1. StartupBus community is about to get much larger

    Last February my friend Julie brought to my attention this article on TechCrunch about this 48-hour hackathon on a bus, known as StartupBus. Of course I signed up, as the idea passed my personal threshold of “crazy enough to fly across the country”. Within just a couple of weeks from signing up for the StartupBus 2010 I flew to San Francisco and joined a bunch of cool people. They came from across the United States, including NYC, Cleveland, Florida and… of course Chicago. What’s more - people hailed from across continents, some from UK, others from Australia. They marched with all kinds of skills: hackers, designers, community managers and non-techies like me who like startups and can do numbers and marketing. The experience was surreal and here’s a really good story plot of what happened (thanks to Justin Wilden who also participated last year). 

    Crunching numbers on a bus at 60mph in the Texas dessert

    (Crunching numbers on a bus at 60mph in the Texas dessert)

    Aside from having a really good time on the bus and at the SXSW conference we witnessed a network of entrepreneurs emerge. Some of them went on to found startups, like Whereoscope and Opzi, others quit their jobs and joined various startups. All of us are involved in a number of different cool projects and the value of the network only keeps expanding over time. I moved from Chicago to the Silicon Valley party because I was now in a group of like-minded individuals who were willing to help each other. 

    That was with 25 people last year. This year we’re doing it again but this time it’s going to be 150 people! I cannot tell you what ideas will be born at 60mph on a bus, but I can guarantee you that an amazing network of buspreneurs will emerge. 

    I am also stoked about the rivalry that will light up among the US tech regions this time around. Five buses (SF, NYC, Miami, Chicago and Cleveland) will compete to produce the best ideas and implement the best prototypes in time for SxSW, where a panel of VCs and a team from a local incubator, Capital Factory, will judge to determine the best businesses. I will not be surprised if some teams will come home with real investments to take their 48-hour-bus-born-babies to market. 

    You think you’ve got what it takes? Apply: StartupBus 2011

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  2. Things to Watch in 2011

    A 100-item laundry list of predictions of what will be popular in tech for the year 2011. There are some interesting trends emerging. Many items in that list are predicting a significant trend of technologies merging and going mainstream. Take for example Facebook’s growing ability to provide value to retail/e-commerce industry (big reason for Facebook enormous valuation at $50billion), e-book/tablet industry branching out to deliver education content and smarter (adaptive) learning environment, combination of growth in mobile devices and dead-simple blogging platforms increasing number of people blogging/journaling, growing area of physical goods being connected to each other and tracked…. etc. 

    I am especially fascinated by the acceleration of interaction among different platforms that are taking advantage of each other’s strengths (Facebook + Bing + NYT + JCPenney + Foursquare + Groupon + Hunch). Slowly everything online is becoming personal and even the good ol’ offline world is becoming simpler to navigate and decide via technologies that connect people to their peers who are not there physically but have left a digital mark (ie review, check-in). We’re already seeing a ton of things changing how we experience them: from what articles you read online, to what music you listen to, what t-shirt or book you decide to buy in-store or online, which restaurant you pick for dinner and even how you research/browse information online.

    Emergence of these hybrid services will make our world look more and more like a futuristic movie. A word of caution: while I have a fairly open view on privacy, the possibility that at some point the government will command ability to monitor every single step you take in this blurred universe of physical and virtual worlds, can make crime almost impossible - a clear hint at Minority Report. Not that crime is a good thing, but wouldn’t trying to prevent 100% of it results in death of free will? Even in George Orwell’s 1984 there was a way to avoid being constantly tracked by the “big brother”.  

    Overall, I see two interesting themes starting to really take off: 

    1. Technology will accelerate the speed at which it allows us to modify real-world experience (ie. virtual mirrors that let you preview items that may not even be there in the physical world) and it will be done with unimaginable levels of personalization, which leads to the second point ->
    2. The gap between physical and digital is narrowing - 3D printing will allow to make physical goods faster, easier and cheaper. Also, we buy physical world experiences and goods through digital marketplaces like Amazon and Groupon. Or alternatively we use real world money to buy virtual good on domains like SecondeLife and Zynga’s games. 

    Closing thought: when many think that all has been discovered, invented and achieved, we’re only beginning to see the possibilities, the tip of the iceberg. 

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  3. thegongshow: Online Ad Revenues broken down by display type. Which slice of the pie are you aiming to take?

    thegongshow:

    Online Ad Revenues broken down by display type.

    Which slice of the pie are you aiming to take?

  4. As usually lovely animation of Google’s new Priority Inbox - just browsing around the new features now - looks great!

  5. I am a member of Life Time Fitness and periodically they send me emails from the club. It’s a national company so they have multiple locations across the US and about 5 branches in Chicago area. I used to just trash them, but over time I began to open more of them. Why? Primarily because they are relevant and they have good content - they’ll update me on new programs at the gym (specifically my local gym), or upcoming major events. It’s amazing…. It is amazing because it provides context and it’s targeted.  But here’s another thing they do really well. I’m sure that comes at a high cost to them, but they’re constantly improving their website. From class schedules, to registration for classes and events, etc - it can all be done on their website. Community forums, ability to find people to play your sport or do some activity together - just great! Now, I must admit that my schedule is irregular so I don’t take advantage of many of these services, but I still think they rock at it. Do they need to do it? Not at all - they don’t need to invest tons of money into a really friendly and useful website - they’re a gym and spa company so they could just focus on doing a good job at that (which they do excellently by the way). Their focus however is beyond just a regular gym experience, they’re up to speed with technologies and they want to make it really convenient and easy for you to use and enjoy the membership for which you pay. So while I pay more for Life Time than I would for Bally’s or other gym - I see my money at work. I see it at work beautifully so I just commend their efforts and for going beyond my expectations - that is a trait for any great company. It’s in the small things, in the details. Other examples of such companies are Apple (for example, among thousands of other things they do super well, a simple call to their customer support at a local store will keep updating you with number in line on hold)  or REI. But hopefully more about them at some other time. 

    I am a member of Life Time Fitness and periodically they send me emails from the club. It’s a national company so they have multiple locations across the US and about 5 branches in Chicago area. I used to just trash them, but over time I began to open more of them. Why? Primarily because they are relevant and they have good content - they’ll update me on new programs at the gym (specifically my local gym), or upcoming major events. It’s amazing…. It is amazing because it provides context and it’s targeted. 

    But here’s another thing they do really well. I’m sure that comes at a high cost to them, but they’re constantly improving their website. From class schedules, to registration for classes and events, etc - it can all be done on their website. Community forums, ability to find people to play your sport or do some activity together - just great! Now, I must admit that my schedule is irregular so I don’t take advantage of many of these services, but I still think they rock at it. Do they need to do it? Not at all - they don’t need to invest tons of money into a really friendly and useful website - they’re a gym and spa company so they could just focus on doing a good job at that (which they do excellently by the way). Their focus however is beyond just a regular gym experience, they’re up to speed with technologies and they want to make it really convenient and easy for you to use and enjoy the membership for which you pay. So while I pay more for Life Time than I would for Bally’s or other gym - I see my money at work. I see it at work beautifully so I just commend their efforts and for going beyond my expectations - that is a trait for any great company. It’s in the small things, in the details.

    Other examples of such companies are Apple (for example, among thousands of other things they do super well, a simple call to their customer support at a local store will keep updating you with number in line on hold)  or REI. But hopefully more about them at some other time.