Life in School and Startup

I loved Boulder. Steve loved Boulder. Boulder is amazing. End of story.

This weekend was an absolute whirlwind of “data” points about our idea, the target market, team dynamics, future of the product – we talked about it all. We talked about it all with some of the brightest minds we’ve met to date. Raleigh isn’t necessarily a breeding ground for software startup people; you can imagine our fascination with the warm tech scene that Boulder had to offer. They just get it.

We talked to a lot of teams at techstars for a day. Outside of the event the conversation was all with techstars grads and other people in the area recommended to us by these previous grads – mentors and locals who are heavily involved in the startup process. Their feedback was candid and very much appropriate for our situation and our outlook moving forward.

Our conclusion? We need to pivot.  Whether we pivot some or pivot completely is still up in the air, but the writing on the wall as we saw it this weekend is more than enough evidence for us to do some due diligence to switch gears.  We’ll continue to surround ourselves with people much smarter than us and make the most informed decision before we go back to flying by the seat of our pants.

Big thanks to everyone at Techstars and in Boulder who helped us out – Next Big Sound (David, Alex, Samir, Eric), Micah Baldwin, Ben Brinckerhoff, Tom Higley, Jason Mendelson, Seth Levine, David Cohen, Nicole Glaros (congrats on the baby!), Rob LaFave, and everyone else we met in passing.  You all left a great impression on us and are solid recruiters for keeping Boulder alive and thriving.

The awesome people over at Techstars just sent us an invite to come to Techstars for a Day in March!  We’ll be flying out on Thursday the 4th and staying through Sunday.  Big thanks to the people at Next Big Sound for agreeing to house us for the nights that we will be there – always appreciate being able to sleep on a floor if we don’t have to pay for hotel costs.  They seem like awesome guys and should be great resources for information about Boulder, Techstars, and being in a music startup.

On that note, if anyone finds it in their Giri to donate money to help offset the cost of plane tickets, we would gladly put up a huge plug for all 12 of our blog readers to see.

Also, if anyone reading this is also attending TSFAD, send me an email at scott@getsoundaround.com so that we can hook up while in Boulder for coffee.  I’d love to have a packed schedule while we’re there doing as much networking as possible.

See you in March.

It’s official! Were both headed to spring break in Silicon Valley with EEP. Although I was out there in October to hang with the MyFit crew, it’ll be great to go back for another 5 days of entrepreneury goodness as we get to tour Palo Alto and Sand Hill Road (if we must…), see the Google and Apple campuses, possibly meet Randy Komisar and Guy Kawasaki and hopefully Steve Blank, the list goes on and on. Best of all, NCSU heavily subsidizes the trip such that the 5 days of airfair, food, and lodging only costs $300.

We’re still waiting on a lineup of who we are definitely going to visit. I’ll try to post an update when I get it.

Also, i’ll be doing the local tour here as part of a joint venture between NCSU and Southern Capitol Ventures (thanks to Jason Caplain for hosting the trip each semester). We’re set to hit canvas on demand, iContact, and a few more. These are always fun to do. Any time you see a founder’s eyes light up telling you their story, something powerful happens in the surfacing of emotions and harnessing of energy to add even more fuel to my business drive.

You’ve almost certainly been in our situation before. Were chomping at the bit to get as much of our company up and running before the paycheck from mom and dad and the govt stops coming. Classes are now not only a serious burden to our drinking habit, but are a serious threat to the amount of time we have to spend coding or talking to potential clients. If only the world knew what they had coming for them they surely would all chip in and help us buy our last semester grades and fast food for every meal so that we wouldn’t have to waste 3 minutes cooking hot dogs for every meal. I give you this imagery because I want for you to reminisce on these days of lore and remember how gloriously poor you(we) were(are) in terms of money, cofounders, and hours in the day.

One of the most challenging quandrys that university student entrepreneurs face is the realization that they’ve more or less transcended what the university has to offer them. The academic content isn’t necessarily dry or inapplicable to all bottom-line-driven companies, it’s just that they don’t make classes specifically geared toward YOUR startup. If they offered a degree in Sound Around I would be there all day every paying attention and taking notes. The reality, however, is that generalized classes rarely provide knowledge directly applicable to obtaining our minimum viable product.

