Overview: Thank you, the year ahead, and a potent 2011 New Years Resolution

BREAKOUT!
A special thank you for keeping up with our tweets, updates, and posts.  2010 was truly a breakout year for our young company. Our chemistry continues to evolve and we’re booking tight into 2011.

What's driving YI’s growth?  It's people: People searching for substantive and adaptive programming options at the university level.  Nearly 100% of our StartUp Scramble (SUS) attendees report that they will do “it” (“it” being our intense venture creation and problem-solving process) again.  Attendees leave exhausted (by design), but energized and truly prepared to build off of the momentum. 

There’s no “I” in team, but there is a “We” in...
We teamed up with organizations such as Ashoka, Startup Weekend, Microsoft, NYU Reynolds Program for Social Entrepreneurship, SRA Touchstone Consulting, and more! YI’s headquarters moved to Babson College’s Olin Hatchery.  We are exploring U.S. expansion opportunities, as well as abroad. YI's StartUp Scrambles and consulting engagements are delivering at every level. We return to Washington D.C. from February 4-6th for the StartUp Scramble DC University Challenge with Ashoka’s Youth Venture, Touchstone Consulting, Community Wealth Ventures, mtvU, and more!

Life, Death, and Chicken: A New Years Resolution for 2011

There are many lessons I learned over the years about commitment and risk-taking as a youth activist, elite gymnast, and investment banker.  But a few weeks ago my strategy professor, a stalwart and rather jovial Indian fellow, prodded our class to answer the question, “How do you always win a game of Chicken?”

Tier 2 & 3 communities (smaller regional economies) in search of a new economic lifeblood must scrupulously assess how/where their economic development efforts, energy, and resources are channeled.  It's time to consider new approaches.

If over 99% of startups never see a first term sheet from a venture capital (VC) firm, then why do economic development leaders in "transitional" Tier 2 and 3 communities—regional economies struggling to reconfigure and revitalize economic identities--allocate precious time and resources to courting VC investment and committing capital to so-called innovation funds? Many regional leaders flaunt soft-core track-records of driving scalable change in any capacity.  Peel away this pasty approach to economic development; find communities partaking in hot 'n heavy burlesque shows to lure large companies to town with subsidized club entrance fees and private dances of financial incentives.  Motorboat approaches (that is, venture capital and Company Town strategies) to economic vitality are severely flawed...