Grow Detroit - Latest Comments

Re: How to Win at Startup Weekend

Israel Vicars — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:53:59 -0000

Ken, great post! Former Bizdom / U-M alum now in St. Louis. We're about to kickoff a Startup Weekend in St. Louis and someone linked to your blog--it's great! Here's the forum post that was started in case you're curious or if you have any advice for the folks here. Thanks!

http://startlouis.com/forum/to...

Re: Organic

RyanEggenberger — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:07:30 -0000

Agreed. Anything that can help me achieve a goal is worth noting. Everything else makes me 'fat'. Thanks for the comment!

Re: Organic

RyanEggenberger — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:06:32 -0000

Thanks Ken. I like your comments.

I even toned down who I follow on Twitter. At some point I just realized I know who I need to follow and why. Too much noise was getting in my way of being productive.

Re: Organic

klous — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:00:46 -0000

Good piece, it's great going on an "information diet". Try for a bit to limit what you read to items you can take action on. I'm a fan of just-in-time learning, learn what you need as you need it.

Re: Organic

Ken Wohl — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:58:37 -0000

Great post and completely agree Ryan. The type of media we consume plays a HUGE role in our mood and thought process (aka mental health) the same way the type of food we eat determines our physical health.

Everyone should take note of the media that they are consuming. I made the decision almost a year ago to stop paying attention to the news. I rarely check news sites like CNN.com or turn my TV to news channel. Newspapers aren't even an option.

People seem shocked by this. They ask me how do I stay up on the world's current events. It's pretty simple to be honest. Anything that's truly important is going to make it's way to me. Just checking out my friends on Twitter will let me know if a famous person has died. And to be honest, if someone like Michael Jackson passes away, all I'm interested in is how, why, and when. I don't need to be engulfed with anything more. The majority of media and news is noise and that noise is poison to my thought process and productivity.

An earlier post on GrowDetroit.com titled, "Put That TechCrunch Down" (http://www.growdetroit.com/put... touches on this. Even TC which is the Wall Street Journal of the web and tech startup scene is not always good for us to consume.

So yes Ryan, I 100% agree and I think others should be more aware of this too.

Re: Events – Grow Detroit at Benzinga, and Entrepreneurship in Lansing

e.bzo — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:32:29 -0000

great meetup ... I loved the quote on the wall "lets make better mistakes tomorrow" .. I think that pretty much sums up the culture there.

Re: Perception

RyanEggenberger — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:32:48 -0000

Alex I like your comment about becoming too reactionary. Like you and Jordan have stated, transformation sometimes requires some things to fail so that other things can grow.

Great comments guys!

Re: Perception

Jordan Skole — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:11:49 -0000

Ryan, great post as usual! One of the things I was thinking about is how much time we spent back at techsmith doing triage. Whenever someone would say "F this! It's broken" we would intervene and then point them in the right direction. Typically we found it was just miss communication - that people were not aware of the solution, and just needed to be educated/shown. I think for the people that want to make a difference in detroit it is important to do some triage. If someone, especially from out of town says something negative perhaps suggest a solution - or point them towards one. These little bits will really help out, because at the very least people will see that we care about our brand.

Re: Perception

Alex Southern — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:07:06 -0000

I like "evolving". My fear with the city is stagnation -- several years back things started really crashing down, and people become reactionary.

Felt like things were at a virtual standstill for the past 4-5 years, but finally starting to see some of that #hustle in the local community. People expressing interest in sticking around rather than heading to Chicago or elsewhere.

Another word would be 'opportunity' -- opportunity is abounding in this area right now if you know where to look. Tech companies are being funded with generous valuations, home pricing in certain communities have adjusted greatly creating rental income opportunities...

Re: Hacker Beats – Music to Code To

Lance Carlson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:34:30 -0000

Oh you know it!

Re: Hacker Beats – Music to Code To

KenWohl — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:33:12 -0000

I'm a big Fedde Le Grand fan. I'm sure the crowd went nuts when he played "Put Your Hands Up 4 Detroit".

