I’ve been around the block a few times as a technology leader. I’ve been fortunate to start a company, bootstrap it to profitability, skipping the VC rounds, taking it public on the NASDAQ exchange and then having a successful exit – this was over a 14 year span. I learned to manage, I learned the importance of leading by example. Since then, I’ve done another startup and performed three corporate turnarounds, all feeding my intense desire to learn how to build financially sound and insanely happy and productive companies. I thought I had heard and seen it all. Boy was I wrong.

This past year I have been working with 10 startup companies. Some through our accelerator here in Bend, Oregon, others through a recent Startup Weekend we held in Bend and the rest through my consulting practice. Not all startups are created equal. Some start with one person, others with more. Some start with a techie developing a killer mobile application, the other a mom with an idea on how to reduce her child’s asthma attacks and that’s it.

Working with these companies I’ve had the chance to see what has worked and where they’ve stumbled. I’ve been able to start understanding the Best Practices of a Startup Leader. The first thing you should note in my title is, I chose the word “Leader” over manager or founder. I strongly believe you lead people, and you manage things. Startups are about people, not the things. The things are artifacts of the production from the team. Production drops when people fail to lead.

If you’re thinking of founding a startup, or if you’re a founder of a startup, here are some of the Best Practices I’ve observed from the founders I’ve worked with:

1. They’re passionate.

They’re the Chief Customer Officer. They empathize and represent the customer. They’re subject matter experts in their field. They understand the customer’s persona and the problem they’re trying to solve better than anyone on the team. They know if they help their customer succeed, they will succeed.

2. They’ve got a good soul.

They’re grateful for people helping them in their startup. Not just the workers, but also the advisors and outsiders cheering for them. They choose to do the right thing over the easier path. They have integrity; they build trust and become trustworthy. They’re humble. They take responsibility for all setbacks and give credit for all the wins to others. They understand the power of two simple words, "Thank you."  They say it often.  People know they're appreciated because they're constantly reminded how much they're valued.

3. They’re a multitasker with a strong work ethic.

They’re often first to arrive and last to leave. They lead by example and are often task driven. They’ll jump across functional areas to lend a hand wherever they’re needed to kick the ball forward. They help people get unstuck. They’re not afraid of uncharted territory or learning a new skill.

4. They’re team builders.

They’re always looking for the talent and always recruiting and networking. People want to help them by volunteering, becoming advisers or working for equity. They understand it’s their duty to encourage and inspire others, because in turn it encourages and inspires within. They seek other positive, gung-ho team members.

5. They set great expectations.

They dream BIG and set huge expectations. They understand the power expectations has on the team. Saying we will have the MVP done by the end of the month, or we will have our first paying customer by Friday does work. They understand it’s not where you start that counts; it’s where you finish.

Obvisouly I could go into greater depth but I think you get the point.  Feel free to add to this list, as always, your comments are welcome below.

...Jim

I had the opportunity to attend a startup weekend here in my hometown of Bend, Oregon. In 54 hours, I watched 30 ideas, turn into 7 concepts that developed 7 companies including 7 websites, facebook pages and twitter feeds.  Each team conducted interviews with potential customers and defined their first release backlog for their Minimal Viable Product (MVP), embracing the Lean Startup principles discussed by author Eric Ries. Each team also created business models to help them understand their potential revenue opportunities, cost of goods sold, SG&A and profit potentials.  On Sunday night at 6pm, just 48 hours later, these new companies presented their five minute pitch deck to a group of judges.  One company had secured it's first paying customer, and another company was invited into a local World Market to test their homemade Venezuelan chocolates in the store. These teams gained an amazing amount of traction over the weekend. In this blog post, I plan to share some of the lessons learned from the weekend and how they can be applied to your startup.

I had heard of Startup Weekends being held in other cities, but I didn't give it a lot of thought.  Honestly, the idea of spending my entire weekend coaching teams didn't sound like a lot of fun.  Boy was I wrong.  Not only was it a ton of fun, it was insightful, rewarding and energizing. Let me explain...

What is Startup Weekend you ask?

Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities to turn a pitch into a startup. These are 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers, business strategist and past Founders (acting as coaches), come together to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch startups.

