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April 12, 11:27 AM
I went to my first-ever #LeanCoffeeTO this morning*, and it was, without a doubt, one of the most productive and meaningful startup-related conversations I've ever had the pleasure to be involved in. So, before I get into my thoughts, I should probably thank "The Leadership Team," and especially Mark Reale, who was the catalyst for my finally attending a session.
If anyone from this morning's meetup is reading, I'm sorry most of these notes are focused on my interpretations, not your situations. Since I'm new to the discussion, I found it easier to make sense of the back-and-forth by relating it to my own mental models and situations I've experienced.
1. Thought: Lean == CBT, not anti-depressants
There was a lot of talk in the beginning about the "science" of lean, and whether or not it could reliably produce results. This sparked my first meaningful thought of the morning: that lean is a process that must be followed, not a pill that will solve everything.
People who are diagnosed with Major Depression tend to be prescribed at least one of two solutions: engage in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or something modelled after it, and/or take some anti-depressants. The former is a lengthy process that trains you to recognize your thoughts for what they are and disengage from your self-destructive habits. The latter is a pill that you pop.
Neither CBT nor anti-depressants are 100% successful, but I imagine that sustained effort in CBT (beyond a 12-week program) trends towards it, while continuing to take unresponsive drugs just doesn't. Further, CBT definitely protects against relapse much more than anti-depressants do.
Coming back to lean: it's a process. It's not 100% successful off the bat. But if you earnestly keep at it, you'll likely end up hitting your goals; you'll also be better protected against costly mistakes. If you see it as a magic pill, you're doing it wrong.
2. Customer development is a subset of user development
Adil, from My City Lives, subtly introduced the decoupling of these concepts. He's optimizing his current product for its users, as they're pursuing a two-sided business model.
In most cases, customer development is ideal: you want to find the people who will pay you for a product, then build the product to their specs to minimize waste. But two-sided business models – where users and/or their contributions are the valuable pieces (ex: Facebook, YouTube, Wordpress) – need to focus on the user first, since the only way to generate the value is to satisfy the users.
There is one caveat: a two-sided business that engages in user development before validating at least one way to derive value from the user base is ludicrous. I'm reminded of a friend who recently sold his startup – which still hadn't shipped product, but had secured and organized scarce resources – because he had engaged with many of the markets that could derive value from what he was building, and knew how to spin his user-centric product for them.
With the decoupling established, I started seeing customer development as a specific form of user development. With user development, you're trying to figure out how you can deliver value to your users. With customer development, you're trying to figure out what value you need to deliver in order to get paid.
Thinking of customers simply as transactions has always seemed self-destructive to me. Instead, focusing on them as a specific – and, without a doubt, the most important – subset of "users you bring smiles to" is a much more natural way for me to think.
3. Generating assumptions != validating assumptions
I had always considered "the problem interview" to be more of a validation process than a generation process, but I realize now I was mistaken. You don't have to go into a meeting with a clear enough idea of the product, then try to pivot around it. In fact, in the early stages, I realize now how self-destructive that can be.
Instead, Cameron and Max from Big Bang Technology gave a beautiful and concise description of the two possible interviews you could have:
- Problem interviews to generate assumptions. In these, you learn about a customer**'s existing behaviours and assumptions. The goal is to supplement all of your readings about a market segment and develop a full mental model of your customer.
- Solution interviews to validate assumptions. In these, you discuss your hypotheses (and maybe mockups/early prototypes) of your proposed solution with customers. The goal is initially to figure out what the end looks like, and becomes a process of correcting course as you approach it.
4. Market focus --> product focus --> market focus
Someone in the group was talking about scheduling software he was building for a specific niche. I stumbled across my words in an attempt to phrase the "Have you determined that this is the optimal niche for you? And if so, how did you do it?" question. Cameron rightly called me out that this comes from seeing elements of Moore's Crossing the Chasm (affiliate link) in case studies I've read and heard.
The conversation evolved into a "you need to pick a niche" talk, which is an element of what I was trying to get at, but not the question itself. Luckily (for me), someone whose name I didn't catch really clarified the two processes involved: market focus and product focus.
This guy stated that some people build lean companies with a product focus (product is king, how do we optimize our product for our customers?) while others take a market focus (markets are king, which market has an interesting and valuable problem for me to solve?).
What I've been coming to believe recently is that the strongest companies will first take a market focus to find a problem, then turn to a product focus to establish what the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) looks like, then turn back to market focus to test whether their niche is the optimal one.
