Thoughts on thoughts on thoughts

Steve Jobs Eulogy

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:09:00 -0400

This week for my Public Speaking course, our class assignment was to make a “Special Occasion” speech. Amongst the presentations was a birthday speech, a wedding toast, a faux train line dedication to FDR, and a recap/roast of Bill Clinton’s 1992 Democratic election. I decided to take the opportunity to eulogize Steve Jobs with the following speech:

On October 5th, 2011, we lost what was – without a doubt – one of the greatest leaders of our generation. At the young age of 56, Steven Paul Jobs’ life was taken after a long, fierce battle with pancreatic cancer. I am not here today to dwell on the sadness of this loss, but rather celebrate the life of one of the most impactful figures in recent history. Through this eulogy, I hope to: 1. Convey the fact that Steve has directly and significantly impacted each and every one of our lives, and 2. Point out some of Steve’s defining characteristics that we should try to emulate as we each embark our own careers and life-paths after college.

There are three things in particular I admire about Steve that I’d like to speak about today. First is his ability to envision. Second, is his ability to ignore. And lastly, is his ability to inspire.

There are many individuals throughout history that we consider “visionaries” – the Wright brothers, Henry Ford, Mark Zuckerberg, to name a few. What they have in common – along with many other visionaries – is that they each invented or reinvented an industry: the Wright brothers with airplanes, Henry Ford with cars, and Mark Zuckerberg with communication. Needless to say, all of the aforementioned innovators have completely changed our lives for the better. Yet, when you look at Steve jobs’ body of work, he is truly in a “visionary” class of his own. Steve didn’t just leave his mark on a single industry- he invented or completely reinvented six separate ones: computers, movies, music, phones, tablets, and retail. He conquered the archaic PC by creating the design-oriented and rebellious Macintosh. He permanently altered the film landscape by founding Pixar and selling it to Disney. He transformed the way we consume music by creating the iTunes store. He completely revolutionized the way we search for and discover information on the go with the iPhone. Then he did that again with the iPad. And throughout the last decade, he has completely altered the retail business for consumer electronics by creating hundreds of magnificent Apple Stores across the globe.

But being a visionary itself is limited. Without the ability to execute on an idea, being a visionary – no matter how revolutionary one’s ideas are – will prove to be fruitless. Steve was known to have a complex personality that often confused the people around him, even his closest friends and co-workers. His most discussed trait was the one people called his “reality distortion field.” Put simply, Steve had the ability to convince himself and others around him to believe almost anything, using a combination of charm, charisma, bravado, and tenacity. When people told him something couldn’t be done, he simply denied it. Similarly, when people approached him with an idea he didn’t believe in, he simply ignored it. He listened to only himself, distorting reality in ways that aligned with his beliefs. He became well known for his opposition to conducting market research, believing that consumers had no idea what they wanted, but rather HE knew exactly what they wanted. And he was right. His ability to ignore critics and skeptics was ultimately the most crucial aspect of his creativity that led him to conceive amazing consumer products time and time again. As Steve said before he passed, “Innovation is saying “no” to 1,000 things.”

Although it was subject to a lot of criticism, Steve’s reality distortion field was also acknowledged as being his primary way of instilling the idea that the impossible was, in fact, possible. It was a part of his incredibly powerful ability to inspire, a characteristic of his that I admire dearly. Perhaps the most famous story of Steve’s inspiration is when he approached then-Pepsi President John Sculley to offer him a position as Apple’s CEO. Steve was a superstar when it came to inspiration, knowing just the right things to say to appeal to another’s most important values and emotions. As legend has it, Steve approached John and asked him, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugar water — or do you want to change the world?” With just once sentence, Steve had convinced John to resign from Pepsi and join him at Apple.

As we all continue to pursue our dreams and careers, it is important that we keep these ideals in our minds. We shouldn’t be afraid to envision ideas we believe can change the world, and we should do so over and over again. We shouldn’t be afraid to defend and execute on these ideas of ours, even when some of the closest people in our lives will doubt us. Just ignore them. Finally, we shouldn’t be afraid to take our ideas and our passions, and use them to inspire others, in addition to inspiring ourselves. As Steve once said, “have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

Come meet SeatGeek founder Russ D'Souza!

