Steve Case and Ted Leonsis are back in a big way. According to Ted’s blog, Revolution LLC (the parent company of Revolution Health), is launching Revolution Money. Revolution money allows secure payment transfers for free online! This is going to be a major blow to Paypal and Google Checkout, especially to Google given that they failed to revolutionize the credit industry when they had the opportunity.

So how does the new company make money? Through a new payment technology system, Revolution Money has cut the costs of credit card fees to merchants down to 0.5% from an average of 1.9% per sale. Currently, these fees, called interchange fees, total a whopping $56 billion each year. This company plans on putting a serious dent in it and chances are they will succeed.

I’m surely going to start using the system when it launches to receive payments online and if I owned a store I would surely integrate this into my point of sale system. One company after the next seems to be launching in D.C. so this is great times! If you want to become an active member of the D.C. technology scene then go sign up for the DC Technology Network on Ning. Big thanks to Justin Thorp for putting it together.

A blog post just surfaced in regards to Microsoft’s decision to offer Microsoft Office to students for $60. They also provided a link to TheUltimateSteal.com which references this great value. All you need to do is enter your email address. I entered my email address and it didn’t check to see if I had a .EDU email address or not. The clock then proceeded to countdown and eventually say “This Deal is Now Available.”

There was no link though and now the clock has been reset. Kind of fishy, no? I looked up the domain and found that it wasn’t registered to Microsoft and instead was registered to “Mr. Youth, LLC” in New York city. For some reason I think this domain may just be a scam. Anybody else experience this?

I just wanted to take the opportunity to mention that “Crank That” by “Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em” is the number one song on iTunes. I hadn’t heard the song until now. Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em also has a few classics such as “Let Me Get Em” and “Materialistic Bitch.” In case you haven’t heard the song, I’ve posted the lyrics below. I think it’s time that we all stop what we are doing and come up with a song.

Lyrics to Solja Boy Tell ‘Em - Crank That

[Chorus] (Repeat 2x)
Soulja Boy up in it (OH!)
Watch Me Crank It
Watch Me Roll
Watch Me Crank Dat Soulja Boy,
that Super Man Dat (OH!)
Now Watch Me Do
(Crank Dat Soulja )
Now Watch Me Do
(Crank Dat Soulja )
Now Watch Me Do
(Crank Dat Soulja )
Now Watch Me Do
(Crank Dat Soulja )
Soulja Boy up in it (OH!)
[Verse 1]
Soulja Boy up in it (OH!)
Watch Me Lean And Watch Me Rock
Super Man Dat (OH!)
Then Watch Me Crank Dat Robocop
Super Fresh, Now Watch Me Jock
Jocking On Them Haterz Man
When I Do Dat Soulja Boy
I Lean To The Left And Crank Dat Dance
(Now You)
I’m Jocking On Yo Bitch Ass
And If We Get The Fightin
Then I’m Cocking On Your Bitch
You Catch Me At Yo Local Party
Yes I Crank It Everyday
Haterz Get Mad Cuz
“I Got Me Some Bathin Apes”
[Repeat Chorus 2x]

I’m Bouncin On My Toe
Watch Me Super Soak Dat (OH!)
I’ma Pass It To Arab
Then He Gon Pass It To The Low (Low)
Haterz Wanna Be Me
Soulja Boy, I’m The Man
They Be Lookin At My Neck
Sayin Its The Rubberband Man (Man)
Watch Me Do It (Watch Me Do It)
Dance (Dance)
Let Get To It (Let Get To It)
Nope, You Can’t Do It Like Me
Hoe, So Don’t Do It Like Me
Folk, I See You Tryna Do It Like Me
Man That Shit Was Ugly
[Repeat Chorus 2x]

That’s all there is to the song! My favorite line is “I Got Me Some Bathin Apes.” I have no idea what that means. I’m not quite sure what else to say about this.

Over the past few weeks I have become increasingly focused on one of my goals: creating an environment that is comparable to Silicon Valley right here in Washington, D.C. On a daily basis I consider moving out to the valley to become more involved but instead I decide to stay here. Why? It’s much more exciting to watch this city transform into something incredible (in regard to technology) then go to Silicon Valley where I know what I’m going to get. So how do we create such an environment in D.C.?

