Big Event for Utah Investors and Entrepreneurs, Nov. 20th</h1> <article> <h1>Big Event for Utah Investors and Entrepreneurs, Nov. 20th</h1> <p>paulballen — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:49:10 -0800</p> <p><a href="http://blogmaverick.com/2008/11/08/pe-obamas-1st-big-mistake/">Mark Cuban pointed out on his blog</a> last week that President Elect Obama has made his first mistake: he failed to appoint a single entrepreneur to his economic advisory team, when it is clear that "entrepreneurs that start and run small businesses will be the propellant in this economy." He suggested that the new President should "ask the people who are actually starting new businesses what they need," so that the government doesn't adopt policies that will backfire by hurting entrepreneurs. </p> <p>This morning I watched a 1 hour documentary on the Biography Channel about Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, who by 1985 was the richest man in the United States. It was especially interesting to see how he grew up during the Great Depression, and how many of his values and goals were shaped by watching his father eek out a living during the depression.</p> <p>After WWII, Sam bought a five-and-dime store that was losing money and turned it around by experimenting with a new retail trend called self-service, where the customers actually browsed for their own merchandise rather than asking a clerk to get it for him. His store sales tripled. Within three years he had repaid the $20,000 startup capital he had borrowed from his father-in-law, and he was ready to expand. However, the building owner decided not to renew his lease, so Sam lost his store location. </p> <p>The documentary explained the obstacles and hardships Sam Walton faced on his way to becoming the most successful retailer in the history of the world. One decision he made in 1961 that I found particularly interesting (it made me smile) was when he bought controlling interest in an Arkansas bank so he could lend himself more money to open more retail stores. Now that is creative, out of the box thinking, for an entrepreneur!</p> <p>You can read about the <a href="http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/WalMart-Stores-Inc-Company-History.html">history of Wal-Mart</a> at FundingUniverse, along with thousands of other <a href="http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/">company histories</a>. Many of them contain amazing stories of entrepreneurs overcoming hard times along their path to success. </p> <p>Next week, Utah Entrepreneurs have a chance to learn about steps they can take along their road to entrepreneurial success. On Thursday, November 20th, an important event for entrepreneurs and Utah angel investors will take place: </p> <blockquote><p>Starting Nov. 17th, Utah joins more than 100 countries and organizations representing millions of entrepreneurs to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week. A highlight of Utah’s celebration is a day-long entrepreneur and angel investing event on Thursday, Nov. 20th.</p> <p>The one-day event – “Unleashing Ideas: Igniting High-Growth Entrepreneurship in Utah” – takes place Thursday, Nov. 20, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at Sandy’s South Towne Exposition Center. Entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, and experts in numerous core service industries will attend.</p> <p>The Nov. 20th conference features the third annual Angel Summit, attracting angel investors throughout the state. Angel investors are high net-worth individuals who fund early-stage, high-potential business opportunities. Registration and additional information are available via <a href="http://www.GewUtah.com" title="www.GewUtah.com">www.GewUtah.com</a>. (Source: <a href="http://www.utahpulse.com/featured_article/entrepreneur-and-angel-investor-conference-cap-global-entrepreneurship-week-utah">UtahPulse.com</a>)</p></blockquote> <p>I have agreed to participate all-day in this conference by chairing one of the tracks that will address the needs of entrepreneurs and inventors who need help raising capital or doing online marketing. </p> <p>There is a quality program planned with multiple tracks, and I encourage all Utah entrepeneurs to spread the word and turn this into a well-attended event.</p> <p>Against the backdrop of national economic crisis, let's take a day to brainstorm with each other what entrepreneurs can do to create value and generate positive economic activity that will help us, as previous generations have done, claw our way back to prosperity through hard work and innovation.</p> <p>I'll see you there.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Becoming Informed</h1> <p>paulballen — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:34:22 -0700</p> <p>I'm having a hard time sleeping lately. I keep waking up at 3 am or 4 am feeling compelled to investigate the root causes of the national and global financial crisis we are experiencing. I don't have a lot of time, because I'm also running a startup company, but I have to carve out some time if I want to be part of the solution as we try to fix our government and our country, and get it back on track. I've got to become better informed. </p> <p>I have several books now on derivatives trading, and I have come to believe they truly are "financial weapons of mass destruction" as Warren Buffett called them in 2003. I think unbridled use of OTC derivatives is the primary cause of the worldwide economic melt-down. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_(finance)">Wikipedia article on derivatives</a> is a good starting point. </p> <p>And I think the utter neglect of the tenth amendment, which was supposed to limit the Federal Government's power, and reserve all powers not enumerated in the Constitution to the states and to the people, is the reason that we have a federal government that is so powerful that a few hundred leaders can basically sell the future of hundreds of millions of citizens for a mess of pottage. With millions of phone calls we can delay them for a few days, but basically if a few powerful people say the sky is falling our elected representatives will believe them and will turn over an unprecedented amount of power--in this case into the hands of unelected officials.</p> <p>The world is topsy turvy. I am finding that I can trust what Chinese bankers are saying about the financial collapse than most of what is said in Washington or on Wall Street, or reported in the main stream media in this country. The business of the media is entertainment not journalism. So I turn to the Financial Times and Economist magazine from the UK to find informed and honest reporting. I have found a few excellent articles in US publications, that appear to understand the root causes, but they are primarily guest opinion pieces.</p> <p>I'm also trying to learn more about the Great Depression: what caused it and how the country finally emerged from it. If there is a next depression, I wonder what historians will call it. Great Depression Two? I doubt it. I think someone will coin a phrase that will fit the situation and stick, like when Churchill used the phrase "Iron Curtain" and it stuck.