Aidan Nulman

Founded YouPhonics – Loves music – Thinks you're cool

Let's grab tea!

July 21, 10:09 PM
Montreal Entrepreneurs: Win a free trip to Bitnorth!
Are you a Montreal-based entrepreneur?

Are you under 30?

Are you a fan of TED, Foocamp, and/or Ignite (and a little added dash of Fight Club)?

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If you answered yes to all of the above, YouPhonics and Startupifier have got something for you.

In the wake of our recent 30 Under 30 event, where we took a group out to a Just For Laughs show and a nightcap... and raised $300. Which is exactly enough money to send one awesome person to Bitnorth.

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How to enter: Answer this question -- "What can Bitnorth do for you, and/or how can you give Bitnorth back to the community?" -- in a...
- Comment on this blog post
- Tweet to @startupifier
- Comment on Startupifier's post on Facebook
Deadline: Friday, July 30, 5PM Eastern

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The winner will be decided on Friday, July 30 by a panel consisting of myself, Riku, and Alistair. We may take an extra day or two before we announce the winner, though...

Huzzah! Can't wait to hear from y'alls :)

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July 10, 02:36 AM
I've been neglecting this blog -- Jul. 9, 2010
Ye olde homework:
1. Continue with strategy-planning -- I should have, at the very least, my recruitment processes and next steps, a dream-list of advisors and how to reach them, and an easy-to-implement marketing idea or two.
2. Start preparing the tutorial video we'll be recording -- script it out so the flow is right, and rehearse it.
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Yeah, I know. Neglect neglect neglect. If this blog were my wife, it could have sued me by now. And taken half my stuff. Which would probably mean half of YouPhonics... Garry, Sachin? Don't get any ideas, okay?

Quick updates, as it's nearly 2AM, and I'm going out to my friends' DJ night before they leave on a 3-week European tour:
- DONE with the strategy work. I have printouts of the next three months covered with Post-It notes. I know what I should be doing, on a 30,000 foot and 50,000 foot level, for the next three months. It feels awesome.
- I've started planning Phase 2. Phase 0 (late-August 2009 to December 2009) could be dubbed "Assembling the Allies." Phase 1 (January 2010 to end-of-July 2010) would be "Birthing the Baby." Phase 2, which will be starting in mid-August (it needs a bit of setup before actual progress) will be all about "Crossing the Chasm" (thanks, Ian!).
- I'm going to be home for a maximum of 10 days in August. Fuuuuuuuck. Throwing myself into a bloody cage match against my travel habits. I'd better come out victorious.
- After one of my two last investment-talks today, I've finally started to draw up a list of common issues with my business, my philosophies, my business model, and my ask. Here are a few of them, in paragraph form:
Nobody likes to invest in the music business. So few people have won in the past, and wins have been smaller than they should be. Everybody that does like to invest in music is likely doing so already (see: Foundry holding both Topspin and Next Big Sound). The pool is way, way smaller.
This is something I'm just going to have to deal with if I continue to look for investment. If, however, I bootstrap and start making the revenues I need to break even, it will likely get a lot easier to convince the non-believers.

Investors truly hate single-Founder companies. I get it. Paul Graham says it's bad. You want to see a team working behind a product. You want to see that the Founder can inspire others.

My gut tells me that this desire for multiple-Founder companies lies in a heuristic, not a law. But it's become so prevalent that it's almost impossible to break free of. I've already shown that I have a compelling, inspiring vision. I've got an amazing team working behind me. In fact, my moral weakness (not feeling right asking someone to make the sacrifices I've been making this past 11 months) has become an amazing strength (a development and design team that I can scale up or down, as necessary)!

I truly, deeply believe that this multiple-Founder, in-house team approach is akin to hosting one's own web servers. Sure, you need it when you need it, but AWS or Rackspace are much more efficient when you're not a behemoth. This is something I'm not going to easily budge on.

(That said, I am now considering hiring a full-time, in-house bridge between me and my development family over at BNOTIONS. If this ends up being the road we travel, it's going to be because the right person -- for both sides -- bubbles up when he/she's needed. We're keeping our eyes open while powering on.)

Our business model needs more proving. I don't want to get too detailed about this, as it's kind of our competitive advantage. But there are assumptions that we're making that we need to further flesh out in customer development, or bringing on deep-industry advisors.

No arguments here. I believe in what we're doing, but some more external validation (and maybe even some letters of intent) would boost everyone's morale!

We're asking for too much money. We've been asking for $600K. We were looking at that for a 12-month burn, plus any extra runway we could get by making sales and applying for all applicable tax credits.

That's wayyyyy too much. And, after seeing firsthand what one-and-sometimes-more developers working full-time-ish can do, this can easily be cut. I was looking at way too much manpower, and looking at salaries that should be paid after Series A, not seed funding.

We've cut things by 25%. We're now looking at $150K for the year. This would pay two full-time salaries (me + tech lead), near-full-time contract development (scaling up and down as needed), a bit of design work, way more money than we'll need for conferences/travel for two (and guerrilla promotions at said conferences), high estimates for our server needs, a fair bit of legal work, and allows for potential computer upgrades if we make a minor sale.

Not perfect, but muuuuuuuuch better.

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Lessons learned:
1. People will always critique. Triangulate the advice between multiple sources, and see how it fits with you.
2. Sitting back and looking at the high-level stuff is so satisfying after months of near-gruntwork.
3. I'm tired of writing and need to leave my house!
Weekend homework:
1. Email the remaining SF people (see Post-It) and NYC people (also see Post-It, plus Jay Frank) about possibly meeting up when I'm in town.
2. Invite friends! They've been neglected for too long.
3. Start scripting the video.
4. Start wireframing the partnered implementation we've started discussing...
(I don't necessarily plan on doing both 3 and 4. But at least one of 'em needs to get at least a bit of thought into it.)
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July 07, 12:46 AM
Long weekend! -- Jul. 6, 2010
Ye olde homework:
1. Continue sending invites: first to the three potential partners, then to friends.
2. Play along with Andrew and/or Max and/or someone else (at least one, the rest on the weekend!).
3. Get the grant stuff together.
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So, what to discuss? A couple of points today, methinks. How's about three "Why?" questions?

Why did I take a long weekend? -- With so much going on, you might say, it was irresponsible for me to take a breather. Well, maybe so. It's definitely a crazy time in YouPhonics' (let alone my own!) life. But I feel that such a time necessitates pause. When you're in the thick of things, you don't get to take the macro view. Which, when you're in the thick of things, is often the most important view to take.

For example, a friend (and semi-advisor) of mine emailed me before the weekend with a few grilling questions re: why we don't yet have a video, and why a specific user flow isn't highlighted. When I responded, I let him know that these issues were being worked on, but we had press attention rising and didn't want to miss their news cycle, so we delayed them until after we got some word out.

This, obviously, wasn't the most efficient/effective answer. But neither was delaying the press and possibly losing our "heat." Being in the middle of a tight situation, I had to choose what I thought was the right answer -- and which I'm happy I made (any decision is, nine times out of ten, better than indecision). That said, while the snap decision worked, I'm sure it wasn't as effective as, say, opening a dialogue, inviting interested parties for a private demo, and offering them the scoop... but on my own timeline.

Why did I miss out on the grant deadline? -- Simple: it was the first close. This grant is still applicable up until (nearly) the end of the year. And, frankly, I'm stretched a little thin as is. It's just cash back -- I can get the cash back now, or I can get it back later. It's not an infusion. It's not investment. It's not sales. It doesn't help prove the business model. And, just as our user base is starting to grow, and we're starting to see increased activity, and we're gearing up to open wide before the end of the month... well, this was a priority that had to be cut. Sorry, wallet. You'll get your action in December, baby.

Note: this may prove to have been a very stupid decision. And I understand that. But only time will tell...

Why am I killing all investment talks between now and September (at the earliest)? -- There is one caveat here: I'm allowing myself a second meeting with one open end, and a first call -- in which I'll be very frank about how I feel about my current investment situation -- with an Angel who recently got back from an extended business-and-pleasure trip.

Anyway, to answer the question: much like the guys in an article I read fairly recently (I wish I could link this, but I can't remember any key words beyond the point I'm about to make), I realized this past weekend that I'm meeting with and thinking about investors at least as much, if not more than, musicians. Which, to me, is flat out wrong.

