Check you vision before you startup your mission

 

Entrepreneurs starting a new business focus on the product, the customer, the market, and pricing.  They build out their business canvas model, they pivot, they code and discuss their social media strategy.  AND, If they follow the Stanford startup model, they make sure they do three things:

1. Do what you can do.
2. Do what adds value.
3. Do what others aren’t doing.

Where those three things overlap is the next Instagram or Facebook!

But they are missing one important point.

• Do you want to do this?

When you are the founder, it’s different than working for someone else.  You are designing your dream job, not applying for a job.  So you better design something that you are passionate about doing, reflects your vision, your passion, your goals and operates by your ground rules.

To answer the question, “Do I want to do this?” requires you to clearly articulate your vision and mission.  These two drive the culture of the company. You may make it to launch without a vision and mission, but you won’t be able to hire a team or engage your customers.

So before you start building your dream product or service, make sure that you take the time to define your culture.  Vision and mission are more than words on a website.  Well defined, they articulate the destination, the language and the core values of your company.

Check your vision before you startup your mission.  Then start building your company.

 

What Makes Things Cool? Or Why Everybody Isn’t Cool.

 

What Makes Things Cool? Or Why everybody isn’t cool.

Interesting research on what makes things cool and why “Just Say No” campaign doesn’t work.  Hint: It may be better to tell adolescents that everybody’s doing it if you wan them to stop.

I wonder how this Journal of Consumer Research could be used to help stop violence against women on campus?

Propeller Incubator in NOLA

Propeller a force for social innovation

Propeller Incubator in NOLA

I’m excited to visit Danielle Kraus and team in New Orleans this weekend.  Ready to share some best practices adn learn form others involved in Lean for Social Good.  Especially when it is aligned with Another Good Day Ventures vision of For Good. For Profit.

Here’s a little info on Propeller from their website.

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The Propeller Incubator is a shared work space offering a relaxed environment to be productive and collaborate with fellow innovators. Our co-working space is home to a creative and diverse group of entrepreneurs, small business owners, freelancers, non-profits, and foundations whose work is making a difference in New Orleans.

Tenants have several work and meeting options to fit their needs. You’ll soon forget why you worked out of coffee shops all those years or kept trying to focus while working from home. Schedule a tour with Incubator Manager Danielle Kraus (dkraus@GoPropeller.org) and experience how the Propeller Incubator might be just what you’ve been looking for. Join the 80+ organizations who are currently members.

Good people divided by politics and religion make our county weak.

Our bias binds us and blinds us.  You can start by testing your morals online – just be prepared for the results.

There reason I bring up morals is that most people think that their morals are true, the highest, the best.  I’m not here to disagree, but I challenge you to consider walking in someone else’s morals occasionally.

There is an enormous social and economic divide in the US.  And it’s getting worse.  Everyone is to blame because everybody is sure that their side is right.  The current stalemate threatens our country, undermines our moral high ground and economic standing in the world.  Even more importantly the real threat is at home, here in these great United States.  We need to strengthen our economic engine by developing and integrating a social contract that makes our growth sustainable.  But first we need to share values.

Jonathan Haidt, moral psychologist, explains why liberal Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic (WIRED) arguments are weak and conversely, why conservatives don’t listen in the incredible new book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. The summary is linked.  Or, I’ll lend you my copy (email me at kronn@AGDventures.com) if you promise to read it and return it. Or, you can buy your own. OR, If you can’t afford your own copy, I’ll buy you a copy. (Limited to the first 100 or so…50 liberals and 50 conservatives, please.)

If we respect other’s point of view, we can renew our social contract and keep our country great.  We all recognize that Media hypes the social divide just as reality TV creates conflict to make it interesting.  But the problems of economic and social justice are real and directly connected to our future.  An interesting side effect of all the shouting is that the real problem with hyperbole and rude interrupting is that you and I end up preaching to or listing to the same choir.

Both sides of an argument need to be articulated well so others listen, not just our own believers.  Haidt does a great job of providing a framework for construction of strong arguments on both sides.  His 6 pillars force a point of view to consider a broader and potentially more balanced argument.

It’s possible BOTH sides are right.

