startup

Anything and everything related to startups.

PITCH!

Shark Tank is one of my favorite shows on television.  I watch as many as I can in all forms- Dragons Den is where the show spawned from, Dragon’s Den is the BBC version of it.  Its a great show.  You can learn alot about business, big ideas, wants/needs, valuation, money, how to make money, negotiations, leverage, patents, product, packaging, promise, confidence, the american dream, just doing it, screw it lets do it, heck no, no deal, got a deal, insulting deal, awesome deal, what deal, who you are why you’re there, them, those sharks, who are they, what they did to get there, sweetness, showmanship, how to stand, how to act, how its shot, what was edited, how they got there, why they do the show, how does the show make people think, feel, be, and more.

Shark Tank is a staple in my “inspiration TV trend” these are basically anything and everything shows that empower and inspire people.  Everything from shows that walk you thru what its like to flip a house to whats it like to make clothes and sell it on the runway to quick fire challenges in Top Chef.  Ok its a huge category of shows that inspire you.  The biz slice or the startup slice of themed shows like Shark Tank are fun to watch, but hey, get on there, that’d even be better.

On May 15th, Shark Tank is coming to town, no not the sharks themselves but the casting directors.  I figure they’re here for a few reasons, one Ohio State is a big big big big school.  Second the midwest is getting hot, its getting interesting, its getting cool.  Columbus is getting attention, we’re netting some swanky intel action in the past 24 months.  Lots of bit press about lots of different things.  Shark Tank has done “university” theme’d episodes, odds are they’re crafting one, or seeing if there’s enough to craft one around the Ohio State “buckeyes” theme.

This is why its hugely important that we stand and represent.  So the cattle call is for Ohio State alumni and students.  On May 15th, you get 60 seconds to not only pitch your big idea, your passion, but your presence, your TV worthy goodness to the casting directors.  If they get enough material everyone in the state let alone Columbus wins from seeing our episode of buckeye pride on TV pitching their next big idea.  Other cities and universities are getting the opportunity, why not us?

This morning I talked to a promising hardware startup team of students that we’re debating the pitch.  They were even advised, mentored in town to not pitch.  This to me seems insanely crazy.  I hear it all the time really.  Don’t pitch until you’re ready, be solid, be working, be done, be perfect, all of which to me is a lie.  Its a falsehood, its a gamble.  Time is chipping away at your fragile exterior and you’re waiting for that coveted perfection nirvana to arrive.  Of course I’m just another voice in the crowd, another supposed mentor with a megaphone shouting down.  My credentials are only so much, I have no multitude fund o cash behind my name, I only have the experience i have and the success and failures and the mighty gut in the mix.  But I am just dazed and confused by the notion of not going after any and all opportunities one can to net momentum.  So many examples in my life are built on going fast and saying sorry or sweet later.  This doesn’t mean devoid of focus (thats for another post) focus is key, but you need a radar of wonder around it, and if someone enters your zone of “dude that could help by x factor” you should not just consider it but go after it hard.  If you’re early enough in the game, you have nothing to lose.  Oh so you made an ass outa yourself, big frickin deal, blow that shell off and get back to work.  I think you have to chase the moments you want down with a passion, otherwise you let elements of chance construct your fate while you think you control them.

Columbus has its own evolving Game of Thrones like startup culture, there are the doers, the advisors, the cautionaries, the wildlings, and more.  And when you want knowledge, advice, you soak it up like a sponge, some times its easier to invent your own system vs navigating the one you’re supposedly supposed to navigate.

But I think about this window, this opportunity, getting on the tank and failing is still worth about 400k in advertising I figure and yes I’m making that up, just thinking sheer size of show, TV time, reruns factor, shark tank alumni status etc.  Heck the more of disaster you are, Shark Tank stat wise, still means you’re likely to get funded.  If you rock the tank, you have a potential to win hugely.  The connections alone, having these sharks actually care about you, and their investment in you is so good, what a good problem to have.

