TechDrawl - Latest Comments in The California State of Mind

Re: The California State of Mind

MikeSchinkel — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:35:12 -0000

It doesn't have to be Fortune 500's, it just has to be paying customers. "Paying customers" can be "small businesses", "medium-sized businesses", "government agencies", "military installations", "non-profit organizations", or even "consumers." The bottom line is that the requirement to find customers doesn't damn us to mediocrity, it actually ensures superiority. You don't have to stop shooting for the stars, you just need to be able to eat during the journey. But don't take my reply to assume I'm saying it will be easy; it will be damn hard. Ask any funded CEO in the valley and my guess is they will all say they worked/are working their a**es off. And that's the fun of it all.

Re: The California State of Mind

Nick — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:10:41 -0000

Maybe I'm misunderstanding but wouldn't this method create a system in which companies can only survive if they latch onto the Fortune 500s? Wouldn't this limit the potential businesses that are ABLE to start up? This doesn't exactly get at the fact that money is dry here... What you're arguing for is "non-flexible dollars" in which dollars are achieved only if they have successful partners that unevenly have a say in the business/product direction. If you ask me, this still damns Atlanta to mediocrity if I understand your prescription well enough.

Re: The California State of Mind

telanon — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:07:26 -0000

Very well written article, Russ. I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Re: The California State of Mind

MikeSchinkel — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:21:56 -0000

Charlie, Thanks for attending AWE on the 18th. "Adopt a Startup" is a great idea. Any chance you want to take the lead in coordinating that? I will definitely help you with it if so. -Mike

Re: The California State of Mind

Charlie Hubbard — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:45:35 -0000

So I just recently attended the Atl Web Entrepreneur meeting where Scott Burkett and Unblakeable outlined the same sort of issues they saw with Atl startup community. They, very much like you, pointed to the fact the model is different here in the South, and that we aren't the valley. However, they claimed that there are funding sources to be had now, and that funding IS NOT the problem. However, you're article suggests otherwise if I read it correctly. And, in fact this lack of funding leads to poor choices to funding startups. This sounds right to me. I think your point of customer driven development is a practical approach to overcoming our differences with Silicon Valley. In fact, I think it's probably more efficient to think about the problem that way as opposed to Silicon Valley model. Find customers. If you can do that then you have a business. I think Scott and Blake were suggesting this as well albeit through a slightly different approach. They wanted to engage startups and successful entrepreneurs. I suggested a "Adopt a Startup" campaign model. Find companies that are willing to provide some minimal resources, office space, servers, etc, for them the startup get off the ground. That would connect the startup and industry together. Give the startup access to industry experience and potentially provide industry with access to fresh ideas. If we can get our companies incubating startups that might complement their markets then we could accomplish what you are suggesting. Help start ups find customers in their potential markets and help identify problems industry faces faster. The only way is to get the dialog between them going.

Re: The California State of Mind

Charles Lumpkin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:42:04 -0000

This echos my thoughts in a much more elegant way. Keep it coming.

Re: The California State of Mind

MikeSchinkel — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:40:59 -0000

Thanks for clarifying. Starting a business is hard. Deciding to stop something you've invested your heart and soul into can be even harder. I completely get where you are coming from regarding the difficult of finding customers who can say yes and say it now. Here's hoping your current stint will prepare you for your next venture and that it won't be too far into the future.

Re: The California State of Mind

Marc Nathan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:32:01 -0000

Russell, 
 
I am extremely impressed with this post since it describes the startup community situation in Houston, Texas with 98% accuracy. The only differences are basically cosmetic - we have a more active angel community, via the Houston Angel Network (<a href="http://www.houstonangelnetw...)" target="_blank">http://www.houstonangelnetw...)</a> and we have the second highest number (instead of the third highest for Atlanta) of Fortune 500 headquarters in the US, with 23. The point that I'm agreeing with is that it is both foolish and wasteful to try to replicate the culture and infrastructure of a region that is built exclusively on one industry - that is a little like trying start a marathon when the leader is 20 miles ahead of you already. Certain areas have a built-in expertise - it's in their DNA. The simple truth is Silicon Valley is to startups, just as Hollywood is to entertainment, Detroit is to automobiles and Houston is to the energy industry. Building a vibrant, diverse and most of all profitable startup community has to be created just like an individual startup company - one customer at a time. Customer Driven Development applies to economic regions as well - who are the potential clients (current industries)? what do they need (really, what do their own clients need)? what can they pay (does the market exist)? I believe that more non-Silicon Valley communities are starting to realize that high growth and wealth generation can and will happen via the 'Creative Class' workers including web startups. We are also starting to see a grassroots effort to collaborate and share best practices - in our case Houston and Atlanta share a couple of passionate and community focused guys like Paul Stamatiou and Kumar Thangudu (currently my intern for the summer at the Houston Technology Center). 
 
