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.

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

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.

Following is the original email that I sent:

Anne,

I have had severe sleep problems, that although I can not ground in specific sales numbers, I can tell you they have been a royal pain in the you know what.  Given that I don’t have exactly what you are looking for, but that I am keenly aware of the problem, if you can, please keep me in the loop about what you find and when you publish.

An example of this week… I am in San Miguel de Allende this week on vacation. Two days ago I tried to go to sleep at 12 midnight… and did not fall asleep until sometime after 5:00 am.  There are no pressing issues in my business, nothing that should be keeping me up at night… and I am on vacation… what a spoil of the next day this was.

I have tried Ambien, vallarian root, melatonin, meditation, neurofeedback, exercise, magnesium pills, and on and on (many other things, these are the ones that come immediately to mind.  Some quick reflections:

1.  Ambien feels weird the next day…. supposedly it is “out of the body” by the next day… but it still feels weird after taking it. I have subsequently stopped taking it, and only use it if absolutely desparate.

2.  I have noticed that touching a computer after 9 pm or 10 pm has a direct correlation to being able to sleep.  I suspect that wifi has something to do with this. I have no way to prove this, but this article does show a basis between mobile phone radio waves and bad sleep. I never had sleep problems before using wifi.  I can not prove causation, but I do see correlation.  Because of this, I am getting even more strict about turning off the wifi at home at night, especially after some point in the evening.

I am very interested in learning what you find.  Sleep deprevation is the number one personal issue that screws with my personal performance concerning my business. I have learned to just deal with it, especially when I have a large presentation (e.g. 70 plus people the next day).  I don’t like the limitation that I feel in these large crowd limitations with what happens after not sleeping… (I am just not as sharp as I am after a full night’s sleep)….

Let me know if this prompts any other questions, and certainly, please do keep me in the loop, if possible, on what you find.

Thank you.
Kevin Koym

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

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.

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.”

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.

“…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.

The trends that Clay has spotted in his talk and his book are the general idea behind the specific focus of the Rise of the Enterprise Tribe that you have been reading about at this blog. Collective action of coordinated entrepreneurs are supporting the group getting better in the entrepreneur community of practice called the Enterprise Tribe.

As you have heard here at this blog, the shift towards the superempowered individual and the attitudinal shift towards work will drive entrepreneurs to create businesses that follow their passions.  No matter where the economy takes the US in the short term, this long term outlook of aligning individuals with their passions in their work bodes well for the future.

What is needed most, though, are structures to support these entrepreneurs.  In the coming days and weeks I will be blogging about new initiatives that we will be doing to create large scale efforts of supporting entrepreneurs.  Get in contact (through email or comments on this blog) if you are interested in being a part of these efforts in your community.

“O.K., but how are loosely organized workers going to replace and compete with companies like Dell? Can hundreds of I-build/support-PCs-in-my-bedroom companies make it in Austin? What other things are these people going to do?”

This is a good question, and there is no simple answer. No, I am not recommending that a number of loosely connected entrepreneurs try to go head to head in the computer assembly business with Dell. What is needed, is creating whole new types of connections and organizations of companies, to create and release whole new levels of value through innovation. A very timely article just came in from Fast Company, called The World’s Most Innovative Companies:

[P&G created the] Connect Develop program, which allows outside developers to get their concepts and designs into P&G’s product pipeline. An applicator developed by Cardinal Health (now Catalent), for example, helped P&G launch Olay Regenerist Eye Derma-Pods, now its top-selling skin-care item. Today, 42% of P&G products have an externally sourced component. And this giant is growing: Revenues rose 8%, to $78 billion, last fiscal year, while profits climbed 14%, to $11 billion.

P&G is showing that it has learned the need for leveraging a knowledge ecology around its business- they are leveraging the brains outside of their corporate walls…. with profits climbing.

