Interesting Interview with Andrew Mason, Groupon CEO

Check this link to read the Spiegel Magazine Interview with Andrew Mason, Groupon CEO. I guess one of the things we can learn from most of these young, successful Internet Entrepeneurs is to focus our time and energy on things that really interest us on a personal level. They are not just doing it for the money, they also seem to deeply believe in being able to change something.

Now you might think that is all nice and well but you are not in a situation where you can just focus on your personal interests. You need to provide money for your family and other responsibilities. Maybe it also seems to be too late to change anything and start focusing on the things that really interest you or maybe you don't have anything that interests you that much.
In any case it is your decision. You can change something in your live if you want to. Don't just envy others but do something different yourself. Do you want to do it? If yes, what is holding you back? How can you remove that obstacle and move forward?

Workplace Facebook from Berlin

Does the world really need another Workplace Facebook? Obviously yes, because otherwise this company wouldn't get the necessary funding, right? Getting funding and being an efficient tool are two entirely different things.
Even the best tools won't make up for talent that knows how to use these tools efficiently. When a tool like that is introduced in a company it will be a major effort because the potential users need to be trained on how to use it. In addition to that they need to be convinced that it is a good idea to participate because these tools are only valuable if users are willing ot invest time and maintain them. How do you do that? Without a critical mass of users and active management support there is a good chance that this won't take off as expected.
All this doesn't mean that it won't be a good idea to use a tool like that BUT it means that you need to put some serious effort into thinking if your company is really ready to use a tool like that effectively.

Other questions worth pondering are

• How many social communication tools are users willing to maintain?
• How many of your employees are already on Facebook or similar sites?
• What information can users exchange (and how fast) with this tool that they can't with the current tools?
• How are your current tools e.g. SharePoint working for your teams?
• Do you need a mobile version of this tool so that all users (e.g. Sales Reps) can use this effectively?

A two speed Europe

I'm sure this year will keep us busy with news from Europe and the Euro crisis. Here is an article that highlights some interesting differences regarding unemployment within Europe.

Germany: Foreigners setup a third of all businesses

Here is an interesting article about foreigners that start businesses in germany. Since I'm an immigrant to the USA myself I have some personal idea's why so many foreigners in germany start their own businesses.

1. Immigrants want to show that they can do it abroad to themselves, their families and they want to be as independent as possible. After all what's the point of leaving your home country if you don't do better abroad? It can be a significant confidence booster when it works out.
2. The lack of a reliable support system. You move but your family (e.g. brother, sister, uncle, aunts) doesn't and therefore many things can become more challenging. You also need to earn more money to go back and visit them on a regular basis. In addition to that there can be other reasons like for example the US health care system or social security system who are not nearly as good as Germany's therefore you're forced to be more successful in order to have the same social safety.
3. You want to achieve more career wise and personally. For most people that's the main reason to move to another country. It might be a career opportunity you couldn't get at home or you have a chance to live in your "dream place". When you start in that new country you usually have no or not many connections and so you can throw yourself head over into work and build something.

There are obviously many more reasons why people migrate to other countries and build their own companies, but for me these were the main ones. What do you think why do people setup companies in their adopted homeland?