curiousgirl's playground

I've been idle for a while and actively pursuing a few projects of mine...one of which is Yoink'd.

Yoink'd Mediabox is a fully AJAX / DHTML web media player (like Windows Media Player, iTunes, Winamp, etc..) for finding, organizing, and sharing available online video content (from youtube, google video, etc.). Features include:

• Ability to convert any raw RSS feed into a playlist
• View real-time live yoinks from friends (integrated with Facebook)
• Ability to completely embed the media player onto any website in various formats (Yoink'd Mini and Yoink'd Widget)
• Auto-relinking of dead video links
• Ability to play on any web-enabled device (browser, iPhone, Nintendo Wii, PS3, iPod Touch, etc..)
• Customization via multiple skins

Our core value lies in user experience and our media sharing capabilities. We truly want to change the way we view media on the web.

Enjoy this short demo to the sweet, tunes of Aly and AJ in "The Potential Breakup Song."

technorati tags: yoink'd, yoinkd, mediabox, aly, aj, potential breakup song, yoinkd.com

October 9, 2007 | 4:19 AM | Comments (1)

Chapter 9 of The Valley of Heart's Delight by Michael Malone.

Hah, I love the author's sarcasm and sense of humor. In any case, skimming through this chapter reminded me of how much my current New York roommates are corporate slaves --- *suffering* through the long hours of investment banking. I barely see them at all since they work well over 100 hours per week. One of my roommates -- Sharon -- ran out of the door this afternoon (practically in tears) since she was called back to do work. I immediately left her a voicemail to offer my support and encourage her to do well. It really hurts me to see my roommates like this.... Why do they even have jobs like this? Employee unhappiness should be a crime!

Rule #1: The real world is slower, more inefficient. And guess what? You got to live with it. I think I learned this the hard way ;p. I'm naturally an impatient person (which may be good or bad) -- but I have this natural tendency to not only "get things done" but to also get them done fast. I guess you can say I'm very results-oriented ;p....

Rule #2: If you can't live with Rule #1, you have to invent your own rules. This is the path I'm currently taking...Yes, I'm most likely going to be living out of a cardboard box but hey, at least it's -my- cardboard box. Luckily, I still have my underwear :) In the next coming weeks, I'm leaving New York City and moving back to the bay area...

technorati tags: ambition, silicon valley, michael malone, secrets, job

September 15, 2007 | 8:45 PM | Comments (3)

Here's an excerpt from my recent conversation with a friend online (re: web 2.0 site):

In addition, my friend is "paranoid" and will not disclose his idea until it is "finished" (which is not a problem by me, of course. I'm just a curious girl and love to hear about new ideas.)

This post is not to make fun of my friend as he is super-talented and an amazing computer scientist. I just find it amusing as I've heard the same exact lines echoed previously in blog posts I've read in the past year or so. In fact, here are some related, very useful articles by industry leaders and experts:

• Top 10 Lies of Entrepreneurs
• Startup Lessons

One of the key lessons I've picked up from visiting TechStars, talking with entrepreneurs, helping build a social web media player, and working at a startup is the importance of speed-to-market and customer feedback. It's so critical to rapidly prototype in order to churn around fast iterations of a product. This process of fast, agile development is advocated by heavily by Eric and Todd of MyBlogLog; it's also a trend we notice with the high influx of Facebook and iPhone apps. Yet, this seems to be at odds with the emphasis in design in my last few posts, right?

Naturally, there are tradeoffs to everything in life. It's hard to pursue several ideas at once only to "see what sticks" so to speak. However, I feel like what's more important is finding the right balance between all these different choices. I guess, at the end of the day, there must be a final team consensus -- make a decision and move forward.

technorati tags: entrepreneurship, startup, technology

August 8, 2007 | 5:27 PM | Comments (0)

I'm truly impressed by Janice Fraser, one of the founding members of Adaptive Path. She is an entrepreneur, interaction designer, and editor -- all in one! She writes an inspirational blog (hah, she's "clevergirl") and has an excellent podcast here.

