I had to go to Steamboat Springs to discover Euforquestra

Took a boys' trip to Steamboat Springs, CO, our favorite place to ski and ride. Feared it would be overrun by Des Moinesers, and they were everywhere. But big thanks to Dawn and Dylan for turning me on to Euforquestra, now out of Fort Collins, CO, but formerly from Iowa City, IA. Man, did they lay down a funky groove. Hot and steamy on St. Patty's Day Night at the Ghost Ranch Saloon. Miss Kitty doesn't know what she missed.

Startup Weekend Des Moines

I like this shot from the recent Startup Weekend Des Moines, especially with Shane Rieser's caption:  Tom Swartwood or Gordon Gekko?.  A little greed is good.  Thanks to @Jensenrf for the snap.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nesnej/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

A great pitch

A student asked me what I meant by "succinct" when describing a good pitch. I responded "short & sweet." Like this:


The little boy says simply "It will not break." Short & sweet, eh? Thanks to BoingBoing again

For age is opportunity no less...

I tell all my students that they must consider opportunities to serve older generations. Marc Agronin, a geriatric psychiatrist, has a great piece in today's NY Times. He admonishes us to avoid a youthful myopic view of aging and to remember that wisdom and meaning come only with age. He sums up with this excerpt from Longfellow:

For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades
away
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.

Our older friends and family have so much to offer; anyone considering a new venture would do well to remember Longfellow's words.

Color me convinced

I sat in on a BizTactical session this morning, hosted by Doug Mitchell at Iowa EntreFest. Doug invited Adam Steen, 25 Connections (and Adam finally has a good intro for his own sales and marketing biz)and me to meet with Cathy Bormann to discuss her new business, Homestyles Staging and Redesign. Doug "broadcast" our session via UStream, a very cool live-streaming service. Cathy is impressive; I like here poise and her business. We gave her some very good advice; I'll be surprised if we don't hear a lot more about her as she grows her business. Also, UStream is an example of a critical piece of what I call the omni-media puzzle. That is, entrepreneurs must be willing and able to present their stories across media platforms; they must be agnostic as to media. More on this later, check out the video below; listen, laugh, learn.