I have learned a lot more about internet advertising than I would have ever imagined. Having the ability to track every part of consumer behavior helps us to make educated decisions that we are confident will positively affect the campaign. We are still maintaining a strong relationship with one partner in particular, that has constantly worked with us to optimize. When I first began working on the campaign it was one month old, so I have been fortunate to witness a majority of its progress. Even though at times from one week to another we may digress a little, our progress has been staggering. Over the course of the two months that I have spent working on this campaign we have managed to drop the customer acquisition cost by 88 percent. We continue to hit new daily lows (a good thing) and yesterday marked the most effective day of this campaign. Along with constant ingenuity, and frequent improvements we have been able to make this happen.

I am extremely glad to have been given the opportunity to have free reigns over this campaign. I am fortunate for the freedom and responsibility that I have been given, as it enabled to me learn more about marketing than I ever could have learned in a classroom. To have been able to work on a project for eight weeks and to have such a great feeling of accomplishment is more than I could have asked for. With three days left here, I am slowly winding down my responsibilities and handing them over, but my time here will surely remain memorable.

Thank you for this opportunity.

I remember when a show called Big Brother was first aired on prime time television in the UK; many would consider such a situation to be a nightmare. Who wants their every move and detail to be recorded for the world to see? The problem is, I don’t know the answer to this question — which is why I don’t use Twitter. If you told somebody 15 years ago that they could write (we call it tweeting now) to the world every time they combed their hair or took their dog on a walk you would wonder who in their right mind would want to do that? I don’t see the value in knowing when favorite celebrities get arrested or when my friend can’t find anything in his fridge to eat. Who needs to know this? Why should I care? To me, Twitter is what Big Brother used to be, a reality show nightmare.

I have had people tell me that it is a great way to share articles and information, but I find there to be too much noise and not enough content that is actually pertinent. Very little of the content on Twitter is actually useful. However if I read a newspaper, there is useful, relevant information that is actually meaningful. To me, Twitter is another way to procrastinate, another way to gossip, another way to dilute the amount of useful information in the world.

I have had people try to convince me that Twitter is a great way to keep in touch with friends. I agree, It is a good way to keep in touch with people, but you cannot sustain a half-decent relationship through 140 character messages. If you actually want to keep in touch with people I recommend communicating with messages that are long enough to mean something. If I want somebody to know what I am doing I will tell them and only them. And similarly, if I want to know what somebody is doing then I will ask them and only them. Finding tweets that I actually care about is like finding Governor Sanford on the Appalachian Trail… it’s just not going to happen!

Other Twitter advocates like to brown-nose its uselessness by saying it is a great way to share information, isn’t that what email is for? Twitter to me is email without a spam filter. Finding something of value is like finding a needle in a haystack. Why waste your time? What is the real value that Twitter has to you? Are you just part of the short lived revolution, or does it actually benefit you? Most people I talk to that have Twitter accounts do not actually like the concept, they have an account “just because.” According to an article by Pete Cashmore, 60% of Twitter uses fail to return the following month and “pre-Oprah” it was 70%. That is a staggering low retention rate, backing my idea that most people find no value in this inane concept.

I’ve got better things to do with my time then read 140 character messages, which are usually rubbish and lacking any redeeming value. I don’t understand the value that Twitter has to most of its users. I understand it has some practical purposes, for marketing and viral communication, but from a personal standpoint there couldn’t be anything less interesting to interact with on a daily basis. From a personal point of view, I will be the last person to join Twitter (again). Call me crazy if you want, but if you have had your Twitter account for longer than a month you are a minority, most are simply too afraid to speak up.

The first point, integrity, was reiterated several times in our discussion. Danny touched on the importance of good integrity in the business world. As an example, he mentioned that the Silicon Valley has a close network of individuals — meaning that if you wrong do a firm or an entrepreneur, you will be ostracized by the network. Showing that integrity should be an integral attribute inside and outside of the workplace.

