In case you were wondering if Gizmodo’s fight with Apple over that ill-gotten iPhone prototype might be affecting their reporting, consult this screenshot from Techmeme, taken at 8:45 p.m. EDT, above.
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Business
How’d I miss this video? At TechDays Winnipeg, Dylan Smith of ANVIL Digital (and speaker in the “Fundamentals” track), showed me this it’s-funny-because-it’s-true video that’s been around since May that looks at the vexing expectations that clients have of vendors in IT and the creative industries:
This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.
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As the decade draws to a close, you’re likely to see more and more articles and charts with a “decade in review” theme. Since technology is both my passion and the way I pay the rent, as well as an amorphous, unpredictable beast, I make note of those that look at changes in the field.
One that caught my eye is this chart from the Wall Street Journal comparing the top companies in 1999 against the top companies of 2009 (click it to see the full size version, a 500K PDF):
Tech companies made the majority of the top 25 in 1999; in 2009, energy and finance companies were the leaders. Other changes that took place over the decade include:
- Only 8 of the top 25 companies in 1999 were in the top 25 in 2009:
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Tech companies (shown in dark blue) that were in the top 25 in 1999 (left side of the chart):
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Tech companies (shown in dark blue) that were in the top 25 in 2009 (right side of the chart):
Companies that were also in the top 25 in 1999 are shown in bold italic. |
- The total market cap of the top 25 in 2009 is 20% less than the total market cap of the top 25 in 1999.
- There were no Chinese companies in the top 25 in 1999; there are 4 in 2009.
- In 1999, there were 6 CEOs under 55 in the top 25; in 2009, there are 13.
- In 1999, there were 7 CEOs in the top 25 who were not American, in 2009, there are 11.
- In both 1999 and 2009, all the CEOs in the top 25 are men.
NYU professor William Easterly, in his article at the Aidwatch blog, writes that the changes between 1999 and 2009 suggest that this is more evidence of consumerization and that the “consumer” is king (I don’t like the term but can’t find a satisfactory substitute; I agree with Jerry Michalski – it makes us sound like “living gullets whose only purpose is to gulp down products and crap out cash). “The consumer,” he writes, “wants iPhones in their Xmas stocking and not whatever Worldcom had been pretending to be producing.”
The bringing of technology to consumer markets before business markets means a number of things:
- The generation known as "millennials," who are entering the workplace, are more likely to use the apps, devices and technology they like, and not those recommended or mandated by their company. This means that user experience is more important than ever. While company diktat once determined the technology that people used, the ready availability of technology and the democratization of the workplace has given more power to the individual.
- The ubiquitous connectivity that drives consumerization means suggests that the web, web services and web-based interfaces will become more prevalent. It also means that the time of the disconnected application is drawing to a close, or as I like to say, “No app is an island”.
- In some ways, it’s the 1980s all over again: a mish-mash of various types of technologies, many brought in the back door by employees (in the beginning, PCs at the workplace were brought in by early-adopter employees), which means that interoperability will provide many challenges – and opportunities.
- The technology mix – and the ownership mix – means that security will also be a challenge.
It’s food for thought as you make your personal and career tech plans for 2010.
This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.
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I have no idea if WIND Mobile is going to be able to deliver what they promise – a mobile phone company that listens to its customers and provides better service than the sad players in the Canadian mobile phone oligarchy – but they’ve got the right ideas and some rather funny videos that perfectly illustrate what the Canadian mobile customer has to contend with.
What if Toronto’s hot dog vendors had a pricing model like Canadian mobile phone companies? Buying a hot dog would be like this:
Canada is the only country in the world where mobile companies lock you into three-year contracts for mobile service, and this situation is illustrated in the video titled Bike Lock:
I always look at the service packages offered by U.S. mobile companies with envy. Here, the mobile companies love nickel-and-diming you:
WIND is a new entrant into the Canadian mobile phone market and a branch of Globalive Communications, who already have a presence in Canada in the form of Yak Communications, an alternative phone and internet provider. They seem to be taking a very “social media” approach to their marketing, what with the “viral” YouTube videos and a “conversational” website in which readers are encourage to actively participate in online discussions.
They look like an interesting company to watch, and hey, if they can get me a better deal than Rogers, I’ll switch.
