Silicon Valley Recovery and Aftermath of LinkedIn IPO

Posted on 21. May, 2011 by Zahid Lilani. 0

19th May, 2011 was a big day for LinkedIn and why wouldn’t it be? It was first in line up of social media companies to go public. Not only did they have their IPO but I think they capitalized big time on the hype and the economics of supply and demand. LinkedIn has been around since 2003 and one can comfortably say that perseverance paid off big and the timing couldn’t be better. It’s time to celebrate if you are an early LinkedIn investor and/or employee with stock options. Do I hear “Paper Millionaire?”

I majored in Accounting and I can talk about LinkedIn’s crazy first day triple digit percentage gain in stock price and give you all kinds of numbers that will indicate a bubble but I am not going to do that. In fact, no one can be certain of LinkedIn’s worth. Though, I will say this one thing that has been in my mind since yesterday. If LinkedIn were a regular business that had its IPO or even sale, no one would be willing to pay $8 Billion for a company with 2010 revenue of $243 Million and profit of around $15 Million.

Just to give you some perspective, let’s just go back in time and look at another internet behemoth (at that time) 8 years in to the business since inception.

Yahoo! had revenues of $1.63 Billion in 2003, compare that to LinkedIn’s $243 Million. Yahoo! stock traded at $45.03 at the end of 2003, compare that to LinkedIn’s $93.09 close on 5/20/2011. You might say that I am not doing apple to apple comparison here but do you see why people like Jim Cramer think that it is insane? Revenues don’t match the high price people are willing to pay for LinkedIn stock. That’s mind boggling to many in the financial community.

Wait, there is a silver lining

I live in Santa Clara and couldn’t be more thrilled that LinkedIn is right in my backyard i.e. Mountain View. Those “paper millionaires” will soon cash in after the initial 6 month wait required by law. I wouldn’t say Silicon Valley has been a big casualty of the housing bubble but the home prices did go down and foreclosures remain high in some areas of San Jose. Mostly because of high unemployment and lack of new jobs. I am sure that majority of LinkedIn employees live in and around Mountain View and that means the local economy will see a recovery, if not outright growth. Even a blip will be welcomed at this point. That’s a good news no matter what your view is about LinkedIn IPO.

No one knows if Facebook is next or Zynga but we all agree that they are all in line and waiting for their “AHA” moment. Sometime this year? Maybe early next year?

Dude, what about the Bubble?

Give common sense benefit of the doubt. eBay, Amazon, Yahoo! were all the result of a bubble and they are still around. The strongest social media companies will survive and LinkedIn has a business plan unlike most of the early startups of the .com era. There is definitely hype but there is some truth to the hype too.

By the way

Are we connected on LinkedIn? If not, let’s connect. Use the email zhlilani[at]gmail.com to initiate connection.

Comment to Engage, Not Annoy

Posted on 12. May, 2011 by Zahid Lilani. 0

One of the best ways to increase your credibility and highlight your knowledge is to be part of other blogs in your niche. Being part of other blogs means to read them with some regularity and comment from time to time.

Commenting is the first step towards engagement. A good comment can lead to a more meaningful dialogue. I know, it is not easy to comment everytime you read a post so don’t force it. Chances are, your comment will look spammy and meaningless. Depending on the blog, you might be called out and lose a lot of credibility.

Bloggers love it when someone adds to the topic or points out another angle. It gives them the ability to interact and humanize. It’s not a machine writing a blog post; its a human behind the blog. By commenting you are indirectly telling the blogger that you care and support the effort.

Few Tips

- Comment only if you feel you are adding to the topic or enhancing it by talking about your own experience.
- Look for opinionated posts that have a clear black and white stand. It makes easier to comment if you disagree.
- Read other comments and don’t repeat the same thing.
- Respect the author and avoid personal attack.
- Stay on topic.
- Never add a link to your website in the comment box. 99% of bloggers moderate links in comments.

There is no SEO value in commenting so shun the blogs that advice to the contrary. My personal blog made it to some kind of list that had all the “do-follow” blogs listed even though I use Disqus and I was being bombarded with comment spammers. That was one year ago… things are much better now… Don’t use a list to comment; it’s just not worth it.

