Gwin Scott

Coldplay

Cool interview last night on 60 Minutes with chris martin of coldplay. I really like his approach to being a rock star in that their band is especially humble and appreciates putting forth the effort every night, even though he claims that there talent isnt that great. He mentioned that they were just subbing in the rock world, until U2 returned from vacation.

One other element to the interview that I sought interest in had to do with chris's term of 'the silhouette factor'. When they are performing on stage, Chris mentioned that it is hard to see the actual audience because of all the lights, but they can see all the entry/exit doors in the back of the concert halls where light would beam back to the stage. If there were a lot of people coming and going (seeing their silhouettes) getting 'hotdogs' and drinks, then that was his sign that maybe they werent playing the right songs and they needed to shift the rotation a bit.

The group is very conscious of putting forth the right effort each night and in giving the fans what they paid for. It is great that they have such a high awareness that they have to constantly engage their audience or they will leave.

It was a nice wake up call, that we need to be aware that putting forth the right effort in all that we do....and to be cognizant of the silhouette factor in keeping folks/customers aligned with the value that you bring, so things dont get in too much of a comfort zone or status quo position.

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. 

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!!

Merging Minds Event

Aside from the freakiness on how Memphians deal with the weather (with it being a little cold/dropping temps), we had a great event last night here at EmergeMemphis with about 90 folks. Lots of interesting discussions within the entrepreneurial community on tech transfer/commercialization at the univ of memphis and ut research foundation and how to maximize/promote better what is in their product/service libraries....investing in india...startup weekend thoughts....job searches....angel investing and networks...finding good talent/startups in the 20/30/40s demo in memphis....

These sorts of events are mainly for networking purposes, but by segmentizing them a bit more into different genre's can help better detect quality and interests....so we will continue to regularly host them...as good ideas flow as we continue to build the right networks...

Launchpad

Our incubator/accelerator, EmergeMemphis (along with Mercury Technology Labs), is in the process of launching LaunchPad...LaunchPad is a rapid business prototyping center and convergence point for early stage technology businesses in the Memphis region.  Operated as a membership based center, the concept combines the benefits of collaboration with structured advising to assist entrepreneurs and technologists alike in growing their technology based businesses.  By bringing together top talent in emerging business, LaunchPad will support and facilitate swift and smart business decision making through comraderie with others, knowledge exchange, angels, and professional networking.   

EM and MTL understand the struggles of entrepreneurs, one-man start-ups, small technology businesses, and free lance professional service providers in the Mid-South region.  You go without space, work at home, and/or have meetings in cafes, because in most cases the monthly costs of even an executive office suite can be too high or the terms too inflexible to accommodate the rapid changes faced by the business on-the-move addressing market needs.  Staying at the home office has cost saving advantages, but at some point those advantages diminish. These benefits include a business atmosphere, knowledge exchange, professional networking, meeting facilities for clients, and the benefits of informal interaction with other businesses that could easily create future revenue.  One of the best benefits of getting into an office environment is the discourse with fellow professionals going through similar experiences.  In fact, informal collaboration with others is almost always more powerful than the work of one.  People do better, more value-added work when working together.

The purpose is to help fill an unfilled gap in the market. Think www.techstars.org, www.seedcamp.com, and www.ycombinator.com as LaunchPad serves as similar although, not an exact role. The important thing is to solicit the right ideas and turn them into a reality and success stories. Im impressed what the above are doing and hope the model is sustaining itself.