David Cummings on Startups

Category: Entrepreneurship

  • Stop Building and Start Learning

    Flashpoint (TV series)
    Image via Wikipedia

    Recently, one of the Flashpoint teams was telling me that their most recent revelation was that they need to stop building and start learning. Think about it: stop building and start learning. Most startups that are just getting started would benefit from this advice. Human nature, especially for entrepreneurs, is to think you know what the market needs, and start building something without external input.

    Instead of spending time building the product, startups are better off learning what the market needs and what potential customers want — stop building and start learning. Unfortunately, learning takes more effort and energy because you have to get out there and talk to people. Finding the right people to talk with, and getting rejected along the way, isn’t as fun as brainstorming features on a whiteboard or hacking out some code. Instant gratification it isn’t.

    The next startup idea you have, resist the urge to start building the prototype and instead use that energy to talk to potential customers. Learn first then build second. It’ll actually save you time in the long run by focusing the startup on the core functionality and avoiding extraneous features.

    What else? What are your thoughts on stop building and start learning?

  • Grinding it Out in a Startup

    Tennis Campus
    Image by CROG Tennis Trieste via Flickr

    Today I had the opportunity to spend an hour with a startup that is working on a B2C internet-based startup. Being in the early stages of the process, they had tons of energy and excitement. One of the points I wanted to emphasize was that they need to pace themselves as it’s going to take at least two, if not three, years to achieve a modest level of success (I have no idea how long it’ll take but I was trying to set expectations).

    In tennis, a popular term is “grinder” meaning a player that is steady and plays to outlast their opponent, as opposed to going for winners to get the point over quickly. Grinders are known for intense endurance training and their ability to stay in the game by continually getting the ball back. Startup co-founders need to be grinders.

    Some notes for grinders in a startup:

    • Play for the long haul and don’t expend your energy too early
    • Set bottom-up goals with short-term milestones that meet your long-term goals
    • Get everyone else involved in the mindset that it is going to take twice as long and cost twice as much to achieve success

    Success in a startup is elusive but expectations should be set early-on that grinding it out improves the odds. Be a grinder.

    What else? What do you think of grinding it out in a startup?

  • 4 Criteria for Angel Investment in a Startup

    Visualization of the various routes through a ...
    Image via Wikipedia

    Earlier today I had a chance to give a 30 minute talk about my limited experiences as an angel investor for Angel Lounge. The theme was lessons learned from Internet startups, so I had a few stories to share. At the end of the presentation I summed up my four personal criteria that I look for when considering an angel investment in a startup:

    • Coachable entrepreneur
    • Small, fast-growing market
    • Opportunity for cash flow break-even in 24 months
    • Scalable way to generate leads

    Notice there’s nothing in there about potential return on investment or timeline to business exit. Angel investing is as much about helping aspiring entrepreneurs and mentoring as it is making money. Now, if you don’t make money the chance of continuing to do it goes down significantly but when you do it allows you to help even more entrepreneurs. My four criteria for angel investment in a startup are straightforward and practical.

    What else? What other criteria would you have for making an angel investment?

  • The Four Books Every Web Entrepreneur Needs to Read

    Cover of "The Art of the Start: The Time-...
    Cover via Amazon

    Earlier today I had the opportunity to meet with a local college student that’s working on a web startup. Being a non-technical founder he had a ton of technology questions. I quickly pointed out that technology isn’t what he needs to focus on right now. Rather, his ability to acquire web traffic and customers will decide the fate of the business.

    To help him feel more comfortable with building a web-based startup I recommended he read four books:

    Reading these four books will put him ahead of 99% of the other first-time web entrepreneurs and will significantly increase the likelihood of success.

    What else? What other books would you add to the list?

  • ATDC/TAG CapVenture 2011 Notes

    75 5th Street, Midtown Atlanta
    Image by MikeSchinkel via Flickr

    Tonight I had the chance to attend the CapVenture 2011 program put on by the ATDC and TAG. The panel, startup presenters, and fireside chat participants did a great job.

