On Another Note http://andresdouglas.com By Yours Truly posterous.com Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:44:00 -0800 "Yale Discovers a Fungus That Eats Plastic" http://andresdouglas.com/yale-discovers-a-fungus-that-eats-plastic http://andresdouglas.com/yale-discovers-a-fungus-that-eats-plastic

Let's begin with the title. Facepalm. What they really meant was that "A Yale Scientist Discovers A Fungus that Eats Plastic". It could have very well read: "Building In Yale Discovers The Tasty Side Of Plastic". To all the people out there that are seeking jobs: someone likely got paid for that article. Don't despair!

Now to the article itself, which aside from the title is otherwise fine. Here are some thoughts.

Scientists have not found a single way to break down polyurethane--luckily, nature has found a way on its own. Yale scientists recently found a fungus in the Amazonian rainforest that naturally eats polyurethane.

Dear children, parents and people who don't believe in global warming and deforestation: save the rainforest. It likely contains a species of bug whose spit will save your life.

At the same time, you can see the Sci-Fi post-apocalyptic movie coming out of this. Scientist discover a way to get rid of our landfills. Bacteria goes out of control, eats all of our clothes, cars, buildings, and pretty much 90% of this world. And we're back to the XIXth century. We were going to end up there anyways when we ran out of oil, right?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/249216/yale_discovers_a_fungus_that_eats_plast... 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:13:00 -0800 Charla Colegio Apostol Santiago http://andresdouglas.com/90584204 http://andresdouglas.com/90584204

Fué para mí un gran placer regresar al colegio que durante tantos años atendí, el Apostol Santiago, y compartir con profesores y estudiantes mis andanzas desde que me fuí en 2002 para estudiar en UWC Atlantic, despues la UPC, Brown, Google, Apple, y Bakodo. Aquí he reunido algunas de las preguntas que surgieron a lo largo de la charla. Si hay mas, Estoy en twitter @AndresDouglas

Como surgio la idea de bakodo? Y a trazos amplios, como funciona? Porque por lo que entendi en el articulo del faro debes de haber creado una base de datos con tantos productos y tiendas impresionante, no?

Bakodo es una aplicación para iPhone con la que puedes usar la cámara de tu iPhone para escanear códigos de barras presentes en la mayoría de productos que se venden hoy en día en el mercado mundial. Si tenemos ese producto en nuestra base de datos, te proporcionamos información del producto, como donde puedes comprarlo, mejores precios en internet y en tiendas cercanas.

Como surgió? Te explico: Bakodo fue una solución a un problema que tenía. Era un estudiante de universidad sin dinero, y tenia que comprar libros. Durante mis primeros años en Brown, iba a la librería donde vendían todos los libros, y anotaba los ISBN (el código de barras). Después me iba a Amazon.com y los compraba allí, o me las apañaba para conseguirlos de cualquier otra manera.

Habia una pagina web que otros amigos míos habían hecho:http://mocha.cs.brown.edu. Como en Brown puedes elegir las clases que quieres, tienes 15 días al principio de cada semestre para probar un montón de clases distintas. Vas a una clase y si no te gusta, te vas a la siguiente que tienes en tu lista. Se llama "ir de compras de clases". Les ayudé a escribir un programa parecido a las arañas que usa Google para extraer información de internet y que extraía información de la pagina de la librería donde vendían los libros. Cotejamos la información de los libros con las clases para hacerlo muy fácil ver los libros que necesitarías.

Un par de años mas tarde, cuando salió el iPhone me dí cuenta de que se podía hacer lo mismo desde un teléfono ya que tenían internet. Ademas podíamos usar la cámara para escanear el código y hacerlo mas rápido. Así nació Bakodo.

Empezamos usando la base de datos de Google, y poco a poco hemos ido incrementandola.

 

Pues seguramente algo como Python: es muy sencillo, potente, y lo puedes estirar para hacer casi cualquier proyecto, desde web hasta programación de sistemas. 

No se si daría tiempo a leerla toda durante un trimestre, pero si que la haría lectura recomendada. 

