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[myairooh]

Look inside Google garage the-collaborative workspace that thrives on crazy creative idea

In the company's HQ for moonshot thinking, Googler collaboration is engineered into the floor plan.

When a company gets big (like over 30,000 employees big), how does it retain a culture of innovation that celebrates experimentation, creativity, and crazy, cool ideas?

Enter the Google Garage, a space that according to Program Manager Mamie Rheingold serves as a "commons where Googlers can come together from across the company and learn, create, and make."

"We packed in way too many people into this space, they were literally elbow to elbow," she says. "What happened was they kind of just had to collaborate. If you can't ignore the person next to you, you might as well collaborate with them."

"The environment influences human behavior," says Frederik Pferdt, Global Program Manager for Innovation and Creativity. "So if you want to encourage creativity, and wild ideas, and moonshot thinking, you should create that exact environment that helps you achieve that.".

Source:  http://www.fastcompany.com/3041553/work-smart/9-ways-youre-failing-at-your-internship 

[myairooh]

If Y Combinator Did A Growth Fund, It Would Be Very, Very Late-Stage

For years, Y Combinator has shied away from doing any kind of follow-on funding. That’s out of concern that this would signal risk and ward VCs away from supporting startups that don’t get this seal of approval.

However, under the firm’s new leadership with Sam Altman at the helm, it’s possible that Y Combinator will consider doing growth-stage investments, according to sources familiar with the firm’s plans. Both YC and Altman declined to comment on this story.

First off, the plans are very much “in flux,” a source tells us. The firm has discussed the possibility of growth-stage funding with external parties, but this is not at all finalized.

Second, it would definitely not involve any kind of Series A or B investments because of the signaling risk problem (e.g. companies that don’t get follow-on funding would have a much harder time raising funds from other investors).

A potential Y Combinator growth-stage fund would be much farther down the line, akin to Series E funding or growth capital that a company might need before going public. Think about it as being competitive with the kinds of firms that might invest in Airbnb at north of the $10 billion valuation.

Source:  http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/02/if-y-combinator-did-a-growth-fund-it-would-be-very-very-late-stage/

[myairooh]

Tencent-Backed 58.com Acquires Chinese Real Estate Listing Site

Acquisition creates China’s largest secondary and rental real estate platform

58.com Inc., the Chinese equivalent of Craigslist Inc. backed by Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. , said Monday it had acquired an online real estate listing site for about $267 million, the latest deal in China’s fast-growing market for services that connect online users with traditional local offline businesses.

Beijing-based 58.com, which provides users with local information such as job postings and rentals, said that it had bought a 100% stake in Shanghai-based Anjuke, whose website and app allow users to search for real estate properties.

As 58.com’s current services already include real estate listings, the acquisition creates China’s largest secondary and rental real estate platform, 58.com Chief Executive Michael Jinbo Yao said in a statement.

Tencent, whose main businesses are social networks and online games, bought a roughly 20% stake in 58.com in June last year and integrated its services into its WeChat and QQ messaging services. Last year, Tencent also bought a 15% stake in a Chinese online real estate services company called Leju Holdings Ltd.

Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/tencent-backed-58-com-acquires-chinese-real-estate-listing-site-1425274248

[staff]

Happy 20th Birthday, YahoooooooOOOOOOOOOooooo

[myairooh]

More and More Startups Reach the Billion-Dollar Milestone

Once upon a time, a valuation north of a billion dollars was a goal that only few startups were bold enough to set for themselves and even fewer were able to achieve. Nowadays, more and more young companies manage to reach that milestone, as data compiled by the Wall Street Journal nicely illustrates. According to the Journals data, there are currently at least 73 private companies that are venture-backed and valued at more than $1 billion. That’s more than twice as many as during the height of the dot-com boom in 2000, even when inflation is taken into account. In 2014 alone, 48 companies entered the elite circle, while 16 former members (e.g. Beats Electronics and GoPro) exited by going public or being acquired. The valuations that some of these companies have reached would have been unthinkable a few years ago.Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi and Uber, the app that helps its users find private drivers, are both valued at above $40 billion, leaving behind many public companies that have been around for decades. Moreover, the number of startups valued at $10 billion or more doubled in the past year, as the need to go public early has been reduced by the abundance of venture capital.

