Last night I had the honor of presenting at the Open Angel Forum Colorado. OAF was created by Jason Calcanis in response to the ever increasing practice of making startups pay to present their business plans to potential investors. Makes total sense - the startups have no money -why should they pay to pitch. I've been asked numerous times to participate in such programs, ranging from €8,000 to pitch in Monte Carlo at the Clean Energy Summit to $15,000 to pitch at the Private Equity Forum in NYC. Now I'm not saying these are bad gigs - who wouldn't love to go to Monaco - but it doesn't feel like a good use of time or money. Think about it - between airfare and hotel - the cost to make one 20 minute pitch could be a month of burn for a lot of startups.

If the event is really worth it - the process will be competitive - the organizers will stake their reputation on the quality of event - and the presenting companies will get the needed exposure to the right type of investors. That's what happened last night.

Happy to be a part of it - just one word of advise to future presenters - don't switch computers for your pitch - use the one they have (I tried the switch and the projector vomited on my MacBook - which really is not a great way to make a first impression. Live and learn.)

Great job David and Jason - thanks for putting this together and thank you sponsors.

This past August Renee decided to go back to school - she enrolled at the Colorado Film School. As a new student she decided to dive right in and take 4 classes - one was Short Script Screen Writing and the other was Production One. Production One is all about learning the basics of film making - how to use a camera, lighting, different jobs on the set, sound - a broad overview of the process but nothing super advanced. The students learn by hands on exercises - the culmination of the course is the creation of a 5 minute short.

Last night the entire school got together at the Harkins theater in Northfield to view the best films of the summer and fall semesters from all the students - the Academy Awards for the school. The place was packed - standing room only and hundreds of films were submitted by close to a thousand students - only a handful were selected for viewing. Renee's was one of the few that made it to the big screen.

What really impressed me about the entire program was every single film from the first years to the 16mm cinematographer film makers was of extremely high quality from an artistic and storytelling standpoint. The bar was very high. For a first year student, just being selected for this event is an honor. To actually win an award is even better. Renee actually won Best Film for Production One - she also was nominated for best film overall and best writing.

Congratulations Renee - amazing talent - all of the long hours and sleepless nights plus suffering through my complaining about how you're going overboard on your homework have paid off. Good thing you didn't listen to me.

Here is her film:

Last week I spoke at CU for the New Venture Challenge (NVC). The NVC is a campus wide business plan competition for students and faculty. Members of the local community can also participate so long as one active team member has a current CU ID.

Since the program is just starting, my topic was "Picking a Business Worth Starting". I spoke for about an hour - here is the video of the event.

It has been 6 weeks since I started at Zettasun (fka DecaSun - as promised we changed the name). Here are some of my observations about the differences between the Cleantech industry as compared to the Tech space.

1. The JQ (joker quotient) is higher than tech. The world is full of jokers. It seems when it comes to saving the planet they all tend to flock to this industry.
2. Business skills are optional in Cleantech.
3. If you have a PhD - you can raise money. You can raise lots more money if you come from Stanford or MIT.
4. Having a practical idea is of seemingly little value. Using materials in your products that come from meteors seems to make total sense.
5. Boiling the ocean is possible - you just need enough parabolic mirrors and a billion dollars - then you can run a giant steam generator.
6. The government is willing to help you build your business - so long as you don’t need their help - otherwise they won’t help you.
7. We have national labs to evaluate our ideas - unfortunately they don’t have the “this makes sense” test.
8. We have a Grid. Tech has the Internet. In Tech the Internet grew and became better as the market expanded - in Cleantech we’re jamming our electrons into someone else's old and decrepit network causing all kinds of problems. It’s like your cousin backing up a Uhaul to come live with you - he’s family so you can’t say no, but you really don’t want all his shit in your house.
9. Cleantech products weigh more than Tech products.
10. We don’t have to deal with language translations - our stuff works everywhere.

Today I officially became the CEO of Decasun LLC.