The process would look something like this:
- Market focus. Talk to a bunch of markets: Fortune 500 IT directors, factory floor managers, concert promoters... basically, anyone you can get your hands on. Find a problem one of them would pay you to solve that you believe you can solve. Confirm with some other members of the niche.
- Product focus. Talk to your contacts in the niche, and maybe others like them. Find out what the MVP looks like, so you can start building. In an ideal world, build modularly.
- Market focus. While building, get back into exploring niches. Find out if any of them suffer from the same problem, and if the solution is even more valuable to them. For example, the factory floor managers may be willing to pay $10,000/year for your product, whereas the concert promoters who initially gave you the idea are only worth $5,000/year. You may have to shift your MVP a bit, but the difference in value generation should pay off handsomely.
The value in this approach prevents you from hitting local maxima, or from ignoring larger markets. You can eventually build the concert promoters' $5,000/year application if you want to, and chances are that that market shift would be a little easier to handle. Especially with all that extra cash...
5. How important is customer development after customers are engaged?
I don't have an example or a framework for this one yet, so this is going to be a little conceptual. Feel free to skip if that's not your bag.
At the end of the meeting, Mark pointed out that the group hasn't had a vision/re-orientation discussion in a while, and that it's about the time they assumed it would be beneficial to have such a discussion (it would be the group's third). Ultimately, the attendees thought that things were still going smoothly, so they didn't really need to.
Honestly, this struck me as a hypocritical approach: if customer validation is one of the pillars of lean, and these guys are the group's customers... why wouldn't they continue to ensure they're on the right track? Why wouldn't the group review its learnings from the past couple of months, and try to figure out what milestones they hit, and what the next few months should bring?
More broadly, how intent should a company be on check-ins with its customers? Obviously, you want to prove that you're generating value for them, however you do it. But once that value is established, should you continue checking in, even if all signs point to yes?
Not having these types of discussions in "the good times" seems like another contributor to hitting local maxima, and to the flatlining of a great company or product's growth. The best analogy I have is meditation: research into meditation's effects on well-being have shown that its effects directly correlate with a regular habit; this is why people are encouraged to practice regularly, not just when they're feeling good.
6. Conclusion
This was a long post, so thank you for making it this far. Since you've made it down here, I have a couple of questions for you:
- What am I wrong about?
- Was this interesting? If so, which of the above points would you like me to expand upon?
- Have you been thinking similar things? If so, what are your thoughts?
- If I write this type of content in the future, should I split it into different posts, or compile them as they are here? (Note: assume the actual content is exactly the same.)
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*Admittedly, I did pass through for the last 10 minutes of a session a few weeks ago. But this was my first time for the full shebang.
**I used "customer" in this section to keep the talk relevant to current discussions. Obviously, these apply to user development, too. But let's see if that idea sticks, first...
April 01, 06:08 PM
The TL;DR Summary
To paraphrase The Rock: "Know your goals and shut your mouth."
The Pre-Show
Yesterday, I had the pleasure to attend AccelerateMTL. I wasn't a speaker. I wasn't in the running for the CIX Accelerator. I wasn't one of the conference organizers, nor is my company part of their portfolios. I didn't even have a big announcement to share (yet).
Even though I knew a sizable chunk of the folks in the room... I wouldn't be able to get the introductions I wanted, or the follow-up conversations I needed, unless I stood out.
So I did what any entrepreneur with some gumption would do: I wrote down my goals:
- To get at least 2, but preferably all 3, of the keynote speakers to call me over to chat.
- To enhance every attendee's experience at the event (as I wanted to be asked to follow up with most of the organizers)
Thinking about these two goals, I remembered a lesson I learned back when I promoted nightlife events in Montreal: everyone loves a good ego-stroke. (Also known as the "all great parties have a party photographer" rule.)
Then I remembered my 2010 Halloween costume, and how people loved taking photos with me. In fact, the costume is currently hanging on a wall at a friend's office, where people still occasionally pose with/next to it!
The Game-Day
Eureka. Who wouldn't love to take surreal photos with Brad Feld, Dave McClure, and Howard Lindzon? (Answer: very few people.)
Something this weird needs a partner to pull it off. So major thanks go out to David Chouinard, from TEDxConcordia, who was instrumental in pulling this all together. The conference was amazing, and speakers like Tara Hunt and Lenny Rachitsky (among others) are still seeing tons of love. So do yourself a favour: check out TEDxConcordia, and follow the guy.
A bunch of photographers also helped little ol' smartphone-less me. Thanks a ton Jordan, Jonas, Robin, Karam, Lino, and Satish!
The Results
As you saw in the gallery above, we got a ton of great shots. And made people smile!
