The competition is open to Alumi, Students and Faculty, but all development of the website or business plan must be completed during the 48 hours of the competition. 

I’m excited to say I’ve been selected to judge this awesome event and I’m really looking forward to working with my fellow Judges - Susan Beebe (SM expert), Aaron Newman (SM2/Techrigy), and Liz Lawley (Director of the Lab for Social Computing at RIT) on this task.  The top winning team will receive $600.  Here is the schedule for the 2 days:

Good luck to the team members and may the best team win!

Eligibility

Candidates should be Founders, Senior Executives, CEO’s or hold a controlling position in an early stage technology, life science, and/or scalable high-revenue potential firms with business operations primarily in Upstate New York.

Who Should Apply

• Early Stage Technology Firms
• Life Science Firms
• Serial Entrepreneurs
• Scalable Businesses (Up to $50 million)
• Businesses Undergoing a Leadership Transition
• Family-owned Businesses

Application

TEN is now accepting applications for Class IX. Please submit an application form, a brief non-confidential executive summary (maximum length 3 pages) describing your business, and a summary of your professional background for review and acceptance into the next four-month program. Class size is limited to 20 participants per class to allow for maximum interaction.

Cost

Approved applicants will be charged a one-time processing fee of $350.00.

“Class IX” is a member-only 4-month program comprised of the following boot camps:

To apply for Class IX, Submit an on-line application: online application.

Apply Today!

About The Entrepreneurs Network The Entrepreneurs Network-TEN - is an innovative program designed to provide Upstate entrepreneurs significant hands-on exposure to, and interaction with, national and regional business experts and funding sources. TEN has an exclusive, members-only class consisting of boot camps on securing equity investments and traditional financing, effective sales and marketing strategies, leadership and business strategy for today’s competitive environment. TEN augments its program activities with “Lunch and Learn” and other special events to offer training, educating and networking to connect entrepreneurs, established firms, academic institutions and investment resources to advance the regional economy.

About County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency COMIDA’s goal is to promote, encourage, attract and develop job and recreational opportunities and economically sound commerce and industry throughout Monroe County. COMIDA’s projects generate a 4 to 1 benefit to incentive ratio. They do not lend money nor guarantee loans. Assistance is provided though incentives.

About High Tech Rochesteris a non-profit economic development organization driving growth in the Rochester/Finger Lakes region through the Creation, Mentoring, and Incubation of high-tech start-up businesses, and through advanced consulting services provided to small manufacturing firms through its NYSTAR-funded Regional Technology Development Center.

Gerber in E-Myth finds that you can be an employee, a consultant, a “lifestyle” business owner or a true entrepreneur.  Isenberg refines that down to the characteristics that designate you a true entrepreneur.  Most people are not suited to entrepreneurial lifestyle - it’s very different than the other 3 quadrants and requires a high degree of passion, work ethic, creativity and willingness to fail.  Isenberg feels it’s not about money or risk - it’s about the excitement of making a difference in the world.  I agree,

Sifting through the University’s roughly 400 (391 at the moment) unused patents, picking one, and drawing up an effective business plan around it is a central task for students working toward the new Master of Science degree.
This approach to teaching innovation allows students the chance to use real technologies and gives them an opportunity to start profitable companies.  The novel program is being put to the test as a pilot program this year.

The program is designed for students that have a bachelor’s degree in a technical field. Program participants take interdisciplinary graduate level engineering courses from theHajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as well as business courses from the Simon Graduate School of Business.

One of the program’s founders, Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship Duncan Moore, has started a few companies of his own during his tenure at Rochester using technology that he helped develop.  Moore believes that, although attitudes have begun to change, many academics aren’t comfortable in industry, making it difficult for potentially job-creating technologies that are incubated in universities to enter the marketplace.

Local engineers need to learn to start their own companies, especially in Rochester, where traditional, large, high-tech companies are struggling and engineering jobs are leaving the city, according to Moore.  “I believe we have a very strong obligation to encourage engineers to think like businesspeople, both morally and for the health of the University,” Moore said. 

In addition to creating local jobs and teaching students entrepreneurship, the University has a financial incentive for using some of its dormant patents, according to Jack Fraser, deputy director of the school’s Office of Technology Transfer, who is responsible for licensing the University’s patents. It costs the University roughly $15,000 in lawyers’ fees on average to file a patent, and when the patents sit unused that money is not recouped, Fraser said.
When a technology is licensed, the company that licenses it pays the University for the privilege, usually in the form of royalties. That money is then split between the University and the inventor.

Four students make up the pilot class for the TEAM program, which began this year. The University hopes to expand it to a class of 20 students for the academic year beginning fall 2010.

