Bad Ideas In The Startup World - Part II - Startup "Experts" Strike Back

No more do I post the previous video, and I run across several more bad ideas. In this video, I'll talk about the MVP and an NDA. Good luck!

.Net MAUI Grid seems to be a magic tag

over the last couple of years, ive been trying my best to learn .net maui. one of the things that i have found is that the tag seems to have some magic in it. first, i foundmthat themlistviewmdidnt work right without it, thank you to qhoever identified that for me. then i was working on an issue i found last with a third party control i decided to try. i had tried a bunch of things with no luck. i saw some example somewhere with a grid control. i put that in, and poof, bob's your uncle and it all worked. i played around with things more and it all seems to be working now. if you run into an issue with display in maui, try wrapping everything in a grid and see if it works. good luck!

Bad Startup Advice

I've recently been running into some bad startup advice, so I wanted to put out my views on this.

• Founders should not code.
• Software is not low values.
• No/Low code.

Honesty, Integrity and Effort Matter To Me

I've often talked about, but not on my blog, the concept of trust.  "Who Do You Trust?"  In the startup world, trust is just about everything.  I'm not talking about hitting a date exactly.  I'm talking about do the right thing, not saying one thing and doing the opposite, work towards the goal of the end user, not stealing money, and a host of other things.  Trust is so important.  

With investing, trust really is everything.  Do you believe that a startup will work towards a goal that is something along the lines that they have described?  I'm not talking about pivots being a problem.  I'm not talking about business refinements.  I'm talking about trying to move forward in a respectable way.  Several times in my life, I've been sitting there and listening to people openly talking about leading customers astray with low price promises and then jacking prices up.  I've also sat and done all of the work to describe a project and had a middle man jerk a project out from under me.  I've had other people in a startup think that I would pay for all hosting, deployment, development, everything forever for a startup out of my own pocket while they lived off of the investment money.  I've watched founders empty a bank account of a startup and hit the road.  People wonder why startup investors have all of these rules in their investment contracts, and this is why.  Investors have had plenty of people that say one thing and do something else completely different or just plain steal and hit the road.

I went to Webb School of Knoxville, where the motto was "Principes non Homines" which is Latin for "Leaders, Not Ordinary Men."  I learned the value of work.  I was an Eagle Scout where truth and honesty were valued above all things.  Eagle Scouts do.  I graduated twice (BS & MS) from Georgia Tech (The Georgia Institute of Technology) where hard work and dedication were valued.

I did not understand these things while I was in school, or in the scouts, or at "Ma Tech."  I just did the work and moved on.  However, I slowly did start to understand them as I went up in the world.  I remember Ed Brown at Coca-Cola telling me once, "Wally, you deliver in what you say you will do, where did you learn this?  I can turn things over to you and it gets done."  That was probably the first time I started to understand these things.

I remember my first work for a startup, and it was not a well done startup.  I was only doing some development along with my other work.  I did some side work for a startup and things got a bit rough.  The finances were getting tight.  One day, they called.  The founder had taken all of the money out of the bank account and hit the road.  Wow, how do you do that?  How do you openly steal like that?  How do you steal from the investor like that?  How do you make promises and steal from everyone around you?  How do you walk out owing people money like that?

I did a lot of work for MarketLynx.  I was unsure of myself at the time, impostor syndrome anyone?  I know I looked like a deer in headlights.  However, I soldiered on.  I've always appreciated my work with them, understanding the customer issues, and how I helped move them forward.  I was there several late nights, including into 3 am on a New Years Day in a cast after foot surgery.  That is dedication, desire, and hard work to move the company forward.  I've never forgotten one assignment to provide a csv data output, this was pre web services days.  I knew the design I was given would never work and that directly streaming the code was much better.  I stayed one night, proved what I was saying was right, and presented it as a demo the following day.  Unfortunately, the deer in headlights problem from the beginning cast a shadow on me all of the time, but I will always appreciate the confidence that I got at MarketLynx and from David Bolt.

