Collaborating Forbes Contributors

Shaka Brah! The Brutal (And Rewarding) Road To Creating A 100% Recycled Product

John Greathouse — Sun, 20 May 2018 18:03:00 GMT

It’s chic in the action sports world to market products as “eco-friendly.” Unfortunately, some of these products are greenwash frauds, which incorporate a small percentage of recycled materials into an assortment of otherwise new components.

In contrast, I recently came across a true eco-craftsman, Jeff Wapner, who has created a surfboard bag that is comprised of 100% recycled materials. As I learned while chatting with Jeff, his minimal-impact goal turned out to be a much bigger challenge that he initially anticipated. Two years after envisioning a legitimately eco-friendly surfboard bag, Jeff finally secured adequate and reliable sources of recycled materials to turn Into Blue And Green into a viable business.

Jeff Wapner – Founder, Into Blue And Green

Into The Blue And The Truly Green

John Greathouse: I’m a huge fan of origin stories. What’s the genesis of the name Into Blue And Green?

Jeff Wapner: The full company name is Paradise Is Divided Into Blue And Green, which is a lyric in the song ‘In the Water there Are Islands, in the Land there Are Lakes’ by Mice Parade. The artist’s girlfriend whispers that lyric at the beginning of the song – it’s haunting.

For me, it really represents the combination of recycling and the sea, the balance between the ocean and the mountains. This is a big part of why I came back to Santa Barbara, where I grew up, to build my business, (I wanted) to be close to the ocean and the mountains, the blue and green, in paradise.

More poetically, we seem to be divided on what paradise really means: is it owning stuff just for the sake of owning stuff, or is it appreciating our world and the gifts that already exist here?

This Woman Created A $6 Billion Titan And You’ve Never Heard Of Her

John Greathouse — Wed, 16 May 2018 20:19:00 GMT

In 1913, five business people founded America’s first liquid bleach factory. The group raised $75,000 ($1.9 million, inflation adjusted), with the intent to mine chlorine and sodium hydroxide deposits which occur naturally around the San Francisco bay’s perimeter.

Their intended market was large institutions, such as factories, food processors, laundries and municipal water companies. As such, they packaged their highly concentrated, 21% sodium hypochlorite product in 5-gallon containers.

The company floundered for two years, nearly going out of business before Annie Murray, wife of one of the company’s founders, stepped in. She modified the company’s product and packaging, while redefining its target market. Annie’s efforts helped create a company that is going strong over 100-years later. In 2017, Clorox employed over 8,000 people and generated over $6 billion in sales.

6 Lessons Today’s Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Annie Murray

In retrospect, it’s not surprising that Annie had such a significant impact on the formation of the Clorox company. When she launched the product, she was already a successful businesswoman, with a keen understanding of her retail consumers’ wants and needs.

Users Know Product / Market Fit, Non-Users Guess

Soon after the company was founded, Annie began using a diluted version of Clorox at home and at her prosperous mercantile store. Despite the skepticism of the original investors, she was convinced that Clorox could be re-packaged and sold directly to the emerging class of housewives, a new market segment which had modest discretionary income and were concerned about the cleanliness of their homes.

Annie had conviction in the company’s pivot, because she had used the revised product first-hand and she understood the target consumer, unlike the company’s founders.

Ride Cultural Waves

Obviously, entrepreneurs must be keenly aware of the macro trends impacting their efforts. Annie, and her business partners, had the good fortune of strong cultural and social changes that helped drive consumer demand for Clorox – a heightened awareness of cleanliness.

A number of factors influenced America’s changing view of personal hygiene at the turn of the last century. Principle among these factors was the discovery of viruses during the 1890s, solidifying the argument that microbes cause illnesses. By the early 20^th century, Americans were waging a war against germs and they needed products to help them win this fight.

Freemium Works When Missionary Selling

At the turn of the last century, soaps and other cleaning agents were animal based. In rural areas, they were often made in the home. Such cleansers had limited abilities to kill microbes and germs.

However, even though chlorine had a technological advantage over traditional cleaners and America had become germ conscious, Annie faced tremendous competition. Not from other emerging chemical sanitizers, but from inertia.

From Farmers Market Side Hustle To National Distribution – How Did Kelley D’Angelo Do It?

John Greathouse — Mon, 14 May 2018 22:12:00 GMT

Kelley D’Angelo, Founder and CEO of Lark Ellen Farm recently gave a compelling pitch at an investment meeting of the Santa Barbara Angel Alliance.

I know nothing about the consumer-packaged goods market, so it was clear at the outset that I was not a value-added investor. This allowed me to listen to Kelley’s pitch from the point of view of fellow entrepreneur, rather than critical, potential investor.

Impressed by Kelley and knowing that her story would inspire and inform other entrepreneurs, I was pleased when she agreed to chat with me, despite her breakneck schedule.

Kelly D’Angelo

John Greathouse: Hey Kelley, I know you are crazy busy, so thanks again for taking time out to share your entrepreneurial journey with my readers.

I wish every entrepreneur could see you give your investment pitch, as you do a very compelling job of conveying your passion and tenacity. It’s clear you love what you are doing and that you will not be denied.

As I recall, you initially came from a big corporate background, but (you) moved to Ojai, CA to help your dad consolidate some of his business interests.

What elements from your corporate world have you been able to leverage at Lark Ellen?

Kelley D’Angelo: Thanks John, I appreciate the opportunity. Working for Pacific Bell, AT&T, SBC Telecom was a phenomenal training ground. I found my own management and hiring styles and learned how to effectively deal with personnel performance issues. I learned how to organize my responsibilities and about financial models, and how to work against deadlines. Probably the most impactful thing (that) working in a corporation taught me is that I despised bureaucracy and that I wanted to work on my own. Poorly run meetings are my personal pet peeve and I attended way too many of them.

This Woman Change The Way Marketers Speak To Children

John Greathouse — Thu, 03 May 2018 22:02:00 GMT

In 1936, Ruth Handler and her husband Elliott were $200 in debt and unable to pay their rent. Elliott was a shy carpenter, while Ruth’s friends described her as, “beguiling and determined.”

On her lunch break, at the age of 20, Ruth entered a local furniture store with samples of her husband’s plastic chairs. Initially rebuffed, she refused to leave until she could speak with the store’s manager. She walked out of the store with a $500 purchase order. Four years later, she sold $2 million of Elliott’s dollhouse furniture through retailers nationwide.

Though she was the de facto leader of the company, America of the last century was not ready to accept a female led company. Thus, she agreed to name the startup after her husband and his friend Harold “Matt” Matson, resulting in the name Mattel.

Matson resigned and sold his shares to Ruth and Elliott less than two years after the company’s founding, due to health issues. Ruth had previously headed the company’s sales efforts, but she formally moved up to the CEO role upon Matson’s departure.

Ruth’s Big Innovation

Under Ruth’s guidance, Mattel grew steadily through the 1940’s. In 1944, at a single tradeshow, Ruth sold $100,000 of the company’s doll furniture, which translates into $1.4 million 2018 dollars.

In 1952, banks refused to loan Ruth the money needed to invest in a windup, music-box piano that she was convinced would be a hit. Rather than back down, she borrowed money from friends and family and eventually sold 20 million pianos. This is an especially remarkable feat, considering that America’s entire population at that time was 157 million, representing a sale to 1 out of every 1.7 Americans.

In 1955, the company’s net work was $500,000 ($4.6 million, inflation adjusted). Ruth decided to bet the company on an unproven show offered on the new medium of television: Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club. At the time, toys were advertised to adults, under the premise that adults were the decision makers.

However, Ruth took a contrarian view. She bought 15-minutes of commercial time on each of the first season’s episodes for $500,000. Sensing a more inclusive, gentler approach to parenting following World War II, Ruth marketed Mattel’s revolutionary commercials directly to children.

This Entreprenuer Was A Servant At Age Seven, Yet She Still Changed The World

John Greathouse — Wed, 02 May 2018 21:07:00 GMT

It may surprise you, though it shouldn’t, that the “father” of the $50 billion franchise business model was a woman. In addition, to perfecting the modern-day franchise, Martha Harper was also one of the world’s first social entrepreneurs, helping thousands of middle-class women create their own businesses and thus control their destinies.

Martha was born into an impoverished household in Ontario, Canada. Her parents rented her out as a domestic servant when she was seven years old, launching her career as a maid, which she pursued for the next 24-years.

One of her domestic duties was washing and cutting the hair of the affluent ladies of the household. An inquisitive child, Martha had the good fortune of working in the home of a kind-hearted physician. Although she had little formal education, the doctor indulged her curiosity, opened his library to her and taught her basic chemistry.

Creating Luck

In 1888, at the age of 31, Martha abandoned her life as a maid and risked her life savings of $360 ($9,330, in 2018 dollars) to launch her revolutionary venture, a hair salon. Her Rochester, New York landlord initially refused to rent her a storefront, insisting that a man sign the lease. At that time, only 17% of the women in American had salaried jobs outside of the home and the number of female entrepreneurs was de minimis. Undeterred, Martha sued the landlord and won, opening “The Harper Hair Parlor.”

Although it sounds pedestrian today, a public hair salon in the late 1800’s was a scandalous affair. Affluent ladies didn’t have their hair “done” in public and working-class women cut and styled their own hair. Not surprisingly, Martha’s innovative business initially floundered.

Fortuitously, her salon was adjacent to a music teacher. Even more fortunately, Rochester winters are bitter cold. Mom’s would drop off their children and then wait outside, until the lesson was completed. Seeing an opportunity, Martha invited the women in, initially just to sit, chat and warm up.

At first, the women were reticent to partake in Martha’s salon services, but over time, they became comfortable with Martha and agreed to have their hair washed and styled, in public! Martha quickly realized that a key aspect of her value proposition was providing a safe and comfortable space for women to gather and share their thoughts, outside the company of men. The genesis of the hair salon as the community hub for gossip and fellowship was born.

SaaS Is Dead, What’s Next?

John Greathouse — Wed, 02 May 2018 00:26:00 GMT

During the first half of the last century, numerous fortunes were made electrifying devices that were previously manual. Because electrification was new, the qualifying term “electric” was an important distinction when describing these newfangled gadgets. However, the adjective “electric” was eventually dropped when all the devices in a product category utilized the technology. Software terminology is stubbornly not following a similar evolution.

It’s high time we kill the term Software As A Service (SaaS) and call it what it is – software. Even Salesforce abandoned it’s silly “No Software” tagline, after the company had to explain in 2015 that it meant, “No legacy software, just cloud software.”

You’re not a SaaS company, you’re a software company. You’re not a SaaS investor, you’re a software investor. You’re not a SaaS entrepreneur, you’re a software entrepreneur.

Software / ASP / SaaS – Back To Software

In the early 2000’s, my software startup was dubbed an Application Service Provider (ASP). At that time, I had to explain to skeptical customers that it made more sense for them to rent our software on a subscription basis, rather than purchase it outright. With few exceptions, no one now buys premise-based software. However, moving companies to the cloud was an exhausting process.

I vividly recall a meeting at Siebel to explore a potential partnership by which Siebel would sell our GoToAssist screen sharing technology to its customers. Each of the Siebel executives wore suites and ties, which seemed out of place, even fifteen years ago.

Even more off putting than their wardrobe was their arrogance. After patiently explaining that we were unwilling to deviate from our cloud-based business model, a senior member of the Siebel team derisively told me (I’m obviously paraphrasing from memory here), “Our customers will never allow software to be delivered through their firewalls! If the software does not reside on our customers’ servers, we won’t sell it.”

By the time we launched GoToMeeting, the term ASP had largely been replaced with Software as a Service (SaaS) and the software subscription model was firmly established. Despite the prescience of the Siebel executives, we successfully sold GoToMeeting, and the other GoTo family of products, to Citrix in 2004 for a tidy sum.

I Was Asked To Interview Tyler The Creator, Here’s What Happened

John Greathouse — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 16:41:00 GMT

In my capacity as a Professor of Practice at UC Santa Barbara, I was recently asked by the Student Association if I would consider interviewing rapper, fashion designer and entrepreneur Tyler The Creator.

I was flattered to be considered, but Tyler’s Manager, Christian Clancy, wisely thought better of it and requested a more hip and informed Professor to conduct the interview. This reprieve allowed me to attend the event as an observer, freeing me to get schooled by Tyler, right along with the students.

Tickets To Tyler The Creator

The event sold out within minutes, despite the venue holding over 800 students. I’ve never seen students show up early for anything, but the unassigned seating caused the house to fill to capacity, thirty minutes before Tyler took the stage. Despite the electric atmosphere, Tyler was relaxed, sincere, humorous and characteristically profane, from start, to finish.

If you’re not familiar with Tyler, you can check out Yonkers, which has over 98 million views on YouTube. You can also review his GOLF WANG fashion line, which Tyler plans to eventually expand to include furniture and other home goods.

7 Entrepreneurial Life Lessons

No recording devices were permitted and, out of respect to Tyler, I didn’t take notes while he spoke. However, I did contemporaneously capture my thoughts later that evening. Thus, the statements below attributed to Tyler are paraphrased from my imperfect short-term memory. In all cases, I have diligently attempted to accurately captured the spirit of his comments.

The following startup lessons are those which stood out to me, though they hardly capture the full extent of Tyler’s spirited, 90-minute talk.

Hopefully Your Competitors Won’t Read This Poker Legend’s Brilliant Book Before You Do

John Greathouse — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 18:28:00 GMT

When I saw World Series Poker Champion Annie Duke speak last year, I was inspired to write an article describing some of her recruiting techniques. Impressed with her wit and insights during her talk, I was excited to read her latest book, Thinking In Bets. I was not disappointed.

Business (And Life) Is Poker, Not Chess

Annie has previously written several well-received poker strategy books. However, Thinking In Bets is her first foray into the broader business strategy genre. Annie’s approach is a highly-readable balance between memorable, real-world analogies and hardcore behavioral science studies. Annie is well positioned to write a book on decision analysis, combining her decades as a professional poker player with her graduate psychology research at the University of Pennsylvania.

Annie Duke’s Latest Book

As she notes in the books Introduction, “…a bet really is: a decision about an unknown future.” Unlike chess, in which there is no hidden info and very little luck, each poker hand mimics real life. Resources must be committed before information is fully known. Even as additional cards are dealt and more information is evident, no player has absolute command of all the facts until the hand is completed. In many hands, the information is never completely known, as players do not show their cards when they fold.

Real-world decisions are similarly fraught with incomplete information, which leads to a degree of uncertainty. Thus, it’s ironic that many executives think of their strategic decisions as chess moves – nothing could be further from the truth.

Top Takeaways

The book is packed with insights, of which I have pulled out a few that were particularly impactful to me.

Separate Outcomes From Decision Quality – It is possible to have a 98% probability of winning a poker hand and still lose. The same is true in life. If you lose with a strong hand, the decision to play the hand is still a good one, irrespective of the outcome. If you win, the decision to continue betting with a poor hand remains a bad one, even though you won. It is equivalent to driving home drunk without mishap and concluding the next day that driving while intoxicated is a wise choice.

A Former Skeptic Explains Why Conscious Capitalism Could Save The World

Mike Maddock — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 21:55:00 GMT

Today, we need all the help we can get.

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I am a convert. But it took a while.

Even though my friend Rajendra (Raj) Sisdodia is the co-author (with John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods) of the best-seller Conscious Capitalism, I was skeptical of their thinking for the longest time.

However, the recent horrific headlines we have been hit with have made me change my mind.

Before I get into that—and raise the blood pressure of some of you (I promise I will give you a chance to respond)—first, let’s make sure we are starting on the same page.

As I am sure you know, the term “conscious capitalism” is used to describe businesses that serve the interests of all of what its advocates argue are the major stakeholders of every company: communities, customers, employees, the environment, suppliers—and investors.

Leaders who embrace conscious capitalism will tell you that by keeping all of those stakeholders in mind, it allows them to focus on a higher purpose than simply making a profit.

So what was my problem with the concept? It might have been the same as yours.

As a lifelong entrepreneur with roots in branding, I scoffed at the phrase itself “conscious capitalism.” I mean, come on! Does that mean that I have been unconsciously at the wheel if I wasn’t part of this enlightened tribe? I think not. All business people are consciously at work trying to achieve some outcome—usually profits. And as a capitalist for even longer than I have been an entrepreneur, I think profits are a good thing.

When I talked to Raj about my “I-don’t-get-it” reaction, he responded with data. His research shows that brands following the principles of conscious capitalism returned 1,025 percent during his decade-long study. The S&P 500 yielded 316 percent during the same time. In other words, conscious capitalism companies did more than three times as well.

According to Raj, there are more important benefits of conscious capitalism than financial return. For example, they have:

Higher trust among stakeholders.
A deeper customer understanding (I believe this is THE key to innovation).
Leaner teams that focus on value creation instead of depending on management to do it.
High employee engagement.
Extremely low levels of employee turnover.

All of these are signs of a company—and its people—being “on purpose.”

Fair enough. But it was only in the last couple of months that I’ve started to see—and believe—in the real power of conscious capitalism.

I came to understand that focusing only on profits comes at a high cost.

If you focus only on selling more donuts, the cost may be obesity and heart disease.
If you focus only on selling more booze, the cost may be addiction and broken families.
If you focus only on selling more guns, the cost may be dead kids.

Now, if I sold donuts, booze or guns for a living, I would certainly have a well-articulated argument, which would include talk about moderation and freedom of choice.

But to deny that there is a direct, causal relationship between muffins and muffin tops is silly. I am what I eat.

Enter the conscious business leader.

Why Sales Reps Spend So Little Time Selling

Ken Krogue — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 16:34:00 GMT

In January, I talked about the Time Management study we did that shows how little of salespeople’s time is spent in actual selling. Today, with the help of my colleague Gabe Larsen, I’d like to examine this study a little bit further.

Here is the bottom line: Sales reps are only spending one-third of their time selling. That just can’t happen. We can’t have sales leaders only surviving 18 months in their roles and only 53% of reps hitting quota and not be panicking about this deplorable stat.

Today’s salespeople spend the majority of their time on activities other than sales.

As you may recall, we asked 721 reps to tell us how they spend their time. These were their numbers, which speak for themselves. They spend 35.2% of their time selling and 65% on everything else, but not selling.

Let me put this in dollars and cents. The average field sales rep is paid $105,482 a year. If 64.8% of the time is spent on non-revenue generating activities, the typical company spends $68,352 per rep per year to pay him or her for tasks they were not hired to do.

I realize my company is partially to blame for this stat. I and my colleagues are pushing reps to have a better sales cadence, better pipeline management, and a better forecasting strategy while salespeople haven’t yet mastered the fundamental skill of sales, which is time management.

You don’t think time management is one of the fundamental skills required for sales? Stop reading now and we’ll agree to disagree. One of my favorite books is “The Ultimate Sales Machine” by Chet Holmes. In the book, Chet lists multiple skills and strategies for salespeople to master, but he starts with time management. Why? Because if you can’t get that right, you can’t get nothing right.
Therein lies the fundamental problem. Yes, 61.3% of sales reps reported having some kind of time management system in place for themselves, but only 23% said they actually followed it. Is that a problem? It sounds like an issue to me. It means most sales reps just “try to hit their number.” A hope is a not a plan. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of great technology to support this task as 70% of reps are not using any kind of software to manage their time.

The reps who actively manage their time through a specific time management philosophy are spending 18.9% more time selling than the people who don’t. That increases the 35-percent-selling number to 54%. I can assure you that the more time you spend selling, the better chance you’ll have at hitting your number and goal.

Would You Pay $1,750 For This T-Shirt? The Stunning Story Of This Veblen Brand

John Greathouse — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 19:08:00 GMT

A Louis Vuitton / Supreme boxed logo t-shirt recently sold for $1,750. The shirt was produced by Supreme, which originally sold it for $485.

Supreme Box Logo T-shirt

You may think that this item is an anomaly, but it is not. A Louis Vuitton / Supreme hoodie resold for $7,500. Other Supreme apparel sells in the aftermarket for hundreds more than their retail prices, including box logo hoodies which typically sell for between $500 – $1,000.

Supreme even sold a brick, emblazoned with its logo for $30. The logo brick now resells for $100 – $999, depending on condition, inclusion of packaging and the IQ of the buyer. The Supreme crowbar, which retailed at $32, is a much better deal, reselling for $80 – $399.

Veblen Goods

Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption” in 1899 when commenting on the human desire to publicly display wealth through the acquisition of consumer goods. A Veblen good does not adhere to the traditional laws of price and demand. Below a certain price, the price/demand dynamics are consistent with conventional products – higher prices result in a lower demand. However, above a certain price, this relationship reverses, and demand rises along with price increases.

Veblen products are typically luxury goods, such as super-cars, which routinely sellout before production is begun, despite (or due to…) prices in excess of $2 million.

Behavioral psychologists have repeatedly demonstrated the power of scarcity in driving human behavior. We are essentially primates with an evolutionary drive to want more of the things we cannot have, driven by a fear of loss. The appeal of a scarce product is further enhanced when it also publicly conveys social currency, in the form of wealth, status or power.

10 Executive Conference Gems To Consider In 2018 And Beyond

Ken Krogue — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 15:13:00 GMT

My post today is a collaboration with my colleague Gabe Larsen, V.P. Marketing Strategy for InsideSales.com.

From my experience, busy C-level executives are increasingly avoiding the biggest trade show events. Why compete with thousands of conference goers for key meetings and conversations? In contrast, [tweet_quote display=”Leaders are doing an increasing amount of their business at the smaller, more exclusive events.”]leaders are doing an increasing amount of their business at the smaller, more exclusive events.[/tweet_quote] This is also where they get ideas and data that can transform the way they run their department or company.

C-level executives are doing an increasing amount of their business at the smaller, more exclusive events.

What today’s leaders need to know is what’s working from their counterparts at other companies, allowing them to implement fresh (and proven) ideas and strategies of their own.

Here are my picks for ten of the best events that are relatively unsung, in chronological order, where movers and shakers are sharing best practices and ideas with their peers in 2018 and beyond:

SaaStr: February 6-8 in San Francisco (already happened). A meeting place for SaaS founders, venture capitalists and business executives, this year’s SaaStr speaker lineup included Stewart Butterfield, CEO & Co-founder of Slack; Aaron Levie, CEO of Box; Ajay Agarwal, Managing Director of Bain Capital Ventures; Katie Burke from Hubspot; Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp; Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz; and Ryan Smith, CEO of Qualtrics.
Accelerate: March 5-8 in Snowbird, UT. (As a disclosure: This is my own organization.) Limited to 350 senior executives from top companies, this is an exclusive event where leaders share data-driven results about what’s working for them now to accelerate sales.
CRM Evolution: April 9-11 in Washington, D.C. Put on by CRM Magazine/destinationCRM.com and co-located with three other conferences, this is the place for executives who are driving their company’s customer relationship management (CRM).
The AI Summit: September 18-20 in San Francisco. The rising venue for all things artificial intelligence (AI), the AI Summit now spans many venues—London, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Singapore, Cape Town and New York. Sponsors include Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Facebook and many others.
The Grace Hopper Celebration: September 26-28 in Houston. The largest gathering of women technologists, the show’s 2017 speakers included Melinda Gates.
D.Live: November 12-14 in Laguna Beach. A tight assembly of “tech’s most ambitious minds,” you can’t go wrong getting a seat at this exclusive rendezvous.
TechCrunch Disrupt: September 5-7 in San Francisco. Where tech stars are born—“the best and brightest entrepreneurs, investors, hackers and tech fans.”
The Human Gathering: April 5-7 in Los Angeles. Presented by the 501c3 organization A Human Project, the Human Gathering’s guests are an exclusive whos-who from business, technology, entertainment, philanthropy and the arts—where they form alliances and get access to resources and capital.
World Business Forum, November 14-15 in New York City. Veering closer to the “large conference” genre, this conference’s speaker lineup boasts business leader Jeff Immelt, publisher Arianna Huffington, author Seth Godin and management thinker Susan David.
The Strategic Growth Forum, November 15-19 in Palm Springs. EY’s entrepreneur-focused forum is for high-growth companies from all industries. Keynotes this year include actress Viola Davis, businessman Robert Kraft and athlete Peyton Manning.

Have you attended any conferences recently you can’t wait to go back to? I’d love to hear about your additional picks.

The Growth Secret: How To Stay Six Steps Ahead Of Your Competition

Mike Maddock — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:57:00 GMT

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Here is a fact that the best leaders understand but everyone else wrestles with: Innovation needs to be countercyclical. The best time to create the next big thing is when things are going well, not when you are struggling.

When the economy is booming and their company is crushing it in the marketplace, most leaders tend to reap the benefits. As the saying goes, they make hay while the sun is shining.

But then the rain comes. The economy slows. Or your once reliable products or services become stale. Or there are unexpected new competitors. Or people are buying direct. Or…. You know the list.

As a result, the phone stops ringing and your sales department starts to clamor for things to sell.

Only then does leadership spring into action, assembling the brightest, most creative people to chart a new course, fueled by inspired thinking and new offerings.

But by this point, it is too late. Here’s why.

Unfortunately, your company is perfectly engineered to create the outcomes it is creating. In other words, it knows how to do the same thing it did yesterday, juuuuuust a little better today. It also knows how to kill anything that doesn’t resemble what you did yesterday.

So under the pressure of slowing sales or waning market relevance, your perfectly engineered machine will tighten its grip on the past. The well-meaning team will focus relentlessly on your core business—their past success formula—thus accelerating your demise because what worked in the past will no longer work in the future. Making a better buggy whip, a faster film camera, a quieter typewriter or even cleaner coal won’t keep the stagecoach operators, film processors, typesetters or miners employed.

You need a different plan. And it starts with reinventing your business when your CFO is smiling.

In These Reflexively Cynical Times, It Pays To Be An Optimistic Skeptic

John Greathouse — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 18:09:00 GMT

During a recent conversation with a dear friend about a high-profile politician’s motivations, my friend said, “You’re a cynic.” I corrected him and said, “No, I’m a skeptic.” It turns out, neither of us were quite right. When it comes to politicians, I am very much a cynic, but in most other regards, I’m a skeptic.

Distrust And Verify

“It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to.”

Fannie Hurst, American Author
We’re all skeptics and cynics in some aspects of our lives. Having a jaundiced view of politicians is understandable, but in a business (and in your personal relationships), cynicism is detrimental.

A skeptic questions the world about her, seeking the truth, yet basing her opinions on the most recent, most credible facts. In contrast, a cynic feels no need to seek the truth because they believe they already possess it.

I recently read Island, Aldus Huxley’s final book. In contrast to his other dystopian novels, it explores a fictional utopian society located on a South Pacific island called Pala. The book’s protagonist is a young Englishman, a self-proclaimed cynic who proudly describes himself as, “The man who can’t take ‘Yes’ for an answer.” He knows with absolute certitude how the world operates.

Throughout the novel, the natives of Pala share their philosophies and insights with the jaded young man. At one point, a villager explains the difference between faith and belief, saying: “Faith is something very different from belief. Belief is the systematic taking of unanalyzed words much too seriously. Faith… can never be taken too seriously. Faith is the empirically justified confidence in our capacity to know.”

The Price Of Leadership

Mike Maddock — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 15:50:00 GMT

Want to lead? Here’s the price you must pay.

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We just named a new president to run Maddock Douglas, the innovation consultancy I founded 27 years ago. As you can imagine, finding the right person was difficult, but the decision was made easier because Maria, our new president, understands the fundamental facts of leading that too many seem to be missing lately.

Anyone can be tapped to manage a team or a company. But the best leaders I have worked with, and learned from, understand the not-so-subtle difference between leading and managing.

What are these differences? Here are five of my—for lack of a better word—favorites.

You deserve the team you get.

Once you become the leader, your days of complaining about anyone on your team are officially over. If you are unhappy, you can help your staff improve and grow. You can reassign them to align their strengths with a new challenge. You can even encourage them (strongly) to exit your organization. But you can’t complain about them or their performance because you deserve the team you get. You are the person responsible.

You own it.

When you lead an organization, whether it is good, bad or ugly, you must take responsibility for what happens on your watch. Blaming or pointing fingers is at best a sign of immaturity and at worst demonstrates a lack of integrity.

Why Sales Reps Spend Less Than 36% Of Time Selling (And Less Than 18% In CRM)

Ken Krogue — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 14:00:00 GMT

It’s no secret time management is one of the highest requirements for succeeding in sales. But a new study of more than 720 reps (including in-depth interviews with more than a dozen) proves what we had predicted in our snapshot survey of 200 reps in the recent Dreamforce 2017. Today’s salespeople are spending the majority of their time on activities other than sales.

Today’s salespeople are spending the majority of their time on activities other than sales.

[tweet_quote display=”Here’s the kicker: nearly two-thirds (64.8%) of reps’ time, on average, is spent in non revenue-generating activities.”]Here’s the kicker: nearly two-thirds (64.8%) of reps’ time, on average, is spent in non revenue-generating activities, leaving only 35.2% for functions related to selling.[/tweet_quote] Field reps are somewhat ahead, spending 3.1% more time selling than their inside sales counterparts.

Only 22 Percent of Sales Reps Use a Time Management Methodology

But on the whole, only 22.9% of reps follow any kind of a structured time management methodology at all. And only 17.9% of their time is spent in CRM, which has traditionally been the foundational program for sales.

Why is this? Administrative tasks are responsible for 14.8% of the effectiveness drain, coupled with downtime activities such as checking Facebook and catching up with colleagues, at 20.4%–the two activities that ranked a net negative effectiveness score.

The majority of sales reps’ time is spent in sales technology (62.8%) with email for sales related purposes taking the most time (33.2%) and tools to gather sales intelligence taking the least. (0.4%).

CRM, as I’ve written previously, is being used increasingly less. Why? Perhaps there is a clue in the fact that 9.1% of reps’ time (over half the amount of time they spend in CRM) is in spreadsheets as they try to more effectively manage CRM related tasks.

Using AI For Sales? Forget The Hype

Ken Krogue — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 17:53:00 GMT

My post today is a collaboration with my colleague Dave Boyce, Chief Strategy officer for InsideSales.com, as well as a board member at Forrester Research.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the new buzzword du jour. It seems everyone has “AI” software or services that will help you accomplish your objectives. But you run a sales team. And you have to deliver results this quarter and the next quarter and the one after that — you don’t have time for marketing hype. [tweet_quote display=”Here’s a way to think about how to build AI into your approach simply and easily, without risk.”]Here’s a way to think about how to build AI into your approach simply and easily, without risk.[/tweet_quote]

You can introduce AI capabilities into your sales processes in four simple phases.

For the sales leader, buzzwords are useless. Which means AI is useless. Unless it can help me hit my number this quarter, I can’t afford to pay attention to it. If and when AI graduates from “buzzword” to something real that can help me hit my numbers — then and only then can I pay attention.

As it turns out, everyone — and I mean everyone — claims an AI angle for their sales software or service offering. But from marketing automation to CRM to sales cadence tools, these claims are thin, if not strictly aspirational. Don’t fall for the long con. You can benefit today by introducing AI capabilities in four simple phases.

This four-phase approach starts with fundamentals and adds capabilities and value along the way. Each phase is self-funding. In our view, “Four Phases to Sales AI” meets the practicality hurdle of any good CRO and the “future-proofing” hurdle of any good CEO. You can have both.

Phase I: Instrument Your Sellers
AI lives on data. If your team’s activities, successes and failures are captured, they can be fed to AI for analysis. Typically we rely on reps to enter their data into CRM. Because this is a horrible way of capturing the truth, we are all skeptical that pointing AI at the data in our CRM would produce anything of value. And we are right about that: garbage in, garbage out.

Phase I is about getting better data, and we do this by instrumenting the team. Instead of having the team use their desk phones, we have them use a connected system to make phone calls. Instead of letting emails go back and forth under the cover of night, we track them. With phone calls and emails automatically logged — even the calls and emails that go unanswered — the data becomes pristine and useful to AI. It can start to see the patterns: “These calls at these times to these target titles / industries / geographies lead to success. And those calls at those times to those target titles / industries / geographies don’t lead to success. Do more of the former and less of the latter.”

To get immediate benefit out of Phase I, sales reps need tools that make them better / faster / more effective. Any good sales productivity suite incorporates tricks and hacks and features that do this. For instance:

Pre-recorded voicemails so a rep can just “click-and-go” to the next phone call while a voicemail is being left in their own voice for the previous prospect
Templated emails to save time
Scheduled / automatic emails to save time
Phone calls that appear to the prospect from a local phone number to increase answer rate, etc.

Typically, Phase I revenue lift can be 10% or higher, based purely on the productivity gains seen by reps. This is the immediate ROI of Phase I. But the real benefit of Phase I is the data capture, which you only fully realize in Phase II.

Note: Phase I is applicable for inside teams (sales development, inside sales, account management). The only reason it is less applicable to field teams is the difficulty of getting field reps to use a specific application for phone calls. Tracking field rep emails from desktop or mobile clients is quite possible, whereas tracking field rep phone calls is more elusive.

Profits Eat Innovation For Breakfast

Mike Maddock — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 03:21:00 GMT

Why You Should Bet on Private and Mid-Tier Companies

Michael Porter said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

Jeff Immelt, former chairman of General Electric Co., speaks during an interview on the David Rubenstein Show in New York, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 29, 2017. Immelt said leaders need to face up to emerging problems and that “the future always comes.” Photographer: Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg

This is the first thing that popped into my mind when I read Steve Blank’s Harvard Business Review article explaining why Jeff Immelt lost his job as CEO of GE. Steve argues activist investors forced out Immelt because of the long, languishing performance of the company’s stock.

Following Mr. Immelt out the door was vice chair, innovation lead and force of nature Beth Comstock.

I’ll never forget the meeting that Beth asked me to attend at GE headquarters. I was brought in to give a presentation to her leadership team about how large firms balance the tension between the visionaries and the operators; between the Walt and Roy Disneys of the world; the MBAs and the BFAs; the Jeff Immelts and the Jack Welchs; what I like to call the Idea Monkeys and the Ringleaders.

As I recall, half of the room was on the edge of their seats. The other half was too worried about their day jobs to pay attention. After all, they were supposed to be making money today, not thinking about the future.

Six years later, I am afraid that at GE, innovation has become a four-letter word. It didn’t seem that way at the time of my talk, but this is an all-too-familiar outcome.

Under Immelt and Comstock’s leadership, GE was committed to innovation and redefining the company’s place in the future. They were trying to move GE from a product company to becoming a platform for new products, services and business models. They were seeking to strike a balance between short-term profits and long-term growth.

After the meeting, I was asked to join their innovation advisory board, and our company and others were hired to help create and implement systems that leveraged the principles of design thinking and lean startup throughout the organization.

As I was leaving a subsequent meeting, it became easy to see why this was a priority. A leader from one of GE’s partner firms whispered in my ear that it had been over 13 years since GE had launched a product based on one of their own patents. Thomas Edison’s company had forgotten how to innovate. Operators like former CEO Jack Welch had done such a good job eliminating mistakes that the company had lost its ability to take risks and experiment. Immelt was committed to taking on this issue. Immelt is now gone.

To be fair, Mr. Immelt had 16 years to move the needle, and he only started working on innovation in earnest during the second half of his tenure. It is also fair to ask why companies like mine did not push his team harder or have a more immediate impact on stock valuation. We worked with Beth and her team for about a year and saw firsthand the massive challenge that leadership at GE was taking on.

It’s a challenge you might recognize.

For large, publicly traded companies, the central question was then—and is today—how do you ensure profit while you are experimenting with new business and service models? If you are an Idea Monkey like Edison or Jeff Immelt, the answer is to out-innovate your competition. If you are a Ringleader like GE’s former CEO Jack Welch or Walt Disney’s brother Roy, the answer is to find new—albeit creative—ways to cut costs, tighten distribution and optimize your current operations. (You will find a summary of my recommendations at the end.)

For Welch, this meant institutionalizing programs like Six Sigma to minimize costly mistakes. The focus clearly paid off. During Welch’s two-decade tenure, the company became the most valuable in the world in terms of stock valuation. The company went from a market value of $14 billion, the tenth highest in the world, when he took over as CEO, to more than $410 billion at the time of his retirement in 2001. For Immelt, it meant institutionalizing design thinking and lean innovation management to help identify more elegant futures.

Right now, disruptive startups are putting a lot of pressure on incumbent leaders like GE. Under pressure of disruption, each of these archetypes—the Idea Monkey and the Ringleader—respond to pressure in exactly the opposite way. The Idea Monkey wants to envision new models and the Ringleader wants to make the old model work better. In my experience, neither reaction is appropriate. Rather, a balanced response, one that invests in the future while optimizing the present, is what works best.

Playmaking, AI Revolution, CRM Evolution, Giving Back: Highlights from Dreamforce 2017

Ken Krogue — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 16:14:00 GMT

Since 2003 (and 1,300 attendees) Dreamforce has experienced explosive growth, to 170,000 participants over a four-day event. Although some attendees remarked that this year’s event, Dreamforce 2017, delivered “not much content,” others, like me, disagree. I believe the dialogues emerging over the past week’s event have been especially key.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff presents at Dreamforce 2017

Of the messages that have resonated from this year’s Dreamforce, I’ve been most compelled by the following four:

1 . CRM is declining. I’ve written and presented extensively about the paradigm of CRM. It’s been interesting to see this message reverberating with others as well. This is what Paddy Srinivasan, a GM for Logmein, said in a November 7 article for VentureBeat: “Customer relationship management (CRM) technologies have been around for years, but thanks to this rapidly changing customer landscape, the need for something better and, frankly, smarter is revealing itself.”

He notes that CRM was developed when phone calls were the primary form of customer communication, with CRM’s purpose being to record information about an interaction at a specific moment of time. “…today’s customer is engaging with brands in multiple ways,” he noted. “Often a phone call is the last resort…If the customer started the conversation via live chat and was escalated to a phone call, the agent should have the history along with the context. CRM solutions simply can’t provide that level of detail and not in a way that is easily accessible and actionable.”

The other problem with traditional CRM, as I and others including my colleague Gabe Larson, VP of InsideSales.com Labs spoke about at the conference is the issue of the siloed data CRM has traditionally depended upon, divided by department and company. Much better is the ability to coalesce the data from many organizations and customer experiences to chart an ideal course when the path to sales is varied and fluid. If this were possible, clearly, your company’s level of success (and speed) in closing deals would significantly improve.

There are at least a few B2B companies advancing this model, such as Nielsen (NLSN), for aggregated media and brand data, Verisk (VRSK), which aggregates insurance loss data, and our own company, InsideSales.com, which aggregates data on sales and buyer behavior through neural analytics. At least some leading companies such as Apple, Microsoft, GE and Bank of America are adopting sales processes that follow this course. We anticipate many more will soon be following suit.

2. The #FourthIndustrialRevolution. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff spoke at length about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in which technologies such as mobile, artificial technology and nano technology are converging in ways that create, by his estimate, 3.3 million jobs and $859 billion of additional GDP by 2022. Conversely, however, the nature of work will be shifting dramatically, which will have a profound impact on many within the current workforce. It will be vital within this transition to help the thousands or even millions of people who will need to gain new skills in the burgeoning arena of tech.

“Everyone wants to join the fourth industrial revolution,” Benioff said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. “We can’t leave anybody behind.”

3. #Playmakers are everywhere. In a nutshell, playmakers use data, science and smart applications to win at the sales game and to achieve revenue outcomes (career progress, too) at a level that has never been an option before. Playmakers don’t take guesses, but take strategic actions to increase and accelerate their conversations with ideal sales leads. They follow proven game strategies, assisted by AI sales data, to accelerate their success. In fact, we used the show as the launching ground of our newest features in sales acceleration, the Predictive PowerDialer and Predictive Playbooks, to make these aspects of AI available for every salesperson, to equip them with the best possible tools.

4. Give Back. This was the focus of my own presentation and of several others as well, including the Marc Benioff keynote presentation on Day 1. It is vital that every organization know to craft and execute a successful giving back strategy. During the event it was noted that #Salesforce.org – the philanthropic partner organization to Salesforce.com has been a leading voice for 18 years in challenging companies to contribute 1% of their revenue to social consciousness causes. This extends much further than providing philanthropic contributions, as Benioff was quick to note and as I covered in depth in my own presentation. We must use technology, appropriate structure, and to instill the culture and desire in our organizations to build social enterprises that can continue to impact our world for generations to come.

In all, [tweet_quote display=”Dreamforce 2017 has been an event for the record books.”]Dreamforce 2017 has been an event for the record books.[/tweet_quote] I welcome your additional remarks about the highlights of the event and favorite lessons learned in the comment section below.

Finally, as a breaking announcement– our most recent research of 200 sales reps, paired with a dozen indepth interviews, shows reps are struggling for time management focus (which is yet another reason we see traditional CRM’s usefulness being on the decline). [tweet_quote display=”Only 28% of sales reps queried are following a structured time management plan.”]Only 28% of reps queried are following a structured time management plan, and most are spend slightly less than 37% of their time in activities related to selling[/tweet_quote] . I’ll be talking more about these findings in my column next week.

