D-Train

Great story. It's hard to not stereotype and have those initial knee-jerk first impressions, but it's perhaps more important to be open to changing our impressions and not have them cloud our interactions with people.

I also think this is a generally good story about how people are/ can be genuinely good rather than the negative light most media tend to share.

Thanks for the post!

Great post highlighting what you learned from the AlterConf, as well as sharing some of those stories of the presenters. This resonates me in a couple ways, at least, immediately in my mind:

1. Dr. Cox's story... My business school recently appointed a new dean who is a black woman. She's the first dean of a Top 20 program, and one that created all sorts of ripples for her, the business school (and greater university), alumni, etc. Can't say that Dr. Cox and the new Dean share similar stories, but there was much ado about her being a black woman. Perhaps that's a good thing, though, when it comes to opening the door for openness later.

2. Being an Asian male, there are some annoying stereotypes. I was thinking about this the other day how I don't feel there are powerful Asian male or female role models. Also, there's this cultural norm for being a little "quieter". When you bake all these ideas (and others) together, there seems to be a lack of "power" and respect given to Asian groups. So much so, that I feel it also creates associations and clubs that aren't as vocal or "extroverted" as other organizations like the NAACP or insert any number of Women's groups. Smart? Sure. Strong? Not so much. I think the new show "Fresh Off the Boat" is trying to put an Asian family in the spotlight, but even then, it feels... weak. As in, the dad seems so shy and quiet... good father, hard working, but there isn't this feeling of strong like other characters in other shows. Maybe I'm reaching for too much for a single show, but it'd be great to have stronger Asian role models. At the end of the day, it feels as if many Asians don't actually relate or band together into a stronger "coalition".

The Meme GIFs are on point!

Reminds that at end of the day, if you just try, you can surprise yourself. I don't think I push myself enough to surprise myself as to what my true capabilities are.

However, it's only when we push ourselves and put ourselves in foreign territory do we have a chance of rapid learning. It's like learning through immersion.

I think you can relay this in a lot of ways to just preconceived notions or judgements of others. I think judgement can be a good thing as it can protect us or give us opportunities to discover, but there should be an openness to let those early notions be trumped.

Perhaps it's like not necessarily having convictions about others, but just allowing others and ourselves to change our opinions.

Dennis sounds like good guy. If I didn't quit buzzing my head, I'd be interested in going to him.

But to a greater point: entrepreneurship isn't just about the millions or billions we more often hear in the news. Instead, it's also about the small biz owners like Dennis who aspire for great things for their communities, their family and friends, and yes, themselves.

We should shoot for the stars, but not get disappointed because we only reached the moon. Or heck, if we were able to "fly" at all... that's awesome.

Great write-up! Now, can Dennis also have an app? I'd like to help with that.

What are the next planned drops? Will they be free or paid?

Oh, wow, this is pretty slick! I like being able to see a demo of the drops.

Is your plan to open the code or marketplace up so others can build other drops, and do a revenue share?

Oh, and as a quick follow-up because I forgot to mention... the article notes how some countries/ airports are signaled as "high stowaway" risk. Captains may look in the wheel wells for a person, but that's not really enough.

If someone were to just hop the plane and plant a bomb and conceal it, it could be easily overlooked by any observer.

Yeah, CNN posted this morning about how the airport cameras at San Jose actually did capture/ record the boy jumping the fence and walking on the tarmac to the plane. Cameras are one thing, but having watchful eyes are another.

Implementation of more automated surveillance to help SUPPLEMENT (not replace) existing security guards watching monitors is ideal. It'll be interesting as security ramps up to include things like facial/ body recognition.

CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/22/travel/plane-stowaway-security...

Thanks, cmwalker25! Hoping these lessons help others avoid those traps.

Yeah, I saw that on your profile. Figured I'd ask anyhow! Thanks, ZenPro!

Thanks, ZenPro. Tried to make it concise, even though it ballooned to a list of 21.

The Next Move is a tough one. I'm trying to stay in the startup game. I'm not tired of peanut butter sandwiches yet. If I don't start another startup, then I'd love to help another early stage tech startup with business development (sales, marketing, the works).

I've learned a lot, and I'm eager to apply the lessons with others. Know of any early startups who I can help?

Right now, we're focused on the B2B market. That is, our target market include sports teams and organizations. So we're working with several high schools, colleges, and now an NFL team! We've also got good traction with training camps and big box retail gyms.

