Startup Mastermind

August 19, 2010

This year, my friend Simon has been working a Mastermind game for the Blackberry, and when I went back to Boston I got a chance to try it out.  It looks great, but I was actually much more impressed at how good he’d become at the game after thousands of testing sessions.  I took quite a few guesses to finish games with 4 and 5 secret numbers, whereas he has been able to finish games with 9 slots in only 13 guesses!

When I asked Simon what his secret was, he told me that you have to make each line teach you something you can be sure about.  You can’t just guess randomly, and you can’t try to learn too much at once.  When Simon plays, each line is an experiment; he knows what every possible result will mean to him before he submits it.

Not only is this great advice for a game of Mastermind, it’s great advice for a startup.  Lean startups are all about feedback, but it’s very easy to start looking at your Google Analytics reports without knowing what they’re really telling you and how you should react to them.  Now, I have a spreadsheet on which I write down any hypotheses that I have, a test that will allow me to test the hypothesis, and what the next step is if the test confirms or denies my hypothesis.  The actual column names are ‘Hypothesis’, ‘Test Idea’, ‘Required Results to Confirm’, ‘Required Results to Disprove’, ‘Action if Confirmed’, ‘Action if Disproved’, ‘Real Test’, ‘Results’ (these last two are filled in over time as we run the tests).

I’ve only just started doing this, so I only have one completed test so far, but it’s a good reminder to think critically about what exactly I learn from any action I take, and I hope it will help Bespoke Row improve quickly in the future.  If I get enough comments here, I’ll write a follow up in three months or so on how it works out.

Posted in Bespoke Row | 1 Comment »
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Mac OSX – tabbing in forms and skipping select controls.

August 12, 2010

The fact that when I tab through a form on my Mac, it skips the drop downs, which forces me to use the mouse, has been bugging me for a long time.  I finally decided to try searching google for an answer and came upon this old, but still very relevant post by Tony Spencer:

http://www.tonyspencer.com/2006/05/02/tab-skips-select-form-fields-in-mac-browsers/

Awesome.  The only difference between 2006 and now (Snow Leopard) is that in System Preferences, Keyboard and Mouse have been split into two separate menus, so you should go System Preferences >> Keyboard >> Keyboard Shortcuts to find the ‘All controls’ radio button.

Posted in tech | 4 Comments »
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Beijing Startup Resources

August 10, 2010

I recently read a great blog post from Jon O’Shaughnessy that lists all the startup resources in Boston and a similar post by Rob Go provides a todo list for new entrepreneurs in the area.  I thought it was a great idea, so this is my attempt to do the same for Beijing.  Beijing’s startup scene isn’t quite as cohesive as Boston’s, which should make a list even more useful.  I’m going to keep adding to this as I learn more, so please add anything I miss in the comments.

Events and Groups

  • Beijing Coworking – Beijing Coworking is a group of independent workers who like to work together better than being lonely working at home.  For the most part, we’re techie/startup people, so the biggest benefit is having other people to talk to about ideas and problems with our businesses.
  • Beijing Web Wednesday – Startup and tech folks who meet once a month at Nearby The Tree.  Usually there’s a presentation and then some time afterward for networking.
  • iWeekend Beijing – This is part business plan competition, part networking event.  The first one in November was a huge success, and they’re planning to have more later.
  • StartupWeekend Beijing – Very similar to iWeekend, except that it focuses on slightly later stage ideas.  At the end of the weekend, there will probably be a few ideas that get funding.
  • Beijing HackerLab – Hosted by Yuanfen~flow incubator, the plan is to have an open space every two weeks to give people space to work on random projects.  The first one will be December 11, 2010.
  • Mobile Monday – I haven’t had a chance to go to this yet, especially since my startup isn’t mobile related, but I hear it’s also exciting

People

  • Benjamin Joffe – Twitter Organizer of Mobile Monday and deep thinker about tech in Asia.  I really enjoyed his presentation at the Geeks on a Plane Beijing mixer
  • Frank Yu – Twitter Edits the Beijing Startup Digest newsletter
  • Lee Kai-Fu – Twitter Ex. Google head and founder of Innovation Works
  • Me – Twitter – only partially joking here; I’m trying to learn as much as I can in Beijing as well, so if you’re doing cool stuff, I’d love to follow you.

Newsletters

  • The Startup Digest Beijing – currently edited by Frank Yu.  Fairly new, so only about one event per week listed.  I’m sure it will get better and bigger.

