With the advent of HomeKit, it is clear that Apple wants to play a role in defining standards for the internet of things. Not surprising, therefore, that the internet of things is so prominently featured in its newest ad.
Annual Internet Trends Report
Mary Meeker's annual Internet Trends Report is a must watch/read ...
The full report can be seen below:
Mark Ronson's TED Talk: In Defence of Sampling
Mark makes a strong argument that sampling isn’t and has never been about copying music, but rather adding to the ongoing narrative of it. It isn't about “hijacking nostalgia wholesale,” but rather "about inserting yourself into the narrative of a song while also pushing that story forward."
Worth a watch, including his beautifully executed mashup of 15 TED Talks.
If you are interested in other TED talks related to music, you can find the full list here.
Exploring Bitwig Studio - Day 2
Spent a few hours on Easter Sunday re-mixing Plumb's beautiful song, Cut.
This is tough material to work with, and it was particularly challenging to respect both the content and the spirit of the song. I started by using Traktor to cleanly break apart the original song, then used Bitwig studio to re-arrange the parts (the first pass of which was triggered by a Launchpad S session). I then added new elements (piano, strings, etc. played in from a Novation Impulse) leveraging both Bitwig's stock instruments and some Kontakt 5 sounds. Needs lots of work still ... and is a very basic mix at this stage ... but was a fun project to work on, and (the original at least) is a beautiful piece of music to work with.
For those of you who have not heard the original, here it is.
Experimenting with Bitwig Studio
Bitwig Studio has been in the works for some time. In fact, it seems as though we have been waiting forever for what has been touted as the next generation in music creation software.
It does not disappoint. In many ways, it is a cross between Ableton and Logic ... offering the best of both worlds. Simple, intuitive and fun ...
I played around for a few hours today, and here's a quick snippet of the tool in action ...
Fun With TV Commercials
Over the past couple of years heading up Wonga in Canada, I've had the opportunity to work on 3 TV commercials with the amazing team at SID LEE.
In over 15 years as a startup tech entrepreneur, I've never really considered TV as part of our customer acquisition toolkit, so it's been very interesting to explore the power of this medium, especially as it pertains to rapidly establishing a new brand in a competitive space.
When building the ads for Canada, we tried to find a balance between amusing/engaging and educating the audience. In this case, we were introducing a fundamentally different short term loan (faster and on-line, simpler and more transparent, materially less expensive and far more flexible) than those already on the market. We wanted to deliver a serious message in an amusing and engaging manner.
Although we were able to leverage some stock footage from the UK, we had to remake the commercials for a very different market stage, a different product offering and a subtly different sense of humour. They were completely re-scripted.
In the first spot "The New Intern" , we introduced the three Wongies (Betty, Earl and Joyce), establishing a humorous tone for the company, and beginning to flesh out the characters ... in this case, Betty's fascination ("he's hotter than a teapot") with Earl (the new intern).
In the second spot, we introduced Joyce, the (seemingly) more serious of the bunch, who revealed the potential of a more vibrant side ("this beat makes me want to crumpet"). We'll hopefully have some fun with Joyce over time.
In the most recent commercial "Saucy Devil", which started airing this week, we continued the Betty and Earl storyline, with Earl finally revealing his feelings for Betty. We were left with Betty's somewhat ambiguous response.
In each ad, we tried to end with a memorable line, one that hopefully would drive some social media pickup. For weeks after each release, we were encouraged to see "he's hotter than a teapot" and "this beat make me want to crumpet" playfully picked up in Tweets and Posts on-line. We're hoping "saucy devil" will have the same take-up.
Of course ... there is a message embedded in each of these ads ... the storyline is just there to provide an engaging experience.
What's next? A torrid affair? Stay tuned ...
Creating something new from the magic of others
Recently I have been experimenting with remixing music, as a sabbatical of sorts from making my own. This activity is fundamentally different from passively consuming music, as it forces you to really get inside the mind of the original artist, to explore what they were trying to achieve, to break apart the musical elements they brought together to make the piece, and to imagine how these might be brought together in different ways to create something new that embraces and yet extends or even re-imagines what they have done.
