Archive for the 'Relationship Marketing' Category

“Here I sit my cheeks a flexin’ giving birth to another Texan.”

The men’s bathroom stalls of pretty much every ski resort in Colorado during the 1980s were adorned with that poem. Standard issue. And when AIDS became mainstream, we hung boxes of “Texas T-Shirts” in those same men’s stalls. Despite being the economic life-blood of the Colorado Mountain Ski-Town, by-and-large the Texan’s typically arrogant, loud, flashy and better-than-you we-got-helluva-lotta-oil-money attitude created a fueled our bathroom poet laureates. More often than not…with PLENTY of good cause! They could be horribly demeaning: “Do y’all even have schools here?” Action-reaction. JR Ewing was not an aberration.

I spent most of my youth working in my Dad’s shops at the ski resort waiting on those Texans that bought the “Knee-Deep Sky-High” T-shirts, I-Ski Sunglasses, Scott goggles, Smith no-fog-cloths and Playboys/Penthouses from us at a rate so frequent and high enough margin that our family could eat and afford ski. This was the 80’s. Big oil money. Texans in 10 gallon hats and dinner-plate sized gold belt buckles. JR Ewings in sheepskin coats doused in too much men’s cologne smelling like Scotch.

By and large I was treated like dirt working in the ski shop. And not because I was a punk ski-town kid looking to meet their daughters either! It was my age. I noticed they treated their own kids the same way, and their kids had tremendous contempt for them. ”Junior” was an idiot for not being old enough to drink or drive. Their interactions with my father, however, were quite the opposite. Dad was usually trying to grade P-CHEM 401 tests while ringing up customers in the shop. Professor-by-day-entrepreneur-by-night. After they learned he was a nuclear scientist-turned-college professor turned Dad-in-Crested Butte-outdoors-bum who hunted elk and flyfished the local waters since he was age 10 and was raising a 3rd generation of skiers, they couldn’t spend enough time talking to him. Apparently, age, intelligence and ‘intrestingness’ had a lot to do with how you were treated by adults.

“What kind of sunglasses would YOU wear?”

Every so often a Long Tall Texan would make a connection with me…the punk kid at the ski resort. They’d hang out in the store for 30 minutes longer and ask me lots of questions. “What’s the best locals hang-out? Who’s got the best steak? If I really want to get a good instructor, who should I ask for? What’s the scariest run? Where can I buy some cocaine? <got that a lot in the 80s>”

To my surprise, they’d often remember my name year-after-year as they showed up for their annual two-week family ski vacation. Sometimes they would give me a crisp $20.00, $50.00 or even a $100.00 bill for helping carry luggage, lug some firewood up to their condo, or sherpa their skis over to the shop for tuning. A crisp Ben to a 14-year-old was unforgettable. Most, it seemed, carried money clips with inlaid turquoise fat with what appeared to be $10,000 folded up. These rare-breed Texans asked me lots of questions and listened intently to my answers. They, in turn, often gave me some really great advice. They were simple. One in a thousand, and they stood out, and not because of the Willy Bogner fur-lined one-piece they were wearing.

As I rambled in to college I  took many internships and jobs with the “local elite” and “national elite”. Mostly I worked for the National Judicial College where I met and mingled with thousands of the nation’s best and most respected judges. Again, like the JR Ewings, most could not be bothered to acknowledge someone many years younger than them. Maybe a “thanks” for holding a door open.

And yet this time, when the I observed the odd judge interact among their peers and later on with me I realized what natural leaders they were and how comfortable they were in any social setting. Mills Lane was one of those judges. (Maybe he spotted that can of Copenhagen in my pocket and we became friends over that.) Or maybe all that time he spent refereeing boxing matches with Mike Tyson gave him an affinity to hang out with people much younger than him. But he was genuinely interested in my perspectives when we talked and he would remember our conversations year-after-year. There were several others like that and over time I realized they were similar to Mills Lane in their communities. Very prominent, very self-confident and very passionate about their vision. They always transcended the age-barrier. It was as if they were ageless. They were simply comfortable hanging out with any age-demographic. I first met Chuck Alvey then. He was the GM for Channel 8 and not the EDAWN CEO he is now. He probably doesn’t remember, but he and I hung out many times chatting on the lunch patio at the Judicial College.

I interned at the Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Agency when Elisa Maser (then Erquiaga and the assistant director) was defining and implementing the Regional Quality-of-Life Factors. (Whole post on that someday!) I spent a year forming and holding these focus groups with every mucky-muck in town and once again experienced largely the same repeated pattern. I met the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce over 20 times for the “first time”. The then-Mayor verbally berrated me for not having ice for the sodas in front of 10 other local leaders when I had nothing to do with F&B. And then Max Page — a man I would later work for at Fitzgeralds — hung out with me and asked me a bunch of questions about what I thought about downtown Reno and what should be done.

