A talk that tingles the brain...

From Ted website:

In a wide-ranging talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with imposters.

Randy Pausch's speech

Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor. He has pancreatic cancer and expects to live for just a few months. He gave one last speech, 'the last lecture' which is on Google video.

A must watch.

India poised

Sharing a video doing the rounds.

iPhone - 99, Treo - 70: A rank for every product

Wize.com the product research site gives a rank to every product from 1 to 100. 100 being top of the charts, and an assurance to the consumers to unhesitatingly buy the product.

So for instance, if you were in the market for a smartphone and wanted to know the gist of how iPhone compares to say Treo 650, Wize tells you the score a.ka. the WizeRank for each of these.

iPhone 99

Treo 70

(-:

Wharton Club of Northen California (WCNC) has invited Tom Patterson the CEO of Wize.com to speak about the company. As always my interest is to learn not just about the technology, product or idea but about the process of forming the company, the pains of building the venture, ideas for finding talent and like minded team members.

If this sounds exciting do come by, grab a lunch and hear Tom talk on August 30th in San Francisco.

Here is the link to the event.

A blog for MBA wannabes...

My blog get quite a few visits from aspiring MBA candidates even thought there is practically no content on this blog that could be useful to them. Sometime feel the urge to write a post for that audience just because I am getting so much traffic from various bschool blog aggregators. Maybe I will do that sometime, in the mean while would like to offer link to Marquis's blog. Marquis is a Stanford MBA with background in IT. His blog is dedicated to answering questions that many of you might have. I don't know Marquis personally, I do think he is doing a great job of helping those considering applying to business school especially those who have a technology background or other non-traditional backgrounds.

The Golden Treadmill

A NYT article worth reading - talks about the gazillion millionaires in the valley who don't feel like one.

Secrets of success in 8 words...

TEDstr Richard St. John gives away secret of success in 8 works and 3 minutes.

Why apple is apple...

Simplicity is a mantra to live by. Apple gets it, AT&T does not. A case in the point, the iPhone rate plan. Look at the rate plan matrix which is on AT&T's website. Simple? Why would you have the non-differentiated information repeated?

How does knowing that every plan offers essentially the same number 200 SMS text message change my preference for the plans in any way?

Does AT&T understand how consumers compare rate plan? Or any two things for that matter? Humans compare by contrasing, by trying to identify what is different? We look for patterns in things. How does the matrix below help in that context?

First you give information that is different (minutes), then a few rows of ticks telling us a couple of options are the same, then throwing a curve ball to see if we understand 200 is same number for all the rate plans, then another one with a number and text and just to make things interesting color it orange, then back to regular ticks so as to reassure us that things are indeed the same. Followed by a number that is in slightly smaller font making use suspicious of fine print which follows in bulk right below. Fantastic!


Compare that to this next matrix. Essentially provides the same information. Most of what might be relvant to consumer information is presented clearly right upfront. As you would have probably guessed, it is from Apple website.


One has to accept that both the rate plans are probably put on the website by teams that are responsible for website design/administration. We can assume that the creative folks designing the fine iPods/iPhones are not the once who created the layout for the matrix at Apple, and that the folks who come up with terrifying convoluted pricing plans for voice/sms/data plans at AT&T are not responsible for the final rate plan matrix on their website. Ample proof that the mantra of the company runs much deeper than just in the design or R&D organization. It has to be part of the DNA of the company, every employee adopting and applying the principle in their own unique way to their own unique task.

For all the wannabe Management Consultants reading this blog...

Checkout yesterday's Dilbert.

Enough said. (-:

Inside iPhone

I am, admittedly, a geek. If you are too - check out the detailed pictures/post on TechRepublic on 'cracking open the Apple iPhone'. Cool!

Marc's blog

For those of you who have not yet discovered Marc Andreessen's blog, check it out. I have been enjoying his posts for past few weeks and highly recommend it for all aspiring entrepreneurs.

A must see TED-talk...

A friend pointed to the talk at TED by Hans Rosling. Mind blowing. If you have not seen the talk - do it now!

Are we in a bubble?

When too many people keep asking the same question - "are we in a bubble?" we probably are. And now it is not just my gut feeling or a random rant, the kingmaker of web2.0 world admits he feels the same way.

A start-up moving out of India

Munjal writes about dismantling Riya operations in India. He talks about many of the problems I have observed over the past few months trying to recruit and retain talent in India. I sincerely hope this is not the beginning of a trend...

