My BusiCopy Cofounder Anuj Bikram Thapa

Me In The New York Times

A few weeks back Anuj and I became Cofounders at 50% each to BusiCopy, a social network for businesses.

Before I came to America I was renting a place near the largest library in Nepal. Anuj was friends with the landlord's son. And we got to know each other. I came to America and kind of lost touch for the most part. He went to Japan. He was there for seven years doing hotel management. We might have exchanged an email or two along the way.

He returned to Nepal. The country was going through the final phases of a decade long civil war. And so going into tourism, his first choice, was not an option. To that point his only experience with computers was that he had used them for personal use.

In January 2006 he decided to go into IT. He, his brother in the US Amit Thapa, and that brother's friend Ujjyol Raj Singh teamed up. Amit was studying IT in Texas. He dropped out. Little knowledge is dangerous. You end up becoming an entrepreneur.

The UN, The US, The Internet

Image via WikipediaThe UN is not it, the US is not it, the Internet is it.

I have made that statement a few times at this blog.What do I mean?

I do not imagine a future where the UN as an organization has been dissolved, and the US federal government no longer exists. But I do imagine a future where the Internet has fundamentally altered the very fabric of what the UN is, how it functions, how far it reaches, how well it functions. I imagine a US federal government transformed by the forces unleashed by the Internet.

The Internet is transformative technology. But it does not operate in a vacuum. You take away people and you end up with computers. It is adding people to the equation that gave us the Internet. And so human institutions are very relevant to what the Internet is all about.

Social Media And StartUps: Striking The Right Balance

Image by jamesomalley via FlickrI don't apologize for my active social media presence. But I have to be careful not to take my eyes off my two startups. The startups are where the action is. It is not like I am worried. It is not like I feel like I am losing the balance. For much of 2009 and 2010 I really did not have the option to do the tech startup thing. And then it made a ton of sense to focus primarily on things like tech blogging and networking. But those things don't go away. You don't switch. You learn to juggle a few balls.

Gonna Write For Technorati

I am particularly fond of blogging. My blogs feed into my Twitter and Facebook streams. I set the same for my Tumblr stream, but Tumblr has been messing up the past few days. Many things I read online I have a tendency to tweet out. So if you follow me on Twitter, you get a pretty good idea about what I am blogging and what are some of the things I am reading that day. I read a lot of tech news. And I follow the democracy movements as closely as I can. I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in New York City, maybe even the country. (Switching To Obama, Jupiter And Obama, 30 Points Down In The Polls) All that work I would like to cash out on behalf of democracy. I feel very, very strongly about democracy.

FoodSpotting Follows Me On Twitter

I just realized FoodSpotting follows me on Twitter. They must not mind seeing me in their stream all the time. I show up often. It is like when I was doing democracy work for Nepal a few years ago. One visiting politician said, "I know a whole bunch of people in Kathmandu, the only person who ever emails them is you."

The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal
FoodSpotting Third Thursday: Ai Fiori, 5-7 PM

Mafia Politics In Nepal

Third World Guy

Who cares?
When those with responsibility behave irresponsibly

DAMAKANT JAYSHI

FROM ISSUE #552 (06 MAY 2011 - 12 MAY 2011)

Just when one thought that our battered political parties could do without another round of unsavoury episodes, we have had more last week and the one before that. These come after the arrest of lawmakers from MPRF and Nepali Janata Dal on allegedly tampering and selling their diplomatic passports, the trial of a UML parliamentarian for taking bribe, the nabbing of an NC Constituent Assembly member in a gambling den and the cheating by a Maoist lawmaker at the SLC exam by making her daughter write answers on her behalf. Enough eroding the credibility of the parties of all hues.

Of all the goings-on, two of the most glaring stand out. One is the politicking at the Bharatpur Cancer Hospital in Chitwan and the other unethical conduct of now recalled ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Hamid Ansari.

Jazz And Rock Fusion From Nepal

Doing Two Tech Startups

What is better than doing one tech startup? Doing two tech startups.

So I am doing two tech startups. And the newer startup is actually moving faster. But there is symbiosis.

