InOneWeekend

Startups & Education in Cincinnati: the Key to Our Economic Future

2009-10-08T08:06:00.001-07:00

I've just returned from Washington D.C. as part of the Cincinnati contingent for CEOs for Cities, a network of urban change agents. We were joined by over 40 other cities from the US and Canada in hearing speakers from the White House, urban institutes, and thought leaders from around the country talk about programs and best practices being applied in cities around the world. I came away from D.C. really encouraged - there are a lot of brilliant people working hard right now to ensure our economic future in the U.S.

One of the most astounding statistics we heard relates to education - and its impact on urban economic prosperity. When it comes to urban policy, we often think of affordable housing and the revitalization of disadvantaged neighborhoods. Now there’s another factor that’s crucial to a city’s success: attracting and retaining college graduates. The good news? As a country, we're on it. Obama has set a goal for 2020 to be #1 in the world in post secondary education (in the past, we have been, but in recent years, we’ve dropped in the ranks).

CEO for Cities has found that the amount of talent, or percentage of graduates in a city's population, can explain 58% of a city's success measured by per capita income. According to Carol Coletta, president of CEOs for Cities, "those cities that can attract the greatest number of people with the most talent will be the ones that win." CEOs for Cities did a study on the Talent Dividend and found that by increasing the college graduation rate by 1% would result in a $763 increase in annual regional per capita income. That means that in each of the 51 largest metropolitan areas (Cincinnati is #50), increasing the four-year college attainment rate by one percentage point from its current median of 29.4 percent to 30.4 percent would be associated with an increase in aggregate personal income of $124 billion per year for the nation.

And that’s just the beginning. If you factor in not just the return on investment from increased productivity and associated wages from employment, but also factor in the companies that could be created by recent college grads, the return is much faster and much greater. Case in point: 5 out of 8 of the winners of the Cincinnati Innovates competition were undergraduate students or within one year of graduation. What that tells me is that our young people are not just our future; they are our present.

In economic times like this, we need to look beyond the established companies that fuel our local economy. We need to think seriously about the talent, opportunity, and latent intellectual property that exists in our universities -students, professors, and researchers. According to the Kauffman Foundation, 100% of net job growth from 1981-2001 can be attributed to companies that are less than 5 years old. Today, cities like Pittsburgh are capitalizing on startups to fuel their economic growth.

A decade ago, venture capital investing in Pittsburgh was a blip on the national radar, number 31 to be exact, down from cities like San Francisco, Boston, and New York. Data compiled by the National Venture Capital Association, Thomson Financial, and PWC Money Tree for 2006 shows the Pittsburgh region at number 16, one of the largest relative increases in venture capital (VC) investment among all regions in the United States. Pennsylvania also now ranks third in the country for total VC jobs.

This increase in venture capital and startup companies over the last 10 years has created one of the most startling economic rebounds in the history of the U.S. Pennsylvania venture-backed companies added the most U.S. jobs between 2003-2005 than any other state - 167,000 jobs, beating Texas and California. Startups create jobs.

As a venture capital investor at Neyer Holdings, I work a lot with the University of Cincinnati and other university tech transfer offices to commercialize technologies being developed at our universities. And because of that involvement, I’ve been able to meet some amazing researchers at UC like Jason Heikenfeld, a professor in the Novel Device labs who creates electrofluidic display technologies with industry leaders like Polymer Vision - and has a tough time finding funds at UC to cover patents.

Time to pay attention! Follow the dollars. UC has over $350 million in research going on right now and less than $1 million a year in royalty revenues from technologies it has developed. You might wonder why. Well, at a time when budgets are tight, things like patent funds and offices like the tech transfer office don’t get as much attention as maybe they should. It’s absolutely critical that we properly fund - through foundation grants, private donations, and state funds - these activities. Otherwise, we’ll never reap the rewards of the hard work we do in this region.

If we don’t, do something fast, we’re going to slip down in the ranks of innovative cities into what innovation experts at McKinsey call "Shrinking Pools", markets that are economically stagnant and failing due to lack of innovation. Check out how Cincinnati stacks up in terms of innovation in this interactive world map.

Statewide, we're on the right track. Eric Fingerhut, Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, who oversees the entire university system for the State of Ohio spoke in D.C. at CEOs for Cities about our state's objective to make our universities centers of economic prosperity and talent retention. His commitment to that goal has led to commitment from all the Ohio University presidents: economic prosperity, talent retention, and startups are on the radar in Columbus.

How can you help? The Ohio Third Frontier program is the state funded program that makes organizations like CincyTech, a $10.5 million public-private venture fund here in Cincinnati, possible. CincyTech has already invested $3.4 million in 11 companies that have created 175 jobs at an average annual wage of $66,000 and are on track to create 1,000 jobs over the next eight years. In November, the Third Frontier program will be on the ballot in Ohio. Basically, our economic future will be up for 'renewal'. I hope you will vote to renew that future.

Online game wins top Innovates award | Cincinnati.com | The Cincinnati Enquirer

2009-09-21T12:47:00.001-07:00

Online game wins top Innovates award | Cincinnati.com | The Cincinnati Enquirer

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Day Of Coworking

2009-09-18T10:20:00.001-07:00

Day Of Coworking

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10 Awesome Online Tools Your Small Business Should Be Using

2009-09-09T16:13:00.001-07:00

10 Awesome Online Tools Your Small Business Should Be Using

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Raise capital... or team up!

2009-05-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

I just found this awesome article about financing through sweat equity (as opposed to raising capital). Formal or informal, these structures are a great way to get started on a start-up without the brain damage of pre-mature fundraising.

At InOneWeekend, we have a similar participant-owned structure, where everyone who contributes to the end product owns a portion of it. While we attempt to do this on a slightly larger scale (100 people at a time) - it works just as well (maybe even better) when applied to teams of two, three, four, five - you name it. Can't afford your developer? Partner up! Can't afford your branding firm? Team up!

Building Your Team Pre-Financing
Written by Bernard Lunn (See the original article in its entirety at http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritestart/2009/05/building-your-team-pre-financing.php. This post is part of the ReadWriteStart channel, which is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs. The channel is sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark)

In our 10 Things to Be Clear About Before You Start, we suggested that you decide whether to build a team of partners or fly solo. If you have decided to build a team of partners, even a small team of two, you'll need to also decide how this partnership will work. Your only currency will be equity in a company that has not been formed and a venture/Web service that is no more than a gleam in the eye.

Create a Small, Balanced Team

Here is the advice of Naval Ravikant, serial entrepreneur and angel investor. His advice is directed at other angel investors, but that is a good context in which to look at this as an entrepreneur:

"Invest in teams of two to three founders. Five is unstable, one is too hard.
The best combination is one founder who can sell and one founder who can build.
The team matters more in enterprise deals, traction matters more in consumer deals"

There is a reason why people talk about "putting the band together" and "rock stars" in this context. Solo artists can do great (think Bob Dylan), and when they get some success, they can bring in session musicians (contractors). But the history of pop music is more about the great combos: Lennon and McCartney, Simon and Garfunkel, Jagger and Richards. Those bands may have had four people in them, and the other two members in each may have been talented and driven, but it was clear who the stars were.

One Leader Might Emerge

But business is different from music. A great band like the Rolling Stones ends up becoming a corporation, but the skill-sets are different. Typically in a business, one founder emerges as the leader and CEO. Think Bill Gates rather than Paul Allen.

There are instances of two partners staying together and really building a big business together. Hewlett and Packard are great examples of this. But this is unusual because it does not fit the need of a company to have a CEO/leader who is recognized as such by employees, customers, and investors.

This is why drawing up some kind of buy/sell agreement is a good idea. You don't even need a lawyer. Download the terms from the Internet. As long as the terms are mutual, nobody will get screwed. The buy/sell agreement simply acknowledges the fact that people change: their needs and motivations change. You might be the one who wants to get out of the partnership and move on. Or you might be the one who buys your partner out. Either should be possible.

But don't get too hung up on the buy/sell agreement. Plenty of founding partners cross that bridge when they get to it. It is a bit messier doing it that way, but something can usually be worked out.

Dividing Up Something that Does Not Exist

We'll cover the basics of creating a legal entity in a later chapter. Most ventures start without being incorporated. You may have heard legendary stories of founders getting a check from an angel first and then having to set up a company and create a bank account.

If the founding team is of two people, it's pretty simple. If you have three or more, you will need to define the founders' agreement one way or another. Here are four options:

Purely verbal. "We're all buddies and understand each other, right?"
Each of you hires a lawyer and lets them hammer away at each other on your nickel. Hm, now where's that nickel?
Document what you have verbally agreed on via email exchanges, and the next time you're all together, print it out and sign it.
Download a legal template, put in the terms you have agreed on, and sign it, possibly after getting one hour of legal advice from a buddy at law school.

Somewhere between three and four partners is recommended. Even buddies can misunderstand each other. When there is nothing to fight over, there are no fights. But when it looks like the venture might take off, greed sometimes kicks in, and one founder develops a case of "selective amnesia" regarding something that was verbally agreed on. Even an email record prevents that danger.

The reason to be careful about the legal agreement between the founders is that it helps with the next stage of your startup: bringing in external investors.
Get Your Due Diligence Ducks in a Row

The earliest-stage investor will be looking at just the team and the website. That's it. If your site sucks, sorry. If one of you has a criminal record, whoops. In other words, due diligence (the step after the term sheet and before the contract and cash in bank) is simple.

There is one show-stopper you want to avoid. Anybody who has worked on the website or helped with the venture in any way should sign something that acknowledges the venture's Intellectual Property (IP). If someone comes out of the woodwork and says, "They stole that from me," most investors will be scared off.

You can and should do this even before you form a legal entity. You simply want what in the old days was called a "paper trail," and is now an "email trail," which records what was agreed on. This trail could include:

The two to three founders saying that each of them owns X amount of Newco (your to-be-established company) and assigning all of their IP related to this venture to Newco.
A buddy who writes some super code just because they're a friend confirms that they have no financial expectation and assigns all of their IP related to this venture to Newco.
Somebody who provides a service in return for equity and assigns all of their IP related to this venture to Newco.

Paying with Equity

You may not be able to pay in cash for the things you need done. So, you could agree to pay in equity. Don't do this as a percentage. Use a formula along these lines:

What cash rate would this person normally charge? Check that this is normal for the market.
Agree to pay twice that amount in equity. The doubling is to cover the risk that they never see anything.
Convert the cash into equity at the valuation of the first round.

Don't treat this person or vendor like an investor or partner. They are not. They do not know how to evaluate the venture, so don't waste your time trying. They are a vendor whose payment is being deferred. KISS.

