Entreprenormal

Two MetLife towers (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:39:10 -0500

Two MetLife towers (Taken with instagram)

reecepacheco.com: "Get. Your prototype. Built. Now."

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:00:00 -0500

reecepacheco.com: "Get. Your prototype. Built. Now.":

Last fall I caught up with my friend Sam Rosen. He was struggling a bit - pitching an idea without a technical cofounder, trying to learn to code himself, and generally not sure whether he should keep going or take one of the other cool opportunities coming his way.

While his idea was…

flavorpill: If you haven’t yet started to explore the amazing...

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:30:46 -0500

flavorpill:

If you haven’t yet started to explore the amazing social restaurant guide that is Dinevore, we recommend doing it. Now.

My Mom's first blog post!!!!

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:25:56 -0500

My Mom's first blog post!!!! :

hockeymama:

Greetings Hockey fans!!!!!

I would like to introduce myself!! I am a true HOCKEY MAMA who follows the game as closely as anyone ! This blog will include transactions, the latest news in hockey, and anything else that comes up as it relates to hockey!

For my first post, are you aware that a…

Zagat is doing awesome things in the mobile space and staying on...

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 09:26:22 -0400

Zagat is doing awesome things in the mobile space and staying on the forefront of UGC digital media by producing great ways to consume and share content. Great stuff, Ryan.

ryenyc:

Scoble Worship

It’s funny how you think about things way after the fact. One thinks “I should have done this” or “ugh that would have been perfect why didn’t I think of that then.”

For me, it’s why didn’t I pose for a photo with Robert Scoble!

I had the geek pleasure of being interviewed by Robert about the various mobile and tablet projects I’ve been working on. We chatted about the iPad app, iPhone app, augmented reality, Foodspotting, Foursquare, Flipboard, and even gave him a preview of the Windows Phone 7 app.

I’ve spent a lot of time working on the conceptualization, the product design, the partnerships, and everything else that’s gone in to those apps. Just being able to show him these and talk about what’s gone into them was a fantastic geek experience. Not shown is later on dining in arugably the best restaurant in New York, and both of us snapping photos of every course to blog, tweet, and upload to the social networks of choice.

Thanks Robert for the great opportunity to hang out and share our tech experiences.

Improve your Android Battery Life

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:18:00 -0400

After installing Froyo, the battery on my HTC Incredible has been subpar. I’m going to try a “battery bump” method I found in an Android Forum. If you have an Android phone and have similar problems, please let me know if this method works for you. I’m going to post my results in an update.

Steps:

1) With the phone powered on, insert it into the charger or USB. Charge until the LED turns green.

2) Remove from the charging source and power the phone off.

3) Reinsert the charger and charge until the LED turns green again.

4) Remove the phone from the power source; power it on until it is fully booted and then power it off.

5) Reinsert the charger and charge until the LED turns green again.

6) Remove the phone from the charger and use it.

Where Oh Where Should My Groupon Clone Go?

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:13:00 -0400

Where oh Where Should my Groupon Clone Go?

Download on Scribd

Update 8/26: This post was re-published on Business Insider

New York, Chicago, LA, SF, and Boston are heading the Group Buying charge for good reason — there’s variety in cuisine, services, and attractions in order to sustain a different, premium daily deal.

I wanted to see which cities are the hottest based on sales and predict where we’ll see the biggest growth. Until recently, it would have been impossible to have an apples to apples comparison of deals in each city — some pizzerias are just better than others, e.g. Grimaldi’s versus Famous Rays, so we can’t compare intra-city, and who wouldn’t agree that NYC pizza is better than Chicago’s, so inter-city pizza deal comparisons are also out the window.

However, The Gap recently ran a national Groupon deal, allowing me to compare city vs. city. I emailed Groupon for the statistics of their Gap campaign, but they didn’t answer me fully back yet (only that there were 440,000 in total). So I went to their website and checked the Gap deal for every city (http://www.groupon.com/new-york/deals/gap-inc-raleigh-durham/), replacing each city name, one by one. The result is a list of cities by Gap deals sold (by “GAP rank”).

Traction

Gap Rank shows the most accurate traction statistic for group buying: Groupon sells thousands of deals more than its competitors combined, this was a national campaign, and the same product was sold in every market on the same day. Moreover, it’s something my mom would buy, or Oprah would recommend — so it passes the mom test!

We have to adjust for relative size — NYC is 8 times the size of Salt Lake, so it should sell 8x the deals. So I ranked by GAP deals per capita (“Gap / Population Rank”).

Affluence

The other factor to consider is relative affluence (after all, these are deals for spa treatments, not doctor visits). I measured the growth potential for each city by affluence based on ranking GDP per capita (by population). I realized that some cities were penalized for a lower population, even though they had great traction (for example, Washington DC which has a 25th ranked population but was the 1st ranked city for GDP/Capita — and 5th overall for deals sold!). Ranking by GDP per Capita fixes that problem.