Re: Hacker Beats – Music to Code To

Lance Carlson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:15:37 -0000

Thanks Steve! Girl Talk is great! Him and Fedde Le Grand were here in Ann Arbor Wednesday (Girl Talk was at the Blind Pig, Fedde Le Grande was at The Necto). Unfortunately I had to pick one to go to so I only got to see Fedde Le Grand... :)

Will def. check out the SF artists too!

Re: Hacker Beats – Music to Code To

Steve Robert — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:34:08 -0000

Great list Lance, when I code (which is less and less these days) - I also enjoy electronic, house & trance, but increasingly mashups. Check out Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk) on Spotify, albums "Feed the Animals" & "Night Ripper" - combine rap & pop.

Also met these DJs a few years ago at a Mashup Conference in San Fran: http://bootiemashup.com/blog/ - can listen to their music free at the website.

Re: Put That TechCrunch Down

e.bzo — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:00:13 -0000

Came across this on Hacker News - Why TechCrunch is boring, SAP is not, and the world has gone mad - http://peopleprocesstech.com/2...

Re: Hacker Beats – Music to Code To

Alex Southern — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:58:16 -0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

;)

Re: Hacker Beats – Music to Code To

Lance Carlson — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:46:32 -0000

haha Beeber fever! I will wait til his dubstep stuff comes out :)

Re: Hacker Beats – Music to Code To

Settlementapp — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:45:34 -0000

you forgot to add Justin Beeber on your list...

Re: Hacker Beats – Music to Code To

Lance Carlson — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:32:49 -0000

BTW, here is my electronic playlist on spotify: http://open.spotify.com/user/1...

Re: Hacker Beats – Music to Code To

Lance Carlson — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:30:06 -0000

Thanks! Yes, the shirt is basically a wavelength of a dubstep song. Where the beat drops is where the arrow is pointing from a smiley face. :)

Re: Hacker Beats – Music to Code To

Alex Southern — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:24:36 -0000

Nice shirt, Lancelot. Is that a smiley face?

Re: Why Chance Encounters Work

raznick — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:14:01 -0000

Nathan, I don't usually make it through pieces more than 150 words today, this was a great one and so many great points were raised.

Many do seek advice for me on how to network and how I grew my network, but like you mentioned, being in Michigan makes it that much harder.

In one day in NYC, I can go to 7 meetings with notable people, however, in Michigan, it's likely our emails and fup as you mentioned Alex also do does well.

Persistence helps, if you feel rejected because someone doesn't respond to your first 2 emails, then networking will always be very hard for the person trying to establish his or her network.

Re: Why Chance Encounters Work

e.bzo — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:16:29 -0000

Huge believer in failing forward. success is the best revenge

Re: Why Chance Encounters Work

e.bzo — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:14:49 -0000

come. back. now.

Re: Why Chance Encounters Work

Alex Southern — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:48:12 -0000

Exported to Michigan? I love it k.

It's definitely an invaluable thing to be able to spend time in a "Entrepreneurial hotbed" of activity. I have friends who have moved back (recently) to the area from cities like Boston, and SF, and see that something powerful is going on here. We're very, very, very early on in the development of what could be called a startup ecosystem, but it's definitely tangible and I think more folks bringing expertise back into the area is BADLY needed.

-Alex

Re: Why Chance Encounters Work

kscottz — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:41:33 -0000

Perhaps we should think about hosting a "cultural" exchange programs between Michigan, and Boston/New York/The Valley. I worked in Ann Arbor for ten years and I currently work for a startup based there. I currently reside in New York where I am working towards completing my masters degree. In the course of the past year I have met so many wonderful engineers and entrepreneurs and I think in some ways being here has really accelerated my understanding on the entire startup process. That said, I am loyal to Michigan and I really want to return at some point in the not too distant future. In my time here I have also developed a profound sense of what I think Michigan does better than New York, and how to capitalize on that. It woud be great if we could provide a way for startups to crash in these startup hotspots for a few weeks to get the same experience. These early stage startups could network and see what is happening culturally in the big cities and then export what they have learned back to Michigan.

So, any Michigan startups want to crash on my futon?