Life in School and Startup

4 months minus two days since my last post.

A more appropriate title would be: Social Media – the day of awakening.

So tonight, instead of studying for my final, I really fell in love with social media for the first time. We’ve been dating for years but tonight was the night that we really hit it off for the first time. I owe the rebirthing of this relationship to Tweetdeck; not the iPhone app but the desktop application. I can manage my Twitter (all the columns I want (or don’t)), Facebook, Myspace- which I’m actually creating just so I can have another thing to manage on Tweetdeck, and LinkedIn. And I can do it all in one place that’s visually attractive and easy to manage. It’s truly wonderful.

What have I been up to for the past 4 months? Customer development. I’ve been talking with bands, bloggers and record labels trying to validate that there’s a market for this. The results have been satisfying. Record labels range from sufficiently interested to overjoyed at the prospect of their band getting their very own iPhone application. It almost seems trivial to me because we’ve been talking about the idea for the last 6 months. But to them it’s like a dream come true.

I also fell in love with the idea of being a blogger for TechCrunch one day. I’ll be writing more often to keep you (the total of zero readers who keep coming back to this) updated more often and to practice writing. See you in the funny papers.

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.

Over the past few days I’ve heard about numerous acquisitions taking place. Additionally, over the few days I’ve been doing a lot of reading on websites such as wired, gigaOM, techcrunch, etc., and I’m a little confused. Is this a sign of hope, or just the end of ignorance?

Acquisitions! The ecomoy is turning around!

Reading! I’m just now hearing about things that have been happening all along!

One of the previous lines is true. Sadly, I don’t know which one it is. It’s amazing how much people don’t know. There is so much information out there, how can any one person soak it all up. Even for a single market niche, (e.g. current smart phone technology) I would have to read non-stop all day just to keep up with what is going on! I heard that back in the day (which was a Wednesday for you Dane Cook fans out there. Chew on it, it’s delicious), the amount people learned in a lifetime was equatable to the amount of information contained in one issue of the New York Times. Schools take a good approach to learning: learn something about everything and everything about something. People can only hope to do just that.

But I’m just rambling now. The moral of the story is that one of two good things is happening. Either the economy is looking up or I’m just more aware of what’s going on in the tech world.

EDIT ——-> Funnily enough, this was written the day after I wrote this http://bit.ly/Nz16f . Things are looking up around here.

Drive. What gives entrepreneurs the drive to do what they do? What makes them work hours on end for something that statistically speaking will probably flop? What makes them drop out of school and move back in with their parents to save enough money to finish v1.0 or to land their first angel? Entrepreneurs, young and old, put themselves through something equatable to draconian torture in order to succeed.

I think the most common reason is the prospect of all that money. People love money. If people could get just a little bit more money, well…they’d finally be able to take it to the next level, and work harder to get even more money. But the prospect of money seems to be the most superficial and most fleeting reason to put in work. Over the past year or so I’ve had a few spells of excitement consisting of  “Oh wouldn’t it be cool if we made this….” I really think the only reason for that excitement was the prospect of the money. I’ll admit, a lot of these ideas were terrible, not thought out, and never would have worked. Either way, the point is that these ideas I had were fleeting because my only motivation was the money.

Another reason is at the core of human needs; the need to be important. A lot of entrepreneurs satisfy this need by becoming successful. For some, the success is expected of them – the “I have to succeed because my father succeeded” scenario. But for others, myself included, I think we just want to prove to others we can make it on our own. We’re capable of doing great things and we want to prove that to others. I think that’s where I’m at right now. I don’t think I’m extremely talented at some practical skill like coding, design work, or any of that. But I just know I can do something meaningful, and that is my drive. And, at least for now, it will do.

However, I’ve yet to experience the drive I’d like to one day have. This drive is rooted in selflessness. It isn’t about money or making a name for yourself. The drive I’m talking about is the one that lets you help people and change lives. The drive that makes people go years without a good nights sleep. And maybe mine isn’t open-source architecture, as the link suggests, but I hope to one day be working on something because I am driven by the prospect of being able to help people in need, and thus, change the world for the better.

