A RocCity Entrepreneur

Always Have A Top 5 List - It can take you where you want to go

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:26:23 -0400

At work, wherever we work, most people have a set of generic goals, objectives and expectations. Some of these goals or objectives are short term in nature, like make 20 new calls, develop a new feature or patch production servers. While some are more long term, like get promoted, launch a new product, make a million dollars, or start your own business.

For me, the biggest challenge isn’t having enough goals or objectives to work on, but understanding how to equally divide my time and attention across both short and long term goals and objectives effectively.

What effectively means to me, as a measurement may be different than what it means to anyone else. Success and progress towards success are critical units of measure and help determine how effective I am in managing time and effort across short and long term goals.

Setting a goal to make a million dollars is great, but it doesn’t get me any closer to making a million dollars. In order to be successful and reach that goal there are likely hundreds of incremental goals that need to be reached.

This is where a Top 5 list comes into play. At any given point in time, I have 5 very specific long term goals that I am working towards. This list reflects where I want to go in my professional life over the coming months and years. Creating the list is the easy part, but how do I know if I am doing what I need to do each day and each week to get there?

Recently, I began to create a daily Top 5 in addition to my long term Top 5. If one of my Long term Top 5 goals is to successfully raise money for a startup, each day I’ll create 1-2 daily steps objectives which will help get me closer to getting to that goal.

At the end of each day, I know that I have taken positive actions towards reaching long term goals. This allows me to build momentum and logically allocate time and energy in the right areas.

So with this system, making a million dollars is no longer just an item on my “bucket list”. Its a series of daily, weekly and monthly goals and targets that if I hit, could allow me to make a million dollars in the future.

With this system, I align short term everyday actions with longer term objectives to get me where I want to go effectively. Without making the connection between short term everyday actions, with long term goals and objectives, it is difficult if not impossible to manage time and effort across your goals.

I have never been more confident that I can get exactly where I want to go. If you want to stop thinking about where you want to go, and start doing something to get you there, this is a good start. Set up your long term Top 5, then set your daily Top 5’s to help you get you there effectively. It works.

Thanks for reading, I hope this helps.

Technology providers, Time to get Proactive about Security

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:40:42 -0500

Do you build, create, enable or support technology solutions? If so, odds are your customers trust you, and look to you for guidance and support on how leverage technology to achieve their business goals.

The vast majority of technology providers, be it web and application developers, managed service providers or consultants do not take a proactive approach to data security. After spending several years with a managed service provider, I understand first hand some of the challenges in changing this mindset. It comes down to time and money. Most mid tier players do not have the internal resources like CISSP’s or security professionals. Those are the resources you need to take a proactive approach to Data security.

Now 5 years ago, the chances that a small or medium sized businesses network or website would be the target of hackers or a malicious attack was slim to none. On the off chance the network or website was hacked, it was almost always a disgruntled employee or a revenge plot.

Today, as attackers get smarter and the value of data increases the small and medium sized business is a direct target for most malicious attacks. From a hackers perspective, why would they spend months breaching a large global company when they can easily breach a small or mid sized business in the matter of minutes.

So the threat has moved from the IT guy you pissed off, to the real bad guys who know how to hijack an application or network and make off with highly valuable data, IP, trade secrets and customer information.

What is surprising to me is not that threats have moved from the big leagues to the mid market, but that technology providers in the mid market have been slow to layer data security into the design, development and services delivery process.

Application developers and designers should have an application and data security feedback loop in place as part of their development life-cycle. What does that mean? Professional Developers should have a feedback loop in place where they create a spec, an application and database design, then leverage Application and Data Security partners to ensure the design supports security. Today security is an afterthought and as a result, almost every website that is being developed is vulnerable to hackers and attackers.

Network Engineers, System administrators, and IT service providers most times don’t consult security experts during the design process. Data security is something that comes after the servers are built and the systems are deployed. This makes protecting the network far more difficult down the road.

Moving past the design and deployment processes, once Networks, Websites or web applications are live and in use, most providers in the middle tier do not proactively offer managed data security to customers.

Data security, when done correctly is a full life-cycle process of continuous assessment, remediation, re-assessment, validation of risk reduction and ongoing security monitoring. Every patch, update, change in code, addition of a web form, etc. could create new vulnerabilities which need remediation to ensure security.

For IT providers, there is really no reason or excuse not to proactively layer data security into every level of the organization. There are plenty of partners, who offer managed and white labeled data security offerings. These offerings not only increase the bottom line by allowing for ongoing remediation and services, but also protect the providers from huge blows to reputation. The truth is, most customers are willing to pay for proactive security. Why? Well CEO’s like to sleep at night and with the cost of a breach coming in at up-words of a million dollars, their business may depend on it.

Over the next 12-24 months, more than 85% of all organizations in the U.S will experience a data breach. If those are your customers, odds are they are not going to be happy with you. Do yourself a favor and start working with a trusted data security partner, like UberGuard.

Thanks,

Mark

Mark.Lucas@UberGuard.com

Thanks for reading, I hope this was helpful. I am working with UberGuard, a full service Data Security partner. We work with partners and customers to implement proactive full life cycle approaches to Network and web security.

