Run lola run

Posted: July 30, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Opinions | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Run lola run is a 1998 German Movie dramatically depicting three hypothetical scenarios when a young woman has to literally run from one place to another to save her boyfriend.

I actually never watched this movie, but thought about it after a whole day of running from lands end to presidio.

Why do people run? Clearing head? Attempting to lose fat? Competing?


I started running regularly after college, when suddenly my sprinting talent was discovered. For years after that, I was simply running aimlessly, not particularly happy to run, nor motivated to compete. I ran because I thought I was able to and didn’t have much else to do.

It’s all changed now.

A few weeks ago, I rediscovered the massive presidio and rich history of it. I have definitely fallen in love with the meandering trails, the ever flowing fog, the forts, wildlife. Time simply stops here. From lands end’s sutro height area where sutro bath was the biggest public spa at the time from 1860 onward till its demise in 1966, to lover’s lane where young men and women in the military found each other, this is a place that used to be urban, busy, and happening all the time. Today, it’s all replaced with nature and its sound, as it should always be. But stories are kept. While I was running on Sutro bath’s ruins today, I was thinking to myself: are there anyone alive who actually used this spa back in the days?

And I kept on running, from Land’s end, to China beach, to baker beach, to fort winfield scott, to the main post. I found myself genuinely happy, it never happened before. I was genuinely feeling “busy” and “occupied” with running, not because I didn’t have much to do, but because this IS what I do.

And I ran into Judy, a beautiful volunteer lady at main post’s museum, I could not have guessed that she is 73. She would take me on a virtual tour of the history of presidio and San Francisco bay. Amazingly, she told me she used to take bath at Sutro bath in the 40s when she was just a little girl. She told me there were hot tubs where only old people would go, unlike today.

I could not believe what I heard. I ran 5 miles, randomly took a break at the small museum at main post, out of nowhere comes this lady who was born and raised in San francisco, and went to Sutro. What are the odds? I was just wondering!

When lola determined to run for her boyfriend, story unfolded, life happened.

When I kept on running, eventually I discovered the true beauty of presideo and San Francisco, in turn, it gave me the joy in running that I searched for so long.

It only gets better.

Run, Lola run!

Meet up like Hackers and founders

Posted: July 15, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Opinions | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Yesterday I went to a meetup next to AT&T park organized by “hackers and founders” with no expectations but was prepared to meet likeminded founders, hackers, angels to bounce the ideas, get feedbacks and make friends.

The meetup was a great success, following is the highlights

1. The name of “hackers and founders” are HOT nowadays, and because of the name and the organizers’ reputation of getting people together, participants are of high quality bunch such as founders, hackers, product guys from top companies, angels, EIR from VC firms etc.

2. People coming to the event brought something to the table other than asking for engineers to help business guys build out the products.

3. Many are founders with product to show but the meetup does not “feature” any demo, making the environment much less intense, much more open.

4. People were very consciously providing the feedbacks for others, while getting feedbacks in return.

5. I would ask questions to other founders who already launched, such as “what would you do if you have your product 90% done?”.

6. Out of 100+ attendees, I spoke to 20+ of them, got their cards, and told them that I would send them a beta invite when we launch soon.

To an early startup founder like me, this likeminded people circle is a very nurturing environment. While I strived to become helpful to them, my goal is clear: to get early feedbacks from my potential audiences (anyone wanting to have an active, outdoorsy and healthy lifestyle is my potential audience), to build interest with them and angels. Put them on my beta launch list. If I can invite 20 people from every event I go, by the time I launch soon, I would have a couple hundred passionate, nurturing people who are open to embrace a new product. That is invaluable to me.

I talked to the Laura Nelson, one of the organizers about the long term goal of this “organization”, or “meetup”. Laura made it clear that organization serves very early startups/founders that are still too early for more established incubators funds such as ycombinator. The meetup serves as a “give-back” AND marketing channel to connect startups in need and build following, the real deal is the funding conference where selected early startups are brought to pitch connected angels.

While chatting, we all agreed the single most important criteria is the crowd. A wrong crowd would turn away the right one. Just like startups, having a clear audience is key to the success of a great meetup.

I want to thank following people I have met for sharing the ideas with me:

Laura Nelson,  co founder, hackers and founders meetup

Jordan Kanarek: a rockstar like designer and story teller, from duckduckgo.com, one of kind, very successful search engine

Alessandro Santo: a VC from DPI Xel venture

Akshay Arabolu, founder, getcomparisons.com

JD Leonard, founder CEO, TextbookMadness.com

Laura Rodriguez, staffing consultant, meetup organizer

Andrew Zimmer, Mobile developer of an awesome iPhone app called dog whistle

Chris Mardelli: a law student in process to build his first web product

Suzanne Yada, a dynamic web producer

Bernie Yoo, co founder at Bombfell.com, he even took my measurement to get me join his “female-selected cloths for men, sent every month” startup

Doug Bend: startup attorney (thanks Doug for sharing stories)

Asi Behar from Pandora

Jackson G. from Pandora

Michael Seely, EIR at CMEA Captial

Many more: I hope to meet more of these passionate people to bounce ideas. Onward and upward!