Heathrow row in T5
March 28, 2008
For those of you who don’t stay up on the hottest airport news, Terminal 5 opened yesterday at London’s Heathrow. The queen paid a visit two weeks ago to offer her blessing. T5 is one of the largest, most expensive infrastructure projects…ever.
It has been under planning for 20 years. But to the consternation of the Brits, there have been — gasp — some glitches. Some bags got lost, some flights got canceled. The public is outraged and wants those in charge to pay. And everybody is shocked that the big cheese didn’t say sorry soon enough.
The whole thing seems bizarre to me. Weddings are planned for months. Try asking brides about planning and outcomes. Or what about Rome? You think the Colosseum’s innovative seating worked on opening night? T5 opened yesterday. Chill.
…then again, if T5 loses my bag, I’m going to freak out.
Smarkets background story
March 27, 2008
When I was eight or nine growing up in suburban Philadelphia, I received a package in the post. I have no idea why it came, maybe because of my Cub Scouts involvement. It was a do it yourself entrepreneurship kit, complete with a shopping catalog and instructions.
The goal was simple: sell mainly household-type items and get a commission. Brilliant. Finally a way to increase my bank account faster than waiting for annual birthday and Christmas cheques. My father helped me create a bespoke invoice, with the help of an ASCII editor and a dot matrix printer, and off I went from house to house.
I didn’t do random selling to my neighbors for that long, but I made enough cash to impress a kid. It taught me two valuable lessons: 1. you needn’t do ‘normal’ things to earn money (e.g. mow lawns and deliver newspapers) and 2. your level of success is directly related to your actions.
In the fall of 2005, one of my best mates Hunter Morris, from university, was visiting me from London. We were brainstorming ideas for different companies we could start. We discussed the idea of founding a new type of betting exchange (aka prediction market). I was very familiar with the concept from my trading job in Chicago.
Both of us had recently completed computer science degrees and thought we could create something that would beat any existing betting exchange website. In August 2007 both of us left our full time jobs, myself at UBS and Hunter at Wolverine Trading, and set out just to do that.
And Smarkets be thy name.
First post
March 27, 2008
Welcome. It’s high time that I set up my own personal blog. Instead of telling my close, personal friends my thoughts, why not share them with the anonymous internet?
