Could you write Minecraft or Angry Birds in Southern Illinois?

Clearly, it is possible.  You would need a couple of strong developers and a great designer to get things rolling.  Game play design is key in the case of Minecraft and GUI in the case of Angry Birds.   If you want to really do well, that is going to be hard.  I like this article about the Physics of Angry Birds.  These games work well, and the subtle details make them really shine.

There was an interesting article in Business Week about iPhone Apps a while back.  A maker of a shotgun noise app claims to have made $1M in ad sales.  Wow.

Maybe it would be better to work on games, instead of a national website and service company?  Higher margins, some possibility of success?

Anyone ready to jump in the pool and write a game?

What companies might be successful in Carbondale?

I have claimed, there isn't enough talent in Carbondale or in Southern Illinois to run a nationwide software company. So, what can you do and be successful?

iPhone/Android Apps

Computer Apps, without the nationwide aspect.

Kind of late for the passive e-commerce webpage, but maybe.

Liquor - boutique distillery, micro brew beer or wine.

Candy

Cookies

Door knobs

Kitchen knobs

Lamps

Christmas decorations

In general, manufacturing something that has enough value and profit margin to allow it to be sent UPS should work. Notice, none of these things are the standard, Southern Illinois style, cheapest thing in the price category. Higher value items, with less numbers of sales and more profit per item hold more promise.

What kinds of businesses could be successful in Southern Illinois?

The Aniston Axiom

I was reading along through this month's Wired magazine and came across this little story, inside of an article. The article quotes this -

“Let’s say you’re a unionized worker on the line,” Lefsetz says. “You’re working some overtime, you’re making some pay. You have a house, and you have a boat, and you’re sitting there having sexual fantasies about somebody on Friends. You say, ‘If I moved to Hollywood, I could fuck Jennifer Aniston.’ And you truly believe it. To get from there to actually fucking Jennifer Aniston is not impossible, but it’s an unbelievably long journey.”

I have written here about luck vs. skill many times. I can see many kids put their heads down and work really hard master "Mario Racetrack" video game, or the like. I have seen many people work hard enough to master many things, most of them fun and not productive.

Sometimes, I wonder if people understand what a long journey life is and also, what the alternative is to not walking that road? Not going on the journey and aways wondering what they missed. It is easier to move home again, after you tried, then you think. You can even move home twice, if you want to.

I'm about to over reach my boundaries again. Let the journey down one of my long roads begin.

8 Qualities of Remarkable Employees from Inc.

This is worth a read, both from the hiring end or if you just want to be better.

Enjoy.

Due Diligence 101 or Go Learn, Darn it.

I have been approached by several companies looking for investment, over the last couple of months. It is always surprising to me when I realize that the leaders, owners, partners of a company haven't read anything about all those little details that might allow them to succeed. I was browsing the "Small Business" section of the Huffington Post and found this article about investor due diligence. Here is another article from the same page about employee turnover.

After running a Google search for "attracting angel investors." Here are the first two links, 1 and 2. Seems like reasonable ideas to me. If I was trying to get an Angel deal, I would read the first 20 articles and see how they compare.

I spent years reading Business Week, Inc Magazine, Wired, the local paper and everything else I could think of. My standard metric was to spend 1 hour each day studying about business. There were so many times that I dipped into my pool of accumulated knowledge, those long hours of study drove my success. Imagine, reading up on what you don't know, but have to know to succeed? Crazy.

In answer to the little companies looking for my money, you should realize, I'm going to ask all the questions in those due diligence articles, sooner or later. Go read up, what you need to do is in those links. Hopefully, the easy part is spelled out in free text, the hard part is doing it. To everyone else, if you read about your work, you will do better.

Of course, your comments are welcome.

Why Everyone is Starting a Software Company -

and why choosing the right company focus is so hard.

