Josh Dorrell leads the sales team at IDES – The Plastics Web.  For the past 10 years, he’s worked with Fortune 500 companies to organize and display their technical information online.  Most recently he’s been helping these companies utilize internet-based advertising techniques, including webinars and videos, to generate sales leads.  Based in Laramie, and selling to companies all over the world, Josh has learned a lot about how to get noticed in the modern world of sales and marketing.

Josh is a graduate of the University of Wyoming’s College of Engineering (BSME ’98).  In addition to his work at IDES he is an Assistant Lecturer at UW’s College of Business teaching the Professional Sales and Sales Management course. 

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Our speaker for June has done what many entrepreneurs dream: he cashed in on a business he co-founded over twenty years ago. 

December 11, 2009- Morningstar, Inc. announced on Friday that it would acquire Logical Information Machines, Inc. (LIM) for $51.5 million, subject to post-closing adjustments.

LIM can tell you how much things really cost when your dad was a boy. Founded in 1988, LIM provides software (branded as Market Information Machine, or MIM) that enables users to perform price analysis on historical trading data from energy and financial markets. The company supplies MIM users with data — such as the historical prices of bonds and equities, as well as commodities like oil and metals — from its Historis database; the analyzed data can be used to determine present and future market trends. 

Dr.  Ruben Gamboa, one of the founders of (LIM) and associate professor of computer science at the University of Wyoming and will speak at StartWest - Wednesday, June23rd at the Holiday Inn, Sheridan. 

Dr. Gamboa will present ”An Entrepreneur’s Education from the School of Hard Knocks” based largely on his experiences with LIM and other companies. His presentation is thought provoking, entertaining, funny and all true.  His business started as an idea twenty years ago with a couple of fellow college students and blossomed into a multi-million dollar business.  It has all the classic elements of a great story.  You won’t want to miss this!

Dr. Gamboa has been described as “…one of the most skilled entrepreneurs in Wyoming” and rightfully so.  As one of the founders of LIM he led the development of LIM’s proprietary software which ultimately resulted in it’s recent purchase by Morningstar. 

Don’t miss the chance to hear a true entrepreneurial success story right here in Wyoming.  

You can download a free podcast from the iTunes store or listen to the program online here (but see the usability note below).

Later in the day we found out that Sheridan Media just won a prestigious digital journalism award, a “2010 regional Edward R. Murrow award for best website in small market radio“.  Here’s Sheridan Media’s own coverage on their web site.

(Usability note:  When you open up the Sheridan Media archive page here, landing on the archive to our broadcast, some folks are reporting that the piece starts to air and then cuts out after a minute or two.

The page actually contains two distinct controls for playing the piece.  One is the ‘traditional’ play button - the triangle inside a circle symbol.  On my computer this plays the whole broadcast just fine although, apparently, this is the control that cuts-out for some folks. 

The other way to get the piece to play is to click on the Listen hyperlink which brings up a player widget.  Now, for me, in the browser I use, this widget never even starts playing but I’m told that this control will play the whole piece for some folks who for whom the play button doesn’t work well.  [We have now reached a working definition of the classic programmer’s warning:  YMMV — your mileage may vary.]

I haven’t heard from anyone accessing the podcast who had problems with that version, but you’re either set up to hear podcasts or you aren’t.

There is a reason why usability is the hottest topic in application development and deployment today.  We just aren’t there yet.)

April 21st - Holiday Inn, Sheridan - 5:30 to 7:00 PM - Register Now!

The Inventor’s Puzzle: Deciphering the Business of Product Innovation

Every year billions of dollars are invested in businesses launched to bring new inventions into the market. Unfortunately many of these businesses fail due to the inexperience and poor judgment of their leaders. In his recent book, Mark deciphers the business of product innovation and exposes essential issues that can lead to failure when evolving an invention from concept to market ready product.  The book serves as a how-to guide and a business primer for the myriad of product innovation stakeholders including inventors, entrepreneurs, and investors who are drawn to this dynamic business sector but who might lack first hand experience.  Rather than presenting these issues from a distant academic perspective, The Inventor’s Puzzle is written from Mark’s first-hand experience of trouble shooting real world problems in product innovation businesses. At this month’s e2e meeting in Sheridan Mark will present an overview and brief reading from his new book, and be available to sign copies of the book and to answer questions on the subject of being successful in product innovation business.

Mark Lake is a consummate senior executive, change agent, and entrepreneur for high technology research and product innovation businesses and is considered a visionary in workforce leadership, organizing for innovation, and technology development tactics. He is a prolific researcher, writer, and platform speaker with engaging and humorous personal style and is an expert facilitator providing a wide range of executive consulting services to businesses that are innovating in software, medical devices, alternative-energy systems, and other markets.  While not working, he enjoys life with his wife and two sons in the beautiful Rocky Mountain Front Range of Colorado.

Mike’s presentation was entitled “Top ten things to know to stay in business (how to not screw-up your startup)”.  Many of the things he mentioned are the type of suggestions most of us have heard before but need to be reminded about.  Mike’s casual, confident style kept the presentation from seeming like a lecture and made it feel more like advice from a trusted mentor.  He mixed his thoughts in with real world examples that stimulated lots of questions and discussion.