Some people assume Startup Weekend is a tech driven event solely for software programmers, like a hack-a-thon, they're not. Startup Weekend draws a wider audience with broader skills: sales, marketing, business development managers, finance, UX/UI, web, CSS, data architects, past founders and current CEOs, CFOs, VCs and a handful of experienced Angel investors.  Add these skills early on, when the MVP is being defined, changes the  typical focus on "product development" to "customer development", asking some tough questions, early. Like, "Who is our customer, what is their persona, and how much would they pay to have this product or service?"  Add in the 54 hour time box around the event, you also bake in a real sense of urgency to move quickly into customer discovery.

What happened at Startup Weekend – Bend, Oregon.

42 participants, 8 coaches and 1 facilitator out of Seattle arrived at 6pm, Friday night. After a couple of short presentations, the facilitator explained the process:

• Anyone in the audience that has an idea can pitch their idea to the room using their “Pitchfire” process. This basically gives each participant 60 seconds, to explain the problem and solution. No PowerPoint or props, just a mic and a stopwatch.
• The idea and key points are scribbled on a large 3M poster board and stuck around the room in preparation for the networking event that would follow the Pitchfire. This is when people would have the opportunity dive deeper into the idea and shake it out.
• With our size of 42 participants, they estimated we could support up-to 7 or 8 teams. The ideal team size is between 5-8 people. Everyone would be given three dots they can use to vote for their favorite pitch.
• Once the top 7-8 pitches are established, participants are given 6x3” post-its where they write their specific skill (coder, UX/UI, copy editor, marketing, sales). Everyone then decides which team to join, by placing their post-it, with their name and skill set, on the poster board of their favorite pitch.
• With the teams formed, they’re given workspace area and get to work, focusing their first time box on customer development, and then defining their minimum viable product followed by a discussion on product market fit – all before they call it a night Friday night. Yes, it's intense.

Following the overview discussion, the facilitator asked the forty-two participants how many wanted to share their idea in the Pitchfire. More than thirty people raised their hands, and the pitches began, Startup Weekend was off and running.  

Who attended Startup Weekend - Bend, Oregon?

Of the 42 participants, we had a handful of Juniors and Seniors from our high schools, another handful from Oregon State University Cascades and Central Oregon Community College.  The rest of the participants included software developers from our local business, marketing execs, a couple financial advisers and a handful of retired business professionals.  The majority of the participants had full time jobs.  None had ever been to a Startup Weekend before and like me, had no idea what to expect.  I want to stress, it wasn't a room of unemployed people looking for a job.  Many of the attendees are employed and simply wanted to experience the rush of starting a business from scratch.  Sure, many continue to work on their new businesses in their spare time, but the goal for anyone should be to simply show-up, jump-in and enjoy the experience of going all-in on an idea for 54 hours.

Lessons learned from attending a Startup Weekend?

Obviously, everyone walked away with a sense of accomplishment from the weekend, and they should from what they accomplished in 54 hours. What wasn't obvious were some of the other lessons learned, watching these startups incubate in this accelerated time box. Here are a few of my observations:

• Startup Teams consisting of 6-8 team members creates a great dynamic.  Usually, I'm working with 1-2 founders during this early phase, who are begging for help from friends, family and others in the community, it's hard to gain a lot of traction this way.  Startup Teams consisting of 6-8 members can bulldoze through obstacles and gain traction fast. I witnessed one team define their MVP, then immediately dispatch two team members to go to a local coffee shops and pubs to test the concept, then return an hour later with early customer feedback. 
• Focus was on "real work with actionable tasks".  The best teams put all of their members to work, quickly.  The best teams collaborated, divided the workload into teams of two, set a time box to reconvene and went to work.  
• The best teams created their Lean Business Canvas before calling it a night Friday night.  They tracked their iterations using a validation board methodology to manage pivots.  As coaches, we celebrated pivots and encouraged each team to create time boxes throughout the weekend to actually focus on pivot discussions.  This helped the teams with continuous innovation, focused on customer development.
• Everyone can benefit from attending a Startup Weekend.  CEOs, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Business Development, Coders, UX/UI, IT and students.  I guarantee, you'll learn something and have a lot of fun. It will make you better in your day job, and it will re-energize you. I also wouldn't hesitate championing these events to my employees and encourage them to give it a try. The benefits out weigh any risk of losing your talent.