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 14:36:02 -0400

We all hear everyday about the big successes happening in tech- whether it’s company X raising a big round, company Y being acquired, or company Z getting ready for their mega IPO. And although these success stories – made ever popular by the TechCrunches of the world – have encouraged thousands of new people to jump into the world of startups, it’s extremely important to note that startups are not all that sexy. In fact, there’s very little sexiness involved in working at a startup other than announcing your new round (if you even get that far), and even then you’re only putting more pressure on yourself to perform for investors.

Because hardships and failures go so unspoken about in the tech scene (in comparison to the rare successes), Schuyler Brown has taken the initiative to publicize many of the struggles founders face by creating Founders@Fail. Founders@Fail’s mission – taken straight from their website – is to help aspiring entrepreneurs “Learn practical tips to overcome any mistake from the founders who made them in the first place. There’s no sugarcoating and no spin. The stories may not be pretty, but they’ll ensure you’re better prepared if your funding falls through or your CTO quits.” In other words, Founders@Fail brings founders to speak to audiences about their struggles and how to overcome them. Although it’s not the “sexiest” topic, it’s perhaps the most useful one that many people seem to ignore.

With that said, the NYU Entrepreneurs Network has decided to team up with Founders@Fail for the first Speaker Series of the year. The featured guest speaker will be Russ D’Souza, a co-founder of SeatGeek, which is the world’s largest ticket search engine (and has raised just under $4,000,000). Russ is a Dartmouth graduate who worked at Monitor Consulting Group prior to founding SeatGeek, where he currently manages business development and customer acquisition. Additionally, he has founded and sold two previous startups. With his wealth of experience, the NYUEN feels fortunate to have Russ speak on campus and is extremely excited for this event. We’d love for you to join us! (Students get in FREE with the discount code: student4life)

WHEN: 7PM Monday September 24th

WHERE: Henry Kaufman Management Center (Stern)
44 West 4th street
room number 11-185

**Discount Code: student4life **

RSVP here: http://foundersatfail.com/events/

Case studies are the textbooks of the future. Does anyone but Harvard seem to notice?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:53:00 -0400

Since returning from my leave of absence last semester, I’ve noticed a bunch of changes occurring at school this semester. Some examples include: more essays (have already written more this semester than I have in my first two years); more tech / entrepreneurship events (seems like there is at least one big-name speaker or a mass hackathon in either Stern or Poly on a weekly basis); and more cleverly-named food trucks (Gorilla Cheese? Frying Dutchmen?). But perhaps the biggest and most significant change I’ve seen at school is the prevalence of case studies being used in classes, along with the simultaneous abandonment of textbooks.

In fact, all four of my classes this semester (Entrepreneurial Finance, Business Law, Management, and International Studies) have required me to read (and purchase) several cases that became the central topic of discussion for a period of time. What caught my attention even more was that I wasn’t alone- most of my friends at school, across many different courses, had the same requirement to purchase HBR Course Packets instead of a textbook (for 3/4 classes, I had to purchase an entire Course Packet of case studies from Harvard’s site http://hbr.org/). What’s even more astounding is that most of these people were actually enjoying their reading assignments and, as a result, were participating better in class and remaining up to date on the curriculum. (This was something I definitely noticed about myself, too.)

So I asked myself: why are case studies a more effective way of learning than textbooks? Here are my thoughts: as opposed to the monotonous, lecture-style tone of textbooks, case studies are awesome. They satisfy every craving that students desire from their education. As students, we want three things: 1. We want to be engaged by the material, not lectured to death. 2. We don’t want to memorize formulas, definitions, methods and techniques- rather, we want to learn these things in the context of proven examples. And most importantly, 3. We want to receive “real-world” knowledge- stuff that we think will actually be applicable in a job setting. Case studies satisfy each of these criteria. They engage us through a story, convey methodology through that story, and then challenge us to utilize this methodology in a real-world setting by ending the case with a “what should company X do next?” type of question.

To me, this is a huge structural shift taking place in education- one that will have a significant impact on the future market for textbooks. While there is so much focus on new ways to purchase, share or sell textbooks, there is no doubt in my mind that this is an inefficient market; put simply, cases are just a much better (and cheaper) way of learning and teaching material. And although the argument can be made that textbooks are important for foundational courses, I have yet to view them as a necessary part of any course I’ve taken thus far.

This presents a big problem (or as I would like to say, a big opportunity)- students individually spend thousands of dollars a year (and collectively, billions) on books that are slowly becoming outdated (solely because these books have been “required” for each course). Yet, there is now an alternative and superior form of cheaper education materials that are easily accessible on the internet (the average case costs about $3-$5). Finally, it seems like universities are starting to take notice and shift these textbook requirements to Course Packet requirements. What’s shocking to me is that no one seems to be addressing this apparent shift in the market besides for a single non-profit organization: Harvard.

