If you’re looking for a few things to check out or plug into while @ SXSW, here’s what I have on my list — leaving a lot of room for serendipity, too!
First, if you want to connect in the SXSW app, this is me (or connect with me on Twitter or Instagram (
I’ll be focusing on Social & Global Impact, Entrepreneurship and Startups, and Future Workplace content. Hit me up if you want to break and grab
Throughout the week, visit our friends Brian Lang, Eddie Gonzalez and Erik Ibarra (an Impact Hub Houston Board Member!) at Energizing Health: https://imagine.health/. Fast Company Grill also has a great line-up!
Friday, March 8:
- My Conversation on “Equitable Growth Ecosystems for Entrepreneurs” with Jasmine Victoria of Cathexis Project: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2019/events/PP87171
- Visit Marc Nathan at the SXSW SuperConnectors Meetup: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2019/events/PP86279
Saturday, March 9:
- I’ll be representing Impact Hub Houston and helping national movement leaders, social enterprises and entrepreneurs at the Titan Generator: https://houston.impacthub.net/2019-sxsw-titan-generator/
- Hoping to seeShion Desaykar at BlueSquad‘s Tech for Politics program: https://technologyofpolitics.splashthat.com/
Sunday, March 10:
- Visiting friends at Alice + Bumble at the BeeHive (which has programming throughout SXSW!): https://helloalice.com/resources/event/alice-at-the-bumble-hive-sxsw
- Checking out Women Funding Women hosted by Springboard and Dell: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-funding-women-austin-tickets-54869376783
Monday, March 11:
- Seeing the next generation of startups with Greg Wright at Hatch Pitch: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hatch-pitch-summit-2019-tickets-56258343219
- Visiting Josh Baer and friends at Capital Factory for a session on “Fueling American Innovation to Inspire Tomorrow’s Women Technologists”: https://www.capitalfactory.com/event/fueling-american-innovation-inspire-tomorrows-women-technologists/
Tuesday, March 12:
- Helping SXSW Startups at Private 1-1 Mentor Sessions
- Checking out the Consumer Technology Association‘s Innovation Policy Day: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/innovation-policy-day-2019-registration-55714877699
… and who knows what will
Many thanks to Roxy Ortiz of Elevated Layers for styling me this weekend; to Trish Badger for taking this photo of me at SXSW years ago; to the Impact Hub Houston team for keeping the ship aimed forward full-speed and on course; and to Andrew Karnavas (JustAddBeats and YAWP Records) for holding down the fort at home!
]]>When I got the call from Blair Garrou introducing me to Emily Keeton three years ago, I had no idea that joining her, then Chris Root, then the indomitable spirit of John “JR” Reale, for the adventure of forming, launching, and growing Station Houston would become the most thrilling and character-building roller coaster ride of my life … so far.
From the early days at the Surge Shack — when we were building our community, connecting the Lennart’s and Sam’s (Graylog) and the Carolyn’s and Courtenay’s (Circular Board/HelloAlice) with each other … when we tried to squeeze meetups of 60+ people into a room built for 30 … and when we battled to keep the summer heat at bay for Arundo’s team in the tiny office upstairs — to the growing pains of moving downtown and working lean to breathe life and vibrancy into what was once Deutsche Bank’s corporate trading floor, it has been a true adventure. And you, the Station Houston community, have made it truly worthwhile.
As JR has said, while he loves Jules dearly, Station has been like his second (first?) baby. For me, it has been such an honor to have worked with him to launch Station to serve you. It has been such a pleasure to forge friendships and collaborations with you — you’re genuinely like family, to me. And it has been such a privilege to help many of you along your own startup journeys. Today, I am so excited by the vision that Gaby Rowe has for taking Station to the next level, and so confident in the amazing team that Station is growing to execute it, that I know the time is right to move on to the next leg of my journey.
