Startup Weekend Oakland: The Richest Educational Experience. Ever.

I was there.  From 6pm on Friday, January 13, 2017 to 8pm on Sunday, January 15, 2017 at the Kapor Center for Social Impact in Oakland, CA I saw students stretch and accomplish things I did not think possible. 

  

I was leading a group of 19 students from Elon University as part of our Winter Term Course called Innovation in America.  The previous two years, I led similar groups and our main activities were engaging companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook and attending startup events.  

But this year was different.  Startup Weekend is a 50 hour event where a diverse group of ~100 programmers, designers, marketers, and other business professionals gather to tackle problems.  On Friday night, all participants are invited to take one minute to pitch an idea they would like to work on throughout the weekend.   Then participants vote on the best ideas and ~12 teams are formed to tackle the problem for the rest of the weekend.  Here's why 

• Physically Challenging - It’s really difficult to teach drive, passion, and grit.  But the high expectations of Startup Weekend helped students understand that it takes extreme amounts of energy and focus to tackle big problems.  Between Friday night and Sunday night some students slept only 10 hours and worked as a team for 30+ hours.  While I don’t recommend this sleep pattern, for this specific occasion it was inspiring to see teams laser focused on a goal.  I doubt any of the students had worked this many hours in a so short a time.
• Surrounded by Experts – All day on Saturday, top experts around Silicon Valley walked around the venue talking to teams about their projects.  Picture a Data Scientist from LinkedIn who had launched her own startup around calendaring helping a team on their project that ironically enough happened to be focused on calendar integration functionality with Artificial Intelligence. 
• Difficult Teammates – You’ve seen reality TV shows where participants are so stressed out and upset that they quit and walk away, never to return.  This happened at Startup Weekend and it’s a great experience for students to be in stressful situations.  Then there are those difficult teammates who don’t walk away but are disparaging to their teammates.  Another great opportunity for students to stand up for their ideas and be forced to articulate why they believe a certain action is needed. 
• Focus on Emerging Technologies – Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Artificial Intelligence were the focus and each team created a prototype using one of those technologies. 
  
• Expectation to Create - Teams were working against the clock.  They were expected to make a pitch to a panel of investors on Sunday at 5pm.  This meant some students quickly refined their prototyping skills in able to build a prototype to demo.
• Educational Content - I've been to other Startup Weekends and this particular one was better because the organizers brought in top experts in the fields of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Artificial Intelligence.  Imagine taking a one hour class from a top Artificial Intelligence expert who did PostDoc work at Google.  All day on Saturday, participants could take a number of classes that would help them in their project.    

Students Should Create....Chatbots

When I brought home our Google Home Personal Assistant, I was pretty excited to see how our children used it.  I felt like we walked back in time as if we were a family who had just purchased a state of the art radio.

Perhaps you have visited a website lately and a chat window automatically popped up that said, "How can I help you?"  It's likely that the person behind that is not a person at all but a "chatbot."

Whether it be via messaging or voice recognition with Google Home, chatbots are changing the way we interact with the web, shop, listen to music, workout, acquire knowledge, etc.  Some even believe that chatbots will replace website because young people are so wired to text, snapchat, message, etc.

The beauty is that companies like Motion.ai have create web based tools that empower all of us to create web based chatbots with easy drag and drop menus.  There's a small learning curve but nothing students can't figure out in a hour or so.

Why should they build these?  Instead of Artificial Intelligence replacing their jobs, how about we empower students with the skills to build Artificial Intelligence?

All "Jean Valjeans" of the Triangle, Please Step Forward

This morning I was reading about a glorious time when an entire people were prosperous.  How we can begin to get to such a place here in the Triangle region of North Carolina?   It's a tall order, but why not shoot for it?

There was a similar people in the book Les Miserables.   How did they get to this point?  It was the work of one man, Jean Valjean.  It was said of him:

"He makes the entire region prosperous. There is no pocket so obscure that it didn’t have a little money in it. No dwelling so low that there wasn’t a little joy within it.

Father Madellan made his fortune but a singular thing and a simple man of business did not seem as though that was his chief care. He seemed to thinking much of others, and little of himself."

So who's willing?  Are you that Jean Valjean for the Triangle?  By the way, we can have more than one in our area.  No need to sign up.  Just get to work.

How to Get a Job: Attempt to Launch Something

Last week I was in my office when a gentleman whom I did not know appeared in my doorway.  He was not there to see me but was knocking on the door of my colleague who's office is across the hall.  I introduced myself and he turned out to be an Elon Alumni coming back to campus for Homecoming.  He works for marketing company, so I invited him to come chat with my Marketing class which was starting later that day.

