Stuff like this is always better when it's true. It's also a great follow up to my previous post.
---------------------
From: Brian Jordon Bronson
Date: Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 8:05 AM
Subject: Hello, Stanford!
Dear Future Classmates,
I can’t believe we’re all going to Stanford!
Please don’t be alarmed by the mass email, I do it a lot (LOLz!). This is just to introduce myself, since being Round 3 I missed most of you at the welcoming receptions. I’m Brian Jordan Bronson, of the Darien Connecticut Bronsons.
As all of you probably found it very difficult as well, choosing between Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Wharton, Tuck and Kellogg gave me a lot to think about. Luckily we all made the right choice! The past chunk of years, I worked in private equity, specifically LBO (leveraged buyouts). It all became kind of boring, and I started managing my family’s various funds and investments in my free time... when that all became second nature I decided there must be something else out there and chose to get an MBA. I really want to be challenged.
Stanford advised me to sign up for the facebook group, but I’ll let you all know now that I am new to this facebook thing so please don’t judge my lack of friends... I promise I have many friends from school and from my summer homes. What does poking do? Anyway, please do friend me as I don’t want to miss out on any cocktail or dinner parties.
And, I will admit that I recently broke up with my longtime girlfriend.
Yes, I am single, ladies.
Also, does anybody here do community service? Since I’ll be new to the Bay Area, I wanted to find out where I should best go to do my part in helping those not nearly as fortunate as I am. Specifically, I am interested in volunteering at a soup kitchen, or reading to sick children at a hospital, or maybe cleaning up trash in the dirtiest neighborhood. Stuff like that.
If anyone else summers in East Hampton, please let me know... I’ll be here until Labor Day, call me so we can meet up for a Mojito. There are five or six spare rooms in my house for guests, too, if anyone wants to make the trip out here.
See you all in a few weeks!
Godspeed,
BJ (“The Beejster”)
PS—I didn’t get into Schwab, but all that means is we’ll be partying at my off campus apartment 24-7... I’m calling it “The Fortress of Soulitude.”
--
Brian Jordan Bronson, II
Darien, CT
Friday, August 22, 2008
Universities with hidden talent
Cross post from CoNotes blog: http://www.conotes.com/blog/universities-with-hidden-talent
In the recruiting world, there is so much subjective opinion that it is very difficult to decide if Candidate A is better than Candidate B. That is why brand name universities and companies carry so much weight on resumes.
What ends up happening, though, is that every startup looks to hire some undergrad engineers from Stanford. They all send an email out over various Stanford listservs, hoping for a hit. Sometimes you’ll get a hit, but a lot of times you are just another fish in the sea of startups recruiting at Stanford. And while students at Stanford are great, there are tiers of students. Some startups are inherently going to grab the top tier students, and some the 2nd tier…but the question is whether it’s worth going for the lower tier students or whether you should really start spending time searching for hidden talent at other schools?
So I wanted to see if there was some way to prove there was talent at lesser known schools. The tough part is finding a common, easily-available metric for “talent” at different universities. I couldn’t come up with anything good, so I settled on what data I could find easily—SAT scores at different universities. Before any of you jump on me for using SAT scores as a proxy for qualified candidates for a startup, I ask that you help find me a better metric that can serve as a proxy for such a purpose.
Given that caveat, I really just want to show that there are some non-brand name universities with just as much talent as brand name universities. I also wanted to narrow down the scope a little since a large number of entry positions at startups are engineering related. So I used US News’ list of top undergraduate engineering schools. The names most people would expect are on there (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley), as well as some other schools less well known for their engineering programs (Michigan, Cornell).
After gathering SAT data on these schools, I then ranked them by percentage of the student body with SAT scores above 1500.
What stood out to me were 3 specific schools: Harvey Mudd, Cornell and Cooper Union. Harvey Mudd at 32% of their school with SAT scores above 1500 is pretty much neck-and-neck with Stanford. And all 3 have higher percentages than Berkeley and Illinois, two schools with much better known engineering schools.
Now if you want to then look at universities in terms of absolute #s of students with SAT scores above 1500, you get this ranking:
At the same time, these are the #s that really hurt schools like Harvey Mudd and Cooper Union because companies feel like there aren’t enough qualified applicants in absolute terms at the schools—despite the high percentage of very smart students. But both these schools are in very convenient metropolitan areas (Harvey Mudd is in LA and Cooper Union is in NYC), so the incremental cost is not that high.
While I want to emphasize again that SAT scores are not a great proxy for talented people, it does indicate that there are some schools with hidden talent pools that startups really should be targeting. And moreover, they might want to spend more time at these other schools than some of their current target schools.
