Continuing the cross-country trip to meet entrepreneurs, investors, photographers and “change agents”…

Scottsdale, AZ

Is there a Scottsdale / Phoenix rivalry? Is there a dividing line that hard-core residents of the towns refuse to cross?

On my way from Dallas to Los Angeles I stopped over in Scottsdale, AZ to meet Brandon Zeuner (bzkicks on Twitter) and Ryan Swagar (ryanswagar on Twitter). Both are experienced technology entrepreneurs in the Phoenix area.

Throughout my trip I had depended on friends to virtually introduce me to interesting people in the cities along my path, however for Phoenix I had to reach out without an introduction. Brandon has always stuck out to me on Twitter as an interesting entrepreneur in Phoenix, and I was lucky that he was open to meeting a complete stranger for lunch.

Among their many past and current projects, we spent most of our time discussing Venture 51, a project that strikes close to my thinking about venture capital and entrepreneurship. Venture 51 is a venture firm that focuses on launching early-stage ventures. Instead of merely supplying early capital, Brandon, Ryan and their team will use their experience in marketing and business development to actively help the companies under the Venture 51 umbrella move beyond the “product-first” approach to building a business.

As Brandon and Ryan explained their reasoning for Venture 51, it became apparent quite quickly that we shared many of the same views of the trends and opportunities in venture capital and entrepreneurship; Y-Combinator, TechStars and Launchbox Digital are merely one approach of many available to funding and launching early-stage ventures, and the cultural, technological and business trends we are all seeing may result in a variety of opportunities available to entrepreneurs. Venture 51 is one such alternative approach, and I would bet that we will see more private and public approaches created throughout the US and abroad in the coming year.

Los Angeles, CA
I visited Los Angeles to add some offline experiences to my daily online conversations and to get the chance to hang out with some very interesting people that I’ve met online. I’ve mentioned, quoted and bandied ideas with Ethan Bauley, Bryan Landers and Mike Bonifer extensively throughout the year, and I luckily I had the opportunity to hang out and share ideas with all of them (and Ethan’s wonderful wife and Bryan’s fantastic girlfriend) during my weekend in LA.

Ethan is a Director of Social Media Strategy at M80 and writes / curates a blog about Music, Technology, Art and Economy. Not many businesspeople have an MFA in Fine Arts, but Ethan integrates his background in music and finance with his passions for media and communication strategy into a rare blend of “business geekery”.

Bryan is a freelance web developer, product manager and a gifted musician; what is it about the web that brings out people with a diverse set of talents? Bryan and I have exchanged a number of ideas throughout conversations on the web throughout the year, yet only recently did we start figuring out what we each do.

Mike Bonifer is the writer of the Game Changers book and blog. He brings improvisation to the business world by teaching the “teamwork, creativity, flexibility and problem-solving skills” necessary for success in the “fluid, non-linear models of the Networked World.” I’m looking forward to continuing to dig into his book.

Due to the holidays and scheduling I was unable to meet a number of people, so the trip will have to return to LA in January.

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Where have I been?
Follow the continually updated map of the trip for all posts, more stories and photos.

What’s next?

• San Francisco, CA: coming up in the new year…
• And next? I’m not sure…

How can you meet me?
Drop me a line; I’m here for you.