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I’m Gustav von Sydow. I live in Stockholm and I’m the founder of Burt,  a software company that makes it dead easy for marketers to test, track and personalize their online advertising. 

I also tweet every now and then.

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</description><title>More than a tweet, less than a blog.</title><generator>Tumblr (3.0; @vonsydow)</generator><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/</link><item><title>Almost forgot about this one. Pretty spot on, considering it was...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxnu3nba8v1qzoxp1o1_250.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;Almost forgot about this one. Pretty spot on, considering it was published 15 years ago.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/15696290758</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/15696290758</guid><pubDate>Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:45:21 +0100</pubDate><category>fast company</category><category>future</category><category>social</category><category>personal</category><category>knowledge</category></item><item><title>siliconvalleyryangosling:

Hey girl. I’m sorry no one replied to...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwjow43niU1r8eulxo1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a class="tumblr_blog" href="http://siliconvalleyryangosling.tumblr.com/post/14555898278/hey-girl-im-sorry-no-one-replied-to-your" target="_blank"&gt;siliconvalleyryangosling&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hey girl. I’m sorry no one replied to your thoughtful comment on Techcrunch.  Let’s get some ice cream and talk about market saturation. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/14765818928</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/14765818928</guid><pubDate>Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:18:22 +0100</pubDate></item><item><title>Photo</title><description>&lt;img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls10iwmcmE1qzoxp1o1_500.gif"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/10593821747</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/10593821747</guid><pubDate>Sat, 24 Sep 2011 14:11:20 +0200</pubDate></item><item><title>I sure hope so.</title><description>&lt;img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqqrsbA15y1qzoxp1o1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;I sure hope so.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/9585269181</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/9585269181</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:52:59 +0200</pubDate></item><item><title>The Contrast rebellion is best rebellion in quite some time.</title><description>&lt;img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lozrr7NRUd1qzoxp1o1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://contrastrebellion.com/"&gt;Contrast rebellion&lt;/a&gt; is best rebellion in quite some time.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/8126690070</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/8126690070</guid><pubDate>Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:23:31 +0200</pubDate><category>design</category><category>web</category></item><item><title>
“You’ve found market price when buyers complain but still pay.”...</title><description>&lt;img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_low1j1kfA41qz63cqo1_500.png"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;“You’ve found market price when buyers complain but still pay.” Paul Graham &lt;/span&gt;(via &lt;a href="http://startupquote.com/post/7029845826" target="_blank"&gt;Startup Quote&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/8043881639</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/8043881639</guid><pubDate>Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:17:58 +0200</pubDate></item><item><title>"The sad truth is: quants were the eunuchs at the orgy. We were the ever-present British guy in every..."</title><description>“The sad truth is: quants were the eunuchs at the orgy. We were the ever-present British guy in every Hollywood WWII film: there to add a touch of class and exotic sophistication, but not really matter much to the plot (and maybe even conveniently take some bad guy’s bullet).”&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; - &lt;em&gt;Adgrok in a &lt;a href="http://adgrok.com/why-founding-a-three-person-startup-with-zero-revenue-is-better-than-working-for-goldman-sachs/" target="_blank"&gt;great piece on startups vs real jobs&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/7007401934</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/7007401934</guid><pubDate>Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:35:52 +0200</pubDate><category>startups</category><category>banks</category><category>lehman</category><category>cdo</category></item><item><title>"If you only show up when you want something, we’ll catch on.