It’s no secret that Harvard has been publishing case studies for awhile now- yet I don’t think many people recognize how big of a business opportunity this has become. Right now, it seems like case studies are prominent solely in professional studies courses (i.e. business & law), but there’s no reason why they cannot be written and used for general studies courses as well. Why can’t history, literature and science classes adopt case studies to learn about certain regions, authors and discoveries? To me, this seems like a very sensible application of case studies and is therefore a large growth opportunity.

As a student, I want to make sure that my education provides me with a skill set to make an immediate impact at the next level. Textbooks have conventionally been viewed as the standard way to teach students information, yet I believe that case studies are the future of practical, real-world education at universities- and I think that Stern’s transition to a heavier focus on case studies indicates their agreement with the previous statement. With such a big market opportunity, it surprises me that no one else has jumped into this space to try and compete with Harvard and perhaps grab a slice of a very lucrative market.

Continuous innovation- often imitated, never duplicated

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:01:00 -0500

Lately, I’ve been reading the Harvard Business Review (HBR) series called “On Strategy.” It’s a compilation of essays written by Harvard professors defining “strategy” and explaining different methods of execution. I wouldn’t say it’s a must-read, but there are definitely some very interesting points to glean from the readings. I’d like to highlight one of those points in this post.

Before technology and the internet became so prevalent in our society, having great strategy was equivalent to achieving operational effectiveness. The more efficient you were (with costs, time, waste, etc.), the better strategy you had. This is why, in the 70’s and 80’s, the Japanese were at the forefront of production. Using practices such as Total Quality Management (TQM), the Japanese were able to decrease costs while simultaneously increasing product quality. And because there was essentially no transparency in the markets, the Japanese were able to successfully sustain this competitive advantage over other countries.

But enter technology in the 90’s & 00’s and the game completely changed. Why? Because once competitors discovered TQM and other methods of operational effectiveness deployed by the Japanese (via increased transparency), they were able to replicate these practices and create similar goods at similar levels of efficiency (thereby erasing this competitive advantage). What’s even more interesting is that other countries have been able to gain and sustain a competitive advantage over the Japanese. How? Because these countries have been extremely innovative, by means of differentiation and specialization, while Japan has remained concerned only about operational effectiveness.

In the modern economy, operational effectiveness is not enough. First-mover’s advantage is fleeting- just because you got to market or implemented some practices first, doesn’t mean that your product and operational tactics cannot be replicated. But what *IS* sustainable is a specialization or differentiating factor, a “secret sauce” in your company that competitors cannot replicate. Sure, the first and second and Nth competitor to jump into your space will try to imitate what you’re doing, but if you continue to innovate - if you continue to truly differentiate yourself rather than merely producing things more efficiently - then your competitors will never be able to duplicate your success.

Products that evoke emotion are #winning

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:00:00 -0500

Yesterday, I used Uber for the first time. For those of you who don’t know what Uber is, it’s an app that enables you to order a car service to wherever you are. The ride is charged directly to the credit card you have on file with the service and the receipt is emailed to you.

I hadn’t previously tried Uber, mainly because it’s a bit pricey and I haven’t had too much trouble hailing a regular cab. But Uber isn’t a replacement for regular cabs- it’s completely different. Uber is an affordable luxury that combines elements of convenience, relaxation and, most importantly, emotion. The way I see it, the reason they’re doing so well (they just announced another $40mil in funding from Menlo Ventures, Jeff Bezos and Goldman Sachs) is because using Uber’s service isn’t just a ride- it’s an emotional experience.

The driver pulls up in a luxury vehicle (mine was a Mercedes Benz) and makes you feel like he’s your personal driver. He chats with you rather than yelling some crazy language into an earpiece the entire time. He takes you door-to-door at a normal pace without any sudden stops or starts. He says thank you and wishes you a good day/night. And you don’t need to feel pressured to give a good tip because it’s already included in the service. The moment you step out of the car, you feel like you just had a cool, pleasurable experience. You feel relaxed. You feel special. And feeling special evokes emotion that most people want to experience over and over and over again.

