After some of the success we have had with The 21st Century Youth Project, we frequently receive e-mails from individuals and companies looking to see if we could refer them to someone that could create mobile apps. We also receive countless number of inquiries as to whether we would be interested in teaching app development to college students, organizations, adults, and entrepreneurs. We couldn’t ignore these requests any more. In fact, the more we read about the lack of job opportunities and the rise in underemployment,we felt this was an opportunity we wanted to be associated with. All of the initiatives I am a part of, have to have some social improvement component. It’s about being successful, creating opportunities for others.

So what is Code Chicago?

Code Chicago is a hands-on, 12-week Java and Android (and soon iOS) mobile programming course, where every participant will work with one another and join in the spirit of collaboration and learning. It is this aspect of education that we trust would resonate most with our members — and that with an open atmosphere where no question is off limits, we see interesting and inspiring thinking about how to embrace the openness of the Android platform as an opportunity palette — and to really push what might seem conventionally possible, with just a mobile device having an internet connection and a web browser. At the 1:05 mark, you’ll see a glimpse into the 21st Century Youth Project. See it here.

Why did we start Code Chicago?

It’s apparent to me, computer programming will be as important to everyday job functions of the future as the ability to use a spreadsheet today. Today, there are some careers where you could get by without using the computer. There just aren’t many of them. And very few of them pay a living wage, and can create a sustainable income to support a family. There are several upstarts that have launched to provide programming/coding courses outside of the walls of a college/university, but the problem is, they are far too expensive to reach a mainstream audience. These classes can range from $4,000 to $6,000 for 12-weeks. There are other free/cheaper tools that are supposed to teach you how to program at home, but many feel these programs do very little to teach transferable programming skills. This article in CNN, entitled Learn to code, get a job, shares this sentiment. The author writes:

Still, competition for the few programmers out there looking for work is very steep. So few Americans know how to program that firms like Google and Facebook are actually buying whole companies just for their code-literate employees, in what are known as “talent acquisitions.” According to Calacanis, each employee who understands how to code is valued at about $500,000 to $1 million toward the total acquisition price. One million dollars just to get someone who learns code. So to anyone out there who says you can’t get a job: You can have one. A fun one. Learning code is not about numbers and mathematics. It’s more like architecture, where you are presented with a puzzle problem such as “How do we get all these cars from this highway to that one without having to build a bridge across this river or putting an overpass next to the hospital?”

Learning to code means being able to imagine a new way of using the camera in your iPhone, or a new way for people to connect to each other, and then being able to bring that vision to reality.

If you know how to code, you can get a high-paying job right now, or make valuable stuff right now. You will understand more about how the world works, and become a participating member in the digital society unfolding before us. You will be enabling America to compete effectively on both the economic and military frontiers, where we are rapidly losing our competitive advantage due to our failure to teach ourselves code. We should not have to wait for the NYSE to be hacked by kids from Asia to learn this lesson.

If that doesn’t convince you, check out these young hackers, seniors at New York University. The last reason we started Code Chicago? We needed to hire more instructors for the 21st Century Youth Project, and the Android developers are in such high demand, we can’t find enough! So the nice option of our program is that we hope you’ll be interested in facilitating and ultimately teaching courses for The 21st Century Youth Project. If you need to learn more on why to apply, click here.

What is the program and what will it entail?

Ultimately, Code Chicago is a “blended” learning environment: five (5) hours of in-class instruction and five (5) hours of online class, which includes discussion boards, exercises, examples, and videos providing more context, reinforcing what is learned in class. This is the best of both world scenario, because blended learning has been proven to be more effective than just in-class instruction alone, and secondly, it provides all of the cost savings that online classes should provide (but rarely do)! All students will be concurrently enrolled in our Small Business and Entrepreneurship course, so students will learn how to create and market a business, especially for the apps they create. All students will leave our program with two apps created: one simple app (calculator/badge app), and a more complex one that pertains to their own interests.

Who should consider applying?

These people include:

• Entrepreneurs
• Those wishing to diversify their skill sets
• Unemployed/Job-seekers
• College Students aiming to enhance their marketability
• Those working in entrepreneurial firms

We want people making a build vs. buy decision. Do I build my own mobile app, or do I pay someone else to do it? We also want people, who are looking to build their resume/credentials, to leverage this opportunity to get a better paying job. We are hoping to create an alumni network that provides value in the marketplace.

