Aryty Blog

Lots of food, exhibits and Filipino fun at Fiesta Filipina in San Francisco last weekend. Aryty was definately in the house! Looking forward to next year!

Rosario Hererra, stylist to Manila’s elite caught me in Temple at Greenbelt my last night in Manila. She’s a fashion editor at Maxim Magazine and it was cool she included me in the July edition of the magazine’s Maxim Style section.

a.k.a. King of Load

Maxim Q&A
What’s your name? Nils
What do you do? CEO of Aryty a.k.a. King of Load
What brands are you wearing? Supreme T, Abercrombie cargos, Nike AF1′s as usual!
Where do you shop? NYC: Supreme, APC, Rivington Shoe Club Tokyo: Kama soccer shop, Neighborhood, Base Station Manila: Greyone Social, Team Manila Boutique
Whose style do you like? Hiroshi Fujiwara, Lupe Fiasco
If your house was on fire, what article of clothing/shoe/accessory would you want to save? AF1 Lasers by Mark Smith. 1 of 200

Checkout Greyone at Rockwell in Manila

This week classes start again in the Philippines as summer break comes to an end. Make sure to send a load to your nieces and nephews so they can text you from school.

Hey, I want the Weng Weng thermos too!

Of course all the cool kids will be bringing their Weng Weng lunchboxes out this year!

Send load to a loved one with Aryty

This time of year gets really hot in the Philippines. One of the best ways to refresh is by grabbing a cold Halo Halo! I was able to buy one in Greenbelt for less than the price of 1 load!

A subway ride in NYC cost more!

Red beans, milk, ice, cream flan, langka and sweet yam are just a few of the ingredients you’ll find in a glass of Halo Halo. It’s a traditional food of the Philippines and if you haven’t tried you’re missing out. Filipino’s aren’t the only ones that love this tasty dessert!

Get a Halo Halo Recipe Here

One of the things I like about travelling to the Philippines is being able to break out a crisp barong for meetings or going out at night. Barongs are definitely more comfortable than a normal dress shirt in the heat and the Cary Grant in me appreciates a good look too!

In the Philippines it’s easy to find shops that sell barongs it just depends how much you want to spend. You can buy off the shelf or custom for just about the same price! I usually buy mine at Rustans Department Store in Makati. Nothing looks better than a fresh white linen so it’s always nice to pick up a few at a time.

There are several different styles and materials that barongs are made from depending on the occasion you are wearing it for. Recently I came across a site in the U.S. called Barong Elegance that sells barong tagalog for formal events. It’s the perfect place to order if you have a Filipino wedding or special event to attend. After all it is the national dress of the Philippines. What could look better!

Nice One Pare!

Buy a Barong Tagalog Online

MeetMoi is a new location based mobile dating service that lets you find dates without ever having to logon to your PC. You can exchange pictures and text messages with other singles through your phone while remaining anonymous until your ready to meet. A million people wrote about MeetMoi today including the Wall Street Journal, Techcrunch and others. Congrats to the team there!

Andrew Weinreich, the founder of MeetMoi is a good friend. We originally met in 1998 while I was working at Alex. Brown (investment bank) and Andrew was the CEO of a 3 person company called Macroview Communications aka SixDegrees. I visited Andrew’s office to learn more about his company on the chance it would become a winner and a client for the firm. After 5 minutes of sharing his story he asked me why I would be wasting my time at a bank when I could be do something interesting and following a dream. When I told him that I didn’t have a great idea for a new business he explained “It doesn’t matter because it will never seem like you have the right idea. Just do something!” Within 6 months of that meeting I quit my job on his encouragement to start a company and 12 months later Andrew sold SixDegrees for $125 million! Since then Andrew has started several other companies and is now off to the races with MeetMoi. Thanks to Andrew I’m working on new ways to get people saying Aryty a little more often.

His advice is some of the best I ever received. It never seems like the right time or place to start a business but the most important thing to do is get started on something! And until you do check out MeetMoi, maybe you’ll find a hot date!

Find a Date On MeetMoi

I just arrived back in New York after a 20 hour trip home from the Philippines. (-o-) I managed to share a cab to the city with James Hong co-founder of Hot or Not who couldn’t resist logging into his Facebook account on the taxi ride via a Sprint Wireless card. During the trip to Manhattan we discussed the new Hot or Not application for Facebook which is just one of the new features James and his team have released recently.

Hot or Not is a top interent destination and also happens to have lots of beautiful filipina’s on the site. If you haven’t met a beautiful girl from the Philippines check out Hot or Not and try their Meet Me feature. You never know.

Try Hot or Not

Japan has a reputation for the being the leader in mobile phone technology and for good reason. They were the first with camera phones, tv and now they’re taking mobile games to the next level.

Last weekend in Tokyo I went to check out the debut of Docomo’s newest phone the FOMA 904i. The two take away features not in any prior models: 2in1 phone numbers & email and motion sensor gaming. The 2in1 allows you to have 2 phone numbers and 2 email addresses with 2 address books in the same phone. What really blew me away however was the motion sensitive gaming. You play the games by using your handset like it’s a Wii handset. I tried the bowling and to throw the ball you swing your phone just like it’s a bowling ball. Saya saya naman.

The event was at Omotesando Hills and featured dancers, dj’s and of course Docomo girls modeling phones. Seeing the future of mobile was just an added bonus I guess!

Try it out

Naks!

Where’s Heart?

More on the Docomo FOMA 904i

Hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day weekend. Tomorrow afternoon I leave Tokyo for Manila. I’m excited to get there but it’s always tough to say goodbye to Japan. Maybe Aryty should be helping Filipino’s here send load too!

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day!

Japanese Kawaii (^-^)

Virtual goods continue to rise in popularity from acorns to Gaia gold. Now there is finally a one day summit focused on the market and opportunity for virtual economies.

The conference is being held on Friday, June 22nd at Stanford University and is being organized by a good friend Charles Hudson. Top venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures is the event platinum sponsor. Some of the companies to be presenting include Gaia Online, Go Pets, Meez and Tencent. The crowd should include a full range of entrepreneurs, technologists and VC’s all in search of the next big thing.

If you have interest in virtual goods, virtual currencies, virtual economies or just want to learn more about an exploding market make sure not to miss this event. You can buy your ticket here to attend the Virtual Goods Summit 2007.

Get more information about:
Virtual Goods Summit 2007 at Stanford University’s Annenberg Auditorium

btw…isn’t load a virtual good? ok, let’s keep that between us