To me, that’s the most important aspect of Uber, as well as to a handful of other consumer-facing startups we’ve recently seen make big splashes in the news. Pinterest (raised $37mil this year), a virtual pinboard, evokes the emotions of inspiration and discovery. Fab (just raised $40mil), a members-only flash sales site for daily design inspirations, evokes the emotions of elegance and exclusivity. Instagram (raised $7mil earlier this year and was just named “App of the Year” by Apple) evokes the emotions of serenity and awe. My belief is as follows: products that can sustainably elicit positive emotions from their users are very likely to succeed.

That is why I’m so excited about startups like Piictu and SideTour (disclosure: both are RRE companies)- because both of these products give their users a fun AND emotional experience. It’s also why I’m psyched about educational startups like Skillshare and Coursekit (both non-RRE)- because both are adding an emotional layer to something that simply had none before.

Ultimately, human actions are based on emotion. If someone upsets or angers you, then you try to avoid them. If someone is fun but has no emotional appeal to you, then he/she will get boring after awhile. But if someone excites you or makes you happy or gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling on a consistent basis, you will always want to be around them. The same holds true for products- if they trigger positive emotions, more often than not, you’ll want to use them again and again.

Invest in people (with everything you do)

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:53:00 -0500

Today, I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that I have joined RRE Ventures as an intern.

If you ask a VC the main thing they look for when making an investment, the first response you’ll get is “a great team.” To me, this holds true when making a career/lifestyle decision- so it was obvious to me awhile ago, when I first met Stuart Ellman and Adam Ludwin, that I wanted to work for RRE. Simply put, there is no team I’d rather invest my time and energy with than the one RRE has constructed. As individuals, the entire team has been extremely helpful and insightful in many instances. As a firm, they have established an impeccable reputation as a result of their incredible vision and investment expertise. Furthermore, their constant activity in the NY tech scene has earned RRE the respect of the entire startup community.

I’ve heard time and time again that being a young VC is extremely challenging, but I know that I’m up for the test. I hope that my hunger, passion and hustle will continue to allow me to overcome hurdles, find the best entrepreneurs building amazing companies, and ultimately be a big value add to the entire RRE team.

I could not be more grateful and excited for this opportunity.

So you want to be a TechStars Associate?

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:01:00 -0500

This post was inspired by a post I saw yesterday titled “So you want to be a VC?”

Recently, I’ve had a bunch of people reach out to me about becoming a TechStars associate. I’ve generally been receiving the same types of questions from most people, so I figured I’d write a blog post outlining the key points I’ve been touching upon.

1. There is NO conventional path to becoming a TechStars associate. It’s not like, “if you do X, Y and Z then you’ll get the position.” From what I can recall, every associate I worked with took a very different path to getting the position. I can personally say that I was fortunate enough to be in a ‘right place, right time’ scenario. With that said…

2. It obviously doesn’t hurt to have a tech/business background and a proven passion for the space. I had past experience in technology finance and had also worked for a startup and on my own startup. I also attended a ton of tech events/meetups around the city that proved to be a big difference-maker for me. A lot of people say they are passionate about startups and technology, but you need to have these types of experiences to prove it.

3. The mission statement of a TechStars associate is “to add value to the companies in the program.” Nothing else. You don’t try to work at TechStars to “break into the startup ecosystem” when you can do that by working for a startup or going to events. You also don’t go to work at TechStars to “learn” - the companies are not there to help you out, it’s completely vice versa. With that said…

4. TechStars will be the #1 learning and networking experience you have encountered. While your main goal is to “add value” to the companies, the natural byproduct of that is undertaking incredible projects that will have a significant impact. You will essentially act as an extra employee for 1-6 startups. That means you will participate in team & mentor meetings, work on various projects, and learn a ton from the brilliant founders and mentors who visit the office on a daily basis.

5. There are NO typical “day to day” tasks for a TechStars associate. One day you’ll be working on gamification strategies, the next day you’ll be out of the office pitching people on a product. Off the top of my head, here are some tasks/projects I remember completing: created a spreadsheet with all mentor information, helped two companies with their initial rollout, helped one company with sales, helped two companies with bus dev- you get the point. Every day is different, which is one of the best parts of the program. You’re constantly doing new things which means you will always be excited / challenged. With that said…

6. Not every task will be “sexy.” If I had to guess, I’d say I set up and put away chairs for events almost every single day. Glorious? No. Appreciated? YES. The little things you do for the program and the founders will enable you to receive the bigger and better projects. Because…

7. What you put into the program is exactly what you’ll get out of it, if not more. The more you hustle, the more respect you’ll get. The more respect, the more trust. The more trust, the better projects. At the end of the day, being a great TechStars associate comes down to taking initiative- looking for problems companies are having and utilizing your strengths to try and make an impact where you can. If you hustle and are passionate about your work, you will have a very successful experience at TechStars. I can personally say that it was the best 3 months of my life and I will never forget the people I met, the things I learned, and the path it has set me on for the future.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. Good luck to all in pursuit of the position!

