A Budding Entrepreneur

Untemplater Blog Post: Learn How To Take Risks

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:12:00 +0000

Here are 5 ways I've learned how to take risks, especially in my 20s. It'll probably change when I turn 30, but here they are for now:

1. Don't have a Plan B

2. Attach your goals to your livelihood

3. You don't have to know all of the facts

4. Be apt to change

5. Fail fast

Click here to see the entire blog post on Untemplater.com -- http://bit.ly/a1Snn4

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Scrappy Startup Test #1 -- Message ALL of your friends for feedback!

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:28:00 +0000

You know you're a scrappy entrepreneur if you've just emailed all of your friends asking them to try out your new site -- guilty!

This is exactly what I did last week Thursday. I messaged all of my friends on Facebook (which may have been many of you) asking to try out my new website and provide some feedback on it.

Some of you may have found this annoying or asked yourself, "why is he spamming me?", or both. However, when you're a scrappy entrepreneur, you've got to be able to do anything and everything to make something happen. And, one of the first tests that a scrappy entrepreneur should pass is to be able to message all of their friends and ask them to try out their new product.

In my case, Viewpointr is a consumer-oriented startup that is not particularly targeted to anyone specific yet. So, my friends feedback can really be helpful especially in terms of: determining who we should be targeting, and also, providing thought processes through every step of using the site, commenting on the user interface and functionalities of the site.

This point was recently re-enforced by Dan Martell, Co-Founder of Flowtown at an event a few weeks ago organized by Tracy Lee at LiveUmbrella.com entitled "How to Run a Scrappy Startup." Dan mentioned the #1 test to see if you are a scrappy entrepreneur is if you have the guts to email all of your friends asking them to try out your site and beg them to give you feedback on it.

So, here I am imploring you, all my readers.

I would like to put you in touch with a particular type of person that you want to connect with... in return for your feedback on Viewpointr.

***

Go to http://viewpointr.com:

1. Fill in your request.

2. Sign in through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail.

3. Invite me: andre@viewpointr.com, so I can easily point your request to the people you've requested.

In return, all I ask is for you to please share your feedback (i.e. bugs, suggestions, likes, dislikes, etc.) -- http://feedback.viewpointr.com.

I appreciate your help in advance.

If you dig Viewpointr:

Fan us on Facebook (http://facebook.com/viewpointr)
Follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/viewpointr).

I really appreciate your support!

Cheers,
Andre
http://twitter.com/acharoo

P.S. Have you spammed your friends for your startup? What was the response? Did you get any good feedback?

Take 3 - Viewpointr Preview 2.0 Releases Today!

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:54:00 +0000

If you have followed my blog since I started it back in 2007, you may know that I have been working on a startup that has evolved a few times now. Initially, the company was called nkdGuru and then changed to ProspectLinker, and now has been changed to Viewpointr. There's good reason behind each of the iterations. Check out the company story here.

When speaking to people who haven't seen me in a while, but know that I'm working on an internet startup, I always tend to explain how it's funny to see how ideas evolve overtime. I've read about it many times from serial entrepreneurs. However, I didn't realize it when I first started that often times, the idea you started with, won't be the idea you end up with or the one that may be successful. The key is being committed to it and seeing it to fruition, no matter how many times you have to change.

Well, there's something different about this time around. My girlfriend asked me the other day, "What's so different in this take than the previous ones? Why do you feel like this one is it? Because, from someone on the outside looking in, you've been confident and extremely excited about the past two iterations." The question was good one and I felt that I should share it with others, hence, why I'm writing it on my blog.

The reason I believe this 3rd take is "the one" is because:

- it's based on real interactions from users on ProspectLinker.

- it's not entirely based on a business plan, but rather, on a real product with users.

- the value proposition has never been clearer.

- it's a part of an exciting market opportunity that others have recently helped validate such as Aardvark and Formspring.me.

- it's clearly differentiated.

- it's focused on creating value for users first and foremost.

- it suggests exponential user growth due to a viral component that was previously missing.

- it's scalable as it leverages the network effect.

- even though we've changed a couple of times, we have remained consistent to our vision -- to help people get advice from others who are outside of their network.

