The really interesting point for me was how the investors were a bunch of tech . . . → Read More: The Right Kind of Angel Investors]]> I was listening to a radio program (In Business) about how PayPal started. Back in 1998 there was a very clever Ukrainian student trying to create a payment gateway between two Palm Pilots using infrared. You can read some of it here.

The really interesting point for me was how the investors were a bunch of tech entrepreneurs who had made about $250m dollars between them and were using ~10% of their wealth to fund tech start-ups. They kept flipping money to the young PayPal hackers, with a “wait and see what happens” approach. In the end PayPal’s “plan A” became “plan B” which was payments over the internet and as they say the rest is history.

Next I had a conversation with someone who works in The City. He knows people who have made £100m from running trading desks for big banks. There is a lot of this kind of money around in the UK. This guy has a totally different outlook on investing. He made his money from aggressive trading, which means competition and beating the other guy. Will this investor be as patient as the PayPal investors ?

I think not.

In other words, re-directing UK plc from dependence on the financial industry may have a disproportionately beneficial effect on technology start-up investment.

I am reading it in an attempt to cut through the growing hubbub of noise about micro-renewables. In other words, to see where the really CO2 friendly business opportunities are.

Good quote from the forward (my copy is leant to a friend, so . . . → Read More: How Bad are Bananas: The Carbon Footprint of Everything]]> I finished reading “How Bad are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything” whilst on holiday.

I am reading it in an attempt to cut through the growing hubbub of noise about micro-renewables. In other words, to see where the really CO2 friendly business opportunities are.

Good quote from the forward (my copy is leant to a friend, so this is from memory), where the author recounts a conversation with a friend along the lines of. “Which is more CO2 friendly when drying my hands, the paper towel or the hot air blower ?” To which he answers “cutting one of your 6 yearly flights to the USA will save 10,000 times more than your hand-drying activities”.

In other words, this book gives us some perspective.

The author’s views on domestic solar PV amount to calling them eco-bling (I am paraphrasing here). They cost about £350 per tonne of CO2 reduced. Compare this with £3 to £4 for well regulated rainforest preservation and developing world birth control schemes.

But don’t forget that £10K spent on domestic Solar PV will not be spent elsewhere, so that’s CO2 saving another plus. And it is overall still one of the few CO2 negative ways of parting with your dosh.

I have also noted some mis-selling by prospective installers. Their quotes go along the lines of :  Installation cost £9K, electricity cost saved with feed-in tariffs £600 pa. Therefore return = 6.5% per annum. Therefore much better than a building society rate. Err.. hang on a minute. That’s not a like for like comparison. You can withdraw your cash at any point from a BS account. You won’t recoup your money for about 14 years with the Solar PV. And that is not including any discounted cashflow analysis, which industry uses, which make things a lot less attractive.

HBAB is a great start in mapping out our carbon footprint, it is only that, a start. But fascinating reading for anyone considering a business in this area.

The first two thirds of the book are pretty interesting, where he sticks to his thesis that human kind . . . → Read More: The Weather Makers]]> Just finished reading the 2005 edition of “The Weather Makers” by Tim Flannery. This book is mentioned in Business Stripped Bare by Richard Branson as the one that galvanized him into action on reducing emissions from his businesses.

The first two thirds of the book are pretty interesting, where he sticks to his thesis that human kind have been modifying the weather for a lot longer than we think (including extending the current inter-Ice Age warm period).

He claims that we need to sequestrate 50 Km cubed of liquid CO2 per day ! Would like to see a verification of these figures. Because that is a hell of a lot (i.e. unfeasible amount) to put away.

I learned a lot about Milankovitch cycles, which explain how the orbit & variation of tilt angle of the earth accounts for a lot of climate change.

The last third of the book went over the well trodden ground explaining about renewable energy options etc etc.

A good chance to catch up with some ex colleagues from NXP.

Though the main topic of discussion with a number of people from Silicon Southwest, Set Squared and local start-ups was “why is Southampton so poor in generating silicon based startups compared to . . . → Read More: Southampton Ventures ?]]> Just spent an interesting morning at the Silicon Southwest “The Future is Analog” seminar.

A good chance to catch up with some ex colleagues from NXP.

Though the main topic of discussion with a number of people from Silicon Southwest, Set Squared and local start-ups was “why is Southampton so poor in generating silicon based startups compared to Bristol/Bath ?”.

This is very pertinant right now because over a 100 ex NXP designers are considering moving out of the area – to Bristol and Cambridge in search of work. So now is a great time to be starting up here. All we need is the expertise of some of these serial entrepreneurs North East and West of us !

Now, if the price of banking services remain high, then there must be a lack of competition in the market for those services. This means that market forces are not brought to bear . . . → Read More: Banker’s bonuses are not the problem, just the symptom]]> Adam Smith said that if the price of a product or service remains inordinately high then it is not operating in a free market.

Now, if the price of banking services remain high, then there must be a lack of competition in the market for those services. This means that market forces are not brought to bear to reduce the prices through competitive pressure.

This is what causes the large banking profits and the large bonuses that go with them.

So instead of bashing the bankers, let’s take a long hard look at banking regulation in order to unleash the power of a truly free market to squeeze profits and hence bonuses.

Update: Sep 2010. The UK Banking Comission is now formed to look at “Promoting competition in both retail and investment banking with a view to ensuring that the needs of banks’ customers and clients are efficiently served, and in particular considering the extent to which large banks gain competitive advantage from being perceived as too big to fail”. Not quite exactly what is needed, but a step in the right direction. Though it will face strong head winds from the vested interests no doubt.

The tickets are £37 quid, but I reckon you will be able to hear the whole gig all over the small town anyway !

Joss Stone is also . . . → Read More: Teignmouth and Devon music]]> Interesting to hear Radio 1 hyping the Muse gig in Teignmouth this Friday. It’s funny as I went to the same school / sixth form as them some time ago.

The tickets are £37 quid, but I reckon you will be able to hear the whole gig all over the small town anyway !

Joss Stone is also from Devon, Cullompton I believe. Seth Lakeman has to get a mention too, from Tavistock….

About 40 p a day. Around £160 per annum or about £12 per month.

So we turned the timer down from an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening to 40 minutes in the evening.

Result: Plenty of hand / . . . → Read More: Just saved 35p a day on gas with no side effects]]> Recently I recorded our gas consumption for the hot water for washing hands and washing up.

About 40 p a day. Around £160 per annum or about £12 per month.

So we turned the timer down from an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening to 40 minutes in the evening.

Result: Plenty of hand / dish washing hot water and a saving of 35p a day in gas bills.

I have to work out the CO2 savings next.

But what if the rest of the UK did the same little tweak ?

Is there a business model that can enable this ?

I was in an appraisal training meeting.

I checked through the relevant HR forms and asked where the box is for entering an overall rating.

Answer – there is . . . → Read More: Performance appraisals with no grading … ?]]> Yesterday I suffered my worst bout of culture shock in terms of going from working for NXP Semiconductors Ltd – a very commercial, private equitied company into Southampton Solent University.

I was in an appraisal training meeting.

I checked through the relevant HR forms and asked where the box is for entering an overall rating.

Answer – there is no overall rating.

After 17 years of having salary / promotion decided on a 1 to 5 out of 5 rating this is some difference.

Also, appraisals are a relatively new idea here ……

The NXP system was at times unfair, but there has to be a happy medium there somewhere.