January 2012
14 posts
Davos #3: more big ideas
The last couple days have been a whirlwind in Davos. So, my post frequency has dropped a bit. To make up for it, I’ve collected a few learnings from workshops I’ve participated in and panels I’ve attended.
Because of the World Economic Forum’s social media rules, I can not attribute the below stories to specific individuals because I didn’t ask their...
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Davos Part Deux: email everyone!
My second day in Davos was full of activity. The conference itself still hadn’t officially started, so the day was filled with bonding activities with my fellow Global Shapers. We attempted to ski in the morning, but some of us were foiled by total white out conditions. I was told that this year has seen the most snowfall in Davos in 40 years! While we were recovering from our ski...
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Davos: The first 24 hours
I’ve spent my first 24 hours getting to know the 70ish other members of my cohort here at Davos for the World Economic Forum. As I mentioned before, I’m part of a group called the Global Shapers, which is new this year and contains only those under the age of 30. How I ended up here, I have no idea. The past day or so seems like a dream…probably because I haven’t slept...
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Heading to Davos
Tomorrow evening, I’m headed to Switzerland to spend a week in the beautiful town of Davos for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting. I feel fortunate to have been invited to attend this amazing gathering of people as part of a sub-organization called the Global Shapers.
This year, the Forum recognized that the majority of the people who live on this planet are under the age of...
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"What is the biggest waste you know of?"
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"How do I get a job in VC?"
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George Lucas' Doppelganger
I spent the last week in Silicon Valley, and on Friday grabbed drinks with some folks over near the Presidio in San Francisco. Unbeknownst to me, we were within a stone’s throw of the headquarters of Lucasfilm, which I later found out is host to a particularly amusing urban legend. In recounting this, I’d like to reiterate that I have no idea if this is true, but given...
“If my job was to spend money, I’d be good at it too.”
– Overheard in an (nameless) sales department, regarding the marketing department.
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Of euphemisms and rental cars
Renting a car has to be one of the worst customer service experiences still around. It’s not just the waiting in line at odd hours of the night (or morning, depending on when your plane lands), or the inexplicably broken (always broken!) self-checkout terminals, or even the seemingly redundant number of steps it takes the clerk to complete a transaction.
What bothers me most about the car...
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A few thoughts on 2011 IPOs
The nice folks at Raymond James recently sent me their 2011 Technology IPO Year-End Review. As usual, it contained some interesting takeaways, two of which I will share with you here.
#1. The IPO window is strongly correlated with low overall market volatility.
Check out what happens below when the VIX (an index which is a measure of anticipated volatility in the S&P500 over the next 30...
My most interesting classes →
“The mouse is a bug, not a feature.”
– Evan Doll, Co-founder at Flipboard
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Why I'm leaving Pandora for Turntable.fm
I wrote a post for Mashable a little while ago, in which I claimed the three most important qualities in an internet product were its appeal to (1) ego, (2) serendipity, and (3) familiarity. Serendipity is especially important for applications where discovery is involved.
My mainstay for music discovery, in particular, has been Pandora, but over the last 6 months I’ve officially shifted...
