A Conversation With George W Bush.

What you talking 'bout, dubya?

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Cool Blog Links

A few links to some interesting blogs:

Futuristic Play: Andrew Chen, EIR at MDV, has gathered some great insights and analysis on viral marketing, user experience, game design, and online ads. Check out his top 50 list of essays on viral marketing, game design and online ads.

Startup Metrics for Pirates: Dave McClure walks us through the only 5 things that matter to a web startup: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue . . AARRR!!

Indexed: Jessica Hagy makes sense of the world with venn diagrams and simple graphs. Simply Brilliant.

Digital Roam: Dan Roam explains how to solve the world's problems on the back of a napkin. Here's the case for Obama.

Brain Rules: John Medina's 12 rules for optimizing brain functions. He also discusses how the brain ignores boring things - it processes meaning before it processes details.  You communicate meaning with emotionally competent stimuli. The brain pays attention to three things: Threats: Will it eat me, can I eat it? 2) Pleasure: Can I mate with it, will it mate with me? 3) Familiarity: have I seen it before? Take care of these 3 things, and you will capture the attention of your audience.

STIRR: Kickin' Butt at Banff Venture Forum

Why am I posing with the winners of best presentation awards at the Banff Venture Forum? Because STIRR PitchLab helped guide two of the companies towards the prize.

Two weeks ago, Manford Kwan, CEO of ASAT Solutions, and Dr. Mary Earle, CEO of TheraCarb participated in a 4-hour session where we concentrated on fixing the first two minutes of their pitch. That's how long you have to capture a potential investor's attention before they start checking their 'berry.

Both of these companies have been operating for over 5 years, and there wasn't anything I was going change in their business models the week before they hit the stage in Banff. So the challenge was to make the pitches interesting enough to attract conversations and get a few more meetings afterwards.

Even though there are 10 pitch tips we review in PitchLab, I've decided to highlight just a few of the more important ones in this post:

• Start Strong & Stay Strong: Don't welcome the crowd, ask them how they're doing, make small talk, or worse yet, come out with a "don't you hate it when . . ." statement. Nobody's going to answer, and you'll feel like a schmuck. Just tell them who you are, and in two or three sentences, give them a reason to believe that you're credible.


• Hearts, Minds, Wallets: Always make an emotional connection before diving into the logic, and always share the logic before asking for money. How do you like being asked for money from people you don't like for things you don't understand?


• Be Attractive: Be confident, but don't brag. Seek guidance, but don't appear desperate. Be passionate, but not emotional. It's a fine line, but you'll be surprised how investors are attracted to one set of qualities and completely repelled by the other.

I didn't realize how powerful these rules would be. When Manford and Mary made their presentations last Thursday, they hit the stage with confidence. And when they got off the stage, they were smiling from ear to ear. In my mind and theirs, they had already won - they were already stirring up more conversations in the hallways, speaking with more passion and enthusiasm than ever. And that's the power of having a good pitch - it follows you right off the stage and into elevators and boardrooms.

At the end of the conference, attendees had voted TheraCarb as best presenter in the Life Sciences stream, ASAT Solutions as the best in the Energy stream, and Akoha as the best in the IT stream.

In the picture: from left to right:
- Austin Hill, Akoha's CEO, simply one of the world's best pitch men.
- Manford Kwan, CEO, ASAT Solutions
- me, the proud pitch coach
- Dr. Mary Earle, CEO, TheraCarb

Sir Terence Matthews: It's not the richest or fittest that will survive.

Legendary billionaire businessman Sir Terence Matthews was at the Banff Venture Forum Friday night, and spoke about enterprise creation in the flat earth economy. First, he broke down the costs: really good engineers in India: $7k/year. In China: $6k/year. In Canada: $70k/year. Telecommunications links: 155 megabit cross-ocean link: used to be $2 million/month. Now: $10k/month. Office space in London: 200 GBP/square foot. Puna, India: $5/square foot. Get the picture?

Sir Terry's message was simple. You can't ignore the fact that we exist in a world economy these days. "It's not the richest or fittest that survive, it's those that adapt. You have to adapt to the competition from China and India". He continues to start new companies at a scorching pace every year, and he starts them right here in Canada. His formula:

1. Use a Mothership. For Terry, it's Mitel. Work with the motherships and develop solutions / painkillers they can sell. Working with a mothership gets you credibility and revenues.


2. Hire Smart University Grads. Terry interviews the top 20 grads from Waterloo every year, and hires 4 - 5 of them. Canadian university graduates are amongst the best in the world, but you have to structure the deal a little differently to make it work. The offer: $25k/year, along with another $50k in equity. Government can't tax it, and there's no spending cash for social activities.


3. Communicate & Motivate. Terry insists on quarterly reports from his managers, and these reports are sent to every employee. In addition, all his companies hold quarterly all-employee meetings, so that employees understand the past achievements and future direction of the company. Employees deserve to be treated like owners. Give your employees confidence that management knows what it is doing, and they will work harder than ever.


4. Passion: Motivated people can do anything.


5. Have fun: work isn't just about making money, it's also about excitement, winning, and working with people you like. (amen!)

The result? Every one of his companies ship products and have revenues within the first year. Simply amazing, by any standard.

Overall, it was a very lively speech which stressed the importance of a smart, motivated team.

Later in the night, I bumped into Sir Terence in the hallways of the Banff Springs, and thanked him for his presentation. True to form, he responded energetically, requested that we exchange business cards, and encouraged me to move quickly on my next venture. Now I know why people work for him for $25k/year! I know I would if he sent an offer ever came my way . . .

