The Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI) was formed to help undergrad and grad Yale students start scalable new ventures. The YEI podcast series features talks given at the summer institute leadership lecture series.
There are currently 37 podcasts in the series on a wide range of topics including Decision Making at a Startup, Sound Advice from a Young Entrepreneur, and even Why You Shouldn't Be An Entrepreneur!
Check them out on the iTunes Store, search on Yale. Free is good.
The Startup Sieve of Success
The Problem:
There is a continuous and growing stream of startups, making it impossible for me to help all of them in person, as an advisor and possible investor. There must be a way of selecting the startups that are of most interest to me. This has lead to the Double M Systems' Startup Sieve of Success.
The Solution:
The Startup Sieve of Success accepts all possible business ideas in at the top, applies a series of filters, and only the businesses that make it through are ideal for Double M Systems.
The Startup Sieve of Success
Auto-reject list:
Gambling, porn, religion, drugs, weapons, sex, marriage, dating, travel, government regulated, political, lifestyle businesses (franchises, restaurants/bars, car washes, laundromats, dry cleaners, coffee shops, etc). Hardware including all electronic devices, robots, airplanes, automobiles, space vehicles. Entertainment (games, movies, music). People under 21. Key team members living outside of San Diego area.
Reward Analysis:
How big? 50 million minimum. Hockey stick growth.
How fast? 36 months.
Risk Analysis:
How much? 10-250k seed round.
Team? Experienced. Committed.
Very Large Market
High Gross Margins
Sticky
Software
High Gross Margins
Sticky
Software
Internet
Health
Mobile
Viral
Community/Social
Helps people
Fun
Board Level Advisor
Extra points:
traction, sales, renewals
Success!
If your business doesn't make it through our sieve, even if it could be the next Apple, you will do well to look elsewhere for assistance. See our list of Resources for Entrepreneurs in the right column. ------->
Exception: If you do make it through the auto-reject filter, and yet fall short in one of the other categories, such as only being able to return 40 million instead of 50, then you are encouraged to be persistent in contacting us as we may be able to find a way to improve the numbers.
On Love, Death and Startups: A Valentine's Day Retrospective
Even the king of the jungle is not immune.
It can die in an instant.
Many relentless and growing forces are against it.
What could possibly overcome such entropy?
Love.
Love is the answer.
Love for a product or service that solves a problem.
Love for a solution in the service of others.
Love for a puzzle solved.
True love.
Sustaining love.
Life's-work love.
Not the love of quick money, or fame, or revenge.
These arrows do not carry.
The love of which we speak
must resonate at the core of the founder,
the original thinker
whose idea has found its time.
The founder must radiate this love to all,
and in doing so, attract others to the cause.
Love is the growth hormone of a startup.
But love is also death to a startup.
Love is a madness, by definition.
Love is irrational, undefinable, and erratic.
History is filled with stories of death and destruction caused by love.
Love consumes a massive percentage of personal bandwidth.
Unless the all-consuming love is for the startup,
the chances of success are greatly limited.
An investor's worst nightmare is a founder who falls in love.
Microsoft began to slide into mediocrity when Gates fell in love.
Zuckerberg gave $100 million to Newark schools because of his girlfriend.
Imagine the greatness lost with such diversions...
Give us love, for the startup.
Protect us from love for any other.
Beware: Cherchez la femme.
Love is the primordial soup of creation of a startup.
Love is poison to a startup.
Love is the antidote.
Love is the small boy wanting to pet the big dog,
but frozen by fear of being eaten by it.
Love is a madness.
Love lives past the edge of reason.
Beyond reason live monsters.
What is your Entrepreneurial DNA?
Are all entrepreneurs wired the same?
"Of course not! We're different". You say.
But what does that mean for the type of business you should run, how you should run that business and who you should have on your team in that business?
You’re about to find out!
3+ years of research with thousands of entrepreneurs participating led to the discovery of BOSI - a behavioral quadrant that segments entrepreneurs into 4 very different groups. Part of that research led to the creation of the BOSI Assessment – a quick and fun tool.
This is your chance to figure out which type of entrepreneur you are - Specialist, Builder, Opportunist or Innovator. Your results will give you eye opening insight into the predisposed strengths, weaknesses and best practices for entrepreneurs who are wired like you.
The BOSI Assessment is free so take it today! You’ll also be able to compare BOSI Profile to those in your social network. That’s insight you’ll be able to leverage to build better community, have richer networking experiences and build optimized marketplace alliances.
The one and only, new and improved, Interactive Pocket Guide for Entrepreneurs (version 3.1)
Continuing a tradition that started almost 30 years ago with the publishing of the Ten Commandments for Managing a Young, Growing Business, we are pleased to announce this latest and greatest Pocket Guide for Entrepreneurs. With content expanded over 300%, printed on the highest quality papers, and perfect bound, it is truly the best of its kind.