Recommended Reading
Tom Purves has been one of voices leading the battle cry against Canadian mobile companies for the past couple of years. Back in 2007 at DemoCamp 17, he gave what I consider to be the best ignite presentation ever given at a Toronto DemoCamp, The State of Wireless in Canada Sucks. Here’s the slide deck from that presentation:
(Feb 2008) The State Of Wireless In Canada Sucks Toronto Democamp17 Thomas Purves
View more documents from thomas.purves.
He recently revised his presentation for 2009 when he presented it at the FITC mobile conference in September, which mentions WIND mobile:
(Sept 2009) The state of Wireless in Canada
View more presentations from thomas.purves.
This article also appears in The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.
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This morning’s sessions in TechDays’ Developing for the Microsoft-Based Platform focuses on both the ASP.NET MVC web app framework and recommended object-oriented programming practices, namely the Model-View-Controller pattern with Colin Bowern’s presentation earlier this morning and now (at the time of this writing) the SOLID principles in Bruce Johnson’s session, SOLIDify Your ASP.NET MVC Applications.
Assless Chaps + Twitter = Business Opportunity
You might remember Bruce from the “Assless Chaps” story. The story can be summarized in the three tweets shown below.
First came Bruce’s response to my article about CodeCamp back in April, in which I forgot to mention the session he was doing:
I tweeted him back and then decided to throw in a jokey reply:
My thinking was: Hey, this is a conference of Microsoft developers! Yes, they’re a bright and talented bunch, and I like them, but they’re an older, corporate, more buttoned-down crowd. They’d never go for renaming a session from “Data Binding” to “Data Bondage”.
But Bruce and the Toronto Code Camp organizers surprised me – he changed the name of his session very quickly:
And since he responded to my challenge, I had to fulfill my end of the bargain:
The “Assless Chaps” story doesn’t end there. Yesterday, while we were hanging out by the Windows 7 lounge and the “Assless Chaps” story came up. Bruce told me that our conversation on Twitter about the assless chaps actually landed his company, ObjectSharp, some business. A local developer got curious as to what the “assless chaps” business was all about in Bruce’s and my conversation on Twitter and the ensuing conversation got them talking about ObjectSharp’s services, which in turn became a contract.
The moral of the story: there’s actual business value in Twitter and assless chaps. I may have to go buy a pair (I rented the ones pictured above).
There’s a tamer version of this story in Canadian Developer Connection.
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What is WebsiteSpark?
If you run or work at a small web design or development firm, WebsiteSpark might be for you! WebsiteSpark is Microsoft’s new global program who goal is to help small web companies succeed.
What Do You Get When You Join WebsiteSpark?
What do you get with WebsiteSpark? I put together a little graphic that explains it pretty quickly:
- Visibility: By being showcased in the WebsiteSpark marketplace as well as through opportunities creating through The Empire’s marketing and business networking programs.
- Support: You’ll get hooked up with an entire ecosystem of Microsoft support, network and hosting partners, and web developers and designers so you have a wide range of technical and business resources.
- Tools: Full-on access to full versions of current Microsoft web tools and technologies, such as the goodies listed below:
What You Get
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What It Is
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Silverlight For building rich internet applications that can do multimedia, access data from the web and can also be run on the desktop. |
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Expression A suite of tools for building websites, user interfaces for Silverlight and desktop applications, making web and application graphics, encoding video and building prototype applications in a hurry. You get: - 1 user licence for Expression Studio - Up to 2 user licences for Expression Web |
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SQL Server Web Edition Microsoft’s database platform for data needs of all sizes, from the simplest web form to full-on enterprise applications. You get a 4-processor licence of SQL Server 2008 Web Edition. |
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Windows Server 2008 (and 2008 R2 when it becomes available) A server that’s both powerful and easy to maintain, featuring the IIS 7 web server and the Web Platform Installer, which makes it easy to install and upgrade popular web applications. You get a 4-processor licence of Windows Server 2008 (and for 2008 R2 when it comes out). |
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Visual Studio Professional The IDE (integrated development environment) that has it all. You get up to 3 user licences of Visual Studio Pro. |
Are You Eligible to Join WebsiteSpark? Answer These 2 Questions.
If you can answer “yes” to the two questions below, you are!
- Is your company a professional service firm whose primary business is providing Web development and design services for its clients?
- Does your company have 10 or fewer people, including owners and employees?
