My NDA Policy ~ I have decided to starting signing them!
July 3, 2008
You would be surprised how many call me looking for advice (i.e. free advice that I am happy to provide), but first ask me if I would sign an NDA before they share their idea with me. I have refused to sign NDAs for a number of reasons in the past (well covered in this blog). Of course I have mentioned before why keeping your idea secret creates a real incentive for someone to steal it, but assuming you MUST keep your idea secret and you still want my advice I am now willing to sign a mutual NDA. Basically I agree to:
- Review your NDA prior to our conversation (I need at least 12 hours to review prior to our meeting); term must not exceed 36 months.
- Execute, in duplicate, the NDA.
- Forward your NDA to our office manager who will a) copy your NDA and file in our contract system and b) send a copy to our lawyer who will also keep the NDA on file.
In exchange for entering into an NDA with you and/or your company I am charging what I call my NDA fee to offset the handling costs I will incur over the next 1-3 years of handling the contract you have requested I enter into. Currently the fee is $1,000 per NDA. Of course, I prefer that we skip the NDA entirely thus saving you the $1,000 and me the headache of dealing with ‘yet another contract’ with someone I have likely never met and won’t meet again.
Got an idea for a web app, but you aren’t a techie?
July 3, 2008
You and your business partner have an idea for the next ‘Big Big Thing’, but neither of you knows anything about software development or programming. How do you turn get your idea out of your heads and on to the internet? I spent a few minutes chatting about this very topic earlier today. The individual first asked me if I would be willing to sign an NDA and explained that we don’t do NDAs. She decided she could describe what she was trying to accomplish in general terms without giving away the ’secret’ (basically, a fairly simple social network-style website). She went on to explain that she had recruited a CFO and now she was thinking about hiring a CTO and trying to decide whether or not she should outsource development here in the US or overseas.
My advice:
- Stop asking for NDAs and start sharing your idea widely, here is why.
- Don’t hire a CFO (you won’t need one for quite some time).
- Don’t hire a CTO (at least don’t hire anyone who has ever been CTO of anything but a startup).
- Attend Local Events like Startup Happy Hour, Refresh Dallas, Ruby Brigade, Barcamp and Democamp.
- Find a young, passionate developer with an above average EQ to join the team as a founder (he will be at the events listed above) and make him a full partner in your deal.
- Outsource the major development to U.S. based freelancers (don’t worry if they augment their team with offshore resources as long as you don’t have to deal with them).
The right person:
- Some early stage startup experience (as a founder or employee).
- Passionate about software development (hopefully agile methods, LAMP, Rails, etc).
- Someone who has read more than one book about development (Don’t Make Me Think - Krug, Bulletproof Web Design - Cederholm, Designing with Web Standards - Zeldman, Defensive Design - 37Signals, Agile Web Development - DHH)
- Someone who writes about his work on a blog (regularly)
- Someone who has a LinkedIn profile with more than a few recommendations
- Someone who attends events like Barcamp, Web 2.0, RailsCon and Gnomedex.
- Someone who can sit on a panel at a conference and talk about your service.
- Someone who is well respected and has at least 300 followers on Twitter.
- Find the coolest startups in your area and ask them about the person you are thinking of hiring. If he is respected they will tell you how great he is, if he is a chump they won’t say much…
One last thought. Everyone assumes building a website or a web service is easy (I know I did). Anyone with an idea can simply hire a few coders and presto they are on their way to kicking Google’s ass. It is hard to explain, but an anology I use is: “I have an amazing idea for a new kind of shopping mall. All I need is to raise the money (Around $500MM), buy the land and find a contractor to build it.” Of course, it might be easy to design and build a mall (I doubt it), but if you haven’t done it before I suspect there are a number of important lessons you might not be up-to speed on. Have you ever been to North Park? That was the first attempt at an indoor mall, they didn’t get it right until a few years ago. Building a successful web application really requires a little know how and experience ~ they days of Craigslist are over (i.e. you can’t build a rudamentary website and expect to be successful, it is just too late). Your site needs to be MUCH better…
Startup Q and A: GameWager
July 3, 2008
I covered GameWager earlier this year. George Giannukos and Thomas Marriott founded Austin-based GameWager in 2007 with funding from various angels including Todd Wagner (Broadcast.com). GameWager is an online platform for rewarding gamers’ performance with prizes and cash as well as sharing stats/achievements with friends. GameWager currently supports PC titles and enhances game-play with more excitement and realism by assigning tangible value to every win/loss. GameWager makes gaming more fun and social by providing an outlet to settle trash-talking and provides a variety of on-site tools that empowers gamers to track and improve their performance.
