Tag Archives: investment

2012: A Year of Building

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Ben T. Smith, IV

If you think about it, every year takes on a character, or theme, of its own depending upon goals we’ve set, decisions we’ve made and unplanned events that take place along the way. 2011 was driven by a few great … Continue reading →

Posted in Investments, Personal, Silicon Valley, Startups, Wanderful Media | Tagged Accelerator Ventures, alabama, Associated Press, CEO, investment, mobile, newspapers, Online advertising, silicon valley, Stanford, Startups, tablet, technology, venture capitalists, Wanderful Media | Comments Off

The Newspaper Industry and Digital Ads

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Newspapers are probably never completely going away. In fact, they are never going away. Newspapers have traditionally supported themselves through advertising. Advertisers pay newspapers to publish their ads, which gives the papers the money they need to publish the paper, … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Deals, Newspapers | Tagged advertising, Ben T Smith IV, investment, newspapers, ShopCo, social-media, Startups | 1 Comment

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

Victor Belfor, Ben Smith: Backing A College Dropout Might Be Your Smartest Investment Strategy

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

I recently invested in two companies whose founders either had little interest in school as students or who dropped out of grad school: MixRank and Influitive. Both management teams are driven, hard working and well prepared for the difficult road … Continue reading →

Posted in Investments, Silicon Valley, Startups | Tagged Bill Gates, Carly Fiorina, Chief executive officer, deals, investment, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Sergey Brin, Startups, University of Nevada Las Vegas, venture capitalists, web entreprenuer | Comments Off

Tony Scott, Ben Smith: So They’ve Offered You The CEO’s Job. Here’s What You Need To Know Before Jumping With Joy | peHUBpeHUB

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Tony Scott, Ben Smith: So They’ve Offered You The CEO’s Job. Here’s What You Need To Know Before Jumping With Joy So you’re in the running for the CEO’s job at a startup. Already a creeping sense of uncertainty has … Continue reading →

Posted in A.T. Kearney, Deals, Relationships, Silicon Valley, Startups | Tagged A.T.Kearney, CEO, investment, leadership, social-media, Startups, technology, venture capitalists | Comments Off

After seeing where I put my blog content change, I have decided to start posting my blog content to my own blog. This should be an interesting process.

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

Victor Belfor, Ben Smith: Why Startups Innovate Better Than Big Companies | peHUB

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Ben T. Smith, IV

With all their resources and talent, why do big companies have trouble innovating? How can a Blekko exist when there is a Google? Or a Tapulous when there is an Electronic Arts? Even more puzzling, why couldn’t Yahoo create Facebook … Continue reading →

Posted in Deals, Investments, Silicon Valley, Startups | Tagged Disney, enterprise innovation, game show network, investment, mesmo, ringcentral, Startups, tapulous, venture capitalists, yahoo 360 | Comments Off

How to Blow Up an Ecosystem (and Prosper Within One)

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Ben T. Smith, IV

How to Blow Up an Ecosystem (and Prosper Within One) Are you a part of an ecosystem or do you plan to destroy one? You must decide before plotting a path to success During the four years we spent building … Continue reading →

Posted in MerchantCircle, Silicon Valley, Startups | Tagged ecosystem, game show network, investment, iphone, sustainable advantage, venture capitalists, web entreprenuer | Comments Off

Ben Smith: Building Startups Is Cheap But Never Run Out of Cash | peHUB

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Internet startups have been getting cheaper to build for 10 years. So why is it more important than ever not to run out of cash? We built MerchantCircle into one of the 100 most trafficked U.S. sites and I honestly … Continue reading →

Posted in A.T. Kearney, Deals, Investments, MerchantCircle, Relationships, Silicon Valley, Spoke Software | Tagged A.T.Kearney, Cash, deal and no deal, google, internet startups, investment, SimpleGeo, Startups, UrbanAirship | Comments Off

Economic Principles Return circa 2001

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Ben T. Smith, IV

Economic Principles Return circa 2001 Originally printed in one of the boom time internet magazines, one of my co workers from the period saw one of my recent articles and dug this one up and send to me. I wonder … Continue reading →