WSJ: No More Résumés, Say Some Firms

"Instead of asking for résumés, the New York venture-capital firm—which has invested in Twitter, Foursquare, Zynga and other technology companies—asked applicants to send links representing their "Web presence," such as a Twitter account or Tumblr blog. Applicants also had to submit short videos demonstrating their interest in the position."
(RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN, Wall Street Journal 2012 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203750404577173031991814896.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_News_BlogsModule)


This may be a little excessive to completely ditch the resume, but I can see the importance of knowing a candidate's writing and communications skills, as well as how tactful they are in their communiqués outside of the office.  Resumes do not even scratch the surface in this regard.


At STEP we look at a candidate's communications with us (i.e., email and personal interview) alongside their application materials.  Two questions I always ask: does the Statement of Purpose look like someone else wrote it?  Is there hype in the resume?

Two STEP Students Gain Positions as Commercialization Interns at Cleveland Clinic

Entrepreneurial Biotechnology master's candidates JeShaune Jackson and Caitlin Rhodes were recently named as Commercialization Interns at the Clinical Tissue and Engineering Center at the Cleveland Clinic.  Both are in the Entrepreneurial Biotechnology Program in the Department of Biology at Case Western Reserve University, which is part of the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Programs at CWRU.

Welcome 2010-2012 STEP Students!

STEP is proud to announce the members of the class of 2012:

Entrepreneurial Biotechnology
Romila  Aloysius
Rohit Michael Davis
Bryce Goodman
JeShaune Jackson

Colin Naples

Akshay Oswal

Rohan Phadke

Caitlin Rhodes

Chemistry Entrepreneurship
Chien-Chih Chen

Physics Entrepreneurship
Jacob (Kobi) Levi
Joe Meyer

John Oszajca--A Musician with a Promo Model for STEP?

John Oszajca, Founder, Music Marketing Manifesto, has has a neat thing going.  In an age where musicians are gasping for sales and clicks on the internet, he is gaining customers on four fronts:  email management, potential promotion clients, potential production clients, and his own music.  It's pretty slick, and I think that the model can be tweaked for just about any marketing effort--even perhaps a college master's degree program.  Here's how he's doing it:

First, he creates lots of content.  This is done in two main arenas:  (1) He is securing SHORT blurbs on other people's blogs and newsletters by offering content that will appeal to their readers.  In this case he is offering something that promises to help alleviate a great pain.  I personally noticed him on some spam called the "Indie Contact Newsletter" that I probably picked up from my dealings with CD Baby (you can purchase my trio's CD on CD Baby under Hey Mavis).  (2) He is doing his own blogging, tweets, and You Tube videos where he creates content that "name drops" or "concept drops" (my phrase) with the goal of snagging other people's fans or people searching for a particular "something".

The goal of this content is to drive people to a "squeeze page" that exists solely for collecting email addresses, which is the second piece of the puzzle.  The squeeze page offers a free video--in exchange for your email address--that tells how he teamed up with a musician and achieved the top sales in a particular day on CDBaby with a very low budget, which is a potential solution to the pain.

Third, he offers more videos and links that drives his now intrigued and/or jealous target customers to several different products, only one of which is well-defined, which opens the door for future curiosities.

Finally, he places the target customer in a system that delivers well-timed emails with strategic content that will ensure that the customer will always remember his name, even long after they hit the "unsubscribe" button.  Many will buy something from him.

In his case, the targets customers are (1) musicians who are struggling with marketing and (2) a large subset of these musicians who are actually fans masquerading as musicians ("wannabees").

The primary product that he is selling is an email management company called AWeber.  There are direct links to this site just below the teaser video (which actually gives quite a bit of information).  A second link is a more subtle:  It is a squeeze page template for you to use at no charge!  He gives instructions on how you can set this up.  To make things easy, all emails that you will collect feed directly to AWeber (so now you have to sign up as a client)!

The second product that he is selling pertains to his services as a promoter.  It is not clear if this ties in with being a producer (it probably does), which is his third product that he is selling.  And the fourth product is his own music and performing.

It's quite ingenious stuff.  I am already trying to figure out how to use some of the tricks that he outlined in his video to drive the "one in a million" students to the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Program.  On the Hey Mavis front, I will see if Tootsie Parker is interested in upping the web content that will snag the searchers for the Kent Stage, Folk Alley, Folk Alliance, and stars like Bob Dillion and Guy Clark.

With an ounce of creativity, this can be customized for our unique situations. Can't say that we'll use his squeeze page template, though.  But I might contact the folks at AWeber and actually speak to someone to see what they can do for us--at a better price.  (Most people don't do this!)

As a side note, the goal is not frivolous content, which is one of the things that I like about John's approach.  I'm getting a little tired of videos of rock stars brushing their teeth or eating a cupcake and getting frosting on the camera.  It's more targeted and should be more artistic and intellectual.  Or it's not worth doing.

Cheers!


