StartupDigest Reading List – February 10, 2012

10/02/2012

For newcomers: StartupDigest Reading List is the members-only weekly email newsletter of the best articles in the startup world.

You can become a member for free here.

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StartupDigest VIP is now open for the best CS and Design internships: http://startupdigest.com/intern- Chris

 

StartupDigest Reading List is curated by:
Chris McCann – Co-Founder, StartupDigest
Chris Burnor – Lead Engineer, StartupDigest

 

 

StartupDigest Reading List is supported exclusively by:
Watch the Kauffman Foundation’s first-ever Super Bowl ad for entrepreneurs. The next great entrepreneur is out there with ideas that can change the world. Will it be you? Pass it on.

 

 

What You Need to Read This Week

A post on reddit on fitness that surprisingly has huge implications for being more productive on a daily basis. Start your day off by listing what you want to accomplish and don’t passively read twitter, hacker news, facebook, or reddit.

 

You Are Solving The Wrong Problem
By Aza Raskin | More articles on attitudes

A story about solving the right problem, not just the obvious hard problem.

 

Vim Anti-Patterns
By Tom Ryder

Vim’s minimalism and elegance are hard to learn, but worth the effort. However, even for experienced users, there are common antipatterns that can be fallen into and there’s always more to learn.

 

Designer Toolkit
By the Stanford Design School | More articles on design

An in-depth PDF about the design process and design thinking.

 

The importance of sleep in a startup
By Leo Widrich | More articles on daily life

Productivity doesn’t come in hours; it comes in the amount of energy you have every day.

 

You may have heard of MapReduce, perhaps even tried to slog through Google’s Whitepaper and you know that it was one of the keys to Google’s early successes in massive computing. But what is it and how does one implement it, and most importantly, what do you use it for?

 

Think big things
By Brendan Baker | More articles on big ideas

It’s ok to start small but have big ambitions and set out to solve big problems. Life is too short to work on another groupon clone or social media aggregator.

 

Even the best engineers can become myopic and complacent when it comes to preparation for disaster. Perhaps this is especially true for the best engineers, for whom disasters are rare. Richard Feynman’s personal appendix to the report on the Space shuttle disaster is a great study in how such failures happen and perhaps how they can be prevented.

 

[Video] Life lessons from an ad man
By Roy Sutherland | More startup videos

Many of us are typically quite skeptical of advertising, but sometimes the “intangible value” of your product or service can outweigh its production value.

 

See all of the best startup resources here.

 

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StartupDigest Reading List – February 3, 2012

4/02/2012

For newcomers: StartupDigest Reading List is the members-only weekly email newsletter of the best articles in the startup world.

You can become a member for free here.

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Special heads up for everyone – we will soon be launching a new digest that will feature the most interesting startup in the world every week. 500+ people have already signed up for it in advance. You can sign up too here. Stay tuned :)
Also, we changed up the messaging and process of becoming a StartupDigest VIP. What do you think of it?

- Chris

StartupDigest Reading List is curated by:
Chris McCann – Co-Founder, StartupDigest
Chris Burnor – Lead Engineer, StartupDigest

 

 

StartupDigest Reading List is supported exclusively by:
Watch the Kauffman Foundation’s first-ever Super Bowl ad for entrepreneurs. The next great entrepreneur is out there with ideas that can change the world. Will it be you? Pass it on.

 

 

What You Need to Read This Week

An epic rant on how you should stop being intimidated and just build a product you would use.

 

The Hacker Way

By Eric Ries

Buried within the Facebook’s S-1 filing is a personal message from Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s hacker culture.

 

There is a slew of wonderful JavaScript libraries out there to aid in adding dynamism to your webpages. But how do you actually put them together without turning your webpage into a Cthulhuesque nightmare?

 

A look at how investors think about risk in a startup from Brendan Baker, who used to work with AngelList and is now with Greylock Partners.

 

Sometimes profits aren’t always the right answer. Here are the tradeoffs between growth and profit and how to decide which path is right for you.

 

Let’s peak under the hood of Ruby’s run time environment and see how the garbage collector works. While we’re at it, maybe we can help save your application from slowing to a molasses mess.

 

A brief guide to tech internships

By Alexey Komissarouk

An in-depth guide to getting an internship at a startup from Alexey, who interned at Facebook, started the PennApps hackathon, and was an engineer for the Israeli Defense Forces.

