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Source:Valleywag

Jason Calacanis hired popular videoblogger Veronica Belmont back in July to host a daily show for his so-called “search engine” Mahalo, but nothing had emerged on the Mahalo Daily front since then. Finally, the video series is set to launch next week. What does a daily video podcast have to do with “curating quality links” to improve search engine results? Absolutely nothing, of course. But the bulldog-cute funtrepreneur has a plan nonetheless.

Calacanis realizes that if search isn’t putting butts in Aeron seats, he can always try to boost geeky traffic with popular entertainment. He lays this strategy bare by orchestrating the amusing Belmont through an unamusing series of popular video show parodies: Ze Frank, Rocketboom, Ask a Ninja, Tay Zonday, Diggnation, and Lonelygirl15. The only problem? Calacanis’s hamhanded directorial approach destroys Belmont’s charm. (On the bright side, there is a bulldog!) The parade of references to one-hit wonders of online video past is telling. All of them had buzz that quickly sputtered. Fortunately, talent will out. Mahalo may end up a flash in the pan, but Belmont’s star, we suspect, is only beginning to rise.

Source:Valleywag

Here it is, folks: Facebook’s thoroughly nonpalatial offices, courtesy of Silicon Alley Insider. For this, they’re paying $29,000 a month? And with this, they expect to woo Madison Avenue to a new ad platform? Good luck, Zuck!

Source:Valleywag

Read/WriteWeb is pondering what websites are worth. It starts off comparing Plentyoffish, the Canadian dating site, with Facebook. By the numbers? Facebook will have about 15 times Plentyoffish’s $10 million in revenues this year. So shouldn’t it be worth one-fifteenth as much as Facebook, or $1 billion?

Nonsense. Plentyoffish’s founder Markus Frind should be glad his site is doing so well, and that he doesn’t have to share his company with investors — or, for that matter, employees, since he runs it by himself. Read/WriteWeb dives deep into an argument about which site has better click-through rates. But that entirely misses the point. Facebook has to find a way to grow into its $15 billion valuation — a daunting task, even as its user rolls swell by more than a million a week. Frind doesn’t have to do anything but rake in the cash his site generates.

Maybe, possibly, he could find a venture capitalist willing to write a check that makes him a billionaire — and then, only on paper. But what would he need VC money for? Being cash-flow positive means never having to say you’re sorry. There’s a simple reason why Plentyoffish hasn’t garnered more attention: Silicon Valley is only interested in stories it can grab a piece of.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 7:10 pm and is filed under facebook, venture capital, PlentyofFish, Deals, Markus Frind. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.