This 15 min guide by Bowei Gai aims to cover the basics of Chinese market size, opportunity, key players, competition and infrastructure."
The China Startup Report
View more presentations from Bowei Gai
Monday, October 31, 2011
The China Startup Report
"Interested in starting a company in China? Here’s a quick report on China through the lens of a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur.
This 15 min guide by Bowei Gai aims to cover the basics of Chinese market size, opportunity, key players, competition and infrastructure."
This 15 min guide by Bowei Gai aims to cover the basics of Chinese market size, opportunity, key players, competition and infrastructure."
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Having Faith Like a Child Does Not Mean Thinking Like a Child
Recently, the Barna Group published research related to their new book, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Church, in an article, “Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church”.
Nothing here is really a major revelation. Their research “uncovered” six themes why 59% of young believers disconnect from church life after age 15. Three of them were related to the primary focus of this post, which is how people and the church deal with doubt:
• Churches seem overprotective
• Churches come across as antagonistic to science
• Church feels unfriendly to those who doubt
It is disturbing to me since these are issues that I experienced during my high school and college years, and nothing has seemingly changed in over twenty years except that today there is an obvious void of leadership and teaching within churches and parachurch organizations. If our culture more highly prized knowledge, truth and loving the Lord with all of your mind, the three issues above would hardly exist. Instead, there is a culture of ignorance and fear of knowledge sewn into the fabric of the Church that needs to be cut out.
Assuming God is omniscient, what does a believer have to be concerned about? That Ricky Gervais will outwit God? And then there is Jesus who indirectly claimed to be the most knowledgeable person on earth and who I believe is the most intelligent person in history. So what are people concerned about? Open questioning and knowledge seeking should be embraced.
“Unbelief is the absence of thinking” - Dr. David Martyn-Lloyd Jones
The idea of universal knowledge and public education came from the Protestant movement, so that everyone could read the Bible for himself or herself and that there would be no “high priest”. The first law in the U.S. to require universal public education came from the same roots:
“It being one chief end of that old deluder Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures… and to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our forefathers” - Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1647
So what have the body of believers become today? A group of people that fear rigorous thinking and hard questions? A body that embraces ignorance?
There are thousands of roads to believing in God and growing in faith. For myself, I was the first person from my family to attend church and become a believer during 8th grade. Prior to this, I didn’t hold any reverence for the Bible or Christian imagery. I was a natural skeptic and very cynical, so it took me years to be confident in the existence of God and fully accept the validity of the Bible and have satisfactory answers to all of my doubts about God. Knowledge gathering and critical analysis actually built a bridge to faith for me. It wasn’t a completed bridge and not all my questions were answered, but it was enough for me to take that leap of faith. The bridge will never be completed by knowledge alone, but there is enough body of evidence available to help the most critical mind across that chasm of faith.
Since those early years, I have never doubted the existence of God, the validity of the Bible or the life of Christ. Instead I have swung the pendulum of embracing God’s grace and abusing God’s grace. I struggled with living a life pleasing to God since it’s simply difficult to live such a life without being in a bubble. For many believers who are driven, submitting your will to God is a constant struggle. I do know when I was most comfortable in life and ignoring God, or at my most sinful and ignoring God that he was always with me. During my many drunken nights, most arrogant days and selfish moments, I knew the fact that God was always with me. I am not reveling in my sin, but just explaining that it wasn’t any feeling more so than the little knowledge I had of who God was that always brought me back to God.
“Jesus Christ insists that the whole trouble with people of little faith is they do not think. They allow circumstances to bludgeon them. They allow their feelings to collar them. The Bible is full of reasoning. We must never think of faith as something purely mystical. Faith progresses through thinking, Jesus tells us. Look at the birds. Think about them. Draw your deductions. Look at the flowers. Do the same.
This is the essence of worry. Instead of letting reason control your thoughts, other things have controlled them and you go round and round in circles. That is not thinking. Worry is the absence of thinking. Unbelief is the absence of thinking. And for a Christian a lack of faith is a failure to think." - Dr. David Martyn-Lloyd Jones
Which is why I believe whether early in a person’s faith or midstream, he or she needs to face doubts and questions about why they believe and how do they really know that God is real. I know of too many stories not just young believers but young leaders from churches who renounce their faith after simple challenges to their faith, such as reading a book by Sam Harris, one drunken night or sexual escapade.
