Netizen

Monday, February 02, 2015

Winter Conditions

The Most Powerful Scene In Interstellar

You always thought Matt Damon was Da Bomb (I have watched the Bourne movies more times than I can remember, they are better than all the Bond movies, I used to watch Heat the same way) and Matthew McConaughey was the sidekick, the also star. That changed for me after Interstellar. McConaughey emerged clear. Late blooming is in.

I am really into movies. I love watching them. My favorite celebrity is a movie star, not a politician or a tech entrepreneur. I don't think that means I ought be in the movies (although I do want a small role here and there, get me in as an extra, maybe I will sip coffee in some scene, I don't have time for a full role, and maybe talent is also required, although I did win a best actor award in middle school, just like my favorite movie star). I think that means I think overwhelmingly visually. Words come to me later. First I think through abstract images. And once the thought is formed, I look for words.

My favorite scene in Interstellar is when the McConaughey character falls into what is a black hole, but instead he finds himself on the other side of the cosmic window, right outside where his daughter is. He just does not seem to be able to reach out or communicate.

There is this concept of worm holes. You can travel vast seemingly untravelable distances through worm holes. They are warps in space and time.

For me coming to America has been McConaughey going into deep space. You think you are doing it for people on earth, people you care most about.

For me it is about the dollar a day people. I feel like if I do well enough as a tech entrepreneur - a SuperEntrepreneur - I will be able to reach out to the dollar a day people in some of the most effective ways possible so as to have a positive impact on their situation, to help them spiral up into higher income brackets. That there is a worm hole. And it is at the cutting edges of innovation.

From the entrepreneur angle, years have been lost to trucking (I packed a decade and a half worth of vacations into two plus years), years have been lost to politics (I was born where I was born, what can I do, what can I say, and if I have a gift, which I think I do, it is that both sides of my family were political), years have been lost to American immigration (the revenge would be to effect an IPO for every such lost year), but I will make up for it all. Software is the center of it all, but I have already made some early moves in biotech, nanotech and clean energy.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Constantly Voting People

English: Ballot Box showing preferential voting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Recently Twitter bought a company in India whose key insight is the missed call phenomenon. I guess in India you buy a phone. And there is no monthly fee. And if you only receive phone calls, you don't owe the phone company anything. I still think the phone companies make a ton of money in the process because Indians are a talkative bunch. Indian take the whole democracy thing a little too seriously.

So this company mastered the art of customer service through missed calls. And it had an impressive exit.

This reminds me of the power of SMS. We are squarely in the era of smartphones at least in the rich countries and very fast catching up in the poor countries. But SMS is still the killer application. The most popular apps on the smartphone revolve around SMS. And I believe there is a message there.

Seeking out numerous voting opportunities for people would be an idea. Let people be constantly voting. SMS based daily voting, voting multiple times a day. On all sorts of issues.

SuperEntrepreneur Options

Boldness 2009 logo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I think the SuperEntrepreneur concept has to start with the boldness of vision, it is about realizing the next big things are (1) Software (still) (2) Biotechnology (3) Nanotechnology and (4) Clean Energy. I am tempted to put Microfinance on par with the Big Four, and I admit to my Third World (Global South) bias.

You start with that boldness of vision. And you cultivate an eye for spotting for the companies of tomorrow. And you build and scale business processes, and fundraising, and you build your network, and you weave together Founder CEOs doing exciting things in their domains, the earlier you grab them the better.

If you are too much in tune with what is most talked about today (mobile?), you might be missing out on the biggest trends of tomorrow. Although I do think mobile has at least until the end of this decade to run strong.

The Founder CEO concept is key. The Founder CEO is the central hub in the SuperEntrepreneur concept. If you don't have the Founder CEO personality, you are too "clingy."