The Wall

“The wall is there for you to show how bad you want it.” – Randy Pausch

I’m sure many people have already seen the video above. (If you have not. Please take 1hr out of your busy schedule to watch it. It is well worth it, and you will thank me later for it.)

Randy Pausch’s [status] speech really inspired me to pursue my dreams. Thinking back to when I first came across his lecture, what stuck out was his point regarding “the Wall.”

Lately, as I research more and more about the market, and try to think through the details of what I need to build to fit in with this market, I realize that it requires much more work than I had given it credit for.

I know that there is a market for my idea to flourish. I know that what I am building will add tremendous value to people’s lives. I know that–if implemented right–could totally revolutionize the way people think, and do business.

Yet…

Will my special feature stand out as much as I anticipate it could? Will people actually embrace my new approach? Could there be institutional or cultural issues that is impossible to overcome?

Nothing is impossible.

I know that walls exist to hold other people back, and for me to overcome.

I was going to code all day today, but ended doing more research. The more I think about things, the more I see that Product Planning is such a critical phase in business.

Aim. Then, shoot.

Fleaflicker

“In a startup, nothing happens unless you make it happen.” – Unknown

Congrats to Fleaflicker, profiled today on TechCrunch, being acquired by AOL.

Hacker News comments have also been very positive, and it’s very encouraging to see solo founder startups having success.

I just want to extend my congrats to Ori Schwartz for making such a cool fantasy sports site and capitalizing on it.

Web 2.0 Buzz

I’ve heard so many new buzz words this past two days at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

“Trends, like horses, are easier to ride in the direction they are going.” – John Naisbitt

So, here’s a recap:

Mobile - The major trend in the consumer market appears to be everything mobile. From location softwares (such as Loopt), to development platforms (Nokia S60)… anything mobile will certainly catch a VC’s attention. Other notables: Tellme, Iphone apps,

Mesh – With access to the content stretching across multi-platforms, multi-devices… there is a great need to connect all these instruments. Microsoft announced their Live Mesh application this week, and gave a short demo at the keynote. Personally, I am suspicious and curious to see how these things will really work together. I totally hate Sync, and I give up trying to connect my phone to my calenders. Maybe I need to try a Blackberry.

Mash – or Mashup, is something that I heard people talk about left and right. There are so many APIs and so many widgets now, that everything Web 2.0 is about combining all these elements together. We see Google Maps mashedup on various sites with variations and new components. That’s probably the prime example. There is just so much to learn in terms of what’s useful and what will improve a site’s “interestingness.”

Social Network – I suppose this is not a new topic. But still, every company is talking about creating new social networks, creating customer facing applications to tie customers-to-customers. Something so interesting can get really dull when you keep hearing it over and over again.

Viral – So, just being social is not enough. Now, everything also needs to be viral. User engagement, user recommendation, and user initiated activities are getting to be a big focus for developers too. How will the next Sheep-throwing app look like? It will be interesting to see what is the next big thing that users will get excited over and spread like wild fire.

Micro-Blog – Twitter, is definitely the star of the 2007/2008 internet scene. Many people are talking about Twitter being the next Google! mm… that’s probably an over-exaggerated evaluation. But, that’s high praises nonetheless. Anyways, I can’t get myself into it. I created a twitter account though, not sure if anybody is interested.

War - So, there seems to be a battle between Facebook and OpenSocial, over developers to create the next killer app for their social networks. Who’ll win? Facebook has the lead, but my bet is on OpenSocial.

So, how do I ride these waves… or horses…

Startup School ‘08 Quotes

[Update: The best SuS video is on Omnisio! check it out!]

Here is a collection of some remarkable quotes from the YC startup school:

“Stop using the internet.” – Paul Graham, Partner, Y Combinator; Founder, Viaweb
[Paul said this jokingly, while trying to setup his special 280 north presentation. And asked the bloggers to quit hogging the bandwidth.]

“Don’t just not be evil. Be good!” – Paul Graham, Partner, Y Combinator; Founder, Viaweb
[I think I have found my company's moto: "Be Good!"]

