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How an early Microsoft alum was rejected by the toy industry, then went around it and built one of the world’s biggest board game franchises

How an early Microsoft alum was rejected by the toy industry, then went around it and built one of the world’s biggest board game franchises

By Andrew C. • 26 min read • 6 Comments

“It’s not about how many times you get knocked down; it’s about how many times you get back up.” – Richard Tait, co-creator of Cranium

Tagged With: accomplishment, advertising, amazon, America, Apple, aspiration, autobiography, Barnes & Noble, Bellevue Community College, beverage, beverages, board game, BoomBoom Brands, brand, Britain, career, Cesar Villaluz, character, Charades, computer, computer science, computers, confidence, connections, consulting, conviction, courage, Cranium, creativity, culture, customers, Dartmouth, defeat, demographic, disappointment, discipline, discovery, distribution channel, door that closes, door that opens, doubt, dream, Edinburgh, energy beverage, engineer, entertainment, entrepreneur, facebook, families, feedback, finance, financial models, footprint, friends, game, Game of the Year, games, Gatorade, Giorgio Davanzo, goalkeeper, Golazo, Gordon MacKenzie, green card, Hasbro, Heriot Watt, Howard Schultz, imagination, incubator, insecurity, inspiration, interview, intuition, inventory, investors, iterative design, John Peel, journey, Kinko’s, Latino, leaders, leadership, magic, Magic Johnson, Mattel, mba, Microsoft, Mike Myers, mission, movie, Nike, operations, opportunity, Orbiting the Giant Hairball, passion, perseverance, Philosophy, Pictionary, Pioneer Square, play test, product development, product positioning, programming, Prolog, prototype, QFC, Qwest Field, recession, Red Bull, REI, Richard Branson, Richard Tait, risk, sacrifices, Safeway, Scotland, Scottish, Scrabble, Seattle, Seattle’s Best Coffee, self-confidence, self-doubt, So I Married an Axe Murderer, soccer, soccer players, social network, software, Spanish, stadium, Starbucks, startups, steve jobs, striker, super goal, Target, Tazo Tea, team, technology, tenacity, Toy Fair, toy industry, Toys R Us, traction, trivia, Trivial Pursuit, twitter, Univision, vacation, values, venture capital, Virgin, wall street, Walmart, Washington Youth Soccer Association, Whole Foods, work ethic, World Cup, Yupsters

What a healthcare PhD learned at McKinsey about “relationship capital” that helped him create a new career as a Ruby on Rails software developer

What a healthcare PhD learned at McKinsey about “relationship capital” that helped him create a new career as a Ruby on Rails software developer

By Andrew C. • 23 min read • Leave a Comment

“Part of job satisfaction is knowing that you’re doing a really good job.” – Adarsh Pandit, thoughtbot