Ed Caner
Director, STEP, Case Western Reserve University
Fiddler/Violist, Hey Mavis

Entrepreneurship Requires Practice (Like Everything Else)

When a student wishes to start a business, I usually show them this article by Fortune Magazine.  In a nutshell, the author argues that success requires about 10,000 hours of focused work.  That's 5 years of full-time 40-hours-per-week of work.  Applying this to STEP, a successful entrepreneur will not only need a two-year master's program in innovation and entrepreneurship at Case Western Reserve University, but 6,000 more hours of practice that will be interspersed with jobs, family, house, etc.  At ten hours per week (some of which might be attained on-the-job), this adds an additional twelve years.  If the average age of a STEP graduate is 25, then you can guess that the average age for a successful entrepreneur might be around 37.  Without a focused program like STEP, one can guess that the average age for a successful entrepreneur might be around 40.

Recent studies have shown this to be true.  The following excerpt is reprinted from SSTI Weekly Digest by SSTI and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License:

In a recent report, "The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur," Vivek Wadhwa, Raj Aggarwal, Krisztina Holly and Alex Salkever examine the socioeconomic, educational, and familial backgrounds of 549 high-tech entrepreneurs, and the factors that motivated them to start a business. The authors find the entrepreneurs started their business at the average age of 40 years old, 70 percent were married at the time of launch, and 60 percent already had at least one child when they started their business. These findings may contradict existing stereotypes of tech entrepreneurs as primarily young people coming straight out of college without existing commitments to family.

The authors' analysis also found a full 95 percent of the entrepreneurs had bachelor degrees, with 47 percent having advanced degrees. Only 3 percent of their sample had a high school degree or less. From a socioeconomic perspective, 72 percent of respondents reported themselves as coming from a variety of middle-class backgrounds, as opposed to 6 percent from lower-class backgrounds. The authors contend, as a whole, entrepreneurs come from "stable, comfortable family existences" and poverty seems to be a significant barrier to entrepreneurship.

So, is being out of work what drives people to start companies? Not so much, according to the study, with 5 percent stating the inability to find work was an important factor in starting their own businesses. What really drives entrepreneurship, they found, is the desire to build wealth - indicated as an important motivation by three-fourths of respondents. Looking at industry experience, three-fourths of the entrepreneurs worked as employees at other companies for more than six years before starting out on their own.

As the survey examined entrepreneurs in high-growth industries such as the aerospace, semiconductor, biotechnology, software and engineering fields, the authors contend their research cannot be generalized for the entire population of U.S. entrepreneurs. And with many types of studies in this field, a certain "survivor bias" exists, such that the researchers interviewed are only the entrepreneurs who are still running companies, as opposed to those whose companies are no longer in existence.

"The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur" was released by the Kauffman Foundation and can be accessed at:

http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/ResearchAndPolicy/TheStudyOfEntrepreneurship/Anatomy%20of%20Entre%20071309_FINAL.pdf

When building and selling our programs in entrepreneurship, we must be very cognizant of the fact that entrepreneurship and innovation indeed follow the same rules as playing the violin, becoming a professional athlete, or becoming an expert engineer.  We must understand that an entrepreneur will not receive the kind of on-the-job training that a freshly-graduated engineer will receive (so that in 5 or 6 years she will become an expert in her field).  Unless we build an additional long-term support infrastructure for budding entrepreneurs, we must accept the fact that our students will not build great companies or innovations shortly after graduation.  This would be delusional and nothing short of gambling.

Farewell Words from STEP Graduate Jeff Bargiel

Dear Fellow and Future STEP Students,

As my awesome time at Case comes to a close I've been reviewing some of the best pieces of advice and articles I've gathered these last 21 months. Some are STEP core and some are from other sources. These are the things I could think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there is plenty of sage wisdom I have already forgotten and that's why I'm reviewing the things I remember for myself and decided to share with you all.

The Three Gifts You Can Give Yourself and Everyone Around You*:

1. SMILE! Smiles tear down barriers and are the portal to forgiveness.
2. BE LIKEABLE! Everyone who gives you a break must like you first. It's just the way it works.
3. POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE! (PMA)

Ask questions. The idiot is the one that walks away not knowing.

If you're so smart how's come you ain't rich?
Answer: You need a CUSTOMER, then you need a VALUE PROPOSITION (adds value to life), then you need a PRODUCT. In that order. If a business or entrepreneur doesn't know one of these things, walk away. Make sure everyone in your startup knows these three things.

80/20!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
20% of the work will get you 80% of the way there. Don't waste 80% of your time on 20% of the problem. Know the critical path. Ask yourself, is this important or interesting? Fermi problems are the only types of problems that good CEOs do.


The Billion Dollar Idea*:
It is really hard to get somewhere if you don't know "where" is and even if you do know "where" is you'll need a map. This is something that all of the best people we know use whether to be the best business person, teacher, wife, brother, or friend.
Keep three-ring notebooks: one for each part of your life you want maximize (student, business person, sister, etc.)