Note: a long-term adviser is a special case that we'll deal with in the next chapter.
Vesting

This comes down to the actual term sheet with the first investor(s), which is covered in a later chapter. But this item is worth considering at the beginning. When somebody invests in a founding team, they invest in the work that the team will do in future. So they want to invest your founding shares over time.

You can haggle about vesting some founding shares from the start if you have already built a lot and gotten some traction. But this is really "at the margin." Don't obsess over it.

You also need this protection with your partners. Say you have a team of three founding partners, each with 33% of founders' stock. You don't want one of them to leave just after funding comes from another venture, or to go off to play music, or whatever. All three of you need that same protection. Build your own partner vesting schedule, typically four years, and present this to the investor(s). They will appreciate that you have thought this through and that your interests are aligned.

Microsoft BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. Click here to apply.

PR tool for Start-ups: HARO (HelpAReporter.com) gives you access to free PR

2009-05-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

HARO (HelpAReporter.com) is a new free mailing list that gives you access to free newspaper, magazine, and other coverage - essential for getting the word out about your business.

One of the best ways to create buzz for your product or business is through traditional PR like newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio – depending on your demographic. The problem is getting reporters to write your story! By the way – you have to have a story.

Traditionally, you would hire a PR firm to prioritize publications, write your story, and then use their relationships to help you get coverage in those publications. For start-ups, this can be costly. At the high end, you could spend nearly $40,000 trying to generate top-ten pick status at a huge tech event like DEMO – on the low end you’ll spend a minimum of $500 to post a story to PR Newswire, a tool PR professionals use to get national coverage.

If you decide to do it yourself, you’ll have to do quite a bit of emailing and phone calling to drum up interest from reporters. First, you have to know what they’re interested in writing about. You’ll also have to know their deadline and work within that timeframe. And you might have to give them an exclusive on the story. Ultimately, you may call ten reporters and get one or two interested.

Peter Shankman, entrepreneur and PR guru, has taken a different approach – and taken a bit of PR Newswire’s business - by creating a free mailing list HARO (helpareporter.com) where journalists post the stories they’re looking for and what their deadline is.

Example:

Joe Reporter

WIRED Magazine

Query: I’m looking for stories about new tech products that save time/headache.

Deadline: Friday 3pm EST

Contact: joe@wired/ 555-555-5555

What does this mean for start-ups? Access to free PR – more importantly, free PR that’s looking for a story. So, instead of hitting your head against the proverbial wall, looking for someone to write about you, you can sign up for a 3 daily emails, sift through the queries for relevant publications and story topics, and reach out to the reporters with your story.

Tip: Have a story crafted and ready to go with facts, images, quotes, and an enticing headline. All publications are different, but in these days of limited print real estate, shorter is better – 350 words or less. Need help crafting your story and navigating the PR jungle? I’m not a PR expert, but here are two of my local Cincinnati favorites: Dan O’Keeffe and Kevin Dugan.

To signup and start receiving the free daily updates, visit www.helpareporter.com

Michelle Spelman of Flying Pig Games tipped me off to this service. Follow Michelle on Twitter @QuickCount. Follow me @eedwards.

Have a great tip for start-ups? Share it with the rest of the InOneWeekend peeps!

Cincinnati Innovates Competition Launches May 1 - $50,000 in awards

2009-04-30T15:44:00.001-07:00

Four-month online contest is aimed at inspiring entrepreneurship

Eight prizes awarded worth $50,000; top prize is $20,000

Cincinnati is one of the most innovative cities in the world. It boasts one of the highest rates of patent applications per capita in the country. Did you know the Uno card game, the Swiffer, the Heimlich maneuver, Benadryl, the oral polio vaccine, the iron lung, the first ambulance service, Ivory Soap, Pringles, the gas mask, and the 3-light traffic signal were all invented in Cincinnati?

Cincinnati Innovates is a regional innovation competition aimed at channeling this innovative spirit into creating companies, connecting inventors and investors and inspiring entrepreneurship.

Cincinnati Innovates from Elizabeth Edwards on Vimeo.

“The best innovations come from the most unexpected places,” says Elizabeth Edwards, a venture capital investor at Neyer Holdings, which is launching the competition with partners Taft Stettinius & Hollister law firm and CincyTech. “The challenge, then, is finding those great ideas.

“As investors, we are constantly seeking out the next big thing – the cool new product, the breakthrough processes. Cincinnati Innovates is a chance to bring those ideas out of the labs, garages and offices all over the city and connect inventors with the resources to turn those ideas into realities.”

The competition is open to anyone with an idea or an invention who has a connection to the 15-county Greater Cincinnati MSA.

To enter, visit www.cincinnatiinnovates.com and:

1. Enter a short description of your innovation – product, business, idea – and upload pictures, video, sketches, or other media to help explain and showcase it.

2. Tell your friends about it. The Community Choice Award is driven by online votes.

Details:

• The competition is open online at www.cincinnatiinnovates.com from May 1-Sept. 1, 2009.

• Anyone can enter - any age, background, level of expertise.

• Any type of innovation is welcome - product, device, business process, etc.

Awards

Commercialization awards sponsored by CincyTech
$20,000, $10,000, and $5,000

Patent Awards sponsored by Taft, Stettinius & Hollister
$10,000, $2,500, and $1,000
(in-kind pro-bono legal services*)

HYPE! Community Choice Award: $2,000
Student Innovator Award: $1,000

What’s next:
Judges, including investors and experts from all industry backgrounds, will select the best innovations of 2009 for the top awards.

Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Sept. 18 at the Contemporary Arts Center in downtown Cincinnati.

A word about our sponsors:
Our sponsors are committed to driving the long-term economic growth of Cincinnati through innovation. To find out more about how they are helping create new technologies, fund start-up companies, and create lasting change in the region, visit www.cincinnatiinnovates.com and click on sponsor details.

CincyTech
The Haile Foundation
Taft Stettinius & Hollister
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
C-Cap
Hamilton County Business Center
Queen City Angels
Neyer Holdings
HYPE Cincinnati
BIOSTART
Northern Kentucky e-Zone
Soapbox Media
Greater Cincinnati Venture Association

Mint.com CEO: Don't be afraid to talk about your ideas

2009-04-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

If you were at the GCVA standing-room only event last night you would have seen Aaron Patzer, the impossibly young CEO of Mint.com, who had some sage advice for innovators and entrepreneurs everywhere: Talk to people about your idea!

So many times we get locked into our own heads, falling in love with our oh-so-unique ideas, afraid that someone will steal them. The truth is, good ideas are only proven to be good when they’ve been validated and commercialized. Funny how both validation and commercialization require a conversation.

So don’t be afraid to share your good ideas – in fact – throw them out there! The Good Idea conversation – with a friend, a mentor, a colleague – is energizing. And chances are, the more people you talk to, the better (and better articulated) your idea will become.

LinkedIn CEO: Let Our Start-ups Bail Us Out

2009-03-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

A great article from Reid Hoffman, founder and CEO of LinkedIn...

Let Our Start-Ups Bail Us Out

By Reid Hoffman

Tuesday, March 3, 2009; Page A13 - Wall Street Journal

President Obama noted last week that "we have lived through an era where, too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity." As the $787 billion stimulus is sorted out, we should consider not only what's there but also what's missing. Unless lawmakers move to jump-start key elements of sustainable economic growth, we may find ourselves worse off in a few years.

The stimulus finances important development of infrastructure, renewable energy and scientific research, which is great for jobs in the short term but doesn't guarantee the vibrant economic ecosystem required for sustainability. The credit meltdown, the mortgage crisis and the collapse of automakers have created a climate of fear around investment at precisely the time that new ventures -- not merely new technologies -- need to be championed as the course to stability. Products and services drive a healthy economy. To translate the stimulus into sustainable growth, we need incentives for business innovators.

Entrepreneurs are the fertile soil for job growth and recovery. Small companies represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms, Commerce Department data show. They pay nearly 45 percent of U.S. private payroll and have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the past decade.

Consider a few start-ups from the past century: Microsoft, MTV, CNN, FedEx, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Burger King. Each opened during a period of economic downturn. Today, these brands employ hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. We need to prepare for the next Burger King. By empowering individuals and small businesses, an innovation stimulus can help germinate stable industry players for the long term.

Venture capitalists are biding their time -- not for want of good ideas, solid management or stable capital but to ensure that they can get the most bang for their buck. Similarly, venture capital firms are waiting for the slide to stop and the recovery to begin before investing.
The government should improve the situation by offering incentives for entrepreneurship and innovation. How to get started?

First, encourage small business with loans. Apply to the United States the micro-lending model that has proved successful in developing countries, extending credit lines of up to $50,000. Help small businesses invest and grow, reimagine their products and services, and assess their strengths. Localized innovation develops the economy from the ground up.

Second, welcome foreign innovators. Harvard research fellow Vivek Wadhwa reports that immigrants have founded more than half of all Silicon Valley start-ups in the past decade. These immigrant-led, American tech companies employed more than 450,000 workers and grossed $52 billion in 2005. For U.S. companies to employ a highly specialized foreign worker, the employee must hold an H-1B visa, but current law allows for the issuing of only 65,000 H-1B visas per year.

The H-1B cap was established to prevent foreigners from taking American jobs, but, in fact, an education gap frequently leaves American candidates less qualified for these positions. Lawmakers could improve the situation all around by removing the cap on H-1B visas while imposing a 10 percent payroll tax above and beyond the benchmark salary for any position being filled by holders of such visas. The proceeds of the payroll tax could be channeled into U.S. reeducation programs. This compromise would bring the best innovators to work here while subsidizing the continued education of American talent.

Finally, match funds for venture capital and angel investments. Venture firms and investors need financial incentives to invest in companies that create U.S. jobs. What if firms with credible histories could receive as much as $100 million in federal matching funds if their investments create jobs in the United States? Investors could keep their normal return plus 50 percent of the returns on the matching funds, while the other half goes back to the government to revitalize further investment. This would give individuals an incentive to double down on investments they would make anyway, but sooner rather than later.

Having invested in more than 60 start-ups since 2000, I know that financing strategy is key in keeping new ventures afloat. For start-ups, the difference between being a dollar profitable or a dollar unprofitable is life or death. Stable financing lets companies develop good product strategies and become self-sustaining -- and that, on the micro level, is what we need to do with the economy.