The battle between the young, inexperienced and often idealistic versus the older, experienced, scared and more realistic generations seems to be forever-generations old. That sucks.

I intend to be the older dude  in the suit that holds the door open for the college kid instead of vice versa. I’ll think I’ll enjoy being a bridge between generations as I slide out of my 30s and in to my 40s. My parties and companies will be filled with both the young-in-age and mature in mind and the older in age and ageless in attitude folks. The self-important age discriminating can stay home uninvited and bitch about how the world is out to get them and why the age-demographic on the other end is holding them back. 

It shouldn’t be about the age of a person. It’s about the connections and the conversation between people. Age discrimination is a concern and practice of the self-conscious, the ignorant and the unethical individuals unwilling to remake themselves in to the human being necessary to gain access, acceptance and rapport with others.

…stay Tuned for Part II

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OK, take that swank bluetooth dangle-dongle berry outta your ear and read’up! That plan of yours to have you’re next professional Sears photo-session for your “Avery print-at-home business card” sporting that killa’ bluetooth headset of yours is a bad bad very very bad bad idea. Bad idea. True story. Bad idea. Here’s some other tips you should know/consider:

#1: ‘Get Yo’ Global Look On’ your business card

A 44-year-old unemployed ’seasoned senior executive vice president of sales’ person says to me, “Why’s there a plus sign in your phone number? Is that a typo?” Nooooo!

Business cards that are “global friendly” immediately communicate that you have a passport and are capable of surviving outside the US on your own. Or that you’re aware that the US is not the only place in the world that has phones. That maybe you actually know/interact with someone outside the US.

More than likely, you are experienced/capable of interacting with other professionals outside of the US and you do that frequently enough that it’s important to have a global-friendly phone numbers that include the country-code. I can run through a pile of 1,000 business cards from folks I’ve met recently and immediately tell you who has gold/platinum status on United and is capable of speaking in front of large audiences by this simple little trait alone. (For now, I guess. I just blew the secret!)

The international seasoned professional simply includes the mobile-phone friendly country code, i.e: +1.775.555.5555. The key here is to simply include the County Code (CC). Here in the US it’s “1″. +1 on mobile devices. We do this because phone numbers in pretty much every country outside of the US and Canada are totally f’n confusing. Want to send a txt to someone in another country? You have to use the +CC.86.311.456.12345

(BTW, seasoned globe-trotters carry ATT or T-Mobile phones. Sprint & Verizon largely don’t work outside the US.)

#2: UPPER CASE EMAIL ADDRESS IS BAD. lowercase everything communicates way emo-hip-startup-with-not-a-lot-of-revenue

You’re email address should always be all lower case. BAD: DAVID@IMADORK.COM. Weak: David@ImADork.com. good: david@imadork.com. Punctuation still matters on everything. Typically well designed business cards that are in all lower case shouts: Hey! I work at a small start-up where we jobbed our corporate collateral to an emo identity designer/we’re trying waaaayyyyy to hard to be hip and cool!!! Companies over 10million in revenue largely care about proper punctuation on their business cards. Startups that are too cool for school are less than 1 million in revenue.

#3: No mobile phone number on the business card.

This guy interviewing with us sporting a sweet Motorola Star-Tac said to me: “I’m sorry, I keep my mobile phone number private and only give it out to my close friends and family.” That was in 1994.

Sorry to bust out the big news on some of you: <cough> It’s 2007. If you still have a land-line, you’re getting kinda weird. I absolutely think it’s quaint of those folks that still think of their mobile phone a private luxury only to be used to call AAA for a flat tire or to let their honey know they’ll be late for dinner. Yeah, back in 1992 when I paid CellularOne $1.25 a minute with “no free anytime minutes” (yeah, shocking!) I was kinda stingy too. Now I chaw down 2000 minutes, 3000 sms and an all-u-can-eat data plan for ~$100.00/month. And guess what? You can too! 

Seriously, get over it. Give it up. There’s nothing gained by being stingy with that mobile phone of yours. And guess what, it get’s stranger: I actually don’t want to call you! I’ll be more likely sending you a text message.

No text messaging plan? Great! I can’t think of a better way to nonverbally tell someone, “Hello. I stopped evolving as a functional part of the professional business world in 1999 and please consider me to be unemployable. Dude, let’s trade voicemails and faxes!!!” C’mon. 33% of the kids 12 and under are more freakin’ connected than you. Get with the ’00’s.

#4: Print-at-home says “Unemployable”

Word.

#5. Kill your FAX number.