Success breeds Success, Rochester's Startup Ecosystem

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:18:23 -0500

When it comes to building out a killer startup ecosystem, success breeds success, money makes money, and successful startup executives, exit and make more startups.

The challenge comes before the initial success, before the money and before the successful exits.

It takes work, commitment, talent and the right culture to start the momentum moving forward. Almost everyone I talk to locally in Rochester agrees that the climate is ripe for creating a successful startup hub in our great city. Every day I learn about more people who share the passion for developing Rochester’s startup ecosystem.

We have so much going for us in Rochester. We have more tech talent per-capita than almost every major startup hub in the country including San Francisco, NYC, and Boston. Rochester also has a much lower cost of living than Startup hubs in Tier 1 cities. This gives us a real competitive advantage.

It’s when I talk to folks who have left Rochester, for other Startup hubs that I learn some of the things that could be holding us back. Some of the Rochester’s greatest Entrepreneurs, Founders and executives have left the market for various reasons.

The number 1 reason Rochester loses successful start-ups and Entrepreneurs is culture. Not just the professional culture but also the capital culture. The most important indicator of any startup hub is the proliferation capital and talent after a successful exit.

Where is Tom G. today? Where is David Koretz today? Where are the founders of Digsby today? Not in Rochester. I have tried to dig in deeper to understand why and some of the answers are interesting.

The Work Life Balance in Rochester is one major challenge we have to overcome. In the Valley or NYC, the work life balance is drastically different for startups than it is or was in Rochester over the past 5 years.

The perception from the outside, is that professionals in Rochester value personal time highly. From the perspective of Founders and Venture capitalists I’ve talked to, most Rochester based employees have the expectation that they will be working from 8 to 5 with weekends off and that’s very important to them.

So if there is pressure from the top to stay late, work weekends and bang shit out then employees quickly get burnt out and start thinking there bosses are “slave drivers”.

This is a tricky subject though. Because personally, I do value my family and personal time, but I am also very passionate and competitive, so if there is shit to do I am all about getting it done. But, I think a lot depends on why you are working where you are working. If you are working to pay your bills, and not because you love what you do, then odds are 5pm and weekends never come soon enough.

The major cultural difference is that in Rochester, there is a larger number of people who are working to pay the bills. Whereas in the major hubs a higher percentage of people are working for passion.

So what can we learn and what can we do to change the perception that some Venture capitalists, Entrepreneurs, and business executives have about Rochester?

My thoughts are that we need to bring more awareness to the giant culture shift that Rochester is having. The old guard is turning over to a new, younger generation of professional. With this change I see a huge number of professionals that will help shift the culture, and enable us to change the perceptions that hold back capital and expertise from pouring into the region.

I would love to hear others thoughts about building momentum for Rochester’s startup ecosystem. We want startups who are successful to stay here, reinvest time and equity here, and help us build on our successes.

I think our culture is getting to where it needs to be to make that happen. I also think the responsibility lies within us all personally. If you are at a job, working for the man just waiting for 5 o’clock to come, find something you are passionate about and do it! Life is too short.

Thanks for reading.

Mark S. Lucas

mark@mysudo.me

Job Report Highlights - America

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:25:00 -0500

Job Report Highlights - America :

http://www.economicmodeling.com/2012/01/23/occupation-report-computer-software-engineers/

According to the latest data from the US job market, which includes workers covered by unemployment insurance, sole proprietors and 1099 workers America has reached 1 Million computer and applicaiton software engineers. This is up from 930,000 in 2001.

Computer software engineers are projected to increase by 3-5% and add 25,000 - 30,000 jobs in 2012.

The report highlights some amazing analytics and gives insight into distribution of those jobs. It’s interesting to see the employment broken into systems engineers vs. application engineers then further dissected by age, gender, education, level and focus area.

The takeaway, no matter your age, gender, education level or focus area…Becoming a software engineer or app developer is a very wise decision.

For those who learn to code well, America has high paying jobs, Entrepreneurial opportunities and a growing appreciation for you and your skills.

NounProject has 100′s of beautiful, free pictographs for Web and mobile design

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:17:52 -0500

NounProject has 100′s of beautiful, free pictographs for Web and mobile design:

Designing an app for the web or Mobile? Check out the NounProject!

Glorified press coverage aside. Startups are hard.

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:37:50 -0500

Startups are hard. Anyone who’s actually started one, worked at one or funded one knows that. But for the rest of the world who only read about them in blogs or in tech news outlets, it’s very easy to get the wrong impression.

Technology publications, blogs and other media outlets paint a glorified picture of what startup culture is like. The stories and posts we read about cover incredibly successful ventures, insanely large fund raising rounds, and successful exits. This leaves potential entrepreneurs with a distorted sense of reality.

The mainstream tech media only covers the 1% of startups that actually make it, and are successful. It is rare that you hear about the other 99% of startups that fail. With such a disparity in coverage, its hard for new comers to understand the full scope of failure.

Whether you are a developer, a marketer, a designer or a business executive taking an idea from concept to execution will be the single greatest challenge you will ever face. The rewards for those who succeed are great, but the misery and financial loss for those who don’t can be incredibly harsh.