This is the time for President Obama to take a page from his campaign playbook. Why stop at tapping the grass roots to debate the stimulus? He should seek to fund innovation at the grass-roots level. Obama is familiar with using YouTube and social networks -- products of start-ups and tools of the people. His administration should make it a point not only to avoid propping up failing, overleveraged institutions but to finance new businesses, back promising ventures, welcome the best foreign minds and nurture native talent. By providing incentives to American ingenuity, we can innovate our way out of this recession.

Interview with LogoTournament Founder Tyler Quinn

2009-03-03T12:05:00.000-08:00

A month ago I posted a link to a great start-up resource, LogoTournament, a crowd-sourcing site that instantly connects you with hundreds of logo designers. The site allows business owners (you) to post logo projects, set a price, and receive hundreds of entries from logo designers all over the world competing for your business. I’ve used the site twice with great results – 100 unique designs for $250-500 in a matter of days. The best part? The site allows you to interact directly with the designers, giving them feedback on colors and design.

I’ve become so intrigued by the business model and the incredible value the site delivers to the average entrepreneur, that I reached out to LogoTournament founder, Tyler Quinn, to get his story.

Elizabeth: So tell us more about you. Where are you from? What do you do? Is this the first company you’ve started?
Tyler: I’m based in Calgary, Canada and my education is in marketing and management information systems. I have been involved with the web on a professional level for well over a decade now. I consulted as a web developer to help fund my education and world travel. Currently I am a partner in a number of Canadian online niche shops. My first business was a law mowing service when I was 12 years old. I was fortunate enough to grow up around successful entrepreneurs, so I saw at a fairly early age what was possible. I have been involved in multiple internet ventures, some have been successful, some not.

Elizabeth: How did you come up with the idea for LogoTournament?
Tyler: I had seen design contests taking place on various internet forums and freelancing sites. They were only used by tech savvy people and were very cumbersome and unlikely to be used by a mainstream business person. I built LogoTournament with my end clients in mind so any businessperson regardless of marketing of technical would experience success with the site.

Elizabeth: How long did it take you to get the site up and running once you thought of it?
Tyler: I spent way too long trying to decide on a direction, but once that was fleshed out it took about 5 months to get the site launched. It should have only been about 3 months, but I kept adding to the scope of the project which was a mistake. If I could do it all again, I would reduce the scope to bare essentials and cut development time to less than 8 weeks. Then I would start adding features after launch.

Elizabeth: Did you recruit others to help or is this something you’re doing all on your own?
Tyler: Although I have experience programming small web applications, I did enlist an expert programmer. We worked together to develop the site based on my prototypes and specifications. I also employ a part-time infrastructure person who is in charge of server administration and performance. Just recently LogoTournament has hired a customer service person to help out with emails and community management.

Elizabeth: Did you seek venture capital, and if so, what was your experience?
Tyler: I did not seek venture capital, and LogoTournament was self-sustaining within in a matter of months. A couple of VCs have expressed interest in LogoTournament, but that hasn’t gone any further than the conversation level at this point. One of them that I spoke with was fairly famous in certain circles so it was very flattering. Although with the web I think there is a lot of opportunity to build profitable niche companies without really needing much money.

Elizabeth: In starting your company, what were the key resources that you used to help you get started?
Tyler: The key resources have been open source technology like Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP, economical web hosting platforms, PPC marketing, readily available global talent, and international payment systems like Paypal.

One of my main inspirations is the book “Getting Real” by 37Signals, and is a must read for anyone building an internet business. I am in agreement with their philosophy of building simple, self-serve, easy to use web applications that do not require a big team to build or run.

I also practice GTD (Gettings Things Done by David Allen) which helps me greatly with keeping a lot of balls in the air without going crazy.

Elizabeth: What makes LogoTournament so special? Why are designers using it? Why are customers using it?
Tyler: Other than the obvious dollar factor, I think designers choose LogoTournament for the sense of community, fairness, competition, and recognition. I believe customers are using it because they can get the logo that the really want with 50-250+ choices, instead of settling on a handful that they might receive from a traditional design firm.

Elizabeth: How many countries are represented among your designers/customers? How did you get the word out - and so globally? What marketing/PR tools and techniques have you used?
Tyler: Our design community is represented by designers from almost one hundred different countries. Our customers hail from over 30 different countries and here are some recent examples browsing through the contests page: the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Kuwait, Israel, Poland, Denmark, Lebanon, Greece, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, and the Dominican Republic. Quite a diverse global crowd, which I think is fantastic. I’ve always been fascinated with entrepreneurship, so I always enjoy browsing through our customer base to see what they all do.

I’ve only done some basic Pay-Per-Click marketing to get things started. I’ve really done my best to offer excellent value and service to customers, which is leading to a significant number of repeat and referrals. Most of the growth now is from word of mouth.

Elizabeth: What’s next for LogoTournament and for Tyler Quinn?
Tyler: My primary focus right now is improving LogoTournament every day for both clients and designers, and increasing the site exposure.

Elizabeth: What lessons have you learned?
Tyler: Launch as quickly as possible. Trim down your concept to the bare essentials. Flesh it out, build it, and get it out there to see how people respond. Stop thinking about it and get going. Test it out before you mortgage your house and quit your day job.

Kudos to LogoTournament and all the web resources that make starting up even easier today. You can check out contests going on now and examples of the great design work at http://www.logotournament.com/.

Register for Cincinnati Entrepreneur Boot Camp

2009-02-19T11:57:00.000-08:00

June 3 & 4 C-CAP Entrepreneur Boot Camp
Date: 6/3/2009 8:00 AM - 5:30 PM

Host:
The Circuit

Description:
This is an intensive two-day workshop designed for growth-company entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs

Day 1: 8:15am – 5:30pm (Registration begins at 7:30am)
Day 2: 8:15am- 4:30pm

Who Should Attend?
• Do you want to obtain startup funding from local investors?
• Do you need help deciding whether your great idea will fly in the marketplace?
• Is your young growth company building its team and creating its infrastructure?

What Will You Learn?
• How to Create a Business Plan That Attracts Investors
• How to Present Your Business Plan to Angels
• Who to Hire—and When
• How to Use Intellectual Property to Create Barriers for Competitors
• What Investors Want – Direct From the Investors
Plus: “One-on-One” sessions with local angels and prominent resource providers, who will give you real-time advice on your business proposal.

Registration includes daily: continental breakfast, refreshments, lunch, conference material

Space is limited and the annual event sells out.

C-Cap reserves the right to restrict registrants to bona fide entrepreneurs
No refunds or credits.

Location:
Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati
3805 Edwards Road, Suite 500 Cincinnati

Registration Deadline:
5/28/2009
Cost: $249.00

Naming your company: the 6-step tutorial

2009-02-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

Naming a product or a company is not an easy task. There's so much wrapped up in a brand name - images it calls to mind, the personality of the word itself, the relevance to the company's offering - and in most cases... it's permanent! Compound that with the fact that every trademark and domain name out there seems encumbered somehow - it can be pretty frustrating.

As frustrating as it can be, it's pretty important to get it right. A name separates you from your competitors and is many times your first impression on a customer. An unforgettable name is a great asset - a way to create a unique and lasting impression on your customers without buying $1 million of advertising.

So let's think of how to go about really naming a product or company for the long run. Igor, a Bay-area naming firm, has come to the rescue with great tutorials on what's in a name.

Check out their "Branding the Beast" free downloadable book at:
http://www.igorinternational.com/process/naming-guide-product-company-names.php

Igor defines names as Functional (like Infoseek), Invented (like Google), Experiential (like Fathead), and Evocative (like Yahoo!). Their book includes an effectiveness score with hundreds of examples and case studies of various well-known brand names.

Here's just a taste of the 6-step process for naming a company in their book:

Step 1: Competitive Analysis - take a look at the other names in your space

Step 2: Positioning - figure out the nuances of your offering and incorporate those into your potential names

Step 3: Name / Brand Development - taking into account your brand, namestorm! Think of all the possibilities and then evaluate those possibilities in the context of your brand essence, character, promise, points of difference, and positioning

Step 4: Trademark Prescreening - you can check out http://www.uspto.gov/ to see live and old trademarks. You should also check the availability of related domain names - http://www.whois.com/ is a good resource.

Step 5: Creative / Testing - run the name or names by some people unfamiliar with the product or company and get reactions. A survey of family and friends or a full-on focus group may do the trick, depending on your budget.

Step 6: Name and Tagline - you have your name, now it's time to apply some context - imagery and taglines can help explain and define your name for your customers.

Happy naming!

Internship Opportunities

2009-02-10T08:49:00.001-08:00

I've been pinged a few times (already!) about internships this summer. Working for VC's and start-ups is great experience and there are several firms (including my own) around town that take interns over the summer months and throughout the year.

If you are interested, send your resume to elizabeth@inoneweekend.org and I will connect you with start-ups, Neyer Holdings, and other venture capital firms here in town.

Happy hunting!

The Incredible Value of an Outside Board

2009-01-16T11:17:00.000-08:00

In the words of Clay Mathile, “If I had a popcorn stand on a corner in downtown Dayton, I would still have a board of advisors.”

If you missed the GCVA luncheon at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, you missed a great talk about the value of an outside board of advisors given by Joni Fedders of Aileron, a entrepreneurial resource and campus just outside of Dayton founded by Clay Mathile, former owner of The Iams Company.

A typical venture-backed company has a board of around 5 members that are mostly made up of investors, the CEO/founders, and maybe an industry expert. So, while these boards are critical to decision-making, they are not always objective because they are personally invested in the drivers and outcomes of the business. Investment decisions may require them to get out their checkbooks, HR decisions may require them to fire someone they like, and so on and so forth. Also, these boards are also not necessarily comprised of individuals with relevant experience. Venture firms are generally made up of some pretty sharp individuals (and I’m not just saying this because I work for a venture firm…), but they’re not all-knowing and they may lack the specific expertise that’s needed for a company to really succeed.An outside board of advisors is an objective group of hand-picked experts, seasoned executives, and well-connected individuals that can help the company set strategic goals and identify opportunities that may not be obvious to the less-objective and sometimes not as relevant board of directors. This objective, expert group becomes a powerhouse of ideas when they bring their marketing, financial, and strategic views together in a healthy debate focused on the success of your company.

So, before you even start booking appointments with VCs, get a board of advisors together first. You may have to pay for their expertise, but it’s probably the wisest investment your company can make. And the best part? It’s an incredible compliment to be asked to be a board advisor, so there’s no reason to be shy about asking the executives you most admire to be part of your board.

Innovation in Cincinnati: How we can stay #1

2009-01-13T08:04:00.000-08:00

Now that it's been published in Soapbox Media, I thought I'd share the article I wrote just before the holidays on innovation in Cincinnati. You can also check it out on Soapbox here.

