50 Top Business Schools for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review announce this year's ranking of the top business school for entrepreneurs.  Babson College takes no. 1 for both undergrad and grad school.

2009 Best Schools for Entrepreneurs

25 Top Undergraduate Programs

1 Babson College
2 University of Houston
3 University of Arizona
4 Baylor University
5 Temple University
6 Drexel University
7 University of Dayton
8 DePaul University
9 City University of New York-Baruch College
10 University of Southern California
11 University of Oklahoma
12 Northeastern University
13 Syracuse University
14 Washington University in St. Louis
15 Miami University
16 University of Wisconsin-Madison
17 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
18 Brigham Young University (UT)
19 Xavier University (OH)
20 Loyola Marymount University
21 Ball State University
22 The University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa
23 University of Iowa
24 Washington State University
25 University of North Dakota

25 Top Graduate Programs

1 Babson College
2 University of Southern California
3 Drexel University
4 Tulane University
5 Rice University
6 Temple University
7 University of Washington
8 University of Arizona
9 DePaul University
10 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
11 University of Wisconsin-Madison
12 Syracuse University
13 Northwestern University
14 Monterey Institute of International Studies
15 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
16 University of Louisville
17 University of Illinois at Chicago
18 University of Chicago
19 Washington University
20 University of Oregon
21 Southern Methodist University
22 Rollins College
23 Simmons College School of Management
24 Wake Forest University
25 University of Missouri-Kansas City

Via PR Newswire.

Kevin Liles Leaves Warner Music Group, Goes Indie

The Warner Music Group has announced that "Executive Vice President Kevin Liles has decided to leave his day-to-day role at the company to pursue his own entrepreneurial opportunities. He will maintain a consulting relationship with the company."

Liles is quoted:
"In the past couple weeks I've made one of the most important decisions of my life -- to depart the Warner Music Group in order to focus more on new entrepreneurial endeavors in talent management, entertainment, media and my personal philanthropic and political passions."

I'm sure he'll have plenty of new business opportunities.

Here's a bit of excerpted bio on this major figure now making independent moves:

"Kevin Liles' ascent...began in 1991 when he undertook an unpaid internship for Def Jam in the Mid-Atlantic region. By 1993, he had become the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Manager and by 1998, after only seven years, Liles accepted the position of President of the Def Jam Music Group..."

"In addition to presiding over the label's artist roster and day-to-day business at Def Jam, Liles oversaw the diversification of the Def Jam brand, including establishing Def Jam South, Def Soul, Def Soul Classics, Roc-A-Fella and Murder Inc. He also led the brand-extension efforts and cross-marketing deals that linked Def Jam's name to movies, television, DVDs, clothing, financial services, mobile content and video games..."

"Following the merger that created the Island/Def Jam Music Group in 2002, Liles added the title of Executive Vice President of Island Def Jam Music Group to his resume...By 2004, Liles joined Warner Music Group as Executive Vice President and was part of the senior executive team when the company went public in 2005. As the lead executive behind the implementation of WMG's new 360-degree strategy for enhanced artist partnerships, Liles oversaw the expansion of the traditional record company role in the artist's career..."

"Throughout 2008, Liles was instrumental in assembling a coalition of like-minded entertainers who made strategic visits to swing states in the final weeks before the historic Presidential election...Liles serves as board member/advisor to Ogilvy & Mather Diversity Board, Harbor Bank, Healthcorps, SEED School of Maryland, New Yorkers For Children, Junior Achievement of New York and is a member of The Executive Leadership Council."

"He is the bestselling author of "Make It Happen: the Hip Hop Guide to Success" and oversees both Kevin Liles for a Better Baltimore, which invests in the Baltimore community, and the Make It Happen Foundation, which empowers African-American youth to succeed in the business world."

