Social networks, including Facebook, may become platforms for small businesses to raise capital, if the U.S. House of Representatives has its way.

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I am constantly fighting an internal battle. Do I post a scathing review of a company which has made themselves an easy target for criticism, or do I stand down? Just because I know something sucks doesn’t mean I should call attention to it, right? However in recent weeks I have done exactly that and ultimately, I believe I sacrificed my own values. Before you begin to release tears of pity for me though, let me share a note with you.
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Yesterday I wrote a post about Fred Wilson’s comments on Facebook and a number of commenters jumped in to defend Fred, calling my comments a bit excessive. Whether or not the comments were over the top, I’m sure Fred slept comfortably last night despite the harsh words. However I’m seriously curious as to what people think: should a talent acquisition by Facebook be considered failures?
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Yesterday Fred Wilson flexed his arrogance at Web 2.0 Summit, claiming that “I’ve only seen one major company built on the Facebook Platform”. If he was referring to a billion dollar company then he’d be right, however there is an ecosystem of companies who are generating tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue, and even a few select companies generating hundreds of millions.
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Most people that get interested in entrepreneurship think that it requires quitting your job, taking out debt, and betting everything you have on the success of your business. Most of those people fail pretty quickly and wind up with a ton of debt: two things that the average Joe isn’t willing to embrace at the drop of a dime. Entrepreneurship is not about stupid risk though, it’s about calculated risks. Here’s the single best way to calculate that risk without betting the entire farm.
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You might say that you don’t care whether your friend Sally checked into the bar tonight, or that your friend John commented on a photo of you, or that your friend Mark posted a super clever comment about your status update, but these seemingly worthless interactions are important for our social relationships according to a new report from the National IT User Center at Uppsala University.
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While we’ve discussed numerous strategies for Facebook marketing over the past month, one thing has continuously stood out to me as the core difference between great marketers and the rest. Whether you’re looking for strategies to cut the cost of your advertising in half or increase your click through rates on ads, the brilliant marketers know how to do it and their secret really isn’t as surprising as you’d imagine.
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Jason Calacanis appears convinced that entrepreneurs are at risk of “partnering” with Facebook, claiming that Facebook will steal any startup’s technology. This follow’s Facebook’s recent announcement that the company would be offering support for any Y Combinator startup who wanted to contribute to making the web more social.
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Despite all the criticism that Mark Zuckerberg has taken for his actions in the past, there is one thing that nobody can contest: Zuckerberg is an extremely shrewd business person. He often thinks in terms of decades, not days, weeks, or months, and has built the only site that has ever had the chance to take down (or at least compete with) Google. So what is it that has brought him to this point and what should entrepreneurs take away from his successes?
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