David Cummings on Startups

Blog

  • Books for Software Product Managers

    The Mythical Man-Month
    Image via Wikipedia

    Product management is tough. It really is. I’ve written about it many times before (here, here, and here). In addition to learning from the school of hard knocks, there are several books out there on product management worth reading. Here are some of my favorites:

    There are many software product management related books out there but these are a few of my favorites.

    What else? What other software product management books do you like?

  • Antiques Roadshow and Startups

    Antiques Roadshow
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    Have you seen Antiques Roadshow on PBS? They do a great job of telling stories and history about random antiques people bring into a regional show. Oh, and they excitedly ask: do you know how much this is worth? Nine out 10 times the guest is flabbergasted by the high value. The value is the auction price before fees, but interesting nonetheless. Geico even did a funny commercial parodying the show talking about the value of a bird in the hand (antique) being worth two in the bush.

    What’s a lesson for startups from Antiques Roadshow?

    A few lessons:

    • One man’s junk is another man’s treasure
    • Most junk is exactly that: junk
    • Sponsors of the show are striking at the optimal time: when people are thinking about the value of their antiques and collectibles
    • Stories and history add significant value to products

    What else? What other startup lesson are there in Antiques Roadshow?

  • The Year Ahead: 2011

    Skyline of Tallahassee, Florida
    Image via Wikipedia

    This year I’ll seek out more adventures and experiences.

    We’ll do family trips to Tallahassee three times, the mountains three times, the beach once, and hopefully one original location.

    I’ll take my kids to new places and get them out of the house more.

    We’ll have our first eight-figure revenue year at the office.

    More of my time will be spent interviewing and recruiting the best people for our corporate culture.

    I’ll get outside more often and play golf or tennis at least three times a month.

    Two hours per week I’ll help entrepreneurs in whatever way I can.

    Every Friday night will be date night with my wonderful wife.

    I’ll travel to two cool sporting events.

    I’m excited about 2011.

  • Product Managers in Startups

    A portion of the Buckhead skyline in Atlanta, ...
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    Four years ago I was having lunch at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse in Buckhead (they have good $10 lunches) with a local angel investor that was telling me his background (went to GA Tech and then worked for a major enterprise software company for many years). He said something that stuck with me, “Atlanta, and most places outside Silicon Valley, really suffer from a lack of strong product managers with an MBA.” Immediately, I thought to myself that a good product manager doesn’t need an MBA, rather, they need to be able to listen to customers and maintain an opinion of what the product should and should not do.

    Here are a few thoughts on product managers in startups:

    • It is one of the most critical functions that should not be underrated
    • Best done by a co-founder (yes, it’s that important)
    • Should balance ideas from prospects, customers, analysts, and competitors
    • Needs to have a strong opinion of what gets included and what doesn’t (saying no to features is even more important than saying yes as it occurs much more frequently)
    • Constantly asks the question, “Is this useful for 80% of the customers I want to have?”

    Product management is critical for successful startups and is difficult to do. I recommend reading Getting Real by 37signals as well as other resources on product management.

    What else? What other thoughts do you have about product managers in startups?

  • Core Engineering and Outsourcing in Startups

    Design of a turbine requires collaboration of ...
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    Two of my core tenants for startups are that one of the co-founders needs to be technical and that the engineering should be done in-house. Now, this doesn’t apply to more mature companies, or non-software/technology companies. One area to clarify is that core engineering should be done in-house while peripheral engineering can be outsourced. Core engineering is the main application and platform that provides the central value.

    Here are some potential items that can be outsourced:

    • Marketing website — only if the app is separate from the website (e.g. most B2B SaaS products)
    • Mobile app — many companies are dipping their toes in the iPhone and Android world, making it suitable to get started with an outsourced app (you shouldn’t outsource the mobile app if it is core to the business)
    • Plug-ins to other products — there are often special purpose plug-ins like those for Microsoft Office products that can be outsourced to specialists, especially if the plug-in is fairly black and white in functionality

    My recommendation is to do the core engineering in-house and consider outsourcing items that are more self contained and peripheral.

    What else? What other thoughts do you have about core engineering and outsourcing in startups?

  • Repetition is Key in Leadership

    Repetition (album)
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    One of the best practices that took me several years to learn is that of repetition. I always assumed that I’d only need to say something once and that was it. It isn’t that people don’t hear or understand it but rather that there are so many things going on that create noise.

