Entrepreneurs Mean Business - Entrepreneurs Mean Business Blog

Not Everybody Calls It NightCap

Jake — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:18:00 -0500

BlobLive is an interesting idea, where prospective founders talk about and refine ideas.

EMB folks will see shadows of NightCap in this. I dunno, maybe it's time for NightCap to get bigger? With Sponsorships? Hmmmmm...

(Via SpringWise)

More Tesla Coil Fun!

Jeff — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:03:19 -0500

Following fairly closely on the heels of this, we have a tesla coil performing the theme song from Dr. Who. I never watched Dr. Who myself, but I enjoyed the song, and the guy dancing in the arcs sure does look like he's having fun doesn't he?

EDIT: looks like both these performances were done by OpenLabs. Their sign is in the background of both vids.

Via: MAKE:

Does your business card belong in a rolodex?

Jeff — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:38:54 -0500

I watch this video, and I can't help but think how effective his business card is. Certainly he'll stand out in a crowd, and if you get his card, you'll definitely remember him. Maybe it's not the card I don't like, maybe this guy just seems way too full of himself.

(via: Woot.com)

You May Recognize Me From Your Favorite Trashy Novel!

Jake — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 23:33:25 -0500

Usually my Google Alert for my own name doesn't yield much, other than an up-and-coming high school lacrosse player somewhere in the Eastern states.

Tonight though, Google brought me paydirt. I am now the unwitting star of a trashy novel! Oh, and I'm hunky:

When Amanda Prescott hired sexy ex-Marine Jake Wilcox to head her company's security, the lonely widow began to yearn for the hunky thirty-something to keep her safe and sound--and satisfied in bed. Jake knows the curvy boss lady wants everything he's got--and needs everything he's hot to deliver.

Cue the bow chicka music.

More details on the $2.00, 30 page ebook here (WARNING, NSFW!).

Zelda Coil Mashup

Jake — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:26:42 -0500

When I was in junior high, I was a Zelda freak. I wasn't a very social kid, so I played Zelda an awful lot.

I used to think it was unrelated, but I also had to do do a science project in the seventh grade. My dad helped me build a table-top-sized Tesla coil as my project.

I remember powering that thing up--the spark gap on it sounded like a small firecracker, and it generated ozone you could smell anywhere in the immediate vicinity. The sides of our giant aluminum foil and glass capacitor crinkled. And then the ominous hum and crackle of the electrode on top of the thing let you know; don't get too close. My dad did the math and estimated the thing's output at ~200KV.

Every now and then I get to hear something that approximates the hum-crackle of my childhood Tesla coil. 16KV power lines that run through the middle of nowhere to the substations to feed small and medium-sized cities hum like that. The first half-second Van Halen's "Jump" has a sound that isn't dissimilar.

That sound makes my heart quicken.

Now, some damned fool has made a tuneable Tesla coil, set it to play the Zelda theme, and thrown in a third, newer love of mine: Mashup. It's Zelda. Mashed with Sexyback. On a frikkin' Tesla coil. I sat on my office chair and cried a little for joy.

Dear Damned Fool- Thank you.

(The embedded video below is great, but do yourself a favor; Click through to the Vimeo website to watch this in high-def, and full screen it. Impressive.)

SexyBack vs. Legend of Zelda Theme on Two Tesla Coils from Trammell on Vimeo.

Sometimes Partnerships Don't Work Out, Part 1

Jake — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:07:04 -0500

After thinking about it long and hard, I've decided to share a little treat here.

What follows is a letter I wrote to a business partner over two years ago. We did make money for one another, but things that started out little quickly became big problems, and the whole thing crumbled in the course of six months or so.

I never did send this letter, and I don't intend to. These were things that I needed to say, but having Mike (probably not his real name) hear them would have made no constructive difference.

I learned a lot from that partnership, and that's why today I'm so grateful to work with people like Jeff, Mark, Blake, Bryant, and Eric. Cheers, guys, and enjoy.

Mike-

At long last I'm taking the hint. It's been an uphill battle attempting to do business with you for the last several months.

