EntConnect entrepreneurs conference underway

The EntConnect 2009 entrepreneurs conference is now underway. The keynote presentation this morning is by social media guru Bill French of MyST Technology, focused primarily on Twitter.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business or simply need a good excuse to go skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Entrepreneurial Connections conference (EntConnect) may be just the conference you have been waiting for. Targeted primarily at engineers (hardware, software, and other) and others with a strong technical interest, it is more of a loosely-structured "unconference", with plenty of opportunities for a relatively small group of participants (15 to 40) to network or even give their own presentations on a very wide range of topics from technology, business strategy, intellectual property and legal issues, accounting issues, finance, marketing, sales, and even selling your business. With plenty of time to ski or otherwise enjoy the mountains and Denver area (great time to visit Boulder or Colorado Springs as well), the conference is a great opportunity to "learn and share" and otherwise have an "out of box" experience. Participants and speakers range over the full spectrum from wannabes and newcomers to successful young entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans. The conference is an excellent opportunity to meet up with former readers (and possibly even the publisher) of Midnight Engineering magazine as well. The conference runs from Thursday, March 26, 2009 through Sunday, March 29, 2009.

Visit the official conference Web site, EntConnect.org. It now has some agenda and schedule information, including skiing on Thursday and fun activities on Friday. I will be around both evenings, but traveling during the day on Thursday and up in Boulder on Friday.

I have been attending the conference since it first started in 1992 as ME SKI '92 and then evolved into ENTCON and then Entrepreneurial Connections or EntConnect.

For a little nostalgia, check out the original ME SKI '92 conference announcement.

-- Jack Krupansky

Bill French will be talking at the EntConnect entrepreneurs conference

I almost forgot to mention that social media guru Bill French of MyST Technology will be attending and speaking at the EntConnect 2009 entrepreneurs conference. The conference starts on Thursday, which is tomorrow. I am not sure when Bill's presentation is scheduled on the weekend, but he is actually giving two presentations, one on Twitter vs. Facebook and the other on web site security.

The biggest uncertainty, for me, right now, is whether a spring snow storm might mess up travel in the Denver area, especially the airport when I am flying in tomorrow afternoon. Or, flights back east may be delayed due to rain. It will be a little... "adventure."

Whether you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business or simply need a good excuse to go skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Entrepreneurial Connections conference (EntConnect) may be just the conference you have been waiting for. Targeted primarily at engineers (hardware, software, and other) and others with a strong technical interest, it is more of a loosely-structured "unconference", with plenty of opportunities for a relatively small group of participants (15 to 40) to network or even give their own presentations on a very wide range of topics from technology, business strategy, intellectual property and legal issues, accounting issues, finance, marketing, sales, and even selling your business. With plenty of time to ski or otherwise enjoy the mountains and Denver area (great time to visit Boulder or Colorado Springs as well), the conference is a great opportunity to "learn and share" and otherwise have an "out of box" experience. Participants and speakers range over the full spectrum from wannabes and newcomers to successful young entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans. The conference is an excellent opportunity to meet up with former readers (and possibly even the publisher) of Midnight Engineering magazine as well. The conference runs from Thursday, March 26, 2009 through Sunday, March 29, 2009.

Visit the official conference Web site, EntConnect.org. It now has some agenda and schedule information, including skiing on Thursday and fun activities on Friday. I will be around both evenings, but traveling during the day on Thursday and up in Boulder on Friday.

I have been attending the conference since it first started in 1992 as ME SKI '92 and then evolved into ENTCON and then Entrepreneurial Connections or EntConnect.

For a little nostalgia, check out the original ME SKI '92 conference announcement.

-- Jack Krupansky

Getting ready to get ready to head out to the EntConnect entrepreneurs conference on Thursday

Yikes!!! The EntConnect 2009 entrepreneurs conference almost here. It starts on Thursday, less than two days from now.

I personally won't be participating in the skiing portion of the pre-conference activities on Thursday, but I will be flying out from New York City on Thursday afternoon, arriving at the conference hotel roughly in time for drinks and dinner. My flight from Newark arrives at 4:18 p.m. If I catch the 4:43 p.m. RTD skyRide AF bus to the Cold Spring Park-n-Ride, which is a block from the conference hotel, arriving about 6:12 p.m. But if I miss that bus due to hassles at the terminal, I'll catch the 5:45 p.m. bus that arrives at Cold Spring at 7:17 p.m. With the latter I could miss any informal dinner gathering, but I'll catch up with the gang after dinner in the hotel lounge.

