Awesome Inc. » 2010

SXSW Download

By Nick Such

My $500 name tag

SXSW = South-by-Southwest. “SXSW Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer. ”

Translation: I had a busy week in Austin with Awesome Inc.

I greatly enjoyed SXSWi 2010. No better place to make connections in the tech startup scene, while chatting with touchscreen UI designers, eating Rudy’s BBQ, catching up with old friends and making new ones, and wishing that AplusK would get out of the way so we could extract a nugget of wisdom from Paul Graham.

My favorite sessions

Ok, so I liked almost every session I attended. These are the ones for which I condensed my notes into sharable length:

Touch + The Holy Grail of Delight: Met the RazorFish guys, lots of insight on what fits in public places between mobile devices and home web shopping
The Happiness Project: Reminder that “the days are long, but the years are short”, inspiration to cut back to a 1-sentence-per-day journal
Roadtwip: met Kurt from CitySourced and heard about his adventure into the near future of America
Third Coast, How to Be a Startup Outside of Silicon Valley: The CrowdSpring guys from Chicago shared how they did it
Don’t Move! Build a Startup Community Where You Live: Boulder, Portland, and Omaha talk about how they’re growing w/o going
Why You Aren’t Done Yet: a little shot in the arm from David Heinemeier Hansson from 37Signals
How Nerds Can Foster Democracy in Local Government: We use tech, we have different perspectives. Time to use them.
Zero Waste, The Future of Green: Toyota did it. Austin is ambitiously on their way there. Waste is so 20th century. I’ve started looking into urban composting.
Moblizing the Power of Interns and Managing GenY: Our rockstars from Team Alpha could have taught this session.
Student Startups, Entrepreneurship in the University: why wait? Software and ideas are cheap, your time is prevalent, and your co-founders are sitting next to you in class!
‘Seed Combinators’, Startup Incubators 2.0: There was energy in this room! But too few women and 40-yr-olds. Most important session for Awesome Inc.
Pervasive Games and Playful Experiences, Rendering the Real world: I learned this lesson through a chore challenge for my roommates: Points –> Productivity. Games have always been fun. Mobile devices just make it easier to keep score.
How The Other Half Lives - Touring The Digital Divide: I may not have an iPhone, but most of the world is struggling to learn how to use a mouse and radio buttons. The internet scares them. How do we help? Discussion led by two librarians.
How to Save Journalism: Led by Lexingtonian and Fark.com creator Drew Curtis, new and old media discussed their strategies for the future. Pay walls don’t sound fun.

Hung out with some cool people

On the CapMetro Bus: Baratunde, Alexander, Damien
Monks of Invention Conclave SXSW 2010: Moshe, Shaun, Pek, Tim, Jason, Andy, Julian, Sasha, Brian,Bradley, Cecilia, Russ
Olark: Matt, Ben, Zach
David McGee’s crew: Alex, Kennon, Brad
Henry’s friends and the Chevy Roadtrip Champions from Detroit: Hajj, Brandon
Student Startupers: Brandon, Ellen
RazorFish: Steve
MobileXers: Charles, Adam, Jon M
Kentuckians: Randall, Will, Luke, Brian, David, Drew, Jon C (now in Seattle)

Closing Thoughts

Time to relearn web development. I was so cool writing HTML back in 1996, but the world has come a long way. Some UI/UX design insight will help for touch screen apps, too.
Crowdsourcing some answers for this one: What is more valuable: go through a seed combinator program (get paid, network, create) or MBA (pay them, network, learn)?
Creativity WILL drive the future. I want to be at the wheel, not just along for the ride.
HUGE opportunity to bridge the Digital Divide (see above). It will take simplicity on the far side of complexity.

See you at SXSW 2011!

“Our rock stars aren’t like your rock stars”

By Brian Raney

One of the pictures on the break room wall at Awesome Inc is of Tom Perkins. I would speculate that most of my friends don’t know of Tom Perkins. Most of them probably don’t even know of his venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, (KPCB) which happens to be one of the first and most successful VC firms in Silicon Valley. Of course my friends heads will turn when you mention some of the companies in the KPCB portfolio – Google, Amazon, Compaq. Tom Perkins is just one of the almost forty entrepreneurial rock stars on our wall at Awesome Inc.

Redefining the definition of “awesome” has been a core mission of Awesome Inc since we opened the doors almost a year ago. Whether it’s through rewarding success, encouraging failure, or recruiting all-stars, we plan to change the social norm. Awesome Inc is working to provide an environment where if you aren’t doing something innovative, starting your own business or building something of value, you’re the odd one out. It’s about creating a culture where hard work, innovation, and taking risks are not only encouraged, but rewarded.

Everyone on our rock star wall has done something “awesome”. Not in the sense that they are famous for what they’ve done, but rather that they took on insurmountable odds and took ridiculous chances where failure seemed not only probable, but almost certain. And they all did it in pursuit of their own definition of awesome.

People like Larry Page & Sergey Brin who redefined the internet search engine with the creation of Google.

People like Ralph G. Anderson whose company, Belcan, made only $200 in the first three years, but later went onto employ 4,000 people and earns $250 Mil annually.

People like David Cohen of Techstars and Paul Graham of Y Combinator who are currently changing the way investments are made in startups.

People like Lee Todd who chose challenge over comfort every step of the way from his small town in Earlington, KY, to Murray, to UK, to MIT, to launching a company that was later sold to IBM.

People like Jack Welch who worked his way up from junior engineer to become CEO of GE.

These are just some of the names that make up the wall of rock stars, their picture forming a giant “A” and “I” on the walls at Awesome Inc.

So, while our rock stars may not be like your rock stars (rule #2, Intel, 2009) they do have one in thing in common – they are changing the world.