So what’s next for Code Chicago?

• Special class for U.S. veterans
• Classes for iOS programming (for the iPhone and iPad)
• More entrepreneurial courses
• Intermediate and Advanced Android courses (more sequences)

These classes are also very, very affordable. $1,000 for 12 weeks, with 10+ hours a week of instruction. That’s a little over $8/hour for tech training that will change your life, if you’re committed. I can’t wait to take these courses myself, because I need to know how to build mobile apps! We are restricting our class size to 20 students, because it’s about having a quality experience for all involved. Not to mention, a portion of the proceeds goes into sustaining the 21st Century Youth Project.

2011 was an amazing year. It wasn’t without some setbacks, but it was an overwhelming success for many, many reasons. It was a year with many “firsts” that exceeded even my wildest imaginations. I consider my goals to be lofty, but in January of 2011, I had no idea things would have progressed where they are now. I haven’t “made it” yet, but there has been tremendous positive momentum that has given me the confidence that I have a chance to do something special. I’m humbled and beyond thankful for the opportunity, because I know how hard it was to get to this level. I remember the days when everything I was working on seemed like a side project, something to absorb my time before going back to Corporate America. I remember the looks I received when folks would inquire on my career. I remember all of the sacrifices personally, professionally, and financially. I remember them vividly.

At the same time, I’ve always chosen to focus on the positive and enjoy the journey. 2011 will be one of those years that I’ll never forget. It gave me a sneak peek at what is possible and has given me confidence that I’m starting to accumulate 10,000 hours. The second half of 2011 has treated me very well.

Highlights in chronological order:

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The launch of the 21st Century Youth Project started off as an after school program where we teach high school students to create mobile apps.   We launched the program at two school districts, the Naperville school district and the Crete-Monee school district. There were so many last minute curveballs leading up to the launch, but it has been one of the most professionally satisfying experiences I’ve had. We have been able to accumulate a significant amount of buzz without really trying, and I’m looking forward to more success leading into 2012 where we are expanding to other cities and more schools. More to come soon! I cannot thank Antonio Rowry enough for beginning this journey with me. We’ve also built up an exceptional Board of Advisors.

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One of the biggest surprises of 2011 was our acceptance into the American Black Film Festival, one of the most prestigious black film festivals in the world. We were a part of the HBO short film competition where they only select five films. The film festival itself was an amazing experience where I had an opportunity to meet Don King and other celebrities. Our film For Flow was also selected to the Canadian International Film Festival, St. Louis Black Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, Cannes Short Film Corner, and the New York Digital Film Festival.  There were some amazing films at the American Black Film Festival, and we were truly lucky to be included in the mix. It was the first time I realized that my film pursuits was more than an expensive hobby. It was something we could excel at the highest level.

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I had the honor of being a featured speaker at SocialDevCamp Chicago, a technology conference. It was my first time presenting at a conference, something I always wanted to do, but was never invited. My presentation at the conference was very well received, in fact receiving better than expected feedback from many of the attendees. To hear several attendees tweet that it was one of their highlights of the conference was surreal. In fact, my slides went viral on LinkedIn and Slideshare. I’ll never forget how I didn’t finish my slides until 5am, several hours before my presentation. I was beyond exhausted, but I couldn’t be more than thankful for an hour of everyone’s time, combining social responsibility and economics.

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Another humbling award was to be one of very few individuals awarded a fellowship for Chicago Ideas Week. With an amazing cast of awardees doing amazing things in Chicago, it was great to be included as one of them. From their website, Idea Fellows “are the leaders and change agents of the world tomorrow, who are making a huge impact on their local and regional communities today.” It was my first award for public service. The best part wasn’t the personal recognition, but validation of the opportunities we are attacking.

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After a couple years of wanting to launch this sort of initiative, I decided to jump forward into the film festival game.  It combines several of my interests from social responsibility, film, and connecting those that are on the ground affecting change in various ways. In working with a great friend, Todd Belcore, I thought we could create something special and push the limits of what a film festival can become. The festival is aimed at taking place in October of 2012, but we’ve had several meetings with over 40 volunteers, who are working hard to make this happen. I can’t wait to share the updates as they occur in 2012.

