Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Podcast your elevator pitch

I met David Hornick of August Capital on Monday night at a cocktail party. I was surprised to learn that he has been blogging for two years now and has a wealth of posts on Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital and other interesting subjects. He encouraged me to read his blog, and it wasn't long before I came across something that I just had to post.

Turns out that both Fred Wilson and David are inviting entrepreneurs to submit  elevator pitches via a podcast. David's post has the details on how it works.

You can also listen to a podcast about sending podcast pitches to VCs at Greg Galant's Venture Voice.

 

Monday, October 10, 2005

Enterprise Software Dead?

In a guest post in Jeff Bussgang's blog, Chip Hazard, partner at IDG ventures,  disputes the assertions of the maturation, consolidation and eventual death of the enterprise software business.

Having spent several years in the IT department in one of those behemoths  that are the dream client of many enterprise software creators, I had found myself falling into the "enterprise software is dead" camp. We had incorporated all that we were going to incorporate, we certainly weren't going to buy anything from a startup, and we almost always opted for 'make' over 'buy' believing that anything out there couldn't scale enough, or would require such extreme customization to integrate with legacy systems that the real costs for buying something were often higher than making it ourselves.

My first clue that this experience may not really be typical was the DEMO conference that I attended last month. A full 20% of the hot new products demonstrated were in the Enterprise software and services market segment. I decided to review Chip's five themes & strategies to drive the creation of successful companies to this group of products. Given the results here, I think that Chip has definitely hit on something:

Chip Hazard's themes & strategies to drive the creation of successful companies in the enterprise software space (with the percentage of DEMO Conference products in this space using the strategy):

• Innovate to drive efficiency (69% of the DEMO conference products)
• Dominate a Niche (74% of products)
• Explore SaaS (software-as-a service) (38% of products)
• Consider Open Source (none of these products, though there were lots of non-enterprise software products at the conference that clearly used this strategy)
• Go Vertical (69% of products)

Hmmm... Maybe I should change my opinion on enterprise software being dead. There definitely seems to be plenty of room for companies to exist in this space. They still may not be right for my former employer, though lots of other companies definitely will see some interesting products for their organizations.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

EntreWorld Links Oct 3

Thursday, September 22, 2005

What keeps YOU up at night?

Last night on the red-eye back to NYC from LAX I embraced my insomnia and allowed my mind to wonder. I was reminded of a favorite question of mine and those of my business school cohort during our meetings and talks with company founders and top executives: "What keeps you up at night?" The answers were always interesting and intriguing and more than once completely surprising.

I've always found that understanding the questions and issues that others face brought clarity to my own challenges even if their questions didn't yet have an answer. In this spirit I am launching an occasional series of posts called "Up at Night". These posts will include excerpts from 15 minute interviews that I will have with various company founders and top executives that will consist of a single question, "What is keeping you up at night?"

This is your opportunity to add your night haunts to the conversation. If you are willing to be interviewed for this series please let me know your name, company (with URL if available), phone number and a couple of times that you would be available for a 15 minute interview. I'm assuming that most wouldn't want all of this info to be posted on a blog, so I suggest that you mail me instead. I'll get back to you to confirm a time.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

DEMOFall - Part 3

The second day of the DEMOFall 05 conference was great too. Below is my lists of Wednesday favorites to complement my list of my favorite products from Tuesday’s session. There really were tons of products that I could have put onto this list. I highly recommend checking out the DEMOFall 05 website to see all of the companies that presented along with descriptions of their new, hot products and videos of their presentations (click on “2005 DEMOFall” in the “Watch DEMO Videos” on the right side).

