“In a startup, nothing happens unless you make it happen.” - Unknown
Congrats to Fleaflicker, profiled today on TechCrunch, being acquired by AOL.
Hacker News comments have also been very positive, and it’s very encouraging to see solo founder startups having success.
I just want to extend my congrats to Ori Schwartz for making such a cool fantasy sports site and capitalizing on it.
I’ve heard so many new buzz words this past two days at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.
“Trends, like horses, are easier to ride in the direction they are going.” - John Naisbitt
So, here’s a recap:
Mobile - The major trend in the consumer market appears to be everything mobile. From location softwares (such as Loopt), to development platforms (Nokia S60)… anything mobile will certainly catch a VC’s attention. Other notables: Tellme, Iphone apps,
Mesh - With access to the content stretching across multi-platforms, multi-devices… there is a great need to connect all these instruments. Microsoft announced their Live Mesh application this week, and gave a short demo at the keynote. Personally, I am suspicious and curious to see how these things will really work together. I totally hate Sync, and I give up trying to connect my phone to my calenders. Maybe I need to try a Blackberry.
Mash - or Mashup, is something that I heard people talk about left and right. There are so many APIs and so many widgets now, that everything Web 2.0 is about combining all these elements together. We see Google Maps mashedup on various sites with variations and new components. That’s probably the prime example. There is just so much to learn in terms of what’s useful and what will improve a site’s “interestingness.”
Social Network - I suppose this is not a new topic. But still, every company is talking about creating new social networks, creating customer facing applications to tie customers-to-customers. Something so interesting can get really dull when you keep hearing it over and over again.
Viral - So, just being social is not enough. Now, everything also needs to be viral. User engagement, user recommendation, and user initiated activities are getting to be a big focus for developers too. How will the next Sheep-throwing app look like? It will be interesting to see what is the next big thing that users will get excited over and spread like wild fire.
Micro-Blog - Twitter, is definitely the star of the 2007/2008 internet scene. Many people are talking about Twitter being the next Google! mm… that’s probably an over-exaggerated evaluation. But, that’s high praises nonetheless. Anyways, I can’t get myself into it. I created a twitter account though, not sure if anybody is interested.
War - So, there seems to be a battle between Facebook and OpenSocial, over developers to create the next killer app for their social networks. Who’ll win? Facebook has the lead, but my bet is on OpenSocial.
So, how do I ride these waves… or horses…
“Enterprise 2.0 [is about] letting users into your back office and turning your company inside out.” - Tim O’Reilly
Today, I attended the Web 2.0 Conference and Expo in San Francisco. I am really loving everything about Web 2.0: The people, the innovations, the causes, the opportunities…
The People
I took Caltrain/Muni up to Moscone today (Woke up around 6:30, yet took the 8am train). My first stop: I walked by the Web2Open area, and just listened to the organizers talk about the formats of the Open Sessions, and how user participation is essential. Here, I met Rebecca, from Australia via India, who is working on her art-related web startup. We chatted a little, and basically hung out throughout the day. Around noon, we caught up with Nick, Rebecca’s partner, also an Australian working out of India right now. We chatted about our experiences, our ideas, and just lots of Web 2.0 related issues that were really interesting. The more people I met at these events, the more I get the impression that Web-2.0-people are so awesome. These people all share a common vision, a common goal, and a common drive. It’s so refreshing and enjoyable to met these kinds of people.
Later in the day, while taking a break from the afternoon sessions, Rebecca and I met another new friend, Steve Yoo, from Missouri, who has is the founder and master coder of Iintern.net — an internship network.
The Innovations
I spent most of the day crawling through the expo. Basically just checking out all the booths, all the demos, and snatching up on some freebies. Okay: freebies first, I got a cool little mini USB-mouse from Suns; Two T-shirts; and One USB-Hub from Disney. Really cool stuff. Anyways, the important part, I talked to several really interesting companies… Some demoing their software platform, some demoing their cool application, some sharing ideas, or pitching some weird product. I really got a lot to think about, in terms of scoping out the market, and understanding the tools that are available for me to use for development. I’ve never seen most of these cool things. It was certainly an eye opener experience.