Official Site: Kevin Liles

Winners, Losers, Winners: Al Gore & Jonathan Abrams

Many have considered Al Gore, former Vice President, and Jonathan Abrams, Friendster founder, to be losers who were once winners.  But Al Gore's already made it back and is much richer and happier than before.  Jonathan Abrams also appears to be back on a successful trajectory.  These articles are from last month.  Guess what?  They're still relevant!

Fast Company's Ellen McGirt has a nice piece on Al Gore's rebranding success titled Al Gore's $100 Million Makeover:

One problem he had in politics, he says, was identifying an issue too early--"'predawn' is the term I use"--to be able to act on it. But "in the business world, particularly at a time when things are moving so swiftly, if you can see it early, you can make a business opportunity out of it." He pauses. "For whatever reason, the business world rewards a long-term perspective more than the political world does."

I already knew Gore was doing well but Max Chafkin's Inc. article, How to Kill a Great Idea!, clued me into Jonathan Abrams comeback, though it focuses on Friendster's death by expertise:

By the rules of Silicon Valley, Friendster--a bold idea backed by experienced investor and the best managers money could buy--was destined for greatness. Instead, it failed spectacularly. "I did what you're always told to do as a young entrepreneur," Abrams says. "I brought on experienced investors to help Friendster fulfill its potential. But the all-star team was the curse of death."

Unless he's trying to generate some artificial dramatic tension, Chafkin's closing remarks seem a bit clueless as to why Abrams can't describe his new project, Socializr, three years out (that's a fake and, possibly, foolish exercise for this kind of thing) or why Abrams would start a nightclub where he appears to rule (what's not to like?).  Sounds like a lot more fun than dealing with VCs and watching your reputation tank.

Update:
I'm probably being a bit hard on Mr. Chafkin, though I do believe the nightclub is a nobrainer and that making public statements about Web 2.0 projects three years in the future is a questionable endeavor.

But that doesn't mean that there is no longer value in thinking three years out, as long as you remember that at any point in the past ten years, almost anybody's three year vision didn't hold up.

We've finally moved into a period where our feedback mechanisms, from blogs to popular opinion to the stock market, are now fast enough that one can see that reality is complex and nonlinear without having to read Chaos or Linked or The Tipping Point.  That calls for a different approach to planning and, if you buy into Abrams claims about the death of Friendster, he's in a more appropriate mode than any of his former board members cause he's living in the present in a manner that puts him on the breaking edge.  And that's real in a time when traditional biz dev is being outflanked by open platforms with widgets.

Entrepreneur's Journey, Hip Hop Blogger Sold

Yaro Starak's Entrepreneur's Journey is a blog I've been checking out lately including this forum post on websites where sites and blogs are bought and sold.

I considered the websites for sale at SitePoint Forum and discovered this listing for Hip Hop Blogger which apparently went on sale earlier this month and is now the property of "Matt N." I don't know what the final price was, I doubt it was very much, but I think this is the first hip hop blog sale I've seen to date.

By the way, Yaro Starak's articles on doing biz on the Internet are also worth a look.

Art of the Start Author Guy Kawasaki Starts Blog

Guy Kawasaki, former important guy at Apple, cofounder of Garage Technology Ventures and author of The Art of the Start, now has his own blog called Let the Good Times Roll. Guy's smart and, if you're entrepreneurially minded, I highly recommend his book The Art of the Start.

Available from Amazon:
Guy Kawasaki - The Art of the Start

The Hustler's Spirit, Research & Networking

Hashim Warren relates the "hustler's spirit" of the Hip-Hop Generation to a research study finding that "Blacks and Hispanics with some graduate level education are the most likely groups to start a new business." Although it's another example of how the hustler mentality can be viewed in a positive light, Hashim's take is mostly speculative in relationship to this particular study.

If you want to follow up and check out more than the section to which Hashim links, the full study is called Entrepreneurship in the US: 2004 Assessment and was produced by Paul D. Reynolds, Director of Florida International University's Entrepreneurship Research Institute.

