tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37835898211882978672024-03-06T14:05:17.159+07:00OnStartupsmusings & critique about hi-tech, academia, building startups, and a journal to building eKitaEfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-21628318320078559672013-03-28T10:36:00.000+07:002013-03-31T02:21:45.500+07:00Give and ye shall recieve!I get asked alot of the time how we are able to so quickly place ourselves (or our business) in a position where we attract what we need right to us, seemingly with little effort. Are we magicians? Hardly...<br />
<br />
Here's a little secret folks - first of all we do put in the effort. In fact we probably put in more effort. However - second of all - we do so in a completely different direction. Instead of focusing on what we need, we focus on what our community needs in any relative aspect - and become a solution to that problem.<br />
<br />
A general rule of thumb to become successful as an entrepreneur (or really in any business - but especially as a tech entrepreneur) is the old addage "<i>Give and ye shall receive</i>". I stand by this with a strong conviction, and just find it rather amazing how few people even understand the concept (much less attempt it).<br />
<br />
Building a startup is not an easy task. You need to build a following, a passion in your team and an eagerness to work with your team by the top talent in a very competitive landscape. How does one stand apart? My secret to building some of the hardest rockstar tech teams over the last 15 years has been quite simple: "give and ye shall receive". Find out what your tech community's problems are - find a few which you have the ability to help solve - and you have placed yourself and thereby your company in a position where you are offering everyone else something rather than asking of them.<br />
<br />
From such a position of giving, rather than asking for - what you search for ends up coming straight to you.<br />
<br />
There seems to be a magic behind this as it just happens time and again when least expected, but its also quite logical.<br />
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So next time when you need to find new hires, resources, customers, or something for your projects or businesses - ask yourself (and your community) "what problems do we have?" - and place yourself as a solution. What you seek shall be yours in no time and you'll have made a step towards a better place for you and your organization.<br />
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Having said that I am off in half-an-hour to volunteer again and help run another university accelerator program in Shanghai!<br />
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I look forward to the massive un-solicited and un-asked for contacts, resources, and benefits I will receive simply by going there to be part of a solution - giving back to the community - and building value for others and thus myself.EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-43290375622040884152013-01-02T11:48:00.000+07:002013-01-05T06:17:13.720+07:00An Education Technology....Bubble???<i>I had to write a reply to this post on quora...</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Why is education so hot right now? Is it overrated or justified?</b><br />
Edtech startups are pretty trendy right now and are getting a lot of press. What are the pros and cons of the online education industry, with numbers?<br />
More importantly, is the growth going to die soon, or increase even more.</blockquote>
I have to first say that your question makes alot of assumptions.<br />
First of which is that "startups" implies only the US market. Typical silicon valley syndrome (you ignore the rest of the world, where many bigger things are happening). I've built some companies in the valley so I know this too.<br />
<br />
Secondly, that edtech (or what people who have never done anything in edtech before believe is edtech) is indeed a new "trend" in the valley. It isnt in the majority of the world however. Not out of the ordinary in any case (edtech has always been a relatively popular tech topic in other technology hubs around the world). Edtech is in fact the furthest behind in the states, so this is literally a very common california gold rush syndrome of people realizing the massive market that is untapped in the states. (Education is one of the top 3 industries in the world - the only industry in the top 20 list without a full technology solution yet, ie: education is still predominantly paper-based rather than digital. Remember when we changed that in med-tech what a big paradigm shift it was?)<br />
<br />
Third - what is the definition of edtech?<br />
This is one of the biggest problems right now with the majority of the startups you are talking about. The problem is simple: they dont have any experience in education, they fail to spend enough effort researching and working in academics, and ultimately have no idea what the actual edtech industry is to begin with in building their "solutions". So yes it is another bubble, happening predominately in the states (where bubbles tend to happen), and we all know what happens with those bubbles.<br />
<br />
So lets look at edtech now since I brought this up.<br />
<b><i>Edtech</b></i> needs to be understood. Just like medtech, biotech, & cleantech - edtech is a different industry. It is a problem space requiring a massive understanding and experience to properly approach. Just like a medtech startup would be viewed as insane if they didnt have doctors and researchers on their team specific to the problem they are solving - so to are edtech companies who set out without founding members who are educators and academics.<br />
What we are seeing right now is instead, hi-tech (a different industry, all together) entrepreneurs coming at edtech and trying to build edtech solutions in the hi-tech manner.<br />
<br />
<b>This is not what edtech is.</b><br />
<br />
That is why all of these online learning platforms - while great and interesting - really have nothing at all to do with edtech. They are not technology catered to, or useful for, actual teachers & students in classrooms, undertaking actual education. In fact they completely ignore the classrooms and are attempting to make virtual classrooms OUTSIDE the classroom. Which in turn creates an industry of its own, and puts pressure on the education industry because previously, well, there was no competition.<br />
<br />
So in retrospect I am <i>very very glad</i> for these approaches. They bring in new paradigms to education and help open it up for the world. Something we at eKita are all about.<br />
<br />
However, we are solving the actual industry of <b><i>education technology</i></b>. So we are happy to be in this space because there are literally, very very few others out here.<br />
<br />
<b><i>We are not building another MOOC or online learning platform - these are not edtech, and should not be called so.</b></i><br />
<br />
The real edtech projects that are most progressive are being built (and have been built for over 15-20 years) in European universities. We think its time a company dedicated to this vision be built so that a real edtech solution can go global. Thats what we are building at eKita.<br />
<br />
My CTO previously built one of these edtech platforms in a joint Austrian Swedish university collaboration. A CLMS called sTeam. (It was built in Pike, a programming language he also contributed to and wrote the book on.) It has been in use as the CLMS in many of these universities as well as many in China for over a decade now and is more advanced actual ed-technology than anything you will see in mainstream US (definitely makes moodle, blackboard, etc look lke the garbage it is). What is currently being undergone with us at eKita is to build an ed-tech future that has much more than just CLMS functionality.<br />
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As stated however we are building a solution for the actual education industry. Taking into consideration the new paradigm of online learning as a valid educational resource - but these startups preaching that online education will replace the classroom are simply insane, and damaging for society.<br />
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Online education cannot and never will be able to provide many of the necessary functions of a physical face-to-face academic institution. It shouldnt try to. Yet this is the mission-statement for many of these startups. Which should be putting up massive red warning flags for all of us interested in an actual education proponent in our societies. If you look at the top education markets in the world (the US is #22 and drops every year so its not even close), these online learning platforms are not given nearly as much press or attention. In fact they really dont get any. Why? Because they dont do very much - if anything - that the current education & edtech solutions in use dont do. In Scandinavia and most of western europe there already are better solutions than what these online courses offer (typically in both classroom and digital format).<br />
<br />
Even in large swaths of Asia (where the real future market is) - and Asian societies are actually incredibly serious about education (as much as 70% of household income is spent on education in many Asian families - compared to an average 5% in the US where parents typically complain about the cost of school supplies at $400 a year - less than what many of them will spend on beer or cigarettes).<br />
<br />
So again - I am trying to answer a question by actually adding some insight and correction to the question itself, which is hard. If you look at education industry however you shouldnt be looking at the US for answers. The US is behind. Far behind. Trying to make solutions for the US ed market will irrevocably be repetition of what's already been solved in many other ed markets. Thats not to say it wont hit off (in the US) - but it wont change the world. The US is not the world, afterall - and in education its a very small player in this world.<br />
I know its not in everybody's interest to spend 15 years as an academic in 10 countries like I have but if you really want to understand what education technology is, there's definitely better places to be coming from than hi-tech (in the US). Start looking at classrooms, institutions, Ministries of Education, progressive new schools like projectpolymath - and understand their problems, and of course function in society.<br />
A real edtech solution cannot be built without strong connections and understanding of these components - and why should it?<br />
Something very important about the educational industry is <b><i>accountability</b></i>. Educational content needs to be accountable - teachers are responsible, their schools are, their MoE's and governments are. In the global academic community (which is one of the most globally connected industries in the world - and always has been - academics invented the WWW btw) accountability is the most crucial element.<br />
These online learning platforms dont solve that. In fact the majority of them create a bigger problem - <i>unaccountability</i> in "education".<br />
<br />
I do not believe "changing the world" is meant to ignore the current workers of one of the 3 largest industries in the world and claim to be replacing it with something else.<br />
Thats just madness.<br />
<br />
Any real solution, is an actual solution for the people having the problem. Not an attempt at removing the people with the problem and instead putting in a machine.<br />
But that is what the majority of these self-called "edtech" startups are doing. Mission statement and all.<br />
A good question to ask in building a new venture is of course: <b>how big of a real problem do we solve?</b><br />
But another one that few tend to ask is: <b>in solving our problem, what others do we make?</b><br />
<br />
<b>Changing the world is about improving what we have. If we can do so drastically, all the better. Destroying what we have to make change, is not, however, progress. It is stagnation.</b><br />
<br />
I argue that the majority of these startups dont realize or even stop to think of the big problems they are causing to society by pushing their agenda of - literally - the destruction of the educational proponent of society.<br />
<br />
This is why in the top ed markets in the world, these startups get little to no press or attention - because people already have better solutions, and have no interest in destroying their ed markets which are much more functional and replacing them with unaccountable online platforms.EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-8552053492262991172012-10-13T16:48:00.002+07:002013-06-08T16:49:12.196+07:00Startups & "Zero Sum" vs "Positive Sum" Mentality<i>Zero Sum</i> and <i>Positive Sum</i> mentality is a crucial issue for would-be entrepreneurs to understand. I argue it might even <i>the most important</i>.<br />
<h4>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIou_RCqZwrkpb9XI_E45-cSThvWvejYtDX-OZsutuno3WVo7PBqbnogxuzAz4lWUdROibKPtUeaqkWdHR_nWtV_VvgWYOcsEKvCm2ZZCFDIaO2C0HGH8SufqXM5CNOQMSvZks3Q8-qh0/s1600/zero-sum-thinking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIou_RCqZwrkpb9XI_E45-cSThvWvejYtDX-OZsutuno3WVo7PBqbnogxuzAz4lWUdROibKPtUeaqkWdHR_nWtV_VvgWYOcsEKvCm2ZZCFDIaO2C0HGH8SufqXM5CNOQMSvZks3Q8-qh0/s320/zero-sum-thinking.jpg" width="320" /></a>What are <i><b>Zero Sum</b></i> and <i><b>Positive Sum</b></i> models?</h4>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Zero Sum</i>, can be described as a model in which people believe the world has a finite amount of resources & value. Thus, everyone must compete over the finite (limited) resources that exist.<br />
Zero Sum creates a very competitive world, where the only path to success or self-sustainability is through taking from others their resources, in order to increase your own.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This obviously also creates a very harsh world, where cooperation can only exist if 2 parties believe they can jointly take more resources away from others, than by themselves. In the end, both of these parties will turn on eachother to take eachother's resources, too.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A Zero Sum world is dark, dangerous, and not very pleasant, creative, or innovative.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivCGj-q-VxO32Y1r5SzuOqaNsjfJfIle6z6dLihnmDcbG5VGtQAIEwGHdoqUh2p8zGhjQ0hs-ZjQeyvleJFazmlQu4So9yBZ0AMcnHM5bGK06IpoJ4qmyggI9VctHGf8AQ7UY_9d03XiA/s1600/positive-sum-dr_kavoukian.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivCGj-q-VxO32Y1r5SzuOqaNsjfJfIle6z6dLihnmDcbG5VGtQAIEwGHdoqUh2p8zGhjQ0hs-ZjQeyvleJFazmlQu4So9yBZ0AMcnHM5bGK06IpoJ4qmyggI9VctHGf8AQ7UY_9d03XiA/s320/positive-sum-dr_kavoukian.PNG" width="320" /></a><b><i>Positive Sum</i></b>, can be described as a model in which people believe the world has an infinite amount of resources & value. Thus, everyone agrees that the easiest way to create more resources & value for themselves, is simply to <i>create it</i>.</div>
<div>
Positive Sum results in a very cooperative world, where the easiest path to success or self-sustainability is through combining efforts with others who are doing the same / similar things, and being able to jointly grow much bigger and stronger than one would be able to by oneself.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This obviously creates a very creative, innovative world as is in fact the only kind of world where innovation and creativity can flourish. Innovation can only happen when innovative minds (plural) join together to build not only innovative new products, but an innovative way to sustain such products in a business capacity.</div>
<div>
This is what a company in itself is - a positive sum model where people work together to achieve a common goal.</div>
<h4>
So what does this have to do with startups?</h4>
<div>
This model is not only limited to a singular company however - as <i>entire economies</i> which embrace a positive sum model, become the powerhouses of the world. For example: Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, Boston. Those who flourish in these epicenters of innovation, are all pretty much on the same page: in order to flourish, we must share, collaborate, and pool our common resources to support our goals of innovation.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Startups by nature are new entities formed to accomplish something that is quite above their resources & means to do so. Therefor, startups - above all other types of entities - benefit the most by embracing a positive sum model and finding the others that do as well.</div>
<h4>
This sounds vaguely familiar</h4>
<div>
