the post formerly known as….

Disclaimer:

This post was originally titled “the top 10 reasons VCs pass on ASN, or what’s wrong witchu, Mr. VC?” The post you’re reading now, is NOT that post in its entirety. After some conversation with our advisors about the intelligence (or lack thereof) of biting the hand that might feed, the top 10 has been removed. In the interest of full disclosure, though, the top 10 will be published on a personal blog of one of the founders, and we’ll post a link here…

The Post:

So, I gotta start with an apology. I’m truly sorry for missing last month’s installment of the Incredible Mis-Adventures of Them Crazy Geeks on Planet AppleSeed. We got mad busy over here getting to another milestone, and the time got away from us. To make it up to you, intrepid readers, I’ll commit to not one, but TWO posts this month…HA HA!

So, what was the milestone?…

…that, we cannot yet say, but it was VERY cool! Personal kudos to the team for pulling some long hours to make it happen, too. You may not get the praise of the Nerditude just yet, but you will.

I will say this though, because it’s just not fair to mention something this cool and not address it at least a little…

…the world is catching up to us…in a major way. There are elements of the mobile value chain that are beginning to recognize some of the collisions we alluded to in June, and they’re beginning to act on them. Expect to see a surge of interest in the comings-and-goings of developers, by operators, handset developers, mobile o/s vendors, software houses, and retail chains in the months ahead.

At first, I figured that the telcos were just getting tired of getting their butts kicked by Web 2.0. But now it’s clear that a lot more is going on…

…It makes us so happy…

So, now for the point. As the title implies, we’re preparing for the next leg of our “Shakin’ The Cup” World Tour. Given that much of our current momentum has come from industry partnerships, and not from funding sources, I thought it would be worthwhile for those of you out there with entrepreneurial aspirations to get a glimpse of what rejection from a VC can sound like.

I should preface this, though, by saying that we have NOT had more than our fair share of rejections. And while we’re not bulletproof-by-a-long-shot, we do have a level of conviction about our work that allows us to see the humor of these rejections.

Some folks just won’t get it. Period.

Regardless of what you do.

You just have to keep going, NO MATTER WHAT.

So…the top 10 reasons why VCs pass on ASN…

…that’s the end of the original post, sans humorous top 10. For the common good (I hope) we have censored ourselves, and I’d like to make sure you understand why. And no, it’s not just because we want VC money!

AppleSeed Networks wants to be as inclusive as possible. We want everyone to join the party. That everyone has to include all the telcos, financiers, handset vendors, power brokers…all the current players in the mobile and internet space.

Now, it doesn’t really matter that we might consider some of these folks, “dysfunctional,” they still need to be included, and including them sometimes means being sensitive to their needs, as well as our own, and the needs of our eventual subscribers.

We learned in 1st grade: being sensitive often means not saying the thing that’s on your mind, especially when it might hurt someone else’s feelings.

Say it with me: If you can’t say something nice…

So, we’re going to play nice, and hope the other kids on the playground will learn from our example. Check back for the link to the top 10. Shouldn’t be more than a couple of days before it’s up.