Inconvenience Is The Mother Of All Invention

Aside from Exxon and the Saudis, I'm probably the only guy in the US who is thrilled with these outrageous gas prices. If it was up to me I'd push gas prices even higher as I don't think that there is enough pain at the pump yet. $10 per gallon would be perfect.

No, I'm not a masochist and no, I don't own any oil stocks either. I'm just a regular American who is sick and tired of being held hostage by foreign countries from the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela. Nothing would make me happier than to see all of them sit on tankers full of oil that are virtually worthless. I strongly believe that we are getting there.

Inconvenience is the mother of all invention. Think about all of the historical achievements the world has produced over the years. Fire, the wheel, cars, computers, airplanes. Almost all of them born in an effort to solve some kind of inconvenience, some kind of pain. Using that same model, it stands to reason that being held hostage to these outrageous gas prices will encourage someone, ANYONE to invent a way to get us off of our addiction to foreign oil. It has.

This summer, Funding Universe has been approached by a number of companies, both big and small who are working on this exact problem. Some are working on bio fuels, others on solar power or wind power. We recently worked with a company that developed a product that harnessed wind power from the ocean and converted it into transportable energy. It has been exciting to see the thought, calculations and designs that have been created by each of these companies and my only regret is that we don't have more. Yes sir, a throbbing pain can move a lot of things, including a nation.

Joel Nielsen is a Venture Consultant at Funding Universe and can be emailed at jnielsen@fundinguniverse.com

Live Pitch a HUGE Success

Last week Funding Universe hosted a "Live" Pitch event on the Novell campus in Provo, Utah. Five companies were selected to present their products and services to a panel of six investors and business experts. Approximately 150 spectators attended the two hour event.

Live Pitch was born from another Funding Universe event called "Speed" Pitching. "Speed" Pitching is similar to speed dating. In speed pitching, ten screened businesses meet in a room filled with 30-50 investors. The goal for business owners is to pique the interest of Angel and Venture Capitalist for future funding. For the Entrepreneur they get the undivided attention of 30-50 investors and the investors benefit because they can be introduced to 10 vetted businesses through Funding Universe in less than two hours.

Businesses are allowed four uninterupted minutes to present their venture. They then have three minutes to answer questions and bing bam boom they are done. Four minutes is not a lot of time to explain an entire business, so the pitches have to be precise, thorough and engaging. Many businesses who have participated in our "Speed" Pitch event have asked Funding Universe if they could watch a Speed Pitch before participating in one. Alas, "Live" Pitch was born.

Last week the five qualifying businesses screened to present were

ListPipe, a new SEO company focused on providing custom content through an online subscription service.

Izatt International, a local development group focusing on iPhone applications.

Gruvie, a social utility that enables you to wrangle all your social networking accounts into a single login.

Lignin Bio Fuels, an alternative fuel company that produces transportation fuel out of non-edible biomass.

Estamar Strategy, a consulting group managing business investment opportunities

After presenting, the audience was allowed to invest $200 in "FU Funny Money" into any of the five companies. The audience in conjunction with the six panalists produced the top two companies. The two "Live" Pitch winners were Ian Ellis of Gruvie and Cary Snowden of ListPipe. (In a bit of unbiased reporting, I would like to point out that I only had one client in the competition and he won)

Our next Speed Pitch event will be on October 24th at the Larry H Miller Campus in Sandy, Utah. We invite you to come out and see how Funding Universe facilitates the interface of Small Businesses with Angels and VC's.

Joel Nielsen is a Venture Consultant at Funding Universe and can be contacted at jnielsen@fundinguniverse.com

An AH HA Moment For Me

I tend to shy away from discussing my religion in a public forum such as this one. My faith is very personal to me to the point that it is an intimate subject I rarely discuss or debate with anyone. But yesterday I came across a passage in preparation for my Sunday School lesson that really stuck with me.

To set the stage, Joseph Smith is discussing the different kinds of spirits that exist now and before the beginning of time.

