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.

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

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.

And here is the oh-so-laughable billboard that some out of touch boomer must have been responsible for:

The way work gets done is changing.  Figure out how to work with these changes- and your business will benefit.

Tags: millennials, business, marketing

The implication for small and medium (and large!) business of platforms like Google’s OpenSocial are going to be quite profound.  We are starting to see the beginnings of a whole new method of business and work based around social networking technology.  The biggest present example of this was built by Facebook when they opened up their APIs so that third party software developers could build applications that leveraged off of a user’s “social graph”. Social graph is a fancy term for saying the people that you are connected to through a social network… but the implications are profound for this method of organizing people…  Anytime a technology has been introduced throughout the millennia that helps organize people or helps solve resource constraint problems (that is, helps get resources (people and stuff) to where they are needed) major shifts in wealth production have happened. I expect that this is the very same thing that is happening now… first led by Facebook.

Facebook opened up their platform to get many more innovative applications built around their social networking site.  Although many of the applications were of the type where “my vampire bites your mummie” some of the apps have been truly innovative- one of my favorites was an application that helps a user manage his  resources- you have to be his “friend” through Facebook to get access to his resources.  This frees up this guy from having to turn on and off access to his resources… if you are listed as his friend, you are in.  If you are not listed as his friend, you have no access… Even if this entrepreneur only saves a few hours a month by not having to update who has access to his stuff, imagine- that is time and money saved by him.

Facebook is being likened to the early stages of what AOL did with its set of services- people used AOL in the yester-years of the Internet mainly because it gave them one place to “start” on the net.  AOL essentially packaged some of the best of the net and users benefited because of this.  The implied problem here is that just like in the AOL situation, many companies could be locked out by AOL- for AOL had control of the network.  Facebook has not shown that it wants to lock out anyone… but the fact of the matter is that Facebook, like AOL has control.  This is much like the debate of having toll roads versus public roads- who has control of thoroughfares.

So what is the implication of Google’s strategy?  There are two moves that I think are particularly interesting- one from a strategic business perspective on who you might look to align your application strategy with, and also what this move represents to you in a long term business perspective.

First, why did Google do this?  Many people found the fact that they had to keep all of their information stored on Facebook as a problem- only one network holder the key to the whole network.  Google is disrupting Facebook’s closed strategy with an open strategy- so that social networking innovation is not stuck on one vendor.  Google has shown is prowess in effectively competing in open networks (namely the Internet).  This move allows consolidation among many of the social networks out there, and also keeps networks into the future more open. Facebook today still has the dominate position.  What this move by Google represents- is Google’s flattening of the playing field for the future.

So what does this mean for your business?  Two things- one of them is strategic, the other is tactical.  First strategically, this means that there should be no particular vendor lock in on one social network (namely Facebook) if you participate in the OpenSocial platform.  No particular vendor lock in to me means that there is a better chance at much, much, much more innovation in the social networking space than what has already happened to date on top of Facebook alone- although I predict that we don’t see this till many more regular users start using these other social networks.  Secondly on a tactical level, this means that software developers won’t have to learn proprietary programming languages (like Facebook’s) for every social network that they are working with.  Essentially this means that less code will have to be written, and software developers will have less languages to learn to build applications.

But the real implication of this move to you and all of us as entrepreneurs is a clarion call from the future telling us how we will be working together in the future.  Waves of applications are going to arise and new types of organizations will form around entrepreneurs finding each other and working together.  This is the part where it gets exciting.  Social networking is not for sharing your photos online.  Businesses (and entrepreneurs) that ignore social networking as just a fad are going to get marginalized, while those of us that use this technology as a way to organize our work will find new levels of success.  Google’s strategy of “opening up” these networks will ensure that much greater innovation happens in a shorter timeframe, without the limiting effects of just one vendor (e.g. Facebook) getting in the way.

