Archive for the ‘Startup’ Category

Web Innovators Group 17 in Cambridge

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

I got a chance to attend the Web Innovators Group in Cambridge last night, and it was an absolute blast! This was my first time attending, and the experience was very, very different from other events I’ve attended in the area.

The event starts off with a bit of a networking mixer in the bar area of the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge, and then into the ballroom for a set of “main dish” and “side presentations.” Main dishers get about 10 minutes to demo their latest and greatest creations (PowerPoint seems to be strictly forbidden… if you don’t have something to demo that makes people go “Oooh!” and “Aaah!”, don’t present). Side dish folks get a minute-long elevator pitch, directing people to a couple of tables in the back for demos after the presentations are over. After that, it’s basically just a bunch of techies and investors hanging out for a couple of hours over a couple of drinks… simply awesome.

There must have been at least 500 folks in attendance… far larger than any other non-conference event I’ve been to in the area, but it didn’t FEEL like a large, impersonal event. It was very open and social.

Probably the biggest shock for me was that I never once ran across a service provider pimping their own services. I’m sure they were there, but there were so many other folks that I never ran across one. Granted, the service providers are often the folks that end up sponsoring these types of events, and they keep the gears moving, but after you’ve talked to your nineteenth or twentieth IP attorney, it gets a little tiresome. If I was looking for a new patent attorney, that would be one thing, but I’ve been very happy with Brett.

I once knew a guy who said he would meet a couple of attorneys and accountants at the networking events, and then introduce them to each other with the line “I think you guys might be a good match!”, and then he would wait and see how long the “dueling salesman” scenario would play out before they figured it out! I doubt it’s a true story, but it certainly would be interesting to watch. Anywho, I digress…

The real thing that tipped me off to attending was that Artur Janc was one of the presenters. Artur and I both went to WPI, and we crossed paths about four times at various events without ever actually “meeting”. It was great to spot him (Artur’s pretty easy to spot in the crowd… he has the most bad-ass hair you’ll ever find on an entrepreneur), and catch up a bit. His new project is absolutely awesome; it’s called Lingro, and it’s “the coolest dictionary known to hombre!“.

Lingro.com

It’s a service that let’s you visit a web page in any language, and all of the words become “clickable” to translate and/or lookup their definitions in a nice, unobtrusive panel on the page. The service is free for general usage, but if you’re someone who is actively trying to learn a new language, they’ll be offering an upgraded version of the service that will make life easier for you. Watch out Rosetta!

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the main and side dish presenters… and without further delay, here are my six-word summaries for each dish:

  • Good2Gether - non-profits meet for-profits for social profit.
  • PicMe Photo Sharing - flying photo stacks sharable with friends.
  • Jack Cards - e-cards suck; easy hand-written cards rule.
  • Traackr - measure your pimp status online. word.
    • (PS - I miss the days when people used vowels… I’m convinced folks are just trying to get a leg-up in Wheel of Fortune down the line)
  • Moborazzi - visual mobile twitter… visual mobile twitter.
  • Yamli - search in Arabic using English letters.
  • Entrecard - blogger networking meets targeted sidebar ads.
  • Flimp - these folks will make a fortune.
  • StylePath - hopefully my wife never finds this!
    • Okay that one’s a joke, but it was my first thought! The real six-word summary is: visual search when words aren’t enough.

Very much looking forward to the next event, currently scheduled for July. I hope to see you there!

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The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Galaxy

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

WPI has an electrical engineering course titled ECE 2799. The course number is innocuous enough; it doesn’t scream “think twice” and “are you really sure?” like a 3000 or 4000 level course does.

Even the name is pretty tame: Electrical and Computer Engineering Design.

But there’s something in there that’s missing in that title. It neglects to mention that you are going to essentially launch a technology manufacturing company.

@WPI

In 7 weeks.

And you can’t do your senior project (MQP for those in the know) that’s required to graduate until you do.

And you have a budget of fifty bucks.

Ready, GO!

It is by far, the most involving and engaging core engineering course I’ve had the privilege of taking. It will chew you up, churn you around, and spit you out… and you will thank it for the pleasure and call it in the morning.

When I attended, our “company” made a safety speed controller add-on for drill presses for safe and precise machining. More recent groups have made ECG testers and high-resolution video hardware diagnostic tools. Overall, impressive stuff to conjure up complete with a hold-it-in-your-hands-and-make-it-do-stuff fully functional prototype, go-to-market business plan, market research, manufacturing strategy, and don’t forget about warranty and support, all in 49 days.

And this morning, I was given the opportunity to be a guest lecturer for the winter-installment of the course with Professor Bitar. I was brought in to talk about how we started Servprise, bootstrapped our growth without outside investment (a bit of a rarity for IT hardware companies), and share some of the lessons we’ve learned along the way.

When it came time for Q&A, one of the girls in the back row of the hall asked, “How did you learn all of this?”.

Well, to be honest… I read. A lot. About people that are much smarter and more successful than I am.

And then I do my best to learn from the mistakes they’ve made, follow the “best practices” they’ve placed like rails in front of our train, and overall, figure out what they did to win, and duplicate.

That’s pretty much it. Figure out what they did. And duplicate. So when I speak, tell our stories, and give our spiel, you can be rest-assured that I am merely regurgitating the work of the giants upon whose shoulders we stand.

The question, however, really got me thinking about the years and years I’ve spent scouring through material to learn as much as I could about business, engineering, and technology. Most of the time it was “I’ve hit a wall and want to know if someone has solved this problem before”, but sometimes it was just “I wonder what she’s been up to lately with her work”. I promised I would send a small handful of links out to the class to get them started, but I’ve decided to exceed that mark, and deliver what I promised++.

I will provide to you… The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Galaxy.

And by provide I clearly mean throw a whole bunch of links on a page (but they have categories!), and by galaxy I mean getting your company off the ground. Plus, (bonus!) the title is borderline copyright infringement (ha HA! See you at the game, Joe! ha HA!).

While these works were instrumental in our success, your mileage may vary depending on your market, your skill, your commitment and dedication, the folks you know, your aversion to risk, the alignment of the planets, and the folks that know you.

I would love to hear about the various sources that helped others on their way.

The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Galaxy

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