Super Jellyfish

I just discovered posterous. I love it. Posterous is a blogging website that uses email as an input device. This is totally in line with my view that email should be integrated with our lives.

Basically you just send an email to post@posterous.com and they make a blog in your name at http://yourname.posterous.com. The content of your email becomes a blog post? Isn’t that awesome?

If you attach images, they upload the image to the blog. If you add video, they transcode it and put it up. If you add a link to a YouTube video, they embed the video. If you attach an mp3 file, they put a player right in the page.

Wow! I think they’ve got the user experience just right. People want a “duh, it just works” solution. Keep it simple stupid!!

I have been trying to get the ‘post by email’ function on this blog to work for a while and it is just sort of a pain. I’ve been reading code, messing around with account settings..

Posterous is also trying to get integration with other cool web 2.0 services working. Basically you can set up other accounts like Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. and if you email to Posterous, they will autopost on the other accounts for you. They make it so easy.

Another interesting feature is they have followers and following ability. So you can see what other posterous users are following a specific blogger and whot they are following.

I am really impressed with them.

I guess in terms of feedback, it would be nice if you could customize your template so that your blog doesn’t look like everybody else’s. Basically they all look the same.

I met a woman the other day who is working at Project Better Place. Actually the company is just called Better Place now.

Ex-SAP bigwig Shai Agassi launched the company and the goal is promote widespread adoption of electric cars using EXISTING technologies. Basically he wants to reduce dependence on foreign sources of oil.

He has already got Israel and Denmark signed up.

I guess, props to him for having a big hairy audacious goal. Although, I sort of think he is insane. There are huge huge infrastructure costs to what he is proposing. It is not clear to me that he is going to make a return on the investment required and is just going to spend massive amounts of capex before he even starts making any kind of money. That sort of makes me nervous, since projects like that tend to explode. (Remember Iridium?) He has raised $200 million, much of it from a wealthy Israeli businessperson.

He is trying to create a whole ecosystem himself and is partnering with lots of players to do so. He has partnered with Nissan to develop an electric car. They are going to put in a “smart” dashboard that will calculate how far you are going and whether or not you need more energy.

Then within the car, the electric battery is going to be swappable. Basically consumers can charge at home or if you are on the go and need more energy, there will be recharging stations located everywhere for you to swap out your battery quickly. This is supposed to overcome the current problem of short distance for most electric cars (sub 60 miles) and time typically required to recharge the battery (several hours.)

Consumers will pay a subscription fee similar to a phone bill or something for energy usage. I am not sure what the monthly fee will be, but let’s say it is something comparable to gas today. If you spend $50 per week today to fill up your tank to get around, then maybe it will cost like $200/month subscription. But consumers will not need to own the batteries, deal with battery purchasing/storage/discarding and instead are getting a service.

I am a big proponent of products turned into services, since I think that creates better accountability for whole life cycles of products and provides an incentive to use better technologies as they emerge. Plus there is a nice recurring revenue source for the service provider. Customers just specify the end usage they are looking for (e.g. energy for their car) and the service provider figures out the best way to give that service. Maybe today the best source is gasoline, however, if things change and suddenly bio-ethanol or whatever becomes cost effective, the service provider will transition over to that. The consumer will not have to make that decision. Plus today, when you are done with your electronic gadgets or products, oftentimes consumers just toss them out creating an incredible amount of waste. One thing I see a lot of is used computers. I imagine they could be useful in a recycle capacity for other electronic goods or even for people in developing countries. I just think there must be a better way to get used/discarded goods to people who need them.

Anyway, sorry, I just went on a tangent there.

So Shai wants to basically build this entire ecosystem from SCRATCH. I think there is a chicken and egg problem and he is just getting around it by spending big bucks. Kind of like if you build it they will come.

Some issues I see:

1. Replacement cycle of cars. Consumers are not going to upgrade to electric cars immediately because most households already own 1 or 2 cars. Probably if consumers buy a new car every 5 years, then only a fifth of cars will turnover each year. (I think this is sort of an aggressive assumption BTW.)

