Ben Milne

Video

Wed, 16 May 2012 04:00:40 -0400

Photo

Mon, 14 May 2012 00:19:05 -0400

Photo

Sun, 06 May 2012 15:15:02 -0400

poptech: mirandamolina: In the left, the original Jansen’s...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:40:29 -0400

poptech:

mirandamolina:

In the left, the original Jansen’s mechanism with it’s walking curve, and in the right, a simplified version.

A la izquierda, el mecanismo original de Jansen y su “curva de caminata”, y a la derecha una versión simplificada.

(vía Geometría Dinámica » El mecanismo de Jansen)

Blending the line between art and engineering, Theo Jansen (PopTech 2005), a Dutch visual artist creates “life” in the form of “animals” that walk the beach in the Netherlands.

Photo

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:23:34 -0400

Video

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:43:26 -0400

Photo

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:57:21 -0400

Photo

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:33:21 -0400

Not an average day in Des Moines.

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:41:00 -0400

Not an average day in Des Moines.

Video

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:21:45 -0400

Video

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:14:23 -0400

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. — Henry..."

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:02:09 -0400

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. — Henry Ford”

- https://twitter.com/#!/john_frankel/status/186165720785223680

Letting go

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:23:55 -0400

/ / Finished while sitting in a hotel in CA in a town called Tiburon. Mostly written while stuck in an AZ airport listening to a slew of retirees cell phones buzzing. My mind needed an escape. I visited home yesterday for about 12 hours before getting back on a plane. A cab driver picked me up yesterday morning around 6AM… He was pretty stoned and rambling about “dust in the wind”. I saw a woman running and vomiting in the Chicago airport the day before. I’m looking forward to getting home for more than 12 hours very soon. //

I just got back from London Web Summit and I even got to hang out on Bloomberg TV yesterday. I spent the week being able to hang around people like Niklas, Matthew, Peter, Cindy, and a slew of others. Today, I get to spend time with one of the fastest growing financial companies on the planet, MFoundry (who most people know as the company that built the Starbucks app).

These are the men and women shaping the Internet and the world. The fact that I get to spend my time being in the same room is something I’m still adjusting to… And quite frankly trying not to take for granted.

It’s been an interesting week as usual. Checking in at home, a few new rockstars from Des Moines even joined the Dwolla team this week. I couldn’t be more humbled to work with with everyone in that office and every day I’m thankful for what I get to watch unfold. I feel like that’s a group of people who are shaping the internet and the world just the same.

With any round about trip like this, there’s always some golden nugget that comes out of it for me. 1-2 things I always feel like I take away from the experiences that will change the way I look at some things.

One of the biggest revelations for me this week came during the speakers dinner at LWS.

I had the pleasure of dining next to Dharmash. After an hour or so of yelling across the table and a few rounds of red wine we started talking about building companies and some of the challenges.

As usual, I was looking for a golden nugget and what I ended up finding was that many of us just seem to learn the same things the hard way. There are no shortcuts, just a never ending revolving door of discoveries.

I had some odd revelation during the conversation and it’s something I’ve always known but probably never really internalized for whatever reason.

The act of letting go can be the one of the more important things you do when founding a company or growing a team. Trusting someone enough to let them run with an idea either kills you or takes you to the next step. That’s a bet you always have to be willing to make.

I’m not talking about letting go completely or just giving away the company. I am talking about the moment we all know which is:

” I have this idea. This could be huge. Who do I trust enough to share it with? “

Which is immediately followed by this emotional attachment to this totally intangible thing which without action is totally meaningless.

The idea.

For the idea to ever be worthwhile it has to leave your mind. The minute it does it’s up for grabs for anyone. Once you share it with people you can never have it back. That idea might be a company, a product, a feature, or a phrase. It could be anything and once you give it away to the world what happens to it next is impossible to predict.

Sometimes you end up with partners, a lack thereof, new friends, or none at all. Sometimes your coworkers leave because of your idea and sometimes you not sharing it causes them to leave anyway.

What I am trying to get to is this…

You have to let go of the ownership of the idea so that other people can help you build it. In order for that to happen, they will take ownership over it just like you and you must let that happen.

If you’re going to lead the only way to do it is by sharing your ideas and when other people improve upon them and fine tune them you need to be happy about that and even celebrate it. The fact that something can be adopted by others and believed in… Is a million times more powerful than the idea or any iteration of it could ever be sitting in your head.