The certainty of God and my faith has only increased with time, and it’s not because I’ve drunk more of the Kool-aid or become more isolated from the world. It’s actually been the opposite. One example is that the Bible’s validity has increased over my lifetime and its lifetime. When the Nabonidus Chronicle, an ancient Babylonian text, was discovered in 1879, it verified the existence of Beltshazzar, the King of Babylon from the Book of Daniel. Prior to this discovery, some people doubted the existence of such a King and even the validity of Daniel and his accounts. It’s not just one example -- there are dozens and dozens of examples where the Bible has stood up to the challenges of skeptics and was eventually validated by archeological finds over the past couple hundred years.
I believe there is a reasonable explanation as to why a fair number of world-class physicists come to believe in God. From Sir Isaac Newton to Cambridge’s John Polkinghorne to Princeton’s Freeman Dyson and many others, studying the creation of the universe led them to an inevitable truth of an ultimate creator.
“God, like a master builder, has laid the foundation of the world according to law and order... God wanted us to recognize those laws by creating us after his image so that we could share in his own thoughts.” - Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
So why isn’t a church safe place for youth or anyone else to express doubts? What is lacking in the culture or organization of churches to embrace such questions and critical thinking? I remember when I, or others I knew, would ask questions and a common response was, “Well, sometimes we have to have faith like a child.” I hated that response especially since I knew by then that God was not dumb and does not revel in ignorance.
Nothing here is really a major revelation. Their research “uncovered” six themes why 59% of young believers disconnect from church life after age 15. Three of them were related to the primary focus of this post, which is how people and the church deal with doubt:
• Churches seem overprotective
• Churches come across as antagonistic to science
• Church feels unfriendly to those who doubt
It is disturbing to me since these are issues that I experienced during my high school and college years, and nothing has seemingly changed in over twenty years except that today there is an obvious void of leadership and teaching within churches and parachurch organizations. If our culture more highly prized knowledge, truth and loving the Lord with all of your mind, the three issues above would hardly exist. Instead, there is a culture of ignorance and fear of knowledge sewn into the fabric of the Church that needs to be cut out.
Assuming God is omniscient, what does a believer have to be concerned about? That Ricky Gervais will outwit God? And then there is Jesus who indirectly claimed to be the most knowledgeable person on earth and who I believe is the most intelligent person in history. So what are people concerned about? Open questioning and knowledge seeking should be embraced.
“Unbelief is the absence of thinking” - Dr. David Martyn-Lloyd Jones
The idea of universal knowledge and public education came from the Protestant movement, so that everyone could read the Bible for himself or herself and that there would be no “high priest”. The first law in the U.S. to require universal public education came from the same roots:
“It being one chief end of that old deluder Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures… and to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our forefathers” - Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1647
So what have the body of believers become today? A group of people that fear rigorous thinking and hard questions? A body that embraces ignorance?
There are thousands of roads to believing in God and growing in faith. For myself, I was the first person from my family to attend church and become a believer during 8th grade. Prior to this, I didn’t hold any reverence for the Bible or Christian imagery. I was a natural skeptic and very cynical, so it took me years to be confident in the existence of God and fully accept the validity of the Bible and have satisfactory answers to all of my doubts about God. Knowledge gathering and critical analysis actually built a bridge to faith for me. It wasn’t a completed bridge and not all my questions were answered, but it was enough for me to take that leap of faith. The bridge will never be completed by knowledge alone, but there is enough body of evidence available to help the most critical mind across that chasm of faith.
Since those early years, I have never doubted the existence of God, the validity of the Bible or the life of Christ. Instead I have swung the pendulum of embracing God’s grace and abusing God’s grace. I struggled with living a life pleasing to God since it’s simply difficult to live such a life without being in a bubble. For many believers who are driven, submitting your will to God is a constant struggle. I do know when I was most comfortable in life and ignoring God, or at my most sinful and ignoring God that he was always with me. During my many drunken nights, most arrogant days and selfish moments, I knew the fact that God was always with me. I am not reveling in my sin, but just explaining that it wasn’t any feeling more so than the little knowledge I had of who God was that always brought me back to God.
