Saturday, May 4, 2013

Six Links on Saturday

Another week, another Six Links on Saturday. Here is last Sunday's "Seven Links on Sunday" in case you missed it.

Jason Collin's Story Sounds So Normal - Great quote from Tim Keown, "This is the real world. Families deal with this. Gay people deal with this. Employers and co-workers and friends deal with this. Jason Collins' revelation that he is gay -- thus becoming the first openly gay player in a major American team sport to come out during his playing days -- is contextually relevant but exceedingly dull. And that's the best thing about it."

Fox Foundation Takes First Step To Crowdsourced Research - Phones are going to make us healthier.

If You Want to See How We'll All Be Living in the Future... - The rest of the title sounds kind of elitist but he's right. Rich people have more time and the money to buy all the new gadgets. For premium technology and services, they are the early adopters. Pay attention to what they are doing. Don't forget about what those poor high school and college kids are doing either. Innovation comes from the edges.

How Jenna Lyons Transformed J. Crew - It's really a story about how Lyons (Designer) and Mickey Drexler (Retailer) turned around J. Crew. My mom owned a retail store for 25 years and she admired Mickey's work at GAP. This quote from the article got my attention, "Not since Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive at Apple has a creative pairing been as intriguing and fruitful as that of Drexler and Lyons."

From DonorsChoose to Kickstarter - VC & Blogger Fred Wilson explains how working with an innovative non-profit, DonorsChoose, prepared him to understand the Kickstarter pitch when that team was seeking funding. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. When I look back on my investments over the last five years, the best ones all come from exploiting a trend or approach that I recognized through Ben's Friends

Inmates Review Prisons on Yelp - Transparency is a beautiful thing. Prisoners are writing Yelp reviews about their prison and my bet is this makes them much safer for both prisoners and staff.

Russian Hill, San Francisco

Russian Hill