Andrew Hyde snuck up and took this at some odd hour when we'd both been work for, uh, days.
Continue reading A rare moment away from the computer.
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So we're heading to week three at TechStars, and while the problems we want to solve have changed, the products wer're building have shifted 180 degrees.On one hand, this is marvelous--we're going to get real products into the market and used by customers sooner than we thought; on the other hand.
But as we narrow and focus our ideas to deliver something small, I am also working to make sure our product strategy and our actual roadmap remain large, so that we don't narrow our business as we focus our releases. Managing this process in myself makes me wonder if companies who are successful through TechStars will end up with very similar approaches to development and iteration, and that in turn, makes me think about the days when I thought of goiing to grad school to get an MFA in Poetry(which I never did.) Back then, one of my concerns was that I'd lose my own voice and sound like an "Iowa" writer. Will this be a similar thing? I don't think so, but the comparison--and how influenced I am by the very smart, common sense feedback and great perspectives the mentors share--does make me smile.
On a similar note, I'm thinking about how the kind of meet up I am in the middle of right now, hanging with a bunch of programmers and their Apple machines, around a big table in the back of The Cup, is like a digital sewing circle (sorry, guys.) We're all working, focused on our machines, and yet there is an easy comraderie and some shared talk and chatter. It's good energy, lightening the load of the day with companionship and shared purpose, and a change of scenery (some of these folks work together and this is the satellite office.)
But as we narrow and focus our ideas to deliver something small, I am also working to make sure our product strategy and our actual roadmap remain large, so that we don't narrow our business as we focus our releases. Managing this process in myself makes me wonder if companies who are successful through TechStars will end up with very similar approaches to development and iteration, and that in turn, makes me think about the days when I thought of goiing to grad school to get an MFA in Poetry(which I never did.) Back then, one of my concerns was that I'd lose my own voice and sound like an "Iowa" writer. Will this be a similar thing? I don't think so, but the comparison--and how influenced I am by the very smart, common sense feedback and great perspectives the mentors share--does make me smile.
On a similar note, I'm thinking about how the kind of meet up I am in the middle of right now, hanging with a bunch of programmers and their Apple machines, around a big table in the back of The Cup, is like a digital sewing circle (sorry, guys.) We're all working, focused on our machines, and yet there is an easy comraderie and some shared talk and chatter. It's good energy, lightening the load of the day with companionship and shared purpose, and a change of scenery (some of these folks work together and this is the satellite office.)
This weekend was all about product ideas, user values, specs, user flow, logic and building prototypes. That means we were able to walk into the office on Monday morning and show folks what we'd done and get feedback. Wow, did that feel good.
We've got a ways to go, but I feel like we're finally getting to one of the places we need to be at--having ideas ready to turn into code, commit and eventually go live, just so we can release, get people using it, learn from their feedback and then do the whole thing all over again, hopefully many times.
Here is what I did this weekend:
We've got a ways to go, but I feel like we're finally getting to one of the places we need to be at--having ideas ready to turn into code, commit and eventually go live, just so we can release, get people using it, learn from their feedback and then do the whole thing all over again, hopefully many times.
Here is what I did this weekend:
- Write product vision white papers
- Write specs
- Draw pictures on coffee-stained paper with a smudgy pen
- Consume far too much coffee, diet coke ad white wine.
- Eat at wierd hours, pretty reasonable stuff ('cept for the trip to IHOP, Lisa's favorite food spot (and they have free wireless, too!).
- Talk to Lisa as she worked away
- Get a manicure/pedicure
- Go hiking
- Obtain a bike and ride it around
- Buy the BF a birthday present (I did look)
"will be headed to Boulder Colorado this summer save 2 weeks when I'll
be back in NC for the beach and my wedding... I'm thinking this will be a
pretty sweet summer if Tara and I can get into the long distance groove
again. 3 months isn't bad right? Right? Right. :-)"
--Foodzie co-founder and fellow TechStars participant Nik Bauman, writing on his tumblr blog.
Susan sez: Puts my own 3 months away from the Bay area and my sweetie, family and friends into perspective, dunnit?