 

Love this. We definitely need more articles like this written from a designer’s (and woman’s) perspective.

 

See all of the best startup resources here.

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Madrid StartupDigest – December 5, 2011

6/12/2011

Below is an archived version of the Madrid StartupDigest Events List – a weekly curated listing of the best tech startup events in Madrid. If you would like to get next week’s digest on Monday, sign up here.

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Hi all from rainy Paris!Staying some days at the city of lights for LeWeb. I’m very excited to be here, especially because LeWeb is THE startup conference for Europe and even for part of Silicon Valley. Everyone is going to be here, so if you have a startup or work in that industry, you should definitely check it out (big waving hand to my friends at Rude Baguette who will be there too). This year I’m especially thrilled because we’re going to test the first prototype of Press42. That means we’re covering the event, not only as official LeWeb bloggers, but for all things startup for Press42 and our partners too. If you’re a blogger that writes about startups and are attending LeWeb, please do let me know so I can add you to the system. If on the contrary, you’re a startup attending the event (already got in contact with some of the startup competition finalists), email me at leweb@press42.com so we can add your story to the platform and reach the bloggers at the event.

Some news from this week, the big bomb, Facebook buys Gowalla. I nearly missed that one. I’m very happy for the guys at Gowalla. Have a couple of friends there, so I’m guessing I’ll see them in SF. ;) Also, the now infamous list of probable IPO startups from Goldman Sachs. Yeah, you know, the guys partly responsible for our financial meltdown? Well, they’re playing with startups now… And finally, a good post from GigaOM talking about thinking big. I have to agree on this one. Lots of startups aren’t thinking big enough. A lot of people are talking the Lean Startup approach, but they forget that lean doesn’t mean cheap — nevertheless, it seems that’s what most people are doing.

And now, back to our events. Although this week we have 2 holiday so most people are out of town. Very very slow week with only 2 events coming up.

Madrid StartupDigest is curated by:
Alex Barrera – Founder of Press42 (@42press)

 

 

What’s Going on in the Madrid Startup Community

Re-Twittmad
When: Wed Dec 7, 8:00pm
Where: Irish Rover

If you want to swing by and talk with the Twitter community in Madrid and have some beers, this is the place this week.

 

 
Okuri Entrepreneur Feedback Day
When: Wed Dec 7, 4:00pm
Where: Okuri Spaces (C/ Bravo Murillo 244 Planta 1 28020 Madrid)

After many months, including a Startupbootcamp Madrid and a Tetuan Valley Startup School, my friends at Okuri return with the feedback days. If you have a startup and want to get some free real badass feedback, this is the place to go this week, hands down!

 

 

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Taipei StartupDigest – November 28, 2011

29/11/2011

Below is an archived version of the Taipei StartupDigest Events List – a weekly curated listing of the best tech startup events in Taipei. If you would like to get next week’s digest on Monday, sign up here.

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Good Morning, Taipei Startups! 

I’ve been reading a lot of articles about the so-called PayPal Mafia recently and this great article from David Sacks outlines several key elements to the group’s success. Of course, we at StartupDigest also have a reading listfor more inspiring entrepreneurial tidbits. Happy reading! For Newcomers: Taipei StartupDigest is an events list, curated by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, that is laser focused on the needs of startups in Taipei. We aim to bring you the best of what the tech community has to offer in Taipei and from time to time, across Taiwan. If it’s worth going to, you’ll find it here!

Please send feedback and event info to jhill@thestartupdigest.com.

 

Taipei StartupDigest is curated by:
James Hill

 

 

What’s Going on in the Taipei Startup Community

Startup Weekend Hsinchu
When: Friday 2 – 4 December
Where: NCTU MITC, 1001 University Road Hsinchu City
Language: Chinese & English

The second Startup Weekend event to be held in Taiwan, taking place in the hardware tech hub of Hsinchu. Follow along on Facebook or Twitter for the latest updates.

 

ICEBERG Beta (Free)
When: Sunday 4, December 3pm – 4pm
Where: IEH, 187 Jinhua Road (MRT Guting)
Language: Chinese

Help test out ICEBERG, an app for all the night owls in Taipei that launches soon.