Gente muy cercana: como mi abuela, que es una persona increible, mi madre, mis tios, y algunos de mis amigos. Al fin y al cabo somos el resultado de lo que nos rodea.

Buenas notas, y una actitud abierta hacia el resto del mundo. Puedes leer mas en la pagina de Colegios del Mundo Unido y Requisitos

Podeis leerla en otro post en mi blog

Son de estudiantes de los colegios. 

http://bit.ly/sPBWDD

Weenix

Si, hablé bastante con Scott. Y ahora que han pasado algunas cosas, lo pienso, y me hace gracia las cosas que decia.

Aún queda mucho por hacer. A ver si consigo inspiraros para que llegueis mas lejos. Yo estaba donde estais vosotros hace diez años.

Pues muchos, desde Salva, Bea, Juan Lois, hasta Willie, Julio Freixido, y más que ya estarán jubilados.

Yo estaba donde estais vosotros hace diez años. Claro que podeis. Es cuestión de no rendirse.

Estaba trabajando en el sistema operativo. Cosas de manejo memoria.

Si, aquí estan:

 

Creo que ya hemos llegado al 80/20. El 20% del esfuerzo nos da el 80% de los resultados. Solo se puede mejorar un 20% mas, y no estoy seguro de que valga la pena.

La verdad es que me gustaria, y ahora que Amazon.es tiene tienda en España, puede que sea mas posible. El problema que existe actualmente es que la compra online está muy fragmentada en España y Europa.

Bueno, que podeis contar la misma historia de maneras muy distintas, no?

Os aviso.

Si, gestionamos las bases de datos, aunque también hacemos de puente. Si que tenemos ciertos productos Europeos y Españoles, pero no son muchos.

Me alegro que os haya gustado. Espero que os inspire para llegar aún mas lejos! Avisadme si puedo ayudar con algo.

Porque cuando no se tiene nada, no hay nada que perder. Piensa del fracaso como del viento: puede empujarte hacia atrás, o si sabes usarlo, puede servir para empujarte hacia adelante con mas velocidad.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:38:58 -0800 Tastypie-Nonrel: RESTful APIs for Django-Nonrel and MongoDB http://andresdouglas.com/tastypie-nonrel-restful-apis-for-django-nonre http://andresdouglas.com/tastypie-nonrel-restful-apis-for-django-nonre

20111018_django_boston_meetup.pdf Download this file
From the October Boston Django Meetup. Title Says it all. You can find me on twitter for questions, and general awesomenes: @AndresDouglas 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:27:00 -0700 LSD And Other Great Advice From SJ http://andresdouglas.com/the-steve-lecture http://andresdouglas.com/the-steve-lecture
At first I was unsure if I should publish this. It paints a very different picture from the one most of the media and the general public has of Steve Jobs. Most see him through the lens of his products, as a visionary, which he was. I was worried that I had a very skewed image of him from a very short period of time working at Apple, insignificant compared to many of the people I met there. Reading more accounts from other people, reassured me that my memory wasn't failing massively. Working for Steve was not always a pleasent task, and just like John expresses in his post, I too have had mixed feelings about the man. Hopefully sharing this anecdote serves to complete the picture of such an iconic and complex person, viewed from the inside.
Being an intern at Apple was in many respects better than being a full-time employee. One of the "lucky" perks you could enjoy as an intern was to be able to attend the Executive Lecture Series. These were gatherings of the whole intern class at the Apple Town Hall. They were presentations by the E-Team, mainly showcasing the amazing internals of the machinery behind Apple. Who was the E-Team you may ask? It was not clear to most of us, but the criteria seemed to be that you were in the E-Team if you were in the same room as Steve on Tuesdays at 11. Some of the people we got to listen, and ask questions to were Johnny Ives, Scott Forstall, Tim Cook and more of the C-level execs. We were not allowed to photograph or record anything going on in the town hall. We were asked to turn off our phones. Fair enough.
Usually we knew who the speaker was, but one week, a last minute email was sent out during the morning, for all of us to be "on call". The speaker was not confirmed, and it may or may not happen. We would be given 15 minutes of warning, and would have to rush to the Town Hall. After doors closed, nobody would be allowed in. Or out. The rumor was that it had come time to hear him. I had seen Steve around campus a bunch of times, and he was not looking too great, so I was a bit skeptical. The email was sent out, and suddenly there was a flood of interns heading towards IL4. This time around we were required to leave our phones, and any type of device that could record anything (including pen and paper), outside the room. I was starting to question whether I wanted to enter that room, as I felt we may be subjected to a memory erasing procedure after the presentation was over. The Apple Town Hall was more packed than usual, but I managed to get a seat up front - somewhat dangerous, since the speaker could actually see you. We sat and waited. After about 15 minutes it was looking like nothing was going to happen. Our bottoms were getting impatient, but we were not allowed to leave, move, and barely speak.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lights got dimmed and silence filled the room. Steve appeared on stage. He was awfully skinny, with a somewhat bloated stomach. He reminded me of a friend I had in high school, who had a liver transplant, and unfortunately did not survive it. He did not look like a healthy man, but his presence was still overwhelming. He sat down at the tripod-like stool with a saddle seat with his feet on the cross bars, somewhat perched down, staring at us from behind his glasses.

