August 20th, 2010
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Last night I had a chance to catch up with two companies involved in the Boom Startup group that I mentioned previously. The first was iCount.com (formerly known as Voycit), a website that facilitates conversations with your elected officials. After verifying that you’re a registered voter you can get informed about what is going on in a particular topic, engage with your local representatives by voting on issues that come up.
Their business model is currently based on display ads, providing analytics to politicians, and allowing lobbyists to contact you for calls to action. They will be holding a contest to see who can invite the most people. An iPad will be given to the winner so sign-up as soon as you can.
The second company wasn’t presenting but was there in the audience and I had a chance to chat with them about their progress. iActionable.com is a website that offers an easy API plug-in that is gives you a customizable reputation system. Meaning you can have the power of game mechanics available to reinforce whatever behavior you want.
It can also keep track of users and what sort of things they’ve done. For example, if someone were to leave a comment or review on a site that was using iActionable you would be able to see what other subjects or products this person has made the past providing you with a little better context regarding their credibility.
They’re both ramping up and getting ready for the big investor day coming up in September. I wish them the best of luck to both of them.
July 30th, 2010
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One of the various advertising jingles that takes up memory space in my brain (I often wonder if it wasn’t there-would I now remember something useful) is one that Milton Bradley used to market the board game LIFE-“You can be a winner at the game of LIFE…spin the wheel…” Okay, so maybe I don’t remember the full jingle/song. The point is I remember the basics of how to play the game and some of the messaging attached to the game after a couple of decades.
Things that are catchy, fun or can be experienced tend to stay with us longer. Many brands have recognized that and have gone towards gaming in order to expose customer to their brand in a way that is more memorable and interactive.
Games can also be educational teaching skills and tricking people into learning. About a year or two ago my 7 year old was big into ToonTown-an online Disney game that consists of various missions that can be completed individually but could also be played in groups. He also decided from his experience that he wanted to grow up to create games. So we started him on a website put on by MIT called Scratch.
It’s a drag and drop object oriented program that allows kids to create animation, games, and whatever else they can think of. They can share their projects with a community of other kids, who can then remix the projects allowing them to download the “code” to see how they did it and add their own touch to it. He’s now running digital Survivor-type contests, recording sound effects, creating interactive projects and working on storylines. It’s been amazing to see how quickly he’s progressed.
For anyone else looking to learn some basic programming skills in a fun way here are a few other similar sites we’ve recently come across:
July 22nd, 2010
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A while ago I mentioned some alternative forms of peer-to-peer financing. Well, I came across a few others lately and am curious if anyone has had experience with them. In contrast to those sites these don’t require repayment but are a mechanism for crowds to donate. The following information just comes from their respective websites-so double check that I read it right before you do anything with them. All of them have some sort of widget you can put on your website of Facebook page.
Kickstarter-Specifically set up to support to creative and artistic endeavors. Each project is reviewed by the team before putting it on the site which is searchable. It is currently run through Amazon’s Payment Services though not affiliated with Amazon. Project organizers offer tiered prizes or gifts for donations. Contributors aren’t charged anything unless the goal is met. It is an all or nothing event. They charge 5% on the funds raised and Amazon takes a little too-so be sure to compensate for that.
Chipin-No review or approval process for the projects or causes. It is run through PayPal and users are charged when they “chip in” and the organizers don’t get the money until they end the chip in event but can keep whatever is collected even if the goal wasn’t reached. No fees besides those charged by PayPal are taken. You can try collecting for up to 365 days
IndieGoGo-This one is open to everyone and everything-no reviews or restrictions. You get to keep everything you raise. They do charge 9% on the funds raised but give you 5% if you reach your goal. You can use PayPal or Amazon Payments.
SellaBand -Focuses on musicians and bands who then get the money when they reach their goals. Another on is called artistShare.
