Starting Up by Rahul Pathak

I’m on a panel about tools for microstock contributors at the UGC Expo in San Jose in Feb. If you’re in town then and want to chat microstock photography, let me know. I’ll be speaking about LookStat.

Another photo from my walk tonight of boats moored on Lake Union.

I was out walking the dog with my camera in hand and caught the sun setting over the Fremont Bridge. I love how the clouds are glowing.

Newsweek’s behind the scenes look at the election is fascinating reading and one thing that popped into my head as I was reading it tonight was the role of measurement & self-evaluation:

For the first two debates, the Obama campaign asked members of focus groups to turn dials to measure their response to the candidates. Every time Obama seemed to quarrel with McCain, or even criticize him, his readings went down. For the third debate, the word went out: no “Crossfire”-type wrangling. The Obama campaign had been bracing for attacks on his relationship to Bill Ayers for months (in the spring, focus groups had been assembled to gauge how those attacks would play to the public). The format of the third debate brought the two candidates almost side by side, seated at a table, so Obama would have a more difficult time keeping his distance. But he prepared, as always, to keep his cool. In rehearsal, Craig-as-McCain was so over the top in his efforts to bait Obama that both men dissolved into giggles at one point. But at other times, Obama allowed himself to get angry. Later, when he watched a video of the rehearsal, he saw himself and vowed: no shouting, no talking over McCain. A little subtle needling might be permissible.

None of us should ever make the mistake of thinking that we don’t need feedback or that we won’t benefit from a critical evaluation of our performance.

Fall is gorgeous (and DSLRs are fun to play with)

I spotted this tree while driving around the Olympic Peninsula and had to stop to take a picture. Fall rocks.

Fall Foliage

The official blog for Lookstat is at http://blog.lookstat.com and has a screenshot and some thoughts on security. Casey & I will be posting regularly there and I’ll be linking over from time to time from here.

We’ve been working hard on a web platform for microstock photographers and we have a beta version available at www.lookstat.com

The site is designed to help photographers and digital artists track how they are doing online, analyze their performance and ultimately automate their workflow.

It’s in it’s infancy at the moment, but following the release early and often philosophy we’re putting what we have out there. Feedback as always would be much appreciated. If you know of microstock photographers, please send them my way.

UPDATED:

Looks like I’ve missed the boat on this one. See the comments and also the article from three days before the one below sent to me by a friend. Spitz, once the star, upset over Beijing snub.

I clearly need to stick to topics where I have somewhat of a clue.

“I never got invited. You don’t go to the Olympics just to say, I am going to go. Especially because of who I am,” Spitz told AFP in Hong Kong.

“I am going to sit there and watch Michael Phelps break my record anonymously? That’s almost demeaning to me. It is not almost—it is.”

Original Post

Mark Spitz says it much better than I will:

“Listen, this has lasted for 36 years,” Spitz told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Thursday. “It’s a long time. It’s about time that somebody else takes the throne. And I’m very happy for him. I really truly am.

“Somebody once told me that greatness is a manner of measure which others judge themselves by,” Spitz said. “And I think if Michael has judged his dreams by something that I have done, then I take that as a compliment — and I’m willing and ready, and so excited for him.”

It’s rare that you see people so graceful as they watch others prepare to surpass their achievements.

Source: Spitz on Phelps - TODAY in Beijing - MSNBC.com

Fred Wilson has a great post up about macro trends and their impact on VC and startups. The paragraph that jumped out at me was the following:

And I don’t think the startup economy and venture capital is immune to this new reality.

So what should we do about it? Well first, we need to be careful with valuations. If financial assets are going to be subject to downward pressure then inflated valuations will not be sustainable. We need to be careful with the amount of money we invest and burn. Companies that are capital efficient and cash flow positive will fare better in this environment. And we need to be prepared to wait a long time for liquidity.

In my mind, the critical challenge facing anyone starting a company is how to get it to be self-sustaining as quickly as possible while using as little capital as possible along the way. Balancing growth with capital conservation is a great example of the line that needs to be walked between goals that can seem to be in opposition to each other. I’ll write more about this particular issue in another post because it comes up again and again. In the meanwhile, good luck with your respective businesses.