Interesting critical assessment of Google and its future.

  • What Google seems to have forgotten is that we were only willing to give them all that data in the first place because it gave us great products and seemed trustworthy.

    Google has forgotten why we loved it. It has degraded its premier product in service of promoting others. It has done devious things to ferret out information from its users that they do not willingly provide. It is too much focused on the future, and conversely too scared of current competition.

lickypickystickyfree:

The food truck craze has officially hit Manila, Philippines by way of the Guactruck, a modern mobile eatery full of sustainable initiatives. The truck itself is a used delivery truck that has been outfitted locally with LED and energy-saving lighting.

Too bad this Filipino-Mexican food truck can’t swing its way elsewhere in the world for a peek at the truck and a chance to taste the delicious-looking food.

The design for the packaging is a creative solution to the wastefulness that most containers are today with it’s single cardboard, origami-inspired design. It’s made of biodegradable paperboard that is easy to recycle. Customers are encouraged to bring their used packaging back and will receive a free meal once they’ve returned 10. The packaging will then be sent for recycling. All of the cutlery used is made from cornstarch and biodegrades within 90 days.

More amazing picture of this design gem over here


(via lickypickystickyme)

Tip for Startup Founders: It Isn’t 1999

I lived through the infamous Dot-com Bubble. I was at a startup in 1998, that went through the usual ups and downs and up again. Then I founded a design consultancy (for some stability, believe it or not) and advised a number of small and medium-sized startups in Silicon Valley for several years (before eventually joining eBay). Some had solid products with real business models and went on to IPOs or acquisitions (e.g., Uppercase was acquired by Microsoft in 2000). But, a few were remarkably resistant to my efforts to help them think through their business model (I won’t name names). They didn’t seem very concerned about revenue at all, which I found quite surprising (almost as surprised as they felt when their design consultant was pushing them to discuss a revenue model). Lo and behold, those startups did not survive and some collapsed so quickly that I sometimes was left standing in front of their empty building with an unpaid invoice in hand. I certainly learned a number of valuable lessons during those bubble years. I would hope that everyone in the Tech industry these days has learned from the sins of their tech startup fathers, but apparently that isn’t always the case (as evidenced at this year’s LAUNCH Festival).

Read the full post…

Dot-com bubble chart

7 attributes that leaders need to master and maintain to be effective and not lose the "luck" that made them successful in the first place.

Here’s the paradox, though. Once they have made it to the top — after they’ve reached high levels of entrepreneurial or corporate success — leaders often become disconnected from the crucial lucky qualities and relationships that helped get them there in the first place. By definition, the top is less of a journey and more of an arrival point. A newfound reputation is difficult to risk.

It turns out that the attributes associated with a lucky attitude and lucky network are the very attributes required for continuous and inspired leadership growth. Yes, you need confidence and conviction in your authority once you’ve reached the top. But you equally need humility and vulnerability if you want to evolve to an even more inspired type and level of leadership. Which is why it’s so important for successful people to keep cultivating the attributes of a lucky attitude and a lucky network.

We’ve identified seven such attributes, and they are among the most difficult ones for leaders to master and maintain. They are: humility, intellectual curiosity, optimism, vulnerability, authenticity, generosity, and openness. Self-awareness around these seven qualities is key to not becoming a disconnected leader with nowhere to go but down. Below they are discussed in more detail.

Killing Your Startup By Listening to Customers - Steve Blank

“The art of entrepreneurship and the science of Customer Development is not just getting out of the building and listening to prospective customers. It’s understanding who to listen to and why.” - Steve Blank 

So true. The value is in the insights and how they shape your business and product strategy, not the literal requests and feedback from the users.

How does your business make money?

Yelp soars 66% on first day of trading after IPO

Hmmm, it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next year or so. Especially since Yelp already seems to have lost its way and forgotten that their greatest value is in the user community and unbiased reviews (more to come on this topic).

“The offering nets Yelp about $96 million after expenses, the company estimates. It values Yelp at $900 million. That’s a lot for a company that hasn’t turned a profit since its 2004 founding.”

The Psychology of Advertising by Walter D. Scott

The householder in glancing through his morning paper has his attention caugnt by the more attractive advertisements. The mechanic in going to and from his place of employment whiles away his time in looking at the display cards in the trolley or the elevated cars. The business man can scarcely pass a day without being forced to look at the advertisements which stare at him from the bill boards. The members of the family turn over the advertising pages in their favorite magazine, not because they are forced to, but because they find the advertisements so interesting and instructive. These persons are oblivious to the enormous expense which the merchant has incurred in securing these results. They are unconscious of the fact that the results secured are the ones sought for, and that in planning the advertising campaign the merchant has made a study of the minds of these same householders, mechanics, business men, and members of the family. Advertising is an essential factor in modern business methods, and to advertise wisely the business man must understand the workings of the minds of his customers, and must know how to influence them effectively,—he must know how to apply psychology to advertising.

Is an Innovation Culture a Fools Errand?

Once an entrepreneurial firm achieves some reasonable size, their intent shifts from disrupting the market to defending their turf.  As firms scale and grow, they lose the sense of innovation and disruption and become very much like the firms they displaced – more interested in defending existing customer relationship and markets and less interested in innovation.  As that shift happens, business frameworks, service models and compensation schemes all band together to create a business as usual frameworkthat is about providing for the needs of existing customers and defending the firm against disruption.  There’s little incentive, motivation or focus on innovation. 

How to Survive Your First Year As An Entrepreneur

Suddenly I was an “entrepreneur”. I didn’t even know what that meant. I got to the office. I had nobody to call. And nobody would return my calls anymore. I was no longer at HBO.  I would cry every day. I wasn’t a natural businessman. But I tried to learn from the 5,000 or so mistakes I made that first year.

All I’m saying is, thank god you first-timers have me to now tell you exactly what you should do in your first year of being an entrepreneur. Do everything I say below or you’ll probably fail. I’m dead serious.