Tagged With: Abbott, academic institutions, academic lab, academic papers, academics, administrative work, adviser, alumni databases, Ann Arbor, apprentice, apprentice.io, apprentices, apps, automotive industry, BASIC, beginner, biochemistry, biophysics, biotech products, Boston, business, business degree, business education, career, career office, career path, career shift, careers, cases, ceo, charts, cheap labor, chicago, children, client, client presentations, clients, code, colleagues, college, communication, community, companies, company, computers, connections, consultancies, consultant, consultants, consulting, consulting companies, culture, decision, degree, designers, detroit, developer, developers, development, direction, director, directors, doctor, doctoral candidates, doctoral programs, doctorate, DOS, DOS prompt, drawbacks, economic environment, economy, education, engineer, engineers, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, environment, ethos, European director, experience, extrovert, factories, faculty positions, financial crisis, Financial risks, financial services, firm, flexibility, focus, friend, future, generalist, goal, goodwill, grad school, Graduate education, graduate school, graduate students, graduates, growth, guidance, hands-on training, hedge fund, hours, IBM 80, independent consultant, industrial scientist, industries, industry, informational reviews, infrastructure, institution, institutions, insurance, Interest, interface, interview, interviewer, interviewing, interviews, IT firms, Ivies, ivory tower, Ivy League, job, job satisfaction, jobs, journey, junior professor, knowledge, lab, lab science, labor, laboratory, Laboratory science, law school, law schools, lawyers, learner, learning, LevelUp, library, lifestyle, local management, machine, mckinsey, mechanical, medical school, medicine, meet-ups, meetings, meetups, mentor, Merck, method, michigan, microcosm, microfinance, microfinance institution, Microsoft, milestones, molecule, molecules, money, network, networking, new york, office, office space, offices, onboarding process, open source, open source software, operations, opportunities, organization, overhead, pair program, pair programming, partner, payment startup, performance, perseverance, personalized medicine, Pfizer, Ph.D., pharma, pharmaceutical, pharmaceuticals, phd, physical chemistry, physics, places, post-docs, post-doctorals, postdoctorals, PowerPoint, practice, pressure, process, product, production, profession, professional development, professionals, professor, professors, program, project, projects, public speaking, qualifying exams, rainy day, relationship capital, relationships, relevance, research, research papers, researcher, researchers, residency, resources, retail, reward, risk, risks, Ruby on Rails, salaries, san francisco, satisfaction, schools, science, sciences, scientists, seminar, seminars, simulation, situation, skills, software, software consultancy, software developer, solution, spouse, stability, stanford, Stanford University, start-ups, startup, startups, strength, students, subject matter, success, support, Switzerland, talent, talent development, tangibility, tangible, teacher, teachers, teaching, teaching colleges, team, technical founder, technician, technique, technologies, technology, tenure, thoughtbot, time, training, trainings, undergrads, undergraduates, universities, university, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Unix, value, video game, videos, views, wife, work, written communication, Yammer

How a college grad without programming experience started a Y Combinator company and created a blog with hundreds of thousands of readers

How a college grad without programming experience started a Y Combinator company and created a blog with hundreds of thousands of readers

By Andrew C. • 19 min read • 1 Comment

Paul Graham was like, “This could be the Altair Basic.” – Jason Shen, Ridejoy

Tagged With: accelerator, ad sales, advertisement, advertising, airbnb, Altair Basic, apartment, Apple, application, Art of Ass-Kicking, article, asset, athlete, athletics, backgrounds, batchmates, biology, blog, book, books, bookstore, Boston, breakthrough, bugs, business, business operations, business perspective, Canada, captain, ceo, challenges, chemistry, chief operating officer, china, co-founder, cofounder, commentary, comments, commitment, commitments, community, community manager, companies, company, compiler, computers, connection, connections, content-oriented post, conversion rate, convertible note, creative, customer scout, customer support, customers, demo day, Derek Flanzraich, developing world, dinners, distribution platform, diversity, draft, e-mail, e-mail marketing, editor, editor-in-chief, editorial team, email marketing, employees, endeavour, engineer, engineers, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, equity investment, equity investments, essays, ethics, events, excerpt, experience, experiments, facebook, feedback, follow-on, follow-on investment, format, founder, founders, friends, friendship, friendships, fund raising, Garry Tan, GeoCities, gift cards, Gmail, good luck, google, grad school, group effort, Groupon, Gumball, Gumball Capital, gymnast, gymnastics, gymnastics team, Hacker News, highlights, honors thesis, How to Get a Killer Job at a Tech Startup as a Recent Grad, HTML, Hup and Steph, ideas, influential, interests, interview, investment, investor, investors, iPhone, iPhone app, iPhone application, ISBN, ISBN number, isocket, jasonchen.com, jasonshen.com, job, John Ramey, journal, journalism, journalist, journalists, journey, Kalvin, Kalvin Wang, knee, lessons, links, live chat, MailChimp, mailing list, Margot, marketing, Massachusetts, meetings, memories, memory space, microfinance, microfinance loans, Microsoft, mission, motto, Mountain View, NCAA, NCAA championship, non-profit, nonprofit, notes, office, One Block Off the Grid, opportunities, opportunity, options, organizations, P&L statements, partners, Paul Buchheit, Paul Graham, personal brand, photo books, photographs, Photoshop, physical goods, physics, pictures, pitch, Posterous, posts, power, printing, problem sets, process, product, profit & loss statements, program, programmer, programming, project, prototype, prototype day, public forum, questions, quotes, Randall Stross, Randy, recruiter, Reddit, research, ride-sharing, ride-sharing platform, Ridejoy, rides, ridesharing, role, roommates, Ryan Hupfer, sales, salesman, san francisco, Saratoga, science, Scribd, seed fund, serendipity, service, silicon valley, skills, Skype, slide show, social capital, solar panel, speaker, Springwise, stanford, Stanford Daily, Stanford Spirit, Stanford University, start-up, start-ups, startup, startup world, startups, strategies, support, surgery, tactical skills, Tech Startup, technologies, technology, television, The Art of Ass-Kicking, The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator Silicon Valley's Most Exclusive School for Startups, The Stanford Daily, The Stanford Spirit, thoughts, traffic, training process, travels, trips, Tumblr, TV, U.S., United States, upvotes, value, values, Vanity Fair, VC, venture, venture capitalist, vision, website, well-connected, WordPress, WordPress blog, writers, Wufoo, Y Combinator, YC, YC batch, YC company, YC partners

