The impending Age Of Abundance was prophesied in the scriptures thousands of years ago.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Friday, February 04, 2011
How Steve Jobs Gets Things Done
I found this amazing article in a tweet by angel investor and entrepreneur Hiten Shah. I follow The Angel List on Twitter. Go read the full article.
The Entrepreneur Does Have A Boss
Image via WikipediaA lot of people have this misconception that people who don't like to have to answer to bosses start their own companies. Entrepreneurs don't have bosses. Perhaps it is the case that the entrepreneur does not have a boss. What the entrepreneur has is a goddess: the market. As an entrepreneur you have to meet your numbers. As long as you meet your numbers, you are in good shape.
Entrepreneurs do get fired. All the time. The entrepreneur version is to go out of business. The goddess can get mad at you and wipe you out.
There is a reason most people are not entrepreneurs. Someone once said being an entrepreneur is like being gay, it is not like you have a choice. I think there is some truth to that. It is a personality type thing. Some people are just more bent on doing the entrepreneur thing.
Who Owns The Company?
Image via WikipediaI have been meaning to write this blog post for a while now, months, possibly over a year. Finally I am getting around to it. It has become urgent. I have a pre-launch startup. For conventional wisdom I am going to refer to this, but later.
Mark Peter Davis: Entrepreneur's Guide To Raising Venture Capital
I do know Mark, but that is not why. And this might or might not be the best guide out there to venture capital. But I expect it to be sufficiently good to provide me with the framework of the venture capital business as it stands today. But I have made a point not to read through his posts. I want to express my thoughts before I get corrupted by conventional wisdom.
So who owns the company? Just like I have a bias for Founder CEOs, I have a bias for startups that will go IPO. And it is those two scenarios that I have in mind. So my thoughts might not resonate with startups with other kinds of exits, which ends up being most startups.
You Have To Be A Little Wild
Image via WikipediaYou have to be a little wild to be doing the tech entrepreneur thing. For one, the risks are high. All else equal you will more likely fail than succeed. The success stories make it to the press. The sob stories? There's not enough newsprint on the planet. And it is not one risk, one hump you get over. There are risks after risks after risks. Every step of the way. It is roller coaster. If you are not going to enjoy the ride, the solace of some day reaching the destination might be false. You might never get there. The journey is where it is at. The journey itself is the reward. If you don't think so, get into another line of work.
You have to be able to look at the establishment and look the other way. You have to be able to look at the status quo and sneer. You have to jolt. You have to give them the finger.
A Rationale Or Two For Blogging
Image via WikipediaFred Wilson: Do You Ever Get Bored Of Blogging?I left this paragraph as a comment in reply to this blog post by Fred.
You have said a few times that you could not do your work without your blog. That is the best rationale I have seen for your daily blogging. True for me as well. My blogging is integral to my work. I am early stage, so I am even more dependent. Blogging is also like working out for the mind. It feels like doing push ups and is great fun. Blogging is one of my favorite things to do online. I would be a less intense consumer of content if I had not been an avid blogger.
Smartphones: Cheap Is Good
Image via CrunchBaseThe idea is to get the phone out to as many people as possible. If almost everybody has a smartphone then we are talking. Then we got critical mass. And the way to get there is through super cheap smartphones. I am glad we are headed that way. GigaOm: The Future of Cheap Androids Begins Now
we’ll need to see unsubsidized handsets priced at or under $100 that can be used on a month-to-month basis ..... in Europe and elsewhere, it’s not uncommon to buy a phone, then purchase a SIM card from whichever carrier is currently offering the cheapest voice and data rates ..... By 2013, we expect 1 GHz smartphones to be available for $100. ..... By the end of this year, I expect to see no-contract Android devices costing $99 or less, paired with reasonably priced pre-paid plans.The worst idea the smartphone industry ever came up with has been the two year contract. Phones go stale in six months, a year max.
Do You Use Hashtags In Emails?
I found myself using a hashtag in an email recently. First time. But I liked doing it. I wrote a few lines of email, and then I put down the hashtag at the end which captured the entire email in one word. I felt good doing it.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Honeycomb: Looks Like Finally Google "Gets" The Tablet
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeGoogle likes to iterate. They will put out something lousy. And finally on the fifth attempt they will get it right. The iPad had no real competition for an entire year. But now looks like that is about to change. TechCrunch: First Impressions Using Android Honeycomb, Google’s iPad Rival
I am someone who has never bought an Apple product. I love Google like some people love Apple. It is the web thing. I like Google's thing for the web.
