tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-173492352009-07-07T10:57:57.521-04:00startups, technology, nonprofits, venture capital, politics, CRM, contact management software, random stuff.Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.comBlogger421125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-47223700476963117782009-01-15T15:55:00.001-05:002009-01-15T15:56:13.104-05:00

I've retired this blog location. CLICK HERE for my current blog. Thanks!

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-60047991410563464202008-11-04T10:18:00.002-05:002008-11-04T10:26:35.038-05:00

Lancaster County is traditionally very conservative. When I grew up here, the ration of Rs to Ds was 3 to 1. It's narrowed since then, with 174,000 registered Republicans and about 110,000 registered Democrats.I haven't looked at the number of Independents and their persuasions, but I think it's not insignificant. But taking a look at turnout, along with Rs for Obama, here's a possibility:Obama

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-42907699228219943002008-11-04T05:54:00.007-05:002008-11-04T07:04:08.197-05:00

My father passed away 12 years ago Sunday. He would have loved this election. He would have hated the work of the Bush administration. And he would have loved how American this election cycle has been. Barack Obama's candidacy has brought out the best in us--and the worst in some ways. On the whole, this campaign season has been a great debate of worldviews, the policies that reflect them, and

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-16568651796314739592008-11-01T17:38:00.002-04:002008-11-01T18:14:19.298-04:00

I've been an Obama supporter since 2004. I've liked just about everything about him except his healthcare plan, which I think is far better than McCain's, which would cost my business money and increase costs all around. Obama's still includes the private insurance industry and employer-based insurance, which will be hard to lead to a viable universal system because the costs the middleman

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-90224506072729739172008-10-29T18:00:00.003-04:002008-10-30T15:33:48.801-04:00

It doesn't happen like this. This is from an email I just got directly from the sales guy after I asked for 1) a lower setup fee and 2) more details about how their software works. Hey... Look at this f**ker...I wanna punch himBest Regards,J****in B***y [company named removed]Sales RepresentativeT +1 [***] *** ****http://www.******.com/Subject: RE: ********/Circle Dog Proposal-------------------

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-68647218188255670592008-10-22T11:54:00.002-04:002008-10-22T14:29:10.339-04:00

This has been on my mind recently. As McCain and Palin desperately try to claw the race away from Obama, they hammer away at his sensible economic policies and position themselves as reformers of Wall Street.But the reform that McCain wanted (until about 6 weeks ago) was to privatize social security. Now, most of us with 401ks and retirement funds have just experience a significant drop in the

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-6585930673237078412008-10-18T13:02:00.002-04:002008-10-18T13:12:43.099-04:00

So Republicans are attacking Acorn for voter fraud. There's fraud alright--not by Acorn, but against Acorn. Acorn paid people to register voters a a per registration basis. Incentive pay. Nice. Well, when given the right incentive, people will do just about anything, including putting fictitious names on voter registration cards.Now, fictitious people can't vote. Nor can real people with multiple

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-38534149379215559112008-10-18T10:52:00.003-04:002008-10-18T11:30:56.775-04:00

There are few things that can ruin a slow breakfast with coffee up at the Chestnut Hill Cafe more than the grating, shrill, arrogant and hateful voice of Sarah Palin searing through Lancaster's perfect Fall air on a Saturday morning as she incites yet another crowd. And now for something completely different...Venturebeat, Techcrunch, and just about every tech/vc blog out there are chronicling

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-7308974584443189412008-10-17T19:25:00.004-04:002008-10-17T19:30:36.664-04:00

A nice way to end the week, as Anthony says.http://www.scobleizer.com/2008/10/17/recessionproof/Scoble gives us the shout out for our tagline "Build your own economy".Ok, enough of the blog break. Got to get back to building mine.

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-79318485852474018072008-10-16T18:48:00.002-04:002008-10-16T18:55:36.123-04:00

Joe's dad served time starting around 1993 for his involvement in the Keating fraud case.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE6DF173DF935A25756C0A964958260McCain, if you recall, was a close friend of Keatings. Hmmm.Turns out that Joe also owes back taxes in Ohio, and isn't actually a licensed plumber. But what the hell, let's do the math anyway.If that business is turning $280,000

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-2361503918321533472008-10-16T09:14:00.002-04:002008-10-16T09:37:56.326-04:00

So I was obsessed about the financial crisis last month. When I ran for Senate I called attention to the problem, and have posted about the growing problem of a credit-driven economy regularly since then.And of course I'm not someone people listen to, least of all politicians. And having talked about this for years, you'd think there'd be some satisfaction when it finally comes to fruition, but

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-37364759728828212092008-10-13T05:40:00.002-04:002008-10-13T05:50:48.084-04:00

Amy and I attended a wedding of our friends Monica and Josh over the weekend in New York. The wedding was great fun (and a learning experience, too); besides the specific purpose of the wedding, one great thing about weddings is you get to see so many friends at one time at a fun event.This time in New York I'm here as a tourist, which is a rare thing for me. I lived here over a two year period