All of these reasons don't guarantee success by any means, but if anything, it suggests that we're persistent, dedicated and will die trying ;)

Check out this new iteration of Viewpointr, try it out and tell me what you think. Learn more about it on our blog. Share your thoughts in the comments below, Facebook, Twitter, or on the Viewpointr Feedback Forum.

***

Btw -- have you had a similar experience in your startup? How many times have you changed your product, business, or blown up your code? I recently heard a stat that shows the best startups change directions around 7-8 times in the first 5 years. Hmm...Interesting.

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

My Professional Life Story so far...

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:29:00 +0000

Check out my new blog post on Untemplater.com entitled "Are you the ideal candidate?"

It's a bullet point run down of my professional life story, a few challenges I faced and currently face, and the things I have done to help overcome them.

I was pretty hesitant to share this info about myself, however, I honestly feel that it could help others in achieving their professional goals in life.

Hopefully, it will for some.

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Untemplater Blog Post: Why should you veer off the paved path?

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:53:00 +0000

Check out my recent blog post on Untemplater.com. Shared some advice that is particularly targeted towards students.

Let me know what you think.

Click here:
http://untemplater.com/self-improvement/why-should-you-veer-off-the-paved-path/comment-page-1/#comment-1388

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Great Book Recommendations from 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:23:00 +0000

At the beginning of last year, I set out to read at least 12 great books. How did I decide on which ones were great? Unless a book is recommended to me from people I trust, I rarely will read it. So, thanks to all my friends and friends-of-friends who recommended these great books that I read over the past year.

Here's a bit about each one and what I got out of it:

1. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

I have a tendency to compare my startup to other major successes in the market, and according to Gladwell's book on Outliers, most times, there are other reasons of why they became so successful. Reasons that are outside of your control like their culture, their generation, their friends, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Here's a short post I wrote about the book earlier in the year.

Gladwell explains how success in our lives often comes from people outside of our core group. How do you network to find your own outliers is a good question to ask yourself? He examines the best, the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful and asks the question -- what makes high-achievers different?

2. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

After being a part of history, I definitely wanted to read a book about Barack Obama, however, I didn't want it to be too political. I wanted to learn about Obama before his Presidency and Dreams from My Father was recommended to me as that book.

Obama takes you inside his thoughts from his youth and childhood upbringing. You would think that someone who has become the President has always dreamed of becoming the President. Not the case with Barack Obama. He didn't know what he really wanted to do.

The book takes you along an unusually honest journey of his pursuit to find who he really is, his background, his family, his ideals, etc.

The best part of the book is to know that it was written before he became famous, before he became the President, and before any of this happened. It is a raw memoir of the young Barack Obama.

3. I Will Teach You To Be Reach by Ramit Sethi

This book was written by a friend of a friend, Ramit Sethi, who's story is very inspiring to me. Ramit is a Stanford grad who worked on a few startups during school, dabbled in venture capital for a bit afterwards, co-founded PBwiki (now PBworks), a venture-backed startup which is now the world's largest provider of hosted collaboration solutions for business and education. However, that's not all. He's now the author of Iwillteachyoutobereach.com which gets over 250,000 readers per month. He also published this book, which became an immediate #1 Amazon bestseller. Impressive huh?

The book really provides a practical guide to your personal finances in the areas of budgeting, saving, banking and investing. Got great tips out of it. It's especially geared towards young people between the ages of 20-35 years old.

4. Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson

This book was very timely because currently in the "bits" marketplace, many of the tools and applications we use online on a daily basis to get information and connect with others, are free or moving towards free. So, it begs the question -- if you're building something online right now and it's geared towards the consumer market, some portion will have to be free in order for you to compete.

The book received a fair amount of controversy due to Chris Anderson's conclusions that essentially a generational and global shift is at play where those below 30 won't pay for information anymore. Malcolm Gladwell quickly responded with his thoughts on the book in the New Yorker, which got a lot of attention as well.

5. Yes We Did: An Inside Look at How Social Media Built the Obama Brand By Rahaf Harfoush

This book hits home a bit, because Rahaf Harfoush is a Canadian who got the incredible opportunity to work on the New Media team for the Obama campaign. She's also my partner Justin Lee's friend from high school. Pretty cool!

