I pay attention to a lot of technology trends. Square is one of the first things that I’ve seen in a while where I’m like “wow, that’s game changing.” When we all have credit card readers in our phones, think how many doors that opens.
Put in my order. Can’t wait to get one.
If you’re not familiar with Square, check out these videos…
Hey guys, there’s an awesome movement afoot here in Washington, DC, in favor of the StartupVisa program. It’s a great program that’ll help bring the best and the brightest minds to the USofA.
Check out this video about the program and the story of my friend Shervin.
The CEO and Founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman had a pretty interesting Op-Ed in yesterday’s Washington Post, entitled “Let Our Start-Ups Bail Us Out”, with a follow-up today in TechCrunch.
He promotes the idea that if we want to pull out of the current economic times that we’re in we need to incentivize small business, make it easy for them to innovate, and inevitably create brand new powerhouses which employ a lot of people.
Here’s a pretty cool chunk from the WaPo op-ed:
To translate the stimulus into sustainable growth, we need incentives for business innovators.
Entrepreneurs are the fertile soil for job growth and recovery. Small companies represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms, Commerce Department data show. They pay nearly 45 percent of U.S. private payroll and have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the past decade.
Consider a few start-ups from the past century: Microsoft, MTV, CNN, FedEx, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Burger King. Each opened during a period of economic downturn. Today, these brands employ hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. We need to prepare for the next Burger King. By empowering individuals and small businesses, an innovation stimulus can help germinate stable industry players for the long term.
My friend and head of recruiting company Fluid Hire Ian Jones just wrote a great post about how we should approach everyday on the job as if it’s your first. Everyday we need to try and bring that same level of excitement, passion, and optimism, as we did on the first day of our jobs. As Ian notes, I’m confident this is something Obama is feeling right now as he enters day 2.
Just think, if we all took that energy and excitement to the job, how much more ass could we kick?
I figure that while I can’t directly impact energy plans, foreign policy, or the war in Iraq – I can impact the economy by working a little harder, a little smarter, and with a little more passion. If millions of Americans did their jobs just 1% better than yesterday, think of the value added to our economy. A slight change in our collective productivity and efficiency could impact operating costs and profitability and spur investment and job growth nationwide. We have the power to help turn our own economy around.
With the current economic recession we’re in, you can tell that everyone feels a bit more run down and tired. People are looking for a lil umph… a lil motviation. Gary Vaynerchuk provides it in his latest video, “Stop crying, think, wipe your tear and crush it!” Definitely worth a watch.
Today, in Twitter and his blog, Jason Calacanis regaled us with his positive experiences as he walked through Jet Blue’s brand new Terminal 5 in JFK airport.
This is what he said:
If every terminal was like terminal five, and every airline was like Virgin and JetBlue, and we had wifi on those flights, air travel would EXPLODE and the economy would rebound.
If you’ve been in an airport or ridden on an airplane, you know how the typical customer experience is on par with getting herded like cattle.
Jason has found one of the few companies, JetBlue, that gets that if you create an enjoyable user experience for your customers… if you create a good product, then they’ll keep coming back for more and they’ll tell their friends.
If we keep looking at the airline industry, there are folks Virgin Airlines. They value keeping the customer happy. And… guess what? I give them repeat business. I also tell my friends about them.
This isn’t just for the airline industry. It applies to anything and everything that you create. Slow down, think about your users, and create a product/experience that they want.
Yes, if everyone made products that people wanted to buy and use, we wouldn’t be as much of a horrible recession that we are in today. People don’t wanna buy crap.
Moral of the story: Don’t make crap.
It’s not often that Thomas Friedman and I see eye to eye on things but I think his latest column is pretty good, “Time to Reboot America.”
With the current economic recession that we’re in, this IS NOT a time to throw in the towel and look to the government to save us with loans and bailouts. This is a time to hunker down and think harder about solving the problems that have been troubling us.
Here’s a passage from Friedman’s column:
America still has the right stuff to thrive. We still have the most creative, diverse, innovative culture and open society — in a world where the ability to imagine and generate new ideas with speed and to implement them through global collaboration is the most important competitive advantage. China may have great airports, but last week it went back to censoring The New York Times and other Western news sites. Censorship restricts your people’s imaginations. That’s really, really dumb. And that’s why for all our missteps, the 21st century is still up for grabs.
John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard.
While I agree 100% with Friedman’s sentiment about America’s abilities and strengths, I’m not sure I agree that we’re just surviving or getting by right now. There still are people who’re innovating and solving big problems, with little resources. We need to lift those people up and let them be examples for the rest of the world.
