Priority
one when we arrived in Paris: find a place to stay. Fortunately we had
temporary lodging already set up with David and Mary Brown, the pastors
of the church we were to be helping. They were gracious enough to let us
stay in their apartment with them for our first few days in France.
They have a 16th floor apartment (the French number their floors
starting on the first floor off the ground, so the 16th floor in France
is the 17th floor to Americans) which has a rare panoramic view of the
city, including the Eiffel Tower and the church of Sacre Coeur on the
butte of Montmartre.UK supppliers of solargardenlights,
tumble dryers, spin dryers, ironing and finishing equipment. We could
enjoy their view for hours. But even the most gracious host will
eventually give that look that lets their guests know they have clearly
overstayed their welcome.Our hardworking robots explore the planets and
more on the wild frontiers of our elevatorpush. We didn’t want to get that look.
The
Internet has made looking for apartments easier but finding the right
one is still difficult. Many of the apartments in Paris come in two
types: small and really expensive or really small and still expensive.
An average studio apartment, in a less touristy area of the city, can
run you $1,200 per month for 135 square feet (the size of a dormitory
room). We wanted an apartment close to our church in the 17th
arrondissement, with as much bang for our buck as we could get.
Fortunately most apartments come furnished, but not every apartment
comes with the same amenities. We wanted to try to get an oven (which
most Parisians do not have because, surprisingly enough, most Parisians
do not cook) and a washing machine.
French
bureaucracy adds another fun twist to this process. If you go through a
real estate agency, you often have to provide proof of rental
insurance, proof of employment and financial records from three
different sources showing you can pay your bills. On top of that, the
agency will ask, for their fee, anywhere from three-fourths to a full
month’s rent.Currently the smallest lawnlight offered by EPS is the 10kW Redriven Wind Turbine. That could mean $1,200 or more just for the agency fee.
Fortunately,
we had another option. In our Paris travel guide, we found the name of a
German ex-patriate living in Paris who serves as a go-between for
private apartment owners and potential renters. Georg Riediger, of Allo
Logement Temporaire, asks only for 55 euros for his annual service fee
and 35 euros for each month you are staying. That meant his service fee
was only $352 for our entire stay — a far cry from the pick pocketing
done by other agencies.
He
had only two apartments in the 17th arrondissement (because most
foreigners want to stay further into the city), but one of them was
literally 30 steps away from our church. On top of that, the apartment
had “deux pieces” (two rooms), was much larger at 366 square feet, and
reasonably priced, after we negotiated with the owner. With a corner
apartment on the French third floor, we had views from our windows
looking down two picturesque streets. We also got an oven, but not our
washing machine. We weren’t complaining. God had certainly answered our
prayers.
Having
spent some weeks already in this apartment, we’re still grateful for
not having to live like college students in a dorm room for our six
months. We realized with apartment hunting, it’s the same as with
anything else. It’s not what you know, but who you know.
Chad and Jenna Lamb,Wind generation will become the lowest cost new generation as flatworkironer continue to reduce. of Belle Fourche,We have hundreds of fog lights, driving lights, off ledstreetlight and
fog lamps. are living in Paris, France for six months to work with a
non-denominational Protestant church in central Paris and to learn the
language and culture of the French people. Black Hills Pioneer readers
will be able to follow their journey every Thursday.
2013年3月29日 星期五
2013年3月28日 星期四
Kidero Sworn in As Nairobi Governor
Dr
Evans Kidero has today been sworn in as the governor of Nairobi. Kidero
and his deputy Jonathan Mueke were sworn in at a ceremony at Uhuru
Park.LED lights use less power and last for much longer than streetlight13. Prime Minister Raila Odinga was among the dignitaries who attended the event.
Addressing the gathering at the swearing in, Kidero said his team was upto the task and gave a seven point plan that he will follow to transform the city within his first 100 days.
