Friday, November 15, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Amazon is Buying the Infrastructure
Amazon.com to Acquire Manufacturer of Robotics
BY EVELYN M. RUSLI
Beth Hall/Bloomberg NewsA Kiva robot moves a shelf at a warehouse in Fayetteville, Ark.
Amazon.com is buying an army of robots.
The online retailer announced on Monday that it is acquiring Kiva Systems, a maker of robots that service warehouses, for $775 million in cash. Amazon, a customer of Kiva’s, is buying the robotics company as it builds out its vast network of warehouses and tries to improve its margins.
“Amazon has long used automation in its fulfillment centers, and Kiva’s technology is another way to improve productivity by bringing the products directly to employees to pick, pack and stow,” Dave Clark, Amazon.com’s vice president of global customer fulfillment said in a statement. “Kiva shares our passion for invention.”
Article Tools
Kiva, based in North Reading, Mass., builds robots to help retailers manage their inventory and fulfill orders. Founded in 2003 by its chief executive, Mick Mountz — a former employee of Webvan, the once high-flying delivery service that folded after the dot-com bust — Kiva services many large retailers, like Gap, Staples and Saks. Its investors include Bain Capital Ventures, the venture capital arm of Bain Capital, and Meakem Becker Venture Capital.
“I’m delighted that Amazon is supporting our growth so that we can provide even more valuable solutions in the coming years,” Mr. Mountz said in a statement.
“Amazon has not had great margins,” Jason Helfstein, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Company. “One has to believe they looked at this and thought, ‘Why not just own it and take all the technology in house?’”
The acquisition comes as Amazon aggressively adds distribution centers to service its growing consumer base. The company has heavily promoted its Prime service, which provides customers two-day shipping for $79 a year. Last year, Amazon said it planned to add 17 warehouses, bringing its total to 69.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.
In the crowded world of e-commerce, the giant retailer has tried to differentiate itself with its wide breadth of products, its competitive pricing and fast delivery.
Folding Kiva into its system may also help Amazon trim costs. In filings, the retailer has discussed the difficulty of filling and tracking orders as it grows. “As we continue to add fulfillment and warehouse capability or add new businesses with different fulfillment requirements, our fulfillment network becomes increasingly complex and operating it becomes more challenging,” Amazon noted in a recent filing.
Kiva ranks as Amazon’s second-largest acquisition, behind its $847 milliontakeover of the shoe and accessories retailer Zappos.com in 2009.
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 20, 2012
An earlier version of this article misstated the given name of the founder of Kiva Systems. He is Mick Mountz, not Mike Mountz.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Illustrations by Our Friend, Nigel Holmes, from Billion People Project
The New York Times posted an article about the two recent Nobel Prize winners, François Englert and Peter Higgs, for their explanation of how particles acquire mass:
>>>Article<<<
Nigel Holmes is one of the founders of Billion People Project
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Happy Thursday - Two Things from the Week: Leap Motion and Silk Road
Infrared similar to Xbox Kinect maybe? We just got a Leap Motion given to our club to mess around with. Let me know if you have any cool UI/UX ideas!
Also, most of you probably heard Silk Road got busted yesterday. Here is the story Des passed along to me last night. Bitcoin took a hit as well with the bust. Might be interesting to see where the currency and online marketplace go now, or what the next big innovation in the virtual marketplace might be.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
The Circular Economy - More to Come
Joe Nevrivy had found this on Reddit and shared it on my Facebook wall:
Phonebloks have accelerated the talk about the circular economy, which is more appealing to me I think the shared economy because of the mental models might be easier to break into in our culture. The stigmas, or negative associations, surrounding "sharing" your possessions might be greater recycling them.
Some thought leaders:
James Greyson - http://blindspot.org.uk/
http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/
Andy Stanford-Clark - http://stanford-clark.com/
Joaseph Nicks was telling me about a millionaire lady from Asia who started recycling paper from landfills near LA. Zhang Yin is now one of the richest self-made women in the world. The waste that we have been producing for the past century has value, and there will be billion dollar industries created from our waste. The way our system is built right now is somewhat flawed:
“We define GDP so that extraction of non-renewable resources counts as production rather than depletion of natural capital stocks and so that medical care and funeral expenses caused by pollution-induced disease add to the GDP while the production of the pollution itself does not reduce it. (Cobb and Daly, 1989 for thoughtful discussion of alternative measures of economic welfare)” – p. 23, Business Dynamics, Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World, MIT Professor John D. Sterman
So we don't account for real value in our waste as well as not taking into account the costs of producing from natural resources. One more thing from Professor Sterman:
“Side effects are not a feature of reality but a sign that our understanding of the system is narrow and flawed.”
