Could better global education save us from terror?

I can’t believe it’s been 10 years already. I will never forget this day. None of us will. We have been living under a terror attack ever since. Watching a 6 years old going through a public body search at Frankfurt airport, or an old lady struggling to take her shoes of for the security check at JFK. This is life under terror.

Looking at terrorists where ever they are, there’s one thing in common, defining terror, and that’s violence and a crave to kill. When you look at all these groups their goals melt in the background, as nothing more than excuses to get violent, kill and terrorize. Play god. Feel the power.

The world’s biggest mistake is by looking at each terrorist group or action as if it is a private war, concerning only the country where it happened. Obviously, attacking the US has turned it into a little more public affair. But if countries like our neighbors, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon think this giant terror tsunami does not concern them – then they are blind. Giving terrorists the power to get organized in order to attack and kill civilians – is basically giving them the power to organize a coo. Oops.

I remember watching it live

And I’m back to education.

Calling the whole world to start working on teaching the younger generations the basic human wrong and right. Killing – wrong. Talking – right. Conversing even better.

Education: give your younger generations knowledge and tools to build their lives, to develop, to earn a living, to be creative. Show them there’s a way to live your life without needing to fight, hate, kill, destroy. Teach them that revenge only generates revenge and more hate. No one wins.

When I look at where we are, a decade after this horrid 9/11, I can easily get hopeless. Has anything improved? Was there any change for the better for any population around the world following this attack? Did the terrorists gain anything? Did their pursuers?

What WILL make us a better world and change our lives for the better?

Only global education can save us. Real education. The kind which enables kids to learn, and not just be fed propaganda of hate and violence. Think about it when you watch the video clip below:

Reply: Why Index believes Israel is about to have its moment

I read the GIGAOM article titled “Why Index believes Israel is about to have its moment” by Bobbie Johnson yesterday and started to write my comment, when I realized it’s pretty long and should be posted on my own site too. So…

It’s true. Israel is about to have its moment.
It does not have a deep culture of UI and design and is traditionally technology lead. So much so, that if you are not offering a big tech invention (preferably the scope of the wheel…) people hardly perceive you as an entrepreneur, and would be skeptical about investing. Well, at least that was the case until recently.
Almost a decade too late concepts and web ventures have started to gain some acknowledgement, but as mentioned in the GIGAOM article, web entrepreneurs have had to move to the US to build their company.
Sad and a bit strange too, considering the development in communications and access. One of the things Saul Klein of Index Ventures said at a recent conference in Tel Aviv is that entrepreneurs don’t have to think relocation so quickly, and if they do, then a midway – like the UK – can sometimes be better than all the way to the US, especially if you intend to go global, beyond the US market. He also mentioned a CEO who traveled to the US once a month, if I remember correctly, and people in the US west coast he met with regularly were not even aware of the fact that he wasn’t based in the US.
What??? Really?
Yes. After all there are phones, email, Skype…
Still, there are challenges in running an international web venture from our small country, 7-hour time-zones apart from the east coast. I know. I am facing those challenges daily, though thankfully I have a NY based partner. That does not prevent the question from popping at every meeting “so, are you planning to relocate?”.

But Israel is about to have its moment, I say. It is. People won’t have to relocate to run their businesses. Companies will always need local marketing people at every market they’re penetrating, but there is no real excuse for managements to relocate into those markets.

As for the question “Can a home market of just 7 million people ever be big enough to support multinational internet businesses? Is Israel, which exists in its own political and geographical bubble, able to play host to all this?” – Israel can play host but not because of its 7 million people market, nor location, obviously. It’s the state of mind that provides the nurturing environment entrepreneurs need to grow a multinational internet business. It’s the spirit that has always existed here, and is now gradually shaking off the 7-million-people & geographical-constraints thanks to open and thick worldwide communications and social media.

