What’s Your Crazy Idea?

Leverage

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

In our early conversations with companies about our new Leverage program, it’s becoming clear we have to shift the conversations into the context of their company quickly. In most cases we’re speaking to the companies founder or exec team. One way to shift into their context is to simply ask…

“what crazy ideas have you not shared with your team?”

Why ask about the ideas they have not shared with their team? Simple, it gets to the core of the tension between leverage and control.

They haven’t shared those ideas with their team because they know their team will likely squash their idea. It’s still in the stage where it’s indistinguishable from a stupid, wasteful idea. As a leader of that business, they demand their team kill these wasteful ideas and focus on their core business.

The role we want to play is to help kill these ideas, in a proactive way. We want to get to work identifying the simple next steps to figure out if this idea has real merit. In the case you really haven’t shared the idea with your team, let’s start there. What will it take for you to share this with your team? Through that process we’ll quickly justify spending more time, more resources on it or we’ll all agree to kill it once and for all!

PS..check out this 15 minute talk about how a company is disrupting the biotech space. I’m not sure the problems they’re solving are truly unique to biotech are they?

Disrupt Your Own Company?

Leverage

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

eatYes, software is eating the world and hardware as well. Established, existing companies are quickly realizing the entire game is being changed underneath them. The symptoms are everywhere. Some companies like Qualcomm and Intuit are attempting to create corporate entrepreneurship programs. Others are simply buying their way into the game.

Since the early days of the industrial revolution, a small set of large companies have controlled the exclusive rights to create new businesses. If you wanted to create a new business, you had to convince one of them first. Those rights are being returned to individuals and small teams at an incredibly accelerating pace. The rise of the entrepreneur is a real thing.

In her book Different, Youngme Moon makes the point that in it’s infancy, a brilliant game changing idea is indistinguishable from a wasteful idea doomed to fail. Existing businesses with known business models are tooled to find waste and squash it. That means businesses are very difficult places to incubate and foster new ideas.

That tension between leverage and control fascinates me. As well, helping to make sure that existing businesses find their place in this changing game. They have unfair advantages that need to be leveraged like existing customers, domain expertise, distribution networks and more. A small group of us at ThreeFortyNine are working on a new program to help companies leverage their unfair advantages.

I’ve created an short pdf introducing what we’re planning. I’m curious for feedback and want to meet with companies curious about this program. Please comment below or contact me directly

Cowork…With an IP Lawyer

Office

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

We often bring guests into ThreeFortyNine who have domain expertise our members value. Recently we had a technical writer in for the day, this Wednesday Dec 11th we have some legal action.

Kevin Holbeche from Fasken Martineau will be in our building and hosting open office hours. Kevin is a patent lawyer who can advise on all forms if intellectual property. He’s also a two year veteran of our StartupTrain which means some of you will have met him.

While this is primarily for our members, we often have room for a few others. If you’d like to try out coworking for the day and get some time with Kevin, just contact me directly to see if we have room!

Entrepreneur’s Feeding Themselves?

Office

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

Entrepreneurs eat what they kill. Bootstrapping and creating something from nothing, however, can be a long, lonely, penniless road. Depending on the business, it can take months, maybe even years, to bootstrap and grow a new business to the point it can pay it’s founders a decent salary. In the meantime, how do these technology entrepreneurs put ‘food on the table’?

huntPaying the bills while bootstrapping doesn’t necessarily require charity or funding. I’ve always been curious if we can build a viable means of applying the unique insight and skills that a software entrepreneur has to real business problems and opportunities?

This is different than fund raising. Choosing to raise money for your new business is a different decision and independent of this. This past week at our Founder’s Club, we brainstormed a rough positioning statement for this…

For regional mid-sized companies
who are limited by their IT department, are technologically challenged, looking for innovation
our product is short-term entrepreneur-in-residence
that provides objectivity, expertise, and fresh perspective
unlike strategy consultants trying to sell long, big projects
we have assembled a way to distill problems into sustainable small innovation packages

Are there enough businesses out there who recognize the need to have entrepreneurial insight and skills within their walls? If so, could we grow this into a program that provides a short-term living for active entrepreneurs as they grow the revenue in their company?