He talked for a few minutes without slides, and then just point-blank asked us: "What do you want to know?". We had the unique opportunity in our lives of asking SJ anything we wanted. Anything at all. A candid conversation. And he would answer off the record. Now that he is gone, I realize what a huge privilege this was. I am happy I was able to experience it, but I only wish I was a bit older and had already started Bakodo to have more intelligent questions about how to make great products and run a business so succesfully. At that point, all I wondered was who was going to dare ask him anything. Everyone knew how temperamental he was. Once an engineer shared an elevator ride with him. Steve asked him what he did for Apple. The engineer uttered something that was unclear to Steve and didn’t make it to the ground floor as an Apple employee. A few years ago, an intern took a picture of Steve during the E-Lecture series and was immediately fired. As a normal citizen you saw Steve as a genius that was able to not only imagine great products, but also bring them to life. When you got to Apple you learnt how all of this happened. The room was petrified.

There was silence for an uncomfortably long time, until a brave girl, she looked like the MBA type, raised her hand. Steve caught sight of her and just nodded. There was a huge amount of tension in the room as this brave soul asked: "Steve, what is your dream?". Steve, still sitting on the stool, looked down, and remained silent for a few seconds. So did the rest of the room, bracing for impact. He then lifted his head back up and said decidedly: "My dream... is for people to stop asking me that question". Ouch. We all felt like we had been shot down. Perhaps it was the initial sacrifice that had to be made for people to realize that he wasn’t there to answer that type of fluffy questions. I think it was just Steve taking no bullshit. Like had been made clear throughout my summer at Apple. It took a few minutes for anyone to brave asking another question. Eventually a few more hands were raised, and people started relaxing. They were mostly questions about the beginings of Apple or how it functioned, not much room for Steve to snap back. There were a number of questions in my mind to ask him, but I kept on discarding them as not being good enough. I would raise my hand, not knowing what I would ask him if I had to, and lowering it in relief every time he picked someone else. I was truly nervous.
Eventually he said: "One last question", and here came the lucky one. It just poped up from the dark of the room: "What advice would you give to people our age in general, perhaps who want to start a company?". He did the same thing as with the first question. Remained silent and thinking, perched on his stool like a bird of prey. It was petrifying. The silence was again overwhelming. He could likely say, "you know what, if you’re here right now, you probably don’t have what it takes to build a company", or "come back and work for Apple, and you can see the future before it happens". But after a few moments of pause, he looked back up and said. "You know what, forget about the unimportant things in life. Focus on what matters. Don't worry about money, glory and fame, those are bi-products of doing great things you believe in. Work on something that you will want to do for the rest of your life. Sometimes you’ll have to piss people off, but if your heart tells you to, that is the most important thing. Focus on appreciating the beauty in life, listen to music, read poetry, appreciate art. Do new things that may scare you, try LSD…."

