http://publishingcourses.stanford.edu/videoworkshop/

My takeaways:

• After five minutes of a pitch, I know if I’m not going to invest, and after 30 minutes to an hour, I generally know if I will

• 3 criteria/Quality Questions:

1. How will you reach the masses? How does a company rise above the noise to attract massive discovery and adoption?  How do we get to one million users? Then how do we get to 10 million users? Then how will you get deep engagement by your users?
2. What is your unique value proposition? I want to see innovation that is categorically distinct from existing propositions.
3. Will your business be capital efficient? Your product must scale intelligently – this is why I like software. A well-coded site can adapt to mass demand without its capital expenditures scaling out of control.

• …but I firmly believe now is the time to take smart risks as entrepreneurs and investors.
• Good ideas need good strategy to realize their potential…

Reid Hoffman & Charlie Rose March 2009

Despite the disappointment of not physically living there at the moment, all things considered, it was great to getaway for a few days and a chance to breath some entrepreneurial air-for that I am thankful. But I’m not going to lie: Driving down Sand Hill Road made me feel like a kid in a candy store: There are literally millions and billions of dollars moving right there I thought to myself. As I caught some silhouettes through the business park windows from afar, I managed to forget that I was driving. Putting it all in perspective (realizing that I was in the midst of this market), it wasn’t long before I was reminded of an important lesson I learned in my earlier days in San Diego: in a general sense, you never know who you’re talking to.

Who’s driving in front of me? Who did I just chat with at the grocery check-out? Who lives in that mansion up in the mountain and what do they do for a living? What judgments am I making about this person based on their material/physical image or their body language? I relished in childlike curiosity as I explored my environment, just taking it all in and soaking it up, which brings me to some personal ramblings on my own curiosity:

Genuine curiosity demands a deeper level of self honesty and it requires the confidence to admit that which I don’t know and to questioning that which I already assume I do know. All too often I fall victim to the false security of “knowing” and thus being “certain” about some aspects that compose my “wordview”, so I can see the value in challenging my assumptions and the ability I have to consciously change them as needed. In this sense, it’s important for me to constantly be reminded of just how much I don’t know because it’s important that I practice humility. I think it’s essential for me to stay curious and I plan on continuing my curiosity quest.