Overall, I welcome the chance to keep this conversation going and I personally want to make sure that we can all put our web-based startups on the map in the global marketplace of ideas regardless of the fact that we don't have California Zip codes on our letterheads. 
 
Marc Nathan 
Director of Entrepreneur Development, Information Technology Sector 
Houston Technology Center 
<a href="http://www.houstontech.org" target="_blank">http://www.houstontech.org</a> 
P.S. Houston Technology Center is very similar to ATDC, but we recognize that as a 'formal' established organization we have to partner with more 'informal' grassroots organizations like coworking sites and IT-related meetup groups like OpenCoffee Club and NetSquared in order to truly be called a startup community.

Re: The California State of Mind

Nancy Chambers — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:11:15 -0000

I will have to admit that the lack of attention to market needs as a MAJOR consideration in product design and feature prioritization is amazing among Atlanta companies. Our firm does market validation studies, which measure how well new concepts meet market needs, and we have done very few studies of this type for Atlanta companies. Most of our business of this type has come from other regions where development by trial and error is considered a waste of resources.

Re: The California State of Mind

Chris Morris — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:41:18 -0000

I should be clear there were a few people that did think it was a good idea. You were one of them. However most people thought it had too many "moving pieces" or was not a technology company. (ie: what am I going to protect on the IP side) But really the issue for me was the way that technology/new offerings end up in stadiums. The concessionaires don't drive the process. Instead the owners mandate the changes on their contracts. So this would mean we have to build it, get it working somewhere and then shop the venue owners as they renew their contracts. Multiple large venue owners told us they would be willing to mandate it on their contract renew but that time frame is 1 - 2 years away. After all that was done we would begin to discover if people in stadiums would actually use it. Really I see it as a perfect type of idea that someone like me (no public success) could never get working in Atlanta. As far as the Atlanta startup scene, I have no idea what it will look like in the future. Most days I feel like most people involved in it are struggling to put food on the table for their families. I have always said the thing that would move this community forward the fastest would be the startups that are currently “making it” (if there are any) to get the failed startup folks jobs where they can learn what success looks like. Naturally you have to have a filter for the, simply not qualified people, but at the end of the day there are a few smart people that have shown potential in other fields have tried to do a startup in Atlanta and were no where close. It would be more of a “community” if instead of losing those people we actively tried to find them roles in working startups. (I realize it sounds like I am talking about myself, really I am not. I did not even try to get a job in a startup here.)

Re: The California State of Mind

MikeSchinkel — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:02:26 -0000

Damn typos. First paragraph was supposed to be (w/asterisks marking typos): "That's really depressing. I for one thought SeatSnack was a great idea; hopefully I *gave* you that impression when you explained it to me. If *for* any reason I didn't I deeply regret that."

Re: The California State of Mind

MikeSchinkel — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:00:26 -0000

Chris: That's really depressing. I for one thought SeatSnack was a great idea; hopefully I have you that impression when you explained it to me. If you any reason I didn't I deeply regret that. That said, at least you've got a salary now and I hope this doesn't mean you are forever gone from the Atlanta Startup scene. I always thought your energy was infectious. Maybe you were just too early in the startup phases for Atlanta? -Mike

Re: The California State of Mind

Russell Jurney — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:46:43 -0000

I see. I thought that is what you meant by, "They were willing to go deep on their side of the equation if we would do the tech side."

Re: The California State of Mind

Chris Morris — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:13:49 -0000

I have no idea how you got that. I don't have any equity in the company I currently work at. I did Servinity as a partner and SeatSnack as the CEO. With SeatSnack we tried to follow the four steps model. From that I discovered that you really can go and get a customer without a product, something I did not believe when working on Servinity. However, even with one local arena to build with us, I did not think we had something that I could get the ATL scene to support. For various reasons including some of the thought leaders in the ATL scene not thinking it was a "good idea". So both companys have been shut down. So I went and got a job.

