Cultivating Ambition

"Almost everything on the list this year was created by professional or creative talent for an online..."

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 09:12:22 -0500

““Almost everything on the list this year was created by professional or creative talent for an online audience. It’s different from years ago, when homemade videos or random, funny stuff from smartphone cameras were the hits.””

- Youtube’s evolution from cute cat videos to Gangnam Style | SmartPlanet (via futuristgerd)

Not In Right Now

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 15:23:50 -0500

Hey all. I am no longer posting here. Check me out at my personal site for the latest.

In the land of noise, the curator is king

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:40:05 -0400

An excerpt from an upcoming article.

“Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.” — Eric Schmidt

Combine the above fact with low/no cost reproduction and we are soaking in the global soup bowl of digital abundance. Most everything is becoming a commodity and it is no longer what we buy so much as it is who we buy it from and, more importantly, how it comes to us. We seek to be led to a product without knowing we are and by people we deem credible. One of my favorite examples of this recently is This Is My Jam, which does nothing except allow you to choose one song at a time to highlight as your “it” song of the moment. Each time you change it, a gesture is pushed to your Facebook wall and/or Twitter page. The weight of it being only one song combined with the profile or deemed social value of the person profiling the song drives usage. This fundamental shift in commerce applies to brands as well. Those who communicate authenticity and exude credibility are uniquely positioned to drive revenue as a platform for the the relevant exchange of goods and services — even those which they do not themselves produce.

In an era where it costs almost nothing to create and launch a digital product and where the potential rate of return is so high, that it’d be foolish not to try to bring that kind of startup to life. Just remember to keep it simple and resist the urge to muck it up with needless complexity.

Turning Advocacy into Action

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:35:52 -0400

Be it an individual citizen, advocacy group or someone working inside your local City Hall, it would seem that consistently turning advocacy into action, that is the taking of genuine interest and knowledge and converting it into measurable results, is a perpetually daunting process. So much so that many reserve themselves to staying involved only on the surface (donations and mixers), while others stay out of the game altogether. Often being discarded off hand as indifferent. It is my contention that not only do these people all care very much about being catalysts for progress in their respective communities but given the opportunity to be engaged, they would too get a great deal of satisfaction from the process that is identifying problems and participating in the road that is the building of viable solutions to the same.

I have found it most effective to leverage this advocacy in a mostly passive way and so I employ a mixture of technology and peer networking. One part ubiquitous technology in SMS (text messaging) and one part good old fashioned community outreach (signage and events). I engage the community at large and identify issues that may have market viable solutions in the context where they occur. So instead of scouring over polling and map data in a 35th floor conference room, people can tell me about problems in real time as they incur the pain caused by them. This on going effort is assisted in great part by those most fervent of advocates in each city. Those who engage in consistent communication and make introductions towards revealing lesser known problems that create significant pain points for a group of people.

Birchbox and their MVP

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:34:21 -0400

Birchbox and their MVP

"It’s this perspective of us as humans to look at our world through the lens of ‘normal’ [that] is..."

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 10:36:58 -0400

““It’s this perspective of us as humans to look at our world through the lens of ‘normal’ [that] is one of the forces that stops us developing real solutions.” — Justin Hall-Tipping”

- http://on.ted.com/Ah0S

The Creator in all of Us

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 16:17:11 -0500

I am certain that organizational models created before the advent of the internet are doomed to fail as they are mired in complexities that people w/ technologies will inevitably seek out and destroy. Industries as well as institutions and municipalities are being and will ultimately be disrupted by smart, connected people leveraging the tools of the day to create platforms on which their peers can participate; thus cutting out of the far-too-cumbersome loop profit-seeking companies and municipalities whose bureaucracies currently and mostly unwittingly serve to hold back the human spirit. The creator in all of us.

My favorite business in terms of addressable market from Start...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:25:47 -0500

My favorite business in terms of addressable market from Start Up Weekend Detroit.

Tumblr Theme Customized

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:15:46 -0500

Tumblr Theme Customized

Testimonials are Broken. An idea I am playing with.

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:09:50 -0500

Testimonials are Broken. An idea I am playing with.

What has been taking up all my time and generating an equal...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:30:45 -0500

What has been taking up all my time and generating an equal amount of excitement this last month. More to come soon.

"A young man wrote to Mozart and said, “Herr Mozart, I am thinking of writing symphonies. Can you..."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:42:19 -0500

“A young man wrote to Mozart and said, “Herr Mozart, I am thinking of writing symphonies. Can you give me any suggestions as to how to get started?” Mozart responded, “A symphony is a very complex musical form, perhaps you should begin with some simple lieder and work your way up to a symphony.” “But Herr Mozart, you were writing symphonies when you were 8 years old.” “But I never asked anybody how.””

- Learn by doing.

Malkavian Quotes

(via roelofbotha)

Visit Hospitality Hunt and share it if you will please.

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:18:06 -0500

Visit Hospitality Hunt and share it if you will please.

Nice to hear from you

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:37:39 -0500

I still some two weeks later continue to get emails about this article daily from people who do now or used to live in Detroit to say thank you. Surreal actually.

You can’t outsource authenticity.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:29:57 -0500

You can’t outsource authenticity.

Coming Feb 1

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:49:24 -0500

Coming Feb 1

Screens for Early Intern, launching in February. In Detroit.

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:10:24 -0500

Screens for Early Intern, launching in February. In Detroit.

"People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks..."

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:17:30 -0500

“People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.”

- Chad Dickerson, CEO Etsy | Scaling startups (via courtenaybird)

Working logo for a friend

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:34:51 -0500

Working logo for a friend

Happy New Year

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:58:40 -0500

Challenge Mediocrity in 2012