Innovation in Cincinnati: How we can stay #1

As a venture capital investor at Neyer Holdings http://www.neyerholdings.com/, I strive to quantify just about everything, so when invited to write a blog on my favorite topic, innovation in Cincinnati, I thought I’d apply some Carmen Sandiego sleuthing to the subject and find out how we stack up against other cities in the US in terms of innovation.

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website http://www.uspto.gov/ is a plethora of information about how to file a patent, trademark, or copyright. The USPTO also has an online database where you can search patents and trademarks. So, in my quest to quantify innovation, I started there. Admittedly, not all innovations are patentable (to be patented they must be novel and useful in some way), but patents are a good apples-to-apples indicator of innovation in a region.

So, I picked five Midwest cities - Cincinnati, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, and Pittsburgh – and five cities from different parts of the US - Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Seattle and San Francisco – and ran some numbers. It’s important to note that in this analysis I only included the city proper (as opposed to the surrounding metro area), excluding places like Palo Alto from San Francisco and West Chester from Cincinnati.

How we stack up: We’re #1!
You might be interested to know that over 16,037 patents have been issued to Cincinnati inventors since 1976. In today’s numbers, that’s over 48 patents per thousand population. Out of the ten cities I searched Cincinnati had the highest number of issued patents per capita. We are truly an innovative city.

Innovative cities today
Whenever I speak on innovation and entrepreneurship, I often cite San Francisco as my shining-city-on-a-hill of an example. How did I go wrong? I was sure San Francisco was more innovative. Well, in San Francisco, where the population of the city proper is about twice the size of our city, the number of issued patents per thousand is only 26 per thousand compared to our 48 – but they are quickly catching up. Though Cincinnati has far more issued patents per thousand population, San Francisco’s rate of new innovation (or the number of new patent applications in the last 7 years) is pretty extreme, with 28 patent applications per thousand population compared to our 21.

Our challenge now? In order to create long term economic growth, new companies, investment, and jobs, we have to keep up with the cities such as Seattle, San Francisco, and Austin who are tearing it up in terms of new innovation. This graph plots innovation – issued patents on the Y axis and new patent applications on the X axis. We want to be high and to the right – and the only way to get there and stay there is to invent, invent, invent.

So who is inventing all this stuff in our city?
It should come as no surprise that our region is a Mecca for consumer product, surgical, and aircraft technology. In fact, P&G makes up over 15% of our patent applications and together, P&G, GE, and Ethicon make up about 25% of our city’s recent applications. While at 25% our proportion of corporate innovation is slightly higher than some of our metro peers, Seattle has a similar experience with its intellectual property giant, Microsoft. 34% of Seattle’s recent applications were Microsoft applications. But in Cincinnati, who makes up the other 75% of new applications? People just like you.

Inventors in Cincinnati
Back in 1841 James Gamble patented a candle molding machine, the first patent of thousands to be granted to Procter & Gamble. In 1862 Mary Jane Pulte invented a new kind of cleaning gloves, becoming the first Cincinnati woman to be granted a patent.

Granville T. Woods, a Cincinnati inventor at the turn of the century, was simply known as “The Black Edison”. He registered over 60 patents in a variety of technical areas – a phenomenal number for a single inventor. Among his most notable innovations are air brakes, steam boilers, and a telegraph system of sending messages while trains were still in motion. He also developed the concept of the “third rail” in mass-transit subway systems and the “trolley” system for trolley cars.

Today, Cincinnati is home to inventors like Forrest Gauthier, founder of Varis Corporation and current CEO of Tesseron Ltd. Gauthier is the named inventor on over twenty patents in the multi-billion dollar high speed variable data printing industry. He has licensed his innovative technology to some of the largest print controller OEMs in the world, making Cincinnati a center of innovation for commercially viable large scale personalized marketing.

The Heimlich maneuver, the oral polio vaccine, the first working tractor, Pringles, the Uno card game, and the first credit cards (called “Charga-plates”) were all created right here in Cincinnati. Innovation is part of our heritage and something we, as Cincinnatians, can be proud of.

Do your part! Here are six ways Cincinnatians can be even more innovative.

1. Help fund university intellectual property work.
One metric we can easily improve upon is the number of patents issued to our universities. I checked to see how many patents applications are attributed to universities in San Francisco and Seattle, two cities where universities are doing a phenomenal job funding academic intellectual property work. San Francisco and Seattle universities have filed 5-6 times the number of patent applications as our local universities. But don’t worry – this is a problem that is easily solved.

If you’ve visited any of our region’s universities lately, you will find a phenomenal amount of research going on – over $350 million of research in fact - and all of that research desperately needs separate funding for patent work. Most universities just don’t have funds to dedicate to patents, which can cost thousands of dollars each. This is because universities typically fund intellectual property work with revenue from existing royalties (unlike the research itself, which is usually funded through grants). While it works in theory, royalty streams are usually lumpy, creating years of budget gaps – and years of resource-constrained IP offices. In any given year, a university may miss out on millions in potential royalties because a deadline passed for a patent filing. Fortunately, a special committee at UC is working on a way to solve that problem at UC, creating a dedicated fund that will ensure that researchers don’t miss out on patent opportunities due to budget gaps. This small fund will allow breakthrough technologies at our universities to be protected, creating enormous economic value for our region.

2. Don’t be afraid to be a little bit weird.
There’s a bumper sticker you may have seen out on the road “Keep Austin Weird”. There must be some correlation between “weird” and “innovative” because Austin is doing a pretty great job of keeping it weird – and patenting their weird ideas. Austin actually ranked #1 in my random list of ten cities in terms of new innovation, with 32 patent applications per thousand population.

Inventions are by definition novel and many times odd – and they can come from the most unexpected places. The inventor of the Uno game was a barber from Reading. A great example from my own career is a Cincinnati dentist who invented an energy-efficient production process for biofuels. Who knows? The next great Cincinnati inventor may be… You.

3. Don’t be afraid to fail.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Failure is absolutely fine. It means you tried. At the InOneWeekend kickoff this past July, Roy Gilbert, Global Director of Operations at Google, gave a great talk about innovation, entrepreneurship, and the keys to success that he’s learned at Google. The idea that stuck with me the most is the way Google approaches failure. At Google, if you reach your goals more than 80% of the time, that means you’re not setting the bar high enough for yourself. To their company, failure is not the end of the world; it’s just another step towards ultimate success.

I believe our city is teeming with latent ideas. In my work, I hear ideas all day long – and I’m amazed at the ingenuity that exists here. To ensure our long term economic success in this region, we need to take a piece of advice from Google and get comfortable with a little more risk and a little more failure. We need to take our ideas and make them real.

4. Consult a patent attorney.
We have world-class intellectual property attorneys here in town. Take advantage of it! If you have a great idea, but not a lot of money to spend on a patent yet, a provisional patent (basically, a rough draft) may be for you. I checked with Taft, a very well-known firm downtown with a strong IP group, to see what a typical provisional patent generally costs. Depending on the complexity and nature of the subject matter, a provisional patent application can be prepared and filed for approximately $2,000-4,000. Non-provisional applications run any where between $6,000 and 8,000. Don’t let the price tag discourage you. Depending on how novel and valuable your idea is, your patent attorney may be able to work with you to get the ball rolling while you raise capital.

5. Make connections with potential investors.
All are welcome to come mix and mingle at the monthly Greater Cincinnati Venture Association meetings http://www.newgcva.com/ where you will find inventors, entrepreneurs, venture capital investors, and others interested in start-ups drinking cocktails, pitching their ideas, and talking about innovation and entrepreneurship. If you’re looking for investment, GCVA will connect you to CincyTech, Queen City Angels, Neyer Holdings, and a variety of venture capital firms. If you’re thinking of making a pitch to investors, contact the GCVA board, who will help you refine your pitch before going in front of investors. You can register for the January 13th GCVA lunch event at the Contemporary Arts Center at www.newgcva.com.

6. Try out the start-up life for a weekend.
Transforming a good idea into a real, live start-up takes a lot of work, but the good news is – you can try it out for a weekend! In July, look out for InOneWeekend, an event where 100 people create a real start-up company in 3 days. Technology, design, and business professionals gather over a weekend to take part in a participant-driven event put on by venture capital investors and successful start-up entrepreneurs. On Friday, we brainstorm ideas and vote on the one we’re going to build. Then on Saturday, we start building every aspect of the company: technology, design, business plan… everything. On Sunday, we launch! To get your name on the list, visit http://www.inoneweekend.org/.

About Elizabeth Edwards
Elizabeth joined Neyer Holdings 2006. As an active investor, Elizabeth delivers capital and builds winning strategies for start-up and growth businesses in a variety of sectors, including energy, life sciences, consumer, and technology.

Elizabeth came to Neyer Holdings from Deloitte Consulting, where she was part of the Strategy & Innovation team, deployed over a broad range of industries, mainly focusing on the health care and life sciences. At Deloitte, Elizabeth’s work focused on strategic marketing, disruptive innovation, and new markets.

Elizabeth holds a BS in Economics and Psychology from the University of Michigan and a MBA from the University of Cincinnati.

She is an active member of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber Agenda 360 Initiative, serving on the committee for Economic Competitiveness, and is a founding board member of several community organizations, including the Twenty-first Century Forum and CincyPAC. Founder of Cause Catalyst, Elizabeth fundraises and raises awareness for better diagnostic and therapeutic solutions for melanoma skin cancer. She is a member of the Cincinnati Chamber’s C-Change Class 3, where she was co-chair of the Transportation team that created Fetch, a single number for cab service in Cincinnati (513-35-FETCH). Elizabeth is also the founder of InOneWeekend, an innovation and entrepreneurship organization that hosts participant-driven events where 100 people create a start-up company in 3 days.

In her free time Elizabeth enjoys traveling and downhill skiing, and coaches youth basketball. She is also an amateur pilot and Pilates enthusiast.
You can contact Elizabeth at elizabeth@inoneweekend.org

Innovation in a Recession

2008-12-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

McKinsey beat me to it! I just wrote a blog for Soapbox about innovation in Cincinnati that will hit your inbox some Tuesday in January. Interestingly enough, the big brains at McKinsey wrote an article that used a similar metric to track innovation, patent applications.

Harvard's Tom Nicholas did an analysis on innovation in downturns, using patent applications in the 1930s as an example. Unfortunately, during the Great Depression, patent applications slowed significantly as investment in R&D was reduced and people took fewer risks.

If necessity is the mother of invention, now is the time to invent!

