Author: Raj Singh

Preoccupations

I’ve done what Kobe Bryant and LeBron James reportedly do. And I’m not a fan.

I walked into -157 degrees Fahrenheit. And stayed there for two minutes. I didn’t have a trace of thermal clothing or even a shirt. You can see in the video that I walked in willingly.  Want to understand how cold -157 Fahrenheit (-105 Celsius) is? The coldest recorded temperature on Earth is  -148 Fahrenheit (minus 100 Celsius) somewhere between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji on … Continue reading I’ve done what Kobe Bryant and LeBron James reportedly do. And I’m not a fan.

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Entrepreneurship, Preoccupations

How to beat jet lag with biohacking

I am a biohacker and I’ve been biohacking for over a decade now.  Being a practitioner for that long means that I’ve had to chart my way through the unavoidable messiness and realities of everyday life as an entrepreneur. I travel frequently for work. I speak at conferences. I hang at after-conference parties. Rarely do the lives of entrepreneurs drown in a sea of sameness. … Continue reading How to beat jet lag with biohacking

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Technology

Why the world’s busiest smartconcierge, Ivy, is a woman

“Can we call her Sandy instead?” The first time we heard that question from someone considering Ivy for their hotel, we froze. And a second later, cheerfully refused to change Ivy’s name. Naturally, we are attached to Ivy as the name for our smartconcierge. More importantly though, we are proud of the results driven by the consistent persona and the thinking that led to the … Continue reading Why the world’s busiest smartconcierge, Ivy, is a woman

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Technology

How digitally advanced are we?

This isn’t pretty. In April 2016, McKinsey Global Institute looked at how digitization has taken hold across various industries in the US economy. They looked at 27 different indicators and grouped them into three categories: organizations’ spend on buying the latest tech assets (computers, servers, software, etc), how these assets are used across the organization, and how employees integrate these tools in their day-to-day tasks. … Continue reading How digitally advanced are we?

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Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 4
vwls

Up above

Los Angeles International Airport. Terminal 4. LA based photographer, Mike Kelley, created this image as part of a series, Life Cycles, that “explores the creation, use, and destruction of aircraft…The images were created entirely from above, opposite to our usual experience of seeing aircraft from below or within.” The entire series is worth a look. Check out this version of LAX in 1972: https://i.imgur.com/4Sv3vJc.png Image … Continue reading Up above

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Biohacking entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship, Preoccupations

How entrepreneurs can biohack their way to better results

Dave Asprey, the founder of Bulletproof Nutrition, plans to live until at least 180 years. It isn’t a wayward claim – Asprey has been saying this for a long time and routinely asks his podcasts guests “how long do you plan to live?” How does he plan to live that long? Is it possible to plan at all? It may be, through biohacking: the art … Continue reading How entrepreneurs can biohack their way to better results

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vwls

Room with a view

We are incredibly lucky in the hotel industry – location advantage is just one of several that we have to be thankful for. This is the Walliser Stube restaurant at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Eloise. Have you been there? Image: Room with a view. Copyright with Aimee Hernandez Photography. Print for sale at https://aimhernandez.smugmug.com/Prints/i-dTc7Lf9/A — (I’ve been collecting beautiful images for inspiration since 2010. Check … Continue reading Room with a view

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Efficiency | More with less
Entrepreneurship

Why efficiency is overrated

Efficiency, often, isn’t the right goal for me. It probably may not be the right one for you either. When I say this, I’m clearly not talking of lap times in a car racing game, or how quickly you can stack and unstack cups. Routine tasks beg for optimization – and consequently create a critical difference between productivity and efficiency. I’m not going to dive … Continue reading Why efficiency is overrated

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Entrepreneurship, Technology

Why authenticity is overrated

I’m in the business of helping craft guest experiences in the hospitality industry. Without fail, I draw hoteliers’ and hospitality leaders’ attention when I tell them what I do. Why? For years now, guest experiences have been considered central to a hotel’s success. And within the realm of guest experiences, authenticity has been the lodestar. I’d bet that if our industry leaders are asked to … Continue reading Why authenticity is overrated

