Dear friends, My blog is currently inactive. You will not find articles written by me or my personal opinion on subjects relating to financial markets or political views inside this site. I am using this space to post links of my interest. However, the information contained in the site comes from external sources and is not intended to express my personal opinion. If you are passionate about technology and start ups, you will find this information highly valuable. My online professional network helps me to discover new things, find information and provide intelligence that I would not otherwise see (or would spend forever looking for). For a self-described information hound, I do hope that this site proves to be an absolutely invaluable collection of information for the right users. —————————————————————————————— Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend. Bruce LeeTumblr (3.0; @enterpriselink)http://www.federicovega.com/<p>So, paradoxically, if you’re too inexperienced to start a startup,<br/> what you should do is start one. That’s a way more efficient cure for<br/> inexperience than a normal job. In fact, getting a normal job may<br/> actually make you less able to start a startup, by turning you into a<br/> tame animal who thinks he needs an office to work in and a product<br/> manager to guide him. . Paul Graham</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/742651187http://www.federicovega.com/post/742651187Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:15:45 +0100<p>1. find empty space, not too competitive and very targetted so you can standout<br/> 2. focus on execution and not too much a revolutionary idea<br/> 3. launch as fast as you can even if buggy, announce it as preview<br/> 4. gather as much feedback as possible using social networking and uservoice<br/> 5. improve the product based on feedback and release as often as you can</p> <p>bonus:<br/> 6. start in english and not in your local european language<br/> 7. be obsessed with customer service, especially in public on Twitter<br/> 8. pay more attention to your users than your competitors<br/> 9. quality of your product matters much more than PR<br/> 10. hire slowly, fire fast in case it doesn’t work (I know, this one isn’t popular)</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/667717958http://www.federicovega.com/post/667717958Sat, 05 Jun 2010 23:36:34 +0100<p>it is really hard to consume and create at the same time</p> <p>We are meant to be both creators and consumers. Today, however, most people consume far more then they create. Part of the reason for this is because being both a consumer and a creator at the same time is very difficult, and because goods and services have never been more accessible. But a healthy life is one that balances both creation and consumption.</p> <p>Consumers vs. Creators<br/> When you consume you are often appreciating other’s work. You eat, watch movies, visit nice places, read books, and party. You vegetate to the sounds of your favorite musical artist on a wonderful couch while surfing Facebook on your beautifully designed laptop.</p> <p>Creators do just the opposite: they strive to make something that others (or their future self) will appreciate. Creators toil, try different things, fail, and try again.</p> <p>People were Born to Create<br/> People need to create and they need to have a creative outlet. Creating things lets us use our imagination, add value, provide a sense of accomplishment and ownership, and is both rewarding and satisfying.</p> <p>Media,85812,en This is why children enjoy drawing, painting, and making arts and crafts so much. This is also the reason why people in start-ups are generally much happier than people at large institutions – smaller companies give people the freedom to create and have fewer restrictions.</p> <p>There is nothing more satisfying than creating something. In fact, the fastest way to kill someone’s soul is to subject them to a life where they can no longer create. But because of our natural tendencies to be creators, this is hard to do: even in the Soviet gulags and Nazi death camps, prisoners found ways to remain hopeful by making intricate designs in their imagination.</p> <p>In general, creating things tends to be more rewarding than consuming things:</p> <p>Writing beats reading.<br/> Painting beats viewing.<br/> Giving beats receiving.<br/> Playing beats being a spectator.<br/> Composing beats viewing.<br/> Trying (and failing) beats complaining.<br/> Cooking beats eating.<br/> Lending beats borrowing.<br/> Coding beats pretty much everything.<br/> Yes, creating beats consuming.</p> <p>Gluttony The greatest threat to our creative nature is ourselves. Today, many people are intentionally compromising creation by living lives focused on consumption. This is because it is so much easier to consume in today’s world than in the past: wonderful goods, services, and experiences are so readily available. This does not bode well for society’s long-term outlook and my guess is that few things can be worse for your physical and mental health. </p> <p>This is not to say that consuming isn’t important. It is. Consumption and appreciation play a central role in our lives. But most people need a diet of more creation and less consumption.</p> <p>Here are some simple tips to help fight the move towards an even greater consumption-oriented society.