The biggest entrepreneurship lessons this science major learned in two failed attempts starting a company, before nailing it the third time with a multi-million dollar venture-backed food startup

The biggest entrepreneurship lessons this science major learned in two failed attempts starting a company, before nailing it the third time with a multi-million dollar venture-backed food startup

By Andrew C. • 12 min read • Leave a Comment

“In a startup, there are many situations where you just don’t know what you’re supposed to do because you’ve never seen it before. But it’s also really exciting because you get experience you may never get in a traditional job.” – Kevin Yang, EAT Club

Tagged With: academia, academic, account manager, algae, amazon, autonomy, Bill Gates, biophysics professor, biotech, breakthrough, building, business, business school, caliber, Cambridge, change the world, classmate, co-founder, code, commitment, communication, competence, competent, complementary skills, confidence, consultant, consulting, conversion, curated, customer, Dean & Company, debate, decision, decision making, dedication, developer, distribution, domain, domain knowledge, EAT Club, education, efficiency, efficient, electric bikes, employee, energy, engineer, engineering, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, execution, experience, expert, expertise, facebook, finance, financial model, flat rate, food, food club, food market, fundraising, genetics, glory, group buying, happiness, happy, harvard, hire, hiring, impact, intelligence, intelligent, investor, iterate, iteration, job, leader, leadership, learning, learning curve, local, local restaurants, logistics, lunch, lunch delivery, lunch e-retailer, management consultant, management consulting, Mark Zuckerberg, market, mba, Microsoft, mobile, nano-technology, NanoDimension, netflix, network, office, operations, order lunch, organization, pace, painful, partnership, passion, pharma, physics, pitch, pitching, positive impact, product management, product manager, professor, progress, proof of concept, quality, research, restaurant, revenue, salt water, science, scientist, service, skills, smart, SMB, solar, solar cell, speed, stanford, stanford business school, startup, startups, strategy, stress, stressful, teaching, technical breakthrough, technical co-founder, technology, traditional job, trust, user base, users, vending machines, venture capital, website

Why this entrepreneur started a non-profit to provide mothers in developing countries with an innovative infant warmer he designed after selling his startup for millions

Why this entrepreneur started a non-profit to provide mothers in developing countries with an innovative infant warmer he designed after selling his startup for millions

By Andrew C. • 17 min read • Leave a Comment

“The idea wasn’t to start a company. The idea was to get this product out to everyone who needed it.” – Linus Liang, co-founder of Embrace

Tagged With: America, babies, baby, Bangalore, berkeley, business plan, ceo, change, change the world, china, clinical trials, clinicals, clinics, commencement speech, computer science, d school, design, donors, education, ego, Embrace, employee, engineer, engineering, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, executive director, extreme affordability, fail, failing, foundation, founder, freedom, funding, fundraising, goals, grant, grantmaking, hospital, incubator, india, infant, infant warmer, inspiration, low birth-weight, luck, medical, medical device, medical technology, Microsoft, mission, network, ngo, non-profit, nutrition, operations, opportunity, passion, poker, premature, product design, program manager, prototype, risk, roles, sales, social change, social enterprise, social entrepreneur, social gaming, social sector, social venture, social venture capital, social venture capitalist, stanford, startups, steve jobs, technology, vision, Zynga

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