Human beings are by nature a positive sum animal. We are biologically a pack animal that only survives by bonding together and pooling our resources, each of us with our own specialties and contributions, roles and responsibilities.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Unlike polar bears, which are a zero sum animal. Polar bears eat whatever they can find, including their own children. Which is why they also live alone, their entire lives.</div>
<h4>
So how can I embrace this and get the most out of it?</h4>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDluMapfOj22bblOf_pVqu8n4lGD0RR4ut_tglvkhyphenhyphenKCUhrwTBkzol2IEYjdCCHzlLeBxgdz4c-Gne84L5cY8RcObFbGfYdbF4NxNQgIyL0Nr4t8NPQOoFGPoPrn25sF65w9O_7bjiWbk/s1600/create-value-and-profit-will-follow.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDluMapfOj22bblOf_pVqu8n4lGD0RR4ut_tglvkhyphenhyphenKCUhrwTBkzol2IEYjdCCHzlLeBxgdz4c-Gne84L5cY8RcObFbGfYdbF4NxNQgIyL0Nr4t8NPQOoFGPoPrn25sF65w9O_7bjiWbk/s1600/create-value-and-profit-will-follow.png" /></a>Simple. A common rule of thumb in the innovation / startup industry is:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Create value and profit will follow.</i></blockquote>
So, focus on creating value. Just like a positive sum mentality dictates: create solutions, create resources, create value in what you do and in the space around you. Profit will follow.<br />
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<h4>
Want an example?</h4>
Take a simple walk around to various startups and coworking spaces in Silicon Valley/Alley/Wadi - and you will see something that is rare in much of the rest of the world: people creating, out of seemingly thin air, new <i>value </i>- <b>and sharing that value with eachother</b>. Present in these ecosystems is not only an <i>atmosphere </i>of sharing knowledge, techniques, and opportunities - but there is a very different <i>attitude </i>in place. An attitude driven by openness, curiosity, and a true interest in <b>building new things</b>.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL2-K5M-FeJpKqpMtrNlLj6QL1r4omj-Xff7s_x8q9Xsg-wPA9FTlT7j1VskVMg7uQx22sKi2J2ZtLdh2v7TkBUMfm1kcGxHqt_g_niXTVHAlqkQeSMddgaUsNXyDCPZS-eS3ujmkOvgE/s1600/nonzerosum.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL2-K5M-FeJpKqpMtrNlLj6QL1r4omj-Xff7s_x8q9Xsg-wPA9FTlT7j1VskVMg7uQx22sKi2J2ZtLdh2v7TkBUMfm1kcGxHqt_g_niXTVHAlqkQeSMddgaUsNXyDCPZS-eS3ujmkOvgE/s320/nonzerosum.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
Everyday work in innovation ecosystems is quite a bit different than most people expect: People get together and talk, share their ideas, stories, and projects. They share contacts, share notes, and help eachother solve problems.<br />
Startups in these successful ecosystems are predominantly built with a relatively <i>flat hierarchy</i>. Bureaucracy is taboo, shunned by all.<br />
There are countless events, every night - setup by enthusiasts <i style="font-weight: bold;">eager to share their knowledge</i> - and, quite obviously, full of participants not only eager to learn; but also <i>eager to share theirs as well</i>.<br />
The entire concept of "<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference">un-conference</a></b>" birthed out of these startup ecosystems. This wasn't the only new model of human organization that became common-language due to startup ecosystems either. I'm sure you all have heard of "<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coworking">co-working spaces</a></b>" - "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_desking"><b>hot desking</b></a>" and both physical <i>and</i> virtual "<b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_workspace">collaborative workspaces</a></b>".<br />
<h4>
The heralding of a new economic revolution, say goodbye to the industrial age!</h4>
In recent years there is even a new phenomena around using the "crowd". Crowdsourcing, crowdfunding - literally putting a request for value or resources out into the open and seeing how people eagerly jump in and provide that value or resource. A more cooperative and inclusive system would have never been thought possible by most, just 5 or 10 short years ago.<br />
All of this might not seem so interesting to our younger readers; who are growing up in this new economic model. However, for those of us only as young as 30 - we remember quite well the early years of our careers where such concepts were considered absolutely crazy<i>...and thus so were we for trying them anyway!</i><br />
<br />
The mentality shift in professional and social life in the last few decades has obviously seen more shifts and more <i>progress</i> (I like to optimistically call it that) than most - if not all - previous generations. Business mentality in how to build new businesses with <i>waste management sciences</i> such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_six_sigma">Lean Six Sigma</a>, <a href="http://www.scrum.org/">SCRUM</a>, <a href="http://agilemanifesto.org/">agile</a> & <a href="http://theleanstartup.com/">leanstartup</a> are becoming a fore-front issue in innovation ecosystems; and those <a href="http://whatsupfinland.org/english/nokia-the-dying-giant/">companies that dont learn these techniques are rapidly dying</a>.<br />
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<h4>
In conclusion</h4>
So, you want to build a startup? Find others around you who openly share, give, and of course <i>learn to do the same yourself</i>.<br />
<br />
<u>Think about this...</u><br />
If you have 50 hours a week, and you give 1 hour of your time to 2 people each week; what have you really lost? <i>2 hours?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Now, if you spend 4 weeks (a month) giving 1 hour to 2 new people each week (4 weeks * 2 people = 8 people) and just 1 of those 8 people turns out to be helpful? What have you lost? <i>2 * 7 = 14 hours?</i><br />
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Now, for that 1 person who turns out to be helpful - lets say he connects you with a co-founder for your startup, or intros you to an investor who wants to invest, or helps you solve a technical issue that saves you 4 months of bad technical decisions. What have you gained?<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Everything</i>.<br />
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Furthermore, for the 14 hours you "wasted" on the other 7 people? You've actually gained something: you know that you never have to waste time or resources on them again.<br />
<br />
So actually, you have gained <i style="font-weight: bold;">everything</i>.<br />
You've not only found others who are good people to work with, share with, and collaborate with...<br />
...but you've quickly found out who isn't - saving you from potentially wasting infinitely more time and resources on people who aren't worth it.<br />
<br />
So don't be afraid to <i>waste</i> a bit of time helping others, providing value for them. <i>Even if they don't return it.</i><br />
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People who aren't generous, who don't provide value openly, will not succeed anyway. So really the most important thing for you is to find an efficient way to figure out <i>who</i> the real valuable people are: the ones who will share, collaborate, and communicate as generously as you. This method works great for me.<br />
Once you've found those who aren't generous, valuable, and capable? <i>You can ignore them -</i> <i><b>leave them in your dust</b></i>. Because they probably don't even know how to contribute anyway.<br />
<br />
Like I said before...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Create value and profit will follow.</i></blockquote>
If you want to be a part of a successful startup ecosystem:<br />
<ul>
<li>learn to <i>focus </i>on<i> </i><b>creating value</b> for those around you</li>
<li>find <i>cooperation </i>where you thought there was only<b> competition</b>; a win-win situation is almost always possible</li>
<li>study and learn <i>not only techniques</i>, but also <b>mentality and attitude</b> from ecosystems that have succeeded</li>
<li>when opportunity arises to create new value, <i>seize it!</i></li>
<li>always strive to be inclusive - <i>if you leave your door open, value and profit will come to you</i></li>
</ul>
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EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-20750573780019611132012-08-31T23:58:00.000+07:002012-08-31T23:58:32.985+07:00Singapore!I just have to make a short post here - a bit off-topic, about how amazing Singapore is.<br />
<br />
The city itself is definitely a spectacle alone.<br />
More beautiful skycrapers huddled together in seeming synchronicity I have never before seen.<br />
The city is very new, obviously. Singapore itself is now 47 years old - something that is currently being celebrated with banners and flags all over the city.<br />
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I will definitely have to be here for its 50th birthday. Perhaps by then eKita will be based here and so will I.<br />
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A common phrase here that the locals seem to have ingrained into them goes <i>"everything just works"</i>...and it does. Busses, subways, everything is on time. People queue automatically for even the smallest things - like waiting for a taxi.<br />
In fact everything works so well here - that people dont actually need to <i>think</i> all that much. Not to be negative, of course. I'm sure many people use that brain power to think of <i>other things</i> instead of the mundane trivialities in life that aught to be automated anyway.<br />
It is a high-tech city with an efficiency level rarely seen anywhere else, and it is also very green. Singapore is indeed the garden city. With penthouse gardens and garden balconies even a common sight amongst the city skyline.<br />
<br />
Singaporeans also seem to be incredibly happy with their fair city - which of course they should be. I havent actually spoken to a single true local here yet who felt like they wanted to move elsewhere - and yes, they do travel quite a bit. When you live in a country that is in fact a city (and an island) - taking even a short vacation means a passport and flight is involved; so might as well go anywhere. It appears quite common that Singaporeans go to essentially all random corners of the globe - so they have a good deal to compare to: and yes, they definitely should be happy with their fair city.<br />
<br />
The SG startup scene is also quite a-buzz. Though it seems the majority of startups are built by foreigners, the city provides quite the benefits for both locals and foreigners (especially if they become permanent residents). Government matching 1:1 for investments into startups is available for angel-type investments. There is also an entity called the NRF (<a href="http://www.nrf.gov.sg/">www.nrf.gov.sg</a>) which provides a clean $500k for startups that get verified and invested into for a mere $89k by one of the accredited incubators.<br />
In Singapore the term incubator is not the traditional incubator either - it simply means it is some sort of fund or partnership of investors.<br />
<br />
It seems almost too good to be true actually. There are a few catches - for example one must have an SG-national or PR (permanent resident holder) as local director of your company. There are easy ways to sort this out however, and it just takes some time to find the right local partner and make a good friend and ally. Which is actually what I am currently doing myself.<br />
<br />
People here are quite friendly, fairly occupied in their own lives, and to sum-up life in this city in 3 words I could most properly offer up: safe, clean, & quality.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhphTRNHqNzQnCmZEC4npCDy1vTbGbcCqKzAeBdCjhmuhbPdu5TX1R3pluI9ZQB33N0Bu-Hg4wXtbb7hNS5RLLY-t1-M6VF0ED89WoKdbqcAdQDYjjNvVHjJs42eiq5Cz3xZUg1vwRRE5E/s1600/2012-08-28+14.35.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhphTRNHqNzQnCmZEC4npCDy1vTbGbcCqKzAeBdCjhmuhbPdu5TX1R3pluI9ZQB33N0Bu-Hg4wXtbb7hNS5RLLY-t1-M6VF0ED89WoKdbqcAdQDYjjNvVHjJs42eiq5Cz3xZUg1vwRRE5E/s200/2012-08-28+14.35.16.jpg" width="150" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYZMNhIFahHh2KggrxPLwx6myR-FwgC2fgccZRf662ttWtlJPbxCzv4BudXpYZsu-xcC72MnhQc8m-LrdvKGBRj8dypJPjtFt0ax6g_O6z00zjdmoiqi_Elo-Yh_w0VOPcawTYyYTnXz4/s1600/2012-08-28+14.36.31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYZMNhIFahHh2KggrxPLwx6myR-FwgC2fgccZRf662ttWtlJPbxCzv4BudXpYZsu-xcC72MnhQc8m-LrdvKGBRj8dypJPjtFt0ax6g_O6z00zjdmoiqi_Elo-Yh_w0VOPcawTYyYTnXz4/s200/2012-08-28+14.36.31.jpg" width="150" /></a>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCwyTarOHWA54d5jwchW_fgjvCUbxMI14MRbwwEhE8ilvw2jhvrMcq7mLSutPbXWkO1VunSMXh7nDnxBN953vClTht25PHZvg6jZRWB1tB15njNY23Vg-ojJ9x0Ij10jPW9M3L7F9oETk/s1600/2012-08-28+14.44.53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCwyTarOHWA54d5jwchW_fgjvCUbxMI14MRbwwEhE8ilvw2jhvrMcq7mLSutPbXWkO1VunSMXh7nDnxBN953vClTht25PHZvg6jZRWB1tB15njNY23Vg-ojJ9x0Ij10jPW9M3L7F9oETk/s200/2012-08-28+14.44.53.jpg" width="200" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdJzyDng1PIIeLbN9H8FkbyW8NJKLwTajUlOmt9m-pvYir-F7WH1F2YY2K8wuXCANxRfxDqlfw2fMW7rJHBY4kbREU_hZ0KQXYVCHnb4PSojIoAnRRtxj1OlNv2dTkyu45CFJaUR0bwk/s1600/2012-08-28+16.21.28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdJzyDng1PIIeLbN9H8FkbyW8NJKLwTajUlOmt9m-pvYir-F7WH1F2YY2K8wuXCANxRfxDqlfw2fMW7rJHBY4kbREU_hZ0KQXYVCHnb4PSojIoAnRRtxj1OlNv2dTkyu45CFJaUR0bwk/s200/2012-08-28+16.21.28.jpg" width="150" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYZ9isI-n9iq7fAmRRPeGNSCbYIuEM2A6Ff3fz7HKhuLTVBB7EU2ObmMpwOcDRMnJ3W5ANE56oPhCJPtmpJf_S4yf0h8yJ0i4txLNVGUV7GGnvMMxeR7cOyWynigkyJ1wb4K96ON7gNxc/s1600/2012-08-28+18.24.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYZ9isI-n9iq7fAmRRPeGNSCbYIuEM2A6Ff3fz7HKhuLTVBB7EU2ObmMpwOcDRMnJ3W5ANE56oPhCJPtmpJf_S4yf0h8yJ0i4txLNVGUV7GGnvMMxeR7cOyWynigkyJ1wb4K96ON7gNxc/s200/2012-08-28+18.24.55.jpg" width="200" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWhlmzyzq5GxpGRT09cW8qzmBD9l8X4vdjIB3STmsMoUnDat8rb9W1fhV4uVR8WOPM886Zr78DyYPiYqewFEwcuoyL86EJ-0J78wsYekFwpVrzwo30IcrtQP7bOcKq-BEY-F3aDo7syP0/s1600/2012-08-28+18.25.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWhlmzyzq5GxpGRT09cW8qzmBD9l8X4vdjIB3STmsMoUnDat8rb9W1fhV4uVR8WOPM886Zr78DyYPiYqewFEwcuoyL86EJ-0J78wsYekFwpVrzwo30IcrtQP7bOcKq-BEY-F3aDo7syP0/s200/2012-08-28+18.25.13.jpg" width="200" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPen_BpfZKihSKmxbnJlpd4bRDJEInaYCd-Qrrq0mqbugkBQnGyx-ZIEem3_cvhT4gC0IuxDvOUy75ZkhAEDVtCEogeXMiL_fZ7FF_cCYxTLejUuoqe_UgZN0u39QGZJPVNt8sFy3fAq8/s1600/2012-08-28+18.55.58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPen_BpfZKihSKmxbnJlpd4bRDJEInaYCd-Qrrq0mqbugkBQnGyx-ZIEem3_cvhT4gC0IuxDvOUy75ZkhAEDVtCEogeXMiL_fZ7FF_cCYxTLejUuoqe_UgZN0u39QGZJPVNt8sFy3fAq8/s200/2012-08-28+18.55.58.jpg" width="200" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdAlhJ9aE167nIZCkraLgm9zy2_v_-16_viihB6QBzEUZ5ZY_1nxskYgB_jsrvi_qFVX30q3JGdnHcEGWvciz0l6aH8A1Cm3LDp8Zqt1IiObk-wXfPFSrAo8zo1gUBVaHz7d6gLmM5u4/s1600/2012-08-28+19.22.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPdAlhJ9aE167nIZCkraLgm9zy2_v_-16_viihB6QBzEUZ5ZY_1nxskYgB_jsrvi_qFVX30q3JGdnHcEGWvciz0l6aH8A1Cm3LDp8Zqt1IiObk-wXfPFSrAo8zo1gUBVaHz7d6gLmM5u4/s200/2012-08-28+19.22.03.jpg" width="200" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDVmepoG3yqI0w9UWI6JA6TRjX3cPkR8e8P4ZxGKMpoOM1bimumsgwyH6zG31rgVjic7scJAIM3_eIGHgNpo18PMXMviWpL8VGfE9wu8uD69gG2QdRyS7QRqGyFMaklcI_yYG8h-viEzM/s1600/2012-08-28+19.22.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDVmepoG3yqI0w9UWI6JA6TRjX3cPkR8e8P4ZxGKMpoOM1bimumsgwyH6zG31rgVjic7scJAIM3_eIGHgNpo18PMXMviWpL8VGfE9wu8uD69gG2QdRyS7QRqGyFMaklcI_yYG8h-viEzM/s200/2012-08-28+19.22.15.jpg" width="200" /></a>EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-63947055334193919192012-08-26T00:15:00.000+07:002012-08-26T13:03:17.992+07:00Apples are no longer in seasonApple has finally let the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/apple-wins-105-billion-in-samsung-patent/240006230" target="_blank">cat out of the bag</a>.<br />
<br />
The <b>carnivorous giant</b> has finally showed its teeth with seething aggression.<br />
This day we should rejoice. For it is the beginning of the end of this <a href="http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum" target="_blank">Edisonian vulcher</a>.<br />
<br />
With it's market share shrinking and long term prospectus without Steve at the helm diminishing its cult status (that it worked so hard for so many years to brainwash followers into!) - its only prerogative left is to show its true colors and lunge bloodthirstily at all it's counterparts who under it's thumb have slipped free to create humanity's real innovations and progress.<br />
<br />
As my grand father always said: progress its inevitable, those who resist it are not only doomed to failure but are the bane of humanity. For humanity strives towards progress. It is our nature and what makes us great. <br />
<br />
So long Apple. your treacherous ways are revealed for all to see. You've set your own doomsday clock in motion.<br />
