My Conversation With Marty Nemko on KALW

Marty Nemko had me on his show on Sunday. Here’s a link to the rather animated conversation in which, for the first time, I experienced being sworn at on public radio. Enjoy!

Deal Radar 2009: Chaupaati

We have discussed India’s Innovation Gap at length recently. Here’s a company that is trying to innovate with the mobile phone as a way to get to people who are otherwise unreachable, even via the Internet. >>>

Water Shortages: Opportunities for Entrepreneurs (Part 3)

By Guest Author Dominique Trempont

The third and final part of the article discusses how conserving the existing fresh water supply can have a considerable impact and concludes with an analysis of what entrepreneurs must do to change the way the market, governments and consumers think about water.

5. Conserve available fresh water by reducing the water footprint of existing products and services

The last category is made up of water conserving solutions that dramatically reduce water usage. Roughly 85% of the world’s water is used is by agriculture, 10% by industry and 5% by households. >>>

I Want To Change TV: Mitch Berman, CEO of ZillionTV (Part 6)

SM: In terms of an investment thesis, how many millions of dollars has ZillionTV raised?

MB: Not going to be speaking to that right now. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Extentech

We continue our focus on businesses that have monetized open source and discuss another core business tool which is being remade as a web-based application: the spreadsheet, by San Francisco-based Extentech, a leading developer of Java components and development tools. Founded in 1999 by John McMahon and Nicholas Rab, Extentech started as a consulting and custom development firm. The ExtenXLS Java Spreadsheet SDK was created during a custom Java development engagement and quickly became the focus of the business. In 2001, following a discussion over lunch about Java spreadsheets, John was struck with a vision of a platform that would convert spreadsheets into instant secure web applications that could be built by anyone with spreadsheet skills, and ExtenXLS 360 was born. >>>

Water Shortages: Opportunities for Entrepreneurs (Part 2)

By Guest Author Dominique Trempont

The first part of Dominique’s article on the global water shortage introduced the problem and named five categories in which there are opportunities for innovation and funding. The first two were 1) collecting storm water and rainfall in a more comprehensive way and 2) storing and transporting water safely and sustainably. Today’s post discusses two more areas in which there has been some notable progress.

3. Make existing fresh water safe to drink

In India, waterborne diseases such as malaria, typhoid, parasites, cholera and diarrhea kill 1,600 children every day. That is the equivalent of eight downed jumbo jets, every day! In this case, when there is fresh water, consumers do not trust it: they refuse to drink it without filtration they control. >>>

I Want To Change TV: Mitch Berman, CEO of ZillionTV (Part 5)

SM: The one thing I see in what you have talked about is the user experience. The user interaction with Netflix is fragmented. You are saying that you have cut out the computer and are allowing the entire experience to happen via a remote control.

MB: That is one of the key differentiating factors between ZillionTV and everyone else, including cable operators and independent set-top boxes. >>>

My Radio Conversation with Liz Saint John on 97.3

Here’s a radio show I did with Liz Saint John on Alice’s 97.3, KLLC-FM last Thursday. Liz is an excellent interviewer. She asked me questions like, How did we get into this mess? and, How do we get out?

Enjoy!