Here’s Mike’s Top Ten:

1. Your original idea will not work.  Business must be flexible and ready to change when this happens.
2. It will cost 300% more than your best estimate.  Be overly conservative with cash.  Be optimistic with customers and pessimistic with cash flow.
3. It’s the people, stupid. Hire quality people and only quality people.  One “great” person is better than a dozen “good” people.  Always hire people smarter than yourself.
4. Not all money is the same.  Be careful where you raise money and know that there will always be conditions you did not expect.
5. Generate enough cash to pay your bills.  Become really good at managing cash flow and set up your entire business around cash needs.
6. Make a profit.  Profit allows you to stay in business, grow and invest, and keeps peace in your relationships.
7. Either grow or die.  If you are not growing you are dying.  Change and adaptation are critical to growing a business.
8. Most businesses fail from ego or greed.
9. Do it yourself.  No pretty offices and staff.  Learn to do everything you possibly can yourself so that you know everything.
10. Don’t believe the hype.  Your own hype or anyone else’s can be detrimental, look at the facts.

Mike summarized with the point that building a business can be the best time of your life, enjoy it!

Top Ten Things reprinted with permission from Mike Thomas, CEO the Blue Sky Group

Not only am I new to the Wyoming Technology Business Center but I am new to the networking organizations: e2e and StartWest.  I took over for Heidi Peterson when she left in August and this will be my first opportunity to attend a StartWest event.   

It looks to be a great event, too.  We have a speaker lined up (Mike Thomas) who has “been there and done that” to the level that most of us with the entrepreneurial spark only dream of doing. 

I have to admit that I have not even dreamed of doing what he did:  co-founding a company that sold for over 100 million.  That’s a level of success that most of us don’t really get.  Yet he has done that and more including forming  venture capital company and a Lusk, Wyoming beef ranch.  I can’t wait to get some tips from him. 

Jon Benson (CEO of the Wyoming Technology Business Center) always makes me tell a little bit about myself when he introduces me so maybe I should do that here as well. 

I grew up in Western Kansas where my parents were both school teachers.  My Dad had a seemingly limitless flow of ideas for small businesses to do during the summers and I was cheap labor.  I think that’s where my own entrepreneurial spark started -  not far from the tree.  Of course like all children of that decade I rebelled and instead of pursuing a business of my own I did the exact opposite - I joined the military. 

After I got out of the military I went to undergraduate school and got my business degree.  Filled with ideas, excitement and brand new diploma I was quickly hit with a pile of school debt and slumping economy.  I ended up back working for the Federal Government where my military experience and a degree gave me a boost up the pay scale.  I moved to Denver and ignored my business dreams for the next ten years. 

A number of events lined up to allow me to get my graduate degree and jump out of the safety of the government GS pay scale and land in a shooting star company in Laramie.  Aspen Tree software gave me a taste of success.  Huge clients and a bigger than life entrepreneur made my spark turn into a burning desire.  When the company was sold and it was decided we would all have to move to Boulder, I declined. 

I started my own company using relational databases to connect with flash design dynamically.  It’s pretty old hat now but in ‘99 it was cutting edge.  We grew our company from 3 guys with a dream working out of a room the size of closet into 11 employees in two states.  Then came the dot bust and I was asked to move to Dallas.

Really, if Boulder did not make sense for me, Dallas made even less.  My wife and I started our own company providing technology training and assistance for people in their homes.  Unfortunately we did not have the assistance of people like Jon Benson or the technology incubator and we set ourselves up to fail with a debt financed start-up. 

So I got a job. I worked for the University for five years before I found my calling and luckily the people doing the hiring saw the fit. Now I get to help people grow their own businesses every day.  I hear about exciting products in Wyoming and get to be a part of the explosion of new technology and employment growth at it’s very beginning.  

That’s a little about me and our speaker for this coming Wednesday.  Please join us and take the time to look me up. I’d love to hear your story and see if there is some way I can help you achieve your dream. 

Last Monday, I took in the first day of the 3rd Annual Wyoming Business-to-Business Idea Expo put on by the Wyoming Business Council.  The breakfast keynote speech by Tim Gard was a hoot but also full of useful tips for surviving your business and your business travel.  I went to several breakout sessions but the two on using social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in) to help promote your business and on search engine optimization (SEO), both put on by Chris Hansen, were standouts.  The best came last, however, when the regular bimonthly Laramie e2e networking meeting hosted speaker Yoshi Noguchi, of InterBusiness Corporation, who gave an extraordinary overview of cloud computing.

Wednesday through Friday, I was at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.  This event, which is now held annually, had record attendance (1600+) despite many other national conferences having a down year and attracted a star lineup of keynote speakers and panelists:  the head of technology acquisitions for Google, the CTOs of Amazon and Facebook, and many, many other influential technologists.  The conference is primarily aimed at undergraduate and graduate students in Computer Science, CS faculty, and mid- to high-level executives in large high technology companies.  So I was a bit of a fish out of water but, frankly, the Google keynote was worth the price of attendance all by itself.  It gave me some confirmation for a product idea I’ve been chewing on AND a different, probably much easier, approach for how to implement it.

(BTW, for any of you with daughters, nieces, or young female acquaintances currently studying Computer Science or a related field:  One of the main things that goes on at the Hopper conference is interviewing and recruiting for both internships and fulltime jobs.  The economy may be down and competition for jobs may be hot but GHC is a great opportunity for young women to get both inspired and hired.  And a lot of scholarship money is available each year to underwrite attendance for those whose colleges don’t send a delegation.)

On the way back home to Sheridan, which included a 3-hour flight delay in Denver, doled out in 20- and 30-minute units, a diversion to Cheyenne for the medical emergency of one of my fellow travelers, and an approach to the runway through a driving rain/snow storm, I got to apply some of the Tim Gard lessons on keeping your sense of humor when all about you are losing theirs.  I even made a gate attendant in Tucson laugh, which helped me smile the rest of the day as the travel got harder and harder.

ag

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Anne Gunn
ompeag @ wyoming.com