A couple of years ago I attempted to establish an elementary school for entrepreneurship in Israel. I believe in entrepreneurship as a state of mind. I believe that directing kids at thinking entrepreneurship can prevent violence and bullying and promote creativity, learning and happiness, as in being self content. Looking around me there are so many broken systems, in Israel, in its neighboring countries and around the world. Only entrepreneurs can really make a difference, create the change. Being an entrepreneur you take responsibility over your own destiny, you give birth to ideas and do what it takes to execute them. You learn to collaborate and appreciate others, and the diversity around you. I promise you I am not taking it too far when I say that I believe entrepreneurship can bring peace. And so, yep, Israel is about to have its moment.

Don’t you know you’re talking about a revolution

There’s a kind of sadness in the air nowadays. Some may not feel it creeping on them, but it’s really hanging above all our heads. All these flashes of adrenalin while protesting and demonstrating can mask the sadness. And the fear. But this is no longer a whisper.

People have been gathering in various protests and revolutions. It’s not really fair to compare between Cairo and Tel-Aviv, but there are similarities. It’s the web 2.0 revolution. It was only a matter of time.

Beer Sheba Demonstration, by Rafi Michaeli

In past times it was easier for regimes and governments to keep people oppressed. Sometimes they didn’t realize just how oppressed they were or that life can be better. But the web is bringing this knowledge all over the world. It’s a Wikipedia world: Free knowledge and accessible to all. Well, almost all. The result is that weaker social group have access to enough knowledge to realize just how weak they are and how oppressed or abused. It’s not going to be difficult to put them back in that frame they came out of: it’s going to be impossible.

We’re living at a time of revolution, but it’s really a stage in human evolution. One that has to happen no matter what government you have.

The scary part is that those who rebel and raise their heads have too much knowledge to be ever satisfied, and too little knowledge to know what to demand.

Think Tsunami and volcanoes erupting are scary? The human tsunami wave that’s going to flash the globe is scarier than all. If governments won’t speed up deep reforms processes and come up with reasonable solutions to their people’s distress, nuclear power is going to be the least of this planet’s worries.

In light of recent events, Tracy Chapman really sounds like a prophet. And I love this song.

Oh, and just to be clear, this is just the beginning. Wait until students will break our of school walls. Then we’ll be talking revolution.

That Writing Bug!

When I started to write this blog it was a gentle entry back into the creative writing world. I have been a writer for as long as I can remember. I wrote my first book when I was 9 years old. It was called “The Terrific Ten”, and was written under a heavy influence of “The Secret Seven” and “The Famous Five”. It spread over several notebooks and I also illustrated it.
I resolved to shorter writings until, at the age of 14, I have completed a romantic short novel. This was written on a bet. Trying to encourage my best friend to widen her horizons and read some “serious books”, I bet her I can write a romantic book like those she reads. I completed it over a course of several weeks, and again, several notebooks. She loved it. She was the only one permitted to read it.

I did not publish any of my writings, until I became a journalist about a year later. I loved writing and considered journalism the best way to make a living out of what I really love: writing. But journalistic writing isn’t as creative as fiction.

Nor is the business type of writing I’ve been doing for more than a decade now, ever since I quit my last position as a daily newspaper’s stock exchange correspondence.

This blog is the 4th type of writing I’ve been into, and just recently that creative bug been biting me again. Like even this isn’t enough. I’ve got to set my writing bug free and just go for it. Let it loose. Maybe I’ll start with short writings here…and there…

Building a Community of Responsible Parents

It’s an endless effort, building a community. I’ve been at it for months now. Bootstrapping our startup, Saveby, means it’s up to us, two founders, to fulfill at least 6 positions in it. If that sounds difficult consider the fact those two founders are at two different time zones, 7 hours apart. We do our best to divide responsibility, and sometimes we get help from our good friends and excellent connections. Still, launching a public alpha is not all excitement. It’s stress too.

Saveby is a self service group shopping platform. It enables consumers to create or join their own dream deals. Who deserves this service more than parents, embarking on the new parenting shopping cart for the first time?? Or the second… or third… That’s why we decided to launch our service to parents, in the US, who are hoping to get the best baby gear for their kids and still maintain a solid college fund. How about that?