Another startup was trying to do mistyped domain names.  I got their system working as intended, but it just seemed to be one fight after another with all kinds of demands.  Their code ideas were incredibly dumb and wouldn't scale.  I finally just ripped all of their code ideas out, made reasonable decisions, and it all just worked and scaled.  Nothing gives you a better feeling than proving the naysayers wrong.  I never cheated them or did anything besides what was necessary to scale their system and keep things running.  More than one night was spent late working on their stuff.  Unfortunately, it is hard to work with people, or realistically one person, that just makes crazy demands.

I worked for one startup that was just flailing.  The managing director thought that he could get the investor to put in $4-5m more.  It wasn't happening.  My goal through out the whole experience was to actually produce something that users would want to use, not to just get the investor to throw in more money.  I went out and interviewed potential users.  When most developers are staring at their shoes, I was out trying to make things happen with real live users.

I've had various startups that I've worked for.  One memorable one in Dallas.  The idea was ok.  They closed down owing me a few shillings.  I got that call that you never want to get about closing down.  The guy was almost in tears.  He said he would pay me back owed money.  I told me that isn't how startups work.  Take any final money that he makes and go treat his family.

I've done various consulting gigs over the years, but it is the work outside of that that I am the most proud of.  

I've proposed and delivered on 10 books.  I've written magazine articles, training, delivered conference talks, and webinars.  I'm proud of the fact that I show up with material that is finished and almost always works (I have crashed and burned a couple of times); unfortunately, the crash that I remember the most was in front of a lot of people.  I remember going in to record training and one of the sound engineers said, "You come in with material and are prepared, we don't quite understand this."  

I ran the ASP.NET Podcast for 7-8 years.  It was early in the podcasting world.  I developed a listenership that went between 10-20k people around the world.  Not too shabby for a guy from Tennessee.

Honestly, integrity, not stealing from customers, and making an effort to solve their problems.  That is what I do, and that is what I care about.  At the end of the day, your word is all you have.

Startup Failures - What Happens Behind The Scenes

I've seen startup success and I've seen startup failures.  Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.  No one wants to admit that they were a part of failure.  I've been in two successes, and I've been in some failures, and consulted to some flailing startups that went and failed.  I want to touch base on what I think creates the majority of startup failures.

First, let's talk about success.  I never talk about the successes, but that stops today.

• MarketLinx.  MarketLinx is long gone, but here are the memories of it.  MarketLinx was a startup driven by David Bolt, Phil Graves, and Doyle Hodge.  I want to be clear that I wasn't a driving force there.  It was early in my career, and I was just trying to move up in the world.  I watched and learned a lot from them.  Sure, I learned a lot about technology, but I also learned a lot about what it takes to make startups work.  You need to be out there talking to customers all of the time.  You need to think forward in what is happening and what you need to do to make things work going forward.  We continually asked the question regarding what did customers want, what did customers need, what did customers want to add value to their lives, businesses, etc.  How could we automate various processes that happen in real estate?  What can we do to make the lives of customers better?
• Popular Categories.  Have you ever mistyped a domain name?  Yeah, you might end up where you don't necessary want to be with options to click on links.  I wrote the whole back and front end for that.  Not a team of developers, just me.  PC was actually in the top 5 of internet search engines at one time; iirc, we topped out at #3.  Sure, there are people that make mistakes, and I've got some stories from it.  However, the key thing is that it was successful.  We spent a lot of time measuring what was being successful and what wasn't.

In 2006-8, I spent time with a startup that ended up being an exercise in lighting cash on fire. I did user interviews and figured out what users actually wanted.  Try getting anyone from the engineering gene pool to talk to actual users.  It was not a whole lot of different changes necessary, but it would require some changes, aka pivots.  However, not listening to users and one cofounder trying to belittle every one that disagreed was just crazy.

In 2012, I dealt with a startup that was in the fashion space.  The people that were running it really didn't understand how to do a startup.  There were all kinds of weird things that they would do.  They wasted their money with a development company and had nothing that worked while wasting all of their cash.  They needed to gain focus and insert cash into the startup.  Given that one of the founders had access to millions.  Trying to do everything on the cheap was dumb.  It just chased everyone off.

On again and off again startup 2013 to 2015 that wanted to do things with bluetooth and digital displays.  It didn't make the most sense, but it sounded interesting.  Talking to users matters.  Building an MVP matters.  No, everything doesn't have to be perfect.  Don't hire 15 people before you generate income.  I don't care how good of a salesman you think you.  There are general rules regarding things like runway and MVPs that matter.