There were also a bunch of tweets and retweets, extending the experience's reach beyond the venue's walls.
And when it comes down to work?
- After their Q&A sesh (during which we wore the masks in the second row), Dave and Howard called us over to laugh and say hi.
- The conference organizers laughed, let us hang a 2'x4' poster* in the venue, and many invited me to catch them up on what's new on these fronts.
The Lesson
Know your goals and shut your mouth. It's not sexy to speak to a "lowly" attendee. So get sexy, not chatty.
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*Thanks a thousand for the design, Affan!
January 24, 07:43 PM
The History
Last September, after working on YouPhonics for 9-11 months (depending on where you put the start point), I decided to continue pursuing my Bachelor's degree. Most Some people called me crazy, but I had my reasons.
No, I didn't stop working on my startup; instead, I enrolled in only two courses – both of which could be applied to aspects of my business.
What I wasn't expecting, however, was the workload. Yes, I knew there would be coursework. And yes, I knew that YouPhonics demanded my time and attention. As did Cronyizm (more on that when I talk about coding), and a few other programs/opportunities I was pursuing. Not to mention some volunteer work.
Within a month, I was drowning. There weren't enough hours in the day to do anything. Some nights, I couldn't sleep – there was way too much work that had gotten ahead of me, and none of my systems could deal with it. Only one friend knows about this, but for an hour in the wee hours of some December night/morning, I was thinking about suicide. (Don't worry, I'm okay.)
I had tried GTD. Inbox Zero. Tested Pomodoro. Basecamp. Making a ToDo.txt. Writing this blog. Seriously – nothing was sticking. Somehow, I managed to ride out that wave, but I knew that, come January, I'd need a new solution.
So last night, I tried something new: meticulously scheduling every minute of my day.
And holy shit: today has been my most productive day in well over a year.
The Schedule
Here's a rough sample of what today's schedule looked like:
- 7AM - 8:30AM // Wake up, shower, leave (bring gym clothes)
- 8:30AM - 9AM // Transit
- 9AM - 10AM // Workout + rinse-down (try kettle-bell swings)
- 10AM - 11AM // Readings for PSY322
- 11AM - 11:15AM // Chat with Doug re: radio opportunity
- 11:15AM - 12:15PM // Answer backlog of emails (notable: SR&ED credits)
- 12:15PM - 12:30PM // Check RSS
- 12:30PM - 1:30PM // Lunch (Ravisoups?)
- 1:30PM - 2PM // Play!
- 2PM - 2:30PM // Write + send Cronyizm email
- 2:30PM - 4PM // Move sales + recruitment prospects forward. If leftover time, do technical research
- 4PM - 5PM // Read "Selling to Big Companies" (book)
- 5PM - 5:30PM // Transit
- 5:30PM - 6:30PM // Lessons in Rosetta Stone (Japanese)
- 6:30PM - 7PM // Play!
- 7PM - 7:15PM // Check RSS
- 7:15PM - 8PM // Read saved articles + watch TED <-- I read articles on transit, and thus am now blogging
- 8PM - 10PM // Drive back to campus for dinner + visiting UC Follies rehearsal
- 10PM - 11:30PM // Carlos' birthday. Leave no later than 11:30.
- 11:30PM - 11:50PM // Drive home
- 11:50PM - 12AM // Wash up
- 12AM - 12:30AM // Chat with friends OR read "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"
- 12:30AM - 7:30AM // Sleep
There were a few things in here that got shifted. Notably, because of logistics, the workout ended up only being for 30 minutes, and I had to move my planned "Get pants hemmed" to tomorrow, because the tailor needed to leave before the time I had scheduled for him.
Still, all in all, I made more significant progress towards my goals today than I have... umm... in a single day ever?
- Spent 30 more minutes in the gym than all of 2010 combined
- Read (and lightly critiqued) two academic papers
- Did research for (and will soon say howdy to) the student theatre company that helped turn me into who I am
- Took the next step towards getting ~$25K back into my company
- Talked with a friend I didn't know well enough for 90 minutes!
- Maintained Cronyizm
- Improved relations with sales and co-founder prospects (which will hopefully bring in 6-figure contracts and boost morale/productivity)
- Am now 3 lessons into my goal of learning a new language (want to broaden my thinking)
The Conclusion
Admittedly, this is the effects from one day, not yet a pattern. And yes, there are definitely improvements to be made; I should have planned the tailor out better, and the transit times were just a bit off (I forgot to factor in walking to AND from the subway stations).
What's important, though: this day has already been more productive (and, surprisingly, more pleasant) than any given day last semester. If these effects can be replicated even once a week – which I'm sure they can – I'm already in way better shape.
