Unto The Breach! » Entrepreneurialism

Working with TechStars

Tom — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:11:36 +0000

Over the last few years, TechStars has indirectly touched my life in many ways: I was CEO of IntenseDebate, a TechStars graduate; I have invested in a few TechStars companies; I have met some incredibly great entrepreneurs that I continue to mentor and interact with years after the first introduction; I have met a large number of other mentors, and been mentored by many of them; and I have become part of a vibrant community of entrepreneurialism. The impact on me has been profound.

The demonstration of the power of a vibrant entrepreneurial community was not lost upon the rest of the world, either. As news of TechStars, its results, and its community-transforming effects spread around the world, TechStars’ founder David Cohen began to get large numbers of inquiries asking if TechStars could help create something similar in their community.

At the end of last year, David asked if I would help lead the effort to help grow other entrepreneurial communities. I thought about it briefly before giving a resounding “yes!” answer. Here’s why I jumped at the opportunity:

I’m a believer in the power of TechStars and the value it creates. I’ve seen it first hand, and talked to a lot of people that I respect that have also seen it.

The people involved with TechStars are some of my favorite people. It’s fun, stimulating, and rewarding to work with these folks.

The people outside of TechStars that I’ll be helping are some of my favorite types of people: they’re entrepreneurs, both young (mentees) and experienced (mentors). I’ll get to be both student and teacher, often at the same time and from the same person.

I believe deeply in the cause. I’ll go more deeply into this in a future post, but the short version is that I believe that in the long run, enabling people to be more able to create more value is the best way to improve society. From a macro-economic perspective, the world would be far better off if we were all better entrepreneurs.

Rarely in my career have so many things that I’m passionate about been so coincident in a single job, and I’m very excited about this opportunity!

Bring on the entrepreneurs!

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Identifying and Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Tom — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:01:18 +0000

Here’s the deck for the talk I gave last night for WinterInTheBunker. There were lots of good questions, and some comparisons and contrasts to Paul Berberian’s excellent talk on the same subject last week.

Evaulating Business Opportunities

View more presentations from Tom Keller.

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Whatever it is, begin it now…and enter the Cave of Pain!

Tom — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:51:32 +0000

“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decisions, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”
- Goethe

Never mind that this quote might not actually belong to Goethe…it is nevertheless the spirit with which I entered the Firecracker 50.

I’ve done this event for the last 2 years, and use it as a warm-up for the Laramie Enduro. I always register in the winter, well before serious training is underway., to avoid getting shut out because of a sell out. This year, it was only months later, in May, that I realized how uncommitted I was to preparing for this race, and I started looking for a partner so I’d only have to do ½ of the distance. Or, perhaps I’d sell my entry and bag out entirely.

A few days before the race, a friend of mine, damn him to hell, encouraged me – in the spirit of Goethe’s above quote – to just go for it. Go for it, he said, and you’ll have a ball! He was right, I erroneously thought, and I committed to do the race solo.

I noticed Goethe at work: instead of ambivalence, there was focus. I was not afraid, I was excited. I paid attention to my nutrition, rest, and sleep. I reviewed old race notes. I gained confidence: I was going to kick some ass. Commitment was cool.

The first 25 mile lap was good. I completed it in 2 hours 50 minutes, 10 minutes faster than my previous best. This was especially remarkable since I’d only put in about 10 hours on my mountain bike all season.

However, I knew I was in trouble, as not only had I not been training much, but also I’d thrown up a bit during the lap and just couldn’t force any nutrition down. Nutrition is the cornerstone of any endurance performance. And sure enough, I bonked at the beginning of the second lap, and spent the next three hours suffering. I thought only about some variation of one of the following themes: “I’m so bonked”; “Damn this is hard”; “I should just quit”; “If I were going any slower I’d be going backwards”. Not once on the second lap did a positive thought such as “this is fun” or “I feel strong” or “this sure is a pretty ride” enter into my head.

I’ve never been deeper into or more alone in the Cave of Pain. The second lap was the hardest 4 hours – yes 4 hours! – I’ve ever spent on a bike.

