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How a former English teacher is about to become one of the richest people in the world

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sun, 11 May 2014 07:40:00 +0000

By Lauren Lyster
May 9, 2014 9:28 AM (online blogging)
Article from http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/

Jack Ma went from English teacher to billionaire with Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company he co-founded. Also the Alibaba chairman, Ma now has a higher net worth than U.S. moguls such as Google's Eric Schmidt (worth $8.5 billion) and Tesla's Elon Musk (worth $8.8 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Ma's expected to become even richer when his company goes public with a valuation estimated at $168 billion, an event that could happen in the next few months. (Disclosure: Yahoo owns a 22.6% stake in Alibaba.)

Laura Marcinek, a reporter covering executive compensation at Bloomberg News, tells us that when Alibaba offers shares in the U.S., the IPO could make Ma one of the top 20 richest people in the world (because of his 8.9% stake in the company and the expectations for its IPO). Already No. 87 on Bloomberg's list of billionaires, Ma has seen his net worth triple just this year to $12.5 billion. online investment

In recent years he has set records for things like paying the most per square foot for residential property in Asia — he purchased a five-bedroom, 7,088 square-foot Hong Kong penthouse for $38.7 million in November of 2007, according to Hong Kong’s Standard newspaper. blog

That’s a far cry from his earlier days. He failed his college exam twice (Ma was an English major), according to Fox News. He went on to teach at a local college and started his own translation company, while he moonlighted as a street peddler, selling flowers, books and flashlights to make ends meet. Ma originally learned English when he was younger, working as a tour guide and from the U.S. government-funded international news service, Voice of America.

How did he go on to create what Marcinek calls the "Amazon of China,” the largest e-commerce business in the country, and by some measures, the world? According to Marcinek, Ma created the company with $60,000 in cash, gathered from 80 friends, back in 1999. According to The New York Times, Ma had no background in computing but was introduced to the power of the Internet in 1995, when he first used it to search “beer” and “China” (no results). He created a basic web page for a Chinese translation service with a friend, which received a global response within hours.

He then left teaching to set up an online business. After a failed attempt at a business index site called China Pages and a stint creating websites for the Commerce Ministry, he started Alibaba. The company’s first site was Alibaba.com, a business-to-business marketplace that remains part of the company today. Alibaba's main sites now include Taobao -- an online marketplace in China where eight million merchants sell goods -- and TMall, which sells higher-end branded merchandise.

When it comes to his leadership style, Ma holds a mass wedding annually for Alibaba employees (check out the video for pictures), and employees can apply for interest-free loans to buy first homes.

Correction: The video indicates that Ma’s net worth is higher that Rupert Murdoch’s. Since the video taping Thursday, Murdoch’s net worth has risen, placing Murdoch ahead of Ma in wealth, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. online investment

Lauren Lyster
May 9, 2014 9:28 AM
Article from http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/

Blogger: 5 things my mom taught me about being a dad

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 10 May 2014 01:40:00 +0000

By Doyin Richards, special to HLN
updated 4:02 PM EDT, Fri May 09, 2014
Article from http://www.hlntv.com/

Editor’s note: Doyin Richards is a father, husband and author dedicated to creating and celebrating a world of great fathers. He blogs at Daddy Doin' Work and is on Facebook and Twitter.

You'll be hard-pressed to find a bigger mama's boy than yours truly. My identical twin brother and I terrorized the heck out of our stay-at-home mom while my dad worked long hours as a professor at a local university. Not a day would pass that didn't involve one of us attempting to break a piece of furniture, each other's bones or her spirit as a parent.

We never succeeded with that last item, and now that I'm a dad to two little girls (3 years old and 10 months old), I can look back at my upbringing to document five memorable lessons from my mom that have helped me be a better man and father.

1. Be authentically you

When I was younger, I wanted so badly to fit in with the "cool crowd," but I was skinny, not very good-looking and socially awkward, and I was bullied like crazy, so I figured if I changed to become someone I wasn't, people would automatically gravitate toward me.

They didn't.

Finally, my mom sat me down and said, "You are amazing in ways you don't even know about. Let's sit down and write a list." I thought she was crazy at the time, but when we were done, the list was a few pages long, and I'll never forget how great that made me feel.

"Now who in their right mind would not want to be friends with someone like you? Just be authentically you. Nobody in the history of the universe has a 100% approval rating. The right people will love you for being you," she told me.

As a dad, husband, author and blogger, I now understand that no matter what I do, some people just won't like me and will judge me. That's totally OK. But one thing I know for sure is that I'll always be authentically me, and I owe my mom big time for teaching me the extremely valuable lesson of keeping it real.

If you're a parent who believes in the power of having an Enya sound machine playing on loop in your kid's bedroom, then own it. If it works for you and your family, don't let anyone influence you otherwise.

2. Parenting can be the worst job without a sense of humor

Remember that time when you were out with your kids by yourself and they both crapped themselves at the same time? And then you realized that you didn't pack the wipes, and you chased an extremely fragrant toddler through a CVS, trying to buy poop-preparedness supplies before almost drifting into unconsciousness due to the equally fragrant infant strapped to your chest in a baby carrier?

Yeah, that happened to me. I received some nasty looks from other parents, but I laughed them off because the situation was too insane not to be funny.

I can remember my mom laughing when we tried to separate the sanity from her mind as rambunctious kids. It never worked, because she always found humor in the craziest moments. Now that I'm a dad, I'm the same way with my girls.

The undeniable truth of parenting she shared with me is that it can be the absolute worst gig of your life if you don't have a sense of humor. Besides, our kids will only be little for a limited period of time, and then they're heading off to college, getting jobs and starting families of their own -- so why take everything so seriously?

About a week ago, my mom told me how much she missed the chaos she endured when we were kids -- and I believe her.

3. If you don't have your word, you have nothing

Want to know the quickest way to tick off my mom? Tell her you're going to do something and don't follow through.

After being raised in her household, I'm now raising my kids to be accountable. Granted, they're too young to fully grasp this concept, but I keep every promise I make to them. If I tell my daughter that we'll watch “Frozen” together at 7 p.m. and the basketball game I was enjoying goes into overtime, I'll just have to "let it go" and watch Elsa freeze up her kingdom for the 13,035th time.

This stuff matters. Kids need to know that the adults in charge of raising them are trustworthy and accountable. If we aren't, how can we expect them to be?

4. You're going to mess up a lot, and that's OK

Have you ever shared a parenting mishap with other parents only to hear them laugh, "That would never happen to me!"? Just know that that's a steaming pile of hot garbage. If that didn't happen to them, rest assured they probably did something even dumber.

My mom told me to embrace my failures and mistakes because they'll help me to become a better man, which helped me become a better dad. Every moment above ground is a moment to learn and improve. Anyone hoping to become a perfect parent raising perfect kids will be humbled very quickly.

5. Everyone deserves your love

This lesson always sticks with me. My mom doesn't care if you are white or black, gay or straight, Republican or Democrat, thin or chubby, rich or poor, etc. She only cares about what's in your heart. If your heart is pure and kind, she'll be loud about it and let you know. However, when we encountered racists or other ignorant people growing up, she would silently love them and walk away. Granted, I haven't quite mastered that part yet, but I'm much better than before I became a father.

One thing I know for sure is hate will slowly snack on your soul until you're left with nothing but emptiness and bitterness. Nobody can live a happy life that way. No parent can be a good parent that way.

Tolerance and forgiveness are two words synonymous with my mom and me, and I plan to pass these two gifts down to my kids.

So I want to thank you, mom. You're my hero, my homie and my mentor, all rolled up into one extremely amazing lady. If I can be a fraction of the parent to my kids that you were are to me, then I will have won this daddyhood game. Happy Mother's Day. I love you.

Doyin Richards, special to HLN
updated 4:02 PM EDT, Fri May 09, 2014
Article from http://www.hlntv.com/

5 Startup Naming Rules From SXSW

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 03 May 2014 02:35:00 +0000

March 14, 2013
by Bryan Keplesky
Posted from http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog

If SXSW Interactive is any indication, and it usually is, then this is the age of the startup. It also means this is the age of the unfortunately named startup. We've all come across a company's name that's missing all its vowels, has superfluous "Z"s tacked on, or is so many words hacked together that its meaning is completely lost.

Gary Backaus, chief creative officer, and Justin Dobbs, associate creative director at Memphis-based ad agency archer>malmo gave a presentation on Monday at SXSW with five simple rules for naming your startup:

1. You're not naming a startup, you're naming a brand.

According to Backaus, the biggest mistake you can make naming your new startup happens at the very beginning. If you have a name already in mind, while it may be your first instict to see if the domain name is taken, that's the last thing you should do. More than likely it won't be available, and that's when the arbitrary alternate spellings and additional letters start happening for many entrepreneurs. A much better strategy is to think about your brand name in the context of the real world, not among other startups or as a URL. Come at the name from every possible angle, make lists of adjectives and the human qualities you want to emulate.

2. Make the right first impression.

Your name should create a first impression that’s positive, intriguing and clear. "Think of your name as your [brick and mortar] sign," Dobbs encourages. It can either drive traffic to you or drive it away. Your list of potential names should fit within your brand positioning, be unique, and be easy to read. This is where intentional misspellings or extra "Z"s could be a significant hindrance.

3. Don't create conceptual or technical hurdles.

Backaus put it simply: "You don’t need a big idea for your name. You need a name for your big idea." If you have to constantly explain the meaning or the pronunciation of your name to people, especially people that you pitch to, that's a major hurdle. In no way should your name be a disconnect from what you want to accomplish with your brand.

4. When necessary, be descriptive.

Descriptive doesn't mean boring, especially if your startup is in a niche or technical field. Another big reason to avoid the early pitfalls of checking domain name registries is because a company name you've invented that's unavailable could be paired with a simple descriptive word to create your final, custom, website name.

5. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Let's say you already have a startup name, but a shift in your company's focus arises and you feel the name should change. This is ultimately a judgement call, but if your current company name is not tied to an individual product, and your overall brand identity and values have not changed, your current name may be just fine.

"Naming is hard," Backaus said. It's not an exact science, and there's no perfect how-to guide that will work for every startup. If you spend time at the beginning thinking about the one thing you want your company to do, who your audience will be, and your competitors' names, you're on the right track. When you have your final candidates for a name, just be sure to Google them and check what Google Images comes up with. It's always a possibility someone else came up with your name first and it's tied to vulgar slang or images online.

What have been your experiences with naming your company?