Once you join WebsiteSpark, there’s a simple obligation: in order to continue participating in WebsiteSpark, you must deploy a new public, internet-accessible website developed using the tools and tech given to you by WebsiteSpark within 6 months of joining.
You can stay in WebsiteSpark for up to 3 years. On the first and second anniversary of your initial enrollment, you must update it – that is, confirm your company hasn’t gone public or its ownership hasn’t changed.
I Don’t Have a Fee-For-Service Web Shop, I Have a Startup. Can I Get in on This?
No, but we have a program for you – it’s called BizSpark.
I’m a Student and Have Limited Money, and It’s for Books and Beer. Can I Get in on This?
Dude, we have something just for you! It’s called DreamSpark.
How Do You Find Out More?
The details about the program are at the WebsiteSpark site. Check it out, and if it’s right for you, sign up!
This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.
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Yossi Vardi, according to Wikipedia, is one of Israel’s high-tech entrepreneurs and for over 40 years has funded or helped build over 60 high-tech companies in the fields of software, energy, internet, mobile, electro-optics and water tech. If you’ve used ICQ or the services of my old company Tucows, you’ve used something he helped fund. He’ll be speaking tomorrow evening in Toronto at the Velma Rogers Theatre.
Here’s what the event page for Yossi Vardi’s speaking engagement has to say:
Yossi Vardi is one of the leading individuals in the Israeli software/Internet industry.
Yossi has extensive experience in the public and private sector. In the private sector, he is probably the most respected investor in Israel; has served on many boards including Amdocs, Maariv, Elite, Scitex, Bezeq, Arkia, Elisra. In the public sector, he has extensive experience in technology, including helping to set up the VC industry in Israel via Yozma. He serves on the board of governors of Weizmann Institute and the Technion. He was the chairman of the Jerusalem Foundation, council member of the Open University of Israel and serves on the board of trustees of the Hebrew University. Vardi acted as an advisor to the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program on issues of energy policy and strategy in the developing world. He is a member of the World Economic Forum, serves on the Research Visionary Board of Motorola, and on the Future Trends Forum of The Bankinter Foundation of Innovation. He serves on the advisory board of Blackberry Ventures in Ontario, and served on that of 3i, was advisor to the CEOs of AOL, Amazon.com, Allied-signal, Siemens-Albis and others.
Yossi was the founding investor of Mirabilis, inventor of ICQ – the well known Internet-wide Instant messaging product. Among the companies he invested in, or helped to build are Answers.com, Gteko (sold to Microsoft), Airlink, Tivella, Scopus, CTI2, Foxytunes, Tucows (Toronto based), and Starnet.
In recent years Vardi has been active in fostering a culture of innovation and creativity in Israel and abroad. He founded the Kinnernet conference, an annual, three days gathering of creative people from all over the world.
Vardi won the TechCrunch Europe 2009 "Best investor personality" award; He received an Honorary Doctorate from the Technion, Honorary Fellowship from the Open University, and twice received the Prime Minister award for life achievements in the high tech area; he was nominated as one of The Most Influential International Executives by The Industry Standard.
Yossi, most recently, is an Angel investor in many Israeli startups and is now focusing on unique models of investing in startups. He is currently invested in many startups. Yossi is just returning from San Francisco where he attended the TechCrunch50 conference as one of the Panel of Experts.
This event is sponsored by a number of groups:
An Evening with Yossi Vardi takes place tomorrow night, Thursday, September 24th at 6:30 p.m. at the Velma Rogers Theatre, which is inside the Rogers building at 333 Bloor Street East (at Jarvis).
The free student admission tickets to this event are sold out as of this writing, but the regular admission tickets are a dirt-cheap $5 and some are still available – go there to purchase a ticket.
This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.
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Anthony Suarez suggested a possible upside to Disney’s purchase of Marvel: there’s potential for a really interesting sequel to the game Kingdom Hearts.
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Here’s a snippet from Canpages’ news release:
"Online recommendations, especially those from a user’s social networks, are increasingly important when choosing which local businesses to buy from," said Olivier Vincent, President and CEO of Canpages. "With the acquisition of the GigPark, we are thrilled to be the first local search and directories publisher in North America to embrace social recommendations in a relevant way."
(I thought I was the only person to refer to the company as “The GigPark” – although ironically, as in “The Facebook” or “The Twitter”.)