Two weeks

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:01:38 -0400

There are two weeks left of the TechStars summer program. The companies have all progressed a ton and are looking great. There have been countless meetings, pitch practices and latenights- but it is now time to finish strong.

The next two weeks of work will dictate who comes out of the program with a lot of buzz, evangelism and money. These weeks may not make or break a company, but it sure couldn’t hurt to have great publicity coming out of the most examined TechStars class yet. I’m both excited and intrigued to see who will capitalize most on this incredible opportunity.

TS Update

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:41:55 -0400

Haven’t blogged in a little while because work has been so damn busy. Now that we’re out of the “mentor dating” period and in product mode at TechStars, the teams are all on the gas peddle and working towards that looming thing we call “Demo Day.”

Demo Day is now less than 7 weeks away and each company is at its own stage and has its own challenges. Some are raising funding while others have already closed rounds and are focused on growing their user-base. Some are rolling out by for an upcoming deadline while others are taking time to bring on the right strategic partners.

Overall, it’s very cool to see these 12 companies evolve- and I’m only growing increasingly more excited because a bunch are rolling out as we speak or in the near future. It’s amazing how quickly these weeks go by. But what’s even more amazing is how big of a difference just one week can make in the life of a startup. One well-executed partnership, one new addictive feature, one new employee (among many other things) can all radically change the outlook for a startup.

Why I love entrepreneurship- from both sides of the table.

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:33:00 -0400

People often ask me why I’m so infatuated with entrepreneurship. I want to share two quotes from recent blog posts that convey exactly what I love about the space- on both sides of the table.

“Work with people you like and believe in and who get you revved up. The rest will fall into place.”

-David Tisch

“Four portfolio companies. Each at a different stage. Each in a different business. Each with a different team. All doing great things. It’s this ability to engage meaningfully with many interesting teams and businesses in a single day that makes the venture capital business the perfect job for me. I love it.”

-Fred Wilson

Looking forward

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:11:00 -0400

I’m really excited about where things are heading in the startup world- specifically in nyc. Startups have always fostered other startups, but what I’m seeing now is large companies getting really involved in the startup community. In the past 10 days alone, I have seen Facebook, Yahoo China, AOL and Microsoft all speak about their commitment to helping the startup community. And what’s even better is that each company offered to provide a different service.

Facebook spoke with developers about leveraging their platform, whereas AOL discussed their intent to help form partnerships. Microsoft, on the other hand, offered a suite of benefits to startup companies that ranged from free services to technology help. With these very large companies becoming increasingly involved in the startup scene, the nyc community will continue to thrive and grow stronger. These are exciting times for startups in nyc, and I’m really happy to be a part of the community here.

VC Series: Josh Kopelman

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:24:00 -0400

According to Josh Kopelman, a Managing Partner at First Round Capital, running a startup at the point of seed stage is about doing three things: validate, de-risk and disprove. What he means is that at the very beginning of a company’s life, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered about the founders’ idea. What companies need to do- and do it right away – is test their hypotheses to see whether or not their underlying assumptions are correct.

Here’s the example Josh shared:

Stickybits, for those who aren’t familiar, was a startup that wanted to take anything in the real world and put it on the web via a barcode and scanner. Not the greatest idea- but a very good team (we’ll come back to this later in the post). First Round decided to back Stickybits so that they’d have enough cash to test out their hypothesis. Stickybits conclusively disproved their hypothesis in the end and, although they failed, they failed fast. After their failure, Stickybits pivoted into turntable.fm, a new darling in the startup community that recently raised money from USV, Lady Gaga and Kanye West. This is a great example of why it’s important to test your hypothesis before building out a whole huge product- it saves time, money and energy.

So why did First Round back Stickybits in the first place? As I already mentioned, it was primarily because they had a great team. And what is the definition of a “great” team? Josh K gave an incredible answer (through a very clever metaphor) that I loved. He said- “Great teams have founders that are heat-seeking missiles. This means the founders are:

1- pointed in a general direction,
2- constantly scanning the horizon,
3- taking lots of data in and process it, and
4- adjusting course if necessary.”