There was a final silence. Partly because we were all a little shocked by what had just happened. Partly because it was time to leave and as that question sank in people’s minds we were holding on to Steve’s words. It was all starting to settle in my mind as I tried to make sense of such a complex person. His answer was not what I was expecting, but it did make sense coming from someone who knew he was “living on rented time on this earth”. The more I think about it, the more I realize how profound it was, coming from him. He loved all those things he mentioned. We would not experience music how we do today if it weren't for him.

That Lecture left me thinking. In a few minutes I had seen all the things my co-workers had said about Steve, concentrated in an almost unbearable way. His power and presence, his brutal honesty that almost seemed to spawn from the goal of a greater good, and his completely different spin on the world. He came out of left field all the time, every time. His presence was felt throughout Apple all the time I was there. People's loyalty to Steve and to making a good product was astounding. Engineers worked harder than I've ever seen. It truly resembled a startup environment, for the good and for the bad. I can think of few people that have influenced our life in ways similar to how Steve and Apple have. I wouldn't be writing this if it weren't for them. Because they make the MacBook Air I have come to love, the computer Steve edited down to the exact product most people need these days. Because him and Apple created the iPhone and the most successful AppStore, that has allowed developers and startups to thrive and create amazing mobile products, and which has allowed me to run Bakodo.

I am saddened by the loss of such a genius mind, one that has been able to touch so many lives, inspire so many people to truly question the status-quo and make something better. I pray for his soul and for his family. From a selfish perspective I am saddened because I know that Apple will never be the same again. What would have come out of Apple if he were still there for another 20 years, only he knows. The pressure of knowing if SJ will approve of what you are doing or totally rip it to pieces will no longer be there. My hope is that he has been able to infuse his way of thinking about great products and weaved it into the fabric that makes Apple, getting brilliant people like Scott Forstall to lead the iOS org of amazing engineers. I know that great products like the iPhone or iPad came out of the hard work of thousands of people, but will they be able continue his legacy and challenge the barriers to making amazing new products? I sure hope so, and I have to agree with Freddy, that perhaps that is the biggest legacy Steve has left to all of us. It is not the beautiful iPhone or iPad, which have already changed so many people’s lives, but his ability of being the ultimate user, the ultimate editor, of saying “NO” when something is not good enough, when it can be better, like he did when he called out any design flaw in the iPhone down to the pixel level. The ability to go beyond what exists and is believed to be possible, and especially his ability to think you can change the world, and being crazy enough to do it.
Although I went to Apple unsure of my decission, I think that was one of the periods that have influenced my life more deeply, and which have led me to approach problems and decisions in a different way. I probably would not have decided to start Bakodo if it weren’t for my time there. It was that quote that I once saw in a wall that kept me hungry and foolish, although not with Apple, I wanted to “See the future before it happens”. I think togther with Randy Pausch, Steve has been one of the characters in my life that has had a lasting, tangible influence in the way I live my life. Namaste Steve. Thanks for everything. It was an honor working for you.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite Apple commercial of all times. I knew of the official version for a long time, but only discovered this one recently.

Steve's Stanford Lecture is also well-worth watching:

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:52:24 -0700 right, this is why I had started using chrome on os x… http://andresdouglas.com/right-this-is-why-i-had-started-using-chrome http://andresdouglas.com/right-this-is-why-i-had-started-using-chrome

Image

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:00:00 -0700 GreenHornConnect's Founder's Friday With Yours Truly http://andresdouglas.com/yours-truly-profiled-in-greenhornconnect-foun http://andresdouglas.com/yours-truly-profiled-in-greenhornconnect-foun
This Q&A appeared in http://GreenHornConnect.com on April 8th 2011. You can read the original here. Reproduced here for archival reasons:

Who are the faces behind a company? How did the company get started? These are common question you may have about startups you see and hear about. If you don't get a chance to personally meet the founders, you're unlikely to ever know their story. That's what Founder Fridays is all about.

