It is not about building a smoother version of what already exists in the market. That is a transient advantage as existing companies … adopt technology. If you want to build something big and lasting you have use the internet/mobile to do something that simply was not possible before.
(via nickgrossman)
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
If you just spend 9.5 years raising $110 million dollars across five rounds of funding, and hire 530 employees, including a sales and marketing team of 160 people, while building a world-class product that can win in the hyper-competitive enterprise software business, to reach $70 million in annual revenue, you can create a high margin business with predictability.
This is what the long game looks like.
via ventureswell
THIS IS SO INTENSE
(via parislemon)
“I’m the worst kinda celebrity, because all I do is make music.
All I do is sit in the studio and make real, real shit, and that’s it. That’s motherfucking it.
I ain’t here to apologize to no motherfuckers man. It ain’t about me humanizing myself. At what point did I become unhuman where I had to turn myself back?
I ain’t no motherfucking celebrity. I ain’t running for office. I ain’t kissing nobody’s motherfucking babies. I’m trying to make music that inspires people to be the best they can be. I don’t want nobody to ask nothing else of me. This my goddamn life. This ain’t no motherfucking joke. That’s it.
Kanye (via yancey)
Ronen found the longer version of the Kanye rant that makes it even more awesome.
(via ronenreblogs)
When you’re tired, sleep, when you’re hungry, eat, when you’re depressed, work, when you’re horny, fuck, when you’re sad, cry, and when you’re happy, smile. When you’re bored, imagine, when you’re restless, exercise. When you’re afraid, breath, when you’re excited, jump, when you’re lost, explore, when you’re thinking, think, when you’re talking, listen, and when a pretty girl smiles at you, smile back.
When there’s music in your heart, dance to it.
Whatever happens, this place was something special for me, and continues to be for many others. I really enjoyed the time I spent here.
I ain’t humanizing myself. It ain’t about me humanizing myself. At what point did I become unhuman?
Technology should do the hard work so that people can get on with doing the things that make them happiest in life.
Here is a collection of uplifting and heartwarming words of encouragement from the most sage voices in the tech startup world as you begin your own entrepreneurial journey.
- Throwing yourself off a cliff and assembling an airplane on the way down. - Reif Hoffman
- Being an entrepreneur is…
Is that really how gigantic I look to my children? I remember adults being huge when I was a child, but I’d forgotten just how big until now.
Seeing mundane photographs from the natural height and angle of their eyes gives them life and makes the photographer relatable. These photos are not artistic, but they have a human soul.
For those of you who criticize Janelle’s signature monochromatic look.
From her speech on “Black Girls Rock”:
“When I started my music career, I was a maid. I used to clean houses. My mother was a proud janitor. My stepfather, who raised me like his very own, worked at the post office and my father was a trashman. They all wore uniforms and that’s why I stand here today, in my black and white, and I wear my uniform to honor them.
This is a reminder that I have work to do. I have people to uplift. I have people to inspire. And today, I wear my uniform proudly as a Cover Girl. I want to be clear, young girls, I didn’t have to change who I was to become a Cover Girl. I didn’t have to become perfect because I’ve learned throughout my journey that perfection is the enemy of greatness.
Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable.” - Janelle Monáe
(via mattlehrer)
“Livatars,” a Portmanteau for “live avatars,” is a pretty simple concept: Take a traditional headshot and make it subtly animated so the person in it appears alive. It’s an homage to the living newspapers in Harry Potter and player popup profiles that appear on tv during sportscasts. We tried this on Aviary’s company page and have gotten great feedback on it from people who stumbled across it by accident.
I wouldn’t even call it a pattern yet, except I just noticed it has also popped up on wefollow’s company page as well. They did a more technically elegant implementation than us (if you don’t care about IE7-8 support): We used animated gifs and they used HTML5 background video with a CSS vector mask on top of it.
Benefits over a traditional headshot:
- Not boring, without being too over the top or trying too hard. It will probably make the viewer smile when they notice what’s going on.
- Makes the people in the photo that much more relatable.
- Seeing one makes you want to see a photo yourself alive on that page as well. What better way to unconsciously recruit?
- Simpler to implement than other about page easter eggs: Just record a few seconds of video of someone standing still and loop it back and forth.
The trick is to shoot for subtlety and have everyone try to stand completely still when you record them. You want the viewer to do a double take when they think a static snapshot blinks at them out of the corner of their eye as they quickly scan a page.
RAD
People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.
