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Articles: 1, 2, 3

Online Dating Is Alive And Kicking Butt
2007-10-28 18:47:00
What’s one reason that online dating is a great internet business? It’s one of the few online businesses that can charge its subscribers and where paying for a premium service is accepted. This is very much unlike most of today’s business that rely on ad revenue. This includes social networking communities, video watching, online radio, maps, dictionaries, and pretty much most services that the Internet has made commoditized and free. As a result, these sites have to hit traffic in the millions in order to be successful.Have these free services have an effect on the traffic of dating websites? Of course they did! But let me repeat myself, when you charge for a service, you don’t need traffic in the millions in order to be successful. JDate had an enterprise value of nearly $200 million last year with a premium subscriber base of 75,000. That’s right, not even 100,000 premium subscribers!And there’s more! Their revenues continue to rise. Are they rising in the triple digi...
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Spotting New Trends
2007-10-26 18:50:00
For those who think that there’s something taboo about online dating, check out the latest phenomenon of Second Life, which takes human interaction into a whole new dimension.I’ve been holding my tongue on this one, but it seems there’s no way to ignore it. Second Life is here to stay. For those unfamiliar with Second Life, it is a virtual world where users create their better halves called “avatars” and live, work, and play in a virtual world created by themselves and other users.Second Life has hit the airwaves on shows like NBC’s The Office and CBS’s CSI:NY. Its membership has ballooned into millions, and users spend hours upon hours creating their virtual selves, operating businesses, and dating other avatars. In fact, some users have gone on to marry as well as divorce other avatars.Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to date real people, but I’m probably not their target demographic.
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A New Lesson Learned
2007-10-25 05:45:00
Have you heard of WIFM? No, it’s not a radio station. It’s a great framework to remember for motivating others. It stands for What’s In It For Me. Understanding the answer to this question when working with others produces much better results than taking a shot in the dark (“STD”) approach.However, that’s not the lesson. The lesson is that while there are many things that motivate people, money does the trick a lot of the time…not surprising, but good to know.
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Figuring Out The Secret Sauce Recipe
2007-10-24 04:27:00
Many people say that luck is preparation meeting opportunity. Sometimes this opportunity comes in the form of an accident like when Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin.Ariel and I take care of the first part, preparation, pretty well from 7 am until about 2 am on most days. The second part, opportunity, is what we are looking for and constantly trying to figure out.In many ways, we have had several successes. There have been a good number of users who have signed up on our Coming Soon Page as well as our Facebook and MySpace groups. We are also really excited to co-host a Latin Music Awards event with Univision on November 8th in Philadelphia.However, there is always a desire for more and a desire for greatness. How does cream rise to the top? How does an online dating site, or any website for that matter, emerge from an enormous crowd of competitors? When do you stop throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks? When do you take a strategic approach?These are the questions w...
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Stealth Mode
2007-10-23 05:15:00
I love the term “stealth mode”. It’s one of those terms that I have discovered as an entrepreneur. Let me rephrase that. It’s one of those terms that I have seen other entrepreneurs overuse again and again. It had to be invented by a business school graduate because it’s one of those terms that turns a simple non-answer into an official and high sounding response.What’s great about it is that it can be used as a reply to so many questions.Q: “Your product concept is confusing. Can you tell me what it does exactly?”A: “Sorry, I can’t. The company is in stealth mode.”Q: “Is there any management at the company besides yourself?”A: “Unfortunately, the company is in stealth mode so I can’t reveal that information.”Q: “Why do you need so much money?”A: “Since we’re in stealth mode, I can’t divulge that information.”Being in stealth mode, takes away the pressure of having to say, “I don’t know” or “No comment”. The answers are there, bu...
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Finding Answers In The Numbers
2007-10-21 23:35:00
After an awesome week in California, I am feeling a bit nostalgic. So, how can I explain it factually? Here are some top 10 tables:A recent Conde Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards 2007 ranked US Cities on the following criteria (Ambience, Culture/Sites, Friendliness, Lodging, Restaurants, Shopping) and here are the results:1. San Francisco, CA2. New York City, NY3. Charleston, SC4. Santa Fe, NM5. Chicago, IL6. Carmel, CA7. Honolulu, HI8. Savannah, GA9. San Diego, CA10. Boston, MAWhat about venture capital activity? It should be no surprise that Silicon Valley comes out on top, but its dramatic share of the pie is what surprised me. Here are the numbers from 2006:1. Silicon Valley (36%)2. New England (12%)3. NY Metro (8%)4. LA/Orange County (7%)5. Texas (5%)6. San Diego (5%)7. Southeast (5%)8. Northwestm (5%)9. DC/Metroplex (4%)10. Midwest (4%)Another interesting statistic is the top 10 PMSAs by population density per square mile:1. Jersey City, NJ2. New York, NY3. Orange County...
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On The Road Again
2007-10-16 23:35:00
Since we will be in the Bay Area the entire week, I’m not sure how often the blog will be updated. We have both arrived in San Francisco and are looking forward to this trip. Our schedule this week is pretty hectic meeting with several VC funds, potential marketing partners, bloggers, and community leaders. Busy schedules are always preferable since it means we are doing the most we can to position the company to succeed. Plus, we are extremely excited to share how far we have come, the partnerships we have in the pipeline, and the relationships we have developed. And the timing of this trip is perfect, since we are well-positioned to take the next leap with QuieroLatino and provide this valuable service for the millions of US Latinos who are waiting for it.
More About: Road , On The Road , The Road