GigPark are based here in Toronto, and founders Pema Hegan and Noah Godfrey are pillars of the Toronto tech community as well as all-round great guys, as are their team: Gianni Chiappetta, Paul Dowman and Tony Targonski. To echo the words of Jevon MacDonald at StartupNorth, it’s hard not to like them.
GigPark answers a few questions about their acquisition in their most recent blog entry:
Who is Canpages?
Canpages is the fastest growing local search and directories publisher in Canada. On its way to becoming the market leader in local online search, Canpages’ website gets more than 3.5 million unique visitors per month and is a pretty awesome place to find a local business. Its iPhone and Blackberry apps are pretty sweet too. They also publish 84 print directories that reach 8 million households and business across the country.
And the icing on the cake is that Canpages is run by a bunch of really smart and nice people (shout out to our new colleagues!)
What’s going to happen to GigPark?
GigPark is not going anywhere. We will continue to be the easiest place to find the local services your friends use. And with Canpages’ support and resources, GigPark will become even more useful.
How will GigPark play with Canpages?
The acquisition enables Canpages to integrate GigPark’s recommendations into its online and mobile search platforms. Like we said, Canpages is already a pretty awesome place to find local businesses and the addition of GigPark will make this local search experience even better.
Beyond that, Canpages is also excited about the prospect of adding some of GigPark’s social functionality to better connect users with advertisers through recommendations from friends.
I’m a business owner on GigPark. What does this mean for me?
It means A LOT more people are going to see the testimonials for your business and you’ll likely get even more business. You’re welcome! :)
The acquisition was also covered by The Globe and Mail.
Congrats to the folks at GigPark!
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The New York Post is a “scandal sheet” tabloid newspaper that’s best known for its sensationalistic, hilarious headlines. A few examples:
- When beer magnate Freddy Heineken was kidnapped, they ran a story titled No Deposit, No Return.
- When New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was linked to a prostitution ring: Ho No.
- On the possibility of a “Deep Impact”-style collision of a cosmic object with Earth: Kiss Your Asteroid Goodbye.
- When Newsweek retracted its story about the interrogation tactic of flushing copies of the Qu’ran down the toilet: Holy Shiite.
- A famous one from 1982: Headless Body in Topless Bar.
There’s even a book that features the best (worst?) of their wacky headlines.
So when you read the Fear Grips Google story in the Post, you should remember that tech really isn;t their forte and that you might want to take it with a grain of salt. I think Search Engine Land sums it up best:
Bing is probably better than Google anticipated and early indications are favorable in terms of user adoption; however not on any scale to threaten Google’s position. I wouldn’t be surprised if Google is taking Bing seriously and trying to carefully assess its algorithm.
Still, the graphic accompanying the Post’s article, Fear Grips Google, is amusing:
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Even though we now have over a decade of e-commerce history under our belts, credit card processing is still one of the most stone-knives-and-bearskins primitive aspects of web app development. It seems like a lot of trouble and arcana just to move money from buyer to seller, an action that at its essence is as old as civilization itself.
Making matters worse for the developer is the sad state of documentation on credit card processing. It’s often unintelligible, written as if it was given as an unwanted task to an intern who couldn’t care less. Sometimes it’s outright wrong.
Enter the folks from the Freckle time-tracking web application: Amy Hoy, Thomas Fuchs and Dieter Komendera. They decided to do a good deed an create a guide titled Jump Start Credit Card Processing, a 15-page PDF guide that explains credit card processing in a manner that’s not just comprehensible, but fun to read. Here’s a sample page:
Among the things explained in this guide are:
- The credit card processing life cycle
- Key industry terms and actions
- JavaScript code for validating & detecting card types
- Code samples for the ActiveMerchant Ruby module
- A “getting started” checklist & account information
Best of all, this guide is available for download absolutely free of charge. If you’re new to the world of e-commerce apps and want to make sense of credit card processing, I strongly recommend Jump Start Credit Card Processing. Grab it from the Jump Start site.
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First, Andy Serwer, managing editor at Fortune magazine wrote an article titled This Crisis Could Have a Happy Ending. In it, he calls this first decade in the 21st century “one big washout for investors” and “a lost decade”.
