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A Movie Worth Watching
2007-02-07 06:04:34
Viral marketing at its best: I checked my RSS reader tonight and got hold of this amazing video created by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. I found the video while reading Darren Herman’s Blog and Darren got the video from his friend Greg. While I generally don’t like to post the same stuff that others are posting, I’m making an exception because this video should be watched by everyone who in invested in transforming the world through the power of web. Share This
Read more: Worth , Watching

Washington DC Venture Capital Funds
2007-02-05 07:09:56
For a class I was recently asked to put together a list of opportunities for technology startups seeking financing around the Washington DC area. The following list contains light details of some of DC’s premier VC firms/funds specializing in technology. Also please see the link to the more comprehensive list at the bottom of this entry. Please email me any corrections, additions or comments. PS: I know Microsoft is not DC based, but I liked the photo. Here we go in no particular (~alphabetical) order: Amplifier Fund (Jonathan Aberman): Amplifier Venture Partners, LP is a seed and early stage venture capital fund that principally targets investments in technology companies in the Washington, DC region. We are positioned to be the first institutional investor in promising technology companies and to provide highly focused, hands on assistance for entrepreneurs looking to team up with experienced business operators and managers to grow world class companies. Source CAPCO program
Read more: Funds

Black-Boring
2007-02-02 07:50:08
I have never liked Black board. The problem with taking a company public is that the added red tape makes shifting direction very difficult. Blackboard is no exception. Widely criticized for its dismal user interface, Blackboard has hinted that it wants to make its software more interactive and user friendly. Yet, according to press releases: "don't expect to see this for a couple years" A couple years?!? Meanwhile, Blackboard in an attempt to “go 2.0" has added its own social bookmarking feature. Why not integrate with Del.icio.us? Does Blackboard really think that it can reinvent the wheel? How is Del.icio.us not academic enough? Most likely still on a patent high, Blackboard believes that proprietary applications are the best approach; I think not. Very soon a new breed of online academic collaboration software is likely to come out with a focus on user interface,user-generated content and smart application integrations (Youtube, Flickr, etc). After all, what good is s


Catch Her If You Can
2007-02-01 06:19:26
This story simply blows me away: In 1999, a young woman named Esther Reed drops out of high school. She has a reputation as a "bad apple," including an arrest for stealing her sister's checkbook. Esther disappears that same year, but apparently her family doesn't care enough to mount a search. Instead, they write her off as dead. Fast forward to 2005. We come to find out that somehow Esther creates an elaborate identity theft scheme, where she impersonates several missing people using their identities in place of her own. Somehow she gets accepted at both Harvard and Columbia - perhaps legitimately - she dates multiple WestPoint grads, and convinces people she makes money as an international chess champion. At Columbia, she went by the name of Brooke Henson. Here is IvyGate's coverage of the story. Last year after being exposed as a possible fraud, Esther agrees to take a DNA test in order to prove she really is who she claims to be. A day before the test, she abruptly v
Read more: Catch

BI2.0 - WTF is that?
2007-01-31 05:41:15
Apologies for a lack of posts but I have been very sick for over a week. Well, 2007 has started with a bang. It seems like everyday I am being hit with news coverage of social networking in the business environment. Two days ago on LinkedIn.com’s new section, "Answers" I received a question about BI2.0. What the heck is that, I thought? Turns out it's the latest lingo for social networking as business intelligence software, seemingly coined by a Sportfire executive on BeyeBlogs. A few days prior to that, the New York Times covered a story on IBM's foray into mixing business intelligence software with social networking. The article states: "Many companies have already discovered the benefits of bringing social networking into their businesses, but so far most of the tools available to them have focused on a specific element of social networking, like blogging" Apparently IBM's product is called Lotus Connections and has five core components — activities, communit


Immigration, Startups, Economics
2007-01-25 19:04:44
Watching the State of the Union last night, I couldn't help but disagree with the majority opinion on immigration. While President Bush has been widely criticized by his own party for his "liberal" views on immigration policy, I can't help but think how much of the economy's recent success is directly attributable to immigration. Several recent reports have come out with numbers that are shocking to many people. During 2005-2006 it is estimated that 52% of US startups were founded by immigrants. Amazingly 39% of startups were started by Indians who account for less than 1% of the entire US population. According to a study from Duke University, during this same period, immigrant entrepreneurs’ companies employed 450,000 workers and generated $52 billion in sales. As Indians only account for 1% of the population, who do you think they tend to hire as their businesses expand? Meanwhile, less educated immigrants are the ones who take the positions that many American's fe
Read more: Startups , Economics

