Entrepreneurship – Kerim Baran

For My Fellow Entrepreneur

This is a share for entrepreneurs. If you are an entrepreneur, you have a vision, you are connecting the dots, you are likely a leader who wants to make a positive change in the world. It is also likely that you have something to prove. It might even be that you are doing what youContinue reading “For My Fellow Entrepreneur”

My 3rd Rodeo – stream of thoughts

I am working on my 3rd major life-project/startup. Yes, my passion project, SolarAcademy, is moving forward with some new energy, as it joins paths with new partners, collaborators, and a team, to meet its vision. I spent parts of this weekend in meditation about our MVP and found myself watching and benefiting from a seriesContinue reading “My 3rd Rodeo – stream of thoughts”

My YouTube Education

Since the beginning of the pandemic, my media consumption has gone up in a noticeable way. Over the past year and a half, while many people spent countless hours binge watching Netflix and Hulu shows, I have found myself watching YouTube more often than any other medium. I am quite impressed by the quantity andContinue reading “My YouTube Education”

The First $20k is Always the Hardest

Back in the dot-com era, I remember reading this novel called, The First $20M is Always the Hardest by Po Bronson where the author talked about the gold rush days of Silicon Valley and founders’ dreams of making their first $20M and the twisted stories around that pursuit. Having been a two time “bootstrap” entrepreneurContinue reading “The First $20k is Always the Hardest”

On Wealth

What is wealth? To most people, it is material goods and lots of money. To others, it is deep and meaningful relationships and experiences. To me, it is really time. Time for me. Time for my own reflections and choices in life. Time to do meaningful contributions and time for meaningful relationships and experiences. IContinue reading “On Wealth”

My SolarAcademy Vision

I first got the inspiration for my passion project, SolarAcademy, when I discovered Khan Academy more than a decade ago. Since then, and especially during the days of working at CivicSolar, I have been thinking about creating systems that accelerate the sharing of useful knowledge through new methods and ways, to help create a moreContinue reading “My SolarAcademy Vision”

The State of Solar

This week, I was a guest on my friend Fabrice Grinda‘s Playing with Unicorns show. We talked about the state of the solar energy industry.

Canva.com

I use Canva.com frequently for my SolarAcademy project. I first heard of Canva from Emily Kirsch of Powerhouse. I think it was back in 2017. I complimented her on the simple and elegant designs of the graphics they were using in Powerhouse’s twitter posts. Emily shared with me that they were creating those graphics withContinue reading “Canva.com”

When to launch?

Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman has a well known quote. It goes “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” Have a look at Linkedin homepage when they first launched in 2003. Clearly, Reid did not wait to perfect the product. He had the key elements that defined Linkedin baked into the product, but inContinue reading “When to launch?”

Mindset Shifts

I recently came across this graphic which summarizes the mindset shifts that are necessary to compete in today’s business environment. I would add to this list one more shift: Competing > to > Creating In the west, we are conditioned to compete. Just compete on the tracks that are presented to us. Many of usContinue reading “Mindset Shifts”