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Yearly Archives: 2011

Saga of Acquisitions

Posted on by Posted in Apple, Bay Area, Business, Entrepreneurship, Events, India, Inspiration, Management, Marketing, Success, Technology, US Economy, USA, Views Leave a comment

For past couple of months, the acquisition and legal departments of some major companies were in action. And I am sure this is just a beginning in what we are seeing as a trend now.

Acquisitions are not new to us. They happen for some reasons:

  • Bigger companies acquire small companies to keep up the pace of innovation and creativity.
  • Bigger companies want to supress competition.
  • Smaller companies want to make quick bucks.
  • VCs want a lucrative exit and what better than getting acquired by a well known company.
  • Founders want to become VPs of big MNC companies in no time and become famous and rich.

Having said what is acquisition? Acquisition does not come alone. It is generally tied to mergers and we generally call it Mergers and Acquisition. Wikipedia defines the term as “The phrase mergers and acquisitions (abbreviated M&A) refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling and combining of different companies that can aid, finance, or help a growing company in a given industry grow rapidly without having to create another business entity”.

In actual terms, although often used synonymously, the terms merger and acquisition mean slightly different things. When one company takes over another and clearly establishes itself as the new owner, the purchase is called an acquisition. From a legal point of view, the target company ceases to exist, the buyer “swallows” the business and the buyer’s stock continues to be traded.

In the pure sense of the term, a merger happens when two firms agree to go forward as a single new company rather than remain separately owned and operated. This kind of action is more precisely referred to as a “merger of equals”. The firms are often of about the same size. Both companies’ stocks are surrendered and new company stock is issued in its place. For example, in the 1999 merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, both firms ceased to exist when they merged, and a new company, GlaxoSmithKline, was created.

I am sure you would agree with me that we don’t see mergers often and most of the times, it is acquisitions. So why acquisitions are gaining steam now?

As I say it to everyone who ask me about the recent acquisitions: This era is going to go into the history as one of the golden periods. People who will dare and innovate will create history and others would just continue to do what they do in their daily life. I am also doing my bit and I am trying and will continue to strive.

Recent acquisitions are examples of what I am saying: Microsoft buying Skype for whooping $8.5 Bn. But why Skype for such a huge amount? As experts have to be believed, the biggest reason behind this acquisition was fear of Google. Lets try to analyze this logic. If Google would have bought Skype, the most closest thing that I think Google would have done with Skype is to find a way to integrate Skype with Google Talk. This would have definitely helped Google a lot as Skype has a huge subscription base. And as far as I know personally, a lot of start-ups use it extensively for their business purposes.

Skype is a big story but for me, I felt excited and almost jumped out of my seat when I heard that Google acquired TalkBin. I know you might be thinking that who is TalkBin and whats so special about it. The excitement is not because Google acquired yet another start-up but TalkBin was 5-month old start-up when it got acquired.  Founded in December 2010 by Qasar Younis, Michael Ma, and Sunny Dhillo, TalkBin offers a platform that lets customers give immediate feedback to local businesses (users submit their opinions and critiques via mobile applications, and it looks like the businesses can read and respond to them from a web app). Now thats what I feel each one of us has to copy back in India. Working for an MNC is okay but ultimately such things are going to define our next generation.

On another note, Yahoo acquire IntoNow. IntoNow is a cool technology with an application that allows users to find, discuss and follow their favorite television programs. IntoNow has indexed more than five years of US based television programming, creating a rich database to build video discovery and programming experiences. IntoNow is able to identify content down to the airing, episode and time within the program as well as provide program information and links associated with it, all within a matter of seconds.

With so many things buzz and positive energy around, I feel the day for me is also going to come soon. It is just a matter of time. I want to be part of some exciting people, working and promoting a cool product and spending time among enthusiastic and aspirational people. I feel it is time for all of us to look beyond sitting inside AC in an MNC. Will we do it? Will I do it? I can’t answer that now. I completely understand that circumstances play a significant role in such initiatives but circumstances change and so do we.

