Dezzia collects and shares coupons from premium brands by leveraging social media.
We get the idea from a keen observation of coupon business in the technology crossroad.
Coupon business has probably existed as old as any kind of commerce. In old times, coupons were delivered to people’s doorstep in print, and the way to target was based on geography and mining of consumer behavior. Internet transformed coupon business. Coupons were delivered to people’s screen in digital format, and the way to target was based on search intention (SEO, PPC). With the emergence of social media, we believe that coupon business is up for another disruption. In the future, coupon will still be delivered in digital format, but the way to target is through networked individuals and groups. The power of social media is yet to be fully explored, and we are here to push the envelope towards a future we believe in.
Dezzia’s core technology is a “like gate” that locks the curated coupon code until customers “like” the coupon. When a customer unlocks a coupon, they broadcast the coupon to his/her friends. We believe that viral index of such a coupon deal is close to 1, so some deals can go viral and establish a large fan base for Dezzia.
We see the company evolve in three stages:
1. Establishes a large fan base by curating attractive coupons via social media
2. Negotiates with major brands for exclusive deals with the power of a large fan base
3. Helps small businesses to make more sales via coupons and establish a foothold in social media by extending Dezzia’s fan base
Check us out and find the latest coupons: www.dezzia.com
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
A tourist in my hometown
I have been visiting my hometown for the past week. Something triggered me to revive this blog. I hope this revival lasts for some time. It is easy to say while I am in this vacation mode, and time will tell if I can hold myself to this challenge.
At least for me, blogging equals feeling. Sometimes, or most times, I am caught up with daily worries and feel nothing. That's why I stopped blogging. You know, what to talk about if I feel nothing? I am just not kind of person satisfied with blogging about routine facts. But something in this trip has changed me a bit. I do not know what. That's why I am writing this blog post and trying to sort this out as I write.
One of my old co-workers once told me that he did not feel stressed while working. Only when he took a vacation and experienced a different and relaxed state of mind, he realized how stressed out he was during working. I am in the same camp now. I like my life in Chicago, like my work, and like my daily routines. However, when I am wandering around the streets in my hometown and sip coffee and get a drink as I like, I feel I am liking it much more. For the first time, I am thinking about coming back to China, to work and to live.
This is not a tectonic change as you would image. It comes naturally to me without any warning. And I know I might never follow my words here in reality. Too hard to give up the stuff that I already have in America. If I give it up, then who am I? I might have one more identity crisis yet again. But just thinking about it gives me some comfort. At least in this land, it is my world. People really understand me, and lucky me, some people even look up to me. A sense of connectedness is strong.
I have low tolerance of being bored. Whenever I come home, I cannot stay long. It is hard to see how my folks live. Day in and day out, it is the same old stuff. At least in my family, none of the conversation is stimulating. My mom, my dad, my sister, all boring. My brother in law is more interesting, but he is usually not around. My niece is a force of nature and is the most interesting person in the household. For a while, I was worried that her creativity might be smothered in this boring household. Fortunately, my worry was misplaced. Either her resilience cut through all the bullshit, or the financial independence of my brother-in-law allows him to throw his counter weight and keep the whole family sane.
As I said, my little niece is a force of nature. I really enjoy playing with her. She is always laughing (laughing is a rare trait in my family, because everyone in my family has a depressive tendency) and full of creativity. She has a golden tongue and can say things out of ordinary. Yesterday we played a game (completely made us by us) called Shen Bi Ma Liang (a fictional figure in Chinese fable who draws so well that the drawing turns into life once finished). I will say something stupid like, "if i have a Ma Liang's magic pen, I will draw a panda on a television…." and then my niece will just make a story on the fly about a panda and a television. Once she finished the short story, she would laughed at herself, shouting, "well well well, it is all made up by me!"
She cheats in badminton matches. In the gazillion games we played, she never lost. She is diligently practicing her school dance and has a very strong urge to perform. She writing is very good and she can sing and dance. In her, I see a star from my family, more balanced than me probably, and definitely will live a happier life than I. I wish her the best. If somehow my brother-in-law's finance gets into trouble, I think I would love to pick up her education cost.
