Startup Weekend Tulsa Wrapup
Posted on | December 22, 2010 | No Comments
Under the better late than never category I finally remembered I needed to post a wrapup to SWTulsa 2010. So here it is. We had an amazing weekend again. In one weekend we built 4 new Tulsa companies. The companies were Endcap – a place for the local music scene to be seen. JOOP – Jury of our Peers, Report2us is management software for fitness equipment in health clubs and CaptaVid – A new spin on crummy shool pictures.
Endap emerged as the overall winner and went on to finish 3rd place in the Global Startup Battle! We are very proud of all of our teams and especially Endcap.
Stay tuned for some expanded coverage and some updates on the teams since the weekend.
Startup Weekend Tulsa Reunion/Kickoff Happy Hour
Posted on | October 14, 2010 | No Comments
We are in the home stretch for the next Startup Weekend Tulsa. To help everyone get excited about the next event, we are holding a Startup Weekend Tulsa Reunion Happy Hour at Leon’s in Brookside on Thursday October 28th from 6:00 until ???. We are also making this happy hour the official kickoff for the next Startup Weekend to be held on Nov. 12th-14th. So if you are an alumnus of Startup Weekend Tulsa or might be interested in attending SW Tulsa 2010 plan on showing up on Thursday. There will be some great door prizes, special discount codes given out, and even the long awaited T-shirts form last years event will be given out.
Startup Organizers Conference
Posted on | October 4, 2010 | No Comments
Quick Notes from Startup Organizers Conference (SOSummit)
Wow! All I can say is Wow!
Thanks to everyone involved including the Startup Weekend Team, Kauffman Foundation, and Startup Digest.
Event was overall amazing some of the things I learned in no particular order.
I should think about starting a business that builds Card Towers 
Startup Weekend Organizers like to party!
Michael Jackson and Eric Schmidt have something in common???
No matter how good you think you are, there are tons of people out there that are better.
The world needs more female entrepreneurs.
If you go to the American Royal BBQ Competition you need to have a ticket to a private party L
Some very smart people and amazing stuff happening in the non-obvious places including Lansing, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Lexington, and Omaha to name a few!!!
There is a Kansas City Hackerspace AKA -The Cowtown Computer Congress – Which is housed in a real cave 80 feet underground! Where I got to see some Maker Bots and other way cool things!
Bo Fishback from Kauffman Foundation truly gets it.
Australians are poor cab drivers!
Rock, Paper, Scissors scales much better than I expected!
Asia has us all beat. The contingency from Asia absolutely blew my mind how smart, dynamic, worldly and awesome they are. Everyone attending from Asia really has a “no limits” viewpoints on what can be accomplished and they are doing it!
A majority of Startup Weekend Organizers have one or more real startups themselves. Great to see so many founders that are giving back or building communities in this way! I wish more entrepreneurs got this!
End of Notes:
Discalimer: If we met this weekend and I don’t mention you here my apologies A) No slight intended and B) When I catch my breath I will most likely expand on many of these notes and add some more of the stories from the weekend.
Okinetic
Posted on | September 28, 2010 | Comments Off
I spend a lot of time coaching young entrepreneurs that are hyperventilating about keeping their idea a secret, about all the reasons this is generally not a good thing. However there are exceptions and one of those exceptions is politics. As I become increasingly aware everyday there are politics in absolutely everything and for that reason Okinetic is still in stealth mode. Stay tuned however there are some exciting things happening.
The Great Divide
Posted on | September 28, 2010 | No Comments
One hour and thirty minutes is all that separates Tulsa and Oklahoma City but it might as well be a millenia. For as long as I can remember Oklahoma City and Tulsa have been rivals. Who has more of this or newer that or bigger this? And don’t get me started on keeping up with the Joneses.
Newsflash! This is 2010 and like it or not we are part of a global economy and as such we are competing on a global stage. As long as we are spinning our wheels can either city truly go anywhere?
So here is a thought - lets be the first state to think like a state? Where are you from? Oklahoma! Where do you go to school? Oklahoma! Where do you work? Oklahoma.
The day Oklahomans start thinking like Oklahomans anything is possible.
