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.

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.

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:

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.

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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:

Back From Busy Week in London

(first three pics: Google Developer Day; Seedcamp OpenCoffee; Christian Geissendoerfer and Thomas Schindler, the founders of French Seedcamp startup YOOSE, at the TechCrunch TechTalk, an event that BuzzPal – The World Is Your Party! co-sponsored)

Here’s what we (BuzzPal & me) did in London during Seedcamp week (Sept. 14-20).  After that are more pics.

1) BuzzPal Co-Sponsors TechCrunch-Seedcamp Event, 2) Are You Bold? Show Me…

BuzzPal is co-sponsoring its first ever event next week, the TechCrunch UK Tech Talk. It’s part of Seedcamp week and is Thursday afternoon (18 Sept.) at 15:00.  It will include three panels chaired by Mike Butcher, the editor of TechCrunch UK:

1. Startup perspectives
2. Trends in Europe
3. “New startups versus old hands”

After the discussions there will be drinks and informal networking. After that is the TechCrunch/Seedcamp party.

As part of our sponsorship, BuzzPal got a 1×1-meter demo table and one extra ticket. BUT, we don’t have a demo and I don’t want the table to go to waste.  Therefore, I am making it available to one of you.

Email me here buzzpal.com/contact or direct message me here twitter.com/chrisco if you are interested.

This is your chance to get in front of all the people at the event. This is TechCrunch and Seedcamp we are talking about. There will be media, bloggers, investors, and more there.

Startups at DEMO in the USA paid $18,500 to do their thing with dozens of other startups competing for attention, plus the 50 startups at TechCrunch 50. That is a LOT of noise (see the TC50 demo pit). That will NOT be the case here (only one other startup demo).

This is your chance. “Fortes fortuna adiuvat” (“Fortune favors the bold“). This is a fact: Wikipedia.

My question is, Who among you are bold? Who wants to use our table? Email me now: buzzpal.com/contact.

Cheers,
Chris

PS: Related post from yesterday: “Blink” Seedcamp picks.

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Jason Calacanis: How To Demo Your Startup

This is the one of the best articles I’ve seen on this topic. Yes, it’s long, but it’s worth it, at least if you’re doing a demo any time soon. Now on to the article, which was first published on Jason’s email list, then on TechCrunch.

The 4-Stages of Testing Your Web App

Aroxo: The 4-Stages of Testing Your Web Product
By Matt Rogers
2008-2-19
gigaom.com and aroxo.com (original)

Editor’s Note: Matt Rogers is the founder of Aroxo, a novel retail and exchange website based in London. Matt has been chronicling his founder’s experience, and sharing the lessons learned with Found|READ. Earlier posts include How to bootstrap Your Startup and Getting to Launch. His latest installment is about site testing, and how best to “iron out the kinks” prior to launch. Aroxo is almost ready.

Aroxo recently turned a major corner in its development: We moved from closed functional testing to using real live alpha testers — people who’d never seen Aroxo before. Without doubt, this is one of the most revealing, painful, and valuable stages in creating your start-up.

When launching anything you want to ensure that it works, but also that people find it easy and natural to use. Your [internal] functional testing should cover the first objective, your [open] alpha testing should cover the UI.

Jason Calacanis: Fire Your PR Company

Jason totally nails it. You’ve got to be real, you’ve to got to be passionate.

See Mike Butcher’s excellent addition to the conversation on TechCrunch UK. Also, congratulations to TCUK for being named the best “Web 2.0 and business blog” in the UK, by the readers of Computer Weekly magazine.

Now on to Jason’s article, which was originally posted on alleyinsider.com (that’s also where the comment thread is).

BuzzPal Video Pitch to Seedcamp

2008-9-21 Update: See here for a video interview where BuzzPal’s founder breaks news with Ville Vesterinen of ArcticStartup.com. The video was shot in London at the Seedcamp OpenCoffee (18 Sept. 2008). Later that day, BuzzPal co-sponsored the first-ever TechCrunch Tech Talk, featuring Mike Butcher moderating four panel discussions and an audience of over 100 startups, venture capitalists, angel investors, bloggers, and media. The event was streamed live on TechCrunch and TechCcrunch UK.

Here is the 10-minute version and here is the 2-minute version that we posted on the Seedcamp blog. If you just want to see the 1-minute music/photo video of some of the people and places that got us this far, here ya go: BuzzPal Music/Photo Video.

When watching the video, please bear in mind that this is BuzzPal’s first-ever PowerPoint presentation, first-ever video “pitch,” and it was done in a couple of hours, using some new tools and low-budget equipment. So be kind!

Also, please bear in mind that BuzzPal’s founder was in venture finance in the media, communications, publishing, and technology areas from 1999 to 2003 (MCG went public on the NASDAQ in 2001). During that time he has seen hundreds of pitches, so he knows what he likes in a pitch, especially a first pitch (see you expose yourself and show your personality + be different) and what he doesn’t like (see your formal face or fake/boring personality + talk the same old smack).

Yes, we don’t go into a lot of detail. That’s pretty common for pre-launch startups. This is not the launch video or private presentation we give to prospective stakeholders. This is the public version, the teaser version. Don’t like it? Tough cookies. Unless you’re one of the guys and gals who has gotten down in the dirt, in the arena, struggled for your life, in full public view, then you probably have no business being a critic. Don’t take my word for it, here’s what Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the U.S., had to say about it:

BuzzPal Mentioned in the Media Today

BuzzPal – The World Is Your Party, got it’s first press mention today:

• PDF (English translation by Google)
• On realtid.se (Swedish)

The article is about the new generation of Swedish startups and Seedcamp, which is basically the European version of Ycombinator. BuzzPal may be participating in Seedcamp, coming to it based on the suggestion of Anders Fredriksson, one of last year’s participants. Anders is a friend and contact here in Gothenburg. Thanks, Anders. -Chris

The Equity Equation

Spent some time today looking for some good articles to share on the eternal “how much equity” question. This Paul Graham article is one of the best I’ve found so far.

The Equity Equation
By Paul Graham
July 2007

An investor wants to give you money for a certain percentage of your startup. Should you take it? You’re about to hire your first employee. How much stock should you give him?