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After building some momentum with the 21st Century Youth Project, CNN came calling. We were thrilled to have a small segment on CNN to showcase just how innovative our program is, compared to the others that are aiming to bridge the “coding divide”. This mainstream buy-in has done wonders in making it easier to talk to school and elected officials. If you haven’t seen the preview link for our segment, we’re at the 1:00 mark. It was the first time I’ve been covered by a mainstream/global media outlet.

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In what is still surreal to me.  I was invited to write an Op-Ed piece for Crain’s on Minorities and Tech Entrepreneurship.  I was beyond thankful for the opportunity to write an opinion piece, and for a publication as prestigious as Crain’s, it was a dream come true. I remember the days where I hoped to have an opportunity to write one before I retired, but to have that opportunity extended to me this early in my career, was truly remarkable. The post was well received, and went viral in many communities. I received a tremendous amount of traffic to my blog and websites, and I’m glad the post was taken as a positive piece. I was thrilled to get mentioned on Crain’s four times in less than a week.

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Last but not least, we finalized our licensing deal for our film For Flow with HBO for two years! Every filmmaker dreams of the day they could get a project viewed by a mainstream audience, and we were lucky enough to do that early in our film careers. It was truly a blessing and will make all future meetings substantially easier when pitching more products, concepts, and films. The film will begin to be shown in February of 2012, an amazing opportunity in addition to a little cash, which doesn’t hurt.

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Other highlights of the year included my board memberships for the Chicago Comedy Film Festival and the American Chamber Opera where we had tremendous first runs. Another highlight was receiving coverage in Annesa Lacey’s feature on me on the Examiner magazine.

2011 was an amazing year, and with some new updates that I’ll hold off on until next year, but I have a feeling that 2012 will be substantially better than 2011. I’ll never forget 2011, because it’s that sneak peek into the future. A future that was a result of tremendous work, sacrifice, and partnerships with great people who helped me achieve these goals. I’ve also hired a personal coach to help me take my abilities to the next level, and just six weeks into the process, I feel like I have a better fundamental understanding on how to maximize 2012.

I will have to be honest, I wanted to write this kind of post a while ago, but needed the appropriate time. This is an issue that is very near and dear to me, and exactly the impetus for the 21st Century Youth Project. By no means is this an attempt to answer this dilemma for all minorities, these are just my opinions based on my background and future goals. The answer is much more complicated than my writing ability can convey. Many of these issues can also be stratified along socio-economic layers instead of by race alone. I wanted to qualify an unique perspective my efforts are aiming to reach. The 21st Century Youth Project isn’t only for minorities, or low-income, but an attempt to give anyone and everyone an opportunity to learn. 

Race discussions are one of those polarizing issues that still causes a great deal of controversy. For anyone who thinks we are in a post-racial society, think again. Inflammatory discussions are taking place across discussion boards, blogs, and tweets. It’s front and center in “old media” as well, as demonstrated by the latest Black in America documentary series latest installment The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley. In the documentary, CNN follows several entrepreneurs on their journey to launch start-ups (all me-too concepts). Prior to airing the documentary, they built up a significant buzz by sharing sound bites of Mike Arrington, founder of Techcrunch, making some remarks that were obviously taken out of context (or lacked proper context).

And this brings me back to my trepidation in writing a blog post on race and high-growth entrepreneurship. There will be those that will take your comments out of context, edit for soundbites, some will say you’re whining and are asking for handouts. Others will cry reverse-racism, and the rest will fall somewhere in between. It’s appears to be a zero-sum game.

So what’s the point? As my mom would say, sometimes you “can’t win for losing”.

As the founder of the 21st Century Youth Project and the Chicago Film Group, I have some skin in the game, attempting to try and do a small part in leveling the playing field. I am highly biased, but I do feel my perspective is important in adding to the conversation. We were filmed by CNN in their Technology Education segment (at the 1:00 mark). We were hoping to make the final cut for the Black in America segment, by adding context to their documentary as programs that are educating young folks to become future Mark Zuckerbergs. As with Waiting for Superman, I came away unimpressed with the documentary. It’s easy to highlight the problems. It’s front and center. The responsibility of any discussion, in my opinion,  is to highlight the solutions, as much as you do the problems. It only enriches the learning experience, and provides much needed context to the conversation. This aspect should have been a follow-up segment, immediately following the documentary.