She takes you inside the entire online operations of the campaign from start to finish and shares all of the strategies they used to make the campaign a success. There are some great nuggets of effective social media tips in this book.

Check out this post I wrote about it after reading it earlier in the year.

6. The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan was quite a thought-provoking read. It's about the impact of the highly improbable. Nassim Taleb has spent his life obsessed with the probability, uncertainty and the fragility of human knowledge. In this book, Taleb essentially says that people don't account for highly improbable events. It's unpredictable, but yet, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random and more predictable than it really was. Taleb is saying that as humans, we are hardwired to learn specifics when we should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and fail to take into consideration what we don't know. Therefore, we're unable to truly estimate opportunities.

What's pretty incredible is that Taleb founded a hedge fund based on his theories called Empira Capital, which actually Malcolm Gladwell goes into more detail about than Taleb does in Gladwell's book What the Dog Saw. His fund's trading philosophy is predicated entirely on the existence of black swans, and on the possibility of some random, unexpected event sweeping the markets. Taleb's fund apparently "made a staggering amount of money for his fund" during the recent financial crisis of 2008-2009.

7. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan

In today's market, it's all about building your brand and reputation, most of which you can control online. Chris Brogan is the king when it comes to using social media tools to build networks of influence that can positively impact your business and in this book, he shows you how to become a trust agent. What is a trust agent? Trust agents are simply "digitally savvy people who use the Web to humanize businesses using transparency, honesty, and genuine relationships."

8. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

In this book, Dan Ariely applies the irrationality of human decisions and actions to the emerging field of behavioral economics (in fact, behavioral economics is behind some of the thinking for the Obama campaign). In a series of experiments, the author strives to prove how these irrational behaviors are not random, but because they are systematic and repeated over again, predictable.

A timely example is the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 which showed psychology and irrational behaviour playing an influential role in the economy's functioning. This is opposed to the conventional economic model based on the assumption that individuals are rational and able to make optimized decisions using cost-benefit analysis. The book makes us aware of how we distort our perception of reality and encourages us to use this awareness to navigate through indecision.

9. Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk is probably one of the most intense, energetic and passionate people you'll ever hear speak. Check out a video of him here -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4. Gary is a motivational speaker who helps people realize their goals and passions in life. Crush It is no different. Gary essentially channeled the same energy he has behind his talks into each page of this book, which isn't too long, but just enough for you to get the point -- that you can turn your passion into a career. Gary built his wine company into a $60 million business and he shares his experiences as well as a step-by-step guide of how he used social media tools to help grow his company.

10. Viral Loop by Adam Penenberg

Viral loop is essential for any startup founder who is focused on the consumer internet space. This book discusses the magic per say behind truly viral companies and how today's smartest businesses grow themselves so fast on incredible scale and start with so little. Adam breaks down all of the various components necessary to creating a viral company and backs them up with stories and case studies of companies including Hot or Not, Netscape, Ning, Hotmail, eBay, PayPal, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, and Facebook. If you want to know what's essential in creating a viral company, this book is a must read.

11. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

As you can see, I really enjoy reading Malcolm Gladwell books. This one is simply a compilation of his favorite work from The New Yorker, where he's been writing since 1996. The stories are quite diverse. The book is separated into 3 parts: (1) Obsessives -- minor geniuses (about interesting people who aren't that famous); (2) Theories -- ways of organizing experience; and (3) Predictions we make about people. Malcolm tries to question where people get their ideas. He believes "the trick to finding ideas is to convince yourself that everyone and everything has a story to tell. Our instincts as humans, after all, is to assume that most things are not interesting." Gladwell tries to fight that and examines a number of things that may not be that interesting in the grand scheme, but it could lead to some things that are.

12. Tribes by Seth Godin

Tribes is one of the most inspiring books I've ever read. Seth believes that the internet has empowered everyday people to lead and make change more than ever before. He argues that the only thing that holds us back or keeps us from realizing our potential is fear of criticism and fear of being wrong.The book has numerous nuggets of information and advice. I tend to dog ear pages that I find helpful or useful and want to remember, and in Tribes, I think I dog eared almost every other page.

