This is the third part in an interview series with Martin Levy, Director of IPv6 Strategy at Hurricane Electric. In this segment Martin discusses the future of Hurricane Electric, IPv6, bandwidth, and global Internet development.
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Pacific-Tier: Can you cite one defining moment that really makes Hurricane Electric stand out as a company within the Internet industry?
Normally I will not watch Fox News, and even if I somehow stumble upon Fox News I 
would rather watch the Cartoon Channel before listening to Glen Beck or Sean Hannity. But here I was, a Saturday night hitting the treadmill at the Burbank YMCA, and the TV lineup offered a college bowl game with two teams I had never heard of, the food channel, the house hunting channel, reruns of MSNBC's Lockup, and a rerun of the world's dirtiest jobs on Discovery. And Glen Beck.
His guest was Jon Huntsman, Sr. (Click here for a link to the interview)
Jon Huntsman, Sr., is the guy who discovered plastic containers, and developed the idea of using plastics and foam to protect everything from eggs, to Big Macs. And he is now the 47th richest man in the world.
Over the past couple years I have written several stories with "frog soup" as a main theme. The idea of being in cold water, and not recognizing the degree by degree 
increase of heat in the water, till at some point we are cooked, is the danger of being a cold-blooded animal. Business may follow a similar course.
In business we can follow the route of "this is the way we've always done it, and it works, so there is no reason to change our processes or strategies." Innovations like virtualization or cloud computing hit the headlines, and many say "it is a cool idea, but we want the security and hands-on confidence of running our own servers and applications."
In the United States many telecom companies continue to build business cases based on "milking" telephone settlement minutes, bilateral relationships, and controlling telecom "pipes." Internet service providers (ISPs) continue holding on to traditional peering relationships, holding out for "paid peering," doing everything possible to attain market advantage based on traffic ratios.
I first met Ian Bromage while he was doing volunteer work teaching ISO9000 theory in Mongolia with the United Nations Volunteers. Having learned he was now working in Vietnam, I was very happy to have an opportunity to meet with him, and talk about his experiences and work since leaving Mongolia. We met in Hanoi at the Hilton Hanoi Opera on 2 December 2009.
Pacific-Tier: Today we have Ian Bromage, Organization Effectiveness Advisor with the Voluntary Services Overseas/VSO, part of the UK government. Hello Ian! How are you doing tonight?
Ian Bromage: I am fine, thank you, and very much enjoying the evening!
Posted by: John Savageau in telecom, entrepreneur on
Nov 26, 2009
I first met Matt Hiles while he was director of business development with Looking Glass Networks in Los Angeles. As a customer looking for telecom services, navigating the providers, technologies, and deal structures can be confusing. Matt took the time to explain all aspects of the business, cost structures, and how he would get us a great deal - while still making money for his company. Matt stood out alone from a world of "wheeling and dealing" telecom sales people, unique in providing the customer a level of confidence they were getting the best product, for the best price, with the best service.
Pacific-Tier: Today we have Matt Hiles, managing partner with Mosaic Networx. Hello Matt! So tell us a little about yourself, how did you get into this business?
Matt Hiles: I started in telecommunications right out of college, and I've been in the business, in one form or another, since - which is about 20 years. I've been in a variety of telecommunications, voice, and service providers. I've also spent a period of time in the data center side of the industry as well.
Posted by: John Savageau in entrepreneur on
Nov 21, 2009
Pacific-Tier Communications and the CTC are pleased to present our series highlighting and introducing entrepreneurs providing thought leadership and innovative ideas in technology, communications, and environment-related industries.
Pacific-Tier met up with Chris Ueland at his offices in Studio City, California
Pacific-Tier: Chris, can you tell us a little about yourself? Where did you come from?
How attractive is San Diego as a place to start a company compared with the Silicon Valley? Santa Barbara? Los Angeles?
On Thursday evening the "Sweat Equity" series of seminars sponsored by San Diego's Software Industry Council (SDSIC) brought together a distinguished panel with a venture capitalist and successful entrepreneurs answering questions, drilling into their experiences, as well as exploring perceptions they've developed over several years doing business in San Diego. More than 50 interested attendees with the hope and aspiration of either starting their own company, or breaking away from the corporate world with a startup, provided an enthusiastic audience to support the discussion and Q&A.
Panel members included:
Posted by: John Savageau in entrepreneur on
Nov 18, 2009
"The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Internet Inventions, Bob is a true Silicon Valley entrepreneur, raconteur and original. Bob has combined his technical ingenuity, entrepreneurial ability and team building skills to found successful companies time and again over the past 20 years." (Silicon Valley Business Television)
Bob Evans always has ideas. Ideas to make his work, and the work of others, more useful and efficient, as well as easier. We first met Bob when he asked if it was "OK" he develop a route server for our young Internet Exchange Point (Any2 Exchange), which would allow the small to medium Internet access and content provider community to find Internet peering easier, and help with introductions within the community that would make Internet interconnections a utility - rather than a high priced value-added service. That little utility now drives one of the largest Internet Exchange Points in the world.
We met Bob this week as he was giving a data center tour and professional advice to a delegation from Ramallah, which came to Bob for mentoring based on his extensive background in all things network and Internet.
Over the past couple of years we have visited small business and entrepreneur support organizations in LA (the Convergence Technology Council/CTC), OCTANe in Orange County, the San Diego Software Industry Council/SDSIC in San Diego, and the Silicon Valley Product Management Association (SVPMA). Last night I visited the Catalyst for Thought group in Santa Barbara, and attended their November program "Building a Thriving Business: How to avoid the common pitfalls."
CATALYST MISSION: An official event and lecture series promoting entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and philanthropy for entrepreneurs and professionals.
- Invest In Yourself: Get educated and motivated through dynamic speakers and connected with valuable networking opportunities
- Invest In your Community: Net proceeds from Catalyst event ticket sales benefit non-profits
The guest lecturer Tuesday evening (10 Nov 2009), Ms. Susan Urquhart-Brown, is a private consultant from Oakland offering individual coaching for entrepreneurs. She is a former columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, and author of the book "The Accidental Entrepreneur: 50 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Starting a Business."
A sketchy economy has one very positive benefit - it drives creativity and innovation. Thursday evening (28 May 2009) the Tech Cost Venture Network/TCVN met in Irvine, once again opening the stage to a new crop of entrepreneur candidates, and provided a great seminar on the topic of "Raising Money - Friends, Family, and other Early Capital Sources."
In the fast pitch segment, 10 companies were given 30 seconds to impress a panel of 3 venture capital professionals from the Tech Coast Angels . The "fast pitch" guidelines are pretty simple, you have 30 seconds to present:
- Name, title, and company name
- Market pain or need you will satisfy
- Your solution
- Size of your market
- How you plan to make money
- Why you believe you and your team can execute
- What you are seeking (funding, staffing support, or introductions)
Last night the audience was introduced to several great ideas, including new ideas for coffee making, solar power, online shopping for executives, mobile and PDA phone applications, and a new vegan restaurant. The VC panel selected three finalists, and drilled further into their business plan, asking for clarification on pitch elements, as well as further exploring their business plan and ideas. The winner, the vegan restauranteur, won $100 and some one on one time with the VCs.
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