The Illinois Appellate Court, First District, recently rejected a borrower's argument that a second mortgagee was barred from demanding payment in exchange for release of its lien after it had previously obtained a default judgment on the promissory note secured by the mortgage.
In so ruling, the Court noted that Illinois law allows a creditor to consecutively or concurrently pursue remedies under a mortgage and note, and that the second mortgage had not been extinguished in the foreclosure because a judicial sale of the property never occurred as required for a foreclosure to become final.
A copy of the opinion is available at: http://www.illinoiscourts.gov/Opinions/AppellateCourt/2013/1stDistrict/1121964.pdf.
Two banks extended loans to plaintiffs borrowers ("Borrowers") to finance the purchase of a residence. The first bank ("First Bank") secured its loan with a first mortgage on the property. Defendant bank ("Second Mortgagee") similarly secured its portion of the financing with a second mortgage on the same property. When Borrowers stopped making their loan payments, First Bank filed a foreclosure action against both Borrowers and Second Mortgagee, and subsequently obtained a default judgment against them. The court in the foreclosure action entered a judgment for foreclosure and sale, but the sale never took place. Rather, Borrowers set up a short sale of the property, with the sale being subject to the approval of both banks.
During the pendency of the foreclosure action, Second Mortgagee, through the co-defendant law firm ("Law Firm"), filed suit against Borrowers on the promissory note secured by the second mortgage. Several months following entry of the foreclosure judgment in First Bank's favor, Second Mortgagee obtained a default judgment against Borrowers on its note allowing it to garnish Borrowers' wages. Second Mortgagee recorded the judgment on the note.
Borrowers obtained an offer for the property for less than the amount of the foreclosure judgment, and First Bank agreed to approve the short sale if Second Mortgagee executed a release of its second mortgage. Second Mortgagee ultimately agreed to the release after requiring Borrowers to pay a small portion of the amount they owed.
Without challenging the enforceability of Second Mortgagee's judgment against them on the note, Borrowers filed suit against Second Mortgagee and Law Firm, asserting that during the period when they were trying to sell their property, Law Firm improperly maintained that Second Mortgagee had an enforceable second mortgage following the judgment on its note.
Specifically, Borrowers argued that res judicata barred any action on the second mortgage, such as requiring payment in exchange for the release, once Second Mortgagee had obtained a default judgment on its promissory note. Borrowers also claimed that Second Mortgagee's demand for payment to execute the release violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, 815 ILCS 505/1 et seq., and, further, that Law Firm engaged in false or misleading conduct in violation of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq.
Second Mortgagee and Law Firm moved to dismiss, arguing that Second Mortgagee's default judgment on the note did not bar it from enforcing the second mortgage, and that First Bank's foreclosure judgment did not extinguish the second mortgage since no judicial sale and confirmation of sale ever took place.
The lower court dismissed Borrowers' complaint with prejudice. Borrowers appealed. The Appellate Court affirmed.
As you may recall, the Illinois Mortgage Foreclosure Law ("IMFL") provides that a foreclosure "complaint . . . may be joined with other counts or may include in the same count additional matters or a request for any additional relief." 735 ILCS 5/15-1504(b).
The IMFL further provides that following a judgment of foreclosure, only a judicial sale of the subject property and judicial confirmation of the sale will terminate "with finality" the rights of third parties. 735 ILCS 5/15-1404.
Applying the so-called transactional test to determine whether res judicata barred Second Mortgagee's enforcement of its lien, the Appellate Court relied on court precedent and the IMFL in concluding that a mortgagee may choose whether to proceed on a note or to foreclose on a mortgage. See LP XXVI, LLC v. Goldstein, 349 Ill. App. 3d 237, 241 (2004)("mere proximity in time and the overlap of some of the parties [do not] render them a single transaction . . . ."); Citicorp Savings of Illinois v. Ascher, 196 Ill. App. 3d 570, 574 (1990)(ruling that a foreclosure judgment does not bar a later suit on a guaranty agreement). In so doing, the Appellate Court rejected Borrowers' assertion that enforcement of personal liability on the underlying note and a mortgage foreclosure action must be pursued in a single action.
Distinguishing between in rem, quasi in rem, and in personam actions, the Appellate Court also explained that the IMFL expressly applies only to mortgage foreclosures and does not require that other types of lawsuits, such as actions on a promissory note, be joined to the foreclosure in a single action.
The Court also ruled that under the IMFL, First Bank's foreclosure judgment against Second Mortgagee did not preclude it from pursuing payment in exchange for the release of its mortgage because First Bank never held a judicial sale of the property.
Finally, the Court also concluded that Borrowers' claims under the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act could not survive in light of the Court's ruling on the viability of the second mortgage.


BEST PAW FORWARD was voted #1 for 8 Years in a Row on the Milwaukee Alist!
Watch our Alist interview from 2013.
the family or to brush up on skills. YES, you can teach an old dog new tricks!!
Both facilities are modern, heated, air conditioned and fully matted for your comfort and safety.
Conveniently located off of Highway 83 in Hartland. 2.5 miles North of I-94 and 1.5 miles South of Highway 16. Turn East between Hartland Music and the Wilkinson Clinic. Turn Right into the parking lot just before you get to Richards Road. Suite H is about half way down.
Go North on Highway 83. Go PAST the sign for Hartland Music (looks like a grand piano) then turn Right at the Aurora Wilkinson Medical Clinic. The 2nd road on the right is Richards Road. Our parking lot is ON THE RIGHT JUST BEFORE YOU GET TO RICHARDS ROAD.
Go South on Highway 83. Continue 1 block south of the Mobil Gas Station and turn Left at the Aurora Wilkinson Medical Clinic. The 2nd road on the right is Richards Road. Our parking lot is ON THE RIGHT JUST BEFORE YOU GET TO RICHARDS ROAD.
Take Exit 294, Highway 164 / Highway J / Waukesha/Pewaukee Exit.
Go North on Highway 164. Travel just past Highway M (Watertown Road) and turn right on to Schuett Drive. Entrance to Best Paw Forward is on the East side (right) of Pewaukee Veterinary Service building. Enter through the door that says Best Paw Forward and go downstairs. Please do not enter through the vet clinic entrance.
Take Capitol Drive to Highway 164. Go South on Highway 164. Continue just past Green Road and turn Left onto Schuett Drive. Entrance to Best Paw Forward is on the East side (right) of Pewaukee Veterinary Service building. Enter through the door that says Best Paw Forward and go downstairs. Please do not enter through the vet clinic entrance.
once a week on the same day and time. Prices and dates subject to change without notice.
Please go to our registration page to download the registration form.


text:
The Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star is a British comedy series, which aired on Channel 4 in 1998. It was a six-part satirical take on the music industry, written by Skins creator Bryan Elsley. The plot centred on a young Glaswegian band – Jocks Wa Hey – as they struggle to find success.

The series won Best Drama Serial at the 1999 RTS Television Awards and, that same year, writer Bryan Esley was nominated for Best Writer at the RTS Craft & Design Awards.

It was remade as My Guide to Becoming a Rock Star, a short-lived American/Canadian series that starred Oliver Hudson and was made for the now defunct WB Television Network.

Synopsis

The series followed the ups and downs of a young Glaswegian band called Jocks-Wa-Hey and their attempts to "make it" in the tough and uncompromising world of the music industry.

The five-piece band consisted of: the charismatic Jez MacAllister (Ciarán McMenamin) on vocals – our guide through the painful process of becoming a rock'n'roll star; his best pal, bass player "Psycho" (Duncan Marwick), a disorganised student who is the complete opposite of his nickname; drummer Wullie MacBoyne (Stephen McCole), a mean looking psychopath, known as 'Bigot' to his mates; the insatiable and hard-hitting Joe Nardone (Nicola Stapleton) on lead guitar, with more 'balls' and arrogance than the rest of the band put together; and finally Jez's cool-headed welfare officer and electric keyboards wizard, Fiona Johnstone (aka MC Fiona; Simone Lahbib).

The band recruit new members, revolutionise their sound, acquire management, arrange a showcase gig, get signed, record a hopelessly over-budget album and cut a chaotic swathe through the cut-throat world of marketing and promotions, finally resting at the dizzy heights of a top ten single and a massive £3 million debt.

Along the way they encounter Slick Sloan (Keith Allen), the disingenuous A&R man; Derek Trout (Fish), record producer; and their cheesy manager Art Stilton (Forbes Masson) who also manages supergroup 'Bonk, Bonk, Bonk'.

The series also includes cameo appearances from Noel Gallagher, Chrissie Hynde, Jay Kay, 'Big' John Duncan, Denise van Outen, Sara Cox, Kirsty Wark, Samantha Fox, Edward Tudor-Pole, Keith Chegwin and Timmy Mallett.

