What's With the Different Sized Words?
Tag clouds are a Web 2.0 innovation. Here's a quick definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_cloud.
Tag clouds graphically show the words in use on a website and the frequency of their use. Sometimes they’re just cool. Sometimes they’re useful.
In the ACS application process we've asked each entrepreneur to tag their application with keywords as they see fit. We did the same thing with investors: we invited prospective investors to fill out a profile, and tag their profile with keywords describing their investment interests.
The tag clouds show the keywords they used. The larger the word, the more frequently it's used.
For example, you clicked on the keyword "early stage"; below is a list of applications tagged with that keyword. (Names have been removed for privacy reasons.)
| Company | Amount Sought | Industries | Stage of Development |
|---|---|---|---|
| 299 | $2,000,000 | High Tech | Revenue but not yet cash flow positive |
| 366 | $5,000,000 | Medical | Revenue but not yet cash flow positive |
| 498 | $500,000 | Arts | Pre-revenue |
| 577 | $950,000 | Service Industry | Company not yet formed |
| 613 | $5,000,000,000 | Government | Concept (company formed) |
| 642 | $850,000 | Other | Concept (company formed) |
| 653 | $3,000,000 | High Tech, Manufacturing | Pre-revenue |
| 689 | $735,000 | Agriculture, Consumer Goods, High Tech, Other | Pre-revenue |
| 740 | $1,000,000 | Government, High Tech | Revenue but not yet cash flow positive |
| 751 | $600,000 | High Tech | Pre-revenue |
So what?
These words can be thought of as 'the lexicon of entrepreneurship' for the ACS event. A lexicon is a collection of words in a language. A grammar defines the rules of the language.
Well, what if investors have a different lexicon? What if the grammatical rules of their lexicon generate a different language than that spoken by entrepreneurs? If this is the case - and most all of us, investors and entrepreneurs alike, think it is - wouldn't it be helpful to have an 'Entrepreneur to Investor' dictionary? Or at least, work to find a common language available to the participants in the event so that they could communicate more effectively?
We certainly think so. Stay tuned to the ACS blog while we develop ways to use this language to help entrepreneurs find the right investor, and vice versa.
