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HEY, I'M ON FORMSPRING AND THIS IS CRAZY BUT I NEED SOME QUESTIONS SO ASK ME, MAYBE
Hey!
Spring just met you,
and this is crazy,
here's our response,
so smile it maybe? -
How do you purchase your music? And what is your opinion on iTunes trying to control your music purchases into only iTune app. devices?
I'm mostly using Rdio or Spotify for most music, those services has most stuff that I listen to, they're always available as long as I have an Internet connection, and I don't have to buy more hard-drives anymore. For music where I need the best quality (usually jazz, classical or musicals), I'll get the CD, ripped it with Apple Lossless and play them via iTunes. Occasionally, I'll buy digital downloads from the band's site too.
I'm deeply iNtegrated with the Apple ecosystem, so I don't really think about whether they are controlling my music consumption. Whichever delivery system you choose, you'll always be controlled by something, whether it's the record labels, amazon, or google. I just pick the poison that also serve my needs the best. -
#PAP a picture of the person next to you right now.
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Poopin !!
Ah yes, taking the Browns to the Super Bowl.
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It's that time again. What is the best cat picture you've seen?
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Q5: Go to Urban Dictionary, type in your first name, and respond with what it says.
Typed in Minnelle and got this instead.
Ah yes, the things you learn from the internets. -
What should be our theme song?
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The Stanley Cup starts tonight, whose gonna win it all?
http://www.backyardsportsblog.com/2012/05/new-jersey-is-only…
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How did you celebrate your most recent birthday?
The theme was "Fancy Pants and Wigs" and I would say I was pretty successful in achieving that. Someone called me a superhero prostitute. So there's that. Happy 30th to me!!
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Are you looking forward to Assassin's Creed III?
About as much as back-to-back dentist appointments.
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Sum 41 or Blink 182?
BLINK 182!
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So... how was your day?
Instead of a day, I'll speak to the weekend... which was awesome.
1) I have basically spent all of it playing Diablo 3. Totally in nerd heaven. Geeking out with item stats and basically doing math in between slaying hellish monsters. Thank you Blizzard.
2) I made steak and caused the fire alarm to go off. I just got a new cast iron pan, got it hotter than the sun and was locking in the flavor of some thin ribeye steaks. Plenty of smoke and sizzle and 3 min later my neighbors are running out of the building in bathroom robes with valuables in backpacks. Red faced me has to explain that I was making delicious dinner, I'm sure I'll be catching dirty looks for a few weeks.
Oh and Fire Dept. never showed up.. I guess they were busy with all the Bay2Breakers drunks, who by the way devolved into animals around 5PM... screaming, puking and fighting all over the neighborhood. Damn kids don't know how to hold their booze. -
Here's an exclusive preview for Anchorman 2! What's your favorite Anchorman quote?
http://bit.ly/JLr9Sk
Ron Burgundy: You are a smelly pirate hooker.
Veronica Corningstone: You look like a blueberry.
Ron: Why don't you go back to your home on Whore Island?
Veronica: Well, you have bad hair.
Ron: What did you say?
Veronica: I said your hair looks stupid. -
Upload a baby photo of yourself so I can laugh at it.
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What's the # 1 piece of advice you would NOT give to a teenager?
"If he tells you he loves you, you should definitely believe him and then have sex with him."
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Are you buying FB stock when they IPO this week?
tl;dr No.
Three main reasons:
1. IPOs are a way for company to get access to capital. It is not always given that the public will react positively, and that the company will meet their goals. Given the strong enthusiasm when Facebook’s IPO was announced, there was no doubt that FB would hit their target. The pre-demand was so strong, that they – along with their WallStreet sidekicks – decided to raise the starting stock price, in order to have access to even more capital (without selling additional shares). Which leads me to the conclusion that people participating in the IPO, are not investing to give FB perennial financial security but to make a quick buck. That goes against my views on investing.
2. Hype. Facebook has probably the highest publicity level of any company having ever become a publicly trading company. They have 850M monthly active users. Everyone and their mom know about Facebook. It’s been 8 years since Google’s IPO and SV and WallStreet pundits are eagerly waiting for a similar event – probably with the hope of getting rich in the process. I favor rational investment decisions over hype. (see dotcom crash)
3. We don’t know much about Facebook revenues. Yes, they have published numbers in the SEC fillings, but we have little history. (btw this applies to any IPO, not specific to FB).
Q4 2011 showed a decrease in advertising revenues, and the FB PR department conveniently indicated that is was a seasonal trend, which doesn’t reflect at all the “astounding growth” that everyone has been talking about. (Where are the numbers?) Which leads us to my biggest gripe about all this: Facebook revenues are almost exclusively ad related revenues. “Well, it worked pretty well for Google, didn’t it? FB can pull it off” is what I hear. But there’s a major difference in Google’s business: people use Google to search for “things”. Articles, videos, products. Some of these searches have a buying intent. And advertising works great when people are looking to by something. When’s the last time you went on Facebook to search about something you’d like to buy? Yeah, me neither. Facebook is selling display ads, just like billboards on top of buildings or along the highway. I mean, don't get me wrong, they have VERY nice display ads, with top notch demographics targeting and shit. Even using your friends as commercial vehicles. (dubious if you ask me). But it is just display ads.
People don't go on Facebook to buy. And FB ads are performing terribly compared to Google’s given FB’s extraordinary page impressions. Why so? Well, just because people are less likely to click on an ad if they came to Facebook with the intent of looking at their friends vacation pics. Compare that to : “Canon 5D discount price" and it becomes obvious.
So yeah, if things stay the same – and that’s a big if – I expect Facebook valuations to rise until they announce they next results. At that time, if the product hasn’t change, the revenue growth perspective won’t look as good as they look today with all the hype surrounding this IPO.
The only good thing I see about this IPO is that many people will get extremely rich, and hopefully will reinvest part of their new found wealth into promising startups/ideas/people.
That’s what I’m really excited about. -
This is a photo I took of a humpback whale in Hawaii. We were literally on a blow up raft and this thing almost flipped us over. It was amazing! What's your craziest encounter with nature?
You're going to need a bigger boat.
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Mike Preuss’s Bio
Formspring.me Business Development. IU Grad, Chicago Native.
mikepre.me
twitter.com/MikePreuss
Other cool sites:
huckberry.com
everyme.com
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