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New iinnovate with Randy Komisar Up

The new iinnovate episode is up with with Randy Komisar (partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers). We went a bit longer on format this time, going for 25 minutes. Would love any feedback!

Essential Software for MBA Students

I wrote an article for the Stanford Business Reporter this week about productivity-enhancing software programs. As the suggestions are more broadly applicable, I am republishing a condensed version of the article here.

(Note that I haven’t included some of the big ones; I’m assuming you already know about Office, Firefox, Skype, anti-spyware etc. Also, apologies to the Mac faithful – we are just doing Windows this time. Enjoy!)

Stop Cutting and Pasting: Anagram (link)

You get an email about an appointment. You then painstakingly copy and paste the info from the information into your Outlook calendar. No more! With Anagram, you simply highlight the information, hit F12 and all the information goes straight into your calendar! Anagram parses through the text, placing the proper information in the appropriate fields. Anagram also works with email signatures, bringing them quickly into your Contacts. If you only download one program from this article, this should be it.

Paste Unformatted Text: PureText  (link)

Find yourself “referencing” Wikipedia in your PowerPoint presentation? If so, you may have noticed that annoying links and formatting get copied over when all you wanted is the text. PureText is a tiny, neat liitle app which allows you to paste text into another application, without getting all the formatting from the original source. PureText is easy to use, simply use WINDOWS+V instead of Ctrl+V.

Keep Your System In Shape: TuneUp Utilities (link)

When you get bloated, unhealthy and slow, you go to the gym. What can your computer do? Why, use TuneUp Utilities.  TuneUp Utilitie has a one-click wizard which makes your system faster, slimmer and more secure. All important aspects of system configuration, security, cleanup and maintenance can be accessed through an slick, easy-to-use interface.

Create Cool Screen Shots: Snag-It (link)

I used SnagIt for all the cool screen shots in this post. Yes, I know you can capture screen elements with PrintScreen, but PrintScreen is to SnagIt what pre-made sandwiches are to In-n-Out burgers. SnagIt lets you grab images of Web sites and software applications. Editing tools allow you to circle important areas, and add arrows and text with a single click. You even can capture video and record screen action.

Tiny PowerPoint Files: NX PowerLite (link)

NXPowerLite is a great little app .NXPowerLite optimizes Powerpoint documents – crunches presentations from several MBs down to a hundred KB or so, with minimal data warp. Works great for emailing a large project to your group.

Photos: Picasa (link)

I thought everybody already knew about Picasa, but I was over at two consecutive dinners last weekend where the host didn’t have it. Simply put, it’s the best and most fun way to organize and share photos on your computer.

Easy Online Backup: Mozy (link)

Sure you may own a backup hard drive, but when was the last time you actually used it? Mozy doesn’t require any external hard drive, it automatically and securely backs up your system to a secure and private online backup whenever you turn on your computer. To be honest, I have never used Mozy (I use the similar online backup service Carbonite), but my friends Erik, Kayne, and Walt Mossberg swear it’s better, so I defer to them.

Fast Email Search: Lookout (link)  X1 (link)

It can take ages to file and sort through all of your emails. Lookout is fast search for your e-mail, files, and desktop integrated with Microsoft Outlook. Lookout X1 will find your search terms hiding nearly anywhere in your Outlook or public mailbox - subjects, bodies, phone numbers, addresses, etc.

I should note that many swear by other desktop search products such as X1, Copernic and Google Desktop. I decided to recommend Lookout here as it is the simplest and doesn’t slow down your computer.

Note that if you have Outlook 2007, you may want to stick with the default Windows Search application.

MyLifeOrganized (link)

MyLifeOrganized is a turbo version of Outlook Tasks. It’s a great little app for people who like to prioritize. The task outliner will help you to organize your goals, projects and tasks into a tree. The to-do list will generate actions that require immediate attention to keep you focused.

Hope you found this helpful. For the computer geeks out there, I’m sure this will spark debate and other recommendations, so let the nerdfight begin in the comment suggestions.

Next issue of the reporter I will be featuring “Useful Web Sites” – so let me know of suggestions.

Pjotro vs. Dj eFFeX

Check out this awesome new campaign for the N-series of Nokia Phones. The idea is a virtual competition between two artists: Pjotro, a musician/dancer/engineer who has made a special suit that makes music in response to his movements, and DJ eFFex, an amazing beat-boxer. Using your mouse you can create a dance-off between the two; the artist that commands the most mouse time wins. This is very cool.

http://www.pjotrovsdjeffex.com/

PS - I'm not clear on whether these two actually exist or were just made up by Nokia. From looking at some videos online, I'd guess that eFFex is real, Pjorto is made up.

[Via RGS]

Technology Tasting at Facebook

This evening I was fortunate to be invited to the Facebook "Technology Tasting". Basically, it was a bunch of Facebook folks and people from around the valley eating and schmoozing. Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz both talked. It was an incredible event and I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a place with a higher density of IQ per square foot.

