This is a presentation I gave at Grove City College (my alma matter) as part of their annual lecture series.

1. Why Now is a great time to
start a company!
Sean Ammirati

2. First a Story …

3. 2 Meanings of Now …
A Recent Graduate 2008

4. Disclosure … My Story
A Recent Graduate

5. What are your options?
?
Graduate School Corporate Job
Start a Company Live Off Mom & Dad

6. Best first job …
Best Case:
X
‘Employability’
X
Income
Worst Case:
‘Employability’ X
Income
What about security?

7. Security?

8. In Search of Remarkable
“Remarkable people with remarkable
careers seem to switch jobs with far less
effort … The secret doesn’t lie in the job-
seeking technique. It has to do with what
these people do when they’re not looking for
a job ... They work on high-profile projects.
These people take risks, often resulting in
big failures. These failures rarely lead to a
dead end, though. They’re not really risks,
after all. Instead, they just increase the
chances that these people will get an
even better project next time.”

9. Find Good Partners
quot;I not only use all of the
brains I have, but all I
can borrow.quot;
- Woodrow Wilson

10. Disclosure … Talking about Web
2008

11. Web is Ripe for Innovation
“After an initial phase of the Web as a medium, in
which lots of people attempted to make the Web
look like a newspaper, or a magazine, or a TV
channel, we as an industry have recently been
collectively developing a much clearer idea of
what the Web is really like as a medium in and
of itself.”
- Mark Andreessen

12. Less Capital to Test Ideas
Source: Fred Wilson, “Web 2.0 Is A Gift, Not A Threat, To VCs”
http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/12/web_20_is_a_gif.html

13. Local Example: AlphaLab
• 6 Month Program (next starts June 1)
• Groups of 6 Companies
• $25k investment
• Deadline to apply is 3/31
• Talk to me afterward if interested

14. Easier to get advice
What advice do you wish you
received before graduation?
368 connections / 18 responses in 1 week
– 11: focused on importance of networking
– 3: do interesting work, not what pays the most
– 2: being financial responsible
– 2: delaying graduate school (MBA)

15. Easier to Tell Your Story
(Marketing)
VS.

16. To Review:
• Web is ripe for innovation
• Less capital to test ideas
• Easier to get advice
• Easier to tell your story (marketing)

17. Conclusion
“Winning a Nobel Prize is easy …
Just have to focus on the right
problem to solve.”
Herb Simon

18. Thank you!

19. Image Attribution
Diploma - http://www.flickr.com/photos/twonickels/513996896/
2008 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/adkap/2156922395/
Student http://www.flickr.com/photos/u_of_m/2158095451/in/set-
72157603501145653/
Corporate - http://www.flickr.com/photos/u_of_m/2123108952/in/set-
72157603501145653/
Startup - http://www.flickr.com/photos/purecaffeine/1275447918/
Live off Mom & Dad - http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldtasty/21349955/
Handshake - http://www.flickr.com/photos/u_of_m/2122333317/in/set-
72157603501145653/
Television - http://www.flickr.com/photos/videocrab/116136642/
Herb Simon - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Simon