“Get. Your prototype. Built. Now.”
Last fall I caught up with my friend Sam Rosen. He was struggling a bit - pitching an idea without a technical cofounder, trying to learn to code himself, and generally not sure whether he should keep going or take one of the other cool opportunities coming his way.
While his idea was solid, he didn’t have a prototype to show for it. He had the hustle, just no technical support. My advice was to get his prototype built no matter what. ”Yeah but you’ve got Dan.” Sam Said.
He’s right. I met Dan - our CTO - in college and we’ve been working together ever since. Finding a technical cofounder has never been an issue for me.
I didn’t care. Sam’s an athlete who was just in a rut. Tough-love was the antidote. “Get. Your prototype. Built. Now.” I repeated. Or as he said in this WeAreNYTech feature (a huge compliment. Thanks Sam)…
One day I met a friend, Reece Pacheco, for coffee and he gave me a much needed Jim Valvano-esque pep talk. He just implored getting to an MVP.
Fast forward to today and Sam’s been picked up by Dave McClure’s 500 Startups! I’m so stoked for him and SpeakerGram.
I knew he had the passion and drive to get it done - after all, I heard Sam once chased Tim Ferris into a cab to pitch him. So let this be a lesson to all of you with an idea… find a way to get it done!
It doesn’t have to be perfect - it really shouldn’t be anyway - but if you want to build something… JFDI.
Put your personality in your product
Those of us working in ‘tech’ love to obsess over hot innovations and cool features in the latest apps, but at the end of the day most consumer web products “win” with their overall voice and vision.*
If you look at some of the best communities - Tumblr, Foursquare, Twitter and now Bnter, Forrst and Quora - there is an instant feeling that comes with the user experience that cannot be underrated. Those applications have personality… and “personality goes a long way.”
Letting your voice come through should be easy, right?
Nope. When we built HomeField, we were “scratching our own itch” as athletes, but we knew our former coaches (the buyers) and we felt that ultimate utility and efficiency informed their purchasing decisions. Consequently, HomeField was elegant, easy to use, and efficient, but it lacked charisma. Coaches were too busy to care about witty copy and fun UX.
We were right to restrain ourselves, but it killed us to do so! I remember countless product sessions with Dan and Joe when we said “it’d be hilarious to put a link to this funny video here” or “give them a game to play while uploading.” We did it once and the customers didn’t appreciate it… at all. :(
But now’s our chance… Shelby.tv is us. It’s the product we want now. It’s the way we want to communicate. It’s a chance for us to be ourselves, at present… not having to maintain our strength and scoring stats from college just to make a sale. [And for the record, Joe was better than all of us… ok? There I said it.]
Thinking back on it, I can’t even tell you the score of every game I played - I mean, I was a starter who took it as seriously as anyone - but I remember every prank we pulled and every laugh behind our coach’s back better than I remember the stats.
So, back to the product…
In considering the potential of Shelby, we’ve been questioned about our passion. We’ve been questioned about who we are and if Shelby speaks to our personality. We’ve been questioned as to whether or not we’re “the right guys” to build Shelby. So to quote the infamous Bill O’Reilly…
This is our voice. This is our product. And this is our company. We know how to build products and we know how to have fun (Four Loko flipcup + karaoke… works every time).
This time around, we get to do both.
So be yourself. Hear feedback, but don’t take it as gospel. Build your product and company the way you want to.
P.S. - I’m embedding a couple commercials we made for HomeField. We made ‘em for the Superbowl but they were rejected. Weird.
*CTO’s - please don’t get me wrong. I know that the underlying technology is paramount to the success of all products, but given comparable stacks, the one with personality will win every time.
P.P.S. - If you clicked through on every link of this post, you can star in our next rejected commercial. Email me.
henry sztul: What is a Great Product?
too busy to blog this AM, but luckily my partner Henry already wrote a good post on “what makes a great product?”
What makes a really great product these days?
Short answer… I don’t know. (and that’s ok, i believe no one *really* does)
Long answer:
Great products are those that give you a deep feeling that you are are truly connected to others. Tumblr, Bookface, Twitter, SoundCloud, rdio, Foursquare,…
Getting Real with Gary V. - ‘everyman philosopher’
On Saturday night, Gary V. leveraged his incredible social media following to take the pre-orders for his new book - The Thank You Economy - to #1 on Amazon (an astounding 202,842% climb in a day).
The guy knows how to move a crowd… but that was online.
So what happens when he’s standing in a room full of hungry young entrepreneurs?
Shit gets real.
I’ve now seen Gary speak three times. Once at NYU, once at TechStars for a day, and most recently, this past Wednesday. Does the guy “crush it?” Yes, he does. He really, really does.
“Why?” do you ask? Because here he was digging into every company in the room, giving them honest feedback… Here he was explaining how he wrestles with his desire to “crush it” versus the time he spends with his family… Here he was explaining how he believes the future lies in “the humanization of business.”
“It’s amazing what you learn when you bury your ego.” Gary’s a polarizing figure. He even asked how many people think/thought he was a douche when they first heard of him. Even in a friendly crowd, many raised their hands. But by the end, I think he turned everyone in his favor.
How? Total honesty about himself and his philosophy of self-awareness.
“If you know who you are, you can win in any situation.” He talked a lot about really embracing who you are and putting that to work for you. For Gary, that’s his natural charisma. Some people get it, some people don’t, but “To [him], the truth is undefeated.”
So now, a room full of people feel that they have a closer connection to Gary - and indeed, they do, he has humanized himself by exposing his neurosis - which in turn makes them customers of his, jumping to buy his book and participate in the business that is Gary V.
