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Thursday, 18 September 2008
Monday, 08 September 2008
The Social Capital Investment Strategy
(Tomado de FastCompany.com, entrevista de Kermit Pattison.)
Fast Interview: Tech observer and former VC Eric Litman, who recently founded Medialets, an ad delivery platform for native mobile applications, discusses why a million friends can be more valuable than a million bucks.
Can't get that VC firm to return your calls? Don't despair! Startups can increasingly scale up by taking advantage of another type of capital -- social capital. Litman, a prominent entrepreneur, says it's easier than ever to leverage relationships into business success, and you have to spend social capital before you can profit from it. In fact, such networking helped him launch his new company in six weeks.
Why is social capital so valuable?
The one thing I've consistently seen entrepreneurs do that has significant measurable impact on everything they do -- more than any other factor -- is manage their relationships and manage their social capital. Folks that do that really well are bound to find some measure of success in some area of their life. It may not be the course they set initially, but there's invariably some positive that comes from it. So I've made it point throughout my own endeavors to continue to find ways to improve my own ability to manage and maintain relationships and to learn from others.
More importantly, to maximize the value that one gets from a relationship, one has to give a great deal. I spend a fair amount of my time making introductions, providing referrals, providing connections and generally engaging with the breadth of the community to benefit the business and personal lives of others. It's like an investment strategy: the more social capital that you spend, the more your network appreciates and the more social capital you ultimately have to spend in future endeavors.
Why is social capital becoming more of an alternative to traditional venture capital?
It has everything to do with the power of the communications networks at our disposal today -- the instantaneous nature of communications, the lack of barriers between people at different levels of career and industry, and the ease and rapidity with which messages can spread. I can go into the office in the morning, determine some new business or personal need and, almost invariably, within a matter of hours be directly connected to someone at the top of whatever related field and have a dialogue about how I'm going to solve that business need. I'm an enormous believer in the power of all the online social tools. And I use every one of them. On any given day, I find myself in utter amazement at just how transformative these tools have been to my business and personal life.
How do you leverage friends into a business that makes money?
Last week, I made a decision that I wanted to form five new significant relationships in the marketing and communications world. I sent out a message on Twitter -- I have 800 plus followers on Twitter. I received somewhere around 40 responses. I have significantly overstepped the goal and have some fabulous new relationships that are turning into business opportunities.
The odds of getting funding through the traditional VC route aren't great, are they?
It's a fairly grim picture. Depending on the year and economic conditions, there are somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 venture capital professionals available to service deals in the USA. The opportunities for startups to get in front of those are exceptionally limited. A venture capitalist is typically going fund anywhere between one in a hundred or one in thousand deals. There's not a lot of room in there for startups to find access to capital.
(Lea el Resto de la Entrevista...
http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2008/09/interview-eric-litman.html)
Fast Interview: Tech observer and former VC Eric Litman, who recently founded Medialets, an ad delivery platform for native mobile applications, discusses why a million friends can be more valuable than a million bucks.
Can't get that VC firm to return your calls? Don't despair! Startups can increasingly scale up by taking advantage of another type of capital -- social capital. Litman, a prominent entrepreneur, says it's easier than ever to leverage relationships into business success, and you have to spend social capital before you can profit from it. In fact, such networking helped him launch his new company in six weeks.
Why is social capital so valuable?
The one thing I've consistently seen entrepreneurs do that has significant measurable impact on everything they do -- more than any other factor -- is manage their relationships and manage their social capital. Folks that do that really well are bound to find some measure of success in some area of their life. It may not be the course they set initially, but there's invariably some positive that comes from it. So I've made it point throughout my own endeavors to continue to find ways to improve my own ability to manage and maintain relationships and to learn from others.
More importantly, to maximize the value that one gets from a relationship, one has to give a great deal. I spend a fair amount of my time making introductions, providing referrals, providing connections and generally engaging with the breadth of the community to benefit the business and personal lives of others. It's like an investment strategy: the more social capital that you spend, the more your network appreciates and the more social capital you ultimately have to spend in future endeavors.
Why is social capital becoming more of an alternative to traditional venture capital?
It has everything to do with the power of the communications networks at our disposal today -- the instantaneous nature of communications, the lack of barriers between people at different levels of career and industry, and the ease and rapidity with which messages can spread. I can go into the office in the morning, determine some new business or personal need and, almost invariably, within a matter of hours be directly connected to someone at the top of whatever related field and have a dialogue about how I'm going to solve that business need. I'm an enormous believer in the power of all the online social tools. And I use every one of them. On any given day, I find myself in utter amazement at just how transformative these tools have been to my business and personal life.
How do you leverage friends into a business that makes money?
Last week, I made a decision that I wanted to form five new significant relationships in the marketing and communications world. I sent out a message on Twitter -- I have 800 plus followers on Twitter. I received somewhere around 40 responses. I have significantly overstepped the goal and have some fabulous new relationships that are turning into business opportunities.
