I have been contemplating this blog entry for a while now as these are two critical components to what makes Quiksu what we are. I write this fresh off of finishing a book called The Medici Effect which basically discusses the concept of the 'Intersectional' idea and its ramifications on revolutionary innovation. This was an extremely timely read for me because we are placing ourselves directly at the intersection of a few industries. The possibilities are endless and we are extremely excited to start showing some things off. Now to the final two core values.

In terms of the Web, nothing will have the staying power of a company like Corning if it is not sufficiently secure and ubiquitous. If a significant security breach happens in this day in age not only does the breached data travel at the speed of light but so does the news of it occurring. News, being highly peer-to-peer, has created an environment that requires that this circumstance be avoided at all cost. This is one of the primary reasons why when we narrowed our brand to three themes, security is one of them. Plus, coming from a guy who majored in Mathematics, security is cool. Though I never formally studied things like number theory and combinatorics I picked up books like that for fun. I have also been blessed to have been exposed to some of the world's best data architects and engineers. I'll introduce you to one soon, Quiksu's second member, Co-Founder and CIO.

Since we're on the subject of data and security it is a must to think about all of the places where we have access to Web data. When you really think about it, it is always and everywhere: ubiquitous. That is both a bit scary and exciting, the perfect place for a startup. Our aim is to provide access to our products and services anywhere you may have the desire to do so, whether on vacation at the International Space Station or at the public library.

Now that we've gotten the core values out of the way we'll start introducing the exact nature of our Intersectional idea and showing off a thing or two in the process. I can't tell you how exciting this is. Hope you enjoy the ride as much as we are.

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Ethan Jordan
Founder & CEO
Quiksu Systems L.L.C.

One of the most amazing things about being in a Startup is that everything seems to change all of the time. When I think of Startups I envision a water balloon. "Huh!?" Wait, hear me out. You write your business plan and you think you have everything in control. Like a water balloon. Then, the thing pops. Just at that very moment is Startup mode. It is that moment before gravity takes over. That once nice and orderly balloon becomes a beautifully chaotic globule. If you ask me, it is how that moment is perceived and reacted on that will determine whether or not the Startup will be last. This requires a great deal of improvisation. Fortunately (perhaps unfortunately for some) the period of time that a Startup exists in this state is far longer than that of a water balloon.

Innovation and knowledge are intimately tied to the concepts of perception and reaction through improvisation. How something is perceived is dependent upon what is known about that thing. Whether the knowledge is a priori or a posteriori does not really matter. What does matter is what is done with that knowledge (at least as it pertains to the Startup globule). More knowledge leads to more options. Though that means more wrong options it also means more correct ones and opportunities to acquire additional knowledge through the lessons learned via the wrong ones. When creating a new industry, which is what Quiksu believes it is doing, knowledge is the oxygen which keeps the Company's lifeblood flowing. That lifeblood is innovation.

Innovation is the end result of systems and processes that interact with brilliant minds focused on a common goal. Anyone can build technology for the sake of technology, but the long-term societal impact that true innovation ushers in will be limited. Quiksu has to create a pandemically contagious culture of innovation in order to reach its destiny as an organization. In that environment, new ideas germinate and innovation flourishes.

Knowledge and Innovation. These are required tools when paving the road of a new industry, which is really just convergence of a few other industries. I'll get into that a bit more later though. In the meantime though, stay tuned for the final two: Security & Ubiquity

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Ethan Jordan
Founder & CEO
Quiksu Systems

Labels: balloon, destiny, improvisation, innovation, knowledge, water

If it ain't quick, it ain't gon' stick and if you can't use it, then you wont.

Pardon the English but that's very much the truth. In the world of the Web, speed and intuitiveness are king. I know that I'm not the first person, nor will I be the last who has been frustrated by a Website that just took too long to do stuff or one that just didn't make sense. Sometimes it is because there is some really powerful functionality behind the scenes while other times there is just so much 'stuff' thrown in that it takes time to run all the scripts and functions.

At Quiksu, we think that there is beauty in simplicity. It is this simplicity which gets directly to the core of quickness and usability. At the end of the day all we aim to do is  to communicate ideas. By no means are we saying that these ideas are simple but how we communicate them needs to be. Everyone has heard of E=mc². There is a beauty and elegance in the simplicity with which this idea is communicated. Take a look at the proof and you may see a different story.

This blog focussed primarily on the rationale behind which we approach product development. The next blog will focus on Innovation & Knowledge which are critical to making world class products happen.

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Ethan Jordan
Founder & CEO
Quiksu Systems

The beautiful thing about Startups is that it is always the first and last shot at everything. Our homepage right now is a blank slate. Partly because what we are building has never been built before, partly because we're still looking for the right people to fulfill the vision, and partly because we want to always ensure that whatever we build is easy to use.

When you get brilliant people gearing up to focus on what will be the space to be in 3 years from now it is both exciting and challenging. There are a lot of things that we do not know about the nature of the space in which we are participating. What we know for sure however, is that it will not be business as usual. There are certain values that a future company will need to proliferate in order to inspire brilliant people to focus on really important questions.

For the moment I'm just going to list ours. They are pretty straight forward. I figured since the word value is a noun why not have each of our values be a noun as well. It ends up being pretty cool because we can say that...

Quiksu stands for:

Quickness
Usability
Innovation
Knowledge
Security
Ubiquity

These values have been debated, questioned, prayed on, slept on, you name it, for over a year now and what we agree on is this. Before we are a corporate legal entity we are people organized around powerful questions under a set of motivating values. There is a symbiotic relationship between our questions and our values.

Quiksu is a company that exists because of the Web. The Web is ever-evolving and ever-expanding so if we align ourselves with the core pillars of that which has made the Web what it is and maintain integrity to it then the universe is our limit.

My next few blog entries will be a closer look at each of these values. Then I will begin introducing the team and business units before we really get busy.

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Ethan Jordan
Founder & CEO
Quiksu Systems

We are on the verge of something big folks. We're officially in public stealth mode. You heard it here first.