Last weekend Katie and I took a quick trip to Paris to keep up the annual tradition of seeing Jimmy Buffett there. This time our experience was enhanced by some family and friends! My mom was there already as part of a longer trip and two of our good friends managed to time their business trips such that we overlapped - the more, the merrier!
We arrived Friday late morning and immediately met up with a Parisian colleague of mine for lunch. Francois and I met a couple of years ago through the Cleantech Open and CleanWeb circles, both of which he was leading in France. It just goes to show you how global the network is of entrepreneurs trying to use innovative capitalism to create a better life for all! In addition to catching up with Francois on a personal level (Somehow that is just easier over a fine French meal than it is over Skype!), I was also pleased to learn that he recently launched his latest venture, techUforward.
Our late lunch didn't leave much time before Buffett's first concert so we hustled over to Sacré-Cœur, where we met my mom and my favorite wingman. It was a glorious autumn day in Paris - clear skies and warm weather - so where better to "tailgate" than perched along the Sacré-Cœur hill? There were many other people out there as well, just soaking in what could be the last great weather of the year.
We opened some cheese and wine and played some Buffett on our phones to get ready for the show. Incidentally, we actually brought the wine (two left bank Bordeaux) from our cellar in the US. Bringing French wine to France is kind of like bringing sand to the beach, but we figured this way we could spend less time procuring fantastic wine and more time enjoying it! We weren't 100% sure that we were allowed to pop open wine in public in Paris and we even had a bit of a scare as a stern-looking woman made her way toward us. It turns out, however, that she wasn't looking to tell us off about our wine - rather, she was hoping to borrow our wine opener (which we had also brought from the US just to leave nothing to chance)!
As we continued to enjoy our Buffett pre-party, another Parrothead who was walking by recognized us and joined in the fun. I had met him last year and it was fun to see a familiar face. I believe this was the sixth year I came to Paris for the show and many other attendees were repeat comers as well - it's a fun little community of Parrotheads Parisiens!
Buffett's show was very nice. This first night it was all seated, including down on the floor where we were. Of course we were standing most of the night but it was nice to have a seat on which to leave our stuff while we were dancing about. As always, it was basically one big sing-along. Afterward we met up with some others for a few drinks but called it a [relatively] early night. After all, we would need our strength for his second concert on Saturday!
Showing posts with label Cleantech Open. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cleantech Open. Show all posts
2014-10-05
2011-11-27
CleanTech Open Finals
Last week I traveled to San Jose, CA for the finals of the CleanTech Open, for which Smart Office Energy Solutions had been selected as a finalist from the South Central region. I and 20 other finalists from the seven regions arrived in San Jose on Monday to begin two exhausting days of competition.
Each finalist was a startup company that has raised less than $1M and that is working on problems that make the world more sustainable. There were five categories of competitors: energy efficiency, smart power, green building, air/waste/water, and renewable energy. Smart OES could have competed in any of the first three categories but ultimately energy efficiency seemed to be most appropriate for us.
Each category had four or five competitors. Over the course of two days, each competitor presented a 15-minute business plan presentation followed by 15 minutes of Q&A from 20+ judges representing the category, the venture capital community, the science/development community, and the government/policy community. Competitors were scored based on their portenital for impact, likelihood of success, sustainability, and presentation quality. After all competitors presented, the winner of each category would then present again and a global winnner would be announced.
I came into the finals with several goals: 1. Win the global competition 2. Win the energy efficiency category 3. Tell a convincing story about product differentiation and competitive barriers (the perceived lack of which had always been our greatest criticism). Of course, those were the goals on which my competitive side focused. Much more meaningful for us, though, was using the competition as a means to connect with influential people, partners, and investors in the cleantech ecosystem - so that was our primary objective.
Tuesday morning featured an investor speed dating event that connected us with five VCs for seven-minute one-on-one discussions. This event by itself was worth the price of admission and I applaud the CleanTech Open for their success in putting it together.
Our scored presentation wasn't until Wednesday morning, so I spent much of Tuesday manning our booth. Interested potential investors, employees, and journalists stopped by all day to hear about what we were up to and to see our prototype products in action. It was really energizing to see how many people were keen to know what was going on on the frontiers of cleantech. I also left the booth unmanned a few times to go support some of the other entrepreneurs as they were presenting in other categories.
Tuesday afternoon I was called up to the main stage for a 3-minute product demo, which received some "oohs and ahhs" as I unveiled some of the behavior-influencing features of our product. My product demo especially caught the attention of one audience member, Jon, a friend of mine from college! He came up to me afterward and it was such a joy to see him there. As I've blogged about before, I'm an extrovert and I love having people "on my team." Having Jon there supporting me lifted my spirits and really gave me a boost going into Wednesday.
