{"id":582086,"date":"2010-05-27T19:02:09","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T23:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xconomy.com\/?p=82089"},"modified":"2010-05-27T19:02:09","modified_gmt":"2010-05-27T23:02:09","slug":"venture-mechanics-led-by-ron-wiener-opens-%e2%80%9cberkubator%e2%80%9d-for-tech-startups-introduces-three-new-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/582086","title":{"rendered":"Venture Mechanics, Led by Ron Wiener, Opens \u201cBerkubator\u201d for Tech Startups, Introduces Three New Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
startups<\/a>, innovation<\/a>, Software<\/a><\/div>\n

\t\t\"Venture<\/a>
\n\t\tGregory T. Huang wrote:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Looking to start a technology company in this era of small teams, lean cost structures, and fast times to market? You might want to check out Venture Mechanics in Seattle. It\u2019s basically an outfit of four experienced startup executives who are trying to reinvent the process of launching tech companies. They held an open-house launch party last night in downtown Seattle, and they\u2019ve just started to spill the beans about what they\u2019ve been working on for almost a year now.<\/p>\n

Venture Mechanics<\/a> is not an investment fund. It\u2019s also not an incubator, an accelerator, an angel investor network, or a mentorship program for entrepreneurs. That makes it different from Founder\u2019s Co-op, TechStars, Founder Institute, Northwest Entrepreneur Network, or any number of angel groups around town that are also focused on early-stage companies.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more like a \u201csandbox for serial entrepreneurs,\u201d according to the website<\/a>. But what does that mean? Forced to describe his new organization in one word, Venture Mechanics head Ron Wiener calls it a \u201cBerkubator.\u201d That means it takes some key elements of Warren Buffett\u2019s Berkshire Hathaway investment model, and applies them to a portfolio of startups rather than acquisitions of established companies, he says.<\/p>\n

Here are a few words of wisdom from Buffett that are applicable, says Wiener. \u201cBuy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.\u201d And, \u201cI don\u2019t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.\u201d And lastly, \u201cRule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiener, the co-founder and former CEO of Earth Class Mail (and five other tech companies), has assembled a team of \u201cmechanics\u201d that includes Peter Weiss, a 30-year veteran of finance and a prominent angel investor (he invested in Earth Class Mail); John Vogel, a longtime senior engineer with GoAhead Software, Tideworks Technology, and OneCommand; and Doug Choi, a lawyer and entrepreneur with leadership experience from Isilon Systems, F5 Networks, and Concur Technologies.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cmechanics\u201d implies two things about the new venture. The first is that it will …Next Page »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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startups, innovation, Software Gregory T. Huang wrote: Looking to start a technology company in this era of small teams, lean cost structures, and fast times to market? You might want to check out Venture Mechanics in Seattle. It\u2019s basically an outfit of four experienced startup executives who are trying to reinvent the process of launching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1747,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,16,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet","category-mobile","category-news","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}