impt; ideas, music, pictures and things

justmigrate: Hi, I just moved my posts from Posterous! Do go...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:43:09 -0400

Hi,

I just moved my posts from Posterous! Do go though my blog for all the new posts.

Its easy to migrate try JustMigrate

3Crumbs app - Are you the local thrifter we all have been looking for?

dvint1: Flypad Demo: Turn your phone into a steering wheel (by...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:28:19 -0500

dvint1:

Flypad Demo: Turn your phone into a steering wheel (by aomojola)

Now in public beta.

Something I'm working on: the flypad app.

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:21:00 -0500

www.getflypad.com

Why social works (and how to succeed in the consumer internet)

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:25:00 -0400

These 2 ideas are by no means canonical or conclusive, but they’re evolving, and they help me make sense of the internet today.

1. Social = adding structure to data

If you look at the internet as a repository of data of all kinds that is constantly being generated, the “meta” meaning of what “social” networks really do, is add structure to it, Basically by allowing people do things with that data (view it, create it, tell their friends about it, tell the world about it etc) you create a sort of “tag” that says; “this is how important this data is” eg. a facebook share is more valuable than a twitter share, because there are fewer shares and they are directly to people you know. A twitter share > google +1 share, because the receivers are opt-in vs. just anyone etc, and if you look at it that way, what social has basically done is reduce an infinitely expanding world of data with static tags (defined by the creators or by the content itself) to a smaller, more slowly expansive world of data with dynamic tags (defined by the people who look at it).

Dont know how to monetize this but its just arisen as a thought: Google won because search was primary way people found things, and the internet was small enough and their algorithms were good enough that they were able to filter out the noise. The real threat to google (of fb etc) is that the internet is so large and growing so fast, and their algorithms find it so hard to keep up, that at some point people always find noise in their google search, and structured data becomes the dominant way people find things in the majority of use cases. The second order threat (this will become more apparent in the coming years) is that the layers of social and all the public stuff that people do on the web, as well as improved AI, make it easier for other companies/ideas to dominate certain verticals of discovery (the easiest example I can think of this for is Quora - it’s early but you could argue they have found a better method than search for mapping and discovering “knowledge” - particularly the subjective kind).

2. Success on the web = finding the broadest single use case, and nailing the process of getting that. The path is usually by finding a series of progressively broader use cases; this is called “iterating”

This isnt really all that groundbreaking; continuing with the idea of applying web metrics to the real world to see if they pass muster (eg DAU/MAU for fridges, toilets and beds = 100%, which validates those metrics), you can argue that consumer internet success = ubiquity, and ubiquity is derived from finding a single use case that has the broadest reach (ie something that most people do every day, often a day) and nailing the way to do it on your platform (web or mobile or whatever else). So the easiest example is google; search was the primary way people discovered things 10 years ago, and google created a better way to search things than anyone else.

If you’re looking for consumer internet success - perhaps you first find an activity that people do frequently, then create a better/easier/more valuable along one dimension (Eg instrumenting for better decision making or taking out a pain point) to do that activity. What this means is; if someone comes to you with an idea that sounds like 4 things, that is bad, even if the 4 things cover a lot of people/activity. If someone comes to you with an idea that sounds like 1 thing, and the one thing is highly repeatable, then the only question is; what are they paying to do that one thing today (and if they arent paying to do it, who will pay).

Help me complete this thought.

Ayo

Video

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:47:01 -0400

WanderPlayer Turns Your Phone Into a Controller for Any Computer Game

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:05:29 -0400

WanderPlayer Turns Your Phone Into a Controller for Any Computer Game:

Smartphones have already replaced cameras and calendars for many people — and piles of gaming controllers might be next. A startup called WanderPlayer has developed a technology that turns iPhones (and soon Android phones) into controllers for computer games, no matter whether those games ca…

Q. Why are federal elections held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November? via @michaelwolf42

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:09:55 -0400

A. The Tuesday after the first Monday in November was initially established in 1845 (3 U.S.C. 1) for the appointment of Presidential electors in every fourth year. 2 U.S.C. 7 established this date for electing U.S. Representatives in every even numbered year in 1875.   Finaly, 2 U.S.C. 1 established this date as the time for electing U.S. Senators in 1914.

