12 Days of Building "Something"

So if there was nothing that could get in your way - if nothing could stop you - if you knew you could not fail - isn't that a quote?  I think it is actually - but in any case - if you knew that you could do anything you imagined - what would it be?  Just a question to think about...

Ok - it's not really the 12th day.  It has been twelve days since things started to get real.  I wrote a little bit about this in twitter, but honestly - it's hard to really convey the experience of trying to build a business or more than one business in a series of 140 character posts.  

Really though - let's talk about how this all started...  Ok, maybe not how this all started because that would probably have to go back to some conversations with a friend who I always remember - Thang.  But how did this all happen this time...meaning - now that there are two new things to build - how did it happen.

Close to twelve months ago - some interesting things started to show up.  Something called HealthVault and something else called Google Health.

Frankly - I was at somewhat of loose ends because the business that I had been working on for the previous two years looked like it was getting mothballed or going into hibernation.  In retrospect - this is probably a good thing because 2009 is not the year to have a break out success in personal services that could by some be considered "luxuries".  Anyway - at loose ends - when I found myself sitting in a coffee shop near where I lived at the time - Buzz.  It's a bakery/coffee shop.  It's not the best at either, but the atmosphere is good, it's bright, it's comfortable.  It's open late.  Things that are good in a private coffeeshop.  It's not exactly metro accessible or it'd be completely filled at every hour of the day.

So - these two concepts are tumbling around.  I've just read something somewhere I'm sure - about technology - about health - about maybe the obesity epidemic around the world.  So, I start thinking - it'd be great if we could do something about that.  Don't get me wrong - I'm no exercise fiend, I don't do diets and nutrition for nutrition's sake really isn't my strong suit.  I'm not in bad shape, because I do play sports - but I'm sure I could be in better shape.

While this is all going on, Wii Fit has hit the marketplace, Polar has a heart rate monitor in a watch, Nike has setup something with an iPod that keeps track of distance but requires Nike shoes.  

At the same time, I remember thinking about the fact that Westin had just crafted a rather snazzy idea called the 'Westin Workout' - and even created some specially set aside rooms in their hotels with personal exercise equipment.

I've also had some entertaining thoughts about doing a Ironman Triathlon for a few years - so bare with me on this.

In any case, a whole pile of disjointed ideas starts percolating thru my head and some opportunities to put them to good use come up.  This leads to an early attempt at a business plan.  Me, I'm just thinking that I should be doing something about turning these ideas into something enormous right?  That's half my problem as an entrepreneur and innovator - scope control.

In any case - lessons learned from Post Modern Dating - reign it in.  Oops...left that lesson at the door while I was writing the business plan for this.  Anyway - I wrote some early draft stuff - but it was pretty big picture.  I'm passionate about it though - so that's a start.

Lesson number 2 from Post Modern Dating - be passionate about what you're trying to make successful - without the passion, you won't focus and you won't put the right effort into what you are trying to create.

So - where were we - oh yes, it all began close to a year ago - ok, like 10 months.  Maybe a little bit less - we had a crushing spring time last year and that did a number on any pursuit of outside ideas.  I also had some real issues in my personal life and that did nothing good for my pursuit of extracurricular ideas either.

But - let's say 10 months ago just for grins - I shared some of the idea with a few different people.  They basically said - when do we start.  I shared this with some other folks who were in other states - but I think probably the time wasn't quite right.  I mean - it's definitely important to get things out there and in front of people.  Once you do, "real" starts to set in.

So what happens next?  Months...and months...of non-progress.  Other things were going on certainly - I was distracted - my living arrangements had to change - I had to work out moving stuff - I had to work out having a livable space - anyway - so it's basically January.  And progress begins again.  Months have gone by but - finally progress.

Tyler applies a kick start to the engine and we start having some weekly or at least every couple weeks conversations about ideas.  We start trying to enumerate what the best ideas we've considered are.  We start putting together a list - building out criteria - figuring out what we believe in - what's possible - what could work.  

Set back - Tyler presents some of the ideas to some technology transfer folks at Hopkins - they look at the ideas - suggest that one of them is flat out not legal and that the other needs a lot more work.

They are right - one of them does need a lot more work - but the legal part...I think they may have not thought things thru.

So we work on things some more - we want to make progress - we agree to start taking some steps.  A few weeks back (to this moment) we sat in the conference room at my building and hashed thru the list, hashed thru what it would take to enable the idea that I am most passionate about and what it would take to enable the idea that Tyler is most passionate about.

We made progress.

We came up with a model for Tyler's idea that we think would be legal and would enable us to pursue it.  Flash forward a few more days - Tyler talks to a legal counsel who is in some agreement that we appear to have found a model that will support the business that Tyler is honing in on.

Great - so it's now 2 Saturdays ago - 12 days ago - and we have some partial business plans - and we have agreed with a couple of potential partners to have a conversation.  The goal of the conversation is to find out whether each of these potential partners may be interested in participating in the ventures that we have identified.

2 conference calls later, we have agreed to share information - both of our new potential partners have agreed to sign NDAs and we are moving forward some more.  We all agree to speak again 1 week later (this past Saturday) to discuss the business plans.

Tyler and I have some more work to do - first of all - we have to define job descriptions of the other roles that we had come up with that we feel we need for each of the two businesses we have identified.  That's something that also happened several weeks ago when we were sitting in that conference room.

We also need to work some more on the business plans.  But at least we have agreed on a couple things - we've identified the technology we are going to use to collaborate with - and I have a few other tools that we can use when we need them for expanding that collaboration.

