Kevin Koym

Doug Erwin’s Wisdom

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Doug Erwin, Former Chairman and CEO of The Planet gave the closing keynote today at today’s Rice Alliance 8th Annual Information Technology / Web Venture Forum.  He’s been very successful across multiple ventures over the last 35 years. I felt so compelled by his wisdom that I wanted to share it here. Here’s his 12 points:
  • Solve a Customer’s Real Problem: one that actually exist:  “If you can’t see what John Brown needs through John Brown’s eyes, you can’t sell what John Brown buys”.
  • Constantly Question and Modify Plans
  • Hire the Best. one can never have too much talent.  you can only make 10-15 decisions a day. hire the right people to make more.
  • Hire an Experienced Management Team. There’s no time for “learning on the job”.
  • Stay Focused. It’s too easy to stray.
  • Learn Something New Every Day….. your competitor is…  What did you learn today?
  • Ultimately, You Must Make a Dollar.  Sooner is better than later.
  • Build and Protect your Reputation…  you will be considered for many opportunities and never know it. Executive intelligence: cultivate it.
  • Good Communications Skills: this will raise your chances of success. Listening is as important as talking (its not just about speaking). Get out of your office… and do “Walkabouts”.  Manager meetings on Monday 7:30 am. What happened last week? What happens this week? Now go communicate this to the rest of the company?  Listen to the unspoken.
  • Great Company Culture.  This will solve attrition and retention issues. You can not create it, you must have it evolve.  Create risk compensation plans for all. Develop your own “bell” [e.g. for ringing when there’s a sale].  Create an opportunity where people get to contribute beyond their direct responsibilities.
  • Leadership…. the glue that holds it together.  Camelot Rules: “we’re in this together”. Situational Leadership Rules- don’t treat people all the same- they’re all different.
  • Being Lucky Helps. Where opportunity means preparation.
  • Successful business leaders recognize opportunities, pursue the right ones, overcome obstacles, manage potential risk.  People don’t trip on mountains, they trip on small rocks.

Great event today, and great closing keynote, with great wisdom.  Glad to get to participate today.

Reconnecting with Chile

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Its hard to ever know how seeds once planted will grow.

This and next week represent an exciting reconnection of my work with Chile.  For context, in 2003, I took an early version of what was to become the blueprint of Tech Ranch Austin to Chile.  I was convinced that I needed to open the next door of my life, in not just starting yet another tech startup, but instead, starting a platform, some might say a revolution :-), of startups working together.

Its exciting to see how these seeds have grown. Two really quick areas that I’ll mention here.  This next Thursday, Paige Brown, Founder and CEO of Tripeezy heads to Chile, as one of the winners of Startup Chile.  Startup Chile is a program where the government of Chile is investing money in her startup.

Secondly, three executives are coming from Chile- two from Antofagasta- where the major copper mines of the world area, and another long term colleague and friend coming from Santiago.  We’ll be talking about specific technologies that the executives from Antofagasta are looking for.  Moreover, we will explore ways to shape the innovation culture of Antofagasta in specific, and Chile more generally.

I am excited because the work that originally took me to Chile, including perhaps the simple concepts, and my naive understanding of these concepts and my work has now blossomed into a much bigger opportunity that includes many businesses and early stage entrepreneurs.  Feeling like a proto-entrepreneur for the Startup Chile program (before there was a program years ago) its exciting to see doors open where there were once walls and a bunch of dreams.

Keep your eye on the Prize

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A recent discussion around the Bootstrap Austin Network is worthy of sharing here, for it rings true for every entrepreneur trying to make a difference through his/her venture.  An entrepreneur was contemplating legal action on an issue that was not core to his business.  Several entrepreneurs got into the discussion. Barry Thorton, founder of Clear Cube and several other successful companies, admonished though to “keep your eye on the Prize”.  Be true to the core of the business you’re building, and blow off all other issues that are not core to the business (especially in the case of considering legal action on something that did not protect the core of the business).  Here’s a small excerpt from his statement:

This story of yours suggests that you have guided yourself far afield from your business.

I always push the MLK saying  “Keep your eye on the Prize”.

I would suggest that you have drifted far from that Prize and you are now asking others time to join you in that pursuit.

You know what your Prize is, you have been pursuing it for years.

Does this seriously threaten that Prize?

How much time have you spent on this and how has it gotten you closer to the Prize?

Relax, tend your field, it is your Prize.  Don’t get distracted, it will only cause pain.

Good luck, Barry

I think that many of us as entrepreneurs, as we are passionately slaving towards a goal, loose sight of the prize that we’re working towards.  As an example, around the Tech Ranch Austin, recently I recognized that one of our entrepreneurs, who is passionate about serving persons that have diabetes, was talking about how to go get investors here, and investors there… yet had yet to just serve the constituency that he is passionate about.  He’s now has the first 10 diabetics that he is serving… and the business has taken on a whole new tone of possibilities.  It does not matter what the distraction is… anything that is not core to the business can distract you from the Prize (as it has me too). Keep your eye on the prize.  Build your business.  Create success for yourself, and those that you serve. And through doing this, you’ll be making the world a better place.

