Finding a co-founder is like finding a spouse, and your relationship with your co-founder will likely be as complex as the one with your significant other.

Enter Founder Dating, a little event we’re holding in Boulder on Feb 9th.  It’s a place where you can meet other individuals looking to start a company with a co-founder.

You need to register in advance, so RSVP here.  

See you there!

There aren’t a lot of women in tech, especially founders.  These two women are making a great example for the rest of us.

You go girls.

They have a group called Women In Technology, and its having throwing its’ first ever holiday and benefit party, Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 at 18th Street Atrium, 1621 18th Street, Denver, from 5:30 – 9:00 PM.

WIT is not only a fantastic opportunity to find new mentors and to network, but this holiday party is also a benefit for the Women’s Bean Project (WBP) – a nonprofit organization that helps break the cycle of poverty and unemployment for women in need by teaching job skills and self-sufficiency.  If you’ve never had a WBP soup mix, grab one the next time you’re at the grocery store (in the dried bean section).  They’re REALLY good, super healthy, make for an excellent quick meal, and are a sustainable way for the WBP to keep revenue up and continue supporting at-risk women.

There is a discount for attending the WIT holiday party, so if you’re considering going, reach out to me and I’ll get you details.

I always struggle with options.  Give me 3-4 options, but definitely no more than 5 or 6, and I’m happy.  Any more than that and I get analysis paralysis and immediately move on to something else.  My brain has a visceral reaction against too many options, it shuts down.  Call it toddler + new baby + full time job + social life + extended family life brain cram and there just isn’t room in my head to be thinking critically about your product.

Having coffee today with Seth Levine reminded me he has some thoughts on this topic, so I went searching his blog and found this post on pricing tiers which warns of too many pricing tiers.  I did a little more research and learned that there is some science behind this.  Turns out that if you offer a a ton of options, you’ll get a lot of people’s attention, but very few will convert into customers.  If you offer fewer options, (4-6 actually), you’ll get less attention but tons more conversion into paying customers.  In fact, more than 10 TIMES the amount of customers than with too many options.  Melikes, less work for more money.

Interestingly, the magic number is somewhere between 4-6 options.  I vaguely remember something from my psych class in college that says when given a random string of numbers or letters, the brain can only remember about 5 -+ 2 items – somewhere between 3 to 7 items easily.  Which is why you can probably remember the new pin code of your ATM card easier than you can remember your new friend’s phone number (not that you would have to remember that anyway these days).  I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

So, I guess the old adage still holds, true.  Keep it simple, stupid so I can avoid analysis paralysis and actually buy something from you instead of moving on to your competition.

******************************************************

Getting my entrepreneurial start – I was still in college.  I was riddled with student loan debt, I was eating at all-you-can-eat restaurants and stuffing food in ziplock bags in my backpack.  I was working my way through school and remember lying to friends about being unable to join them for a movie because I couldn’t afford the $5 ticket.  I was one of the lucky ones, my parents were paying for my tuition; I just had to pay for everything else.

It was during that time when I started my first company.  It was an online retailer focused on selling to the property management industry, and my dad was my business partner.  My dad was the brains behind the operation, I was the braun.  I didn’t realize this last part until later though; I thought I was the brains.  I spent 1 measely, pathetic day scoping out the market and learned we would be the first online retailer targeting in this space.  I came up with a product set for the online store (2,000 products!).  Then I had to figure out how to build a dynamic, database-driven website when the extent to my tech competence was limited to all-nighters fighting my friends on Doom (which we did on our 2400 baud connection). Then I had to figure out how to market and advertise the site.  I muddled my way through it with a lot of hard work, luck, and encouragement.

I had nothing back then.  Nothing.  No money, no family, no husband, no assets of any sort.  I had to cover my $600/mo in living expenses (rent, food, gas, beer).  Well, I thought I had nothing.  But from an entrepreneurs perspective, I had everything.  When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.  And when you have nothing to lose, the only thing you have to fear is the fear of failure.  Luckily for me I had a family that never let me be fearful of failure.  They encouraged me to take risks, to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, and helped me realize that I could easily start over and wouldn’t really lose anything but would gain experience that was worth more than success could ever garner.

My family was my ‘startup’ community back then.  Boulder has become my startup community now.  Most people here are surprisingly supportive of startups.  Boulder isn’t a place that fears failure.  I’d say it openly embraces it.  You’ll talk to lots of people that are starting something or wish they were.  Successful entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and peers alike will take your meetings.  People will encourage you, and you need that encouragement to take the first leap.  So if you’re in Boulder and you’re thinking about starting your first company – do it.  But do it wisely.  Here’s my quick action plan for getting started.

1. Don’t be fearful of failure.  It’s the most crippling, self-inflicted handicap around.
2. If you have much to lose in the way of assets, just have a backup plan.  What’s the worse case scenario?  What happens if you really do have to declare bankruptcy?  Might be a nice opportunity to wipe away all that debt anyway – could be a blessing in disguise.
3. Don’t live inside your own head.  Get feedback on everything.  I guarantee one thing in your startup – you will be wrong.  Talk to customers, get yourself an advisory board, talk to experienced entrepreneurs.  They can all help steer you past the obstacles which derail even the smartest of people.
4. Learn how to accept feedback, even negative feedback.  Don’t take it personally.  Know when to utilize it, when not to, and how to communicate with those whose advice you don’t follow.
5. Don’t come up with an idea.  Find your areas of passion, then find a problem where people will pay for a solution.  I’m amazed at how many entrepreneurs get this wrong.
6. Build your team and know everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.  In my opinion, this is the hardest part for the entrepreneur.  It’s like finding your spouse.
7. When you commit, go all-in.  Stack the odds in your favor by focusing on it 100%.
8. Love it.

I’m older now, with much more on the line.  But I’m in Boulder, and I’ve surrounded myself with entrepreneurs that are taking risks every day, with much more to lose than I ever had.  Those founders and this town give me the courage and the inspiration to know that I’ll start another company one day.  But not for a while – I love what I’m doing too much to call it quits yet.

If you want to meet with me for whatever reason, sign yourself up here. Looking forward to meeting you!