DemoCamp Calgary 10

Gord McDowell from Cambrian House set up a bazillion cameras at DemoCamp 10, and put together this great video summarizing the event. DemoCamp Calgary 11 will be October 23, and we're actively looking for a location with a better wifi/av setup. We'll be announcing the location soon at the BarCampCalgary site soon. If you can suggest any locations for a DemoCamp, please let me know.

"You Can't Let Them Self-Medicate"

Bill Bryant of DFJ & Steve Hnatiuk of Yaletown had a little chat on the state of venture capital in today's environment. Bill came up with the line of conference - read on . . . 

Steve: Is this a good time to start a company? 

Bill: Entrepreneurs don't start companies based on timelines. They start companies because they have ideas and passion around ideas. However, they need to be more patient with the exit, and they need to do more with less money. They'll likely have to build entire companies, from soup to nuts for $12 million. 

Steve: Cleantech is all the rage. Where does that leave software & IT in the eyes of VCs? 

Bill: In the enterprise market, a global market has many global 2000 companies downsizing the number of vendors it is willing to work with. I know of one company that has gone from 950 vendors to 4. This makes it tough for startup enterprise plays. In addition, valuations for consumer software plays based on advertising revenues will be tough.

Steve: How do you manage a near-death experience at a venture? 

Bill: Just like patients that have just had a stroke, you can't let them self-medicate. You need to step in as an investor and help lead the way.

Steve: Do you see huge opportunities in the market turmoil?

Bill: Sure, but the problem is, exits are tougher in this environment. 6 - 8 companies have gone public in 2008 vs. 80 - 90 last year. In the near term, things are going to be tough.

BIll: Investors should take a DNH (Do No Harm) approach. Try to add value, but don't get in the way. 

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Banff Venture Forum: Day 1

Presenters from the IT Stream:

Sarath Samaraseka: CEO, www.shopster.com

Ronald Stephens: CEO, www.mingleverse.com

James Hildebrandt, CEO, www.psykoaudio.com

Ben Yoskovitz: CEO, www.standoutjobs.com

Austin Hill: CEO, www.akoha.com

Lunch Keynote: Mike Ritter, Technical Solutions Engineer, PSO Mobile, Google, talks about iPhone vs. Android. Says that 80% of Google staffers carry iPhones. 80% of management carries Blackberries. The remaining 20% of both carry both. Interesting note: iPhone delivers 10 - 50x more advertising revenues. 

Mike talks about his past failures. Lists all the companies he has worked at that have gone bankrupt. One of them is in the process of going bankrupt. Then, he takes a shot a Sun: "Don't know why it's not bankrupt". 

Mike's Top 10 reasons for why startups fail.

Mike's Top 10 reasons for startups succeed.

Mike's Top 10 Inflection Points:

10: Universal Translators

9. Search engines understand what you want to know

8. Augmented Memory (PDAs, etc)

7. Machines learn how to learn.

6. Nano-machines assemble themselves

5. Computing and communications essentially free. (cheap now, will be free in the future. Value will be in the content communicated)

4. People live their whole lives off of the earth (the moon! Google SpaceX)

3. We understand the programming language of DNA

2. We understand how the rest of the body works.

1. We understand how the programming of the brain works. 

Top 10 areas ripe for startups:

10. Cloud & Mobile Computing

9. Harnessing the power of the crowd.

8. Personalized Mobile Services

7. Voice recognition & understanding in real-time.

6. Improving energy efficiency

5. Robots (Both Large and Small)

4. Renewable Energy

3. On-demand manufacturing

2. Machine learning

1. Immortality (health & life sciences)

Thoughts on cloud computing.

Top 10 problems Mike needs solved.

Afternoon session:

Bruce Johnson: CEO, www.Semantifind.com

James Sherret: CEO, www.Adhack.com

Jon Lam: CEO, www.Ph03nixNewMedia.com

Pierre La Lann: CEO, Tribalnova.com

Venture Financing Without Borders: Cross-Border investing - Neal Hill, Great Northern Capital; Bill Bryant, DFJ; Steve Hnatiuk, Yaletown Venture Partners; Charles Lax, GrandBanks Capital.

The question to the panel: will you invest in a company that is not within a 45 minute drive or a 2 hour direct flight?

Charles Lax, GrandBanks Capital: Yes, but only if the deal is syndicated to a local firm. Coaching is essential. If they are the lone investors, the venture has to be in Boston. 

Steve Hnatiuk, Yaletown Venture Partners: Proximity is more essential in the seed round, when companies need a lot of coaching. There is more confidence in the strategic direction of firms by the time they raise their series A, so going outside their region is a bit easier at a later stage. 

Bill Bryant, DFJ: international firm: 2 day rule, instead of 2 hour rule. DFJ has investments in 20 companies, and need to take advantage of the opportunities outside of the US.

Other interesting comments: Get ready for a long relationship: average time to exit from Series A: 8.3 years. Don't value your early rounds too high: 70% of all deals exited at under $150M - unlying the reason why VCs look for valuations around $10M - 15M, looking for 10x returns. 

I received a starter deck from Akoha's Austin Hill. Pictured is Christina Paganelli, with the first Akoha game card mission that I completed: donate 1 hour of time. I've spent some time advising Christina's company, Sunflower Organics. Now Christina gets to continue passing on the Karma. 

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