Perseverance is good, but it’s not so good to be the last one on a sinking ship. The morning after, I’m not sure if I’m a stud or an idiot for finishing.

In any case, for the rest of the weekend, I’m committing myself to eating pizza and ice cream. Bring it on, Mr. Goethe.

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What I've been reading…

Tom — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:11:42 +0000

Lots of interesting reading going on at my house these days…here’s a few interesting snippets:

There aren’t enough hours in the day, and I’m always looking to improve how I spend my time. Here’s Ben Cashnocha’s “information diet”/routine.

I love being an entrepreneur – the challenges and the rewards fit my risk profile and personality. But it’s not a lifestyle for everybody. Here’s a great writeup about common entrepreneurial lifestyle struggles.

We all know that Nancy Pelosi has no integrity…and she’s been caught, on record, lying.

There’s a famous 70-year long longitudinal study of Harvard men, called the Harvard Study of Adult Development. It’s a fascinating study because such studies are rare, and this one was conducted extremely thoroughly. Here’s one researcher’s attempt to ferret out of the data just What Makes us Happy – it’s very interesting reading.

I always thought of Roger Ebert as simply a movie critic. But apparently there’s quite a bit more to him: here’s an excellent short essay by him on death, and life. Wow.

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Sam Zell on Entrepreneurialism

Tom — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:52:47 +0000

Yesterday I had the good fortune to see Sam Zell talk. His wisdom, intelligence, and incisiveness, delivered more directly than most are capable of, is refreshing and inspiring.

I liked his comments on what makes a good entrepreneur:

The ability to identify problems and come up with a solution. It’s an “innate gene”: it’s an unescapable, always-present way of life.
Failure cannot be part of an entrepreneur’s vocabulary; even when it is unjustified, entrepreneurs are always confident.

Subsequently, Mr. Zell identified what separates good entrepreneurs from bad: the ability to execute. He called the ability to execute the most “underrated driver” of successful businesses.

More here and here.

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Business Development at Twitter

Tom — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:26:07 +0000

Twitter is hiring a BizDev person.

Given that:

Twitter’s buzz is approaching the same stratosphere as Facebooks’;
Bloggers’ number one pastime these days is pontificating what Twitter’s business model is/will/should be;
The optimal business model for Twitter remains unclear;
Growth is exploding and that Twitter is rapidly becoming mainstream, wherein both people and companies are relying on it every day as an integral part of their commercial communications;

It is hard to imagine a more fun and challenging job! The stakes are big, the way uncertain…this is such cool opportunity that I couldn’t help but spend my lunch hour thinking about what I think Twitter BizDev should do.

If I were Twitter BizDev, here is how I would start:

Explore charging for commercial use of the service. For example, charge Dell to use the service; perhaps fixed costs for reserving a name, and variable costs for each tweet sent or read by followers. This is the most obvious revenue source, but it is also filled with landmines: introducing the friction of not being a costless system is hazardous to the explosive growth of Twitter and its “information wants to be free” culture, so such commercialization must be done cautiously and subtly.
Continue to develop paid placement. What Twitter has done to date (recommend paid-placement followees) is perhaps just proof of concept. I can imagine very sophisticated follow recommendations, which usually would need to be voluntarily pulled by the user from Twitter, but could also very occasionally be pushed by Twitter. For example, if I ever tweet about pasta, Twitter has the opportunity to make me aware of time-sensitive and geo-proximal restaurant tweeters and tweets.
Continue developing and offering free non-commercial use of a comprehensive API. Do everything possible to continue the explosive growth of the use of the API. Selectively begin to charge for commercial use of the API: extract only a small portion of the rent for a few of the most profitable users of the API. Do this slowly and un-aggressively as per above.
Explore partnerships with anybody who realizes revenue from text messages. The adoption of Twitter increases those firms’ revenue, and there is no reason why Twitter shouldn’t attempt to capture some of that. I recognize that in many of those situations, Twitter has little leverage, so even though it is creating revenue for these companies, it will have a tough time capturing any portion of it. Perhaps there are ways to create leverage?
Search, baby! Twitter is rapidly becoming the ultimate source of data for real time searches, and it is this data which is which is the most exciting and begets Twitter being used in the same sentence as Google. It is why Google and Microsoft are going head-to-head in their rumored fight over acquiring Twitter. Assuming Twitter chooses not to sell just yet, there are 2 tactics for monetizing search that should start to be developed:
- Facilitate commercial 3rd party exploitation of the crown jewels, by allowing Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, OneRiot, Lijit, et al to fully index tweets, and charge them for use.
- Develop an enterprise market awareness subscription business: for example, Dell could subscribe to a daily Dell report.

