Future Entrepreneur/CS Major with Motivation and IDEAS seeking likeminded individuals

[keithcal]

Do you shudder at the thought of sitting at a computer writing code from 9 to 5 until you're 65?
Is your heart set on the corner office instead of the corner cubicle?
Would you like to be able to retire early so that you can pursue a career that really satisfies you?

Yahoo! was started by two guys in a trailer on Stanford's campus, and they were old. As college students we're already behind the curve. If we want to take advantage of our skills and creativity, we need to start networking and act now. We dont have to be the best in our fields to create. We just have to be motivated and innovative, able to look outside the box, and ready to jump on anything that comes our way.

Send me an email or give me a call, even if you dont match my energy and enthusiasm about all this, even if you'd just like to talk about it and share some ideas. Most of my thoughts for future projects are net-based, but I'm open to anything you've got to offer.

Keith Callenberg
kmcallenberg@csupomo na.edu
909.260.5502

[cppgrl]

What kind of business do you want to start? Web design? Tech support? E-business? Do you have anything solid in your plan? I am just wondering

[keithcal]

Nothing solid yet, I'm looking to collaborate with other people to think up something unique. i've done webdesign and tech support, and ran two separate mini-businesses doing that, but that's old news... those fields are saturated. The things I'm thinking about focus on taking advantage of the new net. I have a feeling that FTTH (fiber to the home) is coming up on us much sooner than we think. When it hits, the entire order of things will change rapidly and it's that sort of change that allows the small players, the start-ups, and entrepreneurs to flourish.

[Admin]

Originally Posted by keithcal

Do you shudder at the thought of sitting at a computer writing code from 9 to 5 until you're 65?
Is your heart set on the corner office instead of the corner cubicle?
Would you like to be able to retire early so that you can pursue a career that really satisfies you?

Yes! Yes! And YES!! This is why I like the forums.
You've mentioned that web designing business is saturated but that does not mean that one can not be successful in that field. If you know who your target market is, can offer better results and extras compared to your competitor and have a strong business plan, your business can stand out from others. (Off-topic: Physics and Contact page in your homepage is broken.)

Jerry Yang and David Filo are not old. They are not in their 40s and that is a young age to run a corporation.


Are you only seeking CS majors or a team of different majors?
Do you have something planned out and on papers? I am interested in what you have in mind.
Good luck in your venture.
Have you registered for the 2004 CES Conference or decided not to go?

[keithcal]

I agree, there is definitely still a market for webdesign. There are far too many studios focusing almost entirely on aesthetics, and I think we've consequently reached a slow point in the progression of the web's functionality. We're not all that far beyond that stage about a year ago when every site you visited had an almost contentless flash intro. A smart business might take advantage of this lapse. I think my initial reaction to cppgrl's suggestion that I might be considering a webdesign company was due to my unresolved frustration from my previous attempt at doing so (in which I, a skinny high school student, unsuccessfully took to cold-calling and solicitation).

In reference to your off-topic note, I previously served that site from my own machine (a linux box w00t!) which has php installed... cpp's server does not, thus the non-functionality. I wish the firewall didnt have such lame restrictions or I'd continue to serve it myself.

Nothing written out yet, my ideas are still rather abstract. Posting about "ventures" like this might be premature, but kids I know from my HS graduating class are working on projects for Time Warner and IBM... I must compete.

I did register for CES, and I'll probably join sceta so that I can go with those guys. Do you still plan to go?

[Admin]

Yeah, I'm joining SCETA too. Did you receive an e-mail from SCETA president regarding the trip and commute?

And what is this FTTH technology you are talking about?

[cppgrl]

Originally Posted by KayCee

Yeah, I'm joining SCETA too. Did you receive an e-mail from SCETA president regarding the trip and commute?

And what is this FTTH technology you are talking about?

Kaycee, go to google.com and type ftth and you'll find tons of info.

[Admin]

I need cliff notes.

Originally Posted by cppgrl

Kaycee, go to google.com and type ftth and you'll find tons of info.

