Some notes following an awesome two week vacation to Spain (Barcelona, Rioja, San Sebastian and Bilbao) and London:

• The number of nice cars in London is outrageous
• Eating Pinxtos in San Sebastian is the best. Question: why does this style of restaurant not work in a City like New York? Health code?
• Food prices in Spain are very reasonable; great place for a culinary trip
• A good concierge/bell hop can make a trip (especially if you didn’t have time for pre-trip internet research)
• Ironically we also had an Airbnb mishap: Despite excellent customer service, I’m not sure if I would trust it internationally again. A trust network is definitely needed (startup idea?)
• It’s funny that wifi is less expensive (or free) the cheaper the place you stay
• The new Travel Pro rolling bag I bought six months ago is my favorite purchase of the year so far. Amazing.
• It’s great to have free museums (DC/London) but the crowds are insane. No museum should allow photos simply because it eccacerbates the above issue as everyone tries to do posed pictures creating back-up and frustrated tourists
• Foursquare really needs to improve its explore functionality!
• Foursquare is annoying when traveling internationally because you can’t check-in while offline – wish I could download on offline map/venue list
• It’s difficult to find international stamps

2010 was a challenging year for me personally and I took a fair amount of time off from blogging. I’m hoping to get back into the groove of writing this year.

Initially I thought I’d write a lengthy retrospective about my year, but who wants to dwell in the past? So I’m going do a quick catch-up for those who may think me AWOL and then get into some of what has me excited going forward. If you have specific questions feel free to ask in the comments, or email me, and  I will gladly answer.

2010 saw me transition out of Workstreamer, a company I started 4+ years ago. Workstreamer is going strong under new leadership. Ben and I sold the company during the late summer. It’s hard to let go of your baby.

Since leaving Workstreamer I started two projects. The first, Eat.ly, was started with three friends (now all  employed at Foursquare). Eat.ly was recently acquired by Foodspotting. The second project was one that truly excited me and I had hoped to work on going forward. The concept was most closely related to what BranchOut and Identified are up to: essentially bringing Linkedin to Facebook. Sadly, the project had to be abandoned for personal reasons. However, I am positive we were in a really ripe space that will see a breakout this year. People need jobs and Facebook is where the people are.

Over the summer and fall I consulted for two companies that I expect to make noise soon: Red Rover and Bundle.  Consulting was fun, but it was also difficult to not be the person making the really tough calls. I need ownership in projects I am involved in.

Most recently I’ve spent several months focused on researching trends and teaching myself some code.

Also, I am really excited to now be formally involved with my good friends at Rocketfuel, where I’ll be serving as an in-house entrepreneur of sorts, helping incubate an as of yet undetermined startup. Zvi will also be involved :)

So what has me excited for the year ahead?

First on a personal level I feel pretty happy; I have a ton to be thankful for and I have learned some difficult lessons over the past year that have left me stronger and hungrier than before.

I also am starting to get excited about startups again. At several points last year I questioned whether I wanted to stay in startups or move back into finance. Partially this was because I experienced some tough on-the-ground lessons. Partially it’s because I’m not as certain as I have been previously about where the big opportunities lie. Toward the end of 2009 I knew that Facebook, Location and Gamification were where it would be at.  Recently I have been less sure. For example something about Twitter still makes me think it isn’t as exciting as expected.  Other services like Quora and Foursquare have me really jazzed. Mobile is going bananas. I think ‘timing’ [example, example] will be a meme. Follow on rounds and talent shortages have me a bit worried and I think 2011 will be a challenging year for many for those two reasons. I’m excited that startups are going mainstream — kind of hard to explain what I mean specifically — but articles like this are the general idea.

So we’ll see what happens, but I’m ready to get building again.

Anyway, here’s to a fantastic 2011 and a resurgence in blogging.

It feels good to be back!

Sam

**links to come

Update: We raised the money within 48 hours! Thanks so much to everyone who contributed (9 donations). Awesome.

Usually I steer clear of posting personal things on this blog, but I wanted to ask for support in helping a great cause.

My youngest sister is part of Teach for America. She’s spent the last year and a half in an extremely impoverished and isolated area of New Mexico, working on a Navajo Indian Reservation as a high school history teacher.

She teaches some great kids, but the unfortunate reality is that her students are even more under-resourced than most; reservations are actually considered sovereign nations and not technically part of the United States. Poverty is rampant.