From my anecdotal (yet highly small sample size) experience from the tweets and Facebook status updates of the impression of those watching the show, here were some misnomers on the Black in America documentary.

• The incubator model. What wasn’t discussed in the documentary was the explosion of start-up incubators all around the world that provide office space, mentorship, and introductions to venture capitalists. The NewMe accelerator isn’t the first one, and although they focus on minority start-ups, the participants weren’t given any extra handouts any other young entrepreneurs receive. Most incubators provide up to $50,000 in startup funds, as well as up to $150,000 in convertible debt (in exchange for 4-6% equity) for those accepted to the incubator. NewMe didn’t give the founders any funding in exchange for 4% equity.
• Start-Ups for high-growth entrepreneurship is hard for everyone! It takes an extraordinary amount of work, and even with the most ideal of circumstances, there are more ups and downs than the average person can handle. Think you’re ready for a VC pitch? You’re never 100% ready. It’s easy to poke holes in the best of plans. For the best entrepreners, their startup becomes a nine-to-five job. 9am until 5am. Having a sense of entitlement and entrepreneurship do not go hand in hand.
• Funding is not the only barometer (and certainly not a predictor) of entrepreneurial success. Very few companies require venture capital and even less are good enough opportunities for venture capitalists to take a chance. For example, Jim Breyer, venture partner at Accel says “We see 10,000 media business plans a year, and we invest in about ten.” 

Last week, I was interviewed by Crains for an article coming out tomorrow continuing on this trend of why we don’t see more minority technology entrepreneurs. Although I’m sure my response will be abridged for tomorrow’s issue, I thought it was pertinent to expound more on those critical issues.

Why aren’t there more minority tech entrepreneurs:

Education. This isn’t to say there aren’t enough smart and talented minorities, but computer engineering is a skill that you can’t pick up (adeptly) while in college. Some can, but the outlier will not. If you read Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, those that are overwhelming successes require 10,000 hours. In the book, Malcom Gladwell highlights Bill Gates and the Bill Joy’s of the world that founded some of the most successful companies of all time. Each was raised at the perfect time, at the perfect place, with the perfect resources at their disposal. If you read the biography of Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs developed his love for electronics at an early age from his father (a mechanic and craftsman) and experimenting with various technologies by virtue of living in Mountain View. His neighbors were all doing something cool and interesting, and he was inspired by some of the platforms they were building. This phenomena isn’t something most minorities are privileged to. Steve Wozniak (Steve Jobs’ co-founder with Apple), had a father who graduated from Cal Tech, was an engineer at a large corporation. In Steve Jobs’ biography, he remarked how Steve Wozniak was the only person he had ever met who knew more about electronics than him. Most minorities aren’t given this educational environment to cultivate these sort of skills. Although these comparisons are similar along socio-economic lines, most research points to the fact that historically, “high-achieving”minorities disproportionally pursue careers in medicine and law, compared to engineering (especially computer engineering). How many of us have fathers, brother-in-law, neighbors, and friends who would have exposed us to those opportunities? And if anyone should have had those experiences, it would have been me. I attended The University of Chicago Lab Schools, which is far from representative of the educational and social experiences of most minorities in America. With the 21st Century Youth Project, our mission is to engage and expose these students to these avenues as early as possible, so they can potentially develop a love for programming, and unite them with like-minded individuals that created the lifelong bond shared by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Working with some school systems, it’s baffling to me how  schools are slow to adopt our program, something that’s free for students and school districts alike. With minorities adopting smartphones at the fastest rates, wouldn’t it only make sense to instruct us to create for the platforms we consume?