Decasun is a solar panel company. More specifically we are a HCPV solar company that is making standard sized rooftop panels that can do two axis tracking with no external moving parts and mount just like normal panels. Which means nothing to you if you don’t follow solar panel technologies, however, just remember we make an extremely efficient panel, that is easy to install, at a very low price which = super cheap electricity.

Now some may ask why join a business in a field that is seemingly very crowded and overfunded? My answer, “It works.” I see the technology working in the sun everyday. The founders and engineers just get it - they come from the hard drive industry and understand how to design products for low cost and high performance. And the problems we are solving are not fundamental science questions but rather manageable mechanical design and manufacturing issues. Decasun is not reinventing the wheel - we are cleverly assembling parts differently than the other guys and layering in our novel optical designs (our secret sauce). The demand for cheap electricity will never go away - so if we deliver on price and performance - the market will be there.

Well day one is over. Great first day - fantastic team - funky offices - lots of stuff to learn and tons of fun. I even got to meet with some potential investors.

Oh and those who know me know - the name will probably change:)

After three years without a piano - we finally got one today - Marlo (my daughter) is happy.

I keep doing this because it feels good. I sell stuff I don’t have. I just sold a very very large company some technology we didn’t have.

While it’s technically correct we didn’t have the goods - I had the reasonable belief that we could develop and ship it in a short amount of time.

Engineers hate sales guys who sell stuff they don’t have. We had that all the time at Raindance - Todd Vernon would complain, “Why don’t they just sell the shit we have” and I’d reply, “Dude you’re gonna go there - build it.” I’m certain he is experiencing that right now as CEO of Lijit.

As a CEO I love selling stuff I don’t have - it does 3 things for the company:

1 - Drives momentum - nothing like a waiting customer to get your team cranking
2 - Focuses your efforts - you quickly have a tool to help you prioritize your work
3 - Creates a definable win for the company - getting something new into a customer’s hand is a great, concrete milestone that the company can celebrate

When you sell beyond your capabilities it stretches your company and hopefully makes it grow. If it goes wrong it is usually from over estimating your team's ability to deliver or over estimating the value of the customer.

Over estimating your team is risky business. If you put them in a position to deliver and they fail, you demoralize them and send the company backwards. I just did that - but I'm OK with it. Sometimes you need to show your team what it takes to win. Taking a high-school football team and pitting them against an NFL team will certainly give them a few bruises but teach them the lesson of what it takes to play at the professional level. In business there is no minor leagues - you either are able to play with the big boys or you will forever limit your growth. You can’t push your team to failure that often - but sometimes it happens. And frankly you should never give them a task you simply know they can’t do. In this recent case I knew the folks have more than enough talent to get the job done and I didn’t expect them to fail, but I did know I was asking for a level of performance that they haven’t demonstrated in the past.

In the case of over estimating the value of the customer, that can also negatively impact your team. Nothing upsets an engineer more than developing something that no one uses. While they initially feel good they built the product they can quickly get the sense that their work was of no value. This happens all the time and it is helpful to be able to iterate quickly on products and features so the team doesn’t focus on the last thing no one used. By keeping a fast pace in the business and building a culture of delivery no one will put too much stock in their past accomplishments - it will always be about the future. Also giving the team the broader picture of the business will help them understand that some things will be hits and others flops - but in the end the breadth of the offering will grow. And customers do lie - they may say something is important but it’s not - they may be doing a feature comparison and you just need to check a box.

As a CEO you need to make sure that when you sell stuff not on the product sheet you are using a tool to advance the business into a new market or attract a new class of customers. If you get too schizoid or allow everyone to sell stuff you don’t have, it will most likely backfire and defocus the company. In fact this is probably the most common way to defocus a business - someone sells something he doesn’t have.

Over the last few weeks I had several meetings with three companies from the current and past “classes” at TechStars - as I observed the team dynamics playing out it got me thinking about what does it mean to have a partner in business from a startup perspective.

I’ve had numerous partners over the years - all of them had moments of joy and stress and they all came to a natural end. Partnerships tend to end with certain events - the obvious ones like a sale of the company, or the not obvious ones like a change in attitude where one partner just wants something different or a realization that your partner isn’t as talented as you hoped. Some partners will start several businesses together - some won’t. There is no rule like marriage - so don’t try to squeeze the notion into a similar box.