</p> <p>I'm very interested in the memoirs of Marriner S. Eccles, the successful Utah banker who was asked by FDR to serve as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1934. He served in that powerful role for 14 years. The book is called "<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=wIuBAAAAIAAJ&q=beckoning+frontiers&dq=beckoning+frontiers&ei=-UfsSI2_GpzOswOnj-zvBg&pgis=1">Beckoning Frontiers</a>." I purchased a used library copy on Amazon last week. It's on Google Books, but only with a snippet view since it may still be under copyright. </p> <p>His interpretation of what caused the Great Depression is radically different than anything I've heard before, and the solutions that he prescribed were radical at the time he first proposed them, but were soon woven into the fabric of the New Deal. After reading his description of the Senate Finance Hearings of February 1933, which took place one month before Pres. Roosevelt was inaugurated, and learning of his five-point plan for economic first-aid for the nation, it appears that Eccles was as much or more an architect of the New Deal than anyone else. I wonder who historians credit as being most influential in Roosevelt's dramatic shift from being a states' rights and balanced budget advocate during the election of 1932 (Eccles provides quotes from some of his speeches), to viewing the federal government as the key to leading the nation out of the depression, and providing economic security and employment as one of its key aims. Eccles must be one of the leading candidates. </p> <p>His arguments sound very socialistic to me. The New Deal shifted huge responsibilities to new federal bureaucracies. Some of these federal programs are highly connected to the current financial crisis. I don't believe socialism ever works, no matter how motivated by idealism it is in the beginning. Even Lenin's biography, which I read years ago, makes you think he earnestly did care for the people, he lived very frugally and very ascetically, and that he believed Marxism was a better path for Russia than capitalism, with all the human suffering that comes with its excesses. But no one in this country claims to believe in socialism, so we practice what our friends in the UK call, "deceptive socialism." </p> <p>I'm trying not to judge Eccles too harshly, because he admits knowing virtually nothing about economics or the impact of finance and production on society, and he came up with what we thought were solutions to a devastating national crisis, when 5,505 banks closed in just 3 years and unemployment in Salt Lake City was more than thirty percent.</p> <p>I want to be able to judge fairly whether he did more harm or good, and I haven't read enough to do this yet. But I'm going to continue working at it.</p> <p>Meanwhile, I've found some great online databases that Americans can freely use to do first-hand research into workings of each branch of our Federal Government. As citizens, we are empowered as never before with the ability to search online through millions of pages of government records. Here are some great resources for your 4 am time:</p> <ul> <li>The Entire <a href="http://www.gpoaccess.gov/USCODE/index.html">United States Code</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index_docs.php">Messages and Papers of the President</a>, Radio Addresses, Fireside Chats, Executive Orders (1826-2008) and much more</li> <li><a href="http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html">Supreme Court Rulings</a> since 1893</li> <li><a href="http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html">Public SEC Filings</a> of All the Failed Companies, so you can see what they wrote just months before they collapsed</li> </ul> <p>And while I'm posting this blog, I have to give a shout out to my 3rd grade class at Cascade Elementary, er, I mean to <a href="http://www.consource.org">Consource.org</a>, the free online library of the Founders' constitutional documents, a great non-profit foundation with a wonderful mission. <p>These are all in my Google Chrome bookmarks bar, so I can click on them at any time. I recommend you make these a click away, and do as much searching in these as possible, so that you can become better informed as a citizen, and potentially better informed than your own elected officials, most of whom don't have time to read the legislation they pass, let alone US history. Like kids today who use the internet to learn more than their teachers, it wouldn't be hard to learn more than most of our elected officials. And then maybe we'll be smart enough to upgrade our Congress next time we get a chance. </p> </article> <article> <h1>Why The Bailout Should Not Happen: Time Magazine</h1> <p>paulballen — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:01:38 -0700</p> <p>Like you, I have been alarmed by what is happening in Washington and on Wall Street.</p> <p>I have spent many hours over the past few weeks trying to understand the causes of the financial crisis that the world is facing today.</p> <p>I've purchased 4 books on the subject, researched extensively in the Congression Record from 1994 on, studied what Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger his partner have been saying about derivatives for years, and more. I am trying to understand root causes and possible solutions. And I have come to the firm conclusion that the proposed bailout will cause even more problems than it is trying to solve, and that it would be the biggest step towards socialism this country has ever taken (and we have taken lots and lots of little steps.) </p> <p>Today, Time Magazine published the best piece I have seen so far in the main stream media about why the bailout should not have happened. I recommend that you take time to read it: <a href="http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1845209,00.html?cnn=yes">http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1845209,00.html?cnn=yes</a></p> <p>Also, if you happen to be interested in some of the tidbits I've uncovered about what is wrong with unregulated OTC derivatives, read my comments on Digg.com about the Time Magazine article: <a href="http://digg.com/business_finance/Bail_out_people_NOT_banks">http://digg.com/business_finance/Bail_out_people_NOT_banks</a></p> <p>Yesterday I read 20 pages from the biography of former secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, who was harshly and repeatedly attacked during the Eisenhower years for NOT bailing out this country's farmers, even when there was serious pressure to do so. But he stood firm on principle, and opposed popular political solutions like price supports and other government programs, because in the end, they never work. They create more problems than good.</p> <p>When Secretary Benson was assigned by Eisenhower to accompany Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev on his visit to Washington (a visit which Benson opposed), he took him to a USDA experimental station in Maryland and gave some opening remarks: "Our farmers are free, efficient, creative and hard working.... Under our capitalistic free enterprise system they have developed an agriculture unequaled anywhere in the world."</p> <blockquote><p>On the trip, Krushchev reportedly boasted to the Secretary, "Your grandchildren will live under communism." "On the contrary," Secretary Benson replied, "my grandchildren will live in freedom as I hope that all people will." The Soviet leader responded, "Americans are so gullible. They are in the process of being fed small bits of socialism and one day will awaken to find themselves living under a totalitarian order."</p> <p>-- Ezra Taft Benson, A Biography, pg. 339 </p> </p></blockquote> <p>It's hard to find principled government leaders these days, who are true statesmen. I'm finding a few, but they are rare, and not always in leadership positions.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Buffett's Partner Charlie Munger in 2005: Derivatives Blowup in Next 5-10 Years</h1> <p>paulballen — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:23:10 -0700</p> <p><meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" /> <p>Please share this with others..... </p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">Charlie<br /> Munger in Poor Charlie’s Almanack, <br /> Expanded Second Edition, 2005-6, pp. 125-128</span></p> <p><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial">Warnings About<br /> Financial Institutions and Derivatives</span></strong></p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial">Risks of Financial Institutions</span></strong></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">The<br /> nature of a financial institution is that there are a lot of ways to go to hell<br /> in a bucket. You can push credit too far, do a dumb acquisition, leverage<br /> yourself excessively—it’s not just derivatives [that can bring about your<br /> downfall].