• Eptascape, Inc (EptaCam) - On average people are captured on video surveillance cameras 200x/day in NYC and 300x/day in London. Eptascape's camera allows for this data to be protected by masking out the personal features. If there ever is a security breach the video can be unlocked to reveal the personally identifiable data. As Chris Shipley put it, this camera actually makes us more secure by allowing security professionals to monitor behaviors instead of the way that people look.
• Local Matters, Inc (Destination Search) - Online searching for products is pretty easy if you are looking for products that are actually sold on the internet. But, what if you are looking for a store to visit? Local Matters' product allows you to search for stores that have the product that you are searching and even do comparisons of these stores.
• YackPack (YackPack) - What can be said about these guys? They are fun and their product rocks. I think that it is the only demo that brought tears to my eyes because of its emotional appeal. This is basically online discussions with voice-to-voice communication within a closed community. It could be a community of family, friends or colleagues, and you can "see" the person who is talking because everyone's picture is displayed right there. Even three-year-olds were in the YackPack.
• Glam Media, Inc. (Glam.com) - Less than 50% of women (compared to 84% of men) use the web to purchase items. This site combines the emotional aspects of shopping or looking at fashion magazines with the practical aspects of on-line purchasing. They have style quizzes, searches of items by designers or celebrities, and absolutely beautiful pages. It is the height of entertainment-based shopping. Now, where's that Luca dress that I've been coveting?
• VideoEgg, Inc (VideoEgg Publisher) - Super easy upload of universally accessible digital video published to the web. If you are thinking "big deal" I'm sure that you have never tried to post video to the web. Go ahead think about how you'd do it and then surf on over to VideoEgg's site and check out how easy it could be.

So sad that it's over, though really happy that I got to participate!!

Technorati Tags: DEMOFall

DEMOFall - Part 2

The first day of the DEMOFall 05 conference was lots of fun. Very energetic and filled with lots of great new products. In the afternoon we had a visit from the "DEMO Gods" who were messing with the internet access, though all ended fine and every company scheduled to present for the day was able to.

The hot question today at the conference is "What is your favorite product so far. Well, I have many favorites, and some really surprised me as being my favorites. Below are just a couple of the many great products that were presented the first day.

• Sykler Technology, Inc. (Skyler real-time data processing engine) - In my conference notes for these guys I only wrote the simple note, "These guys are going to be big!!" Basically they have an engine that can process massive amounts of data (100 million messages/sec) to provide real-time information processing. Their first application is for stock trading information, though there are lots of other applications too.
• Roku LLC (SoundBridge Wi-Fi Music System) - A simple dual-alarm clock radio with off-the-hook features. You can set "radio" presets to be AM, FM, Internet Radio or any combination of your digital music libraries in your home streamed to the radio over your home wireless network. What, you're not familiar with what internet radio stations are out there? That's okay, they have 100 of them built into the radio itself. This one definitely fits into that "gotta have it" category with me. They are even offering pre-sale discounts for people who order before they come out next month.
• U3 (U3 Platform for smart drive computing) - Another one in my "gotta have it" category. In fact, I did get one. I couldn't wait! This is a simple USB smart drive, though it does more than allow you to simply store files like an ordinary smart drive. This product allows you to store your entire personal workspace, applications, settings and all. Now I won't have to worry that I don't have my personal computer with me when I'm on the road. I can just carry it with me in my pocket including that personal application that I shouldn't be installing on my work computer. Woo hoo!
• Always On Wireless, Inc (WiFlyer+v) - when I saw this product I had visions of going into my Starbucks "office" with one of these little hubs and a landline phone for my conference calls. After talking with them I realized that it is so much more. Basically a little hub that combines a Wi-Fi router, VoIP adapter and modem to enable wireless data and VoIP connectivity over dial-up and broadband connections. The $12.95 monthly charge for all of those VoIP calls is making me re-think that decision to keep my landline!

I'll post after the afternoon session to let you know my favorites from today!!

Technorati Tags: DEMOFall

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

DEMOFall - Part 1

What fun. I've spent the day attending the DEMO conference - a two day event featuring ground-breaking launch presentations that showcase the most exciting innovations in the world of technology. I had the chance to take a look at about 30 product demonstrations today and will be looking at about the same number of others tomorrow. Check out the DEMO blog for live interactive blogging from the conference. Any posts that I make to that communal blog I'll also post to this one!! 

John Barnhill, CEO & Founder of Pie (a company with a cool product that allows home networking to be "easy as Pie") summed up what I think of being the key difference about this conference over others. He relayed a story to me about the practice session for his on-stage, 6-min demo. During this time one of the conference organizers received a call and told the caller that he couldn't talk because he was "with the client". John relayed to me during his work of creating Pie a conference is usually not where he is called "the client".

