Fri, 29 January 2010
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Thu, 7 January 2010 Subscribe To The Looney Executive Emerging Growth Series! Follow The Looney Executive on Twitter! Back To The Looney Executive Web SIte!
You've Got To Think About Growth Beyond The Darkness! The darkness for many is the current economic crisis that has caused tight lending, more scrutiny from equity investors, and cost-cutting from clients! But you must think about growth anyway. So says Susan Lentz. Susan is the Director of the Maricopa Small Business Development Center (SBDC), based in Tempe, AZ! In a real interesting and frank discussion, Susan dishes on the role of SBDCs in facilitating business growth. She also provides some key tips including: * Back up your entrepreneurial zeal with good research! * Even most experts can't tell you if your venture will breakout or be a dud! * Arizona has a small but growing tech venture community! * Building a family venture can be ... uh, well let's say very challenging! Susan also tells a great story about an entrepreneur that made millions with a very looney idea! Now don't waste any more time. Listen to Susan's interview now! Comments[0] | |
Thu, 17 December 2009 Subscribe To The Looney Executive Emerging Growth Series! Follow The Looney Executive on Twitter! Back To The Looney Executive Web SIte!
What's Your Greatest Fear? I'd bet that facing a large deadly predator bare-handed might be somewhere on the list! But that's exactly what Tony Manuel had to do in coming face-to-face with a large mountain lion. Fortunately for Tony, the big cat decided to walk past him and go about his business. Actually, I think it's more fortunate for the mountain lion! Tony Manuel is the founder and CEO of Stan Solutions, a Dayton, OH based defense technology firm. Stan Solutions makes technology that helps to minimize friendly fire incidents on the battlefield. Tony's insights include: * Entrepreneur tips: Look for the opportunity in a crisis! * Why he's different: A family of 18 kids honed his highly competitive instincts! * Differentiation: A multi-skilled workforce means less personnel and more productivity! Tony has much more to tell. His personal story is the stuff of feature films. We just hit the very tip of the iceberg in this interview. But since he's one of our featured executives, in the coming months you'll learn a lot more about Tony as we follow him and Stan Solutions. Now don't waste any more time. Listen to Tony's interview now! Comments[0] | |
Thu, 10 December 2009 Subscribe To The Looney Executive Emerging Growth Series! Follow The Looney Executive on Twitter!
Did you know that Ohio has the second largest Angel investment group in the U.S.? I bet the answer is no! Ohio also has one of the most progressive state-wide efforts to foster the growth of tech ventures and jobs. Ted Ford, CEO of TechColumbus, joins the series to discuss tech ventures in Ohio. And Ted provides a fantastic look into one of the organizations at the front lines making tech ventures go, especially in Central Ohio. TechColumbus provides services and assistance to help tech entrepreneurs hone their ideas, launch their ventures, raise capital and grow. This includes a nationally known incubator. Ted's insights include: * Financing tips: A clear biz plan and a President with tech startup and venture financing experience are key! * Emerging tech sectors in Central Ohio: IT, medical devices, advanced materials! * Entrepreneurs need to be willing to give up control to be successful!
Ted''s excellent adventures include an acid rain trip that was a debacle at the time, but became a great learning experience! Acid rain ... I haven't heard that term since the 80's.
Ted’s Looniest Moment: Having to raise $7.5 Million in 70 days for TechColumbus. So delay no longer my friend. Listen to the interview now by clicking the "POD" button at the top left of the page! Comments[0] | |
Thu, 3 December 2009 Subscribe To The Looney Executive Emerging Growth Series! Follow The Looney Executive on Twitter!
What keeps an entrepreneur up at night? Well the list is pretty long and might possibly include: * Deciding between various options for raising capital ... but giving up equity and control in the process! * Dealing with vendors that you've outsourced to for product development! * Spending so much time away from your family to run the venture! * Tripling the number of company employees! * Investing all of your savings in the venture ... and not being paid for several months! Well Manoj Ramnani has had to deal with all of these. Manoj is the Founder and CEO of DubMeNow, a mobile tech venture based in Vienna, VA. DubMeNow is a business card exchange platform that allows easy information exchange between mobile phones. But the company has also penetrated the university market by allowing the distribution of various content to students' cell phones. In total the company has raised $2,000,000, most of which has gone to product development and marketing. Since Manoj is one of our featured entrepreneurs, we'll be following his and DubMeNow's progress over the next several months. It looks to be a real interesting ride as he and his cohorts reach near that magical 1,000,000 user milestone and attempt to turn DubMeNow into a viral success! Manoj's biggest mistake in the last year: Depending on outside vendors for product development work! Manoj’s Looniest Moment: Deciding whether to raise an additional $5,000,000 and give up lots of equity or raise a much smaller amount and keep a larger ownership of the firm ... but risk being under-funded! So what are you waiting for? Listen to the interview to hear Manoj Ramnani's story and his fund-raising travails!
