ManIndyArena | Entrepreneurship in Indianapolis

If you’ve ever thought about adding an advisor to your...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:10:33 -0500

If you’ve ever thought about adding an advisor to your startup or you’ve NEVER thought about it because you don’t know what value they can provide, read this presentation. It’s a great intro and answers a lot of questions you probably never thought to ask.

It’s not pretty, but it’s an effective presentation.

"But look, even if you have no cash, you always have time and creativity. Find a way."

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:00:00 -0500

“But look, even if you have no cash, you always have time and creativity. Find a way.”

- Rob May, “What I Learned Raising A Million Dollars For a Startup With No Business Plan and No Financial Projections (While Drinking a Beer)”

Upcoming Deadlines for Incubator Applications

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:27:00 -0500

Upcoming Deadlines for Incubator Applications:

Click the link (brown box, white type above) to see more, but here are immediate deadlines:

SproutBox - March 1
i/o Ventures - March 1
YCombinator - March 3
Startl - March 15
Tech Wildcatters - March 19
Techstars, Boulder - March 22
Dreamit Ventures - March 22
Betaspring - March 22

*Thanks to David Weisburd for showing me the link

Overview of the Lean Startup method from the methods biggest...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:00:00 -0500

Overview of the Lean Startup method from the methods biggest evangelist Eric Ries. Presentation came from 6 Essential Startup Decks

6 Essential Startup Decks and More

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:59:00 -0500

6 Essential Startup Decks and More

BRILLIANT! talk by Jesse Schell on the future of the world...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:15:00 -0500

BRILLIANT! talk by Jesse Schell on the future of the world (okay, technically it’s the future of game design but everyone creating anything ever should watch this)

This video came from this GigaOM post Video: Reality TV, the iPhone & the Future of Technology — Why It’s All a Game

How Could Someone “Thoroughly Unqualified” Raise $2+ Mil And Launch A Startup? – with Laura Fitton

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:40:00 -0500

How Could Someone “Thoroughly Unqualified” Raise $2+ Mil And Launch A Startup? – with Laura Fitton

Running More Effective Board Meetings at Startups

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:00:16 -0500

Running More Effective Board Meetings at Startups:

Very unique and tangible advice on running better board meetings.

Seed Funding Best Practices

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:58:57 -0500

Seed Funding Best Practices:

More very concise, immediately useful advice on raising a seed round from Angels or even VC’s.

In VC Deals, the Promote, Not the Price, Matters

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:55:00 -0500

In VC Deals, the Promote, Not the Price, Matters

"Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and..."

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0500

“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.”

- Thomas Edison from Google Books

Startup Usability Testing presentation from Cindy Alvarez. See a...

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:00:00 -0500

Startup Usability Testing presentation from Cindy Alvarez. See a collection of usability resources from Carter Cleveland.

Lean Startup Usability Testing presentation from...

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:00:00 -0500

Lean Startup Usability Testing presentation from Meetup.com’s Andres Glusman. See a collection of usability resources from Carter Cleveland.

The Old Rusty Pivots Upon Which Startups Turn

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0500

Last week, my partner Yaw Aning and I were preparing information to file our taxes. Like an old couple that’s been married so long they hardly notice the passing of time, we suddenly realized that very day was our one year anniversary for forming Pocket Tales.

(I’ll pause for gratuitous congratulations)

I didn’t attach any significance to the anniversary until I read a startup failure story about EventVue and how they tried a number of product “pivots” in an attempt to save their dying business.

In this scenario it sounds bad. It sounds like pivoting is a characteristic of failure - but that assumption is wrong.

Fred Wilson, the legendary VC blogger, once noted that 2/3 of the successful companies he’s invested in, had to make a hard pivot some time in their rise to success. Even EventVue says their mistakes included not pivoting sooner and not fully committing to the pivot.

And that story about EventVue is what reminded about something I’ve tried to sweep under the Pocket Tales rug. It suddenly gave a significance to the anniversary. Pocket Tales has pivoted 4 times in one year.

For those who don’t know, I’ll recount them for you:

December 2008 - We form “pocket tales” at Indianapolis Startup Weekend as a children’s eBook iPhone app. The only money spent is on a domain name.

February 2009 - We become “Pockettales” and try to sell a service helping self-published authors convert their printed books into iPhone apps. We spend half of our startup budget (roughly $10K) on development. With our connections at Author Solutions we think we have a quick path to making significant money.

August 2009 - Although Author Solutions says they’re definitely going to do something with the iPhone in the 4th quarter, we decide that the idea isn’t big enough to wait that long (our 20’s are fleeting). We decide to go after something bigger and more worth our time - creating a children’s ebook platform. We are bolstered by the positive response we receive at SproutBox. The old direction goes to http://www.booktoapp.com to die.

November 2009 - “Pocket Tales” has a severe identity crisis and it goes beyond how we capitalize and space the words. What are we? Are we selling eBooks? Are we a recommendation engine? Are we a reading game? We decide we’re all of them and start designing mockups. We spend a significant portion of our remaining budget.

January 2010 - We learn that the game aspect of our application is way more compelling than we thought. Teachers, parents, and kids all seem to love it. At the same time, they’re none too excited about eBooks, which is fine, because selling eBooks is riddled with obstacles (digital rights licensing anyone?) and building a game is fun. (I still believe one day we’ll sell eBooks)

Pivoting doesn’t mean we’re going to be successful, but if you remember the majority of successful startups pivot, which means pivoting is a valuable skill for any startup founder to have. If you look at the history of Pocket Tales, I think it’s hard to argue that we haven’t learned to pivot or that we’re incapable of fully committing to even a drastic change in the right direction. (Just don’t call us “flakey”)

One of my favorite short stories is “Porcelain and Pink” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story starts out with an introduction and a phrase I’ve memorized for some reason “Mistaken identity is the old rusty pivot upon which the plot turns.” I guess I memorized it because it gave me a less cliche way of referring to a cliche.

