Bubbles

Given all the news on Dubai and the debt situation, I wanted to take a look at three "bubbles" I had first hand experience seeing and was somehow tied:

1) 2000 tech bubble-I was at Stanford at the time, and in my fraternity alone there was some absurd number of start-ups (I think it was 15). Everyone on campus was trying to start a company. People were dropping out of school to start these companies. I remember steamtunnels, woosh, college411, afindz and the list goes on and on. Even at that time, everyone was talking about a bubble, before the market crashed.

2) When I was living in Los Angeles in 2004, real estate was out of control. People with no education were buying apartments and flipping them. I was in the market for an apartment at the time and everyone i knew kept telling me not to buy because of the "bubble." It was not until 2006 when real estate prices stopped growing and starting falling.

3) In December 2007, I visited Dubai and we were told that 20% of the world's cranes were there. They seemed to have an endless appetite to build unnecessary buildings in order to create a tourist attraction. From the two palms, to the Bourj, to the world, everything seemed over the top. Everyone on my trip kept talking about the "bubble." Dubai was justifying all the building by saying they would attract the toursits.

The lesson learned here is that if you are generally hearing there is a bubble, there is a bubble. Bubbles are created by overspeculation. When people are speculating about overspeculation, then it has happened. Get it?

Let me give you a clue what is next: its starts with "clean" and ends with "energy"....

My New Gig

Most people who know me know that I have three passions: basketball, technology and music. I am excited that in the next few weeks I will be starting a position that will be focused on using technology as a platform to solve many of the challenges that exist in the music industry. I am joining Sony Music Entertainment as a Director of Corporate Development in their Global Digital Business. My role will primarily focus on mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, joint ventures and partnerships on the digital side of the business. I am absolutely thrilled, and truly believe this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I will remain in New York City, a place that I have grown to love. As it has been well chronicled, the music industry is going through some huge changes. Obviously physical CD sales are declining, but the digital side of the business is growing tremendously and has huge potential beyond the pay per play iTunes model. Technology start-ups and partnerships with internet companies (Google, Yahoo) will be the key to alternate methods of monetization. Needless to say I am very excited!

My Favorite iPhone Aps

It seems like when my friends/family get an iPhone, I get the question, which aps should I download. Here is a quick list of some of my favorites.

Financial

•Mint-aggregates your bank accounts, etrade accounts, savings accounts into one easy interface and gives you tips on how to save money

•Paypal-manage your paypal account

•eTrade-manage your eTrade account

Music

•Last.fm-a little bit clunky and difficult to use, but creates an online radio station based on the artists you like and is usually the most accurate and descriptive of all online radio services

•Pandora-simplest online radio stream: put in a name of a song, artist or genre and you have a radio station

•Shazam-listens and identifies a song when you want to know what you are listening to

•Rhapsody-if you have a Rhapsody membership, mobile version of their service

Sports

I have not found a sports ap that I like or regularly use. The following three are the ones I have installed or tried:

•Fox Sports-difficult to navigate but is the most comprehensive sports ap I have found

•SportsTap-Easy to navigate but does not have all the sports info I am looking for

•ESPN Scoreboard-This crashes every time I launch it. Am I the only one who has this problem?

Social Networking

•Tweetdeck-Best twitter management application out there that integrates with Facebook status and a host of other twitter and non twitter applications/sites

•Facebook-a big social networking site, have you heard of it?

•Linkedin-professional social network

•Echofon-the old twitterfon that provides and easy to view twitter feeds

•Loopt-location based social network that will soon run in the background of your iPhone without needing to be launched

•Foursquare-location based network that takes on game aspects

Local Directories

•Flixster-Movie times and locations

•Yelp-restaurant reviews

•UrbanDaddy-suggestions on what to do based on where you are, what time it is, what you are trying to accomplish and who you are with. Check it out, it is very funny

•OpenTable-restaurant reservations

•UrbanSpoon-enter a couple of preferences (price, location, food type), shake your phone and get a suggestions

