The Oracle of Silicon Valley

Last week, I attended my first #hopsandchops meet here in Seattle – “Weekly Happy Hour for Seattle’s Startup-Obsessed” . That was where I met Dave Schappell – founder/CEO of Teachstreet. Too bad I did not corner him there and pick his brain, or he just introduced his a new business model (aka consulting rates

Okay, I am kidding here, but Dave, in his post, is trying to draw attention to the fact that he is a busy person and really cannot find time for coffee with a gazillion people like me, who would want his help. And since he has a hard time saying NO, he figured he would write this post as to why (…which was a GREAT idea btw!)

I want to give my perspective of this and hopefully some tips that will help you if you are an entrepreneur seeking help from the Dave Schappells … like I am . And how exactly did I learn the tips I am going to give you, you ask?? Oh, well, as a parent, I was forced to learn these lessons. While I might not be as important in the startup scene, I continue to (thankfully) be immensely important on our homebase (yeah, 2 little girls). And every time I hire a babysitter and trade my own time to meet someone, my coffee and lunch is costing me hell of a lot more than it actually seems like it is. So, like Dave Schappell, I am forced to do the math

So without further ado, here is what you should do if you want to land some great meetings -

1.NO COLD CALLING - That cold email to people never works. So NEVER EVER send out an email to someone who you have never met or who has NO idea who you are. Seems like common sense right? So I will move on ….

2. REACH OUT TO LESS IMPORTANT PEOPLE - Go to networking events. Go to #hopsandchops. Reach out to less important people and people who are in the same startup stage as yourself. They will be good brainstorming buddies. And please reach out to your CUSTOMERS – they often can teach you more than a lot of important people can – AND it will be VERY relevant to your startup -guaranteed !

3. WARM UP – Does NOT matter who you know. All that matters is who knows you. So, find the best situations for yourself – situations that make you look bright and smart and motivated – and inject yourself there. If you are really smart, you will make sure that the Dave Schappell’s are there while you do that. Simple ways of doing that? Participate in mailing lists, write blog posts, offer help to others, add value.

4. DO YOUR HOMEWORK - Learn enough about that important person you want to meet and figure out WHY you want to meet them. What value can they add? Make it easy for them to add value – give them a choice. Too busy to meet? Send them a slide deck, send them numbers, give them access to your site. A lot of these people WANT to help – so make it easy for them!

5. BRING BACK HOMEWORK – Know how every second person will give you  feedback and advice with regards to your start up? What do you do with those? If you made a to do list based on the feedback you get from everyone and tackle it before reaching out to your next set of people, you’d be asking for a lot fewer meetings, I guarantee you.

6. NETWORKING IS REALLY IMPORTANT BUT WILL AND SHOULD ALWAYS BE SECONDARY TO OUR WORK -If I am not making progress with my work – idea, implementation, customers …. I really have no idea what to talk about. Tell yourself that every morning – maybe a few times a day.When we focus on our work, the networking gets easier Somehow (LOL!) these people are smart like that – they really can somehow figure out if you have made progress.

7. GIVE SERENDIPITY A CHANCE - You know, just focus on what you are passionate about and keep engaging. More good comes out of the strangest of places and great relationships. So just go out there, be yourself and meet people and have fun. You are under enough stress to sell, already

I am a part of the Founder Institute this quarter. I have reached out to a number of the mentors through the program. I met Todd Hooper, Dan Shapiro, Will Hodgeman, Jordan Weisman, Adeo Ressi, Hillel Cooperman and more. I have had email exchanges will several of them after meeting them. Honestly, I will be thrilled if I find answers for all the questions they asked me …for that will mean I can bug them all over again. But for now, I am sitting happy, focusing on my work. And while I am grateful for their time, I am equally grateful to my peers at the Founder Institute – people like Richard Luck, Roy Leban have offered great feedback too. Yeah, I missed Dave Schappell at #hopsandchops but had a great conversation with @daryn (who I really was looking forward to meeting) !

And then, on the other hand, I have sent emails to friends and have had no response too. It all happens, it is a busy world but I am more than grateful for the help that I have had. So, before I go away to get work done, I will tell you this – let the important people know that it is okay for them to say NO – because they are human and more importantly because we are entrepreneurs – and we will find ways to get our work done and keep chugging along  – cause that is what entrepreneurs do !