I'll check in next week to let y'alls know if the claim held true.
January 24, 07:13 PM
Wow. It's been a while.
I could apologize for the lack of posts, but I'm not sorry. I got kind of burned out from stuff (the specifics will remain fodder for coming posts), and what was supposed to be a school project (a study of daily blogging as a productivity/happiness tool, using this very own blog) ended up not happening.
So, for your benefit and mine, I'm writing this post separately. It's probably only worth it for my subscribers/Twitter followers, and for my own reference when I come back in a week, realizing that I've forgotten the urgency of the major lessons this past year has taught me.
This blog is taking an overhaul. No longer will it be a daily to-do list. Instead, I'm going to post less often (no more than thrice/week), and I'm going to be more insightful in doing so. Hopefully, you readers will get a lot more value out of it. I'll definitely benefit from the discussion/venting.
Topics we're going to run in the very near-future:
- Scheduling's effects on productivity
- Why B2C and B2B just don't fit
- The myth of "LAZOR FOCUS"
- Reminder: out-hustle your competition
- "Why you need to learn to code," or "thinking like your computer"
But the general shift is more conversational. Fuck this noise. Time to signal.
WARNING! INCOMING GAME!
September 27, 04:59 PM
There's just a little something going down, which is barring me from blogging for at least another week, possibly two more.
But I'm coming back.
And, as you begin to speculate, the news is only latently sexy. You'll understand soon...
August 31, 01:05 AM
Soooo funny story -- last week, Tuesday was a nice full day of work. As was Wednesday. Then, my internet decided to cut out on Thursday, which meant that roughly half of it was spent on the phone with Videotron, the other half spent doing non-internet-based stuff (which had a pretty limited queue). Friday was the same. But frankly, by the end of Thursday, with little progress having been made anywhere (the internet was still down), I was pretty demoralized, which probably lent to the do-little of Friday.
Fortunately, the weekend away at Bitnorth completely recharged me. It was the perfect cap to the insanity of travelling that just happened -- 48 laid-back hours, where every attendee had to contribute/present somehow. Imagine some sort of TED/Foocamp/Ignite-like event, but organized like a pot luck.
I presented, as I mentioned before, on Music & Community.It ended up being a 10-minute "chat," in which I just told a collection of short stories of my growth as a music-lover over the years, and tied it all back to three simple lessons:
- Build for experiences -- especially *shared* experiences -- not just consumption.
- Let your fans grow on.
- No one should ever want to sleep with me.
Hopefully, I'll get to share the talk soon, as I know it was filmed. Other awesome highlights that immediately come to mind were "Your Dog Isn't Cute, It's Inbred," Ilana's presentation on her new toy from Twonicorn Toys, Alistair's clear love for his daughter in "Tablets vs. Unions," Sean's brutal honesty in his Q&A on what it's like to have been adopted, Jonathan's history of the fall of the Incas, Rocio's tamales, Mrs. Alex's icebreakers... okay, there was a lot of greatness. And a lot of great people.
Today was spent pretty much equally catching up on the 5 or 6 days of internet-less-ness (which included finding a hiring lead! Maybe I won't have to post this job after all) and writing an awesome proposal. Tomorrow will be chock-full of administrative goodness, finishing this proposal, and starting a quick summary of some thoughts I've been having to send to a lady who will hopefully become a mentor/friend/maybe-even-advisor. 'Cuz she's awesome.
Okay, it's late, and I've got an interview in the morning. Time to close this off with something familiar...
(P.S. What do you think of this new tone? Obviously, I'll have more intelligent things to say in the future, but writing this didn't feel at all like writing my past fairly-information/opinion-less posts...)
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Actually, hold on. While writing the "Lessons learned" bit below, I flashed back to the stark contrast of how I felt Thursday to how I felt on Saturday through today. Let me explain...
On Thursday, as I saw the work I had hoped to finish by the end of the week get pushed yet again due to external-though-related-to-me circumstances, I was demoralized. No, this ain't news -- I mentioned that above. But what I didn't explain was the extent of my demoralization.
I felt like things were stuck in a standstill. The reality of the previous 30-odd days hit me, and hit me hard: there was little in the way of objective milestones that I could proudly show off. It felt like nothing had been done, nothing had been tried, and worst of all, nothing would ever get done. I had used the saying "I've hit a brick wall" before, but that was the first time I truly, deeply felt it.
Going into Bitnorth, I was still kind of down. I don't even think Bryan, Julie, or Ray knew it when I got in the car, but I was doubting YouPhonics, doubting my resolve as an entrepreneur, doubting the assumptions I made.