Phonebloks have accelerated the talk about the circular economy, which is more appealing to me I think the shared economy because of the mental models might be easier to break into in our culture. The stigmas, or negative associations, surrounding "sharing" your possessions might be greater recycling them.
Some thought leaders:
James Greyson - http://blindspot.org.uk/
http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/
Andy Stanford-Clark - http://stanford-clark.com/
Joaseph Nicks was telling me about a millionaire lady from Asia who started recycling paper from landfills near LA. Zhang Yin is now one of the richest self-made women in the world. The waste that we have been producing for the past century has value, and there will be billion dollar industries created from our waste. The way our system is built right now is somewhat flawed:
“We define GDP so that extraction of non-renewable resources counts as production rather than depletion of natural capital stocks and so that medical care and funeral expenses caused by pollution-induced disease add to the GDP while the production of the pollution itself does not reduce it. (Cobb and Daly, 1989 for thoughtful discussion of alternative measures of economic welfare)” – p. 23, Business Dynamics, Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World, MIT Professor John D. Sterman
So we don't account for real value in our waste as well as not taking into account the costs of producing from natural resources. One more thing from Professor Sterman:
“Side effects are not a feature of reality but a sign that our understanding of the system is narrow and flawed.”
Monday, September 16, 2013
Indywood and Crowdinvesting
Another entrepreneur following his passion in the film industry, Will Sampson is going for it. He grew up in Fort Collins and is looking to make his dream a reality. Spread the word if you can to help his IndieGoGo campaign.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Guy Kawasaki - Art of Start
I like the podcast on Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders a bit more (free on iTunes), but he has some good points, especially about making meaning and teams.
Found a great video about Yvon and Patagonia.
..." Most people have an exit strategy, they want to grow something to a certain point and then they want to cash out and go do something that they care about. Yvon did something that he cared about all along..."
http://www.complex.com/tv/shows/cut-show/patagonia-history-cut-show#ooid=pscGEwZTp7Syjozi2tweH5VVsQXi2ZqG
..." Most people have an exit strategy, they want to grow something to a certain point and then they want to cash out and go do something that they care about. Yvon did something that he cared about all along..."
http://www.complex.com/tv/shows/cut-show/patagonia-history-cut-show#ooid=pscGEwZTp7Syjozi2tweH5VVsQXi2ZqG
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Hope school, jobs, and adventures are going well for everyone right now!
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Innovative way to help Parkinson's sufferers eat.
via gizmodo this morning:
http://gizmodo.com/an-amazing-stabilized-spoon-lets-parkinsons-sufferers-1182495585
The app also tracks their condition. Simple, yet imagine the impact this could have on a person's life.
http://gizmodo.com/an-amazing-stabilized-spoon-lets-parkinsons-sufferers-1182495585
The app also tracks their condition. Simple, yet imagine the impact this could have on a person's life.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Cool innovation in Medical Sector
Check out these articles/videos, they are really cool
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.popsci.com/science/
http://www.popsci.com/science/
Friday, August 2, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Two great books I think you should check out
Based on our discussion yesterday, a lot of us are looking for new ideas/experiences to help us grow in new ways, so I thought I would share some really interesting books that have been keeping me active this summer.
The first book is called Moonwalking with Einstein. It tells the story of a journalist who starts following the World Memory Championship and begins learning mnemonic strategies to do incredible memory feats in very short periods of time. Some of the feats include memorizing long lists of random digits, the order of playing cards, thousands of names-to-faces, etc. . I was initially drawn to the book because I want to use these strategies to learn to study even more efficiently for medical school; however, I think the benefit far transcends academic studies and has the potential to improve my effectiveness in every venture/activity I do. Since reading the book, I've started to implement many of the strategies and have done things that I thought were previously impossible. One evening, I memorized every license plate in a parking lot and another day, in just a few hours I memorized a page-long excerpt from a book verbatim. Nevertheless, after those initial successes, I have not been disciplined enough to practice the techniques enough to make them second nature. One of my goals (inspired by the second book, below) between now and Aug 7th, when I head back to Cali is to practice the mnemonic number and association systems every day for at least 20min.
