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There is nothing more American than the
entrepreneurial spirit! The energy, inherent in the disparate
peoples who make up the American population, has blended
together to produce the most innovative and driven nation
on earth.
The impetus comes from the desire
to throw off the shackles of "the old country" and
to jump in with both feet, and try to make a success
out of a fresh start
in the New World.
Fast forward and look at what has been achieved. It
is miraculous in many ways, a true feat of entrepreneurial
spirit, determination and innovation. Of course, along
the way many mistakes have been made, and continue to
be made; we pay a high price for progress at times.
With this perspective freshly engraved on my mind I
took a look around the local community to see where current
entrepreneurial activity is centered, and to see how
far we've come in just a handful of generations.
It didn't take long to find the subject
of this week's analysis, the Northwest Entrepreneur
Network, http://www.nwen.org — a "nonprofit,
professional association dedicated to helping entrepreneurs
succeed. NWEN offers unique networking opportunities
and resources for entrepreneurs, investors, and service
providers."
It is clean, professional and easy
to use. It has a pleasant design, soft colors, plenty
of space — room
to breathe! One of the first things I noticed on the
home page were the sponsor logos.
Overall, I was very impressed with the scope, depth
and quality of the Northwest Entrepreneur Network Web
site.
I was interested to see just how this group of community-minded
individuals could put together a nonprofit to serve the
needs of local entrepreneurs, so I went to the programs
area first and then the calendar of events.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see so much activity
available for a budding J.P. Morgan. There are Venture
Breakfast Meetings where there are presentations and
speeches by current and former entrepreneurs, a great
networking opportunity and probably good food too!
Past notes on these meetings are made available on the
site. I found this kind of resource in many places on
the site, which is very useful. Kind of like an archive
of the most recent activities available as free downloadable
PowerPoint presentations.
The breakfast meeting this month
is, coincidentally, titled: "Costco: The Story of Entrepreneurial Enterprise," presented
by Jim Sinegal, president of Costco Wholesale Corp.
Other activities hosted by the forum
include: Entrepreneur University, a multiday course
to help startup exec's
through fund raising and other shark-infested areas.
There are seminars, the Five Minute Forum — where
you literally get five minutes to perform your extended
elevator pitch of the business plan — the Venture
Success Program, which is designed to refine the business
planning process, and the Executive Roundtable, which
is a forum for executives to discuss issues together.
For me the most interesting event that is hosted by
the NWEN is the Early Stage Investment Forum, which will
be held this year on March 27 in Seattle.
ESIF provides a venue for up to 15 startup companies
to present a 15- minute version of their business plan
to a roomful of angel investors, venture capitalists
and investment bankers. Having been through the process
of presenting to all of these constituents I know how
hard it is to get time in front of them, and to make
an impression.
This is a critical function for a startup, and the NWEN
provides a service here that is absolutely the best opportunity
in town today for an entrepreneur to shorten the time
it takes to raise much needed capital.
Entrance to the ESIF for applicants is all handled on
the Web site in a very clear and well-put-together interface,
basically all aspects of this site functioned very well.
At times the site was a little slow. Of course, that
may have been something on the Internet or at my end,
it's always hard to say. But otherwise it was flawless.
Having cruised through what I considered the most important
areas of the site I then took a look at the other areas,
including membership, sponsorship, extensive site map,
and the history of the network, which was founded in
1985.
Overall, I was very impressed with the scope, depth
and quality of the Web site and what it offers those
startup pioneers. There aren't the perils in this space
that the original pioneers face, although succeeding
in this current economic environment is no easy task.
But what NWEN provides is a level
of support to these new pioneers that just wasn't available
in the "good
old days."
Bottom line is, its great to see the entrepreneurial
spirit alive and well in the Northwest. There's nothing
like a startup to get the blood flowing!
Richard Lancaster is an independent writer and technology-marketing
consultant with over 20 years of experience in the high-tech
and financial services industries in Britain, Australia
and the United States. Most recently he was the CEO for
six years of CobWeb. Prior to CobWeb he was director
of marketing at Nextel. He can be contacted at richard.lancaster@attbi.com. © 2003
American City Business Journals Inc.
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