Ron Kornfeld (Self-Proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur)

Ron Kornfeld, self-proclaimed "serial-entrepreneur", was the guest speaker today in my entrepreneurship class at UW Tacoma.  He began his talk by explaining that no one likes business plans; the purpose of a business plan is to put an idea into a standardized format that can be consumed efficiently by prospective partners/employees and venture capitalists.  In addition, the process of articulating the details of a business venture makes you test that business (it forces you to define smaller details that you maybe wouldn't have normally have thought of).
Ron worked for MCI, but left and started a company that wanted to simplify dial-up in the early days of the internet.  He has since encountered three net bubbles, solved some of the world's problems, and been involved with start-ups like Dreambox (which was acquired by Netflix), NimbleSource, Personal Grid, Normandy Partners, Harmonetrix, Cygnisoft, XactLabs, and Tweetiator.  I took a couple of very interesting pieces of information away from this lecture.  The first was that most start-ups don't need to raise millions of dollars.  This was something that I assumed coming into the class, but was being swayed to think otherwise by many of our class lectures.  Ron mentioned that start-ups do need some form of capital, but it doesn't have to be from venture capitalists; it can come from many different types of investors.  The second was the way that venture capitalists and the firms that they work for get their money.  I had just assumed that they were made up of billionaires who were looking for ways to invest their money (and hopefully earn a large return).  What really happens involves the government: government employees have pension funds that are paid into by current employees, but that money needs to be grown to meet the need of a generally increasing amount of retirees dipping into those funds.  Some of those funds are given to V.C. firms as a high-risk investment.  These firms then seek out the best start-ups to invest in, and this is done by looking at BUSINESS PLANS!  Which takes us full circle back to the idea that a business plan is crucial for any business idea that could be brought to fruition.
One last thing of note was that Ron discussed "disruption", which is basically the idea of breaking into a market and doing something better than what is currently available.  There are many pieces of software that I use on a daily basis that I believe could do things much better than what is currently available.  This inspired me to rethink my business idea, and I may be changing the business idea that I use for this class entirely.

Bruce Kendall (Econ. Dev. Board for Tacoma/Pierce County)

Bruce Kendall spoke to our entrepreneur class last week about his work as the President/CEO of the Economic Development Board for Tacoma/Pierce County.  He described the role of his board as "growing the economy of our county ... by providing guidance for the top primary firms in the county."   Primary firms are businesses that make a product or service here and then export to outside of the county, so as to stimulate the economy within the county.  This is a great service to provide, as businesses such as SiteCrafting, Boeing, Multicare, Intel, and Toray Composites have all been involved with the EDB.  He mentioned some of the largest contributors to the county, including Boeing, JBLM (Joint Base Lewis-McChord), and a new allegiance, The Grand Alliance, who consist of shipping firms from Japan and Germany, who will shipping to Tacoma rather than Seattle beginning in June.
The most surprising thing that Bruce said during his lecture was that the biggest problem for companies not succeeding currently is a workforce quality shortage.  In other words, there is a shortage of quality workers in most industries in our county.  This is strange to me because, with the amount of (at least) decent schools and universities in our county, I would assume that the amount of good workers that are being produced would be at least enough to fulfill most needs in at least a majority of industries in our county.  This is apparently not the case, as many companies (with the his focus being on technology companies in particular) are having a hard time finding quality workers.  This, in my mind, can only be attributed to one of three major issues:
1. The quality of education (or possibly guidance for students) is sub-par or somehow compromised
2. The people obtaining quality training/education are migrating outside of the county for work
3. The amount of workers for the major industries in the county is too small, which relates back to guidance for students.
In any case, this is just confirmation of the fact that I will most likely have little trouble finding work when I finish my degree in CSS, which of course makes me happy.  Yet, on the flip-side of this is the fact that if I do chose to work for a large local software company (which I believe is the likely step after graduation), I may be working with people who are not quality workers.  In the software field, this is terrifying because we are almost always working in teams.  I had an idea of this from feedback from a few friends who work at large software companies, but this fact seems to confirm the issue.  This alone may be reason to consider serial entrepreneurship as a profession.  Being able to hone in on a small group of partners who have a good education, good work ethic, and get along very well (which is the only way I would ever start a business with other people) could provide a much more fruitful and enjoyable experience for a software engineer like myself.  As each guest lecturer presents, creating some sort of up-start becomes more and more appealing...

