Big in Japan Coworking: Day One
July 31, 2008
We opened our coworking space today and welcomed Traxo, our first startup tenant, into the space. Of course they had to build their own desks - the price of free space! More on Traxo coming soon. . .
SEC kills the press release!
July 31, 2008
Jennifer Leggio from ZDNet reports that the “SEC unanimously approves use of corporate blogs to meet Reg FD requirements.“ For the longest time companies have had to issue their news via newswires to meet the Reg FD reporting requirements. Now that companies can issue their own news via their own blog/rss feed I suspect the days of the newswire-distributed press release are numbered. We haven’t released anything via a newswire in years. Brian Solis won…
Are we in a recession? or Why definitions matter!
July 31, 2008
In the United States, recessions are defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. During my lifetime (at least the part I can recall) there have been two recessions in the United States (81-82, 90-91). Between November 2001 and November 2002 we had two quarters of alternating decline and weak growth and despite the fact that we never had two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth the NBER classifies it as a recession as well, huh? Whether or not we are in a recession shouldn’t be a subjective measure, instead it is a very well defined term - two quarter of consequitve negative GDP growth, period.
Over the last year I have heard the television news repeat over and over that we are in a recession. Almost all members of Congress suggest we are in a recession. Anyone who dares to suggest we may NOT be in a recession is quickly called an idiot and dismissed. To be clear, I am not arguing that we are not in the midst of the perfect storm as it relates to our economy (oil prices, food prices, inflation, falling housing prices, mortgage meltdown, tanking dollar and so on). I am suggesting that we either a) invent a new term for our current situation or b) agree on a new defition of the word recession.
The recession proponents were dealt a severe blow this morning when the Commerce Department reported that GDP increased at an annual rate of 1.9% in the last quarter (April-to-June). This was an improvement over the first quarter of the year that came in at .9% growth. Nope, we are NOT in a recession according to the definition of the word.
Option One: Perhaps we should conduct large scale national polls each quarter asking Americans if they ‘FEEL’ we are in a recession. We could also have a group of super-delegates (i.e. celebrities, economist and politicians) whose votes would could 10,000x of a normal American (i.e. much like the Democratic Primary). The ‘FEELINGS’ of the nation+super delegates would determine the issue and we could put the whole ‘are we in a recession?’ question to rest. Option Two: Or, on the other hand, we could simply agree the economy sucks and only call it a recession once we have had two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Option Three: Keep up the maddening debate we have been having for the last year. What is your vote (let me know if you are a super-delegate so I can multiply your vote)?
How to quit your day job! (revisted)
July 30, 2008
Earlier this year I wrote about how to quit your job. Based on an incident today (that I won’t talk about here) I thought I would repost here:
There comes a time in most employment relationships when it is time to move on. Gone are the days of lifetime employment. Unless you get fired you will need to quit. My suggestion? Do it with class. Sit down with your manager and let him know that you are leaving and offer a minimum of two weeks notice. Regardless of how much you would like to slam down your resignation letter on his desk and walk out, consider that it is likely that your next job won’t be your last and that future employers might want to talk to your current boss. If you handle it right it is very likely that your current boss will provide positive references for the rest of your career. Handle it wrong and at best you won’t be able to get a reference and worst you might get a negative reference. On the other hand, I highly recommend employers providing a minimum of two weeks notice to employees regardless of the reason for termination. Get a release in exchange for the severence payment of course.
Penelope Trunk suggests the following:
- Go before things get bad. Lynne Prodger recently left her accounting job. “I’ve been really good about quitting jobs amicably,” she says. “I realized I was hitting a point where I was going to start acting out.” Like Prodger, you need to know yourself and be honest about how you’re feeling on the job so you don’t let your emotions get out of hand.
