Japanese Entrepreneurship on the Rise

December 6, 2012 Tagged With: ,
By Michael Tong

Shibuya Street Crossing. Photo courtesy of PacHD – www.pachd.com

In it’s 2010 report, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor ranked Japan lowest among advanced economies in terms of attitudes toward launching new businesses, noting that the Japanese were the least likely to consider becoming entrepreneurs.

Being traditionally risk-averse, Japan’s workforce heavily favors employment in large corporations as opposed to starting their own businesses. However, a new generation of tech-savvy professionals is challenging that notion; and here are some of the reasons they’re contributing to the rise of Japan’s entrepreneurial spirit.

Geographic Location

Following last year’s earthquake and tsunami, minorities of young professionals and college students collectively realized a significance and sense of urgency in pursuing a career where they were responsible for and could influence their own fortune. In conjunction, many tech companies – such as Sony, Sharp, and Panasonic – broke with long-held promises of lifelong employment with mass layoffs, while utility companies downplayed the environmental risks affecting the surrounding areas.

After recently being surpassed by China as the worlds second largest economy, Japan also realizes its nation’s future prosperity and economy are vulnerable in the global market.

As a result, many young Japanese professionals are now motivated – by individual or national economic need for innovative businesses; by their parents and communities that have been directly affected; or by their distrust of large corporations – to accept the risk associated with starting their own businesses.

Demographic

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, with longer life expectancies and low birthrates Japan’s population estimated to shrink by 41.26 million – approximately 30% – by 2060. Japan’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research also projects that people age 65 and older will account for 39.9% of the total population in 2060. As of 2010, the elderly accounted for 23% of the population.  These factors create problems for corporate structures, where falling birthrates are symbolic of sluggish creation of new business ventures and aging of plant and equipment in the industrial sector. Simply, there exists a need for younger, innovative entrepreneurs and new infrastructure in order to maintain a competitive advantage.

Investment

Japanese investors typically do not have high expectations of a successful exit, therefore they invest far less than Silicon Valley counterparts in a company’s research and development, which ultimately leads to fewer companies succeeding, a diminishment of entrepreneurship, or products being ill-prepared for the global market.

However, American investors are now taking a keen interest to investing in Japanese startups and as a result, are building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Japan similar to that of Silicon Valley, where companies can tap into venture capital for initial startup funding, rather than be self-funded.

 

Michael Tong
MBA Candidate/Field Fellow, Baruch SBDC

Select U.S. Cities Offer Insight Into Innovation in America

October 1, 2012 Tagged With: ,
By Michael Tong

Today, the thought of a locale synonymous with innovation and research likely produces familiar names in Silicon Valley, Austin, Texas, New York City, or Washington D.C., as commonly associated growth factors traditionally include a specialized industry (e.g. technology), access to capital investment, and world-class research universities. However, by examining the Inc. 500 – an annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. – the Kauffman Foundation is challenging tradition and offering new insight into innovation in America. Here are their findings:

  •  Many high-growth companies are located in areas traditionally specializing in large scale manufacturing, such as: Indianapolis, Buffalo, Baltimore, Nashville, Philadelphia, and Louisville. While there is no definitive reason why these regions have become centers of growth and innovation, it may be an economic resurgence in response to historic population loss, loss of local tax revenues, chronic high unemployment, and an inability to adapt industries.
  • A highly skilled labor force is the only important regional factor associated with high-growth firms, rather than the aforementioned need for a specific industry, major research institutions, or large capital investments.
  • Washington, D.C. represents the highest concentration of Inc. firms, both in absolute number and per capita. Nearly 46 percent of private firms in Washington D.C. operate in government services, and the outsourcing of government services has contributed to growth in private firms providing these services. This demonstrates the U.S. government has de facto industrial policy through outsourcing and can play a large role in the growth of private firms.

For more information please visit the Kauffman Foundation (www.kauffman.org) to read “An Analysis of the Geography of Entrepreneurship” by Yasuyuki Motoyama and Brian Danley.

Michael Tong
MBA Candidate
Field Fellow/Baruch SBDC

Are Israeli Startups Shying Away From Enterprise Software?

September 24, 2012 Tagged With: ,
By David Benisrael

This past Wednesday I was invited to a panel discussion and pitch event hosted by the U.S. Israel Business Council (USIBC) and the Israeli Economic Mission to the United States.  The event took place at Citi Bank’s corporate offices and featured teams from the new Tel Aviv based accelerator, the IDC Elevator, and a panel discussion that featured managing directors from New York City based accelerators.

