As many of you know, Nick Mikhailovsky, my long-term Russian business partner, is a successful entrepreneur and active in the Russian startup community. He introduced me to his circle and working with these Russian entrepreneurs is an ongoing pleasure.

I worked with Alex and besides loving the idea of AtContent I found his story of how to get hired as an expert team when you have neither expertise nor a team creative and hilarious.

These days Alex lives in San Jose; here’s the story in his own words…

One day Alex and Nikita agreed to create one of the largest and powerful information companies in the world!

To achieve this goal they understood they had to solve a huge problem. They looked at the traditional publishing industry – publishing houses, existing Internet services, newspaper websites, etc., and current solutions of legal distribution.

They understood the publishing and content distribution market had problems with tracking content copies, copyright and legal distribution.

They decided to create a new technology service which would revolutionize publishing and content distribution.

At that moment, neither Nikita nor Alex had a job (they retired), no team, only $1500 in their pockets, fantastic idea and a coffeehouse between their homes where they met every day and ordered glasses of water.

They understood they should start with something and decided to become a partner of AnyChart (the company has a developer’s office in Irkutsk) by creating a Microsoft Silverlight based visual stock component for them.

Nikita called them and said, “Hey guys, we can do it for you because we have a great team with Silverlight experience which you don’t have.”

The AnyChart guys answered, “Deal! But please show us your team!”

The problem was that Alex and Nikita had no team and nobody in Irkutsk knew Silverlight platform…

But they found the solution; they decided to call all the programmers they knew and ask them to play the roles of members of this great Silverlight team!

After two day of phone calls Nikita and Alex found not only actors but really good programmers who wanted to learn Silverlight and work with them to build a great company!

So, during that one week of October Alex and Nikita got the contract with AnyChart, built a first team with Dmitriy and Aleksey (they still work with Alex and Nikita) and started to build future IFFace and AtContent.

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Flickr image credit: AtContent

One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to entrepreneurs and innovation isn’t always what it seems.

How rich should you get for creating software that changed the world? Linus Torvalds created Linux and the open source revolution, which got him around a million dollars and an incredibly cool job.

Does he have any regrets? “Not at all,” he says. “Quite the opposite, actually. I’m very happy with feeling that I’ve done the right thing.” He adds: “I mean, if I’d started a company, that wouldn’t have been because I wanted to start a company. I concentrated on the technical side because that’s what I wanted to do.”

Entrepreneurs of all types are hyped as the solution to every country’s economic ills, so you might assume that the more dire the economy the more a government would facilitate startups—but you would be wrong. Consider Greece, which needs all the help it can get…

It took him 10 months — crisscrossing the city to collect dozens of forms and stamps of approval, including proof that he was up to date on his pension contributions — before he could get started. But even that was not enough. In perhaps the strangest twist of all, his board members were required by the Health Department to submit lung X-rays — and stool samples — since this was a food company.

Are you a sucker for kitchen gadgets designed to do one thing? I admit I succumb on occasion to their cool allure and the usefulness they seem to offer—if only that vision translated to my reality.

Just as often, the buyer is to blame, a victim of unrealistic expectations. The kitchen can be a realm of fantasy, after all, and even seasoned professionals can be seduced by a sexy piece of equipment, especially if it has an exotic accent.

For all the talk about the importance of marriage to long-term happiness and health it gets shorter-term all the time. Enter a couple of single entrepreneurs who believe they have the answer to keeping the romance, and therefore the marriage, alive.

Later this year, Mr. Schechter and Mr. Schildkrout will release their answer to these questions: a new dating portal focused on committed couples. It will seek to get them out of their routines, off their feet and on the town for frequent dates.

Everything is social these days and everyone seems to think that peer opinions are the ones that really count. I often ask one or two trusted friends what they think, but I’m not all that interested in sites like Yelp, because the posting are not only strangers, but also anonymous, unlike Angie’s List. But it would be a cold day in hell before I’d use this newest social site.

So that’s what MeARKET does. When you sign up, you enter the stocks that you own. Then you’re connected with your Facebook and LinkedIn friends, you can see their portfolios, and as they buy and sell, you get updated.