I have written here, that the entrepreneurial talent in Southern Illinois is opting to try their hands at Internet/Software Companies. First, the good news, it is possible to start a software company for cheap. For $25k to $100k, you can have a good run at making a product and launching. When you think about most any other kind of company, it is going to cost a whole lot more to launch.

More good news, because our entrepreneurs are mostly young, college undergrads, they can raise the money to start a company from many places. The traditional statement about funding sources is friends, families and fools. After all $25k, just isn't that much money. You can also depend on volunteer labor, unpaid interns and founding partners to work cheap, instead of that coming up with all of the $25k yourself.

There is a feeling that somehow the startup business is being dominated by the young. A more valid thought is that if enough monkeys type randomly on typewriters... or if enough people start internet companies, surely some small number will succeed. It will be so much easier at 30, assuming they work hard until then, than it is at 22. Historically, the sweet spot for starting a company and being successful is between the ages of 30 and 50 years old. Those are the years where you are energetic enough and experienced enough to solve many of your problems. Hopefully, you have management experience, some money in the banks, polished technical skills. Where there are many examples of people founding companies much younger, they are the exception and not the rule (yes, I know about Microsoft, Facebook and Quatro's).

I respect the desire to start a company and can see why software is so desirable, but let me suggest that there are several problems that are common to Southern Illinois software startups.

First - there is no management team. How can you attract investors or run a company, when you are a one man company? You can't. If you can't find a few friends/fools to start a company with you and you can't manage to keep that core together, how can you possibly manage a company?

Second - there are no management skills. Not only do most of our startups not have any management skills, ideas or experience, they often have never had a job working for anyone. I started launching startups with a complete management philosophy, that I learned through reading, working, managing and watching the startups I worked for fail. I'll write about my management philosophy was at 30 and why I lost it in my last tour through Carbondale soon.

Third - there is a real lack of the talent to do the work. Even if you are a great new college grad, you just aren't a senior engineer. The saddest thing that could happen to anybody is to be as good at 20, as you will be at 30 (or 50). You just can't get there, from here, without walking that road. It shouldn't amaze you that when startup companies talk to me about software, they will almost always change some important strategy. I once was a senior software engineer and might have a few other skills too. You can overcome these problems by knitting together a team with diverse talents, but that implies you have a team.

Fourth - the scope of the project is very large. So large that the company will not have the resources to have a real chance. I'm sorry, your Carbondale based company is not going to get big enough to provide software service solutions to every car dealer in the USA or the like.

Fifth - the business plan makes no sense. I can write a reasonable and fundable business plan in a day. Of course, I would have to invest my heart and soul in that area for months to understand what is possible first. If you can't provide a business plan that explains the vision, the team, the market place, the competition and the money - you are not getting funded. You can start with four pages, it isn't long. The problem is, you have to understand business and your business space, to begin writing and there are very few people who do.

Sixth - the Silicon Valley culture is to have an "Advisory Board." Unpaid, and general stock compensated, to help provide an infrastructure of support to startups. In Southern Illinois, we have inserted the Dunn-Richman incubator folks into those rolls. They are there to help, but that isn't their job.

Seventh - you need to give people stock in your company. It just doesn't work to get people to help you for free. They want to play. There are no high growth companies where the founders have all the stock. Your chances go up, if you buy people's support with stock. Yes, that is employees, advisors, and the pizza delivery person. Everyone wants a small piece.

Finally - the product choice was made too quickly. If someone told you they were starting a company, attacking a space with two venture capital backed companies, each with a multi-year head start, would you invest your life savings? No, me either. What about, if they told you there was a multi-billion dollar market, but if they worked really hard, they could make several million? Nope, not me.

The good news - it is cheap and easy to start a software company. Several people are trying. There is lots of good literature about starting and running companies.

The bad news - it is still very hard and success is difficult to achieve. People don't read the literature. People don't get the right kind of help. People don't share the wealth to bind people to their cause.

More to come.

The hiring funnel - how many do you have to interview?