While I truly hope that any of these three meetings I have result in a commitment to lead an Angel/Seed round, I don't think I really care as much anymore. Some amazing opportunities are opening up this next two months -- including travels to NYC, SF, and Vancouver, a retreat at a cottage North of Montreal, and more or less equal time split between Montreal and Toronto -- and I'm going to use these chances to achieve the following goals:
1. Grow YouPhonics as a platform, by getting people to come play along with us.
2. Recruit some awesome talent.
3. Test for broken user flows, and design their fixes.
4. Woo some awesome advisors.
5. Seek inspiration in others.
All of these, in one way or another, contribute to making YouPhonics a more attractive investment. More importantly, they directly (and positively) impact my business regardless of whether or not they actually make us more pretty in they eyes of our beholders (and soon-to-be-shareholders).
All right, folks. Think that's enough for tonight!

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Lessons learned:
1. Take a breath.
2. Don't forget to exhale.
3. Repeat.
Tomorrow's homework:
1. Continue with strategy-planning -- I should have, at the very least, my recruitment processes and next steps, a dream-list of advisors and how to reach them, and an easy-to-implement marketing idea or two.
2. Start preparing the tutorial video we'll be recording -- script it out so the flow is right, and rehearse it.
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July 01, 09:53 PM
Best. Day. Ever. -- Jul. 1, 2010
Ye olde homework:
1. Push out more invites -- not necessarily all of them, as it's a holiday and I'm finally devoting time to see a Montreal friend or two (haven't seen anyone beyond work capacity or family in over 2 weeks).
2. Finish 80% of the press kit.
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Whoa. It's been a week. Umm... been a little hectic here, sorry. I hope you/Future Me understand/s.

Aside from that meeting last week, other stuff I've been dealing with includes:
- Two lengthy meetings, one directly business-related, one indirectly so
- Sending out craploads of invites (and I still have a ton left to send!)
- Starting to actually track the day-by-day growth of YouPhonics (can't believe I nearly forgot about this)
- Reclaiming my life outside of YouPhonics
- My grandfather's unveiling
- A one-year anniversary of my grandfather's passing memorial with my brother
- Doing an in-depth check-out of the competition
- Putting together the best press kit ever (YP Insiders, get ready to see it and benefit from my research! Assume the email's coming later this week or early next.)
- Completely retooling my pitch deck
- Offering to help a girl who seems awesome based on an article I read about her
But none of that was why today was the best day ever. (By the way, have I already used that title? Perhaps...)
Today was the best day ever for the following reasons:
1. I woke up today to find 30 new emails in my work inbox. By the time that registered for me -- 30 new non-spam emails overnight! -- it had grown to 50.
2. This was because Brad McCarty (an awesome dude I've never met) of TNW (an awesome blog I found last week and immediately jumped into my must-reads) wrote this awesome piece about YouPhonics.
  
  The post has been tweeted 81 times, according to Tweetmeme.
  
  It generated at least 10 more tweets I'm aware of -- including this one from China.
  
  There was even a small discussion going in the comments.
3. I was interviewed for another blog post -- again, with one of the blogs I actually read regularly.
4. Friends (and parents) were immensely supportive -- I even got a message from an old, childhood friend I haven't seen in years.
5. I got to eat a homemade lunch with my Mother and Brother, since I was working from home.
6. I got to play with my dogs for 20 minutes.
7. Virgin America and Klout gave me a free trip to San Francisco on Virgin (the whole #VXToronto thing). Going for a week in August with my developers and others!
8. We finally got to announce the local 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 event I've been planning.
9. Two meetings were confirmed with people I've been really hoping to sit down with.
10. I'm about to go spend the night with friends, only to continue sending out invitations (and applying for a government grant) tomorrow!
I know I missed something/many things. But seriously, each moment of today was better than the last.
In fact, it was so good that I felt it was my duty to do something nice for someone. So, when a friendly acquaintance posted on Twitter about an awesome new bourbon and how she wanted someone to buy it for her, I volunteered. And now she's getting fancy bourbon soon! And I may even get to participate -- she lives in San Francisco, so if there's anything left in the bottle in early August, I get to taste it too. :)

All right, too much gloating. Time to finally put a shirt on, walk the dogs, and head out for a small celebration.

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Lessons learned:
1. Awesomeness begets awesomeness.
2. I was a much better writer than I gave myself credit for.
3. The emails... they just don't stop!
Tomorrow's homework:
1. Continue sending invites: first to the three potential partners, then to friends.
2. Play along with Andrew and/or Max and/or someone else (at least one, the rest on the weekend!).
3. Get the grant stuff together.
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June 24, 01:12 AM
The ballsy meeting -- Jun. 23, 2010
Ye olde homework:
1. Deal with what remains of today's email.
2. Do all ASAP actions from the Marketing Plan (includes 39 emails, plus-plus!).
3. Start working on Canadian Media Fund funding application.
4. Make changes to Pitch Deck so's I'm ready for Wednesday's meeting!
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Okay, so, last night wasn't much of a post. Sorry. Personal issues, etc.

Anyway, I ended up sleeping over at a friend's place last night. Which meant that I didn't have my suit. Or... y'know, a change of clothes. So I was stuck going into my meeting with the gatekeeper for a local Angel network in a bad, bad situation.

But, after what happened to me at SXSW (refreshing your memory: a small fraction of my 28 dozen bagels were consumed, most of them went to waste because my apartment-mates and I can't eat that many bagels), I knew that this was my opportunity to make the experience unique. So, instead of lamenting my situation, or playing it off as if nothing had happened, I added the following 4 slides to my Pitch Deck, right up at the very beginning:

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Now, these all went with a story. The fact that, last night, when I knew things weren't in the right place, I effectively handled the situation by getting away and into another one (yes, I'm being vague; yes, on purpose). I knew that staying where I was would leave me in the wrong headspace, something that -- especially at this fragile point in YouPhonics' birth -- can make or break my company's viability. So I added short-term stress to the situation in favour of longer-term benefits for it, and both short- and long-term benefits for myself. Though the immediate-term was still kind of screwy, since I looked like a hobo (no joke).

Pretty effective decision-making, if you ask me. Now that everything's settled down, I believe I'd still make that decision if push came to shove.

It's kind of late, I'm kind of tired, and I promised a friend I'd go see her. So here's a quick bullet list of what happened today (beyond the meeting, and loads of walking -- 19km in 19 hours!):
- More than 150 invitations to YouPhonics were sent out -- if you want one, sign up here: http://youphonics.com
- Got a quick write-up on Indie Music Tech.
- Fielded two requests for invitations from journalists.
- Userbase is growing nice and quickly, especially since the invitations were only sent at night!
Umm... yeah. I'm sure there's more, but friend just texted me again. And I still have homework to write up and such...
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Lessons learned:
1. Lemons can -- and must if at all possible -- be turned into lemonade.
2. Being friendly and genuine makes it much easier to be talked about.
3. Emailing out invite codes "the old school way" (ie: one at a time) is fun and (arguably) meaningful, though it takes a loooooooong time.
Tomorrow's homework:
1. Push out more invites -- not necessarily all of them, as it's a holiday and I'm finally devoting time to see a Montreal friend or two (haven't seen anyone beyond work capacity or family in over 2 weeks).
2. Finish 80% of the press kit.
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June 23, 12:04 AM

No post tonight -- June 22, 2010

Today was a waste. Kept being pulled away (or, worse, interrupted) by one semi-critical thing, and several non-critical ones. I need to say no more often.
Anyway, some progress was made. The mission-critical emails were dealt with. I exported and have started cross-referencing my lists of people to invite (over 250, most of it passive promotion!). Going to get on that.

Tonight was terrible. I may post about it later on http://thoughts.aidannulman.com. Man, haven't busted that thing out in a while. Anyway, not terribly important for startup life, so I'll update below if I do actually post; you can read it there if you're actually interested in my personal life.

Tomorrow = same homework. Pump invites, marketing, and PR. And keep pumpin'.
Keep it real.