“Jesus Christ insists that the whole trouble with people of little faith is they do not think. They allow circumstances to bludgeon them. They allow their feelings to collar them. The Bible is full of reasoning. We must never think of faith as something purely mystical. Faith progresses through thinking, Jesus tells us. Look at the birds. Think about them. Draw your deductions. Look at the flowers. Do the same.
This is the essence of worry. Instead of letting reason control your thoughts, other things have controlled them and you go round and round in circles. That is not thinking. Worry is the absence of thinking. Unbelief is the absence of thinking. And for a Christian a lack of faith is a failure to think." - Dr. David Martyn-Lloyd Jones
Which is why I believe whether early in a person’s faith or midstream, he or she needs to face doubts and questions about why they believe and how do they really know that God is real. I know of too many stories not just young believers but young leaders from churches who renounce their faith after simple challenges to their faith, such as reading a book by Sam Harris, one drunken night or sexual escapade.
The certainty of God and my faith has only increased with time, and it’s not because I’ve drunk more of the Kool-aid or become more isolated from the world. It’s actually been the opposite. One example is that the Bible’s validity has increased over my lifetime and its lifetime. When the Nabonidus Chronicle, an ancient Babylonian text, was discovered in 1879, it verified the existence of Beltshazzar, the King of Babylon from the Book of Daniel. Prior to this discovery, some people doubted the existence of such a King and even the validity of Daniel and his accounts. It’s not just one example -- there are dozens and dozens of examples where the Bible has stood up to the challenges of skeptics and was eventually validated by archeological finds over the past couple hundred years.
I believe there is a reasonable explanation as to why a fair number of world-class physicists come to believe in God. From Sir Isaac Newton to Cambridge’s John Polkinghorne to Princeton’s Freeman Dyson and many others, studying the creation of the universe led them to an inevitable truth of an ultimate creator.
“God, like a master builder, has laid the foundation of the world according to law and order... God wanted us to recognize those laws by creating us after his image so that we could share in his own thoughts.” - Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
So why isn’t a church safe place for youth or anyone else to express doubts? What is lacking in the culture or organization of churches to embrace such questions and critical thinking? I remember when I, or others I knew, would ask questions and a common response was, “Well, sometimes we have to have faith like a child.” I hated that response especially since I knew by then that God was not dumb and does not revel in ignorance.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
A 2011 NetKAL Experience
Unofficial video from the NetKAL Summit and Gala that Christine and I attended. NetKAL (Network of Korean American Leaders) is a mid-career professional program that Christine and I went through a few years back.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Where Should I Eat When I'm in Chicago?
My answer on Facebook that was popular...
I grew up in Chicago, from a family that loved to eat out, and a lover of meats and fatty foods (not for the health conscious, but you're visiting Chicago, right?). First, if you're visiting Chicago, you have to eat steak. It was the historic hub of the cattle industry, Morton's Steakhouse was founded here, and where else are 48 oz portershouses standard?
The local favorites are The Chop House and Gibson's. You can't go wrong with either, but Chop House has been rated "best steakhouse" in America for several years by numerous publications so I would go here. After growing up on Chop House, Gibson's, and others, Peter Lugar in Brooklyn was weak. "Steak for three" at Lugar's is like a steak for one in most Chicago steakhouses.
For higher end restaurants, I would recommend Alinea, Charlie Trotters and MK Restaurant. Alinea and Moto started the micro-dish trend (20 course dinners) several years back and frequent experimentations with liquid nitrogen.
For mid-tier priced restaurants and street food, there are countless choices. If you can travel out to the burbs, I would recommend Bob Chinn's Crabhouse in Wheeling, IL. This is one of the best seafood places you'll ever eat at and has the best Alaskan King Crab (yes, in the burbs of Chicago). They have their own daily shipments of fresh seafood flow in and the largest volume of King Crab. This one restaurant generates over $30 million in revenue and typically ranks 4th in the nation. In Chicago, I would recommend going to Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill. Bayless was the winner of Top Chef Masters last year and is an excellent chef.
