Archive for the 'Analysis' Category

As if on cue… (Checklists, round 2)

February 14th, 2010

Yesterday, I wrote about an absolute must-read book: The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
It has been shown in an extensive world-wide study that a simple checklist used in surgery cuts infection rates, cuts death rates, and saves costs. It does all of these by substantial margins, everywhere they’ve been implemented. But [...]


The Checklist Manifesto – A hugely important book

February 13th, 2010

Back in 2007 I read a fascinating article called “The Checklist” written by Dr. Atul Gawande in the New Yorker. Atul Gawande is a practicing surgeon, MacArthur Fellow, Rhodes Scholar and professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. The article described how a doctor convinced a group of hospitals [...]


Location-based apps: Flook, Gowalla, Foursquare

December 31st, 2009

A lot of people have been talking about and playing with location-based applications these days. I wanted to put my two cents into the debate, specifically on Flook, Gowalla, and Foursquare.
Flook
Flook is the least-known of these three apps, but potentially the most interesting. Users take photos (which are automatically geo-tagged) and then add [...]


A tale of two (entrepreneurial) cities

September 30th, 2009

I got my bachelor’s degree (Aerospace Engineering) from the University of Michigan, which is located in the lovely town of Ann Arbor, Michigan (about a 45 minute drive from Detroit). As one of the top research universities in the US, the greater Ann Arbor area is home to major R&D facilities and company headquarters [...]


Recap of feedback on “Copying Y Combinator”

September 28th, 2009

Last week I finally posted my Cambridge MBA dissertation/individual project on the web. I was amazed at the traffic it brought! But I also wanted to address some of the things that people brought up in the discussions.
Traffic
According to Google Analytics, that post alone received over 2600 pageviews. Over 1200 of those [...]


Copying Y Combinator – WHY and HOW

September 21st, 2009

Have you thought about starting a program like Y Combinator in your city? That doing so would not only build a startup ecosystem but would also bring a good financial return? I studied Y Combinator, TechStars, Seedcamp, and many more programs to develop a framework for “Copying Y Combinator”.
(With apologies to [...]


Y combinator – dissertation and request for help!

August 10th, 2009

As I wrote in my last post, I am writing my master’s dissertation on Y combinator and the similar programs it has spawned. Y combinator is a really interesting program, but I think simply copying it and starting it in a different city isn’t the best way to do it.
This post will detail how [...]


University of Michigan – 2 out of 3 ain’t bad

March 16th, 2009

I’ve long had this theory that at any given time, the University of Michigan can only have two successful sports of the three top sports: football, basketball, and ice hockey. (Aka, the sports where Michigan has traditionally excelled.)
A key data point has come this year: Michigan’s football team collapsed. But to even out [...]