Source: http://www.statista.com/chart/3252/billion-dollar-startups/ 

[myairooh]

HP goes shopping: Targets Aruba Networks acquisition

Hewlett-Packard Co. could be poised to make one last acquisition before it splits itself in two, with a report from Bloomberg suggesting it’s looking to snap up wireless networking infrastructure technology outfit Aruba Networks Inc.

Bloomberg cites the usual anonymous sources in its report, and says the deal could be announced as soon as next week, if it doesn’t fall through. Neither company would speak on the record when approached, but Aruba is certainly one hot property right now, with the firm set to record $1 billion a year in sales by 2017.

Aruba Networks is also set to announce its Q2 2015 financial results later today, having recorded revenues of $208 million for the first quarter, a 29 percent year-on-year rise.

If the deal does go ahead it would barely make a dent in HP’s overall revenues, but The Register reports it would provide a welcome boost to its poorly-performing networking business, which saw revenues slip by 10.8 percent year-over-year to just $562 million in its most recent quarter.

Rumors of the acquisition surfaced just days after HP CEO Meg Whitman said the company was in a position to make acquisitions again, following a generally disappointing quarterly earnings report. Whitman’s comments saw HP’s stock price take a tumble, but the good news for Aruba Networks is its shares have shot up by 21 percent since Bloomberg’s report was published.

Assuming the deal does go through, it’s likely that Aruba Networks would be absorbed into the new Hewlett-Packard Enterprise company that’ll be born later this year when HP completes its planned metamorphosis into two separate companies. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise is the entity that’ll take over HP’s enterprise, hardware and software businesses. Meanwhile, HP, Inc., will keep the firm’s PC and printer businesses up and running.

[myairooh]

Priceline Positions Itself for 2015 Acquisition Spree With $1.13 Billion Note Offering

he Priceline Group announced today it intends to raise $1.13 billion (or 1 billion euros) in a public offering of senior notes to be used for general corporate purposes, including share repurchases, paying down debt and making acquisitions.

The offering would close on March 3, 2015 for the 12-year notes.

As of the end of 2014, the Priceline Group had more than $8 billion in cash on hand and the offering of senior notes could supplement that and help fund additional acquisitions.

In 2014, the Priceline Group spent $2.5 billion, net of cash acquired, for acquisitions, including $2.4 billion for restaurant reservations platform OpenTable.

In addition, the Priceline Group, which includes Booking.com, Agoda, Kayak and Priceline.com, among other brands, last year invested about $921 million in China’s leading online travel agency, Ctrip.

[myairooh]

50 Reasons to Start Your Own Business

Some people are destined to be entrepreneurs. From the time they get through school, or maybe even before that, they’re hungry to start a business and lead it to success, and they’ll stop at nothing to make that dream a reality.

For others, starting a business is a scary, intimidating notion. There are too many unknowns to take the plunge. But if you’re considering becoming an entrepreneur, don’t forget all the benefits that go along with it:

1. Flexibility. Work your own hours.

2. More spare time (eventually). Spend more time with your family and friends. But note: This is only applicable once your business is established and you have employees handling the majority of necessary responsibilities. Don’t expect to have more spare time until you reach this point. In fact, expect to have much less.

3. Call the shots. Nobody else is going to set the rules. You are.

4. Set your own deadlines. No more last-minute rushing unless you want to do it.

5. Sell how you want to sell. Online? In person? Inbound? Outbound? It’s your call.

6. Create your own environment. You can set the formality and culture of your organization.

7. Pursue your passion. You can do what makes you happy.

8. Create something from scratch. Watch your organization grow from start to finish.

9. Meet new people. Network with other entrepreneurs and professionals.

10. Build a team. You decide who to hire and bring into your company.

11. Create jobs. Improve the economy with new job opportunities.

12. Help people. Use products and services to improve people’s lives.

13. Become an expert. Learn the ropes of your industry through first-hand experience.

14. Invest in yourself. You take the risk, and you’ll gain the rewards.

15. Make more money. If you want a pay raise, you can give yourself one.

16. Financial independence. No one else is signing your paychecks.

17. Tax benefits. Write off your biggest expenses Note: while you do get to write off lots of expenses as an entrepreneur, beware the “self employment tax.”