One of the companies created during our weekend was Perfect Menu for restaurant owners.  You can check them out at http://perfectmenu.com/

To see a list of upcoming Startup Weekends, click on this link and check out the Events Map. Startup Weekend is global, so regardless of where you live, you can experience yourself.  I encourage you to attend and then leave me a comment with your observations.

...Jim

Introducing the Nori Lights - Bicycle Illumination System

San Diego Kickstarter and Inventor, Chris Flynn, came up with a smart way to Illuminate your bike wheels, letting drivers recognize you instantly at night. Well all know that tiny front and rear lights are not enough. Check out this video:

I know Chris Flynn, he's family, as Nori is my Uncle Nori.  I'll be the first to tell you that Uncle Nori would be very proud of Chris.  You can trust Chris to deliver on his promises and deliver on your pledge.  I would appreciate if you would support this project, by:

• Telling your friends about it.  Add the link to your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn profiles.
• Buy a Nori Light System if you own a bike, purchase a tee shirt if you don't.
• Forward this link to one bike shop in your area. Look them up on the web and send them an email via their contact us page.

Let's start another small business in America.  Please support this project today.

Thank you!

...Jim

Bend, Oregon, is a great place for entrepreneurs. Located in the center of the state, east of the cascade mountain range which provides year-round recreational activities (snow skiing, hiking, fishing and mountain biking) and collects most of the rainfall Oregon is known for. For example, Bend averages just 11.4 inches of rainfall each year and records 295 days of sun shine. This is far better than Portland's 43.5 inches of rain and 200 days of blue skies. The pure beauty of the area, pleasant weather, and year-round activities make it a great place to live. The friendliness of the people in the community make it the best place I’ve ever lived.

I’m not alone, about 76,000 people agree. What many people don’t know is, Bend has an active mentor community filled with successful executives from every industry. Technology, medical, oil & gas, education, legal, software, fashion, film, theatre and sports, just to name a few. We have a lot of 50 “something” retirees who live in the area, looking for worthy startups to mentor. This past saturday I met a retired Navy SEAL commander who is volunteering his time to help as a project manager.  "Failure is not an option" has a totally different meaning for him.  He's impressive and so are all of the other mentors I have come to meet and now call friends. 

With the help of EDCO and the leadership of Roger Lee and Jim Coonan, we’re starting to see these mentors organize. It started as an excel spreadsheet of local “Stable of Experts”, a list of people who are willing to help entrepreneurs in the area, often for no-charge. Now we have our Bend Venture Conference and the VentureBox business accelerator joining the ecosystem.

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with six startups in Bend, Oregon. Five were in our VentureBox business accelerator program. We met each Wednesday (3pm-8pm), for 12 straight weeks.  The founders, working with local mentors develop their business strategy using customer development and other lean startup principles. These companies have taken off and are now seeking business and strategic partners, customers (beta testers and early adopters) and angel investors. 

Here are 6 great startups in Bend, Oregon.

JettStream, Inc. (http://JettStreamInc.com)

JettStream helps children who suffer from moderate to severe cases of asthma. It does this by working with existing medical devices on the market to facilitate the delivery of nebulized medication to the child, while they’re sleeping. The JettStream product ensures the medication is delivered as directed by the pediatrician. It’s hands-free and does not require a mask to be placed on the child, allowing them to sleep, taking slow, deep, breathes. Studies have shown this maximizes the success of the prescription medication. JettStream has filed for their patent, and only requires a class 1 registration with the FDA, which they plan to receive within the next 30 days. JettStream is an add-on to the existing 10 million nebulizer air-compressors in the U.S. and will retail for around $200.00 The CDC estimates approximately 1.3 million new cases of childhood asthma are diagnosed each year. Therefore, the market potential is substantial. Bend, Oregon, has a vibrant medical community with Bend Research, a world class medical research and testing facility, Bend Memorial Clinic and St. Charles Hospital. Each of these organizations has offered time and expertise to help JettStream with their mission to help asthmatic children.