At first it feels strange seeing people around you start to love an idea or a product. Then it becomes empowering and there’s a strange transition phase where people start to take ownership over it who aren’t you. That feels really uncomfortable at first.

Founders in this stage can be a little like toddlers who just aren’t sure they want to share their favorite toy.

Let go and let it happen. When people start embracing your idea and are excited to be a part of it that’s a huge transition most of us never get to see happen. Start helping other people by supporting their iterations and growing it. Once the vision and the execution is behind the idea it’s significantly more powerful.

Let go of your need to feel like you were there at the beginning and just concentrate on how you help the people around you make magic happen.

If you learn to let go at the right time it might just spawn something pretty damn magnificent.

Take a risk. Let it go.

How a Yellow Cab driver saved my ass at SXSW.

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:59:00 -0400

With all of the confusion, speed, and misunderstandings that life brings it’s easy become jaded about the ways of the world.

Today I had a really humbling experience. Someone completely saved my ass, who I never met, who went wayyyy out of their way to do it and did so gracefully.

It’s a story I felt like I had to share because sometime despite our belief that some people suck. The world is full of really gracious and amazing people.

I woke up this morning after 3 hours of sleep in Austin in a bit of a haze. Nothing really was too different about this morning and when I left the hotel at 4:30AM I definitely didn’t expect the next few hours to go down the way they did.

I actually got a cab at SXSW immediately.

Something happened that never happens in Austin during SXSW. I walked out of the hotel directly to a cab. No wait. The driver was super polite and even when I handed him the plastic card he didn’t ask for cash.

I left him a solid tip and was genuinely thankful for the conversation and ride. In retrospect, I wish I had left a much bigger tip.

Things got really odd once I walked to the kiosk and realized I didn’t have my passport. Or my ID.

Realizing you have no ID and no passport in an airport is an odd feeling. My only form of identification a week before leaving the country when out of town going to another town was completely gone…

Within about 10 seconds my brain processed:

I can’t leave Austin.
I can’t get to the Forbes thing in NYC tonight.
I can’t interview the 3 people I need to this week.
I can’t see my investors tomorrow.
I can’t go to London next week.
I won’t be able to see my girlfriend this week.
I don’t have an identity right now.
I’m completely screwed.

This really helpless feeling washed over me and I don’t feel that way often at all. I called the cab company knowing I had left it in the cab. All I had with me was my receipt from the card transaction which didn’t say the cab or driver name.

I called half a dozen times over 20 minutes. The calls were getting dropped and in my own frustration I started to feel like I was just being hung up on.

For those that know me just imagine the look on my face of complete defeat with a cell phone in each hand and a laptop trying to figure out what to do.

At this point I had this odd moment of…

Do I call someone expedite me a passport?
Do I wake up Kate to make calls in tandem?
Do I just keep calling?
Do I give up and just start sleeping?
Do I drop a huge fbomb and stare at the wall?

I was just reaching the point of trying to figure out how to explain the foolish thing I had just done.

About 30 minutes of calling Yellow Cab over and over I got to dispatch. The agent just kind of breathed deep and said he’d send something to the drivers.

Within 5 minutes the cab driver called, he had my passport, and volunteered to bring it back to me. Basically, I felt like I just saw magic happen.

The driver… Actually brought my Passport back.

The driver then drove 30 minutes back across town to drop off my passport, which he had hung onto. He thanked me repeatedly for waiting for him to come back and quite frankly all I could do was repeat that “you’re a wonderful human being. I don’t know you’re story but I don’t have the words to describe what you have just done for me.”

This guy had been on the clock for something like 11+ hours all night during SXSW and ended his all-nighter with a tool in a hoodie leaving a passport behind in his cab. Would you return it? I know a lot of people who wouldn’t. If I did… I sure wouldn’t be happy once I got there.

This driver saved my ass all because he’s a good person and put me in my place just by doing it. My first inclination wasn’t that “It will all be ok” it was “I’m totally screwed. That passport is either in the trash or sold by the end of the day. “

I am an idiot and a totally judgmental one who never should have thought that. I’m an idiot for leaving my passport behind and I’m an ass for thinking so little of someone else who I knew nothing about. Shame on me.

Totally humbling experience.