Nevertheless, I re-iterate what I have mentioned in lot of my earlier posts. This era is going to go into the history as one of the amazing period and honestly, I want to be part of it and want to be part of in a big way. I urge all of you to do the same because that is the only way India can truly prosper. You will amazed to know that Small Medium Businesses in India comprises of 99% of all the business houses in India and 99% of these businesses contribute to more than 50% of India’s GDP. I predict that this number is going to go up from hereon and we will see some of us to dare to pursue their dreams out of the closed cubicles. Till then, enjoy :-)

Sources: http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/25/google-acquires-talkbin-a-feedback-platform-for-businesses-thats-only-five-months-old/

http://ycorpblog.com/2011/04/25/intonow/

Internship Opportunity with 1M/1M

Posted on by Posted in Bay Area, Entrepreneurship Leave a comment

Have you heard about 1M/1M? Budding Entrepreneurs might have but others might have missed the name. 1M/1M is the initiative of Sramana Mitra, a very well known consultant in the Bay Area. Personally, I have never met her but we have interacted quite a few times and I feel she is just terrific.

Recently, she announced internship opportunities at her blog and I thought of giving it a shout at my blog because it is worth an opportunity to explore. Even though the internship will not pay you monetarily but I can definitely ensure you that working under Sramana would be worthwhile experience one would treasure. So, what are you waiting for, Check out the link and email her asap. Just for quick note, the openings are for freelance writers and PR domains only.

Facebook Deals: What does it mean?

Posted on by Posted in Advertisement, Business, Entrepreneurship, Events, Facebook, Fun, Google, India, Inspiration, Management, Marketing, Sales, Social Networking, Success, Technology, Twitter, US Economy, USA, Views Leave a comment

Did you hear? Facebook declared its royal entry today with Facebook Deals. What does it mean? At the very outset, it sent warning signals to all heavyweight champion startups like groupon, deals2buy, buy, snapdeals and many more. Lets try to understand why I feel Facebook has a huge potential to grab the market from its competitors. Facebook Deals was not new to me and I was aware of its arrival 2-3 months back when I first received notification from Facebook directly. Somehow, either Facebook likes my blog or has been kind enough to let me know of its deal arrival. I take this opportunity to thank Facebook for it.

Firstly, Facebook today boosts of one of the biggest user base in the world. There is no doubt about it. This is definitely a big advantage for facebook. Personally, I don’t have such a huge network on any other social networking platform that I have ever used. moreover, I can trust my facebook friends because I don’t connect with anyone I don’t know or I did not have proper introduction. So, in terms of deals, it is win-win for both facebook and its users.

Secondly, have you ever noticed the power of facebook? People who have never done so, I would recommend them to put an eye on Facebook Stories. Why? Just a quick glance can give you enough hints of what I am trying to say. These are the personal stories of people how Facebook has assisted them to remain or find close friends and/or relatives. Such stories have give strong personal and emotional attachment to the huge success of Facebook (Don’t foregt after all, we are all humans and we are emotional beings who can think and act).

Thirdly, we have seen how Facebook positioned itself in terms of advertising space. I believe if I am not wrong, Facebook has one of the costly advertisement pricing policy over Internet today but still they manage to make money out of it. Facebook Credits have been extremely successful and I have observed a lot of startups being built on those aspects. Facebook Credits in itself has created ahuge market for advertising in itself.

Clearly, the above three strong reasons makes Facebook one of the strongest brand of the world today. So, why groupon like companies will struggle?

Before we try to throw a light on the above question, I must say that I feel the timing of Groupon IPO has been perfect. If it would have been delayed further, it would have lost a lot due to this step of Facebook. So, Groupon’s entry and its decision to go for IPO could not have been better. Companies like Groupon, snap deals will struggle now. I believe that with such a huge user space, more companies will trust Facebook blindly and it will depend on little bot of effort from facebook to get the things going and if it could trigger the deal sales, it will grow like a wild fire.

So, where are we heading up to? I see the competition to get more fierce in coming times. I would not be surprised if Amazon, Google, InMobi like players join the war. I, also, see a lot of acquisitions happening in this space. What does it mean to the customers or people like us? Shop in  Group or with friends and get the maximum value of each penny spent. A Big Win-Win for billions of people around the world. The World is really going flatter, as predicted.

The one space that I feel needs that real can be explored is the location and real-time price comparison of products in a certain area. Foursquare is closely following on this road but there is still of work to be done there. But the pace that we are seeing today, it won’t be too late before we see this voidness also vanish in no time.