Q: Why did you start GameWager?
A: It did not exist, so we decided to create it. Plus, we’re gamers and thought it’d be lots of fun. Does that answer work? :)
Q: Give us the namd and URLs of three blogs you read regularly and let us know why you like them.
A: wsj.com - not technically a blog, but a great site for general business news. startup-review.com - great blog that covers successful internet companies and explains why they were successful in a case-study format. Feld.com - Brad gives a great behind the scenes look at the VC world. Great resources for current and aspiring entrepreneurs. Austinstartup.com - great for keeping tabs on what’s happening in Austin. Startuphouston.com - great for keeping up-to-date on my start-up family back in Htown! We miss you guys!
Q: What was your least favorite job?
A: Honestly, I’ve never had a job that was not stimulating. All my previous work experiences were for hedge funds/Private Equity shops or my family, which were totally cool gigs. Ultimately, the goal has always been to be in control of my life/destiny so I decided to take the plunge while I’m young and have fewer responsibilities.
Q: What is unique about your company’s culture? Do you have any interesting rituals?
A: Our company started around a bet. Thomas and I decided to settle an argument (well, lets call it a discussion ;)) on a game of Counter-Strike. That turned into the best of 3, then 5, then 7. Before long, a few dollars were riding on the line. That adrenaline pumping experiencing lead us to the concept behind GameWager. Today, any hard to decide decisions are now made simple - lets just play some games and see who wins (ok, maybe not ALL decisions :p). But to answer your question, here are just some of the perks of working at GW:
- Free sodas and yes, beer!
- Gaming at 2:30PM at work is considering, well, work (with-in reason of course).
- A very chill and relexed working environement (gotta hit those deadlines, though!)
- Lots of opportunity for growth
- Did I mention playing games is considered work?
- Open environment
Q: What are your 1/3/5 year goals for the company? Is your business a ‘lifestyle’ company or do you plan on some sort of exit?
A: 1 Year Goal - 250,000+ users, 3 Year Goal - Millions of users, 5 Year Goal - Sitting on a beach, with some hot blonde, and a Corona in hand..? J/k. Thomas and I see ourselves as serial/parallel entrepreneurs. An exit is definitely the end-goal.
Company: GameWager, Inc.
President: George Giannukos
Phone: (713) 725-6796
Email: george@gamewager.net
Blog: http://blog.gamewager.net
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=4015864&trk=tab_pro
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gamewager
Website: http://www.gamewager.net
Founded: August 2007
Employees: 7
Est. 2008 Revenue: 500,000
Est. 2009 Revenue: 20,000,000
Houston Startup Happy Hour
July 2, 2008
Ready to network with Houston’s growing network of entrepreneurs? Check out their latest startup happy hour.
When: Thursday, July 3rd 6-9PM
Where: The Tasting Room @ River Oaks
2409 W. Alabama 7213.526.2242
Click here for more info. The July Houston Startup Happy Hour features a live presentation of SnapStream’s latest release of their TV search software. SnapStream’s consumer product was showcased by Bill Gates in his keynote at the Windows XP Launch in 2001 and since then it’s received lots of industry awards and recognition, including PC Magazine Editor’s Choice. Snapstream’s newest product, SnapStream Enterprise, allows organizations to record and search within thousands of hours of TV recordings. It’s used by 1) presidential campaigns, 2) city/state/federal governments, 3) TV shows (like E!’s The Soup), 4) K-12 schools and universities, and many more. Come meet the founders and see a demo of their TV search software in action at Thursday’s Houston Startup Happy Hour!
Startup Profile: Roov.com
July 2, 2008
Last year Micah Davis, Chris Capehart and Ethan Fisher started C3 Media Group and recently launched ROOV.com in Dallas. Funding with around $500K in angel financing, the company operates an online community centered around faith. They ask users, “Have you ever wondered who else at your church; …enjoys building web apps? …has started a business? or …volunteers with kids in West Dallas?” The idea is simple, facilitate an ongoing conversation around faith on a hyper-local level. The goal is to move these ‘online connections’ offline into the real world to make a difference in their respective communities. Neat stuff.
Micah explains why he started ROOV.com, “Stemming from several personal experiences…we all saw a huge deficiency for community amongst like-minded people of faith. Helping to create this community has become a passion of ours.” Micah isn’t just building his own community, he already participates in massive online conversations going on at places like TechCrunch, 37Signals, and Red Eye VC. The guys at Roov.com have a little tradition, the goal is to create a very specific culture, Micah explains, “We strive to be a place where anybody can present new ideas and challenge existing ones…rather than just having a few decision makers. We also allocate the 1st 30 minutes of every work week to time spent reflecting on “the why” behind what we do.”