Anyway, have I ever talked about my brother-in-law? Probably not. He is a very interesting figure, and the main pillar in my family. Without him, I can imagine the sorry state my family would have been in: an old depressive couple, a sister with meager salary, a useless son overseas. Now at least someone has a good income and an independent mind to do things beyond the approval of my parents. He used to be a cook and quit 6 years ago after being a successful part time author. He writes novels for a website and gets money from pay-per-view. His income is very good, and I hope this can last a little while. He is a person of consumption: he bought a nice car, a luxury watch, spent money in bars and personal care. He was yelled at for doing so by my parents when he was a cook. Now his earning power has silenced them. I feel a bit sorry and a bit amused by my parents behavior there. Despite respect for my parents, I look down to them to be so single-minded about money and status.
Last night my brother-in-law took me out to a bar. This is one of my best nights here. It is a bar called Soho Bar. Six of us: three guys and three girls. Guys: my brother-in-law, his friend while he was a cook, and me. His friend went to the same elementary school and middle school with me. We were one grade apart and never knew each other. He is a force of nature as well: well dressed, well versed, good to the girls, like to make friends. Girls: All front desk girls from the hotel that my brother-in-law's restaurant affiliates with. We got there at 9:30pm, and everything has been set up. Piles of beers. We played a fun drinking game with dices: lots of bluffing and guessing, and fun to play with girls. The beer is weak, so we drank a lot. For me, it is a fun night out to see the social scene in my hometown. For them, it was a special occasion to see a rare "species" of overseas returnee. As the lights shining and music beaming, everything is a bit unreal. In the daytime, as I walked about the streets, people are making do with life: hauling vegetable, selling clothes, rushing to work, rushing to lunch, fixing road, building subway. Here it is a totally different world: people forget about worries of tomorrow and enjoy the night away.
I found one of the girls extremely attractive, for her look and her personality. She is petite with a great body, and she obviously knows about her natural endowment. She knows how to have a good time: sometimes she will burst into dance out of nowhere. She is quick in words and has very sharp tongue. She is also observant and knows how to take care of people. She saw me uncomfortable picking songs to sing, so she walked over and subtly encouraged me. I think I enjoy being around people who know how to have a good time. For me, it is a skill that I have never acquired. I know how to work hard, get things accomplished, delay gratification, and expect that nice things will always happen later. Somehow, I lost the ability to live in the present and enjoy the moment. Then, for once, when I am around the people opposite to me, it is a refreshing as if I want their charisma to shine through me and just take me away.
Deep down, I think there is another layer of admiration and respect. Growing up in Ningbo is not the easiest thing for kids. Most families are not well off, and pressures from school, parents and peers are like heavy mountains that can crush most people's back. In that environment, it is natural for people to always look out for the future and suffer the present. Either tomorrow will be better, or the sorry state of present is just how the life is. At least that's my big takeaway growing up here. But some people are just different: they somehow survived life's harshness and had a sense of irrational optimism. i do not know whether they are consciously making the choice toward happiness, or their nature of happiness pursuit is too resilient to put out. Either way, I found myself attracted to them and wanted to be with them. It is hard to tell whether it is a love attraction, or a platonic attraction for an intriguing human being. All I know is that I am, and will be, at my happiest with them.
So much about the bar night out. Now let me do some writing about my career future and then call an end to this blog post. What do I want to be in 5-10 years? It is a cliche question in interviews and I always have a cliche answer. But with the prospect of mid-life crisis looming, a cliche answer will not cut it. Let me reflect. People admire me because I have gone somewhere with my adventures. For them, going to study overseas is a risk; taking a consulting job after PhD is a risk, and going back to business school is a risk. I always fiddle and never satisfy, and that becomes a signature of my "success". Well, people, if you respect me for that, I am sorry to disappoint you. Yes, I take risks and try to be always on the move. However, these risks are so measured that they are not real risks. I know every step along the way that the downside of each move is falling back to the status quo, so no big deal if I fail. Moreover, every move I take is probably more about escaping the present than reaching for something new. From this perspective, all my changes are extremely conservative in nature, and somehow I just got lucky to weave together a life story as if I am on the driving seat. That's far from the truth. The truth is: I was driven by the current of life and somehow ended up in a nice place. Pretty lucky, isn't it?