CRM Isn’t Enough — Here’s What’s Next

Ken Krogue — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 14:00:00 GMT

My post today is a collaboration with my colleague Dave Boyce, Chief Strategy officer for InsideSales.com (as well as a board member at Forrester Research) and Justin Lindsey, SVP of Analytics for BamTech Media, the media streaming company that spun out of Major League Baseball. Justin is the former CTO of the FBI and the DOJ, where he used data and science to anticipate and thwart terror attacks after 9/11. He holds a bachelors degree and two masters degrees from MIT.

Every business needs Customer Relationship Management (CRM). But CRM is now a commodity. Here’s a conundrum: Although CRM is almost universally adopted, average sales quota attainment has fallen each of the last five years.

Why? We believe CRM’s ability to deliver on its promise has stalled because it is not architected to address the challenges of today’s complex buying environment.

Quota Attainment is Declining Globally

In our connected economy, buyers educate themselves through online information, peer references, and crowdsourced reviews. In the B2C world, Amazon facilitates this information sharing. B2B buyers also have near-ultimate autonomy in pre-purchase education. Many buying decisions can be made with no sales rep involved at all.

Today’s buying styles vary and are determined by the individual buyer.

Unlike B2C, complex organizational purchasing decisions require coordination among multiple decision makers. These decisions can be non-linear and recursive, and the approval process varies by company.

Today’s organizational purchasing decisions are non-linear.

CRM isn’t Enough

CRM software first emerged in the 1980s, before the internet was prevalent. To organize sales efforts it followed a linear construct, with opportunities following a single-threaded, phase-based path toward the close.

But buyers are pursuing individualized and non-linear paths. So how can a sales rep trained in a single linear selling process possibly know the course of action that will suit individual prospects the best?

Unless you’ve sold to the person and organization before, you don’t know how to get a deal done.

CRM is simply not suited to deliver the answers to the questions “who should I engage?” and “how should I engage them?” These are things an experienced rep already knows, especially if they’ve sold to a particular organization before. But these answers are not within CRM.

A Selling Secret: Have Better Conversations

Ken Krogue — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 18:23:00 GMT

Shutterstock

This is my third article on Extreme Velocity Sales. – Ken

As I mentioned two weeks ago, there are two ways to have better conversations. The first is to increase your skill through sales training, product training and industry knowledge. The second is to have conversations with qualified decision makers in new ways. The average sales training program can increase your results by a little more than 20%, on average, which is worth doing!

But training takes many weeks and months of participation and practice. So my recommendation to you is this: Why not do both?

The problem with sales forecasting is that it’s traditionally been worse than inexact—research as recent as 2015, in fact, shows traditional forecasting having an accuracy of just 47.8%—less than even the 50% toss of a coin! Predictive analytics is turning the tide, and opening the even bigger opportunity to hone into another factor—leads forecasting—instead.

Which leads have the potential to be optimal prospects? And what constitutes a qualified opportunity? Marketing automation platforms provide data, but most teams fail to do the obvious thing—to get feedback from the sales team on what they can do to bring forward leads that can actually close sales.

There are many factors in determining a qualified lead on both sides of the fence, for both the prospect and the sales rep. Both will make an impact. But wouldn’t it be great if we could control the variables more?

In my opinion, it is vital to recognize what we can’t control—another person—and start with what we can control in sales: our own effort. We do this by focussing our effort on conversations that are qualified.

So how do we qualify? Well, for nearly sixty years there has been a model called BANT, but most say BANT is dead.

Is BANT really dead? For those of you who recall, BANT was the model IBM developed in the 1960s to help their salespeople qualify leads. It is an acronym for:

B = Budget

A = Authority

N = Need

T = Timing

Budget – salespeople were trained to ask questions about budget — “Do you have the money?” — before they went any further.

Authority – Next, they looked for a decision-maker with authority to agree to the sale. A person with a budget but no authority, of course, meant no sale.

Need – Then they questioned the need. If the prospect doesn’t need you, they won’t buy.

Timing – Lastly, they looked for urgency. How soon could the prospect make a decision?

Yes, I continue to see BANT today within some very well-known organizations. But the problem is that the BANT process screams “pressure sales” and “manipulation” to prospective customers. Buyers can smell a sales pitch from miles away.

Following the economic crash of 2008, BANT was getting a lot of negative attention. Inside sales experts were feeling the pushback from clients and were looking for alternatives.

Trish Bertuzzi wrote a blog article in March of 2010 that echoed several opinions claiming BANT is dead. “Get Rid of BANT and Go To Now!” She argued that the selling environment had changed. With websites and social media available to educate buyers, the initial stages of the sales cycle were already in the hands of the buyer, she said.

In a typical Trish Bertuzzi way, she said that “trying to get to BANT on a qualification call is like asking to see a W2 on the first date.”

But in my opinion, the elements of BANT are still valid. It’s the traditional order of them that is wrong. We had our own prospecting teams determine which aspect of BANT was the most important.

First, we studied authority. In doing so, I remembered my friend Josiane Feigon, owner of Telesmart Communications and the author of several books. Josiane frequently talks about the person with No-Po. No Power, No Potential, and No Purchase Order. Many people claim to have authority, but they don’t, which will kill a sale faster than anything. How can you tell? Josiane says they are “too nice” and too accommodating.

Authority varied widely among the situations we examined. If a person had the authority and perceived need, purchase decisions moved quickly. The higher the perceived need, the faster the purchase and the less the factor of price would come into play.

But if a person had decision-making authority but was unaware of their situational need, the purchase slowed down. In this case, urgency and money become obstacles.

The key, we discovered, was having the sales rep and marketing use an educational strategy to help the person with authority to realize they had the need. As soon as this happened, sales went up dramatically.

You don’t sell to a company; you are selling to a person. And only a person with authority can buy. Therefore, authority is first in our new qualification model. Need comes second, and urgency and money come last.

Need is the most powerful element. In fact, we initially proposed putting need first. However, the situation may vary significantly between the two kinds of need: 1) perceived need and 2) situational need.

Situational need occurs when the data points to the fact that the company fits a profile that indicates the need, but the person in authority wasn’t aware the provider existed or didn’t understand how relevant the product or service could be to their situation. This is extremely common in complex sales such as tech, where new solutions are constant, and the client needs to be educated and made aware of the need.

Perceived need is all in the head of the person in authority; situational need is not. Sometimes the person in authority sees they have need, but their situation says they do not, resulting in a waste of time or a bad sale. Or the person in authority moves ahead with a purchase and finds out afterward they don’t really need your product or service. That leads to attrition.

In both situations, the company fit the profile that indicated need, but the outcome was dramatically different based on the person in authority.

Need Matrix

As it turns out, the person in authority might have need and not know it. It also turns out that if they don’t perceive need, the budget becomes a much bigger obstacle. So how do you turn unperceived need into perceived need?

Education reigns supreme. The Internet facilitates much of the educational process before today’s buyer engages with sales. So who is in charge of educating the prospect, and how?

Marketing, if possible, should create the best possible “due diligence” for customers with significant value-add web-based content. If marketing hasn’t done this, the job of education falls on the head of the sales rep and costs much more in time and money.

So remember these guiding principles:

In B2B, a company has situational need, and a person has perceived need.
A person in authority at a company may or may not understand they have situational need.
A person with perceived need understands they need your product or service.
Education turns unperceived need into perceived need.
If you sell to a person with authority, and need is high enough, urgency and money appear.

ANUM is the new BANT. In 2012, we at InsideSales.com came up with a new acronym called ANUM. ANUM means annual, so you can think about this formula as the best way to hit your year-end goal.

A = Authority

N = Need

U = Urgency

Want To Sell More? Have More Conversations

Ken Krogue — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 17:48:00 GMT

If I could say nothing more about sales to the thousands of entrepreneurs I counsel, it would be simply this: At the end of it all, sales is still a numbers game. [tweet_quote display=”The one immediate way to increase sales results is to increase the number of sales conversations you have.”]The one immediate way to increase sales results is to increase the number of sales conversations you have.[/tweet_quote]

At the end of it all, sales is still a numbers game.

To bring this point home, here’s a story from our own company’s history. We sold our power dialing technology into a major telecommunications company you would recognize. But the company wanted to do their own training and run the system their own way. So we delivered the system, assisted with initial set up, and got out of their way.

What ensued was a lesson for both them and us.

We recorded their efforts and results before our technology as a baseline snapshot and in 90 days went back and measured again. In the baseline, we could see the company was averaging 22 calls per day, per rep. Ninety days later, however, despite our technology, they were doing the very same thing. Twenty-two calls per rep, every day.

So what had gone wrong? We’d handed them technology that typically boosts conversations and conversions by at least 30 percent (often more than 100 percent) and they were getting nothing. Worst of all, they believed the stall was our fault. Then some additional factors came out. Management confessed they weren’t much concerned with productivity; they just wanted transparency. We had given this company the equivalent of a Gatling gun to increase the cadence of their sales conversations, but they were using the technology as a single shot rifle. They hadn’t changed their culture or practices to make use of it. And yes, it had been our fault for not pushing back. At the end of the day, sales is a numbers game. To make more sales, you need to have more conversations.

When we went back in, our customer asked an honest and powerful question, “Why should we have more conversations? Can’t we just have better conversations instead?”

We shared our research with them that shows there are two ways to have “better” conversations. The first is to increase your skill (through sales training, product training and industry knowledge). The second is to have the conversations with decision makers who have buying authority. In another post, I’ll focus on the ways to converse with qualified decision makers in new ways. The average sales training systems we’ve seen increase results by slightly over 20%, on average, by focusing on skill. But they take many weeks and months of study and practice. But having more conversations per day can start in an instant with just a decision! So the meaningful question, then, is this: Why not do both? Get immediate results by having more conversations, and get even better results in the long term by having better conversations.

But for now—at this moment—[tweet_quote display=”Having more conversations is the single most powerful thing you can do to increase sales, results, and income.”]having more conversations is the single most powerful thing you can do to increase your sales, your results, and your income.[/tweet_quote] The good news is that there are now more ways to start conversations than ever before, via email, social messaging, text messages, landlines, mobile phones, Skype, web conferencing, or high-impact direct mailers. However you do it, having more conversations is the single biggest key to more sales. So what is stopping you?

What Stops Reps from Having More Conversations? When we ask reps what’s stopping them, we always get the same answer – Research. A common phrase we hear today is “whitespacing,” which refers to the filling in of the fields in the database that determines which companies to call (that have a need) and who to speak to (who has authority).

The reps in the telecom company making only 22 calls a day were dutifully conducting this research before every call. So let’s assume it takes 10 minutes to do the research that proceeds each call. That’s 220 minutes—nearly four hours—for 50% of the day. At this rate, with breaks and holidays, each sales rep will make roughly 5,000 calls in a year, at a huge cost (see table below.) Labor is a company’s most costly investment. Based on the income of the salesperson, it can be one of the most expensive things they do. Furthermore, it wears the salespeople out.

Income	w/ 20% Overhead	Research Cost (50%)	Research Cost / Call
$50,000	$60,000	$30,000	$6.00
$75,000	$90,000	$45,000	$9.00
$100,000	$120,000	$60,000	$12.00
$150,000	$180,000	$90,000	$18.00
$200,000	$240,000	$120,000	$24.00
$300,000	$360,000	$180,000	$36.00

What if you could automate most of the research for your sales reps? In 10 years of our own research, we’ve found that sales reps research roughly the same things on every call. They research information on where to find companies to call and where to find the decision makers within them.

They pull together the areas of authority, need, urgency, and money (qualifying). They look for things their intuition has told them worked in the past. Some of it is good, some aren’t (the art and the science). This isn’t bad, because it is best to start with art, especially when it comes from your best sales reps, your veterans. They know what works and what doesn’t. The problem for them is that they often know what worked in the past, and are slow to adjust to what’s working best now. These individuals are your most expensive and talented assets. Research by these individuals is costly and rarely their superpower. The automated research will be an especially good proposition for them.

However you do it, you will quickly discover that the only time you are increasing results, revenue, and income is when you are having more sales conversations.

2017 Sales Trend Research: Inside Sales vs. Outside Sales

Ken Krogue — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 22:37:00 GMT

Last week my company, InsideSales.com, released its first-ever research report on the State of Sales in the United States and EMEA. The study looked to find out what large companies (which we define as more than $500M in revenue) are doing to accelerate sales.

We developed the study in partnership with the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP), Top Sales World, and the Association of Professional Sales (APS). Readers can access the full executive summary here.

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We gave attention to three things: Structure, Systems, and Process.

Field Sales Are Still Dominant in Large Companies, But Inside Sales is Growing Fast

Face to face or field sales is making up 71.2% of the sales force this year with remote sales or inside sales making up 28.8% of the sales force, but remote selling is increasing to 30.2% projected for next year. Large companies surveyed tell us they are aiming for an ideal inside sales mix averaged at 40.3%, so more growth is forecast.

59.1% of inside account executives are attaining quota, and 65.0% of outside account executives which is 10% higher quota attainment than inside reps.

Big businesses also capitalize more than other sized organizations on the benefits of the channel (selling through partners) with 49.4% engaging in this mode of selling.
Large companies also have the highest number of specialized sales roles (4.4 roles — which is 12% higher than average). Smaller organizations (<$50M) have the highest percentage of inside sales reps (47%) and leverage the outbound sales development or specialized prospecting role more than any other size company.
What this says: [tweet_quote display=”While it’s traditionally argued that outside and inside sales are at odds, our data suggests just the opposite.”]while it’s traditionally argued that outside and inside sales are at odds, our data suggests just the opposite[/tweet_quote] —that in great companies, these teams work together closely, structured to take optimal advantage of the things each provides best. The technology and automation that rules the inside sales world can streamline and accelerate the sales interactions that leverage the power of face-to-face communication.

Inside versus Outside Sales: The Lines Continue to Blur

Perhaps the greatest surprises in the 2017 data are the growing evolution in process between inside sales (in which most selling is handled remotely) and outside sales (in which the reps primarily sell face-to-face). Using census data, we estimate that of the 5.7 million non-retail U.S. salespeople in 2017, 43.5% are inside sales professionals, and 56.5% are field sales reps. That balance is progressively shifting toward equilibrium, as we might anticipate.

The big surprise in this category is that outside sales reps are now spending nearly half of their time (45.4%) selling remotely, which is an 89.2% increase since 2013. Additionally, companies report the primary purpose of inside sales is to create a model that more fully partners with field sales (86.1%).

We mentioned last week that the average number of sales technology solutions companies utilize is rising and is expected to grow from 5.23 in 2016 to 5.80 in 2017 (a 10.9% increase from 2016), and to 6.15 by the end of 2018 (a 2-year increase of 18%).

Spending on sales technology solutions has increased from $2546 per sales rep in 2014 to $4581 in 2017.

Technology is accelerating the pace of sales conversations. The average account executive, in 2017, has 11.9 meaningful conversations a day.

Sales is not a game of luck, and the more organizations can provide structure, support, and systems the faster reps can get-up-to speed and start contributing.

New Sales Trend Research: US Sales Reps Lagging Behind European Counterparts

Ken Krogue — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 14:00:00 GMT

This week my company, InsideSales.com, released its first-ever research report on the State of Sales, covering 1,151 companies in U.S. and 28 countries in Europe, to find out what companies are doing to accelerate sales.

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The study was done in partnership with the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP), as well as Top Sales World, and the Association of Professional Sales (APS) who contributed access to a much expanded database of companies in Europe.

The full executive summary is available here. The first big question is the mix between outside sales (field-based sales) versus inside sales (professional sales done remotely.)

Using U.S. census data, and by removing sales people involved in retail sales, there are 5.7 million million professional sales people in the U.S. who sell face to face or remotely. Outside sales makes up 52.8% of that number, and inside sales makes up 47.2%. Sales teams in the U.S. are made up of 43.5% inside sales this year, growing to 44.4% in 2018 and 45.5% in 2019.

Sales teams in Europe are comprised of 62.9% outside and 37.1% inside sales this year, and are forecasting slight growth in inside sales to 39.2% in 2018 and 41.6% in 2019. European teams surveyed say their ideal mix of inside sales is eventually targeted at 47.5%.

European Sales Reps are 11.3% Better at Attaining Quota Than U.S. Reps. The combined research in all countries shows an average of 60.9% of all sales account executives are attaining quota with the U.S. attaining an average of 58.4% and Europe averaging 65.0%.

U.S. sales reps are expanding their prospecting activities to include email, phone, voicemail, and social media far more than their Europe counterparts with 97.3 average activities per day in the U.S. versus 86.5 for Europe (11.1% more.)

Europe focusses quite a bit more on using the phone than email with 35.7% of their activities being phone calls versus 30.9% of the US using the phone. Phone calls result in much stronger sales conversations than email, evidence by Europe having much more productive conversation rates at 12.2 per day versus 10.6 for the U.S., a whopping increase of 15.1%.

Conversations are defined as two-way communication in media such as phone, email, voicemail, and social messaging. From these results, it seems the U.S. is doing less effective prospecting work that isn’t showing up in actual sales progress when compared against Europe. Why?

European Sales Reps People Closed 13.2% Better than U.S. Reps. The most notable difference is that phone as a sales media is proving to be significantly more assertive and effective in bring sales results for European reps than the new trend in the U.S. of sales reps moving to email as a primary sales media. The US reps have been using email more lately, but the real question is, is it more effective?

The trend is saying no. And it is being demonstrated in the most important of all statistics; actual sales close rates. Europe sales reps are closing sales more effectively than their counterparts in the U.S. with the average close rate for Europe sales reps being 25.8% compared to 22.8% U.S., which is 13.2% higher for the European reps.

More phone calls vs emails is equating to more and richer conversations, which seem to be assisting in the closure of more sales. The other obvious element of the sale that may be a factor would be sales skills in bringing closure to the sale, though it was not an element of this study.

Europe is Outspending on Sales Technology Solutions over the U.S. by 28.7%. The average number of sales technology solutions companies utilize in the U.S. is rising and is expected to grow from 5.23 in 2016 to 5.80 in 2017 (a 10.9% increase from 2016), and to 6.15 by the end of 2018 (a 2-year increase of 18%). Spending on sales technology solutions has increased from $2,546 per sales rep in 2014 to $4,581 in 2017.

European companies are spending $5,950 this year per sales rep after converting currencies, which is 28.7% higher than the U.S.

In summary, inside sales is growing rapidly in Europe, along with as overall sales productivity. [tweet_quote display=”European sales reps are posting more meaningful stats in actual sales conversations than U.S reps.”]While U.S. reps are using more basic activities, their European counterparts are posting more meaningful stats in areas that relate to actual sales conversations and close ratios.[/tweet_quote]

Europeans are also continuing to favor live conversations on the phone over the more passive medias of email and social media messaging, and it is paying off in higher quota attainment as well. There are lessons in this for us all, which I will continue to address in my future columns.

Why Chicago’s B2B Enterprises and Startups Thrive Globally

Terry Howerton — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 15:53:00 GMT

Chicago- B2B Enterprise and Tech Hub

Tech hubs, innovation labs, disruption, digital transformation. All of these are hot topics buzzing through business media throughout the country and globe. While the words themselves invoke a sense of “flash-in-the-pan” technology trends, the fact of the matter is that the ways of doing business are changing daily. Fortunately, Chicago is a city that prides itself on measurable, lasting growth. With no one industry dominating our success, Chicago is the nexus for enterprises that are the lifeblood for our country: manufacturing, transportation, logistics, insurance, financial services.

Coupled with our long-standing enterprises like Brunswick, AAR Corp., and Shure, Chicago’s tech market is also booming. It attracts some of the most innovative B2B tech entrepreneurs, supports successful startups like Outcome Health, Uptake, HASS Alert, PhysIQ and others, and keeps the Midwest’s top talent from University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign, Northwestern, and University of Chicago. And these entrepreneurs and enterprises aren’t going anywhere. At TechNexus Venture Collaborative, I’ve seen the local tech talent and opportunity firsthand and share this enthusiasm with many of the industry leaders here. Here are a few examples of why my peers and I believe the Second City will continue to rise through the ranks as an epicenter of tech and industry:

“Chicago’s rich history combined with the incredible tech talent living here are two factors that make the city a thriving B2B tech hub. When you think about Chicago, it’s one of the few cities in the world that has true industry diversification, which is what makes it such a successful market. Chicago is home to a variety of industries, including banking, insurance, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, retail and more. Many of these companies are innovating their respective industries, which lays the foundation for the B2B tech opportunities that exist in the Midwest.”
— Ted Devine, CEO, Insureon, an online small business insurance agency

“Building Sprout Social in Chicago was a very fortunate decision. Every market has unique constraints and opportunities that shape businesses in different ways. Chicago has a deep talent pool, great quality of life, high customer concentration and excellent economic advantages that increase the long odds of building a successful tech company. In the past few years we’ve added significant investor coverage and cultivated seasoned executive talent who have scaled businesses before. We’ve still got work to do, particularly in meeting demand for engineering talent with so many growth stage companies in Chicago, but the conditions overall are better than I’ve ever seen them.”
–Justyn Howard, CEO & Founder, Sprout Social, a social media management and analytics firm

“Chicago-area graduates are more inclined now to come back home to pursue technology industry careers than ever before. The Larry Ellison (U of I & U of C), Tom Siebel (U of I) , or Marc Adreesen (U of I) of this generation is less likely to leave Chicago for SF to create and grow a successful technology business. Having been fortunate over my 30-year career to join the journeys of high growth Bay Area companies such as Oracle, Sybase, Siebel Systems and Salesforce through IPOs and beyond, I am now running a Chicago-based cloud software company, SpringCM.

Additionally, although we operate in a very competitive, high stakes marketplace, we generally share feelings of civic pride and a desire for Chicago to continue climbing the list of best cities in which to build and invest in startup and expansion stage technology businesses.”
— Dan Dal Degan, CEO at SpringCM, a contract and document lifecycle management software company

“The foundation of Chicago’s thriving business and tech hub is the people. Chicago, and the surrounding region, is blessed with some of the world’s best colleges and universities, as well as many amazing brands. This city is home to an awesome workforce, the storied tenacity and grit of the Midwestern work ethic and a tremendous entrepreneurial spirit.

The Best Business Advice I Have Ever Received

Mike Maddock — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 11:00:00 GMT

NEW YORK, NY — APRIL 13: Barbara Corcoran is interviewed by Randi Zuckerberg for ‘SiriusXM Leading Ladies’ at SiriusXM Studios on April 13, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

Five Rules To Live By

I daydream a lot at 30,000 feet. This doesn’t bother me too much because lately it seems like I am getting paid for the things I used to get detentions for, namely doodling and wondering “what if.”

On today’s flight, I am daydreaming about business axioms. Specifically, I am thinking about what I’d tell my kids if they ever got around to asking me about business. (By the way, they’re teenagers, so I am not holding my breath.)

So here it goes. Five bits of advice I wish I’d heard—and listened to—earlier in my career.

1) Never work for a jerk.

I was lucky to have a good-boss/bad-boss experience early in my career. I worked for the good boss, Doug Harms, in college. He was a wide-eyed entrepreneur who believed in co-creating the future. He thought work should be fun and ran his company with the spirit of inclusion and dare I say “love.” Consequently, I enjoyed going to work. Relationships, talents and profits grew in the wake of Doug’s leadership.

Just after college, I had the exact opposite experience. My new boss managed with fear and underhandedness. I was struck by the negative impact his shadow had on the organization. The fish really does stink from the head down. He brought out the worst in people, including me. Within a year, I left to start my own company.

Right before I left, I bought a book entitled, “Never Work for a Jerk.” I wish I had read it before I started.

2) Pay attention to what makes you feel strong.

If you choose to notice, life gives you clues about your superhero powers. You’ll know what they are when you feel the most alive or strongest. It may be while you are working with your hands, leading other people, speaking publicly or even following exacting processes. Regardless of what the activity is, the important thing is that you pay attention to the clues: time flies by; you smile more; people compliment what you have done; you do really good work; you look forward to doing more of the same.

Have you heard the cliché “Do something you love and you will never work a day in your life”? Well, clichés frequently become clichés because they are true. By paying attention to when you feel strong, you’ll quickly zero in on your path to success.

7 Myths You Probably Believe About Successful Entrepreneurs

Mike Maddock — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 18:18:00 GMT

Image: Shutterstock

I spend a large percentage of my time connecting entrepreneurs with companies trying to solve wicked problems. So I get a kick out of some of the most common misperceptions I hear about people who start their own companies.

Here are some common myths along with the truths about entrepreneurs and what actually makes them tick.

Myth 1: They enjoy taking risks.

Like many entrepreneurs, I believe the greatest career risk anyone can take is putting all of their eggs in one basket (i.e., being dependent on one employer for all their income).

Ironically, this is exactly why entrepreneurs choose to work for themselves. They’d rather take control of the outcome than leave it in the hands of a Trumponian boss who on a whim can say, “You’re fired.”

By working for themselves, they can learn, pivot, restart and experiment their way into success. Ironically, they are actually firing and rehiring themselves daily until they hit the formula right.

Myth: Entrepreneurs enjoy taking risks.

Fact: Entrepreneurs hate taking risks that they can’t control.

Myth 2: They are driven by money.

Entrepreneurship is the classic chicken and egg story. The egg is money. And we assume that since successful entrepreneurs wind up making a lot of money, they must be driven by it.

In my experience, entrepreneurs are actually driven to fix a problem—the chicken in our story. It is their relentless focus on finding solutions to a problem that annoys them that leads to the reward of an egg…sometimes lots and lots of eggs.

Show me a problem worth solving and an annoyed entrepreneur who solves it, and I’ll show you lots of cash.

Myth: Entrepreneurs are driven by money.

Fact: Entrepreneurs are driven by solving a problem. If they solve that problem, the money follows.

Myth 3: They are lone wolves.

Groups like Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Young Presidents’ Organization and Vistage thrive because the best entrepreneurs seek out wisdom.

Put simply, intelligence is learning from your own mistakes, and wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others. Intelligence is painful and leaves bruises. Wisdom is a generous gift, usually given humbly by people who have already suffered and want to keep you from making the same mistakes they did.

The most successful entrepreneurs surround themselves with people willing to share wisdom. As my friend Verne Harnish says, “Your goal is to be the dumbest person in the room with the best question.”

Myth: Entrepreneurs are lone wolves.

Fact: Entrepreneurs try to learn from everyone they can.

Three Questions To Ask At Your Strategy Off-site

Mike Maddock — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 20:23:00 GMT

Ask them, or there may not be many off-sites in your company’s future

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Well, it’s almost that time of year again. It’s time for the annual leadership off-site, during which you will likely think, ink and drink too much.

If you are like many, you’ll leave the safe confines of your office to hang your hat in a beige, patterned hotel conference room that is painfully close to the promise of tranquil water, challenging links or virgin mountains.

But all those things will have to wait.

For now, there is work to be done and you know the drill. You’ll spend 80 percent of your time optimizing the business models that got you here; 10 percent of your time being challenged by a consultant in skinny jeans wearing “look-at-my-glasses” glasses; 5 percent of your time engaging in some fun, albeit uncomfortable, activity; 3 percent of your time hoping someone photographs a co-worker doing something embarrassingly epic; and 4 percent of your time thinking about the future. (The math error was intentionally included, just to make sure you were paying attention. If you caught it, read on.)

Maybe this year you should try to make the off-site memorable—and worthwhile.

You have no choice if you want your company to survive.

What some of you already know is that this year needs to be different. The days when you could show up and figure out how you could do just a little bit better than what you have always done ended about a decade ago.

The future is simply coming too fast to continue to employ incremental thinking.

So, if you are looking for a more productive off-site, here are three topics that I have helped facilitate—topics that always lead to a more productive year. (And as a bonus, I promise that if you take on any of them, you will have an off-site that you will never, ever forget.)

Topic No. 1: Do we trust each other?

Change is inevitable. One of a leadership team’s primary responsibility is navigating change in an efficient and profitable fashion.

But with change comes fear: fear of things you don’t understand; fear of losing your job; fear of firing a friend; fear of the unknown. And with all of that fear comes drama: a vicious cycle of complaints, persecution and rescuing that, at best, keeps you stuck in a spin cycle while you need to move forward.

Trusting each other is fundamental to breaking this cycle. It allows the victim to become the creator, the persecutor to be seen as a challenger, and the rescuer to become the coach.

Luckily, my friends Patrick Lencioni and David Emerald have written the books The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Power of TED that provide road maps for discussing how your team is doing when it comes to trust.

I have facilitated these discussions. In my humble opinion, this topic is critical for any off-site. It is also a topic that the best leadership teams embrace.

Two Letters That Disrupters Use Better Than The Rest Of Us

Mike Maddock — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 14:20:00 GMT

The power of a two-letter word.

Guess what letters disrupters use better than the rest of us.

Since the average attention span is 8 seconds, I’ll cut to the chase: the letters are “N” and “O.”

Put together, they create the most powerful word in the disrupter’s vocabulary: “NO.”

Billionaire Warren Buffet famously said, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

He is absolutely right.

Turns out that not only do disrupters say “no” far more often than the rest of us, but they also do it in areas most of us haven’t even considered.

Let’s talk about three:

They Say No To Guilt

My friend Sheryl recently posted on a social media site that she would no longer be offering marketing advice for free to friends and associates.

She made this declaration reluctantly because she is a nice person and nice people like to help their friends.

But disrupters rise above the guilt. They are unaffected by how they feel about a decision, instead relying on logic to rule the day. They have mastered what my friend Lance Witt (Replenish.net) refers to as the “higher yes.”

They have changed their paradigm from saying “no” to saying “yes” to a higher purpose, job, project, endeavor, etc., that in turn means they don’t have the time, energy or capital for other less important requests. By focusing on their highest objectives—their yeses—they avoid the guilt that often plagues the rest of us mortals.

The next time you feel a tinge of guilt, stop and focus on what you are about to say yes to. If it is a meaningless distraction, feel guilty because you are not using your time well.

But if it is noble, strategic or critical, give yourself a little love because you’ve just made a great decision.

Why Marriages And Businesses Fail — A Love Story

Mike Maddock — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 19:27:00 GMT

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In his speeches about strengths and weaknesses, thought leader David Rendall frequently tells the story of Brenda, a detail-oriented young lady, who falls in love with Eddie, a free-spirited young man.

Brenda is the consummate ringleader. She is a planner, a gifted organizer who manages every detail and thinks deeply about every decision. She’s the sexy librarian Eddie has always dreamed about.

Eddie, on the other hand, is a free-spirited idea monkey, taking life as it comes, enjoying the unpredictable ride. He is about new ideas, new experiences and new discoveries. In other words, he is the rambunctious bad boy that Brenda’s dad had always warned her about.

They get married, of course, and their favorite saying is, “You…complete…me!”

In the first few years, the marriage is great. Brenda sees Eddie as the spontaneous person she wished she could have been while she was studying for her GMATs. Life with him is an adventure, and she delights in his ability to let the “little things” slide off his back. Eddie feels equally loved by how Brenda seems to manage through all the chaos to ensure that some level of sanity remains in their lives. Because of her, he can have even more ideas and go on even more adventures!

(Director’s note: Soundtrack takes sudden, dramatic turn.)

But then, everything changes. Their extreme differences—once quirky and attractive—become glaringly annoying. Eddie now sees Brenda’s unique attention to detail as unrelenting nitpicking. Brenda now views Eddie’s spontaneity as irresponsible risk-taking.

Here the lyrics of a favorite Billy Joel song come to mind. “Brenda and Eddie had had it already by the summer of ’75.” (They had married months earlier.) “From the high to the low to the end of the show for the rest of their lives….” (Of course, I changed the names of Rendall’s mythical couple to make the lyrics work.)

The marriage failed.

There is an incredibly important business lesson here, but it probably isn’t what you’re thinking. According to business expert Andrew Sherman, business partnerships are, indeed, like marriages in that over half of them fail. But when you examine successful and disastrous business partnerships, a surprising lesson reveals itself: In business partnerships, opposites actually thrive.

Three Lessons Every Leader Must Learn From Donald Trump

Mike Maddock — Mon, 29 May 2017 16:48:00 GMT

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The Monica Lewinsky scandal was still fresh in everyone’s mind when the Willow Creek Community Church invited former President Clinton to speak at its massive leadership conference, which attracts the top thinkers from around the world.

Pastor Bill Hybels knew many of the conservative members of the mega-church were unhappy about the invitation, and he addressed the issue head on as he introduced the former President.

After reminding people about how people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, Hybels basically told the audience that if they could not learn from the most powerful man on the planet, they were at the wrong conference.

I agreed with Hybels then. I agree with him now.

Those of us who want to grow our organizations by introducing innovative products, services and business models need to learn as much as we can from whoever we can. Their politics don’t matter.

With that by way of background, here are three things every leader can learn from President Trump:

Lesson #1: Wizzywigs Win

Being a wizzywig simply means to be your authentic self.

That funny word wizzywig is actually an acronym of sorts. It’s short for What You See Is What You Get; WYSIWYG or “Wizzywig.”

We all know a wizzywig. They are comfortable to be around. You know where they stand. They say what they think. They usually have high self-esteem.

In a political arena filled with contrived personas, and focus-group informed sound bites, it was no wonder that people would crave authenticity. President Trump—love him or hate him—showed up as himself at every debate. He tweets as himself at the crack of dawn and stunned many by not acting “presidential” after he was elected. While this may be disappointing to about half the country, it is a welcome delight for those who voted for the maverick agitator Trump claimed to be.

Turns out, he actually is a maverick agitator. Says former rival Marco Rubio, “I don’t understand why people are that shocked. This president ran an unconventional campaign. This White House is not much different from the campaign. People got what they voted for. They elected him.”

In my experience, the best leaders spend absolutely zero energy trying to be something they are not. Pay attention and you will notice that they are exactly the same at home, in the boardroom, at church…everywhere. The best ones are high integrity people with great minds, hearts and character. But you don’t have to have all those things to be a wizzywig.

The lesson is pretty simple: When it comes to personality, authenticity beats the contrived every time. The people have spoken.

Wanna Kill American Startups Before They Start? Force Entrepreneurs to Risk Too Much

Terry Howerton — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:55:00 GMT

America is a startup nation. Risk taking entrepreneurs have helped our country lead the world in innovation. New ventures create most of our jobs, grow our economy, and increasingly compete on a global scale.

We’re living through unprecedented redefinition and churn among big business today (734 of the companies on the F1000 list a decade ago no longer appear there, and half of the 500 largest companies in America will cease to exist a decade from now). The future of work for individuals is being redefined too, and that could unleash a torrent of new entrepreneurial activity.

But we can’t take any of this change and potential momentum for granted… it’s precarious, and fraught with failure. I’ve written in this column before that overall entrepreneurial activity in America actually peaked more than 30 years ago. I’ve also argued a million new jobs a year could be created by American startups with just a few smart public policy changes out of Washington, D.C. and state houses across the country.

One of the surest ways to stunt the growth of new startups and prevent entrepreneurs from making the leap is to force them to take unreasonable risk with their family’s healthcare and well-being. One of the top reasons people don’t leave their jobs at BigCo and chase new ideas on their own is the intolerable risk of losing healthcare coverage.

[tweet_quote display=”GOP in the House today took one of the swiftest swipes at killing America’s startups before they even start.”]The GOP in the U. S. House of Representative today took one of the swiftest swipes at killing America’s startups before they even start.[/tweet_quote]

One in five customers on the ACA health exchanges are small business owners. Without access to those shared risk pools, many otherwise-would-be entrepreneurs remain tethered to their employers.

I have started, mentored, incubated and funded a great many startups, and none of them could have launched without a brave entrepreneur willing to take risks. I’ve also seen too many unable to make that jump because of uncertainty over health care.

But beyond dissolving what opponents labeled “Obamacare” (but what was built on the foundation of Republican ideas), this is bad for business… especially small and emerging businesses. Even accounting for a high failure rate for new ventures, we will be losing thousands if not hundreds of thousands of new ideas. They’ll be “job-locked” because they can’t afford to risk everything for an idea.

The vast majority of American startups will never raise outside capital and are funded by courageous entrepreneurs who max out their credit cards, borrow from their friends and family, and go without salaries to launch their business and create jobs. Should we also expect these founders and early employees to forgo any access to affordable healthcare, guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions or protections for their families?

Most Big Companies are Dying, While Some Have Found the Fountain of Youth

Terry Howerton — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 19:39:00 GMT

Most of the largest companies in the world will be replaced in the next decade. Reinvention and new ways to innovate are the keys to surviving endless technology advances. Beyond their core competencies, corporate companies that want to stand the test of time, must keep a finger on the pulse of the technologies that make their operations smoother, processes more efficient and customers more satisfied. Today’s most prominent corporate leaders recognize that technology has the power to kill their companies, and use this peril as a catalyst to drive innovation. In fact, in a 2015 survey of Fortune 500 CEOs, “the rapid pace of technological change” was leaders’ number one challenge, and 94 percent of respondents said their companies would change more in the next five years than the previous five.

The fact is, constant change is the new normal and it’s up to the C-suite to see around corners. Here are just a few statistics to put this in perspective:

Nearly three out of four of the Fortune 1,000 have been replaced in the last 10 years.
In the next decade, over half the Fortune 500 will no longer exist.
Only 20 percent of Chief Strategy Officers feel that they are highly prepared for disruption.

McKinsey & Company Disruption Introduces an Incumbent to a New Journey

While this disruption isn’t quite as apocalyptic as many suggest, there is no doubt that the way businesses innovate is changing. Corporations are leveraging a variety of R&D models including corporate venture capital (CVC), accelerators, innovation labs, venture collaboration and more. This resurgence of multiple corporate innovation mechanisms proves that Fortune 500 and middle-market CEOs recognize the need for agility in order to compete and win alongside technology’s rapid rate of change.

So why the need for multiple approaches to innovation? Because one head-down focus misses peripheral threats and opportunities.

Competition comes in all forms

Competition used to come in the form of the handful of usual suspects in a given industry. Today, internet tycoons like Google and Amazon and historically product-focused companies like Microsoft and IBM, have their eyes on any industry in which their suite of services can be applied to optimize processes. These threats that incumbents never believed would disrupt their industries – whether that’s aerospace and defense, manufacturing, logistics, or energy – are now realizing that nobody is safe.

Some companies recognize this threat, but also see the opportunity. For instance, since 2013, Airbus has partnered with IBM for advanced IT services for maintenance, engineering and flight operations. Using IBM Watson, they can interpret natural language – or unstructured data – in a log to fix a maintenance problem faster. In 2016, Boeing signed a deal with Microsoft taking its digital aviation assets – network operations and the like – to Azure cloud-services platform. These are just a few examples of real deals happening in just the A&D industry. And it’s replicable across all industries.

The Next Million Jobs Will Come from Startups Across America, But Not Without Smarter Public Policy

Terry Howerton — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 15:06:00 GMT

The top 10 Tech Cities + The 25 Next in Tech

It might have been possible at one time for politicians from the Heartland to be indifferent to public policy conversations about the Startup Economy. After all, that was an issue for Silicon Valley. Or maybe the tech hub of Boston. But it didn’t resonate with their constituents in Chicago or Cincinnati.

In the past decade, though, that has dramatically changed. Startups are everywhere, from Silicon Valley to Boston, and from Provo to New Orleans. Those young and innovative companies are job-creating engines that spur economic development across every sector of the economy. But they can’t do it alone.

A new research report, released today and available for download here, says policymakers on the national, state, and local level “must pay close attention to startups – encouraging their formation and removing the obstacles to their growth.” The report comes from TechNet, a bipartisan political network of tech-oriented CEOs and senior executives (disclosure: I serve on the Executive Council of Technet, and support their work), and the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI).

Top 10 Tech Hubs

The 25 Next in Tech

Among the policy changes advocated by the report are many issues that both parties in Congress should support, and while some priorities are a bit more politically charged, it’s nonetheless urgent and important to act.

The report argues that overly strict rules governing crowdfunding sometimes limit the ability of startups to raise funds on the local level and that changing tax policy to support innovation will make it easier for companies to pour money back into research and development. And improving access to overseas markets and limiting trade barriers will open up new opportunities for startups to grow their businesses and scale. It also suggests increasing investment in entrepreneurial and STEM-related education similar to the curriculum at the Chicago Tech Academy and a growing number of schools across America.

The Technet-published report says Congress needs to tackle immigration reform to make it “easier for immigrant entrepreneurs to build new companies in the United States.” While acknowledging that immigration reform “won’t be easy,” the report urges Congress to remove barriers for immigrant entrepreneurs through a Startup Visa program that would allow them to build companies here that create jobs and stay.

There should be no confusion about this: We are in a global fight and the country’s economy is riding on the results.

Last Fall in Fortune, John Chambers, Cisco’s executive chairman, talked about France’s drive to become a “digital republic.” The country expects to create more than 1 million jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in GDP growth by attracting entrepreneurs, expanding digital training for its workforce, all while building upon its already burgeoning high-tech economy.