Most of our efforts nowadays are dedicate to establishing communications with such parents throughout the US. We discover meetup groups, forums, blogs. But mostly we discover people and that makes our work so much more interesting and fun.

If you are a parent and you want access to our alpha stage, please comment below and don’t forget to include your real email (it’s never public). We’ll get personally in touch.
To further support us – follow our twitter, like our facebook and you can join the new “Saveby for Parents” group on Facebook too.

Startup life: It’s a family effort

One month into the summer vacation and the kids are pretty busy. They keep themselves occupied, they don’t get bored, and they seem to be really happy with their freedom. I get to see them during meal times mostly. They don’t complain, yet I can’t escape the guilty feeling that’s creeping on me: What a terrible mom, not dedicating quality time to my kids during their summer vacation.

At the height of it, when I finally decided to take an hour off emailing and social networking to play a board game with my 9 year old son, he accepted me with a hug. Enhancing that guilty feeling.

But they know, and I even heard them explain it to their friends, that their mom is working, working really hard, working a lot. Sure, mom is at home, but mom is in her study, and shouldn’t be disturbed.

So it’s not only me paying the high price of a startup set up. Not that I ever believed it was only me. I can safely say that I am lucky my family accepts my crazy work hours and supports the startup effort.

Commit To Your Students’ Success, Please!

“We’re committed to the rules and regulation”, said my son’s teacher to me, as she’s trying to explain why the school wouldn’t let a 7th grader attempt a specific test one more time.
“No”, I said, “You are committed to your students’ success”.

This, apparently was not clear. “There are guidelines we must follow”, she tried again.

“The only guideline is your students’ success”, I repeated. “If a kid gets 95 and 88 and 87 in some tests, and then 35 in one other test, you should let him retake that test until he is content with his achievement. You can’t just leave him with the 35 because some city clerk wrote a rule saying ‘be tough on the kids and don’t let them repeat the tests’..”.

At that point I was advised to perform a 3,000 shekels total evaluation of his learning difficulties. Yea, one of “the rules” is to abide by recommendations produced by such a diagnosis.

Don’t get me even started on what happens to those students who cannot afford such an expensive diagnosis. Just a quick reminder: Almost all students in Israel go to public schools and the law states students’ right to get free education for all. We already know it’s not free – with hundreds of shekels spent on books and booklets. But a law that requires parents to spend huge amounts on a private psycho-educational evaluation is just crazy, not to mention unfair.

People in Israel talk a lot about gaps breaking the society. It’s a small country. We’re only 7.7 million people. There are less than 900,000 students in grades 1-6, and about 600,000 in grades 7-12. That’s all. You’ll be correct to ask yourself how big a gap can occur within such a small country.

And I’m just left with the echo of my conversation. How can teachers feel more committed to the system’s rules then their students’ success?

What if a heavenly teacher doesn’t really have wings?

I’ve been pouring my aching heart over failing teachers and education systems here for the past 3 years at least. Recently I came across an amazing story, of a heavenly teacher.

She’s the teacher I would have dreamed of getting for my little boy. A dream come true. She’s kind, warm, and serene. She speaks calmly, never raises her voice. She leads the kids into learning, developing their curiosity. Makes them ask for more. Gives them a feeling the classroom is a safe harbor. Yet with all this her boundaries are crystal clear. They know they have to prepare their homework. They understand how to behave in the classroom. They know they have to respect each other in and out of the classroom, and that some games will be frowned upon. They know the right and wrong. And they are only on 3rd grade.

One day the teacher came to the school management with an announcement. She told them that she has developed friendship with one of the single parents in the classroom. “Over the past year”, she confessed, “it became evident that this is more than just friendship. This is love. We do not plan to move in together right now or become full partners, but I thought you should know”.

After about 3 weeks or less of pondering the school has decided the teacher should not continue to teach this class. In spite of the special relationships that have developed between the kids and the teacher, and even though they realized she’s the perfect teacher for this class and despite the fact that in this school it is customary that the teacher remains with her class till 8th grade – all this made no difference. In fact, the only reason the teacher wasn’t let go altogether was, perhaps, the fact that she is – really – a great teacher.

