Vertical Travel Search Engine Kayak CEO Steve Hafner (Part 5)

SM: Obviously you made a big departure from established business models in the travel industry. Can we discuss that in terms of growth?

SH: Our business model is very similar to Google’s. We get paid for the referral. We are unbiased which is great for consumers because when you have an advertising driven model the incentive is to have more comprehensive search results. >>>

Serial Entrepreneurs

I want to turn the spotlight on serial entrepreneurs, and open a discussion on what drives them, and if you want to become a serial entrepreneur, what can you learn from the lives, careers and choices of other successful serial entrepreneurs. >>>

Deal Radar 2008: Bill.com

Bill.com is targeted towards small and medium sized businesses, their accountants and bookkeepers, to help them send, receive, route, pay and store bills. The company recently changed its name from CashView. >>>

Catching Up on Readings: Design In The 21st Century

Time for another round of recap since the last one on May 10 … See what you have missed, and catch up. >>>

Design in the 21st Century: A Coffee with Barry Katz (Part 8)

SM: To me 20th Century art looks like the ‘anti-beauty’. Is that reasonable? Today I look at the products people are lapping up and they are beautiful objects. Are we returning to appreciating beauty?

BK: I am not going to disagree with you completely, although I will refrain a bit. >>>

Design in the 21st Century: A Coffee with Barry Katz (Part 7)

SM: What is your interpretation of what is going on in Steve Job’s head that allows him to do something really interesting and leapfrogging with design every time?

BK: I don’t think it is every time. Apple has cultivated a mystique of the ‘magic Job’s touch’.

SM: He did look outside of America to get the first design. That tells me he is thinking out of the box.

BK: He is a very complex and smart guy as well as a huge risk taker which has nearly cost him his job. >>>

Design in the 21st Century: A Coffee with Barry Katz (Part 6)

SM: Previously we talked about cell phones and the problems that have developed over time with their hazard to driving. Could the Mendini analysis be applied to cell phones?

BK: The Harvard Medical School has concluded that cell phone drivers kill 2400 people a year in the United States which is serious. Several states have created hands free laws as a response. Those laws indicate the problem arises from holding the phone. In my eyes that is not the issue. The real problem is being in communication with someone remotely. >>>

Design in the 21st Century: A Coffee with Barry Katz (Part 5)

SM: The human factors movement then becomes a definitive note in design history?

BK: The human factors movement becomes a very big deal. Part of the reason is the increasing rise in competition from China, India, and other parts of the world after the turn of the millennium. Silicon Valley design services are getting extremely expensive, relatively speaking. The question is, what can we add to this process? >>>