2. Catch-22 with charging stations. And when making their purchase decision, consumers will want to see the charging infrastructure already in place, otherwise, they will not buy the electric car. That infrastructure is going to be incredibly EXPENSIVE. And it will not pay off without consumers with cars utilizing the charging stations. So either you just spend all the money to put in this infrastructure or you don’t put it in, but then consumers will not buy the cars.

3. Danger of technology obsolescence. Researchers in many labs are working to come up with better battery technologies, better fuel technologies, etc. What happens when one of these comes out and totally obliterates the expensive infrastructure you’ve built based on today’s technology? If/when batteries can carry a charge supporting a car capable of travelling 350 miles and/or can be charged quickly - say in 5 minutes, what will you do with this car charging/swapping ecosystem?

4. Small geographic footprint limitation. I think this sort of idea works best also in small geographic spaces. In the bay area or in many parts of the United States, things are too spread out to justify such an investment. I think it may work in Israel or say Hawaii, but if you are in Texas and the closest town is 100 miles away, what will you do?

Although I sound like a grouchy, negative pessimist, I do applaud Shai for having a big vision and doing his best to change the world in a positive way. I think we need big thinkers like him who are able to mobilize and inspire a large group of talented people towards an important goal.

Unfortunately, I just feel as though this particular initiative is fraught with problems.

For more information, check out this Wired article about Better Place and Shai Agassi. A writer followed Shai around for an extended period of time and chronicled the going-ons.

I’ve had to do a networked job search several times in my life… and honestly, I had no idea what I was doing when I first started. Hopefully this will help you if you find yourself jobless and jobhunting.

1. Be patient. Finding a job takes time.
Expect to spend about 6 months (on average) before you land the job of your dreams.

2. Write down your goal/dream job.
I think it is helpful you write down a vision of what your perfect job is going to be. Be as specific as you can. That way, when the right opportunity presents itself, you are able to recognize it immediately and respond appropriately.

If you don’t know what you are looking for, write that down too. Basically, come up with a goal. Maybe you are wondering whether a career in advertising is right for you. Or whether you should go into screenwriting. Whatever, just know what your goal is.

Be sure to go back and refine your goal as you continue meeting people and networking.

3. Make a list of companies and people you are interested in.
I created an Excel spreadsheet and put down every single company in the space I wanted to work in. I then tried to locate a person within the company that would be relevant for me to speak to. I found people by several sources.

• Company website. Go to the company’s website and see if there are employee names. Usually companies will list their top management or other professionals.
• LinkedIn. Search your connections on LinkedIn to see if there are people in your network that work at the target company.
• Alumni database. Go through your school or former employer’s alumni database and search for people that work at the company of interest. You might also search by industry or by city/state.
  I usually like to target recent graduates first, because they are closer to your situation and often just went through a job search themselves. However, talking to older graduates works as well. Actually I tend to like going very young or more senior. Younger people because they are more similar to you. More senior people because they might have more free time (especially if they are nearing retirement) and because they might be interested in mentoring a eager young person. Do what you are most comfortable with.
• Trade associations. A lot of people are members of trade groups. Find the trade group for your target industry or profession and see if you can find people to talk to that way.
• Your friends. Tell people about your job search. Tell them what you are looking for. Most of the time they will give you some ideas of places and companies to look. Or good people to talk to. You will be surprised at how even the most random people might have good suggestions. Seriously!

4. Make initial contact with your target.
Set some sort of goal for yourself in terms of the number of outbounds you want to do per week or per day. I usually try to send out one or two emails a day. If you do too many, you will have too many meetings and not enough time to research properly. If you do too few, you will not have enough new conversations.

I usually do this through an email. I will send an email to the prospect with something very specific in my subject line and usually trying to reference something we have in common.

For example, I will put “From [school name] Graduate”. Or I will put “Referred by [person name]“. Basically you want to entice your target into opening the email from you.

