americandesi333

Masklinn, If my first point was not correct, then why is there so much lobbying effort and dollars being spent on the 'net neutrality' issue?

Also, just out of curiosity, want to know why the 'No' for the two barriers and if you identified something different that would change the landscape.

This is a very interesting article, especially 'dummifying' the complexities of US telecom markets. I used to always wonder why US was so behind in terms of broadband deployment and the answers that we given to me were always around 'density'. However, there are densely populated areas in US that can create better broadband experience.

The challenge here is that the larger telecom companies (AT&T, Verizon) are required by law to sell their loops to other carriers, but there is a lot of CAPEX needed even with the fiber/copper look. It costs around $1000 per subscriber to bring a broadband TV service home even from the neighborhood (connecting from neighborhood to home and all the equipment in the home). This high CAPEX is a barrier for new entrants in this market.

Another reason why US is behind is that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is not allowing the telecom companies in US to charge users based on their tiered internet usage. Therefore, price per mbps is flat no matter how much bandwidth you use. On the other hand, European telecom companies are allowed to charge extra for higher bandwidth usage.

Once these two barriers fall (cloud based home TV management and tiered pricing) there will be more competition in US.

Just to play devil's advocate here, if you step back and see, Hulu is not a bad acquisition for Netflix and why? Its because Hulu will bring Netflix the 'scale' and additional premium customers. I know a lot of people who purchase Hulu or Netflix, but cannot justify buying both.

When I read this article, it screamed Priceline to me. Its essentially doing the same thing that Priceline does for the travel industry. Its asking customers to select a deal or 'bid' on a deal and then uses that knowledge to close the deal with the restaurants. Like Priceline, Loopt will already have the credit card info and I am guessing the customer will be charged automatically.

The key here is timing. Its easier for Priceline to check on the bids with airlines because most of the airline systems support rapid data transfer. In the case of restaurants, it is difficult to predict and build a automated way to get 'approvals'. Therefore, the time it takes for them to get answer back from the restaurant will determine the success of uDeal.

The key here is timing. Its easier for Priceline to check on the bids with airlines because most of the airline systems support rapid data transfer. In the case of restaurants, it is difficult to predict and build a automated way to get 'approvals'. Therefore, the time it takes for them to get answer back from the restaurant will determine the success of uDeal.

This post really hits home for me. I have friends in consulting and I join a small tech company in bay area instead. I cannot believe when I hear about their experiences with consulting and how miserable they are in their jobs.

The struggle with consulting is that you never get to 'own' any decisions. There is not much accountability between conception, design and implementation. From my experience with big three consulting firms, they are brought in by execs to either 'validate' a path that was already determined or to get contract work done for short-term. In both cases, there is very little impact you can have on the overall business.

In my experience, if you want to be a good entrepreneur, get a job where you can own decisions and implementation. You will make mistakes, but you will learn from them and can implement those learnings in your startup.

Sal,

Its interesting to see your reaction to the criticism, especially that of being defensive (understandable first reaction). But if you look at the article objectively there are a lot of opportunities it creates for Khan Academy to be even more impactful than what it is today.

You are certainly a great teacher, orator and have the understanding of math and finance. However, one person cannot be good at grasping, understanding and teaching ALL subjects. Thats where you have an opportunity to enlist the best the the brightest teachers from US to create videos for you on subjects they are most passionate about. Why not create a video contest to identify in a democratic way who are these top teachers??

Also, just to answer your point about a teacher's ability to put 20 video online rather than writing criticism. The thing is that you have already gained a lot of fame and respect for your work and its a very difficult thing to do. Its unreasonable to expect a teacher to gain the same level of viewership now like you have. Thats why I say that take the interest that you have developed around you to uplift other teachers to bring up education as a 'whole'.

Otherwise, Kahn Academy will remain a closet work... Just my two cents...

Cheers Ritu

The key is to not get stuck in the non-entrepreneurial world for so long that you forget how to be entrepreneurial.

I wonder what is the correlation between people that start their companies after 30 and their long-term success rate...

To me, I feel like after my 4-5 yrs of work ex, I am more prepared to handle any situation and also have built a list of people to reach out to for guidance, help and just PR. Its important to have that under your belt so you can smoothly transition.

On a side note... this is great PR for Hidden. I just spoke to a friend in New York and she said that she followed a similar story there couple of weeks ago on Twitter. It could just be coincidence. None the less good to see the laptop recovered!

I would completely agree with you on the Set Top comment. Infact, do you even need a set-top box? I know TV manufacturers are now building units that are capable on connecting straight to the internet or have built in set-top box capabilities. Set-top boxes will not be needed in the future.

Would people prefer setting their own standards for search? How about if there is a search engine that takes into account your preferences (needs, likes, wants) and then shows results that are filtered by 'you' and not by refining the algorithms?

One of the major component of stock valuation is the expected growth of the company, which somewhat accounted for market and internal 'risk'. However, I would argue that in Facebook's case the risk is higher than what is used for this valuation. Therefore, I do not see Facebook being worth more then say Target.

If I am not mistaken, Plastic Logic is licensing their technology for the Barnes and Nobles Nook, right? If thats the case, then having an end product such as 'Que' doesn't seem as profitable as making money on just licensing the IP.

Very timely... considering that both Google and Facebook are getting into contextual search

I think this takes our personal library into the ubiquitous cloud, which is great. But again, the key question is, will Google be able to integrate with existing eBooks like Kindle, Nook or Plastic Logic. That will be the one big thing that will determine their success...

Another cool feature I really like is the ability for small bookstores to create their own storefront. That is a smart move. By opening the cloud, they will capitalize on the marketplace created by someone else.

I am not sure if I agree with the 'physical proximity' piece. You can create that same level of trust and group work environment in virtual office environment through the use of technology (IM, video conf, emails, calls). The growth in telecommuters have created a need for stellar tools to help people collaborate and create bonds even when they are not physically close to each other.

Meetings are necessary to get everyone on the same page. Short term it is difficult to see the benefits of meetings, but long-term success is only achievable if everyone is cohesively chasing the same goal.

I completely agree that meetings need to have a concrete agenda and should not allow anyone to monopolize air time. But they are important.