The series inspired an American version in 2002, My Guide to Becoming a Rock Star.

Episodes
1. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" (10 November 1998)
Jez MacAllister begins the painful process of becoming a rock star as he puts together a band.

2. "Creating the Buzz" (17 November 1998)
Fiona is recruited as the band's new member under two conditions; and one of them is to stop sleeping with Jez.

3. "The A & R Men Cometh" (24 November 1998)
With no sign of a record deal after three months of gigging, Art is forced to arrange a showcase.

4. "Signing on the Line" (1 December 1998)
The band arrive in London where they do a deal with Slick Sloan, then launch themselves on the capital's media scene.

5. "Making Tracks" (8 December 1998)
The band arrives at Big Noise studios to record at the farmhouse of rock legend Derek Trout.

6. "Shifting the Units" (15 December 1998)
The band's promotional schedule gathers pace and includes a chaotic appearance on a cult Friday-night TV show. Meanwhile, tensions within the band are exacerbated.

Cast
Frank Gallagher – Ossie MacAllister
Simone Lahbib – Fiona Johnstone
Duncan Marwick – Psycho MacPhail
Forbes Masson – Art Stilton
Stephen McCole – Wullie MacBoyne
Ciarán McMenamin – Jeremy 'Jez' MacAllister
Barbara Rafferty – Alice MacAllister
Nicola Stapleton – Joe Nardone
Eric Barlow – Kenny Dick
Gerard Butler – Marty Claymore
Ricky Callan – Simon
Miffy - Roland Juno
Jason Sweeney – Walter Dick
Keith Allen – Slick Sloan
Kirsten Scott – Student
Jennifer Collins – Expert toothbrusher
Fish – Derek Trout
Jody Saron – Spice girl

Crew
Sheree Folkson – director
Kieron J. Walsh – director
Bryan Elsley – writer
Suzan Harrison – executive producer
Peter Norris – producer

References

External links

Channel 4 television dramas
1998 British television series debuts
1998 British television series endings
1990s British television miniseries
1990s British comedy-drama television series
British comedy-drama television shows
British musical television series
Television series by All3Media
English-language television shows
Television shows set in Scotland
Television shows set in Glasgow

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The experience of taking the boat from Korea to China, although a bit unclear and confusing at times, was actually a lot less stressful than we were expecting. The Incheon – Lianyungang route isn't a particularly major one, so there wasn't a huge amount of information available online. We chose it as it took us as far south as possible in China, as we're racing south to get away from the cold as winter sets in.
At LYG C-K Ferry office in Incheon, we were met by a Mr Lee who was expecting us, after Kung very kindly made our reservation. He was really interested in what we were doing, as they don't get a lot of foreign customers. He said he'd make sure we had a comfortable trip, and asked that we tell our friends about the company. So, if you're looking to travel by sea between South Korea and China, we can wholeheartedly recommend LYG C-K Ferry!
We had to wheel our bikes through the terminal and have our panniers x-rayed. I got called back and asked to open my pannier with our cooking stuff. I figured I'd be saying goodbye to our fuel bottle for the camp stove, but it was our folding knife that they were after. It was a 100 yen job from Daiso, so no worries about that! Then we had to put our bikes onto a bus to be driven out to the boat. This was a pain, as we were competing for space with the boxes and luggage belonging to the other passengers. We then had to carry everything up the steps from the dock onto the boat, but there was no shortage of helpful porters to assist us.
The boat was mainly a container ship, with a section at the rear for passengers. The other passengers were almost all Chinese, looking like they'd been on a shopping trip to Korea to buy rice cookers and other consumer electronics. Kung had warned us when he booked that we'd be in 4 bed cabins, but separated, as there are men and women's cabins. As it turned out, we were indeed in two different cabins, but we were the only passengers so we had the two rooms to ourselves! It wasn't exactly a cruise ship, but we were comfortable and had some privacy.
The boat left mid afternoon and sailed out through the many small islands off the north west coast. We went right past Incheon Airport which was a little surreal, as we've been through there so many times by air. After a beautiful sunset, we went in for dinner, where we really started to feel like we were in China. We were squeezed into two free spaces on a large round table in a busy dining room. The food was Chinese and pretty good, even if we didn't know what we were eating mostly. The table manners around us were, different.
A good sleep and a chilled morning watching tv shows on the laptop, then before long we saw land and were arriving into Lianyungang port. When we docked, we were told that we'd be disembarking last, and to sit and wait with our stuff. After about an hour of waiting, it was our turn, and again, we had people helping us to carry everything down to the dock to board another bus to take us to the terminal building. Passport checks and customs were super quick, the people were friendly and helped us with our gear, so we were out and in China within 15 minutes.
It was getting dark so the immediate mission was to find a place to sleep. We headed towards some taller buildings, via a cash machine, and found a hotel quickly. It was expensive, but worth it to be into a hotel room so soon after getting off the boat. Plus the checkout time was 2:00pm the following day so it meant we could have a real lazy start.
The next day, leaving the hotel, we had no idea what to expect and were feeling quite apprehensive about the big scary roads of China. Which were, not really too scary at all actually. All the roads in town had really wide lanes for cyclists and scooters, keeping us nicely separate from the trucks heading away from the port. Lianyungang isn't a big place in China terms, but it's a large city which took most of the afternoon to get through. A lot of the outskirts were made up of new, but empty sky scrapers. One area was all Spanish style villas next to a lake, again totally empty, with wide roads devoid of any traffic. Quite eerie.
Coming into China, we crossed into a new timezone, going back one hour. So it gets dark quite early. After 40km on day one, dusk was starting to come in so we looked for a hotel in the next town we came to – Bampuzhen. 100 yuan or around 10 quid got us a huge room which was clean enough and had wifi, even if we did run out of water before we'd both had a chance to shower. So far we haven't camped at all in China as we've always been able to find hotels at 100 yuan or less. Maybe it's cheating a bit, but as food is so cheap too, we're still well within our budget.
After a slow start the first day, we did our best to get away early and hit the road. The route finding was quite easy, just mainly following minor roads south in the general direction of Nanjing. I'd contacted a Warm Showers host, Jim, in Nanjing so we were aiming to get there by the weekend. It has been quite easy to cover decent distances, even with the odd diversion or backtrack due to unfinished roads or missing bridges. There's all manner of other traffic, scooters, tractors, speeding luxury cars, huge trucks, but they have been giving us a wide berth and the roads have wide shoulders that we can cycle in. We've been trying to stick to 'S' or 'X' roads which I think are the minor countryside roads and are quieter than the 'G' roads.
Outside of the towns, every 20km or so we pass small settlements with rows of shops, car workshops and restaurants. We stopped at one where we saw a phone shop and went in trying to get a Chinese SIM card for our phone. No go it seems, and the staff didn't know how to help us. One guy got on his phone to someone who could speak English and passed it to me. Still it seemed like it was a no go, but it was really kind of him to try and help! We bought some biscuits from the shop and sat on the steps for a coffee. A small crowd had gathered, and a bench was brought out for us to sit on while they interrogated us in Chinese, to which we nodded, smiled, pointed at our bikes and made gestures.
We generally stop for lunch in small restaurants in these settlements. No menus, but we just point at ingredients in their fridge and agree on a price, then something is brought to us. Its been really tasty so far, even if we're not sure what we're eating and sometimes feel like we're not getting the price the locals would get. One lady however, after we'd agreed on a price and eaten our lunch, seemingly had a change of heart and said it was free! She just said 'welcome to my town' and asked to have a photo taken with us.
Day 2 of cycling was 102km and got us into Huai'an. We stayed at a 'Hotel 8' on the outskirts of the city. Nice and cheap but not much soundproofing in the rooms! We had a bit of a wander round the market outside the hotel, looking for a facemask and some sunglasses. The smog and dust on the roads has been getting to our throats and eyes by the end of a day cycling. We might have to wrap up Korean style when we're riding in more populated areas.
Getting out through Huai'an the next day took a while. A small city on the map, but with over a million inhabitants. The cycle lanes were busy with scooters and other cyclists so it was slow going. At one point in the city centre, the lane went under a large road junction where there was an underground roundabout, just for two wheeled traffic. With a low ceiling and no real visual references it was pretty disorientating, but we took the right exit and emerged on the right road out of town.
This road was the road we'd be on all day. With very few corners or features, a grey sky and a headwind, it wasn't the most enjoyable day in the saddle. After about 70km we crossed a long bridge, about 4km long over a wide river. On the descent coming off the bridge, I got a puncture in my rear tyre. A chunk of metal in the road that I hadn't seen as I was looking down at the river. After changing the tube, we decided to call it for the day and headed into the next city, Jinhu. 70 yuan for our hotel in the city centre.
The next day we had a tailwind and a plan to get as close to Nanjing as we could meaning we'd have a leisurely ride into the city on Friday. It wasn't the best start as the road that we'd planned to take trailed off to a dirt track and then a dead end. Big backtrack and a while to find an alternative. After that we made good progress for the day. At lunchtime we stopped next to a lake in Tiancheng and were immediately surrounded by a group of guys who were fascinated by us and our bikes. Bit awkward cooking and eating our noodles with our every move being watched, but it meant we didn't hang about and were back on the road quickly.
The afternoon was interesting as we went through some more hilly terrain and past a few lakes. So far everywhere has been very flat, not that we're complaining, but some variety is nice! By mid afternoon we reached a larger road with an elevated trainline running above. This was the start of Nanjing's urban sprawl. We pushed for the rest of the day to get over the 100km mark before stopping. Of course, by the time we hit the 100, there wasn't a hotel to be seen, so we had to continue further until we found a spot to stop.
We couldn't really see much through the smog, but the tall buildings and larger roads told us we were definitely getting closer to the centre. The map showed us we had around 35km to ride the following day to get to our Warmshowers host.
The next day was all urban riding, but fairly easy with the wide cycle lanes beside main roads. Annoyingly, I got another puncture about halfway in, which held us up a bit but we were underway again before too long. The main boundary for Nanjing city proper is the mighty Yangtze river. We crossed over on the Nanjing Yangtze Bridge which was one of the few options for bicycles. The narrow cycle lane was pretty sketchy though, with only just enough room for scooters to pass us.
On the other side of the river we were into a big modern Chinese city. Lots of luxury car dealerships and designer fashion stores. Plus McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC and all the other international chains. We got to the Nanjing Olympic park, site of the Youth Olympics from last year and were on the look out for the Fraser Suites building, where we'd been told we had a place to stay.
Walking into the lobby in our shabby cycling clothes we felt very out of place in this luxury apartment building. Jim, our Warmshowers host had arranged with his colleague, Chen for us to stay in a spacious two bedroom apartment with a huge living room and kitchen area. We couldn't believe our luck and this amazing generosity towards 2 cycling strangers.
So we'll spend a couple of days here in Nanjing, mostly relaxing and making the most of being in this awesome apartment, but we'll also do a bit of sightseeing. From here we'll continue south into Anhui Province in the general direction of Hong Kong, where we'll aim to arrive by the end of the month.


