IT Milk

Meezik is the 2nd place winner for the 2008 GVTA Business Plan Competition.

Of course, we are disappointed that we did not get 1st place for the $20k cash prize. But we still get $5k cash and $15k in services, which includes one free year in an incubator in Wilkes-Barre or Scranton.

If we were to win, we were planning on hiring an additional developer or two but that may have to hold off. We’ll most likely spend the $5k on equipment (if absolutely necessary) and advertising for our Facebook apps.

This is an exciting point for Meezik in any case because it represents the beginning of the next phase. This coming weekend, we’ll be discussing where we will go from this point.

The 1st place winner for the GVTA is Modeling International, a web 2.0 modeling magazine. It’s a combination of Zivity, Digg, and Flickr for amateur models. Although a little sloppy at this point, Modeling International does have potential and it is one of the coolest web technology companies coming out of the GVTA Business Plan Competition in the history of the competition. So I’m not feeling too terribly shitty about giving up 1st place to that team.

Out of all possible ads on Google Adsense, why this on VentureBeat? I don’t get how this is contextually relevant at all. Is Google making an assumption about the demographic of the VentureBeat reader base?

My wife mentioned a sobering thought last night. “Why do you keep taking more things on? You’re busy enough with school from being a husband and father.” It’s true. I put my hand in so many projects it’s hard to focus on the few that are really crucial. Being a Penn State student and being a good husband and father make a full-time job in itself. But I’m stretching myself to the limit of time by starting/maintaining various websites, joining a startup company, running my own consulting company, and taking on an independent study at school.

As the semester comes to a close and other events coincidentally happen to fall into the same weeks, I do not have a resting moment. My wife isn’t too happy about that, needless to say. She sees glimpses of a workaholic in me, which I must agree with.

One major problem is my grades dropping this semester. I depend on scholarships and grants to put myself through college, so maintaining grades is the least I can do towards achieving that.

When I asked how my IST Mentor manages to work at a Fortune 500 company and involve himself in entrepreneurship, he said, “You just do it. Don’t think about it and just do it.” That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing because, otherwise, I would feel crushed with stress. But my wife did bring up a good point that I have to focus my energy. I have too many responsibilities to do otherwise.

In collaboration with a couple of top-notch students in the College of IST, we are launching a magazine for IST that will actually be good. I’m sick of the mediocre sources we have now such as IST2U, The Networker, the Magazine of IST, and the regular bland press releases on the IST website.

Since we are not affiliated with the College of IST and do not have to deal with all that bureaucratic bs, we are taking a raw and casual approach to journalism. We are recruiting opinionated writers within our college to question the practices of our college, give suggestions for curriculum, review classes and professors, cover IST-related news about events, alumni and students, and even write juicy gossip to attract a broader audience.

Because of the situation with timing, this project will most likely be launched for the upcoming Fall semester. The content will be available in both online and printed formats with the help of Zetaprints.

More on this later.

I was startled by the sight, but the above photo of the new IST Honors Society t-shirt says a lot about the character of this organization. The text on the t-shirt “Smarter Than You Since 2005” explains everything I had worriedly expected before joining the ranks of “Gamma Tau Phi” in 2007.

Since this t-shirt design was apparently conceived by majority vote, we can reason that most of the members really are conceited bastards who think way too highly of themselves just because they manage to keep a 3.5 GPA in the easiest college at Penn State University.

You want $10 for this club t-shirt? I wouldn’t even wear that bullshit for free.

Please… get in touch with reality. You guys are not that great.

Update (4/11/08): I just received an email from GTP that refutes the notion that this was actually a majority vote.

We really want you guys to buy these and we are somewhat disappointed in the number of orders thus far. For a group that was so enthusiastic about buying them earlier in the year, we expected more responses. So please, fire off an e-mail to Brad and show your support for Gamma Tau Phi!

Now I have a little bit of reassurance about the quality of the members. Don’t buy this t-shirt!

I’ve been experiencing serious intermittent slowness on the residential network after the recent bandwidth increase to 4GB. Every couple of hours, web pages refuse to load and all network activity grinds to a halt. There’s a good chance that it may be caused by increasing the bandwidth limit and throttle, and the school’s servers are not able to handle all the load. Also, on-campus students may be enjoying more bandwidth-heavy activities than usual because of the perceived luxury of having double the bandwidth. Let’s hope this problem gets resolved soon because this is embarrassing for Penn State’s network to get bogged down so much even with comparatively limited bandwidth limits (still).

