This is Richard Titus' blog, I use this to detail my business and professional thoughts - as well as amusing anecdotes about technology, sustainability or the irrationality of the ex-pat life.
Given the way Jody Sherman and I met we should never have been friends. Jody had just purchased my business partner and Razorfish co-founder Stephen Anspach's house - post divorce, at a very good deal. My parter (and one of my closest friends of 20+ years) had bought too much house, hadn't really furnished it and then had up and gotten divorced (though in fairness his ex was a bit challenging.) Jody had swooped in and scooped it up and now, bizarrely we were all going to have dinner at Stephen's old house Jody's new house (just down the hill from mine..) Despite all this madness somehow, I really liked him. a lot.
Fast forward a few years - I get a random phone call - "Titus" says Jody's voice on the other end "I saw your photo of you on that private jet I'm running Virgin's charter business so you have called me! - I'd explained that it was a job interview that hadn't gone particularly and I doubted I'd be in need of private aviation and, well damn if he didn't care and he wanted me to start filling his planes full of customers immediately - if memory serves I actually sent him a few connections..
Later when he started EcoMom he called me for advice - I gave him some, though frankly I was pretty worthless as I was buried in my own shit at the time. Most people, based on the inequality of friendship would have cut me off right there, but frankly he doggedly continued our friendship - forcing me to live up to my side of the bargain... without ever raising his voice or even having me notice.
There are other awesome stories about Jody - One of my favorites (be careful this one will make you cry) involves Jody coming home to his house one day to discover a baby on his doorstep .. another involves a tattoo on his hand that says "I am Awesome"
- he loved to hear me tell the story of my tattoo which i woke up with on a plane home from Australia with only the haziest of recollections of its acquisition.
I remember talking about one of our shared projects - Startup consumer bell and its founder Ellie who we both had deep paternal feelings for as well as admiration and love - but also whose founder was frustrating in her willfulness and rebeliousness; pots, kettles & such; but most about how important we felt the work she was doing was and why it needed doing Just like ecomom. Frankly I felt a little lame in many of these conversations..
But the most important memory I have of Jody - happened during the Lobby Conference in Mexico - in a swimming pool. A bunch of us, spouses & randoms jumped in the water led by Christine I think - and just lazed around talking till 4-5am. Sarah blogged about it here, this was the 1st time I got to know his wife - who is awesome and way better than his 1st. (a story for another day - something else he and my business partner have in common). Sarah's right the lesson from that is to make time for dinner - every day - something Jody always seemed to do. For a guy so ignited by the entrepreneurial fire. so busy with his own life - he ALWAYS made time for others. I've never met another human so generous.. or so fucking true speaking...
Because laying there in the pool, he looked at me and asked; "Titus, what are you doing?" I responded with a long, tangental whiny tale of woe involving a dissolving marriage, shitty bosses, politics and people who didn't pay their bills. He listen patiently and then said : "That's all shit people did to you, what are YOU doing?"
It was then, it struck me - he was right I wasn't doing anything really that mattered. Stuck in my misery, loneliness and some strange thing I now understand was depression - I had completely lost site of my power. ACTION.
He then followed up with" Dude you are a rockstar entrepreneur - you've had all this success - since when do you wait around for people to give you stuff? Figure something out that you want and just go fucking do it."
So, I did. 3 weeks later I met up with my no-cofounder of my new start-up, Prompt.ly - which in many ways I attribute to that smack upside the head and the loving follow up calls afterwards. The last time I talked to him was this week - I'd called him to discuss Prompt.ly - talk valuations discuss angels to go talk to…. after we done that for a bit he'd invited me out to Vegas - but indicated "Id have to bring my own futon" = we'd laughed at the weird circular nature of the universe - given how I 1st met him.. and Stephen in that big house in the hills.
When I heard the news, all I could think of was fuck. I never told him thank you for dragging my ass out of the surf where life was washing machining me (google it its a surfing reference) and back to the shallows. he'll never know. But I will always be grateful. and damn it if it isn't JUST like Jody to get the last word in leaving me owing him.
I miss him already R.I.P.
September 30, 2012
From Jivamukti -
DISAPPOINTED IN SOMEONE? OR IN A SITUATION THAT ISN'T GOING 'YOUR' WAY?
Without Expectation...Swami Satchidananda
“Our peace is always within us. We are, in fact, in the form of peace. Nothing can disturb us. If anything at all disturbs our peace, it’s our own desire, our own expectation, our own appointments. Very often we say, ‘I am disappointed.’ Why? Nobody is the cause. Nobody can make you disappointed if you have not made your own appointment. You make your appointment and you get disappointed. Why should we blame A or B or C? ‘Oh, he has disappointed me.’ How can he disappoint you if you have not fixed an appointment? That’s it."
