Hard Living at the Colorado Green Tech Group

Last night I made it up to the Colorado Green Tech Group meeting at the Law Auditorium Wolf Building on CU Campus. I used to work with one of the speaker so I was really excited to see what they were up to. I didn’t get to see my former manager but I did get to see and hear from a great line of companies.

The Wolf Building is the perfect place for this type of meeting; it’s kind of like a geek’s geek meetup: green technology, which in itself is often times quite sophisticated, short presentations with clear needs articulated and a well-educated, non-shy group who asked tons of great questions.

My only complaint is that during the networking time everyone clusters around the food/beer and does not budge creating a kind of green house effect – a sort of micro-climate suitable for ferns, frogs and other semi-tropical species and not for casual, relaxed exchanges of ideas.  So, like water on a hot plate, I landed and quickly steamed. Nevertheless, despite overreacting I met some interesting folks and listened to great talks.

Pulmor – wants to provide mobile and brick/mortar business fronts for charging cell phones using PVs. Their focus is mostly the developing world where the gap between available electricity, the population and the population that has a cell phone is enormous. They want to work with existing businesses and arrangements but make it easier for people to charge their cell phones. For some reason their logo includes a kangaroo.

BioVantage  Resources – talked about how water is the next oil – as in peak water. Water will be the next finite immensely valuable resources  and they have the technology – scalable algae growing systems for bioremdiation of wastewater and algae research. Well-prepared speech, very polished.

The standout for me, though, was the VAIREX air systems speaker. I’m a sucker for someone who makes me laugh and Ski had me laughing and out loud…in public.  The speaker, Ski, was candid about his company’s innovation and the mistakes he made along the way growing his company.  His talk was titled Hard Living and included great pieces of wisdom, like focusing 100% on “customers that support you” instead of “customer who suck you dry” or “if you are single stay single, if you are married, stay married”. Gems like this were interspersed with an update about the company – a fuel cell company

The Reinforcing Enthusiasm of Being Around People with Ideas or Networking

Only When Negotiating

This morning I attended a great talk by Joyce Colson and hosted by Startup Women Boulder. I don’t why I am such a ninny going to these things; it may be because it’s early, or that I don’t know what to say when people ask what are you doing, or that I can be social nimrod sometimes but despite or in spite of this I always leave this particular networking event feeling jazzed.

Joyce gave a great talk about negotiating, highlighting some key points where she feels women are weakest: we talk too much, we offer too much, and don’t always trust our belly brain (gut).  Her main point is to keep quiet, ask questions, of course, but to err on the side of listening.  She mentioned that age-old truism about women wanting to be liked, wanting the work and how that can undermine our value both in terms of how we value ourselves and our work but also how our value is perceived by potential clients. In other words, how can you expect respect from others, if you don’t respect yourself; I know I have heard that one before often followed by “If your friends jumped off a cliff would you?”

Joyce even kindly handed out tips and best practices for us to take with us; it was simply a great morning spent with some very interesting women. If you haven’t been before and are a woman in a start-up, creating a start-up, thinking about a start-up then this is a great group to meet.

Networking Round 2 – Boulder Green Drinks & StartUp Women

Yesterday, I went to two, yes, that’s right, two networking events. One was StartUp Women at The Cup. The other was Boulder Green Drinks held at iSupportU. Both super events, well-organized and well-attended. I felt a little flat, like an English defender against an effective German offense.  I may be feeling a bit ragged due to amount of sneezing and sniffling I’ve done since the Cottonwood trees bloomed huge tufts of cottonwood; it sort of looks like a bunch of down pillows exploded.

At any rate, Cindy Carrillo spoke at StartUp Women about the evolution of her business, which was very interesting! She willing admitted of setbacks, partnerships that didn’t work, and allowing her business to adapt to a changing market.  So often I think, well if this idea doesn’t work clearly I am not meant to do “whatever”. “Whatever” being the endeavor, when really it’s simply part of the process of doing. I wouldn’t want to take this to an absurd conclusion, where I hock everything on a dream but I think it’s important to consider failure as part and parcel.

Green Drinks Boulder is always a great time, lots of different people and naturally a little loose as these are all peeps moving into an industry that is still in its infancy. So, there is a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of flailing around, huge heaps of creativity and good beer, which may be the underpinnings behind the enthusiasm but who cares.  I spoke with a guy named Eric, who manages Boulder Community Computers and what a great idea that is. Here’s the premise, they take throw-away computers off people’s hands, repair them  and then give anyone without a computer the opportunity to earn one. Isn’t that cool!  People, who want to earn a computer, are taught how to build one using spare parts and install an open-source operating system. Once they have clocked 20 hours, it’s theirs. Super, super idea!!

