Entrepreneurs…. this is a call as a reminder… there’s no small game to play with regard to being an entrepreneur.  I’ve often been told of the following quote from Marianne Williamson (often attributed to Nelson Mandela) where Marianne tells us flat out to stop playing a small game.  In the words of a spiritual butt-kicking, here’s her quote.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Now there’s another side to this… and anyone that’s been a successful, reflective entrepreneur knows that this is true.  There’s no place to hide when it comes to not playing small.  Whether or not you get the spiritual side to this quote above, there’s the cold hard facts, in a business context, that if its to be, its up to you, the entrepreneur.

Building a business, or a socially focused non-profit, or whatever your venture might be… there’s no place to hide whether or not you get there.  I’ve often thought that this could be a perceived downside to the quote above.  Marianne is calling us to a higher level… yet, if an entrepreneur doesn’t make it to his / her goals, there’s a litany of reasons that they did not make it… but the buck stops with the entrepreneur.

Listen to Marianne. Reach for the skies.  Pull out all of the stops.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  And realize that if you make it, or not, is your responsibility.  Show your light. Don’t hide it. Be willing to risk not making it.  Be willing to be responsible for whatever happens, good, bad, or ugly.  Once you’ve felt the power of the stretch feeling of going for it, then and only then will you understand as well the power of being responsible for making things happen. And once you’ve felt this feeling, you’ll be drawn to turn your light on even brighter.

A recent discussion around the Bootstrap Austin Network is worthy of sharing here, for it rings true for every entrepreneur trying to make a difference through his/her venture.  An entrepreneur was contemplating legal action on an issue that was not core to his business.  Several entrepreneurs got into the discussion. Barry Thorton, founder of Clear Cube and several other successful companies, admonished though to “keep your eye on the Prize”.  Be true to the core of the business you’re building, and blow off all other issues that are not core to the business (especially in the case of considering legal action on something that did not protect the core of the business).  Here’s a small excerpt from his statement:

This story of yours suggests that you have guided yourself far afield from your business.

I always push the MLK saying  “Keep your eye on the Prize”.

I would suggest that you have drifted far from that Prize and you are now asking others time to join you in that pursuit.

You know what your Prize is, you have been pursuing it for years.

Does this seriously threaten that Prize?

How much time have you spent on this and how has it gotten you closer to the Prize?

Relax, tend your field, it is your Prize.  Don’t get distracted, it will only cause pain.

Good luck, Barry

I think that many of us as entrepreneurs, as we are passionately slaving towards a goal, loose sight of the prize that we’re working towards.  As an example, around the Tech Ranch Austin, recently I recognized that one of our entrepreneurs, who is passionate about serving persons that have diabetes, was talking about how to go get investors here, and investors there… yet had yet to just serve the constituency that he is passionate about.  He’s now has the first 10 diabetics that he is serving… and the business has taken on a whole new tone of possibilities.  It does not matter what the distraction is… anything that is not core to the business can distract you from the Prize (as it has me too). Keep your eye on the prize.  Build your business.  Create success for yourself, and those that you serve. And through doing this, you’ll be making the world a better place.

There’s a recent article that several people have forwarded to me given that it rings true to what I am talking about around the Tech Ranch Austin all of the time…  Called Getting your startup out of Starbucks, James Reinhart has a point that he’s singing to the choir (me) about.

The whole point here about this idea is that although certain entrepreneurs might be able to be successful in working out of coffee shops 100% of the time, I’ve seen a need that for tech entrepreneurs that are building companies (not just freelancer businesses) need a dojo / community of practice / incubator to really make things happen fast in their businesses. Working in at a coffee shop alone (or just working out of their houses) limits what’s possible for the company.

I am going to take my own spin at James’ list of four points, and add three that I see a specific spin at around the Tech Ranch Austin.

1.  Not as productive.  Distractions abound in a coffeeshop or at home.  Either way, if you are constantly being distracted, you’re not going to be able to get into the deep concentration that you need for thinking and cranking in building your startup

2. Virtual tools are poor substitutes to the office. Humans have been getting together working around specific physical locations since the beginning of history.  Humans have evolved to work together. As James points out, virtual tools are poor substitutes for face to face interaction. Use virtual tools as supplements, not substitutes to having a real office.

3. Separate work from play. I love my work around the Tech Ranch (and many of the startiups that I’ve been a part of over the years)…. Yet, I’ve learned the hard way that its critical to separate work-play from just the play of being at my home or being at a coffee shop for just having a cup of coffee with a friend.  Make sure to separate your workspaces from your pure playspaces, and your brain will have more capability to produce.