</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">Maybe<br /> it’s unique to us, but we’re quite sensitive to financial risks. Financial institutions make us nervous when they’re trying to do well.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">We’re<br /> exceptionally goosey of leveraged financial institutions. If they start talking<br /> about how good risk management is, it makes us nervous.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">We<br /> fret way earlier than other people. We’ve left a lot of money on the table<br /> through fretting. It’s the way we are—you’ll just have to live with it.</span></p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial">Derivatives</span></strong></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">The<br /> system is almost insanely irresponsible. And what people think are fixes<br /> aren’t really fixes. It’s so complicated I can’t do it justice here—but<br /> you can’t believe the trillions of dollars involved. You can’t believe the<br /> complexity. You can’t believe how difficult it is to do the accounting. You<br /> can’t believe how big the incentives are to have wishful thinking about values<br /> and wishful thinking about ability to clear.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">People<br /> don’t think about the consequences of the consequences. People start by trying<br /> to hedge against interest rate changes, which is very difficult and<br /> complicated. Then, the hedges make the [reported profits] lumpy. So then<br /> they use new derivatives to smooth this. Well, now you’ve morphed into lying. This<br /> turns into a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party (where normal use of words...begin to<br /> make no sense ). This happens to vast, sophisticated corporations.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">Somebody<br /> has to step in and say, “We’re not going to do it—it’s just too hard.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">I<br /> think a good litmus test of the mental and moral quality at any large<br /> institutions [with significant derivatives exposure] would be to ask them, “Do<br /> you really understand your derivatives book?” Anyone who says yes is either<br /> crazy or lying.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">It’s<br /> easy to see [the dangers] when you talk about [what happened with] the energy<br /> derivatives—they went kerflooey. When [the companies] reached for the assets<br /> that were on their books, they money wasn’t there. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">When<br /> it comes to financial assets, we haven’t had any such denouement, and the<br /> accounting hasn’t changed, so the denouement is ahead of us.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">Derivatives<br /> are full of clauses that say if one party’s credit gets downgraded, then it has<br /> to put up collateral. It’s like margin—you can go broke [just putting up more<br /> margin]. In attempting to protect themselves, they’ve introduced instability.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">Nobody<br /> seems to recognize what a disaster of a system they’ve created. It’s a demented<br /> system.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">In<br /> engineering, people have a big margin of safety. But in the financial world,<br /> people don’t give a damn about safety.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">They<br /> let it balloon and balloon and balloon. It’s aided by false accounting. I’m<br /> more pessimistic about this than </span><span style="font-family: Arial">Warren</span><span style="font-family: Arial">.</span></p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial">Accounting for Derivatives</span></strong></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">I<br /> hate with a passion GAAP [Generally Accepted Accounting Principles] as applied<br /> to derivatives and swaps.<span> </span>JP Morgan sold<br /> out to this type of accounting to front-end reserves. I think it’s a disgrace.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">It’s<br /> bonkers, and the accountants sold out. Everyone caved, adopted loose<br /> [accounting] standards, and created exotic derivatives linked to theoretical<br /> models.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">As<br /> a result, all kinds of earnings, blessed by accountants, are not really being<br /> earned. When you reach for the money, it melts away. It was never there.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">It<br /> [accounting for derivatives] is just disgusting. It is a sewer, and if I’m<br /> right, there will be hell to pay in due course. All of you will have to prepare<br /> to deal with a blowup of derivative books.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">To<br /> say accounting for derivatives in </span><span style="font-family: Arial">America</span><span style="font-family: Arial"> is a sewer is an insult to sewage. </span></p> <p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial">Likelihood of a Derivatives Blowup</span></strong></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">We<br /> tried to sell Gen Re’s derivatives operation and couldn’t, so we started<br /> liquidating it. We had to take big markdowns. I would confidently predict<br /> that most of the derivative books of [this country’s] major banks cannot be<br /> liquidated for anything like what they’re carried on the books at. When the<br /> denouement will happen and how severe it will be, I don’t know. But I fear the<br /> consequences could be fearsome. I think there are major problems, worse than in<br /> the energy field, and look at the destruction there.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">I’ll<br /> be amazed if we don’t have some kind of significant [derivaties-related] blowup<br /> in the next five to ten years.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">I<br /> think we’re the only big corporation in </span><span style="font-family: Arial">America</span><span style="font-family: Arial"> to be running off its derivatives book.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Arial">It’s<br /> a crazy idea for people who are already rich—like </span><span style="font-family: Arial">Berkshire</span><span style="font-family: Arial">—to be in this business. It’s a crazy business for big banks to be in.</span></p> <blockquote><p><span style="font-family: Arial">“You would be disgusted<br /> if you had a fair mind and spent a month really delving into a big derivative operation.<br /> You would think it was Lewis Carroll [author of </span><span style="font-family: Arial">Alice</span><span style="font-family: Arial">’s Adventures in Wonderland]. You would think it was<br /> the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. And the false precision of these people is just<br /> unbelievable. They make the worst economics professors look like gods.<br /> Moreover, there is depravity augmenting the folly. Read the book F.I.A.S.C.O.,<br /> by law professor and former derivatives trader Frank Partnoy, an insider<br /> account of depravity in derivative trading at one of the biggest and<br /> best-regarded Wall Street firms. The book will turn your stomach.”</span></p> </p></blockquote> </article> <article> <h1>The Power of LinkedIn and The Speed of Trust</h1> <p>paulballen — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:29:36 -0700</p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">Recently, my team identified 189 high-traffic web sites that we want to approach in the coming months with a very innovative partnership opportunity. We think we can increase their web site traffic and that our proposal makes a lot of sense.