Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Tools for Distributed Collaboration
When I need answers to questions, there’s one place I go before Google, Evan Morikawa. If I were to bet on friends being successful in 20 years, he’d be pretty close to the top of my list. He recently sent me a list of tools he’s found useful for distributed teams, he’s currently working on a product design and development project with a team spread across Switzerland, Mexico and Boston.
From Evan … with some italicized comments from me
Here is a complied list of some of the tools I know for distributed collaboration.
E-mail – We use Google Apps for Email
Great for 1 way communication. Sending information, pictures, files.
At Blank Label, we try and keep this to an absolute bare minimum. Surprisingly Google Wave has helped with this a lot.
Instant Messaging – We use gChat
Fast collaborative 2 way text based communication, file sharing, image sharing. Harder to save.
Pidgin
AIM
Campfire – We tried this for a while, but we all actually preferred having something either desktop based rather than browser based, or on a page that we already use, e.g. gChat, right there in email.
Online Collaborative Documents – We use Google Docs and Wave
Fast, collaborative text based communication and document preparation. Free and easy to use.
Google Docs
With the new features of Google Docs going live, we might start playing around with this a bit more. But the only we really use in Google Docs is the PPT function as we like to collaborate on mockups here. Their new Drawing Doc looks interesting though.
EtherPad (very fast)
Gobby
Video Communications – We use Oovoo
Video chat allows for both live visual and voice information to be transmitted live. Best for 1 on 1 interactions. Many clients have instant messaging as well.
Skype
This is decent for one-on-one, but just because everyone’s already on it. For the two weekly All-Hands calls we have, we PAY for Oovoo.com. It has multi-way video chat with a decently reliable service and the best image quality we’ve found so far.
MSN Live Messenger
http://mail.live.com/mail/MSNWebIMDecomm.aspx
Polycom video conference system
Dimdim
Full video conference, screen sharing, internet search sharing, voice, video, whiteboard. Also Open source =]
Online Whiteboards
The new Drawing Doc on Google Docs might suffice for this …
Thinkature
Online sticky note collaborative tool. Also, Olin created. =]
Dabbleboard
Online whiteboard with smart objects allowing for easier use with a mouse
http://www.dabbleboard.com/draw
Stixy
Online project management and studio space. Notes, photos, files, todo
Twiddla
Easy to use whiteboard + audio + text
MindMapping Tools
Mindomo
Free, collaborative mindmaps.
MindMeister
Free, realtime collaborative mindmaps.
That is just a short list of things I know of. Here is another link to a huge resource of collaborative tools you may consider for distributed design.
http://www.mindmeister.com/12213323
Project management tools – We use Acunote
This is something that was semi-covered list but I thought I’d dedicate another section to it.
Basecamp
http://basecamphq.com/
One of the most popular, claimed to be the simplest and most intuitive, the leading 37 Signals product, Businessweek claims to be ‘addictively easy to use’. But the free version is extremely bare bones and the premiums start at $24/month
Acunote
http://www.acunote.com/
What we use, well actually mostly our designer and programmer. Our marketer and I try to find the leading indicators that are higher-level projects and collaborate in Google Wave. On calls we then discuss the task break-down and timing (this is the part that gets moved into Acunote).
If you have had a great experience with a remote team or distributed collaboration, and any tools in particular, would love for you to comment and provide suggestions.
A Hiccup in the #StartupVisa Bill, But I’m Okay With It
A few recent events …
1. Recently I had a discussion with a Babson faculty member, for whom I have tremendous respect, about much of entrepreneurial education missing the point. On one extreme it is about theory, business plans, 5 year cash-flows, to most young entrepreneurs, what is termed as bullshit. On the other extreme, it champions young hotshots who have raised money. It makes venture capital the most aspirational of all goals. I sometimes cannot believe I actually spent time studying the components of a J-curve. What about building a great profitable business?
2. In a ridiculously yet awesomely long episode of @Jason Calcanis’s This Week In Startups(#TWIST), guest David Heinemeier Hansson, Partner in 37 Signals, criticized passionately the entire entrepreneurial landscape for being too focused on coasting on other people’s money rather than hustling to make your own.