Bobby Kennedy used to say that one-fifth of the people are against you all the time.  He was right. It takes compromise from the 80% in the middle.  The radical 10% will never change.  So it is up to the majority of us to be the change.

Recognize your own bias and practice listen first.   Be respectful and be ready to change your mind – They just may have a valid point or two.  Only then we can begin to move back together – e plurbius unim – one from many.  Once we are understanding each other, we can rebuild the social and economic contract that will keep the United States strong and prosperous for all citizens.

The alternative is failure as a county.

Here is Jonathan Haidt’s TED talk if you need a quick start.

I’m taking book orders.

Angel Investor’s Creed

Please give me grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

 

– Special thanks to Reinhold Niebuhr who must have sat through a lot of pitches in his day.

 

Unicorns only exist if you count them.

Unicorns exist

I’ve spent my entire life believing that unicorns only exist in fair tales and in Polly Pockets.  But they exist if you start counting them.  BTW, they look pretty happy, too.

The reason I focus on unicorns is that everyone believes them to be a myth.  But as I spend time researching the data behind education, an issue that is important to me, Atlanta and the country, I find the education data more unrealistic than unicorns.  We talk about education as the savior.  It is – if you graduate.

We need to change the focus to measuring outcomes, not enrollment. Anything less than graduation is unacceptable.

College graduation rates are horrendous – 2-year or 4-year institutions.  It doesn’t make a difference which state or institution you choose, this isn’t a Georgia-only problem, they are all bad.  The conversation needs to change to outcome: graduation and a living wage.

To start with, we need real numbers, not best-case scenarios.  Stop quoting enrollment and about the graduates and start talking about dropouts.  The majority of students do not graduate on time and a huge percentage never get a degree.  Some college is not enough.  No credential = no value.

We need to count all students: full-time and part-time and stop extending the graduation rate out to 200% of the time.  It shouldn’t take 4 years to get a 2-year degree or 8-years to get a 4-year degree, so why count it that way?  Oh – beacause it makes us feel better.  As complete College America documents Time is the Enemy of graduation.

There are relatively simple systemic fixes that would improve student success (i.e. code word: graduation)

IMAGINE THIS: If any student enrolls in a school, they should get what they paid for – a certificate or degree.  Guaranteed.  The professors who pride themselves on failing students should be fired.  The schools that fail the students should refund the money. The students who game the student loan system should be prosecuted for fraud.

We need to be angry and change the focus to Outcome instead of Enrollment and Unicorns (students that actually graduate) will abound.  

We all wander with asses

Mules heading in the right direction.

We all wander with asses

Sooner or later we all wander around with a pack of asses.  Mule is my new hero because he made the conscious decision to wander around outdoors for 29 years with three asses.   Most people just wake up one day and find themselves in his spot.

So, it’s important that you pursue your passion.  www.3mules.com

Butterfly is on the shelf at Target

Congratulations to the Butterfly team on the successful launch of the women’s health new product launch: Butterfly. Being on the shelf at Target is a major accomplishment.

The Butterfly disposable liner is an important solution for women who experience accidental bowel leakage.

BTW – Does a startup metamorphose into a business when the product hits the shelf at Target?

http://www.Butterfly.com

Poetry is Important

Poetry is Important

A poet died today so that we could live better lives.  Poetry is important.  The world is made of stories and atoms.  Don’t be shy, take a chance and be creative.

Twice Shy by Seamus Heaney

A star is born: Southern Fried Supernova

Sometimes people look at the South and see a black hole. But this summer I witnessed a star being born right here in Midtown Atlanta: Hypepotamus. Because Hypepotamus is wired for startup collaboration, a supernova of the best of the arts, technology, and startups is heading our way this Fall. Scott Henderson (@scottyhendo) leads the “connected awesomeness” and Atlanta is a better place to live because of Hypepotamus. They aren’t just another incubator, they are a connector of talent and community, stimulating connections.

Fifty years from now we will look up in the Atlanta sky and see a host of new stars. And we will be known for job creation and innovation because we connected the dots. Southern Fried Supernova may just be the community event that pulled together the stars to form new constellations.

If you haven’t heard of the Southern Fried Supernova, you need to find a way to get involved. The Core Reaction is about to start.

I’m in. Are you?