• Partnerships (people) are most important. It's all comes down to trust. Adaptive Path's success is due to the solidity of the seven co-founders. Janice talks about her great relationship with Peter Merholz, President of Adaptive Path, and how even if they did get it into conflicts (ps: constructive discontent is always healthy), the conflicts would be meaningful.
• Make meaning. Not just in the Guy Kawasaki's "Let's Change the World" kind of way. Janice stresses creating meaning for your employees, making sure they want to be there and are 100% passionate.
• Be stingy.
  • Financially. The founding members of Adaptive Path spent 6 months arguing over whether or not to buy a printer and lived without an office for a year.
  • On features. Less is more. Each additional feature = extra expense = additional design, development, testing costs.
• Alignment = Integrity. Hire for the right characteristics in people. The right people will create the right product vision. The right product vision gets you the right customers. My questions for Janice are: What exactly does "right" mean? More importantly, how do you know what is "right?"
• Companies are designed for people. Firm culture is critical. Janice says, "If work is not fulfilling, people will not have loyalty." What I admire most about Janice is her brutal honesty. She's not afraid to admit "she's human" and makes mistakes, too. As CEO, Janice says she "has no power" and instead must empower others around her. She cites a specific example with a newly hired PR person where she took more control than she was supposed to. This PR employee approached her about it, and she accepted the feedback and immediately apologized and let go. For Janice, her employees are her partners.
• You are employed by an industry, not a company. Think about the bigger picture. Take the long view.

technorati tags: janice fraser, adaptive path, design, ceo, entrepreneurship

August 5, 2007 | 4:48 PM | Comments (1)

I came across a great Fast Company article titled "Strategy by Design" by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, written back in June 2005. Tim emphasizes the importance of design thinking as a catalyst for innovation productivity. "Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems."

1. Hit the streets. Go out there and be observant. Get original insights from your market.
2. Recruit T-shaped people. People with breadth and depth. Expertise in one area that can be applied to many disciplines.
3. Build to think. Focus on problem solving. "Design thinking is inherently a prototyping process....The goal isn't to create a close approximation of the finished product or process; the goal is to elicit feedback that helps us work through the problem we're trying to solve."
4. The prototype tells the story. Generate feedback and make corrections. Visually describe your strategy.
5. Design is never done. We live in a changing world. "The market is always changing; your strategy needs to change with it. Since design thinking is inherently rooted in the world, it is ideally suited to helping your strategy evolve."

• Is design often overlooked? Even in my undergraduate computer science courses at Penn, I've remembered that the "specification" phase was often rushed through or , worse yet, done -after- the coding was completed.
• How easy is it to sell design? Of course, from a business perspective, people like to see numbers and quantify the value of a feature, project, idea, etc. Adaptive Path has taken a look at this issue by applying ROI methodology to user experience design, ensuing that companies are only investing in high-value projects. The truth of the matter is that it's almost impossible to appropriately capture all the "value" derived from design and user experience. If this is the case, how do design consultant shops effectively pitch to new clients who don't recognize the benefits of design thinking?
• Design thinking is here to stay. Just watch the trends. Emerging design schools (Stanford's d.school and Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design). iPod/iPhone phenomenon. Google and importance of simplicity. Less is more. "Web 2.0"-style design.

» Interview with Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO (by Brandon Schauer of Adaptive Path)

technorati tags: design, design thinking, design strategy, ideo, tim brown, business, innovation, adaptive path

August 5, 2007 | 1:12 PM | Comments (0)

What is it? How do startups get ahead of customers? How and when do startups execute on strategy? What happens if your strategy fails?

