Magnify.net Blog
Bay area road trip!
February 22, 2007 - Steve Rosenbaum
This week - it's back to back west coast, and east coast - with a red eye in between.
Monday, Presidents Day, Chris Foss and I had lunch at Boccadillos - a really wonderful tapas restaurant. Chris is the designer whose work you seen on the new Magnify.net home page, logo, and a number of the interior pages. Though we've been working together for months, we'd never met face to face. In addition to having a great time, it's worth remembering that the internet - for all its ability to connect us - doesn't' replace breaking bread and hanging out with someone and getting to brainstorm across the table. Chris is very cool, and his next stop will be video home pages and the player toolbar, so expect to seen some refinements there in the upcoming weeks.
Tuesday was a day of driving, meeting with secret unnamed sources, and getting to put the finishing touches on our first San Francisco team member - whose going to be heading up west coast BD. Who -you ask? Ah, soon. But can't let the cat out of the bag just yet. I will say that I'd never been to one infinite loop before, but was pretty glad to be parking in that lot. (ok, we didn't have a meeting at Apple, just nearby). Next stop Google, to check in and share an update on the Magnify.net amazing growth in the past month. We've just passed a million video views a week, and things are really growing dramatically now. Yikes!
Back at the hotel, i have to say that the view of the city by the bay (as corny as the phrase is) is pretty fab. 
Tons of NY emails, skype calls, and follow up with new Channel Producers. The phone hasn't stopped ringing since DEMO, and a lot of time out in SF was spent with folks interested in participating in growing the platform. Once we've got specifics, you'll be the first to know. Late afternoon we stopped in Palo Alto for coffee and a visit with Mark Yi from Intel. Having just spent the past 48 hours talking about the evolution of content, user participation, and the digital living room - it's interesting that there's really no consensus at all on how the chips may fall (ouch - pun). Dinner was with Scott Swanson from Vitrue. I've become quite a fan of Reggie Bradford, and watching Vitrue build a team and sharpen it's focus on User-Generated Advertising is pretty impressive. Who says the 'space' is crowded, the folks at Vitrue prove there are so many niches and core services that need to be built. I hope we end up working with them.
Wednesday morning a parade of mystery finance meetings, and then coffee with Toby Gabriner from our esteemed Advisory Board. Toby may be the smarted person i know - when it comes to the future of advertising. For all the people that are staring in crystal balls, Toby and x+1 are just flat out building it.
Ok - now the crazy part. SFO to LAX to PHL. That's road warrior speak for a hop to LA, then a Red Eye to Philly for Thursday am. It's ironic that for all the apologizing that Jet Blue is doing, United doesn't seem to have that problem. By the time i got to the gate, there were hundreds of angry customers, and really no one willing to explain a thing. The counter folks seem to not know a thing, except that my 8:20 flight won't leave till 9:50, and I'll miss my connection to Philly. With some groveling, i get on the 4pm flight (now leaving at 8pm) and leave 50 people on stand by without a seat. Seems like missing my connection gets their attention. I make the mistake of asking not to be seated in a middle seat on the red eye since it's been booked for for weeks, and it's full fare. Behind the counter at LAX - they hardly care. Had i planned better, i would have made some time to see Jason Calacanis - a New York transplant who's missed in the NY Silicon Alley scene (such as it is). Hey - where are the parties?
7am - Philly. You know, there's very little that beats sleeping sitting up in a chair between two strangers. But coffee is our friend, And I'm off to the Next Stage Capital Limited Partners annual meeting. These guys co-led our round and getting to spend the day with the Limited Partners and the other portfolio companies was a gas.
From left to right: Terry Williams (NSC), Dan McKinney (NSC), , Steve Rosenbaum (Magnify.net), Robert S. Adams(NSC)
Monday, Presidents Day, Chris Foss and I had lunch at Boccadillos - a really wonderful tapas restaurant. Chris is the designer whose work you seen on the new Magnify.net home page, logo, and a number of the interior pages. Though we've been working together for months, we'd never met face to face. In addition to having a great time, it's worth remembering that the internet - for all its ability to connect us - doesn't' replace breaking bread and hanging out with someone and getting to brainstorm across the table. Chris is very cool, and his next stop will be video home pages and the player toolbar, so expect to seen some refinements there in the upcoming weeks.
Tuesday was a day of driving, meeting with secret unnamed sources, and getting to put the finishing touches on our first San Francisco team member - whose going to be heading up west coast BD. Who -you ask? Ah, soon. But can't let the cat out of the bag just yet. I will say that I'd never been to one infinite loop before, but was pretty glad to be parking in that lot. (ok, we didn't have a meeting at Apple, just nearby). Next stop Google, to check in and share an update on the Magnify.net amazing growth in the past month. We've just passed a million video views a week, and things are really growing dramatically now. Yikes!
Back at the hotel, i have to say that the view of the city by the bay (as corny as the phrase is) is pretty fab. Tons of NY emails, skype calls, and follow up with new Channel Producers. The phone hasn't stopped ringing since DEMO, and a lot of time out in SF was spent with folks interested in participating in growing the platform. Once we've got specifics, you'll be the first to know. Late afternoon we stopped in Palo Alto for coffee and a visit with Mark Yi from Intel. Having just spent the past 48 hours talking about the evolution of content, user participation, and the digital living room - it's interesting that there's really no consensus at all on how the chips may fall (ouch - pun). Dinner was with Scott Swanson from Vitrue. I've become quite a fan of Reggie Bradford, and watching Vitrue build a team and sharpen it's focus on User-Generated Advertising is pretty impressive. Who says the 'space' is crowded, the folks at Vitrue prove there are so many niches and core services that need to be built. I hope we end up working with them.
Wednesday morning a parade of mystery finance meetings, and then coffee with Toby Gabriner from our esteemed Advisory Board. Toby may be the smarted person i know - when it comes to the future of advertising. For all the people that are staring in crystal balls, Toby and x+1 are just flat out building it.
Ok - now the crazy part. SFO to LAX to PHL. That's road warrior speak for a hop to LA, then a Red Eye to Philly for Thursday am. It's ironic that for all the apologizing that Jet Blue is doing, United doesn't seem to have that problem. By the time i got to the gate, there were hundreds of angry customers, and really no one willing to explain a thing. The counter folks seem to not know a thing, except that my 8:20 flight won't leave till 9:50, and I'll miss my connection to Philly. With some groveling, i get on the 4pm flight (now leaving at 8pm) and leave 50 people on stand by without a seat. Seems like missing my connection gets their attention. I make the mistake of asking not to be seated in a middle seat on the red eye since it's been booked for for weeks, and it's full fare. Behind the counter at LAX - they hardly care. Had i planned better, i would have made some time to see Jason Calacanis - a New York transplant who's missed in the NY Silicon Alley scene (such as it is). Hey - where are the parties?
7am - Philly. You know, there's very little that beats sleeping sitting up in a chair between two strangers. But coffee is our friend, And I'm off to the Next Stage Capital Limited Partners annual meeting. These guys co-led our round and getting to spend the day with the Limited Partners and the other portfolio companies was a gas.
From left to right: Terry Williams (NSC), Dan McKinney (NSC), , Steve Rosenbaum (Magnify.net), Robert S. Adams(NSC)