Beyond that, Tim O’Reilly, Scott Berkun, and Clay Shirky gave fantastic key note speeches. Scott Berkun talked about Innovation. Nothing very new/insightful here, expect a few points: No need to focus on “the moment.” Rather, the preparation that lead to an “idea” and the actions taken upon the “idea” are more important! Other than that, “find real problems, create real solutions.”
The Causes
O’Reilly gave several important and insightful points regarding his observations about Web 2.0. He talked about Enterprise 2.0 being a unstoppable force — companies need to be a part of it, or they’ll lose to their startup competitors (therein lies the opportunity!). This is perhaps the coolest thing I learned today. More and more, I am reaffirmed of my strong faith in my startup. It is the drive to do good, and to create a better tomorrow embracing the Web 2.0 tidal wave that keeps my motors going.
For an afternoon Web2Open session, I attended the Web2.0 Politics session. The session mainly talked about how the Web 2.0 environment has created new opportunities and new methods for public issues to be presented to voters. Many initiatives are able to come to voters because of the mobilization characterization of the Web 2.0 space. Down with Lobbyist and big money corporations!
The Opportunity
Clay Shirky probably gave the best speech of the afternoon. He hammered across his observation regarding the “cognitive surplus.” Simply put, people are dissipating energy by watching tv, surfing the internet, drinking boos, playing video games, or doing stupid things in general. Now, if we count of all that wasted time… He pointed out: Since the invention of TV (50yrs now) 200-billion hrs/yr in the US have been wasted by the human race! Now, what about the collective amount of time that users have spent on writing/editing/maintaining wikipedia? 100-million hours, a far cry from the TV time, eh? Well, it’s so interesting to think of things this way. It is obvious that there is a huge opportunity there.
Note to self:
Buy and read Clay Shirky’s book: “Here Comes Everybody”
Signup for Microsoft Live Mesh
Look into OpenSocial
Research more into Mobile applications, issues and opportunities
Caution: IP issue will require professional help.
“Sometimes, the best part of buying something… is the buying part.” - Seth Godin [1]
The human psychology behind the economic decision making process is an interesting thing.
… and this is what I intend to capture in my startup (but this is really as much as I will disclose for now).
Thinking in my Stanford decision analysis class’s terms: the sunk cost principle might have something to do with Seth’s observation. People may feel that the products they buy immediate loses some tangible/intangible value, once they’ve made the purchase.
Yet, perhaps, to some people, the value is in the buying, and not ownership. Is this something that can be quantified?
Example: If there are two exactly identical products, one is being sold at an upscale shopping district; and one is being sold at measly little insignificant store. Then, there is “value” placed upon the store-front, and perhaps, “value” to the consumer in the different buying experiences.
It will be interesting to see how this sense of value will be reflected in my “system.”
[1] Seth Godin, 20080420, Sometimes the best part…
[Update: The best SuS video is on Omnisio! check it out!]
Here is a collection of some remarkable quotes from the YC startup school:
“Stop using the internet.” - Paul Graham, Partner, Y Combinator; Founder, Viaweb
[Paul said this jokingly, while trying to setup his special 280 north presentation. And asked the bloggers to quit hogging the bandwidth.]
“Don’t just not be evil. Be good!” - Paul Graham, Partner, Y Combinator; Founder, Viaweb
[I think I have found my company's moto: "Be Good!"]
“Cisco systems networks networks.” - Greg McAdoo, Partner, Sequoia Capital
[One-sentence Pitch for Cisco]
“A great entrepreneur does not fall off his board…” - Greg McAdoo, Partner, Sequoia Capital
[Wow, commentary to an impressive surfing video]
“1. Great Application; 2. ??? Price; 3. Profit!” - David Heinemeier Hansson, Creator of Rails; Partner, 37Signals
“Finding a good cause is incredibly hard and time-consuming” - Craig Newmark
[From David's Presentation]
“Listen -> Decode -> Interpret -> Understand” - Paul Buchheit, Founder, FriendFeed; Creator, Gmail
“Limited Life Experiences + Overgeneralization = Advice” - Paul Buchheit, Founder, FriendFeed; Creator, Gmail
“If someone says: ‘That’s impossible;’ You should understand it as: ‘According to my very limited experience and narrow understanding of reality, that’s very unlikely.’ ” - Paul Buchheit, Founder, FriendFeed; Creator, Gmail
“We only want to write stories that you don’t want written - use that to your advantage” - Mike Arrington, Founder, TechCrunch
[Update: The best SuS video is on Omnisio! check it out!]