Funding. This is a real touchy subject. Mike Arrington said he doesn’t know any black entrepreneurs because he doesn’t come across many. Why would he? Techcrunch is a technology blog that covers high growth startups, and getting funding is a surefire way to get coverage. To attend any of his conferences, the pricetag can exceed $2,000, cost-prohibitive in many capacities. Typical attendees of those elite conferences are venture capitalists, portfolio companies of Venture Capital firms, Venture Capitalists, and those that are serial entrepreneurs. How many of those folks include minorities? You don’t need a Venn diagram to get the point. According to CB Insights, 1% of venture capital raised  in the first half of last year were from African-American and Latino tech leaders. Mitch Kapor, founder of the Lotus 1-2-3 software describes it as “pattern matching” where  investors look at data sets of where the successes come from (Computer Science grads from Stanford), and only invest in that trend. Obviously, you don’t need to know that the average compsci grad from Stanford isn’t black or latino. It’s the same reason why me-too start-ups get funded in droves such as the explosion in funding in video sharing startups during the day when YouTube was founded. VCs double-down on an industry or a class, and that sort of selective bias accounts for a portion of why minorities never get to the table to discuss term-sheets..

Kapor states:

“African-American candidates are much more likely not to match the pattern,” said Kapor. “To recognize the truth is to accept that the winners at the top did so through a rigged game.”

Another practice in the Venture Capital community is the need for a referred lead into a meeting with a venture capitalist. They rarely, if ever, accept cold-calls or solicitations, and they use their close network of professionals to source leads for them. As with any herd mentality, you hang with people that are like you, of the same class, from the same backgrounds and any investor will tell you that you tend to invest with your heart first, and then with your mind. I have yet to meet a black or latino venture capitalist, and I have yet to read about a female venture capitalist. I’ve had several venture capital meetings because I am fortunate enough to fit the mold just for a meeting, attended top-tier institutions, and referred by my MBA professor from Northwestern. Although those meetings weren’t successful, what if I didn’t attend University of Chicago or Northwestern University? Would I have had those meetings?

Mentorship. I have yet to meet an African American or Latino founder who has raised venture capital. I have heard of a couple, but haven’t initiated contact (something on my to-do list). There are many black and latino leaders that claim to mentor, but how many can prepare you, from experience, on how to effectively pitch your product for venture capital? How many have scaled a high-growth venture? It’s completely different to be a corporate manager than an entrepreneurial leader. A different set of skill sets and experiences, and a radically different ideology. It’s like having a basketball coach that never played basketball. It’s hard to buy in (in my opinion) and even tougher to get the critical insight and connections to effectively scale a company. If you look at GroupOn’s founder, Andrew Mason, you’ll see that he was obviously smart and talented, having attended Northwestern, but he was able to raise $3.5 million for ThePoint, a company that eventually pivoted to GroupOn. He had mentors who have scaled businesses before, and he was able to raise a considerable amount of money that enabled him to pivot to a sustainable business. Very few people are fortunate to have this sort of opportunity, and even less (unheard of) for minorities. Any entrepreneur or professor of entrepreneurship will tell you that your eventual business will be some sort of offshoot of what you originally envisioned. In my opinion, if he didn’t have those experienced mentors, GroupOn may have been founded somewhere else.

So where does that leave us?

Discussing the problems without taking note of solutions would be just as faulty as showing a documentary and not offering room for hope. Programs such as the 21st Century Youth Project are just the start. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s critical that more people support this initiative. We’ll be launching a grass-roots campaign soon to capitalize on this opportunity. Despite this, it will take 10-15 years for a measurable impact on the importance of what we’re doing. The second step is for the African American and Latino business leaders to create some sort of seed stage funding platform for high-growth opportunities as a proof of concept. If you look at the Alliance of Business & Entrepreneurship organization, there are an extensive list of highly successful minority entrepreneurs who have amassed significant wealth and influence in Chicago alone. Why not have a $10 million fund that tranches investment for minority start-ups, to get them from the seed stage to the Series A phase? How many times have you read the Black Enterprise Top 100 in just about every industry? Many of these minority leaders have access to pension dollars and other institutional forms of financing, so they wouldn’t have to contribute a significant amount of personal wealth. Can we tap into those folks? I see them on interviews and television all the time talking about what should happen to move the needle for minorities. What I haven’t heard is something as tangible as a sustainable investment fund specifically designed for high growth entrepreneurship.  You have the money and if  managed and operated well, can generate wealth (and opportunities) for a new generation of folks. Want to see more minorities pay more attention to math and science classes? Let them know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. When I was in undergrad, when learning that my teammates were making $75,000 with $20,000 signing bonuses, I quickly changed my major from Chemistry to Economics. I see a similar effect if we support technology and engineering, not just with our hearts, but with a holistic plan involving jobs, opportunities, mentorship, and funding. Additionally, with this installed base of mentors, we would have created a pipeline of inspiration for students of the 21st Century Youth Project.

