CES Sucks

Just a quick rant.

CES was cool roughly a decade ago. It was authentic. People who loved consumer electronics got together and geeked out.

Now it is a circus. Better yet a side show. Something that when your sitting outside listening to the hype you feel like it is going to be the coolest thing you've ever seen. Then when you finally get there it sucks. That's CES.

I'm MUCH more excited about the fly fishing show in Denver, CO this weekend. That's a trade show I can definitely get on board with. I just wish I didn't have to hear the constant blog and twitter chatter about what's going to be hot this year. Please.

Besides Vegas sucks.

That is all.

Day 1

Time to get started.

I'm a big believer that you gotta get started. I have suffered from the paralysis of perfection way too many times in my Starting Stuff career and recently I have decided to take the opposite approach. Just start. We've all heard the axiom "How do you eat an elephant"? The answer is NOT "One bite at a time"! That's just dumb. The answer is, "You start eating the fucking elephant!'

So for the sake of posterity, I'm going to back up a few steps to record how I've I gotten here to day 1.

Step One- Come up with an idea.

The myth of the start up says that the power of your startup lays in the idea. This is bullshit. There are no such thing as original ideas. If you've had the idea it is a certainty that 2,000,000 others have had this idea. That is not to say that good ideas are not important. It is critical but just be aware your idea is NOT original.

Here's my basic approach to the idea.

1) Do what you know- I've been in wireless for almost 15 years. It's a bout ALL I know how to do. I'm not certain that it is always a good strategy to do a start up in the space you're most familiar with because doing the same thing for 15 years and then trying to do a start up in the same space could be boring. For me however, I still dig the space and I'm furious the way that the industry has evolved. The cool ideals that we started with in the late 90s have been hijacked by stupid people and stupid companies.

2) Make sure you have a real market- Notice I didn't say you have to have a billion dollar market. That's another myth. If you want to do a deal with the devil and go after VC money a billion dollar market is critical but frankly that is stinky money? A real market is one or more people will buy your stuff, use your service etc. I'm not going to go in to detail here as there are great resources for anyone looking to prove out a market. There is just one take away from this.

Make sure someone is willing to use your shit. Ask real people. Make sure that they are for real. You would be shocked at how many piece just assume that the answer is yes.

I happen to be in a great and growing market. Just about everyone in the US owns a cell phone and the average person gets a new one roughly every 18 months or so. Nothing new here. Just one thing is different. more and more people are buying those phones online. A LOT MORE PEOPLE ARE BUYING PHONES ONLINE.

For the real business dorks: To prove out my market I interviewed roughly 50 people and had a 90+% favorable rate.

3) Make sure your name doesn't suck. My boy Adeo Ressi has beaten me in to submission on this point. Be sure your name doesn't suck. If you think your name may suck it does. Change it. Change it now before you get business cards made up.

For my new project I chose the name: Moblify. I don't think it sucks and it seemed to have pass the Adeo test so I'm going with it. If you want an honest opinion email Adeo. You can contact him through his web site. If you hound him he will get back to you and trust me he will give you HONEST feedback.

Here's the kicker. I don't own the domain. I have Moblify.ME but not .com. The guy who owns it will sell it to me but I want to get a bit further down the road before I buy it from him.

4) Write your idea down- Your idea will change but you need to be able to write it down in a couple of sentences. The full elevator pitch comes later but for now make sure you can articulate your idea in one or two sentences. If you can't you don't have an idea, you have ideas and ideas are not good at this stage. You need one idea and you need to keep it simple.

A quick side note. This is the reason why I'm starting this now instead of 8 months ago. I had ideas! After a lot of soul searching I realized that my ideas are not bad. I think they are pretty good. They are complicated. Complicated things become features and enhancements but they are not THE company.

So here is my company:

Moblify makes wireless carriers compete for your business. LendingTree.Com for cell phones.

BANG!

How sick is Tim TEBOW

I'm starting to drink the cool aid.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

The 90 Day Startup Diet

90 days to a successful startup (or not).

I mentioned in my last post that I'm conducting a 90 day experiment in which I will try to take a startup from idea through launch. To answer the first couple of questions:

Yes, I am insane.
No, I don't sleep much.
No, other than my family I don't have much of a life.

The goal is to see if I can answer the critical question of any startup with in 90 days:

Is this project real or does it need to die?

In my past lives this decision has been a painfully long process.

A couple of disclaimers:
1) I already have a legal entity. In fact I have 4. Which is 3 too many but who's counting.
2) I already have a bank account, credit card, etc.
3) I've done this before. For first time entrepreneurs it takes 90 days just to figure out the difference between a C Corp and S Corp.
4) I have been thinking about this project for a LOOOONG time. I'm not starting this thing cold.
5) I have at leas two other full time jobs. I'm a consultant and I run another start up called Real Good Technologies.
6) I have NO coding skills.
7) I already know a lot of smart people that I'll be using to help guide me. I don't have to forge those relationships but I personally think that part is pretty easy once you put your mind to it.


