Pre-Lunch Song Upload

Dreaming with a Broken Heart - Johny Mayer

Damn you, Star 101.3 FM! Stop playing this song =) Hauntingly beautiful.

I'll try to write something tonight.

Work, work, work!

-five

What will be, will be

A thousand points to the guys in purple and gold. Go, Yahoo! =)

Be Like That

Met their Chief Architect of their Media Group 2 weeks back, by the way. Awesome guy.

Had a mentor session with Gokul Rajaram, former Project Management Director for Adsense. Pretty good session. But I would have liked for him to talk about his personal experiences rather than the concepts. Would have been vastly more engaging. But yeah, I suppose he can't really talk much about that. No matter, I thought what he said was pretty relevant and practically useful. Makes you wonder if one day, you can translate that into action.

In 2 weeks' time, it'll be the beginning of our 3rd month here. There's really something to be said of working in a foreign country. Beyond the resume part, this has been a... journey. It's not so much of the day-to-day things that happen but more of what you don't see but feel. I guess the one thing that you learn is that your life is what you make of it. True, there's always external factors but ultimately, it is very much what drives you forward. Your passion. And what you want to achieve. In life.

You learn to rearrange priorities. Slowly, you learn what is important to you and what isn't. And you discover that that truly matters to you. And you learn to take control of your life. And along that, your future.

Me-time is good =P

There comes a time when one wonders how life is. Putting in perspective the past with the present. And the part that the past, the present plays in the future. Looking back, I think sometimes, that's how exactly life is. Maybe that's why I actually put this old song on. Past, present, future. Dreams. Hope. And a lingering question. Of what it was and what it will be. And I guess there's only one last thing to say: What will be, will be.

i haven't gotten your letter yet, dad. Stop asking me!

love
-five

Elements of
Sustainable Companies

Start-ups with these characteristics often foretells the success of a business and the likelihood of it becoming a sustainable, enduring company. We like to partner with companies that have:

Clarity of Purpose

Summarize the company's business on the back of a business card.

Large Markets

Address existing markets poised for rapid growth or change. A market on the path to a $1B potential allows for error and time for real margins to develop.

Rich Customers

Target customers who will move fast and pay a premium for a unique offering.

Focus

Customers will only buy a simple product with a singular value proposition.

Pain Killers

Pick the one thing that is of burning importance to the customer then delight them with a compelling solution.

Think Differently

Constantly challenge conventional wisdom. Take the contrarian route. Create novel solutions. Outwit the competition.

Team DNA

A company’s DNA is set in the first 90 days. All team members are the smartest or most clever in their domain. "A" level founders attract an "A" level team.

Agility

Stealth and speed will usually help beat-out large companies.

Frugality

Focus spending on what's critical. Spend only on the priorities and maximize profitability.

Inferno

Start with only a little money. It forces discipline and focus. A huge market with customers yearning for a product developed by great engineers requires very little firepower.

Writing A
Business Plan

We like business plans that present a lot of information in as few words as possible. The following format, within 15-20 slides, is all that’s needed:

Company Purpose

• Define the company/business in a single declarative sentence.

Problem

• Describe the pain of the customer (or the customer’s customer).
• Outline how the customer addresses the issue today.

Solution

• Demonstrate your company’s value proposition to make the customer’s life better.
• Show where your product physically sits.
• Provide use cases.

Why Now

• Set-up the historical evolution of your category.
• Define recent trends that make your solution possible.

Market Size

• Identify/profile the customer you cater to.
• Calculate the TAM (top down), SAM (bottoms up) and SOM.

Competition

• List competitors
• List competitive advantages

Product

• Product line-up (form factor, functionality, features, architecture, intellectual property).
• Development roadmap.

Business Model

• Revenue model
• Pricing
• Average account size and/or lifetime value
• Sales & distribution model
• Customer/pipeline list

Team

• Founders & Management
• Board of Directors/Board of Advisors

Financials

• P&L
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow
• Cap table
• The deal

Now that my former boss has found her way here, I will have to stop all mentions of IFW. I wonder how long it'll take for my current boss to find this. I seriously doubt he'll ever though.

*wink*

Anyway, been a few days since I blogged so here are the thoughts, in between the laundry, the Ruby On Rails and attempts to connect to this music site.

*ruffles through his Gmail Calendar*

E145's over. This is the first time I've actually missed not going for classes. Bizbuzz was crazy. Too bad we didn't get into the last round but competition was INTENSE. Still trying to figure out whose team is 1+1=3. Not much over the weekend except the fact that I was at Stanford both Saturday and Sunday plugging away at that takehome exam.

Guys' Nights out at San Fran. Seriously awesome Thai restaurant. Unbelievable ambience and great food and crazy company. Full of hippies. Hahaha. We're not hippies yet. Not enough money. Poor surviving interns.











Still anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Arizona Diamondbacks vs San Francisco Giants tickets. Fedex is kinda weird. I don't think they use shortest distance to plot their items. They sent my tickets half away across continental USA (6 states, 2,000 miles!) from Emeryville, California to Memphis, Tennessee by some ground transport and then FLIES it back. (2x2000 miles = 4000 miles = 6,000 km. Thailand is only 1000km from Singapore...) It's now sitting at some Oakland Fedex facility. By the way, Emeryville is only 40 miles from Milpitas =P Hahaha. Crazy stuff.

