dawernik

The applications here could be very interesting as you could accomplish something and simply perish. snapchat for the physical world.

There should be other ways to leverage connections/network other than having to dilute ownership. That may be the most imbalanced transaction around.

I also reject that things like electronic trading for the masses are bad because the general public has bad investors. That's like saying online fraud should determine my access to ecommerce.

In many ways, platforms will help validate concepts through user participation... And the community can validate credibility. I don't just think this is a dumb money thing, I think investors will have advantages they've also never had. The bottom line is both sides of the market will get a clear benefit.

This article isn't really getting top tier investor opinions, but my assumption is that they are taking crowdfunding quite seriously. To not consider it disruptive to more formal capital would be incredibly out of character with smart money - considering they look for these very opportunities to invest. My guess is that the smart angels/VCs will try to leverage the smart platforms or create them themselves.

10 years from now, few people will seek 'traditional' financing suppliers as capital is about to get real efficient real quick. Bottom line is, this will be excellent for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

want to be popular? Be good looking.

Come on. Not about suppressing your hobby, it's about not being identified solely with it.

That's the stuff you pull out after you get married. Then it eventually ends up in a small closet about 5 years later. Ultimately, it ends up being what you have around you as you get old again. Life's funny that way.

Yep, enough money for two attorneys oughta do it. Although i have to admit, i would love to have that title 'The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents'.

It would be equally fascinating to look at all the incredibly well designed launches that failed miserably. This is a great reminder that if you solve a big problem or have unique content, people will crawl through sewage to get to it, but if you build an amazing empty container, it will die a slow death.

Love the slides, they don't even need a soundtrack. Was going to leave a FU comment, but it was too obvious.

I'm in a BigCo and every time we acquire a LittleCo I get massive culture envy. I think you nailed how great product happens.

Very true. If you add the words twitter, peak performance, and about 500 words - that thought could be published.

Should you be continually trying to beat your personal best or raising your trough performance level. What's a better approach in the long game of life?

I worked in finance and left when I realized that the people who were successful in finance were typically salespeople. Not necessarily by title, but more by action. It's bizarre how little the industry actually manages itself through data. We all know that a good index fund is going to beat the average hedge fund, but there is something so sexy about investing in a hedge fund. We all know that making 25% annually isn't realistic, but oh to make 25% annually and be able to tell your friends. It's all sales.

When I was 25 I swore it off. I was too young to sell versus build. But the cash was good.

Point is, time to deliver will matter... And stop doing the inconsequential many... How can anyone argue against that? Wonder when the first big reorg/cut happens, that will be when you get a true sense of where they are going.

Amazon without all the fulfillment overhead and all the event driven and social context. First pass was virtual gifts right? This is physical. Interesting, but needs some major fortitude.

Seems like the key to doing that well will be to remove all friction on capturing an image (or linking to a comprehensive product database) then making shipping a breeze. I have to say inertia is a bitch, and keeping these things on your shelf is an attractive alternative/competitor to getting rid of them.

Amazon does this at scale. By the title <and site name>, I thought you were going to enable a quick post, sell, or donate of unwanted gifts. That would be cool. I typically hold on to unwanted gifts for months and then simply donate or dispose. I bet there are $Bs of unwanted gifts sitting in houses in the US right now.

Public service announcement

http://www.febelfin.be/nl/safe-internetbanking

I wonder if they don't publish pricing to avoid scrutiny similar to cash advance or payday lending. Whole thing should be hammered by the FTC.

So i get spied on and get hit with a 157% APR. That's brutal.

More like, rent to be owned... That's pathetic, shame there can't be a bigger penalty. Sad thing is this scam is clearly going after a group that likely doesn't get tech. Wonder how much it costs to rent a PC nowadays.

Challenges it will face: - insurance regulation, moral dilemmas (decision to make when confronted with living hazards), drinking and riding, more time for advertising, and a rash of start-ups pitches that mash up concepts like Uber & Kozmo because they can.

Still seems worth it.

I don't see the connection to Wall Street <and Wall Street definitely won't see it>. This isn't about monetization, but is more about breadth of context. Really, is there a single change in how they monetize in this SDK release - looks to me like it still depends on the same old mobile ads, albeit with more and more attributes to target off of.

And the title is just annoying.

"Girouard himself left a solid gig at Google — something his financial advisor counseled strongly against — to launch this effort with backing from Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, NEA and Mark Cuban"

Yeah, seems like a huge career risk. Who listens to their financial advisor for career advice?

i think the reality is that if it's signed, however you choose to sign it, it protects the merchant from a chargeback ... Although, signing it with a stick figure is interesting. I wonder if the bank would consider that negligent if you decided to contest the charge.

If you had real guts, you'd contest the Mariah Carey charge. Seems like you have a strong case that you aren't her.

The problem with a lot of the comments here is that the participants use logic, while typical Americans do not. The main point is really about lack of transparency by providers and complacency by consumers... Compounded by an industry that has gotten into bed with government.

The market will eventually correct as phone, cable, and internet services continue to be individually picked off by best of breed pure plays that create simple service with transparent business models. May take a while, but it will happen.

I don't think you have to work at a crappy job, but working at a job where you actually learn the difficult lessons of interacting directly with customers, or the struggle of selling to them - or the reality of the mindset and motivation of a frontline employee is invaluable.

I'm always shocked, especially in software, at how many people just come out of school (or worse yet grad school) with no sense of trying to understand the edges of their business. Blissfully working away in a 'lab'.

By hand? Seems a bit un google doesn't it.

Everyone looks at it. That doesn't solve any problem.

There's something beautiful about simple low tech solutions that require cooperation or blunt force - even if it doesn't work.

I once dropped a car into a creek in a third world country and it was deep down a ravine off a cow path. In America, that thing would still be rusting away. But a couple trucks, some super winches and two big guys working for four hours moving it inch by inch by leveraging trees and rocks later and... Thing came out with hardly a scratch.

Again, don't know if it will work, but love these types of solutions as a first line of attack before some over architected solve. Im sure there are some good engineering analogs as well.

I wish Google would share the process post submission and how they analyze and respond to feedback. I find a process like this to capture feedback over <or disproportionately> solving the easy part of a feedback loop.

I have to imagine that Google has a pretty automated process to understand the feedback - i'd rather see that. That's the problem I've always had with applications with millions of users.

Sleep still seems incredibly mis-understood relative to other essentials in life - like nutrition. If i think about the events in my life that wrecked sleep they were 1) kids 2) stress at work 3) chronic illness 4) family anxiety and they all occurred or accelerated in the back half of life. I imagine this will impact my long term health as much as nutrition. Yet few have effectively studied it like they have eating habits.

Trading is different from the initiation of capital investments through different vehicles like stock and bond issuance and the creation of value through M&A. Again, if the argument is trading specific versus wall street abstract, there is a point to be made.

Think how much bacteria is in our body, take it all out and we don't run as efficiently. program trading is the same.

When did the length of the period of speculation become the moral compass for whether someone should be allowed to put their capital at risk.

I still think that everyone is missing a key point. There is huge value in programatic trading. The frequency of a crash with impact to retail investors (not traders willingly risking money speculatively) relative to the volume of spread tightening trading approaches zero.