Read the biography of your target and try to come up with a way that you are connected to the person. Maybe they have a hobby similar to yours or they have experiences similar to yours. Other areas of commonality might be school, former employer, mutual contact, etc. The more you have in common with your target, the better. You can Google their name, look on LinkedIn or read their website biograpihes.

For example, one time I contacted a person who also is passionate about the paperless office. He had purchased a Fujitsu SnapScan, and I had one too. So in my email to him, I mentioned my scanner.

My favorite is to have a friend make the connection. If a friend can introduce you over email, your prospect is more likely to respond. Again, LinkedIn works great for surfacing unknown connections. If you can even just get the name of a person who you mutually know, that will also increase their likelihood of responding.

(If your friend makes an introduction, respond IMMEDIATELY. Your friend is doing a favor by making an introduction. Be responsive! Write back right away and thank your friend for the introduction. Propose a next step or meeting.)

Figure out their email address. If you don’t know it, try different combinations. Usually email addresses are something like the below for a theoretical Jane Smith:

• format example
• first.last@company.com jane.smith@company.com
• FirstInitialLastName@company.com JSmith@company.com
• LastNameFirstInitial@company.com SmithJ@company.com
• firstname@company.com jane@company.com
• lastname@company.com smith@company.com
• last.first@company.com smith.jane@company.com
• firstlast@company.com janesmith@company.com
• first_last@company.com jane_smith@company.com
• lastfirst@company.com smithjane@company.com
• last_first@company.com smith_jane@company.com

I would try sending one email at a time to each of the above. (I am sure you can come up with more variations to the ones I’ve listed.) If the email doesn’t go through, you will usually get some kind of bounce error or something from their email server. Then you can try the next email variation on your list.

What do put in your email:
Keep your initial contact email brief. I try to limit it to 3 paragraphs.

In my first paragaph, I introduce myself and explain why I am contacting them. Always have a reason why. Maybe you want to ask them about their career and their company. Also mention in the first paragraph what you have in common - again that might be school, former employer, interesting hobby, anything! Tell them what you are looking for. I tend not to be as blunt as saying “I am looking for a job from you” but instead will say “I am looking for a job in xyz and am interested in asking for your advice on how to approach a job search in this area.” Flatter them. You want to talk to them since you think they are will have interesting and helpful information.

In my second paragraph, I will put some background on myself. This will be a few sentences on where I went to school, my prior work experience, some relevant skills. This should be sort of a mini-pitch for you.

In my third paragaph, I outline next steps. I say I’d like to get coffee with them for 20 minutes and ask them for career advice. I provide my contact information and thank them for their time.

5. Wait for them to respond.
Sometimes they take a while. This can be discouraging. If you don’t hear from them in 2 weeks, you could try re-sending your email with a “I know you must be extremely busy, but…”

Or you can try to find another way in. Look for another person you know in common and see if they will introduce you. Lurk around where they might be (of course, do not stalk your target.) Create situations where you will run into them, say at a conference or networking event.

Don’t give up! Most people are nice and they want to help others. If you are persistent and sincere in your efforts, they are willing to help.

You can also try calling them. I usually do not do this, but it depends on the situation. Call them early in the morning before their assistant has arrived. Or call them later in the evening, after their assistant has left. I would recommend only leaving a message 1 time. From then on, just call and try to reach them but don’t leave a message.

6. Schedule a meeting.

Basically they respond to your email or other efforts and agree to chat with you. Usually I try to as quickly as possible transition the scheduling to their assistant. I find that going back and forth with your target on a time can quickly be annoying/tedious for them and it is better if you can work with their PA to find a time. Assuming you are actually contacting multiple people a day, your schedule is busy and you might not be able to make the first time suggested, although I try to be as accommodating as possible. (That means I have done early morning breakfast meetings, which is painful, but necessary.)

Also, I think an in person meeting is best. But, phone is okay if that is the only thing possible. Be flexible.