One of the greatest cliches in the life of startups is startups pivot. Next time you feel like the world is asking you to do the impossible and predict your startup’s future (like how much money you’re going to need to raise in 24 months), give them your best answer, and then focus more of your energy on convincing them of your ability to pivot.

Most smart people will trust that more than your ability to predict how many employees you’ll need two years from now for a business that isn’t even making money yet.

How To Get Press in the WSJ

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:14:08 -0500

How To Get Press in the WSJ:

Here’s a great tactic for getting press. I’m sure this isn’t the only tool you’ll want to have in your belt but it’s a good place to start.

“Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR!” by Dave...

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:38:17 -0500

“Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR!” by Dave McClure

What is it: A very THOROUGH framework for marketing a consumer internet product
Who needs it: Founders of consumer internet products
When you’re going to need this: Writing your business plan and executing your marketing strategy (that means, you need this to plan, and you’re going to need to revisit it to execute)

Entrepreneurs: Beware of Vanity Metrics

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:13:02 -0500

Entrepreneurs: Beware of Vanity Metrics:

Great advice for internet startups on how to use metrics to make REAL decisions.

"Laziness in a white collar job has nothing to do with avoiding hard physical labor. “Who wants to..."

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:37:00 -0500

“Laziness in a white collar job has nothing to do with avoiding hard physical labor. “Who wants to help me move this box!” Instead, it has to do with avoiding difficult (and apparently risky) intellectual labor.”

- Seth Godin, “Modern Procrastination”

Why I Think of Myself as an Inventor, Not an Entrepreneur

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:48:00 -0500

I rarely think of entrepreneurs as inventors, which is a shift in perception compared to just 20 years ago. I suppose it has something to do with how much innovation today comes from a semi-intangible realm - the realm of software, the internet, and information - compared to the more tangible realm of lightbulbs and bifocals. Edison and Franklin were thought of as inventors first and entrepreneurs second, if they were thought of entrepreneurs at all.

Furthermore, Society’s prototypical inventor is the person who assembled the product that ended up in the hands of customers. No one thinks of the “business” person behind the scenes who established the company, set up the team, raised the capital, etc as an inventor.

Here’s a test for you - Have you ever thought of Sam Walton, Ted Turner, or Mary Kay Ash as inventors? I didn’t think so.

Let’s change our vocabulary for a minute. Look at it this way -

Sam Walton is an inventor. He invented the big retail company.

Ted Turner is an inventor. He invented the modern media company.

Mary Kay Ash is an inventor. She invented a new kind of direct sales company.

Why is changing the language such a big deal? Because we’re more willing to accept failure as part of the inventor’s path to success than we are the entrepreneur’s.

Oh I know everyone talks about how most startups fail and you have to be willing to accept failing over and over again, but there is a huge psychological gap in the subtlety of looking at what you’re building as a new invention vs. a new business.

Edison’s famous quote which by now has become a cliche - “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” - sums up how we perceive inventors. On the other hand, if Mary Kay Cosmetics hadn’t worked, would we have painted Ash as succeeding in finding one way to sell cosmetics that won’t work?

No. We would have just said she failed.

The reason this mental exercise has become important to me is because Pocket Tales hasn’t progressed as planned. Our actual path hasn’t even resembled Plan B, Plan C, or even Plan D. Additionally, the “failures” aren’t coming from likely places. It’s not that we’ve put a product out into the world and it got rejected. We haven’t gotten that far yet. If we had, it’d be easy to see the parallels between building a lightbulb that “failed” and needing to take it back to the shop and try again, or “iterate.” That type of failure is perfectly understandable and socially acceptable.

No, our “invention” at this point is “how” we’re building the lightbulb. That is my product. That’s how I need to look at it. I need to look at the method of building as an invention itself. In the case of Pocket Tales, that method involves things like:

How we assemble a team (full-time, part-time, contracted, local, remote, stateside, overseas)
How we raise money (how many rounds should we plan for, how much runway should each round give us, what types of investors should we raise it from)
Who should execute which part of the business (should I roughly design the application, should I hire a UX expert and give him/her a lot of freedom)…the list goes on.

I’ve failed repeatedly in this fashion in the last 6 months and it weights on me - or at least it did, until I thought of myself as an inventor.

As an inventor I’m allowed to fail. I’m expected to fail. It’s easy to think that the business side (loosely defined here) of building a company is as simple as following the steps in a textbook because it’s semi-intangible. You rarely get quotes like “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” when referring to how you build your team, raise money, or structure your marketing.

But anyone who has done it knows it’s not that easy. It’s as complicated as trying to make a lightbulb work and finding ways that don’t work is success as long as you live to die another day.

Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, on Leadership

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:43:00 -0500

Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, on Leadership:

Memorable quotes from the interview:

“One thing I did at my second company was to put white sticky sheets on the wall, and I put everyone’s name on one of the sheets, and I said, “By the end of the week, everybody needs to write what you’re C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful.” And that way, everyone knows who’s C.E.O. of what and they know whom to ask instead of me.”

“I keep my eye out for someone who has achieved a lot, so they’ve been a great athlete or on a great team, but then something didn’t go quite right, and they’re still very hungry and want to be C.E.O. of something. I like to bet on people, especially those who have taken risks and failed in some way, because they have more real-world experience. And they’re humble.”