I'll also be skipping any Friday daytime activities to head up to Boulder for the day. I will be back to the hotel in time for drinks and the traditional Friday evening conference "feast." In the morning I'll catch the RTD GS bus at 8:05 a.m. (or 9:04 a.m.) to arrive in Boulder at 9:01 a.m. (or 10:00 a.m.). In the afternoon I'll catch the GS bus at 3:36 p.m. (or 4:36 p.m.) to arrive back at Cold Spring at 4:39 p.m. (or 5:39 p.m.).

I'll also be spending Sunday evening up in Boulder (and maybe eating dinner at Laudisio!) before heading to my Flight back to the New York area on Monday afternoon.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business or simply need a good excuse to go skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Entrepreneurial Connections conference (EntConnect) may be just the conference you have been waiting for. Targeted primarily at engineers (hardware, software, and other) and others with a strong technical interest, it is more of a loosely-structured "unconference", with plenty of opportunities for a relatively small group of participants (15 to 40) to network or even give their own presentations on a very wide range of topics from technology, business strategy, intellectual property and legal issues, accounting issues, finance, marketing, sales, and even selling your business. With plenty of time to ski or otherwise enjoy the mountains and Denver area (great time to visit Boulder or Colorado Springs as well), the conference is a great opportunity to "learn and share" and otherwise have an "out of box" experience. Participants and speakers range over the full spectrum from wannabes and newcomers to successful young entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans. The conference is an excellent opportunity to meet up with former readers (and possibly even the publisher) of Midnight Engineering magazine as well.

Visit the official conference Web site, EntConnect.org.

I have been attending the conference since it first started in 1992 as ME SKI '92 and then evolved into ENTCON and then Entrepreneurial Connections or EntConnect.

For a little nostalgia, check out the original ME SKI '92 conference announcement.

-- Jack Krupansky

EntConnect entrepreneurs conference now listed as a LinkedIn event

A Google search alert for "EntConnect" just informed me that the EntConnect 2009 entrepreneurs conference is now listed as a LinkedIn event. The LinkedIn event description says:

EntConnect is unique -- NOT a giant, formal, white-washed conference with two dozen talking heads. Building upon a rich history honed since 1992, it's a unique "unconference" experience -- you help set the agenda. An amazing opportunity to meet current and future entrepreneurs.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business or simply need a good excuse to go skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Entrepreneurial Connections conference (EntConnect) may be just the conference you have been waiting for. Targeted primarily at engineers (hardware, software, and other) and others with a strong technical interest, it is more of a loosely-structured "unconference", with plenty of opportunities for a relatively small group of participants (15 to 40) to network or even give their own presentations on a very wide range of topics from technology, business strategy, intellectual property and legal issues, accounting issues, finance, marketing, sales, and even selling your business. With plenty of time to ski or otherwise enjoy the mountains and Denver area (great time to visit Boulder or Colorado Springs as well), the conference is a great opportunity to "learn and share" and otherwise have an "out of box" experience. Participants and speakers range over the full spectrum from wannabes and newcomers to successful young entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans. The conference is an excellent opportunity to meet up with former readers (and possibly even the publisher) of Midnight Engineering magazine as well.

Visit the official conference Web site, EntConnect.org.

I have been attending the conference since it first started in 1992 as ME SKI '92 and then evolved into ENTCON and then Entrepreneurial Connections or EntConnect.

For a little nostalgia, check out the original ME SKI '92 conference announcement.

-- Jack Krupansky

Have a great idea and looking for seed funding? Check out TechStars

There are many ways to fund a new technology startup, but one particularly intriguing approach is TechStars, which is a mentorship-driven seed stage investment fund located in Boulder, Colorado. They fund up to about 20 technology startups each summer. For each startup, up to three founders get $6,000 each for the summer to crank out a substantial prototype to get their idea off the ground so they can get to the next level. The deal includes server hosting, work space if needed, legal services, and more. Most importantly, each team gets access to the 50 entrepreneurial mentors who are part of TechStars as well as the opportunity at the end of the summer to pitch at an investor event with upwards of 150 angel investors and venture capital investors in attendance.