For more information contact Natalie Antal at natalie.antal@rochester.edu 585-276-4511

Rochester, NY based Tenrehte Technologies Inc won the CNET Green Technologies award at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.    Their new PicoWatt smart plug will provide the benefits promised to consumers by a “smart grid” including real time electricity usage information and the ability to control all your appliances from a central plug.  You can even control usage to make sure that high-energy using utilities operate at off-peak times - saving money.

CNET cited the PicoWatt for letting the home user set up monitoring themselves, unlike other smart grid technologies that are waiting on long-term deployment of smart home power meters.  Each smart plug is a mini linux wifi router, gathering data and controlling devices remotely through a central control program.  Users can view their data on a smart phone, or even a facebook application.  It can automatically monitor and eliminate standby power on televisions and other appliances when they are not in use.

According to CNET’s reporter Martin LaMonica, the final consumer version has a planned price of $79 and will be sold direct to consumers later this year.

This blog of course has covered success story Tenrehte from their humble beginnings, to their planned TED Talk later this year.   I am happy to count Tenrehte as one of Rochester’s entrepreneurial success stories!  Great job to Jen Indovina (CEO) and the rest of her awesome team. Check out the CNET Video on Tenrehte here.

In addition a Farmer’s Insurance report lists Rochester NY 5th in overall secure places to live.   This list is compiled each year using factors such as housing values, risk of natural disaster, crime, job market, life expectancy and air quality.  I suspect our strong local health system, stable housing prices, and relatively lower unemployment due to a strong small business economy contribute to these factors greatly.

According to www.bestplaces.com Rochester’s cost of living is a full 20% lower than the average US City.  That means that we have inexpensive real estate - a dollar’s salary is worth 15-20% more in Rochester than anywhere else, our crime rates are low, our real estate values are lower but stable, and we enjoy a lower unemployment rank than most of the country.  That all sounds positive to me.

So why then is NYS overall rated as one of the least happy places to live?  Can the “upstate divisionists” be right and (as they claim) downstate is so unhappy they’re dragging the rest of us down with them?  Is it just the weather and the “long gray” we get each winter?  Is it our highly conservative approach to promoting small businesses and entrepreneurialism (most of the small businesses and entrepreneurs I know live in Rochester despite the low level of angel and venture capital - not because of it)?

I’m curious - what are your views?  How can we continue to outshine the competition as the folks at Eyes on the Future point out each year and yet we’re still down on Rochester and NYS all the time.  There must be something strong about us that makes us what we are - why isn’t that making us happy?

The TED2010 Fellows reflect both geographic and discipline diversity. From Israel to Brazil to Malaysia, these innovators excel in the technology, entertainment, design, science, film, art, music, entrepreneurship and nonprofit worlds. The group also includes filmmakers, engineers, artists, scientists and musicians. “They represent a
spectacular concentration of cross-disciplinary talent in the arts and sciences, entrepreneurship and engineering, education and new journalism. We look forward to their contributions to the TED community and the amazing collaborations that are sure to occur among them,” said Tom Rielly, TED Fellows director.

In addition to participating as full members of the TED2010 conference audience, each TED Fellow will participate in a two-day pre-conference, where they will receive world-class communication training, deliver a short TEDTalk, and collaborate with their peers, among other benefits. The Fellows will also participate in the TED community throughout the next year, by telling their ongoing stories on the TED Fellows blog, being featured in the online Fellows directory and participating in a private social network.

Follow TED on Twitter, http://twitter.com/tedtalks, or on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/TED

TED2010, “What the World Needs Now,” will be held Feb. 9-13, 2010, in Long Beach, California, along with TEDActive, a simulcast conference of TED2010, in Palm Springs, California.

‘Serial Entrepreneur’ Terry Matthews to Speak at RIT Dec. 11

Terry Matthews, the founder of more than 60 telecommunications, information technology and software companies, will discuss how to create successful new ventures during a 3 p.m. talk on Friday December 11th at Rochester Institute of Technology’s B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences Auditorium.

The event is free and open to the public.

Matthews is the chairman of Wesley Clover, a private equity firm that describes itself as being in the business of building businesses. Matthews and his team at Wesley Clover utilize their extensive experiences in the technology realm to identify gaps in the marketplace and launch new enterprises to fill them. Wesley Clover reaches out to either recent college graduates or those at the tail end of their academic career to lead the charge, offering training and mentoring along the way.

In the past two years, seven recent RIT graduates have formed companies for Wesley Clover.

“Terry Matthews is what I call a serial entrepreneur,” says Richard DeMartino, director of RIT’s Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “His passion is empowering and coaching young entrepreneurs in building businesses. The insight he will offer in his presentation will be invaluable for anyone looking to launch their own business.”