My first post on Untemplater: 8 Ways to Avoid Mediocrity

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:52:00 +0000

As mentioned, I've started writing on Untemplater, a blog focused on breaking the template lifestyle for students and young professionals. The founders have written this cool manifesto, an ebook essentially of 6 inspiring stories of people embracing the untemplated lifestyle. Download it here.

Here's my first blog post:

http://untemplater.com/business/career-business/8-ways-to-avoid-mediocrity/.

Hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

I'm an Author for Untemplater!

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:38:00 +0000

Today, a cool new blog launched called Untemplater. It's a blog focused on breaking the template lifestyle for students and young professionals. This is something I'm pretty passionate about. Fortunately, I've been given the opportunity to be an author for the site. The major topics I'll be writing about are entrepreneurship and business. You can subscribe to my posts here.

Check out Untemplater on Facebook and Twitter to see what they're up to. Meet the other authors here. They are a group of very talented people who all have interesting stories to share and a desire to see young people reach their full potential.

I am excited to be part of a group who wants to see everyone work where they want, live how they want, and be who they want to be!

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #11

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:36:00 +0000

#11 - What is the timeline from start to finish as far as seeing results in a startup? How long should you mentally prepare for when you start a company?

I believe it's important to manage your own personal expectations, and unfortunately, many people don't, and thus, give up too early.

What's your take on this? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

See previous tidbits here - #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #10

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:54:00 +0000

#10 - How do you stay motivated when everyone around you may have a paycheck and you don't?

How do you stay motivated? What do you think are the keys to staying motivated, especially in the early days?

See previous tidbits here - #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #9

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:01:00 +0000

#9 - How can I be sure someone else is not working on the same idea I am right now?

What do you guys think? Have you worked on an idea and then found out that someone else had a similar one? Did it bum you out? Did you give up after finding out?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

See previous tidbits here - #8, #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #8

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:39:00 +0000

# 8 - What tips do you have on writing a business plan? When you should you typically write it?

Check out a recent post I wrote with some supporting arguments about when the right time is to write a business plan.

What has been your experience? At what point do you think is the best time is to write a comprehensive business plan?

See previous tidbits here - #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #7

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:14:00 +0000

#7 - How should I craft my pitch if I don't have a product yet? Should I even pitch my idea before building my product?

What do you guys think? Have you pitched an idea to investors before building a product? What was your feedback? What was your experience?

See previous tidbits here - #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #6

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:36:00 +0000

#6 - You've got no money. How do you go about raising financing for you idea?

Some people feel that they shouldn't involve their friends and family, especially family with their business endeavors. What do you think?

See previous tidbits here - #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #5

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:18:00 +0000

#5 - How should I divide up my company? Is there a criteria I should use?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #4

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:35:00 +0000

#4 - How do you form an early-stage startup team? How do you attract co-founders / team members?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #3

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:42:00 +0000

#3 - What's the difference between success and failure?

What's your take? Do you think there's a major difference between those who succeed and those who don't?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #2

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:37:00 +0000

#2 - What are the first steps you should do when you have a great idea?

See Tidbit #1 here.

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #1

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:49:00 +0000

Here is the beginning of a series of video posts where I will share some inspiring tidbits of advice.

#1 - Be Uncomfortable

Don't Write a Business Plan First

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:48:00 +0000

As a former investment banker turned internet entrepreneur, the first thing I did when I decided to start my company was make an outline for my business plan. I was used to writing offering memoranda back in banking, so I was excited about the process and was ready to make it thorough. Well, thorough it was. It ended up being 46 pages long (just shy of 26-36 pages longer than anyone wanted to read) and the financial model was around 10 tabs strong (just also shy of 9 tabs longer than anyone wanted to analyze). I didn't really know this superfluous length was a concern though. Instead, I felt like I covered our entire basis.

Armed with a comprehensive business plan, I was ready to enter the world and raise some money on the idea. I sent it out to all of my wealthy friends from my banking days and even a few childhood friends to take a look at it. A few got back to me. However, bottom line -- we didn't raise a dime! It wasn't until nearly 9 months later that we raised some financing. How? It definitely wasn't because of the business plan. It was because we completed a prototype with users. That was the key.

