Being an entrepreneur who focuses on consumer software, I’m asked a lot about why I am not in Silicon Valley. After all, Silicon Valley is the place where the resources and people needed to start a company in this industry are in great abundance.
Personally, the answer is family. I just can’t move away from them. Sure I would still see them, but the impromptu poppins and unplanned BBQs are what it is all about for me.
Professionally, the answer is that I have an amazing network of engineers and designers that I can lean on here. I have spent my entire career in high tech companies in the Boston area and I have worked with so many talented people.
At RunKeeper, out of the first 4 engineering hires, 3 of them came from my previous job. The 4th came from my co-founder Joe’s last job. We wouldn’t have been able to do that if we moved to the Valley. We just didn’t know many people there.
I left RunKeeper last year after helping lead the team for over 3 years. I spec’d out every feature, planned every nuance of the product roadmap, managed our finances, our engineers, help raise $11.5M in funding, helped grow our userbase to 10 million users, and I left the team in a position to continue that growth. It is now one of the most impressive teams in Boston and continues to attract top talent.
I hear in Silicon Valley that entrepreneurs are swooned by investors when they leave a successful gig. I have no idea if this is true, but I do know that in Boston, they just keep in touch. I like this much better. Why? Because an entrepreneur, first timer or not, needs to work for it here.
You aren’t given money because of an idea. You have to first prove in some way that the idea is valid. The worst thing that you can do in the infant stages of a company is to sprint down the wrong path and burn all your funding. It is better to be scrappy, lean, and resource limited. This will force you to optimize and only put effort into the things that matter. You need to form a team that is driven by the vision and each other, not a paycheck. Money doesn’t drive success at this stage, passion and hard work does.
In the Boston area, passion and hard work are the resources that I find to be in great abundance.
5/20/13
3/1/13
Introvert and networking. I know, I'm quiet. I get it.
Networking, has it’s place in making great software. I know it does, but it just isn’t my strong suit. I’ve learned throughout my career that I come off to different groups of people very differently. Many people find me very quiet and reserved. Others see me as intense, driven, and always ready to give my opinion. I’m very aware when I’m being quiet and when I am engaged in a conversation. I never really have thought much about it until recently when a fellow entrepreneur asked me if I was going to recruit a “non-introvert” to manage my team at some point. That got me thinking. When I’m working with engineers and my team, I’m not the quiet guy this person knows me as. When I’m deep into a conversation about my company and selling the vision to most people, I’m not quiet. But when I’m at a networking event, or talking to someone whose passions I don’t know, I get quiet.
I’m still exploring why this is, but I do know this needs to change. My current thesis on my quiet behavior is that I am passionate by only a few topics at a time and I realize that many people aren’t like this. Most people seem to love to talk about anything and everything with anyone. Short bits of information about a topic and then on to the next subject. For example, I watch the NFL. I even went to almost every Patriots home game for a few years, but I don’t have much to talk about if you start talking about football. I’m not a football stat junky, I just enjoy watching it. So if a discussion about the Patriots comes up, the best I could add to the conversation is “I like the Patriots”, and that usually brings up as football stat war that I just don’t care to talk about. So, I usually don’t even say anything.
Even if someone does bring up a subject that I am passionate about, I don’t know if anyone else is as passionate about it as I am. For example, the other day at an event, someone brought up the Twitter API and Twitter’s current strategy around it. Bingo, I should be all over this right? Well, the person who started talking about it seemed confused as to what was going on with it. I got the sense that they really didn’t care too much about the subject. So I added my 2 cents, they pushed back on what I said, and I kind of just listened to their points and waited for the conversation to jump to a new subject. Like the football example, I didn’t want to start a stat war with someone who just enjoyed the subject. Instead, I just listened and nodded my head.
But when I do find someone who is passionate about the same subjects I am, I open up. I start pouring into the conversation. I get excited and energized. But most importantly, I will remember the individuals in the conversation. The next time I see them, I know they share the same passions I do. At that time, almost any subject is on the table. Want to talk football? I’m there. Want to talk politics? Sure! I now have a connection to this person and I now feel comfortable talking about anything. But for some reason, I need this connection before I’m able to really engage.
So why do I need to change this? Because I know I am missing out. I know that I am limiting my ability to network and meet new people who also share my same passions. For example, I might not have been the only one in that Twitter API conversation who shared a true passion for the subject. If I had engaged in that conversation, maybe someone else who was also quiet might have jumped in. Or maybe I if I had engaged, I could have enlightened the other person about the subject. Maybe, they would have learned something new and then also become passionate about the subject. Maybe this would have created a connection, and then allowed me to better engage in any subject.