Looking For Money
2007-08-08 05:07:00
The process of seeking venture capital dollars is an arduous one. Apparently, no one hands you a million dollar check without asking a bunch of questions. I’m joking of course.Going down the venture capital road is paved with a number of positives and negatives. However, thinking about beyond questions of control and valuations, I want to address a less discussed topic of doing the dance with the venture capitalists.Time. The sheer amount of time that it takes to put various presentations together is beyond words. Furthermore, due to the constant changing nature of a growing business, these presentations have to be constantly revised.The good thing is that this exercise forces us to take a critical look at our business and our roadmap. We’re also very lucky to have highly reputable venture capital interest in our business. Still, today was spent mostly on these presentations rather than building relationships and focusing on our business, which is, ironically, what the venture c...
More About: Money , Look

Getting To Yes Takes Time
2007-08-07 05:11:00
We continue to be fortunate with the number of great partners who show strong interest in our product and our team. It makes me feel great that these players approach our target market from a wide variety of angles and they all see the great potential of our business, which is set to empower the Latino community by creating an online and offline dating and lifestyle community.Still, there’s so much more room to go with additional partners that could find a benefit from a relationship with QuieroLatino.com.There are certain initial barriers when establishing these relationships. The main hurdle is trust. A reputation takes time to build and no one is going to give you a ton of money or put their whole reputation on the line when they meet you for the first time.I think this irks us at times because we know that we will bust our butts to execute, which we have been doing. In fact, we have come to see this change of perception from some of our first relationships where those partners...
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El Cantante
2007-08-06 05:15:00
The new Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony movie El Cant ante came out and I dragged my friends to go see it. I saw the movie all the way in the heart of Puerto Rico at the AMC theater in Times Square.The music in the movie was excellent and told a story of its own. The acting was better than I expected. But to focus on the story itself…so many things. Why do people who have everything ruin their lives and those around them with drugs? No entiendo.Besides that, I have to say something about Latina women. As the “outsider” I have been told by so many Latin guys about how Latina women are these traditional fragile flowers versus those American women who expect too much. Hector Lavoe’s wife Nilda “Puchi” Rosado makes it clear that Latinas are no pushovers.Throughout the movie the crowd was so into the movie as if it was a concert. In many ways, it was a concert. I haven’t seen this much audience reaction since I saw Borat.

