Startups & stuff.

I originally wrote this article for Launch48. For the original version please go to launch48.com.

A common question we get asked at Launch48 is,
“I’m not technical, what can I do?”

We thought it would be easier to write down a list of the key actions we think a non-technical team member can do during the Launch48 Weekends.

Refine the business plan.Where does your company fit in the market? Now is the time to do some major competitor analysis and find out what they are doing well and how you will beat them. Answering questions such as:

1. What is their value proposition?
2. What customer demographic are they targeting?
3. How have they tailored their product design and voice to this customer demographic?
4. What keywords do they target in their SEO?
5. How are we going to better the above?

We recommend using tools such as the business model canvas to help visualise your business plan.

Do some finances. A critical part of the formation of a startup is to understand what you are going to spend and when you will start to see money. All startups require a small amount of capital outlay. Use this time to work out what that will be and how the company will be able to pay for it.

Schmooze some investors. There will be active investors at Launch48. They are there because they want to find entrepreneurs to invest in, this is your time to show them you are that entrepreneur. Get to know all of the mentors and start to find out what they look for when investing in a startup, take this feedback and start to apply it to your startup.

Marketing & Sales. At the very least you want to have a plan of action, for the more pro-active person you will be finding initial customers and reaching out to them. The internet is a 24/7 entity, there will always be someone you want to communicate with on the net waiting for you to find them. If you are more sales focused you will be focusing on creating your sales hit list, preparing your sales pitch and materials and identifying your sales proposition.

Copywriting. There is a lot of copywriting to do and it is not the “interns” job. The written word is one of a startups most powerful tools, this is your chance to add credibility, form a first impression, and communicate your message, if you get this wrong then you won’t be seeing that visitor again. It’s not just the website that needs copy, you also need to focus on:

1. Welcome emails.
2. Presentations.
3. Sales materials and verbal pitches.
4. Linkedin / Facebook / Twitter bio’s.
5. Blog posts.

Product design. There is a huge amount of skill required to design a great product, however a novice can work on basic mockups and prototyping. You can reach for the pen and pad of paper (if you remember what they are) and start knocking up some basic page designs. You could even start to plan some A/B test of page designs.

Bond with your team. These are the people you could be spending a significant amount of time with. Working in a high pressure situation to achieve the goals you will be setting. You need to figure out if these are the people you want to do that with - it is not a bad thing if you figure out the answer is no, at least you found out early and gave it a go.

Have fun.

Not signed up for the London Launch48 Weekend between the 19th and 21st October? Visit london.launch48.com to sign up now.

I recently read The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki (it’s a great book by the way - you should read it) and came across a small section that is focused on sales that really resonated with me. 

It covers the process of talking to a sales prospect and the right way to move through that conversation: 

1. Crate a comfortable environment by asking permission to ask questions. 
2. Ask questions.
3. Listen to the answers.
4. Take notes.
5. Explain how your product or service fills their need - but only if it does. 

Reading this makes it sound simple to sell. Experience would prove otherwise, however I think by following this process you are going to make life a lot easier. 

A big part of my life at the minute is Sales / Business Development. It’s an area that I would say suits my personality; I like talking to people, I’m not afraid of putting across my point and I can talk to other humans without breaking out in a cold sweat. 

However, I have found that there is an art to communicating with other people that are busy with their own jobs. Even warm calling requires a specific strategy based on prior communication with that person, you need to quickly gauge the situation and get your message across. 

The biggest area that I have been working on recently is the way I communicate via email. Email is such a huge communication method yet I have never really considered it an area that I need to look at. I read an article on how to write better email (http://www.justsell.com/writing-better-email/) and started to use some of their points. 

The main point is to keep the email short and to the point. I remember reading a business book (I can’t remember the title though) that said keep email to under 3 sentences if you don’t know that person very well. Over the past couple of weeks I have implemented this strategy and have seen some great results, people respond! 

This is a great achievement in the world of Sales as most of the time you do get ignored - especially in cold / warm sales. 

I am committing a sin and not backing this up with data but both myself and a colleague have noticed an improvement in response since sending a short email. I have expelled sentences such as “hope you’re well” and “I hope you have a great weekend” from my phrase book and stick to the pure basics, in a recent email I put the question in the subject line and just asked again in the email - I got a response in under 30 minutes. 

If I were to apply this new email approach to this blog post it would read: 

Hi Reader, 

Keep your email under 3 lines and get to the point. It really works. 

Thanks,

Simon

“you’ll see many processes (e.g. fundraising, product management, leadership, etc), you’ll learn from mistakes (yours AND other’s), and you’ll build a great network of contacts.”

