@WhatsApp @Facebook App spam/scam, who the hell runs this crap, and why doesn’t WhatsApp actually do it?

Posted on Published

My Facebook stream just got spammed by dozens of friends offering me in some way or another to click the WhatsApp Facebook app link:

It seems they have 2 different messages, send you a request, and share 3 pics with you. Apparently a very appealing concept, my friends keep clicking this one after another. Now I have as well; I clicked 3 times. I admit I even clicked ALLOW meaning I probably sent it to all my friends too, in thinking how awesome a WhatsApp-Facebook App would be.

So if you see this request, DON’T be fooled and press allow, it looks like one big SCAM:

Slot machines and “Flirt with Singles”? Holy crap!

Facebook – Please keep Spam out of my invitations, I like real app offerings, not scams! Also, go to WhatsApp and provide them the data and existing framework, and help them build their own Facebook App.

WhatsApp – Please develop a Facebook version of WhatsApp. Its a great idea, people would start using Facebook as their phonebook, a complete social communication tool. If you make it Facebook will buy you for a BILLION DOLLARS . Think about it, connecting WhatsApp to Facebook will finally create the PROPER modern phonebook of emails + social + phone.

If WhatsApp doesn’t act on this, then I suppose the geniuses that ran the false WhatsApp-on-Facebook campaign will build it first 🙂

Change and Anger #mgmt2

Posted on Published

You will always be disappointed

Unfulfilled expectation creates Disappointment

Disappointments leads to frustration

Frustration leads to anger

 

Enjoy the experiment

Experiment is change

Change creates disappointment

Enjoy it, don’t be angry

How simply complicated the world is, I just setup a Facebook app, WordPress plugins, 301 redirects from blogger and IFTTT to publish this post

Posted on Published

Tada ! I moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress. Wanted to do that for a while, but it took its time, mainly because I’m  busy, but also because its not so trivial.

I had to move my blog from Blogger to my Son website (AdamAssia,com), then import the data into WordPress, then fix the godaddy DNS/forwarding, then fix the WordPress installation URL which included ticket to Godaddy support, then get a theme for wordpress, download several plugins for sharing … I am still in transition mode.

I managed to learn about cool WordPress Plugins, and a service called Gravatar.com and even setup my first Facebook app (that’s how you setup Facebook comments to your blog), connect it to my IFTTT – which is an awesome start up which allows you to connect all your internet apps (gmail, dropbox, facebok, linkedin, twitter) and create logical  commands between them (i.e – whenever I twit, send my mom an email, and share it on my linkedin), I had to edit .HTAccess file on my Linux hosting so my old blog links will direct to the new ones and so on …

Bottom line it made me feel technical again, which is always fun (for people like me), its fun to build and connect stuff on your own over the internet, next phase is learning Jango and setting up a github project.

The sad part is, most people I know have no chance of going through all this just to setup a damn blog, no wonder tumblr and its rivals grew so fast, its just so much simpler. The internet is still too complicated, its getting better, but its still not simple to make things happen. I hope eventually doing stuff on the net, will be as simple as twitting “can someone do XYZ for a couple of bucks” and simply have people help you get shit done, like fiverr.com just buy side, not sell side .

Now I have a new blog, and I will continue blogging, figuring how to convey my first class of Startup I started teaching this week.

“Its amazing to figure out how the simplest things are so complex, and the most complex things are so simple”

I am indirect communication challenged, I simply don’t get what people don’t say, why should I? say it damn it!

Posted on Published

I am a direct person. I always knew I was very direct, for some it might seem rude or blunt sometimes, but I simply say what’s on my mind.
What I learned during the last year is I simply do not understand indirect communication, I really need people to tell me what they want, and when they try it with an indirect approach, it simply forces me to ask: “did you mean XYZ”? and although the answer is YES they never answer.

I read a great quote :
No matter how much we read about indirect communication, it is virtually impossible for a direct person to fully understand the complexity of indirectness until we’ve been immersed in it.

In this article it is implied that indirect communication is better than direct communication, I would claim indirect communication is sort of Fuzzy logic, there is less certainty to the outcome of the conversation, so it allows for people to make assumptions without being told. It also allows Plausible deniability, which is something useful, though I am pretty sure the world would be better without it.

I’ll keep reading, maybe I’ll find some way to build the patience to not only listen to what people say but to interpret what they mean. Until then, if you talk to me, simply say exactly what you mean.

Startup course – Peter Thiel’s “The Last Class You’ll Ever Have to Take”

Posted on Published

I love the startup “scene”; cool and crazy people trying to change the world, VC and angel investors who are looking for talent to give them millions to pursue their dream. I find it romantic.