SXSW: The Elephant In The Room

Steven Rosenbaum — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 18:05:00 GMT

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that following Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s featured speaking engagement at SXSW, no audience questions regarding Donald Trump were addressed.

Every year it changes. South By Southwest is never really the same. For years it was the place where new apps were born. I was there the year Twitter exploded. I was there the year Foursquare went nuts. But this year apps stayed home as did the brands which last year jammed Brazo’s street. And every cool nook and cranny mostly stayed home too. No big “activations” from McDonalds or Anheuser-Busch this year.

Instead of a big boom this year, there was a steady hum and it was politics.

Cory Booker opened a packed house at SXSW Interactive. I’ve seen him speak before, and in SXSW he was in his element. Unlike politicians of the past, he didn’t have the cadence of a preacher or evangelist. Instead, his talk was soulful – warm – and human. He spoke without a teleprompter or a script. He moved back and forth across the stage – making eye contact and sharing stories. He talked about what he called “the most powerful force in America” and the -wait for it – the word was “Love.” It’s worth watching. Honest, warm, and inspirational. It was a necessary breath of fresh air. Bravo.

Cory Booker Opens SXSW 2017

Now, not all of the political talks got such high marks. Alexis Ohanian’s much-anticipated talk about Reddit had political watchers expecting a revealing explanation of Reddit’s role in powering the Alt Right, PizzaGate and the internal struggles that Reddit is facing. Anyone who came for that talk would be sorely disappointed.

“Ohanian, who surely exists in a different reality than you or I, says Reddit is ‘the global water cooler where people’s minds are changed about things.’ Riiight.” wrote William Turton on Gizmodo. He continued: “The website once home to racist subreddits dedicated to violent hate speech like “CoonTown,” wants people to “come for the cats, stay for the empathy,” according to Ohanian. Is this clown serious? CoonTown was finally banned last year, but white supremacy communities like /r/WhiteRights still exist on the site. And don’t forget about subreddits like /r/CuteFemaleCorpses, which is exactly what it sounds like. Empathy indeed.”

And Turton isn’t alone. After almost 40 minutes of platitudes of FluffyBunny49, Ohanian opened the floor to questions, or so it seemed. Using a software question platform called Slido.com, the audience was invited to pose questions. But what wasn’t revealed but later discovered was that Reddit PR was reviewing all the submissions and selectively allowing only approved questions out into the public queue for up or down voting. One question about Donald Trump made it through. Reddit PR responded “maybe the Redditors are tired of those questions.” hmm… Questions about Serena Williams made the queue. Trump, just one. We’ve reached out to SXSW to ask to read the public question queue, so far – we’ve been stonewalled. Stay tuned.

But politically engaged had plenty more to chew on. Kara Swisher filled one of the main ballrooms with the team from Crooked Media. The results was a magical elixir of snark and politics – with former Obama political team proving a refreshing and sharp-witted take on the escapades now taking place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Finally – SXSW dipped its toe in the future and invited attendees to become activists. The first ever Act-A-Thon was opened by Bob Garfield from NPR’s On The Media and invited attendees to embrace their inner activist. A small but feisty group of participants spent an hour exploring issues, choosing a topic, and then working to sketch out a plan to make an impact.

NPR’s Bob Garfield at the SXSW ACT-A-THON (Credit: Kam Nield)

Interestingly, the two projects that came from the process included on the ground local engagement – not national politics. One project focused on what they called the “School to Prison Pipeline,” and asked the question, “How do we get a non-partisan program on this, instead of it being a political battle?” A second project focused on the Tech sector and how to grow a more diverse community of tech leaders to grow platforms and services.

This year, like all years, SXSW was about change. And despite the flow of beer, the smell of BBQ, and the music that filled the streets – the elephant in the room was Donald Trump. How will events in Washington effect tech, social media, virtual reality, education, the arts? Those answers are forthcoming – and the SXSW community is engaged in address them. Austin is a city with its eye on the future. And SXSW is evolving to embrace the coming changes and challenges.

Facebook Takes On Fake News

Steven Rosenbaum — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 19:09:00 GMT

Over the past 12 months, Facebook has had to face the fact that it’s no longer simply a platform, and that puts it in the middle of the rather complicated debate over Fake News. It’s complicated because “Fake” is to some extent determined by the point of view, and politics of the reader. Today, though, Facebook is wading into the debate, unable to stay safely on the sidelines any longer.

Facebook CEO and chairman Mark Zuckerberg / Photo credit: RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP/Getty Images)

Here’s an example: this story from The Seattle Tribune claims “Trump’s Android Device Believed To Be Source Of Recent White House Leaks.” It turns out, The Seattle Tribune is a satire site — it says so right in its disclaimer. So, Facebook will label this post as “disputed” with links to fact-checking organizations — in this case, PolitiFact and Snopes.com

Facebook now labels disputed posts.

Back in November, Facebook announced plans to address Fake News. “The problems here are complex, both technically and philosophically,” said Zuckerberg. “We believe in giving people a voice, which means erring on the side of letting people share what they want whenever possible. We need to be careful not to discourage sharing of opinions or mistakenly restricting accurate content. We do not want to be arbiters of truth ourselves, but instead, rely on our community and trusted third parties.”

So, today’s measure is a step, but it’s a half-step at best. Facebook doesn’t want to be an “arbiter” — even as its algorithm determines who you are, what you’ll see, and what you won’t see every time you open the Facebook app. There’s no doubt that Facebook could provide more visibility into how it has categorized your interests, or what it has chosen to serve to you. So far, that’s not a feature.

“We take misinformation seriously,” wrote Zuckerberg on November 19th, of last year. “Historically, we have relied on our community to help us understand what is fake and what is not.” And while the “disputed” tag is a start, in the end, it will come down to dollars. Zuckerberg wrote that he is committed to “disrupting fake news economics. A lot of misinformation is driven by financially motivated spam. We’re looking into disrupting the economics with ads policies and better ad farm detection.”

While the Facebook step isn’t insignificant, Peter Kafka of Recode makes a pretty good case that the example of The Seattle Tribune shows just how reticent Facebook is to label even what is clearly fake.

“Per the Seattle Tribune, it is a “news and entertainment satire web publication,” and “news articles contained within The Seattle Tribune are fictional.” As Snopes notes, it’s the product of Associated Media Coverage, a fake news factory that specializes in not-very-convincing local news sites.”

Why, then, did the story about Trump and his Android phone go up Feb. 26 and remain untamed until March 3rd? Because Snopes didn’t declare it false until March 2nd and PolitiFact until March 3rd. So, even though anything The Seattle Tribune posts could be labeled “disputed” without any further review, Facebook is going to hang back until a third party site makes the call.

It’s another volley in the battle over truth and fiction — and one that’s sure to get Fake News publishers and politically divided readers fired up. Much like spam or other web-based plagues, the game of whack-a-mole is just getting started.

How Accelerators Drive Innovation For Firefighters

Terry Howerton — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 17:42:00 GMT

Enabling firefighters with tech to keep them safe.

Keeping communities safe and getting first responders home at the end of each workday is a goal we all share. Delivering the next generation of technological innovation to the incredibly fragmented public safety marketplace to achieve those goals is a trickier proposition.

Most of the nation’s public safety agencies operate locally and independent of each other. There are about 70,000 police and fire departments in the United States. They are governed by different rules, budgets and priorities. What’s right for Cleveland might not be right for Boise. What works in Milwaukee might not work in Biloxi. But when innovation is good for all – think wearable tech, communication advances, or improved training systems – identifying and then funding those improvements can be a challenge.

[brightcove videoID=4760486404001 playerID=]

Enter the EMERGE Accelerator Program. Now in its second year, EMERGE is helping merge the entrepreneurial and venture worlds with the nation’s first responders through a program coordinated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Entrepreneurs and venture investors – those people who invent and drive innovation forward – are generally hard-wired to solve the problems they see. In the past, the worlds of tech innovation and public safety rarely occupied the same room. That meant important innovations were slow to be developed or funded, leaving our public service agencies – from police and fire to homeland security and natural disaster response – lagging behind in technology that could potentially save lives and property.

In the past, most new developments in the public safety world came from large vendors who delivered “off-the-shelf” products one unit at a time. You need drones? Here you go. You need some new radio equipment? Step right up. Choice was limited, innovation was slow and cost was high.

In 2014, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology division joined forces with entrepreneurial and innovation partners TechNexus, Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL). The goal: Put investors and inventors in the room with first responders and watch the sparks of innovation and collaboration fly.

This collaborative process helps ensure the right innovations get to the marketplace by eliminating the layers that exist between those who USE the tech and those who DEVELOP it. By directly connecting these entrepreneurs with this challenging target market early on, the EMERGE founders were able to hear firsthand the pros and cons of their products. Beyond that, they gained insight into real-world applications they hadn’t even considered. This kind of candid input from users helps our startups get the best version of their innovations to market more quickly.

In its first two years, EMERGE is already delivering on its promise. Innovation is happening and new ideas are coming to market.

The focus of EMERGE 2016 was “wearable tech” and the enthusiasm for the venture collaboration has continued to grow. More than 260 startups submitted proposals through more than 200 accelerators, incubators and university partners from 149 cities. Ten startups were eventually selected to be a part of EMERGE 2016. The concepts included innovations in combined voice, video and data capabilities, longer-lasting batteries for body cameras, integrated data for situational awareness, and medical sensors for emergency response and triage. A showcase for those projects was held in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, March 1.

The kinds of innovation we’re seeing – and that we’re confident we’ll continue to see in the future – can only come from collaboration across the spectrum of users and builders, investors and inventors.

We’ll know we’ve achieved critical success when we see large industry partners – the Tasers and the DuPonts of the world – at the table with entrepreneurs, venture investors and first responders, paving the path forward with a single goal in mind: to make our communities safe and to help first responders get home at the end of each work day.

MisInfoCon Brings Together Journalists, Technologists, Academics

Steven Rosenbaum — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 22:13:00 GMT

They came from around the country. They came from around the world, Journalists. Professors. Librarians. Software Developers. Activists, and Data Scientists. A gathering that ordinarily would have taken months of planning and a team of organizers and programmers was instead the work of a handful of hardworking volunteers and a quickly put together group of not-for-profits.

The location was the MIT Media Lab. And the hundred who convened – curated from hundreds of applications – met to take on an issue fueled by the President of the United States. The topic was Fake News, and just the mention of the claims and counter claims now roiling journalism made for a frothy three days in Cambridge, Mass.

MisInfoCon set out with high expectations – to gather, share ideas, brainstorm and then engage in a marathon two-day hackathon. The goal was to do more than talk, but rather to build things. Not finished projects, but to build prototypes and 3-minute long presentations that could foster reactions and solutions.

With attendees ready engage, no one left disappointed.

Photo credit: “Steven Rosenbaum”

The conference began with two 45 minute sessions with a wide range of topics including “The influence of fear on the truth,” “Combating echo chambers,” and “Are we bringing fact checkers to a knife fight?” I facilitate a topic titled “Balancing human and algorithmic fact-based content.” Around our table gathered people from Google, Amazon’s Alexa Team, a college librarian, and an entrepreneur specializing in open-source FOIA document discovery. We dug in and found ourselves asking some hard questions about algorithms and transparency. When a website offers news headlines, should we tell users if it’s been collected by a bot, or edited by a human or a hybrid of both? The answer – everyone agreed – was that transparency was far better than opacity.

Then the massive pink post-it notes came out, and it was time to hack. Anyone with an idea was able to post it on the wall, and then people browsed projects and broke into teams. By 1 p.m. I was part of the “Empathy Accelerator” team – a remarkable mix of developers, a community manager, a librarian, and a public radio social media producer. Together we brainstormed, wrote, edited, sketched – trying to find a solution to the question: “ow can we get people with divergent points of view to hear each other? Trying to replace antagonism with empathy. We worked till 10 pm, then returned at 9 a.m. Sunday morning to craft a 3-minute presentation that would answer the question: “What can we do to address the fact that people are more likely to believe misinformation if they don’t understand each other. Empathy breaks down guards that people put up in fear.” And, here’s the result of 8 people working side by side, non-stop, for two days:

slides courtsey: MisInfoCon

By 3 p.m. on Sunday, 23 projects were ready to present to the group. The tone was energized. The presentations a mix of wild schemes and solid workable solutions. I’ll share a few links and you can decide for yourself. Mapping News Inequality, You Shared It, Meme-inar, and FakeNewsFitness.

slides courtesy: MisInfoCon

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In the spirit of full transparency – every one of the groups slide decks are posted HERE. So check them out – and see if there is an idea or a group that sparks your interest. These are starting points for projects some of which are sure to continue to grow.

It’s Down To The Tech Industry To Protect Free Speech In The Trump Era

Steven Rosenbaum — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:13:00 GMT

You’ve probably never heard of Joel Simon – and that’s okay. Until very recently, Simon and his organization flew under radar for most Americans. Once a year he hosted a glitzy fundraising dinner at the Waldorf Astoria. It was a dinner where the biggest names in media dined on chicken or fish, listened to stories of extraordinary bravery from around the world and wrote big checks.

But the election of Donald Trump and his increasingly adversarial engagement with journalists has forced Simon and his colleagues to shift their gaze from remote war zones and despots to his own backyard.

President Trump’s Twitter rebuke of the press was ratcheted up to a new ominous level on Friday when he tweeted that the media “is the enemy of the American people.”

I’ve heard those words before. Just not here.

More than a decade ago, I sat at that Waldorf black tie dinner.

I’d just completed a film and a a journey to The Philippines, Pakistan, Baghdad, Rio de Janeiro, Iraq, and Israel’s West Bank. It was a documentary about six deaths – six Journalists Killed In The Line of Duty. The film covered a 15-month period, during that time 46 journalists had died around the world. And Simon’s organization, The Committee To Protect Journalists, had been our partner in reporting for the film. It was a chilling and dangerous project, and everyone on the team was glad to be back on the safe soil of America – raising funds to protect truth-tellers around the world.

Anderson Cooper – host: Journalists: Killed in the Line of Duty (courtesy Monarch Films)

That was then.

Today, Simon’s concerns have shifted as our President uses the technology platform Twitter to broadcast sharply worded accusations of media bias and “fake news” and takes a posture that Simon knows all too well. It’s the language of despots and dictators. And those are hard words to write.

Simon, writing in a post for the Columbia Journalism Review drew deeply troubling conclusions.

“Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, and Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner—along with the late Hugo Chávez of Venezuela—all rose to power in campaigns that targeted the media. In office, they continued their attacks” wrote Simon.

His evidence is detailed and hard to refute: “Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has described critics in the press as “ignorant,” “trash-talking,” “liars,” “unethical,” “mediocre,” “ink-stained hit men.” Daniel Ortega calls journalists “children of Goebbels” and enemies of the Nicaraguan people. Hugo Chávez frequently called the media opposition coup plotters and fascists. More mildly, Argentine President Néstor Kirchner and Uruguayan President Tabaré Ramón Vázquez Rosas refer to the press as the “unelected political opposition.” Sound familiar?

Certainly, Trump isn’t the first president to frame journalists as their enemy. Richard Nixon was famous for his hatred of the press, and raged against “distorted” and “hysterical” reporting – calling the press “the enemy.” But Carl Bernstein, whose reporting with Bob Woodward at The Washington Post revealed Watergate and led to Nixon’s resignation, said: “Attacks on press by @realDonaldTrump more treacherous than Nixon’s.” Treacherous in part because of the raw and unfiltered nature of his accusations, and the rapid linking and social media distribution of even the most provably absurd claims.

And Joel Simon, with a global perspective and 11 years as the Executive Director of CPJ, is now sounding an urgent alarm. “The necessary first step of a strategy of fomenting greater political polarization is to marginalize the media.” Simon’s organization sees troubling similarities to leaders in some of the darkest corners of the world. “Lashing out at the media at public events; denouncing and vilifying individual journalists, expelling reporters, blocking access, and threatening lawsuits: Trump and Chávez have these things in common. Like Trump, Chávez insisted on his own version of reality – now known as “alternative facts.”

Now, to be fair, the comparisons also have some significant disparities. The U.S. media is independent, financially stable – though challenged – and we have the powerful protections of the First Amendment in place. But those protections are under attack. “Trump’s intent is clear. Through his relentless attacks, he seeks to create an environment in which critical media is marginalized and the truth is unknowable” says Simon.

So we’re at a critical crossroads. Of course, there’s no such thing as “the media” – there are newspapers, television networks, cable networks, blogs, wire services, and international publications as well. The recent advent of social media adds the ability to magnify misinformation without critical review Trump’s broad-brush attack on the media attempts to create a monolithic enemy that simply doesn’t exist. He may not like a particular story, or a journalist, or even a news organization, but twitter’s 140 characters alone can’t alone represent his communication with a deeply concerned public who are now paying attention to his every move.

Simon cautions us that it’s tempting for the media to be drawn into an activist stance. He says there’s danger ahead, “But only if the U.S. media takes the bait, and starts acting more like the opposition,” says Simon. “The high-impact reporting in recent days on the links between Trump aides and Russia shows that the media retains sufficient credibility in the US to change the political dynamic. It is also a vivid reminder of what’s at stake.”

A free press is a fragile thing, and in many parts of the world, it is in grave danger. Free speech is core to our Democracy – it isn’t something you can suspend and reinstate as suits the current political climate. We’re living in a new world of instant information decimation. That’s going to challenge tech leaders and platform providers to rethink their position of being neutral providers without a responsibility to filter or edit. As much as we may wish for a more “media-literate” consumer, it will fall to CEO’s of Google, Facebook, and Reddit to lead the way.

Journalists: Killed In The Line Of Duty was produced in 2003, in conjunction with The Committee to Protect Journalists and aired on the Bravo Network. You can screen it with Amazon Prime for free – here. It is hosted by Anderson Cooper and narrated by Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Christianna Amanpour, Anne Garrels and Walter Cronkite.

Political Issues Take Center Stage At SXSW

Steven Rosenbaum — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 16:42:00 GMT

Just a week after the election, 50 team members from the South By Southwest (SXSW) Programming Group gathered in Austin, Texas. Attendees included members from SXSW Interactive, SXSW Music, SXSW Film, SXSW Eco and SXSWedu. For the members, the election results hung in the air. Hugh Forrest, the Director at the Interactive Festival, described the meeting this way: “Over the 20+ years that I have worked at SXSW, I have sat through plenty of meetings — some of them less engaging than others. But, I can’t remember a meeting with as much passion and as much emotion and feeling as this one.”

As the meeting ended, one thing was clear: SXSW wasn’t going to back away from its beliefs or its politically progressive stance. “While I’m still grieving about the HRC defeat, I’m very excited about the kind of role SXSW will play in paving a more progressive path to the future,” Forrest wrote just days after that meeting.

It’s worth pointing out that South by Southwest, the popular and massively attended music, tech, and film confab, has a warm working relationship with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Both spoke at SXSW in 2016, and in October, the White House itself hosted an event called South By South Lawn that was produced by the SXSW team.

President Barack Obama Keynote during the 2016 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for SXSW)

The kind of relationship SXSW will have with Trump administration remains unclear, but there’s one thing for certain. 2017 will be a big year for politics in Austin, and it will be with a clear decision to embrace and foster civic activism and civic engagement.

The Government Track of speakers and panels was held in recent years on one of the campus venues away from the main conference center. But this year it has been moved to the Austin Hilton Downtown – more toward the center of the action. And in addition to three days of programming on politics, civic activism, and government tech, the festival has also added two days focused on Tech under the Trump administration.

Bookending the Government track will be U.S. Senator Cory Booker with keynote the opening of the Interactive strand and then a final session with FBI Director James Comey Monday March 13th at 5pm. The talk is slated to be about cybersecurity, but the 2016 presidential election is certain to hover over the conversation.

Tech Under Trump will be a two day event, March 15 -16. Speakers for this include Eli Pariser of Upworthy, Anil Dash from Fog Creek, Jeff Howe the author of “Whiplash” and Molly Wood of American Public Media’s Marketplace.

There’s no doubt that SXSW has strong feelings about politics. And that promises to fuel a unique environment for debate, discourse and dialog. As with most conferences, what happens in the meeting rooms and panels is just the beginning. And with the Austin environment of beer, ribs, and music – one can easy expect strongly worded conversations to flow out of the hall and into the streets.

In reviewing the 2017 Government track panels, here are a few that seem likely to provoke conversations:

– 2016 Election: How We Got it Wrong! Sam Sanders of NPR gives his first-hand experience covering the 2016 Presidential Election.

– Building Bridges When Others Want to Build Walls. Documented and undocumented immigrants in the United States are facing a tremendous amount of uncertainty. The panel includes James Kenney of The City of Philadelphia, Javier Gonzales of The City of Santa Fe and Kate Brick, of New American Economy.

– How Elections Change Next Gen Cause Engagement. It’s a fact that Millennials value cause engagement. But what happens during an election year?The panel includes Abby Phillip of The Washington Post, Carolyn Dewitt of Rock The Vote, and Emily Yu of The Stephen Case Foundation.

Not satisfied with hoping that groups will find each other on the streets of Austin, I will be facilitating a bipartisan political dialog around these issues with a hack-a-thon that brings together developers, designers, and activists to brainstorm ways to foster civic engagement. There’s more on the way – so keep tuned into the growing SXSW tech/politics theme that’s growing. And if you’re going to be in Austin, don’t miss the Government track. This year it promises to be an exciting and important place to be.

Meetup.com Takes A Political Stand Against The Trump Administration

Steven Rosenbaum — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 19:02:00 GMT

Meetup founder Scott Heiferman founded his first startup, an ad tech company called i-traffic, in 2004. Five years later he sold it to Agency.com. And Heiferman had what many early stage entrepreneurs with an exit face – a bit of an existential crisis. Heiferman told Chris Dixon of Techcrunch he “went a little bit crazy not knowing what I wanted to do with my life.” Heiferman tried a bunch of things, worked at McDonald’s, and then did a startup called RocketBoard that he describes as a “colossal failure.”

Shutterstock

It was then Heiferman got some advice that has driven Meetup.com since it’s founding —to create products to help the greater good of society.

Heiferman was living in lower Manhattan and watched the terrible attacks and aftermath of 9/11. It was in the shadow of 9/11 that he understood the power of person to person connections.

“I never thought I was interested in community,” Heiferman told the Observer. “But that experience led me to the basic questions of ‘What brings people together? What gets them to talk to each other? How do people form powerful groups that can do good things?’”

Meetup now has over 30 million members who are part of 250,000 different groups. And while Meetup’s roots may be in 9/11, and had an early base of political users like Howard Dean supporters, the bulk of the growth in Meetup has been far from political. People run marathons, connecting via running Meetups. They gather at writing Meetups. Meetup facilitates face-to-face human connection. (Disclosure, I’m a Meetup organizer, and run a Meetup in New York called the NY Video Meetup.)

But until February 6th, 2017, Meetup was a platform for individuals and groups to facilitate their passions. “We’ve never taken a partisan stand,” Meetup wrote in a heartfelt post to its users on Medium.

“For almost 15 years, Meetup has served as an organizing platform for a wide range of political parties and movements, welcoming everyone from the Howard Deaniacs to the Tea Party. ‘We’re vital plumbing for democracy,’ we always said. Before today, our company had never taken a partisan stance. It’s not a decision we take lightly.”

But the NY tech company today finds itself facing a crisis that it is uniquely suited to address.

“We are Meetup, dammit! We needed to act” wrote Meetup. “After Donald Trump’s order to block people on the basis of nationality and religion, a line had been crossed.”

So Heiferman and his team literally stopped Meetup in its tracks – paused operations – to gather for a hackathon. The effort resulted in 1,000 new Meetup Groups under the hashtag #Resist. It announced the new groups to their 30 million members. And it partnered with organizations including Planned Parenthood, the Anti-Defamation League, Amnesty International, the Human Rights Campaign, the Women’s March, and many others who are contributing to a library of ideas for making change.

Meetup #Resist / Courtesy Meetup.com

The decision for Meetup to take a stand doesn’t come without risks. Without a doubt, some people in Meetup’s current user base are supporters of the current administration and its actions. The comment’s on the Medium post include things like this – “Liberally Lisa: Bravo! Thank you Meetup!” But there are a number of less positive responses. “Lorene Evans: Why the name Resist? This makes me want to close my Meetup Group.” And this: “Kendra Pearsall: Dear Meetup, I’m not a big fan of you organizing your Resist movement to push the Progressive Propaganda. You’re alienating all your Conservative members by getting ppl to protest real progress in this country.”

No doubt taking a stand isn’t a decision that Heiferman or his team takes lightly. “At a time when core democratic ideals felt under attack, We felt a duty to spark more activity and broaden civic participation” posted Meetup. And at 30 million members strong – it’s a decision that is certain to spark action, and some controversy.

Tech Leaders Wake Up To Trump Administration Challenges

Steven Rosenbaum — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 19:11:00 GMT

After two weeks of executive orders, tantrum tweets and cabinet challenges, the leaders of the tech community found themselves facing a ban on travel from seven primarily Muslim countries that struck at the heart of their employees.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote on Facebook:

“Trump’s actions are hurting Netflix employees around the world, and are so un-American it pains us all. Worse, these actions will make America less safe (through hatred and loss of allies) rather than more safe. A very sad week, and more to come with the lives of over 600,000 Dreamers here in [an] America under imminent threat. It is time to link arms together to protect American values of freedom and opportunity.”

A strong statement, but he’s hardly alone.

Protestors rally during a demonstration against the new immigration ban issued by President Donald Trump at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote “As an immigrant and as a CEO, I’ve both experienced and seen the positive impact that immigration has on our company, for the country and for the world. We will continue to advocate on this important topic.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg added his voice, saying “Like many of you, I’m concerned about the impact of the recent executive orders signed by President Trump. We need to keep this country safe, but we should do that by focusing on people who actually pose a threat. We should also keep our doors open to refugees and those who need help.”

The list of tech leaders who’ve spoken out against the Muslim ban reads like a who’s who of technology. Uber, Amazon, Apple, Google, AOL, Expedia and Slack CEO’s have all come out and taken a stand.

The president’s stances immigration reads like a direct attack on engineers who make up the tech workforce.

Within the tech community, there is a movement to fund an organization to connect political organizers and support democratic candidates for the 2018 midterm and 2020 presidential elections.

Politico reports that there is a new organization – called WTF (Win the Future) with CEO’s including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, and former Sierra Club President Adam Werbach and others.

“When we gathered a couple of weeks ago for dinner, Trump had not yet assumed the presidency,” Werbach wrote in a Jan. 29 email to participants obtained by Politico. “At the time, some pundits were saying that we should calm down and wait to see what happens.”

“The first weeks of the Trump presidency have confirmed our fears,” he continued. “This list is long: banning Muslims from 7 countries, green lighting the keystone and Dakota access pipeline, defunding affordable healthcare, removing all mention of climate change from the White House website. He’s moving quickly, and we need to move quickly as well.”

And a growing list of New York tech CEOs have signed a letter to president Trump that reads in part:

“America has long provided homes and futures to millions who dared to share in our collective dream. There is nowhere this is more true than New York City—home to Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and more foreign-born immigrants than any other city in the world. Your executive orders suspending entry for citizens of certain countries, even those who currently have legal status, along with limiting the refugee program, threaten those immigrants who are our current and future neighbors, friends, colleagues, customers, and even bosses. Their presence is a crucial ingredient that sets New York City apart and a fundamental reason why we have all chosen to build our careers and companies here.”

Techcrunch reported that Tech:NYC executive director Julie Samuels said: “in New York, we’ve seen it up close for centuries: immigrants who bring their skills and their dreams to this country make it a stronger and richer place.”

More than 2000 CEO’s had signed the letter when it was sent to the White House, and the letter’s signatory list continues to grow.

Maria Yuan Wants Voters Empowered Year-Round

Steven Rosenbaum — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 20:34:00 GMT

When you talk with entrepreneurs, you often find that they are drawn to solve a problem that has impacted them directly. Maria Yuan is the perfect example of this sort of solution-oriented entrepreneur.

Yuan says she remembers being in second grade and going to participate in mock voting. She grew up being told by her parents that voting was an important civic responsibility.

In college at the University of Texas she was part of a small group of students who lobbied the Texas legislature to introduce and pass a bill creating the first student seat on the University of Texas System’s Board of Regents. It was working for a state representative in Texas where she says she “saw first-hand that that Representatives really do track every constituent contact, yet such a small percentage of us actually reach out.”

She was on the campaign trail, working in Iowa on an open seat race in a swing district that she got the idea for a software solution to a real world problem.

“I distinctly remember sitting in the office on my laptop and thinking, “There’s so much focus on elections, but there should be an easy way to track what our reps are doing throughout the year when the work that impacts our lives gets done.”

So, her vision came true with a website she’s just launched called Issue Voter.

(Credit: Courtesy of IssueVoter)

“When I first envisioned IssueVoter, I thought, ‘Someday technology will get there. Someone will create this, and I will be able to use it!’ Fast forward, and years later it was still hard to research and understand legislation and contact elected officials.”

Says Yuan: “There has to be a tech solution for civic engagement to be accessible and efficient. A legislative correspondent cannot possibly speak to every concerned constituent – there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. We are learning more and more that petitions don’t work, and that ‘How to contact Congress’ is what’s wrong with Congress.”

So Yuan created IssueVoter. IssueVoter is a non-partisan platform that aims to give voters a voice by making civic engagement accessible and efficient. IssueVoter helps users make their voice heard in Washington and then tracks how elected officials vote. The idea is to hold politicians accountable in a more granular way.

The mechanics of IssueVoter are deceptively simple.

1. Users sign up and receive targeted alerts before Congress votes on issues you care about – IssueVoter summarizes bills and offers pros, cons, and related news for context.
2. Then voters can make their voice count by sending their opinion directly to their rep – with the click of a mouse.
3. The idea is that politicians are kept accountable: Track your rep’s votes and bill outcomes – helping you make an informed decision at election time.

IssueVoter was slated to launch on November 9th, 2016, the day after the presidential election. Yuan says before the election, people would say to her, “You must be so busy preparing for the election.” But in reality, she knew that IssueVoter would be relevant after the election, helping millions of voters answer the question, “The Election is over… now what?” Says Yuan “No matter the candidate who won, we would still be answering that question because it’s the time between elections is when the work that impacts our lives gets done – and IssueVoter gives its users a say year-round.”

Yuan says she works hard to be non-partisan, and to find an important underserved middle ground.

“Being non-partisan is important to me personally for so many reasons, including: I don’t agree 100% with either party, and so many people are in this camp. There are already hundreds of arenas for partisan politics both online and offline. With the far left and far right often being the loudest voices, the moderate majority’s voices aren’t being heard.”

“I often get the question, “How do we know your bill summaries aren’t biased?” And I remind people that every bill is inherently biased – it’s introduced by a Democrat or Republican who believes the proposed law is a good one. We summarize what the bill proposes to do. Also, we provide what the proponents and opponents are saying for each bill summary.”

So, how does Yuan measure success, and will IssueVoter succeed?

“Ultimately, we want to give everyone a voice in our democracy and have elected officials who are truly representing their constituents. It’s frustrating to me that there are some issues that over 80% of Americans support, yet no legislation representing that majority has passed.”

It’s an admirable goal, turning the public’s electoral interests into actions. One that she recognizes won’t happen overnight.

“I recognize that the ultimate goal for IssueVoter isn’t achievable for many years, maybe even decades, so in the meantime, we’ll measure engagement, like the number of opinions sent to Congress and whether reps are voting with those opinions.”

Trump Fires Up Civic Tech Startups

Steven Rosenbaum — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 19:05:00 GMT

The relationship between technology and politics has always been a somewhat uneasy one. At least, that’s how it used to be, but the 2016 Presidential election appeared to have woken a sleeping giant and energized the entire civic tech category. Now, there are a growing number of startups working to solve problems that can energize and activate voters, unleash the power of small-dollar donors, and reinvent the way lobbying and local civic engagement works. Two startups that are embracing this newfound engagement represent the tip of the growing civic tech moment.

Ben Yee and Matt Casey are two founders building new businesses around what they perceive as critical unmet needs.

Matt Casey describes his startup Act On This as a political action cheat sheet. He and his partner were hands on, working with the Sanders Campaign through the summer. Was he caught off guard by the election? “We were fortunate to be traveling throughout the summer, so Trump’s win didn’t come as a complete surprise,” says Casey. “Many of the people we ran into, including Democrats, felt deeply frustrated with the political establishment. They had lost trust in their reps, the political process, the media, and felt powerless against ‘the establishment.’”

“Technology, of course, played a role; it has since the television camera lost Nixon his first election. What’s new this time is the way people consume information and the way the media now plays to it. Click bait spreads fast in social networks and brings in ad dollars to media outlets” explains Casey. “But the positive possibilities of technology were there, too! Bernie Sanders received more individual contributions than anyone else running for the presidency, ever. Social networks, automation, et al. have reshaped our society, and with that comes some responsibility. Silicon Valley is making the world a different place, but we need to make sure those changes are for the better.”

So, Act On This is a response to the election. “Our main goal is empowering civic action. The vast majority of people want to engage and make a difference, but they don’t know how. Even something as simple as calling your representatives can be an opaque and confusing process if you’re not plugged into activist/political circles. We want people to understand that they can make a difference within the political process,” explains Casey.

Act On This is partnering with national nonprofits to enable their state-level organizers, and while Casey cares about the business, right now the focus is driven by activism. “We’ve gotten this far on our passion, sweat, and skills. We’re blessed with a team of volunteers that includes developers, designers, marketing professionals, and a lawyer, so our costs are minimal,” says Casey. For Casey and his partner Christine Miao, success is about getting people engaged in politics. “If we can get enough people engaged and informed, policy changes will follow.”

If Act On This is focused on empowering activism, then ShiftSpark, kind of like Kickstarter for individual lobbying dollars, aims to re-invent how lobbying dollars are collected, directed and measured. Ben Yee was a Digital Director for Barack Obama during the 2008 general election, and while he worked with high-dollar donors, he found himself frustrated that he couldn’t get state and local politicians engaged in an issue he cared deeply about: hydrofracking. His ah-ha moment came when he put the pieces together and invented ShiftSpark.

Ben explains, “ShiftSpark is the lobbyist for the people. It works for anyone who’s ready to invest in change. We take pledges to donate if a problem gets fixed. If it does, those pledges can become contributions. If it doesn’t, people get their money back.”

His passion to change politics is expansive. “By working together, Americans could quickly take back our elections from wealthy interests and outclass any billionaire attempting to take on the public,” says Yee.

Because politicians need to be both effective and efficient with fundraising, though, they are compelled to grant access and attention where it’s easiest to get money. This means focusing on larger donations. ShiftSpark aims to turn that on its head. By making it much more efficient to organize communities of real people, that gives those people real influence in politics.

If Yee can turn passions into targeted results oriented donations, the change could be a game-changer. For example, Presidential elections now cost almost two billion dollars. In contrast, American consumers spend about $6.5B celebrating Halloween. “If every person who actually walked to the polls and voted for Barack Obama in 2012 had contributed $15,” says Yee, “it would have funded his entire campaign.”

For both Yee and Casey, it comes down to one thing: using tech to power change. “What’s broken is that people do not understand how politics really works. We don’t teach civics in schools anymore and political parties, especially the Democrats, are no longer focused on actually engaging voters,” says Yee. Ironically, the problem may have been self-inflicted, he says. “The Democrats have invested heavily in data-driven, sanitizing technology which centralizes power in gatekeepers.”

So, in the era of the Twitter-powered President, grassroots activists have work to do.

Says Yee: “Donald Trump’s Twitter exemplifies the sort of dirty, direct connection that the technology to win elections must incorporate. Democrats have built wonderful one-way channels. But any important political tech will be a two-way channel.” And Casey agrees, it’s more than just trying to stop the new tech-enabled voices of the opposition. “Let’s not just stamp out fake news, let’s amplify grassroots enablement.”

CES 2017: Screens, Drones And VR On The Horizon

Steven Rosenbaum — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 18:30:00 GMT

Every year, throngs of industry insiders swarm Las Vegas to explore the future of consumer electronics at the annual CES show.

After almost a decade of attending the largest electronics trade show, I’ve developed a pretty good track record of being able to tell the hype from the real growing buzz. So this year, there’s real change on the horizon — a change that’s bound to find its way into your living room, driveway and even pocket in the year ahead.

Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Automotive: CES is now so auto-centric that insiders now call it the “Car Electronics Show.” And one thing is certain: in 2017 Self-driving cars will be everywhere. With news from players including BMW, Ford, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, Nissan and Hyundai, there will be a flood of new driverless information coming out of CES. Uber has self-driving cars already on the road, and Apple and Google are in the race as well. As more vehicles have cellular data connections, expect to see more gadgets and software tied to the connected car.

Drones: Chinese drone-maker DJI is zooming ahead of the pack right now, but the drone space is expanding, and the uses of drones is growing as well. From criminal observation to high-speed racing, to drone package delivery, to drones for industrial and farming use — drones of all shapes and sizes will be on display. At last year’s CES keynote, Intel demoed its new Aero line of drones. Today, those Aero drones are being used at Disney World to light the night sky. Expect drone’s growth in entertainment and cinematography to be very much on display.

Virtual And Augmented Reality: In 2016, I thought the cool stuff on the show floor would be front and center at the Christmas selling season. Turns out: not so much. Yes, Samsung sold a bunch of its $99 low-end goggles, but the high-end devices didn’t quite catch fire. So this year, the hype may be down a bit. Oculus isn’t going to be on the show floor. HTC is going to be there, but it’s unclear when the Vive headset will be updated or if there will be new product announcements at CES. Augmented reality could jump ahead this year, with Microsoft HoloLens and Meta’s augmented reality lenses making noise, though Magic Leap remains elusive.

Voice Assistants: Amazon Echo is the early leader in the Voice Assistant category, but Apple’s Siri and Google Home are working hard to get ahead. Apple and Google don’t exhibit at CES (go figure?), but Samsung is a big CES exhibitor, and they certainly will be showing off home automation and smart home tech. Will this be the year of the long but evasive promises about the connected kitchen? We shall see.

Strange Stuff: There will be plenty of big companies and big announcements at CES, but some of the most interesting and unusual things will happen around the edges. For example, Grush, a new Smart Toothbrush. Visitors will be able to experience the gaming toothbrush, a smart sonic toothbrush targeted for children 3-7 years of age. Yup, a gaming toothbrush.

Then there’s the Drone Rodeo, billed as the “premier drone industry event at CES.” The Drone Rodeo brings media together with drone manufacturers, race pilots and accessory makers to fly drones in their natural habitat: wide open spaces. “Flying inside a cage at the convention center doesn’t show off the true power of a drone, and air space around the convention center is restricted,” says Matt Sloane, CEO of Atlanta Drone Group, and executive producer of The Drone Rodeo. This year’s Rodeo takes place at The Aerodrome, the world’s first commercial droneport located in Boulder City, just outside the restricted airspace around Las Vegas. Free shuttle buses will be provided.

Finally, what CES would be complete without an offering in toilet tech? TOTO continues to take technology in the bathroom to new levels with their leading innovative product design, including a smart toilet that cleans itself using Actlight Cleansing Technology, water saving innovations such as the Aero Showerhead and proprietary high-efficiency tornado dual-flush system and an environmentally friendly design that eliminates paper and chemical waste. How, might you ask? Well, for the answer, you’ll need to visit TOTO at CES in Las Vegas.

Inaction On Immigration Is Economic Masochism

Terry Howerton — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 17:46:00 GMT

[tweet_quote display=”Pushing away the brightest, most motivated immigrant minds to compete against us is self-sabotage of the first order.”]Pushing away the brightest, most motivated immigrant minds to compete against us is self-sabotage of the first order.[/tweet_quote]

American immigration policy, long stalled by the leadership in the House, is driving an economic crisis of our own making. It’s hampering our ability to compete on the global stage. Official policy attracts high-skilled immigrant talent to our universities, only to push them back to their countries of origin once they are ready to work… countries that are rapidly catching up to the American innovation machine.

I grew up in a small town in the middle of the country where I can’t recall many foreign born neighbors. I didn’t spend much time thinking about immigration. Heck, my 10th generation grandparents were original settlers at Jamestown. That great-grandmother later married the same man who had married Pocahontas. How I became an immigration reform advocate — speaking, writing and agitating on the issue — may not be obvious. But I’m certainly no more “American” than the newest citizen immigrating to our country.

I’ve spent a career building, funding and working with tech companies, an industry fueled by — and largely dependent on — engineering and entrepreneurial talent migrating to this country. I married a naturalized citizen who came here for college. By circumstance of life, on two different occasions we’ve taken into our home two different undocumented, immigrant children — school friends of our own kids — in need of care. In addition to raising them, we’re helping them navigate a complex immigration system antithetical to the American history lessons they’re taught in school.

