SuiteMatch appears to have launched a marketplace for shared office space in New York City. NYC startups could surely use just such a service! Currently, users can list spaces for free as well as search the listings for free. There are 22 listings with prices from the $500’s-$5,000 per month. SuiteMatch is a great service, but the trick will be whether or not they can spread awareness of their brand and website to the point that folks outside of other startups will create listings. Also — this is New York City. Unless there is some barter going on, even a low price per month is likely too high for most cash-poor startups. While there isn’t much info available on the company via Google, it appears that one of the founders is Barry Mazza of Always Water, a NYC-based design studio.
From the website:
When an individual or company with extra offices, unused workspace or empty cubicles rents or subleases to another individual or company, we call it shared workspace. Think of it as an office within an office.
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“We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great _ a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight….I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the startups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.”
People say you can tell a lot about someone’s character based on how they handle defeat. I have been faced with a number of rejections lately and figured I’d post on some of the types of responses available. Since the majority of the rejections I’ve received have taken place over email, the focus of this post is in responding via email. Ultimately I think some response is better than no response.
Say Nothing:
Sometimes you think this an impressive response indicating that things are going so well, you’re too busy to even bother.
Sometimes you mean for the other person to go f*** off. Make sure you realize that this is the most likely interpretation.
Say Something (Positive):
A curt, but gracious reply. Leave the door open to some future relationship potential
Some people will use the opportunity for a last minute grab: pointing out a miscalculation, a likely oversight or otherwise providing new information. You’re indirectly asking for re-consideration
Say Something (Negative):
Passive aggressive sarcasm is something I have had used on me often. The goal here is an indirect insult making sure that persons gets the last word in. Ugh
Directly insult or otherwise harshly criticize the person, or the process. This never benefits you down the road
Say A Lot:
Write a mini-essay on why you believe that a poor decision was ultimately arrived but make clear you are accepting the decision
Write a mini essay essentially begging for reconsideration. Rehash the process, provide clear evidence and ask for some specific next action
Which do you do? Which do you prefer if you’re a frequent rejecter?
The following are some welcoming remarks I gave the incoming MBA class at the Carey Business School of Johns Hopkins University this past weekend [Saturday, August 23rd, 2008].
My name is Sam Huleatt and I graduated with an MBA in finance only a few months ago.
I am really delighted to give this year’s Alumni welcome to the incoming class because my experience at Hopkins is one that has already had a profound impact on my life and I love opportunities where I can express how well I fee my degree has prepared me to achieve goals both in my professional and personal life. It’s also an exciting time to be an alumnus and student as the school continues to undergo significant changes.
First of all — congratulations on your acceptance!
Second, the reality of graduate school is probably starting to sink in for many of you. Some of you may find yourselves wondering exactly what challenges lie ahead. For example, many of you are working full-time, others are balancing family life and school, and still others are frightened by the fact that you need to remember back to high-school calculus…definitely scary!
Reflecting back, I believe a graduate degree is really about accepting a challenge; a challenge issued by both the school and a personal challenge you issue yourself.
During my time at the Carey Business School, there were numerous faculty members that challenged me in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. Whether it was being asked to represent the school on the Hopkins Alumni Council, organizing a venture capital conference, showing up on a Saturday for some extra help, or writing a strategic marketing plan for a major IT company, the challenges laid before me were substantial, often difficult and always and rewarding.
Often these challenges required me to think outside-the-box and to make sacrifices in my personal life — make no mistake about it, finals will require many all-nighters and missed weekends. It’s all worth it! The reason I was able to get as much out of my time at Carey Business School as I did was because I chose to view challenges as opportunities.
Seeking out a professor’s advice, taking the initiative to start a study group or designing your own course — these are actions that lead to opportunities you wouldn’t know existed if you had never made the initial effort. You’ll have opportunities to attend various professional development and networking events and I encourage you to attend. The more you engage in the community the more you will get out of your experience.
As you begin to develop a career strategy, as you look for jobs or internships, make sure to take advantage of the tools available to you. For example, you can use inCircle to seek out alumni like myself, and others in the greater JHU community. Or do something different: start your own venture. Don’t feel limited by conventions.
Your time at Hopkins is what you choose to make of it, and never forget that the title of “student” is a key to ulock many doors of opportunity. You’d be surprised how many busy and important people will gladly set aside time to speak with an eager MBA student. One of my favorite people often says: “It’s never a lack of resources that limit you, it’s only a lack of resourcefulness.” Make sure you get everything out of your education that you want to.
Again, congratulations! On behalf of the school and all the alumni, we wish you all great success during your time at the Carey Business School. Remember alumni are here to support you.
The following is a guest post, submitted by John from MeetingWave. John is competing to win a free ticket to the Web 2.0 Expo in New York and he’s passionate about the need to reform healthcare. Enjoy.
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In order to save our healthcare system, we need big compromises from everyone.
First, trial lawyers need to accept tort reform. I recall the NYT times editorial this past year that asserted that trial costs are “less than 5% of health care costs” - First, that’s a really big number. Second, I think they ignored the cost of settlements, spiraling malpractice insurance and defensive medicine.