- Jason argued for the home runs, large amounts of capital were necessary.
- DHH retorted that those home runs are like trying to win the lottery.
- Jason didn’t disagree, agreeing the large majority of VCs either perform below market or lose money.
In their recent book, Rework, DHH and Jason Fried argue that ‘entrepreneur’ is a bad word with too much baggage. What happened to building a profitable business from the low hanging fruit, similar argument Gary Vee makes.
3. All of the articles on StartupVisa Bill are just me-too, which is fine, that’s just how journalism works. It’s the same Geoffrey Moore diffusion of innovation curve, one influences the other, etc. The real juice comes from Eric Ries. But what is really interesting is the me-too articles draw varying comments from different demographics, i.e. not everyone reading Inc is reading Eric Ries’s blog Startup Lessons Learned. What I find amazing is this absolute illogical argument that a StartupVisa would take away American jobs.
Fact: My startup is three Americans and me. I’m now in Shanghai because of this; Invent a Cool Clothing Site, Now Leave the Country. From June, two of my co-founders are joining me in Shanghai. So yes, a lack of #StartupVisa is in fact taking jobs away from America.
4. Our recent team conversations have shifted very much from ‘we want to build a great business and bootstrap to profitability’ to ‘if by some statistical anomaly the #StartupVisa gets passed, we’re going to have to try and raise $250,000 to get Fan back in the country’.
A Different Take on #StartupVisa
Amidst all the talk of #StartupVisa, I thought I’d pose the following simple question:
Do You Have a Better Chance of Raising Money if You’re an Immigrant?
The following excerpts where taken from Richard Herman, author of Immigrant Inc, Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Driving the New Economy (and how they will the American worker), and supporter of #StartupVisa
—
Take a listen to what some of the biggest VCs are saying about immigrant talent & entrepreneurship:
Michael Moritz/Sequoia
Is not fluke that Seqoia has backed many other immigrant-founded companies, including Google, Yahoo, Paypal, YouTube, LinkinIn, Nvidia, a123systems, and others.
In fact, the website for Sequoia proudly proclaims their attraction to immigrant newcomers:
“UNDERDOGS. The collision of intelligence and ambition with opportunity is unbeatable. Almost everyone we have ever invested in has been a complete unknown at the time we met. Many have been immigrants or first generation Americans with barely a penny to their name. Underdogs are our favorite kind of people.”
Sequoia’s Michael Moritz, a former board member of Google with a net worth reported at over $1 billion and listed as one of Time’s most influential 100 people in the world, has written:
“An entrepreneur without passion is an empty vessel. Anyone who starts a business — and wants it to last — needs this quality. It is a journey against all odds. Every business starts with one or two people, an idea and nothing else — no employees, no money, no product, no customers and no shareholders….Force venture capitalists to choose between a well-heeled Ivy League student and a smart and impoverished immigrant, and we’ll pick the latter every time. The lily-livered need not apply for a life at a start-up. Tenacity is a necessity.”
In 2007, before the Cardiff Business Club in his native Wales, Moritz had this to about immigration restrictions of high-skilled talent:
“It’s no coincidence. You go around most of these companies and….all of the founders and very early employees are either an immigrant or a first-generation American. That has been the fuel that has propelled these companies”
John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins
Billionaire, investor in immigrant founded companies: Google, Sun Microsystem
The day after Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, VC John Doer was asked this question at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco:
“What should the new Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Government do?”
Doer responded with his immigration reform mantra:
“staple a green card to the diploma” of any international student graduating from a U.S. university with a degree in engineering.
Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures, former General Partner Kleiner & Perkins, co-founder Sun Microsystems, billionaire, a founder of TiE
“How many jobs have entrepreneurs, Indian entrepreneurs, in Silicon Valley created over the last 15, 20 years? Hundreds of thousands I would guess.” Vinod Kholsa in CBS news.
