Edial Dekker

[edial-blog]

This is still one of the most inspiring video’s about building products for me. If you don’t know Wilson Miner’s other work, please check it out.

[edial-blog]

Posted some photo’s of the #UmbrellaRevolution of Hong Kong on Exposure. I was there a couple of months ago and happened to be in the middle of it. Enjoy.

[edial-blog]

Second week in San Francisco, some thoughts

This has been my second week in San Francisco. I've been exploring the city, and have also visited Oakland last week. I'm going to try to find an apartment now too. Exploring San Francisco has been a lot of fun. The neighborhoods are quite different, and there's amazing food in every corner of the city. Been mostly riding bikes, and I've been running a lot.

Work has been more than awesome. We moved into a brand new office. It's one of the prettiest offices I have ever seen. A good thing is that in most meetings I'm surrounded by people who are much smarter than me and that's good. The thing that excites me most, is the team I'm in. We're having a lot of fun and we're building some very exciting new things.

Moving here is one of the best decisions I've ever made. The only thing I really miss so far is the metric system. Also, I don't know the guy on the photo, but I took the photo of him at the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market today.

So many good things ahead!

[edial-blog]

A photo I took in San Francisco yesterday. Everything worked out with my visa! More coming soon, Edial.

[edial-blog]

My friends Kamiel and Martijn (for whom I know over 20 years), will open their first physical shop of 'Blom & Blom' next week. The two brothers have been collecting and repairing lamps from former East Germany for many years, and had an online shop for a while already. I had a sneak peak in their new space a few days ago and it's as beautiful (or maybe even more beautiful) as this video. Make sure to buy one of their lamps if you're around!

[edial-blog]

Startup reading list

Yesterday I spoke at the opening of 'Appril', a festival around mobile apps that's happening Amsterdam until the end of the month. There were a bunch of people who asked about what I found helpful things to read when you're starting a business. So here goes. first, the Y Combinator Startup Library is great place to start. Second, here's some additions:

The Startup Owner's Manual: Often called the startup bible, but the book fortunately doesn't really like a bible. Lots of insights and very easy to read. Applicable to most startups. I got the book as a present, and love it still.

10 Factors To Consider When Evaluating Digital Marketplaces: Great piece from Bill Gurley about marketplaces and what makes some of them special. I find myself going back to this article regularly. 

Ben Horowitz: Great resource for founders. Has a lot of classics, like how to hire sales people, but also on lots of other great topics.

Quora: Still a great place for a lot of things. Looking for stats on cost per installs? Benchmarks for conversion? Great example of landing pages? Or maybe pitch decks of other startups that they have shared. It's all there.

Google Ventures: Over the years, Google Ventures has recorded more than 60 useful video's. Recently they released them to the public, and they are awesome. I particularly like the one on A/B testing and User Research.

I hope this helps

[edial-blog]

Here are some photo's I took with my new Fujifilm X100S camera while I was in Taiwan. There are a lot more photo's on my new Exposure.so profile. More photo's of other stuff will be added.

[edial-blog]

Leaving Berlin

It's 12:32pm and I'm in waiting in the airport of Amsterdam to fly to Taipei. After five years of living in Berlin, I've said goodbye to the city last week. It's been an absolute blast. A small summary would not do justice of everything I learnt here, so I'll keep that for later. I feel very blessed to have been able to do what I did. When I moved to Berlin with my brother and two friends, we had the feeling we could create our own universe, and I believe we did. It was the reason why we moved to Berlin, but it is not the reason why I'm leaving Berlin. Berlin still has everything that makes the city awesome. Last year has been intense. It was the best and the worst of Berlin, all within 12 months. It has shaped me a lot, and the balance is very positive. Now I'm taking a few weeks off to go traveling through Taiwan. I'll meet a friend, and will spend my time biking, eating, and hiking. I brought my phone, but I'll not be sharing any updates (just assume I'll have a great time, haha). When I'm back, I'll move to San Francisco, with a pit stop in London. I'm joining Eventbrite's product team, and I could not be more excited. Who wouldn't be? The ticketing industry is broken, and we'll fix it. Keep exploring, and see you on the flip side

[edial-blog]

'Wo is die Henne?' article in latest Brand Eins magazine about GetYourGuide, Gidsy, business models, and the creation of ideas. Text by Jakob, and amazing photos by Heji. Article is not online yet unfortunately. Article builds on the idea of a ‘multiple discovery’ model of idea creation. Rarely, ideas come as complete new ideas (‘heroic theory’), but rather build on something that is already there, evolving. ‘History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme’.

[edial-blog]

First order of Kaffee Bitte

This year, I'll spend more time posting things on Tumblr. I'll cover things that excite me, things that anger me, and things that inspire me. This post is about the latter one. I received my first Kaffee Bitte order. Kaffee Bitte is young startup founded by Stephen and Hannes, two former Gidsy employees. The only reason why you'd want to see employees leave, is if they start their own companies. For me, Kaffee Bitte is one of the best outcomes of 2013.

Avoiding much churn, growing a customer base organically, and the logistics of delivering freshly roasted coffee beans, bring up many interesting challenges. In many cases a coffee bean comes through a fair trade organization, via an agent to a logistic company, and then to a roastery, before it lands in the brick and mortar (coffee) shop. Somewhere in here, is a margin. But more importantly, somewhere in here, is a better customer experience (better beans, faster delivery, freshness of beans, less hassle).

My first Kaffee Bitte order was great. The beans were roasted 5 days before I received the package, and the packaging was great (fits through a mailbox). I hope I get to finish my package before the next order, which should happen next week.

In 2010 only, Germany imported more than a million tons of coffee beans, that is 1/3 of all coffee that is imported in Western Europe. Stephen and Hannes picked a great country for their business. I hope they're able to make it happen here. I'll invite you for coffee until that happens

[edial-blog]

Last year around this time I went to one of my last Gidsy activities. It was an activity by Daniel, who opened his home for an amazing dinner filled with white truffles. The best part, is that I also made a new friend. One year later, we've joined forces to share our passion for food. Together with many friends (thanks Ruben, Roeland, Heleen, Peter, Kamiel, Floris, Mark, Guyon, and everyone else), we've organized the first 'Le dîner de maçons culinaires'.  We had 2 amuses, followed by 4 dishes and a pour-over coffee. We sold out, and had around 60 people coming to the the 'Startup Orgy' (SFW) space. The industrial lamps we borrowed from Blom & Blom, and we had a fresh pour-over roast from our friends from over at Sweet Cup. 

I'm wishing you a great start of 2014! 

[andywarhols]

[ejpfauth-deactivated20190423]

Na het zien van A Single Man (2009) ga ik mijn ochtendritueel ook drastisch aanpassen.

[edial-blog]

Goose bumps. Wilson Miner nails it. "When We Build" (at Build Conference)

[edial-blog]

'The classic hack-day demonstrability graph'

(via The Little, Big Idea — Editor's Picks — Medium)

[edial-blog]

Plant alliances you should know about

[edial-blog]

[gidsy]

Gidsy is now part of GetYourGuide. We’re going to continue what we set out to do: bring together people around activities.

Just over a year ago, we set out to change the way people travel and explore the world. The idea was sparked from a failed mushroom hunt - we couldn’t find a local...

[edial-blog]

The start of a big new journey!