Semi-Random Walks # 22: Ted Rheingold

Ted Rheingold is CEO of InVenture a mobile credit company focused on the developing world. He’s also founder of Dogster, which is way cooler than Facebook. Listen in to learn how he’s meandered through a very rewarding and interesting career.

Make sure to read his excellent Medium essay Why I’m Changing Industries. (Reading this motivated me to reach out to interview him.)

Follow @TedR on Twitter and find him on LinkedIn here.

PS: Rather than commenting here, please give Semi-Random Walks a review on iTunes. Whether you love it or hate it, I value your feedback.

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Semi-Random Walks # 21: Claudia Batten

Claudia batten is a serial entrepreneur who’s built an impressive career focusing on digital marketing and advertising. Listen in to hear how she parlayed a law degree into a leading role at multiple fast-growing companies. Follow her on Twitter @ClaudiaBatten and on LinkedIn here.

Also make sure to check out The Squiggly Line, where she talks about how random things can lead to big changes in your life, and now to seize on those opportunities. Sound familiar? (Trivia: I wanted to call this podcast the Squiggly Line but the domain was already taken.)

PS: Rather than commenting here, please give Semi-Random Walks a review on iTunes. Whether you love it or hate it, I value your feedback.

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Semi-Random Walks # 20: Natalie Baumgartner

Dr. Natalie Baumgartner is Chief Psychologist and co-founder of RoundPegg. If I could have a do-over with college I probably would have done a double major of computer science and psychology. Information technology has evolved to the point where we can now apply it to improving people’s psychological well-being. Listen to the episode to learn how Natalie and the folks at RoundPegg are using it to help not just people, but entire companies.

Follow Natalie on Twitter @ask_dr_nat and on LinkedIn. And don’t miss her TedX talk on The Power of Fit.

PS: Rather than commenting here, please give Semi-Random Walks a review on iTunes. Whether you love it or hate it, I value your feedback.

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It’s a great time to be alive

Crossposted from the Staunch Robots blog.

Slack just raised $120 million. Good for them. One of our Staunchers works on a team that uses it and he likes it a lot. I personally prefer Flowdock, but this space is moving fast and I expect lots of players to emerge offering different value propositions. One thing that stood out for me is in the statement by Slack’s CEO

“The world is in the very early stages of a 100 year shift in how people communicate, and we’re determined to push the boundaries,” says Stewart Butterfield, Slack CEO.

Exactly.  As it happens, just last night I wrote a comment (screen cap below) on Brad Feld’s blog about how email is only about twenty years old in terms of mass adoption. I feel fortunate to have lived to see the evolution of communications and am excited for what lies ahead. Not just for the sake of the technology, but also for how it empowers us.

Because of the Internet and new communication tools, I’m able to write this post in Medellin, Colombia while managing multiple projects.

I”m going back to Boulder next Tuesday. An Oculus Rift Developer Kit will be waiting for me and I can’t wait to dive in. Companies like Slack, Flowdock, Asana, Flow, Trello and many, many more are making it possible for people like me to live wherever they want, and opening up opportunities for people in developing nations to participate in exciting first-world projects

I feel lucky to be alive right now.

What_s_Old_Is_New_Again_-_Feld_Thoughts

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Semi-Random Walks # 19: David Cohen, co-founder TechStars

TechStars co-founder David Cohen is one of my idols. Not just because of his success in entrepreneurship, but also in the way he made himself relevant in the Boulder tech scene. He had already demonstrated his entrepreneurship bonafides by starting a couple of companies, but he was relatively unknown in the local tech scene because he was too busy running his company. Listen to the episode to learn how he managed to meet a lot of people quickly. (Here’s a hint.)

Follow David on Twitter @DavidCohen, and follow @TechStars while you’re at it.

The show opened an closed with music by Fela Kuti, the legendary Nigerian musician. I saw him once in Chicago in the late eighties. He reminded me of a sort of African James Brown. Below is Just Like That. The song is political commentary on the fact that in Nigeria you could be thrown in jail for no reason Just. Like. That. And he was.

PS: Rather than commenting here, please give Semi-Random Walks a review on iTunes. Whether you love it or hate it, I value your feedback.

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Semi-Random Walks #18: Jessica Billingsley

Jessica Billingsley is the co-founder of MJ Freeway, a company I wish I had started.

The show opened with the ageless Taj Mahal singing “Chevrolet.” It is impossible to not feel happy while listening to this.

PS: Rather than commenting here, please give Semi-Random Walks a review on iTunes. Whether you love it or hate it, I value your feedback.