Bryan Keplesky
Posted from http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/index.html

The Golden Era of ‘Fashion Blogging’ Is Over

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 11:26:00 +0000

By Robin Givhan
Yesterday at 11:45 AM
From http://nymag.com/thecut/

Until about a decade ago, there had always been an unwritten protocol when seated in the front row of a fashion show. Do not lean forward. Keep your legs tucked neatly under your seat, your handbag out of camera range, and any papers discreetly in your lap. Maintain a poker face. And do not take pictures. Seriously.

It’s hard to believe, but back before the dawn of the 21st century, it was the rare editor who dared lift a camera to snap a shot of a model as she stormed past. Gilles Bensimon, the former creative director of Elle Magazine, was the most notable violator of this unwritten rule. Dressed in his signature white jeans, Bensimon — a professional photographer — regularly took pictures from his front-row perch. But others who attempted such sacrilege were not given the same leeway. Gladys Perint Palmer, the former fashion editor of the San Francisco Examiner, was an accomplished illustrator and often took photographs to inspire her drawings. On multiple occasions, I sat stunned as security guards practically tackled her when she pulled out her camera at a show.

Unauthorized photography was taboo, because the fashion industry was a walled-off community of designers, editors, and retailers. Information was embargoed. Shows were not live-streamed. Access was given grudgingly.

In the mid-2000s, however, bloggers changed that dynamic.

These fashion guerillas hoisted their digital cameras, their iPhones, and their iPads aloft in order to capture the drama on the runway — and its environs — and transmit it directly to their followers. They live-blogged and they tweeted and they initiated a real-time conversation where once only silence existed. The first generation of bloggers, such as Bryan Yambao, Susanna Lau, Tavi Gevinson, and Scott Schuman were contrarians. In their words and images, there was an earnest and raw truth that did not exist in traditional outlets. They had unique points of view and savvy marketing strategies. They had a keen awareness of how technology could help them attract the attention of hundreds of thousands of like-minded fashion fans who had been shut out of the conversation.

Soon, the fashion world signaled its wholehearted approval. By 2008, Marc Jacobs had named a handbag after Bryanboy, who created the template of the self-referential fashion blogger when he began kibitzing online in 2004. In 2009, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana seeded their front row with Bryanboy, Tommy Ton, Schuman, and Garance Doré, who were expected to live-blog the show. And by 2010, a reporter from Grazia tweeted her displeasure at being stuck behind the view-blocking Stephen Jones plumage of Gevinson as she sat front row at a Christian Dior couture show in Paris.

Longtime editors realized that some of these self-created young men and women — many of whom had not paid their dues fetching coffee and steaming samples — now had a personal audience of a half-million people. The reach of bloggers threatened to upend the traditional hierarchy of fashion coverage.

Slowly, the legacy media fought back. Editors went on the offensive. Glamour editor Cindi Leive, Lucky’s Eva Chen, Joe Zee (formerly of Elle), Nina Garcia of Marie Claire — the very people who once were envied for their front-row view of fashion week — were now tapping out quips and bon mots to all who would listen. Legacy editors began watching the runway from the backside of their iPhone cameras as they shared their up-close views with the virtual world. Critics, instead of reserving their droll commentary for post-show dinner patter, now spewed it fast and succinctly on Twitter.

With everyone from powerhouse editors-in-chief to creative directors and standard-bearing critics playing the social-media game, the singular advantage that social media once offered bloggers is no longer so clear. The same intimate tone, once unique to those initial disrupters, can now be found in the Twitter feeds of print folks such as Chen, Derek Blasberg, and Mickey Boardman. They live-blog while at shows, while zipping through airports, while touring art exhibitions, while vacationing. They un-self-consciously share from all corners of their fashion lives.

The distance between the Establishment and fashion’s once-dazzling revolutionaries has narrowed, and there is minimal distinction between them. Because what the fashion industry loves, it woos — then swallows whole.

Bryanboy told me he doesn’t consider himself an “insider,” but evidence suggests his generation of bloggers is no longer made up of “outsiders” either.

Fashion followers can thank bloggers for making fashion coverage more democratic and forcing design houses to accept (and then exploit) the reality that very little communication is for insiders’ ears only. But, now that so many bloggers have been embraced by the industry — and the Old Guard has learned to keep up with social media — is there still an opportunity for new voices at shows? And if so, what kind of voices can still flourish?

“The thing that was different for the first generation was [most of us] rarely put ourselves on our blogs. The newer generation is all about themselves. What can we get out of this? It’s much, much more about self-promotion,” says Schuman, who, along with Doré, won a CFDA award in 2012. “It’s me, me, me. Look at me. Aren’t I cool? Look at this bright, shiny world I’m portraying.”

"Who am I to say don’t take the handbag, or don’t take advantage of the opportunities," Schuman adds. “But don’t expect people to respect what you do.”

“We’re getting to a tipping point. People are starting to push back,” he says. “They want to be able to believe what [bloggers] are saying.”

While the virtual world may be limitless, real-world guest lists are finite. There are only so many seats at fashion shows. As the media environment has changed, there are more seats being allocated to digital media. Yet, those additional seats are mostly occupied by the online editors of print publications.

“In the original grid, it was very clear what each person did,” says Rachna Shah, managing director of KCD Digital. “Now there are so many ways you can be involved in fashion coverage. A blogger might get backstage access but might be asked to stand at the show. The question is: What do they need from the show? To interview the designer? To see the show? To have their picture taken in front of the show?”

As Leandra Medine, founder of the Man Repeller, wrote in an email, personal-style blogs still “[seem] to gain incredible traction — which is vastly admirable in its own right — similarly to the way reality television stars did in the early aughts.”

The more nuanced lifestyle, contextualized, opinion-driven blog “takes a bit more time to establish itself, finesse its point and earn the following,” Medine said. “Of course the question is really what happens long term, but I don't have an answer.”

The Establishment, however, will not give up ground easily. And mostly, newcomers are drawn to fashion, not because they are determined to change it, but because they are mesmerized by it. They want to be the next Anna Wintour — not make her existence obsolete. They love fashion. And fashion loves them back. Then swallows them whole.

Robin Givhan
Yesterday at 11:45 AM
From http://nymag.com/thecut/

How to Get Paid to Blog

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:10:00 +0000

BY BARBARA FINDLAY SCHENCK | FROM BUSINESS ON MAIN| October 4, 2012|

Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/

Want to make money blogging? Here's advice from someone who's been there, done that -- and turned the effort into an enviable full-time living, while never veering from her mission of helping people live more simply.

Meet Tsh (pronounced "Tish") Oxenreider, whose online introduction includes the line "no, my name is not a typo," and whose self-description reads, "Writer. Editor. Entrepreneur. Drinker of fine beverages." In fact, beverages prompted her first revenue goal. "I started blogging as a platform to write, a hobby I was good at," she says, referring to the launch of her first blog, "Simple Mom," in 2008. "I'd read up on the relatively new concept of pro blogging and thought it'd be nice to earn some latte money. Income was an idea but not a major goal."

Fast-forward to 2012.

Oxenreider's revenues have doubled every single year. Her vision has expanded into a six-blog network, Simple Living Media. She works out of "various coffee shops" wherever she's living (currently Bend, Oregon) or traveling (most recently the Middle East). Her husband, Kyle, now handles accounting, payables, records and trouble-shooting. An ad manager coordinates private ad sales. A freelance team of "wives, moms, sisters and friends" includes an editor for each blog except the flagship blog, "Simple Mom," which Tsh still edits herself, though she "spends most of her time chasing three little kids around the yard."

Among bloggers, she's pretty much living the dream. Here's how she got there and her advice for others.

Barbara Findlay Schenck: Out of 180 million bloggers, only a small fraction make money. What do you say to those who think it can't be done?

Tsh Oxenreider: The main mistake I hear is that bloggers think they're too small. Most don't make it more than three months, in part because they compare themselves to well-established blogs and feel overwhelmed. I tell them not to compare your Chapter 1 to someone else's Chapter 20.

How long did it take before your blog made money?

After about six months, I sold the first ads for about $30 each. I had maybe 500 subscribers at the time. I studied established blogs with audiences similar to mine, made a spreadsheet of who advertised on their pages, wrote up a form email and sent each contact a personalized message saying I'd be accepting ads the next month. Four wrote back and bought into the purpose of the blog, the good price, and a professional and friendly relationship. That lit a fire and drove my next small goal for revenue and traffic growth.

Have you used pay-per-click ads such as Google AdWords?

I know a number of bloggers who do it well, but I write about simple living and advocate simplicity, so I maintain control of all ads. I waited several years before joining the invitation-only ad network Federated Media, and I personally approve every ad we accept.

I hear from bloggers who are concerned that ads will make their sites look too commercial. How did you accommodate ads while avoiding that trap?

If you think you might sell ads someday, make space for them from the get-go. Then when you post ads, readers won't wonder what happened or question your motives. My blog always included a block in the upper right-hand side for six 125-by-125-pixel standard blog buttons. I filled the space with information or affiliated sales ads that drove revenue until businesses bought the space.

You've watched revenues grow from four $30 ads to a full-time income. Where does the money come from?

There's no single geyser of income. A lot of little streams flow into a bigger river, as is true for every single revenue-producing blogger. And it's seasonal.

On the whole, ads -- including privately purchased ads, network ads and affiliate ads that generate revenue through Amazon and from sales of other bloggers' e-books -- account for probably half the revenue. Another third comes from sales of my traditional and e-books. Freelancing, which pays well because of the platform the blog provides, accounts for the rest.

Your post titled "My Top 11 Blogging Tips" advises others to "decide your reasons" for blogging. What do you mean by that?

I started while living overseas, struggling to find motivation and wanting to make some money. I'd never tried entrepreneurship, but I knew I liked to read mom and productivity blogs. The mom blogs were by women and the productivity blogs were by guys. I couldn't find one that merged the two, so I decided to start my own with a goal of helping people live simply. I followed the advice I now give to others. Do it for the love of it and not for the money. The money will follow, but be willing to do it for free.

BARBARA FINDLAY SCHENCK | FROM BUSINESS ON MAIN| October 4, 2012|

Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/

10 Ways to Add Pinterest to Your Marketing Strategy (Infographic)

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:54:00 +0000

Karen Leland
BY Karen Leland | May 9, 2013
Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/

Pinterest may be the third largest social media site after Facebook and Twitter, but it's still a relative newcomer to the scene. Businesses are actively searching to create boards and pins that inspire customers and promote their brands. From integrating with other social media to pin placement to image creation, there is a learning curve for many companies getting started on Pinterest.

