Jeremy Lin & Landry Fields "Secret" Handshake

Interviewed by Andrew Keen at TechCrunch TV

I was recently interviewed by TechCrunch's Andrew Keen discussing my startup, Vidquik. I didn't sound too bad for having two plastic tubes up my nose and on painkillers (two days after my septoplasty). Just a mix of Kermit and Darth Vader :)

"Keen On… Vidquik: Why Real-Time Online Video Is Now Ready For Prime-Time"

Mobile Industry Snapshots

With the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain last week along with TED in Long Beach, CA, it is timely that I just completed a wireless industry report for Pegasus Strategies LLC, an advisory firm that I work with occasionally. It is fitting with the TED conference since Pegasus Strategies was founded by Adrian Hong, who is a TED Senior Fellow.

Pegasus Strategies LLC is a strategic advisory firm that advises corporations government and NGOs, with a particular focus on emerging markets and areas in transition. It has a wide range of expertise in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia regions in particular.

Anyway, I hope you find this mobile industry “cheat sheet” useful. It provides a quick overview of the wireless world along with detailed profiles of public companies to trending startups.

Pegasus Strategies Wireless Overview 2012

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"992", A Tribute to Steve Jobs

"'992' is a short film by Wonsuk Chin about a man's search for a pair of New Balance 992. A tribute to Steve Jobs and shot entirely on the iPhone 4S. It stars the newcomer Danny Park, beautiful Korean star Yoonji Lee."

Venture Funding Secrets Venture Funding Secrets Venture Funding Secrets

"Author Tarang Shah, a venture capital professional himself, interviews rising VC stars, Internet and software investment pioneers, and venture investment thought leaders. You’ll learn firsthand what criteria venture capitalists use to make investments, how they structure deals, the many ways they help the companies they fund, avoidable mistakes they see all too often, the role of luck in a success, and why so many startups fail."

Venture Funding Secrets

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Ed Weiland's NBA Draft Analysis of Jeremy Lin from 2010

Great analysis by Ed Weiland from two years ago. I'm still surprised that Lin didn't get more looks after winning the CA State Championship. I'm guessing the scouts wrote off the win as a fluke because most state champs would get at least a couple offers from a major conference.

"The best candidate to pull off such a surprise might be Harvard’s Jeremy Lin. The reason is two numbers Lin posted, 2-point FG pct and RSB40. Lin was at .598 and 9.7. This is impressive on both counts. These numbers show NBA athleticism better than any other, because a high score in both shows dominance at the college level on both ends of the court. Here is a list of recent college PGs who topped .540 and 9.0..."

Why 'Mid-core' Games Are The Future Of Social Gaming

StrategyEye, a UK-based digital media intelligence firm, asked me to be an "expert" commentator. My primary expertise is getting fat and eating, but writing about gaming, digital media, and other topics seemed like fun :) Anyway, check out my first article for them here.

EXPERT COMMENT: Vidquik CEO on why 'mid-core' games are the future of social gaming

Recently, Cowan and Company reported that Zynga’s latest release, Hidden Chronicles, reached only 710,000 daily active users (DAU) after 12 days compared with the 5m DAU reached by their two prior releases, Castleville and Empire and Allies, during the same period. This signals a few trends and questions that I’ve been recently discussing with people in the gaming industry:

- Has Zynga’s casual gaming user base reached its plateau?
- Is 'mid-core' (the midpoint between casual and hardcore) gaming the next stage of social gaming?
- Can Zynga diversify its portfolio and succeed in mid-core gaming?

Zynga’s DAU decreased by 6% during Q4 2011, reflecting its year-to-year decline since 2010. It seems the company has already saturated the online casual gaming market. The question for shareholders and competitors might be whether Zynga can make the transition into mid-core games?

Mid-core games are more engaging and competitive, unlike Farmville-type games which I consider 'lazy interactivity' or 'click for coins'. Also mid-core games require more creativity in the game development process and difficult to incorporate 'click for coin' behaviour. It’s interesting to note that Hidden Chronicles is a mid-core game and can cast doubt upon Zynga’s transition into a more highly competitive and hit-driven segment of the gaming market. Also this segment is occupied by more established gaming companies in Asia.

If you’re living in the US, it’s easy to forget that Asia has anywhere from 60% to 80% of the global online gaming market, and the majority of the games are either mid-core or hardcore (ie first-person shooters, MMO, role-playing). So, if Zynga has reached a plateau with its current user base and wants to make a stronger international push, especially to Asian markets, does it have the capability to do so?

One comparable to look at is South Korea’s Nexon. While Nexon’s growth hasn’t been as explosive (founded in 1994 and launched the first online game in 1996) as Zynga’s growth, the performance metrics and financials are much stronger. In 2010, Nexon’s 77 monthly active users generated USD903m in revenues.For Zynga, in 2010, Zynga’s 232 monthly active users generated USD597m in revenues. Also Nexon’s users per game had longer engagement periods of up to six times Zynga’s, a larger percentage of paid users, and revenues per user. A major driver of these differences is the fact that Nexon’s game portfolio is primarily mid-core.

