Exciting to see a second sold-out year of Startup Weekend in downtown New Haven. The same power-packed 54-hour intensive session of dreaming, testing and doing. The new thing in 2012 was that sit was supported by The Grid New Haven. Still located at The Grove for the working part. The pitches took place in Gateway Community College’s shining new facility. If you missed it, here is my round up of the teams that pitched:

FISTS Inc (Financial Instrument Security Technology Services)
Kevin Ewing pitched on behalf of this check-fraud technology service company for use by merchants at point-of-sale. Competing with Certegy and TeleCheck who they say focus on MICR line (routing number, account number and check number). FISTS competitive differentiater is lower pricing (flat fee rather than %-based) and patent-pending technology that uses more data including almost everything on the check including address, signature, fraction number matches RTN, customer information, etc., not just account number.

HistReality
Aasta Frascati-Robinson pitched for ed tech nonprofit that is focused on creating an augment-reality mobile app for the study of history for K12. Teachers can create their own curriculum or edit/reuse lessons built by others.

A Good First Step (2nd Place)
A lead referral service for local attorneys with free information as marketing plan. Content includes video and copy for answers to basic questions. Also plan to offer sponsored content for a fee in addition to selling leads. Free for purchasers of legal services. The team did surveys of residents and lawyers, filmed first content and first version of the website over the weekend.

MyBee
Task management, inventory and financial management/forecasting SaaS business for small businesses. The example used in the pitch is a solo carpenter that allows data entry on the job of customer information, materials order and task information. MyBee is focused on creating one system that replaces need for the many systems that would normally be found in separate packages (Salesforce, BaseCamp, Intuit, InDinero, etc.). Goal is to price lower than competitors.

Engage.Me
The company creates a platform on web and mobile with real-time social media for use at live events, radio or presentations. Allows for 2-way communication from the crowd to each other and to the presenter. More structured than Twitter to allow for aggregation of sentiment from users. Sold to radio stations, if I understood directly.

GroupLink
Mobile app for meeting people and managing contact information for events. Individuals who attend an event enter a code to unlock the ability to see public contact info from any at the event. Also, allows for contact via the app for those that do not want to share the contact info. The customer is the event organizer who pays per attendee. Working mobile app built from scratch over the weekend! True startup weekend spirit.

Musicians Vault (3rd Place)
Downloadable app for musicians to meet, collaborate (in composing and recording? new work) and promote their work once complete. Revenue from advertising, iTunes label model (get a cut of song sold) and in app purchases of music, as well. I’m not familiar with the competitive landscape here and they did not spend much time on it.

Good Game Network
Online video/computer game wagering platform. Think you can beat someone else on Xbox live? You can bet $10 on it and GGN gets a $1 cut. Or you can earn points like airline miles or hotel points rather than cash. If legal, surprised that there is not a clear market leader already?

Snag It Deals (1st Place)
“The Kayak.com of deal websites.” Consumer-oriented alerting service for when a particular product comes up for sale on deal websites. Revenue expected from affiliate model. Also, great that they built a first version of the system over the weekend where you text in keywords. At scale by collecting purchase intent, there are marketing and analytic opportunities.

Habits are experiencing a resurgence.  From at least as far back as Aristotle, people have seen virtue or character as an extension of the right habits.  More recently books like Switch and the Power of Habit, habit are getting bestseller status in the bookstore.  And they offer various ideas.

But we all know that building new habits is hard.

One Yalie startup that helps you tackle the challenge is Stickk.  Brought to you by two Yale professors Ian Ayres and Dean Karlan who teamed up with Yale student Jordan Goldberg (now CEO).  They teamed up to to harness the power of the behavioral economics concept of commitment contracts to help you change.  You can put money or social shame/praise on the line to motivate you to make or break a habit in the future.  Lots of flexibility and power to the model. If you haven’t tried it, I encourage you to do so.

How do you build habits?

Inside Out #NHV started out as just an idea.

We took pictures and we posed for pictures.

We raised money and we gave money.

We printed massive posters and we sorted them out.

We cooked buckets of wheatpaste. And then we cooked some more.

We posted the posters night after night.

We repaired them again and again.

completed project: one side of state at bradley

clean up: power washing the portraits off the walls

We had an art opening on the street.

And then we had a clean up.  (With power washing!)

I am proud of what all the volunteers accomplished.  Totally amazed that the idea grew beyond the original organizers and was really embraced by many as their own. Thank you!