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

What is innovation? Is it really embodied in a good deal playing Farmville on Facebook for hours? I found an excellent definition of innovation in a fascinating article about Bell Labs and Mervin Kelly, who, over the course of 34 years, worked his way up from researcher to chairman of the board (something few people today would consider doing—assuming they could even find a company in which to do it).

By one definition, innovation is an important new product or process, deployed on a large scale and having a significant impact on society and the economy, that can do a job (as Mr. Kelly once put it) “better, or cheaper, or both.”

Sometimes that ‘large scale’ is within a small world; such is the case of the handball zealots of NYC.

“On a winter day the ball is cold, which makes the rubber harder, the air in the ball denser, so the ball doesn’t really expand and contract off the bounce,” said Ruben Acosta, 32, a hotel concierge who is known on the court as Superstar. “Boiling the balls gives them back their zing.”

While not all innovation makes money they do make waves. When large-scale corruption is uncovered it receives plenty media coverage, but how to address the endemic petty corruption that millions of people face around the world is a tougher question. In 2010 Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan and Sridar Iyengar started ipaidabribe.com, a site that collects anonymous reports of bribes paid, bribes requested but not paid and requests that were expected but not forthcoming.

Now, similar sites are spreading like kudzu around the globe, vexing petty bureaucrats the world over. Ms. Ramanathan said nongovernmental organizations and government agencies from at least 17 countries had contacted Janaagraha, the nonprofit organization in Bangalore that operates I Paid a Bribe, to ask about obtaining the source code and setting up a site of their own.

On a totally different scale is Tony Hsieh, whose dream is to fix the world by fixing cities, starting with Las Vegas, not as dictator, but as facilitator. According to his friend Sarah Nisperos, “But he wanted all these things based on happiness and merit and how nice you are. I said you shouldn’t build a strip mall, you should be downtown.”

Hsieh’s working through Downtown Project, a company he created with $350 million to spend, to seed technology startups, invest in education and attempt to build a walkable, vibrant downtown.

“You can’t dictate what the neighborhood is going to look like. But you can definitely help support and accelerate people’s dreams and visions,” Hsieh says. “That is really our belief as to what drives our culture. It needs to be organic.”

IBM is also focused on fixing cities, albeit with an eye to creating a multibillion-dollar business, starting with Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro.

But never before has it built a citywide system integrating data from some 30 agencies, all under a single roof. It is the handiwork of an I.B.M. unit called Smarter Cities…

Innovation often borrows from the existent to create something new; that process is especially thrilling when something relatively frivolous is used to make something with the potential to truly change the world. Such is what is happening as MMOG expands to MMOC. This is one link to share with everyone you know.

Welcome to the brave new world of Massive Open Online Courses — known as MOOCs — a tool for democratizing higher education.

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

Are you curious? Are you creative? Do you jerryrig (innovate) solutions to your own problems? Are you into contests?

If your head’s been going up and down, or even if it hasn’t, do I have a deal for you.

Not me, actually, but dozens of companies in a multitude of fields are looking for you.

They are looking for you and others like you to solve their problems, but they aren’t looking for experts.

According to Karim Lakhani, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, “The further the problem from the solver’s expertise, the more likely they are to solve it.”

30% of the unsolved problems of science-driven companies posted on InnoCentive were solved by its non-expert network.

InnoCentive posts both the problem and the reward for solving it.

Interested in health?

“Another model combines smaller prizes for promising ideas with big prizes for success.  The Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations initiative, for example, gives out $100,000 grants for interesting but unusual ideas for solving health problems the foundation sets out: like finding cellphone-based ways to increase vaccination rates, or creating the next generation of sanitation technologies. Entrants need only submit a two-page write-up of an idea. The money finances research, and if a project succeeds, it can win a prize of up to $1 million. Since 2008, the foundation has awarded prizes to 602 researchers in 44 countries.”

You just need to describe your idea—having the skills to make it happen has nothing to do with conceptualizing it.

So click here and start putting your creativity to work now!

Flickr image credit: cambodia4kidsorg

Thanksgiving, better known as Stressgiving, marks the official start of the holiday season, so I thought it appropriate to offer up my version of inspirational reading in an effort to mitigate the negative effects.