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Fri, 27 November 2009 Subscribe To The Looney Executive Emerging Growth Series! Follow The Looney Executive on Twitter! Contrary to popular opinion, RFID was not a character on any Star Wars Episode! However, it does stand for Radio Frequency Identification. And it’s a technology that has numerous applications. One of those is for tracking sales data in retail point-of-sale systems. Jack Eggert, Co-founder and CEO of WeConectIT, joins The Looney Executive to discuss his company, the technology, and the challenges of launching a tech venture. Based in Dayton, OH, WeConectIT has a handful of installations and is looking for a broader rollout to additional locations. Jack and his partner started with $60,000 in friends and family funding. Now, in order to grow fast, they want to raise an additional $3,000,000! Will Jack be able to raise the $3,000,000? Well of course that remains to be seen. But since Jack is one of our “Featured Entrepreneurs” you’ll be able to follow his progress for the duration of this series. One of Jack’s best tip for other fast-growth entrepreneurs: Whatever you do … don’t under-fund your venture!
Jack’s favorite Mogul: Bill Gates!
Jack’s Looniest Moment: A very smart math PhD tried to connect to a network by simulating modem sounds with his mouth! So what are you waiting for? Listen to the interview to find out more about Jack Eggert, WeConectIT, and RFID technology!
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Thu, 19 November 2009 Subscribe to The Looney Executive Interview Series! Got IP? Copyrights, Trademarks, and Patents … Oh My! Attorney Jeff Matsuura helps to launch our new emerging growth series with a very interesting discussion on intellectual property, aka IP. In less than 30 minutes, he gives an “Intellectual Property 101” course that defines IP and the different ways it can be protected. Jeff is a pre-eminent global practitioner of IP law and the author of numerous books, including: * The Law of the Internet * Managing Intellectual Assets in the Digital Age * Jefferson vs. The Patent Trolls Thomas Jefferson had to fight Trolls … really? According to Jeff, when you create something original from your own thoughts, you’ve created intellectual property. But hold on a second. He also says that by simply creating IP doesn’t necessarily mean it has any commercial value! And commercial value is the measure of whether or not you should seek a patent, trademark, or other protection. So to learn more about how to protect your own intellectual property listen now to this discussion with Jeff Matsuura.
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Thu, 20 November 2008 Manoj Ramnani, CEO and Founder of DubMeNow, has a technology to automate the exchange of business information. The Vienna, VA based firm just launched a product that facilitates the automatic exchange of business card information for those Looney Executives that have smart phones such as Apple's iPhone. And his competitiors should be forewarned: He loves the movie "Goodfellas". As far as I know, he's not responsible for any bodies found in the East River or Arizona desert. But he does have a another successful venture under his belt!
So listen in as Manoj discusses:
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Thu, 6 November 2008 Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side of course! What you might not know about that old joke is ... the chicken might have been wearing rose colored contact lenses! Yes, someone pitched the idea of chicken contact lenses to Mark Levine, Managing Director of Core Capital Partners, a VC firm based in Washington, DC. In Part II of my interview with Mark, he recounts that chicken tale and provides some insight into the VC world: * Exit strategies * Hot investment areas * Why entrepreneurs should not be so focused on valuations Mark also discusses the value of "The Art of War", and why upstart entrepreneurs are his favorite moguls, beating out the likes of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates!
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Thu, 23 October 2008 Letitia Green is the Managing Director of The Virginia Active Angel Network based in Charlottesville, VA. In Part II of our discussion, Letitia offers up some great tips including:
Letitia also tells the tale of the time a woman pitched her a real interesting investment opportunity: A nationwide psychic franchise operation for paranormal activity! Letitia also discusses whether or not a bubble exists in social networking. Oh, and her favortie biz movie ... "War Games"!
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