I’m curious if anyone’s heard of a program like this or even better, works in a company that is a potential customer? Comment below or contact me directly.

Don’t Wait To Find Your Partners

Founders' Club

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

Jim Collins book Good to Great introduced the concept of getting the right people on the bus. The idea being that curating the people who make up your company is as important as developing the business itself.

London Bus StopAs immersed as I’ve been in coworking, including founding and running ThreeFortyNine for 3+ years, I’m only now starting to grasp the real power of coworking as a model. Yes it is a lower cost office, fast internet, a place without the kid’s or great coffee but those aren’t the real value of coworking.

If you wait until you have your bus, it’s already too late!

I realized a few weeks back that almost every partner I’ve engaged with over the past 6 months is someone I met here at ThreeFortyNine. Either through them having a desk full-time or being a member of our weekly Founder’s Club. Eric and I are building 20Skaters and the main reason we’re so efficient and communicate so well is that we’ve coworked together for years now.

The difficult part in building early stage businesses is spotting the real roadblocks daily and facing them head-on. That requires a high level of intimacy with your partners. Being within a coworking space allows you a platform to practice that with people without actually working directly on projects together. Through that, you eventually discover who you want on your bus and who you don’t.

I’ve always maintained that picking partners is about selecting the people you gravitate towards when the sh1t really hits the fan. That’s great but how do you know that about someone you’ve just met or have never actually worked with? Specifically in our Founder’s Club, we work on tackling problems and challenges in each other’s businesses. Founder’s Club gives people a chance to talk about their sh1t hitting a fan. In that setting you’ll quickly figure out who you want to be around at those points.

I have a few buses I need to fill these days. I’m lucky in that I have a long list of people I can’t wait to invite on those buses. Coworking is the reason for that.

If you’re thinking of starting something of your own in the coming year, don’t wait until you have to fill your bus. Find a coworking space in your area and start building your list of partners you know you can work with.

Ladies welcome at DemoCamp? Heck ya!

DemoCampGuelph

Candice Lepage

I love going to DemoCamp, it is one of my favourite recurring events in Guelph and one of my two favourite tech events locally. I am a big supporter of the technology industry in Guelph even though I’m only in the soft side of technology as a content creator. Guelph has such a unique culture around it, combining science with arts in almost everything it does, as witnessed with the marriage of DemoCamp and live music right after. Because of the strong artistic influence everywhere in Guelph I think our technology field is infinitely more creative and innovative than many other cities.

DemoCamp is an interesting event where the smart minds behind technological solutions get to stand in front of a crowd and see if it is viable, a crowd that is uniquely sympathetic yet incredibly unrelenting. It’s a great way to meet new people and find some interesting tools that maybe need a helping hand to get out of beta.

But here’s the problem with DemoCamp as I see it, and as many people I’ve spoken with see it; for every 10 or 15 men in the audience there is only 1 woman. This does not bode well for anyone. Especially not for the people demoing their product since the reality is there might be more than 10 women using their product. Wouldn’t it be great to know if your idea works with both genders? Wouldn’t it be great to meet people who can help you push your idea further and introduce you to the people you need to know? Isn’t it likely that if half of the population isn’t represented that means all of these innovative people with great ideas are missing out on meeting half of the people they need to be successful.

Sorry, I misspoke. The problem isn’t with DemoCamp, it’s with women choosing not to come out. So how do we get more women in the audience at DemoCamp? And how do we get more women on stage demoing their products?

I don’t know the answer to that, but I hope that by being more visible at DemoCamp, by acting as a judge, that the rest of the audience will see me and encourage more women to come out, to let their friends and co-workers know that DemoCamp IS a place where women hang out.

