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Imran Ali

23 hours ago

in Startup Hotbed Inferiority Complex on A VC
I recently read an interesting article debunking many of Florida's assertions at http://www.thestar.com/article/656837 - a useful counterpoint to assess Florida's body of work.
2 replies
Yule Heibel's picture
Yule Heibel From the TorStar article: "Part of it may come from the the uniquely Canadian impulse to resent success." As a Canadian (and dual US-Cdn citizen, and former child-immigrant to Canada from Germany), all I can say is, no kidding.

At a core level, Florida preaches competition: he asserts that cities can band together in regions, and that cities compete against one another, which also means nation-states matter less than they did in the past. Paris competes against London competes against Tokyo competes against New York competes against... etc.

Canadians *do* play hardball in some sectors (for example, the corporatists who've run the usual resource-extraction racket, er, I mean, economy - hewers of wood, drawers of water and all that...), but officially, we're NICE.

It's interesting that Florida remarks (in this article) that he gets criticism from the rightwingers in the US (for advocating tolerance of gays and diversity), but that he just knew he'd get criticism from the leftwingers in Canada.

I don't swallow everything Richard Florida says whole, but I think he's basically on the right track. (That said, the devil along with every other deity is in the DETAILS, right?) That said, I'm not surprised to see my fellow Canadian activists attack success...
farhanlalji's picture
farhanlalji Not sure if the Tor Star article debunks his assertions, seems like it rather points out that there are other people who matter in a society. Think Florida's research still is pretty impactful on the culture and places for entrepreneurial success, regardless of how he "sells" his research.

3 months ago

in Here’s an office idea that floats our boat on Yuuguu - The Future of work
I'm not sure this is what Anish meant about 'floating the company' ;)

6 months ago

in Thoughts On Milan on A VC
Hey Fred - there's also a great ITP-like design school that used to be on the outskirts of the city (the Ivrea Institute - http://interactionivrea.org/) now merged with the city's Domus Academy (http://www.domusacademy.com/) - well worth a visit next time you're in Europe.

If we'd had more time during your trip to Leeds in the Summer, you might have iiked to see the Milan-inspired covered arcades in the downtown area. The city's chief architect took inspiration from Milan's arcades and Leeds' own history in designing covered arcades and public spaces throughout the city's shopping districts :)

Never mind the San Siro - we must get you to the home of Europe's champions at Old Trafford in Manchester next year!
2 replies
markslater's picture
markslater next time (also london) ping me about the football. i am your man.
markslater's picture
markslater old toilet? why would you send him there?. fred likes the Mets not the Yankees. that means Anfield for him.

7 months ago

in Slumdog Millionaire on A VC
Hey Fred, that looks like a great movie and one I only just discovered a couple days ago, I can't wait until it's released here in the UK in January. There's a lotta talk about Danny Boyle getting his first Oscar nod for Best Picture...
1 reply
fredwilson's picture
fredwilson I liked it better than anything else being talked up for best picture.

11 months ago

in More Lazy Web Thoughts on A VC
Perhaps you find that funny Mark - but I'd like to disavow you of your prejudice. I'm also from Bradford and have had a successful career for over a decade working in tech startups between London, Yorkshire, Boston and San Francisco. I'm doing things to help extend those opportunities to others. Cynical sniping at the efforts of others trying to make a difference isn't helpful.

Drop me an email - I'll be happy to illustrate how the region is transforming itself and the historical contribution it has made to the internet industry.

11 months ago

in More Lazy Web Thoughts on A VC
Hey Fred, I think Yahoo's Berkeley R&D labs did something similar a couple years ago called 'Zonetag' (http://zonetag.research.yahoo.com/)
1 reply
fredwilson's picture
fredwilson Neat. I'll check it out

1 year ago

in Advisors, Boards, Companies, Partners, Oh My! on Climb to the Stars

OK...on incorporating in the UK - great idea and if you'd like a UK registered office, I can sort you out in Leeds at the prestigious Old Broadcasting House!


Companies House (http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/) and BusinessLink are good places to start for advice on the mechanics of incorporating. It shouldn't cost more than £50 and a few working days to setup.


For your board structure I'd keep your 'recruited' legal directors (non-executive directors) of the company to 2-3 non-executive directors at a maximum, maybe with 5% equity stakes to begin with. One of them should be a good administrator or company secretary.


However, an advisory board doesn't have to be compensated or a legal entity. It's basically a mechanism of adding friends and helpful advisors of the company...exposure in return for access to knowledge. I wouldn't make them legal directors.


In compensating your staff...purely performance-based is sorta harsh! Give a mixture of a fixed fee based on their time-input and then a bonus based on the success of your event. That way everyone gets paid fairly for their effort, but you can share a huge success equitably too without people going hungry!