The second point, hard work, seems relatively obvious. I believe his point was to instill the idea in our minds that with hard work and determination anything is possible. He shared with us some of his experiences with failure and disappointment as a CEO, but his objective was to display the importance of continuing hard work even through the hard times.

The third point was to highlight the importance of being smart. Danny wasn’t simply telling us to be smart though, he was conveying the idea of continuing to be smart. He wanted us to recognize that we shouldn’t stop learning, that we shouldn’t stop growing intellectually. Continuing to be smart and continuing to learn can always create new opportunities and open new doors.

In his final point, Danny detailed the importance of a good character. He was displaying the importance of good character through his experiences. He wanted to illustrate that a good character will always overcome hardships, a good character will always persevere, and a good character will always be successful.

-See you next week!

This week has been great. For starters, we had an incredible line up of speakers yesterday, all of whom were uniquely engaging. I have never spent much time learning the specifics of a term sheet, so hearing Phil’s insight was great. Brad provided us with some memorable anecdotes that will surely impact all of us. Lastly, Om provided us with some shocking numbers regarding the wireless world, and some predictions about what is to come in the near future. Thursday’s afternoon was “true-ly” brilliant (pun intended). But the afternoon merely began with the speakers, which were followed by a great dinner at Tres Agaves and a trip to AT&T Park to watch the ousting of the Padres.

Aside from Thursday’s festivities, I have tried to begin making some commercials for the TEC blog. For a while I struggled with the idea of these commercials. I wasn’t quite sure what was acceptable, what was expected of us, or even what my video editing abilities were (I’ve since learned that my video editing skills are fairly sophomoric). I am not a philosopher; I’m not even a college graduate (yet), so I decided to take some rudimentary lessons and parallel them with some of my experiences so far this summer and add a pinch of humor. I’m hoping that these short commercials will be engaging, funny, and enjoyable. I’ve tried to keep my flip on hand so that I can capture even the most obscure incidences.

This first lesson, teaches you that whether or not you are riding a mechanical bull, you should always remember to “never give up”. I chose this lesson because I thought that it would complement the VC and entrepreneurial mindset. Much like riding a mechanical bull, starting or investing in a startup often ends in failure, but it’s up to you whether the failure defeats you. A positive attitude can overcome the most discouraging situations if you “never give up”.

The conclusion: We will continue with the campaign as long as we continue to progress. We will continue to optimize, now using two new approaches to compliment the improvements that we have already made.

Lesson learned: When something feels out of reach, reach further.

The Weekend: I continue to enjoy my summer here at SendMe and in the bay area. I spent some of the weekend tasting wine in Napa and enjoying the scenery that surrounds the wine region. I experienced bay area traffic first hand — it took me three hours to drive what would normally take half as long. I am also trying to adjust to the San Francisco definition of “warm weather.”

See you next week.

A man named John Joseph Houghtaling died at the age of 92; he invented the Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed in 1958. During the 60’s and 70’s it became a pop culture icon and he experienced great success until he stumbled upon one problem – thieves. Unfortunately thieves frequently broke into the quarter collection boxes. To solve the problem, Houghtaling tried to create a debit card-type machine that would replace the traditional quarter machines. Unfortunately Houghtaling’s idea was too early for its time and his invention’s success ended prematurely.

There is more to timing than being early, simultaneous, or late — it can make or break ideas and businesses. I have been trying to use this lesson and apply it in a unique way to what I am doing at SendMe Mobile. When you are optimizing an online ad, there are several different metrics that you can use in your analysis. I have made time one of our metrics. I am working with our partners to see if better timing can help us optimize our campaign. What time of day are our ads more likely to make money? When is our target demographic most frequently online? These are questions I asked myself when trying to implement better timing in our optimization process.

I am stressing the importance of timing to positively affect the outcome of what I am working on this summer. I challenge you to see if you can implement better timing in your workplace too.