That may not sound like a lot of money (or time), but the networking and focus on rapid success are worth much, much more. Remember: quality, not quantity.

TechStars is active in both Boulder and the Boston area.

The principals of TechStars are David G. Cohen (Executive Director), Brad Feld, Jared Polis, and David Brown.

They recently held their spring kickoff meetings in Boulder and Boston (invitational, limited seating, one-day mini-camps called "TechStars For A Day" (TS4AD) for TechStars applicants), but are still accepting applications until the March 21, 2009 deadline. My apologies for not posting about this earlier.

Feedback from Benjamin Brinckerhoff, founder of Devver, class of Summer 2008:

I prefer writing code to business plans, but I found the business advice from our mentors to be incredible: it was concrete, immediately applicable, and always focused on building something real for our users.

Check out the TechStars web site for more details.

-- Jack Krupansky

Remember ME SKI '92?

Were you one of those fortunate souls who attended the historic ME SKI '92 entrepreneurial engineers conference back in April of 1992? If so, EntConnect is the conference for you.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business or simply need a good excuse to go skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Entrepreneurial Connections conference (EntConnect) may be just the conference you have been waiting for. Targeted primarily at engineers (hardware, software, and other) and others with a strong technical interest, it is more of a loosely-structured "unconference", with plenty of opportunities for a relatively small group of participants (15 to 40) to network or even give their own presentations on a very wide range of topics from technology, business strategy, intellectual property and legal issues, accounting issues, finance, marketing, sales, and even selling your business. With plenty of time to ski or otherwise enjoy the mountains and Denver area (great time to visit Boulder or Colorado Springs as well), the conference is a great opportunity to "learn and share" and otherwise have an "out of box" experience. Participants and speakers range over the full spectrum from wannabes and newcomers to successful young entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans. The conference is an excellent opportunity to meet up with former readers (and possibly even the publisher) of Midnight Engineering magazine as well.

Visit the official conference Web site, EntConnect.org. Hotel rooms at the Sheraton Denver West in Lakewood, CO are available at the conference rate of $79.

-- Jack Krupansky

Brad Feld on failure

Successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist Brad Feld has some interesting thoughts on failure in his blog post entitled "Have You Ever Failed?". He offers some personal experiences and concludes by telling us that:

In my world view, the best leaders understand that failure is an integral part of things.  The cliche "fail fast" is one of my favorites.  When things aren't working, deal with it.  Another is the famous line from Atlas Shrugged "Nobody stays here by faking reality in any manner whatever."  Denying that failure is part of our existence is akin to faking reality.

While I accept "the experience of failure" feels "negative / crappy / depressing / hard / sucky", I don't believe that "failure is bad."  Deal with it, learn from it, pick yourself up, and try again.

"Learn from it." If only it was as easy as it sounds. Too often, we do learn from failure, but we somehow end up focusing on the "wrong" lessons and somehow miss the "right" lessons.

"Fail fast" is a really, really good idea, but only to the extent that you have "Learn fast" down cold.

-- Jack Krupansky

Last day for early-bird registration for the EntConnect 2009 entrepreneurs conference

Believe it or not, the deadline for early-bird registration for the EntConnect 2009 entrepreneurs conference has been extended to today, Friday, March 6, 2009. The conference will be underway only three weeks from today.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business or simply need a good excuse to go skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Entrepreneurial Connections conference (EntConnect) may be just the conference you have been waiting for. Targeted primarily at engineers (hardware, software, and other) and others with a strong technical interest, it is more of a loosely-structured "unconference", with plenty of opportunities for a relatively small group of participants (15 to 40) to network or even give their own presentations on a very wide range of topics from technology, business strategy, intellectual property and legal issues, accounting issues, finance, marketing, sales, and even selling your business. With plenty of time to ski or otherwise enjoy the mountains and Denver area (great time to visit Boulder or Colorado Springs as well), the conference is a great opportunity to "learn and share" and otherwise have an "out of box" experience. Participants and speakers range over the full spectrum from wannabes and newcomers to successful young entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans. The conference is an excellent opportunity to meet up with former readers (and possibly even the publisher) of Midnight Engineering magazine as well.

Visit the official conference Web site, EntConnect.org. Hotel rooms at the Sheraton Denver West in Lakewood, CO are available at the conference rate of $79.