I was actually surprised by the team pitches, as most of the teams offered some type of end-user, media-related service, or social networking mobile application.  This surprised me because Israeli startups have been known to focus on enterprise to enterprise services, and less on end-user and direct to market products.  In the last three months this was the second accelerator demo day that I have seen that featured Israeli companies that offered social utility or gamified applications.   Is this a new trend for Israeli startups?

In the past, Israeli developers have shied away from end-user applications, and focused more on enterprise level application development.  Due to Israel’s population and market size, Israeli start-ups have focused on building applications that can be purchased by larger multinational companies and then brought to market.  A major reason for this strategy comes from the fact that it is difficult for Israelis to bring their companies over to the United States, so it is easier for them to just develop the technology and then sell it to a larger multinational company.

I have advised a number of Israeli technology companies in the past and this new trend worries me because it takes Israeli developers out of their advantage as technology innovators.  There is a reason why IBM, HP, Microsoft, Adobe, and Intel have R&D facilities in Israel; it is because they have easy access to startups with enterprise level and innovative technology.  I am curious to see how this trend develops.

 

David Benisrael
MBA Candidate
Field Fellow/Business Development Counselor, Baruch SBDC

 

 

No Time Like The Present -The NYC Startup Landscape

September 13, 2012 Tagged With: , ,
By Marc Kelly

Co-working space at Sunshine Suites, NoHo, NYC. Sunshine Suites is a Baruch College partner.

Carpe diem! Opportunity rarely knocks twice, and you would do best to answer when it does. The real question is ‘what are you waiting for?’ If you want to start a company or achieve something, you should start today. There is nothing holding you back but yourself.

You don’t have to travel to California to start a great company anymore. The startup ecosystem is very alive and vibrant in New York City. The city is firmly entrenched in embodying the Silicon Alley moniker. The city and state have invested millions of dollars into supporting small business growth in New York. The NYS SBDC offers free business services with offices in all five boroughs.

The road to becoming an entrepreneur is much smoother today than in years past. Startup incubators and accelerators are plentiful across the country and New York has exploded with what I call ‘startup schools’.  From Dreamit Ventures and ERA to The Hatchery and NYU-Poly, there are more than enough programs for entrepreneurs with great ideas to get started. In addition, there are tons of co-working spaces in the city for entrepreneurs looking for affordable office space. There’s even free space available at Wix Lounge in Union Square of all places!

Don’t forget about us! The Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship has partnered with the NYS SBDC to host a myriad of programs, events and competitions for entrepreneurs. In addition, the Field Center is the largest SBDC in New York State. Providing free business consultation, the Field Center works with over 1,200 clients a year!

New York City is also home to a ton of funding sources. The New York Angels, who focus on early stage investments, and Golden Seeds, who focus primarily on women-owned businesses, cover the angel investment landscape in New York. Firms such as Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital, and Greycroft Partners make up the city’s Venture Capital component.

So if you haven’t already, get out there and start working on your ideas and start executing those plans you’ve been making. New York is well on its way to embracing the Silicon Alley moniker and becoming a hub for an explosion of entrepreneurial growth. The startup community in NYC is alive and well. It’s just waiting for you to become a part of it.

Marc Kelly
Field Fellow, MBA
@UrbanMBA

 

 

 

Event: NY Gaming Meetup

September 6, 2012 Tagged With: , ,

Love gaming?

Baruch Students are invited to attend “A NYC Gaming Conversation: Music + Games,” a NYC Gaming Meetup event taking place Monday September 10, 2012 at 7pm at the William and Anita Newman Conference Center, Baruch College, 151 E 25th Street, Room 750, New York, NY.

This  Meetup will focus on how you can build a game based on music, including information on licensing and what game pubs are looking for.

Panelists include:

Bill Wilson, VP Digital Strategy and Business Development, NARM
Sinjin Bain, GM of EAPartners, VP of Business Development, EA
Cheryl Gehbauer, Head of Licensing, Harmonix Games
Dave Pettigrew, SVP of Music Licensing, Warner Chappell Music
Amanda Santana, Director of Music Licensing and Brand Partnerships, Warner Bros. Records

Moderator: Andie Simon, Former SVP of Interactive Media, Warner Music Group

Students must RSVP via email to the Field Center by noon Monday, September 10, 2012 in order to gain free entry.  Please send an email with “NYC Game Meetup” in the subject line to EShip@Baruch.cuny.edu.  Without a reservation via the Field Center, the regular Meetup fee is $30.