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June 21, 11:54 PM
A Long Monday (plus a Reading List!) -- Jun. 21, 2010
Today's homework:
1. Look into Canadian Media Fund.
2. Apply to the two things I needed to apply for.
3. Write the marketing plan (finally!).
4. Deal with invite codes.
5. Chat with BNOTIONS about the remainder of this project.
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Done and done'd!

Not much to say about the tasks. I spent 3.5 hours developing and researching 3.5 pages of plans. I'm more or less ready to go on autopilot for the next couple of days, knocking these out of the park!

What I do have to talk about, though, are two awesome pieces of writing I found that I figured I'd muse on.

First up, Hugh MacLeod's "four big moments of writing a book." Have any of you read this yet? 'Cuz it's not just about writing a book. It's about shipping anything you'll ever do.

Hugh writes about the four major milestones he sees in the process, none of which involve actually completing the product.

First, the idea. I assume that if you're starting a fricking company, you'd better have already experienced this.

Next up is "landing the publishing deal." Many people assume this to be finding external funding. It doesn't have to be. Fund it yourself, find a partner, get your letter of intent... just get that one barrier out of the way that will enable you to start work.

The next two are where things get interesting. "Releasing the book" is step 3, which is shipping itself. We started going through that last Wednesday, with our live demo on a panel and subsequent launch party. We're continuing to go through that this week, as we prep materials and send out emails to everyone who's ever even halfway-hinted that they wanted to hear about YouPhonics. Ship, and don't ship quietly (unless that's your strategy).

Finally, the last big moment is "the moment you realize that your book isn't going to be shit, after all." This is the part that spoke to me. What matters isn't software completion. What matters, on a visceral level, isn't some buzzword (useful as it may be) like product/market fit. What really matters is: are you getting feedback that shows that you accomplished your goal?

Go read Hugh's post. Now. It'll make you a better person.

Second, and with a much shorter commentary (I hope), is Aaron Stannard's "The Myth of the Single-Person Startup." In it, he writes about how, as he holed himself off, his startup wasn't able to convert the potential energy around him (relationships, friends' expertise) into kinetic energy (forward motion), and instead ended up failing to reach his goals.

The two things I can say here:
1. Go listen to The Beatles' "With A Little Help From My Friends."
2. Go read Law 18 in Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power.
Seriously. Whenever I get into protectionist mode, those two usually help bust me out.
Anyway, that's it for now. Tune in tomorrow, when emails make me either so numb I'm unable to write or so talkative I write even more stream-of-consciousness than I already do!

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Lessons learned:
1. Marketing plans can take a while. But they're so necessary before you take action.
2. Reading is nice.
3. I love my team!
Tomorrow's homework:
1. Deal with what remains of today's email.
2. Do all ASAP actions from the Marketing Plan (includes 39 emails, plus-plus!).
3. Start working on Canadian Media Fund funding application.
4. Make changes to Pitch Deck so's I'm ready for Wednesday's meeting!
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS!
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June 21, 12:03 PM
The Heavenly Hell-Week (A Post-Mortem) -- June 21, 2010
Ye olde homework:
1. Process all of my emails.
2. Follow up on fundraising pieces.
3. Deal with party logistics (sound, schedule, beer)
4. Review Survey results, compile a couple of neat facts.
5. Prepare Launch Marketing Plan (Wednesday through Wednesday).
6. Come up with a few potential sound bites for the panel.
7. Deal with Finance stuffs.
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That's what I set out to do last week, before I left to Toronto for NXNE/NXNEi. I managed to knock off a bunch of this. But hoooooly crap, was last week busy.

Feel free to skip past the day-by-day recap of what happened. There's a more "global" view at the end.

Monday --

After 3 hours of sleep, I drag myself out of bed to get to the bus station. Alex meets me there. I was told that there was WiFi, so I was ready to work for 5-6 of the 7 hours of the ride. Unfortunately, there's no power outlets. Looks like BoltBus had me spoiled.
I manage to get 2 hours or so out of my computer before I need to shut it down. I spend the rest of the ride responding to email on the iPod Touch, watching TWiVC, listening to Colin Marshall's Marketplace of Ideas, and even manage to squeeze in a 30-minute nap.
We arrive in Toronto, register the conference, and I run over to the BNOTIONS office to buy the entire Dev-team dinner and spend the rest of the night helping troubleshoot/test YouPhonics, dealing with party logistics, and taking a quick look at the survey results.
I finally get back to Zac's place around 3AM, proceed to look at/segment/jot down survey results for another 2 hours, and finally go to sleep at 5AM.

Tuesday --

Up at 8AM. Down again for 30 minutes. Up for reals at 8:30.
I look at the sheer amount of stuff to do -- party prep (dealing with the beer situation, talking with The Biz Media about venue needs, etc.), a bit more analysis, and sound bites to generate. I stay "home" for another 2 hours to work instead of rushing to the conference. Zac wakes up and we head downtown together. I get my hair cut.
A quick walk over to the conference center from the hairdresser leads me to meet Josh and Justin (two of my co-panelists) in the lobby. It's lunchtime. AKA burrito-salad-time.
After lunch, I manage to catch 1/2 of Scott Belsky (Behance)'s presentation on the agency-world. It was pretty great, all about leading and inspiring creativity. Him and Jeffrey Tambor should team up and do corporate speaking-gigs.
Nobody I knew was speaking next, so I grabbed the rest of the afternoon to do party-prep, a bit of testing, think of sound bites, and hopefully start on launch-marketing-plan. That last one didn't happen, as YouPhonics started breaking. Not good.
I head to the cocktail party, where I actually have a second to talk with Shawn Pucknell (in charge of NXNEi and runs FITC) and Tara Hunt (who I keep missing in Montreal), meet Perry Chen (from Kickstarter, who is several kinds of awesome) and Ze Frank, and chat with friends new (Michael Nus, Frida) and old (Melissa Feeney, Lee Dale, etc.)
At 8PM sharp, I run to my favourite teashop (DAVIDsTEA, on Queen), run into some old friends there, and proceed to work (mostly "Holy shit! Bug just popped up!") until after Bonita cleaned up and was ready to lock up. Which then led me to campus to meet with Zac, where I couldn't get on WiFi and thus spent the time reading. After his reading group let out, we headed over to the Golden Griddle, where I hopped back on WiFi and trouble-shooted with some of the BNOTIONS crew.
Finally, around 2AM, we left the Golden Griddle, as I was fading. Zac and I had a big chat about what I'm up to, and some of the things I wanted to communicate in my panel. I was stressed, as the biggest, most magical feature of YouPhonics had broken, and I was set to demo in front of people the next day. I finally passed out around 5AM.

Wednesday --

The big one.
Wake up ~8AM. Psyche myself up. Send some emails. Pick up cupcakes. Confirm delivery with Steam Whistle, and how many people we'd be able to bring across the street for burritos if people wanted to continue the confersation.
Panel prep. 11AM. Send out the email to launch party attendees I had written the night before. Reviewing the notes I jotted down as to what I want to say. Show YouPhonics to panelmates.
12PM: Showtime. I'm on stage, talking. We get the audience asking questions from the beginning. My ears are on the panel, my eyes are on the audience, my hands are on my phone, waiting for it to buzz with a text message from my developers that says that they've tested the biggest bugs and are confident that the fixes worked.
12:33PM: The text message arrives. I give myself the green-light to demo the product if an appropriate question/moment in the conversation shows up. When the time comes, we get everybody singing along to my favourite track from my buddy Landon Braverman's EP.

See and download the full gallery on posterous
1PM: It's over. Time for burritos. Then meeting prep. Then a meeting at 3PM with an awesome lady from EMI Music Publishing, who is super-interested in what us kids are working on to help redefine the music industry -- a topic I love to talk about. In 30 minutes, we managed to validate some hypotheses, make some new ones, and have a splendid time.
4PM: Off to set up the party. Beer has been delivered, but we still need to buy ice and some meats to get the BBQ going. With help from the awesome Biz Media and BNOTIONS crews (and Rochelle Latinsky and Alex Daskalov), everything comes together.
6:45PM: People are arriving. The keg isn't set up yet. Shit.
7PM: The party starts. I have the schedule in my pocket, and ala

rms set for 3 minutes before all of my remaining actions for the night. Autopilot.
11PM: The Groin Twins need to switch USB sound cards, which means killing the music. Not wanting to have a silent room for 5 minutes, I buy them three-and-a-half by rapping the entirety of Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady," acapella. It was glorious.