I remember thinking to myself: "Shit. I've got this presentation to do, one that I still need to write, that's tangentially linked to my company. And I feel like crap about YouPhonics. What should I be doing here?"
In the end, I decided to sit and wait. I ate dinner, met new people. I laughed in the icebreaker games we played. I got all charged up on the experience.
And that's when it hit me: the togetherness I was feeling fit perfectly with the theme of "Music and Community." And, moreover, it gelled with a conversation I've been having more and more lately -- about the "generative" cycle (concisely, a positive feedback loop through Web 2.0 principles) and the fact that music is the only art form you can consume entirely passively.
Thinking of this made me remember a question Deepak Chopra asked in his book Secrets. I can't remember it verbatim, but it was something like "When you're searching for meaning, ask yourself what you think of before you go to sleep at night, and what you think of when you first wake up in the morning." Well, I had my answer. And it was this idea that powered YouPhonics.
In that moment, the answer to my conundrum was clear: YouPhonics wasn't a company or a product to me anymore. YouPhonics embodied -- embodies -- my passion, and exists to explore the questions I keep asking myself.
The next morning, I woke up, listened to people's presentations, and figured out the narrative arc for my own. And now that I'm back home... well, I'm ready for action, baby.
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Lessons learned:
- For the love of God, NEVER AGAIN set so much travel time so close together.
- It's okay to be down. It's okay to regret. If it's too deep, don't try to power through... get back to your rootsl
- Apparently, I have more in me when I'm tired then I realize. Who'd'a thunk it.
Tomorrow's homework:
- Deal with the administrative stuff -- mainly the interview and the bank.
- Hiring! Chat with S, then make a gut decision on whether or not to post the job anyway (we're looking for a technical "cofounder"... experience is neato, a clear passion for music and a fun-but-reflective outlook on life is a must, and you can live wherever, though Montreal/Toronto/NYC is best).
- Get this proposal out the door, and hopefully that one-pager too.
- Respond to the comments on GetSatisfaction.
- Follow up with AK about the questions I had on his recent estimate.
August 23, 10:24 PM
Okay, that was a bust. The weekend was filled with helping my parents prep for their move, and Monday was spent doing a bit of work, napping off some of the sleep debt that remained from SF/Toronto, and packing for Vancouver. Then, thrust into conference-time I was!
Today went well. Super-short post. Sorry for the lack of, y'know, substance? Spent the day writing thank you notes (handwritten and emails), catching up on a giant backlog of emails and invitations, as well as preparing some of my old stuff for an impending move.
Tomorrow's tasks include, in no particular order:
- Preparing more stuff for my impending move. (2 hours, maximum)
- Finalizing my presentation for this weekend's Bitnorth thingie (I'm presenting for 5 minutes on Music & Community!)
- Responding to the remaining couple of things in my inboxes (both email and short/medium task inboxes)
If I can get those three things done tomorrow and free up Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for pursuing more sales opportunities and recruiting, I will be super-happy.
(Oh, and I need to double-check and greenlight a bit of development, too. Can't forget that one...)
Again, sorry for the odd post. It's just been one of those non-stop, 14+ hour days by this point. Of which at least 10.5 were spent glued to this screen. Yuck.
August 13, 08:29 PM
Hoooooooo Lee.
Regular (or, at this point, formerly-regular) readers of this blog know that I'm terrible at updating while I'm on travels. Well, I just spent 24 out of the last 27 days out of town.
"But wait," you say, "that only takes us back to the 18th! Your last post was on July 9th!"
True that. But the week of the 12th was also the primetime of the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. And people who know me know that I have very close ties with said festival. So any non-working time was spent either at shows, or reuniting with ye olde family at the Hyatt bar. Which didn't leave much time for nightly self-reflection (who'd'a thunk it?).
BUT I'M BACK!
(Not quite. On a train at the moment. But we're ~20 minutes out of Montreal's Central Station. Which means I'll likely be posting this just as we pull in...)
"What have you been doing, Aidan? Where have you been?"
More good questions. In the interest of brevity, I'm'a post this in bullet points. It will likely still be long. And not at all comprehensive.
- July 12-17: Montreal, Just For Laughs
- Took Robin Ahn to see John Leguizamo. 'Twas a splendid affair!
- Went with three friends -- one of whom recently left to Zambia for a worthy cause and is blogging about it here -- to see Noel Fielding, then to the Hyatt.
- Organized an event for Montreal's under-30 entrepreneurs. We had an awesome time and a nice turnout at Kenny vs. Spenny, then at Benelux, then at the Hyatt. And I was super-humbled at a special entrepreneurial celebrity's guest appearance!
