iAdam

The vast majority of mankind is based on a few basic defining natural characteristics

We are all: Lazy, horny, cheap, full of ego, voyeurs, gossips, lonely, and can’t stop searching for something to help us fill that void, that pit within our souls.

If you want your startups to succeed, use these defining characteristics.

For example:

You help people find sex (Facebook or even Songpop and some Youtube)

You help people feed their ego (Facebook or even Twitter or Instagram and some Youtube)

You help people save money (Facebook or even Fiverr and Zappos or DX and some Youtube)

You help people stay lazy (Facebook or even Fiverr or GetTaxi and some Youtube)

You allow people to feed their voyeurism (Facebook and YouTube)

You help people to brag or talk bullshit (Facebook, Tumblr, Wordpress and some Youtube)

You help people to gossip (Well duh…  and some Youtube)

You help people not to be lonely (Facebook, Friendfinder, Jdate and some Youtube)

You help people search for something (Google and… well… Facebook)

Basically, if you’d look at it, in almost EVERY successful startup out there, the main reason for their success lies in one or more of these defining characteristics of mankind.

Think about it…  

1. When you come to the age of 35+ and you’ve been engaging the online sphere for over 15 years, you come with a lot of knowhow. “You’ve been around” as they say, and you hold a lot of abilities. But, in the eyes of the VCs and the common angels, you’re not sexy anymore. You’re old.

“That’s it! ! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes, on this motherfucking plane!”, shouts Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) in one of the dumbest movies ever to be produced; “Snakes On Plane”.

Well, in a more subtle way I will rephrase his wording to this:  

Where’s the finesse? Where have the gentlemen of this world gone to? It seems to me that just as the Kodak camera film has passed on from the world and we are all now use to digital cameras, so has the majority of online entrepreneurs and angels. They all lost their finesse, subtle and gentleman manners for their conduct of business.

I am sorry, but I don’t want to be any place near unsubtle people. I am a very powerful man, some may say too powerful, a bulldozer as some colleague described me, but still, I am a gentleman and my business integrity is intact. I am the kind of person who will leave an extra 5% on the table just to keep everyone happy. I am the kind of person who will never steal, rob, or stick a knife in one’s back so I would take home an extra dollar.

The hell with it, money comes and goes. The only thing a man has in his life is his name. That’s it. After all the monies, the assets, possessions etc. all a man has is his name. I will not sell my name for any amount of money, just as I will never sell my soul. I am what I am. If you wish to deal with me, you need to also deal with the fact that I am a straight forward guy. I am honest and you will never be able to get me tag along when you try to screw someone over.

So why am I writing this?
Well, it occurs to me lately that many online angels forgot what being an angel is all about. There are no more gentlemen, just plain simple people who found out about this cool world called the Interwebz and think that if they hold a slick iPhone, a Mac and an iPad, they too turn to this “new edge” kind of slick persons and businessmen. Sorry folks, this is far from the truth. You are all playing it wrong.

Being nice is not a weakness. Being nice is powerful. The nicer you are, the powerful you are. The gentlemen you are, the powerful you are. The generous you are, the powerful you are. Being tight fisted, asshole, with no manners means you are a weak man. A small man.

Here’s an example: An entrepreneur that I like and think highly of, met this “angel”. He pitch this angel his concept and the angel liked it. For weeks this angel asked him to attend meetings so that they’ll “polish” the concept. When they finally reached the point of moving forward. The angel “spread his wings” and…disappear. Just like that. With no word, the guy “vanished” from the face of the earth. A gentleman would have called to explain why he decided to back down on the deal. A man with a scent of finesse would have invite this cool young entrepreneur and tell him the truth to his face. But this angel, is a weak soft man with no manners. He just disappeared.

I am sick and tired of people treating other people as if they’re not to be considere. I am tired of people treating people with disdain based on the fact that side A needs Side’s B money.

Money is just money. There are tons of monies out there. There are less and less gentlemen. Find a gentleman to deal with. You’ll know one when you’ll see one.

And remember, be careful of snakes…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV24FN4rDzE

Here’s a thought for you folks to open the week with…

In the past month I’ve been searching all over for a new concept. Something that I could sink my teeth in to. A whole new cool idea that will be solid enough for a startup. I’m not looking for just yet another “cool something”. It has to be something that will WOW me enough so I would be ready to jump in on it with full power.   

So I’ve start searching for this cool idea when finally, a few days ago, my queue on Mailbox arrived. Full of curiosity I launched the app and then it hit me… God damn! It was under our noses…

Mailbox is Clear for the inbox.

Touché to the Mailbox team. They followed the most important milestone in searching for a new idea:

Don’t think of inventing the wheel, paint the wheel, twist it a bit and market it the right way.

Attention gold diggers. The gold rush is back!

I don’t know how many of you folks read about the New Jersey bill that was signed yesterday, but If you’ve missed it, here are few lines that will get you rolling:

New Jersey governor Chris Christie yesterday signed a bill that will make online gambling legal in the state. The New Jersey state Senate and Assembly both approved a new version of the bill, which Christie submitted with changes after vetoing an earlier version, and Christie has now signed it into law.

The bill only allows Atlantic City casino companies to take online bets, although the Wall Street Journal believes that those casinos will partner with overseas companies that provide services for online gambling, potentially opening up a bigger market. Furthermore, the bill will allow betters from other states to gamble online, so long as regulators determine that the activity isn’t prohibited by any federal or state laws.

Online gambling is back. If you can close a deal with an offline casino within the boundaries of Jersey, you now can market online gambling to US citizens. Dude, this will spike the points on the market, let alone jump the media costs on all the GAMING industry. Zynga just announced that they will start accepting REAL money on their Zynga poker tables. The carnival is back… If you hold US casino data, you maybe sitting on a pile of cash. This of course true only if your data is YOUR data and only if you can close media deals.

Yep, the whole industry is about to shift to a CPM model instead of CPA due to the fact that now, in order for you to be an online affiliate for an online US casino, you need to invest…get this: $500k just  to receive a license. But still, if you’re willing to play by the rules, media deals are fantastic! You can make a killing on a monthly basis.

The good times are back? Maybe so…