Now it’s not all bad, in the last 5 years we’ve seen the barriers to starting software/internet startup dramatically decrease. While that means you need less capital to actually start something, it doesn’t mean its gotten any easier to succeed.

I believe in following dreams, finding your passion and committing to developing ideas you believe in. So to try and fail, is better than to never trying at all. At the same time, I know that the ups and downs of startups can take there toll on anyone.

In order to be a great Entrepreneur you need to have great vision. In essence, you need to see what others can’t see. You need to look past how things work now, and envision how they should or could work in a future you create. But, it doesn’t end there.

No one ever created anything worthwhile alone. So to have even a remote shot at being successful, Entrepreneurs have to build strong teams that can help execute the overall vision. That’s not easy. It requires an ability to successfully transfer ideas, passion and overall vision and rallying the team around a greater purpose.

This whole process requires an incredibly wide range of skills and an innate ability to find and persuade talented, likely gainfully employed people to stop what they’re doing, stop getting paid, and help you turn an idea that does’t exist into a product that works. This is not something everyone can do.

Leading a team of people to a desired outcome is difficult, even when they are being paid good money. But entrepreneurs are creating something from nothing. This means they have to find, convince, motivate then lead a capable team of talented people, they are not able to pay, to a desired outcome based only on a vision.

So if you have Entrepreneurial qualities and you want to launch a startup. Consider asking yourself some critical questions…Do you have a clear vision and a greater purpose for starting this business? Are the challenges you solve something that you are personally passionate about? Will enough people or businesses care you built a solution?

Don’t make startups any harder than they already are. Make sure you read everything you can get your hands on from founders, venture capitalists, mentors and startup advisors who have succeeded. Make sure you ask your self and have good answers for the the questions above before you start down any path and finally, don’t do it alone. Make sure you have 1 or more complementary co-founders to help you navigate the dramatic ups and downs of the startup world.

Thanks for reading, hope this was useful.

P.S. Sorry for any grammer or spelling oversights…it was a long busy week!

Mark@mysudo.me

Adventures (in code) - Alastair Coote: Dear Tech Community, We Have A Communication Problem

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:39:39 -0500

Adventures (in code) - Alastair Coote: Dear Tech Community, We Have A Communication Problem:

alastaircoote:

Today is the big day. Wikipedia is out. Google is doodle-out. I wanted to play my part, so I headed down to the NYTM protest outside the offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand. It was a fantastic sight- the turnout seems to have been huge, and the majority of people were carrying signs and…

What's really the deal, with Daily Deals?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:27:00 -0500

So what’s really the deal, with Daily Deals…

The daily deal space is literally exploding. There are well over 500 daily deal providers all fighting for your attention, and your email. It’s a highly competitive business climate dominated by those with the deepest pockets. With IPO’s and strong sales in 2011, the deals space is hear to stay, at least for the time being.

So what’s the deal, for real. Why are the Groupon’s and Livingsocial’s of the world willing to shell out close to 20 bucks to acquire your email address? Why is it so critical that you download the latest mobile app., and why are free online services like Facebook valued in the billions of dollars.

The answer quite simply, is because you’re the Deal. YOU, and your data is extremely valuable, and marketers, advertisers and businesses need a way to get you to walk in the door and spend your money with them.

So for a daily deal service, social application or mobile coupon site, YOU are the deal. You’re the product, you’re the meal ticket, you are the only reason they exist and your data is what creates such extreme wealth for the founders, investors and shareholders of successful web and mobile companies.

It occurred to me, maybe because I’m bias or maybe because I’m a realist, that an entire Personal Data industry is being built on the backs of people. Daily deals, free self expression apps, location based services, and mobile apps sometimes are cases of the top 1%, profiting from the 99%.

Why is it that where I am, what I like, what I am doing, what my intention is, is making extremely wealthy people, even more wealthy, all while taking money out of my pocket and the pockets of local mom and pop’s business owners for the favor? It just doesn’t seem to make sense to me.

It’s kind of crazy when you think about the model. It’s like an extremely wealthy individual driving up beside you in a Bentley, rolling down the window and asking for the money your pocket, to tell you about exclusive deal. Sure, why not we all like deals. So you give him the money from your pocket, he tells you about the deal, and you buy it. The wealthy guy leaves in his Bentley, drives down to the local business owner who by the way is getting into his 1998 Honda, and says, great news! I just sold 40 bucks of your product for 20 bucks, let’s see 10’s mine, so here’s your 10 bucks! Great doing business with you.

So with the all the marketing hype peeled away, its really less deal than we think. It leaves the two most important players in the value chain, the consumer and the local business, paying for wealthy man’s caviar, for a great deal on burgers. That’s not innovation.

Innovation is connecting consumers to businesses in a way that benefits both groups and rewards them equally.

I am extremely passionate about this topic, and it’s my goal to bring a fair, transparent business model to market. It’s called mysudo.me, an innovative platform and business model that allows consumers (users) to realize the economic value of their data in a private and anonymous way, while allowing businesses (marketers) to use that data in a meaningful way.

I hope you stop by our blog @ blog.mysudo.me and sign up for our beta @ www.mysudo.me

Thanks for stopping by!