Second, insurance companies need to reduce administration costs and play more fair with patients. I heard you can get a masters degree in how to fill out insurance forms. Ever see all the different forms at a doc’s office? Give insurance companies one year to come up with a single form for doctors to use. I’d recommend a single payment system (doctors only interface with one form/system) rather then a single payor system. Moreover, we need better regulations regarding how and when they deny coverage. For example, if it’s a preexisting condition issue, let my current insurance battle it out with my prior insurer, not me. I shouldn’t need a trial lawyer to get the coverage I paid for.
Also, we’ll need rock solid regulations regarding privacy to avoid people becoming uninsurable based on unauthorized release private medical info- this is a growing concern with electronic records and companies who will screen your genes by mail (check out http://www.23andme.com). We want to encourage people to get such tests to allow any preventative measures so we should ensure obtaining such information is not penalized.
Third, customers should have co-pays and incentives to take care of themselves. No one should have an “all you can eat” buffet-style healthcare. Consumer’s should be rewarded with take preventive measures (go to routine check-ups) and penalized (higher co-payments) when they don’t. We shouldn’t penalize people for who they are (bad genes), but rather how they act (bad habits).
Forth, doctors/health, they need to implement current information technologies. (FastCompany had an article several months ago outlining some of the major IT innovations in healthcare- it’s finally starting to happen - Welcome to the 90’s healthcare.)
On another note relating to the government being able to negotiate drug prices, we need to think through the impact this will have on innovation. That is, if the gov’t negotiates prices with pharmaceutical companies it will have enormous bargaining power, decrease the profit margins pharma can make and impact R&D efforts. If we move in that direction, I think could be an opportunity to better focus pharma’s R&D. For example, give them better bargaining (e.g., a “safe harbor” where the gov’t cannot use its bargaining power) for breakthrough drugs (e.g., cancer, aids, Alzheimer’s), but not for the many “me too” products they currently focus their R&D efforts to develop. Do we really need another Viagra or H-2 antagonist? There’s a guy at Harvard who wrote a great article about how big pharma doesn’t do beneficial R&D (I think it was in the NY Times).
I think we should give private health care a fighting chance. However, what’s described above are just some of the changes needed to make is work.
This week I’ve been corresponding a bit with Eric Norlin, one of the creators of Defrag. For those unfamiliar, Defrag is really the thinking man/woman’s conference assembling some of the brightest minds in technology in a non-valley setting (Denver, Colorado).
“solely on the tools and technologies that are leveraging the “social” aspect of software to accelerate the “aha” moment.”
Speaking of aha moments…
Eric is located in South Florida and has been hunkering down in preparation for Hurricane Fay. Earlier today Eric tweeted a request for thoughts on a link between Fay and Defrag. Seeing Eric’s question I responded, suggesting that the conference donate a percentage of revenue from tickets sold to the cleanup effort. Voila! Defrag announced it will be donating 25% of ticket sales this week to a Fay relief fund. Awesome and generous.
Just another example of the power of flow apps to act as a platform for collective action.
I know my blogging has been a bit inconsistent this summer and for that I apologize. I’m hoping to get back on track starting now!
The awesome folks at TechWeb and O’Reilly Media are letting me attend Web 2.0 New York (September 16-19th) and have also offered two TOTALLTY FREE tickets to give away for readers of LeveragingIdeas! For anyone who has never attended an O’Reilly conference they are THE events for anyone in the web 2.0/startup space. It’s an amazing opportunity to listen to some of the most thought-provoking leaders in the technology space — and to network with web 2.0 Illuminati, investors and startups. Tickets are normally $1300 — so believe me, this offer is a big deal.
I’ve decided the most equitable way to give away the tickets is by asking interested readers to support two causes that I’m truly passionate about:
Ticket One:
I launched StartupTweet.com last week and have gotten a tremendous response. However, there is still a ton of great content out there on the web that needs to find its way onto the site. Therefore, over the next two weeks, the person who contributes the most (in terms of total, quality posts) to StartupTweet will win one ticket. Remember, the more content posted, the more we can empower each other to be better informed. [Contest officially ends September 1st at 12pm.]
Ticket Two:
I have been having a strange health issue this summer and it’s more personal than I care to get into. However it has highlighted the dismal state of healthcare/health insurance in this country for those who cannot afford it. I’m looking for guest posts inspired or written by visionary thinkers willing to suggest solutions (technology-based, or otherwise) to this dire issue. The best guest post will win the second ticket. [Last day to submit a post is August 31st. ]
Entrepreneurship is extremely difficult. The road is paved with ambiguities, ups and downs and strained relationships. But there is one certainty – the entrepreneurs with a superior psychology are the ones who ultimately triumph. Paul Graham has an amazing essay on fundraising he published this month. It’s a must read. Paul gets at this very notion.
Unlike say, pro basketball, entrepreneurship doesn’t discriminate based on things outside an individual’s control like speed, size or sheer athletic ability. Certain people have more connections and more access to capital. However, even then, that advantaged person needs the right mentality to capitalize on those advantages. While such people are fortunate, they can only stay ahead of the curve for so long. There is such a high correlation between mindset and success that an entrepreneur with a superior psychology can catchup — any lack of advantage can be overcome rapidly.
I hope to refine my thinking on this topic and post some concrete examples or tactics useful in maintaining a positive and superior psychology.
Thoughts on early stage investing, the internet and entrepreneurial culture told from the perspective of a startup founder. Read by the smartest people on the web since 2006... more