***

Advice -- build a prototype of your idea immediately. Don't get caught up with the business plan for now. Get some people using it and test to see if they would use it or not.

The Founder of The Founder Institute tweeted:

The key is to always focus on the product. It's the single most important thing you can do in the early days of establishing your company.

***

There is a time for writing the business plan and this should be when you've figured things out and know that this is definitely the direction in which the business will go.

The reason my business plan ultimately didn't work was because it wasn't based on anything but an idea. A business plan should be based on a business. A prototype / product should be based on an idea. At the beginning, since you don't even know if people are going to use your product (i.e., buy into your idea), it doesn't make sense to fabricate the business (i.e., write a business plan) for it.

Serial entrepreneur Wil Schroter of Go BIG Network also wrote a blog post a month ago entitled "Get Customers First and Then Write a Business Plan" that was very much in line with my experience and point of view as it relates to Business Plans and Startups. (Note: This is a link to my blog as I could not find Wil's blog post on his blog. Wil - I have reached out to you via email to see if you were cool with me posting your blog as a guest post on mine. I hope you don't mind ;))

Contrary to what Mark Suster, General Partner at GRP Partners (who btw, I respect and recently enjoyed watching his interview with Jason Calacanis on This Week in Startups), wrote in his post entitled "Are Business Plans Still Necessary?", I would go as far as to say that even modeling out the opportunity extensively (key word: extensively) at the idea stage is somewhat a waste of time. You can build an impressive model based on seemingly realistic assumptions that shows a great output, however, if no one is willing to pay the price that you've based your model on, then the effort is pointless at the end of the day. Now, please don't me wrong. I believe there's a time to build a comprehensive model as well. You should know that the market opportunity you're going after is a big one in general, however, this should be figured out at the idea stage (I suggest how to do this below).

I ended up changing my business three times (read story here), with the third finally slated to gain the traction we are looking for. Why? Because we have a real product based on real users.

Conclusion:

Step 1: Have an idea? Flesh it out with as many smart friends, family, mentors, etc. that you know. Understand the market opportunity and fundamental economics that you're going after.

Step 2: Build a prototype and get friends and family / early users to test drive it and see if they would use what you created. Ask for a range in which they would pay for it.

Step 3: Once you've figured out which product they really like (as you will undoubtedly have to iterate upon and change a couple of times), then write your business plan and build your comprehensive model.

***

Mark Suster -- I just wanted to say, in general, I agree with your viewpoint, however, especially for consumer internet plays, I believe that a business plan / model should be timed appropriately, and I think that it should be completed after a prototype has been built and vetted.

***

What do you think?

Cheers,

Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Wil Schroter's Blog Post: Get Customers First and Then Write a Business Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:33:00 +0000

THIS IS A BLOG POST BY SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR WIL SCHROTER, FOUNDER OF GO BIG NETWORK THAT I COULD NOT FIND THE LINK TO ON HIS BLOG AND THEREFORE, PASTED BELOW FROM MY RSS FEED.

***
Note to Wil -- I sent you an email to see if you would be cool with me posting this article on my blog. I hope you don't mind. I thought it was a great post!
***

If you’re thinking about starting a company, please don’t write a business plan. Stop, put the keyboard down, and step back. You’re wasting valuable time.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that you run aimlessly into the startup abyss. What I want you to avoid is the black hole of planning that most entrepreneurs get into when starting a company. They get sucked into a time warp where a formerly great idea gives way to months upon months of “thinking” about the idea instead of just making the damn thing happen.

If Nobody Buys, it’s Not a Business

The first step, before writing a plan, is to validate the concept. If nobody will ever buy your product, it’s unlikely that a business is ever going to form. Focusing on the product first, and more specifically the customer’s willingness to buy that product, is by far the most valuable time you can spend early in your business.

In addition to validating your concept, selling the product early allows you to prove some key assumptions in your plan before you begin writing it. For example, wouldn’t it be helpful to know what someone would pay for your product before you built it? You would be surprised how much information you can gather from potential customers just by asking them what they would pay for a hypothetical product. “If you build it, they will come” might have worked for Kevin Costner in the movie Field of Dreams, but it’s a formula for disaster in a startup.