11:40PM: Clean-up. Walking Maria to the Go Bus station, so's she can get home. Cabbing back to 7 West, where Logan, Alex, and Guy are grabbing late-night eats. Cab home. Asleep by 4:30AM.

Thursday --

Wake up at 12PM. Day off. Spend my time slowly taking care of the few things that needed to be taken care of (returning the mics, coordinating keg pickup, etc.). Manage to catch The Besnard Lakes and Best Coast with my buddy Glen (from AWMusic.ca). Loved the former, liked the latter. Also had some sweet chats with Lina Beaudin, and Drew and Hil from Pop Montreal.

Friday --

Had a meeting with an awesome VC, and got some amazing feedback which I plan on incorporating into my meeting this Wednesday. Hung out at Patio Friday with some awesome folks. Went to pick up my external hard drive, which had been sitting at the BNOTIONS office since Monday. On my way, was invited to join a few of them on an impromptu trip to Niagara Falls. Not being one to pass up an adventure, I went.

Saturday --

We like pizza in the morning. 'Nuff said.

Now, I know I forgot a ton of people, and a ton of things that happened, in that recap. I'm sorry if you were among them. I still love you.

What's important here is the fact that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were way more full than they should have been. In retrospect, I still think that all of the tasks were essential, but this now makes two conferences in a row I've gone to without being fully (or even mostly!) prepared.

The two solutions I'm looking at:
1. Be more ruthless with the cutting of non-essential tasks -- I should not have accepted to make that page for my father; I should have referred him to someone else.
2. Start delegating not-me-specific tasks.
I've got a bunch of friends who work with VAs who can help teach me about the second. As for the first... I'm going to need to start asking some real questions.

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Lessons learned:
There is nothing more exhilarating than the thrill of your idea -- or better yet, product -- resonating with folks.

Understanding the outcome you're shooting for is always the #1 priority.

Adrenaline can keep you running for three days.

Today's homework:

Look into Canadian Media Fund.

Apply to the two things I needed to apply for.

Write the marketing plan (finally!).

Deal with invite codes.

Chat with BNOTIONS about the remainder of this project.
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June 14, 01:21 AM
Family time! -- Jun. 13, 2010
Ye olde homework:
1. Revise the Privacy Policy & TOC.
2. Pick out the Billboards to bring with me to Toronto, which likely means flipping through most of 'em.
3. If I can, take some preliminary looks at the Survey Data.
---

One thing not taken into account for this weekend: the fact that I had two long family events. Yesterday was a cousin's 50th birthday. Today was a different cousin's wedding cocktail party. Both, of course, were much longer than anticipated. And hey, being a jungle gym for a couple of eight-year-olds ended up proving to be an ample weekend-workout!

Another great fringe benefit of the family functions was the sheer amount of reading time. Waiting to leave the house, the drive there, waiting for decisions to be made, the drive back, walking the dogs upon return... all of them lent amazingly well to my new reading process. Which I kinda wanted to share with you.

My mother recently bought an iPhone -- yes, it arrived the day before the iPhone 4 was announced. And yes, I warned her to wait -- so I inherited her old iPod Touch. As I may have written about before, I pretty much hadn't opened my RSS reader in months, as there's been way too much stuff going on. I had been letting good articles come to me.

Well, I declared RSS bankruptcy, cleared out some obsolete feeds from my Google Reader, installed NetNewsWire on the iPod, and threw in Instapaper for good measure.

The combination of those three applications is now my favourite thing. Ever. Flip through the headlines on Google Reader (if at my laptop) or NNW (if on my iPod and around Wifi). Instapaper the ones worth reading. Download 'em to the iPod before I leave the Wifi signal. Read, read, read. Star anything worth sharing/commenting on. While that may read as a lot of actions, it's actually a super-smooth flow.

Anyway, two things I found really gelled with what I've been up to lately:

First and foremost, there's this amazing (and short) piece from Marco Arment (lead developer of Tumblr and Instapaper), explaining how he writes and manages his time. While I'm writing this blog for mostly archival purposes (as well as giving potential investors/partners insight into how I work/think), I've used a less well-thought-out version of his writing advice before. As for the productivity advice... well, you guys should know by now how I love working into the evenings because that's when I can most effectively crank shit out.

Second, Sachin Agarwal (of Posterous fame) wrote about how accounts get in the way of startups working together. His main thesis is: if you want to partner with someone, prepare to integrate, not just link. Posterous integrates with your email, and builds its APIs around where they want to be integrated, not just how they want people to use their service. And it's brilliant, and a specific application of a more broad point I tend to help friends with: when trying to reach out to others, don't bring them into your fold... bring your fold to them.

Oh, and third (I like to give extras) is this piece by Alex Kessinger, talking about how his kids have made him more productive. The point about his incomplete to-do lists shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone who actually reads this blog...

Anyway, I head to Toronto in about 8 hours. Which means I need to be up in ~6. And I have a crapload of work to do on the bus.

I'm going to try and knock out this PP & TOS business really quick-like, then head to bed while watching tonight's episode of True Blood. (edit: DONE!)

See ya, folks!

---

Lessons learned:
1. Family rules.
2. Reading rules.
3. Well defined processes rule.
Tomorrow's homework:
Process all of my emails.

Follow up on fundraising pieces.

Deal with party logistics (sound, schedule, beer)

Review Survey results, compile a couple of neat facts.

Prepare Launch Marketing Plan (Wednesday through Wednesday).

Come up with a few potential sound bites for the panel.

Deal with Finance stuffs.
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June 11, 11:44 PM
Famous last words... -- Jun. 11, 2010
Weekend/Monday's homework:
1. Code that stuff for Dad.
2. Push the red button on the Fundraising Blitz!
3. Revise the Privacy Policy & TOS.
4. If I eat lunch alone, read Billboard
5. Randomly select an entry in the Music Purchasing Survey to win a prize.
6. Preliminary review of the Music Purchasing Survey results.
7. Invite the two people I promised super-ultra-early sneak peeks because they're awesome -- then get feedback.
8. Draft marketing plan for the YouPhonics beta launch -- my mind will be scattered for NXNE, but the launch can't be!
---

Pfffft. I think I was overly optimistic with the whole "I'll get a bunch of that done by Wednesday!" plan... yeah...

See, the piece I promised to code for my Dad was a complete and utter time-suck. I learned some valuable things from it, but what I estimated to be 4 hours of remaining work ended up being 12-15.

The Fundraising Blitz was pretty darn successful, with over 50% of the conversations developing nicely, and some new partnership opportunities that may have popped up regardless of money! Woot.

I kinda went a little overboard with the Music Purchasing Survey prize, and gave away three of 'em. Three people will be very happy this week!

Early sneak peeks have gone out, which is nice. And I've demo'ed for some other folks. It's pretty sweet.

But... the Privacy Policy and TOS weren't revised. Billboard wasn't read. The Survey wasn't reviewed. And the marketing plan wasn't written. Shiiiiiiiiiit.

Other random stuff that wasn't listed that were dealt with:
- My business account for YouPhonics was finally opened. So I can finally start tracking the books outside of a sub-chequing account.
- Major progress was made on finishing tweaks for YouPhonics.
- Managed to help an old friend brainstorm over lunch. Which was super-cool.
- Entered Hugh MacLeod's contest for a free cube grenade. I hope YouPhonics' business-cause wins!
- Prepared a bit more for the YouPhonics Launch Party Celebration Festival Deluxe! We now have over 100 RSVPs, which I needed to cap because if the rest of the VIP tickets sell out... well, we'll be a full house.
- Started preparing for a big young-entrepreneurs event I'll soon be organizing in Montreal.
- Read a lot in my away-from-the-laptop time. This whole iPod Touch + Instapaper thing is GENIUS.
Finally, some quick notes on a meeting I had last night:

Last night, I ended up hanging out with M, who I was introduced to by C at an event a couple of weeks ago. M's a cool guy who built a piece of software (or, rather, algorithm?) that's immensely complementary to YouPhonics' vision and business model. Which is why C introduced us in the first place.

