March 2010
29 posts
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WatchChef Roy Choi of Kogi Truck fame helped create the Korean quesadilla. He pulled $2M in revenue in 2009. Amazing.
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WatchLeading through Adversity
Paul Sagan
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Fred Wilson’s 10 Golden Principles of Successful... →
Speed
Instant Utility
Software is Media
Less is More
Make it Programmable
Make it Personal
RESTful
Discoverabilty
Clean
Playful
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How I built it: Etsy →
Etsy’s first investors were two local real estate developers that I had done some carpentry work for, and a restaurateur who I had set up an Internet café for. I had the first $50,000 check before I even launched anything and another $100,000 within six months after the launch. I gained their trust by building things for them. Building up your personal relationships, especially in the...
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Has Viral Gone Viral? « nytimes.com →
when I sat down with Andrey Ternovskiy, the 17-year-old founder of the site, for a One on One interview, I asked him if there was a single moment when traffic spiked on the site. Mr. Ternovskiy said that growth was just continual. There wasn’t a single news site, blog, or social network that created a spike in the number of users.
Viral has gone viral. If the new news isn’t instant than it...
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The Bob Chronicles →
A fantastic rundown at a deeply flawed vision.
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WatchPogue goes to the whiteboard for his “VoIP will change everything” explanation.
I’d say he’s right on.
soupsoup:
For a little $1 iPhone app, Line2 sure has the potential to shake up an entire industry. It can save you money. It can make calls where AT&T’s signal is weak, like indoors. It can turn an iPod Touch into a full-blown cellphone. And it can ruin the sleep...
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When Success Follows the College Rejection Letter... →
Rejection can be the beginning.
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“What exactly is the advantage a newspaper critic has over a Web critic? Earlier...”
– Deadspin Founder on the Future of Sports, Movies - Culture - The Atlantic
This is the future, the curation of quality content.
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Giving a High Performer Productive Feedback - Best... →
Harvard Business Review
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“Take the well-known example of the Toyota Prius. This hybrid car was not the...”
– Harvard Business Review: User-Centered Innovation Is Not Sustainable (via exmilitary)
This pretty much sums up why I’m skeptical about user-centered design and UX research: as the Prius example shows, as the recently re-circulated initial reactions to the iPod confirm, and as my early experience...
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“Wolf set up a special department of the Stasi, East Germany’s security...”
– The History of the Honey Trap – By Phillip Knightley | Foreign Policy
Do they have a listing on LinkedIn for Romeo Spies?
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The Entrepreneurial Stereotype
Entrepreneurial Stereotypes on Display at SXSW – GigaOM
From a SXSW panel on startups with both Paul Graham (Y Combinator) and David Cohen (TechStars):
Median age of TechStars & Y Combinator is 27.
They don’t like to accept older entrepreneurs since it’s more difficult to find two founders who are willing to move to a new place to risk it all.
If you want venture capital, you...
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How real? - Neven Mrgan's tumblr →
Apps should mimic the warmth of real-world objects, not their literal design;
iBooks is a bit of a special case since it’s the first step in the long evolution of a product that refuses to evolve;
Fight limitations, correct illegibility, and refuse awkwardness…
But not by simply throwing away familiarity, satisfying actions, and pure old fun.
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The future of Facebook →
— The Guardian
Once you get to a certain size, which way can you grow?
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“I say that instead of trying to manage a career, focus on your achievements and...”
– The Boss - Hyune Hand of Hoover’s - No Road Map Needed - NYTimes.com
How boss.
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“But it worries me that this Toyota thing worries us so much. We live in a world...”
– Toyotas Are Safe (Enough) - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com
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“Today they censor nipples, tomorrow editorial content.”
– It’s Time to Declare War Against Apple’s Censorship - Apple - Gizmodo
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“I dislike Michael Arrington, so I never read anything on TechCrunch (even when...”
– —Marco.org: News flash
Marco has excellent thoughts about entitlement but this quote is hilarious. Brilliant.
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“There isn’t going to be a stream of marketing, The way agencies have made...”
– — Tony Quin, CEO of IQ Interactive
Digital Agencies Get Back to Business
It sounds a lot like agencies are in the business of building robust applications that will live regardless of platforms. Web, mobile, tablet, social and whatever evolves beyond social.
Welcome to digital. If this...
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Mac vs PC: How Apple Got Back In The Game - Mac -... →
Great essay on how Steam changes everything for Mac gaming. Digital distribution makes the rest of the competitors look antiquated.
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Books in the Age of the iPad — Craig Mod →
The future of books.
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WatchAn amusing rumor about John Roberts’ Retirement spins wildly out of control because of an anonymous source.
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Queen Yu-Na's Competitive Edge - The Conversation... →
What you can learn from Queen Yuna:
Go beyond your rivals
Find special skills and hone them
What about nerves of steel? This is hilarious.
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“Movies today are, on average, much pinker than the films of half a century ago....”
– Basics - Bringing New Understanding to the Director’s Cut - NYTimes.com
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“If you want bookstores to stay alive, then you want to slow down this movement...”
– — Mike Shatzkin, chief executive of the Idea Logical Company, a consultant to publishers
Making the Case for iPad E-Book Prices - NYTimes.com
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The Supreme Septuagenarian
A Look Inside the Life of News Corp. Mogul and Raging Septuagenarian Rupert Murdoch
—New York Magazine
It should be titled the Anatomy of an Aging Ancient. Kidding.
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Making the Case for iPad E-Book Prices -... →
A nice reminder that digital publishing still has costs. Free is often a rosy ideal.