In related news, WSJ's Startup Journal has an article on Networking Resources For Entrepreneurs.

Venture Voice Interviews CD Baby Founder Derek Sivers

Venture Voice is an interesting and useful series of podcast interviews primarily with entrepreneurs and a few venture capitalists.  The shows can be downloaded as MP3s and there are also brief transcripts that will give you an overall idea of what was discussed.

Most of the entrepreneurs can be described as Web 2.0 types, i.e. they're involved with web services such as blogging and podcasting.  However, their most recent interview is with Derek Sivers, the creator of CD Baby who's built an operation that started as a way to sell his own cds online into a company of 50 employees doing around $25 mil in revenue with no venture capital at all.

Sample quotes:
“Was working inside the music industry just enough to know I didn’t like that side of things.”
“The joke is that CD Baby is run with all the corporate formality of Bob and Jimmy’s tackle shop in Key Largo.”

Severs advice for starting a [web?] business:
“Just give yourself a 10 day deadline, and just launch it . . . with almost no features.”

Actually he's got a very Web 2.0 attitude, which I appreciate.  More importantly, it seems like every announcement I've heard about the development of the company, such as the recent online alliance with Best Buy, always seems like a positive move for the artists who use the service as well as for the company itself.

Although I haven't worked with CD Baby and haven't talked with anyone who's used their service, from all outside appearances, they would be one of the companies I would want to work with if I was an independent artist putting out cds and digital tracks.

They also have a webhosting service for musicians called HostBaby that looks pretty cool.

Official Site: CD Baby

Thoughts on Mobile Content Biz Opportunities

I was recently contacted by a writer working on a piece for Black Enterprise that wanted some short statements about business opportunities in the mobile scene, possibly because of the mobile hip hop channel on which I'm working. Unfortunately, my comments aren't going to be included for various reasons, which happens periodically with such interviews. The reality is that writers start out with a plan and have to adjust to circumstances, which I fully understand.

Nevertheless, I think I got into some interesting territory before we had to cut things off. So here are some initial thoughts I developed about mobile business opportunities with an emphasis on small business folks, including why I'm trying to get in at this point:

For the moment, people really are just looking for what will work beyond voice, text messaging and ringtones and dealing with the fact that the phones and services are constantly improving.  So that means things like mobile video, which I'm getting into, are just starting to take off and have a long ways to go.  One of the big things I got out of attending the recent CTIA Wireless conference in San Francisco is that prices for video enabled mobile phones only recently dropped below a hundred bucks and that's when the big players started seeing a substantial rise in subscriptions.

That said, I think we're very much in the early stages and folks who are getting in now may not see a return on their investment anytime soon. But I think mobile content is going to be big and if you have content, finding a way to start getting it onto a mobile platform or at least preparing for that time is important.

I think there will be opportunities at all levels but I'm really fascinated right now by all the services emerging to get content online without going through the carriers because that's what will allow lots of little guys to make their content available at this stage.  Actually there are announcements almost every week of new developments in that respect but it's hard to sort out and keep up with, especially for content creators and people who haven't been following developments. I try to post relevant press releases at Hip Hop Press, even when they aren't specifically hip hop related, because I feel that hip hop business people will find that of use.

The big thing right now is to get in and figure out what's happening, whether just keeping up with the news and checking out mobile apps or getting involved with a mobile project.

I got started providing a simple news feed for Mobile Lingo's Hip Hoptionary app.  That gave me the opportunity to see what some of the limits are and to work with a company that could get their apps on the carriers' platforms, which is a really big deal right now.  Working on that project, which is only now going public though we started back in the summer, allowed me to initiate a process of thinking through what kind of content I could provide.  So now I'm reaching out to folks and seeing if there's sufficient interest among independent and small label hip hop artists for me to aggregate video clips for a mobile hip hop channel that would be available by subscription.  And I'm keeping up with developments and thinking everyday about what else might work.

