I so often find that one door closes and another opens. And what's behind door 2 or 3 is better than the original. In this case, President Obama named Governor Bill Richardson, a leading Hispanic, as his commerce secretary. Events unfolded and Governor Richardson resigned the appointment. Next, President Obama named Judd Gregg, a Senator from New Hampshire and he decided not to proceed with the appointment. Now President Obama has named Gary Locke. Here's his background:

Locke, a democrat, is currently working for the Seattle-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine on issues involving China, energy and governmental relations. He was the former governor of the state of Washington, serving two terms from 1997 to 2005. Locke was the first Chinese-American to serve as governor in the United States.

Imagine, a Commerce Secretary who has enormous experience dealing with China and who is a Chinese-American who speaks Taishanese Cantonese (Chinese) (OK, Mandarin would be better!).

Although Governor Richardson is a great public servant I don't think that having a Hispanic Secretary of Commerce makes near the statement of having a Chinese Secretary of Commerce. Where does our future lie in terms of trade - Asia, especially China. What is our top concern - energy.

This is a brilliant pick...better late than never!

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

...I don’t think there’s anybody better than you could have had; have in the presidency than Barack Obama at this time. He understands economics. He’s a very smart guy. He’s a cool rational-type thinker. He will work with the right kind of people. So you’ve got the right person in the operating room, but it doesn’t mean the patient is going to leave the hospital tomorrow.

Watch the whole interview tonight on PBS Nightly Business Report

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

An interesting post from MotherJones' blog:

We just got our most recent copy of CQ Weekly, and it has an interesting section on broadband access. It's clearly written for an audience that lacks tech savvy (section header: "What is broadband and how many people have it?"), but it has some really interesting stats on how far America has fallen behind as an international leader on high-speed internet. All sources: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Broadband penetration rankings, in 2001:

1. South Korea
2. Canada
3. Sweden
4. United States
5. Belgium
5. Denmark
7. Netherlands
8. Iceland
9. Austria
10. Germany
11. Japan
12. Switzerland
13. Norway
14. Finland
15. Spain
Broadband penetration rankings, in 2007:

1. Denmark
2. Netherlands
3. Iceland
4. Norway
5. Switzerland
6. Finland
7. South Korea
8. Sweden
9. Luxembourg
10. Canada
11. United Kingdom
12. Belgium
13. France
14. Germany
15. United States
We do equally poorly in terms of broadband speed. Here are the average broadband download speeds (Mbps) of 15 developed nations:

1 Japan 93.7
2 France 44.2
3 South Korea 43.3
4 Sweden 21.4
5 New Zealand 13.6
6 Italy 13.1
7 Finland 13.0
8 Portugal 13.0
9 Australia 12.1
10 Norway 11.8
11 Luxembourg 10.7
12 United Kingdom 10.6
13 Germany 9.2
14 United States 8.9
15 Canada 7.8

Clearly, Japan is killing the game and the United States has a lot of catching up to do. The fact that American broadband is so slow is compounded by the fact that it's expensive. According to CQ, the United States ranks 22nd out of 25 countries in terms of the affordability of broadband. The average monthly price of broadband in the States is $53.06. It's cheaper in Turkey. It's much cheaper in Japan, where a month of hi-speed runs $34.21. And it's cheapest in Finland, where it costs $31.18.

We're falling behind as a country. And because the American economy has transitioned and continues to transition from a manufacturing economy to an information economy, more and more people will be left out of America's next phases unless consistent and affordable hi-speed comes to rural and urban areas.

That's why many consider it important that we have a president that understands technology and has a strong technology platform.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:20 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

"Managing your career is like investing - the degree of difficulty does not count. So you can save yourself money and pain by gettng on the right train." - Warren Buffett

Is your career on the right train? Are you working for a company with good economics? Is your company awash with cash? Does your company continue to achieve high margins? Is it experiencing growth in revenue and profits? Is your company innovative?

If the answer is no to any of these questions, why are you continuing to work for the company? Higher salaries, raises, and promotions are more common if the answer is yes to each of these questions.

Is your company under pressure to cut costs? If so, guess what costs they will cut? Maybe your raise or promotion, or even worse your job.

I agree with Mary Buffett (Warren's former daughter-in-law): "If one goes to work for a company with poor long-term economics, then he can never expect to do really well because the company doesn't do well."

Get your career back on the right train. Join companies that have good long-term economics. This simple action will put in you a position to succeed.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The Central Valley Fund, a private investment fund focused on middle market Central Valley companies, today announced a mezzanine investment of $3.35M in Ultra Gro, LLC.

The capital was used to fund a buyout of the Company by the management team which, the Central Valley Fund states, has deep agricultural experience, several of whom have tenure with the Company in complementary sales, consulting, and financial capacities.

Originally founded in 1985, Ultra Gro formulates, blends, and distributes liquid agricultural fertilizers customized for a diverse group of crop growers, primarily in the Central San Joaquin Valley.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Sacramento Executive and SacWomen sponsors Caroline Jensen, Coldwell Banker and Dave Mendoza, Managing Broker, Comstock Mortgage are holding a very informative seminar that will provide you with much needed information on how to buy bank-owned, foreclosed homes.

The seminar is complimentary for accredited investors who are interested in buying Bank Owned Foreclosed Homes (Real Estate Owned, REO) and taking advantage of the current real estate market for Bank Owned homes.

This seminar is not for homeowners facing foreclosure.

Please call (916) 607-7313 to reserve your seat today. (Seating is limited)

This educational seminar will cover the following topics:
• The Foreclosure Process
• Why buy Foreclosed (REO) property?
• How to buy Real Estate at Foreclosure Auctions
• Advantages of REO vs. Pre-Foreclosure Property
• How to evaluate and select REO property

Due to the popularity of their programs, your RSVP is required. Seating is limited. Call to reserve your seat, 916.607.7313

Saturday, March 1, 2008
9:00 AM
Del Paso Country Club
3333 Marconi Ave
Sacramento, Ca 95821
This venue has a dress code, please call for details.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Rebecca Reichardt owner of Tazzina Bistro in Woodland is one of 10 winners in the Make Mine a Million $ Business. She won computer equipment, free vouchers for airlines and hotels and up to $50,000 in financing from Amex's small-business lending division. But the most valuable item - coaching from business experts.

Read the write up in Bob Shallit's column

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

We received a note from Ron Crane, VP of Wall Street Ventures, a brokerage linking buyers and sellers.

Over time, Ron has become a friend. He (along with Ed Ring) maintains perfect attendance at the Sacramento Executive events (which reminds me I need to plan another one very soon). Ron has always been available to provide input and advice.

Before we left Sacramento, we toyed with buying a business and immediately sought input from Ron. And more recently, a Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy alumni asked me for input on a business he was thinking about buying. Knowing my limits, I called Ron and asked if he would be willing to help out.

Of course, generously, he provided lots of valuable input, even calling me when he thought the alumni was about to make a huge mistake. Turns out he did listen to Ron and walked away from what would have been a disaster. That's the kind of guy that Ron is - loyal, generous, supportive and I would imagine a great guy to have on your side if you are selling or buying a business.

So, the news from Ron was that his company, Wall Street Ventures, has been purchased by VERCOR, an international middle market investment bank, who was looking to broaden the services they provide to their customers. Sounds like a win-win. The bank will provide many more resources to Ron and his employees to get their job done. And the bank will get to offer the superior services of Ron and his employees.

Congrats Ron. Good things happen to good people.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

An entrepreneur who sold his company and is now ready to do it again.
A collaboration of local investors ready to invest in a local company with strong product and a strong, tested, local CEO.
Fairytale?
No, let's hope it's a dream come true.

Freepath, a developer of digital content sharing tools and communities, announced on Monday that it has raised $1.5 million in its first round of funding, led by Velocity Venture Capital.

Individual members of Strategis Early Ventures, Sacramento Angels and the Sierra Angels also participated.

Freepath is led by John Stone, who sold Powerschool, the company he co-founded, to Apple in 2001 and stayed on for several years as an Apple Vice President.

Check out their website, watch their demo and sign up to be notified when their new product is available for free download.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

What's the highest value company in the Sacramento region?

Hint: 1.5 million customers in 23 states, and $77.4 million in net income on $824 million in revenue in 2006.

Hint: Based in Folsom, CA

Hint: Market cap of $2.1 billion -- more than The McClatchy Co., GenCorp Inc. and SureWest Communications combined.

Hint: If we didn't have them, our lives would be trashed!

Yep, you got it - Waste Connections Inc.

The CEO of Waste Connections, Ron Mittelstaedt, has just been named Executive of the year by the Sacramento Business Journal

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The West Sacramento City Council voted 4-0 Wednesday in favor of accepting the results of a feasibility study and to develop a business plan to move forward the establishment of a technology incubator in West Sacramento.

The effort is being spearheaded by Diane Richards, the economic development coordinator for West Sacramento. The feasibility survey was undertaken by Innovative Partners and included 55 investors, entrepreneurs, government and academic officials, local business executives, and land owners and developers between Aug. 13 and Nov. 21. Innovative Partners is made up of Jeffrey Milanette, President of Innovative Partners, and Ingrid Rosten, who oversees GreatStart and CleanStart. The results revelead that:

There is general support for establishing a tech incubator in West Sacramento;
The city has the ability to collaborate with the private sector and create an organization that will build many small companies into larger ones, and stimulate West Sacramento's economy and employment;
There are sufficient numbers of tech startups in the region to indicate that "a reasonable level of occupancy" could be achieved and maintained;
There are potential public and private partners, many of which have indicated their willingness to work with the city;
Entrepreneurs support the idea and many said they'd consider applying for admission.
The report recommends the city take a "conservative" step-by-step approach toward establishing an incubator. The city would begin that work in the first quarter of next year and conclude the process in three to five years.

The City will prepare a business plan due by the end of April.
City staff will begin establishing a nonprofit incubation corporation, seek funding for the program and execute contracts for incubation services in June.
Beginning in July, the City will roll out a virtual incubator - one that offers services without the physcal space. If that program is successful, the City will find incubator space.

Good news for Sacramento area tech startups.

Story courtesty of the Sacramento Business Journal

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

No, no and no. Here's a good reason why from Guy Kawasaki:

“Before you even start addressing the hard stuff, never ask a venture capitalist to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). They never do. This is because at any given moment, they are looking at three or four similar deals. They're not about to create legal issues because they sign a NDA and then fund another, similar company--thereby making the paranoid entrepreneur believe the venture capitalist stole his idea. If you even ask them to sign one, you might as well tattoo "I'm clueless!" on your forehead.”

This is an excerpt from his Venture Capitalist Wish list outlining the top ten ways to attract the interest of venture capitalists. Definitely worth a read.

(Thanks, as always, to Funding Universe for the input)

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Marquiss Wind Power, based in Folsom, Calif., an innovator in wind turbine technology, has announced that Paul Misso is the company's new president and CEO.

Misso was formerly director of information technology at Intel, where he managed the company's global network of application development, support and business analysts. He was recruited for his position by Velocity Venture Capital, a fund specializing in early-stage investments in the greater Sacramento region. Velocity Venture Capital led the company's initial round of funding.

"This is an exciting time in the development of clean energy sources," says Misso. "Marquiss has outstanding products that put the power of wind to work to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Our products provide a cost-effective way for all businesses to reduce their power costs and take a step to help our environment."

Courtesy of Alternative Energy Retailer

I and a couple of others met with the guy who developed the initial technology a few years ago and frankly it seemed like way too big a job to turn into a real company. So I give lots of credit to Jack Crawford at Velocity for making it happen. I know it couldn't have been easy.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:35 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Yesterday, in Bob Shallit's column in the Sacramento Bee, he wrote about a New-York based electronics-recycling company, Plastinum Polymer Technologies Corp., that is considering moving its headquarters to Roseville.

Shallit writes:

Plastinum, which opened its first plant in Holland three years ago, boasts of an advanced, environmentally friendly system that separates the various kinds of plastics in old computers and other "e-waste".

Much of that plastic now goes into landfills, (Plastinum spokesman Paul) Hayes says. "But we basically put it into a blender, and we get out reusable plastics and polymers," he says..".....The company's first U.S. plant will cost $5 million to open and employ about 40 people, Hayes says.

Could this be just what California is looking for? Now we have shown we are on the leading edge of the cleantech movement, maybe companies will move to the state because we are cleantech company friendly instead of moving away because we are business hostile. Make some new regs quickly, Arnold!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

From Ask the VC

Q: We have an interested Angel for an investment in our startup LLC. We have a strong lawyer for support. We’d like to submit a draft Term Sheet to, as you say in your blog, “control the paper”. Everything I find online about Angel Term Sheets contemplates shares, which presumes a corporation (vs. an LLC). We expect to give secondary (non-voting) membership as well as putting the investor on an Advisory Board. Can you point to resources that are more appropriate to an LLC structure?
A: (Brad) Your lawyer should be able to quickly crank this out. There’s nothing special about it – just slightly different language given the notion of “members” vs. “shareholders” and the difference in how members rights are allocated / delineated. I don’t know of any generic forms online, but if your lawyer doesn’t have this in a boilerplate form, I’d recommend you revisit the notion that you have “a strong lawyer for support.”
COMMENTS (2)
As an additional resource, you may want to check out the following book. "Term Sheets & Valuations - A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations (Bigwig Briefs) (Paperback)". Term Sheets & Valuations - A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations (Bigwig Briefs)
As Brad indicates, there is probably nothing in there that your lawyer does not already know, but there are a lot of variations on the term sheet theme that may give you some new ideas.

The one additional issue to consider is where your LLC is formed. LLCs are still a bit of an evolving creature and the statutory default provisions are much more limited. Therefore, your LLC operating agreement has to cover a lot more in terms of mechanics and minority protections that would have otherwise been necessary with a corp. This is more of an issue for the party that will be in the minority post deal, which I assume is your investor, but something to keep in mind as discussions continue.

Dimitry Herman , November 8, 2007 5:37 AM
As an angel investor, I'd insist on a C corporation. I'm biased a bit, tho--95% of the companies we fund go on to get institutional capital--which almost always insist on a C corp as well. My advice--think of the future, not just the present.
Also, if a company I was investing in wanted to give me "non-voting" shares, I'd pass on the investment. Remember, it's meant to be a two way street where all parties involved are succesful. At this early stage, it should not be who gets the "best" deal("control the paper", "non-voting", etc).
Knox Massey , November 8, 2007 4:55 PM

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Despite all those dire warnings from industry groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce, California is losing relatively few jobs as a result of businesses relocating to other states, with most business moves involving relocations within the state, according to a recent Public Policy Institute of California study. During the past 15 years, California only lost 11,000 jobs due to business relocations of the state's 18 million jobs (0.06%).

When the governor next considers vetoing all bills that the California Chamber of Commerce has designated as 'hostile to business', which he did this year, he might want to consider the real facts and stop listening to BS.

The Public Policy Institute of California report says other factors are much more influential on the state's employment status.

"Business births, deaths, contractions and expansions have a much greater effect on employment," the report said.

"Establishment relocations within the state are much more common than relocations into and out of the state," the report added. "Among intrastate relocations, short-distance moves are more common than long-distance moves."

"This short-distance pattern suggests that businesses are not moving primarily in search of differently skilled or cheaper labor or a more friendly business climate," the report said. "Rather, it is more consistent with businesses looking to be closer to more productive business clusters, a more affordable real estate market, or workers or customers who have themselves moved toward less expensive real estate."

A good example of this was the Sacramento region which gained 15,000 net jobs between 1992 and 2004. Areas that lost jobs: Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The report concludes by stating: "Although some industries and some regions in the state are not growing as fast as others, California's job growth has kept pace with the nation."

Thank goodness for PPIC and organizations like them that deflate all the 'noise' and present the facts.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Learn from the best how to turn your business idea into a succinct plan that investors will want to read .

Both speakers are partners of well-respected VC funds in Sacramento and both have real-life experience working in startups and both have spent many, many hours working with entrepreneurs.

This is a definite-attend event.

Date: Wednesday, November 7th Time: 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM Location: AOB IV Room 174 (Graduate School of Management Building), UC Davis Campus http://www.cevs.ucdavis.edu/map/

EVERYONE IS WELCOME! Learn the secrets to building a successful business plan. Discover how to commercialize your next great idea. This workshop will present you with valuable tools for creating a business plan. We are pleased to present Dr. Barbara Grant, Managing Director at American River Ventures and Scott Lenet, Managing Director of DFJ Frontier, as presenters for this year's workshop.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS...
Dr. Barbara Grant is a Managing Director of American River Ventures, a $100M, early stage venture capital firm headquartered in Sacramento. Prior to joining ARV in 2004, she was CEO of Siros Technologies, a Silicon Valley start-up company developing laser light sources, where she raised funding from top-tier investors. Prior to joining Siros, Barbara was at IBM for 21 years, where she held numerous executive positions , most recently as VP and General Manager in the Data Storage Solutions Business. Grant and her teams have been responsible for the development and introduction of over 50 new products over the course of her career. She was elected to the inaugural group of the Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 1996.

Scott Lenet is a founder and Managing Director of DFJ Frontier, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliate and early stage technology venture capital fund. At Frontier, he leads fund management, fundraising and portfolio management efforts. Mr. Lenet has significant experience in the technology industry as an entrepreneur and as a venture capitalist. He was the founder and CEO of SmartFrog.com, purchased in 1999 by Cybergold (acquired by UAL).

For more information, visit the Big Bang! web site or email the Big Bang! at bigbang@ucdavis.edu.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Jon Toigo, a disaster recovery expert at Toigo Partners International, has put together nearly 100 disaster recovery plans. His clients include Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) over the past twenty years.

"The bottom line in disaster preparedness is to protect your most irreplaceable assets – your people and your data," said Toigo.

People
Employees will want reassurance and direction. If not, things can fall apart pretty quickly.

As a result, Toigo recommends building solid contact lists. They should include at least five different points of contact -- say, phone numbers, mobile numbers, email, SMS and also information on relatives.

Data
"You may be astonished to learn that nearly 20 percent of small businesses do not back up their data," said Toigo. "With businesses relying on technology now more than ever, it's my job to remind professionals that if you lose your data, you can lose your business."

Thus, he recommends a data back up at least once a week – and there should also be an off-site storage facility.

Fortunately, storage technology is getting much cheaper. For example, Toigo likes small flash drives like Ativa's 8GB system (which can store up to 320,000 pages) and can be put in your pocket when you leave the office.

"The truth is, more than one in four businesses will experience a significant crisis in a given year, and of those businesses that experience a disaster and have no emergency plan, 43 percent never reopen," said Toigo. "But with a plan in place, the overwhelming feeling should be greatly reduced because you'll know you are covered."

Thanks to Tom Taulli of Entrepreneur's Journal

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:46 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

"Even for someone like Anne Mulcahy, who had spent nearly 20 years at Xerox, collating its problems seemed next to impossible when she took over in 2001. At the time, the company was buried in $15 billion of debt and an SEC scandal. Onlookers were sure that Xerox was destined for Chapter 11. Despite this, Mulcahy managed to dig out by drastically cutting the workforce and steadily increasing innovations (they've launched 100 new products in the last three years)." - Fortune.com

Anne Mulcahy, a SacWomen Power Women 50 Index member, has delivered better than most of her male counterparts and handsomely rewarded investors along the way. Since her debut as CEO of Xerox (NYSE symbol XRX) in August 2001, a $10,000 investment in XRX has grown to $21,541 versus $12,464 for the S&P 500 Index.

What exactly has she achieved? Comparing results of 2000, (the year ending before Mulcahy took charge) versus 2006, she has grown:

• book value per share from $3.33 to $7.48;
• return on equity from -12.3% to 17.1%;
• return on assets from -1.0% to 5.6%;
• net profit margins from -1.7% to 7.4%;
• earnings per share from -$.48 to $1.22; and,
• net income from -$273 million to $1.21 billion.

Wow! Those are great results! Anne Mulcahy, job well done!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

A wonderful opportunity to get smart about patents courtesy of the Sacramento County Bar Intellectual Property Section. And free wine too.

Intellectual property rights in today’s information age are not only extremely valuable assets, they are also tools used in a competitive business environment to both shield companies from their competitors' attacks and as swords to gain a competitive advantage. Sophisticated managers wield these tools adeptly. The fundamental changes in patent law in the last five years, however, has dramatically changed the way managers must think about protecting their company's products and methods of doing business. Join us for a discussion about those changes and how one renowned leader in the technology sector is adapting.

About our Speakers
Cindy Faatz is an Assistant Director of Patents at Intel Corporation. Ms. Faatz has worked at Intel for 23 years, where she worked first as an engineer. Since joining the legal team, she was worked in a variety of different roles in the patents and licensing group, including her current focus on overseeing management of the wired and wireless communications patent portfolios.
Professor Amy Landers litigated patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret matters for high technology and Fortune 100 clients prior to joining the faculty at the University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. Professor Landers is authoring Patent Law Fundamentals, which is forthcoming on Westlaw publications.
The Business End of Patents
with
Cindy Faatz, Esq.
Assistant Director of Patents at Intel Corporation
&
Patent Law Primer
Prof. Amy Landers
UOP McGeorge School of Law
Panel from Sacramento’s IP Community Legal
Glen Gross, Esq. | Pamela Bertani, Esq. | Scott Plamondon, Esq. | Daniel Ballard,Esq.

Wednesday, 11/28/2007 at 5:30 - 8:00 pm
Hyatt Regency Sacramento
1209 L Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Complimentary Wine Provided By Coppola Vineyards, Napa
5:30 - 6:15 pm
Please RSVP:

Ian A. Rambarran
Attorney-at-Law
Klinedinst PC
The Forum Building
1107 Ninth Street,
Suite 680
Sacramento, CA 95814
www.klinedinstlaw.com
irambarran@klinedinstlaw.com
Ph: 916-444-7573 (x) 4205
Fax: 916-444-7544

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Power Women 50 Index company spotlight.

What is going on at VMware Inc. (NYSE symbol VMW), a Power Women 50 Index company? Since the IPO price of $29.00 on August 14, 2007, Diane Greene, CEO of VMware, has led this company on an amazing ride. The stock closed today at $120.78, up $8.67 for the day and up 316.5% since the IPO. Results are stunning - with 9 months on the books for 2007, earnings are up 100% compared to the entire twelve months in 2005 ($.40 vs. $.20) and revenue is up 135.9% ($913.3M vs. $387.1M).

Click here for the third quarter results...

About Diane Greene:

Diane Greene is President, CEO and co-founder of VMware. Under Diane's leadership, VMware created the market for mainstream virtualization and VMware definitively leads what is now a virtualization software industry. Diane has held technical leadership positions at Silicon Graphics, Sybase and Tandem and was CEO of VXtreme. Diane's degrees include mechanical engineering, naval architecture and computer science from the University of Vermont, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California Berkeley, respectively. Diane serves on the board of VMware and Intuit.

About VMware:

VMware is the world’s leading provider of virtualization solutions for x86-based servers and desktops. Through a pioneering approach to virtualization, VMware technology works to separate the software from the underlying hardware. This allows a single computer to run multiple operating systems and applications, delivering significant improvements in efficiency, availability, flexibility and manageability.

Founded in 1998, VMware is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices around the world. VMware’s customer base consists of more than 20,000 organizations of all sizes, including 100% of Fortune 100 companies. VMware delivers technology designed to substantially lower IT costs, provide more flexibility in choosing operating systems, and offer a more automated and resilient systems infrastructure capable of responding to variable business demands.

What is the Power Women 50 Index? Click here to read more.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

A quote from an interesting article written by George Skelton in the LA Times about why Governor Schwarzenegger keeps vetoing bills that the California Chamber considers "anti-business".

I called Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto. "The number of companies that move out of state is infinitesimally small," he says. "It doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

"There's been all this debate about competitiveness. 'Do we have to give them regulatory relief? Tax cuts?' We're not competing for a paint factory or low-wage manufacturer. We're competing for talented people who are on the cutting edge and can live and work anyplace. They demand good schools, transportation that moves people, clear air. We compete by making California a great place to live and work.

"That damn well takes investments. Investments cost money. It means money coming from the private sector."

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Congratulations to Revionics, a price optimization company, located in El Dorado Hills. They just received a $7M second round of financing from a top tier VC - Sierra Ventures. This round follows a $3M+ round last year.

The company was founded in 2002 by Jeff Smith, who was part of the founding team of Khimetrics. KhiMetrics was was acquired by SAP in 2005. In September 2006, Todd Michaud, food industry technology veteran, joined Revionics as its President and Chief Executive Officer.

Patience has been the name of the game for Revionics and it appears to be paying off.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

California state CIO J. Clark Kelso told government VARs attending GovernmentVAR's State and Local Roadshow in Sacramento that when it comes to winning IT business from the state, size doesn't matter. What California and other state governments are looking for often isn't the billion dollar IT vendor or integrator, but rather small nimble solution providers that have expertise in applications such as server consolidation and virtualization, web redesign and document management.

With currently 13 California state IT contracts over $10 million and 11,500 under $500,000 there's plenty of room for solution providers of all stripes to cash in. Here are five tips for wining IT business from the state that Kelso gave to solution providers.

1. Learn the state's overall IT strategy and map your solutions to fit the goals.

Kelso said knowing where the state is going with its IT infrastructure helps VARs structure targeted solutions that IT managers can use to solve their problems. The best place to learn the state's grand IT plan is to visit its eServices website www.eservices.ca.gov. Another helpful site is the Department of Technology Services www.dts.ca.gov.

2. Get to know departmental CIOs.

Kelso said that dealing with the state is not that different from working with the private sector. "People buy from people," he said. With 50 percent of California's IT workforce eligible to retire soon, each of the state's 45 departmental IT managers is scrambling over how to modernize systems while keeping existing infrastructure operational. What's more, CIOs have broad discretionary powers to fund smaller IT projects in their departments without putting the deals out to bid.

3. Don't use the term outsourcing when dealing with state.

Kelso warned that the term "outsourcing" is a lightning rod for trouble with civil service unions. Instead he says VARs should couch their proposals by saying, "This is how I can help the state by providing services." As he explains, "I don't use the word 'outsourcing.' We just source."

4. Go green with your proposals.

"Green is good," says Kelso. California and many other states are rapidly mandating green, eco-friendly initiatives. If you can frame server consolidation and virtualization in terms of energy cost savings, for example, you'll be way ahead of the competition.

5. Partner with state IT retirees.

VARs can get better access to what's going on within state departments if they partner with recent IT retirees. Many retire and form their own consulting firms. They have intimate knowledge of the IT needs within their former departments. And more importantly, they have strong relationships with former colleagues. "I'll return their calls," Kelso says of recent state CIO retirees.

Some great advice from the customer himself. Why would you try anything else as a sales tactic?

Reported on the Channel Web Network

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:05 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Do women CEOs outperform men CEOs? We are about to find out.

Introducing the Power Women 50 Index.

The cover story in the current Fortune Magazine (October 15, 2007) features the 50 most powerful women. A quick scan of the list includes twelve CEOs of publicly traded companies (today's closing share price and stock symbol are provided):

For the complete list, visit Our 4-Hour Workweek website.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Pretty soon after you come up with that brilliant idea for a new company, you are going to be looking for a laywer. Too bad that our litigious society has made it a necessity, but a necessity it is. If your idea is hot, you might even get pursued by several law firms who will offer 'special deals' to you. My advice: ask other successful entrepreneurs who they used, gather several names, and then go interview each and everyone of them. Choose the one you trust and you will enjoy working with - because you will be working with them closely for a long time. Hopefully that is the one for which you received the most recommendations and who has the most experience working with startups in your field.

No doubt, you will be courted by the senior partner. Make sure that when you seal the deal, that isn't the last time you spend any significant time with him/her. There is a tendency in many law firms to have the senior guy seal the deal and then pass you off right away to a lowly associate. That is definitely not what you bargained for.

Make sure you don't bargain away a significant part of your startup for free legal work upfront. Ask around and find out the range that others gave up. If you do the math later on and figure out you were paying $1000 an hour for work that normally costs $300, that wasn't a good deal. But you should be prepared to pay a slight uplift based on the law firm's willingness to take a risk on your startup.

Check out Guy Kawasaki's Top Ten (Sixteen) Lies of Lawyers for helpful advice and useful warnings!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Marquiss Wind Power, an innovator in wind turbine technology, this week announced the appointment of former senior Intel and FLEXTRONICS executive Paul Misso as its new president and chief executive officer.

He will oversee Marquiss' operations, including product development, sales, marketing, financing and supply chain management.

"This is an exciting time in the development of clean energy sources," Misso said. "Marquiss has outstanding products that put the power of wind to work to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Our products provide a cost effective way for all businesses to reduce their power costs and take a step to help our environment."

As Director of IT for Intel, Misso managed application development, support, and business analysts around the globe, including teams in the U.S., UK, China, India, Japan, Mexico, Central Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Velocity Venture Capital, a fund specializing in early stage investments in the greater Sacramento region, led the company's initial round of funding.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

9 Tips On Conducting Fabulous Meetings
1. Have fewer meetings!

Many regularly scheduled group meetings are unnecessary. Often a telephone call, memo or e-mail will suffice and is a better solution.

Meetings involving several staff members are very expensive. Just compute the hourly cost. You will be amazed! Clearly, it makes economic sense to only schedule meetings that are absolutely necessary.

