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To: stealthmode@yahoogroups.com
From: "francine hardaway, phd" <francine@...>
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 22:52:35 -0000
Subject: [stealthmode] Davos -- or Kansas City?

This is quite a week for travel. The world's economic leaders are at
Davos, the cinemaphiles are in Park City, the golfers are in Phoenix,
and I am in Kansas City. You may think I'm lost, or at least
misplaced, but I'm where I belong -- in discussions of entrepreneurship.

The world's leaders may be talking about what drives the global
economy, but so am I.

a long wait, the Kauffman Foundation has released the materials for
its program fostering technology entrepreneurship, Fasttrac Tech
Venture. True to form, Stealthmode started offering this program while
it was still in pilot phase, with photocopied materials and
rudimentary preparation. Now I am with a group of other technology
supporters in a group to share best practices and get trained on how
best to deliver these materials and get the most value out of the
national efforts of the Kauffman Foundation. I can't wait to go home
and share what I've learned with the beta testers in our pilot program.

The Foundation has totally re-focused on high growth businesses, and
is trying to foster them at every level. For kids, they have developed
(with Disney) a game called Hot Shot Business
(www.hotshotbusiness.com) that is aimed at introducing young teens to
the joys of the business world. If you can read, you can play this on
line, starting a pet spa or a landscaping business.

For those of us who lack an inner child to play the game with,
Kauffman has launched a new site called EVenturing, collecting
resources for entrepreneurs. And then there's the Angel Capital
Education Foundation (www.angelcapitaleducation.org) to educate
potential angel investors.

But the jewel in the crown is really Fasttrac Tech Venture, the
program that prepares would-be technology entrepreneurs for the
realities of business. For two days, we've been sitting around
discussing how best to deliver to engineers and life science
researchers the realities of starting a company: the chance that you
might part company with your co-founder buddies; the day you wake up
and find out your independent contractor owns your company's
intellectual property; the ramifications of taking outside money from
people whose motives you don't understand.

The coolest thing about the new materials is probably the toolkits -
everything from dilution calculators to 6-year financial projections,
employment agreements, and free access to competitive data and market
research. These documents have been prepared by experts and placed
online where participants in the programs can see and use them during
the course of the program.

Now that this program is generally available, the real test will come:
to what extent can the process for starting and growing tech ventures
be standardized? If Kauffman's programs take the mystery out of
running a business, will they free innovators to concentrate on their
creations or solutions? Will the Foundation's program for tech
companies be as successful as its previous two programs in helping
businesses grow?

On a grander scale, can this program foster American competitiveness,
providing a support system for tech entrepreneurs that replaces the
government support of countries like India and China? Will it raise
the success rate of tech companies?

Not without the full spectrum of other initiatives -- especially those
aimed at instilling the spirit of entrepreneurship in youth and the
ones aimed at capital formation. The Foundation has figured out that
all these pieces work together, creating an environment that both
prepares us for the future and takes our country back to its roots.
Face facts: when the first colonists came to America, there were no
jobs waiting for them. What powered our economy yesterday will have to
power it again tomorrow.

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