text:
SET @OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS=@@UNIQUE_CHECKS, UNIQUE_CHECKS=0;
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CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci ;
USE `companies_db` ;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
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-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`companies` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`companies` (
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CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`departments` (
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-- -----------------------------------------------------
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CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`employees` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
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    ON DELETE NO ACTION
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ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
-- Table `companies_db`.`personal_informations`
-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`personal_informations` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`personal_informations` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `date_of_employment` DATE NOT NULL,
  `date_of_birth` DATE NOT NULL,
  `social_security_number` VARCHAR(45) NOT NULL,
  `employees_id` INT NOT NULL,
  `first_name` VARCHAR(45) NULL,
  `last_name` VARCHAR(45) NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
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    FOREIGN KEY (`employees_id`)
    REFERENCES `companies_db`.`employees` (`id`)
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ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
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-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`bonuses` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`bonuses` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `type` VARCHAR(45) NOT NULL,
  `value` VARCHAR(45) NULL,
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ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
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-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`holidays` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`holidays` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
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  `employees_id` INT NOT NULL,
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    FOREIGN KEY (`employees_id`)
    REFERENCES `companies_db`.`employees` (`id`)
    ON DELETE NO ACTION
    ON UPDATE NO ACTION)
ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
-- Table `companies_db`.`offices`
-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`offices` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`offices` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `city` VARCHAR(45) NULL,
  `street` VARCHAR(45) NULL,
  `house` VARCHAR(45) NULL,
  `space` INT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`))
ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
-- Table `companies_db`.`projects`
-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`projects` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`projects` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `name` VARCHAR(45) NULL,
  `cost` INT NULL,
  `date_of_delivery` DATE NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`))
ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
-- Table `companies_db`.`votes`
-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`votes` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`votes` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `votable_type` VARCHAR(45) NULL,
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    FOREIGN KEY (`votable_id`)
    REFERENCES `companies_db`.`projects` (`id`)
    ON DELETE NO ACTION
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ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
-- Table `companies_db`.`roles`
-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`roles` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`roles` (
  `id` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `type` VARCHAR(45) NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`))
ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
-- Table `companies_db`.`employees_has_roles`
-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`employees_has_roles` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`employees_has_roles` (
  `employees_id` INT NOT NULL,
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ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
-- Table `companies_db`.`departments_has_offices`
-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`departments_has_offices` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`departments_has_offices` (
  `departments_id` INT NOT NULL,
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  PRIMARY KEY (`departments_id`, `offices_id`),
  INDEX `fk_departments_has_offices_offices1_idx` (`offices_id` ASC),
  INDEX `fk_departments_has_offices_departments1_idx` (`departments_id` ASC),
  CONSTRAINT `fk_departments_has_offices_departments1`
    FOREIGN KEY (`departments_id`)
    REFERENCES `companies_db`.`departments` (`id`)
    ON DELETE NO ACTION
    ON UPDATE NO ACTION,
  CONSTRAINT `fk_departments_has_offices_offices1`
    FOREIGN KEY (`offices_id`)
    REFERENCES `companies_db`.`offices` (`id`)
    ON DELETE NO ACTION
    ON UPDATE NO ACTION)
ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
-- Table `companies_db`.`departments_has_projects`
-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`departments_has_projects` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`departments_has_projects` (
  `departments_id` INT NOT NULL,
  `projects_id` INT NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`departments_id`, `projects_id`),
  INDEX `fk_departments_has_projects_projects1_idx` (`projects_id` ASC),
  INDEX `fk_departments_has_projects_departments1_idx` (`departments_id` ASC),
  CONSTRAINT `fk_departments_has_projects_departments1`
    FOREIGN KEY (`departments_id`)
    REFERENCES `companies_db`.`departments` (`id`)
    ON DELETE NO ACTION
    ON UPDATE NO ACTION,
  CONSTRAINT `fk_departments_has_projects_projects1`
    FOREIGN KEY (`projects_id`)
    REFERENCES `companies_db`.`projects` (`id`)
    ON DELETE NO ACTION
    ON UPDATE NO ACTION)
ENGINE = InnoDB;

-- -----------------------------------------------------
-- Table `companies_db`.`employees_has_projects`
-- -----------------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `companies_db`.`employees_has_projects` ;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `companies_db`.`employees_has_projects` (
  `employees_id` INT NOT NULL,
  `projects_id` INT NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`employees_id`, `projects_id`),
  INDEX `fk_employees_has_projects_projects1_idx` (`projects_id` ASC),
  INDEX `fk_employees_has_projects_employees1_idx` (`employees_id` ASC),
  CONSTRAINT `fk_employees_has_projects_employees1`
    FOREIGN KEY (`employees_id`)
    REFERENCES `companies_db`.`employees` (`id`)
    ON DELETE NO ACTION
    ON UPDATE NO ACTION,
  CONSTRAINT `fk_employees_has_projects_projects1`
    FOREIGN KEY (`projects_id`)
    REFERENCES `companies_db`.`projects` (`id`)
    ON DELETE NO ACTION
    ON UPDATE NO ACTION)
ENGINE = InnoDB;

SET SQL_MODE=@OLD_SQL_MODE;
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=@OLD_FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS;
SET UNIQUE_CHECKS=@OLD_UNIQUE_CHECKS;

-- inserts
--
INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`companies` (id, name, cost) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`companies`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`departments` (id, name, companies_id) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`departments`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`employees` (id, manager_id, salary, departments_id, hours_work_per_week) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`employees`

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`personal_informations` (id, date_of_employment, date_of_birth, social_security_number, employees_id, first_name, last_name) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`personal_informations`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`bonuses` (id, type, value, employees_id) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`bonuses`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`holidays` (id, start_date, end_date, payment, employees_id) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`holidays`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`offices` (id, city, street, house, space) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`offices`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`projects` (id, name, cost, date_of_delivery) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`projects`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`votes` (id, votable_type, votable_id, vote_weight) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`votes`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`roles` (id, type) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`roles`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`employees_has_roles` (employees_id, roles_id) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`employees_has_roles`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`departments_has_offices` (departments_id, offices_id) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`departments_has_offices`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`departments_has_projects` (departments_id, projects_id) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`departments_has_projects`;

INSERT INTO `companies_db`.`employees_has_projects` (employees_id, projects_id) SELECT * FROM `mydb`.`employees_has_projects`;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Got mine yesterday, not a fan of laminate tips in general but was doing a cue up for my dad who is.
No one is listening until you make a mistake!
Got mine. Very well made and great feel. Tumbs up!
Put one on tonight and they play well straight away, very similar to Talisman but a bit nicer sound imho.


