Aug
20
Why the unprovens matter
Filed Under fundraising, management styles | 1 Comment
I’ve been debating for the past few days about whether or not I should post this article. It’s certainly not intended to be inflammatory or offensive, but is my honest opinion now that I’ve been doing this for about a year. This article is not intended to reflect our situation at Event Seek as we’ve been very well received by the startup community, but I also believe there is certainly room to improve. I believe there are individuals out there willing to bet on the unprovens, and we’ve worked hard to align ourselves with them. I just hope that the number of these visionary individuals will increase over time and allow Atlanta to blossom into the type of startup environment everyone wishes it could become.
The Atlanta startup is abuzz with opinions both about why Atlanta has a lot of work to do to become a great place to build a startup and why it is getting there and should get more credit for it. I thought it might be fun to weigh in on one small aspect that Jeff Haynie wrote about.
Successful startups are built by any number of people - experienced veterans, ex-corporate types, and brand new bodies. There is a lot of credit given to founders when a company is successful and a lot of blame given when one is not. One, two, or even three individuals are not and can not be wholly lauded/blamed for the ultimate outcome of a startup - they are of course the largest driver of outcome, but the ecosystem, the team, the market, the competition, and a bit of luck also has a lot to do with the final result.
Great founders are aware of all of these exogenous factors and work long and hard to prepare themselves and their company in a way that will overcome any outside influences. They pick a market with real potential, build a team that can overcome challenges, align themselves with mentors and advisors who will support them, and differentiate their product from other competitors. Even with all of this planning and prediction, sometimes great founders with excellent backgrounds and a great idea don’t succeed.
The fact of the matters is, however, that experienced entrepreneurs who have built sustainable successful companies are often better at mitigating these risk factors than those who have not built companies. Often is not always (for clarity feel free to check Merriam-Webster). Given that there are no sure bets in startups, most investors and individuals will flock to experienced individuals because they want to reduce any risk associated with their investment. They should! I would if I was in their shoes.
If no one wants to align themselves with young, unproven entrepreneurs, who will be the next generation of experienced startup architects? There is no talent pipeline for entrepreneurship. Consulting firms, investment banks, VCs, and the like look to business schools to fill their ranks each year because they know great intellects can be trained, molded, and developed into successful employees. The on-the-job training and mentoring allows young, unproven individuals to grow into their roles and eventually add real value to each company. There is no clear career path for entrepreneurs. No clear logical proven set of steps that makes one person ready to lead a startup.
Is this a terrible thing for the system? I don’t think so. It just means that the on-the-job training is critical. And on-the-job training requires one or more individuals to take a huge risk and build their own startup. But these brave souls can not do it alone - they need advisors, mentors, and arguably most of all investors. With no investors willing to bet on these unprovens how can we expect to build the next crop of talented individuals who will become the experienced veterans of tomorrow?
Out west (and I try not to glorify it as many often do), there is a significant number of well-funded startups with VC backing. This kind of capital allows many people to work in early-stage startups and build up the experience and knowledge necessary to work for a few years and then go off to start their own ventures. Atlanta doesn’t have this kind of ecosystem in place and the big wins experienced in the 80s and 90s can not continue to support the numbers of veterans needed for the future.
If the startup ecosystem in Atlanta wants to grow we need to support some experience building and experience sharing. The next generation of startup veterans will come from the rookies of today. We need to support these individuals with both time and money. Look around at the host of companies that are leading the web 2.0 revolution - many of them were started by young unprovens.
Success isn’t predicated by age, experience, or even the level of investment an individual can raise. Intelligence, hard work, ability to adapt to change, and singular vision - these are the traits of individuals who build successful startups and return not only to investors, but to the community that helped them out along the way.
I charge Atlanta, investors, mentors, and advisors to look beyond gray hairs and resumes to find great ideas with driven founders and support them in their quest to build the next great startup. I for one will be watching as the next generation of entrepreneurs matures, learns and develops. I hope that one day I might even be considered one of them.
Jul
17
Had a funny and honest conversation with Tristan the other day. We talked about the stress we were feeling, what were the plans for the next few days, and how we were going to handle some investment questions.
Over the course of the conversation, we came to an interesting epiphany. No one else we know gets this. No one has any understanding of how freaking hard this stuff is. Sure we’ve now met a variety of entrepreneurs who can understand, but most of them are on their 4th or 5th venture, and have a hard time remembering just how difficult the first go was.