This conference is really all about the entrepreneurs, their companies and their products. To find out a bit more about it check out Greg Galant's Venture Voice for a great podcast intro to the conference including an interview with Chris Shipley, executive producer and driving force of the conference, and an interview with the founders of  VideoEgg, one of the conference demonstrators.

Technorati Tags: DEMOFall

Friday, September 02, 2005

What if you threw a party and nobody blogged?

Imagine you are hosting a party and all the guests are invisible. You know they are in the room; there’s the occasional sound of chatter and ice clinking in glasses. You feel obligated to carry on a conversation, because you don’t want your guests to feel uncomfortable, or to simply leave. You keep talking, even though you are not sure if anyone is actually listening.

Blogging is like that. There’s a need to get some momentum going, so that more guests will start coming to the party. It’s a burden we’ve been feeling around here. We launched this blog several weeks ago, enthusiastically making posts, waiting for the response … well, we have received some comments, as you can see, but perhaps not what we would have imagined. (No, please don’t feel guilty, really).

This posting may be the blogging equivalent to the poem I remember someone trying to get away with in Mrs. Owens's high school English class, on the cleverly meta-topic of “I don’t know what to write about.” But the concern is valid: we’ve started questioning ourselves and our dedication to the blog. Should we forge on, in the hopes of fanning this little flicker into a real flame? Or, should we make some radical changes in direction, and write about something real, instead of blogging about topics like … blogging?

Catch up or ignore?

Okay, it was a busy week -- I'm sure it was for you too. It always seems that time just before a long weekend is when all of those last minute things come up - things that can't wait, things that need your attention, or... just things period.

We are at an important time in the project of developing a new site - basically the transition point between all of the planning and design and the point where all of that stuff needs to be put into action. In pushing with the team through to the other side lots of the regular stuff got neglected, not least of which  was posting to our blog.

What do you do when you get busy? Do you go back and take time to catch up on things that you didn't get to do or do you take the opportunity to cut out all of that stuff that you normally do but may not really have to do? I'm not sure where this blog fits into those two choices. I guess I couldn't really go back to fill in all of those days that we missed (at least not without anyone noticing.) Though, even though I suppose I don't really have to post, I like to and love to hear from all of you!!

Well, next week should be better. Looking forward to previewing some of the new site features & pages with you in the coming weeks!!

Friday, August 26, 2005

Continuing the RSS conversation

Just read a great post in Jeff Clavier's blog, "Software Only", where he also talks about the "technobable" problem for RSS adoption. This is definiately more food for thought for my earlier post.

I completely agree that simple language is essential, particularly for people who may only care about the outcome - receiving information when and where they need it  - rather than the process - RSS, R|mail, aggregators, etc. As Jeff puts it:

I think that the [Neilsen study] result might vary drastically based on the question being asked, and will venture that if you asked people open questions like “How do you access/read your favorite blogs” and “How do you bookmark a blog in order to remember it”, people would respond that they get new articles/headlines in MyYahoo or some other program that shows the latest changes – without having any idea of how these “changes” got there.

I couldn't agree more...

Technorati Tags: entrepreneur

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Spreading good ideas

Paul Allen, founder and managing partner with Infobase Ventures and serial growth entrepreneur, posts some interesting comments about entrepreneurs on his firm's blog.  Referring to himself  as "Paul Allen the Lesser," he says it's "great when entrepreneurs share successful tactics with each other."  We like to hear this because this idea is a big part of our entrepreneurship website's mission -- peer to peer knowledge sharing for entrepreneurs working hard to make their growth companies succeed.   

Technorati Tags: entrepreneur

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

People, People, People

In a meeting with my colleagues today, we talked about plans to develop a "pathway to growth" for innovative entrepreneurs.  Our new site and the pathway will be built around the six main elements of entrepreneurship - finance, human resources, operations, sales & marketing, products & services, operations, and the entrepreneur.  We have developed a strong and detailed set of plans and resources behind these elements for the new Web site.