Google & InMobi

Posted on by Posted in Advertisement, Africa, Apple, Bay Area, Business, China, Entrepreneurship, Events, General, Google, IIT, India, Indian Economy, Inspiration, iPhone, IPL, ISB, Management, Marketing, Sales, Success, US Economy, USA, Views Leave a comment

Today, as I was reading through the article about InMobi, an Indian startup that has been consistently getting rave reviews in the market. I have been always been a huge fan of Young Turks and that is one thing which has always inspired and motivated me through thick and thin lines of my career and I am sure it will continue to do so. I take this opportunity to thank CNBC TV18 for such an amazing program. But this article is not about CNBC TV18, it is about InMobi.

Till early this year, I don’t know why but I never heard about this startup at all. But with this article, I was refreshed about my memory of InMobi when I first heard about it in January. As I browsed through their website today, it was a great feeling. Time is changing and so does the tides have started to flow from the reverse direction. Gone were those days when the market was driven from developed countries like USA. I was not fortunate to be in the Silicon Valley because I still pity on those people who go for monotonous jobs in the Silicon Valley but I can definitely fortunate to be at a place where markets are being driven today and I see that happening more often from hereon. This whole thing is exciting and being an aspiring Entrepreneur, I do look forward to jumping into this sea sometime soon. InMobi is a classic example of what I am talking about, Naveen Tiwari – an IIT graduate going for his MBA at Harvard Business School and then returning back after a brief stint to drive a business from India.

Let us take a look at the Mobile Advertising industry and InMobi today in this post.

InMobi:

  • InMobi started as Mkhoj. I remember using it occasionally earlier but I rarely used Internet on mobile phones those days. What amazed me with InMobi was not only they were smart to tap into an opportunity but also re-built their whole business from scratch even after Mkhoj. I have always believed that Entrepreneurs should always be smart to tap opportunities in the market and should not resist change and that is what defines leadership. Leaders don’t talk about existing systems and processes but they talk about how the system can be challenged for the good. Resisting change is not the sign of growth and prosperity. In my view, InMobi led this aspect by a perfect example.
  • The 60:40 revenue model is very exciting. Basically, InMobi connects the advertisers and publisher. Naveen mentioned in his interview that if $100 comes from the advertiser, InMobi gives $60 to the publisher, keeping $40 within itself. According to me, before hearing to this numbers, I never believed that a high share as much as 40% could be made this way. There are lot of players who are into advertising domains and the most common of them are the ones who divert traffic to certain blogs. But honestly speaking, I never heard of anyone mentioning as high percentage of share as 40% earlier. Kudos to the InMobi team for pulling this through.
  • The Management team of InMobi comes from varied backgrounds like MBAs, BTechs from top class schools like IITs, ISB, XLRI, HBS and XLRI to name a few. This makes the team very strong. I am not surprised why such a team should not get funded and especialy when they are doing so good.
  • InMobi has given companies like Google run for its money. InMobi is in over 140 countries in the world today serving ads to over 200 million users uniquely every month across the globe. In Japan and Europe, it is number 2. In United States where we have entered about 7-8 months ago, it is number 3 or number 4 in the market.  Isn’t it really interesting? Yes it is.
  • Naveen already talked about acquisitions and according to him, InMobi will be acquiring its first company in 3-4 months. Amazing work and my prediction is that they might either buy someone in the US or China/Korea. Why US? Because by buying in US, InMobi can give the open war with Google and Apple in the market. With Google buying AdMob and Apple buying Quattro Wireless, it will be a very good competition to watch for when an Indian company declaring big on the US shores. Why China/Korea? Because InMobi has expansion plans in these areas because of obvious big user space. Acquiring a company in China/Korea can give InMobi quick access to its vast market.
  • For people interested in this space, I would strongly recommend to go through some of the case studies of InMobi. Some of the case studies are quite appealing. I have a personal experience of their presence with Reebok T-Shirt ad during IPL and I quite enjoyed it. Going through the other case studies could give very nice perspectives.

Lets now come to the Mobile Advertising space, in general. I know that there is a lot of buzz in the air for mobile startups. With official launch of 3G in India, the whole VC industry and Entrepreneurs are going ga-ga over it. Even one of my own initiatives, might go that way in future but as of now, I am closely watching this space. One more addition to this space, would be tablets. Android and Apple are going to have an awesome time of their life. The curiosity to explore this space has made me to buy a 3G phone and have also, recently ordered iPad 2 for my own person experiments. More on the personal front, sometime later but lets try to put some interesting facts that I collected while reading through the consumer and market trend reports of InMobi. Kindly remember these facts are directly taken from the reports of InMobi website and I hold no guarantee of correctness of data.

