Entries by TS

PayPal was founded by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel in 1998. It went public in 2002 and soon afterwards finally was sold to eBay. Most managers and key persons of PayPal then left the company and launched various further business ventures, such as Youtube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Slide, Yelp, Geni, Yammer, Anchor Intelligence, TradeVibes, HourTown, Room 9 Entertainment and also SpaceX, Tesla Motors, Clarium Capital Management and The Founders Fund. Regarding this, the New York Times mentioned it'd 'Pay off to have Pals in Silicon Valley'. Obviously, there's something special with those PayPal-people and that's why it is so interesting to read more about the PayPal story.

Eric Jackson was one of the first PayPal employees when in 1999 Peter Thiel, the then CEO of PayPal, draw him from Arthur Andersen into the tiny startup company. A short time after the successful Going Public and the sell out to eBay, Jackson left PayPal - as most of the earlier managers. He then wrote "The PayPal Wars", the true story about how they made PayPal growing against all odds and beat all competitors.

There were good reasons why this book turned out to be a bestseller among business books and even former Mc'Kinsey Guru Tom Peters named it a page turner. It's true what people say: It reads like a spy novell.

Very strongly recommended for all startup teams in all branches !

"Venture Capital and Business Angels" is a series of five articles, written for the T3N magazine. It deals about the whole process of acquiring venture capital - from preparations to common leadership. Part 5 of the series describes classical conflicts between the management team and the venture capitalists and how to resolve them.

PDFs for download coming soon

The Chernobyl atomic-plant explosion, observes Dorner, was entirely due to human error involving the breaking of safety rules by a team of experts who reinforced one another's puffed-up sense of competence. This German psychology professor believes people court failure through sloppy or ingrained mental habits, whether the mistakes involve cleaning dead fish out of a garden pool, adding rooms to a schoolhouse, launching economic development programs in Africa or forecasting oil prices or the scope of the AIDS epidemic.

Things go wrong, according to Dorner, because we focus on just one element in a system complicated by interrelationships; we apply corrective measures too aggressively or too timidly; we ignore basic premises, overgeneralize, follow blind alleys, overlook potential side effects and narrowly extrapolate from the moment, basing our predictions of the future on those aspects of the present that bother or delight us the most. This ingenious manual will assist problem-solvers in all fields. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

There have been and still are various SETI projects (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). The SETI@home project is only of those, but nonetheless there's something special with SETI@home. Due to a lack of funding for those usually cost intensive activities of scanning the space for remarkable radio signals and doing the analysis on the vast amount of resulting data, the SETI@home found a different solution from using data centers (it's driven as a non-commercial organization):

The project gets the radio data from the world's largest telescope, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, and then distributes small portions of data to miillions of personal computers all over the world to get the data analyzed. People may download and install the free SETI@home software named "Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC)" and then let it begin work on the data as soon as the computers has no other work to do (like a screensaver). The software automatically loads a fresh data package from the SETI server at University of Berkely, Californa, and starts analyzing. After the analysis is done, results automatically get sent back to the server in Berkeley. Effectively, the worlds biggest supercomputer consists of millions of privately owned and driven personal computers. Computer capacity, otherwise unused, gets used this way - without additional costs for anybody.

The interesting point is: It turned out that there are much more research projects from the realm of biology, physics, mathematics, capable to use this technology:

    Biology
          - Malaria Control — for stochastic modelling of the clinical epidemiology and natural history of malaria.
          - POEM@Home — models protein folding using Anfinsen's dogma

    Earth Sciences
          - Climateprediction.net — tries to produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century.

    Physics and Astronomy
          - BRaTS@Home — to study gravitational lensing
          - Einstein@Home — uses data from LIGO and GEO 600 to detect gravitational waves.
          - LHC@home — simulates particles travelling in the Large Hadron Collider.
          - QMC@Home — uses Quantum Monte Carlo to predict molecular geometry.

    Mathematics
          - ABC@Home — attempt to solve the ABC conjecture problem.
          - SZTAKI Desktop Grid — searches for generalized binary number systems.

Dan Werthimer is chief scientist of SETI@home and of several radio and optical SETI programs at the university of California, Berkeley In the video at youtube, he explains the project.

Further Information:
The complete video is available at http://fora.tv
SETI@home project at UCB
SETI@home at Wikipedia

From Publishers Weekly
Most books on game theory either focus on specialized applications (cardplaying, business, nuclear war) or bore with mathematics and jargon. Free of formulas and argot, this refreshing exception distills the principles, concepts, tools and techniques--brinkmanship, bargaining, unconditional moves, vicious circles, etc.--with an astonishing diversity of illustrative examples drawn from political campaigns, baseball, neighborhood dynamics of segregation, the military draft, speed limits, childrearing and so forth.

In helping strategists anticipate rivals' responses and win the game, economics professors Dixit and Nalebuff (who teach game theory at Princeton and Yale, respectively) provide managers, negotiators, athletes, parents and other game-players with a formidable weapon. Drawings. BOMC, Fortune Book Club and QPB selections. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A fascinating new book that can be read with real pleasure....The problem is, of course, that if Dixit and Nalebuff can improve your strategic IQ, they can improve your competitor's as well (Washington Post).