The First Shot Fired in the Next American Revolution

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One of the great things about being a connector is that I get to listen in across many different people- what they are saying, what they are finding interesting, and if there is any correlation among these topics of conversation.

Recently, there’s been one meme that has gotten tweeted and talked about by quite a few people, that till now, I did not think had any connection to each other.

And what this meme represents is what I believe is the first shot in the next American Revolution.

No, I am not talking about some group trying to send someone to some new political office.  As you might know, I was (and still am) in support of the choice I made in supporting President Obama…. yet, there’s something much more fundamental happening… and this represents the start of something revolutionary.

To steal a phrase from John Robb: “an aware citizenry can defend itself“.  Up to this time, every time some issue has come up, there’s been a question of turning to the government for a solution.  Yet, given what’s happened in the Congress for so many years, whether a Republican or a Democrat in the Oval Office, the citizenry I believe has now come to learn that the government is in itself fundamentally broken.

And by broken, what do I mean?  From John Robb’s article:

  • Median male incomes today are the same as they were in 1974 in the US (and likely all over the western world).  No progress has been made despite a doubling of productivity and massive top line GDP growth. Worse, given that female incomes aren’t on par with male incomes yet, the typical American family makes much less per hour worked than in 1974.
  • All of the requirements for entry into the middle class are now private expenses.  From health care to a college education, if you can’t afford the minimum (let alone high quality versions), you aren’t allowed entry.  Worse, those expenses are spiraling out of control at rates many times the rate of inflation.  Nothing is being done to address this.
  • The system is geared to make us fail.  Not only has outsourcing/off-shoring just started (everything that can be moved offshore to take advantage of the arbitrage opportunity in wage disparities between western and workers in developing countries will be) we are being laden with un-repayable debt. To wit: there’s been NO job growth in the last decade (despite tens of millions in population growth) and total debt from all sources is still near ALL time historical highs.

Whethere the  mishandling of healthcare reform,  security theater in the airports, or spending billions on companies that shouldn’t be bailed out, or trillions on a war that should have never been started, Americans are starting to speak out in a way that we’ve not done for a long while.  And recognize its the aware populace that’s been taking care of business. The genie is out of the bottle.

Although I might not be happy about the waste by our government, as an entrepreneur, and an American, I’m excited that some of my fellow Americans are waking up and starting the process that will reform, dare I say revolutionize this country again.   It is time to take up web browser, account ledger, and social network and remake our country.  There’s too much at stake, for “every revolution begins with the power of an idea” and this is an idea who’s time has come.

Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule in 2010

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Looking back to 2009 many great things happened with the concepts that I’ve been calling the Enterprise Tribe, with the most exciting being Tech Ranch Austin.  2009 was all about transition, transitioning from a handful of theories to actual startup success at the Ranch.  2010, though, is about growth.  That is, taking what we have to a whole new level.  While reflecting on 2009 and 2010 with my buddy Damon Clinkscales about how I needed more time to just get stuff done, he pointed out “you need to switch more time to becoming a maker, not just a manager”.  Spend more time making things, less time interrupted through out the day managing things.  Paul Graham, of Ycombinator wrote a blog post about this- about how its hard to make things if you get interrupted through out the day with meeting after meeting or other interruption:

When you’re operating on the maker’s schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in. Plus you have to remember to go to the meeting. That’s no problem for someone on the manager’s schedule. There's always something coming on the next hour; the only question is what. But when someone on the maker’s schedule has a meeting, they have to think about it.

What’s happened for me is that as a Founding Partner of the Tech Ranch, I need time both as a Maker (getting things done for the Ranch and our portfolio companies)  and a Manager (involved with the Tech Ranch community).  Having those moments to work in without interruptions really makes a difference- say to review a spreadsheet, or respond to a strategic plan, or even to just handle email… As Paul points out:

Each type of schedule works fine by itself. Problems arise when they meet. Since most powerful people operate on the manager’s schedule, they’re in a position to make everyone resonate at their frequency if they want to. But the smarter ones restrain themselves, if they know that some of the people working for them need long chunks of time to work in.

This year, as one of my new years resolutions in order to grow the Tech Ranch I am going to have to spend more time on a Maker’s Schedule.  I am sure that it will take some time to work out this type of schedule, and at first, I am sure that its going to feel different for some members of our community…. but I see spending more time in a Maker’s Schedule essential for me to build our community.  Its not just about building out the Tech Ranch, but about creating situations that end up long term making the community itself stronger through seeing that our companies get to move farther and faster.  All I ask, in echoing Paul’s words, is that everyone understand the need that we / I have in spending more time as a Maker. I will still be available for meetings, and am really interested in interacting with the community in depth (as I always have been and always will be).  Spending more time on just getting things done is essential for 2010’s growth.  In order to create more hours to be a Maker, I’ll be setting up office hours. And I am open to other ideas as well.  Please let me know if you have other ideas that I should pursue.  Through this I am looking forward to serving our community farther than I could in 2009, and I am hoping that we together can take many of the Tech Ranch companies to a whole new level together.

As I make this transition to setting aside more time as a Maker, I ask for your patience with how I start to manage my schedule, and I hope you see what I am aiming for in bringing our community much farther than before.  Thank you for the support in 2009; Its now time to grow and strengthen our community together in 2010.


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