CiviData, LLC (http://CiviData.com)

CiviData helps local government service providers compare utility rates and other fees to see how they stack-up with other cities their same size. Have you ever wondered how they come up with the price for parking tickets, dog licenses, airport parking lot charges or your water rates? CiviData is the first SaaS application of its kind and is transforming how local government service providers analyze and compare their operations to either defend their rates or justify rate increases. CiviData saves cities time and the expense of creating one-off reports annually. In a time when cities can’t afford to add head count, CiviData takes a laborious task and simplifies it, allowing city workers to focus on other projects. The application is sold on a per-seat license and can easily become an industry standard in city government, used by tens of thousands of people who work in, for and with city government. The technology is built, and data is being gathered and rolled out. If you work with city government, CiviData is worth looking into.

RallyCause, LLC (http://RallyCause.com)

RallyCause builds a marketplace of local businesses and local causes. For example, say your high school band is invited to play in the Rose Parade in California, but you need to raise $15,000 to send them. People sign-up and register the cause on RallyCause’s mobile application. Next, local merchants get in the act. They make offers, such as 15% of your entire purchase will go to the cause. When you shop at that merchant, you pay the normal price, but the cause receives a bounty. Pretty cool idea. This can be used by schools and other organizations , and it helps create a connection between local businesses and local causes. RallyCause has the ability to disrupt Groupon and other local coupon sites because both the merchant and the sponsors of the cause will be promoting the use of the application. It’s a win-win.

Zipede, Inc

Dr. Rick Cuddihy is working on a solution to better inform parents before, during and after their child’s doctor’s appointment . As parents, we all know how scary it is when our kids get sick. In this information age, Dr. Cuddihy is working on improving the information by creating custom video blogs containing relevant and useful information around the specific diagnosis. Parents will have the opportunity to prepare and educate themselves before their appointment, receive relevant information while in the waiting room and a recap of the key takeaways once they get home, reminding them what the doctor said. This is all designed to improve doctor-parent-patient communication. It’s a very cool idea and Dr. Rick’s style and approachability comes through in his videos, making it a winner.

Good Peeple, Inc.

Good Peeple engages your Facebook friends to help you find the best local service providers (gardeners, painters, dentists, etc.) in your area. Whether you're looking for a new doctor, contractor, day spa, or mechanic, you should trust your friends more than review sites. Good Peeple lets your friends give you trusted recommendations for businesses that they depend on. It’s a great way for service providers to engage their customers and build a social graph with their customer’s friends.

OwnersAsk, LLC (http://OwnersAsk.com)

OwnersAsk relies on customer's smart phones to give small business owners real-time customer feedback, usally while they're still in their business. Taking advantage of Quick Response (QR) codes, business owners simply visit OwnersAsk and sign-up.  Within 5 minutes they're downloading an unique QR code which they can place around their business. (Check out these QR Code Examples). Customers are given the opportunity to win gift cards and other prizes simply by using their smartphone and a free QR reader to register their feedback and comment on their experience.  OwnersAsk is targeting hospitality and foodservice professionals (fast food, bars, hotels, convenience stores, grocery stores) first, but it can easily expand to any business that wants to track customer feedback.. The real gem of the OwnersAsk platform is the registration system for managing the monthly drawings.  OwnersAsk uses Facebook's registration client to allow customers a one-click experience giving business owners the ability to connect with their customers. Customers opt-in for the drawing which OwnersAsk manages, including name, email address and their profile photo. Business owners receive feedback, connect with customers and can now offer future promotions.  Bars, resturants and fast food owners will immediately see the benefit of this application.

Bend, Oregon – An Entrepreneurial City

As promised, these are six great startups in Bend, Oregon. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m bias because I have worked with these companies and continue to help out as time permits.

Bend, Oregon, has less noise than Silicon Valley and can attract talent because people want to live and play here.

As more and more business executives, entrepreneurs, startups, angel investors, business journalist and venture capitalist visit Bend, and surrounding areas like Sunriver, Oregon, I believe Bend will become more and more popular. The one thing the area lacks is a regional VC or Seed fund so these entrepreneurs can focus all of their time on their startups without worrying about feeding their families.