 

 

Top Upcoming Events

12/5 – Hadoop User Group
12/6 – Intel Innovation & Research Forum 2011
12/12 – CEP Forum: Apps
12/17 – TEDxTaipei Salon “The Power of Journey”

 

 

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Singapore StartupDigest – November 15, 2011

15/11/2011

Below is an archived version of the Singapore StartupDigest Events List – a weekly curated listing of the best tech startup events in Singapore. If you would like to get next week’s digest on Monday, sign up here.

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For newcomers: Singapore StartupDigest is a curated events list created by entrepreneurs that is focused on the needs and interests of startups in Singapore. Do drop me a note at gwen@thestartupdigest.com if you have any feedback, questions, or ideas.

Singapore StartupDigest is curated by:
Gwendolyn Regina Tan – Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief, SGEntrepreneurs
 
 

What’s Going on in the Singapore Startup Community

Acid Test for Technology Entrepreneurs

When: Wednesday, 16th November 2011, 9am-1230pmWhere: Plug-In@Blk 71, 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #02-18, Singapore 139951

Henry Wong, venture partner at Garage Tech Ventures will share his experiences and insights from the point of view of a VC in Silicon Valley.

 

Startup Asia: Top strategies for cashing in Asia’s Innovation Boom

When: Wednesday, 16th November 2011, 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Where: Blk 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent #02-18, Singapore 139951

Meet a panel who will share their thoughts on the winning strategies of a new generation of entrepreneurs who no longer look to Facebook, Amazon and eBay for cues but are crafting their own business models, going global, and scoring IPOs on Wall Street. The panel includes Koh Soo Boon of iGlobe Partners, Wong Kok Cheong of Sparky Animation, Darius Cheung of tencube (acquired by McAfee).

 

Web Wednesday

When: Wednesday, 16th November 2011, 7pm-930pm

Where: THE BEER MARKET, 3B River Valley Road, Singapore 179021

Meet Ranji David of Interactive Advertising Bureau-Singapore as she speaks about advertizing spend online especially vis-à-vis the IAB Online Revenue Report 2011.

 

Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation Luncheon

When: Thursday, 17th November 2011, 12pm-130pm

Where: Plug-In@Blk71, Blk 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent #02-18, S (139951)

Your opportunity to cozy up with Jojo Flores, co-founder of Plug and Play Tech Center in the US; and Eddie Chau, co-founder of Brandtology (acquired by Media Monitors).

 

TEDxKRP

When: Thursday, 17th November 2011, 630pm-9pm

Where: Shaw Foundation Alumni House Auditorium, 11 Kent Ridge Drive

Organized by the the Grameen Creative Lab @ NUS, TEDxKRP brings speakers to talk about creating social impact through businesses.

 

Introduction to Mozilla’s WebFWD Accelerator

When: Thursday, 17th November 2011, 7pm-9pm

Where: Plug-in, Blk 71, 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent

Meet Diane Bisgeier, Program Manager of WebWFD as she takes you through Mozilla’s Innovation Accelerator: a program which supports Open Source projects by offering mentorship from industry experts, access to the Mozilla global network, infrastructure and other world-class resources.

 

Closing the Entrepreneurial Gap

When: Friday, 18th November 2011, 4-8pm

Where: Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium, NUS University Town

Made up of two parts: a live telecast from a panel in Beijing, and a local panel here in Singapore. This event features industry leaders from the Chinese tech scene.

 

Gamification SG Meetup

When: Friday, 18th November 2011, 5:00pm – 8:00pm

Where: Singapore Polytechnic InnoVillage, 500 Dover Road Singapore 139651, InnoVillage Inv B 24

Location-based gamification? Social+game mechanics? Discuss.

 

GovCamp Singapore

When: Friday, 18th November 2011, 3pm till late

Where: The Rock Auditorium, Suntec City

Following in the spirit of BarCamp, GovCampSG is for governments and other public institutions to share social and tech solutions to turn them into Gov 2.0. It is also to promote active citizenry among the people to participate and take an active role in society. The theme for this GovCampSG is “Connecting people, data, and ideas”, revolving around 2 main topics – “Engagement” and “Open Data.”

 

 

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Cincinnati StartupDigest – October 24, 2011

24/10/2011

Below is an archived version of the Cincinnati StartupDigest Events List – a weekly curated listing of the best tech startup events in Cincinnati. If you would like to get next week’s digest on Monday, sign up here.

