Leonard's Comic

One of the very talented programmers I used to work with at iStockphoto has a new blog. No big deal, right? Wrong! Leonard takes mundane events such as winning a coffee machine at the company Christmas party and manages to make it interesting by creating a Matt Groening-style comic strip. I think it might be funnier for people that know the cast personally, but I think you'll enjoy it regardless. So far, he's been updating on a weekly basis, and I, for one, hopes he keeps it up.

Join his Facebook fan club group here.

My First Year of Blogging.

Shout out to my two loyal fans this year . . .

(inspiration from Sarah Blue of Cambrian House)

Link

Guy Kawasaki Day

It was fantastic having Guy Kawasaki in town last week. He moderated a panel of very successful local tech entrepreneurs, and made an appearance at Calgary's first BarCamp.

I had the pleasure of introducing Guy at both events, and wanted to do it a somewhat entertaining fashion. I knew about the Fake Steve Jobs Blog, (and have since discovered fake blogs for Richard Branson, Larry Ellison, Jonathan Schwartz, Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates), but no one in the blogosphere was impersonating Guy.

Well, I discovered something even better: Guy Kawasaki Day. Pretty cool! The audience had a nice chuckle when they read the line: "Do you have Guy pride?"

Which leads me to ask - how much cool factor do you need before someone dedicates time and energy towards impersonating/parodying you? Do you think Michael Dell and Mark Hurd are feeling left out of the party?

Sending Good Subliminal Messages

I often sit in investor presentations where companies are raising millions of dollars to fund the go-to-market strategy for their products. Then, they proceed by walking through a boring, uneventful talk highlighted by a text-filled slide deck designed by color blind interns. See the disconnect?

People look for subtle, even subliminal messages in their communications with you. That's why speech coaches will tell you to walk into a room well-dressed, well-prepared and confident. As an investor, you'd give money to the guy that you think could sell ice to eskimos.

You can always walk into the room and say that you're not a marketing expert, but if investors gave you a few million, you could hire that expert. Doesn't sound so appealing, does it? Or, you could show that you know how to sell. Sharpen your pitch (more on that another day). Make better looking slides. But what if you actually started selling product during the pitch?

I consulted with a company yesterday that has a product most funders would buy for themselves and the companies they work with. It has a relatively low price point of $300, but pre-production units won't be available for another two months, and production units won't be ready for another 4 - 6 months. They tell me that most of the people they pitch get pretty excited about the product, even though they may not be all that excited about the investment opportunity.

So, I suggested that they start selling during their pitch. Here's how:

• Pre-sales: Allow people to buy a pre-production unit if they pre-pay. Create scarcity by indicating how many pre-production units will be available.



• Deposits: Take a deposit for the production units, and promise a bonus. The bonus might simply be getting the first products off the assembly line, free installation, or maybe even a t-shirt (another branding opportunity!)



• Expressions of Interest: Gather names, contact information, and how many units people might be interested in buying. Get permission to contact them when the production units are ready.

Bring a someone who can take orders along with you to your presentation. Have lots of well-designed order forms available, bring your prototypes/samples, be ready to answer questions, and close some orders!

What an incredible way to show investors that you know how to close a deal.

You'll probably have to adjust this strategy to suit your company's product offering, but the principle remains true. If you do something in your presentation to demonstrate strong sales and marketing capabilities, you'll have won half the battle.

The Free Economy

Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine, is following up The Long Tail with a book titled FREE, scheduled for release mid-2008. He gives us an interesting preview in this blog entry and in this video.

Anderson's analysis of free is well structured. He starts with an analysis of how waste is good - for instance, "waste" of computing cycles allowed computer programmers to develop the GUI. If processing power had never become plentiful, the computer might have never been democratized.

The latest abundance comes in the form of web 2.0 applications, which are being developed in unprecedented numbers and at very low cost. Often, these applications base most of their value on free storage. According to Anderson, in a digital economy when the cost of storage, development and bandwidth is next to nothing, you might as well charge nothing.

