Jul

13

San Diego Gulls vs. Armed Forces

Filed Under ice hockey, san diego | Leave a Comment

My coach is fundraising, so here’s a plug on my blog to support that effort :)

The San Diego Gulls alumni are getting together again for a match against the US Armed Forces. Admission is $5 (cheap, isn’t it?) Next best thing to driving to Anaheim for a NHL Ducks game. Plus, I remember the Gulls getting into lots of fights when they played the Fresno Falcons some time ago, way before I got into hockey. Should be fun!

SD Gulls vs Armed Forces

Apr

24

SDSIC Integrated Product Management and Development - A Case Study

Filed Under business, entrepreneurship, marketing, people i like, product management, project management, san diego, startup, strategy | Leave a Comment

Recently, I’ve been really fortunate to have met so many amazing people, that I can just learn from through osmosis, merely by just hanging around them (the converse is also true, which is why I am careful to stay way from people I don’t want to model myself after). Two days ago, I attended a San Diego Software Industry Council (SDSIC) event on Product Management where a real world case study was presented by Alan Kiraly, CEO of Enterprise Informatics.

When I last took Rod Whitson’s class on product management at UCSD, I particularly liked the real world case studies that we went over. It was definitely a plus that Rod actually had real world experience to draw from. Likewise with Alan, who is also an industry veteran. The other thing I like about an actual face-to-face event is the people interaction, the stuff that you learn that nobody will actually write in a book.

Here’s a couple of things I picked up from Alan’s presentation.

A solidified and well defined business processes can be quite the competitive advantage. Alan talked about how Enterprise Informatics use their own product for their SOWs “lifecycle” management (eating your own dogfood == awesome!). What I particularly liked about this really manages decision making. Once an SOW is defined, if the time is not right, it can be thrown out in the “parking lot”. At a later time, if the opportunity arrises, the SOW can be picked up, dusted off a little, tweaked and be reused by putting it on the development cycle train.

The obvious value here is in saving time and resource in planning. Planning and strategizing stuff takes time and .. well, brain power! Too many times have I figured a whole plan for something, shelved it, and then later when I want to revisit it, I have to redefine the entire plan from scratch again.

Transparency is good. Ok, so nothing really ground shattering here, but it’s nice to hear about real world problems when transparency is not advocated. In a global and diverse organization, with people working across various continents and different timezones, synchronizing work and expectations can be a challenge. I can surely relate to that–my team at work, consist of folks in California, Australia, Israel, China, France, and the UK.
Read more

Feb

28

Hello, San Diego!

Filed Under san diego | Leave a Comment

Hello San Diego

Perhaps the most snow you will ever see in San Diego. I was greeted by this in the morning as I was about to jump in my car and head out to work. (That’s my car’s sun roof)

Speaking of which .. I’m going to Mammoth Mountain, CA this weekend for a taste of some real snow. Woo hoo!! (Let’s see if I come back with no broken bones)

Nov

23

If at least one person on this life has breathed easier, ..

Filed Under changing the world, microfinance, quotes, san diego, startup, things to remind myself, wokai | Leave a Comment

And today’s quote is .. *drumroll*

To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch… to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!”

–- Ralph Waldo Emerson

And on a related quote, by an unknown author:

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away.”

Speaking of changing the world, the non-profit microfinance startup, Wokai, that I am currently assisting on a volunteer basis is having it’s inaugural meet-and-greet for the San Diego team (and anyone interested). We’re hosting it tomorrow at Roger’s place at 2pm PST. Contact me for details (I’m not going to randomly posting someone’s home address on the web!)

Sep

9

Change the world! (with a non-profit microfinance startup)

Filed Under changing the world, microfinance, poverty, san diego, startup, wokai | 4 Comments

I’ve just got back to town from LA (that’s Los Angeles, not Louisiana’s state code — I’ve had someone mix the two up before), and I’m catching up on a couple of things, hence my inability to post to this blog as frequent as I would like. I’ve also been busy shopping for schtuff for my upcoming Europe get-lost-and-sleep-in-an-alley backpacking trip, what a learning experience, but that’s a talk for another time.

In the mean time, I haven’t mentioned this before here, but I am helping out with a non-profit microfinance startup based in Beijing, whose goal is to reduce poverty in China. Currently, I’m seeking for volunteers in San Diego. This is a great way to gain some experience! I’ve just posted an ad on sandiego.craigslist, so I thought I’d cross post here too.

www.wokai.org

Wokai is a nonprofit organization working to build the microfinance sector in China. We envision a China in which no individual is denied choices and opportunities due to the inaccessibility of financial capital. Our mission is to enable Chinese microentrepreneurs to lift themselves from poverty.

We are looking for dedicated, passionate volunteers to help with our PR efforts. If you are interested in learning about microfinance and gaining experience in the nonprofit sector, please contact me

May

20

Open Coffee Club San Diego

Filed Under san diego, startup | 1 Comment

If you are in San Diego, come hang out with us at the local Open Coffee Club. We meet every Friday at lunch. Click here for more event details, the event page itself is hosted by a San Diego startup ;)

From opencoffeeclub.org,

The OpenCoffee Club was started to encourage entrepreneurs, developers and investors to organise real-world informal meetups to chat, network and grow. Read the blog post that started the ball rolling. This is the online complement to that offline network. Meet people, find out what’s going on nearby you and then go and take part.

Apr

23

EarthFair 2006, San Diego

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I volunteered to be on the survey team for EarthFair 2006 held at Balboa Park. Why I did choose to be on the Survey Team? I wanted to be on the front line of dealing with people face to face. The Silicon Valley history is littered with numerous tech companies (mainly startups) that tanked because they failed to listen to customers. Another case of too many geeks too busy building a Shiny Geek Toy, forgetting that the company has to make money to survive.

Any how, it was definitely a different kind of experience for me. I got “rejected” plenty of times, even by people that I least expect to be treated so rudely from. I recall a time when I started talking to this man with a 7 year old daughter by him, when he just suddenly said “No, I’m not doing this!” and walked away. All I asked was if he happened to carpool to the event that day (it was one of the survey questions). Others just walk away while you are talking to them.

Some of the volunteers couldn’t handle the occasional harsh rejections, so the organizers actually sent the survey volunteers in pairs. It’s a cold and lonely world out there. Anyway, getting rejected was also a great experience (and one of the reasons why I went with the survey team). I am reminded of the time I was learning how to skate - I found out that the best way to learn how to skate fast, was to let go from the fear of falling down and just fall over. It’s more important to pick yourself back up after a fall than to worry to death about falling down (which is pretty inevitable for n00bies).

It also was mainly a battle of emotions. After walking around under the sun for a few hours, you’d be worned out (and dehydrated) and it’s tough to put on a smile when soliciting feedback. Left untreated, it becomes a downward spiral because people respond to how you interact with them. The unhappy sulky “hello” buys you a fast “good bye”. Solution? Suck it up, fake a sincere smile, and greet the next victim visitor with excessive enthusiasm. I found out that you get used to it after a while. So that’s how the sales people do it!

It was an amazing event, and I would definitely volunteer again next year. Anyone wanna partner with me?