Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

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What I’ve Been Curating Lately, and Where

I’ll start with the “where” — Flipboard. My all-time favorite iPad app, and that spans almost four years now, as I’ve been on the iPad since the very first day the product was available. (I’m now on my third, an iPad Air.) I haven’t checked lately, but I’d be shocked if Flipboard isn’t the most-downloaded free app for the iPad, Flipboard-logo-240wever. The company later launched an iPhone version and, of course, Android versions followed. So, if you aren’t using Flipboard for your own customized news feeds in whatever categories you’re interested, presented in an elegant magazine-style UI… well, you have no excuse.

If you’re not a Flipboard user, you may be asking, what does content curation have to do with it?  Well, you see, anyone who uses this free app can also start a magazine of their own — and thousands have. The challenge, of course, is to choose a topic other people are interested in, and to be able to keep “flipping” enough interesting content into it to attract subscribers.

So, *what* have I been curating on Flipboard? I started in December 2013 with a magazine called Big Data in the Wild. (<< That’s the link to the web version of the magazine, but the tablet version is a much better experience — you simply search by magazine title or topic within the app to see it there.) This magazine of mine is doing pretty well now, with more than 4,100 subscribers and 63,000 page flips. I recently invited one of my colleagues from Minneanalytics, Dan Atkins, to be a contributor. Flipboard was nice enough to feature it in their “Daily Picks” a couple of times, and the CEO of Flipbard, Mike McCue, even tweeted me saying “great magazine!”

BigData-Flipboard

After launching that magazine, I decided to try another one. This time I thought a focus on healthcare technology would be good, as I hadn’t found anything in that category that seemed to have the kind of content I thought deserved curation into a single magazine. The fact that I had been getting exposure to new technologies and startups in this space lately, especially through my work with Minneanalytics and its recent conference focusing on life sciences, added to my interest in the space — which began early in my career, when I did marketing work for several MInnesota medical device companies. Thus, my second effort on Flipboard was born: Healthcare Tech News. I rolled it out in January, and it’s getting off to a nice start.

HealthTech-Flipboard

But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy (where have I heard that before?), so I wasn’t done yet. I decided that the technology increasingly becoming a part of the sport of surfing was a topic that wasn’t being served well yet on Flipboard — or anywhere for that matter. So, just recently, I created Surfing the Waves of Technology. The adventure is just beginning!

SurfTech-Flipboard

So, now you know why I haven’t been blogging very regularly here — I’ve been busy curating elsewhere!

Please hit that “Subscribe” button in the upper left of each magazine…. 🙂  Thanks!

UPDATE 3/16/14: I’m also now curating content on yet another magazine, Mobile Maven, after being invited to be a contributor by a client: vBENCH. It’s an online talent exchange for the rapidly growing U.S. contingent workforce, focused especially on matching mobile developers with those who want to hire them as contractors. (Follow this startup on Twitter @vBENCH1099.)

Seth Levine the Way You Didn’t See Him in Minneapolis

I just can't help myself.  After Seth's appearance here was so well received (see my post Seth Levine of Foundry Group Speaking in Minneapolis on 'Startup Communities'), I just had to drag out a little history on the man for those here in Minnesota who may not know him so well.  Specifically, his brief but budding career in rap music. 

Seth-I'maVCIt all began in 2011 when he and his partners in Foundry Group produced and starred in that now immortal video, I'm a VC. (Screenshot left.) Yikes, it's had close to 100,000 views on YouTube fo far… and counting.

But it turned out that was just a warmup. In late 2013 the saga continued, as he and da boyz decided they had another one in 'em, bursting again onto YouTube, and their blog, with Worst of Times. (Screenshot below.)

That second one is now stylin' — are you ready — about Seth-WorstOfTimes 182,000 views to date! It's especially a riot for those of us who go back a while in the tech industry.

You gotta love that Seth and his partners — Brad, Jason, and Ryan — know how to have fun. (And Jason is a pretty amazing video producer. He did both.)

What's the old saying? … All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?  Well, Lord knows these guys work very hard, but they sure know how to play, too. Dull they are not… 🙂

Thanks again, Seth, for speaking in Minnesota! But, next time, we want all you guys on stage for some live rappin', okay?

Seth Levine of Foundry Group Speaking in Minneapolis on ‘Startup Communities’

Tonight in Minneapolis, we're honored to have Seth Levine, a partner at top VC firm Foundry Group in Boulder, CO, speaking to a gathering of entrepreneurs and others who support Minnesota's early-stage SethLevine-FoundryGrouptechnology and Internet firms. His talk will be based on a popular book written by his colleague, Brad Feld, which was published in late 2012: Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City. Seth, Brad, and their other partners have been actively speaking on this topic in cities around the U.S. and beyond. They are highly in demand to impart their knowledge about the success they've had in Boulder, turning it into one of the most vibrant and successful ecosystems for technology startups. (Brad was also the cofounder of TechStars, the leading accelerator program that had its start in Boulder in 2007.)

