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: Entrepreneurship Week

Entrepreneurs: Work on Your Conceptual Metaphors!

February 28, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Being smack in the middle of Entrepreneurship Week, I can’t think of a better link to point my startup readers to today than this blog post by Will Price, which he published yesterday. Will is a VC at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. In this very thoughtful piece, he nails one of the most important, yet little talked about, aspects of preparing to pitch VCs. Okay, it’s somewhat academic — yes, we’re talking here about “conceptual metaphors,” people. But this is great stuff! And, after all, conceptual metaphors is really what mathematics is all about, right? So, startup founders out there who are programmers and engineers can especially relate. [There’s a reason, I’ve come to learn, that so many successful entrepreneurs and VCs were math majors, or had a heavy dose of it in engineering school. This piece kind of brings this reality home.]

I now have this post on my Recommended Must-Read List for anyone even thinking about ever approaching VCs for money. Save this link, friends, and learn and practice what it’s telling you. You will need it!

While we’re at it, there’s another great piece you should check out today on Startup Journal: Young Entrepreneurs Face Higher Hurdles — worth reading even if you’re not so young.

We Celebrate Entrepreneurs This Week – Hugged One Lately?

February 26, 2007 / / 5 Comments

You should, because they’re what makes our world go ’round — well, our economy, that’s for sure. I saw a stat this morning in a Flickr post of Steve Jurvetson’s from his talk at Stanford this weekend. More than 70% of college students today will start a company some time in their life. A remarkable stat, but it comes from the Kaufmann Foundation, so it must be true. [I guess I feel sorry for the other 30%.]

Entrepreneurshipweek

Here’s the lowdown on Entrepreneurship Week, which has Kaufmann all over it. [What an amazing organization, and right here in the Midwest, too, just down I-35 a piece in KC.] And here’s where you can see what’s going on in Minnesota relating to this week’s celebration. [Click the arrow under “Activities” to scroll through everything.]

I’m for sure going to catch the Angel Investing Panel on Wednesday afternoon (after all, I now write for The Angel Journal, so, I’d better). And an event on Tuesday afternoon in St.Paul, featuring Robert Stephens, the founder of Geek Squad, should be great.

Then, I’m also planning to drop in on a talk at the Carlson School by Scott Litman over lunchtime on Thursday, which will look at several things relating to Entrepreneurship in Minnesota. No doubt Scott will talk about the new web site for Minnesota entrepreneurs and small businesses being launched on Wednesday: GetGoMN, which I’ve had the pleasure of being involved with a bit. The StarTribune gave that a nice boost this morning, with a piece on the front page of the business section called Website Calling Business Angels.

Hope to see you at some of these events this week!

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