Creating something new from the work of others is not trivial ... it's quite different from creating something of your own ... but it's no less complicated. In fact, to do it really well, may actually be more complicated.
In many respects (if you permit me to digress for a second) it's very similar to the challenges you face as the leader of a startup. You are seeking to mould something fresh and compelling from the creativity and capabilities of an entire team of people ... each with their own ideas, experiences, perspectives and skill-sets. Running a startup is NOT about gathering a bunch of people together to blindly implement what is solely YOUR vision. You'll get beaten by companies who know how to leverage a chorus of individual voices every time. People working effectively together have the capability to create something that is far greater than sum of the parts.
Anyone who has ever been in an orchestra, a band, quartet, or a choir of any kind knows that moment when things just click ... when you are all in complete musical sync ... that moment when you are all aware of each other, and are seamlessly complementing and building off each other ... blending and creating a new voice from the discrete voices of all participants. It's much more than just musical harmony ... and it's almost impossible to describe unless you have been part of it ... but boy, when it happens, it makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. It's magic ... and you don't want it to stop.
Great startups are a bit like this .... there is something fundamental that happens when the team is in sync, working seamlessly together, and building off each other.
Anyway, digression over ... back to re-mixing.
With little or no experience in this area, I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of excellent tools available that reduce the learning curve, and let you stretch your inner creativity ... from iPad apps such as TraktorDJ (which are great for exploring ideas on the go) to the more full featured special purpose applications such as Traktor Pro
Of course, this space is a toy-lovers dream (see right). In fact, the software I have mentioned above, when equipped with hardware such as the Traktor Kontrol S4 and the Traktor Kontrol F1 can be a ridiculously amusing way to pass the time.
At any rate, this phenomenon is part of the overall democratization of creativity that is happening across all forms of media including music, photography, film making ... and even (with the invention of 3D printers) physical objects. Tools are lowering the bar for people to create without the time, resource or capital investment that was often required before.
I haven't acquired much (if any) skill in this area as yet, but the technology has allowed me to begin to explore a whole new area of creativity ... and to have fun doing it.
Here's a work in progress project. It is a remix of Manvel Ter-Pogosyan's Fallen In Too Deep using Traktor DJ on the iPad to create the core remix (essentially folding parts of the song on itself) and then Logic Pro X to add the additional string voices in order to create a more cinematic feel. It doesn't massively restructure the piece, it just subtly re-works it at the beginning, and later gets a bit more ambitious as I take parts of the original piece and fold them on top of each other to create a deeper soundscape.
The remix was done live, in one pass, and captured before then adding the strings on top in Logic. Harder that I ever thought ...
The next mix was done live, end-end, in one pass, using TraktorDJ on an iPad. It uses about 8 cue points (some loops) to restructure Mia Martina's Go Crazy. The challenge when doing this stuff live (i.e. without the safety net of a DAW), is that you need a pretty clear sense of how you want the remix to work before you begin the session. Given that a song can be 5-6 minutes long, it's easy to forget exactly what you were planning in any region, and so you sometimes have to ad-lib to recover. Well, a lot like startup pivots in a way :-)
Build A Company That Attracts The Next Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs joined Atari in 1973. On his very first day, he walked into founder Nolan Bushnell’s office and said “I think you have a really awesome company. I think that everything is pretty good, but I’ve seen your soldering connections and they’re really crappy.” to which, although somewhat taken aback, Nolan Bushnell replied, “Well, let’s fix them.” and Jobs did.
So what made Atari a company so attractive to Steve Jobs that he actually walked in off the street and demanded a job?
Recently Bushnell, in his book called "Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Hire, Keep and Nurture Creative Talent", describes the culture and the allure that was so critical to hiring and keeping creative talent like Jobs.
Don't forget that many of the famous entrepreneurs of our time all started out working for someone in the beginning.
How are you going to attract this sort of talent? Below is a great interview with Nolan Bushnell that's worth a watch.
For Every Yes There Are A Thousand No's
Apple has summed up its product philosophy in this powerful and very plain video manifesto.