Get rid of the fax. Shoot it. Blow it up. And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t put it on your card business card unless you’re a lawyer who still uses Word Perfect 5.1.

Fortunately the folks who still send/receive fax’s don’t read blogs so I don’t need to hammer down this point to much. I’m pretty sure I’ve “faxed” two people in the last year. One was a practical joke. I typed up an email, printed it, and then faxed it to a friend who works for a prominent US Senator who employes interns to print his email for him and then called him and left a long voice mail asking him if he got my email. hahaha!

In a world where we send/receive hundreds of email, + txt, IM, facebook, myspace, do we really need to send/receive faxes? Replace that with your Yahoo!, AIM, Skype, Gtalk!

#6. Holy-mother-of-all sweet receding hairlines/sick vertical bang factor 10x! Dump that photo!

This is rather narrow nit and aimed particularly at my black-turtleneck-wearing real-estate/insurance/human resources bro’s. Leave the photo off the business card. Seriously. That Sears model look you’re sporting ultimately does you more harm than good unless you moonlight at Tao in a bathtub. Replace that photo and reclaim that space with links to your facebook/MySpace/LinkedIn/Flickr/Tumblr/WordPress/Typepad/etc. so we can see some better photos of you and your family/friends and validate you’re not a total dangleberrier freak.

Oddly enough, not having an online avatar/profile photo on the social networking sites says “I’m a freak/lurker.” Again, it’s 2007. Something’s wrong if you don’t have a digital photo of yourself at all. One that’s semi pro looking or minimally visually complimentary says a lot about to the degree to which you clean up and care to function professionally.

#7. Serif Type Face or an ignorant use of MS Comic Sans, Hobo or Arial Black

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of serif types that kick-ass and I love it and it looks awesome. But on a business card that will more-than-likely be scanned, serif gets hard to read and is totally the civil engineer, tax attorney or banking/finance look. That’s OK if you’re one of them kind of folk. If you don’t know why using Hobo is like writing “I’m a dumbass” on your forehead and hanging out in front of Hot Topic at the mall with an OrangeJulius in your hand then go right ahead and use it. Or hire a trained professional identity designer. Best case: copy as close as you can that card from Deloitte.

#8. Test Drive that sucka on Card-Scan and make sure it scans 99% accurate.

Word.

#9. Quality says quality

Business cards printed on nice recycled stock with a matte/gloss finish say “I’m a clean, contemporary and professional.” Some people complain that gloss scratches. That was back in 1992. They fixed that. Now it protects that card. 

If you’re coated cards are getting bent/scratched then you don’t give out enough cards/party/meet people. Certain businesses can get away with rough, uncoated stock — like a concrete manufacturer, dog-groomer or the carrot-juice supervisor at Wild Oats.

Anything that can easily be confused with print-at-home stock is simply a business card personal branding death sentence. If you can’t be bothered with getting professionally printed business cards, you’re killing your professional brand. C’mon, there’s like 5,000 places on the Web (Flickr has a cool service) that can do this in 1 week or less and you won’t look like a total goober dangleberry!

#10. Some random nits for people looking for employment or a sales pitch appointment beyond the business card but related enough for this post:

• Got a sooper slick resume and absolutely no Google Juice? You’re either spooky, strange, of no social relevance or just plain out-of-date.
• Don’t be stupid. Get your Google on. Google me. See what Page 1 looks like. I own my Page 1. And Page 2…
• Google yourself before you go meet a potential employer or sales prospect. What you see (or don’t) is what they see (or don’t).
• Research who you’re talking to! I have pretty much laid out my whole personal life online; you should be able to find something to talk about/have in common.
• Resume’s are dead. Don’t send me a resume. Point me to your Facebook/Myspace/LinkedIn/ClaimID/OpenID/etc.
• I had a 55 year-old former CFO/business executive complain I was hard to reach. hahahahah! I had a 17 year old high school kid reach me out of the blue about an internship in 60 seconds flat.
• If you want employment at my company, it’s not my responsibility to conform to how you communicate best.
• Don’t EVER EVER EVER EVER be anything but sweet, humble, gracious and courteous with anyone at the Company — especially my assistant or the receptionist. Here’s how they relay your message to me: “Some total ass-wipe dickhead just called you from Wall Street Mergers & Acquisitions. Do you want me schedule him to call you in January of 2032?”
• Talk to the people who talk to me. Talk to the people who talk to the business leaders. It’s not so important that you talk to me more than anyone else…or even exclusively. Do you honestly believe I walk out after meeting with someone and give a unilateral order: “Hey, you in that cube. I just hired this guy. He reports to you know.” hahaha! I look to my team to be the social filters. How someone interacts with my team is 99% more important than how much they interact with me. It really doesn’t matter if I like you. If my team can’t like you, that’s an insurmountable problem.
• I ultimately look to my team that I trust to filter and opine their impressions of anyone. Getting a glowing recommendation from Steph at the front-desk is worth more than an hour my time telling me your five-year plan and your summa-cumma-humma claude thingy you did in college.
• Overt attempts to hide your personal life and go for the Sears model look work against you these days. Businesses are more than ever not interested in homogenized drones with no personality. Birds of feather flock together. Everyone at my company is sooper cool. I love hanging out with everyone at my company. They’re all cool. You’d better be too! We want real people with really cool/interesting personal lives that make our lives richer and more interesting. But don’t tell us how cool you are, show us!
• What are you hiding that can be all that negative today that Google can’t find? By the way, we do a standard 10-year background checks on pretty much everyone. The HR Scare-mongers of the 80’s got everyone all screwed up on union-driven fear. All the old hangups (you’re gay, you’re divorced, you’re a single mom, you’re pagan, you like to go to burning man, you have tats all over you, you accidentally voted for GW, you were in a Sorority, you hunt, you support PETA, it’s not your natural hair color, you drink soy milk) have soooo little bearing on what really matters. Great companies are filled with great people who could largely give a crap about whether any of that. What matters? (a) Are you congruent with the company’s brand? (b) Do you present any significant HR issues/risks? (c) Will you attract other good people to the team instead of driving good team members away? (d) Are you really good at what you do and willing to learn to do other things? (e) Are you socially conscious and willing to invest in and give back to your community?
• Get a Gmail account for personal email and get it out of the work email. ’nuff said.

