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About

CLINT CHAO'S TUMBLOG

I'm an early-stage tech investor and co-founder of Formative Ventures in Menlo Park. I spent my whole career as a sales and marketing guy at tech start-ups, and the reason I co-founded Formative is that I've always thought that this experience would serve me and the companies I invest in well.

I'll try and post interesting things here that might serve as entertainment, education, a way to burn a few minutes of your day, whatever.

Have fun!

Clint

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Find me:

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Formative Ventures website

My LinkedIn bio


Some of my investments include:
Mashery
SOASTA
Silicon Clocks

Following

9 February 10

They cant all be ‘potential partners’: at some pt, be honest w/urself & call them competitors, or have fun in ur little sandbox

Posted: 9:18 AM

Congrats to @geoff_yang, @sraney & the crew from Redpoint for closing their new fund! http://bit.ly/d2XvJr

8 February 10

Great line and great read: The iPad isn’t the future of computing; it’s a replacement for computing http://bit.ly/aYPiC2 (bettr link)

Posted: 10:04 AM

What was w/the back2back ‘guys with no pants’ commercials yesterday? Riffing off the Pants on the Ground bandwagon?

7 February 10

Remember, if asked 2 describe ur value prop in Plain English, that means no acronyms or buzzwords. Can u do it?

6 February 10

Imagine the business from ur top customer is an actual business. As CEO of that biz, ask urself if that biz is properly funded

Posted: 8:19 AM

I wonder how many people will be watching the Super Bowl with their PCs next to their sets to check stuff during the game

5 February 10

Arizona gets 2yr probation for Lute Olson antics: What’s really going on when a school puts itself in jail? http://bit.ly/9OV7Jc

Posted: 5:50 PM

RT @abbytw: MIT Tech Rvw great list of cos. 2 watch in 2010, incl Twitter, Facebook, Quantcast, Mashery & Hulu: http://bit.ly/8lr2Q3

Posted: 7:08 AM

RT @fredwilson: if ur board mtgs suck, whose fault is it? http://bit.ly/af3cRT <- every1 can make the mtgs better, but starts w/CEO

4 February 10
Some stats and the other charts from this 2010 Marketing Budgets article from Marketing Pilgrim: 40% of marketers are operating on a restricted budget this year 70% of marketers plan to increase their spending on Facebook and Twitter marketing 64% of marketers plan to increase their SEO spending this year 83% of marketers do not understand how social network ad campaigns convert 35% of marketers attribute lack of resources as to why they are not spending more on digital marketing optimization

Some stats and the other charts from this 2010 Marketing Budgets article from Marketing Pilgrim:

  1. 40% of marketers are operating on a restricted budget this year
  2. 70% of marketers plan to increase their spending on Facebook and Twitter marketing
  3. 64% of marketers plan to increase their SEO spending this year
  4. 83% of marketers do not understand how social network ad campaigns convert
  5. 35% of marketers attribute lack of resources as to why they are not spending more on digital marketing optimization
Posted: 1:48 PM
 

Cal Bears and Jeff Tedford sign epic recruiting class, including a 4-for-1 package deal from North Carolina that includes the country’s #1 safety prospect Keenan Allen! Hope this nets the Bears some future New Year’s Day action!

Posted: 7:20 AM

I love innovative David-vs-Goliath ad campaigns, this time David goes for Goliath’s Jugular http://bit.ly/9ZY5TC

Posted: 6:29 AM

David Going for the Goliath's Jugular

I love a good digital/print ad campaign, and this should be fun to watch roll out… an aggressive new ad campaign in a stodgy old industry. Method Detergent, a new entrant in the detergent (you probably have seen their cool looking bottles in Target stores) business is going directly after the 800 lb gorilla, Proctor & Gamble’s Tide. Chuckling at the unintentional double entendre jugs reference… Here’s the NY Times story… hope the Method guys are ready (and load tested!) with their specially made for the ad campaign website: http://methodlaundry.com/

3 February 10

Here come the textbooks (to the iPad) http://bit.ly/aCzjoC

Themed by Hunson. Originally by Josh