18. New challenges every day. Find new ways to stimulate your mind.

19. Get exposed to new cultures. Discover new perspectives and approaches.

20. Discover new fields. Delve deeper into your industry.

21. Create an asset. Give yourself something sellable to hedge your bets.

22. Connect with your clients. Forge real, personal connections.

23. Delegate boring tasks. Don’t do anything you don’t want to.

24. You can stop working. Work you enjoy doing can’t be described as “work.”

25. The power to give. Have the power and flexibility to donate time or money to worthy causes.

Related: The 8-Step Battle Plan to Succeed as an Entrepreneur

26. Get involved in the community. Participate actively in your neighborhood and region.

27. Improve your industry. Push your industry forward with new innovations and ideas.

28. Get a mentor. Meet valuable, insightful mentors and learn from them.

29. Become a mentor. Take your own knowledge and experience, and mentor someone else.

30. Learn new skills. Branch out in new departments.

31. Attend new classes and seminars. Constantly refine your skillset and stay updated.

32. Have a big office. If you want the biggest office in your workplace, it’s yours.

33. Work from anywhere. Work from home, an office or a beach if you so choose.

34. Have the option for multiple ventures. Start another business when you’re done with this one.

35. Gain entrepreneurial experience. Being an entrepreneur makes you a better professional in almost any position.

36. Get recognized. Start earning name recognition and build a reputation.

37. Get things done faster. Set your own efficiency rates.

38. Build a personal brand. Take the time to develop your personal brand, and tie it into your business’s.

39. Get more creative. Create your own opportunities and your own solutions.

40. Inspire others. Serve as an example for other people to follow their dreams.

41. Reduce your commute. Find an office space closer to your home.

42. Have more job stability. Never worry about being laid off or fired.

43. Find pride and fulfillment. Finally start taking pride in the work you’re doing.

44. Reach your dreams. If you’ve ever dreamed of being wildly successful, this is your chance.

45. Learn to embrace failure. Even if you fail, you’ll walk away with new skills and more experience you never had before.

46. Have a great story to tell. It will be a fun story for your grandchildren one day, win or lose.

47. Leave something behind. Pass the business down to your children and grandchildren.

48. Change the world. It may seem like a lofty goal for you right now, but your business really could change the world.

49. Resources are plentiful. With the dominance of the Internet, it’s easier than ever to find resources you need, including startup capital, loans, grants and even mentors.

50. There’s nothing stopping you. What’s really keeping you from being an entrepreneur? Of course there are risks, but there’s nothing forcing you not to take them.

If you want to become an entrepreneur, there’s nothing really holding you back. Take the leap, and lead the company you’ve always wanted.

[myairooh]

Cross Campus opens collaborative workspace to spur innovation in Pasadena

Cross Campus, a collaborative, on-demand work space and business event venue opened in Pasadena. The campus at 87 N. Raymond Ave. provides workspace solutions for creative people and companies, a state-of-the-art venue for business events, and a community hub for entrepreneurs and innovators.

“Here” is Cross Campus, a much anticipated center for business innovation and technology that opened its doors in Pasadena. Cross Campus is a membership-based collaborative work environment that provides flexible workspace options for creative people and companies, a state-of-the-art venue for business events and a community hub for entrepreneurs and innovators.The operation occupies several floors of two adjacent buildings. Most of the renovation has been completed.

[myairooh]

Wealthy Chinese Are Fleeing the Country Like Mad and are Mad for Overseas Real Estate

In the year 2014, Chinese millionaires maxed out the quota for EB-5 visas under the U.S.’s Immigrant Investor Program, and recently it was reported that 90% of Australia’s Significant Investor visas were given to Chinese nationals. All over the world, immigrant investor programs are being flooded with applicants from China.

