Born Leader? Nah, But I Would Like To Think So...

For everyone who has read anything I tweeted recently, you have probably seen a trend/theme around the topic of leadership and that pesky "call-to-action" sort of stuff. I know all of that can kind of get annoying, so this time I'm going to be a little more light-hearted and tell the tale of Wes and I's journey towards launching The coIN Loft and my take on leadership.

To start, I'll tell the story of The coIN Loft idea. So here I was, taking a little break from work during the day to catch up on the latest issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, when I stumbled across the article titled: "Solo, But Not Alone." I decided that might not be something too bad, so I continued to read. As I was riffling through it, I started thinking about all the possibilities and then it just hit me, Wes and I need to start one of these "coworking spaces." I showed Wes the article and after about a grand total of 2-3 minutes, we started reading anything and everything that had the term "coworking" in it. Once we got through all the research, we immediately began typing up a business plan/proposal and financial projections for our very own space. Now if you ask me to whom we were going to take all this stuff too, I don't think either one of us could have told you at the time, rather we preferred to take the good ole' "fly by the seat of your pants approach," not because we are young and ignorant, but instead it was simply because we felt that this (launching a coworking space) was something that was very necessary for Delaware, and even better it was very much inline with our vision, through which we operate Verge. When adding all this together, we felt that if we got the word out to the right people, they would help us make coIN Loft a realty and a success, and everything else would kind of fall in place. Luckily, we have been right so far and keep in tuned for our future progress.

So lets talk about leadership. When it comes to leadership or being a leader many people cower to thought of themselves being a leader because they feel they might not have the charisma, or give age old excuse "some people are just born leaders,and others are not." Well, I do believe that some people are leaders, and others are followers, however not because these "leaders" are born with the "leadership gene," instead the people that become leaders are the ones who get the courage to make change. Do Wes and I think we are leaders, well we would probably like to think so, but we just see ourselves as ordinary people following our vision for Delaware, while gaining courage through meeting other folks who share our vision.

 

Posted via web from Wes & Steve are The Dumb Kidz?

2010: The Year In Review

My wife was in the other room preparing for our New Years day brunch while I sat at my computer trying to figure out how Verge and The coIN Loft were going to meet and exceed our 2010 strategic goals. Like s man possed, I was tearing through page after page of Google search results looking for the "magic answer" when it occured to me, "how I think is what will be" (a blog post from yesterday). Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to take your own advice. If you've found yourself stressing over what next year will bring, close your eyes and imagine; write down everything you see; bounce those vision statements off of questions of consumer value, feasibility and viability, and you have just lived through an entire year of business! I did this very same process and now I'm not waiting to see what 2010 will hold for Verge and The coIN Loft anymore. Two key characteristics of an entrepreneur are agility and ingenuity....both are inherently offensive actions. It's very hard to live these characteristics if you can't see what coming, so I urge you to find some time over the next two days to stare at the clouds. If your honest with yourself, you'll be looking at 2011 on Monday. Happy New Year! Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Posted via email from Wes & Steve are The Dumb Kidz?

Untitled

Posted via web from Verge & coIN Loft blog's posterous

Independently Working Together

Wilmington, DE-Work can be a lonely place for emerging entrepreneurs, many of whom court their clients and ink their deals by phone and e-mail amid the empty cereal bowls on their kitchen tables.

And with cheap office space in short supply throughout Wilmington, it can be tough for an upstart to make the leap from armchair-entrepreneur to the ranks of the cubically contained.

But the coIN Loft could change all that.

It will be an open space where freelancers can come to work, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, without the hindrance of a long-term lease or a back-breaking rent payment, said Steve Roettger, one of the founders.

He and partners Wes Garnett and Pedro Moore are planning to open the coIN Loft, a 2,200-square-foot building located downtown at 300 W. 9th St., on Feb. 5.

There will be co-working space for 21 entrepreneurs who can each rent a desk in the wifi-equipped building for between $40 and $300 a month, depending on how much access they want to have, Roettger explained……..

read the article in it’s entirety here——>http://tinyurl.com/ykk8qbk

Posted via web from Verge & coIN Loft blog's posterous

You Are What You Think

" Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this; when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort that I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought"- Alexander Hamilton

Cognition is the mental process of converting information from thought to knowing. Our senses are typically used to gather the information which is processed but observation is needed to first draw conclusions, then organize those conclusions into factual statements. The statements are cataloged within the brain and are drawn upon during times of uncertainty, i.e. problem-solving. You may be asking, "what does this have to do with me and my business?" but please, bare with me. It's important that you understand how questions are formed first.

As new information is processed, we conduct a series of rationalizations which categorizes the information into segments. The information that is placed into these segments is categorized as previously known facts or new and unknown observations. At this point questions begin to form as we try make sense of the unknown observation, as well as understand how they correlate to what was previously known. Because questions are the precursors and "guardrails" of innovation, you can see why cognition is an important process to understand.

Following the logic presented here, one must now begin to wonder, "how can increased cognition influence my output of innovative ideas?" That's a good question! You must intentionally expose yourself to new information about your consumers through various forms of ethnography (observations). Questionnaires, focus groups, field tests, surveys, statistical analytics, trend reports, etc. are all great ways to observe your consumer.

I've gotten a little ahead of myself, so let me explain:

Understanding the relationships which exist between your business and your consumer takes constant observation. Information that will be useful to you as you consider innovation is how the consumer uses your product/service/technology; reacts to changes to your product/service/technology; rate of acquisition of your product/service/technology; declines in usage of your product/service/technology (maybe due to competitors or obsolescence), among other things. The information you gather as a result of your observations should be analyzed, but it is the cognitive process you go through to analyze that information that will lead to the question which will fuel your innovations.