- Make a good first step. “The very first person that you should tell you’re leaving is your boss,” says Alexandra Levit , author of “They Don’t Teach Corporate in College.” “Your boss will be insulted to hear it from someone else.” Also, get your story right the first time and tell the same, optimistic plan to everyone. Prodger, for example, explained that she wanted to give freelancing a try, which shows positive vision for her career.
- Leave the door open a crack. If you’ve done good work, there is no reason you couldn’t come back later, when things for you and for the company might have changed. Especially as you begin to specialize in your career and lay down roots, the pool of possible companies gets smaller. So don’t close any doors definitively.
- Beware of the exit interview. “If you trash the company during an exit interview, it will follow you everywhere. In fact, don’t even bother to do one,” says David Perry , a recruiter and author of “Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters.” “Just leave on good terms and let them know you had a wonderful time.” Even if you didn’t.
- Resignation letter. Try to get out of it if you can. But if you really need to write one for legal reasons, make it short and gracious. You are not the president of the United States. The world does not need a public record of why you quit or what your aspirations are. Just a simple end date and a thank you will be fine.
- Trust that the company can continue without you. “People think the world is going to end if they quit their job,” says Prodger. “In my last job, everyone who quit thought everything would go wrong, but it’s easily fixed and everyone’s replaceable.”
- Set yourself up for a good reference. Perry is adamant that any negative parting will haunt your job hunts forever. “You want to be sure the trail you leave is a positive one,” he says. And although the law discourages past employers from dissing you to future employers, Perry says a recruiter can circumvent this hurdle. “I have never, in my 20 years of recruiting, had someone not answer questions about references.”
- Manage the in-between time carefully. “Burn no bridges,” warns Brendon Connelly , author of the popular blog Slacker Manager. Sometimes quitting a job is as loaded as dumping a lover. “I have quit a few jobs and there has been tension because it’s always been for something else,” says Connelly. “You need to lay the groundwork ahead of time for the transition.” Tie up loose ends at the old job and get your files organized to pass on to someone else. “You don’t want to give the old people the shaft.”
Startup-style: Lifestyle or VC?
July 30, 2008
I am catching up on my reading and ran across a post from Tony Wright titled, “Followup Answers re: Lifestyle vs. Investment and Angel vs. VC.” It is a well thought out post following up on his presentation at Seattle Tech Startups. He has a few interesting points including this one:
I think people chase VC because it’s available. Angels are purposefully elusive– they don’t exactly hang out a shingle saying, “I’ve got $50k burning a hole in my pocket”. VCs, on the other hand, have a web site, and processes to handle/process deal flow. They almost always want to lead the investment by negotiating terms and putting in a big chunk of the money, while angels sometimes shy away from leading/negotiating, but are happy to pile on with other investors.
He is onto something. Some of us think VC investments are the only game in town because it fairly easy to understand. Raise money, build business. The alternatives are harder, especially for young would-be entrepreneurs (or for established W2 folks with families). Don’t just seek venture capital (especially in Dallas) just because that is what you know. Consider alternatives. Do you really need the money for an office or a desk? I bet you can find one for free. Do you really need money for bandwidth and colo? I bet you can find some for free. There are lots of way to get your idea out of your head without raising venture capital. Consider looking for angel investments. Start hanging out with the people who can help you - i.e. other entrepreneurs. Share your ideas and get in the game. Raising money is hard, do it as a last resort…
Reading for Entrepreneurs
July 30, 2008
Venture Hacks has a series titled Books for Entrepreneurs. Their first post points to a great book by Richard Shell titled, Bargaining for Advantage. From their post:
“Our first book is Bargaining for Advantage by G. Richard Shell. Richard is a professor at Wharton and this is my favorite negotiation book period. It synthesizes the principled negotiation of Getting to Yes with the psychology of persuasion in Influence. Jim Pitkow recommended this book while we were raising Songbird’s Series A. Since then, I have referred to it again and again while writing posts for Venture Hacks and answering questions from entrepreneurs. Make sure you don’t read this book if these questions are irrelevant to you: Should I be the first to open? Should I open optimistically or reasonably? What sort of concession strategy works best?”
