Startup.com is a documentary that explores the journey of two best friends as they launch their company. Kaleil Tuzman and Tom Herman both founded govWorks.com in 1998 and the company closed down when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000.
Kaleil Tuzman is an entrepreneur and Harvard graduate who started his career at Goldman Sachs where he worked for 5 years before he quit to go launch govWorks. He served as the CEO of the company and was the main driving force behind their fund raising. Tom Herman is Kaleil High school best friend and co founder of govWorks.com. Tom is for the most part considered the brains in terms of software development. He is usually very quiet and no at extroverted as Kaleil. The third founder is barely showed in the movie.
govWorks.com was launched in 1998 with 8 employees. It was initially called public data systems. Govworks was supposed to be an easy way for people to pay their parking tickets and other outstanding government dues. The company raised approximately $60 million through VC funding.
However the company suffered from some organizational struggles that ultimately led to the companies demise. Kaleil and Tom had a fallout that led to Tom getting fired from the company. Also the software did not work as well as it should have and by the end of 2000 the company had closed down.
Monday, February 29, 2016
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Mission Statement, vision and Mantra
Mission Statement
"Great Software, Great Business!!!" The idea behind this mission statement is pretty much the same ideas behind the business. We intend to build great software to help make businesses great.
Vision
To be the biggest software company in West Africa 10 years after launch. This vision stems from the fact that i would love to launch my company in my country Nigeria. I have a couple of friends studying computer science back in Nigeria and when they graduate, they will most likely not have any job waiting for them. I think this market is open for the "software revolution" and so i intend to capitalize on it.
Mantra
Thread Fearlessly
Fortune
"Great Software, Great Business!!!" The idea behind this mission statement is pretty much the same ideas behind the business. We intend to build great software to help make businesses great.
Vision
To be the biggest software company in West Africa 10 years after launch. This vision stems from the fact that i would love to launch my company in my country Nigeria. I have a couple of friends studying computer science back in Nigeria and when they graduate, they will most likely not have any job waiting for them. I think this market is open for the "software revolution" and so i intend to capitalize on it.
Mantra
Thread Fearlessly
Fortune
Logo, Company Name, and Product
Company
I intend to name my company Ponzeal Tech - i may make some changes in the future. My dad is an entrepreneur and currently runs a real estate company. He has also founded another company called Ponzeal investment Limited; this company hasn't really taken off and so i intend to take the name for my company.
Product
My company would specialize in building enterprise software. These are software that aren't made for everyday users, but rather are made for businesses to make the business running processes smoother. Some examples include, Hospital Management software, Inventory tracking software, Human resources management software etc.
These software would be sold as a service. So for example, if the company sells a Hospital Management software, we would keep the patients data. So the hospital would have to pay a monthly fee to use our software every month. However, not all of our products will be sold as service, for example the we don't need to store the inventory data. The idea behind this sale strategy is that, after some time, our customers would have to stay with us because we are essentially holding them hostage with their data.
Logo
Rather than Paylas, mine would say Ponzeal. The idea behind this is design is that i want the company to portray a minimalist, clean and classy design.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Guest Speaker Brain Forth
Last week we had a guest speaker of the person Brain Forth. Brain is a technology entrepreneur, he is the founder and CEO of SiteCrafting. SiteCrafting like the name implies is a technology company that created websites for business. SiteCrafting also does a couple of other web application development.
Brian Forth graduated from Gonzaga University and became a teacher at the archdiocese of Seattle where he taught for about 5 years. He later quit his job as a teacher to fully focus on his company SiteCrafting.
SiteCrafting was founded in 1998 when Brian Forth still a teacher at the archdiocese of Seattle. He later quit his teaching job to focus more on his business because he realized that his business was bringing in more income than his full time job. This is a very big decision and should serve as a motivation us the students, we have to know the right time to quit. If Brian had quit his day job too early wouldn't have enough money to continue his business, and if he had quit his job too late, he wouldn't have given enough time to his business. So as entrepreneurs, we have to know the right time to make a decision.
He also founded a second company that is a spin off of SiteCrafting called gearbox. Gearbox is a R&D technology company that uses research to help company know how to improve their software. GearBox is staffed by 3 UW students and is currently working with a bunch of really good clients. Brian talked a lot about learning to weave through and tolerate obstacles. He recommends that we read the book, The Obstacle is the way.
Brian Forth graduated from Gonzaga University and became a teacher at the archdiocese of Seattle where he taught for about 5 years. He later quit his job as a teacher to fully focus on his company SiteCrafting.
SiteCrafting was founded in 1998 when Brian Forth still a teacher at the archdiocese of Seattle. He later quit his teaching job to focus more on his business because he realized that his business was bringing in more income than his full time job. This is a very big decision and should serve as a motivation us the students, we have to know the right time to quit. If Brian had quit his day job too early wouldn't have enough money to continue his business, and if he had quit his job too late, he wouldn't have given enough time to his business. So as entrepreneurs, we have to know the right time to make a decision.
He also founded a second company that is a spin off of SiteCrafting called gearbox. Gearbox is a R&D technology company that uses research to help company know how to improve their software. GearBox is staffed by 3 UW students and is currently working with a bunch of really good clients. Brian talked a lot about learning to weave through and tolerate obstacles. He recommends that we read the book, The Obstacle is the way.
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