When launching a startup, it is absolutely necessary for you to make sure that you and your co-founders fit these descriptions. There are a ton of unknowns and underlying assumptions at the beginning – metrics, stickiness, business model, etc. – that need to be explored and verified. By doing so, you will limit the risk of your company and see if there is truly a market for your product. And if, through your experiments, you see a bunch of red flags about your idea, do not be discouraged. Failing fast is good. You learn a lot- both about your product and about yourself. So if your assumptions are incorrect, get back out there and test new ones.

Just some final things to think about:

- Be flexible and build for flexibility in the future. It’s important to have the ability to adapt to change.

- The game is never over in any area. There is always change occurring. Out of the top 15 most visited sites on the web, more than half didn’t exist 7 years ago.

VC Series: Josh Kopelman

I’ll be continuing my VC series posts tomorrow. I have two more left (as of now) for the...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:29:00 -0400

I’ll be continuing my VC series posts tomorrow. I have two more left (as of now) for the series- one post on Josh Kopelman’s (First Round) talk and another post on a VC panel we had that included Marissa Campise (Venrock), Christina Cacioppo (USV), Adam Ludwin (RRE) and Phin Barnes (First Round). For today though, I’d like to share something that became clear to me this past week.

There’s been a lot of interest in entrepreneurship lately, especially in NYC. This is great and I’m glad more people are starting to pursue their ideas and dreams. But recently, I’ve also seen writing (specifically from Eric Ries) stating that entrepreneurship isn’t “sexy” - that in fact it’s boring and very ugly. I cannot completely agree with that statement because I love (as I’m sure Eric does) the daily excitement of trying to create a product, brand and company. But there is a lot of truth to his statement.

Finding initial customers can take weeks of searching Google, twitter, LinkedIn and other networks followed by cold emails to all of the leads you find. The same is also true on the VC side- sourcing deals is a lot about fielding email, meeting with people, following up with more emails, and then following up again with some more email. That is the type of stuff I believe Eric is talking about when he says entrepreneurship is “ugly.” And I think it’s important for people to know that there are a lot of these unsexy tasks to do when starting a company (or getting into VC).

VC Series: Fred Wilson

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:14:00 -0400

Last week, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures (check out their portfolio) came to TechStars to meet with a few companies. Afterward, he stuck around to give a quick speech and answer some questions. Here are some of the important concepts he spoke about:

How to simplify your pitch:
-Less is more: don’t overcomplicate your story with a bunch of facts. Just get your idea across- explain what your product does, what problem it solves, and why investors should care.
-One simple slide can say it all: it is possible to get your idea across clearly in one slide. Try to do it. If not, stick to 6 slides maximum. (For more on “simplifying your pitch,” check out this blog post).

Things Fred looks for when investing:
-Really likeable teams: teams that have genuine chemistry
-Good progress: a track record of success in past companies or in the current company

How to create an aura around your company:
-This has a lot to do with the founders. They have to be both internally and externally focused.
-This means that getting outside of the office and networking is crucial. Go to hackathons, meetups, or any other type of events where you can meet influencers who care about your product. Show them your passion!

How to do testing with just a small user-base:
-Be analytical of your early users. Track what they are and aren’t doing.
-Have some benchmarks set up so you know whether or not you’re meeting your goals. Having benchmarks also motivates you to work hard to make progress.

Thoughts on “App Fatigue”:
-Ignore the people who talk about there being app fatigue in the market.
-In reality: the opposite is happening. People are becoming increasingly more comfortable downloading apps every day.

Thoughts on balancing media attention and product usability:
-Be careful not to get a lot of attention before you have real usage of your product
-Good example of this: KickStarter. Stayed off the radar until they had a well-working product up and running.
-Bad example: Color. Raised $40+ million before they even had a product. Resulted in extremely high expectations from the get-go. And expectations that high are very difficult to live up to.

Finally: How to maximize value from TechStars (this advice is also applicable to anyone building a startup):
-There are two halves to these programs. The first half is moving your product forward. Fred calls this the “internal” half. Obviously, it’s important that your product is constantly improving and that your traction is up and to the right.
-The second half is the “external” half. Companies must make sure that people are paying attention to their team and product.
-Both the internal and external focuses are extremely important.