Well, we finally got to sitting down and got to know each other. Heard each other's stories, both personal and business-wise. I totally talked his ear off at some points, because I'm far too ADD in casual conversations to hold an individual story to its main storyline and invariably end up on a tangent at some point. But I digress...

After about an hour of talk, I started feeling that he'd make an amazing Co-Founder for YouPhonics. So, after a few minutes of internal debate ("should I be so forward? Should I keep it to myself?"), I eventually decided to tell him straight-up. "Look, M. The reason I asked you about this whole Co-Founder/Partner thing is because, frankly, I think there's a chance here.

He immediately took a step back. "Look, Aidan. Comparing this to relationships, I don't think what I've been up to is really ready for a commitment."

Understanding what he meant -- because Lord knows that I don't want to rush into it either -- I (hope I) salvaged my position: "M, I understand. If this were a relationship, officially becoming Business Partners would be a marriage. I'm not proposing right now. I'm just saying that, there might be a shot, and I want to make sure that you understand what I might be thinking about next time we hang out. Because I think this is a topic we should visit again."

The impression that I got here was that we both sort of nodded, understood, and moved on. The rest of the conversation went fine.

The point of this story? Simple: I didn't rush into a Co-Founder situation before. I know some super-bright people who would have made awesome tech counterparts. Friends of mine. Music fans. People who I knew I could get along with, at least in the short term.

But a startup never struck me to work like that. I was once brought on as an "executive", then made a "Partner", in a Montreal culture-based e-zine, before e-zines were cool and CMS systems really existed. Hell, I remember seeing Joomla and Wordpress for my first time, then emailing my former partners to bitch about how easy things would have been had this software existed when we started.

Anyway, that team started imploding, then just fizzled. We were friends, but the "company" started as a project, and obviously priorities were elsewhere. And that strained some of our friendships. It sucked.

Because of that experience, I resolved to suffer on my own and find the right partner. Maybe not the perfect partner (you'll never know which one they are... too much hesitation, in my opinion), but a great one who fits.

And, as much as this is me putting my cards on the table... I may have found this person. I hope our friendship, visions, and opportunities develop together some more this next couple of weeks/months!

---

Lessons learned:
Web design/development isn't my forte, and my gauge isn't amazingly developed.

The iPod Touch is magical, and I should have bought one years ago.

Being open and honest is a part of me. I should probably reflect some more to make sure I can mediate any negative effects as well as I should be able to!

Weekend homework:

Revise the Privacy Policy & TOC.

Pick out the Billboards to bring with me to Toronto, which likely means flipping through most of 'em.

If I can, take some preliminary looks at the Survey Data.

This needs to be done by Monday morning. The bus ride needs to be all about updating Finances, Marketing, Fundraising follow-ups, and party logistics. Yeeeeeesh.
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June 11, 06:02 PM

Pre-post post, for Hugh Macleod's "Compelling Cause" cube grenade!

Yes, I know this isn't par for the course. But I think this campaign/contest Messr. Macleod is running would a) be relevant for a number of you readers, and b) be an awesome thing to "win." So here's my under-500-word submission:
The web has made it easier than ever for artists anywhere to collaborate as they start a movement.
The Cluetrain Manifesto, arguably the first major movement sparked online, was apparently built from email.
Since then, applications have been built to help thinkers and artists anywhere build and spread their message: forums, instant messaging, blogs (both personal and group ones), Google Docs...
This revolution, however, has been mostly limited to the written word. Admittedly, awesome services like Scripped exist for filmmakers, though it's still limited to the scriptwriting portion.
***
In high school, I wasn't much of a writer. I played music. More specifically, I played drums in a punk rock band.
Then, one day I got the news that my #1 (in fact, only) choice of college accepted me. And they were out of town.
I moved in September 2006. Since then, I haven't been behind a drum set for more than 10 minutes at a time.
I had been playing drums for 14 years. And the difficulties of distance were then insurmountable.
***
Well, the difficulties are still there. There's no Google Docs for music... well, nothing that prioritizes creativity over finished products.
That's my cause, Hugh: making it easy for musicians to hop online and be creative together.
And our doors start opening on June 16, over at http://youphonics.com .

(Thanks go to Greg Isenberg for reading the first draft and giving me the confidence to post this!)
Back to regularly-scheduled programming tonight, I swear it.

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June 05, 01:16 AM
Must... avoid... this habit... -- Jun. 5, 2010
Yesterday's homework:
1. Draft (and possibly send) Step 1 of the Fundraising Blitz!
2. Deal with any NXNE/launch party stuff that comes up.
3. Skim two old Billboards, flagging relevant articles for follow-up.
4. Take an hour of me-time. This time, meditation and a quick workout in my room?
5. Revise copy for the Privacy Policy & TOS!
---

Okay, so last night I didn't quite get to bed when I was hoping to. Decided to stay up and do a bit more research into the Fundraising Blitz. Which meant that, today, I was kind of screwed for sleep.

Luckily, me sleeping in today turned out to be a plus: my parents needed me to walk and feed the dogs for dinner, and I would have been left car-less at the office had I gone. Go serendipity!

The bad news, though: my regular Friday work-hours got pushed much later. Which means that I only just finished stuff. Which means that this post will have no intelligent thought, only a summary of the day. Sorry!

Fundraising Blitz: all prepared for. Personal emails to each party have been drafted, to be reviewed and edited Monday (because 1AM on a Friday night isn't the time to send something like that).

NXNE: Nothing directly NXNE-related came in today. But the launch party on the other hand...

Did I just see myself write launch party? HELLS YES! If you're in Toronto over NXNE-week, come join us at the YouPhonics Launch Party Celebration Festival Deluxe! It shall be awesome. It also took a lot more out of today than I thought, as I deliberated on logistics, dealt with the charitable organization who will be receiving the proceeds from the VIP ticket sales, and manually filtered through most of my 2200+ Facebook friends for invites. (Nobody likes spam.)

Otherwise: development has progressed (AWESOMELY!), artists have been booked (AWESOME ONES!), and copy wasn't written (UNFORTUNATELY!).

All right. Now time to do a quick in-home workout, finally shower, and say hi to some friends...

What? You thought this Montrealer would be home for the whole Friday night? As if!

---

Lessons learned:
1. Serendipity rocks.
2. Charitable organizations really like it when events donate money to them.
3. Launch parties are fun! But can be complicated.
Weekend/Monday's homework:
Code that stuff for Dad.

Push the red button on the Fundraising Blitz!

Revise the Privacy Policy & TOS.

If I eat lunch alone, read Billboard

Randomly select an entry in the Music Purchasing Survey to win a prize.

Preliminary review of the Music Purchasing Survey results.

Invite the two people I promised super-ultra-early sneak peeks because they're awesome -- then get feedback.

Draft marketing plan for the YouPhonics beta launch -- my mind will be scattered for NXNE, but the launch can't be!

Note: I know that there is no way in hell that I'll finish all of this homework on/by Monday. I'm hoping to make a lot of progress -- even finish -- #1, and get through most of #s 2-5. #6 will probably be more time-consuming than I give it credit for, and there will inevitably be NXNE stuff. I doubt I'll be able to think about #7 until Wednesday.
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June 04, 03:20 AM
Quick check-in -- Jun. 3, 2010
Tomorrow's homework:
1. Write copy for emails.
2. Prep for Step 1 of the Fundraising Blitz!
3. Deal with any NXNE/launch party stuff that comes up.
4. Revise copy for the Privacy Policy & TOS!
5. Skim two old Billboards, flagging relevant articles for follow-up.
6. Take an hour of me-time. This time, meditation and a quick workout in my room?
---

I'm tired. Been a long day. Worked on the party prep -- things are actually really in shape. Dealt with some financial stuffs and communicated with the developers. Got to sit down with a friend I haven't seen in over a year (in fact, just shy of a year and a half!) for lunch. Tested some sites to see the emails they sent out, what I wanted to stay the same on mine, and what I wanted to differ. Made the best YouPhonics email address ever. Went for dinner with my friends/houseguests (one of them just graduated from McGill. Yay!).