1 year ago

in Scar Tissue That I Wish You Saw on A VC
'The UK and Israel have had strong women lead their countries and we should be open to that...' - as have Pakistan, the Philippines, India and Sri Lanka :)

(though, I'm sure Thatcher was a man...!)
2 replies
Charlie Crystle Fred,

Admire the scars. But look at the person and the policies. What does she stand for? Alan Patricof has been raising money for years. What interest does Alan have in Senator Clinton as President? What deals has she cut, what good will she do for the country?

It's time we have a woman as president. But not this woman. Hillary Clinton is competent, intelligent, experienced, and compromised. The country needs optimistic leadership, someone not divisive, someone fresh, and someone who is relatively free of years of the special interest barnacles that have built up over such a long time (corporate special interests).

I'm thinking Obama or Edwards, though neither has a healthcare plan we can live with. Thanks for the thoughts. As a scarred recovering founder I understand scars. Scars are great for informing how to do things better. I try not to let them hold me back.
fredwilson's picture
fredwilson i should have said "and many others" thanks for this comment. i appreciate it

fred

1 year ago

in I’m Starting a Company on Climb to the Stars

I'm really excited for you Steph - from what you've told me, it'll be a lotta fun and pretty challenging too...gimme a shout if you need any help :)

1 year ago

in How Do I Get Screenshots Larger Than My Screen? on A VC
Hey Fred, I've been using Paparazzi (http://www.derailer.org/paparazzi/) for OS X lately. it handily gives you a preview, lets you set a time delay to let widgets load, as well as set various capture and crop sizes.

Dead useful, if you're using a Mac.

1 year ago

in Stuff on Paul Graham
Nicely put Paul :) When I started out in the dotcom industry, I saw a lotta my colleagues and I become wealthy very rapidly.

Every day someone would come back from lunch with some shiny new toy. Sadly, a couple years later when the bubble burst, many of the same people were scrobbling around to service their possessions and debts as they lost their jobs.

I learned close up that I never wanted to be in that position - I wanted to feel free enough that I could leave most of my material possessions behind if I needed to.

I recently moved house, taking the opportunity to declutter my life - all I now own is a wardrobe of clothing, my Mac Book, some CDs, DVDs, an iPod, my cellphone and my books :)

--

Something else worth observing is the availability of credit and booming home equity in the US and UK. Here, the UK is one of the world's most personally endebted society's - credit cards and remortgages are fuelling an unprecedented consumer boom. People are literally able to purchase anything they want. The advent of almost friction-free eBay-esque markets also means, we all find it easier to dispose of our possessions in order to finance our next great buy...

Andrew Marr's recent documentary essay on the 'History of Modern Britain' concluded that throughout the post-WW2 era Britain (the Cold War, Thatcherism, union issues, socialism) has gradually displaced political life with shopping!

2 years ago

in Groups, Groupings, and Taming My Buddy List. And Twitter. on Climb to the Stars

A couple of years ago, some colleagues and I were working on a mechanism for tagging people in the context of a general purpose social network...that work will be launching soon as Orange's Metamaki service.


However, you can read a few of our thoughts at
http://imran.typepad.com/blog/2005/02/tagging_p... and http://www.librarytechtonics.info/archives/2006...>

2 years ago

in Dopplr: More Fuzziness Wanted on Climb to the Stars

I'd like the ability to drag'n'drop my friends into more convenient locations :)

2 years ago

in Canadian Immigration on Mohsin Ali
I'm on their side with this...I've never had any trouble at either Vancouver or Toronto...but then I actually knew where I was going and had numbers...!

2 years ago

in I Love U on Mohsin Ali
Somebody make him stop...

3 years ago

in Bsg on PS2 Frack’n Hard! on Mohsin Ali
Games are supposed to be fun...

4 years ago

in Another Weekend on Mohsin Ali
In the interests of balanced reporting - 'I fucking hate London'.

4 years ago

in Presies on Mohsin Ali
My friend Mark (http://www.kronkhifi.com/) is friends with the guy behind Vector Lovers - both from York. I might have some of their tracks from various singles and EPs as well as the album...lemme know and I'll fire 'em over to you.

4 years ago

in Sonic Arts on Mohsin Ali
Probably not rich enough to be a learning aid, but there's some great work along similar lines being done at MIT Media Lab. Todd Machover's 'Opera Of The Future' (http://www.media.mit.edu/research/ResearchPubWeb.pl?ID=35)research programme examines where digital media can help teach music composition. The Hyperscore and Toy symphony projects are great examples of this :)

4 years ago

in Jedi Really Do Exist on Mohsin Ali
Yeh OK, when I see you doing 'Force Lightning' with your Chi or lifting your BMW out of a river by twinkling your fingers - then I'll be impressed...

4 years ago

in Bird Brain on Mohsin Ali
Mate, this happens *all* the time here. One afternoon I was watchin TV and THREE birds one after another whammed into the window. We managed to get one airborne again, but the other two unfrotunately died on impact...
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