  • Informa Telecoms & Media estimates that the global mobile data services market , including mobile advertising, was worth
    U.S. $224 billion in 2010. Over the next four years the market will increase to U.S. $340 billion in 2014.
  • 15 emerging countries – China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Poland and Ukraine – offer substantial investment opportunities for the telecom and advertising industries due to the sheer volume of mobile subscriptions in these markets, and continuing mobile penetration. It is not surprising to note that 30% of mobile data services revenues were generated by these 15 countries in 2010. So, what do you feel is driving these revenues in these countries? Obviously, the low cost feature-rich mobile phones. Visit India and watch any person, to day there might be more mobile phones in India than the toilets.
  • According to Informa, the mobile phone subscriber market of India and China alone will be around 734 million in 2014 from 334 million in 2010.
  • Informa also quotes that the global mobile advertising revenues will rise from $3.5 Bn in 2010 to $24 Bn by 2015, with Asia Pacific contributing to 31% of the share, led by India and China.
  • InMobi research gives very impressive signals on usage of mobile advertisements by consumers when they get free apps or 10% discount on their phone bill. A significant number of consumers might also be attracted to personalized ads. At the same time, consumers have been found to have less attention to free and useful ads.
  • Comfort level of consumers with the mobile advertisements is one of the biggest strong findings in the InMobi research. People seem to be very comfortable rather being apprehensive.
  • InMobi grew by 21% from December, 2010 to March, 2011 giving strong signals of global rise in mobile advertising industry.
  • The Key driver of markets now is the smartphones, which in itself grew by 34%.
  • Android took over as the most used OS over iPone OS. Nokia OS still continues to lead the market share but Android and iPhone are closing on it. The recent Nokia-Microsoft Partnership is a clear example of worries of Nokia losing its mobile platform share rapidly.
  • Android and Apple are clear favorites in the OS platform in both Europe and US while Apple is the largest manufacturer of mobile phones in both US and Europe. The market of US is primarily driven by smartphones where the growth is as high as 50% in the 90 days with Apple growing the most due to its tie-up with Verizon.

Personally, overall, I feel mobile advertising space is going to be a very interesting space to look forward to. I feel more and more Indian companies are going to give US companies a run for its money in future. Its the time for India and we are stepping into a golden era. More companies like InMobi are going to start from emerging markets to penetrate later into developed markets of US, Japan and Europe. I see a brand new Silicon Valley being built but this time, we will be in the driver seat. I would love to see the next “Black Swan” of this world happening from India and I hope to be part of this amazing event.

References:

  1. CNBC TV18 Naveen’s Interview on Young Turks – http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/check-out-who-is-giving-googlerun-for-its-money_537155.html
  2. InMobi Company – http://www.inmobi.com/
  3. InMobi Research – http://www.inmobi.com/research/
  4. InMobi Company – http://www.inmobi.com/company/
  5. InMobi Blog – http://www.inmobi.com/inmobiblog/

Welcome to deepakpanigrahy.com

Posted on by Posted in General, Personal

Welcome to my new domain and a brand new look to the website. Having bought a domain, for the very first time, I go online on my hosting space. From hereon, we will be more regular. We will cover variety of topics, ranging from personal, business, leadership and many more. I hope to get your continuous support and assistance as like I enjoyed with my wordpress blog. We will also discuss some of the plugins and CMS that I explored while working on activating my own website.

Once again, I take this opportunity to welcome you all.

Learn Confidence from Google

Posted on by Posted in Dreams, Google, Inspiration, Personal, Success, Views Leave a comment

Do you believe you have confidence? Do you believe in yourself? Are you ready to go out there in the open and question your identity and authority? Are you ready to be criticized? Are you are ready to look yourself into the mirror and say that this is who I am? Are you ready for change – the only universal truth of life? Are you ready to transform? At first go, all these questions look scary. Isn’t it?

Lets be honest with ourselves. These questions are scary and most of us, including me, try not to answer them. But look at it closely, isn’t this the other definition of life? I believe it is. I have accepted it and in the process of accepting the one and only truth of life: CHANGE. But to accept the eternal truth, one needs to have confidence and confidence in plenty. The confidence should be of it utmost purest form, which even when challenged will never kneel down. The confidence will be the armor against all odds, making way to our dreams.

So, where is this confidence? How can I find it? Will it remain with me? There are lot of questions that immediately pop up the heads. Lets try to look into these questions bit colsely.