Guy Kawasaki, is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and an author. From his blog: How to Change the World: A practical blog for impractical people
“How to Kick Silicon Valley’s Butt:
Encourage immigration: I am a third-generation Japanese American. My family moved here to drive a taxi and clean white people’s homes. If I had a choice between funding someone from a family who moved here from Vietnam whose father and mother run a 7-Eleven verses a descendant of a Mayflower passenger with “IV” in his name, I’ll give you half a guess as to my preference. You need to encourage smart, hungry, and aggressive people to immigrate from around the world. Add to do that, you need good schools. To mix several metaphors, if you want to cover your ass, you need to open your kimono because trust fund kids don’t make good entrepreneurs.”
It’s Not (All) About the Sex
There are a lot of good reasons why entrepreneurship is SO HOT for young people right now, but for all the right reasons, there are just as many wrong perceptions. Number 1? Being a startup founder will not get you laid more. Unless you’re the Zuck.
Unlike aspiring to be a banker, a doctor or a lawyer, startups has this market buzz that makes it seem like it’s for anyone. It doesn’t matter if you have the grades, it doesn’t matter what you study, it doesn’t matter where you’re from. There are so many diverse success stories, it really seems like it is possible for just about anyone. There are more extreme examples like Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Aaron Patzer who recently sold Mint.com, and of course the Zuck.
There are also social structural changes which are taking place, that I’m not fully able to comprehend, nor able to properly articulate. But trust that things are changing about the way young people are seeing the workplace and the idea of a ‘career’. And then there’s that whole economy screwing around with everyone.
So startups, being your own boss, being CEO before you’re 30. It’s all awesome, it’s sexy, as I blogged about a couple of months ago, it’s the new investment banking. But it’s actually not all about the sex, again unless you’re the Zuck, according to Ben Mezrich’s The Accidental Billionaires. *N.B. In the book, Mezrich retells a scene of the first summer Zuck goes out to the Valley, hooks up with Sean Parker, who takes him to this one of the hottest clubs in town, at which, still a very awkward Zuck gets picked up by a Victoria’s Secret model. Yep. Zuck, he’s our man. Fiction, probably. Still cool, frick yeah!*
It turns out more often, observed from attending university entrepreneurship events especially, young people turn their attention to startups not because they’re interesting in solving a pain, not because they see disruptive opportunity, but because they’re passionate about having sex. More figuratively than literally. There are a lot of young guys out there handing out fly business cards, proudly calling themselves CEO even when it’s just a one-man idea. They’re hiring interns to make themselves feel better, and talking about raising money before they’ve even got any idea who a prospective customer might be. I know this first hand, not only because I’ve seen it over and over again, but because I’ve done all these things myself.
I now write this from the perspective of doing it the hard(er) way. Dropping out of college and moving out to Shanghai, my health is deteriorating because I’m not sleeping or eating properly, I’m giving up great jobs and good pay for no benefits and zero pay. I’m disappointing my parents who sacrificed everything so I could have an education, which I’ve now chosen not to complete. Sure many will say, I’m bitter that I’m just not successful. Which I’d half-agree, I’m definitely not successful, but I’m also not bitter. I genuinely love what I do, and I believe I can change the space I’m in. Startups take time. I always go back to one of my favorite Kawasakism’s; It’s not how small you start, it’s how big you end up.
It is about the passion, but it’s not about the sex. Especially when your girlfriend is half way around the world. Frick!
8 Young Boston Entrepreneurs I’m Glad I Know
last tuesday i attended the masschallenge #massaccess speed-networking event, and the evening really epitomized why i love boston so much. first, it was a great event so kudos to john, akhil and david for the great work. the format was really innovative, six 10min slots to meet six new people in an hour. with some 200 people or organize, the event was pretty well organized. there was sushi and open bar afterward which was a really nice treat. what was also really nice was being invited out to dinner by bill warner. a week after winning the masstlc innovation catalyst award, it was no great surprise to me for bill to round up a few youngens and invite us out to dinner, no great surprise but a really nice gesture nevertheless. he spoke of the changing startup scene in boston, and credited the involvement of a lot of young people being proactive within the startup scene. being a young person, in the boston scene, i thought i’d shed a spotlight on a few youngens doing some interesting things.