The information that you gather is totally obvious at this point. In fact, any of your competitors that engage in primary or secondary market research will have access to the same data.In today's world; especially with the advent of social media and crowdsourcing, reliance on the obvious won't solve your problems or increase sustainable value to the consumer. It will however give your competition the opportunity to one-up you. An alternative use of this information is to use it as a starting block for the discovery the "peripherals" (abstract characteristics of a defined demographic which can be used to create niches within a market i.e. apple iPod).

In summary:

Peripherals are discovered by asking the right questions. Questions lead to innovations. Innovations come from observations. Observations are used to expose relationships, which come as a result of cognition. Cognition is a mental process which leads to the discovery of relationships by converting information, known and unknown, into usable knowledge and understanding

Posted via web from Verge & coIN Loft blog's posterous

Innovation Presentation

Innovation Presentation

View more presentations from The Verge Business Group.

Why Coworking? ..... Why DE? ..... Why Now?

Why Coworking?

Coworking is simply a means to an end for Verge. People who have been reading our thoughts in our blogs or on twitter have of course seen some of our rants about collaboration, innovation, coworking, etc.; but the real reason we are pushing the concept of coworking so much is that we believe this is one of the single most important actions Delaware must embrace to ignite inspiration, new ideas, fresh thinking, and economic development. We envision our space to be the hub for the most talented/creative minds in the state, in which companies and government will seek to gain our input for solving consumer, business, and state problems/issues. It would be easy for us to go to a Philly or New York and take part in their welcoming entrepreneurial community, but it is our pride in Wilmington that gives us the fire to make something happen here. In short we want to make a name for the city through creativity, starting with The coIN Loft at 9th Street.

Why Delaware? …and… Why Now?

Many of those that are living, working, and trying to grow businesses in Delaware, know that our state has traditionally not been recognized as a place conducive or inspiring to innovation and entrepreneurship. Rather, Delaware is known as being an environment of big/old business. In fact, Governor Markell was quoted as saying, “Delaware ranked 50th out of 50 states for attracting entrepreneurship back to the state.”

Knowing this Wes and I felt it very important to get government officials views on the city, as well as gain their support with what we are trying to accomplish through our coworking space. Our first target was Mayor Baker (of Wilmington) who we had the chance to meet the other week. He stressed many, many times that Wilmington is a great city that is in a total revitalization, and that the city, as well as the state are very much in need for fresh ideas and new ways of thinking. He also mentioned that the most effective way to spark economic development in the city is through the creation of new business or ventures that have traditionally been contrary to the business environment, we as Delawareans have became accustomed to. He was once quoted as saying that every city is built by its community and its businesses.

Basically, because of the need for revitalization and new growth, we see it as no better of a time to collaborate as a creative community to pave the future of this city, rather than complain, move, or wait to reap the benefits that are evident to be on the way. We believe the city of Wilmington is home to many talented individuals and is a great place to make a “test case.” It is imperative for the creative class to be the true hope for this city.

Someone Is Telling A Fib!

It's 2:45am and I'm up thinking about innovation. I think someone is telling a big fat fib!

As you may have read in previous posts, we are purveyors of a hybrid Design Thinking/Agile Disruption methodology. This approach has been amazing and to-date, is the purest form of true innovation methodology we've come across; and therein lies the problem! Many consultants claim to be innovative but in the end are producing products and services that absolutely fall flat when they reach the market. My conclusion is that some companies like to repeat whatever seems to be the most popular business jargon in Entrepreneur magazine or Businessweek.

There are a few rules that every company should stick to when innovation is the topic at hand.

1) Make sure you're creating something consumers actually need.

2) Make sure you're creating something that is actually viable.

3) Make sure you're creating something that is technically feasible.

Accomplish these three objectives with:

1) Intuition

2) Discovery

3) Rapid Prototyping

4) Repeated Contradictional Inquisition

5) Collaboration

If your company is looking to institute a innovation strategy, don't follow the jargon; follow the technique.

Coworking Is Reinventing Freedom

A month ago I had a conversation with my Dad about my choice to start a company. Before that day, I don’t think I had every really known what he thought of it. It wasn’t that he hadn’t previously sat me down and gave me the teary eyed “son I’m proud of you” speech but this time around he truly spoke from his frustrations. What he said changed my life.

“Son”, he said, “I’ve spent my whole life working for someone else’s success…..being an entrepreneur you’re making the future happen. The only thing I can do is fix yesterday and hope tomorrow is better for me. You’re creating a better tomorrow for everyone.”

Those words recreated what I believed an entrepreneur to be. I was always taught that an entrepreneur is someone that owns their own business. When Steve and I started our company we quickly realized our vision had to be much bigger then simply filing some state documents and getting a EIN. It wasn’t until my dad said those words that I decided to actually investigate my belief and settle on an actual truth. I read everything I could and finally concluded that “Entrepreneur” isn’t a person or an action its a set of qualities:

empathetic: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit mannner.

visionary: tending to envision things in perfect but unrealistic form; idealistic

ingenuous: skill or cleverness in devising or combining

agile: marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace, having a quick resourceful and adaptable character.

Coworking is giving entrepreneurs the chance to recreate the world around them. People will envy our freedom. They’ll criticize us for being idealistic. They’ll say our plans will never work. Despite that, there will always be someone like my Dad in the shadows with heart gripping pride in what we do. They’ll live vicariously through us as we innovate vicariously through him. Coworking is everything and nothing society has taught us to be….but I like that. In fact I cherish that. I hope you will too.

"It seemed I could either have a job, which would give me structure and community or I could be a freelance and have freedom and independence. Why couldn’t I have both.” - Brad Neuberg, Hat Factory, San Fransico

LET’S ALL BE FAMOUS!!