With the success of this public art project in building communitty, creating fun and spreading art, many are asking what is next?  I’m curious for your ideas.  Another outgrowth was an experiment at SeeClickFix with crowd funding repairs or civic improvements.  It’s called SeeClickFund.

Valerie Rose Belanger brought up one that I’m excited about although I’m not sure it scales to more than one of the massive concrete walls.  She proposed bringing New Orleans’s Before I Die to New Haven.  Come to PechaKucha night Wed to learn more.

And what else should we do?

Sophie Raseman, US Treasury Director for Smart Disclosure (and fellow Yalie), challenged the audience at Money 2020 to invent the next GPS or NOAA of personal finance. What does that mean? Well, she went on to explain that both location data and weather data are published by the US government for personal and commercial reuse. Each has fueled a ton of innovation and value ($90bil+/yr and $30bil+/yr respectively). Wow!

And what is key, for example with GPS, is that while the first generation solutions may “only” be slightly better versions of the maps, it get better. The next generation is allowing innovation like the self-driving car which has clearly a whole different level of value. (She credits Tim O’Rielly with this insight.)

So, the question is what data set could the US government make available to enable a similar level of innovation in personal finance?

I think it is interesting to note that both the examples that Sophie gave were initially big projects to create a system for collecting/creating the data before it could be distributed. I think that there may be opportunities with data sets that the government already has that could cost at lot less to prepare for distribution. I’m guessing that there are quite a few that could be done with some IT work that is much less expensive than launching satellites or weather balloons.

The first idea that came to mind for me was IRS tax return data. The most relevant financial data set to me is my own. I believe that many people do not create a forward looking budget because they don’t have enough categorized information about the past. One of the big barriers to gathering the data is doing the work of data entry. (Witness the rise of PFMs such as Mint, etc.)

Here’s how it would work: when you login into your favorite PFM on the web, you’ll still be able to see the financial data from your financial institution accounts. You’ll also have an option to link your IRS data. Upon selection, it would redirect you to a IRS website that would authorize the access of that app to your tax return data for a fixed time and potentially only for certain fields. The authorization code could be a combination of taxID and AGI for last year, date of birth and/or address data. Then you would end the process back on the PFM site that would be better updated with a richer dataset to provide recommendations on budgeting, future savings and/or missed tax planning opportunities.

Anther example: you are applying for a loan online and are redirected to the IRS website for verification of income and/or identity. I’m sure you can think of others.

We’re living in a world where consumers increasingly expect applications to integrate with each other and conveniently share data. And the federal government is embracing the concept of individuals owning their data (see the VA Blue Button project to allow for transportability of digital medical records).

There is even at least one precedent for this type of individual tax data sharing. For example, the Department of Education is working with the IRS to retrieve tax data on families applying for federal financial aid applications. The FAFSA website links you over to the IRS website to authorize the sharing of the information between federal departments. (BTW, anyone who has used it I’m curious to hear any more details on the user experience.)

On a related note, bank and other financial service providers have a lot of data on how people spend money and so it would be even better if there was a clearly defined standard for publishing and sharing banking data for use with budgeting. So, while not a government dataset, there could be a Treasury supported effort to create that data standard.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to have these ideas although unclear to me if anyone is working on them? Is now the time? Does anyone know how far back the IRS has each person’s tax data in electronic form? Is it only available for those that filed electronically and any who filed on paper are on microfiche?

What other ideas do you have for datasets? Share them here or on Twitter #financedata.

New Haven turns 375 years old next year. A fun way to celebrate and build the excitement is to tweet daily a reason to love New Haven. We started when there were 375 days to go.

Want to join in? Hashtag is #375.

As you may have gathered from my previous blog post, I have been listening to more podcasts recently. I was catching up on old Long Now Seminar on Long Term Thinking podcasts. In listening to Drew Endy and Jim Thomas in “Synthetic Biology Debate”, I was struck by the thought: this is my kind of debate.

What do I mean by “my kind of debate”?

Well, I think we’re all familiar with the back and forth structure of argumentation that is employed in politics or in high school debate teams. There is a winner and loser. And you’re so busy figuring out what you’re saying next, you barely listen to the comments from the other side. Take this to the extreme and you get debates at 350 wpm where any undisputed statement is considered fact (huh?).

In the SALT broadcast, two speakers are expected to express their viewpoint in a prepared opening remark. Then the counter-point person interviews them with the help of a panel. The questions sounded like genuine attempts to understand rather than trip-up an opponent. Then the questioner does not get to present until s/he has summarized the presentation to the presenter’s satisfaction. Then and only then do they switch roles. Afterwards, questions from the audience, moderators and other discussion.