I helped start an inner city high school in Chicago deeply immersed in tech skills and lessons of entrepreneurship, only to later discover a significant percentage of kids in that school — and across the school system — were undocumented immigrants with no clear path to becoming the professional we are preparing them to be.

I’ve seen the impact of bad immigration policy up close and personal. I’ve also seen the value and importance of legal immigration to my family and my work. For me, it’s a clear moral and social priority for our country.

But it’s also an economic priority and rising crisis for America. Lack of action by Congress threatens our global competitiveness, and compromises our ability to grow new jobs here at home.

The immigrant entrepreneur is steeped in American history, and a major force driving the growth of our economy in recent decades. The debate too often claims immigrants “take jobs away from Americans”, but rarely acknowledges immigrant “job creators”. In 2014, 28.5% of all new entrepreneurs in the United States were immigrants.

How North Dakota’s Richest Man Is Building His Second $1 Billion Empire — At 69

Carol Tice — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 10:00:00 GMT

Even for a former gym teacher from Dazey, N.D. (pop. 100, give or take), 69-year-old hotel magnate and billionaire Gary Tharaldson is pretty unpretentious.

Tell the richest man in the state that you’re flying in to visit him at his Fargo headquarters and he’ll offer to fetch you himself, rolling up in his red Cadillac crossover and wearing his everyday work uniform of shorts and a sport shirt. Cruising along one of Fargo’s main drags, he’ll frown at all of the undeveloped land–potential competition for the existing hotels (even though they aren’t his).

“He’s beyond down-to-earth–he’s almost subterranean,” says Bruce White, a successful Marriott franchisee who has known Tharaldson since they both started in the hotel business in the early 1980s.

Tharaldson is a driven, shrewd cost-cutter. In March 2006 he sold a portfolio of 130 hotels in a variety of chains to Goldman Sachs for $1.2 billion. Six months later he sold the Westward Ho Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, which he’d owned for only a few months, to Harrah’s at a profit of $109 million.

“Real estate was going crazy in Las Vegas back then,” he says.

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Not long after, it cratered. Those sales capped an empire-building effort that began in 1982 when Tharaldson bought a Super 8 motel in Valley City, N.D. He added other low-end hotels and then moved into “limited service” business-suite hotels (no room service, no restaurants), eventually operating more than 350 across the country.

Almost immediately after his massive windfall–with only a brief time-out to head to the 2006 NCAA men’s basketball final in Indianapolis–Tharaldson, then 60, started on his next act.

“I wondered what I’d do with the money and if it would change me,” he recalls. In his Fargo office, looking over projections for his current enterprises, he says, “I think it didn’t.”

This time out he is placing big bets on natural resources: ethanol, raw land and water. It adds up to an estimated personal fortune of $930 million. The plan is to build his current holdings into an additional $1 billion portfolio over the next five years, while his 18-year-old son from his second marriage, Gary II, the one of his seven children he considers most likely to succeed him, gets an education.

When Tharaldson got started in the early ’80s, he was an ambitious working-class guy who’d figured out that the only way to get ahead was to own assets rather than look for a big paycheck. His style has always been to set huge goals and then try to exceed them, once telling an interviewer, “From my youth I always wanted to create something on a big scale. I wasn’t sure what that would be, but I knew whatever it was it was going to be big.”

My Real-Life Shark Tank: Tips For Winning Startup Pitches

Victor W. Hwang — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 17:59:00 GMT

I’ve done lots of startup pitch events in my career. But nothing prepared me for what happened a couple months ago. That’s when I lived my own real “Shark Tank.”

Once upon a time, pitch events were a pretty obscure activity. But in recent years, they’ve been popularized on the TV show Shark Tank. That’s where startups present their business ideas to a panel of sharky (and usually snarky) judges. In the past, I’ve usually been on the judging side, as an investor or mentor. For instance, I was a panel moderator for the World Cup Tech Challenge startup competition hosted by SVForum last month. [Disclosure: I’m a board member.]

A couple months ago, however, I found myself getting dunked in the ultimate “shark tank,” pitching my own startup in front of tens of thousands of viewers and a panel of high-powered judges. I had the amazing opportunity to pitch my water technology company, Liquidity, at TechCrunch Disrupt, arguably the hottest startup competition in the world today. It’s the same competition that the characters in the HBO television series Silicon Valley battled in.

And just as in the TV show, we actually won! [SPOILER ALERT] Fortunately, I didn’t have to get punched in the face by one of the judges to win, unlike our fictional counterparts.

NEW YORK, NY – MAY 06: CEO & Co-founder of Liquidity, Victor Hwang (L) and Commercial Director at Liquidity, Elliott Gansner win the TechCrunch Disrupt 2015 ‘Startup Battlefield’ during TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2015 – Day 3 at The Manhattan Center. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch)

It was an intense experience. So I wanted offer some tips on how to succeed at startup pitches. But given my experiences on both sides—as judge and entrepreneur—I thought I’d provide suggestions from opposite perspectives of the shark’s jaws. So here are my tips, both for startups and for judges.

Tips for Startups

Bring it alive.   Don’t just talk. Show. Do. Stick your neck out. The TechCrunch folks encouraged us in the same way, and we took their advice. On stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, I gave a live demonstration of our water filtration product—by drinking water straight from a pond in Central Park. That act, and the confidence it demonstrates in our own product, made a real impression.

Connect story and substance. Tell an exciting story, but tie it to the key differentiated details of the product and the company. Most startup pitches usually focus on one or the other. But you’ve got to do both. Telling a great story sounds inspiring, but if it isn’t backed up by substance, it appears hollow inside. Great technology can also be exciting, but if it doesn’t connect on a human scale to real people, then it doesn’t motivate people to engage. When telling a story, consider the model of the hero’s journey for your startup pitch. Here’s a diagram based on the ideas of mythologist Joseph Campbell. My presentation for Liquidity followed a basic human archetype for storytelling—status quo, challenge, solution, shared learnings—as a framework for how people learn together.

Practice, practice, practice. No one is an awesome speaker right out of the gate. Even Steve Jobs wasn’t. It takes work. Jobs rehearsed his speeches relentlessly, over and over again. Yet recall how natural he appears. It’s a paradox: the more you practice, the more you look natural. We practice in order to improvise. Channel your nervous energy. Get lots of feedback from colleagues. I rehearsed my talk over a hundred times, several times in front of my startup colleagues. They gave me the toughest and most detailed feedback, because how well I did mattered to them.

Smile. This one is hard. You’re standing in front of a live audience, exposing yourself to brutal judgment. It’s not just your company on the line. It’s your reputation, the validation of years of your life, maybe your bank account at risk. And you need to smile. Remember Steve Jobs again. When he talked on stage about Apple’s bold products, he looked like he was having a great time, even when he put it all on the line. That is not a natural act. You have to work at it. Remember to smile.

Keep it simple. You know your own company too well. Others know next to nothing about it. It’s really hard to boil it down to the simple elements again. People don’t have the attention span to listen to your jargon and untangle complex diagrams. All stories are simplifications of reality. Although you might feel you’re not doing justice to your company by making things so simple, you’ve got to be comfortable with that. Liquidity is based on over 15 years of fundamental scientific research, but my presentation at TechCrunch Disrupt made the science easy for beginners.

Tips for Judges

Judges at startup pitch competitions have mixed motives. One on hand, they love startup companies, and they want to help them succeed by providing useful advice. On the other hand, they want to build their personal reputations as experts in their field, find top investment opportunities, and attract better deal flow by being publicly visible. So how does a judge balance these needs, and do a great job?

Be nice. It’s nerve wracking for entrepreneurs to pitch their startups. There’s no reason not to be gracious and civil. How you conduct yourself as a judge will affect how entrepreneurs think of you in the future. I’ve seen too many judges try to “go for the jugular” and humiliate a startup, as if that somehow makes the judge look better. Don’t do that. It makes the judge look worse than the startup. Real life is not a TV show. You want to attract great startups, not repulse them.

Appreciate the constraints. There’s not nearly enough time for a startup to talk about everything in a few minutes. I’ve seen many judges fault startups for not addressing every possible question in a time-constrained format. Experienced judges know that entrepreneurs have to make trade-offs to squeeze their company into a short pitch. Remember that for every idea you think they should have added, they would have to take something else out.

It’s not about you. Many judges use pitch competitions as an opportunity for personal grandstanding. This does not work well in real life, unless you’re in the entertainment business. The focus should be on the startups. If you want to build a reputation for being a great supporter and wise mentor for the best entrepreneurs, don’t overplay your moment in the spotlight. The most successful judges are able to look great effortlessly by giving smart advice and projecting a quiet confidence that screams.

Your comment is probably not that brilliant. Startup entrepreneurs live and breathe their companies every minute. So unless they are just starting out, they’ve probably heard it all before, the doubts, the criticisms, the challenges. So it’s unlikely that a judge, after hearing a six-minute pitch, can come up with something new and brilliant. That’s fine, really. Just don’t delude yourself into thinking you’re being Einstein. You’ll go much further that way. The really good insights usually happen later, in a deeper discussion.

Be helpful. The best comments from judges are those that leave a startup in a better place than they were before. It could be a useful insight, a new connection, a piece of valuable data, or a source of capital. That’s how you build your reputation as a great judge, one that provides value, not just extracts energy. Do that, and you’ll build a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem around yourself.

Victor W. Hwang is CEO of Liquidity, a startup company with technology that makes water safe to drink effortlessly. Its first product, a portable water bottle called Naked Filter, launches soon.

Strip Mall Spa: How Massage Envy Created — And Dominated — A New Franchise Niche

Carol Tice — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 13:45:00 GMT

For years Rick Davis was a tech executive who helped raise millions of dollars in venture capital. Then he decided to try a different kind of investment. In 2004 he considered buying a fast-food franchise before choosing an alternative: the massage-and-facial franchise chain Massage Envy. In fast food, Davis reasoned, you never know how many customers will walk in the door, but Massage Envy sells one-year memberships for $59.99 to $79.99 a month, which means recurring revenue.

Today Davis owns five Massage Envy clinics in the Seattle area and says 70% of his revenue comes from those membership fees. “I’ve raised big money in Silicon Valley,” says Davis, 59, who went to high school with Steve Jobs and was employee No. 10 at Apple spinoff Claris, “but this is the most successful and fun business venture I’ve ever been in.”

Over the past 13 years Massage Envy’s affordable-membership model has propelled the chain and its eye-catching purple-logoed storefront spas to more than 1,000 locations in 49 states. It’s the nation’s largest employer of massage therapists–more than 22,000–and has topped $1.2 billion in annual systemwide sales, averaging out to $1.2 million in annual revenue for each spa. The chain has a nearly 50% share of the franchised day-spa market, according to a December study by research firm IBISWorld, and it is adding 100 more locations this year. Its largest competitor, Hand and Stone, has 215 locations altogether.

In some ways Massage Envy’s biggest challenges now involve overcoming its own success: For one, it has gotten a lot harder to find qualified massage therapists–its growth has coincided with a decline in massage-school enrollments. More important, the chain is besieged by a slew of fresh competitors.

Massage Envy Spas has grown into the biggest massage franchise, but several competitors have major expansion plans. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The company’s cofounders, massage therapist Shawn Haycock and entrepreneur John Leonesio, and its current president, Dave Crisalli, met back in the ’90s through a national fitness chain. After the chain was sold in 1999, Leonesio and Haycock decided to try bringing the fitness industry’s membership model to massage. Back then most massages took place at pricey spas, in a medical office or in a therapist’s spare bedroom. The founders’ vision was to offer affordable massage at convenient mini-spas that would stay open nights and weekends. The name was inspired by a business Haycock admired called Hair NV.

Finding a first location wasn’t easy, given the reputation of massage parlors as sleazy places that traded in sexual favors. In fact, many commercial leases prohibited the operation of massage businesses, so the duo sneaked their first unit into a strip mall on a sublease. Finding therapists to staff the store, however, was easy. “We’d put out one small want ad and get 25 résumés,” says Haycock.

Interest from would-be franchise owners was immediate, Haycock says, and within a year they were signing up regional developers to recruit franchise owners to open and operate clinics in their territories. In 2008 Massage Envy was sold to a conglomerate based in India, which in turn sold to a New York City-based private equity firm, Sentinel Capital Partners, in late 2009. Leonesio, a serial entrepreneur, says he was happy to move on to his next ventures, including a growing chiropractic franchise, The Joint, where he was CEO. Haycock is a business consultant who still owns two Massage Envy locations in Utah.

Slack’s Great, But Remember To Talk To People Too

Scott Allison — Mon, 11 May 2015 10:00:00 GMT

Slack is awesome, and it’s growing at an incredible rate. Their timing has been perfect! Instant Messaging (IM) in the workplace is really gaining momentum now, possibly because this year – 2015 – is the year where there is an equal number of Gen X and Gen Y employees in the workforce. Up till now, the Gen X’ers were the majority, and now that’s changed, the millennials with their emojis, snapchats and SMS will be the majority!

I think Slack and it’s older cousin HipChat are great tools. Even email is a brilliant tool, if used well. But I’ve noticed over the last few years more and more people having conversations digitally that would be far far better held in person, or at least by phone or Skype. I’ve been using IM in the workplace for over 15 years, and I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t.

When there’s too many back-and-forths, or the context isn’t clear, or you just need to have a discussion, pick up the phone! You’ll be amazed how effective it is. It’s like the difference between watching Avatar in black and white on a small tv screen, to watching it in full colour, 3D, at an IMAX cinema.

Electronic communications is great for functional stuff:

“Hey, where are we on the delivery of project X?”

“Where can I find the draft of the new blog post?”

“Does our product support this use case?”

But if you sense that your not on the same page with a colleague, instead of send another 100 messages back and forth, get on a call. You’ll quickly clear up and misunderstandings. If you’re negotiating something delicate like a sale, purchase, or even a job offer, get on the phone. The human touch will avoid things getting too personal, or going off track with incorrect assumptions on both sides.

Not convinced? Job interviews still largely happen in person, or at least over video. Why? Because you’re trying to get to know the person. You’re trying to have a conversation. You wouldn’t dream of doing an interview over IM, but so many tricky work related conversations happen on this medium, and it’s killing productivity and satisfaction. People fuming over some perceived “attitude” in an electronic message, or two people talking for half an hour at cross-purposes, before they realise the confusion.

The founders of a new product called Speak get this. It’s still an early product, but you can download it now in public beta. Tom Moor is one of the founders behind Speak and saw the need for better communication tools while working at Buffer. Buffer is a company known for it’s globally dispersed team and being great at communication. Having experienced the challenges first hand, Tom left to start Sqwiggle, a collaboration tool for remote teams that includes video as a big component. After learning from that, and seeing how tools like Slack have exploded, they saw the need for something complementary to enable these quick, unscheduled, conversations. They describe their new product like this: Speak helps remote teams improve collaboration by providing instant, push-to-talk communication.

You don’t need to use Speak to achieve this of course, but please, the next time you’re getting frustrated with an IM discussion, or shaking your head at an email, pick up a phone. Have a call, and see if it helps. I think you’ll be surprised.

Red Flags For Entrepreneurs Considering A Legal Cannabis Franchise

Carol Tice — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 13:30:00 GMT

It was only a matter of time before the emerging legal cannabis industry began using one of America’s most popular business methods for rapid growth — franchising. This startup sector is wide-open spaces right now, and full of interesting players looking to grow fast and establish a national brand name.

The quest to franchise a legal cannabis business is even the subject of an upcoming CNN reality-TV series, High Profits, about Breckenridge Cannabis Club in Colorado.

It makes sense that some cannabis businesses will try to grow via the franchise model, which allows them to expand using the franchise owners’ money, rather than corporate capital. This approach has been the fast-growth enabler for so many iconic American brands.

Franchising could seem like a natural step to take. Many entrepreneurs are anxious to get in on the ‘Green Rush‘ — and there’s obvious appeal to a done-for-you, turnkey system that would get you into legal weed, without learning to be a grower.

But with cannabis still not federally legal, and a patchwork of rapidly changing state regulations, this isn’t your typical franchise scenario. Would-be franchise owners should proceed with extreme caution.

Here are some of the potential stumbling blocks on the road to legal cannabis franchise success:

Legal cannabis franchise opportunities are emerging — but there are substantial risks. (Photo by Laura Lezza/Getty Images)

Sudden death risk. There’s an onerous warning in the federally required Franchise Disclosure Document of legal cannabis franchises. It cautions that while cannabis may be legal in the state where you operate, it is still federally illegal — and if they get in the mood, the Feds could pop in and shut you down. Operating a legal cannabis franchise is basically a dice-roll, notes New York franchise attorney Harold Kestenbaum. The business could suddenly go bust at any moment, your investment could be lost, and the franchisor won’t be able to protect you from that. “This is an area where nobody really knows the answer,” he says. “It’s clearly an issue.”

Evolving legal landscape. While marijuana advocates believe legalization will continue to spread and become federally legal as well, things could swing the other way. In 2016, it’s possible we’ll have a Republican president, or Congress’s makeup could change. Suddenly, we could see a more aggressive federal attitude toward busting legal-pot businesses in decriminalizing states, increasing the sudden-death risk. The states that have legalized medical and recreational pot could also vote to re-criminalize it, vaporizing the legal-cannabis market in their state overnight.

Newbie franchisors. Most cannabis businesses are startups themselves, and have no past franchise experience. For instance, pot-smoking cafe concept Cafe Serendipity has no corporate stores. Their first shop, opened last August, is operated by a licensee, and just three units are open so far. It’s highly preferable to have a franchisor that’s extensively road-tested their model, worked the bugs out, and built a support team to help their franchise owners — after all, that’s what you pay the franchise fee for. Here, you get a ground-floor opportunity, but with an unproven team. It could pay off big, but you could also find yourself floundering without a proven system or adequate support.

Skimpy profits. Cannabis may sound like a cash cow, but it’s often highly taxed. In Washington State, for instance, retailers face a 25-percent use tax that some retailers say is killing their businesses.

Fluctuating prices. This is an emerging legal industry, and it’s unclear where product prices will stabilize. More growers may pile in, causing a product glut and price crash that could hurt margins for a wide variety of cannabis business types.

Not really franchises. Some startup cannabis businesses are using the ‘business opportunity’ or licensing route, rather than franchising. They do this because it’s less regulated than franchising, or because it’s simply easier and faster to set up this structure. The licensing or business opportunity format may be less expensive in terms of up-front costs, but be even more wary. The ‘biz-opp’ space is full of dubious offers — you’ll want to do extensive due diligence.

For instance, Cafe Serendipity in Henderson, Nev., is currently offering a licensing arrangement to interested entrepreneurs, while the company completes its financials audit and goes through the franchise approval process, says senior national sales vice president Jimmy Moore. It costs $50,000 to license their products and format — plus a 6% royalty for existing dispensaries that want to convert to the Serendipity format, or and 10% royalty for ground-up new stores. In all, Moore says, the financial commitment to open a store runs $300,000-$400,000, depending on licensing costs in your locale.

Despite the startup nature of the model, Moore says interest is robust. “I’m on the phone from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. at night,” he says. “We have a lot of traction.”

The hybrid solution

One franchise idea has emerged that may offer the flexibility needed to survive the uncertain times ahead. Buy a franchise that has another business, where the legal-cannabis offering is a bolt-on feature. If you’re busted or laws change, you could potentially continue with the rest of the business and simply stop selling pot.

That’s the model offered by Palm Beach Vapors, a quit-smoking ‘vaping’ concept that recently added a medical marijuana package to its franchise offering, with attorney Kestenbaum’s help. If a franchisee got busted by the Feds, they could theoretically remove the cannabis aspect and continue with the tobacco side of the business.

Thus far, two Palm Beach franchisees have added the chain’s “M-System,” in California and Indiana, company spokeswoman Emily Cheng says. The system allows cannabis consumers to easily adjust the strength of their dose.

What do you think of legal cannabis franchising? Leave a comment and share your take on it.

Top 10 Secret Fears Of New Franchise Owners — What To Know Before You Buy

Carol Tice — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 17:56:00 GMT

What keeps would-be franchise owners up at night? Many put up a brave front, but beneath the enthusiasm to buy into a proven system often lurks deep-seated fears.

Recently, I received a spreadsheet of over 300 answers prospective franchise owners gave to the question: “What’s your biggest fear about franchising?” The answers came from a questionnaire sent out to prospects by Arizona-based senior-living advisory franchise CarePatrol.

The most common answers CarePatrol received form a useful checklist of questions to ponder and answers to seek for anyone considering buying a franchise:

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I’ll lose my investment — It’s not uncommon for franchisees to contemplate funding their franchise purchase out of their 401(k) retirement account, a high-risk gambit. For many, their initial investment is a substantial sum they couldn’t easily earn again, if they lost it. Ask yourself what you would do if this fails — where would that leave you economically? How would you recover?

I won’t make a profit, or profitability ramp will be too long — This in some ways can be worse than losing the business: You’re stuck toiling away in a franchise model that barely stays afloat, but doesn’t throw off enough cash to give you a meaningful income. Before it can become profitable, you may run out of money for operating cash. Ask hard questions about the ramp time — and ask existing and former franchisees, not just corporate.

I won’t get the support and training I need — Too many systems give franchise owners an initial week of training, but don’t offer much support after that. Make sure you know exactly what will happen if you run into trouble a month or six down the line. Most importantly, what is the franchisor’s game plan if you’re floundering?

I won’t get a good territory/location — Many owners have gotten into a franchise, only to find they’ve chosen a dog location, or their territory is soon full of new competitors, or even corporate stores.

The franchise offer is misleading or deceitful — The franchise industry continues to strive to improve its reputation, and the steady stream of lawsuits by existing franchisees who feel wronged doesn’t help. There’s no questions that a few franchises — especially new ones — may be doing a little creative accounting in their disclosure documents, in describing the results new owners can expect. Franchise shoppers are smart to vet carefully.

The market is already saturated — Are there 12 different pest-control or math-tutoring franchises currently operating in your proposed territory? Or are there three other franchisees in this same concept already operating within your major city? It’s really important to find out.

My skills and interests aren’t a fit for this business — This concern can be cured by shadowing a current owner for a day or two. You’ll figure out fast what you really do all day in that franchise model, and whether you’d enjoy that and it fits with your skill set.

The up-front cost is onerous — The cost of getting into franchising has skyrocketed in recent years, particularly in fast food. There are plenty of low-cost franchises out there, that you can operate from your kitchen table. If plunking down several hundred thousand dollars up-front sounds too risky or isn’t within your budget, you might want to check those out.

The “unknowns” — These can include economic change, regulatory change, changing market or competitive conditions, and changing rules at the franchisor. There’s not a lot that can be done about these, since we can’t tell the future. But it’s worth running some ‘what ifs’ on how this business would fare if the economy tanked or laws were amended. Franchise chains that have changed the rules in the past may well change them again in the future — ask around and find out how the concept has evolved over time.

Overwork and burnout — This is another concern where shadowing a current franchise owner can help you form a realistic picture of the necessary time commitment. Many aspiring franchisees imagine a turnkey business that will be an easy profit machine without their hands-on involvement — and a good many will learn, too late, that they are tragically mistaken.

This is also a solid list for franchisors looking to understand what reassurances would bring new owners on board, and the level of service and support they need to offer for franchise owners to be successful.

If a prospective franchise owner can get through all these concerns and feel confident about their answers, it’s probably a good fit and a good opportunity.

Are These $1 Billion Startups A Bad Bet? The 10 Most Capital Inefficient Unicorns

Carol Tice — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 17:26:00 GMT

We are living in an age of startups that grow big fast. But does that mean they’re truly worth the hype they’ve stirred up? Not always.

Last year there were 20 “unicorn” startups worth at least $1 billion, based on their valuation compared to the amount they’ve raised from investors. So far this year, more than ten additional companies have joined the unicorn club, including media company Shazam and IT-infrastructure startup Simplivity.

This week, analytics firm CB Insights put out an intriguing infographic in which they analyzed the most capital efficient unicorns. That is, the startups with the highest ratio of investment to current estimated valuation.

In other words, it appears the venture capital firms that bet on these beauties are going to reap a juicy return on their investment. Which they need, because usually, most of their investments won’t end up paying off. The Top 3 winners are Chinese tech-gadget startup Xiomi (31x valuation), med-tech firm Theranos (22.5x), and high-end gaming business Razer (20x).

This made me wonder — which are the most inefficient unicorns?

It turns out, not all unicorns are not skyrocketing in value. When you bet big on a fast-growing startup with a lot of buzz behind it, it could lead to a huge payday — or just be a big flop in the making.

For the other side of this coin, I asked CB Insights for their bottom ten, least capital-efficient unicorns among the current crop. They obliged with this list (fundraising figures from CrunchBase.):

10. Legendary Entertainment (3.3x) — TV, film, and comics are all risky endeavors, in which even the established studios see their fortunes fluctuate. So far, investors — who’ve put in $525 million — have seen Legendary’s value grow — but nowhere near the 10x minimum return many VCs like to see. It’s pushing more into digital, naming a new digital-business development head earlier this month, so that may help.

9. GrabTaxi (2.9x) — While $330 million might seem like a lot to give a southeast Asian taxi booking-via-smartphone platform, anything that smacks of Uber is hot right now. So far, this one’s got a long way to go to compare with Uber’s ratio of 8x+ or so. But the company began a trial run on a parcel-delivery service this week, which could diversify its offerings.

8. Lyft (2.9x) — Another entrant in the Uber derby, Lyft has raised over $862 million, most recently $300 million this month from Rakuten. Other brand-name investors here are Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz. Could this whole disaggregated-taxi sector be a bubble that pops the first time a passenger gets murdered by their driver, or might it sag under the cost of rising insurance requirements in many locales? It’s a worry. So is the crowded field.

7. Deem (2.8x) — Cloud/mobile commerce company Deem has raised over $516 million with its model of saving companies on travel and other expenses. Investors include American Express and Chase Capital. Cloud-based “commerce as a service” for the business crowd — could this become a sort of eBay for business services?

6. Tango (2.7x) — The free-call/message/gaming upstart has raised nearly $370 million, from Alibaba, Qualcomm Ventures, and other blue-chip names. Is it the next Skype, or an also-ran? We shall see.

5. Bloom Energy (2.5x) — With $1.1 billion raised, Bloom has customers for its fuel cells including Google and Apple, but may just be in too unsexy of a space to have garnered a sky-high valuation as yet. It probably hasn’t helped that company CEO KR Sridhar has been maddeningly vague in recent months about how the company is doing, and why last year’s buzz about an impending IPO didn’t pan out.

4. Good Technology (Visto) (1.9x) — So far, Visto, which operates its mobile-messaging and push-email services under the Good Technology name, has yet to deliver much good for the investors who’ve put in $156 million so far. VCs here include Draper Fisher Jurvetson. A deal announced today to add Good Technology to Microsoft’s CRM could provide a boost.

3. Snapdeal (1.9x) — It’s raised $1.1 billion and is the biggest online marketplace in India, but Delhi-based Snapdeal is in a niche with a low barrier to entry and a ton of global competitors. Investors along for this ride include Softbank and Intel Capital. Snapdeal recently said it would double its workforce to help drive growth.

2. Lazada (1.6x) — This 3-year-old, Kuala Lumpur-based online shopping mall is tops in five Asian countries, and has raised over $685 million. But it’ll need to sell a lot more computers and flat-screen TVs to give investors — which include UK supermarket giant Tesco — a decent return.

1. Delivery Hero (1.5x) — Not a hero so far for its investors, this Berlin-based global online food-delivery network competes with dozens of other startup ideas in the online-food-ordering space. In the past six weeks or so, Rocket Internet put in over $600 million of the $1.2 billion total raised.

Behind Seattle’s Franchise Battle: Why Patrons Don’t Care If Chains Die

Carol Tice — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 13:30:00 GMT

When is a franchise not a small business? When it’s in Seattle.

For those who haven’t been keeping up, the $15-an-hour minimum wage the city passed last summer is phasing in — and franchise businesses feel unfairly singled out. The law as written counts franchises as bigger businesses that have to pay the higher rate sooner, because of their connection to a national franchisor.

That flies in the face of all previous federal law regarding franchises, and the International Franchise Association sued over it. Their initial foray met with defeat this week, but IFA plans to appeal. If franchises have to pay higher wages sooner than their mom-and-pop competitors, it’s going to be hard for those national brands to survive in Seattle.

There’s been lots of coverage of this fracas, and what it means for labor, for franchise owners, for employment in the city of Seattle.

But there’s a bigger cultural issue that’s been overlooked: The franchise business model in Seattle is under attack — and franchise patrons don’t much care. The news that some of the national brand fast-food franchises that operate here — McDonald’s and Subway are both huge — might close many of their doors in the region has been met with a colossal yawn by the Seattle populace.

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Why Clean Water Is So Hard

Victor W. Hwang — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 10:25:00 GMT

Consider this. By the time you finish reading this column, people will publish worldwide over 1.75 million tweets of up to 140 characters. During the same time, eight people will have died due to lack of clean water. The former is a technological marvel. The latter is a stark reminder that, despite humanity’s stunning innovations, we still have not conquered some of our most basic challenges.

It’s a great mystery of our time. We can connect around the world with millions of strangers, sharing signals based on pinpoint beams of light oscillating over 1 trillion times per second. Yet we still can’t safely provide nearly a billion people with the basic stuff of life.

So why is clean water so hard? Given that the world invests billions of dollars into clean water, even fighting wars over it, why have we made so much technological progress in other realms but not so much in clean water?

I’ve been grappling with this issue for over 9 years. That’s when I happened to meet a couple scientists working on a new technology with the potential to dramatically lower the cost of purifying water. I bit the hook. Eventually, this pathway led to the founding of a startup, Liquidity Nanotech, that has created a product, Naked Filter, that is a personal water filter bottle that can instantly create bacteria-free drinking water anywhere. Building this company has been an epic journey – I’m its acting CEO — to say the least.

Given my experiences, I thought it would be useful to provide some personal reflections on why clean water is so hard. I’ve got almost a decade of battle scars to show for these learnings. But here they are for you, neatly packaged in a pithy numbered list…

1. Price. Good intentions sometimes lead to big problems. That’s the case in water. How so? The lack of efficient pricing in water has stifled innovation. Most people understandably view clean water as a basic right, rather than a market-driven product. As a result, many of us pay far less for water than it actually costs, at rates often subsidized by the state. While this might create a short-term benefit in creating more equitable sharing of water resources, it creates a long-term problem by discouraging new technologies from coming to market. Risk is not rewarded properly in the water business. With Liquidity, it became clear very fast that we could not easily build a business by selling to governments or municipalities as a main channel. So instead, we built a business focused on selling to consumers (and the OEMs that sell to consumers), where pricing incentives actually matter. The lesson: people pay more for water the closer the product gets to their lips.

2. Regulations. The regulatory landscape in the U.S. for drinking water is a confusing landscape of acronyms and numbers: EPA, WQA, NSF, ANSI, P231, etc. In addition, each governmental body in the world can have a different set of rules, whether it’s for a nation, state, city, or region. And many such rules and standards aren’t always grounded in reality—they often focus on theoretical worst-case scenarios, instead of practical day-to-day improvements for ordinary people. You would think that, with water as important as it is, these issues would be navigable with some basic inquiry on the web. The reality is that very few people understand these regulations well. Even the experts can get confused sometimes. At Liquidity, we had to bring aboard some highly experienced talent, people who knew these regulatory issues thoroughly. For other startups that can’t find this expertise, regulations can become an insurmountable barrier.

3. Consumer confusion. Water is a complicated subject, and consumers understandably get confused. People generally hold a few basic “truths” about water: germs are bad, chemicals are bad, and water should taste good. But there is much nuance that consumers don’t realize. For instance, did you know that the vast majority of filters sold in retail stores have zero impact on germs? Many people don’t realize what the filters they buy actually do. We have learned at Liquidity that we can educate consumers, and that they appreciate it when it’s done well. Chemistry and microbiology are not the easiest subjects in the world to explain, but we’ve discovered ways to do it. For instance, our Kickstarter page contains a lot of science, but we put it in a digestible format for ordinary people to understand. In short, respect your customer.

4. Too few entrepreneurs. The slow pace of innovation in water creates a negative feedback cycle. This happens because entrepreneurs learn best from other entrepreneurs—that’s why mentoring in the digital world is commonplace. However, in the water sector, there just aren’t that many entrepreneurs and innovators to learn from. Why? The water industry evolves slowly, which means that there are not many innovators who have succeeded in driving breakthroughs and can share lessons learned with others. In addition, professionals in the water sector tend to be more risk-averse than in other sectors, often for safety-related reasons. With Liquidity, we intentionally sought out some of the most successful entrepreneurs and innovators in the last half-century as part of our core team. Having the expertise of that “Dream Team” around has been invaluable.

5. Cross-sector collaboration. When I reflect on the vast diversity of talents required to launch Liquidity’s most recent product, my head wants to explode.   There’s a ton of knowledge involved, and you need a ton of really smart people working together to pull it off. Our team includes a diverse spectrum of scientists, engineers, businesspeople, policymakers, and capitalists. And on any given day, the fate of the entire company can rest on any given person. The challenge with diversity is that people speak different professional languages, they bring different assumptions, they work in different methods, they have different incentives, and they possess different attitudes to risk. This means that unpredictability, miscommunication, and friction are more likely. It’s hard for any team to innovate—it’s even harder when they’re tackling clean water.

6. Invisibility. It’s hard to remove what you can’t see. The things that are dangerous in water are too small for the visible eye. That makes clean water hard. In addition, water quality varies everywhere. For instance, the water you get from your faucet today is not the same as the water you’ll get tomorrow. Given the invisible nature of water contaminants, testing cycles are slow. For example, to do a full test of the entire process in the past at Liquidity, we had to boot up and run the manufacturing production line, create specialized test water recipes, run a given volume of water through the test, and then finally hire a laboratory to count germs manually, one at a time. And then do it all over again. When dealing with clean water, you need a healthy dose of discipline, planning, attention to detail, and perhaps most importantly, patience.

Clean water poses great challenges for the world. However, I believe those challenges can be overcome. The issues are largely systemic, which means you solve them by thinking about the whole system, not just its components. I hope some of these lessons that I learned the hard way can be useful to others seeking solutions.

Victor W. Hwang is Executive Chairman and Acting CEO of Liquidity Nanotech, a company that recently launched Naked Filter, a personal portable filter that makes drinkable water free of bacteria, free of bad taste, and free of hassle.

No Green Thumb? Your 7 Best Legal Cannabis Startup Opportunities

Carol Tice — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 14:05:00 GMT

Some may not like it, but legal cannabis is big business already — a $700 million business last year in Colorado alone, Viridian Capital & Research reports. With two more states legalizing in 2014, and an estimated seven to 13 additional states that will contemplate legalization this year, this is a market niche that’s set to take off.

Sure, there are risks galore. Viridian cites inexperienced management, lack of a federal banking green light, risk of legal prosecution, pricing pressure, and too much debt as problems that will likely cause an industry shakeout this year.

If you’re bold enough to jump into this emerging sector, but you don’t have a degree in horticulture and aren’t a biotech genius, how can you get a piece of the Green Rush? Growing and selling companies make up 27 percent of the publicly traded legal cannabis industry, Viridian reports — but that leaves plenty of room for other ideas.

Here are some of the hottest related industries that are ripe for startup innovation:

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1. Consulting. Could you help a pot business get set up, improve their marketing, manage their workforce, or help them design product packaging? There’s a wide range of consulting services needed in this nascent industry. For instance, the single best pot-stock performer of 2014, Novus Acquisition & Development, saw its stock rise over 1100% last year. The company provides risk-management consulting, and helps insurers develop healthcare plans that cover medical marijuana treatment.

2. Real estate. Pot businesses need somewhere secure to grow and store their wares, and retail spaces to sell in. And we’re not just talking fields for growing, either — publicly traded Grow Condos in Oregon operates condominium-style warehouse space for growers. Its stock was up nearly 35% last year.

3. Software. Attention, stoner coding geeks! Legal pot businesses are trying to professionalize, and they need a wide range of specialized software that meets their unique needs. One success story here is hot stock Singlepoint — up over 100% last year. The company provides mobile-pay solutions for the cannabis industry and others.

Turn Around Your Floundering Franchise: 7 Steps The Pros Take

Carol Tice — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 13:30:00 GMT

Many entrepreneurs start a business with dreams of growing it through franchising. But that doesn’t always work out so well.

Some startups rush into franchising before their model is nailed down, and others end up with weak franchise owners who don’t represent the brand well or don’t have the money to invest to make their location successful.

One thing’s for sure, though — once a franchise chain runs into trouble, it’s hard to turn it around. Harder than with a non-franchised business.

There are just so many moving parts to deal with. Corporate execs have to experiment and develop a new plan — fast — and then franchisees have to love it and want to execute on it.

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One team’s proven plan

Since 2007, one team of experienced franchise managers has built a track record of improved performance at five different franchise restaurant brands. Brix Holdings’ team is headed by John Antioco, who’s been CEO of Taco Bell and Circle K Convenience Stores, among others. Others on the team have experience from Starbucks, CVS, and 7-Eleven.

The predecessor company to Brix was formed to acquire next-wave yogurt chain Red Mango, when it had just seven stores. Now it has over 300, with plans for 15-20 more by year-end. In 2013, the team became Brix Holdings, and acquired RedBrick Pizza, Smoothie Factory, and Souper Salad. Its newest brand is 3-unit fresh-salad chain Greenz, out of Dallas.

Drinking While Painting: The Party Franchise Niche That’s Booming

Carol Tice — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 16:48:00 GMT

Are you looking to get out of Corporate America and into a job that’s less stressful and more fun?

There’s a franchise concept that’s exploding across the nation, in part because it offers owners just that opportunity — a chance to spend time in a fantastic work environment with a real party atmosphere. This business idea also feeds into Americans’ insatiable desire to find something different, affordable, and enjoyable to do with their friends, family, or co-workers.

What is this business? Welcome to the world of “paint ‘n’ sip” franchises.

Franchise owners in this niche organize alcohol-fueled painting parties. Working from an example canvas, party guests create their own version of the artwork on a canvas they get to take home as a souvenir, all while visiting with friends and enjoying a glass of wine or a craft beer. This isn’t like art class, and guests aren’t expected to be artistically savvy — it’s “fun art” you can bond over making, and then take home. And classes are affordable, around $30 or so per person.

How fast is the paint-and-drink phenomenon spreading? Here’s a look at four of the biggest franchise chains in the category, their business models, and their growth plans for this year:

Painting With a Twist

The oldest and biggest of the franchise chains, PWAT was founded by New Orleans moms Cathy Deano and Renee Maloney, who were looking for a way to escape the post-Hurricane Katrina blues. The chain now has 190 locations in 28 states, and expects to open more than 100 new painting-party studios this year. The growth isn’t all in new units, either — sales at stores open more than a year were up 37 percent in 2014, the company reports, as word of mouth brings in more customers and existing customers return for more parties.

The company’s instructors have created more than 5,000 copyrighted pieces for partygoers to riff on. Besides nighttime painting parties — which include a BYOB option — PWAT studios offer kids’ classes, weekday “coffee and canvas” groups for moms, and team-building corporate events.

It costs roughly $100,000 to open a franchise. The chain’s SEC disclosure documents show the median annual income for established stores is around $300,000.

Pinot’s Palette

Founded in 2009 by couple Beth and Charles Willis and Craig Ceccanti, Houston-based Pinot’s Palette began franchising in 2010. The chain has grown to 100 franchise locations in 31 states, with a big presence in California, Texas, and New Jersey. The chain expects to add 60 more units this year, says company marketing manager Jacqueline Deavenport. Customers range in age from 25-55, typically, and events include girls-night-out, kids’ Little Brushes art classes, and corporate events.

Pinot’s offers franchisees three different formats for the business — a BYOB model, a bar model, and a retail studio.

Pinot’s Palette is one of many “paint-n-sip” franchises that are expanding rapidly in 2015.

Costs to get into a Pinot’s franchise can range from $80,000-$170,000, depending on the format chosen and the cost of retail space in your market. In its disclosure documents, Pinot’s reports net income, rather than the gross income figures most franchisors state. Average net income for stores open more than a year was $268,000 in 2013. It’s notable that only 13 stores have been open that long — most of the chain’s growth came in the past 18 months or so.

What explains the explosive growth of this niche? Deavenport says, “Our candidates come from the corporate world, and have etensive marketing and management backgrounds. They want to do something for themselves, and something that’s fun. Your role is to have a party every night — and that’s attractive to people leaving the corporate sector. And everyone wants to do something new and fun, so for patrons, this is a little different.”

Why Legal Cannabis Is 2015’s Best Startup Opportunity

Carol Tice — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 00:34:00 GMT

Every entrepreneur dreams of discovering an untapped market where they could start with a low investment and build a huge business. If that’s you, consider the developing legal marijuana industry.

This sector is growing faster than ganja under grow lights.

The best part is, it’s early days for this — cough — budding sector.