Mark@mysudo.me

"There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat...."

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:52:59 -0500

“

There’s a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they’re doing, you say “Wow,” and soon you’re cooking up all sorts of ideas.

My Thoughts -
Although Skype, Chat and email are great tools once the creative ideas have happened, and your are executing them. In my opinion, to many of my peers including myself have come to accustomed to quick and dirty chats and messages as a means of avoiding driving to face to face meetings.

There is nothing to date that can replace face to face meetings for turning ideas, plans and strategies into successful projects and ventures.

”

- Steve Jobs (via kswizz)

Strong Opinions @marksbirch: Economic diversification: Reimagining the future

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:09:28 -0500

Strong Opinions @marksbirch: Economic diversification: Reimagining the future:

nycedc:

Great article in The Economist on New York City’s high-tech momentum:

The plan to open an applied sciences university campus in New York City, reckons Seth Pinsky, who heads New York’s Economic Development Corporation, is an “Erie Canal moment”.

The city’s embrace of…

Successful Startup's Make People Care

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:00:00 -0500

2011 is the year I finally moved from thinking about starting a startup, to committing to launching my own startup mysudo.me. I thought it may be helpful and interesting to share what I learned and some of the challenges I still have to overcome to be successful.

The Idea/Concept:

For me, developing ideas and concepts is something that I have always enjoyed doing. The problem / solution way of thinking always came very naturally to me. I love thinking about common challenges and annoyances I encounter in everyday life and coming up with creative, novel or simple ways to solve them. What I have learned fairly quickly is that economics and scale are absolutely vital to being successful. I can’t solve any old problem, at least not if I want to make money by making an exit from the business. I need to solve a major problem a lot of people have in a compelling way. Otherwise, nobody really cares.

Execution:

Ideas although absolutely essential to starting anything, are just the beginning, a little tiny piece of the puzzle. A popular statement among startup entrepreneurs and investors is that “ideas are worthless, execution is everything”

As an idea generator, I’ll admit at first I thought the statement was absurd. I mean without amazing ideas, what are you even going to build? But when I started to logically map out the processes involved with turning an idea into something tangible that people actually want, it started making more sense. Soon I accepted the as statement as absolutely true, an idea alone has no real value. In many ways, an idea is like a blank canvas. You can go buy a canvas anywhere, and the canvas alone has no real value. It takes the work of a talented or notable artist, to transform that blank canvas, into a highly valuable work of art. In the same way an artist needs a blank canvas to begin to create a valuable painting. An entrepreneur needs an idea in order to execute and create a valuable business.

Making People Care:

Blogs and other media outlets like Techcrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Betabeat are always writing about startups, so all I have to do is tell them about my startup and baam they write a feature about my startup right?

Umm. No…they won’t. While you may think blogs fall over themselves to write about startups that’s just not the case. So if you think your launch is going play out like A.) Create an Awesome product B.) Have TechCrunch, RWW and Mashable blog about it C.) Sign up millions of users D.) Rake in profits! Congratulations you’re either the in the elite 1% or you just lost your mind…either way, get in touch and I’ll buy you a drink ; )

The fact is these blogs don’t write about “startups” they write about 1% of the startups. In reality, most are likely to be in the 99% of the startups that won’t get profiled. Why? Because people don’t care about you. The only way to change that is by A.) Getting users B.) Gaining traction C.) Make lots of People care about what your doing.

Many of us suffer from a logical fallacy when it comes to generating buzz. The fallacy plays out a little bit like this: I am always hearing about cool new startups on Twitter or Facebook, so if I launch my startup, tweet and post about it, everyone will hear about my startup then tweet about it on Twitter too…

The problem with this is a complete failure to consider the thousands of startups you don’t know about and will never ever hear about, specifically because people are not talking, tweeting, and or posting about them. Why? Because no one cares about your startup.

The most important take away is that even if you have an awesome idea for an amazing product, backed up by an air tight business model with a massive total addressable market…No one will care until you make them care.

To do this you need to be prepared to work really hard, develop a social media strategy that supports virality, and totally and completely understand why people should or need to care about the problems that your startup is solving. Your ability to quickly and concisely tell people why they need to care in a way that actually compels them to care, will dictate your initial success.

Thanks for reading my blog, I hope this post was helpful! Go start something amazing.

Mark S. Lucas

Mark@mysudo.com

Image Credit - Hugh MacLeod

Information Arbitrage: Winning the talent war

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:36:21 -0500

Information Arbitrage: Winning the talent war:

informationarbitrage:

Let’s face it: the hardest thing about building a great company is attracting and retaining great people. But once great people are attracted by pursuit of an exciting mission, a complex and interesting engineering problem and, yes, compensation, how to you keep them?

The problem is that truly…

Kickstarter from IBM chief scientist celebrates history of computing

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:25:14 -0500

Kickstarter from IBM chief scientist celebrates history of computing:

An interesting Project on Kickstarter

Motivation is Overrated - Entrepreneurship, Commitment and Perseverance

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:52:00 -0400

A big part of my personal journey as an Entrepreneur is learning, observation continuing to remind myself of three things…everything started from nothing, no one knows everything, never stop rethinking everything.

