Twitter = Communicate with new contacts.
Facebook = Socialize with current friends.
In my opinion, Facebook is the new MSN. MSN, and ICQ before it, helped us socialize with our friends. On the flip side, Twitter is a way to find new people who share the same interests as you. it seems that as my friends and I grow more distant, Facebook and I grow more distant. Lately, I have been exploring Twitter more to build a network of business contacts, entrepreneurs, and interesting people.
As you all know by reading my blog, my last name is Speziale. I’ve been researching my last name Speziale for years to find out its meaning. Today I stumbled upon a new Wikipedia Speziale page. I had to translate the Speziale page to english, because naturally, it was written in Italian – Italy being the origin of the Speziale last name.
The Wikipedia article describes Speziale: “The chemist in the Middle Ages was the one who took care of the preparation of medicines, usually had a shop called pharmacy, within which the activities carried out also for the sale of spices and medicinal herbs.”
So my ancestors were presumably the modern-day equivalent to pharmacists and chemists. Interesting. Check out the full Speziale Wikipedia article
For more than 1 year Rogers owned exclusive rights to sell Apple’s iPhone in Canada. But soon, Rogers iPhone exclusivity will be broken by Bell and Telus. Bell and Telus should be getting the Apple iPhone in November.
Globe and Mail reports “the two carriers [Bell, Telus] would announce a working partnership with Apple as early as Tuesday and begin selling the device in time for the launch of their new network. Bell confirmed Tuesday morning that it has a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada in November”
This is good news for Bell and Telus customers. I myself am a Bell customer who longed for better cell phones on the Bell network. Now I’ll seriously consider buying the iPhone. Any Bell or Telus customers who are going to buy the iPhone?
University of Waterloo co-op student launches job site to help jobless students, grads beat 16.4 percent unemployment rate in Canada. Social networking is changing way young job seekers expect to find jobs online. Newly launched job site Buddingup makes it easy for students and grads to connect with employers and recruiters across Canada.
The numbers are discouraging. 16.4 percent student jobless rate; Statistics Canada’s lowest record since 1977. Enter University of Waterloo student Robin Speziale who launched Buddingup to help jobless students and recent grads beat unemployment. Buddingup.com helps students and grads network with recruiters, friend fellow job seekers, connect to campus recruitment programs, and search jobs all across Canada.
“The old job boards don’t address the new needs of young job seekers” states Robin Speziale, founder of Buddingup.com. “Students and grads are used to social networking like Facebook where they can easily connect with people, so when they search or apply for jobs on these old job boards, it’s like hitting a wall – theirs no connectivity between them and the employer” says Speziale.
In developing the idea for Buddingup, Speziale wanted to provide a better job search experience. Robin Speziale states “Buddingup is all about helping students and grads find a job – so we added more job search features than the average job board.”
– On the find recruiters section, students and grads can contact recruiters directly in order to network to their job. “Now if you want to follow up with the employer after applying to a job or ask a recruiter questions, you can” states Speziale.
– With Career Pages, students and grads can link directly to campus recruitment programs. “The campus recruitment pages are available in one click so that students and grads won’t have to spend their time navigating through hundreds of company websites” states Speziale.
– On the job search, students and grads can search new entry level jobs, co-op jobs and internships from across Canada. “The job search on Buddingup pulls jobs from all over the internet, so all jobs are in one spot” says Speziale.
– Students and grads can join Buddingup to network with each other and share job tips. “I added a social component so that students and grads could connect to the job seeker community in Canada, making the job search more fun” states Speziale.
– Students and grads can create a professional profile on Buddingup, including a brief description of their skills, eduation, qualities and post links to their blog, Twitter, and Facebook “so that they can better advertise to recruiters” says Speziale.
Can Robin Speziale help jobless students and grads beat the 16.4 percent student unemployment rate in Canada? Robin Speziale argues “at the end of the day, students and grads will be the ones who beat the high unemployment rate – I’m just giving them a better job search experience to help them find jobs.”
The stock market is a complex machine that takes many factors into account. Among the most significant are psychological factors. With 2009’s low stock price levels, the bulk of mutual funds that experienced mass redemption in 2008 are gaining confidence, figuring this may be the end of turbulence.
This positive attitude is self-fulfilling: Money Managers will begin to deploy hard kept cash reserves and pump up undervalued stocks. A herd mentality will kick in and an onslaught of mutual fund companies will follow suit and inject cash into stocks so they don’t miss the stock market boom in 2010.
However, a factor that could slow stock markets in 2010 is the still looming credit collapse. Credit for so long was the steroid that pumped up companies to disproportionate levels. The era of easy, fast credit is over and thus a new era of internal capital investment will reign.
Because internal capital investment is fueled by income a company generates and its cash flow, investments will be conservatively planned and pursued and thus growth will be slower. 2010 stock market performance will fall in line with future gradual growth of corporations. As Warren Buffet put it: “The party is over”
Is it a good time to buy RIM stock? I’d say so. On September 25th, RIM stock took a nasty dive. Why? Investors weren’t happy with earnings forecast moving forward, doubting RIM’s business model. In my opinion, this dive is short term – RIM will bounce back. However, let’s talk long term investing in RIM.