Strategies for Building a Business Using Zero Capital: Part I
2007-01-21 22:21:49
The #1 issue for both myself and for most entrepreneurs, is a lack of capital. Many people will argue that the key ingredient for a successful startup or business service is training, technical expertise or a solid network. However, all of these shortfalls can be overcome with money. I plan to post a series stories and insights describing how entrepreneurs can overcome this chasm and turn an idea into a product with virtually zero capital. As stated in the title of this blog, the process is all about using leverage. However, when I refer to leverage, I do not mean using debt to finance your idea. There are many leveragable assets that have nothing to do with money, but that when properly utilized, can lead to cash or even bypass the need for cash. Here is an interesting story I located about a real-estate entrepreneur who purchased major rental properties using leveraged buyout techniques to purchase property with no up-front capital. Story One: Michael Pierce In 2004, Michael Pierce
Read more: Strategies , Building , Business

Is Math Overrated for MBAs?
2007-01-18 06:29:49
Someone recently asked me about my getting an MBA degree, knowing that I was a Liberal Arts major in college. This person was interested in pursuing an MBA, but worried about the amount of math involved. While I could write endless articles on this topic, I am going to stick with one issue for now: Do you need to be good at math to succeed as an MBA student? Short Answer: No. When my friend asked me this question, my immediate response was that the liberal arts is the best preparation for an MBA and that overall, math was not as big a deal as one might think. When pressed, I offered my thought: "Excel can do math for you, but Word cannot write for you" Nationally, educators are concerned about Americans' lack of math and engineering skill, especially while the rest of the world continues to produce graduates with sophisticated quantitative abilities and degrees. I am not convinced that American jobs are in that much jeopardy, as long as Americans' keep doing what they do best


Squash Back in the Big Apple
2007-01-16 06:40:01
Professional squash once again returns to New York City. The Tournament of Champions will be hosted inside Grand Central Station from February 24 - March 2nd. You can purchase tickets here. If you have never seen professional squash, it is well worth it; especially when held in an amazing venue like Grand Central. One of the neatest aspects of squash is the use of portable courts allowing tournaments to be held in such exotic locales as the Pyramids in Giza or on beaches in the Caribbean. Social Media holds a ton of promise for niche sports like squash. Notoriously difficult to film, squash is rarely featured on television. However, thanks to sites like Youtube.com squash videos are finding their way to the audiences who crave them. Sweet! You may notice a listing of the top 5 squash players now in my sidebar. I will be updating this as my contribution to promoting the game. Share This
Read more: Apple

How TV Networks Might Boost Audience (Albeit Temporarily)
2007-01-15 05:40:09
I have always been a huge Seinfeld fan. I even believed that I'd seen every episode- that is until this past weekend. While channel surfing, I happened across an episode that I honestly cannot recall having seen before and it got me thinking of a strategy for networks with currently successful sitcoms and dramas (House, Sopranos, Desperate Housewives, etc..). If these networks simply filmed one or two additional episodes a year they could hold them, releasing previously unseen episodes in future years (possibly during ‘down’ years when current sitcoms are weak…um, NBC). Imagine the hype surrounding an announcement that "a lost copy" of Seinfeld had turned up…the audience would be huge. Also, positioning new shows around episode releases of formerly huge successes might get some re-capture viewers who had lost interest in a network’s programming. For example, the OC is about to sign off after four years. Maybe the show isn't currently popular enough to me
Read more: Boost , Audience , Temporarily

Adobe Gets into the Enterprise 2.0 Arena
2007-02-08 05:24:04
From Gartner Research: On 31 January 2007, Adobe announced the acquisition of Antepo, an enterprise instant messaging (IM) company with presence capabilities. The Antepo technologies will be integrated into the Adobe Acrobat software family, which includes Acrobat Professional and Acrobat Connect. With Antepo, Adobe gains a presence engine which could potentially be tied to IP telephony infrastructure, federates with multiple IM networks and runs on Windows and Linux. The problem is that when I think Adobe, I think PDFs with a  little lock on them. I think documents where it is near impossible to cut and paste. I don’t think collaboration.  Share This