Wednesday morning I was joined by another team member, an investor of ours (also named Jon) who lives in the Bay area. Having two Jons cheering me on from the audience, I knew I couldn't be beaten. Add to that my SHOP undershirt and cuff links from my wife as additional talismans and I was ready to go - armored up and ready for battle!
I gave my full presentation and it went very well. I nailed the presentation portion and I believe I had good, previously anticipated answers to the Q&A portion. I received many compliments on the presentation, including one piece of feedback that it was as good as a presentation could get. Additionally, I didn't receive a single question from the judges about product differentiation or competitive barriers. Goal #3: check!
Unfortunately I didn't not achieve Goal #2, which meant that Goal #1 was out of the question. A company called Indow Windows won the energy efficiency category with a cool drop-in product to turn single pane windows into double pane windows. Clearly I was disappointed in the result and I will hope to get some good feedback from the judges. I'm told it was very close and I am still honored to have been chosen among the top energy efficiency startups in the country.
The Jons and I stayed to watch the final five presentations, attend the award ceremony, and then the gala dinner afterward. Throughout the evening it became abundantly clear that we were achieving our primary goal; I was able to line up meeting after meeting after meeting with potential investors for Thursday and Friday, while I would still be in town! This certainly softened the blow of the competition loss!
Looking back on the CleanTech Open experience, I'm really glad we participated. It took a very non-trivial amount of time and money, but it really helped us connect throughout the cleantech ecosystem - which is not very present in Houston. We received some great exposure, met some great people, and - of course - had a great time! I would recommend it for other early-stage cleantech startups and I'll hope to give back a little next year as a mentor.
Each finalist was a startup company that has raised less than $1M and that is working on problems that make the world more sustainable. There were five categories of competitors: energy efficiency, smart power, green building, air/waste/water, and renewable energy. Smart OES could have competed in any of the first three categories but ultimately energy efficiency seemed to be most appropriate for us.
Each category had four or five competitors. Over the course of two days, each competitor presented a 15-minute business plan presentation followed by 15 minutes of Q&A from 20+ judges representing the category, the venture capital community, the science/development community, and the government/policy community. Competitors were scored based on their portenital for impact, likelihood of success, sustainability, and presentation quality. After all competitors presented, the winner of each category would then present again and a global winnner would be announced.
I came into the finals with several goals: 1. Win the global competition 2. Win the energy efficiency category 3. Tell a convincing story about product differentiation and competitive barriers (the perceived lack of which had always been our greatest criticism). Of course, those were the goals on which my competitive side focused. Much more meaningful for us, though, was using the competition as a means to connect with influential people, partners, and investors in the cleantech ecosystem - so that was our primary objective.
Tuesday morning featured an investor speed dating event that connected us with five VCs for seven-minute one-on-one discussions. This event by itself was worth the price of admission and I applaud the CleanTech Open for their success in putting it together.
Our scored presentation wasn't until Wednesday morning, so I spent much of Tuesday manning our booth. Interested potential investors, employees, and journalists stopped by all day to hear about what we were up to and to see our prototype products in action. It was really energizing to see how many people were keen to know what was going on on the frontiers of cleantech. I also left the booth unmanned a few times to go support some of the other entrepreneurs as they were presenting in other categories.
Tuesday afternoon I was called up to the main stage for a 3-minute product demo, which received some "oohs and ahhs" as I unveiled some of the behavior-influencing features of our product. My product demo especially caught the attention of one audience member, Jon, a friend of mine from college! He came up to me afterward and it was such a joy to see him there. As I've blogged about before, I'm an extrovert and I love having people "on my team." Having Jon there supporting me lifted my spirits and really gave me a boost going into Wednesday.
Wednesday morning I was joined by another team member, an investor of ours (also named Jon) who lives in the Bay area. Having two Jons cheering me on from the audience, I knew I couldn't be beaten. Add to that my SHOP undershirt and cuff links from my wife as additional talismans and I was ready to go - armored up and ready for battle!
I gave my full presentation and it went very well. I nailed the presentation portion and I believe I had good, previously anticipated answers to the Q&A portion. I received many compliments on the presentation, including one piece of feedback that it was as good as a presentation could get. Additionally, I didn't receive a single question from the judges about product differentiation or competitive barriers. Goal #3: check!
