writings about my learnings in technology, ecommerce, startups, and leadership
Hey everyone - I’m sorry I haven’t updated in the while. For the 2 people who read this blog, I’m working to getting back into sharing my learnings, triumphs, and failures. I hope that going forward, this can be an avenue that others can learn from.
“Today’s Best Sellers” is a brand-new Gilt feature that shows our millions of users the day’s most popular products. While the concept of “what’s trending” isn’t new in the retail world, it represents a new way for us to engage our audience by diverging (while complementing) our traditional,…
Yesterday, I officially shut down SnapItTo.Me. I pulled the plugs on the virtual servers (I stopped paying amazon web services money). It was bittersweet and ironic that I was wearing my SnapItTo.Me swag t-shirt the day I did so. Unintentional, I swear!
I’ll be writing more updates on where I am now, as a Senior Product Manager at Lot18. But that’s for another post. My experience with SnapItTo.Me uniquely led me to be where I am today. I learned a ton during my time building SnapItTo.Me, a post I’ll be writing soon as well - after a couple years I’m finally ready to share. But for now, I commemorate the end of an important part of my life and the beginning of another.
We’ve been getting lots of questions about whether New York Startup Meetup will be back at SXSW in 2012…and the answer?
Yup. We’ll be there. And we’re excited. Because in addition to having a lot of the great team back from last year (with NY Tech Meetup taking the lead this time), we’ve got lots…
Fred Wilson just wrote a blog post about The Academy for Software Engineering that is going to be built in Union Square. It’s an awesome project that is going to help lay the ground work for demonstrating the importance of teaching math/science/technology and computer programming and inspiring a future generation of technology leaders. This helps further complete the NYC’s investments in the educational ecosystem for technology (preceded by the Applied Sciences Engineering Campus - Cornell/Technion, and other high school technical programs).
In the comments, Fred mentions a requirement for all students to learn computer engineering languages, something that would be on par with the current importance of learning foreign languages. This makes complete sense to me. Learning computer programming as a language has traits nearly identical to learning spoken languages - it’s own grammatical structures, defined meanings to words, importance of immersion, indecipherable to non-speakers. Most importantely, knowing how to speak the languages of computers is essential to a new form of communication and building - that is companies, products, and tools that change how we interact and work with one another each and every day. Technology and computers are so ubiquitous in our daily lives that being able to understand coding language will not only present a clear advantage to those who understand, but, I would image, would be a complete requisite for learning and growing - like math, science and social studies.
I think this is where we’re headed (and should head) and am really proud that NYC, as a city and as a community, is making so much intentional progress in this way. So, thank you Fred Wilson, Brad Feld, Mayor Bloomberg and so many others for taking the charge in pushing forward science/tech/math education in NYC.
MBA@UNC just posted an interactive infographic on “Silicon Valley & Silicon Alley” and compares key opinions, metrics and trends between the two. More and more infographics like this are popping up as the debate intensifies. This one is particularly intersting given the interactive nature. See below for details.
From my perspective, it’s a fun debate but somewhat detracts from the more pertinent conversation which is around “competitive advantages” between the two and looking at a “dual-hub” innovation model in the US.
Speaking at Columbia Business School, I told the MBA class that “Silicon Valley builds technology, NYC (Silicon Alley) applies technology.” Given the density of industries hubs, consumers and population, NYC will always be a better place to disrupt industries. That’s why we see a strong hub of fashion, media, education and ecommerce startups here in NYC. This ongoing dichotomy may change in the long-term (we’ll see how the new Cornell/Technion Engineering Campus changes NYC in 5-20 years) but for now, it’s a positive back-and-forth that demonstrates the efficiency of how the overall US innovation/tech startup industry is evolving.
Via MBA@UNC: Online MBA
NYC Tech Community Infographic - I worked on this with our NYCEDC Marketing Department to create.
NYCEDC is submitting two panels to SXSW this year, and we need your help!
By hosting panels at SXSW Interactive, our goal is to spread the word about NYC’s booming tech startup scene and further brand the City as an innovative tech hub. NYC offers unparalleled tech companies, talent, and government resources, and we want to drive new people and startups to join us here in the Big Apple.
But in order to get two coveted spots at SXSW in March 2012, we need you, NYC tech enthusiasts, to help vote us to the top!
Log on to SXSW Interactive starting at 2 PM Central Time today to vote for our two proposed SXSW panels (you will have to create a free account to vote):
- Silicon Alley - The Startup Ecosystem that Never Sleeps (link to vote)
- Building the Innovation City - Lessons from NYC (link to vote)
Read on for panel descriptions and speakers. Help bring NYC to SXSW by casting your vote and sharing with others!
Tweet this: Vote for NYCEDC #SXSW panels on NYC’s startup scene and govt-driven innovation! http://bit.ly/q69j61 #PanelPicker
An excellent post by Nate Westheimer in response to Chris Dixon’s original post. I think Nate is spot on in his assessment and critique. The fact is that the push by NYC government to lure a world-class engineering campus to NYC is brilliant. This is just one of many critical initiatives and events that will help NYC grow as a global hub for technology innovation and commerce. Definitely read Nate’s post and Chris’ post as well.