If you only learn the minimum..."</title><description>“&lt;p&gt;If you only show up when you want something, we’ll catch on.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you only learn the minimum amount necessary to get over the next hurdle, you’ll fall behind.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If these short term choices leave you focused on the urgent, you’ll almost never get around to doing the important.&lt;/p&gt;”&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; - &lt;em&gt;Lately it seems as if &lt;a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/06/the-professionals-platform.html" target="_blank"&gt;Seth Godin is starting to writing good&lt;/a&gt; stuff again.&lt;/em&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/6482854097</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/6482854097</guid><pubDate>Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:09:13 +0200</pubDate><category>Seth Godin</category><category>startup</category><category>productivity</category></item><item><title>"Apple is now more clearly than ever betting that will not be web software, but native software..."</title><description>“Apple is now more clearly than ever betting that will not be web software, but native software backed invisibly by the web.”&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; - &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/08/apple-icloud-google-cloud/" target="_blank"&gt;“It just works”&lt;/a&gt; over at Techcrunch.&lt;/em&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/6364727596</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/6364727596</guid><pubDate>Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:27:05 +0200</pubDate><category>apple</category><category>icloud</category></item><item><title>"‎”Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people."</title><description>“‎”Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.””&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; - &lt;em&gt;Eleanor Roosevelt&lt;/em&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/5245232571</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/5245232571</guid><pubDate>Fri, 06 May 2011 17:44:08 +0200</pubDate></item><item><title>"Aggregators show how much better you can do than the channel. The New York Times front page is a..."</title><description>“Aggregators show how much better you can do than the channel. The New York Times front page is a list of articles written by people who work for the New York Times. Delicious is a list of articles that are interesting. And it’s only now that you can see the two side by side that you notice how little overlap there is.”&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; - &lt;em&gt;Paul Graham on &lt;a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/opensource.html" target="_blank"&gt;what business can learn from open source&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/5213329251</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/5213329251</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 May 2011 09:13:38 +0200</pubDate></item><item><title>"Another acquaintance told me this story. He has a son about 8 years old. They were talking about the..."</title><description>“Another acquaintance told me this story. He has a son about 8 years old. They were talking about the old days, and the fact that when my friend was growing up they did not have computers. This fact was perplexing news to his son. His son asks, “But how did you get onto the internet before computers?”&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; - &lt;em&gt;KK on being &lt;a href="http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/04/born_digital.php" target="_blank"&gt;Born Digital&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/5111151198</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/5111151198</guid><pubDate>Sun, 01 May 2011 22:56:21 +0200</pubDate><category>digital</category><category>kids</category><category>culture</category></item><item><title>Being legen - wait for it - dary.</title><description>&lt;img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk979c3WQ01qzoxp1o1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;Being legen - wait for it - dary.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4952997187</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4952997187</guid><pubDate>Tue, 26 Apr 2011 11:48:48 +0200</pubDate><category>barney</category><category>legendary</category></item><item><title>"Beyond the empirical sciences of revenue optimization, behavioral targeting, customer segmentation..."</title><description>“&lt;p&gt;Beyond the empirical sciences of revenue optimization, behavioral targeting, customer segmentation and the discovery of on-line arbitrage there lies a need for basic research that develops fundamental models for understanding the environment in which a firm operates and how to question the unknown. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This type of science is closer to applied sociology or experimental physics than the tradition of ponderous economics in that it is driven by and dependant on the immense mass of data that new businesses are generating.&lt;/p&gt;”&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt; - &lt;em&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://blog.i2pi.com/?p=186"&gt;Data trades inversely to liquidity.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4935486457</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4935486457</guid><pubDate>Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:37:43 +0200</pubDate><category>advertising</category><category>data</category><category>mining</category><category>analytics</category></item><item><title>martner: The Media is the Message - lost in translation.</title><description>&lt;a href="http://martner.tumblr.com/post/4751505583"&gt;martner: The Media is the Message - lost in translation.&lt;/a&gt;: &lt;p&gt;In swedish, but so good it might be worth learning the language. Or &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&amp;prev=_t&amp;hl=sv&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;layout=2&amp;eotf=1&amp;sl=sv&amp;tl=en&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fmartner.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F4751505583"&gt;use Google Translate magic&lt;/a&gt;. Whatevva.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://martner.tumblr.com/post/4751505583" target="_blank"&gt;martner&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;“The Media is the Message” är en av reklambranschens mest slitna klyschor. Den myntades av en författare och tänkare som hette Marshall McLuhan. Han är död nu. Men redan under hans livstid började mediamänniskor som ville vara slagkraftiga slarva runt rätt friskt med hans teorier, som ofta var…&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4773962378</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4773962378</guid><pubDate>Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:20:21 +0200</pubDate></item><item><title>A great example of the camera’s potential to push...</title><description>&lt;iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/22557401" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;A great example of the camera’s potential to push mainstream interaction even further, beyond touch. Will be really interesting to see what combinations of tracking eye, facial expressions, head movements, hand gestures and touch that we’ll end up find intuitive.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Naturally, being a big proponent of direct observation as opposed to surveys and focus group, my mind completely explodes when considering about the advertising analytical potential of this data set :)&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4743318092</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4743318092</guid><pubDate>Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:26:07 +0200</pubDate><category>advertising</category><category>ipad</category><category>camera</category><category>tracking</category><category>analytics</category><category>data</category></item><item><title>A good day according to Benjamin Franklin</title><description>&lt;img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj6ijxwZio1qzoxp1o1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;A good day according to Benjamin Franklin&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4364177618</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4364177618</guid><pubDate>Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:26:21 +0200</pubDate></item><item><title>geekboys:

