Sproutly A Blog for Young and Growing Entrepreneurs

TechCrunch50 Livestream

In Events on 9 September 2008 with Comments

For the people who can’t be there, here are the livestream.

Time, Information, and Money

In Startup on 8 September 2008 with Comments

Running a startup is about maximizing the resources you have. Unless you’ve already have previous successes, chances are you’re just barely getting by. Here’s some overgeneralization I recently heard: there are three things that you want, but usually you can only have two: Time, Information, and Money.

For example, if you’re young and out of college, you probably have time and information, but no money. You don’t have to rush to put food on the family table and you are probably following the newest technology trends. Because you are inexperienced, you’ll probably have a hard time finding funding.

However, when I think about it more, I realized all three factors are just as hard to maximize. Firstly, let’s take a look at time. Running a startup requires more discipline than anything you’ve learned in a school. You set your own hours, deadlines, and agenda. You probably aren’t very experienced at running an efficient process, and will waste a lot of time at the beginning solving the problem. For example, some people work too hard and burn out too fast; while others just a lot overhead time between normal life.

Secondly, information is an interesting one. At school, you’ve learned all about the latest technology as well as groundbreaking research. You keep up with all news and technology blogs. Now, you’ve got to think practically. You think you have the perfect at idea, but chances are it’s going to change as you run your business. Moreover, there will likely be a competitor working on the same idea. If you’re good enough to have scaling issues, you will battling for the best talent to expand the team.

Lastly, money is an obvious problem. Even to get funding, you will have to bootstrap a little firstg. Going out and pitching can be a long and strenuous process. A lot of times, people forget that there still needs to be work done at the end of the day. If you’re still in school, I’d recommend taking the time develop your prototype. Once you graduate, depending on how supportive your parents are, it can be very stressful living off of their money.

Wow, that’s a lot of bad news. However, the good news is that everyone are facing these problems. Some people will be more ahead of the game than others. Think about what they have and what you can do to beat them.

TechCrunch50 Tomorrow

In Events on 7 September 2008 with Comments

TechCrunch50 is tomorrow! I was helping them set up at the exhibition center today, making a bazillion name tags. It looks like it’s going to be fun. The floor place is way larger than last year, lots of space to sit, stand, and schmooze. I’ll probably be there around mid-morning (if that makes any sense).

If you’re going, let me know. Let’s meet up.

Meeting, Not Networking

In Ideas on 29 August 2008 with Comments

One of the things I’ve always liked doing is meeting people. I’m not talking about meeting people in the sense of specifically networking. While there are huge benefits to networking, people start picking and choosing who they want to talk to – the ones with the most economical value. Instead, I’m just simply talking about meeting people you normally don’t.

Growing up in a middle-class family and attending the so-called “good” schools, I realized that most people, while different, were largely the same. Prestigious university pride themselves of diversity, but at the end of the day, most people in your class come from similar background and strive for the same corporate future. We talk like each other and act like each other. My view of the world was largely confined to students like me. The older I become, the harder it is for me to relate to others. Or in other words, I really don’t know much.

Many of college graduates are trained to become excellent blue-chip workers. We have trouble understanding people who don’t follow our paths. We live inside a little bubble. We don’t understand the lives of people who become plumbers or people who try to start a local restaurant.

In the world of entrepreneurship, the community is a little more diverse. There is the college dropout, as well as the blue-chip professionals. There are young entrepreneurs as well as more seasoned professionals. Unlike the narrow path of education I was brought up with, there are multiple ways of achieve your goals. I think that getting to know people around you will better help you understand what you are trying to achieve.

Go out and meet people. Maybe you will realize the path you were on isn’t exactly what you wanted. Or maybe it is. Either way, you discover a little more about the world and how to live life.

Barack Roll?

In Misc on 14 August 2008 with Comments

Sorry, just had to do it

Disqus HQ

In Startup on 6 August 2008 with Comments

In an effort to use my camera more, I took pictures of the Disqus office when I visited the co-founders, Daniel and Jason. Disqus is an alternative commenting system that bloggers can place in their wordpress, typepad, etc. They share their office with SnapTalent, another YCombinator startup. Being a Disqus user myself, I must say I like their product. Of course, there are still a lot of work and improvements to be made, but I think they they are headed in the right direction. Get ready for some new features soon.

Jason (left) and Daniel (right)


Daniel and the monitor.

Amazing 6 Year Old Singer

In Misc on 3 August 2008 tagged Misc with Comments

So what do I do when I’m up at odd hours? Watch online videos, duh. Here’s a good one: Connie, at age 6, amazes Simon Cowell on Britain’s Got Talent. Makes me wonder what I’m doing with my life.

SoCal Earthquake, Twitter and the Portability of Communication Mediums

In Ideas on 30 July 2008 with Comments

The 5.4 magnitude earthquake that struck near Los Angeles is old news now. However, after reading articles about twitter’s ability to break news fast, I realized the importance of having multiple communication mediums. Sometimes, it seems like having a phone, blog, AIM, Twitter, and Facebook seem overly redundant, but redundancy is all too important in times of crisis.

As you probably know from my previous post, my cell phone broke yesterday, thus, losing my entire phonebook in the process. Being the great son that I am, I did not memorize my parent’s cell phone numbers. So, after I heard about the earthquake, I wanted to call them. I called the home phone (the only number I memorized); no one picked up. I could not reach them. Even though the earthquake was only 5.4, I started to worry.

So, I turned to my next sources. Email. I tried searching through if I recorded a cell phone number, nope. AIM. My parents don’t use instant messaging, so that was useless. Facebook. Again, parents don’t use facebook; however, I messaged my brother to ask for the number. If he’s anything like me, then he probably won’t receive or respond to my message for a few hours. Skype. I rarely use. Twitter and blogs. Yea right. Eventually, I was able to contact my aunt, who told me everything was alright.

Good thing I had all those sources to turn to. However, most these communication mediums are mutually exclusive. While this isn’t bad, things would have been a lot different if some of these communication devices were directly intertwined. For example, what if my mom had her cell phone stored at some central location, and I can contact her through many services, such as AIM, Facebook, or VOIP. Okay, some of these services already support that. For example, you can send some a text message through email. However, it’s such a hassle! No one uses it because it’s not easy to use. It does not make sense; it’s broken.

I want a solution that makes communication portability dead simple. Easy enough for my parents (very computer illiterate) to use. Any ideas?

Half Broken Phone

In Events on 29 July 2008 with Comments

I seem to be having a string of bad luck this summer. The latest victim is my 2+ year cell phone. I believe someone stepped on it while I was playing basketball.

Amazingly, it can still make phone calls with just the bottom half! That’s pretty awesome. The bad part is that I have lost everyone’s phone number. Also, I can’t tell who is calling me or read any text messages. I can only talk to people on speakerphone; it does make me feel geeky. Maybe i’ll find some way to hook things back together. Please email me your numbers!

Also, I really want an iPhone 3G but just can’t afford one right now. Dang it!

Qik on the iPhone

In Startup on 12 June 2008 with Comments

Qik is soon going to support the iPhone. Wow, I want the 3G now! I’m actually pretty excited for this company, and I haven’t felt this excited about any company for a while.