- Took Jeff Talajic to "A Late Afternoon With Kevin Smith." And afterward, he taught me a bit about harnessing the power of Google Analytics! Woot.
- Went with my brother to see Steve Martin. We even got to meet him!
- July 18-24: NYC, New Music Seminar
- Thanks go to the amazing David Chaitt -- and his awesome roommates -- for hosting me :)
- Hung out a bunch with Dave and Landon, particularly at the New Music Seminar
- Got to chat -- for nearly 2 hours! -- with the infamous Nikke Slight
- Met with some of the lovely folks at Indaba about how we can work together and use our respective takes on online collaboration to enhance the current ecosystem.
- After a meeting was postponed, I managed to spend a full day working! Imagine that.
- Saw some awesome bands, and missed out on a Brooklyn Bowl experience because the wait was ridiculous.
- Caught up with Arkadiy! It had been ages.
- July 25-27: Montreal
- July 28-Aug 2: Toronto, meetings + fun
- Thank you, Zac, for letting me sleep on your couch yet again. Your parents are slowly becoming mine :)
- Met with an awesome label rep about using YouPhonics for an artists' upcoming album -- note to self, need to follow up!
- Met with some peeps about SR&ED credit applications. 'Cuz apparently what I've been doing is applicable to get 42% of my development costs back from the government! Imagine that...
- Met Oleg Kostour and spent pretty much the entire day with him -- including a meeting with Jeff Anders -- because he's an awesome, awesome guy. No joke -- we planned a lunch at noon, and only ended up splitting around 10PM.
- Chatted with Alkarim and Logan (two of the folks at BNOTIONS, my developers) about a couple of enhancements YouPhonics needs before we blow the doors wide open.
- Saw off two friends -- independently -- who were leaving to England shortly (in fact, one has already).
- Spent an entire day with only three people, in ~4 hour increments each. The breadth and depth of the conversations was fantastic, so thanks Zac, Caitlin, and Frieda!
- Had a call with Tom Silverman about using YouPhonics with some artists' promotions -- note to self, need to follow up!
- Met up with Gabriel Nijmeh for drinks... which was supposed to be 2 hours, but ended up being 4 (in a very good way).
- Aug 3-10: San Francisco, meetings + fun
- MUCHOS gracias to Andrey (and Tracy) for putting me up (and putting up with me) while I was around! They move me.
- Virgin America (and Klout) gave me a free trip! So I went with a group of 10 others (who also had the trip), and met up with 4 other Toronto-ites down there. #ryanginger for life.
- Met with James from Atomic PR about PR, music, and where YouPhonics needs to be in order to make use of his company's services. Within the first 3 minutes, it was clear that Atomic -- and James in particular -- are great people.
- Went to the KloutUp and met the amazingnesses that are Megan Berry and Gregarious Narain (among many other awesome folks).
- Had hilarious post-KloutUp shenanigans with Satish, Verne, Jon, Jo, and Ben.
- Missed a chance to meet Debbie Landa -- note to self: need to send her an apology note, now that I have freedom to think -- because deadline'd work had piled up.
- Went to see Phish with 7 of the guys.
- Random road trip to Santa Cruz with Alkarim, Mark, and Guy. AMAZING.
- Spent a day recuperating and working. Huzzah!
- Asked a couple of questions re: a job I may soon be interviewing for (don't worry, it's very relevant to YouPhonics, and they won't be angry if I spend my spare time working on my baby).
- Was interviewed for Hwanho's Masters thesis on Social Media + Music. 'Twas amazing.
- Got to chat with Andrew Chen and David Hornik about their histories, what they're up to now (and/or what's exciting them these days), and what I'm up to. I felt stupid for not having anything really to ask of them, but I just wanted to meet them and hopefully start a friendly relationship. Plus, why spend favours while growth and progress are more or less on track?
- Aug 11-13: Toronto, meetings + fun
- Caught up on email on the flight back! HUZZAH!
- Met Noah Godfrey for an hour-long chat. Him and Jeff Anders give me such faith in the Canadian web-entrepreneurial scene. They also set the bar nice and high for what success should look like. #mushyfeelings
- Had a call with the always-splendid Mark Macleod -- note to self: I have a question to ask him that I forgot to pop yesterday. Email! -- about where I'm at with YouPhonics, and where him and the gang are at with Real Ventures.
- Mike Krass interviewed me for his Anti-Resume Blog! Two pieces were recorded, and one's already up at Mike Krass Dot Com. Check it! (There may even be a third one on the way...)