Yeah… I am thinking about this space a lot these days.  I would really like to hear your input on this. I am going to post this email on my blog here… Please anyone that would like to give me personal feedback (or debate it with me), post it back to my blog (or email me privately).  Or given that we have some really kick ass examples of these apps emerging, make sure to keep your eye on the entrepreneurs of our local tribe Bootstrap Austin.  Oh… and if you have examples of your kick-ass app that you would like to share with the readership of my blog on this subject, please make sure that you post a comment on the blog post as well.

What effect will these sites have? Will they empower entrepreneurs at the expense of VCs? “I’m doubtful that the imbalance in power will ever disappear completely,” says Noam Wasserman, a Harvard Business School professor who studies the interactions between founders and investors. “But these kinds of efforts are shifting things.” The sites remind founders to investigate their potential investors thoroughly, he says.

Thank you to Jeff Sexton, copywriter extraordinaire, for sharing this link with me.  To all of you- please keep these links coming!  I greatly appreciate it!

If you are interested in either being a part of my review community, or in getting an early copy, let me know by clicking this link and sending me a message through the Enterprise Teaming website.  My intention is to use this first version of the book to drive the next round of projects that I do with this model. I will write some more about this on this blog in the coming days and weeks.

Oh… and thank you to my handful of friends that kicked me in the butt hard enough to take off and write it…  August 2007 was very productive on working on this, and has helped me strengthen my model for the next round of entrepreneurial networks that we build together.  Thank you!  And viva la revolucion!

In a very short time (one decade), Estonia, Finland, and Ireland have created “economic miricles” in creating unprecedented wealth in each of their countries…. especially for Finland and Estonia in shifting from Soviet centric markets to becoming first world market powerhouses.

Chile is undertaking a similar economic transformation… which they call “Chile 2010“. The shift in the underlying feeling in the country is substantial (I traveled to Chile in 1997, 1998, and 1999, as well as living there in 2003 and visiting several times since 2003).

It is my belief that this shift in each one of these countries is happening for two reasons- one because of the underlying belief that a change is possible in each country, and secondly, programs that are supporting individual entrepreneurs to build their businesses (not just conditions that favor large corporations, but conditions that favor the individual entrepreneur).

Thank you Frank for reminding me of this connection to Enterprise Ireland. And thank you as well for reading and commenting on my blog, and increasing the types of interactions that are possible by sharing this knowledge world wide.

Tonight, I am at a “DemoCamp” meeting- where a group of bootstrapping entrepreneurs are getting together, showing off some software that they have built, and sharing ideas and feedback on the software presented. What is great is this is usually business feedback… not technical feedback. The following entrepreneurs are presenting tonight:
1. Jason Howell – SelfBookIt
2. David James – CommunityGoals | Raise money and find solutions for community problems and goals.
3. Paul Walhus – SearchSlides
4. Ash Maurya – BoxCloud | Dead-simple file sharing
5. Mark Phillip – AreYouWatchingThis

Great job guys- this is all exciting work, and even better, great feedback for the entrepreneurs from other entrepreneurs!

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” Carl Jung

“The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Jesus Christ- Luke 17:21

“Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.” Martin Luther

“Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!” Martin Luther

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” George Bernard Shaw

I am sure that there are many other quotes aligned with this sense of  of this… If you have one to share, either email me it or share it with all of us by posting a comment.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/05/24/the-answer-is-inside-you/feed/ 2 http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/03/14/conversations-among-human-beings-sound-human/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/03/14/conversations-among-human-beings-sound-human/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:06:03 +0000 kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/03/14/conversations-among-human-beings-sound-human/ Over the last few days, I was at the SxSW Interactive Conference and had time to stop by the SxSW Trade Show. At the trade show, one booth stood out out of all of the ones that I went to… and after thinking about it over the last day, I realized why this one booth stood out over all of the other ones… First let me tell you the booth was for a photo site with high quality, low cost images, called LuckyOliver.com. It was not that the booth was glitzy… or had graphics different than any of the other ones… it was because Amy Hooker, the person I talked with, embodies what the Cluetrain Manifesto says in Thesis #3: Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice. Every other booth that I stepped into had some larger than life story that sounded like marketing-babble…. Amy, one of the entrepreneurs behind LuckyOliver.com presented in a down to earth style… it stood out of why I have stopped liking one of their competitor’s sites (who I am not going to link here) because this other site, in their success, forgot about the community that was buying and serving them. I see as well that others (including my friend Brian Massey) stumbled upon this rare example of a company that gets “it” and the gets the power of speaking in a human voice. )