I was excited to learn that Peter Thiel, Paypal founder and Facebook’s first investor, is teaching a course on Startups in Stanford. Peter is a role model for me; he founded PayPal when he was 29, and his vision of Paypal is surprisingly similar to eToro’s:

We’re definitely onto something big. The need PayPal answers is monumental. Everyone in the world needs money – to get paid, to trade, to live. Paper money is an ancient technology and an inconvenient means of payment… PayPal will give citizens worldwide more direct control over their currencies than they ever had before. It will be nearly impossible for corrupt governments to steal wealth from their people through their old means because if they try the people will switch to dollars or Pounds or Yen, in effect dumping the worthless local currency for something more secure.

I met Peter once, in the Summit Series at sea, where he gave an awesome lecture. I managed to talk to him a bit, which reminds me: don’t approach your role models while drunk at a party.

So, just like everything in life, instead of simply reading the notes, I prefer “teaching” them. I am opening a course for eToro employees that will be based on the 19 classes of Peter Thiel CS183 : Startup course.

The idea is very simple: get a few people that read the notes before class every week, give my view and insight into what we read and have group discussions about: The Challenge of the Future, The past: Party Like it’s 1999?, Value Systems, The Last Mover Advantage, The Mechanics of Mafia, Thiel’s Law, VC – Follow The Money, The Pitch,Product – If You Build It, Will They Come?, After Web 2.0, Perception and Secrets, War and Peace, You Are Not A Lottery Ticket, Seeing Green, Back to the Future, Decoding Ourselves, Deep Thought on AI (should invite Yaki Dunitz), Founder as Victim, Founder as God, Stagnation or Singularity? We will also invite guests to some of the lectures, and try to be creative as possible. Most classes will probably be held outdoors.

The best part is, since I am teaching the class, I’ll have to finally read an entire course notes, which I’ve never done in my academic carreer, and hopefully some graduates of the course will be able to build new startups (that will work with eToro off course).

Leave Mark Zuckerberg Alone! Thoughts on the “Facebook IPO Scam”

Posted on Published

It seems everybody just loves to hate Facebook these days so much that only a video of Chris Chrocker shouting Leave Mark Zuckerberg Alone can explain how ridiculous I think this is (a spoof on the famous Leave Britney Alone video) .

I have never seen so many people bash a company like the recent bashing of the Facebook IPO. Some are even calling it the Facebook IPO Scam. Why is this a scam? Did Facebook commit to a higher price? 

The Facts

So if everybody knew that demand is heating, and that there is no financial guarantee in the price (even today) then why is anybody surprised that it dropped? It seems like when managing an IPO, a company needs to actually make sure there is room for upside for investors post IPO, something bankers used to leave for institutional investors to come back for the bankers. I think no one explained to Mark that he needs to bribe the institutions, and when he saw extra demand he did what anyone would do, and took advantage of it.

Facebook is a distribution channel, with 1 BILLION engaged subscribers. As long as they learn to monetize it and keep users engaged, they can be easily worth $100B. They simply need to sell their shares on their distribution channel and execute the Social IPO, when they will the price will go higher.

I have to admit the falling price of facebook shares has not only caught me by surprise, but had also imapcted any social technology business, on every startup, and specifically social startups (Y Combinator’s Paul Graham Just Emailed Portfolio Companies Warning Of ‘Bad Times’ In Silicon Valley). It even made me miss my weekly blog posts since I went into short term depression that we are not yet in the dream phase mentioned in Peter Thiel’s Stanford course (which is so great it requires a blog post in itself).

In the dream phase Facebook can replace movie theaters as the main GLOBAL distribution channel for buying movie tickets ($10B a year), and apps funding becomes like in Hollywood: raise $100M, work on a startup for one year, distribute in Facebook to 100M users, and start over. 

Better times are ahead.

The Future of Money: Intro to Bitcoin

Posted on Published
A revolutionary new approach to money is in place: Bitcoin, a virtual currency.  Started in 2009, the Bitcoin currency is not regulated by any central authority; instead it is run as an open-source network of peers, meaning it cannot be manipulated by government.  The Economist published a thorough report in June 2011 explaining exactly how Bitcoin operates, enabling the instant purchase of real goods without being pegged to any “real” currency.
TechCrunch has been covering the Bitcoin phenomenon over the past year, following the progress of and challenges facing the project.  Fred Wilson, a well-known venture capitalist, recently claimed that “social upheaval” is the next-big-thing coming to the internet, citing Bitcoin as an example of this.  Meanwhile critics like blogger Jason Calcasis call this project “dangerous”, warning of the potential of peer-to-peer currency to destabilize economies and encourage contraband.  
The Bitcoin 2.X model is aimed to solve the problems facing Bitcoin.  The 2.X version would allow for a division in values between various extensions of Bitcoin currency.  This would utilize the novel technology in place but permit the separated currencies to have a more stable value, and allow multiple communities to use the existing infrastructure.  This would likely bring many more users to the network.

Shai Agassi, Thank You for Changing the World with BetterPlace

Posted on Published
Shai Agassi is one of the top visionary leaders and entrepreneurs in the world today.  Agassi sold his company TopTier to SAP for $400M a decade ago. Rumored to become the CEO of SAP, he opted instead to turn his vision of making electric cars into a reality.  For a more complete understanding of the electric car vision and challenges, check out the movie “Revenge of the Electric Car”.
The following is a letter of thanks and insights for Shay.

