tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77904302024-08-30T06:43:37.009-05:00This blog is a platform that I use to share ideas and catalogue my thoughts. My main interests are in Entrepreneurship, Venture Investing, Hospitality and Economics.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.comBlogger306125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-15218112734737547132012-05-31T12:57:00.002-05:002012-05-31T12:57:19.056-05:00

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-69169804638066094782012-03-27T02:23:00.002-05:002012-03-27T02:23:46.758-05:00

[Original post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com]  I dont get banner ads, let me be very honest with you I am Ad blind. If you really think you care going to get me to click on a banner, you are very wrong. I am not the only one thinking this way. We have become oblivious to all these flashy things shown on the websites. I wish we would have a cleaner web. I go to a website

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Reykjavik, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-17317353721280225422012-03-27T02:21:00.002-05:002012-03-27T02:21:43.794-05:00

[Original post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] This was EPIC to say the least. It was my first EVE Fanfest, thank you Hilmar for inviting me. I got to see the true awesomeness that has been created by the CCP team. Congratulations! I was mesmerized, and it took me back a long time when I was fascinated by video games and how I spent endless hours playing games although I did not

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Reykjavik, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-30009724220445300552012-03-27T02:15:00.001-05:002012-03-27T02:15:34.820-05:00

[Original post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com]  I saw this clip in Reuters Tech Tonic TV, it was so simple yet profound. It described the relationship between a VC and the Entrepreneur. I want to ask the question, how is your relationship with your Investor? Would you be proud to have a video done this way with your Investor? I strive very hard to build respectable

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Reykjavik, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-31122208512266248352012-03-27T02:12:00.002-05:002012-03-27T02:12:32.985-05:00

There is a fundamental difference between a business model and business plan. A Business Model defines how you will make your product or service economically viable. A business plan describe how you are going to make your business model work. One does not always know how the plan is going to evolve, so building detailed plans although a great thought or intellectual exercise adds no real

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-64519929913838672152012-03-27T02:08:00.004-05:002012-03-27T02:08:55.283-05:00

There was a good discussion around Icelandic Startups planning to establish a company structure in the US and which company structure is most appropriate. I believe that it depends on the investor group. I found a very interesting blog post that basically went into all the details that I wanted to go in this post... then I thought why am I trying to re-invent the wheel. Here is the link

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Reykjavik, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-51848443509767910292012-03-27T02:05:00.001-05:002012-03-27T02:05:46.777-05:00

[Original post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com]  It is not law yet, but yesterday the Senate voted 73-26 in favor a bill that loosens SEC regulations in order to permit small businesses easier access to capital. I am not sure if "easier" is the term that I want to use, I think SEC rules were made a long time ago and we need to constantly review them and see if the

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Reykjavik, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-61526876751170403842012-03-27T02:03:00.001-05:002012-03-27T02:03:21.004-05:00

[Original post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] Kristjan Freyr Kristjansson was at SXSW2012 and he gave a brief talk about the show and more importantly shared his thoughts on attending many of the Lean Startup Panel. The summary of the SXSW update was: It is very noisy, crowded and advertisements everywhere - it would be impossible to get your startup noticed or even to meet

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Reykjavik, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-54088792297963774312012-03-22T07:35:00.001-05:002012-03-22T07:35:06.887-05:00

[Original Post Written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] Hallfríður Ólafsdóttir came to our Rotary Club and spoke about her journey in creating Maximus Musicus, a little mouse and a very popular character with children in Iceland and 6 other countries. She is an accidental entrepreneur because she is the lead flutist with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and she recalled just

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Laugavegur, Austurbær Reykjavik, Iceland64.1415805 -21.900687264.138118 -21.910557700000002 64.145043 -21.8908167tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-45263435524083108412012-03-21T02:18:00.004-05:002012-03-21T02:20:05.663-05:00

[Original Post Written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] I have written about Crowd Funding and how I want to throw my weight behind this. I think this is an important topic in the blog sphere and many lawyers are weighing in on the challenges. Here are a couple: Crowd Funding – A Critique for Entrepreneurs and Investors by Bill Payne, Angel Investor The Great Crowdfunding Train Wreck

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Reykjavik, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-74628435680200119672012-03-19T17:06:00.004-05:002012-03-19T17:07:18.246-05:00

[original post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] This is based on a link my buddy Scott Guillory from Louisiana sent me. It was an opinion piece on the Wall Street Journal by Douglas McCollam with the title "The Big Easy's Business Leap Forward". For those of you who don't know I did my Dual Master of Science in Economics and Information Systems & Decision Science from Louisiana

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Reykjavik, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-34767906604058076062012-03-19T11:24:00.002-05:002012-03-19T11:24:59.135-05:00

[Original post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] A Startup team composition is like putting together a winning sport team. You need to balance the strengths and weakness for every team member so that the Whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It is easier said than done. I learnt this very early on in my career, I started working for a startup in India that was developing

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Laugavegur, Austurbær Reykjavik, Iceland64.1415805 -21.900687264.138118 -21.910557700000002 64.145043 -21.8908167tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-15674994919185171262012-03-18T10:15:00.000-05:002012-03-18T10:15:03.179-05:00

[Original Post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] I read this post in New York Times with the title "Why Some Countries Go Bust" and I just finished watching Shawn Achor talk about how we focus so much of our efforts on describing the negative things and topics. I was wondering why did the author not make the title in the New York Times article to focus on the positive aspects of

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Reykjavik, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-45967430951782283892012-03-18T10:12:00.002-05:002012-03-18T10:12:28.352-05:00

[Original Post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] I have been frantically meeting and organizing the Startup Iceland Conference, here is the Facebook Event Page. While we are organizing this, the constant question that I get is will we be able to fund this conference can we raise the money needed to hold the conference. I am totally transparent about how I am trying to organize this.