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I’m a huge proponent of professional social gatherings (a.k.a. parties) here in Nevada to bolster our tech/design economy. Lifelong experience has proven to me over and over that people do business with people and if you’re not out starting and maintaining relationships you eventually suck at your business and/or your career. And there you have it: business is largely about parties and meeting people hahahah! 

From a branding perspective it’s ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that our Greater Reno Tahoe brand perception is that of a great place to party and hookup I’ll blog about why Reno’s burgeoning meat-market is vital on another post…just know that the 20-30 something tech/creative’s are in high demand everywhere on the planet and we need to hold on to every single one of them here locally. Frankly, my business cannot grow without them.

A long time a go (1999 - 2002) Michael Thomas (now at EDAWN) ran Greater Reno-Tahoe’s first technology oriented social-networking driven organization, the TechAlliance @ NewNevada. Perhaps the greatest boon to northern Nevada’s tech economy back then was what was then known as Cocktails.com. It’s where we all got together, got on the same page and built momentum with cocktails in hand.

I met Robb Smith for the first time at a Cocktails.com event and he convinced me to joined the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (then known as YEO) which has been perhaps one of my greatest professional life experiences. Back then there were startups like Ken Hawk’s iGo, CandyBarell.com, HardwareStreet.com, HomeSeekers.com and a dozen others. UNR’s Mike Reed, Nevada Bell’s Dick Bostdorf and Reno attorney Garrett Sutton were instrumental in the TechAlliance’s startup. More recently, thanks to EDAWN/Michael Thomas we’ve got the newly formed  Reno Tahoe Young Professionals Network kicking ass and an we’re on the world’s design radar with a fully legit and operatin cool AIGA chapter.  

At the beginning, Cocktails.com events would last all night with everyone spilling out of bars, nightclubs and JK’s Nugget in the wee hours of the morning. It was a great time of forming a tech-community. Then: Dot.com bust…and as Paul Harvey would say “now know you know the story….”

Michael Thomas to came to work for Twelve Horses in 2002 and the TechAlliance eventually folded in to a newly formed state-wide effort known as Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (NCET.ORG). (DISCLAIMER: I’ve was on the founding board and am now the Chairman of this wonderful organization — so this is blatant promotion.) About a year-and-a-half ago under Dave Archer & Emily Lowe’s exceptional care, we brought back Cocktails.com as Tech Thursday’s. These events have been awesome, however, they’ve leaned a little too much on the professional and a little too less on the networking/drinking/have fun/hooking up. In perhaps kinder words, Tech Thursday attracts an “older behaving crowd”. Folks that have to be home before sundown.

WiFi Wednesdays are, by design, intended to be much more geared to the twenty/thrity-somethings rather that “all-inclusive professionals”. If people aren’t doing shots of Tequilla and YouTube jousting, we’ve failed at this experiment. I expect/hope that the Thursday mornings following an event to be just a little less productive among Reno’s tech/design class. But in trade for that, collectively we hope to have a larger pool of those workers to chose from. Now this doesn’t mean that folks over the age of 40 aren’t welcome. If you still feel and act like you’re twenty-six (that’s my personal maturity wall) then get your game on and come out!