All of these directions must be explored with a light touch, learning as much as possible with each deal. This is because, as mentioned above, it is paramount that nothing is done to dampen Twitter’s explosive growth. Secondly, the perspective must be one of a very thin haircut across a broad audience: the network effects are so dominant for Twitter that pricing any entity out of the market really diminishes the value of the entire ecosphere (as well as enables competitors). There is a lot of organizational learning that must happen not just around how to maximize revenue, but also about what the optimal mix of revenue and resulting friction is.

If you were Twitter BizDev, what would you do?

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Entrepreneurial Batting Averages

Tom — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:27:02 +0000

My friend Brad Feld often talks about the important and constructive role that failure has in the entrepreneurial process.

Today’s post-du-jour comes from Will Price, whose mentor has a great perspective on failure. The money quote:

“…the key is to get up in the that batter’s box and take a swing. And all you have to do is hit one single, a couple of doubles, and an occasional homerun out of every 10 at-bats and you’re going to be the best hitter or best leader around.” – John Donahoe, CEO eBay

Identifying and Evaluating Entrepreneurial Opportunities Here’s the deck for the talk I gave last night...

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More on IPTV

Tom — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:46:39 +0000

Following on the heels of my post yesterday about Internet TV:

The NYT has an interesting summary of the discussions about IPTV at The Cable Show last week.

Also, in the NYT’s technology section, is an interesting article about Internet-enabled STB’s.

Change is a comin’ to the cable industry.

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The Entrepreneur's Creed

Tom — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:28:52 +0000

The Entrepreneur’s Creed

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon – if I can. I seek opportunity – not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk, to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole; I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of Utopia.

I will not trade my freedom for beneficence, nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master, nor bend to any threat.

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid; to think and act for myself, to enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say:

This, with my family and friends, I have done. All this is what it means to be an entrepreneur.

Author unknown, via Dave Asprey.

(This is my third reblog of a Ben Casnocha post. Not only do I like what he writes, but I like what he reads, too!)

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15 Things That Bob Sutton Believes (and I do too)

Tom — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:20:06 +0000

Sometimes the best management is no management at all — first do no harm!
Indifference is as important as passion.
In organizational life, you can have influence over others or you can have freedom from others, but you can’t have both at the same time.
Saying smart things and giving smart answers are important. Learning to listen to others and to ask smart questions is more important.
Learn how to fight as if you are right and listen as if you are wrong: It helps you develop strong opinions that are weakly held.
You get what you expect from people. This is especially true when it comes to selfish behavior; unvarnished self-interest is a learned social norm, not an unwavering feature of human behavior.
Getting a little power can turn you into an insensitive self-centered jerk.
Avoid pompous jerks whenever possible. They not only can make you feel bad about yourself, chances are that you will eventually start acting like them.
The best test of a person’s character is how he or she treats those with less power.
The best single question for testing an organization’s character is: What happens when people make mistakes?
The best people and organizations have the attitude of wisdom: The courage to act on what they know right now and the humility to change course when they find better evidence.
The quest for management magic and breakthrough ideas is overrated; being a master of the obvious is underrated.
Err on the side of optimism and positive energy in all things.
It is good to ask yourself, do I have enough? Do you really need more money, power, prestige, or stuff?
Jim Maloney is right: Work is an overrated activity.

Hat tip to Ben Casnocha, whose blog is emerging as one of my favorites.

Microsoft caught acting like Microsoft, 2009 version (aka Silverlight) TechCrunch has a nice post about the history and drivers...

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