To read Tom's full article on Innovation Lessons from the 1930s, visit McKinsey at: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Innovation/Innovation_lessons_from_the_1930s_2266

Microsoft makes software free to start-ups

2008-11-12T14:11:00.000-08:00

Weekender Alex Keenan found a great deal on Microsoft software.

According to IT Business Edge, "Microsoft’s newly launched BizSpark program is looking to kindle the esteem of some small business owners across the globe.

According to CNET News, the initiative will be open to private companies that have been in business less than three years and bring in less than $1 million in yearly revenue. Eligible organizations must be nominated by a Microsoft partner company. Participants in the program will have free access to production licenses and technical support for several Microsoft products, such as Visual Studio, Windows Server, SQL Server and Sharepoint, reports Computerworld. The licenses are free for the first three years, after that the companies in the program will have to pay."

See the rest of the article here: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/hdw/?p=3508

Google's CEO talks about innovation, competition, and Google

2008-11-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

In this video interview with James Manyika of McKinsey, Google's Eric Schmidt talks about everything from competition, to innovation, to global issues surrounding the future of the internet.

A few highlights:

Schmidt starts off his view of the future, asking the question: "If people have infinitely powerful personal devices, connected to infinitely fast networks, connected to infinitely fast server rooms... What will they do?" His take: these super devices will allow the consumer to make decisions easier and faster, fundamentally change how companies market to consumers, and considerably speed up the rate of change in the world. No matter how powerful, he notes, they won't replace human insight.

In his interview, he stresses that while marketing to the long tail can be profitable, catering to the 'head' is still important. In fact, contrary to some of Chris Anderson's work, he believes that hits will become Super Hits as a result of the global reach of the internet.

He also talks about management at Google and how critical it is to keep an open, loosely organized culture to sustain innovation, avoiding siloed divisions. He also stresses the importance of deadlines to get things done ("otherwise you're a University"), and views created crises as tools to get through the knothole. (Hmm... crises that are artificially created? Crazy deadlines? Sounds like InOneWeekend!)

His take on work-life balance? There is no balance. Executives that will do really well in his view love the crises.

Probably most interesting are his comments about policing the internet and the potentially tragic balkanization of the internet. Different countries have different laws... how do we stay connected without building police states around our internets?

To see the video of McKinsey's whole interview with Eric Schmidt, click here: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Googles_view_on_the_future_of_business_An_interview_with_CEO_Eric_Schmidt_2229?pagenum=1#interactive_google_schmidt

Celebrating 50 Years of Computing History

2008-11-07T07:54:00.001-08:00

If you had the chance to attend Judy Estrin's talk a few weeks ago about her book Closing the Innovation Gap, then you heard quite a bit of solid information about the need to strengthen the basic research infrastructure in the US. In her book, Estrin lobbies for a renewed focus in the US on basic research that allows breakthroughs, like the Internet, that require 30 years to incubate. As the US competes with the rest of the world we compete with the massive populations of India and China that, due to their sheer size, have more honors students than the US has students. We need a strengthened infrastructure to build a strategic workforce and not just a commodity workforce.

The University of Cincinnati will host the conference Celebrating 50 Years of Computing History next week, November 10th and 11th. At this conference you will have the chance to hear from some of the original researchers that made the breakthroughs that allow computing as we know it today. You'll also have the opportunity to understand some of the foundations that Estrin discusses and just what the scope of basic research is.

- Andy

Don't forget rural society

2008-11-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

The McKinsey Quarterly just came out with a great article about entrepreneurship - in rural India and China - and how important rural society is to overall economic growth. A sharp contrast is drawn between China's approach in developing investing in its agrarian villages and India's still poverty-stricken outlands.

Excerpts from Tarun Khanna’s article:

“In China, for instance, the government actively spurred the village economy, largely through agricultural-reform measures implemented during the 1980s.”

“India, however, has not. The nation’s government has failed to invest in its villages. The farmers who sold their produce in a mandi in Bangalore live a daily struggle for existence in their home villages. Today, 89 percent of all rural households do not own a telephone, and 52 percent have no domestic power connection. The average village is two kilometers away from an all-weather road, and 20 percent of rural habitations must walk for miles to obtain safe drinking water, have access to it for only a few hours a day for much of the year, or have no access at all.”

“Instead, India should seek to empower its villagers and nurture entrepreneurial activity, while also taking advantage of its strengths in the private sector. Corporations need a seat at the table of village reform—even multinationals, because the task of reform is so enormous. Outright foreign direct investment, by Düsseldorf-based Metro AG, for example, should be welcome, as should joint ventures, like the one between Bharti Enterprises and Wal-Mart Stores. Such businesses, together with local ones, can lay the foundations for a modern agricultural supply chain linking the village farmer with the urban market.

Only then will India, and not just its global cities, rise.”

About the Author
Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School and author of Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours, published in 2008 by Harvard Business School Press and Penguin Books India. This is an adaptation by the author of a broader perspective on India and China that appeared originally in an online publication of the Center for the Study of Globalization at Yale University.

You can read the full article here:

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Nurturing_entrepreneurship_in_Indias_villages_2237

Net net: don't forget about rural economies! In fact, according to the USDA, rural America is home to a fifth (49 million) of the nation's people, comprises over 2000 counties, and accounts for 75 percent of the America's land.

- Elizabeth

Obama’s support of start-ups and technology

2008-11-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

Now that the results are in, let’s take a look at what’s in store for start-ups and technology. The following is from the economic section of Obama’s website, much of which focuses on investment and incentives for technology.

You can view his entire economic policy here: http://origin.barackobama.com/issues/economy/index.php

Technology, Innovation and Creating Jobs

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will increase federal support for research, technology and innovation for companies and universities so that American families can lead the world in creating new advanced jobs and products.

Invest in the Sciences: Barack Obama and Joe Biden support doubling federal funding for basic research and changing the posture of our federal government from being one of the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that embraces science and technology. This will foster home-grown innovation, help ensure the competitiveness of US technology-based businesses, and ensure that 21st century jobs can and will grow in America.

Make the Research and Development Tax Credit Permanent: Barack Obama and Joe Biden want investments in a skilled research and development workforce and technology infrastructure to be supported here in America so that American workers and communities will benefit. Obama and Biden want to make the Research and Development tax credit permanent so that firms can rely on it when making decisions to invest in domestic R&D over multi-year timeframes.

Deploy Next-Generation Broadband: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we can get broadband to every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation's wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax and loan incentives.

Support Small Business

Provide Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start Up Companies: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will eliminate all capital gains taxes on start-up and small businesses to encourage innovation and job creation. Obama and Biden will also support small business owners by providing a $500 “Making Work Pay” tax credit to almost every worker in America. Self-employed small business owners pay both the employee and the employer side of the payroll tax, and this measure will reduce the burdens of this double taxation.

Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support entrepreneurship and spur job growth by creating a national network of public-private business incubators. Business incubators facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in creating start-up companies. Obama and Biden will invest $250 million per year to increase the number and size of incubators in disadvantaged communities throughout the country.

Venture funding cut backs... and start up opportunities?

2008-11-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

This is a great article from The Economist about venture capital funds cutting back and how start-ups are reacting with layoffs. You can always count on the Economist to be balanced... This author points out that the start-ups who DO survive Armageddon will benefit from fewer competitors. There's a whole Inc. magazine issue from earlier this fall that profiles companies that did well starting up during recessions. The net net: no more sweet VC deals with a simple powerpoint - start thinking of businesses that can gain traction with limited capital (maybe your own?).

See the whole article - with nifty pictures and graphs - here: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12474626

Fright night in the valley
Oct 23rd 2008 SAN FRANCISCO From The Economist print edition

Having learnt from the dotcom bust, technology entrepreneurs hope to stay afloat this time around

HALLOWEEN is still a week away, but homes throughout Silicon Valley are already adorned with images of witches, skeletons and assorted ghouls and gargoyles. Horror stories have also been plentiful in the Valley, courtesy of the region’s high-tech companies. On October 21st Yahoo! said it would cut its staff of around 15,000 by at least a tenth. Given the internet firm’s woes—its third-quarter profit fell by 64%, to $54m, as online advertising withered—the cuts were perhaps inevitable. Equally striking has been a wave of lay-offs at much smaller start-up companies, which are bracing themselves for a coming recession.Unlike firms in most other industries, which have not seen a severe downturn since the early 1990s, tech companies still bear the scars of the dotcom bust of 2001. The folk that ran them then learnt painful lessons that many of today’s entrepreneurs appear to have taken on board—and that managers in other companies would do well to reflect on. Chief among them are the importance of swift and deep cost-cutting; of focusing scarce resources on core activities; and of convincing investors that your business strategy is a winner.

Given that entrepreneurs tend to be tireless optimists, even experienced hands need a scare. And they are getting it from the venture-capital outfits that have backed many fledgling firms. Sequoia Capital, a leading investor in start-ups, began a recent presentation to bosses of companies in which it owns a stake with a Halloween-style image of a gravestone carrying the words “R.I.P. Good Times”. Sequoia went on to urge the executives to cut costs fast so that their firms would not run out of money before becoming profitable. Other venture capitalists are echoing its message. “Rule number one is to take immediate measures so you can stay in the game,” says Mike Speiser of Sutter Hill Ventures, another VC firm.

Life will be hardest for the many start-ups that are still in the red. Those that need more capital soon will get it only at a very high price if they can get it at all, as venture capitalists tighten their purse strings. According to the National Venture Capital Association, a trade group, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, a consultancy, VC firms provided $7.1 billion of funding in the third quarter of this year, but are likely to cut that amount in coming months.

Venture capitalists are feeling the pinch too. They are finding it harder to unload the stakes they own in start-ups. Big companies which are themselves short of cash are extremely wary of splashing out on the minnows in VC firms’ portfolios. At the same time, investors are shunning initial public offerings of venture-backed firms (see chart), which have fallen to their lowest level since 1977. Experts reckon that the market may remain comatose until at least the end of next year.

All this explains why the bosses of several start-ups have started to wield a big axe. Redfin, an online property-broker, and AdBrite, a web-based advertising network, which both had about 100 employees, have slashed their headcount by 20% and 40% respectively this month. Pandora, a music-streaming business, and Searchme, a visual search engine, are among the rapidly growing collection of other start-ups that have also announced job losses. Deep cuts like these may be painful in the short-term, but they are better both for profits and morale than repeated rounds of small lay-offs. In 2001 many firms trimmed too little, too late.

