Patriotism in the Tech Venture

We were short a software engineer for most of today, but for the most fortunate of reasons:

Originally from Shanghai, our developer spent a lot of the day in front of a judge becoming a citizen! (more…)

Oklahoma’s Human Capital: Why it is a Problem and Why it Matters

I usually write about general venture development and tech start-up topics, but this topic is really important to me, so I’m going hyper-local today.

Most of the time, I’m in Oklahoma or Texas, where my companies are based. I grew up in Oklahoma City, born from a long line of Oklahomans, and care passionately about the future of this place and its people.

But Oklahoma has a serious problem.

The evidence is mounting and it is damning: Oklahoma needs a serious policy change in order to compete effectively in the 21st century economy.

I had lunch with David Holt, the chief of staff to the mayor of Oklahoma City, awhile ago. He is currently running for the state senate and asked me what could be done to improve the state.

I gave him one simple exhortation: Do not fail to develop Oklahoma’s human capital, or we will be left in the dust as the rest of the nation and the world stampedes past us, into the 21st century’s knowledge economy.

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Honoring Those Who Serve and Sacrifice with Help Starting A Business

Earlier this year, I posted a tweet about a dinner I was attending as a volunteer mentor to the Veteran’s Entrepreneur Program. There were several inquiries after my tweet, and I promised to tell you more.

So today, Memorial Day, I wanted to mention this program again and provide some links for those who might know a disabled veteran who could benefit.

VEP 2010 Delegates (From the OSU VEP Program Website)

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Blog Roundup: The best I’ve heard… Clean up that hairball before you try to sell it to somebody else!

Excellent post on some of the pitfalls that entrepreneurs run into when raising funds for their startup after their A Round of investment:  Want to Raise Venture Capital More Easily? Clean Up Your Own Shite First

(He’s got a gross photo to kick off his post. Be warned… !)

The thing to remember about the points that Mark Suster raises in this post are that they apply even to many initial valuation negotiations, or post-angel rounds.

If you don’t have a realistic outlook on the value of an early stage company – before a lot of the most difficult execution, monetization, marketing and sales have taken place – and don’t plan for later rounds at reasonable valuations, you may get stuck.

That can happen because of market changes, as this post discusses, or it can happen because you don’t have reasonable expectations to start off.

My advice? Get professional advice before pricing your offering. You and your company will benefit and your fund-raising efforts will be much more likely to succeed with a defensible valuation and reasonable terms, even if you do have to lower the share price.

Wrap-up: Oklahoma Entrepreneur’s Conference 2010

I had the pleasure of speaking at the recent Oklahoma Entrepreneur’s Conference 2010 on a panel about the rules of the road:

Successes to Copy, Failures to Avoid – “Entrepreneur Panel – Moderated and structured panel discussion focused on the best and worst of the entrepreneurial experience and how they met each opportunity.”

I got a chance to talk about some of the best and worst hiring decisions I’ve made in my ventures over the years, as well as how intellectual property risks play into many of the businesses in which I’m involved.

The quick take-away from my answers? Hire slowly and fire fast.

Take serious care about whom you put onto the bus, and if you know someone isn’t performing or is poisoning the barrel, fire fast. It may be a cliche, but it best sums up how to avoid the worst mistakes I’ve made, and that most experienced entrepreneurs will admit having made.

Another entrepreneur mentioned one of my least favorite pitfalls: Client payment risk and defaults on large projects. Ouch. I’ve been through that one.

I also enjoyed talking with several audience members afterwards about their ventures and may have new portfolio companies soon to discuss as a result.

Put on by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and organized by Shelli Todd, the conference was definitely entertaining this year, with social media educator and author Chris Brogan providing the keynote.

Hopefully the panel videos will become available soon from the Department of Commerce so I can share them with you here…