We looked at the consumer-driven apps, and realized that we would rather work with coaches and players or trainers and clients. So for individuals, we may go there, but it's not in immediate strategy.

What are your thoughts?

Yeah, even bootstrapping, we're still getting great recognition. We even just signed the NFL's Carolina Panthers up for Body Boss!

Congrats to you and your team, Shri! I just read about FlightCar in TechCrunch. Very neat idea, and I look forward to seeing how everything goes!

Thanks, larrys. Great feedback, and we've already taken some of your advice to heart.

Cheers, Daryl (Mr. Business of the Body Boss Team)

I was about to post this, but see that you did, lquist. Great share. It's a very interesting ad. Dove has been doing this for a while about women (especially) appreciating themselves. This is a creative and kind of sad way of realizing how critical women are about themselves.

Though, it'd be interesting to see if they only showed certain portraits. I'm sure there are some who have a little more self-confidence. But in general, I suppose these observations are true. A chick I'm seeing now was just comparing herself to those at her college...

I'm very curious about how men would have portrayed themselves.

Smartphones right now are like the SUV industry in the 90s. The bigger, the "better". What a goliath of a phone...

Nice! Welcome to HN!

Yeah, I've got Lean Startup. Been a good read so far. Are there any particular blogs, sites you visit, too? I'm almost curious...

Thanks for the recs!

Good article, and thanks for the share. I write a lot of cold emails, and everytime I compose a new one, I wonder how to write it better. Though, I've been writing cold emails a bit more like 8-10 sentences...

I wonder what thoughts are there about including some "extras" below the signature? That is, I'll include some pictures of my company's app or some testimonials below my signature to potentially help with intriguing the reader. And I start with pictures because pictures are naturally more engaging than words.

Any thoughts??

Interesting. This makes me think about the Airport Test as a former consultant. The Airport Test is whether or not you could spend a day (or however long) delayed at an airport with someone. It's more for recruiting.

However, I do like this Orange Juice Test. It's different, and not one that I think about very much. I think oftentimes, people make a decision for others. I believe we can influence, but not make the final decision.

You could only lead a horse to water, but can't force it to drink...

Habit is pretty much the biggest thing here. Looking at the success of P90X and others, it's all about working out REGULARLY. Everything else pretty much builds on the habit factor -- motivation through competition/ finding exercises that are fun, diet to enhance, etc.

I wary of Facebook finding more ways of encroaching into my life. I'm now thinking Facebook is like the kudzu of the internet. I only recently installed Facebook's app on my Android because of the potential notifications, integration (accidental sync of all my contacts), etc.

I know I can disable (which I have), but with Facebook's ever-evolving privacy policy and the like, I'm sure there is a way it's gathering more and more information about me.

I'm already in bed with Google... Anyone try Facebook Home, yet? Thoughts?

Funny thing is that I was a consultant before, and was brought into a company to look at their procurement decisions. And lo and behold, they actually had a helicopter. Needless to say, we said to get rid of it.

Other than that, the first two paragraphs made me think of my own startup, and how we can get users to engage more often and get more users. Immediately transported me into the head of our main users, and I had to message the developers on the team for thoughts.

Great post, and thanks for sharing!

At some point, it's less, also, about the size as much as it is the quality of the picture. This reminds me of OkCupid (the dating site). They did an analysis of the quality of picture (and camera used) to measure their effects on click rates and messages. See http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/dont-be-ugly-by-accident/

Looking at how some really great sites are doing, too, there are sites with massive pictures, but if they're not high quality, turns out to look like a cheap site.

I think it's great. With social media, mobile tech, and the like, we've been going crazy with data. In many ways, I've been inundated. So to have something that is more relevant to me, I can appreciate that.

Though, I did have to turn it off on my S3 because it was killing my battery from 16 hours to 3 hours.

Anyone else a little worried that our shooting games are looking more and more like real-life? I mean, for sure it's neat, but it's also somewhat disturbing.

Next, it'll be: upload your hated enemies so you can "shoot" them in COD.

I email myself my shopping list. I also email myself "Great Websites" that are now archived forever, and I can just go back to Gmail and search for it. I think I'm inefficient.

Nice! Shout out for my current school, Emory University! Too bad my startup wasn't mentioned.