Steve's Enterprising Ideas

I asked Mr. Fry for 500,000 dollars. I am still not sure if he agreed to fund me. Talking about my fake business plan was strange. These last days spent writing a business plan about a beer company despite the fact that I don't drink beer have been very tiring. I used to share a bathroom with my dad as a kid. I remember how the bathroom used to smell after he came home from the bar. I have never understood why people drink all that beer in bars. Why drink if you will just urinate out all the beer when you get home. The class presentation proved easier than I expected because it was conversational. However I kept talking about kids and beer. I meant college students over the age of 21. I have always hated public speaking. I managed to go through six years of college without taking that dreaded speech class. Some people were only asking for 10,000 dollars. You could raise that on minimum wage in America. I must admit that pretty much all our businesses were unrealistic loss makers. I recall one plan was about some detective urgency that specializes in lie detection face reading. A perfect answer to all our plans should have been; “dude, its been done”. How did Sam Adams do it? There was a plan about hiring taxi drivers. Uber long killed the taxi industry. I have new found respect people who take risks and establish businesses. I guess apps are the future. A lot of the plans presented were about this app that was going to end all apps.

I wish I was around during the dot com dot bomb era. Actually I was around at the time; I was just too young to cash in. However I have a vivid memory and can recall that pets.com sock puppet super bowl commercial. I also remember the next year’s super bowl which mocked that sock puppets demise. But Mark Cuban cashed in his chips at the top of that boom while our instructor sold at the bottom of the market. It must have been a strange feeling watching TV and seeing yourself lose money you didn’t have anyway. I am old enough to have received one of those AOL CD ROMS. I believe I received the last batch that was ever mailed out. I still have the colorful metal case it was mailed in. That should be one of the wonder of the 20th century; that a company was able to mail that many CD ROMS. The lecture used dinosaurs to illustrate that ERA. Many companies started off ahead and lost it all. I still cannot believe AOL had 30 million subscribers paying 25 dollars a month. Instead of offering their subscribers more reasons to stay, they inexplicably did nothing. Most of the services AOL offered on their website were increasingly offered for free by other website. The early 1990s era is best described as fast lose and out of control. There was an innocent beginning, a boom, and then insanity, and ultimately everything went bust. However, there was a crawl back to sanity, and another more justified boom. I slaved away at Amazon in December 2011. I am still mad at how I was treated there. I was treated as a cog in some big gear. On Christmas Eve, my boss called to offer me a job. Later that same day, he called and told me to tell my services were no longer needed. It was fun being reminded of dearly departed companies like Netscape.

Is Jim Kastama another influence peddler? Is he just another lobbyist traipsing the halls of the state capitol in Olympia? He used to be state senator here in Washington State who once rand on a dad’s rights campaign platform after a bitter divorce. There are many former legislators all over America who have pivoted and made soft landings as late career lobbyists. Like Trent Lott. Mr. Kastama says he is a strategy and technology consultant. So that is what the cool kids call old fashioned lobbying these days. He has managed to land some cool clients though. Like Lamborghini. What does that Italian manufacturer want in the Puget Sound anyway? Is Kastama a carbon fiber materials expert? The UW does however have a state of the aeronautics wind tunnel. But the man knows his stuff. He said he attend a business conference called Start-up weekends where he and others were able to implement a real business plan overnight! I am still plodding through mine. The process has been draining. He talked about six thousand dollar start-ups. He also encouraged us to attend A Million Cups. Mr. Kastama was not clear on how his government experience influences his consulting. Does he help businesses navigate red tape in Olympia? Does he specifically lobby for his clients or does he try to change laws to benefit all businesses.