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">But cold calling 189 these companies would likely be frustrating. Who would we ask for? How many calls would it take to find the right person, or to find a helpful person who could direct us to the right person? </span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">And then, even if we found the right person to talk to, how interested could they possibly be in a startup company from Utah, even if we do have a few million monthly visitors to our web sites? In a phone conversation where we are hunting around for the right person to talk to, trying to catch them at a time when they are interested in hearing our proposal, well, the odds just aren't good at all.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">But then there's the<a href="http://www.linkedin.com"> LinkedIn</a> approach. Since I've been investing time regularly over since LinkedIn first launched in building a trusted network of connections, and since I've worked in so many companies over the years, and lectured, and taught, and blogged, and networked, and continually refreshed my loose social connections via LinkedIn, I happen to have a mind-boggling LinkedIn network.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">My Network Stats show the following:<br /></span></p> <ul> <li>139,600 Two Degrees Away</li> <li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">986 Trusted Connections</span></li> <li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">5,715,400 Three Degrees Away</span></li> </ul> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">Out of more than 25 million LinkedIn users, I can reach 20% of them through a friend of a friend. The success rate for me of LinkedIn requests has been probably greater than 90%. I never abuse the system. I carefully read profiles before sending requests. I carefully choose who to send the request through. And I always have a legitimate reason for contacting them that I sincerely think they will be interested in.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">I've used last minute LinkedIn requests to get meetings in London with a top investment bank with less than 24 hours notice. I used it last week to make sure I got an invitation to attend the invitation-only Social Ad Summit in New York City. I've used it dozens of times with great results.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">So recently I invited one of my (trusted) employees to login to my LinkedIn account, and to search for "marketing" or "business development" employees at the 189 web companies that we want to partner with in the not-too-distant future. Here's what she found:</span></p> <ul> <li>I have 3 1st Degree Connections</li> <li>I have 31 2nd Degree Connections</li> <li>I have 48 3rd Degree Connections</li> </ul> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">I actually have LinkedIn connections at almost every one of the 189 companies, but we were only looking for employees who had "marketing" or "business development" roles within the company.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">She put all her findings into a spreadsheet, which I shrunk to 6-point font, and printed it out, so I can have it right by my computer and look at it every day. When we are ready to proceed, I'll budget a bit of time every week to reach out via LinkedIn to some of these partners.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">In the past week it has become apparent that FamilyLink.com, with our super popular We're Related app on Facebook (5 million monthly active users and growing fast), is ready to reach out to brand advertisers and marketers who want to reach some of the families who are using our app.<br />I just searched for "media buyer" and "internet" on LinkedIn, and found that there are 390 matches that are within my network.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">We think we can provide media buyers "<strong>the best way to reach families through social media</strong>." Next week we'll start using LinkedIn to reach the ones that really do seem most likely to be interested in placing relevant ads on social networks.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">In the past, when I've tried to raise capital or advised others on raising capital, I've been amazed at how many thousands of people in the Venture Capital and Private Equity category are using LinkedIn. Since almost all angel and venture deals are done by referral, it makes a ton of sense for an entrepreneur to invest adequate time in building their LinkedIn network, and then when they are ready to find potential investors, to spend serious energy in reading the profiles of all the angel investor or VCs in their network. And then, to choose carefully who to send each request for a meeting through.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">Stephen MR Covey wrote a best-selling book in 2006 called <a href="http://www.amazon.com/SPEED-Trust-Thing-Changes-Everything/dp/074329730X">The Speed of Trust</a>. I believe wholeheartedly in his premise that when there is trust, business can move at a very fast pace. But without trust, there can be infinite delays or gridlock. </span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">LinkedIn is without a doubt the most powerful "Speed of Trust" tool ever invented in the history of the world, and I think modern entrepreneurs and business people who learn how to fully utilize its capabilities and help others in their network to benefit from it in appropriate ways, will find like I have that it it creates a wrinkle in time where all of a sudden you find yourself through some kind of invisible transference of good-will doing business with people you've never met before but that you feel that you have, because you're friends of the same friend.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px">Does any of this make sense to you, LinkedIn user or not?<br /></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></p> </article> <article> <h1>Playing around with Google Forms</h1> <p>paulballen — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:37:47 -0700</p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px"> <p>The other day I noticed an new feature on Google Docs. When I tried to created a new document, it gave me the option of creating a Form.</p> <p>I was curious, so I started playing around with it and realized that Google Form is a simple, powerful, and free way to create online surveys which can be emailed to anyone or embedded in a blog or website. All the responses are captured in a Google spreadsheet, and charting features make it easy to see the results.</p> <p>I'm writing a magazine article about business, social networking, and Twitter, and decided to post a Google Form survey on this page. But it didn't work. My blog is powered by Drupal now, and I can't find a way for it accept HTML code right now, so I'll have to link to the survey instead. So here it is:</p> <p><a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pffGoy8avq7gm46hGgB7tKA">Please take this survey using Google Forms.</a> </p> <p>I emailed one to all my employees last week and got 32 answers in just a couple of days. It was so easy to do. I am currently looking for a way to ask questions to some of our 300,000 Daily Active Users on our We're Related Facebook application, and I consider Google Forms the leading candidate right now. It offers free-form text responses (one line or paragraph), multiple choice, checkboxes, choose from a list, scale (1-n) responses. Most importantly, it integrates into my daily work flow, since I live in gmail and google docs, and is super easy to use. </p> <p>I was going to start use <a href="http://www.polldaddy.com">PollDaddy.com</a> before I came across Google Forms.</p> <p>I'd like to know what tools or sites you use for doing email surveys or embedded online surveys, and if you have tried Google Forms. If so, are you going to switch?