Growthology

Preliminary Look at 1 Million Cups

Yasuyuki Motoyama and I have a paper out today about 1 Million Cups (1MC), a program of Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation. 1MC brings together entrepreneurs weekly on Wednesday mornings--two startups talk about their businesses for about six minutes each, followed by Q&A for twenty minutes with the audience, which is compromised of anyone who wants to attend, typically other entrepreneurs, mentors, advisers, and other supporters of entrepreneurship. The program is free and as the name suggests provides ample coffee to attendees. We conducted a survey of attendees of the program back in November 2012, or roughly seven months after the program first launched in Kansas City.

There is a press release about the survey findings from Kauffman here; the paper is here; we have an article in Huffington Post about some high-level findings going up later today and I will update this post when it goes live. **Update: Huffington Post article is here. Last but not least, Jordan Bell-Masterson put together an interactive chart about some of the survey data about other Kansas City programs here.

I think the paper is particularly relevant for community organizers who are starting new programs, especially in small to medium-sized regions. I'm tempted to write more but it would just be regurgitating what is written elsewhere, so I'll just say check out the paper if you're interested in learning more.

Google Fiber and Troost

Brad DeLong posts a screenshot of the current Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO) Google Fiber neighborhoods map and highlights the stark green and yellow dividing line in KCMO. Interestingly, KCK is a little more geographically dispersed.

If you're unfamiliar with Google Fiber, it's in the process of pre-registering interest for the high-speed internet and TV service being piloted by Google in Kansas City. Google has set thresholds for individual neighborhoods throughout Kansas City for a set percentage of residents to pre-register their interest for the service by September 9. Residents in eligible neighborhoods pay a $10 registration fee (that goes towards the first months bill), and then 'compete' against one another for overall rankings, with the promise that the neighborhoods with the highest pre-registration percentages will be the first to receive service.

Here is a combined cap of both Kansas City, Kansas (KCK) and KCMO:

(you can see the maps for each city natively here).

Green = neighborhood has reached its goal
Orange = near goal, but not quite there
Yellow = not close to goal

Kansas City natives will recognize that vertical line separating the green and yellow in KCMO as Troost Avenue. Our own Kansas City Star had an article last week about the disparity, pointing to economic issues. This doesn't really make much sense to me because there is a free option--if you pay the installation fee ($300 spread over 12 months = $25 a month for 1 year), you can get free 5 mbps internet for 7 years. This comes out to internet access for 7 years for $3.57 a month (and with the option to upgrade service in the future). I need someone to explain to me why this is not a tremendous incentive to sign up for Google Fiber. This leads me to suspect the problem is more than economic; it's mechanical. You pre-register via the google fiber website. This creates a problem for households without existing internet access. 

FCC June 2011 Internet Access map (constant connections over 200 kbps--I have zoomed in to the KC area):

Troost also appears to be a dividing line for internet access, which naturally you might expect given the economics and additional monthly cost an internet connection brings. But in this case it's a huge mechanical issue. It might just be a problem for a service that is primarily targeting sign-ups through the internet. How exactly does Google expect people who don't currently have access to the internet to register for their service?

Google Fiber Announced

I've been travelling this week and was in the airport yesterday when the July 26 Google Fiber announcement hit. Google's entry into the internet service provider market is just a little over a month away.

The long-awaited pricing and packages were released--free internet (with installation fee), $70 for gigabit internet, or $120 for gigabit internet + TV. TIME points out the TV package is missing ESPN currently, a potential deal breaker for some.

You can "pre-register" your Kansas City area neighborhood to signal interest. If enough of your neighbors sign up too, you may be one of the first to receive service.

I am tremendously excited about this offering (I live in an eligible neighborhood). From a residential perspective, the TV + internet package is more than competitive with other service providers in the Kansas City area, primarily Time Warner Cable and AT&T. TWC and AT&T offer reduced introductory rates, but from personal experience, after those intro rates expire you will pay around the same as what Google is offering (I have not been as successful as Timothy Lee in securing continued promotional rates).

I really hope this ends up being a profitable venture.

News from Google Fiber - Kansas City

What looks to be a big announcement is coming on July 26. I have marked my calendar.

Maker Faire Kansas City

I will be at Maker Faire KC this weekend at Union Station (the Kauffman Foundation partially sponsors the event).

  by stevekc

If you live in Kansas City and have not been to a Maker Faire, you should go. If you have not been to Union Station, you should go.

For non-Kansas Citians, you can check out the main Maker Faire website to find when an event is being hosted near you.