MAX SAMIS

Building vs. Selling

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:15:00 -0400

I’ve been receiving a lot of emails lately from friends asking how to get involved with a startup. Aside from referring them to some great posts by Alex Taub and Eric Friedman, I often start by emphasizing the value of these words:

“you’re either building, selling, or leaving.”

As an early hire you’re either part of the team responsible for innovating a new product, or you’re part of the team charged with acquiring (and retaining) users, customers, or anything else that will help keep the lights on for another month. You need to be prepared to do anything.

Sure, the titles may vary. You might be hired for marketing, sales, or customer support, but it is critical to understand that each of these share a common goal: help the company make it to the next level. Everyone at a successful, growing company is a salesman of sorts. The sooner you realize this and own it, the more valuable you are to a young, agile team. If you don’t know how the role you’re applying for will help sell the dream, you’re wasting your time.

Here to Stay

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:34:00 -0400

I’m pumped to share some news with those of you who have been following my experiences through tech this past year. It’s been an exciting and challenging journey full of insanely smart people who have humbled me time and time again. I have accepted an offer to join the Business team at Bitly, a Betaworks company, and will be helping to expand the Enterprise business to new verticals and larger clients.

Over the past three and a half years Bitly has become the largest link shortening platform in the world reaching almost 90% of internet users monthly. How? Bitly shortens an average of 100 million URL’s daily and tracks almost 10 billion clicks per month. That’s a lot of data. If you’re active on Twitter you’ve almost certainly come across one of our Enterprise customer’s branded URL’s:

ESPN - http://es.pn/x4kXkv

NY Times - http://nyti.ms/J4Jnb2

GILT - http://gi.lt/HOFpb9

Amazon - http://amzn.to/J4JEuJ

We’re building the future of Enterprise level social analytics and I couldn’t be more excited to be part of the team. Over the next few months you can expect to see the launch of some game-changing features, a ton of new hires, and a few things I wish I could talk about..

Lastly, if your company is struggling to engage users across social channels, to identify powerful influencers, and to maximize ROI on social media.. Get in touch.

- ms

“Champions”

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:43:08 -0500

“Champions”

"Gates looked back at Jobs calmly. Everyone knew where the windows and the icons came from. “Well,..."

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:59:16 -0500

“Gates looked back at Jobs calmly. Everyone knew where the windows and the icons came from. “Well, Steve,” Gates responded. “I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.””

- Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker piece on Steve Jobs http://nyr.kr/vz11M6

Stamped.com

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:28:00 -0400

I’m really excited to see what the guys over at Stamped are building. Recommendation and endorsement platforms have been popping up left and right over the past year, but Robby Stein (CEO) wants to simplify the space. “Does it deserve your friend’s stamp of approval?” is a unique angle that hasn’t been tackled successfully by anyone without adding additional noise. Stamped has already completed a round of funding led by Google Ventures & Bain Capital.

Besides that, slick design on their splash page. Nice to see something besides Launchrock out there. I’m very partial towards the elegant use of typography and there’s something strangely soothing about the simplicity of it all.

Starting Over

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 01:03:05 -0400

Welcome to my blog. I’ve had trouble in the past keeping up with posts and I think it’s because I’ve tried to limit myself to posting about one subject. This blog will be about tech, things I’m reading, art, music I’m listening to, and anything else that I’m into.

Here’s what I’m excited about right now:

Reading: The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
Listening: B.B. King - Live in Cook County Jail

"In March of 2010, Lanier gave a talk, before which he asked his audience not to blog, text, or tweet..."

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:12:42 -0400

“In March of 2010, Lanier gave a talk, before which he asked his audience not to blog, text, or tweet while he was speaking. He later wrote that his messages to the crowd had been: “If you listen first, and write later, then whatever you write will have had time to filter through your brain, and you’ll be in what you say. This is what makes you exist. If you are only a reflector of information, are you really there?””

- The Visionary - By Jennifer Kahn (New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2011)

"A foreign entrepreneur with backing from American investors should be given a temporary visa to..."

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:41:36 -0400

“A foreign entrepreneur with backing from American investors should be given a temporary visa to start a company in America. If after two or three years, the business has successfully yielded new American jobs, the entrepreneur should be allowed to continue to run his or her business and receive permanent legal status. We are a nation of entrepreneurs because we are a nation of immigrants and in the 21st century, the global economy will revolve more than ever around entrepreneurs.”

- Bloomberg steps up to the plate

A Great Day In Harlem (R.I.P. Eddie Locke, the kindest drummer...

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:40:21 -0400

A Great Day In Harlem (R.I.P. Eddie Locke, the kindest drummer and friend who ever lived)

Hooray For Earth - No Love

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:39:03 -0400

Hooray For Earth - No Love

"Last night I taught a class via Skillshare (disclosure: Founder Collective is an investor) about how..."

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:09:28 -0400

“

Last night I taught a class via Skillshare (disclosure: Founder Collective is an investor) about how to raise a seed round. After a long day I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and I stayed well past the scheduled end time. I think it worked well because the audience was full of people actually starting companies, and they came well prepared (they were all avid readers of tech blogs and had seemed to have done a lot of research).

I sketched some notes for the class which I’m posting below.

”

- Chris Dixon drops knowledge and a whole ton of resources

James Brown Getting Down

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:07:56 -0400

James Brown Getting Down

James Brown - Sex Machine (starting the week off right,...

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:06:49 -0400

James Brown - Sex Machine (starting the week off right, here’s my gift to you and you and you. Get on up!)

"Apple’s WWDC keynote address yesterday seemed like a study in Newton’s law: the tech version. For..."

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:37:27 -0400

“Apple’s WWDC keynote address yesterday seemed like a study in Newton’s law: the tech version. For every glorified new product or feature announcement, there was an equal and opposite wave of anger and frustration from competitors who suddenly found themselves up against a behemoth that doesn’t play well with others–or from Apple developers who found themselves cast outside the walled garden.”

- Steve Jobs Pissed EVERYONE Off @ WWDC

Mr. Little Jeans - The Suburbs (Arcade Fire Cover)

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:27:16 -0400

Mr. Little Jeans - The Suburbs (Arcade Fire Cover)

Prince William, Kanye West, Prince Harry and Diddy

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:24:55 -0400

Prince William, Kanye West, Prince Harry and Diddy

"One of the main challenges for social networks stems from a question ancient philosophers have..."

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:52:00 -0400

“One of the main challenges for social networks stems from a question ancient philosophers have debated for centuries: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In social media, the dilemma often takes the form of, “We need users for our network to be useful, but users won’t join the network unless it’s useful.” A social network’s utility is derived from the people belonging to it.”

- Social Startups: Attracting Early Adopters

Paul Kalbrenner - Aaron (have a feeling this track will be...

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:47:40 -0400

Paul Kalbrenner - Aaron (have a feeling this track will be playing hourly today)

Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Luda!

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:44:37 -0400

Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Luda!

"Meanwhile, many early-adopting merchants find that the burst in customers immediately disappears,..."

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:54:45 -0400

“Meanwhile, many early-adopting merchants find that the burst in customers immediately disappears, and since they can’t perpetually discount 75%, those merchants stop using Groupon. But Groupon’s sales force adds many more new merchants than it loses (for now). And Groupon goes out and raises another round at an even higher valuation; they hire even more salespeople and expand into even more virgin territory. Lather, rinse, repeat.”

- Groupon Is A Straight Up Ponzi Scheme