"The idea part is cheap. Try to think of an idea that’s actually worth something on its own. “I wish I’d thought up the web browser.” Bullshit. The web browser had been thought up at least twenty years before those high-energy frogs coded one up on NeXTstep (c.f. Dynabook, 1968). It was the actual shipping product they wrote that caused the internet revolution, not the idea."

"I've found there are two types of thoughts especially worth avoiding—thoughts like the Nile Perch in the way they push out more interesting ideas. One I've already mentioned: thoughts about money. Getting money is almost by definition an attention sink. The other is disputes. These too are engaging in the wrong way: they have the same velcro-like shape as genuinely interesting ideas, but without the substance. So avoid disputes if you want to get real work done."

"Think of it this way: if having your development team work this way through sprints, why not board notes? Meeting every 6-8 weeks with no interim communication is like the waterfall software development process!"

"I am going to take a different perspective on the relation between young firms and job creation, however. I want to explain its mathematical inevitability, and I’m going to do that using the probabilistic idea of the drunkard’s walk."

"When paper entrepreneurs look for solutions to America’s declining productivity and international competitiveness, they come up with paper remedies to stimulate large-scale capital investment: accelerated depreciation, tax credits, government subsidies, relaxation of antitrust laws.

Product entrepreneurs focus on techniques for improving output: better quality controls, improved labor-management relations, more effective incentives for managers and employees, more aggressive marketing and sales.

If we are to increase the economic pie, we will need to redress the balance of entrepreneurial effort. Which strategies will stimulate more paper, and which more product? "

"This leads me to something else that I always find hard to articulate: the ROI of IndyHall, or even coworking in general.

We’ve been running IndyHall for nearly 3 years as a business for a reason, and a profitable one at that. But the metrics for ROI aren’t salient, since most of the investment has been in human, knowledge, and time capital, and the return doesn’t show up on our balance sheet. As such, Geoff and I don’t take a draw, at least not in terms of cash…because that’s not what’s we’ve invested. If there was a balance sheet for the social capital we’ve invested and seen in return, though, and we had metrics for it, we’d be able to far better express and share what we’ve accomplished."

“… these spaces have been shown to make significant contributions to the energy and robustness of the local entrepreneurial environment, and have become an increasingly common way for cities to promote themselves as supportive of the new breed of entrepreneurial venture.”

"IndieVest Pictures evaluates vast numbers of packaged feature film projects and scripts developed by well-known filmmakers and industry professionals. Those projects that we believe are truly unique and compelling are selected for further development by IndieVest Pictures. Of these, only the very best are ultimately admitted into the Premiere Portfolio.

As an IndieVest Member, you’ll gain ‘first look’ access to the Premiere Portfolio, and be able to view all the independent feature films under development by IndieVest Pictures."

"PR is about managing media and analyst relations. A good PR company helps manage messaging and positioning targeted at the media. PR should generate interest from relevant trade magazines, blogs, editors, award bodies, analysts, etc. The goal is increase knowledge of your company and products among customers, industry experts, investors, etc. Specific PR campaigns should have more concrete objectives."

"Marketing feels daunting because you are being shown a dozen yellow brick roads that weave off gloriously into the colorful horizon. That and the promise that the chosen path is flowering with ROI poppies. Walk forward in your customer’s shoes from before purchase; from pre-realization. How do you get to you?"

"His startup recently got sued for patent infringement by a company that independently developed a product that performs a vaguely similar function. This other company's product is much less sophisticated, and their user-facing site is an ugly, user-hostile pile of crap. The term "search arbitrage" would be a kind word to apply to this other company's product. And there is absolutely no sense in which my friend's work builds on any of this other company's technology.

Now, my friend and his partner have consulted multiple IP lawyers and they've said, "Yep, the law is probably on your side." They have also said, "You're still screwed." The trial would take forever, the legal fees would be ruinous, and in the meantime nobody will invest in a company which has a litigation cloud hanging over it."