Hi Shai,
We have met a few times before, including several times when I heard your pitch about BetterPlace.  Each time I heard it I was more and more convinced that you would change the world.
You did.  You changed how the auto industry thinks by simply showing there is a feasible alternative, that transportation costs can be digitized to 0s and 1s, and that you can build a SaaS model for fuel which will be much cheaper.
What you started has generated a chain effect that will cause most car manufacturers to release plug-in hybrid cars within the next 12 months.  I am inspired by how you not only raised almost $1 billion to pursue this vision, but also by how you managed to harness governments and auto manufacturers to follow suit.  In 2011, US President Obama declared in his State of the Union address that “with more research and incentives, [the US] can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”  Earlier this month, the US Department of Energy announced a $5 billion budget this year to expand the use of alternative fuel and electric vehicles.
Your vision is nearly realized: BetterPlace is rousing major change, and you are playing a role in reducing the horrible dependency in oil.  However, I think the current model will not be financially sustainable in a near future with hybrid cars capable of charging at home.
The major challenges I see are the huge infrastructure costs required in the BetterPlace model, based on local battery replacement locations and special charging areas.  While you will already have the foundations in place, once car manufacturers release better hybrid cars (which you can charge in your home), it will be hard to compete with the existing infrastructure: gas stations and home electricity.  A model including office and parking lot chargers will probably arise as well.
I’d like to share two additional business models for BetterPlace with you:
Firstly, to complement the influx of plug-in electric cars produced by major manufacturers, I recommend building a BetterPlace charger available for parking garage owners to buy or lease, turning every garage into a gas station.  Electric car drivers could charge their batteries on-the-go in parking garages around the world with this new charger machine, using a BetterPlace mobile application for payment.  This is a great opportunity to take advantage of the new mainstream electric car business model.  You could offer the chargers at a low cost, to sell as many as possible and build a huge network of BetterPlace parking-space charging docks, creating a global presence.  The payment scheme could be a 50% pay-per-usage revenue share to garages, or even less.  You can even create a financing model to enable garage owners to get paid today for the lease of the charger by connecting them directly to investors who want simple investment opportunities.
Your alternative transportation model has another application altogether:  take it to the sky!  Airplanes have discrete places to land and fixed routes. The infrastructure challenge faced with the electric car model could actually be much easier to manage with a network of air crafts. Replace the batteries in each airport, and the beauty is you need only one airline to make it happen.  The technology in this case is likely more protected and less competitive: develop a hybrid model for airplanes, build and patent it, and sell it to aircraft or engine manufacturers.  I understand that developing this technology is not trivial, and Boeing is currently working to develop a hybrid electric aircraft, however the market landscape is opportune for the BetterPlace model.  Many small budget airlines doing short, popular routes makes for a much simpler electric configuration than that of cars.
While I understand that the chance of this letter in making a difference is similar to writing science fiction, sometimes sharing imagination can inspire.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.  For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.  Albert Einstein
Best of luck,
Yoni Assia
Inspired to change the world

Google buys Mastercard – Renames it GoogleCard

Posted on Published

Well, not really, or at least not yet. 
But wouldn’t it be cool if you could pay for stuff with your Google account already ? If for every purchase you made, you could get points back in your Google account and then buy stuff online with them, without spending real money.

This reminded me of great times, when AOL and Time Warner announced their merger “On Jan. 10, 2000, the Internet service company AOL and the media giant Time Warner announced that AOL would buy Time Warner for more than $160 billion in the largest merger in corporate history.” $166 BILLION DOLLARS paid by an internet company.

So when I think of the Social Boom coming, I think that Google PE ratio should go up, and up, till its closer to Linkedin and Facebook, and that should allow them, just like AOL at the time to make some interesting M&A’s, making the Motorola deal look like a small deal. 


Facebook IPO happened yesterday, and for a lot of people, it was the first time they looked at a stock and waited for it to move, it was the most hyped IPO in history, and we will see how it impact the industry in the next couple of weeks. If the price (and PE of 120) holds and even goes up, we are going to a bull market, since Google (and others) PE should gradually pick up, If not, we will need to wait for them to sell their share on Facebook .



The Social IPO: To Buy Facebook Shares, or Not to Buy

Posted on Published

24 hours to the largest IPO ever .
A buzz has disturbed my Twitter and email accounts with talk of the imminent Facebook IPO.  Everyone is trying to determine whether this is a good investment.  In previous posts, I’ve spoken about how Facebook users will soon be buying shares in the company for as low as $10 and the sudden appearance of Facebook advertisements across the web right before their IPO (tentatively scheduled for this Friday, May 18th.)
I’d like to sort through some of the opinions floating around out there on this IPO, so let’s review those who recommend buying and those who caution against it.
PROs say: Buy Facebook

CONs say: Sit Back

What If You Had Bought Apple Stock In 1980? might give you an answer whether to buy or not.