The June 22, 2009 edition of Time magazine was a fabulous edition with excellent coverage and editorials filling its pages. The best article was the Postcard page highlighting a volunteer at Japan’s Tojinbo Cliffs, a story I later found out was previously covered by the BBC in October 2008.
Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, with one out of 5 men and women seriously considering taking his/her life. In the past, economic recessions have increased this count, a result being seen again in today’s economic environment.
“Shige says he’s talked more than 180 people down from the cliffs.” Harumi Ozawa / AFP / Getty
Yukio Shige, a retired policeman, has spent the last 5 years patrolling the Tojinbo cliffs, a place where many desperate folks come to commit suicide by jumping the 82 feet into the Sea of Japan. Since 2004 he has roamed the cliffs 2 or 3 times a day in hopes of finding these people in need, trying to dissuade them from the act. When successful, he takes them back to his counseling office, offers them tea, listens to their troubles, and then proceeds to help them resolve the issues including personally going with them to confront people. He has been funding his work through donations and his retirement funds, saving over 180 lives to date.
Inspirational!
What can we do to help others in these rough economic waters? Many of us obviously do not have the time or money to make an impact like Shige, but we definitely can do smaller acts. How about freely opening up the rolodex to make an introduction for a job seeking friend? Perhaps take time to visit with someone over lunch? Volunteer to help those in greater need? Try to better understand the depression others could be feeling and the best ways to respond? Inquire how you can be of assistance?
What are your thoughts?
The week of June 8th I spent some time volunteering with KCPW, a local public radio station. (Note, the week prior was spent at The Climber’s Ranch in Grand Tetons National Park. I wrote up my entry on the CragBaby site since the work was climbing related.) My volunteer work with KCPW was helping them move boxes and organize items in preparation for their first Rummage sale.
To be honest, it ended up being a weird volunteer experience for personal reasons irrelevant to this blog. However, I still wanted to briefly highlight KCPW as I truly enjoy their news coverage, have volunteered with them numerous times, and donated many times in the past.
KCPW, acquired by Wasatch Media last year, is a public radio station serving the Salt Lake Metropolitan and is supported mainly by donations. They provide an excellent line-up of programs, with my top favorites being the BBC, Morning Edition, and (of course) Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me. =)
They have a website, handful of blogs, twitter presence, and radio coverage at the frequencies of 88.3 and 105.3. If interested in volunteering, fill out this form and they will get in touch with upcoming activities.
With the current state of the economy, I am often asked by friends and acquaintances about the state of the venture capital environment. My response will usually address one of the topics below.
- Lack of Liquidity - One of the biggest issues is the current lack of liquidity. The venture capitalists’ job is to create a hopefully good return for their investors, with returns coming through such liquidation events as a merger, acquisition, or an initial public offering. For over the past year the public markets have essentially been frozen with the National Venture Capital Association actually proclaiming a “Capital Market Crisis“. As a result, there has been mention of an emerging secondary market for private stock. Thankfully, though, within this last quarter a handful of companies have gone public (I am not sure the total since the data is not yet out, but I want to say at least 2 or 3 companies with Open Table being the first).
- Difficult Fundraising Environment - Limited Partners have halted or stepped back from venture due to huge hits on their public investments, sometimes resulting in their portfolios experiencing the denominator effect. The combination of lack of liquidity and LPs holding their money close while the market stabilizes has resulted in fundraising being extremely difficult for anyone except top tier funds.
- Smaller Fund Sizes - Venture firms have reacted to this rigid environment by raising smaller funds.
- Some Changes in the Venture Players - There have been some VCs who have closed shop, but there are also new entrants (i.e. Javelin and Founder Collective).
- Innovators Continue to Innovate - The innovators keep creating, as they should. There are positives to this economic environment (for example lack of competition) as long as start-ups realize that funding is still out there, though perhaps a bit harder to find. If anything, this type of environment creates entrepreneurs that are wise and efficient with the capital raised.