This latest guide earns the adjective Interactive because it uses QR codes on most pages, allowing smartphone users to link to additional web content, and where readers can post questions, comments, and interact with other entrepreneur/readers. We have never seen another traditional book on any subject that uses QR codes so extensively.
The book sells for only $12.95 per copy. Orders for 5 or more are priced at only $9.95 per copy. Add appropriate tax and shipping. Call 858.699.0901 and ask for Erika to place your order today.
Visit the store to order online: Click here!
Remember the PC era?
All signs indicate the end of the PC era. Total mobile devices shipped will exceed all PCs and laptops this year. The PC had a good ride, but 30 years is enough. Now it's time for smartphones and tablets to rule the computing world. Notice the chart below and the trend lines for mobile devices is very similar to the trend lines for early PCs (in direction, but number of units is orders of magnitude greater).
Read more at Business Insider.
Mark Cuban's 12 Rules for Startups
From Entrepreneur Magazine:
2. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession.
3. Hire people who you think will love working there.
4. Sales Cure All.
5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them.
6. An espresso machine?
7. No offices.
8. As far as technology, go with what you know.
9. Keep the organization flat
10. Never buy swag
11. Never hire a PR firm
12. Make the job fun for employees
Read the full article for more on each point.
State of the Startup Economy in San Diego
1. In the first 9 months of 2011 there were 240 hi-tech and bio-tech startups in San Diego, the highest number in several years. (source)
2. $200 million per quarter was invested by VCs in San Diego businesses. But that is less than half as much as VCs invested prior to the recession. (source)
3. Tech Coast Angels (TCA) increased membership from 257 to 304 (counting all 5 locations in SoCal) last year, with San Diego angels numbering over 100 for the first time.
4. The number of applications to TCA for funding increased from 603 in 2010 to 1004 in 2011.
5. The number of new deals invested in by TCA increased about 40% year over year, but the amount invested in new deals increased by only about 15%.
The bottom line: the numbers indicate 2011 was challenging for startups to get the funding they were looking for!
2. $200 million per quarter was invested by VCs in San Diego businesses. But that is less than half as much as VCs invested prior to the recession. (source)
3. Tech Coast Angels (TCA) increased membership from 257 to 304 (counting all 5 locations in SoCal) last year, with San Diego angels numbering over 100 for the first time.
4. The number of applications to TCA for funding increased from 603 in 2010 to 1004 in 2011.
5. The number of new deals invested in by TCA increased about 40% year over year, but the amount invested in new deals increased by only about 15%.
The bottom line: the numbers indicate 2011 was challenging for startups to get the funding they were looking for!
Find Your Software Company's Failure Points
The Startup Genome is making a science out of finding the predictors for success in startups by analyzing thousands of startups.
Read this short article at SoftwareCEO.com to learn 9 tips for success from the Startup Genome.
Read this short article at SoftwareCEO.com to learn 9 tips for success from the Startup Genome.
Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, on This Week in VC
Here's a video clip you won't want to miss: An hour (+) interview with Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup, which is one of the more popular books for entrepreneurs engaged in startups. The host is Mark Suster, a successful entrepreneur and currently a VC in Los Angeles. Here's the link:
http://youtu.be/EMysvIXmbl0
http://youtu.be/EMysvIXmbl0
The best Entrepreneur in Europe?
Spend a few minutes with this video clip of Michael O'Leary making a presentation at the Innovation Convention in Brussels, Belgium. The spectacular success of his RyanAir is a lesson for all of us. Enjoy. Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4HYSsrlcq8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4HYSsrlcq8
On Failure
The sad truth is that the odds are you are going to fail. Now what? The words below are from Charlie O'Donnell, a VC, and VCs by definition must accept failure as a normal part of doing business. His original post is here.
"There are a few important lessons you pick up from going through something like this--all of which strengthen your character, confidence, and refocus you on the important things and the best people in your life.
"There are a few important lessons you pick up from going through something like this--all of which strengthen your character, confidence, and refocus you on the important things and the best people in your life.
1. You are still standing.
2. What you do over the course of your career and, more importantly, over the course of your life, far outweighs a single play, game, deal, etc.
3. How hard you work after failure will determine your character--not that you failed.
4. Love inspires others to be the best people possible. Hate weakens people and makes them shallow. People can never hate as much as other people can love--so hate will always lose and eventually go away.