When I take the time process things this way, I can dig in deeper past all the hype and rhetoric into what actually separates the most successful founders and Entrepreneurs, from everyone else.

The other day, I happened across a sound clip from a conference on great entrepreneurs. A doctor was giving a talk about how he helped the UK track cycling team go from almost nothing to actually winning a bunch of metals at the Olympics. His key message was on Motivation being totally overrated.

The more I processed what he was saying, the more I agreed with his argument that motivation can be totally irrelevant. You could be totally motivated to make a bunch of money, start a successful company or even become a pro-golfer, but to actually achieve any one of those goals, you need to be committed to puting in the mind blowing amount of hours it actually takes to get there.

I am not saying motivation is absolutely meaningless, I just don’t think motivation is the most critical trait to focus on. Some venture capitalists and investors will say the most important characteristic to have as an entrepreneur is perseverance. At the very core of perseverance is commitment, not motivation. It’s clear that with commitment inevitably comes motivation but commitment is the driver and motivation is the fuel.

The truth is, I know a ton of people who are highly motivated individuals, but have never really seemed to achieved great success. Honestly, I think investors may even be fearful of a highly motivated Entrepreneur who hasn’t shown strong commitment in their past. This could be the flighty business exec who bounces from job to job or the hacker with several “almost done” apps. It’s not that they are less motivated, they just get distracted and sidetracked, leaving “uncompleted projects” in their wake.

As co-founder and CEO of a young startup the most important thing I consider when looking at co-founders, equity partners, advisors or investors is commitment. I can tell you personally, the most important thing for me, outside the vision itself is perseverance and a commitment to bringing the vision to market.

Motivation for motivations sake is useless. It’s like drinking the “Kool-aide” and getting all fired up for a multi-level marketing scheme, it never works out.

I hope this helps someone as much as it helped me.

Mark S. Lucas

mark@mysudo.com

Five8Five- 269 - 4702

Top 3 Things I've Learned - Entrepreneur Starting Up in Rochester

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:57:00 -0400

Over the last several months, my co-founders and I have been hard at work building our team and developing our Personal Data Platform (mysudo.me) here in Rochester, NY.

I thought it would be helpful to share the Top 3 things I have learned about the startup ecosystem in this region for web and internet start-ups specifically.

Historically, our region has organized efforts around providing resources, funding and support for technology commercialization in IP heavy ventures, mostly in bio-tech, medical and optics industries.

While extremely helpful for startups in that space, the established network of VC’s, investors and start-up resources may not prove extremely helpful for web and internet start-ups. Most times, Investors only invest in what they know in areas they have developed some expertise in. This brings me to my first lesson learned…

1.) “High Tech” venture marketplace in Rochester does not necessarily mean the same thing as the High Tech venture marketplace in the valley or Boulder.

If you are a new Entrepreneur in the Rochester area, and you’re not a medical, optics or bio-tech startup…aka you don’t have a crap load of IP. One of your very first tasks should be to start leveraging your network to set up meetings with Friends and Family, Angel investors or VC’s including those “outside” upstate Circles to search for funding. What we have discovered so far in our meetings with local sources is that raising seed funding here, will prove difficult. For an early stage start up, raising capital is time consuming and it distracts you from what you should be focusing on, which is building a great product that your users will love. So its very important you meet with the right type of people. I am not saying don’t meet with the local firms, there is always a chance that you could get funding. What I am saying is if your time is important meeting with firms not specialized in web and internet ventures most likely is not the best use of your time.

2.) You will hear things like, “you should consider re-locating your startup to NYC or California”

I can not tell you how many times we have been told we needed to go to NYC or the valley as “that’s were everything happens”. Those who know me personally, know I am an avid follower of the startup ecosystems, so I am well aware that a extremely large number of web, mobile and social startups are indeed funded in these areas. But read that last sentence over again…There are an extremely large number of web, mobile and social startups in those regions. This is one of the main reasons that it is strategic for our startup or any other web or internet startup to stay hear. We have all heard the term brain drain, in the Valley or NYC I have observed something I like to call “Beta Drain” or Beta fatigue. In the valley you can’t even go out to eat without the waiter telling you about their new app, and how you have to try out their beta. In those markets if you don’t have known commodities on your board, or executive team…you can forget about it. Nobody wants to join your crappy beta (not literally) but you know what I mean. Launching something (consumer based) in Rochester, Buffalo or Syracuse will give you a much better chance to generate buzz, get a good base of users and begin to gain traction. So don’t think that just because the funding community here are not used to funding internet startups that you should leave. You have to weigh the options for yourself and make that decision personally but I believe it still is a strong place to be.

3.) The best thing Rochester has to offer is TALENT

Throughout my career in Technology space, I have had the opportunity to work with some extremely talented resources. Many of the project teams I have worked with have been spread out geographically across the US. While California, San Francisco, Seattle and NYC have some awesome talent, most of them are gainfully employed. The High Tech talent wars going on are incredible (Sources: http://bit.ly/oYu8LI http://cnnmon.ie/oHJOHK) and unless your Facebook, Google or an extremely well funded startup…good luck. In Rochester, you can go to a networking event, and pull a resource that may cost your 100k along with some equity in your company. Honestly, I have been able to build one of the best teams I could have imagined, right here in our region. The universities across Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse are some of the very best in the country with heavy focus in CS, Entrepreneurship, Design and Business.

