Jed Christiansen's Blog - Latest Comments

Re: Thursday, June 18th - Announcing Cambridge Tech DEMO Night

Robert Jones — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:29:22 -0000

Hi Jed, great meeting, super demos, high energy, great enterprise, well organised, well done.

Thanks also to Chris Mitchell.

I have posted the DEMO write-up on my blogsite.

Looking forward to the next meeting

Re: Wow, it’s been a while…

abhilash_menon — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:08:21 -0000

Hi Jed,

I am Abhilash Menon...
Firstly congratulations on your internship...

I have been a follower of your blog for quiet some time. Infact your blogs helped me get a
lot of info on JBS... and i have got thru.. so will be joining this sept...

Can i contact you on your personal email... would love to interact with you...
If so kindly do reply to me on abhilash823@gmail.com

Looking forward to hear from you...

Abhilash.

Re: USS Hartford collision

Mike Johnson — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:39:40 -0000

Jed I remember the good old days on the Hartford when all we hit were inanimate objects. I can not believe that so many bad things have happened to this boat. Man they are lucky that no one else got hurt. Well no more sea time for me since 2006 when we went to the shipyard. I don't miss her, but I sure miss a few friends. ET1/SS Mike Johnson (RC Div)

Re: Wow, it’s been a while…

jedc — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:18:18 -0000

Thanks, Dom!

Re: Wow, it’s been a while…

Dom — Mon, 18 May 2009 08:59:15 -0000

Congrats once again on said internship!

Re: Cambridge MBA and Cambridge Colleges - A decision aid

jedc — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:14:36 -0000

I'm glad you found it useful. Good luck!

Re: Cambridge MBA and Cambridge Colleges - A decision aid

Amit — Tue, 05 May 2009 04:42:09 -0000

Great blog !!!

Highly Appreciated. I am planning to join JBS this year and this blog does make life a whole lot earlier.
I guess the comments at the end from various students are equally good and I would make it a point to add my share to it once I experience it first hand.

In the meantime ... thanks !!!

-Amit

Re: Estimating 37signals revenue and general profitability

jedc — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 07:49:37 -0000

Well, if you look at my model it generally assumes that ~95-98% of users just try it and don't use it long-term. But those that do use it long-term are very loyal. My model seems to match up fairly well to most everything they've posted recently.

They are a very profitable and successful business.

Re: Estimating 37signals revenue and general profitability

Julian Stone — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:23:11 -0000

Here's two posts I wrote a while ago on a similar track of trying to guess their numbers...
Well worth a read.

Does BaseCamp have long term users? or a million tyrekickers?
http://julian101.com/2008/02/does-basecamp-have...

Do you believe Software Companys’ Hype? I’m unconvinced.
http://julian101.com/2007/03/do-you-believe-the...

Re: USS Hartford collision

jedc — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 06:21:36 -0000

Most of the sail is actually outside the main pressurized "people-tank." That said, there's a hatch/passageway for people to access the sail, a couple of periscopes and one or two other masts that all go through the sail into the main hull. If it was bent so far that those opened up, it would have been disasterous. That's why they're going to be in port for a while. Either fixing the periscopes and/or designing a way for them to go home when the periscopes are completely screwed is a hell of a challenge. At least when we grounded, we pulled in next to a repair ship; I don't think there's anything like that close to Bahrain.

The 688i class is designed to punch through the arctic ice, so it was one hell of a collision to bend it over. And if the boat went through an 80+ degree roll... that only 15 people were hurt says quite a bit about the professionalism of the crew.

Re: USS Hartford collision

fnazeeri — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:37:51 -0000

I'm amazed she didn't sink; does ripping the sail off cause water to leak into the boat? I'm reminded of scenes from Das Boot. Whatever the cause, some pretty amazing engineering to survive that.

Re: Cambridge MBA and Cambridge Colleges - A decision aid

jedc — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 20:33:49 -0000

I'm glad you found it useful. Thanks for letting me know.

Re: Cambridge MBA and Cambridge Colleges - A decision aid

Deepti — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:40:17 -0000

great blog....... i was actually looking for info like this....... i am joining judge this year........ it certainly provides a perspective....... thanks

Re: Panama Canal crossing video

jedc — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:14:35 -0000

Nice. Some of the scenery looks amazing, though it's hard to tell in time-lapse!

Re: Panama Canal crossing video

Jose Alvarez — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:39:02 -0000

Thats an awesome video! We crossed halfway into the channel (to Gatun Lake) on our Senior Cruise and the locks were a lot of fun. On the way out some people on our ship threw frisbees to the people working on the locks and they threw them back.

Re: Cambridge MBA curriculum - Harvard’s moving closer to it

jedc — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:34:38 -0000

Hi, Ron. I'm glad you found it useful, and good luck with your application!

Re: Cambridge MBA curriculum - Harvard’s moving closer to it

Ron — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:01:05 -0000

Hi Jed, very useful information on the Cambridge MBA program... I was impressed with the MBA curriculum as well and just applied for the 2009 MBA program. Looks like my decision is correct.

Re: Cambridge - putting the pieces together by opening up

jedc — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:45:54 -0000

My mistake; I forgot that tech & social entries don't do demos as part of the competition.

Perhaps there could be a seperate demo night (outside the judging process) that would be for all finalists, or even all entrants depending on quality. Tech, social enterprise, and s/w startups could all have their 5 minutes of fame either showing off or pitching their ideas. The idea would be to have everyone get more practice and experience pitching, and show off some interesting potential businesses to the Cambridge community.

Re: Cambridge - putting the pieces together by opening up

amirmc — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:29:06 -0000

Demo should be standard for s/w entries at the Grand Finale (prize giving) on 10 Jun. Can't really open up the s/w judging process since entrants need to be able to have frank discussion with judges which can get awkward if there's an audience. CUE learned this the hard way a few yrs ago.

Tech & social entries usually don't have demos

Re: Cambridge - putting the pieces together by opening up

jedc — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:25:48 -0000

Thanks, Martin. I really like what you're doing with CamCow, and would be keen to see if/how we can scale that up. And I agree wholeheartedly with the notion that it will take several inititives working together to build Cambridge.

Re: Cambridge - putting the pieces together by opening up

martinkl — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 08:32:30 -0000

Excellent idea. I would love to come, and also would like to give a demo at some point. Demos are a lot more meaningful than talk or slides. Thanks for initiating this -- as you say, I've tried to give start-ups an opportunity to get together in the CamCow coworking space, but it several different initiatives working together to really build a community.

Re: Cambridge - putting the pieces together by opening up

jedc — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:45:03 -0000

I'm quite envious Geoff; have a great time! Thanks for the heads-up on The Barn. I'll put it on the list of venues I've been thinking about.

Re: Cambridge - putting the pieces together by opening up

jedc — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:44:10 -0000

Thanks, Matt.

That's a great story, and to me shows how virtually all the expertise that startups need can be found in Cambridge. We just need to figure out valuable ways of putting the right people in the same room(s) with each other. Definitely look forward to chatting soon!

Re: Cambridge - putting the pieces together by opening up

jedc — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:40:57 -0000

I think that would be fantastic! I'm curious how some entrants that are really concerned about IP would respond. (Probably not as much of an issue in the software and social enterprise categories, but more so in the technology category.)

Re: Cambridge - putting the pieces together by opening up

jedc — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:37:28 -0000

Thanks, Laurence, I appreciate it. Not only do demos cut through the BS that some entrepreneurs/talkers spin, but they're interesting to see! I hope we build a strong audience beating down the door to get in.