Can this happen? I’m hopeful it will.

Update 12/3/2012: Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming support for this issue. Race is polarizing but I’m glad this post was taken for what it intended to be, a balance view of the challenges. I was asked to write an Op-Ed column, condensing this post for the Monday issue of Crains, and the 21st Century Youth Project was covered within this context here.

Here’s the link for the preview. We’re at the 1:00 mark: http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2011/11/08/pkg-obrien-bia-teaching-technology.cnn

Disclaimer: What I’m discussing is an economic issue, not a political issue. I only support peaceful protests, not looting, destroying property, or harming others. 

Although the Occupy Wall Street and Bank Transfer Day are not connected, they stem from similar roots: collective action augmented by the social media channels. For many that may haven’t noticed, Bank Transfer Day was this past Saturday, a movement for ordinary people to make a voluntary switch from large commercial banks (i.e. Bank of America) to credit unions. They have over 55,000 “likes” to their Cause Page, and made quite a bit of press, as a result. Occupy Wall Street, another grass roots movement has over 33,000 “likes” for their Occupy Chicago Cause Page alone, and has created a firestorm around the world.

As with everyone, there are some (not all) things I support, especially the ability to peacefully protest. That’s what has made our country great, but it has been quite a while since we have done it on a grand scale. It’s shocking to some, but necessary for many. Although there have been many places where things have gotten out of hand, it’s encouraging to me to see ordinary people calling for a more responsible financial system. They feel their government and politicians aren’t forcing the issue, and taking it upon themselves to protest. It’s important to spark constructive debate on what’s important to main street. Social responsibility is the new competitive advantage for the 21st Century. The organizations that employ it will be rewarded, while the others will be disrupted.

One of the downsides to the Occupy Wall Street movement in my mind, are the lack of significant economic impact in demonstrating. When I think of the impact of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, the economic impact of the demonstration is what augmented the effects of the protest. It was well organized and collective, without the need for a “status update” or Tweet.

Bank Transfer Day on the other hand is an attempt to offer an economic impact to a peaceful demonstration. With the economic collapse, the banks that survived became larger, thus a less competitive marketplace. The more competition, the better it is for the consumer.  In many ways, the Bank Transfer Day has had success. Bank Transfer Day was largely a response to Bank of America’s $5 debit card fee and Wells Fargo’s $3 fee. Since the collective action organized by ordinary people, both of those charges were reversed. Additionally, according to the Credit Union National Association, over $4.5 billion was added in deposits because of Bank Transfer Day. Once again, a victory, but is it significant?

Yes and no.

It is significant because billions of dollars have leaked out of the organizations that are not as socially responsible as the others. But in relative terms, it isn’t significant because it’s several orders of magnitude away from being a rounding error for the industry. For anyone who knows anything about banking, deposits are the lifeblood of any bank. Whatever they can do to get your deposits, it enables them to loan is back to you and other consumers at 18% ROA. There are several impediments for a large scale shift from the big banks, but it appears the tides of opportunity are flowing. Companies such as Ally Bank have made marketing campaigns poking fun at the antiquated practices of the big banks.

If Bank Transfer Day wants to be more than just an isolated event, here are my recommendations on taking it to the next level.

A mobile and web software platform needs to be created for all community and local banks to have the same sophistication as the big banks. If you take a look at the most innovative big banks, Chase and Bank of America use their technology as competitive advantages for stealing market share. The ability to scan checks at home, perform online banking, and reduce the need for someone to visit a branch is their points of parity. To develop such as sophisticated platform that runs on all computers and mobile devices, it’s expensive, and much too cumbersome for the average community bank and credit union. But, according to the Independent Community Bankers of America, there are almost 5,000 members and 20,000 locations around the country. Collectively, if they had a white-label SAAS platform, they’d better be able to compete. There are shared vendors, but not nearly with the sophistication or robustness to compete. Additionally, a major competitive advantage could be to streamline the ability to move from one community bank to another, much like the purpose of data portability. If we can make it so you can move effortlessly, it will be better for the industry as a whole. The switching costs from one large commercial bank to another are too high. The difficulty in moving from one bank to another is why there were only $4.5 billion in deposits moved to credit unions, versus in the tens of billions of dollars range.