        Why early November? For much of our history America was a predominantly agrarian society. Law makers therefore took into account that November was perhaps the most convenient month for farmers and rural workers to be able to travel to the polls. The fall harvest was over, (remembering that spring was planting time and summer was taken up with working the fields and tending the crops) but in the majority of the nation the weather was still mild enough to permit travel over unimproved roads.

        Why Tuesday? Since most residents of rural America had to travel a significant distance to the county seat in order to vote, Monday was not considered reasonable as many people would need to begin travel on Sunday.   This would, of course, have conflicted with church services and Sunday worship.

        Why the first Tuesday after the first Monday?   Lawmakers wanted to prevent election day from falling on the first of November for two reasons. November 1st is All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics. In addition, most merchants were in the habit of doing their books from the preceding month on the 1st. Congress was apparently worried that the economic success or failure of the previous month might influence the vote of the merchants.

"If I were Michael Bloomberg, a very smart and wise man, I would take a deep breath and spend one day..."

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:28:59 -0400

“If I were Michael Bloomberg, a very smart and wise man, I would take a deep breath and spend one day this weekend trying to learn what Occupy Wall Street is about, from the point of view of an average New Yorker. He’s so smart he will get it. The problem is his perspective. He’s one of the few people who they are angry with, and rightfully so. When the light goes on for him, he will be able to explain it to others in his class. Whether they listen or not is their problem. But it’s up to him, as the elected leader of all New Yorkers, to listen and understand, and make wise choices.”

- dave winer

Scripting News: If I were…
(via fred-wilson)

Wanderplayer is coming. Reblog if you like to play games!!!

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:55:44 -0400

Wanderplayer is coming. Reblog if you like to play games!!!

Schedule for the Founders' Retreat

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 09:47:38 -0400

A gathering of the entrepreneurial community at Wharton and Penn, early every year. This year’s Founders’ Retreat is At General Assembly in New York City. The Founders’ Retreat is brought to you by a collaboration of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, the Wharton MBA Career Management Office, the Wharton Entrepreneurial Club, and General Assembly!

The Founders’ Retreat schedule is below (subject to change): 9:30 - 9.50am: Breakfast & Arrivals

10 - 10.20am: Intro to the day, & welcome with Jake Schwartz, General Assembly founder, WG ‘08 10:20 - 10.45am: Entrepreneurship at Wharton: Overview of the different paths MBAs choose to pursue and the resources to leverage along the way

10.50 - 11.40am: Start it Up at Wharton: Perspectives from founders in Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program and other incubators and those who have launched business from Wharton’s Business Plan Competition. Featuring
- Cherif Habib and Stephan Jacobs- co-founders of Kembrel.com and WG’11
- Joseph Cohen - CEO and founder of Coursekit
- Rohan Deuskar- CEO and co-founder of Stylitics,
- Andrew Ward, founder of Pandaly currently in DreamIt Ventures 11.40am - 12.20pm: 1st Year class introductions

12.30 - 12.55pm: Student Founders (VIP, WVA, DreamIT) founders introduced to their 1st year teams for strategy session. 12.55 - 2.10pm: Lunch + Strategy session within VIP/WVA teams.

2:20 - 3:05pm: Recruiting at startups- perspectives from MBAs and the startups that hire them.Featuring:
- Roberto Medri- SquareSpace’s head of business development and WG’11,
- Shafqat Islam- NewsCred Founder and CEO and Penn Engineering ‘03,
- Arlyn Davich- PayPerks Founder and CEO,
- Harry Kargman- Kargo Founder and CEO 3:05 - 3:15pm: Break

3:15 - 3:45pm: Perspectives on MBA ideas/businesses, with Kartik Hosanagar - co-founder of Yodle Inc., Wharton Professor of Entrepreneurship & Operations and Information Management, and Angel Investor. 3.45 - 4.15pm: Founder’s story with Corey Pierson - CEO and co-founder of Custora and WG’10

