Web site helps people profit from information collected about them. Personal’s impressive lineup of investors is what got my attention. Former AOL chairman Steve Case’s Revolution LLC. Local sports mogul Ted Leonsis. Carlyle managing director Ed Mathias. Former ambassador Morton Abramowitz. Who put together this collection of heavy hitters? The answer is a 1992 University of Michigan political science graduate and foreign policy wonk named Shane Green. His deep-pocketed group has put up $7.6 million, ensuring that he can nurture Personal (personal.com) well beyond its launch, planned for this summer. Personal has about 30 employees split between Georgetown and Sarajevo, home to two of its co-founders.
Green, 40, said Personal enables individuals to own, control access to and benefit from their personal information now bouncing around the digital world. “The real magic on the commercial side is information on what you plan to do or purchase, which is the altar at which all things digital worships,” Green said. It could be. Bio/contact info. How to Start a Business in 10 (not so easy) Steps [PIC] Inspire don’t Manipulate – T.P. Caruso & Associates* As the result of a watching a TED talk video about Simon Sinek I purchased Start with Why, Sinek’s book that provides more detail than the talk. Â After saying in chapter 1 what he said so eloquently in the TED video, in chapter 2 Sinek writes: There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it…Typical manipulations include: dropping price; running a promotion; using fear, peer pressure or aspirational messages; and promising innovation to influence behavior – be it a purchase, a vote or support.
He also writes that those companies that have an unclear idea about the reasons customers buy their product are very likely to use manipulation to make their sales because manipulations to sell products and services. Â Companies pay a price for manipulation, usually in product quality and, eventually, competitiveness, sales and profitability. The alternative is to inspire your customers, as, Sinek says, does Apple for instance. Commercial open source applications.