Master of 500 Hats

Offshore, Online?

pretty cool concept... connect the offshore / outsourcing revolution with the hosted service / online revolution = oDesk.com

Requiem for an Entrepreneur

I found out a good friend passed away a few days ago.  He was young; his death sudden.  I was sad to hear the news.

According to email from his family, Jad Duwaik died in Shenyang, China of an aneurysm on Jan 14, 2006 at 9:20pm.  His family will hold a funeral soon in Denver once he is home. 

For those who wish to find out more, his family can be reached @ ForJad_TJ_Duwaik@Yahoo.com, or at:

  The Duwaik/Hartley Family
  12476 E. Cedar Circle
  Aurora, CA  80012

update: Jad will be honored on Friday, January 27th at 9am
    Horan & McConaty
    3201 South Parker Road
    Aurora, CO  80014
    (303) 745-4418

update2: obituary for Jad Duwaik, SF Chronicle 02/19/06 (a guestbook is available for comments)

---

I met Jad in San Francisco back in 2000, just as the first Internet dot-com era was coming to a close.  At that time, Jad was organizing an entrepreneurial networking group called GreenHouseForStartups.  He had moved out to San Francisco in 1999, after the Denver ISP he had founded was acquired.  With his first win under his belt, Jad thought Silicon Valley would be the natural place for him to go next.  While many other entrepreneurs (like me) in the bay area shared Jad's sentiments & optimism, unfortunately for him (and us) the plug was just about to get pulled on round 1 of the Internet boom.  Still, we became fast friends and enjoyed sharing thoughts & conversations about the Next Big Idea and how we might get a new startup off the ground.

Jad spent a few years enduring the post-boom dot-com crash, and most of the money he'd earned from his first acquisition was put into 2-3 other ventures he hoped would turn into further successes.  Alas, it was not to be.  Times were tough in the valley, and Jad had no way of knowing the next boom was at least another 3-5 years off.  Jad did make a name for himself rather famously by authoring a piece called 'Diary of a Failure' that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle in late 2001.  With that he became a bit of a poster child for internet entrepreneurship, but i think he enjoyed the PR regardless.  Although the article was pretty depressing -- believe me, it was a depressing time for ALL of us who stayed here through it -- still, Jad struck me as optimistic by nature and i was sure he'd bounce back in the future.

In 2001, Jad decided to switch gears and go back east, to try and make it as a writer in New York (or teacher? apologies if i'm getting any of the facts wrong here... i'm sprinkling some links to his writing during the time that may have more accurate details).  He was in NYC when 9/11 occurred, and he wrote about that experience.  For a short time he also thought about going to the Middle East to learn more about the challenges taking place there, but after thinking about it for awhile decided to stay in NY and became a math teacher. 

Then in 2003, Jad got the itch to travel and see more of the world.  Ever the entrepreneur, he decided China was the next big wave of opportunity, and so he moved to Liaoning to teach English.  He also started writing a regular newsletter on his experiences in China which i found fascinating.  it was interesting to hear about his interaction with a new culture, and his efforts to learn Chinese (language, culture, people). i occasionally would IM jad late at night and catchup with him.  one time i helped another friend of his in China do some AdWords buys, to help drive traffic to a tourism site for the city he was staying in.  he wrote some great stories and poems about the Chinese, and about color and women.  i think he was really starting to get into the flow of China.  i hope so, i really would like to think he was full of optimism again before he passed on.

I don't know if this short story captures the flavor of Jad, but i thought it important to write down what i remember.  He was a good friend and a thoughtful person.  He had wonderful ideas -- though some a bit far-fetched, but that's an entrepreneur for you.  His creativity and writing were a joy, and they made me laugh, made me think.  It's sad he passed on so young, because he had so much still to offer the world.  But i hope he enjoyed as much of it as he could, and i know we all enjoyed Jad and our time with him.

So here's to Jad, aka TJ, aka TokyoJad -- my friend, fellow entrepreneur, cherished traveling companion on the road ahead. 

Peace be with you my friend.

- Dave McClure
  Redwood City, California
  January 20, 2006

flickr 4evr + jonathan coulton groove

Flickr. 

  light painting 
  Originally uploaded by tamaki.

the more i use it, the more addicted i get.

here's a flickr video put together by jonathan coulton & some other flickr fans -- nothing like fan-produced commercials as testimonial for a great product :)

and while you're at it, check out jonathan's music on MySpace... wow, this is some great stuff.  (love the baby got back take)

inspiration for old men comes in a small package

Lately i've been thinking a lot about how i measure my life and goals.  Seems like the ruler i use has changed a lot in shape and size. 

Perhaps it's because i haven't (yet?) attained some of the more outsized goals i had as a younger man... i'm sure to some extent that's true.  I'd hate to think i ever "settled" for a lesser version of the younger me's dreams.  But as you grow older, it's perhaps inevitable the gap between reality and desire closes one way or another. 