However, every abundance creates a new scarcity. The scarcities in the old economy were time and money. The new web 2.0 economy adds attention and reputation - thus signaling the importance of a clearly communicated brand and paying attention to your customers. The bottom-line message: don't compete on price when the cost of the product is next to zero - compete on attention and reputation. Then, find a way to convert attention and reputation into money.

In fact, Anderson states, democratizing your product allows the world to discover it's value. This "crowdsourced innovation" model is illustrated by the Honeywell home computer, which in 1965, cost the same as "about four new cars". This was a single purpose computer, which existed solely to manage recipe cards.

When computers became democratized, people started using them for a variety of purposes. Anderson suspects that nobody uses them for recipe cards - and he's probably right. So, a group of engineers made the wrong guess as to how people would use computers in their homes, but hundreds of millions of users figured it out, and are still innovating on daily basis.

What's not completely clear in Anderson's thesis is how anybody other than Google makes money from free. If he ever figures that out, I'm sure he'll be the best selling author of all time.

The Adventures of Gary Snoman

Do business guys really sound like this? Makes you wonder why there aren't more MBA jokes . . .

BarCamp Calgary 1: Best Experience Ever.

When the BarCamp Calgary organizing committee met last week, we all agreed that we had one singular goal: to create the best experience ever for all attendees. I've attended a lot of conferences in my life, and many of them are just plain boring. We set the bar very high for ourselves - so, in addition to the BarCamp formula, here's what we did:

• Engage: We know that a lot of geeks are are a little shy. If we saw anyone who wasn't engaged in conversation, it was our job to strike up a conversation.



• Connect:  We  introduced people to each other throughout the day. We asked the crowd to do the same thing, if they knew two people that hadn't met yet.



• Get Deep: We wanted to encourage lots of great hallway conversation. We had a good balance of sessions vs. breaks. When it people took longer than anticipated to get back to their seats after a break, we knew we were succeeding.



• Think Small: Higher quality conversations with less people vs. lower quality conversations with a lot of people. Which one would you rather have?

Not only did we succeed, but I think we exceeded all expectations. I spoke to almost everyone that attended, and they gushed when I asked if they were enjoying themselves. If you attended and didn't think it was one of the best conferences you attended, I want to hear from you!

A few success points that I'd like to highlight:

• Side meetings: MJ from Cambrian House peeled off with 7 guys and led a discussion about startup hacks in another room. They went on for hours and hours, and we finally had to kick them out at the end of the day. My bet is that they will get together again to continue the discussion.



• Speaker satisfaction: Guy Kawasaki really got into the BarCamp spirit, and asked the crowd if they wanted him to present, and if so, what topic they would like to hear. The crowd gave him a resounding yes, and split their vote between a talk on innovation, and "how to start a web 2.0 business with $12,700". So, he did both. It was twice the work for him, but he tells me he really enjoyed presenting this Calgary crowd.



• Speaker karma: Tom Williams flies in from Vancouver to attend and present, and does a great job. He wins the Xbox Elite that was donated from Microsoft in the prize draw. He's ecstatic because his Xbox broke two weeks ago. Congrats Tom!



• Follow-up meetings: I heard about a lot of follow up meetings being scheduled - so it just goes to show what happens when you put a bunch of interesting people in the room. In fact, I had the chance to get to know a few of the attendees better at dinner afterwards.



• Asking for more: I was asked at least 10 times when the next BarCamp was. When I suggested once a year, most had said they wanted them once a quarter, or twice a year.

Special thanks go to:

• The IBM Crew: Bob Johnson, Chris Hamilton, Garry Rasko, Terry Heintz. These guys volunteered their time, worked their asses off, and didn't really get to enjoy the entire conference as a result. I owe you guys big-time.



• Rick Kroeker from Little Rock Documents: Donated all the signage for the event. If you need high quality signs for your business, talk to Rick. Our signs looked amazing.



• ak-signs: Cool BarCamp Calgary bumper stickers were given out to the crowd, courtesy of Alan Kolodziejzyk.



• Ashley Bristowe for capturing the event with all her fancy digital photography equipment and lights.



• Our sponsors: Material Insight, for being such great supporters of the tech community in Calgary, Cambrian House, and Microsoft.