Is all Fair in Love, War and VC Deals?
2007-02-08 19:04:17
For years people have been complaining that the enormity and power of hedge funds has distorted the stock market, making it nearly impossible for individual investors to succeed. Well this same notion of "market manipulation' may have arrived in the Venture Capital land and if it's true, everyone better be worried - especially entrepreneurs. Fucked Google has an article stating that Sequoia, the ones who invested in YouTube (and Google) stands to make over $509M off its six month, $11 million dollar investment in YouTube. This profit is nearly twice the amount made by either of the YouTube co-founders. This begets the question: why didn't the founders sell directly to Google and keep all the equity themselves? Fucked Google suggests that Sequoia essentially manipulated the deal - had YouTube gone directly to Google, Sequoia would have killed their chances. Plus, if Sequoia had then decided to launch its own video company incubated in-house, the new company would have been


MBA MEC Colmbia 2007 Conference Notes
2007-02-10 19:10:14
Yesterday I attended the MBA MEC (Media & Entertainment Conference) at Columbia University and I wanted to share my thoughts and observations on the event. Overall, I thought the conference was put together very well but I was disappointed with the lack of technological knowledge of the panelists - especially because technology is now such an integral part to the future of entertainment and media. The key note speaker, Peter Cuneo, Vice-Chairman and former CEO of Marvel Entertainment was excellent. Peter has orchestrated an incredible turnaround at Marvel lifting the stock price from $.80 in 2000 to $29 in 2006. One interesting tidbit is that Marvel has no technology or web strategy (thought they want to change this.) Sure enough, for a company that could have an amazingly interactive website, the current website sucks. Investment Banking Trends in Media - This was the best panel I attended and I really enjoyed the panel's consensus that young people with a background in t
Read more: Notes

Going Pro Early: Maybe Athletes Were Only Version 1.0
2007-02-13 23:48:44
Anyone who ever saw the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, probably asked themselves: Why can't that be me!?! Young Indy was schooled not in the traditional classroom, but rather in the heart of the action, "real world" style. Likewise, the debate about top basketball talent going pro without a college pit-stop has been raging for sometime. The philosophy being: 1) don't risk the threat of injury and 2) the best way to learn is by experiencing the big show firsthand. My question is why this discussion never occurs among the top young entrepreneurial talent? Or does it? Sure Bill Gates skipped college, but only after giving it a try first. I was shocked to see that George Washington University has stated its 2007-2008 tuition will exceed $50,000. Damn! My thought is that a young person with a penchant for entrepreneurship might be better off investing in a prototype, a boatload of connections and experience rather than several years of flipcup and book learning. I like the model o
Read more: Going , Early , Maybe

Valentine's Day, New Game to Play
2007-02-14 19:30:12
For the full version of this 2.0 Valentine letter click here. Created by Social Signal. Since today is Valentines I want to play a fun game developed by my friend Dan. Your cell phone is actually a hot bed of latent sexual knowledge… The Ratio: Take out your cell phone, or mobile/pda. Count all males under 35. Do the same for females. Divide the opposite gender by your gender. What's your ratio? Don't lie. Exclude family - but that's it. Ex's: How many ex-boyfriend/girlfriend numbers are still in your phone? Creeps: How many numbers do you have stored, only so you can knowingly ignore them when they pop-up on caller ID? Possibilities: How many numbers do you have with "first date" potential? Since games like this are only fun if you TAG people…and since I live in DC, I figured I'd tag a few DC blogs written by other 20-somethings: Chapter2006, District Belle, Jane's Ramblings, I-66, DC Pussycat Doll, RooshV, and RockCreek Rambler.
Read more: New Game