Where is this Confidence? Confidence is not in the head. Its within you. The mantra is not about finding confidence from thinkings rather from inner self. Its within our hearts. Its within our beliefs. There is a thin difference between confidence and arrogance. Confidence gives positive energy and spreads the same around us. In other words, confidence is the way to prosperity and happiness. On the other hand, arrogance is exactly the opposite. Arrogance brings sadness, frustration and more frustration. Confidence makes the world around you feel proud of what you are doing but arrogance makes only you proud.

How can I find it? Find confidence in what you love to do. It may not be easy because in reality, the world behaves in such a way that makes a vicious cycle that revolves in 360-degree without  any clue. It may be very hard. But there is definitely a way and as I mentioned earlier, the only way to find confidence is to look within and follow your love.

Will it remain with me? I believe Confidence can remain always with you. Confidence is like a farmland. You need to sow right seeds, give enough nutrients, water, sunlight and keep watching it from weeds and other plant pollutants. The more one looks within and tries to cultivates it, the more it grows and keeps you to step the right foot forward.

To illustrate all of the above, let me bring forward an example of an amazing Black Swan: The Google. Google recently announced a cash prize of $20 grands in cash anyone breaks the Google Chrome browser on the first day. Last year, Google Chrome browser was the only browser that left unhacked in the conference. For people who do not know about PWN2OWN, it is one of the biggest platform for the hackers where participants try to hack various browser and mobiles. Last year, we saw how Apple released a lot of patches for the bugs unveiled for its Safari. This year, when Google Chrome was not included in the browsers’ list to be hacked by  hackers, Google came forward and announced it bounty.

So, is it arrogance or confidence? I believe it is confidence and this is exactly I am talking about. First of all, let me be very clear. People may be arrogant when they are either very stupid or useless and low standard. Good reputable people are confident. And that is what I would like all of us to have.

Most importantly, it is your confidence that tells your true worth no matter where you are and what you might be doing. Confidence is treasure which boost the morale of an individual and helps in keep chasing his dream despite all odds. Learn to cultivate this farm and I am sure all of you will find the individual you are looking for inside you.

Calling Volunteers for Aarambh

Posted on by Posted in Community Service, USA Leave a comment

This is my second post of the day. It is about calling volunteers for “Aarambh”: the state level sports event for Specially Abled people. Please read on and see if you can contribute in any form possible. I hope to see you there on February 19th.

“Aarambh” – The Beginning! Please spend 2 minutes of your precious time to read on…

If you have already been a part of rendering smiles to the Specially Abled people through Aarambh 2009 – “Sports Meet for the Specially Abled”, this is an information to you to yet again provide your priceless support for a good cause, this time on 19th Feb 2011.As for the new recipients, here is a brief about Aarambh ! Day-to-day, we see a lot of not-so-fortunate people who cannot perform the activities that we can normally do and which we have taken for granted. One such activity that they dream to do but do not have the opportunity is participation in “Sports”.

Rotaract Club District 3190, Rotaract Club of Jayanagar and Rotaract Club of Bangalore in a collaboration with Snehadeep Trust for the Disabled, came up with an initiative to organise a mega sports event “Aarambh” for the “specially-abled”, who are not-so-fortunate to participate in the sports events conducted normally.This lead to the birth of “Aarambh”.

The event in 2009 saw the participation of about 500+ children from different parts of Karnataka, in different Sports events, that were organised in the Sree Kanteerava Stadium Bangalore.

At the end of the day, the happiness on the faces of the children, the fact that they also did something which they long for, was just enough to rejuvenate the organisers and the volunteers to look back at the day with pride J.

This event “Aarambh 2008″ organised by Rotaract Club of Jayanagar in 2008 was very successful and Rotaract Club of Jayanagar went on to win the prestigious “Rotaract Outstanding Project Award for South-East Asia – 2008″ in the Rotary International event held at Los Angeles, USA.
This year too, we are organizing “Aarambh” on the 19th of February 2011.Since the event is being conducted on a larger scale, with opportunities for more children to showcase their talents, we need larger number of volunteers who can dedicate a single day for volunteering activities during the event.

This is a chance for some selfless help and guaranteed to give you an unmatched sense of peace at the end of the day.