Abby’s (aka Jeanne Phillips) sage recommendation (which she obviously didn’t ask any REAL entrepreneur’s about) is to write up a business plan (ok so far) and present it to a bank and ask for a loan.  Supposedly if the bank says “yes” to the loan then the idea is a sound one.  Does anyone else see the silly irrationality of this “test” to see if the business idea is valid?  No?  Well let me spell it out.  The bank will either say yes or no - based on it’s own interests - not the validity of the business plan:

• YES - ok, rule number one - bank’s will only loan you money when you don’t need it.  So if they say “YES” to loaning money on this plan it will be for one reason only - that this young lady already has enough money and assets to act as collateral against the loan they are giving.  They know that any bet on an entrepreneurial venture is a long shot - so they won’t loan her any money she can’t already cover.  They’ll ask her to put her home equity, personal assets and everything else up against the loan and then will only loan her a portion of that total.  As a test for whether this is a “good idea” this fails miserably.
• NO - this is the most likely answer.  Banks don’t take “angel capital” style risks.  You could walk in with the full business plan for Facebook(before Facebook was created) and they would say “that’s a nice idea.  Where’s your income stream or other collateral that we can hold in case your silly idea fails?  Your booked A/R?   Your history of past performance? Oh you don’t have any? Sorry no luck.”  This poor woman would walk away thinking she can’t be an entrepreneur because the most fiscally conservative organization you can find won’t invest in her.

So if Abby’s foolish advice is NOT the route to take - what should this woman do?  Well the first thing she needs to do is that business plan - she needs to fully flesh out her business idea and examine it critically.  She needs to bounce it off  other entrepreneurs, and preferably get an experienced entrepreneur mentor (Try SCORE, or social media to connect to one) or gather a board of directors made up of other business owners she knows together to review the plan before she spends her effort and cash on it.  Just because she has a dream does not mean she has a marketable idea.  If there are startup resources (say a Springstage Blog) in her area she should go to them to help connect her with others who have been down the road she wants to take.

In addition she needs to approach this venture with some reality checks in mind:

•  The likelihood of successfully starting a business and maintaining your marriage without your spouse’s full buy-in is vanishingly small.  Starting a business will affect everyone in her immediate family.  She needs to have their support, help and understanding to succeed.  It may actually come down to “which is more important - your dream or your marriage”.  Better to decide that before she starts the business.
• Does she want to build a business as a consultant, a lifestyle business, or an asset that she will eventually resell, or retire from and will provide her with long term wealth. Those are different routes, with different risks and rewards.  She should choose which she’s going for on purpose.
• She should read a couple of excellent books*.  I’ll make some specific suggestions here, but I’m sure my readers can recommend others. 
  • She should start with E-Myth Revisted (Michael Gerber) to wrap her brain around the concept of exactly what kind of business she wants to start, and what the differences are between business types.
  • Purple Cow (Seth Godin) - What about her business idea makes it unique and special.  Why would people buy from her?  How will she convince her potential customers of the uniqueness of her idea or proposed service?
  • How to win friends and influence people (Dale Carnegie) - this book, written over 60 years ago - still applies today.  She must live this concept to succeed in business.  Does she already? or is there still work to do?
  • Think and grow rich(Napolean Hill) - does she already adopt the positive mental attitude she will need to succeed?  Building a business is very hard work, and you must be willing to commit to it inside your head before you even start working on it.  She need self confidence that borders on egomania or the world will beat her down.
  • Rich Dad Poor Dad (Robert Kiyosaki) - does she understand the difference between a “good” and “bad” investment?
  • Executive EQ(Robert Cooper/Ayman Sawaf) and Now Discover your Strengths  (Marcus Buckingham/Donald Clifton)- she should take a personality profile check and fully understand her strengths and weaknesses as a person.  No two people are the same, and there is no “magic formula” for being a good entrepreneur - but if you understand where your weaknesses are you can hire to compensate, and if you know where your strengths are you can create a business role for yourself that takes advantage of those strengths.
• She should examine her own motivations for starting a business and do a reality check with real business owners about whether they are realistic.  Think you’re going to do it so you can “set your own hours”?  Think again - most small business owners work more hours than their employees during the startup phase.  There are many other myths about entrepreneurship that she should examine and debunk before proceeding on.
• She should be prepared to fail.  Boundaries need to be set for how much to invest, what the final endplan might look like if the business does not succeed, and how she will protect her personal assets as much as possible.  The reality is that most successful entrepreneurs have a few failed business ventures under their belt before they hit one out of the ballpark.  If you fail - fail in a recoverable way.

Finally though - she should not be dissuaded by nay-sayers.  Whether it’s friends and relatives or the bank - if entrepreneurship is in her blood, she’ll never be satisfied until she tries it to see if it’s really for her.  Success will depend on preparation, having the right business advisors around you, having a great idea, hiring the right people to implement it for you, and supporting those people with the proper investment in marketing and sales.

* Full disclosure - if you purchase books through these links Amazon pays me some miniscule commission on them.  Don’t feel obligated - it’s just easier for me to organize them all in one place this way.