Luck will run out sooner or later, and probably for my next career move. So what's next? To be sure, I have no intention to stay in my current finance company to be a VP or something. The work in operations and call center management is interesting, and I think I can hone my skills there. However, I want to do something more useful and meaningful, to me and to the people around me. More and more, I believe that my true calling is to do something of my choice, where I define my job responsibility and interact with smart people. Maybe I should look out for a startup that begins to establish a China office. I can be the employee No 1 in China. How exciting is that?! In fact, I just thought of this idea when I was typing, and it felt right. Maybe it is my life's calling. For once in my life, I am going to take a big risk. No more safety net. If I fail, then I fail. Big deal?!
I am sure that I will reconsider this decision in the coming days. But at the moment, it feels right.
At least for me, blogging equals feeling. Sometimes, or most times, I am caught up with daily worries and feel nothing. That's why I stopped blogging. You know, what to talk about if I feel nothing? I am just not kind of person satisfied with blogging about routine facts. But something in this trip has changed me a bit. I do not know what. That's why I am writing this blog post and trying to sort this out as I write.
One of my old co-workers once told me that he did not feel stressed while working. Only when he took a vacation and experienced a different and relaxed state of mind, he realized how stressed out he was during working. I am in the same camp now. I like my life in Chicago, like my work, and like my daily routines. However, when I am wandering around the streets in my hometown and sip coffee and get a drink as I like, I feel I am liking it much more. For the first time, I am thinking about coming back to China, to work and to live.
This is not a tectonic change as you would image. It comes naturally to me without any warning. And I know I might never follow my words here in reality. Too hard to give up the stuff that I already have in America. If I give it up, then who am I? I might have one more identity crisis yet again. But just thinking about it gives me some comfort. At least in this land, it is my world. People really understand me, and lucky me, some people even look up to me. A sense of connectedness is strong.
I have low tolerance of being bored. Whenever I come home, I cannot stay long. It is hard to see how my folks live. Day in and day out, it is the same old stuff. At least in my family, none of the conversation is stimulating. My mom, my dad, my sister, all boring. My brother in law is more interesting, but he is usually not around. My niece is a force of nature and is the most interesting person in the household. For a while, I was worried that her creativity might be smothered in this boring household. Fortunately, my worry was misplaced. Either her resilience cut through all the bullshit, or the financial independence of my brother-in-law allows him to throw his counter weight and keep the whole family sane.
As I said, my little niece is a force of nature. I really enjoy playing with her. She is always laughing (laughing is a rare trait in my family, because everyone in my family has a depressive tendency) and full of creativity. She has a golden tongue and can say things out of ordinary. Yesterday we played a game (completely made us by us) called Shen Bi Ma Liang (a fictional figure in Chinese fable who draws so well that the drawing turns into life once finished). I will say something stupid like, "if i have a Ma Liang's magic pen, I will draw a panda on a television…." and then my niece will just make a story on the fly about a panda and a television. Once she finished the short story, she would laughed at herself, shouting, "well well well, it is all made up by me!"
She cheats in badminton matches. In the gazillion games we played, she never lost. She is diligently practicing her school dance and has a very strong urge to perform. She writing is very good and she can sing and dance. In her, I see a star from my family, more balanced than me probably, and definitely will live a happier life than I. I wish her the best. If somehow my brother-in-law's finance gets into trouble, I think I would love to pick up her education cost.
Anyway, have I ever talked about my brother-in-law? Probably not. He is a very interesting figure, and the main pillar in my family. Without him, I can imagine the sorry state my family would have been in: an old depressive couple, a sister with meager salary, a useless son overseas. Now at least someone has a good income and an independent mind to do things beyond the approval of my parents. He used to be a cook and quit 6 years ago after being a successful part time author. He writes novels for a website and gets money from pay-per-view. His income is very good, and I hope this can last a little while. He is a person of consumption: he bought a nice car, a luxury watch, spent money in bars and personal care. He was yelled at for doing so by my parents when he was a cook. Now his earning power has silenced them. I feel a bit sorry and a bit amused by my parents behavior there. Despite respect for my parents, I look down to them to be so single-minded about money and status.