--Foodzie co-founder and fellow TechStars participant Nik Bauman, writing on his tumblr blog.
Susan sez: Puts my own 3 months away from the Bay area and my sweetie, family and friends into perspective, dunnit?
I've been at TechStars for about 36 hours; the program started Tuesday night and it's Thursday morning now. My hopes when I accepted the spot we were fortunate enough to be offered was that this would be both an accelerator for building our company and launching our idea, and a good school to learn about being a CEO and co-leader of a small business.
After 36 hours, my sense is that it is going to be both of those things (more all all that in some other posts), but it is also going to be a major journey of transformation. After 3 months of this program, I am going to be significantly altered in what I know and what I have experienced--and that seems amazingly exciting.
Two of the themes that have started to emerge at TechStars are: "Find amazing mentors" and "Early stage VCs fund people, not ideas."
TechStars director David Cohen (who is wonderful) is the proponent of the first statement and what it means to him (and therefore to all us eager students), is Find people you click with, who have knowledge you need, and listen deeply, learn from them, and build those relationships." We have about 50 mentors who are part of the program, mostly local (or seriously passing through) and a big part of the focus is meeting with them. But we're also encouraged to reach beyond these folks, into the local community and into the world, letting the TechStars team help make connections, if needed.)
Brad Feld, another founder (and a bold and interesting VC), is the person who talked about how early stage VCs fund people, not ideas. According to Brad, much of the judgments about early investments are based on feelings about the founders, the team and whether the person can deliver. Because ideas morph, both to meet budgets and timelines, but also because of user feedback on your early releases, So while having a business plan, a sense of where revenue is going to come from, and some solid data are all important, the relationships are core(at least for Bard and his circle.)
For me, this implies that part of the TechStars experience is learning how to develop ideas and run companies; while getting the right focus for our big idea and truly defining what problem we are solving--and then iterating a product solution to address these solutiuons --is key, so is absorbing this wisdom so we can do it again and again--and that feels amazingly transformative.
After 36 hours, my sense is that it is going to be both of those things (more all all that in some other posts), but it is also going to be a major journey of transformation. After 3 months of this program, I am going to be significantly altered in what I know and what I have experienced--and that seems amazingly exciting.
Two of the themes that have started to emerge at TechStars are: "Find amazing mentors" and "Early stage VCs fund people, not ideas."
TechStars director David Cohen (who is wonderful) is the proponent of the first statement and what it means to him (and therefore to all us eager students), is Find people you click with, who have knowledge you need, and listen deeply, learn from them, and build those relationships." We have about 50 mentors who are part of the program, mostly local (or seriously passing through) and a big part of the focus is meeting with them. But we're also encouraged to reach beyond these folks, into the local community and into the world, letting the TechStars team help make connections, if needed.)
Brad Feld, another founder (and a bold and interesting VC), is the person who talked about how early stage VCs fund people, not ideas. According to Brad, much of the judgments about early investments are based on feelings about the founders, the team and whether the person can deliver. Because ideas morph, both to meet budgets and timelines, but also because of user feedback on your early releases, So while having a business plan, a sense of where revenue is going to come from, and some solid data are all important, the relationships are core(at least for Bard and his circle.)
For me, this implies that part of the TechStars experience is learning how to develop ideas and run companies; while getting the right focus for our big idea and truly defining what problem we are solving--and then iterating a product solution to address these solutiuons --is key, so is absorbing this wisdom so we can do it again and again--and that feels amazingly transformative.
So, it's Boulder.
The start up that my partner and I are working on got accepted as a TechStars 08 incubator company, so we're here for the summer, working away, building the product, learning as much as we can. We're new, we have tons to do, and this is going to be our place to make it happen.
I'll be posting daily about what I'm learning, the product we're developing, and what it's like to build a product--and a company--in this environment.
The start up that my partner and I are working on got accepted as a TechStars 08 incubator company, so we're here for the summer, working away, building the product, learning as much as we can. We're new, we have tons to do, and this is going to be our place to make it happen.
I'll be posting daily about what I'm learning, the product we're developing, and what it's like to build a product--and a company--in this environment.