So my message to the Regions web and internet startup Entrepreneurs is get fired up about your business and start building your team right now. There has never been a better time to start something. I am committed to staying upstate and I know my startup will be successful, no matter where we are located. I will continue to post news, updates and advice as we navigate through our first seed round and start down the path to later rounds of investment. I look forward to working with other entrepreneurs, friends and talent in the developing web/mobile ecosystem along the way.

Best Regards,

Mark S. Lucas

Mark@mysudo.com

The Next Big Thing - Personal Data, Converted to an Economic Asset

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:06:09 -0400

Every two days, now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003 (Source Eric Schmidt, Google). We are living in an unprecedented time, driven by technology and ever increasing amounts of data. Today, data associated with our Digital Identities, our browsing activity, financial dealings, our current geographic location and our growing social graph is widely available, for the right price.

Take a second and think about the amount of data you create every single day, and how that data is tracked, recorded and exchanged. By the year 2020, 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet, pumping data in to the global data ecosystem.

What if live personal data became an economic asset that could be traded, leveraged and exchanged with anyone from local merchants, to governments to research institutions? This is an underlying thesis of Personal Data - The Emergence of a New Asset Class a 40 page report published by the World Economic Forum. The title and basic construct barrows from The Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), in which investors diversify their assets across a number of uncorrelated categories - from commodities to stocks and bonds and real-estate. At the core, the true meaning of (MPT) the diversification extends to our human capital. Meaning, If you work in technology you shouldn’t by stock in Technology companies. So what if personal data could be added to the mix, as an actual asset class which had economic value. What if there was a marketplace for personal data, in which our information could be exchanged for cash?

If you follow technology, social networking and the web you are well aware that companies like Google, Facebook, Linkedin and others are well aware that personal data has economic value. If fact, their entire business model is based on the premise that the more share more about yourself and the longer you stay at there site, the more profitable profitable the become. So it is uber clear that our personal Data is highly valuable to those companies. The privacy implications that come with mining this asset are massive, as companies like Facebook have found out time, and time, and time again. It’s a game of cat and mouse, where applications and services try to get users to share more and care less, and users want to share more, but sacrifice less.

The fact is, certain personal data is becoming highly valuable, what you like, your current location, your intent and your basic demographics are extremely important to what you are likely to be interested in buying at any given point in time. As an article in Bloomberg Business week points out, the single biggest challenge for web companies is making sense of the mounds of personal data. In essence, the race is on to find the best way to monetize this mound of personal data.

I don’t know about you, but I am highly competitive, and there is nothing more appealing to me than winning a race. If there’s going to be a winner, in this race to monetize MY data, I’m sure as shit going to win that race.

It is not a simple task though, to collect, store and convert personal data into an economic asset. A lot has to go right for personal data to freely be converted to cash.

As an Entreprenuer, solving this challenge is my passion and the vision is clear. Remove the barriers users have to sharing personal and mobile information, then provide the means to leverage and exchange this data to discover the most relevant products and services.

By solving this challenge for users, we also solve one of the biggest challenges on the mobile web, making sense of all this data and enabling merchants and users to connect seamlessly and effectively.

I am excited for tomorrow, excited to disrupt the world of end user Monetization, and empower the user to give up less and benefit more. Anonymous Context aware mobile computing, in which the user controls what and how much data is shared with whom, and under what terms means a better tomorrow for everyone.

I welcome any comments and feedback, and hope you all can join in the revolution that is taking back your personal data, and converting into something we all love…cash.

Mark S. Lucas

A humbled RocCity Entreprenuer

mark@mysudo.me

www.blog.mysudo.me

Golden nuggets & words of wisdom - StartupRoc

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:54:00 -0400

This list was originally posted by Brendan Mulligan @bmull I have been reading a lot of his stuff lately and have a lot of respect for his blogs and approach. He is a mentor for 500 Startups and is currently traveling the world, helping mentor startups on the way. What a life :)

