{"id":17548,"date":"2013-01-29T09:03:11","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T14:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=17548"},"modified":"2013-01-29T13:22:21","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T18:22:21","slug":"marketing-the-better-mousetrap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=17548","title":{"rendered":"Marketing the better mousetrap"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I screamed at the entrepreneur. He’d fired his CEO, who had pissed away the company’s money, but failed to produce the sales he was hired to produce. It is a story I’ve heard several times in the last few months. Techie entrepreneur makes great product, but can’t sell it. He hires wrong marketing type who binges on the company’s money. The company runs out of money and bingo, it’s back on the money-raising circuit, again. Which is where I come in.<\/p>\n

“You have no marketing. You do have a great product.”<\/p>\n

“But I’m the president. I founded the company. We’re back on track.”<\/p>\n

“No, you’re not. You still don’t have marketing and sales.”<\/p>\n

“Give us money and we’ll hire marketing and sales.”<\/p>\n

“No. You’ll just do the same stupid thing you did last time.”<\/p>\n

Starwood CEO was on CNBC this morning.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span> Ultra-smart guy. Barry Sternlicht. I have them lSTWD as one of the stocks we like<\/em> — see right hand column. STWD is doing nicely.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Even better, it’s yielding 6.83%<\/p>\n

Cash. The biggest bull in analyzing stocks.<\/strong><\/span> “Apple has got $100 trillion on their balance sheet.” “Microsoft has $200 trillion (or whatever) on its balance sheet.”<\/p>\n

Let’s get this straight. Money on the balance sheet is irrelevant — unless you have something productive to do with it (i.e. making new products that earn profits, that pays a regular high dividend to shareholders, that buys back stock). But sitting on the balance sheet doing nothing … the money has no value.<\/p>\n

I’m sick of Apple and all the stupid articles everyone keeps writing about it.<\/strong> <\/span>I don’t care if its innovation is, or is not over. I don’t care if it has a tax problem with overseas money. I don’t care if it has $500 billion in cash. I don’t care if I can still own Apple? Or whether Apple is bargain, based on a DCF Analysis. I don’t care if the press can’t stop writing about Apple. I can. And that’s all that counts. I made my money on Apple. I got out of it a while back. And I’m still out of it. I’ll revisit Apple when I see them introduce an exciting new product — one I will want. For now I’m out. Meantime, the average Apple analysts price target has fallen to $617. Apple closed last night at $449.83.<\/p>\n

Ask and yea shall receive.<\/strong> <\/span>I have domain name — www.HarryNewton.com<\/strong>.<\/a> It’s held by Network Solutions. They do nothing except hold the site for me. They send me a renewal notice – $34.99 a year. I called them said “that was ridiculous.” The nice lady dropped it to $24.99. I said that was ridiculous. She said she couldn’t negotiate further. But I could be transferred. They offered $15.99. I offered $10.99. They accepted.<\/p>\n

I don’t make this stuff up.<\/p>\n

16 Apps for your iPhone that are better than the ones Apple made.<\/strong> <\/span>The apps include:<\/p>\n

+ Mailbox
\n+ Google Maps
\n+ Check The Weather
\n+ Clear — a simple to do list
\n+ Google Chrome (faster than Safari)
\n+ Camera+
\n+ Bloomberg
\n+ Rise — a better alarm clock
\n+ Google Voice
\n+ Prey — better than Find My iPhone
\n+ AudioMemos, instead of Voice Memos<\/p>\n

For the entire list, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Meantime, don’t forget to install Temple Run<\/strong>, the most popular game for the iPhone.. Everybody on the New York subway is playing it. The best game.<\/p>\n

Harry’s chairs.<\/strong> <\/span>Susan convinced me (a) I knew nothing about William Savery mid-1700’s chairs and (b) we didn’t have anywhere to put them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then I heard from my friend via SMS that items at the auction were going for many times the amount in the catalog. And I thought, “OK. Susan is right.”<\/p>\n

In fact the price suggested in the catalog was\u00a0 $60,000 to $90,000. The chairs went for $50,000. Which, I think, was a bargain. But then what do I know about “important American furniture.”<\/p>\n

In successful investing, knowledge is probably useful. I did like the chairs, however. The owner had bought the chairs about 5-8 years ago for $200,000. I’m told he has done better with other things.<\/p>\n

As in all investing, knowledge is foremost. Diversification is key.<\/p>\n

Fortunately Christie’s runs regular auctions.<\/p>\n

How to grab the cheapest airfare.<\/strong><\/span> The short answer is 49 days before your departure for domestic and 81 days\u00a0 for international flights.\u00a0 The most expensive time is the day before you fly, with the second worst, two days in advance and the No. 3 spot, three days ahead of time. That pattern sticks through 11 days out, underscoring the need to buy tickets as soon as you can.<\/p>\n

The best time to travel is in the middle of all that, spring and fall when prices are discounted, the weather is mostly decent and seasonal places and events are still open. Sunday and Friday flights are going to cost you more than a Tuesday or Wednesday. All this from MarketWatch.<\/em><\/p>\n

Want a cheap upgrade? Print your boarding pass 23 hours and 59 minutes before departure.<\/p>\n

Psychiatrists vs. Bartenders and their “logic”<\/span><\/strong>
\nEver since i was a child, I’ve always had a fear of someone under my bed at night. So i went to a shrink and told him: ‘I’ve got a problem. Every time I go to bed I think there’s somebody under it. I’m scared. I’m going crazy.’<\/p>\n

‘Just put yourself in my hands for one year,’ said the shrink. ‘Come talk to me three times a week and we should be able to get rid of those fears.’<\/p>\n

‘How much do you charge?’<\/p>\n

‘Eighty dollars per visit,’ replied the doctor.<\/p>\n

‘I’ll mull on it.”<\/p>\n

Six months later the doctor met me on the street. ‘”Why didn’t you come to see me about those fears you were having?’ he asked.<\/p>\n

“Well, Eighty bucks a visit three times a week for a year is a lot of money! A bartender cured me for $10. I was so happy to have saved all that money that I went and bought me a new pickup!”<\/p>\n

“Is that so!” he said with an attitude, “and how, may I ask, did a bartender cure you?’<\/p>\n

“He told me to cut the legs off the bed! Ain’t nobody under there now!”<\/p>\n

The Pickle Slicer<\/strong><\/span>
\nYossel Zelkovitz worked in a Polish pickle factory. For many years he had a powerful desire to put his penis in the pickle slicer. Unable to stand it any longer, he sought professional help from the factory psychologist.<\/p>\n

After six months, the therapist gave up. He advised Yossel to go ahead and do it or he would probably never have any peace of mind.<\/p>\n

The next day he came home from work very early.<\/p>\n

His wife, Sacha, became alarmed and wanted to know what had happened.<\/p>\n

Yossel tearfully confessed his tormenting desire to put his penis in the pickle slicer.<\/p>\n

He went on to explain that today he finally went ahead and did it, and he was immediately fired.<\/p>\n

Sacha gasped and ran over to her husband.\u00a0 She quickly yanked down his pants and shorts only to find a normal, intact penis.<\/p>\n

She looked up and said, “I don’t understand. What about the pickle slicer?”<\/p>\n

Yossel replied, “I think she got fired, too.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nHarry Newton, who never ceases to marvel at what a wonderful country we all live in:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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I screamed at the entrepreneur. He’d fired his CEO, who had pissed away the company’s money, but failed to produce the sales he was hired to produce. It is a story I’ve heard several times in the last few months. Techie entrepreneur makes great product, but can’t sell it. He hires wrong marketing type who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}