The only pity left for your carcass will be that you werent fortunate enough to be raised by someone as noble as my grandfather.<br />
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EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-25660649610270236842012-08-20T13:08:00.000+07:002013-03-28T15:35:26.093+07:00Define Startup, Exactly?<br />
I rarely do this: but a facebook thread just really piqued my interest and I think this bit of info is a valid article in itself.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNvHOkf-712PkSajILrhrvMhW7_3LwhP2iSH8OyinONTCuIhb23q4iCb393nTUYA2tg8e62ahVZ8S-MqE_TkZE6f4GVDoTOHvZmFBVdRMLQFswHpQJGBYJ2QkD_dRCSvyrrH4ACpGXH_U/s1600/shop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNvHOkf-712PkSajILrhrvMhW7_3LwhP2iSH8OyinONTCuIhb23q4iCb393nTUYA2tg8e62ahVZ8S-MqE_TkZE6f4GVDoTOHvZmFBVdRMLQFswHpQJGBYJ2QkD_dRCSvyrrH4ACpGXH_U/s200/shop.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>The problem?</b><br />
Most places in the world trying to build innovative knowledge-based economies are struggling with the actual understanding of <i>what those economies look like</i>.<br />
(I'll give you a hint: it doesnt look like this)<br />
<br />
I'm going to use 3 scenarios to prove a point here:<br />
<b>Luxembourg </b>- which will act as the extreme case of basically all of western Europe. (All of western Europe is similar enough - so read <i>Luxembourg </i>as <i>Europe</i> if you want.)<br />
<b>Thailand </b>- which is one of the only places now in SE Asia without a startup scene. (Even Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia are sprouting - and of course the local 800-lb gorilla Singapore is way ahead: one of the top 6 spots in the world.)<br />
<b>And India</b> - which has a HUGE tech industry, LOTS of engineers, and enormous amount of capital and connections.<br />
<br />
<i>So whats the problem?</i> Why are these places - which are as I said simply examples out of hundreds of places in the world - who are trying to build innovative knowledge-based economies, not succeeding in doing so?<br />
<br />
First I'll tell you why NOT...<br />
<b>Its not a financial issue</b> - as I saw in <b>Luxembourg </b>a few months ago (highest GDP country in the world, people still live in Chateau's and Castles, it's a private banking haven)...<b>Thailand </b>has <i>investor permanent residency visas</i> for foreigners who want to enjoy one of the highest qualities of life that Thailand currently offers, and all they have to do is invest. Theres lots of em here from Chinese to Americans and Europeans. <b>India</b> has some of the wealthiest people/families in the world - and especially in Asia, who also have some of the widest range of funds and capital available.<br />
<br />
<b>It's also not a technical ability issue</b> - <b>Luxembourg </b>is in the middle of a cradle of the best scientific and engineering schools in Europe - <b>Bangkok </b>has close to a dozen technical universities pumping out 100,000 skilled engineers per year - <b>India</b>? yea dont even get me started.<br />
<br />
<b>It's not either a legal issue</b> - <b>Luxembourg </b>has the "best IP model in the west", and very efficient tax and business reforms. <b>Thailand </b>has very easy laws to work around if you have only a minimal amount of solid backing. <b>India</b>...they dont even make copies of the paperwork. (OK - not literally, but I know companies operating there for close to 10 years who dont actually exist on paper in India. Theyre doing fine. Never had a problem.)<br />
<br />
So why is it that startups simply - <u>dont exist</u> (for the most part) in these environments which are actually incredibly supportive for them?<br />
<br />
<u>I answered this discussion thread on facebook as such:</u><br />
I read a very good article by Dr Jay Chunsuparerk last night concerning this topic exactly - which I actually am glad to hear because this is why I moved our company out here.<br />
The potential and eagerness to do something *BIG* and meaningful - not just outsourced consulting or web-dev shops - but actual PRODUCT companies - is where we need to drive things in order for a true startup scene to flourish here.<br />
<br />
It is a very wide misunderstanding here (and I've seen it all over the world - its not unique to Thailand) that starting up a business, filing for a tax number, and selling your SKILLS or SERVICES = a startup.<br />
<br />
That is not at all what a startup is - that is a services company.<br />
A startup, by definition and purpose, is NOT a services company.<br />
An entrepreneur, likewise, is NOT someone who builds a company that sells services (at whatever scale: large or small). An entrepreneur is someone who INNOVATES a new kind of business model, and VALIDATES it.<br />
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<br />
Taken from Paul Graham himself:<br />
A <b>*startup*</b> is a TEMPORARY human organization that is actively SEARCHING for a SCALABLE, REPEATABLE, business model.<br />
A <b>*company*</b> is a DEFINED human organization that has already FOUND, and is EXECUTING it's repeatable business model.<br />
<i>...and I'll add one of my own which I've used for awhile now:</i><br />
A <b>*consultancy*</b> is a TEMPORARY human organization that provides SERVICES and SKILLS to a startup or company - but has no business model of its own - a consultancy's business model is created by the market - not itself.<br />
<br />
What we are actually seeing in Thailand - is service companies or consultancies (whichever you like to call them).<br />
Service companies are selling SKILLS, and ABILITIES - these are intangible, non-physical products which are only put to use by OTHER organizations who actually come up with the INNOVATION to building new products.<br />
Service companies are outsourced labour.<br />
Consultant/service companies are therefor very crucial - as there is always going to be holes in companies that need filling; and there will DEFINITELY always be holes in startups that need filling.<br />
Consultancies fill these holes.<br />
<br />
However, it is completely wrong to call a consultancy or service company a startup. Likewise just as wrong to call the people behind it entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs = innovators. Service companies are not.<br />
I - for example - outsource my financial services as long as I can when I build a startup. I outsource CFO roles completely. I am currently using E&Y to take care of all my financial needs. I wont hire an internal CFO until we absolutely have to - or until a great opportunity crosses our path to do so.<br />
E&Y cannot be called a startup however. (Even if it was a smaller, newer, firm that I used instead)<br />
It is a services company.<br />
<br />
Likewise - a website dev shop cannot be called a startup.<br />
If I'm a business and I need a website, hiring a company to build it is the exact same thing as hiring E&Y to do my books as a tech business.<br />
They are both service companies.<br />
They are not startups.<br />
<br />
Service companies are very needed, of course - startups cannot survive without them! They are the first crucial part of building a startup ecosystem. So - would-be-entrepreneurs, take this lesson to heart: treat your service companies well! They deserve our respect.<br />
<br />
I've been training budding entrepreneurs for a long time. Either directly involved in their startups investing/advising/mentoring (sometimes even coding) or even just by academic means..... But it never ceases to amaze me that everytime I go somewhere new - I have to repeat myself all over again. "<i>Service companies are not startups</i>"<br />
<br />
Here in SEA the very definition of a startup is still something that needs to be grasped.<br />
That is why there are, just like Adrian stated: not very many actual startups to invest in.<br />
Its not about substance - its about actually understanding what a startup is.<br />
So many people dont understand that yet - and therefor, their companies appear to be "not so substantial".<br />
It's because they arent really startups to begin with.<br />
(...a<i style="font-weight: bold;">nd they shouldnt be needing investment anyway unless their services are simply so bad that nobody will hire their labour!</i>)<br />
<br />
Of course - there is also the problem of helping those few startups who are innovating something new - to understand how to build products for a global market.<br />
Thailand is in a very good position right now though. I am excited to be here. I am fairly positive I will build my company here. Because the people here are respectful, willing to learn, and easy to work with.<br />
<br />
So - lets get busy and fill these holes.<br />bangkok.3daystartup.org and many other things we are rolling out are here to do just that. They work. Lets get busy.EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-81989765073135395382012-08-17T19:21:00.001+07:002012-08-19T11:26:49.762+07:00Taking it Global: "The Finnish Model"I've known a long time about the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/from-finland-an-intriguing-school-reform-model.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all" target="_blank">Finnish Model</a> of education - as I am not only Scandinavian as well - but from Finland's closest neighbor: Sweden.<br />
A fact that bears more semblance than just geography, too - (secondary national language of Finland: Swedish; and Finland itself used to be Swedish territory).<br />
<br />
But history or national prestige isnt why I am writing this - in fact the real prestige out of this article will undoubtedly go to Finland, and you will soon discover why.<br />
<br />
I will take a moment to divulge what was written at the bottom of <a href="http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/08/15-reasons-reformers-are-looking-finland/" target="_blank">this post</a> however:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Thirty years ago, Finland’s education system was in the same sorry state that America’s is today. It was mediocre and inequitable and relied on many of the same measures of success that we use here, like standardized testing and teacher tracking. Teachers had varying degrees of education and students didn’t have access to equal education resources. They’ve managed to change all of that in just a few decades. Regardless of whether the U.S. can import some of what makes Finland’s schools so successful, they can get hope from the rapid changes to the Finnish education system that show the true and lasting impact smart reforms can have on a country’s educational potential.</blockquote>
I highly suggest reading the entire article, too. <a href="http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/08/15-reasons-reformers-are-looking-finland/" target="_blank">So here it is again...</a><br />
<br />
To continue onto my point however, with the article above in mind, the whole goal of educators wherever they are is to in fact improve their models, efficiency, and results - is it not?<br />
So - call it obvious if you will (though it is apparently not obvious enough that it's happened - food for thought) - but: why not create a platform or channel of communication whereby educators can share those methods that in fact work the best? And the content created by them?<br />
<br />
I'm touching again, of course, on the crucial goal we at <a href="http://www.ekita.co/" target="_blank">eKita</a> have to creating a global platform by which the world's <b>academic standard</b> will be increased by simple means of exposure, collaboration, and sharing of resources, tools, & methods by the worlds teachers.<br />
<br />
When teachers are able to share across borders seamlessly - which of course is the reason the WWW was invented in the first place - there is a <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/" target="_blank">drastic measure of improvement in student results</a>. I argue that this improvement can even take place when local policy isn't the same on both ends, and can in fact pressure local policy to adopt the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120425355065601997.html" target="_blank">more successful model</a>.<br />
Obviously - some teachers have better<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/finland-puts-bar-high-for-teachers-kids-wellbeing-qa2tbfr-134546548.html" target="_blank"> tools, training, and resources</a> than others; but in our current information age where we can assume every teacher has internet access: a platform to easily share information, content, methods, and back it up with results is highly in order - dont you think?<br />
<br />
The reverse affect also takes place which those same teachers (with more tools, training, and resources) are also able to share more of their results, methods, and successes so that teachers in <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/what-the-us-cant-learn-from-finland-about-ed-reform/2012/04/16/gIQAGIvVMT_blog.html" target="_blank">less fortunate areas can learn how to improve their methods</a>.<br />
With a look at platforms of communication like <a href="http://www.quora.com/" target="_blank">Quora</a> - which are educational as a by-product - isnt it obvious that something similar, with vetted input from the world's teachers and academia, will eventually make a strong showing to - well, the entire world - which models are the best, and most successful?<br />
<br />
I believe quite strongly that it will.<br />
And that is exactly what we are building into the architecture and vision of <a href="http://www.ekita.co/" target="_blank">eKita</a>.EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-29365489698544435332012-08-14T11:00:00.000+07:002012-08-16T09:45:20.530+07:00Online Education & "MOOC's" getting a bad rap - by a bad rapper...<h2>
OOOOOH BOOOOY!</h2>
This one got me fired up.<br />
<br />
Before reading this post, you'll have to read the article I am actually responding to.<br />
Which can be found here:<br />
<a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Online-Education-Wont/133531/">http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Online-Education-Wont/133531/</a> <br />
<br />
<h2>
<b>And my response-with-vengeance</b></h2>
All of your reasons for why online education is apparently flawed and doomed to failure - whereby people will somehow conform to your opinion, realize their mistake at even caring about it, and revert to old institutional models of ivory tower education - are nothing but biased opinion from a very institutionalized worldview attempting to attack the new in order to cling to the old.<br />
<b>Read</b>: your reasons make no logical sense first of all and are simply an unsupported (in reality at least) attack on what you view as a threat to your comfortable existence of fascist-styled "education".<br />
<b>Conclusion</b>: your time is over, either adapt or get rolled over. It's obvious from the sense of desperation in your post that you, too, understand this. So why the charade?<br />
<br />
While I agree with the original statement: <i>online classes cant replace universities</i> - as an actual academic I have much more valid reasons than you do (are you an actual academic? I find it very hard to believe from your post).<br />
<br />
<u>For example, just to give you some real, actual reasons:</u><br />
1) <b>Labwork</b>: how will a physics student get access to physics labs and actually do the hands-on work needed to learn physics?<br />
Universities will always exist for this reason alone: they are able to pool resources and be centers of RESEARCH and actual ACADEMIA.<br />
<br />
2) <b>Accreditation & Accountability</b>: What you briefly - almost - touched on but fell a bit short and failed at was to analyze how universities (schools in general for that matter) bring accountability for people's learning AND teaching - both of which are incredibly important.<br />
Likewise via that very accountability comes the true merit of accreditation.<br />
<br />
Your reasons are actually meaningless to your original argument - in order - because:<br />
1) It is already too easy to cheat in regular schools - and being online or not really doesnt change that at all.<br />
Cheating, and likewise protecting against it (ie: policing) isnt the role of an institution of learning. The role of an institution of learning is to <i>MAKE SURE ITS STUDENTS LEARN</i>!<br />
How can you call yourself an academic when you openly have no understanding of this?<br />
<br />
2) Star students can shine even moreso using social media and global connectivity. The entire world can know of their status. Look at code-sharing sites like github and stackoverflow: those are still students, people are still on there to "learn how to code" just as much as teachers are there to teach how to code. Those who achieve the most are known around the world and their advice and participation is eagerly sought after.<br />
