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The Parametric Pumpkin Pie image was created using Wolfram's Mathematica by Alex Edelman. Here's a high-resolution .pdf of the Mathematica Notebook. Here are more parametric images on Handshake 2.0.
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VT KnowledgeWorks is a unique growth enhancement program open to entrepreneurs in the New River Valley of Virginia and beyond. Acceleration center and incubation facilities are located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.
VT KnowledgeWorks sponsors include Attaain, Inc., BB&T, Handshake 2.0, Harris Office Furniture, Hodges, Jones & Mabry, P.C., Latimer, Mayberry & Matthews IP Law, LeClairRyan, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and The Becher Agency (TBA).
From Schultz-Creehan, a VT KnowledgeWorks member company:
Screenshot from Valley Business FRONT
Valley Business FRONT, Roanoke’s and the New River Valley’s progressive business publication magazine, released this month its FRONTlist 2009- Best of Business award winners. Of the nine industry fronts covered by the magazine, Schultz-Creehan was selected as this year’s Tech/Industry FRONTLeader award winner.
Dan Smith, the Co-Founder and editor of the magazine states, “Schultz-Creehan personifies the kind of entrepreneurial spirit we have in mind when we hand out any kind of award here at Valley Business FRONT. Schultz-Creehan has not only been a solid, growing company that is providing high-quality jobs for the region, but it is a good corporate citizen with workers who are treated well and its intention beyond simply piling up profit is clear.
The magazine’s FRONTList comes out towards the end of every year and represents the “best of” in all the areas that are most important to business. The winners are not chosen by a readers’ choice award system, but rather the magazine’s own listening and observing. Additionally, Valley Business FRONT confers with their editorial advisory board and engaged business leaders, while watching/reporting on current industry events, to further dissect each category. This compilation of industry leaders is the only list of its kind in the region.
About Schultz-Creehan LLC: Schultz-Creehan is a high-tech engineering firm focusing on the research and development of innovative solutions for industry. Schultz-Creehan addresses complex product development challenges through expertise in materials science and industrial engineering. With offices and lab facilities in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia, Schultz-Creehan develops and manufactures products and processes to serve clients in the aerospace, defense, medical device and industrial markets for customers. Please read more information about Schultz-Creehan.
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VT KnowledgeWorks is a unique growth enhancement program open to entrepreneurs in the New River Valley of Virginia and beyond. Acceleration center and incubation facilities are located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.
VT KnowledgeWorks sponsors include Attaain, Inc., BB&T, Handshake 2.0, Harris Office Furniture, Hodges, Jones & Mabry, P.C., Latimer, Mayberry & Matthews IP Law, LeClairRyan, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and The Becher Agency (TBA).
During my side of the dinner conversations with my husband in the first months of my VT KnowledgeWorks member company start-up, I regaled him with tales of the new ideas I’d had that day, how I had implemented some of them and planned to implement others. Known for his appreciative, jolly laugh, he chuckled and praised my innovation and creativity.
After a few months, he laughed less. One night, after telling him of an idea I’d had and implemented for someone else, he asked, “And how are you getting paid for that?”
I was dumbfounded. And hurt. It was an idea. Ideas are my lifeblood. Ideas are treasures in and of themselves. I am an entrepreneur with ideas.
(By the way, we went from a two-income household to a one-income household thanks to my husband’s willingness to be a sweat equity partner in my start-up. Just an aside.)
My start-up will be sixteen months old at the end of this month and, as many start-ups do, I have taken on clients’ projects at low cost as proof-of-concept test cases. As a service company, I need my services to work and I need my clients to be thrilled at how they work and at the experience they have while those services are working. And to glowingly refer those services to others.
My company has unique services and a unique business model so I can’t point to others’ success to demonstrate my company’s merit. Other company founders choose other ways, but I have chosen to put my idea out there to test and prove its value rather than wait for others to see its value. I am risking my time, talent and treasure on others' projects. I could lose much and gain nothing.
My entrepreneurial clients have each told me recently of new ideas they’ve had. They would welcome my appreciative, jolly praise for their innovation and creativity. Ideas are their lifeblood.
I said, “Let’s think about this. Help me see how that idea will contribute to generating revenue for the project we’re working on.”
What I wanted to ask was, “Why aren’t you putting all your time into the project we’re working on so you can get paid for it, so you can pay me?!”
Oh. That's why my husband laughed less.
It's just not that simple for an entrepreneur.
I have a very bright friend, married to a very bright husband, who gave birth to three bright children. “It’s harder,” she says, “with smart people.”
How about with smart people who are creative? And entrepreneurs?
Sheesh.
The blessing and burden of being a smart, creative entrepreneur is that from the fountain of many ideas also flows the few ideas that turn a trickle of a project into a cascading waterfall.
I know this, of course, because I am an entrepreneur.
How does one wrangle an entrepreneur?
How does one honor the creative process that generates the business ideas and, at the same time, generate a revenue-producing business? How does one balance the need for ideas to be unbound with the need for business ideas to be herded in the direction of a revenue stream?
For me, consciousness of this process - and of my husband’s sacrifice - helps me lavish my own praise on a particularly iridescent idea that jets from my glorious fountain of ideas. Just for a moment. Then I watch the fountain and reach in for the idea, perhaps less shiny but still colorful, that I think is most likely to generate revenue. That's the one I implement.
I am a wrangled entrepreneur.
At dinner sixteen months after start-up, my husband and I now share three highlights of our days. For me, the revenue of a relationship is intimacy. Unbridled overflow washes us away from each other. From the fountain of all possibilities, I pluck three plump rainbow trout on which we can feast together.
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Illustration credit: Steven White
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VT KnowledgeWorks is a unique growth enhancement program open to entrepreneurs in the New River Valley of Virginia and beyond. Acceleration center and incubation facilities are located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.
VT KnowledgeWorks sponsors include Attaain, Inc., BB&T, Handshake 2.0, Harris Office Furniture, Hodges, Jones & Mabry, P.C., Latimer, Mayberry & Matthews IP Law, LeClairRyan, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and The Becher Agency (TBA).
Whether a member of Facebook or not, users can visit these public Facebook pages and learn more about VT KnowledgeWorks and its member companies.
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VT KnowledgeWorks is a unique growth enhancement program open to entrepreneurs in the New River Valley of Virginia and beyond. Acceleration center and incubation facilities are located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.
VT KnowledgeWorks sponsors include Attaain, Inc., BB&T, Handshake 2.0, Harris Office Furniture, Hodges, Jones & Mabry, P.C., Latimer, Mayberry & Matthews IP Law, LeClairRyan, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and The Becher Agency (TBA).