But with all of those elements, we all agreed that THE important thing for starting or growing a business is having the right people - a top team.  In real estate, it's "location, location, location."  In entrepreneurship, it's "people, people, people."

We work with some of the world's leading top team experts for entrepreneurial growth and will have some of the best information and resources for you.  That said, we want to ensure we deliver it via the Web in a way that is most helpful to you.  There are literally thousands of resources in this area.

So, tell us where you have seen the best information, advice, tools or whatever to develop your top teams.  Are there articles, books, organizations, evaluation tools, etc. that have been key to the development of your top team and growth of your business?

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

RSS for busy entrepreneurs?

According to the Nooked – Influencer Survey 2005 92% of journalist, analysts and Bloggers are aware of RSS feeds, and are even demanding them. Forbes.com indicates that the business of RSS is growing (article summarized nicely at Pings).

Reading all of this, it seems like a no-brainer to have RSS feeds. I don’t really question the value of RSS. I really just wonder how much of it applies to busy entrepreneurs. Steve Rubel cautions that blog readers are not RSS readers according to a survey by Neilsen//NetRatings. And there is a great discussion about what’s wrong with RSS over at Dwight Silverman’s TechBlog.

So… What do you think as an entrepreneur? Is RSS useful? What explanation is needed related to RSS and syndication? Is some other consumption method better like podcasting?

Technorati Tags: RSS, entrepreneur

Friday, August 19, 2005

What’s in a name?

The name EntreWorld seems so 1996, which of course was when this site was launched. Everyone was thinking big about the internet back then, so this slightly grandiose name was perfectly in keeping with the time.

Name trends are subject to the fickleness of some as-of-yet-unexplained-by-science compartment of our shared unconsciousness. Why else, would an excellent name like Keith, “surname of a long line of Scottish earls” have peaked in popularity in the 1960s? (Gives me pause to think two cultured intellectuals like my parents were as influenced by fashion as everyone else).

If you’ve had a child, then you know the challenge of coming up with a name that is fresh, but not unfamiliar; is grounded in heritage, but is not going to be the same as five other kindergarteners. If you are trying to suck up to a rich relative, well then, forget all the rules.

For a while, we considered sticking with the name EntreWorld as a transitional element as we launched a new site for entrepreneurs. Less of a shock, plus the name EntreWorld has a fair amount of brand equity built up, not to mention a first-page result in Google, when you search for “entrepreneur.” But, we knew we planned on changing it at some point, to reinforce a new focus on growth entrepreneurs. When we started talking about time and money being put into marketing a name that would change six months down the line, it made more sense to come up with a new name now.

Naming is a serious business, and there are companies such as Igor, A Hundred Monkeys and Landor who charge serious cash to come up with names. Yes, that is what these naming companies named themselves. And companies like these come up with names like Agilent and Altria. (One of these is a spin off of Hewlett Packard; the other is the company selling cheese and tobacco products formerly known as Phillip Morris. Do you know which is which?) Salon magazine has a wonderful article about the name game from 1999, when businesses could do no wrong, even with silly names.

It’s not in our budget to spend $75,000 on a new name, so we’re using old-fashioned brain-storming, mainly exploring ideas around growth. I know one of the rules about brain-storming is not to make fun of anything anyone comes up with, but I can’t repress a laugh every time I say “Growthery.” We’ve gone around, trying to find the comfort zone between a functional name, that says what it is, and an evocative name, that would be more memorable. We also have to find a name that will balance with the Kauffman Foundation’s overall branding.

I’m hoping the new site’s many parents will be able find a name that makes everyone happy. In the meantime, you might as well put in your two cents worth.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Where Do You Get the Best Information?

I've enjoyed listening to Guy Kawasaki's presentations on starting and growing ventures. His most recent book, The Art of the Start, has interesting practical pointers for startup entrepreneurs who want to build lasting ventures. But Guy's recent book is one of many out there.

