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In the RTP: Why Aren't You an Entrepreneur?
Published at TechJournal
1.27.12
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In my last installment of this 2011 review of the RTP startup ecosystem, I went back over some of the companies I hung out with last year. Some. Just a few. Mostly the ones who did big, huge, extraordinary things. But of course that leaves out the hundreds (and yes, there are hundreds) of equally likeable and viable companies who did not do big, huge, extraordinary things last year.
I hung out with them too, just in groups and a lot of times with drinks.
And there were groups everywhere. If 2011 was the year the RTP startup ecosystem organized, it got most of that organization done at meetups, events, users groups, conferences, and galas. If it seemed like there was something startup-related going on every single week that's because there was, and 2012 looks to be no different, just better.
There's been no better time to be an entrepreneur in the RTP. Here's why:
read the rest at: http://www.techjournalsouth.com/2012/01/in-the-rtp-why-arent-you-an-entrepreneur/
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Let's Take This Startup Party to the Next Level
ExitEvent Welcomes Investors to the Social
Blog
1.23.12
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 | | For the uninitiated, ExitEvent started in 2009 as a full-fledged business, got shelved when I joined the management team at StatSheet, spent a lost week in 2010 as a free taco truck, restarted back in April 2011 as a lark, and then exploded into something I never could have imagined.
And if 2011 was about bringing everyone together, 2012 will be about world domination.
I love saying that.
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ExitEvent is now up to over 300 members, over 200 of which are entrepreneurs from about 150 startups all across the Triangle area (including Raleigh, who made a very public announcement last week that they were getting their startup act together). Roughly 100 of you show up every month to do nothing more than socialize. Two of you have won bullshit ping-pong trophies.
In other words, there's a lot of you. You're all very cool people, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to bring you all together just to watch it happen.
Some quick math (which we entrepreneurs are kind of good at) makes it obvious that there are right around 100 of you that aren't entrepreneurs. These folks are also very cool people and very valuable to the startup ecosystem.
However, keeping the Social entrepreneur-only wasn't only by design, it was necessary. Like I always say, there are plenty of other, better startup-related events around the Triangle at the rate of at least once a week. I know. I go to most of them.
read the rest
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Return of Triangle Startup Factory
Why It's Huge for the RTP
Published at TechJournal
1.18.12
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Go big or go home.
I hear this phrase a lot lately. In some circles, it could be seen as a bubblicious mantra of a bunch of crazy kids looking to hit home runs by selling their social network startup to Facebook. In others, namely here in the RTP, it's a battle cry for survival against the long odds of starting a company in this talent-rich, cash-strapped area.
But those odds just got a whole lot better.
Last night, longtime RTP startup ecosystem guru, former LaunchBox Director, and current TriangleTechTalk and TechJobs Under the Big Top founder Chris Heivly announced that a nice big bow had been put on a reboot of Triangle Startup Factory, the accelerator he merged into LaunchBox Digital when that accelerator swung south from DC back in 2010.
TSF will now host between five and seven startups twice a year, starting this spring, for intensive three-month programs chock full of capital, mentoring, connections, infrastructure, and, most importantly, a sizeable post-program runway.
That last one is the big news.
read the rest at: http://www.techjournalsouth.com/2012/01/return-of-the-triangle-startup-factory-and-why-its-huge-for-the-rtp/
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Helping Those Who Help Themselves
Intrepid Company Relaunches as a Resource Marketplace
Blog
1.15.12
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 | | Along with founding ExitEvent and being on the management team at Automated Insights, I also own a consulting firm: Intrepid Company.
I know, everyone and their dog owns a consulting firm.
But this consulting firm never really looked like your average, everyday consulting firm. |
Now, after a whole lot of thought, we want to make it look nothing like your average, everyday consulting firm. But to do this, we're going to need your help.
I started Intrepid Company after spending years with startup technical services consulting firms. As the Internet started to dominate that space, however, I got disillusioned with the lack of those types of services firms to keep up. I also started working with and for RTP product startups and I quickly realized three things were going on:
read the rest
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Ranking the Unrankable
StatSheet Introduces StatRank for NCAA Basketball
Published at StatSheet
1.13.12
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Who's the best team in college basketball?
It all depends on who you ask.
One thing that has always frustrated us over at StatSheet is the gross unreliability of NCAA Basketball rankings, in a statistical sense, especially early in the season. Sure, it's hard to do, I'll give you that. A program like Syracuse compared to a program like Bryant? Totally apples to oranges. But a program like Duke compared to a program like Butler? Well, now you're talking maybe Golden Delicious to McIntosh. They're nothing alike, but somehow they wound up #1 and #2 not too long ago.
That is, if you're using the tournament as your indicator of who's the best.
Early in the season, the AP is a popularity contest, the RPI is a circus, and even Sagarin gets his wires crossed when Cleveland State beats Vanderbilt. Our good friend Ken Pomeroy recently posted on his blog about the inability of his algorithms to not put Wisconsin at #2 or Ohio State at #1, even though he clearly believes that neither team deserves that ranking. Furthermore, he warns that both teams will be overranked in his system thorughout the remainder of the season. No system, he states, can properly rank every team.
