Jim Flowers Receives Innovator Award for Leadership of Global Partnership

Jim Flowers, executive director of VT KnowledgeWorks, received the Virginia TradePort Innovator of the Year Award for 2012 at the 64th Annual Virginia Conference on World Trade.   The Virginia TradePort recognizes a company or individual that has made a significant impact on international trade and business development in the Virginia TradePort area.  Jim Flowers was recognized for founding and leading the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership.

Pictured left to right: Jim Loux, Cornelia Steinert, Jim Flowers, David Denny

The third annual VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership Week, held in August, 2012, featured 13 student teams from China, Australia, France, Mexico, England, Italy, Chile, Belgium, Colombia, Canada, Austria, Malaysia and the United States to compete for a $25,000 grand prize and the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Challenge Trophy.  The Global Partnership Week brought together a total of 55 participants from around the globe and approximately 250 citizens of the region who supported the effort, including 19 event sponsors, 13 businesses that served as host companies, 23 host families that provided lodging for the students, and over 30 other organizations or companies that contributed to the event in multiple ways.

The Fourth Annual VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership Week will be held August 18 - 24, 2013.

For more information about VTKW Global Partnership Week 2013, please contact Lindsey Eversole, Global Partnership Manager, VT KnowledgeWorks, at leversole@vtknowledgeworks.com.

Read the press release from the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance.

VT KnowledgeWorks is a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.  Handshake Media is a proud member of VT KnowledgeWorks.

VT KnowledgeWorks Members to Serve as Startup Weekend Mentors

Leaders of VT KnowledgeWorks member companies Handshake Media, Incorporated and Interactive Achievement, INC will serve as mentors at Startup Weekend Blacksburg, scheduled for September 14-16, 2012, at the offices of Rackspace in Blackburg, Virginia, USA.

Here are screenshots of their bios from the Startup Weekend Blacksburg site:

Anne Giles Clelland, President & CEO, Handshake Media

Jonathan Hagmaier, Chairman & CEO, Interactive Achievement

Richard Hammer, Vice President of Technology, Interactive Achievement

• Register for Startup Weekend Blacksburg
• Startup Weekend Blacksburg on Facebook
• Startup Weekend Blacksburg on Twitter
• More about Startup Weekend on Handshake 2.0

VT KnowledgeWorks is a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Nominate Your Local Virginia Entrepreneur for GAP 50 Entrepreneur Awards

The Center for Innovation Technology, CIT has launched the GAP 50 Entrepreneur Awards, a statewide program designed to identify, celebrate and honor Virginia's innovative entrepreneurs creating high-growth companies in the areas of life sciences, technology and energy.

Mike Drzal, partner with law firm LeClairRyan, Jim Flowers, executive director of VT KnowledgeWorks, and Derick Maggard, executive director of the Roanoke - Blacksburg Technology Council have been selected from the Blacksburg and Roanoke, Virginia areas to serve as GAP 50 Ambassadors.  The complete list of Ambassadors is here.

GAP 50 Ambassadors invite you to nominate Virginia life sciences, technology and energy entrepreneurs for the GAP 50 Entrepreneur Awards!

To qualify for the peer voting round, each entrepreneur must be nominated by 3 people.

The information required to nominate each entrepreneur is straightforward:  Name, Title, Company/Organization, Email, Phone.

Final GAP 50 Entrepreneur Awards recipients will be determined through a peer voting process via electronic ballot sent to nominees. The winning GAP 50 Entrepreneurs will be honored at an awards banquet on Thursday, October 18, 2012 in McLean, Virginia.

Nominate Virginia entrepreneurs here through September 20, 2012.

More about the GAP 50 Entrepreneur Awards

Entrepreneurs with 3 or more nominations are being listed on CIT's Facebook page and in Twitter updates.