In addition to things like getting one's own content online and aggregating other people's content, I think there's a role for people who can help artists get their work on mobile platforms.  For example, someone could offer a service where they take an artist's content and help them make the transition to a mobile platform.  So a musical group might have a cd and video that could then be repurposed for mobile tracks, ringtones, videos and so forth.  But not all content ports well to mobile phones, video being a great example of something that's really different on a tiny screen.  So their role might be to facilitate that process with an awareness of not only what works on cell phones but also which outlets would be most appropriate for that content.

I think there will be a lot of opportunities for folks who can help small businesses look at what's possible on mobile platforms and make that transition in a way that makes sense for that business.

I also think it's important for people to establish a strong presence on the Internet and to understand the best way to present content online. Not only is that basic at this point, it also opens up the possibility of creating a WAP site and getting onto people's phones from that angle. Though it's always a pain to repurpose content, creating a free WAP site means that you can be an option for people with Internet enabled phones. Since a lot of people are getting their email on mobile devices, providing an email newsletter that's short would be another way to have a mobile presence.

Of course, that opens up all sorts of possiblities for offering services that help folks with an online presence create related sites or newsletters for mobile users.  Since many online sites are ad supported via ad networks, as are my sites, the possiblity of developing ad networks for free mobile content also seems like an interesting possibility.

Right now it all seems kind of clunky and awkward and early which makes it exciting and a good time to establish a base for future growth.  In my own case, starting this mobile hip hop video channel is going to take a huge amount of work without any guaranteed payoff and I have more than enough of that happening already.  But I just can't resist the opportunity to get in on the groundfloor.

If you're interested in having your hip hop music video on the mobile hip hop channel that's under development, check out the info and write me at:
mobile(at)prohiphop(dot)com

I'll be sending out updated information in the next couple of weeks about where that's going.

Making a Living in Music

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting overview of some of the job possibilities in the music industry and the reality that a lot of folks have multiple gigs to pay the bills.

For example, Dave Weissman "works part time as a promoter for a galaxy of bands playing styles from world music to horn-based funk. He also labors at music festivals and works on his own blue-sky vision of a worldwide database of musicians who love informal jam sessions."

As Weissman puts it:
"It's a little like spinning plates . . . You have to keep a bunch of them going at once, at least in the music industry."

On the Fringes: Liberian Wheelbarrows

The NY Times' Lydia Polgreen profiles an entrepreneurial wheelbarrow owner in Liberia who bought the wheelbarrow for $25 raised by "selling anything he could find on a tray he built from scrap wood." Now he sells from the wheelbarrow and contemplates buying another "because business is good."

In a devastated economy, wheelbarrows have also become the chief form of transport for goods in the city and those operating such services are unionized and part of a "highly organized business. The wheelbarrows are numbered and lettered, indicating their zones of operation, and the fees for certain kinds of loads are fixed."

Venture Capital Site Review: alarm:clock

I'm doing a series of reviews of free online resources related to venture capital for a course I'm taking on Info Sources in Business. We're posting them at a blog also called Info Sources in Business and students are reviewing a wide range of business websites. I'll also be posting my reviews here at ProHipHop for folks interested in venture capital. They'll tend towards the dry side but should give you a basic idea of the pros and cons of each site from a librarian's perspective.

Review:
alarm:clock is a venture capital news blog that combines discussion of individual news items, profiles of emerging companies and roundups of relevant headlines in multiple daily posts. The focus is on "new tech ventures" however that focus includes ecommerce and content sites as well as software, hardware and web services so the range of companies covered is quite broad.

I find that alarm:clock picks up the major stories I would expect based on following other sources and adds commentary and analysis that suggests some insight into the topics covered. In surveying the various automated news services as well as free edited sources, I find the range of articles and news items more complete than most other freely available sources.