Of course, slashing the workforce now may not make sense for some start-ups. Those focused on areas such as gaming and health care, which may be less vulnerable to a recession, are likely to keep hiring. And companies making big lay-offs could still add new heads in some areas. Announcing a 25% cut in staff numbers at Zillow, another property-related website, Rich Barton, the company’s chief executive, said in a blog posting that the firm would still hire people in ad sales and other revenue-generating roles.

Another useful strategy is to shed projects that are not central to a start-up’s business. Executives at Jive Software, which produces online collaboration tools for corporate clients, say it is now far better at scrapping initiatives that do not seem to be paying off. Once these have been placed on a “kill list”, there is no further discussion about them. In the past the lack of a formal process for canning ideas meant that many lived on, absorbing time and resources better spent elsewhere.

Elon Musk, boss of Tesla Motors, a start-up that recently began producing an electric sports car, learnt useful lessons from the dotcom bust. He steered PayPal through the early days of the shakeout by maintaining a focus on its core online-payments business and by ditching plans to develop other offerings. Thanks to this discipline, PayPal continued to grow and sold itself to eBay in July 2002. At Tesla Motors, he has delayed plans to add an electric sedan to its product-range from 2010 to mid-2011 so that the company can concentrate more resources on improving margins on its existing car and on expanding its profitable business of building powertrains for other carmakers—a decision partly inspired by his experience at PayPal.
Mr Musk is also trimming jobs at Tesla. “You need to show investors that you have been super-frugal with their money,” he says. More than ever, entrepreneurs need to be able to reassure VC firms on the basic principle that their business models can in future throw off far more cash than investors have pumped into their firms. Mike Kwatinetz of Azure Capital Partners, a VC firm, reckons that many of what he calls “carpetbagger entrepreneurs”—inexperienced youngsters who turned up in Silicon Valley in recent years with a view to getting rich quick—will come a cropper in the downturn because they do not have the foggiest idea of how to turn a profit. Yet Mr Kwatinetz is bullish about the prospects for those start-ups that manage to survive the crisis. They will face a much less crowded field and their managers will have honed their moneymaking skills in the harshest of all environments. He is on the lookout for firms that could become the next Bill Me Later, which Azure Capital bought into in 2001. Founded the previous year, the company lets internet users make online purchases without using a credit card. After surviving several ups and downs, it was sold to eBay on October 6th for some $945m. It is such Croesus-like sums that make start-ups worth all the toil and trouble.

Cincinnati City Manager Gets It: See his post on Soapbox

2008-11-04T08:10:00.001-08:00

I just had to share this post by Milton Dohoney, City Manager of Cincinnati. I've had the opportunity to hear him speak on occasion and have found him to be extremely articulate and innovative - in his support of LEED (Green Building) Tax Incentives for Cincinnati - and here in his perspective on the importance of entrepreneurship in the long term economic growth of our region. He recognizes that headquarters that sustain our economy are not imported, rather they are mostly created by local founders.

See the actual post on Soapbox here: http://www.soapboxmedia.com/blogs/posts/1bmiltondohoney38.aspx#comments

SoapBlog 1 - Ideas + Determination + Affinity = HQs

Posted By: Milton Dohoney, City Manager, 11/4/2008

People with even a passing knowledge of Cincinnati can easily recite that we have professional sports teams and they might know that we are bordered by a river. They are aware of the universities, but they could guess that because one would logically assume a major city would have various institutions of higher learning. When those who are only remotely familiar take a closer look, either by visiting us or doing a web search, they are genuinely surprised by the number of corporate headquarters (HQs) that are located here.

Major Corporate HQs are a significant asset for our community and when we talk about luring other HQ operations here, everybody sees that as a good thing. What’s not to like about expanding the skyline as well as bringing jobs, investment, and new talent to expand our capacity. The Regional Chamber, the City’s Economic Development Office and others charged with growing our pie of prosperity are primed to move towards any viable leads.

If you research company headquarters around the country and probe why they came to be in those places to begin with, you will find that many of them are in city x because their founders are from those cities. They grew up there or came there for college, developed an idea for a product, were determined to make it a reality, and because they liked the city where they lived, they launched their new enterprise there. So from the basement, garage, or virtual office a once budding enterprise blossomed into a giant corporate presence. In the beginning they probably had a healthy dose of skeptics that the ideas being put forth would ever explode but that scenario has been repeated over and over throughout the annals of business lore. I read just the other day about the two young men who began Google in their city with a $100,000 investment from someone who believed their idea could work and now both young men are each worth $19 billion. Hmmm.

So while we are roving the universe looking for corporations who have outgrown the space, talent pool, politics of their current home or simply need a new strategic location to continue the growth of their company, we must also cast an eye towards Price Hill, Carthage, Hyde Park, and Mt. Washington. While we’re at it let’s check in with UC, Xavier, NKU, and our research hospitals to find people who are developing intellectual properties that can be spun off into the future Humanas, Scripps, or Procter & Gambles.

We need local people bitten by the entrepreneurial bug who have ideas that can be translated into viable products or services that can be sold in the global marketplace. We need them to have the determination that they will not accept anything less than success. And we need them to love Cincinnati and have a desire to take their talent and let it flourish right here in the Queen City. While the naked eye might be tempted to dismiss the 5 or 10 person operation starting out, the visionary will see it as the 5 or 10 thousand person HQ 15 years from now. Admittedly, we may be able to lure someone here in less time than that, but you can never underestimate the true impact of a homegrown headquarters that has an affinity for where they are located.

For all of that to happen of course, our climate must include venture capitalists, angels, creative legal support, and systems that strive for fluid functioning not status quo mentalities. As we labor to recruit companies and grow companies, the talent that accompanies it will also help us to expand the culture, synergy, and can do spirit that any progressive city needs.

There is room in Cincinnati for a headquarters epidemic. The thing is, the person whose hand you shook in that business meeting last week in one of our neighborhoods or in downtown just may hold the key to help make that a reality.

Great Local Start-up News – Soapbox Media

2008-10-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

If you’re trying to stay current on innovation & entrepreneurship news in Cincinnati, try subscribing to the always free and always relevant Soapbox Media e-magazine. Every Tuesday they push great features on start-ups and other topics out to thousands of readers. They were also one of the first to report on InOneWeekend.

Check it out: http://www.soapboxmedia.com/
Email Sign up: http://www.soapboxmedia.com/about/signup.aspx

Great Logo Development

2008-10-27T15:30:00.001-07:00

Steve just ran across this site and I wanted to share it with everyone - http://logotournament.com/ - it's a logo design site that's perfect for start-ups.

This site allows you to submit an amount (example $300), a time limit (example 7 days), and a few characteristics from their guidelines (feminine, simple, colorful, sporty, modern, serious) to freelance designers who compete with multiple designs - using your comments on their drafts! It speeds up the creative process for logo design and is a great way to get an inexpensive first-round logo professionally developed.

For a great example, click on My Scorecard (one of the projects). This is Steve's friend's logotournament - pretty cool.

If you have other helpful sites for the group... let us know!

Closing the Innovation Gap

2008-10-12T00:12:00.000-07:00

A number of InOneWeekenders along with a sizable group of regional entrepreneurs gathered at Via Vite Saturday for lunch to discuss Judy Estrin's book, Closing The Innovation Gap. Great discussion. I'm looking forward to digging into the book. Rather than rehash a number of ideas again, you can read my synopsis of Estrin's thoughts here.

I did want to bring up a couple of important ideas that Estrin surfaced during the course of our discussion. Innovation comes from teams much more than from individuals. To that end, someone asked how important diversity is to innovation. The generally accepted answer is "very," and Estrin agreed. She put a spin on the response, though, and added, "not for the reasons you would think."

Diversity is important, but that diversity is particular. In particular, cognitive diversity is important to innovation. Bringing together broad perspectives and experiences adds much more value to the innovative process. Sure, that probably means gender, racial, and ethnic diversity, but not simply because of the color of our skin. It is our collective experience that adds value.

I immediately thought back to our July weekend and could see how all of our participation in InOneWeekend brought together people that would otherwise never have met. We shared and contributed our broad experiences to a collective effort that none of us could have accomplished alone.

- Andy

Have you heard about Wallstick?

2008-10-03T06:07:00.000-07:00

What do your walls say about You? Philanthropist and entrepreneur, Meredith Holthaus, thinks they could say so much more. Wallstick, a large format true-color adhesive print, allows you to take personal and meaningful moments and easily display them on your wall. To take the idea to the next level, Meredith leveraged relationships created during InOneWeekend to generate a plan.

With the kickoff of InOneAfternoon, a number of entrepreneurs came together for two hours of brainstorming and planning. The outcome produced a number of Wallstick ideas to support Holthaus' efforts and the structure for a format that allows entrepreneurs to regularly support each others' efforts. InOneWeekend showed us that a group of 100 can quite deeply and thoroughly vet an idea and create a business plan in one weekend in a way that a solitary business owner might not be able to do in 3 or 4 years. Does the same hold true for smaller or more focused efforts? I think so. Meredith walked away with a number of new ideas.

What I think this means for the Cincinnati entrepreneur community is that our efforts will become more and more visible to each other and the larger community. The top down efforts like Cincinnati's Agenda 360 to unite and direct regional growth efforts are necessary. Approaching regional growth from the bottom up with efforts like InOneWeekend and InOneAfternoon round out a full set of offerings that will inject some vibrant energy into the local community and regional economy. The region has a lot of great people looking to make a difference, and efforts like InOneWeekend and InOneAfternoon provide a forum to bring many of these people together.

- Andy

2008-08-27T08:37:00.001-07:00

Posted using ShareThis

[Reference] Terrific Article on Web-based Photo/Album Experiences

2008-08-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

http://mashable.com/2008/08/12/tools-for-viewing-photos-online/

For anyone who is looking for a great blog to follow as 'web 2.0' entrepreneur - Mashable.com is your best resource for measuring up your competition and staying on top of the newest services.

The link above showcases online photo viewing websites - there may be some great concepts for us to integrate in Lifespoke.

-R

Tearing Down To Build Up

2008-07-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

How do you get 100 driven, motivated, energized leaders, all with their own ideas, moving in the same direction? You send ‘em to boot camp and hand ‘em over to the drill sergeant.

That’s exactly what happened to us at InOneWeekend. Pretty much everyone has experienced creative brainstorming sessions that generate ideas where “no idea is a wrong idea.” Well, I’ll tell you that you can have wrong ideas and wrong approaches. And our drill sergeant made that clear within the first five minutes. No, scratch that. Within the first 60 seconds.