So of course we took a crack at it.
read the rest at: http://statsheet.com/blog/ranking-the-unrankable-statsheet-introduces-statrank-for-ncaa-basketball
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Entrepreneurs Aren't Born, They're Launched
Published at TechJournal
1.10.12
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I see Anil Chawla everywhere I go. And while my ego told me he was probably stalking me, it turns out he's been an entrepreneur for a long time, even though it's only been a year since he let everyone know.
That was the day Anil left his posh job pushing code at IBM, where he had been for over six years, to hop on the roller-coaster ride of full-time founder. Anil had been working under wraps to polish his product, TweetyMail (yes, I've spoken to him about the name, but you'll remember it when you've finished reading this column). It's a framework for accessing Twitter via email. He later expanded to TheFriendMail, which accomplishes the same for Facebook.
Anil Likes Email
But on Thursday, January 12th, Anil will be one of the five startups launching new products at the third version of Launch Day, which gets started at 5:00 p.m. in Bay 7 of the American Tobacco campus in Durham.
read the rest at: http://www.techjournalsouth.com/2012/01/entrepreneurs-arent-born-theyre-launched/
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2012: The Year the RTP Startup Ecosystem Explodes
Published at TechJournal
1.6.12
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I'll start off 2012 with two disclaimers.
One: Apologies to you Mayan calendar believers, I didn't mean to alarm you with the title. 2012 won't be the year that random Durham entrepreneurs spontaneously combust – although that could happen, it's highly unlikely. I'll make it up to you by not making an easy joke at your expense.
Two: I'll be honest with you. I don't know what's going to happen to the RTP Startup Ecosystem this year. I've seen some crazy stuff in my time here. For all I know, Durham could become the food truck capital of the world, pushing technology, bio, and gaming aside, and prompting food truck tourism and a Food Truck Alley along Jackie Robinson drive.
For all I know.
But I can tell you this. What happens in the oh-twelve is going to build off of what happened in 2011. And if you have to put a single word on what the RTP did to justify its position in the startup universe relative to Silicon Valley, New York, Boulder, etc., that word would be: Organization.
Note that it's not: Money. That's what 2012 needs to be about.
read the rest at: http://www.techjournalsouth.com/2012/01/2012-the-year-the-rtp-startup-ecosystem-explodes/
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it's the most horrible time of the year
how to beat post holiday stress disorder
Published at Intrepid Media
1.2.12
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I don't know about you, but when I woke up on 1/1/12, I felt awful. My head was splitting, my kids were missing, and my body was screaming with pain that, on a lesser man, probably would have meant a series of bruises.
I don't bruise. I internalize.
Oh, and I found the kids. They were at Grandma's for the night. Just forgot. Man, that was a relief. The cops had a good laugh too.
But as I rolled out of bed at the crack of noon, I felt pretty good about the 2012. See, long ago, I discovered that life has a way of presenting you with patterns, and the worst and most frustrating times in your life can usually be boiled down to either dismissing or denying those patterns.
I knew that the morning of 1/1/12 was going to be a septic tank. It's always a septic tank. And strolling down that same path, the entire month of January usually sucks. Bad.
Once you understand this and accept it, you have a much better chance of not only surviving it, but actually thriving in it.
read the rest at: http://www.intrepidmedia.com/content/its-the-most-horrible-time-of-the-year.asp
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The 2011 NFL All-StatSheet Team
Published at StatSheet
12.27.11
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The official NFL Pro-Bowl selections will be announced in a couple hours. But here at StatSheet, our robots have already sifted through every play of the season up to this point to bring you weekly and running grades per player by position. Is our method better? we're not saying that. We would just point out that Tim Tebow is nowhere near our top 10 QBs (#17 overall, 80.3 points = B-).
The ranks and grades you see below are cumulative of how the player performed on a game-by-game basis, not seasonal totals. There is a minimum to qualify, and where there was an injury we took the next highest ranked player. We're only including skill positions here because, frankly, we just don't have the money to send everyone to Hawai'i. So without further delay, here is your 2011 NFL All-StatSheet Team.
read the rest at: http://statsheet.com/blog/the-2011-nfl-all-statsheet-team
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Ten Promising Rookie Startups from the Carolina Challenge
Published at TechJournal
12.8.11
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Last Thursday, December 1st, I got the chance to be a judge at the Carolina Challenge, a startup pitch event for UNC students, faculty, and staff to present their startup ideas to local startup community vets.
The Pitch Party, as it was monikered (and “Party” is probably the reason I got invited, although I was told to leave my entourage back at the ranch), was hosted and run by Patrick Vernon, Associate Director at UNC's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.
I've worked with Patrick a few times in the past, once at a startup, and once as a guest for a thoroughly enjoyable panel for one of his classes.
The judges were a diverse array. They included local VCs Jason Caplain from Southern Capitol Ventures and Lister Delgado from Idea Fund Partners, as well as other established entrepreneurs, mentors, startup-friendly service providers, and members of the faculty.
The startups themselves ranged from “we just thought of this a couple days ago” to full-blown active companies already dishing out a product or service to an established customer base. For example, YardSprout, the brainchild of former HomeTownRents.com founder and Triangle Startup Weekend winner Andrew Pearson, took home the grand prize of $1000. YardSprout is a service that connects growers with people who have land to grow on (like, your back yard), and thus promotes local food and urban farming.
read the rest at: http://www.techjournalsouth.com/2011/12/ten-promising-rookie-startups-from-the-carolina-challenge/
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