Running Around Town
2007-08-04 22:18:00
So apparently it’s not a good idea to grab a laptop by its screen to move it around.It’s the weekend and the plastic casing around the screen has completely cracked. Unfortunately, I happen to be in the heart of Philadelphia where electronic repair shops are not open on the weekends. I guess nobody else has to fix a computer on a Saturday afternoon.All this when I have to put together a PowerPoint for a pretty important meeting on Monday. With persistence, I finally got a repair guy to open up shop to fix my laptop. My carelessness resulted in the loss of a few hours, but now I am ready to rock-n-roll. Oh, Philadelphia. The city that loves you back.
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What A Difference A Day Makes
2007-08-04 02:57:00
It’s amazing to witness the power of the human brain. It can make the smallest things can turn into overwhelming obstacles and with a twist in perspective it can make them small again. The key is to stay calm, remain positive, and look at the big picture. This is easier said than done, but it’s a great general method to practice.The other reason why this Friday was so great is the number of additional remarkable meetings that we have coming up in the next few weeks. Now, some have said that getting a meeting is as easy as apple pie. I have to differ. We’re meeting with busy professionals who don’t have time to waste meeting people just for the sake of being polite. Yes, a meeting is the first step of a long journey, but it is a first step nonetheless.
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Sewing And Harvesting
2007-08-03 05:40:00
Earlier in the week I had sat myself down to reach out to a variety of potential sponsors for our various marketing endeavors. At the time, I was happy to simply have found the contacts and sent out my emails into the unknown abyss.I couldn’t have predicted the amazing results produced. We have a number of unbelievable meetings scheduled for next week to present our business. I think the hardest part is getting past the initial barrier to entry, which is setting up a meeting. Given how much research and energy we have put into this business, I am confident in our ability to deliver at these presentations. Let’s hope our clients agree.
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What Is The Best Way To Get A Hold Of Someone?
2007-08-02 04:29:00
Here’s the scenario. Let’s say you have all of the following: mail address, email address, and phone number and you need to establish a contact, which avenue do you pursue first?The snail mail is an easy one to cross off the list, but the other two have caused debate for me. An email gives the contact more time to absorb information, but at the same time it gives more time to ponder rejection. I also think that email is a cop-out to picking up the phone and making a call.The other thing that I admire about the phone call is the art of being able to be succinct and quick when speaking to someone for the first time. More importantly, I have discovered that I have gotten a lot more positive responses when calling than sending emails.
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Phonies: Rats, Superrats and Little Mice
2007-07-31 17:52:00
I’ve been dealing with so many phonies lately that I remembered how Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s characterized the various forms of phony and the difficulty of distinguishing each one:On Superrats: the worst kind"I thought he was just a rat, but he was a superrat all along. A super rat in rat’s clothing. You don’t even know the best part. Not only was he a superrat, he was also broke.”Litt le Mice : the spineless kind"He says he’s a coward. All right! So he’s not a regular rat. Or even a superrat. He’s just a scared little mouse. That’s all."
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The New Jennifer Lopez Video
2007-07-31 05:08:00
Let's see if this works, but it should be cool - this is the new Jennifer Lopez video. Looks like our girl from the block is ready to speak an album full of Spanish. What a treat!
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What Is Latino?
2007-07-31 04:18:00
We have had to contemplate the meaning of Latino in so many ways these last few months. It has been in our thoughts when it comes to something as small, at least to an outsider, as our logo, to the colors on our website, to the promotional video.Latino is such an amorphous term to those who delve into understanding its meaning and defining its boundaries. Imagine the difficulty of combining dozens of Central and South American countries, which are nuanced within themselves, under one umbrella. Impossible? Not for QuieroLatino.comIs it even the right term? What about Hispanic? Although, I guess when it comes to our website and business name, Quiero Latino sounds much better than Quiero Hispanic. And this difference highlights a main point: Latino is much more Latino than Hispanic. I know this redundancy sounds like something Yogi Berra might say, but it just means that Latino has a more authentic tone than Hispanic.While we can read research reports and conduct focus groups, which we...

Being An Entrepreneur On The Road
2007-07-30 04:16:00
I have been doing a lot of traveling in recent weeks as we establish a variety of partnerships. I spent nearly three hours trying to find a free wifi hotspot in New York City on Friday. It was ridiculous! And annoying! And frustrating! I can’t believe that in this day and age there’s not universal hotspot coverage in the financial capital of the world. WiFi coverage is spotty and many times super expensive.I know that it’s a matter of time before I shell out the big bucks for a more fancy phone that can send and receive data. This is harder than it seems for an entrepreneur who’s trying to bootstrap and watch out for extravagant expenses. There’s no more good old Mr. JPMorgan who will give me a free Blackberry along with a charge card. These days, those expenses come straight out of my pocket so I have to think twice…ten times before spending the cash.However, like the saying goes, “Penny wise and pound foolish” – at some point, it’s almost ridiculous to try and ...
More About: Entrepreneur , An Entrepreneur , Road , On The Road , Being

