That means you have a product or a service design that doesn’t suck. Lots of people have good ideas. Few people have good products.

http://www.webguild.org/2009/07/fleeing-silicon-valley-part-4.php

Value creation is an important point, but so is a solid understanding of the startup life cycle. Houston lacks a group of entrpreneurs which can take what are seemingly great ideas, vet them, validate them, reiterate and execute to a plan. This is both a cultural and procedural issue.

However, I don’t believe this source of talent will come directly from a pool of corporate managers or spinouts. Startups cannot operate on the same terms as big business and it is extremely challenging for corporate managers to transition into the lifestyle required of a founding member of a startup team.

Here is where a research institution filled with brilliant, ramen eating, Phd candidates can be a big pool to draw from.

I would recommend that we as group apply our efforts on delivering a methodology / educational experience which shares how a startup should begin its existence and find its way into a stream of supporting revenue. Share how the budding entrepreneur can build a “customer focused” business.

http://texvc.com/2009/08/02/horses-and-jockeys/#comment-2186

I don’t want to continue the ‘you’re right, no – you’re right’ love fest that’s been going on between Aziz and I for the last few days, but suffice to say Aziz is absolutely right in his original assessment that we need more research dollars in our universities and Shion Deysarkar is right about Tech Transfer offices needing more attention: http://80legs.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/the-what-houston-needs-debate/

I’m very much a Jockey-type of guy when it comes to betting on startups. This is from my website which you’ll notice I haven’t changed for several years: http://bulldogfinancial.com/services.html

With that said, I believe that the discussion on ‘What Houston Needs’ isn’t about ideas or entrepreneurs themselves – but about the mid-level group of supporters and helpers that make startups turn into winners.

This is the ‘Trainers’ in the Jockey-Horse analogy. Both Jockeys and Horses need experienced people to help with training strategy, care and feeding whether a startup comes out of university research, tech transfer, a business plan competition or someone’s garage.

If we used the analogy of chicken and egg – chickens are always people and eggs are the ideas that hatch into more chickens.

It’s the people that matter and creating and fostering a tech community starts and ends with the people it produces.