Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2011 - Always a must study.
This fact-packed presentation compiled by KPCB partner Mary Meeker explores and examines the significant trends shaping the Internet today. Backed by hard data and decades of technology analysis, Mary posits that the mobile revolution is still in its infancy and poised for tremendous growth. Her presentation also zeroes in on the newest breakout trends driving e-commerce, including the rejuvenating effects of local commerce, the global race to adopt mobile devices and apps, and the latest innovations in online payments. The evolving social space comes under Mary’s scrutiny as well. She observes that social networking is proving to be not just a powerful engagement model, but also a pervasive new wave of opportunity that spans the online experience. View the full presentation for a look at the digital trends that surround us in today’s increasingly mobile, social world.
Source: kpcb.com
“Here’s to the Crazy Ones” — the first of Apple’s “Think Different” commercials. But this one is a bit different. It’s narrated by Steve Jobs himself.
Pretty much the greatest thing ever.
Source: youtube.com
Rest in peace, Steve Jobs.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs, 1955-2011
Watch “Steve Jobs;How to live before you die
Rest in peace, Steve.
Source: parislemon
Must watch!
The Power of Curiosity and Inspiration
by Jack Dorsey Square and Twitter Co-Founder
Source: ecorner.stanford.edu
This is one of the first demo videos of the Citi MasterCard + Google Wallet app. I like the accidental additional transaction in the demo. Whoops! It is kind of scary that you’re walking around with a digitized Credit Card. The hacker community is going to have a hell of a fun time with NFC (I’m sure plenty of security measures have been taken by the industry, but even then there are plenty of flaws that can be exploited on less-sophisticated phones and users).
Nonetheless, Google Wallet will be a game changer down the road. Good news for them, people have accepted giving up a certain level of control and information in exchange for convenience as apparent from the rapid adoption of online banking and PFM tools.
The whole “store your Citi MasterCard information in Google Wallet” is semi useless if you think about, as it just adds another layer. Tech like Google Wallet will eliminate plastic all together, and will turn the Credit Card companies into just Credit companies. The winner here may ultimately just be Citi and Google, not MasterCard. It will be really interesting to see how this all plays out and how the payments (and credit and debit) industry in general evolves over the next decade. I personally find it to be fascinating.
Read more about the integration. If your credit card company offered something like this and your phone was compatible, would you use it?
UPDATE: Google Wallet now has a commercial (embeded below). Meh. Don’t they remember the failed Seinfeld + Bill Gates commercials? Showing the actual technology would be much more badass.
Source: Engadget
USFIRST.org aims to “transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders.”
Amazing organization. Founded by one of the most brilliant inventors of our time, Dean Kamen.
Learn more through their website and please give your support if you are able to!
Source: youtube.com
Marc Benioff and Eric Schmidt Keynote at Dreamforce ‘11 (by salesforce).
Two business and tech luminaries. Great insights in this video. Must watch.
Source: youtube.com
Rock Report: State of Digital Health.
Seems to be a good summary of current activity in the HealthTech space.
(via Rock Health)
Source: slideshare.net
![Ben & Jerry’s 1983 Public Stock Offering to the residents of Vermont raised the company $750K for 17.5% of the company for a manufacturing plant, allowing them to skip venture capital and stick to their social mission. 1 in every 100 Vermont family owns some stock in Ben & Jerry’s. What a brilliant piece of business history :)!
Ultimately, Cohen and Greenfield did decide to keep the company, but they vowed not to allow the growth of their enterprise to overwhelm their ideas of how a business could be a force for positive change in a community. ‘We decided to adapt [the company] so we could feel proud to say we were the businessmen of Ben & Jerry’s,’ Cohen concluded. Among the stipulations they made to ensure that their company would be different from other parts of corporate America was a salary cap, limiting the best-paid people in the company to wages just five times higher than those of the lowest-paid employees. As Ben & Jerry’s grew, this unusual limitation would complicate the company’s high-level staffing.
To finance further growth, Greenfield and Cohen decided to raise capital to expand by selling stock to the public. However, in an effort to maintain a sense of local accountability in the company, they limited the stock offering to residents of Vermont, utilizing a little-known clause of the state law governing stocks and brokering. With the proceeds from this sale of stock, the company began construction of a new plant and corporate headquarters in Waterbury, Vermont, about half an hour away from Burlington.
Watch the documentary Biography: Ben & Jerry.](http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/naveedl/9240180011/1/tumblr_lqbbigQYlJ1qzqy0g)
Ben & Jerry’s 1983 Public Stock Offering to the residents of Vermont raised the company $750K for 17.5% of the company for a manufacturing plant, allowing them to skip venture capital and stick to their social mission. 1 in every 100 Vermont family owns some stock in Ben & Jerry’s. What a brilliant piece of business history :)!