All we had to do was distribute some index cards among us. In 60 seconds. That’s it. And we got 10 points for doing so. There were four stacks of cards sitting on the table at the front of the room. Just get up out of our seats, pick up the cards, and start spreading them around. Make sure everyone got one. 60 seconds. 10 points. The clock started. We all – every last one of us – just sat there. For the first 10 seconds you could hear a pin drop outside of our facilitator yelling, “you can start now,” a couple of times. Our minds were not free. And all the “leaders” in the room were followers.

Here we were at an entrepreneurship event and we were waiting for someone to tell us what to do. Sheesh. The odds of a successful weekend plummeted. At least as we sat there individually in our seats.

Jeff Stamp facilitated the creative session and idea generation event. Jeff, an inventor and entrepreneur himself, taught entrepreneurship at the college level, a concept I always thought strange. I mean, how do you teach something that seems to need to be a part of a person’s character? This guy changed my mind by minute two.

Why did we just sit there? Well, Jeff had flashed a slide that said the person sitting in the third seat from the left in the third row needed to accomplish the task. Then another slide flashed that said to distribute the green cards, of which there were not enough to go around. We all waited for the third person from the left in the third row to figure out who he was. Fair enough – if you’re waiting for somebody else to change the world. The only task was to distribute the cards. The finish line to win the points was 60 seconds.

Distribute cards. 60 seconds. 10 points. Everything else should have been irrelevant. The third person from the left in the third row could have been any one of us depending on our frame of reference. And who cares what color the cards were.

Not only did Jeff break us down and create a bunch of followers out of a bunch of leaders, essentially putting us in our places, he then put the pieces back together and had us functioning in teams where the parts added up to much more than the whole. We were excited, bonded, with no more pride I might add, and generating an amazing number of great ideas.

Oh, there were those who tried to hold on to their egos, and, oh, were they shut down.

“But here is the problem with this approach…”

“NO PROBLEMS, JUST SOLUTIONS.”

“But I think…”

“NO TIME. MOVE ON.”

“But…but…”

We all moved on.

There would be no subversion of the team to anyone’s ego or agenda. A couple of hours later we had our concept in an online scrapbooking web site. We continued to break into different groups to brainstorm, rank, and share features, as our distributed groups collaborated using a Google Docs spreadsheet. We functioned as a team. And the team became “our” team as it strengthened through the weekend.

Amazing.

- Andy

InOneWeekend 2008 Keynote Part I

2008-07-22T02:06:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Roy Gilbert, Director of Global Operations for Google, kicked off the 2008 InOneWeekend event in Cincinnati! 100 people, 3 days, 1 startup

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: startup, innovation, venture capital, seed stage, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, creativity, cincinnati

InOneWeekend 2008 Keynote Part II

2008-07-22T02:02:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Roy Gilbert, Director of Global Operations for Google, kicked off the 2008 InOneWeekend event in Cincinnati! 100 people, 3 days, 1 startup

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: startup, innovation, venture capital, seed stage, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, creativity, cincinnati

InOneWeekend 2008 Keynote Part 3

2008-07-22T02:01:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Roy Gilbert, Director of Global Operations for Google, kicked off the 2008 InOneWeekend event in Cincinnati! 100 people, 3 days, 1 startup

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: startup, innovation, venture capital, seed stage, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, creativity, cincinnati

Congratulations to all

2008-07-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

First I'd like to say congratulations to the participants of InOneWeekend. WOW! You all did a super job of pulling together and creating a fabulous new business with a wonderfully creative concept. No egos, no arguments, just a lot of teamwork and dedication.

Second I'd like to thank Elizabeth, Steven, Jeffrey, Bill, and everyone else on the IOW Board for all their hard work. The weekend was so well orchestrated and executed -- you made it look easy! However, the amount of work that went on behind the scenes was no less than superhuman. Applause to everyone!!!

This weekend was a first for the Greater Cincinnati region, but I sincerely hope it will not be the last. We need this type of support for nascent entrepreneurs and InOneWeekend is a much-needed tool for the economic development of this area.

I'm looking forward to the next chapter in the story of Lifespoke.com -- the first few steps in the journey of a successful tech start-up.

Below is a link to the story that appeared in Friday's edition of the Cincinnati Business Courier. It is a great story and one that deserves to be told and retold for years.

http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2008/07/21/story6.html?b=1216612800^1670376

How did I miss the press release???

2008-07-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

I'm curious to read the Lifespoke press release. Can someone post the URL?

Thanks

There is No Finish Line, the Journey is the Reward

2008-07-20T05:51:00.000-07:00

We are now a T+7 days after the phenomenal InOneWeekend event -- and without a doubt, the event exceeded everyone's expectations. The title for this post is from a poster I received when I was at Apple Computer in the late 80's -- and it clearly rings true for InOneWeekend. It did not end on Sunday and for 100 people, their journey continues, hopefully much richer and more interesting than before.

LifeSpoke.com will continue to form and evolve with the help of all IOW's. More importantly, there are 100 people who are more aware, more confident and more energized about how start-ups work. It is not rocket science -- it is elbow grease - physical and intellectual -- that creates companies. Now there are 100 people who are ready to try it out.

There are 100 people that have learned to fail fast (we did it many times over the weekend.) Here are three quotes that illustrate the core of InOneWeekend:

"I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."
Thomas Edison

"Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome."
Samuel Johnson

"The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity"
Helen Rowland (1876 - 1950), A Guide to Men, 1922

One final note. This was an incredible team effort. It may seem that some contributed more than others and vice versa. But there was no scorecard about the number of ideas, who coded the most lines of code and who put in the most hours. Your presence at the event was valued! The measure of success lies in the future. Did LifeSpoke.com succeed? How many derivative ideas, companies, start-ups, efforts came out of this weekend. Is Cincinnati better than it was before July 11, 2008?

These questions do not necessarily need to be answered -- but for all of them, I believe the answer is very positive.

Good luck on your journey!

My best birthday gift ever

2008-07-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

Firstly, I must really thank the organizers and the event facilitators for such a wonderful event. I am a graduate student in University of Cincinnati. Entrepreneurship had been a distant dream to me for quite sometime now. Things suddenly changed on July 11th when my friend and fellow participant told me that there was a vacancy to join the group for InOneWeekend. The best part was that this happened on my 25th birthday. I got the best gift ever.... the opportunity to be a part of something big!! :)

To begin with I was quite doubtful whether 100 people can really come together and zero in on a single idea. The brain storming sessions were awesome. It was amazing to see people come up with creative ideas. This thrilled me and motivated me. When "LivingHistory.com" (the idea which recieved max votes and an idea which set the core purpose of LifeSpoke) was born on Friday 11:50pm, I was quite frankly excited and also unsure whether we can proceed to the next phase. Then the Saturday morning brainstorming sessions set a path for what we needed to do. It felt great to see things shaping up. By Sunday evening, it was all set and the presentations by various teams were so professional and it was hard to believe at the end of the day that I really had been a part of something big and something different.

I had come to this event with a motto to learn how a company can be set up. I might not have given real contributions to the company so far, but I have learnt a lot of things. As a student, I can take back lot of these experiences like interacting with enterpreneurs, being in team meetings, brain storming, voting, team work and so on..... invaluable lessons learnt in just 3 days. By far the best birthday gift I ever got..... thanks a lot for the opportunity :)

Hoping to contribute more in the immediate future. :)

Kapil

AND THANK YOU!!!!

2008-07-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

And I got so carried away posting my experience that my exuberance made me forget the most important part:

THANK YOUs!!!! ... to Elizabeth for creating the opportunity, to Steve and the Board for supporting her vision, for "GOOGLE Roy" for a great kick-off speech, for Jeff Stamp's excellent facilitation, for all the student assistants, and for U.C. for putting up the facility.

Sincerely,
Pamla Winther

Pamla's Experience w/ InOneWeekend

2008-07-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

As I clean house and get personal things in order this weekend that were down-prioritized last to make room for InOneWeekend, a video of last weekend is replaying in my head. I have - while vacuuming and scrubbing - found myself smiling and laughing right out loud as I reminisce the amazing exercise IOW provided. Here are key points I find noteworthy:

- We were 100 driven, opinionated people, and yet quickly after ONE idea (of a few dozen) was selected as "it", we acquiesced and threw ourselves into business groups that embraced the new business and got our arms all around it. We were more interested in a positive outcome than our own egos.

- We worked HARD. And food, and sleep, and personal things really did fade into the background as we prioritized getting the goal we had set for ourselves, accomplished.

- Individually, our diverse contributions came out initially in the context of who we 'usually' are or what we 'normally' contribute. In record time, because of the dynamic of the group setting and the insane timeline, I found myself digging deeper and trying to act and react differently than I typically do under pressure. I came away with a commitment to relax and enjoy the journey from here on out, more than the destination. (Thanks "team Mgmnt/Ops"!)

- I people-watched and anlayzed myself ....and we would have a ball during some parts, then turn right around and struggle with elements of the process because the timeline was simply too short for the kind of 'correctness' we are used to providing when we are assigned a block of work....like making the numbers work in Finance, or calculating accurate Sales projections, or Mgmnt/OPS' dilemna of envisioning the business development over three phases and the personnel needed for that (Launch! w/ a Committee; Phase 1 w/ 3 people; Phase 2 w/10+ people) - only to find that Sales had a different picture in mind of staffing?! And what about that market research? We had to S - T - R - E - T - C - H and remember it was, after all, a 3 day exercise.

- We discovered the 'product', we named the baby, and the super tech team (few, yet effective) gave us a gorgeous "UI". We did that in record time. I was/am tickled to be a part of that whole team. I'm grateful for the ones I worked closely with and sorry I did not get to know others of you, better. As a direct result of IOW, I have begun to develop some new, value adding friendships...some of which will inevitably lead to business opportunities.

I highly suggest every city try an "InOneWeekend" to create their list of 80+ great new entrepreneurial ideas to go after!

The 30 second ad that Evan's friend, Dan, helped me produce in "Garage Band" needs cleaned up before it can be an icon or stream from the website. (Everyone I know in studios was on vacation this week!) Once it is cleaned up, I'll shoot it back to Steering Committee so they can determine whether it qualifies to be put up at the website or not. Hey....free advertising!

So we did this without a paycheck. WE PAID TO BE THERE. That defines the entrepreneur, though the very financial freedom that enables us to keep innovating must be the successes we achieve. Let's (all) make LifeSpoke a success over the next year, so we stay plugged into what we began as a group.