For more insight from Fred, check out his blog

VC Series: Fred Wilson

VC Series: Chris Dixon

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:23:00 -0400

A week ago, Chris Dixon of Founder Collective came into TechStars to give a talk over dinner. The talk turned into more of a Q&A session, but Chris was was nonetheless very insightful (as usual). Here are some of the main points he touched upon:

-When looking to raise capital, make sure to raise at least 18 months worth of cash. You’ll end up needing more than you expect.

-As an entrepreneur, don’t make the obvious mistakes. The obvious mistakes are things along the lines of not asking for references on lawyers, VCs, etc. Chris also dislikes it when founders are replaced with “professional” CEOs.

-Successful founders usually have not only a product-market fit, but a founder-market fit. By founder-market fit, Chris means that the founder is solving a problem that he himself feels, or is building a product targeted at his own demographic.

-Why do some companies (like foursquare) win out over very similar companies (like Gowalla)? Because companies like foursquare create an aura about their product that gives users a positive perception of the company. And the #1 way to influence brand perception is by having a founder who eats, sleeps, breathes and lives his product (i.e. Dennis Crowley).

-Don’t rely on SEO as a core strategy for your product.

-To get your product to be huge: Either become part of somebody’s “T-shirt rotation” (metaphor I heard from Eric Friedman), or insert yourself in one of the key flows (i.e. Google, twitter, Facebook, etc.). Use the main flows as channels to your site if you can’t become one of the main flows yourself.

-Consumer internet is extremely crowded right now, but there are definitely some awesome companies out there.

-At the end of the game, founders want to own at least 10% of their company.

-Closing thoughts: Get really good at two things. Being great at one thing is valuable, but being great at two things makes you unique and a lot more valuable than a guy with just one great skill.

VC Series: Chris Dixon

This Week: VC Series

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 19:48:00 -0400

This week I’ll be posting details about a handful of VC talks we’ve had at TechStars. A few times a week, VCs come in to meet with several of the companies and then go on to give an hour talk + Q&A. The VCs that have come through so far include the likes of Fred Wilson (of Union Square Ventures), Chris Dixon (of Founder Collective) and Josh Kopelman (of First Round Capital). Each brings a different perspective to the table and delivers what they believe to be important lessons for a startup (and if they believe it, then you should too). Bottom line is: the experience and insight these guys bring to the table are extremely valuable and something that should be shared with the tech community. The series will start tomorrow with a post on Chris Dixon’s talk about important advice for founders.

betashop: 57 Things I've Learned Founding 3 Tech Companies

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 15:25:39 -0400

betashop: 57 Things I've Learned Founding 3 Tech Companies:

betashop:

I’ve been founding and helping run technology companies since 1999. My latest company is fabulis.com. Here are 57 lessons I’ve learned along the way. I could have listed 100+ but I didn’t want to bore you.

1. Build something you are personally passionate about. You are your best focus group.

Common Themes from TechStars Mentor Meetings

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:00:00 -0400

I’ve been at TechStars for about 2 weeks now, so I want to discuss some themes I’ve noticed from the 20 or so meetings I’ve attended. These meetings basically involve the TechStars companies pitching their ideas to visiting mentors / VCs in order to receive some feedback on their products (and perhaps some future funding). By identifying these themes and sharing them, I believe it will help entrepreneurs realize the important concepts to think about when forming a company. So here they are:

Theme 1: Recurring question#1 from VC / mentor: How do you see yourself different than “Competitor X”? As a founder - or even member of the team - you must know the answer to this question and be able to explain it very clearly. Founders hold the vision of where the product is heading, so as a founder it is likely clear to you why your product is “different” and “better.” But mentors and VCs may not see you as anything different unless you phrase your product in a way that makes sense to them. When pitching to an investor, you want them to have that “ahhh” moment (and have it early). If at the end of your meeting you seem like you’re just another version of something else, why would anyone invest in your product?

Theme 2: Recurring question#2 from VC / mentor: What is your business model? (i.e. how do you make money?) So this is a question that makes a ton of sense. I mean, at the end of the day you are a business and businesses need to make money. A lot of teams these days build products without an idea of how they are going to make money- and usually they answer with a classic “We’re going to build a huge user base and then monetize through advertising.” Well OK- but what type of advertising? What methods are you going to use? Are those ads going to ruin the user experience and then destroy the product? You don’t need to have a definitive answer to the question of how you are going to make money, but you at least need to have an idea ( or 2 or 3) of potential revenue streams for your company.