A lot of actions this time of year seem focused on tasks instead of people. As folks gear up to get everything on their holiday list done on schedule and in budget, they tend to mow down anybody they perceive to be in their way. It turns out that there is a biologically-based reason that this happens and it isn’t limited to people in leadership positions. I find knowledge like this useful; it makes me more tolerant of others when they are acting like twits and lessons the likelihood that I’ll do the same.

The other challenge is that the circuitry for thinking analytically, such as thinking about the future or about concepts, switches off the circuitry for thinking about others. People spending a lot of time being analytical, conceptual or goal focused may have diminished circuitry for thinking about the minds of others, simply through lack of use.

With the holidays upon us anything that keeps saving, as opposed to spending, front and center is worthy of your attention. Startup SaveUp does just that and makes it cool enough to interest kids and teens.

The dollars-to-points ratio translates to one dollar per point.  Thus, for every dollar you put in your savings account or use to pay down your debt, you earn one point, and once you’ve accumulated 10 points, you can enter any prize play of your choice.  All prize plays cost 10 credits—which means you can use those 10 credits to enter a drawing for an iPad 2 or you can use them to enter a drawing to get $10,000 of your debt paid off.

Finally, if you’re looking to store some of your stuff and happen to live in New York City then you can do it in style for a modest $300 a month.

Behind the mute facade of a largely windowless neo-Gothic tower lies an ingenious system of steel vaults traveling on rails. Within those armored containers, which have been in continuous use since the Jazz Age… Day & Meyer, Murray & Young warehouse, and since it opened in 1928 it has been the storage building of choice for many of New York’s wealthiest families, most prestigious art dealers and grandest museums.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

I read a great article in the Wall Street Journal on disaster as inspiration.

It’s timely because

• not all startups are Net startups – Net startups get most of the press, just as they did the last time, but the idea that the only companies worth funding or working for must be engaged in providing some consumer service that requires massive numbers of users and often relies on advertising for revenue (assuming it has a revenue model) is not only inaccurate, but also ridiculous;
• ‘find a need/nitch and fill it” can change the world—even if it only changes small pieces at a time it often does it in a way that flashier models don’t;
• intrapreneurship is not only alive and well it’s also extremely successful, as shown in the Wall Street Journal article—or just think ‘Apple’, ‘Intel’, ‘IBM’, the list is endless;

As the Wall Street Journal article points out, real-world happenings, especially disasters such as hurricanes, inspire both innovation of existing products and the creation of totally new ones; both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs.

Whether it’s disaster or downtime, you need to keep your mind as open as your eyes.

Flickr image credit: zzzack

Technology quotes were really fun; I found a lot more than I can use today, so you can expect more on the subject on some Sunday in the future.

Let’s start with an overview from Arthur C. Clarke, who said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Ain’t that the truth.

Al Boliska brings up a good point, too, “Do you realize if it weren’t for Edison we’d be watching TV by candlelight?” But I think his tongue is firmly in his cheek.

Business loves to claim that progress is always positive, but John F. Kennedy had a different idea, “I am sorry to say that there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced than ours.”

Our scientists are working on it as Alfred North Whitehead reminds us, “Ideas won’t keep; something must be done about them.” However, even when something is done they may still stink like rotten fish.

More than 50 years before the Internet Gertrude Stein said, “Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.” That certainly explains a lot of actions since, doesn’t it?

Finally, I offer you the (possible) wisdom of Georges Pompidou, “There are three roads to ruin; women, gambling and technicians. The most pleasant is with women, the quickest is with gambling, but the surest is with technicians.” Now that’s something to share with your development or IT department.

Flickr image credit: Veribatim

One light plane + Alaskan wilderness + fishing bait + one bear = necessity.

Two new tires + three cases of duct tape + sheet plastic = innovation—

and a ride home!

Flickr image credit: Handforged

I love revolutionary ideas, although the ones that fascinate me are only occasionally net-based. I tend more to stuff that exists in the real world. The following caught my attention; since there are more than you might want to read about I thought I’d include enough info for you to pick and choose the ones that would interest you most.

Ingenuity is not limited to startups; Nimbus Water Systems has been purifying water since 1968, but their latest innovation has the power to radically change our world for the better.

