Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

SeaSweet Software

1.  Who is on the team?

2.  What is the product and the market?

3.  When can we see the product?

4.  Where is this happening?

5.  Why are you doing this?

6.  More FAQs - topics such as Goals, Priorities, Unique Advantage, Money, and more...



Got a question?  Contact me.

What is the product?

Frequently Asked Questions about the product

Q. What is the purpose of the product?
A.  A system that will greatly improve the odds of success in business, and make it easier, even fun.

Q.  Who is the intended user?
A.  The CEO and executive team members. These are the users who have the greatest leverage in the success of the business. Software for them to focus on a common experience in managing the business to achieve common goals.

Q. When can I see the software?

A: The business is in the Pre-Product (idea) stage. Major assumptions need to be validated and improved based on real world testing. It will be several months before a prototype could be available.These next few months will be committed to "getting out of the building", learning as much as possible about the marketplace, the customer, the competition.  Release date unspecified. Subscribe to the free SeaSweet newsletter to learn more as it happens.

Q.  Can you describe the software in general terms?  

A.  Try this: Imagine a software product that runs on PC, Mac, smartphone, tablet, and watch, empowering users to run any business more effectively. Imagine software that is fun to use. Imagine: fingertip control of a simple, proven system that makes it easy to do the right things, according to plans. Only a few minutes a day will build a successful business. It's a wonder why it took so long to do it.   :)  Business made easy.

Q. Tell me more...  

A.  Imagine a simple starter system, that grows as the business grows, a system that is customized and continuously improved for each business and user. The system learns from what users do vs. the success of the teams and the broader community of similar businesses. This learning from what users do even extends to the way they use the software, so that the more they use it, the better it gets.

Q. Feature list? 

A.  There's a long list of future features, but the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) will include a control panel and dashboard including Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) using red-yellow-green indicator lights to display instant identification of the status of priorities. Intra-team communications using integrated features native to the device and operating system. (Contact list, email, text, call, calendar, voicemail, etc).  The software system is structured around a dirt-simple 3-step repeating process, based on 10 principles to guide decision making. Other secret stuff, of course, but we don't want to spoil the fun of the surprise...

Q. What about support?

A.  Optional Premium support is available through a network of authorized local trainers who can work 1-1 to help businesses get started and get maximum value from continued use of the system. Online support available via video learning library, email, forum, and phone with real human beings who remember customers' special needs. 

Michael McCafferty

SeaSweetSoftware.com

Del Mar, CA

 858.342.6949

When?

Q. When can I see the software?

A: Since the product is still in the idea/research stage. It will be several months before early wireframes would be available.These next few months will be committed to learning as much as possible about the marketplace, the customer, the competition.  Release date unspecified. Subscribe to the free SeaSweet newsletter to learn more as it happens.

Who is on the team?

Key Team Members:

Michael McCafferty, Founder/CEO

Carol Soria, assistant since 1986

Rand Mulford, Advisor - Strategy

Mitch Russo, Advisor - Sales and Marketing

Michael J. McCafferty, Advisor - Hosting and Cloud

Mark Kalina, MD, Medical Director

Alex Wenz, Recruiting

Akore Berliner, CPA, Accounting

More FAQs

Q.  What is the Goal?
A.  The goal is 4-fold:
1. To grow a most extraordinary software company,
creating and selling software essential to our customers' success in business.
2. To recruit a first class team to the adventure.
3. To share the financial rewards with all team members.
4. To enjoy the journey.

Q.  What are the barriers to entry?
A.  Time. We need to move more quickly than competitors with products our customers want.

Q.  How much money are you looking to raise?
A.  Zero, at this time.  My first responsibility is to maximize shareholder value, and in the early stages of a startup, that means minimizing the percentage of stock in other hands. Remembering Commandment #2: Travel Light. My job for the immediate future is to build value without needing to sell shares.

Q.  What help do you need right now?
A.  Do you know a successful CEO who will welcome the opportunity to participate in our software survey? Want to make the introduction? Thank you!

Q.  What are the Priorities, near term (90 - 180 days)?
A.  
1. Major Premise Validation.  Research the target customers and the software products they use. 3 months. Produce a report at the end that can be used as the basis for assumptions going forward.
2. Recruit technical talent to help build the product.
3. Business model.

Q.  What is your Unique Advantage?
A.  Experience. Serial entrepreneur with track record of several successful startups based on original software products and services. Experience as CEO/founder, co-founder. Experience designing and programming the initial products. Experience building sales forces to bootstrap growth. The unique aspect of my experience is the combination of many key skills:  creative, technical, entrepreneurial, sales and marketing and financial. I have the confidence I can do this because I have done it several times before.

Q.  What is your Unique Disadvantage?
A.  Experience. Some might say there's too much of it, or at least too many years of it. I do have a few more miles than many typical startup founders. That's the tradeoff: you want Experience, it comes with Age.

