Awhile back I was Tweeting to Jeremy Hanks, local business owner and CEO of Doba.com, a direct-ship solution for small businesses, suggesting the idea of doing monthly entrepreneur/bootstrappers breakfasts here in Salt Lake and Surrounding areas. It was an idea I took from some out in San Francisco intended for entrepreneurs to meet and share ideas with each other, and build community and help with each other. Jeremy, who bootstrapped the very successful and profitable Doba.com himself, mentioned he had a better idea, and soon after announced a really neat concept that I think could really encourage the local entrepreneur scene here in Utah to take off.
The concept is called “Launchup“. When I spoke with Jeremy, he compared the idea of Launchup to a “community barn-raising for entrepreneurs.” Jeremy, a very down-home, outdoorsy guy himself, shared the story of how in olden times communities would hold “barn-raising” events where the entire community would get together and help out the one Farmer who needed a barn built. They would often have the entire barn, with the help of every member of the community, built within a day. Those not involved would often be outcast – it was simply a responsibility of everyone in the community to help out that one businessman/farmer. This fits right in line with my “Small Community” concept I often talk about in my presentations.
Jeremy also talked about his inspiration from President Obama, who he quoted, saying in his Inaugural address, “…it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things…who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity….a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.” It was from this that Jeremy’s concept, Launchup.org was begun.
The idea of Launchup is simple. Get a whole bunch of entrepreneurs in a room together. Have 2 or 3 entrepreneurs present their companies to the group. Get free feedback, ideas, and suggestions from the other entrepreneurs. Jeremy calls each of the entrepreneur sessions, “Barns”, and he’s really embracing Social Media to try and promote this. All sessions will be broadcast live to the entire world via Doba’s own live broadcasting equipment (I expect this should be good – Jeremy just spent a couple weeks in India while running his company), and all can participate, whether you live in Utah or not. In this case the community raising the barn is not only Utah, but the entire Social Mediasphere itself.
On Twitter, you can chat about it with the hashtag, #launchup. I’ve talked to them about Ustream, and I think we’re working on solutions around that as well as Facebook and other platforms to ensure all can participate and share with friends. As a real-life community event, this is the essence of what Social Media is about.
The next Launchup, Wednesday (today), will be very interesting. There are 2 local startups that will be presenting. TweetBooty will be talking about “a new way to access amazing discounts and giveaways from qualified local retailers.” Entice Labs will be talking about a technology that connects employers with these “passive candidates” by placing relevant and enticing career opportunities directly in front of them. The event will kick off with an “Amp Session” with a quick presentation by Ben Peterson, who founded MingleMatch.com, and sold it in a matter of years to Spark Networks for millions. Each presenter only has 15 minutes to make their case for the audience.
This should be an interesting event for all, and knowing Jeremy (and myself being somewhat involved as well), I fully expect the most interesting startups to all be part of these. If you’re a local, I expect to see you in person there. If you’re a blogger, early adopter, entrepreneur, or just like to see cool new and interesting projects, and want to participate in helping other entrepreneurs do better (Scoble and Louis, we’d love to see you in the chat and live stream!), come join us this evening.
The Launchup event starts at 6pm MST, March 25th. You can come in person to the Doba offices at 1530 N Technology Way, Orem, UT 84097 – Canyon Park Technology Center Building D, or participate online by going to http://doba.acrobat.com/launchup1/. Be sure, especially if you will be there in person, to Tweet “I’m going to #LaunchUp, are you?” in order to RSVP for the event. If there is a Ustream for the event I’ll Tweet that out tomorrow as well. Come join us!
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I attended the “Barn Raising” last night from my office in Oregon.
In the mid-70's I spent a couple of years in upstate New York where my service responsibilities allowed me to join in two real barn raising events. There are a couple items that I observed last night that are the same as I saw in NY and they present some challenges.
In order to raise a barn in a short period of time there must be one or two crew leaders – we had crew leaders last night.
The field crews are divided up into groups that are to focus on various portions of the project so that many tasks can move forward simultaneously – last night the crews did not seem defined.
There is usually just one barn under construction – last night I saw at least 2 buildings going up at the same time.
I found myself watching one crew working, while I was attempting to pay attention to another crew – In NY, I would have hit my finger with the mallet several times, as I lost concentration on the task at hand.
I love the idea of coming together to assist a “farmer” in need, because someday, I might need a barn too.
I just found myself distracted by the various building projects (twitter feed, chat, video, audio, presentations) that where going on at the same time.
I really don't have a great solution; and did I say that I LOVE the concept?
I feel bad that some of the technical issues caused everyone to scramble around, but that stuff can happen even in a flannel board discussion (I have some experience with flannel boards, if we ever go back to that)
I will continue to attend and to participate in this barn raising service, because every project gets better as it develops…
Keep up the great work Jesse and Jeremy.
Thanks Bruce – it was good seeing you in the chat. Jeremy is the main one
organizing this (I've just been giving advice and thoughts). I'll pass this
on to him.
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Jesse, I just got your trackback to http://www.bootstrappersbreakfast.com/ and was intrigued by what you and Jeremy are doing with Launchup. You are certainly use a lot more technology than we do, I was impressed by the recording/chat stream from the first meeting. Our focus is serious conversation in the room. Happy to compare notes when it's convenient.
Warm Regards
Sean Murphy http://www.skmurphy.com/
Sean, Jeremy's mostly in charge and did most of the planning, but I'd be
happy to put the two of you in touch if you ever like!
You may want to jumpstart your efforts by reaching out to the many people who are seeking others interested in networking who are already using meetup.com. Meetup has been around for years now so there may be people actively searching for you there.
That's a great idea. I'll pass that on.
You may want to jumpstart your efforts by reaching out to the many people who are seeking others interested in networking who are already using meetup.com. Meetup has been around for years now so there may be people actively searching for you there.
That's a great idea. I'll pass that on.
[…] Participate in the First Community Barn Raising for Modern Posted by root 18 hours ago (http://staynalive.local) Mar 25 2009 log in and claim this comment i attended the quot barn raising quot last night from my office in oregon in the mid 70 i spent a couple of blog comments powered by disqus communicity facebook connect wordpress plugin Discuss | Bury | News | participate in the first community barn raising for modern […]
[…] Participate in the First Community Barn Raising for Modern Posted by root 18 hours ago (http://staynalive.local) Mar 25 2009 log in and claim this comment i attended the quot barn raising quot last night from my office in oregon in the mid 70 i spent a couple of blog comments powered by disqus communicity facebook connect wordpress plugin Discuss | Bury | News | participate in the first community barn raising for modern […]
Sean, Jeremy's mostly in charge and did most of the planning, but I'd be
happy to put the two of you in touch if you ever like!
You may want to jumpstart your efforts by reaching out to the many people who are seeking others interested in networking who are already using meetup.com. Meetup has been around for years now so there may be people actively searching for you there.