In the recruiting world, there is so much subjective opinion that it is very difficult to decide if Candidate A is better than Candidate B. That is why brand name universities and companies carry so much weight on resumes.
What ends up happening, though, is that every startup looks to hire some undergrad engineers from Stanford. They all send an email out over various Stanford listservs, hoping for a hit. Sometimes you’ll get a hit, but a lot of times you are just another fish in the sea of startups recruiting at Stanford. And while students at Stanford are great, there are tiers of students. Some startups are inherently going to grab the top tier students, and some the 2nd tier…but the question is whether it’s worth going for the lower tier students or whether you should really start spending time searching for hidden talent at other schools?
So I wanted to see if there was some way to prove there was talent at lesser known schools. The tough part is finding a common, easily-available metric for “talent” at different universities. I couldn’t come up with anything good, so I settled on what data I could find easily—SAT scores at different universities. Before any of you jump on me for using SAT scores as a proxy for qualified candidates for a startup, I ask that you help find me a better metric that can serve as a proxy for such a purpose.
Given that caveat, I really just want to show that there are some non-brand name universities with just as much talent as brand name universities. I also wanted to narrow down the scope a little since a large number of entry positions at startups are engineering related. So I used US News’ list of top undergraduate engineering schools. The names most people would expect are on there (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley), as well as some other schools less well known for their engineering programs (Michigan, Cornell).
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Stanford University
- University of California—Berkeley
- California Institute of Technology
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
- University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
- Cornell University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Purdue University—West Lafayette
- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
- Harvey Mudd College
- Cooper Union
- Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo
- United States Military Academy
After gathering SAT data on these schools, I then ranked them by percentage of the student body with SAT scores above 1500.
- California Institute of Technology
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Stanford University
- Harvey Mudd College
- Cornell University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Cooper Union
- University of California—Berkeley
- University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
- University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- United States Military Academy
- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
- Purdue University—West Lafayette
- Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo
What stood out to me were 3 specific schools: Harvey Mudd, Cornell and Cooper Union. Harvey Mudd at 32% of their school with SAT scores above 1500 is pretty much neck-and-neck with Stanford. And all 3 have higher percentages than Berkeley and Illinois, two schools with much better known engineering schools.
Now if you want to then look at universities in terms of absolute #s of students with SAT scores above 1500, you get this ranking:
- University of California—Berkeley
- University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
- Cornell University
- University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
- Stanford University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Purdue University—West Lafayette
- California Institute of Technology
- Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo
- United States Military Academy
- Harvey Mudd College
- Cooper Union
- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
At the same time, these are the #s that really hurt schools like Harvey Mudd and Cooper Union because companies feel like there aren’t enough qualified applicants in absolute terms at the schools—despite the high percentage of very smart students. But both these schools are in very convenient metropolitan areas (Harvey Mudd is in LA and Cooper Union is in NYC), so the incremental cost is not that high.
While I want to emphasize again that SAT scores are not a great proxy for talented people, it does indicate that there are some schools with hidden talent pools that startups really should be targeting. And moreover, they might want to spend more time at these other schools than some of their current target schools.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Olympics and gaming...
I have to say that the Olympics are the biggest distraction to come around since Facebook. I mean, how can you NOT follow the drama? Michael Phelps, the Redeem Team, Usain Bolt, let alone the whole side story of human rights, pollution, and underage gymnasts in China?
What is amazing about the Olympics is that they epitomize competition. It isn't necessarily the best gauge of who is best, but it is the best competition in the world. In this competition, you have the world's best athletes all together in one place, showcasing their abilities for the world to watch.
I cannot think of any other venue that attracts the world's best talent and have the entire world watching at the same time. The World Cup might be the next closest thing, but soccer is just one sport.
There is something rare about athletic competition that brings people together. No math competition (despite the dreams of Math Counts competitors and their math teachers) would bring such a huge drawing. I think the factor that comes into play is how easily comprehensible every sport is. You could distill every competition into an easily understandable form -- fastest time, most # of points, best form. And even more important, every observer can easily be a judge of the competition. Every observer can make their own call about if a punch was landed, a landing was stuck, or the finish line crossed. Right or wrong, everyone can become involved with sports. Once you take away the simplicity of sports or the competitive nature of sports, people stop paying attention.
These same factors are the driving force behind the success of American Idol, Project Runway, and my current favorite -- America's Best Dance Crew.
Where am I going with this post? I'm not really sure...I think I'm blabbering and on some tangent now.
