Pek Pongpaet

This is what was waiting for me in the morning when I woke up on the day of our wedding anniversary.

My wife is awesome.

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My friends Ziad and Rishi have started a new monthly meetup called Product Show and Tell. The goal of it is pretty simple – come to the meeting with a few cool products to talk about them. Nothing fancy. What made it interesting for me was the people who were there. These are some really talented people who have a great deal to share.

This meeting was held at Noble Tree Coffee shop on Clark and Fullerton. People who were there included:

Phil Tadros http://nobletreecoffee.com/, http://dollopcoffee.com/, http://www.doejo.com/, and http://www.texthog.com/

Rishi Shah, fellow Tech Labs Alum http://www.flyingcart.com

Ziad Hussain http://www.ezbluesoftware.com/

Sean Corbett http://www.havemyshift.com

Andy Angelos

and Ziad’s gf (I’m not even going to try to spell her name).

Everyone had cool stuff to show. I talked about the Eye-Fi Wireless SD card and my Mortal Kombat video game. Ziad showed off his retro Atari console release, some really cool headphones, and the blank vinyl doll that you can paint on (I forget the name). His theme was how these new products appeal to your nostalgia. Rishi talked about his invention called HapTap which is a keypad solely devoted to emoticons and lolspeak which he created years ago as well as this rubber pad that you put on the dashboard of your car to hold stuff like cellphones. Kim bought me one of those a while ago. Phil and Darren talked about their new startup called TextHog which lets you text message in your expenses to this online expense tracker. It’s very neat – what’s even neater is the fact that they cranked this out in less than a month and it’s already gotten over 300 registered users. Sean showed of his pomade (which is something my father used to use) – which is a very retro product. He likes it because one little 2.99 thing of that lasts him months as opposed to hair gel or whatever which doesn’t work as well and disappears much sooner.

Here are some photos from the event.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Just went to the last TECH cocktail in Chicago. I’ve been to a couple before and although I have a good time and meet great people, my time there is not optimized. It’s insanely crowded nowadays. It’s become the “it” party for IT – no pun intended. I feel like I’m getting less and less out of it each time I go. I’m guessing it won’t be for long before I stop showing up all together and pick other events that are more conducive to meeting people and networking with the kind of people I want to meet.

Here’s 5 easy ways:

• Kill the music. This isn’t a club. Well it is, but it’s not a club setting. If I wanted to scream over someone while trying to have an intelligent conversation w/ them I’d go to a club on a Saturday night. I don’t need it here.
• End the free booze. I understand sponsors pay money and they want it spent, but what’s wrong with using it for other purposes – like making money. Here’s why I don’t like the free booze. It invites the unwanted element. I don’t mind paying for my drink. More than once I’ve met people there with no real interest in TECH cocktail – they don’t belong there – they are just there for the free booze. This also solves another issue.
• Set a reasonable max capacity and stick to it. It’s so overcrowded now I feel like I’m in Mardi Gras. Use the eventbrite registration for what it’s for. If you “sell out” those who haven’t registered should not be let in. Squeezing and pushing my way through a sea of people is not a great experience. I’m too old for it. If you kill the free booze, I suspect attendance might drop anyways so this issue might be moot.
• Spot light the demos. A big part of the reason why I go to TECH cocktail is to see the local startups and their demos. I would like to give these startups centerstage and have them do a show and tell at set times over a large projector w/ a microphone. This way we don’t have to be screaming at each other while they try to explain to me their exciting idea.
• Give me a way to quickly identify the types of people. I believe people go to these events with a specific goal whether it’s to meet local entrepreneurs, recruit, or find jobs. I never really know who I am talking to and/or if I am wasting my time. What I’d really like is a color coded badge so I can identify myself as entrepreneur, recruiter, job hunter, vc, etc.

This is just my opinion of how to improve TECH cocktail. Every person is entitled to their opinion of how it should be run, but it seems to be that I am not alone in some of these sentiments and so I have documented them and proposed solutions.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Today I had lunch with a bunch of friends and we were reminiscing cheesy 80s action movies and Van Damme came up among others. Thus I’ve decided to dedicate this post to our favorite muscles from Brussels and his best/worst moments. As you can guess, most of them showcase his famous splits.

#5 – Fight against giant Sumo in Bloodsport

#4 – Gratuitous split on the kitchen counter in TimeCop

#3 – Drunk and gyrating at a Thai pub in Kickboxer

#2 – Dancing in the background in leotards in Breakin
Unless you are a hardcore Van Damme fan, you probably didn’t know he was in this movie. Hours of entertainment people.

And the #1 spot goes to…
Van Damme gets a chubby on live television.

Popularity: 3% [?]

A wise man once told me that heaven is:
Living in China, making an American salary, with a Japanese wife
and hell is:
Living in Japan, making a Chinese salary, with an American wife.

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