Very Short Interview No. 1

I was fortunate enough to interview Ellery Chan, co-founder of Precision Lightworks. After working in research and development at Harris Corporation for several years funding was cut on his project. He and another engineer decided to go out and use their knowledge to develop a somewhat similar product. They currently are in their sixteenth year of business and are profitable.

1. What do you think it means to be an entrepreneur?
It means starting your own business.  It means taking your own idea and running with it.  It means you are in control of your own destiny.  In the case of a small business like ours, it also means a huge amount of responsibilities.  We had started a two-person company.  That meant that we were the management; we were the engineers; we were the legal department, the advertising department, the personnel department, and the custodians.

2. What is something you didn't expect to happen when you stated out?
We had three significant challenges:

1. Poor market research:  We had assumed that our target market would eagerly buy our product.  We would be really happy making money by burning CDs with our software and getting paid for each copy. Our original target market (architects) was impressed and excited by our product, but they did not want to spend money on a tool they were not likely to use a large percentage of the time, and in a lot of cases, they did not want to invest the extra effort to use the tool.  Perhaps this could have been overcome with better marketing of our product, but we did not have the skills to design that marketing nor the funds to hire an outside firm to do it.

2. Economic shift:  We had started our company in 2000, in the midst of the stock market downturn due to the dot-com bubble burst.  Because we were a self-funded company (no outside investors), we had to pay for our business and personal (family) expenses out of our own funds.  This meant dipping into our own stock market investments, and selling stock at a loss due to the state of the market.  We had three very lean years where we were developing our products, but did not yet have any significant revenue from sales.

3. Paradigm shift:  In addition to our problematic customer base, we had built our software to take advantage of a very cost-effective source of commercial aerial photography that was available on the Internet.  The high-quality archive of aerial photos was being collected, processed, and made available by a division of Kodak.  It made high-quality, low-cost aerial photos readily available to consumers, which worked very conveniently with our software (which needed a source of aerial photography), and which was good for average users because they could get good photos without needing to know a lot about aerial photography (which can otherwise be pretty technical for newcomers).

Those challenges eventually caused us to modify our original business plan and create a new one:  Originally we were going to create and sell licenses to a software product.  We saw that our potential customers did not feel they were in a position to capitalize on using our tools, but we knew their potential.  So we modified our software from and end-user tool to a high-volume production tool, and switched from licensing seats of software to providing a production service.  This meant expanding and hiring workers to do the production using our software.  Now we produce data and license the data to a variety of customers.  The new business model has proven to be much more successful and profitable.

We spent about 2-3 years developing our original software package, 4 years refining it and selling it, and the most recent 8 years providing data production services.  Internally we still are doing continuous software development to support our production environment, and to develop new capabilities that will result in new products.

3. What do you think would be important to learn in an entrepreneurship course?
I think it would be important to understand the trade-offs of entrepreneurship.  These are some:

The likelihood of striking gold is small:  It can sound like a glorious undertaking, and in some cases it is; but starting a rock and roll band or working to become a professional athlete are also forms of entrepreneurship, and the likelihood of achieving a spectacular level of success is small.

There are many levels of success:  For many small businesses, the monetary return may simply be adequate.  But for many, the satisfaction of building something from their own ingenuity is rewarding; and being their own boss is rewarding.  These days, simply being employed can be rewarding, and having the ability to provide employment for others can also be rewarding.

It may not be what you expected:  For me, the personal irony is that I left my former job because the R&D opportunities were dwindling.  However, as a business owner, my R&D opportunities now are frequently (mostly) overtaken by other tasks important to running the company (like keeping the network running, and making sure the employees are happy).  I often miss working for a larger company with lots of resources, a great support structure, and lots of smart people to talk to and learn from; and where I could focus almost all of my energy on technology development.

We consciously chose not to follow the "fail fast" dot-com model of entrepreneurship, where one gets investors, spends venture capital like crazy, works furiously, then either explodes in a glory of success, or implodes as a spectacular failure.  We are fully self-funded, so we owe nobody.  We also could not take advantage of the leverage that external funding can provide.  However, our approach fit our lifestyle choice. We are entering our 16th year of business, and are profitable with zero debt, so we consider it a success.

Learning about how they had to change their business strategy was really cool. I find it fascinating that Precision Lightworks, which had a good idea and product, just had to adjust their approach to appeal to their market and be successful. I was most surprised to learn that they did not need investors.It seems that acquiring investors is just part of the norm when we hear about starting a business. 