OK on to the rules:

1) I will spend no more than 90 days on the project. At the end of 90 days, I will publicly launch (for whoever cares) my creation. It may work or it may be smoke and mirrors but I'll launch it.
2) I will spend no more than $10,000. I'll try to raise this through seed investors. This will more than likely be tricky but I'll at least put a cap on the dollar amount in case my idea gets mad traction.
3) I will crowd source every decision I can. Get ready to receive a lot of survey's from me. I'll accept every decision from the crowd accept when the crowd is wrong.
4) I'll try to drop at least one blog per week to share the lessons.
5) I'll accept and am looking for any advice and help.

6) I have the right to kill it early. After a month or so, if there is NO love the project, it dies right then and there.

Am I forgetting any rules? Drop a comment and let me know.

Cheers,

Chris

Scrambled Eggs and Fried Chickens

I was in a series of meetings this week helping a non-profit on get started. This is a group of serious people with serious financial connections and a great idea but they are struggling with the same thing that every start up deals with.

What comes first. . . the chicken or the egg?

Does the product come first(chicken) or does the funding come first (egg).

You need a good product to get money (investment, earned revenues or donations). You need money to build a great product. This challenge has cost me at least 1,000 hair follicles. Recent experiences have given me a new approach.

The Egg = Funding

The egg in our scenario is funding. Most of us think in terms of a single check. A single dollar amount written by a tall man on a white horse that would pay for the entire start up phase. Once funded, you you and your team will brilliantly create the next great American success story.

This idea is a myth and only happens to people from Stanford!

The reality is much dirtier. You use credit cards, take out loans or sell blood platelets. You live day to day, week to week month to month.

Why do people pretend they're from Stanford? Why not plan for the real world?

The Chicken = Product

In our dream scenario, we have tons of time and money to build the perfect product or service that does all things for all people, hits a billion $ market at the perfect time with no competent competitors and we are all tall and good looking.

The reality, once again is much uglier. Most products take way too long to launch and are filled with features that people don't want.

Why does a team of 3 act like they are Apple launching the Ipad?

Scramble the Eggs and Fry the Chicken

Instead of worrying about which comes first: scramble the eggs, fry the chicken and get down to eating.

Scramble the Eggs. . .make a financial plan for ONE quarter. Three months. A bare bones budget. What will it cost you to operate for 90 days. Reduce it by 15% and go raise that amount of money.

Fry the Chicken... List the 10 most important features of your product? Counting down from 1, how many of these can you build in three months? Reduce your target by 1/3 and start building.

What can you get done in three months? How will you pay for it? It's that simple.

OK sounds good. . . how do you raise the money?

For business types, I'm a gigantic fan (despite the fact I'm still waiting for my invite) of Profounder (http://www.profounder.com/) It is a service that let's you go out and raise very small amounts amount of money for a relatively small amount. It works as a very small private placement where profits can be shared with the investors or worthy non-profits. Super cool service that fits my ideas perfectly.

For non-profits go to Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/) or CrowdRise (http://www.crowdrise.com/) both very cool sites that get you up and moving.

Start Eating

You ever cook a meal for so long that by the time you sat down to eat it, you weren't hungry anymore? Not with our Fried Chicken and Scrambled Eggs. . . oh no. . . we need to eat NOW.

At the end of your first quarter you are presumably broke and tired from working your tail off... TOO BAD! Now launch. Go. Get Started.

For perfectionists like me this can drive you nuts. It is physically painful for me to have something out in the world that can been seen and judged that is not PERFECT. At then end of three months, chances are it is not going to be perfect. . . suck it up, swallow your pride and launch. You will learn far more from the launch of an imperfect (or even crapy) product than you will from iterating for a moment longer than 90 days.

Eating my Own Words

I really hate people that give advice freely but never try what they advise (in Texas we would say Those Who Don't Smell Their Own Bullshit). I'm going to try to launch a new project from Jan 1 - March 31 of 2011 following my own rules. I'll announce the project (for all 3 people that read this blog) in the near future and we'll have some fun seeing how full of crap I really am!

Don't Let a Screw Up Become a Fuck Up,

Chris

Hello World. . .

I've often thought that the act of blogging is an incredibly narcissistic exercise. Who, other than my Mom, will find the things that I have to say compelling enough to dedicate a few minutes of their day to reading my blog?

So it is with great humility that I launch my blog Mad Smarts. A couple of notes:

1) The title is meant to be ironic. . . not serious. Despite the fact I have decided to launch a blog I am not so narcissistic as to believe that I am brilliant. On the contrary I am rarely the smartest guy in the room, the brightest light in the harbor or the highest card in the hand BUT I'm smart enough to surround myself with brilliant people and I'm tougher than an old shoe.

2) I have a lot of interests so my blog may wander a bit. I love the start up life and being a Dad. With what little time I have left I love iron distance triathlons, fly fishing, snowboarding, shooting hoops, the CSU Rams and indie music. I do not care for tomatoes, obnoxious christmas decorations, Two and a Half Men and AT&T Wireless.

3) I speak for me. If I piss you off. Be pissed at me. Not the companies I've founded or groups I'm associated with.

I think that about covers it. I hope you enjoy my ramblings are at the very least entertained. . . Mom.