4:15 - 4:25pm: Break 4.25 - 5:20pm: Mixed panel and perspectives on fundraising and today’s ecosystem from founders and investors. Featuring
- Jake Schwartz- General Assembly founder and WG’08,
- Saadiq Rogers-King- co-founder of Hot Potato,
- Michael Geer- co-founder of Badoo,
- David Mars - principal of White Owl Capital and WG’ 07

5:30 - 7pm: Happy hour & mixer

Schedule for the Founders' Retreat

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 09:47:00 -0400

The Founders’ Retreat schedule: 9:30 - 9.50am: Breakfast & Arrivals

10 - 10.20am: Intro to the day10:20 - 10.45am: Entrepreneurship at Wharton

10.50 - 11.40am: Start it Up at Wharton 11.40am - 12.20pm: 1st Year class introductions

12.30 - 12.55pm: Student Founders Intro12.55 - 2.10pm: Strategy session

2:20 - 3:05pm: Recruiting at startups3:05 - 3:15pm: Break

3:15 - 3:45pm: Perspectives on MBA ideas/businesses3.45 - 4.15pm: Founder’s story with Corey Pierson

4:15 - 4:25pm: Break 4.25 - 5:20pm: Mixed panel and perspectives on fundraising

5:30 - 7pm: Happy hour & mixer

mirchi.fm: Turntable.fm: Huge Opportunity Calls for A Licensing Fix

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:09:39 -0400

mirchi.fm: Turntable.fm: Huge Opportunity Calls for A Licensing Fix:

mirchi:

In its first month, Turntable.fm has generated a tremendous amount of buzz. It’s the first truly social web music service; it’s addicting, viral, and easy to use. This weekend the service hit its first hiccup as it closed the service to users outside the US. This led to disappointed…

askforadeal: reblogifyoulikedeals

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:59:25 -0400

askforadeal:

reblogifyoulikedeals

Instructions for UX Day

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:44:55 -0400

Lets get started:

Use the #UXday hashtag for all your comments on twitter (and please tweet a lot!).

Enter your ideas into the following google spreadsheets for each product

Thats it. Lets have some fun

ayo

Instructions for UX Day

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:36:00 -0400

Lets get started:

Use the #UXday hashtag for all your comments on twitter (and please tweet a lot!).

Enter your ideas into the following google spreadsheets for each product

Thats it. Lets have some fun

ayo

UI, UX and Design Day Format

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 10:32:23 -0400

First of all - thanks to everyone who registered to attend. We have over 75 people coming, most of whom are startup founders with active products (at the end of this post I’ll outline as many of the startups represented as I can).

Second - we need your help; tell all your design friends to come! Right now the number of startups and users/spectators coming far outstrips the number of actual designers. Signups are still open here

Third; I’m posting our proposed format for Design Day here, so that folks can comment on it and suggest additions or changes needed. Anything we havent thought of, please add here. Think of this as a way to compress several hours of user testing/feedback, into 5 minutes.

Huntsman Hall, room 350, 1pm - 3pm.

I’ll be in there from Noon onward, so if you’re on campus and looking for stuff to do, come hang out
Bring your laptops - you’ll need them to give feedback.
We’ll serve some light beverages so no one gets parched.
The event will be in 2 parts; an Open UX Session, and a breakout.
Open UX Session
- 1pm - 2pm
- Each startup gets a completely unfamiliar user to do a 5 minute walk through, with the founder asking questions
- 2 projection screens will be up, so the crowd can follow. On the first screen will be the actual walk-through. The 2nd screen will be split between a public, open googledoc, and a twitter feed following #uxday. The googledoc will be for everyone in the room to make suggestions tactical suggestions that the founder can take away with them. The twitter feed will enable those not present to follow, as well as serve as a general comment stream we can possibly use for improvements for the next UX day.
Breakouts
- 2.15pm - 3pm.
- We’ll break out into small groups of 3 - 5, and each featured startup will get a few designers and people in the crowd to give them detailed feedback on their product.

