Report from Job Generation II - May 2010

Speakers:Will Porteous, General Partner, RRE Ventures
Paul Borgese, Digital Strategist, AP
Graham Lawlor, Ultra Light Start-Ups

Hosted by Alan Brody

 

[Job Generation is covered again on NY1.]

Job Generation II unfolded yesterday at Herrick, Feinstein, LLP on Park Ave. Now with a revised format and your host Alan Brody, back at the helm, this event moved at a quick pace showcasing new business ideas and interesting executive crossfire.
Job Gen is where Executives have the chance pitch Entrepreneurs with their ability to manage, rethink, grow, finance or otherwise get a Start-Up off the ground.
There is always a VC in residence - in this case Will Porteous of RRE Ventures - and a couple of sidekicks, Graham Lawlor, Founder of Ultralight Startups and Paul Borgese, a digital strategist with Associated Press.
This new format moves quickly with entrepreneurs not only being able to tell their story to the investment community but also to find out what a brain trust of savvy execs would make of their enterprises. For most of them it was invaluable advice.
How many Start-Ups understand the true value of their company? How many know how to position it or who to sell their services or products to. Our savvy group weighed in with enough good insight to improve their chances of growing their businesses and raising capital.
We began with a quick story from Tommaso Trionfi of Lusyte who helped a social media start-up, running out of money, to raise what today is an unheard of amount of money - close to $1 million - simply by spending time with them and reshaping their business plan.
On that note we moved into our presenters:
Bahar Gidwani of CSRhub.com was advised to become a kind of Moodies of socially responsible companies and consider bringing on a famous spokesperson in lieu of or as a way to raise money.
Paul Orlando of chatfe.com, a voice chat system, was advised to take the enterprise route - selling it to companies that need to call up for internal advice between employees.
Autoslash’s Jonathan Weinberg, a discount car rental booking service was advised to find a travel partner.
Dora Tarver’s e-projectmanager.com ran into some crossfire from execs who saw her as competing with the giant Project Manger’s Institute. But execs in the audience saw a difference picture and were encouraged by her 16,000 project manager subscribers worldwide. Adding a social media angle seemed like an obvious and potentially lucrative route.
ConeXus’s Hunter Cohen, a kind of behavioral targeting method by tracking social media relationships, was advised to find a media partner - no small task.
The executives on the panel voted the Most Valuable Players were:
Dan Cohen, as Chief Executive Officer, clearthink.com
Laura McCann Ramsey, as Chief Marketing Officer. Wsywygllc.com
Other participants included: Bill Reinisch, XIV River; Martha Lorini, Bill Simon and Paul Wegener, waveberg.com

What’s the Secret Sauce in an Out Sourced World?

Are you a linchpin or a munchkin? We have an answer…..and its management.

David Rose’s keynote at NY Entrepreneur's Week put the question of what is valuable in a "virtual business world?" Once upon a time, Ford Motor was a vertically integrated company with 100,000 employees in the Rouge River plant making everything it needed down to the actual paper in their car manuals. Same with Fleischmann’s yeast in Peekskill, NY. Nowadays, only a fool would operate that way when you can outsource everything, minimize your overhead and start a business on a dime.

Great, but then who holds value here? The Entrepreneur, of course – you can’t outsource Entrepreneurs, said Rose. You could feel the room swelling at the thought of being the economy’s new linchpin (as defined say, by guru Seth Godin). But then they heard that only about 1% of start-ups ever get funded and, in the virtual, cloud-y, outsourced age, they don’t get that much by way of valuations, thereby making them feel more like economic munchkins. 

Despite that, the investors all say the bet is not on the idea, it is really on you, the entrepreneur and your ability to execute. You are the real talent.

Its been my experience that anytime someone calls you a genius - or linchpin, for that matter - they are definitely not paying you, or they are paying you more compliments than cash. You may be a genius Mr. or Ms. Entrepreneur but not a rich one and not with a lot of equity to hold on to.

Still, the entrepreneurs hang on to every word hoping to hear where that check is coming from. And for how much! That is obviously the purpose of Entrepreneurs Week. But should it be, when in age of 8.4 million unemployed where the cheapest resource may be talent and not Angel VC dollars?

In the outsourced world, why do you even need all this investor money when you can get most of the development on your own dime with a credit card or two and some friends and family money? One answer is that many Start-Ups think of Investors as a kind of jackpot winning. The other is that they think investment translates into sales.