In case you are interested to volunteer or know someone (family, friends, colleagues) who is/are interested, please do not hesitate to contact any of us:

Rtr Jitendra Mahato @ 9740296104 – jitendra.jitu16@gamil.com

Rtr. Asha Subramaniam @ 9886041098 – asha.subramaniam@gmail.com

Rtr. Hemanth S M @ 9986027202 – contacthemy@gmail.com

 

If you wish to volunteer, please send us an e-mail confirming your participation, before 08th of February 2011.

Link to some memories from 2009 : http://picasaweb.google.com/115884818596928349922/AARAMBH09SportsMeetForTheSpeciallyAbled?authkey=Gv1sRgCMmS7OueqaifEw#

Must Watch Link on Youtube:- 

About Rotaract:

Rotaract Club has been involved in community service for decades . Every year of growth has been imbued with the awareness that real progress brings with the first spirited move to overcome difficulties. In an effort to provide a better place for individual growth and community’s well being, Rotaract Club has been striving to help both self and others, reorganizing individuals to promote leadership qualities, responsibilities catering to reach problems and opportunities in community and worldwide. Rotaract Club comprises a team of enthusiastic members, comprising both students and working professionals.

Quantity vs Quality

Posted on by Posted in General, Personal, Views Leave a comment

A known tussle all over. All of us everyday in some form or the another ask this question: Quantity vs Quality. Let me put few of them to you here:

  • My job profile is not good but they are paying me handsome. Quality vs Quantity.
  • At grocery store, the quality of food may not be good but they are offering me a discount.
  • I may not have genuine friends around but I boast of 2000+ friends on facebook.
  • Hire IITians though there may be better candidates from some general college.
  • Company xyz boasts of xxx number of employees but with no job satisfaction amongst the employees.

These are very general circumstances with no boundary to the list. I am sure once we start looking around us, we will see a lot of such circumstances around. Personally, I have experienced some of them. In fact, I have been a victim of quantity over quality and the quantity always won the war of quantity vs quality in my case till I refused to allow it win anymore. I can say that I have been decently successful in my motive. But time and again, quantity tries to empower quality. It tried once again when I tried attempting “post a day” campaign of wordpress. But I realized that my time does not allow me write daily and if I could fall into the trap again.

I apologize but I have decided to pull out of the campaign of “post a day”. And my reason is simple. I would like to continue writing and try to put my views in more concrete way rather than copy pasting some random information. Th idea of this blog is to share my thoughts and not put any global information that is available. I would like to generate genuine interest in my readers and I am happy if I could trigger a thought into my readers and compel them to think about the happening sin their surroundings. We are the generation of 21st century and let us drive the notion of free speech. Let quality win over quantity.

So, today when you go back from reading this post, please ask yourself how many times and what are the things where you have let quantity won over quality. I, strongly, urge you to break this barrier of  life and follow quality over quantity. Please subscribe to the feeds to continue reading this blog because I am no more attached to “post a day” campaign. I assure you that I will continue to keep utmost personal and spread my thoughts through you.

    VC Directory

    Posted on by Posted in Business Leave a comment

    This post is to gather the VC directory from Larry and present it to you. I have been a keen observer of this field and really enjoy to be always how VCs make decisions. Personally, I feel VC domain is very interesting because it allows you to be always among the budding entrepreneurs: Young minds with bubbling energy and enthusiasm. So, here is the top 10 VC directory list:

    1. Paul Graham (@paulg), YCombinator, Essays (97,227)
    2. Fred Wilson (@fredwilson), Union Square Ventures, A VC (81,483)
    3. Mark Suster (@msuster), GRP Partners, Both Sides of the Table (53,655)
    4. Brad Feld (@bradfeld), Foundry Group, Feld Thoughts (38,821)
    5. Chris Dixon (@cdixon), Founder Collective, cdixon.org (20,988)
    6. David Skok (@bostonvc), Matrix Partners, For Entrepreneurs (14,173)
    7. Charlie O’Donnell (@ceonyc), First Round Capital, This is Going to be Big (13,970)
    8. Larry Cheng (@larryvc), Volition Capital, Thinking About Thinking (13,215)
    9. Dave McClure (@davemcclure), 500 Startups, Master of 500 Hats (11,127)
    10. Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz), Andreesen Horowitz, Ben’s Blog (10,686)

    Personally, I have followed some of them like Fred, Mark, David and Larry for few years and have thoroughly enjoyed reading them time and again. For the complete list, do visit http://larrycheng.com/2011/01/19/venture-capital-vc-blog-directory-2011-edition/