It's been another learning experience this week on how to manage people's expectations and personal interests. After the team meeting on Sunday morning, we left with differing views on what/which idea would be the main objective for the team.
We had two differing camps: Condor or Doberman. Though the Condor idea continued to evolve, this time to remove a critical differentiator for the idea, my gut was still telling me that Condor has a real market opportunity. Doberman was being favored by RG because it was more byte-sized and the expectations for a high-tech solution are lower. I don't think we agree on the size of Condor's market or the problem-space that it may solve. For you readers, I haven't explained Condor and Doberman on this blog, yet. Remember, I only reveal the details after I've set the idea on a shelf and have moved on; see ideas Angus and Bison.
We talked it over again and we came up with a gameplan. We will focus on getting Condor's concept and perhaps a demo ready for the Y Combinator Winter Funding Deadline of Oct 11th. The sooner we get this application into them, the sooner we can apply our energy towards launching Doberman.
The reason for two separate approaches is to appeal to the investment/networking opportunity at YC. Condor may have a greater upside, though it would require more time to implement, so unless we're funded by an angel for a few months, allowing us to quit our day jobs and bang out the product, Condor will have to take a back-seat to Doberman come October. Doberman on the other hand is almost too easy. The upside and potential isn't as great, and since the concept is very low tech, I can't imagine YC would be interested in the venture... Imagine, the solution requires a person to be involved with operations, too!
- I sent out the Condor survey for comments yesterday, so we'll see what feedback we get.
- I borrowed DE's PHP and MySQL Web Dev book, looks like I'll be coding this weekend.
The fun continues!
-john
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Retool Condor; introducing Doberman
Here's a recap of what happened over the weekend:
Survey
I completed a draft of a customer survey and posted it in our google group. There were three sections to it: set the stage for the customer, ask about experiences, offer a solution.
We want the customer to be in the right mindset prior to filling out the questionnaire, so by giving them a short story/description, we are able to get them to focus correctly. We'll then ask them about their experiences and how they liked or disliked them, finally we'll offer the possible Condor solution and inquire whether they would use a service such as Condor. And ofcourse we'll gather demographic info and gather their level of interest on being an early adopter of the service.
Meeting
The team got together on Sunday morning to discuss the deal-breaker issue for Condor. This being the need to establish 3rd party partnerships to make the service even work... Research was conducted and we found some information which states that this sort of arrangement is unlikely to happen because it places undue risk and liability for the 3rd parties. This being said, the survey draft was not that important anymore and our focus changed to how we could retool the idea to reduce the liability for the 3rd parties.
Doberman
While thinking about how to change Condor, Doberman was born; I've written an initial concept in the google group. Doberman plays in the same arena as Condor, but is sufficiently different enough to be treated seperately. It may be the case that we'll combine these two ideas as a single plan with phased implementation; I think investors may like it better that way :-)
That's all for now, lots to ponder still. I need to get more comments on the survey though.
-john
Survey
I completed a draft of a customer survey and posted it in our google group. There were three sections to it: set the stage for the customer, ask about experiences, offer a solution.
We want the customer to be in the right mindset prior to filling out the questionnaire, so by giving them a short story/description, we are able to get them to focus correctly. We'll then ask them about their experiences and how they liked or disliked them, finally we'll offer the possible Condor solution and inquire whether they would use a service such as Condor. And ofcourse we'll gather demographic info and gather their level of interest on being an early adopter of the service.
Meeting
The team got together on Sunday morning to discuss the deal-breaker issue for Condor. This being the need to establish 3rd party partnerships to make the service even work... Research was conducted and we found some information which states that this sort of arrangement is unlikely to happen because it places undue risk and liability for the 3rd parties. This being said, the survey draft was not that important anymore and our focus changed to how we could retool the idea to reduce the liability for the 3rd parties.
Doberman
While thinking about how to change Condor, Doberman was born; I've written an initial concept in the google group. Doberman plays in the same arena as Condor, but is sufficiently different enough to be treated seperately. It may be the case that we'll combine these two ideas as a single plan with phased implementation; I think investors may like it better that way :-)
That's all for now, lots to ponder still. I need to get more comments on the survey though.
-john
Friday, August 24, 2007
Condor: Status
Here's a quick recap of what we've accomplished since my post on Aug. 17th:
Technology
- I did two installations of the same open-source script on my LAMP server at home, calling them site A and site B, respectively.
- DE and I met last night to see how we can forward data from site A to site B; he had a copy of Apache2Triad running, btw
- We soon realized that our attempts to capture transaction data from the session token was not the way to go because it was too cumbersome. Instead, we'll have the data stored on a local database. We can then query for the information when we need it and then repackage it prior to sending it out to a partner site.
- There is still a lot more to figure out, including coming to agreement on the concept of operations.
Business
- I emailed various organizations with whom I have affiliation about their business resources
- my engineering adviser/professor at George Washington University
- the entrepreneurship club at GWU
- the alumni association at University of Maryland University College, for alumni living in Phoenix
Additional Task
- Address investor risk, specifically market risk. To do this, I am going to produce a survey of potential customers. More details on this in a later posting.
