Jotting notes.

Take the experienced arbitrager on the other hand, and from decision to inception, it might take two to three days. If the hypothetical window for running is four weeks, they have an opportunity to use almost all of it. That sense of urgency and speed to action is perhaps their most distinguishing trait. There are no product meetings, no wondering whether to pull the trigger, and no hemming and hawing over the cost to build or test. Just action and getting it done because someone else is probably doing the same. And the CPA Networks have evolved to support this fast acting, higher risk taking behavior.

The problem is not arbitrage but the arbitrage at all costs attitude that has arisen. Those who find traffic pockets and take the financial risk serve a very valuable role and deserve to make money off it. When thaat discovery runs afoul of all laws and ethics, when they are so morally lost they would need a map to find out where to go, they don’t just endanger themselves. They are a speedboat, gone into the distance before than can be identified, the victims being those left in their big wake. Those victims are all of performance marketing.

How Stressed is B. of A.?

Yahoo Finance reports that BAC has a market capitalization of $69 billion, last night the Treasury reported that the bank will need an additional $35 billion. It looks to me that the stock is down about a buck, which is nothing in my book after such a dramatic announcement.

BAC, WFC and PNC were three banks that were the “go to” guys for the Treasury when Rome was burning. BAC bought Merrill at gunpoint, WFC bought Wachovia and PNC bought National City. All of these banks will need capital. It really does pay to play ball with the government doesn’t it? At the end of the day big government usually chews you up and spits you out, this saga is still in motion, it will be interesting to see where it all lands.

My advice to those that are long financials? Get out while you have the chance. Not because of the BAC news, that doesn’t help, but because their entire business model has vaporized, of course if paralyzing dilution is your thing, then start taking out offers. Careful out there.

hansoo: #leanstartup “MBA fallacy: whiteboard, think about it, whiteboard some more, think about it, whiteboard, feel good about your idea”

Although I never went to business school, I have committed the “MBA’s fallacy” many times. It’s actually the fastest way to iterate on a business: just keep reworking it at the whiteboard. At IMVU, I remember spending an incredible amount of time iterating on the model that would power our third-party developer economy. My cofounders and I would hash out nuances and details almost every day, re-drawing diagram after diagram on the whiteboard. Now, the first few times we thought through those issues, we probably did some quality thinking. But pretty soon it degenerated into fact-free bloviating. If it doesn’t involve new facts, it doesn’t count as learning.