2. Limit attendance.

Invite only the people who are absolutely necessary to the outcome of the meeting.

3. Start and stop meetings on a strict timetable.

Whether or not some people arrive late, start and stop at the scheduled time regardless.

4. Limit the time of the meeting.

Keep most meetings to 30 minutes. Only if absolutely necessary go to 45 minutes. In rare cases go to 60 minutes, or 90 minutes. If a subject is not covered within the scheduled time, simply shelve it to the next meeting.

5. Plan the meetings carefully.

Distribute a meeting agenda at least a day in advance. List the subjects of discussion. The decisions which need to be made. Who is responsible to implement the decision. The agreed upon completion date.

6. Preparation is critical for all attendees. .

Ask participants to prepare in advance for their part of the meeting agenda

7. Appoint a person to keep notes of the meeting.

Ideally, keeping meeting notes is a rotating responsibility. Distribute the notes within 24 hours of the meeting. Tape record the meeting to be sure you have a record of what transpired. Especially important is the action to be taken. Who has agreed to do what by when?

8. Avoid the so-called open door policy.

This is highly overrated. Do not conduct most one-on- one meetings in your office.

Some people just don't seem to know when to leave your work area and thus waste a lot of your time with small talk.

Instead, stop by the employee's office. Conduct your business. Then politely terminate the meeting and leave. You are much more in control of your time visiting an employee.

9. Use meeting performance as an important part of your periodic employee evaluations.

An evaluation can be an ideal time to communicate with an employee as to whether or not they are "getting it" insofar as your meeting culture.

Author: Ted Nicholas

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:24 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Are you looking for tools to develop your next generation of leaders? If so join Sonoma Learning Systems for the The Leadership Challenge® Preview. This free seminar is based on the best selling book The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. Those who attend will gain insight into the Leadership Challenge, the worlds most trusted resource for developing better leaders.

Organizations both public and private are using the Leadership Challenge as a tool to build their bench strength of leaders. Whether you work for an entrepreneurial start-up or a major international conglomerate, the solution to bringing your workforce to the next level is the Leadership Challenge. Join us!

When: October 12th, 2007 (8:30 AM – 12:00 PM)
Where: The Sacramento Residence Inn Marriot, 1501 L Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Cost: FREE (Limited to the first 60 people who sign-up)
Register

I agreed to plug this event because I have been very impressed by those who have gone through it and the person who asked me is an impressive graduate of the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy and works at Sonoma Learning Systems. I am picky as to what or whom I plug, but this made the criteria, without question.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:03 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Sacramento Business Journal - 11:15 AM PDT Thursday, September 20, 2007
by Celia LambStaff writer

Two fuel cell companies, one based in Folsom and the other based in Westwood, Mass., and headed by the chairman of a Sacramento clean-technology business incubator, have agreed to partner on developing mobile fuel cell systems for military and commercial markets.

Jadoo Power Systems and Acumentrics Corp. want to make small-scale generators for mobile command-and-control centers, remote power backup a portable generator for emergency services, construction and recreational equipment markets. They plan to combine Acumentrics' solid-oxide fuel cells with Jadoo Power's N-Stor fuel canisters.

"Providing generators that are silent, clean and efficient and can operate on conventional fuels like propane is a winning product that can replace light-duty generators," said Jadoo Power chief executive officer Lee Arikara.

Acumentrics' chief executive officer Gary Simon is also chairman of CleanStart, a clean technology incubator in McClellan Park.

"...the Acumentrics Jadoo system is expected to double the run time of the current 500 pounds of batteries carried by soldiers for a five day recon mission, weigh 80 percent less (including fuel), and operate silently," Simon said in the press release. "Silence is very important. Small generators give away our soldiers' position."

The combined system is designed to work for equipment that needs 5,000 watts or less. The two companies expect to begin evaluating applications of the new unit with prospective users in the first quarter of 2009.

This is a great outcome that I am sure was based on introductions made through CleanStart. Let's hope many more come from this great organization.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Online social networking phenomenon Facebook Inc announced that its backers have created an unusual $10 million fund to dole out grants to start-ups with ideas for innovative Facebook applications.

Facebook is working with its primary venture backers, Accel Capital and The Founders Fund, to create a way for people with new ideas to receive an initial funding grant of $25,000 to $250,000. The grant will not require the entrepreneur to give up any equity in his business, unlike the usual requirement of venture capitalists.

"We are looking for innovative and disruptive things," Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said of projects the grants might fund.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:48 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The five fatal flaws are:

1. Inability to learn from mistakes

What's interesting about this flaw is that the research indicates that "derailed executives made about the same number of mistakes as those whose careers continued onward and upward." Derailed executives, however, did not use setbacks or failures in an assignment as a learning experience. As a result, they continued to make the same type of mistakes over and over again. These type of executives tend to try to cover up failures and don't take steps to correct the mistakes for fear of being found out. The most common refrain of Board members or the derailed execs boss is, "We tried to tell him, but he would not listen." I constantly tell aspiring leaders: Successful people aren't perfect, they fail a lot because they take risks and, they make course correction fast when they are wrong.

2. Lack of core interpersonal skills and competencies

The lack of core interpersonal skills cannot be surmounted by any "combination of intelligence, hard work, business acumen and administrative skill." Zenger & Folkman list the "basic human skills" as:

When you talk to people, look them in the eyes.
Learn and use people's names.
When talking with people, say or do things that let the other person know you are listening and understanding.
Do not dominate the conversation and talk all the "air time."
Sincerely inquire about others' ideas and activities.
Laugh at others' jokes and attempts at humor.
Praise others' hard work and efforts in furthering a good cause.
Smile when meeting and greeting other people.
You may look at the list and wonder how anyone couldn't do the above. Unfortunately, the prevalence of interpersonal ineptness keeps a lot of developmental coaches very well employed. It's not without reason that the saying "we hire people for their technical competence and fire them for their interpersonal incompetence," has become a cliche.

3. Lack of openness to new or different ideas

This particular flaw is a major de-motivator for subordinates because they will feel "ignored, their ideas unappreciated and their contributions undervalued." Furthermore, the organization becomes stuck. New ideas are "squelched and people stop thinking about better ways to do things." The upshot is that talented people get frustrated with these types of leaders and leave for greener pastures. The organization then becomes ladened with "yes men" who are fearful and will not take any risks. Zenger & Folkman characterize these type of leaders as "arrogant and complacent." They feel threatened by good ideas coming from others but cover that up by the delusion that they are brilliant.

4. Lack of accountability

Executives who exhibit this characteristic tend to find fault in everybody else. They set the bar impossibly high for everyone else but themselves. Some are adept at scapegoating. Frequently they blame their bosses or others behind their backs. This flaw goes beyond the minimum requirement of accepting responsibility for one's personal behavior to that of "not assuming complete responsibility for the performance of a work group" or the organization. Effective leaders make decisions and accept responsibility for the results of those decisions. Effective leaders accept criticism for mistakes from upper management and "buffer" their subordinates "from excessive criticism." They pass along "praise and credit" for ideas and things produced by others under their direction. They put the "organizational goals ahead of their own department or unit." They place "more emphasis on acting responsibly than on their desires for power and authority." The "buck stops with them."

5. Lack of initiative

Lack of initiative is the failure to "make things happen." Effective leaders do not wait to see what happens and then responds. Effective leaders ask questions like:

What is missing that would make a big difference?
What could I do that would make a significant difference to the performance of my team or organization?
They then take steps to make those things happen.

What's interesting about all of these flaws is that they are basically "sins of omission." The are "marked primarily by an inability to do something."

Can the flaws be corrected? That depends. It depends on four critical factors. All four must be present:

1. The individuals willingness and capacity to acknowledge and accept critical feedback.

2. The individuals commitment to work on making the necessary changes over time. No silver bullets and quick cures because it will take time to convince others that the individual has made lasting changes.

3. The organization's willingness to give the person a second chance and to not harbor ill feelings. Key stockholders have to be able to forgive the flawed executive and give him/her a real chance to succeed. They need to be willing to forget past "sins" if the person makes real changes.

4. The organization's leadership willingness to allow sufficient time for the individual to make the necessary changes knowing that it's impossible for the change process to be a perfect linear progression upwards but instead is more likely a series of 2 steps forward with the inevitable one or more steps backward.

At the senior level most executive have the capacity to make the necessary changes. The real hurdle is - do they have the guts and stamina to work hard to make the changes? And, no matter how committed the individual is to changing, if their bosses aren't committed to giving them the necessary time, they are doomed. How much time? Minimum 6 usually 12 sometimes 18 months and that's assuming that they are only exhibiting one of the flaws. If they have more than one of the fatal flaws - even I would be hesitant to take on the challenge of coaching them?

By Carl Robinson, Ph.D. copyright 2007

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The Internet is the great level playing field. It gives everyone a voice. It provides information to all. It is the same internet for the CEO of the largest company and the young child in the poorest neighborhood who has access. And now this great treasure is in danger of being regulated and those who can pay more will get more and the leftovers will be for those who can't pay. Or maybe, over time, there will be no more free usage at all.

I urge each of you to watch the video below, learn about the impact that the loss of net neutrality will have. And if you believe as I do, that things should be left the way they are, please contact your congressperson and senator and urge them to defeat this attack once and for all.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:04 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

In a world where markets change in nanoseconds, up-to-date knowledge is a major source of competitive advantage. Business owners are often so wrapped up in the day-to-day issues facing them that it’s hard to keep up operationally, let alone strategically. This can stymie the ability of the business to grow, complicate decision-making to the detriment of the business, and keep the company from recognizing new, profitable ideas. Is there a creative and cost-effective solution to this problem?

Setting up an Advisory Board of experienced industry executives can provide a significant advantage over competitors that are relying solely on internal talent. For businesses, no matter the size or stage, an experienced and well-connected board of advisors can help your business grow and prosper in ways you’ve never imagined.

As more and more executives who have successfully led companies to lucrative exits, are retiring and looking for something meaningful to do on a part-time basis, you can put their vast talent and experience to work for your company – and at a surprisingly reasonable cost.

What is an Advisory Board?
An advisory board is an outside group that is informally organized to provide business owners and corporate leaders with support, advice and

Continue reading "Competitive Advantage 101: Create a Successful Advisory Board" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

SynapSense Corporation, a leading provider of wireless instrumentation solutions, based in Folsom, CA, has received $10 million in a series B financing round. The funding is led by Emerald Technology Ventures, with participation by all current SynapSense investors including Sacramento VC firms— American River Ventures and DFJ Frontier. The company will use proceeds from this financing to expand all corporate operations supporting its data center market initiatives.

SynapSense also introduced the SynapSense Wireless Green Data Center Solution. This initial product offering from SynapSense enables green data centers to dramatically reduce energy costs and carbon footprint while optimizing data center operational efficiencies. Customers have found that the SynapSense Wireless Green Data Center Solution provides data center operators up to one million vital signs per day, which can enable savings of up to 30 percent of energy costs by providing new data intelligence, triangulation and tools to monitor and react to actual data center conditions.

The SynapSense Wireless Green Data Center Solution is already deployed globally in numerous data centers operated by major companies. IBM, the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group are among the early proponents of SynapSense’s technology.

SynapSense was formed in May 2006 by Peter Van Deventer, a former Intel Corporation sales and marketing executive, and Dr. Raju Pandey, a University of California Davis Computer Science professor who is SynapSense’s Chief Technology Officer. The company’s solutions can be found in numerous Fortune 500 companies, and extend beyond the data center to providing wireless instrumentation solutions to the entire enterprise.

Could this be the first traditional technology company that is also a green technology company. Exciting stuff - a home-grown startup with lots of promise.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

I discovered Martin Neumann's tutorial on subscription feeds. Take a moment to read about RSS and listen to his podcast. And when you finish with the podcast, find our RSS subscription area on the bottom left column of our website and subscribe to Sacramento Executive.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 5:44 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Indeed is a job site with a difference. Not only can you search for a job in a specific area, by title, by keywords, by company name, etc., you can also search for companyies that have specific criteria and then search for open jobs at those companies.

We got a recommendation from someone who used the site and found a great job in pretty short order.

Indeed is continually crawling millions of corporate websites as well as other online sources, such as SEC filings, to find the information required.

And if you have jobs to fill, you can have them listed on Indeed. You just provide a link to the open reqs poriton of your website.

All this - and it's free too.

There's no excuse not to be constantly checking what else is out there.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

We started this blog almost two years ago - wow, how time flies! Having a robust and up-to-date email list is an important part of what we do. We started with a great one gathered from the several years of working with startups in the Sacramento area. And whenever we found time, we would add the stack of business cards we had collected. And we had our emails listed on the website, but no one ever sent us a request to be added to our email list.

A few weeks ago, we were doing some updates on the site and decided to be a little more specific about how you could join our invite list. We added a note promimently on the site to specifically say, if you want to be added to our invite list, send us an email. You wouldn't believe the number of people who have sent us requests to do. Wow, how simple was that and how easy to overlook! And imagine the quality, these people want to be on the mailing list!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

I love innovation and am always interested in how companies innovate (the company I work for hasn't yet adopted this tenet). Gillian is at our lakehouse, relaxing, surfing the net and came across the following article from Dublin's Sunday Tribune, August 8, 2007. Imagine a few interns join your team for the summer and come up with an idea. How would your company react? Embrace their idea or blow it off? Well Big Blue isn't blowing it off. Big Blue is not the IBM I left in the 1990's. They get it. They are innovators.

STUDENTS on work experience in IBM's Dublin innovation lab have come up with a new way of reading your emails, checking your digital diary, and perusing your favourite online news feeds all on the move.

It's called PodSmart, and it works by translating all the above information into audio files to be listened to on a digital player or mobile phone.

IBM likes the text-to-speech personal podcasting idea so much it's planning to incorporate the technology into the latest edition of its new office productivity suite, Lotus Notes 8, and is sharing the patents with Irish students Edward Mackle, Keith Pilson, Declan Tarrant and Eamon Phelan who came up with the "corporate mashup".

"This is like creating your own personal radio station to listen to on the way to work in the car or on the train, " says IBM software architect and project manager Michael Roche. "Instead of listening to Today FM or Radio 1, you can listen to a programme telling you your calendar appointments for the day, email summary, the list of contacts you'll need, internet and internal company newsfeeds, and whether anyone on your Bebo or LinkedIn watchlist published anything overnight . . . all interspersed with your own music."

The java-based PodSmart application can be customised to read web-based emails and calendars. The user connects her MP3 player to a computer and uses the PodSmart software to automate which data she wants transferred into audio files and sent to the music device. This action can be timed so newsfeeds and email summaries may be copied across to an iPod or other MP3 player minutes before picking it up and leaving the house for work.

Although voice server technologies have been around for a while, IBM claims there's nothing like PodSmart on the market right now, and its use of tagging . . . semantically searchable notes attached to files the same way a music file has artist, date, and album information affixed . . . makes its approach more familiar and easier to use, such as skipping unwanted messages. The readback voice is personalised rather than a monotonous 'Stephen Hawking' voice, and IBM is also working on translation software that will read out, say, a Spanish email in English and vice versa.

Roche says IBM is planning for new uses of technology in the workplace.

"What we're seeing is 20year-olds coming into the workforce who are not happy doing things the traditional way. These people have grown up through a connected world and workplace collaborative technologies have to reflect that. User interfaces will have to be more functional and user-friendly than old ways of doing email and collaborative technology. They're saying things like: 'why should my online social network stop at the doorstep of the office?'" IBM's open source approach to software development means it is likely to open up its Lotus and PodSmart products to external software developers to tinker with RSS feeds, Atomfeeds, and Instant Messenger integration for PodSmart.

The next step for IBM will be making its PodSmart technology 'live', so that handheld devices with wi-fi or 3G connectivity can connect to mail servers on the go and read back emails or news feeds as they are received on the host account

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 3:47 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

Clean-technology companies that open in the former Sacramento Army Depot could save a little more green -- as in money.

The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an effort to market the area's existing enterprise zone to clean-energy companies and to help develop the Sacramento region as a green-technology hub.

About 80 "clean-tech" companies -- such as Altergy Systems and Jadoo Power Systems Inc. -- operate in the four-county region. City officials and economic leaders are hoping to attract others and become the center for the fast-growing industry.

The area in south Sacramento already has an enterprise zone designation, allowing qualified companies to enjoy tax credits for equipment purchases, sales-tax rebates and the hiring of some workers.

"Our region is well positioned to become the clean energy capital ...," Michael Faust, senior vice president of public policy and advocacy for the Sacramento Metro Chamber, told the council on Tuesday. "This will be the significant industry of the future."

The chamber aims to bring -- or create -- 20,000 direct and indirect clean-energy jobs to the region by 2015.

"Not only do we believe this number is achievable, the Metro Chamber believes it can and will be the bedrock of the next tidal wave of economic development in our region," Faust said.

Analysts say the clean-energy industry is expected to increase from $16 billion in sales this year to more than $100 billion by 2015.

Congratulations to a small group of business people led by two of my favorites for getting things done, Mark Henwood and Gary Simon. Looks like you got a whole lot of people on board your bus and it's shifting into third gear and Ingrid Rosten is doing a great job keeping the vehicle gassed up!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

I dash into Victoria's Secret to buy a few new bras. (I really have to remember not to put them in the washer and dryer!) I know what style I like and I know what size I take. I plan on this only taking a few minutes. I go to the usual display and no bras in my size and a note saying that they now only make this style in smaller sizes. What the hell? Aren't we all getting fatter, shouldn't they be dropping the smaller sizes? I call over the manager. She confirms my suspicions. Tells me that others have been upset about it too. I ask her if this was a big seller and she confirms it was the best selling line the store carried. So I ask her why on earth they would stop making it. She confirms that they must be crazy and says I should write a letter to Corporate.

So, here I am, a great customer and they have done away with not only my favorite style in my required size, but they have also done away with a best selling line in many sizes. Shouldn't Corporate be hearing about this? What are the chances I am going to go home and write to them. Well, it is me, so it's possible. But the chances of all of their upset customers letting them know is very low. So, why not have a form right there in the store that I can fill out and they will send to Corporate, or a form that can be folded into a stamped addressed envelope that I can take home and send to Corporate? If it was your company, wouldn't you want to know all the feedback good and bad from a customer.

Great companies make it easy for customers to give feedback. Don't you want to have a great company?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Fuel cell firm Jadoo Power Systems has appointed a new president and CEO to replace current CEO Larry Bawden. Mr. Bawden has decided to spend more time with his family. Mr. Arikara formerly served as VP of Business Development and was a co-founder of the company with Mr. Bawden.

Mr Bawden will continue to serve as chairman of the Board of the company.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Here are the facts:

Women own nearly half of all privately held companies - an increase of 20% compared to the overall total increaseof 9%. That's progress.

Men get 90% of the funds handed out by Angel investors. But before you label the Angels investment organizations sexist pigs, the research shows that only 8.9% of the applications come from women. Once the pitch is made, women do almost equally as well as men in securing funding (13.3% vs. 14.8%).

Lessons learned:

Pitching to Angel groups generates a low chance of getting funding, but pretty equally low for women and men. Get your pitch together, try to get recommended (and coached) by a member of the group and go for it. If you don't apply, you miss out on a 13% chance of getting funding.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Hat tip to Justin Ewers at US News and World Report

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Entrepreneur.com has launched Entrepreneur Assist, described as a full suite of online productivity tools and services designed to assist entrepreneurs with day-to-day business activities.

Free registration allows access to all of the tools, including word processing, spreadsheet and presentation programs; business plan templates; hundreds of customizable business forms; a full library of downloadable business books, a project planning calendar and more. Entrepreneur Assist also allows users to share, store and collaborate on documents online with colleagues.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:08 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

INVENTIVE Japan grants more patents than any other country. In 2002-05, on average 1,213 were given out for every million people, according to data collected for 82 countries by the Economist Intelligence Unit. But this impressive number is partly explained by multiple counting: each part of a new product required a separate patent application. Elsewhere, the parts would all be submitted in one. Generally, small countries grant the most patents. Switzerland, Sweden and Finland benefit from clusters of world-class companies in high-tech sectors and a highly educated workforce. Israel can thank its well-educated immigrants. Crumbling Cuba grants more patents than fast-growing India or China, though both countries are better known for their ability to copy, rather than create, intellectual property.

Source: The Economist

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:29 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

From Colliers International, here is the list of most downtown office space under construction in Q1'07:

Washington, DC
New York, NY - Downtown Manhattan
New York, NY - Midtown Manhattan
Chicago, IL
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
Charlotte, NC
Atlanta, GA
Philadelphia, PA
Sacramento, CA

And here's the list for most suburban office space under construction in Q1'07:

Phoenix, AZ
Washington, DC - N. Virginia
Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
New Jersey - Northern
Seattle, WA
Atlanta, GA
Orange County, CA
San Diego County, CA
Houston, TX
West Palm Beach, FL
Miami, FL
Sacramento, CA

Rents continued to increase in 2007. Sacramento has the 19th most expensive downtown office rent.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Under new rules that the Small Business Administration is set to adopt, women-owned small businesses would be given the same preferences in bidding for federal contracts that are available to businesses considered to be disadvantaged. The rules would apply to contracts worth less than $3 million and would allow agencies to restrict competition for such contracts to businesses owned primarily by women.

Source: American City Business Journals/Washington (7/20)

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal discussing how business travel time will increase again this year while more and more employees are trying to negotiate less. Featured is Donald Kowall of Sacramento who 'traveled more than 100,000 miles a year for his work as an information-technology consultant.'

How do you feel about business travel. Are the packed planes and the absymal airline customer service getting to you? Last week we ended up in Row 26 despite our platinum and gold membership levels - this on a flight we had booked 7 months earlier with confirmed seats in Row 9. To their credit, American Airlines sent us 4000 miles each and a profuse apology, but frankly I would much rather have had my row 9 seat. Air travel, whether for business or pleasure isn't fun anymore...and getting worse.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:17 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

The Central Valley Fund, a private investment firm focused on mid to later stage Central Valley companies, today announced a mezzanine investment of $1.65M in Administrative Systems, Inc. ("ASI").

The capital will be used by ASI to help finance its strategic growth initiatives, including the launch of ASIOne, a next generation, web-based Benefits Payments solution.

ASI provides employee benefits disbursement software and service solutions to many of the nation's major financial institutions and unions. In 2006, ASI processed over $12 billion in employee benefit payments for its clients.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Interviewing a potential new CEO? Here are some questions that could give you some amazing insight into the leadership skills of the candidate.

How do you lead organizations?
How do you set priorities?
How do you pay attention to your core constituencies?
How do you paint a drection?
How do you create a team spirit where everyone feels engaged?
How do you motivate large employee bases?
How do you put in place processes to get things done?

Remember, leaders build consent. Others seek consensus. Make sure you are getting a true leader for your organization.

(Credit for inspiration: Cheryl Hall, Dallas Morning News on Dallas' new mayor elect, Tom Leppert)

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

From a recent Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy graduate (who impressed us all greatly during the past year) who has joined forces with his Dad to make a movie. If anyone pull this off, it would be Troy, and the guy who raised such an amazing young man.

Local film maker, Sasquatch Entertainment , is currently looking for an Executive Producer for its full-length feature film, Xtra Space. It has the talent. It has the crew. And now, it seeks the funding. Be a part of the budding film-production industry in Northern California, and be proud that this successful film will use all local talents, right here from the Sacramento Area.

As an Executive Producer, you may not have all of the needed capital, but you know people who do. By introducing the investors to the film-production company, you not only play a huge part in the film’s success, but you enjoy the “Executive Producer,” front-credit that accompanies it. Sasquatch is offering a generous percentage-based compensation as well. In addition, product-placement opportunities are also available for investors. To learn more about Xtra Space, please visit www.sasquatchentertainment.com, or email Troy Keon, Vice President of Sasquatch Entertainment at troy@sasquatchentertainment.com. Business plan, brilliant script, storyboards and a complete budget are all available upon request.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Pierre has been in Dubai on business and I have been in Austin visiting a long-time friend. Why is it that when Pierre calls from Dubai, the connection is 100 times clearer than when he calls me from Dallas when I am in Dallas? Is Dubai way ahead on telephone technology too?
Pierre is back tonight and I am sure he will have some pretty interesting photos to share on this site..but then again, maybe he slept the whole time he was there, except for his 2 meetings. To fly 48 hours there and 48 hours back and be there for 48 hours probably didn't leave a lot of time for snapping pictures! But I do know he went to the indoor ski slope!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

"Twenty years ago, when there was a labor shortage in the technology industry, technology firms routinely hired unqualified Americans and trained the hell out of them. Music and sociology majors were transformed into top-notch programmers. Now the only people who benefit from extensive training are H-1Bs," said Donna Conroy, director of brightfuturejobs.org, a white-collar lobbying organization, and a former tech pro. Conroy has been lobbying against expanding the H-1B visa hiring program for several years. (www.eweek.com). Check out the largest H-1B visa employers.

Technical skills stand out as the spot where the biggest chunk of chief information officers—25%—say their staff could most use improvement, in a survey released this week by recruiter Robert Half Technology. Project management skills run a close second, with 23% of the 1,400 CIOs polled indicating that's where they'd like to see their people improve.

The typical full-time computer professional last year averaged 42 hours, 24 minutes per week on the job—at the office, on the road and at home, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A CIO Insight analysis of U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows there was a loss of 75,000 women in the IT ranks from 2000 to 2006. Some people suggest women no longer find IT an attractive career because long hours on the job takes them away from their families.

The 2010 CIO is expected to be more of a leader than a manager. Tasks that previously burdened IT leaders—such as managing IT projects and infrastructure—will be easier to delegate, allowing the CIO to resurface as a strategist, relationship architect and leader, highly visible to business and upper management. (Courtesy eWeek)

Number 1 of the Top 100 CIOs. Yep, it's a woman.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:05 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Local tech startup entrepreneur Adam Kalsey has had his company, Feed Crier, acquired by IMified.

It all started when the two companies started working together and they liked each other so much and the products fit so well that it ended up with Adam and his company becoming a part of IMified. Adam's company, Feed Crier, allows RSS feeds from sites directly to your IM system. No details on the price paid.

Adam has been a big booster of technology startup activity in Sacramento hosting monthly dinners for local startup founders and currently planning for Bar Camp on June 2nd and 3rd.

I hope his new responsibilities will still leave him time to continue his entrepreneurial activities in this important area. Knowing his energy and passion, I am sure he will make it a priority.

See, sometimes good things do happen to good people. Congrats Adam.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:42 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Eighteen months ago I heard Doug Bush, the CTO of Intel, talk about Intel's foray into the healthcare arena - from a technology point of view, of course. And then he talked about products that seemed so marginal as to be completely irrelevant. I remember some discussion about a light that turns on in a distant senior relative's house when the family comes home every night - to make them feel included, remotely?

But today, I thought of that moment and wished that Intel had chosen to take a big bite out of this industry that is so antiquated technology-wise. I was sitting, not for the first time, in a doctor's office filling out all of the same information for the nth time in my life. Now, when was that appendectomy? Oh, when I was 7. If I had a dollar for every time I have provided that information, I could pay for the doctor to come to my house, sit in my waiting room for hours on end, and fill out my forms for me.

I am aware that there are privacy concerns, but why can't we have a system that allows for me to input all of my pertinent information just one time and then carry it around with me - either on paper or on a disc or a bracelet or a chip planted under my skin. All that would require would be for medical professionals to standardize on one form - one that hopefully has boxes big enough to actually allow the information requested to be added. So, when the office says, "remember to bring your health insurance card," they could add "and your PMI - personal medical information- and make sure it's updated!"

Because frankly, I am done with filling out these stupid forms. And if Intel doesn't want this idea, then maybe I could start a company that figures it out really fast.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

According to a study released today by Media Matters for America at least 77 percent of the 2,150 guests who appeared on the four major Sunday shows in 2005-06 were men; at least 82 percent were white. On Meet the Press and Face the Nation, there were nearly nine white guests for every guest of another race/ethnicity.

No wonder Katie Couric is floundering over at CBS News. Getting news from a woman is just not what we are used to.

Thank you Media Matters for pointing this out. And please come investigate pretty much every other part of society - see Pierre's post on the CEO's of Dallas from yesterday. And maybe, just maybe, there's a reason we have seen so many high profile women fall from grace - Carly Fiorina from HP, as an example. It's pretty hard to thrive in a world that is built by men for men. Let's support the Women's Media Center, who are trying to do something about the lack of diversity in media. As Jane Fonda, a Women's Media Center Board Member so rightly says, "When the media does not reflect the vibrant diversity of the people on this planet, both the quality of journalism and the quality of our democracy suffer." And she says further, "Because you can’t tell the whole story when you leave out half the population".

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

California's State and Local Government
Market Briefing Luncheon
Expand Your Knowledge of the California IT Landscape

You are cordially invited to a complimentary market briefing on the state of the California IT landscape, the largest IT spending state in the nation with a record $5.3 billion forecasted for 2007. California is a technology innovator, committed heavily to IT investments and its role in improving efficiencies and constituent services.

Hear first-hand from government and industry leaders on where California dollars will be spent and how your solutions and services can benefit from the tremendous technology demand fueled by current IT initiatives.