Marijuana is now legal for medical use in just 23 of the 50 states, and will soon be legal for recreational use in four — Alaska’s law goes into effect later this month, Oregon’s in July, and in Washington and Colorado, it’s already legal. Alaska’s addition to the legal-pot state roster has some wags dubbing the legal-pot opportunity the “Green Rush.”

Now that full legalization is spreading from state after state, many sector observers believe it’s just a matter of time before more states get on the bandwagon, and before marijuana becomes federally legal. The spread of legalization will open up huge new markets — and startups that get going now will be ready and waiting to take advantage of the increased demand.

The U.S. economy doesn’t spawn an entirely new industry very often, and legal pot may well be the best ground-floor opportunity we’ve seen since the early days of the Internet. While there are some established companies in this niche already — especially in Canada, where medical pot has long been legal — new figures from the Marijuana Business Factbook 2014 map reveal how young most cannabis businesses are, and how quickly they’re becoming profitable.

WATCH: Cannabis — America’s fastest-growing industry:

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$7 Billion in forecast growth

First off, let’s talk size of the U.S. legal-pot sector. Last year, Factbook publisher Cannabusiness Media estimates, there was between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion of legal pot sold for medical use in the U.S., and another $600 million to $700 million was sold for legal, recreational use.

The Factbook projects that legal cannabis businesses will do roughly $8 billion in revenue by 2018. So that’s more than $7 billion of upside potential in the near-term marketplace.

Ayn Rand Never Built A Company

Victor W. Hwang — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 14:15:00 GMT

There’s a serious disconnect today in America between political discourse and economic reality. I find it disturbing. If you follow the headlines, the nation is embroiled in a civilizational battle between liberals who seek to impose political correctness and build an authoritarian state, on one hand, versus conservatives who seek to perpetuate inequality and minority repression, on the other. It has become a battle of caricatures.

More importantly, it does not reflect what is actually happening on the ground. You know, reality. It’s that place where real people are building real things. Based on my experience in Silicon Valley, I’d like to propose a different way to think about the intersection of economics and politics in America.

I’m fortunate to get an uncommon perspective in my professional life, because I work at both the micro and the macro levels. On the micro level, I’m an entrepreneur who starts and invests in new companies, including one that makes the world’s most powerful filter to remove harmful germs from drinking water. On the macro level, I work with cities, companies, and countries to design economies that accelerate the pace of innovation and value creation. Because I straddle two worlds, I tend to see hidden nuance, where others might see simplicity.

American politics has surely become an oversimplified battlefield. Each side portrays the other in comical terms. Here is how conservatives, like Ross Douthat in a recent NYT column, often see the battle lines:

Left (Bad) Right (Good)
Top-down < >      Bottom-up
Elite-imposed < >      Self-reliance
Collective morality < >      Individuals define morality
Forced generosity     < >      Voluntary altruism

In contrast, here is how liberals, like Elizabeth Warren, might see the battle lines:

Left (Good) Right (Bad)
Bottom-up                       < >      Top-down
Individual activism        < >      Elite complacency
Fairness as moral goal < >      Elites define morality
Voluntary generosity     < >      Legalized selfishness

For another example, let’s take the ideas of writer Ayn Rand. Rand argued that rational selfishness is a virtue. She felt that morality that is not rational diminishes life and happiness. Rand has experienced a popular boomlet in recent years. Many politicians and business leaders have embraced her ideas. Liberals, for their part, have readily accepted her as a foil. Again, a simple binary choice.

But Rand’s ideas don’t fit the reality I work in. They bifurcate the world too cleanly. Here’s a different, more nuanced way to describe the world.

Like all graphs, this is an oversimplification of reality, but it highlights some critical distinctions. (For political geeks, I’ve taken the “liberty” of adding the political philosophers that might be associated with these quadrants, namely Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Rand.)

On the horizontal axis, we see the division between morality and rationality. Morality is about pursuing “the way the world should be.” Rationality is about dealing with “the way the world is.” You can hear echoes of America’s liberal-conservative divide here. On the vertical axis, we see the division between top-down and bottom-up views of the world. Bottom-up is about individuals and their interactions with one another. Top-down is about managing institutions, whether companies, cities, or entire countries.

So what’s the point, you might be asking? If our goal is to maximize economic wealth, it’s increasingly clear that two of these quadrants matter more than the other two. Scientific research shows that innovative economies thrive in the bottom-left and the top-right. Entrepreneurship happens in the bottom-left, where individuals organize dynamically into teams to solve problems. Highly entrepreneurial environments are what we call “Rainforest” ecosystems. But ideas become scalable products on the top-right: in environments with high predictability and low operational costs. We call those systems “Plantations.” I’ve written about this in prior columns (for example, see links here, here, and here).

New ideas, startups, and solutions are birthed on the bottom-left. Ideas that replicate and become sustainable must scale to the top-right. The crossover is hard. It’s not a leap; it’s a chasm. And it’s not just a political chasm between left and right. It’s the business chasm between innovation and production. Silicon Valley doesn’t call the process of launching new products “crossing the chasm” for nothing.

The political philosopher Edmund Burke saw the same thing. Society is a difficult balance between moral motivation and practical constraints.

A man full of warm, speculative benevolence may wish his society otherwise constituted than he finds it, but a good patriot and a true politician always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country. A disposition to preserve and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.

Sounds like the description of a successful entrepreneur to me. So where does that leave Ayn Rand, in the bottom right corner? The truth is that Ayn Rand never built a company. Therefore, she didn’t fully appreciate the essential moral quality of entrepreneurship. Innovation is more than the sum of a series of rational transactions. Without hopeful people who desire to improve the world, however foolish they may be, entrepreneurship will wither. Don’t just take my word for it. Ask Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

Rand’s ideas are a useful thinking tool, but she was a product of her time. A refugee from Communism, she despised the imposition of morality by the state. My mother escaped from Communism too, so I am sympathetic to Rand’s point of view.

But the real world is not a simple binary. America’s political discourse is problematic, because it ignores the real economic value creation that happens everyday, whether in the Valley or anywhere else. The hopes and dreams and passions of innovators are not frivolous—they are core to the economic system. How they confront and conquer the challenge of bringing new ideas to life is what matters. Helping to build ecosystems that accelerate the entrepreneurial journey was a core reason for me to start the Global Innovation Summit, which happens again in two weeks and which attracts over 50 countries seeking the same thing.

So the economy’s life cycle is more nuanced than Ayn Rand realized. Innovators are deeply moral animals, since by definition they envision the future as it should be. In fact, the world would die without such dreamers. People with a vision of how the world can be better are actually the ones who do make the world better.

Victor W. Hwang is an entrepreneur and investor in Silicon Valley. He wrote an award-winning book on innovation economics. He runs the Global Innovation Summit, a conference on building entrepreneurial ecosystems that happens on February 17-19, 2015.

How To Create Innovation Culture? Halifax Tries Something Bold

Victor W. Hwang — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 11:51:00 GMT

Economic destiny is often shaped by luck. For example, the region of Halifax has benefited from great luck over the centuries. It sits at a fortunate position near the far eastern edge of North America, where it has served as a valuable shipping link between Europe and the Americas. But luck cannot be a long-term strategy. This is especially true today, when value is increasingly exchanged across data lines instead of shipping lanes. So how does a place like Halifax adapt in the modern economy?

Halifax is trying something new and brave. My firm has advised leaders at the Greater Halifax Partnership over the past year. They are at the front of an exciting movement, as the community starts to take control of its economic destiny by spurring greater innovation and entrepreneurship. And they are not relying solely on tools of the past, like tax incentives and infrastructure building. Instead, they are attempting to reconstruct the fabric of the society itself… by rewriting Halifax’s social contract.

This is an ambitious idea. One might even say that it’s boldly going where no region has gone before. To understand why it makes sense, though, it helps to look at history.

Halifax, Nova Scotia’s first city, is one of the great ports on the Atlantic seaboard. Titanic remains were famously salvaged by a ship from Halifax. The maritime period known as the Golden Age of Sail (roughly 1820-1920) corresponded to the greatest economic growth in Halifax’s history. As the largest center of the Maritimes, Halifax was uniquely positioned as a meeting point between North America and Europe, where intercontinental trade was facilitated and ships were built for the 20^th century’s great wars. The city thrived because of a lucky confluence of technological discoveries, macro-political trends, and geographical determinism.

Can Halifax sail to a new Golden Age based on innovation and entrepreneurial culture?

But the great wars are long over. Technologies enable merchant vessels to make longer treks, no longer requiring so many of them to stop in Halifax on the way. And the Internet has enabled the fast, cheap movement of valuable intangibles. Data packets don’t need to make rest stops.

The Golden Ages of the modern economy are different from those of the past. Silicon Valley is the usual example. In the past, economies were built on battles over scarce resources. Being a transportation hub was a great way to own a big share of the world’s commerce. Today, however, economies are built on innovation, which is arguably limitless in its potential. And innovation depends on culture, which I’ve written a lot about. Innovation thrives in ecosystems based on certain cultural norms, such as openness to strangers, diversity in talents and insights, empathy with outsiders, collaborative risk-taking, and paying it forward.

But many citizens of Halifax feel that the traditional culture of Halifax is not conducive for innovation. (By the way, Halifax citizens are called Haligonians, which definitely ranks among the coolest demonyms in the galaxy.) Haligonian leaders are concerned that too many of its people tend to shy away from strangers, stick to their own, and avoid unnecessary risk.

During my visit there last year, for instance, I met a man who was born in Eastern Europe but had lived in Halifax since he was a teenager. He confessed to me that he had never felt welcome in Halifax, despite having lived there for many years. He had always wanted to start his own company, but he felt that local culture stifled his ambitions. He couldn’t meet the right people; he couldn’t open the right doors. Although he lived in Halifax for most of his life, some less open-minded Haligonians still referred to him as a “Come From Away”—their term for people who are not native-born.

It’s stories like this that have spurred Halifax’s leaders into action. They have specifically targeted culture change as an economic strategy. Kevin McIntyre of the Greater Halifax Partnership sees the enemy as deeply-rooted pessimism, and a “zero-sum culture” that encourages competition rather than cooperation. This manifests itself in rivalry between metropolitan Halifax and the surrounding rural areas. Particularly disturbing is the mass out-migration of new university graduates avoiding high local unemployment. And it doesn’t help that local businesses tend to require several years’ experience even for entry-level positions.

By focusing on culture, Halifax is going straight to core of its economic issues. Rebooting culture is the equivalent of pushing control-alt-delete on the human operating system of a community. To do this, however, means rewriting its social contract. Social contracts are the fractal equation that determines, among other things, whether a region’s economic ecosystem is based on innovation (creating the new) versus production (optimizing the old).

Halifax has many key elements in place, according to McIntyre. Leaders and the public are acknowledging its core problems. The skilled talent exists for innovation. There is a strong student/academic population to provide fresh blood. There is a vibrant art scene that bursts with creative ideas. And a new $35-$40 billion shipbuilding contract has injected renewed energy and sense of purpose.

But all these free-floating elements need to be culturally synthesized. Think about a great orchestra. A musical group requires more than just a bunch of skilled individuals—it takes a common structure for a talented group to express itself in a way greater than the sum of its parts. The same is true for all human teams. People need common rules of engagement between each other, so that they can thrive collectively with minimal friction. [tweet_quote display=”Social contracts are the equivalent of musical notes, tempos, and chord progressions in human economic life.”]Social contracts are the equivalent of musical notes, tempos, and chord progressions in human economic life.[/tweet_quote]

What does Halifax’s social contract look like? The Greater Halifax Partnership came up with a pledge. They originally called it the Halifax Pledge, but eventually they changed it to “The Bold Promise” in order to include the surrounding areas and the entire Maritimes region. It reads:

By taking the Bold Promise, I commit to be part of a movement of people who believe in a better Halifax; one that is open to new people, new ideas and a new economy. A bright future for Halifax starts with me.

Be Positive

Challenge Pessimism

Trust And Be Trusted

Collaborate

Pay It Forward

Celebrate Success

Why makes it bold? It challenges old paradigms—that business is always a cutthroat enterprise, that you shouldn’t trust strangers, that risk is to be avoided. As McIntyre says, they want people to “be bold enough to be open and listen, to experiment together, to share ideas and let others make them better, have conversations with people you wouldn’t normally have conversations with. Bold is all-around a state of mind.”

The Greater Halifax Partnership hopes to get 100,000 people to sign it—or roughly one-third of the city’s population. (I signed it, too, as you can see!) They’ve already gotten several thousand so far, and that’s a fantastic start.

Even a slight shift in the thinking of a few thousand people can have broad implications in a community. McIntyre realizes that, and it’s something he’s taken to heart. He says, “You have to walk the walk. And if you’re saying the ecosystem and the community have to live within the bold promise, then you have to do it yourself. Every now and then, I hold a mirror up and ask myself if I’m living the bold promise. It’s a personal challenge and a city challenge.”

Social contracts are for communities, but each individual still has to make it their own. With enough people taking the Bold Promise to heart, perhaps we’ll see the dawn of a new Golden Age for Halifax.

Victor W. Hwang is an entrepreneur, investor, and writer in Silicon Valley. He is Executive Director of Global Innovation Summit + Week, a gathering for builders of the new economy in over 50 countries on February 15-21, 2015.

My Love Letters to Austin, America, and You

Victor W. Hwang — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 12:31:00 GMT

Yesterday, I was honored to give the Commencement Address for Austin Community College. It was a moving experience for me.

In my speech—which I call “Three Love Letters”—I reflect on entrepreneurship and innovation in a different way. In fact, I don’t even use those words at all. Instead, I talk about culture. And I do so with three lenses: my beloved home city of Austin, the beautiful nation of America, and the new graduates. I hope you like it.

President Rhodes, graduates, families, faculty, and staff. And most importantly, the all-powerful and extremely good-looking board of trustees. Which happens to include my Mother.

Congratulations, graduates. You guys are the heroes. I know it’s been hard to get here. For many of you, it’s been harder than it should have been. I have deep admiration for what you’ve done. I’m moved by what your friends and families have sacrificed. Whatever I say today is lucky to be an asterisk in your life story.

Now for those of you from Oklahoma, an asterisk is the star below the number 7 on your telephone. Just kidding. Rotary dial phones don’t have asterisks.

Almost every commencement speech can be summed up in a few pithy aphorisms: be grateful, love one another, dream big, never give up, and change the world. I could say all those and be done. You might actually prefer that.

But I don’t want to give you a regular graduation speech. Your time is too precious for that. Besides, it’s really easy to go on YouTube to see Puff Daddy’s commencement speech from earlier this year. He says just what I told you, but it’s way more entertaining.

Instead, I’ve decided today to give you three love letters. Simple. Three letters expressing my affection. The first love letter is from me to the city of Austin. The second one, from me to America. And the third, from me to you.

Austin

Love letter #1: Austin. Even though I don’t live here now, this city means a lot to me. It’s one of the first great loves of my life. It’s where I came of age, where I learned to be a young man.

It’s where I learned some simple values, like the importance of handshakes and speaking plainly. It’s where I learned the power of music authentically expressed, like the cry of a steel guitar, or cowboy songs around a campfire late at night.

It’s where I learned to dream. I still remember going with friends to Enchanted Rock one time, and counting over 30 shooting stars while lying on our backs. It was like we were on the prow of Spaceship Earth. We had the whole world below us, as we hurtled forward into the universe above us.

I still remember moving to Austin as a teenager, and realizing that I’d never tasted such a place before. Austin has a flavor that is unique. It lingers in the soul. It wasn’t until I grew up that I realized how special and rare that flavor is in the world.

A full generation has passed since that time, and things change. Austin has boomed. And Austinites can be rather nostalgic these days. One generation ago, Whole Foods was a “small neighborhood grocery.” Those are the words from the corporate website. Today, there are over 360 such “small neighborhood groceries” around the world.

One generation ago, South by Southwest was a bracelet you bought to go barhopping and hear local bands play. Today, multinational corporations sponsor events at “South By” to market new products to millions of consumers.

One generation ago, when I talked with people outside the state of Texas, Austin was often confused with Houston. Now, Houston is sometimes confused with Austin. Sorry, Houstonians.

Here’s what I’ve come to realize. Austin was special because it was at the edge of the frontier. Not just the geographical frontier. It was at the edge of cultural frontiers, a collision of different ways of living. The mashup of cowboys, hippies, intellectuals, and civic leaders created its own music that still echoes in the hills today. And each of those components played a role. Gritty bluntness from the cowboys. Open-heartedness from the hippies. Love of ideas from the academics. Grand ambition from the civic leaders.

Those were the lines of code in the original operating system of Austin. That software program simply ran its course over several decades. One generation later, and I can still taste that Austin. The flavor will remain on my tastebuds until I die.

Here’s the takeaway lesson. There is a natural power at the edges of frontiers. When you go fishing, the best places to drop your line are at the transition points, where light meets dark, shallow meets deep, fast meets slow. The same is true for human life. When you go searching for your fortune in life, look for those transition points. That’s the frontier. That was Austin.

America

My second love letter is to America. I love this country. The irony is that, when growing up, I never felt truly American, as the son of Chinese immigrants in Middle America. But with time, I’ve come to realize that I am actually more American than many, quote, “Americans.”

I’ve seen and understood this country in ways that others haven’t. I’ve been to every state in the union. I’ve lived in a bunch of them. I’ve breathed in almost every corner of America, small town and large, rural and urban, East and West, North and South.

I remember when soccer moms were just called moms. I remember when a new neighbor was greeted with freshly baked cake.

I also remember something my Father said to me when I was young. He said that a lot of cultures claim to be the nicest in the world. But of all the places he had been, Americans were the warmest to strangers. I wasn’t sure if I believed him back then. But I’ve traveled the world, seen over 50 countries. And I’ve concluded my Father was right. America is the warmest country to strangers. Not perfect, for sure, but far better than anywhere else.

Why is this? It’s not just about nice manners. What I’ve learned is that the answer goes to the heart of America.

This is a country built on the good faith of strangers. The next time you walk into a coffee shop, look closely. Look at who is doing what. You’ll definitely see lots of old friends, families, and neighbors catching up. But in America, you’ll also see something that is rare elsewhere in the world. You’ll see lots of people doing things together who just met a short time ago. This is a land where people take chances on strangers, because we all are. Strangers become friends quickly, because we need each other to survive and get things done.

Imagine you were alive six generations ago, and you wanted to cross America by wagon. You had a six-month journey across the frontier. You risked starvation, disease, injury, and attacks. Before they started, strangers would form wagon caravans of up to 300 people they had never met before. They entrusted their lives to each other, taking the gamble that the unknown dangers ahead were still better than the world they had left behind. It was the ultimate startup company. In comparison, a startup company today in Silicon Valley making dating apps sounds pretty ridiculous.

Frontiers require strangers to come together, and form teams to achieve common ends. The process is not always pretty, because strangers tend to disagree, distrust, bicker, and fight. But in the end—over the long arc of history—it creates something beautiful. Like the collision of cultures that made Austin.

The frontier story, I believe, is the American story. But it’s also the reason that America is struggling today. We’ve already built a great society. We’ve conquered a frontier. But now, in the new millennium, Americans look around at each other and are saying, “Now what?”

When we have no more frontier to conquer, we start feeding on ourselves. Thus, we see infighting. We see polarization. We are suffering today from the end of the American Frontier.

So my love letter to this beautiful country ends with simply this. Don’t let the end of the American Frontier be the end of the American story. It’s time to create a new American mission. After we have conquered the physical frontier, what new frontiers can challenge and bring this nation together?

You

My third, and most important, love letter is for you. I don’t know many of you personally, but I already know who you are. I know because we are fellow human beings. You have some things you’re good at. You have far more things you’re bad at. You love some people a lot, others not so much. You wish the world would work more the way you think it should.

And you worry. You worry if you can achieve the life you want to be happy. You worry that I’m going to keep talking for too long.

So here’s a big secret. Most adults are pretending. Status, intelligence, beauty, wealth, achievement. The older you get, the more you see people pretending in little ways all the time. People drop names to make themselves look more important. They try to assert power, to make the world seem less terrifying. They post pictures on Facebook to prove how “exciting” their lives are. In this society built on shifting frontiers, where we rely on strangers, we worry a lot about our place. There is so much uncertainty.

It’s human nature to worry. Our tendency, as frail biological creatures, is to pretend to be bigger than we are. Or to run away.

But I would ask you to fight this instinct. Your mission—as a citizen of Austin, America, and the human race—is to remake the frontier, every day, in little ways. This requires you to be comfortable with uncomfortable things. This is not easy. In frontiers, people often look different, speak strange languages, behave oddly, believe differently. Some of them will hurt you. But the vast majority of them won’t.

So to renew the frontier every day, what do you do? Let me offer some pithy aphorisms, since this is a graduation after all. Hopefully these can be new sayings for a new era. I’ve got seven.

Be uncomfortable.

Open doors.

Empathize with strangers.

Try new things out.

Seek serendipity.

Take chances with new friends.

And pay it forward to people you don’t know.

These are really hard things to do, because most of the time our instincts push us the opposite way. But these are the origins of the American frontier story, the roots of Austin’s beloved culture, and the future to your success in the new economy.

That’s how my three love letters are connected together. While life is often determined by dumb luck, these are the ways to tilt the odds of dumb luck in your favor.

Thank you for listening. It’s not often one gets such a privilege, and I humbly hope I’ve taken your time well.

To Austin, stay weird. To America, keep the frontier fresh. And to you, may you forever thrive at the frontier’s edge, where the known confronts the unknown.

Best wishes, congratulations, and much love to all of you.

Morocco’s Startups At The Crossroads

Victor W. Hwang — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 12:32:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, I was a keynote speaker in Casablanca, Morocco at the Global Annual Conference of CEED, a organization that assists entrepreneurs in several emerging markets. There I met countless inspiring people, mostly from Morocco but also from nearby places. I could virtually taste the electricity in the air. Entrepreneurs and other businesspeople were continuously buzzing around the event, pitching, trading, and pursuing their dreams. Morocco, it seems, is rising.

Why is this happening in Morocco? Indeed, we might expand the question to ask: what makes some economies like Morocco rise, while others in the world languish? It’s a question with big implications for the world.

A key answer, I believe, is that crossroads are breeding grounds for innovation. For instance, Silicon Valley is a result of the American frontier, where ambitious people from diverse backgrounds were smashed together in a serendipitous cacophony. Frontier cultures tend to be innovative ones. Diversity often begets wealth.

Morocco is in a similar situation. Is it African? Is it Arab? Is it European? The answer, of course, is yes.

Morocco, crossroads of three cultures, as viewed from the International Space Station.

Since antiquity, Morocco has been home to some of the most entrepreneurial cultures the world has ever known—from the seafaring merchants of Phoenicia to the Berber traders still active today in the marketplaces. The nation has been a center of commerce at the intersection of Europe, Africa, and the Islamic world for centuries.

Although times have changed, Morocco’s importance as a crossroads has not. And today—with the economic rise of the African continent and the political changes inspired by the Arab Spring—Morocco seems poised to leverage its role as an anchor connecting three major parts of the world again. For instance, at the recent CEED conference, participants had the choice of attending a panel discussing doing business in the U.S. or a panel on the same for Africa. Over 100 opted for Africa. Only a few dozen were interested in the U.S.

Entrepreneurship is in the DNA. According to CEED’s director in Morocco, Fatima Zahra Oukacha: “Moroccans are entrepreneurs. We were colonized by the French in the last century and acquired all of the modern institutions that came along with that. But prior to that, everybody was an entrepreneur.” In addition, entrepreneurs benefit from a relatively effective educational system and supportive government. As Fatima points out, Morocco has remained stable during the Arab Spring despite chaos elsewhere in the region.

But government cannot be a crutch. Fatima talks about the need for Moroccan entrepreneurs to “take the lead and start doing things for themselves.” They need to find their own solutions, and “generalize those solutions across the entire ecosystem.”

Therefore, CEED focuses on creating the whole ecosystem—particularly building strong networks between entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and others. Innovation is about more than just money; it’s about people. Peter Righi, the Global Director of CEED, says, “The number one problem entrepreneurs say they have is access to capital. However, if I went in with $1 million, I don’t think [a lot of these entrepreneurs] would know how to use it. There are a lot of other things they need: a business plan, they need to know how to make a pitch, they need to have customers, they need to have a network, and more.”

What does success look like when building an ecosystem? Fatima tells the story of a young entrepreneur who joined CEED less than two years ago and wanted to build a telecom company. Mentors and peers at CEED told him repeatedly that the idea wasn’t feasible, that he would have no competitive advantage. More importantly, however, they encouraged him by saying it was OK to make mistakes and even fail, as long as he learned in the process and tried again—a core tenet in innovation culture. Through CEED’s network of entrepreneurs, the entrepreneur was eventually connected to a co-founder and together they started iTaxi, a car service with a similar business model to Uber. iTaxi is now serving over 2,000 riders, and they were chosen as the official transportation provider for CEED’s conference.

So can Morocco leverage its position as a cultural, economic, and geographical crossroads? The ecosystem—what we call the Rainforest—is the key. And ecosystems are shaped at the human scale, where people interact and build ideas into reality together. Peter himself said it best: “Entrepreneurship can break down barriers. When a critical element is missing, when trust is missing, when walls are up in the Rainforest, we can often bridge that gap.”

Human bridges are the modern equivalent of physical bridges in the past. They’re like the invisible infrastructure. You can’t actually see them, but they are the steel beams and reinforced concrete of the new economy. In that sense, Morocco has the opportunity to build some of the longest bridges in the world.

Victor W. Hwang is an entrepreneur, investor, and author in Silicon Valley. He runs a major conference on building entrepreneurial ecosystems—the Global Innovation Summit + Week—which involves delegates from over 50 countries on February 15-21, 2015.

Obama’s Action on Immigration Includes Entrepreneurs and High-Skilled Workers

Scott Allison — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 02:05:00 GMT

It was about 5 years ago I first thought of moving to the US with my startup. For the whole of that time I’ve been hopeful there would be progress with immigration reform but precisely nothing has changed! Until today. President Obama has just announced his intention to take executive action to push through immigration reforms. As well as announcing greater border security, and plans to not deport undocumented immigrants, he announced plans to make it easier and faster for entrepreneurs and high-skilled workers to move here. As he said, immigrants are a net-plus to the economy.

I’ve been through the hoops myself, and I’m delighted that I can now live and work in the US. But for many, the situation is tricky and one of my previous posts here about the different immigration options for high-tech entrepreneurs has been one of my most popular on Forbes: Coming to America: the 5 Best Visa Options for Startup Entrepreneurs. For every entrepreneur who does come here, many stay in their home country instead. When you’re building a company the immigration process is a big distraction. A good friend who moved his startup to the US (creating 10 jobs in the process) said after doing it there’s no way he would’ve done it if he’d known how difficult it was before he started.

Almost exactly a year ago I was invited to attend an event in Washington DC organized in part by FWD.us, the tech lobbying group co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg. I went with some trepidation, should I even attend such an event? I’ve gone through the immigration system and it worked for me. (It was a huge hassle, expense and worry however). Also, as a “resident alien” I don’t get to vote here so maybe I should keep my mouth shut? I was encouraged to go and tell my story and let others make up their own minds. I was able to talk about my experience coming here, and compare it to other startup locations around the world, such as London. (The UK government made it a priority 4 years ago to welcome startups to the UK, and within 6 months had introduced a new visa class to encourage high-tech entrepreneurs).

Over two years ago at a public meeting in the heart of Silicon Valley I made a point which I still believe today: the US is still the leading place in the world to launch a startup. But, that gap is narrowing. Obama said today in his address that “Are we a nation that educates the world’s best and brightest in our universities only to send them home to create businesses in countries that compete against us, or are we a nation that encourages them to stay and create jobs here, create businesses here, create industries right here in America?” The attractiveness of America compared to other economies just isn’t as strong as it once was, and coupled with harder, and more uncertain immigration options, many choose just to go back home. That’s not a good position to be in as a country when smart people who could be here, choose not to. America’s loss will be another country’s gain. And many countries are proactively encouraging immigration, such as Canada and Singapore.

Anyway – back in DC last year – I was with a group from Nevada that met with our Congressmen and Senators. It was fascinating stuff, watching politics up close. Congress were clearly pissed off that the Senate had handed them a bill and expected them to pass it. But despite the common view being that if Congress did get to vote on immigration reform that it would pass, there hasn’t been any bills to vote on. So, no progress.

So I understand why and I applaud Obama for this action, even though it’s going to create a massive storm. Who knows, it may even shut down the Government again. Perhaps the goal is to force Congress to do something themselves. Regardless, it looks like something is going to happen at last. We truly live in a world market for talent now, and reforms to recognize that are well overdue.

Albuquerque’s Plan To Build The Most Entrepreneur-Friendly City In America

Victor W. Hwang — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 12:45:00 GMT

The city of Albuquerque, New Mexico has declared an ambitious goal. It wants to become the most entrepreneur-friendly city in the nation.

That’s a tall order. But more and more, it’s becoming an achievable target, because people are able to understand and apply the science of innovation ecosystems. That knowledge is helping Albuquerque get the right mix of social, business, government, and cultural factors to spark together.

Albuquerque—or ABQ, as the locals call it—has many of the basic assets in place. The city boasts a high-ranking, well-respected research university, two major research institutions, and a business-friendly local and state government. It is the cultural and entrepreneurial hub of the region.

These assets are crucial to Albuquerque’s success. But to foster entrepreneurial innovation at scale, you need more than mere assets. More importantly, you need the ecosystem. And for the ecosystem to happen, a city and its people needs to interact, mesh, and flow together. Dance in rhythm, if you will.

In a natural ecosystem, certain species have greater impact than others. While almost every species serves a purpose, certain species are “more equal than others” when affecting the vibrancy of the entire system. These critical species are called keystones. One example of a natural keystone species is the beaver, whose cutting down of old trees to build dams promotes the growth of new trees. Beaver dams—and the water that builds up behind them—also create breeding grounds for fish, salamanders, newts, and frogs. And the water behind beaver dams irrigates the surrounding area.

In human ecosystems, certain people or institutions can be keystones as well. They facilitate connections, command respect, and influence the push and pull of an ecosystem toward greater strength.

Elizabeth Kuuttila is one of the keystones of Albuquerque. She’s the CEO of the University of New Mexico’s STC.UNM (formerly known as Science and Technology Corporation), a non-profit company dedicated to cultivating a “Rainforest in the Desert” in Albuquerque. Her team won an Innovation Ecosystem Award at my organization’s last Global Innovation Summit for their efforts.

Kuuttila noticed that Albuquerque had the right elements, but they weren’t necessarily interacting in the right ways. Much of the institutional infrastructure is certainly strong. ABQ thrives because “we can recruit entrepreneurs who want to live in Albuquerque because of the natural beauty, the sense of community, the weather. We’re very fortunate that we have this cadre of really talented entrepreneurial resources.”

But, she notes, the geographical makeup of the city itself is a hindrance. Albuquerque is a mid-sized city in terms of population (just under a million residents), but it is enormous in terms of land area. As a result, the 8-10 startup companies that STC.UNM spins off every year are, according to Kuuttila, “scattering throughout the city.” And next to Albuquerque are two major federal research labs, Los Alamos and Sandia, which have historically been unable to leverage their considerable intellectual resources into economic benefit for the region, operating quite separately from the city and its people.

Uber Will Lower GDP

Victor W. Hwang — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:20:00 GMT

Here’s some news that might surprise you: [tweet_quote display=”Uber will lower America’s gross domestic product”]Uber will lower America’s gross domestic product[/tweet_quote] . In fact, it has already started. The more Uber grows, the worse our GDP will get. And it’s not just Uber. Many of its startup cousins—like Lyft, Airbnb, and others—are also guilty of shrinking our economic growth numbers. The trend is about to become an epidemic.

How could that possibly be, you might ask? How could new technology that gives us better, higher quality services diminish our economy? Isn’t innovation supposed to make economies grow bigger and stronger?

This mystery is worth explaining, because the entire world’s GDP is about to start shrinking due to Uber and similar companies. And it’s going to get significantly worse. My prediction: within the next decade, this issue will become so problematic that presidents, prime ministers, and others will have no choice but to rethink the way they measure economic vitality.

So what is behind the “mystery of the shrinking GDP”? Well, the problem is not with Uber, Lyft, or Airbnb. The problem is not with America. And the problem is not with GDP per se. The culprit, in fact, is an invisible one.

Let me explain. Uber is a high-profile example of the sharing economy, which revolves around the idea of people sharing underutilized resources. In the case of Uber, it’s about spare passenger seats in cars. Uber is a mobile app-based ride service, one that has upset many traditional taxi companies by stealing their customers.

The growing success of Uber means that people will get around more efficiently than before. I’ve used Uber in several cities around the world already, and believe me, it is huge improvement over grabbing a random taxi and hoping for the best. Despite the political resistance that Uber and its cousins are facing in some markets today, they are going to win in the end. Period. They’re just vastly better user experiences. Try them, if you haven’t yet. You’ll see.

Despite that awesomeness, Uber will lower GDP, because GDP is about measuring production. The more people use Uber, the less the economy will produce. Why? GDP is calculated by measuring (a) spending, (b) earnings, and/or (c) added value. In the U.S., we calculate with spending. Other countries use their own methods. In theory at least, each of the measurements should work out the same. One way or another, GDP measures things being produced, whether you look at it from the point of the view of the buyer, seller, or maker.

If someone takes an Uber ride instead of a regular cab, what happens? The customer is spending less, a taxi driver somewhere is losing a customer, the Uber driver is making less than the taxi driver would have, and the customer gets where they want to go in a happier state. Alternatively, traditional taxi companies may try to compete and start lowering their prices, as they appear to be doing. Add it all up; you get a smaller number. GDP goes down.

How much will Uber lower America’s GDP? I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations, based on numbers disclosed so far. This year, it works out to about half a billion dollars, maybe more. That’s not much in the big scheme of things. Yet. But it’s going to grow, especially as Uber or similar companies expand into corporate logistics and transportation. That’s big money. And new companies with other “sharing economy” models will launch, grow, and start to eat up our GDP too.

The problem is not that GDP is wrong. It’s that GDP no longer measures much of the new value being created in our society. We don’t have a measurement for the efficiency of the system itself. Current tools, like GDP or inflation, measure what the system produces, not how the system functions. The U.S. government recently tried to deal with this by adjusting the way it calculates GDP (by measuring R&D expenditures), but that is just trying to measure production of a different sort.

GDP is a useful indicator of economic health when companies are mostly focused on manufacturing things. However, we know today that an economy is not just indicated by the existence of things, like assets or wealth. It’s also about how those things flow in the system. And flow is driven by how interconnected people are, and how effectively the system enables connections to become valuable exchanges. Trust among strangers, connections between diverse parties, mutual collaborations, shared visions, new teams being formed—these qualities drive flow, they lower systemic transaction costs. That’s what we mean when we talk about ecosystems.

Uber might be helping us solve another puzzle. It’s what economists call The Nordic Mystery. For years, economists have struggled to explain the high quality of life in the Nordic countries, especially Denmark and Norway. (Side note: I actually thought of this column while strolling in Stockholm.) Despite their lower national GDPs, Nordic people retain high standards of living. For example, Denmark’s GDP from 1991 to 2014 was only 0.37%. Nordic countries may produce less, but they are more efficient at utilizing what they have. Nordic culture comes from large, close-knit tribes based on high levels of trust, which lowers the transaction costs for sharing resources. [tweet_quote display=”Traditional Nordic culture might be called “Uber for everything.””]Traditional Nordic culture might be called “Uber for everything.”[/tweet_quote]

So what do we do about shrinking GDP? For starters, we need to start seeing what is currently invisible. We need a new measurement for the new economy. Call it a Gross Ecosystem Index perhaps. This would be a complement to GDP, not a replacement. And it should be something that helps communities, cities, corporations, and countries get a practical grip on how to maximize their economic potential in the modern era. By utilizing what they have, better.

Therefore, while Uber and its cousins will lower GDP in the years to come, that’s actually a positive thing. They will help goods and services flow more efficiently, getting where they need to go at lower cost, with less production required. Lower GDP shouldn’t worry us, as long as the loss is more than offset by more efficient utilization of what we already have.

And if the taxi drivers are friendlier, I’m all for it.

Victor W. Hwang is CEO of T2 Venture Creation, a Silicon Valley firm that builds startups and designs entrepreneurial ecosystems. He is primary co-author of The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley.

Is Uber Getting Ready for a Showdown in Vegas?

Scott Allison — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 03:03:00 GMT

UPDATE: Oct 24th. Local press reports Uber will start operating today in Las Vegas.

A few weeks ago I started noticing adverts appearing in my Facebook feed from Uber, apparently recruiting for drivers in Las Vegas. I thought to myself that was odd because I’d read that legislation effectively prevents Uber from operating in Nevada. I assumed the ad I saw on Facebook was part of a national campaign, and that no one had thought to exclude Las Vegas from it. But I’ve also now seen a number of full page advertisements by Uber in local newspapers and magazine. The ads don’t say anything, they just show a large Uber app icon. On top of that, the press in Vegas reported this week that Uber held closed-door meetings with potential drivers.

All of this leads me to think that Uber has hatched a plan to have a big showdown with the licensing authorities and the taxi cab operators. If they do that, it’s going to be a dirty fight and it’s going to back up the maxim, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”. The monetary cost to Uber will be high, but the press coverage should more than make up for that.

Uber are well funded, (to the tune of $1.5Bn), operate globally and are generally loved by consumers, whereas taxis… well, not so much. This is a fight that I think taxis can only lose; they’re going to come across as the bad guys, and that may not be fair, but that’s what’s going to happen.

I’ve used Uber extensively in San Francisco, but I’ve used it precisely zero times in Vegas as it’s not available. I’ve used taxis in Vegas a number of times, and yes, I did always get to my destination, but on more than one occasion I felt I was being longhauled, and on the others, I had grumpy drivers and smelly cabs. Are there great cabbies in Vegas? If I have to take my chances, I’ll go for Uber.

In most other cities around the US, and indeed the world, consumers are voting with their feet. The residents of San Francisco certainly have: taxi rides have dropped 65%.

Why do people choose Uber? I can only speak for myself: there’s lots of nice things about Uber, but what trumps everything is that at the end of your journey you give the driver a rating from 1 to 5 stars. Apparently drivers with less than 4 star average get booted out. That’s a strong incentive for drivers to be polite and friendly and make sure their cars are clean and tidy. There’s other cool things about Uber, like getting an email with minutes of your journey’s end, showing you not just the cost charged to your credit card, but the mileage travelled and even a map showing the route you took! The drivers know this of course. Result: I’ve never been longhauled by an Uber.

Vegas is a wonderful city in many ways and a nightmare in others. The public transportation is in the “sorely lacking” category.  We have a great little monorail here, but it goes from nowhere to nowhere, and stops just short of the airport; pointless. No public buses go from the airport to the strip, although one does go to Downtown. Taxi alternatives like Uber or Lyft will lead to a better overall service, and likely lead to a reduction in car ownership. So for all those reasons, I’m watching keenly to see the next move by Uber, I have a feeling it’s going to shake things up whatever happens.

Do You Know Your Neighbor’s Name? A Shocking Number of People Don’t

Scott Allison — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 00:17:00 GMT

There’re a plethora of social networks. Ones that aim to connect friends and family, close friends, school friends, colleagues, professionals, travelers, gay men, lesbians; those are just a few of the many. I like these because ultimately they are trying to get us to connect more in real-life. (Not forgetting the very aptly named meetup.com)

So, can Nextdoor help people get to know the “Joneses” living next door? A study by State Farm found that only 25% of Americans know the name of their next door neighbors. I can believe it.

I’d known about Nextdoor for a while; after all, it’s been around for the last four years. But it was only after moving to a new neighborhood and worrying that some of my mail was going missing that I decided to join up. I found that, although there were networks near to my area, there wasn’t already one for my immediate neighborhood. So I became a founding member of my local Nextdoor community and got to select the streets and houses to invite. But there was a catch-22: I didn’t actually know my neighbors, so how could I invite them? Nextdoor had thought of that and allows everyone who signs up to send out free invitation postcards. (Luckily Nextdoor has raised over $100 million to date, and no doubt quite a bit of this has gone into the pockets of the USPS.)

My better half was skeptical: “No one will sign up!” Three months on, out of 100 invites, 15% have signed up. And some of those neighbors have invited others to join. Overall, out of 134 houses, our Nextdoor community has 22 signed up. I’ve seen another nearby neighborhood that has nearly everyone. What’s the difference? That one already has a very active HOA, and ours does not. Since our area never appeared to have any community vibe in the first place, I think we’re doing OK. I’m hopeful it will grow. With Nextdoor’s clever Halloween candy-finder capitalizing on the most neighborly time of the year in the U.S., it should.

Much like LinkedIn in its early days, I signed up not really knowing the purpose of Nextdoor, but hopeful that it would emerge. It took LinkedIn quite a few years to find its feet, but it’s now indispensable to me and other professionals, too. So how are they doing? Nextdoor claims to have one in four neighborhoods signed up in the U.S., a number that doubled during 2013.