    YouFinity

    • Gift giving site around preferences and tastes
    • Gift recs based on site, age, gender, preferences
    • Example: favorite clothing colors in size and see a selection of matching items (comes from the Amazon.com Product API)
    • Not event or item based (e.g. no wish lists)
    • Revenue model: affiliate commissions, greeting card sales, ads, partnerships
    • Goal of 2.5 – 5 million users in five years
    • Raising $500k for ongoing customer acquisition and feature enhancements

    NextInput

    • Gives devices the power to feel
    • Focused on touch tech market opportunity
    • Applications in automative, consumer electronics, and medical devices
    • Benefits: lower cost, more durable, and more efficient
    • Works in more environments like with gloves and fingernails
    • Revenue model is OEM (approx $1 per device)
    • Raising $1M

    Blue Mammoth Games

    • Casual action MMO for your browser
    • Virtual characters in a shared world
    • Founded in May of 2009
    • Raised $300k
    • Opportunity: 115 million play casual games and MMOs bring in $8 billion/year
    • Dungeon Blitz – game built for casual gamer that rewards playing smaller chunks of the game
    • Launched 3/25 and over 16,000 users
    • Raising $700k
    • Want to expand to console and tablet as well as more games
    • http://www.dungeonblitz.com

    CodeGuard

    • Time machine for websites that automatically backs up the site on a regular basis
    • Serves the 50M SMB companies on shared hosting platforms
    • 95% of market is underserved
    • SaaS recurring revenue at $10/mo/site
    • Expanding development and marketing

    GetOneRewards

    • Digital version of customer loyalty cards for retailers
    • Install an iPad at register and customers put their phone number in on the spot
    • Product gives more insight into loyal customers
    • Ability to more effectively segment customers
    • Focus in on bringing repeat loyal customers to clients
    • Email marketing and Facebook integration
    • Target: Counter service restaurants and salons
    • Started in April 2010
    • 61 locations and 30,000 users
    • Raising $250k

    PinDrop Security

    • Bringing trust back to the phone
    • Won GRA/TAG 2011 business launch 2011
    • Phone fraud is easy to do via caller ID spoofing
    • Technology that shows every phone calls leaves a unique fingerprint based on the phone
    • Anti-Fraud Call Analyzer – deployed on site at a bank
    • Financial institutions, law enforcement, and time and attendance opps
    • Caller ID verification market: $540 million in 2011
    • Raised $255k
    • Raising $500k angel round

    Tom Noonan – Fireside Chat Notes

    • Sold his condo in Boston and used his wife’s 401k to help fund ISS
    • Had 35 credit cards with different variations of his name to help fund ISS
    • “It’s hard to be an entrepreneur if you can’t sell”
    • Mentors include John Imlay and Sam Nunn
    • Sam helped get ISS in the center of the world policy debates about internet law
    • “Boards are under-emphasized in early stage companies”
    • “Board can’t have any friends (don’t recruit existing friends but rather find outsiders with good chemistry)”
    • 50% of the connected network’s energy is waster
    • $4 trillion a year total on electricity
    • 112 term sheets in four weeks for JouleX
    • 26 early stage investments not counting TechOperators
    • People send signals of coachability
    • “I find selfless people that are motivated — I’ll fund them all day long”
    • ISS management team had great chemistry but weren’t friends
    • 99% of the ISS success credit was to management team and employees
    • Couldn’t raise VC money until they signed three big customers

    The ATDC/TAG event was well done and it was great to see these new startups present.

  • Startups Should Resist the VP of Sales Hiring Temptation

    Recently I was talking to a startup that lamented they had hired a VP of Sales too early and wasted a ton of money. It was the typical situation: feel good about the innovative product, have a few customers, then hire the $150k salary plus stock VP of Sales to build the sales and marketing machine. It didn’t work.

    The VP of Sales was focused on building out channel relationships with big resellers. The big resellers weren’t interested in reselling because there wasn’t enough market demand yet. After a year it was time for the startup to part ways with the VP of Sales.

    Here are some things that should be in place before a startup hires a VP of Sales:

    These requirements are hard to achieve and should be owned and managed by one of the founders. With these items in place, a VP of Sales will be able to come in and start scaling out the sales organization.

    What else? What other pieces should be in place before a startup hires a VP of Sales?

  • Startups Should use Retargeting to Increase the ROI of Existing Efforts

    Clipart of bills and coins
    Image via Wikipedia

    Retargeting is one of the most profound advancements in online advertising in the past decade. With retargeting, banners ads on mainstream sites are shown only to visitors that have already been to your website. The idea is that banner ads in general aren’t very effective since people have learned to subconsciously block them out. With retargeting, banner ads that would otherwise go unnoticed get clicked due to recognized logos and relevant calls to action.