Github is actually becoming the new CV. I dont want to look at a piece of paper when I hire an engineer - I want to see her/his work.<br />
Just like artists, architects, and designers have used portfolios and examples of their work for decades (centuries?) to provide confirmation of their skills - now so too are engineers, writers, and yes - even economists like you claim to be: real ones have actual tangible evidence of their abilities. Not a CV.<br />
Your view of how the working world works seems to be incredibly far behind the times...<br />
<br />
3) This one made me laugh out loud - no really. Employers??? Have you <i>ever </i>employed anyone? I have built the teams behind 7 companies, selected participants for events, & hired employees for many NGO/NPOs. In these spaces throughout my life, I've hired roughly 300 people - and interviewed well over 4000. I'm not an HR person either. I'm a serial entrepreneur. Contrary to your very opinionated article: I actively EMPLOY people who DO think out of the box, who DO question authority, and who DO prove their skills and ability, and more importantly: teamwork ability OUTSIDE of the traditional model. Why? Because the traditional model produces factory workers.<br />
I dont hire factory workers, and the future industry wont need to either as we are increasingly making technology to do all our automation.<br />
Employers - that is, REAL ones, like me, actively look for people that do not conform to your fascist mentality of obedience. We build robots and automative tools for that.<br />
Humans are not robots. Despite people like you who want to make them that, humans will always resist such work ethic and pressure to conform them.<br />
Reistance is futile. You cannot win. Human potential will never be satisfied with repetition & structured trivialities.<br />
The fact is that each generation is increasingly smarter than the last.<br />
If you are aging, and arent tirelessly pushing yourself to learn and stay on top every day of your life - then your 20 year old students are much smarter than you, and you dont even have the slightest justification to be deciding what their lives should entail.<br />
You should be listening to them. Engaging them. Stimulating them to help them learn - and guess what: you just might be surprised - because in teaching this way (which is now proven to be the most effective model of pedagogy, btw) you just might learn alot yourself.<br />
So - about being an academic - Stop Lying.<br />
<br />
4) This reason alone is the only argument you posed that actually holds valid for the reasons you mentioned, eg: PhD or masters thesis - how can a computer properly grade one? Even an essay or presentation should be given human attention, otherwise the grading (ie: feedback loop) mechanism isnt effective for the student. <b>+1 there</b>.<br />
Though you understood the underlying issue of skilled-human necessity to evaluate other learning-human work, you still dont understand why.<br />
This reason has nothing to do with online - or offline - education.<br />
Online education can in fact automate and make the process of grading much more simple and easier for teachers. That is in fact a primary feature of well designed online learning platforms.<br />
So you just lost this argument by fact of not understanding the actual argument.<br />
Because you arent an academic.<b> -1 there</b>.<br />
<br />
5) Wait - you are arguing that because students will buy dishwashers to free up their day <i>TO STUDY MORE</i> - it is a bad thing? That the "arms race" of students actively <i>PUSHING </i>themselves, and even <i>SPENDING THEIR OWN POCKET MONEY</i> to <i>IMPROVE </i>themselves is a bad thing?<br />
Are you seriously going to continue pretending that you are an academic? Seriously???<br />
<br />
Quite honestly if that is the view of you and your colleagues and your college/institution, then I will immediately make note of it and black list any student or prospective hire I ever see coming from your institution. Simply because of proximity to "teachers" as delusionally bent on fascist repression of progress and student potential as you have quite clearly explained that you are.<br />
<br />
One brunt issue here is that you also failed to understand the underlying <i>PURPOSE</i> of the entire internet, and where online education is going.<br />
Crediting students via online platforms is actually a whole lot easier than it is in the classroom.<br />
Furthermore - online platforms provide so many bonuses - none of which we have discussed here (that completely overshadow in many regards anything that traditional institutions can provide); and we are ironically only arguing one side of the story, yet: <i>you are still completely losing your own argument</i>.<br />
<br />
But let me just interject one facet of online learning platforms that a traditional school will never be able to match: <b>*an increasing standard of global education*</b>.<br />
Thats right - online platforms reach people all around the world, continually providing content to a global audience who - on the right platforms also have a voice and ability to contribute to that content. This global collaboration is what is happening all over the world and has been for a long time - its what the internet is all about.<br />
Are you going to actually proclaim that <b>WIKIPEDIA </b>is a <b>BAD </b>thing because it provides a platform for people to collaboratively <b>SHARE KNOWLEDGE</b>???<br />
<br />
Because that is what you are in essence doing here.<br />
<br />
Please dont call yourself an academic.<br />
You are obviously more interested in your ivory tower position than the progress and potential of your students.<br />
I feel deeply insulted by your ignorant and short-sighted post.EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-13668741836929092452012-08-14T08:31:00.002+07:002016-06-25T01:30:21.200+07:00Taking LMS to the Cloud = Accepted - Why Not ERP Too?!It always starts out this way. Slowly, the resistant antiques of us begin to accept the inevitable.<br />
New technology is always laughed at first,<br />
Staunchly resisted second,<br />
and finally when they realize it is inevitable they become your cheerleaders.<br />
<br />
<i>LMS </i>or <i>CLMS </i>systems - whichever you prefer to call them - are becoming more widely accepted as cloud-destined platforms, as the obviousness sinks into even the mainstream mind.<br />
However, from a mainstream perspective it is still taking awhile for ERP and other fully fledged systems to make their appeal to this technologically unsavvy crowd - until now.<br />
<br />
A good article on just this topic here: <a href="http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/erp-ethers">http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/erp-ethers</a>
<br />
<br />
...which has some excellent points I have long been pushing for the industry to realize.<br />
<br />
Not least of which is the actual architectural design concept of cloud computing itself - <i>which is not new by a longshot, actually</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>Cloud </i>is essentially the extrapolation of what institutions have already been doing for the last 5 to 10 years: co-locating resources to servers within their institution.<br />
And if any of you were involved with institutions 10-15 years ago when this was considered a "new technology" - you will recall the huge amount of resistance and name-calling we future-thinking technologists got for pushing that agenda too.<br />
Of course - thin clients coupled with robust server farms and remotely located resources are now the standard across most academic institutions.<br />
<br />
<i>Cloud </i>simply does this to a global level - effectively <i>outsourcing</i> that co-location and all the services required to run it to an external entity (or - well - nobody is stopping you from building your own cloud, too...but thats rarely necessary - and much less cost effective of course).<br />
This global mindset of course allows much more power in terms of connectivity and sharing of resources than did the precursor architecture of thin clients + server farms locally. It allows connectivity, sharing of data, content, and applications on a global level. No longer institutionalized.<br />
The result of which is that there needs to be new software which captures the benefit of these new powerful channels of possibilities.<br />
That is, not-at-all-ironically, still where education technology is far, far behind. It is also where the institutional education model is being disrupted on a pedagogic level. However, the software to support this process is still non-existant.<br />
<br />
At <a href="http://www.ekita.co/" target="_blank">eKita</a> we are building something for the future where cloud based architecture for institutions is considered standard. Our global education platform is software that is designed to not only take advantage of this paradigm shift - but in fact facilitate it, as we will offer hybrid and private cloud services to institutions who need the most customizable and controllable features - simultaneously facilitating the disruption of the current academic model which is already happening.EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-27334742171357480502012-08-12T03:57:00.004+07:002012-08-12T03:58:44.622+07:00EduTech in US still an undertone...<br />
This one is part rant, part accurate analysis, and part cool-aid.<br />
<br />
A recent workshop in DC on lean made me start thinking about this issue again and I spent a good deal of my time there investigating this question with a wide range of people (both involved - and not involved).<br />
It all began with an opening-day pitch by a participant who wanted to work on a project, briefly described as:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Lets help solve the education problems of the USA - lets build a tool to help facilitate learning by students and make it fun and social - to help stem the rapid decline of the US in the world education rankings (USA currently #22 in education)"</blockquote>
...this excellent, passionate pitch with an already working idea behind it - <i style="font-weight: bold;">got no votes</i>.<br />
Which really by itself cried out one singular fact: <u>education still just 'aint important/cool/fashionable/{insert whatever} in the USA</u>.<br />
This actual problem in itself ended up becoming the project that the only 3 people present at the 50+ workshop who were even so much as interested in education, worked on. The problem was quite simply <i>"making educational achievement cool" </i>- and an attempt to solve it was built over the weekend, turning into something called <a href="http://smart-ly.com/">Smart-ly.com</a>.<br />
<br />
Back to the main issue though: is education a serious topic yet for the USA? Because until education itself is a serious topic - education technology never will be.<br />
<br />
I dont believe it is. In fact I'm not sure if it ever will be.<br />
<br />
There are of course the evangelists, and champions of the cause - but we are far and few in-between, we are marginalized, we are often used for political points, and there is no interest by the people in positions to make positive changes to actually do so - <i>or even so much allow it to happen</i>.<br />
"Red Tape" (ie: bureaucracy) is still a predominant force to be reckoned with in doing any educational based project, and it seems to only get thicker.<br />
<br />
I spoke with <a href="http://www.brainscape.com/" target="_blank">Brainscape</a> CEO Andrew Cohen and his team of 4, huddled in a small office space of about 10sqm, at a local shared office space called TheAlleyNYC about what his views on this were and why he chose to startup a company in the education tech sector in NY.<br />
The main answer was that this was his community, and it seemed like the connections to doing something locally for him was the only question needing answering.<br />
<b>OK - understandable</b>...and I fully admit that not many people are as dedicated as we are at eKita to making sure this works on a global scale - and we are pulling all stops to make sure we are in the right environment and market to do so - but the sheer resistance factor of doing this type of project out of the US - and especially NY (which has its own little ecosystem/mentality and behaves very incubated to the rest of the world) - should be a pretty heavy concern, or at least I would think - of aspiring edu-tech companies looking to setup there.<br />
Apparently its not, and I believe this is more due to lack of experience and/or exposure internationally for at least the ones I've talked to.<br />
I also talked with a few other startups and even long-established companies in edu-tech while out there - including <a href="http://www.tlcdelivers.com/" target="_blank">TLC</a>, Chalkable (ironically trying to do something similar to us), and I even noticed there is Socratic Labs out there too - a purely edu-tech focused accelerator (incubator?) type deal (no website yet, ironically).<br />
<br />
At the end of the day it begs to question the differences between the US and basically everywhere else (OK - Europe and Asia at least) when it comes to education.<br />
<b>In Europe</b>, where I have already ample experience in edu-tech both within institutions and now a growing experience outside - when tools and platforms are built for education, they are done quite seriously. When Lund University needed a new, cutting edge labratory toolset in 2002 to integrate with their already cutting-edge custom Linux OS for the science faculty - they pulled all stops and built an entire inhouse development team of software engineers (including me) and network experts to get it done. With a budget that would float your current day typical startup for 2 to 3 rounds of funding.<br />
This is what I mean when I say serious.<br />
<br />
The governmental ministries in education also have departments dedicated to advancing edu-tech within schools in general. Something the US does not have - and it is one of the only western countries that lacks it.<br />
Israel even has its own private sector <a href="http://cet.org.il/pages/Home.aspx" target="_blank">CET (Center for Education Technology)</a> which has strong support and full collaboration from the government. They are also building an edu-tech incubator to help fund & build more edu-tech startups with support from their entire network of schools and infrastructure - which eKita was actually invited to join as one of the first 5 companies, but unfortunately it didn't quite fit us.<br />
<br />
<b>In Asia</b> its even more intense. With the highest ratio of spenditure per capita on education (up to 70% of household income in some parts of Asia is spent on education) - and full government (federal and local) support as well as institutional interest in being truly <i>cutting edge</i> - the reality of it is that when doing something which has an obvious advancing factor for education tech in Asia: they roll out the red carpet.<br />
Bureaucracy becomes a thing long distant, even in typically bureaucratic countries, and the funding for educational improvements is easily regarded as a highly lucrative sector by many (not nearly all, yet - but many).<br />
<br />
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So back to the original topic: will edu-tech in the US ever really become more than a ploy to gain political points, or a passionate ambition of the few, marginalized, evangelists and social champions?<br />
<br />
Like this picture here undertones: staged "<i>technical classrooms</i>" posing for a picture that are rarely seen mainstream and are more commonly used for promotional brochures than actual learning.<br />
<br />
I'm optimistic - so I'll leave my answer open, but I believe the facts speak for themself; at least for now.EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-19283915295380939152012-08-07T05:03:00.003+07:002012-08-07T05:03:14.955+07:00LeanStartupMachine @ D.C. - Day 3Yes my doggies I know you've been waiting for it - the report of the final day @ LSM D.C.<br />
<br />
The final day was indeed the most intense of them all. The air was buzzing all morning as teams wrapped together last chances at (in)validating assumptions by going out onto the streets, then mapping out the results and pivoting one last time based on what was learned.<br />
<br />
Quickly after lunch the teams were all required to upload final presentations that they'd put together based on all things learned over the weekend. It was damn incredible how drastically <i>every single</i> project changed from the first day pitches. <i>Some projects did not even remotely resemble their original counterparts!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
With exactly 5:00 minutes each to present their projects, and an additional 3:00 minutes for Q&A (and I mean exactly!) - teams were anxiously practicing their pitches and putting together their presentations.