the best thing about all these guys is they’d genuinely love to help in any way they can …
evan morikawa – twitter and linkedin
someone i’ve openly said that i’d love to co-found a company with one day, evan’s a brilliantly smart engineer, specializing in software. what makes evan’s relatively unique is his understanding and love of design, both raw graphic as well as user design. his team is pushing hard on a saas education startup, alight learning. the alpha is currently being tested by teachers, with hundreds more waiting for the beta.
jeremy levine – twitter and linkedin
i’ve been really impressed with jer’s progress in the last few months on his sports stock market startup, star street. they’ve planning on launching in a few months, and with every guy jer talks to get excited about the opportunity to trade their favorite sports players, i’m excited for him. he’s equally excited about the developing boston startup scene, having moved back to cambridge from syracuse where he went to school.
jason evanish – twitter, blog and linkedin
one of the most active young networkers in boston, the face and brains behind greenhorn connect, an aggregation of boston startup events, and other resources, i think jason’s actually trying to do the impossible and actually make it to all the events on offer, so don’t be surprised if he tweets about multiple events in the same evening. so if you want any advice on how to get the most out of boston, especially as a young startup enthusiast, evanish is totally the guy to connect with.
michael raybman – twitter and linkedin
a startup i personally can’t wait till launch, way savvy is a flexible travel search site that shows me what the best options are if i just wanted to go skiing sometime this winter with a rough budget of $500, i.e. it’s for those without exact dates months in advance, and exact destinations. i mean i just want to go boarding somewhere cheap, don’t really care when or wear. michael is the founder and they’re planning launch late this year/early next year.
danny wong – twitter and linkedin
someone who regularly makes me feel guilty that i’m not working hard enough, not because i’m genuinely not, but rather because this guy’s an absolute beast. someone you’ll be relieved to have on your team, we’re definitely lucky to have danny as blank label’s lead traffic controller. he oversees all our seo/sem, social media and networking, and affiliate marketing. a great networker in his own right, especially in the domain of of online marketing.
chris jacobs – businessweek profile
winner of this year’s businessweek 25 under 25, i can say from living with this guy, he has one of the biggest and craziest personalities of anyone i know, which is really saying something given most of the people i hang around are startup people, and by nature supposed to be a little crazy. he is a partner at emergent energy group, a renewable energy consulting startup with over 30 clients. they’re more excited projects they’re entering into are in urban development, definitely one to look out for.
cort johnson – twitter and linkedin; and jake cacciapaglia – twitter and linkedin
these two are quite attached at the hip, but of the dozens of times i’ve seen them, i think i can honestly say that i’ve never seem them more than 10 feet apart, and have definitely never seen them independent of each other. the guys behind what is becoming a cornerstone of the young boston startup scene, #pokinholes, dart boston has also expanded to #rule53 and #captialize
. these guys are both true connectors, they passionate promote youth entrepreneurship in the form of giving the limelight to young boston entrepreneurs actually starting companies
the great thing about these guys is that they’re all 25 or under. i can’t wait to see what they do in the next 25 years. whatever it is, i just hope that it’s in boston.
of course there’s no forgetting matt lauzon and seth priebatsch, the founders of paragon lake and scvngr, respectively. but they’re already well on the way to making it so need to give them more praise then they’ve already received … kudos to highland, the venture backer of both these young rockstars
turned twenty-two today
how much has changed in the last 365 days …
october 24, 2008
had dinner with a big group of friends at this chill lebanese restaurant in surry hills, this really trendy part of eastern sydney. who was there? a pretty good mix of high school friends, university friends, a girl i was desperately trying to hook up with. there were probably about 20 people or so. many of whom would be some of sydney great future lawyers, management consultants, bankers and doctors. where was my life at? i was still sitting one butt cheek in that world, one butt cheek in the world of startups. i mean, i didn’t really know too much about startups back then (that actually makes it sound like i know anything about startups now). i had read richard branson’s first autobiography, losing my virginity, which was much of the inspiration, and still is to this day. i was half way through guy kawasaki‘s the art of the start. i was already using kawasakisms as a part of my natural vernacular.