4.  Cheaper than a $4 latte. So anyone that reads my twitter feed knows that I love mochas.  Yet in trying to work at a coffee shop, buying a bunch of lattes or mochas, you’re going to spend more money than you will for having an office or access to one of the new type of incubator or co-working spaces that are developing around Austin or around the world.  And if you are at the Tech Ranch, you’re sure to get caught up in some strong biases towards even higher quality coffee than you’ll get at many coffeeshops!

5.  Leverage the community. Heard of the “water cooler effect”?  That is, at a larger company how stuff happens around the water cooler where two people randomly run into each other and then some new idea comes out of that interaction?  These types of interactions can happen anywhere… but in an environment like at Tech Ranch, we’ve wired the place to produce daily random productive interactions.  Community members around the Ranch know that creating the water cooler effect is one of the reasons that they are there…. and so its natural that we see interactions every day that are producing results that would not have happened any other way.

6.  Leverage experts. Around many of the accelerators like YCombinator or Tech Ranch we’ve collected experts that have a lot of scar tissue… who’ve been there, done that, and perhaps they’ve learned the hard way… An environment like Tech Ranch might just create the right conversation with the person that’s been there and screwed it up before so that you, in building your startup, can avoid the pitfalls, and learn from their mistakes without having to make your own mistakes. (and I say this as an entrepreneur that’s been screwing up things since 1994.  Let me tell you- I can help keep your startup out of some of the screwups that I’ve done).

7. Leverage both. Ok, so as I write this, I am sitting in a coffee shop, having a mocha, and enjoying having a slight different change of pace.  There’s no reason to have a strick either or decision concerning being in an incubator / accelerator and enjoying a coffee every once in a while for a change of pace.

The real challenge is moving as quickly as possible with as few resources as possible in building out your company.  Come try out the Tech Ranch and see how it effects your progress on your startup. Or, if you have one of these places in Central Texas or around the world, initiate a conversation with us.  We’re putting together the playbook that shows how to take these interactions to the next level. As well, for the entrepreneur at the Tech Ranch Austin we’re fairly liberal about making the risk and barrier for entry low (we ask for 30 days notice).  In 30 days at one of these locations, you’ll notice a major positive difference.  That’s my commitment to you at the Tech Ranch.  Building a company alone and isolated is hard.  Come crank on it with others to really make things happen fast on your startup.

One of the great things about being a connector is that I get to listen in across many different people- what they are saying, what they are finding interesting, and if there is any correlation among these topics of conversation.

Recently, there’s been one meme that has gotten tweeted and talked about by quite a few people, that till now, I did not think had any connection to each other.

And what this meme represents is what I believe is the first shot in the next American Revolution.

No, I am not talking about some group trying to send someone to some new political office.  As you might know, I was (and still am) in support of the choice I made in supporting President Obama…. yet, there’s something much more fundamental happening… and this represents the start of something revolutionary.

To steal a phrase from John Robb: “an aware citizenry can defend itself“.  Up to this time, every time some issue has come up, there’s been a question of turning to the government for a solution.  Yet, given what’s happened in the Congress for so many years, whether a Republican or a Democrat in the Oval Office, the citizenry I believe has now come to learn that the government is in itself fundamentally broken.

And by broken, what do I mean?  From John Robb’s article:

• Median male incomes today are the same as they were in 1974 in the US (and likely all over the western world).  No progress has been made despite a doubling of productivity and massive top line GDP growth. Worse, given that female incomes aren’t on par with male incomes yet, the typical American family makes much less per hour worked than in 1974.
• All of the requirements for entry into the middle class are now private expenses.  From health care to a college education, if you can’t afford the minimum (let alone high quality versions), you aren’t allowed entry.  Worse, those expenses are spiraling out of control at rates many times the rate of inflation.  Nothing is being done to address this.
• The system is geared to make us fail.  Not only has outsourcing/off-shoring just started (everything that can be moved offshore to take advantage of the arbitrage opportunity in wage disparities between western and workers in developing countries will be) we are being laden with un-repayable debt. To wit: there’s been NO job growth in the last decade (despite tens of millions in population growth) and total debt from all sources is still near ALL time historical highs.

Whethere the  mishandling of healthcare reform,  security theater in the airports, or spending billions on companies that shouldn’t be bailed out, or trillions on a war that should have never been started, Americans are starting to speak out in a way that we’ve not done for a long while.  And recognize its the aware populace that’s been taking care of business. The genie is out of the bottle.

Although I might not be happy about the waste by our government, as an entrepreneur, and an American, I’m excited that some of my fellow Americans are waking up and starting the process that will reform, dare I say revolutionize this country again.   It is time to take up web browser, account ledger, and social network and remake our country.  There’s too much at stake, for “every revolution begins with the power of an idea” and this is an idea who’s time has come.