The second book I'd like to recommend is called The Power of Habit. I am midway through it right now. The book is about - you guessed it - habits, which according to some studies account for up to 90% of a person's actions each day. For many years I have been thinking about ways to encourage people to change unhealthy habits: to eat less junk, exercise more. I've seen some of my friends pick up unhealthy addictions to substances and videogames, and I've also often wanted to create/change some of my own habits (such as increase my discipline to practice memory techniques above). Reading the Power of Habit has been a great experience because it not only describes how people's habits have been exploited to create ultra-successful brands/industries (think toothpaste) but also why some successful habit changing programs (alcoholics anonymous) work. I'm a strong believer in self-discipline and hard work, and I think that by recognizing what kinds of signals create cravings and routines, I will be able to remove negative/unproductive habits and replace them with focused clear routines that maximize the results I want.
The first book is called Moonwalking with Einstein. It tells the story of a journalist who starts following the World Memory Championship and begins learning mnemonic strategies to do incredible memory feats in very short periods of time. Some of the feats include memorizing long lists of random digits, the order of playing cards, thousands of names-to-faces, etc. . I was initially drawn to the book because I want to use these strategies to learn to study even more efficiently for medical school; however, I think the benefit far transcends academic studies and has the potential to improve my effectiveness in every venture/activity I do. Since reading the book, I've started to implement many of the strategies and have done things that I thought were previously impossible. One evening, I memorized every license plate in a parking lot and another day, in just a few hours I memorized a page-long excerpt from a book verbatim. Nevertheless, after those initial successes, I have not been disciplined enough to practice the techniques enough to make them second nature. One of my goals (inspired by the second book, below) between now and Aug 7th, when I head back to Cali is to practice the mnemonic number and association systems every day for at least 20min.
The second book I'd like to recommend is called The Power of Habit. I am midway through it right now. The book is about - you guessed it - habits, which according to some studies account for up to 90% of a person's actions each day. For many years I have been thinking about ways to encourage people to change unhealthy habits: to eat less junk, exercise more. I've seen some of my friends pick up unhealthy addictions to substances and videogames, and I've also often wanted to create/change some of my own habits (such as increase my discipline to practice memory techniques above). Reading the Power of Habit has been a great experience because it not only describes how people's habits have been exploited to create ultra-successful brands/industries (think toothpaste) but also why some successful habit changing programs (alcoholics anonymous) work. I'm a strong believer in self-discipline and hard work, and I think that by recognizing what kinds of signals create cravings and routines, I will be able to remove negative/unproductive habits and replace them with focused clear routines that maximize the results I want.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Let me know if you want to join me!
Bill Aulet from MIT and Brad Feld are discussing "Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Lessons to a Successful Startup"
Friday, 7/19 and for more info: http://bit.ly/15AQh6t
Friday, June 28, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Monday, June 10, 2013
Objectified
Objectified from manuel maure on Vimeo.
http://startupsthisishowdesignworks.com/
Joe Gebbia: The Airbnb Story from Piers Fawkes on Vimeo.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Biz Insider
CITI: These 10 Technologies Are Completely Changing The World - ARTICLE
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-disruptive-innovation-2013-5?op=1#ixzz2VOtpN1sx
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/citi-disruptive-innovation-2013-5?op=1#ixzz2VOtpN1sx
Future of Literature:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/01/hachette-ebook-catalog-public-libraries/
http://digital.modernluxury.com/publication/index.php?i=151005&m=&l=&p=72&pre=&ver=swf
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/04/geeks-guide-hugh-howey/
Internet of Things (work in progress)
I'll write more about this, but IoT is the buzzword around the tech industry that is getting a lot of attention. Rightly so because it's looking to be a $14 billion industry soon... more to come, but this is a reminder to myself to keep up with IoT and the news.
http://electricimp.com/product/
http://www.arduino.cc/
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/17/4211552/supermechanical-twine-review
http://electricimp.com/product/
http://www.arduino.cc/
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/17/4211552/supermechanical-twine-review
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Happy Wednesday - If anyone can meet tomorrow or Friday morning for beer or coffee let me know before the whirlwind of finals
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/24/mars-rover-penis-nasa_n_3144656.html?1366792449
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Quotes for the Day
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225971?hootPostID=22716325cc11578051ad230f68782007
Monday, February 25, 2013
My Tree-Hugging Weekend
I'll try and keep this short. Wish you were all with me this weekend for that conference. it was pretty refreshing. I hate public speaking and we had to do it quite a bit ha, but also made some good connections, inside the business school here too. I will let you all know details, but I'd love it if everyone went to this movie I'm going to help set up with some other CU students. It's called the Island President.