“Cisco systems networks networks.” – Greg McAdoo, Partner, Sequoia Capital
[One-sentence Pitch for Cisco]

“A great entrepreneur does not fall off his board…” – Greg McAdoo, Partner, Sequoia Capital
[Wow, commentary to an impressive surfing video]

“1. Great Application; 2. ??? Price; 3. Profit!” – David Heinemeier Hansson, Creator of Rails; Partner, 37Signals

“Finding a good cause is incredibly hard and time-consuming” – Craig Newmark
[From David's Presentation]

“Listen -> Decode -> Interpret -> Understand” – Paul Buchheit, Founder, FriendFeed; Creator, Gmail

“Limited Life Experiences + Overgeneralization = Advice” – Paul Buchheit, Founder, FriendFeed; Creator, Gmail

“If someone says: ‘That’s impossible;’ You should understand it as: ‘According to my very limited experience and narrow understanding of reality, that’s very unlikely.’ ” – Paul Buchheit, Founder, FriendFeed; Creator, Gmail

“We only want to write stories that you don’t want written – use that to your advantage” – Mike Arrington, Founder, TechCrunch

Startup School 08!

[Update: The best SuS video is on Omnisio! check it out!]

OMG, I’m so excited. I’m counting the minutes until Startup School Begins.

“[Six Principles for making new things:] I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly.” – Paul Graham [1]

I can’t wait to listen to even more sage advice from PG and others…

Today’s Schedule:

9:00 David Lawee VP of Corporate Development, Google
9:30 Sam Altman Founder, Loopt
10:00 Jack Sheridan Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
10:30 Paul Graham Partner, Y Combinator; Founder, Viaweb
11:00 Break
11:30 Greg McAdoo Partner, Sequoia Capital
12:00 David Heinemeier Hansson Creator of Rails; Partner, 37Signals
12:30 Paul Buchheit Founder, FriendFeed; Creator of GMail
12:55 Lunch
2:30 Jeff Bezos Founder, Amazon.com
3:30 Mike Arrington Founder, TechCrunch
3:55 Break
4:15 Marc Andreessen Founder, Ning, Opsware, Netscape; Creator of Mosaic
4:45 Peter Norvig Director of Research, Google

[1] Paul Graham’s Essay, 02/2008, Six Principles for Making New Things

Passion = Joy

“Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.” – Helen Keller

Today, I attended another meetup. This one, is a pre-startup school get together in Mountain View. Again, it was awesome. I got to chat with many interesting people. Listened to their ideas. Gave people a little glimpse into my own idea. It is such a joy to talk to people that share a passion, and understand each other’s motivation and struggles.

The more I indulge myself in this “startup” crowd, the more I come to realize this indeed is my true passion. I am so joyful and so excited about what the future may hold.

I believe this sense of joy is a confirmation that I have found my passion.

Now, I must monetize this passion!

Passion = Joy ?= Money

Don’t Break the Chain – Day 46 [Motivation Hack]

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in determination.” Tommy Lasorda

I found this website: dontbreakthechain.com exactly 46 days ago. It was also exactly 46 days ago, that I had conceived of my “idea.”

At a quick glance, this website is nothing more than a calendar. However, this website obviously has a much deeper meaning/greater usefulness than a simple calendar. The story [1] originated from the famed comedian, Jerry Seinfeld. Someone once asked for his advice for a young comic. His tip was to write lots of jokes, and write them every day. In short, Jerry accomplishes this by posting a big calendar on his wall, and marking off the days that he writes a decent amount of jokes with a big red marker. He does it for 1 day… 3 day.. a week… 2 weeks… and he slowly creates a chain of red marks. Then, he reminds himself everyday, when he sees the calendar: “Don’t break the chain!”

This is so awesome. All my life, I feel like I’ve always had problems with persistence and staying motivated. There are just so many things that I once felt a strong passion for, but later gave it up, because I lost focus. Yet now, I feel like I can be much more dedicated to something. I am able to continuously remind myself of what I want to accomplish, what I already have built up, and the effort that I would be putting to waste, if I just give up.

This neat little website really plays a huge role in keeping me focused and motivated.

[1] Source: Life Hacker, 7/24/2007, Motivation: Jerry Seifeld’s Productivity Secret.

Hello world!

Hello world, indeed. My trek into the software/web dev begins here.

“My son is now an ‘entrepreneur’. That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job.” – Ted Turner

How fitting: Two weeks ago, “I quit” from my day job, and last Friday was my last official day as a full-time Product Engineer at Maxim Integrated Products. I just really felt that I had to take this bold step into pursuing my entrepreneurial dreams. So, I suppose you can say that I don’t really have a job right now.

So here we go. I’ve also decided to start blogging once again. This time, focusing on my startup experience, my thoughts, my struggles, and (hopefully) some success. I’ll likely try to incorporate at least one entrepreneurial quote into each of my posts.

My startup is currently in Stealth-mode. So I won’t be going into the details of what I’m doing.