FrozenRails Helsinki, Finland

(click for larger image)

FrozenRails was a great Ruby on Rails event in Helsinki, Finland. Great hosts, great speakers and participants. Thanks to all. Here are my pictures (and here are the rest of my pictures from around Helsinki).

BuzzPal and BuzzPal Blog Update

Things might be quiet around here for a little while, as we’re pretty busy with BuzzPal and other projects, plus doing some consulting for select pre-funded, seed/angel-funded, and VC-funded founders and web startups. What kinds of consulting and advising? Everything that you see listed in the “Specialties” section of my LinkedIn profile.

If you’re raising outside investment (angel or VC) and you’re thinking of contacting me, it might be good to do it before the cows leave the barn (i.e., before you get too far down the road, and certainly before you negotiate or sign any investment-related documents). Why? See the “Bootstrap or Die” case study for one example.

My background, in a nutshell:

• Debt and equity venture finance, from the late ’90s Internet bubble, through its crash, restructurings, and recovery.
• Specialist in subscription-based business models (often with advertising and ancillary product/service components).
• Been through an IPO and sold stock for a decent profit.
• Been invited to participate in, and cover, various startup and Web 2.0 events around Europe.
• Founder and seed investor in two seed-stage projects.
• Assembled an international distributed team of professionals.
• Growing that team: Currently looking for an expert web app interface designer and front-end developer for layout, typography, color, HTML, CSS, Javascript, internationalization, speed/performance best practices, working with A/B testing, multivariate testing, and more. Ideally 1-2 people covering that and working with us, our prototypes, and developers to create great user experiences and value.
• Started a new blog — Bootstrappy.com — in February 2010. It’s first post made CenterNetworks’ “Weekend Entrepreneurial Reading” list and got over 2000 views in its first week.
• See my LinkedIn profile and personal blog, pics, and personal Twitter account for more. See here for the TMI version.
• Get in touch here.

37 Signals’ Lessons for Startups

Some good points in here:

Startup School 2009:
37 Signals has some lessons for European startups
By Ciara Byrne
2009-10-29
TechCrunch (comments thread there)

Y combinator’s annual startup school event was held in Berkeley last Saturday… and Jason Fried of 37signals gave one of the talks which seemed most relevant to European startups. His business partner is actually from Copenhagen and they worked together for two years before meeting in person. Here’s a summary of his presentation and a chat I had with him afterwards.

Then and Now: Albert Einstein and Paul Graham on Determination

• Albert Einstein said it in 14 words: “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
• Paul Graham said it in 1,400: “Here, in sum, is how determination seems to work: it consists of willfulness balanced with discipline, aimed by ambition.” (click through to read the rest of it… if you have time)

Yokum Taku’s Take On Vesting

If you are (or are interested in becoming) a startup founder, early team member or investor, check out Yokum's blog.

A lot’s been going on over at BuzzPal these past couple of months. Besides design and development work, we’re growing the team, forming a new company, negotiating terms, drafting documents, and generally working through all the administrative stuff you gotta do to get a clean start.

One of the questions everybody goes through at this point is: “Who should get how much equity and under what terms and conditions and vesting”? Yokum’s article (below) is about that “vesting” part (other parts to be discussed some below).

Yokum suggests standard 4-year vesting with a 1-year cliff, then equal monthly vesting. It’s hard to argue with that.  Indeed, it’s what I got at MCG (I got options that where converted to restricted stock before our IPO in 2001) and it’s most people get if and when they get equity.

That said, Basil Peters, whose blog, angelblog.net, should also be on your list, makes a strong case that, for founders and co-founders at least:

“[T]he most fair and equitable structure, and the one that maximizes the alignment between the founders and the investors, is to vest like this:

Reboot 11 Pics, Videos, and Links

(click to watch the video)

Just time for a quick post to mark the end of another great Reboot. This year’s theme was Action (last year was Free).

Below are some links (and pics). Check back over time, as new and updated content will be posted. Update: http://video.reboot.dk is live.

Time to Reboot! Copenhagen, Denmark

ANNOUNCEMENT: Want win a free BuzzPal t-shirt?   Find out how at end of this blog post.

Reboot11

Just time for a quick post, as fully half of the BuzzPal team gears up for another great event (and party!) in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Last year was our first time at Reboot, thanks to this chain of events (that all took place via email and Twitter):

Turned on to Reboot by @Marston, who we met (and stayed with) in Amsterdam, at @guidoz‘s place (actually his girl’s place) who we met thanks to @patrick, who launched BuzzPal onto the European scene last April, at his (and his partners’) super smoken’ The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam.

Ever since Amsterdam, we’ve been lucky enough to be a part of many other great events, thanks to our super awesome friends. Thank you, super awesome friends!

BTW, for anyone who was waiting for the last minute before deciding if you’re going to attend this year… it’s now officially the last minute.  Buy your fucking ticket!

Here’s a message I received this morning from @mygdal: “If you haven’t all ready registered there’s 25 tickets left, so absolutely last chance to register if you or a friend wants to participate: http://register.reboot.dk.”

Ok, I gotta wrap up for now, too much shit to do, too little time (what else is new).  See you next week!

–@chrisco

TechCrunchTalk Nordic and Burt After Party

Just time to post a few pics from the excellent TechCrunchTalk Nordic in Stockholm last week. Coverage and videos here: TechCrunch and ArcticStartup. Lot of fun and interesting people at the event, including a strong showing from the Gothenburg crew!

The Gift-Card Economy

The Gift-Card Economy
By Virginia Postrel
2009-05
The Atlantic

Great reminders for startups and fun for everyone else, especially if you’re into behavioral studies, paradoxes, and marketing.

