Work(s) in Progress

400

This is my 400th post since I started this blog. I did not anticipate having so much to say these last few years. Who knew? If only public speaking were as comfortable for me as blogging. 

Tomorrow we host our 7th Annual Business Plan competition. While the focus will not be on me, I am the one with the responsibility of moving the agenda along - introducing our judges and each company that will be presenting; showering our finalists with over $30,000 in cash prizes; and, remembering to point out and honor all of our eminent guests. For the past six years, the event was hosted by the prior executive director, a tall, graceful and elegant man. He could likely do this sort of thing in his sleep. He will be there tomorrow and I do not want to disappoint. I asked him whether he wanted to be the host one last time, but the baton has been passed on to me.

I am not tall, or elegant. I do not have a natural grace with words. And so, innate charm will be replaced by my earnestness and passion for our program. To me, this is the one day each year where the public can see our entrepreneurs' dreams made real. I love this.

67 Myths of Entrepreneurship

I just finished The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By by Scott A. Shane a Professor of Economics and the A. Malachi Mixon III Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University (my undergraduate alma mater). The book received great publicity in Business Week, the Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere.

It's a terrific scholarly work that shattered some of my illusions of entrepreneurship. Scott crushes 67 myths or shares 67 truths depending on your perspective.

 Let's start with #1: America is NOT becoming more entrepreneurial. The rate of start-up creation has been declining over the last 20 years. This ties to #2 - there are many countries that are much more entrepreneurial than the USA.

A few things surprised (and depressed) me:

• immigrants are not more likely to start their own businesses (#18)
• networking skill does not matter (#19)
• venture capitalists fund less than one-tenth of one percent of all start-ups and account for less than two percent of all small business financing (#35)
• the typical entrepreneur earns less money than he would have earned had he worked for someone else (#39)
• compared to start-ups led by men, new businesses led by women have lower sales, fewer employees, less productivity, lower profits, and worse survival rates (#54)
• blacks create new businesses at only one-third the rate of whites and this pattern has persisted for decades (#56)
• encouraging start-ups is lousy public policy because ... we have a lot of evidence that these policies lead people to start marginal businesses that are likely to fail, have little economic impact, and generate little employment (#62)

All this painted a pretty bleak picture of entrepreneurship in America for me. Unless you are a job hopping, now unemployed, 40 year old white male who is sick of working for others (yep that stereotype is true) you might as well give up your dream. Sigh.

But the book smartly ended with some recommendations. What businesses are likely to succeed and drive economic growth? More importantly, what should we do? Scott's advice is somewhat like Castor oil - good for you but hard to swallow. Here is a snippet:

A strategy that revolves around increasing the number of new businesses created every year is flawed. Increasing the number of people founding construction firms and hair salons and taxi services that don't do anything innovative isn't going to do us much good. In fact, it might hinder our economic growth because new businesses are, on average, less productive than existing ones.

Instead of believing naively that all entrepreneurship is good, we need to recognize that only a select entrepreneurs will create the businesses that will take people out of poverty, encourage innovation, create jobs, reduce unemployment, make markets more competitive, and enhance economic growth. Therefore, as unfair as it may sound, we need to "stop spreading the peanut butter so thin." We need to recognize that all entrepreneurs are not created equal. We need to think like venture capitalists and concentrate our time and money on extraordinary entrepreneurs and worry less about the typical ones.

There is more, much more. Importantly, all of these recommendations tie to decades of data. Get your own copy: The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By

7th Annual Business Plan Competition

Three years ago, I was a competitor in the Bard Center Business Plan Competition. The first place winner for my year now teaches two courses in Social Entrepreneurship at the Bard Center. I am now the host of this amazing event. I am amazed at just how quickly things can change, how rapidly dreams can come true.

We are quickly approaching the May 1 deadline to submit a Business Plan. It’s also time to reserve your seats for this fun and exciting event.

