Experienced tech entrepreneurs and investors sat alongside people who had just moved to Boulder hoping to start a company in this small city, which is breeding tech start-ups at an attention-grabbing rate. In the first three months of the year, 11 Colorado tech start-ups raised $57 million in venture capital, solidifying Boulder’s place among the country’s up-and-coming tech centers.

via Boulder, Colo., a Magnet for High-Tech Start-Ups – NYTimes.com.

KR Sridhar and Bloom Energy premiered on 60 minutes tonight. Bloom Energy is developing fuel cells and is currently funded by Venture Capital.

The Bloom energy box is a  fuel cell capable of  producing electricity for homes, offices etc… The units are “fuel agnostic,” Sridhar said, meaning they can be powered by a variety of inputs, including biomass and natural gas.   Looks very promising. They are field testing with Google, Ebay and other companies. According to the interview on 60 minutes.  The fact they they are already field testing and resolving real world issues is encouraging that this will be a real world option soon.

Here is an audio interview via freshDialogues

Currently their sites has a countdown clock set for 2 days and 14 hours from now. http://www.bloomenergy.com/ Looks like the stealth mode is officially over.

By doing a quick patent search you find that Bloom Energy has been filing patents since February of 2003.

This video show a ceremonial signing of an agreement with Kaori of Taiwan.

The promise is that you could have one in your basement powering your house. The next step would be converting household appliances to DC to minimize useless conversion loss. Most appliances take the AC and convert it to DC anyway. This conversion produces loss in the form of heat.

Tim Ferris if the 4 hour Work week is teaming up with Shopify to encourage entrepreneurship.

Get motivated.  Get your business going so even if you don’t get the prize you win!!

The rate of change is mind blowing. I was walking my dog the other day and I watched a youtube video on my cell while I was out in the field.  Not new idea but it struck me how much has changed in the music industry.  So many of the jobs I did in the past have become obsolete.

“Liquid Modernity” is Bauman’s term for the present condition of the world as contrasted with the “solid” modernity that preceded it. According to Bauman, the passage from “solid” to “liquid” modernity has created a new and unprecedented setting for individual life pursuits, confronting individuals with a series of challenges never before encountered. Social forms and institutions no longer have enough time to solidify and cannot serve as frames of reference for human actions and long-term life plans, so individuals have to find other ways to organize their lives.

Individuals have to splice together an unending series of short-term projects and episodes that don’t add up to the kind of sequence to which concepts like “career” and “progress” could be meaningfully applied.

Such fragmented lives require individuals to be flexible and adaptable — to be constantly ready and willing to change tactics at short notice, to abandon commitments and loyalties without regret and to pursue opportunities according to their current availability. In liquid modernity the individual must act, plan actions and calculate the likely gains and losses of acting (or failing to act) under conditions of endemic uncertainty.”

via trendwatching.com’s October 2009 Trend Briefing covering “NOWISM”.

via MEAT CARDS: Business Cards Made From MEAT AND LASERS.

I don’t know if I can say anything to elaborate on this.

meetup

Social media transforms Boulder business networking

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/aug/17/boulder-social-media-business-networking/

My Meetup got some good coverage in the Boulder paper the Daily Camera. I hold these twice a month one in Longmont and one in Boulder.  They are a good way to network and get feedback and learn from other entrepreneurs.  We usually have anywhere from 10-25 people show.   This is the first real marketing for the group.  I have so far only posted the group on meetup and once or twice on craigslist.

The group is about a year old and has gone through some growing pains and format changes in that time. Currently the format I have found to work well is that we meet around 6:30 for informal social networking time before the meeting officially starts at 7:00.  We introduce ourselves, including our elevator pitch and pass out business cards or coupons and usually we will have a question to answer to get to know everyone a little better.  Such as “What is the most recent business book you’ve read?”  or “How do you follow up with leads you meet in social settings?”

From there the pitching stops this is not a platform but a social support setting.  We learn and share with one another.  We had to set that boundary cause some people tried to use it to sell their products. You will get a chance to make a contact but follow up one on one outside the meeting.

Around 7:30 once the introductions are done there is a brief 20 minute presentation on current business topics.  This will help steer the conversation later in the meeting.   Once the presentation is done the forum becomes a round table or mastermind group.  People are encouraged to bring up their latest challenge or ask the group for feedback on business related issues.   As entrepreneurs bootstrapping our businesses we tend to work in a vacuum and the feedback helps to make informed decisions.

These discussions often turn to marketing and business development or startup questions we all face in business.  The meeting is officially closed around 8:30  but people often hang around to continue the round table or to break off again to more social time.

I usually charge $5.00 per meeting.  This goes to cover my cost of the meetup and any expenses on the room.  I would like to thank Cantina Laredo in Boulder and Dickens Tavern in Longmont for supporting my meetings.