Money can’t buy happiness and someone will always have more. No matter how big of a name you manage to make for yourself, after you leave this world the biggest your name will ever be is determined by the font size of some old forgotten news article. Lives are measured in how many others you’ve changed for the better, and that’s why I want to find something that drives me to do just that.

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.

Why is it that there is such an alure to iPhone apps. It’s like a secret magical draw that people just can’t resist. I’ve been seeing little ideas fly by or things to capitalize on and am finding myself asking, is there an app for that? And if not, WHY NOT!? Maybe I’m mistaken (which frequently happens to be the case) but I feel like iPhone apps are so easy to make. Not me personally that is, but I feel like Scott could cook one up in a heartbeat. How succesful is a model that just says “I’m going to think of a hundred little things it would be cool to have an app for. If 2 of them do well by any measure, time well spent.” I guess it all depends on how long it takes to make each app, and the definition of “doing well”. Ideas?

As I sit in Dunkin Donuts reading CEO blogs and “the long tail theory” I’m trying to figure out how I can refocus my time thinking about a startup venture.  Until now, It’s been nothing but going through raw options of “what service can I offer” – this has not been fruitful for the past four weeks.  I’m starting to believe that this path may not lead me to the pot of gold, and that a major shift in thought process may be necessary to bring this “think tank time” to fruition.  To illustrate where I feel I need to be heading, let me tell of a story that offers great analogy to life and learning.

One day, while rock climbing, the person in charge of making sure I didn’t splat against the ground was talking me through a particularly tough face of the wall.  He had been up it many times and was overall a more experienced climber than myself.  I was new and was particularly stuck at a certain junction – trying incessantly to make the “jump” and grab a prayer of a ledge to keep up the wall.  Just in passing, he mentioned to me the following – “hey dude, head sideways, can’t always think about heading straight up the whole time”.  I followed suit, and completed the climb relatively easy after a tiny sideways scoot.

All poetic sap aside, the concept of positioning frequently comes up in my infant entrepreneurial efforts, and it seems that repositioning my thought process is going to be necessary to ideate in the proper direction.  Time to start thinking sideways.  Better yet, time to figure out how to think sideways in the first place.  I’m taking anyone’s two cents for thoughts in this area, and your whole bank account is certainly welcome.

I’m really starting to think school is more or less a waste of time. Maybe I’m studying the wrong subjects? I honestly don’t feel like I’ve learned anything in college I could qualify as a “marketable skill”.  My writing has improved, my critical thinking skills I guess have improved, but when it comes down to “what have you learned in your classes that qualifies you to do this” I’m drawing a huge pathetic and remorseful blank.  I know that humanities and Spanish classes offer little real world benefits and switching majors here and there hasn’t helped, but as I look back at my currently mutli-thousand dollar college education I think: the most productive thing I’ve done here is up my alcohol tolerance. I feel like for the things I want to do in life, I need to be taking Master’s level courses to learn how do it – or maybe there aren’t classes that teach it at all? How do you teach someone to be relentlessly resourceful or how to decide what problems are relevant that one can fix, and go one step further to determine how to monetize that remedy? Maybe I’m just not there yet in my college career/life, or maybe I’m missing the bigger picture; but I’m honestly starting to feel like I spend so much time on school work (and worrying about future work) that its become a damper on my creativity and general ability to think about the world.

Enough complaining -

So how important is school really and how should I go about handling my school work as a baby entrepreneur? One part of me says get good grades so as to be in a better position to get a job. But another part of me says “bump this” stuff; no one cares about the GPA you earned a couple years after you graduate. Should I devote more time to being active, with an open mind, and on the look out? Or should I make sure I get an A- instead of a B on my literary analysis of 1930’s Spanish plays? On one hand I feel like the decision has been made for me – position myself to succeed in the field I want to succeed in (i.e. slack off in school and network, read about the industry, get involved). But the answer isn’t so black and white. What am I not seeing? Help me clarify. I wish I could just fast forward a few years.
- Steve