I saw a couple of familiar faces, which is always nice when you go into these types of things. And they had an 80′s cover band, so really I had everything I needed to flourish but instead sniffled and sneezed around the place.  Oh well, only a few more weeks and I’ll be back to my more usual understated self.

Women & Networking – Boulder, Co

Hi! I'm trying to create a start-up

Like Jane Goodall discovering the secret habits of apes, I had the rare experience of being surrounded by woman running their own business, or in the beginning stages of a start-up. The event Startup Women Meetup repeats every week on Tuesday morning at 8am at The Cup on Pearl St. It was all women,  very well attended and represented some very interesting and successful businesses.  It was, in a word, great. I don’t have a small business, at least not yet but even so I got a real injection of confidence for some reason. I guess it was being around women confidently (at least on the surface) moving in a productive direction.

At different points in your life, questions on how to move forward professionally are harder to answer because often times there is more than one answer, including not doing anything. But to be around people who are evaluating their options and working towards a goal can be a very positive and influencing experience.

I was most impressed to see a very young woman in attendance, who was asking for help with a Web site she was putting together for her cousin.  I thought to myself, “self, that’s awesome! to be introducing someone that young to an idea that she can be her own boss, she can develop and promote her own ideas was a fantastic experience”. I had written a post about why there were more men than women in startups and although I don’t have any definitive answers I think introducing young women to events like this can only help bridge that gap.

This was the first meeting I have attended but from what I gathered they most often have a speaker then there is time for individuals to ask questions about a business problem they may be having or to pass on information that may be useful for the whole team.

The event is called Startup Women Meetup and it repeats every week on Tuesday morning at 8am at The Cup on Pearl St. The organizer Fiona Schlachter is great. I knew her from Sun Microsystems and have had the great good fortune of running into her again.

Also, a big thank you to The Cup on Pearl St. It’s so nice of them to let groups like this meet; they have great coffee, great service, just an awesome place to strengthen community ties in Boulder!

An Unexpectedly Novel Networking Experience

Snowman in hell

As unexpected as finding a snow man in hell, I went to a very productive networking event last night. I don’t mean to slag off the others I have attended but this one was arranged very differently than any other event I have attended. Maybe because it wasn’t really a networking event. I mean there was some schmoozing at the beginning but then the group got down to work helping a couple of different ventures solve a very specific business problem beyond just needing money. And I think that made all the difference, at least to me. No longer was I solely focused on what to say, what to ask but rather on an issue. Unfortunately, I didn’t really know that was how the group worked and had to leave before the real work started but I certainly intend to make it to the next one…fully.

The event is called Sustainable Ventures – Boulder and you can find out more about it via meetup. Once you start going to these types of things you realize how much is really going on in Boulder and how many creative and courageous people there are out there.

My only complaint was that I couldn’t hear the speakers too well, part of that was me, the other was we were at Bacaro.  I would have liked to capture and write down a description of each of the ventures and the issue they were tackling and then read more about them on their web site.  There is supposed to be something posted to the meetup site but I haven’t found it yet.

Networking Makes the Beer Taste That Much Better

Yesterday, Bryan from EcoGreenOffice most have hosted like his 30th Boulder Green Drinks but this time we all met up at Upslope Brewery just off of 36 on your way out of Boulder. It was a great venue with even better beer. The guys at Upslope have a great setup. I was up there at least once last summer and they had a band playing out back and it was just a great, casual time.

And about the event itself. Well, Bryan does a great job of promoting the event and the turn out certainly helps the local business hosting the event. I met some great folks: people from real estate, lawn maintenance, life coaches and some just finishing up MBA programs in renewables. The beer at Upslope is pure micro-brew so it goes down really easily and softens the edge, which makes networking that much easier…to a point. There’s probably a narrow line between being at your best, working the room, making conversation and when you should just sit outside in the sun and enjoy the spring weather. I can cross that line even without drinking as just a function of becoming self-conscious and realizing I’m the only one laughing at my own joke. But it was funny.

There seems to be a lot of movement in the “green field” but it’s hard to get a handle on where things are going. I read a lot about corporate social responsibility and that may be because of the BP incident; I also read a lot about renewables but I’ve been reading less about SMART grids and wonder why. If most of our energy is used to heat/cool are buildings then it seems like that’s where our attention should be. But conservation of resources is a much harder sell and perhaps harder to get people enthusiastic about it. I might suggest an Upslope Pale Ale to help their enthusiasm.

An Introvert & Networking

Copyright © 2007 davidwallphoto.com

Like a nervous giraffe stealing a drink from a watering hole in the savanna as a pride of lions looks on is not far off how I feel when I first enter a networking event.