Now not everyone has had a good experience in the tank, and keep in mind just doing the casting call doesn’t mean you get in.  But I dunno, in today’s scene where momentum is basically everything, I don’t see the downsides to trying.  All efforts will boil down to the basics, time, people and money.  If you have all the time in the world, all the money you need and don’t need any help, then you don’t need things like tank.  Course I figure if you’re in any notion of a biz, you lack all of the above and are always looking for more.

Most startups end up in a stats sheet where they tried and failed, or they never tried at all.  Being in this sheet below wouldn’t be all that bad if you ask me, and we’re saying 60 seconds.  If you don’t have 60 seconds to brag to the universe as to why you should exist, you should re-examine why you’re attempting to make a biz in the first place.

Now the kicker about the tank is that they’re less about typical startups and more about real people biz, that opens up the opportunity I think.  Columbus tends to struggle or down right divide the product biz people from the startup software biz people and then you have the consulting biz people in the middle.  The tank likes scale, so software seems applicable but in my viewing history of the show, they like products more so.  They like products and tangible things.  Not saying software is a no go but saying that the door is wiiiiide open, go go and go.  I think if I was a casting director, my formula of choice would be- is there a story here, are they camera material, is it cool, can they pitch, sounds interesting.  Notice i didn’t say its a business.  How many times have we seen Shark Tank and think “where’s that business?” how’d they get on the show?  They get on the show because they’re a good story, regardless of business, if they’re a good business even better, of course I want you have a biz and do the pitch and get on the show, but I also want you TRY regardless.  Its 60 seconds, what do you have to lose?  Represent Ohio State, represent buckeye pride, represent hustle manifested and get on that show!

 

Channeling Jacques Cousteau

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Jacques Cousteau is one of my fondest memories growing up.  My father was always watching this guy that would go to the ocean and like find stuff.  He was basically as good as Sean Connery to me, sure he wasn’t Bond but they guy was always in the ocean finding stuff.

Sometimes I think about my role at university, this explorer, looking for technologies in the sea of Ohio State.  I don’t have a cool retro mini sub like Jacq had but the mission is relatively the same, go seek, find, discover and report back to base.  That mission is one I love at the Technology Commericalization Office.

Course its not all gravy.  Much of Jacq’s life is picking thru shells on the sea floor and pulling up the really really special things.  But these days, everyone has their special thing, who are you to say this shell or that shell doesn’t matter?  Well there are tools, but I like to fall back on the basics- what’s the problem you’re solving, what’s the solution you’ve realized, what’s the dna of what you’ve injected into the big idea to realize it and tell me a story of 5 people who love it and why?  Others will beat ya over the head on competition, and market size, value projections, which are actually all valid, but to me, momentum trumps everything.  But SPEED has a cost, it cares not about what you personally want, it only speaks to traction in the market, a market where consumers jump from brand to brand faster than bees on flowers in a field.  Loyalty only occurs when you’re really really really good.

Jacq spent alot of time on the bottom of the ocean before dishing out some classic finds.  Life at TCO is similar.  In every office theres a battle plan on the wall, ideas and techs to be something larger, greater, hopefully realized.  People often think we’re sitting on this trove of treasure but its really more like a ocean bed of shells, some are more enabled to get to market to win than others.  I love an underdog though.  But an underdog product with no customer or value perception is a project, and thats ok, cause projects + love = realization in a larger level one day.

You do see something however, startups are going mainstream.  They’re in the diet of nearly every magazine and journal.  Startups, creating things we see as hopefully super awesome is happening everywhere.  Whats really crazy is that just doing and starting is starting to be the same thing.  The danger is that doing is doing and that starting up, well that implies alot more and assumes alot more.  But many folks are actually just doing but feel they need to be starting up to say their doing.  (thats deep!)  What happens is that they should be just doing but instead they get caught in the trap of “well to do i must be a startup, and startups get money to do, so where’s my check?” and it doesn’t quite work like that.  I always think every check i take is another commitment i need to fulfill.  Before seeking a check be sure you can tell the story about how without it you still rock.  Its not to say you wont get it, but in todays market, money is rarely the reason why you didn’t succeed.   Ohio is starting to shape up however, more and more capital is being injected into the sphere of startups with momentum.  Every day I work to craft and shape my focus to enable OSU related startups to rock in that respect.

