Sherry Tingley

Google Awards $2 Million Dollars To Sal Khan

September 27, 2010 By Sherry Tingley

On Friday, September 24, 2010, Google awarded $2 million dollars to Sal Khan for his contribution in educating the world through his math and science videos. His website, Khan Academy is the largest virtual school on the web and it is free. When asked what he was going to do with the money, he explained that he is going to translate the videos into Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese and all the major languages of the world.

Sal began creating teaching videos in 2004, while working as a hedge fund manager. He wanted to help a family member learn math. The videos he made were posted to YouTube and started becoming popular with people all over the world. People would write in and tell him that they were able to pass algebra because of him. He saved some people from dropping out of school completely. He received so much positive feedback, that it inspired him to keep creating videos.

Since then, he has created over 2000 learning videos on subjects like algebra, basic math, calculus, chemistry, economics, finance, geometry, linear algebra, physics, venture capital, statistics and trigonometry and his web site has attracted close to 2.5 million views.

There couldn’t be a better qualified individual to learn from. Sal received a perfect score on the math portion of the SAT exams. He earned three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one in mathematics, one in computer science and one in electrical engineering. He earned two master’s degrees, one MS from MIT and an MBA from Harvard.

Creating simple videos with basic tools, Sal has an exceptional ability to take complicated concepts and make them simple. Watching the videos is like being in math class where the teacher writes out equations on the blackboard. He is so engaging that some people say that they like him better on video than they do in person.

Sal has been dubbed as Bill Gates favorite teacher. “This guy is amazing, said Gates. “I’d say we’ve moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-may-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day when his wife let him quit his job.”

At a recent gathering held in Aspen, Colorado called the Aspen Ideas Festival, where leaders from around the world gather to discuss ideas and issues of global concern, Bill Gates spent time speaking about Sal Khan and his contribution to the world. Mr. Gates has used the videos to help his own children learn biology and algebra. Sal Khan was probably not surprised by this recent public attention because in 2009, he was awarded the Microsoft Tech Award for education.

Finding A Business Partner

September 26, 2010 By Sherry Tingley

Finding a good business partner may be a little tricky, but according to Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal, it is one of the most important decisions you can make.

Max Levchin earned a bachelors degree in Computer Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where the first first Internet graphical browser, Mosaic was developed. This browser led to the boom of the 1990s and made the Web accessible to the ordinary person for the first time. Firefox 3, developed from this basic browser, had more than 8 million unique downloads the day it was released, setting a Guinness World Record.

After being influenced and taught at the same institution where Mosaic was created, Max decided to head for the Silicon Valley. Not intentionally looking for a business partner, Max randomly walked into a classroom on the Stanford University campus, trying to get out of the heat and searching for an air-conditioned place to sit.

He sat in on a lecture given by Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel’s expertise in business and entrepreneurship inspired Max to chat with him after class. The next day they met for breakfast and he shared with him several ideas he had for business projects. This meeting was the beginning of an extremely profitable business partnership.

They ended up creating a company called PayPal, an online payment processing company which allows people to send money to each other in a completely new and different way than they had ever been able to before. PayPal sold to eBay on July 8, 2002 for $1.5 billion dollars. Max’s share was worth $34 million and Peter Thiel’s share was worth $55 million.

One of the qualities of a good partnership is that the partner can tell you when your ideas are good and also when they are just way off base. The success of the partnership depends on you choosing the right person.

Some partnerships last a lifetime and end up being good for both parties, while others may last half a life time and end up with one or the other sending their partner down the river. Choose your business partner as wisely as you would choose a marriage partner.

Who Is Max Levchin?

September 24, 2010 By Sherry Tingley

There are many people who can be considered pioneers in the development of web technology and most seem to be millionaires or billionaires. Max Levchin is no exception. Who is he?

He is a thirty-five year old, computer scientist and entrepreneur. He was born in the Ukraine, and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1991 under a political asylum. He earned his bachelors degree in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Accomplishments

In 1997 he co-founded two companies NetMeridian Software and SponsorNet New Media.

In 1998, he co-founded FieldLink with Peter Thiel and John Bernard Powers. Powers left the company and the company name, FieldLink, was soon changed to Confinity. The two partners, Levchin and Thiel then developed the popular payment product known as PayPal. After merging with a company called X.com, the official name of their company was changed to Paypal Inc. Levchin was well known for developing the anti-fraud component of PayPal called CAPTCHA a process that will differentiate computer input from input by human beings.

PayPal went public in 2002, and shortly afterwards, eBay purchased PayPal for $1.5 billion dollars. When PayPal was acquired by eBay, Levchin’s interest in the company was worth $34 million dollars.

Levchin did not remain idle after this aquisition. In 2004, he went on to create yet another company called Slide. He invested $7 million dollars of his own money in this company. Funding was also acquired from various venture capitalists. The company was first developed to allow users to organize photos on their computers and post them to personal blogs. Later it became known for creating applications that became very popular on Facebook. Some of the applications were “Top Friends”, FunWall”, “My Questions, “Fortune Cookie”, and “Super Poke”. By 2008, Super Poke Pet was launched were you can care for and buy things for a virtual pet.