I know I am not the only one who feels out of their element when trying to strike up a conversation with someone they don’t know. But given the environment I guess you could say we are all in this together. I just wonder if other people have to take a week off from talking for each event they attend. It’s not like I am working on new material in between gigs, it just takes a lot out of me to appear ‘on’. I also take things to heart, so when people say “gosh, there are a lot you Web designers/developers around and staring their own businesses” I immediately feel like a rushed and hated sequel – think Star Drones.

My general tactic is to bounce between people, the bar and the buffet. If I lose my nerve, don’t see a friendly face or an open group, I head straight to the bar or the buffet. Even if I don’t need another drink or another chip with salsa (which are impossible to eat without spilling tomatoes down the front of yourself) I use the time to take a deep breath before plunging back in. It seems to work for me but probably looks erratic to someone observing me from a distance as I boomerang around the room. But I would say to them, “hey, you try introducing yourself while trying to quell the booming question in your head “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”.

One unexpected piece of goodness out of the whole networking thing is that I’ve been invited for coffee by a couple of different folks. Of course, this requires more talking and longer periods of recovery but it’s enjoyable to talk with people outside of my normal day-to-day.

So, because I am new to socializing with a purpose how will I know if I am doing it correctly, if I am successful networker? Collecting biz cards does not seem good enough; you can collect a bunch, stick them in cute/hip card folder and never look at them again. Is it having people ask me out for coffee? Is it noticing I am taking fewer naps after each engagement?  Is it getting a job?

Networking is not for sissies

Since being laid off I have attended a few networking events, some with former co-workers (they had been laid off, as well) and some on my own.  The ones you go to with friends are a little uncomfortable. I, for one, don’t want them to see me in the mode of the used (pre-owned) car salesman hawking my wares (me) to a group of people in similar straits as myself.  But I shouldn’t dwell on that too much as they are out there hawking their own goods or not. The last time we all went to one we stood around in a small cluster greeting all the people we knew from Sun Microsystems.  You’d see a familiar face and extending a hand, say “RIF class 09 or 10?”.

Whoever hosts these events really puts a lot of thought, energy and time into these meetings, so I am greatly appreciative! Often times there is food, a bar and a comfortable environment in which to meet new people. It almost sounds like a bar and it certainly has all the ingredients for a great happy hour if not for the undercurrent of panic, forced conversation, elation and disappointment.  Each of those emotions can be experienced while talking to a single person, who you didn’t know moments ago. There is the brief moment during the conversation when you are excited to meet someone from this unique-sounding field, distressed to hear that they were laid off so unceremoniously thus exposing themselves and their families to the uncertainties of no health insurance and then panic when you both realize that neither can help the other so you limp off to start the whole exchange again. No, not all conversations are like that but there certainly is an element to each one, even with those I intend to meet for coffee at some point.

Meeting for coffee is the date equivalent of having lunch: short, non-committal but there is interest. Actually, networking is not unlike speed dating. There’s the hip group everyone wants to talk with because maybe they are putting together a start-up; there’s the I-have-no-idea-what-I-am-doing-here segment wandering without purpose from person to person (that’s generally me) and there is the group, who you have no idea how they got hired in the first place and hope they have some sort of fund from which they can draw. Yes, that last one is a mean observation but it’s a front because they’re the ones I most worry about and they’re the ones who probably worry most about me. I just wonder if this market is willing to give the older, non-hip, well-educated but slightly awkward people (mostly men) a chance again? Is their success in this networking circus a predictor of them getting back into the 9-5 game? These are the guys, who probably have 2 or 3 degrees, are a little older and you’ll find them just beyond the periphery of the wanderers:

Yes, I am projecting my insecurities onto them but I can’t help but see that the vast majority of people at these events are older men. And I’m not interested in hearing about the HE or  She-cession as basically we can just call it a Sux-cession and it’s no fun for anyone. I always leave these sessions pretty pumped and optimistic but then like an evening spent over too many glasses of wine the euphoria gives way to a pounding head ache and a resolution to not do that again. I guess the reason I feel that way is because nothing seems to come of them and that’s probably my fault for not actually doing anything about it. We’ve got all these great people with amazing talents, we should come up with something or put on a show or do something constructive and fun. One thing is for certain “Americans are not bowling alone anymore”. Remember that book “Bowling Alone“. One thing about this Sux-cession is we are all back out there talking with each other, getting to know one another, offering each other support and listening to one another. I think that is one of the best things to come out of what has really been a terrible time for so many people. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when we all go back to work and you act like an a**-hole to me. Will I remember how distressed you looked or how concerned you were over your wife or will I just want to pop popcorn right next to your cubicle? Hard to say, really.