Sat through a series of Office Hours for Initio today - had some awesome entrepreneurs pitching. Had some time to mull over my takeaways and notes from the day, and here are a few (two so far) things I came up with. These are not things you should necessarily think about if you want to be succesful as a business (although some of them overlap, success is measured in different ways) - these are simply some things to think about when pitching certain types of funds if you want to be succesful.

Solve a big problem

If you want to be succesfully funded you need to be solving a big problem. Remember you are thinking of your company as a win or lose, but investors think about portfolios in terms of win or lose. They need to know that if you do win, you have the potential to win big. This is a blanket statement, but generally investors putting together funds are not interested in guaranteed singles, they want swing-for-the-fence home runs - which usually means you have to solve a big problem. If you aren't solving a big enough problem you may find yourself unfundable.

Give your elevator pitch

Just because the angel / VC may have heard of you (or in the case of a few today, has met you before) - start with your elevator pitch. Give them your 90seconds and start fresh - it lets you re-establish yoruself, gives a good intro, and lets you debunk any misconceptions they may have going in.

This is a response to the various 99%, 1%, 1% for 99%, etc. movements that are going on right now in response to the OWS movement.

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I am part of the x%

Growing up, I saw the world through my own bias lens, based on my circumstances, relationships and surroundings.

I now have an opinion about the way the world should be.

I assume that because I see the world this way, everyone else SHOULD TOO.

By writing stuff on a piece of paper and posting it on the internet I feel like I am contributing to meaningful change in the world.

I am part of the x%

 

I came across this quote on Bret Victor's bio and it really spoke to a deep understanding of things I believe.

"The true way transcends the minutia of skill. There is no "technology". There is no "design". There is only a vision of how mankind should be, and the relentless resolve to make it so. The rest is details"

I have been doing some work with Initio Group recently surrounding the idea of soft metrics analysis. The thought is to develop a theory for predicting early stage success which will combine a variation of Dave McClure's Pirate Metricswith a newly developed more "soft-skills" based approach. The idea of a soft metric analysis springs out of the inquantifiable, barely definable x-factor that many entreprneurs seem to have. It is often what you will hear investors betting on. It is why the majority of early stage investment is based on the people, not the idea. But what does that actually mean? Is it charisma? Is it values? Is it work ethic? Is it just plain hype and salesmanship?

This type of theory flies in the face of my "just shut up and do it" approach I have to many things startup - which is partially why I think this project will be so valuable for my personal development.

Why do it?

- Try to debunk my own idea that startup success in the tech world is mostly random and based on a smoke-and-mirrors effect (how well you sell vs. how well you can build your company)

- Try to learn more about the VC / Angel / Investment game (get in their heads and understand why some of them make the decisions they do)

- I have always been interested in working with entrepreneurs to give back, and I often spend time with the passionate ones I find. This is a great opportunity to figure out how to coach them better

Questions Development

We are in the process of developing a set of guiding questions that will frame our soft-metric analysis. These are things (not-easily-quantifiable-metrics) we believe may be indicative of early startup success / promissing traction. I have a few percolating through my brain and when I have a better list I will post them here. In the meantime, what would you add to the list?

 

Its safe to say that Steve Jobs was one of the most influential people in my life - which is a bit crazy considering I never met him. The influence he had moves beyond the legacy of products he helped create - for which there is a lot of gratitude today in our world. These products are wonderful, they may (and will likely) be around for a long time, or one day they may be gone. But that isn't the point.

The deep respect I have for Steve comes from the ideas he helped to spread to people. The ideas that he stood for. It isn't the hero story of him dropping out of college and creating a wonderful company that inspired me. It was his deeply rooted belief in the ideals of swimming against the stream. That innovation required you to shake things up. That you had to think differently about things if you wanted to make a impact. And that an impact is worth making - that a dent in the universe is what everyone should live for.

Remember to think differently about the world.

Remember to have the courage to swim against the stream. 

Remember that it will all work out in the end.

Promise to do what you love, love what you do, and to do great work.

And always stay hungry and stay foolish.

Thank you steve.

http://hackerthings.com/ - I want something here for my birthday...

On another note, in a world where product offerings are so plentiful how much of a role can online specialty stores play in creating a good filter for us as consumers? and how much of a preimum are people willing to pay for this? I may go to a place that I know has the latest gadgets within a specific niche and may be willing to pay a preimum knowing they have the latest goods, and can handle any quality / shipping concerns I have.

I just finished watching a documentary with Steph on the current revolution in media (old news, I know, but it had great reviews). Without a doubt a very artistic and well intentioned film. One of the issues I had with it was a lack of analytical depth to the issues. Their thesis that the media industry has democratized is hardly a new one. Furthermore, the notion of everyone being an artist is powerful - but they do not look far enough back in our society. We came from a place where everyone was a storyteller. Before the written word everyone was an artist. Over time that changed. We have simply come full circle.

Wow MIT Open CourseWare is unreal. If you take a look @ http://ocw.mit.edu/ you will see that they basically publish all of their courses for free online.

This really is the future of education. This afternoon I studied algorithms without leaving my house. I received a lecture from one of the best professors in the world for the subject matter, and I was able to pause and rewind if I needed something explained further. I have all the content there, and if I have questions I have wonderful services like Google and StackOverflow at my fingertips. Remind me why we need formal institutionalized education?! (and don't say accreditation - thats just nonsense)

I love the age we live in.

For me, the only real way to learn is to have a project to work on. Doesn't matter how big or small, whether for a client or not, whether for free or for boatloads of money - but reading through a tutorial, watching a video, etc is either too slow or completely ineffective.

I am trying to learn RoR now - as well as continue to study general programming principle. That is why the first thing I did was start an RoR project. In the past, I've learned everything just by diving in and getting my hands dirty. I suggest that to anyone else trying something new, you can always go back and read a book later if you feel completely overwhelmed... but the process of looking for a solution to an actual problem you are facing instead of a theoretical problem you may one day face is where real learning occurs.

I stumbled upon these while reading browsing on NetTuts - posted for future reference and sharing.

Chop : this lets you share code (much like pastie.org) - but you can add comments (or questions) before you share the link (so you can get help much more easily on specific sections of your code).

Zurb Grid Builder : this tool lets you quickly create and test CSS grid sizes in varying browser sizes - then grab the code.

LoremPixum : coolest thing I've seen for quick placeholder pics - lets you link to placeholder images in a variety of categories by simply manipulating URL parameters. super useful for quick prototyping.

Snipplr : easy and quick code snippets. Plus its free, can't beat free.