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E+Trends
Junk food is the real driver of a talented and
entrepreneurial workforce. That’s the somewhat tongue-in-cheek
message from Nancy Hauge of Ruckus Network, a digital entertainment
service for universities. Hauge argues that eating junk food offers
some compensation for the long hours often demanded in a
fast-growing start-up. It also helps fuel the constant hum of
execution. And, she concludes, when junk food gets replaced by
nutritious food, this shift may be a sign that a firm’s growth is
lagging. Hauge’s article is part of series entitled “The
Entrepreneurial Spirit,” developed by Local TechWire (a North
Carolina-based business news service) and the Council for
Entrepreneurial Development, North Carolina’s major entrepreneurial
network. Entrepreneurs pen all of “The Entrepreneurial Spirit”
columns, and they are designed to offer a flavor of what’s really
like to start and grow a business. Other topics recently covered
include: “How to Find the First $1-2 Million for a New Venture,” and
“Should You Be the Leader of a New Venture?”
http://www.localtechwire.com/article.cfm?u=12602
Study finds colleges created a record number of
start-up companies based on the inventions of their professors and
students in the 2004 fiscal year, and they collected more than
$1-billion in revenues from licenses on a host of new drugs,
agricultural products, high-tech components, and other breakthrough
technologies, according to a survey scheduled for release today. The
number of new start-ups — 425 — was just one indicator of the
growing pace of commercialization activity on American campuses.
http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/11/2005111801n.htm
The console, which retails for $399, cost
Microsoft $525 to make, according to iSuppli
Microsoft is subsidizing its Xbox 360 game console to the tune
of $126 on each unit sold, according to an industry research report
published Friday. The cost of manufacturing the Xbox 360 Premium
reached $525, according to iSuppli, an El Segundo, California-based
microchip research firm, while the basic model of the device reached
retail stores on Tuesday with a suggested price of $399. Microsoft
spokesperson Molly O'Donnell said the company does not comment or
provide guidance on Xbox 360 cost information. Shares of Microsoft
were down $0.23 to $27.69 in recent trading. It is not unusual for
game console manufacturers to sell their devices for less than they
cost to manufacture because they can close the shortfall by
collecting licensing fees from third-party game publishers and from
selling games themselves. Xbox games can sell for as high as $65.
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14621&hed=Xbox%20Loses%20Money
E-tailers list hottest-selling items for the
holidays and Black Friday.
Amazon and
eBay reported on their top-selling holiday products on Friday,
including popular tech toys and gadgets. Amazon listed the
best-selling products in a number of categories for the period from
November 1 to November 22. In the consumer electronics category, the
top seller for the Seattle-based e-tailer was the silver CyberHome
CH-DVD 300S progressive scan DVD player. In second place was
Apple Computer’s 2-gigabyte iPod nano in black, followed in
third place by Apple’s 512-megabyte iPod Shuffle. The top-selling
video game was Sid Meier’s Civilization IV Special Edition, followed
by Game Boy Advance SP: Spongebob Bundle with Spongebob: Battle for
Bikini Bottom and Nicktoons Freeze Frame Frenzy. In third place was
PS2 Star Wars Battlefront II. The most popular software was
QuickBooks Pro 2006 Financial Software for Small Business, followed
by Norton AntiVirus 2006, and
Microsoft Office Standard Student and Teacher Edition 2003 in
third place.
http://www.redherring.com/
Article.aspx?a=14620&hed=Amazon,%20eBay%20List%20Top%20Items
School officials deny that the standalone
B-school is for sale or closing, despite declining full-time
enrollments. Rumors can get started easily, especially on B-school
campuses, where people tend to live and work in close quarters. Just
ask those at
Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management in
Glendale, Ariz., which has been the center of attention for the last
couple of weeks, since reports surfaced in the Arizona Republic that
the historic global program was possibly for sale because of
financial difficulties. It's no secret that the nearly 60-year-old
school, which has an international focus throughout its curriculum
and requires students to be at least bilingual, is struggling. Upper
management recently eliminated 17 administrative positions and has
been downsizing the full-time MBA program — going from a class size
of 1,305 students five years ago to one of 606 today. Also,
Thunderbird raised its tuition to $32,100, from $29,300 in 2004,
which is unusual for a school that rarely raised fees on par with
its competitors. But the relatively new administration — President
Angel Cabrera only arrived in August, 2004 — says the school isn't
for sale, nor is it posting a "going out of business" sign. The
data, Cabrera says, are simply indicative of growing pains, an
inevitable part of a new strategy to diversify revenue streams to
keep the school alive in a soft market. "We're trying to manage our
business the way businesses should be managed," says Cabrera. "We
must apply our knowledge to ourselves, too."