• Know your customer; be a customer. Try to find a few key customers who might just tell you what they want and then go build that (Reminds me of “Law of a Few” from Malcolm Galdwell’s Tipping Point). What influences your customers? What do they care about? Above all, be passionate about your product. Use it. Test it. Tinker with it.
• Master storytelling. Why should anyone (e.g. your customer, Wall Street analyst, public relations, etc. -- your constituents) care about your product?
• Perception is key. People expect things to work. If something is in “beta” stage, it better work. Underpromise and overdeliver.
• Flexibility is crucial. Have a plan but don’t be afraid to tweak it.
  • 50% proactive - Knowing your strategy
  • 50% reactive - Understanding what market is saying and reacting to feedback
• Failure is OK. In fact, fail over and over again. Don’t be afraid. You learn more from your mistakes.

Panelists: Alex King (Crowd Favorite), Brad Feld (Mobius Venture Capital), Don Loeb (Feedburner), Dave Taylor (serial entrepreneur and consultant)

Should all startups blog? Must they do so nowadays to gain critical mass?

• Free marketing. Blogs can serve as a great way to spread the word about your product and company. Huge viral and network effects.
• Be coherent and consistent. Keep blogs focused on specific topics (e.g. separate personal and company blogs).
• Be thoughtful. Have your own insight and opinion. Do more than copy or reiterate what’s already out there.
• Have domain expertise. What is your unique contribution? Brad Feld asked one question to the eager founders of the room: “What can we be best in the world at?”

While Brad Feld argued for complete transparency in blogging, I feel companies ought to exercise caution. While blogging may be especially beneficial for consumer-oriented internet startups in "spreading the word," it also is a source of competitive intelligence. One interesting point that was brought up was whether or not companies should blog about a "roadblock" they've encountered. Another point was whether or not young people today should be worried about what they are blogging about online. In other words, can the words you say now (e.g. say as a teenager using MySpace or Facebook) be used against you later (e.g. for a future job position)? Since perception is so important, one negative first impression can ruin the future image of the brand (or person).

technorati tags: techstars, go-to-market strategy, blogging, startups, marketing, getting started

June 14, 2007 | 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

My trip has been amazing so far. First off, Boulder is absolutely gorgeous. Here are some of my favorite perks about the city:

• Perfect weather. I’m biased since my family is currently in the Bay Area of California, but think Seattle summer. Clear blue skies, clouds, moderate temperature. Not too cold, not too hot. You can wear anything you want.
• Very outdoorsy. Great for hiking, biking, camping, skiing, running, whatever else you can think of. There are always cyclists and pedestrians on the road. Seeing people in a suburban town is a wonderful feeling!
• Happy, friendly people. I think this is a result of the weather, but everyone is nice. Talk to any local barista of the many, many coffee shops around the area. Feel free to ask a stranger for directions somewhere. Or talk to the lady who works in the Boulder Bookstore. They are all personable and easy going. I love the laid back attitude of everyone here.
• Easy to navigate. Because I recently lost my wallet, I wasn’t able to rent a car, but this hasn’t been a problem at all for me. The Pearl Street Mall (downtown Boulder) is just four streets away from me. Everything is within walking distance, giving me the opportunity to really appreciate and enjoy the weather in the mornings when I go out.
• Other random facts. Did you that more than 50% of city has college education or better? One of the best places to retire.

In addition, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the conversations I’ve had with the founders of the TechStars teams. I love meeting new people and hearing their thoughts and ideas. I could immediately feel the excitement and energy of the founders just from short conversations with them, making me more eager to see the results of their hard work. All of them have been working on some very interesting, exciting, cool ideas. Unfortunately, most of them haven’t been getting too much sleep… For instance, my friends on the LingoLinko team have had crazy schedules (e.g. sleeping at 7am and waking up at 12noon). I’m amazed by everyone’s energy ….

