Pay To Pitch, Yahoo in India and Warren Buffet’s One-Day Schedule

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Aren't startups pay to present at DEMO? Or any similar conferences? What's the fuss is all about?


Startup Scam: Paying to Pitch Puts Power Players on the Warpath
Over the weekend, the blogosphere has seen a small but profound eruption of wrath over angel investor groups that charge startups to pitch them. Jason Calacanis' blog post on the topic, wherein he went as far as calling out these groups by name and posting each group's pricetag, inspired "me too" posts from Fred Wilson and Robert Scoble. All parties seem to be in agreement that the practice is despicable and should be stopped. But like every hustle that preys on the gullible or less talented, pay-to-play pitching models will be perpetuated until made illegal, and no amount of blog posts will shame these investors into changing their behavior. So, should these scams be made illegal?

I get little skeptical whenever a web company buys advertisements so heavily in print media. Why it took so long time for Yahoo to realize that internet is around You!


Yahoo Buys Full Page Front Page Ad In Times Of India

India’s largest English-language newspaper, the Times of India, has an interesting print edition front page today – a huge yellow advertisement for Yahoo’s It’s You campaign first announced last month. You can view the print version here.


This is ridiculous. May be we have to consider the really long term investor is shorting on human capital, not to think more than 24 hours at a time.


Warren Buffet on scheduling meetings

I recently heard about Warren Buffet’s approach to scheduling meetings. I can’t confirm this is true (I’ve never met him), but I hear from a reputable source that he usually doesn’t set up meetings more than a day in advance. If someone wants to see him, they are told to call and set up the meeting when they can see him tomorrow. So if you want to meet with him next Friday, you call on Thursday and say “Can I see Mr. Buffet tomorrow?” I love the simplicity of the rule: I can see you today if you asked me yesterday, but I can’t fill up my schedule any further in advance. This way he can determine how he wants to spend his time within the context of the next 24 hours instead of booking things weeks or months in the future. Now his schedule is relevant instead of prescient.

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