Looking For A Super Bowl Watch Party To Go To
Image via WikipediaI am not all that into football. I am more a World Cup Soccer kind of guy. I don't even know who is playing who on Sunday. But I end up liking the commercials. And I am on a lookout for a Super Bowl Watch Party to go to. Almost every thing I know about football comes from one Al Pacino movie. I get it. Alright, I get it.
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
A MeetUp Pivot
Image via CrunchBaseNew York Observer: Screw Meetup: Organizers Up In Arms Over Redesign: In the new redesign, ordinary users can arrange for events, leading some to declare that organizers have been downgraded to moderators..... less than 1 percent of organizers active on Meetup have complained or commented on the redesign .... a simple solution. “If they don’t like users organizing events, they can just turn it off. It's a feature organizers have full control over.” .... "As we see how people are using the new tools we will keep iterating to simplify and improve the experience."People love the Facebook newsfeed today. It is central to the Facebook experience. But when Facebook first introduced it, there was major ruckus. It is inertia. People dislike change. They are used to doing things one way. They would like to keep doing things the same way.
Yuri Milner's Smart Y Combinator Move
Image by davidcrow via FlickrWall Street Journal: Y Combinator’s Paul Graham On The $150K Per Start-Up Offer: “It’s probably one of the most surprising things that has happened so far,” Graham said. ..... Milner teamed up with SV Angel–the seed fund run by prominent angel investor Ron Conway–to offer $150,000 each in convertible debt in each company. .... Of the more than 250 companies that Y Combinator has produced since 2005, more than 20 have been acquired, but mostly for small amounts. The biggest success, by acquisition price, is Heroku Inc., which Salesforce Inc. bought in December for $212 million. ..... convertible debt–which converts to equity once the company raises venture capital at a set price–with no valuation cap and no discount, an extremely rare set of terms for entrepreneurs. ..... Y Combinator companies received $11,000 plus $3,000 per founder in exchange for 2% to 10% of equity ..... the average Y Combinator company raises $700,000 after the program. .... “The biggest change and huge change for better is now none of them are desperate,” Graham said. Fund-raising “takes a lot of time away from the company. Now they’re already there. They have that foundation.”I don't think a Google or Facebook can come out of Y Combinator. The big iconic companies tend to have this streak of independence. But I think Y Combinator is great for middling companies. I'd be very surprised if any Y Combinator company goes IPO some day. But many have been and will be bought for a decent chunk of change. Many will stay mid size and profitable.
The Chrome Browser At 10%
Image via WikipediaLast I checked, it was at 5%, but even back then it deserved to do better. Next thing you know it will have hit 20%. Chrome has nowhere to go but up. InfoWorld: Chrome breaks 10 percent browser market share for the first time
Chrome is the browser I use. It is minimalist. It is fast. It does not feel like there is anything at the top. All you get is the web. I like that.
Google calls it a "modern" browser.
Google's dragging its feet on the Chrome OS Netbook is unforgivable. That is what will take the Chrome browser roaring into the 20s and 30s and beyond.
Mark Zuckerberg Loves Union Square Ventures
Mark Zuckerberg saw Twitter and he liked it immensely. Today the news feed is central to the Facebook experience.
He saw FourSquare and he liked it immensely. The world got Facebook Places.
Now he has a crush over Disqus, it seems like.
Zynga has been a major money maker for Facebook.
All of these are Fred Wilson's portfolio companies.
Facebook Going After Disqus Now?
Facebook Going Into Blog Comments Is Huge
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeFacebook Going After Disqus Now?I have said several times at this blog that if Google wants to "get" social, it needs to go into the blogosphere. But now looks like Facebook is about to beat Google there too. This is a really, really smart move on the part of Facebook.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Non Profit Microfinance Vs For Profit Microfinance: The Stupid Debate
Image via WikipediaThere has been a stupid debate going on for a few years now that has taken new life the past few months. There is a school of thought that says microfinance can be non profit and non profit alone. There has been some serious abuse of microfinance. A lot of MFIs - microfinance institutions - have been messing up the last mile in serious ways. Charging ridiculously high rates is one of them. Some debt collection methods have been shady.
