InfoCompanions » Entrepreneurs http://www.infocompanions.com Brain spasms of an enthusiast who loves to live at the intersection of business, innovation, process and technology Sun, 26 Sep 2010 16:37:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Why Zappos Pays New Employees To Quit – And You Should Too http://www.infocompanions.com/why-zappos-pays-new-employees-to-quit-and-you-should-too/ http://www.infocompanions.com/why-zappos-pays-new-employees-to-quit-and-you-should-too/#comments Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:00:00 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.net/?p=104 , the Nevada-based online shoe and accessories retailer, has an interesting twist on new-hire bonuses. After applying and being chosen for a job, employees get a month of paid training. Then they’re offered $1,000 to leave. It’s a test of commitment, meant to see if money is what matters to workers. The amount offered has risen from an initial $100 and could grow even more. Only 1 in 10 take the offer, according to CEO , and the company now employs approximately 1,600 who passed the test.

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About William C. Taylor:
William C. Taylor is an agenda-setting thinker, writer, and entrepreneur. His new book, at Work, has been a New York Times and Wall Street Journal . As cofounder of Fast Company, he launched a magazine that earned a passionate following among executives and entrepreneurs. He is an adjunct professor at College and a former associate editor of Harvard Review.

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/why-zappos-pays-new-employees-to-quit-and-you-should-too/feed/ 0 Dangers of Blogging… for Men http://www.infocompanions.com/dangers-of-blogging-for-men/ http://www.infocompanions.com/dangers-of-blogging-for-men/#comments Sun, 18 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.net/?p=92 and delivers a careful lecture on the dangers of blogging. Specifically, for men.

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About Yossi Vardi:
Joseph “Yossi” Vardi has helped more than 40 startups see the light of day, among them Mirabilis (makers of ICQ) and the video companies Scopus and BrightCove. He’s a strategic advisor to and , and a venture partner of , one of Israel’s largest VC funds.

He’s a lively presence in the world of tech startups, with an absurd sense of humor and a refreshing set of values (restated in a much-commented-on TechCrunch post in October) that drive his approach to new investments. The takeaways: Judge the individual over the business plan; and don’t shy away from an entrepreneur who has failed before: “It makes them want to win even more,” he said.

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/dangers-of-blogging-for-men/feed/ 2 Making movies that make change http://www.infocompanions.com/making-movies-that-make-change/ http://www.infocompanions.com/making-movies-that-make-change/#comments Sun, 24 Feb 2008 06:00:00 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.net/?p=72 made his fortune as the first president of eBay. Now he’s spending it at the movies. His company, , makes entertaining, issues-driven films that inspire real change — Murderball, Syriana, An Inconvenient Truth … Here, he talks about the people who’ve inspired him to do good, and about some upcoming films that will open your eyes.

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About Jeff Skoll:
Jeff Skoll was eBay’s employee number 2 and president number 1. He left with a comfortable fortune and a desire to spend his money helping others.

The Skoll Foundation, established in 1999, invests in, connects and celebrates social entrepreneurs — offering grants to people who build businesses, schools and services for communities in need. Every year, it presents the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford, and runs Social Edge, a networking site for social entrepreneurs.

His production company, Participant Productions, is what Skoll calls a “pro-social media company,” making features and documentaries that address social and political issues and drive real change. His film North Country, for example, is credited with influencing the signing of the 2005 . Participant’s blockbuster doc, An Inconvenient Truth, is required viewing in classrooms around the world, and has unquestionably changed the debate around climate change. Upcoming for Participant are two films about Afghanistan, and a documentary about Jimmy Carter’s controversial 2006-7 book tour.

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/making-movies-that-make-change/feed/ 0 Cars off the road, data into the skies http://www.infocompanions.com/cars-off-the-road-data-into-the-skies/ http://www.infocompanions.com/cars-off-the-road-data-into-the-skies/#comments Sun, 10 Feb 2008 06:00:00 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.net/?p=79 rose to fame by founding , the world’s biggest car-sharing business, but that was one of her smaller ideas. In this presentation she travels much farther, contemplating road-pricing schemes that will shake up our driving habits and a no-fee mesh network as sprawling as the United States Interstate highway system. But how could you build a free wireless system that vast and pervasive? Chase finds the answer in a few short lines from The Graduate. And it has nothing to do with plastic.

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About Robin Chase:
If she weren’t a proven start-up entrepreneur, you might imagine Robin Chase as a geek, some dedicated civil servant, endlessly refining computer models of freeway . Or if she weren’t such a green-conscious problem-solver, you might take her for a businesswoman only. Ultimately, the best way to understand Chase is simply as a remarkable innovator.

Case in point: In 2000, Chase focused her MIT business training on founding Zipcar, now the largest car-sharing business in the world. Using a wireless key system and Internet billing, members pick up at myriad locations anytime they want one. The idea is at once ordinary and highly sophisticated, with powerful technologies applied to tasks as prosaic as grocery shopping. But the result couldn’t be more straightforward: fewer cars, less carbon.

Since its founding, Zipcar has doubled in size every year, making Chase’s biggest ideas and her latest company, , look mighty promising.

]]> http://www.infocompanions.com/cars-off-the-road-data-into-the-skies/feed/ 0 How Technology Will Transform Us http://www.infocompanions.com/how-technology-will-transform-us/ http://www.infocompanions.com/how-technology-will-transform-us/#comments Sun, 15 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000 Himanshu Sharma http://www.infocompanions.net/?p=47 Prolific inventor and outrageous visionary explains in abundant, grounded detail why — by the 2020s — we will have reverse-engineered the human brain, and nanobots will be operating your consciousness. Kurzweil draws on years of research to show the speed at which technology is evolving, and projects forward into an almost unthinkable future to outline the ways we’ll use technology to augment our own capabilities, forever blurring the lines between human and machine.

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About Ray Kurzweil:
Inventor, entrepreneur, visionary, Ray Kurzweil’s accomplishments read as a startling series of firsts — a litany of technological breakthroughs we’ve come to take for granted. Kurzweil invented the first optical character recognition (OCR) software for transforming the written word into data, the first print-to-speech software for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, and many electronic instruments.

Yet his impact as a futurist and philosopher is no less significant. In his best-selling books, which include The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Kurzweil depicts in detail a portrait of the human condition over the next few decades, as accelerating technologies forever blur the line between human and machine.

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