If you’re an angel investor, or run a fund, and want to put a little money to work to help us grow our startup ecosystem, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me via the contact us form. We have the mentors, if we can add the seed funding and provide a fully equipped office with basic services, we could do so much more.

If you know of other startups in Bend, Oregon or Central Oregon, please use the comment section below and let me know. I'd love the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs in the area.

…Jim

Eric Ries’s bestseller, The Lean Startup, is a thoughtful book that has created a conversation about startups.  It focuses on how to go from the back of the napkin to a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), to get in front of prospects in order to see if the idea is viable.

As with any new methodology, framework or process for the matter, I do not think audiences can truly measure its viability until they practice it themselves and spend time teaching it to others.
I’ve had the chance to do both, use it with a couple of startups I’m involved in and teach it in the VentureBox business accelerator in Bend, Oregon.

The key principle of The Lean Startup is BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN.  The goal is to come up with a minimal feature set, bring it to market, measure actionable metrics and finally learn from the experience and then start again.  It barrows heavily from agile software development and favors learning from early adopters versus relying deeply on requirements management by someone in marketing.

I’m all for Build-Measure-Learn, what I have a problem with is Minimum Viable Product (MVP).   What is the definition of “Minimum”? I’ve witnessed entrepreneurs get so caught up in this MVP concept, that they test a product too soon and pivot based on incomplete data.  In my opinion, more time, not less, needs to be spent defining the MVP, including who the audience is that will see it, at each iteration.  Don't make the mistake of thinking the MVP is outside of the product lifecycle. 
MVPs should be matched to audiences. For example, your first MVP may be designed to only been seen by the development team, then management, then marketing and then prospects under NDA.  My point here is, be thoughtful about the process and audience.  Showing it to management or marketing, can quickly throw the team off the rails.  An MVP has its own product lifecycle development process, some stages should only be viewed by the core team.

Keep in mind if you’re building hardware, versus software, you have more challenges because of soft tooling requirements.  Also, don’t under-estimate the power of look and feel.  Ignoring UX/UI in some applications can take you down a rat hole you didn't intend. Each product is different. Craigslist appealed to its audience with it's simplistic UI.  Instagram's UX/UI from the get-go is what helped it go viral. 

When showing an MVPs to outsiders for the first time, I recommend you reset expectations and goals for the preview before you dive in with the demo.  Even though MVPs are designed to test the viability of the product and idea, its natural for people to react to UX/UI as if it's a finished product. Setting expectations before the reveal, will get outsiders to focus on the things that matter at that moment in time.

Remember, there is no rule that says everyone gets to see your MVP or how minimal it really is. If you're working to disrupt a market or competitor, your MVP baseline may already be set. I've seen entrepreneurs focus too much on building a Minimal Viable Product, especially in an accelerator with weekly mentor reviews, rather than a Minimal Desirable Product, that focuses on solving a gap in the marketplace. I would contend focusing on desirability over viability is more important.  Anyone agree?

I'd love to hear your comments.

…Jim

Yesterday, President Barack Obama signed into law the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS), a measure that includes U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet's "crowdfunding" amendment, easing securities regulations in a variety of ways with the goal of aiding small businesses. Many of us have been pushing for easing the requirements needed for startups to raise initial seed money from the public.

In the past several years, the term “CrowdFunding” has been kicked around. The website Kickstarter is jumped out as the clearer in the space creating a marketplace for startups and users to barter startup capital for products or other incentives, other than equity.

It’s always amazed me that anyone could go to Las Vegas and invest $1,000 on the craps table, yet if that same person wanted to invest $1,000 in a startup, they needed to be an accredited investor, meaning you must make $200,000k a year (for the past 3 years) or have a liquid net worth of $1 million or more. The JOBS Act removes this barrier.

Now for the first time in the United States the average Joe Investor (non-accredited) can make investments based on their income or net worth. Companies will be able to raise up to $1 million in a 365 day period.  There are some requirements we know about already, they include:

• Companies must provide CPA reviewed tax returns or audited financials based on the amount they raise, here is the breakdown:

1. 1. Less than $100K: You are required to provide your income tax returns and have your financial statements certified by your CEO.
   2. $100K to $499K: Your financial statements will need to be reviewed by a public accountant.
   3. $500K to $1 Million: You will need to provide the investors with audited financials.