Why can’t we find a leader like this. . .
July 30, 2008
The choice between Obama and McCain makes me sick. Too bad we can’t find someone like this to run our country once again:
ServiceGuy Update
July 29, 2008
It has been a hot summer for ServiceGuy. You might not have noticed, but we have more than doubled in size (so much so Mike had to create two columns on the city selector). In the last two weeks we have added Sacramento and St. Louis to a total of 22 cities including: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley, St. Louis and Washington DC.
Of course it isn’t all roses. We are struggling to fill the contractor ranks in the new cities with quality individuals. The biggest problem with a downturn in the economy for our business is the explosion in people looking for side jobs. Many of these people are great, but there are a growing number of unqualified and sometimes unscrupulous people looking for work. Keeping them out of the system is a challenge and it has the negative effect of slowing down contractor recruitment. Here are two strategies we are using:
Step One: Focus on inviting the best people. Our people utilize other contractor referral systems and advertisements to recruit people who ‘appear’ to be qualified.
Step Two: Track feedback and start building reputation scores for contractors already in the system. By calling each ‘consumer/client’ who was connected to a contractor (one to four weeks after their call) and asking for a rating (1 scam artist, 2 unqualified but honest, 3 average, 4 good, 5-9 great result) we can eliminate bad contractors and promote goods ones. Anyone with a 1 is immediately suspended from the system pending review by our team (i.e. we can a) listen to their call with the client, b) contact both the client and the contractor and c) determine if we want to ban or rehabilitate the contractor.
The downside is that this reputation management has reduced the number of contractors called in each city and makes new recruitment even slower. The solution? Throw more recruiters in the mix. We plan to grow our contractor recruiting staff by 60% by this fall. Hopefully this will make ServiceGuy even better!
First public release for Whitebox!
July 29, 2008
In February I wrote a post titled, ‘Whitebox Day 60 ~ Internal Release‘ where I indicated we had completed the majority of the code for our ACH collection system. Once we were able to show our software to the auto dealers, warranty company and agents it was apparent our software needed a major overhaul. Five months later and I am please to announce the code is substantially complete. Starting this week we will be rolling out Whitebox to several auto dealers in ‘beta’ (i.e. it will likely have a few bugs/problems/issues). So this application that we originally scoped for 60 days took more than 180 days to complete (and this is only the first version, we have at least one more major version I suspect).
What is Whitebox? The idea is to provide technology enabled finance and collection products to the automotive industry. Our customized solution provide warranty providers the ability to offer car dealers products such as new and used warranties, gap protection and after market to consumers who do not qualify for traditional finance products. Our ACH collection system, married to our state-of-the-art web interface and electronic signature collection technology create a seamless finance solution. Our software engineers work closely with our clients to customize our offerings to meet the specific needs of each product. By combining our robust banking interface and our hosted web application, car dealers are able to generate significant profits without extensive training and related overhead. (Oh and we don’t have any marketing people yet, so that is all you get)
Big in Japan Update
July 28, 2008
Several of you noted that we hadn’t updated the Big in Japan blog since April of this year. Oops. I have been doing my Big in Japan updates (i.e. Whitebox, ServiceGuy, SocialTones, Fan Podcast, SimpleTicket) here and didn’t bother to update the Big in Japan blog (sorry about that). Anyway, there is quite a bit going on so here goes:
First, we are actively growing ServiceGuy - now in more than 21 cities around the United States. WhiteBox is launching WhiteForm this week to several auto dealers. Fan Podcast, now in its third year, is being featured on FX’s hit series The Shield this season. We continue to manage custom technology for LEGO and their LEGO Universe project. Finally, we are actively developing SocialTones for the new Google Android phone platform.