Brian Forth (Site Crafting)

Brian Forth visited our entrepreneurship class last Wednesday, and he spoke about his history in web design and gave some great insight into the life of the leader of one what seems is one of the most successful local technology companies in the South Sound.  His parents and grandparents were all employees of Lockheed, which almost surely pinned him as an employee as well, but instead he followed his passion: Baseball.  He worked for Disney while in college.  Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately), baseball didn't work out, but he was able to get his four year degree in theology/philosophy.  As a 5th grade teacher in the late 90's, he realized the importance of the internet and began teaching his students how to build websites.  They would provide the skills, and other teachers would provide content for them.  In 1998, he worked for Knowledge Universe in San Fransisco, but he also founded Site Crafting in Tacoma, WA.  They have opened up locations in Spokane (2009) and Seattle (2010), have almost 30 employees, and have built websites for PEMCO, Metro Parks, Tacoma Public Utilities, and Multicare among others.
The company's main focus at the moment is mobile web, which is basically the future of the internet.  Some of the advice he gave was to take risks, invest yourself, trust your team, deliver more than what people want, make and keep big promises, and leverage your experience and connections.  This was all great advice, but most of it was iterated previously by Erik Hanberg.  It seems that most entrepreneurs have a similar sentiment when it comes to the "tricks of the trade".  The main thing that I took away from his talk was his emphasis on the team.  He opened a new location for Site Crafting even when it wasn't necessarily the best idea simply to keep his partner on his team.  He allows his current employees one day a week to focus on their own projects and brainstorming new ideas for the company.  At his own admission, he has kept employees on longer than necessary to see if their performance will improve.  Site Crafting pays less than many of the larger companies out of Seattle, and his employees pass up opportunities to leave to work for them.  The emphasis on making a tight knit community out of your small business venture, I can see, is something of immense value.  If you truly feel you can trust the people you are working for/with, it takes a lot of the stress out of your job so that you can focus on doing what you love.  When you work for a larger company, there will always be a chance that you will be let go at the drop of a hat.  Circumstances will warrant downsizing and lay-offs, and there will always be more and more waves of college students that are fresh and ready to outperform you.  Building your own business or even being on the ground floor of someone else's entrepreneurship venture allows you to have a bit of security in that you don't have to worry about being faceless and unrecognized.

What technology makes my business different?

My most recent idea for a business involves the Microsoft Kinect for Windows.  With the release of Windows 8 just around the corner, a lot of users will be embracing a brand new environment and way of computing.  The Windows 8 interface is very "touch friendly" which is why I believe (as does Microsoft) that the future of computing is right in front of your television screen.  With that said, the Kinect seems the logical choice of hardware to assist in that transition.

The Kinect (or Microsoft's motion sensing input device) was recently released for Windows.  It was previously available for the XBox 360 and had quite the impressive reception, selling 18 million units worldwide so far.  Although it is unfortunate that you cannot currently use your XBox Kinect with your Windows PC or Laptop, the Windows version features some upgrades that will allow for adaptability in a "home theater" setting (closer to the screen).  The technology is fairly new, and it has endless possible uses.  There are some competitors that are already developing software to navigate Powerpoint slideshows and Microsoft Picture Viewer, but being such a new technology allows my business to innovate with this technology, as well as sell products via Microsoft's new app store.  Games are an obvious choice for software to develop (such as Ma-jong, Sudoku, or Trivia games like "You Don't Know Jack") but even simple apps that allow navigation of Windows and use of Internet Explorer with the wave of a hand would be very successful if they are coded well and released in a timely manner.

My competitors may be developing similar software for the Kinect and Windows as we speak, and Microsoft may also have programmers working on similar projects, but all it takes is one innovative app to gain exposure and sales for my business.  It would be a differentiator to be a creator of motion driven apps, and the technology is ready and waiting...

Entrepreneur?