<br />
<br />
At roughly 15:00 everyone cornered into the presentation room - with quite a few more guests, investors, and interested attendees - making <a href="http://thefort.vc/">thefort.vc</a> venue pretty packed and focused on that little pull-down presentation canvas.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://quickagram.com/u/efraimip" target="_blank">Check here for all the photos in instagram fashion</a><br />
<br />
From start to finish:<br />
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Sporting their DIY company T-Shirts pre-pitch time, LOLDreams...<br />
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<a href="http://about.me/patsheridan" target="_blank">Pat Sheridan</a>, CEO of Modus Create, a very interesting development team of industry experts pushing agile development to its limits.<br />
A shot from behind of <a href="https://twitter.com/perrelli" target="_blank">Jonathan Perrelli</a>, one of the damn coolest incubator directors and investors I've met.<br />
<br />
<br />
So - what you've all been waiting for: <b>Final Pitch Day!</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
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Starting off with team Factsheets.io, who started the presentations with a <i>bang!</i> (Sorry but I love seeing women founders up on stage kicking ass)<br />
Factsheets solve a huge pain button for the US government (and entire public) by providing straight-forward-simple factsheets on <i>how government policies affect YOU!</i> One of my favorites!<br />
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Team <a href="http://www.eventkick.com/" target="_blank">EventKick</a> pivoted quite alot during the weekend, starting from something resembling a wedding planner and invitation/RSVP tool to an app that helps remind you and your connections of the meetings you <i>promised</i> to show up at. Lots of features and integrations planned forward, and lots of things (in)validated!<br />
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Team IAGOZ pivoted wide circles around their target customer/user (yes - same target for both) of the <i>"professional male"</i> demographic. Ultimately resulting in a service which will <i>clone your favorite shirt</i> that fits you the best, into an exact copy (without trademark tags of course) or any other fashion you want...<br />
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Up next - Crowdfinder, which aims to help you find the crowds that you might want to avoid - or join.<br />
With location based tracking and a few other features planned, the pressure point for them was to solve people's wasted time waiting in lines by helping people find the stores less crowded...<br />
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This next one won a cool factor - LeapList.<br />Ever get a gift you thought was crap? What does one do? Ever not know what kind of gift to give someone?<br />LeapList makes it easy: make a profile with the things you <i>really</i> want to do before you kick-the-bucket, and have your friends, family, <i>whoever</i> - help fund it. One little bit at a time...<br />
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Ready to take a trip? A tour? Thats just the beginning of course - with the next team that I was actually the one to give them their name: Groovl. Group Travel For Less is their motto - find trips that others also want to take and consequently the <i>group buying</i> effect lowers all of your prices! Groovl will soon expand into other areas of <i>group buying</i> as well!<br />
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Ever need a Taxi and cant find one? How about the opposite that you need a taxi and can find 100's but they are all full? How about seeing those long lines of taxi's outside hotels waiting for clients?<br />
Big problem, Simple solution, with Concierge: help taxis and taxi-seekers be in the right place at the right time.<br />
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The next team didnt actually come up with a final solution for anything - but what they did do was definitely win the prize of <i>most invalidated assumptions</i> - aptly named: Invalidator, had a long list and chunk of data on products that really wouldnt be useful, which they had a few new ideas on to use for something that would be...stay tuned I guess??? :)<br />
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<a href="http://spicify.me/">Spicify.me</a> was up next with a solution for everyone who ever wanted to find a specific spice, herb, or special cooking item and just couldnt manage to find it. Look it up, find it in your local area, and help others by tagging those rare ingredients where you do find them.<br />
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This next team definitely got the laughs. LOLDreams, an entertaining portal where people share their craziest dream stories and get to enjoy those of others - already launched and active by day 3 with users posting their dreams online and ranking other's. An energetic team with very friendly demeanour, check it out at <a href="http://www.loldreams.com/">www.loldreams.com</a><br />
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This group was after my own heart: <a href="http://smart-ly.com/" target="_blank">Smart-ly.com </a>started with an attempt to solve the US education decline (US now ~#22 in education) by figuring out the real problem.<br />It ends up, the real problem is that <i>being smart just aint cool</i> in the good-ol-US-of-A. So to fix that, students can now aim high, achieve their goals, and get rewarded for it - like, a personal channel and getting to know your favorite celebrity perhaps? Smartly won the top LSM prize by actually not only finding tons of young students and their parents who loved the concept - but actually getting a local celebrity (Jonathan Perrelli) to make a personalized video for a local who had only dreamed of meeting him.<br />
Smartly is also going to integrate with eKita to provide them with the full academic workflow statistics and social graph data they need to systematically reward students for over-achievement. Many celebrities are already eager to help out.<br />
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Last but not least - another team after my heart with another education based solution: <a href="https://angel.co/quume" target="_blank">Quume</a>, where your academic & professional accreditations, achievements, and merits are verified and organized. A great team motivated to solve the process of continuing education and knowledge seekers in providing a simple platform for everyone to prove they know what they know.<br />
To boost their project up they also received a LOI from yours truly (thats me), as eKita will very much support them by hosting their application on our platform.EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-54706036657178789782012-08-06T00:20:00.001+07:002012-08-07T03:50:41.261+07:00LeanStartupMachine @ D.C. - Day 2Day 2 of LSM @ DC was intense!<br />
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A very, very long day full of action packed <i>lean learning</i>. Some good workshops, one by myself on ideation and techniques of how to use it in customer development; but otherwise a day full of participants <i>getting out of the building</i> and talking to customers, learning, and pivoting fast.<br />
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We've got everything from an educational project to help make education <i>cool</i> - a realization after attempting a learning platform that nobody would really use it because getting high grades and being smart in the US culture isnt considered <i>cool</i>. So the pivot is now working towards making high-grades and academic achievement highly rewarded by being able to have private channels of communication with student's favorite celebrities. Want to meet your favorite celebrity? Get straight A's and you will, on <a href="http://smart-ly.com/">Smart-ly.com</a>!<br />
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Obviously this is a very interesting project for us at eKita.<br />
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There's also group travel buying project Groovel (<i>name change imminent: there's already a groovel.com</i>) who help people looking to travel in groups get it that much cheaper - by <i>group buying</i> the travel and tour packages.<br />
A similar concept to what Elan is doing over at <a href="http://morepeoplepayless.com/">MorePeoplePayLess.com</a>.<br />
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Overall we've got about 8 projects here, with some very interesting ideas here that are evolving into solid solutions for painful problems - right in front of our eyes.<br />
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With its hyper-drive model of invalidating and validating assumptions about product->market fit and customer->product fit, LSM is definitely a success at making you <i>learn lean</i>!<br />
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The only cave-at I have so far about the intense 3-day approach of this is that there are lots of false negatives and false positives in the testing process. Something that I've seen happening here quite alot with teams, and have mentioned to them to keep this in mind: <i>dont necessarily throw away an assumption simply because of a quick street-test that invalidates it</i>!!!<br />
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All in all though - learning the techniques and methods is the goal of LSM - and at that, it is excelling incredibly well.<br />
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Participants are quickly becoming <i>lean startup machines</i>!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArJ4IHidBYIcFwVQnsSljO7umEcpiswvublSLWz8KIijP8Wd4o-JuV0BCIJ3ojXP6p7W8U32kA_io2uAXjjjj-FuV8lcb5KqFJw6tM307N4EjjCt3VVLwTuyxPVmiVxtEnGmp4USoQzE/s1600/2012-08-04+12.40.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArJ4IHidBYIcFwVQnsSljO7umEcpiswvublSLWz8KIijP8Wd4o-JuV0BCIJ3ojXP6p7W8U32kA_io2uAXjjjj-FuV8lcb5KqFJw6tM307N4EjjCt3VVLwTuyxPVmiVxtEnGmp4USoQzE/s200/2012-08-04+12.40.06.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3TCU4o5MjCMceYkeqiklD0v8sKUybR0UD0-DfAajuggxnSbPN3e4K-U6LMB5yAyoKgvoEnKx70FrtWFXDctP27VTwiJks8X9_lUzKUfrWiQpDMdzXlAgQH128YAa26x9PeFFkuk4jQg4/s1600/2012-08-04+12.40.20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3TCU4o5MjCMceYkeqiklD0v8sKUybR0UD0-DfAajuggxnSbPN3e4K-U6LMB5yAyoKgvoEnKx70FrtWFXDctP27VTwiJks8X9_lUzKUfrWiQpDMdzXlAgQH128YAa26x9PeFFkuk4jQg4/s200/2012-08-04+12.40.20.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNTkdOzk3mR9BEy1mC-ml52pa-uRQJt3ioiPM4FApNZXnxbH2OJv4sV94ffTfu_tjH_i4d02N6SbaiaHPtvlSHiS1VE2zkb9oWGmEPkdOxBJYRMT5W2ACdlogEQYxeWPD3mmON6cLoBk/s1600/2012-08-04+12.40.38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNTkdOzk3mR9BEy1mC-ml52pa-uRQJt3ioiPM4FApNZXnxbH2OJv4sV94ffTfu_tjH_i4d02N6SbaiaHPtvlSHiS1VE2zkb9oWGmEPkdOxBJYRMT5W2ACdlogEQYxeWPD3mmON6cLoBk/s200/2012-08-04+12.40.38.jpg" width="200" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0BVSLJEXBvB3zI_Kqf5slKj-V2eA570tjzVCpa6Ewd0mfOZCh6gIirEE2bMNLvKNj0w6sZEufXuiQkxd8_gF7VEHdzdiyXYC0zmXVLqScjKRp7nfdwCm2yb0ty9bytU9rh3-t0RiX-qU/s1600/2012-08-04+19.12.36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0BVSLJEXBvB3zI_Kqf5slKj-V2eA570tjzVCpa6Ewd0mfOZCh6gIirEE2bMNLvKNj0w6sZEufXuiQkxd8_gF7VEHdzdiyXYC0zmXVLqScjKRp7nfdwCm2yb0ty9bytU9rh3-t0RiX-qU/s200/2012-08-04+19.12.36.jpg" width="150" /></a>EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-91532404307347306522012-08-05T07:32:00.001+07:002012-08-05T07:33:15.147+07:00AlleyNYC, LSM NY & StartingBlocTrip to New York & DC: arrival just on time for Day 1 of Starting Bloc (<a href="http://www.startingbloc.com/">www.startingbloc.com</a>) conference, located in a very cool venue called <a href="http://unbouncepages.com/alleyland1/" target="_blank">AlleyNYC</a> smack dab in the middle of Manhattan.<br />
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StartingBloc was definitely a cool thing to see - with a jam packed venue of roughly 100+ people coming in from all over the country (even a few from outside) to partake in their 5 day event focusing on the creation of social enterprises. AKA <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_entrepreneurship" target="_blank">Social Entrepreneurialism</a>. Something I'm quite a fan of myself as a model for sustainable business.<br />
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In the evening, LSM hosted a session of a new 4-week accelerator program in which they hold evening sessions of leanstartup practice, teaching, and hands-on work with a very low ratio of participants to mentors.<br />
It is an interesting take on LSM being able to cater to people who want to learn the principles and put them to work but in a more casual and less intense compact manner that their 3-day intensive weekend workshops offer.<br />
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I will update with some photos when I'm back in NY, as I was so exhausted and at the same time excited to see all that stuff going on (and people to talk to) that I didnt actually take any shots.<br />
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But I did take these from the place I stayed the night, a cool French guy named Arthur who works at the U.N. and has an absolutely beautiful view from his really nice flat.<br />
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Enjoy!<br />
<img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiww9KnPGoz9GT_tlWX057Wvb-_jou7STQLXo3myMznvyKA-tKaZ7vMG80NkwKFyaNSP89_1kV78Fv3aWfWbq6fLn1924zK7i-WS8lsJJ3ChmcTPbfUtlIo_Yc_WoZolQy2e1iUCPOPtFg/s320/2012-08-03+07.00.40.jpg" width="240" />
<img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAMLbCV6j0zYp0q6Y2v-2hvafx4lkwaARfDKam6x0N792QZu6HLo1Xe5n7ZilmUxdgPpRIawJLPgX36-QD_5qxbk3V2Yeo3cnTKVwsQqlzJEMSinN1FS8IrbsIAHVkE6_TlaplyMJzxZE/s320/2012-08-03+07.00.50.jpg" width="320" />
<img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiiGldH1_gMRgtg4Hffi1Q-xMdGDJcYHGz1hreTVWCPybxzHB6_GY00zwQ-XmcwgdaY3qmD8dooVzslF7agx3ww3C8DyJ4Ti8_VHuSZLXRUx92RwMawqbtVyvI1XCI_mDj6lZZ1xt3zWI/s320/2012-08-03+07.29.51.jpg" width="320" />
<img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxjq7kLkT0L0nbGOESCNifM_bNTdEOA5wmKNvcrLBw4ZIka-ngKt0cW_pL_qlNO0q9xU1NkzvU8yZtD5q2s2T5vFoIxOE2W6x5Ja9bJRlgV-wFVM33MySdp1vTuwpxfu6iiAzAVlc8uko/s320/2012-08-03+07.29.58.jpg" width="320" />EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-77133315778444009112012-08-04T21:26:00.002+07:002012-08-04T21:29:54.391+07:00LeanStartupMachine @ D.C. - Day 1<br />
Day 1 of LSM (<a href="http://www.leanstartupmachine.com/">www.leanstartupmachine.com</a>) in Washington D.C. was quite a thriller. Hosted in a fairly interesting (and relatively new) incubator in central D.C. called <a href="http://thefort.vc/" style="font-style: italic;">TheFort.vc</a>, the D.C. startup scene looks to be growing and thriving.<br />
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I came over here (all the way from Bangkok) to learn what they are doing and start working with them as an MC (<i>master of ceremonies; role description: run the show</i>). It is indeed different than expected but in some quite positive ways. They definitely seem to have nailed down a very functional leanstartup method and even after the first day - which was actually less than a half day (started at 18:30, ended at 23:00) I could see teams grasping leanstartup methodology and techniques actively.<br />
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<a href="http://www.leanstartupmachine.com/" target="_blank">LSM</a> looks like a very hands-on, <i>learn by doing</i> workshop. Which is great because the <i>learn by doing</i> philosophy is of course what I'm all about (its even our <a href="http://www.3dsisrael.com/" target="_blank">3 Day Startup</a> signature). The team running
<a href="http://www.leanstartupmachine.com/" target="_blank">LSM</a> is also really fun. A young group of people who have really researched leanstartup well and as the saying goes <i>they do what they preach</i>.