I read this this week and was furious.. then i realized it is right... I struggle with this.
May 17, 2012
Hello all Videoplaza is hiring for a bunch of roles:
Chief Commercial Officer - London
We're looking for a heavy hitter to come in and own and execute the commercial strategy of the business as we're ramping up. This person will push the company to its limits to grow commercially and specially in signing the largest and most difficult deals. The person will be heading up sales, client relations and biz dev.
We're looking for someone senior on a 150k+100k GBP level.
Head of Business Development - London
We're looking for a smart and dynamic biz dev resource to come in a head up our partner programme, run larger and cross market deals as well as be strong support to the sales team. This person has ideally a management consulting background and some operational track record from doing business internationally.
Director of Talents - London
We're looking for someone to attract, keep and motivate talent across the different offices. The person does not ideally have a traditional HR background and understands the needs of a high growth tech business. Ideally this person is a Swede based in London.
Director of Legal Affairs - London
We're looking for a legal person to broadly support our growing legal needs as the business grows jn size and internationally. The tasks include supporting the commercial teams in legal questions, HR, ESOP, company governance etc.
Marketing Executive - London
We're looking for a junior tech savvy marketing executive with key focus on the website, marketing collateral, email lists management, events management etc.
A quick note of congratulations to the RCVR team, including my wife Tavin and one of my oldest Friends David Van Eyssen...
IATAS Awards nominations: David Van Eyssen - Best DirectingKelly Wasserman - Best Production DesignJeff Cowan - Best Editing ( I think)Best Interative Internet ExperienceBest Makeup Effects :) Michael Del RossaBest Male Actor - Daniel BonjourBest Supplemental ContentBest Website DesignBest Visual EffectsBest CinematographyBest Writer!Best Drama Series! ___
October 07, 2011
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
Posted on September 30, 2011 by NYCGA
THIS DOCUMENT WAS ACCEPTED BY THE NYC GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2011
TRANSLATIONS: FRENCH, SLOVAK, SPANISH, GERMAN, ITALIAN
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
Update 10/1/11 – Minor updates to some wording in the facts.
This entry was posted in News, Official General Assembly news, September 17th and tagged Declaration by NYCGA. Bookmark the permalink.
As I've spent the last six months trying to decide what to do with my life I keep coming back to this quote:
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do," he told the Stanford grads in 2005.
"If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."
and this one:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future,” he told Stanford University graduates during a commencement speech in 2005. “You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
The manner in which he died is perfectly aligned with the way he lived. Fearless, focussed and with great passion and joy. Everyone always forgets the joy. When I saw him present at Macworld a year ago I was struck by how much fun he appeared to be having on stage. That never left him, even to the end.
Words cannot begin to express the impact this man has had on my life. Both personally & professionally. There is no one whom I have held in greater esteem both creatively and as a leader. I only met him once, but I’ll miss him all the same
#RIPSteveJobs
June 28, 2011
At each of my last three roles my 1st bit of change management was to attack the archaic and often dsyfunctional IT infrastructure and culture. People often asked me "Why I would bother" - and I said, if technology causes people pain in their daily life they will never see it as the path to a pleasurable future...
Gist - on their blog has christianed this the "new workstyle" and have made a fantastic infographic to illustrate it. Check it out!
Romy Park
This year July has 5 Fridays 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This happens once every 823 years. This is called money bags. So copy this to your status and money will arrive within 4 days. Based on Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui. Those who read and do not copy will be without money. ...
Every soul has its path, but sometimes that path is not clear.
The inner-map theory is an example of how each soul begins with an imprint All compacted into a pattern selected by your soul Before you’ve even gotten here
Y’see somethings going to happen… - What? Something wonderful
Listen, you’re in a privileged position to learn a thing or two. Keep your mouth shut and your eyes open.
UNKLE
February 23, 2011
I've just recently sponsored my dear friends Stephen and Ryan at the Pangea project http://kck.st/fEG3Z8
I've just recently sponsored my dear friends at the Pangea Project
February 13, 2011
I seem to have stepped on karmic landmine - sending bad luck - unsure of cause - need cure.
I'm facinatedted by the disparity of rankings and methodologies, what about people like me who have more than one twitter account ? How do we know your true rank of authority?
A quick note, as you've likely noticed above I have two Twitter accounts. There is a clear reason for this. @richardtitus is my personal platform for things I have to say, or retweets of industry or events which are meant to be shared. think of it as my edited feed.
@rxdxt is my unedited; unabridged location/thought/feed/dump realtime live blogging extravaganza. follow at your own risk I reserve the right to hook the thing up to anything, any time or disconnect. It current includes: Spotify, slideshare, linkedin, Foursquare & LastFM did include some others and might grow or shrink or turn off at any time. I also occasional post things here that are NSFW - particularly with language but occasionally with content.
