Show #29 Listen (41:49) Download

Nicolaos Alexopoulos is the Dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine. After almost 27 years at UCLA, he sought an opportunity to change directions and come to UCI "where many good things could happen". His accomplishments? Energy: The National Fuel Cell Research Center, improving health through Biomedical Engineering and the Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility, to name just a few. How does he make all this happen? He's attracted the support of Broadcom founders Henry Samueli and Henry Nicholas, Versant Ventures' Bill Link and Advanced Medical Optics' Jim Mazzo. In his spare time, what's Nick reading? Constantine Cavafy's Ithaca.

Show #28 Listen (49:59) Download

The founders of Make It Work, Inc., Jeremy Anticouni and Eric David Greenspan, "the Neighborhood Computer Support Company" are my guests. It's a service business that goes into the home to fix your computer problems. Any business customers? No, they're sticking to their primary focus, "delivering delight" to the at-home user. These serial entrepreneurs have just closed a million dollar round with the Tech Coast Angels. They say it only took 3-4 months to raise the million. The deal was led by angels Ken Aldrich and John Harbison. Do Eric & Jeremy have advice for someone starting the process right now? Get to know someone in the angel organization, never give up, keep pitching and most importantly, study your numbers, you can't just pitch the vision. What are they spending the money on? Red and white Mini Coopers and a radio advertising campaign designed by angel George Green. What's the exit? They think they already know who it'll be... In the meantime, they've got a great little business that's growing quickly. They have a tiger by the tail.