Critics quickly justified RIM’s fall from grace September 25th, pegging the lower earnings forecast to a weakened and questionable business model. Goldman Sachs commented “The failure of RIM’s new products (Javelin and Tour) to drive similar growth in new subscriber adds compared to prior launches makes us doubt RIM’s ability to maintain share in North America,”. Goldman, like RIM’s other critics, are worried about RIM’s consumer business model, citing its consumer line of Blackberry’s as the future to bigger growth and earnings.
I do agree on some level that the consumer line can add more revenue to RIM’s operations. However, one cannot forget RIM’s core business model is the Corporate/ Government sector. And when the ecnomy picks up and the developing world continues building infrastracture and businesses, RIM will supply them. RIM will supply corporations and government in the long run because of security. RIM’s servers are rock solid. I don’t think an iPhone can live up to that same level of security.
Porsche Canada wants Porsche owners to drive in the winter. “While visiting Porsche dealers around Canada, I was amazed to hear how many owners put their Porsches away for the winter,” says Joe Lawrence, President and CEO of Porsche Canada. “There is no rule against driving a Porsche in the winter! To the contrary, a Porsche performs strongly and safely whatever the season”
The marketing campaign to get Canadian Porsche drivers driving in the winter includes “15,000 direct-mail pieces, sent to customers and distributed through dealers; an e-mail promotion campaign; and national and dealer print advertising”.
KFC Grilled Chicken is in Canada, but only in select test markets. According to an official announcement from KFC: “beginning this summer, customers in select markets in Canada will have the opportunity to try the latest finger lickin’ good menu item – Kentucky Grilled Chicken”.
So when will every KFC in Canada sell KFC Grilled Chicken? The official press release says it’s “expected to be rolled-out across Canada in 2009”
Have you tried Kentucky Grilled Chicken – how is it?
Inflation has really hurt Toonie Tuesday’s at KFC. A Toonie Tuesday now costs $2.59. But if you go to the KFC website for Toonie Tuesday you’ll see a disclaimer in small print: “*Price may vary. At participating locations”.
What will happen when the price of a Toonie Tuesday is $3 in the future – can we still call it a Toonie Tuesday? Well, whatever the price I’ll still buy – finger lickin’ good.
University of Waterloo students are behind a boom in new startups launching in Waterloo, Ontario. Buddingup, Unsynced, and Findit Off Campus are the newly launched startups. It seems VeloCity, a startup incubator unveiled in 2008, has sparked renewed entrepreneurial spirit at the University of Waterloo.
Robin Speziale of Buddingup, Ted Livingston of Unsynced, and Paul Lee and Krishna Sivaranjan of Findit Off Campus represent a new generation of entrepreneurs from the University of Waterloo. And while not all entrepreneurs behind these new startups were members of VeloCity – a campus incubator for Waterloo students – they can thank VeloCity for renewed entrepreneurial spirit at the University of Waterloo.
These new student-launched startups vary in concept. Buddingup.com, a job site for students and new grads, was founded by Robin Speziale, an Honours Arts and Business student at the University of Waterloo. Speziale states he started buddingup.com to “provide students and grads a better job search experience”. Buddingup features entry level, internship and co-op job listings.
Among the VeloCity hatched startups are Unsynced and Findit Off Campus. Ted Livingston founded Unsynced.com, a music platform for the Blackberry, recently selected as one of 16 finalists in the international BlackBerry developers contest. Also, Paul Lee and Krishna Sivaranjan launched FinditOffCampus.com, a student housing site that offers an interactive map with local business search and bus route display feature to ease the housing process for students.
Buddingup, Unsynced, and Findit Off Campus were all launched by University of Waterloo students. No wonder StartupNorth writer Jevon MacDonald recently stated that “This pretty much makes Waterloo the go-to university for students serious about doing a startup”. MacDonald explains that “we have a bit of a thesis here at StartupNorth… that the biggest problem with the startup environment here in Canada isn’t that VC’s aren’t investing as much as we might like these days… but we think that the biggest issue is that there is no push that gets an early stage idea from the notepad to the web.”
Since opening in fall 2008, University of Waterloo’s VeloCity has been a welcome solution to Canada’s startup problem. Sean Van Koughnett, director of VeloCity, recently stated in Imprint – University of Waterloo’s official campus newspaper – that VeloCity has “largely met or exceeded the expectations of students, partners, and administrators”. “For students, it[VeloCity] has provided them with an opportunity to develop ideas they feel passionate about, to work and live with like-minded students, and to build professional networks.”
Indeed, the University of Waterloo is fostering a new generation of startups and the entrepreneurs behind them. For soon-to-be graduating high school students looking to join the new startup boom in Waterloo, Ontario – the University of Waterloo is a great place to start.
Robin R. Speziale 
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