Greg Battle
Internet Svengali. Ignoble Mogul. Entreprenerd. Hotshot Guitarist. Bit Fiddler. Push Up Lover. Dad. PHIL/NJ/NYC
Profile
Summary
Experience
- Dec 2009 - PresentConsultant at bit.ly / bit.lyGuided the product launch of and revenue discovery for bit.ly Pro and bit.ly Enterprise, the free and premium versions of branded URL shortening service resulting in over 14,000 requests and 2,500 customers including many large brands, publishers, retailers, campaigns and personalities. Branding, messaging, customer discovery and on-boarding process.
- Jan 2009 - PresentDigital Media Consultant / Self Employed- Takkle (High School Sports Social Network): Active advisor from 2006 to acquisition by Alloy in Q1 2009. - ServNation (Enterprise Software): Business plan, financials, investor and marketing materials review - Selerity Corporation (Financial Technology): Advised on go-to-market strategy, candidate search, due diligence, authored marketing strategy for web and print materials - PopTok (Online Video): Advised on corporate restructuring, rebranding, refocus of strategy resulting in the birth of AnyClip.com, TechCrunch 50 2009 Audience Award Winners. - Vibe (Print and Digital Magazine): Advised on the redevelopment of digital strategy including online/print convergence, content aggregation, audience segmentation/engagement, partnership and revenue optimization.
- Sept 2006 - PresentCo-founder and Chief Software Architect / Global Grind Digital Inc., LLC(http://globalgrind.com) Hip-hop automated and social news site combining multi-media aggregation, community and cultural relevancy funded by Russell Simmons and Accel Partners.
- Jun 2005 - PresentHedge Fund Associate / Trigram Capital Management, LP
- Aug 2003 - PresentMBA Candidate 2005 / The Wharton School
- Feb 2000 - PresentLead Developer / BET Interactive, LLC
- Dec 1995 - PresentVice President / Donaldson, Lufkin, Jenrette
- May 1995 - PresentConsultant / Chemical Bank
- Sept 1992 - PresentSenior Programming Analyst / Sanwa Securities
Education
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2003 - 2005University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton SchoolMBA in Finance
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1988 - 1992Princeton UniversityBSE in Computer Science
Additional Information
My Resume
Posts
That time in *Philmont Scout Ranch* when the bear destroyed the thunderbox.. Share a memory from a place you’ve been.
Less than three days before Facebook Inc.’s initial public offering, Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman decided to boost the number of shares the company would offer investors by 25%…That decision by the 41-year-old Facebook executive may have doomed any real chance the social-networking company had that its stock would jump on its first day of trading—a hallmark of successful IPOs.
Inside Fumbled Facebook Offering, by SHAYNDI RAICE, ANUPREETA DAS and GINA CHON
This is like saying that if you sold your house today and the person you sold it to could not flip it that same day for 2x what you sold it for that you would be a idiot.
Leaving money on the table for the public markets to go crazy is not in the companies best interest and certainly does not mark a successful IPO. These writers are idiots, dangerous and should be fired.
(via siminoff)
gbattle sez:
However, you have more stakeholders in Facebook than pre-IPO investors, employees and underwriters. 900 million users invested their time & effort in creating Facebook and want/deserve some ROI. Greed, via “fair” pricing, killed any chance of retail ROI (strange that Facebook offered more shares at a rumored lower evaluation among insiders). To continue your analogy, Facebook didn’t build or own the house alone. It’s a coop, not a private residence. The CFO was effectively offering 25% more land with the “property” while private independent assessment of the “property” repriced it at a 25% discount.
Leaving money on the table isn’t bad maximization of financing. It is a matter of risk management to engineer a successful IPO to give the right signal to the market regarding value going forward. By not managing that risk by taking a discount on fair pricing, Facebook vastly underestimated the greed of retail investors, the very stakeholders who co-developed their service.
Jonathan Kreisberg - “Summertime”. Live solo guitar at USC Masterclass in February. So much talent.
@workmajj and @aweissman loved the Scroll To Top Button, but worried about unwanted tracking. See John’s solution here on GitHub. Click and Drag the below bookmarklet to your browser bar:
[If reading this in Tumblr’s Dashboard, you’ll need to do an edit on the bookmarklet and remove “denied:” at the front. Tumblr inserts this to prevent javascript tomfoolery. If reading on Leftover Takeout, you’re peachy.]
