Inside VT KnowledgeWorks

Summer Camp for Entrepreneurs

Business acceleration center VT KnowledgeWorks will hold the next session of its two-day Concept Camp at Mountain Lake Resort, Virginia on June 17-19, 2009. 

Concept Camp helps entrepreneurs and start-ups explore the strategic essence of their business concepts, the realities of entrepreneurial commitment, business fundamentals, and the overall business start-up process.

Here's my favorite line from the Concept Camp description page:  "How much does it cost?  Much less than a failed launch."

For more information on Concept Camp and other VT KnowledgeWorks programs, please contact Lindsey Eversole, Member Services Manager, 540-443-9100, x 2 or lindsey.eversole@vtknowledgeworks.com.

Concept Camp - If Our Magic Works and the Stars Align

From Jim Flowers, director of business acceleration center VT KnowledgeWorks, and author of the blog So you want to launch a business... 

Four or five times each year we take a handful of prospective business founders to the Blueberry Ridge cabins at Mountain Lake Resort for a two-day total immersion and general shake-down for their nascent start-ups.  In a relaxed and mutually-supportive group context, they help each other test the strategic essence of their business concepts, tighten up managerial focus, and address the unique personal opportunities and challenges of entrepreneurship.  We also make sure they have a solid grounding in the mechanical framework of start-ups, including Accounting De-Mystified and what early-stage investors expect in return for their money.

The curriculum centers on the Four Fundamental Factors in start-up success:  Market, Magic, Mentors, and Moxie; but we also throw in lots of the other M-words, such as Money, Management, and Modesty.

Moxie, by the way, is absolutely the most important factor.

If our particular magic works and the stars align, the campers each leave for home with improved clarity of purpose, tighter focus of scarce resources, a better understanding of the challenges ahead, and a more powerful commitment to a personally delightful outcome. 

The next session of risk reduction for small businesses Concept Camp is December 17-19, 2008.

Please contact VT KnowledgeWorks Member Services Director Lindsey Eversole, lindsey.eversole@vtknowledgeworks.com, for more information.

Building a Blog to Flip It

From Blog Business Summit, 10/2/08:

"Paidcontent and ProBlogger reported this morning that the Bankaholic blog, which launched in July of 2007, was bought today by Bankrate for a cool $12.4 million, and the option to earn another $2.5 million over the next 12 months.

That’s an astounding payout for the amount of time that John Wu (who is the one person behind Bankaholic) has put into the site.

If you look at the Google trends chart, you can see a very convincing argument for building a blog to flip it..."

At Concept Camp, director of business acceleration center VT KnowledgeWorks and So you want to launch a business... blogger Jim Flowers asked company founders to name their number.

Jim had to push.  I love my business.  I don't want to sell it.

But...

"A cool $12.4 million" paid for one blog.  I've got half a dozen blogs, including Handshake 2.0 and Inside VT KnowledgeWorks.

Maybe I named too small of a number. 

The next session of risk reduction for small businesses Concept Camp is December 17-19, 2008.

The Blog Business Summit post used in this business blog post was discovered using competitive intelligence software AttaainCI.

The business acceleration program offered by VT KnowledgeWorks includes member companies Handshake Media, Incorporated--of which Inside VT KnowledgeWorks and Handshake 2.0 are ventures--and Attaain, Inc., provider of competitive intelligence Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) AttaainCI.

I'm at Concept Camp.

Count on post-Concept Camp insights next week!

Intra or Entre?

Are you an intrapreneur or an entrepreneur?

According to Mohd Arif's 2008 working paper on entrepreneurship from the Kauffman Foundation:

"An intrapreneur is a person who focuses on innovation and creativity and who transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture by operating within the organizational environment. In contrast, entrepreneur is a person who does similar things, but outside the organisational setting, entrepreneurs have the ability to see an opportunity, obtain the necessary capital, labor and other inputs, and the know-how to put together an operation successfully; they are willing to take the personal risk of success and failure."

Whether you're an intrapreneur or an entrepreneur, can your idea make money?

Find out at Concept Camp.

How much does Concept Camp cost? 

To quote Jim Flowers, director of business accelerator VT KnowledgeWorks, "Much less than a failed launch."