Sponsored by LeClairRyan, an entrepreneurial law firm with offices from Virginia to New York to California, providing business counsel and client representation in matters of corporate law and high-stakes litigation. The Blacksburg, Virginia-based office of LeClairRyan offers venture capital, angel investor funding, and intellectual property law services for startups, entrepreneurs, and technology-based companies.  It also offers Outside General Counsel services covering the full gamut of clients' corporate, employment and business litigation needs. For more information, please contact Jim Cowan or Mike Drzal at 540-961-2600.

LeClairRyan and VT KnowledgeWorks are clients of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Dreaming of Owning a Vineyard? Try Vinoga

Vinoga, a France-based start-up company in residence at VT KnowledgeWorks, is a social online game in development where players are can virtually realize their dreams of being winegrowers. Once players have produced their wines through augmented reality-based Vinoga, they will be able to buy their own vintages.

Vinoga shared this video explaining augmented reality on its Facebook page and we can see Oswald Bernard and Fanny Garret of Vinoga at minute 3:00 in this YouTube video filmed during the Grand Prix et son Prix de l'Initiative 2012 awards presentations.

We're looking forward to hearing more from this exciting new start-up!

Welcome, Vinoga, to Blacksburg, Virginia, home of VT KnowledgeWorks and Handshake 2.0!

From Vinoga via Inside VT KnowledgeWorks:

Vinoga is a social online game where you play to be a winegrower. Once you have virtually produced your wine, you can buy it to taste it!

Vinoga is in development. The English version of the site will be up soon.  We would be honored if you like our Facebook page (here's the French version, too) to participate in our decisions about the game.

Team Vinoga pictured left to right: Sydney PELLEGRIN, Oswald BERNARD, CEO, Fanny GARRET, Vice President, Damien GREAUX, Etienne SPILLEMAEKER, CTO and Sylvain MICHELET.

VT KnowledgeWorks is a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Teams Announced for VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership Week

How exhilarating to view the list of student teams from all over the world who will meet in the locale of Handshake 2.0's headquarters in Blackburg, Virginia, USA for the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership Week!

The vision for the Global Partnership Week - now in its third year - continues to inspire: 

The VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership Week will bring university students, faculty, and staff from all over the world together to congregate, collaborate, form partnerships, and build their global networks. The Global Partnership is a multi-layered, ongoing cooperative association of regions building permanent social, academic, and business relationships.

The Teams

Teams from these universities will compete in the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Student Business Concept Challenge. The universities are listed in alphabetical order:

Ghent University - Ghent, Belgium

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile - Santiago, Chile

Tech University of Malaysia - Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Tecnológico de Monterrey - Monterrey, Mexico

Télécom SudParis - Paris, France

Tongji University - Shanghai, People's Republic of China

Universidad del Norte - Barranquilla, Colombia

University of British Columbia - Vancouver, Canada

University of Kent - Canterbury, Kent, England

University of Technology Sydney - Sydney, Australia

University of Trento - Trento, Italy

Vienna University of Technology - Vienna, Austria

Virginia Tech - Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

Who will be the lucky host families to meet these global students?!  Being a global host family was a highlight of my personal and professional life.  Fellow global host families Jeri Childers Jack McMahon and Sue and John Muffo have similar stories to tell.  If you would like to join the global host family team, please contact Lindsey Eversole at leversole@vtknowledgeworks.com.

We're delighted to contribute to local, global and mobile connections - the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Directory mobile application, offering members of the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership community a way to find and connect with each other, was developed by Handshake Media.

We'll be attending the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership Week's opening event, Tastes and Sounds of the Valleys, 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM, Wednesday, August 22, 2012, at the Hotel Roanoke in Roanoke, Virginia.  We hope you'll join us!  We look forward to shaking hands - locally and globally - with you!

Pictured in the photo: Martin Houdbine, Anne Clelland, and Charles-Eric Gorron, VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership Week, 2010

VT KnowledgeWorks is a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Feel. Think. Choose. Makes Finals in VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Challenge

We were delighted to learn that Handshake Media, Incorporated's white label software platform Feel. Think. Choose.(TM) was one of five finalists selected for the 2012 VT KnowledgeWorks Open Business Concept Competition. 

