My most recent experience pre-Ivey was a website which I launched as an online business. This experience was my first venture; it carried risk in the sense that I abandoned the security of paychecks, but little commitment in terms of life savings and assets. A quote I heard the other day, “An entrepreneur is someone who has mortgaged his house…at least twice” – was probably meant to pass off as a joke, but from listening to the accounts of those bearing the lifestyle, it does seem to carry a weight of truth. In that respect, I find it hard to claim myself as an entrepreneur, but the concept surely excites me. And while this aspiration lay dormant for the last six months, the last two weeks have given new breath to this age-old idea. I owe this shift in focus to the following conferences: the 2nd Annual Ivey Venture Forum held in Toronto and Cyberposium 15 organized by Harvard University.
The Ivey Venture Forum was a day-long event for entrepreneurs seeking stage-A and stage-B funding. The crowd consisted of mainly Ivey alumni who were there to represent their new business as well as the counter-party of personal investors and VC firms. Eight companies were selected to present their product/service along with the funding requirements and the available equity ownership. The presenters had 15 minutes to showcase their product and convince the audience of the market potential, management capabilities, consumer foresight, and due diligence. Most were successful; some lacked research. For me, it was an eye-opener just to be in the environment where such exchanges were taking place. Perhaps this will enlighten me to avoid the same pitfalls by stressing the significance of preparation. That 15-minute spotlight was a window of opportunity. Many entrepreneurs will get no more than a minute. And if that moment fails to earn respect and credibility, then the novelty of the product itself simply does not matter.
Cyberposium 15 is the largest business technology conference of North America. The program was organized with two guest speakers, Jim Balsillie, CEO of RIM, and Chad Hurley, the CEO/co-founder of YouTube. Mr Balsillie provided insight into why hardware is en route to being commoditized while application services would continue to dominate the value-add chain. Chad Hurley talked about the problems in monetizing YouTube and how video over the internet or mobile phones would grow to shape our future and social activities. Beyond the speakers, the program held 16 panels that covered a wide range of technological issues including the following: cloud computing, commoditization of search, cleantech/greentech, and future trends in online advertising. The caliber of the panels was truly exceptional with most being Harvard alumni, but ranging in age and experience from the recent graduates with insight into startups to those having held public offices at the federal level. The panelists were selected to capture different viewpoints so controversial issues would be well represented, and thus it was as much a discussion amongst themselves as it was with us. We coordinated efforts to tackle the definition of an entrepreneur, but we were quick to see that this fight would not end.
Experienced veterans claim that you are not an entrepreneur until you have failed, which sounds rather bleak. Some say it depends on how you were raised and your outlook on life; others claim the skills are trained and thus treat it more like a sport. The more you hang around this issue, the more you realize that everyone carries their own definition. But maybe that in itself is the sign of an entrepreneur: the need to define him/herself as a unique individual, with unique skills, talents, and capabilities – to prove that they alone are in control of their appearance to the rest of the world.
Sunil has an entrepreneurial background through establishing http://www.mynexth.com/, a service that provides unique recommendations based on prior experiences. Prior to this, Sunil worked in the Silicon Valley as a chip design engineer for Marvell Semiconductors within the Bluetooth division. He assumed this role after earning his Bachelors in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo. Time to time, Sunil is a sports enthusiast involved in basketball, soccer and marathon runs; he exhibits a passion for writing and carries the dream of publishing a novel.