Congratulations K-Diagnostics - Winner of the North Bay iHub Business Plan Contest.

The inaugural North Bay iHub Seed Round Business Plan Competition just drew to a close. The winner, San Rafael based K-Diagnostics has a sleep apnea diagnostic and monitoring medical device. How exciting! K-Diagnostics plans to move to the SMBC (Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster) and hopes to have as many as 30 employees within a few years.

The other finalists:

• GOasis - Santa Rosa - mobile, self-contained, energy-efficient emergency shelters
• E3 - Sebastopol - bio-methane from municipal waste
• Barrier Free Adventures - Petaluma - mobile & internet travel information for disabled travelers

Clearly there are lots of entrepreneurs in the North Bay with compelling ideas.

There were lots of winners in this contest:

• Sonoma, Marin, and Napa Counties -- we need entrepreneurship to spur our economy
• The SMBC that sponsored the contest and gained a new incubator tenant
• Sonoma State and Dominican University that inspired many of the entries
• the Event Sponsors including the North Bay Angels (K-Diagnostics gets to pitch at the NBA's regular July meeting if it wants)

But the biggest winners are all of the 36 companies that participated in the contest. Each was assigned a mentor by the SMBC/iHub. The business plan competition gave the companies a compelling reason to take their business planing to a new level. I mentored a very early stage company/idea. My company did not make the finals...but the team said the process was worthwhile. That is what is important. I only hope that my contribution was helpful.

But, right now we give K-Diagnostics a moment in the spotlight. Great job!

Full Disclosure: I am on the SMBC board of mentors and recently became an Entrepreneur in Residence at the SMBC.

Twitter: @jroym

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

It rained this week. In June. It never rains in Northern California in June. Rain only falls from October to April...maybe May. Never in June through September. What is going on?

A picnic I was planning to go to this weekend was cancelled because of a high chance of rain. I cannot remember that ever happening before. I am pretty sure that the rest of the country deals with it differently. In much of the country, it rains in any month. So...people put on events rain or shine. Ideally with alternate arrangements for rain.

I remember crouching under a table with dozens of others during a downpour at the South Carolina Oyster festival in Columbia, SC. The storm came and went. We came out from under the tables, laughing, having gotten to know a few strangers. Ironically, it was fun - and since I am telling this story, clearly memorable.

So...the rain is frustrating. We yearn for our warm summer weather. But, frankly, we in Northern California need to get over ourselves.

Snowcamping! Woo hoo!

I know my blog is mostly about work...but even professionals need to take a long holiday weekend!

I am off to Crocker Point in Yosemite (this guy is not me-the hair gives it away) for 3 days, 2 nights of snowcamping. My pack is packed. My snowshoes are ready. Time for an adventure! And when I return I will be all the more energized for having taken a break.

If you think I am crazy...checkout www.snowcamping.org. I have taken training. I have helped train people to do this. I used to be an assistant leader on these trips. I know what I am doing...because, folks, don't snowcamp if you don't have the right gear and don't know what your are doing. People die. But not me...I will just have 3 glorious days in Yosemite.

Woo hoo!

Twitter: @jroym
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jroymartinez

Joining the Facebook Juggernaut

I have been resisting having a Facebook account for a long time. Mostly for personal reasons that I won't get into here. But, I have really embraced the social media revolution. I use LinkedIn constantly. I have a blog. I tweet. So...why the resistance to Facebook?

I guess I have trouble with the collision of worlds. My work world is buttoned down. I don't want my personal life to feel the same way (not that my personal life is wild by any stretch of the imagination). But I realize that the best work relationships are also personal. And...haven't the work world and personal life already collided? I need to ask that when I am checking my iPhone at 6AM for work-related emails. I need to face it...in the 21st century work and personal life intermingle continuously.

So...I set up a Facebook profile this morning. I invited my direct family and a few friends. Because I am careful, I set my security restrictions very high. Facebook wants users to start loose and tighten over time (or...heck...keep 'em wide open). I prefer to set high security and loosen it as I become more comfortable and learn how to build safeguards into my profile. I won't click "Like" until I figure out what that means. I did post my first "status update". But, I do this all the time on LinkedIn and Twitter, so it is no big deal.

OK...so no more wearing that "Party Naked" t-shirt.  At least not when cameras are around. Truthfully, I don't actually have one, as anyone who knows me knows. But, you get the point. I have to watch out...my future employer may be watching at all times now. So is my wife. So is my daughter. My personal life will go on more display now. And...once something is on the internet, it may always be in the public sector. I am out of my comfort zone. But, often getting out of one's comfort zone is a good thing.

Social media is here to stay. It is valuable and amazingly effective. I still believe that the Facebook quasi-monopoly will eventually crack. The Microsoft one certainly did. But at least for now...I need to be on Facebook...so I am.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jroymartinez
Twitter: @jroym
Facebook: facebook.com/jroym

Marketing Opportunity -- Training the Unemployed - For FREE!

At a Proformative event in San Francisco today I made a bold suggestion. 

I approached Paul Turner, senior director of Product Marketing at NetSuite and Rob Hull, Founder of Adaptive Planning -- two of the hottest small/medium business software companies. I suggested that they train unemployed business executives for FREE.  Here is what I said:

I really think Netsuite has a huge opportunity to do some long-term marketing and to build some incredible good will in the financial community.

Right now, due to the Great Recession, there are thousands and thousands of senior business managers without jobs. Few have experience with Netsuite. Most have used Quickbooks, GP, etc. At some time in their career, most will participate in the decision about an ERP/CRM/accounting implementation.

It would be great if Netsuite took a long-term view and treated this situation as an opportunity. Netsuite could develop a formal program to train those out of work finance managers on the Netsuite product free of charge. Then...when they are employed again, and they will be employed again, they are much, much more likely to recommend Netsuite when it comes time to upgrade accounting, ERP, etc.

This was a bold suggestion. Offer training for free. But...the value is clear. Both Paul and Rob clearly "got it". They expressed cautious interest in the idea. We will see if their organizational view is long-term enough to embrace it.

Twitter: @jroym

My quotes in an article this week in the Silicon Valley Business Journal

My quotes in an article this week in the Silicon Valley Business Journal

I was quoted in the Silicon Valley Business Journal this week. The SVBJ won't let me post the entire article, but here are the paragraphs in which I am quoted. The article is about YCombinator giving $150K to each of the companies that participate in its incubator program.

Startups get $150K each to help bring products to market

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - by Jon Xavier

Date: Friday, February 4, 2011, 3:00am PST

http://bit.ly/eazJTl

Even with the incubator’s strong reputation and heavy hitters, it remains to be seen whether other incubators will try to court similar investments. That will depend on how successful the current crop of Y Combinator startups in the next few years. Regardless of the outcome, Y Combinator continues to be ahead of the curve, said J. Roy Martinez, chair of the angel investment group North Bay Angels.

“Y Combinator really has reset the bar, raised the expectations for what an incubator should offer,” Martinez said. “I mean, I’ve heard at least one incubator being told, ‘Why can’t you be more like Y Combinator?’ So they continue to raise the bar, they continue to innovate, and more power to them, I say.”

Twitter: @jroym