Elevator Speech

    I had a lot of fun with the elevator speech. It was cool to see how other students ideas have developed over the course of the quarter. You can really see how the business planning process has helped them shape their ideas.
   With my elevator speech, I wanted to get across the idea that my website can help every student in the world bridge the gap between education and a career. It is tough to convey the entirety of what I want to build in such a short time but I think it is important to show that my website can (1) help a lot of people and (2) make a decent amount of money if it is done right. While my elevator speech in class went ok, it is only a start to developing a decent pitch to help grow my business.

Guest Speaker: Jim Kastama

   Jim was a great presenter. I am currently working to get a group together to go view the Lamborghini museum in Seattle. I thought seeing someone face to face that worked in politics for such a long time. Sometimes it is easy to picture the state congress as a bunch of selfish people arguing for hours on end. Jim clearly is not this type of politician(I'm sure most aren't) as his reasons for joining the political world. He gave a lot of insight into his motivations which was cool to see.
   His work in strategic planning seems pretty vague. I wish we could have had more time to pick his brain on what makes a business successful so I could implement them if or when I  start a business. i think it is a great career for him cause he clearly cares about the work he does and has great connections in the Seattle area. Really, that is everything I would look for in a business partner.

Dot com to Dot bomb lecture

    The lecture on the dot com bust was pretty eye opening. I was pretty young when all of these events took place and I vaguely remember them happening. However, I was too young to really comprehend the amount of money that was moving around. Andrew Fry's first hand experience helped to show the blatant disregard for any sort of caution in investing at the time. I also find it interesting that the idea of what the internet was at the time was different. The idea of an internet that is not "world wide" seems strange and completely impractical.
    What worries me the most about the dot com bust is that there may be a similar bubble building in an industry in the current day. We all saw the real estate bubble of 2008 from which the country is recovering. But a current bubble I see building is the student loan bubble and the cost of college bubble. There are similar signs from the dot com bubble such as students "investing" in an education that they are not necessarily going to make their money back on. Copy this with the exponential increase of college costs, colleges investing in infrastructure, and the decreasing value of a bachelors degree, there is more and more risk to getting a college degree. I see the future of an education as being MOOC(massive open online course) based. They are relatively cheap and are becoming more recognized as a respected education. Georgia Tech offers an online masters degree in computer science that can be earned in 2 years for about $4,000, which is equal to the cost of one quarter at UW Tacoma.

Guest Speaker: Graham Evans

Graham’s presentation was probably my favorite so far. First, I like that he works with a non profit that is advocating for attention towards one of the biggest issues in the pacific northwest. From there, the group discussions that spurred from filling out his Business Model Canvas were beneficial to the group in a few ways. For a while, I have seen a non-profit as a way to get a job, but not a career. However, Graham showed us the impact a non-profit can have and if it was something I am passionate about, success would not be measured by a paycheck.

I have mostly considered success to be directly correlated with dollars and cents but this gave me a completely different perspective. However, Graham’s presentation did have a lot of benefits to every type of business. I have started using his Business Model Canvas to help flesh out my business ideas. As mentioned in other blog posts, I am not entirely confident in any of my ideas. The canvas is helping to drive these ideas forward as well as help me develop entirely new business ideas.

Guest Speaker: John Dimmer

John Dimmer was the first presentation where I got the “entrepreneur” vibe. Which I am not sure if that is a compliment or not, but for me it is simply an observation. My favorite part of the presentation was how he explained the “demographic” of the windstream customer, and how that was the driving force behind their business plan. I am in a Human Computer Interaction class that says product design is about the user, and no amount of mathematics can change that. It seemed he was getting at the same core rule, in that you can introduce the right product to the wrong customer base and be unsuccessful. In his case, the windstream was what the customers in the Northwest wanted, and it was wildly successful.

His presentation on funding was interesting. I never knew that businesses started on family and friends money, I thought that was just a rumor. But being able to see the life cycle of funding a business was a bit daunting. John had a lot of experience in this, and knew the process like the back of his hand. However, the idea of getting funding still is a bit intimidating. But, John made it seem like it was just part of the process, if you are willing to work for it.

