San Diego #8 Best City for Starting a Business

The 50 Best U.S. Cities for Starting a Business in 2020

San Diego

Come for brand names. Stay for the startup scene--and the beach.

Triple Sevens!!!

No. 7 RATE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

No. 7 HIGH-GROWTH COMPANY DENSITY 

No. 7 EARLY-STAGE FUNDING DEALS

In 2018, much of San Diego's near-record $2.5 billion in venture capital funding went to life sciences and biotech businesses. These industries are still the main attraction in this beach town, but San Diego’s nascent tech scene is picking up, thanks largely to two new area venture firms--Blueprint Equity and Torrent Ventures--and local tech giant Qualcomm’s corporate venture fund, which is putting $100 million into A.I. companies. 

While the area’s universities generate a lot of smart, young talent, midlevel managers skilled at helping fledgling ventures get to the next level are in short supply. That could change with the arrival of outposts from Apple, Amazon, and Walmart Labs. “For a long time, Qualcomm has been the big brand name here, but when you get the Apples and Amazons [opening offices] in town, people are going to chase the brand names,” says Neal Bloom, a local entrepreneur who runs Fresh Brewed Tech, a site about San Diego’s tech community. 

The hope is that while new talent may come to the city for the bigger brand names, they’ll eventually stay for the startup scene--and the beach. --Lindsay Blakely

Source: https://www.inc.com/surge-cities

Client feedback: Optimizing Investor Meetings

This email just in from a client whose meetings with a potential investor were taking too much time to get to the point, and the client, a startup, wanted to know how to deal with the issue. 

My advice was that getting an angel to invest takes Time. They need to move at their own pace in order to feel comfortable with the startup. It's a matter of building Trust, and that takes Time. So, instead of getting the investor to change their behavior, it is more effective to change the startup's behavior to be more productive in the time available. Here's their follow up from our discussion:

Michael,

Thank you so much for jumping on a call with me yesterday on such short notice. Your advice about not trying to directly tell this investor he needs to improve his communication skills helped me to save face, and ultimately will lead to me and this investor having a more productive relationship.

During our conversation, you provided me with a framework for what needs to be done before and after each meeting. I believe I understand what you've told me, but please make sure this framework is what you intended:

Before the meeting:

• Provide a detailed agenda, along with how long each agenda item should take
• Provide a hard stop time

After the meeting:

• In the follow-up email, make sure to provide my notes of what was discussed during the meeting. This way, if something was misunderstood, the other people in the meeting can correct it

The goal of these three points is to close the communication gap, as well as to show whomever I meet with that their time (and mine) is valuable. Additionally, in regards to the "before the meeting" section of the framework, it allows me to take control of the meeting before it even begins, and ensures that less time will be wasted. 

After we discussed this framework, you also conveyed the importance of keeping my meeting times, and making sure I do not falter in holding up my commitments. You explained to me how this will improve my reputation, and show that I value people's time. I agree with everything you said.

I'm ashamed that I have not always held up my commitments with people whom I had meetings scheduled in the past, but, as you put it, I need to be a man of my word. Making sure I keep my commitments will now be of primary importance to me. I am very grateful that you illuminated how important this is. 

You ended our call with asking how I would put these points into practice. I hope that with this email, I have already began. If this or any communication I have with you does not adhere to the framework you provided me, please tell me quickly and emphatically. I don't doubt that these techniques will quickly become a vital part of my reputation if I apply them effectively. 

How will you measure your life?

If you have ever uttered the phrases “disruptive innovation” or “jobs to be done,” your thinking was influenced by recently departed Professor Clayton Christensen, author of the classic book:  The Innovator's Dilemma. He significantly advanced the world’s thinking on management, strategy, competition, and technology.  One of his works is an essay called “How will you measure your life?” in which he takes many of his management concepts and applies them to evaluating how one lives.   Like most of what he did, it is clear, cogent, and insightful. The full essay is linked in this Harvard Business Review.  Good stuff, check it out.

Source: CBinsights

❤️I love it when...

❤️

I love it when I have a meeting with an entrepreneur who asks for help, and they actually take notes and then follow up in writing after the meeting. Here's an example from a meeting last week:

Mike,

It was great meeting with you for lunch the other day. As mentioned, one of my 2020 resolutions was to connect with people who matter, but unfortunately, I don’t get to see as often as I’d like. Having known you for almost 25 years, you are certainly one of the people who matter!  

As always, meeting with you was enjoyable and enlightening. As I embark on my new business venture, your mention of The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, was timely and hit home by reminding me of the importance of creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The need to get to market quickly, learn, improve and repeat has always been a valuable lesson that you inspired in me. Even though this lesson is part of the Ten Commandments of Managing a Young, Growing Business, and a poster with it hung on my office wall for years, I was surprised at how easily I lost sight of this simple yet powerful rule.

Too often, we get caught up trying to create the perfect product for everyone and get stuck in an endless development cycle without ever getting to market. As you know, in software, it’s called "Feature Creep” and even though I’ve steered many clients away from it, I now found myself succumbing to its power. That is until you reminded me of focusing on the MVP.