One takeaway.  As Peter was interviewing for the position the interviewer said, "If you were going to launch a new product, what would it be?"  Peter responded, "Actually I'm working on building an app right now."  The interviewer was very impressed with that and eventually offered him a job. 

Fast forward.  That app idea didn't work out but going through that process shows companies that you are innovative and driven.  Now Peter is doing well at his company.

Pete Rose: A Model for Entrepreneurs

No, I'm not talking about gambling.

From http://reds.enquirer.com/

This is about his records as the all-time Major League leader in hits (4,256) and at-bats (14,053).  You see where this is going.  Mr. Rose stepped up the plate more than any other player. 

What does this mean for me and you?  If you are like me and slightly above average intelligence (though not from Lake Wobegon), then we have to win via hard work and persistence.  You, with your average batting average, have to step up the plate again and again.

Yes, there are outlier entrepreneurs who seem to step up and hit home runs every time they are at the plate.  Don't let that distort the reality that 99.9% of the entrepreneurs learn by striking out again and again.

I suggest that we all can follow Pete's example as a grinder who showed up more than everyone else.  

Any Major As Long As It's Computer Science

"Any color as long as it's black" was Henry Ford's strategy.  When the time is right to share career advice with my 3 children I will say, "Any major as long as it's computer science."  I won't push them, but will definitely show them the benefits.

Every field needs computer scientists.  You want to go into agriculture, health care, education, art, whatever, they all need  wizards with superpowers. Plus you don't have to program your whole life and the base knowledge will enable you to speak with the wizards.  If fact, I will outline benefits in double majoring in Computer Science and whatever interests them.    

I was recently chatting with the Dean at a highly ranked business school and he said, "If I hear someone say 'Do What You Love' one more time, I'm going to punch them."  Yes, you can enjoy your work.  But the career management process must be aligned with real world demand.

Majoring in computer science could be your path to solving the problems in the world that keep you up at night. 

The Odds Are Always in Our Favor

While I'm not a huge Hunger Games fan, I did see it twice at the theaters in less than a week.  Once with my Dad during our Thanksgiving trip and once on a romantic date with Angie to Southpoint.

"Control" is lesson we must learn as parents, people managers at work, and church leaders.  No one likes to be coersed and I continually learn this lesson as a father when I choose to physically pick up my kids and force them to brush their teeth or whatever task we need to do at the time.  It's a short term fix and taking time to teach them to fish is the better choice.  As Peeta said, "...our lives aren't just measured in years. The measure in our lives are the people we touch around us."     

Coersion is not the way of the Lord.  Obviously there's a stark contrast between President Snow in the Capital and the way our Our Father in Heaven operates.  Here on earth we have agency to choose and God's hand is continually "stretched out still" (Isaiah 9) when we need him.

With the help of heaven, the odds are always in our favor.

"We teach computer science here..."

Lately I've been involved in discussions with educational leaders about the upcoming 1,000,000 jobs gap in computer science careers.

Why we have this gap became clearer on Friday.  I was visiting a high school and asked a teacher if they taught computer science classes in the high school.  He said, "Yes, we teach computer science here.  Mr. Smith he teaches Microsoft Word.  Mrs. Lee she teaches Excel."

We need your help.  This is a boots on the ground effort with Superintendents, Principals, Counselors, CTE coordinators, and Parents all getting pumped to produce more students with "SuperPowers." 

If you are involved in a high school in any way, will you watch the video above starring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, Will.i.am, and Chris Bosh and bring up the discussion with your school administrators?

Why Education?

It's taken me 15 years to realize my professional purpose in life is to solve problems in education.  Why education?  This quote about Jean Valjean from Les Miserables sums it up best.  It's about providing

sustainability for people.  May we all play a role in this great cause.

"He makes the entire region prosperous. There is no pocket so obscure that it didn’t have a little money in it. No dwelling so low that there wasn’t a little joy within it.

Father Madellan made his fortune but a singular thing and a simple man of business did not seem as though that was his chief care. He seemed to thinking much of others, and little of himself."

Minor (don't Major) in Entrepreneurship

You know I'm all about student entrepreneurship.  It takes a very rare breed to start a company as a student or recent grad.  Today I was at lunch with my new Elon colleagues and Sean McMahon stated his opinion that students should major in engineering (or some other practical field) and minor in entrepreneurship.

Why did I do a business major as an undergrad then go get an MBA?  Should have done engineering then MBA if needed.  Actually scratch the MBA.  Use that money for runway to start a company and learn more.