Guest Speaker: Amy Sallin

I enjoyed Amy’s lecture. It was a sort of informal, which I thought was great and everyone was involved. The business plan competition was an interesting prospect and she acted as if we could all potentially win, which allowed me to daydream about all the “what-if” scenarios of joining the competition. However, I am not entirely passionate about any of my business ideas. Maybe at some point one of these ideas will be what I use to start my business, but for right now I am still trying to do the research and see where I stand.

I think the main benefit of her presentation was helping us visualize our business plans. Many students asked questions about the competition as if they were planning on joining. Also, I think she helped push a lot of us in the direction of starting our own business.

My goal is to have a business plan that I feel is a viable candidate for this competition next year.

Recruiting and Retention

Recruiting and retention.

A quick perusal of online career forums will show you there are a few rules to live by in today’s technology careers (my personal favorite is reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions).

1. Everyone has a degree, not everyone has relevant experience. Get relevant experience.
2. Network, network, network.
3. If you want a raise, you will have to switch companies.

Rule 3 is the most important aspect here. The general attitude is that a software engineer has a future vested in their skillset, not in their company. Since all of my business ideas are technology based and would require a solid group of software engineers, so I would like to create an environment where an engineer would see their future at my company, not elsewhere. I would do this by providing opportunities for promotion, so each employee would know that there is not a glass ceiling above their head. Second, I would offer stock options, so each employee would have a vested interest in the success of the company. The third, I would make sure we were always on the cutting edge of the tech world and would send as many employees as possible to tech conferences around the world. I want to inject ideas and knowledge into my company at every level and this would be a great way to accomplish this.

On the recruiting side, I think there are 2 elements: company image and benefits. I will of course offer competitive pay, as this is a basic need for any potential employee. Beyond this, employees generally want a job at a place they agree with on a moral level. An example of this is Google’s “don’t be evil” slogan as a slight against Microsoft in the late 90s and early 2000s. It helped drive employees to Google and many would say Google has surpassed Microsoft in terms of brand recognition and quality of product. Second, I would offer competitive benefits to all employees. I would follow the German model, where employees take more vacation and work less hours but have a higher output in terms of product. I think work/life balance is key to building a quality product, as it helps lower the stress of the day to day grind.

Guest Speaker: Erik Hanberg

Erik Hanberg’s presentation was really informative. Talking about entrepreneurship is always great, but seeing someone’s journey through starting a business and the ups and downs of trying to build wealth. The most interesting aspect was how he used writing novels as a form of passive income. I have always thought of passive income as interest and dividends but never writing a book and allowing it to bring in regular, somewhat unpredictable, income. It is definitely something I will keep in mind, as I work towards financial independence.

I wish Erik would have spoken more in depth about his work with Exit133, as I am a big fan of their website. I was born and raised in Tacoma, so I would like to one day be involved with a project that helps connect the area the way Exit133 does. Suite133 was a really cool idea, as we move towards more remote type work, I think that is a basis for a new type of office space. This was not exactly the goal of Suite133, but I think one day there could be a similar concept.

In conclusion, I found Erik's presentation to be really inspirational. Starting my own business seems like a daunting task and Erik humanized it. He showed us that you can go through ups and downs and still be successful through events such as the 2008 recession. He was a great speaker and I look forward to reading some of his books.

3 Business Ideas

    My first business idea is inspired by the LinkedIn format of social media as a form of networking. However, the main issue I have run into is that I set requirements for the job I am looking for, yet I still receive calls from insurance companies to come be a door to door salesman or something that doesn't play into my computer science mindset. So I think a website that focuses on software degrees, as well as companies trying to recruit people with information technology degrees. This would streamline searching for the right candidate as there is less hay in the haystack. This could be monetized through ad space and allowing companies to pay for premium searching. Premium searching would allow companies to be automatically alerted when a candidate that fits their profile is posted. It would cut down on the headhunting costs of most companies, by cutting down the time spent searching for the right candidate.