Well, it’s already underway. There are events popping up all over and people are starting to become more active. The one issue that I see is that a large portion of the community is not locally active. While I can’t tell you why that is, I know it’s the case. There are investors who are quietly involved but they seem to be hesitant to become active in the community. What are the components of a successful technology community? I think there are a few components:

• Technology enthusiasts
• Entrepreneurs
• Investors
• Scholars
• Technology journalists

In discussing Lunch 2.0 with my new friend Isaac a couple days ago, Isaac brought up a good point: there is not enough coverage of events in Washington, D.C. by the local press. Why is that? Perhaps we are failing to do enough public relations. Why wasn’t there a Washington Post article about the recent Barcamp or any of the other technology events that have occurred? A few of the local tech companies are successful with coverage but there are bigger things happening. I have met a number of local companies that are now significantly invested in Facebook application development. So invested that it is now their core business model. Is such a shift in the technology environment not news worthy? I think is.

When we launched Tech Cocktail early this year, finding local sponsors was a difficult (if not impossible) task. The majority of the sponsors came from companies that have significant presences in other cities. Barcamp was the first event that I saw with actual local sponsors. So I guess there is forward motion. Rather than continuing my diatribe about what’s wrong with the existing environment, I will simply suggest a few things that I think can be done to continue the motion that is present:

• More press! - Every event deserves a press release. There needs to be more outreach to local journalists. Right now there isn’t.
• More investor outreach - There is a lot of money locally that is looking to be invested in new technology companies. For some reason the people that are investing that money are not showing up to events.
• More sponsorship - It should be a duty of every local tech company to sponsor the local events. Period. I know there are companies that have sponsored local events but perhaps we should be compiling a list of companies that are willing to donate even $50 to an event.

Those three things will help further the progress that has already been made over the past year. There are a lot of events that have been popping up and it will be great to see even more. I am excited for the future of technology in D.C. but I think there needs to be a bigger push for coverage. What do you think? I surely don’t have all the answers.

It took them long enough! Back in January I came up with five things that I’d like to see on Google Reader. 9 months later, they have added one of them. I guess that’s not too bad of a job considering they knocked out the largest item. Last night Google announced search for Google reader.

When I have thousands of feed articles that I browse through on a daily basis, it is impossible to retain all that information in my head. All I remember is snippets of information that I can then go back and reference. Thank god for the new feature. I have yet to take advantage of it but I know that this is going to be an insanely useful feature.

If any of the other feed readers are going to have a shot at maintaining a significant market share, they are going to have to add search. It’s as simple as that. Good luck indexing the millions of articles that people are reading though. Given that it took Google so long to launch this feature leads me to believe that this is a large technical achievement by their team. Alternatively, perhaps they were sitting on the beach for most of the summer thanks to their stock options. Who knows! One thing is for sure, Google Reader is still my feed reader of choice.

Update!
Google also added one of my other recommendations. They have upped the number of feed items that are displayed next to each subscription. Rather than saying “100+” every time your feed gets over 100, it displays the total number up until 1000 at which point it displays “1000+.” Great move! Google Reader has definitely received a serious upgrade.

Napoleon Hill nailed it on the head when he said that you need a “Mastermind Group.” Without a dynamic team that can help substitute your weaknesses and highlight your strengths, you are pretty much lost. That’s where I’ve been recently.

I have been an individual for a long time and in the past couple weeks I have been probing to find the team that is right for me. I have found a couple of options but I have narrowed it down to two. I am going to have to go with one of them but at this point it is up to the other teams to decide.

Alone you are practically nothing. Together, you can conquer the world. I am looking forward to conquering and I hope that I don’t have to build my team from scratch. That is the last resort for me. I have promises to clients and I need to continue delivering. While much of this may not make sense to you given the lack of insight that I have provided, I can say one thing: assemble a powerful team.

That team is going to be the basis for your future. That future is not days, weeks or months, but years. Choose your team wisely and you will reap the rewards, choose your team poorly and you will go down in flames. I pray that the former is what happens to me.

I came home tonight to my roommate’s girlfriend chatting about Lunch 2.0. She was asking if I had ever heard of it. Well I have but we have yet to have one in D.C. Why is that? The Lunch 2.0 website refers to Lunch 2.0 as “A social phenomenon referring to a migration of web 2.0 company employees to other offices around the Silicon Valley area; characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share food and ideas…”

She said that the World Bank had a great cafeteria but that doesn’t seem very web oriented to me. Let’s launch Lunch 2.0 in D.C. on September 25th. I’m creating a Facebook group now that will focus on this. So sign up for Lunch 2.0 and let’s make it happen. I don’t know where it will be held so place your suggestions. We need a term for the D.C. tech scene as well. Instead of the valley, alley and prairie (Chicago), let’s make one for D.C.

Post a comment on here as to where you think would be the best location. It’s time to make it happen so I’ve set the date: September 25, 2007. Suggest your office, suggest a friend’s office, I really don’t care. The main thing is that we need to make this happen as one of the many events taking place. This one should take place on a monthly basis. You can join the group here.