7. Prepare for your meeting or phone call.
Do your homework! This step is really important.

Know why you want to talk to this person. Have a goal.
Don’t just talk to them and be unfocused and all over the place. What do you want to know from this person? How can they help you in your search? Figure this out AHEAD of time.

Look on Google News or Factiva for information on the person, their company and the industry. Know what is going on.

You do not want to waste their time OR your time.

8. Go to your meeting prepared with questions.
This is how I usually proceed.

I start with a short pitch on my background and what I am looking for. You want to give the person context and you also want to begin to “sell yourself.”

Then I ask them:

• Tell me about your career path to date. How did you get to where you are?
• Why did you choose to do [xyz career] instead of other career paths?
• What do you do on a day to day basis?
• What do you like best about your job?
• What do you like least about your job?
• What is your advice to an aspiring [xyz]?
• Is there anyone else you would recommend I speak to? [Asking this question is great because one meeting will lead to another meeting.. this is a great way to increase your contact base.]

Also, demonstrate your knowledge. If you did the step above, you did your homework. You know stuff about the person, their company, the industry… demonstrate that you know what is going on!

9. Follow up!
This step is critical. Usually I write a thank you note the day of or the day after the meeting. I reference some of the things we discussed in our meeting and I thank them for their time. I also mention any follow up items. A lot of times, the target will have brainstormed a few ideas in terms of firms that are good, persons to meet, industry associations to join, etc. If they said they would make an introduction, follow up with them to remind them!

I also state that I’d like to keep in touch with them and also ask them if there is any way I can be helpful to them.

10. Stay in touch
This is also very important and difficult to do. Basically you want to remind your new contact of your existence and desire for a job in their field without getting on their nerves. You basically want them to **remember you** if/when they hear about a job opportunity in your area of interest.

Great things to do include:

• Sending a relevant article if you see one
• Staying up-to-date on news about them, so you can send them a congratulatory note (assuming the news is good of course!)
• Pinging them with relevant news on you, especially if your status has changed
• Introducing them to other people which might be helpful for them to know
• Sending them links to interesting research

Basically you want to be helpful to them, while reminding them about you.

I think sending an article or note once every month or two is a good timeframe. More than that and you might get annoying. Obviously you will have to figure out what works for you.

11. If you do get a job, update them!
Thank them again for helping you and let them know what you are doing.

Addendum. I know I didn’t mention anything about the actual interview and getting a job part. Usually what happens is one of the people you’ve met over the course of this networked job search comes across a job posting and thinks of you. It might be a job at their company or it might be at another place. They will forward the posting to you and either invite you to interview or they will recommend you somehow.

Then it is showtime. Time for you to go in for a real interview for an actual job… and fingers crossed, you will get hired!!

The sad, hard part about the networked job search is that it is not like an on-campus interviewing process where you get a lot of visibility on your progress. There is no round 1, round 2, etc. Instead, you are slowly talking to lots of (hopefully relevant) people and one day, randomly, a company will decide they need someone - just like you! - and you will find out about it. But, it does feel like random shots in the dark. There is no visible feedback that you are actually getting somewhere. At all.

But don’t get discouraged. You can do it!! If you really are passionate about an area, it may be hard in the short term, but eventually you will succeed! Really. I believe it.

Yes, there might be cold days of rejection. And times when you feel like you will never get there. But you totally will! By doing this process, you are learning what it takes to succeed in your field of interest. You are finding out what skills and experiences people in your chosen career have and you hopefully are trying to figure out how to gain those skills/experiences to make yourself a better candidate.

And you are also paying attention to the exceptions to the rule. This is important if you yourself are trying to become an exception. (An example of this is trying to get a job as a private equity professional if you do not have investment banking or consulting experience. Yes 80% of the people in the industry have banking or consulting in their resumes. BUT there are exceptions. Who are they? How did they get there? Can you be like them?)

Another note for career switchers: I would try to find people who are like you in terms of switching their careers. So if you are a marketing person trying to get into finance or vice versa, I would seek out people who made a similar switch to get their advice. How did they make the change? What did they do? (And probably, these people will be more open to hiring someone like you, since, well, you are like them!)

