December 2010
1 post
Pre-Mortem and Regret Minimization Framework
I’ve been thinking a lot about different start up ideas I want to do. Whether or not it makes sense to take the deep dive into pursuing the idea is never easy; especially if you may or may not have income coming in for the next 6 months. So I found 2 really useful frameworks for help making the big decisions.
1. Jeff Bezo’s Regret Minimization Framework:
Where you look at all...
September 2010
1 post
Shanzhai, customizing knockoffs
Shanzhai, a chinese terms for high quality knock offs, or the general idea of taking what’s cool from big rich brands and making it available for the masses. What’s interesting about these copy cat designs is how fast they can iterate the designs and how they localize it to their base consumers.
One example are the dual sim card iPhone knock offs and the sub $100 iPad knock offs...
August 2010
2 posts
Trusting Your Gut + OODA Loop
I always have these conversations with my friend who likes to make gut decisions while I like to apply game theory, use analytics and make graphs & diagrams. Emotion vs. Logic based. I use my gut instincts more for spotting raised flags than making final call decisions. McKinsey Quarterly a few months back wrote an interesting article on using a decision tool on whether you should follow...
Business Model Generation
“Designing Business Models” has to be one of the coolest business book I’ve came across in a long time (and I read ALOT of ‘em). If you need to write up a business plan, I would look at this book first. Previously, I’ve always used a template that I found from Ernst & Young… which was really great at making you think of every little detail investors may...
July 2010
4 posts
Design With Intent
In previous blog entry, I mentioned how useful the P.O.I.N.T. method from IDEO has been for me. D.School at Stanford University, whose program was helped founded by David Kelley, the founder of IDEO, released a boot camp bootleg of their creative method teachings. Just thought it was pure gold for anybody interested doing any type of design work work or just coming up with creative new ideas....
Maximin & Poker
One of the eggberts, working on the 40’s Manhattan project by the name of Von Neumann came up one the most useful game theory… Maximin. It’s a strategy where you maximize your minimum payout.
Chris Ferguson, a pro poker player applies the theory and has literally won millions. Here’s an great article from the New Yorker about his story. Ferguson’s dad happens...
Be, Do, Have The 4 hour Workweek
Started reading Timothy Ferriss’s The 4 Hour Workweek since it was highly recommended to me ironically by my 2 friends are probably the most workaholics and anti-4 hour work week guys I know. When I first came to Vietnam 2 and half years ago… than taking VC funding it changed to 40 years worth of work into 4 years time. What a difference.
I also believe in the Be, Do, Have philosophy...
2x2 Framework Tool For Negotiation and Politics
“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are condemned to being governed by those who are dumber” - Plato
Awhile back I found a really great article from McKinsey describing a framework tool for negotiators planning strategy for dealing with multiple parties regarding biz dev, sales, or simply internal company politics.
Basically, you list out all stakeholders that are...
June 2010
6 posts
Monetization, Sales Complexity and Finding a...
The most challenging part of doing a web start up in Vietnam has to be monetization and sales. The problem is very few people here have credit cards. Mobile payments is very accessible, but the rev share with telcos and how much you can charge makes things tough. The CPM rates that advertisers are willing to pay; is probably barely enough to cover your monthly burn rate… if even that.
...
Embedding Brand Promotions in TV/Web Content
Producing TV commercials and buying airtime can be so expensive, Branded content and program sponsorship of non-traditional advertisement is the way to go for more cost effective advertisement.
What’s nice about product placement is it’s non-interupting to viewers and provides a captive audience for advertisers (they can’t change the channel on remote or click ‘x’...
"So, What Do You Do?"
Whenever you meet somebody new, you get asked, “So, what do you do?” I hate that question, since people can perceive you in so many bad ways or you get pigeonholed into some stereo type.
For instance, if a guy meets a girl for the first time, and she asks that ‘what do you do for work?’
guy 1 answers, “I’m the CEO of a entertainment media company”
...
MindMapping
is so much better than linear style note taking, and is also makes it so much easier to take a step back and see the whole macro view from above. On the mac there’s a freeware called ‘mind node’ that works really well. Here’s what’s been on my mind:
The way I learned it is that it’s best to start off with a ‘purpose’ in the middle and then the...
The Divided Self; Considered and the Impulsive...
“Like a rider on the back of an elephant, the conscious, reasoning
part of the mind has only limited control of what the elephant does.” ~ Jonathan Haidt
Started reading “The Happiness Hypothesis” by Jonathan Haidt on a Kindle (i likes) that I’m borrowing from a friend. A bit of philosophy mixed with psychology and the idea of duality, that I really recommend...