It’s a fun concept that gives hope to anyone willing to dream the impossible dream
July 21st, 2010
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In a recent press release, Challenger, Gray, & Christmas (yes Christmas)-an outplacement and executive coaching firm, commented: “The decision of starting a business involves so many factors…the trends over time suggest that start-up activity is at its lowest just as a recession hits. In the months immediately following the end of the recession, when unemployment is at its highest and hiring is virtually non-existent, we see a spike in job seekers starting businesses,” said Challenger. “When the recovery reaches the point when employers begin hiring, but the economy remains relatively fragile, we tend to see a drop in entrepreneurism as job seekers start to see success in their searches. As the economy continues to gain strength, start-up activity begins to grow again, as conditions for such ventures become more inviting…”
So what does this mean for those of us who have decided to start a business?
Less competition =)
July 20th, 2010
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Today, I spent much of the day sifting through a variety of legal documents that needed to be signed and finalized since there was an equity change with my little start-up. I’m comfortable with contract language having previously composed riveting material you find in policy manuals and handbooks but I can understand why many people wish Google Translate had a Legalese option.
One of the things I read had to do with the vesting schedule. It is called a Membership Unit Purchase Agreement for those that like labels or MUPA for those that live in the world of acronyms. Basically, mine says how many shares of the company I own and when they really become mine. It’s a way to ensure that everyone on your team is committed for a specific time period or until certain milestones are met. Investors like to use them when working with start-up teams. Customary vesting schedules are between 3-4 years for most CEO’s.
We’ve decided to escalate ours because we don’t imagine that we are necessarily the right people to be able to scale with the company and would like to be able to have our full shares when it is time to change leadership. My partner and I would much rather get the company to a point where someone else can take over and run the show while we make money in our sleep. I would argue that should be the goal of most founders.
Steve Blank wrote a recent blog post about the role of a founding CEO is to find a repeatable and scalable process. If they do that they should get all their shares. Then the board can hire someone that can take it to the next level. We’re just planning for that in case our investors don’t have as much foresight as Mr. Blank.
July 19th, 2010
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I ocassionally joke that often the only exercise I get is jumping to conclusions.
For some reason I always thought I heard something like that from Norton Juster’s Phantom Tollbooth but could only find the following interchange:
“You’re on the Island of Conclusions.”
“But how did we get here?” asked Milo.
“You jumped, of course,” explained Canby. “That’s the way most everyone gets here. It’s really quite simple: every time you decide something without having a good reason, you jump to Conclusions whether you like it or not. It’s such an easy trip to make that I’ve been here hundreds of times.”
“But this is such an unpleasant looking place,” Milo remarked.
“Yes, that’s true,” admitted Canby; “it does look much better from a distance.”
A lot of us think we have a great idea for a business and in our haste to get things going often take a trip to the Island of Conclusions.
We take our own mental map and impose it on our customers, vendors, and employees imagining that of course they see things the same way as we do. It’s obvious, right?
And that is how you build something no one wants.
Solving a problem comes only after understanding the problem, the real problem. Even if you’ve experienced the problem double-check that you’re not the only one who sees it that way.
Once you have an answer ask yourself how KNOW that is the answer. Does it solve the real problem?
July 16th, 2010
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BrainHuddle is about sharing ideas and kicking them around (I need to do this more often) so I thought I’d share one I recently came across while at the aforementioned crowd pitch. I was fortunate enough to meet, Mike Christensen, President and Chief Architect of Kitchen PC ( link for when it is launched). Since he voted or me with his fake money I couldn’t help but like him to start off with. Then I heard how he too had decided to take the plunge leaving a full-time job with successful corporation in the Seattle area and had coincidentally just parted ways with a business partner as I had (good luck Mark in Nicaragua!). It is nice to find a commonality with others especially recent commonality.
So here is the idea, and hopefully I do it justice. KitchenPC is a website where you can enter the ingredients and quantities you have available in the kitchen and it will give you recipes that you can use. Either your own or others. Now I have a way to narrow down my dinner planning choices. It is still being developed as we speak but I’m sure Mike would love some user input. Follow his entrepreneur’s blog to keep up to date on his progress.
