At my old company, in my last year, we did some $3M in revenues (admittedly not much) but cleared $1.2M in EBITDA.  That 35% margin was pretty decent.  At my current company WatchMojo.com, I think we can break even by the second quarter of the year.  But that is not the norm amongst web companies:
Executives […]

Tags: Facebook.com, Internet & Web, Management, Startups|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Jun 9th

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Latest figures peg Apple’s revenues off the App ecosystem at a whopping $20-45M.  I should have added “quotation marks” to whopping to connote sarcasm.
Back in March 2008, when Facebook hype was at current “Twitteresque” levels and FB (and iPhone) app funds were popping up right and left, I asked Where’s The YouTube Fund.  Side note […]

Tags: Apple, Facebook.com, Financing, Internet & Web, Investing, IPOs, Video, YouTube|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | May 14th

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Seeing how Twitter’s every move is being scrutinized, it reminds me a lot of Facebook circa 2007-08.
Like Facebook, Twitter is essentially a communications tool.  But unlike email and chat, what Facebook and Twitter (as it continues to grow) are also navigation tools, look at the Top 10 beneficiaries of Twitter’s surging traffic:

And here is the […]

Tags: Email, Facebook.com, Internet & Web, Stat of the Day, Twitter, Uncategorized|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | May 14th

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I need to perhaps start to set the stage for some impending news, so I will be a tad more diplomatic in my observations on venture capitalists in the days, weeks and months to come… but I think venture capitalists don’t invest in companies or people, they ride trends.
Say all that you want: but Facebook […]

Tags: Entrepreneurship, Facebook.com, Financing, Internet & Web, Investing, IPOs, M&A, Management, Stat of the Day|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Apr 30th

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Navigation, Content and Communication
Google would be navigation, clearly they won that game.  They are now moving towards communications, with things like Gmail… but as email morphs into social networking, they are now moving into that space more and more.
This is why I think Google and Facebook are the real enemies or combatants in that space.
I […]

Tags: Email, Facebook.com, Internet & Web, MySpace, News Corp./FIM, Search Wars, Social Networking, Yahoo!|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Apr 29th

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AllFacebook asks: did Van Natta not have a (hey it rhymes!) non-compete?
Today MySpace has annoucned that Owen Van Natta, the ex-Chief Operating Officer of Facebook has been appointed the role of MySpace Chief Executive Officer. It’s approximately a year and two months after leaving Facebook and one has to wonder, did Owen Van Natta have […]

Tags: Facebook.com, Internet & Web, Legal Matters, MySpace, Social Networking|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Apr 24th

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Should Facebook launch an ad network?  I am just not sure.  Sure, they have lots of data on their users, and data is valuable, but isn’t this the Beacon disaster redux?
By the looks of it, everyone is launching an ad network these days, even Publishers Clearing House, who today announced it is launching the PCH […]

Tags: ad networks, Facebook.com, Internet & Web, Online Advertising|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Apr 21st

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Accel’s Jim Breyer is joining eBay’s board. I am not a major fan of VCs, admittedly, most are having a hard time running their own business, let alone giving sound advice to the businesses they invest in. 
But some VCs have managed to build their brand quite well, deservedly so, oftentimes through shrewd investments, sound […]

Tags: Accel, eBay, Entrepreneurship, Facebook.com, jim breyer, Management, Startups|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Apr 13th

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Hulu’s revenues, via Business Insider/Business Week/ScreenDigest:
Amel now thinks Hulu will make $120 million in ad sales this year, down one third from his previous estimate of $180 million. Amel says Hulu is only filling about 60% of its ad inventory, filling the rest with public service announcements.
YouTube’s quarterly losses, via Venture Beat:
Google increased its market […]

Tags: Facebook.com, Google, Hulu, Management, Online Advertising, YouTube|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Apr 1st

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Hmm…here we go again:
We’re seeing lots of investing activity around Twitter derivatives, namely Bit.ly raising $2M for a TinyURL clone…
Is it just me or did we see a lot of Facebook investing activity last year when Facebook got its nosebleed $15B valuation.
How did those fare?
Right, down about 80%.  But I’m sure Twitter is no Facebook.

Tags: Facebook.com, Financing, Internet & Web, M&A, Social Networking|
Posted By: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan | Mar 30th

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