Free Business Idea: Travel Buddy Kiosks
2007-02-17 07:40:05
I'm currently down in Florida - getting here was a nightmare. After missing two flights (neither my fault) I could rant for hours about the inefficiencies of airports. There is definitely big money to be made by someone who can reengineer the whole security/check-in process. Alas, I am not that smart. As I sat on the runway watching people de-ice my plane (read: long delay), my stomach started going crazy. I had traveled via train, cab and foot to make it to the airport. I had left my apartment at 7am and it was now 2:30pm. I had run all over the terminal, argued at multiple ticket counters and wasted $7.95 on a crappy internet connection. I forgot my toothbrush. I was amped. But now, sitting on the runway with my endorphins in check, hunger was catching up to me. Unfortunately all I had to look forward to was a bag of peanuts and a cup of juice. Furthermore, I would have loved to watch a DVD, but I had also forgotten to pack one of those. The Idea: Someone should set up a nifty lit
Read more: Business , Travel , Buddy , Kiosks , Free Business

Valentine's Mobile Phone Ratios Are In!
2007-02-22 19:08:41
Okay, so the results are in from the Valentine 's Mobile Phone Ratio Game. These ratios are being examined to see if our cell phones contain “hidden data” providing insight into our dating ethos. Our judge (Mystery Man Dan, who btw is single) has passed his decrees. Unfortunately a few people on my "tagged list" didn't want to play, but for those who did, I hope you can find some meaning here: key - [ratio, exes, creeps, possibilities] PSN: “Wonder John” 2.59, 0, 1, 4 With a ratio of 2.59 and zero exes, you are quite the anomaly among this group. This either means one of 2 things: A.) You are an absolute player, or B) You tend to land in that grey "friend zone" way too often. Either way, you should have more “possibilities” based on your high ratio of 2.59 to 1. PSN: “Peaches Shenandoah” 1.23, 11, 0, 4 Do I have this straight? “Peaches?” Not sure I can get over this gem of a name - you should have it legall
Read more: Ratios

Today I want to talk coffee, culture and music
2007-02-22 05:46:07
First, thanks to Rob for the shout-out! Much appreciated. This evening a teacher pointed out an interesting concept that I will expand on: the role of coffee in the workplace. For many years what our generation calls the "water cooler" was actually the coffee pot. During our parents' generation, someone in the office would literally brew a pot of coffee and then everyone would go grab a mug…it was a social atmosphere. Each office had its own coffee "rules" and etiquette. However, culture has changed. If you go to a Target or any big retailer looking to purchase a coffee maker, 50% of what you see are coffee makers designed for "pods" Here is an article suggesting the death of drip coffee makers. So what? Technology changes, right? Yes, technology changes, but in this case, so too does culture. What is interesting is that pods only brew INDIVIDUAL cups of coffee. Gone is the idea of the pot designed for a group; gone are many of the corresponding social interactions.
Read more: Today

Coke, Snowboarding and Social Networks: What's the Connection?
2007-02-24 17:54:50
The above commercial for Coke Zero features an elderly man with his grandson drinking a Coke. Believing what he is drinking is the "same Coke" he has drank for years, the grandfather doesn't understand that this particular beverage is actually a new version of Coke. The grandson lets him go off on a tangent figuring his gramps simply doesn't get it. My question is whether social networking is completely lost on older generations? While some reports argue that the MySpace demographic is aging rapidly, I think this is a complete miscalculation: just look at how many users enter their age as the maximum - 99. Driving with my parents recently, I was talking for the millionth time about social networks when my mother looks at my father and asks "I wonder what a social network looks like?" This coming from parents who could name more social networks than most 20 year olds: they have heard about them, but never seen one in action. The point is that no one has truly explained the
Read more: Snowboarding , Social

Want to See who is Single on Facebook?
2007-02-26 01:06:23
Want to know who of your Facebook friends are single? You can see a complete list, with percentages, by clicking here. Thanks to Mashable! for the tip on this one. Click here to subscribe by RSS  Share This


Idea: "Time Arbitrage" and Television Shows
2007-02-27 09:30:45
Arbitrage is simply a technique employed to take advantage of differences in price. If you're a television producer, or just a TV junkie, here is my idea to take advantage of (and monetize) a new kind of arbitrage opportunity - time. With the exception of 24, television shows generally do not pick up from the exact the point where they left off. There is usually a period of time that has elapsed - anywhere from a week to a month. I think a neat way to make a show more interactive and engaging would be to offer "character blogs" Die hard fans would read the various blogs during the week to keep tabs on what particular characters have doing during show's downtime. The following week's show could even reference certain events that were written about in the blogs. Example: I don't watch much television these days, but I did see the final episode of the OC. So, imagine Seth Cohen writing a few blog entries each week. He talks about indie music, comic books and Summer Roberts
Read more: Television

