January 2012
1 post
1 tag
Organizing Social Activity Around Time
The proliferation of “feature” apps has caused a huge signal-noise imbalance. Check-ins, deals, status updates, photos and others offer an incomplete picture of siloed activities. But organizing feature activity around time, makes activity streams more useful and easier to consume. Take the new Facebook Timeline for example. I may post a status that reads “Just passed my exam!”. I also have a...
December 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Understanding Facebook Connect
Every social app suffers from a chicken-egg issue, where density is required for the real utility of the app to emerge. As a result, many app developers use Facebook Connect to accelerate and simplify the process of adding social connections. But there is often some amount of manic push back from user’s who do not want Facebook all up in their business.
I recently revisited a blog I wrote...
The American Routine: Why Everyone Needs To Be An... →
November 2011
2 posts
The American Routine: Why Everyone Needs To Be An...
These days, students are paralyzed by rising tuition rates and astronomical amounts of debt. The prospect of becoming a young entrepreneur is mind-numbing, if not absurd. However, entrepreneurs have an out unlike their peers. According to the Kauffman foundation, the entrepreneurship index was highest among the least-educated Americans, moving from 0.49 percent in 2009 to 0.59 percent in 2010,...
WatchSteven Johnson: Where good ideas come from (TED Talk)
October 2011
1 post
The 11th hour entrepreneur
When the sun is out and birds are chirping, everyone’s an entrepreneur. Days are spent filling pretty slides with buzzwords, hacking APIs, and reading TechCrunch. The kitchen is stocked and ping-pong table is polished. Good times, baby! The only question is, “Will I become a billionaire?”. This will last forever, right? A shake of the magic eight ball bubbles up your answer - “Don’t count...
September 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Motor City Mojo: The Startup Renaissance In... →
So while it’s easy to look at Detroit and feel discouraged by what’s going on, spend an hour with one of Detroit’s entrepreneurs and your mindset will change. Raji Bedi, the founder of doingtonight (think Plancast for where you’re going out tonight), put it well with an emphatic statement. “We don’t want your pity or to be someone’s charity project. We want Detroit’s startup companies to stand on...
A non-technical founder's hustle
Many (not all) very successful startups have been founded by a hacker and hustler, and there is an ongoing debate on the definition of their roles and weight of their responsibilities. Needless to say, how a hustler spends his or her time is less obvious than a hacker. If you are the “idea person”, what do you do when it’s time to execute? Here are 10 things that make up a non-technical...
August 2011
1 post
1 tag
Detroit, when we build it, they won't come
Dear Detroit Entrepreneurs,
Although Detroit is in the midst of an unprecedented renaissance, we shouldn’t be distracted with a new sense of optimism. In order for the startup community to be a material part of the city’s recovery, we have to shoulder a burden unlike other tech hubs. Not only do we need to build innovative products, we need to build a community of early adopters - people...
July 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Zaarly makes real-time real interesting.
Recently launched Zaarly was greeted with heightened anticipation. Celebrity investors were impressed by what they saw at Startup Weekend, and rushed to secure their spot in the cap table. Drawing comparison to eBay and other online marketplaces, Zaarly has high expectations.
So what is it? Zaarly is a real-time market of local buyers and sellers. Buyers define what they want, when they want it...
“Digital clutter is mental clutter.”
– Me
June 2011
2 posts
Entrepreneurs Creed
When I worked at North Bridge, my colleague Matthew Blodgett knew that I wanted to give entrepreneurship a shot one day. So he gave me this Entrepreneurs Creed written by Jim Little. I pinned it to my cubicle, just above my monitors so it was always in my line of sight. It motivated me and kept me centered, so I thought I’d share it with other current or aspiring entrepreneurs.
...
1 tag
How to put a VC in the hot seat
Investors should sit in the hot seat, too. Who you decide to take an investment from can have a huge impact on the future success, or failure, of your company. When the ball is in your court, dribble, don’t pass right away. Ask these 10 questions to a VC and some of them will feel the burn.
“Are you accredited?” Since many companies require less capital than usual to reach milestones,...
May 2011
2 posts
5 tags
Hyperlocal is not revolutionary
It used to be very normal to ask your neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar. Human exchange was physical. Then came the Internet and millions of people waited anxiously for their dial-up connection to screech with excitement, opening up a world of digital dialogue throughout the world. The Internet changed the way we interacted (*gasp*). Our previously local, intimate relationships became digital...
2 tags
Funded by Night, Momentum for Days
In sports, buzzer beaters and record breaking games mark the arrival of a legend. In music, sold out shows and platinum records announce the anointment of a diva. But what metrics indicate the rebirth of a once iconic city? Surely it isn’t a staggering decline in population, or the number of abandoned buildings. It can’t be free falling employment numbers or chart topping crime rates. Detroit...
April 2011
1 post
3 tags
Entrepreneurs brewing renaissance in Detroit →
Raji Bedi and others organize Funded by Night to award $100,000 to one awesome startup out of 25
January 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Don't show me the money!
It’s arguable whether or not entrepreneurs are born or made, so I won’t attempt to join either side of that conversation. But what everyone can agree on is that entrepreneurs are not normal. The amount of sustained determination and a commitment an entrepreneur has to demonstrate in order to fully vet an opportunity (which may or may not be a success) can be startling. There are all...
2 tags
StartupDigest Hits Detroit To Generate Buzz on... →
StartupDigest, a San Francisco-based publisher of online newsletters covering startup communities, has just added the Detroit Metro area to the network of more than 50 areas it tracks worldwide.
December 2010
1 post
2 tags
Social Neutrality
I define innovation as the creative repurposing of things that already exist. I came up with social neutrality after reading about net neutrality. It stems from the fact that there are a certain number of websites that people visit on a daily basis. When it comes to social, there is pretty much only one. In other words, consumers are not social neutral. Yet.
Facebook continues to expand...