Become a Hulu for community banks to leverage distribution channels. Another major competitive advantage of big banks are their ATM network. More ATMs in more places. Why do most people stay with one bank their entire lives? Because of the switching costs, and additionally the fact that they can find an ATM nearby where they can get their cash for free.  Think about it. If you have all of your assets at a credit union and you want to go abroad, you’re going to be paying hefty withdrawal fees because your credit union doesn’t extend abroad. If all of these community banks and credit unions globally shared resources and distribution opportunities, they would present a compelling alternative to the big banks. With this compelling purchasing power, they could share in the costs of setting up more ATMs in more locations. All I would need is an iPhone app that alerts me whenever I’m within a mile distance of a global partner. Sounds naive? Well, it’s not any more naive than all of the broadcast channels combining together to form Hulu, to compete against YouTube. If you ask me, I would have guessed that Hulu would have been much more difficult to pull off.

Transparency and Social Responsibility. This goes without saying. If you’re going to take money from the community, you must employ the community, invest in the community, and sustain the community.

All in all, Occupy Wall Street and The Bank Transfer Day were important steps in American history. And whether you disagree with the concepts or implementation, I think we should all respect collective action and peaceful demonstration. The Bank Transfer Day showed that economic impact can take place because of collective action, but we need to be more organized to force organizations to become more socially responsible.

Phunny Business documents the rise and fall of Chicago’s All Jokes Aside, one of the preeminent comedy clubs in the country. All Jokes Aside gave early exposure and early paychecks to important young comedians of color like Steve Harvey, Bernie Mac, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, Monique, Dave Chappelle, Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley, Carlos Mencia, Aires Spears, George Willborn, Craig Robinson, Mike Epps, Deon cole, Adele givens, and JB Smoove to name a few.

So, I founded a film festival. Yes, a film festival.

This concept came to me about two years ago when everyone was still punch drunk off of “change you can believe in” and how the world needed to be better. I started thinking about all of the things I was working on: social entrepreneurship, teaching, and film, and I saw an interesting synergy that I haven’t seen anywhere. There are documentary festivals, human rights festivals, but there were not many festivals on SOCIAL CHANGE. In fact, through all of my research, I could only find one. Film is one of those transformative mediums where every scene and every frame may result in a different interpretation. It’s powerful. With the digital age, and the ease of shooting high quality projects becoming cheaper and cheaper, there is an new demographic of people creating cool and interesting films. This is the age of global storytelling.

Our goals are to:

• • Give a voice and exposure to issues that are relevant to our communities
  • Foster discourse regarding social issues
  • Increase the profile of films and filmmakers who produce films that promote social change.
  • Provide a unique way for companies to show their support for communities and the arts.
  • Create a forum where unconnected networks can be leveraged to increase positive exposure and expand the brand recognition of all parties.

  
  

The film festival presents an opportunity for the audience and the filmmakers to have productive dialog in a film forum designed to heighten public consciousness. Another goal is to have a cultural platform on the international level so that the audience is able to screen feature-length, short films, documentary, and student works.

I’ve always admired Amazon, and more specifically, their founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos. The story of how he built and sustained a company is phenomenal and lately, he’s made major  changes to the Amazon brand to stay competitive long-term. It’s rare that you can find a founder and CEO that has been able to lead and innovate over several business cycles, and even more rare, to pivot when you’re at the top of the mountain. Amazon is the foundation for most web startups with their Amazon Web Services (AWS) enabling developers a cheap and scalable solution to store and manage the exorbitant storage demands. Their entry into the hardware space with their e-book reader, the Kindle, was largely a success. Many of their competitors failed to gain significant market share and they leveraged their competitive advantages in a nascent market.

