Source: Gizmodo, “Darpa’s Balloon Challenge Over after Nine Hours”

If you haven’t hear yet, DARPA hosted a Balloon Challenge last Saturday that challenged the social networkers of the world to find the 10 eight-foot red balloons that were hoisted up in the air in 10 non-descript locations.  They went up at 10am EST and then came down at 4pm local time for each location.

My friend Christian Rodriguez and I hosted a team that set out to solve this challenge. Our team was called the Red Balloon Race.  In a mere two weeks, we were able to build a website, set up Google Ad Words, create social networking via facebook, email universities and high-schools across America to inform them about our contest and set out to spread the word about this race.  Our strategy (not so surprisingly) was very similar to that of the wining team’s.  The OTHER MIT team ended up winning, but my belief that it is because they received the most media coverage.  People who found us, The Red Balloon Race, was because they googled us. I’m sure those last 2 balloons that we were missing were given to the MIT team via their advertisements in newspapers and online articles.

Regardless, Congrats to the MIT team – it was a fun challenge! To read more about the MIT winning team:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10411211-93.html?tag=mncol;txt

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT FOR THIS PROJECT!!!

Cambridge, MA is a good place to be when you are working in the start-up world.  There are events going on almost every day helping to support the young minds in the area to pursue their goals and achieve their dreams.  Last week, I attend the 12^th Annual MIT Venture Capital Conference.  Well, I didn’t actually attend the conference itself, but I did attend the free Startup Showcase the night before.  The conference is an all day event where the people who attend are half Venture Capitalists and the other half as representatives of a startup company.  A great way to meet some VC’s for some funding!

The Startup Showcase was held in the MIT Media Lab and companies such as Pubget, Immerz and Shortbord appeared at this showcase.  Thirty early-stage companies from all different industries appeared in this showcase that was hosted at the MIT Museum on Thursday, December 3, 2009.  A few members from each company were there displaying their product and describing their business model and how the product worked.

The Startup Showcase acted as an early kick off to the MIT Venture Capital Conference.  It was not as packed as I would have expected, but there were a fair number of people who attended. With a cash bar and free appetizers, the hungry MIT students and MIT Sloan graduates were well represented.   The Startup Showcase had a “contest” where each of the attendees were asked to vote for their favorite company at the showcase via text message.  The two companies with the most votes were then given the opportunity to pitch their idea to the entire conference the following day.  The two winning companies were:

ShortBord

“Shortbord was founded in Boston in June 2009 with a single goal: to make online advertising better through aligning the incentives of advertisers, web applications and most importantly, the individuals that create value on the social web.”

The team from Shortbord is made up of a bunch of Finance and Private Equity guys.  It is an interesting idea for “nouveau advertising”, but can they implement it?  They are a group of smart guys, but I sure hope that they get a social media marketing rep soon. They could do a lot for creating a bit more exposure and growing their affiliate publisher relationships.  Check it out though, a very interesting business model. This is a type of company you’d see on Shark Tank!

StayClassy.org

“Stay Classy makes it easy to find, plan and support charity events in all sorts of cool new ways. We hope you’ll never think of philanthropy in the same way again.”

I can’t even count how many of my friends have told me “I want to make a cook book!” Truth be told, I am guilty as well.  I have probably thought this more than once throughout my lifetime.

Once I wanted to make a  book titled “Me and my Spatula”.  This was when I first moved to New York City for my freshman year summer and I lived with 5 other girls.  In our tiny cramped New York apartment, we all shared rooms and it was a new experience for all of us.  Everyone talks about how expensive New York food is, but it’s hard to not go to all of the restaurants when you don’t even know how to cook!  My mom came to visit us for the weekend and visited our apartment for the first time. When she reached the ktichen she looked around and was surprised by how clean we kept it.  Then, she opend the cubboards and drawers to realize that out of the 6 of us, we only owned one spatula. Trust me – there is a lot you can do with one pot, one pan and one spatula. (My mother convinced us it was time we buy at least one pot and one pan to go with our spatula.)

The other book I wanted to make is planned to be called “Cooking for the Modern Single Girl”. To give you a bit of background on how this evolved, I had 2 roommates in New York for my first year out of college. We again lived in a very tiny apartment.  However, the difference was this time we knew how to cook. We started experimenting with new recipes and started a tradition where every Monday we would rotate and each cook for the whole apartment!

Now for all you dreamers out there, Coolio has made a cook book.  He is now known as the “Ghetto Gourmet”. That’s right folks – if Coolio can do it, you can.  Just remember to take pictures of your scrumptious meals and write down the recipe.  It takes maybe 5 extra minutes at the end of your meal and who knows maybe you will get famous from it!