Since 1990, China has gone from being the 7th largest exporter of immigrants to the 4thlargest, an increase of more than 125%. Chinese people are emigrating in ever greater numbers, particularly the wealthy.

[myairooh]

What makes a good office?

New York City architect named Marc Kushner launched Architizer, something of a social-networking site for members of his beleaguered profession. On it, firms both mammoth and minor can post profiles, projects, and proposals. The 14,000 projects cataloged on the site (including the entrants in the World's Coolest Offices competiton, a collaboration between Inc.com and Architizer) provide a window onto trends in modern architecture and interior design, including the death of the cubicle, the redefinition of the break room, and more.Kushner described the evolution in modern office architecture to Inc.'s Christine Lagorio. For more read out the complete interview from the link above. 

[myairooh]

Postmates Picks Up $35M In Series C From Spark Capital

Postmates, the on-demand delivery service that operates in nearly 60 markets, has raised $35 million in Series C exclusively from existing investor Spark Capital, according to our sources.

Postmates is a service that lets users order anything from local stores and have it delivered directly to their home for a small delivery fee.

The company launched back in 2011 and has raised a total of $58 million, including a $16 million Series B which was also led by Spark Capital with investments from Matrix Partners, SoftTech VC, Crosslink Capital, Scott Banister, Naval Ravikant, Russell Simmons, Thomas Korte, Shervin Pishevar, Dave Morin and David Sacks.

Sources tell TechCrunch that the latest deal, which valued the company between $150 million and $200 million, closed within the last month.

Postmates has made more than 1 million deliveries in nearly 60 markets across the United States, and has recently launched an API. Using the Postmates API, third-party sellers and app developers can offer same-day delivery powered by Postmates.

Scale is the most important factor in a business like Postmates, which generates a small amount of revenue per transaction, which is why it has been expanding so rapidly. This time last year, the company was only operating in four different markets.

There’s no doubt about the on-demand economy as a whole, with everyone from Amazon to Square to Uber to WunWun looking for a piece of the (on-demand) pie. But ultimately, the winner will be determined by who has the most surface area and the lowest prices.

[myairooh]

Lightstone Committing $2 Billion to Hotel Projects

David Lichtenstein, whose real estate company owned Extended Stay Hotels when the chain went bankrupt, is committing $2 billion to developing and investing in lodging properties.

Lightstone Group is choosing “top-branded” select-service properties, those with limited amenities, in proven U.S. markets for its projects, Lichtenstein said in an interview. As part of the strategy, Lightstone has teamed up with Marriott International Inc. to build five Moxy hotels in New York -- four in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. The “micro” lodgings, with high-tech features and smaller-than-average rooms, are geared toward younger travelers.

“We spent time evaluating many brands and concluded that Marriott is the best brand partner for our developments,” said Lichtenstein, Lightstone’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Residential has exceeded prior peaks. Industrial has come roaring back. Office has lagged for good reason. Hotels are coming back and coming back strong.”

Lightstone has shifted its focus to become more selective after buying Extended Stay, a chain of mid-priced hotels across the U.S., for $8 billion at the top of the market in 2007. The New York-based company seeks to spend $1 billion on Moxy-branded developments, including a 300-room property that it’s under contract to build in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles. About $1 billion will go toward other hotel investments in well-performing areas of the country, according to Lichtenstein and Lightstone President Mitchell Hochberg.

[myairooh]

Lattice Semiconductor's $600 million deal is among biggest acquisitions ever by an Oregon tech company

Lattice Semiconductor and Silicon Image are essentially opposites.

Hillsboro-based Lattice produces high-cost, versatile computers chips used primarily in the industrial gear and communication equipment.

Silicon Image, based in California, gets most of its revenue from the consumer markets. Its chips are standardized, low-cost options for well-established product lines.

And that's the logic behind the $600 million acquisition Lattice announced Tuesday.