Unfortunately I didn't not achieve Goal #2, which meant that Goal #1 was out of the question. A company called Indow Windows won the energy efficiency category with a cool drop-in product to turn single pane windows into double pane windows. Clearly I was disappointed in the result and I will hope to get some good feedback from the judges. I'm told it was very close and I am still honored to have been chosen among the top energy efficiency startups in the country.
The Jons and I stayed to watch the final five presentations, attend the award ceremony, and then the gala dinner afterward. Throughout the evening it became abundantly clear that we were achieving our primary goal; I was able to line up meeting after meeting after meeting with potential investors for Thursday and Friday, while I would still be in town! This certainly softened the blow of the competition loss!
Looking back on the CleanTech Open experience, I'm really glad we participated. It took a very non-trivial amount of time and money, but it really helped us connect throughout the cleantech ecosystem - which is not very present in Houston. We received some great exposure, met some great people, and - of course - had a great time! I would recommend it for other early-stage cleantech startups and I'll hope to give back a little next year as a mentor.
2011-10-09
Successes and Failures
It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks. For some time I have been intensely focused on the CleanTech Open, a nation-wide contest of startups that are working on the challenges of energy, water, and buildings. We were honored to have been selected as semifinalists for the South Central Region back in May. Finally in late September we competed against the other regional semifinalists at the Clean Energy Venture Summit in Austin. Each company presented a 10-minute pitch and answered questions for 5 minutes from a panel of VC judges.
Long story short: Smart Office Energy Solutions placed third. Anyone who knows how competitive I am will realize that anything short of first place will come as a sore disappointment to me. Still, third place is enough (barely!) to advance to the national finals in San Jose, so I am pleased that we will have another shot. Between now and then we will be focused on addressing the areas of our business and our presentation that prevented us from taking home the gold. Hopefully we'll perform better on the national stage in November!
In a similar vein, last week I returned to Third Coast Training to do another metabolic profile. The good news: my resting metabolic rate has increased by more than 200 calories per day! I attribute this to moving from a calorie restrictive diet to one in which I'm eating plenty - just better foods. Also, my aerobic and anaerobic threshold heart rates have moved up, meaning that I am running faster and at higher intensities with lower levels of effort. This is the result of my running training and other anaerobic fitness conditioning.
The bad news: just as I did last time, I quit the running test too early. I felt like I was completely tapped out but, based on the level of lactate in my bloodstream, I probably could have kept going for another several minutes at greater speeds. This comes as a shock to someone who has typically regarded himself as having a high tolerance for pain. I've spent most of my life in short bursts of intensity, though, so now I need to work on sustaining such levels of discomfort for longer durations.
So in both my professional and personal life I am both achieving successes and enduring failures. Clearly my goal is to learn from the failures to increase the magnitude and frequency of the successes. This can be a somewhat frustrating experience, but it sure helps having "secure bases," people who love and support me no matter what, all around.
Long story short: Smart Office Energy Solutions placed third. Anyone who knows how competitive I am will realize that anything short of first place will come as a sore disappointment to me. Still, third place is enough (barely!) to advance to the national finals in San Jose, so I am pleased that we will have another shot. Between now and then we will be focused on addressing the areas of our business and our presentation that prevented us from taking home the gold. Hopefully we'll perform better on the national stage in November!
In a similar vein, last week I returned to Third Coast Training to do another metabolic profile. The good news: my resting metabolic rate has increased by more than 200 calories per day! I attribute this to moving from a calorie restrictive diet to one in which I'm eating plenty - just better foods. Also, my aerobic and anaerobic threshold heart rates have moved up, meaning that I am running faster and at higher intensities with lower levels of effort. This is the result of my running training and other anaerobic fitness conditioning.
The bad news: just as I did last time, I quit the running test too early. I felt like I was completely tapped out but, based on the level of lactate in my bloodstream, I probably could have kept going for another several minutes at greater speeds. This comes as a shock to someone who has typically regarded himself as having a high tolerance for pain. I've spent most of my life in short bursts of intensity, though, so now I need to work on sustaining such levels of discomfort for longer durations.
So in both my professional and personal life I am both achieving successes and enduring failures. Clearly my goal is to learn from the failures to increase the magnitude and frequency of the successes. This can be a somewhat frustrating experience, but it sure helps having "secure bases," people who love and support me no matter what, all around.
2011-07-18
CleanTech Open National Academy
I've just returned from the National Academy of the Cleantech Open, for which Smart Office Energy Solutions was selected as a Regional Semifinalist, in San Jose, CA. The Academy was a four-day affair of workshops and networking for Cleantech entrepreneurs who had made it into the semi-finals. The jury is still out on whether competing in the Cleantech Open will be worth it, but following are my thoughts so far.