Although Facebook doesn't get a lot of buzz, I believe that it is set to be one of the defining web properties of our generation. It is enormously useful to millions of people and is growing at a dizzying pace. Ask an 18 year old what web sites he or she regularly uses and the answer will almost invariably start with Facebook. (Google comes next. Youtube, MSN/AIM and Wikipedia often round out the list. Yahoo is almost never mentioned.) Tellingly, Facebook is one of the only companies which consistently wins engineering talent when going head-to-head with Google.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the event. Some interesting take-aways:

• The team there seems pretty set on a grand vision for Facebook. They do not see it as a US college social network, instead they see it as a social utility that virtually everybody will use. The data seems to back this up. Facebook is growing strongest in non-US and non-college markets. Two of the biggest areas of market growth are Canada and UK. Furthermore, facebook users who graduate from school don't see any significant drop in usage.
• Users spend an inordinate amount of time on Facebook. Over half of Facebook users use Facebook daily. With approximately 18 million users, Facebook currently accounts for about 1% of all time spent online. (!)
• Though neither Mark nor Dustin spoke much about MySpace, I spoke with some other folks at the event and there seems to be a general consensus that MySpace is waaay overcounting registered users. Many people think that perhaps 70-80% of MySpace's reported 150 million users are spam or inactive.
• Facebook is set to grow to 50 million users by the end of the year and 200 million two years from now.
• Facebook seems to have an incredibly cool and exciting culture. My impression of the company was that it is young, high-energy, hyper-smart and hard-core techie. While friendly and fun, it is definitely not a laid-back place; people are passionate about what they do and work accordingly.

When Mark opened up for questions, I asked him the following: "You articulated a compelling vision for Facebook as an independent company. Can you envision a  in which Facebook would be acquired and, if so, what would that be?" I thought it was an appropriate question: who wants to be recruited by Facebook and end up working for Yahoo?

He had an interesting answer. From his perspective, while he could envision possible acquisitions, "when you have something that's growing this quickly and is providing this much value in the world, that's just not the right thing to consider." He went on to say that, unlike other web companies, Facebook is primarily a technology company. Therefore it doesn't make a lot of sense to be acquired by, say, a media company. He alluded to other options for exit, including an IPO.

OK, so I'm way over my self-imposed (and increasingly ignored) length limit, so I'm off to do my homework.

Update: Dave from Master of 500 Hats sat right in front of me and has some interesting thoughts on the event plus photos.

The Terror of Dumb and Dumber

From my friends Tal and Julie at TrailerSpy:

Ever wonder what Scarface would be like as a romantic comedy?  What about Dumb and Dumber as a horror film?  Tal combed through YouTube to find the best trailer re-mixes, and he found some hilarious ones.   There all ranked from #15 to #1, and they are too funny.   

Click here to see the full list:   
http://www.trailerspy.com/hidden/the-top-15-trailer-remixes-of-all-time/

Cool Mustang Billboard

Wow! Cool series of billboards from Mustang.

So, turns out the secret is that the billboard is made out of Lexan, a translucent material that blurs the image of everything behind it, creating the illusion of motion.

[Via New Media Blogger]

Vimeo: Taking Video from Commodity to Community

Hung out with my good buddy last weekend. Jon is one of those rare people with whom I have an endless number of things to talk about. Which is fortunate, because he talks a lot. :) Jon has a really cool job running Business Development and Marketing at CollegeHumor. Those who know him know that there is no better person in the world for that job.

One cool thing he showed me was Vimeo. The best way to describe it is a video version of Flickr. Vimeo really gets how take a relative commodity, streaming video, and build a great community around it. The site doesn't focus on stolen clips, but instead on interesting original user-generated content. The feel of the site is much warmer, more creative and cooler than the bigger players. To immediately see how different it is from a site like YouTube, check the comments on posted videos. YouTube comments seem to almost always be negative, poorly written and rude. Vimeo's comments are positive, witty and helpful.* It is just a much better vibe and cooler product. The guys at Connected Ventures have, once again, done a great job.

In the meantime, here are two Vimeo clips of his trip that Jon uploaded:

Matt tours the Stanford d.school on Vimeo

Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, at night, just after it rained. on Vimeo

* Hey Jon, you should upload your "Stuck in the Elevator" clip to YouTube so we can do a comparison of the types of comments generated by the two sites.

Meg Whitman on Innovation

Today's guest in our Entrepreneurship and VC class was eBay CEO, Meg Whitman. We get a fair share of CEOs visit us at Stanford, but I found Meg to be especially sharp and eloquent.

 

In class, I asked Meg the following question: "In strategy class we learn that companies are typically either great at executing or great at innovating. When I compare what the eBay's site does now to what it did five years ago, it's not much different. How do you think about innovation at eBay and, indeed, is eBay an innovative company?"

 

Essentially, she said sort of. In her mind there are three types of innovation: evolutionary, synergistic, and revolutionary.

 

Evolutionary innovation: These are incremental changes a company makes to its core business. eBay is constantly doing stuff like this, often behind the scenes, which is why the general experience is much different now than in 2002. eBay, like many big, well managed companies, does this well.

Synergistic innovation: These are innovations formed by bringing different companies and services together. How eBay has done this is by letting sites speak with eBay, Skype and Paypal. So eBay has allowed other sites to access its product listings, Skype may be integrating with other services such as Yahoo IM, and Paypal can be used by smaller commerce sites. Meg feels that eBay has been a leader in enabling others to leverage its services.

Revolutionary innovation: These are major disruptive companies which change markets, like Skype, YouTube, Paypal, and, indeed, eBay. Meg's belief is that these types of companies do not emerge from within larger companies like eBay and should therefore be acquired.

Sorry for the long post, but I don't have time to write a shorter one.

Kids Nowadays...

My cousin Brad just emailed me this great read in the NYT on how kids express themselves online. It talks about how they are increasingly putting their lives on the internet via photos, blogs, videos, etc.

It's a trend I only half get. Ostensibly, I do have a podcast, facebook profile, myspace page, flickr account and blog. Yet it doesn't pervade my life as it pervades the lives of the people in the article. To me it sometimes seems strange. At one hand it seems natural for people to express who they are to the world, on the other hand, with all the photos and videos floating around, it's hard to imagine how anybody will run for political office in the future.

Say Anything (NYT) [Thanks for the link Brad!]

Screen Shots from the Future: Google

Some thoughts on where the Evolution of Search is taking us.

[via Geeking with Greg ]