</p> <p></span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Top 25 Facebook App and hybrid business models</h1> <p>paulballen — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 11:41:27 -0700</p> <p>I remember when I first learned about <a href="http://www.linkedin.com">LinkedIn.com</a>, and was the 4th person to sign up for it in Utah County. Soon I got into a competition with two friends to see who could end up with the most (real) connections. I finally won that competition, but we all ended up with hundreds of connections. But I remember when one of my friends knew they were losing on the connections number that they claimed to be winning on "endorsements." They changed their key metric, so that they could claim that they had actually won.</p> <p>The key metric on Facebook apps used to be total installs. Some apps were incredibly viral, especially early on, and got millions of installs. But some of these apps were also fluff and lost their appeal very quickly, so they actually didn't get used much. Later, Facebook reporting started focusing more on Daily Active Users (DAU), and apps were being valued by third party reporting systems based on how many people were using them each day. Last night, our social team told me that Facebook just replaced Daily Active Users with Monthly Active Users (MAU), and that we are one of the winners in this changing in reporting. With this metric, our <strong>We're Related application jumps up to rank #23 overall for all Facebook apps</strong>, with more than 2.1 million Monthly Active Users. It's gratifying to see our application being used by so many Facebook users world wide to connect with relatives. </p> <p><a href="http://www.quantcast.com/p-86YkM5oSeBMSE">Quantcast is now reporting that our FamilyLink Network of sites</a> and apps for families now has 2.77 million uniques globally and 1.15 million from the U.S. The chart looks great, with real steady growth over the last few months. If this trend continues, we'll soon become a top 1,000 internet property globally which could lead to more revenue opportunities for the company. Our advertising revenue continues to grow as a percentage of total revenue, and we'd like to see that trend continue, even though we absolutely love the subscription business model that <a href="http://www.worldvitalrecords.com">WorldVitalRecords.com</a> uses to generate the majority of our revenue. </p> <p>We'll also be launching a storefront later this month for the first time with thousands of products available for purchase, so for the first time we'll be able to advertise these products to our millions of users.</p> <p>Our investors support our hybrid business model (subscription, advertising, e-commerce) but it is hard to forecast each one of these with such a short track record. We started seling advertising in January. And now e-commerce is just about to launch. I'm sure all of these revenue streams will grow, but at what rate? </p> <p><strong>Can anyone who has worked in a company with a hybrid business model privately email me, or comment publicly about what they think is typical for the revenue-mix going forward?</strong></p> <p>I need to carve out a few hours to read some SEC filings from some internet companies so I can find some of this info out myself. A friend of mine said he'll try to make SEC filings available on the Amazon Kindle, and I told him I'll be subscribing to a bunch of them, so that every quarter I'll get them pushed to my device </p> <p>That reminds me of a great domain name that Provo Labs once<br /> purchased for a potential service to make SEC filings more accessible<br /> and searchable. The domain was suggested by social media creative<br /> genius and podcaster Judd Bagley. It was 10qverymuch.com. We might even<br /> still own it, if someone would like to make an offer for it.</p> <p>I find myself reading TechCrunch and Mashable every morning on my back porch from my Kindle. I was amazed when I found myself paying for a subscription to these blogs, when they are actually free online, but they are really cheap and the Kindle reading experience is much more enjoyable and relaxing than sitting in front of a computer, or even using my blackberry or iphone. Yesterday I wanted to subscribe to the Economist on my Kindle, but it doesn't seem to be available yet. </p> </article> <article> <h1>iPhone developers, unite!</h1> <p>paulballen — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:18:16 -0700</p> <p>A few months ago, after feeling the initial rush of getting a million users of our Facebook app We're Related in just 29 days, I set up a Facebook group with an admittedly dumb name: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5211452490">Utah CEOs With a Facebook Strategy</a>. It now has 488 members. We met a couple of times in Provo earlier this year. Jason McGowan and Michael Jensen from our team at <a href="http://www.familylink.com">FamilyLink.com</a> shared with about 30-40 attendees how to build an app that is viral and can scale, and I tried to pump the Facebook opportunity as well as I could. I'm a true believer in what Facebook did with their Platform, as you will see from my original blog post the day they announced it, back in May 2007, when I predicted that <a href="/2007/05/25/prediction-facebook-will-be-the-largest-social-network-in-the-world">Facebook would become the world's leading social network</a>. It only took a year for that to happen, as recent Comscore data shows <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062302094.html">Facebook with more worldwide users and page views than MySpace</a>. </p> <p>In the ensuing months we have tried to find other Facebook applications developed in Utah that had more than say 50,000 users, so we could invite other developers to share their learning with the group, but we haven't been able to find any other Utah company with a successful Facebook app--so this group has kind of stagnated.</p> <p>I don't understand why we don't see more Utah entrepreneurs anticipating and catching these amazing waves of opportunities, as new platforms open up for software developers. After all, Utah once boasted the world's leading word processing company (WordPerfect) and the world's leading networking company (Novell). And we still have the world's best web analytics company (<a href="http://www.omniture.com">Omniture</a>) and the world's best online video delivery platform (<a href="http://www.movenetworks.com">Move Networks</a>.) </p> <p>Of course today the world celebrates the launch of another new platform, which might end up being far bigger and more important than the Facebook platform. Apple's iPhone, despite today's launch problems, will be purchased by tens of millions of consumers in the next year and hundreds of millions after that. Back in March, Apple announced the SDK that allows developers to build applications for the iPhone. Tens of thousands of developers were accepted into the official beta developers program. Today, hundreds of applications premiered in the app store. I've downloaded six or seven, including the ridiculous PhoneSaber app, and the silly Light app (turns the iphone into a really lame flashlight), but a few others with some promise. The iPhone is definitely the most amazing consumer device I've ever owned from a design standpoint (although I am more addicted to my Blackberry for its utility and more in love with my Kindle for the fact that it just does books, and I love books.) That it is now a platform for software developers makes it even more amazing.</p> <p>This time I know at least a few Utah based companies that are planning iPhone apps, including one that I think will be wildly successful. And so, once again, I've organized a Facebook group, again with a dumb name: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47482445787">Utah Executives Creating iPhone Apps</a>. We aren't targeted developers only, as much as business people and entrepreneurs who want to take advantage of this new platform. But maybe we <em>should </em>focus on developers, since they are often way more into technology and are sometimes looking for the next new thing. Who knows? Only 10 members have joined this group, but maybe after this blog post we'll get a few dozen members and organize our first get together in the next month.