Where has Creativity Gone....Kids Stand Up

Many people can agree that school systems, as well as the American culture in general, teaches kids from the very beginning that to be trulysuccessful you must get good grades through high school, go to a good college (now get a masters), and finally complete your journey by getting a good job. Now, I am not saying that anything is particularly wrong with this, for some people; to be honest I followed this path by graduating high school with honors, graduating from a good college, and then getting my first good job at a respected financial services firm. I will also say that my dream ever since I was a youngster was to own my own business (it didn’t matter what it was), however it seemed that everything I was taught or told growing up was to navigate me away from fulfilling my dream, mostly for my own protection.

AND WHY IS THAT?

This is quite an easy question to answer; the reason everything was encouraging me to not think creatively or to dream big, is that we,Americans, are scared of failure and the “what if”. It seems that we are being brainwashed since elementary age to not think creatively, and to not take chances because we do not want to be wrong. Our school systems, parents, everyone is thinking that they are protecting us by not challenging us and encouraging us to think differently, but all they are really doing is hindering our growth and our ability/talents. Many kids follow the so-called path to success I discussed above, but end up feeling not fulfilled, working in menial jobs for someone else, just putting in time to hopefully, eventually be the one who gets to tell other people what to do. These kids, also end up not knowing who they really are and never find out what they are truly good at or find their true passion. I mean come on people, how many times do you hear people say: “I hate my job” or “work sucks”.

IS THIS THE WORLD WE ARE REALLY LIVING IN?

By enforcing this curriculum, we are truly creating a generation of people that, sorry to say it are robots, and that are afraid to think differently because they do not want to be wrong or fail. We need to realize that this generation are the ones that are going to keep innovating and enriching life for all people, these are the ones that are going to find the cure for cancer, or save the planet if you will. If we take away their creative capacities at an early age, then what will happen? Your guess is as good as mine? I surely do not want to see that day!

Some quotes to back up my rants, then I’ll say why this relates to COIN.

“Creativity in education is now as important as literacy”

“We are born as creative beings….We don’t grow into creativity; we are educated out of it”

“All kids have tremendous talents, and we squander them”

***All quotes from Sir Ken Robinson***

What The coIN Loft Proposes.

When Wes and I finally gained enough courage and confidence to enter the life of an entrepreneur, we immediately thought about the reasons why and what legacy we wanted to leave behind (yes, even though we are only in our 20’s). The one thing both of us felt the most passion for was to be able to teach, and more importantly encourage kids to discover the importance of entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity. Now that we are opening The coIN Loft, we see this as not just an ordinary coworking space, but a hub that kids can use as an outlet for creativity and true real life knowledge.

Here is an excerpt from our proposal, to better explain how The coIN Loft will interact with kids:

“A very important aspect of our action plan will be to seek support and partnerships with the local universities, state-run programs, city officials, local freelancers/entrepreneurs, non-profits, etc. Currently, we have relations with the University of Delaware (Venture Development Center), Delaware Tech, but will also be in contact with Delaware State’s market street location, as well as Delaware College of Art & Design. Being young entrepreneurs ourselves, we fully understand the value of working and collaborating with other various types of entrepreneurs at all stages of development. With that being said, we intend to open our doors to the students of the local colleges so they can learn the process of business start-up and innovation. We will also seek to enlist the help of many of these students to serve as volunteers for our events to demonstrate the importance of being an active participant in the growth of the communities in which they may later do business. Allowing students to volunteer & participate will inevitably attract more attention from the universities. Our vision for the future is to use this awareness as leverage to start a COIN internship program for student entrepreneurs. Seeing that many of the entrepreneurship programs being offered by Delaware colleges are fairly new, COIN presents a golden opportunity for schools to expand their support for student business ventures beyond graduation.”

Conclusion.

I’ll end with a quote, again from Sir Ken Robinson, “We need to see our creative capacities for the richness they possess, and see our children for the hope that they are.”

Agile Disruption Method II

This is a more in-depth explanation of our introduction to Agile Disruption Method from a previous post.

Agile Disruption Method is an adaptation of the Design Thinking "process". Design Thinking is an innovation method made popular by Tim Brown of Ideo, that encourages people to question problems from the perspective of what is feasible, viable and commercially desired. Agile Disruption Method encourages people to discover innovation by repetitively "disrupting" their own conclusions at every step of the process, irregardless of where they are in the process. Moreover, Agile Disruption Method is a collaborative way to maximize the value proposition of a product or service through continuous analysis and observation of the effect they have on humans; not through statistical data alone but also with the real life experiences of people.

The principles of Design Thinking, human desirability, feasibility and viability are shared by Agile Disruption Method. However, the goal of Agile Disruption isn't to find conclusions; on the contrary, Agile Disruption Method is the process of antagonistic query and contradictory discovery. To accomplish this goal one must think. Thinking, believe it or not is rarely used when a company decides to embrace innovation (consumer value based problem-solving). Thinking by definition is an internal mental process that uses data or information as input; integrates that information into previously learned material which is used to further ones knowledge, understanding and perception of reality. Thinking, which is inherently perpetual, either confirms or contradicts the known. Understanding this lead us to a theoretical definition of the influence thinking has on Design Thinking and consequently Agile Disruption Method:

"A Design Thinker and consequently by default, an Agile Disrupter, is one who purposefully seeks to challenge and disprove their own perceptions in order to increase the efficiency of the internal mental process, thus increasing by which they expand their knowledge and understanding. This in turn maximizes the value and future profitability of their innovations."

As a company we had issues with meeting the checkpoints of the Design Thinking process and found ourselves continuously "disrupting" conclusions at various points in the process that we were dead set on within hours of making them. We quickly found that by dispersing those checkpoints within a circle of skilled individuals, we were able to locate the bugs in our conclusions much quicker, as well as discover ways to accomplish what we previously considered impossible. Agile Disruption is now being used to find profitable solutions by first considering the remarkably impossible through collaboration.

