A Swedish/European Entrepreneur in Silicon Valley
Entrepreneurship
The 6 different ways to perceive time
May 28th
Great presentation on a study of how time is perceived by us humans
The Italian reference is very interesting if you have been travelling around Italy a bit. I know that I am the future oriented with a lot of faith in the future, and I rather work and play (but mostly work…), but I try to make my work as fun as play (so I think most of it is really play).
Which of the 6 types are you? What are your thoughts on this way to look at time?
Affiliate programs for restaurant reservations in the US?
May 19th
From one of the BootstrapLabs projects, we have been looking at affiliate programs for restaurant reservations here in the US, but it seems like the only big player in the reservation space is OpenTable, that IMHO has a pretty unattractive affiliate program. They reset earnings each month, they have min. threshold for payment with no roll-over of earnings to next month – and the have a pretty high number of reservations to be useful.
Please comment on experience, thoughts or ideas for other affiliate programs for restaurant bookings!
Google voice transcribe, kind of works
May 18th
Ok, Google Voice is great, and I really enjoy the voice to text function to get searchable voice mails. But sometimes it does not work very well, and turns out pretty funny.
It’s almost as this could be a spammer nonsense text (the actual message is in Swedish, and says something of the tune, translated of course: “I don’t need to pick up my daughter, so can meet at 11.00″ at your office, my mobile number is xxx).
Google Voice “amusement” version:
I spoke to you, give you 1,000,007 and the women’s open for us to kinda circle matter how much on and call me a phone call them and the American way in the that Taylor and while talked. The did come to love him and just wanted to know if the Ball Kai on the phone cut off and a couple of minutes. 2nd Street and I wanted to. I was going also, so we’ll talk over the summer forum. Okay, have, a, also we will be used, for the personal book something going on if you got them all. Dot at the moment. No need to, this is not a sale.
How in the world did Google Voice generate this long message?? (no Swedish is not that verbose!)
Being lean is not always the way to go
May 17th
A very insightful post from Ben Horowitz (as always), he writes about the “fat startup” and the fact that being lean is not a purpose in itself, but rather a mean to an end. And the end os to prove and win the market (before you run out of cash).
Here is my central argument. There are only two priorities for a start-up:Winning the market and not running out of cash. Running lean is not an end. For that matter, neither is running fat. Both are tactics that you use to win the market and not run out of cash before you do so. By making “running lean” an end, you may lose your opportunity to win the market, either because you fail to fund the R&D necessary to find product/market fit or you let a competitor out-execute you in taking the market. Sometimes running fat is the right thing to do.
Full post here.
Siri’s IPhone App Puts A Personal Assistant In Your Pocket
Feb 5th
This is what real-time search and the future of advertising is all about. This is were context matching, location based services converge. Whoever is the best at matching a context of a particular user with any offering, product and service will be the big winner in online advertising (which I guess is the monetization model for Siri).
TechCrunch writes:
You simply speak into the phone with a request like, “Find something to do in San Francisco this weekend.” It turns your speech to text and pushes your request out to an appropriate service on the Web such as Eventful or Citysearch, in this case. It not only attempts to bring you back the appropriate information based on context, time of day, and your location, but with your permission can go ahead and make reservations or buy tickets as well. (Read our extensive first-look coverage from last year or watch this sneak-peak video)
Read more here: Siri’s IPhone App Puts A Personal Assistant In Your Pocket
Bodega: A Cross-Platform Marketplace That Lets Gamers Swap Virtual Currencies For Cash
Nov 5th
TechCrunch wrote about Bodega today. Bodega is a very interesting idea, and I think we will see more and more of these.
But I wonder when the SEC:s an FSA:s of the world will start to regulate these as some form of banking business…
More at TechCrunch:
Bodega: A Cross-Platform Marketplace That Lets Gamers Swap Virtual Currencies For Cash
The TwitterPeek is a Peek that tweets
Nov 3rd
I am sure this will not hit, but they are on to something.
I think we are going to see a number of specific purpose devices that are in fact a mobile phone data device behind the scenes.
I’m sure the TweeterPeek is a wonderful device, but most feature phones now include a Twitter app. So if you’re really getting into Twitter, first reevaluate your life, and then check out your cell phone provider’s offers to make sure you simply can’t upgrade your phone to get access to Twitter. Or you can just drop $200 on the TweeterPeek and call it good. Your call.
More at CrunchGear: The TwitterPeek is a Peek that tweets
Reid Hoffman on Taking Web 2.0 on the Go
Nov 3rd
The mobile phone is the new Internet I think; from GigaOM today:
“The insight on web 2.0 is the web isn’t this strange place but is actually part of how we navigate our actual life, so with the web delivered to a mobile device, one of these things that will happen is that the same principle will now also be true for real-time applications and apps where people can do stuff from their phone,” Hoffman said.
Heavenly Returns for Angel Investors? – WSJ.com
Nov 3rd
Interesting:
“This may be the best time in years for an investor to become an angel. But that doesn’t mean you should rush out to get yourself fitted for wings and a halo.
An angel investor is anyone who privately provides capital to a promising business, often a start-up, that isn’t run by a friend or family member. Scott Shane, an economist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, estimates that the U.S. has at least 140,000 active angels who collectively invest some $20 billion a year in new businesses.”
The Future Is Big Data in the Cloud
Nov 3rd
Great post at GigaOM:
As this cloud stack hardens, new applications and services –- previously unthinkable -– will come to light, in all shapes and sizes. But the one thing they will all have in common is Big Data.
Read the full “The Future Is Big Data in the Cloud“
Recent Comments