According to The Technology Entrepreneur's Guidebook, an entrepreneur has the following traits:

• Be on the cutting edge of something novel and useful
• Build long-term value and sustainability
• Have freedom, control, and self-discipline
• Have a passion and be "evangelical" (I found that humorous) about your work
• Have confidence in your venture
• Be focused and disciplined, while also being creative, innovative and courageous
• Be a leader and a visionary
• Think ahead

 So with these traits in mind, why or why not would I want to be an entrepreneur?  It seems that this is a rhetorical question (as is noted in the guidebook), but to answer it you must first determine if you have the traits listed or believe that you have the potential to build yourself into someone who has these traits.  The hardest part about being an entrepreneur, for me, is being on the cutting-edge of technology.  Things move so fast in the market, and having a novel or fresh idea that solves a problem is hard to come by.  Though our professor continually notes in class sessions that it's perfectly fine to work on a project that someone else has already thought of/done before, I think that being the one to birth something new and exciting gives a much bigger leg up than simply building on or improving someone else's idea.  The idea is key, but being able to actually take that idea and make it a reality is what makes an entrepreneur.  In the past, the amount of times I have been able to actually accomplish this task could be counted on the fingers of a single hand, and in each of these cases, the task was somewhat simple and had little to no return for me.  The creative process is the one thing that, I think, holds back many people in the technology field.  Take, for example, a gentleman by the name of Steve Gadlin.  Steve is a web developer who came up with the idea of creating a website where he simply and not so elegantly fulfilled requests that people made for him to draw a cat for them.  Thus was the birth of IWantToDrawACatForYou.com.  This novel idea has taken him to the nationally televised show "Shark Tank" to be funded by Mark Cuban.  And it all started on his toilet (as he said on the show).  Some sage advice that I've heard on multiple occasions is this: You should take an idea that is brainstormed to fruition at least once every three months.  If it's a miss, move on, but at least you are putting these ideas out there and testing their success.  If you keep trying and keep working, you have a much greater chance of getting a "hit".  All of the personality traits noted in the guidebook are very much necessary to succeed as an entrepreneur, but most of these can be learned or developed.  I think that over the years I have developed most of these, which is noticeable just by taking a look at my resume.  To conclude, again, it's really the creative process that I believe is key.

Guest Speaker: Erik Hanberg

On April 2nd, 2012, our class had the pleasure of listening to a talk from Erik Hanberg.  He has worked in a graphic/web design firm called Mary Holste Design, is a somewhat newly established novelist, and was the founder of a theater company, The Horatio.  Erik's presentation was simple, but effective, as he gave us many things to think about including many tid-bits of advice and the many aspects of being an entrepreneur.  Fear is the one key point that he made that could potentially be the one thing that could hold back a person from achieving great things as an entrepreneur.  There is a lot to be said for taking risks, as Erik has continually done in his career, and if you don't take those risks, you may never realize your full potential.  There are a lot of things to take into consideration when taking the financial and career risks that are sometimes necessary when undertaking such an endeavor.  For example, in Erik's attempt to turn an existing space into a full theater, he didn't take all of the HVAC issues that ended up arising into consideration, so his financial plan for the business ended up being unmanageable.  The main advantage of being a self-employed entrepreneur is the freedom that comes with it.  Being able to sleep in on a Tuesday or take a nap in the middle of any day is quite a perk.  Although I agree that this freedom would be nice, I believe that some structure in life, especially in business, is also a very valuable thing to have.
Having worked at Costco since I was a senior in high school, I put a lot of value in stability.  Having a very well-paying job that offers great benefits and little to no risk of being let go is almost a requirement for me personally.  In my search for a job in the future as a software developer, I hope to find a home at a company that has some of these benefits as well.  Though I will most likely never take the types of paths that Erik has taken in his life, his way of thinking was very inspiring.  Being a musician, I hope to continue to release music and play concerts even after I have a new employer and the new lifestyle that comes with it.  I also enjoy creating tutorials on Youtube for people to learn effective ways to solve problems that I have determined how to solve.  Both of these things could potentially be monetized, and the stories that Erik told hold great knowledge about how to go about doing that well.  Being willing to fail and handle the emotional letdown is a huge risk, and is a very likely reality.  Networking and actually meeting people is also a very important step that will help fuel success as an entrepreneur.  Finally, staying motivated to do work is imperative, and reading books will fuel new ideas and ways of thinking.