I’m heading out of Boulder this afternoon. Thanks to David Cohen for letting me crash TechStars for a few days. Also, special shout out to Ben Casnocha for making my trip even more amazing and introducing me to more entrepreneurial people in the Boulder area!

technorati tags: techstars, boulder, colorado, david cohen, startups, entrepreneurship

June 12, 2007 | 9:06 PM | Comments (2)

• Simple, easy-to-use, and elegant. Enough said.
• Efficiently leverages and aggregates existing music. Similar to sites like radio.blog.club, Chargle Jukebox streams data from existing music video sites. Unlike radio.blog.club, Chargle Jukebox incorporates "rich media" video (which may or may not be desirable for pure music listeners).
• Future richer web. Build a social networking component? I think it'd be interesting to see this type of functionality incorporated to an existing music social music community like Last.fm. This only enhances the end-user front-end music listening and discovery.
• Easily scalable and deployable. Did I mention that my genius programmer friend Charles coded this project in just only 2 days?
• Future potential. Sure, the player can be more feature-rich, but this model of streaming data from -multiple existing sources- can be applied to all web media, not just music. Mashups are definitely the future of the web.

Now, here's a list of projects he has or is involved in (those I'm aware of):

• Syzyx: pioneer AJAX-driven blogging platform (before "AJAX" was even coined and still has features which Charles says "does not exist on any other existing platform" such as Livejournal, Xanga, Wordpress..)
• Below the Mean: comic strip on life at UC Berkeley (Read more press here. Please add closet "artist" and "illustrator" to list of characteristics for Charles.)
• Chargle: Charles' personal homepage and what I call "true" personalized search :)

technorati tags: chargle, charles yong, music, youtube, mashup, technology, idea

May 2, 2007 | 7:53 PM | Comments (0)

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the 2007 Wharton Economic Summit. It was definitely a great conference featuring several amazing panels and distinguished world class leaders! Below are some highlights:

• CRT: Communication. Renumeration. Transportation. Particularly in apparel / retail industries ($400 billion global apparel industry)- Trends include faster lead times, quicker product development, better quality / quantity.
• Why China? Not least expensive but -most efficient-. Abundance of raw material.
• Current Stats: In 2006: $232.5 billion US deficit (up ~15%). US exported $53 billion to China (up from $42 billion in 2005). China helped lower inflation in U.S.
• Still low penetration of outsourcing.

  	Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)	IT (ADM)	IT (Infrastructure)
  Model	Captive (moving to hybrid)	3rd party outsourcing (moving to hybrid)	Outsourcing model
  Industry	$18 billion	$30 billion	$2 billion
  Percent Offshore	12%	>30%	~1.25%

• Software Service Providers: >20K employees

  2005 Data
  China	8,000 (~5K employees)
  India	5,000 (~15K employees)

• India faces talent crunch by 2010.
• Client vs. Delivery Markets

  Client Markets (United States)	Delivery Markets (China)
  Competitive pressures Industry nuances / maturity Exchange rate / currency strength Local political climate Wages Investment in education	Governance Political climate Infrastructure Exchange rate / currency strength Population and demographic profile Wages Investment in education Maturity of domestic financial markets

• Challenge: move up value chain by changing engagement model for BPO
• Challenges in India: 1) Communication semantic (3 ways to say "yes") 2) HR Management: need for non-monetary incentives (e.g. invite employees and their parents over) 3) Unpredictable government policy 4) Rampant corruption 5) Property value
• Why Bother with India? 1) Huge consumer market 2) Professional management has depth 3) Labor laws flexible in some industries 4) Tax benefits may be as important as labor cost arbitrage 5) Things are fine as long as you don't deal with government 6) Improved regulations on transfer of capital

• 10 Forces flattening the world. New age of creativity, connectivity, work flow software, outsourcing, etc..
• Globalization of labor-intensive industries. Supply chains are longer and more complicated, spanning countries. No longer a singe country-to-country interaction. International obstacles such as tariffs and trade agreements exist. Movement of labor supply to "cheapest" country: Hong Kong (1970s) -> Taiwan -> Korea -> Philippines -> China -> Bangladesh / Pakistani -> What next?
• Four tips for success.
  1. Have a clear vision and purpose. Requires having core values of character, trust, integrity with your customer.
  2. Know your representatives. Hire the best and brightest people on your team.
  3. Keep strong internal communication. Listen to clients and be problem solvers. Be at least 2 years ahead of the game.
  4. Control your expenses. Anticipate market changes. Use technology efficient to manage your resources.