Details: ”A NYC Gaming Conversation: Music + Games”
Monday September 10, 2012 at 7pm
William and Anita Newman Conference Center, Baruch College
151 E 25th Street, Room 750, New York, NY

 

Panelist bios:

Andie Simon is formerly the SVP of Interactive Media at Warner Music Group where she oversaw the business development of games and music. She was head of Interactive for Warner Bros. Records where she worked with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, most notably on Guitar Hero: Metallica and Green Day Rock Band as well as with many many bands and developers. She is currently working as a consultant with Electronic Arts and is advising startups in Business Development.

Amanda Santana is the Director of Interactive Licensing and Brand Partnerships at Warner Brothers Records. She works to place WB repertoire in videogames (from AAA console games to Facebook and mobile) and build strategic partnerships to maximize marketing impressions and source new revenue streams. She has worked on various partnerships including Linkin Park’s latest partnership with Medal of Honor, Avenged Sevenfold’s original song in Call of Duty Black Ops DLC, Michael Buble’s holiday visit to Cityville, and Green Day’s recent invasion of Angry Birds Friends on Facebook.

Sinjin Bain is currently EA V.P. & Global General Manager of EA Partners. Prior to his current role he has been an Executive Producer, COO and Worldwide Business development at the Vice President level at EA for over 13 years. Mr. Bain has Executive Produced multiple #1 charting games on Console, PC, and Handheld platforms resulting in over $2B in revenue for EA.

Dave Pettigrew has been in the video game business for the past 15 years and is currently Senior Vice President, Head of Advertising & Video Games for Warner/Chappell Music Publishing, one of the largest music publishers in the world. Specializing in finding, negotiating & licensing music for video games, Dave has licensed music for hundreds of video games over the course of his career.

Bill Wilson is the charge on all things digital at the music business association. A music industry professional with over two decades of experience working in varied roles within independent and major record labels, internet ventures, and mobile content, he brings a well-rounded perspective to the industry trade association. One of his most important roles is running NARM’s key initiative, the Digital Think Tank, which was created to explore and resolve objectives related to enterprise-level digital music commerce, including its four major workgroups: digital supply chain, metrics, product development and music subscription. Bill joined NARM in February 2009.

 

Student Coworking as a Start-up Launch Pad

September 5, 2012 Tagged With: , , ,
By Christoph Winkler

 

Starting September 7, 2012 Professors Schulman & Winkler will host coworking hours for Baruch Entrepreneurship students.

A recent report with the title New Tech City by the Center for an Urban Future shows that New York City has established itself as the main technology hub in the country, second only to Silicon Valley. Key indicators for this development are the high growth rate of Internet related and mobile tech start-ups. These start-ups operate in a new and emerging entrepreneurial eco-system that reflects a collaborative community of entrepreneurs. Catalysts for the formation of this eco-system are the widely popular office-sharing and coworking spaces that combine the benefits of essentially three components: (1) access to physical space, (2) an entrepreneurial community, and (3) educational offerings. Within this context it is important to note that while some of the environments in NYC focus more on physical coworking spaces and community building (such as Sunshine Suites), others place educational offerings within an entrepreneurial community at the center of their mission (such as General Assembly). However, it can be argued that central to the success of all of these spaces is the default access to an entrepreneurial community.

While it is fascinating to see how these communities form and operate in the “real” world, it is often very difficult for our entrepreneurship students to access these types of spaces due to financial or time constraints. As a consequence, we at the Field Center for Entrepreneurship are trying to find new and innovative ways of how we can emulate a similar experience by giving students the ability to participate in an entrepreneurial community at Baruch College. In more detail, we are excited to expand the work that the we started as part of the 2012 SmartPich Challenge, where students were given the opportunity to participate in coworking hours at the Field Center on Friday afternoons. What started out as an experiment, quickly turned out to be a popular venue for students to talk about and work on their entrepreneurial ideas with faculty, entrepreneurs and fellow students alike. Student entrepreneurs truly appreciate the collegial and supportive atmosphere that is not distorted by curriculum and course demands.

Based on the success this past spring, we decided to make this activity a key feature of our students’ entrepreneurial experience at Baruch by helping them get access to a space that fosters entrepreneurial activity, builds a sense of community and links students to the offerings of Baruch’s Small Business Development Center, as well as, the NYC’s larger entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Starting on Friday September 7,2012; all entrepreneurship students at Baruch are invited to take advantage of this offering and join Professor Schulman and myself, every Friday from 1-4 PM at the Field Center for Entrepreneurship (Vertical Campus, Suite 2-140). 