Thanks to @workmajj for the buttery javascript.
Scroll To Top Button actually exists for Google Chrome!
Well, that saves me some work on duplicating my favorite Tumblr feature.
Take the banal. Rethink it. Make it creepy.
Stanton Moore - “Stanton Hits The Bottle” - All Kooked Out! He’s literally hitting the bottle. Fresh drummer grooves.
Pinterest Marketing Platform
Rafer sez:
Three very smart words to put together.
(via rafer)
gbattle sez:
Apu Gupta and the crew are a great crew. He and I had a few pre-pivot discussions. However, it’s not a pivot. It’s a reboot.
Gizelle Smith & The Mighty Mocambos - “The Time Is Right For Love” - This is Gizelle Smith & The Mighty Mocambos. Grit-n-soul.
Tonight’s dinner: Chicken and waffles with maple syrup.
Or, as radiantmeatball put it, I really am kinda southern.
I also made kale, but who cares about that?
Things that you can’t see, blues playing in the background and my buzz.
gbattle sez:
The best thing about living 5 minutes away from section9 is that I can see his food posts and roll over there quickly. The worst thing about living 5 minutes away from section9? Ummm, his other posts, and knowing I can’t move farther away fast enough.
Fried chicken won this time. Pray for me.
Kylie Auldist - “Everybody Here Wants You” - Just Say. Jeff Buckley cover is the weekender-ender.
“I’m only here for this moment …”
“The fact of the matter is, you don’t give up what’s natural. Anything I’ve fantasized about, I’ve done.” - Ray Charles
Updates
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Photo: That time in *Philmont Scout Ranch* when the bear destroyed the thunderbox.. Share a memory from a... http://t.co/IwODNxQA
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Quote: http://t.co/JWVOhJPJ
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Video: Jonathan Kreisberg - “Summertime”. Live solo guitar at USC Masterclass in February. So much talent. http://t.co/qDBqL1ON
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Looks like $FB and its underwriters may be learning the hard way that sharing material, non-public information isn't a good privacy policy.30 hours ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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I've never watched #glee. I've heard of super seniors, but these are the oldest high school students on the planet. I don't get it. #next31 hours ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@workmajj Fixed! Scroll To Top bookmarklet: http://t.co/idG618ij32 hours ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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Photo: @workmajj and @aweissman loved the Scroll To Top Button, but worried about unwanted tracking. See... http://t.co/9fO2pe2e
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Video: D’Angelo plugs in for GQ. Interview here. http://t.co/esTEegjn
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34 hours ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@workmajj John, that bookmarklet works great. Any way to make it gradually scroll? Thanks! /cc @aweissman35 hours ago from web | Reply, Retweet, Favorite
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@aweissman Once installed, you can also use CMD+up or CMD+down. Fun times!
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Photo: Scroll To Top Button actually exists for Google Chrome! Well, that saves me some work on duplicating... http://t.co/l5iHQXl2
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Photo: Best hand job in Jersey City. No contest. http://t.co/3NTPp6Dy
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Just sat in on a jazz blues with the great Winard Harper. The bug is coming back. So swinging. Beware NYC/NJ ... I am back.
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@ReformedBroker The one thing i love in the markets is fear and uncertainty. Second Market removed $FB's initial uncertainty many Xs over.
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@ReformedBroker Not sure about that. What is the liquidation value of $FB? Tricky calculation.
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@jstylman why treat Eduardo Saverin like Roman Polanski? I don't get it ...
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Great comparison: "@backupify: Check out how Google Drive stacks up to Dropbox, Box and the like: http://t.co/LEuFu1HD"
Posts
Posts
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Posts
I knew you had some of the dark side in your past Master Jedi, but I did not know it was of the Sith Lord variety. Respect. I was at DLJ from '95-'00, so indeed, I too know a few of the ways. Ignore PR/IR at your peril, but yeah, Zuck and Co. don't really give a $#!%.
