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98% of the jobs available for students

August 28, 2012 by kkoym Leave a Comment

Startups at Tech Ranch were in the news on KXAN tonight. 98% of the jobs that are available for graduating students are actually coming from startups and small business, not the Google’s of the world. In this segment from KXAN you’ll hear me talking about the job creation engine that startups represent to the community. Tech Ranch startup 5×5 is profiled, and Campus2Careers, who helps students find a pathway to startups and small business are profiled. One of our very talented interns Kathleen Hetrick (who has done great things for the startups around Tech Ranch also shares her insight about what it has meant to learn in a startup environment.  This reminds me when I was still a student when I joined NeXT Computer while a junior at the University of Texas at Austin. Great to have the video exposure of the great work being done by entrepreneurs around the Tech Ranch.

Watch the video here:

Small companies want college grads

Filed Under: Austin, economy

People Over 35 Have Recently Launched 80% Of Startups

July 9, 2011 by kkoym Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: economy, entrepreneurship

The First Shot Fired in the Next American Revolution

January 9, 2010 by kkoym Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Filed Under: economy, entrepreneurship

Making the Local Economy Resilient in 2009

December 26, 2008 by kkoym Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: community, economy, entrepreneurship

Share your war stories- Entrepreneur Happy Hour 10/24/2008

October 23, 2008 by kkoym Leave a Comment

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

HOUSE WINE

408 Josephine
Austin 78704-1017
+1.512.322.5210

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

Filed Under: Austin, economy, entrepreneurship

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