Don't miss this opportunity to get key insight into California's IT plans and priorities and the big-impact trends and opportunities you need to know to successfully sell into the California state and local IT market.
Fast Facts:
#1 in State IT Budget: $5.3 Billion
378,360 Government Employees
58 Counties
650 Cities
*Source: Center for Digital Government
________________________________________

FEATURED SPEAKERS:

J. Clark Kelso
Chief Information Officer
State of California

Don Pearson
Publisher, Government Technology magazine
Senior Fellow, The Center for Digital Government

Todd Sander
Deputy Director
The Center for Digital Government

Location:

Hyatt Regency Sacramento
1209 L Street
Sacramento, CA

Complimentary buffet lunch included.

Register

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:21 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Davis-based biopesticide company, Marrone Organics, has raised $3.75M in an over-subscribed Series A round. The leading investor was Clean Pacific Ventures of Mill Valley. The only local fund to participate was Wavepoint Ventures of El Dorado Hills. Wavepoint is made up of several members of the old Capitol Valley Venture fund.

Other investors include One Earth Capital, Saffron Hill Ventures, and Calvert Social Investment Fund. The Sacramento Angels and other local investors also took part in the round.

Congratulations to CEO and founder Pam Marrone and her team who are off to a great start.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

It's Sunday and I am reading the New York Times. As I skim through the real estate section, the word Sacramento jumps from the page. I stop to read. The story is about what's on the market around the country in the $800K range. Lo and behold, there is a Sacramento 'cottage' located on 42nd Street in Sacramento - 1900 square feet, built in 1922, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, $839,000 etc. etc. Nothing exceptional there. And then I read who the listing agent is: Caroline Jensen of Coldwell Banker. My friend, this website's sponsor, that Caroline Jensen. The Caroline Jensen who sold our house in Sacramento in one weekend. One of only 5 agents around the whole country picked for this story in the New York Times.

Well, Caroline, I always knew you were a step above the rest, but this is proof positive. Great job.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

What an interesting speech Darian Rodriguez Heyman, Executive Director of the Craigslist Foundation, gave at the annual Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy's Showcase event. It was one of those speeches that makes you reach for a pen and a scrap of paper and scribble all over it because you don't want to miss even one of the great nuggets.

Darian talked about his life goal to maximize his sphere of positive influence. What a fabulous thought. What about if every time we considered doing something we asked ourselves that question, "Is this going to maximize my sphere of positive influence?" I think we would live very different lives.

Darian also talked about companies managing themselves on the triple bottom line - profit, community and environment. What a different way companies might conduct themselves if the last two measures mattered on Wall Street as much as the first.

He recommended a book called "How to Change the World". Later I researched it:

HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD tells the stories of people around the globe who are solving many of the world's most intractable problems. Full of hope and energy, exciting solutions and compelling characters, this book shows how a growing wave of "social entrepreneurs"- individuals with initiative, creativity, savvy and determination- are reshaping the world for the better.

He talked about Youth Venture (getting youth to help give away grant money). And today I got an email on this very subject:

The Administration for Children and Families is piloting a program to give college undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to review and make recommendations on the award of grant application for federal funding. At this time, this pilot project is limited to six area colleges and universities in the Washington DC. Even though the pool of schools is limited this year , we want to make you aware of the effort beginning across Federal Departments to include youth in the review process of grant applications. And he discussed putting youth at the Board level and training them to be active (and savvy) philanthropists in the future.

What a wonderful and inspiring speech. Thanks Darian. You have a lot of people thinking in Sacramento.

The Craigslist Foundation runs an annual Non-Profit Bootcamp in NYC and San Francisco. Here is a snippet about last year's event:

In 2006, Nonprofit Boot Camps in the SF Bay Area and in NYC attracted over 2,500 emerging and established nonprofit leaders for a day of workshops, keynotes, one-on-one coaching and professional development. The event earned a 97% approval rating and was the largest nonprofit gathering in Bay Area history for the second year in a row.

If you are interested in attending or sponsoring this world-changing event, (San Francisco is scheduled for August 18th), please let Darian know we sent you. It's part of maximizing the Sacramento Executive's sphere of positive influence!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Courtesy of bizjournals.com

J.D. Stack has been named chief executive officer of the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance.

Stack has served the Sacramento Municipal Utility District as its economic development program manager since 1993. He's been a member of the SARTA board since 2005.

Stack will replace Oleg Kaganovich, who joined the nonprofit organization in 2003 as executive director and chief operating officer. Kaganovich, who will join venture capital fund DFJ Frontier as principal in its West Sacramento office, was promoted to chief executive officer in 2005.

Stack has been active with several local entrepreneurial development initiatives, including the McClellan Technology Incubator, CleanStart and Partnership for Prosperity.

CleanStart is a renewable-energy business incubator that's an initiative of MTI and SARTA. It was created from an innovative needs assessment study that was jointly funded and managed by the California Energy Commission, SMUD and MTI. Partnership for Prosperity is a proactive economic development plan for the Sacramento region launched in part by the Sacramento Metro Chamber.

"I'm proud to join SARTA to be part of a team helping drive technology business development in the area," Stack said in a news release.

"The Sacramento region is now recognized as a great place for tech companies to establish, grow and succeed, and I am looking forward to the opportunities presented by SARTA that allow me to share this vision with others," he added.

SARTA, a tech-focused public-private partnership with a mission to accelerate the growth and development of the tech sector in Greater Sacramento, is directed by a 45-person board of directors. The board consists of regional leaders of academic institutions, investment groups, business associations and tech corporations.

The search for a new CEO was conducted by the board and by Kaganovich, who announced his departure last month. After he helps Stack transition into his new role at SARTA, Kaganovich will join DFJ Frontier.

"J.D.'s knowledge, experience and strong relationships with the economic development and business community will help SARTA continue to grow its relevance and importance," Matt Mahood, president and CEO of Sacramento Metro Chamber and a SARTA executive committee member, said in the news release.

"His coalition-building skills and organizational expertise will be a true benefit to SARTA's members," SARTA chairman Dan Koellen said.

Congratulations to both J.D and Oleg on their important new roles in the Sacramento technology community.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

A couple of days ago I wrote about a product, ChargeCarte, that allows users to charge their batteries when they are traveling. Today I read how Georgia Tech researchers have created a prototype, which they called a nanogenerator that uses vibrations to power portable devices. They give a scenario of inserting a device in your shoe and the pure act of walking would generate power. The researchers believe that a device such as this will be on the market in five years or less and could make regular batteries obsolete.

So, a good idea today, surpassed tomorrow. The ChargeCarte guys better sell as many as they can now before their product is obsolete. But knowing that a change in technology is on the horizon could significantly slow sales unless the ROI is particularly compelling.

Other lesson learned, when you come up with a new business idea that seems great, do you research and see what else is out there.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:11 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

When the new students at the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy begin the year they are required to form a team and come up with several new business ideas from which they will chose one. This is one of the hardest tasks that the students have to accomplish. They look for something huge that will change the world for good, they dismiss simple ideas as not being important enough. But often, the simplest idea is a great new business idea. Today I was in the Albuquerque Airport and I saw one of those ideas in action. A slap to the side of the head idea. A device that allows travelers to charge their multiple electronic pieces of equipment – an Ipod, a cell phone, a computer. It costs $3 for a 30 minute charge and it has all the different plugs of the most used electronic gear. It’s called a chargecarte and you can view it on Smartecarte’s website. Yes, that's the company that makes the rental luggage carts. I guess they needed a way to broaden their business.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Listen to all of the elevator pitches from the most recent Business Plan Competition at Rice University. Maybe it will help you refine yours!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:02 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The only thing consistent about United Airlines is their atrocious customer service. Once again, they managed, with ease, to put a big dent in my daughter's and grandchildren's spring break visit to Dallas.

As soon as my cell phone rang last Saturday AM, I knew things were not going to go well. Sure enough, flight delayed (weather delay, of course), missed connection, have to spend the night in Denver, blah, blah. So here is my daughter with 3 small children, 3 car seats and a large suitcase arriving late at night in Denver and not able to make it out until the next day to Dallas. They gave her a number to call when she got to Denver (late at night), to get a reduced rate at a hotel, but who is going to let their daughter fly into Denver (with 3 small children, 3 car seats and a large suitcase) and get on a shuttle and go to any old hotel. So I booked her a decent hotel that was the closest to the airport and had a restaurant so that if they should arrive at a reasonable hour (hope springs eternal), they could eat dinner on the premises. Cost $175. Delay time: 13 hours, precious hours wasted from our planned time together.

The afternoon before they are supposed to leave Dallas to fly home, an automated message comes to my cell phone. Their flight the next morning has been cancelled. Please call for rebooking information. Here we go again. United has given us no reason whatsoever during the last few interactions to have us believe that this will turn out well. Sure enough. No flights for the next 3 days. Forget getting home Saturday, going back to work and school on Monday, United can't find 4 seats until the following Tuesday. And this time it's not a weather related delay, it's mechanical. Back and forth, back and forth. Finally my daughter opts to leave on a flight in 5 hours that will mean another night in a hotel in Denver but at least she will get on the original flight out of Denver back to her home the next day. And, of course, United will pay for a hotel for them. After all, we all know the rules. Weather delay, it's all on the passenger. Mechanical delay, the airline pays. Or so we thought. No, they explain. If you stayed in Dallas until Tuesday, they would pay for 3 nights of hotels. But if you go to Denver, they don't have to pay. Now I am crazy. I start making calls. Every person I talk to gives a different answer, but the message is the same. They can't do anything, and the next person down the line will have to decide.

We arrive at the airport. Three small children, 3 cars seats and a large suitcase. Nope, you will have to ask about a hotel in Denver. And a bigger nope, no booking the car seats and suitcase through to Eugene. "But", we ask, "how will she manage with 3 small children, 3 car seats and a large suitcase when she has to get on a shuttle bus late at night and go to a hotel which we will pay for (even though that is against the 'rules' because we are not letting her fly into Denver late at night with....fill in the refraim) without a guaranteed hotel room?" The customer service rep says she should get a cart when she arrives. He also then begins telling us that he doesn't have enough people to work the counter and be able to handle problems such as this. I ask for the Customer Service supervisor and she is promptly called. She comes out with a demeanor similar to a bear that has been stung by a thousand hornets, or a large bull who has just seen 20 red capes. I know for sure that if I hired a customer service rep, let alone a supervisor, this would not be the person. She rolls her eyes, barks questions at me and storms back through the door behind the counter. I have no clue if she is coming back. But we have been at the counter for 30 minutes and we still don't have the 3 car seats and the large suitcase booked in, so we have lots of time to wait.

Of course, by now, the flight is delayed by more than 2 hours, so my daughter will definitely be arriving late at night. After 3 people spend more than an hour trying, each tapping for long spells on the keyboard, the bags are checked through to the destination. And about the same time, the customer service supervisor comes out, hands my daughter a voucher for a hotel in Denver. With a roll of her eyes, acting like she has done us a huge favor, she flips her hair, turns around, never says she is sorry, of course, and leaves. All that to get what we were entitled to in the first place

And then when the situation might have been somewhat recovered, the ticket agent announces with glee, "Your bag is overweight - 4lbs overweight." Good grief, they have caused us untold amount of grief, cut short our time together by a day and a half, cost us more than $200, and now they want to be paid for 4lbs of overweight. Please remember that this is luggage for 4 people and it is 4lbs overweight for one person. Pierre, anticipating what might happen when I become completely unglued, offers to pay. "$50", she tells us. "No way," I say. I open the suitcase, take out a set of sheets I had given my daughter, drop them from a vast height onto the scales and they weigh 4.5lbs. "There," I say, knowing that those 4lbs are the final straw.

Yes, Delta flies from where my daughter lives to Dallas and they are going to get our business from now on.

In the meantime, my daughter arrives in Denver after midnight with 3 small children and is still trying to get home and get reunited with her 3 car seats and 1 large suitcase.

United, there is something really, really wrong with your company. But with SEC filings that show that the United CEO has been awarded more than $20 million by the airline's board of directiors and that United's top five executives received $25.7 million in the form of cash, stock or exercisable options last year, while you have gutted the pay and benefits of your employees, I guess it's hard to get a workforce that cares. Believe me, it's showing. And the only option left for me is to vote with my customer choice. "Hello Delta, I want to spend $2000 for 4 tickets and get a little customer service next spring. Do you think you can manage that?"

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

I met Manny at a EO event a couple of years ago. He has kept me updated on his progress and recently sent me this article from Vida en el Valle, the Latin Voice of California's Central Valley:

The American dream could be just around the corner for Sacramento residents thanks to an urban project by Manny Fernández, a young real estate investor who has taken on the task of remodeling homes in Oak Park to then offer them to first-time home buyers and low income families with help from government programs.

María Gutiérrez was fortunate to begin the process to own the home she currently lives in on 39th Street in the Oak Park area in Sacramento.

"I am happy I qualified as a first time buyer for a beautiful home like the one I live in, the house is great and nobody bothers me," says Gutiérrez, a homemaker. "I have a six-month-old son and I want him to grow up in a comfortable place and for him to feel happy. Life is peaceful here, I take the bus on the corner or you can walk to the stores, it's very safe."

She also said that this was a good option for low income Latinos and that paying $1,100 per month for a property that would increase in value in the near future was well worth it. Her home, as well as the other four on the same block, got a fresh coat of paint, new doors, plumbing and flooring among other things to make living there more comfortable.

Fernández stated that the requirements to qualify for one of these government programs are mainly to be a first-time homebuyer and to have a job that pays less than $45,000 per year.

He also said that his job is to educate the community about these programs so they can buy their own home at a lower price.

"It all started five years ago when I presented a project to the City Council to work in conjunction with various housing programs to benefit the community and low income families. These programs offer $40,000 toward the purchase of a home without having to give a down payment," Fernández pointed out.

Fernández invested an initial $600,000 to purchase five homes, approximately 1,800 square feet each, on the 2700 block of 39th Street in Sacramento and nearly $200,000 in their renovation. These home will be sold for $199,000 minus the $40,000 granted by the government, bringing their price down to $159,000 with a monthly payment of $1,100 over 30 years.

"The homes needed some maintenance and now they are ready to be sold," stated Fernández. "I think when people invest in their home it's good for the neighborhood because they worry about keeping them up and in turn want a cleaner and safer street."

Susan DeMarois, from the UC Davis Office of Government and Community Relations, said that Oak Park was known for being a high crime and dangerous area but in time it has improved its infrastructure and the police have brought order back to the streets. She also commented that the Medical Center and the new School of Medicine at UC Davis are a sign of prosperity and have brought new vitality and security to area residents.

"Fernández's idea serves as an example to other investors so they carry out similar projects that benefit the community," said DeMarois.

During a press conference, investors such as Richard Green, executive director of the Stockton Boulevard Partnership stated that what used to be a street full of closed and deteriorated buildings in a neighborhood surrounded by poverty is now a vibrant and attractive real estate business in the Oak Park area.

Fernández, who was an amateur boxer, said he is also working with people who offer financing for working families like the Hispanic community who come from other countries to achieve the American dream.

Keep up the good work, Manny.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Pediatric Bioscience of Sacramento was chosen as one of the top two presenting companies at the recent Golden Capital Network Venture Capital conference. The company has licensed technologies from The University of California with the goal of bringing to market diagnostics and therapeutics to diagnose and eventually treat children with autism.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

This is a story from D Magazine about our neighborhood butcher. It's a wonderful story about how someone is turning around their life by putting their energies into a new passion.

You might not expect an ex-drunk who developed his business plan in the state pen to become the butcher of buzz to food-savvy upscale clients in Oak Lawn and the Park Cities. But 41-year-old Greg Geerts is all about personal redemption, and his 10-month-old VonGeertsem Butcher Shoppe (or just VG’s) has found a solid marketing niche for customers who want better than supermarket fare. The spartan little store next to Lucky’s is a deliciously retro entrée to custom cuts of top-of-the-shelf veal, lamb, free-range chicken, or the specialty, Superior Angus beef that’s 90 days corn fed and 29 days dry aged.

The contagiously enthusiastic Geerts, his life glowing with purpose, is himself part of the experience. The wasted days and nights that led to eight DWIs over a 10-year period in the ’90s and finally put him in prison fields “just like in Cool Hand Luke” are long gone, replaced by regular AA meetings with the Preston Group. Since his release in 2004 after an 18-month stretch, the Garland native has mentored for the group Against the Odds, which helps the children of prisoners avoid following in the footsteps of their parents.

Geerts’ other new friends include influential business types like restaurateur and contractor Santiago Peña (Stephan Pyles, W Hotel, etc.). The two met at the Albertson’s on Lemmon Avenue, where Geerts, a trained butcher, worked the meat counter after Huntsville. Peña, buying leftover trimmings for sauces for his restaurants, loved Geerts’ idea and helped him convert the vacant floral shop on Oak Lawn Avenue into a boutique for meat. An even stronger believer was Cathy Tamez, the financial advisor turned business partner that Geerts met through Match.com. They plan to marry in the spring and already are thinking about a second shop.

“I’m a firm believer that if you’ve got a good product and you’re knowledgeable about what you’re doing, you’re going to be just fine,” says Geerts, a devout Episcopalian. “God’s going to take care of you.”

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:48 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Another acquisition. And this one in record time. MaxPreps Inc., the company that compiles high school sports news on the Web, has been acquired by CBS Corp. for an undisclosed sum. MaxPreps started in 2003 under the name SacPreps had received just over $10M in venture funding. DFJ Frontier, a Sacramento-based fund, had been one of the earliest backers of the company.

MaxPreps will be folded into CBS' College Sports Television Networks Inc., an online and cable television business that covers college and high school sports and continue to operate out of its El Dorado County headquarters with its founder, Andy Beal, leading the operation.

At the time of the initial investment, we heard that Tim Draper's dad (Tim Draper runs one of the best known VC funds Draper Fisher Jurvetson, of which DFJ Frontier is a Sacramento based subsidiary) was so enthused about the start-up that he had invested his own personal funds in the deal. I guess that should have clued us in on the fact that good things were going to happen to this company. Record speed acquisition and by a high name acquirer. It's all good for the Sacramento start-up scene.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:47 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Congratulations to this year's semi-finalists in UC Davis' annual Big Bang Competition:

AID Networks - Producing low cost vital sign sensors.

Falcon Nano - Developing technology to dramatically increase wireless data transmissions and connections speeds.

GOglio Biosciences - Developing human milk bioactive analogues as nutritional ingredients to promote health and prevent disease in infants.

Harmonic Devices - Developing technology to increase battery life in cell phones and portable wireless handsets with a device that is smaller and cheaper than current technology.

New Infrared - Developing new infrared technology for dry-blanching and dehydration with greater energy efficiency.

The Finals will take place on May 16th! Plan on attending. It's uplifting to watch so many passionate, bright young entrepreneurs. You can get more information here

And call if you have time to help out. This is a student-run event and they are always looking for seasoned execuives to provide assistance. If they are all set for this year, put your name on the list for next.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Be Inthavong and his business partner Steve Dumain were selling women's bags out of a loft without an elevator in Brooklyn. Be cold called Bergdorf and set up an appointment to show them his bags. Bergdorfs is the pinnacle for desginers - the whos who of fashion and fashion consumerism come to Bergdorfs to figure out what's hot. Bergdorf agreed to try some.

Actress Mena Suvari bought the first one. Bergdorf ordered 10 more. Then Beyonce Knowles, Penelope Cruz and several of the actresses from Desperate Housewives bought them. Less than a month later, Bergdorf ordered 200 more. Now Be & D bags are sold in luxury stores worldwide and featured in the leading fashion magazines.

Lessons learned:

Cold calling works
Having a great product works
If you believe, sometimes the pinnacle gives you a chance to prove yourself.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Jeff Yasuda is the Chief Executive Officer of Fuzz , a digital record label and new media company with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In early 2005, after a career in investment banking and venture capital, Jeff decided to put everything aside to travel throughout Southeast Asia and South America with his wife Celeste, for about 6 months. During his travels, he realized that "life is too short not to pursue your passions" and returned with some wild ideas about a company that combined his love for music and knowledge of technology and building businesses.

As Jeff explains:

"When traveling overseas, it's amazing what happens when we get away from cell phones and emails and take some time to truly think about our lives. I realized that we are all on this earth for only a short period of time and that it is absolutely important to pursue our dreams. I started playing in bands when I was 13, and when I started working on Wall Street I didn't even touch my guitar. Now that I'm in the music biz, things are just a bit different. At Fuzz, we are using technology to cut costs, maximize results, and pass financial savings on to the artists. It's crazy to think that checking out bands is now part of my job!"

Check out Fuzz - a community for fans to discover, share, review and buy new independent music.

Or as Jeff explains it:

"For music fans, Fuzz is a place to discover new tunes & interact with other music lovers. For artists, we've built a great platform to promote and sell their music as well as tools to communicate with their fan base - think Facebook meets Saleforce for the music industry.

So join Fuzz and become part of the revolution... You'll be one of the first to join a community of artists and music fans that are working hard to save this crazy music industry. "

Follow your dreams!! And passion counts...and this is very obviously Jeff's passion.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacrament Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

The Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance, SARTA, today announced that Oleg Kaganovich, CEO of SARTA, plans to leave the organization next quarter to return to the private sector. Kaganovich joined SARTA in August, 2003 as Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. He was promoted to CEO in 2005.

The Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA) is a tech-focused 501(c) (3) corporation that supports entrepreneurial programs, companies and technology investment throughout Butte, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Solano, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.

SARTA’s mission is to accelerate the growth and development of technology companies and the technology sector in the Sacramento region. Through its partners, SARTA connects and provides resources for the region’s high-tech entrepreneurs, investors, business, non-profit, economic development and community leaders, supporting its goal to attract $1 billion in investment capital to the region. SARTA also provides high-tech entrepreneurs, executives, and other business and community leaders with connectivity and resources for growth, networking, and educational opportunities.

SARTA is directed by a 45-person board of directors composed of regional leaders of academic institutions, investment groups, business associations and technology corporations that seek to foster technology innovation and growth in the Northern California region.

The search for a new CEO is being conducted by Kaganovich and the SARTA Board of Directors. Post transition, Kaganovich will remain actively involved as a SARTA board member. The job description will be available by emailing info@sarta.org.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Eighteen percent of CIOs in the Sacramento area expect to hire IT professionals in the second quarter of 2007 but six percent anticipate reductions. Positions most in demand? Web and applications developers, database administrators and network security administrators. The survey was undertaken by Robert Half Technology who interviewed more than 200 CIOs in the Sacramento area with more than 100 employees.

So, steady state is the word of the day, with more than 75% planning no change.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:48 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

nPost.com recently launched a job board specifically targeting small and medium sized tech startups. They currently have over 300 job listings from quite a few well known and relatively unknown startups nationwide. You can search for jobs or post your own. Check it out.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:13 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

A couple of years ago, I had a personal trainer. His name was Edward Hodges and he became my friend. This meant we spent more time gossiping that we ever did working out. Although I did have real, honest-to-goodness muscles, for a short time. During the time of my twice weekly visits, I would meet other clients. We were all in sweats and various other workout gear and we would nod or complain about the upcoming workout or the weather or something impersonal.

At the first Sacramento Executive event, one of Edward’s clients came up to me and introduced himself. It took me a while to figure out where I knew him from. This time he was wearing a suit, looking very professional and not at all sweaty! As time went on, he would continue to come to the Sacramento Executive events, but I never took the time to figure out what he did exactly. Well, that was my loss.

A few days ago, I received a note from him. He introduced himself to me as having attended several of my Sacramento Executive events and then threw in for good measure (now that’s an unintentional pun) that we had both been clients of Edward’s. Turns out he has a very impressive background - staff counsel in the California Legislature for 17 years, including counsel for the Assembly Judiciary Committee. He was a lobbyist for the Judicial Council for 13 years. He has taken all of that great expertise and is teaching Lobbying seminars. And both the Sacramento Bee and the Daily Journal have written stories about his seminars.

And now the story comes full circle. My daughter just took a job at a lobbying firm. (Let’s not go into how she is living out my greatest fantasy – to be part of the political circle in California – or anywhere, for that matter.) And it turns out that one of the lobbyists in her firm is a guest lecturer at his Lobbying 201 seminar.

So the moral of the story. First, get a personal trainer – it’s good for you. Second, Sacramento is a small, small town, which has its positives and negatives. Third, you never know where you will make connections and when they might become meaningful – conduct yourself accordingly.

In the meantime, check out Ray LeBov’s seminars . Fascinating stuff and really good training for dealing with the government of the 7th largest world economy.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:34 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

The number one concern for businesses as we move forward: finding and retaining qualified employees. In fact, the Aspen Institute states, … " the overall skill levels of American workers are on a collision course with the skills requirements of American employers." They further predict that the shortages will be most acute among managers and skilled workers in high- tech jobs. Is your company prepared to find and recruit the cream of the crop? What specific plans do you have in place?

Here are some things to consider:

Is your recruiting strategy competitive? You have lots of competition out there all vying for the same high-quality employees. Does your company look like a top place to work? Is putting the same old ad on the same old website getting the results you need? Maybe some of the same skills you use to beat the competition when you are selling your products and services should be utilized in this critical part of your business.

Does your recruiting effort end when your employee comes on board? If your efforts stop once you have filled empty slots, you are in great danger or losing the new employees that you have worked hard (and probably spent a sizeable amount of money) to recruit. Protect these valuable assets. Make sure that from the moment they walk through the door, they understand the vision of your company and what part, particularly, they play in it. Make sure that they have all of the tools they need to be immediately productive. Assign them a mentor to guide them through the first period of employment. Make sure you are listening to their new ideas and not squelching them. Try putting groups of new and old employees together to solve a company issue. Make sure they have regular meetings with their management to ensure that they are motivated and engaged and that you are meeting the expectations you set for them when you offered them a position. This is also the time for either of you to decide that things are not working out, a mistake has been made, and maybe it’s best to part ways. It’s not a sin to make a mistake in hiring, the hard part is admitting it and correcting it right away.

Are you giving your employees a reason to stay every day?

Employees who feel that they play a critical part in helping the company meet its goals are much less likely to leave. You can accomplish this by providing stock options, bonuses for meaningful personal contributions, training classes, clear avenues to the next management level, frequent updates on the company’s needs and performance goals.

There’s a recruiting crisis on the horizon, are you prepared?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Want to get the best deal shopping? Try ScanBuy Shopper, a cell phone based buying service application. Let's say you are in Linen and Things, shopping for a Cuisinart. You find what you want, but is the price right? Using your cell phone, you enter the bar code. The application finds the same product at Amazon.com, and fifty dollars cheaper. In real-time, you decide to place an order with Amazon. A couple of clicks, and done. The service also works with Yahoo Shopping, Shopping.com and PriceGrabber.com. Is this a great tool or what? And it's free.

Now I like that!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

When you walk into a business you can feel the vibe.

Walk into Il Fornaio in Sacramento and you can just tell that the employees are happy to work there, feel empowered to make customers happy and are attuned to their customers’ every need. Walk into Hertz at the Sacramento Airport and you can feel there is a huge morale issue.

At Christmas, one of the Hertz Gold Card counter reps was positively surly. And I hadn’t even opened my mouth yet! This time through, another problem, which requires another visit to the Gold car booth. This, by the way, defeats the whole purpose of renting from Hertz, no interaction with a human is supposed to speed up my trip through the airport. Or was that whole image lost along with OJ Simpson's? They give me an upgrade. When I return, there is no record of the car they have rented me in the system. If it wasn’t the most brilliant blue Mustang with the word Mustang displayed prominently on the side, I might have kept it! So, another trip required to the Gold Card counter. This time, I get a $50 discount coupon. When I tell the rep that I sense there is a huge morale problem at Hertz in Sacramento she agrees in spades. Tells me as bad as it is for me as a customer, it's a million times worse for those who work there!

So, thanks Hertz for the giveaways on both ends of this trip, but you have a serious staffing problem which would be a lot cheaper to fix than throwing make ups at your customers.

How’s your company’s vibe? When a customer complains, after you have made the customer whole, do you go figure out the internal root of the problem and fix it? Have you empowered your employees to make customers happy? Do your employees feel privileged to work for your company?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

In YouTube's corner - an interesting piece from the LA Times.

Tuhin Roy is a top exec at the Digital Music Group Inc., a distributor of digital music and video that recently struck a revenue-sharing deal to put its wares onto YouTube. Ask him why, and he'll give you an answer straight out of the Willie Sutton playbook: if you're trying to make money in an advertiser-supported business, you have to go where the viewers are. Or, as he put it in a recent interview, "To the extent that there are going to be ad-supported video services (online), YouTube will be in a leadership position because they've aggregated so much audience."

YouTube isn't generating much money for anybody at this point, largely because the company has taken a minimalist approach to advertising. Paid spots are confined mainly to banners on the menu pages. This is a company that's incredibly well positioned to sell targeted ads, given how much its users reveal about themselves as they search for and comment on clips. And its users' hunger for video makes the site a natural for video advertising, which can be much more lucrative than banners and search ads. According to Roy, however, YouTube plans to run ads on video pages only if it has a licensing deal with the clip's copyright owner. That's why deals such as the one between DMGI and YouTube are important for both companies.