I have been attending the conference since it first started in 1992 as ME SKI '92 and then evolved into ENTCON and then Entrepreneurial Connections or EntConnect.

For a little nostalgia, check out the original ME SKI '92 conference announcement.

-- Jack Krupansky

My Gary, Indiana solution

Back in January of 2000 when I still had a small mountain of financial assets, I actually considered whether I should go to cash and permanently retire. One option, the one I chose, unfortunately, was that "I only need one more year of decent stock market returns (15-20%) and then I will be set for life", but we know how that movie ended. That was all I needed, one more year, and then I could live "forever" on income from Treasuries. In fact, three-quarters of my net worth was in Treasuries at that point anyway due to my call option strategy that was working so well in the bull market. But, that is water over the dam now. The other option that I briefly considered, but rejected as unattractive, was what I called "my Gary, Indiana solution". Briefly, although I did not have enough money to retire in New York City, I could have retired forever if I could have stomached relocating to some godforsaken place that was really, really cheap, such as I imagined Gary, Indiana to be.

I actually had no idea what Gary, Indiana was really like, but being part of the so-called "Rust Belt", I imagined that everything was much cheaper there. I could easily and quickly get to Chicago, Illinois if I ever had a desperate urge to be somewhere other than "nowhere" and fly from Chicago to "anywhere." Meanwhile, I would not have to burn through piles of cash for living expenses, or so I imagined. In truth, even if Gary was only moderately cheaper I actually would have been able to life, even if not thrive, on Treasury income.

The big obstacle to implementing "my Gary, Indiana solution" was simply the fact that for me personally it had the feeling that I would be imprisoned or at least exiled away from anything that might interest me. Joliet would not have sounded much worse to me. The Internet and Web were still relatively primitive even in 2000 compared to all the online social networking we have today. Maybe with Web 2.0 I could have envisioned living in a bubble, like living on the moon or Mars.

Alas, today I do not even have the financial resources for that "ambitious" Gary, Indiana "solution" that I had back in 2000. I would need to have some kind of job, but I might be able to pull it off with a more menial type of job, if something were in fact available.

In any case, my immediate goal here is simply to record for my own reference and for posterity this idea that I had back in 2000. Whether I can reuse it in some way remains to be seen.

When thinking anew about the concept, two immediate questions come to mind. First, where in the U.S. can you live very, very cheaply? Second, and which of those places have significant acceptable and palatable employment opportunities. The goal here is not to find a place to spend the rest of my life, but finding an "economic refuge" until technology employment opportunities once again become plentiful.

-- Jack Krupansky

Contemplation of life off the grid

Although I personally have no desire to "drop off the gird", the current economic crisis implicitly raises it as a very real possibility. Obtaining satisfying and well-paying work (or even entrepreneurial opportunities) is no longer anything even remotely resembling a "slam dunk." Maybe life off the grid would not be such an unconscionable alternative.

But what would it mean to live off the grid, as a general proposition? Somehow, the primary constraint would be to dramatically limit expenses:

1. Rent. Maybe free lodging. Or camping.
2. Meals. Consider growing some own food.
3. Health care. Only real option is that you need to be in great health.
4. Entertainment. Need to entertain yourself. Use the library, including free Internet access. Free cultural events.
5. Socializing. No longer quite so easy to socialize with those on the grid. Network with others off the grid.
6. Keeping up. Including current events, work opportunities, and training opportunities. Once again, the library may be a best solution.

Thoreau tried to live off the grid, for awhile, but he had some land, a cabin, and a life he could go back to.

At this stage I am certainly not seriously contemplating going "off grid", but if May rolls around and I have no serious employment opportunities (contracting, full-time, part-time, or whatever), suddenly going at least partially off-grid will become a possibility to consider. I will still have significant cash (and stock??) resources at the end of May (when my current apartment lease is up), so I actually will not be "forced" to go completely off the grid, but maybe a partial off-grid lifestyle might be a possibility.

Some kind of semi-nomadic lifestyle may in fact be more appropriate for me.

Or, finding some locale where I can live really, really, really cheaply until the economy stabilizes at least a little.

In any case, I have my living expenses for the next three months covered and can "merrily" sit back and watch the economic storms swirl around me, as if I had not a care in the world. Or something like that.

-- Jack Krupansky

Calling all entrepreneurs, there are only three more weeks until EntConnect 2009

Wow, there are only three more weeks until EntConnect 2009!