Week 3 Reading Reflection

I was pleasantly surprised that they mentioned that eating healthy and exercising were characteristics entrepreneurs often have. Having a healthy lifestyle is definitely important, and is usually the first thing to go when people hit a very stressful or busy time in there life. Maintaining ones body is one of the best ways to keep up ones overall happiness, even in rough times.

When the section was discussing what to do to relieve stress in mentioned networking. This confused me a little at first, because to me, networking is something that is stressful, even though it's an important part of a job. What I think the author meant though, was that talking with your network about common issues is a good, because everyone would have similar experience to empathize better.

The author list quite a few traits that are associated with entrepreneurs. Because of that I was wondering if there were just a few traits the author felt were more critical to being a good entrepreneur? Also about the traits, if there were some that an individual lacked, would it probably be alright to rely on someone else to compensate for it? Working with others is a way to make up for individual disadvantages, but also means that one may become too dependent, and not able to succeed without the other.

There wasn't anything that I disagreed with in this chapter. I'm glad they touched on the darker aspects of Entrepreneurship, because that is something that really must be considered. Being an entrepreneur requires putting a lot of yourself emotionally and physically on the line, and one has to make sure that's a risk they can accept.

Identifying Local Opportunities

1. Brevard group's QR code system uses GPS to help track lost pets
Pets can easily get lost and go missing. Unfortunately the embedded chips often used are not readable by a regular person. So a QR code system has been implemented that allows anyone to scan the tags which provide information about the animal and sends an alert to the owner.
Existing electronic pet identification methods do not allow normal people to identify the owner.
Pet owners and their animals have this issue.

2. Brevard County leaders considering road funding
The roads in Brevard County have been in a very poor condition for a while. Unfortunately the officials can't agree on how they want to come up with the funds to pay for all the repairs. Some suggest making more budget cuts, because the system is inefficiently using money. While others feel that budget cuts would only hurt services for parks and library. Instead they want to raise sales or gas taxes, to the dismay of many citizens. They are having a conference in the near future to compromise on a solution.
Many of the roads are in need of a repair. They often cause damage to cars and create an unsafe environment.
Anyone who drives on the road or pays taxes in the area are affected by these issues.

3. NASA's spacwalk terminated after astronaut reports water in helmet

An astronaut discovered some water bubbles forming inside his spacesuit during an EVA. As a precaution they decided to cut short the repair and return to the ISS. A similar problem occurred in 2013, and since then extra precaution has been taken if water appears. 

The cooling systems on some space suits do leak occasionally.

This puts the astronauts who perform the EVA at extreme risks. 

4. 'Thin blood' and Florida winters: Is it too cold for you?

People who live in Florida for extended periods of time often find that their tolerance to cold is relatively diminished. So much so that it has become a common joke that Floridian's can't handle mildly cold temperatures. This is because when people live in warmer climates the capillaries in their skin dilate, and take longer to constrict to cold temperature. 

Many individuals living in Florida have less of a tolerance for colder temperatures. 

Anyone who has lived in Florida for an extended period of time.

5. 2016 Python Challenge starts Saturday in South Florida

Due to pythons killing many of the native animals in Florida, the wildlife services have started competitions to capture as many as possible. In previous years, even though over a thousand people participated, only sixty-eight snakes were captured. The organizers hope that continuing the challenge will get more people involved and get rid of more pythons.

There is a very large population of invasive pythons in Florida that are dangerous to native animals.

The snakes directly affect the animals they hunt, but also the wider ecosystem as a whole. 

World's Biggest Problems

1. There are millions of refugees fleeing recent conflict. The U.S. does not see the bulk of this, because we are separated by sea. These people are trying to survive, and go to a safer, more stable environment. However, many countries, especially in Europe are worried that they would be overburdened helping these people.
As of right now many refugees aren't able to work in the countries they are seeking refuge in. If the EU created an international work program, that enabled these people to become more productive members of society, many of the overburdening issues, could be minimized.  The program could provide not only paying jobs, but classes on learning languages, becoming citizens, and adjusting to the new country.