• Companies must have a defined communication plan to communicate with its investors. Since investors can’t look up a stock symbol to get their news, another plan must be developed.
• No single investor invests more than a specified amount in the offering, namely:

1. The greater of $2,000 or 5% of the annual income or net worth of the investor, as applicable, if the investor has annual income or net worth of less than $100,000; or
2. 10% of the annual income or net worth of the investor, as applicable, if either the annual income or net worth of the investor is equal to more than $100,000, capped at a max of $100,000 invested.

• The websites offering CrowdFunding services must register with the SEC as a Registered Broker or “Funding Portal”.

There are a lot of additional conditions, including background checks on the issuer. For a complete list, check out CrowdSourcing.Org

The skeptics of the equity CrowdFunding bill are concerned with entrepreneurs dealing with hundreds of inexperienced investors funding startups. This is true with anything new. People will need to learn the pit falls of investing in a non-liquid asset.  It will be interesting to see if markets will be started to trade these assets. Who knows what the future will bear?

It will also be interesting to see what happens in the current investor models.  We’ve already seen Angel investors and Angel funds lead in SEED and Series A funding, pushing the VCs to later stage companies. Will companies that use CrowdFunding sites for their seed capital have problems in later rounds of funding from institutional or accredited investors?

The next step is for the SEC to craft guidelines and rules for the law that CrowdFunding portals, investors and entrepreneurs can work with. The SEC has 270 days ( nine months), to make final changes to the regulation.  So nothing will happen until next year.

…Jim

The work with our startups intensifies this week as we continue to work on Customer Development and The Lean User Experience. As our Founders move closer to defining their Minimal Viable Products (MVP), they have gone out in the market and interviewed potential customers of their products. As a result, some of our startups have made pivots in their business plan.

I like to celebrate these pivots with our startups. We're six weeks into the process, we've saved monthes of development time by not building software no one will purchase. We're learning more and more about their market segment each and every day. One interesting observation is, with each pivot, the founders are becoming even more passionate about their business. I contribute this to the fact the nine founders are going through this together\, and they're gaining positive energy from the team. This is another benefit of an accelerator; you push through the challenges at a much faster pace.

The importance of WHY, before HOW and WHAT.

Simon Sinek, an adjunct staff member of the RAND Corporation, one of the most highly regarded think tanks in the world. He wrote a best seller, "Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action". Yes, his principles focus on leaders and the importance of communicating "why". I could write about this topic for pages, but I want to stay on point for this post, so...

Sinek believes you should communicate to your customers: WHY your product/solution matters, than HOW it does it and finish with WHAT it does. We believe most companies do this in reverse. Starting with what features the product has, how it does it so well and finishing with why you should but it.

"Sell to people who believe what you believe." Says Sinek. "People don't buy what you do, they purchase why you do it."

He spoke at a TED talk back in September 2009, it has been viewed by over 4 million people on YouTube.

He does a nice job of explaining his point and connecting it with Geoffrey Moore's Crossing The Chasm principles that help you understand the importance of getting wide spread adoption of your product by the early and late majorities, which is where the "big" sales come from.

Here is his presentation at TED, enjoy!

...Jim

Our VentureBox founders have finished week 5 of our 12-week Venture Launch program. The pitches continue to get better each week.  Feedback is critical to the learning process, so after each pitch we give the founder a breakdown of what we've heard, what worked and what didn't.

TechStars, a popular high-tech accelerator, has a great video series called "This Week in TechStars". This past week they did a breakdown of Flixmaster's pitch.

Enjoy!

I recently sat down with one of the VentureBox startups I'm coaching, and we were reviewing their short term goals, over the next 30 days. They had a lot on their plate; it was time to groom the list. So I asked them a simple question:

Does it create Cash or Traction?

The moment of clarity helped force them into critical thinking. Entrepreneurs need to remain focused on moving the company forward every single day. Time is a scarce resource, use it wisely.