What books or articles have been most helpful to you in your entrepreneurial growth venture? We want to ensure that this evolving site includes the very best information for entrepreneurs who want to build lasting and significant businesses.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Podcast your elevator pitch

I met David Hornick of August Capital on Monday night at a cocktail party. I was surprised to learn that he has been blogging for two years now and has a wealth of posts on Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital and other interesting subjects. He encouraged me to read his blog, and it wasn't long before I came across something that I just had to post.

Turns out that both Fred Wilson and David are inviting entrepreneurs to submit  elevator pitches via a podcast. David's post has the details on how it works.

You can also listen to a podcast about sending podcast pitches to VCs at Greg Galant's Venture Voice.

 

Monday, October 10, 2005

Enterprise Software Dead?

In a guest post in Jeff Bussgang's blog, Chip Hazard, partner at IDG ventures,  disputes the assertions of the maturation, consolidation and eventual death of the enterprise software business.

Having spent several years in the IT department in one of those behemoths  that are the dream client of many enterprise software creators, I had found myself falling into the "enterprise software is dead" camp. We had incorporated all that we were going to incorporate, we certainly weren't going to buy anything from a startup, and we almost always opted for 'make' over 'buy' believing that anything out there couldn't scale enough, or would require such extreme customization to integrate with legacy systems that the real costs for buying something were often higher than making it ourselves.

My first clue that this experience may not really be typical was the DEMO conference that I attended last month. A full 20% of the hot new products demonstrated were in the Enterprise software and services market segment. I decided to review Chip's five themes & strategies to drive the creation of successful companies to this group of products. Given the results here, I think that Chip has definitely hit on something:

Chip Hazard's themes & strategies to drive the creation of successful companies in the enterprise software space (with the percentage of DEMO Conference products in this space using the strategy):

• Innovate to drive efficiency (69% of the DEMO conference products)
• Dominate a Niche (74% of products)
• Explore SaaS (software-as-a service) (38% of products)
• Consider Open Source (none of these products, though there were lots of non-enterprise software products at the conference that clearly used this strategy)
• Go Vertical (69% of products)

Hmmm... Maybe I should change my opinion on enterprise software being dead. There definitely seems to be plenty of room for companies to exist in this space. They still may not be right for my former employer, though lots of other companies definitely will see some interesting products for their organizations.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

EntreWorld Links Oct 3

Thursday, September 22, 2005

What keeps YOU up at night?

Last night on the red-eye back to NYC from LAX I embraced my insomnia and allowed my mind to wonder. I was reminded of a favorite question of mine and those of my business school cohort during our meetings and talks with company founders and top executives: "What keeps you up at night?" The answers were always interesting and intriguing and more than once completely surprising.

I've always found that understanding the questions and issues that others face brought clarity to my own challenges even if their questions didn't yet have an answer. In this spirit I am launching an occasional series of posts called "Up at Night". These posts will include excerpts from 15 minute interviews that I will have with various company founders and top executives that will consist of a single question, "What is keeping you up at night?"

This is your opportunity to add your night haunts to the conversation. If you are willing to be interviewed for this series please let me know your name, company (with URL if available), phone number and a couple of times that you would be available for a 15 minute interview. I'm assuming that most wouldn't want all of this info to be posted on a blog, so I suggest that you mail me instead. I'll get back to you to confirm a time.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

DEMOFall - Part 3

The second day of the DEMOFall 05 conference was great too. Below is my lists of Wednesday favorites to complement my list of my favorite products from Tuesday’s session. There really were tons of products that I could have put onto this list. I highly recommend checking out the DEMOFall 05 website to see all of the companies that presented along with descriptions of their new, hot products and videos of their presentations (click on “2005 DEMOFall” in the “Watch DEMO Videos” on the right side).