Do I agree with you re: a post-Christmas bump for $FB? That's probably accurate too. If they can optimize revenue growth apart from user growth, which I have to believe is abating, then yes. The user growth story going forward may not be going from 900mm to 1.5b (3/4 of internet denizens today), but how many networks and commensurate interest graphs can be built upon that 900mm powered by their APIs. If they increase the most valuable data store, perhaps they'll continue on this trajectory and beyond. Big perhaps.
True, the number of retail investors in Facebook (at least directly, not via funds for now) is relatively small compared to the 900mm registered users. If Facebook lost the disgruntled retail investors as users, so be it - 30mm users won't make them blink, posted losses or no. If the IPO had been priced correctly, all tomfoolery aside, this would have been a moot point.
However, the greater point I'm making is one of issuing an IPO using the theoretical fair price (max financing) vs. one with some risk management baked into it. The greater fear is sending the wrong signal to the market via the wrong launch day optics which we're seeing to an insane degree today. Mitigating that downside risk has a cost, which is leaving money on the table for retail/first suckers by pricing at a discount.
I understand your point as well of course. It's tricky because yours is theoretically the fair way, but mine is the practical way. Sent via G-Mobile
This song is so 80s, I had visions of trickle down economics. Well done.
Is there an online version of this game? An app? I used to *love* this game!
I love Charles and Nate too, but there's just so many other things to talk about.
I think you might be surprised to learn just how many people may be interested in traffic analysis software. As entrepreneurs get that much more serious about data as it relates to growth, or publishers rethink how to reward journalists based upon customer acquisition rather than word count, or ecommerce sites think about split testing funnel optimizations to maximize gross merchandise sales, they're going to need better tools that offer actionable output over Y.A.D. (yet another dashboard).
You guys are addicted to talking about PictureLife. (Not a bad thing)
Protocol != Interface != API. Not sure who is teaching these things to folks today. Protocols are definitions, not implementations. There are no TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP, XMPP, SSH "provider", simply implementations of a protocol/data definition. Read up on RFCs. By definition, protocols are open standards.
An easy analogy. Socket wrenches. 1/2 inch socket is a definition, but every tool manufacturer can put out their own set and have it function properly by adhering to a standard or protocol.
Twitter, Facebook, Twilio all have APIs which are openly available but privately owned and centrally controlled.
That's the best line ever. It never gets old!
+1.
There must be depth behind your rationale to pivot, beyond the quantitative analyses, beyond a time horizon, beyond your iteration turns left at your current burn rate.
Oddly, too many entrepreneurs are thinking that investor capital offers them the right to pivot ad infinitum. Let's get technical here: in basketball, a pivot is where, after you've stopped dribbling, you keep one foot on the ground and rotate around with the other one. A lot of these so called pivots are hops or worse, traveling fouls where they start dribbling again.
Let's call the game like it we see it folks.
I think about this often, but know a few who've done some work on this. Fascinating space and approach. A reverse Turing for identity.
I question how many people get the quote? Hmmm. Long live the WU!
In essence Bryce, you are speaking of a classical Benjamin Graham value investing method, namely, that the price I pay is less than my pro-rata share of the liquidation value of the company. Liquidation preference effectively locks in the necessary floor and, like Mr. Graham, it is wise to consider the worst case scenario and let Mr. Market control the upper end.
However, I would love to hear more thinking about the liquidation value of an Instagram, Pinterest, Path or Quora. What assets/inventory could each sell in a fire sale and how much are they worth? This is where things get very, very interesting/illuminating, in a world of leased cloud computing, ephemeral users in a creator/attention economy, patent/IP avoidance, and low headcount lean startups, what's if any assets are there? There's a compelling argument that the liquidation value of say Instagram is far below the money they raised, but I'll defer to you and and cohorts for an answer.
Breaking bread is a realtime, interactive, social, hyperlocal and narrative platform.
The power of story and oral tradition will never be supplanted.
I know right? There's a lot of wisdom and insight in that. So much.
actually, i think the average vc backed acquisition was about $46mm a couple years ago when i researched it. but still, that's average. one instagram can certainly blow the average outward. i'm sure the median is closer to the ~$10mm that you said.
Thank you! I forgot about this post.
Sent via G-Mobile