(You know what’s coming next, right? Sending you a big hug in advance …)
It’s with that, that I am officially stepping out of my role as CXO at Station Houston. While I will no longer be involved in day-to-day operations at Station, I will continue to serve you as a mentor and speaker/teacher whenever Milad, Hira, Allie and the team need me (you’ll always get dibs on my time!), and will be working with Station and our community partners to launch a collaborative strategy for an Innovation Ecosystem Impact Report. And, of course, I’ll always serve as a goodwill ambassador for Station to the broader community. Consider my network, your network!
To Station’s Board, mentors, investors, community partners, and corporate sponsors: I want to thank you so much for supporting Station Houston — you help us help literally hundreds of entrepreneurs skill up and scale up. I’m super excited to continue working with you in the broader community to strengthen Houston’s innovation ecosystem and foster even greater impact. And if there’s something in particular I can help you with, I’m just a tweet, message, or comment away!
Looking forward to sharing my next adventure(s) with you…
With much love,
Grace
Co-Founder, Station Houston
Update! P.S. The Houston Chronicle just shared a little more about my next adventure — Impact Hub Houston!!!
It saddens me that the United States is so divided and I have to say that I’ve never had such a hard time processing my feelings on a topic.
The majority of my life, I’ve worked to find and create opportunities to build bridges across divisions. As an Independent, I didn’t vote along a straight party line throughout the full 2016 ballot; but after seeing so much hateful, racist, sexist, and spiteful rhetoric from many conservative leaders on the campaign trail, my votes leaned strongly towards progressive candidates.
After seeing the fall-out of the election results, I talked about the elections with the people in my social networks. I wanted to learn how other people felt, how they were processing and responding to the outcome. Many were profoundly shaken — I think Saturday Night Live’s sketch with Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock hit that nail on the head. Some people said we need to accept it and move forward. Some seemed to have voted for the GOP candidate and continued to bash Hillary Clinton, while ignoring the surge in hate crimes that immediately followed the 2016 election results. A few friends shared horror stories of children, students, family, friends and peers being targeted with racist or hateful comments. But once in a while, a story of heroic humanity would break through, like the case of Baylor’s community standing up for an African-American student in declaring #IWalkWithNatasha.
I talked about the election and its results with my team at Station Houston. We discussed the myriad perspectives and possible outcomes of the election results. And to clarify where I stand — and hopefully model how we can best practice our core values of inclusion, thoughtful action, and care for our vast community — I sent them the following email … in the spirit of transparency, I want to share it here:
Diversity and inclusion are core to who we are as Station Houston and how we serve our community. We have to keep in mind that we operate at the focal point of Houston’s tech startup community…and many of these tech startups’ founders and teams comprise people from all over the world, from all walks of life. We operate within the context of Members, Mentors, and Partners who span the political, ideological and social/socio-economic spectrums. We operate within the context of the most diverse city in the country, and also the fourth most segregated city in the country. We operate as leaders-by-example, which translates to operating as leaders-by-action.
After the election, I’ve been seeing a lot of hate speech proliferate online and offline. I want everyone to keep in mind that we want this to be a safe space for all; and, as such, that any disrespectful behavior is not tolerated here, neither from anyone nor to anyone, regardless of role within the Station community. Because we work among so many thoughtful and considerate people, it can be easy to assume that that behavior won’t penetrate these walls; but it can. This election has shown that anything is possible.
In these times, I want us all to hark back to our stated values, and make sure that everyone in our community knows that Station Houston is a safe place for them. For ALL of them, regardless of which way they voted. And we will take any and all steps necessary to ensure it remains a respectful, productive and supportive environment, for all.
Thank you! Please know that if you ever need help with anything, we have your backs. We have each other’s backs.
Hugs…because that’s how we roll,
Grace
I don’t believe that voting one way or another makes you “good” or “evil.” But I do hope that whichever way you voted, you did not do it to harm another human being, or to destroy the world we live in. I have faith in our strength and resilience, and still believe that we can make this world a better place if we can all decide to work together to solve our biggest problems. But we must decide to do that together. We must commit to do the work of, by and for ALL OF US. And I commit to that at Station, and in everything else I touch.