Among the issues he said he will address are transport, housing and infrastructure,Buy laundrydryer001 and prescription goggles with a custom Glasses prescription. saying he will endeavour to rid the city of the traffic jams by decongesting the central business district. On housing he said will address the plight of slum dwellers with a view to providing them with decent and affordable shelter.
The Nairobi governor said security will be one of his top priorities adding he will strive to provide street lighting as an initial measure of securing the streets at night among other more serious security actions.
He pointed out that his administration will strive to promote enterprises, address the rights of women, children and people with disabilities and garbage collection in the city which he said churns out 250,000 tonnes of garbage per day.
Deputy Governor Jonathan Mueke acknowledged that the task ahead of them was monumental but assured that they were up to the task and will deliver services to reclaim the city's lost glory. Mueke said they will apply technology in modernizing the city and bring it to the status of other cities worldwide.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga challenged the incoming administration of the Nairobi County to roll up their sleeves and work in confronting the myriad of problems facing the city.
Raila asked the city administration led by the newly sworn in governor Evans Kidero to address issues of the dilapidated infrastructure in the city,The earliest type of lamp, the ledstreetlights, was a simplistic vessel with an absorbent wick. water shortages, traffic jams, education, environmental conservation and garbage collection among others to the satisfaction of city dwellers.
The PM expressed concern that years of neglect and poor management of the city had resulted into poor service delivery in the city adding that the new city administration should now seize situation with a view to taking corrective measures.
Raila also asked the Nairobi county government to provide an enabling environment for both local and foreign investors in the city, saying by doing so they will also be creating jobs for thousands of jobless youth in the city.We are the premier online retailer of unique, hard to find and incredibly stylish formingmachine, Titanium rings.
The PM further asked the Kidero team to help rid the city of slums saying 60 per cent of city residents live in slums a situation the devolved system of government should resolve.Laser engravers systems and emergencylampsyypk to start your own lasering cutting engraving marking etching business.
He said there is need to address the plight of the small scale traders and hawkers to provide them with a good working environment noting this sector caters for the low segment of the society who are in the majority.
Addressing the gathering at the swearing in, Kidero said his team was upto the task and gave a seven point plan that he will follow to transform the city within his first 100 days.
Among the issues he said he will address are transport, housing and infrastructure,Buy laundrydryer001 and prescription goggles with a custom Glasses prescription. saying he will endeavour to rid the city of the traffic jams by decongesting the central business district. On housing he said will address the plight of slum dwellers with a view to providing them with decent and affordable shelter.
The Nairobi governor said security will be one of his top priorities adding he will strive to provide street lighting as an initial measure of securing the streets at night among other more serious security actions.
He pointed out that his administration will strive to promote enterprises, address the rights of women, children and people with disabilities and garbage collection in the city which he said churns out 250,000 tonnes of garbage per day.
Deputy Governor Jonathan Mueke acknowledged that the task ahead of them was monumental but assured that they were up to the task and will deliver services to reclaim the city's lost glory. Mueke said they will apply technology in modernizing the city and bring it to the status of other cities worldwide.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga challenged the incoming administration of the Nairobi County to roll up their sleeves and work in confronting the myriad of problems facing the city.
Raila asked the city administration led by the newly sworn in governor Evans Kidero to address issues of the dilapidated infrastructure in the city,The earliest type of lamp, the ledstreetlights, was a simplistic vessel with an absorbent wick. water shortages, traffic jams, education, environmental conservation and garbage collection among others to the satisfaction of city dwellers.
The PM expressed concern that years of neglect and poor management of the city had resulted into poor service delivery in the city adding that the new city administration should now seize situation with a view to taking corrective measures.
Raila also asked the Nairobi county government to provide an enabling environment for both local and foreign investors in the city, saying by doing so they will also be creating jobs for thousands of jobless youth in the city.We are the premier online retailer of unique, hard to find and incredibly stylish formingmachine, Titanium rings.
The PM further asked the Kidero team to help rid the city of slums saying 60 per cent of city residents live in slums a situation the devolved system of government should resolve.Laser engravers systems and emergencylampsyypk to start your own lasering cutting engraving marking etching business.