At any given moment of any given day, I’m worried about the progress of our product, whether we can meet client expectations, if we’ll make rent and payroll this month, what was that email I was supposed to respond to?, how many promises can I make and how many do I have to keep?, should we hire another person?, can we hire another person?, what do I know about sales?, what do I know about being CEO?, is this still a good idea?, is this now a bad idea?, can I do this?, can my team do this?, how did it already become 11pm? You know what they say, you can only keep seven individual thoughts in your head at any given time. What does that mean? It means I lose my keys and wallet a lot.
And if you think that isn’t tough enough, remember that you have to put on a great face for everyone, and I mean everyone. Investors, potential investors, friends, family, employees, advisors, and everyone else. This is why having a co-founder is so important. This is the only person in the world who understands your problems and feels your pain. They’re like your mom, your best friend, and your psychiatrist all rolled into one.
Someday this little business of ours will be chugging along running itself as they say. Until then we’re responsible for all of it.
One last thought to leave you with because you’re probably wondering why anyone would do this: while the lows are tough and often long, the highs are absolutely incredible. Absolutely incredible.
Jul
11
Amazing talk on leadership by the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. When I clicked on the video, I never imagined I’d watch the whole thing. Probably the best 20 minutes I’ve spent all day. Phenomenal topic and incredible execution. Worth the watch.
Benjamin Zander: Classical Music with Shining Eyes
Jun
2
Financial projections in a startup are a bit of a catch 22. You can’t really make accurate estimations until you have interacted with customers and know what they are willing to pay, but you need investment (and therefore valid projections) before you can build the product and interact with those customers.
Working on our revenue model today has led me to the essential conundrum underlying a tech-based startup: (Please note, this assumes you aren’t a self funded millionaire)
- Product development is expensive and requires significant expense. This expense usually comes from investment.
- Customers tend to buy a dream, but want you to deliver a product. Therefore without a product, you cannot have customers.
- Investors want to fund your company and help you succeed, but after the bubble, they are much more hesitant to invest in an early stage company. Investors want to see a product and usually customers before they are willing to invest.
- See point one.
I often liken starting a company to playing with dominos. Not actually playing dominoes, but playing with them - little kid style. Remember when you used to set a whole bunch of dominos in a row and knock over the first one to watch the chain reaction? Starting a company is a lot like sitting in a room full of dominos. With the right flick, you will start a chain reaction that will unleash the most amazing and exciting spectacle you’ve ever seen.
However, unlike real dominos, our metaphorical dominos require significant effort to knock over. You could easily invest months of effort and pain into trying to knock over one domino. Then, there is the other problem - the room may be full of dominos, but it is also full of holes. Knocking over one domino does not ensure the chain reaction. You may even need to knock over multiple dominos before you can reach the one that will start the reaction. In a room full of real dominos, this wouldn’t be that difficult - you would study the situation from above and decide where to unleash your catastrophic flick. However, the metaphorical dominos span many floors making it impossible to know which one is the critical lynchpin.
What is an entrepreneur to do? Weigh his options, decide which dominos he thinks will be the most effective, and make strides towards knocking down many of them. If you’re good and really lucky, you might just be part of an incredible display of force.
And remember, no matter how hard you try, you can’t see above the dominos. Just in case you’re thinking about blowing off that meeting, remember this: that contact you don’t think is very important, just might be the best friend of your next big investor.
May
29
Agile development?…Next!
Filed Under management styles, product design | Leave a Comment
I think the West Wing was one of the best written shows on television during its heyday. Aaron Sorkin has thespecial ability to humanize his characters and make them easy to relate to. You understand both their strengths and their weaknesses, and just when a character is struggling with one of their key flaws, they have a moment of incredible strength that makes you love them even more. (See President Bartlet dealing with Conservative Christians in the pilot episode)
One thing I love about President Barlett’s character is that he walks a fine line between a character you like and a character you respect (it’s almost impossible to be both liked and respected as a president). He looks to his staff for opinions and support but once he has made a decision he is ready to move on. The sign that he is ready? “Next!” Some might see it as a bit brutal or dismissive, but I like to think of it as a sign of his incredible leadership. Know when it is time to make a decision and when it is time to move on.
Developing Event Seek has been no easy task. We’ve argued, debated, discussed, and downright fought over some really minor and some really major issues. Our development team is using Ruby on Rails (RoR) as the development platform and I can speak for everyone when I say that we’ve been pleased with our choice. Why RoR you ask? Simple. Agile Development.
Agile Development is the concept of using a language and platform that support rapid changeable development. Rather than spend weeks or months on one aspect of the product, you build it in smaller successive pieces. This way you can test the results, see what you like and don’t, see what the users like and don’t and make changes as necessary. I can’t speak to the value of this type of effort enough. No one should build a product in a vacuum. This is especially true for a web application, and agile development makes rapid development possible while still keeping everyone on a guided path.