- Added 4/10/12: VTKW E-Challenge will be livestreamed!  Details!

I will be presenting and pitching Feel. Think. Choose. at 2:45 PM on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at the VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Challenge at The Inn at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

I'll have up to 15 minutes to make the presentation, then judges will have 10-12 minutes to ask questions.  The presentation requires one of the fundamental tools for seeking outside investment, the slide deck, a distillation of the proposed value of the business model and business opportunity for a product or service.

I receive on-going help from my family and friends, my business network, my business advisors, Presidents' Council, VT KnowledgeWorks and my team members Alex Edelman, Kelsey Sarles, and Wil Collins. I thank them all for their assistance.

For directly helping me discover, understand and articulate, in slide deck form, the potential of Feel. Think. Choose. as a business model,  I offer grateful thanks to these  people in the order in which I contacted them, who have been so generous with their expertise and support. 

• Z. Kelly Queijo, founder of Smart College Visit, Inc., for sharing her winning slide deck and winning strategy from her VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Challenge win in 2010.
• Paula Wilder of WilderWeber Leadership Group for leading us through WilderWeber's Brand Workshop for start-ups, and for consulting services way above and beyond.
• Maynard Wiff of SCORE for executive-level advising, mentoring and coaching.
• Phani Upadhyayula with Etisbew Technology Group for assistance with finanical projections for software development costs.
• Dr. Steve Childers of Radford University for reviewing our slide deck and offering feedback from his expertise in entrepreneurship.
• Korey Mercier at Rackspace for consulting on server configuration and financial projections for server storage and bandwidth costs.
• Dick Daughtery of VT KnowledgeWorks for his offer to meet individually with all the finalists and for a one-on-one session that helped me cut my slide deck in half.
• Darren Eversole of Carilion Clinic for help with health care industry statistics.

The VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Challenge is a full-day event with two business concept competitions, speakers, meals, and a final networking reception.  If you care to join me, here's how to register.  I'll be there all day, especially at 2:45 PM!  I'd welcome your company.

LeClairRyan and VT KnowledgeWorks are clients of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

Luck Is for the Lottery: You Need 3Ps to Win a Business Competition

Three folks got lucky when the winning MegaMillions lottery ticket number turned out be theirs. Skill, knowledge, preparation, and presentation had nothing to with winning. Winning the lottery was purely a matter of luck. 

That won't be the case on April 11, 2012, when the finalists in the VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Challenge compete to take home a trophy and thousands of dollars in start-up services for the best business concept. They'll need to do something a bit more decisive than rely on luck. 

The entrepreneurs need to commit to winning. 

When I entered the VT KnowledgeWorks Open Business Concept Competition in 2010 and made the final cut, I realized that if my business idea had enough merit to get that far, then it was good enough to win the competition. So, I decided to develop what I thought would be a winning strategy built on these 3 Ps: Preparation, Presentation, and Passion. 

Preparation

I followed Guy Kawasaki's presentation guidelines in his book, The Art of the Start. I kept my presentation to 10 slides that primarily focused on the size and scope of my target market, the need I planned to meet/problem to solve, financials for the business, and my expertise. I kept the amount of text on the screen to a minimum with a font large enough for everyone in the room to read comfortably no matter where they were seated. I researched my facts and knew them by heart.

Presentation

I already knew that reading text from the slide show is a standard "no-no" unless you are repeating something to make a point. I took the data from my slides and turned it into an engaging narrative about  the solution I was pitching. I made eye contact with members of the audience. I sought empathy, understanding and connections. 

Passion

Passion - loving what I do - came out in the way I spoke, the tone of my voice, as well as what I said about Smart College Visit and, also, in the way I responded to questions. I smiled - a lot. After all, it felt wonderful to have the opportunity to tell a couple of hundred people about my company. I embraced the moment and tried to make the experience as exciting for them as it was for me. 