This week we are profiling Andres Douglas, CEO and Founder of Bakodo, a company changing the use of barcodes.

1) What is your current Startup? (Name & URL)

Bakodo - http://bako.do (Bakodo means Barcode in Japanese)

2) What's the elevator pitch?

We're doing awesome things with barcodes. Our first product is Bakodo Scanner, one of the most popular barcode scanners for the iPhone, which is growing like a weed: in the last six months it has been downloaded close 1 million times. It's about to get a LOT better, so keep your eyes open.

Next: we're going to revolutionize the way people shop, focusing a lot on groceries. That's all I can say for now.

3) When did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

My sophomore year in college I interned for Google, and the year after that I went to work for Apple on the iPhone Software team. Although I had gotten a lot out of working for those two companies, and met great people, it turned out a lot of the things I learnt were because I had gone out of my way to do it myself, and these mainly came from resources available outside of these companies. During my time at Brown I really enjoyed doing a lot more than just coding, specially working in large groups of people with different abilities, backgrounds and interests, and wanted to continue doing this after graduation. Realizing that these companies were not going away any time soon, and that the market was ripe for the idea I was interested in were the two final key factors to taking the plunge.

4) How did you meet your co-founders?

I met most of the people I'm working with whilst at Brown, either because we worked together on projects or was introduced to them through friends. The best people you will meet are through personal connections that refer you to each other.

5) What was the best advice you ever got?

That advice is only good for one thing: to pass it on. As a founder you get told a lot of times that what you're doing is not worth it, that you won't make it, that there is a lot of competition out there, etc. You should probably ignore a lot of what people say, and follow your instinct.

There are some people whose advice you learn to trust. Jimmy Van Allen is one of our advisors who always gives me great little morsels. One thing he always reminds me of, which is applicable to everything in life is "If you say you're going to do something, you better do it. But if you ARE going to do something, tell people you are going to do so". I think this is specially important for first-time entrepreneurs without a track record. When you go to talk to an investor it's not the same to show them where you are right now, but to show progress. So the moral of the story is to let people know what you're doing early on, and this way you will start building your track record.

6) What Startup(s) are you most excited about today? Why?

Despite all its controversy, I think Color has a lot of potential. If you use it with enough people, it turns into a really fascinating experience. Tracelytics is something I'm also really excited about. There are some others that haven't launched yet, so I'm sworn to secrecy, but I think are going to be incredible. 

There are a lot of really interesting Open Source projects out there that are also fascinating, and create outputs of extremely high quality. I would encourage everyone to try to get involved in one of them, as you will learn a lot from the project and from the community, and perhaps meet people you might like to work with. Just think of an open source tool or framework that you use (Ruby? Django?) and head over to their github and start reading through code. You can probably find something interesting, or a way to get involved. You will most definitely learn something. 

7) What's your favorite part about being an entrepreneur?

Being able to meet all types of people, specially the ones that will rope me into these types of interviews. Essentially knowing that every day is going to be different, and fun, and that what you are doing, might just change the world. Even if it's just a little.

8) If you could recommend one book for entrepreneur's to read, what would  it be and why?

Their own: keep track of what you do in a diary, and go back and read it. See how you've changed, and if you've done the things you thought you were going to do. It will also help you reflect on the past, and how the shape of things change with the perspective of time.

For a published book: The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. Pausch was an amazing guy. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and given just a few months to live. The way he tackled adversity was truly inspiring. Instead of giving up, he fought up to the last moment, and always kept an amazing attitude. You can also watch "The Last Lecture : Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" video. Warning: it will make you cry. His lecture on time management is also worth taking a look at. The underlying message I think Randy Pausch was trying to leave us with was that you shouldn't give up. No matter what other people say, if you believe in what you're doing, keep calm, and carry on.  

