So it’s still under active development and definitely not ready for public consumption by a long shot but at least i have a name and a domain. See details here and here. Ping me if you want in.
Posted to Dis.Cussion discussion.
Ha! Ryan beat me to it.
Yep, sitting at 21A, sipping on my pint of North Star Red (a bit too sour, coulda been better, coulda been hoppier). There’s wifi, there’s power and (of course) there’s beer. Who needs coffee shops?
Some notes from a talk by Thane Plambeck at USF on April 4th, 2006.
* Don’t look for good ideas. Look for good people and good problems instead.
* Start the company with a partner.
* One person will be the technical wizard, the other is the master salesman.
Create a California S Corporation
Split stock 50/50
Make sure both partners are fully commited.
Plan for 18-24 moths with no income.
An office can make the company and its progress seem real (are people visiting us? do we have more people working? etc.)
How to find a problem?
Based on your area of expertise and contacts. Must be interesting to you.
* Inside knowledge
* High pain levels caused by lack of appropriate tools.
* Paradoxical situations (sell to X what X is selling to others)
Bad problems:
* Vague.
* No one will pay
* Can’t say who will pay
* Technobabble
* Problems that everyone is trying to solve
Bootstrapping
* Be a sociable prospector. Get to know people, ask questions, listen, try to understand.
* Bootstrap via IP (consulting while you own the IP or at least rights to resell, keep right to use customer’s name)
* How to know you’re on the right track?
* You have a customer, a contract and a dealine to deliver a solution.
–> You’re making money
* Focus - You can say exactly what you are doing.
* The tech wizard is busy coding, the sales person is busy selling that.
What’s the market?
* Don’t five stuff away for free - you don’t know who your customers are.
* Sell high-cost software
* A market of one is enough to succeed in the long term (where there is one, there are more)
* Get used to people saying you’re wrong.
The end
* Dont hope to sell your company until you have a profitable, growing company.
* Dont bring up selling the company yourself but be open to discussions.
* Dont sell yourself short.
OMG^3 or OMG3 is a perfect candidate for I Blame Beer. It’s a crazy project that’s only ever been discussed over beers (or other alcoholic beverages). I should write about it sometime but for now, the main idea is a automatic drama tracker. Tracking the levels and the specifics of drama and drama inducing events in the lives of those around you.