Ultimately, Cohen and Greenfield did decide to keep the company, but they vowed not to allow the growth of their enterprise to overwhelm their ideas of how a business could be a force for positive change in a community. ‘We decided to adapt [the company] so we could feel proud to say we were the businessmen of Ben & Jerry’s,’ Cohen concluded. Among the stipulations they made to ensure that their company would be different from other parts of corporate America was a salary cap, limiting the best-paid people in the company to wages just five times higher than those of the lowest-paid employees. As Ben & Jerry’s grew, this unusual limitation would complicate the company’s high-level staffing.
To finance further growth, Greenfield and Cohen decided to raise capital to expand by selling stock to the public. However, in an effort to maintain a sense of local accountability in the company, they limited the stock offering to residents of Vermont, utilizing a little-known clause of the state law governing stocks and brokering. With the proceeds from this sale of stock, the company began construction of a new plant and corporate headquarters in Waterbury, Vermont, about half an hour away from Burlington.
Watch the documentary Biography: Ben & Jerry.
I’m privileged to work with some of the best of the new breed of software companies, and I can tell you they’re really good at what they do. If they perform to my and others’ expectations, they are going to be highly valuable cornerstone companies in the global economy, eating markets far larger than the technology industry has historically been able to pursue.
Instead of constantly questioning their valuations, let’s seek to understand how the new generation of technology companies are doing what they do, what the broader consequences are for businesses and the economy and what we can collectively do to expand the number of innovative new software companies created in the U.S. and around the world.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Excellent presentation about “21st Century Design” by @augustdlr of Artefact Group about designing based on human motivations, needs and emotions versus desires and basic functions.
(Hat tip to Fahd Butt)
Source: youtube.com
Vote For Our SXSWi Panel! "Starting Up: The Science Behind Disruption"
Click here to vote for our panel: Starting Up: The Science Behind Disruption!
Its quick and I’ll really appreciate it!
Title
Starting Up: The Science Behind Disruption
Speakers
- Naveed Lalani (@naveed_l)
- Jessica Mah (@jessicamah)
- Adil Wali (@adilwali)
- James Proud (@jamesproud)
- Zach Larson (@zachlarson)
Description
This panel discussion aims to put a process behind the discovery of the infamous “Disruptive, Billion Dollar” idea. While tactical topics such as the Lean Startup Methodology are important once entrepreneurs have ideas they are actively pursuing, seldom is the process behind discovery and selection of those ideas actually discussed.
This panel aims to cover two key parts of this process:
- Inception: What is the process behind actually coming up with the idea? This is a mixture of art and science; we hope to be able to showcase the science.
- Validation: What is the process to evaluate if the idea is worth pursuing? This is a combination of internal and external factors that will be discussed in the panel.
We hope that once attendees walk out of the panel, they have mental clarity on how to discover their next great idea. Not just one that is trendy, but something truly disruptive, viable and sustainable.
Questions Answered
- What is one checkpoint in the inception phase that must be true before you take an idea through the validation phase?
- What is the key trigger that leads you from the validation phase to pursuit of the idea full-time?
- What is premature commitment bias and how do you avoid it?
- As a serial entrepreneur, what is your personal process to discovering new ideas?
- What are the key elements that always exist in your businesses from start to exit?
Prevention-focused countries such as Denmark have dramatically lowered the need for hospitals. Once at 155 hospitals, they are at less than a third of that today.
Fascinating, to say the least.
via Healthcare Disruption: Providers Are Making Newspaper Industry Mistakes (Part III)
Source: TechCrunch
Q:Do you have a Afghan background?
Anonymous
Thanks for the question! I’m not from Afghanistan. I was actually born in Karachi, Pakistan (which of course borders Afghanistan).
I moved to Dallas, TX when I was around 12; then Austin, TX; and now San Francisco, CA (and a few places in between).
I am a Muslim (more specifically Ismaili). My ancestors are from Gujarat.
"The solution to premature commitment bias starts with a K" via @AdilWali
As you may have noticed, I have recently found myself consumed by the problems facing technology entrepreneurship today. In particular, it’s the amount of sheer waste that gets to me. As I’ve mentioned before, the real tragedy here is all of the time that is wasted by really talented entrepreneurs and early employees. Unlike money, time is non-renewable. You don’t know how much you actually have, and you can’t make any more of it when you run out.
As an entrepreneur about to embark on my next journey, this is something I think a lot about. I want to avoid premature commitment bias like its a plague (which, by the way, it is.) And I want to find myself on the right side of the disequilibrium of success! I don’t want to bust my ass for 2-5 years just to chase a mediocre dream. Not worth it.
So here’s what I’m going to do
I’ve decided that it’s time to take a new approach to building companies. That approach involves assembling a team of the most talented people in the world. Then we’re going to unearth really hard problems and solve them.
Companies will be formed.
Fun will be had.
What about all the details?
I don’t know them yet. It makes sense to figure out the details of how this thing works after the right people are on the team. Here’s what I do know, though: we’ll be calling ourselves the Kemists.
And we’ll have a website that looks like this, and a logo that looks like this:
If you know remarkably talented people who like building companies, or are one yourself, send them to (or go to) the site and apply.