The opportunity for entrepreneurs in the future is not just in “sourcing of components” but also the sourcing of new ideas, and creating even higher value add activities than what they might have previously done at former employers. Over this past weekend, I had the opportunity to talk with a P&G executive- who is actively exploring how to enhance P&G’s marketing programs- by identifying companies that are (1) sourcing of ideas, (2) placements of advertising or (3) media outlets… with one unique strategy: engage companies that are one or two of these types, but not companies that are trying to be all three (which by the way, allows smaller companies to play a part in P&G’s go-forward marketing strategies).  For the sake of this blog post, the key thing to glean from this article is that what I am talking about- moving to ecology strategies of organizing work- is already happening. This article about P&G confirms that this is already happening.
As a community (whether that community is Austin, or Texas, or the US, or the world), we need to support the timely transition from employee/former employee to entrepreneur, and supporting companies like Dell transition from command-and-control strategies to “ecology” strategies as quickly and smoothly as possible.  No, this won’t be easy, but the reality of massive layoffs are not creating many other choices…. but in the end, it is my belief that this transition will lead to healthier workplaces, with more direct control over one’s own work, resulting in people actually doing what they love.

First and foremost, I recognize that this is a business decision, that Dell is making in order to survive…. Yet recognize, how is it that Dell has had to make such a drastic decision- when there could have been other options previous to this choice?

What options? This is where the opportunity to transition from a “knowledge economy to a knowledge ecology” is happening… if not by strategists at Dell, certainly by some of the disaffected workers that are losing their jobs today. Some number of these former employees are going to recognize the false illusion of the stability of the “job” of the past, and start transitioning to becoming entrepreneurs- making their own employment. And in the end, this will benefit both Dell and Dell’s former employers- for the ecology of work will become much more resilient…. (right now, as an example, 900 workers hitting the unemployment lines at the exact same time. This will make finding the next job for each one of them very, very difficult. Moreover, many of these workers will not have yet developed the skills to become entrepreneurs yet )

And to the former employees that just lost their jobs… make sure that you wake up when you read the word opportunity in the line above “We believe we have a $3 billion opportunity to drive both productivity and efficiency“. When a former employer looks at cutting your job as an opportunity, it is time to change your outlook on the idea of a job.
What needs to happen is we, the Austin community, need to start working together at a level that we have not done before- and fight the recession that we are in head on. I am hopeful, that although this economic downturn will be very hard on the workers that are displaced, that through the shattering of the idea of long term employment, better entrepreneurial outcomes will come for all.

Moreover, it is time to stop coddling companies like Dell. From the article above:

Dell also received almost $280 million in incentives from the state of North Carolina to build the plant, which is not operating at full capacity.

This is a shame…. If you remember that over 50% of the jobs created in the US last year were created in firms of 10 people or less. It is time that US economic policies start promoting our entrepreneurs to create resilient business ecologies. $280 million dollars would have gone a long way to create opportunity for entrepreneurs, whether through the programs that we are doing through Bootstrap Austin or Door64 here in Central Texas. 900 people lost their jobs today. Let’s do something to ensure that we support our entrepreneurs into the future to create resilience in our job marketplace, and to fight this recession that we are in.

To take advantage of the conceptual shifts that I have written about my forthcoming book, a number of Austin entrepreneur support organizations are meeting together at the University of Texas’ IC2 Institute. I will be facilitating the session, following the design of some of the meetings that we used while I was in Chile- focused on facilitating dialogue between entrepreneurs. Here is a map to the location.

Please sign up here and join us in making Austin’s community of entrepreneurs stronger.

A new class of jobs (and workers) is creating a different sort of worker, though. This is the person who works out of passion and curiosity, not fear.

The passionate worker doesn’t show up because she’s afraid of getting in trouble, she shows up because it’s a hobby that pays. The passionate worker is busy blogging on vacation… because posting that thought and seeing the feedback it generates is actually more fun than sitting on the beach for another hour. The passionate worker tweaks a site design after dinner because, hey, it’s a lot more fun than watching TV.