I guess the opportunity to help improve the human condition was made even more apparent through the people I met and talked to, ideas we tossed around, and issues we discussed. Even more apparent, was the notion that, if I was going to do business, I had to do it in a sustainable way, for a cause that's bigger than me, and that the power encompassed in a business person of high regards has an incredible amount of influence. Global warming is a pretty insane reality, not affiliated with any political party; it's a human problem with a business solution. How can we make sustainability profitable? Not only is that a multi-billion dollar question, but a multi-billion life-saving one as well.
Maybe it sounds a bit cheesy, but hope to share this vision with ya'll.
Cheers and, to Brad and Sushi Hana in a bit, Kassai,
Nate
Some random things I took away that I just wanted to post so I could look back and remember later:
Billy Parish:
"Making Good" (book)
Solar Mosaic - https://joinmosaic.com/how-it-works
Hunter Lovins:
http://www.natcapsolutions.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=80
http://www.ecovativedesign.com/
http://www.mushroompackaging.com/
http://www.oceanspray.com/
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/05/sea-urchin-co2
http://www.startingbloc.org/stateofsb
I guess the opportunity to help improve the human condition was made even more apparent through the people I met and talked to, ideas we tossed around, and issues we discussed. Even more apparent, was the notion that, if I was going to do business, I had to do it in a sustainable way, for a cause that's bigger than me, and that the power encompassed in a business person of high regards has an incredible amount of influence. Global warming is a pretty insane reality, not affiliated with any political party; it's a human problem with a business solution. How can we make sustainability profitable? Not only is that a multi-billion dollar question, but a multi-billion life-saving one as well.
Maybe it sounds a bit cheesy, but hope to share this vision with ya'll.
Cheers and, to Brad and Sushi Hana in a bit, Kassai,
Nate
Some random things I took away that I just wanted to post so I could look back and remember later:
Billy Parish:
"Making Good" (book)
Solar Mosaic - https://joinmosaic.com/how-it-works
Hunter Lovins:
http://www.natcapsolutions.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=80
http://www.ecovativedesign.com/
http://www.mushroompackaging.com/
http://www.oceanspray.com/
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/05/sea-urchin-co2
http://www.startingbloc.org/stateofsb
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Another Tuesday, Procrastinating the Inevitable with Some Thought
I met with my mentor today after my midterm, discussing ideas and future endeavors, and I think I'm heading in a more focused direction, at least for now. Speaking for myself strictly, a lot of people and tech companies lose sight of their objective, serving the customer that is, while looking for a breakthrough idea or technology. I needed to gain a bigger picture again, step back, evaluate what makes me passionate, and try and focus in on some questions, then narrow down those questions even more.
How can we make sustainability profitable, something that people want and Need?
What existing technologies are out there that can be applied in a more useful fashion?
What are the problems that people face in day-to-day life and how to we solve them?
What are the new/old and growing/stable industries right now?
For example, and then go from there. Jim Collins said, that before you start a vision, ask a question, work on a problem, or whatever else, start with finding and surrounding yourself with motivated excellent trusting people. Peter Drucker said instead of looking for success, look for what you're good at, start with results, and go from there:
http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/management.html
I also had long conversations with my best friend from Atlanta, Carter (check out Loma apparel and be on the watch for other businesses this incredibly hardworking kid will be starting) who (especially you Turley if you're heading to San Diego or circa de) I would love all of you to meet someday, and with Ryan Sutton and Josh about all types of things. They would love to help all of us in anyway possible, and ya'll can trust them as well and as I'm sure you all know.
So this little break I'm taking right now from reading British Historical detective fiction novels is more of a way for me to gather some thoughts and let ya'll know that I'm excited for the future and to see what all of you end up doing. I'll try and come up with some more focused posts in the future ha.
Diverging a bit, I would love to make a post with all our favorite Ted Talks, especially from you Madeline and Tay because I know you both have some good ones. These posts are updatable and editable so if we start a page, we should be able to all keep adding to it and I'll figure out how to make an archive out of it.
Cheers,
Nate
Lemme know if you get this...
