Ted's Take

The Blogging Site of Ted Leonsis

Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

I Am Old But Relevant

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Check out this Advertising Age article. I was using the term social media to Proctor and Gamble back in 1998. Thanks for remembering the good old days. A dozen years ago. We were cool but who ever remembers the past?

Better. Great. Amazing.

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Better. Great. Amazing.

Great. Way better. Far better. Wonderful. Cool.

And you thought I was a salesman and an evangelist for my projects? :-).

Check out Steve Jobs in 3 minutes.

Amazing. Beautiful. Easy. Great. Simple .Incredible. Isn’t it great? Unbelievable!

A Love Note to My Partners

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

I am really pleased, honored and excited to have a great group of friends to be my partners in ownership of our teams. Lincoln Holdings is run like a huge ethnic family. We are a tight knit group of friends focused on doing well by doing good.

We have - I believe - the most committed; most financially successful; most culturally diverse; and most local and philanthropic group of partners in all of sports.

We all live here in DC, VA and MD. We all go to games. We all serve as huge fans to our teams - no absentee owners here. We are all hyper competitive; want to win; and love the communities we serve.

We all started and grew our companies here; raised our families here; and we love the community and the fan base.

As a reminder, here is a quick snapshot of our ownership group. You can find more information by clicking here to read their full bios.

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How to Know You Have Made It as a Brand - Groupon

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

You know you have made an impact when you describe your company to the Washington Post
as “Wahanda Aims To Become Yelp-Meets-Groupon-For-Health.” For many years, young startups would describe their business with the sound bite of “We are the Google of…”. Groupon matters now. It is a comparable that people use as a descriptor for something with promise.

Groupon is such a breakout hit and so many faux competitors now have emerged. The one competitor that I worry about as a board member of Groupon is Nopuorg.com. These folks have it right. These guys are good.

Revolution Money and American Express - Merger is Closed

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Our deal was blessed by all relevant parties and it closed today. So it is official. Revolution Money is now part of the American Express Company. I so look forward to helping Ken Chenault, CEO of American Express, and his talented team to become more of a digital payments company and to helping to drive Revolution Money to meet its higher calling. The social payments space is red hot. We will move fast now to provide great and compelling services to consumers that focus on online money transfer.

I am psyched. We are all excited and we are raring to go! Congratulations to the Revolution Money team. You earned your success but we are just getting started…

Groupon Rocks

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

See this article and get the tour of their facilities. Nice work here.

I love this company; its business model; its people; and I am honored to serve on its Board of Directors. I also love going to Chicago for these board meetings. They are outside of the group think in NYC and the Valley and operate in a very efficient and innovative manner.

Get your Groupon on! Sign up today…

I Am So Confused

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

I thought we had global warming yet it is record setting cold in Canada. Click.

I thought the world was ending and the financial crisis would deepen yet Time Magazine’s Man of the Year is credited with stopping the economic meltdown. Click.

The NHL salary cap would go way down as the bad economy would ripple across our league. Click.

Who to believe? Believe no expert that is for sure.

Aol Stock Symbol

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

And here you go; aol is being publicly traded again under the symbol of aol. It opened at $23.67. It feels good to type that symbol into my portfolio tracker again.

The company has no excuses now. It is independent of Time Warner. It can do the right things the right way. It can be totally and maniacally focused on doing what is best for its consumers and partners and employees. I wish it well. I think it has a shot to be reestablished as a major company and brand in the digital world. It has a good strategy. It has terrific people. It has cash flow. It now needs to execute with a “no excuses” mantra: Go - Go fast - Grow fast. Revel in the focus and being able to manage to Main Street and not to Time Warner Center. There are now hundreds of millions of consumers using your services and tens of thousands of advertisers that use the platform. Focus on them. Use that stock currency to acquire great and innovative new web companies to become even more relevant and add even more innovative and driven management. Show everyone what you are made of now!

And Time Warner is free of this Internet thing on the side. It can be what it wants to be too - a content company - free of distribution via its spin out of cable and now aol.

It can focus on what to do with its print based properties and its branded networks that really repackage other people’s content. This will be a challenge as well. We all will be watching as Oscar Wilde once said, “The two great tragedies in life are NOT getting what you want and GETTING what you want.”

Congratulations to the people of aol. Make us proud.

Groupon. Groupon. Groupon.

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Is there a hotter company anywhere these days? Holiday shopping? Go to Groupon.com. Want the best deals locally? Go to Groupon.com.

Check out Groupon.com in a city near you.

A big idea and perfectly executed. Check out this news story.

Rosetta Stone

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

What a great name for a company. Unlocking the code in your brain to help you learn how to speak a foreign language. What an interesting concept.

I am pleased and honored to join the Board of Directors of this public company. Their brand and distribution seem strong. Those kiosk and yellow boxes are everywhere.

There are headquartered here. They employ our neighbors and friends. They stimulate our local economy. They are growing. They are profitable.

I enjoy mentoring young executives and helping to drive companies to large scale.

This will be a fun and interesting adventure.

I hope to use their products, too, to learn how to speak Russian.

Go out and learn a new language and become a global citizen.

Click here for info on this news and the company.