Re: The California State of Mind

Russell Jurney — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:06:33 -0000

Kumar: Atlanta has great brain capital, and it has lacked a community hub in the past. But now we have that hub at Tech square, and we have many connectors that are willing to help. You've just got to seek the help out. Its available. The help I'm receiving right now from entrepreneurs older and more experienced than me is more valuable than any amount of money an investor could give me. Pop Quiz Answers: 1) I can name 150+ startups, thanks to Paul Freet. 2) ATDC is a technology incubator that helps make great startups. 3) Atlanta's industries... I'll get into that in my next article. You're onto something ;) What if we identified them, and then made sure to get their help in crafting products they and others in their industries would buy?

Re: The California State of Mind

Russell Jurney — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:02:45 -0000

I see, so you were able to translate your vision and hard work into an equity stake and a salary at an existing startup? There's all kinds of happy endings, and new beginnings like that happening, and its a great, great thing.

Re: The California State of Mind

Chris Morris — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:41:16 -0000

I am an employee now. The company has been around for one year. So it is still basically a startup, just not a tech one.

Re: The California State of Mind

Russell Jurney — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:59:00 -0000

Chirs - one clarification - are you still building a startup, or are you an employee at that company?

Re: The California State of Mind

Chris Morris — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:22:54 -0000

Russell, I realized something about the ATL scene when I started asking establish players what three ATL startups I should try to go work at, maybe for free, if I wanted to learn something about being successful in Atlanta. This list is short but most people refused to answer it. If you are working on a startup that is not using a customer development model, stop coding, right now. Make a customer pitch deck and pitch customers. I did this with SeatSnack. I had nothing that we were pitching, but we found a customer that would build it with us. A local established company that was already doing concessions. They were willing to go deep on their side of the equation if we would do the tech side and grow the business after it was built at their establishment. We also learned a TON about the industry and identified that our dreams of quick meaningful revenue were out of touch with how the industry works. Then it was personal decision time, did I think I could get the support behind me and my team that I would need to make this work, to any extent? Short answer: no. SeatSnack simply is not the type of company people in ATL seem to be very excited about. Maybe that never would have matter but I did not wank to find out for $10k a month. So now I work for a fast growing manufacturing company a hour away from the city. Everyday I get to focus on making the business better not raising money, not growing outside support. We simply execute and refine to execute better. I may not be living the dream I think but this is a much better use of my time then the last year I spent writing code that no one really cared about.

Re: The California State of Mind

MikeSchinkel — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:48:09 -0000

Not to be contrary as I do believe Russel made a great post and agree with you on that, but as you asked for how many startups in Atlanta, how about 157 early stage[1] & 26 later stage[2]? [1] <a href="http://atllogos.com/index.h..." target="_blank"><a href="http://atllogos.com/index.h..." target="_blank">http://atllogos.com/index.h... [2] <a href="http://atllogos.com/index.h..." target="_blank"><a href="http://atllogos.com/index.h..." target="_blank">http://atllogos.com/index.h...

Re: The California State of Mind

Kumar — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:40:08 -0000

Great Post. Twitter-no revenue model- gets VC funded. What happens in Silicon Valley stays in Silicon Valley. Atlanta is not a silicon valley, and we shouldn't try to make it one. Atlanta has great brain capital. It lacks Community hub and Connectors. Simple Exercise: How many startups can you name? In 10 words or less what does the ATDC do? What is Atlanta's industry?(ie. oil & gas, financial, biotech, energy, nanotech) See what I mean?

Re: The California State of Mind

Jason — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:55:20 -0000

Actually getting a team up right now to address this situation, we are looking for other interested in getting this going too. Drop me a line at jason.erik.green@gmail.com

Re: The California State of Mind

Ajai Karthikeyan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:28:10 -0000

Props to Russell on a well written post - great content. I am with Celia on the 4 Steps to the Epiphany and ordered a copy myself.

Re: The California State of Mind

Celia Dyer — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:30:06 -0000

I just ordered Steve Blank's '4 Steps to the Epiphany.' After I've read it, I'm glad to lend it out.

Re: The California State of Mind

Bill Braasch — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:45:22 -0000

Eric Reis, white courtesy telephone. Eric worked with Steve Blank's ideas at his startup and has developed the ideas into a set of practices. Here's a link to his blog: <a href="http://startuplessonslearne..." target="_blank"><a href="http://startuplessonslearne..." target="_blank">http://startuplessonslearne... The Lean Startup model is a more efficient way to invest in the idea. Eric integrates continuous deployment and a fail fast approach. It's a race to best iterate the idea more often than it's an idea nobody else has. From there, it's about learning and executing.