The Prototype Company

Sometimes finding out early that your idea isn’t as viable as you thought is a blessing. Instead of spending months writing an elaborate business plan on a completely unproven idea, try putting together a “pre-business plan” that consists of only about five pages that quickly communicates your idea and focuses on the key assumptions that drive your business. These key assumptions are often questions like “Will people buy the product as I’ve defined it?”, or “what will they pay?”, or “how much would it cost me to sell this product?”.

Imagine that the first few months of your business are really more like a great big “prototype company”. Focusing strictly on the sale of the product and proving your assumptions, even on a small scale, will allow you to write a far more comprehensive and viable business plan when you are ready to formalize your thoughts. Additionally, you will be able to make much more accurate forecasts on the business when you get a sense for what it really takes to market, sell and deliver the product.

Your Business Plan is Not an Application for Capital

It’s a common misconception that investors want to see a business plan before they will consider investing in a concept. That’s not entirely true. What investors want to see is that you can demonstrate your ability to sell the product to paying customers. Ask anyone (even yourself) who you would rather invest in – a startup company that is making money without a plan or a business plan that isn’t making any money? Writing long, elaborate papers might have impressed your instructors back in college but it won’t win you any points with investors. They want results, not ideas.

Keep the Plan Simple (and listen!)

Despite what you may have heard, most of the best business plans are as simple as possible. It’s far more important for you to demonstrate that you can solve one market need incredibly well than being able to show you’ve thought of every possible market niche and have included it in your plan. Think quality over quantity.

The process of writing your business plan isn’t to show off how much you know about a concept. The most important aspect of writing your plan is to become a voracious listener. Listen to what your potential customers are telling you they want in a product. Listen to what they are not getting from the existing products. Listen to what investors are looking for in the companies they put money into. Your business plan should read more like a record of all the valuable information you have heard, presented in a meaningful way that makes the case for your company’s potential success.

Put Down Your Pen and Pick Up the Phone

You’re much better served to do your business planning by picking up the phone and asking customers to buy than you are.

By: Wil Schroter

What's your story?

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:01:00 +0000

One of the first questions people tend to ask when they meet you is, "What's your story?" Over the years, I've been asked this question in several instances. For example, explaining the background of my company, "What's the story behind your idea / startup?" It's very popular in interviews and replaces questions like, "Tell me about yourself." It's common in social settings and often replaces the question after someone introduces themselves and asks, "So, what do you do?" It's sometimes used as a diplomatic way of prying behind someone's current status by asking, "What's the story with that?"

There is always a story behind who we are, what we do, and why we are doing it.

What's my story?

- Born and raised in Toronto, Canada.

- Chose to study economics (b/c it was the most practical degree) at the University of Toronto (b/c I could work in the city to help finance my education).

- Pursued a career in investment banking as it was one of the most challenging fields out of undergrad.

- Worked for 2 years as an analyst in the US and UK.

- Recruited for the firm, and in doing so, realized that many students, and in fact, people in general, struggle to find a practical source of advice (i.e. get access to specific types of people outside of their network).

- Decided to tackle this problem full-time and co-founded nkdGuru and ProspectLinker, which both have recently evolved into Viewpointr -- a service that helps you get insight from people outside of your network.

What's the story behind Viewpointr?

- born out of 1 passion: to help people get insight from those who are outside of their personal network.

The move to Viewpointr was shaped by the following events:

- attempted initially to create a marketplace for students to connect with Gurus (hence, nkdGuru) for a price -- didn't work due to an imbalanced incentive.

- changed to focus on recruiting and connecting employees with candidates (hence, ProspectLinker) -- however, getting committed participation from employees ended up being a major hurdle.

- decided to open up the site to users on an invitation basis

- observed user behavior on ProspectLinker and noticed users gravitated towards question and answer type activity.

- reacted to user needs by implementing one feature that allowed users to invite friends to help answer questions. As a result, activity increased.

- decided to make our next iteration completely focused on that 1 feature. Hence, Viewpointr was born.

Check out the full story here.

***

The bottom line is I believe people love hearing stories! It makes you much more interesting. Make sure you have one and communicate it succinctly.

So, what's your story? I would love to hear it. Feel free to share it in the comments below.

