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Welcome to the AlwaysOn Innovation Summit chat. Please join the debate by entering your questions and comments below.

<Ross Mayfield> Leading Entrepreneurship program is the UCLA Price Center

<John Furrier> Babson College is #1

<gmint> Authentic Leadership by Bill George is a great story of how teams and mission count more than high ego CEOs

<TheAgent> kind of a blanket statement there... as if an IPO is the only freaking barometer of success

<Keith Teare> I know I'm biased (I'm a CEO) but that is really BS. Large companies are usually public, just managing the street and investors is a make or break thing for a company. Come on guys, you sound like every engineering team I ever worked with.

<Janet> This guy needs to read "Atlas Shrugged" and "Fountain Head", Ayn Rand.

<Byron> If it's true that big opportunities lay in big problems, then entrepreneurs need the ability to recognize problems - even before innovation is considered. Any thoughts?

<DavefromCanada> Finally some truth being spoken!!!

<AR> Agreed, most business actually survive they are just 1-2 persons business from home!

<AM> not going banckrupt is a barameter of success

<Naresh, Italy> We hear a lot about "Serial Entrepreneurs" there are none, its the team...

<Me> Read Eric von Hippel of MIT Sloan: Sources of Innovations...the thesis is innovation comes from leading edge customers..that's innovation on demand

<WyattStarnes> What about the value of culture, and the CEO's impact on that ?

<francinehardaway> Innovation isn't the only virtue. Running the business is more important long term than innovating.

<Ross> The valley used to reward failure

<entrepreneur> how many entrepreneurs fail before they succeed

<AM> Ann Ryan is for high schoolers

<Ross> http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2004/02/budding_entrepr.html

<Keith Teare> CEO's can also break things. What about Apple before and after Jobs?

<VC Experts, Inc.> All good points, but we are not socialists here...are you from western Europe or Western U.S. Who cares if you fail, move on and start another company

<taikon> why would an entepreneur want/aspire to innovate? they are eating isn't the ideal profile to transfer accomplished innovation from an academic/research institution into a newCo?

<TheAgent> and if you quote someone on the backchannel (NOT BLOG) please say our names...

<DavefromCanada> That is the Valley's unique ability to accept failure as part of success!

<Janet> Cicso was started by entrepreneurs and their bad business sense had the vc's take over. The genius came from the entrepreneurs.

<buzzmodo> Who doesn't talk about the odds?

<francinehardaway> This guy is right. The idea is to get a product to market

<taikon> reference google, the hard work was incubated at stanford for sometime before incorporation.

<Naresh, Italy> COTS, Open source and Linux RULES

<rick> People always used to say about half of all small businesses fail within the first four years. Now most people KNOW that actually the success rates are a lot higher.

<Keith Teare> You already got the reaction :-)

<Jeff Veit> I think there's more than one channel - they also have a wireless network going

<TheAgent> Jeff.. this is the backchannel, including the wireless

<AM> 50% failure rates were restaurants. still true

<Eric (in MA)> I know a number of Entrepreneurs whose biggest mistake is in choice of partenrs - can you teach how to be a good judge of character?

<francinehardaway> They do it because they believe they will succeed

<Keith Teare> But there is a huge difference between a technology and a product. Engineers usually don't make products.

<DavefromCanada> Successful Innovators give customers what they really want NOT what they believe they want or what they need to spend lots of money convincing people they want

<TheAgent> Apple currently +2.75

<hjp> There's a lot of either/or discussion here. CEO's are necessary for a variety of reasons, one being management of external forces, another being cheerleading and symbolism. That's different from innovation. There's a big difference between a CEO in a F1000 co. and one in a startup.

<francinehardaway> Right, Keith. There's a big difference between a technology, a product, and a business. THAT'S what people don't understand.

<question> has entrepreurship changed post bubble???

<WyattStarnes> Apple is a good case for the value of a CEO and the impact (both ways) on how the culture can impact failure and success.

<Janet> DavefromCanada, you are right. Steve Jobs is a marketing genius, not a tech genius.

<francinehardaway> no, it has not.

<David Vernon> Emily, I'm viewing from McLean, VA too =)

<DavefromCanada> TOP ENTREPRENEURS TEND TO HAVE: • Integrity They stick to their principles, even when it is difficult to do so • Initiative They plan over a year ahead but the here-and-now can sometimes be forgotten • Commitment They have a tremendous capacity for grueling hard work • Drive and Determination They are motivated by beating standards of excellence and have little time for those who merely want to get home to “see their children” • Confidence They have infectious self-belief • Self-direction They focus on areas they find exciting and do not dwell on failures • Single-Mindedness They do not tolerate poor performance and find it difficult to listen to others • Selling Ability They use energy, enthusiasm, and vision to persuade and sell their ideas to others • Leadership They can spot talent and inspire others Source:The Hay Group, “What Makes a Great Entrepreneur,” as reported in The Daily Telegraph, 28 June 2001, p.A9.

<LiveNAustin> hjp you are right. it's like the farm team versus the big league.

<AM> I want to work at IDEO, but so does everyone else

<keendude> should there be companies that fight terrorism? Can they be profitable?

<Keith Teare> Francine - Right, totally agree

<Naresh, Italy> A successful entrepreneur = First customer, then cash then development...

<TheAgent> There is a separate IRC channel open which is more interactive and a lot faster at irc.freenode.net/#alwayson

<LiveNAustin> Jobs is the classic farm team to big league

<DavefromCanada> As professors what are your entrepreneurship credentials?

<Janet> Bill Gates quit college. Dave Thomas never graduated high school.

<LiveNAustin> he had to leave to come back and lead again

<@runb@laj!> any vcs here for my ideas

<LiveNAustin> Janet, in every business there will be examples..but it is not the norm.

<Jeff Veit> I think there are two main reasons that the iPod was a success was because Apple have a captive audience that is desperate for new kit, and secondly - they had the guts to do it when all the other players were small fry

<Jeff Veit> The technology was secondary

<taikon> per Wired Magazine, an independent contractor named Tony Fadell designed the iPod on spec and shopped it to Apple, which hired him to bring it to market.

<WyattStarnes> He had to go back and save what was left -- and bring innovation and risk taking back -- it is not either/or -- you need innovative, culturally saavy CEO's....IMHO.

<CP> I am interested in ideas @runb

<LiveNAustin> iPod/iTunes - to use an old cliche..first mover advantage...but then again that has always been Apple.

<Keith Teare> Looks like Google likes my RealNames product (deceased): http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3381361

<taikon> Fadell is forbidden from telling his Ipod story to the press, but he's been telling it at campus recruiting fairs for the last couple of years,

<Janet> LiveNAustin, are you looking at the educational backgrounds of CEOs? They are employees, not entrepreneurs.

<TheAgent> THIS ISN"T A BLOG!

<inCupertino> Have there been any studies of wealth creation (for entrpreneurs, not investors) who founded companies that raised VC versus built their small business themselves?

<DavefromCanada> The real hero's are the one's that invest to discover the wrong path to a solution. They pave the way for others success

<Jeff Veit> Thanks for the talk

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