So, I put up a link to the NYT piece on manufacturing the iPhone in China. Let me expand on how this idea effects business development in Southern Illinois.

At my little company, bSquare Corp of Bellevue, WA (NASDAQ - BSQR), we experienced rapid growth. We were founded in 1994, at the end of that year, we had 3 founders and 2 employees. At the end of 1995, we had 11 total people. At the end of 1996, we had 40. At the end of 1997, we had 160 (or so). When I sold out in 1999/2000, we had about 550 employees. I ran hiring from founding, until into 1998. I put ads in the paper, got faxed resumes, phone screened, and interviewed a whole lot of people.

Here are the stats, as I remember them. In 1997, I phone screened around 1000 people, interviewed 250 in person and hired over 100. Now remember, we are taking about computer people, college educated, and looking to work in a startup (or at least to get a job in the computer industry). I think this was fairly typical, 10 phone screens to 1 hire. Notice, that isn't 10 resumes to 1 hire, I screened over 50% of the resumes too.

If you are starting a company in Southern Illinois, that you intend to make a national brand. Can you do it in software? I would have to say no. Sooner or later, you are going to need a team of programmers. Can you find 100 people, who have resumes worth looking hard at, in order to hire 10? I don't think so.

Let me suggest a different business model, that you build something that will allow you to succeed. For example, iPhone/Android apps for the software focused. You only need 1 or 3 programmers. The complexity is easier, so your need for experienced people is smaller. Once you get rolling, it would be easier to ramp it up.

If you read "The Millionaire Mind/Next Door," they seem to claim there are very few high tech millionaires (on a percentage basis). Financial success can easily come from almost any area. The laser focus of Southern Illinois entrepreneurs on high tech is likely self defeating. Historically, rural areas have been in the high value, specialty manufacturing business. You need a few smart people to develop the company and a lot of motivated people to turn the gears. I suspect, this model is still the right one for Southern Illinois.

In the end, we have yet to see anyone build a team of 10 programmers in Carbondale area. Doesn't mean it can't be done, but if you need to have that many programmers to have a chance, wouldn't you be better off in Silicon Valley?

More about my startup ideas and failings to come.

Of course, your comments are welcome.

Why Apple doesn't make the iPhone in the USA

and what it means to Southern Illinois business.

Here is the article that got me started - TUAW Overview. Here is a link to the NY Times article that had the original research. The summary - "the Times found is both simple and chilling: iPhones aren't made in America because they just can't be. The infrastructure and labor force doesn't exist at the levels necessary to support Apple's operations -- it's not even close."

The big problem I found running BoundlessGallery.com was the lack of trained talent to do the work. After thinking about this for a long time, I have decided that you can't run an IP based, technology company, that requires 50 or 200 software engineers. So, in a small way, we (Southern Illinois) vs. Silicon Valley are/is just like the US vs. China.

We had better do something where you can get enough talent. I'm thinking iPhone apps, small scale factories and the like are the future. I'm liking the sin business more and more.

More about this later, but it is interesting to think about.

Of course, your comments are welcome.

Pols are sh**heads!

Movie actor Daniel Craig recently was quoted as saying, "Pols are sh**heads." What a wonderful summary of politics in the USA. Can you imagine sitting down for lunch with someone, have them look you in the eye and lie to you. Knowing their lying, the politician knowing that you know they are lying or will soon know, but they think that is OK?

As we wander down the road of life, isn't it too short to have people telling us lies?

What I'm reading this week

I'm reading two books right now Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki and How The Might Fall by Jim Collins. It is like Yin and Yang, I read a chapter and switch. Both books are small, big pamphlets really. The text is big, the ideas are straight forward.

From the Amazon reviews -

Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions.