United, we stand. Divided, we fall. And if you cast your vote in favor of division, watch out: The journey is long, and that fall will be hard.
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I’m not big on birthdays, but I AM big on supporting the wonderful people who work for the greater good. So in lieu of giving me a gift … or tweeting me … or posting on my Facebook page … please consider donating to Writers In The Schools on my behalf! (Please leave a note in the “Comment” area, so I know whom to thank! 🙂 )
WITS is a change agent for creativity and literacy in Houston. In 32 years, WITS has impacted the education of more than 400,000 children. By supporting WITS you are investing in the largest literary arts organization in Texas and a proven model for quality arts education. WITS professional authors — like Andrew! — teach the craft of writing, digital literacy and critical thinking in schools and community classrooms, helping students and educators explore literacy in innovative ways that close gaps in achievement and opportunity while fueling lifelong learning.
You can give a one-time donation, but a recurring gift to WITS will make a lasting difference. Please consider setting up a convenient monthly donation of any amount that can be paid over time through your credit card.
- $10 could send an underserved child on an inspiring field trip each month
- $15 could publish classroom anthologies for two children each month
- $25 could provide classroom supplies for five children each month
Matching Gifts
Many companies also have matching gift programs that can double or triple your impact. If you’d like to make an even greater impact on #STEAM education and literacy in Houston, please contact WITS Development team — ask for Kate! — at 713.523.3877 or [email protected].
From the heart of my bottom, THANK YOU so much!!!
Thankfully, thought and time presented a few ideas; and current history and politics helped focus them into one major theme: Radical Hospitality. It’s what we practiced at events like TEDActive and Web of Change, and it’s what we used to practice in our own homes and communities. Radical hospitality was a tradition ingrained in our culture — it was just basic hospitality in cultures all over the world — until some illness, some ill-will, spread through our communities and tipped the balance toward Fear — that other “F” word.
Well, here’s my talk on that. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you’ll let me know what you think about it, or what it inspires you to think about. And most importantly, I hope it encourages you to open your minds, open your hearts, and open your doors to let yourself explore the world without fear, and to fearlessly welcome others in. heart emoticon http://j.mp/grace-tedxsantodomingo#OpenUpward #DareGreatly #HackingLife
P.S. Muchísimas gracias and a billion besitos to all the radically hospitable people who organized #TEDxSantoDomingo and welcomed us into their amazing family — Freddy, Carlos Miranda Levy, Gina Giudicelli, Javier Freites Capitán, Miguel Mercado, Nohemí Pérez and the whole team! — and many thanks to the speakers who shared their time, thoughts, feedback, jitters, and vasos de vino with me, especially David Simpson Author andJenny Simpson, Joshua Mantz, Charlie Hoehn, Nelson Bruno, Anya Damirón, Yolanda León, Edgar Molina, Maria Batlle and Jose Maria Cabral! As Anya would say, You Are ALL Super! heart emoticon
Whenever someone says to me, “I’d love to pick your brain. Can we grab coffee sometime?” I want to run screaming. The tougher thing now is when a friend introduces someone to me who’d like to “pick my brain”: I want to help my friend, but I don’t want to feel obligated to provide free consulting time for the FoF (Friend-of-Friend) just because they know someone who knows me. If I did that all the time, I would have no time for my actual work. Or for what precious little QT I have for myself.
I read this article — https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-say-introductions-sloane-davidson — and decided I’m going to make rules of introduction for myself, just like I did with my “Work With Me” page (http://gracerodriguez.com/workwithme).
In a blog post linked within the previous article, Nicole Jordan shared some wise words on brain-picking (http://www.blogher.com/no-you-cant-pick-my-brain):
“Time is valuable, and creative thought is even more so. Don’t undervalue either. As women (and compassionate people everywhere), we like to help, and can get trapped in giving our time and ideas away for free because we’re afraid to ask for compensation. Or we just don’t realize it’s within our right to do so.