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-4807741244709882332008-10-11T11:05:00.003-04:002008-10-11T11:14:42.421-04:00

I don't have much time this morning because I'm heading to NY and need to pack. But Entellium's CEO and CFO were arrested by the FBI this week after someone blew the whistle on that company's misrepresentation of the numbers to its board and venture investors Ignition, which was part of a $50 million investment. Seems $9 million is missing, and their revenue was only 25% of what they reported to

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-70121689196509002462008-10-06T12:34:00.002-04:002008-10-06T12:45:59.903-04:00

The Dow dropped under 10,000 today. Since May it has lost over 4,000 points, a reflection of the loss of confidence in the future of the companies represented there. It also doesn't take into account the delisting of Lehman from the Dow.The Nasdaq is down to 1835 (last I looked). But for the health of the markets I look at the S&P, which is a gauge of 500 companies (compared to the Dow's 30). THe

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-87885076719500417892008-10-05T13:20:00.002-04:002008-10-05T13:49:03.722-04:00

I'm not an economist. But here's something that's been on my mind.The US Economy was relatively closed for most of its history; not that we didn't trade, but that trade was considered between countries that made their own things. In the past 20 years, the "third way" proponents dismantled the traditional trade between countries and enabled multinational companies to move significant manufacturing

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-86653044263786576112008-10-05T10:47:00.003-04:002008-10-05T11:48:50.260-04:00

There's something about Fall that pushes us to schedule as much as possible--it's a busy time. I've on the road a good deal, mostly as part of launching CircleDog and the never-ending task of raising money. This month adds a wedding, a trip to Boston, the SVN event in San Diego, and another Bay Area trip around the end of the month.So when I'm home I really enjoy hanging around the house. Today

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-89776441105384395002008-10-04T13:58:00.001-04:002008-10-04T14:08:04.033-04:00

Really nice review, read it here. Now go to to CircleDog.com and install the trial!

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-89523577389839968772008-10-02T23:20:00.002-04:002008-10-02T23:25:56.150-04:00

You might be surprised by this, but I think Palin did pretty well. I don't agree with most of what she said and just about all that she stands for, but the predictions of a massacre were way off base. I didn't see the Couric interviews, but I did see her convention speech. And while she can recite lines pretty well, she can also think on her feet pretty well.The gosh darnit gambit was over the

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-37928285534346549392008-10-01T11:55:00.002-04:002008-10-01T12:31:51.175-04:00

Tough economy? Yeah. Been saying that. So now what?Dig in.Cash is king, right? That doesn'tmean cut spending, it means conserve cash wisely and spend it wisely. You should do that all the time. Figure out what works, then repeat it.Stop any marketing that doesn't return atleast 2 to 1 on investment.Change your message. Change your value proposition. Add value. Identify the value you bring.

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-41676566199891048832008-09-30T01:27:00.002-04:002008-09-30T01:43:21.680-04:00

My timing was wrong. I said on Sept 14th that the Dow would drop 10 to 20%. Today it closed at 10,365. On the 14th it was 11421. The drop so far has been 1057 points, or 9.25% so far. Since May the drop has been about 3000 points, or 25% or so.I'm seeing some tightening in the venture market. CNET (Rafe Needleman) gives some highly inaccurate advice for startups:Forget the VCs, head to the angels

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-5003648045816384572008-09-27T18:30:00.001-04:002008-09-27T18:33:01.053-04:00

is this radical right-wing group, on CNN as "objective". Accuracy in Media...

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-66954579595859348752008-09-27T10:27:00.001-04:002008-09-27T10:29:22.756-04:00

Click hereLancaster's Convention Center project might be in danger of losing its cash flow...

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-78432789771813782722008-09-26T14:43:00.002-04:002008-09-26T15:17:54.466-04:00

Well, I was way wrong about the market drop. For now. I thought it would drop harder and sooner. But now with the WaMu failure (feds seized it and sold its assets to JP Morgan for $1.9 billion, a song) I'm pretty sure we're going to have a long October. If the short sellers were allowed to do their thing, they'd be in pretty great shape right now.This is starting to effect businesses. I know of a

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-21430918378926627872008-09-24T17:22:00.003-04:002008-09-24T17:28:50.192-04:00

I'm pretty certain this was announced a bit ago, but I just got an email from Guy pointing me to it (I had sent him an email requesting his latest book on Kindle...a bit to go for that, I suppose).The site is AllTop. Basically it's a content filter with a lot of great articles organized by topic.. King of like a magazine of magazines. or blog of blogs. Except a lot of the great content comes from

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17349235.post-57470850460407870352008-09-24T16:40:00.002-04:002008-09-24T16:41:56.016-04:00

Yes, so the guy in charge of executive compensation and the bailout made a paltry $37 mil. In one year. I'm in the wrong business.

Charlie Crystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06145078126451353752noreply@blogger.com0