I just purchased software called Business in a Box by Envision Software. It is an impressive collection of general business, legal, and accounting documents contained within editing software. The post title is an exaggeration, of course, since Business in a Box is not even close to a full replacement for a lawyer. But these templates are a good start and can save you money, for general things, if you fill them in and take them to a lawyer to check over (please correct me if this is not good practice, lol). What provoked the search for this type of software was a lawyer quoting way too much for drawing up a general contract from scratch. Business in a Box costs $299 but saved over 3x the costs of using a lawyer to do the same thing, making it well worth the investment.

Business in a Box includes the following types of documents:

• Business planning and management
• Contractors and consultants
• Credit and collection
• Finance and accounting
• Human resources
• Internet and technology
• Legal
• Operation and logistics
• Real estate
• Sales and marketing

As you can see, this collection is comprehensive and covers pretty much everything related to starting and running a business. And these documents are not superficial templates that just skim the surface, like the ones you are likely to find floating around on the internet. Each one goes into a lot of detail and they are formatted in a clean manner.

When I was shopping around for software like this, another one that I stumbled upon was Proposal Kit. Proposal Kit costs the same amount and offers the same features. But I was hesitant to purchase it because it looked outdated and sort of scammy too. But it’s not the case with Business in a Box, especially since they offer updates for life (for a nominal flat fee).

Make a practical investment for your business and buy Business in a Box now.

Penn State’s on-campus bandwidth limit has now been increased to 4 GB download/upload per week, up from the 2 GB limit that was in place before spring break. The tight bandwidth limit was one of my few complaints living in family housing on campus, because it placed a lot of stress while doing work on the internet, since violating it could mean being reduced to a 56kb connection or totally cut off altogether. I would hit the 2 GB cap easily without even bs’ing around like going on Youtube or downloading music. Although 4 GB is still far from unlimited access, it should keep me from obsessively having to check my bandwidth usage every night…

I can’t believe someone on the PSU domain is spamming me with an affiliate offer. I received this email from the President of “PSU Free Student Offers.” This character named Samantha Volley is obviously fake, and I confirmed it because the name is not in the Penn State Directory or even Facebook.

Dear Penn State Student:

You can get a FREE Xbox 360 Elite. This is the first semester we are
trying this and it will be well worth your time to give it a shot.
Just click the link below to begin!

http://www.360Elite4free.com/index.php?ref=4734351

All Xbox’s are shipped directly via Amazon, and remember the elite
system is a $450-$500 value so don’t miss out. If you are wondering
how this works, just click “How this works” at the top right of the
page above.

STEP 1: Click link above
STEP 2: Register valid email address and shipping information (where
you would like the Xbox to be sent)
STEP 3: Complete 1 free offer
STEP 4: Have 5 of your friends complete 1 free offer

Enjoy,

Samantha Volley
President
PSU Free Student Offers
http://www.360Elite4free.com/index.php?ref=4734351

Email campaigns like this might not be a bad route to take if you’re an affiliate marketer currently enrolled in college, as long as you can cover your tracks. I could potentially have a mailing list filled with tens of thousands of live email addresses on the PSU domain. Other marketers might pay big bucks for a mailing list like this too. I’m sure this has been done already…

Earlier this month, on February 6th, I posed a question about what’s happening with the Lion Launch Pad here at Penn State University. A couple of representatives quickly responded to my blog post saying that everything was still on track. Since then, there has been some drama on the blogosphere and a couple of major changes at Penn State’s business incubator.

To recap, on February 7th, Rob Shedd, the founder of the idea of Lion Launch Pad, responded to my blog post on the PSU Startups blog, mentioning that the Lion Launch Pad office has expanded with an additional entrepreneur cafe:

Daehee Park asked the question that needed to be asked. What’s happening around here?

Apologies for the lack of updates on the blog - this is my fault. It’s incredible what an intense life consulting is, especially when you’re on a project with compressed timelines. That’s left me little time to blog, though it does not mean that there have not been changes.

Thanks to Dave Barton, the Lion Launch Pad Entrepreneur “Cafe” space is now open for business. We converted the back space into an area that’s perfect for drop-in student entrepreneurs working between classes. Outfitted with Wi-Fi, here’s what it looks like…

Shortly after Shedd’s courteous response, Dave Barton, the financial supporter of Lion Launch Pad, exploded in a comment to my post:

As the person who is paying for the LLP, I take exception to your blog entry. A quick trip across the street would show as many as a dozen entrepreneurs working on their companies in the LLP. You would see that while most students and faculty were off on their holiday break we ADDED and renovated space that increased the LLP’s capacity. I am not a sugar-coater, I don’t get paid by Penn State to do what I do, so I can say what I think. REAL entrepreneurs don’t wait for an engraved invitation or approval to get started. They kick the door down and get to work. Progress was not seen because you did not make an effort to look for it beyond looking at your browser. I make no apologies for the lack of blog entries, website updates our patting-ourselves-on-the-back announcements. We are all too busy WORKING on our companies.