May 2010
2 posts
On P.O.I.N.T. of Human Centered Design and another...
Design firm IDEO uses the P.O.I.N.T. technique to translate the Problems and Needs identified in told stories into Insights and grouped into Themes to find new Opportunities. I use the structured method to solve any type company problems and to brainstorm new product or marketing campaign features. While it’s still probably better to do on a white board and/or use stickies… I can...
Scrum Template for iWork Numbers
I’ve been a huge fan of iWork for Mac. Keynote totally owns Powerpoint. It’s so much nicer laying out text on Pages than on Word without all the complications of Quark and Indesign. Numbers, while it no where as robust as excel… but I don’t need it to be, and having nice visual design and live charts is so much more important to me. If you don’t have to share your...
April 2010
3 posts
Value-Based Financial Strategies and Wealth...
It’s not a question of enough, pal. It’s a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another. ~ Gordon Gecko
In new media start-ups, companies can be worth millions and not be profitable. Valuations can be based 10x revenue formulas, user acquisition costs, ip patents and other stuff. So...
Social Gaming on Social Web and Social Dynamics...
“beauty = public opinion + eye of beholder” -unknown
Friendster then Myspace then Facebook all became popular because it helped people find late night booty in much more efficient ways. With the current trend of Social Gaming (Mafia Wars, Farmville, Friends For Sale, etc.) is leveraging the social networks and making it more effective to find booty by making interactions more fun.
...
Verbal Judo For Dealing With My Pops And Peddling...
So I had chat with my old man recently and after exchanging pleasantries, asking about how’s work and then throwing in his 2 cents of advice. He really didn’t understand how my business (well internet in general) makes money; not to blame him most people don’t. I remember I used to get all riled up, when he used to get all negative with me. I don’t know why it took me so...
March 2010
5 posts
Luck vs. Skill and They Will Not Love You Long...
On Zynga Poker, after playing over 1000 hands, I have a win percentage of 32%. Monitoring about every 50 hands or so; this has been pretty consistent within a +/-3%. In poker, luck and skill are both very important factors. Sometimes I’ll get really great cards and win 5 hands in a row. And that’s the thing…
Whether I’m on a winning streak or losing streak (luck or...
Data Mining For My Own Kinsey Report
Turns out you can do some pretty nifty (… or just geeky) things with Google Spreadsheets. Google will give you number of search engine results for that particular query. Spent the weekend updating proposals and adjusting KPI’s for clients; I was still in a numbers nerd mode while taking a break while playing with it. You program in some variable phrase and another column for value...
80 Year Old 'Visionary' Artist In Vietnam
People line up early in morning in hopes for this very Budhaesque 80 year old man with big floppy earlobes to paint them a picture. Not just any picture. Supposedly, he has this gift for seeing things about people. He’ll take one good look at a person’s face, see a vision, and starts painting beautiful brush style works. Then he’ll interpret the meaning of the art to you and...
Stress Training And Founders Not Making The Cut
“Pain is weakness leaving the body, provided that the pain inflicted is small enough that you can handle it and grow from it, emotionally or physically.” ~ US Marine Corps
You can learn all the knowledge from all the books in the world but it’s all useless if you can’t remember or apply it when you get punch in the face (or some other type of pressure situation). This...
Better Place... the coolest start up with the...
If there’s a start up that will most likely to go IPO and be worth more than Google and Facebook; it’d probably be Better Place. Better Place is has an awesome business model with their charging stations for electric car. It solves a lot of issues with electric cars:
The heavy costs of electric cars is in the battery; by them ‘owning’ the batteries it lower costs for...
February 2010
2 posts
A/B Testing With Fortune Tellers
“I’d rather be lucky than good” ~ Lefty Gomez
For most people who know me; know that I’m a agnostic and very skeptical to things. But being out here in Vietnam, I’ve seen some pretty crazy Voodoo (2 cases; that maybe blogged about laters) and some fortune telling, that I really don’t know what to make of. How a pack of Hoyle’s playing card, lines on my...
Merger Frameworks
In the past 2 years with my start up; I had the opportunity to work on 4 different Merger & Acquisition opportunities. Before then, I had no experience with it what’s so ever. So I had to learn fast. Luckily, I found a great podcast series done by Booz Allen & Hamilton along with some other resources online. I was able to take the different ideas and apply it to the different...
January 2010
7 posts
Zodiac vs. Psychometrics
Like how girls are into horoscopes and zodiac stuff, I’m all into that psychometric personality type stuff… since it’s more ‘sciencey’ (in sounding at least). You should be able to tell more about a person with a Myers-Briggs test than their person’s birth date.
Or maybe because I’m a Leo with my rising sign also a Leo that was born in the year of the...
