MetaFilter posts tagged with entrepreneurship

Social Enclosures “R” Us

mykescipark — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:07:27 -0800

Who's the Shop Steward on Your Kickstarter? "The true product for sale on Kickstarter is not your art project, but your community and networks. ... Our projects that facilitate the funding are a side effect, a cost of doing business—the business of drilling our relationships for all they are worth."

Inside Africa. Internet, phones etc.

travelwithcats — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:56:27 -0800

Inside Africa. What about the digital frontier? How is the broadband download performance? How many mobile phones are there in Africa? And mobile subscriptions? How is Twitter doing in South Africa? And how many internet users are there in South Africa anyway? Yes, the other stuff like GDP growth rates, nation brand values and Sino-African trade are there too. And female entrepreneurship..

This is why Jakob Ander won't hire you

shivohum — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:47:14 -0800

This is why I don't give you a job. Hungarian blogger Jakab Andor breaks down the numbers and explains why taxes and regulations make it highly unappealing for him to start a small business employing people in Hungary. He also argues that these same factors make women and older people particularly unappealing prospects. His comments generated quite a bit of controversy (warning: most comments in Hungarian), to which he responded with an offer.

The characteristic art form of our age may be the business plan

AlsoMike — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:20:33 -0800

Previous youth cultures — beatniks, hippies, punks, slackers — could be characterized by two related things: the emotion or affect they valorized and the social form they envisioned. Reversing the usual criticism of the Millennial Generation as entitled and unwilling to work, William Deresiewicz (previously) argues in a new essay that the leading edge of this generation is the spirit of entrepreneurialism. And if the ideal social form is the small business, the ideal Millennial emotion is business-friendly. Polite, pleasant, moderate, earnest and friendly -- these are the personal characteristics most favorable to building your niche in the capitalist network. Deresiewicz says ominously, "The self today is an entrepreneurial self, a self that’s packaged to be sold." But is the age of the Entrepreneurial Self already waning? With the global financial crisis and the Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States, is the next generation ready to turn in their copies of "How To Win Friends and Influence People" for something with a bit more edge?

Affability is a commercial virtue, but it is also the affect of people who feel themselves to be living in a fundamentally agreeable society. Already, the makings of a new youth culture may be locking into place.

Ray Kroc

Trurl — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:12:17 -0800

This had to be the most amazing merchandising operation I had ever seen! I don't remember whether I ate a hamburger for lunch that day or not. I went back to my car and waited around until about 2:30 in the afternoon, when the crowd dwindled down to just an occasional customer. Then I went over to the building and introduced myself to Mac and Dick McDonald. (very previously) Like many of the 20th century's most influential entrepreneurs, Ray Kroc was not a creator. When Kroc came onto the scene, convenience food already existed in many forms, from local diners to hot dog stands. But it was Kroc who had the cunning ability to grasp all the complexities of the fast-food concept and deliver it in the best possible way.

Dropbox

Trurl — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:39:04 -0800

How Dropbox said "No" to Steve Jobs and lived happily ever after. (So far.)

The Lean Publishing Manifesto

Trurl — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:49:38 -0800

Lean Publishing is the act of self-publishing a book while you are writing it, evolving the book with feedback from your readers and finishing a first draft before using the traditional publishing workflow, with or without a publisher.

Why StartUpBritain is nothing more than a government backed link farm

nam3d — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:05:19 -0800

Why StartUpBritain is nothing more than a government backed link farm

Weed-Mart

Joe Beese — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:02:42 -0800

Two years ago, Mann says, he had never seen a pot plant. Today, he envisions weGrow becoming the "Wal-Mart of Weed", a vertically integrated chain of big-box stores perfectly positioned to cash in on California's booming marijuana industry as it moves from the shadows to the mainstream. In this "green rush" for semi-legal weed, Mann and his partner Derek Peterson, a 36-year-old investment banker, seek to be the modern equivalents of Levi Strauss and Samuel Brannan—the Gold Rush entrepreneurs who made a killing not from mining, but from selling pans, pickaxes, and victuals to the forty-niners.

entrepreneurial paradise

kliuless — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:40:22 -0800

In Norway, Start-ups Say Ja to Socialism - We venture to the very heart of the hell that is Scandinavian socialism—and find out that it's not so bad. Pricey, yes, but a good place to start and run a company. What exactly does that suggest about the link between taxes and entrepreneurship?

30 Minutes or Less

reenum — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:36:07 -0800

Heroin can now be delivered to your house like a pizza. They also target white, middle class clientele, believing them to be a safer bet. They also focus on customer service and other business school principles to bring a better shopping experience to their addicted customers.

Busy Bee Hardware, Est. 1918

Joe Beese — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:58:45 -0800

Busy Bee Hardware, Est. 1918 (via)

A New Approach to Aid

The Whelk — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:55:08 -0800

" Under the plan, every citizen, rich or poor, would be entitled to it starting at birth. There would be no poverty test, no conditions and, therefore, no social bureaucracy. And no one would be told what he or she is permitted to do with the money." Promising news from Spiegel Online about a Guaranteed minimum income project in Otjivero, Namibia. (via)

Imagine It!

divabat — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:00:39 -0800

Teams of student entrepreneurs around the world had six days to add value to a stack of Post-It notes as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The results are documented in Imagine It!, which aims to promote creative thinking. Some of the projects generated from the Post-It notes are a fundraising fast-food service that uses Post-It notes for orders; an elementary school class on entrepreneurship; a collection of notes and wisdom from top minds around Stanford University; awareness-building systems for disabilities, pedestrian crosswalks, and the Thai Constitution; mass fundraising for Kiva microlending; an open-source factorial music program; and some comedy based on organizing girlfriends. The video also features interviews from Guy Kawasaki, John Hennessy (president of Stanford), Richard Caruso (Entrepreneur of the Year), and other people in academia, business, and social entreprise.