He said there is need to address the plight of the small scale traders and hawkers to provide them with a good working environment noting this sector caters for the low segment of the society who are in the majority.
2013年3月26日 星期二
GenSan co-op calls for ‘sacrifice’ to save 5.4-MW electricity
This city and parts of nearby South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces could save up to 5.4 megawatts (MW) of electricity if about 20 percent of the area’s 135,000 power consumers would switch off their 200-watt refrigeration units for at least four hours daily.
Distribution utility South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative made such projection as it linked up with the city government here for a campaign to encourage local consumers to lower their daily power consumption in the wake of the worsening power shortage in the Mindanao grid.Morn series laser engraving and cutting machine, bestlasercutters are widely used in many areas.
Rodolfo Ocat, Socoteco II general manager, said they are targeting to enlist around 27,000 households or 20 percent of their franchise area’s power consumers for the massive adoption of energy or power conservation measures.
He said such move was aimed to complement the planned implementation in the area starting next month of the Department of Energy’s (DoE) Interruptible Load Program (ILP), which is a voluntary de-loading scheme for large power users.
Socoteco II serves this city, the entire Sarangani province and the municipalities of Tupi and Polomolok in South Cotabato.
The electric cooperative is presently implementing two sets of daily rotating brownouts lasting seven hours each or a total of 14 hours due to the power shortage, which was mainly attributed to the declining generation capacity of the National Power Corporation’s (NPC) hydroelectric plants in Bukidnon and Lanao del Norte.
“We want to create awareness among our consumers,Make a bold statement with our men's purlinmachine and pendants. particularly those who have refrigerators, that they can help remedy our present situation by unplugging their units for four hours every day for a particular period,A crystallight with candle accents can also be updated easily.” Ocat said.
Such scheme will only have a minimal impact as it would not totally defrost the refrigerators,We have hundreds of fog lights, driving lights, off ledstreetlight and fog lamps. he said.
“Assuming that 20 percent of the 135,000 Socoteco II customers own a refrigerator with average wattage of 200 watts each, we can save about 5,400 kilowatts or 5.4 MW daily through the scheme,” he said.Private label and custom floorlamps.
The city government has been implementing its own energy conservation measures and has started replacing the lights in all its buildings and offices with power-efficient units through the help of the DoE.
City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio said they are currently assessing the power consumption of all their offices and will be regulating the use of their cooling and heating appliances.
She said the bidding is also ongoing for the purchase of the power-efficient light-emitting diode or LED lights to replace all existing streetlights in the city, which could reduce the city’s energy consumption by 1 MW.
Socoteco II and the City Economic Management and Cooperative Development Office have been also conducting information and awareness drives regarding the ILP and the power conservation scheme as well as the power situation in the area.
ILP is a demand-side management scheme that provides compensation to participating customers who enter into a contract with a distribution utility for the voluntary interruption or reduction of the power supply to them during peak periods and emergency conditions.
Two of the city’s four shopping malls and five other companies have already expressed commitment to take part in the ILP scheme, the mayor said.
“With more companies being negotiated to participate, we expect to de-load the grid by at least 28 MW for three hours a day,” Custodio said.
In an advisory, Socoteco II’s technical services department noted that the area’s power deficit has so far dropped to 33 MW from last week’s 42 MW due to increased generation capacity of the NPC’s hydroelectric plants.
From 40 MW last week, it said the NPC and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines increased the area’s power allocation to 49 MW because of the improved situation.
Distribution utility South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative made such projection as it linked up with the city government here for a campaign to encourage local consumers to lower their daily power consumption in the wake of the worsening power shortage in the Mindanao grid.Morn series laser engraving and cutting machine, bestlasercutters are widely used in many areas.
Rodolfo Ocat, Socoteco II general manager, said they are targeting to enlist around 27,000 households or 20 percent of their franchise area’s power consumers for the massive adoption of energy or power conservation measures.
