Jeff Maurone

Our recent Demo Lab event

I was going to pen a summary of the six companies that presented at our recent MIT Enterprise Forum Venture Lab demo competition.  Seattle P-I venture capital reporter (and judge at our event), John Cook, beat me to it.  Take a look, I found more than one of these companies to be quite interesting.

My choice for top spot?  Overcast Media.

College bookstores are not entitled to profitability

Oh Villanova, I love you so.  But sometimes concerned alumni need to speak up and tell you when you start heading down the wrong path.  After I read this article, I couldn't help but get on my soapbox.

If you haven't read the article, the director of the Villanova University Bookstore is proposing a new university textbook policy: include book costs in tuition.  Students will see a rise in their tuition bills (another?) and can simply swipe a card at the bookstore and get all books for their classes for...free?  Sounding simple and efficient, this solution could make sense, right?

Wrong.  But before I get into that, let me say that I believe that universities constitute intellectual trusts and shouldn't be held to the same standards of profitability to which we hold corporations.  We shouldn't be charging students what it costs to administer courses and filling professors' every waking hour with classes. 

I don't believe that university bookstores deserve a piece of that intellectual trust.  Bookstores on campuses are utilities: they do the legwork to gather all of the books required for the aggregate of all classes offered at a university in a given semester.  Because they do that legwork, they deserve a premium in book pricing: charging full list price.  Students uninterested in doing the necessary legwork to gather all required course materials choose to, in effect, pay that premium by purchasing books at the university bookstores.  Students willing to do the legwork to gather the lowest priced versions of texts that they can find are given that opportunity through numerous alternative markets: used book shops, eBay, online textbook marketplaces, Amazon marketplace, fellow students, among others.  Seeking this best deal could, very well, drive university bookstores to insolvency, but such is the role of the invisible hand.

A plan whereby a university charges students the entire retail price for every book completely undermines this healthy -- and free -- book market.  Additionally, this system confounds the incentives of the professor-author.  Just think: if students are automatically charged for every book that a professor deems "required," why not write five books and require them all for a class, regardless of the value each adds to the discussion?

The university bookstore sees this and has answered with, "a number of proposed benefits to students, including lower costs, no waiting in long lines and one-stop shopping on campus."  Even for propaganda, this is weak. 

I urge anyone that could be affected by this change to resist it at all costs.  A change such as this cripples the ability of the free market to efficiently price books and, by extension, knowledge.

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Photo is from Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ [Link]

Startup Demo - Fall 2007

If you had a chance to attend our spring Demo Lab event at MIT Venture Lab, you saw six interesting and diverse presentations, some of which were never before demonstrated publicly.  The response to this event was enormous and so we've brought it back as our topic to close the fall 2007 season.  Below is the official marketing text and you can register here.

Thursday, December 13th, 2007
6:00 to 8:00pm
Doors open @ 5:30

"Startup Demo - Fall 2007"
One Union Square Boardroom
600 University St., First Level
(Lower lobby, 6th Avenue level, behind the escalator)
Seattle, WA 

Startup Demo is back by popular demand!  For years, the Venture Lab team has brought in outside speakers and industry leaders to share insight and wisdom with our attendees.  During that time, we’ve been able to meet our attendees and marvel at the cool ideas and companies they are building.  For our Startup Demo - Fall 2007, we’re turning the stage over to them, the entrepreneurs.

Our Startup Demo - Fall 2007 will feature 6 early stage startups from the Seattle area demonstrating their new products and services to the audience.  The products vary from enterprise software, DVD style commentary, web communities, and a three dimensional printer.  

If you’re interested in getting an early look at what could be the next big thing or you’re an entrepreneur that would like to see what your peers are up to, please join us at the Startup Demo - Fall 2007 event. 

In addition to their demo, presenters will discuss:

• How they built the product
• How the team funded the product development & how long it took
• What outside resources were leveraged
• Why the company was created in the first place

A review panel including VC and Angel investors along with the press will select a “winner”.  Judges include: John Cook - Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Eric Engleman - PSBJ, Nathan McDonald – Keiretsu Forum, Doug Strom - last June’s Demo event winner, and Erik Anderson - WestRiver Capital.

Presenters:

2Bot: They are the creators of a 3D printer that turns ideas into physical objects.

Athleon Sport: They have created a private website for sports team to ease communication and off-season training.

Talking Letter: The inventors of the “Talking Letter” will showcase the combination of pictures and web cams.

Teach Street: In a short amount of time, Teach Street has created an “eBay of aspirational learning”.

Doc Verse: They are the providers of a hosted solution combining a mailbox, fax machine, scanner, and file server.

Overcast Media: Their service, Overcastting, allows anyone to add DVD style audio commentary to TV shows, movies, and sporting events.

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Photo is from Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ [Link]