•Taxi-get local phone numbers for taxi services around you

•HopStop-public transportation directions

•City Transit-NYC transit information

News/Information

•Wikipanion-all content from Wikipedia

•Wall Street Journal-abridged WSJ articles

•NYTimes-abridged NYT articles

•Variety-all content from Variety

•What’s On-TV show schedules

•Yahoo Finance-all content from Yahoo finance

Calling/IM

•Skype-long distance calling services (use to need a wifi connection, not sure if that is the case anymore)

•Fring-Instant messaging that integrated free calling

Shopping/Renting

•Gilt-all content from Gilt Group

•Amazon-all content from Amazon

•PhoneFlicks-manage your NetFlix account

•Kayak-search and buy airline information

•ZipCar-rent cars by the hour

Recipes/Drinks

•Big Oven-a list of recipes

•Drinks Free-a list of drinks and how to make them

Other

•Google’s general ap-gmail, calendar, blogger, reader, etc.

•Tumblr-manage your blog

•Translator-translate other languages

•Remote-control your apple devices

•Flashlight-white screen that provides light in the dark

•Kindle-read Amazon ebooks

•MyWireless-manage your AT&T account

•TWSS-push a button and hear the word “that is what she said” repeated in different tones

•Flickr-manage your pictures

•Bump-exchange contact information from one phone to another

Also, I have a host of random games which I use occasionally on the subway going back and forth to work. Let me know if you have any interesting aps I should be adding.

My Reader

Met with some old friends from my Morgan Stanley days last night who were asking me about what sites/blogs I read. I get this question a lot so I figured I would share. Click on pic below to expand.

Loopt: The future of social networking?

A couple of years ago, a fairly high profile silicon valley start up named Loopt (backed by Sequoia and NEA) was founded. The company has a location based social network that allows people who are on your friend list to see where you are at all times. I assume the monetization strategy will occur from local adds placed on the maps. The concept must be exciting for social networking power users who constantly want people to know what is going on in their lives. This takes it to a new level. You go out on a Friday night and you can tell where the people you want to hang out with/avoid are located and in what concentration. To sign up friends, you need to get them to register their phone number. There is an iPhone ap that works very nicely, as long as you have a set of friends who are also using Loopt. Unfortunately, no one I know is signed up. I am not sure if anyone is really using the service. The facebook ap is also awful. I think there are two big reasons why Loopt hasnt caught on yet 1)the privacy issues concern people....we will probably eventually get to the point that we feel comfortable having other people know where we are located, but that hasnt happened yet (similar to why friendster did not take off 7 years ago like facebook and myspace have now). 2) It is too hard to build a network around telephone numbers. Loopt relies on people requesting a friendship and requiring them to add their phone number. This action is much more intrusive than putting in an email address.

Overall, Loopt's service works well, is very accurate and has a lot of potential My solution: Facebook should acquire Loopt. Forget about the Loopt Facebook application because it just does not work well. Location based networking should be a primary feature and not a secondary application. Facebook could create a Loopt button on everyone's Facebook front page (assuming the user has a mobile application for Facebook) that "enables location." Loopt would then leverage the existing Facebook network and Facebook would add to its monetization model by providing location based ads and search. Seems like a win win.

Go to www.loopt.com if you want to add me as a friend.

Bankers vs. Consultants

What was the one thing I disliked the most when I was a banker? The experience made me judge people based on how much they made (ie how big their bonus was, etc) and their tolerance to work more than any one else. Luckily, I have been out of the industry long enough that i understand how little those things matter in measuring a person. However, as an analyst or associate in an investment bank, it is easy to fall into that because you have no idea how the work you do affects anything. Anyway, I love this video and how much it makes fun of bankers and consultants. Bankers think they are better than everyone else because they make more money and consultants think they are better than everyone else because they are smarter than them. Look, I will not deny how good banking and consulting is to gain the basic skills to be successful in finance or more generally in business, but I would argue that neither of these jobs actually create anything. If we had no bankers or consultants, would the world be any different? Maybe Banking and Consulting is just a way for HBS students to find jobs and convince themselves that they are doing something meaningful (well, not banking this year). People need to just admit what they are: a platform for something else. I could never do a job like that again, but I can make fun of the people who are :).