On January 19, 2016, Kevin spoke at the Co-Founder Meet-Up hosted at the Capitol Factory in downtown Austin, TX. You can see a video of the presentation on Kevin’s YouTube channel or read an edited version here.
“My name is Kevin Koym. I’m the founder of Tech Ranch. I like to have a really interactive style. We only have a few minutes to talk, so I’m going to try to be brief, but I want to challenge you to a couple different ideas.
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.
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!)
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
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.