What do you think your Social media currency is worth?
So my Tesla has returned, I'm sure you'll all agree this is a good thing. Except perhaps the parking wardens in Mayfair. The car looks great and the damage, now repaired, wasn't significant. We've installed some slightly more agressive security measures as well in both the house, car and a few other surprises. I'm hoping that deters whoever you are from making a 2nd attempt.
We've also agreed that my theory about this car's unique attraction has proven out which should make getting it valued easier.
On the topic of my Tesla and EV's in general - I was interviewed by Todd Miller, who is an entrepreneur and impressive chap recently for SF Gate and the interview has finally run - in two parts on their site:
Its a good piece though I forgot to plug Chris Paine and Jessie Deeter (the Director and Producer of WKTEC)'s new film Who Saved the Electric Car? aka Revenge of the Electric Car? - I for one am looking forward to it!
Thanks again for the support; and if you see me driving 'round London say hello!
October 22, 2010
Ciao South America, it was great to see Brazil, Chile and my secret favourite Argentina again. The future will be from here I can feel it.
October 21, 2010
FInally I can order my new macbook air laptop! - http://ping.fm/Cebck who wants my hand-me-down?
October 11, 2010
Am in SF for the day on layover, have some free time if anyone wants to grab coffee - dm or email me (or call) - SF
Yesterday was a wild, and crazy ride. I feel compelled, both for historical accuracy but also as a form of therapy, to put it all down somewhere. Since in many ways there are some real props and respect due - I figured this is the best place to do it.
I've been booked for weeks to speak at MIPCOM on a panel organized by the amazing Ferhan Cook. Though I'm not spending much time on TV/Film at the moment, I still am keenly interesting in the branded entertainment side of things, and the panel was on Apps - which I'm cooking up an entrepreneurial venture around. This is publicly available information on the web, as well as on Tripit which details my flight plans (originally to leave Tuesday night).(now made private)
I was approached by Jason Calcanis to host a last minute dinner for him and some folks from Open Angel Forum, which I'm getting involved in so I changed my plans, but no one by me and my assistant would have known that. This meant that I was now being picked up at 4:15am by EcoIgo to deliver me to Gatwick for the early flight to Nice, France.
At 3:41pm 2 or more likely 3 men broke into the front door of my house. They damaged the door and were all wearing gloves (so sayeth the police). They rummaged through my wife's computer bag (by the door) grabbed the keys to the TESLA and at least one of them climbed in and drove away, after 1st unplugging the car from the power and stowing the cable in the trunk. The other two men continued to ransack the entry-way to the house - likely looking for the second set of keys which were still in the pocket of my dirty jeans on the floor of the bedroom where I, my wife and my oldest daughter had been sleeping restlessly due to the latter's continued efforts to gain such position.
My wife kicked me waking me up saying to me, in a voice every husband has heard - "I think there's someone in the house" and I as usual got up, expecting there would be noone, but figured it was almost time to get up anyways I'd make a latte before taking a shower. I moved to the top of the stairs where I spotted that the door to my house was WIDE OPEN - with RAIN POURING down outside and two men, one short and rather stocky (maybe of african decent) and one white and rather tall and both wearing clothing that was strangely familiar (I would soon learn that's because it was my North Face Fleece, Armani raincoat and windproof vest). They were rummaging through my mother (visiting from the USA with her husband) our nanny's and my wife's purses looking for the 2nd key we suspect. I shouted and ran down the stairs to do - God knows what - but with adrenaline pumping to stop them or at least collar one. They looked up and fled into the rain as I started to chase them down the street I realized I was one man wearing cotton pajamas and they were two men well protected and possibly armed. I ceased pursuit.
At this point I thought this was just a simple burglary having not noticed the lack of TESLA in the driveway, but turning and walking back to the house I now saw that my car, the Silver TESLA Roadster - was missing. My wife, now in a robe downstairs was already on the phone to the police - who arrived before I could pull my jeans and t-shirt having been in the neighborhood. To their credit Camden police had a large number of units activated and we saw 3-4 police cars wizzing by looking for the car almost immediately.
A quick note on my car, for those who have forgotten;
Also pretty well known is that mine was the first TESLA in the UK; and that it's actually one of the prototype models, designed and built in the US and modified for a european specification.
So they had my car, and I was FREAKED. We began calling people, first we called the TESLA service manager (remember it's now 4:00am in the morning - who answered on the 2nd ring) and then called the banks, credit card companies and changed the login details on passwords for everything that might be auto-filled on Tavin's computer. We also began attempting to activate our TRACKER. This proved to be somewhat difficult at 1st due to some bureaucratic and other issues with our car, and the way the tracker had been installed. As we were chasing these (and those critical seconds ticking) we remembered something.
