Kevin Koym

Coalescing a Community to take on World Challenges

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This afternoon I’ve been allowing myself to look back at some of the ideas that I think most revolutionary for dealing with some of the problems/opportunities that the world faces right now.  It was while reading about halophytes, plants that can deal with salt water, that I came across a project that sheer audacity had me think to go deeper.  The Sahara Forest Project, yes, that is “Sahara Forest” not “Sahara Desert”, is a great example of how a small group of empowered individuals are using their intelligence and vision to take back the desert and turn it green again… a truly audacious vision.

The question, as I ponder the work that we’re doing at Tech Ranch Austin, is how to go further in supporting entrepreneurs to take on some of the most pressing needs. What’s needed to cultivate a community of entrepreneurs that not only take on building innovative startups, but they are empowered to take on the greatest challenges that face the earth… and through using their intelligence, vision, drive, whit, and passion, build the businesses that tackle these challenges?

We’ve stated seeing results from around the Ranch, with startups like OmniWater– with a technology that can purify water from the most harshest of conditions.  Wayne Wolf’s vision is a device, on the back of a 18 wheeler truck, that could be dropped into any area of the world to provide drinking water in disaster situations. Wayne’s company was an early startup at the Tech Ranch, and has recently gotten funded preparing them to go to the next level of growth and opportunity.

Secondly, Erine Grey, Founder and CEO of Aunt Bertha has been building a website that makes it easy to find food, health, housing, and employment programs for those in need.. .but instead of this being the non-profit model of the past, he’s building a business that makes it profitable to help those in need.

The Tech Ranch Community is emerging with entrepreneurs that are taking on audacious problems…. and I ask myself and our community- how do we go farther faster with greater impact?

I am proud that Tech Ranch and its community finds and supports these entrepreneurs that are pushing the boundaries for real world solutions. Starting a company isn’t easy. Every entrepreneur deserves support in the work that he/she is doing to better the world.  Its time to go beyond the loss of vision that has plagued the United States too long due to political strife and focus our attention to cultivating a community of entrepreneurs with the mutual support and the audacity to change the world for the better. Its time, this year, this day, this moment to go to the next level, and challenge ourselves further.  I ask for your contribution to this challenge. Time to build a greater future together.

Health, Juicing, and Vegetables

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Over the last few years I have lost several family members and good friends to cancer.
As an entrepreneur that believes that almost anything is possible, I have used this time
to decide to explore possible preventatives or cures for cancer and diabetes… or at
least look perhaps to the fringe for solutions.

In my research, an interesting picture has emerged about the use of a (nearly) vegan
diet, and at times just pure vegetable juice as a tonic that lowers the susceptibility to
these ailments.

So today, I am just off a four day pure vegetable juice fast. For the last four days I have
had only vegetable juices four times a day, made out of some assortment of carrots,
beats, celery, wheat grass, kale, and spinach. I did not try to be exact in my choosing of
what was in each juice, nor did I try to time them exactly. The first one I made at home,
but subsequent ones I went to the Juice Spot, Whole Foods North, and Whole Foods
Downtown.

So here is my results: I felt great. I only had hunger pains on the second day, although I
think most of that was because of a very small amount of organic chocolate that I snuck
from a coworker. I went from 206.4 pounds to 198.8 pounds. I felt energized, and I
slept pretty well (which historically doesn’t always happen for me).

The surprising upside: I noticed that in a very short period of time, not only did I lose the
weight, but the athlete’s foot that I usually had disappeared. Moreover, with the medita-
tion classes that I take, I noticed (not sure if it is related or not) that I was able to medi-
tate deeper than I had been. The only downside, other than some hunger pains was
just the natural implication of not having any solid food in my system meant that visits to
the bathroom were different.

All in all, though, I have found a new practice that I will do again, and probably next time
for more time than I did this time.

So here’s some of the background material that might be of interest to watch and read
before embarking on this experiment:

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (video)
In this documentary, Joe Cross, the show’s host, takes 60 days across the US, juicing
all of the way. He and several of the persons profiled in the movie lose significant
weight and stop having to take medication for the health conditions that they have.

The Gerson Method (video)
Dr Max Gerson, a doctor that was practicing in the 1930s is profiled with the method
used to save countless lives. The video is definitely dated, and will be somewhat wonky
for a modern audience, but still for a curious mind looking into diet, this method is inter-
esting enough to consider.

The China Study (book)
In the China Study author Dr. T. Colin Campbell states in a fairly rigorous, verifiable
method how the percentage of animal protein in one’s diet directly affects susceptibility
to cancer. One study shows that a 5% milk protein diet for laboratory mice is cancer
resistant, while 20% or more milk protein in the diet is cancer susceptible. Furthermore,
Dr. Campbell shows data that he was able to collect in conjunction with the Chinese
government in 19YY that this trend is shown in humans as well across a variety of dis-
eases.