If you wanted your startup featured and it’s not below, please leave a message in the comments below, and I’ll add you later on in the week. Every featured startup will recieve an email from me later this week about the order they’re going in.

Startups coming so far:

www.coursekit.com(Joe Cohen)

www.kembrel.com (Cherif Habib, Stephan Jacob, and Aymeric de Hemptinne)

www.rendezwho.com (Matt Stephenson)

www.careercup.com (Gayle Laakman Mcdowell)

pennstudyspaces.com (Alexey Komissarouk

www.squid.by (Marty Brown and Bill Kang)

baskskin.com (Alex Rattray)

www.contexttravel.com (Paul Bennett)

UI, UX and Design Day Format

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 09:38:00 -0400

Huntsman Hall, room 350, 1pm - 3pm.

I’ll be in there from Noon onward, so if you’re on campus and looking for stuff to do, come hang out
Bring your laptops - you’ll need them to give feedback.
We’ll serve some light beverages so no one gets parched.
The event will be in 2 parts; an Open UX Session, and a breakout.
Open UX Session
- 1pm - 2pm
- Each startup gets a completely unfamiliar user to do a 5 minute walk through, with the founder asking questions
- 2 projection screens will be up, so the crowd can follow. On the first screen will be the actual walk-through. The 2nd screen will be split between a public, open googledoc, and a twitter feed following #uxday. The googledoc will be for everyone in the room to make suggestions tactical suggestions that the founder can take away with them. The twitter feed will enable those not present to follow, as well as serve as a general comment stream we can possibly use for improvements for the next UX day.
Breakouts
- 2.15pm - 3pm.
- We’ll break out into small groups of 3 - 5, and each featured startup will get a few designers and people in the crowd to give them detailed feedback on their product.

Startups coming so far:

www.coursekit.com(Joe Cohen)

www.kembrel.com (Cherif Habib, Stephan Jacob, and Aymeric de Hemptinne)

www.rendezwho.com (Matt Stephenson)

www.careercup.com (Gayle Laakman Mcdowell)

www.pennstudyspaces.com (Alexey Komissarouk)

www.squid.by (Marty Brown and Bill Kang)

High Five (Matt Pohlson)

www.contexttravel.com (Paul Bennett)

UI, UX and Design DayApril 22nd, on Penn’s Campus. Get...

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:45:00 -0400

UI, UX and Design Day

April 22nd, on Penn’s Campus. Get involved in building the world’s next great companies.

The Wharton School of Entrepreneurship

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:10:33 -0400

I wrote this article along with Davis, @cherif, and @stephanjacob for the April 3, 2011 edition of the Wharton Journal. We wanted to spotlight some of the entrepreneurial activity on campus. It’s pretty inspiring to watch student founders build new businesses all around us, out of whole cloth, and this is the story we wanted to tell.

Here on campus, the 3 of us have been a part of the Venture Initiation Program, which has been instrumental in giving structure to our respective launches. As I write this post from a workstation in the VIP co-working space in Vance hall, the Kembrel team literally has dozens of people here packing up T-shirts for the Japan fundraiser (buy your tshirt here).

It’s been great to watch other business schools elevate their entrepreneurial profiles (@startuptribe at HBS, @SSELabs at Stanford). This is great for business schools in general, and I personally hope tons more entrepreneurs apply to business school, and energize the community even more.

One more thing; we cant mention everyone’s name, and we dont know everyone involved, but if you are on campus and you’re launching a company, whether you’re at another school at Penn, in Engineering, at Wharton, or undergrad or graduate, tell us! Leave a note in the comments, email me at ayo [at] flicsy, or fill out the log that professor Mollick put together here. The more of us that know each other, the more we can draw on each other for support.