The infographic below, from my new book, Ultimate Guide To Pinterest For Business (Entrepreneur Press, 2013) provides the 10 best ways to promote your business using Pinterest:

Karen Leland | May 9, 2013
Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/

How to Protect Your Business Idea Without a Patent

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:41:00 +0000

BY Stephen Key | May 8, 2013
Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226595#ixzz2TAiTio6s

It's natural to fear that your idea might be stolen. But you can't turn your vision into reality without the help of others. Sooner or later, you're going to want to ask an industry expert to evaluate your product or service. You're going to need to collaborate with a manufacturer or distributor. But patents cost thousands of dollars and take years to be issued. You can't afford to wait that long to start bringing your product to market.

Thankfully, there are creative ways to actively protect your idea without applying for a patent. Here are four affordable strategies that will protect your business idea from being stolen:

Do your research. Before you begin working with anyone new, be it an individual or organization, do some research online. Do they have a good track record? Can you find any complaints about their business practices? Try to get a sense of what they're all about. If you find cause for concern, consider asking about it. As we all know, not everything you find online is true. But if their business practices seem sketchy before you've even begun to work with them, that's not a good sign.

Use these three legal tools -- with the help and oversight of an attorney:

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA): Have anyone you work with sign a non-disclosure agreement that commits them to confidentiality. An NDA can be a mutual agreement between two parties not to share information with third parties, or it can go one-way (since you're sharing information about your idea with them). If the agreement doesn't have an expiration date, that's powerful.
Non-compete agreement: If you hire someone to help you, have him or her sign a non-compete agreement. A non-compete agreement prevents an individual or entity from starting a business that would compete or threaten yours within an established radius.
Work-for-hire agreement: If you hire someone to help fine-tune your product, make sure to establish that you own any and all improvements made to the idea. Anything they come up with, you own. That way, the individual is unable to claim co-inventorship and you retain your rights as the primary inventor.

Turn to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for help. Fortunately, patents aren't the only tools available to protect our ideas. First, file a provisional patent application. You can do this yourself online or use a template such as Invent + Patent System or Patent Wizard to help you. The USPTO also has call centers available with staff members on hand to answer questions and offer guidance.

Filing a PPA costs a little over $100, while patents can easily cost thousands of dollars in legal fees, depending on the complexity of your idea. A provisional patent application protects your idea for up to one year and allows you to label your idea as "patent pending." You can then use the year to gain valuable insight into your idea.

Also, consider applying for a trademark, which you can also easily do online. This costs several hundred dollars and will help you establish ownership. Because names become synonymous with products, having a registered trademark cements the impression that the idea you're selling is closely associated with your product.

Build relationships with your competitors. This may sound counterintuitive, but establishing mutually beneficial relationships with your greatest competitors is one of the best ways to protect your idea. When I launched my own novelty guitar pick business, I hired the largest producer in the industry to manufacture our picks. They had little motivation to rip me off because they were already profiting from the success of my business. By giving them business, we were not seen as a threat (even though, in reality, we shared the same market space). We respected one another.

These tips will make it harder for others to steal your idea. With any legal document, be sure to consult an attorney to guarantee accuracy and protection of your idea.

Stephen Key | May 8, 2013
Article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226595#ixzz2TAiTio6s

Entrepreneur Develops Make Money Online Tools

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 11 May 2013 07:54:00 +0000

James Taylor May 07, 2013

Article from http://www.newswire.net/newsroom/pr/73667-entrepreneur-develops-internet-marketing-tools-and-then-offers-t.html

Wayne Atkinson, a software developer for over 25 years and now an Internet Entrepreneur, has spent the last 10 months developing an online Internet Marketing Tool Suite only then to give access to it, to a privileged few, for free. The software, Campaign Tracker Tool Suite, enables you to track any marketing you do online, simplifies complicated processes and has a number of Facebook apps and tools built in to give you an edge over everyone else in the make money online marketplace.

(Newswire.net -- 7, May, 2013) Leicestershire, UK -- Wayne’s career started way back when the IBMPC had not long become a fixture in the office environment. From the age of 18, he was thrust into an IT dept for a large steel company and very quickly started to develop software that enhanced the day to day running of the business.

At the age of 22, he started his own software company which was geared around writing bespoke software for companies that needed computers to do things that just could not be found in off the shelf packages. In 1994, Borland came out with the RAD development tool Delphi and Wayne became a beta tester for the product. His company was very successful for 10 years until he was approached to give it up in favour of a much larger company offering him a directorship with them.

Specialising in Microsoft .Net and mobile development, innovative products were being developed that started to use the power of the Internet. In 2007, Wayne headed a team that developed a biometric access control system, an automated biometric weapon management system and also, an Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) product that was installed nationally into a popular UK supermarket.

The experience that Wayne has now gained throughout his career, coupled with the exposure to Internet development, attracted him to the Internet Marketing niche and in 2012, Wayne gave up the Rat Race and is now an Internet Entrepreneur, helping others to make money online.

His latest product, Campaign Tracker Tool Suite, easily tracks all your advertising online, from anywhere, even if your ads are on someone’s blog. Then, with one click of the mouse, the tracking link can be created, shortened and socialised instantly. Squeeze pages can be built in minutes and integration of all the popular auto responders are included. Facebook apps are built in, offering auto posting to timeline, groups, fan pages and many viral techniques and tools are built in too.

Campaign Tracker Tool Suite has an affiliate system built in, so not only does it help you with your marketing, you can make money online with it too.

Amazingly, the system is not expensive which for a package with over 20 modules and growing is very pleasing. That said, Wayne has another great opportunity to offer.

Wayne is looking for 20-30 serious candidates that are willing to make a change in their life. They must be dedicated, able to listen and most of all want to learn how to make money online. Each successful candidate, that is selected, will be given direct access to Wayne so that he can show you how to make money online. Each of the candidates also get FREE access to the Campaign Tracker Tool Suite another great saving.

James Taylor May 07, 2013

Article from http://www.newswire.net/newsroom/pr/73667-entrepreneur-develops-internet-marketing-tools-and-then-offers-t.html

What to Do When Customers Trash Your Brand Online

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Thu, 09 May 2013 07:48:00 +0000

BY JIM JOSEPH | May 3, 2013
From http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226563#ixzz2SmNiAtlj

Social media has opened up a whole new world of opportunities to engage with our customers like never before. We openly ask for their feedback and opinions on our brands, products and marketing programs.

Of course, asking those questions can be like opening a can of worms. Many times that commentary is inspiring, as brands look to continuously improve. Other times, though, it can be potentially damaging to the brand.

McDonald's recently learned the hard way, yet again, with its Twitter hashtag promotion #UnwrapWhatsFresh to launch their new Premium McWraps. As if the drama around #McDStories -- a hashtag overrun by negative, often disturbing recounts of McDonalds experiences -- earlier in the year wasn't enough, the brand got more than it bargained for when consumers responded with all sorts of things they'd like to "unwrap." While it may have made for an entertaining stream to some, it certainly wasn't where McDonald's was prepared to go.

Over on Amazon, there's an equally intrusive string of more than 4,000 comments about the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer, essentially mocking the product. The reviews have taken over the brand's page and completely overshadowed its messaging.

So what's a brand to do when consumer engagement runs out of control?

First of all, you have to anticipate it. When planning marketing programs, you have to think ahead and anticipate how consumers will engage with the brand. When coming up with a program, think through all the ways it can be interpreted, misinterpreted and reinterpreted, down to the worst-case-scenario. If you plan around these issues, you may be able to avoid a disaster.

If your brand takes a hit, go with the flow and be transparent. There's nothing worse than a brand that shuts down commentary when it doesn't like what people are saying. Excluding offensive content, the best thing you can do is to embrace and participate in the discussion. Show your humanity and roll with it. Remain true to your brand, but jump right in with your consumers and comment along with them.

If the content gets offensive, you do have every right to protect the integrity of your brand and the audience that does admire you. Just be transparent about it and tell participants you are deleting offensive content. Leaving most of it visible will show you are being honest, but you should transparently delete content that offends or is utterly ridiculous. It can be wise to seek a trusted outsider's perspective when trying to determine this, given your emotional connection to your company. Use your judgment and be honest about it.

Ask yourself: Is this social media campaign worth it? Before embarking on any social marketing campaign, ask yourself if the one you are creating is appropriate. It's one thing to anticipate certain reactions, but it's vitally important to decide if you should even be in the game. Throwing yourself out there in social media is like going to a party naked -- you're going to get comments.

Opening a hash tag in Twitter invites people to say what's on their minds. You need be honest with yourself about whether you are ready to invite people to talk about your brand so publicly. Asking people to scream about your brand will likely get them screaming right at you.

BY JIM JOSEPH | May 3, 2013
From http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226563#ixzz2SmNiAtlj

What’s Important About Money to You?

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:32:00 +0000

April 29, 2013, 11:30 am
By CARL RICHARDS
From:http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/

Carl Richards is a certified financial planner in Park City, Utah, and is the director of investor education at The BAM Alliance. His book, “The Behavior Gap,” was published this year. His sketches are archived on the Bucks blog.

What’s important about money to you?

This is an uncomfortable question because we aren’t used to thinking about money in those terms. But it’s one of my favorite questions to ask. Even before talking about goals or building a personal balance sheet, you might find it helpful to ask yourself this question.

While I’m not certain of the question’s origins, I first learned of it about a decade ago in a book by Bill Bachrach. It was about the importance of understanding your values when making important financial decisions. I’ve been using the question ever since.

The purpose of this question isn’t to think in terms of goals. It’s meant to go deeper than that, or to get at the reason why we have certain goals. The first answers people come up with are usually easy — things like security and freedom. But once we pause and really think, we can move even deeper still, or into what might be called the “why” of money. This question gets uncomfortable because it forces us to get really clear about our underlying reason for doing things. It also forces us to face some inconsistencies in our lives.

Let’s say the first thing you come up with when you ask yourself the question — what’s important about money — is indeed freedom or security. Then, the next question you should ask yourself is, “What’s so important to me about freedom and security?’” From there, keep asking questions until you get to until you get to the thing that is most important to you.

Here’s how it works.

My friend, who we’ll call Sara, was a hard-charging professional whose career required her to be super competitive. She was “type A” to the hilt and worked long hours. So when I talked to Sara and her husband and asked her this question, I was curious what she would say was most important. She said freedom.

When I asked her what freedom meant, she replied, “More time.”

So I said, “Okay, let’s pretend you’re there. Let’s say you have more time. What’s so important about being at that spot?”

