Bloggers' Block For Fred Wilson: 10 Blocks Of Emergency

Image via WikipediaI learned the top VC blogger in the world has hit some kind of a bloggers' block. That is an emergency situation, people. I am declaring an emergency for 10 blocks in every direction from Union Square. All startups in the vicinity, please take note.

You are being urged to participate in the comments section here. If you don't, the emergency is not going to be lifted. And you are going to be deprived of your daily staple of blog posts from Fred Wilson. Think about that.

Not Rich Yet

Image via WikipediaI am not rich yet, and it really, really bothers me.

For me it is about the power. The power to run and grow a corporate organization. The power to do good. The power to go after the stated mission of curing poverty.

Unless you yourself can create serious wealth, how can you claim you are in the curing poverty business?

Democracy + Education + The Market = Wonderful Things.

Microcredit is only a small part of microfinance. Microfinance is only a small part of the many tools needed for the War On Poverty.

Wordpress For Mobile App Creation

Image via Wikipedia

ReadWriteWeb: Like WordPress for Mobile App Creation: Cabana is a Service to Watch: Is it possible for a visual drag-and-drop mobile app creation tool to deliver a sophisticated product? ..... Drag and drop addition of features like a camera, check-ins on services like Gowalla or Foursquare, integration of the Instagram photo API and many more things are possible. ..... There is a clear demand for this kind of light app publishing technology

This is the future people. Until the mobile web attains the same levels as the big screen web, we will need apps. And just like every offline business needs its own specific website, the mobile phone app has become the equivalent of the website on the big screen web. And the only way to meet that demand would be through services like this that promise to take the wizardry out of mobile app creation. Anyone who can drag and drop should be able to build an app.

Like David Noel?

Twitter thinks I am like David Noel? Why would Twitter think that? I'd not have thought that myself.

Michael Yavonditte: An Exemplary Entrepreneur/Investor

If you don't have a Twitter handle, you are not in tech, period. You do not exist. You are a figment of my imagination. And a Twitter handle is so much easier to give out. And your Twitter page should allow for more in depth getting to know. Hashable knows all this.



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Just Because My Name Ends With An A

Image by Felipe Beiza via Flickr

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.

Advantage India, Disadvantage India

Image via WikipediaI first thought in terms of India. An Indian does not need to look far and wide to find poverty. It's right there. It's right there in the backyard. India has the vast majority of the dollar a day, two dollars a day people.

I'd start out by knowing the culture. I'd know the language. And when I say that I mean to say English also, not just Hindi, not just Maithili and Bhojpuri. India is the biggest English speaking country in the world.

And there is the size. I could take the company IPO based just on Bihar. Bihar alone is that big. It would make sense to polish the basic business model in Bihar and then take it to Africa, rather than otherwise.

India is a vibrant democracy, the biggest in the world.

Top Discussion At A Top LinkedIn Microfinance Group

Image via WikipediaA discussion I started a week ago (and kinda forgot about) at a LinkedIn group with over 1200 members has become the top discussion at that group. The group is Microfinance Focus. This activity has made me take a serious look at LinkedIn for the first time. This thing is working, yo.

This has also made me look at India all over again. India was the country I started with in terms of where I wanted to go. But I was advised that the Indian government makes it very hard to bring money into the country. It is much better to start with some middle income country in Latin America. So I am thinking Costa Rica, more recently Paraguay. Much more recently I have been thinking Kenya. But I have had this gnawing feeling that a Bihari needs to be thinking Bihar.

Slumdog Millionaire: A Movie About My People

Raising Money, Building Teams