Here is where things get sticky. You, as an administrator, have a contract to uphold where you are bound by the university to correctly facilitate the pedogogical value in entrepreneurship teaching and mentorship. We are bound by our drive to get our company to a state where it is making both money and meaning in the world.  These two positions OFTEN have maligned objectives and goals.

From a student perspective here is my advice: if these types of students are enrolled in your entrepreneurship class, there is most likely nothing you can do to reign them in back to the class level. They are beyond the point of being driven by grades. As long as their behavior is not totally detrimental to the program just let them do their thing. There are other students that need the mentoring and attention.  Fighting a frivolous battle with driven entrepreneurs will take away significantly from the other 90% of the entrepreneurship students still finding their legs.  Additionally, working WITH students will ultimately help your university and the university system as a whole in its ability to bring talented individuals together to spawn the next google or facebook.

The university should be seen as a leverage point for entrepreneurs, not a hindrance to their overwhelming desire to start something great.

For as long as I can remember, I have paid (or my parents have paid) for cable TV. I’ve lived through the rise of HD programming, the rise of TVs larger than a person, the rise of DVR, competition with satellite, etc. Things have come a long way in my lifetime, but only the most recent developments have given me reason to wake up tomorrow and finally stick it to the man. This man is named Time Warner Cable.

Tomorrow, everything I will be watching will be on ABC.com, NBC.com, Apple TV, and Hulu.  We’re going from ~300 channels to 4.  Also, we’re picking up Clear wireless internet (4G WiMax, yay for technology). It’s all free with internet. The $120/month bill is going to be $25/month for the same programming. We may miss mythbusters and dog whisperer, but almost everything else is online. Let me repeat…almost everything else is online. Couple that with a supposed AppleTV deal with the major networks and we’re in business for under 1/2 of what we’re paying right now.

A giant is falling due to the rise of technology. Good for hulu and boxee and netflix and everyone else who collectively make up a damn good alternative. As an entrepreneur, it’s nice to see the conventional wisdom beginning to bow to people who saw what a difference they could make, and executed well enough to cause people to make a lifestyle change. That speaks volumes, it really does.

Also, it’s going to force us to find alternatives for our time. We won’t be able to just say “hey, i need to kill some time, what’s on tv”. Admittedly, this may lead to more time playing Nintendo 64, but I would submit that that is a far more social and relationship-building event than sitting idle on the couch watching TV. My hope is that it will force us to talk more, work on the company more, go out to public places to watch sporting events. Watching TV now consists of watching things once through with limited commercials and then going back to our lives. Awesome.

I’m happy.  It may be rough to start out with, but I’m ready to see how we react.  Have you given up anything recently that you’ve had your whole life?  I’d love to hear about it.

This week has been life changing for so many reasons.

First, I love my new job at Transloc. The CEO is one of those guys that just “has it”, the subtle swagger that you couldn’t reproduce if you tried. I hope to have that one day. We were out to lunch and he was talking to me about the concept of a triple bottom line when it comes to your business’s worth and productivity. Pretty awesome stuff, but damn near impossible to find ideas that fit into all 3 categories. The concepts made me think a lot about my graduation speech (read below) theme and how I can adjust my approach to business opportunities for the future.

Second, some company just launched a product with the name “Mobile Stage”. This pisses me off on many levels, but there’s not much we can do about it except get a new name. We’ll keep all of this Mobile Stage stuff up for a while – at least until we settle on something else. If you have any ideas please feel free to share.

Third, I graduated college on Saturday. The ceremony was awesome, got to hang out with a bunch of my friends, and the day after graduation really wooped some reality into my otherwise scattered brain. Sunday was the first legitimate day of paying for 100% of my bills, and having literally nothing but my startup to work on. Productivity was decent – it must improve.

Fourth, I was the student speaker at my graduation. This turned out to be a pretty badass experience for me – writing a speech is not easy, and rewriting it from front to back 2 days before you’re delivering it isn’t necessarily the best idea. Public speaking is fun, I really enjoyed myself up there (500-600 people in attendance), and would do it again in a heartbeat. Video is embedded below.