Who knows, I’m still figuring this stuff out.
I’m still exploring why this is, but I do know this needs to change. My current thesis on my quiet behavior is that I am passionate by only a few topics at a time and I realize that many people aren’t like this. Most people seem to love to talk about anything and everything with anyone. Short bits of information about a topic and then on to the next subject. For example, I watch the NFL. I even went to almost every Patriots home game for a few years, but I don’t have much to talk about if you start talking about football. I’m not a football stat junky, I just enjoy watching it. So if a discussion about the Patriots comes up, the best I could add to the conversation is “I like the Patriots”, and that usually brings up as football stat war that I just don’t care to talk about. So, I usually don’t even say anything.
Even if someone does bring up a subject that I am passionate about, I don’t know if anyone else is as passionate about it as I am. For example, the other day at an event, someone brought up the Twitter API and Twitter’s current strategy around it. Bingo, I should be all over this right? Well, the person who started talking about it seemed confused as to what was going on with it. I got the sense that they really didn’t care too much about the subject. So I added my 2 cents, they pushed back on what I said, and I kind of just listened to their points and waited for the conversation to jump to a new subject. Like the football example, I didn’t want to start a stat war with someone who just enjoyed the subject. Instead, I just listened and nodded my head.
But when I do find someone who is passionate about the same subjects I am, I open up. I start pouring into the conversation. I get excited and energized. But most importantly, I will remember the individuals in the conversation. The next time I see them, I know they share the same passions I do. At that time, almost any subject is on the table. Want to talk football? I’m there. Want to talk politics? Sure! I now have a connection to this person and I now feel comfortable talking about anything. But for some reason, I need this connection before I’m able to really engage.
So why do I need to change this? Because I know I am missing out. I know that I am limiting my ability to network and meet new people who also share my same passions. For example, I might not have been the only one in that Twitter API conversation who shared a true passion for the subject. If I had engaged in that conversation, maybe someone else who was also quiet might have jumped in. Or maybe I if I had engaged, I could have enlightened the other person about the subject. Maybe, they would have learned something new and then also become passionate about the subject. Maybe this would have created a connection, and then allowed me to better engage in any subject.
Who knows, I’m still figuring this stuff out.
2/26/13
The inside work
Back in college, I had a dorm room across the street from the construction of a new dorm (South Hall, for UConn people). My desk was right next to the dorm's window and many times I would find myself watching the construction workers erecting the new hall. First, the demolition of the old building. That was cool. Then I watched the pouring of the foundation, the walls, windows, and roof as they were amazingly put up in a matter of a couple weeks. It was very cool to watch. But then the hall just seemed to sit there. Lots of workers coming in and out, but from the outside nothing was being done.
The next year, the hall opened up. It was by far the nicest place to live on campus. Common study areas, bathrooms in each dorm room, an amazing cafeteria, and even its own gym and conference center. None of the hard work that went into the inside of the hall was ever seen from the outside, but yet, all anyone could talk about was the hall's impressive inside. I never heard anyone talk about the hall having the best roof on campus.
Startups are very much the same way. They launch with a bang and then to the outside world just sit there. But really, that is when the work that makes it a success quietly gets started.
The next year, the hall opened up. It was by far the nicest place to live on campus. Common study areas, bathrooms in each dorm room, an amazing cafeteria, and even its own gym and conference center. None of the hard work that went into the inside of the hall was ever seen from the outside, but yet, all anyone could talk about was the hall's impressive inside. I never heard anyone talk about the hall having the best roof on campus.
Startups are very much the same way. They launch with a bang and then to the outside world just sit there. But really, that is when the work that makes it a success quietly gets started.
2/19/13
The startup story
Quite a few years ago, I read about the story of a startup and how it was founded. The story was about a few soccer dads that build a software product to alert their sons’ team when games were canceled. Then more and more organizations and groups started to use the product until one day they realized that their passion was actually a growing business. ...or something like that. Turns out, those dads lived in different towns so their kids most likely were not on the same soccer team. They had Harvard MBAs, masters from MIT, and lots of experience starting companies. I had trouble believing that this was the real story behind the company, but I’ll never really know. Eitherway, I don’t think I ever shared their story until now.
Recently Bostinno’s Chase Garbarino wrote a post about how Boston startups need to do a better job at story telling. It reminded me of the story about the soccer dads. Great story, but probably total BS. I agree 100% with Chase’s post that all companies need to be great storytellers, but I do think it is important that the the story be genuine.
