Disruption in Education

Education is one of the most valuable bequeaths that we can pass along to our next generation. It was hammered into my head when I was growing up that there is only one way out of poverty and that is education. I am doing ok following that advice, what is exciting to me with the advent of the internet is that education is no longer confined behind the walls of an institute. There are disruptions happening that could fundamentally change the dynamics of competitive advantage, productivity, understanding and knowledge dissemination in the entire world. I signed up with Khan Academy yesterday and watched about 40 minutes of Python Programming videos, I have to admit I have done my stint with coding and I am a geek. I thought the instructions were very clear, and I actually felt like I relearnt a lot of the basics very quickly. I think what Sal Khan is doing is fascinating and he is really defining his legacy. This is by no means an advertisement for Khan Academy, but the number of videos that is available in the library is close to 2800 thats a lot of learning in various subjects. I am going to continue my learning in the Python Programming and anything else that I want to learn. The freedom to choose your learning by watching a good teacher is a great motivator, it gives you confidence and the of course the learning. So, what are you going to learn?

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buuteeq - Innovation in the Hospitality business

Image via CrunchBase

We have invested in a company called buuteeq (pronounced boutique!) I know not the best of names but a kickass concept. The team at buuteeq wants to disrupt the traditional market of marketing and selling hospitality by independent hotel owners. These are the kinds of investments that we love doing:
1. Great team
2. Big market
3. Innovating the traditional way of doing business using the new infrastructure of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon (I have written about this earlier)
4. Executing on the idea (1500 hotels in 20 countries in 12 months, thats traction and scaling)

I have always been associated with the Hospitality industry, for crying out loud my Statement of Purpose to all my graduate school applications was written on the premise that I will eventually get back to working with Hospitality and Hotel development. I am glad to have come a whole circle in pursing that vision. I digress... here is a video that explains what buuteeq does, if you are an independent hotel owner or operator and want to run your property with the same infrastructure of big branded properties in marketing and sales buuteeq is the way. The second video is an interview of Forest Key, CEO of buuteeq on why they are switching to working with Silicon Valley Bank from a traditional bank. To all my banking friends in Iceland... you have a golden opportunity to serve the next generation of fantastic entrepreneurs here in Iceland, try to understand your startup clients and serve them well, if you do that guess what they are going to want to do business with you even when they become the next Google... just sayin...

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