While reading the private equity news the other day, I saw a link to an interview with Steve Jurvetson and Tim Draper. Nothing about the interview was too profound, but I enjoyed seeing these VC titans talking about the same trends I was seeing. I must admit that my favorite part was when Tim and Steve were continually questioned about different “important” financial and numbers, none of which relevant to the venture capital realm or these two investors.
Unfortunately I could not embed the video directly, but the above image is linked to the video feed.
After Q1 2009 ended, Fred Wilson posted a piece on his blog addressing a deeper dive into the VC numbers with the released data of the PriceWaterHouse Money Tree report. The essence of his post was to point out the headlines of sharp decline don’t always tell the whole truth as a deeper look into the numbers shows that certain regions are definitely affected more than others.
When he wrote that post I was intrigued to look further in the Southwest region, the main investment region for EPIC Ventures. I had looked out of personal interest right after Q1, but had not taken the time to post up on my blog. But with Q2 near completion, I thought I would post this information and follow up with Q2 analysis when the numbers were released later this month.
I used the same data as Fred and also annualized Q1 of 2009, creating similar charts but with the addition of the SouthWest region. (Note that MoneyTree Report defines the Southwest as Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. EPIC does invest out of this region but our offices are located in Utah and New Mexico and we do like to invest close to home.)
My percentage change in capital investment did quibble slightly with Fred’s data in the sense that I found the percentage drops to be a bit larger in each area. I believe the difference in our data is due to Fred using more estimations and I using exact calculations. (And if anyone is incorrect, it would be me.=)) I show that there were some fairly significant drops in each region: 57% in Silicon Valley, 54% in New England and 31% in New York. But interestingly, the biggest drop (out of the four charted above) was in the Southwest. Though it looks minimal on the chart, investments dropped from $471m in 2008 to an $160m estimate in 2009, creating a 66% decrease.
The deal flow saw a decrease, but not as significant as the capital invested. For instance looking at the decline of 2009 by the average number (not the 2008 only number which was used for the above capital percentage change), NY Metro was down by 13%. A notable drop, but not nearly as much as capital invested. Still the SouthWest region saw the largest decrease out of the four charted groups.
With Q2 numbers due in the near future, I am going to wait to opine on reasonings for this significant regional decline. However, feel free to post any thoughts or opinions in the mean time.
Previous to my climbing sabbatical, I would strive to volunteer on a weekly basis. This past Wednesday my 10-month trip came to a close and I immediately jumped back into my service regime as I truly had missed this weekly routine while away. In the past I have put up a few blog posts about volunteering and certain non-profits, but have decided to start posting where I volunteer each week in hopes of spreading the organization’s mission and encouraging others to get involved. (Note that I might post the updates between both my blogs, this one and the CragBaby, especially if I volunteer for the same organization two weeks in a row.)
This Week’s Service
This week I worked with the organization No More Homeless Pets in Utah, this being my first time to volunteer with this group. No More Homeless Pets in Utah’s mission is to end the euthanasia of dogs and cats in Utah and to promote humane alternatives for feral cats. They have a no kill policy, sheltering the animals until adoption. I was introduced to the group by my friend Melissa, a strong advocate for animal rights who regularly helps out NMHPU and has fostered pets.
Each week No More Homeless Pets brings the animals to either the West Valley or Taylorsville PetSmart (PetSmart has partnered with NMHPU) to try and find them a home with a shopper. NMHPU showcases their pets for the whole day, therefore needing volunteers to help walk and play with them. I showed up at 10:30am and stayed until 1:30pm, walking and playing with each animal as my friend and other volunteers (who had worked with this non-profit previously) spoke with customers about the pets. It was yet another fabulous volunteer experience.
Hanging out with my friend Melissa and Sparky, one of the dogs up for adoption. Sparky is a 9-month-old pit bull and a fabulous dog. He is completely mellow, a snuggler and great with other animals.
Interested in Helping?