For fast food, I would recommend Portillo's (chain with many locations) or Al's Beef and get the Italian Beef sandwich. If you haven't tried Italian Beef, then you haven't been to Chicago. Get it "dipped" (in beef juice) with peppers. Then travel to Buffalo Joe's in Evanston, IL and go to Buffalo Joe's. Their buffalo wings have won two national recipes (for any food) and is the standard for many wing fanatics. Their consistency in quality and size of the wings have gone down over the past decade, but it's still tasty.
Then find a Pot Belly's for one of the best subs you'll have. This was a Chicago institution for years with only two locations until several years ago Starbuck's Howard Schultz invested into it and expanded it throughout the Midwest and D.C.
For pizza, Giordano's is my favorite. It's stuffed pizza, not pan so it's even thicker and heavier with meats and cheese. Voted "Best Pizza in America" by NBC and others. I would also check out Spacca Napoli if you love Neapolitan style. And a local favorite in the burbs is Burt's Place, which has a pretty good fan following.
Update 1/9/2011: Recent TIME magazine article on Grant Achatz and Alinea, a three star Michelin restaurant
The hottest restaurant in Chicago right now is Girl & the Goat, which was started by Top Chef winner, Stephanie Izard
I grew up in Chicago, from a family that loved to eat out, and a lover of meats and fatty foods (not for the health conscious, but you're visiting Chicago, right?). First, if you're visiting Chicago, you have to eat steak. It was the historic hub of the cattle industry, Morton's Steakhouse was founded here, and where else are 48 oz portershouses standard?
The local favorites are The Chop House and Gibson's. You can't go wrong with either, but Chop House has been rated "best steakhouse" in America for several years by numerous publications so I would go here. After growing up on Chop House, Gibson's, and others, Peter Lugar in Brooklyn was weak. "Steak for three" at Lugar's is like a steak for one in most Chicago steakhouses.
For higher end restaurants, I would recommend Alinea, Charlie Trotters and MK Restaurant. Alinea and Moto started the micro-dish trend (20 course dinners) several years back and frequent experimentations with liquid nitrogen.
For mid-tier priced restaurants and street food, there are countless choices. If you can travel out to the burbs, I would recommend Bob Chinn's Crabhouse in Wheeling, IL. This is one of the best seafood places you'll ever eat at and has the best Alaskan King Crab (yes, in the burbs of Chicago). They have their own daily shipments of fresh seafood flow in and the largest volume of King Crab. This one restaurant generates over $30 million in revenue and typically ranks 4th in the nation. In Chicago, I would recommend going to Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill. Bayless was the winner of Top Chef Masters last year and is an excellent chef.
For fast food, I would recommend Portillo's (chain with many locations) or Al's Beef and get the Italian Beef sandwich. If you haven't tried Italian Beef, then you haven't been to Chicago. Get it "dipped" (in beef juice) with peppers. Then travel to Buffalo Joe's in Evanston, IL and go to Buffalo Joe's. Their buffalo wings have won two national recipes (for any food) and is the standard for many wing fanatics. Their consistency in quality and size of the wings have gone down over the past decade, but it's still tasty.
Then find a Pot Belly's for one of the best subs you'll have. This was a Chicago institution for years with only two locations until several years ago Starbuck's Howard Schultz invested into it and expanded it throughout the Midwest and D.C.
For pizza, Giordano's is my favorite. It's stuffed pizza, not pan so it's even thicker and heavier with meats and cheese. Voted "Best Pizza in America" by NBC and others. I would also check out Spacca Napoli if you love Neapolitan style. And a local favorite in the burbs is Burt's Place, which has a pretty good fan following.