Blogs

  • Mobinode China 2.0 – This is a big blog that covers tech all around Asia, not just startups.  I linked to the China Web 2.0 category, which has more focused content, but there’s a lot on there.  To be totally honest, I’m not sure how good this will be, as I just added it to my RSS reader today.

Incubators

  • Yuanfen~flow This is an art gallery/incubator based in 798.  They host Beijing’s Hacker Lab, and currently have a few projects that they’re incubating.

Angel Investors

  • Intuitive Capital – I met a woman from this company at Web Wednesday in August.  She said they’re interested in funding startups that have some traction, but haven’t yet needed to raise any outside money.
  • Chris Evdemon – Twitter I saw him on Angellist as an Angel in Beijing.  You can pitch him here.  I believe he also works at Innovation Works.

Venture Capital

  • I don’t actually know who the VCs are that are active in Beijing yet…  Add them to the comments!

There are also occasional one-off events, like when Geeks on a Plane showed up, that are great but don’t repeat, so I haven’t included them here.

Posted in Beijing, coworking, tech | 4 Comments »

Boston’s Betahouse

August 8, 2010

I’m back in Beijing from my US trip now, but I’m still going to try to go back and fill in some of the blog posts I wanted to write while I was there.  This one is a brief reflection on what I saw when working at Betahouse in Boston.

Betahouse is a coworking location that is currently in a Central Square apartment/loft; they’re moving soon, though to somewhere else.  There are no bedrooms, but there is a kitchen with bar.  The whole floor is open with a high ceiling and wood floor.  Altogether, they have 9-10 desks, so it’s fairly small compared to other places I’ve seen. Pretty much everyone has monitors and full size computers and a reserved desk, so there are not many temp people.  This means the place is really focused on working and it’s easy to be productive.  Also, everyone has a key, so there are no open/closed hours.

I think this set up gives them a tight community, but it’s a little intimidating to walk in the first time.  You can’t help but be a little unsure of where you’re going, since it is just an apartment and you have to go up the stairs by yourself.  Also, there’s no secretary or door greeter, so it’s possible no one will say hi and welcome you.  You have to say the first word.

Overall, I think betahouse’s environment felt the most productive out of nearly everywhere I’d been; you could tell people were there to get stuff done while they were working.  They do relax, though; on my Friday in Boston I had some drinks over there after five and talked to people about startups and coworking.

What I learned at Betahouse is that having permanent members who are really permanent, and have their whole office setup there, not just people who come in every day with laptops, can make the place feel more productive.  Once I can get a coworking space up and running here, I’d like to encourage some people to really make it their permanent office.

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Thoughts on Tech Superpowers’ Digital Lounge

July 15, 2010

Today, I decided to work in the digital lounge on Newbury Street, operated by Tech Superpowers.  I found them through a search for ‘Boston coworking,’ and they mention that they’re a casual coworking location.  They have a very small office with wood floors and wood desks; ten people could work here, but it would be really crowded.

Unfortunately, I don’t think they’re really a coworking space – it’s more like an internet cafe.  All but two of the desks have their own computers on them, which you can use temporarily.  It seems that most of their money comes from their Apple repair service, and no one really appears to work here full time.  Therefore, unlike WorkBar, this is very quiet and there’s not a lot of idea exchange.

Overall, it’s a fine place to stop in if you need to get online on Newbury street or are visiting for a day and need to skype, but I don’t think there’s a lot that i want to emulate here when I open Beijing Coworking next month.

Posted in coworking, travel | 2 Comments »

Ideas from WorkBar

July 14, 2010

I’m spending the day at WorkBar Boston today.  Since Judy and I are starting a coworking space in Beijing, I want to visit as many as I can in America to see what other people are doing and get some ideas.

Workbar is about 2500 square feet in the basement of a building near South Station.  This is a really great location because it literally takes less than 5 minutes to walk here from the subway.  The inside is extremely colorful and has a lot of art on the walls, which adds up to make it very comfortable. They’ve separated their space into three main working rooms, each of which has about 10-11 seats (two per table generally).  One of them is set up sort of like a cafe.  In addition, they have one conference room, a lounge area with a couch, and a few little nooks where people can talk on the phone.