text:
Jake Soberal On Raising $100 Million To Diversify The Workforce
Jake Soberal has raised close to $100M for his own startup which is spawning a new tech ecosystem. His company, Bitwise Industries has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Owens Corning, GingerBread Capital, JP Morgan Chase, and Plum Alley Investments.
Where Bitwise is popping up next
When you don't need to raise more capital
Mentally preparing for the startup journey
Jake's top book recommendation for entrepreneurs
Alejandro Cremades · EP 338 Jake Soberal On Raising $100M Million To Diversify The Workforce
About Jake Soberal:
"The best part of my job," says Jake Soberal, "is helping people believe that underdog cities can do exciting and important things." Jake leads Bitwise Industries in vision casting, real estate development, and strategic initiatives. Jake grew up in Clovis, California with a dream of eventually holding national office—an aspiration that eventually turned into creating opportunity for folks of every walk of life.
Prior to co-founding Bitwise, Jake practiced intellectual property law at Walter & Wilhelm Law Group in Fresno. In 2012, over drinks and aha moments with his client, Irma Olguin, Jr., they excitedly discussed the possibility of a company that could nurture and network the critical components of Fresno's tech industry and become a driving force for the local economy. The idea of Bitwise was born.
Jake believes we all have gifts to contribute—and an obligation to use them. He has teamed up with art advocacy nonprofit Creative Fresno to launch the Boomerang Project, an initiative aimed at reversing the city's "brain drain" by connecting high-level jobs with talented individuals who'd previously moved away for greater prospects.
He also helped launch "I Believe in Downtown," a grassroots campaign for the redevelopment of downtown Fresno and investment in Fulton Street. He is an advisory board member for 59DaysOfCode and sits on the board of the Downtown Fresno Partnership and Neighborhood Industries. Closest to his heart is magnet school Hamilton K-8 ("Home of the Hurricanes") where he and his neighbors volunteer. For Jake's wife, Sarah, and their three school-age children, it's a venture whose progress is measured in years instead of days.
Jake holds a dual degree in history and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a JD from Western State College of Law. He enjoys running, working in his yard, and spending quality time with his family.
Connect with Jake Soberal:
Alejandro: Alrighty. Hello everyone, and welcome to the DealMakers show. Today we're going to be definitely having a blast here with the guest, definitely getting inspired and learning about building, scaling, taking a little bit longer, and perhaps delaying to get that financing in. We're going to be learning a lot today, and without further ado, let me welcome our guest today. Jake Soberal, welcome to the show.
Jake Soberal: Good morning. Glad to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Alejandro: Originally born in LA, but Fresno touched your heart from a very early beginning. What was your upbringing? How was life growing up there?
Jake Soberal: I'm the son of Mexican immigrants on my dad's side and dust-bowl folks on my mom's side. I grew up in Los Angeles until junior high school. I never found belonging. I never felt as though I fit in or whatever that might be. In junior high school, there was an opportunity in my father's career that brought him to Fresno. Growing up in East Los Angeles in a difficult upbringing, really poor, my dad was eager to get us out of Los Angeles and go to a new beginning. So our family moved to Fresno. Although reluctant, at first, when we began to settle in here, I experienced home. All of the things that make a place special. I very quickly met some lifelong friends and met the girl that would become my wife. That experience and the experience of growing up during high school here in Fresno really endeared me to this place. I didn't know it so much at the time because as a kid, I just wanted to get out of there and go to the center of the universe, whether that's Manhattan or San Francisco. But deep inside of me, I was developing a deep attachment to this place that certainly has some ties to the work that we're doing today at Bitwise.
Alejandro: I'm sure that for you, too, that must have played a big influence in terms of dealing with uncertainty, with doing your own thing, with trying to achieve a better tomorrow, getting that influence and inspiration from your dad who came here to the country and had to build everything for himself.
Jake Soberal: I think that's right. There are some interesting parallels to the work that we're doing today from my dad's story. Obviously, first-generation. He was working as a night watch security guard in Los Angeles as a young adult. He goes home from work and sees a commercial for this thing called The Computer Learning Center. As far as he knew, that was a place you could go to learn computers. What that meant was a better life. He did, and ultimately, that program was an inflection point in his life, which led to a high-growth, high-wage career that allowed him to afford a very different opportunity to my siblings and me than what he was able to enjoy as a kid. That experience certainly traces to the heart of the work we do at Bitwise, wanting to enable similar stories for folks who historically have been excluded from the opportunity that the tech industry offers.
Alejandro: We're going to be talking about that in a few minutes. In your case, you studied political science, and then eventually, you landed in law school. Why did you want to go to law school?
Jake Soberal: Yeah. From a very young age, my career path of what I wanted in life was to be an attorney, then to be mayor, governor, then president. Law school was the obvious way there. I was always inspired by arguing in front of the Supreme Court, the idea of justice, and getting to be a courtroom attorney. Law school was in the plans. I didn't enjoy law school, but I did enjoy the practice of law. I had no plans of changing that. I was excited about the ability to serve folks well. I practiced intellectual property law and served folks well in building something that was deeply important to them. Amidst that, of course, I met this exciting entrepreneur, Irma, and that led me in a different direction that's been equally exciting.
Alejandro: Tell us about that because, obviously, being an intellectual property attorney is quite a different path from what you're doing with Bitwise. It's like a 360 degree. What happened there, and what was that journey of becoming an entrepreneur and bringing Bitwise to life?
Jake Soberal: I'm a year and a half out of law school when we start Bitwise. It was a complex animal, as it is, so it's difficult to explain and understand, particularly in the early days. I feel like people in my community are looking at me like, "What are you doing, man? You've got a good job, and you just started." I was practicing intellectual property law here in Fresno, building a practice at a firm that I really loved, surrounded by good people. As a part of building that practice, there was this five-foot-nothing Latina from the westside of Fresno county that I didn't know, but I knew she was doing all of these really exciting and innovative things in tech. She had started several companies, had started a coding competition, had started a co-working space, and I wanted to be a part of the stuff she was doing. I wanted to be her attorney; I wanted to be her friend. So I sought Irma out and we began to work together in the capacity of attorney/client and got to support some of the really exciting businesses that she had started. Then we got to dig in around this competition called 59 Days of Code that was doing some extraordinary work in causing folks to build an MVP and launch a business. We formed an independent non-profit and scaled that competition. As we were doing that, we realized that we had a vision for the future of Fresno that was very similar. I think in each other came—this was somebody I'd really love to build something with. It's like that first time if you're any good at basketball, and you play basketball with somebody who is good also, and you begin to sense each other on the court, and it's exciting. You think, "I bet we could beat just about anybody." I think that same feeling emerged in Irma and me. Not long after that, we began thinking, "How do we build the company that causes the future in our city that we want?" A model began to come together. While we were working with me as an attorney and Irma as a founder, we began to spend our nights and weekends chipping away at this model and trying to get to this point where we had confidence trying to get a sense of what would it take to get this off the ground? And also seeing if we could trace to some friends and family capital around that. All the while, I was on the clock. My wife was pregnant with our first child, Tinselly, and our sense here at home was, "You've got to figure this out before I go into labor, or you're going to be an attorney for this next season." Fortunately, things wound up coming together ahead of Tinselly's arrival, and the rest is the history of Bitwise.
Alejandro: That's amazing. Tell us about Bitwise. What ended up being the business model of Bitwise?
Jake Soberal: At the beginning, and though we've evolved today for Bitwise are three complementary parts that form a mutually reinforcing tech ecosystem where it didn't exist before. The first is workforce training. We teach people the skills they need to access opportunity in tech, and we serve almost exclusively folks coming from a story of systemic poverty or a historically disenfranchised community. We pair the tech skills training with the non-technical resource that's necessary to make space in their lives: transportation, childcare, mental and physical health, emotional wellbeing, compensation during the period of learning. By delivering on that resource, they can create space in their lives to access the brilliance they might have in and for the technology industry. The revenue model for that is we attached workforce training dollars, government level, corporate level, and at the philanthropic level. We're a dynamic ability to leverage different categories of dollars to bring to bear a tech workforce that is representative of the diversity of the cities that we serve. That's the first sliver of the business. The second is tech consulting. Like in emphasis, we build custom technology for customers around the world. Our distinction is that our teams are built almost exclusively out of our workforce training programs. So we're raising up diverse and representative talent, and then that talent is joining our team to scale one of the fastest-growing tech consulting shops in the country. What this does is twofold. It empowers our scale, and then it also accelerates the rate at which others hire out of our programs. It gives us the ability to demonstrate the objective worthiness of this talent. I can dig into some of the areas that we serve, but the last component of the business is how we move this in place. We acquired real estate at the center of the cities we serve. We improve it and lease it to ourselves and other tech and tech-enabled companies to create a supportive community that desires access to the talents, and our workforce training programs are located in those buildings. What that does is, for the student, gives you natural community, natural professional opportunity, natural belonging. For the company, it gives access to talent, and then that begins to ripple out in those places. Those three pieces form the Bitwise solution. We founded here in Fresno. As it gained traction, we launched into a California expansion strategy and now a national expansion strategy.
Alejandro: From recovering lawyer to recovering lawyer, to here, how was the transition for you from having the attorney hat to having the operator hat because it's not an easy transition?
Jake Soberal: For me, it felt natural. Not because the two careers are perfectly analogous, but because I think what excited me about being an intellectual property attorney was the idea of building—building a practice and helping the clients I serve build whatever it is that they were working on, and usually it was a business. Bringing that into the startup space wound up being super exciting because we could go faster. We could build at a speed that I'd never experienced before. The autonomy was also like a drug. You can try stuff, and there's no one telling you that it's the right or wrong answer in a way that is just not characteristic to the legal industry. For me, I think it excited the things that were most natural to me in being an attorney and gave me an exciting playground to build. Then to get to do that alongside someone with more experience than me, who is candidly smarter than me, Irma made for a really fun opportunity to build this as a team.
Alejandro: In this case, typically, you hear the startups, "Ah, we go to Silicon Valley. We raise a bunch of money. We make it happen." And then everything is a celebration. Obviously, in this case, it was none of that. It was five years literally pushing things through before you even thought about raising capital. Why did it come about like that? Give us insight as to what that was like because it's not the traditional route of a hyper-growth company.