Agile Disruption may not make much sense at this point. However, stay tuned for our next post which will demonstrate how the process works and why it is an important component to the Design Thinking process. If you think you can offer something to help us refine our method, please comment or send us an email.

The Hypocrisy of Ideas

No one owns an idea. We can own our perception of an idea, but not the idea itself. By our definition an idea is an epaphanic awareness of the alignment of known facts and life experiences that alters ones perspective on reality. The realization of an idea leads one into creative thinking which can then lead to the commercialization of their own point of view. You may think we’re way off base but in doing so you’re actually proving our point. In this case “idea” is the idea and we can both have different perspectives of what that is but it in no way changes that an idea is just an idea until someone does something with it. What is ultimately done will be a reflection of our own understanding and life experiences. For example, a wheel is just a wheel and no matter how you choose to utilize that wheel it will remain a wheel. You may see the wheel as a way to help you harvest crops faster; whereas I may see it as a way to prove I can finish a quarter mile faster. Either way we see it, the wheel is still a wheel. (If you’re seeing a correlation between application and perspective you should.)

The point to all of this is that many people don’t feel comfortable with Coworking because of how closely people work together and how they are encourage to freely trade ideas amongst each other. “They” have fears that people may steal their ideas. We obviously don’t believe that but not just because of the reason I’ve already explained. The true reason is that we believe in open collaboration. No two people will see a problem or opportunity the same so why not work together to optimize the results? Coworking is one of a million ways to find higher quality solutions cheaper and faster.

I’ll leave you with a couple quotes:

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives and mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

- Oscar Wilde

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

- Charles Darwin

The coIN What?

the coIN Loft is a Coworking space opening in Wilmington, Delaware in February 2010. Coworking is basically a place for entrepreneurs that typically work at home or local cafe’s to collaborate and grow. Not for you? Let’s challenge that….

You ever woke up at 7am like a home office gladiator, ready to absolutely tear through every shred of work you have and found yourself sitting on the couch watching Price is Right by 10:30am? That my friend is not what Coworking or the coIN loft is about! Coworking spaces hold entrepreneurs accountable and increase productivity. They don’t accomplish this because there’s a Nun with a iron ruler walking around whacking people when they aren’t getting work done. They keep people on track because of the camaraderie you have with the people around you. People respectfully push others forward and suggest better or more efficient business practices when they’re needed. In addition to that, there’s a bit of a competitive factor there as well. Let’s assume you’re a graphic designer and you’ve been trying to get a design job with the local Big Time Business for months. Just when you decide that maybe it’s not going to happen you notice an excepted proposal on your neighbors desk from Big Time Business. I wouldn’t recommend you utter your first thought but when you manage to swallow your pride you dig deeper and try harder to land your next potential design job. Furthermore, you now have the opportunity to work with your neighbor to perfect your pitch to increase the chances of accomplishing your goal.

Coworking is a beautiful model for entrepreneurs at any stage but start-ups will be the sweet spot of the coIN loft. My partner and I currently own a company called Verge Business Group, which acts as a tuning fork for early stage start-up companies to make sure consumers actually want to listen to the song they’re singing. We felt our efforts to support and perpetuate entrepreneurship in Delaware could be more substantial if we pursued the Coworking concept. We’re very excited to be apart of this 5 year old movement and truly feel it fits our forward-thinking personalities. Moreover, we hope to see the Coworking community meld together to work on the important stuff in our world together. There are Coworking spaces all over the world so it’s a matter of time before that vision comes true. Entrepreneurs that view the coIN loft as the type of place they’d like to join, won’t simply do it because we offer the space for $300 a month or the various free amenities. They’ll do it because they too want to be intimately involved in the important stuff in our world.

As we write on Twitter every morning….LET’S ALL BE FAMOUS!!

Why Execution Matters

Going to keep this pretty brief...here are two pretty powerful quotes from two awesome people:

"Well done is better than well said"

- Ben Franklin

"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do"

- Henry Ford

In conclusion, words are just that, words, so I encourage everyone to take action because without execution all you have is an idea and be sure to not become another "frightened rebel."

The Misconceptions of Success

It seems many people believe that it takes a lot of luck to become successful. These people look at the ones considered to be a success, and think (1) there is no way I can become that, or (2) I am just not lucky enough to become that.

I want to now challenge these thoughts....

Ben Franklin once said, "Diligence is the mother of good luck." When I read into this saying, I come to the conclusion that people become successful not because of luck, but rather because they commit themselves to the hard work success breeds. Through commitment, these people move agilely through the challenges until they reach the level they want to achieve, and luck simply becomes an afterthought.

I want to encourage people to find their passion, and become committed.

The Wisdom of Crowds

If you get the chance read Howard Greenstein's article at blog.inc.com on "The Workforce of Crowds". The premise of the article is the backbone of our new Coworking venture, The coIN Loft and our seminar series Community Innovation Project (November 5, 2009, University of Delaware, 42 Amstel Ave. Newark, DE. 19716)

How could your company use the collective intelligence of a crowd to move forward? Leave a comment!!

2010 Web Strategy

The following article is from www.baekdal.com

2010 is now only a few months away, and that means that many companies are now in the process of planning next years strategy and budget. So what should your web strategy be for 2010?

Here is something to think about...

The Use Economy

In 2010, the internet will move into the "use economy", as opposed to the "find economy" of the past.

Focusing your strategy around building a website that can be found on Google and present your entire product catalog as a visual stunning and engaging presentation is a thing of the past.

You can't use a campaign. You can't share a product catalog. You cannot make a package a part of your stream.

People do not share or discuss a newspaper or a blog. But if you write a really good article, then that is certainly sharable. Just as you cannot share a shoe campaign, but you can share that one shoe that all your friends talk about.

