Easy come easy go

John Illman (@LocalHotspot)

Easy Come, Easy Go! Viddy, Raises $30 Million in 2012 and Shuts Down On December 15 tcrn.ch/1Go67Dm via @TechCrunch

Humans Need Not Apply

Referron : Become a first follower and create a movement!!

Referron : Become a first follower and create a movement!!: Some key Lessons:- Its the first and second follower that transforms the lone nut into a leader THe third follower becomes news The ...

San Francisco's top 5% of earners blow the rest of the country out of the water

Robin Chase

Co-Founder Zipcar, Veniam

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Transportation/Trucking/Railroad

Current	Veniam,  Buzzcar,  Speaking Circuit
Previous	US Department of Commerce,  International Transport Forum,  Intelligent Transportation Systems Program Advisory Group
Education	Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Check out this Brookings Institute graphic about how SF top 5% income earners compare to other cities. A really striking graphic.

http://www.businessinsider.com/san-franciscos-top-5-of-earners-are-insanely-rich-2015-3?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Business%20Insider%20Select&utm_campaign=BI%20Select%20%28Wednesday%20Friday%29%202015-03-20&utm_content=BISelect

San Francisco's top 5% of earners blow the rest of the country out of the water

The Brookings Institution recently released a report showing the income gap between the bottom 20% of households and the top 5% in the fifty largest US cities.

Inadvertently, Brookings has discovered a startling statistic about San Francisco.

Among the top fifty cities, San Francisco ranks as the second most unequal city in the United States, trailing only Atlanta, Georgia.

The top 5% in San Francisco, however, earn 17 times what the bottom 20% earn. The average for the top 5% in the 50 biggest US cities was 11.6 times what the bottom 20% earned.

That massive income gap may in part lie in just how ridiculously high income is for SanFrancisco’s top 5%. San Francisco’s top earners made at least $423,000. As you can see in the table below, no city’s top earners come within even $100,000 of those in SanFrancisco.

The Brookings Institution

The income gap will likely only get bigger in the coming years. Though Brookings did not have enough data to deem it “statistically significant,” it did find that the estimated rate of income growth for top earners in San Francisco was more than 18%, equivalent to an increase of $66,000.

From 0-150m in 6 months

My friend Bob  Pritchard has helped his client Bill N go from 0-150m in 6 months 

Here is how 

• The pain - minimal micro insurance in bric countries 
• The pill - e-insurance via mobile ( everybody has a mobile)
• a clear plan with effective strategies 
• Team - best and brightest people and groups around you 
• Character - persistence - being entrepreneurial. 
• the Spark - 80k event in Florida to attract the key brokers in the market 

To read full article click attached link 

http://sparkmag-au.blogspot.com/2015/03/from-0-to-150m-in-in-6-months.html

Building our innovation ecosystem

To build an Innovation Ecosystem - and grow the well being of our nation we need to nurture innovation -  it's all about education , linking and connecting! 

Linkages - 

- small and large and government 

- education and jobs - (vocational training)

- young and old 

- universities , entrepreneurs, corporate 

..... Form - Mastermind groups !!! - corporates to walk the talk ! Support innovators 

Words!!!

Collaboration

Ecosystem

Networks and referrals - in the fan of innovators 

Growth

Well being

Flow of intellectual financial and human capital

Education and upskilling - resourcing, coaching and mentoring needed 

Technology transfer 

Innovation districts facilitating linkages

Meet up groups

Virtual collaborations 

  

Startup ecosystem to drive 1/2 million jobs and a significant economiclift

It is well known that innovation drives economic growth and improves the well being of a nation 

‘The startup economy’ (commissioned by Google Australia by PWC in 2012 ) uncovered that the tech startup industry could deliver an additional $109 billion to the economy by 2033.

Definition of A tech startup - innovative, disruptive , potential to scale rapidly 

 75% of startups are targeting the Information Media and Telecommunications sector and may be missing the bigger picture opportunity for growth. Projections indicate that the Finance and Insurance, Manufacturing and Health Care and Social Assistance industries in particular hold either current or future value in contribution to total industry GDP. With Health Care and Social Assistance flagged as being the highest industry contributor to GDP by 2050.

6 key actions needed 

Call to Action

Enhance culture and community engagement – Research suggests that we have a considerably high ‘fear of failure’ rate, which is potentially constraining the growth of our startup ecosystem. Crucial to overcoming this is creating a culture that encourages participation, as well as provides support through mentorship and financial backing via angel funding.

Attract more entrepreneurs with the right skills – The report outlines that this needs to be driven through both education, as well as engaging the existing workforce to be more entrepreneurial. The latter is something that has been done incredibly well by the likes of Google, where employees are actively encouraged to take time out to develop innovations and think entrepreneurially. If this approach is driven through more enterprise organisations it could not only facilitate the growth of the tech startup ecosystem, but benefit organisations on many different fronts.

Open up markets to Australian tech startups – In 2012 procurement contracts from all levels of Australian government totaled $41 billion. The opportunity is there, however the challenge for startups is in accessing this important market. Simplifying procurement processes and open-innovation could have mutually beneficial outcomes. Transport for NSW is one Australian government department engaging in open innovation and connecting with the startup community to satisfy customer needs.

Encourage more early stage funding– Funding for the Australian tech startup sector exists, but is in short supply. Australia invests approximately US$7.50 per capita in venture capital per annum, compared to the US ($75) and Israel ($150).

Improve the regulatory environment – Australia is highlighted as having one of the best regulatory environments for entrepreneurship and the report indicates that there is potential for government to further support innovation and entrepreneurship. 

enterprise organisations should support from not only a funding perspective, but in the ability to embrace entrepreneurship within the operation of a business.  

For full report download your copy of ‘The Startup Economy: How to support tech startups and accelerate Australian innovation’.

Blrt founder Anurag Chakradhar sdevelopes patented communications technology

Blrt aims to combine the best of face-to-face communication and email in a new communication tool.

“Everyone tackling this collaboration problem thinks of it as a collaboration problem but I see it as an availability problem. You may be in a different time zone and sleeping or you may be in the office next to me but busy,” Chakradhar says.

“That shouldn’t hold me back from communicating what I have to say, without losing the emotion of voice and the ability to point at something or draw something, and without having to make a 100 or 500 megabyte video that you then have to download and respond to.”

The problem is that face-to-face meetings required real-time participation by all parties, but email lacked the emotion of voice and gesture. While video could theoretically enable both, it created huge files of 100 megabytes or even 500 megabytes with resulting storage and bandwidth issues.

Voice and gestures

Chakradhar’s idea is to capture the gesture and movement in vector format rather than video. 
“Instead of capturing your hand motion in video, you capture it in computer code,” he says. “That means it’s kilobytes, not megabytes. It feels like a video but it’s not a video.”

The result is an app that lets you pull up different documents or and zoom and pan on a static image, pointing things out with voice and gesture. It records a lightweight file and gives the recipient access to the documents and the ability to respond.

Its simple and functional

Blrt currently exists for iOS and Android.

He is seeking up to $2 million in venture capital funding to take Blrt global.