The Score

The score (column G) is a measure of the likelihood that the people of a city will buy group deals based on traction (GAP / Capita) and how wealthy they are (GDP / Capita), but this score omits the significance that Groupon is a viral beast — network effects further fuel the fire. The absolute number of total deals sold is significant - it represents the number of people in the city who will go off and tell their friends about their awesome deal at the Gap. So, taking a weighted average of each variable including the total number of GAP deals sold is the most accurate score for growth of top cities:

Weighted Score= (1/3 rank GDP/CAP) + (1/3 rank Total Deals) + (1/3 rank GAP/CAP)

Therefore, the Top US cities for deal growth are (in order):

Washington, Boston, Minneapolis, Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Denver, Chicago, Dallas (Fort Worth), Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, Portland, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Orlando, Raleigh (Durham/Chapel Hill), Hartford, Providence, Tampa, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, San Jose

Conclusion

A deal aggregator should target cities based not where the most number of deal service providers are, but where they’re going to be — cities with traction and people who are going to buy them (so stay away from Phoenix, Houston, and San Antonio in the next 6 months to 1 year, despite population size). So go after the cities with the highest weighted average score (mentioned above).

In terms of choosing cities based on deal services, there are currently estimates of 150 Groupon Clones — with such low barriers to entry, it’s really difficult to know of (be aware of) each Deal provider in every city. They’re popping up left and right, and with Group Buying really getting hot in the summer, I expect a bunch of deals in other verticals to start popping up in the fall, specifically on college campuses (CampusDibs.com). These are places where populations can change dramatically (think Game Day at Penn State when 100,000+ people come to see a football game) and could take flash-mob deals to a whole new level. Look out for daily deals on campus at schools with large student bodies and a vibrant college town: OSU, Arizona State, Florida, Minnesota, UT Austin, Michigan State, Penn State, but remember, size isn’t everything, right Washington, D.C.?

Groupon clones should hit the streets in the cities with the lowest weighted score. The cities are familiar with Groupon deals, but Groupon doesn’t have a strong hold since 2/3 of the weighted score is based on deal flow. These cities are: Albuquerque, Memphis, San Antonio, Louisville, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Ok. City, Omaha, Madison, Milwaukee, and Phoenix.

Notes:

I found 2008 GDP statistics here: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/2010/pdf/gdp2q10_adv.pdf
I took 2010 population from Wikipedia (Obviously, slightly problematic to use 2008 GDP and 2010 population, but it’s the best I could get in a quick exercise)
Some cities are broken out into neighborhood deal sites. For the purpose of this exercise, New York includes Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island and Dallas includes Fort Worth

HomeMade Organic Vegan Lasagna

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:54:00 -0400

HomeMade Organic Vegan Lasagna

Wow - so sad to see this damage to the snake walls at...

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:58:34 -0400

Wow - so sad to see this damage to the snake walls at UVA

lawnlife:

Branches cleared fast; other storm repairs take longer.

Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:56:49 -0400

Does Your Product Logo Actually Matter?

Simplicity is the tipping point of mainstream adoption

Mon, 24 May 2010 17:28:00 -0400

MP3 Player, Tablet, Smart Phone

Q: What do these technologies have in common?

A: The iPod, iPad, and iPhone weren’t the first to market, but simplicity was the tipping point of mainstream adoption.

In September 2008 I left Verizon after 8 years and specifically joined ATT in order to own an iPhone. 28 days later, and still within a 30-day no penalty cancellation period, I returned to Verizon, thankfully less any early termination fees. I couldn’t tolerate the dropped calls and spotty service. I had no intention of suing Apple, like TC Disrupt startup WorstPhoneEver, but I swore I would not get a “real” smartphone until one came to the Big Red.

I recently became the owner of an HTC Incredible, which is everything I’ve ever wanted in a phone — I was waiting for the Nexus One but Verizon’s decision to more forward with the Incredible was a wise decision. Google’s recent announcement at I/O, its largest developer conference of the year, brings even more excitement of a faster operating system, Android 2.2 or “Froyo.”

Check out any reviews on the HTC Incredible and typically the cons are: screen wash out under direct sunlight and short battery life (from my experience you’ll be fine if you charge your battery completely before turning it on for the first time). But in my opinion, the biggest drawback is the Android operating system is extremely difficult to use.

So Easy, even a ~~Caveman~~ Grandma/Baby can do it.

Steve Jobs is a visionary CEO because he realizes that the masses, or “normals,” are simple people. They are the “i just want it to work” crowd, who schedule appointments at the Genius Bar because they can’t figure out how to set ringtones or upload pictures of their grandchildren. “But it doesn’t support Flash” isn’t even an argument because the normals don’t even know what Flash is! As long as their music, photos, calendar, contacts, and emails sync easily between their mobile phone and their computer, they will continue to use a closed OS because it’s easy for them.

The software is literally so simple a toddler or great grandmother can use it:

2.5 year old first encounter with an iPad (link)
How the iPad Has Changed One 99-Year-Old Woman’s Life (link)

The cost of Android’s open platform: Complexity

I was never one much for manuals or instructions. And techies resorting to using instructions for electronic devices is like an Alpha Male asking for driving directions — there’s no way in hell anyone is asking for help. But I’ve recently hurt my techie pride by resorting to searching for instructions in the HTC Forums (heck, the phone doesn’t even come with a hard copy owners manual) on more occasions than I have spent reading up on all my other electronic devices combined.

