It's all about the Benjamin's.

Facebook filed to go public with the SEC this week.  More below, but let’s just say there are going to be a lot of new millionaires in America that will hopefully start investing in more startups.  I can only see this improving the support for new business in America with an influx of new investors.  Or so I hope.

Most New Yorkers have a big Giants game on their mind for Sunday, I’m sure it will be a great game, but I’m just not that excited for either team to win.  All I can hope for is that this Super Bowl is an exciting game and the commercials are good.  Off to finish the week on a strong note, and catch you up with the Silicon Alley Roundup… Straight from Times Square.

Roundup Reads for the Week:

•The big, long awaited news is Facebook this week.  I am actually already tired of hearing about it, but until that expected late May date that officially marks their entry into the public market, we’ll have a lot.  Techcrunch is practically having a wet dream over it all, so here is their endless scroll of stories and Facebook IPO roundup, including Zuck’s face in their logo (seriously? You know what’s cool? Getting written up in Techcrunch. You know what’s really cool? Getting your face in Techcrunch’s logo.)

The only story I really appreciated (after reading the NY Times one first), was about the Facebook graffiti artist that took his payment in stock that could be worth up to $200 Million.  Betabeat covers it here: “Facebook Graffiti Artist May Be Worth $200 M, Is Pals With Porn Star Sasha Grey.” Oh, and I guess I did appreciate this CNBC post about how Zuck could potentially leverage debt to never have to pay taxes.

•When not reporting on Facebook, 500 Startups had a big week as well, with over 250 companies demoing.  Here is who Techcrunch thinks is worth looking at: “The Seven Most Interesting Startups at 500 Startups Demo Day.” 

•Self-publishing is getting easier and easier with e-books, so James Altucher makes the argument that we, as entrepreneurs, should all be writing our own book.  What do you think? Fact or fiction?  Either way, great resources (like CreateSpace) for self-publishing.

•Bruce Gibney and Ken Howery of Founders Fund attack the age old discussion of “Just How Risky is Entrepreneurship” in a Harvard Business Review blog post.  Some great points are raised, including why counselors never push students into entrepreneurship, but rather down the safe roads of finance, law, and medical jobs.

•With an early stage startup on my hands, I tend to live my day in the AARRR world.  If you’re starting up, or even trying to understand your user acquisition funnel better, this is a must see deck by Dave McClure (and pretty fun to go through).  Sorry it isn’t a video this week, but I promise, it is probably more valuable than Zuckerberg’s talking head:

Quote of the Week:

“Skate where the puck is going, not where it’s been.”

-Wayne Gretzky

Videos that inspire:

•Ending on a great note this week, Startup America celebrated their first birthday.  An initiative that crosses so many avenues, it is tough to mention all of them, but is led by Steve Case.  Happy birthday Startup America!  Here is Steve (and crew) after opening the NY Stock Exchange:

Grr to getting sick!

I’m finally recovering after a week of the flu and just in time for the weekend.  I wish I could have reversed that, but so it goes.  During that time, I managed to find a new, very dorky hobby I want to get into: Andruino.  Time is short, but any beginning advice is appreciated!   Before we get into this week’s roundup, I compiled 5 tips to avoid getting sick with some help from the CDC:

1. Get a flu shot (I never have and I’m the one that got sick)
2. Avoid germs. Wash hands, don’t touch your eyes/nose/mouth, and if you can afford it, don’t take the subway in NYC for the 5 months of flu season.
3. Take vitamin C and drink lots of water through the winter, then at the first sign of a cold/illness, get some Airborne.  When I flew all the time, Airborne worked wonders for me.
4. Exercise.  It is widely known that regular exercise helps to boost the immune system.  That and the body fuels the mind.
5. Be careful dating girls in finance.  Their trading floor setups are breeding grounds for germs and the spread of illness (Of course I’m not bitter).

Now that I’ve battled the illness away, it is time to make up for lost time on both building Dibsie, a social shopping site, and training for a marathon.  Enjoy this week’s roundup.

Roundup Reads for the Week:

•Productivity is something everyone strives for, some believe they are experts, but for the most part, it comes down to figuring out the best system for yourself.  HBR lays out an interesting argument against to-do lists, and I have heard from several office mates that Daniel Markovitz’s strategy works: “To-Do Lists Don’t Work”

•My brother argues that anyone could pull lyrics out of context and apply them to leadership, or anything under the sun for that matter, however as someone that has gone on tour through the midwest in high school with Bob Dylan during his county fair tour, I can’t help but share this: “Lyrical Wisdom: Leadership Lessons from Bob Dylan”

•Some of the bigger news this week is Google’s decision to merge 60+ privacy policies into one sweet little package.  To those complaining, did you ever really read the 60 that were out there anyway?  Anyway, turns out their announcement tries to guess genders and made for a funny little meme as reported by Betabeat: “Google Guesses: Mostly Wrong, Kinda Sexist, and Pretty Funny”

Airbnb on the rise (click for full size)

•Airbnb has been crushing it and this infographic shows you how, where, and why.  My only question is how long will they keep the apartment renting alive if people are earning around $21K/year off renting their own apartments.  Something tells me the law will step in sooner than later.