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The Cincinnati StartupDigest is focused on highlighting the best events and opportunities for startups in the area. Our goal is to bring the startup community in Cincinnati together to connect and inspire. We are just getting started, so please help spread the word to sign-up hereWe’d be happy to hear any feedback you have to improve the digest or any events you’d like us to tell the community about. E-mail james@thestartupdigest.com or danny@thestartupdigest.com.
Cincinnati StartupDigest is curated by:
James Dickerson – Founder of Wellthy
Danny Stull – Founder of Venturepax

 

 

Cincinnati StartupDigest is supported exclusively by:
Startup Weekend founders share tips and insights in their first book, How to Take a Company from Concept to Creation in 54 Hours. Funded by the Kauffman Foundation, the book outlines key beliefs that have yielded powerful results. Order your copy Nov. 8, 2011.

 

 

What’s Going on in the Cincinnati Startup Community

CincyPy Revival Meetup
When: Monday, October 24, 6:00 PM
Where: Rockfish Interactive – 659 Van Meter Street, Cincinnati, OH

It’s the revival of the Cincinnati Python users group. All skill levels are welcome! The first topic is about the Facebook/FriendFeed Tornado server.

 

The Brandery Demo Day
When: Tuesday, October 25, 9:00 AM
Where: Great American Ballpark – Club Level

If you’re interested in attending the Brandery Demo Day, e-mail info@brandery.org. It’s the culmination of the 12-week program where eight startups will pitch their businesses to investors from around the country.

 

The Brandery Demo Day Happy Hour
When: Tuesday, October 25, 4:00 PM
Where: Mainstay Rock Bar – 301 West 5th Street

Centro & the Cincinnati StartupDigest are sponsoring the Brandery Demo Day happy hour at Mainstay Rock Bar. It’s for entrepreneurs, startups, and investors and should be an awesome time!

 

Cincy Functional Programmers
When: Tuesday, October 25, 6:30 PM
Where: Gaslight Software – 11126 Kenwood Rd. Suite C, Cincinnati, OH

Jim Weirich, a well known software developer will be speaking about how the Y-combinator (not the accelerator, although you can find out why Paul Graham named it that!) works and how it gives insights into the world of functional programming.

 

 

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StartupDigest Gaming – October 14, 2011

15/10/2011

For newcomers: StartupDigest Gaming is the members-only weekly email newsletter of the best articles in the gaming industry.

You can become a member for free here.

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Welcome back to StartupDigest Gaming, the members-only guide to what you need to read in the gaming industry every week.
 
This week’s edition highlights research citing significant growth outside of Facebook in emerging markets, the majority of social gaming revenue coming from outside Facebook, the growth of gamers ages 2-17 outpacing the population growth of that age group, and the five most common ways developers unintentionally poison titles’ chances of success right out of the gate.
 
StartupDigest Gaming is curated by:
Andy Ellerhorst

 

What You Need to Read This Week
Non-Facebook social gaming worth $5.6bn by 2014

By Ben Maxwell, Edge Magazine

Continued growth in social gaming fueled by “non-trivial” social networks outside of Facebook as the medium sees explosive growth internationally.

Is The Majority of Social Gaming Revenue Coming From Outside Facebook? Report Says Yes.

By Azam Khan, SocialTimes

Viximo’s latest report contends that users are currently spending $3.2bn annually on other social networks and only 1.3bn within Facebook. While Facebook has re-introduced some viral components, developers are looking elsewhere to earn gaming revenue.

Gaming Kids: 90 Percent in U.S. Do Game, says NPD

From [a]listdaily

Gamers ages 2-17 now outpace the population growth of that age group because of increased accessibility to mobile devices.

Epic Fail: Five Ways to Kill Your Game

By Scott Steinberg, Industry Gamers

A look into 5 deadly sins of game development in an increasingly competitive space.

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StartupDigest Social – October 14, 2011

14/10/2011

For newcomers: StartupDigest Social is the members-only weekly email newsletter of the best articles in the social media industry.

You can become a member for free here.

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Welcome back to StartupDigest Social, the members-only guide to what you need to read in the social media industry every week.
 