I am not school management, but I am an experience mother: Very experienced into education systems. I have seen teachers discriminate between students with no reason at all. I have seen teachers teaching relatives with no favoritism at all. I have never seen such a good teacher (except for maybe my daughter’s retired teacher from 2nd grade). I can’t help thinking; Did the school management really weigh the gain vs. the loss here? Or was it simply the easy way out of potential-maybe-someday headache? What do you think??

Newly Named Disease: Schoolitis

My daughter got it. It took me a while to define it as an illness. But it is. And bit by bit I am discovering more and more kids who have this disease to various extents.

Over the past two years plus my daughter got sick a lot of times. Really sick. Dark circles under her eyes, running nose, nausea, stomach aches, dizziness, weakness, sleep disorders, lack of appetite, headaches. We went to the doctors. Ran the blood tests. Nothing pointed anywhere. When the first long vacation of the school year came, and all symptoms disappeared I got the first hint. It all came back with school, and disappeared again with the next vacation.

We sat down and had a long analytical discussion. Now, I am not a doctor, nor a psychologist. I am a mother. A very attentive mother. And I decided I need to get to the bottom of this.

The background is also relevant: my daughter is highly gifted. From the time she joined the special class for the gifted on 3rd grade, till the time she left this class and went to high school, on the 9th grade, she never wanted to miss a day at school. She loves learning and does a lot of learning by herself. Her grades have always been perfect. Even now, with the Disease, she is a straight A student.

But now she hates school. In that eye-opening conversation she confessed that her main problem with school is that “school is preventing and delaying learning”. In those words. Being a mother of gifted kids that’s a startling truth to hear.

But even if they weren’t gifted… I mean, if this is the way a gifted student is feeling, then those who don’t share such a motivation for learning must be feeling even worse, don’t they??

A little asking around confirmed that high-school-frustration manifests in various physical ways – similar to what my daughter has been experiencing over the past two years plus.

Like other diseases there are several ways to prevent and to treat it. Unfortunately, prevention demands a deep reform into the education system. Treatment – well, the only thing left to do is to let her go. Skip school as much as she needs to in order to feel better. But that could work with kids who can learn by themselves. I am at loss when it comes to kids who really need the classroom and the learning enabler. This is taken back to ed-reform table.

But one thing I do wish: I wish that parents all over would realize that this is real. A real disease. It’s not laziness or some other form of “I want to skip school” naughtiness. This is a real illness and please treat your kids-with-Schoolitis exactly the same way you would care for them when they have the flue or even Angina.

A Word of Advice to Job Seekers

There’s a first time for everything. Today, for the first time, I had to send rejection letters to job applicants. It felt awkward. But it was necessary. Still feeling not-at-ease with this management task I am writing this post with the hope of saving a few future applicants the disappointment. I really feel I should explain to those who receive rejection letters some of their repeating mistakes.

Read the Ad

Before applying – read the job advertisement thoroughly. Even if it seems long. Even if you’re sure you got the gist by skimming through the first paragraph. Read every word, and read some of it twice. Make sure you have indeed what the company advertized for. It’s not pleasant to get a rejection letter. Believe me, it’s not pleasant to send one. But if you don’t have what the company is looking for then you are in for another disappointment. Please, don’t apply if you don’t posses at least some of the experience and qualifications stated in the ad.

Make Adjustments
Sometimes your standard resume and cover letter don’t fit the requirements of the job advertized. But you still think this job is interesting, desirable, will lead somewhere and yes, you can do it. Try emphasizing the most relevant paragraphs on your resume and de-emphasizing the irrelevant ones. Rephrase if needed. Look at the list of requirements as if those are questions in a quiz and your resume should have the answers. If I am looking for knowledge in parenting and babies and you are closer to being a baby than being a parent, why not mention your relatives’ kids, friends’ toddlers and even your babysitting experience? Show your interest in the topic. Show why this is relevant to you. How you answer this demand.