    My second idea is an all-in-one fitness application. With the advent of wearable tech, such as Fitbit and Microsoft Band, the ability to aggregate fitness data is easier and easier. Now there is a lot of competition in the market, but no single app/website contains everything someone needs to reach their fitness goals. This app/website could track calories used vs calories taken in. Using this in conjunction with a fitness plan that tracks physical progress, would allow someone to accomplish all their goals in one place. Now monetizing this idea is where I run into trouble. You could charge for the app, charge a monthly fee, or sell ad space, none of which are particularly creative. The most creative idea I have is you charge a subscription of $5.00/month but for every 1000 calories spent (as tracked by a wearable), the user is refunded $1.00 of their subscription. So the more you work, the more you save. This would increase ad revenue as the user is seeing more ads in order to track their progress towards saving.

   My last business idea is a financial planning website/application. many already exist but they are fairly rigid. I would like to build an app that has all the usual budget features, but also has a "daily budget" amount that helps a user stay on track towards their goals. Many apps are a monthly budget that doesn't force the discipline of a daily budget. This app would have a widget/front page that shows how much the user can spend in a given day. It would allow the user to spend their money knowing they won't go over their limit, or spend money that is pending for a bill a few days later. I am not sure how to monetize this. If it used with apps like Google Wallet or Apple Pay, it could charge a fee similar to a credit card fee. However, Google and Apple may have a problem with this. This idea will need to be fleshed out a bit before I can put my full confidence behind it.

Startup.com

    Startup.com was a fairly interesting movie. At the time of the Dot-com boom and bust, I was about 10 years old and did not have a huge interest in the economy. So being able to see first hand how money was being thrown around and spent on "ideas" instead of actual concrete plans, was both interesting and horrifying. The concept behind govworks.com is solid, infact I wish it was more common, as I avoid the local county city building like the plague, so being able to handle tickets online would be convenient. However, Tom and Kaliel seems to focus more on gaining capital, than building value, which is their downfall.

    I found the relationship between Kaleil and Tom to be a bit strange. While Kaliel is brought in for his experience from Goldman-Sachs, it seems he dose not have enough technology knowledge to fully grasp what work needs to be done and what the competition may hold. Similarly, Tom does not have the business savvy to find venture capital and talk with potential investors. This is shown by the early conversations with VCs in which Kaliel cuts off Tom a few times in the middle of a meeting. While I'm sure this is a common occurrence in a startup, I think Tom and Kaliel's friendship actually hurts them, as they did not find business partners that would compliment their skills, they just went with their friends.

    Through all this Tom and Kaliel seemed to make the best of a bad situation. They used their knowledge of being part of a rise and fall to help other struggling startups. That might be the best example of making lemons into lemonade in the business world. I read an article in Business Insider in which Tom and Kaliel reflect on their lives before and after the documentary. They are still friends and have taken part in a few business ventures that have been fairly successful.

    If I start a business, this is all valuable knowledge. The main lesson I will take with me is that a "failing" business can be the first step to being successful.

What do I want to gain from this class?

    Typically, a student leaves school with their degree in hand and a list of places they will apply. It is not usually their first choice to start a business as this is seen as too much of a risk. I'll be the first to admit that I fall into this category and I do not currently plan on leaving my comfort zone. So, I suppose the first thing I would like to gain from this class is learning to understand the risk associated with starting a business, and if that is something I would like to do. As the saying goes, "Life begins right outside your comfort zone" and I imagine a career does as well.

     The second aspect of this class that I am looking to is learning from Andrew Fry and his peers. In my time at UWT, Andrew Fry has been a great resource for preparing me for a career. Looking over the syllabus, it looks like we will be having a few lectures from people with experience in the software and small business field. Being able to hear from these people and ask questions will give us an edge heading out into the real world, regardless of our career path.

    The last thing I want to gain from this class is being able to discuss and develop ideas for a technology based business. If I choose to work for a large company, a usual interview question is "What would you change about our technology?" I think the ability to discuss a product from a business standpoint is an invaluable skill. on top of that, ideas developed in this class could be the foundation of our careers or the next 60 years. Anything is possible and I am excited for the chance to see where this class takes me.