</p> <p>If you are from Utah, and work for a company that ought to have an iPhone app, or after that an app for phones based on Google Android (read this incredible <a href="http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/16-07/ff_android">Wired article about what Google Android is all about</a>) or the <a href="http://www.linux.com/feature/139596">Symbian OS which Nokia recently purchased and announced plans to open source</a> (this is really big news, since <a href="http://www.symbian.com/about/fastfacts/fastfacts.html">Symbian phones still have the most market share</a>, I believe) then join this Facebook group, and help me rally some support for companies to invest in mobile software.</p> <p>I'd love to see some entrepreneurs/developers from Utah coming up with some killer mobile software applications, and then showing up in the <a href="http://www.siliconslopes.com/dealflow_dashboard">Deal Flow report on SiliconSlopes.com</a>, the web site that best covers the Utah high-tech economy.</p> <p>I sometimes miss running the Provo Labs incubator, because with each new platform there are a myriad of opportunities, but then I remember how much I love running <a href="http://www.familylink.com">FamilyLink.com</a>, where we actually get to take advantage of every new platform that makes sense for families (which may exclude Google's new Lively virtual world as well as other virtual world's that have recently been announced) and build applications, widgets, or full-functioning software for these platforms. Our Facebook apps now have 6.8 million users and nearly 150,000 daily active users. And we actually launched on that platform about five months later than we had hoped. (We were really in bootstrap mode back then.) We may be a few months late with our iPhone apps as well, but the opportunity will be so vast in the long run, that it probably won't matter too much.</p> <p>Sign up for the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=47482445787&ref=ts#/group.php?gid=47482445787">Utah iPhone group</a>, and let's get together to brainstorm and fan the flames of excitement about mobile platforms and how Utah companies can participate in where the high-tech economy is heading.</p> </article> <article> <h1>What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Danny Ainge</h1> <p>paulballen — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:48:01 -0700</p> <p>Tuesday night the Boston Celtics won the NBA World<br /> Championship (4-2) by beating the Los Angelels Lakers by 39 points in game six<br /> at Boston Gardens. </p> <p>The Celtics won only 24 games last year, but this year<br /> experienced the single biggest turnabout in NBA history, after <a href="http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1108251/index.htm">Danny Ainge<br /> orchestrated two major trades</a> last summer, bringing Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen<br /> to Boston. </p></p> <p>Danny Ainge is my favorite basketball player/coach/general<br /> manager of all time. While most people will agree with me that Michael Jordan<br /> is the greatest NBA player in history, and it is popular to say, “I want to be<br /> like Mike,” personally, I’d rather be like Danny.</p> <p>Basketball was big at BYU. I started attending games at age 5 when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kre%C5%A1imir_%C4%86osi%C4%87">Kresimir Cosic</a>, the first All-American from a foreign country and Yugoslav Olympic star, filled the stadium. <strong>BYU led the nation in attendance</strong> with 21,818 fans per game back in 1971-72.</p> <p>I was such a fan of Cosic, that my mom wrote this about me in my Book of Remembrance (I should do a blog post on this sometime--it's what my mom did instead of scrapbooking, for each of her 8 kids) when I was six years old:</p> <blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>“You were a<br /> devoted BYU basketball fan, and throughout the basketball season, you followed<br /> every game with diligence. You were especially interested in Kresimir Cosic and<br /> cheered his every move. You wanted to go to every ballgame, and because you<br /> couldn’t, you carried the radio around with you at home, settled down in some<br /> corner, and listened with your ear close to the radio. Whenever someone made a<br /> basket, you cheered and reported it aloud to whoever might be nearby. Your<br /> enthusiasm was something to behold, and the entire family enjoyed your<br /> enjoyment of the sport as much or more than the sport itself.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>“Each<br /> morning as you got out of bed, you raced upstairs to check the ratings of the<br /> BYU team in the sports section of the newspaper. When they achieved 9<sup>th</sup><br /> place standing in the nation, you made as much fuss as if you had won the world<br /> championship yourself. If they dropped a notch or two, you took it as personal<br /> disappointment. One morning as you called to me from the other room with “Where<br /> is BYU” I answered, “in Provo.” You<br /> kept asking me the same question, over and over as though I hadn’t heard you<br /> right. Finally I learned that you meant, “Where do they stand in the national<br /> ratings today?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span>“Your<br /> teacher told me that when she put all the ‘C’ spelling words on the board for<br /> your class, you raised your hand and said, “You left one out, Miss Piquet.” She<br /> checked the list again and said that she thought she had them all. Still you<br /> insisted that she’d forgotten one. Finally she said, “Paul, what word did I<br /> leave off?” Grinning broadly, you replied, “Cosic.” Because she understood you,<br /> she accommodated you by adding Cosic to the list.”</p> </p></blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">I remember that Miss Piquet didn’t actually know how to<br /> spell Cosic, so she asked Mr. Mike, the janitor, and he knew how.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Ainge was the next huge BYU basketball star. According to Wikipedia:</p> <blockquote><p class="MsoNormal">“Ainge played basketball at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Young_University" title="Brigham Young University">Brigham Young University</a> and became a<br /> household name after hitting one of the greatest shots in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA" title="NCAA">NCAA</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Madness" title="March Madness">March<br /> Madness</a> history against Notre Dame in 1981. His coast to coast drive with<br /> only a second remaining gave the Cougars a one point win. Ainge concluded his<br /> senior year by winning the Eastman Award as well as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Wooden_Award" title="John R. Wooden Award">John R. Wooden Award</a>, given to the best<br /> collegiate player in the nation. During his four-year career at BYU, Ainge was<br /> an All-American, a two-time First Team Academic All-American, the WAC Player of<br /> the Year and a four-time All-WAC selection.”</p> </p></blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal">His play against Notre Dame is one of the great moments in<br /> college basketball history. ESPN once rated it the 6<sup>th</sup> best ending<br /> in a college game. During the 1981 Sweet Sixteen against Notre Dame, with just<br /> 9 seconds left in the game, Ainge took an inbounds pass and drove the length of<br /> the court, past all 5 Notre Dame defenders and made a finger roll layup over<br /> outstretched defenders hands with a second left to claim a 51-50 BYU victory<br /> over Notre Dame. You can <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBziG_w7lUs">watch the video of Ainge's drive</a> on YouTube.