Jake Soberal: That's exactly right. The reality is, when you start a company in Fresno, California, if you imagine your toolbox, venture capital is not in it. That's just not what we do. The guts of starting a growth startup are that you lose money. You do that in Silicon Valley and say, "Of course, that's the way you do this." You do that in Fresno, and it's like you're failing. "Why are you bad at building a business?" For our first five years, we launched the company in Fresno, and we had a bit of friends and family capital. We wouldn't have known to call it that. That sustained the business. Then we grew, and we had to be profitable or find and navigate to unique opportunities. But what happened is the company began to hit that hyper-growth trajectory, and we quickly realized, "We can't afford this." That was four or five years into the business. We knew that this thing called venture capital existed in some far-off land. We said, "We're going to figure it out. We believe so deeply in the work that we want to find the resources necessary to scale. What that meant was really trying and failing at raising money. By way of example, in Silicon Valley, you know: this is what goes into a deck. This is how long it should be. There's no hard and fast rule, but people know the general rules. We built this 72-page booklet, and we started going around the meetings in the Bay Area. It was sitting in a meeting—I won't disclose with whom. We made a pitch that now probably made no sense, but we made a pitch, and somebody is now asking us questions. They asked, "Are you raising your Series A?" That was literally the first time Irma and I had ever heard the words Series A, so we quickly looked at each other, and we said, "Yes. This is our Series A." That's how we learned those words. Then we kept iterating on that. It took us 18 months to raise that Series A. It was a $27 million round, and it was the first thing we had ever raised, so it was big, and we were something of a unique company. We didn't understand that eventually, we would land on the line between venture and social impact, so we had to navigate to that spot. I think the delaying factors were both our greenness and lack of knowledge in raising capital. But also, we encountered some real bias. Then, I don't present as Latin; Irma does. We'd literally sit in rooms where we would be answering questions, and they would ignore Irma for an hour. We would encounter explicit bias and skepticism that somebody doing foreign labor had any place in the technology industry. The fundamentals of our business ran into deeply entrenched opposition. It took the finding of real navigators and people who are the best humans on the planet to get us over the hump. And the folks I'll point to, Mitch and Freada Kapor, who led our Series A; Rich Dennis, who co-led our Series A; Morgan Simon at Candide Capital; and John Duong at Lumina. Running into these folks who saw through our inexperience, who were deeply aligned to what the business was trying to do from a social impact standpoint and said, "We not only want to invest; we want to help you figure out how to couch this in venture terms so that we get the capital we need into the business to scale it." So we got a master class in raising from those folks, and all of them are still involved in the business. I owe a debt of gratitude in getting over that hump, and we did raise the Series A. From there, I think as we've learned how to trace the things of the business to the things of venture capital, we've had an easier time raising since.
Alejandro: Eighteen months is a crazy amount of time. Typically, when you're raising, and it takes more than six months, there's something that needs to be changed and is going back to the drawing board. In this case, if you were to be able to go back and do things differently, to be able to optimize and be able to reduce that timeframe of 18 months, what do you think you would do?
Jake Soberal: One, we were having all the wrong conversations. The investors, particularly at the Series A stage for Bitwise—very unlikely to be a Kleiner Perkins or Sequoia. There is a well-defined category of investors now, even better defined now than it was when we were raising the Series A, which are the right conversations. Kapor Capital, family offices like Rich Dennis, and folks who straddle the line like Motley Fool has been a huge investor in Bitwise, and they are investing in an extraordinary set of companies, purely capital lens, but deeply aligned to our work. Getting to those folks more quickly with the conversation would be one. You simply can't spend your time on every single conversation if you know it's unlikely to be a fit. I think number two is we had to learn how to articulate our business to the things of venture, to the return profiles, to the unit economics. We were not building a business school curriculum here in Fresno and certainly didn't realize we were building a venture growth company. We were just doing the work. We didn't ever pause and say, "What are the unit economics here? What does scale look like?" We were just building the business—our own ignorance; we just had to learn. I think those are the two things, where knowing then what we know now, we could have accelerated and maybe avoided some of those bumps and bruises. The other not obvious thing, you go out to raise, particularly your first time, you're usually either out of money or soon to be out of money. So you take 18 months; we ran out of money several times. It was a turbulent journey there.
Alejandro: And you went from 18 months at the Series A level to 90 days at the Series B. So why 90 days?
Jake Soberal: Hey, we take good notes. [Laughter]. We really studied what happened with the Series A and said, "When we go out to raise again, we want to optimize this experience, and this is how we're going to do it." We built internally what we call a Strike Team that was dedicated to: how do we stand up to materials? How do we stand up the right meetings? Who do we want to talk to first? And how are we not going to spend any time on conversations that are going to be syndicate followers, want to get the lead in place, want to get several term sheets? Here's how we're going to elicit those, define that process, and then we executed on that process. Some of that is luck. But much of it, we think, was learning from our first experience. Too often, we tend to treat capital raising as almost like a religious experience where everything has to come together organically, and it has to be just right in terms of timing, and you don't want to raise too soon or too late. I think the reality is, at least our view is, you can create those circumstances, and you have to actually do the work of creating the right circumstances to ready the company to execute on a round and close it. At least for the Series B, that worked well for us.
Alejandro: Now, what is the total amount, Jake, that you guys have raised to date for Bitwise?
Jake Soberal: We've raised near $100 million into the operating business.
Alejandro: Nice. Going back to Bitwise, what have been for the business some of the barriers to entry, obstacles, and stuff like that?
Must Read: Gustaf Agartson On Raising $130 Million To Protect Your Family From Financial And Health Risks
Jake Soberal: I think one of the things that has been a real challenge is getting to the point where you're able to communicate, on the business side, the key drivers in the business. That then guides how we grow and how we explain our impact externally. Drivers, for us, for a long time, you try and get—we wound up being decentralized with it thinking of drivers in this category or this, and drivers in this category or this. Today, we know that the drivers of growth in the business are our ability to serve students and serve them well. What that means is, the more students we can serve, the more we drive revenue to our workforce business, the more we are able to hire and scale into our tech consulting business, and the more people want to be in our physical spaces. The ability to serve more students drives growth across every category of the business. It's the first domino. Placing that business in more cities allows us to serve more people. We began to understand that going to additional places would help us scale the business. It also had the primary effect of allowing us to serve more people in more cities in a way that grew their macroeconomy. So I think getting to that understanding was really critical and important. Underlying that was being able to articulate that to our various stakeholders, being able to explain that to a city of, "Here's how we want to come alongside the work going on in your city, and we want to amplify and accelerate it. Being able to explain that to government workforce funders that "Here's why you ought to think differently about your spending and instead of just investing in truck driving and the building trades as pathways to work. What if we thought about the tech economy and roles as computer programmers and digital marketers and on and on? Then being able to articulate that unique value proposition of a two-way enterprise customer on the tech consulting side. Here is why we can serve you faster and better. The ultimate technology we're building might more powerfully meet the needs of your end customer because our tech workforce looks like your end customer. Those pieces getting to that understanding, I think, was slow for us, but as we did, it has facilitated the equally exciting scaling of the work.
Alejandro: Now, let's think about the future. Imagine that you go to sleep tonight, and you wake up in a world five years later where the vision of Bitwise is completely realized. What does that world look like?
Jake Soberal: That world looks like really vibrant technology economies in what we call underdog cities: Bakersville, Fresno, Merced, Toledo, and the next wave of cities that we'll announce later this year. And those tech economies having tech workers whose diversity looks like that city. What that means is that we've built an inclusive growth economy in cities that didn't have it before, so driving individual outcomes and driving macro-economic growth in those markets. We think that not only has an economic impact on those lives and those places, but it has a significant impact on democracy because as folks get into a job that is able to sustain them and enables them to enjoy prosperity, they become not only active taxpayers, they become active voters, they become civically engaged. Now, the voices that are leading in our country are representative of our country. They actually represent the diversity of our country, and we've given everybody a seat at the table. For us, that's the ultimate ambition, and it happens one individual student at a time and one city at a time, and we're super excited to create that future.
Alejandro: Nice. One of the questions that I typically ask the guests that come on the show is, imagine if I put you into a time machine. I'm able to transport and bring you back to that time where you were working at the law firm, and at this point, you're speaking with Irma, you're thinking about what's possible, the future, etc. Here you are, now the older Jake, coming in and having a chat with your younger Jake, and you're able to give yourself one piece of business advice before launching a company. What would that be and why based on what you know now?
Jake Soberal: Oh, man! There are probably several pieces of advice. At every stage, I would want that individual to know that it is going to be harder and take longer than you would expect. I think the reason is, we come into these things with rose-colored glasses, and we pretend as though the growth of this business is not going to consume unhealthy amounts of space in my life. So you wind up trying to do it all at once, trying to be a dad, a husband, a founder, all at the same time with no boundaries, and that can send you off of the rails. I think if I had better understood the size of the task, I would have been better at all three of those functions along the way. I think that would be the soft advice. I think the hard advice would be: raise all of the cash anytime you can and as soon as possible because trying to do this work and build a scaling business with no cash made for some of the most difficult moments in Bitwise.
Alejandro: Yeah. There are a lot of people that are thinking, "Should I raise all the money that I need or all the money that I can get?" What would you say there?
Jake Soberal: I think it does depend on the business, and it depends on your unique goals. My bias would be always yes, particularly if you have a business that is ready to put to work cash. You find yourself in a really awkward spot if you raise a bunch of cash, which is possible now and then can't deploy it. That's the other end of the stick that nobody tells you about. But if your business is ready to put to work the cash, it is so excruciatingly difficult to try and build and sustain the business without having that resources at the table. I think the one asterisk is there are some people for whom the primary goal is to own the maximum amount of their business at all times. Irma and I have prioritized building the business that we want to build that we think is important to build over that extra percentage point of ownership every time. I think in the wash, what comes out is a business that we can grow that much larger because of the capital we've been able to convene around.
Alejandro: Jake, one bonus question, and for the people that are listening that maybe they're going to find this inspiring. What has been a good book that you've read that you think would make a difference for the people that are listening to perhaps take a read and why?
Jake Soberal: The most impactful I've read during the course of Bitwise was written by a pastor named John Mark Comer. It's called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. It was literally life-changing for me. It frames some of the ways we try to live today and some of the ways that are breaking us and gives a fresh perspective on how we survive this journey of being a founder and also being a healthy human being.
Alejandro: That's amazing. I love it. For the folks that are listening, Jake, what is the best way for them to reach out and say hi?
Jake Soberal: [email protected] You can navigate to anyone of us at BitwiseIndustries.com. We are BitwiseIndustries on all of the social platforms, and we'd love to engage with anybody that is interested.
Alejandro: Amazing. Jake, thank you so much for being on the DealMakers show today.
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NICE has issued a warning for those people who incorrectly believe they are allergic to penicillin as such misconception may unnecessarily put them at an increased risk of developing MRSA or C difficile.
Nice has also urged the clinicians to ensure that only people with a true allergy to penicillin are documented as such. Incorrectly identifying people as allergic could also contribute to antimicrobial resistance, as these people are likely to instead be given broad-spectrum antibiotics.
Speciality Medical Dialogues has previously reported this issue based on research conducted in the UK and published in the BMJ in June 2018 that the patients allergic to penicillin are at increased risk for Clostridium difficile and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections mediated by the increased use of β lactam alternative antibiotics.
The warning comes in a new medicines evidence commentary (MEC) based on the above study.
During 6 years' follow-up, 70% of patients with penicillin allergy developed an MRSA infection.
They are also around 25% more likely to develop C difficile, a bacteria that generally causes diarrhea.
Among patients with penicillin allergy, the adjusted hazard ratio for MRSA was 1.69.


