Category Archives: GSD

The newsonomics of Amazon vs. Main Street » Nieman Journalism Lab

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

A great piece on the importance of retail advertsing to the newspaper business and the indirect fight between Amazon and the papers happening now. “Classifieds has decimated by interactive databases. National has migrated strongly digital. Retail, which made up of … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, FindnSave, GSD, Silicon Valley, Wanderful Media | Tagged advertising, Ben T Smith IV, Find n Save, marketing, Newspaper, newspapers, Publishers, Startups, Wanderful Media | Comments Off

Building a Shopping Solution

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

I have been involved in ShopCo Holdings just about two months now as the Chief Executive Officer. I figured it is about time I start sharing a bit about it. ShopCo Holdings is a company backed by 12 large US Media companies … Continue reading →

Posted in Deals, FindnSave, GSD, Silicon Valley, Wanderful Media | Tagged A. H. Belo, Ben T Smith IV, business, Find n Save, GSD, investment, Lee Enterprises, local, McClatchy Company, MediaNews Group, Startups, Wanderful Media, web entreprenuer | Comments Off

Getting Shit Done The key to success in business is execution, whether you run a sprawling multinational or a 12-person startup. So measuring how your company stacks up against the best and brightest in your space is crucial. If you … Continue reading →

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV | 2 Comments

Same Page from Go

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Co-founder Wayne Yamamoto joined us in our reminiscing. He tweeted this image from our first pitch presentation. From the very beginning MerchantCircle has been on the same page as Reply!. We had no idea then, we’d end up as a … Continue reading →

Posted in GSD, MerchantCircle, Silicon Valley, Uncategorized | Tagged deals, GSD, merchantcircle | Comments Off

Getting MerchantCircle Started: It starts with an Idea

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Ben T. Smith, IV

The last few days have been really exciting and extremely busy. There have been meetings and interviews and many thoughtful wishes for a bright future. But. As we always do at MerchantCircle, we’re back to work with a sense of … Continue reading →

Posted in GSD, Investments, MerchantCircle | Tagged GSD, merchantcircle, Startups, web entreprenuer | Comments Off

Good Deals that Don’t Work

Posted on May 7, 2006 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Good deals that don’t work… About 6 years ago, I did a great deal. I went in with Seqouia. I then did a follow on round in the same company with Redpoint and USVP. The management team stuck together, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Deals, GSD, Investments, Silicon Valley, Startups | Tagged deals, investment, Startups | Comments Off

Missed Deals

Posted on April 19, 2006 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Missed Deals.. So every once in a while you have to eat crow. The summer before last at a dinner at Zibibbo around the corner from Zao Noodle Bar hosted by Oliver Muoto I had my first real interaction with Sean … Continue reading →