I signed up in 2009 on Facebook to see if it was something I would find useful. I’m now way more connected with my circle of friends than I would be without it. I think these tools really do help us stay in touch and meet new people, and I hope Nextdoor can do the same.

There’s been nothing of earth-shattering importance on my own Nextdoor network so far, but around a week after sending out the invites to everyone, I answered a knock on the door. It was a neighbor who had received the packages I thought had been stolen. I like to think that one postcard encouraged him to be just a little bit more neighborly. In a transitory town like Vegas, that’s no mean feat.

Why Do Good Ideas Fail? This Diagram Explains

Victor W. Hwang — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 11:15:00 GMT

Management thinking is in a rut. This is a harsh thing to say, but it must be said. Despite all the great brainpower being applied, the field of management is failing to provide the empirical, grounded, actionable guidance that organizations require in today’s economy.

Most of what passes for novel thinking in management now is merely the slapping of new labels onto old ideas. Or worse, faddish exhortations. Yes, there continue to be huge numbers of business books and articles published every year. Some of them are interesting. Some of them add incremental value. Most of them, however, are neither interesting nor add great value. And none of them has truly shaped the industry profoundly, the way that Michael Porter or W. Edwards Deming accomplished decades ago.

So why is this? Have all great management concepts already been discovered? Has business strategy become commoditized forever?

The rut is not the fault of management thinking itself. It’s deeper than that. In fact, the failure of management thinking cuts to the heart of what we humans understand—or fail to understand—of our own economic lives. Through my work with numerous organizations—small and large, private and public, for-profit and non-profit—I’ve arrived at some perhaps surprising conclusions.

What we have not fully captured—as a human species—is the systemic process by which we turn ideas into useful things. On one hand, the traditional techniques of business administration have provided managers tools for analytical strategy and rigorously quantified decision-making. On the other, businesses today are creating so much real-world value by turning decentralized ideas into innovative products and services, based on fuzzy notions like culture and creativity. You can think of it as a clash between two opposing worldviews. The battle might be described as rigor versus intuition. Hard versus soft. Or even numbers versus people.

This is not a new phenomenon. Walter Kiechel, author of Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World, puts it in historical context:

There are observers who maintain that much of what goes on in business organizations comes down to a struggle between those who see the enterprise largely through the lens of the numbers—sales figures, costs, budgets—and those who focus instead primarily on people, their energies, ambitions, and limitations. A gross oversimplification, of course, but one that approximates the argument between the two schools of strategy…. What we would be looking for in an alternative to the strategy model—a unified theory of management, if you will—would be a construct addressing each of the issues a company faces in dealing with people: how they were to be selected, trained, disciplined, compensated, motivated, managed, and led…

We can readily understand numbers, but we struggle mightily to understand people. In other words, [tweet_quote display=”The soft stuff is hard.”]the soft stuff is hard[/tweet_quote] .

Here’s a simple diagram I’ve created, inspired by my collaboration with Stanford scholar Ade Mabogunje. It attempts to incorporate the two clashing worldviews and explain how they interrelate. It’s a proposed unified theory of management to show why so many good ideas fail to grow, why old businesses often die, and why certain businesses can thrive.

I call this diagram the Rainforest Curve. As ideas grow into products, from left to right, their beneficial value to someone increases. That’s the upward curve extending from the bottom left to the top right. The process of value creation is driven by positive-sum behaviors, like collaboration, team-building, and shared risk-taking. Think of the passion that a startup team invests in building their company. You see this behavior manifested in real life by entrepreneurs, designers, inventors, artists, researchers, and innovators. As ideas grow, however, they cross a downward-sloping cost curve, which exerts real-world constraints. Those constraints include capital limitations, finite labor, or scarce resources. The cost curve is driven by zero-sum behaviors, like competition and squeezing out inefficiencies. Reducing the cost curve is what originally gave birth to the field of business strategy, as Kiechel chronicles.

The intersection, where the curves meet, is like an invisible brick wall. Most new ideas, great breakthroughs, and startup companies die on the left. Most aging institutions, corporations, and governments die on the right. The crossover is the hardest part.

Why is the crossover so difficult? The reason is that, as I’ve written previously, [tweet_quote display=”Culture in business is primarily the clash between two opposing social contracts.”]culture in business is primarily the clash between two opposing social contracts[/tweet_quote] . One social contract is based on values of production, with its zero-sum norms. The other is based on values of innovation, with its positive-sum norms. Both social contracts are legitimate in their own ways, but they are completely opposite in effect. If we write the social contracts down, making the implicit explicit, here is what they look like:

Rules of the Rainforest
(positive-sum norms for innovation)

Break rules and dream

Open doors and listen

Trust and be trusted

Seek fairness, not advantage

Experiment & iterate together

Err, fail, and persist

Pay it forward

Rules of the Plantation
(zero-sum norms for production)

Excel at your job

Be loyal to your team

Work with those you can depend on

Seek a competitive edge

Do the job right the first time

Strive for perfection

Return favors

Each of the two columns above is a sound worldview. They are valid in their own right. However, upon reflection, you realize that the two columns are perfectly opposed, item by item. And they lead to opposite results. The rules on the right side lead to productivity, efficiency, and predictability. The rules on the left side lead to creativity, serendipity, and uncertainty. Neither set of rules is wrong. The opposite of “trust” is not simply “distrust.” The opposite of “excel” is not simply “do a bad job.” People tend to see their own value choices as positive, not negative.

We can simplify these opposing social contracts even more, reducing them to the essential values being expressed. Each value below correlates to the corresponding rule above.

Values of Innovation

1. Openness
2. Diversity
3. Serendipity
4. Fairness
5. Experimentation
6. Play
7. Giving

Values of Production

1. Excellence
2. Loyalty
3. Dependability
4. Success
5. Quality
6. Precision
7. Reciprocity

Successful companies must exist in both worlds—innovation and production—simultaneously. That’s hard to do. Innovators on the left often think of managers on the right as cold-hearted and lacking in vision. Managers on the right often think of innovators on the left as frivolous and impractical. But in reality, both sides need each other. Ideas that live only on the left side are stillborn. Institutions that get stuck on the right side become dinosaurs.

Good ideas fail because they cannot cross the cultural barrier between innovation and production. Silicon Valley’s success, arguably, comes from embracing of the duality of both mindsets. For example, venture capitalists in the Valley must deal with hard numbers, but they’re also open to the idea that the next billionaire is a college dropout wearing a hoodie. You never know the next Zuckerberg, so keep your mind open. Put it another way: [tweet_quote display=”How well do your suits and hoodies get along?”]how well do your suits and hoodies get along?[/tweet_quote] That’s dualistic thinking.

So what’s the future of management thinking? Despite recent history, I have faith that a revolution in management thinking is coming soon. Looking at the broader trend lines, we are starting to see the innovation cycle as a whole system, to understand the normative behaviors that undergird this cycle, and to construct practical tools to measure and accelerate the curve as ideas grow into reality. That’s good news. Stay tuned, folks.

Victor W. Hwang is CEO of T2 Venture Creation, a Silicon Valley firm that designs the ecosystems to foster entrepreneurial innovation. He is primary co-author of The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley.

Scotland’s Referendum Decision: Led By Fear Instead Of Hope For The Future?

Scott Allison — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 05:22:00 GMT

It’s been a few days since the vote, and I’ve been thinking about the outcome. First, some background: I was born in Scotland and lived there all my life, up until almost five years ago. I’ve been in the US for the last three years, and before that I was in London. Living overseas and expecting a no vote, I paid little attention in the run up to last week’s referendum. That was until the polls suddenly announced it looked like it would be a “yes” for independence. I was electrified! As a Scot living overseas I wouldn’t be able to cast my vote, but the outcome would be important for me nonetheless.

Following plans for the referendum, announced back in 2012, I’d given it little thought. The prevailing wisdom was that it would – “of course” – be “no” to independence and “yes” to staying part of the UK. That is what happened in the end, but I’ve surprised myself in being sad about that outcome. I’ve never voted for the Scottish National Party and I always thought independence was rather silly. And it infuriated me that so much of the argument seemed to come down to the fact that with an independent Scotland, we would keep 100% of the oil revenue and that would pay for everything. But yet, in last few weeks, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to see Scotland become independent.

Flags outside the Scottish Parliement in Edinburgh, Scotland. Left to right: British flag, Scottish flag, European Union flag (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The vast majority of my friends and family voted no. If you’re from a well-off middle class background the chances of you voting that way are much more likely. I guess it’s because you potentially have a lot more to lose. If you have a comfortable life, a good job, and your kids are at a private school then why risk changing from the status quo?

I think entrepreneurs probably felt the same way. What currency would Scotland use? How long would it take to get back into the EU? How many jobs would be lost to England? Would English customers be happy buying from a Scottish company? Nonetheless, an independent Scotland would have brought many opportunities for entrepreneurs; with change always comes opportunity. But while entrepreneurs make the most of it when it comes, they don’t go out and seek it. Uncertainty and risk are to be minimised! You calculate and predict what level of risk you’re comfortable with. An independent Scotland was an uncertain future with too many unknowns. While the short-term pain would have been great, with who-knows-what bureaucratic minefields to traverse, the long-term I think was compelling. Instead of protecting what we have right now, it was about a better future for Scotland.

Instead, the no vote was all about fear, and as a Scot living overseas I was in a comfortable position with little to fear. A new passport maybe? I was able to think about what Scotland could be. Not looking to its past, but the potential of its future. It was no surprise to me that a majority of 16 and 17 year olds voted for independence. With 5 or 6 years more of free education ahead of them, they would be insulated from whatever negative effects might occur in the job market short-term and would be just entering the workforce once the dust had settled.

In the end, the vote was to stay part of the UK. But, while not everyone will rejoice the outcome, we can all celebrate the astonishing turnout of around 85%. The people of Scotland have been heard!

I look forward to the future, and to see what happens next: the major British parties have pledged to give even more powers to the Scottish Parliament. Maybe that will that be enough to keep the Union together, but I somehow doubt it. I think it’s got to the point now where the only thing that might work for the long-term is a completely new federal solution for the United Kingdom. I don’t see politicians having the courage to go down that route. The fundamental problem is the UK is a union of four countries which is dominated by just one of them. It’s clear that the current set up is unfair to all parties and a fully federal solution would probably be a lot better for Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland, but would it be fairer for England? These and other mind-numbing questions will gobble up hours of airtime, and many column inches.

I don’t know about other entrepreneurs, but I’ll be keeping my head down. I can do without the frustration! But I’ll be keeping an eye on this issue a lot more closely from now on, and I’ll continue looking for opportunities wherever they arise, and whatever the politics of the day.

Death By NDA? How An Innocent Contract Can Stifle Entrepreneurship

Victor W. Hwang — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 12:37:00 GMT

We sign them all the time. They usually seem harmless. They’re often considered just a matter of custom. However, they can be far more harmful to entrepreneurial ecosystems than they appear on the surface.

I’m talking about nondisclosure agreements—NDAs. They are a common tool of business between parties who want to share sensitive information. I was recently quoted in The New York Times about NDAs, and I got a number of responses about it. Here’s the quote:

Each time an N.D.A. is signed, it stalls the conversation for a week because of the legal work involved, Mr. Hwang said, and over time, that can give a competitor the opportunity to enter a market first. “In the life of a start-up company,” he said, “you might have to sign 30 to 50 N.D.A.s. That’s a week each time and a year of holdups. The risk of going slow is bigger than the risk of being copied.”

Guillotine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let me provide some nuance missing from this extract. Yes, NDAs have an important purpose. But there’s a big difference between Silicon Valley and most other places when it comes to how and when NDAs are used. In the Valley, startups rarely sign them when beginning a relationship with someone, like a possible employee, partner, investor, or consultant. NDAs can come later, after a working relationship has started, when things need to get deeper.

In other geographies, however, it’s often different. My firm does a lot of work in ecosystems across the U.S. and the world. We find that NDAs are usually the norm for everything. Startups sometimes won’t give you the time of day without an NDA already signed, sealed, and delivered before a conversation even starts.

Why the difference? What does it mean for entrepreneurial ecosystems? I’ve discovered that the use of NDAs can be a useful thermometer for the health of an ecosystem. Allow me to explain.

Contracts 101

Contracts are not just contracts. As every first-year law student learns, they are tools for overcoming distrust. They can outline what is expected from each party when the future is uncertain. They can allocate responsibilities and costs.

Disputes may arise, that’s life. Someone doesn’t deliver what they promised to deliver. Someone doesn’t pay what they agreed to pay. Contracts can hold parties accountable. Timing, methods, costs, who, where, when—contracts are useful tools for aligning expectations, allocating risk, and most importantly building trust.

But NDAs are a special sort of contract. By their very existence, they implicitly announce that a handshake is not good enough. They basically say, “I don’t trust you.”

This matters because distrust is the silent killer of innovation. When parties ask for NDAs too early, it can stifle relationships before they are born. Or they can slow down relationships for extra days, weeks, even months. They can add suspicion and sow the seeds of disharmony later.

In the aggregate, over the life of a startup, lots of NDAs can build up and create an aggregate drag. Startups don’t usually die from hammer blows; they die deaths of a thousand cuts. Think about it. If you have to sign 50 NDAs in the early life of a startup, and each one takes a week to sign, you have just lost 350 days in the life of your company. And speed is the lifeblood of startups.

The restrained use of NDAs by startups is one of those little advantages that makes the Valley the Valley. The norm emerged not as a way for venture capitalists or corporations to take advantage of startups (although that does happen sometimes), but rather as a way for startups to move faster. In order to succeed, entrepreneurs must rally a series of hundreds of prospective partners, employees, customers, suppliers, investors, providers, etc. For startups, apathy is often the worst enemy. When the task is so great, and speed so crucial, it’s more efficient when handshakes can substitute for formally written contracts.

Most ideas aren’t that original anyway. It’s the execution of the ideas that makes the difference. As Michael Dell of Dell Computers once said: “Ideas are a commodity. Execution of them is not.” Worrying needlessly about giving away your idea can make you look like a paranoid amateur.

Furthermore, NDAs are not that easy to enforce anyways. W. Scott Blackmer, an IT lawyer, writes about NDAs: “Litigation over NDAs can be costly, public, and ultimately unsatisfactory to the party claiming a breach, especially if it is hard to prove the intended scope of the agreement and the actual source of the information.”

This is not to say that NDAs don’t have their place. As relationships progress and some basic trust has been established, an NDA might be appropriate, particularly when technical details and proprietary secrets come into play. When discussions begin to revolve seriously around how to bring ideas to implementation, pulling that NDA out of the drawer might be a good move.

Mobile Carriers: Stop Crippling Android With Your Annoying Bloatware

Scott Allison — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 23:20:00 GMT

I love Android, particularly the latest release, KitKat. It’s come a long way from my first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 (the one with the weird flip out QWERTY keyboard). My current Android phone – the Motorola X – is superb, with a stunning display, great camera and a gigantic unified memory for all my apps, music and photos. But I only bought it because my previous Android phone became practically unusable after 3 months of ownership. Why? Because of this annoying message: Insufficient Storage Available.

I bought that phone in November last year and by February of this year it was basically useless. Despite saying there was hundreds of megabytes of usable space left in the phone’s internal memory it would not allow me to install (or update) apps.

While my smartphones are always Android, for my tablet I’ve had iPads since the very first one came out. iOS just “works” here. You can install as many as you like and you never have to worry until your device’s memory is used up. Since iOS devices have at least 16Gb of storage, there’s a lot of room for apps.

So what’s up with Android? Most Android phones allow you to plug in an SD card to massively expand your storage space. Unfortunately apps generally can’t be installed on external cards. So that leaves you with the phone’s internal memory, usually pretty meagre. And prior to version 4 of the operating system, Android would split the phone’s internal storage into two; another constraint. But adding insult to injury, carriers and manufacturers then install “bloatware”. In return for a fee from the app developer (how much?) they will include that app as standard. I don’t particular mind about this, but what I really object to is that this bloatware cannot be removed. You are stuck with it! Picture me swearing at the phone, and shouting “You didn’t tell me when I bought the phone it was going to be hobbled!”

I dug out a very old Android phone I had as a spare. This phone from three years ago had 512Mb of internal storage, but only around 150MB available for apps. Precious space is taken up by a whole bunch of apps from Google, Facebook, Twitter and carrier apps like “My T-Mobile“. App developers for their part don’t help matters: when this phone was first purchased, these apps were just a few megabytes in size, but once you update them to the latest version and start using them, they massively increase in size. Facebook and Chrome both balloon to around 100Mb.

My LG Optimus F6 had 1Gb for applications, but within a few months I started getting the warning message. I slowly pared back the apps until it got to the point I was deleting apps that I really wanted and/or needed. It was time to give up, despite the fact I was very happy with the phone overall. I was hesitant to buy another Android, but I’m glad I did: the Motorola X I have now has no external storage, and a massive 32Gb of internal memory, and as far as I know that can all be used for apps if required. (It also had virtually no bloatware as I bought it off-contract).

Closing thoughts…

If you’re stuck with an Android phone and “Insufficient Storage”, there’s a few things you can do as a workaround, but believe me, I tried them all, and it only put off slightly the time until I had to abandon the phone altogether.

If you’re a carrier or manufacturer, shame on you! Stop this policy of install bloatware, or at least allow people to uninstall it.

If you’re selecting your next phone, it’s probably a good idea to choose one that doesn’t have an external memory card slot. Ironically enough, the attraction of a phone with this handy capability is probably going to harm your overall experience rather than add to it.

Screenshot from my new Android phone, with plenty of memory left. But that’s not the experience most people are having with their phone.

Growth Hacking Distribution For Your Startup

Scott Allison — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 19:50:00 GMT

Every startup wants to grow big and grow fast, so it was no surprise that a conference this week in San Francisco about growth and distribution for startups was standing-room only. I’m so done with tech conferences, but was very glad I got to go to this one. It was full of amazing, actionable advice. (My dislike of tech conferences is the general unfocused nature of many of them which are nothing more than a party and chance to network. Nothing wrong with that per se, it’s just gets old quick.)

So here’s my summary of some of the best bits from 500 Startups one day conference, “Weapons of Mass Distribution“.

James Currier urged us to “change your thinking of the product”. As founders we get so caught up in what we think our product is, but you need to think about the psychology of the user. Ask the questions, “What do they think it is?” and “Why do they use it?”. Once you tap into this you can use emotional hooks in your language. Jean-Denis Greze from Dropbox reinforced that by saying, “Don’t forget that there are fundamental human problems to people understanding your app.” If you’ve ever been pitched someone’s startup idea, how often have you been confused as to what it is? The biggest successes are usually the simplest to describe; I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

Sean Ellis – introduced as the “original growth hacker” thanks to his work over the last ten years in this field – gave the advice to “focus on people who LOVE the product”. You’ll learn more from them because they already get it instead of listening to the people who say, “I would use your product, but….”. You can use Sean’s free tool to survey your user base and see how close you are to product/market fit. This will correlate to word-of-mouth, the single most powerful tool of growth. Perhaps your product is awesome, but you don’t describe it in the same way as your users who “get it”. Ask them, “How do you describe our product to another person?”. Take those insights and update your copy as it can have a dramatic effect.

Gustaf Alströmer from airbnb made a fantastic point: Very few features touch non-users so working on features in the product won’t help the funnel. I think that’s a key insight. I translate that as once you know the product is good enough, focus on spreading the word. I’ve seen entrepreneurs do one of two things: 1. Spending time making an already “good enough” product even better assuming that will win them more users (not really because it doesn’t matter how awesome your product is if no one has heard of it). 2. Spending time trying to grow a product that’s not valuable, not solving a problem, or just not understood by customers. You’re not at product/market and no amount of growth hacking is going to fix that.

Brian Balfour, Hubspot told us that “growth is the sum of very small things”. No use looking for silver bullets, but cumulatively a lot of small tactics used together will win over the long-term. Think of compound interest! Since you don’t know what will work for your product before you try then be prepared for failure. Maximise learning.

Jean-Denis Greze from Dropbox told us that some things were just really hard to do, like reactivating dormant users or making your product awesome by changing a button color. By contrast, some things are much easier, so focus on those. His advice focus on channels that are doing well and trying to make them even better. Or going from “nothing to something”, so introducing your first email reminders is more productive than trying to optimize those. Holly Liu reminded us us to think of all the elements you can grow: Acquisition, Retention, Engagement and Monetization. Again, back to compounding, if you do something to grow all these areas the effect will be dramatic. Everyone talked about the importance of analytics and metrics, and you’ll want to measure a few that tie in to your business objectives. Maybe user growth is more important to you than monetization. If so your key metrics should reflect that.

A final thought from me: while a product manager may be the most intimate with the analytics, everyone in the company should be aware of the key metrics and how they are performing. How do you share this information? Screens on the office walls are one way to do it; don’t forget about a simple email sent once a day to everyone. Fundamentally people are lazy, so push the information out. People will read it, and start looking forward to getting them. The reward endorphin rush of seeing the numbers going up. (And when they don’t it might prompt your team to start looking into why).

All the slides and videos from the conference have been posted online.

How To ‘Do’ Better Meetings

Scott Allison — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 04:09:00 GMT

Yes, meetings. The bane of every professional’s life! They say the secret to a good meeting is to have a clear agenda, shared in advance, and with outcomes in mind. In reality though it’s hard to do: People arrive late, and even if you sent out an email beforehand, there’s no guarantee anyone’s read it.

That’s where Do comes in. It’s a new SaaS tool to manage your meetings, set agendas, create notes in real-time, distribute minutes at the end, and track outcomes and action items. I’ve been struggling along without this for years, and I was lucky enough to test it pre-launch. It’s awesome.

Before now the best I came up with was putting notes in the calendar invite, and then using a Google Doc during the meeting to record the minutes and action items. But, although it worked, it was clunky.

Do offers an integration with the calendar inside Google Apps. So every one of my appointments now has a link to Do. I click that, and it takes me into the scratchpad for that meeting. Here anyone attending the meeting can add to the agenda, update notes during the meeting, or record action items. Those action items can be assigned to other people, and they can update it in real time as well. At the end of the meeting Do automatically emails all attendees the output of the meeting, along with your action items highlighted. At the start of the day it sends you a summary of your upcoming meetings too. It’s dealing with the pain you experience before, during and after meetings! It also integrates with Evernote, which I think is a smart move as I think a lot of people have been using that to solve meeting pain until this came along.

One of the impressive things about Do is its pedigree. It’s got a fantastic name, thank to Salesforce being a minority investor in the startup. Do.com was used for years by the Salesforce-owned product of the same name. That was a (rather good) project management application which unfortunately Salesforce decided to shut down. With a killer domain name something had to be done, so Salesforce partnered with SherpaFoundry, a strategic advisory firm led by Tina Sharkey, connected to SherpaVentures, which was founded by well-known investors Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford in 2013. With a great domain name they needed a great team to do something with it, and so it was a natural pairing for former Yammer product manager Jason Shah. Jason is pretty well known for his udemy course, “How To Get a Job As a Product Manager“.

Do has a great name, beautiful design and a product that’s definitely helping to solve a big problem. One of the clever things they know is that the biggest barrier to the adoption of productivity tools is that difficulty of changing user behaviour. I really think they have a good chance of success, as it’s easy to use, and the deep calendar integration means there’s little the user has to do. They’re focusing on mid to large sized companies using Google Apps for the moment, and accepting sign ups for their beta as of today.

One last thing that caught my eye, and gave me a chuckle: the company name behind Do is “ReDo, Inc.” A nice little nod to this domain name being re-born!

What’s The Secret Of Secret’s Success? Seven Deadly Sins Inside One Mobile App

Scott Allison — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:40:00 GMT

The seven deadly sins: wrath, avarice, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. I’ve heard investors like Reid Hoffman, Tim Chang and Dave McClure all say that they look for some of these elements in a startup’s product as a prerequisite to investing. Secret – the anonymous social app – may be the first app that hits all of these. If you will, it’s the Heinz ketchup of the social web.

Secret says it’s a place where you can be yourself: “Secret is a space to openly share what you’re thinking and feeling with your friends. Speak freely, share anything.”

I know what you’re thinking. It sounds terrible. “Surely there’s plenty of places online for people to do that!” Look at any forum or comments on youtube and there’s no shortage of trolling going on. But what’s really interesting is that when everyone is anonymous you focus on the message itself. People make assumptions on Secret all the time about whether the OP (original poster) is male, female, gay, straight, black, white, etc, but frequently these assumptions turn out to be wrong as the conversation develops in the comments. Of course there are trolls on Secret too, but as one wit put it, “Secret: where the anonymous trolls are your FRIENDS”.

Clearly some Secret’s are lies, or exaggerated, or deliberately outrageous, but I find there’s always something of interest, along with some wicked humour.

The main reason people are flocking to it seems to be the ability for you to say whatever you want. Throughout life we self-censor, we say we’re fine when we’re not, and we project an image of ourselves on social media that’s more the person we want to be than the person we really are. In the entrepreneurial world, CEOs and founders frequently complain of being alone. They always have to put on a brave face and I’ve seen great discussions on Secret where a founder has shared that there’s almost no cash left in the bank and that they would soon have no choice but to lay off all the employees and shut down their company. The person described themselves as terrified. For obvious reasons you couldn’t share that on Twitter or Facebook. There’s been amazing discussions on depression and suicide too.

I’ve been saving some of the best insights I’ve seen on Secret about Secret and I’ve posted them below:

Secret launched in February, and closed a $10 million series A a month later. Since then it’s expanded from just the U.S. App Store, to be available globally and on Android as well. I’ve seen the volume of secrets being shared and comments dramatically increasing week by week. A lot of people are saying how Twitter now seems boring by comparison, and that their social media time is now tipping towards Secret. Will it last? I have no idea, but I’m fascinated to see how this plays out.

Final thought… as it’s grown there has been a rise I think in negativity and trolling. Lots of people say “This is my last Secret, I’m about to uninstall”. But I’ve also seen a lot of “I’m back” postings too. If you love Secret at it’s best where people are supportive helping people talk through their fears and worries – but can’t take the negative stuff – check out Daily Muses instead. It’s a pseudo-anonymous app where fun and positivity is the norm, but without any of the snark of Secret.

Why Entrepreneurship is Like Love

Marissa Feinberg — Mon, 19 May 2014 18:37:00 GMT

We built it. With our bare hands. A space where do-good dreams come true.

One popular formula to growing companies is creating a “hockey stick” effect: launch your company, build a buzz, grow a user base, meet with investors, show your impact, and take on the partner with the best resources to grow your vision. My friend and advisor Graham Hill, Founder of LifeEdited, first told me that, yet I had different ideas.

Soul Sisters

For me, business was about friendship and fun. My cofounder Jennie Nevin and I were a dynamic duo. We pounded the pavement, hit up events, shared radical ideas with anyone who would listen, and got to know every changemaker in town. Without trying, we created a city-wide buzz about Green Spaces NY and supported movements for the environment, collaborative work, social innovation, and entrepreneurship. We rallied support, connected leaders, threw parties and fostered community for a new economy.

Left to right: Marissa Feinberg, Jennie Nevin. Credit Parris Whittingham.

Home Sweet Home

Jennie became a sister, and the members our cousins, with favorite aunts and nutty uncles in between. Roberto Rhett, our scrappy partner, added the signature visual to our space: rustic wooden shipping pallets as cozy dividers between our premium desks, providing a sense of personalized space without boxing off members in cubicles. The family’s elders loved it. This was when we learned how changes we made impacted the community. Just like when Facebook suddenly changes the layout of your homepage, some members protested our “farm” and “pig pens”. Fortunately, the distinct look and function of the palettes became intrinsic and appreciated.

Credit Parris Whittingham

Legacy

As one of the first collaborative workspaces in New York City, we marketed the “coworking” concept—which no one heard before. After tweaking website messaging and giving hundreds of tours, people got it and broke the mold. We hosted more than 100 events in our first year. During the first two years, we were home to more than 500 entrepreneurs.

In 2010, we hit a wall. And it was a lot more like the exposed brick one that lined the 75-foot wall of our space than a soft wooden pallet. With management changes and a lack of operational expertise, we plateaued. We lost trust in one another and our family split. Jennie and Roberto moved on. To pick up the pieces, I turned back to friends and advisors.

The Rules

“It’s like dating,” said Graham. “Meet with investors. Play it cool.” I needed to look for people who would love and understand Green Spaces like I did and would truly invest in us.

Not new to dating, but definitely to entrepreneurship, I didn’t quite get it.

I spread the word that I was seeking support for Green Spaces NY to like-minded friends and connectors. After some investment plans fell through, a little heartbroken and lonely for my original team, I considered moving on. Even though I was at a shared space surrounded by amazing people, I’d never felt so alone.

Disconnected

I hired stellar Community Manager, Eva Navon, and got a job at a PR and marketing firm, representing environmental organizations. Escaping the startup world and returning to my core skills, my hiatus felt like a vacation. However, while I loved the causes, I had clients I never met. I pitched issues I learned about from watching videos. I yearned for personal connection with the fierce entrepreneurs walking by my desk every day. Instead, I was in a real cubicle, separated from the exciting place that used to be the pulse of NYC innovation.

Less than six months later, I came home to Green Spaces with a fire to make it work. I picked up where I left off and focused my storytelling on our social innovators. I roped in cutting-edge organizations and featured incredible industry leaders to speak at our events. Hosting three and five-year anniversary parties, we were back on an upward hockey stick, making do-good noise on everyone’s radar.

Credit Parris Whittingham

A New Family

In that time, many more coworking spaces had come to town, and I sized up the competition protectively. Focusing inward, Eva and I maintained close relationships with our members and cultivated a truly vibrant community that has been with us for an average of three years. With a refreshed, strong family, we were rock solid and other spaces weren’t relevant to our bottom line. In fact, the more people buzzed about, “coworking,” the more people sought out and found us, making us ready to grow.

Idea Bounce Lunches

Growing Pains

Green Spaces was pulsing with energy, but there were challenges, too. The rising cost of real estate plagued us. We knew our lease would end soon and it would be time to renegotiate. We got an extension while trying to find a solution. We increased our membership prices, which our members lovingly tolerated as they knew we had to make it work.

We explored options like expanding to additional floors, spreading out our operating costs, but we didn’t want to grow without a strong partner.

Playing Hard to Get

In May of 2013, I got a text message from Michael Cox, Managing Director of Hub Cities, which aimed to create new Impact Hubs throughout North America.

He and I had been in touch before, but I didn’t think anything had come of it. When I sent him emails to check in, I wasn’t getting much back. Was he playing hard to get? I didn’t know, so I played it cool. Everyone said we should meet each other, so I didn’t understand the resistance.

When we finally sat down for coffee, it was love at first sight. Michael was a warm and intelligent presence and he truly understood how to collaborate. In our next meeting, I met their board chair, Penelope Douglas, a vibrant, trailblazing woman who said she wished she could hand me a plane ticket to San Francisco. What a great second date!

The One

Visiting Impact Hub Bay Area was like looking at a reflection of the past six years of my life. They did what we did, but also in 50 other cities around the world. Not only did they have the magnitude, they had a culture that people of all origins adopted and made their own. If there was one family where I knew our baby would grow and thrive, Impact Hub was definitely the one.

Reverence

Credit Parris Whittingham

I contemplated what this would mean for Green Spaces NY for many months. Michael must have thought I was playing games. I pictured Green Spaces signage coming down and new Impact Hub logos everywhere. Would my team, members, friends, advisors, partner organizations and larger community approve? Green Spaces has many long-term members and champions of our brand and space (we affectionately called them our “mascots”). I had a lot of consulting to do. I played and replayed conversations in my mind, mustering up the courage to have “the talks.”

Tying the Knot

I never knew how difficult it was to merge with another organization. One hundred moving parts must fall into place. As entrepreneurs, we listen to startup success stories. Sometimes, it sounded easy. Just one of the stressors was negotiating a real-estate deal with our current landlord, a factor that felt beyond our control.

For nearly six months, Impact Hub US co-founder Tim Freundlich and I kept picking up the pieces after tough conversations. Despite the ups and downs, we’d find a way to pull through. “It’s fated,” he said, an eloquent and welcoming way to approach the process. With his and Michael’s strength and reassurance, the timing was right and we were strong enough, ready for the right partner to grow.

Sharing the News

When we were certain that plans would move forward, we quietly reached out to our inner circle. The seconds before the news escaped my lips were the hardest. Would my friends and business partners understand? How would they react?

I was relieved to hear responses like, “that makes a lot of sense,” or “it’s about time!” I was thrilled and grateful for the excitement around this new transition. When people echoed the enthusiasm, it made all the difference in the world.

Family 3.0

The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. I got to know many Hubbers from around the world. Each person was happy to meet us, hear our story, and welcome us aboard. For the first time, I felt like I fit in at a larger organization. There was an immediate feeling of family or familiarity amongst my colleagues. We discovered countless synergies and instances of overlap amongst our communities. We’d marvel at these coincidences, which were indeed, “fated.”

Moving in Together

On Our New, Sixth Floor

This has been the biggest challenge. It’s mid-May, and we have two new floors to fill, with a third ready in June. Our members have started easing into their new digs. While members understand our desire to grow and become part of a global community, we have shifted their environments. We have gone from kitschy green-chic to a modern feel. Our new 6th floor couldn’t be more beautiful with its skylights and soft colors, but we have 100 operational kinks to work out, from setting up private offices, which we never had before, to new access key cards and printers.

Settling In

To fuel this transition, we have new leadership. Phil Gaskin, Impact Hub’s east coast director, is committed to supporting our growth at this critical time. Kevin Jones is acting as king connector, bringing dots together from across regions. Leigh Rodwick is heading up a new marketing team, with communications person Megan McFadden coming to the east coast to champion our members. I’ve learned about the culture from Impact Hub Bay Area veterans like Jon Axtell, leading partnerships. General Manager Jennifer Nice has been sending her staff across the country to help, including Eos de Feminis leading operations, among others. Impact Hub Bay Area has a loyal cult following that comes from a real place of stewardship, and the whole team is sharing their expertise with us.

Our New, Sixth Floor

What Love Means

Ultimately, it’s not about us or our space. It’s about our community and how it gels, collaborates, vibes, and continues to thrive. It’s about the change our members make and how we support their efforts. Our biggest challenge will be to grow while keeping the intimacy of what we started. We must maintain personal relationships with our members and outside community even as we triple in size. We must evolve our culture to become one with a larger global entity. We must be connectors of social innovators across across the globe. It’s a huge challenge, yet we work extremely hard everyday to make it the best it can be.

Late last Friday, Eva and I, our mascot Laura, and new host Keaton sat amongst piles of boxes, stacks of tables, and containers of Chinese food. Around the massive wood table that had been in the center of our lounge for years, after an exhausting day of bewildering transition, we formed a kind of last supper. The original fifth floor, our home, would be emptied over the weekend to prepare for the final build out. It looked the same as when we first opened, with only a row of desks and handful of boxes to unpack.

Laura told us how fundamental our space had become to her network, daily experience, and professional progress; “a part of my identity.” For his part, Keaton felt honored to have joined us and vowed to be a steward of our legacy.

We talked about the impact we had on people’s lives… The organizations born, movements supported, collaborations sparked, and serendipities catalyzed. We knew we had an immeasurable local impact, and now it was time to take it to the next level.

Up to that night, I felt our biggest success stories were helping organizations raise funds. However, sitting aside my family, having come full circle and looking to the future, I knew it was this moment I would remember forever.

Innovation, American Entrepreneurs and the New Job Agenda

Terry Howerton — Wed, 14 May 2014 17:36:00 GMT

American ingenuity. It’s the stuff of lore and legend, and it’s what drives the global economy. We literally bank on the next disruptive entrepreneur — and innovative new technology — to completely redefine or create new industries. It’s what America does really well, our goose that continues to lay golden eggs.

And yet, maybe not.

The truth is that America’s startup engine is sputtering. The hope doesn’t always match the hype, and incubators, accelerators and entrepreneurial enclaves across the country are full of well-intentioned new products, if not real, scalable, game-changing innovation.

[tweet_quote display=”RT: @terryhowerton The truth: America’s startup engine is sputtering. 7 ways Washington could prime the innovation pump.”]The truth: America’s startup engine is sputtering. 7 ways Washington could prime the innovation pump.[/tweet_quote]

A February 2014 Kauffman Foundation study found the high-tech entrepreneurship rate peaked in the U.S. in 1982 – 32 years ago – when it represented 60% of all new firms. Today that rate has dropped by half. To be sure, there’s still an explosion of startups spreading across the country, and it’s cheaper, faster and easier than ever before to launch a new venture. But it’s also harder than ever before to succeed and scale, especially in a way that creates lots of jobs and lots of wealth for lots of people.

The condition of the nest – to belabor the analogy – does seriously impact that golden goose. Few American policy makers seem concerned about the conditions, particularly at the federal level.

Investors may love the idea of the capital efficient startup – a new venture that can launch and quickly grow big with as few people and resources as possible — but it’s so staggeringly rare that it’s barely a statistic. And when it does happen, the success of a venture like WhatsApp ($19b “value” with 55 employees) does relatively little to actually grow our common economy.

Innovation takes people, capital, research and development. It takes time and a big picture, long-term view. And it takes smart public policy that encourages and fosters those conditions. The political stalemate and gamesmanship in Washington has compromised America’s true drivers of entrepreneurship, innovation and our high-tech industry.

And yet both sides of the aisle talk about growth and jobs and new economic booms. Both parties talk about nurturing young, growing companies.

There really could be a common growth agenda in Washington, were it not mired in inaction and no sense of urgency. The consensus items are foolishly frozen as pawns in one or another political negotiation.

Align the education system to crank out more entrepreneurial-minded, tech-savvy kids

There’s a push in many states to include more coding, tech and design into secondary education, but computer literacy should be a part of the national discussion of basic competencies we expect of all kids. We need more specialized middle and high school technology programs. Becoming a great technologist takes about as much experience and knowledge as becoming a medical doctor, but those 10 to 12 years’ experience usually start in the family basement playing around with computers. More kids need access to start this learning path in more structured, supported programs.

[tweet_quote display=”RT: @terryhowerton Economy still produces far more high tech jobs than our relic of education system can fill”]While I’m arguing that overall American growth and innovation is in peril, it’s nonetheless true the anemic economy still produces far more high tech jobs each year than our relic of an education system is optimized to fill.[/tweet_quote]

Reopen America to the brightest, most motivated immigrant minds

More than 25% of all new businesses in America are started by immigrants, more than one-third of the venture backed companies that went public in the past six years, and for that matter, 40% of the Fortune 500, were all founded by immigrants. Our universities continue to attract the brightest minds around the world. Fifteen years ago we retained many of those minds in the United States. Today, those folks are increasingly educated here and then shown the door.

[tweet_quote display=”One third of the venture backed-companies that went public in past six years had immigrant founders.”]One third of the venture backed-companies that went public in past six years had immigrant founders.[/tweet_quote]

I’ve met very few politicians from either party who disagreed with stapling a green card to the diploma of a foreign born graduate in science, tech, engineering or math, yet it doesn’t happen. For every 1% increase in H1B STEM employment, there’s a 7% to 8% increase in wages for US workers. Yet the tiny allotment of H1B visas disappear each year within a matter of hours. Immigration reform is stalled by some Republicans in the House, and that inaction is strangling our ability to grow jobs and increase wages.

Invest into long-term, basic research

The innovations that drive American productivity and quality of life often originate in basic, government funded research. And while overall private sector research and development is woefully stagnant, the situation is even worse in long-term basic research funded by the tax payers, a mounting crisis that will reverberate for generations. Increases in basic government research in the United States accounted for as much as 50 percent of US economic growth between 1950 and 1993 (and that doesn’t include the internet driven growth of the past 20 years, an innovation that would not exist but for government funded research). And yet we’re dramatically underfunding research today.

[tweet_quote display=”There’s a long-term crisis in short-term thinking, and R&D spending has to return.”]There’s a long-term crisis in short-term thinking, and R&D spending has to return.[/tweet_quote]

Smarter tax policy could also be linked to encourage investors that support early-stage R&D and dedicate themselves to long-term research projects, not just quick, short-term gains. An Ernst & Young study of R&D Partnership Structures (a bipartisan idea that’s bouncing around Capitol Hill) suggests the idea would increase investment by an estimated $10.3 billion per year, and create 150,000 new jobs in short order.

Focus on growing new, small, fast growing companies

The House of Representatives just passed a much needed research and development tax credit, but it does very little to impact young, growing companies. Most new ventures (the ones where the vast majority of new jobs are created in America) don’t yet have much income tax liability. If you want to free up capital for real job growth, support ideas like the Startup Innovation Credit Act, which would allow small businesses to offset payroll tax liabilities.