Company Name: C3 Media Group
Website: http://www.roov.com
Blog: http://blog.roov.com
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Micah_Davis/79100126
Funding: $500K Angel
Employees: 9
Est. Revenue 2008: 30,000
Est. Revenue 2009: 300,000
Austin Ventures buying Entrepreneur!
July 1, 2008
According to PaidContent, “Austin Ventures and Another PE Firm Buying Entrepreneur Media“. The story came out in April, but I missed it completely. The company generated more than $60MM in revenue last year and the deal is reportedly under $200MM. Rafat explains,
The company was founded as a newsletter in 1973 and launched as Entrepreneur magazine in 1977. It also has a biggish online presence and operates book publishing unit Entrepreneur Press. Entrepreneur.com was launched in 1996, and has been popular and very profitable, a big part of the appeal to the buyers, our sources say.
Drupal Meeting Tonight!
July 1, 2008
Level 10 is hosting July’s Prupal meeting tonight at 7PM. Here are the details:
Level 10 Design2929 Carlisle Street Suite 375
Dallas, TX, 75204
Startup Jobs on Texas Startup Blog
July 1, 2008
David and Aaron launched ‘Startup Jobs‘ for the network yesterday and after a little tweaking we have our jobs in the sidebar as seen here:
I decided to post our SimpleTicket position and a few readers posted jobs including:
Other in Box (Austin) Ruby on Rails Programmer
HiveLive (Boulder) Director of Product Management
LearnItFirst.com (Dallas) Web Presence Manager
The ads are $5 for 60 days (the lowest amount Jobamatic would allow). I have been really impressed with Job-a-matic:
Fully hosted, nothing to install. Totally Customizable! Custom domain names, headers and footers, colors, and categories give your users a seamless experience. If you have a blog site www.yourblog.com, we can give you the domain name http://jobs.yourblog.com. Once you have a domain name that looks just like your blog, you’ll probably want it to share the same look and feel. No problem: Job-a-matic allows you to insert your own graphics and HTML to make the Job-a-matic header and footer match your blog. Spiffy, no? And of course we can also take your blog’s color scheme and pretty up your job board in those exact same hues. Custom job categories will help you look relevant to your chosen area, since jobs.dogwalker.com will doubtless need different occupation categories than jobs.sysadminblog.com.
You know, if you don’t look good, we don’t look good… Backfill! Simply Hired can populate your jobs section with listings from our gi-normous database, so your job board never has to look like a ghost town. We first try to find relevant sponsored listings, and if there are none, we will open up our big ol’ box of jobs. And yes, you will get paid for clicks on sponsored back-fill listings.
We Do the Dirty Work! Simply Hired handles all credit card and payment processing. Email receipts? That’s all us. Reminders? Ditto. No security worries, no handling the moolah - except when we send you a check. Not bad, right?
You’re Not a Customer Service Professional… And you don’t have to be. Simply Hired has your back with a responsive customer service team to handle emails from the peanut gallery. Plus we have a big old pile of helpful literature like FAQ and Learn More pages. Give us your tired, your technically challenged, your huddled masses yearning to… well, you get the picture. We’ll deal with it.
We track the details… And give you a handy dashboard so you can monitor the performance of your job board. See how many job listings you have, who’s posting them, when they’re expiring and how much money you’ve earned.
But Wait, There’s More. You also get… Our handy job board promoting WIDGETS! Drop these handy-dandy little boxes on your blog’s sidebar and they’ll advertise jobs in your job board (not to mention the fact that you have a job board). We have special widgets for easy 1-click installation into Blogger, Typepad and Wordpress powered blogs. And, if you use feedburner’s FeedFlare product on your blog, you can add a “flare” that links to your job board, and advertises the number of new posts.
We also provide some sexy little code snippets that insert simple text links or button graphics onto your main website, promoting and linking to your job board.
Visibility! Did you know that sites like LinkedIn and MySpace use our job search engine to power their jobs sections? It’s true! And when an employer posts to a Job-a-matic-powered job board, it automatically ends up in our database of 5 million jobs. Long story short, when you use Job-a-matic it drives traffic to your site.
Instant Gratification! Job-A-Matic is up and running in less time than it takes you to make a latte.
Coffee or Lunch?