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Fri, 08 Apr 2011 02:55:00 -0700 Humongous Tasty Pie: Announcing The django-tastypie-nonrel Open Source Project http://andresdouglas.com/humongous-tasty-pie-announcing-of-open-source http://andresdouglas.com/humongous-tasty-pie-announcing-of-open-source

133743_659760732051_1010850_36426639_1961026_o

I'm happy to announce the extensions to django-tastypie that I was working on and allow it to support django-mongodb-engine fields for django-nonrel are now open source. You can grab them while they are hot over at github (Still beta quality).

To give some background on why you may care about this. Django-nonrel is a high-quality fork of django that allows you to use non-relational databases as its backend, such as MongoDB, or Google's AppEngine (read more). I have found it to be the best way to use mongodb with django in a project (More about this in an upcoming post). django-mongodb-engine is the mongodb backend for django-nonrel. Its likely that django 1.4 will include native support for MongoDB, so if you want to start using mongodb with django now, this is probably your best bet. django-tastypie is a well-designed, and actively supported app to create RESTful APIs of django apps (django-piston is not something I would recommend).

CRUD operations are now supported for fields of type List, Dict, EmbeddedModel and Lists of EmbeddedModels. Interestingly enough, a lot of the current fields mapped directly into the new ones. An EmbeddedModel can be though of as a FK and a List of EmbeddedModels can be thought of as a ToMany relationship. But the guys that make mongodb have been telling us this for a while now. Many thanks to Josh Bohde for his help and patches.

I hope you enjoy this and find it useful or are interested in contributing. If that is the case, leave a note in the comments.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Thu, 31 Mar 2011 23:31:00 -0700 Listening To Pandora From Your Terminal http://andresdouglas.com/listening-to-pandora-from-your-terminal http://andresdouglas.com/listening-to-pandora-from-your-terminal

I recently got around to trying a great combination of software, that essentially allows me to listen to Pandora from my terminal. This is great for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it helps with the no-Flash diet I entered a few months ago. Since then, my computer has been running a lot faster, its battery has been lasting longer, and can actually satiate my thirst for hundreds of browser windows open at the same time (I know it's bad, I'm working on it). Second reason is that it is adding some more variety to my musical education. Listening to the top tracks on Spotify was seriously damaging my musical sensibility.

So what's this wonderful thing I'm talking about, I hear you say? Well, it's two awesome pieces of software. The first is Visor ( http://visor.binaryage.com/ ) which gives you a system-wide terminal from a hotkey. Need I explain why having a terminal on every space of your OS X desktop is awesome? Good. The second is Pianobar, ( https://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar ), which actually lets you play Pandora from any terminal, not just OS X. The easiest way to install the latter on OS X is using Homebrew. Homebrew is a package manager for OS X which is rising in popularity. You can get it here: http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/. You should install these software packages in the reverse order - just saying.

Since I've started using this system I've been enjoying my music a lot more. The reason for this is that it is getting better a lot faster than normal Pandora allows. Upvoting a song is just a CTRL+` and + away, without leaving whatever I was doing.

Hopefully this will be useful to you. Pianobar might be tricky to install since it has a number of dependencies. Let me know in the comments if you have trouble with any of them.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:57:00 -0700 Splitting Things Up http://andresdouglas.com/splitting-things-up http://andresdouglas.com/splitting-things-up

I'm moving some of the more random, fun stuff that I used to find around the world and posted on http://blog.andresdouglas.com to http://fun.andresdouglas.com. Mom and other fans can follow my adventures there. If you're looking for more of my thoughts, or things I've produced, you're in the right spot! 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:59:00 -0800 GoLocal Prov and Tech Collective gives me a Tech10 Award! http://andresdouglas.com/golocal-prov-and-tech-collective-gives-me-a-t http://andresdouglas.com/golocal-prov-and-tech-collective-gives-me-a-t

W00t! They gave me an award for being a geek. It's like the Oscars for nerds:

http://www.golocalprov.com/business/tech10-winner-andres-douglas-bakodo/

[I was really jet lagged for this interview. Please laugh in silence.]

