Writings

This entry isn't about how we really should write more. And that this should include mentioning some rather unpleasant events around our business.

That will happen but not yet.

No. This entry is about how I received an email from an organisation in the Munich startup scene looking for writers.

I applied.

The strength of the team

The team - diverse and dynamic - sat down with a potential investor recently.

It went better than any of us expected it to go.

We didn't walk out of the meeting with a fat check and series A investment, but we did walk out with a feeling of success, confirmation that our idea is good, that our team works well, and that there is a market for what we are doing.

TPWNN and O insisted on a full day of practice ahead of time, the day before, which was a bit much for this Crazy Chicken. But it was a productive and energetic day.

And it helped on the day of the pitch when the potential investment angel said, no, he didn't want to do this in English. We had gotten to know the pitch and each other so well, that a last-minute change of language didn't throw us.

Apparently, our ideas are things they (the angel and his company) have been thinking of already, we already have developers on our idea, we have started the research. We have a date for a proof of concept at a high profile business.

The angel praised the team and gave us several points to think about, critic and suggestions. Things we all had been thinking of and want to address.

All in all, wow. A promising meeting that gave us a boost to our confidence that we needed. A new shot of energy.

Now we need to decide if, as he said, we want to get into bed with him. And what it would cost us initially for a "sweat" investment before any pre-seeding investment.

Diversification

After recoiling from techies questioning my skills and ability to contribute to a start-up, I did a bit of research.

Start-ups founded by women generally get less investment.

Start-ups founded by women generally perform better once they are up and running.

Diversification in a team, not just women and men, but age, nationality and general backgrounds, makes for better teams, and statistically, better performance overall.

But it also requires more effort to work together. And that can be an added factor that can easily be overlooked.

Don't let your team underestimate anyone.

TPWNN didn't like that I initially found my stats on a BCG site, so I didn't cite them. But a quick google will give you a few other sites with similar information. 

Still breathing, still blogging (occasionally)

Not sure why my last post went into this blog. I think I meant to put it in the other one.

But around that time from January I was suffering from a very bad bout of 'flu. Aussie 'flu no doubt.

It started on the day when I was having friends around for drinks and food. I had bought loads of food (and wine, and more crockery and glasses etc.) a few days before with the intention of making raclette.

I was really looking forward to it.

But I felt ropey during the day and by the time everyone had arrived and were about to tuck in I had to give my apologies and go to bed with a fever. I think everyone else enjoyed the party, my party.

This was probably the second worse flu ever in my life.

Even when I thought I had recovered a month later and went on a ski weekend, I hadn't, it turns out, recovered and my ski-ing suffered (not that I am very good).

Anyway, just as I had fully recovered I had to go to my family home in the UK as one of my elderly relatives had badly broken their arm.

But now and then, with the other collaborators there has been progress on the business.

We now have onboard two new people who know what they're doing - they're major shareholders. We will also have two students working with us as part of their industrial placement from university. We may even get some more.

And I am writing this post as Google started hassling me about whether I wanted to continue this blog.

Advice

Yeah, I know it's been a while, anyhoo ...

A friend on Facebook has been ill for a while and has had serious problems getting a job. He posted this question:

"I wonder if any of my friends have felt as I do and how they got better ?
Due to ill health and age it is my belief I will never work again and that makes me feel worthless.
Also due to ill health and poverty I am virtually housebound, surviving for the moment off the proceeds of the sale of my car.
I owe thousands to both friends and others and worry everyday how I will ever pay them back.
Being housebound and broke means i never socialise anymore and don't speak to another human being for weeks on end apart from rare trips to watch football which will cease soon.
The sense of isolation and worthlessness is worse than cancer or anything else i've dealt with.
I'm not looking for sympathy or pity, mine or anyone elses, i',m genuinely reaching out to see if anyone has any constructive suggestions or has felt similarly.
Thanks for reading ..."

This is how I replied:

" ...Been thinking about an answer ... : Around 15 years ago I was unemployed for two years, during which time I had a major [accident] which nearly killed me and from which I still have issues. Here's some things I did (though as I have no control results I don't know if they made a difference): 

1. Routine - I job hunted Sunday to Friday, taking Saturday off but making sure recruiters had my application when they started on Monday morning. 

2. Recording - I kept a record of my applications and tracked numbers applied versus hits (any sort of positive response) and any interviews - using a spreadsheet it was slightly interesting when I plotted it to look for trends and calculated averages, std dev etc. 

3. Writing - I kept a contemporaneous blog about my job hunting activities, recording any humours adverts etc. This blog was even read in Brazil. I tried adding Google ads but never received any hits. Done properly this may have yielded some revenue. 

4. Studying - even passed some exams and it helped answer interviewers' questions about what I was doing during my "time off". 

5. More writing - I also have another blog with short stories which practically no-one has read but, helped me. Nowadays there are vlogs and podcasts as well. 

6. Exercise - for a while it was difficult but as I regained my strength it became part of my regime. 

7. Contact - not much (I was also a bit disfigured and was running out of money, plus exhaustion) but there's Skype etc. 

It still sucked the sweat off a dead man's balls and I too thought I would never work again. 

TL, wtf, DR: - routine, creativity, exercise, embrace the suck."

He seems to have found it positive.

Finally

On Friday, at the last minute, I decided to go to an Internations dinners at a Thai/Vietnam restaurant.

I was talking to the bloke opposite me and he was asking about my startup. What does it do? Oh, what's the app called? I told him.

"I downloaded it"

Wow. Someone used it. Apparently at one time it was ranking high in the Google Play store but then dropped.

He conceded that the UX needs improving. But, hey I found someone who used our app.

Pity that we have just shut it down as we intend to rewrite it from scratch: with better UX and also faster.

Yeah, I could also write that since my last posting I have found two new co-founders and we are trying to onboard them. But at least this is a restart to this blog.

Renewal

It turns out that Apple likes to renew their certificates every year.

Which gives me time to forget how they all fit together.

So for a while the push notification service for the iPhone version wasn't working. But it is now.