Having fun with Cella and the rest of the Meneses clan. Awesome time.

Lots of recent conversations with friends or family go something like this:

Friend: "Hey Nick, what are you doing for work these days?"
Me: "Running business development at Weebly".
Friend: "What is Weebly?".
Me: "The easiest way to build and manage a website. Try it, you won't believe how great it is".
Friend: "Did I ever tell you how clever and awesome you are. Oh, I am also going to check out Weebly".

I figured it was about time to give my readers a quick overview of Weebly.

I started working for Weebly full time back in July but have known the founders (Dave, Dan & Chris) for many years. They are great entrepreneurs, compliment each other very well, are building one of the greatest companies ever (in my humble opinion) and are general awesome guys. 

The entire team at Weebly is extremely talented and passionate about making website design and management simple and easy, yet powerful and professional.  I can't tell you the specifics in this blog post, but we are doing some cool stuff and our produce roadmap is exciting. That's why I joined the team and why the future is bright.

Most people know how passionate I am about helping people (small businesses in particular) build their online presence. Back in 2008 I wanted to create a personal blog and website that allowed me to write about my passion for cars. I didn't want to hire a designer or developer since this was just a fun personal project. I tried wordpress initially and while it was easy enough to get started, by the time I tried to configure hosting, set up my domain to point correctly, hunt down a nice theme, upload the theme and try to get it working I was exhausted and had wasted about a week. Then I tried Weebly. It was so simple and easy that I was hooked. 

The simple reason I love Weebly is that an idiot like me (with no technical or design skills) can build a great looking, SEO friendly website that I am proud to tell my friends about. I can do it quickly, easily and with a level of customization that makes it unique and professional. And I don't need a team of engineers or designers to get going or to maintain it, it is all under one roof.

Here are some current websites that I have built on Weebly or websites of friends and family who use Weebly:

• Nick Dellis Adventures. Yep, the site you are on right now. 
  
• Rev To The Limit. This is my latest sports car blog project. A cool place to share my passion for fast cars.
  
• Dellis Furniture. This is my brother's website for his furniture store in Sydney. 
  
• Gotham Footcare. My friends Bryon and Miguel who are podiatrists in New York City.
  
• Exercise Intention. My personal trainer Julia (who knew about Weebly before meeting me)
  

The easiest way to create and manage a website. Check out this short video that I think summarizes is best.

Here is an unbiased review that I found from a blogger recently about Weebly. Check it out. 

CMC Critic - Weebly Review - The Website Builder that makes Web Design fun

Here are some quick links to help people get started with Weebly. 

Weebly home page - http://www.weebly.com
Weebly beginners guide - http://help.weebly.com/beginners-guide.html

A lot has been said about Groupon in the last 18 months. While I have my own thoughts, it just so happens that this weekend I read two great articles that do a better job of explaining Groupon than I ever could. To be clear, I am not going to bash Groupon, what I do think is important is exploring the underlying question of what Groupon is worth in terms of enterprise value.

The two articles I am talking about can be found here:
Groupon is not a tech company. Why was it valued like one?
Musings on Markets: Groupon Gloom: Deal of the day or Death Spiral?

Both articles focus on this subject of valuation. The Damodaran valuation is an in-depth valuation exercise with clearly explained rationale and hard numbers (spoiler alert - Damodaran has done the valuation part for you if you want to know what the company is worth). The GIGAOM piece focuses on one simple, but incredibly important question which is what type of business Groupon is in. This is the part that gets interesting. 

I don't want to rehash the articles (you should definitely read them) but it really is crazy that people think Groupon is a tech company. That is nonsense and always has been. Groupon acquires customers and collects payments via the internet and that is about it. Sure they have "algorithms" and "targeting", but the underlying reality is that without thousands of sales people cold calling every day, there would be no business. Groupon is a call center company. 

There is no scale effect to their economics in the way there is with a true tech company so people should stop assuming rapid expansion of margins that economies of scale should create. Groupons grows by hiring more people to dial for listings. They may eventually find a way to sell more stuff to the small businesses they target, or pivot away and become a tech company, but they aren't today and their valuation should reflect that. 

It is no secret that I am pretty excited about the prospect of a 2013 Grand Prix that I will be able to watch from the rooftop of my building. That's right, there will be a New York & New Jersey based Formula 1 Grand Prix in town. 

To celebrate, you will see that Red Bull Racing's Show Car recently completed an adventure. Driven by David Coulthard, the 2011 Championship-winning RB7 toured Liberty State Park and its spectacular views of the New York City skyline and the Statue of Liberty. The RB7 then moved on to one of the main arteries linking New York and New Jersey - the Lincoln Tunnel. Wrapping up its American vacation, the RB7 became the first Formula One car to lay rubber on the Grand Prix of America streets in West New York and Weehawken, New Jersey, bringing residents out of their homes to catch the historic sight.