- Caught up with my old roommate and Zac over lunch before rushing to the train station to get home!
- Aug 13: Montreal, back to work
- Well, not tonight. Going to chat with my brother for a bit, then head out to see my friends (many of whom just returned from Europe!) and spend time with Rebecca, ze birthday girl.
- Work on Monday, Vancouver on Tuesday!
I'll try to post some actual thoughts this weekend. And a to-do list. :)
July 21, 10:09 PM
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 :)
July 10, 02:36 AM
Ye olde homework:
- 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.
- Start preparing the tutorial video we'll be recording -- script it out so the flow is right, and rehearse it.
---
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:
- People will always critique. Triangulate the advice between multiple sources, and see how it fits with you.
- Sitting back and looking at the high-level stuff is so satisfying after months of near-gruntwork.
- I'm tired of writing and need to leave my house!
Weekend homework:
- 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.
- Invite friends! They've been neglected for too long.
- Start scripting the video.
- 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.)
July 07, 12:46 AM
Ye olde homework:
- Continue sending invites: first to the three potential partners, then to friends.
- Play along with Andrew and/or Max and/or someone else (at least one, the rest on the weekend!).
- 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:
- Grow YouPhonics as a platform, by getting people to come play along with us.
- Recruit some awesome talent.
- Test for broken user flows, and design their fixes.
- Woo some awesome advisors.
- 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:
- Take a breath.
- Don't forget to exhale.
- Repeat.
Tomorrow's homework:
- 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.
- Start preparing the tutorial video we'll be recording -- script it out so the flow is right, and rehearse it.
July 01, 09:53 PM
Ye olde homework:
- 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).
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- I was interviewed for another blog post -- again, with one of the blogs I actually read regularly.
- Friends (and parents) were immensely supportive -- I even got a message from an old, childhood friend I haven't seen in years.
- I got to eat a homemade lunch with my Mother and Brother, since I was working from home.
- I got to play with my dogs for 20 minutes.
- 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!
- We finally got to announce the local 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 event I've been planning.
- Two meetings were confirmed with people I've been really hoping to sit down with.
- 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:
- Awesomeness begets awesomeness.
- I was a much better writer than I gave myself credit for.
- The emails... they just don't stop!
Tomorrow's homework:
June 24, 01:12 AM
Ye olde homework:
- Deal with what remains of today's email.
- Do all ASAP actions from the Marketing Plan (includes 39 emails, plus-plus!).
- Start working on Canadian Media Fund funding application.
- 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:
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:
- Lemons can -- and must if at all possible -- be turned into lemonade.
- Being friendly and genuine makes it much easier to be talked about.
- 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:
- 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).
- Finish 80% of the press kit.
June 23, 12:04 AM
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.
June 21, 11:54 PM
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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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:
- Go listen to The Beatles' "With A Little Help From My Friends."
- 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:
- Marketing plans can take a while. But they're so necessary before you take action.
- Reading is nice.
- I love my team!
Tomorrow's homework:
- Deal with what remains of today's email.
- Do all ASAP actions from the Marketing Plan (includes 39 emails, plus-plus!).
- Start working on Canadian Media Fund funding application.
- Make changes to Pitch Deck so's I'm ready for Wednesday's meeting!
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS!
June 21, 12:03 PM
Ye olde 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.
---
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.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
---
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.
June 14, 01:21 AM
- 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.
---
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:
- Family rules.
- Reading rules.
- 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.
June 11, 11:44 PM
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!
---
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.
June 11, 06:02 PM
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.
June 05, 01:16 AM
Yesterday's homework:
- Draft (and possibly send) Step 1 of the Fundraising Blitz!
- Deal with any NXNE/launch party stuff that comes up.
- 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?
- 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:
- Serendipity rocks.
- Charitable organizations really like it when events donate money to them.
- 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.
Profile
Summary
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.
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.
Specialties: Creative thinking, guerrilla marketing, basic programming, raising funds, budgeting, team management.
Experience
- 2011 - PresentCo-Founder, CEO / Winston, Inc.
- Sept 2009 - Jan 2011Founder / YouPhonicsYouphonics makes it easy for musicians to write together, regardless of where they are... or when they can sit down to write.
Off to a slow start in September 2009, management, design, and development have all been confirmed, hired, and are plugging along at full speed. as of January 2009.
Keep your eye on the space, and message me if you want access to the private alpha! - 2007 - Sept 2009Lead Producer / UC FolliesJoining on a whim, I quickly found myself overseeing the Follies' 2007 production of Cabaret. I worked with and coordinated teams to handle the show's publicity, backstage personnel, and fundraising efforts.