What is that you think makes for an effective comment? Do you incorporate a certain style?

Twitter Missed the Opportunity to License Parking Meters in San Francisco

Posted on 03. May, 2011 by Zahid Lilani. 0

There is trouble in geek paradise a.k.a Twitter. Reasons are plenty but this post is not about that. The frenzy that surrounds Twitter, I think, is affecting its ability to look beyond social media and invest in a REAL service that can be offered to users who still think Twitter is “stupid.” The result – Twitter missed the golden opportunity to license Parking Meters in San Francisco.

City of San Francisco announced that it will allow drivers to feed the parking meters by phone and get text alerts when the time is running out. The contract to provide this service has been given to Verrus Mobile Technologies, Inc. I think Twitter could have easily provided a similar service and tap in to a lucrative parking licensing agreement with the City. There are 24,000 parking meters in San Francisco – do the math.

You are now saying “not everyone uses a smartphone” or “there is an app for that.” and you wouldn’t be wrong.

But hear me out…

There are two kinds of people – smartphone users and regular cellphone users. Twitter works just fine if you have a regular cellphone that can send and receive texts. Almost everyone has a cell phone these days and for smartphone users, life would be even easier.

Having a real service is the key to Twitter’s survival in the long run. Text ads and TweetDeck acquisition will help but then again, advertising revenue can never be considered stable source of income.

What do you think?

Dlvr.it – Social Media Publishing and Statistics Tool for Bloggers

Posted on 16. Apr, 2011 by Zahid Lilani. 0

Dlvr.it lets bloggers publish to different social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ping.fm, Tumblr and Statusnet. Once you publish posts using Dlvr.it, you can stay in the loop by tracking statistics such as clicks and trends.

I have been playing with Dlvr.it for over a month now and really like it. It makes publishing to multiple social media sites a breeze. Statistics are helpful in determining what works on different social networks. They say that any data no matter how insignificant at present is an invaluable tool that can be utilized in future. As a blogger, knowing what works and what doesn’t can be crucial as well as provide you with future blog post topics.

There are other services that provide similar publishing but they lack in terms of analytics. Speaking of analytics, you can use Google Analytics with Dlvr.it to track traffic to your blog. Don’t worry, there is no coding involved. How do I add Google Analytics Tracking Links to my posts? explains everything in simple English.

Don’t wait, make your blogging life easier by automating simple tasks. Sit back, relax and track what works and what doesn’t. Amazing tool that will make you a productive blogger.

One Month with Motorola Atrix and I Love IT!

Posted on 19. Mar, 2011 by Zahid Lilani. 16

It’s been a month of discovering the new and trying to forget the old. I had never owned a Motorola before and was very apprehensive but convinced that Atrix will change my opinion. It sure did, I love Atrix.

I upgraded from iPhone 3G to Atrix so the changes were drastic.

Atrix runs on 1 GHz dual core processor and 1 GB of RAM with Android 2.2 operating system. World’s first smartphone to have qHD (Quarter High Definition) display on a 4″ screen. 5MP camera at the back with video recording and a front facing camera for video calling.

It’s a beast in terms of speed and the screen is extremely responsive to touch. Very light weight compared to my iPhone 3G.

Cool Features

Cool security feature: Finger print scanner let’s me swipe my index finger to unlock the phone.

Cool video feature: HDMI out let’s me watch videos on a TV in full 720p HD.

Cool music feature: ability to delete songs.

Cool contacts feature: photos of your contacts directly from their Social Media profile along with their last status update.

Cool personalization feature: live wallpapers.

I am not regretting a bit that I bought this phone. I don’t know if I will stay loyal to Motorola but I do know that I am not going to ditch Android. App Store does have more apps than Android Market but it is only a matter of time before Android catches up.

Atrix Reviews Worth Reading

Motorola Atrix 4G Review – ChipChick

Motorola Atrix 4G Smartphone Review – ShellyPalmer