“Do good NOW, make better later” are words you shared with me more than 20 years ago and they are as important now as the day you first said them. So much so, that I immediately went back to my office after our lunch and stripped down a two page list of web development tasks into less than one page! We are now on our way to having a working site up in less than one week. Its sole purpose is to enable us to engage with our target markets, learn about their needs and gain insight into their thoughts about our business.

Having achieved this, I promised myself to never let “Feature Creep” or as some would say “Paralysis by Analysis”, distract me again. To ensure this, I am implementing the technique you taught me during lunch, which is to use an existing habit as a trigger to create a new desirable habit. Being that my office window faces west, I am forced every day to close the blinds to block the sun from causing a glare on my computer screen. Each morning I open the blinds to let in the natural light. These two habits are now the triggers that prompt me to evaluate if I’m following the MVP rule in our product road map, as well as all aspects of the business.

Mike, thanks so much for your insight at lunch, it has made a huge difference. More importantly, thank you for all of the positive impacts you have made in my life, I am grateful to have you as a friend and mentor.

Regards,

Darrin

-------------------------  Reply below  --------------------------

Darrin:  

🙏Thank you for the opportunity to be of service! 🙏

The following quote seems to sum up our meeting:

Seneca, one of the great Roman Stoic philosophers, on friendship:

"...nothing delights the mind so much as fond and loyal friendship. What a blessing it is to have hearts that are ready and willing to receive all your secrets in safety, with whom you are less afraid to share knowledge of something than keep it to yourself, whose conversation soothes your distress, whose advice helps you make up your mind, whose cheerfulness dissolves your sorrow, whose very appearance cheers you up!"

Source: On the Shortness of Life by Seneca

Best of luck with your startup, Darrin.

Please keep me updated on your progress, and count on my help anytime.

I love it when people take notes and follow up!

Mike

ToBeWise™ question

This excellent question from client GC:

... I have the app (ToBeWiseApp.com), and I've found many of the quotes fascinating, especially the ones by Carnegie. Is there a way to implement the wisdom they convey? I find myself agreeing with most if not all of what I read, but I'm at a loss about how to put them into action. For example, one of his quotes is "No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it." Truman said something similar with "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." I completely agree that being selfish is counterproductive and you should empower others, but how do you do this when it's your job to lead a project, and you need your ideas to be executed on?

Such a great question!

I think one clue to the answer is in your last sentence, especially "...how do you do this when it's your job to lead a project, and you need your ideas to be executed on? "


Notice that you phrase it as though in the first person... your job to lead, your ideas, etc. One of the more empowering changes that entrepreneur/CEOs can make is to change the word from "I" to "we". It's so much more powerful to eliminate your ego and become part of the team. Instead of focus on your ideas that need to be executed, focus on helping the team to see the vision and be open to their input on how to get there. They will be much more empowered if they feel they are part of the vision rather than blindly following orders.

This is summed up on one of my favorite quotes on this subject:

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.Antoine de Saint Exupery.

Continuous communication of the vision is the enduring duty of the founder/CEO. It is the essential skill that must be developed in order to recruit co-founders, team members, advisors, investors, and others to support your dream. You supply the vision, and ask for help, and always continue to follow up and appreciate (give credit, say thanks) whatever comes your way.

The app is designed to be used as a method of programming your mind, a form of self hypnosis, whereby, with continuous daily use, you find quotations that speak to you and your current state of affairs, and Favorite them to be saved and repeated over and over until they become part of your being. It is then that you start to live your life that way, without thinking. You build a habit of thinking the same powerful thoughts of the great minds who you admire.

ToBeWiseApp.com

Who Should Founders Listen To For Advice

Ycombinator nails this very important question with this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=p5ntxtfhjbQ&feature=emb_logo

They should know, having worked with 2,000 companies, now worth over 100 billion total.

I recommend a board of advisors, at least 2 plus the CEO, no more than 5 total.
The smaller the better.

The board meets on a regular basis, once a month is ideal.

Watch the video!

Paul Graham's Essays, Visualized

There is truth to the saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words".  So here are a few infographics that illustrate some of the essays of Paul Graham (startup guru).  These are a lot more memorable and easier to put on your wall than the thousands of words in his essays, and a lot easier to communicate to your team.  Here's the link: https://blog.adioma.com/tag/paul-graham/?ref=producthunt

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: "Skin in the Game" | Talks at Google

Fascinating concepts you can use in Risk Taking, probability, strategy, decision making, and stock options.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv6KLbkvua8

How to ask for help, and get a YES!

Building a successful business is a lot more difficult when you haven't done it before. But there are plenty of people who have done it, multiple times. And lots of them would be very willing to help you if you just ASK. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of intelligence.

Check out this TED talk and think about your next move:
https://www.ted.com/talks/heidi_grant_how_to_ask_for_help_and_get_a_yes

Top 10% of Founders have these traits

Check this short video from Ycombinator.
Probably the best 5 minutes you can invest today.
Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=ZtfTOuSHGg8&feature=emb_logo

00:00 – What Makes The Top 10% Of Founders Different?
00:35 – Great founders execute
  1:22 – Formidability
  2:09 – Clear communication
  3:40 – Internal motivation
  4:52 – Note that “idea” is not on this list