Now, "meme" as a word is indeed pretty much useless. But the concept of ideas and notions travelling from mind to mind and reproducing that way and, more importantly, changing, mutating at the moment of transmission, well... that's something else.
Incidentally that's why Dawkins chose the metaphor of genes to built his memes, instead of virus, because of this constant mutation and because genes are units of information which virus aren't.
So yes, it's been abused. Nowhere more so than on the internet with this "meme" fashion of passing along questions between blogs (THAT I truly hate. If you got nothing to say and need to tell us what your ten favourite movies are to fill up your blog, why do you blog?). Still, as a concept, a description of a mechanism, I find it insightful and useful even if it's wrong/incomplete. And it's that aspect that's missing in words like "tunes, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches."
But I confess having a soft spot for Richard Dawkins. At a time when candidates for POTUS (another meme!) like to rail against "elitism", I enjoy listening to somebody who has no compulsion whatsoever to apologize for his own cleverness.
There are pathways along which human communications occur that are damned hard to articulate and quantify. Signor Galileo hears a description of a device seen in the Netherlands that makes far objects appear nearer. Galileo uses the incomplete description to build his own version of the device filling in the gaps in the description with his own experiences and observations. Using his new instrument he makes observations of the world that contradict conventional wisdom and teachings. In spite of the vigorous opposition of the Catholic Church the human world changed. The power of the idea was more resilient than the oppressive powers of the Church.
Dawkins himself has repudiated the idea and the word, but it seems to have a life of it's own. I'm unable to see any significant distance between the meaning of "meme" and "idea", myself. I suspect that, in fact, the problems with the idea of "meme" are the problems of reductionist evolutionary theory, but we'll have to wait and see on that.
The idea that ideas evolve by undergoing mutation and natural selection is not bad. It might easily deserve to have a shorthand name so people can use it easier. "Meme" is potentially useful.
If you don't like people who use it as a cultural immune reaction, to distinguish self from non-self, OK -- people can use anything for that. It isn't the word's fault. The word is still useful whenever you have a use for it.
So where can we take the meme idea? My thought is that I want to arrange that the ideas I spread be ideas that are good for me. I don't want memes spreading that are bad for the people who spread them, particularly bad for me.
And in general, ideas that fit reality are good for me. If I have devoted enemies who want to hurt me and who aren't likely to change their minds about that, then I want them walking around in a fog of disinformation. I don't want anybody else walking in that fog. If somehow I'm invisible to my enemy, great! If I'm invisible to random drivers on the road, not great. I don't want anybody believing lies except my devoted enemies, because usually the results are bad for me.
If discussion on this level is useless then words to help us discuss things at this level are useless. Otherwise not.
One interesting thing on the virus/gene connection is that, despite the existence of "meme," there seems to be a place for the adjective "viral," meaning a highly compact and contagious thing that goes from mind to mind.
I like the "cultural immune reaction" analogy, j thomas. I'll also note that the evolution of ideas is already widely discussed in specific venues. Folk music refers to "the Folk Process," fiction has evolving "genre conventions," science has "the scientific process." Come to think of it, "process" gets used a lot in these analyses, and "evolutionary process," while more combursome than "meme" has the advantage of being self-evidently about something.
And I do like Dawkins, with reservations, which I tend to say about nearly everybody.