Google should take a page out of Apple’s Book

Even though Android devices are FLYING off the shelves at 100,000 devices a day, I think Google can significantly improve the easy of use on its Android devices by taking a few pages out of Apple’s book.

We’re seeing the convergence of web-apps and mobile-app — so I’d love to see a combined Android (mobile phone) / Chrome (Browser) App Store. The first step is an online App Manager, similar to how iTunes serves as a place to download, purchase, and view all of my applications.

Second, the Android online market should have an easy way to download the application, like using QR Codes (e.g. from SCVNGR webpage).

I also expect to be able to download the app by clicking “download” in the App Store in my browser and have the Android Market on my phone (via a push notification update in Android 2.2) open up and begin downloading the application.

Google is not Apple. They’re not going to make their software so easy to use that a baby could do it. They’re going to leave their software open, highly customizable, and that’s exactly what most techies want. But with respect to the operating system itself, I see much more mainstream adoption if the software becomes easier to use.

And if Google really wants to reinvent the software wheel, then here’s my idea: Levels of Android personal customization just like video game levels of difficulty. Let me work my way up and unlock certain capabilities. Once I figure out how to personalize my ringtones and sync my photos, then let me add email and social media accounts. Once I figure out how to manage my applications, push links to my phone via my Chrome extension (coming in Froyo), then let me move on to “advanced” stuff like blue tooth file sync and tethering. I’d love to see learning how to use my mobile phone (digital camera even car stereo) into a game — making me both a more informed user and a much happier customer.

Ask Not: Collaboration is the Best Excellerant

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Hello, (blog)World. I’ve been lurking a little too long — so thanks for reading my debut post.

@samianrosen

****

New Years Day will be the 6-month mark of my departure from the comforts of a decent salary, scheduled vacation, predictable health benefits, an undeserved and overpaid Wall Street bonus, and the general downward spiral into the life of being a douche.

I was a tech n00b with an entrepreneurial spirit: unemployed and living off savings, uncertain about the future, but excited to wake up in the morning full of ideas and creativity. Most of all, excited to learn, and it seems I couldn’t have picked a better place or better time.

There’s been plenty of discussion among people with much more experience than me about the NYC vs. SFO startup scene (my favorite is Fred Wilson’s presentation at Clickable). So for your sake, I will not reiterate all of the reasons why NYC is primed for a startup blowout (via@mikekarnj).

Phin Barnes recently wrote a great post about the start-up culture in NYC — this is a no bullshit, big money playing field and if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Phin mentions one component, which I think is the key to the NY tech scene’s success: “collaboration, not competition, is the dominant approach. Entrepreneurs in The City know each other, help each other and root for each other.”

In a very short period of time and with no tech experience at all, I’ve been able to network, ideate, and collectively dream with the NY Tech community. And all along the way, from founders to VCs, friends to new twitter friends, I’ve been surprised by how many conversations began or ended with the question, “What can I do for you?” More than that, there is a palpable current that runs through events like the Future of Local Media, Hackers and Founders, and NextNY because people show an interest in what others are working, and will take the time to explain things to strangers and the unacquainted. (As an aside, thanks to everyone that’s given me a brain-dump in the past 6 months.)

I believe collaboration is and will be the key ingredient to success coming out of the NY Tech scene. It’s in our blood -– New Yorkers are forced to share cramped apartments, explore our common spaces together (parks, museums, restaurants and cafes), and are more willing to use public transportation than anyone else in this country. From the aftermath of 9/11 to the blackout of 2003, New Yorkers come together and overcome incredible challenges. Such close proximity to one another naturally facilitates the mixing of our cultures, beliefs, and ideas. New York City is animated by the collective energy and bustling that we all need as individuals to survive here, and the start-up ecosystem drinks at this well.

We are all individuals, but step back and view us as a whole, like a mosaic, and you see the bigger picture. We come together from all corners of the globe and imagine the possibilities. We teach and learn from one another, and given the size of our network, we can accomplish a whole lot together. (And hey, if someone like me can go from 0-to-making-references-to-metcalfe’s-law in 6 months…)

And so my hope is that we continue to collaborate, share, ideate. I’d like to think there is a place for all of us to give, and when the time comes, to receive. If nothing else, the most important lesson the last 6 months have taught me is that earnest participation can be an incredible contribution. The simple act of (to paraphrase) “asking not what the community can do for you, but what you can do for the community” pays it forward — in spades.

****

I’d especially like to thank the following people, many of whom took the time to guide me in the right direction, in no particular order:

Phin Barnes, First Round Capital, @phineasb

Charlie O’Donnell, First Round Capital, @ceonyc

Jacob Brody, VentureBeat, @anwaraizer

Ed Kim and Kent Krekorian, Simple.Pr, @simplepr

Mark Davis, DFJ Gotham, @markpeterdavis

Jonathan Wegener, Exit Strategy NYC, @jwegener

Dennis Crowley, Foursquare, @dens

Justin Tsang and Dave Ambrose, Scoop St & Hackers and Founders,@scoopst @hackersfounders