Its a great time to invent, its even a better time to validate- that is our greatest asset at Ohio State I think.  The ability to invent, everyone can do, the ability to test and validate that big idea in research, applied to projects, enabled by the young minds that go on to be work force of tomorrow, what a huge massive and awesome opportunity.

I often think about the seriously tasty.. and here’s what I think is seriously tasty and needs to get to market more at Ohio State.  Consider these my Jacq Cousteau learnings after 2 years here…

  1. Validation.  We don’t give ourselves as much credit as we’ve earned when it comes to our expertise and validation we apply to the process of ideas.  Validation in my mind, is one of the next great frontiers for Ohio State.  Our ability to address, quantify, improve, validate and test across 13 colleges, with multiple focus areas not mention a world class Cancer center and epic sports department, holy cats people, thats awesome.
  2. Content, content, content.  The university sits on a massive treasure trove of information.  We create a ton of content to address well, just about everything.  We craft the narratives that teach the students of tomorrow.  We create alot of content.  All that content given its exposure to students and “practice” has inherent momentum attached to it.   The university carries with it scale, it carries city like application.  We are a small city, you ever think about that?  Pretty wild really.  Content falls under varied tiers however in terms of commercialization, thats short of saying its not all up to TCO, in fact most is out of our reach.  But the opportunities to funnel, shape, and wield that information and form game changing applications around it however are in our wheel house.
  3. Practical Applied Engineering, ok I just fudged that a bit.  But the gist is that our engineering applied to context, that holds value, equals win.  When we solve our own problems at Ohio State we create tangible living assets that are screaming to go to market.  While many are looking for the absolutely newest thing on the planet, I’m in the halls of obvious looking at folks who used x thing for as long as they could until they said heck with it and re-engineering it and made it 1% to 200% better.  What’s great about those innovations is that they all have a strong compelling narrative around them.  They breathe.  They have stories.  I love stories of suck.  “Yeah we used x, it sucked…” thats awesome, tell me how and why that thing sucked.  Just about everything thats ever sucked has come from a company, a company that probably did a fair job at getting people to buy it, course then it sucked.  But the lesson here is that proven sales channels exist, known customers are there, new innovations on top of known markets mean momentum just a few steps away from realization.  The completely new thing still has a chance to get to market but its harder, it has no other thing to compare to, it may not even have a customer that knows thats a problem they have.  I love ideas that are just 5-20% better than the now, huge opportunity- BUT you have to go FAST.
  4. Context Gold Rush.  The university represents a context gold rush.  I always love to retort to those that ask me “well what does the university offer?” (in terms of technology) and my response is always “you name it”.  We have everything.  Really we do.  And even if we don’t, we need to stick with the mantra that we do.  Why?  Because we do.  Seriously, ideas are less about specific constructs of enablement and more about a recipe of win.  You need a dash of this, a bit of that, its a mixture and universities rock in this department.  We sit on a massive bed of context.  If we were really crazy, we’d roll into any department at the med center and just for 1 day focus on next, we’d yank out about 40 ideas, 10 of which are really whole new companies. Then the beauty is that we actually have the bits and dashes of expertise to validate those notions, we need more help of course but the context of “could that work” is there.  We likely have tons of software and algorithms to apply to the venture to enable it, to refine it, and of course we have the sponsored research power to further enable it.

We are entering an interesting time both in our enabled society, radically net-connected youth and the dawn of everyone-can-ware.  Should be fun!

Speed Theory

Everyday I meet people with ideas both inside the university as faculty and staff to students and general connected community members.

I find all these folks approach ideas differently as well. Faculty ideas are rightly so, typically connected to research, hard funding, theory, validated theory, validated theory with data, academic in origin yet on to something potentially viable for commercialization.

Staff ideas tend to be solutions. Presented with problems, we invent. Solutions are born, then used, then really really used, then other folks want them, market materializes, the potential for commercialization appears obvious, though much of it is niche at glance.

Student ideas are grand, often clones of ideas already in play in the general market. Some are really vast, others tight knit and small.