[tweet_quote display=”If entrepreneurs & young companies create most new jobs, why do tax incentives help only big companies?”]If entrepreneurs and young companies create most of the new jobs, why are all the tax incentives targeting only the big companies?[/tweet_quote]

Fix, don’t tweak, the patent system and frivolous abuse

Patent litigation reform to curb abusive tactics is critical, but it starts with a more effective patent office that has the proper resources to evaluate and issue valid patents in the first place. The cost of frivolous litigation is suffocating innovation, especially among small companies, but so, too, is the timing and process young companies must go through to get valid patents.

[tweet_quote display=”Among many startups, the very concept of patent protection is coming to be seen as a hindrance.”]Among many startups, the very concept of patent protection is coming to be seen as a hindrance.[/tweet_quote]

Help American companies reinvest into America’s future

Big US-based, multi-national companies (including many in the tech industry) have about $2 trillion trapped offshore, avoiding repatriation under one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. Democrats are skeptical that a reduced rate or tax holiday would result in the kinds of reinvestment into American growth that big companies promise, so nothing happens. Smart corporate tax reform could include incentives to reinvestment that capital into innovation, venture growth and national infrastructure. It’s not an intractable problem, but Washington hasn’t been up to the challenge.

[tweet_quote display=”Reward American shareholders for reinvesting into innovation, ventures and national infrastructure.”]Reward American shareholders for reinvesting into innovation, ventures and national infrastructure.[/tweet_quote]

Turn over the giant asset of open data to jumpstart new markets

We’re entering an exciting time for data, analytics and opportunities for increased insight and efficiency. Open data projects will result in smarter, more responsive and transparent government, there should be a national push to make more government records and data available across all departments. The innovative ideas and insight that could come from releasing that incredible asset to entrepreneurs would no doubt spawn new industries.

[tweet_quote display=”Open government data across all agencies and unleash an incredible asset to innovation.”]Open government data across all agencies and unleash an incredible asset to innovation.[/tweet_quote]

Most of the priorities above aren’t particularly political or divisive issues. These are all job and growth creating policies. The list is far from complete. Some are just basic common sense. Voters in every region of the country would benefit from their impact, and that would mean every politician would enjoy the credit along with their thanks. The only thing missing is for Washington to think and act more like the entrepreneurs they celebrate.

How To Clear Out Your Inbox Faster: Categorize Your Emails

Samantha Smith — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:55:00 GMT

Here are a few ways to categorize and tackle your overflowing inbox.

Type of Email: Long, quality, and thoughtfully written
Problem: Not enough immediate time to process and meaningfully reply
How to Answer: Reply immediately expressing your thanks and intention to slowly put all the information to use. Follow up with an update as you can or in person. By sending the thank you immediately, you never look bad for taking too long to get back to the sender.

Type of Email: Tens of random, not overly important notes or asks
Problem: Time consuming and not urgent
How to Answer: Don’t let these emails stew. These are the emails where a simpler reply than you think is needed, and will be enough. Replies to these types of emails might be better if you hyperlinked something or if you could find the right person’s name that you’re thinking of, but shipping the reply even if it’s not perfect, is better than no reply. Try to do a rapid-fire session and answer a ton of these emails after lunch or on Saturday mornings.

Type of Email: Miscellaneous emails from strangers, or emails you’d rather not have to answer
Problem: You don’t have time to help or meaningfully reply; or, you have the time, but investing that time elsewhere is more meaningful for you
How to Answer: Rather than ignore their email, take 1 minute to respectfully decline and say you can’t do what they are asking. If what they are asking would be well received by someone else, mention that.

General Rules of Email:
Acknowledge. If something is sent to you and you need time to execute, aren’t sure about your schedule yet, or simply don’t have the time to do something, just let the person know this. It’s better conduct by you for the sender, otherwise they’re in the dark wondering why you haven’t replied.
Do Something. For non-priority, not core to your work emails, just get something back to the sender. They’ll appreciate it, and you won’t feel overwhelmed with so many emails sitting that you know you can do something about. Just do something simple enough to get the email out of your inbox.
Say No. You choose what gets your time, and your inbox should not be a place where people get to take your time from you. Opt in to what makes sense and say sorry to those that aren’t the best use of your time, or communicate that you do not have capacity.
5-minute rule, by Adam Grant. If it takes you 5 minutes or less, help the person.

The Responsive Organization: Coping With New Technology And Disruption

Scott Allison — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 11:15:00 GMT

Over 30 years ago Tom Peters studied “excellent” companies and observed what made them so in the management classic In Search of Excellence. One paragraph stuck out to me:

We need new language. We need to consider adding terms to our management vocabulary: a few might be temporary structures, ad hoc groups, fluid organizations, small is beautiful, incrementalism, experimentation, action orientation, imitations, lots of tries, unjustified variations, internal competition, playfulness, the technology of foolishness, product champions, bootlegging, skunk works, cabals and shadow organizations. Each of these turns the tables on conventional wisdom. Each implies both the absence of clear direction and the simultaneous need for action. More important still, we need new metaphors and models to stitch these terms together into a sensible, coherent, memorable whole.

What I think he is describing then is best described now by the term “Responsive Organization“.

But if it was known to Tom Peters and his readers 30 years ago – albeit without a single snappy name – why the urgency now? Because, thanks to technology, the pace has changed. Incumbents can be disrupted quickly, from new technology that enables a new way of doing business. Venture Capitalist Marc Andreessen coined the phrase, that “software is eating the world”, and this is evidenced by new startups disrupting and cannibalizing well entrenched players in big markets. Great examples would be Uber for transportation, airbnb for accommodation and Amazon for just about everything.

From the manifesto, there are a number of shifts that characterize a Responsive Org:

From efficiency to responsiveness.

From hierarchies to networks.

From controlling to empowering.

From extrinsic rewards to intrinsic motivation.

From offices and office hours to the ability to work anytime and anywhere.

From “customers and partners” to a “community”.

Jack Welch said: “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.”

In this new always-on world things are moving faster than ever, and customers now have more power than ever. Thanks to the internet we have easy access to information whether it’s Wikipedia or crowdsourced wisdom from online review sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor which tell us where to eat, shop or stay. Suddenly, companies that aren’t open, listening, learning and experimenting get eclipsed and they don’t know what hit them; look at BlackBerry.

Microsoft was protected by having a monopoly, and the slow pace of innovation. The number one thing that’s killing them is the switch from long product development cycles for on-prem and installed software to the rapid iteration of cloud. Microsoft isn’t set up to cope with that. They missed the mark with tablets ten years ago and when Apple did it right they sought to catch up. Their attempt to overtake Apple is unfortunately too clever by half. They are trying to build a single category killing product: it’s a PC and a tablet. The end result is that’s it not good for either purpose.

But technology is not just a threat to companies, it enables much of the internal change which allows companies to be more responsive:

You can use an enterprise social network like Yammer to break down layers of management and enable more open dialog. An ESN enables frequent informal communication. You don’t have to write a formal email and you don’t have to know the other person. In an ESN serendipity rules. By speeding up communication and breaking down barriers between all levels in the org the catalyst for change happens.

You can use Twitter, Facebook, Get Satisfaction, or Survey Monkey to have an immediate conversation with or get feedback from your community.

You can use the internet, tablets and laptops to allow employees to work more flexibly, whether in the office, out on the road with clients, or working from home.

You can use a SaaS product like RecognizeApp to help motivate and praise employees.

You can use a SaaS product like Jive to create communities of customers, users and employees.

For more on the Responsive Org movement, watch this talk by Yammer’s cofounder Adam Pisoni:

A Guide To Evaluate Your Priorities & Set Goals

Samantha Smith — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Setting goals isn’t something you should do because it’s a new year. Goals should be continuously created as you think of them and revised quarterly if not after changes and other impactful moments. Goals do not all have to be new crazy far off ideas. Most of them should be reflections to improve habits and reinforce your ideal situation or vision of yourself and your accomplishments. You can use the new year to re-prioritize and flush out the old though.

Below is an outline for organizing your goals. Context is in italics and examples for topics are underlined. To start, the points under “Guidelines” will help frame a structure for thinking.

Edit away and make it your own. I recommend you keep your goals in Evernote (download on your desktop and the app for your phone and tablet) so that you can reference them weekly. I hand write all of my goals into the front of each new notebook I use (you can print and tape…). Rewriting lets me rethink and edit my goals quarterly, as well as keep them fresh in my mind. Print your work goals out and tack them to your desk and email them to your team. Sharing your intentions will help you be successful and improve communication.

Guidelines:

First think through the past year and specifically the past three months. Jot down what you want to maintain, improve, and change across your Personal Life, Fitness & Health, Relationships, Personal Finance, & Work (feel free to change these, we will call them “pillars”)

These first notions should be the cores of your goals.

If you said something like “lower stress” you might translate that into a specific goal that is a fun solution to combat stress.

If you wrote down “improve communication at work” you might create a specific goal that asks for a bi-weekly check in to keep your responsibilities clear and gain more feedback.

Ideally there is a rooted reason for each goal you set, as this will naturally allow you to see the benefits of the goal more vividly and thereby help you stick to your goals and achieve them

Confirm your “Pillars” (default below is Personal Life, Fitness & Health, Relationships, Personal Finance, & Work) and feel free to change the topics underlined below each now and over time.

Take the larger notions that you want to see maintained, improved and changed from the first bullet point and categorize them under the topics. Then, use the extra topics to remind yourself and percolate on other goals to add.

After you have general notions that you want to change under each topic (maybe a few under the same topic), make those notions into more specific goals that have quantities, expiration dates, specific qualities, etc.

Next, make each goal as actionable as possible. You might spend two hours today researching, setting calendar reminders, asking and emailing friends for advice or recommendations, buying a book or two, registering for something, asking a mentor how to change a habit, etc.

Look at the overall characteristic of your goals collectively. Is there enough adventure and fun? Are there enough true challenges? Do these goals match the time you actually have? Do they reflect who you are and aim to be? Etc.

The point of this outline is to walk you through thinking of the things you’d like, setting a goal you understand that is clear and actionable, and then immediately setting yourself up for success.

Bear with me…

Examples:

If you want to be more present in your relationships and work conversations, think about what you need to change to do so, and then what habits you can practice to execute that vision. If there is something to practice, when will you practice it and with who?

If you want to run a marathon, find one right now, and put a deadline on signing up and coordinating with friends in your calendar, right now.

If you want to host a wine tasting in June, choose dates and set a google cal reminder to send a doodle as the desired date approaches.

If there is something you want to learn, write the names of people you know (search for them now) that can be your first point of contact to map out what and how to learn it. Decide how often you will study or practice and where. Think about your schedule and what needs to change or when you are most likely to do this.

An additional tactic to add in below each topic is outlined below:

1) Goal: XYZ

Daily Action to start toward the goal:

What needs to change/get cut to make room for success

Finally … here’s the outline to copy, paste and fill in:

Best tips for executing my goals:
(Things to keep in good habit that support you in achieving goals, so you can fall back to these if you need to get back on track. Examples below):

bed by 12am

set calendar alerts

try and front load the week

couple goals with close friends

1) Personal

A Crucial Litmus Test for Every Entrepreneur, Forever

Marissa Feinberg — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:20:00 GMT

We all know ideas are a dime a dozen. So how do you know if your idea is worth pursuing?

My b-school friends say that a good vetting question is, “Does your idea solve a pain?” I completely agree but, as an entrepreneur who wants to change the world, I need much more than Advil.

Meet Paul Polizzotto, Innovator and Social Entrepreneur

At the launch of CBS EcoMedia's WellnessAd and EducationAd programs. (Left to right): Anthony G. Ambrosio, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer, CBS Corporation ; Charlie Rose, Co-Host CBS This Morning; Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder, CBS EcoMedia; and Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. ©2012CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Paul Polizzotto, Founder and President of CBS EcoMedia, has built a very successful career by discovering and developing great ideas. In the process, he’s developed a 4-question litmus test that can help entrepreneurs evaluate the mettle, and the promise, of their latest business propositions.

Paul grew up in Southern California in the late 70s and early 80s, and spent much of his time surfing in the polluted waters of Santa Monica Bay. As a result, he suffered from chronic upper respiratory infections, sore throats, and cuts that wouldn’t heal.

He realized that one source of the toxins was the contract cleaning industry. Operating illegally, contractors cleaned parking lots and industrial sites, disposing of the run-off and detergents in the storm drain system, thereby contaminating the river and ocean waters into which they feed.

In 2006, Vanity Fair magazine named him an Environmental Visionary

With his first social enterprise, Property Prep, Paul developed and marketed a solution to the problem: Two innovative technologies – Zero Discharge and Urban Watershed Cleaning – that enable companies to accomplish their industrial cleaning in a compliant way, by capturing the run-off wash water and disposing of it in an environmentally responsible manner.

1) Ask Yourself, “Will It Improve the Lives of Others?”

Property Prep certainly did, legalizing the contract cleaning industry and earning Paul the EPA’s “Environmental Hero” award, in the process. The company is still thriving, but in the late 1990s, Paul set his sights on new challenges.

Paul speaking with students at Lewis Elkin Elementary School in Philadelphia, PA.

When he launched his second venture, EcoMedia (the company was acquired by CBS in 2010), Paul captured his ongoing mission — to improve the lives of others — in its name. For Paul, the ‘eco’ came first.

The company uses a unique public-private partnership business model to direct millions of dollars from corporate advertising budgets to more than 65 of the nation’s most effective non-profit organizations. In collaboration with EcoMedia, they, in turn, execute critical, yet underfunded, environmental, educational, and health and wellness projects, nationwide. EcoMedia creates an advertising campaign to share each story, thereby securing for its clients a brand legacy that’s not a feature of traditional advertising.

“It’s always been my belief that we can transform the conventional monologue from advertiser to consumer into a real conversation that will result in tangible, meaningful outcomes for local communities,” said Paul.

Many CBS EcoMedia staffers got their start in the non-profit world, and all passionately source worthwhile projects and facilitate the partnerships between charitable organizations and corporations.

11 years in, EcoMedia is the fastest growing division of CBS. But the team doesn’t rest on its laurels, preferring to measure its impact in job creation, carbon footprint reduction, lowered energy consumption, better schools, more effective community health initiatives, and tax dollars saved.

And in answer to the question that drives them — “Does it improve the lives of others?” — they proudly respond with a resounding, “Yes!”

Disclaimer: Lindsay Brown, CBS EcoMedia’s Communications and Business Development person, is a former Green Spacer, friend, and former managing editor of Eco-Chick, which has featured my business.

2) Ask Yourself, “Can It Go On Forever?”

Bad ideas have only short-term pay-offs.

By contrast, good ideas are sustainable.

The most effective business models promise continued financial return and competitive advantage, ad infinitum. The public-private partnership paradigm upon which EcoMedia is based is an excellent example:

Advertisers have an ongoing desire to put their brands in front of consumers in the most meaningful and powerful ways; thus, corporate advertising budgets provide a continuous source of fuel for EcoMedia’s model. Nonprofits have a never-ending need for funding sources to help them solve the most critical social issues of our time.

The result? Sustainable advertising.

But, for Paul, it’s not just about whether an idea has infinite promise. As a frequent guest lecturer at business schools throughout the country, he’s often approached by students who are pitching their next Big Ideas.

Paul encourages them to evaluate their proposals from a new perspective.

“I ask them, ‘Would we want your idea to go on forever?’”

For entrepreneurs, this is a critical step in the litmus test.

3.) When You Meet The Inevitable Devil’s Advocate, Ask, “What Do You Like about this Idea?”

Paul is candid about the frustrations and risks inherent in a career in social entrepreneurship. “Frankly,” he says, “If positive outcomes aren’t your deepest motivation for starting a business, you should probably stay on the shore. Because there are easier ways to make money.”

“Now that EcoAds and EducationAds and WellnessAds are airing in markets all over the country, it’s easy to give the impression that our ducks moved into a neat little row without much time or effort,” says Paul. “But I can assure you, it took us the better part of a decade to perfect our business model. It represented a fundamental and profound shift in traditional advertising, and systems and infrastructures don’t shift quickly, or easily.”

“Over the years, as I’ve pitched my ideas in hundreds of conference rooms, it’s become clear to me that the human mind has a tendency to gravitate to the Devil’s advocate position. I blow into the room, so enthusiastic about my latest concept or proposal, and the first response I get is why it won’t work. “

In the corporate world, in particular, there’s a risk-averse culture, and new ideas — good ideas! — can get shot down rather quickly.

So Paul developed the third step in his litmus test. When he’s challenged,

“I say, ‘Hold on a minute. You’re making valid points, and we’ll get to those in a minute. But first, what do you like about this idea?”

The question catches the naysayers and Devil’s advocates off-guard…and it often motivates people to shift their thinking.

“More often than not,” says Paul, “The folks with the loudest initial objections end up discovering the most reasons to get behind the idea.

And then, when we circle back to their original concerns, they tell me, ‘You know, now that I really understand the concept, I don’t feel that way anymore.’”

And when people stop resisting change and start embracing the parts of an idea that resonate…that’s when things get really exciting!”

4.) Ask Yourself, “Will I Paddle Out to Make it Happen?”

Paul began surfing before the advent of the Internet, which enables today’s surfers to predict the swell. As Paul tells it, “We’d take precious vacation time, drive all the way down into Mexico…and the ocean would be flat for a week.”

Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder of CBS EcoMedia speaking at a special ceremony at CBS Broadcast Center celebrating Tri-State Cadillac Dealers' funding of 56 Starlight Children's Foundation Tablets for 13 Tri-State area hospitals through CBS EcoMedia's WellnessAd advertising program. Starlight Tablets are considered a critical resource for healthcare professionals to support the ongoing needs of kids while in the hospital. The tools and resources on a Starlight Tablet aid child life specialists in easing patients’ fears and empowering kids to cope with their diagnosis. Heather WinesCBS ©2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

“Now that doesn’t happen. Thanks to technology, we can predict our swells weeks in advance, based on buoy readings and other data from as far away as New Zealand. And you don’t take the time or make the effort unless you’re assured that it’s worth it.”

He expands on his surfing metaphor:

“Not too long ago, a buddy of mine was online getting buoy readings. After drawing a very sophisticated graph, he knew that the biggest and best waves the next day would be hitting just north of LA.

We were all stoked and got up the next morning at 4am to drive through the dark to Oxnard.

And guess what? The technology gave us exactly what it had promised.

The surf was massive!

I jumped out of the car, grabbed my wetsuit and board, and headed to the water. But my friends weren’t moving. ‘We’re not going out there!’ they shouted.

‘What are you talking about?’ I yelled back. ‘This is why we drove up here!’

I can’t say I wasn’t scared, because I was. And getting out there, I got thrown around like a rag doll. But once I’d turned around and got up, it was one of the most amazing surfing experiences of my life.

My point is that it’s exciting and petrifying to go after what you want. So the essential question every entrepreneur needs to include in his or her litmus test is, ‘Will I paddle out?’

I ask business students and entrepreneurs, ‘Are you prepared to reap what you’ll sow? If you’re fortunate enough to get exactly what your professors, business models, and the technological resources at your disposal prepare you to create, will you have the guts to embrace it?’”

Follow this serial social entrepreneur, surfer, and CBS intrapreneur @PaulPolizzotto.

What’s your idea? #CanItGoOnForever?

What The Rising Tide Car Wash Really Does

Samantha Smith — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 12:25:00 GMT

Back in June 2012 Tom D’Eri packed his bags and left for Florida to join his dad and set up a car wash. Fast-forward and they’re beginning to think about franchising. Called Rising Tide, the twist is that most of this car wash is staffed by people with autism. You might have heard of other companies employing individuals with autism or special needs before, but here’s the breakdown on how impactful this one change to a classic business model can be.

1) Interaction leads to awareness.
By serving their customers, Rising Tide staff naturally engages with customers while doing something they’re good at. Though most people know of autism, down syndrome, and other mental illnesses, rarely do they interact with people with these diagnoses. A short trip to Rising Tide can remind you that people with autism are capable and hard working, and rather than sympathy they just need respect and support.

Tom reports that customers feel empowered, too. Rising Tide is receiving great customer feedback and brand advocacy. Every week someone asks for flyers to hand out because they love Rising Tide’s mission. Great mission doesn’t mean they also can’t have a 5-star Yelp review too, which speaks to the quality of the service alone.

2) Empowerment for the employee
Many people with autism are under-employed. Having a job increases self-worth, social interaction, and general life quality. Many Rising Tide employees started work with a low self-esteem originating from bullying in school and lack of opportunities to grow and live life. Rising Tide offers a supportive environment that works to augment employees’ strengths and surround them with a team of peers that can also associate with what they have been through. Though there are other companies that also employ people with autism, less allow such social and customer facing roles.

Rising Tide tracks employee growth with surveys, which are given to both employees and their families. Tom shares that his staff indicates significant improvements in confidence and social skills, more specifically, pride regarding their job and having more friends.

3) Competitive service and optimization of talent
Though it might seem like it would be more work to hire, train, and employ a staff with autism, Rising Tide has found their staff to be excited, committed, and capable; thereby an underutilized talent pool. Tom says the business aims to leverage the talents of individuals with autism to be the premium brand in the car wash industry. It helps that his team is particularly detail oriented, making them perfect for the industry.

4) Scalable impact on societal perspective
Given Rising Tides is a profit generating business, so their model for both premium car wash and employing people with autism is easily scalable. Tom’s aim to franchise will allow more people with autism to have jobs, social awareness of autism to improve, and there to be more clean cars on the road.

Coupling mission and business matters in this case. Unemployment among individuals with autism is somewhere between 65-90% and in the next decade at least 500,000 more people with autism will enter the workforce. Rising Tide hopes to put these future employees to work and inspire other companies to do the same.

Few franchises and brands offer the ability to have profit and impact. Applebee’s is among a few that try to. In select restaurants they provide part time jobs in coordinate with job-training programs run by local schools that specialize in teaching special needs students. Tom and his father are aiming to franchise their business in early 2014 and begin offering franchise opportunities later in the year. They are currently looking for the right partners to make their social enterprise a reality.

As a consumer you can opt in to support outcomes produced by companies like Rising Tide by looking for other products and services here and small business owners can use this to consider and take the first steps to hiring someone with autism or a disability. These two resources are just a few of many Rising Tide hopes to produce and share with their franchisees, the public, and other businesses that employ those with special needs. Contribute in the comments below!

Tom D’Eri will also be headed to SOCAP as a featured “scholarship” entrepreneur. If you’ll be there, here’s how to reach him: info@risingtidecarwash.com

More info on employment and post-secondary education for young adults with autism.

How to Be Happy at Work

Marissa Feinberg — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 16:51:00 GMT

When I was fourteen, I wanted to be a doctor. Full of angst and contemplating the meaning of life, the only purposeful job I could think of was one that would keep life going. However, when my sister skinned her knee, I nearly passed out at the sight of blood. What if that happened when I was halfway through medical school?

Our education system is not designed to teach us what we want to be when we grow up. It’s designed to teach us English, math, science and history. I used to think I hated history. It turns out, I just hated textbooks.

Are you happy at work every day? Did you really know what you were signing up for? Or are you on a path that started when you were young and uninformed of what your journey would actually be?

According to a new Gallup poll, seven in 10 Americans are not engaged in their work, meaning they are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces.

For the three in ten who are engaged, are they happy? And what would happiness at work look like if we dissected it?

The poll showed “engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward… Companies like Google are leading the trend, based on the thought that happy employees are more productive, creative, and passionate.”

Gallup’s research also shows that focusing on mission and purpose are the strongest factors for retaining employees. Therefore, blending work and play are not simply important for us to strive for as individuals, but for organizational development as well.

If you don’t work for Google, Live in the Grey is a new movement, started by people who blend work and play, challenging us to create a career doing what we love. The new online community addresses issues like How to Create Change in Your Life and Why There’s Never Been a Better Time to Find Your Dream Job. Started by Maneesh K. Goyal, founder of MKG, and marketing guru David Munczinski, with a simple desire to wake up daily and do something you love so much that it doesn’t feel like work.

People need a place to share stories, find answers, and contemplate how to get our society on a positive track to work happiness.

Jorge, Olivia, Lauren, Alicia, Maneesh

I was thrilled to be invited to the latest Live in the Grey salon. The dynamic room, already “living in the grey,” tackled these tough issues.

We all want a few universal things. We want to make an impact on the world. We want to master what we do and strive for excellence. However, that’s really hard if we’re not on the right path and our job doesn’t bring us to life.

Imagine if it didn’t have to be that way.

June Salon in NYC

I used feel as if I had a double life. I was embarrassed of my headshots and indie film credits, thinking if I shared them with people, I wouldn’t be taken seriously as a business person. However, the opposite happened. The more comfortable I became building relationships, the more I realized I was surrounded by fascinating people with countless creative pursuits. Developing real connections and relationships meant revealing my true self and discovering the multi-dimensional souls around me.

On “Who or What is Inspiring You Right Now”, my salon cohorts said:

“Being the underdog,” Olivia Ma, head of News and Media Partnerships for Google+.

“Emails from service members overseas,” Kal Penn, actor and former associate director of public engagement for Obama Administration.

Teach Yourself: Start A Project

Samantha Smith — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 12:01:00 GMT

I wrote this for High School Students, but it’s applicable to anyone. It’s an address to education and self-fulfillment.

More high school and college students should start projects. Projects are a means to bite-size, practical, and self-driven education. They help you navigate interests and learn through things you enjoy.

Perhaps most importantly, projects create responsibility (different than obligation) and responsibility can be one of the greatest drivers of learning and self-awareness. Responsibility requires different things of you at different times…having to show up, be quiet and listen, get something done, figure something out, understand situations and social norms, figure out a process, or deal with pressure, or lead others.

School matters, the content you learn there is valuable, but projects can give you a place to implement your knowledge or join a community that will engage your academics. Projects force you to manage time and learn skills to execute your vision, which can be used again in the future.

Drew Beller’s high school robotics team recently received a sponsorship from Makerbot in the form of a 3D printer. And when Drew needed a birthday present a few months ago, he decided to print it. Soon after he turned that small idea into a Kickstarter, offering to custom print anyone a cover for their Pebble Watch. He has collected over $10,000 in pre-paid orders through his Kickstarter project Pebble Watch Covers and you can guess what he’s doing this summer.

Drew’s dabbling led him to launch his Kickstarter project which has now led him to launch an ecommerce site, manage a budget and lead a small team to make and deliver the orders of their 359 customers. On top of it all, Drew also landed an internship at Cambridge based 3D printing startup Matter IO.

Projects widen your horizon and teach you to go after and commit to achievable goals. When you strike on something you enjoy, the results often make the next step more obvious.

You have to steer the boat though – projects need your activation because only you know what you enjoy and want to be doing. When you are steering, you’re more likely to do your best, be fully engaged, and work towards the finish line (or grow the project). And though entrepreneurship and being a company founder is quite trendy right now, there’s something to just starting projects (especially if you’re a student). Here’s a quick list:

Learn- about yourself, industries, specific skill sets

Freedom- to move on, change interests, and try something else or a different approach

Community- meet different people from professionals to hobbyists

Supplement- you’re likely in school or college, so add a layer of happiness and skill building

Lifestyle fit- take what you learn from projects to help drive your work decisions (where you want to work, what position you’d like, etc.)

Optimize time- start and finish a project over a summer, a spring break, or time between internships or jobs or make another obligation more worthwhile (have an assignment that will take a lot of time? go the extra step and make it something you want to work on and deliver to the world. And get an A+)

Schools like MIT value the articulation and execution of ideas and interests, so it’s no surprise Titiaan Palazzi and Turner Bohlen, both past and former MIT students, are biking across the U.S. this summer looking to reinvigorate education and help students start projects.

Called Spokes America, Titiaan and Turner are part of a team of eight MIT & U.C. Berkeley friends cycling from San Francisco to Washington, DC to teach project-based science classes to public high school students. Their aim is to inspire students to learn what they love by exposing them to cool ideas and teaching hands-on science and engineering classes. Afterwards, students are asked to come up with possible project ideas – projects to improve their school, engage their community, or invent new toys. The team of eight help to outline projects and connect students to mentors for further support. The Spokes team calls their sessions learning festivals– they’re meant to invigorate and spark passion, because passion drives action. And action means proactive people that learn (through success or failure).

Tying your interests to action creates painless learning. Go start a project.

Small And Growing Businesses Are Key To Our Job Problems

Samantha Smith — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:37:00 GMT

In both developing and mature economies, small and growing businesses (SGBs) struggle with three problems —access to industry, small initial capital, and strong human resources. In my own research I’ve found this, and ANDE’s latest impact report confirms this and more. SGBs can be defined as businesses able to grow beyond a small business meant for livelihood and able to employ staff upwards of 200 or more.

With so much talk about economic growth and recovery, startups, and microfinance, focusing on supporting SGBs is one of the most effective ways to create jobs and serve communities. The ANDE network is made up of over 181 member organizations across 150 countries focused on serving SGBs in developing countries. Combined they have worked with over 60,000 SGBs. ANDE member services are doubly important given much of the SGBs they serve are in countries that have twice as many hurdles— from government issues, to lack of infrastructure, and unskilled workers. The success of SGBs can contribute to the 400 million jobs we’ll need globally over the next decade just to retain current employment levels.

Targeting the financing issue directly, 293 funds committed to serving SGBs each have on average $52 million in assets, and 40 of those 293 funds co-identified with GIIN are in the ANDE network. The point of ANDE is to unite the sector, share insight, and promote the mission of serving entrepreneurs in emerging markets towards the aim of ultimately lifting countries out of poverty.

Impact investment institutions source their capital from financial development institutions, high network individuals, foundations, and some are open to any accredited investor.  Some organizations like KIVA, the BID Network, and Trilinc Global are working to democratize impact investing, too. On the larger, institutional front, Deutsche Bank has the Essential Fund  and Goldman Sachs is working to build out the number of investable women businesses with their 10,000 Women initiative. Both the Clinton Global Initiative and the World Economic Forum have launched working groups to promote impact investing, with a focus on small business entrepreneurs.

But ANDE’s Randall Kempner remarks that for all of these efforts and capital to go further, business environments in emergingcountries need to be strengthened. Tax and regulation burdens on small businesses should be fair and policies should encourage angel and venture capital, too. He notes that, “ANDE is absolutely dedicated to building strong entrepreneurial environments in emerging economies. That’s why much of our focus will be on building strong regional chapters in the coming years.”

Three actions determined in ANDE‘s latest Impact Report for immediate attention include:

• increasing initial financing for startups in emerging markets (only 6% of startups are currently served & their need ranges from $20-100k)

• better serving women-led enterprises that compose 1⁄3 of emerging businesses; they often lack networks for growth

• giving attention to agribusinesses industry which lacks skilled managers, proper financing, and access to markets—all three of the leading issues for SGBs

Both business leaders and development leaders must understand the potential of small businesses to address the world’s challenges, particularly those concerning employment and jobs. Entrepreneurship and small business offers a solution. The ANDE network hopes to see more resources flowing into the space.

The report with more details on specific ANDE members and their approaches and results can be read here: http://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/ande-2012-impact-report

Hacking Freelancer Freedom

Marissa Feinberg — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:57:15 GMT

Today, at the largest FinTech Hackathon in the world with leaders such as Sallie Krawcheck, former head of Merril Lynch, Smith Barney and Matt Turck, FirstMark Capital judging the teams. Project Freedom is a movement that started at the FinTech Hackathon to save freelancers from a painful tax season.

Project Freedom started because the FinTech Hackathon is looking for real solutions to financial problems. Freelancers and business owners alike are suffering because 1099s are painfully complicated and the tax audits that result from them are terrifying.

Project Freedom keeps track of freelancer W9s to securely send their employers. The IRS delivered more than $5 billion in refund checks to fraudulent tax returns for 2011 because of identity fraud. Project Freedom prevents freelancers from falling into the same fate by securing their W9 tax information.

Other benefits that the project is providing for free to freelancers are:

1099 History and Tracking;

Estimated tax returns;

IRS estimated tax payments through Dwolla; and,

IRS tax extensions for those last minute freelancers who need more time!

The average tax audit leaves a business with $26,365 dollars in additional taxes owed to the IRS. What’s even worse is that 87% of all employment tax audits are lost (scary!). The IRS collected 824 billion dollars in employment tax audits in 2011. President Obama has ordered 6,000 additional employment tax audits, so this is only the beginning of something bigger.

And soon, freelancers are going to be more than 50% of the workforce in the United States in less than 4 years. As a business owner, I just faced 1099 pain during tax season. Someone needs to address the problems that freelancers face on a daily basis. Project Freedom will help the next generation of Americans.

Access to Austin for Young Entrepreneurs

Samantha Smith — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:56:25 GMT

After inviting a friend from California to Austin to use her couch and attend SXSW, Maran Nelson realized SXSW would be a huge opportunity for entrepreneurial students if they could afford to get to Austin and snag a badge. So she acted on her intuition, reached out for help, and has now built a community of 100 top young entrepreneurs that will attend year’s SXSW. The inaugural Interact ATX class is a selection of the top 100 of 500 applicants and represents a diverse group of Thiel Fellows, members of Forbes 30 under 30, diverse student leaders, and startup founders from Y Combinator and TechStars. They’ll meet on March 7th to attend SXSW at a sponsorship-subsidized rate and with specialized programming. Disclosure: I’m part of this group

Called Interact ATX, the program will unite 100 admitted young entrepreneurs amidst SXSW’s existing programs and guests. Members will attend four days of limitless opportunity with programming coordinated between Interact ATX and partners including prominent VC Andreessen Horowitz , Facebook, Microsoft, and Bain Capital Ventures among others. On Friday March 8th, the group will display prototypes and demos in the Interact ATX Showcase hosted by Andreessen Horowitz at Austin’s Capital Factory, which will be open to the greater Austin and SXSW communities. And with the Thiel Foundation, there will be a lounge space near the Austin Convention Center for networking and office hours with experienced entrepreneurs.

The specific events for Interact ATX members will create reason to meet, trust, share, talk, and ask for help. A solo young entrepreneur at SXSW would be fine and make use of the event. But give that entrepreneur an army to walk in with, lean on, and learn from and the results become magnified as the community empowers and supports itself, amongst all that is already happening. The simple notion of team or community often increases the value each member places on their own ability, the amount of effort they exude, and the care they commit to others.

Beyond the effect of the community, the opportunity for the Interact ATX group to be amongst the entrepreneurs, leaders, and companies participating in SXSW will be a new precedent. The number of mentors met, sales secured, and lessons learned that will spiral out of the simple opportunity for more students to be present at SXSW is going to phenomenally push the start ups and entrepreneurs within the young Interact ATX group forward.

Bob Metcalfe, ethernet inventor and Professor of Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin comments on the combo of networking and innovation: “You’ve heard of the “cluster” theory of innovation, which more recently has been upgraded by the “network” theory of innovation. I like this because it give Metcalfe’s Law a booster shot. Metcalfe’s Law — the value of a network grows as the square of its number of users (V~N^2) — was named by George Gilder in the pages of Forbes Magazine circa 1995, and then in his book Telecosm. Anyway, Maran‘s idea of bringing young hipster entrepreneurs together at SXSW is a brilliant stroke, firmly founded on network innovation theory. Not only will these folks get to schmooze one another, but also with the thousands brought to Austin by SXSW, and by the seething Austin startup community. Out of such will come new ideas and new associations, nourishing America’s network of innovation clusters. Innovation is not a zero-sum game. It is in fact a win win win win win… that’s why UTAustin‘s Cockrell School of Engineering will host InteractATX‘s opening breakfast. We want our people, faculty and students, especially the many in startups, to bond with Maran’s imported movers and shakers.”

Maran sums up the value of Interact ATX by saying, “We’re building Interact as a platform from which our community can expose themselves to the best of SXSW and the resources they need for their ventures to succeed.”

Simply put, the opportunity and network Interact ATX will create will make things go boom! Entrepreneurial communities, especially student entrepreneurs, need more of this serendipity- it’s food for business.

Here’s a sampling of a few of those accepted:

Aditya Viswanathan Is the founder of Crowdery and Jatalo and a Stanford freshman studying Computer Science. Jatalo designs and markets ethnically-inspired bags and apparel products to support the education of underprivileged children around the world. For every bag sold, Jatalo donates one year’s worth of textbooks to a child in need. From his experiences in product design and manufacturing at Jatalo, Aditya got the idea to tap into the vast and growing social graph to improve product design pre-production. This idea evolved into Crowdery, a platform that allows brands to make production decisions based on crowdsourced votes on product designs. Aditya is a design enthusiast, pizza connoisseur, and jazz nerd.

Ali Hamed is the managing partner of CoVenture, a firm that builds software for equity, investing $30,000 in services for a small piece of equity in portfolio companies. To date CoVenture has helped every company in its portfolio receive follow-on funding and receive features in some of the biggest publications in the world. Before CoVenture Ali was a co-founder of Memsparx.com, and has worked as a consultant to governments, international firms and domestic corporations. Ali serves as a mentor to Startup Labs-Syracuse and at Cornell University Ali is a junior and a co-founder of the co-working space: The PopShop.

Michael Akilian is an associate at venture capital firm Alsop Louie Partners and electrical engineering student at the University of Texas Austin. He led the investment thesis and diligence for ALP’s Series A investment in a fast growing cyber-security company. At UT, Michael created Hacker Lounge, founded Hack TX, built a bunch of cool robots and electronics, and did academic research on 3D perception and robotics algorithms. Previously, Michael worked in engineering and products roles at Apple, Ness Computing, and KingsIsle. In high school, he wrote two iPhone applications which have been downloaded more than 100,000 times.

Noor Siddiqui served on the founding team and the Board of Directors of The Hollow Trunk, a Virginia non-profit that grew to have international reach over four years. She has designed, coordinated, and implemented projects in Haiti, Guatemala, Afghanistan, and India. Her work has led her to collaborations with The American Red Cross, CrisisLink, The Alzheimer’s Association, and international nongovernmental organizations. At 17, she was selected as one of the youngest recipients of the 2012 Thiel Fellowship, a program that grants 20 entrepreneurs under 20 from around the world $100,000 to stop out of university and pursue their passions. Noor believes emerging technologies can be leveraged to build a more inclusive world where underutilized, undiscovered, brilliance can be harnessed to create shared value for humanity.

Pulak Mittal is a junior in the Management & Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania, studying Computer Science and Operations. He is President of the Dining Philosophers and the Lead Organizer of PennApps, the largest college hackathon in the nation. Over three iterations, Pulak has brought in over $80,000 in corporate sponsorship and has managed its growth to a 500 person event. Pulak is additionally an investment team member of the Dorm Room Fund, which invests in student startups in the Philadelphia area. Pulak is from Houston, Texas, and has interned at Facebook, Piazza, and Hewlett Packard.

Why Your Office Will Disappear

Marissa Feinberg — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:23:39 GMT

If you’re like most people, you work in a high-rise building alongside colleagues who, much of the time, are away from their seats in meetings, at lunch or traveling for business.

Get ready for drastic change. A global recession, emerging sharing economy and more buy in to climate change are each pointing boardrooms toward efficiency. Your office as you know it will be gone.

22Squared via Turnstone's Design Ideas blog

Where will you work?

You’ll have to come to Austin next week to find out. For the second year running, innovators in work design will host the biggest coworking conference in the world. For those of you new to the concept, collaborative work spaces everywhere are defining themselves as “coworking spaces,” or workplaces that foster productivity, collaboration and community. According to Deskmag, the number of coworking spaces has grown 200% annually for seven years. Want to see a map? LiquidSpace will show you options in 350 cities around the world. The Workspace Association of New York represents over 2 million square feet in the Tri-State area alone, managing a powerful center of influence. The Global Coworking Unconference Conference (GCUC), or “Juicy” as its commonly known, aims to bring together the best and brightest minds in the movement, to share ideas and inspiration and develop new strategies for the future.

Disclosure: The author Marissa Feinberg is the shared office space owner of Green Spaces NY, upcoming member of LEXC, cofounder of Flockd and attends GCUC. Read on.

Turnstone's "Bivi" Furniture

The Future
COOs will not continue to pay high electric bills and real estate costs for people who use their space 30% of the time. Your HR departments have already started calling me and my peers for pricing, and booking tours and visits given by our “Community Managers”. We are the proud proprietors of the new world of coworking.

Map of Link Coworking

We design for efficiency; our business models depend on it. We are daring entrepreneurs who have challenged the status quo to create unique environments, building blueprints as we progress. The design of the traditional corporation and office suite will be dated, your company’s seats will be re-situated, or you will be relocated to wonderful coworking spaces.

WeWork in New York via Business Insider

The League of Extraordinary Coworking Spaces (LEXC), a unique network of coworking spaces with a common standard of excellence, has become the go-to resource for corporations expanding their workplace strategy to include coworking. Gathering industry pioneers, the organization’s first corporate customer is Accenture. Especially smart for its mobile workers, LEXC makes a compelling case to try a new work solution.

“Commercial real estate is no longer about a square foot; it’s a state of mind,” says Brian Macmahon of Your Office Agent, a commercial agency specializing in lean work space. “Facilities plans have been kept too separate from business plans for far too long. Forward-thinking companies of all sizes are exploring these new models.”

