Venture Entertainment

I have been remiss in commenting on an outstanding event that I attended back on November 8th at the Indiana Convention Center. This was a luncheon sponsored by the Indiana Economic Development Commission and Techpoint and was just one of the events included in the, now annual, Indiana Entrepreneur Week. I am a member of the Venture Club of Indiana and our normal Thursday luncheon meeting was combined, or should I say superseded by this event. To give you an idea of why I say outstanding, and more importantly, to give you a taste of what is going on here in the Midwest, and particularly in Indiana, with regard to entrepreneurial and venture activities, the event was projected to have an attendance of 350, which would have been considered a large event (outside of a Boston or Silicon Valley), yet in the end over 1,200 people showed up! Of course, it wasn’t just for the fare, although both the food and service were excellent and sincere kudos should go out to the folks at the Indiana Convention Center who responded admirably given the 400% overbooking, but the big draw was the keynote speaker, namely, Guy Kawasaki of original Apple McIntosh marketing fame and now principal at Garage Technology Ventures.

If you have heard Guy speak before, you know he is very engaging. And, as most good marketers, he can weave some wonderful stories. He did this admirably on this afternoon which resulted in the rapt attention of the audience. They knew they were getting something special as Guy is not often tapped to deliver his performance in America’s Heartland.

I have heard Guy speak before, a number of years back when living in California. I’d say my latest first impression is that, like most of us, over the years Guy has mellowed, become wiser, more humble. This perspective, and his humorous reflections on his former self, played well with the Midwest audience. Guy is a master at efficient use of PowerPoint. And the “Top 10” format used in this presentation was no exception. Each point was truly independent and made a statement. And for those of us that have really lived the Silicon Valley startup life, most were painfully accurate.

Just to highlight a couple of points, I’ll take the first two… His first point was “Make meaning.” In other words, if you are contemplating a new venture, whether it’s your first or your twentieth, do it for a deep down, significant and (hopefully) societally-significant reason. Don’t do it for money. Don’t do it for prestige. Don’t do it for ego. If you do it for any of the later, you will likely fail, and even if you do succeed in an economic sense, you won’t achieve real satisfaction.

His second point was “Make mantra.”—the three or four word “chant”; the beat that drives you and your people with purpose. He challenged all in the audience to drive to this minimal phrase and made light of corporate America’s feeble attempts at developing mission statements.

Make no mistake, this is good advice. Companies, even small startups, quickly begin to borrow from flawed corporate models. They start to think too much of themselves, as individuals and entities and layer mission statements and processes on top to protect their sensitive areas like so many bandages. Any aspiring new venture should fight against this tendency as it will likely lead to a death spiral. Once you give in to complexity as a cure all, it will be hard to pull up on the stick. And frankly we have an opportunity here in the Midwest, as venture investment and new business initiatives begin to accelerate, to never let this become part of our psyche. Just think… We may never have to unlearn the bad habits and, on average, be faster out of the gate than our coastal counterparts.

Well, those are a few highlights and teasers from the luncheon keynote. If you would like to see the whole presentation used by Guy Kawasaki, just email Mary-Louise at mary-louise@garage.com.

Before closing though, I did stick around for one other event, the Venture Idol competition. If you have never been to one of these events, you owe it to yourself to go. You will get a chance to see 20+ new ventures in a pressure situation giving their elevator speeches and highlight presentations as they compete for a $10,000 prize. It is run like American Idol with a panel of judges where most of the insight comes from the “thinking on the feet” displayed by the presenter when posed with the tough questions—all in all, a very enjoyable event. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur you learn from the experience of others, if you are an experienced startup professional, like me, you’re tempted to jump out of your seat and get up there and “perform”—a little bit of entertainment for everyone. It was all done in a playful spirit of competition, with no one’s feelings hurt too badly. The sponsors: Venture Club of Indiana, Techpoint, Indiana Venture Center and the 21st Century Fund, did a great job of making this a high quality, professional event.

What was most impressive that afternoon though, was the breadth of industries represented. Yes, you had a dominance of medical and advanced science ventures consistent with the Indiana corporate landscape (Lilly, Roche, Cook, etc.) and the Indiana University research arms dotting the state, but also a variety of garage and homegrown businesses following the profile often found on the West Coast. And then, even more telling, was the pedigree of the winner, First Precision, and their novel adaptation of 100-year old steel and metal production processes. But you know, reflecting now, it probably couldn’t be more appropriate—the perfect dovetailing of the old and new. A toast to the new! And, probably more importantly it is an indicator of the consistent support and superb startup environment being developed here in the State of Indiana—but more on this in another post…