Hilary Rowland

One thing to admire about Hilary Rowland is she started really young as an entrepreneur - maybe 17 - and she has grown her small business empire organically. That speaks to me a lot because my tech startup - at least one of it - is very much in that organic growth mode.

Open Coffee MeetUp: New Location

The Mother Of All Twitter Lists

I follow too many people on Twitter - 45,000? - for my Twitter stream to make any sense to me. I will log in and before I click on the Mention button - the Twitter inbox - I will glance through the first few tweets in my steam, and sometimes I will find a snarky comment from someone - Having Coffee - that I will retweet and then I am done. That is not to say I don't want to follow people. I have gone to great lengths to build my lists on Twitter. I add people to my lists every day, most days.

But there are a few problems. Twitter allows you to create only 20 lists. I don't get it. Why is 20 such a magic number? Why not 30? Why not 40? Or 25?

What Fascinates Me About GroupOn

Image by smemon87 via FlickrOf all the tech companies out there, the one that most fascinates me is GroupOn. It speaks to me. Its emphasis on people action, and its emphasis on words - cute emails - are really something. Of all the tech companies out there, the one that I find most inspiring in terms of what I would want to do with my microfinance startup, GroupOn stands out. You focus on a few basic human actions, and you go for it. You splurge.

I also like how fast they have grown. They were not here at all. And suddenly they are everywhere.

This blog post explains where I think group dynamics stand on the tech map: front and center.

My Web Diagram

GroupOn is the web maturing to land in the human domain, in the flesh.

Live Nation And GroupOn: That Offline Component
18 Months Ago GroupOn Did Not Exist
GroupOn's Legacy: Cute Email?
Image via WikipediaGroupOn, Zappos, And The Non Tech Components
GroupOn Did Not Launch At South By South West
GroupOn Did The Right Thing

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