And sometimes unfortunately, you do have to work for free. If you REALLY want something and it is impossible to get in without any experience, it might be worth doing some volunteer work or an internship just to get the right keywords in your background. Just remind yourself this is temporary and all in your long term plan for worldwide domination (or whatever it is your final goal is.)

Or you end up having to do a job (short term) that will give you more relevant experience, contacts or whatever to get into the your career of choice. Yes, that sucks. But.. suck it up. It is okay. Just keep your long term goal in mind. There must be a good reason why everyone thinks you need to do investment banking right? And if there isn’t, find the exceptions! Be an exception!

GOOD LUCK!!!

I really like this blog post on lead generation and sales:

“1. Try what’s worked before. Look for patterns of success, ask your clients for advice and ideas on how they have been approached by other professionals (even your competition) to find out what worked and what didn’t.
2. Experiment and adapt. Some trial and error learning is inevitable as you try to master lead generation. Develop a plan and use multiple tactics.
3. Don’t let up. Be consistent. Try to do at least one lead generation thing every day, even if it is something small, that will help you get into a conversation with a prospective client. If you use calling, resolve to make an extra call a day before you leave. If you do networking, resolve to meet one more person at an event.”

I just tried and failed to buy Radiohead tickets for Kane.

So then, to see how I could improve my “Ticketmaster skills” I did a blogsearch on Google for “Ticketmaster.” Instead of getting tips on how to successfully buy high-demand tickets, I just found a lot of hatred and anger towards Ticketmaster.

Despite fans’ rabid hatred, though, it seems like people use Ticketmaster anyway. They have no alternative! It looks like Ticketmaster will mark up fees 60%+ for concerts. How can they do that? Why do they have the power to do so?

It seems to me whenever there are multiple parties between and different motivations of decision makers, egregious pricing can result.

Ticketmaster has contracts with concert facilities, who negotiate the convenience fee the fans pay. Since the facility isn’t paying the fee, they are less incented to reduce the fees. In fact, it seems they have incentives for the fees to be higher (they are getting a cut I think.) (more…)

ShopWiki is a website that I noticed last week.

I think it’s a great idea! The site is essentially a shopping guide / wiki which indexes everything that can be purchased online.

So part of the site is sort of similar to My Simon or Froogle in that it lets you do price comparison. Where I think the site takes off in comparison though is that there are wikis on the site where users can add information/facts on buying something.

When I first came across it, I sort of thought it was neat, but wasn’t sure if I would ever use it. Then today I was thinking about making a purchase, but I wanted to do some research beforehand. Right now there’s not really any single place to look to do research. If ShopWiki can be a kind of content aggregator of some sort, for example, linking to all the product reviews on a certain type of product and collecting information and putting into an easily searchable place, I think it could be really awesome.

Before people make a purchasing decision, they need objective information to figure out what they’re going to buy. There’s tons and tons of reviews and articles on things everywhere on the web, but right now they are sort of all over the place. Having one place to find information is really appealing. Also, the community aspect of sharing and people helping each other out is another awesome characteristic of this site.

Of course, they still need to build up their content, but it looks like team behind the site has pretty impressive Internet credentials. Let’s see what happens with this site! I also think it’s neat the company is based in NYC, home of tons of media/advertising firms.

Sorry if this sounds like a commercial, I don’t know anyone involved with the site and just came across it on the Internet… I just think it sounds like a neat idea.

This article is highly critical of the Yucaipa Corporate Initiatives Fund, noting that the fund invested in Sean John and in Al Gore’s Current Television:

“Meanwhile, the workers whose pensions have been invested in Yucaipa are getting a terrible deal. According to CALSTARS, California teachers have already committed $61.9 million of the $150 million that they promised Yucaipa. As of last March 31, three years after the venture started, they’d seen a grand total of $837 come back to them. Overall, the rate of return since the funds launched have been a loss of 12.1 percent.

