Author: Jason D. Rowley
-
Some Speculation on The Future of Payments in Virtual Reality
Update: Coincidentally, the day after I published this, London-based software engineer Julius Sweetland published Optikey, which uses iris tracking to let users type and use their computer’s “mouse” hands free. This could be great for those people who don’t have good dexterity. Check out the Optikey wiki on Github. “The ideal payments experience would be an…
-
Jack and Jill Went to Sand Hill…
Jack and Jill went to Sand Hill to raise their Series A They went from Andreessen to Kleiner and Greylock and then to DFJ Jill spoke of disruption Old term sheets’ destruction And when they will move to the Bay. Jack said said to VCs “Our app’s the bee’s knees” “I see you have…
-
A16z Podcast: Location, Location, Location — and Mobile | Andreessen Horowitz
We’re rapidly approaching a time when mobile devices will achieve omnipresent access to our location, and if that’s the case, then: “Location is like PageRank for the real world.” – Benedict Evans Source: A16z Podcast: Location, Location, Location — and Mobile | Andreessen Horowitz
-
Does The Internet Have An Image Problem? Maybe
If a picture is worth 1000 words, then we are living in the most verbose of times. On the average day, more photos will be taken during that 24 hour period than any other 24-hour period before. The numbers, into which will delve a little bit deeper later on in this paper, are truly staggering.…
-
Does Who You Meet First Matter More? Analyzing VC Influence At The Earliest Stages [Excerpt]
Note: This is an edited excerpt from a research proposal I wrote for a course on network theory. For the purposes of this post, I did not include any of the sections on the data I would gather or the statistical analysis I would perform. If you have questions or suggestions about data or analysis,…
-
Quote from: What is Digital Humanities? And Why?
The sex appeal of Silicon valley, in other words, comes largely from the fact that it is now the culture of “coding” that helps constitute the core of capitalism as an economic and managerial practice, as a cultural system, and as a way of life. The nerds’ visions of computational mastery are now also the…
-
Half-Baked Startup Idea: Bibliographies as a Service
Since I returned to school to finish the rest of my undergraduate degree, I’ve noticed a particular pain point in the academic process. The bulk of the academic work I have to do for my major comes in the form of research papers and proposals. The biggest problem I have, when it comes to writing…
-
A (Very Incomplete) Conceptual Toolkit for Designing Rebellious Software
Although Snopes corrected my belief that Bill Gates said in an address to high school students, “Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could,” the idea rings true. For what it’s worth, that quote comes from Charles M. Sykes, author of the 1996 book Dumbing Down Our Kids. But it sounds…
-
Semantics for Startups, or, Unpacking “X for Y” Company Descriptions
Venture capitalists and certain technology publications love to sneer at derivative product ideas. Startup founders peddling goofy “Tinder for Cats” ideas become the butt of cruel jokes. And like all things, when it comes to joking about derivative startup ideas, there is an app for that: ItsThisForThat. Joking aside, explaining startup ideas by comparing them…
-
From Ride Sharing to the “In Real Life Transport Protocol”
Abstract/TLDR: The biggest opportunity for companies like Uber and Lyft is to expand their transportation services to third parties and diversify the type of objects they convey from one place to another. In doing so, the metaphor we use to describe these companies can shift from platforms to protocols. In short, these companies are building what…