Do you have a start-ups group where you live? I think it’s a pretty good idea. I’ve watched how three interested people got one going where I live, I’m seeing it working now, and it’s definitely a good thing.
Specific example: Yesterday around 5 p.m. I went over to a local hotel where we had our Eugene (Ore.) Smart-ups group meeting. There was some milling around, then some welcoming, a talk about an upcoming local angel investor contest with $150K to the winner, then a panel discussion on bootstrapping–with two people who are up and running as bootstrapped ventures–a presentation on basic financials and then, at the end, two five-minute elevator speeches chosen from business cards drawn out of a hat.
While this may be of specific interest to you if you’re in the lower Willamette Valley area of Eugene and Corvallis in Oregon, I post it here because you might want to look at your own local groups.
If you don’t have one, start one. What’s interesting to me is that Smart-ups is the kind of thing you could do in a lot of different places. Here’s how they did it here in Eugene:
Smart-ups was started a couple of years ago by a small group of people who missed having a start-ups organization where they could get together every two or three months and hear experts, watch presentations, share experiences and keep up with what’s going on in the local area.
They connected with the local chamber of commerce, which has been a strong supporter, by talking to the chamber leaders. The chamber has helped them organize meetings, offered online registration, speakers and organizational help.
They set up a group name and a website. They started talking about what kind of events they could do.
They connected with the local Small Business Development Center by talking to the SBDC leaders. The SBDC has become a supporter in a number of ways.
They started with events, which they called “pub talks,” including some start-up presentations, workshops, etc.
Then they connected it to a statewide entrepreneurs network and a statewide software association, by talking to the leaders of those groups.
By now they have connections to both the University of Oregon and Oregon State faculties (one in Eugene, the other in Corvallis).
Last night they had a full room at the local hotel, maybe 150 or more people, and a good program. So Smart-ups is up and running, the local area is better off, the organizers are proud, and people are looking forward to the next event.
I posted an iPhone app success story here a couple of days ago. Following up on that, if you want, you can now get an iTunes video podcast version of a Stanford University course on how to build iPhone apps.
To find it on iTunes, go to the iTunes store, search for Stanford, find the Stanford University main page, and look in the “What’s New” area on the right, about the middle, for the course on programming the iPhone.
No, it’s not crazy; or at least, I should say, I’ve done it. I spent many hours during business travel using my t-Mobile PDA phone as an ebook reader, compatible with the Microsoft Reader format. It worked for me then (several years ago), and might still be convenient now. And that’s even despite the fact that I also own a Kindle.
As several providers rush into the e-book reader market, a Canadian company is preparing to take advantage of a huge population of stealth e-book readers — smartphones — and launch its Shortcovers service, which lets consumers read books on their handsets.
The digital book platform has been tested for Apple’s iPhone, according to people who have seen the service. Shortcovers is a division of Indigo Books & Music, which operates a Canadian nationwide chain of bookstores.
I like to post about ebooks and related new things on this blog because I think this is a market that has a lot of future to it. Or maybe it’s just me, that I like this technology.
Last night I drifted back to my Mac at about 9 PM. I’d installed the new iLife for 09 on my Mac earlier, after dinner. I started fooling around with iPhoto. By the time I pulled myself away it was the next day. I clicked to my Twitter account and wrote:
oh no I just spent 3 hours doing maps and faces in the new iPhoto … I had so many better things to do, but it’s spellbinding. Damn!
And immediately after, I added — because it’s also true:
and also the new iPhoto mapping led me to download the new Google Earth, also spellbinding … don’t start if you have other things to do.
Which is a good reminder to me of why I like this business; software, and technology marching on. The face recognition feature on iPhoto probably isn’t game changing — reviewers are generally not impressed — but for me it’s really cool. Or, as I said in the tweet, spellbinding. And the mapping feature is a terrific addition. And Google Earth’s new version 5.0 is just plain amazing technology. I could spend hours, days, weeks with it. Especially the combination, posting my 50 years of photos onto the map.
It’s also interesting how technology develops. I was dabbling with tying photos to maps and looking at face recognition three years ago as my son and his wife developed amiglia.com, a photo site. As time goes on, the technology gets better, and the bigger players adopt it.
And other businesses develop in their wake. Google Earth and Google Maps have generated thousands of new applications. Easy photo management, photo mapping, and easy application of face recognition will also create new opportunities.
Of course this is too big and too tall and too long, but how can you argue with a list of 50? Particularly when it comes from somebody who knows the territory. Take a look at 50 Essential Strategies For Creating A Successful Web 2.0 Product on Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog.
He starts with a pleasantly nerdish diagram, which I can’t resist (sorry, it’s the MBA in me, even 25 years later) reproducing here (from his blog, by the way):
Don’t worry, he explains software architecture and product design, as follows:
Software architecture determines a web application’s fundamental structure and properties: resilience, scalability, adaptability, reliability, changeability, maintainability, extensibility, security, technology base, standards compliance and other key constraints, and not necessarily in that order.