Was I surprised when I won? Yes and no. There were many good ideas presented by others who were also passionate about what they wanted to create. But market and concept are also critical components and Smart College Visit definitely had both. Still, the odds of winning a business competition are much better than the odds of winning the lottery, especially when you're prepared, present well, and are passionate about your business, service, or product.

Z. Kelly Queijo, founder of Smart College Visit, Inc., won the Open Business Concept Competition at the 2010 VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Summit.

Smart College Visit, Inc. is a Blacksburg, Virginia-based higher-ed marketing company focused on mobile app and mobile web development with a special interest in creating travel and location-based tools and services. SmartCollegeVisit.com, a college search and college visit planning portal, has been listed in the Top 100 education advice blogs and as one of the top 5 college visit sites. You are invited to follow her on Twitter @collegevisit and to read more about Smart College Visit on Handshake 2.0.

VT KnowledgeWorks and Smart College Visit, Inc. are clients of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

The Difference Between a Mentor and an Advisor

I asked Jim Flowers, Executive Director of VT KnowledgeWorks, this question:

"What is the difference between a mentor and an advisor, between mentoring and advising?"

Jim Flowers kindly replied:

My working definition of a mentor is "someone who provides timely, contextually relevant information."  Merlin did not tell young Arthur what to do.  He provided him with examples of potentially useful information about the world.

I also attempt to make clear for people the differences between and among information, opinion, and advice.  This set of distinctions is most easily demonstrated by a simple example.  "The sky is blue."  "Blue skies are pretty."  "You ought to go outside and look at the pretty blue sky."

Information is almost always useful.  Opinion is colored by the experiences and beliefs of the person opining.  Advice is a prescription, typically based on opinion, and is heavily loaded with the world view held by the advisor, often regardless of, or with limited relevance in the context of, the world view of the advisee.

"if I were you, I would…" is a useful acknowledgment that the advice about to be delivered is recognized as personal to the speaker, though not necessarily to the listener.

Advisors assume, at least temporarily, control of some part of the decision-making process.

Mentors assist and empower decision-making by the mentee.

More by Jim Flowers on Handshake 2.0

More about VT KnowledgeWorks on Handshake 2.0

Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0, is a VT KnowledgeWorks member company.  VT KnowledgeWorks is a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated.

Three Fundamental Tools in the Fundraising Toolbox

From Mike Drzal, LeClairRyan: 

Much has been written about what it takes to raise capital for startup and emerging companies.  The truth of the matter is that raising capital is simple but hard.  Many entrepreneurs are woefully unprepared as they approach capital providers, the result being frustration when they fail to connect.  Having the necessary tools in hand before embarking on a fundraising effort greatly enhances prospects for success.  Time spent developing and refining these tools forces focus and discipline and pays big dividends.

Here are three fundamental tools companies need when they begin to seek outside investment. 

The Executive Summary.  The first tool for the toolbox is a powerful, well written 2 - 2 1/2 page executive summary that covers the essential points that convince a capital provider to read on and want to learn more.  Think of it as an electronic calling card - we push these out to our internal and external networks in order to introduce a deal and generate leads for our clients.  Typical headings are:  The Company; The Opportunity; Large Market Size; Competitive Position and Barriers to Entry by Competitors; Go to Market Strategy; Management Team; Financing Requirements and Exit Strategy.  This is a sales document, not a securities disclosure document, and is designed to grab the attention of a potential investor and pre-qualify them as being interested in the company.  It amazes me how many of these I see that are not in the King's English. An incoherent executive summary projects an incompetent management team.

The Business Plan.  There are lies, damned lies and business plans.  No one's business ever developed exactly along the lines set forth in a business plan.  Everyone knows that, so why are entrepreneurs expected to bother?  The main reason is that putting one together forces the management team to articulate the revenue model and demonstrate a facility with the numbers.  Along the way, the management team has to think through the development path for the business and the capital it will take to buy the runway necessary for the business to take flight.  Putting together a business plan should not be outsourced - using a canned business plan or one prepared by someone else leaves the entrepreneur at serious risk of being asked a question when making a pitch that he or she has not thought through.  By all means observe the 80/20 rule - 80% of the business plan should consist of an expanded treatment of the topics covered in the executive summary and 20% on the invention or science.  Investors want to know you are focused on making money, not working on a science project.