First part of an interview at fora.tv, uploaded to youtube.com

Tim O'Reilly, Founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, argues that microblogging service Twitter is changing real-time information search in a way that will revolutionize the web. O'Reilly goes on to discuss the impact web search engines like Google have had on shaping human/computer interactivity.

The complete video is available at http://fora.tv (duration 33min)

"Venture Capital and Business Angels" is a series of five articles, written for the T3N magazine. It deals about the whole process of acquiring venture capital - from preparations to common leadership. Part 4 of the series describes usual regulations between the entrepreneurs and the venture capitalists.

The full article is available through the links below:

(PDF in english version coming soon)
Venture Capital & Business Angels - Regeln, Absprachen, Verträge (PDF german)

Carl von Clausewitz was a 19th-century Prussian general and is considered by many to be the millennium's preeminent strategist. Clausewitz on Strategy is a newly translated collection of sections from Clausewitz's classic work On War that's aimed at helping 21st-century executives and entrepreneurs grapple with the unpredictability of today's business climate.

The Strategy Institute of The Boston Consulting Group, which pens an insightful essay introducing and connecting Clausewitz's thinking to the realities of today's business environment and which also supplements the book with historical notes and excerpts, thinks Clausewitz is cool. After reading this book, you may think so as well. --Harry C. Edwards

Some cites from the book:

On strategic genius
"If the mind is to survive this constant battle with the unexpected, two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that even in this moment of intense darkness retains some trace of the inner light that will lead it to the truth, and second, the courage to go where that faint light leads."

On the role of strategic theory
". . . all principles, rules, and methods increasingly lack universality and absolute truth the moment they become a positive doctrine. They are there to present themselves for use. Judgment must always be free to determine whether or not they are suitable. Criticism must never use these results of theory as laws and standards, but only as a person acting in war should also do: as aids to judgment."

On risk
"It is not true that we should always choose the case with the least uncertainty. That would be a terrible mistake, as all of our theoretical deliberations show. There are instances in which the most daring course of action is the wisest choice."

On leadership qualities
"The further we go up the chain of command, the more necessary it becomes for boldness to go hand in hand with the superior mind . . ."

On strategy
"Everything in strategy is very simple, but that does not make everything easy."

Asked by a journalist, Eric Schmidt gives a definition of the terms 'Web 2.0' respectively 'Web 3.0'. According to Schmidt, Web 2.0 compared to the old Web uses AJAX technologies to improve the users interactivity experiences. Schmidt's definition of Web 3.0 is:

• web applications that are 'pieced together'
• web applications that are relatively small and fast
• data used bey the applications are hold in the 'cloud'
• applications can run on any device (PC as well as mobile devices)
• applications are very customizable
• applications are distributed the 'viral way' (by social networks or email, but not by stores)

"Venture Capital and Business Angels" is a series of five articles, written for the T3N magazine. It deals about the whole process of acquiring venture capital - from preparations to common leadership. Part 3 of the series gives insights in the process of finding a common baseplate.

The full article is available through the links below:
Venture Capital & Business Angels - Presentation and Negotiation (PDF english)
Venture Capital & Business Angels - Präsentation und Verhandlung (PDF german)

Tim O'Reilly is CEO and Founder of O'Reilly Media. He is well known as the probably best publisher of books on computer and internet topics as well as for his creation of the term 'Web 2.0'. In his speech at the 2008 Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin he talks about the mid and long term trends regarding the Internet.

O'Reilly Keynote @ 2008 OSCON Open Source Convention in Portland, Oregon

We're constantly negotiating in our lives, whether it's convincing the kids to do their homework or settling million-dollar lawsuits. For those who need help winning these battles, Roger Fisher has developed a simple and straightforward five-step system for how to behave in negotiations. Narrated soothingly by NPR announcer Bob Edwards, Fisher adds the meaty portions of the material with a sense of playfulness.

Strongly recommended !

"Venture Capital and Business Angels" is a series of five articles, written for the T3N magazine. It deals about the whole process of acquiring venture capital - from preparations to common leadership. Part 2 of the series gives hints on how to contact the guys with the money.

The full article is available through the links below:
Venture Capital & Business Angels - Elevator, Pitch and Exposé (PDF english)
Venture Capital & Business Angels - Elevator, Pitch und Exposé (PDF german)

Richard Branson is - of course well known - an iconic businessman and has achieved many remarkable things in his life. In "Screw It, Let's Do It", he shares the secrets of his success and the invaluable lessons he has learned over the course of his remarkable career.

As the world struggles with the twin problems of global recession and climate change, Richard explains why it is up to big companies like Virgin to lead the way in finding a more holistic and environmentally friendly approach to business. He also looks to the future and shares his plans for taking his business and his ideas to the next level. Richard reveals the new and exciting areas into which Virgin is currently moving, including biofuels and space travel, and brings together all the important lessons, good advice and inspirational adages that have helped him along the road to success.

This is a fantastic motivational book in which every reader will find inspiration to help them achieve their own dreams.