…check my tumblr. Pics and more.
Category: Housekeeping
-
On the road again – hope to see some friends on the way
We are taking some of the Seedcamp winners of 2010 and 2011 on our now annual road show to the USA in March 2011. With a total of 14 companies, we will tour both East and West Coast, and end up at SXSW to meet up with the rest of the international tech scene.
We will start off the trip on the east coast, visiting two of the most important tech hubs, New York and Boston, where we will also host 2 Seedcamp-format mentoring events to mix and mingle with local entrepreneurs, investors, and product experts. The New York event will be hosted by our friends and sponsors at Google. The Boston event is going to take place at the Hubspot offices (with a lot of help by our friends from Atlas Ventures).
After a weekend break in Tahoe, we will spend the second week in the Valley, visiting, amongst others, Facebook, 500startups, the Google headquarters, various VCs, and meet the tech scene of the valley. We will host mentoring events at Google and our friends at i/o ventures. We will also go to the Northwest to visit two giants of tech – we will see both Microsoft and Amazon Headquarters, to get inspired by what was built in only the last decades.
The grand finale will be at SXSW in Austin, Texas, where we will probably end up exhausted, happy, and with pockets full of business cards – a Seedcamp on the road, with loads of new friends and contacts to be made.
I am about to leave on a two week whirlwind of a trip to the US, where we’ll take the Seedcamp winners of 2010 and 2011 to meet local investors and entrepreneurs. My first trip to the US in a long time, and my first trip to the West Coast/Valley ever. I’m beyond excited.
Besides meeting some friends in New York and Boston, I will see some London folks in Tahoe and some of the Berlin and Lausanne connections in Austin at SXSW. If you are somewhere close, let me know, so we can meet up!
-
I am addicted to my Kindle
I bought a Kindle about a month ago, and it was the best gadget purchase in a long while. I read about a hundred pages per day on it, because I take it everywhere (and I always think “it’s awesome” when I see it lying on my table).
I actually pre-ordered it when it was announced, but reneged on my decision to get the 3G version – which stupidly put me at the back of the waiting list when I reconsidered.
Why is it awesome
Reading on it is great. Period. I prefer it to a book now – here’s why:
- It’s smaller and lighter than a book and fits in a coat pocket easily. I just have it with me all the time and take it out on every bus or tube ride.
- It’s better to hold in one hand than a book. You can grab it at every corner and you dont have to awkwardly bend the spine by spreading your fingers.
- The screen is perfect for text. Forget an iPad for reading a book (or lots of them, for that matter) – it will strain your eyes.
- You have all that stuff with you – books, magazines, articles. I always travelled with at least one non fiction and one fiction book, and got the economist and some fun magazine at the airport. Lots of dead trees to lug around – not anymore.
- I use Instapaper like a madman now. You can bookmark long articles on the web and they are automatically synced. My own personalised magazine, and givemesomethingtoread.com has great content (hat tip to Johannes).
- Do not think iPad vs Kindle – purpose, size, weight, value, and most importantly the screen are not comparable. You buy this to read books. Think discman vs iPod.
- Doing only one thing means you are focused, and it carries over from a paper book. You can’t do anything but read with that, either.
- I love buying books, and paper, and the smell, and all that. I am not missing it at all. I own a ton of vinyl, but I love my iPod – you get the point.
Features and 3G Version
I’ve yet to put a value on a lot of features like notes, clippings, and the 3G usage. I am only reading on it, and I am already hooked. The question of 3G or not is not really important – if you can afford the extra 40 pounds, just get the 3G version, I am sure you’re only gonna miss it when travelling a lot.
I like simplifying my life, and scratching the huge bookcase from my moving list feels great. Get your partner one for Christmas (I hope Isa doesn’t read my blog).
Oh, and check out my case:
-
It’s oh so quiet
Cause I am busy having a blast preparing Seedcamp Week.
I can not describe how much fun, work, and emails I have. I stopped drinking coffee for a week because I am high on adrenaline. One apt description is that the people who were showing up in my feedreader are now in my email inbox, so it’s awesome.
