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.