It does neither.

Even Rose complains that only 1 in 10 of his investments pan out.

The thing that matters, the secret behind the sauce and the thing no-one was talking about is the management. The entrepreneur may be like Dave Brubeck, but Dave (and I have seen him play) needs at least 3 really professional musicians to make his sound come alive. That’s management. He may be CEO of his jazz band but those players are not lackeys, they are key ingredients to his extraordinary success.

Yet management, better management never came up in the conversation. It was missed in a few other panels except fleetingly in the bootstrapping one which Scott Shuster managed so well…….

This may not be oversight so much as a belief that real start-ups can’t afford good management. How wrong are they! The country is full of great executive talent thrown out of the marketplace at the peak of their experience. They are available and yet no one even hinted at the possibility! Fortunately, as savvy souls in our own right, we at the iBreakfast can help!

So here’s a modest proposal, check out Job Generation, our new program that lets Entrepreneurs interview really savvy execs to find out how they would run their company for them. Get free advice and a wealth of powerful contacts. You may hire them, a VC might pay you to hire them or they may come on board with their own money. One of these execs we know raised $900,000 for a Social Media start-up by going to his former Wall Street colleagues. Try doing that at an Angel group!

Most importantly, it is management – a superior team of high-functioning execs that sell things which, in the old days, is how people used to make money. They can also raise your valuation dramatically, not just in dollar figures but in the termsheets themselves. Inexperienced start-ups get one kind of termsheet (lousy) savvy execs get the better one.

The real opportunity is like no other – thousands of savvy execs are waiting around to meet you. For now, and for now only. When the economy picks up you can pretty much forget about them, they won’t be taking your call. If they do, you won’t be able to afford them. Today they are like your server, a part of the cloud…..

So do yourself a favor, get those savvy execs on your side and then talk to the VCs. Not the other way around. The execs can make you the genius you really are because they benefit by increasing your value, the investors only care about improving their odds and downplaying your value. Sorry, but it's true.

So while everyone was hyping the cloud and open source and the low cost wisdom of the crowd, they forgot to tell you about the real talent that's available: the once-in-a-lifetime firesale of Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, Fordham, Kellog and you-name-it, MBA’s who like to share with you, a minute or two of their time. 

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Additional notes:  One audience member actually complained, in a long-winded way, that investors never give him enough time to hear his story.........

Job Generation - Report from 1st Live Event

Job Generation went live last week and it resulted in this amazing report on NY!

Thanks to all of you who followed this new event, Job Generation. There will be more and in many cities because the need is so all-encompassing: 8.4 million jobs lost, 2.1 million gone forever.
 
Our experience with the first live event is that executives realize the need to reinvent themselves. This is an ideal forum to make a case for their expertise in public where they can display how they think on their feet.
 
Start-Ups are less certain. As we discovered, many Start-Ups are leery about reaching out to veteran execs. Part of being a Start-Up is doing your own thing - until you need to raise money or just grow the business. That's where the savvy set kicks in.
 
In return for getting great advice and chance to acquire talent, the Start-Ups get to tell their story to the business community which increases their chances of raising capital and building their businesses. The sooner we get the message out the quicker we generate opportunity.
 
Investors, were also an interesting case study. The objective of JG is to find the exec and start -Up combination that offers the best increase in value. Of the executives they picked for working together, the VCs tended to go with the most thoughtful and analytical while being averse to the more outgoing and sales-y. Are the VCs right? Or do they just prefer the studious type on a personal level, perhaps viewing them as more "coachable".  
 
Come to the next Job Generation and you be the judge.
 
Thanks to the feedback, we've figured out how to tweak this model so it will really crackle with creative tension - we'll be doing several more events as iEvenings, at Business Schools and in other cities.

Job Generation - Like an Investor-in-Residence Program?

According to the New York Times, VC’s spend thousands on Investor-In-Residence programs. Job Generation makes it happen in front of you - and for a fraction of the price. By putting seasoned execs in front of Start-Ups to see what VCs think make them more investible we are doing much the same thing – but the for the benefit of the public.

Sign up for our first Job Gen iEvening event on March 18.

What is Job Generation?

Last week we taped the pilot of “Job Generation” and in March we will roll out our first live events.