Community ideas, well range from experienced focused folks, 2nd and 3rd time doers, to 1st time wonders seeking the exact manual not to make any mistakes.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the varied aspects of ideas and I keep coming back to the same beat of the drum that got me into this whole space in the first place- momentum. Its a simple mechanism, all ideas need to move beyond the talkie talk talk and on to something. SPEED is your friend, though for many it scares the heck out of them. Seemingly, and myself included, SPEED is something thats hard to grasp, and even harder to enable. I push myself down the stairs at times to get momentum. I accept that I will likely mess this up and just go. Without this self kicking, I dunno how i would of got to where I am today.

3 tales..

This afternoon I met a student who had a familar ask, I need help with my big idea. Everyone is inventing today. He wanted advice on how to get momentum on his idea. He saw development as something he lacked and so understandably, he tabled the ideas momentum until he could find development. Problem is everyone is looking for developers these days. Single greatest need I see every day is doers and hustlers. I lack both on the startup side of things on campus. Never can find enough doers to make stuff, and never can find enough risk takers to bet on the odds and build a company. This guy appeared to be the hustler but he was in a place many hustlers get stuck in, he was waiting. We talked about his ideas, the first one leveraged the masses, could net traction but to me dies on the fact he’s leveraging property (music) that he didn’t own the rights to. Just being the middle man these days doesn’t obscure you from responsibility. While the idea was technically doable, it wasn’t truly scalable due to the legal snafu’s that would likely trip him and his investors up as they would grow. In the end, the core aspect of the business wasn’t to provide a unique and better experience, it was to move music he didn’t own. It was an idea he could clearly build, but to me, would be failure in time. Build it doesn’t mean you can Scale it, and Scale it doesn’t mean you can Leverage it. SPEED applied to this problem is to quickly assess and move on. My hope is that he does. I did suggest that because you need developers for anything, he should either develop or learn to tell stories and net user engagement first thru prototyping and then get developers. The other issue is that he has no money. A common theme. To get past this, he either has to do a smaller more enabled idea that he can do and snowball to money or he has to give up half of his idea to those that could enable him.

A similar story for a Faculty member with a big idea hits a note and speaks to SPEED. Many ideas especially big ones in healthcare require LEAPING, you need to leap to A narrative that works. That narrative is a story, a website, a pitch, a hustle, a conversation and more. We have a very exciting technology that needs a champion. Asking for a champion is hard. Luring one into the fold while seemingly more work is easier. How do you do that? You make it a big deal. It is a big deal really, patents, cures, smart clinical thinking software, its a good story, the right story- now just get busy and tell it. SPEED in this case makes many people a bit uneasy. We all look for the right story, the right narrative, when in reality, every day without a narrative is 10x worse then a day with a narrative thats not so shiny. This one is tougher. More decision makers at the table. Perceptions, man, perceptions really undo the fabric of modern day hustle. But in the end SPEED again will triumph.

Staff inventors are some of the most enabled people on campus. They don’t come across focused on a paper, or publication, know full well that what they’re working on is likely unpatentable, and many assume that free is the best option to go with. Free is actually a great thing commericalization. Its how you apply free and use free to your advantage that matters. What I love about staff ideas is that they’re done. 75% of them are totally complete and not in vacuum, they’re working, breathing, operating on campus, fulfilling a need, addressing a problem, many built with scale in mind, with free in mind, on free open source thinking. Staff = SPEED to me. Here, on this technology in question, a kiosk system, SPEED is enabled. Momentum is knocking at their door, customers are arriving and we’re a bit surprised.

So when we break this down, the student idea had the most grand premise, but was purely concept, could be nuritured no doubt but many hurdles. SPEED required? Lots.

The faculty idea had best protection, best value to big impact. SPEED required, mid-high. While the research spawned the idea, and was taken to code and processed with patent protection, the narrative and lead to take to market was standing in the way of momentum. More SPEED needed. More risk needed, larger gamble required. But good indicators that with narrative, SPEED likely to be enabled.

The staff idea had most SPEED enabled. Momentum was there. Most validated idea of the three. But value is mixed. SPEED’s role is now to leverage momentum, package it and in some way convince inventors they’re on to something bigger. Its a bit of reverse than the faculty idea that would love the staff’s idea momentum.