An ideal partner for me is a catalyst. He helps me start turning the massive flywheel that gets a company founded. He often works harder than me, forces me to put in long hours by putting in longer hours himself. He is living the business 24x7 - often will send me emails late at night or on the weekends. He is critical of my work product and holds me to the highest standard. He is a constant source of energy and motivates me and others to stay positive in the face of challenges. He instills a sense that everything is possible and doesn’t tolerate negative attitudes. Early on, he participates in every new hire making sure they not only have the required skill but also fit in our culture. He focuses me, motivates me when I’m down, and is always thinking of the business before himself. My partner makes me better at everything I do for the business. And I strive to be the same for him.

A partnership for me starts as a commitment - but it isn’t irrational, emotional or even natural (best buds shouldn’t be business partners just because they are best buds). The commitment isn’t simply just to “work together” - like marriage isn’t simply a commitment to live together. The commitment is really more of a promise you make to each other that goes something like this, “I promise I can do this - I promise I can help build this business and I am the best person for you to work with on this opportunity. I promise I will work as hard if not harder than you, I promise...” And I can go on like some wedding vow promise but I think it really just boils down to three key elements: skills, behavior and attitude.

Skills. In a partnership each person needs to bring to the table skills that are germane to the business and complimentary to the other partner. I believe they must be good at all tasks and great at the few which are critical for the business. Ideally there should not be overlap with the other partner’s core skills but sometimes there is a little. Skills, however, are not the most important thing a partner can bring to the table. Skills can be developed and learned - the others can’t.

Behavior. Behavior is how you act in the office, your work ethic, and how you treat your partner and other employees. It is how you look at your own performance and the efforts you take to learn more about your job and industry. In the most basic sense it is how hard and how smart you work.

Someone with just average skills can behave in a manner to improve over time by taking classes, working extra long hours, seeking advise from mentors, etc... Having great skills but being unpredictable in your behavior really goes against the promise you make as a partner. Behaving in a predictable, reliable and respectful manner and producing high quality work in a timely manner is the promise partners make to each other.

Attitude. Attitude is the energy and enthusiasm a partner brings into the business. It is not about being “happy” it more about believing in the business and the team. Someone who is wicked smart, works really hard but is always a downer in the office can be an emotional drain and really hurt a partnership. On the flip side, a partner with B level skills and somewhat unpredictable schedule is tolerable if they have just an electrifying attitude when they come in the door. A positive attitude can make up for a lot of other deficiencies but a negative one can accentuate them as well.

Commitment, loyalty, respect, trust, friendship - all important elements of a partnership but in my mind are really just byproducts of getting stuff done well with a great attitude. These byproducts give the partnership staying power and patience when one person isn’t performing. It allows for course corrections and adjustments to the relationship. It also serves as the force multiplier when everyone is working at peak levels. There is nothing more satisfying in business in just knowing your partner will get some critical task done - ahead of time, without your involvement and better than you could ever achieve.

So as I coach folks on their partnership and reflect on my past - I can actually distill the frustrations down to a mismatch between expectations and performance in one or more of those three areas. It’s never easy to talk about your partner’s performance to him/her or to listen to feedback - it feels a little judgmental and emotional - but it needs to be done. Without talking about how you are each performing on the promises made there can be no improvement.

My advise (which I need to do myself) is to schedule a regular time when you give your partner feedback on their performance and listen to what they have to say. For me, my success has been and will always be linked to my partners. Partner wisely.

Another year, another Bolder Boulder. This one was very special for me - my amazing mom (age 73) completed the BB in about 2 hours - I'm really proud of her. When I asked her if she enjoyed it she said with a smirk, "No. I've done it and now I can cross it off my bucket list even though it was never on it!" That's my mom - she complains while she is having fun - or maybe we are having fun watching her complain. Nevertheless she is a trooper and is always trying new things (like zip-lining in the rainforest last year!). I hope I'm still as active as her at 73! Way to go mom!