I've worked with some other startups, but I think we are seeing a pattern.  The basic lessons of success and failure are:

• Listening to the marketplace matters.  Build something that users want and someone will pay for.
• Cofounder disputes are killers. Everyone hating on each other, or just creating enough where trust is lost can be a real deal killer with startups.
• You are not immune to the general rules of startups.  99% means 99%.

I will always love Georgia Tech

What it takes to win!  Bobby Ross did it for us 37 years ago, gawd has it been 37 years since I got in.  Bill Snyder did it for Kansas State.  It takes time to win.  I think Brent Key and Battman might be the guys.  I know Cabrera won’t put up with losing.  I grew up idolizing Johny Majors, John ward, Haywood Harris, and Gus manning because I had seen them turn Tennessee around after their late 70s swoon.  It took until 83, a full 6 years later.  I wanted something different.  I had to fight to get into Tech.  Jerry Hitt took a chance on a guy that didn’t really deserve to get in.

It take money and it takes time.  I’m willing to wait to evaluate key and batt until 2025.  I don’t ask to win nattys.  I ask that we not be embarrassed.  Collins embarrassed us, but he is gone.  There are no more Collins’ excuses.  I’m also tired of hearing whining.  We are tech men and women.  You hold your head high.  I don’t fear calling a spade a spade and I’m not afraid to do so about tech or anyone else.  I always support the institute, just wish I had some more money to give them.  I don’t whine when it hurts.  I’m going to play golf this morning in my tech hat, with my tech polo golf shirt, with my tech pull over, and I’m carrying my tech golf bag around 18 holes.  I’m going to do it in the knoxville, the belly of my beast.

Win or lose tonight, tech is my school, my institute(all alums are my fellow alums), and my team(all the tech teams are my teams).  To borrow a phrase which should live on in eternity from an alumni who has passed away, Jackets Forever!

BSEE 1990, MSEE 1991

Startup - Top 10 List (Or So)

I've been told for years that I need to put together a set of videos regarding my Top 10 List of things for a Technologist to do to get a startup into first gear.  I have a talk on this, but I have never actually done the video(s).  Now, I have, and I have put them up on my YouTube.  I'm going to link to them from this blog post.  I hope that I have them in somewhat the right order and that I haven't mucked things up too much in this.

• Introduction - Who Am I?
• Preface.
• What Is A Startup?
• What You Think Happens.
• Execution on the Idea.
• Idea Validation.
• What Is An MVP?
• Funding.
• Risk.
• Intellectual Property.
• Setting Up A Company.
• Growth.
• Technology.
• Issues - Things and People to Watch out For.

As the videos published, I was adding the links in and I've finally gotten to the end.  Sure, there are more than 10 video snippets, but I wanted to add thoughts as appropriate.  I'd like to thank Matt Reynolds, a friend of mine in England.  He started a set of videos regarding the process of building an MVP for a startup, so that got me thinking of what my late friend told me (Walter Lounsbery RIP)  at lunch 5 years ago, that I needed to do a talk on how to get going in a startup.

Good luck in your startup journey.  If you want help/guidance on your journey through the startup world, let me know and contact me via my LinkedIn.

PS.  Since there is no official sponsor for any of this, I am my own sponsor.  Talk to me and let's see how I can help your startup and projects.

PSS. A little about me.  I'm a 26+ year veteran of startups.  I've worked with varying startups off and on for that timeframe.  I also do some angel investing via Community Equity Partners.  Apply via the link.  I'm a little boy, so don't apply to me.  "Don't Pitch Me Bro."

One Thing I Do Not Understand

There are some things in life I do not understand.  I am guessing I will never understand them.  One that has popped up all of my life is being a resource for recruiters.  Now, in my world, recruiters are always just some sales person for some body shop, and I mean always.  Why am I supposed to open up my contacts for them? What do I gain for doing this?  Why should I help someone that has never done anything for me?  Why should I help someone that works in an industry that has never done anything for me?  Why help someone that won't pay?  I know I sound rather harsh, but I have my reasons.  Let's look at these one by one.

