Wearing my ‘serial founder exploring starting a company’ hat, I advanced my passion project KIP3.
KIP is a seven-year long passion project to tackle the disinformation problem on social media that makes us poor information citizens and polarized neighbors who cannot take collective action in the face of threats like the climate crisis.
It’s a Wikipedia + Wordle for Current Affairs to make better citizens and voters…A comprehensive project that aims to promote trust and transparency in democracy while combating disinformation and corruption.The deliverables can be used individually or collectively to empower citizens with the knowledge and tools needed to critically evaluate information and build a network of trustworthy sources.Substantial exhibits just strolling through the humanitarian center at Marina Green this Fleet Week, where I was tabling at the San Francisco Fire Depot’s Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) table.
It’s a jobs fair and experiential museum. You can learn how the US Army intubates a patient, and what an earthquake feels like.
I met a Navy diver who dives into wrecks in seas and rivers to retrieve the sunken remains of MIA service people all over the world. 😳
I went out to dinner 2 weeks ago and ended up talking to a TV reporter for an investigative segment he was working on about the ghost kitchens of GrubHub. That particular restaurant’s owner was shocked to find his establishment being advertised on GrubHub since he does not have a listing there, and doesn’t even do delivery. So who made the food that the online delivery customer ordered? And who received the customer’s cash for it?
This brand hijacking system needs an immediate revisit.
I saw that a week earlier, a local blog reported the poor conditions at a ghost kitchen.
Read broke-ass Stuart’s reporting on ghost kitchens in San Francisco’s SOMA district.
And yet today, an industry intelligence newsletter says that "ghost kitchens are red hot" today because they let restaurants operate without brick and mortar dining locations. That’s PitchBook Data.
Got a lot out of this mini accelerator experience from Jason Calacanis, the founder of Silicon Alley Reporter (a fellow dotcom industry pub to the one I was once an editor at!) among other things, like the LAUNCH startup conference, festival, podcast This Week In Startups and LAUNCH Incubator.
I was among the 60 founders chosen from 300 applicants, and I was representing Second Screen, Inc. where I've been COO since January (icymi!). Founder University is a three-day curriculum for founders who have launched their product but haven't raised Series A.
This was a fun night with Fast Company journalist EB Liza Boyd at the Elks Club for Salon founder David Talbot.
His book "chronicles the cultural history of San Francisco and from the late 1960s to the early 1980s when figures such as Harvey Milk, Janis Joplin, Jim Jones, and Bill Walsh helped usher it from backwater city to thriving metropolis."
This talk "The Rise of Turkey" was moved to a larger room (about 100 in the audience and live-streaming the podcast to Commonwealth Club members everywhere) and we ran out of books to sign right away.
I was joined on the panel by:
Steven West, Ph.D., Fulbright Scholar to Turkey; Professor of Turkish Studies and Cross Cultural Communication
Bonnie Joy Kaslan, Honorary Consul General, Turkish Republic, S.F. Bay Area
Joel Brinkley, Professor of Journalism, Stanford University; Foreign Affairs Columnist; Former Pulitzer Prize Winning Foreign Correspondent, The New York Times — Moderator
Amidst the turmoil of the Arab Spring, Turkey has arisen as a powerful force in the Middle East. The distinguished panel will discuss the nation's culture and its sometimes bitter past, the growing influence of religion in Turkey, and her frayed alliances. In addition, the panelists will discuss how Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's dynamic prime minister, is becoming one of the most powerful voices in the troubled region.
You can listen to the podcast here.
This came in the mail today. It's from the major faculty of my liberal arts college, an event for my professor of Bronze Age Archaeology, Jim Wright. He was a great teacher, as I recall!
Also, it's a reminder of the solidity of liberal arts education. This classically-based education was meant to turn out a person who was "virtuous and ethical, knowledgeable in many fields and highly articulate." It doesn't matter what you do with it, you're equipped as a well-rounded individual.
Today's email and its particular Bronze Age lens on power and place is so far from where I am right this minute, and yet I am back in class in an instant, to when civilizations around the Aegean first established a far-ranging trade network and all together moved out of the Stone Age.
Then I'm back again, to today, back to looking at the future of stories for millennial audiences as a business, tech, and entertainment issue. That's a focus of mine right now and based here in California's own power centers of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Hope all my Bryn Mawr archaeology peers have a fun symposium!
Excited to join JUMPSTART PROGRAM as a mentor in this startup event produced by the Silicon Valley Forum and Wasabi Ventures Global.
You may recall I've already had the pleasure of working with Wasabi principal Jeff Abbott as a chief mentor for two summers at the European Innovation Academy. I'm looking forward to contributing to his new intensive program.
Launching in fall of 2017, this 6-day hands-on experience is designed for international startups and scaleups seeking to enter the US market. It will address technology, organization, cultural differences, marketing & sales, financing, and more.
It's for you if:
September 5th is the last day to apply!