Wi-Fi Wednesdays is the brainchild of NCET marketing manager Emily Lowe and Robert Payne/Josh Kenzer of Twelve Horses. The trio was looking for a way to expand their professional networks and was weary of the same old venues. Wi-Fi Wednesdays is intended to be a bi-monthly high-energy networking opportunity designed to serve the specific needs of and cater exclusively to the influential 21-39 demographic. Come help make it succeed!

Details:

August 22, join NCET and the Reno-Tahoe Young Professional’s Network
(YPN) as they put a modern-day spin on Greater Reno Tahoe’s networking with the launch of Wi-Fi Wednesdays: “Connecting the Connected.”

- Wi-Fi Wednesdays is a bi-monthly high-energy networking opportunity designed exclusively for the influential 21-39 demographic
- Held in wireless venues throughout Reno
- Entertaining high-tech networking tools
- “Speed networking,” a twist on the “speed dating” concept that helps facilitate numerous one-on-one introductions in a short period of time
- Brief presentations by successful young entrepreneurs and technology professionals.

The Chocolate Bar
August 22 - 5:30 – 7:30 pm
475 S. Arlington Ave, Reno

August’s Wi-Fi Wednesday features a YouTube contest where you get to vote on your favorite video. To enter, send links of your best videos (3
max) to Emily at NCET by Monday, August 20.

- Space for the August 22 Wi-Fi Wednesdays debut is limited and reservations are preferred.
- Cost for the event is $5 per person for Reno-Tahoe YPN members and $10 per person for non-members. RSVP@NCET.org.

NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, helps foster an environment within Nevada in which high-growth entrepreneurial companies can succeed and flourish. NCET has a strategic partnership with the Nevada Commission on Economic Development. For more information on NCET, visit www.NCET.org. NCET is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

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Last night was the welcoming reception for the Silver Gold Venture Capital Conference. My oh my! What a difference two years makes in investor confidence! The conference is packed and full of energy. It’s BACK ON BABY!

Right up front here’s the statistic that matters: Northern Nevada has 13 companies on the roster of 30 presenting companies.

That’s up from 5 last year and almost 50% of the field. This is very very good news.

Presenting companies like Rudi Wiedemann’s Biodiesel Solutions and Arthur Neumann’s Free Water are not only killer concepts, but up-and-operating, clean, renewable energy-oriented businesses that will have global impact. I wish I was on the Board for these businesses!

Chuck Alvey of EDAWN did a wonderful job of kicking off the event by highlighting how well northern Nevada is performing in diversifying our economy…and yet not glossing over the challenges we face to continue that growth. The Target 2010 study they’ve released with Angelou Economics DEAD ON.(Of special note: Susan Voyles’ article in today’s RGJ on median-income buyers in the Reno area being priced out of the market is one of the better articles to grace the front page in weeks.)

Bob Goff of the Sierra Angels and the founder/former Chairman of Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology kicked off a private investor dinner later on in the evening in which I was lucky to attend.

The “keynote” presentation was from Susan Preston of Seraph Capital Forum, and Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurial Leadership on new proposed Federal tax legislation for private equity investing.

Susan talked about her work on the The Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE) Act of 2006 (HR 5198) which she was the main architect. The ACE Act fills a TREMENDOUS gap in current equity funding between venture capitalists and angel investors. This bill addresses that gap by encouraging accredited investors to increase equity investments in certain qualified small businesses through the creation of a 25% tax credit for accredited investors and certain partnerships (including angel investment pools if all are accredited investors) that invest cash or cash equivalents at an arm’s length in a qualified small business (as defined by the Small Business Act).

Please write to our Senators (particularly Harry Reid and John Ensign) and support this Act.

What does it mean to local entrepreneurs? It means that all these wealthy Californians that relocate to Nevada for our tax benefits are incentives to take a chance on us entrepreneurs instead of sticking it in stocks and mutual funds. (Sorry to be blunt, but that’s what counts.)

That means more small businesses get funded in this state through experienced private equity, and that’s a VERY GOOD THING. Banks, despite their prolific full-page ads of their CEOs smiling and touting how “small business friendly” they are actually SUCK when it comes to start-up capital. Credit cards are better sources of start-up capital than you local bank. Angels are better, but they need an incentive like this.

The Dinner Panel topic was Venture Capital Fund-of-Funds: Insights for Emerging Fund Managers.

While I thought I was in for a real snoozer, it was actually a fairly insightful discussion of how well California’s pension fund managers are performing and their secrets to success. (Note: CalPERS and CalSTRS are in good hands.) Panelists included Jesus Arguelles, Investment Officer II, CalPERS Solange Brooks, Investment Officer, CalSTRS Guillermo Borda, Managing Director, Banc of America Capital Access Funds Charles Merritt, Parish Capital Jeff Mills, Probitas Partners Amit Tiwari, INVESCO.