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Hospitality Upgrade EVS Austin, TX, 2019
Entrepreneurship, Technology

Where ideas take flight and inspirations land

A week ago, I was in Austin, Texas. Hospitality Upgrade hosted their annual Executive Vendor Summit for the 15th year in a row.  Since its inception, The Summit has been an invitation only event. This was my first time. And what an honor it was to be asked to attend; not only becauseGo Moment was invited as a hotel technology company on the rise. Friends … Continue reading Where ideas take flight and inspirations land

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Charlie Davis illustrations
vwls

Designing Warmth

Image credit: https://www.behance.net/gallery/75813403/Various-Personal-Work Charlie Davis’ illustrations exemplify the tethering of complex layers (vectors, free hand drawing and then layers) with the relative simplicity of the scene. Davis “is always looking to tell a story filled with lots of warmth, exaggeration, and shapes that stray from reality.” Artist: Charlie Davis. Illustrator/Designer based in London. More about the artist here: https://theblog.adobe.com/artist-spotlight-charlie-davis/ — (Beautiful images are inspiring; I’ve … Continue reading Designing Warmth

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Gratitude for FeedOne
Entrepreneurship, Preoccupations

If you don’t give a dime out of a dollar, you won’t give…

…a million out of 10 million, said Tony Robbins once. Who can disagree with that truism? Numbers tell a story – or at least a part of it. We produce enough food for the 7 billion people on Earth. And yet, 805 million remain undernourished on a daily basis. At Go Moment, mostly this year, we have helped provide over 12,000 meals to hungry children. … Continue reading If you don’t give a dime out of a dollar, you won’t give…

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Mixed Reality, Extended Reality, Virtual Reality, Augumented Reality
Art, Technology, vwls

Immerse

The worlds of Mixed Reality (MR) and Extended Reality (XR) are moving fast, relative to Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Here’s a quick summary from What really is the difference between AR/MR/VR/XR?: VR is immersing people into a completely virtual environment AR is creating an overlay of virtual content, but can’t interact with the environment MR is a mixed of virtual reality and … Continue reading Immerse

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Entrepreneurship

Are STOs the new IPOs?

I want to ask entrepreneurs to estimate how much time, energy, mindspace you have spent raising capital. Have you tracked your efforts? Not by how much capital you have raised, but by the number of hours spent raising capital or thinking about it. The US sees 8,000-10,000 yearly VC deals. If these are anything like the ones in my network, founders expect to spend around … Continue reading Are STOs the new IPOs?

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Entrepreneurship, Technology

What’s happening at independent hotels

Two days ago, I spoke at the Stay Boutique Live Trifecta event at Los Angeles. Organized by the Boutique & Lifestyle Leaders Association (BLLA), the Trifecta brings together an eclectic mix of boutique/lifestyle hotel owners, representatives, consultants and industry publications. As the CEO of Go Moment, I was honored to have been invited to lead a workshop and to be amidst the discussions. It was … Continue reading What’s happening at independent hotels

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Mona Hatoum
vwls

Impenetrable

Mona Hatoum’s work reminds me of the latticework of mental models as used by Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, and Charlie Munger. Artist: Mona Hatoum, Impenetrable, 2009. Photo credit: Markus Elbanus/Courtesy The Artist and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art — (Beautiful images are inspiring; I’ve been collecting these since 2010. Check the archives under vwls.) More about the artist: Making the Ordinary Anything But Continue reading Impenetrable

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AI myths - Artificial Intelligence myths
vwls

My top 9 myths about AI

Last year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, called Artificial Intelligence (AI) the “most important thing humanity has ever worked on.” AI is, in his book, something that is more profound than electricity or fire. Maybe even more important than language itself. I shared a video of his talk on my LinkedIn feed recently and it ignited conversations on my … Continue reading My top 9 myths about AI

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