Ayo

(article text below, somewhat adapted)

Entrepreneurship at Wharton is thriving. In the last year, we’ve seen several successful exits of student-launched companies, including AdMob (GOOG), Invite Media (GOOG), Milo.com (EBAY) and Diapers.com (AMZN). On the other side of the table, Wharton alums Fred Wilson (USV), Aydin Senkut (Felicis), Yuri Milner (DST), Josh Kopelman (First Round), and Michael Aronson (MentorTech) have stayed busy investing in the next generation of great companies. Closer to home, the class of 2010 is having a strong run with Warby Parker, PayDivvy and Clipik doing exceptionally well, and Hector Beverages recently receiving a $1m angel investment from the founder of Infosys.

Student entrepreneurs at Wharton have benefited immensely from the resources here. The folks at Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, the Weiss Tech House, the Venture Initiation Program, Founders’ Club, e-Club, Tech Club, classmates, faculty, and alumni have all helped tremendously. But we still have a lot of work to do, to strengthen the startup community at Wharton and Penn. Here’s how you can help:

1. Use the products: Give feedback - nothing is more valuable to an entrepreneur than users and buyers of a product.

2. Tell your friends: Your word is better than any advertising we could do. If you like what we’re doing, email your friends, or better yet, share on Facebook or Twitter.

3. Introduce us: You probably know venture and angel investors, advisors, and industry and product experts. We’d love to meet them.

4. Help us directly: You could help shape the product, craft the message or model the business - your skills and time make a huge difference.

5. Give back as an alum: When a student entrepreneur reaches out, please take the call.

Many of our classmates and our accomplished undergrad friends are working hard to launch real products, generate revenues, attract top tier press coverage, and raise venture capital. This sample is by no means comprehensive - please do what you can to help Wharton’s wonderful startups:

www.audiocatch.com - custom audio for film, tv, video, gaming & events (Alex Jarzebinski & Kyn Chaturvedi - WG ‘11)
Careercup.com - Career prep for tech jobs (Gayle Laakman - WG ‘11)
Catapulter.com - Door to door ground travel search (Adam Waaramaa & Jenny Cheng - WG ‘11)
Coursekit.com - Changing the way you interact with your classes (Joseph Cohen & Dan Getelman - W ‘13, W’12)
Gamma Basics - Radiation safety compliance software (Mike Kijewski - WG ‘12)
Hunting Hill Capital - global equities arbitrage hedge fund (Adam Guren - WG ‘11)
Madero Grill - Argentine style wood burning Grill (Max Holdo - WG ‘11)
Meeteor.com - Taking the work out of networking (Philip De Cortes & Chris Lee - WG ‘11)
Mooblue - Real-time bidding for mobile ads (Nimit Maru & Roberto Sanchez Garvin - WG ‘12)
Osus Athletics - Weight lifting you can wear (Steve Dong & Corey Lerch - W ‘12)
PoverUP – Student microfinance lending network (Charlie Javice – W ‘14)
Rendezwho.com - Make new friends in your city, over dinner (Matt Stephenson - WG ‘11)
Squid.by - Make videos with your friends (Bill Kang & Marty Brown - WG ‘11)
Stylitics.com - Analytics for fashion brands (Rohan Deuskar - WG ‘11)
TerViva BioEnergy – Low cost, environmentally responsible biodiesel production (Sudhir Rani – WG ‘11)
www.thinktell.com - location based thought broadcasting (Fatima Abdulla - WG ‘11)
Waterminds - bottled spring water in the Middle East and North Africa (Alain Saade & Fadi Frem - WG ‘11)
Big Refunds - automated rebates (Deb Bardhan & Abhishek Gattani - WG - ‘11)

You can find out more at vip.wharton.upenn.edu or by following @WhartonEntrep & @wfounders on twitter.

Lastly, we urge you to launch a startup, or help one. If you have an idea, get in touch and we’ll help you launch. If you don’t, then help a startup - you never know what it might become.

Davis Smith (davis@baby.com.br) is the founder of baby.com.br, an e-commerce site focused on the baby space in Brasil. Cherif Habib (cherif @kembrel.com) and Stephan Jacob (stephan@kembrel.com) are co-founders ofKembrel.com, a private shopping community for students. Ayo Omojola (ayo@flicsy.com) is the founder of flicsy.com, a service for sharing photos with groups.