Facebook Going After Disqus Now?
Image by skidder via FlickrCaroline McCarthy: Facebook's next big media move: Comments: Facebook is planning to launch a third-party commenting system in a matter of weeks ..... This new technology could see Facebook as the engine behind the comments system on many high-profile blogs and other digital publications very soon....... it's an obvious and direct competitor to start-ups that provide commenting technology, like Disqus and Echo. With Facebook Places adopting much of the "check-in" methodology that smaller competitors Foursquare and Loopt offer, and Facebook Questions operating in the same space as QuoraFacebook Places did not kill FourSquare. Actually the day Facebook Places launched, FourSquare had its biggest day to that date. I expect something similar to happen to Disqus.
On the other hand, I really like the idea of comments sections at blogs where people necessarily have to use their real names. I think that would enhance the quality of comments.
Three Syllables
Image via WikipediaThe name of my company is going to have three syllables. I'd have preferred two syllables, but some of the obviously best ones have long been taken. The name has to be three syllables, and it has to not mean anything. It can't be an obvious word in any language. Of course you might end up with a scenario where you come up with a word which you think has no meaning, but it has meaning in some obscure language somewhere. That would be fine. But I am going to start with a word that is just some sound.
10,000 People In 10 Years
Image via WikipediaI am going to have at least 10,000 people work for me in less than 10 years. I am a large scale group dynamics guy. I like large numbers of people. Many, many atoms go to make one cell. Some people are cellular biologists, I am like that. That is why I so love revolutions, like the one that is going on in Egypt. I am a large scale group dynamics guy. That is my number one strength.
Immensely Excited
Image via WikipediaI am so very immensely excited with my startup. Some people complain of the work environment of a big corporation, start a company, and their behavior will tell you they long for the big corporation.
You have to be excited, you have to stay excited. You have to get excited when you hit a wall, you have to stay excited when you get over it. Why would you get excited when you hit a wall? Because, well, what were you expecting? If you did not expect to hit walls, you were not expecting right.
At this stage with my startup it feels like I am getting to watch the formation of the DNA. It is an amazing feeling. I have a small team. We are making steady progress.
Soon I expect to speed things up.
I am really liking it that we could launch for very little. I am really liking it that we will start generating revenues almost right away. I am really liking that. I am liking the immense human component of my business model. Suddenly I will get to party with a purpose. The more people you talk to, the better you get at it.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
A Mini Bubble Burst In Three Years
Image via WikipediaThis is not me agreeing with Fred Wilson on the topic, but I do foresee a mini bubble burst a few years down the road. We are going through a relatively easy funding phase of what I see is going to be a boom decade. The first mini bubble burst is that not every startup idea seeking funding is getting funded. Most are not. That is normal. So you are already starting with the natural selection process in place. Investors are not fools. They go in with high hopes. They do say no. All the time.
But of all the companies that are getting funded, it is inevitable not all will survive. Many will not. I don't know enough to get into more precise numbers. You could argue nobody does. But there will be weaning out. The wheat will get separated from the chaff.
Every new economic sector in history has seen a bubble, some big, some small. The biggest bubbles have been reserved for some of the most exciting new sectors. Bubbles are good things. Bubbles are the market trying to figure out what will stick, what will not stick. And there is no way to know except by trying.
Some failures just can not be avoided. The best policy is to make peace when that happens. But there are other failures that can be avoided. How do you make sure you still have your startup three years from now?
Build a real business. Focus on the fundamentals. Don't overspend. Start generating revenues and profits within a reasonable amount of time. Work hard. Maintain perspective. Don't stop taking risks. Build a great team. Be a great team. Eat right. Sleep right. Exercise. Don't ignore your relationships.
Be open to the possibility that there are many kinds of exits, most of them not big. If you can earn a living doing work you love, that is a great soft landing actually. Don't ignore that possibility while shooting for the stars.
Shoot for the stars.