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:03:00 -0800 Mass High Tech, Startup Watch: Five you should follow http://andresdouglas.com/mass-high-tech-startup-watch-five-you-should http://andresdouglas.com/mass-high-tech-startup-watch-five-you-should

Oh yeah, and guess who is there! Wow, they just keep on coming!

http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2011/02/07/daily23-Startup-Watch-Five-you...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:25:00 -0800 PBN: Five Questions With Andrés Douglas Castroviejo http://andresdouglas.com/pbn-five-questions-with-andres-douglas-castro http://andresdouglas.com/pbn-five-questions-with-andres-douglas-castro

This article appeared in PBN on December 15. Republishing it here for archival reasons. You can view the original here http://www.pbn.com/Five-Questions-With-Andrs-Douglas-Castroviejo,54349

 

Bakodo is a bar code scanner – traditional or QR codes – for smart phones that allows consumers to see reviews, information and compare prices for more than 12 million items.

Andrés Douglas Castroviejo, founder of Bakodo, graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and computer science in 2009.

His journey to found the startup, though, reaches farther afield than the average recent graduate. Born in Texas, Douglas then moved to Spain, where he perfected his fluency in Spanish as well as Gallego, Catalan and Portuguese, only to study in Wales at the United World College of the Atlantic.

At Brown, Douglas worked as a teaching assistant and a lab consultant for several years while pursuing his own developer interests on the side.

His first foray into entrepreneurship came his sophomore year in college. He devised the monetization strategy for Mocha, an online course scheduling application with widespread use at Brown University,

After interning at Google in New York and Apple in California, it was time to start something of his own. Bakodo was selected as a finalist in the entrepreneur track of the 2010 Rhode Island Business Plan Competition and first launched its iPhone app in the Apple Store in June 2010.

Since then, the barcode-scanning app has caught the eye of ABC News, and Mashable even gave it the thumbs up in its “Spark of Genius” series.

Providence Business News caught up with Andrés to find out what “love at first scan” really is.

PBN: Bakodo sounds like a really great tool for consumers as well as retailers. How many times do you pick up a tech gadget and think, is this really the one I want? What if there’s a better one out there?

 

DOUGLAS: Yes, it was something like that, although it happened a lot more frequently, not just with tech gadgets. It all started when I was a college student and had to be very careful with how I spent my money. Every penny counted, so I had to make sure that I was buying what I needed and that it was worth the money. I’m a very passionate about what I do and usually think thoroughly whether I should be doing it or not. I approach shopping similarly: I’m the antithesis of a retailer’s model shopper, since I am not at all impulsive. My instinct is to wonder whether there is something better out there at a better price. The answer is usually yes, and it is usually online.

As mobile phones became more capable … the idea of Bakodo started forming. The development of a higher quality camera capable of scanning barcodes was the last missing piece to make it all possible.

I agree that this seems like the ultimate opportunity for retailers. Someone is looking for a product nearby, and you, as a retailer, can show them that you have it. It’s surprising though, since a lot of retailers that we talk to are still protective of their inventory and prices. This means that they don’t want to list either inventory or prices in Bakodo, even though by not listing information, they are hiding it from consumers. I think this fear is slowly dissipating as more retailers see the benefits of going online or mobile.

PBN: I understand you released a major update to the application in mid-October. What can you tell us about it?

DOUGLAS: It was the one that really put us on the map and has kept us on the Top 50 utilities in the AppStore and, ever since, we’ve been getting tens of thousands of downloads every week. We added a huge database of very detailed information for more than 200,000 grocery products, including hundreds of locations where they were sold. We realized early on there was a trend of people scanning not just expensive products, such as books and electronics, but also grocery products. This made us realize we needed to put together a good database of groceries. We did and it paid off: people really like our app.

Another high-value feature we added was local search. We return hundreds of stores nearby, catering to people who are interested in paying a lower price for the item they scanned, but need it immediately. Users can contribute to the app and make it better by sharing deals they find and add them to our database.

The final feature, which most of our competitors later went on to copy, was the ability for any user to leave a rating and review attached to a product. Other users scanning that same product could instantly see what users like them thought about the product in question, and filter the reviews to see only the ones provided by their friends.

