Seeing Kahn speak at TED reassured me that the classroom indeed has a future (current state: sucks ass). The day is not far when Kahn’s Academy hands out degrees as honorable as Harvard’s or Oxford’s. The main obstacle would probably be credible identity establishment, a problem currently worked on by Facebook and PayPal.
Thanks go to Omer for sharing.
Leave the first comment ▶Admitting to failure is one of the suckiest experiences in a human life. You never know whether you’re a lousy quitter or the only one going against a herd of idiots. This psychological discomfort makes people cling to worthless stock, reject modern technology and work at dead-end jobs – The latter being my hypothesized case.
The past 6 months have been spent working on three separate web projects. All three exciting, all three could not lift up. The first lacked an able CEO (and perhaps much more) whereas the latter two lacked a vision and had an unbalanced team.
The single most important takeaway for me is that building a consumer-facing business is not a flat world as I first imagined. If you build it, you have to make them come.
There is a crucial role for marketers to carefully select the distribution channels; The process of identifying a product and knowing that it is “right” when you have only a handful of users is very elusive; and working as a team (as opposed to a committee) requires a special type of people with some relevant experience or unique abilities.
Most importantly, consumer-facing businesses are rarely built for a flat audience. Facebook, for example, started in the cozy college niche. You have to find a smaller community to grow in (and I tumbled about this a while ago).
Wrapping up this bag, and needing some money, it seems like I’m back to day-jobbing. Round #2 in my startup life might be over, but there will be a round #3.
3 comments so far, add yours ▶Sometimes I am delusional thinking low-level optimization is part of the past; A problem to be tackled by a niche of a niche of the world’s software development. Then I remember that the Internet is far from mature.
Leave the first comment ▶As promised, an event has been set up to allow people to meet in a temporary, yet completely real work environment.
The Govt. Hack-a-thon is an event purposed at improving the Open Knesset website, allowing better monitoring of the Israeli legislative authority. From measuring the fulfillment of policies down to observing work habits of specific parliament members, the prospects are endless.
The hack-a-thon will take place this upcoming weekend. It will be held in a small house in the Israeli countryside, overlooking several acres of plowed fields. The hebrew registration page can be found here. If anyone requires English, please let me know.
2 comments so far, add yours ▶My appreciation, or should I say disappointment, with Startup Weekend.
One comment so far, add another ▶Not all negotiations should look like a carpet-haggle at a bazaar.
6 comments so far, add yours ▶I’m getting tired of the usual Cinderella formula used for mostly all movie thrillers. How could this be changed? One way to keep you unsure of a guaranteed happy ending, is giving the controls to you.
4 comments so far, add yours ▶Is 30% fair? 40%? How about 60%?
If you’re asking “60% of what?”, that’s a good question.
“Slimy yet satisfying” is what Simba said in “The Lion King” when forced to feed on worms.
In a way, Microsoft & Oracle are mega-marts for those worm cans.
2 comments so far, add yours ▶
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