He also wrote:
I believe that in order for the market to achieve a sustainable advance that is above the mean, we are due for some unforeseen positive event or events. Think about it. In the 1990s stocks went way up because of an unanticipated revolution in technology, i.e., networking and the Internet. In this decade we had a slew of unexpected negative events – bookended by 9/11 and this current meltdown. At some point, and it may be a few years from now, we will likely be subjected to an unforeseen positive.
Venture capitalist Fred Wilson used this article as a launching point for his article, A Lost Decade – But Not for Everyone. In it, he examines the stock prices of some of the big players on the Dow – 3M, Citigroup, GM, Intel, Johnson and Johnson and United Technologies – and declared the Dow “a mixed bag”:
A few disasters (GM, Citigroup, Intel), a bunch of so so stocks (like 3M) and a some winners (like J&J and United Technologies).
For the best examples, he says you have to look beyond the Dow, where you’ll find Apple (“still up 3.5x in nine years”)…
and Google (“still up 2.5x from its IPO in mid 2004”
Based on these observations, he writes:
When I think about what’s really going on in this "lost decade" it occurs to me that we are finally witnessing the impact of the end of the industrial era and the emergence of the information era. That’s not to say every "information stock" has done well. Intel and Microsoft have been a disaster. IBM and HP are down for the decade to date. But we also have to realize that the late 90s drove all information stocks up to crazy levels in anticipation of exactly this shift taking place. The market got it right, but as usual it overshot.
…
It will be stocks like Apple, Google, and companies we don’t even know about yet that will lead us back out of this downturn. And I bet there will be a bunch of companies from what we used to call the "emerging markets" that will lead us out of this mess. I think I’ll call them the "emerged markets" from now on.
Howard Lindzon, whom I met recently at Startup Empire, chimes in with his article, Has it Really Been a Lost Decade in the Stock Market?
If WE are to learn one thing from the ‘Lost Decade’ of S&P, Nasdaq and Dow returns is that any idiot can make money in an up market. It is the down markets that separate the winners and losers.
…
The ‘Lost Decade’ will spawn many great winners in the decades to come, and the smallest investor has the biggest chance to reap the rewards from a more level playing field of transparency, reduced supply, stronger companies. Don’t be cynical at exactly the wrong time.
…
It’s time to build the business of your dreams and quit hoping for anything else.
The underlying message in all three of these articles is that the businesses that will thrive in this down economy will address some kind of need rather than a want and be “underowned” and “non-leveraged” – in other words, small and not owing any money. Sounds like small businesses and startups to me.
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The second-last speaker at yesterday’s Startup Empire conference was Hugh MacLeod, whom most of us know for his comics drawn on the back of business cards and his blog, Gaping Void. Here are my notes from his presentation:
Intro
- It’s easy for an advertising career to tank, especially if you live in New York and drink too much
- I started drawing comics at bars, on the paper that just happened to conveniently be around: the backs of business cards
- I’m not in the VC business, nor am I in the tech business
- I’m greedy — who here’s greedy? [Many hands go up]
- What really drives us? The "C" word: creativity
- The reason we work in this field is that we want to build stuff — fun stuff
- If it pays the bills, so much the better
- The "we’re so fucked" thing is pretty long term
- What will get us out of the hole? Creativity. People like yourself, doing and building cool things
- I’m in my 40s — what motivates me now is seeing bright ambitious kids coming out of the colleges
- When I was a kid, there was no internet — not even computers! I had to write my term papers on typewriters
- I want to talk about creativity to the young
- I now present 12 little tips for you people just getting started
1. Ignore everybody.
- When you come up with a really great idea and show it, people won’t get it
- You yourself might not even get it
- Imagine the early days of search: “Why would you want to do that?”
- “Good ideas have lonely childhoods”
- If you’ve had a good idea, you were probably called a fruitcake at the start
- Good ideas alter power balances in relationships, which is why many people resist them
- Your boss doesn’t want you to have a good idea that makes you richer than him
- Good ideas will meet resistance – not because of the idea, but because of power and hierarchy
2. The idea you have doesn’t have to be that big.
- Jewish proverb: “A rich man is one who can satisfy his wants”
- I grew up on TV, watching shows about people who had more than us
- Fast-forward 20 years later, I get to do what I want every day:
- Haven’t had to set my alarm clock in years
- Just me and a couple of pens
- And yeah, I read Fast Company, BusinessWeek — “business porn magazines” – they feed greed
- Anyone seen No Country for Old Men? I live in that town!