Product design determines a web application’s observable function: Usability, audience, feature set, capabilities, functionality, business model, visual design and more. Again, not necessarily in priority order.
So that’s cool enough by itself, and it’s a nice introduction to a thought-provoking list of 50 strategies. They’re actually more like tips, or snippets, all of them worth thinking about. “Start with a simple problem,” for example, and–my personal favorite–”release early and release often.”
If you’re anywhere near product development for the web these days, read this list. You won’t accept all of them, for sure, but you’ll think about some of them.
This is the second of three parts. The first part appeared here a month ago. All three were published first on Entrepreneur.com, and are based on the book 3 Weeks to Startup, which I co-authored along with Sabrina Parsons. That book, published by Entrepreneur Press, came out in the autumn of 2008. It’s built on the idea that most how-to-start books fall back on the older, pre-Web ways to get things done; and that today, because of the tools available, 3 weeks is still credible.
Day 8: Plan your marketing strategy.
Think about your target market. Imagine a hypothetical, ideal customer. Determine his or her age, gender, job, favorite media and family situation. It’s important to know your customer well.
What’s your message? Can you say it in a single sentence? What if you have just one sentence that your customers will listen to? Where would you send that message? How would you reach them?
Think about your marketing strategy and implementation details. Take the time to go through a short but focused marketing plan to make sure you understand what it will take to market your business.
Day 9: Develop your look and feel.
Start developing a sense of the look and feel of your company as your buyers will see it. What will your logo look like? What sense will it convey? Old-fashioned? Trustworthy? Leading edge? Everybody has a brand. What will yours be? How will you get that idea across to customers and potential customers?
Develop your look and feel through logos, signs, letterhead and graphic standards. These are your branding essentials, and you need to have them in place before you get much further.
Day 10: Start building your website.
Have you started your website already? Have you been thinking about it? Today’s the day to get going with that.
If you’re building a Web 2.0 application or any website that’s core to your business, then you might have to settle for simply having begun by the end of the three weeks.
For most businesses, you can have a website built very quickly. Think about the basic elements of your website, and at least get a site up with basic information about you, your business, your products, and your services.
These days there are some good shortcuts available: take a look at TypePad, WordPress, and blogger platforms, for example. These were built for blogging but can apply to many small sites, with little to no formatting work.
Day 11: Think about how you’re going to get paid.
Think about how your customers will pay you. If you’re going to be selling to consumers, then you probably want to establish a merchant account so you can accept credit cards.
These days, because of the online vendors, there are a lot more options. In the old days you had to go straight to your favorite local bank, which had a detailed and time-consuming process. These days, you have the option of setting yourself up with some Web stores (like Amazon, Yahoo!, and others) that can handle that part of it for you.
If you’re selling to businesses, then think about invoices and credit policies for business customers. There’s no underestimating how important getting paid is.
Day 12: Try making a sale.
Have you been able to make a sale yet? Maybe you should take today to peddle your goods. Even though you’re not fully established yet, lots of businesses (maybe most of them) start selling before they’re fully launched.
This is where you get to make sure that people want to buy what you’re selling.
Even if you can’t make a sale, because things are ready, talk somebody through it. The selling will continue for as long as your business is open, but we wanted to include it here as well because so many businesses are born at the moment the first customer says “yes.”
Day 13: Get an insurance policy.
Time to talk to an insurance broker, and get your business insurance started. These days, you can do a lot of research or even do the whole thing online. And if not, remember the old-fashioned telephone tree-style of finding the right people. Talk to any insurance broker you can think of, ask some questions, and if he or she isn’t the right one, ask who else you should talk to. Find the right person by asking the wrong person who else you should talk to.
In the doing, you’ll find out what kinds of insurance are appropriate for the type of business you’re starting.
Day 14: Build your dream team.
Have you been thinking about how to build your team? Do you know the people you want to bring on? It’s time to start ironing down the team and the employees, and start the recruiting process. Depending on your specifics, you’ll likely need job descriptions, and you’ll need to place ads on the right websites.
Start thinking about your employee list. Who will you need to help you out when you actually open for business? Will it be just you and your business partner? Do you need to hire service people? Drivers? Designers?
To get started, take another look at the financial planning you did in Week 1. See who you can afford to hire and start looking.
OK everybody, enough about the downturn, credit squeeze and how much less money, your savings and your house are worth. We all get it, and at least we all (or at least everybody I know) went down the net worth slide together. Let’s get back to work.
I liked the reporting at the Tech Crunch Crunchy awards over the weekend. There are some good reminders in this post by Erik Schonfeld.
Facebook once again won the overall prize for the second year in a row, and Mark Zuckerberg also picked up the best CEO prize. During his acceptance speech, Zuckerberg’s message to all the other entrepreneurs in the audience was that even during an economic downturn they can build something great and become a beacon of light for the rest of the industry. Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie, who was on hand to accept the prize for Best Technology Achievement, struck a similar chord:
When we are in an environment with technological and environmental change, you have to focus on these new huge constraints, but also new opportunities for destruction or rebirth.