<a href="http://www.leanstartupmachine.com/" target="_blank">LSM</a> itself is a startup that very visibily uses its own techniques - and has done a fairly impressive job at scaling and executing new projects that adapt and improve in real-time.<br />
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Day 1 of LSM@D.C. saw participants come together, get an introduction presentation by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/trevorowens7" target="_blank">Trevor</a>, after which they are all required to sign a pledge that helps to break them out of the mental mold and contributes to forcing them to adapt and learn leanstartup techniques over the weekend.<br />
From that point, quick idea pitches are given by participants, of projects they want to work on.<br />
A typical voting mechanism takes place and teams are formed.<br />
From that point, a bit of information is given and a plan of action (assignment) is given to the teams: to start using LSM's custom leanstartup canvas (components taken, customized, and added from the Business Model Canvas method) to start <i>learning fast by failing faster</i> (a very interesting and well-branded slogan for LSM indeed).<br />
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<a href="http://ow.ly/i/P61C" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Owly Images" height="239" src="http://static.ow.ly/photos/normal/P61C.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Brant Cooper, a fairly active evangelist of leanstartup also skyped in to give a nice Q&A session a bit later in the evening, while iconically sipping a beer in his backyard out in California.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGIC8_rBgWoVmuFpopwixvw7TdaeLexRwTTLI4wKj4fniZXqQtjr_qdWEpfvkE6geJMxGQbgBydXemyohoGfJGjAya3fi9NcTO3ZKMSbxFDph_HZnVAwY6GTlmqvZFpFEmv4U1iJz8_IM/s1600/IMG_20120803_183202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGIC8_rBgWoVmuFpopwixvw7TdaeLexRwTTLI4wKj4fniZXqQtjr_qdWEpfvkE6geJMxGQbgBydXemyohoGfJGjAya3fi9NcTO3ZKMSbxFDph_HZnVAwY6GTlmqvZFpFEmv4U1iJz8_IM/s320/IMG_20120803_183202.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Stay tuned...there's 2 days left, and more to come! (and here's a nice arbitrary photo of a view from TheFort;)<br />
<br />EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-7410492272143600202012-07-27T14:43:00.000+07:002012-07-27T14:43:17.938+07:00Last few days of exciting newsWell the last few days have been quite eventful. Still running quite behind on backlog of work (when am I not?) but its worth piping in here to jot some things down.<div>
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<b>This week started off great when on Monday</b> I had a chance to catch up with <a href="http://www.barthels.lu/" target="_blank">Claude Barthels</a> who is going to be one of my organizers on the ground for setting up 3 Day Startup in Luxembourg.<br />
I caught him up to speed on things, and we are going to continue talking with the student group <a href="http://building.betacube.eu/" target="_blank">BetaCube</a> to get more team members to organize it with us.<br />
We already have a few sponsors committed and are going to start moving forward again now. We had previously been putting things on hold in order to respectfully give <a href="http://www.farvest.com/" target="_blank">Farvest</a> their chance to react and participate since they were the initiator - but as entrepreneurs we simply cant wait around for slow moving overweight corporates to get in line. So, happily, all organizers and sponsors involved thus far have agreed - lets get this show on the road!<br />
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<b>Tuesday started off nice and fresh</b> with a local meetup called <a href="http://www.meetup.com/bkk-startup/" target="_blank">OpenCoffee</a>, where from 9:00 until 12:00, tech people meetup at a nice coffee shop downtown and share projects, business ideas, technology tidbits, and have a good time networking.<br />
It was quite impressive, actually, the turn out - both in quality, diversity, and quantity! Alot of very big movers and shakers doing lots of big things here in Bangkok.<br />
These meetups in Bangkok are quite good actually, I'm impressed each time.<br />
Of course - everywhere I go and everyone I talk to about 3DS here results in nothing but positive eagerness to be involved and see it happen. From Tuesday's meetup alone I found 2 more event organizers who are keen to help build 3DS here in Bangkok with me. Both of them are founders of their own startups.<br />
So we went and had lunch together, when one of them also called a contact of his to come join us. Not surprisingly, the contact was also very interested in 3DS. It was none other than the President of <a href="http://www.unleashingideas.org/" target="_blank">GEW</a> Thailand.<br />
Since we are already planning to do 2 GEW events in conjunction with eachother we discussed adding him to the mix. The response was excellent! We now have a very eager potential partner to work with, who will be involved in deploying the first 3DS here in Bangkok as one of the high-lite GEW events!<br />
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<b>Wednesday was a workday</b> at home to actually catch up on things.<br />
There has been an incredible amount of progress and movement in Israel regarding 3DS events, on all 3 fronts: Center Region, North Region, and South. All are seeming to move along quite nicely - although as always there have been big changes and things to take care of.<br />
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<b>Thursday was a great day again in town</b>, where I had the pleasure of having a nice brunch with <a href="http://about.me/jakoblykkegaard" target="_blank">Jakob Lykkegard</a>, a relative "local" in Thailand - originally from Denmark - who has had an incredible story mixed with business and adventure all around Asia. He learned Chinese and lived there until realizing he didnt like it so much - so he learned Japanese to live there, and still wasnt all that satisfied - so now he lives in Thailand (and yes has apparently learned Thai as well). Quite a story by itself for a young professional but wait - theres more. He's exited a few companies already, especially focusing on facebook games and similar social media markets, and currently invests and gets involved heavily in others. With a big focus here in Thailand now that he's found the place he wants to call home. A veritable well of experience and knowledge of how to setup business here in Asia, he's already been of great help to me in setting up eKita here...And obviously - he's very excited about 3DS too!<br />
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Thats not all though - Thursday also had me following up on a conference call to Lux to speak with another one of our supporters there who confirmed their eagerness to sponsor the event. Since its a firm we already work with quite alot all around the world, its always nice to continue doing business with them.<br />
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Well - today, Friday, have 2 more conference calls to Europe and one big weekly crunch session for eKita.<br />
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Then I'm going to try and squeeze in a meetup with <a href="http://startupdigest.com/curator/kelly-kampen/" target="_blank">Kelly Kampen, Bangkok StartupDigest curator</a> and a "local" entrepreneur as well (www.jajoop.com & www.do.jo) before being late to my lady's friends' birthday party, heh... ;-)</div>EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-89400430350955822992012-07-20T16:48:00.001+07:002012-07-20T17:00:45.063+07:003DS Israel showcases in Bangkok!<i>There's a very interesting thing going on in Bangkok right now.</i><br />
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With the establishment of the governmental <a href="http://eng.mict.go.th/" target="_blank"><b>MICT</b> department</a> in recent years, since the Thai government realized it had missed the <i>Technology Wave</i>, huge amounts of investment have gone into IT technology and infrastructure.<br />
In addition to that, a whole plethora of additional technical schools and universities have popped up, pumping out thousands of skilled Thai engineers every year.<br />
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The problem however is that there are no Thai startups to absorb all these fresh new talented locals. Instead, Japanese and Chinese companies have setup shop here - in fact they started doing so already many decades ago. These foreign companies are the predominant force that takes in every top talented local engineer or skilled professional that they want. In recent years, there have even been a plethora of European and even American built companies here - entire R&D divisions of foreign companies in fact - that have setup here in Thailand to take advantage of this great market.<br />
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<i>Whats the draw?</i> Low cost of living, high quality of life, and strong company loyalty are all part of it. It's not necessarily a new kind of outsourcing - but is quickly becoming the most effective one: where instead of selling R&D to Indian/Russian companies or development teams - an R&D branch is simply setup, relocating the top management with it, to run development from places like this where many foreigners are already eager to enjoy the higher quality and more luxurious lifestyle anyway.<br />
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There are a few very harsh hurdles however:<br />
<b>One is the Thai government's protectionism.</b><br />
A company cannot be incorporated here without Thai national(s) owning a minimum of 51% of the shares in the company. This means that any startup company with any foreigners in the team would be minimalized.<br />
It also means that Thailand is very unnatractive for foreigners to incorporate and setup here.<br />
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<b>Two is the Thai labor and employment laws...</b><br />
...which state that any company - branch, local company, or otherwise - must employ at least 4 Thais for every 1 foreigner.<br />
This is absolutely crippling to a startup, obviously. A startup that typically will have 3 to 5 founders or "core team members" - all of whom are probably not going to be Thai (if lucky - maybe 1 or 2 of them will be). This of course also means that such a startup is not going to be able to hire a team of 20 people to match the team of 5 founding foreigners.<br />
Simply - not possible.<br />
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<b>Three is the lack of know-how, experience, and cultural initiative to build a new company.</b><br />
The current situation is that Thais simply do not know how to build startups - the very concept of a startup is still hard for the majority to grasp. The expertise and experience in building startups is very much needed here, but the current law structure is purposefully pushing that very same expertise and experience away.<br />
Add on to that - Thais as a culture are very focused on structure, tradition, following suit. <i>I can tell you this personally as I am engaged to one!</i> It is an extremely hard cultural mentality to break through for someone who wants to be an entrepreneur - <i>an innovator</i>. The only real type of <i>"startup"</i> that exists here are <i style="font-weight: bold;">service companies</i> - or better phrased: companies that build your website, mobile or facebook app for you. <i>These are not real startups, of course.</i> <i>They are small versions of normal companies.</i> Which is, as we all know, the #1 most <b>incorrect</b> definition of a startup.<br />
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Now - let me state one more thing clearly before continuing here.<br />
<b>Thais are absolutely hungry to building their own startups!</b><br />
Meetups are filling up on the same day they are posted. More people are coming than there is room at the venue anyway. When foreigner entrepreneurs enter the room we are almost celebritized simply because we've already done it before and <i>they want to know how</i>. The attention aside (which I actually dont really like - as a foreigner here you already get too much of it, and its never the right kind), the good thing here is that there are a dozen or more startups that have made the jump. So far most startups I've seen are being built by Thais who have lived in other countries (or are dual-citizens) - or are in fact built by foreigners who have either incorporated elsewhere (Hong Kong, Singapore) and tried to cope with the Thai employment laws by finding Thai partners.<br />
There have been a few successes.<br />
Its a budding startup scene. It definitely is - but without a very strong push from something big, it wont get beyond this.<br />
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<b>Additionally - so far from what I've learned here regarding the investment scene</b> - is also that there are a huge amount of investors here. There are investors here simply because there is an investment residency visa that is available - quite easily - only for someone who comes to invest here. Thereby being able to permanently live here (which many foreigners want to do).<br />
Aside from that, Thailand is the biggest southeast-asian market. There is an enormous amount of interest in investing here from both inside and out.<br />
What I have ironically found in the tech scene is that there are <b style="font-style: italic;">more investors than startups</b>. I have been told by a few VCs and angel investors already that their most challenging task as an investor here is actually <i><b>finding projects to invest in</b></i>.<br />
So that obviously couldn't be better for the task of creating alot of new Thai startups!<br />
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<b>There can of course be a few fixes for this</b>:<br />
1) Implement programs here that help Thais learn how to build their own startups. Such as <a href="http://www.3daystartup.org/" target="_blank">3 Day Startup</a>, <a href="http://www.fi.co/" target="_blank">Founders Institute</a>, and so on.<br />
2) Create service and consulting companies based in another law zone (such as Hong Kong, Singapore - which are common alternatives for foreigners working here) that cater to startups.<br />
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So far I have seen quite a few of #2 - <i>but none yet that cater to startups</i>. The lot that exist now are targeted towards structured companies. Which is an obvious choice - as startups here dont really exist enough yet for there to be a viable market for such consultancies.<br />
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So that leads me to believe that #1 is the best choice to fixing this problem.<br />
Enter 3 Day Startup, and myself. Via 3DS, successful international serial entrepreneurs like myself can help Thais learn how to build their own startups, thus opening the door to a thriving startup scene which can spearhead the rest of the support network that is generally needed for startups to thrive.<br />
Doing it this way will cater to the protectionism mentality of Thailand, allowing them to create things on their own with local ownership.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiklPosY_zxi1H3MMLQ8-ClEJMlLHJOWhvSMokaXNapxbANcXpPkePv5C_VsluAJNnSD9GDDJuha7MqMwgIGEiCxLqaSI6XEMHzy5FZpWnM6Tf4dygs7LQIzlnNdjVqOCLwVzSdeU7SuXI/s1600/600_140194162.jpeg"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiklPosY_zxi1H3MMLQ8-ClEJMlLHJOWhvSMokaXNapxbANcXpPkePv5C_VsluAJNnSD9GDDJuha7MqMwgIGEiCxLqaSI6XEMHzy5FZpWnM6Tf4dygs7LQIzlnNdjVqOCLwVzSdeU7SuXI/s200/600_140194162.jpeg" width="200" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpg2WVOpo3KIADqLRUtv7d-U6CXyJ1t9NMdp7VHnZHxSqFmR0oB14gDEA-hH5Z-ZK0sacNnbt74KLui5D2n0b_rABLBAYHK1byXOxpyJ7NeYl8zghmWMPiCuUm1sZM7NVKUvpY2KVCZyM/s1600/600_140194182.jpeg"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpg2WVOpo3KIADqLRUtv7d-U6CXyJ1t9NMdp7VHnZHxSqFmR0oB14gDEA-hH5Z-ZK0sacNnbt74KLui5D2n0b_rABLBAYHK1byXOxpyJ7NeYl8zghmWMPiCuUm1sZM7NVKUvpY2KVCZyM/s200/600_140194182.jpeg" width="200" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJie_GkWkRta4QuKwAJrCENXDFPXqooaqQnmCu7pjCWXa3jGR6B6crsvZ1fIXzCffLKoC1Qu8seUTB84fduB-tm8mQTECbL660XlLrSk4bFVrlj7fNVMb7ffU2mjcoTVUrb-i2glT6vtg/s1600/600_140194192.jpeg"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJie_GkWkRta4QuKwAJrCENXDFPXqooaqQnmCu7pjCWXa3jGR6B6crsvZ1fIXzCffLKoC1Qu8seUTB84fduB-tm8mQTECbL660XlLrSk4bFVrlj7fNVMb7ffU2mjcoTVUrb-i2glT6vtg/s200/600_140194192.jpeg" width="200" /></a>
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Here's some pics of a recent meetup this past week where I was invited to present 3DS regarding just these topics I've written about above - creating Thai startups, and pushing for a more prosperous and open international startup scene.<br />
The Thai government has spent all this money into building the IT support industry, the infrastructure, and the skilled workers - isn't it time that they fix the last mistake that they yet reluctantly wont let go of, and open their market to new businesses?<br />
