I apologize for how dark this video came out (we were in an outdoor courtyard with no lights), but the sound is fine, so you can get the gist of the presentation. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is a video of my presentation to a group architects at an AIA Los Angeles event. I was one of seven speakers. We were each allowed 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide. There were approximately 50 people in attendance. I got to talk to a couple people afterward and received encouraging feedback, but I think my presentation was too general to really spark people’s interest. That will come as I continue to refine the idea.

I’m still super early on in concept development for my venture, so the idea is changing almost every week. Of course, ideas build on each other and I want to show the progression of thought, so I’m posting this up. I spent a good chunk of today on instantdomainsearch.com, trying to find a better available domain name than Vverdant. Gotta sleep on a few gems I came across. I don’t want to take too long though, as I’ve already seen one good name disappear before I could register it: fillvoid.com.

It’s great to have a network of talented friends! Today my man Lawrence Santiago volunteered to help me with a logo design. There is so much thought that goes into a logo….The company philosophy ought to be evident in its design. I told Lawrence, “I just want it to look clean, simple and progressive. I want to come across as a cutting edge green company. I like simple logos.” I think he nailed it. The idea needs a bit of tweaking, but it’s most of the way there. I’m interested in some color variations, but I love his font, and how he made the “t” into a leaf. He sent me a few mockups:

Vverdant logo mockup #1 by Lawrence Santiago: June 23, 2009.

Vverdant logo mockup #2 by Lawrence Santiago: June 23, 2009.

Vverdant logo mockup #3 by Lawrence Santiago: June 23, 2009.

Vverdant logo mockup #4 by Lawrence Santiago: June 23, 2009.

Then Lawrence started working on an idea for the slogan, “To the Power of V.” This has a lot of great potential. As he pointed out, it could be used to say, “Raise your impact to the power of V,” or “Increase your reach to the power of V,” etc….I love this mirror image “v” concept.

Vverdant logo mockup #5 by Lawrence Santiago: June 24, 2009.

These got me excited and I started sketching:

Vverdant logo sketches by Drew Shula: June 23, 2009.

We’ll be working toward finalizing these concepts soon. Until then, leave a comment to let me know what you think!

I just found the Bloblive video post (below) of my presentation from the event I spoke at in Santa Monica on June 4, 2009. This was totally unrehearsed, so please excuse the ambiguity. This was also before I started blogging here at drewshula.com, and began to think about my idea more seriously. Watching the video makes me want to go back and refine my pitch! Especially now that I have a name for my company (Vverdant), and a more clearly defined concept.

The presentation format at Bloblive is to speak for 90 seconds and then receive 3 minutes of feedback from the audience. There were about 100 people there and the idea was generally well received. One guy thought I might be “late to the game” though. What do you think? Check it out:

A great note of encouragement (below) from my friend Faust, who is a Director at a major oil company. More reason to push forward….

_________________

Drew Shula: Faust has sent you a message on LinkedIn.

Date: 6/17/2009

Subject: Your Vverdant Concept

Hi Drew–
Very good concept. I strongly believe in green in all aspects of living. If we can get the fuel issue under control in this world, we will have a better environment. A very complex issue as we found out by going into bio-diesel production in CA. Hopefully we can all strive for the greater good without profit as the sole motivator. Keep up the earnest work and with your motivation being the greater good, I can’t see how you can fail.

-Faust

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As an addendum, it’s amazing how prevalent social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have become in our professional lives. I communicate on these platforms daily and love the ability to easily network with friends and business associates all over the world. Eventually we will have all the green builders on one platform as well….Vverdant, coming soon….

I recently took the stage at a “Bloblive” event in Santa Monica, to share my idea for Vverdant with the crowd. The Bloblive website introduces the concept as, “The city’s open mic night for ideas.” It’s a forum to, “Grab the mic and hit the crowd with your best elevator pitch.” People have 90 seconds to talk and then get 3 minutes of feedback.

There were about 100 people there, and it was a great feeling to give my pitch to a room full of other entrepreneurs. I got mostly positive feedback from the audience. One guy must have read the same article I had, because he told me he thought Web 2.0 would be “growing up” this year. A UCLA Anderson Entrepreneurship professor patted me on the back on the way out and said “You did a great job tonight!”

Overall, it was a very positive experience that’s driving me to push forward. Here’s a great link to a Time article about the Web 2.0 “revolution.”

Have you ever had the feeling you were destined to change the world? Not in a conceited way, just that all the talents you embody must have been assembled for some greater purpose? Like there’s something big you’re going to do with your life, you just don’t quite know what it will be? All the latent potential inside waiting to pour out in a focused direction….I feel that way tonight. Maybe Vverdant will be that for me….Gotta keep grinding.

The green light bulb went off in my brain (and it was a compact fluorescent).

So I have this idea to start a company:

I’ve been thinking about it for a couple months, but the concept is just a sprout. It’s barely started to germinate in my brain. This blog is meant to change that. I plan to write about my entrepreneurial ideas here, both to catalogue my thoughts, and to provide a forum for feedback.

This is the concept:

I want to create a global Web 2.0 platform for the green building (GB) industry. A knowledge center: news, jobs, links, community, calendar. With user generated content. This will be a one stop shop for GB professionals — a resource I would use every day in my profession (I’m an architect), but which does not currently exist. I think this is a big idea because the construction industry is one of the largest in the world, and the entire thing is shifting to green. There is a large potential user group for this site.

My idea is to organize a website by location (similar in concept to Craigslist), so GB professionals can tap into their local networks. I plan to start with my current local network of Los Angeles, and spread to other cities if this is a success. I’m using Curbed as a model of a similar idea that is working for the real estate industry.

Phases:

I: Create GB network for Los Angeles. II: Spread to other cities in the U.S. and globally. III: Apply this model to other professional communities: artists, non-profits, financial executives, etc….

It’s all about scalability:

I think I’ve generated a model that could have a lot of potential. We’ll see how this blog and this idea continue to grow. Stay tuned.