• Be true to yourself. Particularly when it comes to reconciling personal values with corporate ethics.
• Great leaders have a moral compass. In response to the corporate scandals of America (Enron, MCI Worldcom, etc.), Huntsman greatly emphasized the importance of taking responsibility and being accountable for your own actions, saying that we know what is "right" and what is "wrong" -- all of us are taught those core principles.
• Don't be scared to speak up. Question authority. Be brave!

• Find "shrinking" markets. In looking for opportunities, Josh mentioned looking at crowded markets and trying to "shrink" them. Perhaps by fundamentally changing the business to squeeze out competitors?
• There's value in delayed gratification. Self-discipline for one. Robert told this story of how he teaches his own children about personal finance by giving them money (e.g. $1000) but not allowing them to use it right away. Instead, he works with his kids to pick out stocks and invest the money for the future.
• Get fouls. Josh made the analogy to basketball, saying that a great basketball player isn't "perfect" but is willing to take some risks (not play safe) in order to improve. Josh illustrated this point with his creative marketing strategies Half.com first employed when they got started. They actually got a town in Oregon to change its name to Half.com for a year. A small initial investment which led to millions of free mainstream media advertising!
• Focus on incremental change. These are opportunities that are easier to spot and execute.
• Use the business model as competitive weapon. Emphasize innovating on the -business model- rather than -the product-. Recognize different distribution systems for a given product. Answer "how can we make money" first. Cases like Google are rare.
• Get a board of advisors. As an entrepreneur, it's vital to seek the expertise of those around you.
• Think ahead and don't abandon ship too soon. Risk management and execution are key. Think of playing chess and considering 6 different scenarios playing out and how you would respond to each.
• Acknowledge what you don't know. You aren't expected to know everything. It's OK to say "I don't know."
• Open source dramatically reduces cost for business launch. For Josh, Half.com required $2.5 million investment --> Turntide required $750,000; and 1-800-Free411 required $300,000. Josh's thoughts on open source: "More businesses are failing more efficiently."

technorati tags: wharton economic summit, leadership, business, ethics, india, china, globalization, outsourcing, entrepreneurship

April 18, 2007 | 11:30 AM | Comments (1)

I just had a very nice chat with my friend Shengquan, one of the founders of LingoLinko (still in development) which I blogged briefly about in this post on Wharton startups.

While my dear friend Peter continually teaches me how to think, Shengquan introduced me to two fundamental problem solving tactics. Shengquan told me that he was friends with some very talented Math Olympiad members back in Singapore. He soon realized that these people were not necessarily geniuses (abnormal IQ) but instead were very well trained in problem solving and applied those skills to other areas. To demonstrate this, he gave me two small puzzles to solve:

• # of squares in 1x1 grid: 1
• # of squares in 2x2 grid: 1 + 4
• # of squares in 3x3 grid: 1 + 9 + 4
• etc...

• All businesses solve problems. At its core, all companies identify a need (problem) and attempt to solve it with a product or service. If this did not exist, there would be no demand.
• Simple ideas are very powerful. While the above two principles seem very intuitive, they are often not how people actually approach problem solving. People don't typically break problems up into pieces and tackle the components. This is why many consulting cases drill this concept in their case interviews, and why software companies stress design specifications. (Luckily, engineering students get trained at this to a good extent.)
• Take existing strategies and apply them in new contexts. Shengquan extracted what his Math Olympiad friends had done and applied them to his own business in Singapore.

technorati tags: problem solving, art of problem solving

March 17, 2007 | 6:24 PM | Comments (0)

Last Updated: 3/16/07

My friend Ravi Mishra wrote a post a while back about Wharton titled "Where Entrepreneurship Comes to Die" which gained quite a bit of popularity. While I agree that the herd mentality at Wharton is very strong (too strong I should say), this past year I've noticed a small, growing "underground" entrepreneurship community. I've compiled a list of startups I know of to date from Wharton. If anyone knows more, please and I will add to the list.