When we were notified of our selection as semifinalists, I was honored of course but I was also skeptical. Attendance at the National Academy was required and the costs were steep. It costs $1,000 to attend. Add airfare, hotel, and other expenses and the total out of pocket is easily up to $2,500+. The greatest expense is time, though, an entrepreneur's most precious resource - what else could I have been doing for the company during these four days? I am immediately leery of organizations that purport to help entrepreneurs yet sap them of precious time and money early on. Perhaps the Cleantech Open is actually more of a scam, swindling entrepreneurs by feeding their vanity.
However, if indeed the competition could deliver on its promises of helping cleantech entrepreneurs advance their companies, raise capital, find clients, and increase profile, it could easily be worth it. I decided to take a risk on it because of two people involved. One is a cleantech private equity fund manager in Boston whose opinion I respect. The other is someone with whom I have worked before in Austin and who is now the Cleantech Open's coordinator for its new South Central region.
Having now attended the four-day Academy, I still have mixed opinions. To start, the event was somewhat disorganized. This wasn't a deal killer but they may have outgrown their ability to run a mostly volunteer organization.
Additionally the "academics" were very basic. The classes on market analyis, financing, IP, etc. were probably extremely beneficial to first-time entrepreneurs or tech people with little business experience but for me they were mostly repitition. I am not by any means claiming that I know everything and I fully appreciate the need to get the 150 semifinalist teams all on the same page. However, if we were hoping to learn something new for our $2,500++, then we were disappointed.
That said, they did line up some amazing speakers, including Randy Komisar (author of The Monk and the Riddle, required reading at IMD), Geoffrey Moore (author of Crossing the Chasm, required reading at Poken), and Steve Blank (author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany, required reading at Smart OES!), as well as several prominent VCs and entrepreneurs. So in this regard, the Academy totally delivered.
The main benefit we were seeking on this trip was networking. Houston doesn't have much of a Cleantech community. Austin has more of one, but still it is clear that the epicenter of Cleantech in the US is the San Francisco Bay area. Therefore I was hoping to meet a slew of great conacts in the Cleantech ecosystem - entrepreneurs, sources of capital, business partners, potential customers, etc. Here again, the event really delivered.
Moreover, I now feel like part of the Cleantech Open community, which I think will be beneficial in the long run. As we undergo the next four months of workshops, events, and judging, I believe we will continue to build this "bond" with the organization that will transcend the value even of winning if we are so able.
Finally there should be PR value to participating in the competition - and especially if we continue to advance. PR for us as a company, for me as an individual, and even for our region, state, and city - which are not known as Cleantech hubs.
So there are known costs and unknown benefits - just like everything else in the startup world! I am looking forwad to the experience, though, and I will post my thoughts as it progresses.
While I was in the Bay area I had a great chance to catch up with other friends and colleagues. Wednesday evening I had dinner with the cofounder of my first two startups. he just finished his MS in computer science at Stanford and is now ready to take on the world again. Friday night I met up with former Rice computer science classmates who are now at Google. One of them is intimately involved in the Google+ rollout so I had a receptive audience to my fanboyness. Saturday I had lunch with a high school classmate who is now a Silicon Valley VC and that evening I had dinner with an IMD alum who is sharing time between San Francisco and Brussels.
There is never enough time to see everyone while I'm in town but each such meetup is a real pleasure. Social networking tools make staying connected much easier than it used to be but there is still no substitute for spending time with people in person!
When we were notified of our selection as semifinalists, I was honored of course but I was also skeptical. Attendance at the National Academy was required and the costs were steep. It costs $1,000 to attend. Add airfare, hotel, and other expenses and the total out of pocket is easily up to $2,500+. The greatest expense is time, though, an entrepreneur's most precious resource - what else could I have been doing for the company during these four days? I am immediately leery of organizations that purport to help entrepreneurs yet sap them of precious time and money early on. Perhaps the Cleantech Open is actually more of a scam, swindling entrepreneurs by feeding their vanity.
However, if indeed the competition could deliver on its promises of helping cleantech entrepreneurs advance their companies, raise capital, find clients, and increase profile, it could easily be worth it. I decided to take a risk on it because of two people involved. One is a cleantech private equity fund manager in Boston whose opinion I respect. The other is someone with whom I have worked before in Austin and who is now the Cleantech Open's coordinator for its new South Central region.
