March 11, 2008
Venture Capital? No Thanks - It's Passionate Learners I Need - Why Startup Money Makes No Difference For Me
Many people ask me why I am not interested in funding, venture capital money and why I don't go around selling my good volume of high quality, high profile readers to a powerful publisher. The short answer is: because I am not after the money paradigm. My driver is a different one, and though money does play a very important role in what I can or cannot do, my driving force is not based on revenue.
Not only. My key need is not having more money, but having more passionate young learners that can capture and grow inside this new media culture being created right now.
People are my real key asset.
For how much you can discount this as just being naive or too idealistic, I believe this will be a common trait of future small companies of success. Unless the world gets turned over by a few huge powers that be in the next few years, I still believe that there exists as well a window of opportunity for me and you to turn this pretty ugly situation into a paradise of its own.
Which brings me back to why I am not interested in funding or venture capital.
I am interested in creating and building tools and resources that can help other individuals become more effective agents of change: as I call them, communication agents.
By sharing what I have learned and keep discovering about how to communicate and collaborate effectively online I can truly enable more people to affect change in their personal lives than any amount of big government spending on education can do.
Communication tools today are weapons of change.
Before bombing a country we inform others of the reasons, motives and strategy that will justify what we want to do. Don't we? Isn't media used to persuade and convince before striking? Independently of where you stand, I am sure you are sensing too how critical and powerful it can be to be able to communicate in effective ways.
And so, if your goal like mine, is to learn new things, help others do better and to create new things you really like, it is not the money you need.
Money can help, but it can't easily find you the special people you need.
It is the individuals, the passionate adventurer like you, who shares and wants to do much of what you like, who will be your most precious asset.
But again, finding them, may become less and less a money-dependent variable.
Knowing where these passionate, like-minded people, with your same goals and interests, hang out online, would in fact be your best strategy to find them. Yes, social networks are the right direction, but they are still too broad and generic to offer what you are looking for.
And so, if people are more important than money, and you need to find some more of them, maybe the best strategy is to create myself an exclusive hangout just for them right inside my own garden.
Like the idea?
Stay tuned for more.
February 13, 2008
Learning Zeitgeist: The Future of Education is Just-in-Time, Multidisciplinary, Experimental, Emergent
October 21, 2007
New Media Literacy In Education: Learning Media Use While Developing Critical Thinking Skills
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September 29, 2007
Education: Do We Really Need Schools Or Do We Need To Better Understand What Education Should Really Be?
September 9, 2007
Creativity And Education: Is Creativity Being Driven Out Of Our Education Systems?
July 13, 2007
How The Economics Of A Startup Have Radically Changed: Chris Shipley Reports
October 4, 2006
Web 2.0 Meets SmartMobs: Howard Rheingold Views On Web 2.0 - Exclusive Interview