There are many ways to help No More Homeless Pets in Utah.
- Adopt a Pet - The animals in this program are excellent animals, many of which have been pulled off of euthanasia lists due to their high likelihood for adoption. Adopting a pet through this program saves an animal from unnecessary euthanasia and gives another animal a second chance. You can view the available animals on Petfinder. Petfinder and the NMHPU also list which PetSmart the animals will be at that week so that you can meet and play with them in person.
- Volunteer - No More Homeless Pets is always in need of volunteers and lists their current needs on their site.
- Foster a Pet - With the no kill policy, No More Homeless Pets is often in need of additional temporary homes for dogs. Fostering a pet opens up more room for NMHPU to bring on additional animals. If interested in fostering a pet, visit this link.
- Donate to the Cause - Like many organizations, donations are needed to keep the organization going. The organization gladly accepts non-monetary donations such as toys, pet food, leashes and cleaning supplies.
- Vote for NMHPU to Receive A Grant - Rescue Site gives out grants to shelters. You can vote for No More Homeless Pets in Utah, using these instructions.
Staying Informed
If you want to stay up to date with the progress of NMHPU, you can read about their current events on their site, subscribe to their newsletter, or follow them on Twitter.
My email account has always been a pseudo to-do list that I actively attempted to work through. Last year I was turned to the idea of striving to achieve the zero inbox due to a tweet by Tim Walker exclaiming his current zero inbox mastery. Over the year I would occasionally hit the zero inbox in an individual account, but today I finally hit it in all my active email accounts, a true zen moment knowing that I have absolutely zero emails awaiting.
I have a handful of accounts, but pictured below are my two main accounts.
My empty personal email account. =)
My empty work account. =)
How To Achieve the Zero Inbox
There are a handful of strategies and techniques that can be implemented, but the following worked the best for me.
- Organize Emails by Type – Tim Walker writes a great post titled Inbox-Fu: The Mystery of Resadoth. Essentially you need separate your emails by type. Tim suggests folders, whereas I left them all in the inbox but would address each type in the appropriate order. Essentially you want to separate into “Read”, “Say”, “Do” and “Think” which Tim suggests addressing in reverse order. I noticed that in each email session I would address all 4 of the email types, always finishing by with a couple of the “read” emails.
- You Don’t Have to Answer – Just because you get an email, doesn’t mean you have to respond. If the email lacks a question or any reason to respond (besides a nicety), archive it.
- Be Succinct – Get to the point of the email briefly. It is easier for you to write and easier for your reader to respond.
- Set A Goal – Set a goal of how many emails to accomplish in a day and stick to it. If the goal is 20, complete ALL 20.
- Focus On One Task – Emails can be a time suck. Decide how long you want to work on the inbox, and focus solely on that task. When done, close down your email and work on another project.
- Emails Don’t Age Nicely – Unlike wine, emails don’t get better with time. If you haven’t responded to an email for 6+ months, it obviously isn’t important. Archive it.
- Utilize Your Mobile Phone – Have a couple minutes on the train? Waiting for someone to show for an appointment? Hurry and knock out a couple emails on your blackberry or mobile device. Make those spare minutes valuable.
Tim has written a handful of excellent posts on what he calls Inbox-Fu.
What about you readers? What techniques work for you?
The other day I came across the need to convert some mp4 files to mp3 and was actively reading up on freeware converters. Yet after reading some articles and installing the iTunes update, I discovered freeware isn’t even needed. Nice.
- Right click on the song you want to convert. (Or for us Mac users, ctrl + click)
- Choose Create MP3 Version
- Under Playlists a Convert icon will pop up that shows the process is taking place. A sound, similar to the upload completion sound, will chime when the conversion is completed and the icon will disappear.
- The file will automatically appear in your iTunes list. It will look the same as the other file, but by right clicking and looking at get info / summary / kind , you can distinguish between the two files.
My all time favorite volunteer experience is donating 
