That was the overwhelming response I got from my friends in college. I had a beat up card board box sitting in the corner of my bedroom with 25 “skull crushers” and a square, black banner from SkullCandy.

“What are you going to do with them?” my friend asked as he was pointing to the box of headphones. “Give them away” I said. “I’m going to have the performers throw them into the crowd at the Halloween Party.”

My friend continued with the questions, “Really? Where did they come from?” I said, “The Consumer Electronics Show. This guy Rick started a headphone company. I couldn’t leave his booth. He had the sickest headphones with ridiculous designs and backpacks with built in speakers. Every design was so interesting and unique. I thought it would be awesome to give these away at the Halloween … Read More »

I’ve said several times on this blog that the education system is broken and is in desperate need of change. I now think we are finally starting to see the emergence of a new era in education reform. One led by the private sector.

The issue I still struggle with is how to balance the intersection, or lack thereof, between cutting edge methods of education with societal expectations of having to graduate from an accredited university.

Specifically, what is the difference between a Harvard business professor teaching a Harvard class, in Harvard, vs. someone like a Fred Wilson teaching a business class in his firm’s office? What is the difference between a computer science professor teaching JavaScript in a university building vs. a computer science entrepreneur teaching JavaScript in some office space in NYC?

To me, the answer simply boils down to a piece of … Read More »

When I was building Spinback as an independent company I would often work 16 hour days. These days were packed with meetings, work, planning, the whole 9 yards. I would come home at 1 am, 2 am, sometimes 3 or 4am. And you might think that after a long productive day the first thing I’d want to do would be to jump into bed and catch some much-needed z’s. Clearly a logical, sound thought. Work hard, go home, sleep. I definitely wanted to go to sleep to recharge and gear up for the next day, but that never turned out to be the case. I found that it was very hard for my mind to turn off and get the rest that I so desperately needed. But even with the lack of sleep, I still somehow had just as much energy the … Read More »