Middle Market Deals and how to buy, sell and raise capital from $5 to $500 million

Yesterday, I prepared the post regarding Firepoll using YouTube, which I have used in the post for including videos in my blogs.  Just before I posted the final version, I read on Fred Wilson's blog his post about his son's band, including a video clip he'd posted using Vimeo.

I was previously unaware of Vimeo.  The service is comparable in many ways to YouTube.  I noted that the enrollment and uploading process was as easy as YouTube with an advantage or two.  For instance, the video can be viewed on Vimeo immediately in its original format during the flash conversion period.  On YouTube, it can take hours for a video to be viewable as it is converted.  I also like the flah player on Vimeo better than the one on YouTube.

On the other hand, after I pasted the HTML code into my blog post for the viewer, I could not get it to work.  While I suspect there was user error involved, I've never had this problem with YouTube it works.  Ultimately, I had to post the video to YouTube and use the YouTube flash player for the Firepoll video to make it work.

If you blog, you need to read Fred Wilson's post and the massive accumulation of comments on his blog about moderating comments there. (Note: Photo is of Fred at the Phoenician on Sunday.)

His problem arises, in part, because he uses a platform that doesn't feature an automatic spam comment filter.  Know More Media uses Movable Type for its blogs and it does have an automatic spam filter. 

When I started blogging, I couldn't even imagine what spam comments would be, but if your blog accepts comments without moderation or filters, they'll show up.

The range of views on this topic surprised me.  One thing is clear, readers like to post comments.  So, what do you think?

A discussion is raging on the web among bloggers who have an opinion about Advisory Capitalists.

First, let me tell you what I think is meant by this new term.  I believe it is intended to represent a group of people who have become powerful (my word) in the web 2.0 economy by being early adopters of new technologies, specifically by blogging and networking on-line.   They have developed genuine expertise and influence in an emerging industry--expertise and influence that previously was found primarily among venture capitalists whose money garnered them their power.  Advisory capitalists do not contribute capital, but provide that power and influence that venture capitalists traditionally do.

By extension, the label of "advisory capitalist" can be applied to any advisor, consultant, guru or guide who provides, under any basis of compensation, assistance or advice to early stage businesses.

Buzz is growing about another Web 2.0 property, YouTube, a video file sharing site (watch a sample here).  Fred Wilson posts a great defense of the business concept today. 

Like so many web properties, there are questions being raised about copyright protection, but I don't see how anyone could doubt the viability of YouTube after the success of flickr.

It is the very essence of the evolution of the web into a more fully interactive, collaborative, democratic environment that makes YouTube so exciting.  We have long lived in an environment where anyone could create video; now we live in a world where one can share it, too!  This is going to be big.

The web is rapidly becoming what some have envisioned for years and the rest of us just didn't understand.

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures asked an interesting question in his post today about whether people or technology should come first in building a scalable venture.  I think he intended the question to refer to whether or not the technology consumer should drive the design or the technology developer. 

In direct response the question he asks, I suspect that examples of people driven and technology driven successes--both--abound.

A more interesting question might be, "which is more important, the entrepreneur or the technology?"  I have met some incredible technologists in my experience, but some wouldn't be able to lead themselves out of a wet paper bag if their technology were in there with them!