3 posts tagged “entrepreneur”

I've been attending quite a few entrepreneur group meetings recently, and I think I've found a pattern that correlates with their life-cycles. 

Hypothesis

All tech entrepreneur groups devolve over time to where they are only attended by predatory service providers, at which point a new group will have been formed to avoid said service providers.

Methods

Simply attend meetings from each forum at least once and talk to as many people as I can, and Google to find out when they were formed.  I considered counting business cards, but that would favor the service providers; many entrepreneurs don't have business cards yet.

Results

WTIA(WSA): (est. 1984) This, the first group to really become popular in the area, is all but overrun by service providers.  I've been to a few of their networking events, and of the 50+ people I've talked to I met two other entrepreneurs.  Pretty much everyone else there had a service they were looking to sell.

MIT Enterprise Forum: (Seattle chapter est. 1984) The meeting I attended here was a different format, being a sit-down presentation with relatively little networking opportunity, but of the few people I did meet, there was a rough parity of entrepreneurs and service providers.  I wouldn't consider this a

NWEN: (est. 1985) Due to my wife's work schedule I haven't been able to attend one of these, so I'll rely on my co-founder Colin's experience: "...out of the people that I talked to, I'd say that about 25% were service providers, and the rest were entrepreneurs or NWEN old timers."

SeattleTechStartups: (est. 2006) These meetings are almost exclusively attended by (SHOCK!) actual entrepreneurs!  While there was at least one service provider there, it was a company that exclusively works with startups and tries to use that experience to give advice rather than actively seek clients.

Open Coffee: (est. 2007)  I didn't talk to a single service provider at this meeting, although I'm told there may have been one there.

Conclusion

While I don't think I have enough data points to validate my hypothesis, the trend looks rather compelling.  I was surprised that the first three were founded in such a small time-frame and that only recently have the newcomers been formed.  My guess is there are others groups I haven't attended (such as Ignite), don't know about, or were founded in the 90s but were short-lived.  Suggested future research directions would be attending additional meetings, especially in groups not listed above, and interview long-time attendees from these forums to find out their past compositions. 

I'm a little late, but I thought I'd answer the Entrepreneur Interview from Shane & Peter.

What’s your personal mission statement?

  Be the best father and husband I can be while doing something interesting for the betterment of mankind making a name for myself that will live on past my lifetime.

What’s the biggest mess you’ve dealt with this year?

  (2007) I can't pin it down exactly, but with two little kids you can bet it involves puke or poop or both.

What current entrepreneurial efforts consume your time?

  Along with my business partner I just started a company.  We're still fairly stealth, but it has to do with Data Mining and Vertical Search.

Why do you do what you do? What inspires you? When do you get most excited?

  Solving problems.  I love having some sort of new challenge to figure out, or better yet build something that will figure it out for me.  I get the most excited during the moment of epiphany where I go from a dead end to seeing multiple paths to my goal.

Boxers or Briefs? or as Naomi says, Bikini or Thong, duh?!?

  Briefs. 

What do you do when you’re not [designing | programming | managing | writing | toiling for the wo/man]?

  Playing with my kids, being with my wife, playing games (board, card, or video), running, and watching football.

What one thing made the biggest difference when getting started?

  Finding someone else that shares my motivation.  Going it alone can be very discouraging.

What’s your exit strategy?

  For life: Ideally I'd like to live forever.  If not, I'd at least like to make a name for myself that will live on beyond my years.

  For my company: It doesn't really matter.  I want to build a successful company that helps people save a little time.  We all need more time.  If I make enough to retire, I'd love to spend more time with my family.

What is the last thing that made you belly laugh?

  My two girls, about 3-4 times a day.

Have you ever been in business before?

  Nope, I'm a first-timer.

At what point do you consider yourself successful?

  In about 8 months when I'm still working for myself and I haven't had to sell my house and we're living comfortably.  At that point I'll redefine success.

What was your first experience with a computer?

  ATARI 800, making that Logo turtle fill up the monitor.

Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates in a jello wrestling match, where’s your money?

  Hard to say, they both fight dirty.  RMS could take them both at the same time.

Where do you do your best thinking?

  Whenever I'm farthest away from any possibly way to record my thoughts.  That way I'm sure to forget the key piece by the time I can write it down.

What does your average daily work / life balance look like? How much time do you work, play and sleep?

  Since I've started working on my own company, I get about 10-12+ hours of work in, and a good 2-3 hours a day with the kids, and a couple more with the wife or playing on the Xbox.
  My goal is to start shifting that closer to parity as my business becomes more successful.

If I could introduce you to anyone, who would it be?

  Either someone willing to fund me right now or Steve Martin.

What stops you from giving up when you are frustrated?
 
  I'm pretty sure I have a super-power: stubbornness.  Seriously, nobody can even compete.

If Chuck Norris and Steven Hawking had a baby (hey it’s my damn interview), would you vote for her for president?

  Not if she had the same political leanings as her Kung-Fu daddy. 

Things have been pretty quiet on this site recently.  Not so for the rest of my life! 

Here are the two main news items of interest in my life right now:

We're expecting our third child (sometime in June)

I'm starting my own company, moving to full-time in January.

I'll elaborate later, if I ever get time!