With some emotion she said, “I just want the time to raise a child.”

Now don’t get caught up on what Sara said was the most important to her. Her values are just that. They’re hers. Your values may be completely different. The thing to keep in mind is that, like Sara, once you identify what’s most important to you, things get clearer.

The answers to a question like this give you a lens through which to view your financial decisions. And after you’ve identified what’s most important, you’ll have incredibly valuable information to help you make decisions that match your values.

In fact, it can make it easy to say no to things that can distract you from what’s most important. Like the self-help author Stephen Covey said, “It’s easy to say ‘no!’ when there’s a deeper ‘yes!’ burning inside.”

For Sara and her husband, her answer became that “deeper yes.” The same can be true for you. You just have to ask the question.

I’d love to know what’s most important to you. How has knowing the answer to that question changed your life?

By CARL RICHARDS

From:http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/

Arab Women Blaze Trails in Start-Ups

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:10:00 +0000

Updated April 12, 2012, 3:55 a.m. ET

Article from The Wall Street Journal

Conferences for start-ups and entrepreneurs often feature "pitch contests," slots in which aspiring entrepreneurs take to the stage to sell their ideas to the audience. Last month's ArabNet conference, held in the Lebanese capital, was no different. What was different, however, was the number of pitches from female entrepreneurs.

The stereotype has it that women in the Middle East are subjugated, oppressed and barely let out of their houses. But if that is the case, how come 40% of the pitches were from women—a higher percentage than is typical in equivalent conferences held in Europe?

Nor was this closer-to-equal representation of women unique to ArabNet.

According to Salwa Katkhuda of the Amman-based Oasis 500 accelerator, a program aimed at developing digital start-ups in Jordan, while 25% of applications to its program come from women, 40% of those accepted are female.

By contrast, a recent report called the Startup Genome, comparing start-ups around the world, found that while New York City has almost double the female founders of Silicon Valley and London, they still comprised just 20% of start-ups.

May Habib, founder of Dubai-based Arabic translation service Qordoba.com, which uses a lot of freelance female workers, said the Internet has transformed women's opportunities. "More flexible work options, freelance, home-based work, low capital requirements; you can see why starting a company on a small scale is a much more viable thing for women to do than get a corporate job."

The ability to work from home is very significant. "Working from home is a big thing," says Ms. Katkhuda. "In Jordan, specifically, the main reason for women not entering the work force is the lack of a proper transit system. We don't have an affordable transit system that can take women from remote areas to the city."

Home working also allows women to combine their traditional roles of homemaker and mother, with being an entrepreneur. This was the reason behind Noura Saad setting up her company, Tadreesna.com, which provides online Arabic tutoring, in the Jordanian capital.

"I was an ordinary mom with a lot of responsibility. You have to struggle daily how to cope being a mom, being a wife, helping your children. How you do this and in addition you have to work?" For Ms. Saad it was the freedom the Internet gave her to work from home that was the catalyst.

"Working from home is not something common in the Arabic world," she said.

Even Saudi Arabia, a country notorious for restrictions on women, is starting to realize the potential of women workers, according to Adbullah Alghadouni, CEO of the Riyadh-based Glowork.net, a site aimed at helping women find work in the kingdom. Over 80 of unemployed women have academic degrees, says Mr. Alghadouni. "This is an untapped ocean of talent," he said.

He said that in the private sector one of the problems has been the cost of segregation, not simply the cultural objection to employing women. He said that some private-sector companies would consider employing women, but were put off by the cost and the lack of knowledge of how to hire them. "One of the problems is that they don't know where to go to find the right kind of talents." The Internet, cloud computing and other distributed systems are allowing some women access to the jobs market in limited employment that avoids the need for face-to-face meetings, he said.

However Fay Niewladomski, CEO of the training firm ICTN based in Lebanon, said before running away with the idea that the Middle East has become a bastion of feminist valuesit was important to realize that there are still major restrictions on women.

"I have been here since 1972 and I have seen a tremendous revolution in how women interact in society and how women interact in business. What has not happened is that our legal system and our political system has not moved. If you were to look at the law, even in a country that claims to be as liberal as Lebanon, technically if your husband wanted to prevent you from traveling, he can. Technically you cannot open a bank account as a married woman, your husband has to do it. However, in practice these laws are not enforced."

Furthermore, most of the female entrepreneurs at the conference were young and had spent time in Europe, the U.S. or Australia. According to Ambareen Musa, CEO of the Dubai-based souqalmal.com, "in all of the networking events I have been to, English is a language you need to have." How well women without such benefits fare has yet to be seen. And that women are channeled into starting their own tech companies is, itself, a manifestation of oppression as other jobs remain closed to them. According to the International Labor Office, the MENA region has the world's lowest share of women in nonagricultural paid employment, at around 28%.

However, an event that opens Thursday in Dubai, the MENA Business Women's Network Forum, aims to widen further the appeal for women. It would be ironic if a region that is castigated for its attitudes toward women actually turned out to be more welcoming of female entrepreneurs than those doing the castigating.

Article from The Wall Street Journal

Lessons from 'Prometheus' on Building an Effective Website

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 09:43:00 +0000

BY CAROL TICE| April 4, 2012|
Article from The Entrepreneur

In the upcoming Alien prequel, Prometheus, it's 2073 and Weyland Industries is the largest company on the planet. But today's small business owners can learn a few lessons from the website that the movie's marketers have created for the fictional mega-corporation.

Page through the Weyland website for valuable tips on how to create a compelling business website:

Concise copy. Bad business websites blather on and on, creating long, wordy pages. When reading online, people prefer quick, scannable information. The Weyland site has just a few short paragraphs on any one page, making the copy more impactful and more likely to be read.
Company timeline. An elaborate timeline covering 30 years of Weyland history gives quick, one-sentence summaries of all the company milestones. Such a page adds depth to the website of any business that's more than a year or two old.
Company snapshot. On a strong "About" page, Weyland quickly states where it is, how many employees it has, its headquarters location, and other vital statistics. I can't tell you how many small-business sites I've searched in vain for these kind of useful facts.
Visual cues. Weyland works in seven different industries. A small illustration has been created to represent each, making it easy to see at a glance what the company does.
Press releases. The site has a media archive of old press releases (at the moment, it's locked, likely until closer to film's June release date to avoid giving away the plot). Collecting releases and putting them on your site shows that your company has a history and gives media a chance to quickly scan through your highlights.
Multimedia. In the site's masterstroke, the marketing team has created a faux TED Talk the company founder "gave" when he started it in 2023. With the great reputation of TED Talks and the impact of video generally, this feature immediately gives the company credibility and makes the site more engaging. If you have any public speaking engagements, remember to have them taped for posting on your site.
Engagement. Under the guise of offering investment opportunities in "classified projects," the site invites visitors to "register" to get more information. Of course, this is more a marketing pull for the film itself, attempting to connect with fans on Twitter and Facebook

Article from The Entrepreneur

Young entrepreneur in San Tan Valley a sticky hit

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:17:00 +0000

WEDNESDAY, 04 APRIL 2012
By Bridgette M. Crosby Today Publications
Article from Gold Canyon Today

Felina Carriero didn’t set out to be a businesswoman at the age 11, it just came naturally. Arts and crafts projects have always been her favorite pastime, but when Felina found that she could make cool products from duct tape, “Stick with Felina” was born.

Felina Carriero, owner of Stick with Felina, makes a wide variety of products out of duct tape and sells them online and around San Tan Valley.

“Stick with Felina” is Felina’s business. Hand making products from duct tape have become a widely popular item and Felina offers a wide assortment of items that include wallets, slap bracelets, ladies’ purses and clutches, rings, hair bows and many other useful, everyday items.

To date, Felina has made over 700 different products in the two and a half years she has been crafting with duct tape.

Felina stated, “Making cool things from duct tape is my favorite thing to do. Duct tape comes in so many wonderful colors that I can make just about anything that you want.”

Pricing on products vary and are very affordable. Rings and bracelets start at just 50 cents.

Custom orders are no problem for Felina with an abundance of colors to choose from and a variety of styles for boys, girls, men and women, Felina’s creative skill and natural ability to run her own business is already paying off.

The last craft show that she participated in brought in $150, which was quickly invested in supplies for future orders and shows. Products can be ordered on www.Etsy.com, an online site for crafters. Products are also available at the Scrub Shop, 85 W Combs Rd Ste 102 in San Tan Valley.

In addition, her products were recently featured on MelanieSafka.com. Safka is a singer and songwriter who performed at Woodstock. Safka received one of Felina’s products from a friend and liked it so much that she featured “Stick with Felina” on her site. Arizona Arts & Crafts Co-Op also posted a link to Felina’s site on their Facebook page.

Felina also has three employees working as her sales force - other children who are nuts over her products. The employees help her sell items and in return are paid in product.

For more on this story be sure to check out the April 12 issue of the San Tan Valley Today
To comment on this article and others, please visit: Facebook.com/SanTanValleyNEWS or send us an email at News@TodayPublications.com

Article from Gold Canyon Today

Alumni entrepreneurs share their stories

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:42:00 +0000

BY: KELLEY MASON - 04/02/2012

Article from Retriever Weekly

The Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship facilitated the Raymond V. Haysbert, Sr. Entrepreneurship Lecture with an alumni entrepreneur panel discussion in The Commons on March 28.

Students quickly flowed into the room eager to hear the stories and advice that the panelists had to offer. The panel of alumni entrepreneurs included Ryan Bricklemyer, '06, Director of Cold Ones of BeerGivr; Dr. Sheldon Broedel, '90, Chief Executive and Science Officer of Athena Environmental Sciences, Inc.; Delali Dzirasa, '04, Founder and President of Fearless Solutions; and Nancy Krebs, '72, founder of The Voiceworks Studio.

The panel members each gave a 10-minute speech about their successes and failures as entrepreneurs, but encouraged students to be brave in all their endeavours.

"There is not a clear path to entrepreneurship," said Bricklemyer. His company, BeerGivr, allows participants to buy beer online at participating bars and email a barcode for the beer to a friend, who can then go to the bar and redeem the barcode for the beer. He took the simple phase "I owe you a beer" and turned it into a viable system that is used in sixteen bars in the Baltimore area.

Broedel, CEO of his biotech company, encouraged students to "keep thinking, keep learning, and keep moving forward." Broedel, who is also a UMBC graduate professor, explained that students should challenge their professors in order to be successful.

Dzirasa of Fearless Solutions told stories of how he used to run a barbershop when he lived on the UMBC campus to make money.