    Here are a few tips around repetition:

    • More important items need to be repeated more often (e.g. core values, corporate culture tenants, etc)
    • Different methods of communication like in-person, email, and voice should be employed to resonate with different team members
    • Only after you’re annoyed with repeating something so many times have you actually started to build recall in the minds of your people

    Repetition doesn’t come naturally to me but I’ve found it to be critical to reinforce key messages.

    What else? What other thoughts do you have about repetition as a leadership tactic?

  • Thinking About Goals for 2011

    Two New Year's Resolutions postcards
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    With the new year right around the corner it’s time to start thinking about New Year’s Resolutions and goals for 2011. For me, I like to create goals in several buckets: family, personal, professional, and community. Some of my goals are specific (e.g. X amount of revenue) and some of my goals are really habits (e.g. exercise twice a week).

    Here are a few previous posts to get you thinking about goals for 2011:

    What are your goals for the new year?

  • Answering the Competitive Differentiation Question

    An unidentified seller in an unknown location....
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    One of the most common questions I get when talking to someone who is familiar with one of our competitors is “How are you guys different from xyz?” Naturally, as with most industries, there are a multitude of competitors out there, most of which we never compete against. Here are a few approaches to the competitive differentiation question:

    • Focus on target company size, industries, and verticals (e.g. SMB vs enterprise or healthcare vs financial services)
    • Address specific product functionality and use cases (e.g. feature X vs feature Y)
    • Talk about customer acquisition (sales) and service approaches (e.g. insides sales vs field sales)
    • Articulate the different corporate cultures, fundraising, and other strategies

    The most important thing to do with the competitive differentiation question is to answer it concisely and clearly. Too often when I ask others that question I get a long answer that doesn’t leave a memorable hook in my mind. Keep it short, simple, and memorable.

    What else? What other recommendations do you have for competitive differentiation questions?

  • Quick Specifics on a Newly Formed Startup

    No Software: Getting Ready For the Dreamforce...
    Image by paul_houle via Flickr

    Earlier today I was talking to an entrepreneur that had just started a new business this morning. He’d filed the incorporation papers and wanted to clarify a few items he was thinking about with me. Here are some of his specifics around the details of the business formation without getting into the idea of the actual startup (it’s a SaaS product):

    • Incorporated in Delaware due to industry-standard laws
    • S Corp instead of C Corp or LLC due to desire to not have double taxation but still can relatively easily switch to C Corp if decides to raise money in the future
    • 10,000,000 authorized shares with no stock option pool yet but thinking about a pool representing 10% of equity
    • Single founder (tried to recruit co-founder but the one he wanted needed more financial stability)
    • Capitalizing the business with $10k of his own money and going to loan money to the business as it needs more (initially budgeted $100k and he’s not going to take any salary)
    • Paid a corporate lawyer that specializes in startups a flat fee of $900 to take care of everything (the lawyer charges this low amount as a way to build relationships for more lucrative work in the future)
    • Paid a trademark lawyer $17 plus the cost of filling ($350) to do a search and trademark the name (the lawyer normally charges $1,800 for a trademark filing but does the first one for next to nothing as lead generation since most startups need 3-4 trademarks over time)
    • Bought the domain name off Sedo.com for $200 and paid an extra $350 to register several variations of the name as well as other top level extensions
    • Hired an off-shore development firm out of South America to build the app at a budgeted cost of $30k representing two full-time engineers for $3k/week (so 10 weeks to get it done)

    This should provide some more color and specifics to entrepreneurs thinking about starting their own company. It isn’t necessarily the way I’d go about doing things but I find it instructive to understand other approaches.

    What else? What other questions about forming a startup do you have? Does this help?

  • Web App Security Considerations

    Ouro-preto
    Image via Wikipedia

    With the prominent security breach at Gawker and a major email marketing vendor recently having similar issues, web app security has been brought to the forefront. Web app security is a real challenge due to the continual arms race with crackers and all the technology plus process issues related to a large scale SaaS product.

    Here are a few web app security considerations:

    • Encrypt passwords one way as a hash with a salt in the database
    • Require passwords to be more complicated than simple words (e.g. minimum of eight characters, minimum of one number, minimum of one upper case letter, etc)
    • Provide IP address checks via email confirmation for user authentication and allowed IP ranges
    • Enable secondary authentication like PINs and challenge questions to go along with a standard password
    • Track failed sign-in attempts and expire passwords based on policies

    Of course, there are many other considerations but this is a starting point for web app security. My recommendation is to consider this type of functional early on in the engineering process.

    What else? What other web app security considerations would you add?