And I’m not alone. I’ve got 3 other women with me who are stepping up to be more visible.
Christina Moulton, iPhone app developer and principal with Teak Mobile Inc, Valerie Lalonde, community manager with Innosphere SDG Ltd, and Dawn Smith, digital marketing specialist with Desire2Learn

In their words –

Christina – https://twitter.com/ChristinaMltnchristina

I go to DemoCamp because it’s always interesting to see what different people have been working on, whether they’re startups looking for feedback on early products or just really neat hobby projects. It’s always a friendly crowd enthusiastic to chat about tech. I always seem to meet someone who’s working in tech but in a way I’d never have thought of, like making music & sound effects for video games. I’ve done a demo and found it a welcoming space with relevant, practical feedback and lots of great follow up conversations.

Tech has been an opportunity for me to carve out a career that fits what I want from my life. While I’m always happy to see anyone demo, it’s especially nice to see women in an area that offers opportunities for having more control over their time. Plus it’s so rewarding to actually build and show off your projects. I don’t think women get a lot of chances to build things and get acknowledged for it.

valerieValerie – https://twitter.com/Valerie_Lalonde

I believe it’s important that women find their passion whether it is in a female dominate work setting like fashion, office administration or early childhood education, or if it’s on the opposite side of the spectrum in a male dominated industry like construction, technology or science. It’s important that expectations and stereotypes in society don’t mold young women into a role and/or deter them from finding that special talent that will drive them into success.

Once they’ve found their passion they shouldn’t be afraid of crashing the old boys club; the group will be so happy to have you there! Embrace what you know, soak up what you don’t & impress all of the other attendees with your knowledge. It’s important that women attend these events to advance their career. Events like Democamp allow you to meet alike individuals, learn related skills and get feedback or tips from experts in the field. Networking is the key! Don’t let the guys continue to get ahead, break your way into the groups and you’ll be happy you did; especially when it becomes time to look for a job or find  a partner for a project you’re working on. The tech community in a city like Guelph is small, so become a part of it and start making those connections!

dawnDawn – https://twitter.com/saffyre9

Why do I go? Initially I went for networking with like-minded people. Now, I like going to support the community, support local start-ups, and of course more networking 🙂

Why is it important for women to be there? Honestly, it’s not about quotas or percentages or minimum representation. To me, if you want to be in the tech space, and are serious about tech, then you need to be at the events that are relevant, regardless of your gender.

And I say this having once been the only female in attendance at a Democamp Guelph 🙂

Come on ladies! There’s nobody at the door saying you aren’t allowed in, so come out to DemoCamp tonight and have a great night with us!

 

Live Music at DemoCampGuelph 22

DemoCampGuelph

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

I’m massively biased this Wednesday’s DemoCampGuelph is not to be missed so register to attend now! Not only will we get to catch awesome demo’s from local tech folks, have a few pints with the local tech scene and hear some startup stories from my boy Mike Kirkup……

After that’s all said and done…we get to catch some local live music from Guelph’s best kept secret Jessy Bell Smith. Yes it’s true, Guelph isn’t all tech and startups, we have some music here as well. Don’t believe me about best kept secret? Just watch Jessy knock The Skydiggers Ramblin’ On out in this CBC Music session.

DemoCampGuelph22 with Mike Kirkup

DemoCampGuelph

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

mikeI’m very excited to announce that our invited speaker for DemoCampGuelph22 on October 30th is Mike Kirkup. Mike has a previous life running efforts like developer relations at a small shop named BlackBerry. He’s now dove headfirst into the startup world with his current role as Director of VeloCity at University of Waterloo.

There’s a truckload of topics I’d like to hear Mike speak about. We’ll work on whittling that down to one. Once we narrow it down, I’ll announce the topic as well.

It’s getting down to the wire to submit for a demo spot with us. Please get your demo submission in asap! If you’re attending, please make sure to register for our event.

Don’t be shy about spreading the word about our event….

We Build Software!