It is easy to get caught up in storytelling and start to fantasize about how it could have started. We can kid ourselves that we were great visionaries, and that we were right 100% of the time or that our personal contribution to a startup was all that mattered. But instead, take a step back, find your true story. Talk about the mistakes, the fact that you reached out for help. Talk about your original vision and how you discovered a different but complementary path. Talk about your fears and the risk that you AND your team took on. Own it, tell it, explain it in great detail because the truth and the details are more compelling that just a “sounds good” story. It will resonate with more people. They’ll be able to learn from it and it will make them want to share it with others.
Recently Bostinno’s Chase Garbarino wrote a post about how Boston startups need to do a better job at story telling. It reminded me of the story about the soccer dads. Great story, but probably total BS. I agree 100% with Chase’s post that all companies need to be great storytellers, but I do think it is important that the the story be genuine.
It is easy to get caught up in storytelling and start to fantasize about how it could have started. We can kid ourselves that we were great visionaries, and that we were right 100% of the time or that our personal contribution to a startup was all that mattered. But instead, take a step back, find your true story. Talk about the mistakes, the fact that you reached out for help. Talk about your original vision and how you discovered a different but complementary path. Talk about your fears and the risk that you AND your team took on. Own it, tell it, explain it in great detail because the truth and the details are more compelling that just a “sounds good” story. It will resonate with more people. They’ll be able to learn from it and it will make them want to share it with others.
12/29/12
What if 2013
I'm not a poet but I'm going to take a shot at it for this year's new year's resolution post. I tried to write it so that it would apply to a lot of things in life but each line is actually very specific to my lessons learned in 2012 and my goals for 2013. It also directly applies to what it takes to make great software. As I move forward in my career, I'm finding that sometimes you just need to believe in yourself and in the current plan.
What if we are wrong? should be...
What if we are right?
What if what we know to be true, really is true?
What if good really can come from tragedy?
What if the doubt is wrong and our instinct is right?
What if others start to believe?
What if they start to see what we see?
What if we are now onto something much bigger?
What if we are about to change the world?
What if this is even bigger than we could have hoped?
What if we just need to keep moving forward?
What if this takes us forward?
Yes, what if!
What if we are wrong? should be...
What if we are right?
What if what we know to be true, really is true?
What if good really can come from tragedy?
What if the doubt is wrong and our instinct is right?
What if others start to believe?
What if they start to see what we see?
What if we are now onto something much bigger?
What if we are about to change the world?
What if this is even bigger than we could have hoped?
What if we just need to keep moving forward?
What if this takes us forward?
Yes, what if!
10/17/12
The Combined Value User Customer Model
I just read Jack Dorsey's blog post, Let's reconsider our "users". It is a great post and it reminded me of a post I wrote a few years back and was advised (for whatever reason) not to post. I held onto it for my own use, but I'll post it publicly now as I feel it provides lots of value to many companies who are dealing with this same issue. Enjoy!
Many of us enjoy great products but never stop to think if we are a customer or only a user. And many of us don't know the difference. So what's the difference between a customer and a user?
To put is simply, a customer takes money out of their wallet and hands over their hard earned cash. A user, simply uses the product.
So why does this matter? Well, it matters because as a lot is created based on the way the business differentiate users from customers. It effects how businesses shape their products and how they manage their customer support. The entire user experience will be effected by how they create view their user and customers. Product features, price, customer support, marketing, everything about this experience of a product is shaped by this model. For the sake of giving this model a name, lets call it the business's User Customer Model (UCM). There might already be a name in some MBA textbook, but I only skimmed the chapter summaries of mine. :)
First, lets discuss the two typical types of UCMs commonly found on the web, The User Vs Customer UCM and The User Conversion UCM.
The User Vs Customer UCM: Users are not the valueble customer
When a business structures themselves this way their product and services will over time aim to benefit their customers at a sacrifice of their users. If you find that a website throws a lot of popup ads at you or requires you to take steps to enter in information about yourself that never adds value to your experience on the site, then guess what? You are only a user. If a website requires you to enter in your personal information for no reason, then it is mostly-likely because they need it for the lead generation. What it lead generation? Selling customer contact information to 3rd party companies (the customer) based on the user's personal demographics. These UCMs eventually leads to business who's websites with lots of popup ads that degrades the user experience. This is because their customers (the advertisers) benefit from it. In the extreme case of The User Vs Customer UCM, using a product leads to your inbox getting filled with spam. With The User Vs Customer UCM, users are only valuable to the company's customer not the business itself. Also, try getting getting satisfactory customer support from businesses that use The User Vs Customer UCM, to them customer support is only for "customers".