 

Christoph Winkler, PhD
Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship
@VEntreship

 

 

 

 

NYC Start-ups Lead in Internet & Mobile Technologies

May 10, 2012 Tagged With:

New York City start-ups have emerged as leaders in industries that utilize mobile and internet technologies, a key development that positions the city for future tech growth the Center for Urban Future says in a report released today.  The report examines New York City’s quickly-growing tech sector – fueled by investments from both the government and private sectors and hundreds of budding start-ups – and focuses specifically on those companies that are empowered by the evolution of the Internet and mobile platforms.

Co-working space at Sunshine Suites, NoHo, NYC. Sunshine Suites is a Baruch College partner.

Since 2007 over 1,000 digital start-ups have launched in New York City, many of which are focused on applying technology to already-established industries such as healthcare, advertising and finance.  Of those, 486 digital start-ups have received angel, seed or venture capital funding.  Venture capital (VC) investment in New York City start-ups increased 32 percent from 2007 to 2011, the period where VC investment decreased an average of 11 percent across the U.S.  The Center for Urban Future (CUF) reports the surge in New York City tech start-ups can be attributed to the improved entrepreneurial tech ecosystem; locally-based network of angel investors and venture capitalists, entrepreneurship accelerators, incubators and co-working spaces and a talented pool of workers.  The CUF also credits consumers’ increased use of the Internet and mobile technologies for creating the rise in demand for companies that create content, sell products and provide services online – key strengths New York City offers.

Entrepreneurs working at Sunshine Suites, NYC.

The Center for an Urban Future is “an NYC-based policy institute dedicated to highlighting the critical opportunities and challenges facing New York and other cities, and providing fresh ideas and workable solutions to policymakers.”  The report was funded by AT&T New York and the Association for a Better New York (ABNY).  The full report can be read here.

Tel Aviv & New York City: Building Entrepreneurial Bridges

May 4, 2012 Tagged With: ,
By David Ben Israel
Field Fellow

 

While living in Israel, I had the privilege of working with technology start-up Poketalk.com, which focuses on voice over IP security and telecommunications. Having spent time working with this start-up from inception to global success, I saw first-hand the steps it takes to build a high-growth business, and I also witnessed the innovation and entrepreneurship that excels in Tel Aviv.

Ambassador Ido Aharoni, Israel’s Consul General in New York, speaks at the “Tel Aviv and New York City: Building Entrepreneurial Bridges” event

Now that I am completing my MBA in New York City, I see that same type of innovation and the emergence of the Silicon Alley as a counterpart to the Silicon Valley and the Silicon Wadi. This paradigm shift in New York City’s entrepreneurial innovations inspired me to develop “Tel Aviv and New York City: Building Entrepreneurial Bridges,” a platform to show off these advancements and highlight the connections between companies in Israel and New York.  The event took place on April 19, 2012  at Baruch College’s Information and Technology Center and featured a keynote address about Israeli Innovation from Ambassador Ido Aharoni, Israel’s Consul General in New York, and a panel discussion that included technology entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists.

(L-R) Cheni Yerushalmi, Brian Cohen, Daniel Nissan and Emmanuel Gill speak on the panel of “Tel Aviv and New York City: Building Entrepreneurial Bridges” event at Baruch College.

The goal of the event was to showcase the business relationships between the two regions and highlight the current trends and opportunities for entrepreneurial ventures. The Panel -which included Israeli entrepreneur Daniel Nissan, the CEO of StructuredWEB, Israeli entrepreneur Cheni Yerushalmi, the Founder of Sunshine Suites, American investor and entrepreneur Brian Cohen, the Chairman of New York Angels, and Israeli Investor and entrepreneur Emmanuel Gill, the former CEO and Chairman of Elbit Systems – offered great advice on how to develop relationships with potential investors and how to create a unique strategy for growing an entrepreneurial venture.

Building on the success of the event, the Field Center for Entrepreneurship plans to continue this speaker series and, beginning in Fall of 2012, a different global technology hub will be featured.

 

 

AT&T Fast Pitch Competition: Final Round May 15th

May 3, 2012 Tagged With: , ,

Baruch’s first AT&T Fast Pitch competition has come to a close, but aspiring entrepreneurs and interested parties can watch the nine finalists battle it out live in front of a panel of judges.  The final event will take place May 15, 2012 from 11am to 2pm at Baruch’s main Vertical Campus.  Lunch will be served.  To register for the event go here: attpitch.eventbrite.com

For more details visit the AT&T and Baruch College Fast Pitch Competition main page. 

Do Tech Entrepreneurs Need to Code?

March 29, 2012 Tagged With:

Most people would argue YES.

Entrepreneur magazine found that more and more entrepreneurs with tech start-up plans are enrolling in night classes to pony up their skill set:

Read: Entrepreneur: Do You Really Need to Code?