Whether you are an entrepreneur or thinking about starting your own business or simply need a good excuse to go skiing in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Entrepreneurial Connections conference (EntConnect) may be just the conference you have been waiting for. Targeted primarily at engineers (hardware, software, and other) and others with a strong technical interest, it is more of a loosely-structured "unconference", with plenty of opportunities for a relatively small group of participants (15 to 40) to network or even give their own presentations on a very wide range of topics from technology, business strategy, intellectual property and legal issues, accounting issues, finance, marketing, sales, and even selling your business. With plenty of time to ski or otherwise enjoy the mountains and Denver area (great time to visit Boulder or Colorado Springs as well), the conference is a great opportunity to "learn and share" and otherwise have an "out of box" experience. Participants and speakers range over the full spectrum from wannabes and newcomers to successful young entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans. The conference is an excellent opportunity to meet up with former readers (and possibly even the publisher) of Midnight Engineering magazine as well.

Visit the official conference Web site, EntConnect.org. Hotel rooms at the Sheraton Denver West in Lakewood, CO are available at the conference rate of $79.

I have been attending the conference since it first started in 1992 as ME SKI '92 and then evolved into ENTCON and then Entrepreneurial Connections or EntConnect.

For a little nostalgia, check out the original ME SKI '92 conference announcement.

-- Jack Krupansky

Brad Feld on investment vs. speculation

One of my pet peeves is when people refer to all manner of stock and commodity trading and speculation as "investment" when it is no such thing, so I really appreciated venture capitalist Brad Feld's blog post entitled "Investment vs. Speculation." I mostly agree with him and absolutely agree the we need more attention to investment and less attention on speculation.

My main departure from Brad is that I see investment as not only long-term, but open-ended, whereas speculation can be multi-year but has a target event which will end or "exit" the speculation. Granted, no investment is necessarily "forever and ever", but would normally end only when the "investment thesis" changes or our investment goals change. But with speculation, we may have a price or P/E target in mind upfront that predetermines the decision to end or "exit" the speculation.

In short, in speculation we focus intently on the end or "exit" event, while in true investment we focus on building enterprise value over time, either to achieve dividends on an ongoing basis or to increase market value over time, but with no date or price for "exit" in mind.

In the case of venture capital investment, it is not typically open-ended and usually has a fairly clear end goal or "exit" in mind, such as an IPO or sale of the investment to another business, coupled with a distribution of stock and cash to the investors.

Venture capitalists, as the general partners of venture capital limited partnerships, have a fiduciary duty to satisfy the goals of delivering an "exit" so that the limited partners can cash out both their original investment and profit within some fairly well-defined range of years, typically 5-7 years. Granted, that timeframe is well beyond the tolerance or patience of most stock and commodity speculators, but "real" investors might use that as a minimum rather than a maximum timeframe.

Nonetheless, a venture capital investment is clearly relatively long term compared to speculative activity that we see with stocks and commodities.

Another thing about venture capital investments is that they are inherently "speculative" in nature in the sense of having a high degree of risk that the principle invested in an individual company could be completely lost. Most stock investors would never consider investing in a company that is rated in advance as being at such as high risk of a major decline or even "going to zero." I would still consider venture capital as an investment since there is a fairly high tolerance to short-term adverse events of the sort that would cause a garden-variety stock or commodity speculator to immediately hit a "stop loss" and dump their "investment." Unlike stock and commodity speculators, venture investors typically have a role on the board of directors or some other advisory role such that they can help out to significantly mitigate adverse events. The "package" of high potential return and significant technical and managerial expertise of the venture capital general partners give venture capital an acceptable level of risk for the limited partners and result in it being more of an investment than a speculation.

On the other hand, venture investors do have one quality advantage over stock investors: they have very low tolerance for allowing a company to stagnate for long periods of time and are super-motivated to aggressively push company management to "maximize shareholder value."

All of that said, I am glad to hear that someone else is beating the "investment vs. speculation" drum.

-- Jack Krupansky

Should Twitter have an app store (ala Apple)?

The fact that Apple seems to be doing quite well with its App Store makes me wonder whether, say, Twitter could also do well with a comparable store for add-ons for use with Twitter.

In other words, which is the cart and which is the horse (or chicken and egg if you wish), the iPhone as a "platform" or Twitter as a platform?

-- Jack Krupansky