geni100

I decided to put 10% of REVENUES in the projects I’m working on back into the public domain. (See the One-Minute Millionare for more ideas about this.) I decided that the one area where I could be most accountable is to assist those people that want to start something. I have been dashed against the rocks in all my troubled past: struggling through an MBA program while working 80+ hours a week, failing at a few startups, succeeding in some, living the ups and downs in a marriage that doesn’t see external stability.

All this drives me to a place of deeper compassion and desire to reach out.

So my ideal world would provide me the resources to create a business bootcamp: a 6 day process of putting 10+ full-time entrepreneurs under the fire hose to see what they soak up. We’d provide systems, libraries, computers, training, and everything else so that when they jump back into their businesses, they will at least have an idea of where many solutions to their daily problems could come from.

Throughout the bootcamp, the assignments will be compiled into an alpha version of their business plan, without explicitly working on the business plan.

The bootcamp culminates in a fine-dining networking experience with local serial-angel investors. The people may or may not be ready for angel investment at this point, but they’ll be dialed in for that kind of experience if their business model takes them that direction.

The dream is to make this like a grand-prize takeaway from a TV game show. Among the resources planned for the bootcamp are:

• Books: The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki, The One-Page Proposal by Patrick Riley, The Minto Pyramid by Barbara Minto, Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker, Getting to Yes by Fisher and Ury
• Dell Laptop, fully loaded
• Sales on Rails customized for their business (with accounting, campaign management, intranet, CRM, project management, contact management (dialer, mailer, emailer), and other tools configured)
• Pro forma business model customized for the company by the entrepreneur (with coaching, of course)
• Google Ads paid for in advance
• Fully functional content website (other systems will come later, if not available through Sales on Rails) with the driving pattern of Content > Traffic > Pre-Sell > Monetize
• Incorporation by a top-notch lawyer
• Business banking set up
• Quest training (from Impact Trainings) tuition paid for (leadership training)
• $10,000 to $25,000 in seed capital

So, let’s see if my projects ever grow sufficient to afford this kind of give back.

A bunch of us decided to build an app in rails: Sales on Rails. An open-source CRM that mixes the delights of del.icio.us, 43things.com, and basecamphq.com with the organic templating of projects

It’s kind of an informal approach initially that can be formalized by the user if the corporate-types want to use it.

An example of the idea is I could start a project, say build an app in Rails, and add all my tasks, resources, links, and files. The next person that comes along and wants to build an app in rails would be able to see the public footprint I left behind and come back and do it like me, but with 20% less headache. Or, if that person saw better ways to work around my process, that footprint would be available as well. If the pattern persists (in whatever evolved, organic state), we can actually pass along the wisdom of our experience without doing anything extra.

One exciting benefit is that a project starts with a clear definition of success, and three to seven milestones, that’s it. It grows organically instead of mechanically (unlike old-school project management). That allows the sub-projects to be useful to newcomers in completely different projects.

The CRM part of the project is a dimensional database that allows anybody to add any dimension to their people as they go. So, for instance, a software developer would be interested in whether a person has skills, an insurance agent wants to know about a client’s policies, and a company president wants to know the profitability of a customer. All this is possible with the design we’re developing, without any additional developer involvement.

And, the exciting part that keeps me up at night is the accounting package we have in the works. This was my first programming job—accounting systems for credit unions. So, eventually this package will actually look a lot like SAP or PeopleSoft, but available in the public domain for any revolutionary or co-conspirator that actually wants to change the world.

Yeah, this one actually keeps me up at night (either programming or getting excited about the serendipity that has driven this project forward).

Our project wiki is: http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/show/SalesOnRails

I’ve gotten into incredible debt through my business adventures and mis-adventures. I dropped $30K into my current business, $65K in the last business, $25K into an MBA. I’m still carrying all this debt, believing something will work.

Now it’s time for some discipline in my time to begin getting a return on all this investment.

Bottom Line: Getting out of debt quickly (relatively) through entrepreneurship rather than saving and paying slowly.