The company profiles are fairly unique and alarm:clock is currently organizing those by theme. For example, a recent series of profiles considered weblog networks, various groupings of weblogs either independent or owned by the network that work together in various ways, primarily to offer advertisers a single entity with which to buy adspace. Based on my own knowledge of this topic, one that I have been following for a few years, I was impressed by their brief descriptions and analyses of the companies. I was also introduced to companies that I have not seen covered in the weblog news services, so I was suitably impressed.

The overall appearance of the site is pleasantly simple and easily readable. A basic search feature is offered and archives are organized by date and category. In addition to going to the site, one has an option of signing up for a free newsletter version or subscribing via an xml feed. A short link list of high quality venture capitalist blogs is offered and each blog is identified by the vc blogger and the venture company with which he or she is primarily associated.

My primary concern is that the authors are not identified and their about statement does not explain why they do not identify themselves. They do describe themselves as having extensive experience with new technology ventures. Since they also have a call for communication from "moles" within companies, i.e. informers who would remain unidentified, one assumes that they are writing anonymously in order to maintain their ability to speak freely and continue other activities unimpeded.

Nevertheless, since alarm:clock is a blog and they do link to the news sources about which they write, one is able to verify individual items. Since they do a great job of aggregating news and profiling companies, individual users would have to access the added value of their analysis.

I gave alarm:clock a score of 4 out of 5 because, though it is an excellent resource, the authors are unidentified without a clear explanation and there are currently numerous spammy comments that have been posted over the last week and a half. Since new comments are easy to monitor using Movable Type, which alarm:clock is using, and the authors have been posting regularly, this monitoring lack undermines their professional appearance.

Podcasting Business Models

The September issue of online research publication First Monday features a paper entitled Podcasting: A new technology in search of viable business models by coauthors Sheri Crofts, Jon Dilley, Mark Fox, Andrew Retsema, and Bob Williams.

The paper includes a bit of history and an overview of podcasting technology followed by the social, commercial and legal context for podcasting before getting into issues related to business models.

The authors focus on business models for "nanocasters" or folks doing podcasting for niche audiences with commercial intent. They identify and discuss a variety of possiblities for generating revenue:
Sponsorships
Advertising
Listener donations
Cooption
(Paid) subscription models, for aggregators
(Paid) subscription models for individual podcasters
Infomercials
The star maker machinery

In their conclusions, they add this note regarding independent podcasters:
"Given the ease with which podcasts can be created, the only true barrier to entry — or at least a barrier to generating a sizable listener base — is product differentiation. Given the ease with which podcasts can be subscribed to and discarded, consumers are only going to tolerate podcasts that appeal to them. This creates a challenge for new podcastsers — how to differentiate their podcast from the thousands of others already on the Internet. Clearly focusing upon a niche area in which one has significant expertise is one means of doing this. However, as with traditional radio, insightfulness, entertainment, and creativity will be necessary to create audience interest and a listener base of any significant size"

Overall I'd say the paper's a solid effort at sketching out some of the basic issues in professional podcasting with a relevant bibliography that includes live links. It should be particularly useful for those needing an introduction to podcasting or for those who are thinking through issues related to making money via podcasting as well as other forms of online publishing.

In related news, two recent research studies had conflicting views of who's actually listening to podcasts.

New Ventures: Trina's Modeling Agency, J's Southern Xpress, Big Pun Clothing Line

Trina is starting a modeling agency called Diamond Dolls to "uplift women with self-esteem issues." She also has an upcoming album, plans for a perfume line, a clothing line and a role in a sitcom.

Mona Scott of Violator Management is opening J's Southern Xpress, a new restaurant in Manhattan. I'll have another slice of Ma Dell's Red Velvet Cake please! Official Site: J's Southern Xpress

Big Pun's family is launching the Big Pun Clothing Line to be available at Big Pun's Shop.