But the Olympic stage reminds me of the trend in casual gaming. For casual games to explode, they really need to distill the game down to an easily understandable form. More importantly, they also need to have a competitive factor that motivates people to stay involved. Easy for me to say...hard for you to do. That's why I'll just stick to what I know and watch Usain Bolt demolish other sprinters.
What is amazing about the Olympics is that they epitomize competition. It isn't necessarily the best gauge of who is best, but it is the best competition in the world. In this competition, you have the world's best athletes all together in one place, showcasing their abilities for the world to watch.
I cannot think of any other venue that attracts the world's best talent and have the entire world watching at the same time. The World Cup might be the next closest thing, but soccer is just one sport.
There is something rare about athletic competition that brings people together. No math competition (despite the dreams of Math Counts competitors and their math teachers) would bring such a huge drawing. I think the factor that comes into play is how easily comprehensible every sport is. You could distill every competition into an easily understandable form -- fastest time, most # of points, best form. And even more important, every observer can easily be a judge of the competition. Every observer can make their own call about if a punch was landed, a landing was stuck, or the finish line crossed. Right or wrong, everyone can become involved with sports. Once you take away the simplicity of sports or the competitive nature of sports, people stop paying attention.
These same factors are the driving force behind the success of American Idol, Project Runway, and my current favorite -- America's Best Dance Crew.
Where am I going with this post? I'm not really sure...I think I'm blabbering and on some tangent now.
But the Olympic stage reminds me of the trend in casual gaming. For casual games to explode, they really need to distill the game down to an easily understandable form. More importantly, they also need to have a competitive factor that motivates people to stay involved. Easy for me to say...hard for you to do. That's why I'll just stick to what I know and watch Usain Bolt demolish other sprinters.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Find your dance!
So I came across this video from Surya's blog and for some reason just couldn't stop smiling.
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
It is an awesome video and I thought about why I liked it so much. What comes through is the human desire to connect with one another at a very simple level. I mean here is a guy doing a simple jig in the corners of the world, and people of all cultures, languages, and countries join in. And not only are they joining in, they are LOVING IT!
I think we all want to be Matt. We want to cut through the bull-crap of politics, stereotypes, and whatever. We want to be able to connect with people everywhere...we just have to figure out our own worldly "dance." For some, it might be their laugh, and others their smile. I'm not really sure what mine is, but this video has made me think about it. I'll let you know if I have figured it out, but you might know better than me what my own dance is.
Oh yeah...and the best clip of the bunch has to be the Papa Nui Guinea tribesmen. That is just awesome.
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
It is an awesome video and I thought about why I liked it so much. What comes through is the human desire to connect with one another at a very simple level. I mean here is a guy doing a simple jig in the corners of the world, and people of all cultures, languages, and countries join in. And not only are they joining in, they are LOVING IT!
I think we all want to be Matt. We want to cut through the bull-crap of politics, stereotypes, and whatever. We want to be able to connect with people everywhere...we just have to figure out our own worldly "dance." For some, it might be their laugh, and others their smile. I'm not really sure what mine is, but this video has made me think about it. I'll let you know if I have figured it out, but you might know better than me what my own dance is.
Oh yeah...and the best clip of the bunch has to be the Papa Nui Guinea tribesmen. That is just awesome.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
California Lovin'
Some of you have contacted me about the latest coverage of CoNotes on Mashable (http://mashable.com/2008/07/28/conotes/). It really is great to hear that CoNotes is getting some attention and I truly appreciate all the support.
Since my last post, a lot has happened. I have since moved out to the Bay Area and am loving the perfect weather! Every day has been 75 and sunny. It's too bad I've spent a large amount of that time inside a coffee shop doing work. But on those days I can get outside, it is awesome. Much better weather than that Chicago cicada summer of 2007. It's also great that I have a number of family and friends out here. Thanks to Ed and Eugene, whom I crashed with for the first 3 weeks I was out here.
I really wanted, though, to write about the wave of emotions that I have been going through. Things like emails from users who appreciate what I am doing are very encouraging. But then I hear about competitors and problems, and I start to question myself. These messages come in every 15 minutes, and I'm in a constant up-down motion.
By now, I've kind of numbed myself to any news. I know I can't get myself too high on anything good or too low on anything bad. I am focusing on getting the work done and taking care of all the tasks that require attention.
Sorry I can't write more, but I'm now starting to think about all the stuff I need to take care of today. So back to work for me. Before I leave, though, I wanted to comment on the passing of Dr. Randy Pausch.
Like most of you, I discovered Dr. Pausch on YouTube. His "Last Lecture" was moving and inspirational. And I find it ironic that it took such a tragic disease to bring him into the spotlight. The message that I took to heart from his speech was this:
I hope I am playing my hand as well as possible.