</p> <p>How to Create More:</p> <p> 1. Kids-cooking2 Think of things you would like to create – Instead of focusing on what you are going to consume, focus on what you want to create. You will be much more likely to follow through with something if you are passionate about it and/or have been meaning to do for a while.</p> <p> 2. Start with small creation goals – Setting small goals can help break-in your creativity engine and to build momentum. This can include painting a wall, trying to cook a new dish, setting up a website, starting a blog, writing a story, and more. Don’t worry if the end result is not perfect, the idea is just to start creating.</p> <p> 3. Consume Less – Because we are programmed to either consume or create within any given timeframe, consuming less will actually help you create more. But instead of consuming less immediately, set realistic and manageable goals to cut back on consumption. If you are going to spend money on luxury, I would suggest you focus on things that buy you time rather than getting yourself more stuff.</p> <p> 4. Surround yourself with creators – Perhaps one of the most effective ways of becoming more of a creator is to seek out and surround yourself with other creators. By doing so, you will talk about creating more often, get more ideas for creations, and have a reinforcing support circle.</p> <p>by Auren Hoffman</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/629274384http://www.federicovega.com/post/629274384Mon, 24 May 2010 23:30:44 +0100<p>I will be posting a series on what makes an entrepreneur. There will be 11 posts in this series. Click on the links below to read any of the posts.</p> <p>1. Tenacity – the most important attribute of an entrepreneur is never being willing to give up.</p> <p>2. Street Smarts – getting out and understanding customers is far more important than book smarts or computer research.</p> <p>3. Ability to Pivot – it’s not good enough to be tenacious and smart. You also need to be sure you have a great product/market fit and that it is a big enough market to make money. The best entrepreneurs fine tune their product and their business model until they find this groove.</p> <p>4. Resiliency – being an entrepreneur is sexy … for those who haven’t done it. In reality it’s gritty, tough work where you will be filled with self doubt. Entrepreneurs are survivors.</p> <p>5. Inspiration - Tenacity + street smarts is not enough without inspiration. You need to lead teams and convince others to move mountains when by all means they shouldn’t believe they can.</p> <p>6. Perspiration - We all know people who can stand up at a conference and deliver a rousing speech or who sound awesome in front of customers. But it takes more than inspiration to build a successful business. It takes perspiration also.</p> <p>7. Willingness to Accept Risk – I’m not talking about crazy risks, but entrepreneurs are people who are willing to start a business on a leap of faith. They don’t wait on the sidelines forever doing “side projects” until the day when they’re ready to start a company. If you aren’t willing to take a shot by going full time on your startup it tells investors you aren’t confident enough in the idea or in yourself.</p> <p>8. Attention to Detail – If you’re going to lead an early stage business you need to be on top of all your details. You need to know your financial model. You need to be involved in the product design. You need to have a details grasp of your sales pipeline. You need to be hand on.</p> <p>9. Competitiveness - The best entrepreneurs hate losing. Whether in person life or business they play to win. It consumes them. Sharing the market is not enough – they want to win every deal, hire every great employee and sign-up every partner. And they want to do it at the expense of the competition. As Leo Durocher famously said, “nice guys finish last.”</p> <p>10. Decisiveness / Gets Things Done – Entrepreneurs don’t “noodle,” they “do.” This is what separates entrepreneurs from big company executives, consultants and investors. Everybody else has the luxury of “analysis” and Monday-morning quarterbacking. Entrepreneurs are faced with a deluge of daily decisions – much of it minutiae. All of it requiring decisions and action.</p> <p>11. Domain Experience – Domain experience is not an absolute requirement. In fact, some people would argue that the uber successful ventures come from people outside the industry willing to challenge the conventional wisdom. But I believe that having domain experience and relationships gives you an unfair advantage. Better that you start with this than from scratch.</p> <p>12. Integrity – I believe that integrity and honesty are very important to most venture capital investors. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that they are required to make a lot of money. This post talks about my views on this attribute.</p> <p>By Mark Suster</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/629232098http://www.federicovega.com/post/629232098Mon, 24 May 2010 23:12:33 +0100<p>Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend. Bruce Lee</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/579713159http://www.federicovega.com/post/579713159Fri, 07 May 2010 23:28:16 +0100<p>Hoy leía un artículo de Santiago Bilinkis que comentaba un par de chistes, bastante conocidos, que expresan cómo nos sentimos frecuentemente aquellos que hemos estudiado economía.