We are seeing a new class of worker emerge. This worker is taking advantage of Conceptual Shift #1- the Superempowerment of the Individual. Passion is what is driving “superempowerment”. It is also what is driving a massive shift in how work is being done- and this will force a major change among individuals and companies into the future.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2008/01/18/seth-godin-speaking-about-conceptual-shift-3-an-attitudinal-shift-towards-work/feed/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2008/01/17/meet-the-man-that-created-an-economic-miricle/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2008/01/17/meet-the-man-that-created-an-economic-miricle/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:02:08 +0000 Kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2008/01/17/meet-the-man-that-created-an-economic-miricle/ Over the holiday weekend, I had the honor of meeting a man that has catalyzed an economic miracle for a part of Chihuahua, Mexico. Spencer MacCallum discovered the work of Juan Quezada, and over 30 years took the little town of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico creating “the fairy tale of Mata Ortiz”.

Spencer spoke of how Mata Ortiz went from a poverty stricken dust bowl to now a hopeful place of over 500 potters among the town’s 2500 citizens. Moreover, the town has galvanized together an industry that anyone of the town’s members are invited to be a part of. Juan Quezada’s artistic influence has been an open door to the whole town- giving others the skills to pull themselves out of poverty. And the pottery that they are creating is not the run of the mill stuff that you might have seen in some random flee market- many of Juan’s art pieces go for over $4,000 USD when sold in Mata Ortiz- or much, much more when sold in the US market.

What I found so profoundly interesting is this community created social capital with each other- building their own “business ecosystem”, and with this pulled each other out of poverty. And even more so- great acknowledgment goes to Spencer MacCallum in recognizing what this community had to offer to the world- and how he catalyzed this community out of poverty.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2008/01/17/meet-the-man-that-created-an-economic-miricle/feed/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/12/18/knowledge-ecologies-between-academia-and-industry/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/12/18/knowledge-ecologies-between-academia-and-industry/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:37:40 +0000 Kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/12/18/knowledge-ecologies-between-academia-and-industry/ In the following article in the NY Times, the rapid development of knowledge ecologies can be seen happening between industry and academia.  Large corporate labs are on the way out.  University research is being brought closer to industry through new relationships- that are looking much more like the ecologies that we have been talking about.

In the bygone days of innovation, large corporations — like RCA, Xerox and the old AT&T — maintained internal laboratories like Bell Labs. These corporate labs were essentially research universities embedded in private companies, and their employees published academic papers, spoke at conferences and even gave away valuable breakthroughs. Bell Labs, for instance, created the world’s first transistor after World War II — and never earned a dollar from the innovation.Almost no corporate labs based on the Bell or Xerox model remain, victims of cost-cutting and a new appreciation by corporate leaders that commercial innovations may flow best when scientists and engineers stick to business problems.

The one item that I believe the New York Times misses in this article, however, is the role of how smaller organizations and even individuals will fill out the ecology, bringing many of the technologies  to market much faster than large industry can.  NY Times writer Pascal Zackary hints at this when he says: “Will these partnerships produce products you won’t get from two people in a garage?” Mr. Birgeneau asks. “We don’t know that yet. It is an important question.”  Yet, it will take not just industry and academia… but also startups and skunkworks to bring these technologies to market in an efficient, time-realistic manner.

This article is further evidence of the shift from a Knowledge Economy to a Knowledge Ecology.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/12/18/knowledge-ecologies-between-academia-and-industry/feed/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/12/06/knowledge-ecologies-in-action-at-nintendo/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/12/06/knowledge-ecologies-in-action-at-nintendo/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:41:20 +0000 Kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/12/06/knowledge-ecologies-in-action-at-nintendo/ Several friends have asked me “What do I mean by a shift between a Knowledge Economy to a Knowledge Ecology?”  In the Knowledge Economy the Internet was being used to just make labor more efficient.  In an Knowledge Ecology the best ideas come from many different places… and when they are implemented, they can dominate their industries.  Prove it you say?  Here is an exceptional interview from the product team behind the Nintendo Wii.  The Wii has come to dominate the game console market place, which is especially evident when I speak with friends that have kids.  From the interview:

Why do you think we were able to engage in that kind of argument?