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">When you are 15 years old, and you get to watch the best<br /> college player in the country almost every week, you grow fond of the guy and<br /> he becomes a hero for life.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I remember consciously imitating how Danny Ainge walked<br /> (slightly turned-in toes), how he wiped dirt off the bottom of his shoes on<br /> the opposite sock, where he stood when the opposing team was shooting foul<br /> shots, how he would save possessions by throwing balls off opposing players<br /> legs when falling out of bounds, his no look and around the back passes, and on<br /> and on. Nearly every good move I had, I learned from watching Ainge.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">As you may know, I was a wanna-be basketball player. (See my<br /> blog post on “<a href="/2008/02/08/53">53</a>”.) I didn’t even make my high school team, but my church team<br /> did win three tournaments my junior year, our stake, region, and area<br /> tournaments. I kept a journal from age 14 including my own basketball stats--I guess I was blending family history and competitiveness even back then. During my senior year in high school, playing church ball, I averaged 28 points per game my senior year, ranking me right up next to <a href="http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/Scoring.jsp?league=00&season=22007&conf=OVERALL&position=0&splitType=9&splitScope=GAME&qualified=N&yearsExp=-1&splitDD=">NBA leading scorers LeBron James and Kobe Bryant</a> this year. :) </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The highest compliment anyone ever paid to me when I played<br /> church ball was when a friend of mine on an opposing team used to call me<br /> “Danny” after I made a great play.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Ainge was an incredibly smart player, and really a player<br /> coach all throughout college. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I also saw him do something once that I’ve never seen any<br /> college or pro player ever do, and I’d love to see a Youtube video of this<br /> sometime. Once while at the foul line, with his team slightly down, before<br /> everyone was really set, he kind of grabbed the ball from the official (they<br /> used to hand you the ball and not throw it to you), threw it off the front rim,<br /> got the rebound, and made a layup. That pretty much blew my mind.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>So, to make a long story short, <a href="http://www.nba.com/celtics/history/Danny_Ainge.html">Ainge went on to play 14 years in the NBA</a>, win 2 rings with the Boston Celtics, and ended his career as one of only three players who had made 1,000 three-pointers.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Following his NBA career, Ainge "<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'">joined TNT as a color analyst for the 1995-96<br /> season before returning to the court with the Phoenix Suns as an Assistant<br /> Coach prior to the 1996-97 season. Just eight games into the season, he was<br /> promoted to Head Coach and guided his club to a 40-34 record after the team<br /> started the season 0-8. He spent the next two-plus seasons as Head Coach of the<br /> Suns and compiled a 136-90 (.602) record before stepping down on </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'">December 13, 1999</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> and returning to TNT as an analyst. In his three-plus<br /> seasons as the Suns coach, he guided </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Phoenix</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> to three playoff berths.” (<a href="http://www.nba.com/celtics/history/Danny_Ainge.html">source: NBA.com</a>)</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">He retired from coaching the Phoenix Suns <a href="http://www.danskeen.com/Downloads/Danny-Ainge.pdf">to spend more time with his family</a>, which is another reason I admire him.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In 2003, the Boston Celtics hired Danny Ainge as Executive Director of Basketball Operations.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Last year was a disaster. Everyone wanted his head. Celtics fans were calling for the owners to get rid of both Ainge and head coach Doc Rivers.The Celtics won only 24 games, 2nd worst in the NBA.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Then Ainge orchestrated the trade of the century. <a href="http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1108251/index.htm">Sports Illustrated has the best article</a> about how he pulled it off.</p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">When I think about Ainge's career, I think about how he went from player to coach to GM.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I think entrepreneurs go through a similar evolution.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">When I was in my 20s, entrepreneurship was about how much work the founders could<br /> do, how many all-nighters we could pull, how hard we could work.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In my 30s, it became more about networking, and discovering how much smarter we could work if we knew the right people and read the right books and attended the right conferences.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">But in my 40s, entrepreneurship for me is about finding the<br /> best people can to be on my team, and then watching them go to work. If I carefully scout for the right investors, the right management team, the right<br /> partners, the right business model, and provide the right motivation and occasional feedback for everyone, then magical things start to happen.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><strong>Business Lessons to Learn from Danny Ainge</strong></p> <ul> <li>It's all about getting the right people</li> <li>Do whatever it takes to get the right people</li> <li>When you get one right person (Ray Allen) it makes it easier to get the next right person (Kevin Garnett.) Like attracts like.</li> <li>To know the right people, it helps to be the right kind of person. Ainge's years as a player at ever level, and as a coach, gives him a feel for the game that is extremely rare and valuable. Be a player first. </li> <li>Don't give up too soon. Before you experience the thrill of victory, you almost always experience the agony of defeat. Most successful companies that I know about almost didn't survive the early years.</li> <li>You can spend more time with your family and still have a successful career</li> </ul> <p class="MsoNormal">Danny Ainge is once again a World Champion, but this time he<br /> didn’t make a single point, or throw a single pass, or play a single minute. He<br /> didn’t even coach his team. He sat on the sidelines watching the players and coaching<br /> staff that he helped assemble satisfy their thirst for a championship, and after the game he was swarmed by Garnett, Allen, and Perkins. Their smiles said it all. "We did it because you brought us together." </p> <p>My top goal at <a href="http://www.familylink.com">FamilyLink.com</a> is to assemble the right people to build a great company. For me that includes getting the right investors, the right management team, the right employees, and the right business partners, and to make sure that our business model fully motivates and compensates everyone on our team. </p> <p>It helped to start with three key engineers who had actually built Ancestry.com and MyFamily.com from the ground up. That was like starting the year with Paul Pierce on board. Working with Cliff Shaw (founder of <a href="http://www.genforum.com">genforum.com</a>, <a href="http://www.gencircles.com">gencircles.com</a> and creator of Family Tree Legends) and his brilliant designer to build our next generation family tree collection engine (coming soon!), is a lot like getting Ray Allen, the purest shooter in the NBA on board. And it might take us six months or a year, but we are working hard to recruit our equivalent of Kevin Garnett. </p> <p>I think Danny Ainge knows now that it's all about getting (and keeping!) the right people on your team.