“…a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a profitable business model.” -Steve Blank, Teaching Entrepreneurship-Logistics

Emphasis on the “temporary.” A lot of people like to say they’re interested in startups (just look at a lot of twitter profiles, you’ll see), but that seems ridiculous to me. Startups have their charms, but most of the fun seems to be had by those running profitable, sustainable companies. That’s what I’m interested in and the sooner we can get Pocket Tales there the better.

It’s like when people say they love puppies. I wonder if they hate when their puppies become mature dogs. Puppies make a ton of mess and are mostly a chore. No. I’d much rather have a fully trained dog.

I feel lucky to be interested in something that isn’t so fleeting. Puppy lovers are just setting themselves up for heartbreak.

The problem is, it’s hard to find a fully trained dog suited to you and your personality and that’s true of companies too. It be near impossible for me to get hired as the CEO of a profitable consumer web application that is as much aligned with my interests and skill set as Pocket Tales (or let’s be honest, the CEO of any promising web application, aligned or not).

So I put up with the startup mess, and even learn to appreciate its charms, because one day it will be a fully trained (i.e. “profitable) company. I’ll probably even miss how in the “startup” days it was easy to change direction or how quickly we could make big decisions.

Profitable companies, like fully trained dogs, just aren’t as easy to teach new tricks.

2pockettales:

Actual Slides from our pitch at the 2010 SXSW Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator Competition

BRILLIANT! talk by Jesse Schell on the future of the world (okay, technically it’s the future of game design but everyone creating anything ever should watch this)

This video came from this GigaOM post Video: Reality TV, the iPhone & the Future of Technology — Why It’s All a Game

There are certain world changing innovations that few if any people could have predicted. A lot of web 2.0 fits into this category - Twitter for example. I think even Facebook’s influence was a huge surprise as was blogging.

On the other hand, there are inevitable world changing innovations that almost everyone could have guessed would be successful. I’ve always said the dominance of ebooks is inevitable. I think the iPhone was an obvious idea just hard to execute.

Another inevitable idea I think few people are talking about is wireless electricity.

I think wireless electricity will be as big if not a bigger trend than battery technology, which seems to be on everyone’s “hot” list. (People talk about batteries the way they used to talk about plastics) People are working on this, and the technology is getting ever closer to being put to use.

Take a moment and really imagine a world of wireless power. Get past the joy of not having to plug in your cell phone, and think about bigger things that require power.

Take your car for instance.

People are pretty skeptical about electric cars. Yeah, we all talk about how cool they are, but most of us don’t consider ever owning one. Recharging your car just seems impractical.

But what if instead of recharging a battery, your car is actually powered by electricity that comes from towers built alongside the road? Hell, if Verizon can make almost the entire U.S. map red with cell phone coverage (my apologies to AT&T and Luke Wilson), certainly we can get full wireless electricity coverage in major cities?

What if airplanes were powered by electricity from solar-powered satellites? How cheap could we make it to fly from San Francisco to New York?

Okay, that last one is REALLY far-fetched, but that’s the point. I can’t begin to guess how wires and heavy batteries are currently standing in the way of some major innovations, and how breaking free from these wires will open the flood gates.

If I was in any way connected to technology around wireless electricity, I would work 24/7 to commercialize it. The possibilities are endless and about as much of a sure thing as you’re going to get in revolutionary technologies.

As the article says, for young founders and Silicon Valley elite the board game “Settlers of Catan” is the new golf.

The primary purpose of this blog is to record for prosperity the experience of starting my first company. I’m a forgetful and nostalgic person. I expect to search this blog constantly for my own advice, for quotes of inspiration, and for links to useful resources. Also, many years from now, I expect to read these posts and laugh at how much and how little has changed.

The secondary purpose of this blog is to inform and connect other early stage entrepreneurs in Indianapolis, IN. There are no shortage of people telling me that Indiana is not the place to start an emerging technology/ low-cost internet company. There is little to no capital here for pre-revenue companies and similarly, its harder to find developers and other professionals desiring to work for a startup.

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