When I do get in contact with you, and ask you about phone messages that aren't returned, and emails that aren't replied to, and appointments that you make with me and then fail to carry through with, you've apologized, and told me that you're just busy, and you'll do better.

I no longer believe your apologies. If you cared at all, you would keep commitments and maintain contact.

What's frustrating about the situation is that if you were honest with me, we could both move on. If you'd told me that something about the partnership wasn't working for you and you wanted to stop the relationship, I could have saved a lot of time and effort that was wasted on you instead. And, of course, you'd get to keep your integrity.

What has been amazing to me throughout this time is your constant suspicion of me. Your calls (back when you did call) asking if I'd been steering customers away from you, or if I was telling people that I wasn't associated with you were mystifying to me.

I'm saddened by this, Mike, because I really believe that we could have done great things for one another. Your skill in delivering internet service, and my skill in hardware are complementary. A partnership that properly leverages these two strengths could dominate an entire region in technical services. Perhaps it's my fault that as hard as I've tried, I never did get you to catch this vision.

***Bonus for Crystal Alternate Letter to Mike:

Mike. It's over. I just can't stand the thought of pretending that you're not an asshole anymore. Sorry.

Simple math

Jeff — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:00:13 -0500

Basic math skills are important. If you hire someone to handle your billing, make sure they understand their basic math.

in other words...

DON'T BE VERIZON!

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/19/verizon-doesnt-under.html

This is exactly why I believe that a passing grade in at least 1 year of a personal finance class should be required for graduation from high school.

Oh, and if there's anyone here who doesn't understand the difference between $.002 and ¢.002, I'd like to make an offer on your car.

The Nano Song (With Improvised NotMuppets!)

Jake — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:20:47 -0600

If you want to call attention to your cause (the good kind!), do this. What an amazing presentation. And it probably cost less than $25.

The Nano Song from nanomonster on Vimeo.

Congratulations to Blake, Missy, Vandi, Zoey, and Izaak!

Jake — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:53:58 -0600

Co-founder of this website and dear friend Blake has two new little girls.

And you can visit Missy's new blog to read all about it! (Uh-oh Missy, now you have an audience! Time to get cracking.)

Girls are wonderful, and they couldn't have picked a better set of parents. Cheers to you.

Don't Put The Recession Money In The Cookie Jar

Jake — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:17:52 -0600

Fortune magazine was a fair bit of right and a lot of wrong in the article, "Recession? Where to put your money now."

First, I'm not a stocks and bonds guy, really. It's partly about patience, but I mostly just don't have the capital for that yet. So my eyes glazed over for a lot of what some would call the juicy bits of this article.

All the same, I'd disregard those bits even if they were riveting, because it's full of feel-good crap like 'Uncle Sam is on top of the situation, and it's not going to get any worse. Promise.' A magazine that releases in February (as this one did) gets written in December or January, so that vision is at least a quarter old now, and it's plain that they called that one wrong. So whatever. That's not what I'm here for.

There is some good advice in this article, and it's mostly about attitude. Here's a gem, and I'm cutting out the market trader BS:

So while it's tough to see anything good about this rocky market (...) remember that big selloffs present rare and essential buying opportunities, and the current one is no exception.

Right. People don't like change. Folks make money when things are up, and they make money when things are down. The smart ones adjust their thinking and make sure that it's them making money in both cases. The rest moan about change. Mind that attitude.

Here's a good tip, no matter what kind of trading you're in:

Meanwhile, keep plenty of cash so you can pounce when still-overpriced issues (...) spiral downward.

Or whatever it is you like to deal in. And while we're at it, here's my opinion on that. We're all interested in something. For these guys, it's bad stock advice. (Zing!) Some guys like guns, and some others like cars. It doesn't matter. Start with your interests. Whatever you're into, find out where the deals happen, and hang out there until you can tell between a good deal and a bad one. Then, make your cash work for you. When you know your market well enough, it's not hard to do.

Last quote, from the last paragraph of the article:

Winning in these treacherous times is as much about psychology as following the rules. It takes guts to be daring when markets are melting down. But that's the quality that makes great investors.

And great entrepreneurs. Keep your head cool, and get out there.