A Moment Of Despair

http://bit.ly/fintech

During the wee hours of Friday morning when the rest of the world was asleep I sent out an email to Fred Wilson. I felt ready. I was proud to have a deck that had only three slides. Not only that, the email had no attachment. Instead it was a Google Doc web address, one simple line. T-h-i-s will impress AVC, I thought.

Instead I got put into place. We don't invest in companies pre-incorporation, but I'd be glad to have a Skype conversation with you, he said.

Slumdog Millionaire: A Movie About My People

A Mind Blowing Party

Jai Ho

I was born in Darbhanga, Bihar, India. I grew up in Nepal, did high school in Kathmandu, not my hometown. They absolutely hate Indians in Nepal. The Tamils in Sri Lanka also have it tough. They are also Indian origin.

Biharis end up in Mumbai like Mexicans end up in America. I have met a total of five Biharis in America. My mother is from Banjhula, Sitamadhi, Bihar. A maternal uncle of mine was Education Minister of Bihar in the 1990s when Laloo Yadav was Chief Minister. More recently Laloo was Railway Minister for all of India. India has the largest rail network in the world. Indian Railways is the world's largest employer.

How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?

The point is it is a finite number. There are only so many people Mubarak could kill. We did this in Nepal in 2006. The king of Nepal issued a shoot at sight order, and the people braved the bullets. About two dozen people were shot down before the regime collapsed.

There are only so many people Mubarak can kill. The brave people of Egypt have to not stop. This can be done. Democracy is not an American export. Liberty is an export of the human heart. It comes from inside. This is nothing to do with America.

Needed: A Napkin Keyboard

I was just reading this fabulous blog post that I first spotted in Vinod Khosla's Twitter stream.

Matthew Devost: 23 Devices My iPhone Has Replaced

The Early Stages

During the early stages you are hoping to gain some little traction. You start with the germ of an idea. You try to build a small team. You put together the basic idea for the business. You produce a deck, a few slides. You read up, read up, read up.

You, of course, project success. Big success. But even when you make progress there are times when you fall, there are times when you are moving backwards instead. You try to do it a different way. You tack a little.

A Concerned Madhesi

To: CDO Sterne (2)

To: CDO Sterne
Third World Guy
Rachel Sterne: CDO

Oh Ms. Sterne. If you will please excuse me. I totally misunderstood your new job title. Please ignore my last letter. It is called growing up in Nepal during the days of absolute monarchy.

Let me take another crack at the situation. I think this is about social media. I visited the Quora page to make sure.

To: CDO Sterne

CDO Sterne.

I am honored you reached out to us informers amongst the citizenry. You might be new to your job, but I am getting the impression you have the chops for it. You are showing early signs.

Popular At Quora, PlanCast

General Assembly: A Floor, A Building, A City Block

Image by Laughing Squid via FlickrGeneral Assembly is such a good idea - and right now it is two floors - that I think it deserves to be an entire building, perhaps a city block. If you have not visited already, you should. Go make your pilgrimage.

It has been designed just right. When you are in front of your computer, you are in front of your computer. And there should be a headphone rule. When your ears are covered, you are saying do not disturb.

But then there are times when you want to be in a big, open space. There are times when you want to hold meetings. Small meetings, big meetings.

And it has a great business model. If it has 90 occupants paying $500 each, I am doing the math and the numbers are looking great. And there is a long waiting list, 100 strong, I think. General Assembly could easily occupy another floor.