A few weekends ago I attended an event called Launch 48 at UCL. 

The premise of the weekend is to build a web startup in 48 hours. It’s a gateway to meet other people interested in entrepreneurship and startups and get involved in actually building something (as opposed to writing a business plan). 

I joined a team called cartime.us, a new approach to car sharing. It was an interesting idea, but I was mainly attracted to the concept because of the team working on it. It was a mix of entrepreneurs and people working for large companies, varying in skill set from shit hot designers to a risk manager at a large bank. 

An interesting thing from the weekend was that we had no developer in our team - other teams compained they only had 4, we had 0!

This didn’t phase anyone, we knew what we wanted to build was just a splash page, which any half intelligent person could put together (I wasn’t able to do this) and then make the design as good as possible, basically working to our strengths. 

What this experience showed, and reinforced my belief in, is that you don’t need a developer to launch an online business. you need the basic skills covered and you need a team of talented individuals around you that can adapt to the situation and still create an awesome experience for people to view and engage with. 

If it looks good, and the message is clearly communicated you can prove the concept whilst finding the person to actually build your site. The moral of the story is to highlight to people that you shouldn’t put off launching a web business because you don’t have a developer, you should find creative ways around it, play to your strengths and prove the concept. Once this is done you will be able to recruit a developer easily as you can show your idea is a winner (hopefully). 

I went to an event at UCL last Friday (brilliant event btw) and started discussing the concept of serendipity with another attendee. It may sound boring, but it was far from it, it was actually a really insightful look in to the attitude a lot of young entrepreneurs seem to be practicing. 

Voltee has launched and I have told very few of my friends. 

This may seem strange, most of the time when you do something cool and enterprising you tell everyone that will listen. However, this time I have taken a different approach and kept quiet. The reason for this isn’t modesty, it’s because Im embarrassed of the site we have launched. 

I don’t mean how it looks, it’s a good looking website, but it lacks so many features that I wanted to include that it just doesn’t give a fair representation of the product I wanted to create. 

This may indicate I am not ready, but the site is ready. It does the basic tasks it requires and allows me to gauge how customers interact with the product. These interactions will then influence future changes, and as we only have basic functionality these changes can be introduced much more quickly. This iterative approach allows customers to shape the product and these are the people the site is being built for. 

This concept is part of the lean startup approach championed by influencers such as Eric Ries and Steve Blank (two guys I respect enough to let them dictate how I run my business). This first version of my website is called the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and, despite the embarrassment, I am enjoying the structure and seeing a real benefit from the information we gather. 

I now know I need to redesign my email marketing and communications, we have redesigned our home page already and changed the sign up box - all within 2 weeks of launch, and the change list is increasing as we gather more data. 

It is a great approach and I recommend reading up on it (see my reading list below). As the company ages I will keep updating how I am finding this approach. 

I would love to hear if anyone else has experience with a lean approach, or is thinking of going this way. 

Yesterday I spoke at Birmingham City University and said I would post some blogs and books that I think would be of interest to anyone looking to start their own business. 

Here is my list. 

Books: 

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson - ReWork

Written by the successful entrepreneurs behind 37 Signals (Basecamp and Highrise are two of their best known products). A really interesting book about their views on building, running and growing a business. This is the book I would recommend if you were to only read one of my recommendations. 

Eric Ries - The Lean Startup.

This book takes a scientific approach to setting up a business, but don’t let this put you off. It looks at releasing a product early and gathering information from actual users and using this feedback to decide the next steps of your business. It promotes an analytical approach to making decisions and measuring your performance. This book is a major contributor to the approach I have taken in launching Voltee and is well worth a read. 

David Cohen and Brad Feld - Do More Faster.

The founders of Techstars a Tech Accelerator in the USA and extremely successful entrepreneurs. This book covers some of the main points to focus on when setting up a business and is written by the founders of a range of companies that are / were part of Techstars. I read this book in 2 days and it is one of the most interesting business books I have read. 

Blogs: 

I use Pulse Reader (an iPad and iPhone app) to read a number of blogs, mostly focused on the tech industry. 

• Techcrunch
• Fast Company
• All things digital
• Mashable
• Venturebeat
• Onstartups
• Inc
• Business Insider
• Steve Blank
• Geekwire
• A VC
• The Next Web
• Springwise

The benefit of using an app like Pulse is that you can quickly scan stories from a large number of blogs and pick out stories that interest you. 

It would be great to hear other books and blogs that people recommend so please add any in the comments section.