Look at How You Look
When a company is interested in hiring a social networks animal, they are bound to search for you online. It’s best to control your online presence. Make sure your social networks profiles have the same email you have provided with your resume. If you don’t have any profile on any social network, maybe now is a good time to create a few profiles. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are the first that come to mind, in that order.
Whether you have an old profile or you are creating a new one, ask friends, colleagues or classmates what is the impression they are getting from your profile and from your avatar. You may have the resume of a gifted academic and promising professional, but if your profile picture shows a 16 year old – and just to remind you, I was looking for an expert on parenting, then perhaps this is not the correct image. Try to use neutral avatars. Even taking your 16-year-old looking avatar and doing a sketch filter on it might produce a better looking result for potential employers.

Edit and Presentation
How your resume is presented and edited is really important. I find too many resumes confusing, messy, unclear. The best advice I could give you is to download a resume template or use a resume wizard. But really, the simple truth is you need to keep it as simple as possible. Here are the main guidelines for fixing your resume:

• Part one is work experience: Going backwards state dates clearly; job title – short and to the point; employer’s name (best linked to company’s web site) and a short description of duties.
• Part two is education, again, going backwards. Start with the latest learning period, going backwards, if relevant – until your high school. For each education achievement make a clear title including the target (bachelor/master/doctorat/certificatediploma etc.) and the topic (marketing, computers, medicine, programming, graphic design etc.) For each one also write the name of the educational institute (preferably linked to its web site).
• If you have obtained diplomas and certificates – this is the place to list them.
• Note that education can come first and work experience later, depends on where your strongest emphasis lies and the relevancy to the job.
• Part three and four are languages and extras. Under extras you can add some information about you that isn’t included in the standard work or education parts. For instance, animal activist, loves cooking, gardening enthusiast, marathon runner etc. This may offer the potential employer an extra look into the person behind the CV.
• More information: sometimes a fifth part of the resume is added for additional information such as links to samples of work – especially in graphic design and writing. Do not provide a long list of links as work samples just because you worked with this company for a short project (remember, links to employers sites are introduced in the work experience part, when you list the employer’s name). Links are relevant as work samples if you can claim to have produced their content, design, programming or other aspects of this site’s production, and only when you are sure you can produce a reference who will talk highly about it. Another type of information to include in the fifth part (or sixth) is proficiency in tools, software or other relevant work skills not mentioned before.

Last, but not least: I strongly recommend putting a version of your resume on LinkedIn and keeping it up to date. The only problem there is when you are making extreme adjustments for different types of jobs. Possible solution is to minimize the online information and not include detailed duties per job.

So, with the hope of getting some better fitting resumes, I would like to refer you to one of our job ads: Wanted – a community management intern.

If you have more tips and suggestions – don’t hesitate to include them below.

VC Marketing 3: The Listeners

After a while the entrepreneurs seeking investment can get a pretty bizarre feeling. You are driving, yet you’re on auto-pilot, and you’re getting nowhere. Seriously, are we driving at all?

But then comes this surprise meeting when you realize that yes, there is a road, you’re on it, and you’re definitely driving. You lose the auto-pilot and you’re wide awake.

These people can either invest or not, but you will remember them and their names, and you will follow them in years to come, because they did this one bit of basic marketing right.

They lost the auto-pilot!! They listened, communicated. They wanted to understand your message. Weren’t afraid to ask the tough questions or make suggestions. Yes those questions were directed at you, and not at every entrepreneur that came into their offices.

If the VC or investment firm has done their homework, you will meet their person who is the most-knowledgeable-in-your-area that they have. And if this person has done his or her homework, they would have researched your business, your industry and each one of the company’s partners to better prepare. Their listening has started way before your first handshake.

After all, they wouldn’t want to miss on a great opportunity only because they forgot to listen.

