Nahdet El Mahrousa sur Twitter : "#Morningread on NM friend Rana Kaliouby- founder of fascinating #startup @Affectiva @NewYorker. We Know How You Feel. Three years ago, archivists at A.T.
& T. stumbled upon a rare fragment of computer history: a short film that Jim Henson produced for Ma Bell, in 1963. Henson had been hired to make the film for a conference that the company was convening to showcase its strengths in machine-to-machine communication. Told to devise a faux robot that believed it functioned better than a person, he came up with a cocky, boxy, jittery, bleeping Muppet on wheels. “This is computer H14,” it proclaims as the film begins. “Data program readout: number fourteen ninety-two per cent H2SOSO.” (Robots of that era always seemed obligated to initiate speech with senseless jargon.) The film, titled “Robot,” captures the aspirations that computer scientists held half a century ago (to build boxes of flawless logic), as well as the social anxieties that people felt about those aspirations (that such machines, by design or by accident, posed a threat).
The Media Lab was devised as a refuge for tinkerers. How Instacart Hacked YC. Editor’s note: Apoorva Mehta is the founder of YC-backed Instacart, a startup that’s taking on 1-hour grocery delivery.
He previously worked on supply chain infrastructure at Amazon.com. Getting into Y-Combinator is hard enough; but getting in two months late and as a single founder is almost impossible. Why I got Fired from Facebook (a $100 Million dollar lesson) 12.9K Flares12.9K Flares × Can I be real with you?
Real real? (A note from Zuck) I’m TIRED of answering this question so I’d rather write it out and just point people to this post. Let me start in reverse. How Do Companies Develop Habit-Forming Products? Do You Need To Be A Jerk To Be A Successful Entrepreneur? Editor’s note: Legendary investor Vinod Khosla is the founder of Khosla Ventures.
You can follow him on Twitter at @vkhosla. And make sure to catch Khosla’s fireside chat at Disrupt SF at 1:55 pm PT on Wednesday. I recently read Ben Austen’s WIRED article about Steve Jobs, which prompted me to put together my thoughts about the tradeoffs of being a successful entrepreneur. Austen’s article draws a caricature of Jobs and puts forth a series of false choices. After reading it, you might be convinced that you can either be a jerk and successful or decent and mediocre. 1. Why Payments Startups Fail: A Lesson In User Behavior. Users hate having to learn entirely new behavior.
Products that find rapid adoption typically try to fit into existing user contexts. Introducing entirely new behavior may lead to barriers in adoption and this problem is compounded in a two-sided network where having to learn new behaviors on both sides can make the mutual baiting problem of seeding the network even more complicated. Mobile Payments is a particular case of two-sided network activity where users prefer trying the most accepted behavior and new behavior takes time to find adoption. That’s largely the reason why NFC-enabled Payments still hasn’t gone away. Consumers won’t go out of their way to get NFC-enabled phones unless there are enough merchants accepting them and merchants don’t want to invest in terminal hardware unless enough consumers start using the network. Seed a new model by changing user behavior on one side. Where Have The Users Gone? Editor’s Note: Nir Eyal writes about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business at NirAndFar.com.
He is the author of the forthcoming book “Hooked: How to Drive Engagement by Creating User Habits”. Step 1: Build an app. Step 2: Get users hooked to it. Step 3: Profit. It sounds simple and, given our umbilical ties to cell phones, social media, and email inboxes, it may even sound plausible. Well hold your dogs Pavlov! The good news is that that companies that accomplish this rare feat are the ones associated with game-changing, wildly successful innovation.
Richard Branson’s Five Rules for Epic Entrepreneurship. Like this article?
Please share it! Would you be willing to listen to advice dropping from the lips of a guy that regularly makes the Forbes billionaire list and holds the esteemed position of 4th wealthiest citizen in the United Kingdom? If your answer is yes…read on! Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is best known for his Virgin Group of companies including Virgin Megastores (Virgin Records) and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Mediocre Entrepreneurs. [Editor’s note: James Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur.
He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written ten books. His latest books are I Was Blind But Now I See and 40 Alternatives to College. You can follow him on Twitter @jaltucher.] I’m pretty mediocre. Particularly as an entrepreneur. How to Pitch Anything in 15 Seconds [video]
The Long and Winding Road to Viral Adoption. Like every startup out there mine is also after the holy grail of finding our viral loop — our interpretation of “invite a friend and get 1 GB free” of DropBox.
I cannot stress enough the importance of finding the viral loop. It’s the moment that every user or customer is bringing another one; the moment when your analytics graphs start to be exceptional and you go around and show them to everyone. If you are not familiar with Andrew Chen’s amazing blog I really recommend you should start reading it, especially this one about the viral loop.