So keep thinking SPEED people, figure out what you can do today to move that big idea to the next gate and DO IT.

Snacking on $16 Billion Dollar WhatsApp material

Today’s big big, big insanely large, massively huge news in tech is Facebook’s acquisition of the young, less than 5 years old WhatsApp messaging startup.  Boasting over 450 million users across 100 countries, WhatsApp is reportly one of the dominant texting apps amongst youth today.  The startup makes meager dollars if any at all other than a few bucks for the app, and a yearly fee.

Sixteen, yes 16 billion dollars is a truck load of cash for a young 5 year old startup with less than 60 million in funding.  The return for the VC invested in that deal is massive, and keep in mind they only own approx 20% of the startup.  The founders, own the other 80%.

Think about this for a second.  16 billion dollars for a texting app.

So you’re thinking the world is insane, you think facebook is out of its mind right?  Actually its not.  Its it alot of money, heck yes.  Its a massive win for the startup that basically built it self to where the puck of facebook would likely go.

I suspect this deal is in direct relation to audience and growth, meaning 450 million people texting on WhatsApp is 450 million people not texting and messaging on facebook.  As facebook continues to grow it continues to crave and crazily want to consume the emergence of traffic outside of its domain.  Any network, tool, system that retains information, and users who are chronically in use of that said technology be it texting, messaging, videos, photos, gaming etc, that attention factor is just exponential to facebook. It needs that traffic, it wants those users it craves that momentum, that audience, that traffic, that noise, that intention, that understanding, that data.

This is why ideas matter.  This is why growth is so hugely important.  Ideas can only grow when you enable them to grow.  When you get them out, water them a bit, get out of the way and help them go go and go.  The other beauty in WhatsApp is that it directly targeted a hole, or problem in the fabric of texting.  SMS texts got expensive, build your own network, keep it simple, make texting free.  Don’t screw up the magic.  Get the technology to the point where it is transparent to the user, adopted seamlessly, like the air we breathe, every day, we assume it is ours, we use it, dont even think about it.

WhatsApp became oxygen, and Facebook craves it.  16 billion is one massive payday result.  Odds are it was optimal timing, driven by the VC who with the founders new and exploited facebook’s weakness for oxygen.

The lesson we can bring back down to earth for the rest of us in buckeye town is simple.  Ideas matter but only if enabled, given water, and grown.  Too complex and we lose the user.  Too unknown and we confuse the user.  Too simple?  Can that be a problem?  There was a vision and strategy applied to WhatsApp, in the beginning they were likely laughed at a 1000 times for building a texting app.  No real business model would of laughed them out of the state.  This can and does happen today.  Crafting the correct narrative with the vision that explains a potential 16 billion dollar fate scenario and those willing to fuel the risk to retain it, reap the rewards.

Remember 88% or more fail, by design.  Odds are always against us.  Hone the craft.  Be the narrative.  Be the first critic to your own party, learn, pivot, endure, enable, go forth and collect that 16 billion win fall!  Believe!

Only way to win is to PLAY!

This morning faculty member, inventor, all around amazing hustling for her big ideas, Melissa Bailey, OD, PhD in the College of Optometry presented her IXM Eye Exam application in an iPad at the College of Medicine’s Big Idea’s for Health event.

Melissa has been one of our stellar faculty members working on the commercialization of one of her inventions, essentially doing eye exams on an iPad.  Her story for me started many many months ago.  Disclosed to our office as a mathematical algorithm to do specific types of eye phoria test measurements easier, our office engaged, I went out to meet her, we rambled on ideas and talked about implementation examples.

Lets see we need a camera, a computer, and a light ok… so… ummm what about an iPad?  Lets try it.  Melissa had already been experimenting but we needed more.  Convert the code, try some examples, wow that works, validate the science a bit more.  Hey we’re on to something.  Add a dash of ok what is this business, even better!  Next up the narrative, gotta work on the narrative.  Then its pitch time.  We’ve done dozens of pitches.  The more we tell the story the more people see the potential.  This morning’s debut for her at Big Ideas on campus, was another resounding wow from audience members along with tons of questions, all of which is good.