5. The idea of giving up and walking away never really enters your mind if you are doing something you truly love.
6. If you are not open to learning from failure, your experience will be a missed opportunity.
7. You will absolutely get another chance.
8. All of the people who know how hard you worked to get to the point where what you did even mattered at all--they'll remember your effort and bet on you again because of it.
9. Your real life results as a person matter more than your Google results.
10. There were tons of factors that led to your efforts even mattering--to think that the results simply came down to you is naive. There's always a bigger picture to keep in mind."
Pssst... Hey kid, want $10 Million in VC cash?
You just gotta love a great story like this one, where a couple of twenty-something founders turned down $10 Million in VC cash, and made it on their own to build a wildly successful company.
The fun part is that they framed the VC offer letter and it now hangs in the company toilet!
That's some serious cajones!
Read the story here, and think seriously about whether you really need/want outside investment. After you read the story, check out the company website at GrappleMobile.com.
The fun part is that they framed the VC offer letter and it now hangs in the company toilet!
That's some serious cajones!
Read the story here, and think seriously about whether you really need/want outside investment. After you read the story, check out the company website at GrappleMobile.com.
New: Interactive Pocket Guide for Entrepreneurs
62 pages of Entrepreneurial goodness
The new, improved, expanded, Interactive Pocket Guide for Entrepreneurs beta books are now being distributed for testing and feedback! Only 100 people will be selected to review the beta prototype of our new book and website (ipgfe.com).
We are looking for more beta testers! You could be one of them!
If you have a smartphone, and are interested in giving us your feedback on this product, please contact:
Erika Lal
VP of Admin.
858.699.0901.
On Solitude Lost
This is a paradox of becoming an entrepreneur: you give up personal resources so that the enterprise will thrive, and then, years later, if you're lucky, you will enjoy greater resources.
The self-aware entrepreneur will recognize the need to optimize for solitude; to retain as much as possible and to create maximum return to the enterprise for every measure of solitude lost.
See also:
A Thing Done in Peace Exceeds Ten in Panic
Introduction
For selected entrepreneurs in or near Del Mar (San Diego), we offer more personalized services. Extra consideration for plans that include help to others. If you want to learn more, contact:
858.699.0901
Current interests:
1. Early stage software startups, smartphone/internet apps
2. 3D printing
3. Robotics
4. Health care.
5. Productivity tools.
4. Health care.
5. Productivity tools.
Open Wednesdays
On Wednesday afternoon we will listen to almost anything! For one full hour you will get the opportunity to present your business proposal and get feedback you can use to achieve your goals.
Here's how it works:
A. Call 858.699.0901 to set up your appointment.
B. We email you confirmation and links to help you prepare.
C. Your hour goes something like this:
- Present your business plan for 15 minutes.
- Q and A for 15 minutes.
- Receive 30 minutes of feedback to fine tune your presentation for VC or Angel investor groups.
- Receive 30 minutes of feedback to fine tune your presentation for VC or Angel investor groups.
- Receive a written summary.
Please call to reserve your appointment. Only $295. (cash, check, PayPal, or credit card). Satisfaction guaranteed. Our goal is to provide affordable and highly effective help to local entrepreneurs.
IdeaGrinder software product.
Interactive Pocket Guide for Entrepreneurs
Badge #2: breaking the FUD barrier.
You have known this for a long time before you do anything about it. You try to do as much as possible by yourself, for as long as you can. But you know that you're only wasting time, putting off the decision to get help. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) are ruling your life.
You imagine the many nagging little decisions that have to be made before you can actually hire your Badge #2. Running a help wanted ad, a job description, how much to pay, what about taxes, non-disclosure agreements, can you even afford it, is there enough work to keep them busy, where will they sit, is it possible to find someone as good as you need, will they put up with your ways, what if... And the monkey brain thoughts go round and round in your head. You're stuck. And you'll stay that way until you...
Just do it.
Take that first step. It doesn't matter what form it takes. It can be a help wanted ad, or emails to friends announcing your decision to start down the road, and to ask for their help in finding your Badge #2. Take the first step. And then take the next one. Each step a move closer to the goal, each step insignificant in itself. Trivial stones become a cathedral.
As each step evaporates into the distance, it builds strength for the next steps, and builds confidence for the long journey ahead. Soon you will be moving along with surprising speed and endurance.
That first hire may be a partner, or a programmer, or an administrative assistant. But they will always be Badge #2, and you will always remember them as the embodiment of your great enlightenment, your commitment, and your Action.
There's no looking back after Badge #2. Once you have crossed this threshold, it becomes your mission to always be recruiting, to see how many people you can attract to your plan. You are on a mission. You are on a path to a future of your own design.
You are an Entrepreneur.
You are an Entrepreneur.
Who is your mentor?
"There are no stage 4 startups that raised money with no helpful mentors."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)