Perhaps the strongest message I heard repeated was that “fund managers invest in people“. While everyone wants to methodologize the formula of success in to track records, years of experience, business plans, etc., PEOPLE trusting and investing in PEOPLE was the consensus. So what does that mean for any entrepreneur out there: focus on your poeple skills.

You can have a better technology, a better education, a better business plan, a better business plan and still lose to the guy who can work a room.

Technorati : ACE, ACE Act of 2006, Biodiesel, Bob Goff, EDAWN, HR 5198, Target 2010, angel, angel investing, entrepreneurs, investors, nevada, reno, vc, venture capital

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Last night was the welcoming reception for the Silver Gold Venture Capital Conference. My oh my! What a difference two years makes in investor confidence! The conference is packed and full of energy. It’s BACK ON BABY!

Right up front here’s the statistic that matters: Northern Nevada has 13 companies on the roster of 30 presenting companies.

That’s up from 5 last year and almost 50% of the field. This is very very good news.

Presenting companies like Rudi Wiedemann’s Biodiesel Solutions and Arthur Neumann’s Free Water are not only killer concepts, but up-and-operating, clean, renewable energy-oriented businesses that will have global impact. I wish I was on the Board for these businesses!

Chuck Alvey of EDAWN did a wonderful job of kicking off the event by highlighting how well northern Nevada is performing in diversifying our economy…and yet not glossing over the challenges we face to continue that growth. The Target 2010 study they’ve released with Angelou Economics DEAD ON.(Of special note: Susan Voyles’ article in today’s RGJ on median-income buyers in the Reno area being priced out of the market is one of the better articles to grace the front page in weeks.)

Bob Goff of the Sierra Angels and the founder/former Chairman of Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology kicked off a private investor dinner later on in the evening in which I was lucky to attend.

The “keynote” presentation was from Susan Preston of Seraph Capital Forum, and Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurial Leadership on new proposed Federal tax legislation for private equity investing.

Susan talked about her work on the The Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE) Act of 2006 (HR 5198) which she was the main architect. The ACE Act fills a TREMENDOUS gap in current equity funding between venture capitalists and angel investors. This bill addresses that gap by encouraging accredited investors to increase equity investments in certain qualified small businesses through the creation of a 25% tax credit for accredited investors and certain partnerships (including angel investment pools if all are accredited investors) that invest cash or cash equivalents at an arm’s length in a qualified small business (as defined by the Small Business Act).

Please write to our Senators (particularly Harry Reid and John Ensign) and support this Act.

What does it mean to local entrepreneurs? It means that all these wealthy Californians that relocate to Nevada for our tax benefits are incentives to take a chance on us entrepreneurs instead of sticking it in stocks and mutual funds. (Sorry to be blunt, but that’s what counts.)

That means more small businesses get funded in this state through experienced private equity, and that’s a VERY GOOD THING. Banks, despite their prolific full-page ads of their CEOs smiling and touting how “small business friendly” they are actually SUCK when it comes to start-up capital. Credit cards are better sources of start-up capital than you local bank. Angels are better, but they need an incentive like this.

The Dinner Panel topic was Venture Capital Fund-of-Funds: Insights for Emerging Fund Managers.

While I thought I was in for a real snoozer, it was actually a fairly insightful discussion of how well California’s pension fund managers are performing and their secrets to success. (Note: CalPERS and CalSTRS are in good hands.) Panelists included Jesus Arguelles, Investment Officer II, CalPERS Solange Brooks, Investment Officer, CalSTRS Guillermo Borda, Managing Director, Banc of America Capital Access Funds Charles Merritt, Parish Capital Jeff Mills, Probitas Partners Amit Tiwari, INVESCO.

Perhaps the strongest message I heard repeated was that “fund managers invest in people“. While everyone wants to methodologize the formula of success in to track records, years of experience, business plans, etc., PEOPLE trusting and investing in PEOPLE was the consensus. So what does that mean for any entrepreneur out there: focus on your poeple skills.

You can have a better technology, a better education, a better business plan, a better business plan and still lose to the guy who can work a room.

Technorati : ACE, ACE Act of 2006, Biodiesel, Bob Goff, EDAWN, HR 5198, Target 2010, angel, angel investing, entrepreneurs, investors, nevada, reno, vc, venture capital

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Daniel Enemark wrote an outstanding article on email and its challenges in relationship messaging. In “It’s all about me: Why e-mails are so easily misunderstood“, he highlights that researchers are consistently pointing to the difficulty of expressing and conveying emotion as the chief culprit in misunderstood or ineffective dialog. (This applies to any text-based communication. SMS is often worse. IM at least has embedded emoticons.)

