Campus Entrepreneurship

Found this list of 2008 predictions at the Silicon Valley Blog. It includes predictions on lots of subjects (specific technologies, consumer markets, health care, etc.) from lots of outlets including vc firms, websites, and magazines.

Here are some direct links to lists…. EETimes.com list of tech predictions…. Macworld predictions….. PCWorld predictions.

Any predictions of your own?

My first real entrepreneurial experience came while I was attending the Univ. of C Graduate School of Business. Instead of going for a consulting or banking internship, I realized immediately (the year was 1999) that the markets were giving away gobs of money to internet startups. I found an internship with Tunes.com (ran Rollingstone.com, DownbeatJazz.com, and theSource.com).

The founder of Tunes.com (which had been known as JamTV initially) was Howard Tullman. A serial entrepreneur in Chicago who continues to do cool things. I came across him today through some old Tunes.com connections while cruising LinkedIn.com (a great tool for all entrepreneurs).

Howard is really good at opportunity recognition — probably a must for all serial entrepreneurs. One of the ventures he is currently working on is Flashpoint Academy, a school in Chicago offering 2-year programs in Game Development, Visual Effects and Animation, & Film and Recording Arts. Last I heard Tullman was also teaching at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. The guy is no joke.

Here is Howard’s blog.

Great article passed along to me by a colleague, Jill Rough, at George Mason University. This piece, from Jeffrey M. O’Brien of Fortune, explores the ‘PayPal Mafia’ (the founders and early funders of PayPal) and their exploits. As you can see, Stanford and University of Illinois continue to play a central role in their activities. From the article,

This group of serial entrepreneurs and investors represents a new generation of wealth and power. In some ways they’re classic characters of Silicon Valley, where success and easy access to capital breed ambition and further success. It’s the reason people come to the area from all over the world. But even by that standard, PayPal was a petri dish for entrepreneurs. The obvious question is, Why?

Maybe it comes back to the early hires. After their first breakfast, Thiel and Levchin began recruiting everyone they knew at their alma maters. “It basically started by hiring all these people in concentric circles,” Thiel remembers. “I hired friends from Stanford, and Max brought in people from the University of Illinois.”

They were looking for a specific type of candidate. They wanted competitive, well-read, multilingual individuals who, above all else, had a proficiency in math. Levchin’s original idea for PayPal was to beam money between PalmPilots, but Thiel has a way of seeing the bigger picture.

A staunch libertarian, Thiel figured a web-based currency would undermine government tax structures. Getting there, however, would mean taking on established industries - commercial banking, for instance - which would require financial acumen and engineering expertise.

Thiel and Levchin also wanted workaholics who were not MBAs, consultants, frat boys, or, God forbid, jocks. “This guy came in, and I asked what he liked to do for fun,” Levchin recalls. “He said, ‘I really enjoy playing hoops.’ I said, ‘We can’t hire the guy. Everyone I knew in college who liked to play hoops was an idiot.’”

Do you play hoops? Don’t worry, it goes on to say they hire some former athletes eventually….

From The Cheap Revolution blog, 20 great entrepreneurial quotes. Here are a couple from their post.

#4: The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning - to create a product or service to make the world a better place - Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur, investor, author

#14: An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it - Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries

#15: The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer - Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s

Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s? How cool is that?

Any quotes that you enjoy on entrepreneurship, risk taking, or anything else — feel free to post in the comments section.

Fast Company has taken the recent news, that 16 year old Jamie Lynn Spears (younger sis of Britney) is pregnant, as an opportunity to learn about branding. They framework it as personal branding, but lets be honest, every since Britney came out with Oops I Did it Again and wore that school girl outfit, Britney/Spears has become an entertainment brand. From the Fast Company piece,

The three Spears women are, doubtless, entrepreneurs of an unusual stripe; all entertainers are. But no matter the niche, startup owners have to be almost myopic about preserving the integrity and reliability of their brand. Lose the trust and regard of your customers, and any further efforts your business makes will be laughably disregarded. Here’s how the Louisianan Ladies have royally screwed up a multi-million dollar franchise.

What are your thoughts? The US Dept of Commerce is focusing on entrepreneurship and is launching a new site (c below), in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation. Here is the press release. Taste a bit:

The partnership will create a comprehensive Web-based resource to advance entrepreneurship. Accessible at www.Entrepreneurship.gov, the site will serve as an online destination for entrepreneurship research, educational content, policy papers and entrepreneurship events worldwide, creating a one-stop resource for domestic and international interest in the American approach to entrepreneurship. Symposia held in key markets outside the United States will further disseminate the information provided through Entrepreneurship.gov.

Can Commerce and Kauffman really do something or are they just trying to be active in the entrepreneurship policy space?

Not sure how many of you are planning on raising money from investors, but Tim Berry offers 10 basic rules for valuation. It may seem simple, but definitely worth a look. Here is #7:

Analysts often apply formulas. The most common formula is called “times profits” because it multiplies profits times some number. Another common formula is “times sales.” Companies might be worth two times sales or 10 times profits. There’s also book value, which is assets less liabilities. And there’s the estimated sale value of assets.

The WSJ  covers business plan contests – though their writer, Kelly Spors, didn’t call me. They highlight the growth of plan competitions outside of the university environment.

“Many of the newest contests aren’t hosted by colleges, but rather by product makers and Web sites courting small-business owners and by investment firms or nonprofits trying to spur economic activity in a particular region or industry. Even the college contests, where student teams at various schools compete against each other, have become something of a sport.”

Independent street blogger,  Wendy Bounds, asks if business plans are worth the effort.

Work, school, and the family (wife/baby/dog) all backed up with thanksgiving and I have not been blogging much. MY BAD. I am back. So Sorry for any of you missing my stuff.