"I am a serial starter of things," he said. "My advice for you is to believe in yourself... Never give up and hold onto your vision."

Krebs of The Voiceworks Studio explained that students should create short-term goals for themselves to continuously have a sense of accomplishment.

"Follow your bliss and help others achieve theirs," said Krebs.

Students reacted positively to the alumni stories of successes and failures. Manpreet Suri, a sophomore and information systems major, enjoyed the insight from the UMBC alumni.

"I could definitely relate to what they were saying," said Suri. "I agree with them that you should seize your passion and go for what inspires you."

Freshman graphic design and business technology administration major Diana Chou said, "I was very impressed with the passion that each speaker had developed through their experiences."

Students are encouraged to contact armor@umbc.edu for possible internships with these alumni.

PRINTER-FRIENDLY | MODIFIED MON APR 2 23:35:49 2012 - © THE RETRIEVER WEEKLY.

Article from Retriever Weekly

Online Entrepreneur Craig Newmark on Charity, Collaboration and Being Cranky

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 10:56:00 +0000

BY JANE GANAHL | 17 hours ago
Article from The Entrepreneurs

Craig Newmark never meant to become a rock star among computer geeks.

He was just a quiet computer programmer when he created Craigslist in the mid '90s as a way to connect to his dotcom peers. His invention went nuclear in 2000, rapidly spreading to more than 50 countries around the world. Newmark found himself thrust into the public eye -- appearing on TV shows from CNN News to The Daily Show. Now, the site gets more than 30 billion page views per month worldwide.

Perhaps because Newmark was already in his 40s when craigslist became a household name, he left the rock star antics to his younger peers like Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker. Instead of flaunting his money, he sought to make good use of it. He started the nonprofit Craigslist Foundation in 2001, with a goal of helping other charities connect to resources that help them build community.

A year ago this month, Newmark took his philanthropy to the next level with the creation of Craigconnects, which showcases hand-picked nonprofits on its home page and includes a directory of other organizations. The site's mission is to feature only "good, effective" organizations that are "socially responsible, self-perpetuating, and replicable."

Newmark, 59, recently talked about his work with SecondAct.com.

SA: It's been a year since you launched Craigconnects. At the time, you said, "I have kind of a bully pulpit -- which I don't need for myself, which I don't need for craigslist. If I shared it with nonprofits who needed to get stuff done, I think that would be a good way to live." Have you found this is, in fact, a good way to live?

CN: It's very much so, feels very right, and people tell me that I'm "moving the needle." People want to help each other out and to feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves.

SA: Are there any single examples of Craigconnects helping a nonprofit that stand out in your mind? Something you're particularly proud of?

CN: There's support for local veterans' groups, like the SF Vets Resource Center, and also the vets' lounge at CCSF. That extends to other local groups like the Women's Building, the Tenderloin Tech Lab and the Salvation Army Harbor Lights shelter. Overseas, I'm helping connect all the vocational schools in the West Bank, with the support of the U.S., Israeli and Palestinian governments.

SA: You've been committed to nonprofits for more than a decade. What spurred you to create a mechanism to help them?

CN: About a year ago, I realized I better get my nonprofits act together and asked a co-worker to list what I thought were 20 to 30 nonprofits and government groups. Turns out the list was almost 100 groups long. I kinda have my act together now.

SA: Did the fact that you're pushing 60 have anything to do with your becoming more fully committed to the philanthropy side?

CN: No, so far the only effect is a growing acceptance of my own crankiness. It used to be that I'd identify with Homer; now it's with Grandpa Simpson.

SA: Are you still as actively involved with customer service as you once were?

CN: I still do real customer service, as I've done every day for over 17 years, but it's not the deep day-to-day stuff that the rest of the team does.

SA: One of Craigconnects' stated purposes is to "identify, connect and protect" organizations. Can you explain how that works?

CN: This is very much a work in progress, in two senses. We support groups that measure the effectiveness and financial soundness of nonprofits, including GuideStar, Charity Navigator and GreatNonprofits.org. Also, I'm doing some related work in voter protection, but it's early in that process.

SA: You're an advocate for nonprofits becoming savvy about using social networking. How can charities help their own cause this way?

CN: All charities need to use whatever social networks they feel are a fit for them, and then they need to email their supporters to promote the charities via Twitter retweets, Facebook and Google Plus shares, and more.

SA: A big part of Craigconnects is to get nonprofits to collaborate more effectively. Has that proven challenging, given that all charities are in competition for the same dollars?

CN: So far, I don't really know how to make it happen, since most groups of all kinds find it hard to work with each other. In specific cases my plan is to quietly prod them into collaboration, nudging them now and then discreetly. Seems like this is a multi-year effort.

SA: Do you anticipate ever retiring?

CN: What is "retiring?" Is it like "relaxation" or "time off"?

SA: What gifts do you think aging offers the average workaholic?

CN: Age-related comedy. (Please see above.)

SA: You've gotten very into bird-watching, which is easy to do from the back deck of your San Francisco home. Why do you think you find birds so appealing?

CN: I wish I knew, but it doesn't matter, I really do love them. However, I just know the ravens are talking about me, plotting...

SA: Of all your career high points -- from being on The Daily Show to doing a TED Talk -- which one is most memorable?

CN: Doing both The Daily Show and Colbert Report were high points. These guys are probably doing the most professional and effective journalism around, fart jokes and all, seriously.

Read more: My Top 10 List: Craig Newmark

This originally appeared at SecondAct.com.

Article from The Entrepreneurs

Arab tech entrepreneurs bring education to students’ fingertips

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:40:00 +0000

March 30, 2012 01:36 AM
By Brooke Anderson
Article from The Daily Star

BEIRUT: Tech startups are looking to alter the approach to career development by injecting new technology and creative critical thinking into education, and ideas presented at the Arabnet conference in Beirut Thursday were as ambitious as they were imaginative.

One such proposal, by Jordan’s Lana Karrain, was for the online company Fakker (“Think” in Arabic), a platform for people to discover their academic and professional interests through games.

“It’s career development through games. It helps young people discover their strengths – strategic, analytical or mathematical” Karrain explained after she gave a two-minute pitch for her plan for Fakker at the Ideathon, a competition for startups in the early stages.

“The games already exist,” she said. “But no one has capitalized on them for career development.”

The company is still in the Alpha testing phase, but Karrain said that once it was more developed she envisioned recruiters contacting job seekers based on their strengths and interests.

However, she maintained that her site would continue to be about games so people would not feel like they were being tested.

Another equally aspiring tech startup to come out of Jordan is Codely, whose founder, Sinan Taifour, has started an interactive computer program that teaches school students, kindergarten through 12th grade, about computer programing through interactive quizzes and online videos.

“It’s an online platform to get students excited about learning on real computer science topics,” he told The Daily Star after giving a five-minute demonstration of one of the 10 early-stage startups that were being presented at Arabnet Thursday.

In Jordan, he said, such computer education wasn’t taught until college, which he believed was too late for someone to become a successful young IT entrepreneur, noting that Microsoft and Facebook founders Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg both learned computer programing as children (Taifour started at age 11).

For the youngest users, Taifour uses an animated turtle to demonstrate basic computer skills (he is also considering introducing a robotic turtle into classrooms to interact with students).

As the grades move up, the program moves onto more complicated coding.

By September, he expects to have Codely in at least 50 classrooms across Jordan, a plan that he says is being encouraged by the kingdom’s Education Ministry, and one he hopes will be the beginning of a company that reaches the global market.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on March 30, 2012, on page 5.

Article from The Daily Star

Entrepreneurs' Dreams Become Reality: Brother Small Business Grant Program Announces Winners

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:43:00 +0000

March 27, 2012, 9:00 a.m. EDT

Five winners from 900 submissions granted $5,000 each to help their business grow and succeed

Article from MarketWatch

BRIDGEWATER, N.J., March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Brother International Corporation, a leader in small business technology, today officially announced the five winning applicants for its first small business grant program, launched on January 10, 2012 in collaboration with entrepreneurial online resource, StartupNation. The grant program awarded a total of $25,000 to five small business owners, five $5,000 grants to each winner, who can use the grant money to launch their business or initiate a new project within their established small business.

The winners of the Brother Small Business Grant Program are:

AARF Pet Central, Susan Leisure (Stone Mountain, GA), is a community pet resource center that is progressively designed to assist families and individuals with pet adoptions, aimed to take homeless pets permanently out of the rescue cycle. This grant will allow AARF to complete building renovations, such as ceiling and light installations.

Arcade Brewery, Christopher Tourre (Chicago, IL), is a craft brewery that creates an interactive experience by focusing its online and public efforts around beer education, production transparency and crowdsourcing design for its beers, labels and packaging. This grant will be directed to fund the development and improvement of Arcade Brewery's website and online presence.

Curvy Riders, LLC, Angie Bertrand (Grand Junction, CO), designs and creates custom-fit apparel and accessories to meet the needs of female motorcycle owners and riders. This grant will allow Curvy Riders to have a sales booth for four days at the 2012 International Women & Motorcycling Conference to be held in Carson City, NV July 26-29, 2012.

Misty Mountain Farms and Education, Elle Nova (Hillsboro, Oregon), produces organic goat dairy, organic chicken eggs, and organic local vegetables using sustainable farming practices targeted to market to the local community. It also provides revolving grants to vulnerable populations of women and children in immediate need. This grant would fund the purchase of sanitation and refrigeration equipment for the goat dairy, vegetables and eggs that the farm produces, in addition to purchasing new office equipment to aid the farm's growth.

Sugared Beauty, LLC, Sarah Zahn (Elizabethtown, PA), promotes a line of beauty and skincare products formulated from organic and food-grade ingredients targeted to women seeking healthy and organic products for their skin. This grant will help provide an upgrade to the company's product labeling through new office equipment, while creating a fully integrated e-commerce experience for its website including its own cart, auto-shipment program, blog and user-friendly customer service page.

"We are thrilled to witness such a high-level of participation and enthusiasm from the small business community," said John Wandishin, Vice President of Marketing, Brother International Corporation. "This grant program demonstrates our commitment and support to help entrepreneurs gain access to capital, while also helping Brother better understand the current challenges and concerns for America's small business owners."

To determine the size of the grant packages, Brother International Corporation and StartupNation conducted an online poll on StartupNation that revealed the majority of small business owners (61 percent) started with less than $5,000 in capital to launch their company.