Along these lines through my involvement with Ignite and Starup Weekend I have worked hard to communicate and collaborate with OKC on their same events in an open and friendly exchange. There were plenty of opportunity to compete but both sides realized the value in working together as a result both cities have benefited immensely.
Fab Lab Tulsa
Posted on | September 28, 2010 | No Comments
Fab Lab – Or how to make almost anything!
What? You have not heard about Fab Lab? Well good thing you are here. Fab Lab is one of the most exciting game changing organizations sweeping the globe. And I am honored to be a member of the board of directors of Fab Lab Tulsa. Stay tuned over the coming weeks as I share more about Tulsa’s soon to be open Fab Lab and more about the global efforts and initiatives.
Ignite Tulsa
Posted on | September 28, 2010 | No Comments
“Enlighten us but make it quick!” Or as I prefer, “Open Mic Night for Geeks!”, Whichever tag line you prefer, Ignite is an amazing event and as such I am very proud to be a co-chair of IgniteTulsa.
What is Ignite you ask? Most people will tell you that Ignite is somewhat hard to describe and definitely something you have to experience. Ignite is a series of fast paced presentations over the course of an evening, using a very unique format. Speakers get 5 minutes and 20 slides that auto rotate in 15 second increments. Part education, part entertainment, part geek culture, topics are all over the map. Generally the only prerequisite to speak is that you are passionate about something.
My first Ignite experience was in New York in 2008, after that I saw one in San Francisco in March of 2009, by that point I was hooked so I knew I had to bring Ignite to Oklahoma. I worked with a great team and we launched the first Ignite Tulsa in September of 2009. We were honored to host our second Ignite Tulsa as part of Global Ignite Week in March of 2009, and we just finished the third Ignite Tulsa event with a sellout crowd with 350 tickets sold!.
More details can be found at http://www.IgniteTulsa.org or you can follow us on Twitter: @IgniteTulsa in addition you can watch all of the Ignite Tulsa talks on our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ignitetulsa and while you are there keep your eyes open for a talk titled, “How to tell your boss to %@$# Off!”
Startup Weekend Tulsa
Posted on | September 28, 2010 | No Comments
Wow! All I can say is Wow! I have been an entrepreneur for over 15 years. In that time I have seen many seminars, sat through numerous conferences, listened to various panelists all talking about Entrepreneurship but I have never experienced anything as real or in your face as Startup Weekend.
What is Startup Weekend? Startup Weekend is one weekend where people go from idea to launch in 54 hours. No talk, all action. No lectures, no seminars, no workbooks and case studies, simple elbow grease mixed in with a little tough love.
I stumbled upon my first Startup Weekend in San Francisco in April of 2009. I was so blown away I absolutely had to bring it to Oklahoma. The first Startup Weekend Tulsa was held in November of 2009 in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). We launched five new companies that weekend and I am proud to say that 3 of the 5 founders from our original teams are now full time entrepreneurs.
The next Startup Weekend Tulsa is taking place on Nov. 12th -14th. For more information visit http://tulsa.startupweekend.org or follow us on Twitter: @SWTulsa
Isocentric Networks
Posted on | September 28, 2010 | No Comments
At some point after you get through the normal pleasantries of a conversation with a new acquantance you always end up coming back to the old question, “What do you do?”. With the various hats that I wear this is not always an easy answer but at the end of the day my work at Isocentric Networks is perhaps the closest answer to the root meaning of this question. I am the chairman and CEO of Isocentric Networks, a company I founded with my business partner Frank Boyer in 1999.
Isocentric Networks is Oklahoma’s leading web site hosting and data center services company.
In the late 90′s I watched the runup of the first Internet bubble, as we now call it, and kept kicking myself for missing the boat. I mean seriously where is the rocket science in taking something as old as an auction company and putting it online? I soon found myself dreaming up various “Internet Properties”, as they were called, you know – dogfood.com and the like, but after traipsing through various dial-up ISP’s “Server Rooms” only to realize that they were also janitors closets and that the so called “servers” were old desktop boxes that were too slow to be desktops, I quickly realized that the smart move was to open a hosting and data center services business.
Since then we have had a good run helping some great clients, by solving some tough problems, curing some real headaches, and most importantly simply helping them get some sleep at night.
For more information please visit: http://isocentric.com
Sipping life through a fire hose
Posted on | August 27, 2010 | No Comments
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