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Semi-Random Walks #17: Laura Rich

Laura Rich is the founder of Street Fight, a media company focused on serving companies disrupting local media. Prior to to creating Street Fight, Rich co-founded Recessionwire, the first “recession media” startup, which covered the profound impact of the Great Recession on the lives of everyday people. She previously ran teams at Portfolio.com, Inc.om, and FastCompany.com. She authored a weekly interview column in the Sunday edition of the New York Times and wrote a biography of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Once upon a time she worked forThe Industry Standard, which old guys like me remember as actually being the industry standard!… during the first dot-com bubble.

Follow her on Twitter @LauraRich

We opened the show with the Meters’ Look-Ka Py Py, and they were so good we brought them back to play “Ease Back.” Zigaboo Modeliste is my god.

PS: Rather than commenting here, please give Semi-Random Walks a review on iTunes. Whether you love it or hate it, I value your feedback.

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Semi-Random Walks #16: Steve Outing

Steve Outing is a journalist, analyst, educator, and media futurist. Isn’t that cool? Oh and he’s also an avid mountain biker. Several years ago Steve and I worked on a startup together, so it was great to reconnect.

Download the mp3 here.

PS: Rather than commenting here, please give Semi-Random Walks a review on iTunes. Whether you love it or hate it, I value your feedback.

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Semi-Random Walks #15: Tripp Keber, founder and CEO of Dixie Elixirs

Tripp Keber is the founder and CEO of Dixie Elixirs, a manufacturer of edible cannabis products. This is a fascinating industry and it’s interesting to see how Dixie and other companies are applying tried-and-true brand development techniques to differentiate themselves from just plain old weed.

In the interview Tripp mentions Sanjay Gupta, who recently issued a very public apology for being anti-marijuana in the past. This is a big deal. Gupta is very well respected, and his willingness to publicly recant says a lot about the guy.

And let’s be clear: I don’t think marijuana is harmless candy. Kids shouldn’t do it because it may impair brain development. Obviously you should not use it while operating heavy machinery or at work (though I think it may be okay in certain jobs…). But living here in Boulder  home to a major party school — I’ve long thought that if all those students were getting stoned instead of getting drunk, we could probably fire half the police force.

(Not that I’m against cops. I love cops! Rest assured, Officer, that you have no need for ever pulling over my law-abiding self. Seriously. Like, never. Seriously. Did I say that already?)

 I have a Sponsor!

In this episode I talk about Staunch Robots, my sponsor. Make sure you listen because it’s kind of a big deal.

Download the mp3 here.

PS: Rather than commenting here, please give Semi-Random Walks a review on iTunes. Whether you love it or hate it, I value your feedback.

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Semi-Random Walks #14: Morgan Drmaj

First things first: Drmaj is pronounced “dermay.”

I first met Morgan almost two years ago when he was helping run a mens’ group I’m in that’s devoted to self improvement. He’s since moved on to other projects, but once you hear him you’ll see why he’s so successful at helping people.

(Side note: I’m a huge believer in men’s groups and mastermind groups in general. I’m currently involved with three of them. Do yourself a favor and join one. Can’t find one you like? Start your own. Invite a few trusted friends and I guarantee you’ll get a positive response.)

Morgan is also the president of PlumeSocial, a still-new but quite successful content marketing agency.

Follow him on Twitter @morgandrmaj and find him on LinkedIn.

Download the mp3 here.

Also, the show opened and closed with the incomparable Roky Erickson. The man was a musical genius, some say even a little mad. But if you read that Wikipedia article you’ll see he was at one time faced ten years in prison for possession of a single joint! That would make me insane, too, and with policies like that you have to wonder who really belongs in an asylum.

Seriously, it appears he truly did suffer from schizophrenia, and my heart goes out to someone with that condition. I like to make jokes about crazy people as much as the next insensitive asshole, but to be imprisoned by your own mind is the worst kind of hell. I’m glad to hear that he seems functional and productive again. Long may he reign.

And I can’t talk about mental health without a shout out to my therapist. She is, in a word, awesome at her job. Need someone to talk to about life struggles? Contact Roianne Ahn.

But that’s not all! Also in this episode I talk about a therapeutic technique called Voice Dialogue. I’ve been using it for a couple months and find it really helpful. It’s not something you can do alone because it requires a facilitator (that is, a therapist). Check out this introduction and consider applying it in your own life.

 

PS: Rather than commenting here, please give Semi-Random Walks a review on iTunes. Whether you love it or hate it, I value your feedback.

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