Shotput Ventures - Building startups are hard work
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A presentation given by Jeff Haynie to the first generation of Shotput Ventures portfolio companies in Atlanta, GA on July 31, 2009.
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Shotput Ventures - Building startups are hard work
- 1. Startups are hard work (and other lessons I’ve learned) Jeff Haynie @jhaynie
- 2. About Me • @jhaynie - twitter • blog.jeffhaynie.us • jhaynie@appcelerator.com
- 3. Some things I’ve learned over the years
- 5. You Nobody loves your business as much as you do (and you’re the #1 sales person)
- 6. Ideas Your idea sucks (it’s about execution)
- 7. The Business Plan Put it on one page (but don’t send it out to anyone)
- 8. Money You can never get enough money, fast enough (but too much will ruin you)
- 9. Investors You can’t get rid of them (and you can’t live without them)
- 10. Raising money The best time to raise money is when you don’t need it
- 11. Investments The best investments you can receive are in the form of cash from customers (and they don’t require you to give up equity)
- 12. Show me You’ll have to prove it to people (and then they’ll have known it was a good idea all along)
- 13. Partners Having a partner means you have to share in the upside (and have a friend when times are really tough)
- 14. Technology Someone else is trying to do what you’re doing right now (and you have to be better, faster and cheaper)
- 15. Analytics Measure everything (and then some more)
- 16. Change I once heard: “you’ll do 10 things, 3 will fail miserably, 3 will not be good, 3 will be OK and 1 will be great” (you just need to figure out which one)
- 17. Teams Investors, customer and employees believe in the team (and most importantly, the entrepreneur)
- 18. Relationships At the end of the day, it’s about your relationships (which isn’t networking)
- 19. Mentors Get people to tell you what you’re doing wrong (and cheer you on when you’re doing it right)
- 20. Failure Don’t stop believing (but know when to fold)
- 21. Failure (deux) Some of the best things in life come from our failures (at least you tried, most don’t)
- 22. The Valley It’s great - don’t let anyone tell you it’s not (and yes, it’s expensive and consuming)