Startup Reading 2.1.15

Designing the Hiring Process - Medium
Notes on Self Awareness - Medium

The Illusion of Product / Market Fit - Brad Feld
The Best Way to Qualify a Lead - SalesLoft

The One Essential Habit - Vern Harnish
If Teams are so great, Why do we have so much trouble with them? - Medium

Apple, the Oil Company? - Medium

People who smile tend to manage, teach, and sell more effectively, 

and to raise happier children.

Dale Carnegie

Chance favors only a prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur

The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive.

The great opportunity is where you are.

John Burroughs

Come to the edge, he said.

They said: We are afraid.

Come to the edge, he said.

They came.

He pushed them,

and they flew...

Guillaume Apollinaire

The monotony and solitude of a quiet life

stimulates the creative mind.

Albert Einstein

Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions.

No dignity, no learning, no force of character

can make any stand against good wit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

People choose the paths that grant them the greatest rewards

for the least amount of effort.

David Mike Shore

It's not the strongest who survive,

nor the most intelligent,

but the most adaptable to change!

Darwin

They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.

Dorothy Parker

Strive for excellence, not perfection.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

I have never met a man so ignorant

that I couldn't learn something from him.

Galileo Galilei

Where?

Del Mar, California

Addiction: essential to startup success

Addiction: 

a state characterized by compulsive 

engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences.

It is an addiction to change, movement, action, continuous improvement. Relentless energy for growing, testing, learning.

Without this drive, it seems unlikely that great success will come.

This addiction grows to consume the founder(s), taking over other previously important aspects of life, including relationships, health, and other interests.

Do you seriously see yourself becoming so addicted? If not, then your success, if any, will be limited.

Humans are typically wired to relax after a certain level of comfort has been achieved. The addicted few are driven beyond this point.

Once addicted, few recover. They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.  (Dorothy Parker)

Do you seriously see yourself being so addicted for at least the next 3 to 7 years? 

Sobering thoughts as the first month of 2015 draws to a close.

Michael McCafferty

SeaSweetSoftware.com

Del Mar, CA

 858.342.6949

Startup Reading 1.25.15

Two Sides of the Seed Investment Story:
     The Seed Bubble Has Popped - TechCrunch
     Why Seed Investment Activity is Increasing!  - CB Insights

Don't Stick Beans Up Your Nose! - Medium (on the weirdness of trying to help CEOs)

A Lesson in Finding Joy and Letting Go - Medium, Dave Haynes
Hire slowly. Fire fast. - Dave Berkus

Startup Podcast (#12 Burnout) - Gimlet
How Much Work Is Too Much? - Results.com

Startups and Shit - Startup L. Jackson blog
Product Hunt podcast - ProductHunt.com

Why Most Startups Fail and What You Can Do To Beat The Odds - SuccessHarbor.com
The #1 Reason Why Salespeople Leave Money On The Table - Forbes - Stephen J. Meyer

How Much Should I Raise, how should I spend it? - Medium

Life's most persistent and urgent question is:

What are you doing for others?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Your life is your message to the world.

Make it inspiring.

Lorrin L. Lee

In matters of style, swim with the current;

in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

Thomas Jefferson

There's only one way to have a happy marriage

and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again.

Clint Eastwood

A man's got to know his limitations.

Clint Eastwood

The poor man is not he who is without a cent,

but he who is without a dream.

Harry Kemp

What smart people said about entrepreneurship and innovation

“People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe” — Simon Sinek

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it” — Steve Jobs

“Entrepreneurship is “risky” mainly because so few of the so-called entrepreneurs know what they are doing.” — Peter F. Drucker

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” — Peter Drucker

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”— Steve Jobs.

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction” — Picasso

“If I had asked the public what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse” — Henry Ford

“As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” — Donald Trump

“Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” — Confucius

“The truth is that entrepreneurship is more like a roller coaster ride than a cruise.” — Vivek Wadhwa

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't.” — Warren G. Tracy’s student

“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” — Richard Branson

“Dominate in your domain; You can do it.”―Jaachynma N.E. Agu

“Example is not the main thing in influencing other people; it’s the only thing.” — Abraham Lincoln

“I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others… I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.” — Thomas Edison

“Always make your future bigger than your past.” — Dan Sullivan

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” — Jim Rohn

“Many people have serious academic degrees but cannot find a job, and sadly their degrees are so limited that they cannot even think about how to create a job for themselves.” — Haki R. Madhubuti

“Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.” — Bill Gates

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don't let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs

source

Startup Reading 1.18.15

The man who does not read has no advantage

over the man who can not read.

Mark Twain

How to Start Your Business Strategy for 2015 - Results.com
The 30 Best Bits of Advice for Entrepreneurs - First Round

The Only Thing That Matters for Startups: Product - Market Fit - Marc Andreessen
10 Rules for Web Startups - Ev Williams

Movement vs. Momentum - Classic Startup Dilemma - Deeksha
The 9 Most Important Elements of Every Startup - Steve Blank

How to Avoid Building Products That Fail - Medium
The Best Task Management Tools for 2015 - churchmag

The difference between successful people and very successful people 

is that very successful people say ‘NO’ to almost everything.