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-52674169564868775682012-03-16T07:53:00.000-05:002012-03-16T07:53:11.288-05:00

DataMarket.com is a startup out of Iceland. I have met with Hjalli a couple of times, spoken to him quite a bit and used DataMarket services on some of the presentations and have been following the company. The company started in June 2008 and Hjalli has been around the block in the startup journey a couple of times, he successfully created and sold a company in Iceland and I believe he is a

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Laugarásvegur, 104 Reykjavik, Iceland64.1435177 -21.869691664.1400552 -21.8795621 64.1469802 -21.859821099999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-3731693393232115432012-03-16T07:50:00.001-05:002012-03-16T07:50:15.094-05:00

We had our 7th meetup on the Lean Startup and the topic of discussion today was Determining Waste vs Value. The biggest reason for waste in any process is big batches. The book refers to a number of examples where batching things in smaller sizes actually resulted in the overall job getting done faster and in addition to that reduced waste in the process. Here is one example, where the batch

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Laugavegur, Austurbær Reykjavik, Iceland64.1415805 -21.900687264.138118 -21.910557700000002 64.145043 -21.8908167tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-64676133195175265632012-03-12T02:26:00.000-05:002012-03-12T02:26:31.658-05:00

[Original post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] "We are what we repeatedly do. Therefore, Excellence is not an act, its a habit" - Aristotle  I have been fortunate to experience many things in life and I am thankful for it everyday. My Grandmother made me experience waking up early in the morning and build the discipline of reading in the morning. Over the years I have

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Reykjavik, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-73178001216942555652012-03-11T01:35:00.002-06:002012-03-11T01:35:27.210-06:00

[Original post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] Just in time for SXSW, the House passed the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act. This is a big step in the right direction, of course the US Senate has to pass this bill for President Obama to sign this into law. Venturebeat has the news about the bill here, and has a FAQ Page for Crowd Funding Bill go read it. The biggest

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Capital Region, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-81809764363134191422012-03-09T14:07:00.002-06:002012-03-09T14:07:43.662-06:00

[Original Post written@http://startupiceland.wordpress.com] Many of you know that I don't understand the business case for Data Centers in Iceland. I have written about why Data Centers will not work in Iceland here and here. I was wrong! IMMI or the International Modern Media Initiative is by far the best business case for Data Centers in Iceland. I knew about the initiative but I was

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Capital Region, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-40864107000380930662012-03-08T12:38:00.002-06:002012-03-08T12:38:59.248-06:00

[Original Post written @http://startupiceland.wordpress.com]  The post is motivated by the answer I saw in Quora to a question that went like this "Where is this startup hype going to end?" The author went on to describe why he wants answers to the above question. His premise was that everyone and their mother is starting a startup and that is a clear indication of a boom and even people

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Capital Region, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-37988335691370486572012-03-06T00:50:00.000-06:002012-03-06T00:51:58.780-06:00

[Original Post Written here in WordPress]  There is a fundamental difference between an Incubator and an Accelerator. Here is a video interview where Brad talks about the difference between Incubators and Accelerators.  An Incubator gives you real estate i.e table, chair, meeting room and power socket, internet connection, a coffee

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Capital Region, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-6870585913929693632012-03-05T05:05:00.001-06:002012-03-05T05:05:13.317-06:00

This is the second of the posts related to defining the Value Proposition. The original post is here and the first post is here. I am using Startup Iceland as an example. Value proposition needs to address multiple stakeholders. The first post was the value we bring to the Entrepreneur, this post is going to focus on the Value to the Investors and Limited Partners (LPs) of Startup Iceland. We

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Laugavegur, Austurbær Reykjavik, Iceland64.1415805 -21.900687264.138117000000008 -21.910557700000002 64.145044 -21.8908167tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-23358518410953715792012-03-02T01:28:00.000-06:002012-03-02T01:28:00.417-06:00

Here is an interesting article about "How to make a region innovative"  by Strategy+Business portal of Booz & Company. Why am I writing about this? well, because there is all this talk about Innovation Clusters in Iceland around Geothermal Energy, Seafood etc In My Humble Opinion (IMHO), it is a waste of time! this is old school thinking that never works. Don't take my word

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Capital Region, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-60777661016737770872012-02-29T23:47:00.003-06:002012-02-29T23:47:26.589-06:00

[original post written @startupiceland.wordpress.com] This is the first of the posts on Business Model Design. The topic this post will cover is Value Proposition, it is one of the boxes in the Business Model Canvas. In my opinion defining the Value Proposition is one of the fundamental blocks in building any business. The definition of value has to be clear. Lets consider the example of Auro

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Búland, Capital Region, Iceland64.121068 -21.882072764.119335499999991 -21.887008199999997 64.1228005 -21.8771372tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790430.post-15866287219358372822012-02-29T04:03:00.000-06:002012-02-29T05:53:47.659-06:00

[original post written in WordPress]  Alexander Osterwalder's book Business Model Design is an excellent workbook for all businesses, especially those that are already established and want to look for ways to transform, amend or update their existing business model. Of course for those of us who have been in the Consulting industry it all feels like deja vu but I have been impressed

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16926456948811535818noreply@blogger.com0Laugavegur, Austurbær Reykjavik, Iceland64.1415805 -21.900687264.138118 -21.910557700000002 64.145043 -21.8908167