So why are the likes of Viacom and other major content providers rattling sabers at YouTube, rather than trying to tap the potential spigot of advertising dollars? It's tempting to say that Roy "gets it" and Hollywood doesn't, but that's too facile (even for me). Instead, it's a matter of upside vs. downside. The biggest brands have the largest revenue streams to manage, and they worry about YouTube eating into those streams by drawing viewers away from established outlets (like, say, broadcast TV). DMGI, on the other hand, is focused on building an audience, not preserving one, and YouTube can expose DMGI's fare (including such classic TV fare "I Spy" and "Gumby") to tens of millions of new viewers. In fact, the fencing match between Hollywood and YouTube may actually help smaller players like DMGI. The Viacom and company spend on the sidelines, the better chance DMGI will have to win over YouTube's faithful.

If you doubt YouTube's power to elevate brands out of obscurity, consider the new music video by Canadian hitmakers Barenaked Ladies. It features several amateur filmmakers made famous, at least within YouTube, by videos posted there. If you've spent little or no time on YouTube, you won't recognize any of them. But if that's the case, you really don't get it.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The Golden Rule for startups is the most basic principle in business - revenue minus expense equals profit.

It's that simple. And hard at the same time. From the outset, entrepreneurs must focus on two things revenue and expenses. Too often in the heat and passion of launching a company, mistakes are made about incurring expenses. In other words, managers make bad decisions on managing expenses. Capital is precious during the startup phase. Guard it ever so carefully. Serial entrepreneur, Wil Schroter, maintains, "Startups need to be frugal."

1. Ditch the office space. The office space lease is probably the single worst investment you make with your money.
2. Forget about hiring. The second worst offender on the cost analysis is headcount. Hiring staff in start-up mode is generally a horrible idea.
3. Write on your hand. Startups don't need office supplies. You need a barely functional computer (get one cheap through an online auction), a cell phone, which will also be your main company number, and write on the back of your hand. Anything else is a frivolous expense that's absolutely unnecessary.

Only spend on stuff that makes money.

If you want a simple way to determine what to spend money on, just focus on expenses that directly relate to income, such as marketing and sales. If it's at all possible to deliver your product or service without an expense, then it's not essential.

What you'll find by adopting a no-expense-is-necessary mentality is that your road to profitability will be much shorter. Then, when the cash starts tumbling in on the profit side of the equation, you can slowly start to add a few expenses to the mix.

RightNow Technology founder and CEO Greg Granforte agrees with this approach.

There's a sign that I keep on the wall of my office. It says simply, “Nothing happens until somebody sells something.” In other words, sales is where your business begins. Sure, you may have a great product or service that you’ve worked hard to develop. You may have hired a fantastic staff. You may have cash in the bank, a logo and letterhead, a beautiful office, computers on the desks, all those things that come to mind when we picture a business. But that’s not what makes a business. Only sales can do that.

This is good news for bootstrappers. Bootstrappers can’t afford fancy offices or big staffs. They may not even have a finished product yet. But the bootstrapper doesn’t need those things to get started. As soon as you can start selling—that is, go out and find customers willing to buy his product or service—you have a business.

Live by the Golden Rule and your company stands a good chance of succeeding. If you don't follow the Golden Rule, then your company will most likely fail, like the vast majority of startups.

Simple. But hard to do.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Our friend Ed Ring is right again. Ring, a Sacramento area resident, has been talking up a storm about how federal, state and local governments' pension plans are lining up to be a significant burden on government budgets and taxpayers' pocket books.

It seems the national news media agrees with Ring. The USA Today's feature front page story yesterday was Pension Tension - More and more retirees are finding that it pays to have worked for the government instead of the private sector. Reporter Dennis Cauchon writes "Government's generosity could have serious consequences for taxpayers and pensioners. Some states - including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and West Virginia - have troubled retirement systems that may require huge tax increases, spending cuts or even defaulting on promised benefits. The U.S. government has a bigger unfunded liability for military and civil servant retirement beneftis ($4.7 trillion) than it does for Social Security ($4.6 trillion)."

What's going on here? We better wake up and do something, else we are heading for a fiscal crisis. And thanks to Ed Ring for pointing this out to us so frequently over the years.

We agree with you Ed!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Bob Shallit reports in his Sacramento Bee column today that:

WebRaiser Technologies, which makes software for kiosks, has been snapped up by Flextronics International Ltd. of Singapore.

No details are being released. But Mark Breunig, WebRaiser's senior VP and general counsel, confirms the sale and says a formal announcement is set for a trade show in April. "We don't want to tip our hand to competitors," he says of the company's taciturn stand.

He does note, however, that the sale is a "good exit" for investors.

About 15 employees work at the 10-year-old company, and all are being retained by Flextronics, which is making its second dip into the Sacramento startup market. In December, it purchased Roseville-based International DisplayWorks Inc. for $243 million.

WebRaiser had a deal with Home Depot to manage the propane kiosks outside the front of their stores. I always loved their technology. The problem is that it had such broad applications that trying to focus on a few markets was tough. With Flextronics' might and deep pockets, WebRaiser will have what it needs to really break out.

Reporting on all of these acquisitions is a dream come true for people who have believed for a long time that there is lots of talent waiting to break out here in Sacramento. As I reported last week in the post on the CoreLogic 'merger', events like this are great for Sacramento. They build confidence in entrepreneurs to start new companies; they build confidence in investors that investments in local deals can be lucrative, which provides funds for the entrepreneurs; they build confidence in acquirers that this region has good candidates for acquistion, and it spins off capital that investors and insiders can put back into more local deals. A wonderful momentum for which we have been striving for much too long.

Let's keep 'em coming.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:51 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Sacramento-based startup DMGI (NASDAQ:DMGI) announces another deal with an industry leader - this time YouTube. Details of the deal from Media Week

YouTube Inks Deal With DMGI
Mike Shields

After recently tussling with Viacom over roughly 100,000 video clips from some of the most popular shows among young adults, YouTube has signed a deal to distribute full-length episodes of several TV series that much of its audience has probably never heard of.

The Google-owned video repository has signed a deal with Digital Music Group Inc., a distributor of independently owned music, TV and film catalogues. The arrangement will result a host of classic TV series dating back to the 1950s and '60s, such as Gumby, I Spy and My Favorite Martian, being made available for viewing on YouTube.

Also as part of the deal, the YouTube community will soon have legal access to use certain DMGI owned or represented song recordings in their own user-generated clips. In total, the company owns or controls over 40,000 musical recordings.

For YouTube, this brought them content that did not carry copyright concerns. It also may bring an older demographic to their site to watch these vintage videos. Once there, they may get hooked and stay a while!

Mitchell Koulouris, DMG's founder and chief executive, is quoted in the Sacramento Bee as saying the deal was one of the most important his company has forged since it went public a year ago. "We are among the first to do this kind of deal with them," Koulouris said of YouTube. "On a scale of one to 10, I'd rate this a 10." He expects to see revenues from this deal in the second half of 2007.

The market liked the deal bidding DMGI's stock up by more than 30% on the day of the announcement.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Most investors have a few simple litmus tests that act as a filter during or before an initial meeting. Common litmus tests are:

1. Was this deal referred to me by someone I trust? If not, they won’t look at it at all. They figure if you can’t reach me through their trusted network, then you are either not motivated or not bright.

2. Was I immediately impressed by the entrepreneur? Many investors reason that if you can’t impress them in the first 5 minutes, then you can’t run a company. They want to hear who you are, what you’re doing, and why they should care and they want to hear it right away.

3. Do I instinctively trust the entrepreneur? Many investors will immediately dismiss an opportunity if they get any inkling that the person they’re talking to may be anything less than perfectly trustworthy. Would you give money to someone you didn’t fully trust the first time you met them?

Source: Colorado Startups

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

QUIZ: 10 QUESTIONS

Do you have the right stuff to start a business?

1. Did you franchise your lemonade stand when you were 8 years old?

2. Do you have "entrepreneurial" genes?

3. Are your spouse, children and parents loyal?

4. Is wealth a better reason to start a business than riches?

5. Do you love your better mousetrap?

6. Do you know when to replace passion with pragmatism?

7. Ever doubled down in Vegas?

8. Are you honest, trustworthy and committed to avoiding evil?

9. Do you know a spreadsheet from a bed sheet?

10. Do you have the tenacity of a pit bull?

What's your score?

Number of "yes'' answers to quiz on starting businesses:

1-3: Don't quit your day job.

4-7: Begin saving start-up money

8-10: Watch out, Donald Trump!

Source: USA Today

You can read the whole interesting accompanying article also.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The local tech blogs, SacStarts and TechTomato, are abuzz about the latest news from Sacramento startup, Revionics.

Revionics, provider of price optimization software for small and medium sized retailers, announced that it has attained several important milestones in the areas of funding, internal growth, and customer count.

Revionics is about to move to Granite Bay Business Park to make room for its rapidly expanding operations. The company has tripled its number of subscribing customers and is forecasting a substantial additional increase this year. The company has recently received outside funding to assist with fueling this growth. The private company did not reveal specifics of the funding or number of customers or staff.

Keep a close watch on these guys. They have been around for several years slowly building their operations, refusing to take the rebuffs from the local investment community personally, making some mistakes along the way, but always recovering and getting back on track. The key to their success in my view - they really know who their customer is and how to get to them to show the value of their solution and, it doesn't hurt, they are in a hot space. I have very high hopes.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Disclosure: I have been a sometime adviser to this company

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:40 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Starting Jan. 30, every Staples store in the U.S. will have an in-store technician to help customers with services such as hardware and software installations, data protection and security, and repair and troubleshooting. Staples is offering free installation of Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, and Windows Vista Ultimate, $19.99 unlimited installation of any software, $29.99 unlimited installation of any hardware, and $39.99 unlimited hardware/software combinations from Jan. 30 - March 31.

Not sure if Vista is right for you? Entreprenur.com gives you all the pros and cons.

My computer screen has given out, right before the hard disk grinds to a halt - I can already hear the tell tale signs. So, as soon as my new computer arrives, I am going to install Vista and the latest version of Office. I will let you know how it goes.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:49 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. gave Chief Executive Gary Pruitt a $950,000 bonus for the 2006 fiscal year, maintaining the same bonus level as the previous year.

The company, which completed the $4.5 billion acquisition of Knight Ridder Inc. last summer and sold off 12 newspapers after that deal was announced, disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday that the company's compensation commitee on Jan. 23 awarded Pruitt the bonus. For this year, Pruitt's bonus will be set based on the company's cash flow and "achievement of non-financial goals," the SEC filing said. This year, Pruitt is to earn base pay of $1.1 million, up from $1.05 million last year.

Source: AP

Meantime, across town, CSUS professors are walking the picket line. CSU system officials say they've made an "excellent" offer for raising faculty pay over the next four years, amounting to 27 percent in some cases. Union leaders say that too much of the offer is discretionary and is more like 14 percent over four years. Professors at CSU earn, on average, $71,000, according to the California Postsecondary Education Commission. Many newcomers are making around $50,000 and say they're feeling more pinched by paychecks frozen by recent state budget cuts and the lapsed contract.

The Legislature gave CSU extra money this year for raises and other costs, but the funds for faculty pay are being held until the contract issues are resolved. As the impasse continues, the faculty, who have only received one raise in the past four years, are furious that two rounds of pay raises have been approved for campus president Alexander Gonzalez and other CSU executives since 2005. Gonzalez's salary was increased to $265,000, retroactive to July 1, 2006.

Source: Sacramento Bee

All of this leads me to state the obivous. Why do we pay a newspaper publisher $2M a year when we pay a University president $250,000 a year and a university professor $50,000 a year? Doesn't it seem that our priorities are out of whack?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:25 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (6)

Bluepoint Energy Inc.

Makes: Efficient, low-emissions "cogeneration" power units that provide both electricity and heat
Headquarters: El Dorado Hills
Number of employees: 30
Founded: 2000
Value of contracts signed during the year ending June 30, 2006: $4 million
Value of contracts signed during the year ending June 30, 2007 (projected): $60 million
Market capitalization: $84.4 million
Stock symbol: CPEU.OB; trades on Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board
Friday's closing price: $3.22
Jan. 12, 2006, closing price: $0.22

Biggest gamble to take on $4B market-cap gorilla already in the market:

Per CEO Archbold, "I made a strategic decision, which was to really prolong our (research and development period), rather than just coming out with the technology we had," he said.
He aimed his product for a far-off regulatory barrier that he guessed would define the future of the cogeneration market: the California Air Resources Board's 2007 emissions standards, which were adopted in 2001. While the air board sets standards that apply only in California, its regulations can carry great weight in the global marketplace because other states and even nations often follow the state's lead. To make it through that long period without any sales, Archbold invested his own money in the company, attracted $8 million in venture capital and gave his engineering team a chance to do its work. Archbold says he had to push hard against others in the company who wanted to put out a product more quickly.

Turns out his gamble has paid off handsomely. He just bought himself a brand new Porsche and the company looks like it's on its way to be a worldwide star.

Source: Sacramento Bee

Read the whole story, it's a fascinating study of a startup and the value of a strong leader.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Grass Valley based VTrac Systems, a GPS-based security and logistics startup located in Grass Valley, CA has filed for bankruptcy. Many investors in the local area have invested in, worked with, and tried long and hard to take this seemingly high-potential company to the next level, but, it seems, it was not meant to be.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:26 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Digital Music Group Signs Deal With iTunes

AFX News
01/24/07 12:11 PM PT

Digital Music Group announced Wednesday a three-year deal to sell its licensed video content to Apple's iTunes Store. The company's collection includes historic news broadcasts and classic TV episodes, including "Hopalong Cassidy" and "My Favorite Martian." Digital Music Group licenses and sells video and audio content to online music stores.

Shares of Digital Music Group soared more than 9.5 percent in extremely heavy trading Wednesday, after the company filed documents that outlined a three-year pact with Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iTunes.

The Sacramento, Calif.-based company will sell its video content on Apple's widely popular iTunes store, according to a document filed late Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Apple will pay fixed wholesale prices for each downloaded television program or movie.

Digital Music's collection includes historic news broadcasts and classic TV episodes, including "Hopalong Cassidy" and "My Favorite Martian."

Digital Music acquires the rights and digitizes music and videos, and makes them available to online music stores including iTunes, Google Video, RealNetworks, Napster, Wal-Mart Music and Yahoo Music.

Shares of Digital Music increased 36 US cents to $4.15, with more than 184,000 shares trading -- about 11 times the average daily volume during the past month. Apple stock climbed $1.15 -- or 1.3 percent -- to $86.85 in mid-day trading.

DMGI closed at $4.02 on Friday.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

From the New York Times, Sunday January 28, 2007 -

"...have a common view at the highest level of what the company needs to do to succeed: hire great people, make big bets and take the long view and be patient where we think there are the greatest opportunities."

- Bill Gates, CEO Microsoft

Sound advice for all companies, regardless of size or life-cycle stage. And note, it all begins with the team - hiring great people. Why would great people want to work for your company? Every manager in your organization needs to be able to answer this question.

Most successful angel and venture capital investors base their investment decision on the team. Warren Buffett's embraces this practice in his decision making as well - "You can't make a good deal with a bad person".

Hire great people. If you do, great things are likely to occur.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

USA Today reports:

Venture capitalists invested $25.5 billion in 2006, the industry's biggest burst of dealmaking since the dot-com bust clogged the financial spigot for entrepreneurs five years ago. A renewed interest in Internet start-ups, combined with expanding opportunities in the health care and alternative energy markets spurred a 12% increase from $22.8 billion invested in 2005, according to figures jointly released by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Mark March 7th on your calendars and sign up for a great new seminar on Angel investing to be taught by some of the pre-eminent figures in Angel investing in the Sacramento Region. The half-day seminar, sponsored by the Golden Capital Network

Wednesday, March 7, 2007
1:30 p.m.—6:30 p.m.
Granite Bay Golf Club

If you are interested in investing in local, high growth, private companies but don't think you know how to begin, this seminar will introduce you to the world of angel investing. You will have an opportunity to interact with experts and other participants in the local angel community. Registration is limited to 40 participants.

If you are a successful entrepreneur who has exited your businesses and has an interest in helping early stage companies; or you are a high net worth individual with senior business, technical or entrepreneur experience who now has the time and desire to invest in early stage companies; or you are simply an investor who is interested in learning more about the specifics of angel investing, this is an ideal opportunity for you to learn the ropes and meet some like-minded individuals.

Subjects covered include:

• An overview of angel investing
• Expected returns on angel investing
• Finding angel investing opportunities that are right for you
• Investment goals and portfolio strategies
• The mechanics of angel investing: how to do it
• Angels and advisors – bringing more than money to investments

This seminar features local experts in high growth ventures and early stage investment opportunities, including seasoned angel investors with diverse investment experience, tax and legal experts, and angel-financed entrepreneurs.

You can register on the Golden Capital website. ($30 pre-registration; $60 at the door, space permitting).

The sponsors include:

Merrill Lynch
Boutin Dentino
Sacramento Angels

In-Kind Sponsors:

Amplify Software – Online Registration Sponsor
LearningChange – Creative Design Sponsor
Morgan Dorado Public Relations – Public Relations Sponsor

Organizers:

DLA Piper US LLP
WorldBridge Partners
Morgan Dorado Public Relations
El Dorado Hills Technology Incubator

Supporting Organizations:

UC Davis CONNECT
The Sacramento Executive

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

Digital Music Group finished with the nation's second-worst ranking among companies that went public in 2006, tallying a 51 percent return on investment [a 49% loss from IPO price], according to an investment and financial planning Web site Wednesday.

The Sacramento-based online music provider (Nasdaq: DMGI) was saved from having the worst ranking, according to the Motley Fool, by Restore Medical (Nasdaq: REST), which gave investors just a 47 percent return. Another medical device maker, Cardica (Nasdaq: CRDC) had a 53 percent return.

Riverbed Technology (Nasdaq: RVBD) led among 2006 IPOs with a 215 percent return after going public on Sept. 21.

Digital Music stock closed Tuesday's trading at $4.06 per share. The company went public Feb. 2 and hit its high Feb. 7, trading at $10.42 per share.

Not good news for Sacramento's investors who were hoping for a home run. Disclosure: I would be one of those!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

From the Fresno Bee:

Pacific Ethanol Inc. announced Thursday that it is moving its headquarters to Sacramento. But company officials said they will continue to operate and expand the location in Fresno, where the company was founded in 2003.

Pacific Ethanol Chief Executive Neil Koehler said the shift to Sacramento was based on the need to “move our corporate headquarters to the center of political and economic power in California.” But he added that “our presence will continue to grow here in the Central Valley, and not decline.”

The ethanol production and marketing company, which went public in March 2005, also chose Sacramento for the city’s central location and its relative ease of access for air travel as compared with Fresno, said Bill Jones, Pacific Ethanol’s co-founder and chairman.

“Given the nature of our need to work with the government, and given the fact that Sacramento is a major metropolitan hub for transportation, locating an office there is not unusual,” said Jones, a Fresno-area rancher and former California Secretary of State. “But we’ll continue to be growing in Fresno,” he added. “My first and foremost commitment is to the Valley, where I was raised.” Jones said he will continue to work from the company’s Fresno office, where about 20 people work.

Pacific Ethanol posted its first profitable quarter in November, based not on production of the corn-based gasoline additive but on rising prices and sales volume for its ethanol marketing business. Pacific Ethanol opened its first plant in Madera in October and announced the same month that it had purchased a 42% stake in Colorado ethanol company Front Range Energy LLC. The two actions gave Pacific Ethanol the ability to produce about 60 million gallons of ethanol per year.

It has a second plant now under construction in Boardman, Ore., and has plans to build three more plants with a production capacity of 220 million gallons per year by 2008. By 2010, the company expects to increase total production capacity to 440 million gallons a year.

Pacific Ethanol also announced Thursday that it had signed a commitment letter providing for up to $325 million of senior secured credit. The company said $300 million of that will be used to finance construction of three new ethanol plants it expects to begin building this quarter, as well as the company’s plants in Madera and Boardman, Ore.. While Koehler would not say where the three new plants are to be built, he did say Thursday that “we’re building additional plants in the Central Valley.” “We are very committed to the economic development that we are bringing to the Central Valley,” he said. “That’s a huge part of our mission.”

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:31 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

There's a website called Digg. When you like a story, you Digg it...You send it to their website and then they aggregate and you can read the most (is this Digged, or Dugg, or what?) story.

So, yesterday Apple announced their new product - the iPhone. This is the product that everyone has been waiting for. This is the product that if it hadn't been announced would have sunk Apple's stock big time. But there it was, announced. And it was bigger and better than anyone thought. And everyone (Dugg, Digged, or what? It) and the Digg site almost came to a crashing halt.

The story goes that the developers of Digg had never envisioned a story that would get more than 10,000 Diggs...I think i am getting the lingo here..but now there are rumors that other 10,000+ stories have reached the site - Saddam Husssein's execution and Steve Irwin's death. So, maybe this is the first birth story that reached 10,000 diggs.

How does Steve Job's keep doing it...genius come to mind? Digg it??

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:21 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

This is a rant - apologies!

Maybe I am not getting it. Maybe United Airlines can really survive without one customer. That must be why they make it so difficult to do business with them. Maybe that's their strategic plan - to make sure that customers get such terrible customer service that they never even consider flying with United Airlines again. That is the only possible reason that every time I call them, which is only when I have tried every possible way to get to my destination without need of them, I have set up emergency services in advance to be outside my door because I know I am sure to have a heart attack, a stroke, or shoot myself because that would feel better than talking with them. Woops, I said talking to them, but that's a rare occurrence these days because they employ a voice recognition system that must have been developed by the same person who developed Home Depot's self-checkout system and the gates to heaven. Even when I scream agent at the top of my lungs and lots of other things that I can't repeat here, the voice continues for several minutes in a very good natured manner to ask for the same information I have already provided twenty times.

But there is worse to come. Be very sure you want to pass this machine's heavily guarded gates because next is India customer service. India, oh, I mean Global Customer Service is pure hell, it's pure HELL. You can easily spend an hour or two in HELL and make absolutely no progress, in fact, mostly you lose anything you might have had when you connected with them. Once in a while, for a second, you hope you might have moved forward an inch or two, only to have those hopes dashed with the "Let me confirm your request again" and learn that every vital statistic you have given them over the past two hours, every sad story, every creative way of solving your problem, has been completely ignored and you are only as far as having to help them respell your first name. I explain patiently, like I am not a crazy person "I want to use my Goodwill Certificates but you said I can only use them on the web, but your system doesn't allow me to do the transaction on the web, so I was thinking I could use the GOODWILL certificates by phone if your system won't allow me to use them on the web." Silence. "I mean that sounds logical, doesn't it?" I try. Goodwill, right! Four hours later, there is no supervisor to talk to, nothing to be done, and you are transferred to a number that either doesn't answer or you are back in a 3 hour wait to get back into HELL.

Customer service for United Airlines gets an A++ for stonewalling. They are great at stonewalling. We should put them into a position of dealing with North Korea, they would disarm in hours. Iran would beg us to come pick up anything we wanted just so they didn't have to deal with HELL again. Who needs a State Department? We can use United Airlines customer service? And it will work out fine, because pretty soon United will have stonewalled so many customers that there will be no more customers for them to stonewall and then they will be completely free to turn their entire staff into US Global Stonewalling.

Here's a tip. When the voice recognition guy that can't recognize any voices asks you if your travel is within the 50 United States, say No. You have to yell it several times. And then you pass to heaven, that's HEAVEN - International United Airlines staff, they are helpful, innovative, creative, polite and smart. And sometimes they help you even though all your travel is within the 50 United States. They have heard of HELL too!

Hey, United, 150,000 miles to use and I am giving them away like candy. Kim Jong Il, watch out, you're next. You can just give up when you hear that United Airlines trademark music. A Rhapsody in Blue (Blue for Depression). How apt! And sorry George Gershwin.

Gillian Parrillo
Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Selected quotes from a press release issued by the California Building Industry. You can read the whole document here.

Housing Construction is Likely to Level off This Year; Builder Incentives Expected to Taper off, Making First Quarter a Great Time to Buy; California’s housing production in 2007 is expected to continue taking a breather as the market slowly returns to historically normal levels after the frenetic pace of the early part of the decade.

CBIA Chief Economist Alan Nevin forecasts that housing starts for single-family homes, condominiums, and apartments should total between 155,000 and 170,000 this year, about the same or slightly lower than in 2006. Nevin noted that 2007 will still be a solid year for production.

“Keep this year’s forecast in perspective — we are returning to a normal market,” Nevin said. “Producing 155,000 to 170,000 units will be more than any year from 1991 to 2001 and could exceed production levels from 1990 and 2002 as well.”

Nevin expects production will be especially low in the first quarter as builders finish selling excess inventory, and expects construction to pick up later in the year. Nevin emphasized that the demand for the homes on the market today is not the same as the state’s chronic need for new housing to accommodate its growing population.

“We need to be building about 240,000 new homes, condos and apartments a year to meet the need for housing. The problem is that we need new homes in all price ranges, and given the ever-rising fees and constraints on housing, it’s all but impossible to meet the need in the entry-level market,” he said.

Nevin said that many of the high-rise condo complexes announced in recent years for the state’s urban centers will be put on hold until lenders and developers regain confidence in the market. He also forecasts that housing prices will remain soft to stable in most markets.

“We are already seeing signs of price stabilization as builders in some markets have sold most of their standing inventory. We expect that trend to accelerate after the first quarter. Because there’s still excess inventory, there are still significant concessions, which we expect will drop considerably later in the year. In other words, now is a great time to buy,” Nevin said.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:31 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Bob Shallit of the Sacramento Bee reported that local startup Revionics had received $2M in funding. Having been involved with the company for a few years, I sent an email to new CEO Todd Michaud. He told me that they will be issuing a press release in the next couple of weeks, but "good things are happening here."

So, as soon as we have the details, we will be publishing them. Revionics is a startup founded by Jeff Smith, a co-founder of KhiMetrics, a local company that was moved to Phoenix, but was recently acquired with a big payday for all concerned. Revionics is in a similar space but targets smaller customers. Keep a close eye on Revionics because they are one of the most promising startups in Sacramento, along with a handful of others including Coversant.

More soon

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Local startup, Coversant just got a great review for its product SoapBox in InfoWorld.

Verdict: SoapBox Server 2007 manages secure XMPP enterprise instant messaging across domains and platforms. It's easy to install and maintain, provides excellent value, while performance and scalability should satisfy large deployments. Moreover, the open source software development kits help coders produce custom XMPP-based collaboration applications.

You can read the whole review

These guys are doing it the old-fashioned way, developing products and selling them to fuel the company. In that way, they become a much better investment for outside investors - better level of investor, better terms. You're doing great Coversant, keep it up.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Another example of tapping all of the young talent out there, on a parallel with TopCoder, Chipotle Mexican Grill launched a national competition to create an ad for its chain. The competition entitled "30 Seconds of Fame" was launched in September and offered a $20,000 first prize (shared equally between the students and the University). A team from Southern Methodist University in Dallas worked one weekend and came up with 12 short 30 second ideas, which they whittled down to 3 spots. When all the judging was over, the SMU team won first place and their piece entitled The Wall has been running on the 30 x 40 foot Astrovision screen at New York's Times Square since December 11th. Several of the spots were posted on YouTube.com where they generated millions of viewings in a 3-week period.

You can see the SMU spot and the spot from the University of Nebraska Lincoln that received the most views on YouTube and several other entries. Personally I think the University of Nebraska ad is plain mean even though I have a pretty mean sense of humor. But the SMU ad is plain clever.

We love the idea of finding and utilizing the talents of young students. Keep it up corporate America.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:58 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

The Tao of Warren Buffett, co-authored by Mary Buffett and David Clark, provides words of wisdom in creating wealth with 125 quotations and interpretations. Quote 28 offers the following advice on managing your career:

"Managing your career is like investing - the degree of difficulty does not count. So you can save yourself money and pain by getting on the right train."

One not only needs to learn what kind of business to invest in but what kind to work in. If one goes to work for a company with poor long-term economics, then he can never expect to do really well because the company doesn't do well. Salaries will be below average and raises will be few and long between, and there is greater risk of losing your job because management will always be under pressure to cut costs.

But if you go to work for a company that has great long-term economics working in its favor, then the company will be awash in cash. This means higher salaries and tons of raises and promotions for a job well done. Plus there will be plenty of room for advancement as management looks for ways to spend all that free cash.

You want to work for a company that has high margins and makes lots of money. And you want to stay away from businesses that have low margins and lose money. One is a first-class train ride to Easy Street; the other is a long, slow, hard freight-train ride to Siberian nowhere.

This sage advice should be executed by all who want to excel in their professional career pursuits.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:48 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Are you up to speed on the new laws that you will be required to follow as an employer? Here's the scoop from the California Chamber of Commerce:

The following is a list of new laws that have recently gone into effect or will take effect in 2007:

Discrimination
SB 1441
Adds sexual orientation to existing classifications protected from discrimination by recipients of state funds and expands the definition of discrimination to include the perception that the victim is a member of a protected class.

Employment
AB 546
Outlaws the use of state-owned or state-leased computers by government officials or employees to access obscene materials.

SB 1759
Establishes requirements for background checks of certain administrators, executives and employees in the health care industry, and a process for transmission of fingerprint images.

Health and Safety
AB 2067
Extends and clarifies the prohibition on smoking in the workplace.