<slight exaggeration>….. During this time a line the size of the great wall assembled at the security gate …..</slight exaggeration>

Things got stranger. I was sure I would miss my flight but somehow I got pulled out of the security line because I’d been upgraded. Somehow… Making my flight with enough time to grab a coffee.

One stranger made a huge impact on my life today and I thought that was worth sharing. Never underestimate the power of the yellow cab.

Be nice to your next cab driver. He might just save your ass.

Also. Watch yourself in Austin. A lot can happen before 7AM.

Video

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:42:16 -0500

Photo

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:17:54 -0500

It's not the community's responsibility to find investors for you

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:16:48 -0500

Quite a while ago I read this:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120115/BUSINESS/301150011/Up-coming-tech-scene-faces-five-challenges-2012

And it’s a great article. It’s the

Lack of tech startup investment” section

that got my attention.

In my opinion (take it as such and nothing more), this is a perception problem or a lazy excuse.

“Meanwhile, entrepreneurs complain they can’t find investors.”

These people are called whiners. Let’s all grow up a little bit and admit it.

They aren’t finding investors because either their idea sucks, they are lazy, or they are being taught to complain about not finding the right investor rather than being trained to go get it elsewhere.

This isn’t easy. You don’t find investors because you have the audacity to ask for one. You earn them one by one just like every customer your company will ever have.

If you are ok resolving your lack of investment to “I couldn’t find it” when you aren’t going out of your way to find them and make big bets. That’s your fault! Not the communities!

I’d argue local investors are missing deals because they either:

Don’t have the expertise to help in specific markets.
Don’t play the game with outside investors.
Are going through the same puberty problem the whole scene is and trying to find their role in everything.

It’s new to them too.

I would be wary to watch the state or anyone else back back your company who either:

Haven’t had a local successful exit in the space you’re working in.
Can’t name their last 2 local investments and positive returns.
Can’t name their last 2 consumer tech companies and positive returns. Most of the people in DSM right now building stuff are building consumer tech companies. There are exceptions but this is the large chunk and most of the pitches I see are consumer tech.

If they can’t provide that, are they really doing much to help your company?

There’s a reason not all businesses make it. If the person who is raising funds / running the company is a whiner, I wouldn’t invest either. The market is running wild with available capital.

Investment is hard to find from the right people and if your company fails because of it… That’s your fault.

If your house and car are on the line and you can’t take the next step that’s on you. Not on someone to hand you a solution to the problem you are too lazy to work on.

If you haven’t leveraged your house or car to get the company off the ground yet. Start there.

If you start a company relying on investors to make it work and you can’t find investors. That’s your fault. Not the communities. That’s called a failure and it’s part of building things. Swallow your new found embarrassment, dust yourself off, and try again…

There is nothing wrong with failure unless you don’t learn from it.

It’s not the ecosystems responsibility to fund shitty ideas or executors because you are here.

If you can’t find the money you need here get on a plane… It’s out there and its your responsibility to locate it.

If that scares you, you should probably rethink starting a company…

usagov: Image description: This brain-controlled modular...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:35:33 -0500

usagov:

Image description: This brain-controlled modular prosthetic limb (MPL) is controlled by surface electrodes, which pick up electric signals generated by the muscles underneath the skin. The electrodes then convert those patterns into a robotic function.

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, along with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Labratory and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), developed the limb for military veterans who lost limbs in action.

The arm is the first to be created and has the same dexterity as a natural arm, including independent movement of the fingers.

On January 24, 2012, Air Force Tech Sgt. Joe Delauriers was the first patient to use the MPL. Delauriers was injured in an IED blast in Afghanistan where he lost both his legs and part of his left arm. With the help of the MPL, Delauriers is able to live off base, drive a car and hold his infant son without worrying about infections.

Amputees go through training before being fitted for the MPL. The training records muscle movements and collects data before the MPL is fitted.

Those involved in the program are hopeful about the future of the MPL and creating more limbs for those in the military and hopefully eventually for the public.

Image from the U.S. Navy.

poptech: The 2010/2011 Feltron Biennial Report Graphic...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:21:52 -0500

poptech:

The 2010/2011 Feltron Biennial Report

Graphic designer Nicholas Felton (PopTech 2009) is obsessed with data. He knows how many songs he’s listened to and how much it costs him per mile to fly. Felton visualizes these numerous details in personal “Annual Reports.”

Photo

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:21:16 -0500