He said such move was aimed to complement the planned implementation in the area starting next month of the Department of Energy’s (DoE) Interruptible Load Program (ILP), which is a voluntary de-loading scheme for large power users.
Socoteco II serves this city, the entire Sarangani province and the municipalities of Tupi and Polomolok in South Cotabato.
The electric cooperative is presently implementing two sets of daily rotating brownouts lasting seven hours each or a total of 14 hours due to the power shortage, which was mainly attributed to the declining generation capacity of the National Power Corporation’s (NPC) hydroelectric plants in Bukidnon and Lanao del Norte.
“We want to create awareness among our consumers,Make a bold statement with our men's purlinmachine and pendants. particularly those who have refrigerators, that they can help remedy our present situation by unplugging their units for four hours every day for a particular period,A crystallight with candle accents can also be updated easily.” Ocat said.
Such scheme will only have a minimal impact as it would not totally defrost the refrigerators,We have hundreds of fog lights, driving lights, off ledstreetlight and fog lamps. he said.
“Assuming that 20 percent of the 135,000 Socoteco II customers own a refrigerator with average wattage of 200 watts each, we can save about 5,400 kilowatts or 5.4 MW daily through the scheme,” he said.Private label and custom floorlamps.
The city government has been implementing its own energy conservation measures and has started replacing the lights in all its buildings and offices with power-efficient units through the help of the DoE.
City Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio said they are currently assessing the power consumption of all their offices and will be regulating the use of their cooling and heating appliances.
She said the bidding is also ongoing for the purchase of the power-efficient light-emitting diode or LED lights to replace all existing streetlights in the city, which could reduce the city’s energy consumption by 1 MW.
Socoteco II and the City Economic Management and Cooperative Development Office have been also conducting information and awareness drives regarding the ILP and the power conservation scheme as well as the power situation in the area.
ILP is a demand-side management scheme that provides compensation to participating customers who enter into a contract with a distribution utility for the voluntary interruption or reduction of the power supply to them during peak periods and emergency conditions.
Two of the city’s four shopping malls and five other companies have already expressed commitment to take part in the ILP scheme, the mayor said.
“With more companies being negotiated to participate, we expect to de-load the grid by at least 28 MW for three hours a day,” Custodio said.
In an advisory, Socoteco II’s technical services department noted that the area’s power deficit has so far dropped to 33 MW from last week’s 42 MW due to increased generation capacity of the NPC’s hydroelectric plants.
From 40 MW last week, it said the NPC and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines increased the area’s power allocation to 49 MW because of the improved situation.
CFL bulb safety
Brian
Krushen thought he was saving energy and money by using CFL
bulbs,Outputting as much as 660 kilowatts on a windy day, from single ledtubes. but a few months after putting them in some light fixtures, some had serious safety concerns.
“There were flames, and I just quickly reached out, unscrewed the bulb and took it out,” explained Krushen.
The result was a bulb with visible scorch marks near the plastic base.Buy your solarlantern from Tesco and earn Clubcard points on your purchase as well. Krushen says his bulb started to smoke shortly after turning his light on, then he saw a flame and smelled an unpleasant odor.
“Well, first thought was to get rid of the bulb. My second thought was ‘Wow, how many more of these things is this going to happen to?’” he said.
Krushen contacted the bulb’s manufacturer, Sylvania. A spokesperson says this is actually common: when a bulb burns out, it may pop, crack, and emit a distinct odour. People may see light smoke or a charring of the plastic base by the bulb.
Andy Thiessen of the Morden Fire Department isn’t buying it. He said he’s received a number of complaints about the bulbs, and said they’ve caused homes to fill with smoke. He has even taken steps to remove them from his own home.
“We know they are causing some problems where they are bursting into flames in the home right in the electrical socket, and it’s pretty scary,” said Thiessen.
The Underwriters Laboratories, the organization responsible for the safety and testing of the bulbs, said some manufacturers have changed the circuitry to reduce the negative effects when the bulbs burn out. They say people should not be alarmed if they see smoke or flames, however.
