Tumblr of Mark Kreuzer

My Tumblr where I post random stuff related to food, art and technology

[kramkr]

Today is my first test for my new mechanical engineering studies. Wish me luck! (hier: Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg)

[kramkr]

I really love the Moo Minicards they stick out. Attending @swcologne (Startup Weekend Cologne) comes with 100 free Moo Minicards.

Ordering was easy and I only had to pay 4€ for shipping.

As you can see in the picture basically all the business card says is my Twitter name and the address of my about.me page. So I think this addresses the biggest flaws of business cards: Most of the time the people you give one of your cards don’t give a sh*t, so I’m aware of that and neither do I. So if somebody really wants to learn something about me he has to go to a place where I think you get a decent picture of me or they throw the card away.

[kramkr]

If you visit Seattle there is a new must do attraction. Take a flight with @kenmoreair in a #seaplane it’s simply awesome.

My story in short: I attended the Microsoft MVP Summit this November in Seattle and during the meeting of the OneNote Product Group one of the PMs suggested I could visit my aunt by seaplane after I mentioned that she lives on Victoria Island and I’d love to visit her but the time the travel would take is to long for my short stay in the USA.

He showed me the Website of Kenmore Air and I booked the flight to Vancouver Island and return flight on the next day for under 300$. Which seems pretty fair to me keeping in mind I booked only one day in advance. Another nice thing is that the Seaplane Airbase is located at the Lake Union which is near to the Space Needle. So I had the chance to visit the Space Needle, went to the EMP Museum afterwards and then went for a walk to the Airbase. Take a look at the pictures I made during the flight. To me it was the coolest flight I ever had and I had a lot as my father has a pilot license for small planes too, but the view when you approach Seattle is simply incredible nice. Ok I have to say I had a lot of luck with the weather on those two days.

[kramkr]

The best #beer in the world #cologne #thisiscologne (hier: Gaffel Am Dom)

[kramkr]

Off to Victoria Island by #waterplane with perfect weather conditions. (hier: Kenmore Air)

[kramkr]

Anyone recognize this? #lumia1020 #nofilter #mvpbuzz (hier: EMP Museum)

[kramkr]

#xboxone on can't wait to get home and play it there.

[kramkr]

Second session is going to start and this is probably as much as I can share with you without violating my NDA #mvpbuzz #microsoft (hier: Microsoft Building 37)

[kramkr]

I took all the pictures with my @Nokia #Lumia925 smartphone and they are awesome.

Ok I sure have to admit that the location made it quite easy to make some great photos, but one of the best moments was when a friend of me took a picure with her iPhone5 and was really depressed, because when it comes to low light pictures the Nokia PureView is state of the art.

Over all I have to say I was never happier with a smartphone. But next on my list is the Nokia 1020 which has a 41Megapixel camera.

[kramkr]

When the cat's away, the mice will play. Nah, but I’m sure a little bit sad not to be around #appcademy right now.

But I will return and life goes on. I think not being there for a time is also a very good test for the team. Let’s see how that goes.

[kramkr]

Unfortunately I have to take a small Helsinki #appcademy break. There are some things I have to take care of myself in Germany. But I had to notice what I really love in Germany.

The autobahn J

My brother fetched me from the airport and although I was a little bit tired I told him to let me drive (ah sometimes it is great to be the older)

It was a really chilled drive back home and I put the car also in the comfort Setting (you can see it in the photo), and it is so great that you can go >200km/h just so. You know there are environmentalists that say that going fast on the autobahn isn’t so good. But that is only one side of the medal. I think the reason why Germans are the best car producers in the world is tied directly to the non-existing speed limit. Of cause this are just my 2 cents.

But I want to add 2 more: I really think the speed limit is something which is also important for startups. Not the one on the autobahn obviously but regulations concerning the founding of a company or a startup. I have the feeling that Germany and the Germans are a little bit slow and that is one reason why startup in other countries are quicker.

Is this theory to far-fetched?

[kramkr]

As promised here is a Video of our pitch from the @StartUpWeekend

[kramkr]

Niklas doing some last minute math coding for the backend of our App. time is ticking but we think it is pretty cool that we did a app in just one weekend.

Everbody worked really hard for this. And now our we are going to have our final sprint for the presentation in 2 hours.

[run4yourlifegame-blog]

Meet the Team behind @run4_yourlife. Coding for #swhelsinki We have like a blast time here and we think you should get some behind the scene pictures.

I think it is pretty easy to spot the developers and the designers. And if you wonder who the other guy is, that’s me. But I still have to think what I’m actually doing.

[kramkr]

For those who wonder I do this weekend. Check out my other Tumblr ;) We do a Startup in just weekend

[kramkr]

You know our team is supposed to do some coding for the @appcampus this weekend. But in our team we liked the Idea of the Startup Weekend very much. It is basically a chance to apply what we learned so far in the first week of #Appcademy and now apply that to another project.

I’m like really happy that we had a great Idea yesterday and that it was a success. So what we basically do this weekend is to create a startup in less than 3 days.

So as I’m not a developer I cover the business plan and the marketing. For our team we found 1 more software developer and also 2 more designers.

So for this weekend you should join my other Tumblr as well and see what’s going on there. I bet you will like it!

http://run4yourlifegame.tumblr.com/

[kramkr]

For those who wondered how @appcampus actually looks like: Wonder no more watch the video.

I made this video the last days really early, that’s why it is so empty. I think it doesn’t really get the vibe of that place. Actually it is even hard to explain, you really have to be there to understand. All this people from around the world with creative ideas and all in the same process of making it reality.

Today on day 4 we first had a session where we talked about the business canvas from Steve Blank. We talked about it quite detailed. Obviously everybody could buy the book, which is probably a good idea for somebody who wants to found a startup, but the real value of the session are the additions and the experience of the coaches. Also the feedback of the other team can be very good.

Later the day we had like a 2,5 hour session with two coaches looking into the design of our app. And again it becomes clear how valuable an early feedback is for a startup project. On the whole each team is equipped with a framework which will be useful not only for the current project, but for every project in future.

[kramkr]

Today at #appcademy we are supposed to imagine our key customers.

But with a complete different approach. Because when you think of a startup you always ask yourself what are my customers. Bit in the lesson today we take, that a little bit further.

Our task is to do a collage on which we imagine a customer. But it had to be a “real” person. So we had to came up with a complete story about their live.

So in our case we have the 16yr old student John Dorian, his 37 year teacher Barbara Streusand. And other players are the principal Skinner and the politician Quimby.

All teams were provided with a loit of magazines and enough white space.

You might think that is a pretty silly way of thinking about your customers. There were even teams who didn’t join, bur I already took alot out of it. Although it is a imagery person you really start to see some thinks you didn’t take into account earlier.

Later this day we had to find out about our own identity. Which was also very intresting. But I think I will do another post for that part in the future but not now.