2. Many countries are implementing some sort of complex spying and data collection program on it's own citizens (and sometimes other countries). The extent the NSA does this means that more or less anything ones does that touches the internet is traced, profiled, and saved. This can include things ranging from private emails, to health records. I believe this to be a violation of basic human rights. In addition to the ethical issue this brings up, there is now way to know that the information they collect is secure. This means that a hacker could potential take any of this information, and considering this has happened several times recently, is a very real danger.
The reason many of these programs are put in place is to combat terrorism or some other indisputable wrong doing. However, officials have stated that so far the data collection has only assisted in learning about the individuals after the fact. Information that could, and often is discovered using regular police work. Since it seems these costly systems are not doing what they set out to do, they should be closed, and all data collected permanently deleted.

3. Unfortunately the world environment is at threat. Pollution is is damaging the climate of many areas, causing change that is killing off many species as well as resources that are needed with the growing population. It's causing weather systems to behave more erratically than normal, which is putting millions of people at risk.
The world environment is very complex, which means solutions are hard to come to. However, the first big steps to take would setting stringent world wide environmental quotas on international trade. This would need rules that affect not only the worst offenders of pollution and destroying habitats, but also those who continue to trade with them.

4. In many third world countries, and even some more developed ones, energy can be inconsistent. To the point that having lights at night can be difficult and other valuable electronics, like a refrigerator to store food, impossible. This presents a very wide gap that is difficult to cross and overcome in the modern world. To top it off, often the only source of power is fossil fuels, leading to more pollution.
It would be beneficial to establish renewable energy sources, like solar panels and wind turbines, in these areas. They could be independent of an existing, unreliable infrastructure and provide clean power more regularly to the inhabitants.

5. There are many people in severe poverty aground the world, and even in the US. Even clean water and food can be hard to come by. This leads to malnutrition and death in many cases. Often these people are vulnerable to things like drought that destroy there crops and primary source of food or income.
There are several ways to help solve these issues. Dealing directly with crops, helping the farmers to diversify in both type of food and specific type of crop (for genetic diversity). This would reduce the damage that a disease or environmental damage. Increased education of the people would also assist in opening up employment possibilities, bringing new industries and creating a varied economy.

6. Terrorist attacks are another unfortunate issue on the world stage. They are often motivated by extremest mentalities against outside influence and internal cultural disagreements. Many people are killed, loose loved ones, and become more upset at the opposing group.
This a very tricky situation, because often outside influence is seen as a problem. One point of view would be to just leave these groups alone and let them sort out the issues themselves. However, this means leaving many innocent people at the mercy of extremist who will do harm. A more interconnected world, using things like the internet and social media could help bring more people closer together and present new ideas and opinions, but it would also requires people to have access to infrastructure to work.

7. Many people maintain a fear or hatred of others based of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc. This causes different groups a struggle to find work, feel ok with themselves, and be accepted in modern society. People being treated poorly due to factors they can't control should not be a problem in the twenty-first century.
Unfortunately changing social stigmas is no easy feat. These things are baked into cultures, and can only change over long periods of time. The best people can do to quicken these transitions are to learn more about the different groups and having personal interactions with them. It's easy to make something a faceless entity, but actually knowing people, and knowing what they have to go through, certainly can change individual beliefs.

8. Lack of economic mobility is a problem many individuals face for a variety of reasons. Many people may not have the agency over their own lives to do better, while others must fight social injustices to earn a spot where others start. This prevents many from being able to rise above the economic condition they were born into.
Providing better education, that helps give students the knowledge and understanding that they can control their destiny would help. Also making it easier and cheaper to access resources such as higher education would mean more people born into poverty have the option to be in higher paying positions.

9. History repeats itself, and often times people ignore the lessons from the past. The United States having a war in a region and leaving it destabilized, leading to a extremist leaders taking charge, is not new. It happened in World War I, where the Nazi party took charge and plunged the world into another bloody conflict. And it happened more recently with the Gulf Wars.
If we continue to let emotions dictate both the charge into battle, and how we treat the people afterwords, we will continue to have escalating conflict.As a society and government we need to treat others, even old enemies, with respect and human decency.

10. Many conflicts arise because people aren't willing to compromise. For instance, Israel and Palestine both want to live where they consider to be their home. However, there continued conflicts means many people are hurt and sacred sites damaged. Neither side is wining in this drawn out battle.
If each party looked that the core of the conflict and considered what they are trying to achieve, without pride or emotion clouding their thoughts, finding a solution for everyone would be much easier.

I want to point out that a paragraph devoted to each issue is not nearly enough to really explain it. So there is a whole lot of generalization going on.