• John Bristowe: As much as you want to hate Microsoft, you really can't if you know John. He completely rocked the event - from all his set-up work, MC duties, A/V tasks, sponsorship, gathering of prizes, and host of other things, we truly could not have pulled it off without him.



• Sarah Blue: Every single logistical issue you could imagine was taken care of by Sarah. She brings sanity to the BarCamp world because of her level of organization and "getting stuff done" attitude.



• David Gluzman: A multi-talented player - web site setup, t-shirt designer, on-stage presenter, and a host of other tasks.



• Out of town guests: Guy Kawasaki, Tom Williams, Reg & Scott from Zigtag.



• And of course, all the attendees, who volunteered to speak on more topics than we could schedule, actively participated in all the sessions and conversations, and keep the energy level in the room high.

I'm already looking forward to our next BarCamp!

NCHL Hits The Saddledome

The NCHL, otherwise known as the the Non-Contact Hockey League, is hosting it's All-Star Week from December 15th to 19th. The league is comprised of 100 teams, each consisting of adult players with a passion for the sport. There are six divisions in the league, allowing teams of various skill levels to remain competitive. League boss Roman Levandovsky tells me they can't keep up with the demand. It's partly because there aren't enough ice surfaces in Calgary, but also because they do a great job running the league.

Roman invited Guy Kawasaki to play in the VIP All-Star game on Saturday night, so if you're not doing anything between 7:45 pm and 10:45 pm, feel free to come down and take in the game. I'm not quite sure how I made it to Roman's VIP list, but I'll also be on the ice.

No Smart Money!!

Bad news, entrepreneurs. There's no such thing as "smart money". In a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, no evidence was found in the performance of entrepreneurial firms that took experienced venture capital from those who took inexperienced capital.

However, the study found that "Successful serial entrepreneurs are more likely to replicate the
success of their past companies than either single venture
entrepreneurs or serial entrepreneurs who failed in their prior venture."

"The predicted success rate of entrepreneurs with a track record of
success is 30.6%, compared to only 22.1% for serial entrepreneurs who
failed in their prior venture, and 20.9% for first-time entrepreneurs."

(link via Sanjay Parekh)

Accepting Criticism with Grace and Appreciation

Critiques are a funny thing - in the business of venture creation, they're absolutely essential. Could you imagine *not* getting good, critical feedback on your company's strategy and presentations? I just don't understand how companies would improve without them.

However, some companies and individuals and I've spoken to lately have reacted quite negatively to critiques I've given them. So, for those of you who don't react well to criticism, here are a few thoughts:

1. It's tough to accept criticism - fight the natural reaction to defend yourself, and try to learn from the comments. There aren't a lot of people who are willing to invest energy into giving you a decent critique. So, when you do get criticism, analyze it and learn from it. (Credit and thanks goes to Zen Habits - good advice for everyone, including yours truly).



2. Spared feelings = zero feedback. If you get a polite "no", especially in the form of the "it's interesting, but it's just not right for us", you've learned nothing. VCs have to say no hundreds, if not thousands of times every year. They just get tired of people shooting the messenger, so a lot of them say the polite "no" when turning down deals. (Link: A great list of VC-isms from Bill Snow)



3. Success = dealing with rejection. According to Dow Jones Venture Capital, the top 8 venture funds in the US funded a total of just 56 web 2.0 ventures in 2006. So, chances are, Sequoia and other the top firms will turn you down - deal with it, learn from it, and move on.

So, what are we to do with our feedback? VC Josh Kopelman has a funny perspective on this, framed from the perspective of American Idol (is there anything better?):

• Simon (the ass): brutally honest, usually right.



• Paula (the polite): says something nice. Even if it's only about your shoes.



• Randy (the vague): lacks substance, but you got a high-five.

I have to admit, it's hard for me to change the way I give feedback. So, I guess I'll continue being a "Simon" (at least the brutally honest part, anyways).