It's vintage Apple ... another shot at reiterating its long standing "Think Different" mentality.
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”
– Steve Jobs, WWDC 1997
Formula for Entrepreneurial Success (From Ev Williams)
Excellent advice from Ev Williams (Twitter, etc.), one of the most prolific and successful entrepreneurs of our time.
I can't say it better than this ... so I will just quote it in its entirety below:
1. Work with Amazing People
Don’t compromise on who you choose to found your company with and hire. Do not put up with ego-centric personalities or downer attitudes.
2. Take on Big Challenges
It’s pretty simple: Hard things are valuable; easy things are not so valuable. Reaching the mountaintop is rewarding because it is hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it.
3. Focus
Say no to most things: Features. People. Partnerships. “Coffees.” Projects. Only a few of them really matter. (Yes, it’s hard to know which.) Don’t get distracted.
4. Take Care of Yourself
When you don’t sleep, eat crap, don’t exercise, and are living off adrenaline for too long, your performance suffers. Your decisions suffer. Your company suffers.
5. Love those Close to You
Failure of your company is not failure in life. Failure in your relationships is.
Take heed young entrepreneurs ... he's absolutely right.
Inspiring young entrepreneurs
At the recent Next Web Conference Europe, two 13-year olds showcased their companies. Inspiring stuff for the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Jordan Casey is the founder and CEO of Casey Games, a mobile gaming company he founded in 2012.
Puck Meerburg is a very talented young coder from the Netherlands, who has just released a fun new game called CatStacker.
For those of you who are interested in helping your kids learn to code at a very young age, LifeHacker recently published an excellent article on the subject. In addition, CoderDojo in Los Angeles has a great page summarizing some of the coding tools available to kids.
Finally, there is an excellent Ted Talk by Mitch Resnick, who reasons that true fluency comes from creating with, not just interacting with technologies. He also outlines some great resources in his talk "Let's Teach Kids to Code". More can be found here on the TED Blog.
Mobile Is Eating The World - Are Your Ready?
Stunning data about the rise of, and importance of mobile on a global basis.
If you do not have a compelling mobile strategy (and vision) that lies right at the heart of your company and/or if you are not considering how best to leverage mobile as one of your top strategic imperatives, you will eventually be overtaken by those who are.
Win the hearts and minds of consumers on their mobile devices, or risk obsolescence.
Must Watch Interview: NEST Co-founder Matt Rogers
This interview with Matt Rogers, the co-fouder of NEST, is a revealing look at the formation of a truly great startup, and is a must watch for any entrepreneur.
Matt left an amazing job at Apple in 2010 to co-found Nest Labs. Nest, which received funding from some of the best venture capitalists in the world including Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed, Shasta and Google Ventures has revolutionized the mundane and oft ignored home thermostat. And my sense is that there is much more to come from this great company.
Nest is an exciting company at an exciting time. The rise of the internet of things, and the coming of age of the smart home are two interesting trends (among others) driving a renaissance in hardware startups. We're starting to see a plethora of internet connected appliances, from smart watering systems that know all about pending rainfall to power hungry clothes dryers that know when the cheapest electricity is available.
Smart Advertising: Smart Cars To The Rescue
From Creativity Online
To promote Mercedes Smart cars to Russians (who like driving big cars), BBDO Russia actively proved to potential customers the benefits of having a smaller vehicle. Many Russians get towed on weekend shopping trips for parking illegally; and the traffic is also notoriously bad in the city. So in March Smart offered free rides to those stranded by having their vehicles towed - getting them to take a test drive without requesting one, and see what a difference having a small car makes when parking is scarce and traffic heavy.
623 car-less drivers were rescued during three days. The agency encouraged people to thank the Smart brand on social media, while blogs and news portals picked up on the stories and test drives increased 10 fold. Sales increased by 300% in the two weeks following the event.
This had so many elements of a modern, multi-faceted, ad campaign ... purpose built for social media amplification.
Re-imagining the UX for iOS 7
With Apple's WWDC just around the corner, we're being teased by the tantalizing possibility that Apple will deliver a much overdue refresh of the UX in iOS 7.