VC Marketing – They do it 2, Differently

Rise above the noise. Every marketer wants it. And yes, it’s true for VCs and angel investors too. Let’s be different. Let’s get noticed. Let us become entrepreneurs’ first choice.

One such investor, rising above the noise around me is Chris Sacca, with his fund “Lowercase Capital“. I love their web site. Or should I say his web site??

Unlike many VCs, made of a team of partners and professional employees proudly presented to potential investments and investors, Chris Sacca is, well, Chris Sacca. An accomplished venture investor and an entrepreneur. Lowercase is Chris and Chris is Lowercase.

If it wasn’t for the constant use of the word “we” on their web site Lowercase Capital could well seem to be a one-man-show. Its web site has a unique terminology and design. Somewhere between retro, old fashioned and good old westerns, this VC founder is featured under “proprietor” and the entrepreneurs wishing to get in touch are referred to as “prospecting”.

Their visual and verbal difference from the majority of venture capital investors and investment firms is not something they did because they just wanted seem different, or only to rise above the noise. Lowercase capital is stressing how apart it is from the stream under “creed” – their vision, a section opening with the words “Venture capital is broken”. Their appeal to entrepreneurs is coming from some point of empathy with the entrepreneurs’ deep pain and frustration which often accompanies the fund raising process. They are using good old fashioned sentimental motivation in marketing.

This is a web site entrepreneurs would want to read through and through. I am not sure anyone would bother to read all verbals on any VC web site. But here, you will. This web site gives you the feeling that it is indeed about compatibility and personal chemistry between you, the entrepreneur, and “the proprietor”. You would want to know what the other side is seeking and how to get them interested in your particular venture. So you will read every word there and make sure you can convince them that you are the entrepreneur who speaks the Lowercase Capital language. You and no other.

And to be sure you do – they offer you a guide, under “prospecting”. It is not a web form, but it is very much the format you are expected to use when applying. Use it smartly.

And last but not least – the call for action:
On “outfit”, the introduction section – “So take a look around this site and see if we are a fit. If so, we can’t wait to hear from you.”
On creed it is “We won’t be wearing a suit, and our lawyers won’t be in the meeting, but if you think we can help you, let us know.”
On prospecting it is “Now, send your pitch here and let’s get to it.”

Now, if that doesn’t get you on the move, what would?

Real Want to Learn

After the great success with his presentation about whales, my 3rd grade son has decided that he is going to prepare a presentation about our solar system next. “Astronomy interests me” he announced.

While he is embarking on a new self teaching project I am thinking about his learning abilities and process. I feel that any kid can do it given the chance, and I ache for all those kids who are not given this chance.

My son’s chance? I work from home, and this year have decided to let him spend one day a week “homeschooling”. I don’t think I am the traditional homeschooling mom, in that I am not spending every minute of the day with him. Can’t afford to – have a startup to manage. So most of my contribution is by helping him choose his plan for the day during breakfast and being there if he has questions or need specific help.

Had an interesting conversation with my 11th grade daughter about her young brother’s joy of learning. She said to me: “His joy is clear to me. We, human beings, love to learn like we love to eat and breath. When a baby is born the first thing he does is breath, then eat, then learn. How else would we get to sit, stand, walk and talk??”. Then she went on to explain that schools actually kill this natural instinct by creating limits and frames and rules that disrupt the natural evolvement of learning abilities and skills.

My daughter thinks one of the reasons she survived 11 years of school and still loves to learn is because she has created, in her mind, a total separation between “learning” and “schooling”. And I think what I do with my young son might help him create this separation too.

I only started this homeschooling-day experiment because he expressed distress and frustration when going to school. On this particular day his class studies English (ESL) but he has advanced by himself way beyond his class and the teacher said he didn’t have anything for my son to do. Then there’s a music lesson – terribly boring according to my little violin player. And an arts class – where there’s no room for imagination nor learning of techniques, but rather draw what the teacher tells you to draw. Exactly. I could sympathize with his feeling of suffocation.

So, where are we today? Learning about the planets, choosing which the most important facts to present are and improving the models of the planets created at home.

