Dot.Com to Dot.Bomb

My professor gave us a lecture about the recent period of time where technological businesses had both flourished and depleted, which he called “the Dot.com to Dot.Bomb” period. It was a technology revolution of the 90’s up to today where the world started to change and adapt to the potential of technology. The five stages of this time period for a business were an innocent beginning of said business, then the sudden boom when the business takes off, the insanity where money is flowing from everywhere fast enough to swim in a room full of cash, then the bust where that same money suddenly makes the company go bankrupt either by theft or loss of costumers or even just competition stomping all over the company, and finally the “crawl back to sanity” where the business attempts to recover. I’ve already seen him do this same lecture before in his virtual world class, but I still loved relearning this because he used dinosaurs to accurately model specific technology companies that had once prospered at one point during this technology revolution and how they were taken out by stronger competition. The visual aid of having dinosaurs represent those companies really helped me understand the idea of the technology revolution and put an image to the companies they were supposed to represent.

Elevator Pitches

We did elevator pitches in my entrepreneurship class and it was a terrifying experience for me. I have major stage fright and often blank out when I have to do any sort of presentation in my classes. If I don’t let the fear get to me I do pretty well, but it’s the feeling of waiting for your turn to come and planning on what to say that sometimes feels like torture. I thought it was cool how my professor discussed his own horrible experience with stage fright and how that’s helped him become better at speaking to an entire audience. When some of the other students went up it was obvious they were nervous, anxious, or even scared of what they’re supposed to do. My professor joked a little to ease their discomfort, which I wish all my other teachers would do so that I don’t feel as anxious to talk in front of the class. It was a fun experience overall though, very beneficial. We got a chance to listen to everyone else’s ideas which was nice. I’m also glad my teacher let me at least wear my sunglasses too.  Yeah, it was embarrassing at first, but I’ve been having problems with my eyesight and the sunglasses have been helping me out. There were some students who did pretty well and others who looked like they really wanted to get it over with. But I think it was good practice for everyone, especially if they plan to really continue with their business.

Jim Kastam

Jim Kastam was a very interesting guy. Among all the guest speakers we have had in my entrepreneurship class, he’s been my favorite. He was full of class and comedic humor. He told us a story about taking a ride in one of his friend’s Lamborghini which I absolutely loved. I myself love Lamborghinis, and am slightly jealous he has one too but that’s ok, if I win the lottery or something I might get one too (fingers crossed). The way he described his Lamborghini friend was pretty interesting too, like how he said that “everything he describe has curves”. If I was a married guy I wouldn’t want my wife near a rich man like that either. Jim was really into politics and socializing with people, which I think is very important for a businessman. He does start up weekends and has joined a bio-digest company in India, both because the idea of the company was cool and he had always wanted to visit India. The opportunity to go also was great for his contacts and networking, and he emphasized a lot on how important it is for a business person to expand their contact base as well as continue to keep in touch with people they have already worked with. I thought it was also interesting how he used to be a politician as well. I never thought of some politicians also being into the business world, so that was very enlightening for me.

Graham Evans

Graham Evans is working alongside a non-profit human trafficking coalition. He came to our entrepreneurship class to talk to us about the issues of human trafficking in today’s society, specifically how it’s growing in undeveloped countries or any country that is male dominated. Human trafficking is when young girls and teens are kidnapped, abducted, or sold into the sex trade and are drugged and forced to sell sex for the benefit of their owners. Sometimes, if one of these sex trade victims get pregnant, the owners cheer because this means if it’s a baby girl she’s another person they can use to increase business and if it’s a baby boy they can use him as a slave. I’ve actually read a book call “Half the Sky” that specifically discussed human trafficking, its concerns, and certain groups, like Evans’, that are trying to stop human trafficking. I was shocked when he asked the class, “Why do you think these girls are in the sex trade in the first place?” and the students commented that the girls were into drugs or into sex or were brought up in a bad way. But that’s the complete opposite of what’s really going on there. We may be use to things like that, but over there people are virgins until after they’re married. It’s a completely different world there. I thought the exercise we did in class really brought us together as a group and helped us understand what our business plans should be about.

John Dimmer

John Dimmer came in to my entrepreneurship class as a guest speaker. He and my professor have a long history together, being that they both started up Free Range Media together. But before that, he got a degree in finances and, although he wanted to run his own company, he didn’t feel ready to do so and instead he got a job at the Puget Sound Bank. He didn’t like the seniority there though, so after two years he left and joined the Sherty Bound work force instead, which was a mix of commercial lending and insurance. When he was finally ready to start his own company, John didn’t know what to start so he went into winery and insurance agencies for some good ideas. While he was searching for some inspiring idea for his own company, his cousin, Dave Spool, had already done a business called SPRY, which sold “internet in a box”. He asked John to be a beta tester for him. John agreed, and loved the idea of the internet and saw so much potential in it. That’s when my professor came in from Microsoft and said he’d always wanted to do something with multi-media, they discussed it and that’s when they started Free Range Media. John retired at the age of 30, but was so bored with his life because he had all this free time in the world but all his other friends were still out working and couldn’t golf with him or anything. I thought that was pretty interesting, because it shows how there’s good things about being successful at a young age and also bad things about it.

Amy Sallin

Amy Sallin came in and talked to us about her background in the world of business. She’s spoke specifically to us about a business plan competition that’s mainly open for college students. This winter, the competition theme is environmentally based, and although it’s a little too late for us to enter our business plans into the competition now. The competition has like seven criterias. Of those who turned in their business plan, about one third move on past the online round, considered the screening round where the judges read the actual business plan online. After the online round, there’s an investment round where the contestants pitch their idea at their own booth. Sixteen of those competitors are then accepted into the what’s called the “sweet 16” round, which is the last round before the final  round, like a semi round before the final round, where you do your last presentation about your promotional environmental business idea. Only four are chosen to continue into the the finale. In the finale, one is chosen to win twenty-five thousand dollars to start up their business, one wins ten thousand dollars, and the last two win five thousand all to start their own companies. It’s pretty great for aspiring entrepreneurs who have always wanted to start their own business. Her talk was very close to what we were doing with our own business plans, which was pretty cool.

Erik Hanberg

I got a chance to listen to Erik Hanberg be a guest speaker again, but this time it was in my entrepreneurship class. The first time I saw him, he talked about publishing on the web and what sorts of things you can publish on the web. He also made reference to the dangers of the web, like how once you publish on the web you lose all hope of keeping your existence private in the global society as well as a little about Identity theft. This time when he came in he focused more on the business aspects of his life, specifically his books. I was amazed that his mysteries seemed to be the most popular and his fictions were not as fan favored, which personally a love fictions just as much as I love mysteries. He talked a lot about his experience with businesses, my professor also commented after Erik left how he had tried to open up a production thing but it ended in failure. All successful businessmen must go through losses in order to succeed. I was also impressed by Erik’s ability to write a range of different genre books online, because most writers can just write one genre or at least specialize in one genre. It’s kind of cool how he experiments with different things to see what the public likes, which is pretty similar to the mind of a businessman. They need to adapt to the public’s likes and dislikes in order to know what works and what doesn’t.