The first newsletter is out
October 20th, 2008 by Nico LuchsingerYes, we finally managed to send out a Sandbox newsletter. In it, we not only give an update on our project, but also tell you about the people we met and the ideas we had. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, a lot of it will sound familiar, but if you still want to read it, you can do so after the jump. And if you want to subscribe to our newsletter, just click here. We promise we won’t spam you!
The first part of this newsletter gives you an update on our project; in the second part, we tell you about great people we met, topics we discussed and interesting stuff we’ve came across. We would love to get your inputs, ideas and feedback, so please don’t hesitate to reply to this mail or get in touch.
Reading time: 5 minutes
I. WHAT SANDBOX HAS BEEN UP TO
- We enlarged our team: Christian Busch, currently based in London, has joined us to work primarily on partnerships and business development. You can read more about Christian here.
- We’re continuing to organize the Sandbox dinners, informal get-togethers of interesting young people. Recently, there have been dinners in New York, Amsterdam and Zurich.
- Christian spoke at the CWC conference on Future Talent in Oil, Gas & Power about how to attract and retain talents from the Generation Y – and about “behavioural innovation” Here are his notes. If you want somebody of Sandbox to speak at your conference, drop us a line (full contact details below).
- We’re working on a new website which will go live soon; and we’re also giving our partnership documentation a long-needed overhaul.
- We moved into our new office at Hardstrasse 69 in Zurich. We will post pictures as soon as we’ve finished putting together all the IKEA furniture. If you happen to drive by, come in and say hi!
II. WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE’RE GOING
Sandbox is currently in Zurich (Antoine and Nico), London (Christian), New York (Fabian) and Singapore (Severin). In addition, we will be:
- Fabian: Stockholm, Swedish Entrepreneur Days, Oct 21.
- Christian: Bielefeld, Oct 24-26, and Heidelberg, Oct 26-28.
- Nico: New York, Nov 16-23.
- Nico: Paris, LeWeb conference, Dec 8-10.
- Antoine: Munich, on a regular basis
We love to meet new people (and old friends), so if you happen to be where we are, just drop us a line!
III. THE LOVELY, GREAT AND INSPIRING PEOPLE WE MET
Sandbox is all about meeting and connecting interesting people, so we thought we’re telling you a bit about whom we met recently:
- A while back, we talked to Jyoti and Suresh Guptara, two 19-year-old twins who published a best-selling fantasy novel at age 17. They are now working on parts two and three. Read more here.
- Thinking that a successful online business has to be all about databases and user interfaces and stuff? Well, you’re wrong. You can also be successful by selling custom-made cereals, as the young founders of German-based MyMuesli.de explained to us.
- If you could connect anything – and I mean anything – to the internet, what would you choose? If your answer to that questions is not rabbits, then you’re terribly wrong. At least, that’s what self-described “suicidal entrepreneur” Rafi Haladjian told us at Picnic.
IV. THE THINGS WE DISCUSSED – AND THE QUESTIONS WE’RE ASKING
- We talked a lot about the “Renaissance of Storytelling”. We feel that, in times of information overload, telling compelling stories becomes increasingly important to get your message to your audience – whether you’re an entrepreneur trying to convince investors, or work in marketing, or are aiming at a political career. So we are asking (ourselves, but especially you): What makes a good story? And what makes good storytelling? What are the stories you like to listen to over and over again? Let us know.
- Never before have young people had so many choices and possibilities in their lives than they have today – at least in the industrialized part of the world. Social mobility is rising as classic career paths are vanishing. This leads to a choice problem similar to the one described by Barry Schwartz in his book “The Paradox of Choice”: Now that we can do anything, what will we do? The overwhelming array of possibilities to live its life creates a need for new guidelines for making choices. How do you make your choices? What are our guidelines?
- “There’s no success like failure”, sings Bob Dylan – and, of course, he’s right: The biggest mistakes often provide the most valuable lessons. We believe that in order to succeed, you have to acknowledge and analyze your failures. And we’re curious: What where your mistakes and what have you learned from them?
V. THE STUFF WE CAME ACROSS
Here are some interesting articles, books and pages we came across recently:
- With its 700 billion dollar bail-out plan, the U.S. government wants to buy the bad investments of banks in order to save them. But why should only banks profit? BuyMyShitPile.com lets you tell the world what you want to get rid off – and what you’d like the government to pay for it. And we just love this form of creative, clever and funny commentary on what’s going on.
- “The key to solving a problem is to define the problem correctly in the first place”: And this point is very well illustrated by the story of the elevator waiting times on 37Signals’ blog (Yes, it is all about storytelling!).
- Ever heard of “ambient awareness”? It’s what new social media services like Twitter, Dopplr or Facebook’s news feed create. If you are wondering why people are posting updates like “I’ve just arrived at home” on the internet, go read Clive Thompson’s excellent piece in the New York Times.
- Should Chile join the European Union? Yes, says the World Economic Forum’s former Chief Economist, Augusto Lopez-Claros.
- How is the change in technology affecting leadership? How can management models be adjusted to the needs of the Generation Y? Our friend Christopher Lomas of Naked Generations explains this in his blog.
VI. CONTACT
We love to hear from you – whether you’d like to comment on something you’ve read here, send us an interesting link or just want to say Hi. You can simply reply to this e-mail, or you can connect to us on our webpage, on Facebook or on Twitter.
Thanks a lot,
Your Sandbox team: Antoine, Christian, Fabian, Nico and Severin
