Master of 500 Hats

RethinkHawaii.com (Nov 1-5): Come Get Your Geek On.

Sometimes we all need a little time to Think. Time to get in touch with our Inner Geek.

Time to get in touch with Water, Land, & things Blue-Green.

Time to meet friends across the Pacific in the Middle.

It's time to...

RethinkHawaii.com

Come join us Nov 1-5 in Oahu for tech, green, clean, and mean social media... register now using code REDPILL, and save over $600 off the normal conference fee.

RethinkHawaii will feature a conference of mini-conferences around:

• Startups & Startonomics
• Sustainability & Clean, Green Tech
• Social Media & Business
• East Meets West (Internet Asia)
• Hawaii Unconference

Check out who's coming... including Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay and the Omidyar Network.

hope you can be there with us, to think about what's coming next :)

Join GeeksOnaPlane for DC (9/18-19) & Europe (9/21-10/2)

Want to meet geeks, startups, VCs, and other folks in DC and/or Europe?

Come with us in September for the next GeeksOnaPlane.com trip!

Here's our current travel plans & agenda (note you can join us for just one city, or for the entire trip):

• 9/18-19: Washington, DC — Tech & Govt Meetup, Startup2Startup dinner
• 9/21-23: London — SeedCamp Week
• 9/24-25: Amsterdam — Picnic Conference
• 9/26-27: Berlin — Ignite, Startonomics, Startup2Startup
• 9/28-29: Prague — Ignite, Startonomics, Startup2Startup
• 9/29-30: Paris — Ignite, Startonomics, Startup2Startup
• 10/01-02: London — Future of Web Apps

Costs vary based # of cities/events; estimates as follows:

• Full Trip (4-6 cities): $1250 all events + travel/hotel = ~$3000-5000
• Partial Trip (2-3 cities): $750 events pass + travel/hotel = ~$2000-4000
• Single City (DC or other): $500 events pass + travel/hotel = ~$1000-1500

Want to come along?  Great, just request an invite:

Here are some of the fun & awesome geeks that will be joining us...

Hosts + Travelers:

Dave McClure	Brady Forrest	Adriana Gascoigne	Frank Gruber
Founders Fund 500 Hats	O'Reilly Media Ignite	SGN Girls in Tech	AIM/AOL Somewhat Frank
Eric Ries	Vanessa Fox	Wen-Wen Lam	Sean Ellis
Kleiner Perkins The Lean Startup	Ignition Partners NineByBlue	Slingshot Labs	12in6 Startup Marketing
Ben Rattray	Evan Cooke	Mark Hendrickson	Rashmi Sinha
Change.org	Twilio	Worldly Developments	SlideShare

Lucky Josh on a Wall

Lucky Josh on a Wall
Originally uploaded by davemc500hats

what are the chances -- running into a music video shoot on the Great Wall of China? yes, indeed... josh is feeling lucky today :)

Geeks On A Wall

Geeks On A Wall
Originally uploaded by davemc500hats

Exciting day in Beijing: we climbed The Great Wall of China, stormed The Forbidden City, and conquered Tiananmen Square.

GeeksOnaPlane were pretty active today. And the Chinese people were very nervous.

Baka Gaijin.

Baka Gaijin.
Originally uploaded by davemc500hats

GeeksOnaPlane climb Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills (Tokyo) to make crazy photos.

Startup Metrics Revolution: Tokyo, Japan (Fri 12/19)

at the moment I'm on my way to Paris for the LeWeb conference... but after i get back to Silicon Valley, almost immediately i'm headed off to Japan for a family visit and to hang out with some friends in Tokyo.

i'll be in Japan from 12/16 thru 01/08, and on Friday 12/19 i'm speaking at an event i'm putting together with Andrew Shuttleworth and his friends who run the Tokyo 2.0 meetup.  I'm doing an afternoon presentation on Startup Metrics called:

Silicon Valley 2.0: The Startup Metrics Revolution

Some of the material is similar to my Startup Metrics for Pirates presentation i've given previously at Startonomics and Web 2.0 Expo, but we'll also add a few new twists. Here's a brief description (i'll update as we have more details):

Silicon Valley is re-booting... again.  As the rest of the US economy gets turned upside-down, startups in silicon valley are getting used to a lot less capital, and a lot more numbers.  The "Web 2.0" startup model has matured, and internet startups are now applying a more scientific & metrics-oriented approach to their business, and a more cash-conscious approach to funding & operations.  The best startups now build products on a budget of less than $1M (some for under $100K), and use startup dashboards & web analytics tools to measure user behavior, product usage, feature conversion, and marketing effectiveness.  They also use rapid development, fast iteration cycles, and a/b / multivariate testing tools to optimize product features & marketing programs.

If you are a startup entrepreneur, developer, investor, or technology business executive, this 3-hour lecture & workshop will show you how to put together your own business metrics framework for your startup or company. The workshop will focus primarily on how to use a simple 5-step model for startup metrics (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue) to make better product & marketing decisions. We'll show you how the model works, how to apply it to your business, and we'll do live "Startup Makeover" reviews for 5-10 companies. Examples & variations on the model will be explored for several types of startups, and we'll cover the following topics: creating a basic user conversion dashboard, defining your company & product keyword vocabulary, selecting & evaluating marketing channels, testing & optimizing landing pages, setting up simple email strategies for user retention, and designing a business model that will attract investors.

to see more of what you'll get, here is the latest version of my Startup Metrics presentation (from Startonomics SF, Oct 2008):

Startup Metrics For Pirates: AARRR! (Startonomics SF Oct 2008)

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: aarrr metrics)

hope you'll join us for a fun session in Tokyo!

NOTE: for Silicon Valley geeks who would like to tag along and visit Tokyo, we're gathering a small group of geeks to head over for about a week (altho i'm staying thru New Year's).  If you'd like to join us, twitter or email me for info.  I'll be flying over on Tue 12/16 out of SFO on a JAL flight at noon, along with a few friends.  Come visit Tokyo & meet some Japanese entrepreneurs!

Hawaii Here We Come.

Now this is what i call work.

Me & Saya & the kids are headed to Hawaii in the morning. We're arriving at Kona on the Big Island, spending a few days at the Fairmont Orchid to relax & schmooze w/ hoi-polloi @ The Lobby. 

Saya's parents & grandma are also flying in from Tokyo to meet us there & see the grandkids.  should be lots O' fun :)

RIP Good Times my ass... let's get this party started.

and Now for Something Completely Different... (LoveFoXXX Monkey Dance, Cansei de Ser Sexy)

ok, just got back from SeedCamp 2008 in London, & a brief layover in NYC to hookup with some friends for dinner. here's a quick CSS diversion b4 i go gonzo next 2 weeks on Startup2Startup, Startup Metrics, & STARTonomics... enjoy :)

Why I'm Big in Japan / How I Got Married

I've previously fallen in love with I Can Haz Cheezburger, also FAIL Blog... my latest infatuation is now EngrishFunny.com (warning: very un-PC, esp. if your wife is japanese).

and yes, i resemble that remark.

Testing PictureSurf iGallery widget

Testing out PictureSurf iGallery:

pretty cool.