Did you even try to get contact any of the people you presented to? Sometimes brain barfing on your blog is not such a good idea.

Barton’s harsh response surprised me because I did not intend for my blog post to be an accusing remark, and certainly not for any individual to “take exception to.” Rather, I had asked a simple question about what was going on because I could not find any updated information on the several public domains that Lion Launch Pad had set up for the purpose of communicating information about their incubator program.

While Barton was correct that I could have discovered the answer for myself if I had visited their office, I was also “too busy WORKING” on my company to go out of my way and take a trip down to College Ave. Weebly’s David Rusenko’s recent comment about Barton’s outburst says it better:

You may be the most stuckup sonofabitch I have run into in a long time. What Daehee did was nothing out of the ordinary, and your lack of understanding only goes to show how clearly you don’t get the Internet.

Let’s make one point clear: Updating a blog or keeping a home page with basic information IS NOT a hard thing to do, doesn’t take that much time, and is the only way the outside world knows that you are even alive. Failing to post updates is a sure path to being considered dead, or well on your way. This is how the Internet works, and it’s not out of laziness — I came to very similar conclusions, but I live in San Francisco, and you can’t foist the laziness attack on me.

Second, although I don’t know why, I personally take offense to you insinuating that Daehee is not a REAL entrepreneur. How childish, petty, and demotivating — the very last thing any entrepreneur needs.

While Daehee raised some very good points (What is going on with an organization that can’t maintain any form of external communications, including a basic website, and seems to have changed names without any kind of prior notification?), you have managed to singlehandedly destroy any respect I have for this incubator. A more appropriate response would have been to politely explain the situation — but coming on here, in full combat gear, is purely destructive.

Shortly after Barton’s response on February 7th, the Lion Launch Pad website went down and was redirecting to the Wild Apricot software website for a couple of weeks. Apparently they were switching web hosts.

However, from what I learned today from Rob Shedd and Liz Kisenweather of Lion Launch Pad, there seems to be more to the story:

As of February 8, 2008, Dave Barton requested that the offices at 234 E. College Ave., Suite 2342 no longer be affiliated with the Lion Launch Pad. Dave wanted to realign the focus of the space, which he was providing. It appears that this space will be renamed The Blue Line and Dave will continue his strong support of Penn State and Centre County entrepreneurs

At the same time, I discovered a local blog called “Left of Centre” that discusses the questionable efficacy of Lion Launch Pad/The Blue Line, Lion Launch Pad’s vanishing act, and Barton’s sudden breakaway from Lion Launch Pad. I don’t necessarily agree with all of Thor’s viewpoints but he does write very intriguing blog posts.

In a comment to Thorstein Veblen’s posts above, Barton stated that he separated from Lion Launch Pad to create The Blue Line because his goals for the incubator program were not aligned with Penn State’s which focuses on undergraduate entrepreneurship:

After 9 months, the entrepreneurs who took the initiative to use the LLP were largely recent graduates of Penn State. Only 3 of the first 12 companies were undergraduate run and this spring it will be down to one. This was is conflict with the LLP board’s intent for this to be an undergraduate experience, so the decision to separate was made.

Additionally, Rob Shedd said in his blog update today that the Lion Launch Pad will still continue to operate as a separate entity from The Blue Line on campus until new office space is scoped out:

The Lion Launch Pad has initiated a search for alternative space and we are currently exploring our options. Additionally, Liz Kisenwether and Robert Macy have begun open mentoring sessions on-campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are also in the process of launching a new web site.

If you are interested in the mentoring sessions, please contact Liz or Robert for an appointment during the following time blocks:
Liz - Kunkle Lounge Tuesdays 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Robert - 429 Business Building Thursdays 1:30-3:30

We certainly appreciate the strong interest in entrepreneurial programs related to Penn State and look forward to continuing to support aspiring entrepreneurs.

I am interested to see how Penn State’s Lion Launch Pad and Dave Barton’s The Blue Line will coexist as similar business incubators at State College. Or are these 2 programs unique enough in their respective goals to be able to operate in harmony? From what I’ve gathered from the above links, these are simply my assumptions: Undergraduate entrepreneurs will seek help from Lion Launch Pad, while recent graduates and outside businessmen trying to start a business in State College, PA will go to The Blue Line.