Gwin Scott

Simplicity Simplicity Simplicity

Maybe Ive been reading too much Thoreau and/or Richard Hamming, but I think it is important that we dont get 'frittered away in details' (thoreau) in our daily work and personal lives....and try to figure out ways to simplify things in all that we do. Getting drowned in the day to day seemingly unimportant tasks often tends to cloud the big picture of where we are heading. Hamming really hit the mark on focusing on work that was significant:

In order to get at you individually, I must talk in the first person. I have to get you to drop modesty and say to yourself, ``Yes, I would like to do first-class work.'' Our society frowns on people who set out to do really good work. You're not supposed to; luck is supposed to descend on you and you do great things by chance. Well, that's a kind of dumb thing to say. I say, why shouldn't you set out to do something significant. You don't have to tell other people, but shouldn't you say to yourself, ``Yes, I would like to do something significant.''

Hamming also allocated 10% of his time to trying to understand bigger problems in his field and esp on what is and isnt important. For years he and a group would meet on Fri afternoons and think--'great thoughts only' on what direction their lives were taking.

Hopefully we are not doing trivial work and/or working on the wrong priorities in our daily lives..Reassessing things on a regular basis is something we could all be more cognizant of....

TTDC Conference

I just attended the Tennessee Innovation Conference in nashville last week that the TN Technology Development Corp sponsored which is lead by my friend eric cromwell. The purpose of this org is really to help advance the competitiveness agenda throughout the state of TN by formally bringing a coalition of entrepreneurs, researchers, vc's, and govt leaders together. specifically the 3 main goals are to 1)deepen the R & D and commercialization base in TN, 2)accelerate entrepreneurship, and 3)increase access to risk capital.

hopefully by having statewide cohesion amongst all the partners that that will yield better economic returns for the state and to help fill some necessary gaps, but we cant be naive to think that this will just happen overnight. this process will take several years to come up with quantifiable results, and many of the stakeholders have to be hyper committed to their own local domains in order to make a difference. it was a good first step in getting some viable attendees come, that can in fact make an impact.

some of this might sound to be overly general, but there are specific organizations that we involved that will help facilitate/rollout these objectives in hopes of creating a multiplier effect on early stage development and funding. Let me know if youd like to hear more. check out their whitepaper too at    TTDC.

An Atlanta perspective on startups

Jeff haynie of appcelerator is frustrated with atlanta and is moving to mountain view. In his compelling analysis he basically states that the VC community in atl isnt very startup centric or focused or even understanding of the entrepreneurial startup life and challenges. I commend him for doing something about it and moving. His org is an open source platform for building rich web apps and has thousands of developers who are making contributions on a regular basis. It appears that there is an aversion to risk and that many VC's want to see more revenues and sustainability bf committing funds to a company. I dont blame them and if that is their calling then stick with it. Jeff complains that there arent any real early stage funds in atl that are helping incubate new ideas/concepts/ and companies. I mean this is extremely risky money...BUT it is needed to help build the right entrepreneurial community.

His solution is to have a fund that invests in a bunch of smaller deals aka a micro VC. perhaps it is a cultural thing where only the big markets ie silicon valley/boston/ny can support, as there arent enough small deals to support...something that memphis can relate to as well. i do like his suggestions on how to help the situation which of course wont happen overnight:

--build a better base of entrepreneurs/angels/risk capital

--deals will fail, but encourage those same people to try again and not give up

--build an ecosystem around startups ie all those community centric events ie startup weekend, barcamp, investment forums, user group forums, etc

--entrepreneurs must give back--via checks and mentoring. think boulder where they have an org where startups give back a percentage of profits...after a liquidity event

-cultural shift---a better corporate acquisition mentality

Take a look at his blog introspection on what the issues are, as i think that many cities can probably relate to this and assess how to improve their own environments.

Sarah lacy article in Commercial Appeal

Thx to the commercial appeal and mr dowd for a great segment on the sarah lacy event here at emergememphis thurs night. a very descriptive article that did a good job of summing up the scene here.:sarahlacy article this was an excellent entrepreneurial community building event that brought a lot of interesting folks together in a lot of various industries. 

Sarah Lacy Event

Last night, over 100 memphis based entrepreneurs got a chance to meet and hear, my new favorite friend, sarah lacy, who was back here in her hometown to promote her latest book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good. EmergeMemphis and LaunchMemphis hosted the event that the founders of LaunchMemphis organized. Sarah is a dynamic and totally plugged in personality/reporter in silicon valley and has firsthand seen some of the inner workings of the founders of paypal, facebook, ning, slide, digg to name a few...all known names in the web 2.0 world. sarah, it appears from the book, has done a great job of really getting to know all these entrepreneurial personalities and has developed a trust that has been the content foundation for the book. i look forward to keeping in contact with sarah and in hearing her stories and how what has been created out of the valley might be able to be learned/replicated/and differentiated here in memphis....as we need to continue to have our own success stories and let those be the springboard to other companies being launched.