• Natpal: effective advertising for local businesses, started by Nathaniel Stevens (WH '06), BusinessWeek's Top 20 Young Entrepreneurs under 25
  Founded in 2004
• Eatnow: online food delivery service, founded by my friend Nat Turner (WH '08)
  Founded in 2005
• BoxMyDorm: making the college move-in/move-out process easy, started by Peter Handy (WH '08)
• CampusDock: online eBay for college students, started by my classmate Greg Morillo (WH '08)
  Launched in 2007
• Eduvo: a web-based school 2.0-powered learning management system (better than Blackboard), founded by my friend Theodore King (WH '09)
  Launching this Friday!
• Locobuzz: online guide for what's happening on campus (I am friends with Dan Zhou (SEAS '09), one of the developers for this site.)
  Launching very soon, still in development phase
• LingoLinko: online language learning community, started by Yi Li (SEAS '10) and Zhuang Sheng Quan (WH '10)
  Still under development

• Herd mentality at Ivy Leagues and other top institutions is too strong. Investment banking and consulting are still the traditional "tracks" people take. From being in my business fraternity, Phi Gamma Nu, I've seen too many Wharton juniors stress out about the on campus recruiting process. There are too many students competing for a few spots (internships especially), resulting in an unnecessarily competitive process. I'm not in any way saying these are bad jobs. I'm saying that people think that they are the only jobs out there in this world and that they will become a failure in life if they don't get it. Please read Ho Nam's (General Partner and co-founder of Altos Ventures) excellent article on "We're raising sheep in our educational system, not independent thinkers and doers." Consequently, too many students fail to explore all the opportunities out there. Perhaps there's a job they would love more? It's not that these opportunities don't exist. As my friend Peter points out to me, opportunities exist everywhere. The question is whether or not you 1) choose to see it and 2) take advantage of it. I see this applied in so many cases -- not just to the entrepreneur but also to the financial investor finding niche opportunities in the market that Wall Street misses. So, next time, don't think that you have no doors open to you after graduation. You got to first acknowledge that the doors exist or else you are just closing them on yourself. Then, don't just stand there. Open them!
• Entrepreneurs solve problems they are familiar with and see around them. Most of the above sites are either targeted at colleges or focus on education. For the two that have a School 2.0 bent, it's interesting to note that both have an international focus.
• The entrepreneurs are getting younger. The time to start a company is getting earlier. This, of course, deserves a link to one of my favorite posts by marketing guru, Seth Godin on "The Best Time To Start."
• Entrepreneurship exists everywhere around us. We just need to open our eyes to see it. When I was visiting colleges back in high school, I remember that a Berkeley student told me that Berkeley was actually not all -that- liberal. It was just that the liberals were more vocal and got heard more. To this, I say, that all the closet entrepreneurs at Penn ought to speak up!

Does your school have an underground community?

PS: On a related note, these underground communities come in all forms .. including fan clubs! I've met a handful of people at Wharton who are devoted Warren Buffett followers and true value investors. I've also met people who admire Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator.

technorati tags: wharton, penn, entrepreneurship, startups, underground community, herd mentality

March 13, 2007 | 9:16 AM | Comments (2)

Thanks to my dad for forwarding the link to Business 2.0's "The Next Net 25" (with short blurbs I added on each). Some observations of this data follow:

