1. +
Commercialization Forum
Peter French - @pfrench99 / @freeflowsearch
MSEC PhD Guest Lecture
2/28/14

2. +
peter l french
Plum Creek - Director of Operations
2,200 acre master-planned community
@plumcreektx
LoomisBurton – Cofounder
Real estate consulting and development
@loomisburton
French Oil Mill Machinery Co – Director
114 year-old family-owned machine manufacturer
@frenchoil
FreeFlow Research – Founder
501c3 applied research organization
@freeflowsearch
Peter L French Photography
www.peterlfrench.com
@peterlfrench

3. +
Perspective matters

4. +
Things you already know
! It has never been easier, or cheaper, to launch a company.
! You are sitting in one of the most dynamic regions in the USA.
! Social, search, capital, networks, and mentorship are all at
your fingertips.
! The community (Texas State, San Marcos, Hays County, the
State of Texas, the USA) want you to succeed.
! I want you to succeed, or to fail quickly.Which is o.k. too.

5. +
Every company was a startup

6. +
Most companies fail

7. +
Your brain is lying to you.

8. +
Your brain is lying to you.

9. +
Survey I
! Are you conscious of your bias?
! How long have you been a student?
! How many schools have you attended?
! How many places have you created I.P.?
! Where is that I.P. now?
! Who owns it?
! Does it have value?
! Does it have value without you?

10. +
Carol S. Dweck Ph. D. – mindset
Carol S. Dweck Ph. D. – mindset
! A growth mindset enables you to
build new habits, skills, and
talents. It also empowers you to
help those around you do the
same.
! “Creative achievement and
resilience are products of a growth
mindset do you or your
organization have one?”
! Build an organization that is
open to constructive feedback that
questions why and how things are
done. Analyze your failures and
your successes!

11. +
Good things
http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/500-family

13. +
StrengthsFinder 2.0
Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
Chances are, you don't. All too often, our natural talents go
untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to
fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.
Rule 1
Know thyself
http://strengths.gallup.com

14. +
Practical application
! Peter French is a seasoned strategist who excels at spotting patterns and finding
creative ways to deploy resources to produce new results.
! With a diverse background in manufacturing, real estate, and startups, he is uniquely
qualified to lead this dynamic project.
! Ideation: Fascinated by ideas, Peter is able to find connections between seemingly
disparate ideas.
! Input: With a craving to know more, Peter is ceaseless in his pursuit of diverse sources
of information.
! Futuristic: Inspired by the future and what could be, Peter inspires his team with his
bold vision for the future.
! Strategic: By constantly imagining alternative ways forward, Peter I can quickly spot
relevant patterns, obstacles, and opportunities.
! Learner: Peter burns with a great desire to learn and continuously improve. His passion
for discovery is the foundation of this organization’s culture.

15. Assessment Tools
! Good.Co’s proprietary psychometric
algorithm assesses your Archetype blend and
examines thousands of data points to find the
best cultural fit between job seekers and job
openings. It helps you identify positions,
teams, companies, and categories that are a
natural extension of who you are and what you
have a knack for.
! Smarterer was created to help anyone,
anywhere, prove any skill. Using
crowdsourced tests and a scoring method
similar to the one used to rank chess masters,
in as few as 10 questions and 60 seconds, we
can provide a valid score to measure
candidates' skills.
! TrueAbility is a cloud-based technical
assessment tool.TrueAbility built a platform
to validate a tech’s skills on a real server—
allowing them to demonstrate their abilities in
technologies relevant to the job they are
applying for.

16. +

17. +
pathbrite
! “Increasingly, what matters most
today is what you can do with
what you know. Pathbrite is a
great tool for individuals and
institutions who want to collect
and share evidence of real
learning and proficiency.”
! Dr.Tony Wagner
! Harvard University Graduate
School of Education
! Author of The Global
Achievement Gap and Creating
Innovators

18. +
Your personal brand
! http://about.me/peterlfrench/#
! https://www.vizify.com/peter-l-
french
! https://twitter.com/pfrench99
! http://instagram.com/
peterlfrench
! http://www.linkedin.com/in/
peterlfrenchsatx
! https://plus.google.com/u/
0/+peterlfrench/

20. +

21. Access to Opportunity
! SmartRecruiter’s social recruiting
platform combines awesome free
recruiting software with the best on-
demand services to make hiring social,
collaborative, enjoyable and, well…
EASY!
! Bright eliminates the noise in the hiring
process by efficiently connecting job
seekers to their best opportunities, and
employers to their top prospects. Bright
is not just an innovation in online job
search, it's a mission to move the labor
markets faster.
! True North is a full-service recruiting
and executive search firm in San
Antonio,Texas specializing in delivering
top talent. Our clients range in size from
early-stage start-up to Fortune 50 and
are located all over the country, with an
emphasis in Texas.

