Brad’s got a post up about entrepreneurial density in Boulder, and I’m back from a little morning exercise, having spent the time thinking about (oddly enough) entrepreneurism.
As I’ve said before, I’m a startup guy. I have two business mantras that I live by: 1) always be starting; and 2) always be closing. I take those to mean that you can never reach a place where you’re just “turning the crank” on an existing product/solution because just doing that is actually losing ground, and whatever the case, you’d better be thinking revenue 25/366.
Defrag, I think, reflects the strong entrepreneurial bias that we (Brad, Phil, Me, and Kim) bring to the table. Even our “big sponsors” are actually small entrepreneurial groups inside of the big Co’s — folks that are, by and large, all about disruption. Beyond the big guys, Defrag is built with the help of startups in varying stages.
But it goes deeper than sponsors. Our agenda has such a strong subtext of entrepreneurial spirit that almost every topic or talk screams “I’ve got this brand new thing that’s gonna change the world.”
Further, we’re going to be offering 15 “entrepreneurial scholarships” to Defrag this year: full conference passes for 15 entrepreneurs. Details to follow, but I suspect the requirements will be something along the lines of “pre-Series A” and blah blah blah. 
Bottom-line: the topic at defrag is the tools and technologies that can be used to deal with the data deluge, but the context and subtext for defrag is entrepreneurism. If you’re not an entrepreneur inside of your company (big or small), I really don’t know why you’d come to Defrag. If you are an entrepreneur inside of your company (big or small), you’ll find yourself right at home and learning/interacting a TON. Join us.
(Cross-posted @ Defrag)