Good luck LuckyOliver.com… I look forward to buying more images from you guys in the future.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/03/14/conversations-among-human-beings-sound-human/feed/ 0 http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/03/14/bootkarma-announced-complementary-currency-for-the-bootstrap-network/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/03/14/bootkarma-announced-complementary-currency-for-the-bootstrap-network/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:28:05 +0000 kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/03/14/bootkarma-announced-complementary-currency-for-the-bootstrap-network/ At SxSW (South by Southwest Conference) Tom Brown, Bijoy, David Bluestein, and I (with other bootstrappers) announced the launch of the BootKarma system. BootKarma is a complementary currency system meant to allow bootstrapping entrepreneurs leverage their time, especially in the early stages of their venture where cash is short. Essentially this is a formalization of a barter system among bootstrapping entrepreneurs. Note that the yin and yang tags are incorrect- and should be reversed. What this napkin design shows is how a formalized currency (like the US dollar) is structured by hierarchy (therefor not allowing everyone to participate unless they already have dollars) while on the right side, we see a complementary currency that can include anyone in a community with skills to leverage.

This scan of this napkin in a way shows a high level of design of the currency… a complementary currency is about creating trust and recognizing the bartering that is going on among different members of the community- and allows the facility of trade between members of the community that might not know each other… the power of this is in comparison to a barter system that only allows bartering to happen between people that know each other well.

What I find particularly insightful on Tom Brown’s part is his design of BootKarma in this post about complementary currency and the Wooly Mamoth:

However, the promise of interest on money creates an incentive for selfishness. School (Rushmore) further conditions us to be selfish and government approved media’s main function is to exploit that conditioned selfishness. It’s no surprise that we tend to forget about the value of the ancestral gift economy. (original post here)

Bootstrap Austin already is using Enterprise Teaming’s system for managing commitments that are made between individuals and each other… what this underlying currency system represents is the opportunity to scale this system to many, many other entrepreneurs that want to work together in building their companies.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/03/14/bootkarma-announced-complementary-currency-for-the-bootstrap-network/feed/ 9 http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/02/19/upon-receiving-my-blackbelt-in-aikido/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/02/19/upon-receiving-my-blackbelt-in-aikido/#comments Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:58:35 +0000 kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/02/19/upon-receiving-my-blackbelt-in-aikido/ This weekend I tested and received my blackbelt (“shodan”- “begining dan”) in Aikido.  I started Aikido back in August of 1997.  Almost ten years of practice three to five times a week have resulted in this accomplishment.   Aikido informs much of my life.  I greatly appreciate what I have learned along the way;  In a way, too, Aikido is the inspiration behind my startup Enterprise Teaming.  The founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, also referred to as “Osensei” (great teacher) called Aikido “The Budo (martial art) of Love”.  The following quote from Osensei sums this up:

“Aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat the enemy.  It is the way to reconcile the world and make human beings one family.”

I look to the future of a lifetime of Aikido practice.  Although it has been ten years brining me to this point of my training, I can see several decades of practice in front of me.  Thank you to all of my Aikido training partners  who have supported me to this point in my training.  I look forward to learning the way of Aikido and harmonizing our human family together.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/02/19/upon-receiving-my-blackbelt-in-aikido/feed/ 4 http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/01/23/disruptive-innovation/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/01/23/disruptive-innovation/#comments Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:43:30 +0000 kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/01/23/disruptive-innovation/ Recently I was asked about my background, and what I had worked on- what the common theme had been across the many companies that I had been involved with.  My answer, that I ended up presenting in a power point slide as part of a longer response to the questions that had been asked was entrepreneurship, specifically focused on disruptive innovation.  That is, technologies, that when applied correctly, create a disruption in the market.  It seems, based on this graph, that that is what my whole career has been about- across a number of startup companies.