I am particularly aware of this from experience within my own inbox and the experiences of customers as they struggle with using email effectively in their marketing. Read a post of mine from May 3, 2004 on Bad Email Habits Observed.

Effective use of email in relationships management is a science. This article and the researchers it cites corroborates why we — Twelve Horses that is — went from being an email-centric business in 2002 to a relationship marketing and messaging management company where email is one of multiple channels of communication. We simply couldn’t ignore the fact that sometimes a follow-up phone call is what it took to make an effective email campaign convert at a higher rate.

The article cites this at the bottom of the story:

So if you want to buy something on Craig’s List, Morris says, “make a brief phone call, even if it’s not practical to do the whole negotiation by phone. You can establish a favorable bias with someone and then proceed in a less rich medium, but it’s very hard to just get right into the negotiation on a medium that isn’t rich.”

Email is extremely effective when used at the right time (T), with the right relevance (R), delivered to the appropriate location (L) and used with permission (P). TRL+P is the formula for any communication. As is any communication. The KEY is to recognize that it can’t always be about email. Sometimes a phone call, a text message, a fax, a letter, or even in in-person meeting makes the difference.

My favorite quote out of the article:

Though e-mail is a powerful and convenient medium, researchers have identified three major problems. First and foremost, e-mail lacks cues like facial expression and tone of voice. That makes it difficult for recipients to decode meaning well. Second, the prospect of instantaneous communication creates an urgency that pressures e-mailers to think and write quickly, which can lead to carelessness. Finally, the inability to develop personal rapport over e-mail makes relationships fragile in the face of conflict.

Bingo. Could not have written it better. Here’s a link to the study by Profs. Justin Kruger of New York University and Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago that the article cites.

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A short while back I had the unique and rewarding experience to participate in panel interviews to assist in the selection of a new CEO to head up a large public enterprise. Finalist candidates from all over the nation were brought in and plunked down in front of a bunch of us “community folk” and slow-roasted about until cooked medium-well.

It was interesting, amusing, maddening, informative, creative and above all – educational — to say the least. Unfortunately I am bound by an NDA which prevents me from disclosing anything really juicy! [Side note on this process: Actually – there’s not much to tell despite what the mainstream media trying to sell papers may want you to believe. And despite what the hyperbole-mongrels of community conspiracy theory would have you believe, there isn’t anything going on behind closed doors other than giving some decent folks from out of town a little privacy, respect and comfort.]

Since I am a student of the “personal branding” and “relationship marketing”, I enjoyed dissecting relationship development under the stress of an executive interview. I managed to keep some notes in the margins of these interviews that are “general enough” that they should be of assistance to any executive in the hotseat interviewing for a leadership position:

1. Understand the rules and expectations of the “game”. Understand how much time you have for the interview and establish the goals of the interviewees. Only one candidate out the gate asked up front what I hoped to accomplish in the interview and that stood out positively.
2. Pay attention to the time. Take the time available and divide it in to 4 parts and query the interviewer “how am I doing, how’s the pace?” If given an hour, query at 15 minute intervals. Two reasons: One, this ensures that the pace is correct and that everyone will get to ask the questions that are most important to them. Second, this gives you an opportunity to get some feedback on how you’re doing. Forcing an interviewer to say, “You’re doing great!” reinforces that you are doing just that…great!
3. Answer in thirds. Give a 33% condensed and to the point answer. Solicit feedback on whether that covers it. If favorable, then proceed to embellish the answer with a STORY or EXPERIENCE for the next 33%. If the panel/interviewers are still interested in more, give additional perspective or dialog or extend to hypothetical situations you may encounter.
4. Tell stories. (Here we go again, David LaPlante wanting you to use stories!) Entertain. But know the moral of the story you tell. Anyone who knows me knows that I believe life is about making and telling stories. The best answers to questions are told from a story.
5. Be conversant. Be humble. Speak from EXPERIENCE not OPINION. OPINION = BAD: “I think this community should pave the parks!.” EXPERIENCE = GOOD: “It’s been my experience that when we paved our community park we enjoyed a substantial cost reduction lawn trimming services.”
6. Dress for success and don’t be afraid to stand out. But don’t go overboard. MEN: A loud pinstripe suit may be OK if it’s New York and you’re interviewing at Goldman Sachs. Once you get the job, the pinstripe is a good thing. Pinstripes have ego. This can be dangerous. Someone with a very strong and overpowering personality may actually want to choose for something more subtle. The opposite is true. Wear sharp solid suit and embellish it with bright colors in the short – not the tie. If you’re interviewing for a job that pays over $100,000 a year, you can afford to wear a suit made in the last freakin’ decade! In fact, it would be your best bet to buy a new suit.
7. Stage presence. Practice your stage presence.
8. Hedge your criticisms with your reasoning and explore the other alternatives. Example: “From the knowledge and experience I have, this is my observation. It’s not an effective campaign. However, I’ve been a leader long enough to know that in any organization with smart folks that my observation may not be drawn hastily. There’s reasoning for everything and usually more to the story than what meets the eye.”
9. Body language does not lie! Make frequent eye contact. Say people’s names. Get their attention and keep it. I kept chickenscratch notes on eye contact alone. My “strongest” candidate made eye contact with me almost 3x more than the second. The worst interviewee ranked only made eye contact 6 times. That’s only 10% of the “average”. Crazy yet amazing and true!
10. AND FOR GOD’S SAKE SMILE!

