Purdue 2012 Elevator Pitch Contest Video

Idea for startup

WSJ has an article up concerning some car dealerships hiring technos to explain ever expanding electronics being incorporated into modern automobiles. The article is here: and the associated video is below: Hank

Froggy Cut

The girls at June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco addressed a long-standing biology class problem: how to avoid cutting up all those frogs year after year, thus saving money and frogs’ lives. They came up with an app that virtually dissects the slimy amphibians, allowing students to tap into the magic of digital animation to do the dirty deed right there on the smartphone’s screen.

“Approximately 2.5 million frogs are dissected in high school biology classes every year,” said one of the team members, pitching her heart out to the three judges. And without anyone questioning her math, she went on to posit that “with each frog costing $4, that’s $10 million spent on frog dissection annually. Our app will cost each student $1.99. So we can save the schools $5 million and we can make $5 million.”

And that’s a win-win-win … if you include the frog.

Contact Patrick May at 408-920-5689.

From here:

Where San Fran techies are living

This is an interesting video story on where newly minted techies are landing in San Fran from WSJ. Hank

Very true and strong ad

Nads aka Gonads aka Balls

A Sustainability Prezi Embedded via HTML

Let the Prezi load, hit the -> button at bottom of player, them go to “More” and select “Full Screen.” It is a work in progress for my MGMT69000 class which starts 5/21/12 at Krannert Graduate School of Management. Hank

Have A Happy Summer: We Will! (And they are)

This is the last regular post until Purdue Fall 2012 semester starts toward the end of August. If something of merit comes up during the summer, we’ll post it. Meanwhile, thanks to my Navy shipmate Gene, we’ll leave you laughing. Hank, and Beth too!

See you later:

It’s the end of another semester and I prefer not to say goodbye.  I get a bit attached to you students every semester.  So my door is left open and if there is anything I can do to help you in the future, just contact me.   My biggest wish for all of you is to find your passion, work hard, work smart and be happy.  I hope that I was able to teach you something valuable.   Most of all I hope you have learned to always move yourself forward in whatever you do.  That means you must take risks.  Push yourself to do things that make you nervous.   Never choose not to do something because you are afraid you can’t do it well.    You will have failures, but you will never have the regret of not having tried.  When you fail, don’t let it define who you are.   Pick yourself up and try again.  “Just keep swimming” and, stay in touch!

My best,

Beth Carroll

Moat: Tracking ads in the digital world

One of the most difficult tasks facing businesses, is what message are competitors putting out there about their products. Enter Moat. Play around with it, and you will be amazed with what you can uncover. Try “Porsche” for instance. And I’ve included a presentation below from one of the co-founders at a P&G sponsored conference talking about their web-based service named Moat.com.

Why the name “Moat.” This is from their FAQ: The name of the company is inspired by Warren Buffett who has said that “a truly great business must have an enduring moat.” Buffett believes that a strong brand functions as a powerful moat around a company. Disney, Coca-Cola, Google, and Apple – these are all companies who have gotten their start from technological innovation but over time are able to maintain their dominant market position through the strength of their brands. (Watch video of Buffett discussing brands and moats.) Our goal at Moat is to create products which help companies build and strengthen their brands online and ultimately fortify their moats.

Hank