If you are in the innovation game, in Silicon Valley — high tech innovation central — you have to expect a lot of change, market turmoil, and financial ups and downs. But 2009 was harsher than any year we have seen before here in the valley. And it has take an emotional toll on many of our best and brightest. But we aren’t quitters here. Here in Silicon Valley, we create the change we want in the world. So in wishing us all greater prosperity in 2010, I thought it would be useful to review what made 2009 so tough and look forward to what we can do, or at least what I can do for you, to make 2010 better for all of us.

But first, if you are someone who wants to stay in the innovation game, and stay at the top of your game, you have to keep your creativity skills sharp and your attitude upbeat. To all those readers who found 2009 challenging, I offer you two humorous holiday videos that I created for two of the companies that I have been involved with in 2008 and 2009. If you like them, please share them with others. We can all use a pick me up!

What made 2009 so hard in Silicon Valley, and who was affected? Here’s a sampling of the kinds of people among my friends and colleagues who will be glad to see 2009 behind us.

Investors
If you were an investor, it was hard to predict how much “dry powder” you might need to set aside to help keep alive a start-up while the economy is stuck in slow gear.
Self Funded Entrepreneurs
If you were an entrepreneur and didn’t need funds, a recession can be your friend when it shakes out new competitors and causes established market leaders to focus internally on cost cutting. But unless you had deep pockets and were self-funding your start-up, or were already cash positive, you’ll eventually need to raise some cash.
Debt Financed Entrepreneurs
If you were an entrepreneur and did need funds, it is always tough to raise money, but 2009 was worse than usual. Even if you had some income, the credit crunch in the first half of the year made it tough to get debt financing as well. Your own customers were having trouble paying their bills, but without at least debt financing, you couldn’t keep the customer by extending payment terms.
Equity Financed Entrepreneurs
Equity financing for star-ups wasn’t any easier. Not only did investors have no idea how long it would take for markets to rebound, but they also didn’t know when/if IPO markets will re-open and larger companies will go into acquisition mode. And any investments that they had in the stock market were under performing, and probably showed a loss early in the year.
Consultants
If you were a consultant to start-ups, Your client base was cutting back and cutting contracts. They didn’t have cash to pay you but you can’t keep afloat on all 100% equity deals. Large numbers of laid off executives were competing for an ever shrinking set of consulting opportunities.
Employees
If you were an employee, chances are that you felt very uncertain about your job. Whole companies were crashing. Acquisitions often resulted in transfer of products, but layoffs of the acquired team, part of the acquirer’s team or both. Sales were often down so much that no amount of belt tightening could reduce expenses sufficiently to match the new lower income numbers, so layoffs were inevitable.
The Unemployed
If you were a victim of a layoff in 2008 or 2009, 2009 was a difficult time to find a new job. The number of people on the unemployment rolls in the valley exceeded 10% and because many people had exhausted benefits or were no longer looking, quite a few analysts estimated that actual number of people who wanted to work in Silicon Valley, but couldn’t find a job, may have reached 20%. And the average amount of time on the unemployment rolls drifted upward of 6 months on its way toward 1 year of unemployment!

Here’s hoping that 2010 will be better.

Here’s what I am hoping for in 2010: a new consulting gig, or an executive role with a young (but funded) Internet, web and software Startup in Silicon Valley. As always, my goal is to build innovative strategies, teams and processes that create disruptive innovations that pioneer new markets. I enjoy all the steps of this process beginning with conception and product design and engineering all the way through successful product introduction, growth and resulting in product leadership in the new market. I’ve done this before several times, and I expect to do so again — I don’t know where I will do that right now, but I’m hoping to begin this accomplishment in 2010.

If you had a tough year in 2009, I hope 2010 is more prosperous for you too! Let’s renew our friendships and see what we can do for each other. Let’s reach out to new friends and see what we can do for them. The economy is just what we all collectively do. So if we all believe in and help one another, we will have that turn around we all want.

My offer to you:

If you are a CEO or senior executive at a start-up or innovative technology company and you need some help turning your advanced research into a market leading product, building a top technical team or product management team. I’d love to help you achieve that success.

If you are an investor with a promising young company that needs some seasoned management experience and startup expertise, I’d love to explore what we might accomplish together.

If you need consulting help in how to increase innovation in your company in general, or to lead a skunk works project to develop a radically different product or process, I can help you accomplish that.

And if you are a talented software engineer or product manager or product marketing manager who thrives to on innovation and start-ups, let’s keep talking: I always like to bring great talent to my employers, clients and companies. And who knows, maybe we’ll find we have the talent to found a new company ourselves.