Bruce Kendall guest speaker

Bruce Kendall spoke about his job of convincing companies in Pierce County to stay in the county and also convince other companies to relocate to Pierce County. He talked about how he works with a group of about seven individuals that are all responsible for meeting several times with companies and investing time, money and effort to bring them to Pierce County.

 He also mentioned that the software industry has not grown in Pierce County like it has in other places because of higher wages and shortage of qualified workers. He said that one of the major deterrents for a lot of companies that are thinking about moving to Pierce County is the expensive labor pool that is due to the high cost of living in the area.

 He also discussed Boeing’s recent decision to base their next project in Washington State instead of North Carolina and the significance that having a company like Boeing brings to Pierce County. He said that businesses like Boeing with astronomical starting costs are invaluable because they control a near monopoly on the market because no one can afford to compete. In Boeing’s case they only have one competitor in Airbus. Location is a big decision for any entrepreneur. 

Startup.com

     Startup.com is a documentary about two entrepreneurs and high school friends, Kaleil and Tom (and a third), that create a company called Govworks at the end of the dot com boom and just before the internet bubble burst. The documentary captures the birth of the company from Kaleil's decision to name it Govworks, through the meteoric rise of the company's value, to the eventual tech issues, competition, bust and death. Startup.com is an informative first hand look at the struggle of building a company and bringing a product to market.
     Kaleil and Tom start off with an idea for a website that would allow citizens to interact with the government in their own homes without having to show up to a city meeting or other public place. They start off with little competition and they are quickly able to raise enough money to hire a team and get started. The company is so hyped that Kaleil even gets to meet president Bill Clinton before the company has even released a product or made a dime.
    The company ultimately suffers a series of unfortunate events starting with an incident of corporate espionage, likely perpetrated by one of the competitors. Next the tech bubble begins to burst and companies like Govworks begin to drop in value dramatically. The final nail in the coffin comes when the website performs poorly compared to the competitors, which leads to Tom being let go by Kaleil. Eventually they end up with nothing to show for their work except the experience of building their first company.