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/dishing/2009/11/coolio_intervie.html

Although those days may be long sometimes, there are a few little things that you can do to keep your day to day life interesting.  Smashing Magazine publishes monthly desktop backgrounds that you can download depending on your personal preference.

There is an option to have a calendar built into the background or you can just use the image. Some are holiday themed, while others use the natural aspect of design. Take a look for yourself. There are so many that you could change your desktop background each week if you wanted to!

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/31/desktop-wallpaper-calendar-november-2009/

This is my desktop background this week!

Location: Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, UK

Butt Hole Road

A very memorable street in the UK has been renamed.  It was memorable not because of any notable event, but because of its name – “Butt Hole Road”.

“Butt Hole Road” in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire has finally been renamed by its residents.  Now called “Archers Way”, its residents are hoping for a happier lifestyle.  They pooled together a total of  £300 to officially  change the name of their street.  May 26, 2009 was the last day that the residents of Butt Hole Road had to hear jokes about the street that they lived on.

Seriously though, who would voluntarily choose to move onto this street?

I have always been a big fan of interesting new products.   With a strong entrepreneurial spirit, I am a strong supporter of the new product industry.   There are so many new products emerge, but only 1 of every 100 will gain some “stickiness”.   Stickiness is a product’s ability to become known to the general public.  For instance, a product like Razor Scooters and Furbys were very sticky because they could be brought up in most conversations and most people you were talking to would know what you were talking about.

Let me introduce you to one of the newest “sticky” products – The Snuggie. A Blanket with Sleeves! Do you ever sit on your couch and try to cover your toes and your arms at the same time, but your blanket just isn’t big enough? Well this is your solution! It is a simply – a backwards jacket made out of a soft blanket material! It is only $19.95 + s&h at <https://www.getsnuggie.com/flare/next>

They even come in all Different Colors!  I know that it seems pretty cheezy in the pictures, but my friend has one and I’ve tried them. The snuggie is pretty comfy – you can even throw it on your bed as a blanket before you go to sleep!

Innovation & The Recession

“chaos creates opportunity and leaner times bring focus”

Re: The Silver Lining, MIT Tech Review, http://www.technologyreview.com/business/22477/

We face the ultimate question if a recession is really the best time to be starting a new company.  There are two ways to see it: Resources are cheap and there is practically free-labor available, but on the flip side there is no money to support  these start-ups and your consumers are not looking to spend money.

It is not surprise that most companies that have emerged are tech firms where their success is based upon their user base.  People are able to take their skills that may seem simple to them (Blogging, Twittering, Social Media) and using it to develop innovative yet simple ideas that cater to their consumers.  People are curious beings and  are generally accepting to new ideas especially when they view it as a “novel” idea.

-          Mobclix – Krishna Subramanian – Helps iPhone developers monitor and profit from their apps

-          Pownce – Leah Culver – now-defunct microblogging site, now she is working with social technologies at the bloggigng site Six Apart

-          12seconds – Sol Lipman – creating “Twitter” for Video

POSITIVES: People have passion, There is talent, Large companies fall & new openings are made, Cheap resources, VCs actually like writing smaller checks to internet companies vs. one big check to a large company

NEGATIVES: Everyone wants to do it, Most Star-ups flop, Hard to force a sale, Hard to recruit people by providing stock options – not as appealing, Difficult to predict the next success

HOT AREAS: Social Media, iPhone/Mobile space, Open-Source software

When it comes down to it, you’ll never know if you’ll succeed until you try.  This is the time to take the risk, if you can motivate yourself to take the leap.

Pho 32 & Shabu

2 W 32nd St # 3
New York, NY 10001
(212) 695-0888

Sometimes all you need is a nice big bowl of soup noodles.  What better way than casual, inexpensive, and tasty?

I went to “Linner” (Lunch/Dinner) with a good friend Ben yesterday. Pho32 is a small place in Korea-Town New York that is right across from Pinkberry. It is a great place if you are looking for some great soup noodles or Shabu Shabu. It is an unconventional mixtaure of two different types of cuisine: Pho, which is a Viatnamese noodle soup, and Shabu Shabu, which is a Japanese hot pot dish.

We had the Pho. It is ~$7 for a Medium bowl or $8 for a Large bowl of noodle soup. It is a large bowl of soup noodles with some beef and tendon in it. The soup has been cooked for hours so it is full of flavor. It is a ncie simple noodle dish that hits just the right spot!

Pho32 is a great place to go for someone who has never had Pho before as well. The menu has “instructions” on how to eat Pho in the best way! It describes what all the extra sauces are for and how to add the cilantro, bean sprouts and lime to make the soup perfect! Go try it out!

“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”- Khalil Gibran

“Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.” – Henry David Thoreau

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/technology/internet/14twitter.html?hp