@alliworthington @thestilettomom @alizasherman @lizstrauss at Blissdom

Yes, where are the women? WHERE are they?

Well, this past week, at least 500 women were at the Opryland hotel in Nashville, for the Blissdom conference. And yes, I was there as well – co-leading a workshop with THE Aliza Sherman

While I was there, I missed a bunch of blog posts exploring why there were not enough of women leaders and entrepreneurs in IT space.And out at Blissdom, I met a bunch of women entrepreneurs who knew more about the space of online business and advertising than most men I know.  And then, I also heard that women today are starting businesses at twice the rate of men.

Having heard all of that and having a startup myself, how can I NOT jump in here, right?

In his first article in BW, Vivek Wadhwa talks about the similarities between men and women and wonders if societal failure contributes to the lack of women …

Men and women also had similar motivations to launch a business. They shared the desire to build wealth and capitalize on business ideas. Both were drawn by the appeal of the startup culture and always wanted their own company. Neither wanted to work for someone else.

Given all the similarities in background and motivation for men and women entrepreneurs—and the fact that women now outnumber men in universities—we remain perplexed by the dearth of female startup executives.

Evidence suggests that this does not reflect a failure on the part of women but rather a societal failure. Consider the contrast with India, a country that is in many respects more conservative than the U.S. It might therefore be expected to be even less amenable to women in leadership. Yet there, women are rapidly rising through the top ranks of the business community.

( In a later article in techcrunch, he goes into a little more detail into why we are missing women entrepreneurs )

So here are my thoughts and experience regarding this topic  specifically …

When I came to the United States in 1999 and joined Ohio State as a Master’s student in Electrical Engineering, I was exposed to the “Women in Engineering” concept. Honestly, it kind of surprised me – nobody had really ever celebrated the fact that I was a girl and had finished my Engineering Bachelors in India. Yet, in the United States, they celebrated women and their accomplishments ….

As an entrepreneur with a startup looking for funding, I think a few things have been really key in my life to helping me get this far (no, I am not funded yet, so, do fund my startup ) and I cannot see how I would be where I am without each one of these factors. In some sense, I imagine all of these are essential to any woman (with kids especially) if she has to do this whole startup business … (Do note however, that there are PLENTY of women entrepreneurs in the non-tech but online spaces today…..)

As someone in the thick of this, I like to focus on what we can do to be successful ourselves while helping other women (and men ) achieve their own startup/life goals ….I am not looking to change the system -I will try to do that when I become a  VC myself …

So here is what contributed to me and where I am today (startup and all )-

1. my environment growing up – the good part

my dad is an entrepreneur. He failed before he succeeded and did very well.

2. my environment growing up – the bad part

Growing up in India, we could NOT walk down the road at 10 years old without the teasing, cat calling by the boys on the street. I learned early on not to worry about the things on the periphery that do not matter. It made me angry but I did not give a sh*t. SO unless something is really in my way, I do not waste my energy fighting it.

3. Engineering school was infested with women.So really, there was no struggle

I will tell ya, I felt no lesser than the boys here. I was in ECE with super smart women. The Computer Engineering Dept had almost 50% women. We rocked the campus in every way.This was when gender became a non-issue in my life. To fight the real fight, you have to put the gender thing aside. Preconceived notions only deter us from the real goals. With both my Masters in EE and Business, I rarely felt gender was an issue.

4. Learning to earn that respect

Working with software and coding was different. I learned that women had to earn respect while men got it by default. And frankly I was okay with it - I hated the disrespect but when I did get the respect it was pretty solid. I will never make sweeping generalizations, but most of the disrespect and/or challenge for my technical skills came from American men while from the Asian men, I mostly I experienced just a wider sense of dismissal (haha right ?) – like I just did not exist. But once I earned the respect, it was all great. And people (women too) who still liked to be jerks, I followed my rule 2

5. My mentors, cheerleaders and supporters are all mostly men and some very very very strong women

The men that challenged me became my mentors and supporters a lot of times. I choose the people that inspire me as my mentors – be it men or women. The women help in the sense that you can relate to a lot. When women help, they do go out of their way to help. And the strong and smart women are smart as hell. But then, I go with the people that inspire – I need both the men and women. I might be discriminated on, but I will NEVER discriminate when I choose my mentors. I need them all

6. And then, my secret society

I read what people say and write – because I relate. These people secretly inspire and keep me going – and they do not need to say or do much in order to do that ….. Aliza Sherman, Mona, Betsy Aoki, Shauna Causey, Tara Hunt, Cathy Brooks, Laura Fitton – all women I relate to in different ways and admire for their strength and passion.