"We are both impressed and delighted with the level of dedication and effort that went into these grant applications," said Rich Sloan, co-founder of StartupNation. "The breadth and depth of these entries signifies the importance of small businesses for the U.S. economy, and we're pleased to have partnered with Brother to help these entrepreneurs pursue their passion and achieve success."

To view the grant winners and their stories visit: www.startupnation.com .

About Brother

Brother International Corporation is one of the premier providers of products for the home, home office and office. The U.S. corporate office in Bridgewater, N. J., was established on April 21, 1954 and currently markets many industrial products, home appliances and business products manufactured by its parent company, Brother Industries, Ltd. of Nagoya, Japan.

These products include an award-winning line of Multi-Function Center® machines and printers. Brother also provides the number-one line of facsimile machines in the U.S. and is the leader in electronic labeling, with its full line of P-touch® Electronic Labeling Systems. For more information you can visit the website at www.brother.com .

About StartupNation

StartupNation is a free entrepreneurial online service founded by entrepreneur brothers, Jeff and Rich Sloan. The site offers a one-stop shop for small business resources including step-by-step advice, articles, expert blogs, podcasts, member-to-member networking, contests and small business forums. For more information you can visit the website at www.startupnation.com .

SOURCE Brother International Corporation

Article from MarketWatch

Tech spotlight: eDossea

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:32:00 +0000

West Des Moines entrepreneur creates online dental record database

3:07 PM, Mar. 24, 2012

Article from DesMoinesRegister.com

Shawn Harrington of eDossea runs eDossea, a dental services online database, out of his home in West Des Moines. (David Purdy/The Des Moines Register) / David Purdy/ The Register

WHAT IS EDOSSEA: It's a file-sharing platform. We allow dentists to share X-rays and patient files online in a controlled environment as they refer patients to specialty doctors.

WHEN DID YOU START EDOSSEA: I began test trials with oral surgeons and dentists in 2010, then launched the company nationally in September.

WHY EDOSSEA: There was a clear need as patients were still carrying their own X-rays for appointments. Some dental offices were trying to avoid this by emailing them, which led to downloading issues while putting the patient at risk of national laws concerning medical information privacy, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly referred to as HIPAA. With the rise of cloud computing and social media, we saw that a platform could be built to enhance the process online.

BACKGROUND: Since attending business school at State University of New York-Brockport, I had a goal to work in medical sales before the age of 30. I also had the desire to be an entrepreneur. I just didn't imagine both would happen at once. I'm now fully engulfed in the startup world!

HOW HAS EDOSSEA GROWN: Not even seven months on the market and our service is active with dentists in 10 U.S. states. I began doing demonstrations of the service in Canada and our first client in Australia joined last week. That prompted a quick adjustment as our nightly online backup was scheduled during their business hours. It's been fun watching the service expand to new markets.

WEBSITE: www. edossea.com

Article from DesMoinesRegister.com

15-Year Old Founder of Online E-Reuse Named Next Teen Tycoon

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:00:00 +0000

By Jerry Melton
Mar 23 2012
Article from San Francisco Bay Area Today

SAN FRANCISCO – From the Bay Area to New York, online startups to pop-up shops, there is an entrepreneurial spirit that’s sweeping across the country – and it doesn’t discriminate by age.

Building on this spirit, VerticalResponse announced the three winners of its “Next Teen Tycoon” online video competition. The company – a leading provider of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses including email marketing, social media marketing, online surveys, event marketing and direct mail marketing – launched the national contest in mid-January with the goal of advancing teen entrepreneurship. It drew nearly 40 video entries from teens all over country hoping for a chance to win prizes totaling $10,000.

“At VerticalResponse, we’re all about helping small businesses succeed, no matter how young the owner,” said Janine Popick, CEO of VerticalResponse and one of the contest judges. “At a time when we still don’t know what the economy will be like tomorrow, it is so inspiring to see these enterprising teens take charge of their own future. All of our contestants should be proud.”

Eleven finalists were chosen via public online voting, and a panel of judges selected the grand-prize and two second-place winners from the finalist pool.

Grand Prize: iReTron – New Uses for Old Gadgets

Fifteen-year-old Jason Li, founder of iReTron, nabbed the grand prize and will receive $4,000 in “seed money” to grow the business, as well as a free trip to attend the 2012 TEDxTeen conference in New York. iReTron encourages people to turn in their old cellphones and other electronic devices for cash. The devices are then sold abroad, where there is still a demand. View the teen entrepreneur video by iReTron here.

“I started iReTron with the hopes of creating a way for everyone to help the environment,” said Jason, a sophomore at Saratoga High School in Los Gatos, Calif., near San Francisco. “We made our public debut at the Green Festival in San Francisco last year, where I spoke in front of 500 people. We’ve completed more than 500 transactions so far. We’re working with high schools, colleges and other companies to let people know it’s easy to be green.”

Second Place: a1000x – Showcasing Artists for a Cause

As a second-place winner, 16-year-old Jack Uesugi of Wahiawa, Hawaii, will receive $2,000 to help grow his business, a1000x (a Thousand Times). a1000x partners with local artists and helps market their designs while participating in social entrepreneurship. The company prints, sells and promotes limited-edition clothing and other merchandise featuring these designs, and a portion of all profits goes toward social causes. View the teen entrepreneur video by a1000x here.

“We’re called a Thousand Times because whatever you do in life, you want to do it big. You want to do it a thousand times better and put a thousand times more effort into it,” said Jack, a junior at Island Pacific Academy. “You’ll find that in the end, you’ll get the same in return.”

Second Place: StudioVictus – One-Stop Shop for Multimedia

Four high school seniors from Destrehan, La., near New Orleans, also will receive $2,000 to help further their multimedia company, StudioVictus. Co-founders Austin Bergeron, Matt Duhe, Joe Solito and Joshua Stoker officially launched the business in November and offer a variety of services such as photography, Web design, videography, graphic design and app design. The company recently designed the official New Orleans Hornets mobile app, and works with a growing number of local businesses. View the teen entrepreneur video by StudioVictus here.

“With the seed money, we plan to make huge investments in our company,” said Joshua, who attends Destrehan High School along with his three co-founders. “Company work shirts for professionalism on the jobsite, business cards and other advertisements to promote our company, a studio lighting kit for our photography work, and some money for Web hosting.”

Finalist Prizes and Judges

All 11 finalists will receive two best-selling books, “Your Starting Point for Student Success” by America’s top young speaker, Arel Moodie, and “Entrepreneurship” by Steve Mariotti, founder of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

Both Moodie and Mariotti also served as contest judges, alongside Daniel Brusilovsky (CEO/founder of Teens in Tech Labs); John Jantsch (small business consultant and founder of Duct Tape Marketing); Janine Popick (CEO of VerticalResponse); Ramon Ray (small business expert and editor of SmallBizTechnology.com); and Nicole Marie Richardson (executive editor at Inc.com).

“For 30 years, I’ve been working with schools and teaching young people how to run a business, and I think we are truly at an incredible time when it comes to youth entrepreneurship,” said NFTE founder Mariotti, whose organization holds several competitions per year including the World Series of Innovation and Elevator Pitch Challenge. “The students in the VerticalResponse contest have the motivation and courage to act on an idea and make it happen, and that’s a large part of what being an entrepreneur is all about.”

To view all 11 contest finalists, visit http://www.verticalresponse.com/TeenTycoon.

ABOUT VERTICALRESPONSE

VerticalResponse Inc. provides a full suite of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses including email marketing, social media marketing, event marketing, direct mail marketing and online surveys. Its mission is to empower small businesses and non-profit organizations to easily and affordably create, manage and analyze their own marketing campaigns. Users can benefit from a wide variety of features including more than 700 free email marketing templates; tools to create, schedule and publish content over social media networks; and robust reporting so that they can understand overall marketing success. VerticalResponse is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif. For more information visit www.verticalresponse.com, and connect on Twitter at@VR4SmallBiz and Facebook at www.facebook.com/verticalresponse.

SOURCE VerticalResponse Inc.

Article from san Francisco Bay Area Today

Mistakes of a Young Entrepreneur

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:15:00 +0000

Charles Peralo17-year-old high school senior
Posted: 03/21/2012 2:38 pm
Article from Huffington Post

With the tech revolutions of the last several decades, probably the most notable thing is the rise in baby-faced entrepreneurs who have managed to change markets and cultures, and make history. For every story of another young person going out and changing the world, a thousand high school and college students sit on their computers and fantasize about making their dreams come true, typing away like piano masters playing in harmony. Yet, problems arise when the dream meets the naivete of young people. I've done projects that bring disgrace to the idea of entrepreneurship. I had an ego and a lack of originality, and I developed habits I learned to avoid.

In my junior year of high school, I began to push myself to turn my big ideas into action. I spent my life trying to write down the future in the form of ideas. I tried to plan things out with the dream of being an entrepreneur and innovator. Once I had my driver's permit, I started to attend tech events and network online. With that, I realized quickly that waiting was no longer an option in today's world and action now was the key. I acted on my first bad habit: Action for the sake of action over action for the sake of passion.

With my desire to make the dream happen, I decided to start with my friend Shahed Khan. We connected through just floating around in the same pool of interests and realizing we had a lot of similar dreams. So eventually we decided that, together, we'd take our first steps of entrepreneurship. The issue that would come before us was fueled with ego and a false sense of pride in achievements that meant nothing. This would lead to the birth of Muvvio and Viatask -- the first two companies I'm proud to have had fail.

The original venture was a project to try and make movie rental cheaper and easier, called Muvvio. We thought it was a cheap way to make money, so we went with an impractical idea and tried competing with companies such as Redbox and Netflix in the process. Impractical thinking led to that project -- we thought we were so special for being young and wanting to start a business. So, after a month of realizing it was impossible to do this, we decided to move onto a simpler venture. This one was 100 percent software, had zero third-party involvement, and wasn't as competitive of a market. That would ultimately lead to the company Viatask. The only thing accomplished in this venture was doing everything on the world's longest list of things not to do as an entrepreneur.

With my experience working on Viatask, I learned fairly quickly that it's not easy doing something complex. So, the idea became to do something simple. That quest for simplicity meant creating a project just because I wanted to, even if passion or basic interest was ignored.

On Skype one day after school, Shahed proposed an idea for a company where people could post errands for people to do. I knew that Taskrabbit was not a giant success and that improvements could be made, so I was on board, hoping it'd lead to something. I went around asking friends for thoughts on the project. My first big sign of bad news was a friend sending me a link to a company called Zaarly. On the day Shahed proposed Viatask to me, Zaarly raised a million dollars, and they were the exact same idea. I went to Shahed and he still wanted to do it. Our feeling was that although failure seemed likely, it was worth a shot, and Viatask could make it if we made the right moves.