Warren Buffett

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

Voltaire

The great painter has something to say.

He does not paint men, landscapes, or furniture,

but an idea.

Robert Henri

The #1 company killer is lack of market.

Rachleff's Law of Startup Success

The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit.

Rachleff's Corollary of Startup Success

To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving.
Kahlil Gibran

Top 10 Start-Up Secrets by Jay Samit

Here's the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2j6-O9bvYk

Jay Samit on LinkedIn.

Startup Reading 1.11.15

How do you get programmers to work 60-80 hours a week? - Medium

Bootstrapping Customer Support - Be careful with these 5 types of people - Gergana

The 10 Y Combinator Startups Worth over 32 Billion - CB Insights

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires.

Seek discipline and find your liberty.

Frank Herbert, Dune

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

Henry David Thoreau

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Bertrand Russell

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock

the stream always wins

not by strength but by perseverance.

H. Jackson Brown

Startin' a business (thoughts from a hillbilly guru)

"... startin’ a business. You make a commitment, learn everything you can on the subject, surround yourself with the best like-minded people you can find, burn your bridges behind you, and stop at nothing short of evil to get there."

August Turak

Startup Reading 1.4.2015

A few Christmas books!

Most Cap Tables are Wrong: How and Why - Medium

The Cybersecurity Tipping Point - TechCrunch

The Most Important Skill for Science or Self-Improvement - Slate

You must take personal responsibility.

You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind,

but you can change yourself.

Jim Rohn

As we express our gratitude,

we must never forget that the highest appreciation

is not to utter words, but to live by them.

JFK

What is written without effort

is in general read without pleasure.

Samuel Johnson

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was "Thank You"

that would suffice.

Meister Eckhart

Men go abroad to wonder

at the huge waves of the sea,

at the long courses of the rivers,

at the vast compass of the ocean,

and they pass by themselves without wondering.

St. Augustine

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority.

The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority.

The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.

A.A. Milne

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness,

it is generally the by-product of other activities.

Aldous Huxley

No important problem is ever solved, it is transcended.

Einstein

EZchecklist™ - making copies for new users

Making a copy for a new user:

Menu/File/Make a Copy

now, using the newly created copy:

Change the name of the file

Tools/Script Editor/click the clock

Add and then Save a new Trigger as follows:

  

​(be sure to click Save)

Delete columns with any personal data in the newly created sheets.

Delete personal data in Controls tab.

Share with the new user.

   disable new user from making copies, etc

New Year, New Adventures

Another trip around the sun starts again...
What a privilege!

5 Ideas for an Awesome 2015   http://zenhabits.net/amazing-2015/

If you follow these ideas for the next year, I think you’ll create something truly amazing:

Create habits, not goals or resolutions. Resolutions are like wishful thinking, that fade away inevitably as the year’s newness wears off. Goals are great, but it’s hard to juggle 5-10 new goals when you have a lot of other things always going on. Instead, focus on one new habit at a time, and give it your full attention, until it becomes automatic. Then do another new habit. After a year, you could have 12 new habits, and you’ll be a lot closer to any goals you might have wanted to reach.

Be all in. Most people fail at their resolutions because they write them down, start taking action, and then let themselves quit when things get hard. But what if you committed to doing the habit of meditation in January, or you’d have to give up your favorite food for a year? What if you had to pay $10,000 if you missed two straight days of meditation? Would you stick to the habit then? Of course you would — because you’d be fully committed. Find a way to be all in, and you’ll make your habits stick.

Focus on weekly adaptations. Most people try to focus on something that will take a year to achieve, but you lose motivation, and what if things change during that year? Instead, focus on one week at a time. That’s a doable chunk of time — you can do a week at a time, but you can’t really do a year at a time. And each week, see how you can adapt what you’re doing so that your method gets better and better over time. Review how you did, find the obstacles, and plan around them for the next week.

Find your crew. You can do great things on your own, but you’re much more likely to get them done if you have a group of friends who are holding you accountable, and who you’re holding accountable too. Hold each others’ feet to the fire. Root each other on. Hold regular meetings to make sure everyone is staying on track, and don’t let your crew fall off track.

Fill your year with curiosity and a learning stance. Many people get discouraged if they fall off their goals or habits, but that’s because they have an all-or-nothing mindset. They see failure as evidence that they can’t do it. Far from it: failure is evidence that things need adjusting. It’s a way to learn, so that you can get better. Be curious about what will work for you, about what this new habit will be like (instead of having a preconceived idea), and about what happens when you make adjustments. See all your successes and failures as learning, not a sign that you are good or not good. With this flexible mindset, you’ll be able to weather out any kinds of disruptions, missteps, obstacles or changes.