM display ads will be very powerful. Interestingly, I think the social networks and all the fun apps are really at the core, collecting attention data and profile data that can be used to better target ads to people rather than content.
on Does Web 2.0 = Bubble 2.0?