In the fall of 2017 the 8th AESOP Sustainable Food Planning Conference took place in Coventry, hosted by the Center for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR). Since its inception in 2009 the Sustainable Food Planning department is one of the most active within AESOP (the Association of European Schools of Planning), indicating that food is back on the urban agenda, at least in academia. As a budding urban agriculture planner and researcher I attended the first two AESOP SFP conferences (Almere, 2009 and Brighton, 2010). Both were exciting meetings where pioneers from Europe and America – not only planners but also initiators, activists and scientists from other disciplines and people like Carolyn Steele (architect and writer of the seminal book Hungry City) – came together to discuss the then relatively new theme. I went to Coventry curious to see how the discussion has developed since those days and what is the state of affairs in the field in international perspective.
In the opening lecture Chiara Tornaghi (CAWR) and Michiel Dehaene (Ghent University) set the engaged tone for the Coventry conference by laying out their vision of an agroecological urbanism. The vision introduces urban agro-ecology as an integral approach to food production within the natural ecosystem on the city. By looking at the city from this perspective, the sustainable ideals of urban agriculture are linked to a political involvement in the development of the city. This involvement was inspired by a Marxist critique of urbanization as a neoliberal project. The variety of scientific presentations during the conference offered both many concrete examples of why a critique is needed (whether or not inspired by Marx) and how urban food initiatives deal almost without exception with questions about social and ecological justice, and choices that determine who is included and who isn't, and who benefits from all the recent attention to food and agriculture in and around the city.
An agro-ecological urbanism aims not to base the development of the city on the logic of growth, accumulation of wealth and property, but to shape it as an ecosystem in which people and other living beings live in connection with their (ecological) environment, one that not only meets our basic needs, but also respects our rights, in solidarity with each other. The right to food and nutrition is much less about the production of sufficient food as it is about the accessibility of food, and the knowledge and skills and possibilities to grow it yourself in the way that fits you, personally, socially and culturally, as Jahi Chappell, another keynote speaker, taught us. He shared his experience as a participant researcher with food policy in Belo Horizonte in Brazil, about which he wrote the book "Beginning to end hunger: Food and the environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and beyond". An interesting point was his personal plea for reciprocity in the exchange of knowledge and experience between the Global North and South. His involvement in Belo Horizonte was not only about helping to find local solutions, but also about learning and gaining experience that could be relevant and applicable in his own country, the U.S.A.
The Right2Food was also discussed by Emily Matteisen of FIAN International . She outlined recent developments in the recognition of this basic right, the role that (local) government can play in this and the challenges that come with it. In her talk she also touched on the question of whether there actually is sufficient representation in some food (policy) councils, a theme that is also relevant in the Dutch context.
The question to what extent people can participate in how their food is produced came up in the keynote by Dehaene and Tornaghi (who for the occasion presented themselves under the symbiotic acronym DehTor) as well. They used to the Marxist concept of social reproduction; the ability to pass on knowledge and skills to others, through time, to critisize post-war urban development. According to them, since the Second World War urban planning and design has done its best to ban the knowledge and skills related to food from the city, and has transformed us into consumers who know less and less about food. Thus it has deprived in particular people with less money and or social access of opportunities to provide in their own food.
Food knowledge and skills were traditionally linked to shared access to shared resources (land, tools, knowledge). The commons were a recurring theme both in the plenary lectures and in the sessions I attended; the ways in which access to shared resources (land, resources, knowledge) can take shape in the urban food system. A French study by Baisse-Lainé, Perrin and Delfosse showed how land is claimed and managed as a common resource. Both (local) governments and social initiatives such as Terres de Liens try to create and / or maintain land management for small-scale agriculture. The government does this in order to maintain landscape quality, in other words to prevent unwanted urban development. Civil society organizations are concerned with fair access to land. Interestingly, these different perspectives lead to similar approaches that often go back to old forms of (existing or former) commons or that try to reintroduce and reformulate them. In her presentation Debra Solomon proposed to consider urban soil as a commons. Healthy soil is increasingly recognized as the basis for sustainable agriculture. City soil is however still ignored as a common good. The concept of the commons could be used to bring natural resources such as (urban) soil on the agenda both in society and in policy as a shared responsibility.
Now that the theme of food in the city is receiving increased attention both by policy makers and the general public, and more and more citizens want to grow their own food again, it is a challenge to reintroduce the associated awareness and knowledge and skills to a broad group of citizens, as DehTor advocates. However, this emancipation is far from self-evident. "Another world is plantable! Community gardeners in North America", a film about communal food gardens in U.S.A., shows that social equality can not be taken for granted in the alternative food movement. The film shows the liberating effect of this movement e.g. for people from the LGTB scene. But it also shows the concern that the movement is co-opted, absorbed by commerce, or by the creative white middle class. If you look at the conference from this perspective, a lack of diversity among the participants became apparent with relatively few participants from the Global South, and little ethnic diversity. That was certainly not the intention of the organizers; CAWR explicitly aims to be relevant to a wider group than academics and to play an active role in projects around the world focused on inclusiveness and sustainability. The centre is active locally as well. Coventry is one of the poorest cities in the United Kingdom, with all the problems that this entails. I unfortunately missed the session on the initiative for a local food policy council in Coventry in which CAWR is also involved.
When I left Coventry after the conference, I therefore did not have a clear picture of what was going on locally. This bothered me as I felt this was also my own responsibility. I did however leave with a renewed feeling that something is at stake in working on a sustainable food system. It is a challenge that requires more than the professional solution of a number of problems; it needs a change in mentality and behavior. Such a change can and should be discussed at a conference like this but these discussions are not what stayed with me in the end. It was all the presented examples of people realizing a piece of their desired socially just and sustainable world out there in the real world; working on the sitopia Steele proposed at the end of her book Hungry City. The conference offered valuable insight into the development of these initiatives. Documenting their experiences and charting their successes and failures (evidence-based sitopia?) is one of the most important tasks of science that deals with sustainable food planning.