Christmas Reading List

In my recent presentations, I’ve highlighted some great reads in the areas of entrepreneurship, viral marketing, branding, and technology commercialization. If you know any budding entrepreneurs, these books will be great Christmas reads for them. Here they are:

Art Of The Start – Guy Kawasaki
Positioning – Al Ries/Jack Trout
Brand Hijack – Alex Wipperfurth
Unleashing the Ideavirus – Seth Godin
The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell
Founders At Work – Jessica Livingstone
Crossing the Chasm – Geoffrey Moore

I love talking about books, because people always give me their recommendations in return – and there’s nothing I love more than a good business book. Here are some of those recommendations. Let me know if you’d like to add to this list:
Strategy & Structure – Alfred Chandler (recommended by Dr. Allan Conway, Dean, Odette School of Business)
A Good Hard Kick In The Ass – Rob Adams (recommended by Mark Meldrum, Odette School of Business)
A New Brand World - Scott Bedbury/Stephen Fenichell (recommended by Ravi Sood, Voodoo PC)

The Windsor Challenge

I spent the last few days at the University of Windsor, presenting to MBA classes and at the Angel Roundtable hosted by the Odette School of Business. Dr. Allan Conway, who was my strategy professor during my MBA studies, is now Dean of the Business School. He was a huge influence for me and I jumped at the opportunity when the invite came earlier this year.

As far as I can see, Dr. Conway is doing an incredible job. There are about 2,100 students at Odette, which is large for a city the size of Windsor (about 300,000). The students I met were energetic and eager to learn, and there are some sharp people in the faculty. As far as I can tell, these people love their city and see networking events like this as a way to re-energize the city from the negative effects of their dependency on the automotive sector.

I was given the opportunity to present to students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and some of Windsor’s most influential and affluent business people. During my presentations, I encouraged them to create an ecosystem for entrepreneurship in the community – and emphasized the role that everyone had to play. As a result, here are my three challenges to the entrepreneurial community of Windsor:

1. The student and entrepreneurial community must step up their game. They have to generate more ideas, prototype more ventures, and write better pitches. I convinced them to start holding DemoCamps in the new year, and a few students have committed to doing so. They already have several great presenters, including Dr. Anne Snowdon and Peter Dobrich, co-owner of the Windsor Spitfires. Rakesh from the local business development commission has agreed to sponsor. Contact Alec or Adam if you’re interested in attending, sponsoring or presenting.



2. Windsor’s business elite needs to step up and support the community by lending their time and money to the effort – (emphasis on time). Most successful people have benefited from the advice of a great mentor, teacher or coach. Inspiration can come from anywhere, so I encouraged them to do anything they could – tell their stories to the community, volunteer to sit in on a pitch session and offer suggestions, or mentor a young CEO. We’ll see what happens, but I’m very encouraged to hear that several people have already offered their financial support for future events.



3. Government-run organizations need to look closely at the effectiveness of their programs. Often, these programs are run by bureaucrats who are more concerned with logo placement than with helping entrepreneurs succeed. I’ve thrown down the gauntlet here – so if you’re a government bureaucrat with responsibility for the economic development of the Windsor region – prove me wrong!

Congratulations to Dr. Francine Schlosser and her student teams at CBAR and ACE for putting on a great event. I spoke to a lot of happy people in the crowd, and they’re ready for more events like this. Also, thanks to my fellow entrepreneurs Chris Arsenault of iNovia Capital and Stu Sutton of GPSNet Technologies for taking the time out of their busy schedules to present at the roundtable.

The Toronto DemoCamp 16 Experience

I attended my first DemoCamp in Toronto on Monday night - Toronto DemoCamp 16. Great event, amazing facility and well-attended - about 300 people. As a DemoCamp/BarCamp organizer for Calgary, it was a chance for me to learn a little bit more about the most successful BarCamp community outside of the Valley.

Toronto's twist on DemoCamp was to add some Ignite presentations after the demos. The presentations consist of 20 PowerPoint slides, done in Pecha Kucha format. 20 slides, automatically set to advance every 15 seconds, for a total of 5 minutes per presentation (the presenter does the entire thing without any control over the slides - quite the challenge!). I presented a brief history and some of the key success factors behind iStockphoto, and it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Thanks to all the people who made Toronto DemoCamp 16 a great experience for me. I had the chance to mingle with the crowd afterwards, and there is definitely a lot of enthusiasm among the players in the Toronto tech community these days.