Pepsi vs Coca-Cola
</title><description>&lt;img src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lird1yTVps1qzzjbco1_500.jpg"/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://geekboys.tumblr.com/post/4155671538" target="_blank"&gt;geekboys&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Pepsi vs Coca-Cola&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4166239189</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/4166239189</guid><pubDate>Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:46:35 +0200</pubDate></item><item><title>Brief history of title design</title><description>&lt;iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/20759580" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brief history of title design&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/3929269757</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/3929269757</guid><pubDate>Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:38:00 +0100</pubDate></item><item><title>Seed and early stage fundraising on the fringes</title><description>&lt;p&gt;So I was interviewed by a newspaper the other day (waiting for the article to see how misquoted I get) on seed and early stage fundraising in the Nordics, but it might as well have been “anywhere except for the US”.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="p1"&gt;There’s a misconception that fundraising is a simple binary issue, in the sense that either you get funded or you don’t. And that in markets (such as the Nordics) where there is little access to capital, the consequence is that many great ideas don’t get any money. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="p1"&gt;However, the challenge in the Nordics and similar markets isn’t that you don’t get funded (you’re any good you will, eventually) but that it takes way longer, making it hard to execute at the speed required to compete in certain product categories or customer segments, where competition has quicker access to capital (for instance, by being based in downtown Palo Alto).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="p1"&gt;This is sometimes interpreted that investors in these markets lack vision, are too risk averse or plain ignorant. Not true, at least if Nordic investors are anything to go by. All things equal, they’re just smart (or in some cases, not smart) as their US counter parts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="p1"&gt;What they lack isn’t brains or balls, but competition. In a hyper competitive market as NYC or SV you have to act fast to get the deal. Whereas in the Nordics, where an ambitious startup only has a handful of firms to choose from (and angel investing is pretty much non-existing), you can take your time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="p1"&gt;Anyone that has raised money will tell you that competition for the deal is what makes deals happen. And when there is none, pretty much nothing happens (unless you run out of money and are forced to accept a shitty deal haha).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="p1"&gt;Again, this is perfectly rational behavior. If you’re an investor, looking at a company that is 10 months old, stalling the investment by a couple of months gives you double digit increases in data that allows you to reduce risk.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="p1"&gt;So while it’s tempting to whine on the few players that actually do invest in these markets, what we should do is to figure out how we can get more players to join the game.&lt;/p&gt;</description><link>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/3734185116</link><guid>http://gustavvonsydow.com/post/3734185116</guid><pubDate>Wed, 09 Mar 2011 03:23:00 +0100</pubDate><category>startup</category><category>fundraising</category><category>venture capital</category></item></channel></rss>