"Now, in this world, mankind are naturally selfish, ambitious and striving to excel one above another; yet some are willing to build up others as well as themselves. So in the other world there are a variety of spirits. Some seek to excel. And this was the case with Lucifer when he fell. He sought for things which were unlawful. Hence he was sent down, and it is said he drew many away with him;"

What caught my attention the most was the part about building up others as well as ourselves. This idea kept bouncing around in my head and I found it hard to continue. Michael Jordan was an incredibly gifted athlete and during his early years he dominated the NBA. And much like the beginning passage above, he was ambitious and striving to excel. Nevertheless he never won an NBA title even though he was clearly in a league of his own. It wasn't until Jordan started to make those around him better, that he won his first title. It was only by building up others that he became successful.

So here's the deal. From the moment we leave the womb, we are completely self centered. As we mature, we learn to be a good child, a great brother or sister. We age a little more and become parents which means we give even less thought to self, and more thought outwards, to family for instance. Then we add another layer where we become willing to work on the behalf of others, such as a neighbor, or a community. And in extreme instances, we become willing to sacrifice all that we have, including our very lives for our faith and our country. As we age, the layers get larger and larger and further and further away from the womb. What I am learning here is that the further we get from "self" the greater our joy and the larger our reward.

Enter Satan and his determination to keep us self centered. With very few exceptions, almost every sin that we can commit is a return to "self." Drug and alcohol abuse are self centered activities as they satisfy only oneself. Stealing is taking from another to satisfy self. Adultery is completely self centered, murder is the removal of these outer most layers. If you consider civil laws as well as modern and ancient commandments, almost all crimes against God and society are those in which someone is harmed as a result of anothers quest to return unforgivingly back to self. So in a very simple way, sin is just about anything that returns us to back to our base selves.

It stands to reason then, that the greatest joy we can receive in this lifetime, or in the life to come is by traveling as far away from self as possible. I've decided that this isn't always easy for me. Even after discovering this I still want the money, and the cars, and the vacations. I have a long way to go in moving towards those outer bands of true greatness. And as I write this, I am just now realizing how many people in my life are awesome examples of moving away from self. On behalf of our family, I want you to know that we have been on the receiving end of many friends and family who have stepped away from self to bless and enrich our lives. I am grateful to you all and hope from your example I can be equal to the task of blessing your lives too.

Now That's Just OFFENSIVE!

A few weeks ago I got an email from my poker group asking me if I wanted to join their Pro Pick 'Em Fantasy Football Team. Pro Pick Em' is nothing like Fantasy Football but it can still be fun at times. So I decided to register and went with my old standby name of 3rd and Schlong. Yes, it makes me laugh too however it appears that not everyone finds the humor in it. Today I received the following email.

"Would you be willing to change your pick set name to include a less sexual connotation? A parent of one of the group members is just concerned with the choice and need of such a name. Please let me know what you think or if you have any questions...
Thanks, Troy Shepherd 801-7XX-6068

Now I don't know Troy, and he surely doesn't know me because we wouldn't be having this conversation if he did. Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that I will unintentionally offend everyone I meet at least once, and probably a lot more. Do I have a problem with changing the name? Of course not. I certainly don't want to intentionally upset anyone. I prefer to un-intentionally offend people. It makes me look more genuine.

But what annoys me about this request is the lack of accountability. My question is WHO exactly is concerned and why are YOU (Troy) doing THEIR dirty work? Are we in Junior High again? Help me understand why it's impossible to simply discuss this like adults. I'm stunned that I didn't get his request on a folded,piece of lined paper that is passed to me at the lunch table so that the offended author could look on from a distance. This is soooo French! So in my usual way of being a pain in the Heineken, I decided to up the ante and sent the following uncomfortable email back to Troy; "Which parent is offended?"

It will be interesting to see if Troy has the kahunas to "out" the offended. I'm betting he doesn't. The weak and spineless never pony up to confrontation and always feel comfortable pasting the blame on someone else. However, in an effort to be sensitive (and more importantly to let Troy off the hook,) I decided to change my name anyway. I am now listed as The Really Super Silly Clouds. It will be fun to see who catches the sarcasm. I've decided that it's my duty to protest living in a police state and allowing my 1st amendment rights to be assaulted by shadow puppets. I'm sure the lesson to be learned is that I should be more sensitive to other peoples feelings. But having to be sensitive to others peoples feeling makes me sensitive myself, and that, my friends, just OFFENDS me.