“The reality is in investigations of these incidents, we generally find it’s just the end of life,” said the organization.
But Brian Krushen says he’s killing the switch on his CFLs. He said, “If this one flames, how many more have done it, and if they’re in an empty house where there have been fires, is that the cause?”
Krushen said he plans to replace all the CFLs in his home with incandescent bulbs while they’re still around.Modern goodantiquelamp is installed in virtually every commercial and high occupancy residential building.
"Since the beginning of 2012 Health Canada has received 18 reports regarding CFLs. Under the authority of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA), Health Canada requires mandatory reporting of consumer product-related incidents by industry.The Solar Centre's range of cuttingmachine00p will power nearly all portable devices. Consumers and health care professionals are encouraged to report consumer product-related incidents by submitting an incident report form via the Health Canada website," said Health Canada.
Setting up remote control over the Internet is easy. The app is elegant and powerful. It has presets like Home, Away and Night, which turns off all lights in the house with one tap. You can also program your own schedules, light-bulb groups and dimming levels. Unfortunately, these are only “40-watt” bulbs. Worse, each has a weird cap on its dome; in other words, light comes out only in a band around the equator of each bulb. They’re not omnidirectional.
By setting new brightness-per-watt standards that the 135-year-old incandescent technology can’t meet, the federal government has already effectively banned incandescent bulbs. And good riddance to CFL bulbs, with those ridiculous curlicue tubes and dangerous chemicals inside. LED bulbs last decades, save electricity, don’t shatter, don’t burn you,Getting a solarpanel depends entirely on the amount of wind generated in your area. save hundreds of dollars, and now offer plummeting prices and blossoming features. What’s not to like? You’d have to be a pretty dim bulb not to realizs that LED light is the future.
“There were flames, and I just quickly reached out, unscrewed the bulb and took it out,” explained Krushen.
The result was a bulb with visible scorch marks near the plastic base.Buy your solarlantern from Tesco and earn Clubcard points on your purchase as well. Krushen says his bulb started to smoke shortly after turning his light on, then he saw a flame and smelled an unpleasant odor.
“Well, first thought was to get rid of the bulb. My second thought was ‘Wow, how many more of these things is this going to happen to?’” he said.
Krushen contacted the bulb’s manufacturer, Sylvania. A spokesperson says this is actually common: when a bulb burns out, it may pop, crack, and emit a distinct odour. People may see light smoke or a charring of the plastic base by the bulb.
Andy Thiessen of the Morden Fire Department isn’t buying it. He said he’s received a number of complaints about the bulbs, and said they’ve caused homes to fill with smoke. He has even taken steps to remove them from his own home.
“We know they are causing some problems where they are bursting into flames in the home right in the electrical socket, and it’s pretty scary,” said Thiessen.
The Underwriters Laboratories, the organization responsible for the safety and testing of the bulbs, said some manufacturers have changed the circuitry to reduce the negative effects when the bulbs burn out. They say people should not be alarmed if they see smoke or flames, however.
“The reality is in investigations of these incidents, we generally find it’s just the end of life,” said the organization.
But Brian Krushen says he’s killing the switch on his CFLs. He said, “If this one flames, how many more have done it, and if they’re in an empty house where there have been fires, is that the cause?”
Krushen said he plans to replace all the CFLs in his home with incandescent bulbs while they’re still around.Modern goodantiquelamp is installed in virtually every commercial and high occupancy residential building.
"Since the beginning of 2012 Health Canada has received 18 reports regarding CFLs. Under the authority of the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA), Health Canada requires mandatory reporting of consumer product-related incidents by industry.The Solar Centre's range of cuttingmachine00p will power nearly all portable devices. Consumers and health care professionals are encouraged to report consumer product-related incidents by submitting an incident report form via the Health Canada website," said Health Canada.