Theme 3: The challenge of getting your initial users and keeping them engaged The best way for startups to get their initial users is to “grab the low-hanging fruit.” Basically, go after the niche communities that are very likely to want to use your product. These communities vary based on the type of startup. But in order for you to test your hypotheses about your product, you need to get those initial users who care about the problem you’re trying to solve. Once you have those users, you can use different metrics to track how engaged they are and then do case studies on what keeps those users engaged. As Jeff Jarvis would say, your best users are like your partners. If they love your product, then they’ll help you promote it.

Theme 4: Pitching your startup by showing it first Meetings can basically be split into two buckets: the ones where the mentors understand the product within the first 5 minutes, and the ones where the mentors figure it out with 5 minutes (or less) left. You do NOT want to be in the latter category because then you have minimal or no time to receive feedback from these mentors. And receiving feedback is the whole purpose of these meetings, isn’t it? So here’s an observation I had- the companies who show their product early in meetings rather than trying to give a whole description are the same companies who maximize their meetings. When you think about it, this makes sense. Presumably these companies all have pretty great ideas that are not in existence in their exact form, which means that they’re explaining a new concept. And a new concept is hard to understand unless there is a concrete example. The same goes for products. Beginning a meeting with an example of what your product does and then letting a mentor / VC ask questions after the demo is the most efficient method I’ve seen for maximizing a meeting.

These are the four main themes I’ve noticed, but I will add some more after reviewing my notes.

Common themes from TS mentor meetings

Doing your homework before the test

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:20:00 -0400

At almost every single tech event I attend, I hear the same type of question over and over again: “Hi ________ (insert name of successful entrepreneur or VC guy). I’m really passionate about the startup scene and I want to learn about it in order to get involved in the community. How can I do this?” And 99 percent of the time, the successful entrepreneur or VC guy is tired of hearing this question.

If you’re really passionate about the startup scene, why have you not learned about it already? Why do you need to “grab coffee” with someone so that you can “talk in person” about things you can easily find on their twitter, Quora and blog? If you say you want to get involved in the tech startup scene - or anything for that matter - don’t waste your time (and other peoples’ time) asking them questions that you can easily get answered on your own with very little effort. Go online, and READ. A LOT. Do your homework before you get to the test.

There are a ton of resources out there that can probably answer any question you have- and if there’s a question of yours that is not answered on the internet, then that is the question you should be asking Mr. / Mrs. successful entrepreneur or VC guy. And elusive, high-caliber questions like those are the ones that will really get you some attention.

Anyways, for all the people out there who are “passionate” about tech and the startup scene (or for people who simply just want to learn more about it to see if it interests them), I welcome you to check out these *amazing* resources for you to learn more:

http://www.avc.com/
http://viniciusvacanti.com/
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/
cdixon.org
marketing.fm
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/
http://ycombinator.com/lib.html
Quora.com

As usual, feel free to reach out with any questions.

Do your homework before…

Summary: "How to Get a Job at a Startup"

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:42:00 -0400

I just got back from a Skillshare class on “how to get a job at a startup.” The class was co-taught by Eric Friedman and Christina Cacioppo, two successful, insightful and extremely nice people. For those who aren’t familiar with their backgrounds- Eric heads Business Development at foursquare (and was formerly at Union Square Ventures), and Christina is currently at Union Square Ventures. Needless to say, the class was a huge success, so I’d like to summarize the key points that are a must-know for anyone looking to land a job at a startup.

1-know what sectors you are (and aren’t) interested in (i.e. mobile, eCommerce, etc.)

2-if you have specific companies in mind: be a power user of their product, know the company’s competitors, and think of ways you would improve the given company’s product

3-if you are “cold” emailing an employee, don’t just ask for the classic “coffee conversation;” as Eric states in this blog post, you need to put in at least 5 times more effort than the employee is putting in for you to really grab their attention.

4-what is one way you can grab that employee’s attention? list 2-3 issues the company is dealing with and propose solutions for those issues. Even if you’re wrong, they’ll still appreciate the effort enough to respond.

5-have an online presence. Write blog posts, be active on twitter, ask questions on Quora. But most importantly, be yourself. Don’t force posts about topics you hate just to make you sound like you know what you’re talking about. Ultimately, if you’re not passionate and in love with what you are doing (or trying to do), you’re only hurting yourself because you’ll end up unhappy.

Please feel free to reach out with questions for more details.

Summary: “How to Get a Job at a Startup”