1. In the notebook first answer this question: What one thing could I do (that you aren't doing now) that if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference on your life?
2. Write up to 5 goals for the next year that will have a the biggest payoff.
3. Action Steps: at least 50 for each goal with a timeline.
4. List 5+ obstacles preventing each goal
5. List 5+ action steps to eliminate your obstacles
6. Put everything in your calendar where you will remember to perform those action steps and celebrate milestones.

Building on Strengths is 10 times more likely to make you a success than fixing weaknesses.
Think about it. Do we pick things based on key differentiators or lack of weakness. Being strong in a few areas can shadow many weakness in others. Fixing weaknesses can only make you average.

Strategy is... those few questions you ask whose answers are fundamentally difficult to change once started.
Examples: What is my product? Is it niche or commodity? Bootstrap or raise? First customer?


Only two things needed for a successful business and both point to hiring the best people you can't afford:

1. Privileged access to resources
2. Superior execution

Use morning huddles. Just like the ones described by Carlson & Wilmot. Everyone puts their daily goals on the board and discusses. Everyone makes a commitment to everyone else in the organization to get them done.


Don't Overdo KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). It's a good mantra that means good logic needs only a simple presentation. It does NOT mean treat your audience like babies. They will end up resenting it and you. The better mantra is Keep It Simple but Smart. It also does not mean assume that your audience has a PhD in deciphering crazy-ass jargon. Being smart means being simple, but not stupid. "I would have said it shorter and better but I didn't have enough time." Well, spend the time and say it shorter and better. If you can't, then something else is wrong.

I'd rather be lucky than good, but you can make your own "luck."


Good luck,
Jeff

P.S. Keep reading.

*As taught by Richard L. Osborne - Weatherhead School of Management

Steve Blank, Serial Entrepreneur, Stanford Lecture Summary

Steve Blank, Serial Entrepreneur, Stanford Lecture

The following material has been reproduced by permission from various pages on Stanford's Entrepreneurship Corner website. http://ecorner.stanford.edu/


Rethinking the Product Development Process

The canonical product development model - concept, develop, alpha, beta, first customer, ship - is how Silicon Valley grew strong. But why does this process to build a business only succeed part of the time? And how can early stage ventures reduce their overall risk? Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank points out that most founding partners strongly focus on product and ship. But too often, startups confuse engineering's accomplishments with marketing and sales success, and they pop the champagne corks too soon.

Assessing Customer and Market Risks

The odds of success in Silicon Valley are about 1,000:1. How can so many good ideas fail to find their place in the market? Too many start-ups burn too many resources on sales and marketing too soon, says serial entrepreneur Steve Blank. Less than ten percent of start-ups fail because of faulty technology or engineering, whereas most elude success because they don't pinpoint the right market or the right customer.

The Customer Development Process

Any assumption that an entrepreneur makes about their customers and markets is nothing but a guess, says serial entrepreneur Steve Blank. But how can one prove a working hypothesis? It goes beyond soliciting friends for feedback in the dorm room. Successful ventures locate real customers in the field, solicit their feedback, and deeply analyze the customers whose problems they hope to solve.

Engineers and Founders: The First Sales Team

The most radical thing a new company can do is sell their product, says serial entrepreneur Steve Blank. He believes that the company founders - not the sales team - should be the first to try to turn a profit, as they will learn firsthand about their product's shortcomings and usability. Great engineers directly understand what their customers need.

Don't Seek Publicity Too Soon

Public relations and media contact should be strategic, rather than serendipitous. Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is deeply against media coverage for a fledgeling start-up, as too many factors are variable in the early stages of a growing business.

Company Building as Shakespearean Tragedy

Silicon Valley lore includes anecdotes of company founders being thrown out of their own companies. But starting a company and growing a company are two different skill sets, says serial entrepreneur Steve Blank. Investors are often frightened away by world class entrepreneurs who know how to build, but not deepen and enrich, a later stage enterprise. The tragedy, says Blank, is that the largest, best-known tech companies are still run by their founders - think Microsoft, Oracle, or Apple. The gap in this insight, says Blank, is of theatrical proportion.

Acting on Customer Discovery

Customer feedback simply cannot be outsourced. Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank shares an anecdote that demonstrates the importance of a founder speaking directly to his customers. He recalls how Valley entrepreneur Alan Michaels tried to sell just a single-board computer and ended up producing an entire desktop machine. Micheals listened to the customer's needs and altered his product accordingly. These changes made during product development turned single-digit sales into the thousands, and resulted in an eventual $400 million company sale. On a later venture Micheals failed to listen to what the customer wanted, says Blank, and the company failed to thrive.

No VP's in a Start-up

Start-ups are not junior versions of larger companies. It's a different animal, says serial entrepreneur Steve Blank. Rather than developing a sales team or a marketing team from the get-go, Blank believes that a launching company should bring them together under the umbrella of customer development.

Intimate Customer Understanding

An entrepreneur needn't be a heart surgeon, but they must have an understanding of the tools a heart surgeon might need. That said, learning a business vertical is the responsibility of a great financier, regardless of its complexity, says Steve Blank, serial entrepreneur. Without this depth of customer understanding - knowing their problems and why they buy - no new venture can succeed.