So I haven’t posted anything for weeks! I apologize to all of my readers. The past few weeks have been absolutely ridiculous. I have been working 17 hour days and there still is no end in sight. I have officially launched Social Interactive. The company was founded for the purpose of developing custom solutions for organizations looking to leverage social networking to expand their brand. Thanks to Facebook there are now a ton of companies looking to expand their brand.

Now that I have tapped the right niche, I am in dire need of support. I feel like I was in front of a giant crowd all of whom were asking for Facebook applications. I came along, raised my hand and said, “I can build them.” The crowd has now just stomped all over me like a stampede and they all want their apps now.

While that is not a bad problem it is extremely challenging. For the time being, this blog is going to document my adventure in startup world as a webpreneur. Ultimately, that is what I intended to do from the start but my initial attempt at jumping into the startup world was met with failure. Wasn’t the first time and surely won’t be the last but it’s time to see where this one goes. I will be sure to document all the lessons learned so feel free to join me on this journey. The first week has been filled with tons of lessons. I will be sure to start sharing them with all you. For now, I will leave you with two pictures. One is of my desk after a nightmarish few days. The other is of a desk for my first employee that will be joining me by next week. I’ll let you guess which one is which.

I have been offering Facebook development services for the past month or so since the launch of the new Facebook platform. Since I began offering services I have landed some major clients including large media companies. I can’t discuss my portfolio currently since I am under non-disclosure agreements but there is going to be huge news coming in the coming weeks. I have been slow to posting as I try to run a number of different things all while finishing up a full-time contract position. This has been extremely challenging but will prove to be highly rewarding I hope. I am looking forward to launching my offices out of D.C. in the coming weeks.

The article I posted on Sunday discussed a lot of my overload currently. I honestly am going to continue posting on this blog but it is truly hard to keep all these things going simultaneously. I promise to return to a frequent basis in the near future but for the time being posts are going to fluctuate in frequency. If you can’t get enough of my writing, head on over to my other blog All Facebook where I am posting daily about social networking related issues.

I will get back on top of the business and technology postings but for now I am at a max and I am working 17 hour days. Not much more I can say. Thanks for your support!

I have to wonder what’s going on in Silicon Valley. The New York Times posted today about Silicon Valley millionaires not feeling rich. One family in particular had over $2 million in the bank and a $1.3 million house paid off. Not bad right? Well apparently for this one man, Hal Steger, this isn’t good enough. He continues working 12 hour days from 7 to 7 and then works 10 hours over the weekend. Dave Winer agrees with the article and says this of Silicon Valley:

The truth is that the people of Silicon Valley toil to find security in money, never getting there, while avoiding the pleasures of life, including the mythological creativity, spinning on a treadmill, doing nothing but striving to make money, but it’s never enough.

He also states “It’s great to see people on the east coast getting the message. Don’t live in the shadow of this place. There’s nothing there but people trying to make money, without a good idea why.” That’s funny because I didn’t realize that the East coast got the message. There’s Silicon Alley in New York City and to say that the people in NYC (and even here in D.C.) haven’t absorbed some of the same attitude is ludicrous. I see it all around. You know what’s even more frightening? I see it in me.

Jeremy Toeman makes a good point when he says, “It’s these same people that are setting these terrible role models for recent college grads who think they can come out of school, go start some company with a friend or two, and make a few quick million.” Perhaps it is those “terrible role models” that have become role models for myself as well. Perhaps. It is also me that chooses to work crazy hours all for the pursuit of this invisible concept of “success.” It’s not completely invisible though because there is a goal in mind. At least for myself. I truly hope that whenever I reach my goals I don’t fall victim to the same perspective that some of these other individuals have. I think one word sums up the attitude of these individuals: greed. The moral of the story? Don’t let greed catch a hold of you.

Congrats to Gary on your Conan appearance. For those that missed it, I’ve posted it below.

I’ve just learned that my good friend Gary Vaynerchuk is going to appear on the Conan O’Brien show tomorrow night. That’s huge! For those of you don’t know who Gary is, he was one of the sponsors of our past Tech Cocktail (which we will have news about the next one in the next day or so) and is the creator of Wine Library TV. If you haven’t seen his show, it is a must see. Gary brings his contagious personality and high energy to wine tasting. I have included a copy of yesterday’s episode below. Gary’s goal is to bring wine appreciation to the masses in the United States and it looks like he will have accomplished that with his appearance on Conan this Wednesday. Gary will officially have gone mainstream and if anyone deserves it, Gary does. He is always available for his readers and friends and is one of the most giving people I know. If you want to meet Gary, shoot him an email. I’m sure he’ll respond to you.