Here is a copy of that graph:

As you can see, I have been involved with a number of career changing, market different technologies… the reason that I present this is not to necessarily say something about my background as much as a recognition of what the market is continuing to embrace- constant change and chaos, over and over.

The disruptions that I have gotten to participate with:

1.  OOP- object oriented programming… What makes the programing languages of Java, Python, and Ruby so  valuable to software developers today?  Two things- first being able to run software written in these languages on a number of platforms.  Secondly, these languages are “object oriented” meaning that they support rapid assembly and high quality software development.

2.  Internet- I was using the internet for my work all the way back to 1989, and programming the internet by 1993, an artifact of working for NeXT Computer (now a part of Apple).

3.  eCommerce- a year before Business Week had written a front page article asking “Is eCommerce a passing fad” (in 1997) I had already built eCommerce engines for companies the likes of Dell Computer Corporation.

4.  Affective Computing- imagine computers that can read emotion.  Back in 2001, there were very few people thinking about how computers could read emotions of their users, and how this could be applied to business (imagine support reps at companies that learned how to be friendlier as they solved problems for us).  The MIT Media Lab was doing some of the coolest stuff in this area, as well as Carnegie Mellon University.  I was pulling technologies from CMU and the University of Texas to solve some of these problems in helping support and sales reps be more emotionally intelligent.

5. Linux as appliance. The operating system Linux, designed and programmed by thousands of developers around the world is one of the most disruptive technologies that the world has seen… why?  Because it allows entrepreneurs to experiment at multiple levels in building products for the world.  I specifically was a part of a startup that was using Linux to build VPNs and firewalls.

6.  Smartmobs.  What I am presently doing in my startup Enterprise Teaming  and in Bootstrap Austin (a group of 600+ Austin based bootstrapping entrepreneurs) is exploring on how mass collaboration can be used to unleash innovation across the enterprise (whether that is one corporation, or a number of loosely connected entrepreneurial startups).

What I will endevor to do in the coming days, weeks, and months is to illustrate the coming disruptions that I see on the horizon… especially with reguard to the massive opportunity of working together building companies (and social entrepreneurship organizations) at a scale that the world has never seen before.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/01/23/disruptive-innovation/feed/ 0 http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/01/18/the-power-of-purpose/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/01/18/the-power-of-purpose/#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:34:50 +0000 kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/01/18/the-power-of-purpose/ A recent article that I was reading from Verne Harnish had me thinking as well of a conversation that I recently had with Ed Perry… about finding one’s calling, not just one’s mission.  First the quote from Verne:

The power of purpose — George Lucas, Film Director and Producer — “You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don’t have that kind of feeling for what it is you are doing, you’ll stop at the first giant hurdle.” I love this quote. What jazzes me is finding the best, most practical, resources for growth firms.

Ed shared the following idea as well, in a related way, about how we, especially as entrepreneurs are on a path to find our calling… or as Verne has called it, our purpose.  Ed shared with me the following graph, that I believe that was originally sourced from the Kellog School of Management.

The idea here is that we all start early in our work history with jobs.  For me, this might have been back in high school, although I was fortunate to quickly have a chance (while in college) to work for Southwest Research, IBM, Motorola.  We quickly proceed to earning cash, and start working on a “career”- perhaps in a field that is financially rewarding, but not inherently aligned with our internal purpose or meaning.  And then at some point, some of us have the courage to wake up, realize where we are at, and start working on our mission…. it is only for the ones that continue to apply themselves that find their true calling, where our true work and financial rewards are aligned.  It was great to see this, as I remember the years of being a financially successful consultant, to set out and find my life’s true calling, step off into the uknown, find myself squarely in my mission (missing the financial rewards of consulting) and slowly, but surely finding and creating my true calling.  Best of luck and patience in creating yours as well. 