AB 409
Immediately authorizes suspension of the license of a cosmetologist, barber, estheticians, manicurist, and electrologist if required to protect the public health and safety. Provides a means for temporary stay and appeal of the suspension.

AB 881
Requires all roofing contractors to have workers’ compensation insurance, whether or not having current employees.

SB 1613
Effective July 1, 2008, limits the use of cell phones while driving to those having hands-free operation except for contacts with law enforcement and public safety agencies and certain commercial vehicles for whom the effective date is July 1, 2011.

Until July 1, 2011, this prohibition does not apply to a person driving a motor truck or truck tractor, an agricultural vehicle, tow truck, or a commercial vehicle, when using a digital 2-way radio service that utilizes a wireless telephone that operates by depressing a push-to-talk feature as long as it does not require immediate proximity to the user’s ear.

The law does not apply to a person driving a school bus or transit vehicle that is subject to certain existing wireless telephone usage restrictions, or to a person while driving a motor vehicle on private property.

Sexual Harassment
AB 2095
Limits mandated sexual harassment training to supervisors located in California.

State Government
AB 3058
Directs development of a web-based small business handbook on emergency preparedness.

AB 1302
Amends the process by which state government agencies can create and impose emergency regulations and the duration of the period during which emergency regulations can remain in effect.

SB 1436
Requires state agencies to improve their communication regarding regulations and assistance with the business community, with an emphasis on small business.

SB 1827
Permits registered domestic partners to file joint state income tax and have their earnings treated as community property on a par with married couples.

SB 1428
Permits payroll services companies in the motion picture industry to be treated as the employer for purposes of unemployment tax filings and responsibility.

AB 2293
Penalizes an educational employer that submits willfully false statements about a worker’s employment or termination to the Employment Development Department.

Wages
AB 2613
Establishes conditions for a state overtime exemption for teachers in private educational institutions.

SB 1468
This law extends the repeal date of the Car Wash Industry compliance program from January 1, 2007 to January 1, 2010.

SB 1719
Permits employers and unions in the entertainment industry to establish conditions for payment of final paychecks by collective bargaining.

AB 1835
Increases California’s minimum wage and exempt salary standards for all California employers.

This law increases the California minimum wage to $7.50 per hour on January 1, 2007, and to $8 per hour on January 1, 2008.

AB 2095
Permits reporting of overtime hours on the same payroll date as the hours are paid when overtime is paid in the payroll period subsequent to the one in which it is earned.

Wage Deductions
AB 2440
Imposes a penalty on an employer that assists an employee or contractor with child support obligations evade meeting those obligations, including failure to file reports upon hiring.

Workers’ Compensation
AB 1368
Excludes public safety employees from the presumption that medical apportionment applied to certain specified job-related illnesses or injuries.

AB 2068
Permits pre-designation of a medical group as the primary treating physician and extends the sunset date of the right of pre-designation.

AB 2292
Provides for payment of workers’ compensation death benefits to the estate of the deceased worker. Labor Code Section 4706.5 requires workers' compensation death benefits to be paid to the California State Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) if the employee does not leave surviving any person entitled to a dependency death benefit.

For more information about the new laws.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Got a new IT project for 2007. Here are some great lessons to be learned to increase the success probability:

From Baseline Magazine

The key to project success is learning from what works as well as what doesn't work . Baseline has compiled a list of best practices drawn from nearly 230 case studies we've written in the last five years.

Lesson 1: Business processes should set the agenda, not technology. Toyota Motor is on track to pass General Motors and soon become the world's largest automotive manufacturer. Technology plays an important role in Toyota's drive to the top, but the company never loses sight of what comes first: improving its manufacturing and business processes.

Lesson 2: Biting the bullet and migrating off an older technology can pay off. R.L. Polk & Co., one of the largest providers of marketing data to automakers, wanted to retire its expensive batch-oriented mainframe system. It spent $20 million to form a new subsidiary that in 18 months developed a "data factory" built on a service-oriented architecture and Intel-based servers. The project let the company cut the head count of its data center operations group by 43%, and also saved money on hardware and software.

Lesson 3: Track projects across the entire enterprise. American Family Life Assurance Co. (AFLAC) used to have dozens of technology projects moving at once, but the company wasn't ever sure when its 230 technologists would be done with an installation and free to start something new. AFLAC set up a project management office and put software in place that lets executives and project planners see who is assigned to which projects, how many hours they have put in, how many hours are left and which project they will work on next.

Lesson 4: Get stakeholders in the same room. In five years, the number of software applications used by Cirque du Soleil employees had ballooned from roughly 40 to more than 200. Although these tools ran a wide range of operations, they could not share data. The company's goal was to organize all the application environments onto a single, standardized platform for access and development. Getting all the stakeholders in the same room to agree on the requirements was critical to the project's success.

Lesson 5: Give customers what they want. Megachurches like the 25,000-member World Changers of Atlanta can look at their data and identify members, determine who contributes how much in donations, and track who's becoming discontent and may abandon ship. With a well-trained staff and the technology to track worshipper demographics and their shopping, prayer and volunteerism behavior patterns, World Changers can target products and services to its followers and keep its pews filled.

Lesson 6: Measure success—but also failure. Technology managers at the Bank of New York thought they were doing a good job of running its information systems, but they couldn't back up their assessment with metrics. That's why they turned to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL, a set of best practices guidelines for managing technology.

Lesson 7: The easiest solution isn't always the best. Merrill Lynch & Co reinvigorated 420 financial programs stored on mainframe computers. How? By building—from scratch—Web services that can handle millions of interactions a day. But unlike many other corporations that are embracing Web services, Merrill decided to do it without the help of a traditional vendor of Web services platforms. Instead, it chose to develop and implement an entirely new Web services architecture on its own.

Lesson 8: Consider Master Data Management. Mentor Graphics, a maker of electronic design automation systems, tried to manually bandage the problem of incorrect and inconsistent data in its enterprise information systems. But it was losing the fight. Then the company deployed a master data management system to automatically update changes in its operations.

Lesson 9: Make a lean system even leaner. Tom Mathis, vice president of supply chain management at Danaher Sensors and Controls, had the job of taking a "lean" organization and making it even leaner. So he bucked corporate tradition when he proposed adding computerization to a manufacturing process known for achieving efficiency without it.

Lesson 10: Don't use complicated, expensive software when a clipboard and pencil will do. Dollar General, the $8.6 billion discount retailer, can get a new store up in eight days or fewer thanks to a super-efficient logistics process honed each time it sets up one of its 8,000 stores. Key ingredients: sweat equity and scant technology beyond PC cash registers on a satellite system.

Go check out the whole article with case studies from industry leaders.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

One of the many valuable lessons I learned at Sterling Software was that you can’t make every customer happy. There are customers that for various reasons e.g., using your product for a purpose it wasn’t designed for, that will never be happy. And as a company you will go broke trying to make them happy. At that point, it is better to sever the relationship and if that requires a refund, it’s going to be cheaper than the cost of dealing with them for months and years to come.

Over time, I also realize that you can cut service or product or something of value so that the vast majority of your customers are happy and you take the risk that some of them will not be. In times of budget cuts, or stock market requirements for your company to show higher profits, this is a strategy that can work. Although maintaining the right level of customer satisfaction can be tricky and requires that you know a lot about your customer and how much (or how little) they will tolerate. Lately I am seeing more and more of this and from personal experience I am beginning to think that companies are betting the odds a little too often.

A few months ago, Pierre and I went to stay in a resort in Costa Rica – a fancy resort. We booked an expensive room with its own swimming pool. It was only an hour later that we began to hear the banging from next door and realize that swimming au natural in the pool would be a bad idea as their were numerous workmen only a thin hedge away. When we were awakened at 6AM the next day, we finally said enough is enough. We called the front desk to complain and an hour later we were upgraded to a private villa with no construction noises to be heard. So, the hotel was playing the odds. They could close the adjoining rooms during construction time, which would be a big cost, or they could do the work, take a chance that the vast percentage of guests wouldn’t complain and if a small percentage did, then it would be a lesser cost to move them to a better room. I am pretty sure it was working too because a younger couple we met were without water for more than a day and didn’t ask to be moved or be compensated in any way. And in our case, we were at first very impressed by the resort’s ability to recover, but then I started thinking that they should never have put us near that construction in the first place. They didn’t understand how much we would tolerate, so their bet didn't work with us.

Earlier this week I rented a car from Hertz. I rent from Hertz because Pierre has a fit if I rent from anyone else because he associates Hertz with quality and service and he thinks the competition is vastly inferior. I pick up my car and at the first stop realize that there is a big scratch down one side and a ‘smush’ in the back panel. The car has 13,000 miles on it and rattles, and by the time I return it to Hertz the check engine light has come on.
Returning it is a big pain. The car is loaded with multiple packages, suitcases and cases of wine and other things you need for Christmas and the Hertz people watch as I spend 20 minutes lugging my stuff from one to the other. One even remarks, “Wow, you have a lot of stuff.” I wait for the, “May I help you?” But it never comes. And then to top it all off the clerk who waits on me is nothing short of surly and I hadn't even opened my mouth yet. And worse still this is at the executive desk. So, now the brand that we all associate with quality and service is willing to put all that at risk by renting cars that are completely outside the bounds of what we have a right to expect. And worse than that, when they are caught, they don’t even recover well.

So, it is possible to over service your customers, but watch carefully how much you are willing to cut without doing lasting damage to your company.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Proctor & Gamble. Do you think of entrepreneur or innovator when you hear the company name? Well you should. Larry Huston is vice president of innovation at Proctor & Gamble. Huston's title is not just smoke and mirrors.

According to Taylor and LaBarre, authors of Mavericks at Work,

Huston is convinced that P&G must look outside the walls of its celebrated research labs, and beyond the breakthroughs of its full-time scientists, to tap the brainpower of the whole world. Even though P&G employs many of the smartest scientists and engineers in their fields, the company's vice president of innovation understands nobody is as smart as everybody - and not everybody can work for P&G.

"We have 7,500 R&D people who operate in 150 different areas of the science," Huston explains. "But when you look around the world at these 150 areas, you see there are one and a half million people outside of P&G with training that is equal to or better than our people. In other words, for every one person we have in a particular area, there are 200 people on the outside of equal minds or better. Now, it's pretty obvious that 200 can invent better than one - you don't have to be a genius to figure that out."

Huston has asked 60 of P&G's scientists and engineers to be technology entrepreneurs. As such, these technology entrepreneurs travel throughout the world to discover innovations beyond the walls of P&G. The mission - to identify innovative ideas that can be brought in-house to create new products or improve existing products.

Ed Getty, one of P&G's technology entrepreneurs says, "Our job is to look outside, find disruptive technologies and products, and bring them back to the company. We're innovating on how we innovate. That is a real game-changer for us."

Yes, Proctor & Gamble, as big as they are, has the entrepreneurial spirit. P&G is pushing the envelope on innovation. We should all learn from Proctor & Gamble - an elephant that dances with startup companies.

Fascinating!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

THEORIES ABOUND FOR SCARCITY IN EXEC, BOARD POSITIONS
By Michelle Quinn Mercury News
Women in Silicon Valley have a problem.

They are MIA in the board rooms and executive suites.

I'm talking single digits, folks. According to a recent study, among the top 103 public companies here, women make up 6.5 percent of board directors and 8.8 percent of company leadership teams.

Women fare somewhat better in California overall, where they make up 8.8 percent of board directors and 11.7 percent of managers identified by their companies as executive officers, according to the study released Thursday by the University of California-Davis.

So what's the problem with Silicon Valley, which considers itself a meritocracy?

How is it that Netflix, TiVo, Yahoo and Apple -- all consumer companies with presumably plenty of female customers -- have no female board members? If it was strictly about business experience and coding ability, then why is Al Gore on Apple's board? Obviously, he's got serious juice in some corridors. But what other corridors are companies here overlooking?

It's been a mixed year for women in Silicon Valley and the tech world. The Hewlett-Packard pretexting debacle took down a couple of prominent women, such as Pattie Dunn, the non-executive chair of the board, and Ann Baskins, vice president, general counsel and secretary. Nancy Heinen, resigned from her job as Apple Computer's chief counsel and secretary in May, shortly before Apple's June disclosure of irregularities in its stock options grants.

And Carol Bartz stepped down as chief executive of Autodesk after 14 years at the helm.

On the upside, Safra Catz keeps Oracle running as the company's chief financial officer and co-president. And last week Susan Decker, chief financial officer at Yahoo, was named to Intel's board. And there's Meg Whitman, president and chief executive of eBay.

But why so few?

Continue reading "Where Are The Women?" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Bonuses as high as $100M will be paid to Goldman Sach's employees this Christmas. Here are some spending suggestions from ABC News:

Dec. 13, 2006 — It was reported today that Wall Street's famed investment bank Goldman Sachs will be shelling out over $16 billion in bonuses this holiday season — an average of over $600,000 per employee.

Many of those bonuses will be performance-based, so some of the company's bigwigs are likely to get as much as $100 million.

With all that cash coming in, it's easy to wonder what someone might buy with a $100 million holiday bonus.

You could provide immunizations for more than 40,000 impoverished children for a year ($37.5 million), then throw a birthday party for your daughter and one million of her closest friends ($60 million). You'd still have enough to buy a different color Rolls Royce for each day of the week ($2.5 million).

You could feed about 800,000 children for a year ($60 million), recreate the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes and Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston weddings four times over ($16 million), buy one of Mel Gibson's private islands ($15 million), and still remain a millionaire nine times over.

You could pay Harvard tuition for more than 1,500 students who couldn't afford it ($70.5 million), provide health care to over 1,000 Americans for a year ($7 million), and still have enough to buy a different Brioni designer suit for every single day of the year ($6,000 suits for all 365 days would cost $22 million).

You could take everyone in the country of Grenada to a Broadway show, then buy the most expensive apartment in New York City (a triplex penthouse at the Pierre Hotel, $70 million), and still have an extra $15 million dollars in your pocket — over 300 times the median income of the average American household.

You could buy every person in Kansas City a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes (147,000 pairs of $400 shoes comes out to about $60 million) and still have $40 million dollars left — that's more than 500 times the average doctor's salary in the United States (about $80,000).

You could buy 1,000 gala tables at your favorite charity's ball ($10 million), provide winter blankets for 350,000 children in developing countries ($14 million), personally pay Derek Jeter's salary for a year ($21 million), and still buy your own private Boeing jet ($55 million).

You still could not pay to insure Jennifer Lopez's backside though — rumored to be worth a cool $1 billion, according to the New York Post.

I wonder if they could spare some for the kids at Sacramento's juvenile hall?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Beginning Tuesday, December 19, Roseville-based SureWest Broadband (NASDAQ:SURW) will rollout a new Internet service offering up to 50 Mbps of hyper-speed access which is approximately 50 times faster than typical broadband service. The catch - you must be one of SureWest’s FTTH network which reaches nearly 100,000 marketable homes in the Sacramento region.

SureWest is bundling the 50 Mbps offering in its newly-created “Ultimate” quadruple play package which also includes digital TV’s highest-end package, Full Color Multiplex, which features over 250 channels and includes every premium channel; National Unlimited local and long distance telephone; and Unlimited USA wireless with 1,000 travel minutes each month. Cost for the “Ultimate” quadruple play is $415.18 a month while the 50 Mbps product costs $259.95 per month.

A welcome Christmas gift for the ultimate movie/music downloader in your household?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:26 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

More than a month ago, Pierre wrote about TopCoder, a Glastonbury, NJ firm and their hiring of a 21-year old women, Yingying Wu, to oversee and manage TopCoder business relationships and build TopCoder's market presence and member enrollment throughout the greater China and Asia region. How neat is that? Since then, however, we have received comments that the Chinese are furious with the appointment and there are allegations being made that Yingying's background is not half as impressive as TopCoder's press release has related.

On a tip from a commenter, I took a tour of the Chinese sites that are abuzz with this subject. In doing so, I quickly found out that the translate feature for these sites is abyssmal, but it was good enough for me to figure out that there is indeed a general discrediting of Ms. Wu in progress. Every aspect of her resume seems to be under attack - the seriousness of her patents, her membership in the American Psychological Assocation (which they downgrade by suggesting it can be had for a $10 per year fee), even her degree from a Chinese university.

And if that's not enough, there is also a discrediting of TopCoder - that it's only been around a couple of years and only employs 75 people, so it's not even a serious company anyway. This from writers from a country where a Western decade is equivalent of a Chinese second.

But on the positive side, there is an interview published by the Women of China that seems to confirm much of the glowing background that TopCoder touted about Wu in their announcement. From it we learn even more about the accomplished Yingying - that she is an expert in Chinese folk dancing. There is even a picture of her. Although the title is a little insensitive for Western standards -

Wu Yingying is not only talented, but also beautiful. [ynet.com]

So what was TopCoder thinking when they appointed her? Here's what they said officially:

"TopCoder has a large number of Chinese members and has sought to establish a presence in China for some time, however a unique person with a highly specialized set of skills was needed," said Rob Hughes, President and COO of TopCoder, Inc. "Yingying Wu brings with her a graduate degree in psychology, extensive technical understanding and a deep awareness of business management all of which will bring significant value as we expand membership and the TopCoder brand in China."

But a 21 year old and a women to boot? Were they completely out to lunch in terms of cultural sensitivity? Or, was it a brilliant move? Their target market is young, smart, technology gurus. So, who has picked up the story and made TopCoder one of the top names on the Chinese web? Oh, would it be those young, smart, technology gurus? If TopCoder wanted to get the word out about their company and recruit new members in a country as vast as China for little advertising money, this seemed like a brilliant move to me. Or, maybe a lucky accident based on complete cultural ignorance.

Pierre loves this company, thinks it is the hottest thing going right now, so we are banking on the sheer brilliance theory. We will monitor Yingying's career and give you periodic updates. We are both rooting for her.

And Chinese bloggers - keep sending us more info!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:27 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (23)

American entrepreneurs and business executives don't think enough. Look at your calendar this past week - meeting after meeting. Every day is filled with endless meetings. And if not in a meeting you are on the phone, essentially having yet another meeting. Or if not on the phone, then you are pecking away on your computer, responding to an endless stream of email.

Email - now that's a brainless activity (and a CYA game too). No time for thinking while processing your emails. You are definitely not thinking when on the phone and simultaneously emailing and messing around on instant messenger.

Thinking requires quiet time, away from all interruptions. You cannot think when on the phone, in a meeting, or instant messaging.

Thinking is a hard skill to develop. Most companies' value systems do not include thinking. Not IBM though. When I joined IBM in 1984, the company handed me a stack of pocket notepads. On the cover was a single word - THINK. I also received a metal placard for my desk with the etching THINK.

In the recent book Mavericks At Work, authors Taylor and LaBarre describe Microsoft's Bill Gates process for thinking:

Bill Gates, the richest man in the world and by most accounts one of the great business geniuses of all time, offers a perfect image of the lonely leader's guide to innovation. In March 2005, the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page account of Gates's secretive, twice-a-year "Think Weeks" in which the Microsoft cofounder heads off by himself, in total seclusion, to a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest. Armed with white papers penned by Microsoft staffers, fueled by orange soda and two meals a day, Gates reads, reflects and thinks big thoughts. Among the business ideas to receive a green light from the boss after these retreats, the Journal reports, were Microsoft's Web Browser, its Tablet PC, and its online videogame business.

THINK

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

For many years, we have waited for the perfect storm - a confluence of academia and industry funded locally. Maybe, it's finally here.

Check out local startup Synapsense. Founded by Peter Van Deventer, an ex-Intel executive and Raju Pandey, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis, and funded by local venture capital funds American River Ventures and DFJ Frontier. The company has raised $2M in funding and has just announced its first product in the fast-growing wireless sensor networks market. And on the website and you find two additional ex-Intel employees in leadership roles. Employees are now at 15 and expected to grow quickly.

So, here it is. Local academic and corporate talent coupled with local funding. Hot market doesn't hurt either. ON World estimates the global market for WSN technology will grow from $141 million this year to $5.2 billion by 2010.

Let's keep a close eye on these guys. They could have found the secret formula we have all worked so hard to discover.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Sand Hill Road - smart money - right? Wrong!

Benchmark Capital - smart money - right? Not always!

An $8 Million investment! Has the world gone mad? Is this deja vu? What is going on in Silicon Valley? Did the brain cells forget the insanity of our recent tech crash past?

Beam me up Scottie! There's no intelligence here!

TechCrunch.com - popular - yes. But why? Because they provide a great service.

Advertisers on TechCrunch.com - like LogoJeez - crooks, as reported here before. Investors in today's markets - dumb or dumber than before?

Where's LogoJeez now? Replaced by oDesk. Why would Benchmark Capital invest in oDesk? Who knows. But this is smart money, remember!

What does oDesk do? An online bodyshop. A glorified headhunter. Is this the next big disrupter? I don't think so.

oDesk -

The On Demand Global Workforce that enables buyers of services to hire, manage, and pay technology service providers from around the world. Buyers choose oDesk for top global talent, comprehensive management tools, and a flexible hourly payment model. Service Providers choose oDesk for challenging jobs and guaranteed payment. Every day, thousands of buyers and providers work together through oDesk - a unique company at the forefront of reinventing work.

Smart investment? I think not. A twenty-bagger in the works? Nope!

Who's the winner here? TechCrunch with another $10K per month for the next two months. How long will oDesk last? Probably not long. Just watch the TechCrunch website.

This reminds me of the company my wife and business partner once owned - TechCrash. I kid you not! We actually had a company named TechCrash. TechCrunch the URL is probably for sale!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:18 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

On Wall Street, Apple Computer stock hit an all-time high today at $88.60 per share. Apple's remarkable recovery and climb has been based on the iPod mega-hit. In 1997, the stock was a bargain basement price of $3.00. Ten years later and almost a 30-bagger (a Peter Lynch term), Apple's future is promising. What lies ahead? Industry rumors abound that Apple is about to launch the iPhone - a mobile phone coupled with iTunes music-playing technology and instant-messaging capabilities. Perhaps we will see the debut of the iPhone at the annual San Francisco MacWorld Expo in January.

Can any one provide a graphic of the iPhone? I bet Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision can - they just landed a contract to build 12 million of the hand-held mobile devices, according to Forbes.com. If the iPhone does exist and sells like the iPod, watch out - Apple could be a 50-bagger, based on its 1997 price.

Happy days are here again for Apple Computer!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Mark Randall, the CEO and founder of Serious Magic, which was recently acquired by Adobe will be speaking at UC Davis as part of the Entrepreneur Speaker Series on Monday, November 27th at 6PM.

I have seen Mark tell his story and he is a fascinating speaker with great insights on what it takes to be an entrepreneur. I have it on good authority that Mark will be expanding on his "Five Skills an Entreprenuer Must Have to Succeed" and will add a a whole new rant "The Single Best Way to Double the Value of an Acquisition".

If you want to have an enjoyable and informative evening, plan on attending. And the cost is right - it's free.

Monday, November 27
6:00 pm
Room 174 AOB IV Building
UC Davis Graduate School of Management
UC Davis Campus

RSVP via email to: nstarsinic@ucdavis.edu

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:40 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

What is LogoJeez up to? This bogus company stopped advertising on TechCrunch.com.

Are they out of business yet? If not, they should be. Keep the comments coming on this fraudulent company!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (8)

Nutracea (OTCBB: NTRZ), which makes food ingredients from rice bran is pulling up stakes and moving to Phoenix. They will maintain a warehouse in El Dorado Hills employing 17 people. That is to satisfy the requirements of a long-term deal signed with the Farmers' Rice Cooperative mill in West Sacramento.

Same old story - CEO is from Phoenix (and this time the head of Sales too) and comes up with 'reasons' that the company should leave Sacramento. And the Board buys it. The 'reasons' this time:

"The company's El Dorado Hills location was not very accessible, and the company found a "more talented and educated labor pool" in Phoenix." Too bad as Nutracea looks like it is about to take off after several years of significant losses.

Another one bites the dust, or is that the chaff?

And what are the powers that be in Sacramento doing about this steady brain drain? We need to ask questions before there is nothing left to question!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:12 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

A good article on firing an employee from Cliff Ennicom host of the PBS show The Money Hunt reprinted from Entrepreneur.com

I have had to fire many people over the years. It never gets easier. But oftentimes, the employee knows that he or she is not doing a good job and is relieved that it's over. And keep in mind, having a 'bad' employee in a position is detrimental to the morale of the rest of the group. As my boss from the mid 70's once told me, and I never forget it, "There's no shame in having roaches, the shame is in keeping them." Blunt, but true.

Firing an employee--looking someone straight in the eye and telling them they no longer have a source of income--is one of the toughest things you'll ever have to do as a business owner. It’s often as hard on the person giving the bad news as it is on the person receiving it. And yet it still needs to be done, especially if you have someone who's "poisoning the well" and bringing the entire business down with them.

Assuming this person is an “at will” employee--someone who doesn’t have an employment contract that guarantees employment for a specified time period--here are ten tips to help you remove the bad apple cancer from your business with a “zero to low” risk of being sued for wrongful termination.

1. Check your past feedback. If you've been giving this employee glowing performance reviews and a raise each year, they'll understandably be shocked when you call them into your office and give them the boot. Look back at your relationship with this employee, and if you've been sending them overly positive signals, don't fire the employee immediately! Instead, start changing the signals and let them know in no uncertain terms that they're not "living in Kansas anymore."

2. Give them a warning. Sit the employee down in your office, explain that you're unhappy with their performance, and give them a limited period of time (I would suggest 30 days) to turn things around. Make it very clear that if they continue to "fill in the blank with their bad behavior," you'll have no choice but to terminate them immediately. Prepare a “memo to the file” detailing what you told the employee.

3. Focus on specific behavior goals. Give the employee a list of behaviors you find unacceptable, and tell them exactly what they needs to do to get back into your good graces. Do not allow the employee to drag you into a discussion that focuses on anything other that what you've just covered.

Continue reading "The Right Way To Fire Someone" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

I am beginning to become a big fan of TopCoder. I think Gillian will soon become a follower. I found this press release on TopCoder:

Glastonbury, Conn., October 25, 2006 —TopCoder®, Inc., the leader in online programming competition, skills assessment and competitive software development, today announced it has hired Yingying Wu as Vice President of Operations for TopCoder in Asia. Wu will oversee and manage TopCoder business relationships and will build TopCoder's market presence and member enrollment throughout the greater China and Asia region.

Wu has earned accolades for technical skills including the Innovation and Technology Prize of China in 2006, the highest award of its kind from China's Ministry of Education, and the 2005 National Contest in Modeling in Beijing where [Wu} took first prize. Technically accomplished, [Wu] holds patents for [over] 100 inventions including OPEN Indexing Technology and Dynamic Counter Cachet Technology. Wu also authored several technology books including Data Structure and Comprehensive Practical Activity and is a member of the American Psychology Association and the Association for Computing Machinery.

Previous to TopCoder, [Wu} held a position with Edoor Information and Technology Co. Ltd, in Dalian, China and was the Asia coordinator for the ACM International Collegiate Programming contest. Wu is currently a student at California's Stanford University in the graduate program of the university's Department of Psychology.

"TopCoder has a large number of Chinese members and has sought to establish a presence in China for some time, however a unique person with a highly specialized set of skills was needed," said Rob Hughes, President and COO of TopCoder, Inc. "Yingying Wu brings a graduate degree in psychology, extensive technical understanding and a deep awareness of business management all of which will bring significant value as we expand membership and the TopCoder brand in China."

About TopCoder, Inc.
TopCoder is the recognized leader in identifying, evaluating and mobilizing effective software development resources. Through its proprietary programming competitions and rating system, TopCoder recognizes and promotes the abilities of the best programmers around the world. TopCoder Software harnesses the talent of these developers to design, develop and deploy software through its revolutionary competitive development methodology. TopCoder's methodology emphasizes thorough specification and design, distributed development using reusable components, and a rigorous quality assurance review process and results in higher quality, lower cost software solutions than traditional software development methodologies.

By the way, Yingying Wu is female. Gillian, why doesn't the U.S. produce female stars like Wu?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (13)

Another acquisition of a local promising startup - Meridian Project Systems. This follows recent acquisitons of Serious Magic, Sierra Logic, International Displayworks. For now, it appears that the jobs at Meridian will be safe as their acquirer Trimble Navigation Ltd. plans to run them as a separate unit with one of their founders, John Bodrozic, serving as the general manager.

You can read the details of the acquisition - no $ amount mentioned - on Meridian's website

The candidates for that local headquarter's company that we all want to see grow and thrive in Sacramento are getting less in number by the week.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (2)

Local startup CEO Scott Hildebrand of Tubes Music has an interesting post that I am reposting with his permission. I think Scott poses an interesting question and worthy of crunching some brain cells to come up with an answer. Do startups need a business plan and a powerpoint presentation, or is there a better new way of presenting your company, preferably one that can stay abreast of the constant changes in a startup company?

One thing I’ve really noticed is how much I dread doing the stupid stuff. I don’t dread it because it’s boring or useless because it’s not, but there’s something highly ineffecient about doing a startup the old-fashioned way.

Before I had a team, the support of good advisors and a good lawyer, or any kind of technology demo, I wrote the business plan. At this point in time it’s literally 40 pages of shit. Maybe I’m lazy or maybe I just have a strong attraction to doing things efficiently, but now that the business plan needs a re-write I sure as hell don’t want to do it. I just don’t think it’s a very smart time/energy expenditure.