Today, I learned three great ideas from them:

  1. Occasionally have a ‘free day’, but not let everyone have a free day anytime.  This is different than most places I’ve seen, and I really like it.  Today, WorkBar is really crowded and people are meeting each other, etc.  This probably makes it seem more lively than it usually is and helps people make relationships with each other that they then associate with WorkBar.  I still like the idea of letting people try out coworking, but maybe we could combine monthly free days with a 2-hours-free first time bonus.  That way, you can’t just get a whole free day anytime, but you can always try it out.
  2. Bring in outside services for coworkers to talk to.  WorkBar concentrates on the tech industry, so they’ve brought in an associate VC to talk to startups today for 15 minute increments.  It’s totally free and can be about anything you want.  I talked with him about how to find quality contractors and cofounders and he had a lot of good advice.
  3. Charge for extra services to reduce the normal cost of coworking.  This might be a big idea for me because rent in Beijing is so expensive that we’re going to have to charge a lot comparatively for memberships.  WorkBar charges separately for conference room space ($20 USD/hour, which is pretty high), but also has low regular membership fees ($150/mo).  You can also get memberships that include conference space and dedicated desks for more, up to the top plan for $500/mo for large companies that have a few people based in Boston and frequently need to host events.

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Coming to America

June 29, 2010
Coming to America with Eddie Murphy (1988)

I don't have a crown, and I'm not looking for a wife, but I'm still coming.

Next month is the MIT Pi Reunion in Las Vegas, so I’ve decided to go back to America.  Since I have to leave China for a day on July 10 anyway (because of my visa), I’m just going to fly to Boston on July 10 and stay in the US until the reunion is over on August 2.  In addition to Boston and Las Vegas, I’m also going to visit Ohio and San Francisco.

I already have a number of people I have to see in each city, but I’m not out of time yet.  If you’d like to get together, send me an email or leave a comment here.  I’m really looking forward to this trip and the chance to see all my good friends again.  The last five months have been exciting in China, but I know I must have missed out on a lot back in the States.

Here’s my detailed itinerary:

  1. Saturday, July 10 8:30pm – arrive in Boston
  2. Tuesday, July 20 noon – arrive in Stow
  3. Sunday, July 25 11am – arrive in San Jose
  4. Thursday, July 29 8am – arrive in Las Vegas
  5. Monday, August 2 10am – depart Las Vegas for China

Posted in mit, personal, travel | 2 Comments »

Finding Deodorant in Beijing

June 23, 2010

Tonight, Judy and I were standing outside the pharmacy at 10pm when a foreign man walked up and asked if I spoke English.  Of course, I do, so we started talking.  Turns out he wanted to know where to buy deodorant.  (Judy thinks he had a date lined up.)

Luckily for him, I had faced the difficult task of buying deodorant in China myself and knew exactly where to go.  When I moved to China, I didn’t bring any, either.  I figured that it was inexpensive enough that I’d use whatever space it might take up for other more valuable things, and I’d buy some when I got here.  However, I didn’t realize that Chinese men do not use stick deodorant and that it would take me three weeks to find any.

Just in case anyone out there is searching the internet for an answer to this question, let me tell you where it is.  The first place I found some was at April Gourmet grocery store.  It’s close to Gongti West Road (工体西路), at the first intersection north of Gonti North Road.  If you’re walking north, take a right on that first intersection and go about 200m.  It will be on your right with a red and green sign.  The deodorant is only available behind the checkout counter, so you have to ask them for it.  They have two kinds – Axe deodorant and Axe antiperspirant.  Here is a page about them with a map on Google.

The other place to go is K.H.Sam’s.  They have more selection, but I can’t remember exactly what brands, since I didn’t buy any there.  To find it, go to the right side of the first floor in the back.  They are also located on Gongti West Road.  To find them, go across the street from Gongti West Gate (near Pavilion bar) and walk south about 400m.  They’ll be on your left just after the G3 club.  I can’t find a map for them on Google.

Good luck to all – Beijing is hot in the summer, so I hope this keeps you smelling fresh.

UPDATE 2010/10/29:

The BHG Market Place in Sanlitun now carries deodorant as well.  It’s at the front of Aisle 4 near the bottom shelf.

Posted in Beijing, personal | 2 Comments »

Bespoke Row Blog

June 16, 2010

I recently started a new blog for Bespoke Row – [updated 2010/09/08] Now it’s hosted at http://www.bespokerow.com/blog. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Bespoke Row, blogging | Leave a Comment »

JSLint’s ‘unexpected end of line’ vs. JQuery style

June 10, 2010

I recently added a script to run JSLint over any javascript files that were changed in my last batch of commits when I push changes to our main repository (if you’re interested, you can take a look).  Immediately, I had my feelings hurt when it started reporting a bunch of errors and warnings.

Most of them I agreed with, but the ambiguous end of line warning when the line was catching syntax that I had very purposefully used to increase readability (for me).  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Software Development, tech | 1 Comment »
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