After I helped bring the company back into the black from a nearly $3000 debt (about 10% of our operating budget), I decided to stay on, and was voted in for another year. Get ready for Urinetown! - Jun 2008 - Jan 2009Partner / HGHLY TGGBLWhat started as a hobby quickly became a job. I spent the summer of 2008 working on DJ nights and club parties in Montreal. By the end of August, my partners and I were asked to become the resident promoters for The Fix at Coda, the recurring night voted "Best Weekly" in the Montreal Mirror's Best of 2008 poll.
While most of our efforts are focused on continuing The Fix's tradition of excellence, we also spend time working on other events in Montreal, and are starting to branch out into Toronto. - Sept 2006 - Aug 2007Office Assistant / D-CODESure, the title isn't glamorous, but the work was fun.
People can get hostile when their favourite pen seems to have been stolen by the guy or girl at the next desk over. With that in mind, I helped maintain a healthy office environment, with enough pens, paper clips, and other supplies to go around.
On top of that, I worked on a number of projects (local, national, and international) that studied topics ranging from youth media usage to marketing campaigns' effectiveness.
I won't tell you what I found (it's fairly top secret), but I might be able to help you find out what you need to know... - Jun 2006 - Jul 2006Programming Assistant / Just For LaughsAfter three (underage) years in the back of one of the only all-ages venues, I was finally unleashed to the rest of the Fest.
Over the course of six weeks, I helped coordinate much of the Festival's indoor (and some outdoor) programming. I also got the opportunity to sign acts for two shows with confidential line-ups.
Meanwhile, I think my coup de grâce at the Festival lay in preparing welcome packages for artists. Normally a long and tedious job (easily 30+ hours), I spent 15 hours or so writing a macro to do it for me (and for others in coming years). - 2003 - 2005Gala Host PA / Just For LaughsSince they couldn't legally let me into most of the clubs where the shows were happening, I was relegated for three summers to the backstage of the St. Denis theatre.
While there, I ensured that all gala performers (though particularly the high profile hosts, like Tina Fey, Tim Allen, and Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood) were treated well backstage.
Education
-
2006 - 2011University of Toronto - University CollegeBachelor of Arts & Science in Psychology, Cinema StudiesActivities: University College Literary & Athletics Society, UC Follies (theatre), Cody House, Orientation Week
- Akiva
- Dawson College
- St. George's
Additional Information
Websites:
Interests:
Snowboarding, music, art, creativity, technology, marketing, entertainment, film
Updates
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@drowning_in Scott StaphInfection
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@photojunkie @oytamarind Did anyone have to do Bob Dylan's Rainy Day Women?
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@drowning_in Girl, you took me higher. To a place where blind men see. #shotgunkaraoke
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@CapnAllegra it's funny cuz I'm Jewish. #shotgunkaraoke
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@oytamarind has aides. #mockbrad
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@seanward I don't know him. But sounds awesome. :)
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@seanward Nice! Who from E&Y?
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I insist you fund my friend @colinmarshall's Kickstarter. Launched today, so close to the goal! Get in early. http://t.co/D616sR2p
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@Affan Ask me for donut hole?
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@Affan Don't ass a beehole.
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True story RT @CapnAllegra: @anulman @Affan I once pretended my name was Affan so that I could accompany Aidan on an AGO date.
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@Affan Holy crap. You're sort of right...
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@FanHelena Thanks, Helena! And we still need to hang out...
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@chris_long There's also my favourite website EVER, whorepresents.com
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Do you know how to host Quickbooks documents on a network server? If so, please help us! #Quickbooks support doesn't know what that means.
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Just saw the hastag #foundersexchange for the first time. I'm sorry I read it that way...
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@rayluk Right around the corner! I'm so there.
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Huge congrats to @kunalfrompolar @marlonrodrigues @taraarobertson @mjrusso and the rest of @polarmobile on the huge MediaEverywhere news!
Recent tracks
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Casino Boogie by The Rolling Stones3 weeks ago
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Shake Your Hips by The Rolling Stones3 weeks ago
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Rip This Joint by The Rolling Stones3 weeks ago
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Rocks Off by The Rolling Stones3 weeks ago
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Sympathy For The Devil by The Rolling Stones3 weeks ago
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Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 by Bob Dylan4 weeks ago
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Immigraniada (Bassnectar Remix) by Gogol Bordello4 weeks ago
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Plugged In (Bassnectar Remix) by Rollz4 weeks ago
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Upside Down by Bassnectar4 weeks ago
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Black Walnut by Antlers4 weeks ago
Top artists
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