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Have A Happy Friday: Don’t believe everything you hear

Wolfram|Alpha: An interesting tool

Wolfram Research is a software developer in the computational sciences space. The company is known for its fully integrated technical computing software Mathematica. I’m certain many Purdue students who happen across this blog have used Mathematica in their courses @ Purdue. Wolfram Alpha’s vision is to create a system which can do for formal knowledge (heuristics, algorithms, rules, methods, theorems, etc.) what search engines like Google have done for informal knowledge, such as text and documents. (Crunchbase) Sound interesting?

What you may not know/realize, is that Wolfram also has a free web-based product named Wolfram|Alpha. This is one of those tools that you just have to try out to appreciate. Either it floats your boat, or it doesn’t. For engineering students especially, it should be extremely useful. View the video below to get a taste of what it’s all about. I sure wish I had access to it was I was an undergrad engineering student! And for entrepreneurs, take a look at their use of social media to promote their product. Hank

A life without Twinkies?

Twinkies, that delicious little golden cake with cream filling, might be a snack of the past. Just this month it has been reported that Hostess Brands, the maker of Wonder Bread and Twinkies, is preparing to re-file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after emerging from their first filing only two years ago.

Twinkies were first invented by a baker named James Dewar in 1930. He came up with the name when he saw a billboard for “Twinkle Toe Shoes”. Twinkies were right up there in snack popularity with Oreo Cookies during the 1970’s. I grew up with Twinkies in my lunch box, as an after school snack, or a tasty treat with friends after a hard day of playing outside and they are yummy!

Those familiar with the bankruptcy announcement say the company is facing a cash crunch with more than $860 million in debt. Hostess claims one of the reasons for their troubles is higher labor expenses than their competition due to unionized labor. They say rising ingredient costs have also taken a bite out of their profitability. Another excuse for their current situation is that health-conscious Americans favor yogurt and energy bars over the dessert cakes and white bread they devoured 30 years ago. They believe that Hostess snacks don’t fit into the U.S. trend toward a healthier lifestyle and of eating a diet rich in whole wheat foods, fruits and vegetables. “The iconic status of Twinkies is partly this perception that there’s nothing real in it,” said Ken Albala, professor of history at the University of the Pacific, in Stockton, Calif., who specializes in food history. “It’s this cake filled with an unidentifiable sugary cream filling that never goes bad.” I say the crème filling in a Twinkie is no more mysterious or unhealthy than the crème filling between two chocolate cookie discs, yet Oreo’s are still one of the best selling snack cookies in the US today.

And what about the mystery meat served at McDonalds in both their burgers and their nuggets? McDonald’s sales continue to rise during the current healthful eating trend. What, then, do you think is the real reason Twinkies sales, along with those of other Hostess brands, haven’t been able to keep up with the company’s growing costs? Beth Carroll

Dave: You are it

Staples has a current ad running that says it all; when you are a startup/small business, often you are it. Think about it. And thanks to Beth Carroll (author of Wednesday blogs) for the idea/link. Hank

Separating truth from fiction

In today’s lead up to the November national elections, there has been and will continue to be much misinformation on the part of EVERYBODY involved. One assertion  particularly bothersome to me is the lambasting of Mitt Romney for his actions while at Bain. In particular, he is being criticized for making firms more competitive by reduction of body counts, closing down inefficient plants, and in general doing what in-place management should have been doing all along.

As entrepreneurs, you are have  to run lean, efficient, and productive organizations; or fail. I teach in my graduate Sustainability Strategies class at Purdue, that management must seek to obtain and maintain a balance between People, Planet and Profit. What is being advocated by those most critical of Mitt is support/maintain “People,” and forget about Planet and Profit. That’s not the way businesses work as you will find out on your own. Without profit, business fail, and without Planet likewise. Hank

Have A Happy Friday: They are

Thanks to my BIL Jerry for heads up on the above. What can entrepreneurs take away from the video? Hank

Phones, Wallets & Keys

Typically, men at least, carry a phone (smart if they’re smart), a wallet and keys. Women – go figure

Why do men/women need to carry three items when just one, the smart phone will do? When are we going to break the mold of ingrained behavior because that’s the way our fathers and mothers did it? When are we going to start using near field capabilities of smart phones to pay for everything? When will Apps be developed and locks be modified to recognize specific patterns (think QR codes) to unlock doors, devices, turn cars on etc.? Some may ask why. I ask why not? Hank

Are you a Justin Bieber Fan?