In How the Mighty Fall, Collins confronts these questions, offering leaders the well-founded hope that they can learn how to stave off decline and, if they find themselves falling, reverse their course. Collins' research project—more than four years in duration—uncovered five step-wise stages of decline:

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril
Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation
Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

I'm thinking about Carbondale and SIU while I read. Where is SIU on Collin's 5 Stage scale? Number 4? Yes, Collins does write about what to do to claw your way back to healthy. Stage 1 - Morris expands to multi-campus system. Stage 2 - U of I has a great physics department, we should try to match them. Throw away the 4 year Voc Tech programs, we are a real university now! Stage 3 - What we worry? I may be seen as negative, but you will not see me denying the risk of doing business.

When thinking about Enchantment. Those big Halloween parties in Carbondale provided some of that. I wonder what SIU can do to get the Enchantment back? Graduating students that know something, would be a good start to enchant the business community.

I wonder if the leadership at SIU is reading Collins? If I knew them, I would send them a copy. Anyone else reading these little gems?

Recommended.

Generation Y Combinator

I have been sitting around and thinking about my time in Carbondale. It was a total failure. I tried to do what I had experience and been successful doing. The tech start up, VC, Angel Investor, fast growth thing, that has been so successful, in the few population centers in the US. What a bust, nothing in invest in, nothing really started, full stop.

Now, I did work with the Dunn-Richman people and started that business plan contest. It was seen as a success and it has spread through the state. I'm not certain that it isn't a bust too? Yes, some companies/people have been helped, but nothing has really emerged in Southern Illinois that has worked.

Let me suggest that a company with a bad idea, but hard working founders, is better than a company with a great idea, but founders who don't work. I can see taking the business plan contest and economic development in a new direction. Toward seed and very early stage investment in small companies, to allow them to get an initial product, working demo, or other showpiece start up item into a form that people can see and touch. Then you have a fighting chance to get the money you need, from investors or banks.

Here is an article from Wired Magazine that has a Silicon Valley version of this idea. I don't think the ideas in the article can work in Southern Illinois, but there is a thread of truth that is worth trying.

As always, your comments are welcome.

Students not learning college?

I have written about this many times in this space over the years. The AP press article about a new book "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses." Thank goodness my oldest is going to a real school and having to work hard or flunk out. Just think, only 25 years ago, SIU was rigorous enough to flunk out students.

You should read the article and send a copy to your friends in higher education, and then start talking about it. If you haven't seen the WSJ article on the Chinese Mothers, that is worth a look too.

Enjoy!

The over/under on Tiger is 1000?

I realize I'm late to the show, but I was asked if I thought Tiger Woods was a sex addict the other day. My first thought was you had to put him on a MRI machine and test. :) I said that I had no idea, but as we went along and talked more, I realized that we could guess something interesting about Tiger.

I bet, it is easier for Tiger to get a woman to sleep with him, than it is for me to buy a drink at a crowded bar. Think about it, he can walk down the street, point at a woman walking the other way and have a fairly good chance of success.

Then I started to try to figure out the Vegas odds on how many woman Tiger has slept with in the last 10 years. I figure that one, every 3 days has to be reasonable. So, about 1000 women in the last 10 years? So, the over/under bet is 1000.

It is an interesting statement about celebrity in the USA. First, you can do what Tiger did, because the women are winning to play along. You beg forgiveness. Then, if you win again, you are forgiven. I'm for forgiveness, but it is interesting to see how celebrities are the royalty of the USA. Compared to Kobe, this is pretty mild stuff.

What do you think, can you forgive Tiger? I don't think much about golf, so I don't really care one way or the other.

Fixing Education by making Geeks cool?

Interesting article in Wired Magazine this month. I like the idea that as soon as learning/being smart is cool, everyone does better. Lots of applications, when you think about it.

Chairman of the BOT corruption? What a surprise.

Received from hyperspace, written by Laraine Wright. I think we all know in our gut that SIU's BOT positions are purchased for campaign contributions (or political support in the case of Glen Poshard). Difficult to prove without a wiretap, but here is a pretty compelling example of how BOT members have their fingers in the SIU pie.