Rap-Up Magazine Tries Round Three

The NY Times' Felicia R. Lee updates the Rap-Up magazine story with a look at the young, white, male, suburban, entrepreneurial owners and founders who are also brothers, Devin and Cameron Lazerine. You know, there are multiple angles here and they all seem kind of hackneyed but maybe I'm just feeling a bit jaded today.

I find it most interesting that Rap-Up started as a website created by Devin Lazerine when he was 15. He's also the brother most often photographed for features about Rap-Up. Apparently the magazine went through various permutations and waves of media coverage before the current self-funded version launched as a quarterly in March.

The first time out, H&S Media "agreed to launch Rap-Up as an ad-free bimonthly in the summer of 2001, and handed Devin, then 16, free rein over the edit." But something happened with H&S and they had to sell off their magazines to Kappa Publishing who dumped Rap-Up, which had only published one issue.

According to The Times, Rap-Up "was resurrected in 2003 as an insert in the magazine Urban Teen Scene and attracted media attention - often because of the brothers' age and race - in places like USA Today and The Los Angeles Times." That was also a one issue endeavor.

So now Rap-Up is back as a project of the Lazerine brothers, with the first issue funded by $35k from savings and a mom-grant, typical sources of funding for startups. Having beaten their prior record by putting out a second issue, they are now working on the third.

Lee reports that, "Rap-Up is not audited, but the brothers say that the magazine is already being sold in more than 20 countries and its outlets include Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, Borders and Tower Records. The spring issue had a circulation of 42,000, according to reports from their distributors and wholesalers. The summer issue circulation jumped to 80,000, they said."

Oddly enough, though they describe their family as entrepreneurial and brother Cameron says that the "ultimate goal is to keep doing it after we graduate", Devin the originator states, "We did not start this to make money off of hip-hop."

I'm not sure what that means coming from a college kid who was already saying at 18 in Entrepreneur:
"My ultimate goal . . . is to become a music mogul/entrepreneur, which includes becoming a producer, owning my own recording label, clothing line and magazines."

I guess it's one of those things that business people learn to say as they get older in order to demonstrate their purity as they rake in the dough.

Official Site: Rap-Up

Update: Hashim Warren cuts to the chase and points out that white people in hip hop just isn't really something to be astonished by anymore. Plus, he raises an important question:
"So why does there mag deserve to be profiled in the NY Times over let's say Bridgez Mag, which has founders who are the same age as Rap Up, only they're Latino, not White?"

Official Site: Bridgez Mag

Update 2: The anonymous author of Music Filter confirms what many must have thought when reading Lee's comments that Rap-Up "tends to read like a hip-hop-drenched People magazine, with Barbara Walters-like questions. For instance, in an interview that ran under the title 'The Ultimate Hustla,' the singer Cassidy is asked if he could battle anyone, living or dead, who would it be? What is the one thing people don't know about him that he'd like them to know? And does he prefer the Sony PlayStation Portable or Game Boy Advance SP?"

As MF puts it:
"the softball interview questions cited above could have just as easily appeared in most of the mainstream music publications currently out there (not just rap-related)."

Small Biz Articles at BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek's Small Biz section mostly features short pieces that will help introduce you to a topic or give you something to think about, rather than an in-depth look at an issue. And that can be a good thing. I find BusinessWeek especially fun for daydreaming and brainstorming new ideas.

BusinessWeek also occasionally provides hip hop related content. For example, a recent Small Biz article focused on graffiti artist Fernando Carlo, aka Cope or Cope2, who's now working for corporate ad agencies. He's also designed a sneaker for Converse and has a character in Marc Ecko's upcoming game, Contents Under Pressure.

Other articles of interest:
Modern barbers offer upscale shops, services - changing with the times
Indie Bookstores' Survival Stories - finding niches
A New Slant on Inline Skates - from concept to company

Plus, a cool piece on freelance innovators that are combining web services to make what are described as a new form of mash-ups. And a special section on entrepreneurs starting businesses in small towns to take advantages of lower costs, tax breaks and lifestyle benefits.