Looking back to 2009 many great things happened with the concepts that I’ve been calling the Enterprise Tribe, with the most exciting being Tech Ranch Austin.  2009 was all about transition, transitioning from a handful of theories to actual startup success at the Ranch.  2010, though, is about growth.  That is, taking what we have to a whole new level.  While reflecting on 2009 and 2010 with my buddy Damon Clinkscales about how I needed more time to just get stuff done, he pointed out “you need to switch more time to becoming a maker, not just a manager”.  Spend more time making things, less time interrupted through out the day managing things.  Paul Graham, of Ycombinator wrote a blog post about this- about how its hard to make things if you get interrupted through out the day with meeting after meeting or other interruption:

When you’re operating on the maker’s schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in. Plus you have to remember to go to the meeting. That’s no problem for someone on the manager’s schedule. There's always something coming on the next hour; the only question is what. But when someone on the maker’s schedule has a meeting, they have to think about it.

What’s happened for me is that as a Founding Partner of the Tech Ranch, I need time both as a Maker (getting things done for the Ranch and our portfolio companies)  and a Manager (involved with the Tech Ranch community).  Having those moments to work in without interruptions really makes a difference- say to review a spreadsheet, or respond to a strategic plan, or even to just handle email… As Paul points out:

Each type of schedule works fine by itself. Problems arise when they meet. Since most powerful people operate on the manager’s schedule, they’re in a position to make everyone resonate at their frequency if they want to. But the smarter ones restrain themselves, if they know that some of the people working for them need long chunks of time to work in.

This year, as one of my new years resolutions in order to grow the Tech Ranch I am going to have to spend more time on a Maker’s Schedule.  I am sure that it will take some time to work out this type of schedule, and at first, I am sure that its going to feel different for some members of our community…. but I see spending more time in a Maker’s Schedule essential for me to build our community.  Its not just about building out the Tech Ranch, but about creating situations that end up long term making the community itself stronger through seeing that our companies get to move farther and faster.  All I ask, in echoing Paul’s words, is that everyone understand the need that we / I have in spending more time as a Maker. I will still be available for meetings, and am really interested in interacting with the community in depth (as I always have been and always will be).  Spending more time on just getting things done is essential for 2010’s growth.  In order to create more hours to be a Maker, I’ll be setting up office hours. And I am open to other ideas as well.  Please let me know if you have other ideas that I should pursue.  Through this I am looking forward to serving our community farther than I could in 2009, and I am hoping that we together can take many of the Tech Ranch companies to a whole new level together.

As I make this transition to setting aside more time as a Maker, I ask for your patience with how I start to manage my schedule, and I hope you see what I am aiming for in bringing our community much farther than before.  Thank you for the support in 2009; Its now time to grow and strengthen our community together in 2010.

Over the last few months, we at the Tech Ranch Austin have been supporting entrepreneurs in launching their ventures.  With the following announcement, we’re taking it to a whole new level.  See details below about the Venture Forth program.  Its time to start the venture that you’ve been thinking about.

Do you have an idea for the next insanely great product or service? Are you having a hard time figuring out how you can step away from your current gig to launch your venture? Have you launched your venture and are now trying to scale it? Are you looking for the right team to make your venture pop? Do you need up to $100,000 in pro-bono services and expertise? If so, read on.  Tech Ranch Austin is excited to announce our next program for emerging technology entrepreneurs: Tech Ranch Venture Forth. The Venture Forth Program is all about accelerating venture success with a goal of getting your idea to the market as quickly as possible – testing and correcting along the way.

This program is the next generation of our successful Employee to Entrepreneur seminars.  But this time, we have kicked it up with up to $100k in free services and access to experts for each startup in the program.  The next Venture Forth program starts in late October and your venture could be generating revenue before the end of 2009!  We’d love for you to join us or share this information with someone who is itching to get their startup accelerated.

You can read the details, watch a video from Kevin and Jonas, and sign up for one of the 15 available slots here: http://techranchaustin.com/ventureforth

If you have questions, comments or ideas, please respond directly to us directly either through the comments or via email at info@techranchaustin.com

Best of luck in your venture!

Today’s Austin American Statemen has an article honoring the contribution that Betty Sue Flowers has been making to Austin and the world- especially as she takes on her next adventure- moving from Austin after 45 years of being here, to be with her love, former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley.

