What’s happenin’ in our greenhouse?

This blog has little to do with entrepreneurship but lots to do with smelling the roses which entrepreneurs have to learn to do also. See the video below. Hank

Who Is Ethan Nicholas?

He’s the dude who has raked in over $1,000,000 (before taxes) from writing an artillery game for the iPhone named iShoot. In 2008 while working full time at Sun Microsystems (sold earlier this week to Oracle), using an old Mac and new to Objective-C, in a few weeks time Ethan cranked out iShoot which became available 10/19/2008 on iTunes. It had some action as a paid app – $2.99, but not all that much. Over Christmas without any research and on his own, Ethan decided to crank out a free “Lite” version of iShoot, iShootLite which was posted shortly after Christmas 2008. Bam, the sales of the full version took off and the results are history. It is now available on mobile phones “everywhere.”

So we’re about entrepreneurship, and we’re happy and glad Ethan is rolling in the green stuff. But what we really want is to roll ourselves! So roll up your sleeves, to to iTuens U, and study Stanford’s Computer Science 193P: iPhone Application Programming. It has been downloaded over a million times and will get you off and running. One of my presvious Learning Community students, Tim Watson has several apps up on iTunes, and is working with Eugene from Fall 2009 ENTR200’s Learning Community on a game. Tim will be in our ENTR200 classes next Tuesday to provide an overview of iPhone (and by association iPad) development.  Go for it. You might surprise everyone including yourself! Hank

Have A Happy Friday: He is….somewhere

From The London Times:

A Well-Planned Retirement

Outside England’s Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 buses. For 25 years, its parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant. The fees were £1 for cars ($1.40), £5 for busses (about $7).

Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, he just didn’t show up; so the Zoo Management called the City Council and asked it o send them another parking agent.

The Council did some research and replied that the parking lot was the Zoo’s own responsibility. The Zoo advised the Council that the attendant was a City employee. The City Council responded that the lot attendant had never been on the City pay role.

Meanwhile, sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain (or some such scenario), is a man who’d apparently had a ticket machine installed completely on his own; and then had simply begun to show up every day, commencing to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about $560 per day – for 25 years. Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over $7 million dollars!

And no one even knows his name. Now that’s being entrepreneurial. Hank

Useful iPhone App: NTRConnect

In over 100,000 130,000 and counting apps available for the iPhone, there are actually some that have potential use for entrepreneurs on the go. Recently [1/21/10], InfoWorld’s Curtis Franklinwrote an article titled “10 Top-Notch iPhone Apps for Enterprise Users.” Number 4 on the list was an app named NTRConnect which is the subject of this blog. This blog demos running a HP Quad-Core from the iPhone.

Available in both a ‘free” and a “Pro” version, with the “free” download coming automatically with a 30 day preview of the ‘Pro” version, setup was absolutely trivial. I did a search on apps from my iPhone, downloaded and installed the iPhone app, then went to our Quad-Core daily work horse, then to www.ntrconnect.com, and downloaded and installed the “server side” app. Next up was the typical registration including a user name and password, and we were off and running. The app runs in the background on the Quad/server, while the client on the iPhone must be brought up. Once this is done, and your UN/PW entered, in this case, on the iPhone, you are off and running. See the video below for a Q&D demo. With this running, you’ll never leave home with something on your work station again. It just works at a zero price. And no, there is not a NTRConnect app for the Droid – I checked.  Hank

Trademark a punctuation mark !?!

Problem to be solved:  misunderstood text messages. Never again waste a good sarcastic line on someone who doesn’t get it!

The time has come for SarcMark!
The official, easy-to-use punctuation mark to emphasize a sarcastic phrase, sentence or message.

Along with new technology comes new opportunity.

Accountant Doug Sak from  Michigan, with the help of his dad, thought eight long years about this idea before finally launching it this month.  His timing is right.  Before the i-Phone and texting this wouldn’t have made much sense.  How many times have you sent a message intending to be sarcastic and gotten a “what” response from the receiver of that message?  The big question is:  will this be adapted by the general public?  The exclamation point was first introduced in the 1500’s but wasn’t included as a standard key on a manual typewriter until the 1970’s.  Has anyone ever used or even heard of the interrobang?    He has already had thousands of downloads this month at $1.99 each but if the novelty of it fizzles he has little to lose.  He has minimal overhead and no inventory to be stuck with if it doesn’t sell.  Is this guy brilliant? BbB

Lasermonks

So there’s this guy, whose academic background includes astrophysics, classical liberal arts, philosophy, classical and modern languages, mystical and monastic theology and spiritual formation. He is also a pilot, member of the National Association of Priest Pilots, an equestrian and facilitator in Equine Assisted Retreats,international scuba diver and sailor. He also happens to be a Cistercian monk at Our Lady of Spring Bank in Sparta, Wis. and in fact MiC, Monk in Charge. But Bernard McCoy is no ordinary monk. He is also an entrepreneur. And thus this blog.

Seems the Very Rev. McCoy was dismayed, or pissed might be a better word, by the high cost of replacement printer cartridges and decided to do something about it. His order is totally self-sufficient, and in the past had tried several money raising activities to no avail. And behind Lasermonks there are numerous lessons for all entrepreneurs, be it not-for-profit/social entrepreneurs, or those on the fast track to becoming millionaires. In their book  Lasermonks: The Business Story Nine Hundred Years in the Making, [Amazon.com here], Caniqlia & Griffith make the following points: [I have the book on order and will place it on reserve for ENTR200 in the Krannert Library]

“They simply followed the Rule of St. Benedict-a nine hundred-year-old tradition of kindness, hospitality, and charity. By applying these basic Christian principles to the fiercely competitive world of e-commerce, the entrepreneurial brothers have managed to build a surprisingly successful ink, toner and office products company called LaserMonks.com. Their story is a true inspiration, a triumph of marketing, public service, and humanity. These are the new “commandments” of business…

Thou shalt:

Bring joy and meaning to your work.