When we first got the car we put it intåo a luxury car club called E-Curie25 run by my friend Chirag. In exchange for having the car they paid the insurance (which for the 1st year was outrageous) and we would be paid for whenever people took our car out. To me there was a second benefit of being able to borrow some of their amazing super-cars (maserati's, Ferrari's, etc.) which was a lot of fun. Though we had taken the car out of the club since we loved it so much we were not making enough availability for them, they had placed a SECOND tracking device (TRACKER) insider the car as well - we called/paged/phoned everyone we could think of at E-curie to see if they could activate their tracker.
Then I decided to tweet about the theft. Realizing that if someone was driving the car - that a lot of people were about to get in their cars and go to work. Word might get around and given the cars uniqueness we'd likely have a whole bunch more assistance by getting word out as best we could. the first 48 hours in a car theft are critical as that's the average time it takes to get the car across town to someplace to strip or pack a car onto a ship/train/truck.
@richardtitus: Urgent! House was robbed, silver Tesla au5 8ajx stolen! If seen call the police!”
I was really impressed by the support and help I got from the community re-tweeting this and more by the number of people who reached out personally with words of support and condolence to my family and I for this terrible experience.
I have to say that Tesla's service department were really amazing helpful and supportive they called frequently to check in and was chasing all available avenues to both find the car but also to alert anyone who had a new enquiry for parts or service, that the car was missing. Word spread throughout the morning to dealerships and employees. Apparently mine was the 1st TESLA to ever be stolen !! The police remained a constant presence all a.m. also helpfully asking questions and looking around the neighborhood. The general consensus was that the car was stolen to order and was likely on a boat someplace now. We, however held out hope. Then a call from the lovely friends at E-CURIE25; they had re-activated their tracker and located a signal. It was coming from a council estate parking lot at the edge of High-gate & Haringuey. We notified the police and then decided to race up there ourselves and see what was there. The parking lot was shielded from the air by trees (in fact most of the path from my house to there was shielded by trees and easy to reach on back roads) and it was at the edge of the zone you could travel on without being seen by CCTV.
We arrived to find - OUR CAR! Dirty, scratched and parked under a tree.
I learned this is standard behavior to dump the car someplace hidden for a day or two or three and see if Police or anyone else shows up. This is specifically done to identify whether there is a TRACKER installed in the vehicle. What's great about trackers (and we have several now) is that they are hidden throughout the car and hard to find, much less remove, without destroying the car. We now have now added one that works globally - which means if it's stolen again, even if on a transport we'll find it. When dumped like in this instance - the car is usually watched 24 hours a day, so we and the police remained with the vehicle, until the special crimes unit could have the car collected and taken to a police lab. The car is currently undergoing, what I imagine is something akin to an episode of CSI - which I hope will catch the thieves - when I fantasize I'll be allowed 5 minutes in a holding cell with them by a friendly officer.. ok that's not likely.
But as it stands, there's a likely chance they'll catch these guys. I've also decided to install some more safety equipment in the car - and the house including a digital CCTV system (any suggestions ??) which will publish on the web. We've replaced all the locks and added deadbolts to the doors. The thing about incidents like this is they make you feel much less safe. All I could think about all a.m. was "what if this had happened and I'd been in France? What if they couldn't find the keys, would they have come up?" and "Thank God my kids stayed asleep"
I also began thinking about social media and transparency and life-publishing. I mean, its unlikely a speaking engagement could be hidden and still be useful, but things like foursquare, facebook and the ridiculous insistence in the UK that people have on using your home address for bills, etc (unlike in the USA where many people use Mail Boxes Etc.). People say that the UK and EU are more privacy aware than the US, yet my bank card here has my Sort-code and account number on it - things that my US cards would never dream of!
@BenedictEvans: @richardtitus a pioneer as always: 1st UK 4Square burglary AND first to have a Tesla stolen. Hoping nothing more than pride hurt...
Now while I think its unlikely these thieves use foursquare I do think we need to think carefully about what information we put into the social web. Perhaps also altering or installing better controls and active management of just who gets what piece of data. (perhaps even allowing us to know who indeed has accessed it!)
Lastly I began to think about what matters in life. In reality we are really lucky. The family and our children are safe; all they got were some computers, some credit cards, a little cash and my unlucky mom and stepfather's passports. Nothing that can't be got back, slightly newer and via insurance largely painless. I think, on reflection that given this car's unqueness and given the theives obvious level of expertise, there is literally nothing we could have done differently to avoid this, and likely it was much better that getting the car was so easy. They may not have stopped had the keys not been there - and that, frankly scares me more than anything.