Mumbling and Tumblring thoughts on the new iPad...
I flick, tumbl, scrobble, digg, tweet, 4square, yelp and whatever else, pictures, video, music, text, reviews, links I can add to my social life stream on the web and into whatever www cloud.
With all that information about me you can probably predict when, where I deposit my next stool sample.
But think about it you can probably tell if I’ve been getting fat or not or even if I was dating...
Another Business Framework From Harvard Nerds and...
“I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I’m the decider, and I decide what is best.” - George Bush
I don’t know what’s more frustrating people who can’t decide or people who don’t allow the right people to decide or people who don’t listen to the right inputs when deciding?
Too often companies overrely on structural reorganization for strategic execution. ...
A Fist Pumpin Vietnam Version of Jersey Shore
I got this brilliant concept for a new reality TV Show. Jersey Shore meets America’s Top Model meets the Apprentice meets Beauty and the Geek; well maybe not that last one. You get a 4 bedroom house or apartment in Saigon, you fill it up with at least 6 people. Not just any people… models. From all around the world. Some Russians, sometimes Brazilians, point is get a mix of...
Putting Out Fires...
That’s all I seem to be doing these days. This week’s count is at 8 different interpersonal conflicts that I either have to sort out or mediate. Which means anybody who gets stuck hanging out with me has to hear my constant bitching.
My apologies to those good friends who are there to listen.
“bitch, be cool!” ~ samuel l. jackson, pulp fiction
I really don’t like to go to war with...
Cooperative vs Competitive, in Equilibrium or in...
I’m constantly having to run geek formulas to ensure that I don’t get fucked over and to make sure everybody is always cool with each other. Cool with each other means being in equilibrium.
The problem with doing business in Vietnam is not whether if somebody is going to try to fuck you over… it’s just a matter when and how bad. Add in the fact that legal framework and...
Five lighthearted reasons why VC's should not...
From A VC, Fred Destin:
We forget 50% of what we said at the last board
We don’t know the people inside the company and hence have no clue what the team can really execute
We meet many smart people and hence we have way too many ideas that you cannot possibly implement
We are focused on the 5 year vision, yet we are focused on the quarter too, even we are confused
We don’t need to...
December 2009
4 posts
Top 20 Tracks of 2009
… well at least most listened to on my iPhone on days that I wasn’t too music ADD. The list is probably off since I had to have restore my iPhone more than once. And my Macbook Air is still kaput. But still shows my favorite flavors of the year.
Soul
Darrien Brockington - Think it Over
Amel Larrieux - Don’t Let Me Down
Maxwell - Pretty Wings
Rock
Phoenix - Girlfriend
...
Negotiating within Interests, Options, Objective...
Great framework for negotiations from Stan Christensen of Stanford Technology Ventures Program.
Agreements are made in context of relationships. And being in dialogue is necessary for effective communication. Good communication is also about listening and conveying that you are listening to the other side… and understand their objective criteria, interests and what viable options there...
There's meaningful, there's epic and then there's...
… when it comes to non-traditional advertising.
We pitch to potential clients and often it’s we want a website and can you make us and place us some banner site on your site. Yeah, that will help. It’s well… meaningful.
Then there’s the one a bit more savvy, they’re open to do rich interactive video on micro sites, and release the special content in...
Wile E. Coyote and Capital Funding...
There’s a bunch of Wile E. Coyotes (entrepreneurs/start-ups) out there that are super brilliant armed with latest and greatest Acme (online protocols) technology; and they’re all starved right now. Wile E. Coyote or Eatibus Anythingus is really chasing fast for that damn Beep Beep Road Runner (Revenue). And no matter how brilliant the plan, but if he doesn’t have enough road...
November 2009
3 posts
Social Influences
“Understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” ~EDWARD L. BERNAYS (1891-1995)
Since I run a social community site and always making sales or partnership pitches, I’m very interested in always learning more on how to influence or persuade individuals and the masses.
Themes that I found most...
Last Saturday to This Saturday in Review
I had to fly out to Singapore for my every 3 months border run for valid Visa thing. And I might as well try to do business and meet up with some friends while I’m at it.
Saturday - Past midnight, I was over at Supper Club and then over to Stereo Lab. Both really nice venues. Then afterwards it was Mickey D’s… I swear I never ate so much of that crap in so many days in a row...
Back To Blogging
I used to blog… A Lot.
But then I became busier or confidentially issues popped up; made it really hard to do so. But since I’m believe in advocating social media here in Vietnam, I should be blogging often.
The other spark was meeting my ‘friend’ for the very first time after so many years of ‘knowing’ each other from blogging. And although, we...