</p> <p>El primero cuenta que iban dos hombres viajando en un globo y el viento los desvió de su rumbo. Totalmente desorientados, ven un hombre abajo y le gritan: «¡Señor! ¡¡¿Podría decirnos donde estamos? » A lo que él responde: «¡En un globo!». Enseguida, uno de los hombres en el globo dice: «Evidentemente, se trataba de un economista…». «¿Por qué lo dices?» pregunta el otro. «Bueno, verás… es sencillo: su respuesta es rigurosamente lógica, evidentemente verdadera y no sirve absolutamente para nada.»</p> <p>El segundo chiste es de un economista náufrago en una isla, cuyo único alimento es una lata de sardinas, y que, desesperado, resuelve el problema diciendo:</p> <p>«Supongamos que tengo un abrelatas…</p> <p>Estos chistes me trajeron el recuerdo de cuando en una clase del tercer año de la carrera en Economía. Abstrayéndome de los aburridos modelos económicos plagados de supuestos le pregunte al profesor cuando vamos a dejar los supuestos  de lado y analizar lo que ocurre en la realidad. “Nunca! la realidad es muy complicada para ser analizada, a parte, a quien le interesa la realidad?” respondió.</p> <p>Desde entonces comencé a pensar que los economistas no son más que teóricos totalmente incapaces de entender y mejorar la realidad en que vivimos.</p> <p>El primer principio de la Economía es que cada agente actúa únicamente movido por su propio interés. Por eso, el hecho de que en la carrera nos la pasemos rindiendo culto a la optimización restringida y a los hessianos orlados oculta, tras una fachada matemática, la profunda convicción de que las mejores soluciones a los problemas se obtienen a través de la persecución de un fin netamente definido, personal y cuantificable, expresado a través de una función objetivo para ser maximizada. Sin embargo, considerar que la conducta humana se rige exclusivamente por la persecución de intereses egoístas es claramente erróneo.</p> <p>Esta es precisamente la razón por la cual frecuentemente graduados en economía no son capaces de describir la realidad que los rodea, y mucho menos comprender el comportamiento de los mercados financieros.</p> <p>En mi opinión, la economía debería abandonar el vicio de la parsimonia para enfrentar el desafío de la complejidad. Las carreras deberían eliminar los viejos modelos económicos y enfocarse más en una economía de y para el hombre, consciente de sus propias consecuencias materiales y de que no sólo describe una realidad sino que también la transforma.</p> <p>F.</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/343751052http://www.federicovega.com/post/343751052Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:23:00 +0000<p>The skill of management is achieving your objectives through the efforts of others</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/231219031http://www.federicovega.com/post/231219031Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:33:50 +0000<p>RT @loic: check out the latest @leweb speakers list, we will announce the full program soon <a href="http://www.leweb.net/program/speakers" target="_blank">http://www.leweb.net/program/speakers</a></p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/231149481http://www.federicovega.com/post/231149481Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:12:04 +0000<p>RT @loic: check out the latest @leweb speakers list, we will announce the full program soon <a href="http://www.leweb.net/program/speakers" target="_blank">http://www.leweb.net/program/speakers</a></p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/231145494http://www.federicovega.com/post/231145494Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:07:01 +0000<p>Posted by: ariel arrieta</p> <p>Uno de los conceptos que mas me quedo dando vueltas en mi cabeza despues de <a>haber vuelto de HBS </a>es la formula para el cambio. </p> <p>Este framework provee un modelo simple para entender y accionar sobre los factores que inciden en el cambio ya sea de personas como de organizaciones.</p> <p>Estos conceptos no son nuevos, fueron desarrollados por <a>Richard Beckhard</a> y <a>David Gleicher</a> en los 60’s<br/>Para generar cualquier cambio ya sea a nivel personal, de una organizacion o de una comunidad se deben tener considerar 3 aspectos claves que deben estar presentes para que se materialice un cambio:</p> <p><b>D x V x F > R</b></p> <p>Los factores son:</p> <p><b>D = Dissatisfaction o nivel de inconformidad con el estado actual de las cosas.<br/>V = Vision de lo que es posible generar / cambiar<br/>F = First steps- Los primeros pasos y procedimientos concretos para materializar esta vision.</b></p> <p>Si el producto de estos 3 factores es mayor que<br/>R = Resistencia, Entonces el cambio es posible.</p> <p>La combinacion de estos 3 elemantos determina la velocidad de cambio que se quiera determinar y el grado de dificultad que se tendra.<br/>Algunas documentaciones tambien refieren a la resistencia como el costo del cambio, donde este costo puede ser economico o psicologico.