technorati tags:motivation, meaning

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/01/18/the-power-of-purpose/feed/ 0 http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/01/12/thomas-edisons-wisdom/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/01/12/thomas-edisons-wisdom/#comments Fri, 12 Jan 2007 07:52:15 +0000 kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/01/12/thomas-edisons-wisdom/ This quote from Edison just came to me… and is a good reminder for all of us as entrepreneurs to keep the faith:

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ~ Thomas A. Edison

Keep the faith.  Get the right people involved.  Ask the right questions…  Success is always close by.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/01/12/thomas-edisons-wisdom/feed/ 3 http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2006/12/26/what-makes-entrepreneurs-entrepreneurial/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2006/12/26/what-makes-entrepreneurs-entrepreneurial/#comments Tue, 26 Dec 2006 23:56:34 +0000 kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2006/12/26/what-makes-entrepreneurs-entrepreneurial/ I recently received a link to the following article on “What makes entrepreneurs entrepreneurial?”.  This is a great paper- with at the author Saras D. Sarasvathy’s analysis of two types of reasoning- causual reasoning and effectual reasoning.  Causual reasoning is what I would call more traditional “MBA” reasoning… that is, a given, specific goal is targeted within a given set of means to achiving the goal. Effectual reasoning imagines a number of possible goals, given the available means, allowing for a selection of the right goal given the means available.  Or in the words that some of my clients and friends will recognize, Casual reasoning is convergent, effectual reason is divergent (analysis versus synthesis)… Metaphorically speaking causual reasoning is about being a settler, while effectual reasoning is about being an explorer.  What makes this particular version of this article interesting is that it is hosted at Khosla Ventures’ website… and the commentary that is handwritten on the article gives the original article much more depth in contrasting the view of the author’s academic focus with the commentor’s entrepreneurial focus.  All in all, this is a great article discussing the distinction between the two reasoning styles.  Data for the basis of this article was taken from 27 different entrepreneurial firms, all that had been grown and run to the tune of $200 Million to $6.5 Billion.

What is important to think about when reading this article is how you are approaching your venture, especially with regard to what stage your venture is in.  Neither method of reasoning is “more right”… and both must be employed in getting a venture off the ground and successful.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2006/12/26/what-makes-entrepreneurs-entrepreneurial/feed/ 2 http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2006/12/26/leadership-in-solar-power/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2006/12/26/leadership-in-solar-power/#comments Tue, 26 Dec 2006 16:16:05 +0000 kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2006/12/26/leadership-in-solar-power/ Over the holidays I found out that my friend B.J. “Billy” Stanberry has been busy with his solar power startup, called HelioVolt.  Billy has come up with a new way to both increase the output of solar cells, as well as a method for making it very easy to apply / install / almost “paint” the solar cells onto a target building (or surface)… and due to the innovative nature of his process, he is being recognized for it…  TIME Best Inventions 2006″>Time has awarded him one of the “Best Inventions 2006″, and the Wall Street Journal has awarded him two Wall Street Journal Innovation Honors.  Congratulations Billy!  More than just adding new solar products to the marketplace, Billy is changing the dynamics of what is possible with solar power.

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At the beginning of most books, there are acknowlegements and dedications.  As I start this blog to share my insight into building communities of entrepreneurs, I would like to start with a dedication… to my grandmother who passed just a few months ago. She has been many times the inspiration that has supported me along the way of being an entrepreneur… with her insight into worlds that I never saw of not having electricity, phones, and other items that we take for granted in today’s high pace of technology and business.

Grandma, I miss you loads. I miss our Sunday lunches together. I dedicate this blog to you, and the insight that you gave me of looking into the past, how you grew through all of the changes in the world, how you shared your perspective of building community through the community around your church… and how when I say “shared barn building” (about how we in Bootstrap Austin ) talk about building our startups together, you have given me a true grounding in the topic.  Thank you. I miss you.

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