This week’s edition focuses on how Spotify’s business works, Facebook introducing its application for Apple’s iPad, Zynga revealing more details about its upcoming initial public offering, and Microsoft appearing to be readying the formal launch of a Bing-branded daily deals website.


 
StartupDigest Social is curated by:
Hussein Fazal – Co-Founder, AdParlor
Gareth Smith – Account Manager, AdParlor

 

What You Need to Read This Week

How Spotify’s Business Works
By Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, Business Insider

Attempting to disrupt illegal downloading isn’t as easy as it looks.

 

Facebook’s iPad app is finally here
By Jolie O’Dell, VentureBeat

Finally, it’s arrived!

 

Zynga reveals more IPO details
By Colleen Taylor, GigaOM

Zynga steps up its game this week, with its first big press event.

 

Microsoft has a daily deal site too.

 

 

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Vienna Startup Digest – October 11, 2011

12/10/2011

Below is an archived version of the Vienna StartupDigest Events List – a weekly curated listing of the best tech startup events in Vienna. If you would like to get next week’s digest on Monday, sign up here.

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Hello fellow Vienna startups and entrepreneurs!
So that was that, StartupWeek is over and Vienna is recovering from quite possibly one of the best startup conferences Vienna has ever seen. But, there is a lot left to be done and we still have an exciting month of internet/tech startup-related meetups, events and conferences here in Vienna.Note: Community = Free, open event. Commercial = Registration costs applyAs always, you can spread the word about the Vienna StartupDigest by tweeting about it and if you’d like to submit an upcoming event in Vienna, send all of the necessary information to mike@startupdigest.com!

The Vienna StartupDigest is curated by:
Mike Borras - Co-Founder, Tupalo.com

 

 

What’s Going on in the Vienna Startup Community

Startup Show & Tell (Community)
When: Monday, October 10 – 19:00
Where: Metalab – Rathausstrasse 6, 1010

This month’s regular meeting of folks working on a few startups in Vienna and around the World. Meet, greet and discuss lean startups, projects and prototypes.

 

buzzattack: Social Branding (Commercial)
When: Thursday, October 13 – 09:00
Where: Museumsquartier Raum D, Museumsplatz 1, 1070

The first social branding conference in Austria, where brands connect with digital marketers to discuss topics ranging from Facebook, to Twitter, to Google and everything in-between.

 

Journalism for Hackers (Community)
When: Friday, October 14 – 19:00
Where: Metalab, Rathhausstrasse 6, 1010

Journalism for hackers brings together developers and journalists for a highly compressed guide to the way media works.

 

Podcast Barcamp (Community)
When: October 15-16
Where: sektor5, Siebenbrunnengasse 44, 1050

Bringing together the podcasters around Austria to discuss and revive the fading podcast scene.

Top Upcoming Vienna Startup Events
October 20 – Vienna Startup Mixer (Community)
October 21-23 - FROG 2011 (Commercial)
October 22 - Agile Tour 2011 (Commercial)
October 22-24 - Game City 2011 (Free entry – Community/Commercial)
October 29 - SciCamp (Community)
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StartupDigest Social – September 30, 2011

30/09/2011

For newcomers: StartupDigest Social is the members-only weekly email newsletter of the best articles in the social media industry.

You can become a member for free here.

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Welcome back to StartupDigest Social, the members-only guide to what you need to read in the social media industry every week.

This week’s edition focuses on Facebook’s Spartan and iPad projects being set to launch early next week, how Zynga makes money, online ads beginning to enter the financial big leagues, and Spotify now requiring new users to log into the music service through Facebook.

 

StartupDigest Social is curated by:
Hussein Fazal – Co-Founder, AdParlor
Gareth Smith – Account Manager, AdParlor

 

 

What You Need to Read This Week

 

The Planets Are Aligned: Facebook’s Spartan And iPad Projects Set To Launch Early Next Week

By MG Siegler, TechCrunch

Facebook looks ready to break away from the mobile chains of the mighty Apple.

 

How Zynga Makes Money

By Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, Business Insider

A high-level breakdown of how Zynga makes all that money.

 

Online Ads Are Finally Making Serious Cash

By Colleen Taylor, GigaOM

Excellent news for any social startup involved in the online advertising business.

 

Spotify’s New Deal: No Facebook, No Music

By Peter Kafka, AllThingsD

Fresh off f8, Spotify is making more bold moves.

 

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