- One of the locals is Harry, the master brewer, who moved out there and opened his own bar. He makes $500 a day and is the best businessman I know. He does what he wants and everything he does has some meaning to him.
- Meaning scales!
- We owe it to the generations to come to find meaning
3. Put the hours in.
- Nothing happens overnight
- People look at what I do "Aren’t you worried about people ripping you off?" or taking my idea and doing the same thing
- My response: "I’ve already done 10000 cartoons and 7 years blogging"
- Inertia stops a lot of people. Know anyone in a dead-end job? Ever been in one? They say "One day, I’m going to open that cheese shop. But right now, I have to write a report…"
- I have a book coming up. Didn’t quit my job to write it; just woke up an hour earlier every day to write it and posted it on my blog. Penguin eventually contacted me. All I did was put the hours in.
4. If your business plan relies on you being discovered by a big-shot, you will fail.
- I once got a book contract offer. The terms in the contract were terrible and I turned it down
- The publisher, it turned out, was in the business of finding people so desperate to have their moment in the spotlight that they would sign anything
- We now live in an era of cheap, easy, global media — we don’t need middlemen
- I’m friends with Rick Segal…but probably because I don’t need venture capital!
- Where I live in Texas, you can live really cheaply. Part of this is because you run out of things to spend on
- When I hear about people talking about VCs, I think of people looking to have their sorry asses saved
- Don’t get me wrong: it’s great to have VC, but it’s even easier when you get one because you don’t really need one
- "If you’re looking for advice, ask for money; if you’re looking for money, ask for advice.”
5. Do it anyway.
- You don’t know that your idea is the right one at the right time – no one does!
- Do it anyway — that’s how great ideas start out
- Seco0nd-rate ideas are all about the immediate "yes!" response because it keeps them alive longer
6. Everybody is born creative.
- “Everybody gets a box of crayons when they’re young .”
- We turn adolescent and for many of us, somehoe, “our colour gets turned off”
- Suddenly, it’s not about coloring anymore, but concerns like “Got to get a 3.5 GPA, got to get that job…”
- Then you get an idea that you can’t turn off
- It makes you start avoiding your poker buddies
- Most people get scared off by that idea. Doubt creeps in: "What if I get a bad publisher? What if nobody likes my idea?"
- That’s not your idea, that’s your grown up boring self fighting that idea
- Your idea came to you because your soul needs it
- If you don’t nurture that idea, it dies. It also takes a lot of you with it.
7. The “Sex and Cash” theory.
- If you have a creative life and you make money doing it: you generally bounce between two kinds of jobs:
- The sexy creative job
- The one that pays the bills
- In movie stars’ cases, that means alternating between parts in popular hit movies and critically-acclaimed art films
- For a photographer, that means alternating between doing work for indie art mages and paying the bills with photo shoots for catalogs
- Consider Martin Amis: he writes critically acclaimed novels and supplements his income by teaching courses and writing newspaper and magazine articles
- As for me: I do comics on the back of business cards, and I do work for Microsoft and Dell
- It’s a balance of artistic sovereignty and making a living
- “The moment you accept this is when you take off .”
8. Remain frugal.
- This particular lesson took me the longest to learn
- Living in New York City, I was in the top income bracket, for all the good it did. I had so much outgoing cash in rent and other expenses.
- You can live like a king where I do, in Alpine, Texas quite cheaply
- I now have “West Texas expenses, New York wages”
- This is hard to do if you want to be seen in “all the right places”
- Remember: we become creatives because we want freedom, and that includes freedom from avarice
9. I’m going to skip this one.
- It’s too corny!
- [He capitulated later; see the end of this article.]
10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need props.
- At any advertising agency, it’s always the second-rate art director who’s the first to get the newest model Mac
- If you go to any magazine office, it’s the second-rate writer keeps an old Remington typewriter on display
- You see this at startups too: the loft office in the hip neighbourhood with the foosball table
- Remember: the Gettyburg address was written on borrowed stationery!
- We use props to hide behind or mask our inadequacies
- I know a woman who recently IPO’d — she didn’t start in a fancy office, but on her dining room table
- It’s not the props, it’s the good idea and the effort
11. The best way is not to stand out from the crowd, but avoid the crowd altogether.
- Bartenders are the great social enablers of New York City
- No under-50 bartender is really a bartender: they’re actors, musicians, whatever
- They have plan to become famous photographers, musicians, whatever
- The thing about the arts to me: what often drives people isn’t just the money or business, but the prestige: “I want to be like that guy, because he’s really privileged”.
