Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Tag: American

A Tribute to an American Entrepreneur

August 18, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Gary Doan represented the best of any tech founder I’ve had the privilege of working with — and I’ve worked with scores and scores of  them over my three-decade+ career. Sadly, we lost Gary last week, and I feel like I’ve lost one of my best friends.

Even though I hadn’t seen him in a year or more, I had such a bond with him. We frequently chatted online… about tech, about local news, about national events. So learning of his passing was a shock to me. No – not our Gary!

But I have many great memories and stories. I wrote a lengthy post about him on LinkedIn today. In it, I referred to a full scan of a really great cover story that appeared in our local Minnesota Business magazine. Here it is as a PDF:

GaryDoan-MNBusinessArticle-2004

(That’s the cover you see at right.) Gary had just launched his third tech startup at that point. He pulled me into that startup soon after this story, and it was an amazing experience.

Please go read that full article above, and the LinkedIn post. And do comment there on LinkedIn if you knew Gary. He was an inspiration to many!

 

The Clear and Simple Solution to the Current Downturn: The Entrepreneurial Economy

December 20, 2008 / / 2 Comments

The big answer to our current economic plight is not a new one: it is staring us right in the face. It has brought us out of many a recession before this one, and it will do so again. It is simply this: the ingenuity and perseverance of the American entrepreneur. Something never be taken lightly! 

I was delighted to recently stumble across a blog post from GrowThink entitled The "Downturn" — Keeping Things in Perspective, by the firm's founder, Jay Turo.  It is so good, I just want to do everything I can to spread it. GrowThink-blog
I *so* wish I would have written it, because this every message has been going around in my head for some time now. And it's a message I guarantee you won't get from the mainstream media!

I wanted to call it out here as required reading.  What you should get out of it is this: stop paying attention to the "woe-is-me" media … flight negativity with every bone in your body … and do everything you can to support our country's strong, ever-committed entrepreneurial economy.  It is THE major source of new jobs and wealth creation in this country, and we all benefit from it greatly in myriad ways, directly or indirectly.  It has been, and will continue to be, what makes our economy grow, and our country great.  And no recession can hold it down!  People, layoffs are about the past — the entrepreneurial economy is about the future…and change, positive change!!

I believe the year 2009 will bring great things, and I'm very proud to say I'm a supporter and believer in American Capitalism.  It is the best political and economic system in the world, and it's a strong now as it ever was.

UPDATE 12/22/08: I was delighted to see that my friend Brian Solis wrote an *absolutely awesome* post on TechCrunch the day after I posted the above, called Fear Kills Businesses, Dead.  It's a great complement to what I'm saying here in my post.  There are so many reasons for businesses to be positive — yes, right now — particularly if you're a lean, mean, nimble tech startup!  Read this post by Brian, and take it to heart!  It even quotes my friend and past client Steve Larsen, who used to be based here in Minnesota.  (See an article I wrote on Steve earlier this year, which appeared on "Chief Executive" magazine's site: Zen and the Art of Startup Maintenance.)

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