• I have actually helped a couple of recruiters in the past.  What did they do for me?  Nothing.  I never got anything from them.  I never got promotion of any of my material.  I never got them to say anything nice about me.  I never found anything on anyone's social media, blogs, or anything that helped anything I was doing.  Here is an important lesson that I have learned, it is important to build up good will.  I say please.  I say "Thank you."  I will randomly promote other people's stuff online, assuming it is not in direct conflict with my own.  I have some stuff that I currently promote from other people.  Why?  Because the material is good.  I also think about the other person, what are their motivations, and is there something simple I can do to that will actually be a great help to them.  I'm not going to do something that hurts me, but if you help me, you can be damned well sure I'm going to remember that and help you.
• Thinking beyond your nose.  You want to set yourself up for success long term.  The problem is that recruiters are so driven by what is happening today and getting paid today.  Here is a real situation that occurred years ago.  I was contacted about a failing startup by a recruiter.  Let's leave out the thinking about why would a startup use a recruiter and their overhead for the moment.  They gave me the blowhard pitch about only working through them and taking a pay cut to do that and blah blah.  I literally said, "So you would let them fail instead of letting me get my money. I'm not going to screw someone who brings me in.  You would be able to sell others into them at a later time and I would support you in that."  The response was literally, "I have to make all of my money. If they fail, it's not my fault it is theirs and yours."  So, let's parse this a bit.  Two issues that I see here.  One, it shows that recruiters are only about their money.  Second, they don't really care if their customer is successful or not as long as they get their money.
• In the world I live in, people aren't starving.  These are high income jobs.  What is my motivation?  The people that I know are all working.  They tend to be working for more money than these advertisements for open jobs.  My contacts really don't want to be hassled.  I know who is looking right now and who isn't, and these people aren't looking especially to take a pay cut.
• I've gotten calls from recruiters.  What is the motivation to not do what I am doing?  What do they bring to the table for me?  My expertise is worth more than what they are offering.  Expertise is not about what you know at any one moment.  Expertise is about seeing patterns.  Expertise is about being able to adapt to the marketplace of needs.  Expertise is about going forward and the ability to learn new and different.
• Recruiter asks me to go to lunch.  Ok, I assume they want to build a relationship.  There is always, and I mean ALWAYS, some excuse and lunch gets cancelled and they are never to be heard from again.
• One of the great tricks I have heard is recruiters that say they will gladly recommend someone that is beyond their pay ability and step out of the way for customers.  Seriously, does anyone really believe that?  No, no they won't.  Recruiters are all about getting between their customer and a solution to get a percentage.  See, recruiters are about the 50% split.  Say a customer can pay $100 per hour.  The recruiter and company want 50% and they'll give the other 50% to the person.  What do you do when someone is worth more than $50 per hour?  The recruiter thinks that the customer must pay 2x multiplier on everything.  Out in the big time consulting world, yes, there are 3x, 4x, 5x, and higher multiples.  Recruiters and body shops are really just look shops.  They simply don't have the justification for some of these larger multiples.  Plus, once you get over a certain income amount, the rest is all profit, pure profit.  Now, everyone is entitled to profit.  However, one has to understand the amount of value that they provide, the years of experience, the work ethic, and a host of other things.  Yes, beating the bushes for customers is hard and time consuming.  So are books, articles, training materials, and creating content as sales material.  I remember early in my career some recruiter getting in my face about "Nothing you've done before matters."  If that is true, then why are we did you ask me to come in?  Does learning not matter?
• Financial incentives matter and must be understood.  Recruiters and body shops aren't on your side.  They are on their side with their financial motivations.  They want to get a deal signed, get a body in a seat, and just start watching the hours tick up.  I'm about process and improvement.  I'm about seeing top and bottom line numbers increase due to the judicious use of technology and custom software.  I work for customers that are interested in this, not for body shops that just want to see hours ring up like a cash register.  Now, some customers judge success in a project by looking at hours billed against the project, yes that is true for a few.  I've found the vast majority of customers want to be better off and are somewhat coachable in this regard.

Instead of flailing, there are ways to create a two way relationship.  Go, talk to people.  Go to lunch.  Be coachable.  Be flexible.  Help each other.  Don't be dogmatic.  You catch more flies with honey than with a message on linkedin.