"However, if this is not done immediately, my group of startup CEOs and angel investors will begin targeting specific groups for elimination.
We will launch competing, fee-free events directly opposite your events. We will encourage angels investors, service providers and startups to boycott your events. You may even find our street teams outside your events handing out flyers.

This isn’t a joke and this is a threat: stop charging startup companies to present or we will do everything we can to put you out of business with a competing, free option."

"The reason the internet is such a home to wow business models is that it's easier to create a network here than any other time in history."

"Crowd-sourcing as a form of financing can range from syndicating many micro-investments to commissioning films by pitching the public in an online forum.

Here are a few companies RWW profiles in its article:"

"A group of student entrepreneurs has opened a small-business incubator in the basement of a downtown Ann Arbor building. They'll spend the summer sharing space, equipment and ideas.

The incubator, called the TechArb, hosts 30 students running 10 different start-ups. The space came together with the help of Ann Arbor venture capital firm RPM Ventures, the University of Michigan College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship, and a new student-run entrepreneurial organization on campus, Maize Ventures."

'The study, "The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom," found that several facts have emerged in the course of Kauffman Foundation research that indicate the United States might be on the cusp of an entrepreneurship boom—not in spite of an aging population but because of it. These factors include the shifting age distribution of the country, the continued decline of lifetime employment, the experience and tacit knowledge such employees carry with them, and the effects of the 2008-2009 recession on established sectors of the economy. The study follows research from Duke University's Vivek Wadhwa, also published by the Foundation, which found that the average age of U.S.-born technology founders when they started their companies was 39.'

"As we all, ahem, know, entrepreneurs are callow twenty-somethings. Except, as Dane shows, that isn't true. Building, in part, on some research by another Kauffman colleague, Vivek Wadhwa, he shows that entrepreneurs' average age skew considerably older than is accepted wisdom."

"Today began the first in a series of meetings to discuss the possibility of creating a Kitchen Incubator in the Washington Street Education Center. This plan would take advantage of the existing cafeteria kitchen space by repurposing it for local entrepreneurs. As this was an initial brainstorming meeting specific details were not discussed rather a broad range of topics related to the success or failure of this new venture. The discussion was organized yet still very open and conducive for creative thoughts thanks to the presenting team of Victoria Bennett and Krissa Rumsey, of Washtenaw Community College."

"Spending your days doing grunt work for people who are smarter than you. Obsessing over their mood and personal problems. Turning down all opportunities to take credit or get attention so you can continue to work as a servant. Does this really sound like a job you want?

Probably not. Few people are cut out for it. It’s really hard. It’s incredibly stressful. It’s not at all glamorous.

But it’s vitally important. A team without a manager is doomed to be an ineffective team. So if you can’t do it, find somebody else."

"You might think that with the economy crashing, the free-labor business model would be crashing, too. Will people continue to invest in their personal brands during hard times? Gould is betting they will. Between investor visits during a late November trip to New York, he sips a soy latte and speculates. During the downturn, he says, firings are sapping loyalty to companies and steering people toward goals of self-sufficiency. In Gould's acerbic phrasing: "The only person I can rely on not to screw me—hopefully—is myself."

Beyond brand-hungry strivers, masses of free laborers continue to toil without ever seeing a payday, or even angling for one. Many find compensation in currencies that predate the market economy. These include winning praise from peers, earning an exalted place within a community, scoring thrills from winning, and finding satisfaction in helping others."

Noted. Terry is an old colleague of mine (and Nelson Minar's) from Santa Fe

"But it comes at a price. When the entrepreneur returns to the VC, an epic battle ensues over valuations. In a climate of fear, the power pendulum swings back to the VCs. The VC knows that an entrepreneur won’t be as likely to get money elsewhere, so he plays hardball. The entrepreneur is more ready to cave in on the valuation. That means when a VC gives the entrepreneur money, the VC can claim more ownership of the company with a given amount of investment (because the company is worth less.) Tension rises, and boardroom fights begin. I saw it all unfold last time, when I started covering venture capital in 2001."

This is what redisintermediation sounds like.

µphilanthropy