Many of the core values and influences and goals that Tubes was born out of are still the same, but the actual product and business goals have evolved. I’ve kept the financial plans up to date but the executive summary and Powerpoint deck both need some TLC as well. The question now is do we need them?

Things are different now. I have many things in place including the start of a really amazing team, and we have a lot of code written that does what it needs to do. There is definitely a general path that we’re following, but it’s very difficult to put everything on paper. As impressive as the original business plan might have been, is it a failure because things didn’t materialize as planned? Of course it’s not because we’re farther along now, and some of the kooky ideas in the business plan have been laid to rest while we’ve put focus on the real important and compelling stuff. Maybe it wasn’t a good plan to begin with… or maybe the business plan isn’t such a great format anymore for web startups. Also… do I even want a description of what we’re doing on paper or electronically that can be passed around to competitors? I think I prefer to show people and give them the story in person.

I have a lot of friends in startup-land, and for the most part their strategy doesn’t even include an inkling of Powerpoint or business plans or even financial models. Their strategy is to build and release, and hopefully people like it. If they do then hopefully the application or service can generate revenues… somehow. I don’t think that’s a good model to follow either, but there has got to be a better way!

I’m going to stop this post right now, because I don’t have the answer. If anybody has ideas on better ways to manage business development and direction, acquisition ideas, or anything else then please contribute and add your comments. Right now I can tell you that our internal development wiki for Tubes has become absolutely essential for keeping track of all kinds of shit.

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

I swear that I'm always the last person to embrace disruptive technologies. Open-source software is a perfect example. Having worked for Big Blue for several years, I never accepted open-source software. How could you make money? Why would a competitive company embrace something that everyone else has? What would be the security risk to adopting open-source code? What would be the competitive advantage? What's the discriminator?

Well, this time, I am on the leading edge. The company is TopCoder, a maverick company according to William Taylor and Polly LaBarre, authors of Mavericks At Work.

Open-source collaboration is an innovative concept that TopCoder has perfected. TopCoder, Inc., a for-profit business, has developed a creative business. Founded in April of 2001 by Jack Hughes, the company is essentially a talent search firm. The essence of their business is providing software development expertise to solve their blue chip clients' application needs. The end result is TopCoder brings to bear the absolute best programming skills from around the world.

How do they do it? According to Taylor and LaBarre,

TopCoder signs a contract to build a computer application for one of the big-name companies, divides up the application into a collection of discrete software components, and then turns its members loose to create the code in an open-source style, with everyone eligible to contribute and everyone's work visible to everyone else.

But here's the twist: these programmers collaborate to produce great code by vying fiercely in head-to-head competitions. Their work is organized as series of online matches in which TopCoder members battle deadlines to design and write the most elegant components and impress a jury of their peers. These competitions are dripping with geek machismo: members boast about their technical prowess, talk trash about their rivals, and aren't afraid to express outrage when don't win.

Several companies are catching on to the TopCoder business model. TopCoder has over 95,000 members from 190 companies. The members have incredible programming skills, skills in great demand by the likes of Google, Yahoo, Intel, Sun Mircosystems and Microsoft. Each member has a profile and performance track record - information available to recruiters.

And what are the results? Remarkable! In 2005, Google worked with TopCoder to run a competition in India. The competition attracted over 14,000 registrants. At stake - the top 50 finalists won a job offer from Google!

More to come on TopCoder!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Congratulations to Serious Magic on their acquisition by Adobe.

Founded in 2001 by many of the former employees of another local company, PLAY, Serious Magic won multiple best of show awards for their innovative video products. CEO Mark Randall, a serial entrepreneur and altogether good guy, gets his company acquired on October 19th, and nine days later he shows up to teach a class on his take on being an entrepreneur to the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy. Now that's class and what a lesson those SEA students got!

Mark and many of the Serious Magic staff will stay with Adobe. One of the blog predictions:

....from what I can tell from internal buzz, you might want to keep your eye on the longterm significance.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

At the big nanoTX '06 conference in Dallas last month, one of the biggest exhibitors was .... the state of New York. Several states see the business benefits of attracting nanotechnology comapnies, including Texas, New York, and California.

Let's see who is winning.

My dubioiusly scientific results - a Google search of Nanotechnology with a State name attached:

Texas - 5M hits
California - 6.3M hits
New York - 6.85M hits

Wow, maybe those aggressive marketing techniques by New York are working. Except...

if I exclude the word times (as in New York Times, which seems to have written quite a few articles regarding nanotechnology on a nationwide scale), the number for New York falls to $4.9M.

But be warned, California - New York is out and about exhibiting at trade shows across the nation. Further proof - NEW YORK LOVES Nanotech is a registered trademark and service mark of the New York State Department of Economic Development. Seems like they mean business - nano business.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Silicon Valley came in last? What?

According to a survey by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Silicon Valley came in dead last in an annual ranking of 12 U.S. technology hubs. The region's notoriously high cost of housing, high level of traffic congestion, high unemployment rates and other quality-of-life issues brought the score of the region to the bottom of the list.

Top of the list - making it the nation's top-ranked tech hub - is North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham area. Its ranking was helped by relatively affordable housing and a booming job market. Education is also highly ranked as well as low sales tax and cost of utilities.

The No. 2 city is Seattle, follwed by No. 3 - the greater Denver area. Although Denver suffered from traffic problems and soaring housing prices, it more than made up in the area of the number of startups in the emerging alternative energy niche.

Of course, it's not all over for Silicon Valley. It was clearly top of the list in the amount of venture funding it attracts - $8B, which is four times more than its closest domestic rivals.

I suppose one could always make the case that all of that technology leadership for so long has raised the cost of housing and improved the economy. Isn't that always the argument we make in Sacramento as to why we should be supporting the technology community?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Congratulations to Ethan Conrad Properties Inc. for moving from 66th position to 28th position on the Fastest-Growing companies list published by the Sacramento Business Journal. Ethan was a 1989 graduate of the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy. He started his career as a commercial real estate broker and quickly became successful. He started buying commercial real estate for himself. Slowly, he transitioned from being primarily a broker to performing the leasing, renovation and purchasing of his own properties. Annual companies revenues top $11M, growing from $6M the previous year.
Ethan is a big supporter of the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy. He credits the Academy with exposing him to the real business world versus college which he describes as being rather disjointed from the real world and real business decision makers.

I know when I drive down Highway 50 and see the large sign on one of the buildings - Ethan Conrad Properties - it affirms that the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy has for more than 20 years provided the best entrepreneurship training to more than 500 very high potential future business leaders. Ethan is a great case in point and there are many more that will help to build Sacramento into a successful city run by smart, hard-working, creative and very highly ethical business men and women.

If you want to know more about the Academy and how you can participate either as a student, a mentor, a Board member or a sponsor, check out their website

Ethan, we couldn't be more proud.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:55 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Sometimes your product is good, you just need to figure out a new way to deliver it. That's what Mike Hagan, recently named Entrepreneur of the year by Forbes Magazine, did when he joined Nutrisystem in 2002. The company at that point was 30 years old and languishing with revenues of $28M and profits of $2.5M. Four years later, revenues are $413M and profit stands at $55M. This year, the company will add 800,000 new customers and stock analysts just raised their buy target price to $77 - the stock was at 60 cents when Hagan took over. Nutrisystem has just been named as the top Best Small Companies of America by Forbes.

Mike explains that he realized that target customers were busy and not willing to come to a fixed location once a week to get counseling and pick up food products. So he moved the counseling tools onto the Internet and began shipping food products directly to the customer. That shift began a complete revival of the company.

Nutrisystem is the 800 lb gorilla in the weight loss industry dwarfing the likes of Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers. And they have lots more room to grow owning only 1% of the projected market. Watch the Dan Marino ads increase the male clientelle and what woman can resist the ad where a husband of a wife who has just lost weight using Nutrisystem says, "I got my wife back." Watch an interview of Mike Hagan

So next time you plan on transforming your company, don't just look at the product, look at how you deliver it to your target customer base. And a new CEO wouldn't hurt either!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

60% of Americans had no plans to take any sort of summer vacation this year -- this from a survey by the Gallup organization and the worst showing in the poll's 28 years. 25% of US workers get no paid vacation according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a huge increase from the 5% in 1998 and 33% only get 7 days including a weekend.

How does this compare with the Europeans. The British get 50% more vacation than Americans and the French and Italians get twice as much.

Some US companies are fighting back - for example the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, has taken to shutting down its entire national operation twice a year to ensure that people stop working — for about 10 days over Christmas, and 5 days or so around the Fourth of July. Rockwell Collins also closes down over Christmas, a benefit for which Pierre and I are very grateful!

So can the US workforce maintain their competitiveness by simply working harder or eventually will it suck all of the creative juices out of us?

Here's my theory. All of the great designer furniture comes from Italy - B&B Italia, need I say more? And US designers scurry around like lunatics at the end of July trying to get all their orders in so that they will be first on the list when the Italians return from their month long factory closedown in August. Maybe, just maybe, as the Italians lie on some beach in the Adriatic in their skimpy Speedos and bikinis, they allow the left sides of their brains to imagine great new furniture designs and return refreshed and at their creative peak after their month long vacation.

As I said - that's my theory and I am sticking to it. And I hope our new sofa arrives soon!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

KeyEye Communications Inc., a local Sacramento fabless semiconductor company has completed a $16M second round of funding . Participating in the Series B round were Menlo Ventures and American River Ventures, both part of the original investment. The Sacramento Angels have also previously invested in the company.

Additionally, KeyEye has named Chuck Fox, former president and CEO of Chameleon Systems, as its new chief executive officer.

KeyEye designs chips for high-speed data transmission over ordinary copper wires.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

A team of WiMAX and cable television technologists from Japan paid a visit to Folsom near Sacramento, California to discuss WiMAX deployments and municipal wireless networks on October 13, 2006. Kosuke Ito, and geof lambert both Forum Leaders with the global IPv6 Forum coordinated the event with the help of a team of volunteers affiliated with Rotary International, the City of Folsom, SCV Network, North American IPv6 Task Force, California IPv6 Task Force and Intel. Check out some photos

Great job geof for making good on your vision to make Sacramento a hub of IPv6 technology.

If any readers are interested in being a part of this vision, attend the Sacramento Center of Excellence for Information Security & Privacy meeting the 3rd Tuesday of the month at Pachanga Restaurant in Folsom at Noon.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

According to CNNMoney.com, less than an hour ago, after the closing bell on Wall Street, Google announced the acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Speculation about a possible acquisition started early Friday morning. As we reported Saturday morning, the deal was imminent.

Congrats to the YouTube team! A liquidity event 20 months after start-up. Wow!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are living the American dream, right before our eyes. Their story is amazing! Just when you think the rapid creation of giant wealth in the technology industry can't be outdone, it happens again. Bigger. Better. Faster.

It's all about passion, creativity, and taking action. Nearly two years ago, Chad and Steve came up with an idea on how to share video files over the Internet. At the time, they worked for PayPal. On February 14, 2005, at the ripe ages of 27 and 25, Chad and Steve, together with Jawed Karim, co-founded YouTube in a Menlo Park garage. Bootstrapping the company with credit cards, they quickly developed a prototype and by May of 2005, they were beta testing it with their friends.

Using their network to gain access to venture capital, YouTube raised $3.5 million from Sequoia Capital in November 2005 (Roelof Botha, former PayPal CFO and partner at Sequoia). Sequoia invested an additional $8 million this past April.

The company officially launched its service last December. Since then, market adoption of YouTube's video file sharing service has been off the charts. YouTube attracts over 20 million unique users per month. Users download over 100 million video views per day. 65,000 new videos are uploaded each day.

This is nothing but amazing. This is simply mind-boggling!

And now for the rest of the story - Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are about to become very, very wealthy (Jawed left early on to pursue graduate studies at Stanford). According to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch, Google is rumored to be in discussions with YouTube to acquire the company for $1.6 billion. The rumor just may have validity, per the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

A billion dollar liquidity event, from the garage to Google in less than twenty-four months!

I think Chad and Steve are about to become the latest media darlings - very soon!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

From Mark Cuban's blog, as part of an interesting discussion on the blown call in the Oregon Oklahoma Pac10 game:

The job of management is to hire the best possible people for a position and put them in a position to succeed. Which means that the hiring process has to be strong. It means the recruiting and training process has to be strong. A workforce of professionals has to have bench strength. There have to be well trained individuals ready to take the place of those who quit, retire, or cant meet the standards of the organization.

It means communication has to be strong so that employees and management can have give and take and work to improve the organization and profession. It means the evaluation process has to be strong. Its not simply a matter of tracking statistics.... Statistics are worthless if management doesnt understand how to use them as part of a bigger goal. Managers need to be able to communicate with each employee about their individual needs and design programs to help them improve, or make a change if they cant meet those expecations. And finally, management needs to be open to communications with the outside world as a means of developing strong relationships with its customers and garnering ideas and suggestions that independent eyes and ears offer that might improve the quality of performance.

Thats good business.

And Mark sure knows a lot about good business.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:01 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

A recent email brought info on what appears to be a very valuable program at an extremely reasonable cost. The Sacramento program is sponsored by Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA), but in other cities, Intel is the sponsor. If any Sacramento Executive reader attends, please report back on its effectiveness.

The Small Business Technology Institute, a non-profit institution, is inviting small businesses to attend the Small Business Technology Boot Camp, a unique day of learning, solution demonstrations and networking to take your business to the next level. The special $20 admission rate, to include breakfast, lunch and all training material, is made possible thanks to the sponsorship of Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA) - reduced from the standard event fee of $400.

The Micro-Enterprise Technology Boot Camp takes place over one full day, during which participants go through four sessions detailing use of information technologies in the four functional areas that are common to all small businesses: infrastructures, marketing, operations and finance.

Each training session provides concrete and proven advice and addresses how to adopt the best, most cost-effective technology solutions to directly and positively impact your business. The sessions are taught by senior business and technology experts and include presentations, case studies, real world scenarios, and hands on application work in the four core subject areas.

The Micro-Enterprise Technology Boot Camp curriculum was developed through SBTI’s in-depth consulting experience with over 200 clients. The Boot Camp has been delivered to hundreds of small businesses since 2002, reaching all sectors and industries across the US. SBTI’s instructors are experienced professionals who have dedicated their careers to technology and are actively committed to supporting the small business community.

This event is tailored for businesses with 20 or fewer employees having only a limited understanding of information technologies and how they factor into business operations. This event is not recommended for technology experts.

Each training module is accompanied by practical demonstrations of technology solutions that best fit the needs of small businesses.

Date: October 19th.

More information and registration can be found here

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Has the Time Finally Arrived for 'Green' Investing?

By Nancy Zambell, Staff Writer, Big Idea Investor

Simply stated, environmental, green, or clean, technology is defined as ‘the application of environmental sciences to conserve the natural environment and resources by curbing the negative impacts of human involvement’. In other words, it is the clean-up of the mess we humans have made on our planet, as well as the aim to do better job of protecting it in the future.

Since the energy crisis of the 70s, pundits have been foretelling of the potential for great riches by investing in the alternative energy and environmental technology industries. Certainly, over the intervening years, interest in alternative energy, as well as pockets of profit have waxed and waned, pretty much in sync with the price of oil. Oil price rise, interest in this technology booms. Oil prices decline and suddenly bigger, gas-hungrier SUV’s are back in vogue.

We have done an abysmal job of staying on track. In 1975, renewable energy amounted to 6.6% of total energy consumption. By 2005 it was just 6.1%.

But this time around may be a little different. And the reason is compelling. For the first time ever, a widespread collaboration of efforts – from environmentalists, the offending industries, academia, the agriculture industry, state and federal government regulation, security sector and lastly, but very importantly, the financiers – is promising not the rapid development of new technology, but also the money to market it.

Just six years ago, clean technology amounted to a mere 1% of venture capital (VC) expenditures. Last year, VC investments of $1.6 billion in green technology were record-breaking and up 43% over 2004’s numbers. And they are continue to rise significantly this year. In the first quarter of 2006, VC’s invested $513 million, up 52.9%, with the average deal size increasing to $8.28 million. In the second quarter of this year, VC’s surpassed the previous record of $797 million which was achieved during the frothy first quarter of 2000, with investments of $843 million.

Clean energy is now ranked as the fastest growing sector in private funding and the third largest VC investment category, accounting for some 13% of invested capital.

Continue reading "Has The Time Finally Come For 'Green' Investing?" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Are you thinking of starting a company? If you are short of capital, the best way to bootstrap your company is get sales. Right away. Do it before you do anything else. Don't write a business plan. Don't develop the product first. Go get orders.

Call me crazy? Let me explain by example - RightNow Technology a software company located in Bozeman, Montana. This is their story - a customer relationship management software solution provider, started in 1997, bootstrapped their way to an IPO in 2004 at $7.00 per share, and now has 530 employees, generating $99 million in annual revenue, with 1,700 customers, $15.61 per share, and a market cap of $504 million.

How did they do it? Founder and CEO Greg Granforte writes:

There's a sign that I keep on the wall of my office. It says simply, “Nothing happens until somebody sells something.” In other words, sales is where your business begins. Sure, you may have a great product or service that you’ve worked hard to develop. You may have hired a fantastic staff. You may have cash in the bank, a logo and letterhead, a beautiful office, computers on the desks, all those things that come to mind when we picture a business. But that’s not what makes a business. Only sales can do that.

This is good news for bootstrappers. Bootstrappers can’t afford fancy offices or big staffs. They may not even have a finished product yet. But the bootstrapper doesn’t need those things to get started. As soon as you can start selling—that is, go out and find customers willing to buy his product or service—you have a business.

So when you’re bootstrapping a business, you don’t worry about the nonessentials at first. Your first concern is sales. Everything else can come later, and sometimes that includes the product or service that you’re selling. In fact, if you approach it the right way, sales is the best way to come up with a product that people will buy. Let me explain.

I started RightNow Technologies with just an idea for a product. What made it real was sales. It was 1997 and the Internet was just starting to boom. Sitting at my home computer, surfing the Web, I noticed that a lot of companies didn’t have a very good way of responding to customer inquiries at their websites. Most of their software solutions seemed to be homegrown and not very effective. When entrepreneurs see a need that’s not being met, they scent opportunity. So I tried to imagine what kind of software would be able to respond to customer inquiries automatically. I made a list of features that I thought would be important for the product to have. Then I hit the phones.

I called hundreds of companies and asked to speak to the customer service manager. I described the software that I had dreamed up and faxed them the specs—just a page, nothing more. Then I asked them whether they’d be willing to buy this product for their company’s website.

Some of them said that yes, they would like to buy the product, and I was certainly happy to hear that kind of positive response. However, when a potential customer said no, I didn’t mind. In fact, that’s when I went into full alert and really started to listen hard. “Why not?” I asked. “What features do you really need? What would make you want to buy this?” And they would tell me. Of course, not everything that the customers wanted was feasible, but if I thought that I could realistically add it to my software product—still purely hypothetical at this point—I’d jot down a new feature on the spec sheet. Plus, there were a few bells and whistles that I’d thought of that didn’t seem to interest customers at all. That lack of interest was important feedback, too. I dropped those features from the spec sheet.

In other words, I used the sales process to do my market research. Had I been awash in start-up capital, I could have hired a marketing firm to run some focus groups and do some surveys of potential customers to figure out what the market wanted. But my way didn’t cost anything, and when I was done, I had a stack of orders. If the reverse had happened, if no one wanted to buy my product, I would have learned quickly and relatively painlessly that I didn’t have a viable business idea. Rejection isn’t easy, but it’s a lot easier than raising money, renting office space, hiring staff, producing product—and then going out of business because your brilliant idea didn’t pan out in the marketplace.

In fact, I would argue that going out and talking to customers myself taught me more about my market than a dozen surveys or focus groups. For an entrepreneur, real learning doesn't start until you actually have real customers. So the goal of the bootstrapper is to get a real customer as quickly as possible.

Of course I couldn’t actually fulfill those orders immediately, because there wasn’t an actual product yet behind that spec sheet. But I had been honest. You never want to lie to people, especially if they’re your customers. I had told them that the software was still under development and wouldn’t be ready for another sixty days. And I had made sure that the product on my spec sheet was something that I could build within a reasonable period of time so the customers would wait for it. A lot of people who start businesses get hung up because they think, "Oh, I've got to have all this stuff in my initial offering.” The way bootstrappers think about it, they figure out what they can deliver quickly with a reasonable set of features, so that they can go ahead and start the business.

Once I knew that people would buy the product on my spec sheet, I holed up in front of my computer for six weeks and wrote the software. To be honest, the result was a very minimal, bare-bones product. To call it a 1.0 release would be a stretch. However, it did what I had promised it would do. Then I started implementing it for customers. At first I didn’t charge for it. It was more important for me to get the software into the hands of real customers, so that I could find out what they liked and didn’t like about the product, and then fix it.

The beauty of it was that I got a lot of feedback at first. So I ran really fast and I kept dropping in changes, and eventually I heard the response, "I'm not happy because...” less and less. That’s when I knew that I was starting to get a mature product. It probably took about ten months of iterations to get a mature product.

Meanwhile, after a couple of months I started to charge for my product. My market was made up of big corporations that easily could afford to pay $100,000 for a piece of software. I could have charged customers that much—and it would have been six months before I closed my first real sale. I didn’t want to wait that long to start generating cash. So instead I priced RightNow’s software to move, at $5,000 for a two-year lease, and then I offered big discounts, up to 50 percent, on top of that. At this point, my business expenses were almost nil. I was still working out of my home, and I had no employees. I could practically give away my product and still manage to be profitable.

Excerpt from "Bootstrapping Your Business: Start and Grow a Successful Company With Almost No Money", Greg Granforte. (copyright 2003)

I have much more to tell about RightNow Technologies and one of their backers - Rob Ryan. Entrepreneurs of America - stay tuned!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

When you think of technology transfer programs from academia to industry, what two leading universities come to mind? MIT and Cal Tech. Common wisdom for the past two decades held that these two schools were at the top of the list by the venture capital and angel investment organizations.

Not anymore! Move over Cal Tech. You are no longer in the top two. Can you guess who has muscled into the number two spot?

The University of California system.
UC you rock!

The Milken Institute last week released an in-depth examination of the world’s leading universities for biotechnology research and technology transfer, meaning the ability of those universities to turn their intellectual property into commercial applications.

This examination of the commercialization of university research reveals that the U.S. dominates the top rankings on many key measures, including published research, patents issued and licensing income.

The study, Mind to Market: A Global Analysis of University Biotechnology Transfer and Commercialization, includes the Milken Institute University Technology Transfer and Commercialization Index, which ranks U.S. and Canadian universities at their ability to take world-class research and turn it into licensing income and business startups. The top five are:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2. University of California system
3. California Institute of Technology
4. Stanford University
5. University of Florida

What's up with University of Florida? Now this begs another post!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Sacramento start-up, Revionics, Inc., has named Todd Michaud president and chief executive officer. Michaud will replace Kent Rhodes, who will remain as the company's chairman of the board.

Prior to joining Revionics, Michaud was the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Retalix USA Inc., a Texas-based company that makes software for the food industry. Revinoics develops software to assist independent retailers in optimizing product pricing.

Is Revionics going to be the next Sacramento success story?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Are you a start-up company looking for venture capital financing? Y Combinator may be your source for capital. The application deadline is October 18. This program is outstanding. Check it out at www.ycombinator.com.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

CoreLogic, a provider of collateral risk-analysis and management technology and services to the U.S. mortgage banking industry, has been named to Inc. Magazine's list of the 500 fastest growing companies. This is the third consecutive year the company has made the list.

Not bad for a company that was founded in 1997 as a two-person organization and now has annual revenues of more than $65M.

So what's their next move? Co-founder and CEO Steve Schroeder says "....we have kept a fairly low profile since our inception eight years ago. We are now poised to take a stronger stance in the industry."

IPO, acquisition, sale? Rumors abound...

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

If you are an entrepreneur of a start-up technology company and you have not yet heard of TechCrunch, then you might take notice of this post.

Michael Arrington is the publisher of TechCrunch,

a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. In addition to new companies, [TechCrunch] profiles existing companies that are making an impact (commercial and/or cultural) on the new web space.

TechCrunch enjoys a strong media following, having been featured on CBS News and in Wall Street Journal. Arrington's weblog is the seventh most popular according to Technorati, with 11,997 links from other bloggers; 48th weblog of the Feedster 500; and in the CNet Top 100 blogs. TechCrunch is the cover featured article "Blogging For Dollars" in the September Issue of Business 2.0.

Arrington is well connected to the venture capital world and is a rising star in Silicon Valley. According to Business 2.0, Arrington is the "go-to person for VCs and execs". Entreperneurs, this means a lot of the 88,814 people currently registered on Feedburner for TechCrunch are VCs. For entrepreneurs, the strategy is simple. Go to a networking event in Silicon Valley. Seek out Michael Arrington. Get a posting of your company on TechCrunch. And wait for the phone to ring.

One unbelievable stat about TechCrunch, a one-man company - the weblog generates $60,000 in ad revenue per month. Just six ads, at $10,000 per ad, per month.

The California Gold Rush? Yep, Silicon Valley style.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Everyone (except my husband!) makes mistakes and every company does too. The key is how you recover. Lately, corporate recovery has been getting more and more flawed.

My six-year-old grandson is placed in intensive care two days before he and his Mom and two younger sisters are booked to fly on United to visit us. I called United. At first I am told that they will give me a full credit as soon as I send information re the hospitalization but that I need to call another number. The other number results in a phone call that last 3 hours and the answer I get never changes from the first moment – there will be no refund ever and each ticket will have to pay a $100 per ticket penalty. I am asked for my frequent flyer number and knowing that I have flown around the world several times with United and used to have the highest status available, I am sure they will relent. But no. Eventually I am told that no one at United can ever grant me a refund. I point out that I am sure the CEO could, but I am swiftly corrected on that notion! I suggest that maybe the 4 year old and 2 year old should fly alone while their mother stays home to take care of the 6 year old in the hospital. Silence. More calls, more frustration, more no results. It’s bad enough that I am very worried about my grandson without having to contend with these rigid customer service policies. I finally have to admit that they have won the battle. Now the war ensues. I cancel my credit card that gets me United Airlines miles. I vow never to fly on United again. I tell as many people as I can how badly they acted. And then a few weeks later when it’s time to rebook the flight, they suddenly give me a $100 travel certificate per ticket to make up for the $100 penalty they have charged me. This is a great example of too little, too late. The damage has been done. Providing the certificate the day I called would have been appropriate, but now there is no recovery to be bought. The fact is that for $400 and poor timing they have deprived themselves of thousands of dollars worth of future business. Is it United that always says at the end of the flight, “We realize you have a choice of airlines and we appreciate you choose us”? They sure don’t act like it.

A few days later, I have a similar situation with Apple. Early on I even suggest a way for them to recover which is quick, simple, cheap, but they insist they have their rules. I remind them that they already violated their rules when they made a mistake on my order, but that gets me nowhere. A couple of weeks later and another two hour phone call and they offer me the solution I had suggested initially. I was polite enough not to say, “If you had only taken my suggestion two weeks ago, you could have saved us both a lot of time and trouble.”

When I was running a division of a software company I periodically volunteered to take customer complaint calls. It gave me a great sense of how our customers were feeling about how we were treating them. I found that a little empathy and quick recovery was key.

How does your company recover when they make a mistake? Do you know? If not, you should. And do you empower your customer service reps to offer a recovery right up front before frustration levels are too high for most any kind of recovery to work?

My prediction is that as more and more customer service is sent offshore and the offshore employees are provided no latitude in managing customer satisfaction issues customer support will continue to degrade. Eventually, I think the pendulum will swing back, customers will be glad to pay a little more for a lot better service, and customer support jobs will start returning to the United States.

Just don’t fly United! And PS to husbands, flowers work great!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Very good article in the Sacramento Bee about the darling investment of local investors, Satori. Previously Kovars, this martial arts organization is planning a nation-wide rollout by buying up independent organizations in other regions. Read the whole story here.

It's going to be fun watching this success story!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:33 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

I am always a late adopter of technology. I worked at IBM, a technology innovator. Yet, I still didn't get the technology bug. I thought the Internet would never amount to anything. And look what happened! Ebay - my original thought was no way! Free software, what another dumb idea! Chat rooms - give me a break! On-line poker - who would gamble on-line?

You get my point - I am always on the wrong end of most of my technology prophesies. Well two companies have caught my eye in the past week - digg.com and ask.com. I started to do a little digging (pardon the pun). ask.com is the fastest growing search engine, according to the Nielsen NetRatings, growing year-over-year by 66%, to the number five most popular search engine. What brought ask.com to my attention? You did - the readers of Sacramento Executive. Recently, I noticed a lot of traffic on our site originating from ask.com searches. It caught my attention. The thought never occurred to me that there might be any legitimate search engines out there other than google. But, once again I am wrong. I think I will use ask.com for a while...just to prove that you can teach old dogs new tricks.

Oh, and digg.com - look out, this website will hit the top 20 most popular sites soon. digg.com is a technology focused news site where the stories are chosen by community members rather than editors. I like that approach. For a change, we get to say what is news and not Hollywood. What a novel idea. I think I'm going to really dig digg.com.