Journey Of Action: Latin America Tour Kickoff Party

Hip Hop Basics: Journey Of Action
April Fool?
Journey Of Action: Connecting The Dots: Social Activism: Social Media
Journey Of Action

The venue was the Purpose offices. It is an impressive startup, Purpose is. It has grown organically in two years to become a 40 strong team. I got to meet the Australian founder, Jeremy Heimans. Actually I just shot him an email.

Ugh. Finally I got to meet Kassidy and Ryan in person. They look just like in this picture.

Apple Does Hardware In Asia

Image via WikipediaHardware is harder to work on remotely than software. And it is not even remote. With all the communication possibilities of today, I think people can overemphasize the importance of geography. I enjoy a party as much as the next person, but if you think about it, the whole premise behind social networking - hello Facebook, hello Twitter - is that it is the relationship, not the physical proximity.

And so my tech team is in Kathmandu. It is 50 strong. It has been a profitable software shop five years in a row. But it is only now venturing out on its first tech startup. There are other software things you can do to make money, you know? The team has had global clients this entire time.

I became friends with the team leader before I came to America. This is not outsourcing any more than Nepal and India are foreign countries. They are not, not to me. Why can't I tap into my social capital?

Is It About Women?
GroupOn's Legacy: Cute Email?
Kiva Is In Nepal
The Kiva Story

Kiva Is In Nepal

I have been looking for that first country to go into with my microfinance startup, and it is amazing how I have gone all over the world. And now I am thinking Nepal, the country where I grew up.

Having Kenya And Chinatown Thoughts

April Fool A Few Weeks Early?

Image via Wikipedia

TechCrunch: ‘Rachel Sequoia’ And ‘Share The Air’ Were A Prank, But The Pitch Event Wasn’t: 5-6 real start-ups pitched there, hoping to practice in front of an audience of 80 people before they pitched VCs. ..... The whole thing was orchestrated by Trademarkia founder Raj Abhyankar and Spiralmoon’s Dan Carlson for two purposes, a) To give young startups a place to practice their pitches b) To add some levity to the mix with Rachel Sequoia/’Share The Air’ parody of Silicon Valley. ...... Actress Rachel Cherones was paid a $100 for the unorthodox gig and was given two hours to come up with the character after being given slides created by Carlson. She too was surprised by how much pickup the YouTube video, initially uploaded as a personal record of the presentation, received...... The fake Rachel Sequoia account now has over 2,000 followers on Twitter, the video has over 200,000 views on YouTube and people have approached SpiralMoon, who is now working on a feature length film, with acquisition offers.

What I have to say is her $100 pay was too low. She should have been paid $1,000. And she deserves a great acting gig after this. And thanks for the Nepal mentions. Mount Everest rules. It is the background image of this blog.

How To Pitch: The Rachel Sequoia Way

Minority Majority Nation?

Image via WikipediaI was at an event last night, and one speaker said how America will have become a minority majority nation by 2050, as in the nonwhites will have become the majority by then. And this was not my first time hearing that. I actually might have read that for a course in college.

But I feel the need to respond. Having experienced ethnic prejudice in Nepal, and racism in America, and having gone through the deep convulsions of a political revolution in a Third World country, the poorest outside of Africa - Nepal - and having thought through the group dynamics elements of tech startups, that minority majority nation talk to me feels like seeing 2050 through 2010 lenses.

I give to you sushi and yoga and hip hop and salsa. I give to you the Spanish language. These are so mainstream in the white parts of America already. But then I grew up learning English where I grew up. My point is America will not have become a minority majority nation in 2050. I hope much sooner than 2050, maybe as early as 2020 - and a lot of that might be to do with globally universal broadband - we will start to see all of culture as belonging to all of humanity. If I am a white guy, and I like sushi, I like sushi, what are you going to do about that?

How To Pitch: The Rachel Sequoia Way

This three minute video has been making the rounds. It is a great video, and a great pitch. This actually fits my idea of a pitch. A pitch should be a video clip. "Passionate and irreverent, she presented her concept entitled Share The Air in bare-feet and using hand drawn illustrations to articulate her points. She was looking for $500,000 to help get her idea off the ground....." You can see her lift the energy in the room as she wades through. "I am not a fighter." I like that line. "I am a lover, not a fighter." "Air is at least 6% energy." Great. I have been wanting to say that the longest time. I said something similar in a blog post on January 29. You pack the revolution into the air. Bare feet. I like that. Awesome.