The Wilderness/Technology Conundrum
2007-03-02 05:37:04
Before I knew anything about technology, startup companies or accounting I was an outdoor fanatic (I still am, just need to be reintroduced to the wild). Until I moved to DC, I was an avid mountaineer, did a semester at NOLS, hit the crags and mountain biked like a fiend. During senior year of college my passion was environmental policy, specifically involving wetlands. Unfortunately, I also found myself also enjoying technology (OMG, Urban!) and this was creating a conflict. For many, technology and nature are mutually exclusive. What do I mean? In our Outing Club, people would freak out when I brought my cell phone mountain biking, or my iPod hiking. I was criticized for wanting to move to Manhattan…why not Boulder or Bend? Anyway, one of my real interests is technology that can be used in the wilderness in a non-obtrusive, complementary manner. I’m currently reading the biography of Yvonne Chouinard the founder of Patagonia – the book is awesome, BUY IT! Yvonne was a guy who
Read more: Wilderness , Technology , Conundrum

“Thriving in the Flat World” - Notes on China and India
2007-03-01 04:54:55
Today I was fortunate to be invited to a very interesting conference hosted by ExecutiveBiz and titled “Surviving & Thriving in the Flat World : China , India and You!” The structure was a moderated panel hosted by Howard Frank (Dean at the Smith Business School at UMD). The panelists included: Amir Hudda of Apptix, Wei-Wu He of Emerging Technology Partners LLC, S. Tien Wong of Opus8, Jai Saboo of the Saboo Business Group and Tony Surak from Global Logic. I wanted to share the notes I took as many of the panelists’ answers were both surprising and thought provoking. The conference was especially timely based on yesterday’s market dive caused by a drop in the Shanghai Index: -There are currently over 200 cities in China with a million people or more -“Modern India is in a very similar state to that of the US just after World War II. The difference being that the economic and technological gains the US accomplished over 50 years, China will do in 20.” -&rdquo ;People are f
Read more: ldquo , Notes

Free Social Networking Event in DC on Thursday
2007-03-07 04:52:14
Leveraging Social Networks for Progressive Organizing Featured Participants: Chris Hughes, Co-founder, Facebook Scott Goodstein, Founder, Catalyst Campaigns Ivan Boothe, Director of Communications, Genocide Intervention Network Lauren Miller, Strategist, Blue State Digital Moderator: Stephen Geer, Manager of Online Advocacy, Center for American Progress Action Fund Thursday , March 8, 2006 12:30pm to 2:00pm Admission is free. Lunch will be served at noon American Institute for Architects 1735 New York Ave NW Washington, DC 20006 Map & Directions Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center RSVP for this Event ***I’ll be there but don’t know anyone else attending. If you decide to go, drop me a line via the comments and we’ll meet up. I will do a write up as well. Share This
Read more: Free Social

I Just Don’t Get It: Do You?
2007-03-06 18:58:12
Eons, a social networking site for old people has raised $22M in a second round of financing (they raised $10 million on the first round!). Who invested? Charles River Ventures in addition to Sequoia. It just makes no sense to me. First if this firm has raised $32M it implies that the pre-money valuation was at least that, but more likely something higher like $40+. No way! Any entrepreneur with a social network and no innovative advertising strategy should immediately sell at price like that (IMO). Looking at the site I was not impressed. They own a search engine called Cranky.com that is specific to the 50+ demographic. Still, I could make the same thing with Swicki and it would be better because it would be ‘community powered.’ However, my real issue is that Eons is a depreciating asset. Think lifespan. First, I don’t mean to sound morbid, but users over 50 years old have a significantly shorter customer lifecycle than do 20 year olds on Facebook. Once over 70, when the e