Since my last post, a lot has happened. I have since moved out to the Bay Area and am loving the perfect weather! Every day has been 75 and sunny. It's too bad I've spent a large amount of that time inside a coffee shop doing work. But on those days I can get outside, it is awesome. Much better weather than that Chicago cicada summer of 2007. It's also great that I have a number of family and friends out here. Thanks to Ed and Eugene, whom I crashed with for the first 3 weeks I was out here.
I really wanted, though, to write about the wave of emotions that I have been going through. Things like emails from users who appreciate what I am doing are very encouraging. But then I hear about competitors and problems, and I start to question myself. These messages come in every 15 minutes, and I'm in a constant up-down motion.
By now, I've kind of numbed myself to any news. I know I can't get myself too high on anything good or too low on anything bad. I am focusing on getting the work done and taking care of all the tasks that require attention.
Sorry I can't write more, but I'm now starting to think about all the stuff I need to take care of today. So back to work for me. Before I leave, though, I wanted to comment on the passing of Dr. Randy Pausch.
Like most of you, I discovered Dr. Pausch on YouTube. His "Last Lecture" was moving and inspirational. And I find it ironic that it took such a tragic disease to bring him into the spotlight. The message that I took to heart from his speech was this:
We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
I hope I am playing my hand as well as possible.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
My Blog and Decisions
So some of you have asked me why I still continue to post on this blog while I now have a blog on CoNotes. Well I plan on continuing this blog with the original intent of tracking my personal story of starting a company. While I have been inconsistent with my posts, I hope to improve upon that. The CoNotes blog will be the company's voice to the public - even though it still is from me. So that blog will relate to decisions about CoNotes and having conversations around CoNotes.
CoNotes is and will be a big part of my life, but I think it will be healthy for me to (at least in the virtual world) put some distance between my personal life and my "business" life. So this blog is merely my statement of what I am going through as the founder of a startup.
So that is a great segway into this post about...
Decisions.
So last night Kellogg had its last school-wide formal for the year and it was Casino Night. For the most part, it was a typical charity event and attendees were able to use their chips to bid on several prizes at the end of the night. I don't really get too excited to gamble because I usually lose money, and given that this event was "fake" money, I was even less excited. Nevertheless, I played some blackjack and I began to bet recklessly. I started playing all my chips -- spread out over 2 or 3 seats. I began lucky and my original 50 chips soon became 500. But then I continued to play in this out-of-control manner and as anyone could predict, I was out of chips in no time. Losing these chips didn't really bother me, but my reaction to my losses did. Even though I knew the chips were just "play chips," I hated the thought that I just squandered them. I wanted to play more just to win them back. I used my girlfriend's chips and lost those. Worse yet, I cheated by holding back some chips that the dealer should have collected. I justified this as being ok because I knew many dealers (which were fellow students) were giving out chips to friends.
As I think about what I did, I am pretty disgusted with myself. And then I think about what it says about me and what I will do in the future. Will I be willing to act irrationally and unethically just for small, meaningless gains? What does this mean about how I will lead my company?
A lot of people have told me that me decision to start a company is a big gamble. I never thought so for several reasons.
But in light of my actions last night, I worry that I am just completely irrational. Maybe I don't really know what I am risking and that really scares me.
CoNotes is and will be a big part of my life, but I think it will be healthy for me to (at least in the virtual world) put some distance between my personal life and my "business" life. So this blog is merely my statement of what I am going through as the founder of a startup.
So that is a great segway into this post about...
Decisions.
So last night Kellogg had its last school-wide formal for the year and it was Casino Night. For the most part, it was a typical charity event and attendees were able to use their chips to bid on several prizes at the end of the night. I don't really get too excited to gamble because I usually lose money, and given that this event was "fake" money, I was even less excited. Nevertheless, I played some blackjack and I began to bet recklessly. I started playing all my chips -- spread out over 2 or 3 seats. I began lucky and my original 50 chips soon became 500. But then I continued to play in this out-of-control manner and as anyone could predict, I was out of chips in no time. Losing these chips didn't really bother me, but my reaction to my losses did. Even though I knew the chips were just "play chips," I hated the thought that I just squandered them. I wanted to play more just to win them back. I used my girlfriend's chips and lost those. Worse yet, I cheated by holding back some chips that the dealer should have collected. I justified this as being ok because I knew many dealers (which were fellow students) were giving out chips to friends.
As I think about what I did, I am pretty disgusted with myself. And then I think about what it says about me and what I will do in the future. Will I be willing to act irrationally and unethically just for small, meaningless gains? What does this mean about how I will lead my company?