Office

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

I’m excited to start talking about a new project in the works. In a previous life I helped run, and grow, a software development services company named BandOfCoders with my good friend Bobby. I was involved for 3+ years and stepped out to get involved in a startup project. Since then I’ve dabbled with custom software development services but have held off on diving into it. I believe my core hesitation was not having local partners with ‘skin in the game’. I believe I’ve solved that particular issue in finding some great people to partner with.

binary

Over time, BandOfCoders has grown a large office in Buenos Aires Argentina, as well as a strong client base and operations in Toronto, Atlanta and more. We’re incorporated in Argentina, have employees and a full time office for well over 4 years. That won’t compete directly with off-shoring but does allows us to near-shore projects and teams.

What we’ve learned over years of building software for people is that local still matters. With that in mind, myself and a few local partners are working on opening the doors on a new locally owned and operated instance of BandOfCoders(BOC). We will leverage that global power and experience of BOC while leading projects and teams with our local team.

It’s very early in the process but I wanted to post at least a blog post to share what we’re working on. Certainly if you have a software development project anywhere between London, Hamilton, KW, and Toronto, let me know asap? I’m happy to discuss and see if we can get involved.

The team we’re growing is comprised of experienced software developers. What that means is that we aren’t simply creating websites, we’ll be building software applications on the web, focused on full software projects from the database out.

PS…I’m not suggesting building websites is trivial, just that it’s not our focus…

Support for Bootstrappers?

Office

Brydon

I work on 20Skaters, ThreeFortyNine, Ontario Startup Train and a few others. My vanity site is brydon.me.

We have a lot of bootstrappers at ThreeFortyNine. What’s a bootstrapper?

Wikipedia says “Bootstrapping or booting refers to a group of metaphors which refer to a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help”.

The free dictionary says “To promote and develop by use of one’s own initiative and work without reliance on outside help”.

The majority (all?) of formal economic support for small to medium businesses focuses on T4’d employees and spending money. Generally these programs penalize you for not using T4’d employees. As well, the various ‘get started’ grant programs typically stipulate you can spend money on most everything except paying yourself.

The challenge for bootstrappers is that there is little, or no, support for them. They don’t want to hire staff until their new business has proved it can support them. They don’t want to spend money until the business can support that.

These support programs place no value on sweat. Bootstrappers are building their companies with their bare-hands, while working full-time day jobs to pay their bills. We celebrate seemingly small events like the first dollar in and the first customer we don’t know. We can’t apply for SRED and other programs because we’re not spending money and hiring staff.

There’s also the practice of tying the support due diligence to investors. If you can find an investor to write you a cheque for your business/idea, then support will be piled on top of that. What this approach means is that my goal of building a thriving small team, seven figure business located in my hometown doesn’t count. I can guarantee no investor wants to hear that story. So I’m either left with little support or I have to ‘pivot’ to a gazillion dollar business.

What do our bootstrappers have? Most have a trickle of revenue, we have customers, we’re closing in on product/market fit. We’re starting lean, we’re starting sustainable.

how-to-bootstrap-a-business1I always prefer concrete examples. What about an economic development program for bootstrappers? What if you tied the due diligence to real customers? For every dollar we receive from a real customer, this program matches. One to two, one to ten, whatever. Tie the due diligence to the market, not government staff, paid mentors, banks or investors. Force entrepreneurs to find a market and build products which that market values and expresses that value by purchasing.

If you can find a customer, we’ll support you!

Should every business be focused on quick revenue? Of course not. Can a system like this be gamed? Sure but you’re not suggesting the current programs can’t be? Is this new business welfare?

I’m biased but at some point these support programs will start to support the hardworking bootstrappers. Shift these programs away from models that encourage and support hiring too early, spending money you don’t have, and towards creating sustainable, scalable ones that are validated by real customers.

This ‘Urban workers deserve better‘ campaign came across my desk recently. Programs like this need to start shedding light on the fact that employment, freelancing, entrepreneurship isn’t about the number of T4’d employees anymore. I’ve always said my goal here at ThreeFortyNine is to create the coolest tech company in Canada that has zero employees. I’m sure you can guess how much gov’t support we have.