Important 'Aha' for me: I kept wanting more "givens" from the onset of our project, but I also realized that without those we had the opportunity to see who the natural leaders were - not that everything said and done is etched in steel and 100% correct and the way forward. Nonetheless, because no standards or frameworks were prescribed, folks took turns stepping up and making assumptions and drawing conclusions and setting a precedent - none of which would
have had wings if a framework and 'givens' were handed to us from the onset. I realized (sometime Sunday) that it was the PROCESS we were enjoying (or not) and learning from and that all the particulars that must be addressed to make LifeSpoke a viable, profitable business will come in due time, sooner than later, but not in those first three days. We did plenty. Breathe.

I would do it again. I would do it again with all of you. It would be very interesting to see what we as a group would improve, were we to do this a second time (Elizabeth? Steve?......)

Warm regards,
Pamla Winther, HOPS Technology Inc.
513.207.1441

Volunteers & School Supplies Needed

2008-07-19T09:29:00.001-07:00

Hi Everybody!! Wanna help children and youth in Over the Rhine and the West End go back to school with everything they need? Please help by coming to Washington Park for the Over the Rhine Festival on 8/2/08 and to our back 2 cool school supply give away on 8/23/08.We need supplies bookbags and most of all VOLUNTEERS. Please let me know how you can help. Peace and Blessings, Vanessa Sparks 513-365-4764

Tom's post

2008-07-19T06:46:00.001-07:00

Tom Terrific said...
Observations...there are many. Here are my top three:

1) Equal parts imagination, energy and passion get you a simmering, quivering ball of potential. Toss in direction, support and a sense of urgency and you get incredible results.

2) To be truly effective, you have to have people and process that address the friction points between departments. Otherwise, the machine slows and progress is overestimated.

3) Regardless of circumstance, leaders emerge.
July 19, 2008 5:36 AM

Bryan C's post

2008-07-19T06:40:00.000-07:00

freeagent said...
Absolutely fasinatingly Amazing...So many came together as the "Force of One". "True Grit of Humanity's Core Ability.Bryan CHey all, glad to feel like my days are back on track, only to meet the heat... Been having monsterous energy drink and social interaction withdrawals. For sure, one awesome event I am proud to have been a part of. I suppose I served the event in a free agent capacity, asking where help was needed and filling the gaps from a-z not to mention, adding in a little inspiration into each group. Have to say, saturday morning was questionable to me to continue, I looked at the picture of the puzzle pieces and asked myself what could I do to inspire and be an intrical part with everyone in making this into something really worthy. After a few self doubts and minutes and a hard look inward, I pressed onward, sipped another mocha monster and was instantly locked once I felt the potential and character of everyone present and entering the same spoke of the wheels of life. It should never be the issue of not getting ones ideas illuminated but to illuminate an idea into a single combined force and focus on the build at hand. Reminds me of barn raising as a child, yes, I am that young and found I can still run circles around you all 20 somethings....still and mostly, I super enjoyed the meta and mental battery recharge from all the energy (moster drinks too)and most of all, to see who it was that would take my generations place in the reality net of the world. After all, mark my words, it is soon to be a very different place...what is today, will be different tomorrow. and mostly, "For Every Door There Is A Key... I applaud each of you and thank you for your tolerating my presence and hope I gave a little touch to each somehow... I am ready to do this again but have to have just another week of recoup....lol...Prof. Jeff Stamp was excellent, Jeff, Hats off buddy, you welcome in my world anytime. It was a humanistic common sensory and feel he emits to allow people to open their own selves up to that which they each posses and know, far deep internally. He has such a manner so as to show a horse where the water is rather than leash lead, bait or push and is an ability I hold close myself and can identify with but most of all, very very excellent educationist, narrationist and guider by knowledge and inspiration, they simply have not created the words to explain his style and I'm glad, helps in providing the scene of instant apprehensions yet, was there every step of the way silently guiding from 0-omega. I can fully identy with his style and need to give people an ability to focus, if only for a second at a time or through an entire complex series of event, Jeff, I hope they did'nt break the mold after you...Steve B and Elizebeth E, I commend you for needing to show the world (and a group fo brightness) that this would somehow be different than anything else out there. Your energy's were that of staying with the crowd no matter what, hell or high waters, we were all going to create something, small or big, simply mattered most was to get the group(s)to feel the power as one...and so we did... I know there is no way you ever thought something like LifeSpoke would emerge and I have to say, I am glad to see it was not spin and truely is and will be a unique thing ever evolving. You guys did your part and I hope to keep one of the life long connected relations with you all, each and everyone... you have all soemhow breach my social closed life, you are my friends... Futurist and Visionary~IdeationistCheers,BC
July 18, 2008 12:45 PM

Reflections on the IOW Experience

2008-07-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

As a participant in this inaugural InOneWeekend event, I thought I'd write up some thoughts on the experience and what it meant to me.

Getting ~100 Type-A personalities in one room to assume some semblance of structure was no mean feat, but Jeff Stamp directed the first evening to an impressively effective conclusion. Ideas may be cheap, but good ideas are invaluable. Surprisingly, we had quite a few really good ideas, which makes me think that Cincinnati might just be on the cusp of a new era of entrepreneurship.

Once the idea was selected, I fully expected a significant degree of defection from IOW by those who weren't convinced that it was a viable concept or felt disenfranchised by having their own pet idea discarded. I was amazed that nearly everyone returned Saturday morning to start in on the hard parts: business case development, technical production, market research, financial projections, and so forth...all the stuff that makes a business more than just a concept on a whiteboard.

When we divided ourselves into technical and business groups, it became pretty obvious that we were understaffed on the technology side. So, for our little rag-tag group of tech folks to have accomplished what they did in the time they were given was an impressive combination of coordination, prioritization, and pure brute-force coding.

Saturday seemed to move pretty fluidly, but I think those of us outside the web dev room didn't really appreciate the pace at which we were supposed to be working, as Sunday seemed very rushed to finalize a lot of bits right before the final presentation and wrap-up (I know I could have used another hour...or two...to tidy up the Powerpoint deck). However, at the end, I think most people in the room felt pretty great about what they had accomplished in about 34 hours of actual work time. I know I was astounded that so much order and creation could emerge from what looked like so much chaos.

Given that LifeSpoke, the result of our labors, is now a living, breathing "ongoing concern," it's hard for me to think about IOW as a complete experience...because it's not complete. We're continuing to build and plan and create with the hopes of establishing a brand new, successful venture organically grown from a "why not?" approach to entrepreneurship. But, if I try to evaluate the weekend on its own merits, my personal experience seems best described by a few words:

Connections: Meeting and working with people from all over the region with a dizzying array of backgrounds has introduced me to an entirely new network of relationships, gravid with promise and opportunity.

Adaptation: Working on a project that nobody could have prepared for in advance is exhiliarating, since it evens out skill and experience differences to some degree and greatly democratizes participation. Flexibility was rewarded and those who insisted on a preconceived notion of process or product were forced to evolve their thinking and compromise (at least with themselves) as the overall group moved forward.

Ownership: Ownership can be helpful if it engenders commitment to the end objective, and that's the sense I got from the IOW weekend. Ownership of ideas, however, can be an obstacle to compromise, and, thankfully, I didn't observe much of that at all. And that's an amazing thing given the nature of the motivated, successful, driven people that populated the event.

Diversity: As a business professor (operations management), I tend to focus on a subset of the concerns of the organizations that I work with and teach about. So, it's always amazing to be reminded of the full scope and range of skills and knowledge-sets needed to craft a business in all its glorious detail. From operational technologies to financial strategies to PR tactics and beyond, there is so much to be known and to do, and this group embodied that professional diversity. Also, there was tremendous social diversity in the room, which helped ensure that LifeSpoke wasn't merely something that would appeal to a small niche of like-minded, homogeneous professionals. Research on new service development has shown that team diversity is an important determinant of the success of the product being developed, and that bodes extremely well for LifeSpoke's potential.

The last question I heard people asking at the end of the event is this: "Would you do this again?" Most people were enthusiastic. While I personally think IOW represents an essential ingredient in the success of our region -- i.e., the nurturing of an innovative, entrepreneurial business community -- my response is tethered by more mundane responsibilities and is, therefore, fairly simple: ask my wife.

Looking back on InOneWeekend 2008

2008-07-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

All I can say is wow. And thank you. And congratulations.

This was probably the most significant experience I’ve ever had – and believe me, I’ve had some. There is so much to say about the amazing people I met, what I experienced, and what it meant to me. I have more business theories and start-up ideas running around in my head right now that I just want to take a digital recorder and capture everything so that I don’t forget it. I’d write it, but I have also never been so tired before in my life. It’s a good tired. A happy tired.

We did it. LifeSpoke is launched and people are registering for Beta right now. I can’t wait to get a Beta invite (and I’d better, LifeSpoke guys - because I’m pretty sure my name is one of the first that registered) because I’ve seen the UI and how awesome it is and … just like my thoughts about InOneWeekend, I can’t wait to get all my stuff in one place.

Andy Erickson, one of the participants who worked mostly on the business model and industry part of the business plan, and a really insightful blogger who writes two major blogs as a profession, came over to my office the other day to do a podcast to capture the reason why we, the Board of InOneWeekend, decided to go with a non-profit model. He said it would take about 25 minutes. He lead with, “Why are you doing this?” We started at 5pm and wrapped up at 8pm. So many life experiences and professional experiences – the reasons why I believe InOneWeekend is the right model for inspiring new venture creation and regional economic growth - were bottled up inside and once I got them out, I just felt spent. And suddenly, de-stressed. I had been holding all of this in for so long and it just felt great to get all of those thoughts captured so that I could rest knowing that I wouldn’t forget something important. Really, the answer to that question is three things: I love innovation. I love entrepreneurs. And I love Cincinnati.

Through my experiences as an entrepreneurially-minded person, a strategy & innovation consultant, and a venture capitalist, I have come to certain conclusions about what works and what doesn’t. What is the most important thing for making a start-up work besides a great idea? Great people with shared values. And that’s what the Board of InOneWeekend is made up of. Great, brilliant people with shared values. Once I got them on board, everything else fell into place. We started in April and we put the event on in July. And it was incredible.
We invited everyone – students and professionals from all backgrounds – and 100 people built a company in 3 days. And that company, LifeSpoke, is absolutely amazing. www.lifespoke.com

We came together as strangers. We built a company in 3 days. How? I don’t even know where to start.

All I know is: I will never forget InOneWeekend 2008. I’ve learned more about people, about business, and about myself from this group than I have in the three years that I’ve been a venture capital investor. So, I’d like to say thank you. Thank you and I can’t wait to see you in August!

Cheers to you – you are the best – go InOneWeekend 2008 and go LifeSpoke!

Elizabeth

2008-04-13T18:27:00.001-07:00

InOneWeekend