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/nov2005/bs20051122_1524_bs001.htm
Democrats in the US House of Representatives
have unveiled a new plan to nurture innovation and promote US
competitiveness. The Innovation Agenda: A Commitment to
Competitiveness to Keep America No. 1 is a bold statement of
legislative priorities designed to build a skilled and talented
workforce, to advance scientific research, and to nurture
entrepreneurship. The package contains a host of interesting
proposals. Among other things, The Innovation Agenda proposes to
double funding for the Commerce Department’s Manufacturing Extension
Partnerships and the Advanced Technology Program. It also calls for
expanded use of broad-based stock options to encourage employee
ownership, and revisions to the Sarbanes-Oxley law to reduce
administrative burdens on small businesses. Finally, the plan
includes several measures (including a 50% tax credit) to assist
small businesses in providing health insurance to their employees.
http://www.housedemocrats.gov/news/librarydetail.cfm?library_content_id=557
Study finds people are using search engines
more than ever, much to Google’s delight.
People use search engines so much in the United States that search
is gaining ground on email as the top online activity, said a report
released Monday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Fifty-nine million people used search during September, up 55
percent from 38 million in June 2004, the study found. That means 41
percent of Internet users searched for something online on a typical
day in September compared with 30 percent a year and a half earlier.
Email is still the most popular online activity out there, with
about 52 percent of Internet users emailing on a given day, up from
45 percent in June 2004. One of the many reasons for this surge in
search is that people are getting better at using search engines,
said Lee Rainie, project director at Pew Internet. Add to that
increased broadband penetration, which makes searching easier—and
faster—than if it were over a dial-up connection.
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14576&hed=Surge%20in%20Online%20Searching
Forty-one university entrepreneurs get a chance
to pitch their technologies. Bioengineering grad student Eric
Paradise got his six-minute shot at entrepreneurial fame this week.
He was one of half-dozen finalists trying to persuade a panel of six
judges at U.C. Berkeley that each deserved the top prize of $10,000
at the second Technology Breakthrough Competition. These are not
well-oiled marketers in designer suits wooing viewers with slick
PowerPoint presentations. Rather, they are young scientists and
engineers taking their first step into the world of entrepreneurs.
The judges have seen their fair share of business plans and pitches
in day jobs as entrepreneurs, angels, and venture capitalists. One
was Jerry Fiddler, the founder of
Wind River Systems, a company he started 24 years ago in his
Berkeley garage and grew into a billion-dollar powerhouse. Mr.
Paradise’s science team was comprised of Professor Jay Keasling and
James Kirby, who have developed a novel metabolic engineering
approach that uses a strain of baker’s yeast to improve the
production of a class of medical compounds known as isoprenoids.
These compounds play key roles in medicines, like taxol to combat
cancer, and artemisinin to tackle malaria.
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14565&hed=Six%20Minutes%20Short%20of%20Fame
Hundreds of thousands of people in Las Vegas
carry a card in their wallets that allows them to get free buffets,
show tickets and other perks. It's called a "Boarding Pass" and is
offered by Station Casinos, which owns the majority of big locals
casinos across town. The company uses the card to track how much and
how frequently its customers gamble. It's a powerful marketing tool
that has been the subject of an expensive, behind-the-scenes legal
battle between Station and Harrah's Entertainment that may be
winding down after a federal appeals court ruled in Station's favor
last week. Harrah's sued Station in federal court in July 2001,
claiming that Station's Boarding Pass slot club infringed on three
patents held by Harrah's. The world's largest casino company,
Harrah's has its own player tracking system called "Total Rewards."
The Total Rewards card boasts the largest membership in the casino
business. With the company's acquisition of Caesars Entertainment
last summer, Harrah's now has close to 40 million names in its Total
Rewards database.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/business/2005/nov/22/519704506.html
Just because you're waiting for an important
cell phone call doesn't mean you have to put your life on hold. Put
on Plantronics' new wireless headset and plug its Bluetooth audio
adapter into a music device and you can listen to music while you
wait. When your phone rings, the headset will stop playing the music
and switch to phone mode, so you can take the call via the headset.
The Pulsar 590A Bluetooth Stereo Headset has a wireless range of
about 33 feet and comes with a universal adapter that can be plugged
into cell phones, portable music players, televisions, computers and
other devices. Cost: $250.
