We really enjoy reading the USA Today newspaper. What is nice about the USA Today is they have positive articles. You can usually find a good article in there about 2-3 times a week. Everyone hears about the bailout, the economic crisis, and all the negative news, but what about the GOOD news?!
Tuesday, February 17 there was an article about tech start-ups. The article is mostly about powerful tech companies like Microsoft and Intel. It discusses how they are spending money during the economy, cutting costs, and blah blah blah. What we really care about is that in contrast to these power houses, start-ups are less concerned with their costs and focusing on their development. They are being aggressive! The article goes on to explain that “cost saving tech services are in demand.” Especially during our current “economic situation” you can be taking advantage of this situation by finding ways to help companies reduce their costs. For example, Cisco explains that they will save $400 mil in 2009 that would have been spent on traveling expenses. They have replaced traveling with video conferencing.
Hmm… so we have video conferencing, but what else? How can you contribute to this market? Any other innovative ideas out there?
USA Today quotes Dixon Doll, co-founder of Venture Capitalist firm DCM; “Time to start a new crop.”
Hope this inspires some of you!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
February 21st, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Pretty good article, this definitely gives us IT folks some hope. Especially the way the economy is right now, we need startups to come up. I just wish that there where more women that can succeed in startup industry. I think this article has inspired me to start my own thing. Great article Alex.
[Reply]
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Wow! It’s funny how such a simple idea like video conferencing instead of making business trips can save so much money and yet be just as efficient. If all big businesses could do something similar to this and have this same innovative thought process, we could be pulled up from where we currently are economically, and soar into success and efficiency.
It’s interesting to think that if a big business could do something like this, then what can we, as everyday folk, do at our level to make an impact just as significant. I mean we don’t have make huge leaps here, just small steps. We tend to think that “..oh I’m just one person. I can’t possibly make that much of an impact on the world. (ie: voting– “I don’t need to vote. It’s just one vote. It won’t change the outcome of who wins.” ; recycling– “It doesn’t matter. It’s just one water bottle I’m throwing out instead of recycling.”) NOT TRUE!! Think about it…if you added up every “…just…” you’ve ever said in a sentence like in the above…they really add up! Sometimes small steps are more effective than leaping bounds, esp if you trip along the way.
Simple everyday ideas that will add up (or down when if comes to saving you $). Here are just 1 idea I thought of:
– REUSE COMPUTER PAPER. I’m a student and I know that when I write essays for my classes I tend to use at least 3 or 4 pages at a time. Being a student (who needs to save all the money she can), I also have to print out power points to follow along w/ my prof during class. Simple paper-saving solution (that will save you $…)… never throw out paper if both sides haven’t been used. What I do is take my essays or typed homework assignments apart after I get them back and use the back side to print my power points on. I can’t even tell you how much GREEN I’ve saved (green as in $ and trees!!) !
Let’s get some ideas rolling here! What else can we do?! Let’s share these ideas and help one another!
Great article Alex. It was very inspiring!
[Reply]
March 15th, 2009 at 6:07 am
Smart technology will always be at the forefront of entrepreneurial efforts. It’s nice to see that “cutting edge” means overly complicated. Simple ideas like this will big differences in the long run.
Imagine if companies could get fresh ideas from college students prior to bringing them on for expensive internships. This is now possible: groupereye.com
[Reply]