Slideshare

i just came across a cool site that is an aggregated search for ppt's, slideshare www.slideshare.com it is very informational and great that you can search by topic on whatever subject you are looking for. the best examples are where the full audio is embedded vs just the ppt itself. now, no more shows!  maybe a potential youtube acquisition.

Spynnr Wins

Startup Weekend www.startupweekend.com occured this past weekend in Memphis and there was no surprise in seeing firsthand what was accomplished. Having 100 entrepreneurs of all business disciplines come together and actually create a company was an impressive feat. The winning idea was Spynnr www.spynnr.com ...a Facebook app for sports enthusiasts which manages the scheduling of games in local areas as well as rates individual performance levels by player. Im hopeful that the company will take off as there are others already in this space...which helps with validation and demand..

There were a lot of other great ideas that were brought forth and Im looking forward to seeing some of these ideas be further evaluated and cultivated into hopefully something more than just an idea. Sustainability will be the next opportunity/challenge of all the great stuff that came out of this weekend and im greatly encouraged that several other noteworthy startups will be launched in due time. mentors and angels be on the alert!

Congrats to Eric Mathews and the founding team http://www.launchmemphis.com/about/ for making this happen...as there is a lot more to do in keeping and building on the momentum that has been created!!

Launch Memphis

The "entrepreneurial momentum" continues to make an impact in memphis with the recently announced Launch Memphis by eric mathews and other founders. Here is the official description of what it is all about:

"LaunchMemphis was established by Memphis area leaders to grow an entrepreneurial community. By undertaking a series of events throughout the year all designed to bring focus to entrepreneurial activities in Memphis, we hope to deliver new technology business startups to our economy."

As a result of the initial success of Start-up Weekend, it was prudently decided that there needed to be other events formed around this same time that cover the full vertical gamet to maximize opportunities with: networking, idea exchange, education for startups, and a seed-venture forum so that this community is further cultivated and promoted. it all makes a lot of sense and efforts are underway to promote this nationally.

Check it out and here are a few of the links for anyone interested who wants to participate:

LaunchMemphis

Tech Fuel Networking

Investment Forum

Start-up Weekend

Memphis has won!!!  www.startupweekend.com

Andrew Hyde's, Startup Weekend, is coming to Memphis on May 30th, 31st and June 1st!  What is this all about?  It is basically taking 1 weekend and starting a company with a group of local entrepreneurs who are committed enough and fit the right background to make 'launching' a company a reality. Equity is involved and the secret is to come up with a viable idea that is sustainable and fulfills a real technology need. Greater details to come, as it will be important to get the word out for those interested.

Im excited about this, as the voting talley really became a viral thing and Memphis rallied behind it!!

Thinking like Patagonia

Yvon Chouinard is both a legend and a visionary in what he has created with Patagonia. He really has broken most of the rules and, not only survived, but won and continues to win. He does things on his own terms and always tried to 'distance himself as far as possible from those pasty-faced corpses in suits that he saw in airline magazine ads.' Im humored too by his analogy of the entrepreneur who he compares to the juvenile delinquent--who says with his actions, "This sucks. Im going to do my own thing"

 

I really got a lot out of his book, Let My People Go Surfing  http://www.amazon.com/Let-People-Surfing-Education-Businessman/dp/B000YFE8FO/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203002001&sr=1-1 and here are a few of my favorites parts of it which im sure a lot of you can relate to:

--Zen archery--forget about the goal of hitting the bull's-eye and focus on all the individual movements involved in shooting an arrow. Practice your stance, reach back and smoothly pull an arrow out of the quiver, notch it on the string, control breathing and then let the arrow release itself. If you have perfected all the elements, then the center of the target is yours. Just like in an entrepreneurial setting--concentrate on the process. The goal isnt necessarily about profit, but about 'doing everything else the right way' and the profits will come as a result. To monitor the amount of good the business has accomplished excels profits.

--Promotion--They have a culture more to inspire and educate rather than promote. They feel like earning credibility is more vital than just having people buy it. Word of mouth is more important to Patagonia and advertising is a last resort. Editorial coverage can go a long way. The mentality is that every great product will sell itself. It is like if you build the right environment and culture than the demand would be created as a result.

--Biggest Challenge from Yvon--is guarding against complacency. They feel like their 'success and longevity lie in the ability to change quickly and that continuous change and innovation require maintaining a sense of urgency'. A managerial mandate is to instigate change...nature is constantly evolving.