What is next for Big in Japan? Look for exciting progress on SimpleTicket (our VERY neglected trouble ticket system) as well as some interesting work on Nagios (the network monitoring system we have used for years). Our new coworking space is open (our first tenants are moving in on Thursday). Anyway, lots going on. Almost too much to cover in a simple blog post.
Young Entrepreneurs Reborn!
July 27, 2008
Some of my best friends in the world were made through my involvement in YEO (Young Entrepreneurs Organization). The organization dropped the ‘young’ from its mission to focus on Entrepreneurs of all ages (the new name is EO - Entrepreneurs Organization) in doing so it never really consulted its members and I dropped out. Richard Stump pointed me to Luke and Brian who founded Young Entrepreneurs of Lexington (Kentucky) who are bringing the ‘young’ back into entrepreneurship (a little late and a little too far away for me). Richard explains,
Their goals are to foster creation of real relationships among young entrepreneurs in the Lexington area for the enhancement of professional endeavors and to provide a resource and advocacy group for the advancement of entrepreneurialism at the University of Kentucky. This is an extension of the entrepreneurs club at the University of Kentucky.
Built to Last: do you have a ‘Plan B’?
July 27, 2008
Greg Sterling is ‘looking for plan b‘, an option for internet entrepreneurs who are building businesses without regard for their exit (or perhaps when an exit doesn’t present itself). What if you just built a business because you were passionate about an idea and the thought of making it a success? Greg correctly points out that,
‘Most Internet entrepreneurs and their funders are identical to real-estate speculators — I don’t entirely blame them given how many people have made money in this way. They make something look impressive in the shortest amount of time in the hope that there will be a bidding war and they’ll get 5X to 10X (or more) the original money invested. In other words they’re flipping the business in the same way that people (used to) flip houses during the real estate bubble.’
Of course I have been guilty of this sort of ‘built to flip’ mentality. More recently I realized that my startup(s) were a means instead of an end. I enjoy building things, turning ideas into reality. Selling and starting over means I lose my platform (i.e. the means) to easily launch a new idea (i.e. people, facilities, resources and capital). Why not keep the platform and build businesses/ideas for fun? Architel was originally built to flip, but over the years (7+) it has allowed me (and my team) to a) produce a reality television series, b) build a bunch of cool/free internet applications, c) build cool stuff for FOX and LEGO, d) turn my ideas (aka ServiceGuy) into applications, and e) start thinking about my own ‘plan b’ - i.e. what I am passionate about and what the next half of my life will look like (i.e. SpringStage). Maybe selling out would give me a little cash, but what would it cost me? What is your ‘plan b’?
Hiatus: Washington DC
July 25, 2008
You might have noticed I haven’t been blogging for a few days. Brad (WhiteBox) and I have been entertaining our kids in Washington DC. Our trip preceeds the release of WhiteForm 1.0 (more on that next week).
DIY Culture - I am lovin it!
July 21, 2008
People have been asking me why. Why am I starting a angel/entrepreneur group? Why am I sponsoring the startup happy hours? Why am I offering free coworking space? Why? Because I wasn’t satisfied with a) the startup culture in Dallas, b) the current angel investment group models, c) the lack of coworking space in Dallas and so on. Instead of simply complaining (as I am fairly good at) I decided to do something about it. Wow, who are we to think we can change things?
Mike Arrington is joining the club. He decided he wanted a smart, simple web tablet for less than $200 so he is going to build it. Instead of complaining Mike is creating what he feels is missing. Amazing. The hubris! I love it, this DIY culture that we are creating. What do you think is missing? You don’t have to wait for someone else to fill the void, you can do it yourself.
Oh, thanks to everyone who showed up tonight for the startup happy hour. Great group tonight, see you in two weeks. Cheers!
Reminder: Startup Happy Hour Tonight!
July 21, 2008
I won’t be on much more today, so I thought I would remind everyone about the Startup Happy Hour tonight. Hope to see you there. Please RSVP: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/918048/?ps=2
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