I for one, definitely believe it is. And I am probably a perfect example of why: I myself am here to build my startup. However, without these issues being resolved, it isn't going to be attractive for me to do it here when I have much better nearby options such as Singapore.EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-38629488269133732172012-07-12T15:56:00.001+07:002012-07-12T15:56:36.762+07:00Rain, Meetups, and - oops! Yea, I can make it afterall to WebDev Meetup!Well I guess afterall a bit of good/bad news mix!<br />
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The web-development meetup that sounded very promising which I was invited to speak at here in BKK on Tuesday will definitely be a go - since the New York trip just got cancelled!<br />
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Will be great to have the chance to meet and share knowledge with more of Bangkok's best entrepreneurs. Despite many people suggesting that it'd be a waste of my time to work with the Thai government in building the startup scene here (despite the Thai govt spending huge amounts to support it via new departments devoted to ICT, eg: <a href="http://www.mict.go.th/main.php?filename=index">www.mict.go.th</a>) - I'm going to give it a shot. I mean, their devotion and success thus far in <a href="http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2012/jun/20/smart-thailand-all-encompassing-ict-masterplan/" target="_blank">building information infrastructure</a> has been damn impressive. Theyre doing a better job to remote locations (in order to include the entire population) than even the USA (although; I agree - hillbillies with 3G and fiber-O would be an obvious waste). First though - need to do my homework, and see what people are really up to, interested in doing, and of course where the current startup scene exists already. Looking forward to the meetup afterall!<br />
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Oh - and today. Today was a damn thundershower. Welcome to rainy season in South East Asia! Should have taken a snap from the car on the way home this morning but the view of the rain filling up our pool will have to suffice.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLTXhjzcj5QWME1N8ue1Ql7vTpNrUtH0pGgENQ1qzhio_sjuRi_AzwUQowu5nRTMDO2j5m4Wr0i-8nNsrfN-F32pmiUiDj3uGHc0MshANniwIIvSD01WdV67twpf78TZkEid855KIcXNg/s1600/2012-07-12+10.16.19.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLTXhjzcj5QWME1N8ue1Ql7vTpNrUtH0pGgENQ1qzhio_sjuRi_AzwUQowu5nRTMDO2j5m4Wr0i-8nNsrfN-F32pmiUiDj3uGHc0MshANniwIIvSD01WdV67twpf78TZkEid855KIcXNg/s320/2012-07-12+10.16.19.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivkBpeUdXmkbN-ohbrFuPyOO5jhzpRPCXYP1mGOD3Wpcb_JJkBFah9mA2XrPVYX05dQto8t0Kmik09a4IJdbj9xXP_FM7PI-_xNbpHjJVz7GLR3Tiuok-DmUUGNeWrG079Bc5SOhwZx1Q/s1600/2012-07-12+10.05.17.jpg"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivkBpeUdXmkbN-ohbrFuPyOO5jhzpRPCXYP1mGOD3Wpcb_JJkBFah9mA2XrPVYX05dQto8t0Kmik09a4IJdbj9xXP_FM7PI-_xNbpHjJVz7GLR3Tiuok-DmUUGNeWrG079Bc5SOhwZx1Q/s320/2012-07-12+10.05.17.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCOCJ6MMyGVkWjlqJYJJeL_u2vThGREACc9K5ydzFoMfOB3lDTZT-Tf7N1eNS6-1ZxTR76HuKhQMU_cEcBAIzDIiVm-Xww-xQdfJbSgx_94FdNWx9Wgpx4G1GGBoCHZVbFvEyFIFN3Vsc/s1600/2012-07-12+10.05.33.jpg"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCOCJ6MMyGVkWjlqJYJJeL_u2vThGREACc9K5ydzFoMfOB3lDTZT-Tf7N1eNS6-1ZxTR76HuKhQMU_cEcBAIzDIiVm-Xww-xQdfJbSgx_94FdNWx9Wgpx4G1GGBoCHZVbFvEyFIFN3Vsc/s320/2012-07-12+10.05.33.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-83259042056044663892012-07-09T15:55:00.001+07:002012-07-12T16:23:36.952+07:00Bangkok: A Not-So-Struggling-Startup-Scene!Before arriving back here in Bangkok (we own a condo here - <a href="http://www.baannavatara.com/">baannavatara.com</a>) I had thought that the BKK startup scene was yet-another-nearly-non-existant-one...<br />
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I was happily proved wrong when I just started doing a bit of actual investigation into local happenings, including even something as simple as some searches on <a href="http://meetup.com/">meetup.com</a> where I found more than a dozen very active and up-to-date groups in the hitech/startup space.<br />
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Going to attend my first startup tomorrow night, a Designers meetup, and start the process of engaging with the local scene to learn how it is working, where it needs help, and in what areas I can best add value to it. (Which I am sure there is still quite alot - but to see so much activity already is a great thing!)EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-21881681934015363762012-07-06T23:42:00.002+07:002012-07-07T00:27:01.642+07:00Vienna, Vienna!Had a great day in Vienna today.<br />
Was able to check out the new Technology University of Vienna (TU Wien) that is still mostly under construction.<br />
Spoke with some administration people and they seem very eager for future driven platforms to run their academic content and classrooms on. <a href="http://www.ekita.co/" target="_blank">eKita</a> seems to be finding itself a new home everywhere it goes!<br />
<br />
This day, however, was mostly devoted to simply enjoying one of Europe's finer cities.<br />
<br />
First a video - found this abstract art structure just smacked down in the middle of one of their most historical squares. The square which marks the "<i>liberation"</i> of Austria (by the Russians) from Nazi rule. (Which was obviously only half liberation, and half conquering/looting).<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_War_Memorial_(Vienna)" target="_blank">Here's your wikipedia link to read up on it if interested.</a><br />
Enjoy the video...(video unaltered - the sound effects are part of the art installation)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzsgZA1ZWDQ93o4vQEsVTquQwObCxfv49JaDuqaXZswCvhJnjdisT6IqDxP8osjlWEP25H-YLNyZi_7996IIg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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And of course...<br />
Enjoy the pictures...<br />
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href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8BHDanlBT2LMYO1UzGzNcA8HampwCKq8UGp7hHyAMTi3biTv5lZBdoD-kk_vvTajVbEFbkDxTQEPLUpcBoNiWLmxO7KFrc4FQHjENEBy5WkzZOMx4AeCrhUGUjnfn8kFAxEYjT2GWpqU/s1600/2012-07-05+17.54.04.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8BHDanlBT2LMYO1UzGzNcA8HampwCKq8UGp7hHyAMTi3biTv5lZBdoD-kk_vvTajVbEFbkDxTQEPLUpcBoNiWLmxO7KFrc4FQHjENEBy5WkzZOMx4AeCrhUGUjnfn8kFAxEYjT2GWpqU/s200/2012-07-05+17.54.04.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFRH-8UAR1oA6YK-kjFENjpHNk0chOumRMzVCwhcMVXkMqLDPZDd8JjwKeW2hCxruOB5UPRDj0sTkHCW8DYf4o-QYnxR-MFsZMGFoUfbofJqb5nsGv_plDOIpFDDPiijbp1oRUYKYL-xk/s1600/2012-07-05+18.01.02.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFRH-8UAR1oA6YK-kjFENjpHNk0chOumRMzVCwhcMVXkMqLDPZDd8JjwKeW2hCxruOB5UPRDj0sTkHCW8DYf4o-QYnxR-MFsZMGFoUfbofJqb5nsGv_plDOIpFDDPiijbp1oRUYKYL-xk/s200/2012-07-05+18.01.02.jpg" /></a>EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-18335447080750968452012-07-05T02:58:00.001+07:002012-07-05T02:58:57.712+07:003DS Incorporated & eKita moving to Asia!Just going to link here:<br />
<a href="http://3dsisrael.blogspot.co.il/2012/07/3-day-startup-israel-incorporated.html">http://3dsisrael.blogspot.co.il/2012/07/3-day-startup-israel-incorporated.html</a><br />
<br />
Was a really great step forward for 3 Day Startup, and entrepreneurship in Israel.<br />
<br />
As for me - getting on that airplane at 6:00 (T minus 7 hours) to Vienna. Got a day of fun there to hook up with a few startups and check out the scene, maybe see a museum, relax in a park, then back to Thailand to start setting up eKita in Asia between Thailand and Singapore.<br />
<br />
More on that is just waiting to come!EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-9928625531020014272012-06-27T15:44:00.000+07:002012-06-27T15:44:53.796+07:00Technology reanimates itself...This was sortof funny to see:<br />
<a href="http://www.studentstory.in/2012/06/win-ipad-reviewing-worlddesk/?goback=%2Egde_1891552_member_128172718">http://www.studentstory.in/2012/06/win-ipad-reviewing-worlddesk/?goback=%2Egde_1891552_member_128172718</a><br />
<br />
<b>This is StickyDrive 2.0</b><br />
StickyDrive was a 2005 SV startup I was part of, founded by my cousin Sol.<br />
<br />
<i>"An operating system on a flashdisk"</i><br />
<br />
Its funny to see things tried over again (in fact this is the fourth such project I've seen in the past years), when they either fail to execute or simply come out before their <i>"time".</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
Ironically with Sol, he had alot of great visions and this wasnt the only startup he founded which was before its time. "Twitter Video" (12 sec video clips @ www.12seconds.tv) was also a thing he built after StickyDrive was acquired by DeviceVM, but it plateaued at about 150k users if I recall correctly - and they shut it down in 2010 I believe after it wouldnt grow past that.<br />
<br />
Its always funny in this industry to see ideas and projects effectively "reanimated" as time goes by...<br />
Sometimes its just about right timing, and a bit of skill in execution.<br />
<br />
In any case - this WorldDesktop project is a bit <i>past</i> its time, IMO.<br />
<br />
Flash disks are becoming a thing of the past, a less useful commodity, and cloud-based web storage is whats leading the path.<br />
So I dont think this project will do much in this space either. It was a pretty hit-or-miss chance for this type of platform between 2004 and 2009 I'd say. Nothing really caught on. Kingston has their urDrive and Sandisk made one too... all of them relatively ineffective in the end as added value for either company.EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-90165320720175186192012-06-23T21:42:00.004+07:002012-06-24T00:02:38.760+07:00ICT Spring ReCap #1 :: LUX & StartupsICT Spring conference in Luxembourg was quite a trip.<br />
<a href="http://www.ictspring.com/">www.ictspring.com</a> for those who missed it.<br />
<br />
Now - I'll first say that I dont know alot about the startup events in Europe. I mean c'mon. Europe isnt very well known for startups - with a few exceptions (UK, budding Belgian scene, Holland, etc).<br />
Regardless - as most of my background and my <i>startup upbringing</i> is in the southwest US / silicon valley area, my European startup knowledge isnt that of a <i>local</i>. (Despite the fact I've built one in Spain and one in Sweden: both of those places arent well known for startups either)<br />
So - initially, I had been under the impression that this ICT Spring conference was indeed one of the pinnacle European startup events. They certainly branded it as such.<br />
<br />
<b>This was not so.</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
While the ICT Spring is indeed a fun event, with lots of great panelists & guest speakers, and located in a beautiful city.... Luxembourg itself, its culture, its business life, and the mentality is about as far from startup as one can get.<br />
<i>People in Luxembourg dont even understand <b>what</b> a startup is!</i><br />
Its true. 100%<br />
<br />
Even their governmental incubator program lists on its requirements for the <i>seed stage startups</i> it incubates:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: orange;">Startups we incubate must be funded, have initial revenue, and user growth with an established product in their target market.</span></blockquote>
<b>Yup. Seriously.</b><br />
<b>They really do think a startup is simply a small version of a big company.</b><br />
Suffice to say - their incubator stands empty.<br />
<b></b><br />
<a name='more'></a><b><br /></b><br />
Luxembourg is putting all this weight behind trying to brand themselves as a good place to <i>start-up</i> - and they dont even know what the term means.<br />
Its pretty sad because they apparently really want to see innovation coming in. The result however is that their rigid, typically traditionalist european way of doing business, is simply going to run them into a very big hole.<br />
<i>Especially with the euro crisis and their entire industry being reliant on private banking on the euro.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
Luxembourg will need to adapt fast or see themselves in worse state than Greece.<br />
They definitely have the information infrastructure, tax structure, legal structure, and support of the community to create an entrepreneurial scene there - but the mentality and willingness, as well as attraction for business angels and <i>actual</i> seed stage investors/incubators/accelerators is absolutely non-existent as of right now.<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusion: There are no startups in Luxembourg.</b><br />
<br />
I plan to help them fix this with an initial 3 Day Startup program, as there are in fact a whole lot of locals interested in building startups, but unable to do so because of the severe lack of understanding how to do it, how to support it, and how to build such a community.<br />
<br />
The positive side is:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>that Luxembourg is rich as all hell</li>
<li>doing business is relatively easy</li>
<li>they seem to actually be interested in creating a startup community there - they just dont know how</li>
</ol>
<div>
We'll see how it goes.<br />
<br />
<br />
Yea folks.<br />
Thats right.<br />
<hr />
The rest of this post is copied from our <a href="http://www.3dsisrael.com/" target="_blank">3DS Israel blog</a><br />
3 Day Startup is about to collision crash with cindarella-land (sorry - but thats the only way I can describe Lux...lol;)<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5rO2d6R0tLVkIqRJl0lJwLrRQVlc_QVZ7pV6des-DhJqXd48OOyN5iEpPzOyg2ZR0B_YCe5fm_BrPMw4YdXvrgPF2b6Ge5gouRzMIjFNzF4vJGSHuHA8L0NNTZVjQGLoCaC76yUAQozo/s1600/2012-06-18+07.02.49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5rO2d6R0tLVkIqRJl0lJwLrRQVlc_QVZ7pV6des-DhJqXd48OOyN5iEpPzOyg2ZR0B_YCe5fm_BrPMw4YdXvrgPF2b6Ge5gouRzMIjFNzF4vJGSHuHA8L0NNTZVjQGLoCaC76yUAQozo/s200/2012-06-18+07.02.49.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig4g8FkgK4n8P_k7_GT3yAWnOSbb2LFeJXg6mhNJ6Rg8itZfLozbgW6lhZ2Dc7xKXQL2u3Tz4BPkZa3yGz2uc1YT-gdx1cYQO8VWvI87MtDSFjksO7bg6L6QMTfXnhhBVX6RHfEQ4Bles/s1600/2012-06-18+07.17.21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig4g8FkgK4n8P_k7_GT3yAWnOSbb2LFeJXg6mhNJ6Rg8itZfLozbgW6lhZ2Dc7xKXQL2u3Tz4BPkZa3yGz2uc1YT-gdx1cYQO8VWvI87MtDSFjksO7bg6L6QMTfXnhhBVX6RHfEQ4Bles/s200/2012-06-18+07.17.21.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrgJ2eNooAFLcb8FWSmRhmOS-rwCYkZ_kFUWNM5J6uDC1NN4YulrzyJcMSoDIQR6tE_armupndGktj-OUtOt0lK5H6tfKxCEbnETFrPvmQsln5t4iG-RDNDKUtrE6b_zokcSJUbUryXro/s1600/2012-06-18+07.17.43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrgJ2eNooAFLcb8FWSmRhmOS-rwCYkZ_kFUWNM5J6uDC1NN4YulrzyJcMSoDIQR6tE_armupndGktj-OUtOt0lK5H6tfKxCEbnETFrPvmQsln5t4iG-RDNDKUtrE6b_zokcSJUbUryXro/s200/2012-06-18+07.17.43.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
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Train Station in Leige, with a happy looking 3DS Graduate, Elan Perach, ready to rock!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLK-Vvtgj7FLLvbLAwNNHXk3uxN3_5Rp4JOKqDTuerWZ2wkYriwI9xf_0KUwV2eYSZv8cdrSA2ALIYjPzhTUzIZR5qu0JNyMU43ntNKDNLoPM-wQHILbUTl_bwKi4BTIBD4WWYvwGF990/s1600/2012-06-18+19.28.24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLK-Vvtgj7FLLvbLAwNNHXk3uxN3_5Rp4JOKqDTuerWZ2wkYriwI9xf_0KUwV2eYSZv8cdrSA2ALIYjPzhTUzIZR5qu0JNyMU43ntNKDNLoPM-wQHILbUTl_bwKi4BTIBD4WWYvwGF990/s200/2012-06-18+19.28.24.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgqsSADAEGOGPwEKqEIAgMm8fuo8Gtm6LiGN88IyEg83QyjANXhl7m-b_-Q6Z4uOs0Y1JlIFy8lqqwrwBqiYfiwpaHL_Oq4KTW63L_jv3kbmDZXSIhZWOmwFNrSGuzb1pE9YCUOGWQmo/s1600/2012-06-18+19.28.41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgqsSADAEGOGPwEKqEIAgMm8fuo8Gtm6LiGN88IyEg83QyjANXhl7m-b_-Q6Z4uOs0Y1JlIFy8lqqwrwBqiYfiwpaHL_Oq4KTW63L_jv3kbmDZXSIhZWOmwFNrSGuzb1pE9YCUOGWQmo/s200/2012-06-18+19.28.41.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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I told you! Cindarella land! This is the middle of town!</div>
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They definitely like their Nutella in Luxembourg!!!</div>
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Brian Wong definitely kicked ass on stage.</div>
And these 2 twins co-founded a startup together, and jokingly ran around - both of them - as "CEO". Confusing the hell out of people. It was hilarious to see them on stage haha ;-)<br />
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One of the Israeli startups I brought to the show - MoneyBox....</div>
I think they'll need one after they gave away <i style="font-weight: bold;">$1000 in raw cash!</i> - All in $1 bills, to promote their startup concept.</div>EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-75443232616292836402012-06-23T21:06:00.003+07:002012-06-23T21:06:37.066+07:00Official battle-standard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUBLk0adiMhEXwa1NZgy8Rp7Wj6lM72OwXFYbbzvmXsNrAMREQ5L63KOddFUQIcrmbp4J16QKwQFNCWux3xZw17t4iByG6qGayZi69ZQOIRPz9AyrWlH5pDYElrN0NMmvNrbP6zlK2uQ/s1600/onstarltups-aviator-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUBLk0adiMhEXwa1NZgy8Rp7Wj6lM72OwXFYbbzvmXsNrAMREQ5L63KOddFUQIcrmbp4J16QKwQFNCWux3xZw17t4iByG6qGayZi69ZQOIRPz9AyrWlH5pDYElrN0NMmvNrbP6zlK2uQ/s400/onstarltups-aviator-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Just had to make sure this becomes my damn battle standard...<br />
