I came to Charlotte in January of 2008 to pursue my professional passion of working with Ruby on Rails. I selected a Charlotte startup over one in the Bay Area because I believed in the business. During our time here, my wife and I have come to love Charlotte deeply, and have made it our home. I am an advocate for Charlotte, and I’m also an admirer and exhibitor of its entreprenurial spirit. After moving here for one Charlotte startup, I’ve founded or co-founded two others, and joined a fourth as its CTO.

I am co-organizing Charlotte Startup Weekend 2. I am donating my time because I believe in the format, and that it’s exactly what Charlotte’s maturing entrepreneurial environment needs to take the next step. During my time as a freelance consultant doing networking in Charlotte, I came to be familiar with a great deal of this city’s talent in design, software development, marketing, and entrepreneurship. I believe it’s time for this claim that I know to be true to become widely believed: this city has an incredible talent base and tremendous potential. By participating in Charlotte Startup Weekend, you’ll be teaming with some of Charlotte’s best and brightest for an inspiring weekend of networking, friendship, and working together.

The agenda is available on the CSW2 website, but here is a summary. On Friday night, after opening remarks, those who have an idea they’d like to put before the group to create will pitch their concept. A small number of those concepts will be selected, and teams will self-organize based on what and who they’d like to work with. Work will begin. Food and drink will be provided. Advisors will review and offer commentary on your progress. At the end of the weekend, a panel of judges will decide who has won. Depending on the organizers meeting their sponsorship goals, there may be prizes awarded the winners. Perhaps our winner will have an opportunity to become tenants at our host sponsor, Packard Place!

The primary sponsor of the Startup Weekend brand is the Kauffman Foundation, whose mission is promoting entrepreneurship. A study from that group in 2010 begins When it comes to U.S. job growth, startup companies aren’t everything. They’re the only thing.. The study reveals that, both on average and for all but seven years between 1977 and 2005, existing firms are net job destroyers, losing 1 million jobs net combined per year. By contrast, in their first year, new firms add an average of 3 million jobs.

I’d exhort us all to build new companies together here in Charlotte. Practicing will make us better, and you could meet your next business partner at this event. You’ll have a chance to know what everyone on your team is capable of, and you’ll be comparing results with your peers for weeks to come. You’ll look at what has been accomplished by a group of strangers in one weekend, and you’ll wonder what’s possible in your own business with your own teams in the next two weeks.

So, go register!. And if you are interested in sponsorship, please contact me at jim at jimvanfleet.com and reference CSW in your subject line.

• I will speak at Ignite! Charlotte for a second time, this time in front of a sold-out Neighborhood Theater.
• My wife Megan and I will have a pre-natal visit and our last ultrasound before the birth of our first child, a son, in April.
• My wife’s parents will make their first visit to Charlotte, bringing their dogs with them. We will have ten living creatures in the house.
• I will turn 32.
• My wife will have a baby shower.
• My parents will visit with the intention of selecting a new home for themselves, here in Charlotte.  After that selection, I expect the logistics of their move to be made in a short amount of time.
• I will attend a meeting of CRTEC which promises to become the home of Charlotte’s technology leadership, followed by a meeting with another CRTEC member to discuss our vision of Charlotte’s software development community.
• I will attend an all-day workshop for entrepreneurs focused on preparing for investment and attracting investors to small businesses, put on by the BIG council in conjunction with the SBTDC.
• I will submit a talk for RailsConf 2011.
• Megan and I will attend a Punch Brothers show at the Neighborhood Theater. Chris Eldridge is a dear friend of Megan’s.
• I will celebrate the one year anniversary of going freelance with it’s bspoke.
• Adam Howell and I will observe the one year anniversary of Work Montage and our product Mocksup.
• And finally, although a more formal announcement will be forthcoming, I’ve altered bspoke’s charter to accept a full-time CTO position at Otherscreen, a web and mobile startup here in Charlotte, NC. It is a true privilege to be working with this team already, and you should expect big things.

That’s in addition to client work and the particulars of every day life. If I am overly quiet or missing for a good portion of February, now you know why. If I owe you something, please keep reminding me. Except for you, Raquel, I’m almost done with your recommendation.

“A new Pew Research poll finds 53% of Republicans say there is no solid evidence the earth is warming. Among Tea Party Republicans, 70% say there is no evidence.

Key finding: ‘Disbelief in global warming in the GOP is a recent occurrence. Just a few years ago, in 2007, a 62%-majority of Republicans said there is solid evidence of global warming, while less than a third (31%) said there is no solid evidence. Currently, just 38% of Republicans say there is solid evidence the earth is warming, and only 16% say that warming is caused by human activity.’

It’s one thing to hold the position that rising global temperatures are due to natural variation, not human activity. I consider that position wrong and dangerous, but it’s a dispute over the analysis. But it is simply a fact that the planet is getting warmer. That many people who previously knew this have come to un-know it indicates that people are busy at work promoting ignorance.”

Above is entirely from the article. Comments above the horizontal rule are the author’s.

The truth is not partisan. We should follow suit.

(Via @TheEconomist.)

As our participants started to arrive, I was impressed by Bridget’s leadership and selection of first activity. Each member of the group went around and described what they did, and then we went around again and described what we might be able to do for the others at the table. I found that I got to know the others at the table much better in a few moments than I’ve been able to at other networking events.

Then we got to the good stuff! We were encouraged to put forth an idea for a start-up company, which we then discussed as a group. Based on our mix of educators, marketers, technical implementors, and general guidance, I think we left with a product that would really have a strong chance of being funded, should the presenter wish to do so. Megan and I were both excited to get a chance to hopefully work on the project, so hopefully the presenter of the original idea will decide it’s worth more effort, and give it a shot!

This is the definition of collaboration. One person’s idea became everyone’s fascination, and many of us presented our own special knowledge of our chosen domains to great effect. The idea became stronger and stronger. It had established a couple of vendors, multiple marketing channels, and the basis for growing the business considerably year over year. I was stoked to write a business plan and get it in front of investors in town!

To bring this sort of energy to a 90 minute get-together was inspiring. I’ll be sure to promote the next meeting. I’d also love to see some collaboration between Bridget and Les Porter who runs CLTLaunch as I think these projects are perfect matches for each other. Work on your idea collaboratively with others interested in helping one on level, practice your presentation skills and get your idea funded at CLTLaunch. It could work!

This is awesome, only because it’s so rare to see sanity in these matters:

Was I worried? Yes, a tinge. But it didn’t strike me as that daring, either. Isn’t New York as safe now as it was in 1963? It’s not like we’re living in downtown Baghdad.

Anyway, for weeks my boy had been begging for me to please leave him somewhere, anywhere, and let him try to figure out how to get home on his own. So on that sunny Sunday I gave him a subway map, a MetroCard, a $20 bill, and several quarters, just in case he had to make a call.

No, I did not give him a cell phone. Didn’t want to lose it. And no, I didn’t trail him, like a mommy private eye. I trusted him to figure out that he should take the Lexington Avenue subway down, and the 34th Street crosstown bus home. If he couldn’t do that, I trusted him to ask a stranger. And then I even trusted that stranger not to think, ‘Gee, I was about to catch my train home, but now I think I’ll abduct this adorable child instead.’

Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence.

Long story longer, and analyzed, to boot: Half the people I’ve told this episode to now want to turn me in for child abuse. As if keeping kids under lock and key and helmet and cell phone and nanny and surveillance is the right way to rear kids. It’s not. It’s debilitating—for us and for them.

“

(Via jwz.)