In the "use economy":

• Content is atomized.
• It's part of a stream
• It about on-going interactions
• It's a part of people's existance

A traditional website doesn't solve any of these challenges, and as such your web strategy for 2010 is not about a website.

It's not about the content either

The biggest change in a use economy is that the focus of your attention is not even about the content itself. Your content plays a very important role in that it functions as the motivator. It is what gets people interested in using it.

But the real value is in the use itself. What do people do with it? What kind of reactions does it create? How do they share it? What kind of conversations does it start? And most importantly, how does it make people feel?

That is the point of the use economy. This is what your brand should be all about. It doesn't matter if it's an article, a pair of shoes, or a cup of coffee.

You web strategy for 2010 should be about people, and interacting with them directly.

Checklist

What to do?

• Focus on how people can use your content or products
• Get people talking
• Help the communication along
• Focus on the long haul, instead of short term interactions.
• Focus on increasing sales via the energy created by your existing customers (i.e. the energy of your existing customers is what persuades new-comers to buy your products)

Where to do it?

• Use every channel that makes sense
• Move your content to those channels (don't use Twitter just to link to your website)
• Support people's environments
• Move your store into their world. If people talk about your products on Facebook, why not also allow them to buy it directly from there?

First time experience:

• Design your social channels in ways that makes it easy to find out what else you have to offer
• Make it easy to take the first step (just being friendly and open goes a long way)
• Encourage first time user to act.

The bigger picture:

• Use your website as the hub for all your activities.
• Show people everything you do, and where you do it.
• Centralize the bigger picture, but de-centralize your network.
• Make sure your internal workflows actually work.
• Make it easy to manage your social universe.

Things not to do:

• Forget your website as a platform
• Forget the technology (people don't care if what you use)
• Forget about creating a package/campaign
• Don't put anything between you and your customers.
• Do not lose your patience. It takes many months to reach critical mass. It takes time to learn what people care about.

In 2010 everything online is about people, communication and using that to your advantage. It's not a platform, it's not a thing, it's not a system, it's not about CMS, it's not about IT, and it's not even about website design.

Going Viral?

A virus only lives if its host continues to live. It's sole duty is to reproduce and spread to other hosts. Viruses by nature are built to weaken and eventually kill the host if they themselves are not eradicated, weakened or made dormant. To remain viral a virus must stay true to it's nature and continuously spread; however, fundamental problems exist as the notion of "going viral" is applied to business strategy.

In the true sense of the phrase, "going viral" doesn't seem to be a very reliable means of continued success. When living out it's manifesto the virus will repeatedly encounter two different scenarios:

1. Hosts will increasingly become immune as anti-viruses are produced. (competition)

2. Virus will reach maximum penetration, leaving itself no other place to spread. Eventually it

will die off as a result of it's own success. (unbalanced growth)

If one intends to achieve continued success as a viral business, they must take a step backwards to become the creator of viruses; not the virus itself. Viruses are made of DNA and RNA. A RNA virus is more effective in this case because it uses the DNA of the host to replicate itself. In other words, create thing's your "host" or prospective consumer will except, use and help spread. Once your virus is being spread on it's own, step away and allow the host to regain its strength or simply stop marketing your "thing" to them. At this point, you should focus your energy on producing a new RNA virus that will be compatible with your previous creation. Doing this will allow you to effective target the hosts that except and replicate your virus the fastest while leaving the rest of the population open for growth.

At this point we would love to leave you with a fantastic, life altering conclusion but unfortunately we couldn't come up with one. Hopefully we made a compelling argument for an alternative "viral" model. Check back with us soon....maybe we'll figure out a way to write a blow your mind conclusion for this entry.

New Thoughts on Our Process.....Agile Disruption Method Sounds Good

Thinking along our process, we have decided to coin the phrase: Agile Disruption Method. We were trying to figure out a good way to describe the flow of thinking we undertake with each new project or client and BOOM the Agile Disruption Method was born.

The last month and half or so we've been studying design thinking. If you have no idea what that is, visit the ideo website for further explanation. While design thinking allows its believers to navigate through a process, agile disruption method allows people to move freely with that process. At any given moment one could jump from prototyping to idea generation then inadvertently stumble upon a launch worthy solution which needs further discovery to substantiate. Situations such as this are not uncommon; however, we felt the need to formulate their occurrence into a formula which can help people (like ourselves) find the track again.

The following are some phrases or thoughts we felt best described what this method entails:

*Attention to aesthetic, function, usability, and human experience/value given to each phase of development.

*Fast-paced, counteractive way of creative thinking/reasoning.

*Continuous morphing, building, forming strategies all leading back to centralized root of problem.

* Infinite-possibilities approach; moving in all directions to expound upon new thoughts/ideas, not just forward toward the obvious or definite.

* "Go with the flow" approach until either a solution is rendered or the path becomes compromised to point of undoubted viability/inefficiency.

* Choosing what is to be created, it is the precursor and result of the creation process and iteration selection process. Assume nothing is as it seems until it is, then dismantle it to explore the possibilities that exist within.

* To guess toward best or most simplifying explanations, which deduction can explicate and which induction can evaluate.

* Every solution creates a problem that needs solving.

Just a small sample, more thoughts to come.......

Can Anyone Become a Leader?

While reading some excerpts from Seth Godin's book Tribes, we came across the statement: "The market needs you (we need you) and the tools are there, just waiting. All that's missing is you, and your vision and your passion." This sparked the discussion of the true meaning of a leader, and the questioning of if anyone can become a leader. It is said that a leader is generally a charismatic individual that can inspire others through his/her ideas & passion. We went on to explore what others have defined as a "leader" and found:

"A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be." -Rosalynn Carter

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader." -John Quincy Adams

"A leader is one who knows where he wants to go, and gets up, and goes." -John Erksin

SO.....can anyone can become a leader?