The  next session of Concept Camp begins next week on Wednesday, September 17, and runs through lunch on Friday, September 19, 2008.

Concept Camp is sponsored by Hodges, Jones & Mabry, P.C., a financial and accounting services firm.  For more information on Concept Camp, contact VT KnowledgeWorks Member Services Manager Lindsey Eversole, leversole@vtknowledgeworks.com.

Concept Camp - Design a Life

I asked Jim Flowers, director of business accelerator VT KnowledgeWorks, this question:

What is the #1 hesitation of wannabe entrepreneurs and how does Concept Camp at VT KnowledgeWorks address that?

Anne,

I’m pretty confident that we don't meet the most hesitant ones at all.  I suppose they weed themselves out automatically. 

Our visitors much more commonly include people who are infatuated with their great ideas but have not worked through the details of their business concepts, the personal demands of entrepreneurship, or even their real motivation for considering a start-up.  In other words, they ought to be hesitant, but are not.  Our Concept Camp focuses precisely on those issues. 

We’re trying to help people reduce risk; the first step in risk reduction is acknowledgment that it does indeed exist.  Hesitant people are presumably already risk averse.  Potential entrepreneurs are typically less risk averse than the average person by their very nature and can usually benefit from structured consideration of various risk issues and how they can be addressed. 

One of the biggest risks, for instance, is that success of the enterprise will commit the entrepreneur to a life that he or she does not actually enjoy or desire.  That’s why Concept Camp also includes some work on “designing a life” as part of the process of planning a business.

If there is a common hesitancy, it is investment of the first few thousand dollars.  People seem to be much more willing to invest time than money.  That’s odd, in a way, because we can all manage to get more money.  But our time is strictly limited and hence ultimately valuable.  The only thing we can’t get more of in life is time.  So our life-time ought to be more dear to us than our money, right?  And yet we regularly see scientists spending hours/days/weeks playing lawyer or website designer or market researcher, for instance, instead of paying a few dollars for timely professional assistance.

Consider this possibility: if the business idea is not worth the risk of a few dollars, then it probably is not worth the sacrifice of irreplaceable time.

Jim Flowers
Director, VT KnowledgeWorks
2200 Kraft Drive, Suite 1000
Blacksburg, VA 24060
(540) 443-9100
www.vtknowledgeworks.com

The writer of this blog, Anne Giles Clelland, is a new member company of VT KnowledgeWorks.  She will be attending Concept Camp September 17-19, 2008.  Will you come with her?

Concept Camp is sponsored by Hodges, Jones & Mabry, P.C., a financial and accounting services firm.  For more information on Concept Camp, contact VT KnowledgeWorks Member Services Manager Lindsey Eversole, leversole@vtknowledgeworks.com.

Concept Camp - Come With Me?

As a new member company at business accelerator VT KnowledgeWorks, I am going to Concept Camp.

Here are my reasons:

The opportunity cost of not going.  What fact, what theory, what perspective offered at Concept Camp might have been crucial to the success of my business--that I missed by not going?!  The purpose of Concept Camp is to test the business viability of ideas, or to refine business models of new start-ups.  I gotta have that.

Jim Flowers, Director of VT KnowledgeWorks.  In my work with him, his questions, his leadership, his ideas, his knowledge have been inspiring and invaluable.  More, please.

Colleagues.  My experience with retreats and immersion experiences is that a distinctive camaraderie can develop.  If consciously maintained, it can result in great creativity, even power.  I so hope after Concept Camp that my fellow attendees and I are a team, a graduating class, a cohort, some embodiment, however loose or informal, that allows us to continue to serve as each other’s sounding boards and proponents. 

Early Look.  Whatever an “Early Look summary concept homework document” is, I’m doing it.  (See “Bonus Benefits” below.)  I welcome a peek at it by “potential investors and strategic allies.”  One never knows…

The price is right:  “Cheaper than a failed launch.”

I'm going to Concept Camp.  Want to come with me?

***

The next session of Concept Camp starts Wednesday, September 17, 2008 after dinner, and finishes on Friday, September 19, 2008 after lunch.

You can register online or by mail (.pdf).

Workshop Schedule
…two days of focused retreat at the Mountain Lake Resort.

