Comments on: New Start-Up, Asana, Gets $9 Million More Than Yoga

By: Why Ex-Facebookers Chose ‘Asana’, Just a Part of the $9M Software Startup’s Yogic Values

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:36:35 +0000

[...] (fb co-founder), choice in the word ‘Asana’ for their new software start-up. We totally called them punks ( oh in jest of course) and Captain Asana himself, Justin Rosenstein, left us a comment! [...]

By: Justin Rosenstein

Justin Rosenstein — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 04:22:26 +0000

Hi, YogaDork! Just wanted to say that it’s definitely not our intent to exploit yoga. We’re very serious about incorporating yogic values into the company’s culture and product vision. Doing this while also trying to achieve capitalist objectives may seem like a contradiction, but I’m hoping it will feel more like stretching between opposites

As for the choice of “Asana” (other than being short, available, and easier to pronounce than most Sanskrit words), the idea was that postures provide an opportunity for the body to achieve ‘form in flow’ much as our software aims to provide form/structure for your data to help you achieve mental flow in your work. Our yoga teacher also suggested “Drishti,” which also has a nice ring to it and some good meaning, but is harder to spell.

- jr

By: Svasti

Svasti — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:51:25 +0000

Maybe each of their products will be named after a specific asana? Now that could be cool…

By: YogaSpy

YogaSpy — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:29:27 +0000

At the Hilo zoo on the Big Island of Hawaii, there is a white tiger named … Namaste. He’s the showcase animal and quite an attractive cat.

Once, on a visit, a bunch of spectators (it’s a very low-key, modest zoo, visited mainly by families with kids) were watching Namaste in his enclosed grassy area. Suddenly, a peacock flew too close to him and he lunged for it, breaking its neck and then devouring the bird. But gradually and with gusto. Feathers, blood, the whole PBS animal docudrama type of show, but in real life!

So much for … namaste.

By: Linda

Linda — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:12:11 +0000

and if something goes wrong with it then it will be a pain in the asana….

By: Bob Weisenberg

Bob Weisenberg — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:13:27 +0000

P.S. I didn’t mean to compare myself to these guys, by the way. I was a Milwaukee software entrepreneur!

Bob W.

By: Bob Weisenberg

Bob Weisenberg — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:55:51 +0000

As you may be aware, Roseanne over at “It’s All Yoga, Baby”, posted a blog about this earlier today. Here’s what I wrote over there:

“This is very interesting to me, since I had a long career as a software entrepreneur, and we frequently won awards for “best places to work”, and the like.

So far I haven’t done any mixing of my former entrepreneurial life with my current Yoga life, but occasionally a blog like yours makes me start thinking about the connections.

I once wrote a manifesto on leadership called “Leadership is Like Tennis, Not Egyptology” (available at http://wp.me/PlVS9-3 if you are unable to restrain yourself.)

One of my Yoga teacher friends once suggested that there is so much Yoga-like thinking in this essay that it could be rewritten as a “Yoga in Business” essay, which is interesting, since it was written long before I got involved in Yoga.

I haven’t really given it much thought beyond that, but it’s an intriguing idea. I’m not sure I really want to go back there right now.

Thanks for the interesting blog.”

Bob Weisenberg
http://YogaDemystified.com