When we discussed this our first thought was that some people are just meant to be leaders, while others are just meant to merely be followers. The more we thought, we came to the conclusion that everyone has at least some leadership qualities, and in some way could be leading or inspiring others and simply not recognize it. All it takes to be a great leader is passion, belief, and a firm commitment. So we encourage everyone, be committed to your passions, follow them and connect with people that inspire you to inspire others.

Coworking Wilmington

We've recently started working with Preservation Initiatives to start our own Coworking spot. For those that aren't familiar with the term, we're not talking about people that simply work in an office together. Coworking offers low cost office space, free internet, meeting rooms and interactive brainstorming rooms to entrepreneurs that typically work on the go in local coffee bistros/cafe's and home offices. The idea behind the concept is to create a collaborative environment which helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses through collective intelligence and cross-pollination of services.

Our space, The Community Innovation Loft or COIN will be a hybrid version our Community Innovation Project and a business incubator. We will focus our efforts on early-stage start-up and growth phase companies....no particular industries. We're looking at launching in either the LOMA Design District or in one of the newly renovated West 9th St. store front properties near Red Mohawk. Stay tuned for more info about the progress of the project. Join our meetup group: COIN Wilmington if your interested in participating in it's growth.

Business Plans Don't Work....Right?

That's right people...we said it. BUSINESS PLANS DON'T WORK.

We've had the "pleasure" of working with many different types of entrepreneurs along our journey and almost all of them have at one time or another mentioned how they need to update, write or follow their business plan. Every time we hear someone say this we always end up glancing at each other with a hint of laughter in our eyes.....here's why- the business plan is suppose to be a physical representation of your vision as an entrepreneur; the consumers needs, and how you plan to make money providing solutions to those needs. We place an enormous amount of emphasis on the business plan being a reflection of your VISION. If you can't see your business and its success, you can't write and therefore it doesn't exist.This is why many entrepreneurs end up miles away from where they wanted to be. If you want to avoid the vision pitfall, it takes honesty, empathy, agility and ingenuity.

We've developed a seminar specifically designed to address the vision problem many entrepreneurs face. We'll be running it at the University of Delaware starting October 20th. If you can make it please do....if not keep your eye out for the breakout events.

Let's Have CIP Every Day!!

We recently started a Community Innovation Project group on linkedin.com. If you don't have time for our program on October 20th at the Universtiy of Delaware, this would be a great way to still get those creative juices flowing. Innovation is the only weapon we take into the war of business. Don't let your competitors catch you empty handed....we can promise the results will not be in your favor.

Check out our linkedin.com group and join today. We'd love to create something with you.

Community Innovation Website

Ok, so the cip website is finished and ready for your veiwing pleasure. A few things have changed since we've last posted and even since we've finished the site. The program will be in Purnell Hall room 324B. The date has changed to October 20, 2009....same time.

To RSVP for the program, please contact us through the Community Innovation Project website or communityinnovation.eventbrite.com.

Stay tuned for our "I AM INNOVATION" campaign!!!!

Community Innovation Project

University of Delaware Venture Development Center
Lerner Building, room 324B
Tuesday, October 18, 2009 5:30pm-8:30pm

The program is conducted like an open forum/round table discussion. Wes Garnett and Steve Roettger, owners of The Verge Business Group, LLC act as moderators. The entire program is 3 hours long. The schedule of events is as follows:

1- Introduction of the program by Wes and Steve

2- Round table discussion about the innovation process. (60min)

-Wes and Steve will introduce their innovation model to the group.

-Dream It, Plan It, Test It, Build It

3- Real business idea from a client of Verge is presented to the class as a working example. (45 min)

-Idea will be stripped of all proprietary information to ensure the safety of the client.

-Group will be asked to apply the innovation process to the idea, as well as test the business model for feasibility. At the end of the process we hope to have built an entire business model from the groups' suggestions.

4- To further delve into the innovation process, Wes and Steve will ask that the group rip apart and build on the previous business model to create the best solution for profitable innovation. (45min)

5- Networking and feedback (30min)

Community Innovation Project is not a Focus Group

Focus groups rely on moderators to lead the group and stimulate discussion without saying too much about what the company wants to hear from the participants regarding their product or service. The moderator must keep the participants focused on the topic, involve all of the participants and encourage group members to react to each others comments to solicit enough input about how the participants view and potentially utilize the product or service. Moderators must work from a guide with an outlined discussion plan. The goal of the group discussion is to provide the company with target market opinions to identify trends; which will lead to sales revenue.

C.I.P is an open forum, round table discussion about the process of successful implementation of profitable business model innovations. Because the seminar is built around an educational model, participants will never be pre-screened. Although we will examine a test case in a focus group like fashion, the manner in which we conduct that portion of the program is far removed from the regimented outline style of focus groups. C.I.P is meant to replicate the pressure entrepreneur's feel as a result of eminent competition. To get a better understanding of this, imagine standing in Blackberry's shoes when Apple's iPhone sky rocketed past 1 million units in the first week of sales. These are the types of dilemmas we will confront participants with; however, we will use real business ideas from real entrepreneurs looking to launch a new and innovative business idea. Unlike focus groups, the outcome of their super charged "innovation-storming" will not be pre-determined. There will be no set questions or right or wrong answers. The goal of this portion of our seminar is to teach the group how to think through complex business issues quickly and decisively. These are priceless skills they will be able to employ for many, many years. In addition to that, the entrepreneur that chooses to put their business idea through the program is given a chance to peer into the minds of their future consumers and leave with a blueprint of how to gain the most traction. Hopefully you will agree that the Community Innovation Project is a win-win situation for all those involved.