The odds of getting funding through the traditional VC route aren't great, are they?
It's a fairly grim picture. Depending on the year and economic conditions, there are somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 venture capital professionals available to service deals in the USA. The opportunities for startups to get in front of those are exceptionally limited. A venture capitalist is typically going fund anywhere between one in a hundred or one in thousand deals. There's not a lot of room in there for startups to find access to capital.
(Lea el Resto de la Entrevista...
http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2008/09/interview-eric-litman.html)
Wednesday, 03 September 2008
Las PyMES mexicanas podrán ser proveedoras en Juegos Olímpicos de Londres 2012
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO.- A poco más de 24 horas de la clausura de los Juegos Olímpicos de Beijing, los organizadores de las Olimpiadas de Londres 2012 difundieron una invitación para que empresas mexicanas formen parte del catálogo de proveedores que participarán para la preparación de la próxima competencia internacional.
A través de un portal de Internet denominado Compete For, la Agencia de Desarrollo Regional Inglesa y la Agencia de Promoción Internacional del Reino Unido (UK Trade & Investment, por sus siglas en inglés) abren la convocatoria a empresas mexicanas de cualquier tamaño, para inscribirse y colaborar en los próximos Juegos Olímpicos.
Aquí se ofrecen servicios de apoyo para los negocios.
Coordinado con el Comité Londinense para las Olimpiadas y los Juegos Paraolímpicos y la Autoridad de Gasto Olímpico, organismo encargado de la infraestructura y sedes en la capital de Inglaterra para el próximo encuentro deportivo, este portal ha iniciado ya la recepción de solicitudes para contratos, se estima que puedan llegarse a consolidar más de 50 mil contratos, antes y durante la gesta deportiva.
Para solicitar un espacio como proveedores los interesados deberán llenar y publicar un perfil completo de su negocio. Una vez hecha esta operación en el sitio web indicado, se podrá rastrear su actividad y buscar otros proveedores con los cuales asociarse, explicó Proméxico a través de un comunicado de prensa.
Este portal de Internet fue abierto por los organizadores de los Juegos Olímpicos para garantizar la transparencia y la disponibilidad antes y durante las competencias, así como maximizar el número de negocios y su diversidad.
Incluso, se informó que en esta página de Internet, ya hay dos proyectos en los cuales las empresas interesadas pueden participar: la construcción del centro de revisión y terapia de la salud y el equipamiento protector del personal.
ProMéxico informó que difunde esta oportunidad para las empresas mexicanas en el marco del Plan de Acción Conjunto firmado el pasado mes de mayo con el UK Trade & Investment.
Se planea que los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres se llevarán a cabo del 27 de julio al 12 de agosto del 2012.
En los primeros proyectos se contemplan tres zonas principales donde se llevarán a cabo las competencias: el Parque Olímpico, la Zona Fluvial y la Zona Central, además de otros campos deportivos que se ubicarán en las inmediaciones de Londres.
A través de un portal de Internet denominado Compete For, la Agencia de Desarrollo Regional Inglesa y la Agencia de Promoción Internacional del Reino Unido (UK Trade & Investment, por sus siglas en inglés) abren la convocatoria a empresas mexicanas de cualquier tamaño, para inscribirse y colaborar en los próximos Juegos Olímpicos.
Aquí se ofrecen servicios de apoyo para los negocios.
Coordinado con el Comité Londinense para las Olimpiadas y los Juegos Paraolímpicos y la Autoridad de Gasto Olímpico, organismo encargado de la infraestructura y sedes en la capital de Inglaterra para el próximo encuentro deportivo, este portal ha iniciado ya la recepción de solicitudes para contratos, se estima que puedan llegarse a consolidar más de 50 mil contratos, antes y durante la gesta deportiva.
Para solicitar un espacio como proveedores los interesados deberán llenar y publicar un perfil completo de su negocio. Una vez hecha esta operación en el sitio web indicado, se podrá rastrear su actividad y buscar otros proveedores con los cuales asociarse, explicó Proméxico a través de un comunicado de prensa.
Este portal de Internet fue abierto por los organizadores de los Juegos Olímpicos para garantizar la transparencia y la disponibilidad antes y durante las competencias, así como maximizar el número de negocios y su diversidad.
Incluso, se informó que en esta página de Internet, ya hay dos proyectos en los cuales las empresas interesadas pueden participar: la construcción del centro de revisión y terapia de la salud y el equipamiento protector del personal.
ProMéxico informó que difunde esta oportunidad para las empresas mexicanas en el marco del Plan de Acción Conjunto firmado el pasado mes de mayo con el UK Trade & Investment.
Se planea que los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres se llevarán a cabo del 27 de julio al 12 de agosto del 2012.
En los primeros proyectos se contemplan tres zonas principales donde se llevarán a cabo las competencias: el Parque Olímpico, la Zona Fluvial y la Zona Central, además de otros campos deportivos que se ubicarán en las inmediaciones de Londres.
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