</p> <p><b>Ejemplo de emprendedores</b></p> <p>En el caso de alguien que esta tratando de emprender un nuevo projecto estos 3 factores se explican de la siguiente manera:</p> <p>El nivel de inconformidad, es que mal puedan estar hoy en comparacion con como quieren estar, esto implica el hambre de exito que una persona puede tener o la presion economica que enfrenta. Mientras que la vision de futuro puede ser la deteccion e una oportunidad de mercado y la creacion de un producto o servicio que permita capturar esta oportunidad. Por ultimo los procesos son los pasos que deben dar estos emprendedores para llevar esta vision a la realidad.</p> <p>Me pasa muy seguido encontrarme con emprendedores que estan tratando de generar ese cambio que implica pasar de la relacion de dependencia a una “Relacion de Independencia” y que les esta faltando alguna de estas 3 patas que sostiene esta mesa. Donde tienen la vision de la oportunidad y saben o que tiene que hacer pero al estar en un trabajo en el que estan muy comodos, les cuesta dar el salto asumiendo los riesgos de corto plazo.</p> <p>El caso de emprendedores que tiene el “hambre de exito” que les genera el nivel de inconformidad necesario, y ven una oportunidad en el mercado pero no pueden accionar sobre esta por que les falta la experiencia de vicvir un startup y se pierden en los detalles de procesos. El caso final que es mas frecuente en los emprendedores por necesidad, donde talvez por quedarse sin trabajo, arrancan un emprendimiento personal, y tienen la motivacion que genera la incorformidad, con la situacion que viven, y conocen los procesos de seguir haciendo lo que veniana haciendo, pero no tienen el componente de vision de una oportunidad.</p> <p><b>Aplicacion del modelo a tu empresa</b></p> <p>En el caso en que estos fundadores necesiten crear un cambio en tu empresa es recomendable entender:<br/>D = Quien esta descontento?, cuales son lo factores que podrian incidir en generar mayor descontento ( esto es lo contraintuiotivo que vuelve muy util esta manera de pensar) ?. Cuales son las consecuencias de seguir asi y de incrementar el descontento?<br/>V = Cuen comprometido esta el managmente? hay un vision clara de la vision y de la estrategia? esto esta entendido y comunicado por todos o solo en la cabeza de algunos? Como podes ayudar a comunicar esta vision y qye sea creida?<br/>F = Cuales son los pasos que hay que dar? como se pueden facilitar?<br/>R = Como se debe comunicar este modelo y cuales son las consecuencias de no cambiar.</p> <p>Espero que te sea util!</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/230138881http://www.federicovega.com/post/230138881Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:48:22 +0000<p>RT @loic: How the Le Meur family kitchen looks like this morning <a href="http://yfrog.com/b6zmxj" target="_blank">http://yfrog.com/b6zmxj</a> 5 computers…! We re very sick.</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/229085598http://www.federicovega.com/post/229085598Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:59:54 +0000<p>RT @loic: How the Le Meur family kitchen looks like this morning <a href="http://yfrog.com/b6zmxj" target="_blank">http://yfrog.com/b6zmxj</a> 5 computers…! We re very sick.</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/229085596http://www.federicovega.com/post/229085596Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:59:53 +0000<p>RT @loic: How the Le Meur family kitchen looks like this morning <a href="http://yfrog.com/b6zmxj" target="_blank">http://yfrog.com/b6zmxj</a> 5 computers…! We re very sick.</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/229060364http://www.federicovega.com/post/229060364Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:27:08 +0000<p>RT @loic: How the Le Meur family kitchen looks like this morning <a href="http://yfrog.com/b6zmxj" target="_blank">http://yfrog.com/b6zmxj</a> 5 computers…! We re very sick.</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/229060362http://www.federicovega.com/post/229060362Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:27:07 +0000<p>“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” -Abraham Lincoln</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/227191149http://www.federicovega.com/post/227191149Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:01:59 +0000<p>RT @BradleyWill: “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” -Abraham Lincoln</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/227191147http://www.federicovega.com/post/227191147Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:01:59 +0000<p>RT @BradleyWill: “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” -Abraham Lincoln</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/227187152http://www.federicovega.com/post/227187152Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:56:34 +0000<p>“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” -Abraham Lincoln</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/227187155http://www.federicovega.com/post/227187155Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:56:34 +0000<p>“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” -Abraham Lincoln</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/227168161http://www.federicovega.com/post/227168161Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:29:40 +0000<p>RT @BradleyWill: “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” -Abraham Lincoln</p>http://www.federicovega.com/post/227168158http://www.federicovega.com/post/227168158Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:29:40 +0000