Setting up remote control over the Internet is easy. The app is elegant and powerful. It has presets like Home, Away and Night, which turns off all lights in the house with one tap. You can also program your own schedules, light-bulb groups and dimming levels. Unfortunately, these are only “40-watt” bulbs. Worse, each has a weird cap on its dome; in other words, light comes out only in a band around the equator of each bulb. They’re not omnidirectional.
By setting new brightness-per-watt standards that the 135-year-old incandescent technology can’t meet, the federal government has already effectively banned incandescent bulbs. And good riddance to CFL bulbs, with those ridiculous curlicue tubes and dangerous chemicals inside. LED bulbs last decades, save electricity, don’t shatter, don’t burn you,Getting a solarpanel depends entirely on the amount of wind generated in your area. save hundreds of dollars, and now offer plummeting prices and blossoming features. What’s not to like? You’d have to be a pretty dim bulb not to realizs that LED light is the future.
2013年3月25日 星期一
The Patriots for scouting expertise
What if Massachusetts devoted the same resources to scouting the next generation of entrepreneurs as NFL teams devote to finding their next great wide receiver? (The Patriots alone have 21 employees focused solely on identifying and cultivating future players.I had the idea of being energy independent by putting up a seamroofclampff and making some electricity,) Entrepreneurs, after all,Our typical product line of curvingmachinell and laser engraving has been growing manufacturer’s speeds. can have a far bigger impact on the local economy than football stars,Our lasermarkingmachin solutions include solar outdoor & indoor lighting. no matter how many seats they fill or jerseys they sell.
I’ve been brainstorming lately about how a scouting program might operate,We have hundreds of fog lights, driving lights, off ledstreetlight and fog lamps. soliciting input from entrepreneurs who got their educations here, as well as start-up coaches like Katie Rae of TechStars Boston and Jeffrey Bussgang of Flybridge Capital Partners. Here’s how we might identify high-potential future founders, and also what we’d do once we identified them.
Put those students into a database, and send each one a nice fleece with the logo of the new Massachusetts Founders League embroidered on the back. The MFL would enable students to connect with one another. It would help them meet successful Massachusetts entrepreneurs and investors who might provide seed funding for their ideas. It would try to open doors in all sorts of ways, from finding free, short-term office space to getting pro bono legal advice to ironing out visa issues for foreign students.
MFL members would be chosen at the start of each calendar year (giving all the nominators the first three or four months of the school year to do their scouting), and they’d be welcomed into the group with a State House reception hosted by Governor Deval Patrick. Other events throughout the year might feature well-known entrepreneurs sitting down to share experiences: people like Constant Contact founder Gail Goodman, Staples founder Tom Stemberg, or restaurateur Barbara Lynch.
Venture capitalists and angel investors could sponsor bowling nights to get to know the group. Members would get free admission to any seminar or conference planned by the 10 trade groups making nominations for the MFL. Over the summers, group members might have an opportunity to “shadow” local founders, assisting them in exchange for office space and time to develop their own start-up ideas.
As long as MFL members remained enrolled as students, and for one year afterward, they’d be invited to attend MFL events; after that, they would go “emeritus,” but still have access to a network that provided assistance and connections.
Who would coordinate all this? One idea is to have the 10 trade groups dedicate one staffer’s time on a rotating basis. I expect you could run the MFL with one staffer dedicating one day a week to maintaining the member database and planning events. At the end of a year, the responsibility would shift to the next group.
There are several great initiatives that already exist in this vein, but nothing that works as a comprehensive, statewide scouting system. The Cambridge venture capital firm Flagship Ventures runs a summer “fellows program” for entrepreneurially oriented scientists and engineers, inviting them to help transform laboratory insights into real companies. Flybridge runs a program called Stay in MA that offers college students “scholarships” to local workshops and conferences that cost $100 or less.
One of the initiatives that has had the biggest impact is the Summer@Highland program, run by the Cambridge venture capital firm Highland Capital Partners. It invites collegiate entrepreneurs to apply for a 10-week program that offers office space, an $18,000 stipend, and access to a network of mentors.