PBN: Facebook integration is a great feature, I imagine … but a little overwhelming. Do you think there are ever too many reviews? How do we filter through them?

DOUGLAS: Shopping is an inherently social activity: you go to the mall with your friends, and are able to get their opinion before you buy. We said: well, what if you could get your friend’s opinion for any product, not just shoes and clothes, at any time? That’s where the ability to review any product came from. We’re working on refining it, but the basic functionality is already there.

Search in general is moving in this direction. The total time spent on Facebook is greater than that spent on Google, and search is shifting toward being social. The best search result is no longer that which the majority thinks is best (as Google does it). Soon we will start to see a lot more of the search results be ranked based on what the people we trust, and who have similar tastes, think. This is especially applicable to products: we have a much more intimate and long-lasting relation with the products we consume than with say, a website you find through Google. You buy a product and bring it into your home, and interact with it over its lifetime. During all that time you develop an opinion of the product based on your interactions, even if it is in your subconscious. All of this information seeps out in our day-to-day interactions with friends and family, and, with Bakodo, we’re just trying to make this reality a bit more explicit.

We hope this new technology will make it easier to root out better products that we otherwise would not have heard about. Up until now, one of the major ways we discovered new things was by seeing the people that we knew use them or talk about them. In the future, using tools like Bakodo, you will be able to see what your friends scan, for example, in a certain category. If you’re looking for a new shampoo, you could see that someone you know scanned it and liked it. It’s really powerful.

The idealist in me hopes this will make a better world: we will have to spend less money and time to find products we like. Overall we will generate less waste, and produce better products, since manufacturers will be able to receive direct feedback from the consumers.

PBN: Bakodo was one of the startups selected to participate in the RI-CIE incubator. How is that going? Do you have any milestones set for your time there?

DOUGLAS: RI-CIE has been fantastic. Brendan [McNally], Leigh [Kendall] and Sue [Gallogly]are terrific to work with and have been supportive from the very first moment. They get how hard starting a company can be and have helped us and the other startups in every way possible, from giving us feedback to connecting us to investors.

I think the greatest value in RI-CIE is the community of like-minded entrepreneurs who spend a lot of time there in the great office space and who are all roughly facing the same challenges, at the same time. There is a lot of cross-pollination and exchange of ideas and help.

I really hope it keeps up the traction it has right now. It would be a great way to keep a lot of really smart people from having to look for jobs outside of Rhode Island.

As for goals: we’re aiming to create awesome things and revolutionize the way people shop. Our next milestone is to start working with supermarkets to private-label our application. This way they can offer an enhanced shopping experience for their customers. They will be able to do this by having their own application that shoppers can use to get virtually any type of information about a given product and to eventually, check out from their phones.

PBN: Since we’re approaching the holiday season, what’s your one wish for your business? What has been the greatest challenge in getting your startup running?

DOUGLAS: A startup represents more work than you can ever finish. Even though you can prioritize what you work on, you always need more people to help you get to the place where you want to go. One of the big challenges we have faced has been finding enough of the right people. It’s an extremely competitive talent market, and given that human capital is probably the most valuable asset for a startup, this is an uphill race.

More and happier users is also something we’re looking for. If you have an iPhone, check out Bakodo at bako.do. If you don’t have an iPhone, tell someone who does. They’ll love it. Did I mention it’s a free download?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas Mon, 04 Oct 2010 11:52:00 -0700 Interview with Faro de Vigo - Gallegos en la cima http://andresdouglas.com/interview-with-faro-de-vigo-gallegos-en-la-ci http://andresdouglas.com/interview-with-faro-de-vigo-gallegos-en-la-ci

andrés.pdf Download this file

The longest-published Spanish newspaper, Faro de Vigo, just interviewed me! Talking about Bakodo and my background, while pointing at a big QR Code in Times Square. [Spanish]

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1126209/173665_1010850_1818013_n.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5emmNGWIY4ed Andres Douglas andresdouglas Andres Douglas