•I somehow missed this news last week, but Accel Partners, the San Francisco/Silicon Valley VC firm, is finally seeing the light.  They’re opening an office in New York.  Welcome Accel and we’re glad you know where the real money will be made from here on out, Silicon Alley: “Valley VC Firm Accel Parnters Opening A New York Office”

•The SmartBrief on Leadership (recommended) tipped me off to Jeffrey Phillips’s blog on innovation.  I like their header, “Why innovators should be killers, not lovers,” but his post is great food for thought on being your own toughest critic: I’ll never Fall in Love (with ideas) Again 

Quote of the Week:

Not actually getting political here, but with the US Presidential elections that lie ahead, this Mitt Romney leadership quote stood out for me:

“I stand ready to lead us down a different path, where we are lifted up by our desire to succeed, not dragged down by a resentment of success.”
-Mitt Romney

Videos that inspire:
•After living and working in India, I want to wish my friends in India a happy Republic Day. For the rest of you, enjoy this Finnair pre-flight Bollywood dance treat for passengers on Republic Day. If you need a good intro movie for Bollywood, Om Shanti Om, where the song comes from and starring the famous Shah Rukh Khan, is a great start:

Sarah Burke (September 3, 1982 – January 19, 2012)

On a more serious note, I am deeply saddened by the loss of freeskier Sarah Burke (via Powder Magazine).
Some of you may know that skiing holds a deep place in my heart, and unfortunately too many of my idols and peers from the freeskiing and outdoors world have passed away at a young age.  Sarah Burke, is yet another skier that was tragically taken from us after she ruptured a vertebral artery while training on a half pipe at Park City, UT which led to further neurological complications she was unable to fight through.  Her family has amassed over $550,000 in medical bills and a fund has been set up for them at GiveForward.  Sarah will be deeply missed.  If you can, please donate here: http://www.giveforward.com/sarahburke?t=2

For my friends and family, ski fast, go big, and most importantly, ski safe.

Roundup Reads for the Week:

•On a more positive note, Betabeat reported that Amit Gupta, co-founder of Jelly NYC and Photojojo, has found a bone marrow transplant donor after months of social media searching.  It is amazing what the tech community can do when it comes together.

•Matt Wilson couldn’t be more right with his letter to startups, “Dear Tech World, Please Grow Up” on Under30ceo.com  Yes, flip flops and hoodies are comfortable, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t act professionally.  Rolling in at 11 am is fine, but you know what’s cooler? Rolling in at 7 am.

•Innovation has become a buzz word in corporate America, and one that usually means adding a tinge of social media into something, or merging features from two different together to not only help your bottom line, but give you something ‘new and innovative.’  Innovation is becoming overused and Harvey Briggs provides a great read on reducing the dilution of the word that no longer holds the same value it used to: The Innovation Obsession (Innovation Management)

•One of those ouch moments. Megaupload.com gets busted and shut down, so the hacker group Anonymous has hacked the DOJ, RIAA, MPAA and Universal Music Groups.  Payback is a b*tch, isn’t it?

•There are countless books, papers and articles on this topic, but Inc. breaks it down into four simple traits of great leaders in an article that is worth a skim to remind you of the basics.

•One of our Silicon Alley startups, Lot18, has unfortunately laid off 15% of its workforce in an effort to climb down, only to climb back up in other areas.  People see it as a negative, but my gut instinct is that it is trimming the fat as they say, only to evolve in new areas.  They are young, and they are growing.

Quote of the Week:
“No one gives a shit about your shit. Keep it simple.”

- Bit.ly CEO Peter Stern on product development

Videos that inspire:
•Out of respect for Sarah Burke, I’m opting out of the tech video this week and highlighting how sick of a skier she truly was:

Roundup Reads for the Week:
•Meet ERA’s second class.  Be sure to support us, follow us, and help us succeed.  Here is Betabeat’s introduction to the 10 lucky companies.  Also, don’t forget to see ERA highlighted in Forbe’s Magazine’s Top 10 Incubators, which are considered more difficult to get into than Ivy League schools.

•As a photographer, I’m excited to see new technologies used to cover events like the Volvo Ocean Race.  Puma is taking a group of prominent Instagrammers and bloggers, including my buddy Brian Difeo (@bridif), so follow their hashtag #marmostro as they cover this race. Mashable goes into further detail on Puma sending bloggers to the race.

•Got what it takes to be an entrepreneur? This CBS MoneyWatch article may help you make your decision.

•How much are you worth as a founder?  This article is an interesting perspective on calculating your value.  How should startup founders value their time?

•Reddit is planning on blacking out their site on January 18 in opposition of the SOPA/PIPA bills.  If I didn’t mention this and didn’t mention that you should look up more about stopping SOPA, then I’d be a failure this week. Here are some SOPA and PIPA resources for catching up:

1. Stanford Law Review calls SOPA unconstitutional 
2. Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian to Bloomberg TV on SOPA “Congress is going to obliterate an entire industry” (VIDEO)   (He’ll also be testifying in front of congress)
3. CNET answers an FAQ on how SOPA would affect you
4. How to stop American Censorship and how to stop SOPA/PIPA

•On the topic of freedom and after having spent quite a bit of time working and traveling through the closed country of Burma (Myanmar), I’m happy to see light starting to shine at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel for the people of this beautiful country.  Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the main political prisoner, but there have been hundreds of other prominent leaders in the country also detained.  I’m excited to get back to this amazing country when it is finally free.  The BBC reports with their story, “Burma frees high-profile dissidents in amnesty.”