'Positive Psychology. An Introduction.' is one of the foundational articles in the field, written by Martin Seligman and Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. Because of its importance and the amount of citations it has, we decided to make an extensive summary of it, extracting its most significant points.
After World War II, the Veterans Administration (now the Veterans Affairs) and the National Institute of Mental Health were founded and the focus of psychology geared almost exclusively towards understanding and treating mental illness.
This was incredibly beneficial. 14 Disorders previously incurable were researched scientifically and treatments to cure or relieve the symptoms were found.
Psychologists came to understand substantially how people survive and endure adversity, challenges and trauma. Research about the impacts of divorce, loss of loved ones, sexual and physical abuse, damaged childhoods, damaged brains and habits exploded.
They made remarkable progress in repairing damage within a disease model of functioning. However, psychology's other missions, to promote productive, meaningful lives and nurture talent were left unattended.
He realized that raising children is not about fixing and correcting what's wrong with them. But identifying and enhancing their strongest qualities and what they do best. Helping them find the environments that allow them to play out their strengths and live productive, fulfilled lives.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi also acknowledged the need for a positive psychology. During World War II in Europe, he witnessed successful and confident men become helpless and hopeless as their social support vanished. As they lost their jobs, money and status, they also lost their sense of meaning in life.
A few people, however, in the middle of the chaos and turmoil, kept their integrity and purpose.Their serenity provided hope for others. This got Csikszentmihalyi wondering what sources of strength enabled these people to hold on to their integrity?
Philosophy, history and religion didn't provide him with the answers he was looking for. They were too subjective and abstract. When he came across psychology he thought, here is a possible solution to my questions. A discipline that deals with the fundamental issues of life with the simplicity of the natural sciences.
In the 1950's psychology was not a recognized discipline. In Italy, where Csikszentmihalyi lived, it was only possible to study psychology as a minor, while pursuing a major in medicine or philosophy. So he moved to the United States, where psychology had become a science. He wasn't content with the approach that involved a skeptical attitude and a concern for measurement.
This period in psychology is known as the culmination of behaviorism. Psychology and behavior were being taught as "a branch of statistical mechanics" and so he struggled to put together the two building blocks of a social science: "to understand what is and what could be".
Fast forward a decade, and humanistic psychologists like Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers brought a new perspective to psychology. Parting ways with Freud and behaviorism, this approach emphasized the inherent drive in all human beings to self-actualize, to express their own capabilities and creativity.
Unfortunately, it lacked cumulative empirical base, leading to multiple therapeutic self-help movements.
"Psychology is not just the study of pathology, weakness and damage, it's also the study of strength and virtue. Treatment is not just fixing what is broken; it is nurturing what is best. Psychology is not just a branch of medicine concerned with illness or health; it is much larger.
At the center of this approach lies the issue of prevention. How can psychologists prevent the problems that so many people experience, like depression, addiction and anxiety? Fifty years under the disease model showed that the pathology approach does not move psychology closer to the prevention of these issues.
Psychologists, therapists and consultants need to acknowledge that much of the best work they do with their patients and clients is to enhance their strengths, virtues and capacities, rather than repairing weaknesses.
Psychologists and practitioners working with families, schools, communities and institutions need to develop the environments that promote these strengths. The time where psychology viewed individuals as passive vessels reacting to stimuli has passed. Individuals are decision makers, with choices, preferences, and a set of values and strengths that allow them to learn and excel or, in adverse circumstances to become helpless and hopeless.
Positive psychology was born out of the need to redirect psychology back to its two neglected missions: to make normal people stronger and more productive and develop and nurture high talent.
Next will look at the major contributions of positive psychology aimed at providing a general and brief overview of the field at the early stages of its development, when this paper was published.
1.What makes one moment better than the next?
Daniel Kahneman believes the hedonic quality of the moment is the building block of positive psychology.
Diener focuses on subjective well-being.
Massimini and Della Fave focus on optimal experience.
Chris Peterson's work is on optimism.
Ryan and Deci research self-determination.
The underlying thread is a perspective of human beings as self-organizing, self-directed and adaptive entities.
Ryan and Deci focus on self-determination.
Baltes and Staudinger's work is on wisdom.
Lubinski, Benbow,Simonton, Winner and Larson focus on exceptional performance.
Therefore, positive psychology needs to take into consideration positive schools, communities, organizations and societies.
Buss and Massimini and Della Fave describe the evolutionary milieu that shapes positive experiences.
Myers' studies are on the contributions of social relationships to happiness.
Schwartz reflects on the need for cultural norms to relieve people of the burden of choice.
Larson emphasizes the importance of voluntary activities.
Winner describes the effects of families on nurturing talent.
Next, is a short introduction to some of these articles.
The environments people currently live in are so different from the ancestral environments to which their bodies and brains have adapted, they are often misfit in modern surroundings.
Mechanisms of distress are often functional, for example jealousy alerts people to make sure of the fidelity of their partners.
Selection tends to be competitive and to involve zero-sum outcomes.
After identifying some of the major obstacles to well-being Buss, provides concrete strategies to overcome them. This makes his article not only an interesting read but a valuable tool.
Fausto Massimini and Antonella Della Fave (2000) explored psychological and cultural evolution. You can say they started where David Buss left: looking analytically at the effects of changes in the ancestral environment and how the production of memes (artefacts and values) affect and are affected by human consciousness.
Their assumption was that human beings are self-organizing and oriented towards increased complexity. Making them the authors of their own evolution, they are continuously involved in the selection of memes that will chisel their own individuality and shape the future of their culture.
They draw a point, essential to positive psychology, that psychological selection is propelled not only towards survival but also towards the need for optimal experiences.
One of the leading experts of this topic is Edward Diener (2000), his work now spans more than 3 decades. Subjective well-being refers to what people think and feel about their lives – to the cognitive and affective evaluation they draw when they assess their existence.
It's the more scientific term for what people normally call happiness. Diener looked at the temperament and personality correlates of well-being and the demographic factors of groups high in subjective well-being. His research suggests interesting findings between macrosocial conditions and happiness.
When does it begin to distort reality?
How does an overly pessimistic culture affect the well-being of its citizens?
David Myers (2000) took the belief that traditional values must contain important elements of truth in order to survive across time and tested the empirical validity of this claim. He is more attuned than others in the field, to issues such as the often found association of faith with happiness.
He also considered the relationship between economic growth and income and close personal relationships to happiness. His findings are a valuable resource to anyone interested in understanding the elements that contribute to a positive life.
According to Ryan and Deci, when people meet these needs their personal well-being and their social development are optimized. When this happens, people are intrinsically motivated, able to achieve their potentialities and to seek ever expanding challenges.
Barry Schwartz takes the self-determination subject from a different angle. He is concerned that the focus on autonomy in our culture leads to excessive freedom and choices that cause a burden and may eventually lead to regrets, insecurity and depression. He believes cultural constraints are necessary for leading a meaningful and satisfying life.
How does mental health look like for positive psychology? This question guides the work of the articles mentioned here.
George Vaillant (2000) reminds people that it's impossible to understand positive psychological processes without a longitudinal approach.
His perspective, which acknowledges the importance of creative and proactive solutions, breaks the mold of the victim paradigm of the psychoanalytic approaches.
In general, it's assumed that a realistic and rigorous assessment of reality is healthy. Shelly Taylor and her collaborators argue that unrealistically optimistic beliefs about the future can protect people from illness (Taylor et al., 2000).
The findings of numerous studies of ill patients suffering with diseases such as AIDS, suggest that the patients who remained optimistic showed symptoms later and survived longer than the patients with a more realistic attitude.
The authors believe the mediation effect happens at a cognitive level. An optmistic patient is more likely to engage in healthy habits and seek social support. It's also speculated, though still not proven, that positive states may have a direct physiological effect that may delay the progression of disease.
This research has tremendously important implications for subject of health and prevention.
If psychology is going to improve the whole of human existence, it's not enough to repair the worst in people. The vast majority of people, also need examples and guidance on how to live a meaningful and joyful life.
Wisdom is one of the most valued traits all over the world and even across cultures. Most people believe that wisdom is a product of age and experience. However, a more vigorous and scientific approach to wisdom has come out of the Max Planck Institute of Berlin, where the Berlin wisdom paradigm was developed.
Paul Bates and Ursula Staudinger's (2000) findings on wisdom resulted in a complex model that views this trait as a cognitive and motivational heuristic for organizing knowledge in pursuit of individual and collective excellence.
David Lubinsky and Camilla Benbow take a different approach to excellence. Their focus is on children with exceptional intellectual abilities. Considering issues of how to identify, nurture, counsel and teach these children, arguing that neglecting the potential of such extraordinary children would be a terrible loss to society.
The nature and nurture of creativity are explored in the work of Dean K. Simonton's (2000) article. In which he examines the cognitive, personality and developmental factors involved in the process as well as the conditions that either promote or hinder creativity.
Ellen Winner (2000) also addresses giftedness and exceptional performance but her take on it is more inclusive. Relating to children who are precocious, self-motivated and approach problems in an original way, in their field of talent. Such children tend to be well-adjusted and to have supportive families.
Reed Larson (2000) also studied excellence in young people and found that the average student reported feeling bored at school, where they rarely have the opportunity to take initiative and their education encourages passive adaptation to external rules and values. He explored how voluntary activities can provide opportunities to focus, and apply self-directed effort over time.
The articles and studies mentioned above make a valuable contribution to the field of positive psychology. They also point towards the gaps in knowledge the field faces. The original article was written in 2000 and, in the years passed a lot of research has shed light into some of these gaps. In this article however, we will stick to the article in question and the authors perspectives at that time.
The difference between fleeting experiences of happiness (hedonic happiness) and long-lasting well being (eudaemonic happiness) is often referred to in the field.
What makes people happy in the moment or in small doses does not necessarily add larger amounts of satisfaction over the long-term. This can be observed in the amount of money a person makes or in the pleasure of eating food.
We also need to be aware that as we grow older, our sources of happiness and well-being may change. What contributed to happiness as a teenager may very well be different from what contributes to happiness as an adult. If that's so, what are the building blocks of happiness and long-term well-being in childhood?
For the last 20 years neuroscience has advanced our knowledge in the neurochemistry of depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse, anxiety and many others. Will the opposite of these states fall under neuropsychology's radar too? "Can psychologists develop a biology for positive experiences and traits?" (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).
There are still many questions to answer. But the time for a psychology of positive functioning has come. Positive psychology is not a completely new idea. It does however apply what other approaches lacked: the scientific method. A cumulative, empirical body of research is the foundation in which it stands.
Why has psychology been so biased towards the negative? Assuming that negative motivations are authentic and positive emotions are derivative? Negative emotions signal danger, they're more urgent and therefore many times overpower the positive ones. This makes sense from an evolutionary stand point.
Positive experiences don't demand the same level of vigilance or alarm, passing by, most of the times, without any effort. Hence, the bias in psychology towards the negative, may also reflect the value differences in survival of negative versus positive emotions.
Why one should not commit suicide?
But this question cannot be answered merely by curing depression. We also need reasons that make life worth living.
As much as it as served humanity and allowed treatment and relief for many untreatable mental disorders, if psychology is to serve the whole of humanity it also needs to address the vast majority of people, who are not ill. It also needs to address the people who want to live joyful and meaningful lives.
A science like that will not start on a clean slate. Psychology and psychiatry developed a taxonomy, valid ways of measuring and methods for understanding abstracts concepts like depression, anger or schizophrenia.
These methods can be used to measure, understand and build the characteristics that make life most worth living. Psychologists will not only help people survive the challenges and difficult times in life, they will help people, communities and societies thrive.
I am a Presbyterian pastor who is writing a Psy.D. thesis focused on "The Impact of Emotional Intelligence and the Retention of Clergy in Churches".
Since emotional intelligence is based in positive psychology, do you know of any dissertations or scholarly papers that focus on positive psychology and clergy?
Thank you for the comprehensive overview and article!
I'm curious if you have info or a link on the "14 Disorders previously incurable were researched scientifically and treatments to cure or relief the symptoms were found.
Psychologists, therapists and consultants need to acknowledge that much of the best work they do with their patients and clients is to enhance their strengths, virtues and capacities, rather then repairing weaknesses.
Hi Jasmin, You can read more about those 14 disorders on page 6 of the PDF. Thanks for pointing out the typos. Much appreciated!
Hi. Thanks. It is a great paper I'll share with my participants.
Thank you so much for letting us know! We'll have it fixed immediately!
Sould be working now, please let us know if you have any trouble wih it!