-john
Technology
- I did two installations of the same open-source script on my LAMP server at home, calling them site A and site B, respectively.
- DE and I met last night to see how we can forward data from site A to site B; he had a copy of Apache2Triad running, btw
- We soon realized that our attempts to capture transaction data from the session token was not the way to go because it was too cumbersome. Instead, we'll have the data stored on a local database. We can then query for the information when we need it and then repackage it prior to sending it out to a partner site.
- There is still a lot more to figure out, including coming to agreement on the concept of operations.
Business
- I emailed various organizations with whom I have affiliation about their business resources
- my engineering adviser/professor at George Washington University
- the entrepreneurship club at GWU
- the alumni association at University of Maryland University College, for alumni living in Phoenix
Additional Task
- Address investor risk, specifically market risk. To do this, I am going to produce a survey of potential customers. More details on this in a later posting.
-john
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
How does VC behavior change when interest rates are cut?
I posted the following question, How does VC behavior change when interest rates are cut?, on Y Combinator News because I am trying to understand the relationship between interest rates and the likelihood for angels and VCs to actively be investing in start-ups; my post with people's replies can be found at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44771.
I remember a few years back when timing would have made all the difference. I was spending my evenings working with a start-up in Washington, DC to get their business off the ground. They were trying to partner with either Erickson or Nortel to exchange equity for equipment, but the bubble burst and the wining and dining went up in smoke. Ideally, I would like to try and time the launch of a company when angels and VCs are more likely to be handing out money.
I remember a few years back when timing would have made all the difference. I was spending my evenings working with a start-up in Washington, DC to get their business off the ground. They were trying to partner with either Erickson or Nortel to exchange equity for equipment, but the bubble burst and the wining and dining went up in smoke. Ideally, I would like to try and time the launch of a company when angels and VCs are more likely to be handing out money.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Do you have no life because you work in a startup or...
I responded to the following Y Combinator News posting by vuknje, "Do you have no life because you work in a startup or..."
My response was:
"Oftentimes, working/thinking about my startup consumes my attention, such that my wife thinks I don't care about anything else... I find it hard to understand why other people just don't "get it" when it comes to entrepreneurship."
I used to spend my evenings working on my projects, but have now had to change to early mornings. It's tough on the family (wife and two kids) for me to work on stuff in the evening, so now I wake up at 5am and work till 6:30, at which time the morning routine of getting the kids ready for school kicks in. The weekends afford even less time for me to work on my start-ups...
-john
My response was:
"Oftentimes, working/thinking about my startup consumes my attention, such that my wife thinks I don't care about anything else... I find it hard to understand why other people just don't "get it" when it comes to entrepreneurship."
I used to spend my evenings working on my projects, but have now had to change to early mornings. It's tough on the family (wife and two kids) for me to work on stuff in the evening, so now I wake up at 5am and work till 6:30, at which time the morning routine of getting the kids ready for school kicks in. The weekends afford even less time for me to work on my start-ups...
-john
Friday, August 17, 2007
Condor: Near-Term Planning
So here is a preliminary game plan looking forward a couple of months. There will be many more things to investigate, but here is a quick list:
This week
- setup two sites for testing out a proof of concept
1 Month
- complete a proof of concept; the team members have agreed to help at various levels.
- begin looking at which retailers would be most willing to work with us
- discuss with advisers about how we can get retailers to cooperate; I already scheduled an appointment with SCORE for Sept 12th.
2 Month
- apply to YC with demo sites
- attend Launch Prep course at ASU Technopolis; I already signed up for it, starts mid-September
- see if thru ASU Technopolis, we can get an introduction to demo our idea for an angel; I'd like to get enough money to be able to work on the project full-time
I'll work on the two sites this weekend and hopefully beginning of next week we can start to do some mods and tests.
-john
This week
- setup two sites for testing out a proof of concept
1 Month
- complete a proof of concept; the team members have agreed to help at various levels.
- begin looking at which retailers would be most willing to work with us
- discuss with advisers about how we can get retailers to cooperate; I already scheduled an appointment with SCORE for Sept 12th.
2 Month
- apply to YC with demo sites
- attend Launch Prep course at ASU Technopolis; I already signed up for it, starts mid-September
- see if thru ASU Technopolis, we can get an introduction to demo our idea for an angel; I'd like to get enough money to be able to work on the project full-time
I'll work on the two sites this weekend and hopefully beginning of next week we can start to do some mods and tests.
-john
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Can a Start-Up Succeed w/o Developers as Founders?
I posted the following question, Can software start-ups succeed with non-programmer founder(s)? on the YC news forum; http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42508.
The reason I'm asking is that my quest for launching a start-up(s) will mostly be done by me, until I can find a developer/partner who is willing to share the same sacrifices and risks. I hope to get some feedback on this question from someone in the investment community. We'll see.
-john
The reason I'm asking is that my quest for launching a start-up(s) will mostly be done by me, until I can find a developer/partner who is willing to share the same sacrifices and risks. I hope to get some feedback on this question from someone in the investment community. We'll see.
-john
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