“Most [entrepreneurs believe] you have to work constantly in order to succeed. We think you just have to work productively” @domorefaster
“Make sure that just after you prepare your restricted stock grants, you get your 83(b) Election signed and filed” @mg in @domorefaster
“The costs of converting the LLC into a fundable entity are substantially higher [than S-Corp -> C-Corp]” @bfeld in @domorefaster
“always be acting..but be ready to iterate & evolve your thinking if you discover you made the wrong move” @bencasnocha in @domorefaster
“If you’re looking to raise capital later, engage .. mentors & investors from the beginning, before fundraising” @nglaros in @domorefaster
“Take the time to get [your idea] right & you’ll find that those competitors might not be as close as you think” @dbrown in @domorefaster
“When signals suggest that the path you are on is not going to take you where you want to go it is time to pivot” @robhayes in @domorefaster
Startups: “be merciless in dealing with big companies..they can be your friends, but they can also destroy you.” @mzeisser in @domorefaster
“It’s important to start by building a culture of feedback & measured analytics into your process & organization” @davemcclure/@domorefaster
“It’s too easy to think there are 9 things you should be doing when you should really probably be doing only 2 or 3” @dickc in @domorefaster
“The best way to test the validity of a business idea..is to start the business & quickly gauge market feedback” @bencasnocha/@domorefaster
“Complexity has an inverse effect on the ability to scale your business.” @benhuh in @domorefaster
“anecdotes come..before data & it’s important to have [many] of them before you start extracting up to the data layer” @bfeld/@domorefaster
“between what a successful team has learned & .. code they have produced, I..take validated learning every time” @ericries in @domorefaster
“Especially early on, remember to gather as much data as possible and measure every aspect of your business” @ryan_mcintyre in @domorefaster
“One of the most valuable assets an early stage company has is that it is nimble” @arinewman in @domorefaster
“Transparent comm. is a hallmark of a great startup culture.. Hard issues are addressed directly, not ignored.” @greggottesman/@domorefaster
“the reality is that most people use a particular service because it does one thing really, really well.” - @davidcohen in @domorefaster
“focus on quality - not just quantity. And make something that makes you proud (not just your mom)” @andysmith in @domorefaster
“Make sure you celebrate the things that matter for the long haul” @robjohnson in @domorefaster
“You only truly fail if you stop trying. So fail fast. Learn quickly. & start again.” @shalek in @domorefaster
“It is critical to create an environment in every business in which everyone .. is comfortable admitting mistakes” @hsdiamond/@domorefaster
“The best entrepreneurs are those who can manage the chaos, focus on what’s important, and find a way to execute efficiently.” @domorefaster
“Someone you meet or something that you do might ultimately be able to help you in some completely unexpected way” @davidcohen/@domorefaster
“Build the smallest .. product that allows you to test assumptions/answer questions.. & then get it out there.” @stcorbettin @domorefaster
“In great startup cultures, everybody is giving everybody else credit. Ideas are [not] judged on the [source].” @greggottesman/@domorefaster
“in rapid iteration .. the most important thing isn’t how perfect code is .. but how quickly you can revert” @photomatt in @domorefaster
“Continually close the loop when you work with a mentor. Keep them posted on..what you’re doing with their advice” @emilyolson/@domorefaster
In mentorship, when value is “derived on both sides the ability for both partners to learn..& grow together multiplies” @micah/@domorefaster
“While [it’s hard] to remove a new employee who isn’t working .. better to make a clean break & try again.” @mattblumberg in @domorefaster
“The biggest mistake entrepreneurs can make - hiring those less capable than themselves.” @willherman in @domorefaster
“every moment you’re working on [your product] without it being in the public arena, it’s actually dying” @photomatt from @domorefaster
“The main reasons for co-founder conflict is .. the relationship [was] either ill-defined or misunderstood.” @dharmesh in @domorefaster
“If you can’t quit no matter how hard you try, then you have a chance to succeed.” @pistachio in @domorefaster
“It’s important to be specific, not just concerning release dates, but also for everything that you commit to doing. @bfeld in @domorefaster
“Don’t hide your failures. Wear them as a badge of honor. And most of all, learn from them.” @fredwilson in @domorefaster
“Having [a co-founder] to share your burden, walk side by side with you into battle.. is invaluable.” @navvywavvy in @domorefaster
“With each iteration in the marketplace, you give yourself a better chance for success.” @shalek in @domorefaster
“Small [problems], like a microscopic world, almost always turn out to be bigger than you think when you zoom in” @ev quote in @domorefaster
Startups w/ large market it’s “unlikely that you will offend enough people [early] to dampen .. future growth.” @stcorbett in @domorefaster
“As long as I listen to my customers, I never need to have another original idea” @nielr1 in @domorefaster
“if you’re not embarrassed when you ship your first version, you’ve waited too long.” @photomatt in @domorefaster
“if you really pay attention to what your customers love, your path[/product roadmap] becomes obvious” - Darren Crystal in @domorefaster

aceventure: Looking forward to glean snippets of knowledge from...

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:08:28 -0400

aceventure:

Looking forward to glean snippets of knowledge from Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson of Foundry Group. I will post a summary of each chapter in the upcoming posts.

Stay tuned…

Inspire Growth - Upstate's Entrepreneurial Community

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 09:47:00 -0400

After a busy month full of networking events, meetup’s, a pre-seed workshop and individual meetings. I have had an opportunity to talk with and meet some of the most passionate members of Rochester and upstate NY’ s growing startup ecosystem.

Throughout my career in software and technology sales, I have been to hundreds of networking events, trade shows and meetups. Sometimes, working for “the man” and others working on what I am really passion about.

Having been on both sides of the coin, I can honestly say the most meaningful and rewarding conversations happen when I am working on my true passion. Because then its not about Microsoft’s new product, virtualization or implementing a new software solution, its about so much more. I find the same is true from my perspective in meeting other professionals. I just feels different when you are working with or talking to an Entrepreneurial person…One will say I’m “doing my job” while the other is “living my dream”.

That is why I believe it is critical to get Entrepreneurial resources together as much and as often as possible. That is when the magic happens, things get created, future plans are made and start-up concepts are born.