</p> <p>I think Warren Buffett, the world's greatest investor, would agree. He never takes risks on unknown people. When he buys or invests in companies, he almost always leaves the proven management in place.</p> <p>I heard him say at a Berkshire Hathaway investor conference that he saw no reason to take risks on people or business ideas, and had no interest in doing anything early stage, because it involved risk. From what I know about Buffett, he spends the great majority of his time scouting for undervalued good businesses with excellent management teams, and only makes a trade every year or two, a lot like an NBA GM. </p> <p>I heard Jon Huntsman, Sr., one of Utah's billionaires, say at a BYU lecture/dinner that he wouldn't hire anyone directly out of college, but that he waited for them to get 2-3 years of work experience on someone else's dime, and then he would hire them. That is an interesting idea.</p> <p>The main lesson I think entrepreneurs can learn from Danny Ainge is to know who the right people are, and then do what it takes to get them on your team. And then hold on until things gel.</p> <p>The next lesson, of course, is to attend BYU, and send your kids there too.</p> <p>Go Cougars!</p> <p>Go Celtics! </p> </article> <article> <h1>Family History Library Catalog 2.0</h1> <p>paulballen — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:45:22 -0700</p> <p>This morning at a very small press conference in Kansas City at the National Genealogical Society annual conference we made a very large announcement. </p> <p>In fact, we announced something that I have personally hoped for and dreamed of for more than a decade. </p> <p>Today we announced a partnership between FamilySearch and <a href="http://www.familylink.com">FamilyLink.com</a> to publish the Family History Library Catalog -- the largest single database of genealogy sources in the world -- in Web 2.0 fashion.</p> <p>This means that individual genealogists, librarians, archivists, and others from around the world will be able, when the Catalog 2.0 comes online in the coming months, to enhance and extend the value of the catalog. Users will be able to add new sources that are currently in the library catalog, and thus extend its scope of coverage. They will be able to improve the source descriptions, and even rate and review sources as to their usefulness. </p> <p>Whenever a source listed in the catalog has been digitized, and exists somewhere online, there will be links created to the digital version by users or through automation technology that FamilyLink.com will utilize. </p> <p>The catalog lists millions of sources from more than a hundred countries, including more than 2 million rolls of microfilm. <a href="http://genealogy.about.com/library/weekly/aa080700a.htm">About.com genealogy guide Kimberly Powell</a> calls it the "gem of the Family History Library," and "the best resource on the FamilySearch web site." </p> <p>The Genealogical Society of Utah has been microfilming valuable records from all over the world since 1939. The catalog lists all of these films, and organizes them by locality and record type. Some of the records that have been filmed have since been destroyed by war or accident, and so the films become the only surviving copy of the valuable records. And the films themselves are preserved in the famous Granite Mountain Vault.</p> <p>The catalog also lists books, periodicals, maps, and all kinds of other holdings in the world's largest family history library (in Salt Lake City) that would otherwise be unknown and unused. </p> <p>As I said earlier, I have wanted to work with the catalog for more than a decade. I think it is one of the most valuable tools in the world for family history, and I think it can become more accessible and more useful to millions of people worldwide, who don't yet know that it exists or how to best use it. <p>When we founded Ancestry.com in 1996-97, our vision was to digitize the genealogical records in all nations and make them available online. We saw the catalog playing a key role in that vision. </p> <p>I had started a Masters Degree program at BYU in Library Science back in 1990 (although I had to drop out early to focus on my electronic pubishing business.) I have a great respect for libraries and library science. After all, the accessibility to most of the world's information, prior to the internet, came because of the organizational skills and care of libraries and archives around the world.</p> <p>I had also watched as the founders of Yahoo began to turn an online classification system for web sites into a multi-billion dollar company. Until Google came along, Yahoo was the most valuable of all web sites. Why? Because it catalogued all the rest. It could be the starting point for all queries, even before search had been perfected, when browsing was one of the dominant activities on the web.</p> <p>We made several attempts over the years to see if we might be able to license and publish the catalog. But the timing must not have been right. Until Web 2.0 and social networking came on the scene, I'm not sure what value we would have been able to add to it, so our attempts were not successful. <p>But today, I'm overjoyed that my new company, <a href="http://www.familylink.com">FamilyLink.com</a>, will have the privilege of working with this precious asset in partnership with FamilySearch, to develop the next generation version of the catalog, that will become more comprehensive, more open, more accurate, and provide more intelligent, algorithmic guidance to sources for family historians worldwide.</p> <p>Since only a tiny fraction of the known genealogical content in the world is in digital format today, the catalog serves an incredibly valuable purpose, directing researchers to offline sources including microfims that contain the answers they are looking for. (And those microfilms can be accessed from over 4,500 family history centers around the world, for a very small fee.) </p> <p>As more and more sources become transcribed or digitized, the catalog will directly link to the online version, whether they exist on Ancestry.com, WorldVitalRecords.com, FamilySearch.org, Footnote.com, NEHGS.org, or on Google Books, Microsoft Live Books, USGenWeb, WorldGenWeb, or other web sites, saving researchers countless time.</p> <p>The new catalog, which will be available via both <a href="http://www.familylink.com">FamilyLink.com</a> and <a href="http://www.familysearch.org">FamilySearch.org</a> in the future, may become the single best starting point for family history searches, the way Yahoo used to be the best place to find any web site, and may help any researcher quickly see which sources will help the most, and which other researchers have used those sources previously.</p> <p>This project will bring the "wisdom of the crowds" to genealogy in a way that has never been possible before, showing which of the sources for any locality in the world ought to be consulted, and in what order.</p> <p>I want to thank everyone who made this announcement possible, including those who have worked on the catalog for many years to make it the wonderful resource that it already is, and those who have been designing the next version of it, as well as the decision makers at FamilySearch who believe with us in what is possible for this catalog. </p> <p>In addition to what has been described above, how would you like to see the catalog enhanced? What would make it most useful to you personally, or to your institution?</p> <p>As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. </p> <p><a href="http://www.familysearch.org/eng/home/News/frameset_news.asp?PAGE=Press/2008-5-14_Library_Catalog_Upgrade.asp">Official Press Release</a></p> </article> </main></body></html>