One of the things that we do a lot inside of Bootstrap Austin is sharing information between the members of the network- getting feedback perhaps before software or ideas or business process has been well developed… This is a powerful aspect of the network- given that all of us are “experts” in our own areas, the power of the network allows us to draw from whomever has the best ideas or feedback for our business. This, by the way, is what I mean when I say the words enterprise teaming ™ Unlike other models of economic development- where one centralized authority (whether the local government, or the chamber of commerce), this model is by far the most efficent, for expertise in the network (or community) is leveraged directly. I will write more about this later… (what I call “Enterprise 2.0).

Tonight, I am at a “DemoCamp” meeting- where a group of bootstrapping entrepreneurs are getting together, showing off some software that they have built, and sharing ideas and feedback on the software presented. What is great is this is usually business feedback… not technical feedback. The following entrepreneurs are presenting tonight:
1. Jason Howell – SelfBookIt
2. David James – CommunityGoals | Raise money and find solutions for community problems and goals.
3. Paul Walhus – SearchSlides
4. Ash Maurya – BoxCloud | Dead-simple file sharing
5. Mark Phillip – AreYouWatchingThis

Great job guys- this is all exciting work, and even better, great feedback for the entrepreneurs from other entrepreneurs!

I have noticed that as I have started taking this whole idea of blogging more seriously, that I have tended to hold off till I have a thought fully thought out before posting… as if I was going to have a full PhD level defense behind what I am thinking/ writing / saying.  Well enough of that.  I am going to be more informal from here on out with my blog.  I might not have things fully thought out… but I will make sure that the topics that I write about here are informed, and based on fact… but perhaps presented a little more informally for speed.

One of the common themes has been coming up in a bunch of the work that I have been doing (in personal development work, in reading, as well as answering some of the questions on the business side of entreprenuership… e.g. what is your personal brand / competitive advantage). The theme is this… the answer is inside of you. It is in finding and creating the passion that is inside oneself that is the best source of [business] inspiration. Here are a few quotes that I have recently run across:

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” Carl Jung

“The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Jesus Christ- Luke 17:21

“Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.” Martin Luther

“Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!” Martin Luther

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” George Bernard Shaw

I am sure that there are many other quotes aligned with this sense of  of this… If you have one to share, either email me it or share it with all of us by posting a comment.

Over the last few days, I was at the SxSW Interactive Conference and had time to stop by the SxSW Trade Show. At the trade show, one booth stood out out of all of the ones that I went to… and after thinking about it over the last day, I realized why this one booth stood out over all of the other ones… First let me tell you the booth was for a photo site with high quality, low cost images, called LuckyOliver.com. It was not that the booth was glitzy… or had graphics different than any of the other ones… it was because Amy Hooker, the person I talked with, embodies what the Cluetrain Manifesto says in Thesis #3: Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice. Every other booth that I stepped into had some larger than life story that sounded like marketing-babble…. Amy, one of the entrepreneurs behind LuckyOliver.com presented in a down to earth style… it stood out of why I have stopped liking one of their competitor’s sites (who I am not going to link here) because this other site, in their success, forgot about the community that was buying and serving them. I see as well that others (including my friend Brian Massey) stumbled upon this rare example of a company that gets “it” and the gets the power of speaking in a human voice. )

Good luck LuckyOliver.com… I look forward to buying more images from you guys in the future.