Alright - so now it's this past Saturday - March 14th - it was a good day - we had two more conference calls with our potential partners and we were able to share in some level of detail the business plans that we are contemplating.  Everyone's feeling excited about the prospects.  We see the need for more stakeholders in the team but it's looking good so far.  

So what comes next - well this week those job descriptions really need to get finished.  Looks like I may be doing those thru the rest of this night.  There are of course also things that must be done for the day - but I'm feeling energized and engaged.  It's exciting.

We'll have the chance to meet again on Sunday at noon - this will give us a chance to talk some more, look at what we have learned, what questions we've identified and what we can further do to clarify the businesses we are trying to create.

Stay tuned... there's definitely more to come...

Close to a year ago, I was thinking about some new ideas - I'd had a chance to talk to my existing business partner and some thing had struck me - health - fitness - exercise - so many people are doing so little of it.  What kept crossing my mind was that 80% or more of the world 

Can the Social Web be turned into cash...

So there appear to be 3 models for making cash in the world at this time - a) provide a paid service, b) provide a paid for product and c) provide a paid for place for people to advertise. I'm over simplifying but when it comes to what companies offer - this is probably a pretty clear way to look at things. (Please forgive me for ignoring real estate and natural resources - otherwise known as making money from selling materials and spaces.)

So let's look through the microscope at what's going on out there and see if there are some examples where there might be some examples.

Let's start with Google - are there products per se? Some would argue that Google has a whole bevy of software products. Are they paid for? Not by the average person through traditional means. How about services? Well, certainly the vast number of gmail users would seem to indicate that Google certainly has some services. Are they paid for? Again, not by the average person through traditional means. Alright, so what comes next - well there's the selling of advertising space. No question, hands down, this remains the way that google makes the bulk of it's revenue. Some comments from Google's own Founder's Letter from this past year's annual report reenforce this theme - according to the letter, 1/3rd of Google is currently working on Search and another 1/3rd is working on advertising. Since "Search Advertising" is in point of fact the basis of Google's fast revenue stream - this means that the company get's paid mostly for this. Alright - I may be selling them short a little bit. Google's search engine is a profitable "product" in that numerous companies rely on Google Search as the means by which they search and retrieve data from their own internal sources.

maybe this should be a series of posts...

I'll come back to this later for more companies to consider...

Finding Mentors - Joining a Network

So in the continuing discussion of Entrepreneurship in DC - I want to bring up the mentor option. Over the past 3 years as I've worked to get my first business to grow and as I'm considering the development of a 2nd business I've looked and looked for mentoring opportunities.

One of the most obvious opportunities for instance is SCORE - the community of retired executives. I'm definitely a fan of this but you really want to hold out and reserve your most challenging thorny obstacles for folks like that. Also - you've got to keep the dialog concentrated and to the point. This is not necessarily my strong suit when brainstorming and trying to flesh out thoughts that I'm working on.

So what else is there? Well of course there are free and sometimes nominal fee courses provided by the business development organizations of the state of virginia and fairfax county. Definitely worth remembering but this is not really the answer to the mentoring question.

What's next? Well there is the "friends and family" approach. Good if you have some good friends or family who are in the executive literati of the world, but not as helpful if everyone is sort of in the same boat as you.

Then, of course, there are the executives of your various government and commercial organizations in which all of us work. If you've got a very open organization and if you are working in an HQ location then this can be pretty great, but sometimes mixing business with business can be an uncomfortable option.

All is not lost however - it has come to my attention recently that there are a huge number of www.meetup.com groups dedicated to entrepreneurship and professional growth. I think we have a winner, Bob! Recently I went to the Arlington Entrepreneurship group meetup in Ballston. This was exactly what the doctor ordered. Although I didn't necessarily get my specific questions answered immediately I feel like this is the kind of group where a diverse dynamic set of folks who are all pursuing entrepreneurship can share experiences and grow with one another. Cheers then to the MeetUp concept for solving what for me has been a challenge in DC. I'm looking forward to meeting with other MeetUp groups in the area to see how this all progresses and maybe even start my own. We'll see... but for now? I think this may be an excellent way to go for the day in day out sorts of challenges that all of us face starting a business.

Motivation

The key to entrepreneurship other than having the stomach to risk it all - is motivation. The problem of course is how to stay motivated in a non-entrepreneurial climate such as Washington DC. While there is no clear cut answer to this, what follows are a couple ideas that may help:
1. Join a business network (preferably related to entrepreneurship) - there aren't a huge number in the area, but even one is better than none - just getting together with like minded people can take you a long way toward entrepreneurial success
2. Start a working group - there's alot to be said for having a group of folks who regularly come together to bounce ideas off one another and try new things
3. Start a blog - sounds sort of funny but really - taking the time to record and document what's on your mind whether 1 person reads it (you) or whether 100 people read it has an affect on your motivation
4. Tell a friend your plan - this set's into play a sense of accountability - none of us really wants to fail to do what we say when a friend knows all about it

Hopefully these 4 tips may help you get your own motivation going - see you at the startup!

Democratizing Innovation

As a side note, I've begun a separate blog on the topic of Innovation Democracy - for more information see www.innovacracy.com.

Practical reality in Washington DC

There was an interesting article in BusinessWeek analyzing where the top Venture Capital companies are in the United States - the first thing that becomes obvious is that Washington DC is not the home of Venture Capital.

What does this mean? It means that the VC Community doesn't see enough activity occurring in Washington DC to justify putting significant presence into the area. At the end of the day, VC is about forming relationships and VC's want to have a personal relationship with the companies that they put their money into.

So what does this mean for an entrepreneur hard at work creating new businesses in DC? Well - it means that finding other people of like mind is much harder.

More on this later... :)