I just finished the Fundraising Blitz prep. I'm all ready to draft (and possibly send) the first round of emails tomorrow. May hold off until Monday, though... if I finish too late in the afternoon, I'd rather not be that "last email on Friday" guy.

Privacy Policy & TOS get fixed this weekend and/or Monday. Tomorrow's all about fundraising and party planning (in order to save much more money, I need to get everything done ASAP).

Luckily, dinner was nice and relaxed. Between that and the drive, it was all the me-time I needed. But no meditation/workout, unfortunately...

---

Lessons learned:
1. Things take long.
2. I need to pace myself better.
3. It's hard to retain things you read when you're tired enough that your eyes hurt and are drying out.
Tomorrow's homework:
1. Draft (and possibly send) Step 1 of the Fundraising Blitz!
2. Deal with any NXNE/launch party stuff that comes up.
3. Skim two old Billboards, flagging relevant articles for follow-up.
4. Take an hour of me-time. This time, meditation and a quick workout in my room?
5. Revise copy for the Privacy Policy & TOS!
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June 03, 03:05 AM
Errands: the bane of my existence -- Jun. 2, 2010
Yesterday's homework:
1. Send the Music Purchasing Survey to the remaining 5 people on my list.
2. Revise and write copy for the remaining pages on YouPhonics.
  1. This includes the Privacy Policy & TOS!
3. Skim two old Billboards (during lunch), flagging relevant articles for follow-up.
4. Prep for Step 1 of the Fundraising Blitz!
5. Deal with any NXNE/launch party stuff that comes up.
6. Take an hour of me-time. This time, meditation and a quick workout in my room?
---

Yeahhhhh... today was kinda full of 'em. Apparently, I was supposed to accompany my Father to the dentist on our way to the office today. And my Mom asked me, since she was going on a huge bike ride (she's a big cyclist), if I could please come home and walk the dogs at noon.

There goes 1.5 hours of my morning, plus a little over an hour for the dog walk (commute from and back to the office included). Add to that "lunch" with my Dad (which consisted of a short chat over frozen yogurt, as that was all he was able to eat after the morning dentist visit), and the planned tea-time with some other local entrepreneurs a friend put me in touch with... well, that's another 2.5 hours.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that one of my best friends was coming in from Toronto with his girlfriend for her convocation. And guess where they're staying? Yup. Chez moi. So another four hours were spent picking them up, running two errands with them, setting the room up, and doing "work-lite" while chatting with them.

So, out of the 14-16 hours I had available to work today... I lost 9 of 'em. Which left me with 5-7 hours.

Normally, that'd be enough to get the two big "me" items -- the copy-writing and the Fundraising Blitz -- out of the way. But a-ha! More progress was made on the launch party front. And some NXNE tasks came up. And I did some testing of a few pieces of YouPhonics that were wonky before (they still are, but much less so), 'cuz this way my developers could work on the ultra-critical-timely pieces. That last part led to some somewhat crucial email threads too.

The moral of that last piece of the story is: I know that those were things I could have cut from my day if the other stuff was on an external deadline. But, since the deadlines are internal (especially for the PP, TOS, and Fundraising Blitz), I feel that the right answer was (and, ceteris paribus, will always be) what I did: empower the team and eat the delay.

Your team's work is multiple people's productivity. Maintaining a decent level of activity helps morale. It also helps avoid putting them in stressful situations, which also helps morale. Which helps output. Which helps everybody.

Your own work is your productivity. And it doesn't scale like a team's does. Which is why, every time I'm confronted with dramatically cut bandwidth, I'll focus my efforts on the team's work, not my own.

If you disagree, share it in the comments!

---

Note: As much as the errands cut into my effective work hours, I want to make sure I'm clear on the fact that I truly enjoyed doing them. Being able to help my Dad a bit at the dentist's office, being able to help my Mom (and spend more time with my dogs), meeting some awesome people because a good friend thought it would make me happy (and I knew following through would make him happy), and spending time with one of my best friends are all fantastic "problems" to have in one's life!

---

Today's lesson:
1. Sometimes shit happens. Prioritize.
2. Customer service is as easy as it sounds if you're prompt, friendly, and responsive!
3. Life is awesome.
Tomorrow's homework:
Write copy for emails.

Prep for Step 1 of the Fundraising Blitz!

Deal with any NXNE/launch party stuff that comes up.

Revise copy for the Privacy Policy & TOS!

Skim two old Billboards, flagging relevant articles for follow-up.

Take an hour of me-time. This time, meditation and a quick workout in my room?
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June 02, 02:01 AM
Re-becoming an effective CEO -- Jun. 1, 2010
Yesterday's homework:
1. Scan my Quebec incorporation document.
2. Release the Music Purchasing Survey.
3. Prep for Step 1 of the Fundraising Blitz.
4. Skim two old Billboards (during lunch), flagging relevant articles for follow-up.
5. Promptly deal with any NXNE- or development-related issues that come up.
6. Take an hour for me-time. Meditation and a run would be nice.
---

Things were done! Though the Music Purchasing Survey launch took a little longer than I expected. And a bunch of NXNE-related emails came through -- particularly those dealing with the small launch party we're looking at doing!

With that out of the way, I need to confess that I did very little Fundraising prep. But that's okay -- I'll have a lot more bandwidth tomorrow... especially now that I also finished most of the coding for a landing page I'm helping my Dad with!

So, yesterday, I wrote about how I fell off the horse and made negligible measurable progress for almost two weeks. Today, I'm going to talk about the revelation that re-energized me...

One of the things that was bumming me out -- which I (strategically) didn't mention yesterday -- was a certain bug we were having with the system. We're building it to work as if it were magic: users can record alongside anything in the system, with no need to use a DAW or understand/play around with waveforms.

Unfortunately, we were experiencing some major issues with the syncing. Initially, there was a short, though noticeable to an untrained ear, delay between pieces recorded on the site and what it was recorded over. Imagine listening to Green Day's Time of Your Life, but with Billie Joe's vocals ~500ms after the corresponding guitar note is played. Not fun.

My awesome developers found out that the issue was because the script we were using to convert the audio from WAV to MP3 adds a short blank space at the beginning of converted tracks. So they implemented a fix, an extra tool that chops off that blank space, and everything should have been working fine.

The problem was -- it wasn't. Granted, it got to the point where it was really only audible by trained ears, or with complex patterns, but musicians both have trained ears and often play complex patterns. So we needed another fix. And the developers were (initially) drawing a blank.

This was devastating to me. Basically, what I've been dreaming of for years seemed to not be possible. And they started recommending going with a simplified DAW interface.

In the interest of time, I was tempted by this -- it wouldn't be too tough to implement, it wouldn't be that difficult to work... But I knew, deep in my gut, that that would just make us resemble our competitors more. Worse, it would counteract the magic we were working towards.

And then, I read Ben Horowitz's piece on "How Andreessen Horowitz Evaluates CEOs." And it helped me make sense of what I was feeling, and what the right move would be going forward:

I needed to step back. I needed to stick to the vision we had all committed to. I needed to bring the team together and get us all back on the same page.

It wasn't just for me, or for YouPhonics. It was for my developers (BNOTIONS). And my designers (Jet Cooper). It's up to me, as the CEO, to make sure that the output these guys (and gals!) have been working towards for the past number of months is a shining example of the work they're capable of. Especially because they don't own anything in the company.

YouPhonics isn't a paycheque to me, and it wasn't for the guys I work with (well, for them, only in the metaphorical sense).

And, when I realized that sticking to my guns on what's important for the vision is my most important function... well, it was time to kick some ass once more.

The end of the story is: I had a quick chat -- in fact, a couple of notes were exchanged over Basecamp -- with my developers. I told them what I wrote above -- that I was tempted to just say yes, but after deliberating over the weekend realized that letting the magic die would kill our product. So we brainstormed possible fixes. And, lo and behold, we got to the right solution within 8 minutes.

As my Dad once told me: pick your battles wisely. Only fight the important ones.

And, in my opinion, keeping the vision -- and magic -- alive is the most important thing a CEO has on his/her plate.

---

Lessons learned:
1. Keep the magic alive!
2. Having images automatically resize with window sizes is tough.
3. Taking some me-time after I get home makes me more effective through the night!
Tomorrow's homework:
Send the Music Purchasing Survey to the remaining 5 people on my list.