If there is any justice, Tedrick with step down today. I'm not holding my breath.

Question - how can you give SIU money, if this is what you are supporting?

Roger Tedrick, chairman of the SIU Board of Trustees, has in at least 34 cases violated the SIU Management Act (110 ILCS 520/4) that states, " ... nor shall any member of the Board be directly or indirectly interested in any contract made by the Board ... "

Through documents I recently obtained through a Freedom of Information request, I discovered that Tedrick Insurance in Mt. Vernon sold expensive liability insurance to construction firms and service providers doing business with SIU through contracts that Tedrick voted to approve as a member of the board. The firms include many who recently were approved as contractors and sub-contractors for Saluki Way , such as Holland Construction Services of Swansea, which last year the board tacked onto Saluki Way as a "partner" of the original contractor, JE Dunn of Kansas. Holland Construction Services built Rent One Park in Marion for John Simmons, another Blagojevich appointee on the SIU Board of Trustees.

Tedrick was appointed to the Board in February 2004, two months after he made a $5,000 donation to Blagojevich. Eight days after Tedrick was "elected" chairman of the board on June 20, 2005, he made another $5,000 donation to Blagojevich. In total, Tedrick gave Blagojevich $26,000.

You may recall that Chairman Tedrick immediately and vigorously defended Glenn Poshard when the examples of plagiarism in his Ph.D. were revealed. No sitting back to wait while an investigation could be done, just immediate public defense. You may also recall that Tedrick was supposedly the one who asked SIU Legal Counsel Jerry Blakemore to conduct a "thorough review," an "internal audit" of the Board following Blagojevich's arrest December 9. "Are any of us corrupt?" Heck, no, said Jerry Blakemore to "The Southern" in mid-January, which also said, "SIU President Glenn Poshard ... praised Tedrick for moving quickly to investigate any improprieties and stood by the finds of Blakemore's investigation."

On March 10, I spent more than two hours at the Southern Illinoisan offices talking to reporters Caleb Hale and Adam Testa. They had the same documents that I later obtained through my own FOIA, and many more regarding other corruption allegations. They had already conducted other interviews about this information and they assured me they would be running an article about Tedrick. But nothing has happened. I don't fault Hale or Testa. The problem lies above their heads at "The Southern."

Instead, there have been two articles about how Jerry Blakemore has now written a new policy for the board, which it may approve at its May 7 meeting in Carbondale, that calls for board members to "recuse" themselves from voting on contracts that might be a conflict of interest. Even ahead of adopting this laughable policy, Tedrick apparently recused himself from voting at the April 2 board meeting.

Tedrick may continue to recuse himself for the next 50 years, but he STILL is in violation of the SIU Management Act merely by SERVING on the board WHILE SELLING INSURANCE to university contractors. He has known this all along and so, I submit, have Glenn Poshard, staff members in the SIU President's Office and Budget Office, and possibly other members of the SIU Board of Trustees. Also, every year the board members and all state employees must fill out a Statement of Economic Interests that discloses any business ties one may have that conflict with one's role as a board member or state employee. These statements are collected by SIU Ethics Officer Corey Bradford and forwarded to the Secretary of State's Office in Springfield. Hmmm.

I am again asking the SIUC community, internal and external, to share this information with others; to write to Gov. Quinn demanding that he remove the three people who were appointed to the Board after making large donations to Blagojevich (Tedrick, John Simmons, and the now-bodyguarded Bill Bonan II); and to once again discuss together and question where Glenn Poshard is taking SIU. I am on the speaker's list for May 7. If you want to make your own speech, please call Misty Whittington at 536-3344.