I don’t mean to sound skeptical. I honestly believe that Gary is exactly who he is - a passionate, driven, entrepreneur - but what he is, is a business, and a brilliant one at that.
At the end of the day, if I had to describe Gary, I might say he’s an ‘everyman philosopher.’ Whatever you call him: a wine-nut, a business, a person… I’m a fan.
P.S. - Gary posted a video about the night. Humanizing business, right before our eyes.
Tips from the trenches
Matt Galligan isn’t a serial entrepreneur… yet.
I met Matt a few months back, but I recently got to hang a bit more in person and hear him give a talk on his experience with SocialThing, TechStars, and now, SimpleGeo. I won’t recount his whole story, but there are a few points I had to share from his path to being a serial entrepreneur…
On competition: SocialThing had less money, experience, etc than FriendFeed when they entered the game, so their initial reaction was “Holy shit, everything is over,” but that quickly turned to “a space without competition isn’t a space… it’s just you.” Competition validates your market, so don’t freak out… be aware of what they’re up to, but stay focused on your product.
On focus: “It’s easy to think broadly… it’s hard to focus.” In the early days, SocialThing tried to be everything to everyone… but they learned to focus and ended up with a great product and exit.
On work habits: “Asynchronous communication is awesome.” Don’t interrupt your partners with a tap on the shoulder when an email will suffice. If you really must, use IM. It’s ridiculous to IM the person next to you, but it’s far worse to break their concentration because your question can’t wait.
On managing: “You also have to learn to delegate.” So important… you, as a person, just don’t naturally scale. This is one I personally struggled with early on, but as I’ve learned to delegate, I am able to free myself up to do the work on which I need to focus.
Simple tips, but great reminders. Thanks for stopping by, Matt.
“Being a startup sucks.”
Pretty sure that phrase has been heard around the web, but I recently got to hear the guy who said it first - Mike Lazerow - give a talk on the subject.
Some may disagree. “Startups are fun, you make your own hours, you build what you want, you have no one to answer to and you usually get to play some ping pong along the way…”
But you also don’t know what you’re doing, don’t know how to pay the rent and the competition is bigger and stronger than you (they better not be faster, or you’re toast).
What Mike really means is that being a startup - by the true definition of the word, a company in search of a business model (and thus meaningful revenue) - isn’t where you want to stay. Sure, be a startup for a while, but figure it out fast and then be a real company with real customers, revenues and returns.
His advice for getting there was pretty simple.
“1. Never run out of money. 2. Never run out of money. 3. Never run out of money.”
Sure, it seems like a joke, but it’s important. If you need money, you have no leverage. Take what money you have and search for a model as fast as you can…
Then, ”once you have a model, scale faster and louder than anyone else… because the difference between #1 and #2 is HUGE.”
Simple yet salient point and great advice for entrepreneurs. Be a startup until you find your secret sauce, then scale like a bat out of hell.
For more reading, definitely check out Mike’s post “How to raise venture capital (without losing your soul). Easily one of the best posts I’ve ever read on the topic, and it’s all from the entrepreneur’s perspective.
When there is nothing left to burn…
“When there is nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire.”
I love this line.
I’m a pretty optimistic person - by nature, all entrepreneurs must be - but even I’m not immune to a low point now and then. We’ve all been there… development is slow, customer traction is non-existent and investors? You’ve heard “No” more times than a misbehaving toddler.
You can sit there wallowing in your own self-pity, hoping that one of those Nigerian spammers will actually pay up this time…
Or you can just set yourself on fire.
It doesn’t need to be a bonfire. Start small. Just light a match and get one thing done. Then another - fire’s catching now - and another task done - we’re heating up…
Admittedly, the roller-coaster that is a startup has nearly gotten the best of me more than once, but every time I feel stuck, I know I just need to light myself on fire.
My point is, there’s no magic bullet, but any progress will always start with you.
So if you feel like there’s nothing left to burn, try setting yourself on fire.
* Yes, I know this is quoted in a song by Stars, but I couldn’t find the original speaker.
forget “casual Fridays.” it’s “formal Friday” in this office.
“Relationship building is a cumulative process”
Yesterday I was very fortunate to see Howard Morgan, Howard Lindzon and Roger Ehrenberg give insightful tips to a room full of hungry entrepreneurs.
The key takeaway - “relationship building is a cumulative process.”
All three agreed that their best deals are always with great people that they’d built a relationship with prior to making an investment decision.
I think a lot of young entrepreneurs - this one anyway - get fearful of their use of an investor’s time and try to get right to the pot of gold at the end of their startup rainbow.
I remember early meetings with angels - one with Roger himself actually - when I evangelized my cofounders and I as the best team on the face of the planet, showed our market as the biggest industry ripe for disruption, and I had a bulletproof plan for how to make it all happen.
All good right?
Sure… if Roger had known me for more than 10 minutes.
But even if he did there’s an issue - if we’ve got it all figured out, what’s the point of connecting with Roger? He’s not an ATM, so why make it transactional?
Sure, we’ve all heard of startups that pitch at an event and close investors over one drink, but I guarantee they don’t get nearly the kind of advice and support that the best entrepreneurs receive from these truly supportive investors. Howard Lindzon made two excellent points on this.
- “Money is a commodity, so don’t take money from people who don’t add value”
- ‘Integrity is really important. Expose your faults to show where an investor can add value.’
Investors want to invest in lines, not dots, which means you need to get to know them early and build a real relationship so they can draw a line from dot to dot that is trending high and to the right.
It takes time and it can sometimes feel distracting, but I guarantee it’s worth it. Howard L. summed it up nicely, “Make deposits everyday.”