A lot of people have told me that me decision to start a company is a big gamble. I never thought so for several reasons.
- I am learning a great deal about the internet space and how to operate in it. The decisions I make for CoNotes are my responsibility. I believe I am and will learn much more than if I were in a larger company, where my decisions would need to be ratified by higher-ups.
- I believe I can get a decent paying job anytime I want. I don't think I can get ANY job, but I can get a job that pays well.
- Most importantly ...You can't price the difference between doing something you marginally like versus something you love. The cost of being stuck in a marginal job is huge for me. Therefore, while I am losing out on guaranteed salary, I believe it is a smaller cost than being stuck in an unfulfilling job.
But in light of my actions last night, I worry that I am just completely irrational. Maybe I don't really know what I am risking and that really scares me.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Basketball and Business
It is the heart of the NBA playoffs and the Lakers just won Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. It is hard not to be smiling when the Lakers are doing well. I just was thinking, though, if there is any similarities between basketball teams and business, and I started coming up with some superficial analogies. Most sports-business analogies compare sports positions to corporate positions (e.g. the quarterback is like the CEO), so I am not going to do that. I am just going to compare random analogies to tech companies. And in nerdy fashion, I am going to make the comparisons in SAT analogies format.
Kobe Bryant:NBA fans:: Apple:PC owners
Apple made a huge splash when they first came on the scene and pretty much had meteoric growth for their first decade of existence. Kobe came onto the scene in much the same fashion, earning a spot on the NBA All-Star team in his second season, while only a 6th man on the Lakers. Then both fell out of fashion. Apple started putting out dismal products like the Newton and had PCs that were only useful to graphic designers. But diehard Apple fans continued using their products (and I still know people who continue to use their brick-sized Newton). Likewise Kobe kind of fell out of favor when he was accused of rape. While the accusation seemed dubious, the fact is that he committed adultery and most people weren't too happy about that. The Lakers also stopped being a title contender and Kobe went through this period where he did some strange things like tattooing "Black Mamba" onto his arm.
Fast-forward to 2008 and both Apple and Kobe are high flyers in their respective communities. Everyone wants an iPhone and Kobe just won the season MVP award.
OK...so when I started this post I had a lot of analogies in mind, but I now have 10 emails in my inbox that I need to take care of. I'll leave you with one of the analogies that I really liked and let you fill in the description yourself:
Grant Hill:Dukies :: Linux:techies
Also make sure to check out CoNotes (http://www.conotes.com)! Find an exciting startup job! The traffic growth over the past two weeks has been tremendous.
Kobe Bryant:NBA fans:: Apple:PC owners
Apple made a huge splash when they first came on the scene and pretty much had meteoric growth for their first decade of existence. Kobe came onto the scene in much the same fashion, earning a spot on the NBA All-Star team in his second season, while only a 6th man on the Lakers. Then both fell out of fashion. Apple started putting out dismal products like the Newton and had PCs that were only useful to graphic designers. But diehard Apple fans continued using their products (and I still know people who continue to use their brick-sized Newton). Likewise Kobe kind of fell out of favor when he was accused of rape. While the accusation seemed dubious, the fact is that he committed adultery and most people weren't too happy about that. The Lakers also stopped being a title contender and Kobe went through this period where he did some strange things like tattooing "Black Mamba" onto his arm.
Fast-forward to 2008 and both Apple and Kobe are high flyers in their respective communities. Everyone wants an iPhone and Kobe just won the season MVP award.
OK...so when I started this post I had a lot of analogies in mind, but I now have 10 emails in my inbox that I need to take care of. I'll leave you with one of the analogies that I really liked and let you fill in the description yourself:
Grant Hill:Dukies :: Linux:techies
Also make sure to check out CoNotes (http://www.conotes.com)! Find an exciting startup job! The traffic growth over the past two weeks has been tremendous.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
...and we are live (again)!
Post cross-posted on: http://www.conotes.com/blog
Hey! This is Andrew, founder of CoNotes. I’m really excited to announce the relaunch of CoNotes. CoNotes is the one place to go to for job opportunities in the most exciting entrepreneurial companies. If fast-growth companies such as Facebook or ZipCar excite you, then this is the place for you. My goal is to help you find your passion and live your dream!
As a business school student at Kellogg, I made a concerted effort to find a position within several startup companies. But I spent hours upon hours looking for, researching, and aggregating information about fast-growth companies. I knew there were tons of others people going through the same frustrating process and that I could come up with a better way to find these companies. That thought was the birth of CoNotes.
So take a look and click around. I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if there is an exciting company that you think needs to be added, let me know!
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