Betty Sue Flowers had a fundamental impact on my life. Many of you have heard the story of my trip to Chile, and how it was fundamental to the path that I was taking in devoting my life to supporting entrepreneurs.  Because of her connection to Joseph Campbell, and my awareness that I was about to take on a hero’s journey, I contacted her to see if she would give me advice on what I should do in preparing and creating a model for supporting entrepreneurs.  I still remember her saying to me… “If you are serious about this, you should go to Chile. You should meet Senator Fernando Flores.”  I don’t think that I was ready to hear those words… but she said them, I think three times…. “If you are serious about this….”.

What is amazing is that those words and my year spent in Chile in 2003 opened up doors of awareness that I can not imagine any other way that I might have found.  Thank you Dr. Flowers. And only after years do I feel comfortable in saying “Thank you Betty Sue”.

The following letter is somewhat personal, but in in honoring her, I repost it here, for she has had a fundamental impact in my life, and I want the world to know of my gratitude for her:

Betty Sue,
I’ve been meaning to write you as soon as I heard on the radio and today in the newspaper that you are moving to NYC. I want to say thank you from the deepest part of my heart for the doors that you have opened for me.  Our conversation in 2003 has sparked adventure after adventure as I follow my bliss.  I am sorry that I have not told you over the years about how the door that you opened as fundamentally shifted my life.  Going to Chile continues to pay dividends through the awareness that I gained by being there- an awareness I can not imagine having happen any other way.

Let me share some of the openings that you have created through me.

We’ve launched Tech Ranch Austin, a technology venture accelerator, where we support entrepreneurs in launching their ventures.  Since November 15, 2008, over 100 entrepreneurs have gone through our “office hour” program. We’ve engaged 12 startups in their earliest steps of growth. Two weeks ago we launched the “Employee to Entrepreneur” Program, with our first class of 12 students- (many of these guys were laid off, and now are starting ventures).  One of our companies is proceeding to the third level of the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Another of our companies was funded $4.2 million in Series A funding.  We held an Entrepreneur Town Hall Meeting of 80 entrepreneurs from across the City of Austin in March, and now the Economic Development Office of the City of Cedar Park is paying us to launch an Entrepreneur Town Hall Meeting there. Also for Cedar Park we will be forming an “Enterprise Tribe”.  (Enterprise Tribe is what I now call the model that has developed out of what I originally took to Chile).

Its been a remarkable six years since our meeting.  The first years were hard as I stumbled around trying to understand what life was telling me to do.  I now feel a clarity, and have an ease of movement towards the vision that we talked about so many years ago- its funny what time and practice, and helpers along the path have opened up to my eyes now.

I’ve often times held back in telling you how much I greatly appreciate the spark that you shared with me- the opening of the door to Chile- which, by the way, I still stay in contact with several of the four guys that Fernando put me in contact with.  Thank you for the gift you have given me.

I am excited in reading that you are about to open yourself up to the next adventure with your move to New York City.  Please let me know if there is anything that I can do for you.  I do hope to get to connect with you again before you leave… or at some point in the future.  Is there any way that I can be of assistance?  Also, let me know if there is time that you have for a coffee or lunch.  I understand that with the move, you will be very busy- but please know that I would greatly enjoy connecting with you as the time permits.

Also, do let me know if you change your email address- I would like to stay in contact if at all possible.

Thank you very much.

Take care,
Kevin

This is Kevin- I am doing ok. By now, you might have heard that I was attacked on Friday night. All is good. I was able to walk to the emergency room after the attack, and for the most part I have been in really good spirits since.

The attack was senseless, and I don’t know why I was picked.  There was no provocation, and it seemed that the four guys that attacked were not after money, only violence.

During the interim it has deeply touched my heart to see the outpouring of people that have reached out to me. Thank you for doing so, for this has really meant something to me.

In between taking care of my health, dealing with a criminal case, and doing what I love- helping entrepreneurs through building their businesses at the Tech Ranch Austin, I might not be able to get back to you really quick.  I do look forward to connecting with you soon.

Here’s the KVUE news story on what happened.

We’re going to be rallying the community around some new ways of making Austin safer. If you are interested in being a part of making Austin safer, please let me know.

I’ll blog some more about what happened in a coming blog post.

Thanks,
Kevin

Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers shares insight in this short clip on how to find your passion and how to pursue it.  Key insights:

• Don’t look for a specific passion, but build a “portfolio of passions”, and then map them into the opportunities in front of you
• Use your values and what you care about as a compass to make sure that you are headed the right direction.
• When confronted with a decision, ask the question “How does what is right in front of me sync up with my passion?”
• Realize that for every one decision that you make 9 doors are going to close as you walk through that tenth door… but as you walk through that tenth door, ten more doors are going to open

Its interesting to see how knowledge from our past experience prepares us for the future.  Over a year ago I wrote about a complementary currency system coming together to create greater opportunity between entrepreneurs. I never envisioned at the time of that writing that the economic conditions might just present themselves where such a system could become necessary.  I am not fully convinced that the time has come just yet, but it is noteworthy for me to share an update.  Although we did not fully launch that previously mentioned system, the insight that I gained about complementary currency systems specifically, and economics in general, has been very valuable.

