Social Media

Really cool video about the growth of social media..

 

Starting up

A great talk about starting a company: By Mint.com CEO Aaron Patzer

http://vimeo.com/6960507

It is an awesome, hands-on talk about his experiences. He goes through the following three stages and the goals, expenses there in.

 

Phase 1: Garage (<100K)

Business Goal

Expenses

Phase 2: Seed (<$1m)

Business Goal -> Alpha Launch, head count of 5-6 (3-4 engineer, 1 frontend, 1 business)

Expenses

Projecting Revenue

Phase 3: Funded (> $1M)

Business Goal

Expenses

Budgeting & growth model

 

 

Sheryl Sandberg talks about scalability

Heres the link to the podcast: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2214 . The talk was given at Stanford University.

I made these notes while listening. Sharing these in case it is helpful for someone else as well..

• Have Impact -> Do something which can scale. Vision that scales…integral part of great leadership
• Focus on the economics of distribution and the kind of scale thats possible . Eg. Old print media had a significant cost of distribution whereas  distribution for blogs is free. Figuring out how to distribute it is as important.
• Leveraging the scale of online user base: Facebook translated in other languages. Turbotax service experience –> a community of users answering questions. Leveraging the social network scale thats available. Opportunity where transformation lies. Scale you can accomplish online is incredible.
• Scaling yourself. How do you leverage your network. Go prepared with your set of questions (more specific, the better) when looking for a mentoring relationship. Go with problem/issue/idea.. Use ppls times wisely.
•  Keep these separate:People who can hire you and ppl who can help you figure out what you should do. You should be really focussed in front of recruiters.
•  Authentic communication: use “I believe” … ” for this reason”
• Being a player: Take responsibility for your actions.

 

Documentary: Satyajit Ray

Came across this documentary featuring Satyajit Ray. He discusses his films and some of the technical aspects he used in them.

 

Google phone search

Google phone search is now available in Bangalore!

“You need to call a toll free number 1-800-41-999-999 to search for local business and movie showtimes and get the results by SMS. For example, if you are looking for pizza delivery businesses you can call and say “pizza” and your area name (like MG road) to get listings near you.”

 

Recession for beginners..

Came across a radio program, The Giant Pool of Money that does a fantastic job of explaining the housing and mortgage crisis. Its a ‘must-hear’ if you are looking to get a view of the current economic situation.

 

Rock Climbers Thrill

Chris Sharma is one of the best known rock climbers in the world. In this video, he talks about some about his motivations, the “inner beauty” inherent in rock climbing etc.

 

Captain Gopinath contesting polls from South Bangalore

Captain Gopinath, of Air Deccan fame, is contesting the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from the South Bangalore constituency. He is contesting as an independent candidate. His online campaign can be found at http://votecaptaingopi.com/

I think this is a really positive development for Bangalore, and wish he is successful in these polls.

 

Adding LinkedIn Button To WordPress

A step-by-step guide to adding a LinkedIn button to your wordpress blog:

1) On the LinkedIn home, click on “Edit My Profile”

2) Click on the “Edit Public Profile Settings” tab on the right

3) Click on the “Promote your profile with customized buttons”. The three links are shown below.

4) Choose the button you like and copy the associated code

5) In your wordpress blog’s Dashboard, go to Appearances->Widgets

6) Select the Text widget and add the code copied in step 4 to this box and Save Changes.

You are all set now. A box promoting your LinkedIn account should appear on the blog.

 

World on fire

Came across this interesting video by Grammy award winning Sarah McLachlan. It shows how 150,000$ can be used to enrich lives.

http://www.worldonfire.ca/