The last post explained Pink Poodle Parlors.
Next fact: Getting financing from the government involves lots of paperwork and knowing the right people, so if you have no connections, get some.
NextStage wasn't in the pink poodle parlor business but there were still people willing to help NextStage succeed. Interestingly enough, none of the people I worked with at SBDC, PTAC are still involved with those organizations and only a few people remain at the banks from which I sought loans.
One of the people who helped NextStage succeed was Dave Nelson, then of NH SBDC. He and two other gentlemen constituted my first experience with NH SBDC as documented in Reading Virtual Minds Chapter 4, Anecdotes of Learning and excerpted in the following:
ET had only been in existence as an interface for about a month. It had learned all it could from me and had some experience with others in the tribe (students, friends, family and peers). Could ET take what it had learned and synthesize new information, essentially
- )learn and interpret the signs of someone it had never met (ie, acquire them),
- ) make an accurate analysis of that person's behaviors in order to understand how they think (ie, read their mind), and
- ) predict that person's needs and future plans based on what it had discovered in 1 and 2 above (ie, synthesize outcomes)
Their eyes glazed over very rapidly.
Dave Nelson started working on his computer. I figured he was bored and checking his emails or some such. Little did I know he was navigating the NextStage Evolution website. The site is very different now from what it was then. Back then it would display little charts about you based on what it was learning about you while you navigated.
Dave stopped and, as I continued to explain how ET worked, he said, "I'm on your site."
He said it very dryly, very deadpan. I figured someone had hacked into our site and replaced it with porn or something.
"Oh? What do you think?"
"Your site says I'm highly visual and that I'm thinking about something in the near future."
"Oh? That's nice."
Dave paused, then looked at me. "My wife always complains about how visual I am and I was just wondering what I'd have for lunch."
Like I said, it was about 10:30 in the morning. Near future. Highly visual.
Acquire, read, synthesize.
Dave has been one of NextStage's strongest advocates ever since.
Don't, and let me emphasize don't, attempt to get bank or government funding for anything truly innovative because no one will understand it but you and perhaps a handful of others, and if either you or that handful of others has money, why are you going this route in the first place?
Next up, government funding.
(Information in this post is from Chapter 4, "Anecdotes of Learning" of Reading Virtual Minds. Text and images copyright Joseph Carrabis and NextStage Evolution 2006-2007)
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