VC Marketing, They do it too

A group of investors has been waiting for me to finish a few documents. So my guess is they might be surprised if I put up a new blog post before I submit their expected papers. Priorities, you know. This post got delayed. But along this ongoing process of funding my startup I can’t help but looking at my potential suppliers – those people with the money – and consider their marketing strategy: The investors’ marketing strategies.

As we, the entrepreneurs are searching for funds, and work really hard to market ourselves; we often forget that the people we try to market-to are also working hard on marketing themselves to us.

Investors, whether angels or funds, have to market not only to their investors, but also to the fund-seeking entrepreneurs. They compete on getting the best entrepreneurs coming through their doors first. Some acknowledge this reality better than others: The attitudes range between those who are playing hard to get to those who are open and accessible. Those you can only contact via a shared connection, to those who put their email-Facebook-twitter up there. Those who have you fill out forms to those who will happily get a friendly cup of coffee with you.

It was more than a decade ago that one of my clients was a major Israeli VC fund. I had consulted them on their web positioning and executed the project with the best GUI expert I have known, Yoav Perry, who happens to be my cofounder at Saveby, our startup. I just remembered that experience and considered the long way that web positioning and marketing tactics has made since. Well, at least in some cases. The most interesting cases are those revealing a unique positioning.

So starting close to home with the Israeli VCs I’ll disclose my interest first: My husband is Partner and CFO at Genesis Partners, one of the earliest and leading VCs in Israel. This is their homepage, the images switch randomly.

It's all about the people

The “all about the people” tagline says it all and markets to all direction: the people in the fund, the people trusting the fund with their money and of course the people that the fund invests in. Funds invest in people first, before the ideas.

The people are the fund’s greatest achievement. Which is why Genesis Partners have gone even further. They established “The Junction” – a shared workspace for entrepreneurs doing their very early steps towards a startup company. With an internet connection, a coffee machine and a conference room they fulfill the early stage entrepreneurs’ needs, and all that for less than the coffee costs. Did we mention marketing strategy?

May I hate my iPad please?

Call me crazy but I do not like my iPad. Is it OK if I say it out loud? It’s not that I am that infatuated with my ancient Nokia phone. I would much rather have an iPhone or Nexus that can keep me connected everywhere all the time. But the iPad is just not it.

I can’t put it in my pocket, for starters. You could point out the advantage of the screen size. It’s definitely nicer to browse, read or write when your screen is larger. But if we’re talking a larger screen – I’d vote for my cute Asus netbook. At least there I’m familiar with the functionality; Can write or create documents using those friendly familiar programs like Microsoft Office or Open Office. None of those are perfect – but at least I don’t have to pay an extra sum to download an app that will enable editing my office docs, and will never be fully compatible or support all the languages I need.

I hate it that it doesn’t have a camera to support my Skype connections. I hate it that it doesn’t have a slot for my camera’s memory card. I hate it that downloading items to it is so complicated and requires a special program. Oh, and I hate it that I can’t browse flash web sites. I really do.

I’ve been trying to set up my email accounts. It takes so long I simply abandoned the process each time. Last night I decided that this time I will work through the whole process and not abandon in the middle. You could say that years of windows have messed me up – but all the buttons are in the wrong places. The amount of time needed just to set the iPad’s basic functionalities is driving me nuts. All I want is to take my seat behind the wheel and drive, without having to look for the stick shift or wonder which meter should I choose to look at now…

Yes, I love it that YouTube is full of little clips of 2-3 year old driving the iPad like some expert drivers. It’s really cool. But let’s give it another thought: did they set their email accounts? IMs? Define network connections? No – someone else did it for them. Now they’re playing. And here I must agree, it’s a very nice toy to have if you’re into playing. I love games. But please, stop calling it a work tool, unless a big portion of your work is showing off and presenting a trendy façade. For me, a workaholic, there’s just not enough time to waste on turning it into a real working tool. I guess when I find some extra time, I’ll probably fall for it like so many others. But for now, let me hate it peacefully and get back to work.