The first days working on Viatask with Shahed were days of just Skyping and hoping to move. We had an idea that was basically a ripoff of two companies, and we had no capital, programming skills, or big connections. So we spent 50 percent of the time talking about how great it'd be for this project to become a success, and to be like Mark Zuckerberg or Sean Parker. The other 50 percent was just working on things that weren't real, but only there to make us think we were entrepreneurs. We'd try to create poorly-made 'coming soon' pages, get blog articles written about two teenagers starting a company, make pages for every social network, and cold-calling VC's and programmers without even having a paragraph of business plans. We were even planning T-shirt and sticker designs before anything else. Looking back at this the project, it seemed as if little girls selling lemonade had a better shot at making millions.

The thing that caused all of this was lack of interest in the product. Viatask was just our way to make other people think we had qualities that legends like Zuckberg and Jobs had. We tried to brand ourselves as young entrepreneurs rather than branding our company. We learned that we were not the young Disney channel stars having people buy anything with our faces on them. The fact is, we learned we were not special, because people invest in businesses, resumes, and ideas. They will never make a pure novelty investment, and Viatask was a novelty company. It was a stolen idea and not enough talent was in the team to be worth anything real. For this, Shahed, Viatask, and I were nothing more than jokes. The habit of over-inflating our egos was the problem.

I left Viatask when it was clear we'd never be a success. The site is still up and Shahed still has been trying to work on it. The greatest knowledge I obtained was learning to move purely on passion and never on ego. For my ability to learn that, I'd say I'm proud to call Viatask and Muvvio my first failures. Without these experiences I wouldn't be organizing events, working to build a company, getting funding offers, being on national TV, representing research groups, and working on various other projects.

Article from Huffington Post

‘Online Business Entrepreneur’ Website Launched by Successful Couple

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:49:00 +0000

Article from PRWEB

Successful Devon based couple launch their website for people who want to start an online business. Internet Marketing expert Colin Butcher, along with his wife and business partner Suzannah, saw a great opportunity within the marketplace to build a comprehensive website including video tutorials, step by step guides, articles, tools and other resources for those who want to start an online business.

(PRWEB UK) 17 March 2012

Online Business Entrepreneur is an exclusive, yet inexpensive, membership site for people of any skill level to join and start learning. Colin, owner of multiple online businesses said “There are lots of Internet courses available online, but they are quite often very expensive. We wanted to create a site where people could learn at their leisure, at a fraction of the cost.”

In addition to the training guides, there is also a member’s forum where members can talk freely about their business successes and ask questions which will be answered directly by Colin, Suzannah or other industry experts.

Mumpreneur Suzannah who runs an eCommerce website, a direct selling business and a Mumpreneur website Work For Mums, said “I am often asked by people in my field questions about my online success, especially regarding social media, so I know there are lots of people who want to know more, but aren’t sure where to find the answers. I hope that by sharing our success story we can encourage more people to start their own online business, especially during these bleak economic times”.

Online Business Entrepreneur officially launches on April 2nd 2012 and there will be reduced membership rates for the first 100 members.

Article from PRWEB

10 Champion Entrepreneurs Reveal How They Made Billions, in New Robert Jordan Audio Program

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:21:00 +0000

Ten entrepreneurs responsible for creating $18 billion in value from scratch share their groundbreaking strategies in Robert Jordan’s new 6-CD audio program, How They Did It: Real-World Advice from Today's Most Successful Entrepreneurs, published by Nightingale-Conant.

March 15, 2012

Article from PRWEB

Robert Jordan, a bestselling author, serial entrepreneur and member of Inc. magazine’s “Inc. 500” list, sits down one-on-one with today’s most successful company founders, who represent more than 300 years’ worth of hands-on business experience, and get them to explain in detail the path to their successes.

“What I’ve found is that most entrepreneurs – in fact most of us – try to avoid failing. That is not a recipe for achieving extraordinary success,” says Jordan. “They follow the herd, and they get the same results the herd gets. I want to show how anybody who wants it can break through and turn a vision into a real-world, successful business.”

One of the entrepreneurs introduced in the program is Raj Soin, founder of Modern Technologies Corporation. Raj and his wife began MTC with a $1,700 investment and sold it for $485 million. In the audio program, Raj describes exactly how he did it.

The first-person accounts shared with Jordan show how these 10 individuals fought through huge challenges, took great risks, experienced breakthroughs, and accomplished amazing feats. Through each of these stories, Jordan teaches listeners where to find potential goldmines in business, how to win every negotiation, how to change their method of communication, and which current business ideas don’t work today.

A free audio sample of Robert Jordan’s program How They Did It: Real-World Advice from Today's Most Successful Entrepreneurs is available for a limited time. Listen now as Robert reveals valuable insights as he interviews Howard Tullman, Founder of Certified Collateral Corporation:

http://www.nightingale.com/how_they_did_it_sample. For more information about this Nightingale-Conant product, visit: http://www.nightingale.com/prod_detail.aspx?product=How_They_Did_IT&promo=INTPR2.

About Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan is an Inc. 500 CEO and founded Online Access, the world’s first Internet-coverage magazine. After Jordan sold Online Access, he launched RedFlash, an interim management team, and interimCEO/interimCFO, a worldwide network for interim, contract, and project executives. Jordan holds a degree from the Honors College at the University of Michigan and earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

About Nightingale-Conant

Founded in Chicago more than 50 years ago, Nightingale-Conant is still a family-run company and has a single, powerful mission: to help people develop the information, skills, and motivation they need to create the life they want. Nightingale-Conant remains the largest publisher of personal development audio programs designed to give anyone the skills, strategies, and motivation to improve his or her career success, wealth, health, spirit, intelligence, and more.

Article from PRWEB

Entrepreneurs tell how they made dreams happen

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:18:00 +0000

Published Mar 12, 2012 at 3:00 am (Updated Mar 11, 2012)

Article from Union Leader

MANCHESTER — The U.S. Small Business Administration, N.H. High Technology Council, Stay Work Play N.H. and N.H. Small Business Development Center hold a Young Entrepreneur Series event at the University of New Hampshire Manchester Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

U.S. SBA Acting Regional Administrator Bob Nelson and N.H. District Director Greta Johansson will welcome the audience to participate in a moderated dialogue with a panel of young entrepreneurs.

Panelists will share their personal stories, business tips and lessons learned. They are:

Lisa Campbell, NUThin' but GOOD TIMES! LLC. In February 2011, Lisa Campbell started NUThin' but GOOD TIMES! with a strong business plan and a can do attitude. NUThin' but GOOD TIMES! is a large indoor play space catered to all families. Lisa created an environment that is all about kids having fun, engaging in active play in a safe and clean environment while also allowing parents to relax and socialize in a comfy and cozy environment.

Allison Grappone – NEARBY Registry LLC. In November 2011, Allison Grappone jumped into being a full-time entrepreneur by becoming the CEO of NEARBY Registry. NEARBY Registry is an online shopping and gift registry service for local businesses and will launch in the spring 2012.

Allison won the 2011 Manchester Young Professional Network's “New Hampshire Start-Up Challenge.” She was awarded $25,000 in cash and in-kind services. Presently her business is housed at the abi Innovation hub in Manchester.

Josh Heinzl – Josh's Toys & Games. In 2004, Josh Heinzl was the captain of a robotics team, the New England Robotics Designers (The NERDS). Through buying Lego sets, Josh was able to get the items he and his team needed and sold the rest. By selling the unneeded parts, Josh not only funded the team inventory, but he started to turn a profit. On Oct. 10, 2008, Josh opened his first retail store, Josh's Toys and Games in the Pheasant Lane Mall, Nashua. Now, at the age of 18, Josh currently employs roughly 20 associates across three retail stores and operates an online distribution business.

Gerard Murphy, Mosaic Storage Systems, Inc. In March 2011, Gerard Murphy co-founded Mosaic with Andy Young. Gerard earned his MBA and has more than 10 years of sales and marketing experience for a variety of startups. Gerard was a photographer and was frustrated with the tools on the market. He and Andy launched Mosaic to enhance serious photographers' workflow by giving them access to the tools they already use from any device.

The event will be held at UNH Manchester Auditorium, 400 Commercial St., third floor, Manchester.

There is no charge for this event, but please register by today at www.nhsbdc.org/events.

According to SBA, the program's aims are to:

Bring together leading young entrepreneurs, youth advocacy organizations and government experts to listen, address critical challenges and formulate public policy measures needed to move the young entrepreneur's business agenda to the next level;

Connect young entrepreneurs to each other, the federal government and other economic development resources;

Engage young people to discuss entrepreneurship and Internships;

Highlight the accomplishments of young entrepreneurs.

With youth unemployment twice the national average in many communities, SBA recognizes a need to promote and better support the efforts of young people looking to create jobs – for themselves and others. Young entrepreneurs are a dynamic resource for national recovery and economic growth, SBA said.

Article from Union Leader

Facebook entrepreneurs in hot demand

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 10:15:00 +0000

FT Specials | Posted on Mar 10, 2012 at 09:52pm IST

Article from IBN Live

San Francisco: The Facebook mafia is a social network. The band of early Facebook employees who built the online world of friending, liking and poking are starting their own companies, and relying on their real-world connections with each other for advice, investment and collaboration.

Their new ventures vary from a workplace tool to a prescription drug comparison site, but they all have several things in common, predominantly their appeal to investors, who have so far put tens of millions of dollars into these companies.

"The early team at Facebook, the first 60 to 100 employees, are wicked smart and very entrepreneurial," says one "angel" investor who has backed two Facebook mafia companies.

They also think big. In their early 20s they built technology that affected hundreds of millions of people. Now, these entrepreneurs have identified new problems to solve.

Taking on challenging data problems when young, and having such immediate impact on people, becomes addictive, according to Doug Hirsch, who worked at both Yahoo and Facebook in their early days. And while success on the scale of Facebook is not guaranteed, they bring from it the confidence to try.

"You know there's a chance you'll fail," says Scott Marlette, who left Facebook in 2010 to start GoodRx, a price comparison site for prescription drugs, with Mr Hirsch. "What are the chances we're going to make another product that 850m people will see? But it also gives you some notion that there is scale out there, and there is a way to build great products that impact many people's lives."

The mafia is marked by key partnerships that were born at the social network. Working relationships became friendships and vice versa. These bonds echo those formed at companies such as PayPal, whose former employees still launch and fund start-ups. But few companies began with such unsuspecting engineers then grew to such game-changing proportions as Facebook, and that sets these young engineers apart, say investors.

