nkdGuru is a Semi-finalist!

Recently, nkdGuru has been selected out of thousands of startups and business concepts as one of the top 100 semifinalists for a contest called "You Be The VC".

Mark Modzelewski, founder of Bang Ventures, the investment firm behind the competition (see his interview on cnbc above), has put together a stellar panel of judges to review the semifinalists. They include - Marissa Mayer from Google, Leah Culver from Pownce and Curt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox. Their job is to filter the field to 20, and then open it up to popular vote, like American Idol.

In the end, the three entrepreneurs with the most votes will win seed funding and a package that includes an experienced engineering team in Poland and professional services from law firms and accounting firms like Deloitte and Touche.

Who knows what could happen, right? Let us know if you think our business idea is worthy to be one of the top 20. Either way, we think the world will be a better place with nkdGuru being a part of it!

We hope you think so too.

-The nkdGuru team!
http://www.nkdguru.com

Extending Private Invitations...

A few months ago, we opened the first version of nkdGuru to a private group of testers. During that time, we received some great feedback, and we would really like to thank all the individuals who participated. Nevertheless, we understand that there are many of you who are still waiting to access our platform, and we sincerely appreciate your patience and excitement. Over the next few days, we will begin to release our test software to more private users.

As mentioned in our previous posting, we have added some great new developments based on your feedback and ideas to allow:

• Grasshoppers to connect with Gurus for FREE (no strings attached); and


• Provide the community with more resources, information and people to connect with to get advice, mentorship and much more!

As a consequence, over the last few months, we have decided to hold back on a nkdGuru wide release for the purpose of implementing these new features. Your voice really matters to us and we want to make sure that nkdGuru is strong out of the gate.

In addition to these new features, we want to respond to your feedback faster than ever. To do this, we have begun to re-write nkdGuru in a new dynamic programming language that will allow us to make changes and implement new features effectively and at the fast pace of users' demands.

In all, we think that these changes are going to create a much richer service that benefits all users. However, these changes will take some time to complete. As always, our team is going to work its ass off to bring you an amazing service carrying the world's top gurus as fast as we possibly can. I hope that you are as excited in using it as we are!

Thanks for your patience and continued interest.

-The nkdGuru team!
http://www.nkdguru.com

Implementing Your Feedback

In a previous post, we mentioned that everyone can’t use the site right now because; (1) we’re in a prototype testing phase and we’re working on fixing a number of bugs; (2) we only had two categories where Grasshoppers can connect with Gurus; and (3) we want to scale the system under control.

Well, as a result of testing over the past two months, we’ve received some feedback from users and are revising our platform and adding some additional components to make the nkdGuru experience even more meaningful.

They include:

· Additional features for Gurus to get advice and mentorship for themselves.

· Allowing Grasshoppers to connect with Gurus for FREE.

As we continue to work towards our alpha launch in the New Year, register with your email address so we can invite more of you as soon as we implement some of these changes. To all of you who have already registered, thanks for your interest and we appreciate your patience.

-The nkdGuru Team!

Students, Start Asking Questions

Many of you have seen an advert of ours (see above), received a flyer on a bottle of water (see previous post), heard from a friend, met one of the co-founders, etc. and have been waiting to connect with Gurus on our platform. Well now, you can begin asking questions.

We are inviting students who are interested in going to law school or med school to start asking questions to our Gurus. We have profiles of a variety of graduate students from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, University of Toronto, etc. We are continuously working hard everyday at recruiting solid Gurus to join our community and provide you with the advice you need.

For those of you who are interested in other graduate programs and careers, we will be releasing a broad range of categories over the next few months, so make sure you subscribe to our blog and stay tuned to our releases. If there is a specific category that you are interested in, please contact us and we will ensure to eventually connect you with Gurus in that area.

Also, check out on our previous blog entry entitled “nkdGuru Features 1.0” that explains how to ask a question, and what you can do on our website right now.

We are still in a private pre-alpha phase so if you haven't received an invite, register here as a Grasshopper to get an invite to start asking questions. You should receive one in a few days after you register. Alternatively, if you know others who have registered on the platform and have already received an invite, ask them to send you one, and you'll get it much faster.

We look forward to seeing you online.