• Eptascape, Inc (EptaCam) - On average people are captured on video surveillance cameras 200x/day in NYC and 300x/day in London. Eptascape's camera allows for this data to be protected by masking out the personal features. If there ever is a security breach the video can be unlocked to reveal the personally identifiable data. As Chris Shipley put it, this camera actually makes us more secure by allowing security professionals to monitor behaviors instead of the way that people look.
• Local Matters, Inc (Destination Search) - Online searching for products is pretty easy if you are looking for products that are actually sold on the internet. But, what if you are looking for a store to visit? Local Matters' product allows you to search for stores that have the product that you are searching and even do comparisons of these stores.
• YackPack (YackPack) - What can be said about these guys? They are fun and their product rocks. I think that it is the only demo that brought tears to my eyes because of its emotional appeal. This is basically online discussions with voice-to-voice communication within a closed community. It could be a community of family, friends or colleagues, and you can "see" the person who is talking because everyone's picture is displayed right there. Even three-year-olds were in the YackPack.
• Glam Media, Inc. (Glam.com) - Less than 50% of women (compared to 84% of men) use the web to purchase items. This site combines the emotional aspects of shopping or looking at fashion magazines with the practical aspects of on-line purchasing. They have style quizzes, searches of items by designers or celebrities, and absolutely beautiful pages. It is the height of entertainment-based shopping. Now, where's that Luca dress that I've been coveting?
• VideoEgg, Inc (VideoEgg Publisher) - Super easy upload of universally accessible digital video published to the web. If you are thinking "big deal" I'm sure that you have never tried to post video to the web. Go ahead think about how you'd do it and then surf on over to VideoEgg's site and check out how easy it could be.

So sad that it's over, though really happy that I got to participate!!

Technorati Tags: DEMOFall

DEMOFall - Part 2

The first day of the DEMOFall 05 conference was lots of fun. Very energetic and filled with lots of great new products. In the afternoon we had a visit from the "DEMO Gods" who were messing with the internet access, though all ended fine and every company scheduled to present for the day was able to.

The hot question today at the conference is "What is your favorite product so far. Well, I have many favorites, and some really surprised me as being my favorites. Below are just a couple of the many great products that were presented the first day.

• Sykler Technology, Inc. (Skyler real-time data processing engine) - In my conference notes for these guys I only wrote the simple note, "These guys are going to be big!!" Basically they have an engine that can process massive amounts of data (100 million messages/sec) to provide real-time information processing. Their first application is for stock trading information, though there are lots of other applications too.
• Roku LLC (SoundBridge Wi-Fi Music System) - A simple dual-alarm clock radio with off-the-hook features. You can set "radio" presets to be AM, FM, Internet Radio or any combination of your digital music libraries in your home streamed to the radio over your home wireless network. What, you're not familiar with what internet radio stations are out there? That's okay, they have 100 of them built into the radio itself. This one definitely fits into that "gotta have it" category with me. They are even offering pre-sale discounts for people who order before they come out next month.
• U3 (U3 Platform for smart drive computing) - Another one in my "gotta have it" category. In fact, I did get one. I couldn't wait! This is a simple USB smart drive, though it does more than allow you to simply store files like an ordinary smart drive. This product allows you to store your entire personal workspace, applications, settings and all. Now I won't have to worry that I don't have my personal computer with me when I'm on the road. I can just carry it with me in my pocket including that personal application that I shouldn't be installing on my work computer. Woo hoo!
• Always On Wireless, Inc (WiFlyer+v) - when I saw this product I had visions of going into my Starbucks "office" with one of these little hubs and a landline phone for my conference calls. After talking with them I realized that it is so much more. Basically a little hub that combines a Wi-Fi router, VoIP adapter and modem to enable wireless data and VoIP connectivity over dial-up and broadband connections. The $12.95 monthly charge for all of those VoIP calls is making me re-think that decision to keep my landline!

I'll post after the afternoon session to let you know my favorites from today!!

Technorati Tags: DEMOFall

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

DEMOFall - Part 1

What fun. I've spent the day attending the DEMO conference - a two day event featuring ground-breaking launch presentations that showcase the most exciting innovations in the world of technology. I had the chance to take a look at about 30 product demonstrations today and will be looking at about the same number of others tomorrow. Check out the DEMO blog for live interactive blogging from the conference. Any posts that I make to that communal blog I'll also post to this one!! 

John Barnhill, CEO & Founder of Pie (a company with a cool product that allows home networking to be "easy as Pie") summed up what I think of being the key difference about this conference over others. He relayed a story to me about the practice session for his on-stage, 6-min demo. During this time one of the conference organizers received a call and told the caller that he couldn't talk because he was "with the client". John relayed to me during his work of creating Pie a conference is usually not where he is called "the client".

