Tech Memeorandum: Resumeware

A friend of mine who recently turned VC came by today for lunch, and he wanted to know how I kept up with the latest. I showed him Tech Memeorandum, and explained how top bloggers were altering their posting patterns to gam... influence the site. When he asked me how much I thought it was worth I said, "Probably about $5 million." This shocked him, since there was no advertising on the site and I had already explained that it probably took at most a few months to write, maybe less. My feeling is that Tech Memeorandum is a perfect example of not just "proof of concept," but also "proof of guy." Now that the site is in use, plenty of people could clone it. The point is that Gabe Rivera did it first, and did it so well. If I was running Google or Yahoo, I'd not only want the technology, I'd want Gabe. It is people who can see how a relatively small amount of technology can have so much effect that you should look for. Building something big given enough money is not impressive. Building something small that influences a lot of people is a real talent.