O.K., so you’re not a ten year old girl!  But if you’re reading this blog, you probably have some interest in entrepreneurship, and Justin is an entrepreneur.  Like many who have been successful before him, Justin came from an underprivileged background.  He was born on March 1, 1994, in Ontario, Canada and was raised by his mother, Patricia Lynn Mallette.  His mom was 18 years old when she became pregnant with Justin.  Mallette raised her son as a single mother in low-income housing while working a series of low-paying office jobs.   Life wasn’t easy but Justin figured out how to hurdle his obstacles.

Wikipedia tells us that During Justin’s childhood, he was interested in hockey, soccer, and chess; he often kept his musical aspirations to himself.  As he grew up, Bieber taught himself to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet!  In early 2007, when he was twelve, Bieber sang Ne-Yo‘s “So Sick” for a local singing competition in Stratford and placed second.  Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see. She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, and Bieber’s popularity on the site grew.

According to KOVideo;  Justin Bieber has just broken another Youtube record.  He is the most watched musical artist on Youtube,  the first to reach 2 billion views.   Among his many musical accomplishments, he also broke the record for the highest grossing concert-themed movie for his “Never Say Never” movie; a story about a kid who makes it big through natural talent, tons of hard work and a belief that he can do it despite everybody telling him he can’t.   This serial entrepreneur has also expanded into beauty products.  In December of 2010 Justin’s One Less Lonely Girl nail polish collection sold out in 3000 Wal-Mart stores nation-wide.  He released his own fragrance line, Someday, and reached over 3 million in sales in just 3 weeks at Macy’s.  It is being named as the most successful celebrity fragrance launch of all time.

We know Justin didn’t make it big by himself.  Like all savvy entrepreneurs he was able to find a great management team.  We can all learn from this success story, and because of this, I am a Justin Bieber fan.  The big question now is:  Is product Justin sustainable?    Beth Carroll

Kickstarter+Twine=$556,541 and counting!

Kickstarter is a cloud-sourcing site that entrepreneurs-to-be and hard core practicing members HAVE to know about. Recently, a startup called Supermechanical listed a new sensor named Twine. They asked for $35,000 to fund their product, but 3,966 signed up with orders totaling $556,541. You can read about Twine here and view their funding video below.

All of this is well and good, but you should really look at the forest, not the trees. In this case, a couple of guys took and idea for some pretty neat sensors that notify users via common communication channels (email, twitter etc) when something occurs, like water in the bilges of our sailboat. They figured other people would be interested too, and took their idea to Kickstarter where “people” proved their concept in spades. Purdue-related entrepreneurs should definitely consider Kickstarter for initial funding! Hank

Welcome back Purdue students

As the new semester commences, this blog entry is primary addressed to new students in ENTR20000. You have your “work” cut out for you, but when the Fat Lady sings, you will agree it was well worth your time and effort. Those who have gone before you, numbering in the thousands now, have set the bar high for your expectations.

This blog is an effort on the part of myself, a “retired” ENTR20000 instructor, and Beth Carroll, a current ENTR20000 instructor, to reach entrepreneurship students outside the classroom with timely articles and information related broadly to such interests. We are supported by the ENTR faculty who, from time-to-time, advise us of items of interest. Input from students is always welcome and encourated. Tomorrow we will discuss the great success of Kickstarter and one of its subscribers, Twine. Meanwhile, you can watch the video below to see what I’ve been up to. See you then. Hank