Learning To Love Our Logo
2007-07-29 02:56:00
Without it being fully official, our logo design may be near completion (or at least put on hold for the next several months). With so many other things going on, I didn’t even realize this was the case. We had spent the entire months of May and June going through logo changes. It was an awful process. We ended up firing the original logo company to have an artist come up with a completely new rendition. This was a hard choice given the timing pressure, but we knew it had to be done.Unfortunately, when we got the new logos we did not like them either. It felt like we were about to go down another time draining path and still not have the logo design that we were looking for. We ended up making some changes along the way, but it’s only now that I realize how awesome and stylish our logo design came out. Maybe it’s grown on me. Maybe it was great all along and I didn’t see it. Maybe I’m tired. Maybe it’s all three of those things.This scenario reminds me of the Eiffel Towe...
More About: Love , Learning , Logo , Earning

Dreaming Big
2007-07-27 16:07:00
A big part of entrepreneurial success is being able to dream big and act out those thoughts. Both halves are key and yet each one is difficult.One would think it’s so easy to imagine success, but after hearing “No” day in and day out, it’s easy to put up self-imposing road blocks that prevent grand visions. Imagining failure starts to come through more often than imagining success.Then there’s the acting out part. One cannot simply have the vision, one has to have the balls to make the calls and get past rejections to make things happen.Ironically, many of our partnerships have been as smooth as ever. They were interested right away. So far they have proved extremely reliable and super helpful. Whereas most of the “hard” wins have proven to be flakes and some have already faltered.We continue to make excellent partnerships and delve into realms that even I couldn’t imagine several months ago. It also helps to work with a close circle of advisers and partners because ...
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But Enough About Me, Let’s Talk About You
2007-07-27 02:56:00
As I read over my entries, I see that it’s very much, “Me, me, me.” Well, it’s not about me. It’s about You. You are really popular these days. In fact, You were Time’s Person of the Year in 2006.So, how You doin’? What do You like? Who do You like? When do You like? Where do You like? (That should cover the five W’s and one H.) These are important questions that we need to understand for our Latino dating website.We’re about to release our Coming Soon page with a promotional video that we created with the help of experienced producers. The big questions is, “Will You like it”?To tell You the truth, I don’t think we’ll know for sure until we actually put it out there. Even a recent study on speed dating showed that even though You said you liked one thing, You ended up choosing those with a completely different set of qualities.All I can do is try my best to make sure that You are happy. Although sometimes I think I know You better than You know yourself.
More About: Talk

Having My Cake And Eating It Too
2007-07-26 06:28:00
Somehow I don’t understand the concept of “No”. As in:“No, you can’t have it all.” or“No, I will not help you.” or“No, go away. You’re starting to bother me.”I keep on persisting. When I reflect at the end of the day, it’s very fulfilling to know that I made it past the “No” and it fuels my drive to do it again. However, in the moment, it can be very daunting and stressful. I feel like I’m carrying a 500 pound monkey on my back. Literally.Have you ever carried a 500 pound monkey on your back? It’s not only heavy, but it also makes lots of loud noises and keeps pounding your head.In the middle of all of this, I am trying to go to the gym, see my friends, and keep in touch with my family (and make sure I write my daily blog).The key is to stay positive. Otherwise, my whole perspective is ruined and I am no longer looking at things through rose colored glasses, but rather very dark and depressing ones. So, if that means running around like a chicken with...
More About: Cake , Eating , Ving

Speed Dating
2007-07-25 05:32:00
We are now official speed dating event organizers! We have partnered with a premier speed dating provider – 8minutedating.com to host speed dating events in major cities in addition to a number of other live events that we will start having in September.I am very curious at the “market’s” reaction to this “service offering” but I know that once people do it, they will have tons of fun. I think speed dating is one of those things that you never thought you’d do and only saw it in movies, but you decide to try it and you want to hide how much fun it was and deep down you know that this is only the beginning of the addiction to it.At least that’s the plan.
More About: Dating , Speed , Speed Dating , Dati