On August 6, 2010, Google purchased Slide.com for $182 million dollars. Levchin received $39 million dollars for that sale. Shortly after that, on August 25, Google offered him a job as the Vice President of Engineering.

Advice To Entrepreneurs

Max Levchin’s best words of advice to other technology entrepreneurs is to try your best to find a good co-partner. Having the checks and balances from another person that you have respect and trust for and the ability of that person to tell you when you are way off base at exactly the right time is extremely valuable, if not the most valuable thing.

Future Plans

It will be exciting to follow his next accomplishments as a new Vice President of Engineering at Google.

Entrepreneur Receives Praises From Bill Gates

September 23, 2010 By Sherry Tingley

At a recent gathering held in Aspen, Colorado called the Aspen Ideas Festival, where leaders from around the world gather to discuss ideas and issues of global concern, Bill Gates spent time speaking about a remarkable man, Sal Khan. Sal Khan, a recent hedge fund manager, has taken his business to a new level. He is now helping to educate the masses. “This guy is amazing, said Gates. “I’d say we’ve moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job.”

Sal Khan was probably not surprised by the recent public attention. In 2009, his site and “academy” was awarded the Microsoft Tech Award for education.

Sal Khan has created over 1800 learning videos on subjects like calculus, chemistry, economics, finance, geometry, linear algebra, physics, venture capital, statistics and trigonometry.

Sal has an exceptional ability to take complicated concepts and teach people in ways that are easy to understand. He narrates the videos and uses a big black background to draw on as he speaks. Mr. Gates has used the videos to help his own children learn biology and algebra.

It is interesting to know a little about Sal and his background. Sal Khan was born in Louisiana. His father was from Bangladesh and his mother from Calcutta, India. He received a perfect score on the math portion of the SAT. He has three bachelor degrees, one in mathematics, one in computer science and one in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds an MBA from Harvard. In 2009, Khan Academy, and received the Microsoft Tech Award for education.

Sal Khan has made a huge contribution to the world by providing an education to anyone who may be wanting to learn. From all corners of the world, people can benefit from his videos.

Budget is Not a Dirty Word

September 23, 2010 By Sherry Tingley

The word “budget” may seem like a dirty word, but during these trying economic times, it can be your life line. If you think “it can’t happen to me”, look around you; national unemployment is hovering around 9.5%. Unless you are self-employed, you have no idea what lies around the corner.

Sadly, the great majority of us have never had to budget our money. Our parents and grandparents grew up when times were lean, living within their means, on a budget, which became a habit. But, those of us born after 1945 have grown up in the land of plenty, quite accustomed to instant gratification. A budget can be a hard pill to swallow.

Do you live paycheck to paycheck? Do you “do without” as a result? Do you regularly bounce your account? If you answered yes to any of these questions, a budget will be your salvation.

The first step in planning a budget is to gather the family. Write down every possible, itty-bitty expenditure. You can transfer it to a computer spread sheet later, though many people prefer to use an inexpensive accounting journal; writing it in longhand seems to get their creative financial juices flowing.

Sort your expenses from the largest to the smallest, then focus your attention on ways to reduce your largest. If you can refinance your home, you may be able get enough to pay off your vehicle, which may enable you to put money into a savings account, a tax-free IRA or to pay off your high interest credit card debt. The end should always justify the means, so consider this carefully.

Now, look at your credit card debt and commit to becoming “plastic free”. You will want to save one or two cards for emergencies, but these should be cards you’ve held the longest and should be paid off along with the rest. You may even want to cancel the cards you don’t plant to keep, insuring you can’t add to your debt. Also cancel that costly “insurance” you have on each card. That money would be put to better use by applying it towards the balance.

Just start with the largest balance and start budgeting extra money to pay on that card. Do this faithfully. Once you have paid off one card, take that money and put it towards the next, plus what you’ve already been paying, then do it for the next and the next…. It may take some time, but time flies when you’re having fun! The satisfaction of paying off each card will be incredible.

Consider online bill pay to save on stamps, envelopes, pens, checks and time. Stamps and stuff add up, while your time is incalculable; add the cost of your morning latte at $3.50 ($910.00 annually) and the family dinner out 3 times a week (upwards of $4992.00 a year for a family of 4). If you start looking at the receipts for the last month or two, you can identify a lot of frivolous spending that can be cut or reduced.

Allocate money to savings and treat your savings account just like any other bill. You can’t take the money back that you’ve paid on your electric bill, right? Treat your savings much the same and include long-term goals like retirement, college and inevitable high dollar household needs in your annual budget.

No, it won’t be easy, but it will ultimately be extremely satisfying. Try it, just for a few months, and see how much better you feel. It really helps to know exactly where your money is going and as you save, having that financial cushion will be absolutely priceless. Budget is not a 4-letter word; it is a 6-letter word, just as “relief” or “comfort” is.