Sometime I wonder if we can estimate how much value is being eroded by service sector companies! I know that sounds rather negative but it is true. For creating value in a start-up environment you need long term commitment, you need to be able to sweat it out, you need to persist through the highs and the lows. The ability to make a lot of cash in the short term as part of a services organization trumps the dreams and the possibility of creating something big by being part of a start-up. There seems to be little scope for fostering valley type culture where entrepreneurial pursuits are appreciated. And that is eroding the future value top notch talent in India is capable of creating...

The story of India

Came accross this nice article by Gurucharan Das on the story of economic development of India.

After being shackled by the government for decades, India's economy has become one of the world's strongest. The country's unique development model -- relying on domestic consumption and high-tech services -- has brought a quarter century of record growth despite an incompetent and heavy-handed state. But for that growth to continue, the state must start modernizing along with Indian society.

GURCHARAN DAS is former CEO of Procter & Gamble India and the author of India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution From Independence to the Global Information Age.

Long but worth a read.

The complete line-up

Here is the complete line-up for the Stanford/Wharton E-Trek this weekend.

Martin Eberhard, Tesla Motors
Rajeev Madhavan, Magma Design Systems
Colin Roache, PenAgain
Zaw Thet, 4INFO
Ross Mayfield, Socialtext
Ajit Nazare, KPCB
Scott Weiss, IronPort Systems
Samir Arora, Glam Media
Hans Peter Brondmo, Plum.com
Andy Stack, Mozes
Saroj Sahu, Deeya Energy
Terrapass, Tom Arnold
David Sifry, Technorati

I am so excited... cannot wait to hear the stories of these entrepreneurs...

New york, NY to Dublin, Ireland

Check out driving directions from New York to Dublin, Ireland.

#23 in particular (-:

A plug for San Francisco Trek

Boston E-Trek was hugely successful, and we are working hard to get things in place for the San Francisco E-Trek which will be jointly hosted by Stanford GSB and Wharton (at the Wharton West campus) on April 6th and 7th.

Here is a partial list of the entrepreneurs we have confirmed for this trek...

Martin Ebhard, Co-Founder/CEO, TeslaMotors
Scott Weiss, Co-Founder/CEO, Ironport (acquired by Cisco)
Colin Roche, Co-Founder/CEO, PenAgain (check out the story on WSJ )
Rajeev Madhavan, Co-Founder/CEO, Magma Design
Ashmeet Sidana, Venture Partner, Foundation Capital

and more to come over the next few weeks.. so stay tuned.

A note on behavioural economics

I just finished taking a course in behavioural economics and before I forget wanted to share an article that I recently came across. This nice article in Harvard Magazine follows the development in behavioural economics.

Worth a read if you can spare the time for it.

Boston E-Trek

Finally it is coming together... after months of work, co-ordination with other schools, nailing down the schedule with the speakers and so on, our team is now set for the entrepreneurship trek to Boston.

This promises to be a fantastic event. We are being hosted at HBS and will have students from both HBS and MIT Sloan participate.

Take a look at the impressive list, we are fortunate to have such quality speakers.

Paul Conforti, Finale Desserts, www.finaledesserts.com
William Richmond, Broadband Directions, www.broadbanddirections.com
Leon Amariglio, Rhythmia, www.rhythmia.com
Dan Thibeault, Graduate Leverage, www.graduateleverage.com
Ben Campbell, OurStage, www.ourstage.com
Arijit Sengupta, Beyond Core, www.beyondcore.com
Wai Kit Lau, ScanScout,
Phuc Truong, eRecruiting
Furgan Nazeeri, Pivot Solutions. www.pivotsolutions.com
Alexandra Novakovich, Get Connected, www.getconnected.com
Al Kapoor, TiE VC Boston
Colin Mahony, Bessemer Venture Partners, www.bvp.com
Philip Guarino, Arclinea Boston, www.arclineaboston.com
Dan Wittner, Satisfaction Services New England, www.satisfactionservicesinc.com
Steven Papa, Endeca, www.endeca.com
Mike Zhang, Diet.com, www.diet.com
Robert Fleming, Prism Ventures, founder, www.prismventure.com
Stephen Schrodel, Isis Maternity, www.isismaternity.com
Jonathan Roosevelt, My Healthy Fit, www.myhealthyfit.com
Ian Chan, US Genomics / IE Labs, www.usgenomics.com

Stay tuned for news on San Francisco trek that will be a Stanford GSB/Wharton trek. We have some great things brewing...

Speakers at Wharton West tonight

Feng Deng and Jeffrey Lee, the two general partners from Northern Light Venture Capital will be at Wharton West tonight to speak with current students and alums.

Feng and Jeffrey are WEMBA alumni and were classmates. They co-founded Northern Light Venture Capital in 2005, a China focused fund. The firm is backed by leading venture firms in the US such as NEA and Greylock Partners.