22. +
AngelList

23. +
AngelList

24. +
AngelList

25. +
Survey II
! Do you want to start a company?
! If yes, where?
! Why?
! Do you want to run a company?
! If yes, why?
! Have you done either before?
! What’s your dumb tax tolerance?

26. +
What you make is important

27. +
leancanvas
Product?
Service?
Process?
B to C?
B to B?
MVP timeline?
Who can you ask?
Who did you ask?
Have you asked
anyone?

28. +
It looks real, doesn’t it

29. +5 Steps to the BestYear Ever
Step 1 – Understand the Possibility – Breakthroughs are possible
Where have you settled, how does this make you feel, what would a breakthrough feel like, what internal
barriers need to be overcome?
Step 2 – Reflect on LastYear – Assess and move forward
Recurring themes, major accomplishments, regrets, what was missing, and major life lessons.
Step 3 – Look to the Future – What do I want in 2014?
Write down 7–10 goals, using the smart method — specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-
bound. Identify a push goal. Are these goals tough/meaningful enough?
Step 4 – Identify your Motivation – Why do I want this?
For each of your goals, write out 5–7 motivations that answer the question,“Why is this goal important to
me?” Go back through your list of motivations and order them in order of importance.Which ones do you
find most compelling?
Step 5 – Make it Happen – Plan a step at a time & do it
Identify the “next action” for each of your goals. Schedule a month’s worth of appointments on your
calendar to work on your goals. Schedule a regular time to review your progress If you’re progress is
slower than you desire, evaluate what’s holding you back?

30. + Results: products of success
Setting and achieving meaningful goals will produce the following results:
#1) Great Health – foundation of life
Health Metrics: increased energy, reduced stress, increasing fitness
#2) Clear Purpose – base motivation – the why that drives action
Purpose Metrics: clarity of why, increased confidence, increased ambition, improved productivity, improved patience
#3) Increasing Wealth – access to opportunity
Wealth Metrics: increasing income, increasing savings, reduction in debt, growth in investments, intentional spending
#4) Sustained Happiness – state of mind – opposite of stress, product of order
Happiness Metrics: greater resilience, increased generosity, more loving, more fun, more affectionate
#5) Regular Validation – external rewards – recognition of effort & expertise
Validation Metrics: more professional invitations, more press, more awards
My goals must support these metrics

31. +
Clayton Christensen –
The Innovator’s Dilemma
“Markets that don’t exist cannot
be analyzed.”
“An Organization is defined by its
resources (people),processes,
and values (RPV).New
organizations spawn new
processes aligned to new
requirements.”
“A goal for a successful
organization should be to
generate a steady stream of new
ideas – regardless of industry or
size.”
“Think what no one else is
thinking & do what no one else is
doing”

32. + The five stages of disruptive thinking
1 craft a disruptive hypothesis
2 define a disruptive market opportunity
3 generate several disruptive ideas
4 shape them into a single disruptive solution
5 make a disruptive pitch
Cast your hypothesis as a “what if” question
Explore the least obvious market opportunities
Ideas add definition to your intent regarding the opportunity
Articulate your refined solution (it must be feasible)
Test your pitch then make your pitch

33. +
Design thinking tools
! A group of frogs came
together and looked across
our existing problem-solving
practices, including how frogs
collaborate in groups when
working on client projects.We
distilled what we learned into
this toolkit.

34. +
Basic series A vc math
! $5,000,000 pre-money valuation
! 5,000,000 $1.00 shares
! Founders 100%
! Following Investment
! Founders own 30%
! VCs own 50%
! Mgmt Pool holds 20%
! $5,000,000 VC investment
! $10,000,0000 post money valuation
! VCs own 5,000,000 new shares
! Founders put 2,000,000 shares into a
management pool for future hires
! Founders retain 3,000,000 shares

35. +
case studies
Adventures in Real Estate
Photography: going pro
Becoming an authority

36. +
It started with a blog post

39. +
Resource assessment
! What do you have?
! What do you wish you had?
! What don’t you have?
! Are you sure you need it?
! Who has it?
! How do you reach them?
! Where else might you get it?