Here are some articles I've been looking at this week and some that I had bookmarked away (haven't finished all of them yet). Browse through them if you like:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/02/18/the-most-successful-leaders-do-15-things-automatically-every-day/
http://elitedaily.com/elite/2013/scientists-mice-drunk-develop-instant-sobriety-cure/
http://www.oracle.com/us/c-central/cio-solutions/information-matters/importance-of-data/index.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2013/01/23/one-hedge-fund-aces-essential-investor-reading-list/?utm_campaign=forbestwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
http://rossdawsonblog.com/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2y6Kq1/:5SW$.!l-:bn_$8g5I/laptoplogic.com/resources/64-things-every-geek-should-know/
http://www.werd.com/19005/transporter-off-cloud-storage/
http://elitedaily.com/elite/2012/average/
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/09/picosatellites
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21571889-technology-companies-have-their-eye-africa-ibm-leading-way-next-frontier?fsrc=scn/tw/te/tr/thenextfrontier
http://www.entrepreneur.com/inspiration
How can we make sustainability profitable, something that people want and Need?
What existing technologies are out there that can be applied in a more useful fashion?
What are the problems that people face in day-to-day life and how to we solve them?
What are the new/old and growing/stable industries right now?
For example, and then go from there. Jim Collins said, that before you start a vision, ask a question, work on a problem, or whatever else, start with finding and surrounding yourself with motivated excellent trusting people. Peter Drucker said instead of looking for success, look for what you're good at, start with results, and go from there:
http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/management.html
I also had long conversations with my best friend from Atlanta, Carter (check out Loma apparel and be on the watch for other businesses this incredibly hardworking kid will be starting) who (especially you Turley if you're heading to San Diego or circa de) I would love all of you to meet someday, and with Ryan Sutton and Josh about all types of things. They would love to help all of us in anyway possible, and ya'll can trust them as well and as I'm sure you all know.
So this little break I'm taking right now from reading British Historical detective fiction novels is more of a way for me to gather some thoughts and let ya'll know that I'm excited for the future and to see what all of you end up doing. I'll try and come up with some more focused posts in the future ha.
Diverging a bit, I would love to make a post with all our favorite Ted Talks, especially from you Madeline and Tay because I know you both have some good ones. These posts are updatable and editable so if we start a page, we should be able to all keep adding to it and I'll figure out how to make an archive out of it.
Cheers,
Nate
Lemme know if you get this...
Here are some articles I've been looking at this week and some that I had bookmarked away (haven't finished all of them yet). Browse through them if you like:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/02/18/the-most-successful-leaders-do-15-things-automatically-every-day/
http://elitedaily.com/elite/2013/scientists-mice-drunk-develop-instant-sobriety-cure/
http://www.oracle.com/us/c-central/cio-solutions/information-matters/importance-of-data/index.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2013/01/23/one-hedge-fund-aces-essential-investor-reading-list/?utm_campaign=forbestwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
http://rossdawsonblog.com/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2y6Kq1/:5SW$.!l-:bn_$8g5I/laptoplogic.com/resources/64-things-every-geek-should-know/
http://www.werd.com/19005/transporter-off-cloud-storage/
http://elitedaily.com/elite/2012/average/
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/09/picosatellites
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21571889-technology-companies-have-their-eye-africa-ibm-leading-way-next-frontier?fsrc=scn/tw/te/tr/thenextfrontier
http://www.entrepreneur.com/inspiration
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
On Becoming a Leader...
From the book "On Becoming a Leader," Norman Lear, a well known producer, writer and activist, states that there are four steps in mastering the "context" (the society and culture in which we were born, in which our expectations, opportunities and limitations all come from,) they are as follows:
1) becoming self-expressive
2) listening to the inner voice
3) learning from the right menotrs
4) giving oneself over to a guiding vision
A quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Relience" essay:
"listening to that inner voice and going with it, against all voices to the contrary. I don't know when I started to understand that there was something divine about that inner voice...To go with that-which I confess I do't do all of the time-is the purest and truest thing we have. And when we forgo our own thoughts and opinions, they end up coming back to us from the mouths of others. They come back with an alien majesty...So the lesson is, you believe it. When Ive been most effective, I have listened to that inner voice."
1) becoming self-expressive
2) listening to the inner voice
3) learning from the right menotrs
4) giving oneself over to a guiding vision
A quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Relience" essay:
"listening to that inner voice and going with it, against all voices to the contrary. I don't know when I started to understand that there was something divine about that inner voice...To go with that-which I confess I do't do all of the time-is the purest and truest thing we have. And when we forgo our own thoughts and opinions, they end up coming back to us from the mouths of others. They come back with an alien majesty...So the lesson is, you believe it. When Ive been most effective, I have listened to that inner voice."
Course: "How to Build a Startup"
This is a class that is offered for free online by Steve Blank, Si Valley entrepreneur. Read up on him here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Blank
Here is the course:
https://www.udacity.com/course/ep245
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Blank
Here is the course:
https://www.udacity.com/course/ep245
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