The 2009 Tech Venture Challenge will be wrapping up, with the finalists presenting their final pitches tonight at Ben Franklin Place, Ottawa.  TVC is Ottawa’s most prestigious business plan competition and is a member of MIT’s Global Network of University Business Plan Competitions.  

35 business proposals were submitted this 2009 season, and the 3 finalists this year are :

1. Smart Rotor Systems
2. The SATESS Business Plan
3. VSM Technologies – Wireless Vital Signal Monitoring 

The finalists, who represent the best and brightest and most from both the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, will present in front of top technology entrepreneurs, investors, business professionals, judges, and of course, family and friends.   The top prize is worth $10,000, second and third both get $5,000.  For more information on TVC, go to - http://www.techvc.org/.

The Carleton University Foundry Program (and therefor Luc Lalande) and Ontario Centers of Excellence are among the main sponsors at TVC.  The OCRI Entrepreneurship Centre (and consequently Manu Sharma) are strong supporters of the annual competition.

Stay tuned for our thoughts and impression of the event and the pitches on tbridge.ca.  Congratulations to all the semi-finalists.

I was recently asked what inspires or motivates me, and the first words that leapt into my head was a quote from A Bronx Tale, a movie I had seen when i was 12.  The quote by De Niro that has been imprinted in my mind was :  ”The saddest thing in life is wasted talent” –  A Bronx Tale.   Ever since I heard them I’ve been very afraid of falling into the routine of daily life and missing out on opportunities.  What a nightmare, to think that I would nothing significant in my life.  So I guess fear of that reality inspires me to NOT waste opportunities that come along.

Other sources of inspiration are my parents.  All they have done and all they have accomplished and how far they’ve come in their lives.  Of course, that also makes me afraid that I will not be able to provide at least the same, if not a better , life for my kids as my parents gave me.  Which would be even sadder if you take into account the head start advantages I had compared to them, because of what they had accomplished in their life.  I’m afraid that would be disrespectful to their efforts in providing us with a more advantageous life, and it’s a high bar they set for us to follow.  

My other source of motivations comes from competition.  I always think to myself, wow, if they can do it, so can I.  I just need to step up my game, learn some more, and focus on a goal.  A friendly competitive rivalry urges me to be on top of my game at all times – whether it be in card games or real life.  

So summing it up, guilt, fear, and competition motivate me.  Sadly, they are all generally known as negative feelings.  I guess this is an example where two make a right.  A few negative emotions cause motivation and inspiration.  The end justifies the means. :0)

At the beginning of our book club meeting on Outliers, Stephen Daze asked us a question: If we are to believe the theories stipulated by Gladwell in Outliers, what are the skills or opportunities needed to become an outlier entrepreneur?

Well that’s an interesting question. Because it makes you have to think long and hard about what an entrepreneur is. According to Wikipedia – an entrepreneur is “an ambitious leader who combines land, labour, and capital to create and market goods or services. They are the type of personalities who are willing to take upon themselves a new venture/enterprise and accept full responsibility for the outcome.”
How do you acquire ambition? Or risk? Or street smarts? Are these things you can learn, or are you born with them? I was debating with Manu Sharma, and he said if you had to spend 10,000 hours doing something to become an expert entrepreneur, it would be spending 10,000 hours amongst smart people. I agree to some extent. But I think it’s more than that. Researchers for example spend hours and hours amongst other smart people (or at least reading other smart people’s work), but they’re not necessarily entrepreneurial. But yes I agree, spending that many hours engaged with other smart people is defiantly a step in the right direction.

Then I’m lead to another question – what is it about where we come from that makes us entrepreneurial? I’m going to make a very general comparison here. My family origins are Tunisian. Tunisians in general (and yes I’m using stereotypes) like stability. Tunisian immigrants tend to want to be employed rather than be the employer. Now compare them to the Lebanese. Both Arabs, both Mediterranean countries, both have Phoenician heritage, both have been colonized at some point. The list of similarities goes on and on. Lebanese immigrants on the other hand are known to be businessmen and entrepreneurs. Why the difference? Well, it could be due to the fact that there was a civil war in Lebanon that caused a huge number of immigrants to be spread out all over the world, while Tunisians have had a relatively stable history. Maybe. I really have no idea. But does that mean (again generalizing) if you come from an environment with some sort of instability in its history, you are more likely to be a risk taker? I definitely don’t know, but it’s an interesting thought.

As for trends that we can identify now so that when the revolution peaks we’ll be atop that wave and ready for that opportunity….well if I knew that, I’d be busy getting my 10,000 hours of expertise in that field. The problem with revolutionary trends is that by the time you notice it, you’ve already missed the boat. Like nanotechnology, DNA, haptics etc. We’ve missed that boat to be the next Bill Gates of those fields. Maybe we should be focusing on picotechnology? Or ways to revolutionarize nuclear energy to make it more efficient? I don’t know. But if you do, please let me know :0)