Becoming Accidental Entrepreneurs

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making conferences work Lanyrd.com
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At Web Directions South, Australia, http://lanyrd.com/2011/web-directions-south/shyrh/

Transcript of Becoming Accidental Entrepreneurs

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making conferences work

Lanyrd.com

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The New Shiny

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accidentalentrepreneurs

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckp/21394313

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$US 1.4 million

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CasablancaAugust 2010

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CasablancaAugust 2010

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People who use Twitter

ProfessionalEvents

Something interesting

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Private Beta

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Bootstrapping on Twitter

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Tips on beta testingLaunch in beta first... but not for too longKeep the beta testers after launchMake sure beta-only features obvious

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Lanyrd.com Tom Coates

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@lanyrd attending #wds11

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Lanyrd.com"We'll scale it live!"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckp/21394313

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Read only modehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckp/21394313

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El JadidaSeptember 2010

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Learn from our mistakesDon't over-engineer... but...Do plan for at least a small spike in trafficDon't miss out on users because your site is too unstable

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Launch early, launch often

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Community supportAny contact from a user is a chance to turn them into a fan, no matter how grumpy they areIt is not the bug that reflects you, its how you deal with it140 characters in public is not the best forum for discussionLet people know about their pet features

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Community supportAny contact from a user is a chance to turn them into a fan, no matter how grumpy they areIt is not the bug that reflects you, its how you deal with it140 characters in public is not the best forum for discussionLet people know about their pet features

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Watch how people use your siteHave an activity stream, even if it is just admin onlyData is a symptom of design. Watch for duplicates and bad data: these bugs are important to fix quickly because they affect the quality of your data.

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Lanyrd.comMarrakechSeptember 2010

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Lanyrd.comMarrakechSeptember 2010

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Lanyrd.comMarrakechSeptember 2010

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CairoSeptember 2010

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http://ycombinator.com/atyc.html

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LuxorOctober 2010

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YC applicationWhat substitutes do people resort to because what you plan to make doesn't exist yet?What do you understand about your business that other companies in it just don't get?How will you make money?

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Mountain View, USAJanuary 2011

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Y Combinator$11,000 (+$3000 per founder) for about 7%$150,000 follow-on investment from Start Fund'Office hours' meetings with YC partners for adviceWeekly off-the-record dinner with invited speakers'Demo Day' after 3 months

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Mountain View, USAMarch 2011

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Demo Day

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2 minutes, 10 secondsYou'll be lucky if investors remember

a single noun from your pitch...so make sure it's the right noun!

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Investment

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Lanyrd.comReasons startups die1. Not making something people want

2. Fundraising

http://www.paulgraham.com/fundraising.html

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"Raise money or Bootstrap?"http://www.flickr.com/photos/stawarz/3526784136/

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"How much should I raise?"Raise enough money for 18 monthsYou'll have to start fundraising again after 12How much of the company are you willing to give away?

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ValuationsIf you can convince someone to invest $1,000,000 for 10% of your company, your valuation is $10m(Actually it's $11m post-money, and $10m post-money)

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"Equity or convertible notes?"http://www.flickr.com/photos/dicknella/2145511833/

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Convertible NotesAlso known as "bridge loans"Investor can give $100,000 now as an advance on your future equity roundWhen you raise the full round later, they get $100,000 worth of stock at whatever the valuation isThey get perks for investing early (a cap and/or discount)

http://martin.kleppmann.com/2010/05/05/valuation-caps-on-convertible-notes-explained-with-graphs.html

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"Angel investors or VCs?"Angels invest their own money, usually $5k-$50k Frequently exited founders themselves Not necessarily looking for a massive exitVCs invest other people's money Looking for the big 10x hits, to make up for lossesYou can raise money from both

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Ask for more than moneyHave a hit-list of skills you wan't to find in investors Marketing? Internationalisation? Hiring? Growing a company from 2 to 10 to 100 people?

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What you'll needExecutive summaryElevator pitchPitch deckThe phone number of a really good lawyerAnswers to common questions

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Common questionsWhere do you see your company in five yours time?What's your TAM - your Total Addressable Market size?How are you going to spend the money?

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Finding (the right) investorsIntroductions are essentialAsk investors for intros to more investorsLook at who they have previously invested in

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Investor meetingsGood investors decide quickly - just one or two meetings... but it takes a LOT of meetings to fill up your roundMeet with less exciting investors first, to practiceAt the end of the meeting, ask for the money!

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Closing a roundA VC will offer you a "term sheet", outlining their proposed investmentShow it to a lawyer!If you're lucky, you'll get more than one offer from different firms. Then you can negotiate.Even when you sign it, you'll still need to round up the other investors and negotiate on the full legal documents

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Raising money takes longer than you expect, even when you take that in to account

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Lawyers are translatorsVCs are professional negotiators - you aren'tYour lawyers can translate the legalese, and tell you what terms are standard and what terms aren'tTo negotiate, you need reasonsInvestment is full of strange etiquette - good lawyers can guide you through that as well

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Lanyrd.comRunway

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15545136@N06/5891705931/

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Announcing your roundIt's a free news story, time it wellDon't share your valuationDo say who your investors are, how much you raised and what you are going to spend the money onGive the exclusive to one publication, follow up with different angles to subsequent publications if you can

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Hiring

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LondonOctober 2011

photo by @bfirsh

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Have a Vision

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/21680590@N06/4654423909/

It may look like a glamorous life... but it's not all sunshine and daisies!

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Lanyrd app for iPhone

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/pattylagera/

The emotional roller-coaster

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/pattylagera/

On top of the world!Everyone likes us!Why would I ever want a real job?

Oh crap!The world is ending, Servers are down, Bad comments on twitterMaybe I can still get a real job?

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It's a tough job!You don't get to go home and stop thinking about workYou will have no idea what you are doing - but nobody else does either, ask a founder!You don't need to be born an entrepreneur... but you do need to find a great co-founder

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Would we do it again? ... Yes!You have something that is yoursKnowing that you are improving peoples lives, even slightlyYou get to build the company you want to work for

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There are many ways to do a startup

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Make somethingpeople want

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http://lanyrd.com/shyrh

Thank you!

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http://lanyrd.com/shyrh

Any questions?