Students Starting Businesses

One of the many reasons I love my job working on a college campus is because I get to attend meetings like I did last night. This meeting was not something that was created by a faculty person and it wasn’t created by someone in the administration of the school trying to start a club. Rather, it was a gathering of students from across Syracuse University who are interested in starting a business. The meeting itself was the idea of students and was promoted by students to our students. The four of us who attended who were over age 22 were there as helpers to the process and to pay for the pizza.

The group is calling itself iVenture and the event will be the first of many such gatherings to help students from the business school meet students from the “I” school, help students from engineering meet students in the sciences, etc. On a campus, there is an incredible collection of talent, both from the faculty and administrative side, but more importantly from the student side. All too often however, we get caught up in the “silo syndrome” which makes it hard for students to meet their counterparts who can certainly help them.

As I was talking to one of the students, I saw the incredible power of this process. One of the students was talking to me about an idea he had, but had hit a technical roadblock. He wasn’t sure where to go with it, but standing next to me and listening was another student. The second student had the expertise to solve the first student’s problem and after a quick introduction, the two of them stepped aside to talk. As for me, all I did was smile. Great stuff happening on a campus and I get to be a part of it. Is this a great job or what!

The End of the Free Lunch (again)

Take a look at this from Allen Kupetz on Web 2.0 and the end of free.

The Future of Less: Internet Companies: The end of the free lunch (again)

Groundswell

When I wanted to learn more about social media, I sought out someone to teach me about it. Fortunately for me, Mark Carbone was interested in answering all of my stupid questions about all things Web 2.0. But if you don’t have a local “Mark” then you might want to read Groundswell by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li. Orlando-based author and friend Dwain Deville suggested I read it, and I liked it so much that I bought copies for all of the judges for the business plan competition that we’ll be running here at Syracuse University. I also came across the blog written by the authors of Groundswell and that too is something worthwhile to add to your Google Reader.

Be Relentlessly Resourceful

Nasir Ali, the president of the Technology Garden in Syracuse, sent me a great piece by Paul Graham ( a writer, entrepreneur and one of the partners in Y Combinator) called Be Relentlessly Resourceful. According to Mr. Graham, he “finally got being a good startup founder down to two words: relentlessly resourceful.”

By that he means a founder of a company must be “Not merely relentless. That's not enough to make things go your way except in a few mostly uninteresting domains. In any interesting domain, the difficulties will be novel. Which means you can't simply plow through them, because you don't know initially how hard they are; you don't know whether you're about to plow through a block of foam or granite. So you have to be resourceful. You have to have keep trying new things.”

For those really interested in starting up a business, take a look at Mr. Graham’s summer project.

It's All About the Espresso

For a bit of fun, read the article from CNBC.com about espresso makers and the executive office of the European Union. The economy must be much better over there if this is what they have time to worry about.

Building Buzz

An entrepreneur in California passed along this article from the Los Angeles Times: Building Buzz for An Eco-Boutique by Cyndia Zwahlen. While my entrepreneur friend agreed that this particular business may not be the best to launch in this marketplace (unless you happen to be in California), the notion of “Building Buzz” is something that we need to consider. In the article, take particular note of establishing your on-line presence in a way that’s much more than just a “me-too” website. Also give real energy to networking and partnership development; two areas of opportunity for small companies.

Trust

People trust business less this year…now that’s a surprise, right? Edelman PR has come out with their annual 10th Annual Trust Barometer, and it appears that the world is trusting everyone less these days. Trust in corporations is down, trust in information sources is down and as a result, this lack of trust is triggering a desire for more government regulation. In their global sample of 25 to 64 year olds, “by a three to one margin respondents say that government should intervene to regulate industry.” They go on to add that “in the United States, not even half (49%) say that the free market should be allowed to function independently.

In a related piece, today’s Wall Street Journal, one of my favorite writers, Daniel Henninger, deals in his opinion column with the lack of optimism in the US.

This week's NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds President Obama with a 60% approval. That's high alright, as in high anxiety: 44% say the nation is "off on the wrong track," 41% see it headed in the right direction, and 15% of respondents are in a gray fog.
I have a poll question: Has anyone in America had a single upbeat conversation about anything the past three weeks?

So how do we change this mindset in the country? This is starting to remind me of the Jimmy Carter days of “malaise.” This change won’t come from the government and goodness knows it won’t come from the big companies…so where will it come from? To me, it will come from us…the entrepreneurs who have been and will be the engine of growth for our country.