No Snivelling

It's finally here -- the Seattle 2.0 Awards live event is upon us. And, Marcelo's asked me to present the award this evening to the Best Seattle-Area Venture Capitalist.

The finalists?

• Bill Bryant - Draper Fisher Jurvetson
• Bill McAleer - Voyager Capital
• Matt McIlwain - Madrona Venture Group
• Nick Hanauer - Second Avenue Partners

Of course, as an entrepreneur, I love them all pretty much equally... well, not really... Matt's actually cut TeachStreet checks, so I may call out his name regardless of what's in the envelope ;-) ).

But, the voters have spoken, so 3 will have to leave the island, and 1 will get to spend a weekend with me in Spokane -- it'll be wonderful.

Oh... if you'd like to participate in the event, but can't make it in the door (or, don't live in Seattle), they'll also be streaming the event live.

Labels: entrepreneur, seattle 2.0, seattleawards, startup

I admit that my blogging has trailed off as of late. What with Twitter, TeachStreet blogging and articles, and life in general, it's seemed less important to be posting on No Snivelling. But, a good amount of planning went into tonight's Brad Feld event, so just in case I missed any loyal readers, here goes:

Brad Feld will be coming to Seattle and tonight, he's doing an event called Beers and Boulder with Brad. He'll be talking about entrepreneurial communities, the critical importance of entrepreneurship and innovation today, TechStars, what we�ve done in Boulder to drive entrepreneurship that can apply to other cities such as Seattle, and why they're expanding TechStars to Boston. He'll then stick around until they kick us out answering any and all questions and talking with whoever wants to hang out.

I helped organize the event as part of TeachStreet's goal to help people "Learn Something New" -- in this case, how to get off your butt and start a company!

Three great sponsors � Beacon Law Advisors, Square 1 Bank, and Microsoft BizSpark are underwriting the event.

If you aren�t in Seattle tonight, the event will be streamed live. If you are in Seattle, come join us.

Labels: beacon law advisors, bradfeld, daveschappell, ignite seattle, microsoft bizspark, square1bank, startup, teachstreet, techstars

In the early days of TeachStreet, I was working out of coffee shops, my dining room and pretty much anywhere I could find a power outlet. About that time, I met Jacob Sayles (pictured above with his co-founder (and co-janitor) Susan), who had the idea to create a coworking space in Seattle, where individuals could band/work together in a group space, with each person paying a monthly fee (or daily fees, if needs were less frequent) to have the rights to use a large office space. It's been a few months, but I'm so excited to announce that Seattle's Office Nomads has officially opened for business!

Of course, you can get all the pertinent details via the link above, but if you're considering a startup in Seattle, this is exactly the type of first step that can get you moving your dream from idea to reality -- get yourself a space where you can focus your thinking/plans, and surround yourself with other creators -- the energy's contagious!

From their site:
Open for drop-ins Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 6pm
1617 Boylston Ave, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98122-6730
Main: (206) 323-6500 Fax: (206) 323-6501

There's a short video intro to coworking on the Office Nomads site (I tried to embed here, but the link code just kept breaking)

Labels: coworking, jacobsayles, officenomads, seattle, startup

I have an all new appreciation for everything that needs to get done to start a company. Going forward, I make the following public pledge:

1) Far fewer unsolicited opinions for friends with startup companies :-)
2) Far more tolerance for slow email and phone replies from friends at startups
3) Much more understanding for people's inability to stay current on all of the goings-on in the blogosphere/TechCrunch world
4) Strong appreciation for how impossible it is to stay up-to-date on Twitter :-)

With that said, here's some more unsolicited advice for people contemplating starting a company, who are still employed elsewhere:

a) Spend 10% of every week networking (with potential engineers, designers, marketers, fundraising sources, etc. -- basically, anywhere you'd have a skillset need in your startup)
-- I did a B to C level job of this, before jumping in -- if I had to do it over again, I'd have emphasized this much more during my tenure at Amazon, rather than just establishing relationships in work situations, I could have reached out beyond my direct groups/teams

b) Spend 5% of every week learning something new, to a point where you know enough to be dangerous (e.g. which email marketing tool is best for 80% purposes, and how to use it)
-- I did an A job at this -- it's paid off tremendously (SEO, email, blogging, accounting, Wikis, etc.)

c) Sleep... a lot... because you're going to get a lot less of it when you make the plunge :-)

Onward!

