Posts

Journey to become a better investor

My path to becoming an investor Entering 2024, I decided to transition to become more involved in innovation other than being an entrepreneur. A startup takes 10 or so years to become a solid business. With my remaining life, I would be able to do 1 or 2 more successful startups. It would make more sense to share my experience, knowledge and skills for the greater good. But while working with more than 30 startups, I realized that I was lacking something. I need to have more skin in the game. I need to show more commitment. Finding Material Change Institue Finding a way to achieve my goals seemed complicated. I had very little investment experience. Also, I wanted to have a large portion of my investment in climatetech, but I didn't have much experience in the industry. So, I went out to seek advice. I talked to my friends who were either in startup investment or in the climate change industry. After talking to many helpful friends who extended their help by introducing me to mor...

Accidental digital detox

Pickpocketed at Barcelona I was travelling with my family for 2 weeks around Europe. It was a busy trip. Munich to Paris to Mallorca to Barcelona to Madrid. I might write more about the trip later if anyone shows interest. During the constant packing-unpacking, taking the two kids around, missing our plane once, and trying to get football tickets, I got picked-pocketed. I had all the family passports, my wallet and my iPhone. Fortunately, my elder son noticed the suspicious man. So the damage was limited. I just had my iPhone stolen. What I have noticed I tried finding my phone using "Find my" but could only locate which building it might be in. I reported to the local police which required some time. Within 12 hours of my loss, I found out how much I was reliant on my phone. I had to use a paper/physical map to go to the police station. I had to drag my laptop to print the necessary documents. I had to beg to use the WiFi at the printing shop since I didn't have a device...

Climate tech sessions at Vancouver Startup Week!

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What is planned Working on a couple of interesting projects and one of them is setting up Climate Tech sessions at Vancouver Startup Week 2023. We (currently a team of 2+ people) are working on getting an interesting event ready. All of the following events will be held at UBC Robison Square in the Entrepreneurship@UBC coworking space. June 2 (Fri) 15:00 - 16:30: General carbon reduction pitch event Planning to have 5 or so startups showcase what they have been working on. If you are interested in Climate Tech, this would be a great session to join to learn what is going on in Vancouver regarding Climate Tech. Carbon reduction startups in varieties of industries such as transportation, construction, and agriculture, will be presenting their exciting projects! June 5 (Mon) 14:00 - 15:30: Energy Panel We will have a session dedicated to energy solutions. As you know, one of the most important carbon reductions that we can make is to move away from generating energy from fossil fuels. W...

Vancouver Tech-related events

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Today, I want to just briefly write about what is going on in Vancouver, Canada. I want to share the 2 events that I have been to last week, where to check the events, and lastly, an exciting event that will be happening in June! Vancouver Tech Morning Coffee at TTT Studios Vancouver Tech Journal has been doing Tuesday Morning coffee, since 2021 summer, just around the time that I moved to Vancouver. I have been to these coffee meetings more than 20 times. It is a great way to loosely meet interesting people in Vancouver. Not everyone is "tech" related but I personally think that makes it even more interesting. Since the coffee meetings grew to 30~50 people, Vancouver Tech Journal (VTJ), the people who voluntarily run this gathering, chose venues that had outside patios, such as the Birds and the Beets .  But then came the Vancouver winters. Since during this season, we get a lot of rain, and it's not so pleasant sitting in the rain,  regarding weather and VTJ decided t...

How things "might" be working

Intelligent life When space travelling started and scientists found out more about the universe, there was interest in finding other "intelligent lives". This is based on the assumption that humans are "intelligent". But are we? What is intelligence? How do small life forms work? When we look at all forms of life on earth, there are animals (mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians), insects, plants, etc. Some living things, they consist of living cells. We now know some living things are programmed with DNA. But some aren't. (Cells that don't reproduce.) Does more programming provide "intelligence"? Does the mass of an organ called the brain determine "intelligence"? How do small life forms survive? The evolution of computers To try to understand that I start thinking of computers. The origin of computers goes back to when we didn't have any semiconductors. A computer would be as big as a whole room. Now that processing power f...

Clickup/Monday.com/Process Street

To manage the many, many operations we have in MerryBiz, I have started looking into software that can help us. MerryBiz has more than a 1,000 staff that work all over the world. They are assigned to operations that differ from client to client. We need something that everyone can use. The few points that I have identified as requirements for the software are Layers: Client > Operation > Tasks > Checklist View: All the tasks assigned to a person across multiple clients View: In a gantt chart or calendar format Recurring: Most task are repeated monthly External accounts: For accounts we need 1,000 external accounts. So the pricing structure is important Rich description: Adding information on each tasks. Something like a manual with screen shots. Am in the process of testing each product. Will see how this goes.

About me!

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Starting a YouTube Channel, I needed to do a self-intro, so here it is! I am really bad a speaking lines... Hope I get better...