Vator Splash is a gathering of investors, successful entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs-in-process, entrepreneur wannabes, people who follow technology and those who just like a good party.

Splash brings together high-caliber speakers who talk about how to build and scale great successful companies, how their industries are changing and the opportunities those changes are creating.

Granted there is much to learn from the speakers and networking opportunities, but in a world of too little time how do you choose where to spend it.

The recent Vator Splash conference in San Francisco made me believe that there are different levels of needs for startups.

Somehow it seems that I’ve gone from kindergarten to elementary school, and now have finally advanced to middle school as an entrepreneur.  Vator Splash seems to be more on the kindergarten/elementary school level.

What am I attempting to express by making this simile?  The levels of knowledge and performance required in each of these school stages reflect the different stages of starting and building a company.  Kindergarten is the idea stage; it is necessary to do market research and concept development.  Usually this is an iterative process that can take months to years, involves speaking with lots of people and getting feedback that enables the idea to improve.

At elementary school the real learning begins – this is when it’s time to build a team, raise initial capital (friends & family or Angel) and start working on creating a product.

In middle school things reach another level – attracting customers in a repeatable fashion, dealing with executives, and realizing your product’s (baby’s) shortcomings and learning to live with them.

This is when the startup becomes a real business and has to learn to deal with the complexities of the outside world.  It has to learn to stand on its own legs and understand how to achieve profitability and growth.

This most often means significantly more investment capital as well, probably a factor of 10-30. Some, very few, companies manage to get through this stage based on the revenues they generate, but this is unusual in the technology space.

High school – I’m still wondering what this will entail.  Clearly it has to do with serious scaling, greater product complexity and possible internationalization (though some has already happened).

Each stage has its different capital requirements, so this must also be considered.  Beyond that, all is speculation as I’m yet to experience it.

The point to all this is that there seems to be few conferences that are focused on middle and high school.  Almost everything is centered around kindergarten and elementary school.

There must be a conference market for entrepreneurs that are a little more advanced.  If you know about any, please let me know.

KG Charles-Harris is CEO of Emanio and a special contributor to MAPping Company Success.

Flickr image credit: Vator Splash

I’ve always liked advice columns, as much for the duh factor of those writing as for the level of common sense they often display. These days I read Carolyn Hax, but when I was young the reigning queens were a pair of twin sisters, Eppie Lederer, writing as Ann Landers, and Pauline Phillips, writing as Dear Abby, AKA, Abigail Van Buren. Today we’ll take a look at Landers in conjunction with the business world; next week her sister.

Let’s start with some great advice on dealing with the irritating elements found in every workplace—usually  people, “There are really only three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who say, “What happened?””

And moving on to how to deal with them, “Nobody says you must laugh, but a sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the day.”

Networking is a necessity of business life and Landers offers up a golden rule for doing it. “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” Take this to heart and watch your networking ROI skyrocket.

Here are three pieces of golden advice, whether you are building a career in the corporate world or as an entrepreneur.

1. “Nobody gets to live life backward. Look ahead, that is where your future lies.”
2. “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.”
3. “Know when to tune out, if you listen to too much advice you may wind up making other peoples mistakes.”

And some personal advice that I hope you never forget,“The naked truth is always better than the best dressed lie”

In a world where ego and self-focus has run amok, Lander’s uses humor to remind people to reign in their egos.

She reminds us of the importance of looking in the mirror first, instead of assuming the problem is someone else, “One out of four people in this country is mentally unbalanced. Think of your three closes friends; if they seem OK, then you’re the one.”

And I’m pretty sure her final thought is just as applicable if you don’t have a dog, “Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.”

Image credit: Wikimedia

Today’s Business Channel buzz is about the power of networking. Networking isn’t new, although the term is recent. It’s something I’m good at doing—I harbor unbridled people curiosity—but usually hate having it done to me. Why?

Well, it’s not a lot of fun to have dozens of people at an event come up and essentially ask, “What can you do for me,” while their eyes are scanning the room looking for more likely prey and they seem to have little real interest in those who talk to them, unless they perceive value to themselves.

Obviously, not everyone is like this, but too many are!

Rather than write up yet another list of ‘how to network’ or waxing on about how valuable it is, I thought I’d mention three salient points and then offer up a link to what I consider one of the best networking resources sources available.

First, salient = basic. That’s right, and once you grasp the basics the rest are luxuries—nice to know, but not really necessary.

Second, these apply as much to on-line networking as to that done in the real world.

1. Go networking with an eye to listening, learning and helping, not talking, selling and using.
2. Pay attention to the person talking, instead of mentally cruising the room.
3. Be open to input other than what you expected or wanted.

That’s it. Practice them until they are deeply embedded in your MAP and you do them without thinking. You’ll be amazed at the difference in your results.

Finally, download or buy the best book around for doing business in a networked world—The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online! by Scott Allen and David Teten.

What are your pros and cons regarding networking?

Your comments—priceless

Don’t miss a post, subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

Image credit: clix  CC license