Comments on: Horses and Jockeys http://texvc.com/2009/08/02/horses-and-jockeys/ Navigating the Texas Entrepreneurial and Funding World Tue, 22 Feb 2011 01:26:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 By: Marc Nathan http://texvc.com/2009/08/02/horses-and-jockeys/comment-page-1/#comment-2186 Marc Nathan Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:08:19 +0000 http://texvc.com/2009/08/02/horses-and-jockeys/#comment-2186 I don't want to continue the 'you're right, no - you're right' love fest that's been going on between Aziz and I for the last few days, but suffice to say Aziz is absolutely right in his original assessment that we need more research dollars in our universities and Shion Deysarkar is right about Tech Transfer offices needing more attention: http://80legs.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/the-what-houston-needs-debate/ I'm very much a Jockey-type of guy when it comes to betting on startups. This is from my website which you'll notice I haven't changed for several years: http://bulldogfinancial.com/services.html With that said, I believe that the discussion on 'What Houston Needs' isn't about ideas or entrepreneurs themselves - but about the mid-level group of supporters and helpers that make startups turn into winners. This is the 'Trainers' in the Jockey-Horse analogy. Both Jockeys and Horses need experienced people to help with training strategy, care and feeding whether a startup comes out of university research, tech transfer, a business plan competition or someone's garage. If we used the analogy of chicken and egg - chickens are always people and eggs are the ideas that hatch into more chickens. It's the people that matter and creating and fostering a tech community starts and ends with the people it produces. I don’t want to continue the ‘you’re right, no – you’re right’ love fest that’s been going on between Aziz and I for the last few days, but suffice to say Aziz is absolutely right in his original assessment that we need more research dollars in our universities and Shion Deysarkar is right about Tech Transfer offices needing more attention: http://80legs.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/the-what-houston-needs-debate/

I’m very much a Jockey-type of guy when it comes to betting on startups. This is from my website which you’ll notice I haven’t changed for several years: http://bulldogfinancial.com/services.html

With that said, I believe that the discussion on ‘What Houston Needs’ isn’t about ideas or entrepreneurs themselves – but about the mid-level group of supporters and helpers that make startups turn into winners.

This is the ‘Trainers’ in the Jockey-Horse analogy. Both Jockeys and Horses need experienced people to help with training strategy, care and feeding whether a startup comes out of university research, tech transfer, a business plan competition or someone’s garage.

If we used the analogy of chicken and egg – chickens are always people and eggs are the ideas that hatch into more chickens.

It’s the people that matter and creating and fostering a tech community starts and ends with the people it produces.

]]> By: Shion http://texvc.com/2009/08/02/horses-and-jockeys/comment-page-1/#comment-2184 Shion Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:53:10 +0000 http://texvc.com/2009/08/02/horses-and-jockeys/#comment-2184 My 2 cents: http://80legs.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/the-what-houston-needs-debate/ My 2 cents: http://80legs.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/the-what-houston-needs-debate/

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