Interview with Steli Efti from Supercool School
2007-03-06 06:29:23
I recently had the honor of interviewing Steli Efti, the founder of Supercool School . Steli is 24, born and raised in Germany. He left school at 18 to pursue his passion: to become an entrepreneur. I really like the concept behind Supercool School and I love the design of the site. I think we will be seeing great things from Steli and his crew in the very near future. Me: So tell me about Supercool School…in three sentences: Steli: Think Wikipedia for live & interactive education. Supercool School is a learning community where people can educate people for free; anyone can offer a class online. It is a place where education has no limits. Me: So, how did you come up with this idea? Steli: It was a dream. Believe it or not, one night I was in a very deep sleep when I jumped up to my chair, took a pencil and wrote something down on a piece of paper. The next morning I wasn’t sure if I really had written anything down, or if this was just a dream. Sure enough, there were five


Matrixes vs. Metrics
2007-03-09 02:01:01
I attended the event “Leveraging Social Networks for Progressive Organizing” this afternoon in DC. In my opinion the greatest thing to come out of this entire web 2.0 bubble is the empowerment of a younger generation. For example, the panel speakers were for the most part probably under 25 years of age. In what other context would you see so many 50 year old CEO’s listening so intently to a bunch of kids? Overall I didn’t hear anything groundbreaking, but that comes from someone who spends a whole lot of time following this stuff. The most interesting conversations centered on the conversion of online interactions into offline interactions. As you might assume, just because someone is a friend of Barack Obama on Facebook doesn’t mean they will attend a rally when Barack comes to town. What interested me most were the people in attendance. The group was very ethnically diverse and had a great mix of older folks (presumably trying to understand if this whole “online thing”
Read more: Metrics

The Law of 10,000 Hours for Expertise
2007-03-11 06:29:00
We had a great entrepreneurship conference today at Hopkins, although competing with the 68 degree weather was tough. I thought the web 2.0 panel was terrific and I really appreciate Stowe Boyd, Clarence Wooten and Brian Balfour taking part.  If anyone is interested, be sure to check out the conference website (created by my soon to launch company) and take part in conversations and networking. I wanted to talk about a neat concept Stowe Boyd shared with me today. The law of 10,000 hours is a scientifically researched and documented benchmark for the minimum amount of time needed to establish expertise in any area. To put 10,000 hours into perspective is the equivalent of three hours per day, everyday for over nine years. This study came about by monitoring and ranking the expertise of musicians. I remember when I was learning to play squash in high school. Since I had not played growing up, I felt I was significantly behind other players. Nevertheless I was motivated and really want
Read more: Hours , Expertise

Want to Know What’s Wrong with Friendster?
2007-03-14 19:26:24
I received this email from Friendster .com today: Hi Friendster User, We noticed you haven’t logged into Friendster in a while. Please take a few minutes to fill out this short survey to tell us about your experience with Friendster and what we can do to improve our service. We value your feedback and appreciate your help in improving Friendster. Please click on this link below to take the short survey: http://websurveyor.net/l.dll/JGs50C7A5F972lRbD9U1136483J.htm Thanks, The Friendster Team The thing is, I have logged into Friendster twice in the last week! How does this make me feel as a member of the community? Also, now that I am regularly mass-mailed updates, there is less reason for me to actually login to my account. If you ask me to accept email updates, you better anticipate more of my interactions will be out-of-network. Friendster, you want a few tips? Call me. Share This
Read more: Wrong

Enterprise 2.0: Where Online Meets Offline
2007-03-14 05:42:54
So a thought occurred to me today. Web 2.0 is still very much about the individual. For example, I may use a “social” bookmarking system, but the only thing truly social about it is the aggregation and dissemination of the information. Likewise on a social networking site I can have relationships with people that exist entirely within the confines of technology boundaries. Twitter is a great example. I may follow John Edwards, but have I ever met John? Will I ever meet John? No. The same goes for Second Life. The same goes for MyBlogLog. As we move toward an understanding of Enterprise 2.0, I think it is imperative to understand that a key difference between 2.0 in the enterprise and 2.0 in the home is that relationships are no longer “protected” within the confines of technology. A healthy portion of all online interactions within the enterprise setting will ultimately result in face to face interactions. An even larger proportion will involve communication through multiple ch
Read more: Offline

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