Lately, the iPad has been the run away default tablet of choice.  From a recent IDC report:

“Apple’s iOS share will continue to lead by more than 40 percentage points over Google’s Android for the remainder of the year, but we expect Apple’s share to fall closer to 50% by the end of the forecast period as manufacturers bring new tablets to market,” said Jennifer Song, research analyst, Worldwide Trackers.”

On September 28th, Amazon debuted their answer to the iPad with the Amazon Kindle Fire. Without going through all of the bells and whistles of the features, they are very competitive with the other tablets, including the iPad. The big difference: the $199 price tag.  This is significant, and I believe they have won the Android tablet competition with this move. To put it in perspective, theSamsung Galaxy Tab is priced at $350 and above: almost twice the price!

How is this possible when the race just got started?

This is the principle of loss leadership enabling Amazon to operate at a significantly less cost than their competitors. In essence, loss leadership means that you can sell a product less than it cost to provide that service/produce, if you’re able to generate significant margins over add-ons and other complementary products. For example, the cost to produce an XBox is almost twice the price as what they charge for the product. They make their profits over the game licenses. Amazon is using their core competencies in the same way. Amazon doesn’t have to pay the 30% commission that Apple has to pay for every eBook sale. Since Amazon has massive server capacity with the Amazon Web Services, they can store files in the cloud for virtually nothing, once again leveraging their assets. They already have significant relationships with all digital providers of books, music, and videos, and because of this, they can pass off some of these savings to their customers and save the rest for themselves. What we must remember is that the tablet battle is also a battle of digital ecosystems.

I’m excited that Amazon is competing instead of trying to replicate Apple’s model (as everyone else has tried unsuccessfully). They innovated and decided to go after a defined segment. It will be very interesting to see holiday sales, but I imagine that we’ll see a surprising number of Amazon Kindle Fire units sold. For the 21st Century Youth Project, the price tag of the Kindle Fire seems like a no-brainer option, compared to any other tablet device. I’m sure I will not be the only one who will be making that choice. I have an iPad for my purposes, but if given the choice, a savings of $300 is more than significant, especially in these economic times.

Good job Amazon. You’ve just won the Android tablet war.

We don’t think of the Kindle Fire as a tablet. We think of it as a service.

– Jeff Bezos

Update 11/9/2011: Looks like the anticipation for the Amazon Kindle Fire is equal to that of the iPad before it was released.

It’s been a little while since my last posting, but things have been busier, but good. I wanted to give a quick update of the latest happenings.

We had a recent fundraising campaign for The 21st Century Youth Project, our initiative to teach students transferable skills. We raised almost $3,000 from over 40 sources. We used Indiegogo for our fundraising campaign, because of the flexibility, but more importantly, if we didn’t reach our goal, we still received a majority of the funding. It was really important to raise the money in the most responsible way, because the funds would be used in our upcoming programs. We thought about doing a gala or fundraising event, but in many cases, you have to commit capital to pull it off. In this economic climate, that strategy seemed risky, considering how a $20 donation isn’t as easy to come by as before. I’ve been a part of many organizations where we committed a significant amount of capital and had a net loss from the event. Believe me, nothing is worse than raising $23,000 but it cost $26,000 to throw the event.

In the next couple of weeks, we will be debuting The Chicago Film Group, a sister program to the 21st Century Youth Project. The goal of the program is to teach middle and high school students filmmaking, from the pre-production to post-production. We’re really excited about this project and their final projects will be shown on local access television in Chicago.

I was proud and honored to receive the Chicago Ideas Week, Ideas Fellowship award. From the website, “CIW Fellows are the leaders and change agents of the world tomorrow, who are making a huge impact on their local and regional communities today.”

Additionally, Annesa Lacey wrote a very flattering article on some of my latest entrepreneurial endeavors. Hopefully the takeaway from this piece is that although I have done some noteworthy things, there is a long way to go before I accomplish my goals. One thing I always preach is that everyone should take a hard look at themselves and realize that hard work is the only way to do anything special. It’s not about degrees, quality of schools, etc. Sure, some of them open doors, but an extraordinary amount of determination and discipline is what separates the dreamers from the successful.

Several more updates to come in the next couple of weeks. Looking forward to updating you on my progress.