So what is Job Generation? It is a variation on Start-Up Presentations to Investors except that we include senior executives seeking leadership positions in the conversation.

The bigger picture – the part that is creating the buzz - is that new business ideas tend to come from young start-ups with little capital and less experience. They are usually energized by real world interaction with savvy execs but are too busy chasing investors to do that.

This is a uniquely informative experience because it brings savvy executives into the conversation at an early stage. Too often these executives are chasing after the same entrenched jobs that everyone else is after - so by putting these two generations of business execs face to face along with VCs, we see a variety of possibilities will occurring: employment, consulting, joint ventures and investment.

More than a "Job Interview"
Job Generation is about about more than savvy execs being interviewed by young Entrepreneur about running their companies. It is telescoping the process than made companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft great - when they raised enough money they hired senior execs that took them to the top. We are starting the conversation now hat these execs are available as a way to increase their chances of raising money or building sales.

Polaroid goes Facebook - Lesson from the Job Generation Pilot

In the first Job Generation, a former exec from Polaroid – a great fallen American business presents to Pixable, a company that generates photobooks from Facebook – where he notes that although the technology is different, the customer base is almost exactly the same, young women. The Pixable founders agree and they want to hire this exec. The VC on the other hand, would prefer they hire an exec with operations experience. The net result is a blend of consulting and strategic rethinking and maybe a hire or a consulting opportunity…….

In this environment have seen roll-ups, consulting arrangement and joint ventures or alliances of one kind or another. After all, only a tiny number of start-ups are investible – somewhere between 2 – 10%. So, to a large extent this is an exploration of what happens to the rest of those start-ups. Often, these are concepts that need further sales or business development provided through a joint venture context. By taking this conversation beyond the purely start-up funding conversation, we allow many more business opportunities to flourish. When business grow through sales, investors find them!

Business Discovery

One thing we learn about what the CEOs bring to the table when they talk to Entrepreneurs is a deeper understanding of the true nature of their businesses. We also have VCs at the table to help the parties understand what each can do to increase the value proposition and make them more investible.

Starting in March we will be doing a regular series of Job Generation events. In addition, all iBreakfasts going forward will still have the typical informative content but will also feature this interaction between Start-Ups and experienced execs as part of the warm-up session.

The Theory Behind Job Generation: Raising the Investibility Quotient

For those who have experienced our “Hierarchy of Start-Ups” presentation, you’ll know the most investible class of start-ups, at lest in sheer numbers re those who have these key attributes:

• 10 Years or more of domain experience in a field

• Identify and industry-specific problem

• Have a team with the solution that the mother company doesn't value

• Have an existing relationship with the natural buyers

If this is you, your check is in the mail! Most start-ups aren't like this but we find that putting them together with savvy execs can get them much closer to this fundability zone - and that is the basic goal of Job Generation.

Unexpected Entrepreneur? A New Way to Understand Creating Your Own Business

Are you an "Unexpected Entrepreneur"? this popular presentation lists the "secret code" of Start-Ups http://slidesha.re/U12Ik

Unexpected Entrepreneur Presentation

View more presentations from iBreakfast.

Job Generation: The next phase of the iBreakfast

As you know the business world has changed!

After 14 years of running the iBreakfast, the iEvening for Innovators, the Web 2.0 NY Conferences and number of associated events, we are changing with it.

Our audience has always been those executives following the Digital Media revolution. Now, in this jobless recovery, what they need are more jobs.

We don’t believe the government or any state organization can make that happen, although they can certainly help. What really makes a difference is when entrepreneurs develop a new market or find news ways to solve persistent problems.

Often these great ideas needed help and our industry has generally viewed capital as the key driver.

We think that has changed. Today, start-ups can launch for a fraction of what they once required. On a relative basis, that means business expertise and contacts are worth more than start-up capital.

So the iBreakfast is launching a series of events and media initiatives to tap this shift. For the most part, they revolve around bringing seasoned execs in front of start-ups as a way to develop new business, employment and investor relationships. As we look back, these kinds of interaction have always taken place. Now, we are going to accelerate the process because we think it is the key to developing a new wave of employment opportunities.

So look out for announcements covering the following:

TV Show – will run to an audience of 50,000 on ours and partner websites
Local TV
Global Talk Weekly Radio Show
Job Generation Events
Business Opportunity Events