Complementary currency is, as the name suggest, a monetary system for conducting business between individuals that can live along side a nation backed currency system (e.g. the US Dollar).  Complementary currency systems allow individuals to conduct trade / business without having to use money backed by a central government.  That is, as an example, I could do business with a graphic artist who in turn does business with an engineer with in turn does business back with me.  Instead of just “bartering” between us, the complementary currency system allows me (like when using dollars) to not have to intimately know who I am doing business with, for the currency (whether dollars or complementary currency) tracks the transaction.

It seems, that with the current economic conditions that the US and the world has been facing that there is even greater interest than before in this method of conducting business by a more general crowd than I had previously found when I was looking into complementary currency in 2006/7.  This article by Kevin Kelleher on the Gigaom blogging network speaks to how a wider crowd of individuals might be looking to use complementary currency in the coming year(s).   Kevin writes:

[Chris Anderson, writer of The Long Tail,] imagined this excess ability expanding as unemployed workers engage in labors of love for free, if only to do something valuable with their time and/or advertise their skills.

…

I wonder what kind of creativity could be unleashed by workers who, though deprived of a steady paycheck, are freed from such tedious tasks. Some could come up with new ideas that help vault the web to a more advanced stage. Others may make micro-contributions that are equally powerful in aggregate. Such creativity could then foster an entirely new generation of startups, which would eventually lure away some of those who had remained at steady jobs all along.

I believe that complementary currency has the chance of expanding something that ends up being much more resilient than just filling the gap in an under-employed market.  I believe that we could see the rise of not just a reputation system that tracks who did what, but a deepening of the currency system in general, where we have an environment that makes it possible for more former employees become entrepreneurs, exploring their capabilities, talents, and passions… ending up not just looking for a job for when the economy recovers, but in establishing themselves in businesses that the traditional monetary cost of capital would have been a barrier to them before.

So, for the Austinites following my blog- what became of this local complementary currency system?  Although it did not take off in the direction that we all expected, there is notable work being done here locally… led by one of the guys that taught me about it in the first place- Tom Brown.  Tom and Rich Vazquez are writing about these concepts at the Open Source Currency Blog, and have a full blown complementary currency system running at the Austin Time Exchange.  In fact, they just had a meeting talking about the “Next Economy”.

Its uncertain about what will be happening with the US and world economies- but it is good to know that there are alternatives that are being explored for entrepreneurs here in Austin.  Keep me appraised of what you are seeing out there as well, and I will do the same through this blog.

As a part of today’s Tech Ranch Austin announcements- We have been selected by Microsoft to administer a program to give access to technology startups to the full suite of Microsoft tools for free.  Read further details here about the program, and apply through the Tech Ranch Austin website.

There are two important events happening in the Austin startup ecosystem this week and next:

Austin Business District’s Open4Business Conference- November 11- with five high impact tracks including Sales & Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Business Law, Sustainability

UT Austin’s Ready to Commercialize event November 17th and 18th- reviewing technologies that are coming out of the University of Texas System.

I will be at both events representing TechRanchAustin as we continue to look for tech entrepreneurs to join us on the ranch.  Please let me know if you will be there- I look forward to connecting.

I just posted over at the new TechRanchAustin blog news an annoucement about taking the startup incubation efforts that I have been doing over the last three years to a whole new level.  Come check out what we are up to, and join us in our efforts to take the technology startup ecosystem here in Austin to a whole new level!

Several of my fellow friends that are entrepreneurs were just discussing how we should get together for a happy hour- to share some war stories, reconnect with each other, and informally discuss what we can do to move our businesses forward, even in these troubled times.  Given the number of others that have mentioned interest in this, we are going to open it up to others to join us…  So we’re going to have a happy hour tomorrow (sorry for the short notice!) at House Wine at 5:30 pm. Here are the details:

HOUSE WINE

408 Josephine
Austin 78704-1017
+1.512.322.5210

Here is a map.  This location is very close to the Barton Springs / Lamar intersection.  They have wine and beer inexpensively priced.  Moreover, if you have a good recent war story (whether the outcome was good, or if it created a lot of scar tissue for you) I will buy you your first drink.  (Ok, so I am only going to do this for the first 10 good entrepreneurial-scar-tissue-stories, as we comisserate together.  )  Catch me via twitter if you have any questions, or post a comment here.  I look forward to catching up with you then.

