Monday, June 25, 2012

[NEWS] Congrats to 2012 Moxie Awards Winners - The Best of Chicago's Digital Startups

Posted By: George Deeb - 6/25/2012

Last Thursday was the first annual Moxie Awards event, to celebrate the best individuals and companies in Chicago's digital startup sc...

Last Thursday was the first annual Moxie Awards event, to celebrate the best individuals and companies in Chicago's digital startup scene. Congratulations to all the following winners:

Best Consumer Web Startup - GiveForward
Best B2B Startup - BrightTag
Best Financial Services or Payments Startup - YCharts
Best Educational or Recruitment Startup - Code Academy
Best Mobile App - Sprout Social
Best Student Startup - Groovebug
Best Bootstrapped Startup - Code Academy
Best UX Award - Belly
Best Startup Founder or Co-Founders - Neal Sales-Griffin & Mike McGee (of Code Academy)
Best Service Provider - WunderLand Group
Best Digital Agency - Doejo
Mentor of the Year - Troy Henikoff (of Excelerate Labs)
Angel Investor of the Year - Kevin Willer (of 1871)
VC of the Year - Paul Lee (of Lightbank)
Tech Woman of the Year - Desiree Vargas Wrigley (of Give Forward)
CTO of the Year - Eric Lunt (of BrightTag)
Best Beard - Dylan Richard
Best Corporate Digital Innovation - Crate & Barrel
Startup of the Year - BrightTag
CEO of the Year - Matt Maloney (of GrubHub)
Breakthrough Digital Company of the Year - GrubHub

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Lessons in Entrepreneurship: My Son's Kindergarten Class

Posted By: George Deeb - 6/19/2012

Last week, I had the honor of presenting to my son's Kindergarten class before summer break.  His teacher invited me in, to tell the kid...

Last week, I had the honor of presenting to my son's Kindergarten class before summer break.  His teacher invited me in, to tell the kids what I did for a living.  When I showed up, 16 eager students quietly listened to my story of starting and running businesses, and helping other entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground.  It was then I decided to test a long-running theory I have had: that our kids are much smarter than given credit for, and if given the right tutelage, they could easily grasp complicated business topics, even at such a young age.

So, how better to test this theory than to have the class brainstorm the launch of a new business.  But, not just any business.  It would need to be one they would be passionate about.  And, after discussing a range of ideas, they all were in agreement: they wanted to open an ice cream store.  And, the minute the mention of this new ice cream store started, this peaceful group of listeners turned into empassioned active participants in designing exactly how this business needed to be built.

First of all, I told them they needed to name the business.  And, after a few suggestions, including "Mr. Deeb's Ice Cream Store", one student had the winning name that got everyone excited:  "The Best Ice Cream Store in the World".  Nothing like shooting for the stars, as all good entrepreneurs should do.  Then, I asked them where we should locate the store.  And, they agreed our hometown of Northfield, IL was missing a good ice cream shop, which I told them was a good choice being miles away from their closest competitors of Oberweis and Ben & Jerry's in Glenview, Homer's in Winnetka, Dairy Queen in Wilmette and Baskin & Robbins in Northbrook.

One student identified that the hot dog chain in Northfield, U Dawg U, also sold ice cream in addition to hot dogs and hamburgers.  And, that we needed to be better than them, offering "every flavor known to mankind", instead of the small sampling of flavors offered at U Dawg U.  And, when asked how much we should sell our ice cream cones for, we all agreed that one student's recommendation of $100 per cone would be too expensive, and that our prices needed to be the same as the other competing ice cream stores, at around $3 per cone.

When asked who should run the ice cream store, they all eagerly raised their hands to take turns running the store themselves.  But, I told them they needed to focus on their studies, and for now, we needed to find an adult to run the store.  They asked if I could be the store manager.  I declined given my busy schedule, but said we could put out a job posting to find somebody willing to manage the store for us.

I then asked, how are we going to get customers to our store, and the ideas started free-flowing: from a "big sign in front of the store", to "on the internet", to "handing out pamphlets to our friends".  All good solid marketing instincts, at the ripe old age of six!!