Involve the customer in your mission.

Position your company as socially conscious.

Grow financially and spiritually.

The LaserMonks success story proves that giving is good business. That it’s possible to combine commerce with compassion. That consumers are willing to purchase with a purpose. And that you, too, can make a difference-and a profit-at the same time. This is what “good work” is all about.” [The foregoing quote from Amazon.com book copy.]

Here are several links with more about Lasermonks: Link 1, link 2, link 3. And here’s a  bonus for my students reading this inspiring blog. Ten extra point credit to the first student who, in the comments, correctly names the female Doberman in the picture with the MiC including link(s) to where found. Hank

Poop to Pots: Cowpots

www.cowpots.com

Problem: Too much cow poop. Solution, repurpose it and sell new product to eager gardeners. The following is excerpted from the history section of their web site, www.cowpots.com:
Brothers Matt and Ben Freund are second generation dairy farmers in the northwest hills of Connecticut.The brothers continue to look for maximum benefit from new technologies. Since 1997, they are one of only a few farms across the United States to have continuously run a methane digester. This is a process in which the raw manure from the cows is heated and stored in a large tank. The methane gas is collected and burned. At the end of this process the solids are separated from the liquid. The liquid goes back to the field to grow next year’s crops which feed the cows. The solids continue composting. It is this composted manure that is weed-seed free, and is used to mold CowPots™. Farmers and gardeners have always considered cow manure a wholesome organic soil amendment for their gardens. The challenge was to find a new and better way to get manure to these gardens and be of true value to consumers. This is why CowPots™ were born. They started by looking at manure in a different way. Matt experimented with different ways to make a durable but biodegradable pot. He realized two things; one-this was a really good idea and two-he needed to find financial support to adequately develop this pot to meet commercial standards. He contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture and received enthusiastic support through a number of grant programs. Matt went back to the kitchen where he started experimenting with the manure fibers, drying the pots in his wife’s toaster oven. This didn’t do much for his marriage, but it allowed him the ability to share his vision with other people. After many trials and tribulations, the brothers found a process in which they can mass produce pots of limitless sizes and shapes at an economical cost. These pots can withstand months in the greenhouse, but within 4 weeks of being planted in the ground they dissolve and continue to feed the plant. The benefits in the production and use of CowPots™ are two-fold. This product helps farmers reduce the nutrient load on their farms which directly contributes to a better and cleaner environment and they have been proven to grow bigger, better plants for the consumers who have no plastic to discard and overload our landfills. The ideal product for farmers and growers.

See the video below for a somewhat cryptic report on the production of Cowpots, and here for a NYTimes article on their product. I just ordered a case (100 – 6″) Cowpots for our greenhouse and 2010 garden.  And the lesson here for entrepreneurs is? Hank

Bill Gates: What I’m Thinking Launches

From www.gatesnotes.com/

Last week the richest man in the world and co-founder of Microsoft, launched a new personal web site named “The Gates Notes.” In it, Gates explains that he “thought it would be interesting to share these conversations more widely with a website, in the hope of getting more people thinking and learning about the issues I think are interesting and important.” It behooves entrepreneurs to at least be aware of where Bill’s musings are directed as potential business ideas. BTW, at the first of this month I was in Seattle and talked to and had dinner with several Microsoft employees. They unanimously miss Bill. Hank

December’s Top Viral Videos

Popular trends can often be discerned from videos that have reached viral status. Below is a listing of the top 10 for December 2009. Ring any bells? Hank

The top 10 picks for December, with links to view on YouTube:

1. Activision – Skateboard Dog, agency: Droga 5; Sharethrough
2. National Geographic – Deadly Predator
3. New Zealand Book Council – Going West, agency: Colenso BBDO
4. Victoria’s Secret – One Gift
5. Plane Stupid – Polar Bears
6. Intel – Cannonbells, agency: MRM London
7. Breast Cancer Awareness – Pink Glove Dance
8. Orbit – Clean it up, agency: Evolution Bureau,  Sharethrough
9. Epson – Extreme Gamer, agency: twentysix
10. Muscle Milk – Sexy Pilgrim, agency: Pereira & O’Dell, Sharethrough

From here:

Have A Happy Friday: Changing habits through fun

Fall 2008 I taught Marketing 323 for Krannert. As a term project, we worked on concrete ways to convince users of electricity in Indiana to use less electricity. All of the widely used incentives like threat of higher bills, you’re killing the environment, etc. don’t work all that well. What does in this case is peer pressure. If a homeowner knows his neighbor is working toward conserving electricity, they are more likely to also move in the direction of conservation.

The Fun Theory has a different approach on a more personal level. In the instance for this blog, it’s causing people to use stairs rather than escalators to travel between floors thus getting more exercise, and in theory,  improving their personal health. The bottom line, if new behavior is perceived as “being fun,” people are more likely to adjust accordingly. For entrepreneurs, the lesson is work a fun-factor into your product or marketing thereof. The video below demonstrates this concept in action. Hank