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051128/BUSINESS06/511280303/1003/business |
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| E+EQUITY
Bessemer Venture Partners is hoping that
consumers looking for a local business will go to its newest
investment for Yelp.
http://www.yelp.com
YouTube Inc. said that it has raised $3.5
million Series A financing from Sequoia Capital, the latest in a
line of video-sharing Web sites drawing interest from venture
capitalists.
http://www.youtube.com
HydroPoint Data Systems Inc., a maker of
technology used to automate the watering of public, corporate and
and residential green spaces, said it received a $5 million Series B
round of funding led by repeat investor Monitor Ventures.
http://www.hydropoint.com
Children's cellphone maker Firefly Mobile Inc.,
whose simple, five-button cellphones are being sold at nationwide
retailers such as Target and Limited Too, has gotten a generous
allowance from its venture-capital backers.
http://www.fireflymobile.com
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E+Help |
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E+Resources
Using instant messaging wisely at work.
http://trax.inc.com/k/w/mailman/inc_connection/20051122/etiquette |
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E+Knowledge
A new report on theories, applications and
policies in the field of entrepreneurship reflects the thoughts
of some of the leading researchers on what is currently known
and not known about its impact on the U.S. economy. Published by
the Kauffman Foundation, Understanding Entrepreneurship: A
Research and Policy Report includes chapters on ‘The Role of
Entrepreneurship in Economic Prosperity’, ‘The Entrepreneurial
University?’, The Globalization of Venture Finance, and The
Entrepreneurial Path for Residents of Disadvantaged
Communities’.
Download a PDF version of Understanding Entrepreneurship: A
Research and Policy Report
A recent study reveals products that turn
slowly aren't necessarily a drain on resources.
http://trax.inc.com/k/w/mailman/inc_connection/20051122/inventory
The power of rural philanthropy
The generation and re-investment of wealth
are critical building blocks for any community seeking to
support entrepreneurship. As a result, philanthropy can and
should be an important part of any regional entrepreneurship
initiative. This is especially true in rural communities,
according to a new report from New Ventures in Philanthropy. The
Power of Rural Philanthropy notes that home-grown rural
philanthropy is booming. For example, in the past six years, the
number of geographic funds affiliated with community foundations
has grown by 132%. The report contains lots of case studies of
effective rural foundations, and offers suggestions for moving
ahead. In particular, the study urges rural leaders to identify
new endowment-raising opportunities and to use current assets to
build organizational capacity for further home-grown
development.
http://www.givingforum.org/rural/resources/Rural_Report.pdf. |
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E+Events
Rebecca Ryan
Thursday, January 26th, 2006
5:00PM-8:00PM | Fresno Memorial Auditorium
"Well behaved women rarely make history."
Rebecca Ryan is the founder of Next Generation Consulting,
Inc. Rebecca's keen eye for trends — especially those among
young talent — coupled with her brilliance in presenting them to
professionals at all levels, makes her one of America's most
captivating communicators and futurists. Rebecca has been named
a "Woman of Influence" by the Business Journal, the 2004
Entrepreneur of the Year by the US Association for Small
Business and Entrepreneurship, and was a semi-finalist in Fast
Company Magazine's "Fast 50" awards. Phyllis Wilhelm, a leading
economic developer in Wisconsin says, "Rebecca is more than a
platform diva. She helps us understand generational differences,
anticipate a workforce shortage of crisis proportions, and
identify strategies to help us prepare and change." A former
professional basketball player in Europe, Rebecca drinks her
coffee from a mug that says, "Well behaved women rarely make
history."
Coordinator:
Genelle Taylor |
Nancy
Kobata | Call 559.294.2045 for details.
Join three of Sacramento's hottest young
companies at the 10th annual High Tech Direct conference on
Thursday, December 1, 2005. Organized by the Sacramento Business
Journal and sponsored by GCN and other tech associations, key
executives with CEi, MaxPreps and JiWire will present their
visions. Intel will unveil amazing products and revolutionary
possibilities tied to their new Digital Health Group. Imagine a
Bluetooth-enabled stethoscope with RFID and a barcode reader,
plus hospitals and doctors within a 30-mile radius of WiMax
connectability. Imagine cutting the nation's $2 trillion
healthcare spending by one third! From 4:00 until 7:30 p.m. at
the Radisson, Sacramento you'll have an hour for networking,
with dinner and drinks. Sponsored by all of the major tech
organizations in the Sacramento region, it's an end-of-the-year
celebration for the sector, with a special video by KVIE and
SARTA. Underwriters of the event include Wells Fargo, Special
Order Systems and Weintraub Genshlea Chediak. For the agenda and to register, visit
High Tech Direct. |
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E+Capital
Study shows venture capital and private
equity are driving employment in the European Union
Venture capital- and private equity-financed companies created 1
million new high-quality jobs in Europe between 2000 and 2004,
according to a report released this week by the European Private
Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA). The study,
conducted for the EVCA by the Center for Entrepreneurial and
Financial Studies at the Technical University of Munich (Technische
Universität München), is the first pan-European report
specifically on the contributions of the private equity and VC
industries to European employment. The report found that
employment by buyout-funded and VC-backed companies increased by
5.4 percent across the period—eight times the overall employment
growth rate of the 25 member states of the European Union during
that same time period. VC-funded firms contributed heavily to
the employment figures, with 630,000 new jobs created by
venture-backed firms between 2000 and 2004. Employment increased
by 30.5 percent per year between 1997 and 2004.