<br />
That is all...EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-46141543424450984472012-06-05T23:52:00.001+07:002012-06-23T19:53:06.904+07:00What It's Like To Be The CEO: Revelations and Reflections<a href="http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/85060/What-It-s-Like-To-Be-The-CEO-Revelations-and-Reflections.aspx">[Full Credits: OnStartups.com]</a><br />
<br />
Dont agree with every single tidbit, but the majority of it - couldnt agree more!<br />
<br />
My favorite part:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: orange;">"You begin to realize that in life, the luckiest people in the World only get one shot at being a part of something great. Knowing this helps you make sense of your commitment."</span></blockquote>
The following is a guest post from Paul DeJoe, founder at <a href="http://ecquire.com/">Ecquire</a> and EIR at Fairbridge Venture Partners. This article is adapted from an <a href="http://www.quora.com/Startups/What-does-it-feel-like-to-be-the-CEO-of-a-start-up">answer on Quora</a> that Paul left responding to the question “What does it feel like to be the CEO of a startup?” I reached out to Paul for permission to share his thoughts with the OnStartups.com readership. At the end of the article is an epilogue with additional notes. It's worth reading too<br />
-Dharmesh<br />
<br />
On May 20th, either right before midnight or right after midnight, I can't remember, I posted my rendition of what it feels like to be a startup CEO to a question on Quora. 1124 votes later and one last glance at a notification of an up vote from, Jia Liu, a social game maker from Zynga, I'm going to close the Quora tab and at the recommendation of Dharmesh, write what this last few days have been like, some of the cool things I've heard and some of the great people I've met as well as what I've realized.<br />
<br />
With that said, here's the original post that sparked such a fantastic response.<br />
What It Feels Like To Be The CEO Of A Startup<br />
<br />
Very tough to sleep most nights of the week. Weekends don't mean anything to you anymore. Closing a round of financing is not a relief. It means more people are depending on you to turn their investment into 20 times what they gave you.<br />
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It's very difficult to "turn it off". But at the same time, television, movies and vacations become so boring to you when your company's future might be sitting in your inbox or in the results of a new A/B test you decided to run.<br />
<br />
<b>You feel</b> guilty when you're doing something you like doing outside of the company. Only through years of wrestling with this internal fight do you recognize how the word "balance" is an art that is just as important as any other skill set you could ever hope to have. You begin to see how valuable creativity is and that you must think differently not only to win, but to see the biggest opportunities. You recognize you get your best ideas when you're not staring at a screen. You see immediate returns on healthy distractions.<br />
<br />
<b>You start</b> to respect the Duck. Paddle like hell under the water and be smooth and calm on top where everyone can see you. You learn the hard way that if you lose your cool you lose.<br />
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<b>You always</b> ask yourself if I am changing the World in a good way? Are people's lives better for having known me?<br />
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<b>You are</b> creative and when you have an idea it has no filter before it becomes a reality. This feeling is why you can't do anything else.<br />
<br />
<b>You start</b> to see that the word "entrepreneur" is a personality. It's difficult to talk to your friends that are not risking the same things you are because they are content with not pushing themselves or putting it all out there in the public with the likelihood of failure staring at them everyday. You start to turn a lot of your conversations with relatives into how they might exploit opportunities for profit. Those close to you will view your focus as something completely different because they don't understand. You don't blame them. They can't understand if they haven't done it themselves. It's why you will gravitate towards other entrepreneurs. You will find reward in helping other entrepreneurs. This is my email address: paul[at]ecquire.com Let me know if I can help you with anything.<br />
<br />
<b>Your job</b> is to create a vision, a culture, to get the right people on the bus and to inspire. When you look around at a team that believes in the vision as much as you do and trusts you will do the right thing all the time, it's a feeling that can't be explained. The exponential productivity from great people will always amaze you. It's why finding the right team is the most difficult thing you will do but the most important. This learning will affect your life significantly. You will not settle for things anymore because you will see what is possible when you hold out for the best and push to find people that are the best. You don't have a problem anymore being honest with people about not cutting it.<br />
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<img border="0" height="265" src="http://onstartups.com/Portals/150/images/onstarltups-aviator-2.jpg" width="400" /><br />
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<b>You start</b> to see that you're a leader and you have to lead or you can't be involved with it at all. You turn down acquisition offers because you need to run the show and you feel like your team is the best in the World and you can do anything with hard work. Quitting is not an option.<br />
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<b>You have</b> to be willing to sleep in your car and laugh about it. You have to be able to laugh at many things because when you think of the worse things in the World that could happen to your company, they will happen. Imagine working for something for two years and then have to throw it out completely because you see in one day that it's wrong. You realize that if your team is having fun and can always laugh that you won't die, and in fact, the opposite will happen: you will learn to love the journey and look forward to what you do everyday even at the lowest times. You'll learn not to get too low when things are bad and not to get too high when things are good and you'll even give that advice. But you'll never take it because being in the middle all the time isn't exciting and an even keel is never worth missing out on something worth celebrating. You'll become addicted to finding the hardest challenges because there's a direct relationship between how difficult something is and the euphoria of a feeling when you do the impossible.<br />
<br />
<b>You realize</b> that it's much more fun when you didn't have money and that money might be the worse thing you could have as a personal goal. If you're lucky enough to genuinely feel this way, it is a surreal feeling that is the closest thing to peace because you realize it's the challenges and the work that you love. Your currencies are freedom, autonomy, responsibility and recognition. Those happen to be the same currencies of the people you want around you.<br />
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<b>You feel</b> like a parent to your customers in that they will never realize how much you love them and it is they who validate you are not crazy. You want to hug every one of them. They mean the World to you.<br />
<br />
<b>You learn</b> the most about yourself more than any other vocation as an entrepreneur. You learn what you do when you get punched in the face many many times. You learn what you do when no one is looking and when no one would find out. You learn that you are bad at many things, lucky if you're good at a handful of things and the only thing you can ever be great at is being yourself which is why you can never compromise it. You learn how power and recognition can be addicting and see how it could corrupt so many.<br />
<br />
<b>You become</b> incredibly grateful for the times that things were going as bad as they possibly could. Most people won't get to see this in any other calling. When things are really bad, there are people that come running to help and don't think twice about it. Tal Raviv, Gary Smith, Joe Reyes, Toan Dang, Vincent Cheung, Eric Elinow, Abe Marciano are some of them. I will forever be in their debt and I could never repay them nor would they want or expect to be repaid.<br />
<br />
<b>You begin</b> to realize that in life, the luckiest people in the World only get one shot at being a part of something great. Knowing this helps you make sense of your commitment.<br />
<br />
Of all the things said though, it's exciting. Every day is different and so exciting. Even when it's bad it's exciting. Knowing that your decisions will not only affect you but many others is a weight that I would rather have any day than the weight of not controlling my future. That's why I could not do anything else.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Epilogue</u></b><br />
In the post, I had shared my email with everyone to see with the hopes of encouraging anyone that needed any help to reach out to me directly. I was fortunate enough that so many people took me up on this offer. The exchanges we had ranged from skype calls, testing some new products, sharing ideas and even joining an advisory board. Most of the emails I got though were just people that thanked me for the post, shared their contact information, and said things like David did:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"…likewise, if there's any way I can be of help or service, let me know."</blockquote>
For those of you that have reached out to me and shared some of your life with me, thank you beyond words. It has been flattering, fulfilling and, and humbling. For those that have voted up the answer and said some of the kindest, coolest and most amazing comments anyone could ever hear. I thank you. And my startup parents thank you. Suddenly the 80,000lb student loan Gorilla with no income to feed him seemed to take the week off and was replaced with elation when reading some amazing comments. It meant a lot. Thank you again.<br />
<br />
What might be a surprise to hear though is that it felt very uncomfortable to me to say "thank you" and I was doing it a lot. Seemingly overnight, there was a collective up vote from over 1,000 people that shared similar feelings and situations. I started to get the feeling that this wasn't me that wrote this and became uncomfortable taking credit. This post gained attention because it was the collective post by everyone who contributed with a comment or a vote and if I hadn't been lucky enough to come across this question, someone else would have wrote this. It might have been better or not but it would have at least been appreciated in the same way had another entrepreneur wrote it.<br />
<br />
I don't recall seeing too many notifications of a down vote and that made me realize a few things:<br />
<br />
This post became an online meet up for a group of people that are committed to changing the World. And rightfully, as well as fittingly so, it's very difficult and a sometimes a seemingly unsurmountable undertaking. But what was encouraging was not one person in the entire comments (go ahead and look) or in the emails that I received, said that they were overwhelmed or going to quit. They all found this inspirational and motivating and just the little encouragement needed that led to a found appreciation for what they do and and a reminder that they're not the only crazy ones.<br />
<br />
The most common response I received however sounded like: "Thank you for this. I forwarded your answer to my friends and family to help them understand." One person even said that their Mom thanked me for the post (Thanks, Renee for sharing). Unfortunately, and sometimes rightfully so, entrepreneurs are commonly misunderstood by people outside of our networks and by people we love. It's mostly our fault. Although we are not understood most of the time, we take for granted that while we're often misunderstood, we are always accepted and supported. What we don't say thank you enough for, and what we often take for granted, is the very thing that let's us be who we are and chase our dreams. The people around us that love us unconditionally without regard for how bad we might fail is the equivalent of a superhero's cape. Without this, and without someone we can share the ups and downs with, great things do not happen. They can't. The things that are worth while to pursue and dedicate a life to involve something way bigger than individuals and have to be completely selfless or they are not big enough and not worth celebrating if the goal does not have the well being of others in mind. A collective thank you on behalf of this group of people that are crazy enough to change the World goes out to you. Thank you. If you are reading this because it has been forwarded to you, please know that you are appreciated and it's difficult for, often times quirky introverts to articulate. You don't have to change anything, we don't say it enough but it's with you in mind that we find motivation. You possess the most scarce resource of all: Undying and unnerving support. Thank you for it.<br />
<br />
Lastly, undoubtedly the greatest thing that came from this post was an amazing calm that came over me that was during the most fulfilling, rewarding, interesting and fun week of this tumultuous journey to build a company. It came at the intersection of being able to interact with all of these individuals and being able to see all at one time, the collective resolve, ambition and just how dynamic these people are. The content of who these people actually are, how many of them there are and that they actually exist under our noses, let my imagination of what was possible wander in a positive direction for the first time in a while. It was powerful enough to spin the negative outlook I thought we were inevitably leaving for future generations. What I have just said, you would have not heard me say one week ago. It also made me realize something for which I will forever be grateful to all of those that contributed to this post. I realized what I am supposed to do to be fulfilled and happy in life:<br />
<b><u>Inspire.</u></b><br />
<br />
I can tell you first hand, from over 1,000 data points and messages, that there is no better feeling than when you inspire or when you can help. When you genuinely help, it's a good feeling that is impossible to suppress. It's impossible to suppress for a reason: It feels good in the most selfless way possible. Entrepreneurs will make their own mistakes along the way, millions in fact. They have to to learn and improve. Don't discourage them from trying. There's no reason to. It's a useless thing to do and it might be enough to delay the doctor that cures cancer or the visionary that brings sustainable water to Africa when a simple word of encouragement was the only push they needed.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Inspire.</u></b> Help and do so with other people and future generations in mind.Wouldn't it be the coolest thing in the World if we were the generation that consistently got punched in the face, didn't complain, didn't slow down, picked up our lunch pales and went out everyday to create sustainable opportunities for a generation that we haven't met yet? If that sounds crazy, ambitious, and delusional it's because it is and that's the way we have to have it or it's not worth our time. As crazy as it sounds, I can assure you that it will only require one thing for all of us to do for it to become real. It requires that we all inspire. <br />
<br />
What do you think?EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3783589821188297867.post-81938590793557938412012-06-03T02:40:00.000+07:002012-06-03T02:40:16.839+07:00I couldnt have found a better example......of how fragmented and rediculous the edu-tech market is.<br />
<br />
This Professor just released an e-book on how to use all the various non-edu-tech built tools...for educational purposes.<br />
His e-book outlines TWENTY (20) different tools, all of which (or - most of which) you've probably heard of or already use - and how to use them for your educational needs. Together. In Tandem. To get the minimal features of what you probably, actually, <i>DO</i> need.<br />
<br />
Thats 20 different logins, 20 different sites, 20 fragmented different places storing your data and means of connections.<br />
<br />
Its a damn good book too - thats the sad thing.<br />
The more sad thing is that its actually dubbed "a minimalist approach". As in: <i>You JUST need these 20 tools! Only 20!</i> --- the world wont know what hit it when eKita comes out.<br />
<br />
Enjoy: <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/95039625/Web-2-0-Research-Tools-A-Quick-Guide">http://www.scribd.com/doc/95039625/Web-2-0-Research-Tools-A-Quick-Guide</a>EfraimIPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09021000914693637705noreply@blogger.com0