Have a happy holidays, everyone. Take some time off to spend with the famset, and to relax and read a book.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Steve and I are taking some time to chill with the family and take a break from work and school. May you all eat, drink, sleep, and watch a boatload of football.

We went to Internet Summit today. It was awesome – awesome because it was a lot of people much smarter than us talking about things were interested.  Below are some pictures of the event.

Looks like we’re headed to Internet Summit 2009. Here’s the story:

A few weeks back, I started listening to This Week in Startups in my free time at work and while I’m driving from DC to Raleigh and back. It’s a great podcast and the guests are usually serial entrepreneurs that have a passion for starting up companies. Also, the host is on his third company (I think), and is usually very straightforward with people that call in or email questions. One guy recently called in to ask about conferences and their crazy cost that is usually too much for students or anyone on a shoestring budget. This particularly caught my attention because Steve and I wanted to attend IS 2009 but really couldn’t afford the $245/person registration cost. The advice to the caller was simple – volunteers are always in high demand at these events and coordinators often may exchange registration for you volunteering to help with various things leading up to and during the actual event.

I shot off an email, got a response back in a few hours. Done and done. Moral of the story? Just ask for a break and offer a little in return, you might be surprised with what you find. Thanks to Jason at Southern Capitol for hooking us up with the right guy.

After having completed 1 full year of North Carolina State University’s Engineering Entrepreneurship Program, the experience I undoubtedly tell people about is the incredible introduction to networking that you are able to take advantage of. As with many opportunities, this one does not come pounding on your door, and is very much something where you have to put yourself out there to be successful. These friends consist of a wide variety of individuals ranging from program alumni (and now part-time entrepreneurs), to REAL LIFE BLOOD THIRSTY VENTURE CAPITALISTS IN THE FLESH (OH NO!). The class speaker series and volunteer trips to local RTP companies provide for instant contacts, introductions, and possible mentors for budding entrepreneurs like myself. Not only did I end up meeting a lot of amazing people who I have something in common with, I dont think there has been one person yet to turn down going for coffee or doing a phone conversation to answer some questions (all for free, mind you).

The title of this post is a mashup of “getting plugged in” and “1 foot in the door”. I cannot stress how many subsequent opportunities networking will present you with – the community as a whole is very receptive to new players trying to get in the game. From aspects of recruiting to product develoment, monetization efforts to strategic partnerships, market trends to building your swagger as a yuppie, many people have covered (extensively) some aspect of your new business that you will inevitably have questions about.

The following are some tips to help you start or continue your journey as a student entrepreneur

• Take entrepreneurship classes (business or engineering major) at your respective school. Make sure to really get involved with your professor and ask them to introduce you to connections of theirs that may be of some help. If they’re no help, drop the class and move to another one.
• Get involved with your school’s entrepreneurship program. Chances are that students there will have already started to begin to build their professional network and will be able to talk to you about your own networking efforts along with making introductions for you.
• Be on the lookout for community events put on by seasoned entrepreneurs looking to give back to the community. Steve and I just last week attended Calling all Entrepreneurs NC where we met with a VC and a CEO on his third company. It was a great experience to talk about what we are currently looking to pursue and get candid feedback all in a matter of 20 minutes. Where you live will determine the nature and frequency of these events.
• Use the fact that you are a student to your advantage. You shouldn’t be extorting companies for consulting hours on the facade of giving them karma points for helping a school project, but you’ll find that many individuals are interested in the young talent coming out of the school systems and what these students bring to the table. Contacting alumni and telling them you are attending their alma mater is almost sure to get them fired up enough so to give you an hour or two.
• Re-read the previous bullet point.
• Be prepared. Youre going to have a tough time being an entrepreneur if you can’t set your own schedule and push your own ideas forward among peers in the community. Networking does not mean getting told what to do. Make sure you have questions to ask and let them do as much of the talking as they want. Their time is worth a lot, dont spend it talking about yourself.

Keep in mind that the fundamental point here is that you need to assert yourself.  Don’t feel like you’re under the gun to come off looking like you know what you’re talking about, or that you need to have a bunch of experience to get some face time with serial entrepreneurs.  Don’t email Mark Cuban or Steve Jobs, but try to look a little beyond your peer network when possible.  Put yourself out there, you’ll be surprised at the results.