Event Seek has aspects of the product that require messaging - the ability to send messages to users, event organizers, business owners and the like. We designed the messaging system a few months back and since then the site and product have gone through significant changes. While reviewing some of the updates today, we took a gander at our messaging platform and everyone agreed that thee new changes made our old structure confusing. What are messages? How are they different from questions? How do comments play into this? So, we did what we do best here at Digital Lodestone Group, jump back to 50,000 feet and think about how the user will use the system. What do they need? What do they want? How does the average joe think about this?
After 10 good minutes of debate, discussion, and dialogue we were done. In 10 minutes we restructured a major section of our product. No real new development required, just rebuilt how the system was organized and how a user would navigate the product. The user interface guy in me couldn’t be happier - we just increased usability ten-fold. Surely we’ll need to test the results, but I can say for certain what we have is better than what we started with.
Agile development? Nope. Agile Management? Yes sir!
Next!
Apr
28
Hitting our stride
Filed Under management styles, production | Leave a Comment
After a lovely weekend in Charlottesville, Va at the Foxfield races, we’re back to work in Atlanta.
Starting the third week of full-scale production, our team is really beginning to hit its stride. We’ve worked out a few of the kinks associated with working in different locations and having the development team split between Atlanta and Jacksonville. I’d like to give credit here both to our development partner, Hashrocket, Andrew (our front-end guy), and Tristan. Specifically Tristan has really taken up the responsibility of making sure all of the pieces are moving smoothly and making sure everyone has the direction they need to move as quickly as possible.
Because of the progress we’re making, we are hoping to have a private alpha version of Event Seek available for testing by friends and family in the next month or so. We’ll put up a semi-working version of the product for everyone to check out and give feedback on. You’ll all be part of the development process, sharing what you like, don’t like, what you want to see, and what you managed to break. Keep your eyes open…
I’d like to take a moment as well to comment on some of the production tactics we’re using that have been working well:
- Front-end driven development - Thanks to the hard work put in by Tristan and Andrew, much of the design for the product is already completed. This allows them to sit down with our development team and walk them through how the site will actually work when it is being used. Nothing paints a picture for developers like the ability to “see” the finished product.
- Output focused - The team overall is very focused on generating valuable output. Rather than tackle big meaty problems off the bat, we’ve tried to break them into smaller pieces that can be completed and show meaningful progress. Not only does this keep me (the end client) happy, but it also allows us to very clearly track and understand our successes and what is holding us back.
- Distinct roles and responsibilities - Even though I struggled with the idea at first, we have all begun to really adapt to our different roles. Everyone on our team knows what they are responsible for and is focused on delivering their piece of the puzzle. This makes sure that we aren’t all looking over each other’s shoulders and second guessing work. At the end of the day, I believe this is making everyone more productive and happier.
Tristan and I certainly didn’t plan all of these facets in advance - it is a very organic and constantly changing and improving process. Our production processes will continue to get better and better over time. I just keep my fingers crossed that we don’t screw up anything big before then.
Kudos to the team for their progress to date. Next time maybe I’ll talk about all the things we’re doing poorly. I wouldn’t hold your breath though…
Apr
22
Time to grow up Peter Pan
Filed Under management styles | 1 Comment
Yesterday was a big day. I let go. Yup, me, Connor Fee.
I stepped away from something I have a very direct interest in, and let someone else have control.
I think this is a step in AA or something.
Ok, for clarity’s sake, I didn’t really step away so much, as Tristan took control away from me. Details…
Tristan runs production here at Event Seek (when he’s not doing pretty much everything else). He makes sure our back-end and front-end development teams are getting the product built, meeting deadlines, and keeping us informed of their progress. It’s not an easy job, especially when your CEO (and business partner) asks you every 10 minutes when he can see the latest progress. I don’t envy him.
So, here’s the real problem: I’m demanding, never satisfied, always asking for more, changing my mind midway through, and *mildly* arrogant. These qualities make me the worst person ever to be involved in production. However, I believe these same qualities make me a great leader and a great entrepreneur (yet to be proven).
Now you really want Tristan’s job right?
Yesterday really was a big day. It was a kind of a “Time to grow up Peter Pan” day. Tristan and I agreed that I would step out of production for two weeks. I’m not allowed to interject how I would run the teams, what pieces we should focus on first, or what I think of our speed thus far. Time to leave production to the guy who has experience running a production team. It’s the right thing for us to do. It’s the right thing for Tristan’s sanity. It’s the right thing for my sanity.
But yet, I suddenly feel distant, removed, unable to impose my will. I guess that is sort of the idea.
How does it start?
- I admit that I am powerless over my need to interject, production has become unmanageable.
- I have come to believe that there is a higher power…