7. The husband

My husband is an essential part of all this.Supporting the family, keeping the kids, working tirelessly to be mommy while I network with the men (really, ask my founderinstitute peers!). Nope, my parents are too old to support me and I cannot imagine anyone else doing this. My husband is my co-founder who works his backside off in the background – yeah, I need this man.

8. That sheer grit.Yeah, I am stubborn like that.

So, what can we do?

So, what is the solution to this “not enough women in tech startups” problem? I think not much – as women we should keep doing what we are doing – pushing the boundaries. This is like yet another perfect problem in a big corporation – one that needs to be hit up both top down and bottom up. And I am certainly in the bottom, so I can and continue to do one of the 3 things below to help (anyone, not just women) while I fight my own battles ….

1. Provide future entrepreneurs a past that inspires and teaches

The girls today need to hear the right stories, get the right inspiration.To really ACT on something like a startup as adults, we need to hear the right stories when we are little girls – not when we are 25. I believe that the seeds to do things like this are sown early on …..

2. A present that supports

Whether we have kids or not, we need men(or someone) that supports us. This is key if we have kids. But if we do not , we still need the men and women to support us for the sake of a strong base. Heck, is an essential ingredient for self esteem. So ask for that support from people willing to give it and do NOT let people take advantage of you. Everyone that I have reached out to and asked for help when I have really needed it have ACTUALLY helped me.

3. A fire deep inside us. We just need it.

If someone has it, I will help them find it. But finally, it has to come from somewhere deep inside THEM.

The articles that sparked my writeup -

Addressing the Derth of Female Entreprenuers by Vivek Wadhwa

A response to Vivek’s article by @Bfeld

You and your VCs have a gender problem by @Vivek Wadhwa (on @techcrunch)

Women Leaders in IT by Healy Jones

I kind of feel boring because I have nothing controversial to say. Perhaps I will come back and edit my post after I have tried to raise $ (but I will succeed, so maybe not ) …. But I do think it is important to BE the change we want to see – and if I kept complaining about the discrimination, I would never get anywhere myself …nor would I get people to change … I do think far more VCs might start funding women if they saw more no nonsense women pitching rather than complaining.There is a LOT of women doing it already ..so watch out now!

What has YOUR experience been? What advice do you have for me?

Last Monday, I started a program with the Founder Institute here in Seattle. I was the LAST person to sign up. And I am glad I did.

Here is a writeup about Founder Institute from another founder (Richard Luck of @bluyah ) attending the institute.

The Founder Institute creates a pool from 3.5% of each company formed as a part of the program and redistrbutes the proceeds from the pool back to each of the  institute(local and central), the mentors and the founders. The institute offers content, mentors (contacts), very smart and driven peer groups, pitch practice and meetings with VCs towards the end of the program. And with any program, what we do with what the institute offers is largely up to us, the founders. Adeo Ressi, said something like that – and if I was in his place, I’d have said the same thing.

You can read a lot about what the program is on the website. But let me tell you what I have as a result of the program in this past week.

1. Day 1 with 3 wonderful mentors. I have not had any further communication with any of the mentors from day 1, but we had fantastic content + inspiration from these three gentlemen. Yes, ongoing conversation and value is up to me, but considering I have a startup WAY close to open beta, I believe I could use their feedback and help!

• Glenn Kelman, CEO at Redfin
• Dave Parker, CEO at 9Spaces
• Jordan Weisman

2. A super smart peer group – We work in groups at the program. Adeo said we all did incredibly well on the admission tests Regardless, I have a super smart working group that I have already met with once. They are a great set of people that I can finally go into the details of my startup with.

3. 1 and 2 while I raise my kids and my startup - I am a mom. People think I am crazy to have given up a very comfortable and growing job at American Chemical Society to pursue a start-up, but what can I say …. I do a LOT while I bring up my kids and work on my company, all thanks to Pree (my husband), but in the last week, I have had 1 and 2 while he has been away in Europe (for 2 weeks!).

So 1, 2 and 3 are a big deal for me already, but  I am excited about what the future holds. I hope I can make the most of these people and the content going forward.