The Slide Deck.  Investors have a limited attention span, so a 40-slide deck will not do.  There are only about a dozen or so points that are essential to cover: Overview; The Problem/Opportunity; The Solution; The (Large) Market; The Technology/Product; Unique Competitive Advantage/Barriers to Entry; Competitive Landscape; Go to Market Strategy; Financial Roadmap (including high level 5-year projections and investment sought); The Team; Current Status (milestones achieved and pending orders); Exit (include most likely exit and comparables if available); Summary (three strongest points and what distinguishes this opportunity from others).  Detail on any or all of these points can be kept in hidden slides, available at the touch of a button in response to a potential investor's question.  Excellent presentation skills are a must.  Slides are not a crutch and should not be read.  

So there it is, the Fundraising Toolkit - simple but hard.  With these tools in hand, a bit of coaching, and the right warm introductions, fundraising success can be yours!

Mike Drzal will be the keynote speaker at the VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Challenge in Blacksburg, Virginia on April 11, 2012.

Read more from LeClairRyan on Handshake 2.0.

LeClairRyan is a law firm that has deep entrepreneurial roots, having originally been founded as a venture capital boutique.  With more than 350 attorneys and offices from Virginia to New York to California, the firm provides business counsel and client representation in matters of corporate law and high-stakes litigation.  Its mission is to achieve excellence for its clients by providing integrated, responsive and timely services.  LeClairRyan has numerous attorneys and professional support staff focused on intellectual property, venture capital and the other legal needs that are often required by emerging businesses.  Our intellectual property team is nationally recognized in patent prosecution, interferences, reissues and reexaminations, and in patent litigation in the biotech, pharmaceutical, software, chemical, electrical and physical science fields.  This suite of services, coupled with expertise in venture capital and other types of equity financing, strengthens the firm’s ability to serve entrepreneurial, knowledge-based companies.

LeClairRyan and VT KnowledgeWorks are clients of Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0.

VT KnowledgeWork Blog Offers Global Handshake

On November 30, 2011, Inside VT KnowledgeWorks, the blog for business acceleration center VT KnowledgeWorks, will celebrate its fourth anniversary.

Inside VT KnowledgeWorks was founded in 2007 to report and share news of its entrepreneurs, start-ups, member companies, partners, sponsors and events at VT KnowledgeWorks. I, and then the company I founded through VT KnowledgeWorks, Handshake Media, Incorporated, have operated the blog since its beginning.

From reflecting upon operating the VT KnowledgeWorks blog for four years and from analyzing four years of traffic to the VT KnowledgeWorks blog, I discovered these beauties:

• When we started the blog in 2007, the top source of traffic was direct i.e. people knew of the blog and typed in the URL or clicked on a link in an email. Four years later, the top source of traffic is Google search results. 
• From 2007 to the present, Google search users from 136 countries have found what they sought on the VT KnowledgeWorks blog.
• In 2007, VT KnowledgeWorks was an incubator serving technology companies and entrepreneurs in the Blacksburg, Virginia, USA area, home of Virginia Tech. Today, it is in partnership with universities and companies around the world. In 2011, its global site, VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership, surpassed its home site as a top source of traffic to the blog.

Inside VT KnowledgeWorks began in 2007 in a town when one person said, "How about a blog?" and a person at an organization said, "Yes."

Four years later, that blog offers a global, entrepreneurial handshake and that town is a global destination for the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership. 

I am honored and delighted to have been part of reaching a handshake out to the globe's people on behalf of VT KnowledgeWorks.

***

The VT KnowledgeWorks Global Directory mobile application, offering members of the VT KnowledgeWorks Global Partnership a way to find and connect with each other, is a Handshake(R) mobile app from Handshake Media.

Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0, is a member company of VT KnowledgeWorks. VT KnowledgeWorks is a client of Handshake Media, Incorporated.