i was also much more of a party-goer back in the day. i was living with one jacob list, flatmate, in the suite of sin. on my 21st, it was a big drinking night. even though i used to drunk fairly regularly, without ever being seriously concerned about it, my 21st was one of the few nights i had actually got blackout. i also used to blow money like crazy. i was still on the high of my most recent six months at macquarie bank were i was earning decent bank. that round of a dozen shots i bought for my friends, what was i thinking …
especially considering it lead to this …
i will never forget one james clement forner whose car i vomited in. i passed out in the club, had to be assisted out, stumbled to my friend’s car, and thanked him by vomiting in the gap between the seat and the door, i.e. the hardest place in the car to clean vomit.
october 24, 2009
last night i had dinner with a small group of friends, very low key, just in downtown allston. without any intention, but just because of contextual reasons, all young founders of startups, and i’m proud to say, none in social networking. i had come from a kairos society networking event, met a few interesting mit students working on very cool startups, and a few harvard students wanting to solve the energy crisis with a perpetual motion device or make a lot of money by building a social networking app. that was mean, but kind of true.
i had a wellesley girl come over last night, we’ve seen each other a few times. we hung out and she spent the night. i had an early start with a group meeting with my product design and development class. i wanted to sleep in, but two of the team members are risd industrial designers who’d come up to meet at babson so i couldn’t exactly bar it even thought it was early, and my birthday. we working on a product solution to intersection accidents.
i spent most of the rest of the day working, trying to get ready for the blank label launch in a week’s time. our team’s been punishing themselves pretty intensely doing copy, design and dev work like crazy. i guess one thing that hasn’t really changed in the last year is the amount of time i invest in school. last semester i feel i was a little more serious, but this semester has been an absolute shambles. last week i’m pretty sure i failed my first mid-term since art history in year seven.
where i will be on october 24, 2010?
Life in Video Jul08-Jun09
Defining Entrepreneurship
Having just spent the last two days in workshop titled Entrepreneurial Thought and Action (ET&A), I realized that I perhaps had a different interpretation of the word than most. At the start of the summer, I stipulated that entrepreneurship was actually a fairly narrow subset of broader population of creation. It was in response to philosophical (nice word for argumentative) conversations with my father on why traditional corner store or small business with little innovative principles should not be labeled entrepreneurial. It was not a solution looking for a problem, or just a middle-man opportunity, it was an Executing Innovative Solution. Now linguists would break down each word in that phrase, and I completely appreciate it’s all very subjective.
If I understood it correctly, much of the course of the purpose was to encourage entrepreneurial mindsets, and notions of affordable lose and taking the plunge. However starting with the Muhammed Yunus claim that ‘we are all entrepreneurs …’ lost me fairly early. Whether it be an academic institution or independent programs such as the one I attended, it’s incredibly important to find your purpose and then position. When you stretch out the definition of entrepreneurship too far, it loses its meaning, the purpose is too broad, and the audience finds itself confused.
This was slightly less of a problem in ET&A as it was far more of an intellectual exercise and fairly abstract in its practical applications. For the most part this is a safe play as arguments against the content become highly philosophical and incredibly subjective. My views of encouraging entrepreneurship revolve around the notion of The Grey Entrepreneur. It’s a fairly simple hypothesis that stipulates entrepreneurial educators need to create highly active, sustained environments that creates the ‘nurture’ element to an entrepreneur’s development in complimentary to the ‘nature’ elements.
It is difficult to do this on any short-term basis, e.g. two days at a workshop, or an incomplete environment, e.g. business school with a venture creation major, because entrepreneurs are ultimately still outliers in their way of thinking and in that development stage, if they are not in a sustained environment, the outliers will move back to the norm.