404 Error File Not Found
2007-07-24 04:51:00
From my previous post, I guess taking over the world is not so easy. This afternoon my page crashed on me and I had no idea why.The best part is that when I called the hosting company (GoDaddy.com), the technical support staffer advised me to email Google since they own Blogger, which carries the content for this blog.Yeah…with millions if not billions of bloggers, I am sure that in about 100 years Google will respond to my email. (It actually takes them 110 years, but I thought I’d round down.)Fortunately, I have some technological common sense so after several hours of tweaking around I think I finally fixed the problem.So, “Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”
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Broadcasting Around The World
2007-07-23 04:07:00
The QuieroLatino.com Blog is now available in not one, not two, not even three, but in 10 languages! Check all of them out on the right bar:ArabicChineseFrenchGermanItalianJapan eseKoreanPortugueseSpanish, and of courseEnglishWith the power of Google Analytics, I am very interested to see what languages will come out on top.
More About: World , Around the world , The World , Broadcasting , Broad

Abiding By The Law
2007-07-22 03:15:00
Our promotional video is almost done and it looks great. Now we just have to get music that does not have a copyright. I think another term for that is royalty free music. I’ve tried looking on several websites, but most such songs are instrumental and have no vocals, which sucks for us. Being too instrumental also gives the video the feel of a 70’s porn movie and we do not want to portray that image. MySpace will be my next target, but I am running out of ideas.
More About: The Law , Abidi

Getting Things Done
2007-07-21 00:03:00
As we work with a number of different partners from all walks of life and a variety of industries, it’s interesting to see how people define working hard. In fact, it’s interesting to see a lot of other things that I would never have seen had I stayed at my old job as an investment banker.But back to the work ethic. At JPMorgan, you worked until things got done (and the boss went home). Somehow this generally occured around midnight. With this background, it’s interesting to see how some people say they’re too busy to get anything done, but then I find out that they go home at 4 o’clock or that when they were out at a meeting they were actually shopping.I am not saying that work should be your life. What I am saying is that don’t say you’re working hard when you’re not and also don’t make promises that you can’t keep.
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Partnerships
2007-07-20 04:23:00
Execution. This will be the key to our success. Sometime this sounds corny because what business isn’t based on execution?! But the point is that the market is proven and that’s why the execution is the major concern. We’re not trying to sell ice to Eskimos.The core to our execution success has and will be the partnerships we establish. Already, we have lined up some outstanding community leaders, promoters, marketers and financiers to advise and help us.However, dealing with people from all walks of life, there are entertaining dummies that come along once in a while. Those who have no business sense. Those who promise you the moon and the stars and turn out to be completely irresponsible. Those who are not capable of seeing the long term potential. Those who are too full of themselves.Having eaten my share of humble pie in the past, I initially thought that these people had every right to renege on promises and go back and question their involvement with us. But now I realiz...
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Philadelphia Airport
2007-07-19 05:19:00
Philadelphia Airport sucks. I don’t know how else to sum up my frustrated feelings in one word.Since when has it become normal for a security line to stretch all the way to the next terminal? The next terminal! Every time I travel I am bemoaned by this fact. If someone from another International city heard this, they would laugh and think I was describing an airport in India.The wait is only worsened on the runway. Again, it has somehow become normal to taxi for over an hour on the runway. This happens both in departing and arriving into Philadelphia. An additional hour of sitting in a germ cylinder with no air circulation! Can I say ridiculous?Good thing that airlines have Amtrak, which will never get its act together to give this broken industry a run for its money.Don’t get me wrong. I love Philadelphia. I have lived here for over two years and I would take it over New York any day. However, when Philadelphians walk around wondering why this city is not competitive I cannot h...
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What To Do When The Emperor Has No Clothes
2007-07-19 01:47:00
For those who have seen Zoolander, this interaction between Will Ferrell as the evil clothes designer Mugatu and Ben Stiller as the oblivious male model Derek Zoolander is extremely funny and a great metaphor for some of the business ideas that I hear being pitched. Mugatu (or the venture capitalist): Who cares about Derek Zoolander anyway? The man has only one look, for Christ's sake! Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra? They're the same face! Doesn't anybody notice this? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills! I invented the piano key necktie. I invented it! What have you done, Derek? You've done nothing! NOTHIIIING! And I will be a monkey's uncle if I let you ruin this for me.In response…Derek Zoolander (aka the oblivious entrepreneur): One look? One look? I don't think so.First, I hope there’s humor in this for others without the metaphor. Second, I hope something about the metaphor does come through. Now, as far as explaining what it means for me, I’ll have to plead the Fifth.
More About: Clothes , Emperor , To Do , Cloth