Entrepreneurness

I recently met with a CEO of one of the most morally ethical companies I have seen in a while. It was great, just by talking to him, you just get a great feeling about what he represents and stands for. The company does each faucet of business well, from utilizing resources, business practices, treatment of people, and even the reason why the company was founded was for good reasons. His actions have reinforced what I know to be true, especially a very important factor. The #1 reason why you do anything should not really be only for money. It makes sense to work hard and be rewarded financially. And it also makes sense that one needs to earn money to feed and support family and one's self. But, to start a company or business for the sole reason of making money means that there is no product or service that you are selling that is truly meant to benefit anyone but yourself. And once you go down that path, I'm not sure there is a way to turn around. Look at Wall street....

This week I went to my first Venture Summit with Always on. It was held at the Ritz Carlton at Half Moon Bay. The summit was a great experience. First, there was a cocktail opening where there was a lot if mingling and passing out of business cards. I think it was easiest to network at this time, it seems like with a drink in hand, everyone could breathe a bit easier. I met a couple of people from Israel, who were very nice, and some people who worked for Always on and were hosting the summit. It was nice to talk to everyone and hear everyone's interesting ideas and what brought time to the conference. There was a diverse skill set of people from bankers, to CEO's, to lawyers, and a handful of venture capitalists. The presentations the next day were actually pretty interesting to hear, but a lot of the same information did present itself...The effects of the economy on startups. So, ironically, it's supposedly a great time to start a business, but the liquidity to s...

This thanksgiving, instead of traveling to friends and family, I stayed behind to work on my business plan. Apparently those things take longer than one would think, it's a good thing that our last class was delayed a week! I've been able to gather tons of articles by: 1) Going to my local library and accessing the online resources with my library card 2) Going online and finding industry relevant magazines accessible for free online 3) Taking advantage of my student status at Stanford to access their library resources 4) Google searches I've been able to gather lots of information and learn many important things about the industry and how my concept would be received and successful on the market. There is one problem though, it's been extremely hard to find industry data. Those cold hard facts that actually attribute an idea to the bottom line, money. There are lots of market research firms out there that do this research, and can provide you with the data, but t...