Some Interesting Entrepreneurship Trends From Kauffman Foundation

Kauffman Foundation is a not-for-profit that both supports entrepreneurship through teaching and grants to colleges and universities involved in such efforts. Purdue recently received a $2 million grant from Kauffman for instance. They recently released their 2008 report on entrepreneurial activity in the US here: A few highlights include:

• The activity rate increased among many groups including immigrants, women and older Americans everywhere except the Midwest where it declined
• The overall pace of entrepreneurial startups did not suffer in 2008′s business downturn
• An average of 320 out of 100,000 adults started a new business each month
• Those in the oldest age group, 55-64 showed the highest level of startup rate
• Immigrants far out-paced native-born Americans in their rate of startups
• Latinos over the last 13 years have had the highest percentage increase in entrepreneurial activity while African-American rates slightly declined
• States with the highest entrepreneurial activity rates were Georgia, New Mexico, Montana, Arizona, Alaska and California
• States with the lowest rates were Pensylvania, Missouri, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Iowa and Ohio
• Atlanta was the sweet spot, and Philadelphia was in the toliet.

Interesting stuff. Hank

Main Stream Now Embracing Open Source and Clouds

Stroh Brann, a fellow in arms at Purdue, recently sent me the following two links from The Economist which indicate that indeed opinions are changing. You decide. Hank

Have A Happy Friday: And Don’t Get Struck

Russian Company Invests in Facebook

Facebook per se has largely been a US portal. The Washington Post yesterday reported that Facebook received $200 million from a Russian investment group in exchange for a 1.96% stake, and no seat on the board. This is the first major investment of Russian money in Silicon Valley making some nervious, especially in that “Eastern Europe is a major source of online-based identity theft rackets.” Zuck says the case will be used as a “cash buffer,” money speak for whatever Zuck wants to spend it on. So why you might ask accept cash from overseas? It might be part of Facebook’s strategy to expand to foreign markets. But will Facebook play in different cultures the way it has in the US? And you say? Hank

Green-e: Setting Standards for Renewable Energy

There was recently a small blurb in the Journal & Courier stating Tipmont REMC and its supplier, Wabash Valley Power Association, wind and landfill gas-generated renewable energy producte earned Green-e Energy certification. So what is Green-e certification? As Fox News likes to state, we report, you decide.

On the surface at least, it looks like a pure marketing play. Perhaps it’s best to just include a Scribd of their two-pager on what they do and you decide from there. If it’s green, you have to ask yourself, is it green, or? Hank

Green-e: Setting Standards for Renewable Energy?

There was recently a small blurb in the Journal & Courier stating Tipmont REMC and its supplier, Wabash Valley Power Association, wind and landfill gas-generated renewable energy producte earned Green-e Energy certification. So what is Green-e certification? As Fox News likes to state, we report, you decide.

On the surface at least, it looks like a pure marketing play. Perhaps it’s best to just include a Scribd of their two-pager on what they do and you decide from there. If it’s green, you have to ask yourself, is it green, or? Hank

A Few Energy Stats

“Each day…the nation’s thermoelectric power plants (90 percent of all power plants in the United States), draw 136 billion gallons of water from lakes, rivers and oceans to cool the steam used to drive turbines, according to the Department of Energy. In recent years, the energy department says, plans for new power plants had to be scrapped because water-use permits could not be obtained.

For their part, water- and wastewater utilities consume at least 13 percent of the electricity drawn nationwide each day (a figure that includes end-user heating), according to River Network, an environmental group based in Portland, Ore. Such plants face increasing public pressure to cut energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.” [From here.]

There is a $227 million hazardous-waste-to-energy facility being currently being built in LaFontaine, Indiana by a joint venture between International Power Group and ForeverGreen, a two-year-old startup that gasifies waste. What is unique about their vision, is they are focusing on industrial, chemical and medical waste which has a relatively high energy content and a high disposal cost. The EPA estimates that the U.S. alone generates 279 million metric tons of such waste per year.

In summary, it takes lots and lots of water, an increasingly scarce commodity, to produce electricity via “conventional” means. It takes lots of electricity, already a scarce commodity and about to become more so with Cap & Trade, to process human waste products. The conversion of here-to-fore waste products, industrial, chemical and medical, can be disruptive and lucrative at the same time. What else is out there? Hank

PS: Yesterday/Sunday, the first produce from our garden was harvested – Bok Choy, Cherry Belle Radishes, and green onions. We made stir fry. See pic below. [Take that, Jerry!]

Memorial Day 2009

I will be remembering. See you Tuesday. Hank

Have A Happy Friday: Ford Dudes Do Lunch

Who is Nicole Loftus?

Only the founder/CEO of one of Inc’s fastest growing firms. She started Zorch International just a short 7 years ago, earned the 2008 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and is a “trailblazing brand specialist and social advocate.”  She did it by challenging extant business models and targeted large customers with significant promotional product spending budgets. Several of the largest companies in the nation are counted among her clients.

I suggest you browse several of the links provided and learn more about Nicole, and how she is so successful, because she wanted to stay in Chicago! Hank