So, it’s almost backwards or myopic to state that the future of social gaming is mid-core games since it’s been around for years before Zynga’s rapid rise, but it seems this is where the growth of online gaming will be even in the US. The question for the US. market is how many of those casual online gamers will transition to mid-core games and how many hardcore gamers, who are attached to their gaming consoles, will transition or diversify their game play to a browser-based environment?

Keen On… Larry Downes: Why Best Buy Is Going Out Of Business

After My Septoplasty...

Just finished an interview with TechCrunchTV... with two plastic tubes up my nose, on hydrocodone, blood drippage, and feeling stuffy so I thought I was speaking with Charlie Brown's teacher over the phone. Hope I sounded coherent and clear because to me I sounded muffled and drugged.

Samsung's SuperBowl Commercial: Thing Called Love

Shit Entrepreneurs Say

Amusing short by Mohammad Gorjestani and friends.

A Chrome Superhero

Shit Silicon Valley Says

Obama Gave 1% to Charity, Romney Gave 15%

After reading this news, I have less respect for President Obama.

Obama gives $10,000 over 4 years based on $1.2M? Seriously?? Well, it's better than what I believe Biden gave, which was about $5,000. I hate to say it, but a liberal heart sure isn't a giving heart, which has been statistically true anyway. Maybe before all this talk about income distribution and earning caps on other people, Obama should learn to give more than 1% to the hungry and needy.

His rhetoric is simply assine when you can't live by your words. What's all this talk about fairness and bridging the gap between rich and poor when he can even live out his life through his personal finances. For all his talk, I would have expected 20%-50% of this income donated to charities and nonprofits. The point that is left out of this discussion is that many people don't want to give more to inefficient government programs (i.e. D.C. public schools had the highest per capita spend but the bottom 10% in the quality of education and the countless national pork projects), but would opt into giving to the charities and nonprofits of their choice. Instead of increasing the tax rates on the "rich" why not require that increase to be donated to nonprofits targeting specific societal needs?

Fotoshop by Adobé

Simply a brilliant and amusing commercial by Jesse Rosten.

This commercial isn't real, neither are society's standards of beauty.





Follow on twitter.com/JesseRosten

2012 Digital Predictions by Soap Creative

2012 Digital Predictions

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Seoul Time Lapse 2011

Makes me miss Seoul.

Seoul Time Lapse 2011 from Oh Choong Young on Vimeo.

CES 2012

MooCowHog's photostream on Flickr.

Random pictures from this year's CES (Consumer Electronics Show).

Twitter is Hiring! Inside Sales team

Just helping out a friend at Twitter. If you know of any excellent candidates, they can apply directly or I can provide an introduction to my friend. Just read the two descriptions below...

Account Manager, Inside Sales

If you’re an enthusiastic Twitter user with relevant account management experience, analytical skills, and a passion for learning, we invite you to talk to us about our advertising sales organization at Twitter, Inc.

Responsibilities
• Collaborating with a high volume of advertisers to understand their objectives, recommending best practices, and developing effective campaigns
• Executing, optimizing, and analyzing advertising programs using internal tools and dashboards
• Resolving campaign issues in a timely and productive manner, and identifying and implementing process improvements
• Managing contracts and renewals, and assisting our Sales Finance organization with payables and collections
• Providing feedback to our product and tools teams to help us scale our advertising platform
• Mentoring new team members as our organization grows

Requirements
• Demonstrated ability to create, develop, and enhance customer relationships
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, attention to detail, and a bias for proactively resolving issues
• Aptitude, creativity, and a preference for working in small, collaborative teams with minimal supervision
• A passion for Twitter and our mission
• BA / BS degree

Account Executive, Inside Sales

If you are an enthusiastic Twitter user with relevant sales experience, a strong track record, and solid customer relationships, we invite you to talk to us about advertising sales opportunities at Twitter, Inc.

Responsibilities
• Drive a high volume of sales through managing the complete sales process from prospecting to close.
• Create consultative sales presentations to demonstrate how Twitter’s advertising products can be leveraged to connect with consumers
• Thought leadership – immersing yourself in the evolving social media landscape, and adapting to Twitter’s ongoing product developments
• Mentoring new team members as our organization grows

Requirements
• 2+ years of inside sales experience working with medium size companies.
• A track record demonstrating an ability to succeed within a high volume sales environment and with driving the full sales cycle from start to finish: cold calls, building pipelines and closing business.
• Strong drive to beat targets, relentlessly positive attitude and incredible work ethic.
• Deep understanding of Twitter and the social media landscape, and opportunities for marketers
• Aptitude, creativity, and a preference for working in small, collaborative teams
• A passion for Twitter and our mission
• BA / BS degree

What Makes a Cool Entrepreneur?

CoolEntrepreneurs

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Martin Luther King Jr. on NBC's Meet the Press in 1965