Comments on: Fred Wilson Is Doing Something Right

By: Apolinaras "Apollo" Sinkevicius | LeanStartups.com

Apolinaras "Apollo" Sinkevicius | LeanStartups.com — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:24:32 +0000

Fred’s answer shows an attitude that _earned_ him every loyal eyeball that reads his blog – extremely well controlled ego and genuineness not usually found in the world of VC/PE (can’t blame you though, LPs aren’t that easy to serve).
I read his stuff on Twitter and on RSS. Never met him, but he sounds like a guy who earned every ounce of respect (and not because he writes checks). Great example for the rest of the industry… though I am not sure most care.

By: Twitter Trackbacks for Fred Wilson Is Doing Something Right « Thinking About Thinking [larrycheng.com] on Topsy.com

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:58:37 +0000

[...] Fred Wilson Is Doing Something Right « Thinking About Thinking larrycheng.com/2009/09/09/fred-wilson-is-doing-something-right – view page – cached #Thinking About Thinking RSS Feed Thinking About Thinking » Fred Wilson Is Doing Something Right Comments Feed Thinking About Thinking What’s In A Name? Global VC Blog Directory – Ranked By # of Google Reader Subscribers (Sept 2009) — From the page [...]

By: William Mougayar

William Mougayar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:25:54 +0000

Hi Larry,
About a month ago, I did a composite ranking based on yours+Tech Crunch’s, basically merging the socially-networked with the deal-networked, and only 21 VC firms were on both lists.
Union Square Ventures still comes up on top.
Here are the results:
The Top 21 Socially and Deal Networked VC’s http://bit.ly/18XqFI

By: larrycheng

larrycheng — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:46:41 +0000

Thanks Josh – that’s a high compliment – appreciate it.

By: larrycheng

larrycheng — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:23:21 +0000

Fred – Thanks for sharing your data and for your clarification. It’s good of you to question a post that is so complimentary. Here’s what we know to be true – your subscriber growth on Google Reader did grow 85% in 3+ months. To your point, that doesn’t mean your readership grew 85% because not all subscribers are readers. In addition, readers could have migrated from another RSS reader to Google, thereby not representing incremental net new growth. So, your data weighed against the Google data could suggest that Google Reader is growing aggressively as a platform as much as anything else. That being said, that would be the case for everyone on the list. So, for whatever absolute flaws the data has, there’s something to be said on a relative basis nonetheless. You’re definitely doing something right – congrats.

Larry

By: fred wilson

fred wilson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:05:49 +0000

Larry

this is a very flattering post and thanks for all the kind words

however, i am not sure about the math

my audience has been growing about 10% per year for the past 3-4 years and I see similar growth this year

RSS subs are not readers, they are people who click on a subscribe button. some turn out to be readers but most do not.

feedburner tells me that my daily RSS reach is about 6k on a total subscriber base of about 54k

so that means about 12% of my subs actually read my posts on any given day

i do work very hard on the AVC blog and I think that I am doing something right. and i am rewarded by a loyal and growing audience.

but it is certainly not growing by 85% in the past three months. i wish it were so, but it is not.

By: Joshua Karp

Joshua Karp — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:00:39 +0000

I read Fred’s blog, and I read yours (among a very few others). Recently, a much younger entrepreneur asked me who I follow, and your were the third or fourth name I mentioned. So, you’re doing a decent job, too. Josh