-The nkdGuru Team!

Asking Questions?

There are times when we all want to ask questions, and if it's not in your nature then I think you may be kidding yourself! It's important to ask questions, you can’t expect to go through life without asking questions!

For me it's simple, if I’m unclear on something I ask a question, I want to understand so I can then make informed decisions and even form an opinion. I need answers in order to do so.

Some people find it hard to ask questions for fear of embarrassment, but that shouldn’t be the case… If you have a question ask one of our Gurus or the Community of Gurus that we have on the site, as they can answer your questions. I wouldn’t be coy about asking questions, especially if you can get incredible insight into whatever it is you are struggling to come to terms with for example admission to Law School, or preparing for your MCAT exam…!

If you don’t ask you don’t get! Gurus are now on-hand to help you out, by answering any questions you have. One thing to note is that Gurus who are willing to help don’t want to answer ridiculous questions like “will I be rich before I’m 40?” or “what’s the weather like tomorrow?” I mean who asks those questions really? It's important for us to give you an idea of the quality of help at your disposal…!

Chances are you have some issues you need addressed, and so you should, you are working towards something, and you’re not quite there yet. You need people to connect with on your way to the top, and to be honest it's fun to network and meet people who are doing amazing things, things you are trying to do, people in a better position then you are so be in the know and broaden your horizons!!

Jay Williams,

Co-Founder

What Naked Truth Facts Do You Know?

The blunt truth is always better as it causes change, yet few share that type of information. Our platform is meant to attract people who will share that type of information with you.... nkdGurus!

Education first! It could be anything, share it with us by commenting to this blog. What interesting naked truth facts can you come up with?

Building a community of both Grasshoppers who ask questions and seek mentorship, along with Gurus who provide insightful knowledge based on experience and status is well underway, and our first priority is working with our users to strengthen our community. We have plenty of ideas and features we will be rolling out over the course of the year, and giving back to our evangelists, the people that contribute to the success of nkdGuru.com is what we are all about!! I’m on the record, blogging right now to tell you all… So get involved and watch this space!

-Jay Williams
Co-Founder

Sundays for Students

As much as students need guidance and access to academic and career related facilities like advisors and library archives, there isn’t so much Intelligence to support the huge demand for information.

It's no secret that career and academic information, social and personal info – School related advice is highly sought, everybody is on the hustle, and as a student; tapping into resources and services that come with the student territory is competitive. What should be practical is instead dressed up, formal and typically text book, like following a recipe! But in today’s sophisticated world, recipes just don’t work anymore. Now we have to bring more to the table in order to get ahead that involves not just what you know and who you know, but also getting out there (into the big wide world) and making things happen for yourself.

A nkdGuru is someone who knows what other people want to know! It’s the ability to tell things as they are, more importantly providing intelligence in naked form! To be frank it’s telling the naked truth!

Let’s say it’s compulsory for every student (college and university) to see a careers advisor before graduation. Surely the information provided will be based on training and knowledge of what prospective employers are looking for. I mean these guys tell us how many resumes to send out, tell us to go to careers fairs, and tell us to keep our options open, and expectations managed. All very well, but the simple fact is there are only a handful of amazing opportunities dished out in comparison to the amount of students working towards graduating with a degree and achieving the goal set out in our individual plan.

Truthfully it must also be said that there are many people with very different plans and missions in life, everybody has a story to tell, and each story always leads to a success.Point is, there are plenty of ways to score a dollar and become the next best thing, and with the right platform that we will be launching shortly, the right people servicing students with the naked truth. More students working towards graduation and a steady career path will be able to compete fairly, with a better chance of achieving their goals and progressing both academic and career wise.

Get online and catch up with buddies, do a bit of socializing and feel good about being a bit of an online social network-er!! More importantly touch base with nkdGurus, reach out to mentors… This should be the new Sunday routine for all students. I mean going through school is fun and all, but it’s also grueling, challenging, time intensive and very expensive! Surely a mentor dedicated to helping you blossom in your school days is a must…? Of course it is! Study time usually falls on Sunday’s shoulders - Make nkdGuru.com a Sunday thing too!!

Register as a Grasshopper.

-Jay Williams
Co-Founder