Investors are betting on the fact that these programmers defined the social web and understand it. But many other companies have employed Facebook formulas, such as requiring users to sign up with their real names. And there has been an explosion of social network, games or software start-ups that some early Facebookers warn is creating "a social bubble."

But investors hope Facebookers have particular advantages which set them apart. "Most social sites are psychological experiments," says the angel investor. "The Facebook crowd understands the core psychology of what motivates social; the dimensions of that are subtle."

Technology venture capital funds including Accel, Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins are eager to embrace those early members, hoping to achieve even a fraction of Facebook's success.

"[Social] impacts everything in our society from business to government to education to politics," says Matt Cohler, a partner at Benchmark Capital, who joined after working at Facebook.

Though money is flowing easily from investors to these entrepreneurs, the bonds that they formed working through the night at Facebook, staving off server crashes and battling user uprisings border on unconditional.

"If somebody from Facebook came to me and asked me for money, I'd give it them in a heartbeat,"

GoodRx's Mr Marlette says. "I trust the people I worked with."

Network Of Power: How Facebook's pioneers are flexing their digital muscles

Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever are quiet men. One of the key strengths to their working relationship is how little they need to say to understand each other.

Mr Cheever recalls a meeting with Mr D'Angelo when they worked at Facebook. Mr D'Angelo said three words, and he responded: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you mean." The third colleague present reeled in confusion.

The partnership began in 2005 when Mr D'Angelo hired Mr Cheever from Amazon to join Facebook and now extends to their joint venture as co-founders of Quora, a question and answer website.

"It's the next step in the evolution of what a library used to be," Mr D'Angelo said. "To share knowledge and get knowledge."

The concept is not new, with other sites like Ask.com and Yahoo! Answers, but Mr D'Angelo says earlier attempts are decentralised or poorly executed. Just as there were search engines before Google and social networks before Facebook, Quora can do it better, he says.

While Quora is about connecting people to information, it uses key social elements to do so. People must sign up using their real names, so their identity is attached to the questions they ask and answer.

Networks begin to form as people find others who share interests. They can choose to follow particular topics, or particular people who demonstrate creativity in their questions or authority in their answers.

People use Quora to ask specific questions about current events, or cultural questions, such as: "How did orange juice become a standard breakfast drink in the west?" The most popular answer comes from an Indian-born computer engineer, rather than an official economist or anthropologist.

In this sense, Quora is democratic, a quality the former Facebookers say is important.

"If you don't have a reputation, you can build one up by answering questions on Quora," Mr Cheever adds.

Some users – including Silicon Valley engineers and a Dallas-based chef – have found jobs through their activity on Quora, he says.

Quora is counting on such positive user experiences to attract new ones to the site, before worrying about how to make money. As of January 2012, the site had 1.2m unique visitors, according to ComScore, a digital analytics and marketing group, up from 147,000 the year before, when Quora launched.

"We're still in the growth phase," Mr D'Angelo says.

The Asana team of about 20 stands in a circle, most in jeans and trainers, a few shuffling in their socks, discussing the latest updates to the work-collaboration tool they are building.

Unlike typical staff meetings elsewhere, this one is quick and painless. The report from team heads is over in a few sentences and the gathering concludes after 15 minutes with group applause, and a "Yay!" from Asana's co-founder Justin Rosenstein.

Similar to yoga, he says mindfulness and balance are central to the company's philosophy of work. Asana, which means "pose" in Sanskrit, also holds yoga classes for staff.

"[Yoga] is about finding comfort and ease in the face of stretching yourself to your limits, which is what work is about," Mr Rosenstein says.

He and Dustin Moskovitz, Asana's other co-founder, expect the technology and design of their task-management system to create simplicity – and painless staff meetings – for clients. It aims to streamline workflow, allowing colleagues to manage projects, assign tasks, and track progress according to what is most important, instead of having to track chronological email conversations.

Mr Moskovitz recruited Mr Rosenstein from Google to Facebook in 2007. Mr Moskovitz had been at the social network since its conception in 2004, sharing a dorm room with Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard university.

"We want people to stop referring to their organisation as dysfunctional," says Mr Moskovitz.

In 2008, Mr Moskovitz and Mr Rosenstein left Facebook. They launched Asana in 2009. "We have a very yin-yang relationship," Mr Moskovitz says. "I track the detailed things, making sure [things] get done. Justin is good at ideating and staying passionate."The software is free for companies with 30 employees or fewer. It will soon offer a product for larger companies, charging a monthly fee. Asana is not profitable yet. The market is also competitive.

Though Asana puts tasks at the centre of its tool rather than people, the web application takes several cues from Facebook, including a newsfeed-type activity feed, the ability to follow certain tasks and, importantly, a shared philosophy of streamlining communication.

"Before Asana, managers would have one-on-one meetings and spend the entire time getting up to speed on things. Then there's no time for the fun stuff – the mentoring and the strategising," Mr Rosenstein said. "Asana ends up being this collective memory."

When Doug Hirsch needed to get a prescription antibiotic, he went to his local pharmacy where his bill would have been $642.

That was too expensive for him so he went to rival chemist CVS, stood in line for half an hour, and got a quote for $410 for the same drug. At a third pharmacy the staff failed to give him even a price check.

"It seemed like a lot of overhead to figure out a price comparison," said Mr Hirsch, a former engineer at Yahoo and Facebook.

He partnered with Scott Marlette, with whom he worked at Facebook to build the social network's photo sharing features, and Trevor Bezdek, a technology entrepreneur, to build a website where people could compare drug prices online and in their locality with a few keyboard strokes and a mouse click.

They launched GoodRx from their Santa Monica headquarters a few weeks ago. Entering the name of a drug and a zip code into the site returns a list of prices for that medication at nearby and online pharmacies.

As healthcare costs in the US soar, and employers and insurance companies push more of the cost burden on to patients, in many cases, a 20mg dose of a drug is the same price as the 100mg dose, so GoodRx includes links to advice on how to split pills and save money.

GoodRx aims to bring transparency to drug prices, as other sites have made online price comparison the norm for TVs and cars.

"Once you start to inform people and start to empower people to make decisions, you both start to change the market that exists and perhaps affect some costs," says Mr Marlette.

GoodRx is tackling the problem of reducing drug prices that lawmakers have debated for years. But they say it is a common trait among Facebook alumni to take on huge problems. Connecting friends and guiding people to affordable medicine are not that different in computer code, they say.

"Both Facebook and GoodRx are in the business of taking tons of data and trying to dumb it down so the average American can consume it quickly," Mr Hirsch says.

GoodRx is considering different business models, from pharmacy-sponsored coupons to complex deals with insurance agencies that will lead patients to buy from less expensive sources.

The introduction of healthcare reforms in the US is expected to generate higher sales of generic drugs, and that is where GoodRx has found the most price discrepancies, as local pharmacies have more flexibility to mark up the price due to low manufacturing costs.

"It seems like people are way overpaying," Mr Hirsch says. "We just thought the time was right for something like GoodRx."

Posted on www.ft.com on March 9, 2012 8:12 pm

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)

Article from IBN Live

One for the entrepreneurs

ridodirected@gmail.com (RIDO) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 01:21:00 +0000

By J.D. Hildebrand03/06/2012 03:34 PM EST
Article from Software Development Times

Do you want to sit in that cubicle forever? Or do you cherish a secret dream of striking off on your own? Wouldn’t you like to start a small business and see if you have what it takes to make it grow? “Every normal man,” said H.L. Mencken, “must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.”

The problem with going rogue is that entrepreneurship is risky. We settle for lives as employees because we have too much at stake to roll the dice on a questionable business venture. Prudence is an understandable and appropriate response to decisions of magnitude. But we promise ourselves that if ever the right opportunity presents itself, we’ll make the leap.

I’m here to tell you that the opportunity is here. You want to start a business with an excellent chance of success and rapid growth in the U.S. and Western Europe? I’ve got the idea for you.

If you’ve been reading my posts here regularly, it’s possible you’ve already connected the dots:

An operating system for cities
Cyberwar’s first shots have been fired
Smart infrastructure plus malware equals disaster
Distributed intelligence means distributed security risks
Insecure
Security concerns top year-end news

Here’s the deal. Over the past decade, cities, counties, and states across America have augmented their electronically controlled water, gas, traffic-control, public-transport, and electrical systems with offsite command-and-control systems, wiring them up via Internet connections. Putting utilities online has improved efficiency and reduced costs, but it has exposed critical elements of the public infrastructure to malicious hackers.

Municipal systems have not been targets of cyber-attacks in the past, and they lack all but the most remedial security measures. If password protection is enabled, the systems are generally protected with the manufacturer’s default passwords. That’s how naïve local governments are about protecting their assets.

You want to be an entrepreneur? Here’s how you do it. Travel from city to city, analyzing vulnerabilities and installing protection. You don’t have to invent technology here. Tried-and-true secure lines, encryption, password protection, and firewalls will do much to make critical systems more secure. Help local governments organize and adopt attack-response measures.

Almost all utility systems are vulnerable, but cities have been slow to act. The need is urgent and the market is on the verge of exploding. Now is the right time to jump into this field.

You may find yourself more marketable if you acquire credentials. The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) offers classes on infrastructure protection through the National Cyber Security Division’s Control Systems Security Program. US-CERT’s Cross-Sector Roadmap for Cybersecurity of Control Systems (PDF) contains some excellent background data that you will want to include in your business plan and your sales presentations.

If you’re serious about stepping out on your own one day, I think now’s the time to do it. This is an opportunity to achieve independence, make a bundle of money, and help the good guys defend themselves against attack. Why wait?

Web recommendation: In my most recent post I cited Edge, which describes itself as a collection of the world’s “most complex and sophisticated minds.” I’ve spent some more time with the site since then, and I must say I am not impressed. The articles suffer from grammatical errors, misused and inconsistent punctuation, dead links, and misspelled words. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some great stuff there. (And I dare say you’ll find the odd typo among my own online postings here and elsewhere.) It’s just, for a site that goes out of it way to proclaim itself the homepage of the world’s top intellectuals, edge.org has an embarrassing number of errors. The folks at Edge may be brilliant, but even geniuses need editors. J.D. says check it out.

J.D. Hildebrand has written hundreds of articles for dozens of publications and online communities dedicated to software development. He’s dead serious about the entrepreneurial opportunity he outlines in this post.

Article from Software Development Times