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14619&hed=VCs%20Creating%20Jobs%20in%20Europe
Backed by iRobot's VCs, Aethon collects $11
million to automate hospital deliveries. Venture capitalist
Peter Meekin, backer of robot maker iRobot, one of the fourth
quarter’s few tech IPOs, invested $11 million Wednesday in
another robot startup called Aethon. Mr. Meekin of Trident
Capital led the third round of financing for Aethon, which is
based in Pittsburgh. Mr. Meekin has been on something of a tear
recently. His firm sold Sygate to
Symantec, Thor Technologies to
Oracle, and iRobot’s IPO had a nice first day pop (see
Symantec Buys Sygate,
Oracle Buys Two Security Firms, and
Tech IPOs Post Gains). Aethon, Mr. Meekin’s latest bet,
makes the Tug, a robot that can navigate through a building to
make deliveries.
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14605&hed=Robot+Firm+Gets+Cash§or=
Capital&subsector=VentureCapital
You're not alone. Now more acquirers are
buying insurance to ease their fears.
http://trax.inc.com/k/w/mailman/inc_connection/20051122/finance
Golden Capital Network is near completion
of its Seed Fund Business Plan draft report. This past spring,
GCN received grant funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce,
the Economic Development Administration and NoRTEC to research
options for creating a seed-stage private equity fund focused on
the emerging markets of California and Nevada. The research
proposes supporting communities in emerging markets to develop
private equity investment capacity through new angel networks
and angel funds that would be strategically linked with an
existing or newly formed seed-stage private equity fund, along
with a business advisory services organization. Read the
overview of the final Seed Fund Business Plan Report
HERE.
The available pool of equity capital grew substantially last
Thursday as the board of trustees for the $31.7 billion Alaska
Permanent Fund approved the placement of 8 percent of the fund's
value into alternative assets, such as venture capital funds and
hedge funds. The Associated Press reports the current value of
all alternative investments held by the Permanent Fund totals
$292 million. With the new authorization target, equity capital
could comprise more than $2.5 billion at the fund's present
value. The change will happen gradually, however, as the board
increased the mandate to Crestline, the fund’s current absolute
return manager, from $250 million to $500 million. The board
also increased the allocation for absolute return strategies
from 1 percent to 4 percent. The target asset allocation to
private equity also is at 4 percent. Moving more of the public
fund into riskier placements is coupled with more secrecy as the
board also approved regulations to keep more of the fund's
activities confidential. Earlier this year, the state
legislature passed House Bill 215, which removed a list of
allowable fund investments and authorized less public disclosure
of fund activities. In addition to providing a source of
revenues for the state's annual budget in times of fiscal
uncertainty, most of the income earned on the Alaska Permanent
Fund is used to provide annual checks of approximately $1,000 to
each Alaska resident.
http://www.apfc.org/
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| E+Notes
A generation has passed since I went to
college. Today's college students understand that things have
changed in many ways — some good, some not. But one change is
glaring and tragic. The change I mean is that nowadays so many
students are obsessed with their careers. (This is strictly my own
personal observation — as a college teacher of long-standing, and of
declining optimism.)
It seems to me that when I was an undergraduate, students were far
more obnoxious than they are today. Many of us were positive we were
smarter than our teachers and naturally gifted with superior taste.
But there was a good side (believe it or not) to our arrogant
self-assurance. Many of us waded right into intellectual life until
we were in way over our heads. Many of us were obsessed with books,
poems, music, arguments, theories, paintings and politics, history
and philosophy, truth and beauty. Virtually no one cared about
"careers" except for the despised pre-meds. (And didn't they have
the last laugh!)