    So, any efforts to drive traffic or generate leads are complemented by retargeting campaigns. Retargeting campaigns are done on a cost per click or cost per impression basis at little cost (e.g. $100 to get started). Startups that blog, tweet, market via email, work on SEO, or any other web-based marketing activity should add retargeting to their mix — it really is that straightforward.

    We’ve worked with AdRoll.com and recommend them.

    What else? What are some other ways startups should use retargeting to increase the ROI of existing efforts?

  • Entrepreneurs and the Call of Home in a Different City

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    Image by Thruhike98 via Flickr

    Recently I was talking to an entrepreneur that is in the process of selling his business. His parents are getting older and he’d like to move his family to their hometown for five years so that his kids get a chance to build a deeper relationship with them while they can. Home is where his parents live, not where he currently lives. He lives where he does because it was the best place to build his business, and he’s executed well, creating a successful enterprise. Now, he’s ready to move on and go to his true home for the next phase of life.

    I believe it’s important to approach a startup with a build-to-last mentality. The idea is that the company is created and decisions are made with the long-term in mind. This doesn’t mean that the entrepreneur has to be with the company forever, or even in the same city as the company indefinitely, but rather that the environment is one critical, and controllable, part of the equation.

    Entrepreneurs that want to be in a different city from their business either while it is still going or after they sell it should be up-front with their co-founders and key stakeholders during the process. Ideally, there’s enough lead time to make for a smooth transition. With technology like Skype Video and Gchat combined with the right people on the bus and processes in place make it easy for entrepreneurs to work remotely.

    Entrepreneurs that have the call of home in a different city from their own should embrace it and build aspects of their team and company with their personal goals in mind.

    What else? What are your thoughts on entrepreneurs and the call of home in a different city?

  • Customer Development in Startups

    According to Steve Blank customer development is “the process startups use to quickly iterate and test each element of their business model.” The idea is that dreaming up features for your product is all well and good until faced with the reality of a customer: what you think the market needs and what the market actually needs are two different things. As an entrepreneur, the best way to build a product is in conjunction with potential customers whereby you have a tight feedback loop and short development cycle from the beginning.

    Here are a few things to keep in my mind with customer development in startups:

    • Start by casting a wide net of potential customers and talk to as many as you can with the goal of narrowing the focus dramatically within a short period of time
    • Pick potential customers that best align with your opinion of the market and are willing to help give feedback and be part of the process
    • Schedule calls at least monthly, if not every two weeks with these potential customers to show them new functionality and get input
    • Ask for a commitment from the potential customer to use the product in their environment as soon as they see value (of course, they are helping guide the development of the product so they should naturally see value at some point)

    Customer development is hard especially when you can spend time adding product features and get instant gratification seeing new functionality work. Stop, pick up the phone, and talk to potential customers before you add more functionality the market doesn’t want. Prioritize time for customer development and make it a critical part of the startup culture.

    What else? What are some other thoughts on customer development in startups?

  • Startups and End of Quarter Financial Performance

    Newport Hill Climb finish line
    Image via Wikipedia

    At the end of each quarter we push hard to finish strong and win deals in the pipeline. Unlike many technology companies, we don’t discount and do end-of-the quarter specials to achieve a goal that pulls demand from future quarters. The success of any one quarter is determined well in advance of the quarter based on the hard work of the sales and marketing team to build a strong pipeline and on our ability to provide solid customer solutions.

    Here are some ways we close out each quarter without making it a fire drill dependent on discounting product:

    • Build bottom-up forecasts and goals for the quarter based on the number of quota bearing sales reps (as opposed to top down ones based on an arbitrary increase from the same quarter last year)
    • Publish pricing online for anyone to see providing greater transparency and prospect understanding
    • Stand by our pricing with pricing integrity so that customers know our other customers are paying the same price and that our sales team earns respect greater than that of a used car salesman
    • Encourage our sales reps to be pleasantly persistent in their consultative approach such that prospects know we are good at what we do and are ready to move forward when they are

    With these strategies in place we still push hard at the end of the quarter but do it standing true to our principles and values.

    What else? What have you seen other companies do to meet their end of quarter financial goals?