And finally, today. MIT/Stanford Vlabs. The Future of Content Consumption. Didn't talk about anything new but it was interesting to hear about what people were actually doing to create the new wave of innovation. Met this cool guy there. Stayed in EAST PALO ALTO and running his own startup. Very cool dude. I wanted to check his site but it was down. Will remember to do it tomorrow.

Oh wells. And that's it. And my laundry is almost done. So I guess that's it now today. Heh. 1 am and I'm still up. Record breaking timing.

five, out.

WALL•E, Cookie & Life

So I'm sitting at Old Union instead of going back to work despite the 3 projects awaiting my attention. There's a few good reasons of course. So I better list them out before people start to think I'm a slacker.

1. Need to collect E145 exam paper at 5 pm PDT
2. Need to throw ball at 6 pm
3. Need to do Bizbuzz later at 9 pm, NOC Office

So there! 3 reasons and all good ones! And instead of working on my business case or reading up on Struts 2, I'm writing my blog. Heh. I guess this is a good time as any.

It has been a trying week and half. OAP submission, Facebook project, the finance monitoring and that whole database stuff. Not to mention a ruined Yosemite trip because some jackass thought that towing my car was appropriate. And of course, the flat battery. I'm still quite jumpy about my car, I tell you.

But this week is also a culmination of an entire quarter of a new life. A new world. A new school. New workplace. A new life. New friends and just a guy in a big city. And despite the ups and the downs(more downs), it has been crazy. I love my lessons in E145, with inspirational speakers, my team with Brad, Paul, Kirk and Huiling. I love the crazy NOC people, each with their own weird quirks and uniqueness. I even love my work though it's pretty crappy at times. As a self-proclaimed student of people, it has been a truly fascinating journey to see the interactions. And it has been a journey personally as well. Letting it loose a bit and understanding how a new society works and can be so different and yet familiar at the same time. Looking at the world differently. A world of hope and promise. Of dreams.

I was talking about my dream to visit Australia and see the stars once again. And along comes two things. My fortune cookie at yesterday's lunch says "Visit a faraway land that has been in your thoughts." and the story of a little robot called WALL•E.

Him and a million other little robots were put to clean up Earth after everyone left Earth covered in trash in the future and make it habitable again. But the cleanup failed with the exception of this little robot and he's left on Earth doing his duty all alone. But he has a glitch in his programming. He has feelings.

But it's not a story about science fiction. It's a love story, because, you see, WALL·E falls in love with EVE, a robot from a probe that comes down to check on Earth, and she's left there to check on and see how things are going and he absolutely falls in love with her.

So in the end, it’s gonna be WALL-E’s pursuit to win EVE’s heart, and his unique appreciation of life to become mankind’s last hope to rediscover its roots. In short, it’s going to take a robot's love to help make the world go round.

Maybe, we have lost sight of the world, passion and dreams and we just need something to remind us of it again.

love
-five

Chicken Rice, Claypot, Broth

Center fold okay? :P

Haha. Thanks leh, Lydia. Got it liao. Hahaha. I tell you hor, my housemate say your package like Red Cross. Hahaha. But don't worry, I beat the crap out of him for you.

But seriously, really appreciate it. I guess the feeling of receiving something from someone far off, especially in a strange country, is really quite indescribable. So thanks. + another 50 points. I think that makes you 400 liao =)

Baseball season is starting! Opening Day: 3/30/08.

Woot.

Random Ponderings

Everything users do creates value. How do we translate this value into something that benefits everyone?

Being Human

I gave up and popped two Tylenols. I really should go get breakfast in the mornings.

And don't hate people for doing their jobs.

Hits & Misses

It was a classic Google moment. Your S.A.T. score was the measure of your intellectual capability; your GPA represented the numerical summary of your ability to execute on that potential.

From a different perspective, grades, even though they don't really matter that much, in a way, determine how you make the best out of a bad situation. I guess it's just not cool when you have little use for something that you have little passion for.

By that benchmark, I probably suck as far as the executing goes =) But I don't rue the fact that I got a less-than-optimal CAP. Rather, I'm grateful for the opportunities that have led me to know great people and discover the meaning of life. And I guess that's what's life about. The hits and the misses. Just make more hits than misses and you'll be just fine.

-five

P.S. I would check my mail regularly if I were you. Yes, you. No, no... You reading this.
P.P.S If I don't get out this weekend, I'm going to hurt something. And I can't go to the range too =(

A Beginning of a Bad Week

Frustrated, sleepy and hungry.

Work, you stupid POS.

Bleah.

Witty Chinese Proverb That Was Not to Be

And life goes on. And we all learn from the stumbles and the trips from it. The tears, the scrapes from the fall just makes the future so much better. So I hope you'll feel better. Because you got hianyi, andy, ch & hida (yes, them too) and me. You're not the only one listening to this song, by the way =)



Distractions, be gone!