One item that my sister desperately needs is a projector. The need, as she describes it, is as follows:

Living three hours from the nearest major city prevents my students from having the same exposure to museums, photographs, libraries, stores, and resources as their peers. My students have mostly lived in this area for several generations and have had little experience with travel. Without exposure to other places and cultures, students have trouble gaining perspective and visualizing our discussions on history. As students get older, they will go to college without the same background information that their peers have experienced.

She has already qualified for a 50% grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, so the amount to raise is now only $505

I’m planning a trip out to visit her for Thanksgiving and would love to be able to help her get the projector in time for the Holidays.

Any amount you can give is great; as Matt Damon says to Vince in this past season of Entourage, “It’s for the kids.â€�

Click the image below to go to her Donor’s Choose Page and donate:

Image of the area:

I remember reading last summer that Starbucks was offering two free hours of wifi for patrons…

In subsequent months, despite having purchased numerous gift cards, owning an iPhone and spending countless hours in Starbucks across the country, I still had not been able to access this mysterious free internet.

Well, I finally figured it out!

Here’s how get online at Starbucks for free** in under five minutes…assuming a short line :)

1) Get in line and purchase any Starbucks Gift Card (just put some nominal amount of money on the card, such as $5).

My preference is the Mini Card. When you get it, make sure to scratch off the back to reveal pin (see image below):

2) On your laptop (or smartphone) select the AT&T wifi network. You will now be able to access the Starbucks homepage

(see image below):

3) From the Starbucks Homepage, you need to sign-up for the service and register your card.

From the homepage select “Sign up for Free Wifi” (see image below):

4) Now either create a new account (if you haven’t done this before), or you can assign a new card to your account (see my note below on making sure you are using an “active” card)

*Note: you will both be registering with Starbucks and with AT&T. (see image below):

5) Once you have filled out your personal account details, you will receive an email back to confirm your account.

6) After confirming your account, return to the homepage and select the drop-down for “AT&T� wifi.

Enter your User Name and Password and checkmark the Terms of Service.

Hit “Log In” and you’re good to go for two hours! (see below):

Notes:

**If you have a card, but can’t get online… This is a bit confusing. Starbucks only allows you to get online as long as your card has money on it and has been used at least once in the last 30 days. “Using your cardâ€� means either adding more money to it, or making a purchase. So once you have purchased a card for say $5 just remember to use it to make a purchase once every 30 days and then add the same amount back to the card to keep it active.  If the card becomes inactive from lack of use you can simply add more funds to the card — you do not need to purchase an entirely new one.

If you need more than 2 hours… There are several option to purchase wifi separately such as a full-day of access for $3.99. Also if you have a Boingo account you can use that.

More Resources:

How to get free wifi at Starbucks via eHow

User Agent Switching for free Wifi at Starbucks and Barnes & Noble via Lifehacker

Free Wifi at Starbucks (Finally)! via Scott Means

On the way to our family Christmas in New Hampshire I spotted this mailbox and had to take a photo!

Yes, prediction posts are laregly a waste of time.

I did a prediction post last year but in the spirit of admitting “What the F&%k do I really know?” I figured I would forgo predictions and instead compile a small list of observations and personal wishes for trends going into 2009. The reason for this is that I embrace any time the blogging collective ‘stops following the herd’ and ACTUALLY focuses on free thinking and thought leadership. I enjoy this tremendously more than the Techmeme game and hope such spirit can find it’s way into more mainstream posting.

Now onto my observations and hopes for 2009…

Minimalism en Vogue. Between our troubling economic times and the well documented cognitive benefits of reducing clutter, I fully expect the role of minimalism as a lifestyle choice to be front and center. As people question the economic and cognitive value of material possessions as well as those services consuming our attention (the most valuable asset), I expect our web applications, consumer mentality, and personal environmental choices to be reflective of fewer, but more valuable/multi-purpose things. Small is the new big.

Passive Data Collection. One of the primary benefits to interacting through technology mediums is the ability for our activity to be logged, filtered and made intelligent. Imagine your own personal “cookies.” I think one of the biggest trends for the 2009+ will be applications that a) make sense of and b) help predict/provide future recommendations based on things we are already doing; i.e. requiring no additional work on our part. Great examples are RescueTime and Google Web History. RescueTime is a desktop app running in the background to let you know how much time you spend using various applications or on various websites. Google Trends allows you to see your search histories in Google, including frequency of queries and other sites that may be of interest to you.