Revise and write copy for the remaining pages on YouPhonics.

This includes the Privacy Policy & TOS!

Skim two old Billboards (during lunch), flagging relevant articles for follow-up.

Prep for Step 1 of the Fundraising Blitz!

Deal with any NXNE/launch party stuff that comes up.

Take an hour of me-time. This time, meditation and a quick workout in my room?
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June 01, 12:12 AM
Getting back on the horse -- May 31, 2010
Booyakasha! Told ya so!
Here's a quick list of "notable stuff that got done today:"
- Made a new personal site -- it'll rank better in Google, and represent me better than my ol' 301-to-the-LinkedIn-profile did!
- Dealt with every email and minor to-do in my inbox -- so's I could actually focus on the big items during the afternoon!
- Wrote copy for all of the already-live parts of YouPhonics
- Led my developers toward the (seemingly) right solution to the most impactful issue in YP -- this is why I casually learn code!
- Wrote, designed, and tested a survey for the piece I'll be writing -- to be released tomorrow!
Guh. There are two things I want to write about, which are somewhat inter-related: the insane hesitation/worry/nerves that I've been experiencing, and the renewed vigour I've experienced.

I guess I'll start at the drawing board -- the hesitation/worries/etc. -- and post tomorrow about the rest? But you'se guys gotta hold me to it.
I've recently started experiencing some really terrifying pangs of "Oh God, what am I doing with this?"

This is my first real business.
I'm not drawing a salary. I'm living out of my parents' place, on my savings.
Every day or two, I see a new case study about how successful things that I'm not implementing in YouPhonics are.

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
This feeling really bummed me out for a while. In fact, I'm almost sure that this feeling, in conjunction with a generally weakened immune system because of the hours that I keep (working on fixing that!), led to my being out of the game much of last week.

I'm not alone in this. I've spoken to other entrepreneur-friends of mine, and virtually all of them have told me that they've been there. They know what I'm talking about.
While we have our own variations on it, the startup mantra is the same: "Always. Be. Shipping."
I'm not the first one to say that such a philosophy is easier said than done. It's so much easier to abandon the project. Hell, when I was 7, I remember walking up the ladder for the high diving board at my neighbourhood pool, only to turn around and climb down as I reached the end of the board itself.

"I'll dive off it next year," I remember telling myself.
I never did.
Anyway, this feeling was all-encompassing with YouPhonics last week, two weeks ago. So many cool people are working on so many cool things, how can others believe me when I tell them -- or even show them -- that mine is up to snuff?

I mean, I know it is. We all know that what we're working on is worth it; otherwise it wouldn't get us out of bed in the morning.
But some days, that straight face doesn't come. When we're dealing with products that are always 15, 20 steps behind our imaginations... how can reality possibly compare to our expectations?

The trite-though-true answer is: it doesn't have to. Nobody has spent more time picking your startup apart than you have. I saw this when I produced theatre. I had seen almost every rehearsal, and every dress rehearsal... I knew when the actors were screwing up on stage. And it hurt me to watch. But I'd be the only one in the room cringing.

The not-so-trite-and-also-true answer... well, that comes tomorrow.
---
Lessons learned:
Always. Be. Shipping.
Freeing up chunks of time for big tasks is underrated, even with all of its hype.
If you can't find the solution you're looking for after 20-30 minutes, look for the next solution.
Tomorrow's homework:

Scan my Quebec incorporation document.
Release the Music Purchasing Survey.
Prep for Step 1 of the Fundraising Blitz.
Skim two old Billboards (during lunch), flagging relevant articles for follow-up.

Promptly deal with any NXNE- or development-related issues that come up.
Take an hour for me-time. Meditation and a run would be nice.
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May 31, 01:06 PM
A 12-day error -- May 31, 2010
Jeez. I tried an experiment to make the best of my post-travel refractory period. It ended up a huge scheduling fail.

Instead of popping back into the office and dealing with the accumulated "stuff", my plan for May 20 and 21 was to pile on all of the meetings, lunches, and coffees that I would have otherwise done over the course of three weeks.

Let me tell you: as much as I love spending time with people, that was not a wise decision. For two days, I was pretty much constantly in transit or engaged. Which led to little productive work (or, at least, work with clear outputs, not fuzzy ones). Which led to not having anything to post. Which led to not having clear objectives. Which led to not getting much productive work done. Which fed the cycle.

Anyway, after the weekend, Monday was a holiday. And Tuesday had more meetings/errands to run. On Wednesday, I woke up and was sick, so I spent the day between the bathroom and my bedroom. Thursday, I finally managed to get a solid day of stuff done, but it was mostly playing catch-up. Then, after spending the night out with some of Dev-team and Des-team -- it was my first chance to actually spend some social time with them in ages -- among others (@darcy_clarke FTW!), I needed a bit more sleep, which became a work-and-cook-from-home day.

Needless to say, the experiment was a complete and utter failure, which only compounded.
I'm now back on the horse, ready to post for reals tonight. But, to give you an idea of the big stuff going down, I'll leave you with the list I sent my friend Daniel (whose new product, Pinpoint Social, just went into beta!):
My next steps fall into three categories:
Write copy for the site
Research and write an article for (an online publication) about the three purchase drivers for music

Fundraising blitz
I also have two other pieces that need my attention:
Research, plan, and prep for the NXNEi panel
Ongoing development bug fixes/tweaks/etc
See y'alls tonight!

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May 20, 01:54 AM
NARM Recap and Shoutouts -- May 19, 2010
A few months ago, when I was considering joining NARM, I asked a friend/mentor of mine what the group was like. His response: "they're good people!"
Now I understand why.
Before I get into a quick recap of some of my favourite moments, a few thank-yous are in order (but in no particular order):
- Ian Rogers, for putting up with me (and putting me up)
- Aniq Rahman, for being my Partner-In-Crime throughout
- Scott Perry, for the amazing positivity and "air of progression" that follows you everywhere
- Nikke Slight, for being genuinely interested in everyone and everything... and acting on it
- Aspacia Lindstrom, for being the first new face to believe in me at a conference almost entirely full of strangers
- Erik Dennison, for loving music more than pretty much anyone I know -- on par with your almost-lookalike!
- Mike Worth, for being The Dude
- Ted Cohen, for letting me share some thoughts in a room full of way-more-experienced industry vets
- Tom Silverman, for the amazing chat about music and spirituality
- Jack DeYoung, for being even more ADD-and-proud-of-it than I am
- Mike Clauss, for your words of support and your pushes for me to market YouPhonics even better
- Ira Kessler, for being everywhere -- literally
- Emily Dean, for smiling and waving every time I'd pass you in the halls
- Cathy Gassner, for not hating me for not having introduced myself for days in spite of continuously recognizing you
- Liz Gassner, for the days worth of conversation we packed into an hour or two
- Lauren Perry & Derek Miller, for always being around and being the most awesome Ferris State-ers I've ever met
- And, as Tom said (more eloquently) in his award acceptance speech, everyone else for forgiving me for having overlooked you as I jotted these down pretty quickly
Okay, quick general recap and one story (what I said at the TAG Salon): the conference was out-of-this-world. I went in, as I always do, with the hope/expectation of securing a deal. While that didn't happen, I'm now that much closer with a number of amazing, progressive, and well-respected people.

As I mentioned before, I didn't do all of my homework beforehand. For example, I wanted to speak with Jon Strickland from Epitaph -- but I didn't know what he looked like until Day 4, when it was too late. That said, my general philosophy of "be personable, intelligent, and kind" was definitely a plus, and resulted in more introductions than I'd even like to admit!

You know that famous quote from Hunter S. Thompson? The one that goes "the music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Well, aside from it being a misquote, it's also no longer true: at least 80% of the people I met at NARM lived, ate, and breathed music as much, if not more so, than I do. The easy money is gone; many of the sharks seem to have chased after it.

And now, the story, titled "the first opinion I publicly voiced in a room full of music industry execs": I arrived late to 4-F, otherwise known as the "TAG Strategic Salon", a room for discussion about the continuing effects digital media is having on the industry.

