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Inspired by Kaka

Milan's Brazilian superstar Kaka just rejected $700K per week in wages to stay at his club, turning down a transfer bid from Manchester City.  It is a truly inspiring move and I had to mention it.  And, it's not entirely unrelated to this blog's main themes.

I try to focus my blog on value creation.  Wrongly, value creation is solely associated with transaction value.  However, time plays a tricky role in calculating the total value of any deal.  With his decision to stay at Milan,, I think Kaka's made the value maximizing choice for his career.

Turkish Site on Searchblog

It's not everyday that John Battelle writes about a Turkish company, so this one's worthwhile.  Apparently, a Turkish Flash game site called Oyuncambazi.com (no link!) has been comment-spamming John's blog.  He finally blogged about it and given his high high authority on Google, this post is now the second organic return for a search on "oyuncambazi".

This is really amusing as I hate comment-spam, which costs me a couple of minutes a day, even with my low trafic blog!

Facebook: Leading or Following?

Readers of this blog know that I am a big fan of Facebook.  FB has truly changed the way a lot of people manage their relationships and share information.

What's been unique about FB is that they approached their business as a technology company, as opposed to a media company.  They identified the potential problems and tackled them through technology solutions.  They imagined the "newsfeed" and that has now been the default approach to online representation of people's lives.

Now there's news that Facebook is preparing to implement a Friend-feed like presence representation tool.  What I don't like about this is the lack of innovation involved.  So far, FB has broken new ground in every area they'd touched.  I wonder if the company's size is beginning to effect their innovaton.  Google had passed through these post start-up staged without comprimising its technology DNA.  I hope FB is able to do the same.

Corporate VC

Today I had a meeting with someone who works at a Corporate VC firm, which invests capital from the balance sheet of the corporation.

Historically, I had thought corporate VC's are a bit disadvantaged, since it's very difficult for the professionals to be compensated in the same way as VCs with a typical GP/LP structure.  Their compensation resembles business developement teams more than investment managers.  I am generalizing as I am sure there are exceptions.

However, this particular firm I met with just approved the same investment budget for 2009 that they invested in 2008.  This is very interesting at a time when many VC funds are haggling with their LPs and facing uncertain prospects.  I am sure that the 2009 budget for this firm will have significantly higher purchasing power than the same amount they invested in 2008.  This could be a huge advantage.

It should be interesting to watch leading corporate VC firms like Steamboat Ventures and Intel Capital through this recession.

PS. There was also talk of Google formalizing its VC activity.  I had not heard much about that lately...

Back to Blogging

I have been having a tough time blogging lately.  A few weeks ago I made a resolution to blog shorter and more frequently, and so far, I have failed at this.  Maybe it's because I have developed a certain style of writing and can not shift that easily.

It also definitely has to do with my work schedule.  The downturn in the market has caused us at iLab Ventures to focus more intently on our portfolio and I am now involved at a higher level with the operations across the portfolio.

Nevertheless, blogging has been a critical tool for me in doing my job.  It helps me track my thoughts across many facets and participate in the global conversation on venture investing.  As my posts decline, I feel I am missing out on a part of that conversation.

So, once again, I resolve to blog more frequently.  I am also considering blogging in Turkish from time to time.  It makes a lot of sense to blog in the native language of my home and principal target market. I will have to see if it feels natural.