When you are a creative individual who is a “popcorn machine,” as my mom says, who spits out ideas on a continual basis, doling out advice is no big thing. It’s easy to have coffee with someone whose company I enjoy, most who will ultimately take my ideas and somehow help benefit their business. Whatevs.
Creative ideas and connections are the real currency in this digital economy. We are bombarded with fragmented channels to communicate with, audiences to communicate to and many masters to serve on the business side. Having someone who can view this entire ecosystem, understand your market and then advise you on what is wisest for your company to build brand and business is an invaluable resource.”
Here’s a suggestion for those who would like to get to know someone, or get some quick advice from them but can’t afford their consulting fee: Instead of asking to pick a busy person’s brain, try offering, “I’d love to buy you lunch sometime and share thoughts on [insert shared topic of interest here].” That way, it’s more of a conversation instead of a consultation, and you offer to at least feed them for their time. Even better: “I’d love to buy you lunch sometime and get your thoughts on [topic of interest], and possibly help you if you need insight on [your area of expertise].” Then it’s exchanging value for value. Just a thought.
I showed you mine. What’s yours? Have any suggestions on how to say “no” or to make it a fair exchange?
]]>To connect with more female founders, mentors, and investors, join the WIT:H Community on HelloAlice, too!
Accelerators:
- https://sb.co/
- http://astia.org/
- http://www.newmeaccelerator.com/
- http://thewinlab.org/about/
- http://neverstop.co/upstart/
- http://www.womenstartuplab.com/
- http://girleffectaccelerator.com/
- http://www.refineryct.com/
- http://www.prosperstl.com/accelerator/
- http://avinde.org/
- http://mergelane.com/about
Media
]]>How do Technology & Entrepreneurship play a role in Progressive Leadership?
Author & NYU Professor Clay Shirky:
“A revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools, it happens when society adopts new behaviors.”
- Direct influence: Net Neutrality, FWD, lobbying — with success, comes leverage
- New Ethos: Disruption. Radical Transparency (https://buffer.com/transparency). Radical Accountability (http://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/ & https://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf).
- Spectrum of Social Entrepreneurship / Social Enterprise / Corporate Responsibility
- Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, Profit
- Tom’s, Green Mountain Power, most companies with products on the shelves at Whole Foods
- B Corporations: Certified B Corporations are redefining success in business. Certified B Corps commit to meet higher standards of transparency, accountability, and performance — Differentiating through Business Disruption
… 4 P’s of Marketing: Price, Product, Promotion, Place. New P: Purpose
Deloitte’s fourth annual Millennial Survey explored what tomorrow’s leaders think of business today. According to the results, business should focus on people and purpose, not just products and profits.” 77% surveyed chose Purpose over pay.
Web 2.0: Content + Connection -> Communication -> Community > Content + Connection > …
Beyond Social Media: Social Innovation
- U-Haul & AMERCO Investors Club to enable the market to invest in its trucks, offering a share of the dividends of asset-backed performance
- GE partners with Quirky, where inventors who submit new product ideas share in the financial rewards.
- Hasbro partnered with Shapeways 3D printer community to offer up the IP of toys and let makers glean revenue from every created product
- Barclay’s Card created the Barclays Ring, which enables communities of committed customers to design and use the credit card as well as distribute profits to the their favorite non-profits.
- Empowering the jobless with alternative sources of revenue: Etsy, Lyft/Uber, TaskRabbit, eLance/upwork, microlending, crowdfunding (Pave, Patreon, GoFundMe, Kickstarter/IndieGoGo)
- No Job Security.
- Give People CHOICE, Not Charity.
Design Thinking & Lean Startup Methodologies
- Agile: Performance over Perfection
- Adaptable: Insight, Ideate, Implement, Iterate
- Empathic: Human-Centered — Doing the Right Thing, then Doing the Thing RIght. No Market, No Merit
Keep in Mind: Awareness, Access, Affordability, Acceptability. Digital Divide. Diversity.
- How did you get involved in technology and innovation?