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Very Cool Microsoft Surface

Vision + Mission = Change The World

While watching a documentary about the life of the great Michael Jackson, I was struck by something one of the commentators mentioned about Michael. Before Michael even starting working on his record breaking, multi-award winning album, "Thriller", the gentleman said Michael literally saw himself breaking records. He would tell everyone he was going to release the biggest album of all time months before he recorded any of the music. Michael went as far as writing the success of the album on his mirror so he would see it every morning. He would religiously repeat it to himself as he stood in the mirror. In the end, Michael completely reinvented the way music has been recorded, produced and performed forever.

The fervent reiterations of success Michael subjected himself to may be a bit much for most people; however, if we take a moment to dissect the process that Michael put himself through, we should see the most fundamental elements to the innovation process, vision and mission. Michael committed himself to his vision statement- "I am going to release the biggest album of all time", then developed a mission to help himself accomplish his goal (repeated the vision everyday, produced flawless music, etc.). Because Michael never gave himself a chance to see or think anything less then excellence he accomplished his goal. I would suspect that it was in no way an easy thing to do, but if Michael saw himself in the winners circle I'm sure he knew the sacrifices that needed to be made.

As entrepreneurs, we're faced with just three choices...fail, blend in or change the world. To accomplish that goal, it is extremely important that a clear vision and mission are distinguished. Michael gave us a perfect example of how the process should look. It's a great lesson from one of the greatest human beings to walk the earth. He will definitely be missed by all that knew him.

R.I.P Michael Jackson!

It's All About Leverage!!

We came across this article in Inc. magazine today. Innovation can come from anywhere if you allow it to. The secret is learning how to spot profitable opportunities in the midst of frustrations and/or doubt. The research and development team pulled it off with flying colors. Not only did they solve their problem, they saved a ton of time and money! You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how valuable this path to innovation can and will be to your company.

Take a few moments to enjoy the article if you haven't read it yet. We're sure it will change the way you grow your business forever.

What is Real Innovation

If you've read through our other posts, you'll notice the repeated use of the term "real entrepreneur". We won't get into the complete definition of what that term means to us today, but we will introduce the only matter of business entrepreneurs should worry themselves with; real innovation.

"Real" Innovation rarely happens accidentally or sporadically throughout the career of a real entrepreneur. http://www.realinnovation.com/content/what_is_innovation.asp

"Real" Innovation is accomplished consistently and systematically, given the true voice of the customer and a process for delivering solutions. Companies that innovate successfully do so using an efficient and repeatable methodology. Success is not dependent upon genius – it emerges from the disciplined application of a proven innovation methodology"

So what is a "proven" methodology? While there are quite a few methods that are generally excepted as a reliable means to real innovation; Breakthrough and Open Source innovations are among our favorites.

Breakthrough innovations occur when a product or service disrupts the current state of a market-think iPhone and Google Docs. Open Source innovations are innovations which also which disrupt the current state of the market but are derived from both internal and external sources; meaning, a company will "open" the innovation process to a group of people and draw on their input to innovate a product or service. Eli Lilly is a great example of a company utilizing an open source platform to solve complex problems involved in the innovation process.

Despite whatever your innovation method of choice might be, accomplishing "real" innovation must at a bare minimum 1) improve the life of your customer 2) have a measurable return on investment and 3) strengthens the brand(s) of the company.

Check out the slide show in our previous post to get your self started. Of course we're always available to answer your questions.


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Business Model Innovation Matters

Check out this SlideShare Presentation....this is a great way to get your business moving down innovation road.

ENJOY!!

Business Model Innovation Matters

View more OpenOffice presentations from Alexander Osterwalder.

Weekly...Monthly...Whatever.

Those are pretty much our thoughts 0n blogging. We started this with the best intentions; we had hoped to keep fresh content flowing every week; excuse...excuse...excuse. To be honest with all of you, we're really not that into the whole blogging thing.

*Gasp* *Shock & Awe*

Before you grab your pitch forks and throwing stones consider this:

So much attention is given to the places information and social technology can take a business, we've seemed to have forgotten the power of simple one on one conversation. As we tell many of our clients, we are a business built on real relationships with real people. Once a firm understanding has been found we weave in technology as it becomes appropriate to the tasks at hand. We won't say that every business should run this way but what should be noted is that the power of a hand shake shouldn't be forgotten.

On the other hand, we need to be more responsible. We are a firm that has a lot to offer and during prime transitional times such as these, we need to be more vocal about the beautiful opportunities intelligent business strategies can bring both of us. For what it's worth, please stay tuned in.

Until next week friends....

Intelligence: The Silent Business Killer

Starting and running a business is the dumbest investment one could ever make. The odds will never be in your favor; especially when customers are as fickle as teething children. How do you safeguard your investment and create the life style you entered the business for? It all starts with your ability to think intelligently about your business. If your mind is on the paycheck your business should provide, you've already failed. The reason you've failed is simply-business is the biggest ego trip you will ever encounter. To play and win its game, you have to consistently and relentlessly outsmart it.

According to Wikipedia, "intelligence is an umbrella term used to describe a property of the mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to comprehend ideas, to use language, and to learn." You may be saying to yourself " I'm not really that intelligent. I just know how to survive" In response to that we'd ask that you stay tuned to our blog. It's possible that you're a business owner, not an entrepreneur.

So how do you use intelligence to grow success brands and extravagent business systems? That question is suprisingly easy to answer:

1. Take 3-5 hours per week to THINK and PLAN! Know your next move before the consumers.
let you know you need to.

2. Swim in Blue Oceans. http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/about/about.php

3. Develop a deep understanding of the emotional triggers that make your consumer buy. Knowing this will allow you to control your ability to generate income in any economy for one reason-demand will create the need for supply rather then supply depending on demand.

Follow these rules and you'll be an intelligent entrepreneur and/or business owner in no time.

Remember-success isn't something you become, it's something you become aware of. Don't waste it!

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So you think you need Venture Capital?