For each decision you face, ask if it will bring your company cash or traction. If the answer is no, then ask yourself why you're spending time on it? Is it really that important?

If you're overwhelmed with your to-do list, give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

...Jim

This Week In Startups - A Damn Good Show!

If you have missed the first couple hundred shows, like I have, don't sweat it. They're all online. I actually subscribe to their iTunes podcast, and have been catching up on them while I hike with my dog Morgan. The last couple weeks have been remarkable, however, if you truly want to have fun, listen to some of the old tapes from 2009 and it will confirm just how fast our tech industry changes.

This Week in... is a web television network covering a wide variety of topics from tech to entertainment. Produced out of our Culver City studios, the shows feature guest experts, founders, movie stars, comedians, technologists and CEO’s — all keeping you up to speed on what’s happening this week with a fast and funny style. Informative and entertaining, ThisWeekIn is the place for whatever your interests may be.

The company was founded by Jason Calacanis (co-founder of Weblogs, SVP AOL, CEO of Mahalo), actor Kevin Pollak and Mark Jeffrey and is based in Culver City, CA.

I've been listening and occasionally watching some of the Podcast and have found them informative, educational, insightful and entertaining. Jason Calacanis is an excellent host with an amazing memory. If you're an entrepreneur or angel investor, especially if you don't hang out at all the startup events, you'll want to catch this show each week.

As I discussed in my previous post, we’re finishing up week 3 in our VentureBox Venture Launch class. The course is 12 weeks.  Each week the founders meet every Wednesday from 3-8pm for a formal class and workshop. Dinner is included halfway through. Here is the 20k foot view of what we’ve done with the 7 companies in the program:

• Week 1: Curriculum review, format discussion, introductions and company pitches. This was the first time all the founders got to meet each other. We have 7 companies, with 2 companies with co-founders, so we have a total of 9 founders in the room. The majority of the night was spent having the founders do their 10 minute investor pitch, followed by 20-30 minutes of Q&A from the rest of the founders.
• Week 2: Our partner, LUXr,  traveled to Bend from San Francisco and conducted a train-the-mentors on their Lean Startup Customer Development and User Experience curriculum using their Bento Box training materials. Then the Mentors (yep, me included) taught the materials the next day to our VentureBox class with Janice and Kate guiding us all the way. Each of the founders developed their first customer persona for their product. Their homework was to go out and do in-person interviews with people who match the persona's they created.
• Week 3: Tackled market segments and helped each of the founders understand how to figure out their first, highly focused, target market for their minimal viable product using The Lean Startup framework. I was privileged to co-teach this class with Steven Curley, a local marketing genus and one of VentureBox's Subject Matter Experts.

Alright, with this foundation set. I’m going to change gears and discuss my observations and less on the materials and process, at least for the rest of this post.

The five traits of a startup entrepreneur.

It’s hard to not fall in love with each of these founders and their ideas. Each of the 9 founders are amazing in their own right. They inspire me with their ideas, questions and drive to succeed. Since I have the privilege to work with each of the founders, I thought I would share with you some of the commonalities I have observed among the founders in the class.  

Not in any specific order, here we go:

1. They get their hands dirty every single day. A day doesn't go by that I don’t get an email, phone call or text from one of the founders asking a question. Even though all of them are juggling other jobs and obligations, they are doing a great job of blocking and tackling through the weekly goals and objectives. I’m extremely impressed by their work ethic and drive to figure out this week’s piece of the puzzle.
2. They’re constantly searching for the truth. I’m amazed by their ability to allow all of their assumptions to be challenged. They're making a focused effort to learn everything about their potential customers and look at specific issues about the problems they’re trying to solve. When we asked them last week to get out there and talk to people, face to face, about issues related to the problem they’re solving, I thought I would get push back. When they agreed to do it, I half-joking asked them to take pictures of the people they interviewed so I could match a face with what they learned. This week I was blown out of the water when they showed us pictures and key remarks from the interviews.  How can you not love their drive to seek the truth and to learn as much as they can about their future customers?
3. They’re on the lookout for the pivot. This is somewhat related to #2, but it deserves to be called out. A business pivot is a slight course correction of the business model, without changing the overall vision or idea. We teach founders to watch for pivots and to embrace them. Business models can benefit from continuous development just like product development. Our founders are on the lookout for pivots.  Watching their facial expression when you tell them they just stumbled on a pivot is priceless.  
4. They're excellent at selling their solution. This was a bit of a surprise to me because none of our founders have a sales background, but each of our founders are excellent with their sales pitch. It is because they have empathy regarding the problem they are solving, are passionate about their solution, and extremely knowledgeable on the topic.  Each of our founders will likely be better than the average sales person of their primary competitor. They also enjoy selling and welcome the opportunity to do a sales pitch to an audience. Also, none of them have shown any resistance to cold calling so far, which I find interesting.
5. They're coachable. They don’t blindly accept advice as marching orders; however, they’re appreciative of the advice and fight for feedback constantly.  During the breaks they often ask the tough questions which indicate their willingness to explore and test different ideas to see if we can get a better result. Now that we just finished our third week, it’s pretty cool to see the founders bonding as a team and watching how the founders respond to other founder’s suggestions. This week I saw evidence those suggestions may have carried more weight than the suggestions made by the Mentor team. This was a good sign, and a positive signal the founders are bonding.

I’m sure I’ll discover more over the coming weeks. Please comment below and help me add to the list, I'd love to hear any observations you've had working with startup entrepreneurs.

…Jim

VentureBox is a business accelerator in Bend, Oregon, where I live. Each accelerator is a little different, so let me give you some background.

Business accelerators are different than business incubators (which focus on product ideas) primarily because all of our founders already have a business concept and a basic “pitch” of what their business is and what problem it solves.   Last December (2011) we started with 37 businesses applying to VentureBox and through our vetting process we selected 7.  Most are all in the “Early Concept”, pre-revenue stage.  We have  high-tech web based SaaS products, a mobile app and one physical product in medical devices.  The VentureBox class meets every Wednesday from 3-8pm for a class and workshop.  Each week we teach, then have a workshop on what they just learned and apply it to their business concept.  Then they go home with homework and goals for the week.

The course runs for 12 weeks and concludes with an investor day where Angel Investors get to meet the companies and hear their pitch. The cost for each company to attend the course is $1,500  plus 2% founder equity. The business community in Bend, Oregon, was kind enough to step up and sponsor each of the 7 companies so none of the Founders had any out of pocket expenses to participant in the program.

VentureBox’s executive director is Jim Boeddeker (JimBo) who I met after the Bend Venture Conference last October. He is a servant leader, and coach, over a pool of past founders and local business leaders who make up the Mentor team. Not an easy job managing all of us type A personalities, but he makes it look easy.  The Mentor team is experienced and deep. It’s made up of Founders, Subject Matter Experts, creative and talented individuals who have a passion for startups.

The business model is pretty simple. VentureBox has two groups: Investors and non-investors. Investors have invested cash in the company to cover the first two years of estimated administrative costs. Non-investors are pledging sweat equity and time in the Mentor program.  The 2% equity from each company is placed in a pool and then divided fairly between all involved in the program.

Each company going through the VentureBox program has access to the entire Mentor team. Wednesday is a big learning day, but the majority of the learning happens outside of the classroom where the Mentors meet with the companies over coffee or lunch and block and tackle through the goals for the week.  I think the Mentors is VentureBox’s secret sauce and they have recruited some great people. I’m proud to be a mentor and investor in VentureBox.

It’s also important to note that VentureBox is also a startup. We spent October to February working on the structure, training curriculum, facilities, sponsorships, marketing and vetting process for our first VentureBox class which started on February 15th, 2012.  We’re eating our own dog food and at times haven’t liked the taste, so we’ve done some minor pivots and continue to fight for feedback on what is working and where we need to improve. VentureBox’s foundation is built on Steven Blank’s “Customer Development” framework with Eric Reis’s Lean Startup principles layered on top. So we’re in continuous development mode, calling audibles every single day.

Well, there you have it. If you have any questions on VentureBox please don’t hesitate to use the comment feature below and I’ll be happy to answer them. You can contact JimBo via the VentureBox Website as well.

Now that you have a primer on VentureBox, I plan to blog my observations each week in future blog posts.

…Jim