Entrepreneur helps fight cancer with “hedge fund”
A tree nursery owner in Belgium has set up a nationwide recycling program to collect hedge trimmings used for cancer-fighting drugs.
Image: REUTERS/Screengrab
A tree nursery owner in Belgium has set up a nation wide recycling program to collect hedge trimmings used for cancer fighting drugs. Join Discussionfrom Felix Salmon:
Annals of dubious statistics, crowdfunding edition
Are crowdfunding statistics the new counterfeiting statistics?
Join DiscussionHere’s a comprehensive view and excellent commentary on crowdfunding by A. Brian Dengler, citing research from Wharton, Indiegogo, massolution and more:
“Crowdfunding Adds Up”: http://www.cfira.org/?p=856.
Also, here’s Somolend’s take in a blog post titled “Crowdfunding: One Size Doesn’t Fit All”: http://somolend.wordpress.com/2012/07/26 /crowdfunding-one-size-doesnt-fit-all/.
These debates are great and will help this very young and booming industry form around a common taxonomy.
IDEO’s Tom Hulme on visualizing your business model
In this video, Tom Hulme, Design Director at IDEO and founder of OpenIDEO, introduces a tool that IDEO and HackFWD designed to help founders design and build startups. Although the focus is on tech startups, non-tech entrepreneurs will likely find some applicable lessons from Hulme’s 12-minute talk, including strategies to identify the “backbone of your business,” marketing and how to refine your business model.
HackFwd: Visualize Your Business Model in 15 Minutes Flat from IDEO on Vimeo.
In this video, Tom Hulme, Design Director at IDEO and founder of OpenIDEO, introduces a tool that IDEO and HackFWD designed to help founders design and build startups. Join DiscussionAfter i read your total description i think your are right.The amount of detail in the step-by-step process for marketing was just perfec.
A veteran entrepreneur with more than a quarter century experience building some of the top nutritional and weight loss companies in Direct Sales history,Ray W. Grimm Jr.Has what many consider to be the Midas touch when in comes to creating business success With a think-big, move-fast philosophy Ray has successfully launched and built four multi-million dollar companies,
Entrepreneurthree of which exceeded $50 million in sales within their first five years.If you want to know about it then please Follow the link
http://www.raygrimmjr.com
Q & A with Greg Damerow, athlete and adaptive bicycle builder
Greg Damerow is an athlete and small business owner. Damerow, based in Ohio, is the owner of Personalized Cycling Alternatives, which builds custom adaptive bicycles. He was attracted to handcycling after he became ill with ankylosing spondylitis, a severe form of arthritis that affects the body’s joints. The Hartford recently awarded Damerow with a small business grant, and he spoke with Reuters about competing and running a small business.
First off, can you tell me about your disability?
I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis at 18 years old. It causes inflammation of the major joints. It’s a form of arthritis. It affects knees, ankles, shoulders. It was a very painful time for me. There are two forms that the disease can take. One is chronic and you lose function over years. The second form moves rapidly. This was the form I had and so I lost function over a matter of months. The major part of the disease burned itself out after about two years time. I was spared. I was essentially bedridden for two years time and as the major symptoms of the disease dissipated finally, I didn’t have any movement in my hip sockets and much secondary damage in the spine. I have limited neck rotation. Out of that experience I learned how to walk again using my knees and ankles.
Can you tell me about how you started your business? What was the attraction of the bike?
I had been working an active job at a small company as a plumber’s assistant and a salesman. I got promoted into dispatch which required a lot of time at a desk. I’ve always been skinny and the disease makes it difficult to stay strong and keep the weight on. When I sit still I don’t gain weight. So it was that promotion into that sedentary job that lead me to look for a way to build myself up.
Once day I was doing some research on the internet and I came across a YouTube video of a guy cranking a handcycle and I thought, “I could do that,” and “I could build that.” When I saw it I knew instantly that’s what I had to do. The first time I rode, I had such a sense of speed and freedom of movement, something I had missed for almost 20 years.
Once I got out in the handcycle racing world I saw that I could innovate. And that’s kind of the genesis of the company.
Greg Damerow is an athlete and small business owner. The Hartford recently awarded Damerow with a small business grant, and he spoke with Reuters about competing and running a small business. Join DiscussionTech Tonic checks in with HealthTap
HealthTap wants to make visits to the doctor’s office a thing of the past. Anthony De Rosa talks with HealthTap founder Ron Goodman about his new app that allows users to ask doctors questions without ever leaving home. But is less face time actually a good thing?
HealthTap wants to make visits to the doctor's office a thing of the past. Join Discussionanother looney will lose his money and disappear… if i were him i would position it as a telemedicine service instead of replacing doctor visits… he also needs to have a good insurance coverage… he can be sued seriously…
As video chat becomes easier, text chats still rule
Sean Parker and Google are both pushing group video chat products pretty hard right now. Parker’s latest product is Airtime, and Google’s is the Google+ Hangout. The idea, it seems, is that video conference calls offer a better, more social experience.
But based on my totally unscientific research and observations about how I communicate with friends and family, phone calls are pretty much out, as are video chats. Text messaging is the preferred method of communication; I really only video chat with friends and family who are abroad, and because of time differences, these happen pretty infrequently. Phone calls, and voicemail especially, are seen as almost rude impositions among my friends. So I have serious doubts about Airtime and Google+ Hangouts.
But the main reason I’m skeptical that my peer group will adopt video chat is because of an app called I’d Cap That, which my friends have wholeheartedly embraced. The app adds a random sort of edgy, and perhaps NSFW, caption to a user’s photo. (The new paid version, released today, allows for custom captions.) See the I’d Cap That Twitter page for a sampling of captions.
This is how the communication chain tends to work with this app: One person sends an embarrassing photo with a sophomoric caption to a group of friends and laughter ensues, followed by a flood of group text messages. It’s playful social interaction that is kept in a tight circle of friends and not shared over larger social networks.
And judging by the ads Google aired for its hangouts, this is pretty much the playful kind of group exchange Google had hoped to foster via its video chat platform. The main difference of course is that it’s all done over text, so interactions are quick and easy.
So while I’d actually love it if phone calls, and perhaps even video chats, were suddenly the accepted form of communication, for now it seems friends would rather cap that than video chat that.
Image: REUTERS/Screengrab
The reason I’m skeptical my friends will adopt video chat is because of an app called I'd Cap That. Join DiscussionI agree John, I read another article about Google+ the other day and it discussed how there Hangouts are actually catching on more with Businesses for meetings and even job interviews. I bet it won’t be long before they have an ‘Investors Hangout’, imagine investors being able to interact with each other and even actual companies they’re considering investing in. Or better yet, how about ‘Realty Hangout’, I’m sure that’s going to make showing a house a lot let time consuming.
The potential’s definitely there, I’m interested in seeing where they go with this.
from Paul Smalera:
Brad Feld’s four ingredients for thriving startup cities
from Paul Smalera:
Startups are big in Boulder, but where are the tech billionaires?
from Felix Salmon:
Why Kickstarter’s great for tax revenues
Matt Yglesias has a very odd piece at Slate entitled "The Kickstarter Recession".
Join Discussion“Thinking creating jobs and start-ups could be bad for our economy is out of sense, unless the one who says that is stupid ….” (Photon)
I’m often (correctly) accused of exactly that. Was thinking about this thread before falling asleep (Good God – I gotta get a life!) – it’s probably a societal benefit that people explore ideas by listing on KS, and finding out that nobody wants their crazy stuff, rather than borrowing a couple hundred thousand $ from a bank and then finding out.
from The Great Debate:
‘The only crime that I committed’