- Ever noticed how few really good writers have blogs? You don’t see literature, you see shit like what I write
- A lot of authors are enamored of books and the prestige attached to them
- The worst thing you can do as a creative is fall in love with a privilege model
12. If you can accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
- When my sister was born and my mom was in labour, the pain was unbearable — "Why is this happening to me?" she asked
- The midwife replied: "You’re giving birth to a baby. It’s supposed to be painful."
- Mom accepted that and got on with the birth
- Trying to do something worthwhile and creative is really hard
- As you get older, you realize that pain is part of the process
9. Okay, here’s point number 9, since you asked: We will fail, but we will be forgiven.
- Failure is part of the process
- The important thing really isn’t about reaching the summit, but setting out for it.
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Another afternoon presenter at yesterday’s Startup Empire was David Cohen, founder and Executive Director of TechStars, which provides a unique opportunity for early-stage startups. Here are my notes from his presentation:
Boulder, Colorado
- Why did I come here today? Because I’m hearing more about Toronto every day
- I started out in development
- Did three startups
- Then went to the dark side: angel investing
- Started all kinds of companies in all different ways
- I’m based in Boulder, Colorado
- Two of my companies are ZOLL Data Systems, Earfeeder
- One of my startups failed, but there’s no evidence on the net that it ever existed
- What’s Boulder known for?
- Mork and Mindy
- “4:20”
- Nearby skiing
- University of Colorado
- It’s northwest of Denver and has a population of 125,000 – with students! Denver has about 1 million people
VC in Boulder vs. VC in Toronto
- VC in boulder
- $311 million in Q1 2008 in Boulder County
- Taking into account its population of 125,000, that makes for about $2,500 in venture capital for each person in Boulder
- VC in Toronto
- $130 million in Q1 2008
- Taking into account its population of 5.5 million, that makes for about $23 in venture capital for each person in the Toronto area
- Toronto has a chicken-and-egg problem
- We learned in Boulder, VC follows innovation
- A UFO didn’t land in Boulder and drop off VCs
- There was a strong telecom industry that grew up there (Colorado is the home of telecom and storage)
- People who got rich off those industries stayed in Boulder and asked "What can I do with this money?"
- 2nd- and 3rd-time entrepreneurs decided to become angels
- Most angels are driven by more than just the money
- Companies in Boulder: Lijit and Newsgator to name a few
- The VC followed
The TechStars Concept
- Along with me, other people mentoring at TechStars are:
- Brad Feld: Invested in Harmonix, who are behind the Rock Band games
- Jared Polis: He was behind Blue Mountain Arts online cars and ProFlowers — he got elected to congress on Nov 4th
- TechStars is a mentorship-driven seed stage investment fund
- It’s been referred to as "Incubator 2.0, boot camp for entrepreneurs", but to me it’s mentorship-driven
- The big benefit for companies in the Techstars program is not small amount of money we provide, but the people we surround you with
- At Techstars, you share ideas early, get the feedback
- 10 teams of typically young entrepreneurs come to Boulder for the summer
- If you get in, you get this incredible mentorship experience
- Mentors spend time with the 10 companies
- Atmosphere of camaraderie between the companies
- Companies get integrated into the tech scene
- Our “New Tech Meetups” are the 2nd largest in US, after NYC
- We make our companies uncomfortable – we make them pitch often
- First month: we ask them not to work on their product so much; it’s laregly about learning
- At the end of program, they get just enough funding to get them to the next point
- Techstar’s progress so far:
- 2 summers = 20 companies
- Only 1 of the 20 companies is now defunct
- 2 of the 20 companies experienced positive exits (SocialThing, IntenseDebate)
- 13 of them have acquired angel or VC funding
- All told, we’ve invested under $600K in 2 years — positive ROI
- Benefits
- 40 jobs in Colorado created (probably 40 more elsewhere)
- AOL set up an office in Boulder after SocialThing acquisition
- 9 of the 20 companies have stayed in Boulder
Lessons
- Try not to focus to much on VC. Focus on product and customers
- Your community can be more powerful than you imagine if it works together
- Promote your community when you promote your company
- Mentorship is the scarce resource that matters
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