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1/4
Amos Wenger
Now for the the other side of things: some of the content is particularly tainted by stereotypes and an old-fashioned way of thinking. I'll take for example the fact that, we had three stereotypical suppliers for various parts in our venture: The Chinese one, cheap but overlooking crucial thing (like transport costs) The Russian one, sneaky and who eventually launched a copycat of our product And the Swiss one, more expensive but evidently more reliable
While I understand the need to synthesize a typical venture experience in a simulation, which requires some cultural shortcuts to be done, this insensibility is typical of a certain class of people coming from a financial background, and it's simply something I cannot get behind. Similarly, some of the quotes 'Aunt Erika' sent were bullshit from the inside out. Only one example is enough here: I read this in a book once: No patent, no money (This is actually not from Aunt Erika, but from an SMS sent by Daniel Light, my co-founder in the venture) As an active member of the software industry, this remark is not only out of place, but also flat-out insulting. According to recent studies from the University of Boston, patent trolls have cost about half a trillion dollars to innovators[1]. Software patents are widely known to stifle progress: the recent war[2] between Google and Oracle (who apparently acquired Sun Microsystems for the express intent of turning it into a patent troll) about the Java technology and its re-implementation for the Android ecosystem is only one in many many examples of how patents hurt our industry. As a result, I consider it disrespectful to quote such garbage in a simulation that is aimed towards a large number of students from different horizons and with different ambitions as to which industries they want to take by storm. While I recognize the usefulness of patent filing as a defensive mechanism under the very same patent trolls I discuss above, it seemed to take an overbearing part of the CDM simulation, at the expense of more important activities, such as developing the product itself. Perhaps a relentless worry about patents, trademarks, and general IP protection is better suited to industries other than Software development. However, as a general business practice, I find it easier to simply work from a network of personal contacts which you value and trust, as well as following some ground rules that can be easily derived from common sense: for example, not to leak an entire business plan for a course and, three weeks later, to try and impress the whole class into signing a desperate NDA. This kind of behavior is a good 2/4
Amos Wenger
example of a serious red flag, indicating people better kept at bay from any serious business matter. With all this carefully considered, I still can't find a justification for including such a broadstrike quote in the simulation as No patent, no money. These quotes mislead nave entrepreneurs everyday, and I have no sympathy for those who help spread them.
3/4
Amos Wenger
Such a visualization gives better indicators as to the further development of almost any venture, and is a metric that was totally overlooked in this simulation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the simulation revealed to be a convincing piece, engaging even (I happened to lose track of time, absorbed by the simulation itself), but after a deeper analysis, it seems to be a tool used to train would-be entrepreneurs to excel at accomplishing a certain, opinionated vision of entrepreneurship. (P.S: I suppose this is not the kind of report you expected, but by the time you'll get this, about thirty perfectly standard and politically correct reports will have already reached you. Hopefully this one gives at least something to think about.)
References
[1] Study: patent trolls have cost innovators half a trillion dollars Ars Technica article http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/09/study-patent-trolls-have-costinnovators-half-a-trillion-bucks/ [2] Google, Oracle lawsuit: 10 key issues to follow in this case Eweek article http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Google-Oracle-Lawsuit-10-KeyIssues-to-Follow-in-This-Complex-Case-595791/?kc=rss [3] Bootstrapped, Profitable & Proud: GitHub 37signals blog http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2486-bootstrapped-profitable-proud-github GitHub Company Profile CrunchBase http://www.crunchbase.com/company/github EngineYard and Orchestra join forces EngineYard blog http://www.engineyard.com/orchestra Ogres have layers. So do businesses. My blog http://amos.me/blog/2012/layers/
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4/4