Personal Health Monitoring. At Workstreamer, one of our new favorite applications is Daily Mile. Daily Mile is a great example of a new breed of web apps and smart toys (see below) that are focused on making a healthy lifestyle both an interactive and social experience. Personal health is such an important issue in the face of lifestyle diseases and the ever increasing costs of healthcare. Example of smart toys with a fitness focus are Nike+ and Fitbit (one of the real crowd pleasers at Techcrunch50)

“Customers as Assets”. I wrote about this yesterday, citing a great quote:

It is amazing how fast the world changes. 50 years ago the biggest asset for most companies was their equipment. 15 years ago the biggest assets for most companies were their employees. Today, in 21st century – the time of social networks, the biggest assets for new companies are their customers. All this suggests that an entirely new revenue models need to be created – models, where customers give and receive back something of higher value than their own contribution. The new companies’ role is to bring together people, who are able and willing to help each other. But how are they going to profit out of this? – by sharing profits with their customers.

Value Add Angels. I will post more on this later, but I see trends toward larger syndicates of angel investors where some subset of investors are not only investing cash, but also time, resources and social capital in much more front-and-center way. I believe that angels able to provide social capital and online presence will prove just as valuable, if not more so, than traditional dumb money. Ashton Kutcher, Tim Ferriss and Todd Stottlemyre are examples.

Personal Data Assets. I have long been an advocate of Del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site that logs all the websites, quotes and information I encounter throughout my day. Del.icio.us is truly my personal library. Yelp is another personal library I constantly use and share with friends. One thing that has hindered my use of these personal libraries in the past has been their reliance on the web/browser based. However, between the iPhone’s GPS functionality and Applications, I see personal data assets going mainstream and ultimately providing new monetization opportunities. Thses could well be blogs 2.0

Smart Toys. Toys that enable us to use our experiences and interactions with them in an intelligent manner. Nike+ is one the best examples I know of. That said, smart toys dont even need to exist in the physical sense; check out the virtual pets, FooPets and contrast with Pleo. 23andMe is another example of a company that I feel combines the excitement and fun of a toy with the real-world value of data for personal empowerment and health.

Technology Leadership. I really hope that technology and innovation are able to assert a leadership role in helping us transition into a new world of value creation and autonomous work. Read Michael Lewis’ great piece. As Mike Lazerow points out, the ‘secuirity society’ is dead. And as Malcolm Gladwell stated on Charlie Rose,

“Meaningful work is one of the most important things we can impart to children. If you think there’s always got to be a connection between what you put in and what you get out, then of course you’ll run off with a great excitement after an idea that catches your idea”

Technology can be the catalyst.

Web Enabled Education. Education has gotten far too expensive in an age when knowledge and expertise should be more accessible than ever. As people look to transition into new fields and/or develop new skill sets to embrace new conventions or stages in life (what’s retirement?) we need to find the platforms and outlets to disseminate that knowledge. I am particularly looking forward to following School of Everything, Path101 and EduFire.

Do you have more to add? Add a comment or subscribe to this blog

I decided to take a stab at a Holiday gift guide for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, startup lovers and/or generalist geeks. Most stuff on this list is on the cheaper side understanding that this Holiday season may be more frugal than those previous. If you have additional suggestions, please add a comment below with with a link! Feel free to pass along to friends and family…

Kiva.org Gift Certificate (Starts at $25)

What: Make a loan to a third-world entrepreneur of your choosing
Why: Do something good for someone else and be assured you are making a direct impact on someone’s life

Bluetooth Mouse by LogiTech ($40)

What: White Bluetooth (wireless) mouse (model v470)
Why: The Mighty Mouse sucks and this is a better performing and equally attractive alternative

NikePlus Personal Running Coach ($30*)

What: Transforms your iPod nano into real-time, spoken feedback that alerts you to workout milestones
Why: Great for data geeks and it really does encourage you to work out more often
*You will need a shoe pouch as well ($6)

Presso Espresso Maker ($100+)

What: Non-electric espresso maker that uses hot water from your kettle.
Why: Awesome design…you can hack it to get better results and taste

Belkin Tune Tie ($6)

What: Totally slick Ear Bud/Headphone Organizer

Why: You probably own an iPod. You probbaly like design. It’s dirst cheap.