Forks Versus Knives (movie)
In this documentary, Dr. T. Colin Campbell from the China Study and Dr. Caldwell B. Es-
selstyn, Jr,team up to show how both of their practices (one as a researcher, the other as
a heart surgeon) line up on the incidents of heart disease and other diseases… sug-
gesting a diet that is mainly vegetables with a little bit of meat (significantly less than
what is normal in the American diet) is the best bet for long term good health.

All in all, this little experiment that I have done over that few days has been an interest-
ing delve into fasting with a juice diet. Certainly I’ll try it again, if for only the significant
decrease in athlete’s foot, if not also the weight loss. Perhaps as well, given that I be-
lieve a lot of what I heard in the book and documentaries above, there will also be an
entrepreneurial opportunity that I’ll find in this self research as well.

LIfe’s an experiment… I’ll keep on experimenting. Let me know if you do as well. Here’s to our health!

More thoughts about Steve

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There’s been a lot of conversation about Steve Jobs passing on the ex-NeXT email list (the former employees of NeXT Computer, Inc.).  I shared the following perspective in response to Steve sometimes being a harsh person to deal with. I think that in some ways, this harsh background was part of my training ground for being an entrepreneur.  Given that this perspective has been helpful for me, I repost this set of thoughts here to thank my teachers, whether they were on the martial arts mat, or in the office.

——–

I’d like to share a whole different perspective- maybe that will be useful.

In 20+ years of studying Japanese martial arts, I’ve had a handful of sensei’s.  Sensei is an informal term of appreciation of “teacher” (in my translation and understanding).  The way that I interpret “sensei” does not mean “guru”.  In some of the training situations that I’ve been in, I’ve gotten physically hurt in the interaction (broken nose, broken foot, separated shoulder, ripped up wrist, and others over 20 years of practice).  Why, if I was getting hurt, would I ever go back?  Its because the training was yielding something deeper for me in my development and accomplishment.  In fact, I feel lucky, for the one time that my training was called upon in real life on the street, I made it out ok… but that was probably because of the pounding of preparation that I had in all of that time on the mat.
The key item, though, is that there was respect. I can’t tell you that I “liked” my sensei’s…. but in the midst of the punishment of the intensity of the situation, there was always respect.
When I think of my time at NeXT, which has shaped my life in a major way, I think to this notion- that there was at some level a type of respect that was always present.  In striving for a greater goal, this was present (both on the mat, and in this case at NeXT).  Certainly, I was farther away from the fire being in the field as an SE for NeXT… (although I can tell you of a few customer visits that were not the most pleasant of experiences… I’ll never forget the time that we were demoing to the Minister of Education of Mexico and Steve walks into the room and drops a hand grenade….)
I guess to sum it up, the reason that I feel gratitude for the experience of working with all of y’all, even in the crappy shitty times was this mutual development, mutual growth experience.  What brought “color” to my experience there was not that I liked the experience… but that pushing that I’ve only felt the likes of on the martial arts mat (mainly the Aikido mat) was meaningful because it was so developmental…. a heady experience getting to “change the world” for a kid straight out of college… and to believe that it was possible then, enables me in my work to this day to daily make that charge yet again in my present day work.
Looking forward to connecting with y’all, and raising a glass to remember Steve together,
Kevin

Returning to Chile- moving forward with projects

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You might know of the work that I started in Chile in 2003 – which was to become the basis of Tech Ranch Austin– the “Enterprise Teaming” (trademark!) framework that I originally took to Chile so many years ago.  Well the Tech Ranch Austin has been growing, and we’re starting to duplicate this framework and our more polished insight back to Chile. Last year, I was in Antofagasta, Chile for the launch of Region Fertil– a project that has been started to invigorate innovation and entrepreneurship in Antofagasta.  I’ll be working with my colleagues from G&L and Gulliver– and am looking forward to seeing many of my friends in Chile.

Given as we’ve been unpacking at the new Tech Ranch Austin (we moved a few weeks ago) and we launched the Austin Startup Bazaar with 30 startups presenting, and over 350 people in attendance, I am getting this info out late about my travel plans, so I’d figure I’d share it directly here – for coordination purposes.  Here’s generally my schedule- let me know via twitter, email, or US phone or Chilean phone at +56.9.9.871.5077 to coordinate getting together while I am in Chile.

