Regarding Ron Kornfeld

Ron's presentation on business plans was a refreshing perspective on entering into entrepreneurship. I was surprised however, at learning how venture capitolists handled the review of business plans. A single person might be given a stack of business plans to go through in a single day. A "good" business plan in this instance might be the most aesthetically pleasing, or the one that was able to catch the reader right out of the gate. Does that make it a better business plan then some of the ones refused? In one sense it does, for it was able to catch the attention of the reviewer when others could not. That does not mean however, that it is a superior business plan in the strategic business sense of the word. Some poorly presented business plans have probably represented some of the most solid ideas with much capability for success. This style of reviewing business plans is analogous of reviewing novel and screenplay submissions. However, when a novel or screenplay is rejected that does not necessarily mean that it is no good, nor does it mean that nobody wants it. It just means that that particular publishing firm was not interested. Authors are often encouraged to try their luck many places and submit their transcripts to every possible publishing firm they can find... at least until they get their foot in the door. It seems probable that this same philosophy could be applied to a business idea. Pitch it anywhere you think there could be a slim chance, and maybe someone will bite. Also, it's the same bit with getting your foot in the door; once you've been a successful entrepreneur you will probably have an easier time getting your ideas accepted. So, as they say to authors, hang in there.

5 Ideas of Notable Interest

The first two ideas are ones I've had clunking around in my brain for some time now. The others are fairly new and are out of necessity for this class.

1. A universal product database that can be edited by registered users. If you've ever had to do data input for a retail company, you know how tedious adding new products to a system can be. I remember writing descriptions for items being sold online, little sales pitches to convince the readers they should buy this product, and then clipping the good pictures out of the PDF catalog. How many people have done this before, and for the exact same product? Most retail items have unique barcodes and product numbers, what if we could link those product numbers to pictures and sales descriptions that others have already written? When a new product is encountered then you submit your work to the system. It's basically a wikipedia for products. With the right software you just scan a barcode and all the product information is loaded into your system from the internet.

2. A coffee shop that can make you feel like you're anywhere in the world. The concept is to have a building with one wall in a giant half-circle. Projectors or another video technology cause a seamless panorama to paint the walls. These panoramas can move because it's video technology. Imagine you go in for your morning cup of coffee and find you're in the middle of the rainforest after a fresh morning rain, perhaps you'll sit and enjoy your coffee here.

3. All over the world there are amazing things happening, things you'll never see or experience. With the advent of MMO games we've seen an amazing demand for escapism. What if you could merge that escapism with a webcam. The idea is to put high-def webcams all over the world (or at least some neat places). These cameras will actually be multiple cameras in a cluster that allow for a complete 360 degree live image of the surroundings. This style of image could allow the user to look around in interesting places with a typical monitor, or could be coupled with more advanced monitors such as the coffee shop in idea 2.

4. A cubicle for those that don't want to be in a crowded office. This would probably be seen more in private settings or LAN centers. The idea is for the cubicle to be a large cylinder. The inside of the cylinder/cubicle would be a screen. Incorporated with something like idea 3, the cubicle would make you feel like you're workspace lay in the sky or in another country in the sky.

5. A craigslist crawler. The program would analyze blog posts between the want adds and the for sale posts and connect ones of similar interest. For instance if Jane was looking for personal watercraft, Joe was selling a jet ski or trading it for magic cards, and bill had a ton of magic cards for sale then the program would group those three together. The program could work for Jane, say she bought the magic cards for cheap and traded them to Joe for his jet ski. It could also work for myself, allowing me to make money just by being the middle man on the social networking site. I could buy and sell with a markup in between.

Sometimes You Just Love Something

Myself, I have worked at the same small business for the past 7 years. I have one boss, and he opened the place the same year I was born. I've never had a corporate job. I watch shows like the office and I cringe. That's not really how it is out there... is it?

Some of my friends work(ed) for a technology company called ATS. ATS did contracting work for a company in Tacoma called ****, at least I think that's how it's spelled. I don't know all of the details, but I do know what I saw, what it did to the ATS employees. They dreaded going to work, some refused to work under that contract. Some employees quit, some employees were fired. What stood out the most, however was how beat down all of them were. It was a hostile work environment, one where **** management felt it was appropriate to yell at ATS employees and recommend to ATS management that they fire some of their employees.

Who is to blame? Was ATS really that bad? Why is ATS having to pursue legal action in order to get paid by ****? Is it appropriate to yell in any work environment? What I'm trying to get at is: being in the corporate world can be just as scary and risky as being an entrepreneur. It doesn't matter who was to blame in the previous example, at least not to me, what matters is that that is not a situation I would want to be in.

Back to my job of 7 years. My boss was a tall scrawny bicycle nut who went to Evergreen to be a teacher. Himself and a friend decided to open a bikeshop together. They barely survived in small storefronts best described as a hole in the wall. Neither knew anything about business, in fact a lot of money fell through the cracks. They got their s*** together eventually, my boss bought the other half of the business, and learned a bit about business. Now the business is quite successful.

I have effectively lead you all over the place, but I promise it was for a reason. No matter what path you choose there will be risk. Pursue your dreams. You might not get there, but other opportunities will present themselves. Be an entrepreneur if you like, there's a good chance you'll fail sometimes in life, no matter what you do.