Chumby ($179)

What: Imagine a clock radio hacked to include a touch screen and wifi
Why: It’s the must-have toy of geeks

The Black Swan ($18)

What: The book everyone is talking about
Why: You’ll appear to be ‘in the know’ with this on your shelf…even if your portfolio is currently halved

Venture Capital Wear ($25)

What: Humorous T-shirts for entrepreneurs and VC’s alike.
Why: Life sucks on both sides right now (vc & entrepreneur), so why not have some fun with it?

iPhone Power Slider ($100)

What: Extra iPhone battery built into a protective, yet slim case
Why: Kills two birds with one stone

Apple TV + Boxee (Starts at $229*)

What: Transform your TV into a full media center with access to streaming content via iTunes. Add Boxee for free to pimp it out
Why: With Ted.com, Hulu and Youtube, who watches TV anymore?
*Even more pimp is to buy a mac mini instead of Apple TV

Melted Snowman Cupcakes ($1+)

What: Cupcakes that look like melting snowmen
Why: You can’t go wrong with a non-durable gift made with sugar. Plus the price is right for any budget

—-Add your suggestions below in the comments…and subscribe to this blog

I wanted to share my thoughts on sending emails to potential investors, or more broadly, to anyone you deem ‘important.’

It’s my belief that email is poor medium to ‘launch’ a relationship. What I mean by this is not that you shouldn’t cold call or meet people via email – in fact, email is probably the standard and preferred method for being contacted (especially for a first correspondence). However my experience has been that nothing substitutes for meeting someone face-to-face; the tipping point for most relationships. Keeping this in mind, what’s the easiest way to get an in-person meeting with someone you’re dying to meet? The answer is using social leverage. Get intro’d through a friend. Knowing someone in common makes a HUGE difference with dates, investors, landlords, potential employers, etc. If you are truly unable to find a mutual connection, first realize you need to network more and second send only a short and concise email void of excessive flattery. The email should contain a) clear reason for the meeting (hopefully mutually beneficial to both parties) and b) a logical next course of action.

When someone makes an introduction on your behalf that person is validating you. The assumption is that the mutual connection making the introduction has enough social credibility with this important person that the important person will take the hint and follow up. Note: if you are the one making an introduction, make sure to suggest a next-step…�Tim: I wanted you to meet Joe� is overly ambiguous and will produce a weak response versus “Tim, I have worked with Joe in the past and think it would be mutually beneficial for you guys to grab coffee sometime soon.�

When emails go bad.

I have seen introductions take a bad turn when I introduce someone to an investor-friend and the eager entrepreneur then follows-up with a lengthy email about mutual people the *might* each know, uses overly aggressive or desperate language, makes it clear they’ve been Wikipedia stalking, or simply is trying way too hard. Not only do such responses make me look like I have bad judgment in character but they are simply unnecessary: if I make an intro I am expecting that person will meet with you. All you that’s needed is a timely follow-up  by email with the essential details necessary to get that person on the phone or at a convenient café (see below). Also, remember that important people are busy and not surprisingly they get lots of email. Therefore it’s okay to send 1 or 2 follow up emails at appropriately spaced time intervals if you have not heard back.

Amazingly I’ve also seen people suggest locations that are inconvenient for the busy person they’ve requested to meet with; unappealing locations even: who wants leave work to meet someone at a Starbucks in Union Square at noon? It’s a circus: super loud and you’ll never get a seat. You’ll wait in line for 15 minutes to get a coffee. Don’t put yourself at a disadvantage by being inconsiderate, or just plain stupid.

Lastly, we do live in a world where anyone can figure out how to get in contact with anyone else. This does not mean you should do so. Remember, if you can figure out someone’s email address so can 10,000 other people. This makes social leverage all the more potent and introductions through mutual acquaintances all the more powerful as a primary filter. 1 point

Update: I also should point out that many important people cancel meetings regularly. Therefore I have always found that it pays to confirm 24 hours before, to provide them your mobile number and never to make a major expenditure of cash on the hope you’ll meet

You may also want to read my previous post on how to make great email introductions

I was thinking this morning how much I’d like to have all my text messages forwarded into the cloud, storing these conversations and allowing me to search against them much like Gmail does with email messages.

It also got me thinking that if Google picked up my tab for SMS ($5/mth) I’d gladly allow them to do what they wanted with the data and/or serve me ads.

I’d imagine that the social graph information in text messages is extremely valuable, especially since text messages are often at the top of people’s hierarchy for communications importance and tend to be very much real-time.

Does anyone already have such a service? The only thing I found on a very quick pass was an iPhone app called TreasureMyText.

Additional Thoughts?