This is a pretty interesting advanced method showing how things were calculated when doing trade during ancient times in Ethiopia.... I always wonder where we would have been as a civilization today, if the ancient Library of Alexandria never burned down... thanks Julius Caesar.
The latest images by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) showing the Apollo 17 landing site are freaking awesome! Check out the detailed tracks of our presence.
This is hilarious, found it on TechCocktail. Perhaps one of the most creative start-up marketing strategies to date, this rap song was created by the team over at Cardinal, a start-up with a mobile app to aggregate all the music you share from services such as Shazaam or Spotify.
The song's title is "Takin’ VC Money (Money Cash IPO's)."
Here are the lyrics:
To all the startups out there
Staying caffeinated
Pulling all nighters
And trying to launch something amazing
This song, is dedicated to you!Maybe we can meet up with Ashton Kutcher
n see if we agree on some plans for the future
Have a drink with Fred Wilson
Get our lawyer to sign a deal
Or do you think Seqouia’s gonna find another 40 mil?It’d be great to secure some investment ends
Straight from seeds to 10x dividends
Never complacent, you say exit? we say yes
Now we’re in the basement
Working with Node.jsHalf these other rappers
Chase broads
And sip on Hennesey
We’re tailing our logs
And drinking 5 Hour Energy!Three a.m. whiteboards and lightbulb moments
This is our time
Right now so we should own it
I long for delivering
And its prod we get it in
we have no problem with the thought of pivotingWe know what our vision is
And we don’t wanna waste it
We remain driven so we
Continue to chase it.. yeah!Heyo we’re taking VC Money
All we’re tryin’ to do is get some new seed funding yeah
Money Cash and IPO’s
Thats how this action goesHeyo we’re taking VC Money
All we’re tryin’ to do is get some new seed funding yeah
Money Cash and IPO’s
Thats how this action goesMight as well send a little note over to TechCrunch
See if we can get a feature posted by the next launchTime to get the word out
We’re ready for beta
Maybe limited at first
so our servers don’t craterYeah we’ve got swag
But its the bad stuff from conferences
You better skip the bag
I’ll just carry my accomplishmentsHooked up with Dealmaker
And now we’re live at GROW Conf
Prepping for a great night
And hanging at the GROW launchTonight you know we’ll brush shoulders with angels
Not the Charlie’s kind
But the ones with the bankrolls
That believe in our teamAnd also see our market fit
Excited by our dream
And they need to be a part of it
If you haven’t heard of us yet
We can flip you our deck
We’ll trade a check for convertible debtI said…if you haven’t heard of us yet
We’ll trade a check for convertible debt... yeah!Heyo we’re taking VC Money
Heyo we’re taking VC Money
All we’re tryin’ to do is get some new seed funding yeah
Money Cash and IPO’s
Thats how this action goes
All we’re tryin’ to do is get some new seed funding yeah
Money Cash and IPO’s
That’s how this action goes.
Ok. now you can watch the actual performance at the GROW conference, here's the youtube link (trust me, this audio/text version of the post is much better than the performance, that's why I put the youtube link last :-) ...nevertheless, hats off to Cardinal!!!
Interesting post on The Economist about an alternative indicator for world economic growth. About 8% of the world's international trade passes through the Suez Canal, so the amount of cargo on the ships can be a good early indicator of global economic activity.
From all the things passing through there, the highest gain in tonnage was liquified natural gas, or LNG, with a gain of 38.1 million tons, or a whopping 72.1% increase from 2009. It seems like the natural gas story is right at our front door.
The same report also has an interesting chart on the evolution of the number of ships and the net tonnage starting from 1975.
Seems like economic activity flattened in the early 1980s, and less and less vessels were needed to move the same weight of cargo. The latter could indicate advances in ship technology, or if cargo size was the limiting factor, the world started using lighter materials, or it could indicate a combination of both. Then everything ripped higher starting in 2000, thanks to the global growth story.
Having a great time at Carolyn Malachi's Beautiful Dreamer video screening! She is amazing as always! To all my dreamers and dream chasers, watch this video, listen to the vocals on this track, get inspired, rise up, execute.
...back to chasing my dream.
P.S. - the extended jazz version is hot too!
This is one of the coolest space-related DIY projects ever! He's raising funds on KickStarter. The data for the fly-by comes from the Heavens-Above site (sweet and not so sweet memories of ENAE404, ENAE441, and ENAE601 at UMCP.
#NASA #approved (at least on twitter they gave it some RT love)
Where to next?
While waiting at an office today I came across a nice infographic form the latest Time magazine, showing the allocation of funds after the Space Shuttle program. Couldn't get the picture online (no subscription), but thought I'd share a couple of other cool ones. The one below shows the entire NASA Shuttle Program from 1972 to 2011.
This next one traces a 50 year history of the human space program.
There. You got a pretty comprehensive depiction of space in 2 images.