Lattice hopes to transform itself with Silicon Image's technology and customer list, blending the two companies to serve customers over the lifetime of a product line. Lattice said the deal will immediately add to its profits, but it will also immediately add to its debt – the Oregon company is borrowing $350 million to help finance the deal.

It's a turnabout for Oregon tech, which more often sells to Silicon Valley companies. Last year alone, deals for Oregon technology businesses totaled a record $7 billion.

No Oregon tech company has paid so much for an acquisition since 2007, when Integra Telecom bought Eschelon Telecom for $710 million. The debt Integra took on with that deal hobbled it for years and nearly drove it into bankruptcy.

[myairooh]

Marc Andreessen's plan for fostering more "Unicorn" startups

The job of a VC is to identify the highest value companies of a generation and invest early and often to support their growth. The prevailing wisdom within the industry has long been that there are but a handful of companies per era that drive the majority of returns. If you miss out on the Google, Facebook, or Uber grand slams of a respective generation, there’s no number of doubles and triples that can make up the difference.

But for some people, this long-accepted reality seems to be starting to change. As software and technology penetrate every industry and area of our lives, the thinking goes that we’ll see more “Unicorns,” or companies valued at more than $1 billion, and “deca-Unicorns,” those valued at $10 billion or greater. But beyond the natural evolution of the industry, and simple inflationary affects over time, are there things that the venture and technology industries themselves can do, in conjunction with politicians, regulators, and educators, to foster this growth?

That’s the question explored by Andreessen Horowitz partner and resident futurist Marc Andreessen* in a late Sunday night tweetstorm. Andreessen tackles the idea of proactively creating an environment that supports an expansion in the number of great tech startups over time.

Sure, it would be good for VC firms like his Andreessen Horowitz to see more Unicorns, but there’s an argument that it would be good for society as a whole, not to mention the global and US economies. More (multi-)billion-dollar companies presumably means more transformative products and services, more personal wealth creation, more jobs, and a host of other benefits. Such an expansion doesn’t come without its tradeoffs, however, including the risk of greater income inequality, the further displacement of “non-skilled” or at least “non-technical” workers, and, if efforts aren’t made to reverse current trends, limited inclusion of women and ethnic minorities.

Andreessen’s plan touches on a number of subjects, including a heavy does of education reform, diversity promoting, increased access to the fruits of federally-funded research, patent reform, healthcare reform, and tax reform. There’s a lot to unpack in that list, and given the number of constituencies involved in these various areas, there’s likely no easy solution. If we want to create an environment that is conducive to entrepreneurship, it will take a national, or even international, crusade. But given the above-outlined benefits it seems to be challenge worth taking seriously.

[myairooh]

3 key things big businesses can learn from small businesses - Real Business

The saying ‘good things come in small packages’ may not apply to all things in life but when it comes to business, small really can be beautiful. When I say beautiful I mean efficient, agile, productive and focused. Not particularly romantic I know but these qualities are important to every business owner I've ever met.

In my career, I've worked in everything from large and complex multi-nationals to innovative and fast-moving startups. That experience has shaped my thinking on what truly makes for a successful business, which in my view is less about ‘being small’ and more about ‘acting small’. By ‘acting small’ I don’t mean limiting what is possible for a business to achieve, in many cases size has no relationship with potential impact. Rather I mean acting like you’re a lean and agile startup so you can react quickly to fast-moving changes in customer behaviour and competitive pressures.

To get your business operating more like a high performing small business here are three ways big businesses can learn from the actions of small businesses.

[myairooh]

The Best Leaders “Talk the Walk”

One of the most ubiquitous aphorisms in business is that the best leaders understand the need to “walk the talk” — that is, their behavior and day-to-day actions have to match the aspirations they have for their colleagues and organization. But the more time I spend with game-changing innovators and high-performing companies, the more I appreciate the need for leaders to “talk the walk” — that is, to be able to explain, in language that is unique to their field and compelling to their colleagues and customers, why what they do matters and how they expect to win. The only sustainable form of business leadership is thought leadership. And leaders that think differently about their business invariably talk about it differently as well.