Event Facts

The Award: This event will present awards to six aspiring entrepreneurs and their teams. The Bard Center Business Plan Competition seeks to promote the development of high caliber business plans, recognize the most outstanding plans with cash and in-kind awards from area businesses, and encourage the creation of new businesses. The specific objectives of the Business Plan Competition include:

• Encourage the commercialization of promising ideas and the creation of new ventures
• Be a catalyst for economic development and new business growth in Colorado

Cash Awards

• 1st Place $10,000
• 2nd Place $5,000
• 3rd Place $2,500
• 4-6th Place $1,000

Special Cash & In-kind Awards

• Best Bioscience $5,000
• Best Nonprofit $5,000
• In-kind over $80,000

When: Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Where: Grand Hyatt-Downtown Denver (1750 Welton Street)

• 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.  Six Finalists Present - 15 minutes followed by 10 minutes of Q & A
• 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.  Luncheon Keynote:  Bradley Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group
• 1:00 - 1:30 p.m.  Awards Ceremony Winner acceptance

Cost:

• Presentations: Free and open to the public
• Luncheon: $50 (PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED - please register by June 5.)

Sponsorship Opportunities:

• Platinum Sponsor $10,000
• Gold Sponsor $ 5,000
• Silver Sponsor $ 3,000
• Table (10 seats) $ 500 (no sponsorship benefits)
• Individual Ticket $ 50 (no sponsorship benefits)
• In-kind $ 5,000 (services available to finalists)

For more information or to reserve your seat contact the Bard Center at (303) 620-4050 or Bard.Center@cudenver.edu

The Bard Center for Entrepreneurship is a privately funded Center of Excellence that supports new business growth in Colorado. Celebrating our 10th year, more than 1900 students have participated in Bard Center programs, and annually over 20 companies are formed and supported by the Bard Center. The Center resides on the third floor of the historic Masonic Building in downtown Denver.

The Richard H. and Pamela S. Bard Center for Entrepreneurship was established in 1996 as a vehicle to foster economic opportunities in the Denver metropolitan area. Richard and Pamela Bard's generous endowment turned their dream into the reality of creating a program that would prepare future entrepreneurs for successful ventures, as well as to promote entrepreneurial spirit in the corporate environment.   

As part of the Business School at the University of Colorado Denver, the Bard Center fosters and promotes new business opportunities by advancing the teaching, study and practice of entrepreneurship and new venture creation.   The Center provides students with education, experience, incubation, funding, networking, and results!

Notes from the back of the classroom

One of the best perks of my job is the ability to sit in on a variety of classes, especially when guest lecturers or students present. As a student I was one of those people who was always early and always in the front row. Now, I generally sneak in and grab a seat in the back just as class is starting. My office is conveniently located about 20 feet from the classroom. Sitting the back helps me to remember that I am a guest and not a participant.

Last week, David Laube, who serves on the advisory board for the Business School and who literally wrote the Text Book for one of my classes (IT Management), gave a lecture in our Business Plans and Seed Financing course. This was one of the few classes I did not take as a student, so it was fun to sit in. Dave spoke on two major topics with the first leading into the second.

Apparently there are four key attributes that are desirable to companies recruiting business school graduates. None of these were surprising but the rank order was somewhat remarkable.

1. Communication and Interpersonal Skills
2. Ability to work well within a Team
3. Personal Ethics and Integrity
4. Analytical and Problem Solving Skills (note: while these may be critical, they are also considered implicit)

The real key here is that communication and presentation skills can make or break your career. Dave told several stories of colleagues whose careers plateaued or crashed and burned due to their inadequate presentation and communication skills. Don't let this be you.

While I'm not going to reiterate his specific presentation advice here (come take his class!), I will share a model he uses to think about communication and presentation. He shared a theory on social styles that I had not seen before. It's similar to Myers Briggs and Insights, both of which I've written about before. Apparently all of us develop a preferred style in adolescence. This is innate and cannot be changed. These four types (Analytical, Driver, Amiable, and Expressive) are equally prevalent in the population, with about 25% of us in each quadrant. If you're interested, Dave is a Driver. He leads, and when frustrated becomes autocratic. Most of the scientists I've interacted with are analytical, with a tendency to avoid interaction if pressured.

Interestingly, none of these social styles are correlated to business success.