After a brief exploration, I also learned that Mark Zukerberg's profile says "I make things," and Larry's and Sergey's profiles show how these guys are simply living it up kiteboarding in Alaska and treking the Egyptian desert under a sunset and pyramids.
A more interesting point is the fact that Google+ may be a great attempt by Google to bypass Facebook's walled garden of information. If Facebook gave them access to its ecosystem, Google may have never allocated a dime to Google+. It's almost as if Google is saying "look, we want to organize ALL the world's information, but Facebook won't let us, so please help us out and tell us which of your buddies go where, thank you!"
Given the beta stage of the project, I'm sure there will be plenty of great refinements. I really hope it gains enough traction to stay here permanently.
Now that I graduated from the program, I'm pretty glad I went through it, and here's why:
Application Process
The initial personality-test type application process was very interesting and kinda disappointing because I never found out what my results where. If I had to make a guess, I'm sure they ended up somewhere in this TechCrunch post by Adeo Ressi. After that initial application was approved, a more formal process and tuition payment was required. I was ok with paying a small fee for the initial application test, but the larger tuition fee of several hundred dollars may be cumbersome for some.
After initially being placed on a wait list, I was glad to see my acceptance into the program.
The Semester
We had a weekly evening session (about 12 total), and a session facilitator was in charge of running the class for the entire semester. Our weekly evening sessions were held at a nice conference room facility (provided by Holland & Knight LLP) and there was always plenty of food and refreshments available. Most importantly, our session facilitator Jill Stelfox was awesome!!! She was very upfront with us from the very beginning, and she was clear about all her expectations. She encouraged us to bring our A-game every single time. We also had a great co-facilitator, Naresh, and he handled all the logistics smoothly.. Both Jill and Naresh were always available to help us out with our business questions and our pitch deck.
The entire semester is broken down into 12 main topics, with homework assignments due at each session. Here's the best part: our sessions were taught by some wonderful mentors! These mentors were people that started and sold several start-ups, some took VC money, some kept it lean, but all did it successfully. Each session had at least 3 mentors show up to teach us on a specifc topic. Networking with these folks and getting their feedback on our start-ups was very constructive. These guys are simply well-connected, and they have made all the mistakes, so learning from them and getting new connections was very effective.
During each session we had a hotseat where we were required to pitch our business to these mentors, and they would rate us on our pitch and give us plenty of constructive criticizm. Listen to their feedback, and take it in, regardless of whether you think they're right or wrong. The goal of the class is to constantly challenge you and make sure you have all the right skills and the right timing to develop your business. Sometimes your timing may be off (you may have too much work, family obligations, etc.), or your business may not be compelling enough or not clear enough. Whatever the reason, you may not complete the entire semester. About two thirds of the initial class did not make it to graduation. But that's fine, because you always have the option to come back next semester (or any semester) without paying anything additional. This helps you re-evaluate your business or your timeline to ensure you have the right things in place when you are ready.
The Founder Institute also has several partnerships and agreements in place with service providers for all types of start-up needs. The list of tools includes legal support, product planning, product development, product management, product testing, business infrastructure tools, recruiting and collaboration tools, branding, public relations, marketing, sales, accounting, fulfillment, modeling, and fundraising. That's a lot of great tools with discounts or free agreements!
The Takeaway
If you already have a start-up with a live offering (alpha, beta, MVP, doesn't matter!) you will greatly benefit from the program, because each session and assignment forces you to look at your business with plenty of scrutiny. You will have a well-proofed and polished business at the end of the program.
If you simply have a business idea (like me) and you need help developing it into an incorporated start-up you will also benefit from the program. However, you will have to move fast and do your best to keep up with the assignments, because the people that already have something up and running have probably covered some of the assignment questions when they developed their business. At the end of it all, you will have validated and accomplished so much in just three months! It's a lot easier to do this through the program than to do it solo.
The program really helped me test out my idea and find ways to validate it. Most importantly, it really tested me to see if I was ready to take on a new venture. That last statement is very important. When investors say they invest in the people and not their companies, that's really what they mean. It's not about the idea, it's about how capable you are with executing it. And quite frankly, if a program tests you rigourously to help you figure out if you are ready or not, then I would argue that it has already done 50% of the job. A lot of people (including myself) have spent months, and perhaps even years, dwelling on a business venture, or a product of some sort, and later found out several obstacles or obligations to make them re-evaluate their entire goal, after devoting plenty of time and money towards it. If a program helps you understand how not to do that, then it has also accomplished the remaining 50%. The Founder Institute helped me realize both.
A warning: you have to incorporate a business and get all the right legal documents in order to graduate. This requires some money. You may also have to spend some money for job postings, research, etc. The whole point is be prepared to spend whatever you think is right for your budget, or get creative and find other ways to do some of these things. I personally spent over $1,000 (not including the tuition/fees from earlier), but you don't have to spend that much. If you are simply developing an idea, this may make you feel rushed, but that's part of the process, so just get out there and build something!