WorkBar in Boston via Inc.com

As big business comes aboard the revolution, the triple bottom line gets better. American Express recently lowered its carbon footprint by 27.5 percent, citing a decrease in business travel and the creation of centers for virtual meetings. Widely recognized for championing economic development and entrepreneurship is Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, now championing Las Vegas to become the coworking capital of the world.

Grind in New York, credit Jaeger/Sloane Inc.

What Your Office Will Look Like
Office layouts will be more structured for liquid, easy work. Office design innovation leaders like Turnstone make coworking furniture lighter and more comfortable. The architectural silos that separate departments will erode. You will know more about what’s happening in other areas of your organization. Open plans will create cafe-like atmospheres and promote creativity and transparency.

Flockd, a workplace tool signaling productivity and connectivity

New workplace tools like Flockd will help people across departments start conversations while increasing productivity. You’ll interact with coworkers in a more friendly, approachable and transparent way. Resources like kitchens, coffee, bathrooms, conference rooms and office supplies will be shared more often. Take a deep breath and get ready to share that pen in your hand, and maybe your monitor too!

Blankspaces in LA and Santa Monica via Inc.com

Don’t Fret, You’ll Benefit
FastCompany recognizes the serendipitous, positive function of proximity stimulating innovation. A recent study found “the best, most-widely cited research came from coauthors sitting less than 10 meters apart. ‘How closely they worked mattered as much, if not more, than their affiliation,’ says the study’s author, Isaac Kohane of Harvard Medical School. Coworking’s combination of casual relationships and shared spaces, he suggests, can lead to some of an employee’s most fruitful collaborations.”

New Work City in New York, stomping grounds of coworking granddaddies Tony Bacigalupo and Peter Chislett

Juicy Questions? We have them too. We’re gathering March 5th and 6th for panels on, “Corporations and Coworking,” “Alternative Funding,” “Can Coworking Have a Deeper Impact on Society?” among others. See the full list of events here. The hybrid conference-unconference mixes professional speaking with collaborative DIY sessions.

Liz Elam, Curator of Link Coworking, Producer of Global Coworking Unconference Conference, President of League of Extraordinary Coworking Spaces

Led most recently by dynamo Liz Elam, founder of Link Coworking and president of LEXC, GCUC is largely a grassroots effort with support from a wide range of volunteers and sponsors. In a former life, Liz was a top sales executive at Dell; you can see where this trend started. It takes a tireless, inspired team to drive any behavior-change effort. Read more about them here.

How GCUC works
Keynote speakers include coworking space owners, property managers, investors, academics, and serial entrepreneurs. It’s a diverse crowd of professionals, all connected to the coworking movement in different ways. The official Twitter speak is @AustinGCUC, #GCUC and #unGCUC.

Tax Handicapped? Automate Your Process

Marissa Feinberg — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:07:22 GMT

So, if you’re a business paper-filing your 1099s and W9s, you’re brushing right up against the end of February deadline. If you’re e-filing, you get another month.

If you’re a contractor/freelancer, you should have received your 1099s from the businesses you worked by the end of January. Got any delinquent client companies? Are you being a delinquent client company?

I think small business owners and starter-uppers face the biggest handicap when it tax time comes. They’re doing everything by themselves in the first place, and here’s one more responsibility. If it’s their first startup, the process and regulations are completely foreign. If it isn’t their first, sorting out what’s going on where among multiple ventures can be forehead-vein-bulging stressful.

Avoid the tax-time forehead-vein-bulge. photo cred Lee J. Haywood (CC)

And so, we trod off to tax accountants’ offices, at the mercy of any fee that suits their whimsy. Worse, you’re subject to judgmental glares and sighs as you shuffle through your disorganized stack of the year’s paperwork.

It’s not just you, though. Cameron Keng once worked on an audit of Goldman Sachs, and the company had lost 20% of their paperwork (!) — he had to recreate all those missing pieces.

Thoroughly traumatized by that experience, Keng is now a warrior against AWOL tax documents. He built autotax.me to retain all your contracts and tax filings and those of your contractors, helping to protect you against audit.

Reduce The Barrier That Stands Between You and Clean Books

Autotax isn’t meant to replace accountants. It’s a software as a service (SaaS) that helps businesses deal with their 1099s and W9s Keng wants Autotax users to get a lot of the tax-filing pre-work done ahead of time automatically, and to have control over the process to understand it — confidence that will help you need less work from the accountant (and maybe negotiate those fees). Autotax is free for independent contractors; for business, subscriptions come with a free trial and prices are rock-bottom low compared to other tax services. At last, a near open-source solution.

Autotax.me on a Mac. Not so intimidating, yes?

Cameron came to a Green Spaces Idea Bounce a few months ago, when Autotax was still in beta, asking for feedback on his startup-supporting startup. We overcame our own brains’ fierce resistance to even starting to think about taxes to help him come up with ways to get other entrepreneurs and small business owners to finding a less terrorizing approach to tax time.

And as of this posting, you’ve still got one and a half months til tax day for your own taxes. I’m wishing you, along with Cameron, a very stressless tax season.

Previous posts:

Why You Shouldn’t Photograph Your Wedding

3 Counterintuitive Ways to Attract Investors

When Your Business Idea is Whack, Check the Deck — Alexander Dunlop

Bicycles Against Poverty — Hipster Must Haves Mean Life or Death in Uganda

Patrick Ip, 22 Year Old CEO, Merges with NYC’s Post + Beam

Samantha Smith — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:07:57 GMT

Patrick Ip was working at the United Nations using social media to scale the United Nations Academic Impact Program. He built enough traction online that the program grew from zero Universities to seven hundred. The impact social media allowed his team to create made him realize how the same could happen for other non-profits, if they could understand how to leverage social media.

So Patrick and friend Kavya Shankar founded KIP Solutions in September 2011 and dedicated the company to achieving the goals of their social mission clients with social media. Fast forward to today, KIP has just been acquired by Post + Beam, one of NYC’s top innovation and communication firms.

This is a rare case- student starts consulting company in college and gets acquired before graduation. But more interesting is that Patrick kept his emotion in check and acknowledged the strength of Post + Beam as a peer, and thesuperior ability of both firms if combined. And even better, Post + Beam nimbly recognized the talent, knowledge, and network that KIP had and snagged one of America’s top young entrepreneurs, too. Let’s peek into the details of the building of KIP Solutions, and why KIP and Post + Beam is a dynamic fit.

September 2011, The Company Starts: First clients are signed on at Opportunity Collaboration, an unconference on poverty. Goal: Raise the funds to send AMIS Cameroon’s founder Tambe to the Unreasonable Institute. End Result: Tambe heads to Boulder, CO (where the program is held).

December 2011, First Crisis: Patrick’s co-founder switches to an advisory position. Sonia Chokshi joins as Co-Founder.

February 2012, Inflection Point: Named to Inc’s Coolest College Startups. Demand increases, and staff grows to ten. Retroactively, Patrick learned two lessons. One, say no to clients if you can’t meet demand, it’s hard to grow fast and maintain quality. Two, hire slowly and do a trial period, anyone can look good on paper.

June 2012, University Investment: University of Chicago Booth Business School invests $10k in KIP Solutions.

July 2012, Interpreting Advice: While in the UChicago Polsky Accelerator Program, mentors push Ip to increase profits, so KIP pursues creating a technology platform to turn the firm’s processes into something re-sellable, cheaper, and that more people can use. The team eventually aborts this after realizing technology platforms are not their core competency.

August 2012, Capital Rejection: KIP turns down $100k from friends and family while in the Polsky Accelerator Program. After deciding not to continue building the platform, capital didn’t fit into KIP’s growth plan.

October 2012, Coffee Meeting: In fall 2012, Patrick and Post + Beam CEO, Rowland Hobbs, were catching up at NYC favorite Grumpy Cafe when it became clear they must work together in the future. This conversation snowballed into an acquisition offer. Patrick and Rowland originally met during their work with the 1:1 Fund back in the summer of 2010.

December 2012, Proudest Moment: Patrick goes to Cambodia to really capture and tell the story of PEPY. Patrick says, “Despite being a “social media” company, we also realize the importance of being there in person.”

As a young entrepreneur, Patrick noted that he is excited for the mentorship he will gain and the resources he will be ableto leverage to accomplish a greater set of responsibilities at Post + Beam. Quite a mature position to take- being comfortable not being number one and admitting the value of working alongside a leading CEO and company. Especially when the trend by young, steadfast entrepreneurs, though perhaps more suited than the average college graduate to pivot and learn on the go, is to hesitantly scoff at apprenticing, working at a startup, or learning a skill.

Caitlin Strandberg, a VC at Flybridge Capital Partners, recently noted that an entrepreneurial student looking for that first job position with freedom at a startup should actually appreciate a bit of structure and having someone with experience looking out for them, especially if the role they fill is vulnerable to changes. So despite the recent push towards entrepreneurship and startup dedication, young entrepreneurs should note there is nothing wrong with garnering experience under top-notch professionals and advancing themselves for their next endeavor.

And in KIP, Rowland Hobbs saw the perfect strategy and social media technique to complement Post + Beam’s new press relations department. The acquisition is a clear chess move to bring Post + Beam to the forefront of this decade’s most popular form of communication, particularly in new product development, branding, and growth. Patrick will join Post + Beam with research from his work at UChicago and experience with clients in Cambodia, Mexico, and Cameroon.

With one of Post + Beam’s specialties being technology platforms, the concept behind the platform KIP tried to build this past summer may be another natural opportunity born of this merger. Patrick says he is most excited to help highlight how Post + Beam enjoys working on cause related work, and couple the firm’s knack for innovation with some of the most dedicated problem solvers in the world.

More companies should look at what young, ambitious innovators are doing and join them in some way. Apprenticeship can occur in all different ways, and as Nancy Lublin frequently remarks, we don’t all need to be the founder. I won’t be surprised if Post + Beam breaks their annual goals for the year with this happy marriage of company talent, mission, network, and knowledge.

The Business Of Scouting And A Crisis Of Our Own Making

Terry Howerton — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 01:58:46 GMT

I’m an Eagle Scout. When I turned 8, and for the next twenty years, Scouting occupied the majority of my time in life.

Following the Supreme Court case in 2000, the only obvious answer for Scouting has been to allow local chartering partners and parents to make these morality decisions. Now only time will tell if the business of Boy Scouting will rebound from a two decade old bad business decision.

I was elected and appointed to national Scouting posts for several years as a kid, and served for several more as an adult. When I was 19 years old, I met — then lived with, and traveled the world assisting — one of the great mentors of my life. He was 91 years old, and William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt was renowned as one of the founding fathers of the worldwide movement of Scouting. Hillcourt was a hero to millions of Scouts and Scouters. He wrote many of the Scout handbooks and shaped much of the Scouting program for nearly 70 years, though was often out of step with the corporate decision makers of the Boy Scouts of America.

Following Bill’s death, I carried a spark from the torch he tried to pass, and one of my earliest startups was a magazine for Boy Scout leaders, together with a web community we launched in 1994, the dark ages of the internet. We reached tens of thousands of leaders, and for several years it was my honor to write and travel and speak to a grassroots movement of Scouting, and lead an incredible team of staff and volunteers that loved their jobs.

In some ways that early startup experience really set an impossible standard for my future business ventures… we didn’t just satisfy customers. Instead, the words we published and ideas we promoted brought customer letters telling us “Bless you for helping me change the lives of kids!”, and went on to paint in vivid detail how we had done so. It was pretty inspirational and heady stuff for all of us in that business, even if we weren’t making any money.

There was a time when I expected my entire life would be spent in the service of Scouting, humbly trying to continue the legacy of Bill Hillcourt, and give back to a movement that had done more to shape and mold the man I became than anything I learned in school, from my parents, or from any other influence.

Scouting inspired the value of cheerful service, honed my leadership, and fostered my ambition to nurture and advance my community. From those lessons, I’ve launched startups, mentored founders, created schools and built several organizations. I’ve succeeded and failed plenty of times, and Scouting was the lab where I first learned how to do both.

The movement of Scouting, not the organization of Scouting
The Scouting of my youth was a welcoming place for all kids to learn and grow. But twenty years ago, Scouting in America chose to become a culture warrior, and has increasingly marginalized itself and eroded its brand.

The BSA won a Supreme Court case in 2000, defending its right as a private organization to define its own membership. That case may have been specifically about gay members, but it was really about a broader right of association. I understand why the BSA defended itself in that case, and the final decision of the Court might have been correct (though Scouting had to contort itself to claim it was principally a religious organization to win, and that’s never really been true).

Many may argue that BSA was drawn into the battle. But where BSA really failed, and instead placed itself at the tip of the dagger, was in not announcing the very next day that they were granting local chartering partners (the churches, civic clubs, and parent groups) the power to decide who the best leaders would be for their kids.

BSA correctly fought for the right to association, but then denied that right to their most important partners, the parents in neighborhoods and communities across America.

It may be a difficult nuance to understand the difference between the movement of Scouting, which grows in more than 140 countries and still shines brightly with millions of kids in local neighborhoods throughout this country, and the organization of the Boy Scouts of America. The BSA is the national corporation, exclusively granted a charter by the US Congress to administer the only boy scout program in this country. It’s the organization that established this policy.

The movement of Scouting continues to be one of the great opportunities for light and goodness in the world. But in my opinion, and one shared by millions of parents with kids who could benefit from Scouting, the corporation that administers Scouting in America lost its moral compass a long time ago.

The BSA will argue they were only honoring the wishes and concerns of parents. They will argue they didn’t expressly ban gay kids and adults, they simply compelled them to keep that part of their identity secret if they wanted to remain in Scouting. But in reality they refused to allow all local parents, troop leaders and chartering partners to decide for themselves.

Bad business that’s eroded the brand
In retrospect, the Boy Scouts of America made a bad business decision. It might have been good short-term business, in that it placated a few of their largest chartering partners, like the LDS and Catholic church, who were then using the Boy Scouts as a sectarian tool (even if many smaller churches and other partners were marginalized in dissent). But it was clearly bad business in the long run.

Not long after that Supreme Court case, in a rare, candid moment, the chief scout executive at the time was quoted in the media saying “when [parents] start walking away from us, that’s the signal for us to revisit the issue”. That’s a business decision, driven by numbers, not a moral one.

And for the next thirteen years, the BSA became an increasingly isolated echo chamber of like minded customers, where their business decision ignored the total addressable market (and its inevitably shrinking existing customer base).

The harm that we’ve done
An organization that had welcomed all kids and existed solely to help raise children, was now sending a loud, clear message to young, gay kids that they were the ONE kind of person not worthy of Scouting, that defined gay Scouts and Scouters as “incapable of becoming the best kind of citizen”.

Millions of parents were denied the opportunity to decide for themselves whether their kids would get to participate in a Scouting program that discriminated, forced to accept this policy if they wanted all the good Scouting had to offer. And millions more simply never considered Scouting for their kids, a clear cause of the eroded membership and relevance of the BSA over the past decade, especially among young parents for whom Scouting’s prejudice became the defining character of the organization.

Being a teenager is tough, but growing up and realizing you’re gay is incredibly difficult, especially when your family, friends and the most important people in your life might reject you for something you didn’t choose. Suicide rates among LGBT kids are far higher than other kids, and many LGBT kids turn toward less extreme but nonetheless self-destructive behaviors.

But not all LGBT kids act out in negative ways… some choose positive paths to compensate and rebel against those that tell them they are somehow different, deficient or defective.

Create a To Do List You’re More Likely To Finish

Samantha Smith — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 16:01:51 GMT

I recently started using sticky notes again because I gave up on all the methods and apps I had tried to make saving to-dos in iPhone. But Ryan Orbuch, who I met this past spring, has delivered on his promise to perfect the to-do app, and it launches today.

You can retire your post it notes! Finish does three awesome things for you: lets you enter to-do items in four finger taps, organizes your list by priority, and can go as long as you need it to (no more long paper lists).

Because it is organized by urgency (short, mid, long- you decide the timeframe of each during set up)

the app makes scanning your to-do list for things you can knock out quickly or those last minute items you might have overlooked obsolete. Everything is organized and it’s not overwhelming, you can show three tasks or scroll through all of them.

Finish, an app brilliantly named for the person always adding to their to-do list or in procrastination mode, was built, iterated, and shipped in less than a year by young Colorado natives Ryan Orbuch and Michael Hansen.

I recommend using the star feature for your business or school tasks, shutting the sound off if you’re an efficiency pro, and gifting the app (bottom of the settings section) to that one person that is always behind or overdue. No more sticky note consolidation, because there’s an efficiency app designed for the doer in mind!

Go get a latte, download the app, and dump everything from your mind into Finish. Congratulations Ryan and Michael!

How to Get a Little Lovin’ [Entrepreneur Style]

Marissa Feinberg — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 21:14:34 GMT

Today it’s exactly six months til the 10th ever Loving Day. Not that we ever let too many days go by without a little lovin’.

Back in the summer, social entrepreneur Ken Tanabe came to Green Spaces to present at an Idea Bounce. I hadn’t had the chance to write about it yet, so I’m taking this Loving Day half-anniversary as my opportunity.

A shot of a Loving Day celebration from http://www.lovingday.org/celebrate

Loving v. Virginia and the Racial Integrity Act of 1924

Forty-five and one-half years ago, June 12, 1967, Mildred and Richard Loving had their statuses as felons overturned. Two consenting adults who shared their love and their lives had for the past nine years been living as criminals outside the law — because they were married.

About 10 years ago, designer, organizer, educator, speaker, and startup friend Ken Tanabe decided to commemorate the court decision of Loving v. Virginia, which ruled unconstitutional the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. You see, Richard and Mildred were not of the same race, and therefore were legally and socially prohibited from being together. How did the Racial Integrity Act reason that interracial unions were illegal? Because, goes the quote, God put different ethnicities “on separate continents… he did not intend for the races to mix.” Whoah.

The Loving Day Celebration

Ken deemed the date that language was overruled, June 12, the Loving Day celebration. The flagship commemoration takes place in New York City each year and attracts over 1,500 people, and in 2013, it will be the 10th anniversary of the first official Loving Day!

Ken came to our Idea Bounce to scheme ways to make the 10th Loving Day the biggest, best, and most lovingest day yet. As today’s the 9 and 1/2 anniversary, it’s time to start planning.

Aside from loving love, lots of things about this celebration appeal to me as a publicist. Anyone can throw a Loving Day party (that means you). Some orchestrators have done so in a most endearing way: by hosting a party without mentioning the date’s wonderful significance until guests are are well into having a nice time. What’s better than enjoying yourself at a fun party and then realizing how happily meaningful it is? And lots of people have chosen the day to get married.

I’m wondering if I should re-name my annual, infamous “Anti-Valentine” party at Green Spaces. Hmm…

Resolution for Youth Voices Reaches the Senate

Samantha Smith — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:35:51 GMT

Yesterday, S.R. 608 was introduced to the Senate and has the potential to create a Presidential Youth Council. Policy is the part of system thinking that is often found most elusive. And in reality- it usually has the largest and quietest impact.

The introduction of S.R. 608- a call for a Presidential Youth Council- is promising for a few reasons. First, youth voices will be brought to the table. Optimistic, creative, undaunted 16-24 year olds will have an opportunity to share all that’s in their head, express their forecasted concerns, and offer their simple or unusual solutions. These individuals will be selected based on their track record, political involvement, ability to engage the insight of peers, and their representation of the youth population.

Two, these entrepreneurial and socially invested individuals will see policy and government as penetrable and changeable- and perhaps even effective. As they and their careers grow- they’ll stay involved politically and be cognizant of how business influences policy and how policy influences equality.

Three, if the resolution passes, not only will we see one of the shortest and simplest concepts enacted- in a bi-partisan manner- but, we will have made another stamp towards improving information flow between citizens and government. We are seeing this now in regards to type of constituent and improvement in platforms by Todd Park and his work as CTO, Rachel Haot’s digital initiative in NYC, and new private tech ideas.

Fourth, youth representatives have no tie to anyone, no need to be re-elected. They’ll share ideas and concerns freely. This alone has huge potential- they can say what everyone wants to ignore, bring academic facts to the table, and refer to their ethics without hesitation.

Waste of money to have another council? Nope, it would be privately funded and parties pre-determined in S.R. 608 would select those chosen to the council. Those on the council would serve to solicit the insight and opinions of our country’s youth, bring those views to Congress, departments, and agencies, and contribute to policy deliberation.

It’s time to have some of the most excited and proactive citizens enabled to make a difference in our government. Simultaneously their effort will decrease the apathy of the 71% of youth that do not believe their voices are heard. The Creation of a Youth Presidential Council is an opportunity to put a dent in political efficacy for the coming decade as well as bring the optimism and faith youth have for the future to legislation and political decisions. Congress, will you pass S.R. 608?

S.R. 608 was initiated by Senator Scott Brown (R-MA), Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), and the Campaign for Presidential Youth Council. Co-sponsors include U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), U.S. Senator Mark Begich (D-AK), U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). Thanks to all parties for your optimism and long-haul efforts!

To read the three page resolution, go to Thomas. Under “Search Bill Summary and Status” type in “Presidential Youth Council.” Then you can click “Text of Legislation,” “Cosponsors,” etc.

*Percentages determined from Harvard IOP research references.

Simon Says: Tour the Top 10 Startup Cities in the U.S.

Marissa Feinberg — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 22:19:13 GMT

Simon Walker is in the middle of whirring about the top 10 startup cities in America in order to answer every entrepreneurs’ burning-est question: Where is the grass greenest?

Even the most brilliant ideas and talented teams need rich, fertile ground to grow. So what city has the best coworking spaces? Where do I really need to go to meet the right connections? Is my idea unique, or is there someone in every city trying to do the same thing? The answers, my friends, will be presented in full in documentary form when the LEEAP Project concludes.

Simon’s working his way up the East coast now, on the last leg of his trip. He’s interviewed entrepreneurs, investors, coworking space owners and inhabitants, accelerators, and VC firms. Among his elbow rubs so far are Mike Jones (ex-ceo of Myspace, founder of Science Inc), Jason Calacanis (Weblogs, Sequoia Capital, Mahalo), Mitch Thrower (Bump Network), and the Microsoft Bing Fund people.

So. The Top 10 Cities for Startups in America?

Huge point of contention right there, beyond the big two: NYC and SFO/the Valley! Folks are always asking Simon why this one’s on the list and that’s not. I’ll skip that debate and we’ll discuss the ones Simon’s been to so far.

Something in the water. In Austin at least.

I spoke with Simon at 9 p.m. one night when he was in Austin, and he started by informing me that this was his 15th interview of a “humongous day.” But his was not the voice of exhaustion. Simon was positively jacked up about the tour so far and brimming with stories.

That day, he’d met Hugh Forrest, Interactive Director of SxSW; visited a coworking space that has a concealed, acoustically-sound meeting room and a waitlist a mile long (wait till we show him what we got at Green Spaces New York); and bounced ideas with the Austin Chamber of Commerce VC on connecting strartups with big investors while keeping it local.

Simon’s revelations

Humming along with his palpable brand of zeal, Simon told me how with just two intense days in each city, he was getting incredible insight into where things are going in the startup realm at large.

Yes, we’re a social enterprise. Now stop talking about it.

Simon sees a shift from startups identifying as social enterprises to just being social enterprises, because that’s how you add value to the community. It’s becoming more understood and less necessary to call it out.

Yes, you must get exposure in San Francisco or New York. (At some point)

In Simon’s words, the fertile crescent of Startupotamia, Silicon Valley ,”is insane. I didn’t want it to live up to the expectations. But it did. In San Francisco, the whole city is a startup, and it is just so monumentally far ahead in everything.” If you’re headed for a series B or another big time funding round, you’ll have to be on the ground in San Francisco or New York.

Mentors rock.

Simon says, “60 to 70% of the value you get from an investment is the investor, not the funds.” Call them angels, VCs, curious people looking to diversify their portfolios, or your friendly local millionaire; money is money anywhere, but insight, connections, and a lot of help navigating from someone who specifically knows startups is backing. You need backing.

Failure is marvelous.

Our trusty guide has encountered very little of, “well, I tried and stuff and it was cool, but my startup didn’t work. Time to go get a nine-to-five.” For American entrepreneurs, the number of failed startups you have is equivalent in boasting rights to a hedge fund manager’s number of summer homes. A crash and burn is celebrated; “three startups ago, I tried it this way…” is a great thing to say.

Why Refugees Make the Best Americans

Marissa Feinberg — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 06:47:47 GMT

During last week’s Superstorm, I stayed with a friend in the Upper West Side, and local bar patrons asked me if I was a refugee. While I laughed in the moment, in truth, the subject should not be taken lightly. And as my grandparents were refugees from Eastern Europe, and Sandy hit our region hard, I found solace at this week’s International Rescue Committee Freedom Award Dinner.

In the midst of a nor’easter snowfall, more than 700 people attended, raising $4 million in one night. Founded in 1933 at the request of icon Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and assistance to refugees fleeing from war, persecution or natural disasters like Sandy.

“Refugees make the best Americans,” said guest Scott Pelley in his speech at the event. The CBS Correspondent revealed he has interacted with many of the refugees who watch his show, enthusiastic to be in the US and learn how our country operates. He once heard a shocking statement from a fan, “911 is a great thing! When is it open?”

A dramatic transition from one culture to another can be unearthing enough, so what happens when refugees get here?

Restauranteur David Burke and Refugee Chef Ah Lun, Courtesy Getty Images

Like everybody else, refugees need jobs! Famous restaurateur David Burke is working with IRC’s newly launched New Roots program. Community farms make an urban oasis, even if they’re in the Bronx! The program, in NYC and nine other US cities, allows refugees with agrarian backgrounds to use their skills, giving them income, sustainable work, and a sense of accomplishment.

No Matter What You Dig — Entrepreneurship comes in many forms

Whether you create a garden or cook a meal, these are entrepreneurial traits that require great initiative — a must-have for refugees when coming to a city like New York, which can be intimidating.

To them, gardens can feel like home. Ah Lun, a refugee recently employed by David Burke, dreams of owning his own restaurant.

“I can tell you that his dream will probably come true,” said David Burke. “He fit right in, and I’m happy I could offer him a job.” The soups Ah Lun has been cooking for the kitchen’s staff have become popular, and one is now on the menu.

A Better Future

Honoree and IRC Legend, John Whitehead, courtesy Getty Images

Statesman, businessman, and philanthropist John Whitehead was the honoree of the IRC’s evening. His words were strong; “Refugees are people who took initiative to leave their country. They had the courage to go to a safer place. Let’s hope for a world where people don’t have to flee.”

Let’s Bring it Back to Sandy — Take Some Action

I was up late last night gathering my favorite friends’ blog posts about Sandy. So, please check out this awesome list, including posts from how to be eco optimistic to how far word about climate change is spreading.

And let’s keep everyone in mind, like Haitians. When a devastating earthquake struck in 2010, the IRC and many others took immediate action. As the country slowly recovers and rebuilds, the agencies continue to work in camps and neighborhoods that lack basic services, assisting Haitians who are struggling to get by and helping them weather new disasters such as Hurricane Sandy. Click here to donate or learn more.

About this blog

Green Spaces is New York City’s sustainable coworking space for startups, entrepreneurs, and others who like to work happily while improving the world. Members and guests from diverse and overlapping fields make us NYC’s networking hotspot for the eco and socially minded. I’m Marissa Feinberg, Green Spaces co-founder, and champion of business for good. Thanks for reading! And please tweet me and share interesting ideas to bounce about good biz. I’m all ears.

Where To Find Multi-Billion-Dollar Opportunities

Marissa Feinberg — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:13:59 GMT

About 6 or 7 years ago, I became obsessed with three words. They’re an aggressive trio of utterances that have guided my work ever since.

The organization that first dropped these syllables into my brain was Investors’ Circle (IC), the biggest, oldest, and baddest early-stage investor network supporting enterprises that better our world.

Those words? The triple bottom line. People, profit, planet; aka, my motivating trifecta. This is what I believe all businesses and organizations should — no, must — strive for.

According to Economist magazine, in 1994 John Elkington founded a British company named SustainAbility and coined the term “triple bottom line.” He was clearly avant garde and a forefather of our movement, but it was Investors’ Circle that delivered the “TBL/3BL” message to my ears and a lot of others’.

Tracking the Triple Bottom Line

Investors’ Circle turns 20 years old in 2012; this year is also the 25th anniversary of Social Venture Network, the network that spun off IC. We’re at a defining moment in social impact. And from my perspective, it’s gaining strength exponentially.

And so, it was a great honor for me to conduct an Entrepreneur Workshop at Investors’ Circle’s 20th anniversary, Fall 2012 Venture Fair and Forum. The people who were there really care, believe, live, and breathe the TBL mantra. Without this organization’s work mobilizing key leaders and investors in sustainability, I’m not sure where my peers and I would be.

As a rapid dot connector and public relations maven, “PR for Early Stage Entrepreneurs :: Leveraging PR to Raise Funds” was the title of my session on October 24, 2012 and my ongoing speciality. Hopefully people put some of my tips in their back pocket, ‘cause I sure learned from other entrepreneurs there. As our community knows, a company with a triple bottom line doesn’t necessarily address each of the Ps literally and directly; it could be a way of doing business. A way of doing just about any business.

What about those billions?

At the conference I interviewed Adam Geller, founder of Edthena. The startup is an Echoing Green 2012 Finalist that helps teachers be better at their jobs.

I’m always in awe of my friends who teach, especially in earlier grades. Standing up in front of the same kids every day requires being responsible, knowledgeable, and in control at all times, regardless of how your day’s going — that seems ridiculously difficult. When I’m in a bad mood, I can avoid talking to pretty much anyone for hours at a time.

And then there’s the job review. What sounds more awkward than having a judge sit in the back of your classroom, watching you teach, while you and all your students pretend she’s not there… knowing you’re the one getting graded for a change?

Enter Edthena

Edthena brings this barbaric-seeming process up to the digital age. A software-as-a-service video-collaboration tool, it lets teachers (surreptitiously?) record themselves teaching, and later upload the video to Edthena’s portal. Then they invite coaches, mentors, or others to review the video and add notes to help the teacher improve. The commented-on video looks kind of like VH1’s Pop Up Video.

Tech To Keep You Up On Politics

Samantha Smith — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 08:47:09 GMT

I’ve been tracking organizations and tools that help organize political information for years now- and it’s really exciting to see their progress- regarding thoroughness and usability or just that more sites are popping up.

My favorite organization by far, and the most prominent, is the Sunlight Foundation– a non-partisan non-profit that uses technology to make government transparent and accountable. Their team is incredibly tech-savvy and they’re behind much of what you’ll see below. Their work provides information in easy to access, niche subject, and quality filter formats.

This post is basically a list of political sites and resources for you to optimize. They get more involved as you go- more basic things are at the beginning, policy junkie wanna-bes and political activists make your way to the bottom. Here are some things you can do with these tools:

Become aware of when election are

Get a gist of where you stand in the party system

Find others interested in what you care about

Compare candidates on issues

Find out who represents you

Contribute to discussion

See the role of money in government

Find policy so you can read it

Set up alerts for things you care about

Track the status of bills

See who supports what

Send remarks to your representatives

REMINDERS:
1. TurboVote.org

Text & email reminders of election dates and locations

Sends you pre-filled papers to register to vote or vote out of state- just sign and drop back in the mail

Takes 2 minutes, only costs are shipping and pre-stamped envelops if included in the service you choose

They’re a non-profit

WHERE DO I STAND?
& COMMUNITY:

2) Votizen.com

See what party your social networks fall into most and who your friends support

Rally friends on votizen to support the candidates you’re voting for

3) Ruck.us

Find people that care about what you care about

Find groups by issue or member-made topic

Create actions for “rucks” you join (share a documentary, petition, meet-up, etc)

4) Electnext.com

Answer questions by issue and be matched to politicians

Ask questions

See “arguments” made by other users

Clearly trying to engage and inform to grow democracy for the masses

5) Isidewith.com

Answer over questions, get a gist for where you stand

Compare candidates

See how your state and news sites lean on candidates and issues

Used by nearly 4 million

6) GovTrack.us

Identify your representatives, see them in comparison to others in leadership & ideology, find the committees they’re on, their voting record, and the bills they’ve sponsored

See Congress’s docket for the upcoming week & statistics on each Congress to date, and the status of each bill

Track your state assembly

Read bills

Check out their list of other tools to track the law

7) Call on Congress

Find out how your reps are voting or raising money by calling one number: 888-907-6886

Be connected to speak to lawmaker offices

Find out where you need to go to vote

GETTING AT POLICY:
& PUBLIC OPINION

8) Popvox.com

Allows citizens to support or oppose bills and provide input

Lets Congress members receive public input

9) House Staff Directory

Find the staffers of your representative, committee members, or offices

MONEY, INFLUENCERS, & RELATIONSHIPS:

10) Follow the Unlimited Money

See all outside (of campaign) spending, like who’s paying for political communication

Shuffle through Super PAC & Committee contributions, cash on hand, and link to SEC filings

Many filter options

11) Political Party Time

See social events happening to fundraise for candidates

Data back to 2006, mostly 2008 onwards, all publicly acquired

Upload an invite you received

API available

12) Influence Explorer:

See top contributors

Find out how your shopping habits influence government

See political contributions of people & orgs in your inbox

How To Build The Most Connected City In The World

Terry Howerton — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:00:20 GMT

Chicago just put out the call for private companies to bring new ideas, to collaborate in building the most well connected city in the world. The goal is significant expansion of already robust fiber optic networks to more corners of the city, and additional services for some under served communities. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has labeled this Chicago’s Broadband Challenge, and the city is now eagerly anticipating ideas from companies and the community to guide next steps. This could be a compelling example of collaboration between private companies and smart public policy.

Done correctly, Chicago could leverage city assets and encourage private fiber networks to spread to all businesses and more neighborhoods. The city grants right away access to streets, sewer systems, alleys and light poles… city owned assets like bus stops, solar powered trash cans and train lines could all be in play. These assets could be leveraged by private companies to more cheaply build out wired and wireless networks, and by offering them up, Chicago gets an important voice in planning how the super high speed networks blanket the city.

The Chicago effort is primarily aimed at expanding low cost gigabit fiber speeds to businesses, critical not just for the burgeoning tech scene, but really all companies and industries that are increasingly dependent on cloud computing and interconnectivity.

And Chicago expects more than just the best network infrastructure available for its businesses. As part of the bargain with the city, the Broadband Challenge should include plans for free public wifi networks in city parks and other places, and increased connectivity to schools, libraries and community centers. And all of that could be a most valuable byproduct of making it easier and cheaper for companies to connect.

Public policy played a critical role in planning the right roads, rail lines and ports that positioned Chicago as a global transportation and logistics hub 50 years ago. It’s no less important to assist in building capacity, speed and diversity in data networks today, and doing so will shape the Chicago economy for decades to come.

As John Pletz recently laid out in Crains, Chicago already has more installed fiber optic cables than nearly any metro area in the world. And with more than 8 terabits of capacity in and out of the city, Chicago only trails New York (the Internet’s gateway to Europe) and Washington DC (home to the military and intelligence apparatus).

But the installation and footprint has been largely market demand driven and not necessarily strategic. That’s resulted in some business districts — or just some specific buildings, gaining cheap, gigabit-speed connectivity, but others where aggregate demand didn’t yet exist becoming data deserts where businesses can’t grow.

As Chicago prepares to replace its aging sewer and water systems, and routine construction continues on roads and public spaces, the city now wants to grant low or no cost access for private companies to expand networks right along side that construction. If companies don’t have to absorb all of the massive costs to tear open streets and run new conduits, they can increase supply and push down the overall cost of super high-speed connectivity across the city. To be sure, “final mile” connectivity — in many cases “final 20 feet” connectivity to splice into the fiber networks from buildings, remains expensive, but the city hopes this effort drives down those costs as well.

Some trading firms measure their competitiveness by the speed in which they can connect to financial exchanges and complete transactions, and even at the speed of light that data travels along the glass of fiber optic lines, locating even a few miles closer to the exchange could provide an edge. Hospitals and doctors can collaborate across town or across the globe, but only with real high speed networks to facilitate the interaction. Companies of all sizes increasingly depend on access to big data, and software delivered from the cloud. And more than ever, it’s important for students to collaborate with teachers beyond the classroom, and curriculum they can access beyond the school.

Google‘s initiative in Kansas City, where they are installing “fiberhoods” throughout the city (largely at Google‘s sole expense), enjoyed good cooperation with city government. It’s a project cities throughout the country no doubt coveted, and many tried to convince Google to come play in their backyards. But that project is a Google experiment, and how they plan to recover their costs is not yet clear.

Chicago Tonight discusses the Emanuel's Broadband Challenge with city CTO John Tolva, Crains columnist John Pletz and Terry Howerton on September 27

Chicago has sold off its parking meters, its toll roads and even considered selling its airports to private companies, and got nothing more than cash in return for those city assets. If this new plan comes at minimal cost to tax payers and leverages idle city assets, jump starting a coordinated private sector initiative that makes it easier and cheaper for companies to build or access super high speed networks, it is critical and forward thinking public policy.

Follow @TerryHowerton on Twitter. He founded Chicago based TechNexus, recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 10 Incubators in America.

Does My Entrepreneurial Mojo Go Past 40?

Terry Howerton — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:01:34 GMT

I turn 40 today. By some measures, sliding into 40 has been bumpy. Cancer recently took my mom’s life after stealing my young sister just a few short years ago. One of my businesses — a company I started a decade ago – finally failed, in part because of circumstance, but mostly because I made some stupid decisions. I supported or advised half a dozen new startups last year, but none really lit a fire in me. Many of my civic projects just didn’t inspire as much as they once did, and I didn’t feel like I was adding enough value to the community.

My ego was bruised. My soul was weary. My energy was sapped.

I launched my first real business when I was 15 years old. I borrowed the one suit in my dad’s closet and bounced around my small town finding customers. I hired my mom (and then about a dozen other people) to help grow that company. A few years later, I dropped out of college to run my second venture. I’ve spent every day of the past 25 years as an active entrepreneur, making payroll and finding customers to please. I’ve led or been part of more than two dozen ventures, and brainstormed or planned hundreds more. I’ve enjoyed some good success, and experienced some spectacular failure. I’ve picked up my bootstraps, dusted off and tackled each new morning full of dreams and expectations.

"Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe; and stronger than you seem; and smarter than you think." —Christopher Robin to Winnie The Pooh (By A.A. Milne/E.H. Shepard)

Being an entrepreneur is supposedly a game for the young and strong of heart. Running head first into the storm is full of risk and drama. There are ups and downs and something new and interesting around every corner. I’ve had startups go from incredible success and excitement to utter despair and failure… sometimes in the course of a single day. I’ve been frequently wrong, but rarely in doubt.

So now I’m 40, and my wide-eyed optimism has crow’s feet at its edges.

Yes, this past year has been sobering but it wasn’t without excitement and success. We celebrated the fifth anniversary of TechNexus, an incubator I cofounded that’s been home to 137 companies. The charter school I helped create and lead has inspired young, inner-city tech entrepreneurs and matched hundreds of students and mentors. The trade association I built for seven years was successfully handed off to new leadership.

I spent much of the last decade helping bring Chicago’s nascent tech community together. When we started that civic effort (translation: those first early beer parties on the roof of our office), we were young (obnoxious), community-minded (attention seeking) newcomers full of ideas to bring people together in collaborative ways (did I mention the parties?). Today Chicago’s tech community is booming, and the city is full of new, young, community-minded people with their own civic ideas.

I never wanted to create a company just to get rich, and I certainly didn’t volunteer all my civic time to that end. For me the thrill has been in the process of creation. I’ve scratched that itch many times just sitting in front of a buddy’s whiteboard, usually when I had no vested interest in the venture.

So why the frustration? Why did one business setback – one batch of bad decisions – throw me off my game in a way that none before had ever done? Am I getting too old for this entrepreneur’s game, maybe too cynical? Has my risk tolerance receded with my hairline? Have I become a midlife cliché after 25 years of being the youngest, most impassioned guy in the room?

Screw all that. Everything is prelude. I’ve built some good organizations, but there’s still a really great company (or two or three) in me. I’ve known that with absolute certainty since I first put on that oversized suit and set out in search of customers 25 years ago.

And even though I was a cocksure 20-something entrepreneur, it’s a myth that entrepreneurs are all cocksure 20-somethings. Kauffman released a report a couple of years ago that showed people founding tech companies over the last decade had a median age of 39… nothing close to the age that makes for good stories in the media.

What I have learned is that no entrepreneur succeeds alone… it takes mentors and collaborators and an amazing team. And yes, sometimes it takes a lot of luck. The “overnight success” of entrepreneurship more often comes after years, even decades, of putting yourself in the right place, at the right time, with the right people. Trust in serendipity… setting upon a journey and discovering something entirely different, and more valuable, than your original goal.