Mother’s Day is coming up. Which do you think Mom would enjoy more—a day-spa gift certificate that expires at the end of June, or an otherwise identical gift certificate that expires a year from now?

The answer is obvious. Longer is better, of course. Mom will have a higher chance of making it to the spa if she has a whole year to find a convenient time.

Perfectly logical—and probably wrong

Wired Article: Apple Aggressively Pursues ‘Pod’ Trademarks

This is an important article for for just about anyone who has (or is creating) branded products and services.

Here at BuzzPal, we went through a very similar trademark case in 2006 and 2007 (cleared by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2008). We stood up for ourselves against the $30-million-VC-funded California company (and their NYC lawyers) and won (it was a respectful, friendly, and fair negotiation).

It will be interesting to see how the Sector Labs vs. Apple Computer case turns out (follow it live here on the USPTO website). I suspect a settlement will be reached that will either (A) allow Sector to use its VIDEO POD trademark, but in a narrowed scope, or (B) result in Apple making a payment to Sector in exchange for Sector agreeing to abandon the VIDEO POD mark and re-brand their product.

Now on to the article:

13 Tips for Creating a Successful New Online Product

Overall a great list of reminders Daniel Tenner’s blog, Inter-Sections.net blog.

13 Tips for Creating a Successful New Online Product
By Daniel Tenner
2008-5-7
inter-sections.net

There is much talk these days about building a product for a niche and making a lifestyle business out of it. Much of the online literature about starting up is focused on how to create some fantastic product which will gather millions of visitors and make you a billionaire, and the “new wave”, so to speak, proposes that rather than taking a 1 in 10’000 bet that you can make billions, it is better to take a 1 in 10 bet that you can make millions.

Since I have started two such businesses already, here are thirteen tips from my own experience:

Geek Meet Stockholm With Chris Heilmann of Yahoo

Some key takeaways and links from Chris Heilmann’s excellent and fun talk, mostly on front-end design and optimization, but also touching on many other fun, interesting, creative, and playful subjects. Thanks to him, Robert, Creuna, and all the people who made this event possible, including the participants, of course.  This was my second Geek Meet (first one here).

Background information, Chris’ slides, and my notes are below.  Please add whatever you like to the comments, such names and links to your favorite resources, tools, etc.

The 120% Solution

An excerpt from Jason Calacanis’ excellent email list (subscribe):

The 120% Solution
By Jason Calcanis
2008-12-4
tinyurl.com/jasonslist

If we’re going to have any chance of bringing America back to greatness, we’re all going to have to work 20% more than we have been.

I’m suggesting that, until America takes care of its debt, untangles the housing mess and gets unemployment under control, we all commit to working six days a week. Yep, move the standard 35-40 hour work week right up to 48 hours.

For me and my team, this is a non-issue, since we only hire folks who are looking to absolutely kill it, love what they do and don’t consider it a job.

The ABC’s of Conducting a Technical Interview

A great reminder for us here at BuzzPal
(and for anyone looking to join us!):

The ABCDEF’s of Conducting a Technical Interview
By Eric Ries
Lessons Learned

I am incredibly proud of the people I have hired over the course of my career. Finding great engineers is hard; figuring out who’s good is even harder. The most important step in evaluating a candidate is conducting a good technical interview. If done right, a programming interview serves two purposes simultaneously. On the one hand, it gives you insight into what kind of employee the candidate might be. But it also is your first exercise in impressing them with the values your company holds. This second objective plays no small part in allowing you to hire the best.

Why Culture Is So Important (video)

(click image to watch video)

A great Web 2.0 Summit 2008 presentation by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos (Tony’s bio and Zappos home page). Video.

Excellent Jason Fried Video

(click image to watch video)

• Topic: Web application design and development. More.
• Format: 30-minute presentation, 30-minute Q&A.
• Venue: Business of Software conference (Sept. ’08, Boston).
• Speaker: Jason Fried, of 37signals, makers of BaseCamp.

Unrelated: Bonus presentation: Grids are Good Design — “Designing in a grid for Web Design” by Mark Boulton. March 10, 2007. SXSW, Austin, Texas.

Subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.
Check out the latest BuzPal t-shirts here!

Web 2.0 Expo Berlin Photo Story

I decided to try something different this time. Instead of writing a standard blogger’s report, I thought it would be neat to put together a photo story of the event, from the opening day and happy hour to the Wednesday and Thursday’s sessions and events, including the great parties each night.

Unfortunately, I did not arrive until then end of the day Tuesday, just in time for the tail end of Startup Ignite, during SoundCloud’s excellent pitch. See full coverage of all the startups on TechCrunch UK.

As many of you know (see my comments at the end of this blog post), entrepreneurs trying to take dreams to reality hold a dear place in my heart. I see them as the ultimate blend of artist, athlete, business person, and politician (in the good way). They are also the ultimate optimists, following their hearts and dreams, undaunted by the doubters and naysayers, relishing the challenge, creating something out of nothing. Dreams to reality. Yes, we can.

Additional comments and links are below, as well as the rest of this photo story:

Barack Obama Wins, We Win! Acceptance Speech Video and Transcript

(Note: the screenshot above is from this morning. Since then, the Obama margin has increased. See The New York Times interactive election map and Big Board for the latest. You can toggle the map to any of the past four presidential elections. There are also links to speeches, polls, and more.)

I post this video, transcript, and comments here because it affects all of us, inside America and out, individuals and organizations, including startups like BuzzPal.

My hope in USA is restored; we are not scared anymore. Fear, bullying and “me, me, me” loses. Courage, cooperation, and “we, we, we” wins. Thank you is all I can say.

Video of Obama’s acceptance speech:

• BBC
• New York Times