2013年12月22日日曜日

Makers: Women Who Make America

I was introduced with a series of videos of women who made, and makes America the way it is now, which was fascinating and I couldn't stop watching so I thought I'd share it here.

From their website:

MAKERS: Women Who Make America tells the remarkable story of the most sweeping social revolution in American history, as women have asserted their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity, and personal autonomy. It’s a revolution that has unfolded in public and private, in courts and Congress, in the boardroom and the bedroom, changing not only what the world expects from women, but what women expect from themselves. MAKERS brings this story to life with priceless archival treasures and poignant, often funny interviews with those who led the fight, those who opposed it, and those first generations to benefit from its success. Trailblazing women like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey share their memories, as do countless women who challenged the status quo in industries from coal-mining to medicine. MAKERS captures with music, humor, and the voices of the women who lived through these turbulent times the dizzying joy, aching frustration and ultimate triumph of a movement that turned America upside-down.





Thanks to +Megan Smith for introducing those videos to me!

It is also interesting to watch the shorter video clips focusing on individuals- who they are, where they came from, what made them who they are, what experiences they had....

Interview with Hillary Clinton:



"90th century was about ending slavery, and 20th century was about ending totalitarianism. The 21st century is about ending the pervasive discrimination and degradation of women and fulfilling their full rights."

Interview with Madeleine Albright (First Female Secretary of State):



"I think that women can do everything, they just can't do it all at the same time."

In fact, there are women doing all kinds of great things, from Danica Patrick winning as Champion Race Car Driver, Ruth Bader Ginsburg serving as U.S. Supreme Court Justice, etc.



Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki

2013年12月21日土曜日

Crafting

I had several opportunities to craft things recently... gloves, gingerbread cookie decoration and beads accessories!

Gloves:

ChristmaHannuKwanzikah

ChristmaHannuKwanzikah

ChristmaHannuKwanzikah

Finding materials

ChristmaHannuKwanzikah

ChristmaHannuKwanzikah

ChristmaHannuKwanzikah

Creating

ChristmaHannuKwanzikah

ChristmaHannuKwanzikah

Orit Mazor took this photo of us making (thank you Orit!). I am tackling the sewing machine in the middle (the fur gets in the way and actually hard to sew...) to my right is +Mamie Rheingold who organized this "ChristmaHannuKwanzikah" maker hacker creator event (thank you Mamie!) and to my left is +Shoshana Abrass who taught me how to make this (thank you Shoshana!).



In case you are interested in making things like this, Shoshana leads all kinds of geeky / maker / crafty activities twice monthly at "Curiosity Hacked www.hacker-scouts.org" over in Oakland :)



Gingerbread cookies:

ChristmaHannuKwanzikah

Materials

ChristmaHannuKwanzikah

Beads accessories:

Ear rings

Jewelry Making

Bracelets

Jewelry Making

Necklace

Jewelry Making

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki

2013年11月4日月曜日

NextDoor

I visited NextDoor's office for OpenCo several weeks ago. OpenCo is an event that enables you to visit your local companies, factories, governments, etc.

Patio on first floor.

NextDoor at Openco

Entrance of NextDoor.

NextDoor at Openco

Their Manifesto at the entrance.

NextDoor at Openco

The 2 co-founders, Prakash and Sarah gave us a talk. Thank you for taking your time for us! Prakash Janakiraman is VP of engineering, he is ex-Excite and ex-Google, managed the Google Maps engineering team in Mountain View. Sarah Leary is VP of marketing.

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor is the private social network for your neighborhood, a service that enables "conversation" among "neighbors"- police can come but not in conversation. 

NextDoor at Openco

29% of Americans know only a few of their neighbors and 28% know none by name- NextDoor is bringing back those neighbor communities back to America.

NextDoor at Openco

Which in effect lowers crime, improve public health, and raise test scores.

NextDoor at Openco

3 features of NextDoor - private, local and useful.

NextDoor at Openco

Their first year was devoted to product-market fit.

NextDoor at Openco

First year, they had 176 neighbors in 26 states, which grew rapidly, and today 21,249 neighbors in 50 states.

NextDoor at Openco

Many major cities reaching tipping point:

97% San Francisco
96% San Jose
94% Seattle
91% Denver
88% San Diego
80% Dallas
65% Chicago

NextDoor at Openco

And across regional areas.

NextDoor at Openco

 Member engagement is very strong.

40% growth in neighborhoods last 3 months
46% of members contributed content
1.3M member messages sent per day
20k member invitations sent per day
70 new neighborhoods launch every day

NextDoor at Openco

Wide range of use Cases:

26% Recommendation
22% Community issues
20% Crime and Safety
14% Classified
11% Events
7% Other

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor enables virtual neighborhood watch.

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

They partnered with 120 cities including:

New York, Dallas, Houston, San Jose, San Diego, Phoenix, etc

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor has become lifeline of neighborhoods.

NextDoor at Openco

Take mobile seriously- they only had web version, and when they decided to make mobile version, they stopped ALL of development for 1 week to work on iOS version. They could have outsourced, but since mobile is very important, the management wanted all of their engineers to understand mobile. They currently have iOS & Android version.

NextDoor at Openco

Demo

NextDoor at Openco

Deciding the right boundary is very difficult- when the boundary is proposed, 9 others verify the right boundary.

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

They have 57 employees.

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

Q: Dealing with difficult neighbors?
 -real name
 -norm of the neighborhood is different 
  ex. neighborhood in Tenderloin and Texas
 -neighbors self police
 -mute

Q: Business model?
 -Currently focus is in "best consumer service"

Q: How to grow to new city while the company is small
 -word of mouth
 -focus on top cities, have people on the grounds
 -user stories

-Start of NextDoor was pivot from other project
 -Had a team of 7, pivoted.
 -A product that is personally valuable for the founders
 -Initially Sarah was doing hand to hand combat, making phone calls
 -Solve one problem at a time
 -Engineering team worked on automation

-Make the service work for one neighborhood
-Make the service so that they can't live without it

Q: How to find cofounders?
 -Worked together on shopping.com
 -See how people handle stressful situations
 -Find someone who compliment skills
 -Startup is lonely road, you want to have good cofounder,
 think about how much time you spend with them- you need right people

Environment

Some photos from the office:

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

Meeting Rooms

NextDoor at Openco

Post its!

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

NextDoor at Openco

They prepared tons of donuts for us :D

NextDoor at Openco

Fundraising

...and on 10/29 they have raised $60 Million- congratulations!!

Dealbook @ NYT: Nextdoor, a Start-Up, Raises $60 Million
The San Francisco start-up announced a $60 million investment on Tuesday, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Tiger Global Management, two prominent venture capital firms. Comcast Ventures, Benchmark, Greylock Partners and Shasta Ventures also participated in the fund-raising round.
BloombergBusinessWeek: Nextdoor Said to Top $500 Million Valuation in Financing Round

TechCrunch: NextDoor, The Facebook For Your Neighborhood, Lands $60M From John Doerr, Tiger Global And More To Go International

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer. -Fumi Yamazaki