As the conference nears, designers are falling over each other to present their visions of what an iOS 7 remake might entail.
Here is one interesting one - in the spirit of flat design. It comes from the talented folks at SimplyZesty, a Dublin, Ireland based digital agency.
Building A Culture That Works: The CEO As The Cultural Epicenter
In this excellent post, Peter Levine, who's a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, talks about the profound impact a CEO has on the culture of a company.
This is so true ... companies are defined by their cultures ... and cultures are defined from the CEO on down. You cannot manufacture a culture that is inconsistent from the beliefs and actions of a CEO. No matter how hard you try.
It is a must read for any aspiring CEOs. Remember that the expectations you have of others must be aligned with the expectations you place on yourself. And that the behaviour of your team will eventually be aligned with, and influenced by, your behaviours.
“The organization reflects the behavior and characteristics of the CEO, and that establishes the culture. Foster an environment of open communication and the organization inherits a culture of open communication. Operationally detailed? The organization becomes operationally detailed. Political? The organization becomes political. Curse a lot? The organization curses. Angry? The organization gets angry. Have a big office? Everyone wants a big office. It doesn’t matter what’s written on a coffee mug or on a “culture” slide, what you do as a CEO, day in and day out, and how you behave will define your company’s culture.
Despite the best intentions, companies often become culturally dysfunctional. This occurs when leadership has a perception about the culture that conflicts with reality, or leadership behaves differently than what might be written down. ”
Wearing Your Computer
We all know it's coming ... regardless of the manufacturer, or the OS, the smart watch will rise in the near future.
Shortly a wide range of digital services will be delivered from your wrist ... payments, alerts, IDV, contextual information, directions, etc.
It's rather exciting if you ask me. But wearable computing raises the bar on usability and design significantly.
Below is a rather stunning 3D render of what such a device might look like, and how it might work.
Re-imagining Education
Sugata Mitra, in this absolutely endearing TED talk, speaks about how the rise of the internet and cloud computing should compel us to re-imagine education ... a system he claims isn't broken, per se, just built for another world and another time.
His stories of how children in the slums of India, left unaided with a computer stuck in a wall, began a self directed journey of learning, is an example of why we might consider a different paradigm for education. No longer just top down, but bottom up.
Another great example of this sort of thinking comes from Salman Khan (founder of the Khan Academy). Millions of kids around the world now turn to the Khan Academy's on-line educational videos and multi-media activities to grasp some of the more complex elements of math and science. Why? Because Khan's approach not only makes the topics approachable, amusing and engaging, it enables kids to learn at their own pace.
Watch and find out why one kid said, "this was the first time I smiled doing a derivative".
Education, done well, can be captivating.
As Sir Ken Robinson so aptly put it in his TED talk on education:
“I think we have to change metaphors. We have to go from what is essentially an industrial model of education, a manufacturing model, which is based on linearity and conformity and batching people. We have to move to a model that is based more on principles of agriculture. We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process; it’s an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”
If you are interested in the topic of education, TED has pulled together a list of some of their favourites in a post on their blog.
Engaging Advertising
Once in a while, ads come along and cut through the clutter, engage you, amuse you ... and ... deliver the message they intended to. Tor Myren is one of the best at this, and his eTrade Baby ads are some of my favourites.
However, in 2011, Volkswagen debuted a classic ... during, of course, the Superbowl.
What makes a good engineering culture
Great products are built by great engineering teams, and great engineering teams are built on great engineering cultures. The attached post from Edmond Lau (who's an engineer at Quora), is one of the best definitions of what makes a great engineering culture I have seen in a long time.
He focuses on 10 key elements:
- Optimize for iteration speed
- Push relentlessly toward automation
- Build the right software abstractions
- Develop a focus on high code quality with code reviews
- Maintain a respectful work environment
- Build shared ownership of code
- Invest in automated testing
- Allot 20% Time
- Build a culture of learning and continuous improvement
- Hire the best
This all sounds like motherhood and apple pie stuff, but it isn't and I encourage you to read his well written post here: