I’m proud of my brother-in-law: Jay Jamison is CEO of Moonshoot, a stealthy language education startup funded by Alsop Louie Partners. Jay is also a mentor at TheFunded Founder’s Institute – which follows a similar incubator model to TechStars and Y Combinator – and spoke at a recent event on the subject of ideas and their potential for being big. Jay’s point was effectively this: startups are hugely risky and will consume most of the team’s time, so one checkpoint on the path to launch should be to evaluate whether the idea is “broad in scope and impact, while at the same time being simple to understand as a value proposition.” While this may seem like a simple statement it is one that should resonate with the Front Range community. Brad Feld commented recently that the technology culture of Colorado today traces its roots to an engineering culture born decades ago, and it’s the engineering mindset that still dominates the business perspective (and one reason he loves it here). Yet the engineering mindset is product focused: Could it work -> Can it work -> Watch it work. The market focus of scope, impact, and value often take a backseat to elegance and architecture. Before committing to the next venture that will ransom your other priorities, asking yourself whether or not a sustainable market exists in the event of technical success seems a worthwhile question.
636 Gallons of Gas to Beijing: At 10 mpg, the impressive fuel efficiency achieved by the Hummer H2, it would take 636 gallons of gas to get from Denver to Beijing (if the pesky Pacific would just get out of the way). Reports this week indicate that at least the Hummer Brand is likely headed to China via purchase by Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company. This transfer to the East of the vehicle made famous by the “What Would Satan Drive?” parody is taking on a broader significance to some. The Washington Post posits that China may represent “the New Land of Excess” where the big is better mentality takes over. Some see the move as ironic given China’s past critiques of US consumerism. In addition, although Hummer manufacture will stay in GM’s Louisiana plant at least for now, this event may serve as a reminder that a national perspective on carbon emissions is insufficient at this point given the global contributions of those with a different perspective on “Yes we can.”
