It’s always difficult to keep an upbeat view during hard times, and to remember that there are always opportunities for those who look close enough. Still, without those doggedly incurable optimists, we would still be plodding along without the benefits of some iconic inventions.

A list of Recession Inventions: Success Stories in Bad Times, was posted last Monday on mainstreet.com.

Chocolate Chip Cookies — 1930
Fortune magazine — 1930
Basketball — 1891
Miracle Whip — premiered nationally 1933
Monopoly board game — the early 1930s
Transparent adhesive tape — 1930
Coors Brewery — opened 1873
iPod — 2001
Ketchup — 1876
Compact fluorescent light bulbs — 1970s
Twinkies — 1930
Photocopiers — 1937
Diet Coke — 1982

The LA Times posted a similarly-themed list in their Some inventions born amid recession recently. So did ABC News Eureka! Recession Sparks Inventive Spirit while this BusinessWeek article, 20 Most Import Inventions of the Next 10 Years looks at Innovation from Recession.

So even in a bear market, grab the bull by the horns and pursue your dreams of innovation.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

I had a slightly disturbing talk with an entrepreneur at a smartups.org meeting last Thursday night. Smart-ups is a local group getting entrepreneurs together in the Eugene-Corvallis area in Oregon.

This man will probably make it. There was nothing dumb or naive about him, and he was old enough to know better. But the underlying assumption he seemed to be making is worth posting about.

He asked me how he would get money to start a new venture related to worms and compost. He seemed surprised, and maybe even discouraged, by my realistic answer.

I said relatively few startups get investment; that most startups make it on their own, from grit, work and getting something they can sell to customers early on.

I told him investment is really only for companies that can grow quickly and sell out soon enough (three to five years) to make it worth the investors’ money. For the investors.

And I told him that investment is particularly hard to find these days. And that he should look at how to get his company up and running on a smaller scale, and start selling.

I was surprised and disappointed that he seemed surprised and disappointed.

And yes, we call that bootstrapping.

(Photo credit: by Chika on Flickr)

Are you a student or recent graduate building a business around a new technology or invention? Take a look at the National College Inventors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) at nciia.org. Pay special attention to NCIIA’s 2009 Venture Well program, because it’s about finding mentors and money.

It’s also about doing some good. Specifically:

“…designed to provide venture development and seed investment to emerging university entrepreneurs creating scalable, market-oriented solutions to social and environmental problems.”

This program kicked off last Friday and is focused on a March 21, 2009, event called the Forum in Washington, D.C. Teams will be invited to connect with investors and advisors.

Here’s more detail:

Venture Well is now taking applications from student teams. All selected teams will be eligible for investment by the NCIIA and will receive training and ongoing support from Venture Well advisors as well as NCIIA’s nationally recognized Invention to Venture (I2V) mentoring program.

Interested teams must apply to the NCIIA by December 19, 2008, at www.venturewell.org.

Venture Well focuses on low-cost and highly scalable solutions for both Western and “Bottom of the Pyramid” consumers in fields of health, wellness and the environment.