-
Come and work with me
I have the best job in the world, and you can have some of that, too! We are looking for two people (Intern and a General hands-on person) at Seedcamp in London. You will have more fun and you will be more stoked by the cool stuff we are working on than anywhere else, so get in touch and get yourself some.
Both positions are based in London – feel free to reach out and apply by emailing Philipp. Please include information about your background, experience, your work with startups and tech companies, and everything else you feel is relevant for the job. The job descriptions for the general management and internship positions should tell you more about our requirements.
SRSLY, ask any questions if you are interested. You will be working directly with me, keeping Seedcamp running day and night, organizing cool events, and working with the best people in the European tech scene.
Can’t be better if you are dabbling your feet in E’ship and are passionate about start ups.
-
Switchin’ things
Yeah, how could I not write an article on how I switched to a Mac and the world got a better place. Don’t read it, it’s useless.
I did not really have to debate getting a MacBook Pro, because they are simply the best made laptops. I was just a bit curious about the choice between a stock 13″ model and a somewhat higher specced 15″ with a high definition, matte screen. I bought the 13″, and I am quite sure it was the right decision if just for size and ability to carry. Still, the 15 inch matte screen is beautiful and way better to work on than the mirror mine carries – i hope there will one day be a 13″ high definition matte (if not Retina) screen available. I hope.
So, other than that it’s not really something to write home about – i work in webapps mostly, Chrome works nice on OsX (although it’s a bit buggier than on Windows), and Office for Mac is an incredible heap of user interface mishaps. As I said, nothing new.
One thing I can really recommend to switchers is to give up on any other machine for at least a couple of weeks to really get the hang of it. Otherwise, you will only be annoyed by the unusual keyboard and shortcut layout and some basic things like file handling, settings, and the like.
So, here are my favorite apps so far and what they replaced:
Texter –> Text Expander a little program that uses shortcuts to paste much needed snippets of texts. i use it for emails, forms, and cross-application error correction. Both work almost identically.
Notepad++ –> Notational Velocity the most awesome improvement, NV does exactly what I want – note-taking in pure text form, searchable and syncable through simplenote. And don’t tell me about evernote, way too much bloat.
Mesh –> Dropbox Mesh (Microsoft) is a bit cooler because it allows you more specific folder syncing, but Dropbox is just plain and simple, which I like. Also, the different way of handling files on Mac OS makes it the difference no problem.
Filezilla –> Transmit well, ftp. Whatever.
Win 7 snap –> Better Touch Tool this program that improves customisation for the magic mouse (ouch, RSI!) adds a little gem: the Win7 window snapping and full screen windows. I always thought Mac people had some kind of fetish for overlapping window soups, until I found out that you cant use full screen at all. Well, now you can.Things i still use:
Office i hate it on Mac – moving to Gdocs more and more, especially to replace Excel. Plain and simple, i like. That said, someone told me Office for Mac 2011 would look a lot like a real grown up office suite. There is a decent formula editor, ribbons, and not as many crashes. Not available yet, though.
Chrome Better and more advanced on Windows, but hey, it’s a browser.
VLC best video player for everything.Things I am still looking for:
A jetpack and a time machine. Oh, my Mac has a time machine!
-
So how’s life in London?
That’s what I’ve been asked at least a million times during the last weeks. I am super busy at the new job, as I am organizing mini Seedcamp London, which is taking place next week, from start to finish. It feels great – I’ve never been busier, but I’ve also never done so many cool things at once. Despite working with people from literally all over the world (Seedcamp Johannesburg and more internationals to come), this town alone is offering more than I ever thought.
I moved into an awesome apartment with Nico, my old housemate from college. Islington, our neighbourhood, is packed with great places to go, be it for coffee, beers, or food. My commute is relatively painless (12 mins tube or 40 mins bus), I know a lot of people from college and grad school here, the sun is shining (and it’s below 30), and life is surprisingly not all that expensive. So, all is good. I will put up some pics and hopefully be blogging more, thanks for staying loyal!