Investing in 3D Printing

“Have you seen the price jumps of the 3D printing stocks? What are you long? You must have invested in some, right? Is 3D Systems the one to go with?”

3d printing wolf of wall street

Having some background in both 3D printing and finance, I hear these questions quite often. Well, at least I used to hear them. 3D printing stocks were the ‘pretty girl in class’ for the past year or so, until the 3D Systems (DDD) recently announced it’s preliminary results for the year 2013[1], which made the stock price plummet and set the market haywire.

Was it really a surprise?

The news, I mean. If you had studied 3D Systems more closely you would have noticed many things that normally would raise alarms in any investor’s mind. Without going into too much details[2] their growth strategy has been based on acquisitions, without actually selling too many of their own 3D printers. Their consumer focused 3D printer does not get much appraisal from the maker community.

3d-systems cube

So what has made theirs and other 3D printing stocks skyrocket? Is just a charismatic CEO (he really is) and effective marketing (it really is) enough? Could be, but it could also be that people are lazy to do their homework and just invest when it seems like the right time?

›› continue reading

Day Trip to Koh Kret, Bangkok

Every once in a while I have the urge to close computer & phone, and just escape Bangkok’s concrete jungle. Unfortunately most of the nice beach destinations are more than 3 hours drive or a flight away from the busy capital (Koh Kood, Koh Mak, Krabi, Phuket etc.), but luckily there are plenty of options for the beach getaways near Bangkok. One of them is Koh Kret.

Koh Kret is a tiny 2 square km island located in Chao Phraya river in Nonthaburi province north from Bangkok. It is a man made island with history that dates only to 1722, when a canal was built as a short cut to a curve in the Om Kret part of Chao Phraya river. The canal was widened many times and finally Koh Kret became an island. Koh Kret has served as a refuge for Mon tribes and even today they have kept some of the culture alive through pottery making.

Koh Kret offers a number of temples, local shopping opportunities, pottery factories, and many beautiful river view locally run small restaurants and coffee shops. There’s not that much for visitors to do on the island, but that sort of is the point of going there.

›› continue reading

3Doodler Review

Early last year I backed up a project in Kickstarter called 3Doodler. It was the first time for me to back anything on Kickstarter and to be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect. The delivery time was long, and I had almost forgotten the whole thing, until just recently, 10 months later it finally arrived. There was a bit of a mix-up with the courier company, which is more of a standard at this part of the world.

3Doodler Box

The 3Doodler, for those who are not familiar with it, is the infamous 3D printing pen that raised over $2.3 million from over 26,000 backers with their Kickstarter campaign last year. Besides the money the 3Doodler also raised a lot of questions and varying opinions. Some thought it was the best idea ever and some condemned it as a simple glue gun.

Was it just hype around an average product or have they unlocked something unique? Now that I actually have the 3Doodler, and been playing around with it, I thought I’d write a review from a non-tech user perspective. In this review I will look into the five aspects listed below. Each section will be graded 0-5, 5 being the best outcome.

›› continue reading

Online Marketing Recap of 2013 and Takeout for 2014

Marketing-Term-CloudThe year 2013 witnessed a number of course changes in online marketing. Along Search with Google algorithm updates, the changing social media features and the number of new channels growing rapidly, multiple screen becoming the trend word, the online marketing stage is set to keep changing faster and faster. As a marketer it’s a confusing field to be working in, but at the same time it offers vast number of opportunities.

Here’s a brief recap of 2013 and some takeout for 2014.

Google Search

In 2013 Google launched some major algorithm updates such as the Panda, Penguin 2.0 and Hummingbird. Panda focused on penalizing weak content sites, such as “content farms” and “scraper sites”, and lifted up those with regular original content. Penguin 2.0 as it’s predecessors was aiming to hit hard on web spam and highlighted even further website authority. With a new letter started algorithm – Hummingbird – Google is now able to recognize full-question searches instead of just parsing specific keywords, and are able to appropriately rank answers to these long-tail question searches. If that wasn’t enough Google announced September that all keyword data would encrypted, not only logged in user data. Although there are still ways to gauge keyword data, it’s not as easy as it used to be.

›› continue reading

Staying fit – Physically and Mentally

Happy New Year 2014!

Exercise in some form has been in my life as long as I can remember. But it became a vital part of my every day life when I became an entrepreneur. Having the history of a competing athlete I have really had hard time learning away from measuring all the results and competing with yesterday’s me. Exercise in my life today has one purpose and one purpose only: give me the morning boost for the day and feeling great. It has become part of my morning routine, and it really has made me significantly more productive. As a matter of fact, I am at my most productive state in the morning after the exercise.

adhd_squirrel_tee_shirts

I learned the secret of starting the day energetic in college, when I did my morning training and went to classes filled with energy, while my friends still had their eyes half closed and were sipping their coffee. Of course I was too much in an adrenaline high to be able to pay any attention during the class. But I learned how to kickstart the day.

In addition to morning exercise, I have another routine that I am following daily basis. Having a healthy first meal.

›› continue reading