Why the big change between now and then? Many reasons. But there's
one particular reason that students seem reluctant (some even
scared) to talk or think about. In those long-ago days, more college
women used to plan on staying home to rear children. Those women had
other goals than careers in mind, by definition. They saw learning
as worth having for its own sake; otherwise why bother with a
college education, if you weren't planning on a big-deal career?
(There were social reasons, of course — such as finding a husband.
But social reasons don't explain why so many of those students who
planned on being mothers rather than CEOs took hard courses, did
well and wound up at the top of their classes.)
In the days when many college-trained women stayed home to rear
children, the nation as a whole devoted a significant fraction of
all its college-trained worker-hours to childrearing. This
necessarily affected society's attitude toward money and careers. A
society that applauds a highly educated woman's decision to rear
children instead of making money obviously believes that, under some
circumstances, childrearing is more important than moneymaking. No
one thought women were incapable of earning money if they wanted or
needed to: Childrearing versus moneymaking was a genuine choice.
In those days, liberals looked down on corporations and careerism.
In fact, society at large did. "The Organization Man," "The Man in
the Gray Flannel Suit," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really
Trying" were all about the silliness (or, to be less polite, the
stupidity) of U.S. corporate culture. Deans pleaded with their
students to treasure learning for its own sake.
But all that changed with feminism's decision to champion the
powerful and successful working woman. Nowadays, feminists and many
liberals are delighted when women make careers in large
corporations, which are still the road to riches and power in this
country.
No doubt contempt for the corporation was overdone back then, just
as corporation worship is today. In any event, college deans tell
their students nowadays (especially women, but men can't help
overhearing): Go out there and make money! Get power! Build those
careers!
Some liberals imagine that conservatives spend their time trying to
set the clock back. That's a foolish caricature. We're not going
back to 1960 (before careerist feminism took off) any more than
we're going back two weeks to the point when the leaves outside my
window were blazing bright yellow and scarlet and orange. Now the
ones that still cling are dead brown.
In many ways, life today is a lot easier than it was in 1960. But
don't kid yourselves. The age that rated childrearing higher than
money-grubbing, and intellectual exploration higher than career
preparation had it exactly right. We might come to miss what we had
then, but we are never going back; no nation has ever sacrificed
wealth for intangible spiritual satisfactions.
In some important ways, this society has made a tragic but probably
inevitable (and certainly irreversible) mistake. Crying about it is
senseless. Denying it is cowardly.
For an entrepreneur to attract potential
resource partners, not only must the concept be viable, but there
must also be some connection between the founder and potential
resource providers. The entrepreneur's reputation, capabilities,
commitment, and conduct, as well as all the other components of
human and social capital, are often determinants of his or her
ability to attract resource partners. Rebecca Reynolds Moore
attracted financial resources by leveraging her human resources and
social contacts, and with her intensive selling, developing trust
and cooperation with partners and her extended network. Vivien
Jennings attracted such organizational resources as visiting authors
by leveraging her human and social resources, then developing
physical resources to enhance the product development in the form of
book-signing events.
The analytical tool most useful in this process is the
resource-development pathway that allows the entrepreneur to begin
with starting endowments and connect the specification or
identification steps to acquisition. The entrepreneur must consider
how one type of resource can be leveraged to acquire another. This
assessment allows for acquisition strategies specific to the
situation at hand to be developed. Each of these strategies,
however, is further facilitated by social skills of the
entrepreneur.
The ability to sell a business idea through personal capabilities is
referred to as a social skill, a competence enabling individuals to
interact effectively with others. Distinct form social capital,
social skills are what the entrepreneur does rather than the outcome
of network relationships. Social skills are learnable, and when
utilized effectively can increase possibilities for attracting
resources to venture. Five social skills important to the
entrepreneur are:
-
Social
perception, the accuracy with which the entrepreneur assesses
the traits, intentions, and motives of others.
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Impression
management, the way one induces positive reaction for others.
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Expressiveness, the ability to express emotions and feelings
clearly and generate enthusiasm in others.
-
Persuasiveness, the ability to change others' views or behaviors
in face-to-face encounters.
-
Social
adaptability, the ability to adapt to, or feel comfortable in, a
wide range of social situations.
The skills work in concert as a founder attempts to attract
resources to a new venture.
Kuratko, Donald F., and Harold P. Welsch.
Strategic Entrepreneurial Growth.
2nd ed. Thomson/Southwestern,
2004. 151-152. |
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To review the E+Action archive, visit
http://www.lylescenter.com/earchive. |
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www.lylescenter.com
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2743 E. Shaw Avenue
Suite 120 (MS OF126)
Fresno, CA 93710-8205
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