You don’t have to be a techie or engineer or “social media guru.” Many people’s paths are “quests,” mine was more of a journey: early reader, consuming content, curious Encyclopedia Brown & “Mysteries of the Universe,” mom=nurse & dad=computer engineer so always interested in how people work and how things work, cardiothoracic surgeon to fashion design to marketing & public relations to writing & editing to movies to government & politics to nonprofits to branding to energy to venture capital to design agency to TED & beyond. Common thread: Wanting to learn through experience, wanting to solve problems & create opportunities, wanting to help people, and wanting to help people solve problems & create opportunities.
- What is going on that you find most promising in the technology and innovation space that progressive advocates need to be aware of, or that are ripe for use by activists?
Innovation: People, Place, Process
Strategic:
- Innovation from Top-Down to Bottom-Up
- HCD: Urban Planning, Products, Services, Policies, Manufacturing, Architecture, etc.
- Anyone can do it. Adaptive Leadership: Inspired by Evolution — 1) Keep what’s working, 2) Discard what doesn’t, 3) Try new things. It’s about Activity, not Authority; Progress over Perfection.
- Anyone can do it, Anywhere, Anytime. Collaborative Creation: CoWorking, Pop-Shops, Makerspaces, DIY Bio, LiquidSpace, Wikipedia.
- Anyone can do it Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow. Sharing Economy: Craigslist, AirBnB, RenttheRunway, Voluntourism: You don’t have to own it to OWN IT.
Quantitative
- If start-ups and tech companies can use principles of agile development to gain customer insights, social enterprises can do the same to measure impact and shorten learning cycles. Can you build data collection into decision making to improve impact in real time instead of just proving impact years after the fact? YES.
- Open Source: WordPress, GitHub, OHouston
- Big Data: Quantified Self, Big Data
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): Watson, Wolfram, Nest, Shyam Sankar on Our Cyborg Future
Qualitative:
- People Processing: Cognitive Neuroscience — HOW we think determines WHAT we think. EQ, then IQ. Neurolinguistics — What we say influences how we think.
- Data-Driven Storytelling > Data-Driven Decision-Making: http://www.periscopic.com/ http://inequality.is
Tactile & Tactical:
- SMS, Mobile payments
- BioTech (TMCx+3, JLabs): SuperPowers
- Energy (SURGE): More people, more internet, more gadgets = energy & batteries
- WITHouston
- Crowdfunding (NextSeed) & Thunderclap
- Social Networks & Custom Broadcasting: Whether livestreamed (HangoutsOA/Livestream/Meerkat/Periscope) or podcast or vlogging — People as Channels as Brands as Positioning
- Wearables to Embeddables to Consumables
- VR&AR for Empathy (Oculus/Cardboard, Chris Milk & VRSE, Hololens/Magic Leap)
- IoT: Interactive Environments, “A Million Points of LED.” Passive Data -> Active Diagnostics -> Predictive Prescriptives
…but Privacy, Ethics — where do I end and WE begin?
- How would you advise our Fellows about how to connect with innovators and technologists to advance the progressive causes they champion?
Internal Research:
- What’s Your Goal?
- How do you identify your core strengths and build upon them strategically?
- How do you avoid racing forward in an unfocused, and ultimately self-defeating, way?
- How do you figure out what works? (Measure what’s important! Insight, Ideate, Implement, Iterate)
- How can your company or organization create sustainable impact at scale?
