I know when I’ve struck a nerve with a blog post.  I get a ton of blog traffic, very few comments (if any), and a lot of private e-mail messages.    I thought I’d share the range of things I heard because the feedback was so interesting.

Some folks — mostly entrepreneurs but also a few Microsoft people — thought I was dead on with my assessment.  Clearly the value proposition of the Microsoft web stack would be a lot better if Microsoft truly stood behind it in meaningful ways.

It has become very clear to me that if you choose the Microsoft stack as we have, you aren’t just fighting competitors.  You are also fighting a movement that for some people defines who they are.  And they are nasty about Microsoft and quite frankly all things in the Microsoft halo.  Add to that the fact that a lot of angel investors and venture capitalists won’t even look at deals based on the Microsoft Web stack.  I think that’s unfortunate, unnecessary, and at times ignorant.

Note that isn’t to say I think all of the Microsoft web technologies are competitve.  Some clearly are not.  But there are some opportunities and I think we’re on a few of them.

Enough of the aside though…

Other people thought I was unnecessarily harsh about Microsoft.  I don’t think that is the case at all… it certainly wasn’t intended… although I’m never very good at determining how my posts will come across to the Reader.  But the truth is that Microsoft really needs a single Web Platform czar who has the stroke to get people working together on the right things across groups.  Time will tell if it happens.  In my experience, there have been a lot of competing agendas in the Web Platform for a long time, and the result is gridlock, not unlike Congress.  Microsoft needs to get beyond that… the only difference is that now, the problem is a lot more urgent for me as an entrepreneur creating Web 2.0 technologies and products supporting the platform.

Then others (who ironically enough don’t work with Microsoft or know me very well for that matter) suggested that I was trying to manipulate Microsoft.  Well, that’s pretty much impossible to do.  And  perhaps more importantly, one blog post from yours truly certainly won’t change Microsoft’s strategy.   I’m humbled a few of you think I can get things done that way!  The truth is, I use this blog to share most of my thoughts/feelings about jumping back into the early stage startup scene.  I have never been good at kissing up or dressing down — I just tell things like I see them.  If I have a big flaw in this regard, it is probably that I say too much here.

So responses were all over the map.  In the meantime, we’re pressing on.  I’m glad to say that we’re continuing to work on projects that we believe in and maybe more importantly projects we can do.  Tomorrow, I want to shift gears to talk about Web 2.0 issues again.  I’ll start by talking about some of the work we’re doing in the internet advertising arena along with the economics of the advertising business as it stands today.  Suffice it to say, we have found a few opportunities in the marketplace that will make our customers very, very happy.