Economic innovation for a bright new world

Behavior

PhD bubble

Monday - June 06, 2011.

Matt Might, assistant Professor at the University of Utah does an interesting set of charts

on what it means to have a PhD in relationship to being the master of many trades you need to be as an entrepreneur or an experienced VC. It demonstrates visually how we should not put so much stock in formal education or what Peter Thiel refers to as the most worrisome bubble

in the U.S. today. More on how valuable a college degree is here

Tags: Education

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Leave Ballmer; How low can you go

Tuesday - May 31, 2011.

by Georges van Hoegaerden

Influential hedge fund manager David Einhorn called Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer "the biggest overhang" on the company's stock at an investment conference, six months after we suggested he should leave. The problem however is not the executives Steve got rid off, but the ones he did not. The only change that can save Microsoft is a change to its core operating principles, and many large companies guided by socialistic boards will simply die in consensus before they ever give in. [Links: AppleInsider]
Talking about elephants that take a while to kill, GoDaddy CEO did the inexcusable and rebutted his actions on their website. Rather than to defend his actions as helping the locals protect their crop, he should have funded an operation to relocate the close-to-extinct animal. But he revels in turning the controversy into a monetary benefit. No surprise perhaps from someone who uses boobs to sell internet real estate. How low can you really go? Now you know why he shows up in Haiti too. [Links CNN]

Tags: Microsoft, GoDaddy, Economy, Crisis, Templeton

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Oprah Masterclass; Higher Education bubble

Monday - April 11, 2011.

by Georges van Hoegaerden

Every entrepreneur should watch Oprah's Masterclass where she describes her rise from suppression in a way every entrepreneur will. Follow your heart and authentic passion, and ignore prejudice and precedents (my words). [Links: Oprah]
Peter Thiel (PayPal co-founder, hedge fund manager and venture capitalist) says what I believed for a long time. Higher education is in a bubble, and business gives too many free passes in life to students who don't deserve (just yet) such real world credentials. I have never hired on academic credentials in startups, only on passion, desire and ability to execute. Being a judge on the Venture Capital competition (VCIC) underscored the fact academic credentials in Finance represent an even bigger bubble. Few MBA's wanting to become VCs are taught or understand that you cannot put a valuation on a company when you don't know the business and its conversion rates. Hats off Peter. [Links: TechCrunch, VCIC]

Tags: Venture Capital, SEC, Education, Free-market, Crowd-funding, VCIC, Oprah, Finance, Clarium Capital

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Bye bye Ebay

Sunday - March 27, 2011.

by Georges van Hoegaerden

Daniel Leffel, a former eBay employee wrote an interesting piece

a while ago of how eBay allegedly manipulates transactions thereby destroying the trust its free-market relies on. It is a must read to anyone who is trying to do business on eBay.

Even for a casual seller like me, who is trying to get rid of a hardly used PowerBook, eBay has lost the trust I put it in by harboring three false buyers in a row. And worse, leaves one supposed buyer the ability to leave negative seller comment, without actually forking over the money that was agreed to. Instead suggesting to circumvent eBay's protection policies, a trap I won't fall for. Yet, in terms of feedback left in the marketplace, a buyer who is not prevails, "supported" by eBay.

You could argue how to prevent each of these fake buyers to participate on eBay (and it should), but the fact that eBay has become a marketplace in which a highly popular item does not sell is a sign eBay has lost its credibility. No amount of free listings can compensate for that. Three strikes and you are out for me.

Nice knowing you eBay.

Tags: Free-market, eBay

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Zinio iMagazine, University programs

Thursday - January 13, 2011.

by Georges van Hoegaerden

I love Zinio on my Macbook Air which beats carrying around stacks of magazines when traveling, and I am surprised they haven’t been scooped up yet. Apple is undoubtedly going to enter the magazine business, in fact I wonder why they have not already tucked magazines right into iBooks.
A university employee yesterday described to me the entrepreneurial programs at universities as an oxymoron, where some high and mighty educational bureaucrat thinks he can ‘direct’ these university companies to success. Kind of like an admin telling an entrepreneur how to become an entrepreneur. I happen to think universities can be great sources of innovation, the minute they are pulled into the real world cleanly, and once they are firmly attached to macro-economic need. At that point students would be very well served by someone teaching them which investors to avoid.

Tags: University programs, The Funded, Zinio, Magazines, Investors, Adeo Ressi, iBooks

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Respect as currency

Tuesday - January 11, 2011.

by Georges van Hoegaerden

Establish a relationship before you ask people favors, is what I told an investor today who deployed loan-shark tactics to a European startup and having the company moved to the U.S. now finds out that growing the business requires more than money, it requires authentic vision and relationships based on respect. Squeezing entrepreneurs does not garner my respect.

Tags: SDVG, Limited Partners, Europe, Relationship, Department of Commerce, General Partners, VCs, Australia, Entrepreneur

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The need for a new habitat of innovation

Friday - September 03, 2010.

by Georges van Hoegaerden

The Silicon Valley emperor is dead. And as a result leaves behind a graveyard of underperformance that begs for a new ecosystem...