Alexander Stuart

Hans Tung of GGV Capital (right) talking with Bill Reichert of Garage Technology Ventures.  P hotograph  Copyright  ©  2015 A lexander Chow-Stuart. I attended Funded! Global Edition  in San Francisco on Wednesday, a tech-focused conference about venture capital, an event organized by Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs with the sponsorship of ShengJing (Peakview Capital in the US) and F50. An often fascinating glimpse into the thought processes of fund managers, the general conclusions from the panels were of the vital importance of passion, persistence and resilience, of course, with Hans Tung, Managing Partner of GGV Capital (and one of the most entertaining of the participants) stressing the importance of the DNA of a founder and how that relates to both the product and the market. Among the people I met who most interested me were:  Karen Katz , panelist and founder of Playlist Media, which she said is currently in "stealth mode."  Corey...

Hudson with Amanda Heater from Lenovo, who presented him with his Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro.  Hudson and I attended getgeeked San Francisco last Thursday, and at the end of the event, Jeff Witt and Amanda Heater of Lenovo put Hudson over the moon with the gift of a Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro , a beautiful 13.3" 32 GB tablet that comes complete with stereo JBL speakers and an incredible integrated pico projector. getgeeked is a tech convention that gives people the chance to see some of the latest products in development, as well as new tech releases from major brands, and to interact with CEOs, developers and tech enthusiasts, while trying out the goodies, hands-on. There are brief presentations and Q&As, as well as raffles and giveaways for those who share their experience on Twitter and Instagram. Hudson and I each came within a single digit of winning three of the raffles, but what was truly remarkable was that Hudson was given the Lenovo tablet after the panels a...

For anyone who has any doubts about Lana Del Rey's hauntingly broad range of talents, here are two songs and videos that capture the beauty of her voice and presence at its most vulnerable and simply moving. Chelsea Hotel #2 is a Leonard Cohen song that Lana Del Rey sings even more beautifully than Cohen (and I love Cohen), bringing to it the strange kind of frailty that Lou Reed brought to songs like Perfect Day (both Cohen and Reed videos are below.) The second Del Rey song is Black Beauty, from her album Ultraviolence , made all the more beautiful here by the "fanmade" music video by Peter Tatsis, which features vintage footage of female dancers (along with footage of Del Rey herself, from other videos) which in its own way is as haunting as Lana Del Rey's tender song and voice. Lana Del Rey's music now strikes me as comparable in a sense to early Bowie: enormously varied, hugely accomplished and at the same time the beginning of a long wonderful...

Lana Del Rey, Pretty When You Cry (Official Video) YouTube I've been a major fan of Lana Del Rey's for several years - at least since I first posted about her, with her remarkable music videos, Carmen and National Anthem , in July 2012. I find her music now even stronger, and her recent videos (below) for her songs Pretty When You Cry and West Coast, are as powerful as the songs themselves. It may seem an odd comparison, but Lana Del Rey seems perhaps the female answer to Bruce Springsteen , when he is at his best as an American storyteller - his early albums, the magnificent Nebraska and songs like 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) , capture a highly distinctive vision of blue-collar America. Lana Del Rey, Pretty When You Cry (Official Video) YouTube Lana Del Rey is the first musician to truly introduce the concept of noir to popular songs. Her songs are about love and sadness and joy (Summertime Sadness, for instance), but the joy is always tempered with...

There are only a couple of days left to enter Preggie's first video contest - Why I Love Or Hate Being Pregnant - and have a chance to win some sweet baby gear. Preggie is the dedicated free mobile "moms-to-moms" social app for new, expectant and experienced mothers, in which the community as a whole shares experiences, photos, funny stories or emotional vents, and moms answer each other's questions and offer support and advice during what is, for many, one of the most challenging times in their lives. You can download the free Preggie app for iOS or Android here: preggieapp.com To enter the contest, just shoot a brief video (you have to be a mom, you don't have to be pregnant!), then check out Preggie's YouTube channel for details of how to submit it, either via Instagram, Facebook or Twitter (make sure to tag the video as instructed on Preggie's YouTube channel ) - or share it directly with Preggie via Dropbox by emailing charong@preggieap...