Update 1/9/2011: Recent TIME magazine article on Grant Achatz and Alinea, a three star Michelin restaurant
The hottest restaurant in Chicago right now is Girl & the Goat, which was started by Top Chef winner, Stephanie Izard
Monday, October 17, 2011
Thoughts on Harbaugh Handshake from Mary Poppins
My thoughts on the whole Harbaugh vs. Schwartz situation are summed up below. First, is my email to the Jim Rome show, which I didn't check yet if it got on. Second, is my quick take on it.Dear Sir,
Coach Harbaugh's lack of proper etiquette and gentleness was offensive to all the proper ladies I know of in London. My heart goes out to Coach Schwartz especially since he was one of my favorite students as a young girl.
Mary Poppins
London, England
My real take is that if Schwartz won and Harbaugh did the exact same thing, would he have gotten upset? I bet not. I am not a fan of either team, but looking at Schwartz's demeanor as a coach he is the type to overreact. He was looking for something more since he was pissed off that he lost. Many of us have been there. If Schwartz was simply insulted, he wouldn't have chased after Harbaugh and bumped him to look for a fight. The guy is a loser. He's a sore loser and I lost some respect for the Lion's as an organization.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Age of Monsters - Rock Paper Scissors Trailer
New FB game from Jeff Matsuda, who was the primary designer for The Batman cartoon series and use to draw X-Men, Avengers, and others. So it must be good :)
"Beginning Oct 19, download the game here: http://massivejoe.com/aomfw
If Michael Bay made a Rock Paper Scissor game, we'd like to think this would be it.
Age of Monsters -- Rock Paper Scissors transports the classic schoolyard game to a monster-eat-monster, post-apocalyptic world where mortals dare not tread (kinda like North Philadelphia).
From the mind of Jeff Matsuda, the Emmy Award winning Producer and Creative Director of The Batman cartoon, and his team at Massive Joe Studios, AOM -- RPS is the Rock Paper Scissors game to end ALL Rock Paper Scissor games. "
"Beginning Oct 19, download the game here: http://massivejoe.com/aomfw
If Michael Bay made a Rock Paper Scissor game, we'd like to think this would be it.
Age of Monsters -- Rock Paper Scissors transports the classic schoolyard game to a monster-eat-monster, post-apocalyptic world where mortals dare not tread (kinda like North Philadelphia).
From the mind of Jeff Matsuda, the Emmy Award winning Producer and Creative Director of The Batman cartoon, and his team at Massive Joe Studios, AOM -- RPS is the Rock Paper Scissors game to end ALL Rock Paper Scissor games. "
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Milton Friedman on Greed
HatTip to Dave D. Milton Friedman interviewed by Phil Donahue in 1979.
So easy to forget that under Communist regimes more people have been killed (i.e. Gulags, Khmer Rouge, political prison camps, etc.) than all the wars combined in the past 100 years. That's what one alternative to capitalism does with their bottom 20%.
So easy to forget that under Communist regimes more people have been killed (i.e. Gulags, Khmer Rouge, political prison camps, etc.) than all the wars combined in the past 100 years. That's what one alternative to capitalism does with their bottom 20%.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Vidquik Beta is Live!
Our beta is live! Well, it’s been alive for a few weeks now, but our blog gets the standard blog treatment among social media. Twitter and Facebook get much more attention hence the delay in posting this announcement on our blog.
As a recap, on September 13th, 2011 we launched our free one-to-one web conferencing service, which is video plus online presentation sharing, at DEMO, the prestigious launch conference in Silicon Valley.
There was great confirmation from people who were seeking an easy-to-use web conferencing solution and along the way we garnered some great press:
“DemoFall 2011: Top 5 New Techs I’d use” IEEE Spectrum
“The 15 Most Intriguing Pitches from DEMO Fall 2011″ Network World
“Vidquik tries to disrupt online meetings with free 1-to-1 web conferencing” VentureBeat
You can read more news clips from our Facebook page here. We also revealed our strategy and product direction, which is to focus on enhancing sales productivity and providing salespeople powerful but easy-to-use tools related to our web conferencing platform.
Vidquik is not focused on the collaboration space and providing tools to enhance corporate communications. We are focused on increasing sales productivity and helping salespeople close deals, so as we look towards our official launch in November 2011 we ask for your feedback and any recommendations you might have for our product. We appreciate your continued support and help!