After hear of her excited “I won!!” this morning, which means she moves on to a final round of pitches and a potential to win 10k.  I thought of the many steps we had to take to get to where we are today.  And every tech idea has to do this.  It all starts with a conversation, and then a ramble, a brainstorm of what could be.  Sure we get into the dance of patents and code and concept and validation etc, but vision is key, (no pun intended!) for realizing the big idea.

Melissa is hopping her way down and soon her idea will go to full execution and a business will be formed and will take her hopes and dreams to market.  Good times!

The Venture Capitalist will see you now…

Today I had an conversation with a staff member who has a big idea and is pondering the whole side of life in what its like to have a big idea, and how to see it go out there in the big crazy world.  His idea isn’t connected to his daily life at Ohio State, but he still wanted help, connections and direction.  So we rambled a bit about aspects of the big idea and he went through the motions of patent, fear of people taking the idea, how to make a story of the idea, how to get traction on the idea how to make the thing live and be safe, but awesome and so on.  It was like going through all the ranges of motion when it comes to ideas.  Fear, doubt, joy, awesomeness, mastery, more fear, delusion, more fear, hope, etc..

We touched alot of points in 15 minutes.

I don’t like to talk people out of whatever they want to do, I just try and shed light based on experience, and more so i try to align action with the direction they want to go in.  Some of my friends feel I’m too soft on folks, but what they don’t realize that i’m always thinking speed, and i think forcing my opinion to him isn’t a speed increase, because he doesn’t own those thoughts, its a temporary fix that for a short term may work but in end, he’ll lose speed if he doesn’t own his own data, his own gut on what to do next.  Empowering people is far more powerful.

One common theme in many of these conversations is the notion that you’re not alone with a big idea in todays world.  This is not to wig out, its to remind you that we’re in a highly competitive idea space today and that everyone is inventing.  Its those with crisp and tasty, digestible narratives combined with great tech and vision of what is to be next and the footing and foundation to build from, its those ideas that foster tomorrow, its those ideas that I see get in motion, get the holy grail of traction, savor the cup of momentum.

At one point in the conversation we talked about the classic argument of NDA’s and investors.  And ya know investors are seeing this photo up here in my mind.  When it comes to them seeking out tech, yes they value the NDA, but there is no shortage of people at their front door with ideas.  The big idea or debate isnt over NDA’s, paperwork is the last thing that should be on your mind.  You should be working and crafting that narrative.  You want great investment?  MAKE them come to you.  You should never be in line.  Being in line is the first mistake. Now thats a classic cocky sense, but I never want techs and ideas i work on to be dependent on that line.  I want to be far ahead of that, I want the proof that we matter, the narrative is crisp, the story is buzz worthy and the investors come to me.

Not all ideas can do that, but the only thing that stands in their way is rarely ever the core idea, its almost always hustle.  How bad do you want your big idea to succeed?  For this guy, he’s mostly in the way of the big idea, all those human aspects, fear, doubt, etc, real? Not really, the biggest thing he’s got to do is get out of the way, apply hustle, craft story and own.  GO!!

Lessons of the Yale Bluebook+

This morning I read a post on the Washington Post about the Yale Bluebook+ project.  Its a story of student driven innovation in the very place they dwell and learn in, a playground going through vast amounts of changes and disruption in todays world- education.  We’re seeing it on multiple areas, how we learn, buy, study, take tests, attend classes, etc.  Campuses today are just playgrounds for ideas and experiments, research and learnings.

There’s a few ways to read that article, and like any article you’re often compelled to take sides.  I think thing that grabbed me the most was the energy and creativity thinking that went into the problem solving aspect the students wanted to explore and change from their perspective.  I often think about, how do we harness and capture that but within the parameters to execute it in the university setting.

I rambled about this topic today on a podcast I do for fun (i’m a chatty person).

Listen in…

48 Startups

48 wonderful startups took to the floor of our front office to tell the planet, we are here, this what we do, this is how we bank, this is the help we need central ohio!  4 a month, thats 48 a year, hot dang!

