How Scribd got huge - Ideas matter, but there's a method to coming up with the madness too.

via scribd.com

This slide deck explains what it takes to create something that's going to be huge. It's been a great privilege to help give advice to other startups as they're getting off the ground as a part of being a YC alum and a former president of ASES Stanford -- and this time and again is the biggest message that people need to hear.

Your idea should be big. Huge. There are so many people out there doing so many things. Why do something small, or niche? Don't be afraid of going big. If you're good, you'll figure it out.

Your first idea is rarely ever the idea that gets you where you want to go. As Trip says, a successful startup is a series of good ideas executed well, in succession.

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.
— Bruce Lee

Paperculture.com is bringing modern design to stationary and invitations.

No more Hallmark for me... I now know where to get cool cards and invitations printed.

Posterous super-blogger Patrick Au-Yeung's wife just started the company Paperculture (I love the name, love the brand), and as you can see they're creating some impressive, ground-breaking modern designs that are customizable. They describe themselves as being inspired by brands like Kate Spade, Design Within Reach, Mini, Marc Jacobs and Apple. That's a damn fine list.


I guess I'm just a sucker for modern, vector-based designs and great typography. And for designer-owned-and-operated businesses too.

Check it out: http://paperculture.com  -- they just launched in "Preview" mode and are giving away 25% discounts.

Quantum of Solace's multitouch UI / video wall gives us a glimpse at what's to come.


The last Bond movie featured a brilliant display of user experience. Tracking down the international villian Dominic Greene, the team collaborated and explored the information space using a Microsoft-Surface-like multitouch display, and could also send items to a video wall for discussion.

It'll truly be an awesome age when this is a reality. I don't think it's too far off. The age of disposable high quality displays coming.

via benarent.co.uk

AirBed & Breakfast (airbnb.com) lets me jump directly into the previous lodging search I was in. They rock.

I met Brian, Joe, and Nathan, the founders behind airbnb.com recently through the YC grapevine. They are total user experience/design badasses. And they also help people find cheap places to crash with locals all over the world. Hosts get to rent out a spare bedroom or a couch and get spare cash, and travelers get a great deal, safe place to stay, and often times an awesome local to show them around town.

Check this out. This afternoon, I was looking for a place to crash in Austin for SXSW and actually almost booked this place near downtown. Great deal, and a great location. But I got distracted and didn't book it, even though I did make it to the booking screen.

Just now, I received an email from them...


I can click on "continue the booking process" to jump right into the same flow I was in before. Brilliant! Why doesn't Orbitz or Travelocity or even Kayak.com hook me up with a) history, and b) email reminders, and c) total extreme convenience of jumping back to where I was? Because they don't hustle. AirBed & Breakfast hustles.

They're the guys behind Obama O's and Cap'n McCains, which incidentally helped them bootstrap and self-fund their venture... which by the way, actually makes money, and has made money from Day One.


Hustle + great design + great business model makes airbnb.com destined for some incredible success. I know I probably won't be booking a hotel again anytime soon, especially when traveling for fun.

Postbox -- The new email client that totally rocks. Now in public beta, released today. I highly recommend it.


My friend Scott MacGregor is a cofounder at Postbox Inc -- he previously was the lead developer on Mozilla Thunderbird. They recently left Mozilla to work full time on Postbox, which is built on top of the Thunderbird core.

Desktop Email Revitalized
Remember all those things that Gmail does well but other mail clients are kind of crappy at? Conversations in threaded view? Fast search? Extracting out links and other useful stuff like addresses and phone numbers? These guys got it right.

Bugs are fixed, and fast
Especially on Mac OS X, which always had nagging bugs in the editor that never were fixed previously. I can finally paste screenshots into my mail editor window. Admittedly, Mail.app has always allowed this, but when you have multiple IMAP accounts with thousands of messages Mail.app is kind of a non-starter.

Their public beta is downloadable as of today -- works great on OS X, and I believe they have Windows versions too.

http://postbox-inc.com

The new Kindle 2 is hella thin, even compared to the old one. I want one. Also, 100% always connected devices are awesome.


Crazy -- that coupled with being able to download/buy/read tons of books = awesome. The old one looked kind of thick and clunky, like retired librarian / IBM PC jr. style. The new one is a lot sleeker.

This is also the first example of a 100% self contained networked device that I've seen that works wonders. It piggybacks on the cell network but requires no additional wireless contract. I hope the AT&T and T-Mobiles of the world realize they are sitting on an absolute goldmine of the future, since they will own the pipes to ubiquitous computing. Here's hoping they don't kill the goose that will lay them golden eggs by implementing draconian and regressive pricing structures on always-on always-connected zero-setup devices.

Apple, Amazon, and other huge firms have great clout to negotiate with the telecom behemoths, but I think there's a lot of interesting stuff happening in up and coming device startups that would benefit massively from an on-tap always-on network. The key feature is no setup. Like the fax machine, there is massive value in digital appliances that just work when you press the power button. No sync, no setup, no downloads, no pairing. I think we're on the cusp of another revolution. Now if only it were easier for device makers to plug in with no fuss... now there's a free startup idea for you. =)

Living the Dream: Clocky (1 lone designer/entrepreneur) = $2 million revenue in 2008

It's the entrepreneur's dream. Come up with a great idea for a product, build it, and they will come. But for Gauri Nanda, it's true.  Inc Magazine reports that 2008 revenues were projected to be over $2 million. It's an alarm clock that rolls off the table and demands that you find it somewhere in your room when it goes off in the morning. Designed for a class project at MIT's Media Lab, the project was an overnight hit once she sourced online through alibaba.com.

The commercial success of the product was largely launched off of coverage by engadget, gizmodo and boingboing. Pretty amazing what this new attention economy means for entrepreneurs. A compelling story suddenly can build value massively, just for the sheer fact that people surf their RSS readers constantly while at work.

Now that's inspiring. Her next challenge is to figure out how to turn this great success story into an enduring business for Nanda Home, her design firm. I can't wait to hear what's next.