As a recap, on September 13th, 2011 we launched our free one-to-one web conferencing service, which is video plus online presentation sharing, at DEMO, the prestigious launch conference in Silicon Valley.
There was great confirmation from people who were seeking an easy-to-use web conferencing solution and along the way we garnered some great press:
“DemoFall 2011: Top 5 New Techs I’d use” IEEE Spectrum
“The 15 Most Intriguing Pitches from DEMO Fall 2011″ Network World
“Vidquik tries to disrupt online meetings with free 1-to-1 web conferencing” VentureBeat
You can read more news clips from our Facebook page here. We also revealed our strategy and product direction, which is to focus on enhancing sales productivity and providing salespeople powerful but easy-to-use tools related to our web conferencing platform.
Vidquik is not focused on the collaboration space and providing tools to enhance corporate communications. We are focused on increasing sales productivity and helping salespeople close deals, so as we look towards our official launch in November 2011 we ask for your feedback and any recommendations you might have for our product. We appreciate your continued support and help!
Why Startups Fail
"Building a successful business is every entrepreneur's goal--but only 1 in 12 succeed in doing it. Why do startups fail? The Startup Genome project analyzed data from 3,200 companies and came up with some answers. At the core of any successful business are two things: a good product and a large market for that product. In other words, a startup should be able to scale. And to scale properly, it must balance the growth of five core dimensions: customers, product, team, business model, and funding. The dominant reason for failure: premature scaling of one or more of those dimensions."
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Occupy Sesame Street! Cookie News!
99% of the world's cookies are consumed by 1% of the monsters! Join the Occupy Sesame Street movement!
Friday, October 7, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wozniak Tearfully Remembers His Friend Steve
"Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak spoke with The Associated Press Thursday morning about his friend and former business partner Steve Jobs."
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
100th Roundtable Entrepreneurs Share An Insider's View Of 1M/1M Program
(Repost from 1M/1M)
What began in 2008 as an interactive forum to encourage entrepreneurship in the wake of the financial crisis continues to gain momentum. The One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative will be celebrating the 100th free online roundtable for entrepreneurs on Thursday, October 6, 2011, 8 a.m. PDT. Sramana Mitra reflects on the journey here.
During the 100th roundtable, several entrepreneurs who work with 1M/1M from all over the world will be sharing their entrepreneur journeys - their ups and downs and goals - as inspiration for other startup entrepreneurs. These 1M/1M entrepreneurs, who usually meet during the members-only private roundtables, are at various stages of building their businesses and will each provide an insider's view of the 1M/1M program.
This interactive roundtable will be moderated by Sramana Mitra, founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, an educational, business development and incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. "We are very proud of the progress our 1M/1M entrepreneurs are making. At this stage, we have validated our model of a distributed, democratic and 100% virtual entrepreneurship education and incubation program," shares Mitra. "We are able to positively impact the journeys of entrepreneurs around the world. It gives me confidence that we can achieve our goal of restructuring capitalism, and establish Capitalism 2.0 through the 1M/1M global initiative."
Usually, all attendees are invited each week to pitch their businesses at these free online roundtables. Entrepreneurs gain the experience of pitching their businesses with straight-shooting feedback from Sramana Mitra and advice on what their next steps should be. Mitra is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant who writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy, and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series
You can find more information and register to attend the 100th roundtable here: http://strategyroundtable-
What began in 2008 as an interactive forum to encourage entrepreneurship in the wake of the financial crisis continues to gain momentum. The One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative will be celebrating the 100th free online roundtable for entrepreneurs on Thursday, October 6, 2011, 8 a.m. PDT. Sramana Mitra reflects on the journey here.
During the 100th roundtable, several entrepreneurs who work with 1M/1M from all over the world will be sharing their entrepreneur journeys - their ups and downs and goals - as inspiration for other startup entrepreneurs. These 1M/1M entrepreneurs, who usually meet during the members-only private roundtables, are at various stages of building their businesses and will each provide an insider's view of the 1M/1M program.