Sounds to me like a great model for increased understanding and the pursuit of something like truth. And if not, at least we’ll have more respect for each other.

And to push it further, why should there only be two “sides”? Isn’t the world more complicated than only A or not A?

Have you heard of this before? Is there a name for it?

Ever want to get information inside your head faster?

In the past, I’ve shared some thoughts on reading faster either through technology or training. But sometimes you want your eyes and hands for other things. And listening, while slower, is the best option. Plus, increasingly, there is content only available in audio format. I have many more hours of podcasts on my devices then I will ever absorb.

I’ve read the claims online that “Because your brain can process up to 600 words-per-minute and the average person speaks at 125 to 150 words-per-minute, speed-listening does NOT require any training.” My experience is that it does take a little getting used to the faster speech. That said, t is totally worth it and now x2 speed sounds normal to me.

Why have I stopped at x2 speed? Because that is what is built into the iPhone and iPod. I hear rumors that Android can play faster although I have not found that feature on my device. In iOS, there is a paid app that claims to go up to x2.5 speed, but I want faster.

If you know how to get up to x4 on iOS (iPhone) without preprocessing on the computer please let me know.

I used to do a lot more art. Yeah, I’m talking about during K-12. In college I stopped doing much besides performing (improv comedy with JAW and a little dance with Yaledancers).

I miss it. And so I’ve been looking for the right opportunity to do a public art project. So, that’s why I’m teaming up with Ben Berkowitz and Upper State Street and others to bring the Inside Out project to New Haven.

If you’re not familar with the global Inside Out project, check out JR’s TED talk. He was named a TED fellow and has launched this project globally. Each individual or group that participates chooses their own theme. Our focus is neighborhood.

Here’s our pitch:

Today a multi-lane freeway divides what once was one neighborhood: barren concrete cuts across State at Bradley and Humphrey at State.

Over the past few years, with the help of URI, we have cleaned-up, planted trees and painted fences.

Inspired by the Inside Out Project, now it is time to take one more step to bring the neighborhood closer together.

Let’s get to know each others faces. Inside Out #NHV seeks to post ~200 portraits of the people who live here.

We will cover the overpasses with huge portraits of our actual neighbors. No models need apply. And we’re doing this with local money and local photographers.

If you are interested to learn more or get involved, head over to website at InsideOutNHV.com

About a year ago, I started a weekly meeting of founders (or founders at heart) in New Haven. We picked one of my favorite breakfast spots and kept it very informal to build relationships and share info.

We got a bit more formal (but only a bit) and created a LinkedIn group. We now have over 100 members online although not everyone likes my 7:30am start time for breakfast.

So, we’re moving to a lunch weekly meeting organized by Stephen Robinson and Tim Holahan in downtown New Haven. I’m excited that the group has picked up enough momentum to cast off the shackles of my original conception. Although, I’m glad that we’re still focused on weekly and founders.

Why Weekly? My theory is that at best any one person will make half the events (myself included). If you do monthly that’s only 6 or so times a year. That doesn’t seem like enough to build real relationships where you would feel comfortable emailing or calling someone when you wanted some help. Every other week amounts to 12 times you’re showing up which is getting there, but weekly gives you close to 25 times a year and that is really getting there. Plus, I really like the low administrative overhead of doing something every week. Set it and remember (or forget and leave it in you calendar).

Why Focused on Founders? There are plenty of networking events that include investors and service providers. And there are educational sessions for people interested in starting a business that may include mentoring. That said, I have not seen enough events where founders get to mingle in a low pressure environment and talk about their challenges and not just their successes. I want a place where people can ask each other: How did you divide up equity? Who are the investors you want in your business? When is the right time to part ways with an employee or co-founder? Or even just to be silly with each other.

If you’re a founder in the New Haven and interested, please join us.

Enjoyed checking out Launch Haven earlier this week. Good turn out of entrepreneur, dreamers and supporters all interested in getting something off the ground. The organizers (Derek and Slate?) describe it as:

Launch Haven will be an “unconference-style” gathering that offers you a unique opportunity to:
a) pitch an idea you want to work on
b) match up with others who want to work on it with you for a night

and C) they also had some training classes on Android programming and HTML 5 this week.

Plus pizza and beer. What’s not to like?

At Grove in downtown New Haven every 3rd thursday 7pm.