Do you have any items/thoughts to add? I’d really like to get a thread going on this one!

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A short while back I had the unique and rewarding experience to participate in panel interviews to assist in the selection of a new CEO to head up a large public enterprise. Finalist candidates from all over the nation were brought in and plunked down in front of a bunch of us “community folk” and slow-roasted about until cooked medium-well.

It was interesting, amusing, maddening, informative, creative and above all – educational — to say the least. Unfortunately I am bound by an NDA which prevents me from disclosing anything really juicy! [Side note on this process: Actually – there’s not much to tell despite what the mainstream media trying to sell papers may want you to believe. And despite what the hyperbole-mongrels of community conspiracy theory would have you believe, there isn’t anything going on behind closed doors other than giving some decent folks from out of town a little privacy, respect and comfort.]

Since I am a student of the “personal branding” and “relationship marketing”, I enjoyed dissecting relationship development under the stress of an executive interview. I managed to keep some notes in the margins of these interviews that are “general enough” that they should be of assistance to any executive in the hotseat interviewing for a leadership position:

1. Understand the rules and expectations of the “game”. Understand how much time you have for the interview and establish the goals of the interviewees. Only one candidate out the gate asked up front what I hoped to accomplish in the interview and that stood out positively.
2. Pay attention to the time. Take the time available and divide it in to 4 parts and query the interviewer “how am I doing, how’s the pace?” If given an hour, query at 15 minute intervals. Two reasons: One, this ensures that the pace is correct and that everyone will get to ask the questions that are most important to them. Second, this gives you an opportunity to get some feedback on how you’re doing. Forcing an interviewer to say, “You’re doing great!” reinforces that you are doing just that…great!
3. Answer in thirds. Give a 33% condensed and to the point answer. Solicit feedback on whether that covers it. If favorable, then proceed to embellish the answer with a STORY or EXPERIENCE for the next 33%. If the panel/interviewers are still interested in more, give additional perspective or dialog or extend to hypothetical situations you may encounter.
4. Tell stories. (Here we go again, David LaPlante wanting you to use stories!) Entertain. But know the moral of the story you tell. Anyone who knows me knows that I believe life is about making and telling stories. The best answers to questions are told from a story.
5. Be conversant. Be humble. Speak from EXPERIENCE not OPINION. OPINION = BAD: “I think this community should pave the parks!.” EXPERIENCE = GOOD: “It’s been my experience that when we paved our community park we enjoyed a substantial cost reduction lawn trimming services.”
6. Dress for success and don’t be afraid to stand out. But don’t go overboard. MEN: A loud pinstripe suit may be OK if it’s New York and you’re interviewing at Goldman Sachs. Once you get the job, the pinstripe is a good thing. Pinstripes have ego. This can be dangerous. Someone with a very strong and overpowering personality may actually want to choose for something more subtle. The opposite is true. Wear sharp solid suit and embellish it with bright colors in the short – not the tie. If you’re interviewing for a job that pays over $100,000 a year, you can afford to wear a suit made in the last freakin’ decade! In fact, it would be your best bet to buy a new suit.
7. Stage presence. Practice your stage presence.
8. Hedge your criticisms with your reasoning and explore the other alternatives. Example: “From the knowledge and experience I have, this is my observation. It’s not an effective campaign. However, I’ve been a leader long enough to know that in any organization with smart folks that my observation may not be drawn hastily. There’s reasoning for everything and usually more to the story than what meets the eye.”
9. Body language does not lie! Make frequent eye contact. Say people’s names. Get their attention and keep it. I kept chickenscratch notes on eye contact alone. My “strongest” candidate made eye contact with me almost 3x more than the second. The worst interviewee ranked only made eye contact 6 times. That’s only 10% of the “average”. Crazy yet amazing and true!
10. AND FOR GOD’S SAKE SMILE!

Do you have any items/thoughts to add? I’d really like to get a thread going on this one!

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