You wake up at 3am with a billion dollar idea. Eyes half opened, you frantically reach fora pen to write out the details. The next morning you review your thoughts, then proceed to write a business plan. Upon completion, you are thoroughly convinced that your seven pages of pure genius will no doubt lead you to fame and riches; however, you also realize you're going to need money, and lots of it. Suddenly you remeber reading an article on venture capital. After a few brief moments of pondering all the ways your idea could get shot down, you reason to yourself that you don't actually need venture capitalists; they need you. In fact, any investor with half a brain would worship at your feet for a chance to invest in your idea. Feeling invincible, you laugh out loud while thinking of how cool it will be to see venture capitalists lining up around the block to throw money at your glorious idea.

If you're a real entrepreneur, stories like this are not as foreign as some would think. We've all had a "billion dollar idea" at some point and like the proverbial you in the story, we have all been mistaken. Venture capitalists can be very fickle people. No two will see an opportunity in the exact same way. Before you commit yourself to the idea of venture capital, ask yourself a few simple questions: Are you sure a VC will want your idea in the first place? If they do, how will you make them aware of your idea? What are their triggers for investment? We'll do our best to answer these questions for you.

What is a Venture Capitalist?

A Venture Capitalist or VC for short, is a person or investment firm that lends large sums of money to entrepreneurs with a dream. Most VC's are searching for business models (notice I didn't say systems) which have the potential for freakish growth in the short term and a management team to sustain that growth over the long term. Most VC's will want to work with a management team ( and in some cases join the board of directors) to ensure the business system will 1) return their investment 2) double, triple, quadruple their investment 3) be built correctly to make sure it sustains long term positive returns on their investment. Some venture capitalits prefer to invest in long-shot start ups, while others like late stage investments where the idea and business system has already been proven successful.

What are VC's looking for?
Venture Capitalist's invest in all kinds of products and serivices. VC's will first read the Executive Summary of your business plan to determine if your idea is worth a second look. For that reason alone, the executive summary is arguably the most important document you will ever produce if your looking to catch the attenture of a venture capitalist. When reading your Executive Summary, Venture Capitalists are looking for the three golden standards; viability, fundability and feasibility. Let us explain:

Viability: Does your idea have the capicty for survival? In other words, can your idea support the top of mind brand recognition it will need to become an absolute cash cow. Also, they want to know if your management team will have the wherewithal to consistantly push boundries and make big things happen.

Fundability: VC's are only interested in ideas that have the potential and viability to produce insane returns on their investment(s). If your idea won't hit the 50-100 million dollar mark in the first 5 years, good luck trying to get some attention. Venture Capital isn't a romance novel and a warm cup of coco by the fire. If you intend on getting in the ring with these guys, you better come with your guns, knives, and laser beams ready to action. In other words, make sure your idea can make money before you approach a VC.

Feasibility: This step is basically for checks and balances. A feasibility review, if done correctly, should measure whether or not your seperate conclusions of viablity and fundability actually make sense once you put them together.

So what is the Executive Summary?
The Excutive Summary is the first sheet after the table of contents in your business plan. A well written Executive Summary will have seven main components. These components should be written out in the following order:

1) Who/what your company is (mission statement)

2) Product/service

3) Target Market

4) Competitive Advantage

5) Goals and Objectives (your vision statement)

6) Yours and your management team qualifications

7) Finances (what will it cost you to complete and launch your idea. How will you pay for it / use their money)

If you complete an air tight Executive Summary, writing the actual business plan should be fairly easy. We would advise you to complete a full plan; especially the Marketing and Financial portions. Something you should consider, that most people overlook, is the educational backgrounds of the VC's your submitting your idea to. The purpose of this is simple-imagine you have a great pick and pack robot idea, and your VC target is a graduate of M.I.T. Wouldn't it make sense to have a stellarTechnology and Financial Plan? How about if your looking to launch a user generated social video site which specializes in short films and your target spent 25 years as a show producer at Time Warner? Wouldn't it make sense to write a bomb proof Marketing Plan? Remember, VC's are fickle people. It's usually the seemingly small and most obvious things that get overlooked, so take your time and be smart about things.

As a true entrepreneurs, we know your hunger to succeed will eventually take you exacty where you want to go. However, if you should happen to need some help along the way, Verge is here to help develop your ideas into the monsterous profit machines you've always dreamt of. Contact us whenever and however you feel comfortable-our team is ready when you are!!

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It's all "Bull" when your wallet's "Bear"

The markets are showing signs of life again but for a large majority of business owners, this depression/recession has put them on the edge of extinction. We say shame on us and shame on them. Why? Because we all got scared, that's why. Some business owners are merely employees without a boss, while others are real entrepreneurs; meaning they embody the resilience, passion, and vision to reach the next level of success no matter what type of obstruction impedes their ability to make progress.

As business owners, the hardest, most stressful step you've had to make was the decision to start your business. Unfortunately for some, it was the last big step as an entrepreneur they ever took. (Please take note of the distinction made between business owners and entrepreneurs. This will be the topic of a later blog)

So at this point we don't blame for asking "what the heck are you guys getting at"? And there in lies our point. You know that annoying feeling you get when things are dragging on too long, and you just want to see some decisive action being taken....well that is exactly what was lost when most of us decided to sit and wait for the economy to make our companys profitable again.

If you think you did all you could possibly do to keep your business alive during the bear market ask yourself these simple questions:


1) What did I learn about the potential of my business?



2) Does the vision of my company match its potential?



3) Did I adjust my business plan to align with my vision and potential?



4) How much will this potential cost me? When will I achieve it?



5) Are my competitors or my industy heading in the same direction? How will I differentiate myself?



These types of questions are what real entrepreneurs are constantly challenging themselves with during periods of feast, famine, drought, flood, recession, depression, bull market, bear market, no market.



Are you a real entrepreneur?

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