External Research:
- Online: http://topsy.com https://klout.com https://followerwonk.com + the people whom the people you respect follow & people your friends recommend
- Go to Hubs, Aggregators: Accelerators, CoWorking Spaces, Meetups
- See what they care about, what topics they discuss, and ask “Why?” five times
TED Talks for New Leaders:
- Paul Tudor Jones: Rethinking Capitalism http://go.ted.com/bDgX
- Dan Pallotta: Rethinking Nonprofits http://go.ted.com/bDgv
- Simon Sinek: The Golden Circle http://go.ted.com/bDka
- Dan Ariely: How Equal Do We Want the World to Be? http://go.ted.com/bDkm
- Toby Eccles: Invest in Social Change http://www.ted.com/playlists/139/social_good_inc
- Joy Sun: Donating Differently http://go.ted.com/bDgo
- Regina Dugan: DARPA Innovation http://go.ted.com/bDkk
- Richard Turere: Innovating in Africa http://go.ted.com/bDgd
- Majora Carter: Local Eco-Entrepreneurship http://go.ted.com/bDw8
- Juliette Rotisch: Internet Access for Africa http://go.ted.com/bDkB
- Derek Sivers: How to Start Revolution http://go.ted.com/bDkE
I am putting a stop to that with this post. This post won’t be perfect. It won’t be comprehensive. It won’t ask and answer all the questions I have about ideas of “perfection” and lean+agile processes and neuroscience and behavioral psychology and design thinking and concepts of personal identity and the media and social pressures and norms. I just have to let those go until the next post. And the next post. And the one after that. And maybe by letting those items go until future posts, it will help me develop a better habit of posting more frequently.
So here’s this simple little thought. And until the next post, cheers to letting go of “perfection”! I hope you’ll join me in embracing IMperfection. It’s actually quite beautiful.
]]>First: I’m rarely on Facebook. I don’t have the app on my phone because of its privacy issues (more here and here); and whenever I visit the site I try to minimize my time there as much as possible — it can be a real timesuck. This means my previous interactions on it consisted primarily of hitting “Like” on posts and “thumbs up” on comments. Instead of posting rich comments or in-depth posts, I simply liked things. Once in a while, I’d push Instagram pictures or Twitter tweets to Facebook. That quick-and-easy (some rightly say “lazy”) activity gradually turned my feed into an echo chamber where, on a regular basis, I would only see posts from the same six people, a bunch of “recommended” Buzzfeed and Upworthy videos, and a plethora of promoted posts that I didn’t want in my “friend” feed. This seemed weird — I have over 4000 friends, so why am I seeing updates from only six of them? — and it made me want to visit Facebook even less. Unfortunately, most of my family and friends prefer Facebook over Twitter for now, so I have to go there to stay abreast of group plans, events and private messages.
Secondly, I read what happened when Wired writer Mat Honan decided to Like everything in his feed: His friends’ updates started to disappear, only to be replaced by more and more updates from brands and publishers. Facebook’s algorithm worked to determine his political inclinations and presented him with increasingly extreme right-wing and left-wing content…strangely enough, at the same time. What’s even more disconcerting is that “Liking” everything made Honan’s posts pop up far more frequently in his friends’ feeds, distorting their timelines, too.
Then I read Elan Morgan’s post on Medium: “I Quit Liking Things On Facebook for Two Weeks. Here’s How It Changed My View of Humanity.” She did the opposite experiment: She did not Like anything on Facebook for two weeks, opting instead to write a thoughtful comment whenever she felt the need to express agreement or affection. It effected the exact opposite result from Honan’s experience. She reports:
Now that I am commenting more on Facebook and not clicking Like on anything at all, my feed has relaxed and become more conversational. It’s like all the shouty attention-getters were ushered out of the room as soon as I stopped incidentally asking for those kinds of updates by using the Like function. … I feel as though reason has been restored.
I want to restore reason to my timeline. I want to make what little time I spend on Facebook more meaningful and relevant. I want to restore its effectiveness for its supposed purpose: To help me improve relationships and engage in social activities with my family, friends and communities.
After several insightful paragraphs on Facebook’s algorithms and their unintended, and often detrimental, side effects, Morgan concludes:
Once I removed the Like function from my own behavior, I almost started to like using Facebook. …
Quit the Like. See if it amplifies the humanity in your Facebook. Give the Like a rest and see what happens. Choose to comment with words. Watch how your feed changes.
Challenge accepted. I will not like anything on Facebook for the next six weeks. Maybe even longer. Who knows: I may just quit Facebook altogether.
What about you? Will you stop Liking things on Facebook? If you do, please share what you experienced and Comment below, or share it with me on Facebook! I promise to respond with more than a “Like.” 🙂
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