Slideshow Transcript

1. Slide 1: Why Now is a great time to start a company! Sean Ammirati
2. Slide 2: First a Story …
3. Slide 3: 2 Meanings of Now … A Recent Graduate 2008
4. Slide 4: Disclosure … My Story A Recent Graduate
5. Slide 5: What are your options? ? Graduate School Corporate Job Start a Company Live Off Mom & Dad
6. Slide 6: Best first job … Best Case: X ‘Employability’ X Income Worst Case: ‘Employability’ X Income \\ \\ What about security?
7. Slide 7: Security?
8. Slide 8: In Search of Remarkable “Remarkable people with remarkable careers seem to switch jobs with far less effort … The secret doesn’t lie in the job- seeking technique. It has to do with what these people do when they’re not looking for a job ... They work on high-profile projects. These people take risks, often resulting in big failures. These failures rarely lead to a dead end, though. They’re not really risks, after all. Instead, they just increase the chances that these people will get an even better project next time.”
9. Slide 9: Find Good Partners \"I not only use all of the brains I have, but all I can borrow.\" - Woodrow Wilson
10. Slide 10: Disclosure … Talking about Web 2008
11. Slide 11: Web is Ripe for Innovation “After an initial phase of the Web as a medium, in which lots of people attempted to make the Web look like a newspaper, or a magazine, or a TV channel, we as an industry have recently been collectively developing a much clearer idea of what the Web is really like as a medium in and of itself.” - Mark Andreessen
12. Slide 12: Less Capital to Test Ideas Source: Fred Wilson, “Web 2.0 Is A Gift, Not A Threat, To VCs” http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/12/web_20_is_a_gif.html
13. Slide 13: Local Example: AlphaLab • 6 Month Program (next starts June 1) • Groups of 6 Companies • $25k investment • Deadline to apply is 3/31 • Talk to me afterward if interested
14. Slide 14: Easier to get advice What advice do you wish you received before graduation? 368 connections / 18 responses in 1 week – 11: focused on importance of networking – 3: do interesting work, not what pays the most – 2: being financial responsible – 2: delaying graduate school (MBA)
15. Slide 15: Easier to Tell Your Story (Marketing) VS.
16. Slide 16: To Review: • Web is ripe for innovation • Less capital to test ideas • Easier to get advice • Easier to tell your story (marketing)
17. Slide 17: Conclusion “Winning a Nobel Prize is easy … Just have to focus on the right problem to solve.” Herb Simon
18. Slide 18: Thank you!
19. Slide 19: Image Attribution Diploma - http://www.flickr.com/photos/twonickels/513996896/ 2008 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/adkap/2156922395/ Student http://www.flickr.com/photos/u_of_m/2158095451/in/set- 72157603501145653/ Corporate - http://www.flickr.com/photos/u_of_m/2123108952/in/set- 72157603501145653/ Startup - http://www.flickr.com/photos/purecaffeine/1275447918/ Live off Mom & Dad - http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldtasty/21349955/ Handshake - http://www.flickr.com/photos/u_of_m/2122333317/in/set- 72157603501145653/ Television - http://www.flickr.com/photos/videocrab/116136642/ Herb Simon - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Simon