Having now attended the four-day Academy, I still have mixed opinions. To start, the event was somewhat disorganized. This wasn't a deal killer but they may have outgrown their ability to run a mostly volunteer organization.
Additionally the "academics" were very basic. The classes on market analyis, financing, IP, etc. were probably extremely beneficial to first-time entrepreneurs or tech people with little business experience but for me they were mostly repitition. I am not by any means claiming that I know everything and I fully appreciate the need to get the 150 semifinalist teams all on the same page. However, if we were hoping to learn something new for our $2,500++, then we were disappointed.
That said, they did line up some amazing speakers, including Randy Komisar (author of The Monk and the Riddle, required reading at IMD), Geoffrey Moore (author of Crossing the Chasm, required reading at Poken), and Steve Blank (author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany, required reading at Smart OES!), as well as several prominent VCs and entrepreneurs. So in this regard, the Academy totally delivered.
The main benefit we were seeking on this trip was networking. Houston doesn't have much of a Cleantech community. Austin has more of one, but still it is clear that the epicenter of Cleantech in the US is the San Francisco Bay area. Therefore I was hoping to meet a slew of great conacts in the Cleantech ecosystem - entrepreneurs, sources of capital, business partners, potential customers, etc. Here again, the event really delivered.
Moreover, I now feel like part of the Cleantech Open community, which I think will be beneficial in the long run. As we undergo the next four months of workshops, events, and judging, I believe we will continue to build this "bond" with the organization that will transcend the value even of winning if we are so able.
Finally there should be PR value to participating in the competition - and especially if we continue to advance. PR for us as a company, for me as an individual, and even for our region, state, and city - which are not known as Cleantech hubs.
So there are known costs and unknown benefits - just like everything else in the startup world! I am looking forwad to the experience, though, and I will post my thoughts as it progresses.
While I was in the Bay area I had a great chance to catch up with other friends and colleagues. Wednesday evening I had dinner with the cofounder of my first two startups. he just finished his MS in computer science at Stanford and is now ready to take on the world again. Friday night I met up with former Rice computer science classmates who are now at Google. One of them is intimately involved in the Google+ rollout so I had a receptive audience to my fanboyness. Saturday I had lunch with a high school classmate who is now a Silicon Valley VC and that evening I had dinner with an IMD alum who is sharing time between San Francisco and Brussels.
There is never enough time to see everyone while I'm in town but each such meetup is a real pleasure. Social networking tools make staying connected much easier than it used to be but there is still no substitute for spending time with people in person!
2011-06-19
Winning
Last week was a great week that brought many accomplishments both professionally and personally. First off, I am pleased to announce that Smart Office Energy Solutions closed its second round of funding! While our first round comprised mostly smaller investors with whom I already had a personal relationship, this second, larger round was made up of more professional investors - both as individuals and as companies. Once again it is an honor to have had such faith placed on our shoulders and once again we will do everything within our power to ensure an overwhelmingly positive outcome.
And now, with this round closed, we've wasted no time in launching fundraising efforts for our next, much larger round. I pitched to two VCs last week and have already had very positive feedback/interest from one. As I have expressed before, fundraising is new for me and it is easy to become frustrated with the time and attention it takes. However, each of these small successes re-energizes me and keeps us moving forward.
Another piece of good news came in last week when we were selected as semi-finalists for the Cleantech Open, a prestigious nation-wide contest between cleantech startups. It is an honor to have been selected among such talented companies and we will work hard in the next round to live up to the "hype."
Finally, business meetings took me to Dallas toward the end of the week so I used the opportunity to squeeze in some time at The SHOP while I was there. I will detail that experience in a subsequent post but suffice to say that the incredibly intense workouts were exactly what I was seeking.
It was a great week so now I'm working on making this one even better!
And now, with this round closed, we've wasted no time in launching fundraising efforts for our next, much larger round. I pitched to two VCs last week and have already had very positive feedback/interest from one. As I have expressed before, fundraising is new for me and it is easy to become frustrated with the time and attention it takes. However, each of these small successes re-energizes me and keeps us moving forward.
Another piece of good news came in last week when we were selected as semi-finalists for the Cleantech Open, a prestigious nation-wide contest between cleantech startups. It is an honor to have been selected among such talented companies and we will work hard in the next round to live up to the "hype."
Finally, business meetings took me to Dallas toward the end of the week so I used the opportunity to squeeze in some time at The SHOP while I was there. I will detail that experience in a subsequent post but suffice to say that the incredibly intense workouts were exactly what I was seeking.
It was a great week so now I'm working on making this one even better!
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