A Life Of Poverty

Image via WikipediaI have had my double cheese burger super sized. It was like a six month disappearance - they had Wael Ghonim disappear for 12 days in Egypt, they had me disappear for six months in America, cost me two major victory parties, I guess it is a bigger deal to put a black man into a White (WHITE) House than it is to kick an Arab out - plus the Great Recession - all my investors walked away - plus the Great Immigration Humiliation. But I have not so much as flinched.

Going High Tech: Selfish Reasons

Image by liewcf via FlickrOne big reason I want to go super high tech with my microfinance startup is because I want me and my small core corporate team in New York City to be able to see all aspects of all our operations in near real time. I want my lenders - people who might put in that $100, that $200, at no interest - to be able to see much of the action in the field. I want them to experience that last mile as much as possible.

We are in microfinance, we are not in some kind of a data collection business. But I'd want my folks doing the last mile to think we are in a data collection business. People in the last mile collect data. People in the middle mile - us, the corporate team - make sense of that data. People in the first mile - the lenders - get served some of that data in palatable ways.

Me: Author

Cover via Amazon

Business Insider: This 26-Year-Old Is Making Millions Cutting Out Traditional Publishers With Amazon Kindle: 26-year old Amanda Hocking is the best-selling "indie" writer on the Kindle store, meaning she doesn't have a publishing deal ...... She gets to keep 70% of her book sales -- and she sells around 100,000 copies per month. ..... Hocking sells her books for $3, and some $.99. ..... she can make more on volume, especially impulse buys. Meanwhile e-books cost nothing to print, you don't have to worry about print volumes, shelf space, inventory

I write, I write a lot, I write daily, but I am not a writer. I get offended when I get called a writer. I am not. A writer. No.

People who disrespect my political work into the Nepal democracy movement of 2006 call me a journalist. Fuck no. I am not a journalist. That was digital activism. That was political work.

My Failures

Image via WikipediaMy first step into tech entrepreneurship was in the late 90s. I was not the leader of the team, but I was a founding member of a team, lead by an Indian American woman out of Philadelphia, that was trying to build the top South Asian community online.

The company raised 25 million dollars round two and dutifully succumbed to the dot com bubble burst. What ensued was a nuclear winter.

She suggested I drop out of college. I should have. It is not like I was having fun in Kentucky: I hated the place after my first year. Over a year after I left promising to come back after graduation, the thing had already disappeared.

A Gurkha Joke

Image via WikipediaMore people from Nepal died in the two world wars than people from any non warring country. The Nepalis fought on the side of the British. The feudal rulers of Nepal kept the British in India happy by supplying soldiers.

When Thatcher invaded the Falkland Islands in the 1980s, the Gurkhas were at the forefront of the swift victory. It is said they ran with their knives/khukris, not guns.

The politics of fighting for another country is another topic. And I have my views. But for now, here's a joke.

This was World War II. The British were busy defending themselves in Burma. One Gurkha got lost in the jungles of Burma in the north. After long weeks of walking he finally showed up in the capital city of Rangoon, down south. He was asked, how did you do it? How did you make it all the way to Rangoon?

"That was not a problem, Sir," the Gurkha soldier replied. "I had a map."

The officer took a look at the map. The guy had a really old map of London with him.

Black Buddhas: The Madhesis Of Nepal: Documentary

Black Buddhas

Third World Guy
Rootlessness And The City
Met The Sixth Bihari
Slumdog Millionaire: A Movie About My People

Social Media Is For Real

I am not getting this. I think you have to be global at many levels to truly appreciate social media. I don't feel any kind of a "multiple edentity disorder." Social media makes me whole. Minus social media I feel all too fragmented.

I was born in India. I grew up in Nepal next door, attended high school in Kathmandu, not my hometown, came to America for college at a time when I could not have told you the cultural differences between Kentucky and California. A one year crash course in Kentucky's social conservatism cured me of that fast.

Cultural differences are for real. As of today I don't give two hoots - absolutely don't care - about anybody's birthday, not mine, not anyone else's. That does not make me an uncaring person. That means I grew up in a culture that celebrates festivals, not birthdays. They say every single day in Nepal somewhere a festival is being celebrated.