But concepts need to be refined, teams need to be built and business plans created. It is clear that we (Rochester/Upstate) need clear leaders, Advisors, mentors. Software and Internet companies, historically in Rochester have not had as much activity or attention. Electrical Engineering, Medical Technology, and Optics for obvious reasons have had the bulk of the coaching and investment.

Kodak, Xerox and B&L helped drive this ecosystem and I think it is amazing that our local resources continue to embrace this type of startup innovation. It is clear to me though, that the growing interest and passion that Rochester and Upstate NY has in Software, Mobile and Internet companies needs to be channeled.

We need executive leaders, programs and guidance for this group of Entrepreneurs, because not only are they amazing, but I believe mobile, software and internet startups are the future of this region.

Who are these leaders, and mentors and how can we get them together with the Entrepreneurial resources and teams? Is it possible for Rochester and Upstate, NY to become the next Boulder Co? The answer is in our ability to deliver the leadership structure and the capital investment that all this talent and Entrepreneurial resources need.

When Entreprenuer’s get together in group setting and get engaged, then ideas and plans are born. Our responsibility is to provide the leadership they need to reach the next level. I am interested to hear from anyone with ideas.

Mark S. Lucas

Entreprenuer / CEO

www.Mysudo.me

markslucas@gmail.com

Entrepreneurial Density - Sustainable Start-up Community

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:46:00 -0400

I the world of startups, venture capital and energizing Entrepreneurial activities, Brad Feld from the Foundry Group in Boulder Colorado is one of the best of the best.

Back in 2006, when other front runners in the the start-up world where flocking to Silicon Valley and encouraging upcoming Entrepreneurs and start-ups to do the same, Brand and his partner David Cohen (CEO of TechStars) did the exact opposite.

They both focused their energies on two specific goals. The first was to energize the early stage software/internet entrepreneurial community in Boulder. The second was to get new first-time entrepreneurs involved more deeply in the Boulder entrepreneurial community.

Today 5 years later, Boulder has become a nationally known Entrepreneurial center. In one of his blog posts, Brad reflects on the ecosystem he helped create with the realization that Boulder may well have the highest concentration of Entrepreneurs per capita than any other place in the US.

One morning, while filling up the gas tank, Brad ran into a friend who was working at a Start-up in town. Brad realized this kind of thing happened all the time - He was constantly running into, sitting next to or just saying hi to people that work at Start-ups in Boulder.

It was then that he realized Entrepreneurial density was not just the “number of entrepreneurs per capita” but the number of people + the number of students that work at entrepreneurial companies per capita.

As an Entreprenuer located outside the major start-up hubs, I am encouraged by the story of Boulder, and what they accomplished for their city. I also see a lot of similarities between Boulder and Rochester. Both cities have a high concentration of technical resources, great universities, a compact geographic region with long history of innovation.

I believe we can learn a lot from the Foundry Group and Boulder as a city in how grow Rochester’s Entrepreneurial Density. A good start is a reading a post titled “how to create a sustainable Entrepreneurial community” and implementing some of the critical steps.

From a High level those include:

Table Stakes - Without them, we won’t get anywhere

Recognize Silicon Valley is a special place and its futile to try to be the Silicon Valley. Instead recognize the valley’s strengths and weaknesses. Learn from the strengths incorporating those that fit into Rochester, and avoid the weaknesses. Leverage the natural resources of Rochester and be the best unique Entrepreneurial community we can be.
Get ready for a 20 year journey - most entrepreneurial communities ramp up over a three to five year period and then stall or collapse when the leaders get bored, get rich, move away, change priorities, or disengage. It takes a core group of leaders - at least a half dozen - to commit their leadership over the next 20 years

Critical steps to creating the Sustainable Start-up Community

Engage the entire community - Not just cocktail parties, you need to create real events that have entrepreneurs working together on a regular basis (Meetups, Open Coffee, Hackathons, Startup Weekend, Open Angel Forum, local University events, Entreprenuer Roundtable’s, engaging startup community with students in a meaningful way, and Finally Accelerators like TechStars) Many of these have started in our market, but we can always use more.
Continually get fresh Blood into the entrepreneurial ecosystem. It needs to be easy for a new entrepreneur to emerge in your community and get connected with the experienced entrepreneurs and investors. Experienced entrepreneurs and investors should want to work with new entrepreneurs and new entrepreneurs should have their minds blown when the move from their otherwise dull and disengaged community to your exciting, welcoming and engaging community.

I love Rochester, NY. I am down for the long hull and believe in our ability to extend the communities passion for innovation into the next era. We are laying the ground work as we speak, and could also use more community involvement.

Ultimately, it is the Entrepreneurial leaders, and the community itself who control the destiny of RocCity. Lets build something together.

If you have been successful in business, or you are an Entreprenuer with a vision, or you have capital that you would like to invest, please feel free to reach out to me. I would love to get together and hear your ideas. I would also be happy to connect you with the resources we have in place in Rochester, NY.

Go do something great, live your dreams.

Mark S. Lucas

markslucas@gmail.com

My Start-up

www.mysudo.me

blog.mysudo.me