The Norquist anti-tax pledge has been signed by about ~50% of our Congress. By discouraging compromise this pledge almost caused the US to default and has contributed to the acrimonious atmosphere in Washington. For my proposal for an anti-Norquist pledge please read
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-strauss/norquist-tax-pledge_b_1221193.html
At the Huffington Post
Thank you!
YES! A bone marrow donor :)
Many of you have asked, so here’s what’s going on with me.
WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE
- 8/1979: Born. Grew up in CT, built a killer eraser collection, fell in love with computers.
- Left college to start a company. Fell hard. Fled to India for 3 months.
- Started 2nd company. Learned to be an adult. Fell in love with NYC.
- Moved to SF, discovered burritos & some of my fave people on Earth.
- 9/2011: Got diagnosed with Leukemia!
- Cried. Went through 3 cycles of chemo. Hurt. Thought hard about what I want out of life. Grew up a second time.
TODAY
… After over 100 drives organized by friends, family, and strangers, celebrity call-outs, a bazillion reblogs (7000+!), tweets, and Facebook posts, press, fundraising and international drives organized by tireless friends, and a couple painful false starts, I’ve got a 10/10 matched donor!
You all literally helped save my life. (And the lives of many others.)
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Tomorrow, I’ll be admitted to Dana Farber in Boston for 4-5 weeks.
First I’ll get a second Hickman line to allow direct access to my heart (for meds and for nutrients if I’m not able to eat). Over the next week, the docs blast my body with a stiff chemo cocktail to try and eradicate all traces of cancer cells. In the process, the immune system I was born with, and my body’s ability to make blood, are destroyed.
Next Friday, I get my donor’s stem cells by IV. I start on immunosuppressants to prevent my body from rejecting them (I’ll be on them for 12-18 months). For these weeks I’ve no immune system, so I’m severely vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. My hospital room and hallway become my world.
Meanwhile, the stem cells make their way to my bone marrow and, with some luck, start producing platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own.
This is science fiction stuff. I can hardly believe it’s even possible, and there’s lots of chances for things to go wrong. It’s frightening.
AFTER THE TRANSPLANT
Recovery to a new state of “normal” takes about a year, but there’s a few storm clouds hovering:
- My immune system is new, like a baby’s. I’m prone to getting sick.
- Just as with any organ transplant, there’s a chance of rejection. Except in this case, it’s my blood that’s the foreign body, and it touches every organ. They call it graft-vs-host-disease and it can cause health issues and organ complications for the rest of my life.
- Successful transplant or not, Leukemia can relapse. Stubborn mofo.
Overall, 75% of AML transplant patients survive year one, 50% make it through year five. My odds are a little better since I’m young.
THE GREAT NEWS
I’ve got a long road ahead. But I’ve got a donor & amazing family & friends. A few months ago I didn’t have many options. Today I have a plan.
I am alive. I start tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Thank you.
Politicians develop embarrassing information on each other. Does it a) promote transparency early in the process or b) help to drag politics to the gutter?
Fred Wilson recently blogged about this question, and stated:
look for the companies and services that are mocked and misunderstood. For some reason, that correlates highly with the biggest breakout successes. … when your company and services gets mocked and is misunderstood by most everyone, particularly the mainstream press and media, just smile and keep doing what you are doing. You are on to something big.
However, the first time Amazon.com was mentioned in the NYTimes (my proxy for mainstream media) was in 1996 (the site went live in 1995), and the article was (to my mind very favorable) - The Selling Is Virtual - The Errors Are Human - NYTimes.comm
I also did a quick look at some of the early publicity for Google and Twitter, and I am not sure it supports Fred’s hypothesis, you can find my more detailed thoughts/results on this topic here.
I am increasing dubious about the ‘mocked and misunderstood’ hypothesis, I also seem to be in the minority. But, I am honestly curious do people feel that being ‘mocked and misunderstood by most everyone’ really means you are ‘on to something big’? And, what are the examples that support the claim?
Steven Strauss (LOK, LON, LOX 02-07) will be joining Harvard as an Advanced Leadership Fellow, effective December 2011. Strauss joins Harvard from the New York City Economic Development Corp. (NYCEDC), where he has served as managing director of the Center for Economic Transformation since 2008.
Strauss currently serves on the board for the NYC Investment Fund, the NYCSeed Investment Committee, the NCY Bioaccelerate, and the NYC NextIdea Business Plan Competition. Prior to working at the NYCEDC, Strauss was a Director at the World Economic Forum and a consultant at McKinsey & Company.
The Advanced Leadership Fellowship is designed to enhance and leverage the skills of highly accomplished, experienced leaders who want to apply their talents to solve significant social problems, including those affecting health and welfare, children and the environment, and focus on community and public service in the next phase of their careers.
Uber, for those of you not in the know, is a car service, which is (arguably) the first real advance in the taxi cab model in the 50 years. Basically using a web interface or App you can order a car to pick you up at any location. Billing is completely automated. It is really very slick and if you have not used the service (and you make use of car services) I recommend checking it out.
Uber operates in the following cities: SF, NYC, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, DC, and Paris. Uber’s prices appear (to me) to be about 2x of a street taxi. In a completely unscientific and random review of Uber users based on Uber’s retweets and my friends it appears Uber’s usage base is skewed to media/tech entrepreneurs/startups and angel/VCs.
Most of the cites that Uber serves are cities which: a) have good mass transit systems, b) existing taxi systems and c) an established black car system.
So basically we have a situation where entrepreneurs/angels/VCs are using a car service which costs 2x of a street taxi, and maybe 10x of mass transit, somehow this does not feel like ‘Lean Startup’ strategy to me? -:)
(ok, the above is ‘tongue in cheek’, but the question of the existence of a tech bubble is meant to be serious, comments welcome)
Thoughts?
Disclosure: I actually use Uber, and think it is a great service! I am also a fan of their ‘surge pricing’ (aka pricing to demand), which I think is a good innovation.
Charlie Kim very generously supported our first NYC@Boston talent recruitment event, and these are my remarks
NYC Next Idea was a program we created at NYCEDC to attract high performing non-American entrepreneurs to NYC. I am very grateful to Columbia University and Dean Pena-More for their support in creating this program.
Advanced Leadership Fellow Harvard University 2011-2012, Managing Director NYCEDC 2008-2011, Director World Economic Forum 2006-2008, McKinsey 2001-2007, Ph.D. Yale 2002. Editorials http://www.businessinsider.com/author/steven-strauss; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-strauss