[keithcal]

cliffed:

speeds from OC3 (155mbits/sec) to OC12 (622mbits/sec) for end users

the implications: cable tv, telephones, cd/dvd media (and eventually local hard drives), among others will be obsolete...

though the future structure of the system is well debated, i've heard it may be get rid of ISPs, and therefore be a system owned by the people, similar to a municipality

might also make cpu sharing a more appealing concept....

trials in palo alto started as early as 2001 @ 100mbit/sec

[cppgrl]

dude, if you are serious about this whole deal, you need to build a business plan and start from there. It helps you to put things together and collect funding for your business. Most of the times, ppl do want to see your business plan.

[Admin]

FTTH seems like a very new technology that most households and consumers are not even aware of. It would be great to learn ahead of others but how do you manage to get in that business?

And about the webdesigning business, are you planning on doing it as a side job (for friends and relatives) or as your source-of-income business?
And what skills do you have in web designing?

[keithcal]

When I brought up FTTH I was referring to how it would change things. An internet without bandwidth limitations is completely different from one where you constantly have to consider how many seconds your site will take to load. There will be entirely new genres* created for new businesses, it is one of these I wish to take advantage of, hopefully before they even manifest themselves.

I think you also misinterpreted me when I said I agreed with you about there being a market for webdesign. There is a market, and there are ways to be the best in that market, but I'd rather think more in terms of creating my own market, not dealing with one that's already got quite a bit of competition.

Maybe I should rename this thread to something like, "Looking for people with tech-related business ideas to share." I think the formality of my subject caused you guys (kaycee and cppgrl) to think I really had some sort of polished and printed vision of what I had in mind and that I was already making job offers or something. I don't... though I wish I did!

*Here are a few of the genres I think will yield some $$$ in the near future:
digital books: amazon's huge new Search Inside the Book project, though specifically aiming to enhance tangible books, is a big step toward ebooks.. new software/hardware for making them more enjoyable and easier to read may be appropriate.
search engines: currently inadequate. They need more than a facelift for an internet without bandwidth limitations, they need to be wholly recreated. Even google only catalogs approximately 4 billion of the web's tens of billions of estimated pages, and the web is only one factor of the protocols that create the net.
music distribution: mp3s are in such controversy because the old, inefficient system is too fat, greedy, and unable to accept the approaching revolution... something needs to be done to get money to the artists, but $1/song is not the solution, nor is the interface for the sites (napster,itunes,etc) that offer this.

See.. all i've got are ideas, places to begin.. nothing to jump on, especially as a student without capital. I don't naively think that I can just startup a company to compete with amazon's project or help lay fiber to homes, but I think even picking up the crumbs that these projects leave behind would be sufficient for a business idea... maybe I'll be their janitor.

[Admin]

I got you know...you shouldn't worry about having enough capital. In the future, if you are confident and can show a near-bulletproof plan, you can attract interested investors.

Doesn't the author and the publisher have the full rights to the digital copy of the books? Therefore, if we want to make money, we can only be the reseller? Maybe I should check out amazon first.

Google search engine is the most advanced search engine available. The reason why only a certain amount of websites have been indexed and not the entire www direcotry is because 1) that is the number of websites the authors submitted to Google search engine, 2) website that break Google TOS is removed and banned from the search engine directory , 3) websites that is not revised in a long period of time (let's say more than 1 year) can be removed from the directory, 4) and many more reasons.

I doubt any competitors or new-entry companies can even compete with Google. They can try but Google will most likely be ahead of the game with further development and what not, unless a new technology will be introduced.

Thanks for introducing the forthcoming technology to us.
Please update us in the future so some of us can grab a breadcrumb of the business.

[orangecounty58]

im cool working for an engineering company and blowing up things one should never limit themselves, but also need to pay the bills. why im 80% sure my next degree will be in law, good to be diverse.

[Admin]

Why not 100% in law?
Maybe someday, I'll learn how to talk and write like a lawyer.