The important skill is one's ability to be versatile and utilize other styles when needed. If your boss is a Driver, you must start with the summary; get to the point first. Let her ask for facts and data if she wants it. Most importantly, let that person lead your presentation. If your boss is an analytic, you must have FACTS and DATA to back up your presentation.  The ability to be versatile and adapt your style depending on your audience is strongly correlated with career success.

Final bit of advice from Dave, tailor your presentation to the most important person in the room. You might need to do your homework to learn his or her preferred communication style but your success will be worth the effort.

Forty

For months I have been dreading that shift from 39 to 40 which occurred yesterday. I'm not sure why this birthday worried me but it did. I woke up yesterday and did not feel any different. Of course my brother wrote to tell my I was "half way done." I suspect this was the reason I was dreading. Is my life truly half over? Many of the women in my family live to their late 80's or early 90's but not always in great health.

Yesterday was great in an honoring Bacchus kind of way. I was wined and dined for both lunch and dinner. For lunch I met up with three magnificent women I used to work with.  We ate at the Washington Park Grille. I always get one of their ahi tuna dishes, in this case the wasabi green pea crusted ahi tuna. It was terrific. For dinner it was O's Steak and Seafood at the Westin with my husband and his brother who is in town this weekend. I love O's. We go for almost all birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and essentially anything important. The food is outstanding with a beautiful presentation of the meal. When they bring the plates out, you often just want to admire it for a minute before eating.

As a present to myself, I finally, at long last, joined a gym. Or perhaps I should say, I joined a posh athletic facility. Every day, I walked past the building for the Colorado Athletic Club between my parking lot and work. Yes, I have a well stocked home gym, but with my long days (often 8AM to 10PM at the office), I have not been using it. However, I generally have an hour or two in my day that could be used to work out. I really needed to make it easier to find a way. This place is incredible. Yes there are 3 floors of athletic equipment and workout rooms, but it was the women's locker room that had me signing within minutes. Every beauty product imaginable is provided. There is a sauna, steam room & jacuzzi tub. Heck there is even a tanning bed and massage area if you really want to live it up. The women of all shapes and sizes walk about comfortable in their own nakedness. Apparently the place is packed in the early mornings (before 8AM) and during lunch. I have not been there during those times and feel like I have this magnificent place almost exclusively to myself. As part of being a new member, you get two free sessions with personal trainer. I have not scheduled my appointments yet, but they've been leaving me voice and email messages. Happy Birthday to me.

I've been doing most of my writing about my new job over on our alumni association website. Reaching out to alumni has been fun. I emailed all of the people in our database last week. About 600 emails bounced back but I ideally 1100 or so are still active addresses. I've already heard from more than 60 alumni and have meetings planned with some of them.

And finally, I found this fun test over on Kyra's Art Blog (need Java to see it). I am Handy Smurf.

You can take the test here.

Quantity vs. Quality

Last night we hosted Mike O'Neil from Integrated Alliances to teach a seminar for Bard Center students and alumni. Mike does training for people who want to better maximize their networking potential on LinkedIn. He had lots of specific and actionable advice for building a better LinkedIn network. My profile is improving but I'm still missing some of the personalization features recommended by Mike (you can see some on his profile).

As you can tell, Mike is a big fan of quantity and increasing the number of people to whom he is linked. He does not personally know and has not met many of his connections.

I'm one of those quality driven LinkedIn users. Do I know, like and respect the person to whom I'm about to link? The answer has to be yes to these questions before I will send out a request.

What about you? Is quantity or quality an either-or scenario or does having a large quantity of links promote networking quality? Mike suggests that if you are associated with a large network that it is more likely that you will be 2 or 3 degrees of freedom away from the person you really want to meet. He has a point.

I learned some fun things that I did not know about LinkedIn last night. First, groups, where did those come from? Look for the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship group to be formed soon. [Edit: LinkedIn approved my new group! If you are Bard Center affiliate (student, alumni, faculty, staff) you can join here.] I've been posting frequently on the blog run by my Alumni Association to keep people informed about upcoming news and events but I'd like to do more. I think a LinkedIn group would be a terrific way to get and kept everyone (students, alumni, faculty and advisory council members) connected.

