John Dimmer

John Dimmer came to our class to give a presentation about funding. Having a long relationship with Andrew Fry it was interesting to listen to the two of them talk as they are old friends. John having a lot of experience in being an angel investor was quite interesting. The advice that he was able to give was awesome as he has done this for a long time.

I thought angel investing was a little different then how he explained it. When talking about the difference in levels of funding i thought that an angel investor was basically a VC type funder that was just a little bit earlier in the funding cycle. It was very nice to be able to see and hear the difference in the two.

It was also entertaining on that he shares the same feelings for Mark Cuban that Andrew Fry does. It makes sense as they were business partners during the whole cuban crisis that went on. This talk was cut a little short as Andrew Fry had to leave early cause of a meeting. I wish that John would have gotten a little longer to talk as i think there would have been some great questions that we could have asked him. Since we were finishing our business plans during this time, questions about funding would have gone a long way to helping us out. But the presentation was very informative how it was

Jim Kastama

Jim kastama came into our class to talk about a variety of things. He started off with some of his political experience being a Senator in Washington State. He was the type of person that instead of just dealing with party lines, he would do what was best for the people that the bill effected. This lead him to be liked and disliked by both parties, as they could not just count on him to go with there views. 

He then went on to talk about his after politics life. And how he has found out that he really doesn't like having a boss and working for somebody. So he went out on his own. With that he has found a new career in strategic planning. He now is hired by companies to help them pave the future for the company. This includes goals that the company wants to meet and a few ways on how to get there. 

It was also interesting to hear him talk and to finally see him. As my mom went to school with him, I have heared her talk about him a bit. This has included him running for school president or ASB president, which is not a big stretch to being in politics when he grew up. (or at least got out of high school) It was cool to finally meet him as i have heard a bunch about him and some of the things he has done over the years and finally put a face to the name. 

Bruce Kendell

Bruce Kendell was in our class today to give a presentation. His focus was on business in and around the tacoma area. Having worked with many companies in and around the area to create a more receptive place for them to stay and work. This has led him to have a lot of different experience. One of the items that he talked about was business plans. He talked about how the business plan is an important piece for a company. And that it should not stay the same for too long. A business plan should be changed and updated as the company grows and as the world changes as well. This will allow the business plan to be as accurate as possible.

His knowledge of local companies and what was going on around the sound was just impressive. Having worked with a lot of the companies he knows what is going on. Having helped companies expand to other facilities and to bring in other companies he has a lot of knowledge of the goings on around town. It was just interesting to hear how much the area is changing, and how much the companies are changing as well. He was a very good speaker, he was one of those people that could probably talk for hours and not get bored. Not that i would mind, it was a very entertaining presentation.

Being an Entrepreneur - From the Tech Entrepreneurs Guidebook

Being an Entrepreneur - From the Tech Entrepreneurs Guidebook was a short but interesting read. It has a bunch of facts about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. It has some pretty staggering figures like how only 1 in 6,000,000 tech companies will reach an IPO. While i knew not all companies would reach that stage, and that a lot of companies fail, that number still shocked me as to how high that number was. 

One of the other facts that i pulled out the is reading was that 60% of companies funded by VC's go bankrupt. This seemed like a really high number. You would think that a VC would have a much better success rate. They always seem to portray themselves as doing much better than that. Obviously you cannot believe everything people say.

Another fact was that most tech companies that reach an IPO usually take about 3 to 5 years to get there. This seemed a really short amount of time, as it always looks like a company takes a long time to really get going. I know that there is always the outliers but i figured the number would be more in the range of about 8 to 10. Maybe that is just because i only see some of the more high profile companies and they might take about that time. Overall this was a good read as it provided some shocking statistics.

Graham Evans

Graham Evans come into our class to talk about business case modeling. He also talked about his past experience in business. He was a very entertaining person to listen too. While im am not a big fan about standing in front of everybody and saying my name and a fact about us, there are much worse things to have to do.

His expertise in business case modeling was impressive. This seemed like a very useful tool to analyze our business with. When using the different categories it was a lot easier to see the different parts of a business. The categories are This model included several key attributes such as Key Partners, Key Activities, Key Resources, Channels, Customer Segments, Cost Structure, Revenue Streams, Value Propositions, Customer and Relationships. Using this breakout we broke into groups using the idea of electronic recycling and each group got a attribute.

When every group had a couple ideas we came back together to see what everybody had come up with. Since the idea was very new to most of us, it was a little odd as there was some confusion as to exactly how the business would run. Or make money for that matter. It was still a good exercise in how to look at a business and see the different parts to make it run.

Dot.com to dot.bomb

We has a very entertaining presentation in class. It was Andrew Fry's journey through the dot.com bubble from the start to the bust. Seeing him talk about the beginning days of the web and how he was a part of it was just impresiive. I knew that he worked on the early part of the web, but I was not aware of the extent that he was a part of it. Some of the things that he said were the first on the web, was awesome. Now a days those things are just common place or are easily surpassed by today's tech many times over.

