Gates vs. Easterly on Aid
January 30, 2007
Jeff Jarvis’ BuzzMachine provides a good insight into and video live from Davos.
The video with Arianna Huffington on new media and old media and politics is especially interesting.
And this post describing an exchange between Bill Gates and William Easterly on aid is brilliant.
“Easterly says that when VC companies screw up, they die. Aid agencies don
Fortune Small Business Cover
January 30, 2007
I found out this evening that my mug made the cover of the February 2007 issue of Fortune Small Business Magazine.
Magazine covers mean nothing… only the positive impact on society you make does… but exposure like this does help spread the message.
Credit on this one goes out to our awesome Director of Corporate Communications Chuck, the rockstar team at Broadwick who have made building Broadwick not only possible, but an absolute joy, to my business partner Aaron, and to the family and friends who have supported me along the journey!
Here’s the cover…
And the Contents Page…
You can read the full issue online. The article is on page 31.
A Prediction
January 29, 2007
I’m not sure where I stand on the election (I was a Mark Warner supporter before he dropped out in October) but I will make a prediction today:
Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States.
Quick Opinion: Barbaro vs. 200 Insurgents vs. CIA Leak vs. Palestinian Cease Fire
January 29, 2007
ABC News led tonight with the Barbaro story–that he had been put down this morning after feeling discomfort from his recent surgery. I am generally a fan of human interest stories–and I feel an end of broadcast update on Barbaro would have been appropriate–but to lead with that story on the day when the following events occurred is societally irresponsible.
- A pivotal battle in the Iraq war occurred with over 200 insurgents killed in Iraqi national forces providing much of the infantry support.
- Former U.S. Press Secretary Ari Fleischer testified against Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff Scooter Libby indicating Libby had leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson in 2003 and then lied about the leak to the FBI–in a possibly “high-reaching” scandal.
- In Palestine rival factions Hamas and Fatah reached an historic ceasefire that may pave the way for a solid government and an Israeli/Palestine peace treaty.
I draw the attention to the ABC Barbaro lead-off only because every day stories that really don’t matter lead off broadcasts across the world (although the U.S. is the main culprit) while 49,000 people die each and every day from preventable diseases and starvation, genocide and human trafficking continues, and a complex war that will shape the history of the 21st century rages on. Please, please, please–editors in the major news rooms across the United States, show some leadership and show us the news that we should be hearing about.
5 Bootstrapping Tips for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
January 29, 2007
Venture capitalist Jason Caplain asked me to send him a few dollar-saving tips for early-stage entrepreneurs for his great blog “Southeast VC.”
Here are the five tips I sent him–all done by us in building Broadwick :-).
- Live in your office. Forget the expensive apartment rent or home mortgage. All you really need is a futon, a computer, a George Foreman Grill, and internet access. You can always store your clothes and shower at a friends house nearby.
- Barter. Provide your services free of charge in exchange for services of commensurate value from a vendor or service provider you need assistance from (even better if you provide something with a low marginal cost, like software).
- Leverage Community Resources. Many colleges offer free legal advice through their law school to aspiring entrepreneurs and start-ups. Within your community, you can get often get pro bono assistance from the Service Corps of Retired Executives (www.score.org) or the Small Business Development Center (http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/sbdcnear.html). Many business schools also offer programs through which they will assign a team of MBA students to review your business plan or provide free consulting assistance.
- Offer equity. Some entrepreneurial-minded law and accounting firms will accept stock options in your company in exchange for payment or will allow you to hold off on paying for their service until you raise your first round of funding. If you need their services but don’t yet have the funding, it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask if they would be willing to work for you under this type of arrangement.
- Get in the organic listings. Get a website up, build lots of related content on your website, then ask related web site owners to link to your website in an article on in a resources section. By building good content and quality related incoming links, you can, over 9-12 months, get good rankings in the major search engines for your targeted keywords–which will provide a stream of free leads for your business for many years to come.
- I come here today to share a message. And that message, is: Never forget that communities are built one person at a time.
- I also come here today to share a story
Local Tech Wire Article
January 26, 2007
There was an article on Broadwick today in the Local Tech Wire.
The article discussed our announcement of seeking $4 million in additional VC during 2007, as well as our 2006 results.
Davos 2007
January 25, 2007
The World Economic Forum started yesterday in Davos, Switzerland. It’s the most preeminant annual gathering of world’s the top leaders, doers, and innovators. Follow its progress here.
Here’s one of the topics from today:
Science must come to the fore on climate change
“Technology provides the solutions” to offset the menace of climate change, said Jacques Aigrain, CEO of Swiss Re. Technology solutions must also be easily transferable to India and China - countries that Aigrain termed “our pension funds” - as they will be the future drivers of economic growth. He added that it is the politicians’ responsibility to take pre-emptive measures, although in the end “market solutions will prevail”.
Aigrain’s remarks closely echoed those of Steve Chu, Director, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who said that “without clean coal extraction we’re going to have an enormous problem”. “We have to invest very seriously in technology and encourage China and India not to make the same mistakes as the US.” The world “still has time but not that much time - a few decades - to get [progress on climate change] going in a big way”, said Chu.
35 Homes Built in Colombia Through Blogging
January 25, 2007
Ran into this blog via a link from Cisco’s Human Network Campaign and thought the story was cool…
“Earlier last year, I had an idea: build 35 houses for victims of violence in Colombia, which would take up to 200 people off the streets. My goal was to raise the money myself and hire locals to do the work. I created a blog to share information about the project, and soon had up to to 15,000 visitors per month. I raised $170,000, and none of this would have happened without the blog.”
A Public Policy Anachronism in Georgia
January 25, 2007
Just saw this on the home page of ESPN…
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=wilson
It’s the story of a young African American man in Georgia who received, and is now two years into, a ten year prison sentence for having consensual oral sex with a fellow teenager when he was 17.
Here’s hoping the Georgia legislature fixes the law and Genarlow has the opportunity to create a positive result and contribute to society in the end. Just no sense in things like this–wasting a young man’s future. Public policy sure can be confusing some times.
Scranton Speech: Never Forget that Communities Are Built One Person At a Time
January 19, 2007
I wanted to share the text/outline of the speech I gave today in Scranton, PA to the Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance.
Part One: Communities Are Built One Person at a Time
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