This conference is really all about the entrepreneurs, their companies and their products. To find out a bit more about it check out Greg Galant's Venture Voice for a great podcast intro to the conference including an interview with Chris Shipley, executive producer and driving force of the conference, and an interview with the founders of  VideoEgg, one of the conference demonstrators.

Technorati Tags: DEMOFall

Friday, September 02, 2005

What if you threw a party and nobody blogged?

Imagine you are hosting a party and all the guests are invisible. You know they are in the room; there’s the occasional sound of chatter and ice clinking in glasses. You feel obligated to carry on a conversation, because you don’t want your guests to feel uncomfortable, or to simply leave. You keep talking, even though you are not sure if anyone is actually listening.

Blogging is like that. There’s a need to get some momentum going, so that more guests will start coming to the party. It’s a burden we’ve been feeling around here. We launched this blog several weeks ago, enthusiastically making posts, waiting for the response … well, we have received some comments, as you can see, but perhaps not what we would have imagined. (No, please don’t feel guilty, really).

This posting may be the blogging equivalent to the poem I remember someone trying to get away with in Mrs. Owens's high school English class, on the cleverly meta-topic of “I don’t know what to write about.” But the concern is valid: we’ve started questioning ourselves and our dedication to the blog. Should we forge on, in the hopes of fanning this little flicker into a real flame? Or, should we make some radical changes in direction, and write about something real, instead of blogging about topics like … blogging?

Catch up or ignore?

Okay, it was a busy week -- I'm sure it was for you too. It always seems that time just before a long weekend is when all of those last minute things come up - things that can't wait, things that need your attention, or... just things period.

We are at an important time in the project of developing a new site - basically the transition point between all of the planning and design and the point where all of that stuff needs to be put into action. In pushing with the team through to the other side lots of the regular stuff got neglected, not least of which  was posting to our blog.

What do you do when you get busy? Do you go back and take time to catch up on things that you didn't get to do or do you take the opportunity to cut out all of that stuff that you normally do but may not really have to do? I'm not sure where this blog fits into those two choices. I guess I couldn't really go back to fill in all of those days that we missed (at least not without anyone noticing.) Though, even though I suppose I don't really have to post, I like to and love to hear from all of you!!

Well, next week should be better. Looking forward to previewing some of the new site features & pages with you in the coming weeks!!

Friday, August 26, 2005

Continuing the RSS conversation

Just read a great post in Jeff Clavier's blog, "Software Only", where he also talks about the "technobable" problem for RSS adoption. This is definiately more food for thought for my earlier post.

I completely agree that simple language is essential, particularly for people who may only care about the outcome - receiving information when and where they need it  - rather than the process - RSS, R|mail, aggregators, etc. As Jeff puts it:

I think that the [Neilsen study] result might vary drastically based on the question being asked, and will venture that if you asked people open questions like “How do you access/read your favorite blogs” and “How do you bookmark a blog in order to remember it”, people would respond that they get new articles/headlines in MyYahoo or some other program that shows the latest changes – without having any idea of how these “changes” got there.

I couldn't agree more...

Technorati Tags: entrepreneur

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Spreading good ideas

Paul Allen, founder and managing partner with Infobase Ventures and serial growth entrepreneur, posts some interesting comments about entrepreneurs on his firm's blog.  Referring to himself  as "Paul Allen the Lesser," he says it's "great when entrepreneurs share successful tactics with each other."  We like to hear this because this idea is a big part of our entrepreneurship website's mission -- peer to peer knowledge sharing for entrepreneurs working hard to make their growth companies succeed.   

Technorati Tags: entrepreneur

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

People, People, People

In a meeting with my colleagues today, we talked about plans to develop a "pathway to growth" for innovative entrepreneurs.  Our new site and the pathway will be built around the six main elements of entrepreneurship - finance, human resources, operations, sales & marketing, products & services, operations, and the entrepreneur.  We have developed a strong and detailed set of plans and resources behind these elements for the new Web site.