1. StumbleUpon - social websurfing
2. Slide - make easy slideshows on the web
3. Bebo - social network
4. Meebo - web-based integrated IM (better than AIM)
5. Wikia - hosting service for ad-supported community sites
6. Joost - interactive web TV (made by founders of Kazaa and Skype)
7. Dabble - tool for organizing videos into playlists of favorites
8. Metacafe - paying video creators for their work (not just a YouTube)
9. Revision 3 - production studio for geek-oriented online shows (started by Digg founder Kevin Rose)
10. Blip.tv- platform for syndicating serialized online shows
11. Fon - building a worldwide Wi-Fi network one router at a time
12. Loopt - around-the-clock friend tracking via mobile phone (Facebook stalking to a new level)
13. Mobio- mobile-phone mashups and widgets
14. Tiny- Flickr on the fly (pictures on your cellphone)
15. Soonr- access your home or office PC from your mobile phone
16. Turn- precise, automated ad targeting for advertisers
17. Adify- online marketplace for highly targeted ads
18. AdMob- place to buy ads for delivery to cell phones
19. SpotRunner- one-stop online shop for low-cost 30-second TV ads
20. ViTrue- lets corporate customers solicit, edit, and upload user-generated videos that promote their products
21. Success Factors- web-based performance & talent management (performance reviews, succession planning, and compensation)
22. JanRain- single sign-on service for multiple passwords that lets people hop freely from site to site
23. Logoworks- automates the design of logos, business cards, and stationery
24. Rearden Commerce- Web-based "virtual personal assistant" application that smoothly integrates hotel and flight reservations, meetings, and other events into your daily agenda
25. SimulScribe- effective way to convert voice-mail into scannable text (email, etc.)

While the data is heavily Silicon Valley-centric, it is worthwhile to point out that Silicon Valley tends to be more concentrated in consumer-oriented businesses; New York City is known more for media/advertising; and Boston is more business-to-business. This trend may just be a function of a sector analyzed.

Rich media video, broadband, mobile, interactive-internet-everything ...they will all be big.

Hah, this chart really should be titled "who's taking away your ownership" (money, control, power...) ;p

technorati tags: business 2.0, 2007 startups, web 2.0, tech startups

February 22, 2007 | 6:40 PM | Comments (0)

I had the pleasure of attending the 2007 Wharton Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference this morning. Though I couldn't stay for the entire conference, Tim Draper's (Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the prestigious venture firm that backed a few companies you may have heard of ...Hotmail, Overture, Skype, and Baidu) keynote presentation alone made my day.

Tim Draper sang for us! He composed a song for all entrepreneurs out there who want to change the world. Here are the lyrics to his song titled "The Riskmaster." Visit his site for the full song (turn your speakers up)!

How is this for the new generation of user generated content? In fact, Tim Draper is taking submissions for different versions of "The Riskmaster" on his site, including a rap by his own son!

I must say I love this song. He should make a video and put it on YouTube. Truly inspirational! Are you are a riskmaster?

technorati tags: tim draper, riskmaster

January 19, 2007 | 5:37 PM | Comments (0)

Rather, how well should you know your customer? A few questions that I've been thinking about lately:

• Product vs. Go-To-Market: How do you balance improving the product technologically vs. being the first mover in a market? Sure, you can have a great product, but it means nothing if you have no customers. A classic example of this is the Betamax vs. VHS standard battle. Along the same lines, is it always best to be the first mover? Say you've got the customers. If you're not as technologically competent, how feasible is it to improve the technology later on?
• Product Launch: How do you determine optimal product launch? When do you know to "let it go?" When do you stop adding features and start beta testing? Would it be bad if initial customer reaction was very negative (how badly does it affect your reputation)?
• Customer Feedback: Sometimes, customers may not know exactly what they want. How do you interpret customer feedback, reiterate, and incorporate that into your product?

technorati tags: customer, product launch, first mover

January 9, 2007 | 12:44 PM | Comments (3)

In a recent Scoble post, he mentions Yuvi, a 15-year-old "Geek wannabe" from India who analyzes Scoble's own blog (see here and here).

