119 karma · joined August 5, 2010
email: will.wertheim@gmail.com
Initially, I think, is the key here. Am I wrong to assume that you loved the idea, the technology, and the potential of the marketplace and that any concerns you might have had over a single-founder was assuaged by the founder's desire (but not yet accomplished) goal to find a proper co-founder/partner?
It's always better for a business founder to get a technical co-founder, yes, but it is not necessary to have one right from the start.
My routine: 1) write down the idea and all related points in Evernote and that goes in backburner tagged appropriately. 2) Mindmap the idea out. 3) Start wireframing
- note this is just fleshing the idea out. All the while be searching for competitors and testing out what they have done. Take note of likes, dislikes, and not implemented differences with you.
4) Check google trends and keyword generator to see how many people have been searching for your solution. Do not be discouraged if you don't find a lot here... sometimes things really are novel (like, what keywords would one search for if looking up a twitter like service?). 5) Start talking to everyone about your idea. Hit up tech meet-ups and anyone who would be your potential client regarding the idea. People will be really nice and say nothing but good things. Do not let this idea ego-stroking go to your head (think about it... when have you ever asked another entrepreneur the hard question "why?" when you're really thinking the idea is without merit?). Ask everyone you share the idea with "How would you improve upon this?" or "Is there anything out there that you've seen like this?" or "Is there anything about this that you think is off?". When asked people will volunteer their honest opinion (or complete misunderstanding of the concept). Again, don't take any of this wrong... you may just be lead in a whole new direction or be given some great ideas to add to it that you never considered. 6) Take it all in and break it down to its absolute core. Then take that core and break it down again. Take all the esoteric meaning you've given it out and break it right down to the true MVP. Then get coding.
If you put down "Founded a startup with friends and we are currently in stealth mode" then no company will wantto take you on as they (and you) do not know where you will be in 6 months.
The first is past accomplishments applicable to the position offered. The second is a currently active status that says you are maybe unavailable.
Also, you will want to be very careful about which company you apply to and how they treat your offtime accomplishments. Some look to take a piece of all that you develop.
1) A start-up is just a business of your own design. It may be that you're in tech but the whole concept of running the business side of things is really no different from opening your own restaurant, dry cleaners, or becoming some sort of contractor or realtor. You are self employed and must rely on yourself to bring home the bacon. The vast majority of people in the world are in this position (and create the most jobs according to the latest surveys).
2) Work is not life if you also wish to have a family. If you prioritize work over family then you are bound to fail at one or both. Through proper time/resource management you can enjoy both immensely and successfully.
I have a wife and two kids. They do take up (I mean, deserve and I enjoy giving) a lot of time. Having a family is incredibly exciting and there ar joys to be found there that cannot be found anywhere else. If, however, you prioritize work over them you will quickly find yourself on the road to an unhappy household. I know far too many who ended up in divorce and have nothing but regrets for the opportunity they squandered there.
A very wise and successful entrepreneur once remarked to me when I asked them about balancing work and family that I would likely make as much money as I did even if I didn't work as long as I did. It's not about putting in all those hours. It's about putting in smarter hours, delegating and optimizing. Take your vacations, hire interns, and enjoy your life (not at the expense of the business or the family).
Oh, and one more VERY important point: Marry someone who knows your tendencies to be an entrepreneur (ie risk taker) and will support you through thick and thin (and when things get too thin have the sense to stop), The biggest problems always start when the partner does not support the rolling of the dice. Family must always come first. Always.
Why does RIM feel this need to break into a sector (consumer) they've consistently failed at infiltrating. They remind me of Big Blue back in the day diluting their brand by creating really POS consumer PCs when their core was business. IBM woke up one day and realized that, selling off all their non-core interests. My bet is RIM will one day, too.
BTW: It think RIM could make a killing by opening up and licensing out BBM to other services like iPhone and Android. From what I can tell, BBM is the only thing RIM has going for them anymore (from colleagues with BBs and from their entire line of commercials). Of course, licensing out BBM effectively kills any reason to buy their hardware (for most consumers).
1) Flash as it is currently implemented is for the desktop.
2) Flash for mobile (10.1) should really be called FlashMobile 1.0 and will need a lot more time and development to give mobile users an optimal experience. This will also require Flash developers to code for mobile.
With regards to 1) It is extremely powerful and can create sites/services/applications/designs that cannot be viewed on a mobile device. This aspect does not negate its value. And with regards to 2) that's no different from many websites you visit in a mobile browser and they are not optimized. Just try visiting HN on an iphone. Brutal! But load it up through Google's mobilizer (http://google.com/gwt/x=) and it becomes actually manageable.
So now, who is to blame? Adobe? Nah. They just need more time to advance the mobile Flash code. The Developers? Nah. They just needed Adobe to come out with a decent mobile flash platform and now will need more time to optimize for it.
What is really to blame? Impatience. People see shiny "smart" phones and think they should do absolutely everything right out of the box just like their 17" laptop does. These things will come in time.
(ahem, that said, I've no issues with all the flash sites that work beautifully on my netbook... that cost half what an iPad does).
Sure, starting out you need to gain traction. You do that by: 1) having a superior product 2) gaining a superior rep
The only way to have a superior product is to identify your target market. Nothing in life is "free". If you want to offer a service to your clients that cost them nothing out of pocket you better be pulling in revenue in other ways (advertising or info selling). Since many are averse (privacy issues and ad-block) to those other options you must charge your user base.
Your product doesn't have to be the one with the most features, just the one whose features are the best executed.
Your product has to meet the client's needs. If you don't know who your target client is (Everybody is not an appropriate answer) then you need to refine your pitch. Part of client needs eventually comes down to support and interaction. If you spend all your resources (time, server, bandwidth, development opportunities) supporting a vast number of free clients at the expense of revenue generating clients you will quickly gain no to poor reputation.
Note: I tried to figure out what Evernote is doing. Their free service does meet the vast majority of user's needs (including mine). The amazing thing is that their service is so simple and straight forward that perhaps they don't need to spend so many resources on support and with the API (Trunk) and partnerships their development/expansion costs are now being taken on by so many other parties. I'm sure they bled cash brutally at the beginning but their product was so novel and amazing that VC money came to the rescue. Fact is that there are few start-ups in such a position. There are also few products out there so novel that users talk about not "needing to" but "wanting to" contribute to their success. Twitter? Ha! But Evernote is different. People want to pay them for their service even if they don't need to upgrade. They just love it so much. That is a truly rare and beautiful thing.
I struggled with this question myself as all the advice I got was for there to be a free account. You know what? I don't like free. It doesn't make sense in business. It may work with Youtube (ad sponsored and still loses a boatload of money but G has deep pockets) but we've seen many who tried free ended up going paid or free and limited (Hootsuite just recently). There may be nothing worse for your business than going paid and limiting what people had come to expect for free (seen this time and again).
Besides, people take advantage of free. They demand support and effort with nothing in return. If you fail to support them well you risk a bad rep. A bad rep will sink your business. However, if you are paid from the start, turn out a great product, and support your clients well, you'll earn a great rep which in turn builds your business.
Go with paid from the start and have a 30 day refund policy. That way people can try it all out, you can find out exactly what their needs are support-wise, and if any ask for the refund to leave you will know exactly why and can address those issues.
It's time to end "free".
That... or go get some angel funding. There are more incubators/angels than just PG. How about family? Friends?
Though it really sounds like your cohorts have lost interest (since they don't seem to be out hustling for more funding and have told you you need to work without even ramen money).