Quote of the Week:
My buddy Chris tipped me off to this quote, but I’m not sure where it comes from.  Either way, I couldn’t agree more:

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”

Videos that inspire:
•This is what innovation looks like and this is how I want my home to function.  Apple’s Siri controls your home theater system via a Carnes Audio theater system:

Now get out and make today the worst of your tomorrows…

Jay-Z – Young Forever [Jay-Z + Mr Hudson] by AtlanticRecords

So we live a life like a video
When the sun is always out and you never get old
And the champagne’s always cold
And the music is always good
And the pretty girls just happen to stop by in the hood
And they hop their pretty ass up on the hood of dat pretty ass car
Without a wrinkle in today
Cuz there is no tomorrow
Just some picture perfect day
To last a whole lifetime
And it never ends
Cos all we have to do is hit rewind
So lets just stay in the moment, smoke some weed,
Drink some wine,
Reminisce talk some shit forever young is in your mind
Leave a mark that can’t erase neither space nor time
So when the director yells cut,
I’ll be fine,
I’m forever young…

-Jay-Z

Lisa and I for my first pilgrimmage to Lambeau Field

After starting off the year with my first pilgrimage to Lambeau Field on New Years Day, I feel like I’m off to a productive and successful year and feel the momentum that I can ride that wave into 2013.  As Warren Miller always says at the beginning of his films, “If you don’t do it this year, you’ll only be one year older when you do.”

Here are a few things I hope to achieve in the coming year: 

1.)   Wake up earlier to increase productivity

I’ve been working on this in 2011 and at the tail end of the year, I was getting myself on a 6 a.m. wake up and 7 a.m. in the office schedule.   I’m now running a bit more in preparation for the Washington DC Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in March, which means to get the morning runs in and be able to relax a bit more in the evenings, I’ll need to extend my morning schedule.  I just came across Peter Shankman’s blog post “Why you need to wake up earlier (and how to do it)” filled with some great tips, including chugging a big glass of water before you even get out of bed to ensure a hydrated start to your day.  Last year, I started creating hard stops to my day.  This actually ended up increasing my productivity during the day, because I knew that dinner at home was waiting and if I didn’t want to make the girlfriend disappointed, I knew I needed to get everything done by a certain time.  Though impossible on some days, creating a work/life balance, even as a startup founder, will make you more well-rounded.

2.) Learn to code

Another goal I began in 2011, but got too busy to really dive into deeply.  I took a few intro classes through Skillshare about Ruby on Rails, read some tutorials, and started working through a few.  I even helped a few friends code some simple WordPress based websites.  Unfortunately, I didn’t really dig in, but 2012 is the year of coding and thanks to Codecademy, I’ll be taking advantage of #CodeYear and adding this perk to my arsenal of continuing education tools.  I’ve also decided that when I eventually have kids, they’ll be learning to code, rather than speak Chinese.

3.) Run two marathons and get back into triathlons

After 70.3 miles of swimming, biking and running, I'm still standing

The past two years I’ve completed the DC National Marathon, which I completed in under 4 hours, but I’d really like to complete one in under 3 hours and 30 minutes this year.  I’m already in training for one in March, but I’m going to take it back home this year as well with my first non-DC marathon and aiming for the Madison Marathon.  New York is a tricky place for triathlons with the expense of pool access (often in excess of $200-300 per month), lack of bike storage, and limited training ground, but I’m setting out to at least be back in the training by the end of this year and perhaps even make 2013 the year of the Ironman after having not raced since my Half Ironman 70.3 mile race at the Rev3 race in Knoxville, TN in May of 2010.  I miss it and the challenge.

4.) Regain financial stability

This is a bit more of a sensitive and personal one, but after having left the security of a ‘real’ job, and going in waves of income to no income and living off savings and scraping by like you often hear of startup life, I’m ready to be back to being financially stable again.  This means building my company stronger and ensuring this is the year of a viable product with a great market fit that gains traction.  We’re already off to a great start with this in 2012, but ready to take it to the next level.

5.) Get the blog back on track

I think I’ve made this my resolution the past couple years, but if I can start to really get this thing back in action, I’ll be happy with myself.  I may need to diversify my content a little, but that may also breathe some additional life into it.

6.) Get involved in the community

A group of students I led to Tanzania to build teachers quarters for a school in a remote village.

This ties into number 4, but there is an idea I came across while living in India from the Sikh religion.  It basically says, first worry about taking care of yourself, which is most of this list, then take care of your family, then take care of your community.  New York is a place with many needs and one that has plenty of options for getting involved, I have been involved in communities around the world, and now that I’ve settled in, it is the year to start giving back a bit closer to home.