July 1, 2008
David Cohen wrote a post titled, “Coffee or Lunch” that resonated with me. I get calls, emails, IMs on a daily basis from people who want to meet. If you are an entrepreneur in Dallas I want to meet you, but asking me to join you for coffee or lunch doesn’t usually work for me.
First, I don’t drink coffee (literally never had a cup in my entire life). Second, lunch might be the perfect venue for our meeting and sometimes I will suggest it, but in general it doesn’t work for me. Usually I go to lunch with CEOs from our companies to talk about what is going on and what we need to do. This is REALLY valuable time for us and if we bring you along we won’t be able to get anything done.
The best way to meet is for you to come by our office. We have a Starbucks and a cafeteria downstairs so you can pick up your or lunch if you must and hang out with us. The best thing is to touch base with me a week before and we can pencil in a date and then give me a call an hour or so before you come to make sure nothing crazy has come up. Lets keep it casual. You can always just drop by, but don’t be offended if I can’t meet (assuming you didn’t schedule it before hand). Our new space is almost finished so there should be plenty of ‘hang-out’ space.
Where:
1950 Stemmons Freeway, Suite 2022 (I-35 and Oak Lawn)
Dallas, Texas 75207
214.550.2000 Main
Startup Blog Jobs!
June 30, 2008
You may have missed it (I did), but we have a job board located here. We are charging $5 per ad. Check it out.
ServiceGuy is live in Miami!
June 30, 2008
Randy and Mike are keeping our goal of adding one new city to ServiceGuy per week by adding Miami. We are now offering contractor referrals in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Washington DC and Phoenix.
Now, please remember it is going to take a few weeks for the system to start filling up with contractors. Before it does you won’t be able to get a contractor by calling the numbers, instead you will get to listen to the nice ServiceGuy guy…
Here are the numbers for those of you who can’t wait for them to go live:
305.590.8098 - Miami Cleaning
305.590.8099 - Miami Computer
305.590.8200 - Miami Designer
305.590.8201 - Miami Electrician
305.590.8202 - Miami Handyman
305.590.8203 - Miami Landscaper
305.590.8204 - Miami Mover
305.590.8205 - Miami Painter
305.590.8206 - Miami Plumber
305.590.8207 - Miami Pool
305.590.8208 - Miami Realtor
Guest Post on VoIP Insider
June 30, 2008
The guys at VoIP Insider selected ServiceGuy.org as one of the 100 best unique uses for Asterisk and asked me to write a guest post titled, “Asterisk, Nip/Tuck and the ServiceGuy.“ Check it out.
Perfect picture I forgot to use. . .
June 28, 2008
The cute one looking at the camera is my son Ethan. Thankfully, he can keep his gun (it is only a bb-gun)… :)
Worst VC year since 1978!
June 28, 2008
According to the Matt Richtel, in the second quarter of this year not a single venture backed company has gone public. This hasn’t happened since 1978. Matt explains,
Some other venture capitalists say the industry is struggling to find its direction and has never fully recovered from the dot-com bust. That may come as little surprise to the well-heeled individuals and institutions that give their money to venture capitalists seeking big returns. Some of these investors have criticized venture capitalists for failing to provide substantial returns on a broad basis since 2000. Public offerings serve a critical role for venture capitalists by giving them a way to sell, at huge profits, stakes in the start-up companies they invest in and build. So the offering drought is being taken very seriously by the venture capital industry. The National Venture Capital Association, an industry group, said it planned to discuss the issue on Tuesday in a media blitz on television news outlets.
But Paul Kedrosky, an investor and the author of Infectious Greed, a venture capital-centric blog, said that there were deeper, more systemic problems for venture capitalists in addition to the cyclical challenges. He said part of the problem was that the industry was backing companies that lack widespread investor appeal, like YouTube clones and dating and social networking sites. “There is nothing that the industry is producing that investors want,” Mr. Kedrosky said. “The stuff they’re investing in is idiosyncratic — it’s fun and appealing to them but Wall Street doesn’t care.” “The Valley is operating in its own little world, and the capital markets don’t care about the things that are getting the Valley excited.”
This isn’t good news…
Startup Burn Rate Calculator
June 28, 2008
Mike Speiser’s blog with the awesome subtitle of “Free Ideas. Just Add Execution”, has a great post titled, “Optimal startup burn rate and the Kelly criterion” that is definately worth a read ~ especially to my friends running small software driven startups. I am adding Mike’s blog to my reader. I suspect I will be talking about him and his ideas in the future. Here is the formula:
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