The last topic we addressed was how would we raise the needed money for the products, rent, marketing, staff, etc.  Their immediate response was to "ask a bank for the money".  I told them banks don't lend money to startups.  Then, they said, "we could pass a hat around asking their parents to make donations".  I said, they were on to a good idea, and their friends and family would be great targets to seek angel investors.

The kids' classroom teacher was completely surprised at how engaged and vocal the class had become on this topic, as they hadn't been like this for the other presenting parents.  Even though it was much like herding cats to turn their excitement into actionable ideas, they did it.  I helped coach them along the way, as a good startup mentor will do.  But, it was largely their ideas that got summarized above.

So, my pitch to our school administrators:  stop "babying and spoonfeeding" our kids.  They are very smart, and can grasp big topics, if given the opportunity.  And, for goodness sake, stop using the same outdated curriculum that I learned in the 1970's, my parents learned in the 1940's and their parents learned in the 1910's.  Enough with learning the types of rocks, the U.S. state capitals and the inventor of the cotton gin.  If our kids are smart enough to use an iPad, surf the web, play complex video games and engage in a dialog like the above, then they can start learning about technology and business, even while in elementary school.  Let's call it an EBA: for an education in Elementary Business Administration.

For future posts, please follow me at:  www.twitter.com/georgedeeb

Monday, June 11, 2012

[VIDEO] George Deeb Teaches Market Research for Startups

Posted By: George Deeb - 6/11/2012

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of mentoring the newest class of entrepreneurs at Founder Institute Chicago. Below is a video of the...

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of mentoring the newest class of entrepreneurs at Founder Institute Chicago. Below is a video of the lesson I taught on "Market Research for Startups". I thought it would be useful to the Red Rocket Blog readers, as well.

The lesson provides high level guidance on: (i) what types of markets to pursue; (ii) how to find data on your market; (iii) how to define your competitors; (iv) how to cost-effectively do market research; and (v) how to determine if you can win, or if you should walk away. This lesson helps entrepreneurs with learning how to do the necessary market research upfront, before wasting a ton of money on a bad idea.


George Deeb Teaches "Market Research for Startups" to Founder Institute Chicago Class from George Deeb on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoyed this video (despite the bad lighting). And, if you desire to see more "how to" videos in the future, let me know in the comments field, and I can build some into my editorial calendar.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/georgedeeb

Monday, June 4, 2012

[NEWS] Techweek 2012 Schedule Announced - Call for Techweek 100 Nominees

Posted By: George Deeb - 6/04/2012

Techweek was one of Chicago's great events last year, and I am excited to participate in this year's event, set for June 22-26, 201...

Techweek was one of Chicago's great events last year, and I am excited to participate in this year's event, set for June 22-26, 2012 at the Merchandise Mart.  I am going to be one of the venture capital judges for this year's Startup Launch portion, where 35 pre-qualified startups will be competing in the Startup City exhibition area on Monday June 25, for a grand prize of $100,000 as best tech startup.

If there is one tech-related event to attend in Chicago this year, this is it, with over 5,000 people expected to be in attendance to talk tech and startups.  The program includes a great line-up of featured speakers, including the CEO's of Orbitz, Hootsuite, Trunk Club, Fieldglass, Centro and WSJ Online, to name a few.  Here is the full schedule for each day, announced last week. It features concurrent tracks on a wide range of topics, including business, data, design, development, enterprise, gaming, health, marketing, mobile, social and entrepreneurship. You can buy your tickets here.

In addition, Techweek is asking for nominations for the 2012 Techweek 100, the 100 individuals or businesses making a difference in the Chicago startup and tech scene. If you feel my efforts at Red Rocket are worthy of your nomination, I would be honored and appreciative of your support.  You can vote here.

For future posts, please follow me at:  www.twitter.com/georgedeeb

2012 Internet Trends from KPCB's Mary Meeker

Posted By: George Deeb - 6/04/2012

In case you have not seen this terrific presentation of key internet trends in 2012, prepared by web guru Mary Meeker at Kleiner Perkins (...

In case you have not seen this terrific presentation of key internet trends in 2012, prepared by web guru Mary Meeker at Kleiner Perkins (presented at the big D10 conference last week), click through the slides below.  The document is jam packed with stats and learnings, including key trends by country and key momentum in the mobile space.  Take a read to see how these learnings apply to your own businesses, and invest or pivot accordingly.

KPCB Internet Trends 2012


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