CALPERS has not done much better. After pouring more than $116 million into various Yucaipa ventures since 2002, it’s seen a return of $55,963.

At the same time, Yucaipa is also collecting hefty fees for managing the pension funds’ investments — more than $3 million a year from CALPERS, and $3.5 million a year from the New York Common Retirement Fund. How much of this ends up in Bill Clinton’s pocket is anybody’s guess. He’s not disclosing his fees. And why is Sen. Hillary Clinton, who appears to be so concerned about the state of our pension systems, silent about this?”

But, I think this article is sort of WRONG. Returns for private equity firms often take 5-6 years to realize. And this is just an example to me of how people are uncomfortable of multiple motivations in an organization or even the concept of for-profit social investing. It’s like you can’t do both, you can’t make a profit (e.g. make a return on investment) and do something good. People feel uncomfortable with that, it has to be one or the other. I think that’s so unfortunate though. Why does it have to be so divided?

(more…)

On fighting inequality or fighting poverty, this person argues that we should fight against poverty [FT]:

“What to do, then? Let us stop fighting a battle we cannot win and concentrate all efforts on a fight that can succeed. The best tools to achieve a long-term, sustained decline in inequality are the same as those that are now widely accepted as the best available levers to lift people out of poverty. Provide access to better education and health, clean water, justice, steady jobs, housing and credit. The recipe is well known, even boring. These goals are not good fodder for a rousing speech. And they will not bring down inequality as quickly as one would wish. But focusing on these indispensable goals will certainly close one important gap: the gap between our good deeds and our best intentions. “

In another weird online shopping experience, I was trying to buy something from drugstore.com last night. Well, it kept saying I only needed to add $15 more to get free shipping, so I took the time to look around and find something else I could buy. They were offering free standard shipping with a $25 purchase.

Right when I went to check-out, I logged in with an existing account.. well several minutes later, my free shipping “evaporated” and suddenly I needed to buy $49 in order to qualify for free shipping!!

It was so annoying.

I thought maybe I was just hallucinating or something about seeing $25 earlier, so then I fired up Firefox, which apparently does not share cookies with Internet Explorer. Well, I went back to drugstore.com and it *again* said free shipping with $25!! What the heck!?

So this time, I added the same items to my cart, didn’t log in to my existing account to sign out and I was able to get the free shipping… Isn’t that unbelievable?!

It seems they could be more straight forward!

Interview with Jeremy Grantharm, investment strategist at Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo [Barron's]. Grantharm is founder and investment strategist of a fund that manages $115bn fo institutions and wealthy individuals. What does he think about hedge funds and private equity?

“What are your thoughts on the big push into hedge funds and private equity?

It is much more complicated when you get to private equity and hedge funds, because these are not really asset classes. These are just a repackaging of existing asset classes, which for hedge funds include commodities and bonds and the kitchen sink.

Private equity is a subset of public equity; it is all interrelated. When do you go public? You go public when IPOs [initial public offerings] are hot. When is that? When the stock market is hot and so on. They are very closely aligned.

What happens there when you push a lot of money out? It flows through to very liquid asset classes, so it doesn’t drive the asset class that much, but you are pulling money out of U.S. equities and pushing money into private equity in the U.S. That doesn’t change a whole lot. What it does is create a huge business environment for the private-equity and hedge-fund managers, and it allows them to charge very handsome fees and it increases competition. It draws in huge quantities of talent that our money-management industry never saw 20 years ago.

Money management was a real backwater 30 years ago to an amazing degree, and now it’s not. The hottest shots used to get snapped up by Goldman Sachs, now Goldman Sachs is bidding with hot-shot hedge funds and often losing.

This has become the best daydream for any graduating MBA, and it might be better than a daydream. In many cases, it gives MBAs the best real shot at making an inevitable fortune in five years, and a lot of fortunes will be made. But the bad news is that it is not just a competition between hedge-fund managers, and that will make it tougher for everybody. Dreary and conservative long-only managers will find it tougher to make money.”