Finally, you may have seen an article in the April 14 or 15 "Southern" titled, "Quinn looks to restock boards, commissions." It was written by Kurt Erickson, Springfield Bureau reporter for Lee Enterprises, owner of the "Southern." Erickson says, "Joliet oilman Jay Bergman ... contributed $53,000 to Blagojevich's campaign fund between 2002 and 2008. He now serves as a member of the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois State University Board of Trustees." Another example of the same Blagojevich pattern. Big donations equaled appointments to public boards. How interesting that Erickson was free to write about an Illinois State board member but reporters at "The Southern" apparently can't do the same regarding Southern Illinois University.

Laraine Wright

The casual corruption of SIU

I give money to a number of universities and each sends me marketing collateral. A recent trend is to hire a company that makes magazines about research and sends it out. I have received one of these lately from SIU, Stanford, OSU and UW (Oregon and Washington). Interestingly enough, only one has a special piece of cardboard proclaiming that the marketing piece is "Compliments of" someone.

I started to wonder, why does John Koropchak need to claim responsibility for SIU's marketing spam? Is he running for office? Does this benefit SIU in some way? Did he pay for this "thing" out of his own pocket? We know the answer to each of these questions is no.

Are things so bad at SIU that no one points out how it looks when senior management, uses the public's money, to push some hidden PR/Ego agenda?

You have to wonder, who is minding the store, even when you know the answer is no one. I keep hoping for better, but keep getting disappointed.

Congratulations SIU - A suit they are going to lose

Cal Meyers sues SIU from the SI

A little analysis on the case

You were wondering how any organization could look worse than the Green Bay Packers? SIU, come on down.

Bush Administration counts to one and statistical stupidity

Recently saw a story in the paper about a salmon return. After having a hatchery release millions of salmon, the scientists prepared to count the returning numbers. As the spawning season arrived only ten fish returned. They were big and healthy fish, but the numbers were much smaller than expected. The Bush administration published a report, "Returning Salmon, Larger Than Normal." I made this up, to show that when you start talking about large systems, you can't take the few successful instances and claim success. You have to look at the larger system and the failures as well.

The reason I bring this up is that I got a comment from a person who claimed to be a recent SIU graduate. They claimed to have a degree in some kind of science, and further claimed that they got a great education at SIU. They went further and told me that SIU was a great place and any criticism I have of it, must be misplaced. There are a couple of sampling problems with this, for example, how does a 22 year old, who has a sample size of one, judge how good their education is? Of course, there are successful grads from SIU, maybe they are one? If you have an undergraduate in science, shouldn't you understand the statistical problems from using such a small sample? What I know is that graduates of better schools, are better able to be successful in their first five years out of college. A whole lot of that post graduation success is because the better schools attract better students.

If you use me as a one person sample for SIU grads, everyone would have a liberal arts degree, everyone would work in computers, everyone would have a blog, everyone would start companies, everyone would live in Oregon, etc, etc. You can easily draw conclusions, based on small sample sizes. What is difficult, is to draw conclusions (or the truth), without a bigger picture. This was the power of this blog, access to a bigger picture about SIU and Carbondale, by accessing the information that is easily available in town, assuming you talk to both the business people and the university people (which no one really does).

My father doesn't understand how you can be an engineer, without being able to do math. I don't understand how you can be a science grad and not understand statistics. I do understand how you can draw conclusions based on a very small sample and have no idea if you are right.

John Simon - is it possible my last entry was too weak?

I have had a couple of emails, pointing out that I didn't go far enough on this topic.

Here is the NYT's writeup of John Simon. Worth your time to read it. Looks like the US Grant people were in the middle of firing SIU over their treatment of Dr. Simon. Nothing like a great man being brought down by petty SIU politicians.

Turns out that there was a second emeritus professor hit with the same charges, in the same way as Dr. Simon. More to come on that situation.

I'm guessing we will see no local newspaper coverage on this, but the Chronicle of Higher Education seems to be on the case.

Seems like there is something going really wrong here. Maybe it is time for the good people of Carbondale to take a stand, before there is no one to defend you, when you get screwed. I have written to Poshard and a few others. You should do the same.

End of the Gas Car. A Business Case.