Hear Christian Long's gut instinct:

This just reminds me of how tech-savvy each generation is quickly becoming. I remember I didn't know what the Internet was during middle school. In fact, I didn't start using instant messaging until ninth grade of high school. I'm reminded of how "old" I am each day just thinking about my youngest brother, Louie. He's nine-years-old but easily plays computer video games, checks his Outlook email, and sends instant messages as part of his normal daily activities. And I thought my battery-powered Lego train set was cool back in the day.

What's next? Five-year-olds writing programs? ;p

PS: I love this post by Seth Godin on "when to start."

technorati tags: scoble, yuvi, time to start, seth godin

December 31, 2006 | 3:03 PM | Comments (2)

A couple of hours ago, I stumbled across VentureVoice, which hosts a mp3 library of audio conversations with successful entrepreneurs/VCs. It's been very entertaining actually listening to these people (many of them who are active bloggers) and hearing their voice as opposed to just reading their blog postings.

A few interesting bits I picked up (paraphrased below):

From Scott Rafer (M&T grad!), Founder of various Silicon Valley start-ups :

• West coast software entrepreneurs are not true entrepreneurs. It's the falalel guys. It's too easy to start a 20 person software company out in Silicon Valley.
  
• World is changing too fast. He spends most of his time figuring out what is not likely to happen in the future.
  

From Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director at Garage Technology Ventures:

• In hiring the best-- It's not just about the education or the work experience (what's on the resume). Third factor is equally or more important. Does this person understand the product? Does he/she get it?
  
• When evaluating ventures, most VCs say they look for three things: the proven management team, proven technology, and proven business models. This was not the case for the big venture successes (Google, YouTube, Cisco, Ebay, etc.). In these cases, 0 to 1 out of the 3 criteria were met. Conclusion? Sometimes you are just lucky.
  

From Brad Feld, Managing Director of Mobius Venture Capital:

• For early stage companies, business plans are more important as a mental exercise for entrepreneur than for the VC. Ultimately, the business plan will change and continue to evolve over time.
  
• Far more dangerous to have an extremely intelligent VC with little or no experience than an extremely experienced VC who isn't as smart.
  

From Randy Komisar, Partner at Kleiner Perkins:

• Always more exciting to work with the creators (scientists/technologists) than the MBA guys (those with business models!).
  
• Whatever you do - question authority! Don't conform to the norm.
  

If you haven't listened to these podcasts yet, I'd highly recommend them!

November 18, 2006 | 9:00 PM | Comments (1)

Yesterday I spent the entire day (8am to 7pm) at the 2006 Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference down at the Union League of Philadelphia in Center City. It was my first time at this conference and well worth it. I heard some great wisdom from very successful entrepreneurships (Sam Hamaeh, CEO of Vault, Inc. and Darius Bikoff, CEO of Glacéau), connected with some new people here and there, and overall had a great time. You can really feel the "passion" from these true entrepreneurs. It's so contagious.

The key pieces of advice I took away from the day:
- Don't recruit on campus: This is the ironic truth. Because we go to Wharton/Penn, our chances of becoming an entrepreneur immediately decrease. We become actually more risk averse since our opportunity cost is greater. If you got an idea, start now. Don't wait. Whatever you do, don't go into banking or consulting. After 3, 4, 5 years, can you really get away from making six figure Wall Street or consulting salaries? Will you be willing to give up the luxury life and nice car?
- Bootstrap your business: Sure, being backed by a superstar VC like Kleiner Perkins, Accel, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, etc. may sound extremely sexy (and it does!). The truth of the matter is that VCs take away your equity ownership! Lucinda Holt, CEO of Commerce360, provided a list of sources of funding to consider (in order):

1. vendors
   
2. customers
   
3. personal (yourself!)
   
4. government
   
5. debt
   
6. angel investors
   
7. venture capital
   

November 18, 2006 | 12:44 PM | Comments (0)