This interactive roundtable will be moderated by Sramana Mitra, founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, an educational, business development and incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. "We are very proud of the progress our 1M/1M entrepreneurs are making. At this stage, we have validated our model of a distributed, democratic and 100% virtual entrepreneurship education and incubation program," shares Mitra. "We are able to positively impact the journeys of entrepreneurs around the world. It gives me confidence that we can achieve our goal of restructuring capitalism, and establish Capitalism 2.0 through the 1M/1M global initiative."
Usually, all attendees are invited each week to pitch their businesses at these free online roundtables. Entrepreneurs gain the experience of pitching their businesses with straight-shooting feedback from Sramana Mitra and advice on what their next steps should be. Mitra is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant who writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy, and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series
You can find more information and register to attend the 100th roundtable here: http://strategyroundtable-
Apple Floundering?
There was a mixed reaction yesterday at Apple's media day to the announcement of iPhone 4S. Every was expecting the iPhone 5, but it didn't happen. My initial thoughts were that Apple was forced to show something. Yes, there were some software improvements and Siri is cool, but was it really worth the effort of the PR push? I believe some analysts who wrote about production delays on the iPhone 5 called it correctly. There was no way they could launch the iPhone 5 in October or even November, but with the Kindle Fire announcement and the upcoming launch of Samsung's Nexus Prime and Android's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system Apple felt the pressure.
Android is still experiencing leaps in growth while Apple's market share of the mobile OS pie is stagnant. Bill Gurley called it correctly months ago that Android is an unstoppable freight train, and Apple feels it coming. Samsung alone approaches iPhone's sales numbers and I stated for a while now that by 2013 Android will takeover the seemingly unstoppable iPad in the tablet market. And this is not Tim Cook's fault. Whether it was Cook or Jobs, this was and is inevitable, which is why Apple had to start a patent battle that many consider dirty or counter to all that Silicon Valley stands for.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Silicon Valley’s Pay-It-Forward Culture Drives Innovation
My first blog post at Privy.net is up! Check it out here or just read below:
Recently, the highly regarded serial entrepreneur and Stanford lecturer, Steve Blank, wrote a piece titled, “The pay-it-forward culture of startups”. Reading it allowed me to revisit a common question that is asked to so many people in Silicon Valley. What makes this area so unique as the entrepreneurial innovation engine to the world? Representatives from countries, cities and companies all over the world visit the halls of HP, Google, Facebook, Twitter and others every week to somehow bottle the special air we breathe here or the secret potion that’s poured into our water.
There have been numerous studies done on the rare combination in Silicon Valley of venture capital, major research universities and a large pool of engineering and entrepreneurial talent, but I really believe it is the intangibles that make Silicon Valley unique and foster an incredible amount of innovation. The tangible elements have been replicated, such as in NYC or Boston, but the intangibles are more difficult to replicate.
Steve Blank described the pay-it-forward culture and how it allowed a young Steve Jobs to be mentored by Bob Noyce, Founder and CEO of Intel, and how this helped in Job’s development to become the most influential CEO of the past decade. It is the ubiquity of this pay-it-forward culture that makes Silicon Valley unique.
What does paying it forward mean? Providing information and knowledge about how to build a technology company, how to raise venture capital, and the countless lessons learned from startup life. There are seminars and consultants that provide such knowledge, but an important fabric of Silicon Valley are the experienced entrepreneurs who are happy to pass down their experiences, mistakes, successes and any kernel of wisdom that they can provide to help others to succeed.
In other industries, regions in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world, it would be considered idiotic as a business practice but not here in Silicon Valley. Most people understand that it’s not the idea, but the execution that creates the bridge towards success. A common saying is that for every “brilliant” startup idea you have there are at least 10 other people thinking the same thing, so it becomes a race to execution.
Imagine traders on Wall Street sharing all their ideas openly or Hollywood producers sharing movie script ideas? I assume this rarely happens. The culture of investment banking in NYC and Hollywood in LA value information and ideas as a competitive edge more so than in Silicon Valley.
