-
Lean - in body and mind, life and startup
-
Feeling Alive ~ Impulse
-
http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2011/04/digital_economy
-
Heifer International. Brilliantly explained video, as seen on hulu. Like microfinance on crack!
-
Is it time to learn or earn?
One of my favorite articles from Both Sides of the Table, it describes my situation perfectly. To start-up my own, or join another for this summer? Is it my duty to learn more through the wisdom of others, or my own mistakes?
Just something to think about (I know I will be).
-
http://venturebeat.com/2011/04/01/parlor-fm-launch/
Parlor.fm
OMG. Greatest company ever. Match based Chatroulette minus the penises? kickass :)
-
Updated Methodology - I’m back from the dead, and with a vengeance!!
So I’m back after a long while. And working on a new start up, desperately trying to finish a few applications for the 6 or so existant start-up accelerators in the country. Found my partner in a friend from a few summers ago who finished his PhD in Stats at Harvard and is now a professor of Math & Statistics at BU, Henry Lam. Kudos to him for finishing his degree and choosing academia over trading (quite literally) his soul to a bank.
We’re working on a concept utilizing large-sized optimization to let pet lovers of the world unite with similar minded friends for all sorts of pet related activities!
In any case, my new methodology that will encourage me to update this blog daily is to display a new interesting start up/ company every day. And today’s company is one that I’m personally using for market research, Qualtrics.
Similar to surveymonkey, but much more complex, Qualtrics offers a free version (which I’m using btw, will update if I ever switch over to the paid subscription) that beats most rival’s paid services. In addition it offers a lot of insight into the theory behind surveys - how to increase response rates, write great questions , and analyze data.
Really a blast to use, I’d recommend it to anyone looking to do some research or just better understand their friends!
-
21st
I am now 21. The last birthday with real meaning in the states. Boy do the years go by quickly, especially when there isn’t ample time to revel and reflect. I suppose life’s a balancing game between living and viewing, and it never seems there is enough time for the latter. I best make some.
I’d really like to spend a couple months this summer living by my lonesome with little contact with the outside world. To better understand who I truly am today, as apart from my past and to aid in the shaping of my future. Perhaps in a cheaply rented villa in rural Thailand, perhaps in a remote lake house in Marseille as witnessed in Love Actually, or perhaps in my own backyard. Doesn’t really matter, one can encounter themselves anywhere. All they need is a lack of distraction, which nowadays, is perhaps harder to find than any other precious resource in the world.
(I will update when I figure it out myself. Until then, my current plans include backpacking through SE Asia, running a start-up optimizing eco-friendly behavior, and reflecting before I start fulltime work sometime in late October or November.)
I think this post is more for me, though truly I suppose this blog is too.
-
On Start-ups
So, I’ve wanted to launch a start-up for a while now. In fact it was one of my three to dos at university, either launch a start-up, write a book, or create a medium length film (~60 min).
This particular idea revolved around bringing venture capital to the masses - that is allowing individuals with small amounts of capital and large amounts of knowledge/ foresight to buy equity in start-ups in traditionally underfunded areas. E.g, 500 University students studying mechanical engineering in Western European and American universities each give $50 as well as their input on the future of their respective fields to a Hydraulic Energy start-up in Vietnam that needs $25,000 to get off the ground.
There were many aspects to it, such as targeting developing countries where the dollar or euro goes much farther, where there are large amounts of university graduates in technical disciplines, only looking at companies with high growth potentials, and marketing it as a way to own part of what you believe in and help developing countries. But I’m going to talk about some of the problems I’ve learned of after conversing with lawyers in the discipline.
The primary problem is that you are essentially operating as a broker, and you can be seen as giving advice to both parties if you are drawing revenue as a percentage based fee. This might not be so bad except that you are targeting many ‘poorer’ individuals who are better protected by the government in that they are not deemed as experts and thus more exploitable. This combined with the fact that there are many of them makes the liability immense.
A secondary problem is the regulatory complication known as the SEC. You are dealing with money, and this is always a tricky area. Suffice to say, there are loads of laws I won’t go into, but let’s just say you can’t have more than 35 investors in any one ‘fund’ without being registered.
I’m still planning on launching a start-up, either a modified version of this, more of a microfinance targeting larger high tech groups, or perhaps another idea completely. This is my last year of university, I already have a job offer, and there are many business plan/ entrepreneurship competitions to take advantage of. So even if the idea isn’t cemented, my plan to pitch my ideas against those of others is.
-
On extremes and shaping the world
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is a book that was recommended to me by my uncle, an ex- Merrill Lynch trader who retired early and continues to keep an eye on his investments and the markets, as a true trader always would - never able to walk away. I guess it’s the thrill.
Anyway, I read it a few years ago, during a time period when I was dead set on entering the trading world. It was a great read. Better than Liar’s Poker, Market Wizards, or any other provocative finance title I’ve had the the opportunity to read. But that’s just it, it wasn’t one of those learning-based books, with tomes of knowledge and chapters of technical jargon, it was a book meant to draw people into the field and inspire interest. But there was one key takeaway that I will remember for the rest of my life, which is perhaps more important than the tons of technical information I’ve learned from Hull and Natenberg.
The large money, the big sways of capital, is caused during the extreme events of the world. The largest shifts change the world - and this applies to more than just the markets. It is easily seen then, how important foresight is, in that the most radical changes allow for the most prosperity, or ruination.
For further reading see Taleb’s good but repetitive The Black Swan or Fooled by Randomness.