What about myspace.com you ask? Don't ask. I've missed that one too - it is now number 1 in page views, ahead of Yahoo! and google. Of course, the only reason why I even heard about it was the breaking news on CNN about all the "bad" things going on over there. Well, it turns out it's not all that bad after all. And besides, if it's on CNN, it's probably not news anyways - just more Hollywood hype (since when is it OK to present news with a music score and sound effects playing in the background?) and editorializing. Check it out, all the major TV news outlets do it. I think digg.com and my iPod will be just fine for me. But wait, I don't own an iPod. I guess it's time.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Ed Bailey, age 60. Background - raised in Cincinnati, Ohio; earned a psychology degree from University of Cincinnati; served in the United States Marine Corps. 1972, opened a men's designer clothing store. 1984, moved family to Plano, Texas, invested $180,000 in a small underperforming McDonald's restaurant located in a local mall. In 22 years, parlayed the single restaurant into present ownership of 61 McDonalds in North Texas, currently serving 115,000 customers each day, with an estimated $135 million per year in sales. 2006, purchased two Patrizio restaurants. Sounds like Sacramento's local restaurant entreprenuers Mike and Abe Alizadeh? Amazing!

Ed Bailey's key to success? Buying underperforming companies and managing them back to health. Says Mr. Bailey in an interview with Cheryl Hall of the "Dallas Morning News", "There's nothing more vulnerable than entrenched success - companies look in the rearview mirror and not down the road with a strategic mission. " Impressive!

Speaking of Abe and Mike, stay tuned for what's next in the Alizadeh's entrepreneurship journey. I understand their latest restaurant Crush 29 will be opening this fall in Roseville.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

IRVINE, Calif. – August 10, 2006 – Tech Coast Angels (TCA), the largest angel network in the United States, today announced that it was the leading source of first-time funding to Southern California companies seeking venture capital financing. TCA’s ranking was part of a special analysis of the “Money Tree Report” prepared for Entrepreneur magazine by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, and based on data from Thomson Financial. With seven first-time, startup and early-stage financings, TCA tied for seventh nationally with eight top-tier venture capital firms including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Greylock, Sequoia Capital and Venrock Associates. In addition to the seven first-time deals included in the report, TCA members also made 16 additional investments in 2005, for a total of 23 and $13.7M in capital invested.

“Over the past several years, TCA has focused on developing its members to become deal leads, which is critical to increasing the number of companies we fund each year,” said John Morris, TCA’s chairman. “As a result, more TCA members than ever are serving as active lead investors, so it is not surprising that, for the second year running, TCA is the leading source of early-stage financing to Southern California companies.”

For more information on the report, visit this report.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Michael Teel left his CEO position at Raley's - the company that his grandfather founded - in 2002. Since then he has become the majority shareholder of Prosper Magazine. But suddenly it appears he is headed back to the grocery business. And this time in Seattle. The target - Larry's Markets located in Seattle. A Sacramento investor group, headed by Teel, has made a $5.5M offer through the bankruptcy court and unless there is a higher offer by August 18th, the deal appears to be headed for a September 1 close. Under the terms of the deal, only 5 or the 6 stores would be purchased, along with the company's catering business. The company has approximately 500 employees and filed for bankruptcy in May.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Business 2.0 has issued a list of the top best startups to launch right now. The opportunities are worldwide in scope.

As they so aptly state:

Our goal isn't just to show where the latest business trends are converging, but to coax more of you armchair entrepreneurs out of your Aerons. We've supplied the ideas, the rationales, and even some how-to guidelines from local experts. The rest is up to you.

So here is the list and you can visit the site and click on each link to get more details.

1. Build cheap Wi-Fi networks for Brazilian resorts.

2. Become a biodiesel producer in Argentina.

3. Create an ad network for India's mobile content developers.

4. Launch an exclusive social network for Russian millionaires.

5. Open an American-style restaurant in one of China's fast-growing cities.

6. Remodel homes for China's burgeoning middle class.

7 Flip mining claims in Bolivia.

8. Export the planet's next great wines - from Greece.

9. Import fine wines to upscale restaurants - in India.

10. Export gourmet coffee from Rwanda.

11. Become a social entrepreneur in South Africa.

12. Be among the first to invest in the new Libya.

I can feel the entrepreneurial juices coursing...grab your passport and get busy

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Nisan Gabbay of Sierra Ventures recently launched his blog Startup Review, Analyzing Web Success. The focus of Nisan's blog is to profile successful Internet companies. The first company profiled is Craigslist and is highlighted by an interview with founder Craig Newmark. Craig believes the key success factors to Craigslist.org are:

• culture of trust
• social aspects of site are key to driving the commerical aspects
• site ease of use

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Check out a very interesting site, NPost. It’s devoted to interviews of CEOs and Founders of startups and small companies. It was started by Nathan Kaiser as a way to conduct informational interviews to help him with his business career. It has since grown to include networking events and a job board.

There are over 100 interviews, including executives of such well-known companies as:

NetFlix
Meetup
LinkedIn
GoDaddy
Wikipedia

I found it just as interesting to figure out what companies are out there with great ideas. I already downloaded a couple of products to try out and found them very useful – e.g., try Browster – a whole new way to browse.

This is a must site for entrepreneurs or potential entrepreneurs. Visit often to see the latest and greatest. There are also opportunities to publish content from the site on your own website - sounds like an idea worth pursuing.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (2)

In a recent MARKET OUTLOOK, Jeff Mortimer, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, Equities, Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc. states:

The stock market took investors on a stomach-churning roller coaster ride over the past few months, hitting multiyear highs in early May, only to plunge to fresh lows for the year, then rebound, and then drop again. We expect that volatility to persist for a while as geopolitical tensions, interest rates, inflation and the economy continue to rattle investors. Is the bull market that began in 2002 over? We think it might be, which means the market could get worse before it gets better. Although valuations, earnings growth and overall corporate health remain favorable, we see mounting signs that these supportive conditions may be beginning to deteriorate. Plus, we’re in a seasonally weak quarter for stocks.

What to do?

Our advice to clients can be summed up in a single word: caution. Don’t abandon your long-term asset allocation plan. But if you want to be more proactive, since June we’ve advocated trimming back from your strategic allocations to U.S. and international equities by as much as 5% each, while increasing cash by as much as 10%. For example, if you’re a moderate investor whose long-term target is 60% equities, 35% bonds and 5% cash, we recommend trimming stock holdings to 50% of your portfolio and boosting your cash to 15%.

Cracks in the bullish case

One of the key tenets of the bullish case over the past couple of years has been the strong health of U.S. corporations. That was no different in the first quarter of 2006, as earnings continued to grow. Second-quarter earnings figures, now trickling in, may continue to show strong corporate health. However, a look under the corporate hood suggests a less sanguine view. Keep in mind, earnings slowdowns have typically lagged market slowdowns. If you wait until earnings turn south, you may end up reducing equity exposure too late.

Corporations: trouble under the hood

Continue reading "Charles Schwab advises caution" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

High School Sports Information Leader MaxPreps Announces Series B Financing Sacramento - Lead Investor Dolphin Equity Partners, and BEV Capital, Join Previous Investor DFJ Frontier in Oversubscribed Round

Cameron Park – MaxPreps, Inc., the leader in high school sports information and media, today announced it has completed a Series B round of venture financing with participation from BEV Capital, DFJ Frontier, and lead investor Dolphin Equity Partners. MaxPreps also announced that Salvatore Tirabassi of Dolphin Equity Partners and Mike Majors of BEV Capital will join MaxPreps’ Board of Directors. With $7 million in Series B financing MaxPreps will increase marketing and distribution, add new senior management and expand business development efforts.

“We’ve spent the last few years building a nationwide content network to create a single source for high school sports information,” said Andy Beal, MaxPreps’ CEO. “Now, with the capital and expertise provided by our new investors, we’re going to extend the reach of MaxPreps and continue to build agreements with other top-tier information properties like our recent deal with ESPN.”

MaxPreps, launched in 2003, publishes highly detailed high school sports information to a nationwide audience through MaxPreps.com. MaxPreps aggregates its sports information from a network of thousands of high school coaches, professional photographers and freelance writers.

Continue reading "Sacramento MaxPreps Raises $7M in Series B Round" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:44 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Often when I read about new innovations, it makes me want to smack the side of my head and say "Duh". They just seem so necessary and so simple and so 'why didn't I (or someone) think of that before?'

Well, today, I found one of those again, but this one is so amazing in that it has the potential to change millions of lives forever. It's not one of those, for $14.99, plus shipping and handling, you can have one of these. Or, if you act right now, you can have two for the price of one. And then, after the first use, it ends up in your closet along with the rest of the junk you have bought. It's a giant leap forward in helping people who are blind live much more self-sufficient lives.

It's a handheld device that takes a photo of printed words - for example, a menu - and then reads the words aloud. The device was unveiled this week at the National Federation for the Blind convention. It was created by inventor Ray Kurzweil in conjunction with the Federation. The Kurzweil-National Federation for the Blind Reader, (needs a marketing type to give it a snazzy name), looks like a PDA attached to a camera. Imagine being able to read your mail unaided for the first time in your life? A truly remarkable breakthrough. The only barrier left to hurdle - how to cover the cost - $,3495 each - for every blind person out there. But then that's all about how individuals and nations set their priorities.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:59 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

American Electronics Association has released

California Cybercities 2006: An Overview of California's Largest High-Technology Metropolitan Areas

Not such great news, tthe average wage for high tech workers in Sacramento is considerably lower than the statewide average. Statewide's $90,600 compared to Sacramento's $72,495. The highest wage was found in Silicon Valley - $126,700. High tech wages were 106% of the state's average private-sector wage.

The report will be the buzz of the AEA/SARTA/Sacramento Executive event on July 19th. Don't forget to register on the home page of this site.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Here is a post from the always interesting AlwaysOn-Network. Something for both investors and entrepreneurs to mull over.

Are Acquisitions Replacing IPOs? Tim Draper blames impatient entrepreneurs. Tim Draper [Draper Fisher Jurvetson] | POSTED: 06.19.06 @07:03

Tony Perkins discussed digital media and the entertainment industry with venture capital insiders Tim Draper, John Jarve, and Brad Feld during a recent breakfast panel.

AlwaysOn: There has been a lot of press about the Skype deal and how much money Google and Yahoo have, and that is presumably influencing venture capitalists, steering their investments to track features toward the unmet needs of these major players. Is this a real phenomenon? Is it true that there's a trickle of IPOs now? Or is the IPO dead, and instead its all about aligning yourself with the major buyers and getting acquired by, say, Electronic Arts for an amount greater than an IPO valuation?

Tim Draper: (Mr. Draper is the founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson.) It's a complicated answer, but I'll give you a few of the data points. I never wanted to sell Skype. It's is a wonderful phenomenon; eBay got a great deal and is going to do great things with it. But does that create a trend; does that mean that there is a tendency for more of these companies to be bought out by Yahoo or eBay or whatever? No. Sarbanes-Oxley has been a disaster for all entrepreneurship. There is no way. We used to be able to take a company public that was profitable at $20 million in sales. But today Sarbanes-Oxley means that you have to pay your accountants and lawyers about $2 million a year to keep the thing going. So that $20 million company is now in a loss position, and it doesn't make any sense to go public.

So companies have to go a lot longer before they're really big enough that I can take them public. But entrepreneurs became impatient. They said, 'There are going to be another four years? I've put six, seven years of my life into this thing, and now it's worth a lot. I can live really well if somebody buys it.' That created a great opportunity for big companies like Google and Yahoo and eBay to pick those things up.

Another thing happened, too. There was the boom and the bust, the bubble and the bust, and during the bust years, everybody was afraid, and big corporations cut back really heavily on R&D and marketing. They were expecting the world to end. The smart ones kept investing. But now they're saying, 'Oh my God, we're four years further along. Technology has marched on, but we have no product to sell. We weren't inventing it in here, but boy, it sure got invented. So we've got to buy up whatever we can.' It's a simple question with a lot of variables for an answer.

Continue reading "Are Entrepreneurs Selling Out Too Soon?" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

David Thomson has written a fascinating book "Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials to Achieve Exponential Growth" (Wiley $28). He spent 3 years analyzing the United States highest-growth companies and what it takes for companies to break the billion dollar barrier. Here's the list:

The right strategy - plan on changing the world (Ebay); reshape a niche (Starbucks) or beat everyone in your category (Home Depot)
The right industry
The right customers - Who do you sell to and how do you get to them
The right partners - If you're big, pick a small. nimble partner to increase innovation. If you are small, pick a big guy to open doors for you
The right expenses - Control costs to achieve at least 20% gross margin from the beginning
The right chiefs - One to focus externally, another for internal operations
The right directors - Customers, partners, and experts instead of invdestors. Your board should be an extension of the management team.

Lots of good meat here even for smaller companies and startups.

Gillian Parrillo
Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:45 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

I am passing on a very interesting invitation to the Sacramento Chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organization. I have had lots of good feedback on this organization which includes lots of support and mentoring for entrepreneurs from other entrepreneurs who have been there and done that....there's lots of great synergy with SEA. This event is free and will provide a great talk from an amazing Sacramento entrepreneur, but will also give you a chance to check out the organization for potential membership. It is set for Thursday May 25th at 6PM at the Granite Bay Country Club. You can register by calling Tim Coxen at 916-669-0508 x10 or emailing tcoxen@vhcsystems.com. Let them know you heard about it through SEA. Details below

The Sacramento Chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organization invite you to a special presentation by Abe Alizadeh. Abe started working at Jack in the Box in 1980. Today he and his family own and operate 55 Jack in the Box and 3 Qdoba Grill restaurants. He is also involved, with his brother Mike, in 11 TGI Friday's with 3 higher-end restaurants opening soon. Abe also owns the Portland Beavers AAA baseball team and the Portland Timbers professional soccer team.

Here's some info on the Sacramento Chapter of EO and EO's membership requirements. The Chapter includes several of the region’s fastest growing companies. Companies like Kobra Enterprises, Valley Healthcare (Sac Business Journal's #1 Fastest Growing Co. in 2005), Crocker/Flanagan, Anchor Financial, to name a few are members of our Chapter. Our 25 members represent a wide array of industries that altogether employ over 3000 people with combined revenues of more than $300 million. You can also learn more about EO from the website which is at www.eonetwork.org

Membership requirements are as follows:

Members must be the Founder, Co-founder, Owner; or Controlling Shareholder
Businesses must have annual gross turnover of sales, or annual commission billing greater than $1,000,000.
The EO dues structure is $1600 per year plus new members pay a one-time $750 initiation fee

Check it out. It's free and it could definitely be a plus in helping you build your company.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:43 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The Northern California Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) is pleased to invite you to our next event.

“The Role of the For-Profit and Not-For-Profit Board in Planning CEO Succession.”

Thursday, May 11, from 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM

California Chamber of Commerce
1215 K Street, 14th Floor, Capitol Room
Sacramento, CA 95814

Continue reading "Planning CEO Succession" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

On May 23rd a very interesting educational seminar will be held in El Dorado Hills. Developed by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Angel Capital Education Foundation, the Power of Angel investing has been getting rave reviews nationwide.

Content includes:

Finding angel opportunities that are right for you
Investment goals and portfolio strategies
Local deal sourcing
Due diligence
Structuring the deal/term sheets
Valuing startup companies
Monitoring angel investments
The post-investment relationships between angels and startup companies
What to do when things go wrong
Angels as advisors -- bringing more than money to investments

This event is limited to 35 participants, and will have many regional and experienced angel investors present to learn from. The lead instructor is Bill Payne, an active private investor and board member and advisor to entrepreneurial companies. He is an involved member of San Diego's Tech Coast Angels, Vegas Valley Angels, and Aztec Venture Network. Over three decades, Mr. Payne has successfully founded or invested in 24 startup companies. In his role with the Kauffman Foundation, he has worked on educational programs for entrepreneurs and their investors. This event will be held in connection with the GCN Angel and Venture Capital Investment Summit.
After the Seminar the Sacramento Angels are organizing a "Celebration of Success" Dinner at the Serrano Country Club for Seminar attendees, other accredited investors, and the Venture Capitalists attending the Golden Capital Network Summit conference. Founders of two recent companies that have "exited" for the SacAngels will be highlighted: Khimetrics which was recently sold to SAP, and DMGI which had an IPO earlier this year. There will also be a featured keynote speaker -- Alex Wilmerding, a partner at Boston Capital Ventures, who was Chairman of Khimetrics Board, has been invited.

Most importantly, the Dinner will be an informal networking event for people to meet active, leading angel investors in our region and learn about their experiences.

If you are an accredited investor, this is a terrific opportunity. If you have ever thought of contributing to entrepreneurism in Sacramento, this is a great educational, not to be missed event.

To register, visit Golden Capital Network and click on events

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

David Taylor's latest project, a 25-story commerical building at 621 Capitol Mall has a new name - U.S. Bank Tower. U.S. Bank is David S. Taylor Interests, Inc.'s latest tenant. The lease agreement was secured by listing agents Bill Swettenham, Jeremy Hollis and Adam Nelson of CB Richard Ellis.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

I just finished reading my latest Sacramento Business Journal. It has a supplement this week entitled Heavy Hitters in Real Estate. I flipped through the 22 pages looking at the winners in several categories - Apartments, Industrial, Investments, Land, Office, Retail, Rookie of the Year. And suddenly it struck me, of the 80 or so winners, only one was a woman. And not one Black, and very few, if any, Hispanics. Real estate in this town is a white man's business.

Nelle Thompson, CB Richard Ellis, number 9 in the industrial category - I don't know how you did it, but you are my hero.

The sad thing is that things don't look like they are changing any time soon...not a minority to be seen in the rookie of the year category either.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:35 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

My son called me today. He was at a union meeting in Honolulu. There was a lot of loud speechifying in the background. He is the union rep for the hotel he works at in Maui. I think he got the job because was the only person with an undergraduate degree. His master's degree was probably superfluous. Although his compassion would make him be my choice to be the bridge between labor and management. He wanted me to use the power of the blog to remind everyone of something important. (I think he has vastly overestimated the power of this blog, but it is nice that a son overestimates anything positive a mother does). Being completely incapable of denying my son anything (my daughter too!), here is the message.

Since the autumn of 2004, 8000 San Francisco hotel workers have gone without a contract.

Continue reading "Reminder - Message from Local 2 and my son" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

The Annual Dotties are over and the winners are basking in the limelight.

Top Dot Award went to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, SacramentoValley Affiliate. People's Choice Award was given to MyFolsom.com

Check out all the winners

Plan on attending next year, spiffing up your website and submitting it, and giving lots of money to a great local charity.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

To be successful in business, study successful business people. This sounds simple, but sometimes we forget to follow this golden rule. Today, Gillian unwittingly reminded me of this rule.

Gillian pointed me to a recent Mark Cuban posting - Some Thoughts on the NBA - on his blog "Blog Maverick". Mark owns the Dallas Mavericks and is one of the 400 richest people in the world according to Forbes Magazine (Mark is worth a cool $1.8 billion due to his huge success with Broadcast.com). Knowing that I have a strong negative bias about the consistency in performance of NBA referees, Gillian referred me to Mark's posting as he was opining my sentiments. I was amazed at the nugget of wisdom in Mark's editorial, although not for the reason Gillian intended.

A basic belief of Mark is that employers / managers should put their employees in a position to succeed. What a powerful concept. Mark wrote:

...as in any business, there are things that can be done to put people in a position to succeed. When I got to the Mavs, I talked about putting the players in a position to succeed by hiring more coaches. After all, if we have a multi-million dollar investment in a player, it only made sense to me to provide that player with whatever individual instruction that was necessary to make them better. To put them in a position to succeed.

What are you doing to put your employees in positions to succeed?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Yesterday we received a very encouraging update on a previous story.

When we wrote the story in mid-December, film maker Jim Meyers was looking for some investment to tide the company over until he received the foreign rights royalties and made progress on selling the US rights.

He ended up having a choice between investors in LA and another group in Sacramento. He went with the local guys - good choice! And now he has been notified that the film - Her Minor Thing - was accepted into the Phoenix Film Festival (where it will have 3 screenings, Mar 24-26). The film is also on the short list to get into another festival in April.

Like a true entrepreneur, Jim reminds me he will be looking for investors again soon for his next movie!

Many congrats, Jim. Let's hope this movie gets lots of playtime and viewers around the world see how great Sacramento is.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:02 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

This week Pierre and I are in Dallas.

Here are lessons we have learned so far

We should definitely pass any bill necessary to get Governor Schwarzenegger eligible to be President. We have never seen so much infrastructure construction ever as there is going on in Dallas. There are flyovers and flyunders and a highway that cuts a giant swath called George Bush Highway (named not after the present one, but the previous one). Since we were here 8 years ago, a sleeply little village, Frisco, now has its own Nordstroms. We figure there's some (alot of some!) pork barrel money that comes to the state that gets its governor elected President.

We are close to finding the woman that really did shoot up her lips so big that they exploded. We have met the one who can barely talk anymore.

It is illegal to take an unregistered gun into a restaurant. And every restaurant has that sign very prominently displayed.

Car dealers are now citing the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security to aide them in selling cars (and violating your privacy).

Whole neighborhoods are being torn down to make way for 'progress'. Downtown is a ghost town, even on Mavericks' game day. I guess that doesn't speak well for the idea of building a downtown arena for the Kings.

The Mavericks still didn't find heart to win those tough games in the last minutes. I guess that's a Kings' ditto also.

The extended stay hotel in 'the heart of telecom corridor' is like a ghost town. I guess telecom still has a ways to go to recovery.

Regular gas is $2.04 a gallon. Another reason to get Governor Schwarzenegger elected President.

More on Dallas soon.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacrmaento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:45 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

When Sacramento-based Digital Music Group went public on February 1st, CEO Mitch Koulouris owned 567,752 shares. The stock is trading at $9.90 up from its initial price on 2/1 of $9.75. So, on paper, Mitch is worth a cool $5.6M.

That's better odds of becoming a millionaire than buying a lottery ticket. But founding a company and taking it public is a little more work than walking into your neighborhood gas station and buying a ticket. And for the fortune to hold up, the stock has to stay up until sale restrictions are removed. Let's hope that happens, as there are other local investors in the company also, including several Sacramento Angels.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Angels

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

7 days and counting...March 1st, be there or be square...

Don't expect to get the $3000 prize for first in line. Glen Reynolds has already been camping out for several days and plans to be the first shopper prize winner.
And take heart that the Ikea folks do lots of demographic research before they decide to open stores and the Sacramento region met the criteria...and West Sacramento managed to nab the actual brick and mortar building.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Are you an entrepreneur who has a good idea and is looking for an innovative way to develop the idea into a succesful company - look no further - check out Paul Graham's seed funding strategies at Y Combinator. Paul has real credibility - he co-founded Viaweb in 1995 and three years later sold it to Yahoo! for $49 million.

I first heard about Y Combinator a month ago from Mark Randall, founder of local start-up Serious Magic and again yesterday in a New York Times feature article. The Times article will no doubt flood Y Combinator's email "in basket".

Readers, do you think the Sacramento region could support a similar type of funding model?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 8:43 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 8:31 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (2)

This is a great report which will provide lots of insights into real estate in this area for 2006.
The report is nationwide. If you click on the Northern California portion of the map you will have an opportunity to
check out prospects for:
The San Francisco Bay Area
Sacramento
Fresno
Reno
Central Valley
in multiple categories including: Office, Industrial, Retail, Investment and Land

Thanks Grubb & Ellis

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

25-year old startup entrepreneur Scott Hildebrand, CEO of Tubes, published a post here at Sacramento Executive on February 6. Gillian and I have published about 150 posts since our inception two months ago. We use software from www.sitemeter.com to provide us with valuable information about our readers such as what pages they read, how long they stay on our site, and how they find our site.

Yesterday afternoon I launched the software to review the traffic details for the day. Much to my amazement, over half of yesterday’s visitors entered Scott’s post on www.sacramentoexecutive.com via www.fuzzyblog.com.

I was taken by curiosity and began to investigate why we were getting so much traffic from FuzzyBlog. I had never heard of FuzzyBlog. Surprisingly, FuzzyBlog’s creator Scott Johnson had a link on his blog to Scott’s posting on our site. I was puzzled. Why would a Scott Johnson from FuzzyBlog be linking to a post on our site?

Well, my investigation revealed that Scott Johnson is the founder of Feedster, a very successful start-up company in the RSS space (syndication software). In fact, Feedster is the pioneer of RSS. It turns out that the two Scotts are friends and Scott H. had told Scott J. about the posting on our site. Apparently Scott H. had been in relative stealth mode about his company Tubes. Gillian and I suggested Scott should write a post about Tubes on our site because we were very impressed with the concept of a social network centered around free music from the independents. So Scott’s posting was a bit of a coming out party and his friends were anxious to see what he had to say.

I poked around on FuzzyBlog.com and quickly found the site to have tons of great podcasts on being an entrepreneur. This site is a must read for start-up entrepreneurs. Scott J. provides a tremendous amount of information on his lessons learned as a founder of Feedster. He has 42 podcasts and the list is growing. Podcast 42 is titled “Startup Husband, Startup Dad”. I think you will enjoy it.

I now subscribe to FuzzyBlog through an RSS feed to MyYahoo webpage. Scott Johnson is in stealth mode on a new company called Ookles. In sixteen days (Feb 28) Ookles will be introduced. I suspect Ookles will be a software solution that will capture the attention of the blogosphere in a big way.

Oh, by the way, Scott’s post is the number one entry page to SacramentoExecutive.com (even more than our homepage). Scott you taught us a valuable lesson on blogging. Well done!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (3)

Consumers' plans for dropping wireline service in favor of wireless voice service are gaining significant momentum, reports In-Stat. About 9.5% of consumers in a recent In-Stat survey now use wireless as their primary phone, the high-tech market research firm says. In other findings from In-Stat's most recent Consumer Mobility Survey, declines in average revenue per wireless subscriber (ARPU) are being offset by increases in spending on data and messaging services.

"In every age group, 20% to 25% of the respondents said they're planning to use wireless as their primary phone," says David Chamberlain, In-Stat analyst. "Even among demographic groups that we expected would resist cutting the cord – people over age 55 – we are seeing about 25% thinking about cutting the cord.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Yesterday was the 3rd Annual SARTA Tech Index Celebration held at the Sacramento Convention Center. Although the keynote speaker was Richard Belluzo, former president of Microsoft, the most important revelations came from the talk of Jadoo Power Systems CEO, Larry Bawden. For those in the crowd unaware of the potential of hydrogen fuel cells, it was an enlightening experience. Richard illuminated everyone with a combination of vision and perspective. Vision was provided in the form of today's headlines regarding energy policy and politics, including Iran, Iraq, and Russia, and the strains put upon supply by the growth and consumption of India and China. Anyone with their eyes open knows things look daunting. Perspective in terms of what his own company, and some of the current players in the industry, are doing with respect to fuel cells. To learn more about what his company is doing, here is the link. The Sacramento region is host to a number of fuel cell companies, and in addition, is home to the California Fuel Cell Partnership.

However, the main point for this post was not to just mention fuel cells. Today, the beautiful nation of Sweden made an astonishing revelation...... "Sweden aims for oil-free economy" by the year 2020. Here is the article link. Although we heard our president talk of America's "addiction to oil," this is the first real talk of action. It is good to see that things are starting to happen and awareness is building. The future is exciting and Sacramento's business community appears poised as a player to the upcoming changes.

Edward Hamati
CSUS MBA
Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy Class of 2005

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:38 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

My name is Scott Hildebrand and I’m the CEO/founder of a local Sacramento startup called Tubes. I recently graduated from UC Davis with degrees in music and computer science, and instead of going straight to work or to grad school I started a company.

Tubes is about freedom of music. We believe that music should be free as promotion for artists. What we’re building with Tubes is a marketing and promotion infrastructure that works for artists, and also a way to make discovery of new music easy. It’s been a lot of fun building this and I expect it’ll keep me busy for quite some time.

My motivation for this was not “I’d like to start a company so now I need to come up with a good idea.” With Tubes it was the other way around, I had a great idea and I had to figure out how to make it happen. Fortunately the market size is huge and only getting bigger. Over the last few years, acquisitions for services similar to ours have been in the $350-$650 million range.

Starting a company is not a trivial or easy thing and there have definitely been ups and downs. The most important thing has been staying excessively tenacious and learning as much as possible from my own mistakes and the experiences of others. So now I’m working with a great lawyer at an international law firm in Sacramento, a great advisory board consisting of people who have experience at Sony, EMI, Disney, MTV and the original Napster, and a great development team that’s working on a beta release. You know you’re truly onto something when two of your developers tell you they only need food and a place to sleep in order to code full-time!

Why do we do this? Traditionally revenues from sales of recorded music never make their way to artists’ wallets. Artists usually get some sort of lump sum as part of a record contract, in which case the label owns the rights to the music. This amount plus any and all costs associated with developing or marketing the band, and costs to produce and ship a record must be paid back to the label before the artists themselves are eligible for any royalties. Another key thing to be aware of is that 7,000 CDs are released by major labels every year, and only about 300 of those are profitable.

A record company is very much like a VC; they invest in 10 bands/companies, most of them flop, a few might break even or make a modest return, and hopefully at least one hits it out of the ballpark. As a result of this most artists get dropped from their labels and their music is no longer owned by them. What this means is those recordings are tied up and the label no longer has any incentive to market or promote the artist. This is just how the music industry operates. It used to work but now it doesn’t and so we need another solution.