Cheers,

Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Startup life is like making a movie

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:25:00 +0000

A mentor of mine once said to me, "Your life is like a movie, enjoy the making of it."

I think this piece of advice should be applied to every startup entrepreneur. When watching actors being interviewed for an upcoming film release, often times, they speak about how great it was to make the film with their co-stars and experiencing the process of making the film. There seems to be more focus on the actual making of the movie as opposed to the finish product. One actor who takes this to the extreme comes to mind, Johnny Depp, who apparently doesn't even watch his own films.

As a startup entrepreneur, the end game outcome is sometimes what we tend to focus on a little too much, as opposed to embracing the process of getting to the finish line. When I read about startups who have been successfully acquired, there seems to be a common thread. Someone in the management team or one of the investors will mention that while this outcome is terrific, they will undoubtedly miss working with each other on a daily basis and experiencing all of the fun times they had while getting to this stage.

Here's a recent example:

A blog post by Josh Kopelman at First Round Capital regarding the Intuit acquisition of Mint.com:

"While I’m sure that Mint would have continued to grow and prosper as an independent company, the opportunity to accelerate Mint’s growth as part of the Intuit platform was extremely attractive. This is a great outcome for Aaron and his team we are thrilled for them. The champagne will be flowing as freely at First Round Capital as it will in the future former Mint headquarters. The only downside is that after three years I will miss working with Aaron as he continues to delight his customers. It has been a great ride and I have learned a tremendous amount playing a supporting role as Aaron built this company. My loss, however, is Intuit’s gain and I am happy for them as they work with Aaron and his team to take Mint.com to the next level."

See the full blog post here.

My business partner mentioned to me the other day that we don't celebrate our small wins enough. I have to agree. I think this is one of the ways you can enjoy the process of building a startup.

What do you think? Do you find that you focus on the end game too much? What do you do to embrace the process of getting to your goal?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

What does an undergraduate degree really mean?

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:03:00 +0000

The other day I was speaking with a friend's youngest brother, who is in high school and is evaluating whether or not to go to university. As I was explaining the reasons why I believe every young person should go to university, I remembered a statement one of my employers said to me when I was in pursuit of attaining my degree.

He said (and I paraphrase), the way an employer looks at your undergraduate degree is -- to see if you were able to commit yourself to a 4-year goal and achieve it at a high level of success.

Recent grads probably experience the fact that the degree that they worked so hard to get doesn't prove that they know anything really. It doesn't guarantee them a job, especially in this current environment. It merely increases the probability of landing one.

I later realized what employers look for when I entered the world of investment banking. The reason why investment banks look for students with a GPA of 4.0 is because, at that stage in life, it's the only signal to an employer that says, "If I, the employer, were to teach you something, based on your last 4-years, you are more than likely to learn it and apply it with little to no error." Putting aside specific course requirements that some jobs recommend (which I'm not discounting), this is what I believe employers are looking for as a result of completing an undergraduate degree.

What do you think?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Effective Social Media Tips, Obama Style

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:50:00 +0000

I just finished reading a great book, Yes We Did by Rahaf Harfoush about how social media built the Obama brand.

Rahaf is a new media strategist from Toronto, who got an incredible opportunity to work on the New Media team for the Obama campaign. In her book, she takes you inside the entire online operation of the campaign and the strategy behind everything that significantly contributed to Obama's victory.

Rahaf shared some very helpful social media lessons that can be easily applied to your online community / presence. As I was reading the book, I shared some of them via Twitter. Click here if you would like to reply to any of them via Twitter, otherwise, I've listed them below:

***

1. "How well do u know ur community? Offer the right incentives to increase engagement."

Obama's New Media Team offered great incentives to users such as dinners with Obama, front row seats at speeches and rallies, and 3-on-3 basketball challenges. These were the perfect incentives to drive the audience they wanted and needed. So, this begs the question, what drives your audience? I'm still in the process of figuring that out as it relates to ProspectLinker.

2. "Newly launched communities must establish routines & rituals to manage user expectations."

We all know that social media is about building that connection and long-term relationship between your organization and users / consumers. Establishing rituals and routines definitely helps. Back in September 2007, the focus of the campaign was to lay a solid groundwork for offline participation. And, through consistent regular social network profile updates, blog posts, and emails from the Director, David Plouffe, supporters of Obama were encouraged to get together and prepare for their primaries and caucuses in the beginning of 2008.