Shiota: Above all, I think it must have been because Nintendo is always trying to do something new and different. This message has been spread not only within Nintendo, but to other companies as well. As a result, our development partners have naturally tended to present us with new technologies and ideas. It was this background of going against the norm that gave birth to Wii.

This is my emphasis- business partners presenting Nintendo with new technologies and ideas… not just the fairly predictable 10% improvement that most companies rely on.  Knowledge Ecologies are going to dominate successful products and services into the future as we can see happening with Nintendo!

Thanks goes to Jeff Sexton for sharing this link with me.  I greatly appreciate how the readership of this blog contributes to the Knowledge Ecology forming around this set of topics!

Tags: innovation, enterprise2.0, ExponentialEntrepreneurship

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/12/06/knowledge-ecologies-in-action-at-nintendo/feed/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/12/06/marketing-to-millennials/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/12/06/marketing-to-millennials/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:24:56 +0000 Kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/12/06/marketing-to-millennials/ I about fell out of my seat laughing when I saw the following billboard, as I was surfing across the net, checking out John Erik Metcalf’s blog.  As Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads predicted back in 2003, older generations just don’t get this younger generation, the Millennials, just yet.  Roy states:

AOL and Yahoo.com are the Kerouac and Salinger of the new generation that will soon pry the torch from the hands of Boomers reluctant to let it go. Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley have become Tupac Shakur and Eminem, and the Baby Boomers’ reaction to them is much like their own parents’ reaction to Chuck and Elvis. But instead of saying, “Take a bath, cut your hair and get a job,” we’re saying, “Pull those pants up, spin that cap around and wash your mouth out with soap.”

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

As I mentioned in a recent post about the  the book that I am writing… tectonic shift #3:  An Attitudinal Shift…  The Millennials have shifted attitudes… both to marketing and ways of work.  Trying to placate Millennials and shift their attitudes, especially with messages like this Pullem Up billboard is not going to work.  The same is true about the ways Millennials work.  They are showing the rest of us the future… and leading the way that things will become.  No, I am not going to start wearing baggy pants anytime soon… but I do embrace Millennial attitudes on rejecting pretense, and I do embrace their focus of choosing work that supports their values, versus just working to get a paycheck.  This fundamental shift is echoing through the way work is, and is going to be done in the future. Employers (and billboard advertisers!!!) need to stop trying to placate or change Millennials’ attitudes… Instead, I suggest looking to what Roy Williams says:

1. Pretend that it won’t affect your business. (Let me know how this works out for you.)
2. Search for a Rosetta Stone that will give you a window into the minds of these barbarians at the gate, so that in the future at least you’ll know how to do business with them.

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

Tags: millennials, business, marketing

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/12/06/marketing-to-millennials/feed/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/30/stay-hungry-stay-foolish/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/30/stay-hungry-stay-foolish/#comments Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:27:49 +0000 Kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/11/30/stay-hungry-stay-foolish/ A friend of mine that I use to work with at NeXT, Inc. just forwarded the following Youtube video. Working with Steve Jobs at the start of my career has forever positively warped my sense of what is possible in the world. Steve says “Follow your heart, even when it leads you off of the well-worn path”. Also “If you live your life like today is your last day, some day you will be right.” Thank you Steve. Thinking like this changes the world. Here is Steve Jobs’ commencement speech to the recent graduates of Stanford.

Entrepreneurship is not just about building great products.  Steve says “You can’t connect the dots looking forward”. You must follow your heart.  Thanks to Kedar Mhaswade for helping Conrad Geiger at Sun find this video.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: entrepreneurship

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/30/stay-hungry-stay-foolish/feed/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/29/urgent-focus-small-business-growth-and-tightened-credit/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/29/urgent-focus-small-business-growth-and-tightened-credit/#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:37:40 +0000 Kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/11/29/urgent-focus-small-business-growth-and-tightened-credit/ Recently there has been a bunch of press about the growing threat of recession coming to the US.  Today’s front page article of the New York Times tells a story that all of us as entrepreneurs need to start preparing for called “As Lenders Tighten Flow of Credit, Growth at Risk“

From the article there are two important paragraphs to note:

Credit flowing to American companies is drying up at a pace not seen in decades, threatening the creation of jobs and the expansion of businesses, while intensifying worries that the economy may be headed for recession.