 
Before Northern Light, in 1997 Feng co-founded NetScreen Technologies, which has become one of the world's leading network security equipment vendors. NetScreen went public on NASDAQ in 2001 and was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004 for $4 billion.

Look forward to hearing their thoughs on investment climate in China and on raising a new fund

Something to remember....

"We don't know where have come from, we don't know where we are going, all that matters is the journey" words for wisdom from Bala S. Manian who was guest speaker today at Wharton West.

Bala mentioned he was lucky to have a mentor in Eugene Kleiner the famed founder of Kleiner Perkins. Bala currently is the CEO of ReaMetrix .

Speaking about inspirational leaders, big ideas and sutff like that... check out the videos on BT's Big Thinkers series.

Looking forward to another season...

I have been volunteering with Team Asha, the marathon training part of Asha for Education for a little while now. The coordinators are furiously working to launch yet another successful year of training hundreds of lethargic Indian guys (very much like me) and girls to conquer their first marathon.

Some volunteers have put together a fantastic video, a little longish for my taste but well done.

Go Team Asha!

Is grey any different from grey, you bet!

A popular idea in Behavioural Economics is reference dependence. The idea that perception depends on changes not levels. A good way to explain what that means is to give an example that one can see. So in the context of visual system reference dependence means that our perception of shade depends on the context of the surrounding objects and not simply level of contrast.

Check out the fantastic set of illusions that very aptly drive home the point.

Enjoy!

Want $100,000 for free?

Calling all sport fanatics...

Serial entrepreneur David Wu (who is my classmate at Wharton) is launching RotoHog.com.

It is a new way to play fantasy sports, it's fair, it's fun and it's free. What more could you ask? Bragging rights - well you get that too!
But wait, it gets better - you can win ton's of prizes - just for playing what you enjoy and being the best at what you love doing.

What are you waiting for? Pre-register since they have limited the number of registrations for this season. Check them out!

Too cool!

Check out this self-referential formula. Way too cool!

just what I need...

Every Starbucks and Tim Hortons mapped just in case my intravenous caffeine drip is running low on supplies. (-:

http://www.findbyclick.com

They have a mobile version that one can download and use on the run.

Introducing FindbyClick's Mobile Service. With the click of a button, you can download the finest roasted java links right on to your very own mobile. From there, the world is yours. Never again will you be lost without your faithful cup of Java.

Amen!

Some more tid-bits on Joost (aka The Venice Project)

Skype guys renamed their online video distribution offering Joost.

CNet reports:

A menu allows users to switch channels with a click of a link. Users will also have TiVo-like control of the content and access to any show offered regardless of time of day. They can also can skip ahead or backward within a show.

The have some interesting screenshots on their site.

VC valuation 101

Check out Don Doge's post on alleged $10 M purchase of MyBlogLog by Yahoo!

For all the wannabe VC's this is a great post that illustrates really well a few different thumb of rules the industry uses to value early stage venture without revenues.

If you have a few minutes to waste...

Check out this creative and funny animation.

66,795 push-up's

That's exactly what Dan Ciruli claims he did this past year. His resolution for last year was to start with a push up on 1st Jan and keep adding one every day ending with 356 the last day of the year.

Reminds me of a story of a young man who could lift a bull, the story goes the young man started lifting the bull when it was just a little calf. He did so every day and as over the years as the calf grew and turned into a bull the young man could still lift him.

I am not sure if this legend is true. I do find Dan's achievement inspiring.

A memorable quote

Yvon Chouinard in Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman quotes Antoine de Saint Exupery, the French aviator.

Have you thought, not only about the airplane but whatever man builds, that all of man's industrial efforts, all his computation and calculations, all the nights spent working over draughts and blueprints, invariably culminates in the production of a things whose sole and guiding principle is the ultimate principle of simplicity.

It is as if there were a natural law which ordained that to achieve this end, to refine the curves of a piece of furniture, or a ship's keel or the fuselage of an airplane, until gradually it partakes of the elements purity of the curve of the human breast or shoulder, there must be experimentation of several generations of craftsmen, In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer any things to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.

Jack's predicitons..

Jack Biddle a.k.a Southeast VC of Novak Biddle Venture Partners predicts collapse of Web 2.0 and ad supported business models. I am not sure I agree with him and his outlook for 2007, but I do completely agree with the last thought in this post. Working for passion, creating value, having fun and all that leading to monetary reward - now to me that rings true not just in the end of 2007; I think that is timeless.

My prediction is that by the end of 2007, people won't venture for profit. They will venture to do really cool things, because they can.

And 10 years later... the best of the best will get paid despite the fact they had the time of their lives.