But with all of those elements, we all agreed that THE important thing for starting or growing a business is having the right people - a top team.  In real estate, it's "location, location, location."  In entrepreneurship, it's "people, people, people."

We work with some of the world's leading top team experts for entrepreneurial growth and will have some of the best information and resources for you.  That said, we want to ensure we deliver it via the Web in a way that is most helpful to you.  There are literally thousands of resources in this area.

So, tell us where you have seen the best information, advice, tools or whatever to develop your top teams.  Are there articles, books, organizations, evaluation tools, etc. that have been key to the development of your top team and growth of your business?

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

RSS for busy entrepreneurs?

According to the Nooked – Influencer Survey 2005 92% of journalist, analysts and Bloggers are aware of RSS feeds, and are even demanding them. Forbes.com indicates that the business of RSS is growing (article summarized nicely at Pings).

Reading all of this, it seems like a no-brainer to have RSS feeds. I don’t really question the value of RSS. I really just wonder how much of it applies to busy entrepreneurs. Steve Rubel cautions that blog readers are not RSS readers according to a survey by Neilsen//NetRatings. And there is a great discussion about what’s wrong with RSS over at Dwight Silverman’s TechBlog.

So… What do you think as an entrepreneur? Is RSS useful? What explanation is needed related to RSS and syndication? Is some other consumption method better like podcasting?

Technorati Tags: RSS, entrepreneur

Friday, August 19, 2005

What’s in a name?

The name EntreWorld seems so 1996, which of course was when this site was launched. Everyone was thinking big about the internet back then, so this slightly grandiose name was perfectly in keeping with the time.

Name trends are subject to the fickleness of some as-of-yet-unexplained-by-science compartment of our shared unconsciousness. Why else, would an excellent name like Keith, “surname of a long line of Scottish earls” have peaked in popularity in the 1960s? (Gives me pause to think two cultured intellectuals like my parents were as influenced by fashion as everyone else).

If you’ve had a child, then you know the challenge of coming up with a name that is fresh, but not unfamiliar; is grounded in heritage, but is not going to be the same as five other kindergarteners. If you are trying to suck up to a rich relative, well then, forget all the rules.

For a while, we considered sticking with the name EntreWorld as a transitional element as we launched a new site for entrepreneurs. Less of a shock, plus the name EntreWorld has a fair amount of brand equity built up, not to mention a first-page result in Google, when you search for “entrepreneur.” But, we knew we planned on changing it at some point, to reinforce a new focus on growth entrepreneurs. When we started talking about time and money being put into marketing a name that would change six months down the line, it made more sense to come up with a new name now.

Naming is a serious business, and there are companies such as Igor, A Hundred Monkeys and Landor who charge serious cash to come up with names. Yes, that is what these naming companies named themselves. And companies like these come up with names like Agilent and Altria. (One of these is a spin off of Hewlett Packard; the other is the company selling cheese and tobacco products formerly known as Phillip Morris. Do you know which is which?) Salon magazine has a wonderful article about the name game from 1999, when businesses could do no wrong, even with silly names.

It’s not in our budget to spend $75,000 on a new name, so we’re using old-fashioned brain-storming, mainly exploring ideas around growth. I know one of the rules about brain-storming is not to make fun of anything anyone comes up with, but I can’t repress a laugh every time I say “Growthery.” We’ve gone around, trying to find the comfort zone between a functional name, that says what it is, and an evocative name, that would be more memorable. We also have to find a name that will balance with the Kauffman Foundation’s overall branding.

I’m hoping the new site’s many parents will be able find a name that makes everyone happy. In the meantime, you might as well put in your two cents worth.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Where Do You Get the Best Information?

I've enjoyed listening to Guy Kawasaki's presentations on starting and growing ventures. His most recent book, The Art of the Start, has interesting practical pointers for startup entrepreneurs who want to build lasting ventures. But Guy's recent book is one of many out there.

What books or articles have been most helpful to you in your entrepreneurial growth venture? We want to ensure that this evolving site includes the very best information for entrepreneurs who want to build lasting and significant businesses.

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