OMG, I’m so excited. I’m counting the minutes until Startup School Begins.
“[Six Principles for making new things:] I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly.” - Paul Graham [1]
I can’t wait to listen to even more sage advice from PG and others…
Today’s Schedule:
9:00 David Lawee VP of Corporate Development, Google
9:30 Sam Altman Founder, Loopt
10:00 Jack Sheridan Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
10:30 Paul Graham Partner, Y Combinator; Founder, Viaweb
11:00 Break
11:30 Greg McAdoo Partner, Sequoia Capital
12:00 David Heinemeier Hansson Creator of Rails; Partner, 37Signals
12:30 Paul Buchheit Founder, FriendFeed; Creator of GMail
12:55 Lunch
2:30 Jeff Bezos Founder, Amazon.com
3:30 Mike Arrington Founder, TechCrunch
3:55 Break
4:15 Marc Andreessen Founder, Ning, Opsware, Netscape; Creator of Mosaic
4:45 Peter Norvig Director of Research, Google
[1] Paul Graham’s Essay, 02/2008, Six Principles for Making New Things
“Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.” - Helen Keller
Today, I attended another meetup. This one, is a pre-startup school get together in Mountain View. Again, it was awesome. I got to chat with many interesting people. Listened to their ideas. Gave people a little glimpse into my own idea. It is such a joy to talk to people that share a passion, and understand each other’s motivation and struggles.
The more I indulge myself in this “startup” crowd, the more I come to realize this indeed is my true passion. I am so joyful and so excited about what the future may hold.
I believe this sense of joy is a confirmation that I have found my passion.
Now, I must monetize this passion!
Passion = Joy ?= Money
“The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t do.” Thomas Edison
Today, I went to a really awesome PHP meetup in Sunnyvale. Met a few people, and learned a lot of the basics on PHP. I finally got familiarized with my WAMPP and got a first lecture on introduction to PHP. It was fantastic.
Now, I just got to code monkey all this together!
Keep coding, and coding, and coding…
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in determination.” Tommy Lasorda
I found this website: dontbreakthechain.com exactly 46 days ago. It was also exactly 46 days ago, that I had conceived of my “idea.”
At a quick glance, this website is nothing more than a calendar. However, this website obviously has a much deeper meaning/greater usefulness than a simple calendar. The story [1] originated from the famed comedian, Jerry Seinfeld. Someone once asked for his advice for a young comic. His tip was to write lots of jokes, and write them every day. In short, Jerry accomplishes this by posting a big calendar on his wall, and marking off the days that he writes a decent amount of jokes with a big red marker. He does it for 1 day… 3 day.. a week… 2 weeks… and he slowly creates a chain of red marks. Then, he reminds himself everyday, when he sees the calendar: “Don’t break the chain!”
This is so awesome. All my life, I feel like I’ve always had problems with persistence and staying motivated. There are just so many things that I once felt a strong passion for, but later gave it up, because I lost focus. Yet now, I feel like I can be much more dedicated to something. I am able to continuously remind myself of what I want to accomplish, what I already have built up, and the effort that I would be putting to waste, if I just give up.
This neat little website really plays a huge role in keeping me focused and motivated.
[1] Source: Life Hacker, 7/24/2007, Motivation: Jerry Seifeld’s Productivity Secret.
Hello world, indeed. My trek into the software/web dev begins here.
“My son is now an ‘entrepreneur’. That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job.” - Ted Turner
How fitting: Two weeks ago, “I quit” from my day job, and last Friday was my last official day as a full-time Product Engineer at Maxim Integrated Products. I just really felt that I had to take this bold step into pursuing my entrepreneurial dreams. So, I suppose you can say that I don’t really have a job right now.
So here we go. I’ve also decided to start blogging once again. This time, focusing on my startup experience, my thoughts, my struggles, and (hopefully) some success. I’ll likely try to incorporate at least one entrepreneurial quote into each of my posts.
My startup is currently in Stealth-mode. So I won’t be going into the details of what I’m doing.