Today I was at The Rackspace Cloud Event- Where Rackspace announced several new products, as well as the acquisition of JungleDisk and SliceHost.  Between seeing many good friends that are entrepreneurs at the event, and what I believe to be some smart strategic acquisitions on the part of Rackspace- I felt like I must be living in a different world than much of the rest of the world concerned with the credit markets.  And then I saw the following interview from Guy Kawasaki about the Care and Feeding of Entrepreneurs.  Here is the most telling question / answer from the interview:

Q. What is your advice to entrepreneurs seeking funding or growth opportunities if the credit and capital markets continue on their current course?

A. My advice is that they melt wax into their ears and go forward. If they are waiting for wonderful credit and capital markets, they probably aren’t entrepreneurs. They’re much more likely to be consultants and bankers looking to quickly flip a company.

It feels like a great time to be an entrepreneur. I am sorry to see so many other people in the world upset about financial doom and gloom.  Maybe at some point I will change my song…. but for now, I am glad to be building a company, and helping other entrepreneurs build their companies.  Yes, all of us entrepreneurs have to be somewhat more conservative right now than we might be during boom-times, but it is a GREAT time to start a company.  If you have been displaced from your previous job, or have the general entrepreneurial itch that you have not been scratching, and you have the entrepreneur jean (not the consultant or banker gene described above) build it now.  Sure, calculate it out… but realize that right now, entrepreneurial businesses will be the first to recover and thrive from the present credit crisis. Damn the torpedos, full steam ahead!

I am honored to be presenting at this year’s Nano Technology Summit in Dallas, Texas- called NanoTX with a number of Nobel Laureates and other technology experts. Following is info on the speech that I will be giving.  Please make sure to call me or twitter me if you happen to be at the event.

Enterprise Tribes: Supporting Emerging Tech Startups In the Age of Web 2.0

Failure to receive support early enough in the startup cycle is a challenge that has kept many promising technologies from ever making it to the market. Venture capital and angel investment have their place, but most financial capital cannot invest in high-risk ventures at the earliest stages. The fate of the typical entrepreneur has been to build his business through sweat, credit cards and friends-and-family investments. But now, social networking technologies are making increasing amounts of social capital available – significantly reducing financial costs faced by entrepreneurs. Mr. Koym shares stories of startups that use social capital in place of cash and the principles that benefit emerging technologies companies – whether bootstrapped or investor-backed.

One page abstract:  for Track 5:  Business & Economic Development

The sad truth standing in the way of getting many promising technologies to market is that most startup support programs don’t work early enough in the startup cycle to be significant at the times of entrepreneurs’ greatest need.  Venture capital and angel investment certainly have their place, but most financial capital cannot invest in high risk at the earliest stages. Until recently, the typical entrepreneur stood alone in building his business through his own sweat, credit card and the cash offered up by friends and family. However, social networking technologies now are creating opportunities to significantly reduce the financial cost of building a business, by making social capital more widely and easily accessible.  In this speech, Mr. Koym will share examples of startups that are leveraging social capital in lieu of financial capital and the principles that work for companies in the emerging technologies arena.

As a technology visionary, including predicting and ushering in web based eCommerce in 1994 and building the startup company that subsequently leading Dell Computer Corporation’s billion dollar eCommerce site in 1996; Predicting the usage of Linux in embedded devices in 2002, subsequently leading the deployment of this startup’s products across Schlumberger’s world wide network; Mr. Koym now is charting where social networking technologies are opening up opportunities to change the face of entrepreneurship, culminating in four conceptual shifts that he sees will drive change across the five domains of the individual, the corporation, the enterprise tribe, on demand services, and governments.

The Four Conceptual Shifts that Mr. Koym is predicting will show up in the following ways:
1.    Superempowerment of the individual, where individuals exchange the mythical stability of a corporate job for the stability of self-employment, producing an entrepreneurial mindset that creates a truly resilient workforce.
2.    New open corporate structures that allow much greater flexibility by coordinating many outside players in an open, yet not vulnerable, value chain
3.    The rise of the Enterprise Tribe- a presently emerging social structure where entrepreneurs connect and support each other much in ways resembling America’s agrarian past
4.    A “Chinese menu” of on demand, robust, Internet delivered services, organized by vendors large and small
5.    Governments that become agile, and in many times, partially replaced by grass-roots community efforts organized through social networks.

You’ve heard me chime in before about unemployment levels across Texas.  I believe that the financial crisis that we are seeing is adding to this more than ever before.  It is in this time of chaos that we, as entrepreneurs can create the biggest impact (and many times have some of the most interesting opportunities.)  Constraint creates innovation.  Large groups of unemployed workers make for difficult times, yet, it is in this environment that entrepreneurs still have opportunity to create.  I am not saying creating in this environment is (or will be) easy, but we, the entrepreneurs, are in a position to create jobs, technologies, companies.  Go startup something today!