The article goes on to focus on small business, and how small business is getting hit the worst.  So why is this important? Small business is where all of our growth and job creation is coming from. From the NY Times article:

In recent months, smaller companies have been adding jobs even as larger firms have been shedding workers, according to the ADP National Employment Report, which tracks changes at companies with payrolls overseen by ADP. From May to October, 276,000 of the 378,000 jobs added were at companies with fewer than 50 employees, the report found.

It is the entrepreneurs that are building startup and small businesses that are contributing to the greatest growth of the US economy.  Programs that are being structured by the government should take this in account- and support small business- versus focusing on solutions for large, slow moving corporations that typically are the benefactors of the pork coming out of Washington DC.

So what can entrepreneurs do in lieu of dealing with a drying up of financial capital other than make sure that they voice their vote strongly in the coming election?  Although I will go over this in a coming blog post and also in my forthcoming book, given today’s news, it is worth mentioning here sooner as well.  Even though financial capital might not be as available, social capital can be utilized to continue to build businesses.  Social capital, called “human capital” in Paul Hawkin’s book called Natural Capitalism can be a somewhat replacement in lieu of financial capital.  Creating social capital is what we have been doing in Bootstrap Austin and other entrepreneurial social networks that I have been building.  To get an idea of how this is happening…  think back to times when farmers helped each other raise barns together… these farmers were creating social capital with each other (”I help you, you help me”).  As many stories from my family members can attest, they had no access to financial capital… but they could help each other, and survive the worst of recessions.  It appears that the US is entering into a time that once again that entrepreneurs building social capital together will be the way that we are going to be building our businesses, as financial capital runs and hides during the storm.  Thanks goes to David Armistead for one of the conversations that helped me clarify some of the distinctions in this capital transformation.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/29/urgent-focus-small-business-growth-and-tightened-credit/feed/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/29/superempowerment-at-your-doorstep/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/29/superempowerment-at-your-doorstep/#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:05:51 +0000 Kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/11/29/superempowerment-at-your-doorstep/ The following New York Times article “Personal Assistants on Call, Just Not in the Next Office” is further evidence of a growing trend of entrepreneurs hiring, at a few hours at a time, personal assistants to lower the “80 percent of their time on the trivial 20 percent of tasks”. As I mentioned in a previous post about the Superempowerment of the Individual we are at a time that entrepreneurs that allow themselves to get bogged down in the minutia won’t be focused on their true strategic value… These entrepreneurs should be embracing support at very affordable prices, allowing them to live easier, while still building their businesses. And this is not just about offshore resources. Local Austin companies are providing these types of services as well. It is great to see support to be now in reach of the individual entrepreneur or employee, at a level that has never been present before. Expect access to these types of services to expand, as our economy shifts from being a knowledge economy to an knowledge ecology, with further specialization of services that are available on an hourly basis, at an inexpensive price, as needed.

]]> http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/29/superempowerment-at-your-doorstep/feed/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/13/meet-your-future-employee/ http://www.kevinkoym.com/blog/2007/11/13/meet-your-future-employee/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2007 01:21:53 +0000 Kevin http://www.exponentialentrepreneurship.com/blog/2007/11/13/meet-your-future-employee/ Here are signs of the Attitudinal Shift that I mentioned in this previous post:

Meet Your Future Employee
And the up-and-coming generation puts a premium on work/life balance, having seen firsthand the toll working around-the-clock took on its parents. As a result, they tend to shy away from jobs that demand the 40-hour-plus workweeks typical of IT.

The businesses that figure out how to leverage the trends that the Millennials are expressing will thrive. Those businesses that fight these trends will suffer. What is your business doing to prepare for this shift?

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