Using Game Theory and Sunk Costs in Negotiation
by Vitaliy on January 24, 2012
Either you give me a better deal, or I’ll go across the street and get it from your competitor. He’ll at least match your price, so I’ll buy from him and you’ll lose the sale anyway. You might as well make something on me, you’ve already put the time in.
Schools kill creativity
by Vitaliy on December 9, 2011
Don’t fly blind (event networking)
by Vitaliy on October 3, 2011
SF is a networker’s wet dream. There are events every day. You can find them on: Plancast, Eventbrite, Meetup and Workit.
Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to best take advantage of these events. Many walk around the room or stand in a corner hoping someone will notice their clever t-shirt and strike up a conversation.
After a few events, I realized that it’s not possible to go to all of them and it’s definitely not a productive activity if you don’t have clear, concise goals for each event. If you’re in gaming, go to gaming events. If you’re in mobile, go to mobile events. You’ll run out of gas quickly if you try to hit them all.
There are many tips on “working the room” and making yourself stand out, but I’ll go into just one tactic I use to make the event work for me:
Do your research.
1-2 days before an event, I visit the site and lookup the attendee list. These are usually made public on Eventbrite and Meetup, but you can also leverage Plancast to see if anyone’s marked their attendance. Browse through the list and jot down 10-20 people that you’re interested in meeting and then track them down online. Most people in SF have some social presence – email, twitter, facebook, etc. Send them a message introducing yourself, letting them know you’ll be at the event, and that you’d like a moment to introduce yourself in person. Ask where you can find them and let them know how they can identify you (red shirt, jeans, black-rimmed glasses, etc).
I average about a 50% response rate on these notes and I walk in with 5-10 people that I’m ready to chat with. This is a huge advantage at a busy event – it both helps you break the ice, giving you more confidence in general, and gives you something to work towards while you’re there.
If you don’t get a chance to meet everyone you planned to, don’t worry – you now have a reason to follow up with them afterwards with notes.
I’m greedy with my knowledge
by Vitaliy on September 28, 2011
I’ve learned quite a bit of tips and tricks over the years, building and selling web products. The knowledge I’ve accumulated has been locked away in my mind and I’ve been hesitant to share it with others – It’s “special”.
Bullshit. I’m just greedy.
The most successful people always share digestible bits of information. This blog is a personal effort to change my greedy habits. Secrets are coming…
Please, for the love of g-d, do not send our deck around
by Vitaliy on June 5, 2011
My business partner, Yury, and I moved to San Francisco just a couple of months ago. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting dozens of entrepreneurs, engineers, and life enthusiasts – people that I’m happy to surround myself and associate with. All have been equally willing to sit down, grab a drink or cup of coffee, and chat about SF life. Being new in this fast-moving city, I’m very thankful for the warm reception.
Most recently, we’ve been trying to get intros to the investment community to learn more about investors’ thoughts, processes, investment criteria, trends, and more generally, the SV ecosystem mentality. We read investor blogs regularly (Josh Kopelman, Paul Kedrosky, Jeff Clavier, Paul Graham, Fred Wilson, Brad Feld, Mark Suster, Bryce Roberts, and many more), but there’s only so much insight that can be gained from these generalized thoughts.
How an automobile is much like a website (and how it affects SEO)
by Vitaliy on December 26, 2008
Note: For those of you who understand cars but not that much about websites and SEO, this post is for you. For those that do understand SEO to an extent, there are some resources at the bottom for you.