• Check-in after dinner on Wednesday evening. Meet your fellow campers and prepare mentally for a busy day-and-a-half.
• Camp begins with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday.
• A full day of stimulating topics and activities ends at 9:00 p.m.
• Camp re-convenes with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning.
• Another action-packed morning completes the curriculum.
• Camp ends with lunch on Friday.
• Generous breaks allow time to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and still keep up with your existing responsibilities.

Bonus Benefits
…for all those who move ahead.

• If you complete the Early Look summary concept homework document, it will be reviewed, edited, and returned to you promptly.
• Your completed Early Look will be passed on to our Technology Partners (potential investors and strategic allies) immediately upon your entry into the VT KnowledgeWorks program.

Concept Camp is sponsored by Hodges, Jones & Mabry, P.C., a financial and accounting services firm.  For more information on Concept Camp, contact VT KnowledgeWorks Member Services Manager Lindsey Eversole, leversole@vtknowledgeworks.com.

Concept Camp - Pitching Business Ideas

I'm thinking about the aspiring entrepreneurs who will attend the June 25-27 session of business acceleration center VT KnowledgeWorks's Concept Camp on Wednesday.

To Jim Flowers, director of VT KnowledgeWorks, and to fellow Concept Camp attendees, they will pitch their business ideas.

Will their pitches be like this one from Dragons' Den?

Concept Camp - A Chance to Pause

Jim Flowers, director of business acceleration center VT KnowledgeWorks, gave me a sampling of the challenging questions entrepreneurs with business ideas will address when they head to Concept Camp, June 25-27, 2008 at Mountain Lake.

All entrepreneurs must begin with questions about the market. Jim Flowers phrases them like this:

• What significant underlying marketplace group/trend/opportunity will carry your new business to success in spite of itself?
• What is the compelling end-user need your business will address?
• Do the intended buyers already agree that they have a compelling need?

Jim envisions a conversation like this one:

Entrepreneur: "Everybody needs it."

Questioner: "I agree." (Pause.) "Do they?"

Questioner (continuing): "Is it--your product, service, process--on their must-have list and not just on your list for them?"

That's a difficult, but necessary, question for a person with a passion about his or her idea to pause and answer.

My favorite line on the description of Concept Camp is this one:

"What it costs?  Much less than a failed launch." 

Concept Camp offers entrepreneurs a chance to pause--in the company of the like-minded--and really ask and answer the hard questions.

At the end of Concept Camp, an entrepreneur's answers may avoid a failed business launch--or lay the foundational pad for a rocket of a business! 

 

Concept Camp - Two Reasons

If I had a high-tech business idea for a product or service I had invented, I would go to the VT KnowledgeWorks Concept Camp, a.k.a. Does-This-Idea-Have-a-Chance? Camp.

Two reasons:

Reason #1: Secrecy

Something about asking, "Is this good?" reverts me to the vulnerable kindergarten state of walking from the back of the room to the front of the room to my teacher, clutching my crayon drawing.

I'm not that great with crayons. I'm terrible with public humiliation.

Blissfully, confidentiality is expected from attendees of Concept Camp.

I would show up at Mountain Lake (for immersion in biz ideas and to decrease the chance that someone in the absolutely smallest town on the planet would see me), share as much of my idea as I cared to, get feedback, learn from the experiences of others, and hear in a small group instead of in front of the entire universe that the answer to the question, "Is this good?" might be "Yes," but it might also be "No." Then we would all shake hands, leave, and only my fellow Concept Camp attendees would know that I was daring to dream.

Whew.

Reason #2: Jim Flowers

Remember this quote by Jim about prospective VT KnowledgeWorks member companies from this blog's very first post?

"I want to make sure," he said, "what they create is something they really want."

I want to run my high-tech business idea by a guy who thinks that way. During "The New Economy" of the late 90s, I had a business. It created something all right, something that broke my back, broke my bank, and still stings my spirit.

It never even occurred to me to ask what I wanted. I was just running with the idea.

The odds are not great that I will come up with a high-tech business idea...  Hey, wait! A nanoblog! Whaddya think, Jim?  Should I go to Concept Camp?!

The next session of VT KnowledgeWork's Concept Camp is June 25-27.  For more information, please contact Lindsey Eversole, leversole@vtknowledgeworks.com.