Also, there is a hard cap on how many people you can directly invite to join your network. I did not know this. This is not an annual cap. This is a life long cap. After you hit this limit you must ask that those people who have not run out of invites request to link to you if you'd like to connect to more people. Even for paying members, it sounds like LinkedIn is reticent to grant more invites. I'm a very long way from the cap.

Pondering Mentorship

Today is day 50 on the the dream job. Purse snatching notwithstanding, I love this job. This morning I held my first official advisory council meeting. I was feeling a bit nervous about this as I hope to change how the council operates and was uncertain how my ideas would be received. The chair of my advisory council, who is terrific, has spent about 6 hours with me over the past week helping me refine my meeting plan and presentation.

I am so incredibly blessed with people willing to mentor and coach me. It's funny, I used to be one of those people who was utterly and completely determined to go it alone. I did not understand group work. I wanted to do everything myself. I'd have been insulted if someone suggested that I needed a mentor. I had not realized how much I'd changed in my thinking until my Dean sent me an email earlier this week with the contact information for an amazing woman in the community with the idea that this person could help mentor and coach me in specific areas. My first and only thought was "great, thank you!" Three years ago I'd have been insulted that she thought I needed the help. Now, "oh, you want to help, thank you."

Thus my post-meeting conversation with my advisory council chair left me with the same feeling. Overall, he thought it went very well and was very good. He was trying to be nice and said he'd give it an A. I rebutted with "hey, 'very good' is not an A." This created the opening for him to say, well, we could work on your presentation style. I already knew that this is an area where I need improvement. But I now have a person committed to helping me work on and improve that area. Thank you.

A room with a view

My new office overlooks the 16th street mall in downtown Denver.

I have not made many changes to my office yet except to bring in a coffee maker. The first image  is what you see when you walk in the door. My old office had brick walls on the inside. I'm enjoying the change.

Today I came back from a meeting over in the main business school building and walked into a big surprise. The enclosed note was from my "friends at Fairfield and Woods" wishing me success in my new position.

It completely made my day.

I had run into one of my friends from Fairfield and Woods at the awards event for the Technology Transfer Office of the University of Colorado.

Our governor, Bill Ritter, gave the keynote address. The state and the university system are focusing on key areas of excellence and opportunities for economic growth: tourism, sustainable energy, bioscience and aerospace.

Through my new position, I now sit on the advisory board for the technology transfer office of the university. As a scientist, I know that many of us are drawn into academic research for the pure joy of discovery. Invention disclosures and patents are not part of our thought processes. The idea of starting our own companies to develop commercializable products is rarely considered or it is considered something that someone else might do with our ideas.

How can I, as the executive director for one of our entrepreneurship centers, facilitate the transfer of the technology out of the university and into the companies in our communities creating jobs? How can we encourage and educate our students and faculty  to think about their research endeavors in a new way? I have been tasked with bioscience and building on our fledgling bioentrepreneurship program.

I love my new job.

New Job, week 1

I'm one week into my new job as the Executive Director of the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship.

When I was doing HR training last week one of the other participants asked me how I spend me day. I half-jokingly replied that my job was talking with people. Yes I do things, and write things, and will ultimately help build new programs but a large majority of my time is spent meeting  and talking with people. There are many people to meet: students, incubator companies, faculty, advisory council members, interested community members, potential program sponsors, etc.

Soon it will be time to begin advertising our annual business plan competition. We have some terrific new courses being offered for the first time this semester including one geared for people interested in launching non-profit ventures as well as a series of classes in bioscience entrepreneurship. I wish these courses had been available when I was student. I definitely plan to sit in on the classes I did not get the opportunity to take as a student.

I have been incredibly fortunate in that three of the people who have held this job in the past have been willing to meet with me, share their insights, and give advice and suggestions. The Chair of my advisory committee has been wonderfully generous with his time, advice, experience and insight.  More importantly, all seem willing to help or provide candid feedback going forward. In these early days, it is difficult to know in what ways I will need their help or in what areas I will need their insights. However, it is reassuring knowing they will be there if and when needed.

Week 1 summary: busy, optimistic