Hey all, I’m moving over to Tumblr because I like it better.

You should follow me on Tumblr – TrevorOwens.tumblr.com
and on Twitter – @TO2

Thanks to Simon Yu for this.

Inspired by this post written from the perspective of a 28 year-old. I turn 22 this month and don’t plan to ever have a traditional job after I graduate.

1. Opportunity Cost is lowest right now (mortgage, kids, relationships, etc. make it tougher to take risk)
2. People (and VCs) are biased towards young entrepreneurs
3. It’s easy to find mentors when everyone is older than you
4. You can always move-in with your parents if something goes wrong
5. Your at a pivotal time in your life when learning and dreaming is still easy, your beliefs and attitudes are still malleable
6. Failing early and failing often will accelerate your progress as an entrepreneur
7. You are on the same level as other young entrepreneurs, more likely to meet tomorrow’s startup rock-stars

Mint is free online personal finance software. The company was recently acquired by Quicken creator Intuit for $170M, only two years after launching.

I think it’s public knowledge that Microsoft Money and Quicken suck… I’ve used them before and they are just inconvenient (my mom’s friend even took a class to be certified in Quicken… here’s a tip: if your software needs to certify people to use it, that means it’s too hard to use and you need to fix it). I find it odd no one has made something better, that’s automated and easy to use, until Mint.

So whenever I think about startups or other companies, I always want to know about the founder. I want to know about their motivation, inspiration, and obstacles. Here are some points I liked from this awesome interview with Mint founder Aaron Patzer.

• He spent a lot of $$$ on the domain Mint.com and on professional graphic design to get customers to trust him with their financial information.
• Winning the TechCrunch40 in 2007 was a key factor in Mint’s success (especially from a morale standpoint).
• Aaron’s mindset when he started the company, “If I give it 100% and fail, I can live with that.  But I can’t live with going half-way, part-time.”
• Aaron worked his butt off with little web development knowledge or business experience. No time management hacks, just will power.

Things to think about: Did Aaron sell too early? Will Mint fail within a few years now that it’s in the hands of the Quicken creators?

This morning I came across Fred Wilson’s Areas of Interest for 2010, which I recommend you give a read.

Fred is a partner at Union Square Ventures here in NYC (they are early investors in both Twitter and Zynga).

Fred’s key areas to watch:

• Mobile Applications (especially Adroid because of it’s open platform similar to the web). The mobile internet market is expected to be multiple times bigger than the desktop internet market.
• Augmented Reality Gaming
• New Applications of E-commerce
• Cloud Platforms and Open APIs that enable developers to create innovative new applications

What are your predictions for 2010?

Check it out, highly recommended.

The Entrepreneurial Life Cycle is constant and fixed, entrepreneurs must understand it and how it affects everything we do.

Implications from the Thinking portion:

• Many of the best ideas are so forward-looking, they meet significant objections from people who don’t understand them.
• To reach the Executing portion, one generally takes a leap into the unknown and disregards his own and others’ objections.

Implications from the Executing Portion:

• Startups encounter repeated ups-and-downs, victories and defeats, thus persistence and commitment are of the most important qualities for founders.
• Every defeat represents a chance to reach victory again, founders have to find a way to overcome challenges.

I had a great time this weekend at the CEO National Conference in Chicago. The first time I attended the conference I was deeply impacted by the energy from other students and the guest speakers. Two years later, my second go at the conference was just as invigorating.

At the conference your time is filled with meeting people, frantic note taking, and a constant stream of new ideas. In the evening the city of Chicago is at your fingertips. Over the weekend you hardly sleep, but you never feel tired!

Some of the awesome people I met include:

• Chris Miller is a 24 year-old real estate whiz and I learned a lot from his workshop on investing while in college.
• Talia Mashiach is both a mom and the CEO of Eved. She is so nice and I could tell she loves helping young entrepreneurs.
• Michael Simmons is co-founder of Extreme Entrepeneurship Education and an accomplished entrepreneur. He also graduated from Stern where he was president of the Entrepreneurial Exchange Group, small world!
• Liana Louie is working on her own line of comfortable & luxurious women’s shoes. She’s also a brother of the Oregon State Chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi .

Meeting entrepreneurial people is critical to being successful in the startup world. You need mentors, partners, and teammates to make your vision a reality.

The best way to finding a community is by finding local influencers. Use the internet: facebook, linkedin, twitter, and entrepreneurship blogs. Find out who the big shots are and where they hang out, then you’re guaranteed to find a bunch of lesser big shots.

There is also three reliable places I know to find entrepreneurial communities.

1. Major universities and their entrepreneurship clubs, programs, and department activities
2. Meetup.com groups
3. Co-working spaces

The great thing about co-working is not only that you get to know people on an everyday personal basis, but also that you can shop around and find a space with people that you would like advice/help from without having to recruit them to your team.

SparkSpace NYC is an awesome co-working space/incubator that is also a few doors down from VC firm Rose Tech Ventures. Not only does it offer advantages from a capital standpoint, but also from a selection one.

Seed Funding Programs are also great, but the draw backs are that you have to apply for them months in advance and they accept more early stage entrepreneurs. You should aim to find people who have already accomplished something similar to your primary goal.

VC’s are not complicated people, they want a low-risk way to make a ton a money. If you’re pitching a VC, make sure your business plan includes the following things:

1. Big market, big PAIN, big money
2. An innovative approach – something that’s never been done before and stands above what’s out there
3. Proven business models and real numbers
4. Demonstrated traction

These “four things” are taken from a presentation by Lawrence D. Lenihan, CEO at FirstMark