Let’s help him out with his market research. Has anyone come across similar sites? Which ones and what did you like or not like about those sites?
July 15th, 2010
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Last week Tshirts4Hire.com was 1 of 5 teams to be invited to participate in Funding Universe’s CrowdPitch. You have 4 minutes (exactly-they cut you off mid-sentence) to pitch followed by 3 minutes of Q & A before the “judges” give you a American Idolesque critique. While we didn’t take home 1st place it was a good experience with great feedback from entrepreneurs, angels, and VC’s. Our pitch went well enough and though I could have done better with the Q & A it helped to validate what questions we still needed to answer or at least find better ways of communicating the answers.
Speaking of answers, for all those who are budding entrepreneurs or thinking of becoming one there are a series of short videos that walkthroughdefinitions, terms, and practices common to the industry on the following YouTube channel. It is put on by the incubator program I’ve “finagled” my way into. The cover things like the type of business you should file, different sources of financing and how the work, even diving into different components of operating agreements in common in deals. Take a look see. It is at UsparkFoundryTV
This incubator has been a great way to stay focused, learn or perfect new skills, tap into a shared network of resources, and meet some great people. I left the state to go pitch and a funny thing happened while I was gone. Another local Angel investor groupwas visiting our incubator hub and upon hearing where we were (one other team, CupAd, was also at the CrowdPitch and won it btw) have expressed an interest in talking with us.
Oh I guess that is another change I should have mentioned. We are seeking a single angel investor to invest between $50-75K in order to help get our site development moving faster and finish testing our market assumptions. For example, this next week or so we’re having a bunch of our iMarketers (t-shirt wearers) wear shirts with text message codes (thanks O-codes) on them to get some baseline data of how effective t-shirt advertising is. So if you see a tshirt with a text message code please text it in-they’ll be in CA, OR, WA, AZ, UT, ID, NE, DE, GA, and a few other states. So keep your eyes peeled the last week of July. We’re also going to be having others count the number of people they pass in a day so we have comparable numbers to other forms of advertising. If anyone wants to do their own tally feel free to leave a comment on this blog with the result of your experiment. We’ll gladly share the results with others.
July 14th, 2010
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When a habit is no longer a habit it is hard to transition back into the swing of things. So I’m going to take a page from What about Bob? and take baby steps to posting something, anything-so forgive the lack of relevance. I’ve imprisoned myself thinking I need to fill you in on all the adventures in ventures but never finding quite enough time to jot it all down or do it justice. So while I may have an occasional flashback to provide a foundational overview I’m telling myself I won’t have to give a detailed account of the past month or so. When something seems daunting break it down into smaller pieces of time to focus your energy and motivation.
June 3rd, 2010
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Ironically enough, I was asked to write a brief article entitled The Magic of Networking as part of a job application that I thought I’d share. The challenge wasn’t writing it but rather being concise (230 words). Oh! If any one happens to know someone involved with marketing a movie please let me know.
Liquid Luck is a potion that grants to whoever drinks it unusually good luck. In the Half-Blood Prince, one of the Harry Potter books, Harry uses it to acquire what seems like a near unattainable item.
No, Harry wasn’t looking for a job though I’m sure he experienced some of the same frustrations that the rest of us have felt on a job search. However, there is a magical solution to our job search—it’s networking.
Networking is how the majority of people find a job (between 60-90% depending on whose spell book you believe). The steps needed to be successful aren’t nearly as complex as a Polyjuice Potion but it does take some effort. Just follow the formula below and before you can say Merlin’s Beard you’ll be well on your way to an interview for your dream job.
- Decide what you are interested in
- Make a list of 5 people that you know and tell them what you’re interested in and then ask, “Who are 5 people I should be talking to in order to learn more about…?”
- Then contact the next 5 and say “So-and-so said you’d be a good person to talk with about…” Continue the conversation by repeating the previous step.
Always let others arrange something or refer you to someone. Everyone likes to be a hero and work a little magic.