I've known Seth since 2007, when I began attending two annual conferences that Foundry Group helped start and nurture, both held in the Denver area — first Defrag, which began that year, and then a sister conference called Glue that began in 2009. I've attended both events every year since then. (Here's a post I did after the first Glue StartupCommunitiesconference in 2009, which included audio interviews of both Seth and Brad.)

Ever since I began attending these events (which are both organized by a guy with Minnesota connections, Eric Norlin), I've been encouraging Brad or Seth to come to the Twin Cities sometime to speak. When I learned that Seth earned his undergraduate degree at Macalester College in St. Paul, I was really fired up to get him here, thinking his connections with college friends, etc might help my chances. But, alas, trying to align his schedule with local tech startup events, which are often not announced very far ahead, became a challenge. (The one time I know of that Seth did speak in Minnesota was at an annual Rain Source Capital angel investor conference a few years ago in Bloomington, but that was just a quick in-and-out stop here — and, of all the luck, I had to be out of town that day!)

So, what finally got Seth to town to speak to our local entrepreneurs and founders? The one thing I knew would make the difference: his first investment in a MInnesota tech startup!  That was LeadPages, which announced a few months ago a $5 million Series A round, which Foundry Group led, with participation by Arthur Ventures of Fargo and Minneapolis. So, when he and I chatted by phone at that time, I knew he'd be coming to town periodically for board meetings — and that indeed is what brought him here today. Thankfully, Clay Collins, LeadPages founder and CEO, was able to help organize the event tonight, with assistance from TechMN, and invite 100 lucky attendees to snap up tickets, which happened very quickly.  So, it's a sold-out event, and I am now really looking forward to the local startup crowd getting to meet Seth!  If I can, I'll do a brief video interview of Seth tonight and post it here tomorrow as an update.

I'm very glad to see the "bridge-building" between Boulder and Minneapolis continue!

UPDATE 2/10/14: Well, at the event, I chose not to shoot an interview of Seth, so as to not take his time away from talking to entrepreneurs. But here's a series of edited videos of the entire talk, which TechMN just posted yesterday.

How Fantastic Is This? Build Your Own ‘BadAss Patent Protection’

Here's how my friend Eduardo Drake opened his latest message to me: "I'm on a mission to help 100,000 entrepreneurs move on their ideas and make the world a better place."  Now, who can't love that?  Eduardo EduardoDrakeis, to say the least, one ambitious, high-energy guy. He's an attorney for startups and entrepreneurs, based here in Minneapolis. He previously worked for a powerhouse IP firm in town, which is highly regarded nationally, also having offices in Silicon Valley and Austin, TX. But he got the entrepreneurial bug a while back and wanted to start his own IP law firm, dedicated to startups. That's when he called me to learn more about what I do, and to get better FantasticIP-logonetworked into the startup community here in Minnesota. You can tell by his firm's name that he is not your typical patent and trademark attorney — it's Fantastic IP Consulting.

Eduardo led a session at last year's all-day MInnebar conference on the topic of patents, one that was very well received (as I can personally attest). He's a fun speaker and obviously very well-informed on this subject. (Check out his bio on the Fantastic IP web site to see the list of tech companies he worked with at his previous employer. It is impressive.)

Now, I learn Eduardo is launching a "build-your-own-patent" training course for Minnesota entrepreneurs. It's a much expanded version of the presentation at Minnebar 2013. It's called Skip The Buzz Kill & Build Your Own BadAss Patent Protection, and it will be held Tuesday, February 4, 2014, from noon to 1:30 pm at CoCo Grain Exchange in downtown Minneapolis.

In this course, Eduardo says he's committed to "distilling 20 years of legal wisdom and know-how into 90 minutes of actionable knowledge tailored to help you get your badass provisional patent application done fast and done right." Sounds like one heck of an offer to me!  And, because I work with so many tech entrepreneurs developing innovative, new technology, I certainly plan to be there. Here's a discount code for my readers to get $25 off the list price: FantasticIPdiscount25. See you there!

 

My Snippets from Another CES — the 2014 Edition

Following on from my previous post earlier today, here are some other cool things I saw of interest during  VegasMorning the latest CES show in Las Vegas — when I wasn't working, that is (which was 90% of the time):

• Phantom 2 Vision: Your Flying (drone) Camera.

DJI_Phantom_II_Vision

 

 

 

 

 

• An American auto entrepreneur’s vision comes to life

Elio_Motors

 

 

 

 

 

• A BitCoin ATM

BitCoin_ATM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• AirHDTV … up to 186 channels (press release)

AirHDTV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the big Chinese company DJI, whose product is shown above, wasn't the only drone company at CES.  Minnesota-based QFO Labs (a client of mine) also was also there, though with a much smaller presence.

QFO-QuadFighter

The company showed its "Quad Fighter" product at the Nordic Semiconductor booth (one of its suppliers) in South Hall, and was a big hit there.  But the real excitement for QFO happened soon after it arrived back home, when it got a big surprise with its product being shown on national TV: Local toy-drone maker gets plug from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (by Julio Ojeda-Zapata/St. Paul Pioneer Press).

Were you at CES 2014?  What was the coolest thing you saw?

 

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