WakeUp StartUp is a monthly startup pitch event I’ve been thankful to be part of since the rekindling of the TCO effort here at Ohio State.  Its a great forum for ideas to market mentality.  It occurs like clockwork every 2nd friday of the month at 730am here in the South Campus Gateway at TCO.

Every event packs in over 100+ people ranging from curious newbies, to experienced entrepreneurs, to software developers, ad agencies, law firms, venture capitalists, moms, students, scientists, bakers and beer makers.  Any and all are welcome.  Its a great event and next year I look forward to being part of another 48 startups many of which may succeed, many of which will fail, and all of which will learn and believe and continue to propel the dream.

Stay frisky Columbus!

Ohio Game Developer Expo

This past weekend I attended the Ohio Game Developer Expo, participating on a “creativity” panel.

This was a very well put together event.  Its production values, what’d call everything from website, to organization, to things you can do and the level of setup, speakers and such were over the top.  The themes present while focusing on gaming drew a ton of parallels to everything in startups, what we focus on at Ohio State at TCO and more.  It was a really interesting event.  The vendors room was booming with indie game developers show casing their varied technologies, products, visions.  It felt crowded, comfy, happening, good stuff.  Bonus material in the speaker talks, well informative, good stories of trying, building, failing and trying again.

I look forward to the video, of which I’ll post here as soon as I see some on the site.  Until then, you can check out the site itself at Ohio Game Developer Expo.

One thing that it verified for me and this is something i’ve been chewing on for a long time but “startup” people are different than these people that went to the Game Dev expo.  Yet they are the same people.  What I mean by that is what you when start labeling things as startup this or business that etc, you market toward this other audience that gets that, or buys into it, but the folks at the game expo in my opinion are the doers behind startups.  Everyone in that vendor room was a startup, they just didn’t call themselves that.  So while we beat the startup drum hard in town, we effectively alienate a whole sect of people because they just don’t affiliate themselves with that word.  Which is the lesson, words don’t matter, only action and momentum do.  These folks knew just as much about starting up than anyone i’ve ever met.  They’re actually more enabled because most of them were developers as well.

We need to co-mingle more.  Startup heads, get to game dev expo, meet these people, see what they’re doing.  Game dev people, same.  But on the side of startups, we’re always lacking people, its always the same crews, same faces, new blood not intermixing because we’re talking to them.  To change the scene and keep it fresh, we need to mix more often.  We need to foster the trends/vibes in place, we need to learn from Ohio Game Developer Expo audiences.  Because the topic of starting and doing and winning is the same.

Startups: Heroes2u

Let’s talk student startups. Actually these guys graduated but the idea started during their senior years at Ohio State.

Heroes 2 U is a startup that basically connects mentors and celebs with fans, they basically capture a video chat and questions and donate the participation funds around the chat to a charity.  Webchats for causes.

John and Jeremy are two Ohio State grads that started working on the idea about a year ago.  I met through the university when they came through the TCO office looking for help and mentorship.  I like them alot, and that’s the key note.  I like these guys, these two students exhibited a kind of hustle trace, and that trace tells me they will make something happen and they did.  They persistently endured the startup challenges and have built something.  They willed it into existence.  They talked to dozens of users, customers, investors and mentors, they got kicked around a dozen times and resurfaced and executed on their vision.

Tonight I had the pleasure of being one of their first heroes, chatting with 6 students at Ohio State who all kicked in a few bucks and that all went to a charity and we talked about startups and lessons I had learned and shared with them for 45 minutes.  It was a great conversation and great experience, and this is why I love helping people build their dreams, i get to be a part of something.

There is a bug on campus and its called entrepreneurship, and its spreading.  More and more students are building, believing and trying and its truly infectious.  Talking with seniors tonight who all want to go and build and try, and fail and try again was great.  John and Jeremy are part of that world they’ve done it.  They’ve endured the hardship, the questioning of whether or not they have anything to the we’re gonna do this and make it go.  They found an investor, built a product, have a vision and now they’re in the traction game, and its gaining speed.  Buckeye born innovation at hand.  Love it.