Someone convince me since I'll be consulting my kids with that advice.


 

Email: An Emotional Roller Coaster

We've all done it and it must stop.  Constantly checking our email on a smartphone will be the death of us.  Don't we have anything better to do?  Seriously, we know better.  We know how to be productive.

We just checked it 5 minutes ago and there was nothing.  Why do it again?

Here's why we must stop the madness:

Each email we receive causes some type of good or bad emotion.  I've received encouraging and discouraging work emails when I was at home with the family that affected my mood.  So email is basically controlling our emotional life and we must take back control.

So what do we do instead of check out emails constantly?  Anything.  Memorize a poem or scripture or song.  Meditate.  Have a book handy.  I'm about the finish Outliers and have really enjoyed it.  

Ideas Come From....

The WSJ ran a piece yesterday called "How to Come Up with a Great Idea."  My favorite was....

You Can't Rush the Brain

I don't know where great ideas come from. I am not sure anyone does. I am not even sure how I come up with my ideas. The brain does its thing, and out pops an idea.

While you are waiting for the brain to get its act together, do what you can do. Do the doable. Meet with people, schmooze, have a laugh or two. Build mock-ups and prototypes. At the very least, collect other people's problems. That's always a guaranteed doable.

The deep idea here is that action has a creative aspect distinct from thinking. And thinking need not come first. Mostly it doesn't.

Saras D. Sarasvathy 

Isidore Horween research associate professor of business administration, University of Virginia's Darden School of Business

Students Must Lead on Campus

I've spent the last year working in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Duke (specifically helping InCube) and have finally realized that students that must lead entrepreneurship efforts.

As hard as we administrators attempt to lead efforts, they usually fall flat if students are not at the helm.  Just like Brad Feld explains in his Startup Communities book, we as "feeders" need to understand our place in the world and not attempt to drive the bus.

So what should university administrators be doing?  In the startup world, entrepreneurs would say "feeders" (CED, Government, Chamber of Commerce, etc) should simply buy the beer and get out of the way.

Translation for the university:  Buy the pizza and get out of the way of student leaders.

If we DO, we will LEARN

Recently my church made an amazing change to the way we teach our youth (see Come Follow Me) by encouraging our young people to do most of their learning during the week (scripture study, choosing good friends, Family Home Evening) and then encouraging them to share what they learned when they get to church on Sunday.  I'm so excited to have my 3 little ones to learn this way.

This principle resonated this morning as I was studying John 7:17, "If any will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."  Learning by doing has always been the secret formula.  

Two examples from the secular world:

1.  I love playing and watching basketball.  Just imagine if all your learning in basketball came in a classroom.  Then you were expected to go out a play a big game with no practice time on the court.

2.  Teaching entrepreneurship has become a passion and too often high schools and universities spend the majority of their time in the classroom.  For example, to grow entrepreneurial thinking on a college campus we can't simply hire an army of academics to teach more classes.  Hackathons, competitions, pro-bono projects, and independent studies are how students will learn.

More Dan Kimbergs & less Scott Kellys

I'm 36 years old and would not trade my experiences for anything.  I do however want my children to take a different path than I did.  I want them to align their passions, profit, and purpose faster than I did.  When I was choosing a career in college I believe I remember someone saying, "Go into computers because you can get a job there."  So I did and thought I reached my goal when I began a career at IBM.  The dream was short lived as I spent many hours in a factory type environment where I basically reviewed online forms all day to see if all the blanks were filled in.

Now I've finally realized that I'm going to solve education problems after 15 years of wandering in the wilderness.  Now I believe I can help my children get to this point faster through things like Gap Years, Missionary Service, Military Service, Time Away From School, etc.  I see many young people itching to go to college and hurry to get out so they can begin their career.  My advice to them, "Slow Down!"  Your investment in a gap year or year off will deliver at least 10x returns since the ability to change careers is sometimes difficult once you start that investment banking job right out of Duke.

Where does Dan Kimberg fit in here?  For those of you who don't know him, he's an amazing guy who created StudentU right out of college (or a short time after college).  His time floundering to find his alignment of purpose, passions, and profits seems to have been short.  (By the way, one definition of profits is the ability to earn a decent living since I know he is not paying himself big bucks.)  Unlinke, my 15 year journey of pivoting to find my purpose, Dan immediately began his mission after college.

Let us all challenge the traditional 16 year plan (12 years of elementary, middle, high school + 4 years of college) and better understand that we have not reached our end goal if we simply focus on graduating more individuals from college.