The same sort of consistency should be applied to your company in general. A friend of mine, Jun Loayza, wrote a great post a month ago about how important creating systems to stay consistent with marketing campaigns helped him survive the first few weeks of launching his startup. See his post here.

3. "Focus on what matters for your community and incite the right actions."

Like many websites, the myBarackObama website had a points system that kept track of users participation and rankings. The reason for this was to use online tools to organize offline action. That was their mandate. Their points system was refined to clearly reflect specific recent activities that user's were engaged in and then ranked them against other users in order to perpetuate participation. Very smart!

At ProspectLinker Beta (soon to be renamed), our mandate is to create tools that help people get insight from those who are outside of their network. As we've figured this out over time, going forward, every feature will emphasize and support this mandate. Our initial points system, which I believe we initially got wrong, (similar to how the new media team got it wrong with the myBO site) will change on our site soon. What matters is to learn from your mistakes and then figure out what works to help your mandate. The key is to know what is your mandate is.

4. "When asking something of ur community, make their experience more comfortable"

One aspect of the campaign that I loved was the myBO iPhone app that was built. Traditionally, volunteers would call strangers to encourage them to vote, right? Well, not with the Obama campaign, their app would tap into the users' personal contacts in their address book and identify people locally from their friends, who have not been called yet. How cool is that? How easy is it now to call someone you know, who's a friend and encourage them to vote? Brilliant!
They made an emphasis to make their users comfortable with the asks they called upon.

I have definitely been thinking about how to make our users of ProspectLinker (and potential users) more comfortable with how to use to pL.

5. "Ensure that you have strong analytics and consult them often in your email marketing strategy."

The Obama campaign had an entire team focused solely on analytics. Measuring the responses on emails, where users clicked, whether they respond to graphics, pictures, embedded videos, or not, etc. I noted this particular one because ProspectLinker will be heavily utilizing email and it's important to refine them and make them better each time.

If you are a ProspectLinker user and have received any of our emails, I would love to hear your thoughts on how we can make improvements on them. In addition to your feedback, we will be consulting the analytics to see what works best.

6. "Use stories of people interacting with ur brand and share them with ur community."

One of my favorite posts on the ProspectLinker blog was sharing an example of how a friend of mine needed advice from a media and entertainment professional and used ProspectLinker to get it. I wrote the blog post to help explain the value proposition of the company. As a result of the post, we received several new subscribers. It proved to be very helpful for our readers to relate and connect with a person who benefited from using our site.

7. "Measure engagement, not membership (i.e. quality, returning visitors, time spent, etc.)."

I remember a tweet from a friend of mine a while ago who said, "It's not about how many followers you have, but about how engaged they are with you." I agree. The question is how do you define your engagement? Through the quality of comments, number of returning visitors, length of time spent on a page, etc. These sorts of metrics provide a better sense of your engagement with members of your community.

8. "Smart org make their online presence more interesting by posting external content."

One of the ways to generate traffic to your blog is to write great content for someone else in your space with a guest blog post. However, as much as that benefits you, it also serves as a benefit for the person / community that shared your blog post. Why? Because having someone external to your organization post content can not only make your online presence more interesting, but can also integrate your site into the online community.

9. "Constantly research the effectiveness of ur emails, blogs, etc as perfection is a luxury."

As mentioned above in #5, consulting your analytics is very helpful in measuring whether your messages resonate with your community. It is very rare that a company can get it right from the jump. I've experienced this over the course of working on my startup. I completely agree with how Rahaf has worded it, "Today, perfection is a luxury that competes with the speed of changing technology." Iteration is so important. I've realized that the product my company releases may not be actually perfect when released, but rather, an ongoing work in progress. And, what we should strive to do is to improve those processes.

***

Do you currently implement these social media tips? Do you have any additional thoughts pertaining to any of them in particular that could be helpful for everyone to know? Please share below in the comments.

Cheers,
Andre
http://abuddingentrepreneur.blogspot.com

Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://abuddingentrepreneur.blogspot.com