And for those who at one time entertained thoughts of playing professional sports, founding a hugely successful company, becoming a grammy-winning rockstar, or winning a Nobel prize -- well, one day you may wake up and discover you're not quite the Michael Jordan you once thought.  As the years pass, most folks either rationalize their achievements or downsize their goals.  Very few choose to live with the actual gap, and the dissonance & dissatisfaction that may come from not changing the goal or the goalposts.

I still consider myself young at heart, but i'll be turning 40 this year.  While i hope to end up a very old man someday, it's sobering to realize that by some projections my life could already be half over.  Makes you wonder about the road you've been traveling, the map you've been following.  Is there a greener destination ahead somewhere, or should i just be enjoying the journey?  What's really important to me, material success or just spiritual enlightenment?  In short: what will it take for me to be happy with the time i've spent breathing in the air? 

Obviously these aren't simple questions, nor are they likely to have short or simple answers.  But i do know that both questions & answers are a good bit different from 20 years ago when i was in college.  I still have dreams of founding another company, of doing what i can to change the world for the better, but i also have more straightforward goals of raising a family and spending time with my wife & son -- hell, these days i'm pretty happy if i manage to get out & play a little ultimate frisbee and come home without an injury ;)  Still, i hope some of my loftier aspirations haven't been completely downgraded.  And perhaps i can say i've made a bit of progress towards a few of them.  But being honest with yourself about where you started & where you stand isn't always an easy task.

This morning i happened across this piece about Allen Iverson.  Like many men who border on "short" (with the right hat, i tell people i'm 5' 9"), i sometimes have a bit of a chip on my shoulder.  When i play sports i probably try a bit too hard to show i'm just as good as the guys a few inches taller, and i pride myself on playing well and without fear.  Guys like Iverson and Steve Nash have always been an inspiration to me, simply because they compete with other NBA players who might be a foot taller and outweigh them by more than 100 lbs.  Yet they're stil fearless, even dominant at times.  But this piece told a different story about Iverson, one that explains him getting better with age -- not to mention approaching the game with a different attitude, even a different set of values.  What's interesting is that he describes much of the change in his perspective coming from his relationship with his kids, and how he would like that relationship to be in the future.  I think maybe i'm starting to understand what that's about.

So i hope i'm making progress towards my goals, and also that i haven't reset those goalposts too much from when i was younger.  And i do hope i've gotten a little better at the game i've chosen to play -- that is, entrepreneurship.  But perhaps most importantly, i think i've started to realize i'm not just playing for myself anymore... i'm playing for a team called "family".  And perhaps playing the game well is just as important as winning.  Actually, scratch that -- playing well *is* winning.

well time to wrap up all this sappy introspection.  i just heard the halftime buzzer, and i think i need to help change a diaper.  see ya on the court...

All Your Betas belong to Google

had to happen sometime... Google now owns your beta (see item #11)

more Google logo fun here

Searching Together: The Del.icio.us Taste of Social Search

Well it's been a bit of a scramble, but it looks like our January Search SIG meeting is going to be a real winner!

This month we'll be talking about how social bookmarking & tags are becoming integrated with search technology.  Our speakers will include the founders of the following cool startups:

• Joshua Schachter, Del.icio.us (recently acquired by Yahoo)
• Kevin Rose, Digg.com
• Michael Tanne, Wink.com
• Manish Chandra, Kaboodle.com

Our panel discussion will be moderated by Charlene Li of Forrester Research, and following the panel we'll also have live demos by each of the companies listed above.

For more information on the event and to pre-register, please visit the Search SIG blog or the SDForum website (note: please register in advance, we expect to sell out for this event).

(ps - many kudos to my SIG co-chair Jeff Clavier for pulling together an awesome lineup of speakers during/over the holidays, and while traveling back & forth to Paris no less -- sacre bleu!)

next SVMN mtng: Technology & Microfinance (Mon, 1/9)

The next Silicon Valley Microfinance Network meeting will be held on Monday January 9th at the eBay / PayPal Conference Center in San Jose, and our speaker will be Janine Firpo. 

Janine will be presenting her perspective on the appropriate role of technology in the field of microfinance, as well as her experiences building a Remote Transaction System with HP in Uganda.

To register for the event, please click here or visit the SVMN website for additional details.

free mickey. support creative commons & the EFF.

check it out: Larry Lessig talks about the demise of freedom and the expansion of copyright law.  really great presentation, and an important subject we've all probably overlooked.

(the talk is from OsCon 2002, but the info & presentation is still very topical)

for more info check out the death of free culture, then go do something about it and contibute to the EFF or support creative commons.

interesting item you probably didn't know:  when Walt Disney (the person) was first creating Walt Disney (the company), US copyright law only protected a limited set of publishing technology for a period of 14 years.  these days, copyright control has been extended to a period of 70 years or more, and over a variety of everyday-use media that were previously unregulated.