Is it all worth $600 + 3.5 % of my company?

Ahh, if you know me, you know that I will MAKE IT worth it. There. I rest my case.

AND THEN, WHAT ABOUT MEMETALES?

Okay, let me come clean.  I am guessing Memetales has evolved since the last time I blogged about what it exactly is. It has evolved in it’s value proposition, features and so on. I hear that such kind of evolution and refinement is a good thing though – especially since the core passion or vision remains to be the same – ” To unlock the best in every children’s picture book”. At Memetales, we continue to believe in the richness of picture books and understand that EACH and EVERY BOOK is a door to a whole new magical world – of creativity, imagination, sharing and excitement. The book itself, is the start and not the end of the creative process.

Memetales has a collaboration space to help people get together and build picture books. This collaboration space is a wonderful community where a bunch (>8) of books are close to completion. It took me less than a couple of months, however, to realize that if these books were to be truly celebrated + marketed, what Memetales needs to be is a Marketing platform unlike any other out there. And so, Memetales evolved into the concept it is today. The Collaboration Space will continue to thrive, but I am immersed in building the Marketplace – a much broader PLATFORM, meant to grow, scale and support the marketing of a gazzillion books, complementary content and merchandise around them.

So, here is the essence of Memetales -

Memetales puts the power of  Disney-like media and marketing platform in the hands of every writer, illustrator and small publisher of children’s picture books. Memetales is a children’s picture book platform that enables every single writer, illustrator and publisher work like Disney – by easily publishing their book online and creating rich media and products around their books and characters.

I tweeted this just a couple of hours ago -

I do believe that VERY very soon, everyone is going to put their children’s books online. Now that Disney and Sesame Street are using the channel, how can the others not? Memetales will be THE platform for EVERYONE else – and I hope people see the possibilities and value add provided by Memetales as a platform with  community and tools.

As I talk to some smaller publishers these days, some of them do wonder what value is there in it? I answer that in 2 parts – well, I do think they will lose out by not going online and secondly, how can there NOT be value in putting your book amongst book lovers and letting them talk about it (for a very low cost – even free until Memetales builds the charter library of 500 books!).

So, here is a quick video of Memetales -

So, what are YOU thinking? Does all this make any sense at all?

Gary Vaynerchuck projected on the wall at our @readsm chat

Gary Vaynerchuck was kind enough to Skype with us ( @readsm) on Friday to talk about his book Crush It .

I loved Gary’s no nonsense approach in the book and the combination of his own stories, doses of inspiration and an awesome list of exactly what we need to do to become successful.

Here is one of the numerous questions we asked him the other day. Gary is FULL of energy and we LOVED talking to him. Thank you SO much Gary!

I could hardly sleep after the exciting experience.
I enjoyed reading the book and learning from the book, but what I seemed to enjoy the most was the “social experience” around the book.
By “Social Experience” I mean -
1. talking book with the others that came to the Reading Social Media meet – we had @Shih_wei, @heidimiller , @colinAC , @Warrens , @dakini_3 @mamikaze @giyen @pree @barbjacobucci there.
2. connecting with the author @garyvee was SUCH a treat! I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact that Gary is so famous these days. I have known Gary long enough to not be overcome by his star power The fact that we could talk to someone whose book we had just read was pretty fun by itself!
3. Finally, we videotaped our interview with Gary, a bunch of us asked questions, we took pictures and save so much more than the book for the future.

I love the solitary experience of reading a book, but I have come to love and expect this “transmedia experience” with books as well. I would LOVE to think that as a result of the @readsm book club -

1. we all got a richer experience from reading the book
2. we felt more connected to Gary as a person and as an author
3. we all developed stronger relationships with each other – all facilitated by common interests and a book.
4. we have had a rich enough experience to share with others beyond the few hours that we all were together
5. In the end, I hope that the little effort and time for everyone combined with technology, was a win-win for everyone including Gary Vaynerchuck

Have you been a part of something like this? What do you think about what we have come to expect as readers? Do you enjoy reading as a social experience? Does it make sense for everyone to do more of this – the book lovers, authors and publisher? If it is a win-win, could there be a future for these kinds of experiences around books?

I certainly think so, which is why I started my startup Memetales. But I would LOVE to know what you think?

Posted via web from thinkmaya’s posterous