By Jim

Editor’s note: Writing today’s Skinny is Jim Roberts, the founding executive director of the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council and the Blue Ridge Angel Investors Network. He now lives in Chapel Hill.CHAPEL HILL – During my business travels in the last five years, I would discuss the creation of the entrepreneur council in Asheville and western North Carolina. People’s first reaction was usually “Well I would never think an entrepreneur council or an angel network would work there.” Sure starting an entrepreneur council in a business friendly place like Silicon Valley, Boston, Austin or Raleigh makes sense. But communities that...

Editor’s note: Jim Roberts, founding executive director of the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council and the Blue Ridge Angel Investors Network, fills in for LTW Editor Rick Smith in writing “The Skinny” today. Look for more contributions from Roberts in the future. CHAPEL HILL – What organizations and technologies are creating “buzz” in the southeast’s tech community as 2008 begins? Here’s my top 10: 1. Gaming industry will gain more momentum in the southeast. The biggest industry that nobody talks about. It should be screamed from the mountain tops that the gaming industry makes more money than Hollywood!!! There should...

Editor’s note: Jim Vorhaus is President of Product Connection (located in Chapel Hill, N.C.) a consulting practice focused on helping companies take the great idea that’s the kernel of any new start-up and turn it into the great product that will make that business a success. This article is the latest in the Entrepreneurial Spirit series produced in partnership through the Council for Entrepreneurial Development and WRAL Local Tech Wire. RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – The FUBaR had gone the way of the Hindenburg for FizzBin Tech. The product was sound, but the market it addressed was just too...

Editor’s Note: Jim Roberts is the senior entrepreneurship consultant with TIP Strategies, an Austin, Texas based economic development consulting firm, and a North Carolina entrepreneur. Roberts wrote the following article after Springs Industry announced last week announced layoffs in South Carolina. ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Thank you, Mr. John Springs III and the Springs family, for creating jobs for the great people of North Carolina and South Carolina for 167 years. These states owe you a debt of gratitude for taking the risk to start a business that served a need. Many families, including your own, were able to strive...

Editor’s note: Jim Vorhaus is President of Product Connection (located in Chapel Hill, NC) a consulting practice focused on helping companies take the great idea that’s the kernel of any new start-up and turn it into the great product that will make that business a success. This article is the latest in the Entrepreneurial Spirit series produced in partnership through the Council for Entrepreneurial Development and WRAL Local Tech Wire.RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – When we left FizzBin Tech (www.fizzbintech.com) the situation looked bleak. Having misread the customers’ requirements, hopes for the Hindenburg product’s success had burst like a...

Editor’s note: Jim Vorhaus is president of Product Connection (located in Chapel Hill, N.C.), a consulting practice focused on helping companies take the great idea that’s the kernel of any new start-up and turn it into the great product that will make that business a success. Jim can be reached at jvorhaus@productconnection.biz. This column is part of the Entrepreneurial Spirit series produced in partnership between the Council for Entrepreneurial Development and WRAL Local Tech Wire. By JIM VORHAUS CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – This is the story of a start-up company that did almost every conceivable thing wrong while trying...