MTV and popular radio used to be absolutely essential in getting the word out about a new artist or single, but now the landscape is dramatically different because of digital music and the Internet. Artists and bands now get most of their promotion via word of mouth in person and through communication on the Internet. MTV hardly plays videos anymore and the music video has lost a lot of its influence in general. What is most relevant nowadays to the success of an artist are social networks and viral marketing. It also helps that for anybody tech-savvy and EVERYBODY under the age of 25, music is already free and easily accessible through P2P filesharing.

Please get in touch if you’d like more information or would like to get involved. Also thank you Pierre and Gillian for introducing Tubes to your readers.

Scott
scott@tubesmusic.com

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

The unedited version of the article I wrote for the SARTA Technology Index supplement to the Sacramento Bee February 3, 2006 edition:

The day you first think about starting a company, you need to be laser-focused on building an exceptional team. You can never learn this lesson well enough, or soon enough – it’s always about the team. And most entrepreneurs never get it, and some get it but don’t get it right. And the ones who are successful are almost always those who get it right and get it right away and keep getting it right. Building and maintaining a great team is the hardest and most important work you will ever do.

And these days in Sacramento, building a team has gotten enormously easier. As experienced business people leave the Bay Area and move to the Sacramento region, they are a wonderful talent pool waiting to be tapped. Every week, I receive several calls or resumes from exceptionally talented and experienced executives who are looking to get involved in the local ecosystem. And every week, I am frustrated that local companies are not snapping them up. One by one, they decide not to move here or drift back to the Bay Area or move to other areas of the country, or move into areas in which they are completely inexperienced, and their talents are lost to Sacramento.

Continue reading "Building A Team in Sacramento" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

The Public Policy Institute of California reports its findings of a special survey it conducted in January 2006 on the California State Budget.

A large majority (68%) of Californians support the central proposal of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s recent State of the State speech—a $222 billion program for rebuilding the state’s infrastructure, financed with bonds. Education facilities (48%) are the most popular infrastructure priority, followed by transportation projects (25%), water systems (17%), jails and prisons (3%) and courts (2%). 60% of residents approve of the governor’s proposed 2006-2007 budget. But 61% also say the imbalance between state spending and revenue remains a big problem for California. Although Californians typically reject raising taxes on themselves, they find it more acceptable to raise taxes on specific subgroups, such as the richest Californians (65%) and cigarette smokers (71%). The governor’s overall approval rating improved to 40%, but approval for his handling of specific issues such as jobs and the economy (39%) and the state budget and taxes (35%) lag. This is the 63rd PPIC Statewide Survey and the sixth in a series of special surveys focusing on the California budget and fiscal system, funded by The James Irvine Foundation

You can download the whole report for free by clicking here

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Less than a week to go until the technology celebration of the year gets underway.

The Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance and the Sacramento Metro Chamber will host over 5oo area entrepreneurs, executives, venture capitalists, professional service providers, angel investors, political leaders and the SARTA Board of Directors at the Third Annual Technology Index Celebration.

The celebration honors the leading 50 high-tech companies who have earned a place on SARTA's Technology Index: the Sacramento Tech TRAQ.

Continue reading "SARTA Tech Index Celebration" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Lots happening on the local magazine scene. As reported previously on this site, Comstock's reported its first formal BPA audit.

Meanwhile, across town the publisher of Prosper Magazine resigned in what was called 'an amicable exit'.

Meanwhile, across town, FORKIt Magazine was taping their Channel 10 program "My Dinner with Audrey" at Taros (by Mikunis) at Arden Fair Mail with several interesting guests, including Jerry Reynolds. Founders Audrey Wells and Andrea Lepore are formulating aggressive plans to leverage their brand in the rapidly growing (and rapidly more sophisticated) region.

And, meanwhile, another entry on the local magazine scene was announced. Terry Carroll and Wendy Sipple, of Sierrastyle Publishing, publishers of such lifestyle titles as FolsomElDoradoHillsStyle Magazine, RosevilleGraniteBayStyle Magazine and their newest offering, Sierrastyle’s Luxury Living Magazine, announced a new magazine, Sacramento Life and Style - a magazine as they say "thinks as big as you do." They go on to report, "Sacramento Life & Style is expressly for the urban dweller—focused solely on the individualism of one definitive city." The first issue is scheduled for May 2006.

Wow, this is getting really interesting.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Digital Music Group (DMGI) is set to IPO this week. Here is the background as reported in the Washington Post:

WASHINGTON -- Digital Music Group Inc. on Thursday increased the estimated price range for its pending initial public offering to $9 to $11 per share from $8 to $10.

Digital Music, based in Sacramento, Calif., provides digital music recordings to online music stores.

Digital Music intends to use net proceeds from the IPO for the acquisition of digital rights to music recordings, acquisition of property, plant and equipment and for general corporate purposes, including working capital and funding operating expenses.

I-Bankers Securities Inc. and FTN Midwest Securities Corp. were listed as the underwriters for the offering. The underwriters may also purchase up to an additional 555,000 shares to cover overallotments, the filing said.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2005, Digital Music posted a net loss of $1.2 million on total revenue of $225,535.

The company plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market, under the symbol DMGI.

Many of the original investors are based in Sacramento and Stockton. So let's watch what happens this week. You can set a Google alert on DMGI and get notified when there is any news.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

A remarkably upbeat update from David Lyons, Sacramento Region Labor Market Consultant, California Employment Development Dept

The unemployment rate in the Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville MSA was 4.1 percent in December 2005, down from a revised 4.7 percent in November 2005, and below the year-ago estimate of 4.8 percent. This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 4.8 percent for California and 4.6 percent for the nation during the same period. The unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in El Dorado County, 3.6 percent in Placer County, 4.1 percent in Sacramento County and 5.2 percent in Yolo County.

Continue reading "Sacramento Job Growth Rate Increases" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Sacramento Executive sponsor, Comerica Bank, offers us a link to their Economic Forum. This highly anticipated annual event, held in conjunction with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, presents Comerica's prognostications on where the economy will trend in the next 12 months, including rate trends, what industries are waxing and waning, what to watchout for. The event is held in only a handful of cities - sadly not yet Sacramento. But this year, the event was video taped and you can watch several of the presentations in whole or in part, thanks to Comerica''s VP, Luan Christ, who rightly believes that this would be of great interest to a group who "wants to make this town a better place for business, fun, and giving back." The Sacramento Executive readers. Thanks Luan. Proud to have Comerica as a sponsor.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

As reported in ZDNet, IBM acquired on Wednesday privately held CIMS Labs for an undisclosed sum and said it will incorporate the company's usage-tracking software into IBM's Tivoli management software. Roseville, Calif.-based CIMS Labs, which has about 170 customers, sells software that can keep tabs on how different components, such as servers or e-mail, are being used.

Continue reading "Roseville Company Gets Acquired by IBM." »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The 2006 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, the nation's largest wine and grape conference and trade show, will be the largest event ever hosted by the Sacramento Convention Center. The Symposium opens for three days tomorrow to showcase the wine industry's latest in science, technology, business development and industry growth.

So if you see all those Napa and Sonoma types wandering around, tell them about all the new restaurants that have opened in Sacramento that they should put on their radar before Amador and Lake County (oh, and Clarksburg too) take all the prime menu spots.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

WebRaiser Technologies, Inc., a Sacramento-based leader in software for the self-service market, has announced VendiPix, its product for the fast growing photo kiosk market. WebRaiser's VendiSoft software is combined with Image2Print photo processing software from Beaufort Solutions.

Continue reading "WebRaiser Leverages Its Self-Service Software" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Maxson Group partner, geof lambert, has been asked to speak at a premier event in Phoenix in April. Two years ago, geof, who had no technical background, started reading about the new version of the Internet (IPv6) and got really excited about the improvements it would bring. Now he is head of the California IPv6 Task Force and Vice Chairman of the North American IPv6 Task Force and off to strut his stuff in Phoenix. Here's the info on the conference and his presentation.

ii2006, the industry's premier summit on Innovation and Knowledge management

New Internet Model with IPv6
geof lambert
Vice Chairman, Project Director, North American IPv6 Task Force
Wednesday, April 12 - 1:45pm - 2:30pm
Abstract:
Summary: This session will highlight key points that are important to understand as networking evolves to the New Internet Model. The session will also depict how users can prepare for this emerging network deployment model.

Continue reading "geof lambert to Speak at Innovation Conference" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:39 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Local Sacramento business magazine "Comstock's" announced its formal BPA circulation audit for the three months ending August 2005. The key data released include:

• Monthly average audited circulation = 21,526


• Monthly average qualified circulation = 17,840


• Monthly average qualified as a percent of total circulation = 82.9%

Congratulations Comstock's! Comstock's is a great business resource for the Sacramento Executive. Click here for a free subscription.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Sacramento Executive is pleased to announce M7 has agreed to sponsor our next networking event in April. M7 is an award-winning marketing / design firm that builds brands through the development of print, web, and multimedia solutions. M7 has offices in Sacramento and Silicon Valley (Campbell, CA). Lisa Orrell is the Principal / Office Goddess and Adrienne Jones is the Managing Director.

Thank you Lisa and Adrienne for joining us as the seventh sponsor of SacramentoExecutive.com.

Details on the location and date for our next event will be published within the next few weeks.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive.

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Kovars Martial Arts Centers, a Sacramento fixture since 1978, is on a roll. It currently services over 3,500 students in twelve locations in metropolitan Sacramento and two new locations in the New York marketplace. Kovars plans a national rollout. The company has received backing from the Sacramento Angels to help fuel this rollout and are in discussions with a local fund to complete their Series A funding. There was rousing support at the Sacramento Angels dinner meeting when Kovars presented. Two members' sons insisted on attending to provide glowing testimonials of the training they had taken, along with their dads.

Continue reading "Kovars announces Corporate Fitness Program" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Splash & Dash Car Wash, headquartered in Carmichael, plans to open the doors on five new carwashes in the Sacramento area by the end of 2006. This expansion will bring the total number of exterior-only, express carwashes operated by Splash & Dash to seven. New locations: North Highlands, Rancho Cordova, South Natomas, Foothill Farms and at least one other location yet to be announced. The first location is on Fair Oaks Boulevard in Carmichael. In July of 2005, Splash & Dash opened its second site on Prairie City Road in Folsom. The concept for this company is to provide a very clean car and to do it in 5 minutes, much faster than traditional carwashes.

Splash & Dash’s reclaim system only uses eight gallons of fresh water per car and the environmentally friendly shampoos are biodegradable and non-corrosive. Splash & Dash does not use any of the acids or other corrosive materials that touchless carwashes employ. A person washing their own car in their driveway uses 50 to 150 gallons of fresh water. That water mixes with harmful soaps that go down the storm drains that lead to streams and rivers. Many communities have banned driveway carwashing not just because of the wasted water, but because of the phosphates and other harmful soaps and chemicals going into fresh water systems.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

CalSTRS in conjunction with Leading Edge Investment Advisers and Anira Advisory Group conducted the first of a series of five surveys to find out how members of the investment management industry feel about diversity.
The survey process aims to 'deepen understanding of the importance of diversity to our industry, its clients, and its professionals.' per CalSTRS. Future surveys will 'hopefully both broaden and intelligently inform the dialogue about diversity in our industry.'

Continue reading "Survey Measures Diversity in the Investment Management Industry" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:22 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Excerpts from Mayor Fargo's speech at the 8th Annual State of Downtown on January 12th.

If I had to summarize the current state of downtown, I'd say 'under construction." We're past dreaming, past scheming and seriously into implementation.......Now we have to work on creating a real downtown neighborhood.

We have just sold over $100M worth of bonds to invest in our downtown - for our streets, and infrastructure, and for new development projects including affordable housing and the waterfront, and for civic facilities and spaces.

The City now owns Capital Mall, which aong with the Crocker Park, can serve as an event venue - with the State Capital on one end and Tower Bridge on the other - now that's a postcard! And a great place for a party or festival.

Continue reading "Mayor Fargo's State of Downtown Speech" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

It's not often you get a chance to get some good, jargon-free, useful legal advice. But I was surfing the other night and found the site of Allison Consulting, headquartered in Folsom, CA. Their focus is on protecting and strengthening families and businesses. Their website has lots of great information covering several interesting topics:

Asset Protection
Business Entities - Corps, LLCs, Partnerships, Sole Proprietors
Business Leadership and Management
Business Succession - Exit Planning
Estate Planning
General
Medi-Cal Planning
Personal
Real Estate
Taxes
Estate-Death Tax
Taxes - Business
Taxes - Individuals and Families

Check it out.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:28 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Yesterday morning, more than 600 people met for breakfast at the Memorial Auditorium. The purpose was the 8th annual State of Downtown breakfast. The keynote speaker was Kyle Ezell, author of Get Urban: The Complete Guide to City Living and former project coordinator for urban revitalizaiton for the City of Columbus. He offered this advice to Sacramento:

Continue reading "Sacramento Needs To Strut Its Stuff" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:59 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

David Taylor's 25-story commercial real estate development project at 621 Capitol Mall is underway, beginning with the de-watering phase. The "toys" are on site and work has begun. As reported in a recent post, the excavation phase is scheduled to begin in mid-February. Stay tuned for schedule and progress updates from David's PR firm, Marika Rose Communciations.

The toys have arrived...

Continue reading "De-watering Phase Begins At 621 Capitol Mall" »

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The Angel Capital Association has announced a collaborative effort among 4 Angel Groups, one of which is our local Angel investment group, the Sacramento Angels, in a very interesting company out of La Jolla, California. Below is an excerpt from the article on the ACA website:

Continue reading "Sacramento Angels Co-Invest in RegeneMed" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Robert May of Business Pundit yesterday posted a very insightful article "Why I Quit Entrepreneurship and Got a Real Job". The article is hitting the blogosphere big time and has reached the top ten list for today's most popular posts on del.icio.us. Robert said:

Entrepreneurship is difficult. No matter how smart you are, how well you plan, or how hard you work, there is still lots of luck and timing involved. If you ever consider making the jump, here are some things to think about.

1. Money matters


2. Nobody cares that you are smart or knowledgeable


3. Think about the intangibles


4. Short-term thinking can kill your company


5. Don't max out your credit cards


6. Know how you make money


7. Your estimates are wrong


8. You aren't your own boss


9. Industry contacts are important


10. You don't have any free time


11. Attack everything with enthusiasm


12. Acknowledge your mistakes


13. Keep your integrity


14. Deal with the possible consequences


15. Save your money


16. Start something on the side


17. Go it alone


18. Be ready to accept failure


19. Make sure you enjoy it


20. Train for it.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Velocity Venture Capital opened its doors today and declared itself to be 'the first venture capital firm to focus exclusively on technology companies in the greater Sacramento region.' The new fund is led by Sacramento native, serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Jack Crawford. Jack has launched four software companies in Sacramento, co-founded local VC fund Capital Valley Ventures, and sits on the board of many very promising Sacramento-based startup companies. Jack definitely has his pulse on the local startup community and was recently named as co-chair of the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance's Tech Index Committee. He has gathered a very experienced team - Jack calls them company builders - around him to caplitalize on the fund's investment thesis:

Continue reading "New Sacramento Venture Capital Fund" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

SCOPE iT, an El Dorado Hills based startup, got a good review for the latest release of its service in eWeek, a respected enterprise software news and review online publication. SCOPE iT 5.0 is a hosted service used in the planning of IT projects to ascertain costs before a project begins. Check out the full writeup.

If you are planning an IT project and want some reliable costs up-front, you should absolutely consider buying from this local Sacramento company.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

The period between Christmas and New Year is often a slow time for many executives. It gives us a chance to reflect on the year just passed and plan for success in the years to come. It also gives us the chance to clear out all those emails that we’ve been ignoring for months or squirreled away in a folder with a name that must have made sense at the time we created it. However, the best part about this quiet time is that you can send emails to people, safe in the knowledge that their in-box is unprotected. Oh sure, you’ll get those annoying ‘out of office’ responses that taunt you with grandiose descriptions of your colleagues' vacation plans. But you finally get the chance to win the battle of the email wars. With no one guarding their in-box, you can gleefully clean out yours and spread the holiday spirit with requests for your employees to action when they return. So, take a long lunch, surf the web, call those friends out of town using the company’s dime and defend your in-box. Before you know it, your colleagues will be back at work and your clutter-free inbox will be a distant memory.

Paul Robinson

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

On December 17th, HR 2520 was signed into law by President Bush. This bill, The Stem Cell and Therapeutic Research Act of 2005, should have a very positive effect on local company, Thermogenesis (KOOL).

The bill will provide $265M for stem cell therapy, cord blood and bone marrow transplant. $79M is authorized for the collection and storage of cord blood stem cells with the goal of reaching an inventory of 150,000 units. And $186M is reauthorized over the next five years to the national bone marrow transplant system and combines both systems (cord blood and bone marrow) under one program.

Continue reading "New Bill Gives Boost to Sacramento Company" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Continue reading "Saca Towers - Mountaineers" »

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (2)

David Taylor and his magical team are at it again in downtown Sacramento with their latest project a magnificent 25-story office building at 621 Capitol Mall. According to David, the “big boy toys” should begin mass excavation in mid-February, subject to the completion of the de-watering phase. Once the de-watering phase is completed, the project construction phase is scheduled for 24 months. Presently, 30% of the building has been leased to two major tenants, including 85,000 square feet for the 109 attorneys and support staff of Downey Brand. David’s company, David S. Taylor Interests, Inc., is close to signing a third tenant for an additional 10% of the building.

Over the next two years I plan to document the progress of the project with a photo essay series. This is where we begin, with David’s video (click on project and then video), a vision, and a promise for a grand building…

The vision…



The parking lot, soon never more...



Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

With lots of concern about a perceived slowdown in the housing sector on which Sacramento seems to have become quite dependent, now might be a good time to study a new economic report released today prepared by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and the SPHERE Institute entitled The California Policy Review Regional Economic Outlook for the Sacramento Region

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

John Garamendi, the California Insurance Commissioner, is at it again.

Last time we wrote about him, Commissioner Garamendi was concerned about the cost of disability insurance. Now, it’s title insurance. According to a report prepared by Texas insurance economist Birny Birnbaum at the Commissioner's request, very little variation was found in price among the top six companies who provide title insurance in California. The report also concluded that 75% of the state’s title insurance business is controlled by three insurers.

Continue reading "Insurance Commissioner Garamendi Stays Busy" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Good news for companies with revenues of between $5M and $50M located in the Central Valley. The Central Valley Fund is open for business with $80M in committed capital and is looking to make investments. The fund is the first fund for Gael Partners of Davis and expects to grow to $100M by early next year.

The fund will offer entrepreneurs in the Central Valley growth and expansion capital. It focuses on businesses that are experiencing later stage growth, strategic acquisitions, ownership transitions and recapitalization in the manufacturing, service and distribution sectors.

Continue reading "California Central Valley Gets VC Fund" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

We are rapidly approaching the year 2006 and my research yields disturbing trends about the equality of women in business in the U.S. I hear this message from my wife all the time. And so do our friends, if you know what I mean.

So, I decided to see for myself. Here is what I found within ten minutes of Google research – the two little letters, “w” and “o” equate to gigantic under representation. If you are a man, you are very lucky, because it’s still a man’s world. If you are a woman, you are on the short end of the stick, everywhere you go – at work, at school, in politics, and in the media. My proof:

Continue reading "Business Is Still Not Booming For Women" »

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (2)

See what the Sacramento Bee had to say about the value of Advisory Boards.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Sir Richard Branson, ever the maverick, is about to tilt at one more windmill. His Virgin America, low-fare airline, will be headquartered in Burlingame, CA. It will become the only California-based airline and the first since PSA was taken over in 1988. By the middle of next year, the airline will fly out of San Francisco Airport (SFO) and the first route announced is between SFO and an undisclosed New York airport.

The new headquarters will employ approximately 2000 by 2007. Both State and local San Francisco officials had lobbied hard for the company to land in San Francisco.

Look for joint Richard and Arnold sightings to begin soon.

On a personal note, I have flown Virgin Airlines many times and their service is classy, novel, and never boring. Evidence? A year ago, Virgin became the first airline to offer double beds in first class. I don't thimk they will be instituting these in Virgin America, which is targeted as a discount airline, but watch for something innovative.

Gillian Parrillo
Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

These are exciting times for Sacramento's skyline. Dramatic changes are just around the corner. Over the next couple of years I will provide a visual chronology of the progress at 301 Capitol Mall, the site of John Saca's "twin towers".

November 2005 - The former home of the Sacramento Union Newspaper was demolished. This is the starting point for my story.

Is that Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel in the hole?


You must be kidding - these towers are going to rise up from that hole?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Lots of news recently about movies being made in Sacramento. And now some more media good news
.
Barco Media and Entertainment is expanding its North American facility in Sacramento by doubling its square footage to 80,000 sq. ft. and closing its facility in Logan, Utah. Sacramento will become the headquarters of Barco Media, Events and Digital Cinema Groups. Barco provides visualization and display solutions for professional markets. It counts among its clients, U2, Ferrari, Louis Vuitton, Madonna and Daimler Chrysler.

Wow, was the Bono walking down J Street the other day? It could happen.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Bob Shallit has been a business columnist and senior editor of the Sacramento Bee for the past six months. Before that he was editor of the business section and had worked in The Bee’s business news department since 1983. He writes in his column on 12/5/05:

Staying in touch: A new executive networking group is forming here - with a twist.

The group, Sacramento Executive, will hold quarterly meetings, like CompanyX and other local organizations that have come and gone through the years.

The difference with this one? It's tied in with a new blog so members can meet in person, then stay in touch via the Internet.

"Networking works on a face-to-face basis but this keeps it going day to day," says Gillian Parrillo, a former tech exec and current Angel investor who is starting the new group with her husband, Pierre Cutler.

The idea is to help talented execs find jobs and link entrepreneurs with investors. But, through the blog, it's also a vehicle for local business leaders to weigh in on local issues.

For example, one current thread on the blog (www.sacramentoexecutive.com) explores why several companies that were founded here have had to relocate to get venture capital.

One other difference about this group: It's "specifically not tech-oriented," Parrillo says. Tech people are behind it. But people from other industries and government will be needed for it to be successful.

"At the end of the day, this is not a huge tech town," she says.

If you are interested in attending this event, please register on our home page.
We encourage comments on the blog entries and solicit submissions.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Exclusive to the Sacramento Executive Blog

As we reported late last week, Q1 Nano Systems, was in the hunt for a couple of federal grants to fund its R&D efforts. Well, things have moved along fast and they have just received great news.

The National Science Foundation has awarded them a $100K Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant. The company will use the funds, working in concert with staff at UC Davis, to prove the viability of a particular construction process that will allow it to overcome important barriers to producing inexpensive solar cells.

Having an endorsement from NSF about the direction of the company’s research is an important statement for this young startup and gets them off to a very solid start.

And those of you who attend the January 24th Sacramento Executive kickoff will get a chance to congratulate CEO John Argo in person while he pours tastings of his delicious wine.

Watch for registration details on this site in the next couple of days.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

SMUD has contracted with Ruihong Zhang, a professor of biological and agricultural engineering at the University of California, Davis, to work on a $100,000 pilot project studying the feasability of collecting food waste from institutions and restaurants in the Sacramento area and turning it into a source of renewable energy.

SMUD has set a goal of obtaining 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2011. Currently, they are at 10%.

(For more information)

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Just when the workmen's comp insurance problem looks like it's on the right track, disability insurance issues is raising its ugly head.

A lawsuit was filed last Thursday by the insurance companies against State Insurance Commission John Garamendi challenging "underground regulations" that would boost the cost of disability insurance.

A Garamendi spokesperson explained they are only trying to enforce the law and ensure that disability insurance plans deliver what they are supposed to.

Any insurance experts out there? This is getting complicated. Weigh in....

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

What a stark contrast - technology geeks and wine! It’s almost an oxymoron. How many technologists do you know that have gone on to become CEOs of information technology companies and then moved into the wine business? Not many you might say. Au contraire! The truth is, as my wine enthusiasm deepens, I discover more and more technology geeks engaging in the entrepreneurial spirit of the wine industry. It’s fascinating. Go figure – contrary to popular opinion, geeks do come out of the lab every now and then and can have some fun.

Continue reading "For The Love Of Technology And Wine" »

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Pardon the pun, but it looks like Apple is "in store" for great fourth quarter sales of their iPod and iTunes product lines. The digital music website of Playlist.com reports:

iTunes Music Store beat out Tower Records, Sam Goody and Borders Inc. in NPD’s third quarter ranking to crack the top ten for the first time ever, said the NPD Group in a Monday report. The steep climb of the online music service to seventh place from fourteenth during the same time last year reflects the speed at which users are turning to music online.

“With the growing interest in digital music, forecasts of more iPod demand this holiday, plus the stocking-stuffer appeal of iTunes gift cards, we can expect Apple to increase its share even more by year’s end,” said Russ Crupnick, music and movies industry analyst for the NPD Group, in the report.

Hey geof, people really are buying their music from online sources!

Will Sacramento's local Digital Musicworks International be able to take advantage of this trend? Sorry for another bad pun, but, stay tuned.....iTuned that is!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

Kenneth and Timothy Ouimet founded KhiMetrics in 1997 in Sacramento.

They built a product to deal with 'price optimization'. Almost no one had heard of price optimization. The brothers were ahead of the market. But a few people believed in them. One or more were members of the Sacramento Angels, an Angel investor organization. They invested seed capital in the startup.

But then the company needed additional funding and no local funding was to be found.

In November 1999 the Compay received $3M in funding from Telos Ventures Partners of Palo Alto, CA.

They got a new CEO. The CEO had run successful companies in Arizona. The company moved to Scottsdale, AZ.

Continue reading "KhiMetrics - A Sacramento Story of What Could Have Been" »

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:28 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Jet Blue has announced that it will drop its daily non-stop flight from Sacramento to Washington, D.C.'s Dulles airport effective January 5, 2006. The flight had been instituted in May 2004. The flight was cut indefinitely due to lack of demand. The daily non-stop flight between Sacramento and New York's JFK Airport will continue.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

According to a recent report by In-Stat:

The cellular handset, will grow from 1.6 billion cellular phone subscribers worldwide to 2.6 billion subscribers by 2009. That will represent one-third of the world’s population.

Sale of video game consoles bottomed out in 2005 at 16.5 million units. The launch of new products in the segment will double the size of the market by 2008.

The PC is not dead. Some 100 million CPUs were sold in 2002; In-Stat estimates 187.3 million units will be sold in 2005.

PDAs are a dying product line as they are being absorbed in smartphones. By 2009, shipment levels will be almost 1/3 of 2005 levels.

(Full story...)

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Advantage Route Systems announced its newest portable printing solution, the Advantage BT4(TM).

This compact, portable, 4 inch wide paper printer is Bluetooth enabled. This ultra portable device features a 50' paper roll and has a lithium ion battery that will print over 150 feet (50M) of continuous receipts between charges.

According to company president, David Kroutil, "This printer fills a gap in affordable 4 inch portable printing. Priced at just $495, it represents an outstanding value for printing delivery receipts in various route delivery and field sales applications."

It is compatible with most Bluetooth enabled consumer PDAs from Dell and HP. It has also been successfully tested with ruggedized units from Symbol and Intermec.

Incidentally, the company is headquartered in Turlock, CA.

More info

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Good news for California businesses. The largest provider of workers' compensation in California, the State Compensation Insurance Fund, plans to cut its rates by 16% in January. This would make a drop in rates of 38% since the overhaul of the system was announced two years ago. Government officials point out that the rate decreases cut the cost of employment in the State making it more job growth friendly.

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi noted that the cuts are good, but more could be done. Last year the insurers earned record profits, paying out 39 cents in claims for every $1 in premiums paid by employers. If all of Commissioner Garamendi's suggested cuts had been made the cumulative two-year drop would have been 46.2% versus the 38%.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Nominations are encouraged for all outstanding websites worthy of recognition at the 9th Annual Dottie Awards to be held Thursday, March 9, 2006, at the Towe Auto Museum in Old Town Sacramento. There is a $30 entry fee. Awards will be given in several categories.

(For more information)

The awards ceremony is one of the most entertaining of the year and it benefits a great local charity. LEED is dedicated to developing and supporting partnerships among businesses, schools, community and government groups in order to improve our area's education and training of young people.

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it? | Comments (1)

The familiar blue and yellow colors are a sure sign that the West Sacramento IKEA store is on track for a Spring 2006 opening.

(Full Story...)

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

Yep, you got it. Sacramento.

(Full Story...)

Gillian Parrillo
Sacramento Executive

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 4:07 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?

About two years ago, four friends and their three lovely spouses met for dinner at a local favorite restaurant - Randy Paragary's Sammy Chu's. Much to our disappointment, Sammy Chu's is no longer in business. Icon's is making a go of it there now. We loved Sammy Chu's and miss it. That night we dined in one of the private rooms fit for eight to ten people. We had a lot of fun eating, drinking, and talking about Sacramento things.

I remember one of the conversational threads. It went something like this.

Continue reading "The $2 Billion Dollar Dinner" »

Posted by Pierre Cutler at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Can you digg it?