The Babson College-educated founders of Gemvara, who were planning a move to Los Angeles, participated in 2008; the online jewelry site they created now employs 80 people, most of them in Boston. Two Boston University undergraduates founded ByteLight, a 2011 participant, which is designing an LED light bulb that can transmit data to mobile phones (directions to finding a product in a large store, for example). So far, ByteLight's founders have raised $1.25 million and brought on five full-time employees.
“People constantly say that the economy today is about a competition for the greatest talent,” says Bussgang, the venture capitalist at Flybridge Capital Partners. “Well, the greatest talent shows up on our doorstep and spends two to four years here. But we don’t compete for them and we don’t market to them. It makes no sense.Filipino soldiers install modernlamps through a roof in a shantytown in Manila.”
I’ve been brainstorming lately about how a scouting program might operate,We have hundreds of fog lights, driving lights, off ledstreetlight and fog lamps. soliciting input from entrepreneurs who got their educations here, as well as start-up coaches like Katie Rae of TechStars Boston and Jeffrey Bussgang of Flybridge Capital Partners. Here’s how we might identify high-potential future founders, and also what we’d do once we identified them.
Put those students into a database, and send each one a nice fleece with the logo of the new Massachusetts Founders League embroidered on the back. The MFL would enable students to connect with one another. It would help them meet successful Massachusetts entrepreneurs and investors who might provide seed funding for their ideas. It would try to open doors in all sorts of ways, from finding free, short-term office space to getting pro bono legal advice to ironing out visa issues for foreign students.
MFL members would be chosen at the start of each calendar year (giving all the nominators the first three or four months of the school year to do their scouting), and they’d be welcomed into the group with a State House reception hosted by Governor Deval Patrick. Other events throughout the year might feature well-known entrepreneurs sitting down to share experiences: people like Constant Contact founder Gail Goodman, Staples founder Tom Stemberg, or restaurateur Barbara Lynch.
Venture capitalists and angel investors could sponsor bowling nights to get to know the group. Members would get free admission to any seminar or conference planned by the 10 trade groups making nominations for the MFL. Over the summers, group members might have an opportunity to “shadow” local founders, assisting them in exchange for office space and time to develop their own start-up ideas.
As long as MFL members remained enrolled as students, and for one year afterward, they’d be invited to attend MFL events; after that, they would go “emeritus,” but still have access to a network that provided assistance and connections.
Who would coordinate all this? One idea is to have the 10 trade groups dedicate one staffer’s time on a rotating basis. I expect you could run the MFL with one staffer dedicating one day a week to maintaining the member database and planning events. At the end of a year, the responsibility would shift to the next group.
There are several great initiatives that already exist in this vein, but nothing that works as a comprehensive, statewide scouting system. The Cambridge venture capital firm Flagship Ventures runs a summer “fellows program” for entrepreneurially oriented scientists and engineers, inviting them to help transform laboratory insights into real companies. Flybridge runs a program called Stay in MA that offers college students “scholarships” to local workshops and conferences that cost $100 or less.
One of the initiatives that has had the biggest impact is the Summer@Highland program, run by the Cambridge venture capital firm Highland Capital Partners. It invites collegiate entrepreneurs to apply for a 10-week program that offers office space, an $18,000 stipend, and access to a network of mentors.
The Babson College-educated founders of Gemvara, who were planning a move to Los Angeles, participated in 2008; the online jewelry site they created now employs 80 people, most of them in Boston. Two Boston University undergraduates founded ByteLight, a 2011 participant, which is designing an LED light bulb that can transmit data to mobile phones (directions to finding a product in a large store, for example). So far, ByteLight's founders have raised $1.25 million and brought on five full-time employees.
“People constantly say that the economy today is about a competition for the greatest talent,” says Bussgang, the venture capitalist at Flybridge Capital Partners. “Well, the greatest talent shows up on our doorstep and spends two to four years here. But we don’t compete for them and we don’t market to them. It makes no sense.Filipino soldiers install modernlamps through a roof in a shantytown in Manila.”
訂閱:
文章 (Atom)