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Episode 6 0

This Week in Venture Capital #60 with Dmitry Shapiro, Founder of AnyBeat

Wednesdays at 2pm (PST)

This week, Mark takes on the changes of both Facebook and Netflix, as the internet is in “construction mode”. He welcomes AnyBeat founder Dmitry Shapiro, who has some experience in the internet video/multimedia space with both Veoh and MySpace Music. The two discuss the waning of anonymity on the internet, and the birth of a new term the two coined, called “Pseudonimity”. Mark also puts his two cents in on the Netflix change and the creation fo Qwikster.

We’d like to thank our sponsors Fenwick & West and Assistly. Go to Assistly.com/VC for an exclusive This Week in Venture Capital special offer.

Timecodes:

00:20 Mark’s cold open on today’s guest taking on Facebook

01:45 Mark introduces guest Dmitry Shapiro and discusses his history with Akonix, Veoh, and WeekendU

07:00 Worrying about losing control of a company.08:30 Coaching people in avoiding loss of control

09:15 Mark’s cynicism towards young entrepreneurs

11:00 Being a good actor in the world of Venture Capital

12:20 “”You have to do the stuff you love”"-Dmitry Shapiro

12:45 Mark talks Assistly’s purchase by SalesForce for $50 million

15:45 Creating the idea of Veoh – Building a TV broadcasting system over the internet

17:00 Building one’s own p2p network without bitTorrent

18:00 Problems raising money in the video space

20:00 “”Nobody is ever going to want to watch video on the internet”

22:43 How ridiculous it is that Yahoo doesn’t have an answer to YouTube

25:00 Veoh vs Copyright Infringement

26:00 How YouTube skirted their copyright obligations

32:00 The original goal of MySpace Music

37:30 The use of Chill.com and This Week in Venture Capital

39:00 Dmitry’s fuzzy laptop is back from Burning Man

45:00 Why compete with Facebook directly?

50:00 Giving up Facebook voice for a multimedia interface

51:00 Fred Wilson’s A VC blog and use of multimedia

53:00 Mark Suster declares that Jason Calacanis was wrong on This Week in Startups

55:00 Why Facebook welched on their initial deal

56:00 Mark’s negative comment from an anonymous user on his Netflix Post

59:00 Anonymity is dead, long live Pseudonimity

65:00 Joining AnyBeat, how Robert Scoble would do it

68:00 Explaining the DVD deal of Netflix/Qwikster

72:00 Creating the name Qwikster

77:00 If AnyBeat becomes a success, what is next?

79:00 Show Close; Mark thanks Dmitry”

  • http://www.facebook.com/adam.gering Adam Gering

    First Known Use of PSEUDONYMITY: 1877

  • Jakob Jenkov

    Mark, circles in G+ are like tags. I have many people in several circles. Some are software developers. Some are business relations. Some are old colleagues, Some are entrepreneurs. And many of them are several of these things. You don’t need a predefined taxonomy. Let it evolve. Tag and re-tag people. Move them out of an old circle, and into the new circles etc.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BTWTZKDORDLEO4UMVE2LHLATDY Quinn Peabody

    wow, they gave you money! you make me look like a genius!

  • mdesign

    Mark I use dental floss NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Your kids may not listen…. BUT I did. The threat of losing my teeth worked!

    I hope its a consolation prize.

    Thanks for your show, I really love it. I’ve built businesses but really had no-one to relate to. Not anymore.

    Thanks.