Sep 25th: Sunday Austin – Santiago

Sep 26th: Monday Meetings in Santiago

Sep 27th: Tuesday Santiago – Antofagasta- Meetings in Antofagasta

Sep 28th: Wednesday Antofagasta

Sep 29th: Thursday Antofagasta – Santiago

Sep 30th: Friday Meetings in Santiago

Oct 1st: Saturday Fun around Santiago

Oct 2nd: Santiago flying out in the evening

Oct 3rd: return to Austin in the morning

What are we working on? We’ll be following up on building teaming opportunities between networks of entrepreneurs both in Antofagasta, Santiago, and Austin.  (We’ll be showing off some of our results at SXSW2012 by the way).  Here’s to strengthening entrepreneurship by working together.  I’m excited to return to Chile, for that’s where this whole process began for me.

Conformity vs Discipline

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In the workplace as in many parts of life, I have found that there’s a simple distinction that guides what I tell many a new entrepreneur into their first startup.  This distinction is conformity versus discipline.  Being an employee requires that the individual conforms to someone else’s directions. Day by day activities are directed by someone else.  Results are beget from following structures set up by someone else… and at the end of the day, or a 40 hour workweek, many times the employee may step away from work, leaving behind whatever results have been achieved, and thinking about other things.

The entrepreneur has a different scenario.  Many times there are no structures that have been set up by anyone else, requiring the entrepreneur to set them up.  It takes discipline to set the directions that a startup will go. It takes discipline to get up in the morning, especially when demotivated because of present results, to go at it again. It takes discipline at the end of the day to somehow quiet the voices of undone task, doing one’s best to mentally walk away from work that needs to be completed for that day’s rest. It takes discipline to not allow success to go to one’s head, but instead, maintain a humble approach that keeps the entrepreneur’s eyes open for the next opportunity, or the next threat.

Either way, choosing the path of conformity or discipline, there is a choice that must be made, and a willingness to pay the price of that choice.

Lemons, meet lemonade

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One of the biggest issue that every entrepreneur must face is dealing with the “down” times… times when something (possibly) negative has happened, that distracts him/her from the key objective that they were focused on, to dealing with the unexpected.

The recent Tech Ranch Move, which was unexpected, is exactly that.

Yes, we had a year extension on our lease. We’d negotiated so that it was possible to keep our present location (which was not perfect for us by any means, because of many limitations) for at least a year longer.  Then we were told that the group that we were subleasing from had their lease terminated.

It was “tragic” and “distracting” and many other words.  It was ill timed. Not what I wanted to focus on. Yet now, on the eve of signing a new lease, I see it as a gift.  Perhaps some greater consciousness (or whatever) telling me to “grow the Tech Ranch Austin” up.  It was time.

The present location that we’re at was not working for the Tech Ranch Austin for quite a while. We’d have Campfires of 65 people that just did not work at our present location.  The AC didn’t work good enough.  Everyone was cramped.  And it was  a hard location to find.

But at this point, before I announce the new location, I can tell you, the process of being forced to focus on something that I really was not ready to focus on has been a net positive.  We’re moving, and no matter which of the locations that we pick to move to, we’re going to be moving to a better place.  A place that we’re going to be able to handle our mission so much better than before.  Each location that is on the top 3 locations is massively better than where we’re at now.  What’s so interesting is how blind to how much better it could be that I was.

So as I write this, I say “Lemons, meet lemonade”.  Life’s lessons in entrepreneurship have taught me that “change” is not so simple as “good” or “bad”.  I am thankful for the help that you’ve all given to me as I’ve looked to finding the next Ranch location.  All I can say at this point is that I am excited, for it is looking very good.

It is through the community that the faithless have become the faithful. Thank you for your support! (and thanks for continuing to make our mission possible!)

People Over 35 Have Recently Launched 80% Of Startups

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Interesting to read the following article- given that so many young entrepreneurs get press for high flying Internet startups- but quietly in the background older entrepreneurs are building high growth, heavy innovation startups.  See the following for details:

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, people over the age of 35 made up 80 percent of the total entrepreneurship activity in 2009. That same year, the Kauffman Foundation conducted a survey of 549 startups operating in “high-growth” industries — including aerospace, defense, health care, and computer and electronics — and found that people over 55 are nearly twice as likely to launch startups in these industries.

via People Over 35 Have Recently Launched 80% Of Startups.

Why Some People Have More Luck Than Others

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The following article talks about how certain entrepreneurs affect how “lucky” they are in business success.  Its a really interesting read, with a simple meditation (see the quote below).

They are the people who say to themselves: I am humble enough to say I don't know how to make better/perfect happen on my own; I am curious and courageous enough to ask questions that might help make something closer to perfect; and finally I embrace the “glass half-full” optimism that the end result can always be improved, so let me act towards that objective.

via Why Some People Have More Luck Than Others.

May we all learn to create luck in our startups.

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