Listening to his business experience was pretty cool. From working at Microsoft to owning and running multiple companies was very cool to listen to. (and watch there was a power point) While i understand his dislike of Mark Cuban, i think i still like him. However if i was in Andrew fry's position and was out a lot of money because of bad timing i think i would still blame Mark Cuban for that too. So I guess a little hatred is in order. (However i will still like him. He is rich, he had to have done something right.)

The dinosaurs were also a nice touch when talking about the companies that  were a part of the web in the early days. It was a nice visual to be able to see how much more customers one company had that the other, and how fast some of them could fail. While it was a little rushed at the end and slightly cut off, probably one of the better presentations i have had in a while.

Jobs

Being an entrepreneur usually helps if you have some sort of job idea. Its hard to start a job without having an idea.

The first idea is for an automated storage and retrieval system for a warehouse/distribution center. This idea is a series of robots that are in aisles and can store and retrieve cases as needed. Unlike most of the other competitors out there this idea would be able to handle a range of boxes and not just a specific size, or a proprietary container.

The second idea would be for a company that would build quad-copters. Now while there is nothing all that special about quad-copters in general, we could sell it either as a pre-built kit, or a diy part kit. One of the main sticking points would be the software that is accompanied with it, and the boards on it. It would be able to track and follow a "bug" that you can where so that it can follow you. If you attach a camera underneath it would be able to film you. Think mountain biking, where at the start of a run, you can just turn on the quad-copter and it would follow and film you, giving you a very good filming perspective.

The third idea would be a website / app where you can put in the info about your computer and storing the information about it. The benefit of this would be you wouldn't need to remember every piece of info about your computer, and if you wanted to upgrade you wouldn't need to remember a tiny detail, such as what socket you motherboard has for its cpu, or how many slots of RAM you can have, and have much it can support, allowing easy access to the info you need when you need it.

At the end of the day, any way to make money is a good way. (As long as im the one making it that is!)

Guest Speakers

Today we had Eric Hanburg come talk to us about his expirence being an entrepreneur. He walked us through his business life and talked about the ups and the downs that he had.

An interesting part of his talk was how his company is just him and his wife. Since it is just the two of them it is really easy to be able to change direction and to make a decision because since it is just them. If the company is much bigger, bigger changes are a lot harder when you have more people.

The coolest part of the presentation was the three questions that he asks when deciding to take on a job  or not. Do you want to do the job? Does it pay well? (or at least enough) And will it help your career? These 3 questions are what they ask themselves when they are taking a job. This seems like a really good set of questions.

He was mentioned some of the books that he wrote. He wrote a mystery series and a science fiction series, along with he how to books. I just might have to go and see about 1 of these books as they sounded interesting, plus i have meet the author, which makes me a little more interested in reading them.

One questions I did not think to ask until it was too late was, if he had the opportunity to go back and start this all over again, would he do it? And what would he do differently this time if anything? Of course I think of good questions after the fact.

Startup.com

There is nothing like watching a movie where 2 people had it all then proceeded to lose in it just a short amount of time. No, im not talking about somebody in Vegas, it was startup.com the movie. Chronicling the rise of a company in the .com era. The two founders went through some hard times when trying to start the company and even after they had it going.

One of the things that I found most interesting was when the two (well three founders but they never really covered him in the movie until he wanted money) were trying to raise funding. Quite a few of the investors didn't want to give them money because they were on the East coast and not on the west coast. That would be tough when the only reason they wont give you money is when you are located in the wrong place. (Especially for an internet company).

The ending was a little disappointing as the remaining two founders had a falling out. One of them decieded to go ahead and get out of the company and wanted to get paid off. He ended up getting fired by the remaining founder. And not too long after that he lost the company.

It was a very interesting look into the rise and fall of the company. You did feel bad when everything went south for them. While a good watch I dont know that i would seek out the movie to watch it again. 

Money or Expectations for the class

Taking a business class about how to start your own business, one expectation is that I would be able to leave the class and be able to make lots of money. Cause isn't that the American dream? Making money, preferably while doing nothing. 

While making money is always good and usually the main goal of a business, I guess that is not exactly the main goal of the class. So instead I need to find ways to help me earn more money. One of those ways would be in insight into how you actually go about starting a business. Myself having an idea for a product and needing to make a company to sell it, gaining some insight into how you can setup the company so failure is guaranteed. Or at least putting yourself in the best position to not fail.

Another way to go about making money, is what type of people you should be around, and have around your business. Should you take this challenge on alone? Take on an investor that has knowledge of what you are doing or just wander aimlessly until you happen upon some money. 

Another step in my plan for world domination, i mean expectations would be how exactly do you go about connecting with people to help you out. By this, i have heard of incubators for business, what exactly are those and how would they help me? And more importantly are they going to keep me warm?