Texas unemployment claims remain well above 2007 levels – Austin Business Journal:.

Not sleeping well?  Me neither. As it ends up, there might be a technology reason for this… and after doing a bunch of research looking into the root causes of my condition, I believe that I have have found something- so much so that I was quoted on CNNMoney.com website about it.  Research that has been sponsored and published in Europe has shown that adults that use their cell phones close to bedtime might get to sleep fast, but sometimes don’t enter into the most restful phases of sleep for an extra hour.  I posited in my own case that my insomnia was possibly caused by working too late- yet it was not untill I started limiting my wireless internet usage that I started noticing that wifi might have something to do with this as well.  A key quote from the aritcle by the original research that I uncovered:

Bengt Arnetz, the Swedish professor who led the study, says there is no doubt that cell phones “have measurable effects on the brain.” He believes that the radiation from phones activates the brain’s stress system, making people feel more alert and decreasing their ability to wind down and snooze.

I have noticed over the last few months that when I stop using the ‘net by 10 pm, but even if I still work on non-computer task, I am able to get to sleep and sleep much better.  If I allow myself to do computer related work after 10 pm, I have significant problems falling to sleep, and I don’t sleep as well.

I can not conclusively state that wireless internet signals create the same issues as noticed by the researcher concerning cell phones- but I do believe that there is some connection both based on the research, and my own personal experience.

If you suffer from insomnia- I have included my original email to the writer of the article in the more section of this post.  Post a comment- and I can point you at more information as well.

Continue reading ‘Not sleeping well?’

For SXSW Interactive 2009, Matt Genovese of Door64, Sarah Cooke of Net Impact Austin, myself, and one other yet to be announced Austin community builder will be speaking at SXSW Interactive 2009. We need your vote to have these talks added to SXSW Interactive’s 2009 Lineup. Can you spare a moment to vote for these talks?

First, to do so you will need to sign up for an account here:
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/users/register

Here is the first talk to vote for:
The Rise of the Enterprise Tribe
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/1207
Social networks are creating fundamental shifts in the opportunity to start / grow businesses. New social organizations are creating real business impact in getting work done, and helping entrepreneurs succeed. Kevin will share insight based on his book, and work with Bootstrap Austin and entrepreneur networks in Mexico and Chile.

Here is the second talk to vote for:
Building Austin: Best Practices For Growing Our Community
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/1181
Austin community leaders are leveraging social networking to actively build Austin more than ever before. We’ll bring several of Austin’s cutting-edge community leaders, including NetImpactAustin (non-profits), Door64 (employment), Bootstrap Austin (entrepreneurs) together in dialouge to share how they are building the Austin community, and not just holding networking events.

Thank you for your support. By getting these messages out, we will continue to build Austin into an entrepreneurial powerhouse!

Kevin

Lawrence Lessig has produced an informative, short video in which he compares McCain’s and Obama’s technology policy. In the spirit of full disclosure- historically I have not made any political statements on this blog, but this year for the first time I have actively gotten into supporting the Obama Campaign, including being a State of Texas Voting Delegate to the Democratic Convention. There is much hype by both candidates and political parties right now about the other. Lessig, though, has always thoughtfully dug into the issues… in the following video he critiques McCain’s technology policies. I have not seen this information shared wider in the press, which is disconcerting. Instead of worrying about the candidates minor social faux pas on the stage, I offer the following video to inform debate on substantial issues that affect where the US is going.

As you might know- I spent a good portion of 2003 in Chile, collaborating and learning with some of the best design experts in the world. When I speak of “design” I specifically am meaning “ontological design“- in a few words, that is to say what are the fundamental building blocks, or perhaps even dispositions of how we might look at an issue.

A simple demonstration of this insight can be found in my friend Felipe Contreras Haye’s statement:

Hemos venido a hacer una invitación a varios establecimientos educacionales a sumarse junto a nosotros a un proyecto de Innovación Educativa basada en los principios (NO EN LAS HERRAMIENTAS) de la Web 2.0. (emphasis added by Kevin)

For my friends that don’t read Spanish, I will translate, adding my understanding and interpretation to his statement- “We are sending invitations to various educational establishments around a innovative education based on the principles of Web 2.0, not the tools of Web 2.0. ”

This is a profound insight… why ? Many times the focus of entrepreneurs that I work with in the US, especially because of our technological prowess- we sometimes are drawn to think that technology is driving the dynamic growth of the Internet. Hardly. The social disposition of Internet users drives the net… and education should be directed at the social underpinnings and changing users perceptions of the net- not just training individuals on tools. Tools will change, within 6 months. The ability to “see” opportunities and how to respond to them in the world will stand, no matter what changes in the domain of technology. This need to “see” opportunities and not be blinded by shinny-object technology is essential for all entrepreneurs.

