The Google/Facebook Of Microfinance

Image via WikipediaThere are five broad categories on the cutting edge: web tech, clean tech, bio tech, nano tech, fin tech.

Validation From Fred Wilson: Froth
The Entrepreneur Does Have A Boss
Who Owns The Company?
You Have To Be A Little Wild

Google and Facebook fall within the web tech domain. Google is the next Google. There is no next Google. Facebook is the next Facebook. There is no next Facebook.

But there remains a Google/Facebook size opportunity in mobile tech, which is a sub category of web tech.

2015: A Mobile Tech Company Will Storm The Room

Leave Yunus Alone

Image via WikipediaThe Stink From The New York Times
Nazrul Islam Chunnu: Motherfucker

Telegraph: Bangladeshi leaders decide Nobel financier Mohammad Yunus must go: Professor Yunus is Bangladesh's most respected international figure ..... Prof Yunus was now too old and that the government wants to redefine the bank’s role and bring it under closer regulation. ..... the government of Sheikh Hasina, which, according to Western diplomats, regards his international profile as a political threat. ..... The government’s stance also sets it on a collision course with Western governments, aid and finance organisations ..... Hillary Clinton has voiced her fears that Grameen Bank’s independence is under threat ..... former Ireland president Mary Robinson and former World Bank president James Wolfensohn, launched Friends of Grameen to save the bank from a government takeover. ..... Yunus said the government wanted to take control of the bank from its 8m borrowers and savers ..... The bank’s borrowers and savers own 75pc of the company, while the government has a 25pc stake. According to the bank, it lends $1bn every year while lifting 5pc of its borrowers out of poverty. ...... Sheikh Hasina, who said the bank was “sucking money” from the poor and using them as “pawns to get more aid”. ..... Yunus said government control would lead to the bank being used to help “win elections” and fuel corruption and that he would not step down until the government promised to maintain the bank’s independence and mission to help the poor

This is like Putin going after that businessman dude in Russia. This is a severe abuse of state power. While they are at it, the Bengalis should go ahead and disrespect Rabindranath Tagore as well. This is insane.

Tuesday 2/15 Noon EatUp: 46th Between 5th And 6th: Schnitzel & Things Food Truck

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."
- Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize in Economics

Be there, check in on FourSquare!

Person Of The Social Media Week: Oleg Voss
February 15: EatUp?
My First Smartphone Is Going To Be A Nexus S

Confirmed: I Am In Line To Get A Chrome Notebook

My First Smartphone Is Going To Be A Nexus S
The Chrome Notebook Needs No Anti Virus B.S.
Chrome Notebook Pilot User?

Immigration Mess/Humiliation And Window Shopped Tech Entrepreneurship

Image via WikipediaOnly a few months back I got out of my immigration mess/humiliation. The immigration laws in this country are insane. They are racist. They make no logical, economic sense. They make no globalization sense. They make no internet sense. They make no 21st century sense.

I am not even fully out of it yet. But now I got a little bit of a legroom in these United fucking States. This fucking country. Thank God for the internet, or there would be no breathing room.

For a few years now I have gone from tech event to tech event like some guy whose startup never really took off. It has been humiliating to say the least. I know that is not who I am. I am as good as they come.

Normal People Easy To Get Along With

Image via Wikipedia

Fred Wilson: Difficult Is Good: He then said, "sometimes we make money with brilliant people who are easy to get along with, most often we make money with brilliant people who are hard to get along with, but we rarely make money with normal people who are easy to get along with."

I am so not a VC. I am on the other side. Fred Wilson's best MBA Monday post - according to me - is one where he got an entrepreneur - Charlie - to relate his story.

This quote from Dan Valentine makes total sense to me. And I understand it 100%.

The best entrepreneurs tackle the biggest problems. Those problems are, by definition, badass. Others have not touched them because they are big and bad. But we operate in paradigms. You already know what a McDonald's burger looks like. That is a paradigm. That gives you peace of mind. You know.

Person Of The Social Media Week: Oleg Voss

I attended my final event of the Social Media Week yesterday at Edelman, a Zagat event, and there I spotted the Person Of The Week, food truck owner Oleg Voss.

February 15: EatUp?

Image via WikipediaJanuary 15 was the first ever World FoodSpotting Day, and I made a point to go over to Philadelphia to celebrate. It was an amazing experience. I later tweeted saying I had never had so much fun eating with perfect strangers before.

But once a year is not enough. The 15th of each month needs to be an EatUp day.

My First Smartphone Is Going To Be A Nexus S

Image via WikipediaIf Google ships me a Chrome Notebook for free, as is likely, I am going to buy me a Nexus S phone. I am a Google fanboy. I adore Steve Jobs, he is a living legend. But I have never bought an Apple product. I would like to stay with the masses. I am more of a Dell, Walmart, dollar pizza kind of guy.

Nexus S: The Best Phone Out There
Nexus S Is Da Bomb
The iPhone, Nexus One, Or Droid?

I am going to think I paid for the laptop - I do need a new laptop, I have needed one for months now, this machine has been feeling slow, it's a Toshiba Satellite from years ago - and I got the phone for free. I have to think that way because in the order of things the laptop is the one I can not do without, absolutely not.

The Chrome Notebook Needs No Anti Virus B.S.

Image via CrunchBaseChrome Notebook Pilot User?

There's nothing to infect. What are you going to infect? There is no desktop. It is like every time you start your machine, you are loading the operating system afresh.

That is such relief. The anti virus business has always felt like a scam to me. I have always felt like that annual 45 bucks ought to go to Microsoft instead and Windows ought to be free.

I told them. They did not listen. And now the Chrome OS is going to kill Windows.

Chrome Notebook Pilot User?

This morning I logged into my Gmail account and my first reaction was, oh no, my Gmail account got hacked. My inbox was flooded with emails from just one address. Looked like someone had taken over.

eRockit: Super Bike

Validation From Fred Wilson: Froth

Image via WikipediaWatch the first video here. Fred has come around to using my word: froth.

But then I have also inched a little in Fred's direction. I recently used the phrase mini bubble burst.

I think we are both still blind men trying to figure out the elephant. But at least we are trying to figure out. Most others are simply making wild jumps.

Some real wealth creation is taking place. But every new emerging sector will necessarily be accompanied by froth. That is the nature of the beast.

There will be a slew of sob stories in a few years but I don't see any imminent collapse. We are in the first year of a boom decade.

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