Generative Generation

Yesterday two things happened that inspired this post.  First I met with my good friend and startup soulmate Carl Nordgren, also know as the Creative Populist.  By the way, if you haven't supported his Kickstarter Campaign yet, now is the time.  As we, the community, support visionaries like Carl, our young people will be armed with the tools they need.  Second, I watched "What Most Schools Don't Teach" which every parent should watch.
In our meeting Carl used the word "generative."  I've heard the word before but not in the context of how young people should be thinking about their future.  Plus, get this:  Generative comes from a root word also meaning "generous."  The short message:  Our youth must be generating or producing or creating or adding value or growing something to be fulfilled and to enjoy life.  In this process, hopefully their generosity will be the added X factor to the formula for success.

Why A Gap?

While some may figure out what they will do while they are in high school and college, I am finally figuring out what problems I will solve in the world.  Most young people simply don't understand the options for careers until they've been in the world for some time.  However, there are ways to decrease the time it takes to figure it out.  

In learning to counsel my own 3 children in the career decision process, I've read books such as Creating Innovators, spent many hours with Duke students and high school students, and spoken with other parents and education leaders.  One decision I've made is to high encourage my children to pursue a Gap Year.  

Here's why:

• Better Choice of Majors - Why did I choose information systems as a major?  I think someone told me I could get a job there and I wanted a job when I graduated.  If young people spend a year in the world before college, they will make a more educated decision on their major.  
• Higher Probability of Right Career - Imagine reaching the peak of the mountain and realizing you just climbed the wrong mountain.  This reminds me of a conversation I had with an attorney that was switching careers.  I think he would agree that he wishes he would have spent more time investigating the details of the mountains before he reached the peak of the wrong one.
• Be Student Leader as a 1st Year - Recently I spent time with several 1st year students at Duke and I was so impressed with what they had experienced even before college.  Experiences such as harvesting plants to make fuel and building water filters in Cambodia.  These will be the leaders at Duke in a couple years.
• Get More Out of Classes - A lot of grad schools require students to have work experience before they come mainly so they can both add to the class discussions and get better handle on the material presented.  What would happen if a student who had worked a year in marketing then went to school and sat in a marketing class?  

There are many Gap Programs that are valuable.  Here's one I am launching in the Fall:  Startup High GAP Program.  

How did Richard Brodhead become President Brodhead?

This morning was my first opportunity to chat with Richard Brodhead (President of Duke University) when we ran into each other at the StudentU breakfast.  We only had a few minutes together, but I came away with a feeling that this man cares deeply about students and that he has learned how to handle people.

As the President of Duke you deal with 14,000 students, 3,000 professors, 8,000 staff, and many more thousands of alumni who donate generously to make the university work.  Despite all those, he quickly asked me a very specific question about one InCube student, Fabio Berger, who took a year off to pursue a startup.  Here's our exchange:

• President Brodhead:  Did that guy Fabio ever come back (to Duke)?  
• Me:  Yes, he did.  
• President Brodhead:  I didn't think he would (smiling).  
• Me:  It's great, because he is now the grey haired guy that students go to for advice on their startups.

This exchange resonated since I am reading How to Win Friends and Influence People and one of the chapter focuses on remembering names.  Obviously President Brodhead has excelled in the academic world but most would agree that his success (and ours) comes from the ability to work with people.

Ecosystems Create People, Not Companies

When I first started at InCube, our success metrics were how many companies we create and how much revenue those companies produce.  The more companies and more money, the louder we could blow our horn (with data).  Donald could have been our spokesman.

Now that I've been at Duke a few months, I beginning to finalize a path the entrepreneurial minded student might take.  Recently it dawned on me that our ecosystem is not about creating companies.  It's about creating "entrepreneurial mind people that will solve the world's problems."

Incorporating Self Education in Traditional Education

At Duke University, I spend time with top quality students who are attempting to launch their own ventures, many of which are technology based and require complicated programming.  Did they learn these programming skills in their classes?  Not usually.  Some simple web searches can result in many educational aids to turn you into a programmer just like these students.

If you think this trend is only at the high ed level, consider this exchange I had at my daughter's elementary school.  It was Wax Museum day and I was asking "James Madison" a question.

Me:  "How did James Madison affect our world for good?"

3rd Grader:  "I'll need to go search that on the internet."  

What to do?
Spend more time exposing young people to the real world of career options including entrepreneurship.  When the young people are exposed to something of interest they will latch on and educate themselves.  Plus the skill of acquiring new knowledge on their own will serve them as the skills they need will be outdated soon after they graduate.