I'm surrounded by names like Nikke Slight (started "New Media" at Atlantic Records in '94), Christina Calio (runs most of Microsoft's music-related programs), Ted Cohen (just... check his bio for this one), and more. Ted makes the discussion go round, asking everyone to pipe in, and offering people working on solutions -- or with a good, related story -- the chance to speak.

One of the themes in the room, as always, was purchasing music. What are people doing that makes them not buy? Why are people buying? How silly was that Rolling Stone ad that just said "Don't steal our music" while the artists were wearing $300K+ of clothes? Etc.

I noticed a common trend: everything fit into Dave McClure's framework of "how to get people to open their wallets". Namely get your customers paid, made, or laid (see Slide 8). Namely...
Paid: one of the people in the room started buying music after he started playing music, and begun to understand how difficult it was to make money as an artist
Made: many attendees noted the rise in sales of deluxe packages, which offer customers the opportunity to wear/display them as badges of pride

Laid: a girl in the room buys everything John Mayer puts out... and, ignoring the obvious joke here, obviously feels closer to him and the music because of it
And yes, when prompted, I managed to tie this all back to YouPhonics.

All right, I'm'a stop typing your eyes out. This has already become another epic post.
Final thoughts: if you want to break into the music industry, you need to attend two conferences: SXSW, to hang out and party with your soon-to-be-peers; and NARM, where you'll actually get shit done.
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May 19, 02:28 AM
Conference tips for startups (based on NARM) -- May 15-18, 2010
The conference ended yesterday, but this piece comes today. Because I was -- and still am -- tired. And there was a party last night.
So, before I get into the stories/anecdotes/thank-yous/amazing people you should be looking at parts (those come tomorrow), here are 5 tips for getting the most out of the networking aspects of a conference:
1. Have something everyone will notice and remember about you, even if they don't meet you. This could (and should) be simple, like your fashion sense, a consistent accessory, or (my personal favourite) an offbeat-yet-workable haircut. You'll be easier for people to remember, and give them a way to introduce themselves: "Oh, you're the guy with..."
2. Do something everyone who meets you can't help but talk about. This could be complex if you want, but it has to boil down into two words: "You're the one with the cool card Bob showed me!"
3. Know who you want to meet -- and how to talk to them -- before you arrive. Conferences publish a list of speakers, and sometimes a list of attendees. Pick out the ones who should absolutely be interested in you, and know so much about them that you can skip most of the small talk and get right to the point.
4. Befriend (and be genuinely interested in) everyone. So many people ignore this, and they're missing out for so many reasons. First, if they're at the same conference, you share interests. Which means everyone there is awesome. Second, even the greats started somewhere. You may be talking to the student who will run your industry in 10 years. Third, who knows who they know? I connected new friends whenever there was a reason for them to chat. Others did the same for me. Someone will do it for you.
5. Know your style and play to it. Do you work better in long conversations or short exchanges? Do you work better with friends or acquaintances? How good are you at following up with people after a conference? There's no generic right answer. But there's your answer. Know it, and make sure you're playing to your strengths.
6. Have fun. You only live once. And if you're not having fun meeting your peers, potential clients, and potential vendors... you're probably not going to have much fun with your startup, either.
Yeah, I know I just posted 6. So sue me.
Anyway, still catching up on sheer exhaustion. Stories/thank-yous/etc coming tomorrow. And back to your regular programming on Thursday. I swear it.
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May 15, 10:07 AM
On modelling for startups -- a warning?
(The sexy numbers kind, not the sexy photoshoot kind.)

Since my call on Wednesday, this has been on my mind more than usual. And, while I promised my call-mate that I wouldn't blog about our conversation, I imagine that jotting down some quick notes of what I've been thinking since then -- and a warning/disclaimer about the model in the Startup Toolkit -- are kosher.

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If you're not going to read the whole post, read this

A model isn't a quick-fix solution to your problems. It's the entrepreneur's job to turn the model's projections into reality or, failing that, tweak the model using the data they generate to a more realistic (though still profitable) version.

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What modelling is

Financial modelling -- as with all modelling -- is an attempt to predict the future. It's a business' crystal ball: the ability to understand how, with variables X, Y, and Z, you end up with N users and P profit.

At its best, a model is able to quickly run through a number of easily manipulatable variables to help you make decisions. For example, at a certain price point and an "industry standard" 1% free-to-pay conversion rate, how much is each new user worth? Or, at a $0.60 cost-of-service per user and $250 spread across two paid user acquisition campaigns, how many users do you need to become profitable?

The good news is that this is a hugely successful practice in traditional industries: Apple is able to set realistic projections they can often beat. EMI is able to model new releases' expected demand and properly set price points. Boeing is able to determine the most efficient wing-shape for their planes.

The bad news is that all of the above examples rely on one of three things, all of which I'm almost certain your startup doesn't have:
1. Years of company-specific and industry-specific data.
2. Scientific and natural truisms (ex: airflow and friction).
3. A deep understanding of their team's dynamics.
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What (I believe) modelling *is not* for startups

I may draw some heat for saying this, but I think that modelling for startups has little to no predictive capabilities. The variables going into 90% of startups are way too volatile, unpredictable, and impossible to efficiently affect.

That's not to say that modelling -- especially growth and financial modelling -- is a waste of your time. It's been incredibly valuable for me, and I can only imagine that it will be more useful as users actually start flocking in (sidebar: really soon!).

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What (I believe) modelling *is* for startups

Modelling for startups is incredibly useful for two things, particularly pre-launch:
Setting measurable goals.

Projecting potential scenarios.

Without some framework to guide you, any goals you set (user growth, revenue, etc.) are wild and unpredictable. Believe you me, I know: when I first tried to set these goals, I pulled numbers from my head. They had no real rhyme or reason to them, and when I plugged them into a graphing program, the growth rate was erratic -- not what you want when you're trying to develop a self-sustaining viral loop and funnel.

Moreover, when I plugged these numbers into a (fairly optimistic) guess about the future reality, YouPhonics would still have been bleeding money after 2 years. This is when I realized I needed help and sought out a template. Andrew's served me well, and my tweaks quelled some fears I had about it (which he had acknowledged in his original post).

After playing around with the model, I found some optimal -- and somewhat realistic -- variables to set as my goals. As a side-effect, I also had buckets in which to measure them and compare reality to my goal. This would help me visually understand where my efforts are working and where they aren't.

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A warning

As Public Enemy once said, Don't Believe The Hype.

Just because your model says your growth rate is at 40% and your retaining users at 80% doesn't make it true.

It will take your blood, sweat, and tears (not to mention sleep!) in order to turn these numbers into reality. And even then, you may not make it.

Check out what happens if your growth rate, carrying capacity, and free-to-pay conversion get slashed by 75%. And if 100% of your users go to your lowest-priced option. Do you still have a viable business? Or is it close enough to one to merit small tweaks to your strategy instead of a full pivot?

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Okay. Now that you understand the benefits and shortcomings of modelling startup growth, you should go check out the Startup Toolkit if you haven't yet by clicking here.
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Aidan Nulman

Founder at Youphonics

Entertainment | Toronto, Canada Area, CA

Since I started my first band when I was 8 years old, I've been trying to figure out how I can make a positive difference in the ever-changing entertainment industry.

When not working on Youphonics (ha!), I spend my time consuming any knowledge I can find, writing about my experiences, snowboarding, and trying my hand at whatever interests me.

For example, the Montreal event promotion group I co-founded quickly became the resident promoters for the club night voted "Best Weekly" in the Montreal Mirror's Best of 2008 poll. After slowly phasing myself out (due to living in a different city), the group has gone on to win that category in the Best of 2009 as well.

The musical theatre company I joined as Producer -- before even knowing what a Producer does -- was in the red before I came on board; I brought them into the black, and was voted in for a second term.

The entertainment world is changing (ain't it always?)... this time, I'm ready for it and tackling this wave head-on.

Are you looking forward to what's coming? I sure am.

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Aidan Nulman

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Founder / Youphonics

Lead Producer / UC Follies

Literary & Creative Arts Commissioner; Representative / UC Lit

Partner / HGHLY TGGBL

Office Assistant / D-CODE

Programming Assistant / Just For Laughs

Gala Host PA / Just For Laughs

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University of Toronto

University of Toronto - University College

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