The Top Quora User Scoble Agrees With Me, But I Disagree With Him
Image via WikipediaRobert Scoble - someone I admire and like - has put out a blog post on January 30 - Why I was wrong about Quora as a blogging service … - that closely mirrors a blog post I put out on January 7 - As For Quora: Blogging Still Rules - only my blog post's title is better. In his blog post Scoble comes to the same conclusion. Blogging still beats Quora. But then blogging for me has beat all other social media experiences: Facebook, Twitter included. Blogging has been my favorite social media platform. I guess I am really interested in people I don't know. But it is more the ideas thing. The blogosphere allows for a meeting of minds in ways not possible elsewhere. And I have a thing for the long form of blogging.
Union Square Ventures: You Love Me, You Love Me Not
Image via CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBaseUnion Square Ventures has an impressive portfolio. If you are fascinated by web tech like I am, you would be impressed by what they got. They are into Twitter, FourSquare, Zynga. USV constantly looks for companies that will perhaps come up with the next big thing in tech. With my FinTech startup, I have made it absolutely clear we are not trying to come up with the next big thing in tech. We are not a web tech startup. Instead we will constantly be surveying the scene for new developments in tech to see what we can put to the service of microfinance.
That would be a good reason for USV to not come for us.
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.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
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.
Friday, January 28, 2011
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.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
To: CDO Sterne (2)
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.
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.
The Real Time Social Graph, Transient Social Graphs
Image by Laughing Squid via FlickrWhen you say social graph, you talk of friends, as in people you have known, people who were you friends yesterday, are today, will be tomorrow. That is a long tail. And there are many services that have done a good job of curating those social graphs. Facebook, of course, is the grand daddy of them all. But I see a major void in the real time social graph.
I use several services to plan what events I wish to go to. And that is another space that could use much better services. I use PlanCast, but PlanCast is not populated enough with events. Users find it too hard to create events, and not enough events get created. And not enough event organizers are using it yet. I also use Charlie O'Donnell's events newsletter.
Facebook Will End Up The Social Graph Operating System
Image via CrunchBaseFacebook, far in the future, will likely recede into the background. Facebook will have its Google days. That is but inevitable. Facebook did not create the social graph. It merely tried to map what already existed out there. But then a social graph where everyone is a friend is not the best possible map.
There are many social graphs. That is our reality. There will be many maps. Facebook is like a broad map of the world. And it can hope to become better and better, but sometimes you don't want a map of the world, you just want a map of the NYC subway system. Or maybe most of the time you just want that.
Third World Guy
Two white guys destroyed my high school experience. One white guy destroyed my college experience. Some white guys tried to destroy my New York City experience.
I left you an entire country. I left you a state, an entire region. There is nowhere to go after New York. In New York you have my back against the wall. You don't want to corner a cat. That is a bad idea. I feel an enormous itch to create, to fight.
They built a white-Pahadi coalition against me in Kathmandu. They built a white-black coalition against me in Kentucky. They tried to build a white-black coalition against me in New York City.
Charlie Rangel thinks he is going to live for 10 more years. I wish every of those years upon him. I want the motherfucker to watch.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Semil Shah On Quora
Frequently Asked Questions About Quora The incredible growth of Quora has also led to an equally incredible growth in chatter, punditry, and analysis ..... If organized correctly, the information contributed to and categorized on Quora could not only result in the best Q&A site ever, but it may also transform into a new type of search engine and destination for information. .... Those who contribute content to Quora do so because, in exchange for their contribution, Quora gives them the chance to establish a brand, reputation, and areas of expertise. ..... Quora has a very good idea of what interests its users have, and that is very, very valuable knowledge. .... where the mutual meeting place is Quora.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Twitter: $45 Million To $150 Million To $250 Million
Image via CrunchBaseSo Twitter made $45 million last year, and it is projected to make $150 million this year. These numbers are a slap in the face of those who kept asking back in 2009, okay, so Twitter has all these users, but how will it ever make money? Some of those pundits are saying the same about Tumblr. Well, these are going to be Tumblr's numbers two or three years from now, more like two. If you can get deeply engaged users, monetization is just a matter of time. The players that matter know that simple fact.
FourSquare Has 6,000,000 Users
Image via WikipediaFourSquare has put out a blog post that I urge you click over to. The post displays a cool infographic. FourSquare has 6,000,000 users. That is awesome. The last I was keeping track they had a million users heading to two million. That is a rapid ascent.
I expect FourSquare to keep that pace. It has been a company to watch. The next five years are looking really good for the mobile web, and there FourSquare competes with itself.
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