Last night my brother-in-law took me out to a bar. This is one of my best nights here. It is a bar called Soho Bar. Six of us: three guys and three girls. Guys: my brother-in-law, his friend while he was a cook, and me. His friend went to the same elementary school and middle school with me. We were one grade apart and never knew each other. He is a force of nature as well: well dressed, well versed, good to the girls, like to make friends. Girls: All front desk girls from the hotel that my brother-in-law's restaurant affiliates with. We got there at 9:30pm, and everything has been set up. Piles of beers. We played a fun drinking game with dices: lots of bluffing and guessing, and fun to play with girls. The beer is weak, so we drank a lot. For me, it is a fun night out to see the social scene in my hometown. For them, it was a special occasion to see a rare "species" of overseas returnee. As the lights shining and music beaming, everything is a bit unreal. In the daytime, as I walked about the streets, people are making do with life: hauling vegetable, selling clothes, rushing to work, rushing to lunch, fixing road, building subway. Here it is a totally different world: people forget about worries of tomorrow and enjoy the night away.
I found one of the girls extremely attractive, for her look and her personality. She is petite with a great body, and she obviously knows about her natural endowment. She knows how to have a good time: sometimes she will burst into dance out of nowhere. She is quick in words and has very sharp tongue. She is also observant and knows how to take care of people. She saw me uncomfortable picking songs to sing, so she walked over and subtly encouraged me. I think I enjoy being around people who know how to have a good time. For me, it is a skill that I have never acquired. I know how to work hard, get things accomplished, delay gratification, and expect that nice things will always happen later. Somehow, I lost the ability to live in the present and enjoy the moment. Then, for once, when I am around the people opposite to me, it is a refreshing as if I want their charisma to shine through me and just take me away.
Deep down, I think there is another layer of admiration and respect. Growing up in Ningbo is not the easiest thing for kids. Most families are not well off, and pressures from school, parents and peers are like heavy mountains that can crush most people's back. In that environment, it is natural for people to always look out for the future and suffer the present. Either tomorrow will be better, or the sorry state of present is just how the life is. At least that's my big takeaway growing up here. But some people are just different: they somehow survived life's harshness and had a sense of irrational optimism. i do not know whether they are consciously making the choice toward happiness, or their nature of happiness pursuit is too resilient to put out. Either way, I found myself attracted to them and wanted to be with them. It is hard to tell whether it is a love attraction, or a platonic attraction for an intriguing human being. All I know is that I am, and will be, at my happiest with them.
So much about the bar night out. Now let me do some writing about my career future and then call an end to this blog post. What do I want to be in 5-10 years? It is a cliche question in interviews and I always have a cliche answer. But with the prospect of mid-life crisis looming, a cliche answer will not cut it. Let me reflect. People admire me because I have gone somewhere with my adventures. For them, going to study overseas is a risk; taking a consulting job after PhD is a risk, and going back to business school is a risk. I always fiddle and never satisfy, and that becomes a signature of my "success". Well, people, if you respect me for that, I am sorry to disappoint you. Yes, I take risks and try to be always on the move. However, these risks are so measured that they are not real risks. I know every step along the way that the downside of each move is falling back to the status quo, so no big deal if I fail. Moreover, every move I take is probably more about escaping the present than reaching for something new. From this perspective, all my changes are extremely conservative in nature, and somehow I just got lucky to weave together a life story as if I am on the driving seat. That's far from the truth. The truth is: I was driven by the current of life and somehow ended up in a nice place. Pretty lucky, isn't it?
Luck will run out sooner or later, and probably for my next career move. So what's next? To be sure, I have no intention to stay in my current finance company to be a VP or something. The work in operations and call center management is interesting, and I think I can hone my skills there. However, I want to do something more useful and meaningful, to me and to the people around me. More and more, I believe that my true calling is to do something of my choice, where I define my job responsibility and interact with smart people. Maybe I should look out for a startup that begins to establish a China office. I can be the employee No 1 in China. How exciting is that?! In fact, I just thought of this idea when I was typing, and it felt right. Maybe it is my life's calling. For once in my life, I am going to take a big risk. No more safety net. If I fail, then I fail. Big deal?!
I am sure that I will reconsider this decision in the coming days. But at the moment, it feels right.
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