Another essential element that I believe helps to create this pay-it-forward culture is the notion that some or most of a startup’s success is driven by luck. You have to assume at least one if not all your competitors are just as smart as you, work endless nights like you and have no social life like you. So what is the difference? Luck. I remember reading a great op-ed by a serial entrepreneur during the late ‘90s. He had 5 successful exits (a few of them were hundreds of millions each for his coffers) and 4 failed startups, but in the end he attributed most of his success to luck and timing, which he stated he could not control. So even with some of the most arrogant entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley there is an underlying sense of humility.
After my first startup during my late twenties through all the hardships that my co-founders and I endured, I remember speaking with my colleague and close friend, Jimmy, about vowing to help other entrepreneurs as much as we could so they don’t suffer like we did. This first startup was based in Chicago and Seoul. It wasn’t Silicon Valley, but the startup experience created this pay-it-forward culture within me that resounds strongly to this day.
Since Silicon Valley is the startup Mecca of the world, I eventually moved here in 2004. There are factors that attract many technology entrepreneurs all over the globe to build their dreams here and this critical mass of like-minded people is what has made Silicon Valley unique.
Recently, the highly regarded serial entrepreneur and Stanford lecturer, Steve Blank, wrote a piece titled, “The pay-it-forward culture of startups”. Reading it allowed me to revisit a common question that is asked to so many people in Silicon Valley. What makes this area so unique as the entrepreneurial innovation engine to the world? Representatives from countries, cities and companies all over the world visit the halls of HP, Google, Facebook, Twitter and others every week to somehow bottle the special air we breathe here or the secret potion that’s poured into our water.
There have been numerous studies done on the rare combination in Silicon Valley of venture capital, major research universities and a large pool of engineering and entrepreneurial talent, but I really believe it is the intangibles that make Silicon Valley unique and foster an incredible amount of innovation. The tangible elements have been replicated, such as in NYC or Boston, but the intangibles are more difficult to replicate.
Steve Blank described the pay-it-forward culture and how it allowed a young Steve Jobs to be mentored by Bob Noyce, Founder and CEO of Intel, and how this helped in Job’s development to become the most influential CEO of the past decade. It is the ubiquity of this pay-it-forward culture that makes Silicon Valley unique.
What does paying it forward mean? Providing information and knowledge about how to build a technology company, how to raise venture capital, and the countless lessons learned from startup life. There are seminars and consultants that provide such knowledge, but an important fabric of Silicon Valley are the experienced entrepreneurs who are happy to pass down their experiences, mistakes, successes and any kernel of wisdom that they can provide to help others to succeed.
In other industries, regions in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world, it would be considered idiotic as a business practice but not here in Silicon Valley. Most people understand that it’s not the idea, but the execution that creates the bridge towards success. A common saying is that for every “brilliant” startup idea you have there are at least 10 other people thinking the same thing, so it becomes a race to execution.
Imagine traders on Wall Street sharing all their ideas openly or Hollywood producers sharing movie script ideas? I assume this rarely happens. The culture of investment banking in NYC and Hollywood in LA value information and ideas as a competitive edge more so than in Silicon Valley.
Another essential element that I believe helps to create this pay-it-forward culture is the notion that some or most of a startup’s success is driven by luck. You have to assume at least one if not all your competitors are just as smart as you, work endless nights like you and have no social life like you. So what is the difference? Luck. I remember reading a great op-ed by a serial entrepreneur during the late ‘90s. He had 5 successful exits (a few of them were hundreds of millions each for his coffers) and 4 failed startups, but in the end he attributed most of his success to luck and timing, which he stated he could not control. So even with some of the most arrogant entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley there is an underlying sense of humility.
After my first startup during my late twenties through all the hardships that my co-founders and I endured, I remember speaking with my colleague and close friend, Jimmy, about vowing to help other entrepreneurs as much as we could so they don’t suffer like we did. This first startup was based in Chicago and Seoul. It wasn’t Silicon Valley, but the startup experience created this pay-it-forward culture within me that resounds strongly to this day.
Since Silicon Valley is the startup Mecca of the world, I eventually moved here in 2004. There are factors that attract many technology entrepreneurs all over the globe to build their dreams here and this critical mass of like-minded people is what has made Silicon Valley unique.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)