The User Conversion UCM: Convert users into customers
This model aims at converting each and every user into a customer. Users who are not paying customers are only seen to have value for a short period of time. The theory here is if a user doesn't convert to a paying customer by some defined period of time, then they are only an expense and non-valuable expenses need to be cut. Businesses that use The User Conversion UCM sometimes offer their products with an introduction phase and then you need to pay or stop using the product. Other businesses that use this UCM just try to make users' life hell until they either leave of convert to a customer. Does a product degrade over time? does the "free" version become outdated, stale or never updated? The business behind the product is using The User Conversion UCM. Wost cases of The User Conversion UCM, businesses try to use trickery to get you to pay. Ever get a charge on your Credit card because you didn't read the fine print? These types of businesses will convert their users at any cost.
We aim to create our own UCM that we feel solves the obvious issues with the other two models. We call it, The Combined Value UCM.
The Combined Value UCM: Recognize the value in both users and paying customers
I'm referring to this as being "new" but in the grand view of things, The Combined Value UCM is not new. In fact, the old small town mom and pop stores were once all like this. Small business owners who give more to their community than they take. Tradesmen who would offer their services without ever asking for something in return. Or the milk delivery man who would pour out some milk for a neighborhood cat. These businesses recognized the non-monetize-able value in the community and world around them. Weather it is karma, good will, or just being nice, these businesses didn't see the world in terms of cash-flow. In our day an age, this model is becoming all but lost. We hope to bring this model back.
So how are trying to create this UCM in a day in age where profits matter? How can we do this while also having investors, and highly visible employees who are constantly getting job offers elsewhere? It is two-fold.
1st, we recognizing the true value in both users and paying customers. User feedback is what shapes our business and product. Not customer feedback, but user feedback. We don't differentiate. Users and customers' input is equally valuable. A good idea, or a valid complaint helps build our offering no mater if the user has paid or not. We are also building our product so that each user gains value from other users in the community. Paying users gain value from free users who join their Street Team, who share their activities on twitter and/or facebook. We gains value from both. This keeps us from becoming a business who is using The User Conversion model (UCM).
2nd, we are making sure that users can become paying customers. The important work there is "can". We don't force them to convert, we don't trick them to convert. But we do need to make sure that our revenues come from our users. This keeps us from becoming like business who uses The User Vs Customer model (UCM). As we build out the core the product we don't want to build "features" that add value to any other entry other than our users. Features are built because they help you track, measure, and improve your fitness PERIOD! Not track, measure, and improve your fitness in a way that gets the most hits for our customers' ads. Not track, measure, and improve your fitness so that we can sell your data to another company. Plain and simply, by using The Combined Value UCM, we can build a system that can track, measure, and improve your fitness. Both users and paying customers are hugely valuable to us AND paying customers have the same objectives as non-paying users. Everyone simply want our product to track, measure, and improve your fitness.
Many of us enjoy great products but never stop to think if we are a customer or only a user. And many of us don't know the difference. So what's the difference between a customer and a user?
To put is simply, a customer takes money out of their wallet and hands over their hard earned cash. A user, simply uses the product.
So why does this matter? Well, it matters because as a lot is created based on the way the business differentiate users from customers. It effects how businesses shape their products and how they manage their customer support. The entire user experience will be effected by how they create view their user and customers. Product features, price, customer support, marketing, everything about this experience of a product is shaped by this model. For the sake of giving this model a name, lets call it the business's User Customer Model (UCM). There might already be a name in some MBA textbook, but I only skimmed the chapter summaries of mine. :)
First, lets discuss the two typical types of UCMs commonly found on the web, The User Vs Customer UCM and The User Conversion UCM.
The User Vs Customer UCM: Users are not the valueble customer
When a business structures themselves this way their product and services will over time aim to benefit their customers at a sacrifice of their users. If you find that a website throws a lot of popup ads at you or requires you to take steps to enter in information about yourself that never adds value to your experience on the site, then guess what? You are only a user. If a website requires you to enter in your personal information for no reason, then it is mostly-likely because they need it for the lead generation. What it lead generation? Selling customer contact information to 3rd party companies (the customer) based on the user's personal demographics. These UCMs eventually leads to business who's websites with lots of popup ads that degrades the user experience. This is because their customers (the advertisers) benefit from it. In the extreme case of The User Vs Customer UCM, using a product leads to your inbox getting filled with spam. With The User Vs Customer UCM, users are only valuable to the company's customer not the business itself. Also, try getting getting satisfactory customer support from businesses that use The User Vs Customer UCM, to them customer support is only for "customers".