Labels: advice, networking, startup

I've been trying to start this company by working out of coffeeshops, but I'm happy to have discovered early on that that just isn't going to work. I need a whiteboard, a printer and a place to leave "my stuff". I think we all aspire to the exposed brick and timber ceiling'd loft, but at this point, I think I'll settle for a spot with a lock on the door!

If you know of anyone in downtown Seattle who's got a few hundred square feet of sublease space (or coworking space like OfficeNomads is contemplating), please let me know ASAP -- I really need it starting Wednesday of next week!

Dave

Labels: co-working, coworking, seattle, startup

I've been in a bit of a blogging funk -- my reason is a good one. I'm going on public record that I'm starting a company. There. I said it!

As part of that process, I got sidetracked reading local Seattle entrepreneur Andy Sack's blog -- he's the driving force behind community review site turned local deal and coupon site Judy's Book.

What I found so compelling is that he opened up and shared the good and the bad from the Judy's Book trials and tribulations. Along the way they found some things going well (and vice versa) and they decided to change course -- it makes for incredibly interesting reading.

To save you some time, here are my favorite posts from August 2006 thru May 2007:

* If you're considering a User Generated Content (UGC) site, set rules for contributing editors up front -- tell them what you want / give guidelines/ideas
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
* Give users control -- be open to different uses you didn't anticipate

* Talk to Customers!!! What do they want/value most? How to deliver (beyond just reviews)?
Focus on 'only local' wasn't working -- product had created too many empty local silos

* life for local UGC sites is hard - achieving critical mass in local is hard / attracting+keeping consumers is hard (difficult to convert & then convert to loyal) / SEO is hard

* Life for local UGC sites can be easy - Easier Stuff (PR/Story, Offers&Discounts, Q&A&Community, Status&Validation)

* Leadership is about many things � Simplicity is a big one

* Focus on small before trying to conquer the world - create the �best foo� for a niche / neighborhood / topic, before working to scale (or, a city...)

* Guy Kawasaki lessons... Make meaning/mantra, jump to next/10x curve, don�t worry/be crappy, let a hundred flowers blossom, churn baby churn, chine thyself, 10/20/30 rule, don�t let bozos grind you down

* Speed matters... Easy navigation matters... Use underlined links

* keep organization size to less than 20... Less than 10 ideally... Eliminate need for extra mgmt level

* Good Keyword analysis tools for SEO

* don�t game the system... But DO educate the system... Teach your users how to leverage best practices

* Tips for UGC site (for Keith at peerwisdom.com) -- focus/focus/focus, address daily needs, address needs that solve passionate problems

* think deeply about the business process for content generation � how to ensure Quality content?

* before talking to the media, get ahold of your metaphor

* focusing on younger demographic... More prone to write reviews... make your customers feel loved

* link to Dick Costolo�s post about fear of failure vs. confidence in ideas... Entrepreneurs are all scared about whether the idea will work... Just find a market oppty that seems like it will need to be addressed and for which we feel we have an angle... Then pull out shovels and start digging... Figure out the rest as you go!
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
* Low Risk hiring... They come from referrals! Great resumes and interviews don�t make great hires

* Time is the Enemy... part 2...

* Pick your partners carefully � you�ll learn their true natures when the chips are down
entrepreneurial perseverance counts for a lot!

Labels: andy sack, judys book, seattle, startup, ugc, user generated content

Many of the startups at Web 2.0 Expo seemed like they were built to be acquired. One of the speakers made a wise recommendation -- "If you're considering a startup, act like there's no acquiror out there."

That will force you to think about building something that can generate value for customers that, over time, will be something they'll be willing to pay for.

Labels: acquisition, startup, web2expo

Just read a great post by Paul Graham of YCombinator fame (he probably did something else too :-) ). Talks about the fact that it isn't about the 'quality' of the startup idea. Instead, the "main value of your initial idea is that, in the process of discovering it's broken, you'll come up with your real idea."

He then recommended that instead of saying what your idea IS, you should instead pose is as a question, "could we accomplish this idea/goal?". That changes the way you think about it and instead of proving your idea wrong, it allows you to expand your thinking.

Go find an intolerable problem and nurture the feeling that "it must be possible to solve it" and question how you would do so -- Paul posits that "simple as it seems, that's the recipe for a lot of startup ideas."

I'm really enjoying Paul's essays.

Labels: idea, paulgraham, startup, ycombinator