The company has designed a portable water-filtration system that can be easily toted to remote parts of the world to take up to 2,500 gallons per day of dirty water from a stream, a well or a tank and turn it into water that is safe to drink. … The system runs on solar power and comes in a rolling suitcase that can be checked as luggage onto commercial airplanes, carried off on a moment’s notice in response to a natural disaster or other emergency.

You’ve heard the old saying ‘fight fire with fire’? That is what Eboo Patel is dong in an effort to create a force that fosters tolerance by fighting religious bigotry.

He figured that if Muslim radicals and extremists of other religions were recruiting young people, then those who believe in religious tolerance should also enlist the youth.

Dogs are trained to sniff out a lot more than explosives and drugs; they can be trained to recognize the changes from cancer, seizures and other illnesses and, in doing so, change a life forever. Researchers are working to duplicate and apply the results to a variety of diagnostics, but they admit there is little possibility of actually duplicating a dog’s sensitivity.

Scientists are building sophisticated electronic and chemical sniffers that examine the puffs of exhaled air for telltale signs of cancer, tuberculosis, asthma and other maladies, as well as for radiation exposure.

Now, in a lighter vein…

Meet Hayden Hamilton, an entrepreneur who used his own money to develop a product that he knows may never sell—a razor that carries a price tag of $100,000.

…the Portland entrepreneur has spent four years on and off — and close to $1 million of his own money — developing a luxury alternative to the ubiquitous throwaway blade.

Do you ride a bike? Do you suffer the discomfort of essentially sitting on your groin until it’s numb? Would you change that if you could? Now you can.

“The subject matter always draws juvenile chuckles. They don’t even listen long to understand what part of a man’s anatomy is being protected here.”

Chris Miles recognized a major need for those who, intentionally or by accident, find themselves requiring the services of a lawyer.

“If I want a pizza, I can get a pizza in 15 minutes,” he says. “I can get a plumber in the middle of the night. Why can’t I get a lawyer?”

Finally, for all those women who would love to round out their pants the way the stars do there is Booty Pop, a much simpler, less arduous and all around cheaper solution than has been available previously.

Thanks to the founders of Booty Pop, you no longer have to be in the gym for hours or spend a lot on expensive plastic surgery to get a round rear.

Image credit:  MykReeve on flickr

Quick. What comes to mind when you hear “entrepreneur?” Do you think first of someone young?

Does innovation bring to mind a new social or mobile app?

Does it excite you that it was US ingenuity that gave the world a social way to get discounts (Groupon), tell the world they what they had for lunch (Twitter) and brag that they are mayor of the local Starbucks (Foursquare)?

These questions come from a recent conversation I had and my response to all three was ‘no’, which, obviously, puts me way out in left field. (My answers were that entrepreneur is age-neutral and innovation links directly to the stuff that excites me, such as the polio vaccine, semiconductors and DARPA, which counts the internet among the things it fostered.

The kinds of innovation and invention that blow me away are rarely focused on supplying ephemeral consumer experiences, but rather they directly make or cause material changes in our world—hopefully for the better; they often take years of effort and don’t result in rock star status or millions of followers and friends.

A recent example is a guy you’ve probably never heard of named Gary Cola, founder of Bainite Steel.

A self-taught inventor named Gary Cola has developed a process for manufacturing steel that results in the creation of a product that’s 7% stronger than the strongest steel – and 30% lighter. The steel is also incredibly ductile – meaning that it can crumple a great deal before reaching a breaking point. Even better? His heat-treating process only takes 10 seconds. Compare that to conventional steel manufacturing, where heat-treating can take hours or even days.

Many that will reshape the world are born through academic research, such as Glassimetal Technology (a metal alloy that can be molded like plastic).

Then there are Hugh Crenshaw and Charles Pell, who, using their background in biomechanics, keep inventing and innovating in multiple fields.

And over the past 20 years they’ve profitably translated their understanding of biomechanics into inventions, from robotic submarines to pill sorters.

They aren’t stopping, either, now they’ve focused on reinventing the surgical tray, starting with the rib spreader.

Now you know what excites me, what innovation/inventions excite you?

Flickr image credit The U.S. National Archives