The User Conversion UCM: Convert users into customers
This model aims at converting each and every user into a customer. Users who are not paying customers are only seen to have value for a short period of time. The theory here is if a user doesn't convert to a paying customer by some defined period of time, then they are only an expense and non-valuable expenses need to be cut. Businesses that use The User Conversion UCM sometimes offer their products with an introduction phase and then you need to pay or stop using the product. Other businesses that use this UCM just try to make users' life hell until they either leave of convert to a customer. Does a product degrade over time? does the "free" version become outdated, stale or never updated? The business behind the product is using The User Conversion UCM. Wost cases of The User Conversion UCM, businesses try to use trickery to get you to pay. Ever get a charge on your Credit card because you didn't read the fine print? These types of businesses will convert their users at any cost.
We aim to create our own UCM that we feel solves the obvious issues with the other two models. We call it, The Combined Value UCM.
The Combined Value UCM: Recognize the value in both users and paying customers
I'm referring to this as being "new" but in the grand view of things, The Combined Value UCM is not new. In fact, the old small town mom and pop stores were once all like this. Small business owners who give more to their community than they take. Tradesmen who would offer their services without ever asking for something in return. Or the milk delivery man who would pour out some milk for a neighborhood cat. These businesses recognized the non-monetize-able value in the community and world around them. Weather it is karma, good will, or just being nice, these businesses didn't see the world in terms of cash-flow. In our day an age, this model is becoming all but lost. We hope to bring this model back.
So how are trying to create this UCM in a day in age where profits matter? How can we do this while also having investors, and highly visible employees who are constantly getting job offers elsewhere? It is two-fold.
1st, we recognizing the true value in both users and paying customers. User feedback is what shapes our business and product. Not customer feedback, but user feedback. We don't differentiate. Users and customers' input is equally valuable. A good idea, or a valid complaint helps build our offering no mater if the user has paid or not. We are also building our product so that each user gains value from other users in the community. Paying users gain value from free users who join their Street Team, who share their activities on twitter and/or facebook. We gains value from both. This keeps us from becoming a business who is using The User Conversion model (UCM).
2nd, we are making sure that users can become paying customers. The important work there is "can". We don't force them to convert, we don't trick them to convert. But we do need to make sure that our revenues come from our users. This keeps us from becoming like business who uses The User Vs Customer model (UCM). As we build out the core the product we don't want to build "features" that add value to any other entry other than our users. Features are built because they help you track, measure, and improve your fitness PERIOD! Not track, measure, and improve your fitness in a way that gets the most hits for our customers' ads. Not track, measure, and improve your fitness so that we can sell your data to another company. Plain and simply, by using The Combined Value UCM, we can build a system that can track, measure, and improve your fitness. Both users and paying customers are hugely valuable to us AND paying customers have the same objectives as non-paying users. Everyone simply want our product to track, measure, and improve your fitness.
8/14/12
Get Over Yourself and Launch!
It’s so easy to develop your product privately before “it is ready”. This is such a horrible idea that is rooted in your ego. Get over yourself!
You can’t launch yet because you know people will need feature X, Y, and Z. Get over yourself! You’re being overconfident in your abilities to know what your future users will actually want. Launch without feature X, Y, and Z to get user feedback to see if they actually want feature X, Y, and Z.
You might be afraid that your server might not be able to handle the traffic that comes when you launch. Get over yourself! There won’t be an onslaught of traffic on day one. If there is, you can then focus on those scaling issues and not that unwanted feature X you think you still need.
You might think people will see your unfinished product and think less of you as a developer or entrepreneur. Get over yourself! Facebook has over 900 million users who had no idea who Mark Zuckerberg was when they launched in 2004. Mainstream users don’t care who you are and won’t be around for a year or so anyways. Now is the time to learn from early adopters who understand that your product will take time to evolve. They also know that their feedback will help shape your product’s evolution.
You think you need to raise your angel round before you launch so you don’t have to explain your slow early growth in your pitch. Get over yourself! Investors aren’t dumb and you aren’t that good in pitching just an idea anyways. Instead, launch and let potential investors see how you adapt and evolve the product over time. That is what matters long term anyways.
At the end of the day, success takes a long time and is built on top of a long series of small successes. These small successes will only come if you get over yourself and allow everyone to see and correct the many mistakes you are about to make.
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