Much has been said about Web2.0 about being a “conversation” between parties on the Internet- shifting from the “broadcast” model of radio and TV where listeners were passive receivers of information to listeners being actively engaged in conversation.  Web 2.0 conversations are happening many places, have been enabled by many service providers, including Austin’s own Bazaar Voice.  Yet there is a shift happening, a major shift.

Just like the Internet was not “just like TV, but better”, the shift that is coming is not “just like Web 2.0 but better”.  A fundamental shift is occurring.  Do you see it?

Activities on the Internet are shifting from (1) broadcast to (2) Web 2.0 conversations to (3) cooperation (taking action together).  Greater than at any point in the history of the Internet cooperative behaviors are taking place- where people are not just talking with each other, but an even greater amount of collective action is happening…. and in this, what is significant is not the large system collective action (as an example, political campaigns like the Obama campaign) but the small scale activities.  What is unique about these new small scale activities, compared to grass roots activities of the past?  This is not just grass roots happening, but the fact that these small scale activities are producing real business impact.  Small groups of entrepreneurs around the world are connecting together, getting real work done, and creating better economic outcomes.

For myself, I have been doing this round the world with working with software developers world-wide- and other business people both in Austin as well as at considerable distance.  Constraints- whether they be financial,  skills, or resource limitations are being more easily overcome than at any point in the history of the world.  Cooperation, not just conversation is the new, coming language of the Internet.  We see this already in open source software projects and in the remix of certain parts of the music industry… but cooperation is not going to stop there.  Although risk abound, a new language and new practices for cooperating world-wide is emerging.  We’ll keep around Web 2.0 just like we have kept around our old TV’s… but it is time to make space for the cooperation-economy, and realize that it is not going to be “just like Web 2.0 but  better.”

I am back from a three week blogging hiatus- during which I traveled to five different cities across Mexico and the US.  Part of this time was for catching up with friends and family, part of this time was for professional opportunity in connecting other groups into the tribe, and part of this time was for finishing the next draft of my book, which is very close to completion.  Upon entering to my office here at the Bootstrap Incubator I ran into a long term friend and publishing expert Matt Cohen, who asked about the status of my book. The power of being in an incubator environment (and not just having an office) is for chance conversations like the one that I had with Matt.  Matt, who has always been very supportive of the direction that Enterprise Teaming is going and the writing of my book and the growing Enterprise Tribe told me about Robert Heinlein’s rules for writing.  They are valuable, and I know several of my readers are writing as well, so I share them below.  If you want to read more about these, you can find more analysis of Heinlein’s statements here.

1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.

Update on my book:  one section of 10 or so pages remains to be done.  It is a major section- about how the Enterprise Tribe and social networking will effect the Individual.  I am looking forward to getting your feedback about this, and please do continue to share your stories with me- they have been extremely effective in helping flesh out the book and the concepts that we are developing…. Now back to Rule #2, finishing what I write.

As I have been writing a section of my book over the last few days, I thought that the following insight was too valuable to hold for the book… and wanted to share it here with an immediate wider audience. The Four Conceptual Shifts that social networks are bringing are going to have profound effects on country economies. Here’s evidence, from the analysis of Eric D. Beinhocker in The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics. Beinhocker analyzed the work of William Easterly of the Institute for International Economics and Ross Levine of the University of Minnesota who had conducted a detailed study of seventy-two rich and poor countries and asked “What makes one country richer than another?”

“…the most significant factor was the state of a nation’s Social Technology. The rule of law, the existance of property rights, a well organized banking system, economic transparency, a lack of corruption, and other social and institutional factors played a far greater role in determining national economic success than did any other category of factors. Even countries with few resources and incompetent governments did reasonably well if they had a strong, well-developed Social Technologies. On the flip side, no countries with poor Social Technologies performed well, no matter how well endowed they were with resources or how disciplined their macroeconomic policies were.”

What community leaders of all stripes (local, state, government) should see in this statement is that the opportunity for using social networking technologies can have an even more profound effect for amplifying more general social technologies for supporting entrepreneurs. Clearly community leaders that embrace the adoption of these new tools for supporting their entrepreneurs will win. The entrepreneurs (and communities!) whose leaders ignore these trends will lose out.

Thank you to my colleague Greg Hennessy for bringing Beinhocker’s work to my attention.