Yes! Let’s hear it for a breath of fresh air and a reminder that business is still business, and what works is doing something that, well, with apologies for the redundancy, works. Like the winners said.
The easy VC money might have stopped flowing to startups, but that doesn’t mean the world has stopped. I was acutely reminded of that fact simply by watching the hardened optimism of everyone in the theater. Some people compare the Crunchies to the Oscars of Tech, but we like to think of it more as a large family gathering. For all the blogs involved–GigaOM, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider, TechCrunch–it’s our way of saying, “Thank You” to all the startups and tech companies out there. If they didn’t keep striving to become that beacon of light, we’d have nothing to write about.
It’s hardly surprising, given the obvious need, that investors are ready and willing to put money into green clean technology. That’s not a hard prediction to make. Still, given the down economy and the generally down numbers and poor outlook on investing, how about this:
During 2008, green-tech venture investments jumped to $8.4 billion, a 38 percent increase, according to preliminary figures released Tuesday by the Cleantech Group.
Cleantech Group’s senior research director, Brian Fan, said in a statement:
2008 saw solar take a 40 percent share of clean-technology venture investment dollars, led by mega investment rounds in thin-film solar, concentrated solar thermal and solar-service provider companies.
Investors also continued to migrate from first-generation ethanol and biodiesel technologies to next-generation biofuels technologies, led by algae and synthetic biology companies. Other sectors with healthy investor interest included smart-grid companies, small-scale wind turbines, plastics recycling, green buildings and agriculture technologies.
So that’s good news to me, on two levels. First, it’s hard evidence that some business is doing fine, still growing; second, I think it gives us hope that there might eventually be real solutions to some of the global problems that plague us all.
What’s wrong with this idea? My answer below. First, the idea, as posted at Startup Meme:
If you think your developer skills are waiting to be brought out to the world but funding stops their creation, worry no more. Consulting firm Herman Blackbook has initiated a mini fund for such developers. The funds that can sum up to $3,000 will be given to those developers who create apps on the Twitter, AppNexus, Trulia and iPhone platforms (others as well). The New Platform Fund investments will only be given to the ten most brilliant ideas. There are many other fund providers who invest in a range from thousands to millions of dollars, and another one joining the group would be an added benefit. If your app hasn’t been considered worth money, give The New Platform Fund a try too.
What’s wrong with the idea? I hope it’s obvious to you. Investors are partners and also bosses at times, extra voices, extra management. That might be well worth it when you need hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, particularly if you hook up with good partners, who add value.
And, disclosure, for all I know, Herman Blackbook Consulting is such a good partner. But still, God bless the child that’s got it’s own.
Here’s what TechCrunch says about that:
Let’s be honest. There is very little reason for an entrepreneur/developer to apply for the New Platforms Fund. Incubator micro-funds like Y Combinator, TechStars and Seedcamp don’t give you much in the way of capital ($15k-$20k), but at least it’s enough to live on for a few months while you work on your idea. And those funds have very deep connections in the venture capital world to get you your first round of capital after you’ve spent their initial funds. It’s not clear at all that this new fund can do any of that for you.
The New Apollo Program is the creation of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of business, labor, environmental and community leaders promoting clean energy, energy efficiency and green jobs.
The five sections of the program include numerous recommendations, ranging from expanding and continuing existing programs to developing new funds and systems for cutting carbon. An underlying theme throughout the plan is improving conditions in the U.S. through better infrastructure, education and good jobs.
Obviously this is a lot more than the $15 billion per year that President-elect Barack Obama proposed during his presidential campaign, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t also important.
I’m seeing a theme emerging here. Opportunities are coming, particularly in some key areas that–everybody agrees–the world needs.
I’m on the email list for these videos and this one seems particularly important and encouraging. The introduction on the site says:
Toss the old notions of environmentalism into the recycling bin. Investor Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures shatters conventional wisdom of energy reduction, and instead encourages entrepreneurs to solve environmental problems via cost-effective, innovative, and scalable engineering.
If you can’t see the video embedded here, you can click here to go directly to the source site.
Startups can be so incredibly different, one from the other, but unfortunately we talk about them as if they’re all just startups.
It’s night and day, or apples and oranges. One person sets up a blog or a web page offering services, such as graphics, consulting or planning, and the business is born, voila! Another person gets a team together around a new business idea, and it takes establishing, developing a plan, pitch, prototype, seed funding and so on.
I’ve done a lot of work on how different a small service startup is from a product-related startup: There’s less risk but also less to gain, and usually nothing much in a service even to offer to investors. Products give you leverage, but they take a lot more risk and more money. And in this context, a website is a product, even if it offers a service.
I really liked Seth Godin’s post today, Making vs. Taking, because he gives a completely new angle on splitting things up. In this case, he’s talking about new ideas and new business vs. displacing or shaving off a piece of existing ideas. Making vs. taking is a good way to look at it.
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acceptance speech, Zuckerberg’s message to all the other entrepreneurs in the audience was that even during an economic downturn they can build something great and become a beacon of light for the rest of the industry. Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie, who was on hand to accept the prize for Best Technology Achievement, struck a similar chord:
